Sermon Tone Analysis

Overall tone of the sermon

This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.17UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.15UNLIKELY
Fear
0.1UNLIKELY
Joy
0.55LIKELY
Sadness
0.48UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.67LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.22UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.96LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.82LIKELY
Extraversion
0.36UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.67LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.75LIKELY

Tone of specific sentences

Tones
Emotion
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
Language
Analytical
Confident
Tentative
Social Tendencies
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Emotional Range
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Romans 1 : 6 7 The Called of Christ and the Loved of God
*Part One*
*/Romans 1:1-7 (ESV) /*/ /
/Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,  3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh  /
/4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, /
/7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:/
/Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
/
*What God Has Made of Paul*
   Paul began his great letter to the Romans by identifying himself not in terms of what he had accomplished, but in terms of God's work in his life.
He said in verse 1 that he was a slave of Christ Jesus, that is, Christ had bought him and now owns him and rules him (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
He now exists, as he says in verse 5, "for His name's sake."
Then he said that he is called as an apostle.
So again it is what Christ did to him, not what he did, that is first.
He emphasizes this again in verse 5: "we received grace and apostleship."
So the call of Paul to be an apostle was entirely gracious: it was free and undeserved.
Christ took the initiative on the Damascus Road and broke into Paul's life and laid hold on him when he was on his way to imprison Christians.
Then at the end of verse 1, Paul says that he is "set apart for the gospel of God." Again someone else, not Paul, acts to give Paul his mission and his identity.
God does, as we saw, even before Paul is born (Galatians 1:15).
Paul's grasp of the freedom and the sovereignty of grace are profoundly stamped by his own experience of it.
He was, in his own estimation, the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15).
And for some reason, not in himself, but only in the will of God, God chooses freely to set his saving focus on Paul and make him a Christian and an apostle and a servant of the gospel.
So, when he finally comes in verses 6-7 to describe his readers in Rome (and by implication, all Christians!), it is not surprising that he speaks with the same emphasis on what God has done, not what we have done.
It's not that what we do is unimportant: verse 5 says that the aim of Paul's apostleship among the gentiles is the "obedience of faith."
So what /we/ do is utterly crucial: his whole ministry fails if it does not bring about the obedience of faith in our lives.
And not just our lives, but the lives of all nations, or peoples.
O may God continue to give us a burden for the nations, the unreached peoples of the earth!
May he continue to raise up Paul-type missionaries among us!
But when he describes what it means to have a Christian identity in verses 6-7, Paul does not put the first emphasis on what /we/ do.
He puts it on what is done to us and for us, just as he did in describing his own identity as a slave and apostle and servant of the gospel.
* *
* *
* *
* *
* *
* *
*Called and Loved – the Audacity of It*
He uses two words that are massively important in this book of Romans and in the whole of Paul's vision of God and salvation – so massive that I will deal with only one of them this morning.
We need to think about these words as the key to our own identity and what it means to be a Christian.
The words are "called" and " beloved."
Verse 6: ". .
.among whom [that is, the nations] you also are the /called/ of Jesus Christ; to all who are /beloved/ of God in Rome, /called/ as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
Before I say another word about the meaning of these terms, I feel I must address the audacity of it all.
We need to feel this, so that when others express it, we are not shaken.
Here we are in a small room, compared to the whole area around Poetry And in a very small city compared to the whole United States.
And our entire country is a mere 4% of the world's population and shrinking percentage wise.
And huge things are happening in the world: the fourth largest country of the world – Indonesia – is near anarchy.
India, the second largest country is shaking her atomic weapons in the face of China, the largest county in the world as is North Korea.
Israel and the Palestinians are on the razor's edge of explosive strife.
Numerous African countries are smoldering powder kegs of unrest.
And over against all this huge global reality, I stand here this morning, tiny by comparison, and say that the God who created the universe and holds all these countries and armies and weapons and systems in being is at work in the world, mainly calling individual persons to himself to be part of his people through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And you are among that number.
And what God has done in loving you and calling you to Christ may have more eternal significance than who is the political leader of Indonesia or whether India has atomic weapons.
Now this seems utterly audacious.
But if it seems audacious to us, imagine how it must have seemed to the early Christians.
Here is the mammoth Roman Empire, plus the unknown hoards of "barbarians" beyond in every direction.
And Paul is virtually unknown in this great empire.
And the One he preaches has never been heard of before, Jesus.
And he tells this little band of believers in the huge city of Rome that God has loved them and called them and made them, in particular, the focus of his saving work.
They are the called of Christ and the beloved of God.
In other words, in all this mammoth empire and world, God is dealing with them in a special way.
The audacity of claiming this!
* *
* *
* *
* *
* *
* *
* *
* *
* *
* *
* *
*Except for,,,,, the Magnificence of the Lord of this Universe*
    Perhaps, the reason why Paul inserted in verses 2-4 something about this gospel and something about this Christ was the audacity of claiming this!
He Jesus, is the fulfillment of the ancient promises to Israel that a ruler would come.
And he was raised from the dead and ordained Son of God in power.
So today, whether it looks like it or not, all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Christ.
And unless we know that and believe that with all our hearts, we will be overwhelmed by the apparent bigness of all that happens in the world.
In the absence of that truth, Christianity looks hopelessly insignificant and Christians look foolish.
So set your mind on the magnificence of Christ as the Lord of the universe, and on the power and wisdom of God the Father who created all this and plans all this and is managing all this, precisely for the building of his church – his people – by bringing about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.
Now back to these two key words: Paul describes the Roman Christians – and you and me – by focusing not mainly on what we do, but mainly on what he does: he says we are /called/ and we are /loved/.
That is what makes us Christians.
That is what we should know first and foremost about ourselves.
Other things are important to know.
But nothing is more important that this.
First, in verse 6 he says we are "/  called to belong to Jesus Christ/."
And then, in verse 7 he says we are "/ called to be saints/."
So, at least twice in these two verses, he emphasizes that who we are as Christians is based on the work of another, the One who calls us.
* *
*(God's Call Is not a Democratic Idea)*
  These 2 verses will not move us and fill us with the gratitude and wonder and worship that it should as long as we think the way typical American lovers of democracy think.
Americans believe in government of the people, by the people and for the people.
That's probably not a bad idea for humans governing humans.
But when it gets transferred to the way God governs the world, it is a very bad idea.
It creates the impression that human rights and privileges are at the center of the universe, and that the only thing that should distinguish one person from another is his own effort or intelligence or courage.
Otherwise we must all be treated equally and God must do for everyone what he does for anyone.
But what if the human heart is corrupt and hard and rebellious and blind and virtually dead to spiritual reality (Ephesians 4:18)?
In that case, the only thing that self-reliance can produce is more death.
And the only thing that can save us from our own corruption is a divine, supernatural, powerful, awakening call from God.
If we say (in democratic fashion) that God must call everyone the same way he calls anyone, we do not yet understand how deeply sinful and rebellious and undeserving we are.
If God calls anyone, it is grace, free and totally undeserved.
And he is not obliged to call everyone if he calls anyone, because he does not call any on the basis of human merit
 
 
 
or human distinctives.
Democracy proceeds on the basis of universal human rights; but rebellious, sinful humans have absolutely no rights in relation to God.
All divine condemnation is just; all divine salvation is gracious.
As Romans 9:15 says, "God has mercy on whom he will have mercy."
And the fact that anyone is called from darkness to light is a wonder of grace.
Now I am assuming several things here that I need to demonstrate from the Scriptures, they are, 1) that God is the one who calls; and 2) that his saving call is a special act of grace in the lives of some sinners and not all; and 3) that this call is effective – it creates what it commands.
*   *
*1st God is the One Who Calls*
When Paul says in verse 6, "You who are the called of Jesus Christ," he probably doesn't mean "called by Christ Jesus."
He probably means, "called by God into the fellowship of Christ Jesus."
I say this because this is what he teaches elsewhere in Romans and his other letters.
For example, in 1 Corinthians 1:9 Paul says, "/God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful./"
So God calls, and the aim of the call is to put us into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ.
So in Romans 1:6, the phrase /"the called of Jesus Christ"/ most likely means: "those who are called by God to belong to Jesus Christ and enjoy fellowship with him."
*2nd His Call Is an Act of Grace Toward Some Sinners*
  This call of God into the fellowship of Jesus is given to some, not all, and that no injustice is done here because none has a right to the call.
Look with me at *Romans 8:28-30 (ESV) * /And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9