Sermon Tone Analysis

Our Scripture lessons this morning is taken from Deuteronomy 3:1-6 and John 3:16-21:

May God Bless this the reading of His holy and infallible Word.

In Deuteronomy 2-3, we are confronted with two interpretive and theological problems of giant proportions.

The first is the existence of giants and the second is we find whole nations being “dedicated to destruction”.

Both of which are offensive to modern secular mind.

Many have rejected the Bible because they find the idea of giants and other things, such as the virgin birth and resurrection so “unnatural” that they reject the Bible out of hand.

Others find many of the things God does or commands morally offensive.

A prime example is the command we find in our text today to destroy every man, women and child in these two nations.

I think these and other similar problems have troubled us all; but sadly, the way most Christians handle them is by putting them on the back shelf.

This strategy has had a devastating effect on the last two generations of young people.

The last two generations have left the church in droves because they have not been prepared to answer the difficult questions.

In 1 Peter 3:15, God commands us, “always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you”.

In other words, we need to be prepared to give people answers.

This does not mean that we are commanding to convince people, but rather we are to give people “reasons”, which the Holy Spirit then uses to convince people.

Therefore let us slay these giant problems before us today, beginning with...

The Problem of Giants

The first reason we need to give people is that the Bible and thus Christianity is based on a supernatural world-view.

The world today operates on a secular, naturalistic world-view.

If we limit ourselves to purely naturalistic cause, much in the Bible would be pure non-sense; but the Bible does not claim to be a naturalistic book, to the contrary, it is supernatural.

This may seem simplistic, but actually, it is quite profound.

We are viewing reality differently.

We must be honest enough and courageous enough, to admit this.

We cannot play by the world’s rules, and we must not allow the world to impose their rules on us.

This brings us to the second reason, we believe in the existence of giants because the Bible is the ultimate standard of truth.

Everyone must have some standard of truth.

For the secular, humanistic world-view, this standard is “science”.

The problem with science is not the scientific method, but “scientists”.

In his alarm, the psalmist says, “All men are liars.”

(Ps.

116:11) The past two years have made this abundantly clear.

People today are longing for a standard of truth, and we can boldly claim that the Bible is that standard.

Jesus said:

Hebrews 6:18 says that it is “impossible for God to lie”.

This is in stark contrast to humanity.

We have all lied.

To use any human standard, as the standard of the truth will only lead to disappointment.

So, let us see how this works when it comes to giants.

The Bible makes it clear that that the origins of giants upon the earth was supernatural:

Note that this passage does not identify who the “sons of God” are.

There has been much speculation as to who the “sons of God” are, but we do not have to speculate.

Two New Testament passages make it clear that they are fallen angels:

Peter and Jude are citing a non-canonical book that is clearly speaking of the events of Genesis 6:1-4.

Some have not taken this citation from this book, which is called 1 Enoch, seriously, because this book obviously contains things that are not true; but here the doctrine that the Bible always speaks the true helps us.

It is said that a stopped clock is always right twice a day.

This citation is an example of it.

We have no idea how much of 1 Enoch is true and how much is a lie, but we can know with absolute assurance that this citation is true, because it is in God’s Word and God cannot lie!

This supernatural, demonic origin of these giants is very helpful in addressing the next problem of “giant” proportions:

The Problem of Nations being “Devoted to Destruction”

Let us go back to Genesis 6, and continue where we left off:

What do we see here?

We see a link between the increase of human sinfulness and the perverse interaction of these fallen angels with humanity.

Through these giants, the fallen amplifying human depravity.

We sin because we are sinner, not because devils tempt us.

However, devils can tempt us to sin more sinfully.

Take lying for an example.

Previously we heard the psalmist tell us “All men are liars”.

However, not all men lie to the same extent.

Satan's aim is to move take our sin to its greats, most self-destructive level.

Jesus said Satan was a “murderer from the beginning” (Jn 8:44).

Look what happens when sin reaches it’s full measure:

Deuteronomy and Joshua were not the first times God “devoted” a people to “destruction”, the first time was the flood!

God had to destroy the world to save the world!

The giants and the people that followed them had to be destroyed, because God’s plan was to save the world by the true Israel—Jesus Christ!

It is not without significance that when Joshua reviews all his military accomplishments, the focus is upon the giants:

You may counter, Joshua and the Israelites did not just “devote to destruction” the giants, but the people who followed these giants, including the children!

Surely the children did not share in the corruption of the giants and parents?

Well, actually they did, and more importantly, we do.

Although the Bible is clear that we will be judged by our own individual sin, it also clearly teaches that there is a communal nature to sin.

Death and depravity came to all men because Adam sinned, the sins of the parents will be passed on to the third and fourth generation, and Isaiah pronounced a woe upon himself saying:

This brings us back to world-view.

The world-view of our society is individualistic, the world-view of the Bible is communal.

As Christians, we must conform our thinking to the Bibles’ view of reality, not the world’s.

What this means is that because of the Fall, we are all “devoted to destruction”.

This brings us to our need for...

The Final Giant Slayer—Jesus!

On one occasion, Jesus said:

This is the language of holy war!

Yet when the soldiers came to arrest Him, Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword away”.

What is going on here?

What is going on here is that Jesus had been “devoted to destruction”.

The Apostle Peter writes of this in his first letter saying:

This is why I chose to read from John 3:16-21, most people read only read verse 16 and stop there, but we must not stop there because John goes on to explain what will happen to us if we do not trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we will be “devoted to destruction”!

Do you understand what God has done for us?

In Christ, we have a way to escape destruction!

If we believe in Jesus Christ, we will not be condemned, because Jesus bore God’s wrath against sin upon His body.

However, if we do not believe, we are condemned already.

Your sin is the real “giant problem”!

Let Christ be your giant slayer.