Sermon Tone Analysis

! Living in Light of God’s Attributes, Part I

Preached by Pastor Phil Layton on January 14, 2007 at Gold Country Baptist Church

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"/And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.

//And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.

//When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

//And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

//“You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”

//Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, //saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”

//And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”

//And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.”

And the elders fell down and worshiped./"

(Revelation 5:6-14, NASB95)

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Jesus taught us to pray “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is heaven.”

Revelation 4 & 5 give a picture of how God’s will is done in heaven, how true worship looks there, how reverence for our Lord is done right.

My prayer in this new series is that we would experience more on earth as it is in heaven, in our vision of God, worship, and reverence.

Some of what I say in this series may offend some, but my greater concern is offending /God/ by holding back His truth and glory.

Here on earth, sadly, often we see quite a different picture than this passage, even within churches; a lacking reverence, worship, and low view of God.

A year ago we were visiting another church, and the pastor was giving an illustration where he talked about heaven, and he said “when I picture heaven and Jesus, I can’t wait to give him a big hug, I really want to sit on his lap and tell him some jokes and listen to him tell me a few good ones”

 

I’ve been in environments where the pastor or music leader will say “all right, let’s give God a hand” and everyone claps.

People smile, clap, occasionally whistle and then, done applauding God, sit down to hear what's next on the program.

I’ve been in great big stadiums full of Christians before where different parts of the audience chant “We got Jesus yes we do, we got Jesus how about you?” … more …” (like a school rally)

 

I don’t know if you ever receive these kind of emails, but I used to often get emails from co-workers with some syrupy and sentimental presentation of either Jesus or some slogans and clichés that God tells them, and a lot of them at the end of the email say something like “If you love Jesus, you will forward this to 10 people and watch to see the good things happen” – it’s almost a superstitious kind of thing

One “Christian” camp song goes so low as to say Jesus is “the salt on my Frito.”

There’s even a T-shirt that says “Jesus is my homeboy” –one of the best-selling T-shirts in 2003.

People seen wearing it include Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck, Pamela Anderson and Ashton Kutcher.

-          To talk about Jesus on the same level as Frito chips is trivializing blasphemy.

-          The Lord of Lords is not the “homey” of worldly celebrities – or anyone for that matter.

The Bible actually portrays Him as a consuming fire who will judge all who blaspheme Him.

Yes there is love and closeness, but also fear of Lord

-          The Christ of Scripture is not a superstition-granting good luck charm or fortune cookie that makes good things come into your life if you forward theologically incorrect emails to 10 or more people.

He is the Alpha and the Omega, the transcendent sovereign, who I think is actually offended by most of the clichés and slogans thrown around with His name or attributing things that He is not.

-          King Jesus does not need a pep rally of people chanting that they’ve got him, yes we do, how about you, just substituting his name for class or team spirit?

He is a holy God, the majestic and mighty Master of the universe who needs nothing from us

-          God is not an entertainer who wants us our applause, or someone who needs people to clap and whistle like He’s some worldly show.

-          And I don’t think that when we see the Lord of the universe in all His glory we’re going to tell him our favorite jokes and casually hop on His lap while He tells us some good ones.

If you believe the Bible, every knee is going to be bowing and every tongue will be confessing Jesus Christ is LORD and we will worship Him in reverence.

God is not any of those trivial and shallow and superficial portrayals.

"/These things you have done and I kept silence; *You thought that I was just like you*; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.

//“Now consider this, you who forget God, Or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver.

//“He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; And to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God./" (Psalm 50:21-23, NASB95)

 

WHY STUDYING THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD IS URGENT

I.                   Great indictment passed on those who make God in their image

Not only Ps 50:21 – also the great indictment in Rom 1:23 is that they “/exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man …/”

v. 25 “/they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator …”/

 

Steve Lawson has written an excellent book called /Made in Our Image: What Shall we do with a “User-Friendly” God /where He documents the legacy of America’s low view of God which results in a watered down church that diminishes God to the lowest common denominator so that people aren’t offended.

It is:

-          Consumer-driven

-          Culture-driven

-          Needs-driven (felt needs)

-          Purpose-driven

-          Seeker-driven

He writes (p.

17):

The problem with all these approaches to the church, however is that they lack depth.

On the surface they sound fine.

But unfortunately, that is where they remain – on the surface.

Such radical shifts in the direction of the church are, I believe, the result of our diminished view of God.

As our view of God has suffered, so have our ministries and lives.

Rather than being focused upon the true God, we have become enamored with the world, a vantage point that easily accommodates our vision of a god made in our image.

The sad result is this: Rather than seeking to become as much like heaven as they can be, churches are instead striving to become like the world.

Rather than pursuing spirituality and substance, many have become enamored with style and size.

The sizzle – not the steak – has become the main entrée.

Gospel light is being replaced with gospel “lite,” preaching with performance, exposition with entertainment, sound doctrine with sound checks, the upper room with the supper room, and the unfolding drama of redemption with – well, just plain drama.

Only when our vision of God is restored will our lives and ministries be put right.

A high view of God leads us to see that the church is not a corporation, but a congregation; not a business, but a body; not a factory, but a family … a right vision of God must be the driving force behind the church.

Only that can bring His glorious presence and all-sufficient power to bear on the lives of His people so that we can be what He desires us to be.

We must unveil the truth about the sovereign God to unmask the fallacy of the user-friendly god …

 

II.

Nothing more important than knowing God

John 17:3 – essence of eternal life

Theme of book of Ezekiel and everything God does in that book is that people would know Him “the I AM YHWH” (over 65x “that they may know”)

Philippians 3 – only thing that matters (all else dung in comparison)

 

"More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the /surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord/, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, /that I may know Him/ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."

(Philippians 3:8-11, NASB95)

 

!!!

The bigger your view of God, the smaller your problems will look

 

John Piper: “I preached on the holiness of God and did my best to display the majesty and glory of such an unapproachably holy God.

I gave not one word of application to the lives of our people (not a good practice regularly).

Little did I know that in the week prior to this message one of the young families of our church discovered that their child was being sexually abused for over a year by a close relative.

It was incredibly devastating.

There was police involvement.

Social workers.

Psychiatrists.

Doctors.

They were there that Sunday morning and sat under that message.

I wonder how many advisers to us pastors today would have said, Piper, can't you see your people are hurting?

Can't you come down out of your ivory tower of theology and get practical?

Don't you realize what kind of people sit in front of you on Sunday?

Several months later the sad details began to come out.

And the husband came to me one Sunday after a service and took me aside, and said, ‘John, these have been the hardest months of our lives.

You know what has gotten me through?

The vision of the greatness of God's holiness that you gave me the first week of January.

It has been the rock we could stand on.’"

(from “The Pastor as Theologian” at 1988 Pastor Conference, available at www.desiringgod.org)

III.

God begins His law by revealing who He is and forbidding false views

 

READ EXODUS 3:1-6

It’s been pointed out that Moses did come flippantly or jokingly into YHWH’s presence – instead it was with lowly submission, humble contrition and reverential awe.

He “covered his face in fear, afraid to even look at God … Moses was traumatized by his proximity to deity and rightly so” (Lawson, 82).

EXODUS 15:11-18 – God revealed His mighty works and they rightly praised Him in spirit and in truth

 

EXODUS 19 – God gave the people detailed instructions about His terms for how we would meet His people to give His law.

They were to wash and consecrate themselves, no person or animal could even touch the mountain or they would die.