Sermon Tone Analysis

I. Introduction

Last week we talked about Israel’s lack of faith in God’s ability to bring them into the land and give their enemies over into their hand.

It seems that Israel is not finished grumbling against God yet.

The people became impatient:

What does it say about us when we become impatient?

It means we are focused on self.

It means that we have established our own expectations without consulting God.

God has not called us to affirm one another in our sin.

II.

God Punishes Sin and Demands Repentance

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A. God Punishes Sin

God does not have human desires.

God does not desire repentance like we desire people to repent.

God desires repentance from sin from the standpoint that repentance from sin is good to desire.

God is sovereign.

He does NOT sit in heaven wringing his hands HOPING and WISHING we would just do better.

I desire to do the rim to river hike at the Grand Canyon but I am not planning on doing it.

What kind of God would he be if sin were just an imperfection, a mistake that humans make on occasion and he reacted like this?

The reason some false churches and false converts to Christianity think the the Bible is so harsh in the OT and even in its views on issues like homosexuality is because they have a very flawed understanding of sin and a very high view of themself.

The wrath of God is not a popular concept in the liberal West.

It is widely ignored, denied, or radically reinterpreted.

Yet it is a prominent doctrine in the Bible.

In the Old Testament there are over 580 references, using more than twenty different words.

ἀποστυγέω

to have a vehement dislike for someth., hate strongly, abhor τὸ πονηρόν the evil

Man is expelled from the garden and cast into spiritual bondage and darkness.

The entire planet is drowned in a deluge.

Sodom and Gomorrah are burned with fire over their sexual filthiness.

The entire Egyptian Army is drowned due to their profound display of pride and arrogance.

Israel and Judah rebel repeatedly and are given into the hands of their enemies.

In the end Israel’s prized temple is burned and Jerusalem is desolated by the Romans because of her rejection of Messiah.

I am afraid that the picture that most of the church paints of God is hardly even half true these days.

B. God Demands Repentance

J.I. Packer

The New Testament word for repentance means changing one’s mind so that one’s views, values, goals, and ways are changed and one’s whole life is lived differently.

The change is radical, both inwardly and outwardly; mind and judgment, will and affections, behavior and life-style, motives and purposes, are all involved.

Repenting means starting to live a new life.

μετάνοια

repentance, turning about, conversion;

John the Baptist starts off preaching repentance.

Jesus starts his ministry by preaching repentance.

Peter’s first sermon in acts is repent and be baptized.

When Paul stood before the Areopagus he preached repentance to the brightest minds in Greek society.

When you stop preaching repentance, you stop preaching the gospel.

The gospel is not come to Jesus and he will fix your problems.

YOU are the problem.

Everything else is just a symptom.

Share the gospel with a heart motivation that people will hear and believe.

Share it with the hope that God will bring men to himself.

Share it with confidence.

Find a way to be okay with people hating you because they hate Christ and hate the gospel.

C. The Intellectual Element in Repentance

There is a knowledge of personal sin, defilement, and helplessness.

D. The Emotional Element in Repentance

There is a change of feeling, sorrow for sin as committed against goodness and justice and therefore hateful to God, and hateful in itself.

How can you be involved in evangelism without creating this emotion of sorrow?

Those whom God is calling to himself repent when they feel the sting of divine truth.

The unregenerate respond with a range of emotions.

E. The Volitional Element in Repentance

There is a change of purpose, an inward turning from sin and disposition to seek pardon and cleansing.

III.

God Provides an Intercessor

When you stand before God, you should stand behind Christ.

IV.

God Provides the Way of Salvation through Faith

Traditionally, saving faith consists of knowledge, assent, and trust.

Believing that certain things are true about Christ must lead to belief in Christ, a personal trust in Christ as Savior and Lord.

This initial trust, given in response to the gospel’s announcement, is the first step in an ongoing covenant relationship marked by continuing trust and faithfulness.

This kind of Faith is NOT something everyone has and all the have to do is just make a decision to exercise it.

How do I know that unbelievers do NOT have unexercised saving faith?

Without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Unless you do those things that please God, you are God’s enemy.

Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ which is the gospel.

The gospel must produce faith or it is not beneficial.

God gifts to us the ability to believe.

God must give us the ability to believe.