Sermon Tone Analysis

SIN AND CONDEMNATION: THE WORLD'S NEED TO GET RIGHT WITH GOD “”

Aim: To understand how God reveals His wrath to men.

INTRODUCTION: The wrath of God is usually a most unpopular subject—it makes people feel uncomfortable.

It is far easier to talk about the love of God.

But what kind of love would express no wrath at all the evil and injustices of the world, all the...

.

holocausts

murder · assaults · slavery · hatred · abuse · immorality · greed

Teacher's Outline and Study Bible - Commentary - Teacher's Outline and Study Bible – Romans, Volume 1: The Teacher's Outline and Study Bible.

· murder

· assaults

assaults · slavery · hatred · abuse · immorality · greed

Teacher's Outline and Study Bible - Commentary - Teacher's Outline and Study Bible – Romans, Volume 1: The Teacher's Outline and Study Bible.

· slavery

· hatred

· abuse

· immorality

· greed

Just like a parent who always indulges his child without ever correcting or disciplining him, God's love not balanced by God's wrath is both aimless and absurd.

Scripture declares that "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven".

This particular passage discusses the four ways that God reveals and shows His wrath.

Note three things:

1.

All four ways concern judgments that come upon man.

That is, the wrath of God is exercised and falls upon man because of his ungodliness and unrighteousness.

2. All four ways have to do with history, with human experience, with a moral universe.

That is, God's wrath is revealed from heaven day by day... · (throughout history) · (in man's experience) · (within a moral universe)

3. Three of the judgments are present judgments; they take place today in the lives of men ().

The fourth judgment is future and is to be the final judgment upon men ().

This is said three times in this passage, and each time was due to a serious sin of man (, , ).

Man's sin forced God to give man up and to abandon him.

The scene was terrible and frightening, for to be abandoned and left without God in this world leads to the worst possible life imaginable.

There are two strong reasons why God gives man up, and each issues a loud warning to man.

1. Man chooses sin over God, and when he does, two things happen.

a. Man becomes enslaved to sin.

Sin actually stirs more and more sin.

The more a man sins the easier it is for him to sin again.

At first he may ponder the wisdom of committing the sin; but later on, after committing the sin over and over, he seldom gives the sin a second thought.

Sin looks good, tastes good, and feels good.

It is attractive and it satisfies the human flesh and urges of man.

It satisfies so much that man is naturally attracted to it.

By sinning, he steadily makes himself a slave to sin.

He becomes addicted.

Sin becomes the terrible master and subjects man to its cruel habits and enticements that are almost impossible to break.

b.

Sin always lies.

This needs to be remembered.

Sin entices, claiming to bring pleasure, stimulation, and happiness; but in reality it destroys a person's... · body · family · friends · soul · profession · mind · will · hope · values · future · life.

A terrible tragedy that is so often forgotten is this: we are not islands unto ourselves.

Our sin involves others; therefore, our sin destroys others—both their lives and their souls.

Sin may look, taste, and feel good to us; but it always involves and influences others.

It hurts and dooms our children, spouses, friends and society.

ILLUSTRATION:

There is no such thing as a private sin.

When we sin, we are not the only ones affected.

Usually, our sin holds others back from doing God's will.

Just think for a moment.

a.

When a person cheats on his taxes, others will lose the benefits of what that tax money was designated to pay for.

b.

When a person commits adultery, the other spouse and their children suffer deep emotional wounds.

c.

When a person spies against his own country, the security of his fellow countrymen is placed at risk.

We are not islands unto ourselves.

This humorous story illustrates how our sin entangles, how it violates others and keeps them from doing God's will.

"In addition to being one of the most successful baseball manager[s] of his day, John J. McGraw may have been responsible for there being a third-base umpire.

Long before he became a famous manager of the New York Giants, as a young third baseman with the old Baltimore Orioles the intensely competitive McGraw had a habit of hooking his finger in the belt of a base runner who was tagging up to score after a long fly ball.

This trick usually slowed the runner enough so that he was thrown out at home plate.

"Despite violent protests, McGraw got away with his ploy for some months—until one base runner secretly unbuckled his belt.

When the runner dashed for home, he left his belt dangling from McGraw's finger.

The need for a third-base umpire could hardly have been made clearer."

It is one thing for a person to be called out at home plate because you cheated and held him back.

It is a far more serious thing to cause someone to miss Heaven's open door because of your sin.

God considers sin to be a very serious offense.

God sees your every sin and He will call every man to task for allowing his sin to bring harm to others.

2. Man abandons God, actually turns away from God and gives God up.

This may be called spiritual abandonment: man spiritually abandons God.

God has given man a free will, and if a man wills to turn away from God, he can.

God will not interfere with that choice.

To do so would be to take away man's freedom.

So God appeals to man spiritually, through mercy and love and grace, but He does not violate man's choice.

To do so would be to have a coerced and mechanical universe.

Man would become nothing but a robot, coerced to do this and that and to do it exactly as God wills.

The result would be tragic: man would never experience love, goodness, care, concern, or feelings.

Love is not love if it is coerced.

It is mechanical and meaningless.

The expression of any affection or virtue is meaningless unless it is freely given.

Therefore, when man turns away from God, he himself makes the choice to do so, and God cannot interfere.

The choice is man's, and man is abandoned to do exactly as he has chosen (; ).

Hosea 4

Ep

Therefore, God has no choice.

He must...

· give man up

· let man go his own way

· spiritually abandon man

· leave man to live for that which he has chosen

Psalm 81

The word uncleanness means impurity, filthiness, immorality, defilement, pollution, contamination, infection.

When men turn from God—abandon God to live unclean and immoral lives—God leaves men.

He abandons them to their choice.

God lets men wallow around in their filthiness.