I was preparing my sermon on the fourth
commandment this week. I was re-reading the book, The
Market Day of the Soul by James T Dennison, Jr. where he shows the
development of the Puritan doctrine of the Sabbath as a creation ordinance. The
concept of a creation
ordinance got me thinking about the news today of the action of the PCUSA
affirming so called “homosexual marriage.” I refer to this as “so called”
because by definition the term “homosexual marriage” is nonsense by definition.
Marriage is a creation ordinance instituted by God as the mutual and intimate covenant
relationship between a man and a woman and it has been acknowledged as a
cultural universal for the history of humanity. Clearly the promoters of
homosexual unions as “marriage” are on the wrong side of history, but I
digress.
An acquaintance of mine wrote on his blog
about the present state of the PCUSA. This action does not make them apostate.
That sad fact occurred when that branch of Presbyterian Churches embraced “liberalism”
and denied the scriptures as the infallible rule of faith and practice. J.
Gresham Machen understood this in the 1920s and wrote the book, Christianity
and Liberalism, in which he affirms that Liberalism is not another form
of Christianity but entirely different, so different as to belong to a distinct
category. The actions of the present General Assembly have their roots in this
sad history of denying the scriptures. I am saddened by this expected result in
the church of my youth. I was a member of the then UPUSA in Ohio. I remember as
a teen when my family left with other families to start a new as a congregation
of the newly formed PCA in the early 1970s that homosexuality was already an
issue in Eastminster Presbytery of the UPUSA. The issue then and now is not
homosexuality per se; it is the authority of God’s word. While I am not
surprised, I am still saddened and even weep before God for the Church of Jesus
Christ.
But my thoughts are not solely focused on the news of the
PCUSA but really about creation ordinances. It absolutely astounds me that
modern man has the very audacity to attempt to over throw the creation
ordinances of God. To be sure, no lightening is immediately striking the
arrogant rebels. They think God either doesn’t exist or doesn’t care. I think
otherwise (Romans 2:3-7). Indeed God must sit in the heavens as ruler and king
and laugh at our puny efforts to overturn His order (Psalm 2). A school boy
learns that one can fight against God’s natural law of gravity only so long but
in the end it will overtake you. We are creatures of this creation. God’s
order, whether natural law or spiritual law, wins in the end. It is the reality
we must deal with. We are not God. We bought the lie of Satan that we can be
but that doesn’t make it any more true.
So my heart grieves for those who set up their own laws to
replace the laws of God. This is nothing but self-destructive behavior. The
reality and futility of sin will be made manifest but how many lives will be
eternally ruined because of the present purveyors of such monstrous thinking
and teaching? How many families will be torn apart by this irrational
stupidity? In fact, I believe is it the goal of Satan and those that follow his
perverse thinking that people should tear apart their most cherished
relationships, kill their unborn offspring, and destroy themselves physically
and spiritually by outright rebellion against God. What is the end? I marvel
that many don’t see it. The end is the enslavement of all under sin and evil.
Without spiritual discipline and the truth of God all we have is slavery and
death. It seems ironic that this should be most manifest in America, “the land
of the free and home of the brave.” America that has become the land of political
correctness and government tyranny by regulation. America, the place where
anything is tolerated so long as it isn’t the truth and true freedom.
But back to creation ordinances. They are the fabric of life
in this age. They will not disappear whatever human beings may do. Only one man
has kept them. That man is the man Jesus Christ, the Son of God come in the
flesh. Only by faith in his righteousness and self-sacrifice is there life for
the souls of men, women, and children. If we want to be true patriots we need
to do two things. We must call men and women to repentance and faith in the
Lord Jesus. We must defend and practice the creation ordinances of God. If we
wish to remain free we must preserve the sanctity of marriage and the family, we
must defend the necessity and legitimacy of labor, and we must observe and rest
in the hope of the Sabbath (Genesis 2:1-3; Heb 4:4ff).
