Sermon Tone Analysis

Isaiah (3)

Dumber than a donkey

 

Call to worship and Greeting

Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.

Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

(Psalm 90:1-2)

Grace to you from God our Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord, and the Holy Spirit.

!!! *Doxology*                                                /Hymn 96:  “God we praise You!” (Tune 441)/

*Scripture Reading*:           /Romans 1:18-32/

!!! *Hymn no 102*:             /  “Sovereign Grace o’er sin abounding”/

Prayer of adoration and Confession of sins

/Adoration/

O Lord, our Lord,

How majestic is Your name in all the earth!

You have set Your glory above the heavens!

(Psalm 8:1)

Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty!

Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations!

Who will not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name?

For You alone are holy.

All nations will come and worship before You, For Your righteous acts have been revealed.

(Revelation 15:3–4)

How great are Your works, O Lord!

Your thoughts are very deep.

The senseless man does not know; Fools do not understand that when the wicked spring up like grass And all the evildoers flourish, They will be destroyed forever.

But You, O Lord, are exalted forever.

(Psalm 92:5–8)

You are the Lord, that is Your name.

You will not give Your glory to another, Or Your praise to idols.

(Isaiah 42:8)

/Confession/

Save me from bloodguilt, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue will sing aloud of Your righteousness.

O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth will declare Your praise.

For You do not desire sacrifice, or I would bring it; You do not delight in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

(Psalm 51:14–17)

/Thanksgiving/

You have loved us with an everlasting love; You have drawn us with loving-kindness.

(Jeremiah 31:3)

You led Your people with cords of human kindness, with bands of love; You lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.

(Hosea 11:4)

Lord, God we worship You, and we thank You for your compassion, loving-kindness and forgiveness.

Amen

Declaration of pardoning

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life.

He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

(John 6:35)

!!! *Hymn no 382*:             /  “Come O Fount of blessing”/

Offering and Dedication

Praise Time

Prayer of Intercession

Spiritual revival

Local government

State government

National government

Current events and concerns:  euthanasia debate, stem cell practice

!!! *Bible Reading*

Old Testament:                  /  Isaiah 1:1-4/

!!! *Sermon:*                           /“Dumber than a donkey”/

!! A few remarks

I am stressing these introductory verses of the book of Isaiah in order that we can ask crucial questions about God’s relationship with us.

We may also ask: How do we live in a relationship with God?

The crucial questions are:

1.       Who is the God we worship?

2.       How does God reveal Himself to us and why?

3.       How should we live before this God?

4.       What will happen if we obey~/disobey what God says?

5.       What does the future hold for the faithful

Question 1:  Who is the God we worship?

Verse 2 says:  God is the Creator God, the God who reveals himself through what He is saying, the One who called out his people to become their Father.

There is no other God, because there is no other Creator.

Because there is no other Creator, there is no other power that has a claim over us to live the way He intended it to be.

His plans are perfect; His ways are perfect; the creature, who dares to make his own rules, is sure to disfigure God’s creation, his own life and the life of others.

This is the reason the Bible calls us not to conform to the pattern of this world.

The Creator God, is our Father in Jesus Christ.

This Christ is the only Mediator between us and God.

There is no other way to go the Father.

Not only has the Father a divine right over our lives by virtue of his creation, but also because of the fact the He bought is to be his own when we were sinners, far away from home.

He bought us in the imperishable blood on Jesus Christ.

Question 2:  How can we know God:  First let’s remember (and this phrase is repeated over and over again in the Scriptures for God’s people to remember in whatever they do) there is no other God;  because if there were, such a god would have a claim on our time, money, energy, talents, etc.  too.

We know God by and through God’s own Self-revelation, by his Son Jesus Christ, our Mediator.

John says:

No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.

John 1:18

God calls us to obedience to his Son as our only Saviour and Redeemer.

Question 3:  How should we live before this God?

We live in a covenant relationship with Him.

The distance between God and what He has created is so great that, although rational creatures owe obedience to Him as their Creator, it would never be possible to enjoy Him and his blessings, unless God by some act of voluntary stooped down to enter into a relationship with mankind.

He expressed this relationship in the form of a covenant or agreement (WCF VII,1).

In the covenant of grace God freely offers to sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ.

He requires of them to trust Him, obey Him so that they may be saved.

He also promises the Holy Spirit to make them willing and able to believe.

This agreement reveals God’s holiness, as He wants us to live a holy live before Him.

Question 4: What will happen if we obey~/disobey what God says?

God promises blessings in many ways.

The world belongs to God; He can make true such promises.

However, we need to know this is the result of the covenant of grace; it is not a covenant of merits.

We can never ever earn God’s blessings.

But as faithful God, He does in his own time and own way what He promised as blessings.

Those who disobey will be under a curse because God is faithful to his covenant.