Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

A couple of weeks back we kicked off the first week of classes at Penn State DuBois.

It was a whirlwind of orientation events, academic advising, financial aid issues, class scheduling—the typical start of the academic year.

But there was one phrase that I noticed kept popping up through all of the presentations.

As the different speakers were encouraging the incoming students to take advantage of all of the opportunities available to them at Penn State, they would always include some variation of how the students needed to “be the best version of yourself”, or “be the best you you can be”.

One speaker talked about having a bad day when “the best version of myself didn’t show up”, or something to that effect.

And when you listen to the way these speakers used that phrase, “the best version of yourself”, it was usually connected with one of two specific things: It was either about “doing the right thing” or “loving yourself”.

And this kind of thinking isn’t just limited to higher education—you hear this kind of advice everywhere you go, don’t you?

The highest good in the world—the most important thing in life—is to “be a good person” and “feel good about yourself”.

In fact, a number of years ago a pair of sociologists published a book on the National Study of Youth and Religion research project, in which thousands of young people were interviewed regarding their religious beliefs.

And these two ideas—being a good person and feeling good about yourself—kept coming up so often in the interviews that the researchers eventually defined it as: Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism: God exists to help you become a better person, and helps you feel better about yourself.

Other than that, He is unimportant in daily life.

I think that this definition is enormously helpful in understanding the way Americans view religion—if you asked the average person on the street to define “the Gospel”, you would almost assuredly get an answer that falls along these lines—God will help you to “be a better person”, that He loves everyone, so there is nothing in your life to feel guilt or shame over.

But the sad reality is that this same gospel of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism has made its way into Christianity as well.

Much of what goes on in many churches today echoes along these same lines.

People are taught that God wants them to have everything they want, that He wants to make them feel good about themselves, that being a Christian is to pray a one-time prayer “asking Him into your heart” and then living however you want, because He wants you to be happy, that what matters is that they really “try to be a good person” and “do the right thing” because “it makes God sad when we don’t”.

That “being a Christian” is measured by the things that you do—pray before meals, come to church now and then, drop the kids off at a Vacation Bible School or Youth Group, vote Republican, sign a pro-life petition, don’t swear (out loud)… The list goes on, but you get the point.

This phenomenon of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism— “be a good person”, “feel good about yourself”, “believe there is a God out there somewhere”—is widely perceived (even within some churches) to be “The Gospel”.

And in many ways, the Apostle Paul was fighting this same false Gospel among the churches in Galatia.

The false teachers who were pressing the Galatian Christians into observing the Mosaic Law were telling them the same thing—that they needed to “be a good person” according to the Law in order for God to approve of them, and they thought very highly of themselves for their strict observance of Moses’ Law.

And so here in our passage Paul attacks this false gospel of self-esteem and moral purity—he calls it what it is.

Verse 11:

Paul makes it clear that the Gospel he preaches is not a gospel of “be the best version of yourself--try to be a good person and feel good about yourself!”

And what he will do in these verses is point to his own life to demonstrate that

Man’s so-called “gospel” is a trap; transformation comes only as Jesus is revealed to us.

Paul points to his life before his conversion to show how he was

I. Trapped by Man’s Gospel (Gal.

1:12-14)

Look with me at verses 12-13:

The false teachers were trying to get the Galatians to go back into Judaism, so Paul points to his “former life in Judaism” to warn them about what that life did to him.

First of all, we see from his testimony that

Paul was a violent, murderous man (Gal.

1:13; cp.

Acts 26:10-11)

He says he “persecuted the church violently, and tried to destroy it.”

And in the passage that we read earlier from Acts 26, we read that he

Paul points to his own life to warn the Galatians that man’s gospel of “being a good person” made him into a monster.

And if he had been sitting in on the Penn State DuBois orientation presentations last week, he would have stood up and said, “You keep telling people to ‘be the best version of themselves’.

Let me tell you—my “best version of myself” was a white-hot cauldron of unregenerate rage and violence against innocent people!

My ‘best version of myself’ destroyed lives, tore families apart and threw them in jail, voted for the execution of people who had committed no crimes, blasphemed and raged against God!

That is the fruit that man’s gospel bore in my life!”

Under man’s gospel, Paul was a monster.

But when you read on to verse 14, you see that Paul didn’t see himself that way, didn’t he?

In fact,

Paul felt really good about himself!

(Gal.

1:14)

Beloved, this is the insidious trap of the false gospel of man—it lies to you about your condition!

Paul was a horrible person under this false gospel of keeping the Law, wasn’t he?

But if you asked him, he would point to all his good deeds to show you how righteous he was!

In Philippians 3, he talks about how confident he used to be in his good works in Judaism:

The false gospel of man that says you can work your way into righteousness is so dangerous because it makes you feel so good about your accomplishments!

We talk about our work in evangelism as “opening blind eyes” because the truth is that so many people are blinded to their true condition, aren’t they?

You can have a perfectly cordial conversation with someone about the Gospel until you come to the point of suggesting that they are a sinner, can’t you?

And as soon as you suggest that, what happens?

The walls come up, the defensive attitudes come out— “I’m not a sinner!

I’m a good person!”

And then inevitably they will begin pointing to all the good things they do!

You see?

The false gospel of man will trap you into feeling good about yourself through good deeds that cannot save you.

Man’s so-called “gospel” is a trap.

Paul was hopelessly trapped in a false sense of security about his condition because of all his good deeds.

But then he goes on in verses 15-16 to show how he was

II.

Transformed by Meeting Christ (Gal.

1:15-16; cp.

Acts 26:13-18)

Look at verse 15 with me:

Paul says that “God called him by His grace”.

When God calls a soul to salvation, His “call” doesn’t merely invite a person to be saved; it causes them to be saved!

We see this in the story of Paul’s encounter with Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus that we read earlier:

Here is the first difference between the false gospel of man and the Gospel of Jesus Christ: The gospel of man excused Paul’s sin—he wasn’t facilitating murder; he was executing judgment on sinners!

He wasn’t blaspheming God, he was defending God’s honor!

But the Gospel of Jesus Christ doesn’t excuse our sin—it

Confronts us with our sin (Acts 26:15)

When Jesus appeared to Paul, did He say, “Good job protecting Judaism from blasphemers!”? No, He said to him, “These people you are throwing into jail and having murdered?

You are doing this to Me! The threats you are breathing out as you ride along?

You are threatening ME!” The risen and reigning Jesus Christ appeared before the Apostle Paul in all of His glorious majesty, with all authority in heaven and earth in His righteous right hand.

Paul was immediately thrown to the ground in powerless fear, and heard the Lord say to him, “You have been trying to have Me murdered all over again!”

And Paul was caught dead-to-rights.

He couldn’t deny his guilt anymore; he couldn’t justify his behavior that he was defending God’s honor when God the Son Himself was standing over him accusing him of his crimes!

Now, if anyone ever deserved the wrath of God for his sins, it was Paul at that moment, wasn’t it?

It would have been infinitely and perfectly righteous and just for Jesus to crack open the ground underneath Paul’s grovelling form and drop him straight into eternal torment in Hell, wouldn’t it?

But what did He do?

He called him by His GRACE!

He did not appear before Paul to damn him, he appeared there on that road to commission him!

And here is the second difference between the false gospel of man and the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

the false gospel of man is quick to condemn failure, but

God delights to reveal grace through His Son (Gal.

1:16)

I see this in the way Paul talks about his encounter with Jesus here in Galatians 1:16, that God was “pleased to reveal His Son to me, in order that I might preach Him among the Gentiles...” Instead of the condemnation Paul deserved there on the road to Damascus, God was “pleased” to reveal Christ to him!

And see that God was not just pleased to reveal Jesus to Paul so that he would repent of his sin—God was pleased to call Paul to serve Him!

The gospel of man says that once you have failed, you are done.

There is no forgiveness, there are no second chances—just ask anyone in our society today who has been convicted of certain crimes.

They can never be trusted again!

There is no way to atone, no way to make it right.

If you have done this, then you will never be allowed to forget it, and you will pay for it for the rest of your life!

But look at how God pours grace into Paul’s life!

He doesn’t forgive him grudgingly, or halfheartedly—it’s not, “Well, OK Paul, I guess I will forgive you—I really shouldn’t, but you caught Me on a good day...” No—Paul says that God was pleased to reveal Jesus Christ for his salvation!

He took pleasure in revealing Jesus to Paul on that road to Damascus—not because He enjoyed watching his enemy Paul grovel in the dirt, but because He delighted in turning his enemy Paul into His servant!

Notice at the beginning of verse 15 that Paul says that God had “set me apart before I was born”?

Surely, among other things, this means that God had been waiting Paul’s whole life for this moment!