Sermon Tone Analysis

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Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-20

 

Is there truth to hold to in these days?

For the Christian this is bordering on a ridiculous question.

I believe without question that God is the only possible author of absolute truth.

That is my starting point – God.

The world in which we live in allows us to exercise knowledge and to inquire and to discover because there are natural laws and processes that repeat themselves without fail and without question.

These laws are inviolable if we wish to live very long in this world.

ü      If I step into the pathway of an oncoming automobile, the automobile will win and I am likely to die.

ü      If I jump off a high building, gravity will have its way with me.

ü      If I stick my hand in the fire it will get burnt.

\\ /20 //My son, keep your father’s commands /

/and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

/

/21 //Bind them upon your heart forever; /

/fasten them around your neck.

/

/22 //When you walk, they will guide you; /

/when you sleep, they will watch over you; /

/when you awake, they will speak to you.

/

/23 //For these commands are a lamp, /

/this teaching is a light, /

/and the corrections of discipline /

/are the way to life, /

/24 //keeping you from the immoral woman, /

/from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife.

/

/25 //Do not lust in your heart after her beauty /

/or let her captivate you with her eyes, /

/26 //for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, /

/and the adulteress preys upon your very life.

/

/27 //Can a man scoop fire into his lap /

/without his clothes being burned?

/

/28 //Can a man walk on hot coals /

/without his feet being scorched?

/

/29 //So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; /

/no one who touches her will go unpunished/.[1]

In this portion of scripture, Solomon connects physical laws with moral laws.

In his mind, bot absolute laws.

When a man or woman commits adultery there will be certain consequences that are inescapable.

The first thing that we want to do when we fall to these moral sins is to justify, to find reasons that it is right and even “okay” with God.

We seem to want to discredit truth or to adjust it in order to make ourselves right.

It is not just the sin of adultery, but the sins of greed, gossip, envy and they go on and on.

ü      The tide comes in and out every 12 hours, 6 in and 6 out.

ü      Our calendars are based on the predictability of the sun and moon

 

We live in a physical, material world that we thrive in because of the absolute truths or realities that we have learned to work with.

It is absolutely unbelievable to me to suggest that all of this occurred accidentally, without design or Designer.

If there is a Designer who is Spirit then there is a spiritual world as well.

In order to thrive spiritually we have to be in harmony with the Creator as well.

Spiritually speaking, we are created in the likeness of God

 

I believe that there absolutely is absolute truth and that it originates with the Creator.

I believe that adherence to this truth makes the journey easier than it is if one tries to find his~/her way through life without this knowledge.

We are in harmony with God and his Creation as we live by this truth.

q       *Relativism* - Barna spoke on the release of a report by his Barna Research Group (BRG).

It revealed that among all adults, only 22 percent believed in moral absolutes, while 64 percent thought truth was always relative to the person concerned and their situation.

Among interviewees identified as being born again, just 32 percent believed in moral absolutes.

\\ \\ The picture was even gloomier among teen-agers questioned in a parallel inquiry.

Eighty-three percent of all teens thought moral truth depended on the circumstances, with just 6 percent believing in absolute truth.

Only 9 percent of teens identified as being born again accepted the idea of absolute truth, compared with 4 percent of other teens.

\\ \\ Barna said that the "alarmingly fast decline" of moral foundations among young people had culminated in "a one-word worldview: ’whatever.’

The result is a mentality that esteems pluralism, relativism, tolerance and diversity without critical reflection of the implications of particular views and actions."

\\ \\ You know what the problem with relativism is?

It breaks down when someone else exercises their freedom and it has consequences to me that I do not want.

We do not often measure our own freedom by the consequences that it brings to others but we are quick to question our own belief system when it does not protect us from the encroachment of others doing the same things that we do.

* *

J. P. Moreland, in his book Apologetic Reasoning and the Christian Mind, tells of an experience that illustrates the importance of truth: “One afternoon I was sharing the gospel in a student’s dorm room at the University of Vermont.

The student began to espouse ethical relativism: ‘Whatever is true for you is true for you and whatever is true for me is true for me. . . .

But no one should force his or her views on other people since everything is relative.’”

Moreland says,

 

“I knew that if I allowed him to get away with ethical relativism, there could be for him no such thing as real, objective sin measured against the objective moral command of God, and thus no need of a Savior.

I thanked the student for his time and began to leave his room.

On the way out, I picked up his small stereo and started out the door with it.

‘Hey, what are you doing?’ he shouted. . . .

‘I am leaving your room with your stereo.’

‘You can’t do that,’ he gushed.”

But Moreland said, “I happen to think it is permissible to steal stereos if it will help a person’s religious devotions, and I myself could use a stereo to listen to Christian music in my morning devotions.

Now I would never try to force you to accept my moral beliefs in this regard because, as you said, everything is relative and we shouldn’t force our ideas on others.

But surely you aren’t going to force on me your belief that it is wrong to steal your stereo, are you?”

Moreland looked at him and continued: “You know what I think?

I think that you espouse relativism in areas of your life where it’s convenient , say in sexual morality, or in areas about which you do not care, but when it comes to someone stealing your stereo or criticizing your own moral hobbyhorses, I suspect that you become a moral absolutist pretty quickly, don’t you?”

The story has a happy ending, for Moreland says, “Believe it or not, the student honestly saw the inconsistency of his behavior and, a few weeks later, I was able to lead him to Jesus Christ.”... \\ \\

q       *Deconstructionism* - During the last few decades, building on the skepticism about objective truth, a viewpoint known as deconstructionism has flourished on college campuses.

If there is no objective truth, there is no reason for objective interpretation of history, law, or politics.

Deconstructionists contend therefore, that past events or writings have no intrinsic meaning.

What authors intended in literature, for example, is irrelevant.

What matters is what we think of what they wrote.

Authorial intent in historical documents suffers the same fate.

So we freely revise the past to conform to current politically correct values.

(Deconstruction is literally the dismantling of language, texts,  discourse.

It began in the realm of language and has since spread to other disciplines.

It first manifested itself in English literature departments.

If language, discourse, and thus the intention of the author can be called into question and doubted, then other realms can fall like dominoes.

History, law, and politics proceed from an undermining of language, not vice versa.)

q       *Subjectivism –* Based on experience and circumstance.

How do I personally experience truth?

The problem is that we have spent too much time listening to ourselves, and too little time talking to ourselves.

* *

Stanford Research Institute was studying the differences in vocational perceptions.

They devised a short but succinct test.

The first to be tested was an engineer.

The researchers asked him: “ \\ \\

What does two plus two make?”

The engineer simply said, “In absolute terms: four.”

After making their notes and dismissing him, they called an architect.

To the same question, he responded, “Well, there are several possibilities: two and two make four, but so does three and one -- or two point five and one \\ point five -- they also make four.

So, it is all a matter of choosing the right option.”