Sermon Tone Analysis

How does a person get right with God? Can you gain God’s approval by being living a ‘good’ life?

Many people think so.

Can you gain God’s approval by attending Church, or Synagogue, or Mosque ?

Many people think so.

Can you gain God’s approval by keeping the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount?

Many people think so.

For Martin Luther, the question, How does a person get right with God? became all-consuming.

Consider Martin Luther’s attempts at pleasing God.

1.

One of his fellow monks told Luther that a man becomes right with God through confession.

Doesn’t the Bible say that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins?

So confess your sins and all will be made well.

So Martin did just that.

He ransacked his mind attempting to find every sin no matter how trifling.

After making a mental list he would go to the confessional and pour out his soul to his confessor.

So scrupulous was he in confessing every known sin in his life, he would keep his superiors in the confessional for hours on end dredging up every idol word he had said, or foolish thought that had entered his mind.

But confession and absolution still left him troubled.

How could he be sure that he had confessed every sin?

His spiritual gloom was not eased by confession.

2. Another well-meaning monk told him, “Martin, you can find peace with God through self-denial.

Doesn’t Jesus say, ‘If any man will be my disciple, he must deny himself?’”

And so Luther sought to deny himself with vigorous asceticism.

He would fast for days on end, taking nothing but water.

He cast aside his blankets, shivering in the cold of his cell.

He would flog himself bloody.

Luther would later write, that “If ever a monk could to get to heaven by his monkery, it would have been I.” Yet, Luther still did not feel right with God.

His despair deepened.

3. A third friend told Martin that he needed to go on a pilgrimage to Rome to visit the Vatican, and venerate all the relics that could be found in the city’s various churches.

So Luther went to Rome.

Listen to what Martin writes: “When I got to Rome, I ran around like a madman visiting all the churches, and places of note.

I said a dozen masses, and I almost regretted that my mother and father were not dead that I might had availed myself of the opportunity to draw their souls out of purgatory by offering masses and good works on their behalf.”

But his trip to Rome left Luther even more frustrated then ever.

His sense of guilt before God grew worse and worse.

It was not until Luther began to teach the Book of Romans at the University of Wittenburg that he came to understand how a man is made right with God.

He came to a passage of Scripture that would change his life.

It was Romans 1:16-17.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”"

(Romans 1:16-17, ESV).

That verse set him free!

Luther would later testify: “It seemed to me as if I had been born again and as if I had entered paradise through newly opened doors.”

There is only one way that a person can be right with God.

In Hebrew 11:6 we learn that, /“without faith it is impossible to please Him.”/

There are only two ways to live.

One way, by far the most common, is to live by sight ... to believe in only the things you can see.

This way does not please God.

The other way, far less commonly taken, is to live by faith ... to base your life primarily and ultimately on what you can not see, but trusting that it is true because God says it is true.

That is the Christian way, the Bible way.

It is the way that pleases God.

In last week’s sermon I shared with you the first of the five Solas that came out of the Protestant Reformation that Martin Luther sparked.

It was Sola Scriptura.

The second Sola of the reformation is the sola that changed Luther’s life: Sola Fide—Faith Alone!

This morning, I want you to see the ingredients necessary for a life of faith, drawn from the life of Abraham.

!

I. ABRAHAM RESPONDED TO GOD’S CALL IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE

* Hebrews 11:8 /"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went."/

KJV

#. responding to God’s call means abandoning our past and walking in faith with God toward a new future

#. for Abraham, this meant leaving the security of ...

#. his homeland

#. his extended family

#.

his friends and neighbors

#. his job and associates

#. faith that is not willing to give up everything for Christ’s sake—including one’s right to themself—is not true faith

#. faith does not always mean giving up family and friends and community and personal goals

#. but true faith must be willing to give up those things if it means following God with all your heart

* Luke 14:26-27 /"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple."/

KJV

#. we see this kind of commitment fleshed out in Abrahams’ life making him an example for us

#. in this Hebrews 11:8 we learn about three characteristics of faith

!! A. GOD INITIATES OUR BELIEF BY GIVING US FAITH

* Hebrews 11:8 /"By faith Abraham, when he was called . . .

“/

* /“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”/

(Ephesians 2:8–9, KJV 1900)

#.

God called Abraham to a life of faith just as he call us to a life of faith

#. the Scriptures teach us that it is always God who initiates a relationship with the lost, not the other way around

* John 6:44 /"No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day."/

KJV

#. it was not Abraham who went looking for God, but God who went looking for Abraham

#.

Abraham did not decide out of the clear blue that he would worship the one and true Almighty God, Creator of the universe

#. he was an idolater

#. he worshiped the numerous false gods of his day

#.

when Joshua was recounting the story of faith for the people of God, he spoke of Abraham’s past:

* Joshua 24:2-3 /"And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.

And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac."/

KJV

#.

God called Abraham out of his sin, idiolatry, and rebellion, just as he does with each of you who name the name of Christ, Jesus

#. the gospel of Christ has the same power to call us out of darkness and into light as it did for Abraham

!! B. GOD’S ELECT MUST RESPOND TO HIM IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE

* Hebrews 11:8 /"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out ... obeyed; ... “/

#. verse 8 reveals Abraham’s obedient response to God’s call

#. he heard

#. he obeyed

#. he went

#. Abraham went at God’s command even though he did not know where he was going

#. Abraham had no clue concerning his future, but he responded to God in faith and that caused his to act in obedience

#. obedience and faith always go together

#. some have tried to separate them as though you can have one without the other as though obedience is unnecessary if you have faith

#. but such alienation of obedience from faith has no root in Scripture

#. it is an attempt to accommodate the pragmatism of modern Christianity that goes heavy on talk but light on walk

#. faith is never a passive attitude or merely a state of mind