Sermon Tone Analysis

A week ago, I heard a voice saying, /“John 3:16.

You need to preach from John 3:16.”/

My first thought was that the Holy Spirit was speaking through His still small voice.

Then I realized it was really Joy Harrod sitting next to me in Sunday School class.

Then, later in the week, it dawned on me that God sometimes uses such events to guide a preacher to the passage he wants preached!

In this passage detailing the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, the Lord says, very plainly, that He came into the world to provide salvation for sinners.

The matter of salvation is of vital importance to every person under the sound of my voice this morning.

You see, what you do about your salvation will determine where you spend your eternity.

Before we move deeper into this message, I want to offer up a definition.

Too often, we Christians forget that we are like a little subculture.

What I mean is that we have our own dialect and sometimes the things we say are confusing to those who don't know our lingo.

One word that I want to define this morning is the word Jesus used in verse 17.

Jesus tells us that He did not come into the world to “condemn” the world, but that the world, through Him, might be /“saved.”/

It is that word saved that I want to consider for a moment.

As Baptists, we throw that word around in our sermons and in our testimonies, but those who are not saved may not understand what we mean when we use the word.

So, to clear up any confusion, I want to tell you what that word means.

The word /"saved"/ comes from the Greek word sōzō, and literally means, /"to save, to keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction.”/

If this word has that meaning, then why do we use it in regard to the soul?

Because, man in his natural state, is a sinner: /“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”/ (Romans 3:23, NIV).

When we come into this world, we arrive here already under a death sentence: /“For the wages of sin is death, ... ”/ (Romans 6:23, NIV) Unless a person is /"saved"/ then they will die in their sins and they will spend eternity in Hell, forever separated from the presence and power of Almighty God.

Now, no right thinking person wants that to happen to them!

This is the danger that God wants to rescue sinners from.

Therefore, we must know how we can be saved.

That is something I will explain as this message unfolds.

The question of the hour is /"Can God Really Save Your Soul?"/

That is, if you do what the Bible says and receive His plan of salvation, can God really save you and keep you out of Hell?

That is the question I would like to answer this morning.

I say, /"Yes He can!"/ Allow me to give you three reasons why.

!

I. GOD'S PROMISE TO SAVE

* John 3:16 /“For God so loved the world ... “/

!! A. IT IS AN OLD PROMISE

#. in the beginning, when God made man in His image and man decided to sin against the Lord, God made a promise to Eve in the Garden of Eden

* /“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”/

(Genesis 3:15, NIV)

#. here is the first promise of a Savior found in the pages of Scripture

#. but God's promise to provide a means of salvation is even older than that

#.

Rev. 13:8 tells us that Jesus is /"the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world"/

#. the Apostle Peter takes it even farther

#. 1 Peter 1:20 says, /"who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world"/

#. these verses tell us that even before there was a sinner to save, before there was even a sin to cleanse, the Lord had already formulated a plan to redeem sinners

#.

His is a plan older than man, older than sin, older than Satan and older than Hell

#.

God's promise to save is an old promise that shall never fail!

#.

God has always been and will always be a saving God

#.

His promise to save is as old as God Himself, yet it is as new as the day when you call on Him in believing faith

!! B. IT IS AN ONGOING PROMISE

#. while God's promise is older than the world and even older than mankind, it still has all the power of the Almighty behind it

#. the promise is a valid today as it has ever been

* /““I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”/

(John 5:24, NIV)

* /“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”/ (1 Corinthians 1:18, NIV)

* /“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”/

(Ephesians 2:4–5, NIV)

#. this promise has never and will never lose its great power

#.

God is a saving God and nothing will ever change that truth!

!! C. IT IS AN OPEN PROMISE

#.

God's promise of salvation is that sinners who repent, confess and believe will be saved

#. in His conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus is very clear that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life

#.

whoever means exactly what it implies—whoever

* ILLUS.

There is a wonderful story over in the book of Acts where God teaches the Apostle Peter an important lesson.

Peter has embarked on a preaching tour along the coast of Israel.

He finds himself at Joppa where mighty things happen.

While there, he also receives a vision.

Three times a great table cloth is lowered from the sky with all kinds of nonkosher food on it, and a voice commands him to eat.

Three times Peter emphatically refuses to eat any of the food.

Finally, the voice declares, /“What I declare clean, don’t you declare unholy.”/

The Scriptures say that Peter is greatly perplexed about this vision.

Now, unbeknownst to Peter, thirty-five miles up the coast at Caesarea God has sent an angel to another man.

The man’s name is Cornelius and he is a Gentile and a Roman soldier.

But he is also a devout man who fears God.

The angel tells Cornelius to send for the Apostle Peter who will deliver an important message.

Cornelius immediately sends some men to find Peter down in Joppa.

Well, to make a long story short, Peter goes with them and Cornelius tells Peter about the angel’s message.

Peter then suddenly understands the meaning of his vision of the table cloth full of noinkosher food.

The Gospel is not just for the Jews, but for everyone!

Peter tells Cornelius, /“ ... “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism.”/

(Acts 10:34, NIV)

#. translation—the good news that Jesus Christ came to save sinners is for whosoever

#. the only requirement for participating in God's plan of salvation is that it is for sinners only!

#. my guess is, is that everyone here qualifies!

* /“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”/

(Isaiah 53:6, NIV)

#. if you think you’re too good and that you don’t need God, then you’ll never be saved

* /“ ... Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”/

(Mark 2:17, NIV)

#. if you’re not willing to admit that you’re sick with sin, that the best you can produce out of our own self-effort is a pile of putrid, filthy rags in the sight of Almighty God then hell is your eternal destiny

#. but, if you’re will to confess, God, be merciful to me a sinner, then you can experience the salvation of the Lord

#.

God can save you because He has promised to save sinners, but God can also save the sinner because He has the power to save sinners

!

II.

GOD'S POWER TO SAVE

* John 3:16 /“ ... that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”/

#. now that we know that the Lord has promised to save those who receive His plan of salvation, we need to understand that He can do what He says He will do

#.

just how does God go about bringing men unto Himself?

#. the Reformation theologians referred to it as irresistible grace

#.

God will move and work in a sinner’s life in such a way as to eventually bring them to a point where His love, and His mercy, and His grace are so attractive that you can no longer resist the testimony of the Holy Spirit in your life

#.

when a sinner does surrender to God’s grace, how does he or she know that God can do what He has promised?

!! A. HE HAS THE POWER TO CALL THE SINNER

#. no one can be saved when they feel like it—God always takes the initiative in the sinner’s life!

#. the Bible says that the sinner, apart from God, is spiritually dead