Sermon Tone Analysis

3 Reasons to Pray for the salvation of all men.

I.

One God

A. The Only God

This might not seem like a reason, but if there are multiple gods then why pray?

If all gods are equally valid, the muslim god will save the muslim, the mormon god will save the mormons, the modern Jewish god will save all descendants of Abraham, the hindi gods will save the hindus, and the god of the universalists will save everyone, then why pray at all for the salvation of anyone?

But if there is only one true God who can save mankind from their sins, then we have motivation to pray to that God.

Acts 17:28 (NASB95)

28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’

B. The Only Mediator

II.

One Purpose

Ransom - not just to buy us back, to take our place by exchanging Himself for us.

Like a Terrorist who kidnaps someone for ransom.

Instead of paying the price in money, Jesus paid it by taking our place.

He became the hostage and set us free.

Testimony - of God’s desire to save mankind just as it had been prophesied throughout the OT.

III.

One Mission

This gospel preaching venture to the gentiles is another proof of God’s desire.

Why else would God send him and why else would Paul dedicate his life to it?

faith - the body of truth from God

truth - sincerity

The Lost Agony For Souls

By H. C. Van Wormer

George Whitefield cried, “Give me souls, or take my soul....

There is a passion for souls, a depth of burden for men, a care for the flock of God that beggars words and sighs and tears.”

An old saint before the days of auto­mobiles said that he quit his work in the middle of the afternoon, hitched up his horse and drove twenty miles to pray with a man whom he felt was drifting from God.  Listen to him:  “I could scarcely help it, my love and concern for him was so great I could not rest until I had done my best to bring him to God.”  Beloved, this agony for souls is what we must recover!

David Brainerd said, “I care not where I go or how I live or what I endure so that I may save souls.

When I sleep, I dream of them; when I awake, they are first in my thoughts....  No amount of scholastic attainment, of able and profound exposition, of brilliant and stirring eloquence can atone for the absence of a deep, impassioned, sympathetic love of human souls.”