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
0.16UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.17UNLIKELY
Fear
0.13UNLIKELY
Joy
0.2UNLIKELY
Sadness
0.55LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.53LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.12UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.94LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.53LIKELY
Extraversion
0.09UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.56LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.68LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
By Pastor Glenn Pease
My father used to say that he had a piece of meat that was so tough it was like trying to eat shoe leather.
I doubt that he ever knew that there was a time when Americans actually ate shoe leather.
It was back in the year 1610 in the first English settlement called the Virginia Colony.
The experiment had gone from bad to worse and the people had consumed all of their hogs, sheep, goats, and the few horses they had.
Next went the dogs, cats, and even the rats and field mice.
It is surprising how starvation cures the fussy eater.
They dug up roots and everything eatable, and finally they came to the end of the line.
There was nothing left but their shoes, belts, straps and leather covers of their books.
These were boiled and eaten.
Obviously such a diet left them weak and some of them just froze to death as they lay in their beds.
In nine months they went from a population of 480 down to just 60.
You can imagine the thrill that came to those 60 starving people when they saw a ship on the horizon.
The ship was aptly named Deliverance, for had it not arrived when it did all would have been dead in just a few more days.
This deliverance of the people of Jamestown was a turning point for the colony, and it went on to play role in our nation's history.
These people were saved, not for eternity, but for time, and this becomes an example of secular salvation.
Secular means pertaining to time and flesh in this world.
It is in contrast to that which is eternal and spiritual.
We may not think that secular salvation is of any great importance because it is only temporal and does not settle our eternal destiny.
But the Bible makes a great deal of secular salvation.
Paul was one of the major benefactors of God's providential secular deliverance.
Paul was saved by Jesus forever, but he was saved by Roman soldiers for time, and this secular salvation was vital to God's total plan of eternal salvation.
By means of these soldiers Paul's life was spared so that he could witness to leaders all the way up to Caesar in Rome.
Because he lived he was able to write letters, which have carried the Gospel of eternal salvation into all the world.
Because Paul experienced secular salvation,
millions have experienced sacred salvation of their eternal souls by means of his letters.
Secular salvation is not small part of God's purpose in history.
It runs all through the Bible, and yet we seldom think of it.
The result is that we fail to see the hand of God in the secular world, and we miss much for which we should be grateful.
In this message we want to focus on two aspects of this theme.
First let's look at-
I. INSTRUMENT OF SECULAR SALVATION.
The instrument of sacred and eternal salvation is Jesus Christ.
There is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved.
No man comes to the Father but by Him.
Jesus is the sole instrument by which any person can be saved eternally.
But when it comes to the level of secular salvation God uses some surprising instruments.
In Paul's case he was a Christian being saved from death by a non-Christian.
It was the Romans to the rescue, and this word rescue is a key Bible word for secular salvation.
The Greek word is exaireo, and it was used by the Roman Commander who saved Paul from being beaten to death.
In Acts 23:27 this commander used the word in a letter he wrote to Governor Felix explaining what happened.
He wrote, "This man was seized by the Jews and they were about to kill him, but I came with my troops and rescued him.."
Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, who carried the message of salvation in Christ to them is now being saved on the secular level by a Gentile.
From this point on in his life Paul is dependant upon Gentiles for his survival.
Felix, Festus, or Agrippa could have turned him over to the Jews and he would have been immediately executed, but they spared him.
On his way to Rome another Roman soldier spared Paul's life.
Paul was only saved for eternity once, but he was saved for time over and over again.
In Acts 28 a poisonous viper bite Paul and everyone expected him to die, but he experienced another example of secular salvation.
Paul was being saved over and over by government officials and the providence of God.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery in Prisoners Of The Land tells of his ill-fated flight from Paris to Saigon in 1935.
They crashed in the Libyon Desert of North Africa.
He and his mechanics survived, but they had only a little food and water.
On the 5th day of walking their hope was almost gone, and death was near.
Then suddenly they found footprints and their hope was rekindled.
They followed them and saw a Bedouin way ahead on a dune.
They shouted, but they were so hoarse and dry it was but a whisper.
All they could do was stare and hope he would turn and look back.
If he did not do so, they would die.
Life or death was to be determined by a mere turn of the head.
Slowly the Arab made a right angle turn so that all he had to do was look to the side and see them.
He did so and their lives were spared.
They said he came like a god across the waves to create new life.
This is a case of secular salvation by one who had compassion to come to the rescue of dying men.
God has used many instruments for saving men on this level, and quite often they are not necessarily godly people.
A saint may be saved by a sinner on this level of salvation.
In Acts 7:10 this same Greek word for rescue is used of Joseph.
His brothers threw him into a cistern where he would have died in a few days, but some Midianite merchants came by and this motivated the brothers to pull him out and sell him to them as a slave.
God used these secular merchants to save the life of Joseph, which led him to a place where he saved his entire family, and ultimately the Jewish race.
It was all a matter of secular salvation, but it was a vital part of his plan for eternal salvation.
In Acts 7:34 this same Greek word is used of saving Israel out of Egypt.
That was one of the greatest works of God in the Old Testament, but it was never the less a secular salvation.
Their deliverance only saved them from Egyptian oppression.
There sin in the wilderness led most of them to perish.
They were not even saved in time from judgment.
It was just a temporal rescue that led to a whole new history.
It was like the saving of Noah and his family on the Ark.
It was crucial for God's plan, but it was only a secular salvation.
God choose Cyrus the king of Persia to rescue his people of captivity in Babylon, and then send them back to Israel to rebuild the temple.
In Isa.
44 and 45 Cyrus is called by God, "My shepherd and the anointed."
God used this secular pagan ruler to deliver His people.
God can and does use secular instruments to accomplish His purpose.
This is not His only tool for secular salvation, but it is common.
Jesus is our only Savior of the soul was also a secular Savior.
The word for saved is used to refer to the healing ministry of Jesus.
He saved many people from sickness and death.
This did not save them for eternity.
Nine of the ten lepers He healed didn't even return to say thanks.
They were saved from leprosy, but not from sin, and so they merely experienced Jesus as a secular Savior.
That is a wonderful deliverance, but it is no substitute for eternal life.
People can get so caught up in healing and miracles, and in being saved from poverty and other problems that they neglect the greater salvation of their souls.
Secular salvation is precious, but it is not the Gospel.
It will not save from sin and give eternal life, and so it must always be kept in balance lest we reduce our Sovereign and Sacred Savior to the level of a mere secular Savior.
God can use anybody to save on this level, just as He used a Roman soldier to save Paul.
We do not want to minimize secular salvation, for the whole point of this message is to bring its significance to our attention.
On the other hand, it can be promoted to the point where that is the only salvation that matters.
And people can be blest with a better life, but left to die in sin with no Savior of their eternal soul.
Secular salvation is the foundation for the very popular health and wealth gospel that is being preached in our day.
To reject it is to reject the reality of secular salvation, which we have seen is clearly biblical.
But to focus on it exclusively is to preach another gospel, for secular salvation is not the Gospel of Christ.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9