Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are basically good at heart.”

In the stage and film productions of the Diary of Anne Frank, writers have Anne making this last fatal entry in her diary just before the Nazi soldiers burst in to arrest her and her family.

To reinforce the point in the 1959 movie version, Anne’s words are superimposed on the screen as the scene dissolves[1].

In truth, Anne wrote that line some time before her arrest and it was not her last entry.

Perhaps she changed her mind as she lay dying of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

This belief in our basic goodness is neither unusual nor recent.

More than a century ago, Christian thinker and writer G. K. Chesterton lamented in his 1908 masterpiece, Orthodoxy, that the self had subordinated divine truth.

“But what we suffer from to-day is humility in the wrong place.

Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition.

Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be.

A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed.

Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert – himself.

The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt – the Divine Reason.”[2]

Once limited to the secular, this belief has transformed the church as well with the result of deemphasizing sin and elevating our “basic goodness.”

In 1982, evangelist Robert Schuller published Self Esteem: The New Reformation.

Sin, Schuller declared, is “any human condition or act that robs God of glory by stripping one of His children of their right to divine dignity… Sin is any act or thought that robs myself or another human being of his or her self-esteem.”[3]

Dr. Schuller urges us to “adequately value ourselves”[4] and begin our salvation by recognizing our “hunger for glory.”[5]

In Schuller’s theology, to be born again means, “we must be changed from a negative to a positive self-image – from inferiority to self-esteem, from fear to love, from doubt to trust.”[6]

Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, preaches the latest version.

In 2004, he published his multi-million best seller, Your Best Life Now, in which he declared that, “God sees you as a champion.

He believes in you… He regards you as a strong, courageous, successful, overcoming person.”[7]

Further, Osteen implores us to, “cast down those negative thoughts and begin to see yourself as God sees you – a winner, an overcomer.”[8]

Osteen fundamentally promotes the idea that we possess a basic goodness by stating that, “God focuses on the things you’re doing right; he sees the best in you.”[9]

This viewpoint packs the pews.

It sells books.

It is viewed as inspirational and motivational.

But, is it true?

Exposition

God has much to tell us about our nature in His Word.

Few passages, though, are as direct and cutting as Romans 1:18-32.

In verses 1-17, Paul establishes his apostolic credentials and thanks the saints in Rome for their faith.

Starting in verse 18, Paul forcefully confronts us with our sin.

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.”

As Paul makes clear, there is available to every man and woman in creation a certain knowledge of God, usually called General Revelation.

Just as we can learn much about a writer by studying his work or a craftsman by his creations, we can learn and know much about God by His handiwork.

Paul specifically names God’s “eternal power” and “divine nature” as two examples.

Just look at Psalm 19:1-3:

“The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language

where their voice is not heard.”

How can you be a doctor and view the marvelous complexity of the human body and not see the imprint of the Grand Designer?

How can we look at the raging power of Niagara Falls, or the diversity of life in the oceans, or gaze deep into the mysteries of space, and not be awestruck by the infinite power of the Creator?

However, when confronted with the truth and majesty of God, how do we react?

Do we fall to our knees in reverence and worship?

No, we suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

Paul shows us that there is a progression.

First, we refuse to accept God as He has revealed Himself.

Then, we counter with an alternative.

We exchange the truth for a lie.

We will worship a god in our own image and desires, be it Apollo, Zeus, a bull, Darwin’s fish, or, more likely, ourselves.

We do not like having God in our knowledge.

That is the fundamental problem in the world.

That is the essence of the human condition.

We do not want God.

We want self-determination and self-exaltation.

That was the first sin in the garden.

That is the root of all evil today.

We do not want to know God or have him in our lives.

Paul continues in verse 24.

“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised.

Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.

Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.

In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.

Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”

The sequence Paul lays out for us is that the rejection of God’s revelation leads to idolatry, and idolatry leads to immorality, and immorality leads man to plummet into the vilest perversions imaginable.

Not only do we exchange the truth of God for a lie, but also we exchange the natural blessings of God through His provision of sexual fulfillment for those that are unnatural and vulgar.

Just look at our own country.

As we busily went ahead eradicating a holy God from our public and private life, an obsession with sex was one of the idols to fill the void.

First, it was the ‘Free Love’ movement in the 60s and 70s.

We were told that easy and promiscuous sex was not only natural, but good.

Now, we have the glorification of homosexuality and the promotion of same sex marriage.

There are activists today who are laying the legal groundwork for polygamy and incest.

This is only the beginning.

I remember many years ago going on a trip to Denmark with some friends.

On one stop we went into an adult book store.

I will not describe what I saw, but most assuredly the depravity I witnessed shook me to the very core of my being.

I was literally sick and speechless for about an hour.

Those images still haunt me.

Trust me when I say that worse is to come.

Moreover, God will give us over to our wicked and sinful desires.

God’s wrath, then, is not only future, but present.

We face not only the consequence of our sins in the coming judgment, but also in our present circumstances, too.

The important point is that we are sinners not only in deed, but most importantly, by nature.

Our hearts are wicked, through and through.

As our Lord declares in Matthew 15:18-19,

“But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”

Paul continues in Romans 1, verse 28 to level completely our conceits and pretensions.

“Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.