Preaching

Sermon Audio: God’s Design for Marriage and Sex

/ davidsschrock

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother
and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

— Genesis 2:24 —

Do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
whom you have from God?
You are not your own,
for you were bought with a price.
So glorify God in your body.

— 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 —

From the intricate arrangements of the cell to the massive construction of stars in the Milky Way, the God who made the heavens and the earth and everything in them is—to put it plainly—a Designer.

On earth, God has made mankind in his image. Male and female he created the human race. And on the day when he fashioned the man from the ground and made woman from his side (see Genesis 2:4-25), God also designed the institution of marriage and gave to Adam and Eve the gift of sex so they could partner in covenant union, procreate children who bear God’s image and likeness. At the same time, God made sex pleasurable as a good gift to his married couples.

Tragically, when sin crippled the human race (Gen 3), men and women made to honor God with their sexuality began to abuse and misuse his gift. In just a few generations, Lamech had married two women and by Genesis 19, homosexual desires had overcome the men in Sodom and Gomorrah. Today, sex is manipulated and marketed with dizzying speed.

Christians need to learn how to think about these things and we must come to the Bible to get our bearings. These two messages, preached over the last two Sundays, are my attempt to help our church think about God’s designs for marriage and sex.

I pray they may help you understand what God’s word says about this blessed gift, and how the power of God’s gospel can help you walk in holiness.

Glorify God with Your Body (1 Corinthians 6:9-20)
 

God’s Design for Marriage (Genesis 2:24)

For the rest of the sermons in this series (‘God’s Design for Marriage and Sex’), go to Sermon Audio.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

 

Genesis 1:27: God’s View of Gender (Sermon Audio)

/ davidsschrock

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
– Genesis 1:27 –

This axiom—that God made mankind as ‘male and female’ is a fundamental truth of the Christian worldview. However, it is not so plain to our Western culture. No longer is gender a biological given, reinforced by a Judeo-Christian ethic. Rather, according to most secular theorists, gender is a social construct, something that each individual discovers through a process of trial and error.

To engage our culture, we need to know what God’s word says about sexuality and gender.

In this week’s sermon, I explore what it means to be made in God’s image, as male and female. The sermon follows the outline of redemptive history—(1) God’s design for men and women in creation, (2) the effect of the Fall on gender, and (3) how redemption in Jesus Christ restores the created order. Let me know what you think.

Male and Female: God’s View of Gender (selected Scriptures from Genesis 1-3)

For the rest of the sermons in this series (‘God’s Design for Sexuality and Marriage’), go to Sermon Audio.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Evangelism in a Post-Marriage World (Sermon Audio)

/ davidsschrock

Here is the sermon audio to yesterday’s sermon: “Evangelism in a Post-Marriage World.” This is the first in a series of messages on God’s Design for Marriage and Sexuality.  In three sections, it introduces the challenge of evangelism a post-modern and post-marriage age; it calls us to have new hearts and minds as we approach the subject of sexual sin; and it gives five ways we must change our approach to evangelism, in order to reach a culture infatuated with sex and ignorant of God’s good design for marriage and sexuality.

If you listen, let me know what you think.

Here is the handout: Evangelism in a Post-Marriage World

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Matthew’s Gospel: A King and His Kingdom

/ davidsschrock / 5 Comments

There has been much recent debate on the nature of the gospel.  Did Paul get it right?  Or should we look to Jesus to know the gospel?  See the panel discussion at the recent TGC Conference: Did Jesus Preach the Gospel?

Taking a biblical-theological approach, the gospel is best understood when we look at all that the Bible has to say about the subject.  This includes the proto-gospel preached to Adam (Gen 3:15), the gospel preached beforehand to Abraham (Gal 3:8), the good news which David celebrated in the Psalms (esp. 40:9; 68:11; 96:2), and the good news announced by Isaiah (40:9; 41:27; 52:7; 60:6; 61:1) and the other prophets (Nahum 1:15; Joel 2:32).  Likewise, to rightly discern the meaning of the gospel to the early church we must look at its multiple uses in the gospels, letters, and John’s singular use in Revelation 14:6.

In this fabric of gospel theology, it is important to remember that God has given us four inspired accounts of the gospel. These don’t stand out as different gospels; nor do they reclaim the true gospel—as some infer.  They are rather four accounts of the one true gospel that all the apostles preached.  In conversation with the OT gospel promises and the epistolary explanations of the gospel, the four gospels give us a message of the person and work of Jesus Christ, the one who stands at the center of the gospel.

Starting yesterday, I began to consider the gospel in the gospels, or better the gospel according to the ‘gospelists’–Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Continue reading →

The Gospel: Mere Facts or Mouth-watering Feast

/ davidsschrock

Perhaps more than any other place in Scripture, 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 provides a ‘definition’ of the gospel.  He writes,

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

As Paul closes out his first letter to the church at Corinth, he reminds those who have received the gospel to continue to stand in the gospel.  But even more than reminding them of the gospel that they know, he reiterates the four main events of the gospel–Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, and glorious appearing—so that they (and we) will might delight in the feast of knowing the triune God.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

The Gospel Preached Beforehand

/ davidsschrock / 2 Comments

Yesterday I preached a pair of messages on the “gospel preached beforehand.”  In Galatians 3:8, Paul writes, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”

I have thought much about what the contents of that ‘gospel message’ would have been, and yesterday I sought to explain from Genesis 12, 15, 17, and 22, how the Lord proclaimed the good news to the patriarch Abraham.  In short order, I argued that the content of the gospel can be witnessed in God’s promise of grace (Gen 12), justification by faith that results in a covenant relationship (Gen 15), circumcised citizenship in the kingdom of God (Gen 17), and the necessity of the Lord’s sacrifice, substitution, and resurrection (Gen 22).

Only when all of these elements are included do you have the full gospel message. Maybe I saw too much Christ in the Old Testament, maybe not enough. Tell me what you think.

Here is the sermon audio. The first message begins in Luke 24 and turns to look at Genesis 12, 15, and 17; the second message covers Genesis 22 with an introductory excursus asking this question: ‘Since we have the full gospel (Heb 1:1-4), why should we spend much time on the gospel preached beforehand?”

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

The Gospel is God’s Power to Save (Romans 1:16-17)

/ davidsschrock

Last Sunday, I began a series on the gospel—what it is, what it isn’t. Much has been written about ‘the gospel’ in the last few years. This sermon series is my attempt to help our church fall in love with the gospel all over again.

Over the course of the next two months, I hope to tackle a number facets about the gospel and to help our church to stand firm in the gospel of Jesus Christ. If the subject of the gospel interests you—as it does the angels in heaven (1 Pet 1:12)—please check back to hear the audio and/or leave a note. I’d love to keep up the conversation with you.

Here is a rough outline of what we will cover in the days ahead.

1. The Power of the Gospel (Romans 1:16-17)

The Good News in Time and Eternity

2. The Eternal Gospel (Revelation 14:6; cf. Genesis 3:15; Revelation 21-22)

3. The Gospel Beforehand (Galatians 3:8; Genesis 22)

4. The Gospel Fulfilled (1 Corinthians 15:1-8)

The Good News of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

5. The Triune Gospel of the Kingdom (Mark 1:1-15)

6. The Gospel of God (Romans 1:7; cf. 2:16; 10:16; 11:28; 1 Corinthians 4:15)

7.The Gospel of God’s Glory (1 Timothy 1:8-11; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:4)

8. The Gospel of Christ’s Cross (2 Thessalonians 1:8; cf. Romans 1:9; 15:19; 1 Corinthians 9:12; 2 Corinthians 2:12; 9:13; 10:14; Galatians 1:7; Philippians 1:27; 1 Thessalonians 3:2)

9. The Gospel of Christ’s Resurrection (Preaching in Acts)

10. The Gospel of the Spirit’s Grace (Acts 20:24)

11. The Gospel of the Spirit’s Gospel of Truth (Colossians 1:5; Ephesians 1:13; cf. Galatians 2:14)

The Good News in the Church

12. The Preached Gospel (1 Thessalonians 2:1-20)

13. The Church’s Gospel (Ephesians 3:6-7; 1 Timothy 3:15)

14. The Fruit of the Gospel (Philippians 1:27)

15. The Passion of the Gospel (Colossians 1:24ff.; cf. Philippians 1:12; Philemon 13; Ephesians 3:1; cf. 1 Corinthians 9:12; 23)

16. ‘My’ gospel (Romans 2:16; 16:25; Galatians 1:8, 9; 2 Timothy 2:8; cf. Galatians 1:6; 2 Corinthians 11:4)

If you are interested in keeping up, here is the first message: “The Gospel: God’s Power to Save.”

Soli Deo Gloria, dss