The Book We Believe and Obey

You can see if someone is tall or short, has green or brown hair, but you cannot know who they really are until they reveal themselves. Illustrates why God must speak if He is to be known.

In other words, no one knows you like you know yourself. And we can know certain things about you by simple observation. We can know whether you're tall or short, thin or fat. or something in between.

8:57 - 9:10 Read in full sermon

Some couples live under the same roof for twenty years and still don't know each other — they are 'relative unknown commodities' because there has been no voluntary self-disclosure.

Why? They've not been pleased to reveal much of what they really are. This is the tragedy of some marriages. People have lived together under the same roof for twenty years, but they don't know each other.

9:53 - 10:04 Read in full sermon

When a cow kicks over the bucket she does not trouble herself over it that night, but when a man sins his conscience troubles him — showing that man is made in the image of God and needs revelation to understand his conscience.

And he asks the question, why is it that I have this conscience? What is it that makes me essentially different from the beasts? When the cow kicks over the bucket, she doesn't trouble herself. with a bad conscience that night But when I done something carelessly or thoughtlessly my conscience troubles me I must find out what is the answer to this matter of conscience I have a sense that I didn't just come here.

16:20 - 16:48 Read in full sermon

A man could travel to the farthest reaches of the farthest galaxy, or study the deepest recesses of the atom, and still never learn that he fell in Adam or was loved and redeemed in Christ — general revelation cannot tell him these things.

How can I approach Him? How can I experience His nearness? And if it were possible for a man to get in a spaceship that would take him out to the farthest reaches of the farthest galaxy, and he had the years given to him to analyze and to synthesize all of his exposure, he's asking that simple question, what's the origin of my conscience? Where is God? How can I know Him?

17:01 - 17:28 Read in full sermon

Contrasts the popular notion of inspiration (a pianist inspired by Beethoven, beads of sweat dropping, something from without taking hold of him) with the biblical theopneustos — Scripture breathed OUT of God.

When we say inspiration, we think of something that's breathed in. We watch Mr. Rotman play his piano and we say he plays like someone who's inspired. Like something from Beethoven has come from without and gotten into him and coming out his fingers and the beads of sweat that drop off his head and the whole business.

25:15 - 25:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Put a big red question mark in the margin of any theologian who builds his theology upon 'the first laws of human reason' — Scripture outranks that framework.

Trying to fit God's mind into 'this poor little teacup brain' is as absurd as fitting the Atlantic Ocean into a coffee cup — a warning against building theology on the 'first laws of human reason.'

The first laws of infinite reason many times go far beyond the first laws of finite, depraved, darkened reason. This does not mean we give ourselves to irrationality, but we humbly and worshipfully bow before a God whose mind many times goes beyond the limits of this poor little teacup brain to hold. And when you can take the Atlantic Ocean and fit it in your coffee cup, you can fit the mind of God in your little pea brain.

39:16 - 39:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Put a big red question mark in the margin of any theologian who builds his theology upon 'the first laws of human reason' — Scripture outranks that framework.

Take every prophet from Moses to Malachi, put them all in a column, add them up, draw your line — the psalmist says the sum is truth, not 'truth plus human error.'

Take all that prophets have said, from Moses down through Malachi. Put it all in a column. Add up Moses plus Joshua plus Samuel plus, plus, plus. Draw your line.

41:01 - 41:16 Read in full sermon

Luther's quaint analogy: the Scriptures are the cradle in which we find the Savior. You don't worship the cradle, but you won't find Christ anywhere else either.

Revelation 19.10 says, The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. You see it's not a matter of worshiping Christ or the book The more we reverence this book Study it and examine it with dependence upon the spirit Since Christ is its central theme He will become more and more precious to us Luther used the quaint analogy He said the scriptures are the cradle in which we find the Savior If you came to Bethlehem and wanted to find Jesus there was one place you could find him in that manger cradle. If you look for him anywhere else you'd have missed him.

55:43 - 56:26 Read in full sermon