Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Morning!

I am so excited to be here with you all this morning.

This is my first time to your beautiful country.

Thank you so very much for hosting us and for your hearts to be here today.

When the Lord Jesus calls us to Follow Him, He calls us into a life lived fully to serve, honor, and glorify God.

A life that is laid down for the sake of others only to be taken back up in exaltation at the end of days to the glory of God.

Not only do I get to share with you all in your beautiful land here, but I also get the privilege of sharing the most beautiful and important message in all of creation.

This message is about Jesus laying down His life for the sake of others and taking it back up in exaltation

and as I just mentioned, this is exactly the model we are called to follow as we Follow Him....

This is the message you carry with you.

when you go out this evening, this is the message you will carry with you.

until you go to be with the Lord, this is the message you will always carry with you.

The Gospel of Christ is not only the most important news you could ever receive...

it is also the most messy, beautiful, heart-wrenching, uplifting, life-taking yet life-saving message in all of history

and it is the message we have been entrusted by the Lord to share.

So What is this message I’m talking about?

What is the Gospel?

The word Gospel comes from a word that simply means Good News.

So in one sentence, the Gospel is the good news of salvation found in Jesus.

our main text is going to be found in Romans chapter 5....If you have a bible please turn with me there.......Romans chapter 5, starting in verse 6.

Romans 5:6-11 “6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.

8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

So I have talked about the good news of the Gospel....but in order to fully understand why it is such good news we must first hear the bad news....

in the passage we just read, The Apostle Paul, who is the writer of Romans says things like “we were helpless” and he refers to humanity as “ungodly” and calls us “sinners” and says that we were enemies of God.

the bad news brothers and sisters is that we are sinners.

we need help because without Christ we are helpless and without the strength needed to save ourselves.

the word for “sin” simply means to miss the mark.

but what mark have we missed?

well to explain that we must understand the holiness of God.

God is holy, set apart from us and by nature is all together good.

This is the first rule we must understand.

In God’s nature, He does what is right ALWAYS.

This also speaks to His justice.

God is perfect in His judgments.

He must rule His creation with righteous judgement.

Not because I said so or because God is bound by some outside rules and regulations that He has to follow......no its because He cant go against His own nature and goodness.

the prophet Habakkuk when referring to God says this...

Habakkuk 1:13 “13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness.

Habakkuk 1:13 (RVC)

13 Si por la pureza de tus ojos no soportas ver el mal ni los agravios

The moral law of right and wrong, good and evil, is set against the standard of what is good based off of God’s perfect attributes.

God is pure and good and His justice says He cannot approve of sin.

God cant lie, God cant steal, God cant murder because we only know evil as we compare it to God’s nature of perfection in holiness.

So when I say that we “miss the mark” as sinners, it means that we cannot live up to God’s holy perfection.

We are by nature enemies of God because in our nature, we do lie and steal.

we sin against a Holy God.

But not only do we miss the mark, we are prone to always miss the mark.

We don’t just sin, we are sinners.

in Romans 3:10-12 we are told this...

Romans 3:10-12 “10 As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.””

and later in verse 23

Romans 3:23 “23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

We all fall short of God’s standard.

By our nature, none of us can keep God’s Law perfectly.

in James chapter 2 we read this.....

James 2:10 “10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”

Now James was likely referring back to this passage in Deuteronomy....

Deuteronomy 27:26 “26 ‘Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law.’

“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ””

Oh man.....This is a big problem.

If it is impossible to keep God’s standard of righteousness but we are cursed if we don’t keep it perfectly down to every single detail, then what does that mean?

It means we are in big trouble.

looking back to our main passage Paul, in verse 9 says we are saved from God’s wrath.

and in John 3:36 we are told this....

John 3:36 “36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.””

God’s wrath abides on us in our natural state because we sin against a Holy and Loving God.

But is this the end?

are we doomed to live under the penalty of our sin?

after all, we are told in the Bible in Romans 6:23 “23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 6:23 (RVC)

23 Porque la paga del pecado es muerte

the payment required for our sin is death.

We all will pay the physical payment at some point.

Hopefully when we are old and have lived a full life on earth,

but spiritually, to die in our sin means we experience a spiritual death.

The opposite of eternal life is eternal death......We often think about death as a one time thing at the end of our physical life, but to die spiritually means we are separated from God’s life-giving love forever.

We are banished to the Lake of Fire where all of the cursed of God go if they die in their sin.

this is an everlasting death....

You guys are probably thinking at this point....who is this guy that Pastor Darwin has brought in to preach?

Dude sure is dark and depressing....

Don’t worry brothers and sisters......This is not the end of the story....

God knew that we could not keep His law.

He knew that apart from His grace and mercy, we were doomed to exist eternally separated from Him....

lets look back at Romans 5.....turn with me there again...

Romans 5:6-11 “6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.

8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

God looked down from His throne and knew we were helpless and without the strength needed to keep His law and therefore save ourselves by our own good deeds..

and this passage tells us at the right time, Christ died for us.

but He didn’t just die for us because he saw how much we loved him but just couldn’t keep His strict rules.....no,

He died for us even when we were His enemies..

show of hands who in here would lay down their life for a close friend or family member if it meant to save their life?

ok I think it might be hard but to lay my life for someone i loved dearly would probably come naturally in the moment if that should ever come up.....

ok now, raise your hand if you would die for your worst enemy.....

Paul tells us in verse 10 that God’s Son, Jesus died for us when we were His enemies.