Sermon Tone Analysis

The first and most fundamental issue any Worldview must deal with, is the way it answers the questions of origins—Where did we come from and who are we?

The Bible has the very best answer to that question.

A thoroughly Biblical Worldview begins with the belief that God spoke the universe into existence, creating all life—making man in His own image, and providentially rules over His creation.

Because I had so much to say last Sunday, I didn’t have a chance to say everything I wanted to say or needed to say.

I told you that I am an unashamed Creationist, and I would like to persuade all Christians to be unashamed Creationists.

Not all are.

However, we should not make Creationism a “test of fellowship” among the brethren.

Some Christians sincerely believe in what is called /Theistic Evolution/ and an /Old Earth/.

In other words, they believe that God is the author of creation, but that He simply took His sweet time in accomplishing the feat, and used the processes of evolution to bring the various species to their present form, including man.

Polls show that a majority of Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and mainline Protestant Christians accept the view as do about 25% of Evangelical Christian.

They do not believe that biblical literalism in the creation account is mandatory.

To be a Theistic Evolutionist does not make you a heretic or a lesser Christian.

I do continue to believe, however, that there are some significant theological difficulties with such a stance, and the Theistic Evolutionist can never have as thoroughly a biblical worldview as they could have.

The second fundamental issue any worldview must deal with is the /way it explains the human dilemma/.

Why is there war and suffering, disease and untimely death, and why do men commit such horrendously evil acts?

These questions are particularly pressing for the Christian worldview.

If we believe that the universe came from the hand of a wise and good Creator, how do we explain the presence of evil?

No question is more important for the Christian to answer.

The Biblical Worldview and the Naturalistic Worldview are diametrically opposed in their responses as to the human dilemma.

* The Biblical Worldview maintains that all men are born naturally depraved and in time their sin nature will assert itself and will cause them to commit evil.

When a man does commit evil, he has no one to blame but himself.

He is responsible.

* The Naturalistic Worldview maintains that all men are born intrinsically good and that under the right social conditions, their good nature will emerge and prevail.

When a man does commit evil, it’s everybody else’s fault—poverty, a dysfunctional family, a failure of the educational system, or any number of other reasons.

The individual is a victim.

The Bible’s answer for universal human experience is better than any other belief system.

Many don’t like the Bible’s answer, not because it isn’t clear, but because it is unpalatable.

Here is the answer: "The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!

“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate," (Genesis 3:4-6, NASB95)

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I.

A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW TEACHES THAT GOD CREATED US IN HIS IMAGE

* Genesis 1:26-28 /"Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”/

NASB95

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God created us to live in obedient fellowship with Him, to tend the earth

#. yet God loves us so much that he imparted to us the unique dignity of being free moral agents – creatures with the ability to make choices – to choose either good or evil

#. to provide an arena in which to exercise that freedom, God placed Adam and Eve in a perfect environment with only one moral restriction

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He forbade them to Eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil'

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Adam and Eve, however, exercised their free choice and chose to do what God had commanded them not to do

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they rejected God’s commands and God’s will and sought to exercise their own

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their choice opened the world to corruption, evil, and death

#. the theological term for this catastrophe is The Fall

#. in that original choice to disobey God, human nature became /morally distorted/ and /bent/ so that from then on humanity has had /a natural inclination to do wrong/

#. why is the human heart in such appalling condition?

#. because of something called sin

!! A. SIN HAS AFFECTED EVERY PART OF MAN’S PERSONALITY

* Jeremiah 17:9 /“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”/

KJV

#. when the bible speaks of our heart it is not referring to the muscle that pumps our blood

#. when the bible speaks of our heart it is referring to the whole man, with all his attributes — physical, intellectual and spiritual

#. it’s referring to what we commonly call character

#. it is our character that makes a man what he is, and governs all his actions

* Proverbs 4:23 /“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”/

NIV

#. when the Bible says that our hearts are full of evil and madness it means that our will, and our mind and our emotions are all affected by sin and reveal the true nature of the human character

#.

Jeremiah is clear, /“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”/

KJV

#. our character is /deceitful/

#. the word deceitful is the root word from which we get the Old Testament name Jacob

#. the Bible is saying that we’re all like Jacob in character

#. if you remember, Jacob was a schemer and a conniver who would do about anything to advance himself or his agenda

#. he was double-faced and double-tongued, tricking his brother and lying to his own father

#. our character is /desperately wicked/

#. the word /desperately/ in this verse literally means /incurable/

#. our character is not just /desperately wicked/, it is /incurably wicked/

#.

Paul speaks to this in his letter to the Christians at Rome

* Romans 1:29-32 /“Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”/

KJV

#. our character is /unknowable/

#. the prophet Jeremiah looks at the human heart and sees it as so wicked and so depraved that he wonders out loud, /who can know it/?

#. some men, who by all accounts are good men, will sometimes commit unthinkably horrible acts that leave the rest of us wondering, /“How could they have done that?”/

* ILLUS.

What is it about human nature that allows a man to murder and then dismember an eight-year-old Jewish boy asking for direction, and then act as though nothing has happened?

(this happened just last week in New York City).

How could a Nazi Concentration Camp guard kiss his wife and children goodby in the morning only to go and gas the wives and children of other men?

#. the answer is that the lost man’s soul is dead

* /“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.

Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.”/

(Ephesians 2:1–3, NIV84)

#. what does it mean to be dead in transgressions and sins?

#. it means that a sinner’s sinful nature is totally in control of their lives

#. if all lost people are dead in trespasses and sin then why don’t all lost people commit heinously sinful acts?

#. it’s a wonder that they don’t

#. it’s clear that only the restraining Hand of God keeps evil from absolutely running rampant upon the Earth

!! B. HUMAN CHARACTER IS TOTALLY DEPRAVED

#. depravity is a doctrine we don’t like to talk about much these days

#. it’s a doctrine that teaches that, outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ, man has no moral compass or spiritual guidance

#. man, by nature, is a fallen creature

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

#. you know, this is not just some verse we quote to lost people when we are sharing God’s plan of salvation with them

#. this verse reminds us of a fundamental flaw in human nature — we sin because we are sinners

#. and we are sinners by choice

#. and because we have sinned, we can never, ever measure up to God’s standard of holiness and righteousness on our own initiative

#. we are all born with a decided bias toward evil, and with an utter hatred of God

* Romans 8:7-8 /“When people’s thinking is controlled by the sinful self, they are against God, because they refuse to obey God’s law and really are not even able to obey God’s law.

Those people who are ruled by their sinful selves cannot please God.”/ NCV

#. our spiritual depravity does not mean that every man is as sinful as he could be