Sermon Tone Analysis

“What must I do to be saved?”

[1]

I fear many vital, even essential words are disappearing from common usage today.

Society as a whole is becoming linguistically impoverished.

Some words have been misappropriated; they will never be returned to their proper place in English vocabulary.

“Gay,” for instance, once meant joyful or happy.

To say someone is gay today has an entirely different meaning; and those who wish to identify themselves as “gay,” are anything but joyous.

Other words simply disappear.

Increasingly, as I read correspondence and watch postings on on-line forums, I witness fewer and fewer people who appear able to distinguish between the contraction “you’re” (for “you are”) and the possessive pronoun “your.”

Because the Faith permits itself to be influenced by the culture in which it is immersed (instead of influencing culture), people of faith reflect this same deficit with even more alarming consequences.

We seldom hear the pulpit speak of being saved, or speaking of redemption.

Modern church goers are decidedly uncomfortable whenever the preacher speaks of being lost.

“Hell” has become an explicative rather than a place of eternal punishment for those banished from the presence of the Living God.

The consequence of our neglect is that those who are lost are not being warned of their peril; and the saved are unaware of their responsibility to turn those who are lost from their imminent danger.

Moreover, the redeemed are woefully ignorant of the precious treasure that we possess in God’s salvation.

Two articles posted on CNSNews this week illustrate the danger facing the Faith.

The first item, a report of census data released for England and Wales, reveals that fully one-quarter of the British population refer to themselves as either atheists or agnostics—they have no affiliation with any faith.

Moreover, the fastest growing religion in Great Britain appears to be Islam.

The number of self-identified Christians has dropped significantly during the last decade.

Figures released in the United States reflect a similar trend.

[2]

The Faith once delivered to the saints competes for the souls of family, friends and colleagues midst a cacophony of voices in the marketplace of ideas.

When we speak the language of Zion, understanding what we are saying, we will not only have a hearing, but we will present the superior plea.

When we no longer are convinced of the veracity of our argument and when we cease to employ the language of Zion, we become merely another voice within the din of competing shouts and cries within this dying world.

In another article discussing the reaction of unions to the passage of right-to-work legislation in Michigan, the head of the United Auto Workers is quoted as saying, “Labour, civil rights, faith community, LGBT.

Environmentalists—all of us got to come together and stand up for an America that has prosperity for everybody.”

[3] Why is the faith community lumped in with these groups?

Such compromise would have been unthinkable even a few short years ago!

Let me say again with emphasis, I fear that we preachers don’t speak often enough of being saved.

Consequently, the members who occupy the pews of our churches are mute concerning the salvation of the Lord, not having been taught by us who are the shepherds of the flock.

They are silent in the face of their children turning from righteousness, quiet as their colleagues desecrate the Faith, unmoved by the plight of the lost about them.

Perhaps the use of such language appears trite, clichéd, out of date; or possibly we imagine we have grown too sophisticated to speak of people being lost.

Whatever the reason, our generation is impoverished because of the paucity of preaching that calls lost people to be saved.

We witness few people asking the question, “What must I do to be saved?” in our churches; and the reason may well be that we have ceased speaking of being saved, or even living as though we were saved.

The question before us was asked by a man who had observed the Faith in action.

Paul and Silas were conducting a missionary trip that would lead them into Europe.

It was the first penetration of the European continent by those who were following the Faith of Christ the Lord.

The missionaries had been powerfully used to turn some to righteousness and even to set at liberty a young woman in thraldom to demonic powers.

Because she was freed from demonic possession, her owners realised they were deprived of a source of considerable income.

Enraged, they engineered imprisonment of the missionaries.

Listen as I read the account of all that happened as recorded for us by Doctor Luke.

“As [the missionary band was] going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling.

She followed Paul and us, crying out, ‘These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.’

And this she kept doing for many days.

Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’

And it came out that very hour.

“But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.

And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, ‘These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city.

They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.’

The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods.

And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely.

Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.

And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.

When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

But Paul cried with a loud voice, ‘Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.’

And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas.

Then he brought them out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’

And they said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’

And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.

And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family.

Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them.

And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God” [ACTS 16:16-34].

Contrary to much of modern church mythology, the Faith under pressure more often results in the salvation of the lost than does the Faith in times of prosperity, plenty and peace.

Though we preachers give lip service to this truth, we seldom witness the reality of what we preach being put into practise.

We read Paul’s words in 2 TIMOTHY 3:12, but we are uncomfortable with them.

“All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

We are uncertain whether we want to embrace such a costly position because we have grown so comfortable with the world.

The child of God under pressure provides opportunity for those watching to witness the power of Christ revealed through the response of the faithful.

Unexpected power was witnessed through trials in the life of the Apostle to the Gentiles.

Paul wrote the Corinthian Christians this insightful, and neglected, admonition.

“To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities.

For when I am weak, then I am strong” [2 CORINTHIANS 12:7-10].

For years I’ve heard preachers offer those who were willing to receive it the message of life.

It was commonly said in the middle years of the last century, “The cost of being a Christian is high, but the benefits are out of this world.”

It was meant to emphasise the truth that life as a follower of the Son of God would make demands on the disciple; but God has promised rich rewards.

We who are born from above, we who are saved, always have the presence of the Son of God with us even now.

We have immediate access to the Throne of God.

We have confidence that because we are accepted in the Beloved Son that God hears our prayer and that He will answer in accordance with His will.

We are adopted into the Family of God and we have an eternal inheritance.

We know that our treasures are laid up in heaven, “where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” [MATTHEW 6:20].

We have the privilege of being called by the Name of God’s own Son.

“We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” [2 CORINTHIANS 5:1].

We who are saved have all this, and Heaven too.

No wonder that the child of God can sing songs at midnight!

No wonder that the child of God does not run every time the devil’s crowd barks!

We stand firm, confident in the promise that we have been accepted in the Beloved [see EPHESIANS 1:6].

If we spoke more of the salvation of the lost, if we were more clear in defining what it means to be lost, if we were more definite in pointing out the mercies of Christ the Lord, there is no doubt that we would more frequently hear this question asked by those honestly seeking life, “What must I do to be saved?”

Salvation is not the purview of a select few; it is the free gift of God offered to all.

The church does not control who will be saved; those whom the Lord calls will be saved.

It is our responsibility to declare the message of life, to warn sinners of the consequences of delay and to exalt the salvation of the Lord.

We do this through living godly and holy lives, through prayerfully seeking the salvation of family, friends and colleagues, and through telling all who will receive our witness of the great things that the Lord has done for us.

This is the practical application of the Master’s command, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” [MATTHEW 28:19, 20].

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE “LOST?”

It has been said that all the world may be divided into one of two groups—saints and aint’s.

Based on biblical revelation, that sounds about right.

Saints are those individuals who have been redeemed, saved, born from above.