Sermon Tone Analysis

Truth is by revelation

Truth cannot be found by human reason and effort alone.

The reason for this is that our knowledge is limited and we may be deceived by our lack of what we don’t know.

The Christian view is that God /reveals truth.

/He knows all things and communicates truth to us.

* By our conscience – inbuilt witness of the Spirit of God (Rom.1)

* By the leading of the Spirit of Truth

* By Christ who /is/ the truth

* *

*John 1:14*

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

*John 1:17*

17 For the law was given through Moses, /but/ grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

*John 14:6*

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through Me.

* *

*John 14:14-17*

14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do /it./

15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.

16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

*John 16:7-15*

7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth.

It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.

8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear /them/ now.

13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own /authority,/ but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare /it/ to you.

15 All things that the Father has are Mine.

Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare /it/ to you.

*The truth is needed for our restoration*:

* *

*John 8:31-32*

31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.

32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

*John 17:17*

17 Sanctify them by Your truth.

Your word is truth.

!!!! To summarise:

* Repentance (metanoia = a change of mind) involves facing up to the truth instead of denying it.

* We must have and hold onto a love of truth, an honest heart.

* To live in the truth means that we obey his word and practice it.

* Deception begins with denial of the truth – self deception.

This distortion leads to more and more deception.

! Sin

!!! What is Sin?      

Sin is an old fashioned word and needs to be explained.

One of the major questions faced by thinking persons is, “Where does evil come from and what is it?”

The answers vary.

Various forms of humanistic philosophy are the predominant forms of religion in our modern culture.

They either deny that there is a God at all, or they view God as a cosmic force or energy within the universe.

*Materialism* says that the universe itself is the only reality.

God, in the sense of a being who is transcendent or ‘other’ than the universe, does not exist.

In the end materialism reduces all things to physical actions and reactions.

Everything reduces to physical, chemical and biological processes.

All events occur within a cause-effect chain.

This is a form of determinism or fatalism.

Logically, according to this philosophy, there is no real free will and no such thing as good or evil.

Things are simply as they are.

Of course, most of us believe that certain things are right and others are wrong – especially when these things directly affect us.

We tend to consider it morally wrong if someone else hurts us in some way.

So, although there are many materialists, not many are /consistent/ materialists.

*Eastern religions and New Age thinking* identify God with the universe.

In other words, God is within the cosmos and is in everything that exists.

If this is so, then everything shares in the divine nature.

Whatever exists has something of God in it.

This kind of thinking also tends to accept the present reality as it is.

Things are not really good or evil; they simply are how they are.

Unfortunately for these philosophies, we are all quite aware of the existence of evil and wrong in this world.

In order to explain this obvious fact, humanism and other religions often explain evil as some kind of temporary immaturity or imperfection on the evolutionary journey to a better or perfect future.

Evil is the result of ignorance or our human limitations.

Wrong behaviour is the result of biological problems, perhaps of genetic defects, or the outcome of the influences of our environment.

Behaviour is caused by social~/environmental influences or heredity.

If we accept this way of looking at things, we will see the evildoer as an unfortunate victim of factors that he couldn’t help and which /caused/ him to be the way he is.

The vilest murderer or thief is /sick /rather than deliberately selfish and rebellious.

Evil is the outcome of genetic or environmental factors.

People do wrong because they were born with some twist in their makeup, or because society or parents damaged them.

Either way, they couldn’t help it and are not responsible for it.

*The Christian view* of sin is quite different.

The Bible makes it quite clear that sin is a /deliberate choice/ to do something wrong when the person knows that it is wrong.

God created human beings with a moral freedom to choose to obey or to disobey.

The story of Adam and Eve stands definitively at the beginning of the Bible because the question of obedience and sin are fundamental to our relationship with God.

The disobedience of Adam and Eve tells us where sin originated, but also defines the nature of sin.

Sin is a deliberate rejection of the authority and command of God.

It is the choice to place self as the ultimate authority in place of God.

 

#.

*Sin is disobedience to God’s command (law).

*

*In contrast with the thinking of modern humanism, sin is not /ignorance /nor is it /sickness.

/The Bible reveals it to us as disobedience and rebellion against the Lord.

*

 

*1 John 3:4 * Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.

*James 4:17 *Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do /it,/ to him it is sin.

#.

*We can only be held guilty if we transgress a /known /law.

In other words, a person must know something is wrong before he can be held responsible.

*

* *

*John 9:41 *Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’

Therefore your sin remains.

*Romans 4:15 *because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law /there is/ no transgression.

*Romans 5:13 *(For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

*Romans 7:7-11 *What shall we say then?

/Is/ the law sin?

Certainly not!

On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law.

For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, /“You shall not covet.”/

But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all /manner of evil/ desire.

For apart from the law sin /was/ dead.