Sermon Tone Analysis

Prayer

Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed.

Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith.

May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

A Pietist Poem

If Next Sunday

If Christ should come next Sunday,

And it may be that He will,

Would the thing that I’ll be doing

Set the Master’s heart athrill?

7232 If Next Sunday

If Christ should come next Sunday,

And it may be that He will,

Would the thing that I’ll be doing

Set the Master’s heart athrill?

If the Christ should come next Sunday

Would he find me loyal, true,

In my place with my influence

Doing what He’d have me do?

If the Christ should come next Sunday,

Let’s suppose He came at ten,

Would He hear me answer “present”

In the class I should attend?

If the Christ should come next Sunday,

If He came just at eleven,

Would He find me in His service,

Singing praises unto heaven?

If the Christ should come next Sunday

Would he find me loyal, true,

In my place with my influence

Doing what He’d have me do?

If the Christ should come next Sunday,

Let’s suppose He came at ten,

Would He hear me answer “present”

In the class I should attend?

If the Christ should come next Sunday,

If He came just at eleven,

Would He find me in His service,

Singing praises unto heaven?

Tan, P. L. (1996).

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (p. 1586).

Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.

A Painful Parable

If Next Sunday

If Christ should come next Sunday,

And it may be that He will,

Would the thing that I’ll be doing

Set the Master’s heart athrill?

If the Christ should come next Sunday

Would he find me loyal, true,

In my place with my influence

Doing what He’d have me do?

If the Christ should come next Sunday,

Let’s suppose He came at ten,

Would He hear me answer “present”

In the class I should attend?

If the Christ should come next Sunday,

If He came just at eleven,

Would He find me in His service,

Singing praises unto heaven?

Tan, P. L. (1996).

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (p. 1586).

Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.

A Painful Parable

Remember your Baptism, not your Certificate

It’s a promise, not an incantation

18] A sacrament is a ceremony or work in which God presents to us what the promise joined to the ceremony offers.

Thus baptism is not a work that we offer to God, but one in which God, through a minister who functions in his place, baptizes us, and offers and presents the forgiveness of sins, etc., according to the promise [Mark 16:16*], “The one who believes and is baptized will be saved.”

By contrast, a sacrifice is a ceremony or work that we render to God in order to give him honor.

They were all virgins, and they all had lamps.

They had everything that made them qualified to enter the wedding feast

[IV.

Concerning Justification]

[1] Furthermore, it is taught that we cannot obtain forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God through our merit, work, or satisfactions, but that we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God out of grace for Christ’s sake through faith [2] when we believe that Christ has suffered for us and that for his sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us.

[3] For God will regard and reckon this faith as righteousness in his sight, as St. Paul says in Romans 3[:21–26*] and 4[:5*]

[1] Furthermore, it is taught that we cannot obtain forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God through our merit, work, or satisfactions, but that we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God out of grace for Christ’s sake through faith [2] when we believe that Christ has suffered for us and that for his sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us.

[3] For God will regard and reckon this faith as righteousness in his sight, as St. Paul says in [:21–26*] and 4[:5*].

Won’t He do it?

I know that the Lord keeps His promises...

[V.

Concerning the Office of Preaching]

[1] To obtain such faith God instituted the office of preaching, giving the gospel and the sacraments.

[2] Through these, as through means, he gives the Holy Spirit who produces faith, where and when he wills, in those who hear the gospel.

[3] It teaches that we have a gracious God, not through our merit but through Christ’s merit, when we so believe.