PREACHED:
“SAVED
TO SAVE”
TEXTS:
Rom
Rom
5:6,11. “For while we were still weak, at
the right time, Christ died for the ungodly…More than that we also rejoice
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received
reconciliation…”
Rom
INTRODUCTION:
1@ HOW WONDERFUL IT IS TO BE SAVED!
A. A life hopelessness has been
replaced with an eternal hope!
1. II Thess
2:14,16. “…he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ…Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and
God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through
grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.”
B. I read a story that beautifully describes
what has been done for us by Jesus through the gospel:
1. “A man had fallen into a deep dark pit
and lay in its miry bottom, groaning and utterly unable to move. Someone passed
by close enough to see his plight, but walked on with stately tread, without
giving any help. Another approached the edge of the pit, and said, ‘Poor
fellow! I’m sorry for you, but it’s your fate. If you ever get out of there,
don’t get in it again.’ A religious leader next came by and said, ‘Poor fellow!
I am very much pained to see you in that plight. If you could but scramble half
way, I could reach you and help you up the rest of the way.’ Next came one,
bearing in His hands, feet and side marks of deep wounds, and He, hearing the
man’s groans, had pity on him, and throwing down a lifeline, lifted the poor
man saying, ‘Go and sin no more!’”
2. I have been saved from that miry pit of
sin to gladly tell others, also trapped in the miry clay, of what my Savior did
for me and throw that same lifeline of the gospel, that they may lay hold of it
and be pulled to safety!
a. Psa 40:1-3. I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me
and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry
bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a son in my
mouth, a son of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their
trust in the Lord.”
2@ ISAIAH’S MESSAGE TO THE WICKED CITY
A. He describes them:
1. “O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not
comforted…” (Isa
54:11)
B. But in the beginning of Isa 54, he tells
1. V
1. “ ‘Sing, O barren one, who did not
bear; break forth in singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor. For
the children of the desolate one will be more than her who is married,’ says
the Lord…” Vs 4-8. “Fear not,
for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced;
for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood
you will remember no more. For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is
his name; and the Holy One of
B. I was…
1. …childless, so wanting children, but the
doctor announces that I will have a child!
2. …an orphan, uncared for, unloved, and abandoned, but a kindly
billionaire had compassion on me, opened his loving arms and his treasure to me
and made me his son and heir!
3. …a woman who had lost her virtue, scared
and ugly from a life of dissipation and sin, but a wonderful man, the husband
of my youth, sought me, rescued me, forgave me and, though I was completely
unworthy of his love, made me his bride!
3@ Isaiah had experienced and understood the magnitude
of God’s forgiveness and in Isa 55 gives us what
might well be called “The Song” of the soul winner!
A. What does he tell us about God’s proclaimer of the good news of God’s grace?
DISCUSSION:
1Ä God’s soul-winner has a UNIVERSAL VISION.
A. V
1. “COME, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and
he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money
and without price…”
1. Notice John’s plea at the end of the
Revelation:
a.
B.
“He who lives to himself and dies to himself,
To himself an none beside,
Lives
as though Christ never lived,
As though He never
died.”
C. God’s soul-winner has a UNIVERSAL
VISION!
2Ä God’s soul winner has INDIVIDUAL COMPASSION.
A. The language of Isaiah is almost that of
town crier! Come listen to me!
B. But though he is called a nation and a city
back to God, he deals with individual needs!
For each one—from
king to peasant—had to hear and respond to the good news!
1. It is interesting in John’s invitation in
Revelation:
a. “Let him who hears say, ‘Come’…
Let the one who is thirsty come…”
C. Someone has said that Jesus cannot forget
one single soul for he has the name of each of us graven on his hands and
driven into his feet!
D. God’s soul-winner has INDIVIDUAL
COMPASSION!
3Ä God’s soul-winner has ETERNAL VALUES.
A. Isa
55:2. “Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich
food…”
1. John
6:27. “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food
that endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give you.”
John
4:14. (To the woman at Jacob’s well) “…whoever drinks of the
water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to
eternal life…”
B. The man with eternal values has counted
the cost and paid the price!
1. He is not so much concerned about the
material cost of serving Christ, but the eternal cost of not serving!
4Ä God’s soul-winner has a sense of URGENCY.
A. From God’s perspective:
1. Isa
55:3. “Incline your ear and come to me; hear,
that your soul may live; and I will make with you and everlasting covenant, my
steadfast, sure love for David.”
B. From his own perspective:
1. V
6,7. “Seek the Lord while he may be
found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his
way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that the
may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
C. John
4:35. “Do you not say? There are yet…”
Heb 3:15. “Today, If
you will hear…”
II
Cor 6:1,2. “Working
together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive…”
CONCLUSION:
1$ When we—like Isaiah—get a clearer vision of the
condition of the lost, the glory of our salvation, God’s desire that all
share it but the limited time of its availability:
u We’ll start realigning our values -
u We’ll have a deeper sense of our debt -
u Well be
obsessed with urgency -
Truly, the song of the saved is the is the song of the soul-winner!