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Psalm 19:1-6
June 22, 2008
Centreville, MD, Conquest Beach
Exordium: We stand erect as human beings, the only animals to do so. God’s purpose partly is that we can gaze the heavens.
In this part of Psalm 19, we read that “day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.” It is some of that knowledge that we are after now. Their message is the glory of God. The heavens declare the glory of God. He wants us to see what He has placed there. He wants us to look up to the works of His hands. To declare is to proclaim, to preach, to reveal. In the case of the heavens what they are proclaiming is the glory of our God.
Explication: In the New Testament God’s glory is found supremely in Jesus Christ. “He is the image of the invisible God.” (Colossians 2:15)
So, in the Old Testament the heavens are preaching God’s glory to us. In a sense, they are preaching Christ to us. He is the glory of His Father, the glory of God’s creation and the glory of God’s work of redemption.
But how could the heavens preach Christ to us? When you begin to probe the depths of the heavens you find billions of stars and such enormous distances and size that it makes your head swim. But where is Christ in all of this?
You see His magnitude and His power and Godhead, but what of His redeeming love and great sacrifice for us? We are helped by the little word “sign” which is found in many places in the Bible. It is also in Genesis, chapter 1:14. And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and seasons and for days and years.”
A sign is one object pointing to another. It may look like that object or not. Or it may just be a sign that bears no resemblance to the object to which it points.
Since the heavens declare God’s glory, the heavenly bodies, and the moon and stars, the sun and the planets, may be signs that point to Him. This is also suggested in Romans 10:18 where Psalm 19 is quoted, “Their sound is gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” Read the rest of this entry »
Exodus 20:17
June 15, 2008
Exordium: We have come to the last of the Ten Commandments. This is the summing up of all that has gone before. And yet it is different from all the others. They focused on outward actions-this Tenth Command goes to the inner life of the person.
Explication: I want us to think differently now about these Ten Commands. Not so much as rules, (Thou shalt not), but rather as pictures of what the life of the people of God will look like: as they worship, as they speak, as they rest on His day, as they obey authority, as they preserve life, and marriage and property.
This is a picture of God’s will, his plan for you-but everything starts with your heart.
I.GOD WANTS OUR HEARTS MORE THAN OUR CORRECT BEHAVIOUR
Like the prodigal and the elder brother story in Jesus’ words. The father delighted in the son who had come home from the far country, who was humble enough to take a role as a servant. But the elder brother did not please his father. This son said to his father. “I have served you and never neglected any command of yours.” His behavior had been perfect but his heart was not with the father, as evidenced by the fact that he could not rejoice when his errant younger brother came home.
What God is saying in this commandment is echoed in Proverbs 23:26, “My son give me your heart.” The heart is the very center of your being. It stands for your core of personality, the secret place where decisions are made, agreements are formed with the self, with God, and with others.
It is the place that God wants to engage in you. The heart is who you are, when every thing is stripped away. That is what God wants. That is the inner spring that motivates and energizes you. That is your soul. That is what He wants in this Command.
II. GOD WANTS TO KEEPYOUR HEART PURE FROM DISTRACTION
God calls coveting a distraction, a deep desire for something other than what God has provided for us. It is a deep root of longing, yearning for something or someone. It is really a rival to God-that thing you are coveting. It is taking God’s place in your life. That is why the Bible calls covetousness “idolatry”; making a god out of the object of your desire. Read the rest of this entry »
Exodus 20:16
Interpretation of the Ninth Commandment
June 8, 2008
Exordium: This Commandment deals with our speech-our language. How serious that is because your speech is you, the way you talk represents who you are!
Explication: Your communication is not only important to you, but it is valued by God. He cares about each person’s name and He guards our names with this Commandment. He values every person’s word and will hold each one accountable. He values truth and will protect it by this commandment.
He hates lying-we may forget that because we have become careless about lying. Some have said that our culture is in love with the lie. The slogan seems to be “Lie now- Pay later.”
Our speech has an important place in God’s plan for building His kingdom and His rule over all things. Let’s look deeper at the foundation of the Ninth Commandment “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
This Command of God seems to be founded on three pillars:
Read the rest of this entry »
Exodus 20:15
The Eighth Commandment
June 2, 2008
Exordium: Restoring a Commandment of God to its original luster is like finding something old and neglected and cleaning it and polishing it to look beautiful and useful once more. An old pan or a dish or a shell for the beach-a piece of tarnished silver, making it bright again, has a good feel to it.
We are not the first ones to find God’s law and rediscover its deep and lovely meaning. It happened in Old Testament History when Josiah and his people were cleaning the temple they came upon the Holy Law and rejoiced as they restored it to its rightful place in their life.
Explication: The Eighth Commandment, “thou shalt not steal” has gotten very tarnished. It falls toward the end of the Ten Commandments and may be deemed less important than the others.
It has been dulled by compromise
Corroded by carelessness
Its lack of luster comes from a lack of conscience
It has been forgotten through filching
Rusty from routine neglect
But I propose to you today that we restore the splendor of these four words-that it may shine again as a beacon to young and old. That’s what happened when the Holy Spirit visited Wales. Tools that were taken from the mines were returned; the judges had nothing to do for there were no more thefts. The police had no work so they formed quartets and went into the streets to sing to the people.
The Eighth Commandment is essential for our life together. Without it we shall sink into the horror of dishonesty on every side. May it never be!
But what is the splendor we are trying to restore- what does it look like? It is so brief and obvious that it hardly seems splendid? Yet it is, underneath the dust and the neglect. What is its splendor? Read the rest of this entry »
