Sermon Tone Analysis

What changes in the tone between Ch 8 & Ch 9?

Notice how Paul now defends what he is going to say - it is the truth in Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

He is in anguish, and hurting over the Jews rejection of Christ and the Gospel.

It just goes to show how much passion Paul has towards them and the desire for their salvation!

Paul pleads for his people to trust him.

The Jews called Paul a false prophet and a liar.

Why?

He was now proclaiming God’s love and salvation for all men instead of just for the Jews.

To the traditional Jew, Paul was a heretic.

He was a man who was to be utterly distrusted.

They hated and despised him and wanted to kill him and do away with his message.

Despite the rejection and ill treatment from the Jews, Paul still loved his kinsmen, and he sensed a deep urgency for them to grasp the truth.

Their salvation was of such concern that he swore his concern by three things: Christ, his conscience, and the Holy Spirit.

Paul was forcibly saying, “I am not lying.

I WISHED I could take on the sin (accursed, or to be separated from God) of my fellow Jews so they could be saved!

His concern was not that their sinful ways be approved, but that they come to know the truth; for without the truth, they will be lost and doomed.

He could be willing to swap his salvation for their doom if it would lead to their salvation.

Paul felt the deepest emotion, love, and concern for his people.

Paul was speaking from an evangelistic fervor, not from a theological view.

He was immersed in emotion, just as so many of God’s people sometimes become over loved ones who are lost.

Many have been so immersed in emotion that they have offered to swap their salvation for a loved one.

Sometimes the Spirit of God works in the hearts of God’s people to strain and suffer through intense prayer for the salvation of lost souls, and sometimes the strain and intensity of prayer is so deep that a believer could wish one extreme (his own salvation) for the other extreme (the salvation of loved ones).

Wow, how different would evangelism look today if we took the same interest and had the same desire as Paul to see our fellow Americans saved?

Isn’t Paul’s concern the picture of the love of Christ?

Willing to die so that his kinsmen (Jews) could live.

What set apart the nation of Israel?

Paul had just declared his great love for Israel; now he assures them of his respect.

He did not deny their place in the plan and purposes of God.

He knew they were a greatly privileged people, a people who had been highly favored by God.

They were adopted into the family of God through His choice.

They were chosen.

The name itself, Israel, means a prince with God or one who rules with God.

The name itself shows the manner of relationship God has with His chosen nation.

Because they had been chosen, they also had been privileged.

It is a privilege to follow Christ, to be a Christian, just as with the Jews being chosen.

We are followers and disciples of Christ - and we must be careful not to take that lightly nor do something that brings shame to the Lord’s name.

Not all citizens of Israel believed God, and being adopted into God’s family has always been by genuine faith.

In order to be a true child of God it has always been necessary for a person to believe in God, entrusting his whole being into God’s keeping.

Believers, too, have the glorious privilege of being adopted by God through faith.

The Jews had the privilege of the glory of God, that is, the Shekinah Glory.

The Shekinah Glory was the brilliant light which descended into the midst of God’s people when God was visiting His people.

It symbolized God’s glorious presence and was revealed in the form of a cloud.

Believers have seen “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”

Believers are the light of the world.

This means two significant things.

It is a terrible thing to possess the light and the glory of God and not to share it with those in darkness.

It is a terrible thing to be in darkness and to see light off in the distance and not follow after it.

There is absolutely no excuse for seeing the glory of God and failing to follow it.

The Jews had the privilege of the covenants.

A covenant is an agreement made between two parties; a contract drawn up between two or more people; a special relationship set up and established between persons.

Note the plural is used: covenants.

God made several covenants with Israel.

There was …

• the covenant with Noah after the flood (Ge.

9:9f)

• the covenant with Abraham (Ge.

12:1f; 15:18; 17:4f)

• the covenant of law made at Mount Sinai (Ex.

19:5; 24:8; 34:10; De. 29:1f)

• the covenant with David (2 S. 7:16)

• the covenant of grace (He.

8:8–13)

The point to note is the great love of God.

He did not reach out for man only once and then leave man to his doom.

God reached out to man time and again.

God sought man at every opportunity, seeking to establish a relationship with him.

The Jews had the privilege of the law.

They did not just have the ten commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai, but they had the whole law of God.

By law is simply meant the will of God written down.

Through the centuries God simply had Moses and His messengers write out His will so that man would always know exactly how to live.

One of the great tragedies of human life is for a person to know that something is right and not do it.

Yet, this is the daily life of man.

It may be a simple matter of consuming something that damages his body or the more serious matter of cursing God’s name.

No matter what the transgression is, man stands guilty.

He is inexcusable, for he has the law of God, and he has had God’s law for centuries.

Man knows how to live in love and justice.

No greater indictment could exist than the charge: “There is none righteous, no, not one”

The Jews had the privilege of true worship and of the true service of God.

They had …

• the true temple

• the true ordinances of God

• the true priests, prophets, and messengers of God

• the true approach to God

• The Jews had been given every opportunity and privilege to approach God, and even more, to understand and grasp the person of God Himself.

The Jews were greatly privileged.

While other people stumbled and wandered about in the darkness of false worship, creating gods within their own imaginations, the Jews had access to God Himself, access to the only true and living God.

They had the opportunity to establish a personal relationship with God.

What was held against Israel?

To have the opportunity to know God personally, but to turn one’s back and walk away.

However, there is an even greater offense than this.

How much greater is the offense when a person knows the true approach to God and does not share it.

Believers know the truth; they know the way to God.

Therefore, they must share the glorious message of the only living and true God.

Note two significant facts.

(1) Many know the truth; they know the true approach to God, yet they refuse to enter His presence.

The tragic fact is this: God does not close the door to them; they shut the door upon themselves.

(2) The blood of the lost is upon the hands of the believer.

Why?

Because the way to God and the means to proclaim the message to the world has existed for some time.

Yet, we have failed to go into the world and share the lifesaving news.

There is no one to blame but us.