Sermon Tone Analysis

“The Mercy and Grace of God Far Exceeds Our Sin”

; May 5th, 2018

Kevin Maples; FBC Madisonville

Introduction

All sin, rebellion, and disobedience will eventually bring you under either the wrath or the discipline of God,

1 Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, 2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!

Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations.

3 Fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns.

The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them.

4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses they run.

5 As with the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle.

6 Before them peoples are in anguish; all faces grow pale.

7 Like warriors they charge; like soldiers they scale the wall.

They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths.

8 They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path; they burst through the weapons and are not halted.

9 They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls, they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief.

10 The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble.

The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

11 The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful.

For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it?

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God gave Israel clear commandments about how to live.

26 “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, 28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.

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God has given us clear commandments as well.

35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

38 This is the great and first commandment.

39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

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God’s children must fear the discipline of God

6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

7 It is for discipline that you have to endure.

God is treating you as sons.

For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them.

Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

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As long as we breath, God is waiting for us to return to Him, 2:12-14

12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.”

Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? ()

God requires sincere sorrow over sin, 2:13

13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.”

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13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

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God’s grace and mercy make it possible for us to return to Him, 2:13

Through His grace and mercy, we may even experience a blessing as we repent of our sin, 2:14

14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

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The church should be leading the way in bringing people to repentance, 2:15-17

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; 16 gather the people.

Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants.

Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.

17 Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations.

Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ” ()