Six Questions

I preached my first sermon when I was seventeen years old while I was working with Southern Baptists in Tennessee. It was a church of eight people who met in a house in Raccoon Valley. I was given two hours notice. At that time, I was on the high school newspaper staff, and had learned the six questions reporters are supposed to ask--who, what, when, where and why and how. I had also served as a youth counselor at a Billy Graham Crusade, and learned my first six verses—John 1:12, John 10:10, Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Romans 5:8, John 1:12. Somehow, it occurred to me to put those two lists together, so my topic was "the who, what, when, where, why and how of salvation."


It has now been forty years since that afternoon, I have never preached that particular sermon again, nor could I recall exactly what I said. Lately, though, I have often thought tha I should preach that sermon again, not for your sake, but for mine.

Over the years I have become a “sophisticated” preacher. I have learned Greek, Hebrew, systematic theology, archaeology, anthropology, and psychology. But the more sophisticated you become, the harder simplicity becomes. You want to show off how much you know. It has become harder to simply tell the story of salvation in a way that will change lives.

I am sorry for that. Being a believer is the most wonderful thing in the world, and we have made it into “religion”—rituals practiced without meaning, worldly organizations instead of spiritual reformation. We have turned the simple gospel into complex beliefs, and in doing so lost the power of the simple.

So today instead of giving you something new and hard, I want to give you something old and easy. I want to tell you about the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the gospel.

First, who needs to be saved? You do. I do. We all do. God loves us, and wants us to spend eternity with Him. John 3:16 starts "For God so loved the world" You are part of the world that God loves, and so am I. He wants us all in heaven.

He loves you more than your mother does. He loves you more than your father does. He loves you more than you love yourself. God wants us to live with him forever, and to be with Him for all eternity.

Think of it. God the king of all the universe knows your name. He hears your prayers. He loves you with all his heart. More than anything else, God wants us to have eternal life--John 10:10 "I have come that you might have life, and have it ti abundance."God does not want us living a lives of quiet desperation. He wants us to have lives of purpose, value, and joy.

We live in a world that desperately want to be seen as happy, but inwardly is miserable. People pretend all the time. Our heroes are actors and entertainer. Our businessmen are taught to appear strong and powerful, even when they are small and weak. Our politicians pretend to have answers, when they have none. Our teachers pretend that they know their subjects, when they do not have any idea whether or not what they have been handed from their teachers is actually true. Loves pretend to love, partygoers pretend to have fun. People pretend to believe what they don't believed. All around us are people who need salvation, but are two afraid to admit it. For all these people Jesus promises life .

Second, what do we need to be saved from? In a word--sin. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were created to live in a perfect world. Then sin entered the world, and the world was never right again.

What is sin? The Bible offers two definitions for sin. The first is James 4:17--"If any man knows what it right to do, and does not do it, to him that is sin." Sin is when you don't do what you believe you are supposed to do, or when you do what you believe you should not do. Don't get hung up on all the laws of the Old Testament, and all the complexities of interpretation. Sin is not just drinking, smoking or cussing. It is not individual acts. Sin is the act of being willfully disobedient to God. The act of sin varies from one person to another, but the fact of sin does not vary. We are all sinners, because we all are guilty of acting against the conscience God had given us.

The other definition of sin is Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and come short of God's glory." Sin is falling short of God's perfection. It is thoughts, actions, intentions, and omissions that are less than what God wants for us.

Are some sins worse than others? Not according to God. You cannot be a little pregnant. Nor can you be a little rebellious. We are either rebels or saints. There is nothing in the middle.

How good to you have to be to not be considered a sinner? Jesus said "be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." If you are not perfect, then you are a sinner, because you fall short of God's glory.

All sin has the same punishment--death. "The wages of sin is death, "Romans 6:23 says. There are no exceptions. Wages are what we earn by what we do. If we work at a job, then our wages are money, but if we work on a chain gang, our wages are our just punishment. Once our debt has been fully paid, then we can go free. The only thing we earn by sin is eternal death. We owe death for sin, and not until our lives are over have we fully paid it. But Paul goes on and says "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." God gives us what we have not earned an not given us what we have.

Third, when were we saved? This answer may surprise you. You were not saved in your lifetime. You were not saved in this century. You were saved two thousand years ago, when Jesus died on he cross. Romans 5:8 "For God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

God made the offer of redemption before you were ever born. He paid for your redemption before you ever asked. Your redemption is yours to have, through the death of Jesus Christ.

Think on this. If the wages of sin is death, then someone has to die for sin. You can't do it. I can't do it for you. The only person good enough to die for the whole world is Jesus Christ, who was God in human form.

Jesus anticipated our birth. If he anticipated our birth, he must then have anticipated our sin. If he anticipated our sin, the He also anticipated our salvation through His blood.

In the Old Testament, people atoned for sin by an animal sacrifice. This may seem strange to us, but it was not to them. They knew that the only way to redeem a person who deserved to shed blood was by the shedding of blood. But the blood of animals was not an adequate shedding for all sin. Only the blood of a pure person, who never committed any sin, was pure enough to atone for the sins of the whole world. Jesus endured the most horrible punishment imaginable, so that you would not have to be punished for your sins.

Fourth, why were we saved? Because He loves us.

I John 2:1-2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

In the end, it is not just the Jesus' blood that saves us--it is his love. We are saved by such an overwhelming love, that He would not shirk from the most humiliating death imaginable.

Crucifixion was the most humiliating death that the Romans could imagine--and they could imagine some pretty horrible stuff. A person was stripped naked. Then he was physically nailed to a wooden pole or cross. Once he was on the cross, he was forgotten. He was considered dead, even while he was alive. He was never taken down from the cross. He was left there to decay, in front of the entire world, until the vermin picked his bones clean, and he fell into a rotting pile of corruption. No one could touch him once he was on the cross. Everyone looked away in horror.

The point is not how horrible the Romans were, but how deep God loved us. God loves us enough to endure the suffering Himself on our behalf. He literally shed blood to buy us from sin, and offer us a new life. We are saved by His love.

Fifth, Where were we saved to? The world "saved" has been used so much in the context of the church that it risks losing its meaning. "Saved" means to be rescued, just like a person is rescued from a burning building or a sinking ship. What is most important in any rescue is not where we are rescued from, but where we are rescued to. Where does God take us?

We are rescued to everlasting life with Jesus. "God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life." Everlasting life is heaven--an eternity with God.

I don't understand heaven any more than I understand hell. But God occasionally gives us glimpses of what it will be. All human joys and blessings are simply foretasts of what heaven is supposed to be for us. Every sunrise gives us a glimpse. Every clear, starry sky displays heavens distant lights. Every roll of thunder or purple mountain reveals it's majesty. I do not know exactly what heaven will be, but when we get there, I believe we will say "of course, this is what life was supposed to be all along."We will know it when we get there.

Sixth, How are we saved?

Admit that we are sinners and cannot save ourselves.

Believe that Jesus Christ died for our sinners

Confess publicly that that we receive Him as our Lord and savior.

John 1:12 tells us "For as many as have received Him, to them He gave the power to become the children of God, even to those who believe on His name."

It is not hard. We just confess and believe. We put our trust in Him, and He saves us.

What is the path to God? There isn't one. There is only salvation from God. We cannot go to Him unless He first came to us. When he does, then we must receive what He has offered---eternal life.

There are no time limits in heaven, but there is on earth. We have a limited time offer of salvation. It is limited to this time and this place. So if we are to receive Him, we must do it now, during this brief time on earth.

None of us know how brief that time will be. You never know when death may come over you, or with what suddenness. For that reason, it is vitally important we know what we believe now. If you are not sure what will happen to you after you die, then make sure. Take the time to know for a fact, that you are saved. It is the simplest truth in the world.