The Perfect and the Blemished
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
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Illustrations
Intro:
What is your reaction to “to-do lists”??
Some of you probably can’t stand them. What a burden.
Others don’t mind them in moderation. But if they are too full or chaotic they feel extremely stressful.
There is a certain satisfaction to checking something off the list. God did make us to be workers and so that is a part of who we are
Others get excited.
Pride
What happens when the checklist demands perfection? When it covers every aspect of the work you do, the way you treat others, the way that you think, your desires, what you believe?
When there is conflict in our life we always tend to look to blame somebody. One person is innocent, the victim. The other person is to blame.
Giving the excuse, “But they started it!” or “He/she made me do it!” We justify our sinful actions by blaming them on somebody else. We have a victim complex. The truth of the matter is that in conflict between people there is usually guilt on both sides. Don’t get me wrong! There are senseless acts of violence where only one side can be blamed.
When we think about the trouble in the world we often ask how God could allow things to be this way.... as if it is His fault that they are this way. We ask, “How could God allow bad things to happen to good people?”
or
the beauty of God and the eclipse? (point one I think)
face shine upon
sun brings warmth, causes things to grow
to dead things that have no water it is deadly -burns them up
w/o nourishing rain
Finding old notes I passed in church: Me as a teenager thinking that Dad was too strict and he just wanted to restrict my freedom and that he didn’t understand me. I thought I knew better and that I could make myself happier if I took things into my own hands/decided who I could hang out with. I thought he was unreasonable. Really he wanted to protect me, to teach me to be wise and discerning.
Holiness: Light -Solar eclipse- can’t look directly at the sun. the Holy presence of God is blinding and even deadly.
Seeing the blemishes/filth in the light
stable
protects
doesn’t change or move
Remember
Courtroom Scene: (or treaty scene?)
Calling witnesses
The Offended party
The accused
God fathered us (adoption) made us to be His people. We are no longer his children because of our blemishes. We are the ones who walked away, rebelled. We are the Prodigal Son.
THE CROSS:
Transition: it cost God much to make you His children. You are ungrateful. He gave His own Son. How much He has given to you and how easily do you forget Him and turn to your own ways. Ungrateful.
God is spotless -the spotless lamb of God
Because all of God’s ways are just, you can trust His Word
Luther’s Works, Volume 9 Chapter Thirty-Two
He who serves this God is safe; he has a faithful God, with whom he is at peace. In this worship there is no sin, but there is pure righteousness and uprightness; and all these things are faithful, certain, and solid. On the other hand, for idol-worshipers nothing is secure, nothing is faithful and certain; but their wandering and uncertain conscience always shifts, and whatever they do in their life is sheer iniquity and evil, however they seem to themselves to be otherwise.
Opening: Moses=the prosecuting attorney - calling the heavens and earth to bear witness.
purpose verses prior to this song :
Moses’ hope that these words would be heeded/believed
falling not upon hard ground, rocks, but upon plants that would receive the nourishing rain and grow
falling not upon hard hearts, but
I. The Perfect “The Rock”
His ways are sound
Illustration: Rock
stable
protects
doesn’t change or move
He is Faithful
List of ways
He chose them as a people not because they deserved it, but purely out of grace
Father
Created
Made & established
“Gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples…” (so that Israel would receive the inheritance of the Promised land)
His people/Jacob is His portion and allotted heritage
Commentary on the Old Testament Song of Moses, and Announcement of His Death.—Ch. 32
(cf. Deut. 7:6; 10:15, and Ex. 19:5)
(add from elsewhere?)
v.10
found in howling desert
encircled and cared
kept as apple of his eye
v.11 eagle w/ young
v. 12 guided (the LORD did w/ no foreign god with him)
v.13
made ride the high places
at produce (from unlikely places = miracle)
v.14
food & drink
II. The Blemished (The claims against them/the accused)
a. Have dealt corruptly with him
b. No longer children because they are blemished
Illustration: Blemishes: Hand Foot and Mouth Disease
Holiness - pure must be separated from unclean
Illustration: The Prodigal Son
c. A crooked and twisted generation
Twisted
Ungrateful
Trusting God’s that are no god at all
Can money save your soul?
Can fame before men make you secure before God?
III. Right response to the Rock? (TRANSITION???) “Do you thus repay the LORD?” (v.6)
Illustration:
v.15
grew fat & kicked
forsook God
scoffed at God of his salvation
idolatry/broke marriage/treaty
stirred God to jealousy
v.18
unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and forgot the God who gave you birth.
IV. The evidence: “Remember!”
The Faithfulness and redemptive work of the Rock (making the case to prove this claim of innocence and righteousness)
He has proven His faithfulness
He has proven His grace
The way that you’ve strayed and false gods have never helped (making the case that these people are guilty)
Do not trust
in your own works
in idols who cannot save you
Who is it that moved? Who transgressed? It was us.
Response of God:
v. 19
spurned them because of the provocation of his sons and daughters
resolved to hide His face (negative)
make them jealous/provoke them to anger
heap disasters on them (positive)
Gospel:
THE CROSS:
Transition: it cost God much to make you His children. You are ungrateful. He gave His own Son. How much He has given to you and how easily do you forget Him and turn to your own ways. Ungrateful.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
Eph. 5:26
God is spotless -the spotless lamb of God
Because all of God’s ways are just, you can trust His Word
Luther’s Works, Volume 9 Chapter Thirty-Two
He who serves this God is safe; he has a faithful God, with whom he is at peace. In this worship there is no sin, but there is pure righteousness and uprightness; and all these things are faithful, certain, and solid. On the other hand, for idol-worshipers nothing is secure, nothing is faithful and certain; but their wandering and uncertain conscience always shifts, and whatever they do in their life is sheer iniquity and evil, however they seem to themselves to be otherwise.
He said many times to not be afraid “I will not leave you or forsake you”
Face shine upon -favor
apple/pupil of his eye = treasured
vs.
turn face away
Turn his face away
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
deut. 30:19-
Blessings & curses (pattern)
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Predicting future sin and the punishment (exile)
Speaking of the possession of the promised land in the past tense