Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Whenever I study about the law and the way that the Jews interpreted the law, I am reminded of a passage in which our Lord said:

Jesus’ words rang loud in a society where the Jewish leaders has mounted such a hard burden on the people.

Because their very eternal destiny hinged on whether or not they kept the law; not as interpreted by Moses, but by how the law was interpreted by the Jewish leaders.

The Rabbis of Jesus; time could not rest with simple prohibition.

‘

Take, for example, the law of the Sabbath.

Now, what did God say was the law for the Sabbath?

Exodus 20:8-

The command by God was to keep the day holy and rest; which is very good idea, but that command hardly at all enters into detail.

The Rabbis took that command and formed about 39 works that they said were forbidden by that law.

These thirty-nine prohibited works are: (1) sowing, (2) ploughing, (3) reaping, (4) binding sheaves, (5) threshing, (6) winnowing, (7) cleansing crops, (8) grinding, (9) sifting, (10) kneading, (11) baking, (12) shearing wool, (13) washing, (14) beating, (15) dyeing, (16) spinning, and (17) warping it, (18) making two cords, (19) weaving two threads, (20) separating two threads, (21) making a knot, (22) untying a knot, (23) sewing two stitches, (24) tearing to sew two stitches, (25) catching a deer, (26) killing, (27) skinning, and (28) salting it, (29) preparing its skin, (30) scraping off the hair, (31) cutting it up, (32) writing two letters, (33) blotting out for the purpose of writing two letters, (34) building, (35) pulling down, (36) putting out a fire, (37) lighting a fire, (38) beating smooth with a hammer, (39) carrying from one tenement to another.13

Let me give you a couple examples of what the Jewish leaders did to the people.

According to , ploughing and reaping were among the forbidden works on the Sabbath.

But the Jewish leaders had taken that prohibition and applied it to plucking ears of corn.

Remember whaat happen in .

Well, first of all the law allowed permission for someone to go into another person’s field and get some food.

But because they were doing it on the Sabbath that was the problem.

But Jesus continues in that account concerning the law.

This is fascinating.

The account that Jesus is giving to the Pharisees is found in .

David and his men came to Nob and to Ahimelech that Priest.

David came and asked it there was any bread that his men could because they were hungry.

And Ahimelech said that there is no common bread here, “I mean this isn’t a bakery”.

But they had holy bread to eat.

The problem was that holy bread was only reserved to be eaten by the priests.

But Ahimelech, after David promised that his men had kept themselves free from women, gave to David the holy bread to eat.

Jesus’ point, that compassion and love is more important than ceremony.

The Jewish leaders burdened them with prohibitions about writing letters.

“He who writes two letters with his right or his left hand, whether of one kind or of two kinds, as also if they are written with different ink or are of different languages, is guilty.

Jewish History is filled with writings about this kind of thing.

And it was under this kind of burden that Jesus said:

Meaning that because of his perfect life and obedience to the law, we that are in Christ are seem as fulfilling the law.

The Jews could not accept that and that is where Paul is in his argument about the lack of salvation with the Jewish people.

They were determined to hold onto this ritualistic law obedience in order to obtain grace and Paul continues to argue that that is not how you get grace.

I.

The Delight of Salvation (vs. 1)

With all that the Apostle Paul has said up to this point, I cannot almost see him speaking these words with tears in his eyes.

The intense desire and drive of this man of God for the salvation of people is seen very clearly in this text.

The Apostle says that his “heart’s desire”....

When Paul uses the word “heart” he uses the Greek word “καρδία” from which we get our English word “cardio”.

What the Apostle is referring to is the inner seat of physical, spiritual and emotional life.

In the language of the Greek speaking world the word was used to speak of, not the muscle that pumps blood through your body, but to inner feeling.

He is speaking about the source of the whole inner life.

The Apostle is proclaiming that from the very inner being of his emotions that he “desires”.

It is the word “εὐδοκία” and speaks about that which which brings pleasure or contentment.

It is speaking about a desire.

It is the same word that is used in and it is translated there speaking about God’s good pleasure.

It is the same word that is used in translated purpose, speaking about God predestining us to adoption according to the purpose of His will.

It was God’s pleasure and desire to predestine us to adoption.

It is the same word that is used in that is translated “purpose” speaking about how God makes known to us his will according to His “purpose” or “delight” or “desire”.

So you get an idea how these two words are used.

And Paul’s point is that from his inner being, the seat of his emotions, he delights in the thought of the salvation of His people, the Jews.

Their salvation is his desire, his wish, his will.

Here is the interesting thing; Paul did not let the knowledge of the Sovereignty of God in Salvation, stop him from having a genuine heart-felt desire to see his people saved.

Paul never had the attitude, “well, if they are predestined to be saved, then they will saved and there is nothing I can do to change it”.

And while that may be true from the divine side because we cannot change God’s predetermination, we operate from the human side.

And for Paul, the human side said, “I wish from the very inner being of my emotions that the Jews would be saved”.

This is where, as we spoke last week, that the tension between Divine Sovereignty (which the Scriptures absolutely teach) and Human Responsibility (which the Scriptures absolutely teach) has its greatest hold.

And we have to be careful that we do not emphasis the one over the other.

Because God is a God of balance.

Whether you are speaking about currency or you are speaking about Theology, God is a God that delights in balance.

And if we balance the attributes of God, in this context Sovereignty and Responsibility, we will find a delight in the salvation of people.

There is a way of preaching that doctrine, in which you make it put on a black and ugly face, and stand with a drawn sword, and say, “You must not come unless you know you are one of God’s elect.”

That is not the way to preach the doctrine.

The true way of preaching it is, “God has a chosen people, and I hope you are one of them; come, lay hold on Jesus, put your trust in him.”

There are a number of things that can be said about; not only our delight, but responsibility if giving the Gospel and having a hearts desire to see people saved.

Evangelism arises from a natural response to God’s grace that He has shown to us, it is the natural concern to see that sinners repent and to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

For the believer, preaching the gospel is by Divine Compulsion.

Evangelism is a God-given responsibility that carries massive repercussions if not obeyed.

Ezek.

Our evangelism is a direct response to the Grace that God lavished on us.

2 Cor.

5:14

When we evangelize, we can have confidence that God’s elect will come.

We can have that confidence because when we evangelize the Gospel that we preach is God’s power.

When we evangelize, we know that when we speak God’s Words they will be effective.

We do not need clever words or 28 verses of the invitation, all we need is the Word of God.

Whenever I pray I for the unsaved and this community, I also pray that I know that God has his people that have not yet some to faith and so when I preach the gospel to the lost, I know that the lost will come.

Acts 13:

Paul found delight is the salvation of his people so much so that inner being of his emotions desired so much that his people turn to Christ.

Not only The Delight of Salvation, but notice the second point.

II.

The Declaration of Simplicity (vs.

2)

Good works are only such as God hath commanded in His holy Word, (Micah 6:8, Rom.

12:2, Heb.

13:21) and not such as, without the warrant thereof, are devised by men, out of blind zeal, or upon any pretence of good intention.

Here, the Apostle gives to us one of the fears he has as to why the Jews are not being saved.

He says that “he bears record”, in other words he knew from his own experience as a radically zealous Pharisee that most of the Jews of that day were very religious but yet very far from God.

As far as legalistically fulfilling the outward demands of the law, Paul was blameless.

Yet with the other Jews of his day, he had no understanding of spiritual truth and genuine godliness.

He not only not know and follow God’s way but vehemently opposed it, persecuting the Church.

The Apostle said of his own life.

By his own words, Paul had been a zealous member of the most zealous Jewish sect.

No one understood better the he what it was to have a zeal for God, but not in accordance to knowledge.

The apostle says that their zeal was not in accordance to knowledge.

In the Greek language, there are two words that are translated :know” or “knowledge”.

The first one is γνῶσις and that is an intellectual awareness of the outward demands of the law.

They had plenty of that.

But what Paul says that they lacked was ἐπίγνωσις, that kind of knowledge is an experiential knowledge that comes only from a saving relationship with God.

They had plenty of the religious superficial knowledge that causes pride and arrogance.

So Paul declaration of Israel is that they have a knowledge, but it is a simplistic knowledge and it is not the true knowledge that brings humbleness and repentance.