Go with me now to Romans chapter
8. Romans 8. We might come back to Ephesians.
I certainly quote some of it or refer to
some of it. Listen to what John the Baptist
said. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. That's what he said. He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. And then John the Apostle
said, this is the record that God hath given unto us eternal
life, and this life is in his Son, and he that hath the Son
hath life. That's what it says. That's what
he said. God can't lie. He that hath the
Son, what's that mean? He that hath faith in the Son.
All his faith is in the Son. He hath hope in the Son. He hath
a need for the Son. Hath life. Hath. Hath. A woman was talking to me on
the phone the other day, and she was in trouble and despair. She'd been talking to a preacher.
who asked her when she was saved, when she felt like she was saved.
And she couldn't give a definite answer. She said the Lord began
to work on her. And she said quite some time
later, she said she felt like she finally believed. And the
man said to her, that's too long. And so she was greatly troubled. Salvations of the Lord. It's not up to someone else to
decide if I am saved or not. Aren't you glad? I hope this will be a comfort
to God's people and give assurance. I hope someone will hear. I hope
the Lord will save someone. It's through His Word, I know
that. This is the power of God. There are basically five types
of hearers. that I preach to, that any man
preaches to, there are the saved, God's people who are saved and
have some assurance of it. They believe. Salvation is to
believe on the Son of God. I just quoted it to you, right?
It's to really believe and trust the Lord Jesus Christ and look
to Him. That's salvation. He is salvation.
There are those who believe Him, those who trust Him and have
some assurance, some assurance in Him. There are those who are
saved and have very little assurance, constantly in doubt, no assurance. And the reason for that has to
be because they're looking within themselves to find something
to give them some assurance that they're saved. Well, that's not
where you look for assurance. You look to the surety. You look
to Him, our Lord said, look unto Me and be saved. Look within,
you'll just see sin. And it'll leave you full of death.
You look to Him, He'll give you hope, peace, assurance. Then there are the unsaved that
are religious and have some religion, maybe some doctrine, and the
unsaved that think they're saved. A lot of them. Then there are
the unsaved who don't care. They're lost and don't know it
and don't care and don't want to know. And then, and this is all
of us, there are those who are being saved. Being saved. The Lord is dealing
with and bringing and making hungry and making thirsty and
making call and making come. The title of this message is,
When is a person saved? I'll tell you three things. When
God purposed it, when Christ died, and when the Gospel comes. And when we're in glory. Four. Okay? We have been, we are now,
we shall be saved. Okay? Saved. What does saved
mean? It means you're lost and someone has to find you. Now
that there, that plainly means salvation of someone else. That
if you somehow or another, I'm not going to talk, it's certain
no one's saved who thinks they had something to do with it.
Anything to do with it. No one's saved who thinks they
had anything to do with it. They made a choice or their will
or, you know, they accepted Jesus and let Him into their lives.
That's not salvation. That person's still lost. They're
just religious. They just got religion. That's certain. But to be saved means you're
lost and that means somebody has to find you. You can't save
yourself. You don't know the way. Someone
has to come where you are and Find you. To be saved means you
were dead and someone has to give you life.
Dead, Martin used to say, it means graveyard dead. You know
what graveyard dead is? Lazarus. He's dead. He's stinking
dead. There's a stone over the door.
What did the Lord do? He gave command. Roll away the
stone. I'm going to give him life. I'm
going to bring him out of darkness. I'm going to call him from death
to life. I am come that he might have
life. He's not going to have life unless Jesus Christ says
so. Salvation is to be blind. And if you're blind, you can't
see. And if you ever see, it's someone
who's got to give you sight. Salvation is you don't believe,
and one day you do believe, and that's not of yourselves. It's
a gift of God. And now, once that happens, when
that happens, there's no gray area. You hear me? There's no gray area. Whose will
is it? You'll quit asking that question.
Because we read there in Ephesians 1 of His own will. Will. His will. His will. His will.
His will. He realized that. And I wouldn't
be saved if God hadn't willed it. Now, salvation belongeth unto
the Lord. Psalm 3, 8 says, Salvation belongeth
unto the Lord. Thy blessing is upon thy people. Jonah 2, 9. Salvation is of the
Lord. It's His will. It's His mercy.
It's His grace. It's His prerogative. It's His
choice. It's His purpose. It's His work. It's His blood. It's His righteousness. It's His power. And it's for
His glory. Through the praise and the glory
of His grace. Repentance is the gift of God.
Faith is the gift of God. Works are the gift of God. Salvation
is of the Lord. How plain can I make it? I didn't
say I didn't make it plain. The Lord did. This is God's Word,
okay? Salvation is threefold. The Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God the Father thought it. God
the Son bought it. And God the Holy Spirit brought
it. Or God purposed it. God the Father purposed it. God
the Son purchased it. God the Holy Spirit applies it.
Salvation is of the Lord. Election by the Father. Redemption
by the Son. Regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
Salvation is of the Lord. You're lost, He finds you. You're
dead, He gives you life. You're blind, He makes you see.
Through the praise of the glory of His praise. It's the three R's. Ruin, Redeem,
Regenerate. It's a true story. You've heard
it. Someone hasn't. But years ago, a young girl in
the church that my father pastored years ago, 40 or 50 years ago.
She was in school and the teacher said, the girl was maybe six
years old, the teacher said, who knows what the three R's
are? You know, you women over 70 and I'm not, over 60 knows,
back in school you needed to learn three things, didn't you? Reading, writing, arithmetic.
Those are the three R's, reading, writing, arithmetic. Well, this
little girl said, she waved her hand, I know them, I know the
three R's. She said, well, stand up. She
said, tell us. She said, ruined, redeemed and
regenerated. All right, this woman teacher probably
had a master's degree in education. She said, what? What on earth are you talking
about? See, at least that child knew the truth in her head. The salvation of the Lord. Ruined
by the fall, redeemed by the Son, regenerated by the Holy
Spirit. Salvation of the Lord. What happened in the garden?
Ruined. Dead. Sin. In bondage. What happened on the cross? Salvation. Redemption. Captivity. Loosed. The Gospel comes. by the Spirit of God. There's one thing for sure all
God's children know. They know the three R's. They
know. If we're saved, God did it. God
did it. So the answer, as I said, the
answer to this question, when is someone saved, is fourfold
actually. Half been, we are now, we are
being saved, and shall be. When are we saved? We were saved,
God's people were all saved when God said so. When God, before
the world began, chose a people and purposed to give them to
Christ to come to earth and live for them, establish their righteousness,
go to the cross, be made sin for them, pay for all their sin,
come back to glory, sit down, reign and rule until all that's
over, and then come and get them and take them back to glory.
Now all that was said, all of that was in the mind, the will,
and the purpose of God before anything ever had its meaning. And it's as good as done. God
said, I've spoken it, I will bring it to pass. He said, I've
purposed it, I will do it. Done. Years ago, I taught you
all Latin. You remember? We all learned
Latin years ago. We learned two words. It's all
you need to know. All you need to know. All the
Latin you need to know. Dictum. Factum. Dictum. Factum. Said. Done. Done. That's the difference between
the salvation men are preaching today. Two letters. They say
good. Nuh-uh. Salvation says done. It's done. When God said it,
it's as good as done. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning of the world. He purposed all things in Christ.
And God said, I've spoken it, I will do it. Okay. You're talking about eternal
justification? Yes, I am. I don't like that. I do. Because whatever God's purpose
is going to be done, that's all my hope. Whatever God promised,
it's going to come to pass. That's all my hope. If anything's
left up to anybody or anything, I'm a goner. But when God said,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love. And what's the rest of
that? Therefore, with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. And loving
his own, you'll love him to the end. All right? God's people have been saved. Look at Romans 8. Romans 8. You
turn there. We quote it. We know. Verse 28. We know. Who knows? Who's he
talking to? Those in Christ. Those led by
the Spirit of Christ. What does He do? He shows them
Christ. He teaches all that Christ did,
right? And they're saved by hope in Christ, He said. He said that's
what we all know. All know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. They know they love
God. Why? Because He first loved them.
They know that. To them who are called according
to what? Purpose. Whose purpose? A man wrote years ago a book
called The Purpose Driven Life. Sold a, made a fortune, probably
become a millionaire, you know. And all these people out there
bought this book. You don't need that book. You
need Romans 8, 28. Here's the purpose of God. And
all things work together for the good of God's people, the
purpose of God according to salvation and redemption. It's all in Jesus
Christ. He purposed the salvation of
His people. And it's all on purpose. 4, verse
29, Whom He did foreknow. This is all past tense. You see
that? It all sounds like it's already
happened. It has. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate. We read that in Ephesians 1,
didn't we? He predetermined. You know, this, what that is,
predestination, is planned parenthood on God's, according to God. Planned parenthood. He chose
who his children would be. How many they are, what they
look like, the hairs on their head. Predestinated. To be conformed to the image
of Christ. by Christ, and says that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. He called by the gospel. Whom
he called, them he justified. Whom he justified, them he also
glorified. Past tense. Said the victim fact. We are saved when God purposed
it. purpose of God. Romans 9 says, The children being
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of him that
run, but of God that call. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved,
and Esau have I hated. The purpose of God. They are
not born yet, but God purpose. God chose. God elected. Somebody says, I don't understand
that. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Sure you do. He chose this one,
passed by this one. What's hard to understand about
that? If he hadn't chosen this one, he would never have chosen
him. Right? This one won't. This one will
choose why? Because God chose him. No other
reason. Right? They're both dead. Same
mother, same father. Huh? But God said, I love this
one. He didn't, he didn't deserve
a love. He just liked this one. But God, with a great love, where
with he loved Jacob, you'd have liked Esau better than Jacob.
But God chose Jacob. Set his love on him. And nothing
and nobody's going to stop God from saving you. Not even Jacob. And some of you are laughing.
He must be a son of Jacob. Saint Doctrinus is God choosing
sinners. Saved when God chose. Saved when
Christ came. Look at Romans 8. When Christ
came. Look at verse 33. Who shall lay
anything to charge of God's elect? Who justifies? It is God that
justifies. Does your face justify? It's
God that justifies. That publican was justified before
he knew it. All the publicans say is, have
mercy! And our Lord says, he's justified. Alright, read on. Verse 34, Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Why does someone say? Because
God says so. Why does someone say? Because
Christ died. Because Christ came. Because
Christ came to live for them. According to the law. He came
to die for them. According to the law. And He's
coming again for them. According to the promise. Christ
came. Christ lived. Look at Romans
5. Go back there quick. Romans 5.
Look at this. When is a person saved? When
Jesus Christ hung on Calvary's tree, all of God's people from
time past to time future were saved by His blood. Saved. Absolutely. Put away. Finish
the transcription. Isn't that what the Scripture
says, John? Isn't that what the Scripture says? He said it's
finished. Who finished it? He did! Nothing
left to do? Nothing. Done. Dictum factum. All right? Christ had to die,
though. They're not going to be saved
if Christ doesn't come and live for them. Made under the law.
Made of a woman. Adam, second Adam. Covenant head. Made sin for them. Put away their
sin in his body on the tree. Had to come and die for them.
It was a sure thing. It was a certain thing. He's
the surety. He came and died. Romans 5, it
says in verse 6, When we were yet without strength, at due
time Christ died for the ungodly. Scarcely for a righteous man
would one die, yet for a venture a good man some would even dare
to die. But God committeth His love toward us. Who? Who's He
talking about? These Roman believers here. He started out talking to those
that The called, all the called, called to be saints, grace to
you, peace to you. So he goes on to say here, while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being
now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through
him. Or if when we were enemies, we
were reconciled. We were reconciled to God when
we were enemies. Right? That's what it says. When
we didn't believe, Christ hung on the cross before we were born.
Christ in His prayer, Father, forgive them. Who's that for?
Me! You, if you believe, according to His power. So while we were
enemies, we were reconciled by the death of His Son. Much more
than being reconciled, we'll be saved by His life. We shall
be saved. You have been. You shall be. All right? We're saved when God
said so. We're saved when Christ came
and did so. We're saved when the Spirit of
God, through the preaching of the Gospel, gives us new birth. Ephesians 1. Go back there. Ephesians
1. We're saved when the Holy Spirit of God, through the preaching
of the Gospel, and nobody is saved apart from preaching the
Gospel. Nobody. Please God by the food is just
a pretty sight. How should I hear that a pretty.
So the patient's one look at this. I'll read it again first
of all. According as he had chosen us
in Christ before the world that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. having predestinated us under
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, it's all according
to the good pleasure of his will. Read on. And it's to the praise
of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted, where? In the beloved. In whom, verse
7, we have redemption done through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins. according to the riches of His
grace. And it goes on to say, in verse 9, He's made known unto
us the mystery of what? His will. If you were in religion
before, you thought you had a free will. But when God comes through
the Gospel, He makes you to know your will is depraved. It's His
will. It's not of Him that willeth.
It's all about mercy. And He will have mercy on whom
He will have mercy. It's not up to you. And then verse down, look at
verse 13, it says, In whom you trusted after you heard the word
of truth. Salvation comes. When the gospel
comes to you in power, not word only, not doctrine, but power,
and the Holy Ghost, and gives you much assurance, what's that?
Of Christ. The Holy Ghost shows you Christ. It's all Him. It's all Him. John 17, 3. This is life eternal,
our Lord said. And right before that He said,
as you've given Him power over all flesh, John 17, 2. Christ
said to the Father, You've given Him power over all flesh, that
He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.
Is that plain? Who gave who? God gave people
to Christ. Who did He save then? Who has
the power? He does. They have none. And then He says,
This is life eternal, verse 3, that they might know Thee the
only true God. Not a God who wants to be God,
not a God who let me be God. That's not the true God. The
true God is God. And the true God comes to you
and makes you know that He's God. You don't figure it out,
He reveals Himself to you. I am God. There is none else. There's no little G.O.D. with
me. You notice that in Isaiah? There's no little G-O-D. Nobody
with any power over anything. Certainly not man. He's a worm. A man is a worm. I am God. The true God. And Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. This is life eternally sent.
That they might know thee the only true God. And Jesus Christ
whom God sent. Sent! on purpose. To do what? Save his people. Did he? Yes! That's it. You come to know that. You come
to see it. You come to find out. He's God isn't he? I'm a maggot. Christ is That's it. I didn't have anything to do
with it. That's when you say when
the gospel comes in power. You know, this is the day of
salvation right now. I'm preaching the gospel. But
it's up to God. It's not up to you. It's not
up to me. It's up to God. If He can take this Word and
open blind eyes and deaf ears and hard heart and roll away
the stony heart, He can roll away that stone. It's up to Him,
totally up to Him. We preach the same thing, same
thing, same one, over and over, over and over, until God. Well,
those that have been saved, this is how we are being saved. It's how we're being saved. And
that's my next point. We're being saved. Someone once
said, every time the gospel is preached, I feel like I've been
saved all over again. Because we all get, you know,
we're out in the world, and we get dirty, and we come back,
and we hear about the leper being cleansed, and how? Day of Atonement,
blood, and we hear, we feel like we've been cleansed all over
again. We come in here, we go out in the world, we're blinded
by money and things, and we're deafened by all the voices we
hear around us. We're full of fear and doubts
and worries and questions. And then we come in here and
we hear about the Lord opening a blind man's eyes, a deaf man's
ears, and we see, we hear the truth all over again, and it
shuts our ears to the world and opens our ears to Him. It shuts
our eyes to all we see with these sighs and gives us sight. Spiritualizing. We get out in
the world and the things of this world are dead things. Everything
we do is with dead things. Inanimate objects, right? Consumed
with it. And it deadens us, okay? We come
in here feeling dead. And we hear the gospel, the words
of life again. And it quickens us. Does that
do it to you? Is this helping you? Do you love
what you're hearing? Do you see? Do you see? Are you hearing this? Do you
love this? The love of the truth. God's
people receive a love of the truth. This is why Paul said,
I'm bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren and
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you unto salvation through sanctification of spirit. What's that? He takes the things of Christ
through the preaching of the gospel and shows it unto you.
And belief of the truth, whereunto he called you. The gospel keeps
calling us, doesn't it? Keeps calling us. We go out in
the world and the world calls us. Well, the gospel of God calls
us back. We come to Him. Does this help
with you? You love this? You've been given
ears to hear and eyes to see and a heart to receive it. You're
a receiver, a receiver. Now, we're being saved and we
will be saved. This gospel is saving us and
we will be saved. We'll be saved. When we stand
in with Christ in glory and look over life's finished story, and
then not till then shall we know how much I have. And then he'll
show us the exceeding riches of his grace. We'll be safe when we finally
are with him in glory. We're not there yet. That's what
Paul said. He said, I have it around. I
said, this one thing I do, I press. It's a pressing matter to me.
This is how you know someone's being saved, has been, is saved,
and being saved. It's a pressing matter. They
have to have it. Paul wrote this over and over
again. Peter wrote this over and over again. If you hold fast
the beginning of your confidence, steadfast in the end. You'll
be made partakers of Christ if you hold fast the beginning of
your confidence, steadfast in the end. And the rejoicing, if
you hold fast, and if you still rejoice, always to the end, in
Christ your hope will grow. If you're saved, if you hold
fast. You say, see preacher, it's up
to us to hope. That's not what he's saying. It's noisy. Let me illustrate. This happened
to me, and we were in a big city. Hannah was two years old, maybe,
just learning to walk, and a little over a year old. And we were
in this big city, and we were from a small town. And it was
hustling and bustling, loud noise, and she was scared. I was scared.
All right, we had to cross this busy street. But I had her in
my arms, okay? And I'm going to take her. I
love her. I love her with all my heart. She's mine. If it's in my power, I'm not
going to let anybody or anything hurt her. And I'm not going to
let her down. I am not going to say, well,
honey, you've got a free will. Go ahead. I hope you make it.
Huh? No. Come on now. What kind of
God is that? I don't need a God like that.
I need one that picks me up. He said, from the cradle to your
hoary head, I've carried you. Okay? How's she going to get
across? Me! She was kept by my power, by
my love, by my purpose to take her across. She's kept by me! But you know what she's doing?
She's squeezing me in a death grip. She's almost choking me. Honey, hold her tight. Is she saved by her hold on me?
Is it? Does that have anything to do
with it? No, it's me. If she gets across,
it's me. If we get to heaven, we're kept
by the power of God. But you know what? God's people,
they're hanging on, my dear. And that's not what saves us.
But it's proof. It's proof of life, of need,
of hunger, of thirst, of a sinner needing mercy. Lord, I'm not
going to let you go until I get there. I'm not there. I'm afraid. Don't
let me down. Huh? Peter knew that. Oh, he got all
puffed up. Didn't everybody leave you but
me? Okay, Peter. Okay. And he fell so far down,
he thought everybody was saved by him. And he heard the most
blessed words he ever heard in his life. Go tell my disciples. And Peter, you know what Peter
did? He dove out of the boat. to get
to Him. He was the first to get to Christ. He was the worst, but He's the
first. What did Christ do? Receive. To whom? Coming. This is proof
of salvation. You keep coming. You keep coming. You keep calling. You keep crying. You keep holding. You keep hearing. You keep rejoicing. You keep
on keeping on. Why? Because you're tapped. Now, who did to save him? Is
it up to us? Well, what's it all about? To
the praise of the glory of His grace. Everybody that gets to glory,
everybody that's finally there, that's what they're all going
to say, finally, I have nothing to worry about anymore. We really
don't now. But we're all going to say unto
Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. Unto Him be all the honor and
glory and strength and power and everything. It all belongs
to Him. I did the sinning, He did the
saving. That's salvation. Now, praise
God. Okay, let's sing a closing hymn.