Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
Welcome dear ones to the house of the Lord.
Let us praise the Lord together in this time.
Please stand for the reading of God’s word.
Paul
This passage is actually the first one I ever exegeted.
One hopes I’ve learned something since 2009.
This passage, more than any other, helped drive me towards belief in Sovereign Election.
How many of you were bothered by the fact that Paul’s conversion simply doesn’t match what you’ve been told about conversion?
Where’s the Gospel message?
Where’s the five spiritual laws?
Where’s the altar call?
Where’s the “Just As I Am” for fifteen minutes while everyone prays and everyone waits for somebody, anybody to raise their hand for conversion?
There is no “Jesus died for your sins” message.
Not yet.
Paul would become a major proponent of this message, dismissing all of his rabbinic credentials for the sake of knowing only “Christ and Him crucified.”
In the case of Paul, Election preceded conversion.
Conversion precedes belief.
Conversion produced immediate repentance.
This did not sound anything like what I heard in Messianic synagogues, in Baptist churches or in Independent Baptist churches.
Saul is persecuting the churches.
He is the LAST candidate for conversion on the face of the earth.
Saul is struck down on the Damascus road, and hears, Σαοὺλ Σαούλ, τί με διώκεις;
If in Hebrew, as I suspect it was, then it was Shaul, Shaul Mah Radafti? רָדַף
There was nobody on the side of the road passing out tracts.
There was no altar call, no presentation of the Bible.
I had to assume one of two things - the conversion of Paul was totally unlike that of any other person in the Bible...
…or what I’d been told was not Biblical.
So I looked at Peter, James, John.
Matthew 4:18-20 “Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.
And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.”
Coincidence.
Had to be a coincidence.
Matthew 4:21-22 “Going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them.
Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.”
The closest I could find to anyone who was converted through typical Southern Baptist means was Cornelius, who gets halfway through a Gospel message and… starts speaking in tongues.
Well, that’s not really accepted in most Southern Baptist churches, but things have been going south there for a while so… that might not be a problem any more.
In every case, Christ called the person first.
Then they believed.
And even in Cornelius’s case, when we examine that, he was believing already - just like the disciples of John, he needed to hear the way expounded.
This really bothered me all throughout Seminary, because it was mentioned, but ignored.
It was pointed to in a later chapter and said, “well the Gospel message must have been preached then!”
I literally was taught that Acts 9 was not Paul’s conversion, that it happened in Acts 22:12-16
Yet in reality, what do we see here?
not a Gospel message, but a call to be baptized.
The text mentioned προχειρίζω - to choose for oneself.
Christ has chosen you for Himself.
Divine election.
Just like all of the Elect.
Just like all of you.
If we had time tonight, we’d go into John 6 for a while and discuss the great truths there about election - that will have to wait for another time.
Let’s quickly take a look at our next text.
We’ll be going about ten minutes longer tonight than usual.
Psa 67 “For the choir director; with stringed instruments.
A Psalm.
A Song. God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us— Selah.
That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations.
Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; For You will judge the peoples with uprightness And guide the nations on the earth.
Selah.
Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You.
The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God, blesses us.
God blesses us, That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.”
This is an interesting Psalm to look at.
It’s Chiastic, referring to the Greek letter for X.
The Psalm - when you diagram it - ends up indenting in like half of an X, then back out again.
In section A we read the receiving form of the Aaronic Blessing.
“God be gracious to us and bless us.
Cause your face to shine upon us.
But wait, let’s look at the X structure.
The first lines reflect on the last lines.
“God blesses us, that all the ends of the earth may fear Him.
Second line and the next to last lines
That Your way may be known upon the Earth, your salvation among all nations.
The Earth has yielded its produce
God our God blesses us.
Third and second to last...
Let the Peoples praise You o God, let all the peoples praise You.
and, “Let the peoples praise You O God, let all the peoples praise You.
It’s an echo, as close as this gets to a Chorus.
Musicians take note!
Let the Nations be glad and sing for joy...
and guide the nations on the Earth.
Selah...
The entire Psalm is written around this line:
For You will judge the people with Uprightness.
What’s this Psalm about?
It’s the middle line.
You will judge the people with uprightness.
This is not just a song about the harvest.
this is not an agrarian harvest song about an agrarian people.
Certainly not an exclusive people who identified everyone around them as “goy”.
In case you’re wondering, the word Nations in the Old Testament is the word goy.
It technically does not always mean Gentile.
However, once Israel is in the land, the nations around them are almost always Goyim or Goy.
It’s not a putdown.
It’s just the word nation, but in this context it does mean “non Jewish people”.
It’s a possible prophecy that Gentiles would someday know God’s salvation, and would be glad and sing for joy.
quickly, let’s look at Revelation.
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