Sermon Tone Analysis

Prayer

Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning.

Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.

… through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

The Plumb Line

A plumb line can only prove that a crooked wall is crooked.

No matter how you use it, a plumb line can’t make a crooked wall straight.

The law was God’s plumb line, designed to show all people that they are crooked, or sinful.

It was never intended to make us straight or righteous—and, indeed, it never could.

In our minds, we see the “beauty” of “the good.”

Our flesh just can’t practice it.

1) ἀγαθός, ή, όν [1] pertaining to meeting a relatively high standard of quality (of things).

[2] pertaining to meeting a high standard of worth and merit, good.

1) καλός, ή, όν [1] pertaining to being attractive in outward appearance, beautiful, handsome, fine.

[2] pertaining to being in accordance at a high level with something or someone, good, useful.

πρόσκαιρον ἔχειν ἁμαρτίας ἀπόλαυσιν

πρόσκαιρον ἔχειν ἁμαρτίας ἀπόλαυσιν,

It’s the chase, more than the capture…

When I pray the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, what do you think is the part that I pray most fervently?

[17] The Sixth Petition

And lead us not into temptation.

[18] What is this?

Answer:

It is true that God tempts no one, but we ask in this prayer that God would preserve and keep us, so that the devil, the world, and our flesh may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice, and that, although we may be attacked by them, we may finally prevail and gain the victory.

You want to do right, but something gets in the way - a law!

1) νόμος, ου, ὁ [1] a procedure or practice that has taken hold, a custom, rule, principle, norm.

[2] constitutional or statutory legal system, law.

[3] a collection of holy writings precious to God’s people, sacred ordinance.

Three choices: Live with it - Lie about it - Lay it down (at Jesus’ feet)

Worldly people - Live with it

1) [Concerning Law and Gospel] [8] 7.

In regard to the disclosure of sin: the veil of Moses [*] hangs in front of the eyes of all people as long as they only hear the preaching of the law and nothing of Christ, and thus they never learn to recognize the true nature of their sin from the law.

Instead, they either become presumptuous hypocrites, like the Pharisees, or they despair, like Judas.

Therefore Christ takes the law in his hands and interprets it spiritually ([:21–48*]; [:14*]).

Thus, God’s wrath, in all its enormity [*], is revealed from heaven upon all sinners; through this revelation they are directed to the law, and only then do they learn properly to recognize their sin through the law.

Moses would never have been able to wring this acknowledgment out of them.[1]

[1] Kolb, R., Wengert, T. J., & Arand, C. P. (2000).

The Book of Concord: the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (p.

501).

Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.

[1] Kolb, R., Wengert, T. J., & Arand, C. P. (2000).

The Book of Concord: the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (p.

501).

Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.

Religious people - Lie about it

1) The Scriptural Definition of Conversion - The term repentance is sometimes used for contrition and faith (conversion) and sometimes for contrition alone.—In

Christians, repentance (conversio continuata, poenitentia stantium) continues until death because of the evil which is ever present with them, ; .

The believer therefore turns daily with a contrite heart to the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins.

Perfectionism denies this continued conversion, .[1]

[1] Mueller, J. T. (1999).

Christian dogmatics (electronic ed., p. 339).

St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

[1] Mueller, J. T. (1999).

Christian dogmatics (electronic ed., p. 339).

St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

Repentant people - Lay it down (at Jesus’ feet)

1) SD II:34 [Concerning the false penance of the Papists] As St. Paul bears witness in [:23*], he wars with the law in his members, etc.—not by using his own powers but with the gift of the Holy Spirit that follows from the forgiveness of sins.

This same gift daily cleanses and expels the sins that remain and works to make people truly pure and holy.”[1]

[1] Kolb, R., Wengert, T. J., & Arand, C. P. (2000).

The Book of Concord: the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (pp.

550–551).

Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.