Sermon Tone Analysis

God’s righteousness demands judgment

Escape impossible through own efforts

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!!! Votum

“As the eyes of servants are fixed on the hands of their masters, and as the eyes of the maid is fixed on the hand of her mistress, so our eyes are fixed to the Lord our God until He has mercy upon us.”

(Ps 123:2)

Grace and peace to you from Him who is, and who was and who is to come.

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

!!!

Call to worship

!!!!!! Bible Verse

“We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and grace to help us in our time of need.”

(Heb 4:15-16)

!!! Doxology:     Hymn no 14 :     /“O Praise the Lord”/

!!! Invocation and the Lord’s Prayer

!!!!!! Invocation

O, holy and righteous God in heaven, before You the only God we have gathered.

We thank you for your invitation to appear in your courts, in your very presence.

We cannot stand before You unless You show us your mercy; we cannot see your face and live.

But, covered in the righteousness of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, we come into your presence.

Hear our prayers and supplications, and accept our worship.

We now join in collective prayer, using the words You taught your disciple to pray, saying:

!!!!!!

The Lord’s Prayer

!!! Hymn:            No 70:                   /“Praise my soul, the King of  heaven”/

!!! Children’s Address

!!! Hymn:            No 450:                 /“Yield not to temptation”/

!!! Scripture Reading:                    Old Testament:                   /Psalm 130/

!!! Prayer of Adoration and Confession

!!! Declaration of pardoning

“Blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.”

(Ps 32:1-2)

!!! Hymn:            No 497:                 /“How blest is he”/

!!! Announcements

!!! Offering and Dedication

!!! Scripture Reading:    New Testament:  /Rom 5:12-21; Phil 3:4b-11/

!!! Sermon

!!!!!! Introduction

How did God create man?

In what state was man when God created him?

We know what man looked like when God created him, but were they a bit something like the Flintstones?

A bit barbaric and uncivilised with in inclination to destroy about everything they saw because they were so dumb?

The Bible tells us that God looked upon His creation and declared that it was good, very good indeed (Gen 1:31).

He created Adam and Eve after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness and holiness.

He endued them with living, reasonable and immortal souls.

They were given dominion over all creatures God had made.

They didn’t need the Bible or a written law then, because God made them having the law written in their hearts.

More than that, they had the power to fulfil that law, yet they were subject to fall.

So, Adam and Eve was the pinnacle of Gods’ creation.

The most perfect example of human life.

They started out in the presence of the very God who created them.

There were not Flintstone characters; rather, after Adam and Eve, decay and corruption set in, dragging down everything beautiful in man and creation.

!!!!!!

The fall from innocence

Adam and Eve had the power to fulfil God’s law, yet they were subject to fall.

Although they had direct communication with God, and although they were brought into a covenant of life with Him with the condition of personal, perfect and continuous obedience, our first parents abused the freedom of their own will.

Enticed through the temptation of Satan, they disobeyed the commandment of God in eating the forbidden fruit; and thereby fell from the status of innocence as they were created.

They became sinners, and with them, all of their descendants – that’s you and me!

All mankind descending from Adam by normal birth, sinned in him, and fell with him in that first transgression.

This truth is given in Rom 5:12 and 14:

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned — Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

(Romans 5:12, 14)

Let’s just sum it up:  Adam and Eve were the first people God created:  /“From one man God made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth”/ (Acts 17:26).

So, when Adam fell, all of us fell into sin.

Adam and Eve were endued a free will and they could choose to do the right thing, but we can’t.

Our free will is destroyed.

We have no choice to sin or not to sin, we ARE sinners.

Because of that we stand condemned before God and are worthy of his judgment.

His judgment upon sin is death, which includes bodily death, but also spiritual death.

Instead of this world being good, indeed a very good place, it became miserable.

We know pain, hunger, famine and lost-ness.

We see people warring and killing one another.

Every day is filled with it.

We are Adam’s race.

What is sin?  Sin is to try do be your own God, or trying to be like God, determining yourself what is right and what not.

God entered into a covenant with Adam and set the standard.

Adam chose to make his own rules, rebelling against the set standard and authority.

That’s sin.

We must try to understand what it means.

Let’s put it this way:  we are under God’s wrath not because we /have/ sinned, but because we /are/ sinners.

The peach tree bears peaches because it is a peach tree.

It has no choice.

That’s its nature.

Every year in season it will have peaces on it until it dies.

It is a peach tree even if it doesn’t bring forth peaches at all.

It’s then just a peachless peach tree, but it doesn’t make it less peach tree.

The fruit only underscores its nature.

Every human being born of Adam (and that includes all of us) is like a fruit tree:  we bear fruit according to our nature.

That means we stand condemned before God even before we commit one single sin.

The new born baby is sinful in God’s sight.

David said:

Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

(Psalm 51:5)

He doesn’t say, “I /have sinned/ since I was born”; he says, “I /was sinful/ at birth, /sinful/ from the time my mother conceived me.”

There is never a moment in our lives without sin.

That will bring us before the argument:  “That’s unfair!

If the “innocent” newborn baby can’t stand before the righteousness of God, who then can be saved?”

That brings us to the heart of the sermon this morning.

!!!!!! Our dilemma

Some argue, “I am not too bad.

I am actually a good bloke.