Sermon Tone Analysis

Christians live with well defined parameters, who internalize the Word of God, and who maintain productive and successful lives for the glory of God.

Second head of the Psalm…”Not so the ungodly, not so.”

Here is a person with a double negative on their life.

The ungodly, as the Psalms assets, are not so.

Whatever good was said of the godly, cannot be said of the ungodly.

The ungodly live without boundaries, driven by their passions and lusts, doing whatever they want while ignoring truth, living worthless lives, doing nothing of value, striving for self-exaltation, and seeking self-gratification.

With not one though given to the eternal consequences of a life without God.

Here is the person who leaves God out of their life.

Here “the ungodly,” the mildest way the Hebrew puts it for a lost person.

Everything about this person’s life is in bold contrast to the Christian, everything the Christian lives for, the ungodly live totally opposite.

The ungodly is driven, doomed, and damned, to say the least.

The person who lives without God, by contrast, is morally corrupt, judicially condemned, and eternally certain for hell and damned forever.

The ungodly look happy, look content and satisfied, appear to be blessed, give the sense of fulfillment; not so the ungodly, not so.

The ungodly cannot be happy, content, satisfied, blessed or fulfilled when they live and do what God forbids, Psalms 1:1 living by their own rules, doing their own thing, and seeing absolutely no need for God in their life.

Supposition

Not a pleasant picture, but rather a pitiful picture of a profaned and perverted life of the wicked.

Comes under three sub-headings.

I.

The Ungodly Man

“But, “ a small word that opens a black door into a depressing room.

A term of contrast, pause and ponder the text, asking the questions like what is being contrasted.

If we were instructed to pause at the godly persons life, we must take a considerable amount to time looking at the godless persons life,

Sure of being Saved

I know I’m saved when God’s power enables me to have a different life, and I exhibit this change in an effective and productive life for Jesus.

Saved people live like they’ve been saved by God’s redeeming power.

Where there is a lack of such evidence, denotes a person who is unable to discern their spiritual condition, and has no assurance of salvation, but lives a life of doubt and fear.

The person may be saved and blessed, 2 Peter 1:3-4

But this person lives in fear and doubt, due to missing virtues of salvation, 2 Peter 1:5-7

God knows those who are his, cf. 1 Peter 1:1-5

But those who are God’s do not always possess such assurance.

Security is the Holy Spirit-revealed fact that I am saved forever.

Assurance is confidence that I possess eternal salvation, how is this assurance obtained?

By pursuing the qualities mentioned in 2 Peter 1:5-7

Fruit is the guarantee one has been called and chosen by God to be saved.

The person who notes these qualities in their life, and becomes aware of their life being useful and fruitful, unlike the ungodly who are not so, 2 Peter 1:8

this person will not stumble in doubt and fear over their salvation, 2 Peter 1:9

My point is not to exhaust the subject of eternal security of our salvation, but to note that every person is commanded to make sure of salvation in our lives.

To give attention to personal inventory of the virtues of salvation being present, fruit produced, lives effective for God’s glory, no doubts or fear of not possessing a living and growing relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

People lie to themselves when they think they are saved, they’ve been called and chosen, and they live lives with no evidence, 2 Peter 1:5-7

of God’s work in their life; blind, and cannot see your need.

Forgotten, cannot remember or recollect a time they trusted in Christ, and short-sighted when it comes to future or eternal outcomes; Not so the ungodly, not so.

The Emptiness of a godless life; Driven, Psalms 1:4.

By contrast, the person who lives without God is morally corrupt, justly condemned, and eternally damned.

The person with no God in their life is not happy.

The person with no God in their life cannot be blessed.

The person with no God in their life will not be successful.

The person with no God in their life bring nothing of value to the table.

The person who does not have God in their life may give the sense and even the appearance of being happy, blessed, successful, and even significance, but it is all under false pretense; not so!

The absence of God in our life is a worthless life, no value, empty, futile, shallow.

No boundaries, no moral compass directing them to healthy choices, no fundamental principles to build the life around.

“Driven,” to be windblown; scattered; fleetingness of the action.

Wherever the wind takes them.

They blow in the opposite direction of God, their philosophies, practices, their positions, wherever the wind blows.

These who are stamped with the guilt of violating God’s standard they are not blessed in anything they do, Malachi 2:2

These who are guilty of infringing upon God’s holy code of behavior, are like chaff.

No roots, they have no solid ground to build their life on, shallow, susceptible to whatever cultural wind blows.

A godless life is nothing more than a lie, Matthew 13:24-30.

Empty, void lives, futile, unsubstantial, shallow, worthless.

Life will eventually end in inevitable judgment.

In the end they will be burned up.

The godless person refuses to listen to God, Psalms 1:1

The godless person refuses to change, Psalms 1:1, cf.

Romans 1:25-32

The Eternity of the godless life; Doomed, Psalms 1:5.

“Therefore,” because of their worthless life, fictitious life, over exaggerated life, the godless man is doomed.

The godless brings nothing to the table that is acceptable to God.

The wicked have no ground to stand on.

God will not accept their petty excuses, their pleas for equity, their putrefying efforts, they beg and bargain, but God is not having it.

God will expose their worthless lives for what they are; nothing,

The godless will be excluded from the joys of heaven, and banished to a Christless eternity,

Sinners have no place in heaven, it is a foreign environment to them, they are out of their element.

They are unworthy sinners, condemned by Christ, and eternally removed from the presence of the Lord.

“Heaven would be hell to an impenitent man even if he were allowed to stay.” —C H Spurgeon

The End of the godless life; Damned, Psalms 1:6

The two ways do not ever intersect.

They are as opposite as water and oil, they are as distant as the East is from the West.

“For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,” more than just being informed, but personally involved, intimately connected.

God knows those who are genuine saved, He knows the righteous.

He knows those who have placed faith in Christ, turned over their lives to Him in total commitment to the Lordship of Jesus.

He knows those who bow the knee whether they are serious or not, whether their prayers are sincere or superficial, God knows the righteous.

He knows the hypocrisy of their service or the genuine, authentic, unbending duty they render to their Lord, God knows the motives, the reasons, God knows the “why” of our lives.

He knows the righteous.

Those whom He knows, the righteous, God guards their lives, guides their lives, and graces their lives in order to maintain the righteous way.

“Knows the way,” in Hebrew, “The Lord is knowing the way of the righteous.”

“But the way of the wicked will perish.”

God has no interest in a worthless life, life that is of no value.

God has nothing good to say about this life, “it will perish.”

God only knows one thing about the godless life, it will perish.

Proverbs 14:12

The godless and all their plans, aspirations, schemes, godless ideologies and theories, their wicked devised habits and practices will all come to an abrupt end; perish.

“Perish,” Hebrew, “complete ruin; destruction; rot and decay; There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death; wipeout completely.”

Why are the ungodly lost?

They never give any thought to God.

Because they refuse submit to Jesus.

They would rather listen to the ungodly than God.

They prefer the company of godless people.

They spend their days involved in sin.

They think they are secure in the earth—but they are unhappy, unblessed, unsatisfied, and unsuccessful!

Their life is worthless, brings no value to the table, drifting, driven by their passions, the trends, fads, ideologies and theories of a godless culture.

Conclusion: Important diagnostic questions.