Sermon Tone Analysis

Acts 9:1-20

When Saul was converted by Christ it was called a miracle.

He met the Lord on the road to Damascus as he was traveling to destroy the very church itself.

Christ appeared to him and "removed his heart of stone and gave him a heart of flesh, , just as we are told in the book of Ezekiel.

This is the very heart and nature of conversion.

What does it profit a person to be converted yet show no outward signs of the Spirit of God that has worked the conversion?

People today seem more obliged to lead a person in a “sinner’s prayer” and take it upon themselves to bestow assurance of eternal security even though no fruit has yet been borne by the person.

Is this really a Biblical thing to do?

Even John the Baptist himself refused to baptize those whose conversion showed no inner working:

/Mt 3:7-8 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers!

Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

/

Has the church today become satisfied only with a prayer?

Or do we crave to see the working of the Spirit in those whom have truly been converted?

Do we call anyone a Christian who claims the Name of Christ? or do we “test the Spirits to see if they are from God?” We must test any and all Spirits to see whether they are of God for we have been commanded to do thus.

The apostle Paul has given us this solemn warning:

/2Tim 4:3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions./

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that time is now here!

Too many people have become convenient Christians; that is, when it profits them to be so.

There may be even some among us this morning who have never been truly converted by having God by His Spirit breathe the breath of life into his [soul] and become a living being.

And be certain that NO life happens until God first breathes life into it.

We must now consider what the nature of conversion is.

We must see the process in which God uses to bring dead sinners to life.

I will be the first to admit that God may use any means in accomplishing this task but Scripture speaks clearly that there are certain things that will take place in that process.

These are the very things that I intend to focus upon.

When we examine these things we can surely look within our own souls to see whether the Spirit of God has truly converted us or rather we have simply been contented to be an unconverted “good” person.

There are four key things that I would like to point out about conversion using the conversion of Paul as our example.

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I.An unconverted soul is an enemy of God

//(vv.1-2).//

Note that the text states that Paul was breathing out threats and murders to the disciples.

This is the condition of the natural man.

He is an enemy of God and of God’s people.

He may at once seem at peace with religion but the moment he is confronted with truth he becomes violent and vehemently opposed to the presenter of truth.

Is it any wonder when those faithful saints of God are persecuted, tortured, and killed when they preach the gospel?

Was not all fine and life good until the truth of God’s Word came down from Heaven and pricked their hearts to expose their own motives?

The very fact that God’s people all over the world suffer such atrocities simply because they belong to Christ testifies to the fact that man is a natural enemy of God.

And more than this, Scripture itself testifies: and you will be hated by all for my name's sake (Mt 10:22).

Those who have never been truly converted by the Spirit despise the things of God.

They hate being around God’s people; they view worship and praise as a chore; they perform “spiritual” duties of compulsion rather than love for the Savior.

They seek God’s blessing while despising His Name.

These kinds of actions can be summed up in three major areas:

/A.They are dead in their sins (Eph 2:1-3)./

Paul uses the very specific word to describe our unregenerate condition.

This word is nekros, which means a corpse, something tht is absolutely lifeless.

Of course Paul is speaking in spiritual metaphor but his comparison of a physical corpse to a spiritual corpse serves as a vivid picture of how we stand before God.

We can do nothing of value in the spiritual realm until we have been made alive.

Jesus himself relates this truth to His disciples: Abide in me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me (John 15:4).

And even more than this, Paul states in this passage that lost people carry out the passions and the lusts of their flesh, whatever they may be.

We are told that the reason they do this, other than being dead, is that they follow the course of the world’s evil system which is the path that Satan has marked out for them.

Even so this is their natural inclinations as we are told that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.

We are told by our Lord that men are evil.

Never make the mistake of thinking that we are naturally good and only learn to do evil things; but be convinced that we do evil things because we ARE evil.

This is expressed by the prophet Jeremiah when he says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Who can know it?”(Jer

17:9).

Because we are dead we can do nothing of our own volition that would cause God to look on us with favor.

Dead people stink and every thing that arises from their bodies gives off the stench of death.

Spiritually, it is the same thing.

Death also carries the idea of separation.

This can be the only natural conclusion we can arrive at, for death has come because of sin and sin is the result of our own natural hearts.

Those who are lost (spiritually dead) are separated from God.

They do not naturally seek God or run to Him for forgiveness when they do wrong.

Remember how Adam and Eve reacted when their eyes were opened to sin?

They certainly did not seek to rectify the situation with God but ran and hid hoping that the solution they had concocted (the sewing of fig leaves for garments) would suffice them for their lifelong.

This is why Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost.

Had He left it for us to come to Him we would still be hiding and hoping that the Holy God of creation would not find us.

We would certainly be in agreement with those who will experience God’s wrath: The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed.

Thorn and thistle shall grow up on their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, "Cover us," and to the hills, "Fall on us." (Hos 10:8) It is because of our reaction to goodness and our inclination to evil that God seeks us, and for no other reason.

/B.They are helpless to change themselves (Jer 13:23; Mt 12:35)./

A lost person can no more change his evil actions to good anymore than a dead man can get up and walk.

Go on and speak to a dead man and see if he responds; tell a man who has lived in his addictions to break off his chains and reform his ways.

I tell you, it will never happen!

Many mistake a person’s sin as something they fell into, but the opposite is actually true; a person sins because that is what defines his very being.

He cannot help but do certain things.

The actions that follow are simply the natural path of his heart.

The restraint of a particular sin is only hindered until an opportune time to rear up and perform the outward action of the inward motive.

To put it simply, those who are thieves did not become thieves when they stole; they stole because thievery was in their hearts.

Adulterers do not become such when they commit adultery; it was already in their hearts and needed the avenue to work its way into action.

The heart defines who we are and what we do.

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is a perfect illustration of this point.

He defines what God actually means by not committing murder or adultery; it is a heart issue, not just an action issue.

Jeremiah rightly states this truth in the illustration of the nature of a person’s skin and the leopard’s spots.

A person does not cease being dead simply because he attends church anymore than an Ethiopian ceases to be an Ethiopian because he leaves his country.

Powerless we are to convert our own natures!

But the worst part of this passage is the very next verse.

To those who remain in their natural state, God says, “I will scatter you like chaff driven by the wind from the desert” (v.24).

The fate of chaff is never a positive thing in Scripture.

It is, as the Lord tells us, burned up with unquenchable fire.

It is also represented in Scripture by those who are false believers; those who simply act religious rather than entering the relationship.

We are told that in the judgment many who considered themselves Christians, even did good works in the Name of Jesus will be cast into the Hellfire which burns with fire and brimstone.

The scary part is that they ACTUALLY believed they were doing these things for Christ.

Their surprise at their own lostness is extremely genuine.

They had no idea that they remained dead and unconverted.

Could this be possible among our churches today?

Absolutely!

For this reason we should follow promptly the apostle Peters advice: (2Pe 1:1-10).

Peter exhorts his readers to do this only after listing those qualities that he describes as being part of the divine power of God.

This divine power, we are told, is the result of being partakers of God’s divine nature; that is not to say that we are little gods but that His Spirit within us exhibits His qualities in our lives.

If these qualities are in us then those who see our lifestyle will know that we belong to God.

This is the same thing the apostle John communicates to us in his first epistle: (1Joh 3:7-10).