Sermon for Sullivan
SDA Church
June 17th,
2000
Notes and Outline
It Doesn’t Make Sense
In the beginning
Genesis
1:1 In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was]
upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters. 3 And
God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
The Sabbath
Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
God’s Arrangements
for man, the tree of life
Genesis 2:4 These [are] the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and [there was] not a man to till the ground. 6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7 And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
And the warning.
Genesis
2:16 And the LORD God commanded the
man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou
shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
The fall of Man,
the first lie
Genesis
3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil
than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the
woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And
the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the
garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which [is] in the midst of the garden,
God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall
not surely die:
Expulsion from Eden
Genesis 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
The spread of mankind over the earth (Verbally expand without notes)
The increase of sin until the Flood, The
rise of the patriarchs, the move to Egypt, the Exodus, The entering into the
land of Israel,
Judges 17:6
In those days [there was] no king in Israel, [but] every
man did [that which was] right in his own eyes.
Isaiah 57:21 [There is] no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. (KJV)
Isaiah 58:1
Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people
their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to
know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance
of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in
approaching to God. 3 Wherefore have we fasted, [say they], and thou seest not?
[wherefore] have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find
pleasure, and exact all your labours. 4
Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of
wickedness: ye shall not fast as [ye do this] day, to make your voice to be
heard on high. 5 Is it such a fast that
I have chosen? a day for a man to
afflict his soul? [is it] to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread
sackcloth and ashes [under him]? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable
day to the LORD?
6 [Is] not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the
bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go
free, and that ye break every yoke? 7
[Is it] not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that
are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and
that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? 8 Then shall thy light
break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and
thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy
rereward. 9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry,
and he shall say, Here I [am]. If thou take away from the midst of thee the
yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; 10 And [if] thou
draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy
light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness [be] as the noonday: 11 And the LORD
shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy
bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water,
whose waters fail not.
12 And
[they that shall be] of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise
up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer
of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. 13 If thou turn away thy foot
from the sabbath, [from] doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the
sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not
doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking [thine own]
words: 14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to
ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of
Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken [it]. (KJV)
Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your
sins have hid [his] face from you, that he will not hear.
Those who do not accept the Bible as divine
revelation -- “It does not make sense
to me.” For those who are motivated by
self-will and pride of opinion, to hear God’s call to trust the message when
the messenger makes human mistakes does not make sense.
For
those who are so motivated, to hear that God calls for people to separate
themselves from conventional theolological understanidng, to go against the
tide of a vast array of conventional Bible students, does not make sense.
To those who are so motivated, to hear that God asks
men and women to give up their pride of opinion, their security n always being
“in command” of their lives, and their trust in status symbols bywhich they
have established their “worth” and for which they are laded, does not make sense.
For proud, independent sinners, the Beatitudes
(Matt. 5) do not
make sense. Nor does the invitation to “deny himself and
take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34) make sense.
To exchange for a new Master one’s own desire to be the
final judge as to what is best in life makes sense only after a person has capitulated to Christ.
To see oneself for what he/she really is, is a fundamental, life-changing
experience that leads a sinner to become a grateful, compliant son or daughter
of God. Only after this profound surrender to God’s
plans for one’s life will God’s plans make sense.
In other words, it is contrary to an unbeliever’s
common sense to give up what seems to be human security to become a disciple of
Jesus. That is why God gives us “super common
sense” through His Holy Spirit as He uts us into the place where we
“see” life correctly.
After the truth about ourselves and God’s plan for us sinks in, everything else that God is trying to say to us makes sense. Then the weight of evidence makes sense. Only then does the weight of evidence seem equivalent to common sense.