Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.1UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.07UNLIKELY
Fear
0.07UNLIKELY
Joy
0.68LIKELY
Sadness
0.56LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.58LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.01UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.88LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.69LIKELY
Extraversion
0.18UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.71LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.67LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
The Process of Sin Becoming Your Excellency
The puritan Thomas Manton observed the process your heart takes when it moves from temptation to sin to death.
He says,
“First we practice sin, then defend it, then boast of it.
Sin is first our burden, then our custom, then our delight, then our excellency.”
Thomas Manton
What Manton observes in the out word work of your flesh, the Bible describes a similar process in your heart.
Job a similar process when he describes the godless heart,
The psalmist signals the same process when he say,
The prophet Isaiah is in the same vein when he,
James follows the same process of sin that has been explained since Adam fell in the Garden.
He explains that sin comes from within your heart (James 1:15).
You are lured, dragged away, and enticed by your own desire.
The word for desire denotes the idea of craving, or lusts for sin.
Because you have an impulse toward sin, lust seduces the human will.
Temptation makes sin look attractive to you.
When you allow your heart to be seduced by temptation, temptation conceives and gives birth to sin.
The context of trials, adds more pressure on your heart to allow temptation to seduce your will to see sin as attractive, even excellent, as Manton suggests.
Knowing this, last week we started to see how James encourages you to endure trials faithfully, not giving into temptation, especially the temptation to believe that God is enticing you toward evil.
Instead, James says to you and I,
Christian, endure your trial faithfully knowing that God does not entice you to sin, but instead gives you good gifts, especially the gift of eternal life.
We have already learned that God designs trials for our maturity in verses James 1:2-4.
His main goal is to conform us into the image of His Son (Romans 8:28-29).
Furthermore, God promises to give wisdom for those undergoing a the trial generously to anyone who asks by faith(James 1:5-8).
By anyone, James means the rich and the poor (James 1:9-11).
Moreover, God will give the crown of life to everyone who loves Him and faithfully endures until the end (James 1:12).
In the midst of a trial, however, some will be tempted to think that God is enticing them to sin with trials, and they will blame God for it (James 1:13).
But James refutes this by saying God cannot be tempted by sin, and therefore cannot temp anyone to sin (James 1:14).
God does not have an impulse toward sin.
His impulse is toward holiness, purity, perfect justice, grace, and mercy, and love.
We, on the other hand, are sinners who are inclined toward wickedness.
We inherited our sinful nature from Adam, who sinned against God when He and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-6).
God cursed Adam, his offspring, and the earth.
Everyone born into creation is born with a nature that is inclined word evil and unbelief, and are subject to God’s wrath.
We pick up in verse James 1:15, where he continues to describe the reproduction process of sin.
When desire conceives it gives birth to sin.
If not dealt with, sin will mature and give birth to death (James 1:15).
What kind of death is James referring to in v15?
James is referring to a death that is both physical and spiritual.
When Adam sinned, God told him he would surely die (Genesis 2:17).
As a consequence, all of Adam’s offspring will perish in their sin.
Paul says as much,
The Bible explains why humanity suffers at the hands of death.
If your child ask you, “Why are there funerals in the world?”
Your answer is not, “Well, death is just a natural part of life.”
No, the better answer is, “There was a time when death was not part of our life.
Death is a result of sin, and that makes death our enemy (1 Cor 15:54-56; Rev 20:14).”
Physical death, however, is not the only death we suffer.
There is a second death, a spiritual one that is worse than physical death.
The writer of Hebrews says that
Judgement after death is God’s condemnation of sinners who have rebelled against his law and rejected his redemption; spiritual death.
James alludes to “spiritual death” in the final words of his letter.
James 5:20 (ESV)
let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
When James says, ‘save his soul from death,” he is referring to the second death, God’s eternal judgement.
What is God’s judgement on sinners?
God’s judgement of sinners is eternity in hell.
John describes those whose sin has matured as,
Revelation 21:8 (ESV)
But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars,
He says, “their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
For James, spiritual death is an eternity away from God.
Your alive, but you are suffering God’s wrath forever.
You are not annihilated or cease to exist as some believe.
You are conscious of your sin and your decision to reject God.
You have an eternal body that suffers real torment.
Moreover, the lake of fire is the place where death itself, and everyone who let their sin mature, will be thrown (Rev 20:14).
John says this is a second death.
James agrees with John.
Theologian Douglas Moo, in his commentary on James says,
“Death is the final “spiritual death”: the ultimate condemnation that sin, if not atoned for, inflicts on humans and that leads ultimately to final spiritual death.”
Douglas Moo
When I was a senior in High School, my best friends dad sought to convince me to leave my pro-choice position on abortion.
I was heavily influenced by the public school system, which most of my teachers were pro-choice.
My friend’s parents were believers and one night we had the pro-choice vs pro-life debate.
Once he found out I was pro-choice, he sought to convince me that my position was horrifyingly wrong, deadly, and against the Living God’s will.
He was persistent.
Because of him, and the gospel in my life, I am now staunchly pro-life.
I am convinced God is pro-life.
Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection convinced me that God is a pro-life God.
Which is why I am telling you today if there is ever a justification for an abortion, it is when temptation conceives sin and sin gives birth to death.
You must your abort sin before it matures to kill you!
The Puritans used to speak of the aborting sin when they spoke of the mortification of sin.
One commentator defines the word mortify as “to kill or subdue.”
In a biblical context, to mortify is to subdue the body (or its needs and desires) through self-denial and discipline (e.g., mortification of sin / the flesh).
They got the idea for mortification from two passages in the New Testament.
Romans 8:13 (ESV)
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Romans 8:13 (KJV 1900)
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
The other verse is
Colossians 3:5 (ESV)
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Colossians 3:5 (KJV 1900)
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Unbelievers live according to the pattern of the flesh.
They boast in what is worldly or earthly.
This looks like sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry, the things they describe those who will be thrown in the lake of fire when God judges sinners.
Paul says to the Christian, sin should not describe your life.
You must mortify your sin.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9