Sermon Tone Analysis

As always, it is an honor to stand before you today presenting the Word of God to the church.

I hope that everyone had been able to thaw out and stay dry over the last few days.

It’s been quite some time since I remember seeing a snowfall quite like that.

And Charlie, I’m glad you finally made it home after your 10 mile, 8 hour journey during the brunt of the snowfall.

Such a snow storm like we saw this week can definitely pose challenges so I don’t want to make light of it, but at the same time, I have to say that there is something utterly beautiful about the snow.

The way the reflection of the sun illuminates the entire house is just astounding.

When you look out at the fresh snowfall and theres no tracks yet marring the smooth pearly ground, it is an incredible site.

There is so much beauty in God’s creation and, for me at least, that is even magnified in the snow.

Now, I know Malissa and Ron Hickey are happy to be in Florida right now avoiding this snow, but I think most of us will agree to the beauty of snowfall, even if we aren’t necessarily a fan of the cold and challenges that come with it.

The beauty of the snow is used in Scripture in a very special way.

Isaiah is being used by God to call Judah to repentance.

He is saying that when they repent and obey the Lord their sins will be forgiven.

Their sins are like scarlet.

That is, they are like blood.

They’ve been caught red handed and dead to rights.

This points to how deep they are in iniquity.

How guilty they are before the Lord.

And then Isaiah says that they shall be as white as snow.

That blood stained mess transforms to the radiant, pure scene I describe a minute ago.

Utterly beautiful.

Pure.

When we are drawn to repentance we are made pure!

Who is “He” who is faithful and just to forgive?

Who is it that we are confessing our sins to and putting our faith in?

Jesus Christ!

The Lord!

There is no salvation in any other name!

Jesus is the only way any one is ever made clean!

We don’t cleanse ourselves Christ and His perfect sacrifice does all the cleansing.

It’s like as the Psalmist wrote:

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

It is the Lord that does all the saving.

He does all the purging.

And oh how beautiful it is when He washes you from the blood stains of sin and makes you white as snow.

That is the absolute best thing that could ever happen to anyone.

It’s my prayer that its happened to you!

That you have been convicted of your sins.

That’s the Holy Spirit exposing your need for the Savior.

Then you recognize that Jesus is the Savior.

He is Lord of all and the Lord of your life.

You willfully live in submission to His command.

There is nothing more freeing than living in submission to the Lord.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be washed from the bloody stains of sin and be cleansed whiter than snow.

There is absolutely nothing greater that anyone could receive than the gift of salvation by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ and the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Any other momentary need you may have pales in comparison to the eternal need of salvation.

Where am I going with this?

Before we go any further this morning with our walk through the Greatest Sermon Ever Given, we have to be absolutely sure of what the gospel really is.

The Gospel is the story of God’s redemption of man in accordance with His Will.

It is Jesus Christ saving sinners through the shedding of His blood on the cross.

It is Christ bringing men and women who were separated from God by their sin, back to the Father, all for His glory.

It’s all about Him.

Even our salvation is for His glory.

It is a great gift that we receive so freely and willingly, but our salvation is about God receiving the glory.

To God be the glory.

This is absolutely essential to understand this morning because many people want to take the section of verses we are looking at today and twist them for their own glory.

As we begin looking at these, please understand that the ultimate point to anything in this life is to give God the glory.

Pray for God to humble us and make us wise today.

If you would, open your Bibles to Matthew 7. We are picking up right where we left off last week.

Jesus is preaching to His disciples.

A great crowd has gathered all around.

He has just rebuked casting self-righteous judgment on others while still calling His followers to use discernment in how they go about sharing with others about things that are Holy.

With much prayer and contemplation there are going to be times when it is best to walk away from someone who is hostile to the gospel.

Then we come to where we are picking things up this morning.

Read with me starting in verse 7.

Now, this is where we must be very careful.

Someone could look at these verse and start wringing there hands and think, oh boy this is it!

This is what I’ve been waiting for!

If we were to isolate this verse from the context of everything else Jesus has said thus far in the Sermon on the Mount, it would seem that Jesus is giving anyone and everyone a blank check to get whatever we want.

Prosperity here we come!

Ask and it will be given to me! Well bring on the Bentley!

I’ll even add a pretty please with sugar on top as I am asking!

That means I have to get it, right!?

A cursory glance at this verse would seem to paint God as the cosmic genie who is just waiting to be asked before He can gratify our every whim.

I’m sorry, but that is not One True God made known to us through Scripture.

That would be what is referred to as the Prosperity Gospel.

That can by a variety of names including the “health and wealth” gospel or the “name it and claim it” gospel.

Those who preach this type message are able to gather a large following because everyone loves to be promised their desires!

You may have heard of Creflo Dollar.

This is what he wrote in one of his books:

“The Bible says that wealth is stored up for the righteous (Proverbs 13:22, New American Standard).

However, it will remain stored up until you claim it.

Therefore, claim it now!

You possess the ability to seize and command wealth and riches to come to you (Deuteronomy 8:18).

Exercise that power by speaking faith-filled words daily and taking practical steps to eradicate debt.

Like God, you can speak spiritual blessings into existence (Romans 4:17).

Remember, doubt keeps silent, but faith speaks!” (Creflo)

All the wealth is there and we just have to claim it In the gospel according to Creflo Dollar.

But this distortion of Scripture fails to take into account the biblical stories of people like Job.

Not to mention that our text this morning from Matthew is being first presented to Christ’s disciples.

That would include the apostles of which 11 would die horrible deaths at the hands of men, including the one who would replace the betrayer Judas.

They would be far from prosperous from the prospective of the culture.

So how do we reconcile this with a section of verses that seem to so plainly promote the name it and claim it gospel?

We must remember to look at the context.

First of all, who is Jesus talking to?

Well way back in the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount we are told that when Jesus saw the crowds He went up on the mountain.

He sat down and then His disciples came to Him and He started teaching.

After that everyone else would begin gathering throughout the message.

This is a big clue that this entire discourse, this entire sermon is intended for those who are disciples of Jesus!

In contrast to how much of the way our culture treats the Sunday church, Jesus’ message was predominantly directed towards those who were already following Him! Could someone have heard the message and realized that Jesus was the Messiah, absolutely!