Sermon Tone Analysis

*~*~*~*~*~* SERMON MANUSCRIPT~*~*~*~*~**

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*Melburn H. Hardin, D.Min.

Kerrville, Texas*

 

*TITLE:*   Blessed Are the Forgiven

 

*SCRIPTURE:*   Romans 4:4-12

 

*TOPIC:* 

 

*SERIES TITLE: *  Some of the Other Beatitudes         

 

*INDEX NUMBER:*   SF 1644

 

*DATE PREPARED:*   2009~/01~/26

 

*DATE PREACHED:*   2009~/02~/01

 

*PLACE PREACHED:*  Kerrville Sunrise Baptist Church

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*Introduction*

 

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Have you discovered that the Holy Bible is “the happiness book”?

Just open it up and read—and see how often the words “bless” and “blessed” appear!

Blessed!...

In the Hebrew of the Old Testament the word is /ashar/; in the Greek of the New Testament the word is /makarios/.

Literally, both words translated mean “happy,” “well-off,” “fortunate” and “healthy.”

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The happiness the Bible tells about is not just the temporary happiness that occurs when things happen just right—like a surprise birthday party, or—back in the old days –when the Dallas Cowboys won titles and SuperBowls.

The happiness, the blessedness, that the Holy Scriptures tell about concerns the well-being of one’s soul, of one’s spirit—not just now, but forever!

 

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We have just completed a study of Jesus’ /Sermon on the Mount/.

You may recall that this great sermon began in Matthew, Chapter 5, with “the Beatitudes,” or the list of blessings that our Lord declared.

*/3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

/*(Etc.)

*/ /*

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And this particular list of blessings is the most well-known.

However, there are other Beatitudes.

During the month of February, I would like for us to explore  /Some of the Other Beatitudes/  we find in the New Testament.

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This evening, let’s look in Romans 4: “Blessed—Happy, Extremely Fortunate—Are Those Who Are Forgiven.”

*I.

**HOW WRETCHED IS THAT PERSON WHO DOES NOT KNOW GOD’S FORGIVENESS!*

* *

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No other burden on earth compares with the heavy burden of sin.

Sin is a terrible thing.

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Here, in our text, the Apostle Paul quoted Psalm 32:1-2  */1 Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

2 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.

/*  

 

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Psalm 32  is the second in the series of the seven penitential psalms (see Ps. 6).

David wrote it after confessing to God his sins of adultery, murder, and deception (see 51; 2 Sam.

11–12).

In 51:13, King David vowed to share what he had learned from this costly experience, and this psalm is a part of the fulfillment of that promise.

1)      The  Psalmist viewed sins as wrongs committed  against God—“transgressions.” Yes, indeed, our sins hurt ourselves and other persons around us—but most of all our sins are wrongs against our God, our Creator.

2)      Sins are seen loathsome, horrid acts.

They need to be covered over, removed from sight—even as dead corpses need to be covered over, hidden.

3)      Sins are seen as crimes which need to be avenged for justice sake.

4)      Sins are represented as offenses, first of all, against Holy God—offenses against his Person, his Majesty, his Purity, his Justice.

It is no wonder that the Scriptures tell us that our sins separate us from God!

 

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Sin results in alienation from God and death of a person’s spirit.

1)      In his epistle, James gives us much insight into the deadliness of sin.

(James 1:13-15)

 

2)      */13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.”

For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.

15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

/* 

*/ /*

3)      Sin alienates a human being from God, who is Life.

It alienates us from God’s fellowship—as on the horizontal, human plane, sin alienates one person from another, a husband from his wife, a child from his parents, a neighbor from his neighbor.

*/ /*

4)      The Bible spares no words to convey the horrible state of one who is trapped in sin, lost in sin.

In Luke 15, in his well-known parables Jesus told of a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost boy.

The Parable about the Lost Boy (we usually call it “The Parable of the Prodigal Son”) is the most memorable.

It tells of a young man who got all the money he could from his father, set off for a distant country and squandered his wealth in wild living.

After he had spent everything, he began to be in need.

The Jewish boy was so desperate that he took a job slopping hogs.

He was so hungry he wanted to eat the pig slop.

And then he came to his senses!

He realized just how well off he had been in his father’s house and he headed home!

*/ /*

5)      Jesus  was teaching us that sin is our deliberately withdrawing from the fellowship of God, our heavenly Father.

Sin is squandering our lives in riotous living.

Sin is starvation from the blessings of God.

Sin is the result of losing one’s spiritual sense.

The result of sin is being lost, away from God.

*/ /*

6)      How lost is lost?

In Ephesians 2:12, the Apostle Paul reminded his new Christian brothers and sisters how lost they had been before they came to Christ.

*/12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ./*

To

 

7)      How lost is lost?

Well in this text Paul told us that it means one’s being “Christless,” “Churchless,” “Promiseless,” “Hopeless,” and “Godless.”

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Sin warps the mind, sears the conscience.

The Scriptures refer to sin as “the mystery of iniquity”—“the secret power of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2:7) */7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.

/*  A mysterious, secret power… why in the world do men and women do the crazy fool wicked things they do??

The stupid, sinful things they do?

*/ /*

1)      Sin brings guilt—“the wicked flee when no man pursueth,”

 

2)      Sin brings anger—how often family members murder one another during  sinful rages of temper.

*/ /*

3)      Sin brings despair—In his desperation the Prodigal Son wanted to eat pig slop.

That’s bad enough.

But I once read about a man who found his life so miserable that he took an electric drill and drilled 7 holes in his skull before killing himself.

*/ /*

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Sin brings eternity in hell.

It is appointed unto man once to die—but after this the judgment.

*II.

**WHAT A MISERABLE FAILURE IS THE LOST SINNER WHO ATTEMPTS TO EARN GOD’S FAVOR AND FORGIVENESS!*

* *

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A sinful man or woman can and does earn his place in hell*/—“the wages of sin is death.”/*

But there is nothing that anyone can do to earn his place in heaven!

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In this entire section of the Roman epistle, the writer dealt with the truth that God’s forgiveness and salvation have never been earned by any person—not even by the great Abraham, “the Father of  the Faithful.”

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One of the major problems with the many “World’s Religions” is that they all teach ways to earn the favor of their supreme being, or system.

Christianity, on the other hand, proclaims that God’s favor—his amazing, beneficent grace—is  seeking to save men from their sins.

#.

Martin Luther, when he was a monk, tried to work his way into God’s grace and into a place in heaven.

He told of climbing the /scala sancta/ on his knees, as a means of showing his penance to God.

And then one day, the Holy Spirit revealed to him that man is not saved by works, but by faith in the grace of God!

 

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Long before Martin Luther, there was Saul of Tarsus, trying to work his way to heaven.

He was dead serious about it, i.e., deadly serious.

He thought he could please God by having Christians arrested and killed.

And then Christ appeared to him on the Damascus Road.

He realized that only by placing is faith in the righteousness of Christ could he please God and have salvation of his soul.