Well, I begin the message this
evening by asking you a few questions, and I trust that God the Spirit
would enable you to be honest in giving an answer within your
own mind and in your own heart. Are you saved? I know the word saved and even
that question, are you saved? In religion today, it's tossed
about quite freely. And most people have no idea,
no comprehension of exactly what it means to be saved. But this
is not an issue to be taken lightly. We desire God's salvation. Not salvation as man defines
it. As one man told me one time,
who was by his own profession, he was an outstanding soul winner. He said, I'll tell you Jim, getting
saved is as easy as falling off a log. And I said, well the scripture
says we are saved with much difficulty. And I know that faith in the
Lord Jesus is absolutely necessary in this salvation. But this faith
has to be given. And it's a salvation founded
in God's own eternal purpose. It's designed in such a way that
all of the attributes of our God are honored. And all of the needs of us poor
sinners are fulfilled. Are you saved? That is, are you
delivered? Delivered from Satan? Delivered
from your own sinfulness? Delivered from yourself. Are
you delivered? Are you saved from false religion? In the book of Acts, the second
chapter, after Peter preached that message on the day of Pentecost,
he said to those people who were listening to him, he said, save
yourselves from this untoward generation, from this crooked
generation. And this generation in which
we live, the religion of today is a crooked religion. It isn't
straight. You see, the gospel is absolutely
straight. There's no crooks or turns in
it. It is the very truth of God.
It honors God in all of His characteristics and it meets our every need. And the Scripture says, Peter
says, save yourselves from this crooked religious but lost generation. Are you saved? Are you delivered? Are you rescued? That's a good
word for saved, being rescued. Rescued from the penalty of sin. Rescued from the very power of
sin. And do you look forward to that
day when you will be rescued from the very presence of sin? We do, don't we? We look forward
to that day. Were your sins washed away when
our Lord Jesus shed His sin-atoning blood as our Redeemer? Are you robed in the garments
of righteousness, not your own, but the imputed righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you now really in your heart
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation? Is He all your
hope? Is He the only foundation for
your hope for eternity? Well, if you answer yes to those
questions, then two things are true. Number one, you did not
save yourself. You did not rescue yourself. Not at all. You did not deliver
yourself from your sinfulness. You did not deliver yourself
from the captivity of Satan. We read in 2 Timothy 2 that Satan,
he holds all men captive at his will. You didn't rescue yourself. You didn't deliver yourself.
You didn't break those chains that bound you. We're like that wild man running
about through the cemetery, around all the tombstones, the graves. And our Lord goes in. Everybody
else, they were fearful of Him. And our Lord goes in and He casts
the demons out of Him. And then, the man was in his
right mind. And I'll tell you, if the Lord
has saved us, we're in our right minds now. And I know to some degree we're
still foolish. There's still much we don't know,
but we're not fools. We've been made wise unto salvation
by the Word of God. We have some awareness of who
God is. And we fear the Lord. That's
the beginning of wisdom. It's the beginning of knowledge. And we have some degree of understanding
of our own dilemma. And knowing about our own sinfulness,
our own depravity, we know we did not rescue ourselves. We did not deliver ourselves. We did not save ourselves. That's impossible. If we're to be saved, That means we are to be made
perfect. Did you make yourself perfect? We made reference this morning
and indeed Bill read to us there from verse four here in Ephesians
chapter one that God had chosen us that we
would be before Him, before the eyes of God. We're not talking
about before the eyes of people. People may, as you stand before
people, you may appear to them to be holy and without blame,
but their standards aren't nearly as high as God's are. Couldn't make yourself holy?
Where would you start? You can't make yourself to be
without blame. Where would you begin? I know you didn't save yourself. Because you couldn't pay God
what you owed Him. You owed to God an infinite debt. As does everybody else. and even going to hell itself
and being there for thousands and thousands and thousands of
years never lessens your indebtedness unto God. This matter of salvation means
your debt is paid. You didn't pay it. You couldn't
pay it. While we would say of each of
us, as far as ability to pay, we didn't have one thin spiritual
dime on us. The cost is too great. The psalmist says no man can
even redeem his brother. You can't redeem your children.
You can't redeem your parents. You can't redeem your brother,
you can't redeem your sister, and you can't redeem yourself. What you owe is way yonder beyond
your ability to pay. You can't pay anything. Can you put your sins away? Can
you make yourself righteous? That's what God demands. He doesn't
demand the best you can do. He demands righteousness. And you can't provide it. Because
like Isaiah, we all say, all of our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. To be saved, means that our rags
have to go and we're robed in the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And as you couldn't put your
sins away, you couldn't give yourself any spiritual life. And we know Bill read to us,
Ephesians chapter one, the very next verse after the last verse
of chapter one says, and you hath he quickened who were dead. You couldn't give yourself life,
spiritual life, couldn't give yourself physical life, you couldn't
give yourself spiritual life. Our Lord one day came across
a procession, a funeral procession. A widow, her only boy, had died. And he was being carried out
to be buried on what they called a beer, kind of a shallow couch
or bed. And he who is life met death. And when life, the one who said,
I am the resurrection and the life, when the one who is life
meets death, death is going away. And our Lord Jesus, He spoke
to that young boy. He said, young man, I say unto
you, arise. Could that young boy give himself
life? Well, you say, well, that's absurd.
Of course he could. Well, that young man could sooner
give himself physical life than you or me or anybody else could
give themselves spiritual life. And the scripture says, he that
was dead, he sat up. And He began to speak. Bless the day when God the Spirit
came to us in the power of salvation, quickening power, regenerating
power, the power of the new birth. He came to us and He spoke to
us and He said, live! And we sat up. We sat up. And we began to speak. Lord,
show me mercy. He's already shown you mercy
if you're speaking. I know free willism makes the
new birth the act of man based upon his decision or his own
free will. That's kind of like, you ever
heard of a Saint Dennis? Dionysus sometimes he's called. Sometimes he's spelled- his name
is spelled with two N's and sometimes it's spelled with one N. But
in 250 A.D. he was a bishop in the Catholic
Church and he was martyred. They killed him. Cut off his
head. He didn't believe anything, but
he was killed anyway. He was martyred. Cut off his
head, his body fell down dead. And according to Catholic lore,
that body then stood up and bent down and picked up his head.
And it varies depending on which source you go to as to how many
miles he walked carrying his head. as they say, preaching
on the subject of repentance. And some say he walked six miles,
and believe it or not, there are some Catholic authorities
who say he walked a thousand miles. And then when he got to where
he was going, they then made a statute of him, and a basilica
was formed, that's kind of a special church that has the Pope's special
blessing. And he's called the patron saint
of Paris. And that's where most all the
French kings and queens have been buried. You can look it
up. You can Google it. But he supposedly gave himself
life. And one person asked Charles
Spurgeon about it. What do you think about that?
He said, well, I don't have any trouble with the part that says,
well, he walked six miles or even a thousand miles. He said,
I'd give him that if he can take the first step. Look it up, they've got pictures
and if you Google it, got a picture
of him, his statue, holding his head there in front of him. Gave
himself life. Did you give yourself life? Well, if you think you gave yourself
spiritual life, I've got news for you, you're still spiritually
dead. That's right, isn't it? No person can give life to themselves. The Lord said, I am the resurrection
and the life. I love that passage over in Revelation
chapter 20 and verse 6. Blessed is he that hath part
in the first resurrection. Over such the second death hath
no power. Well, who is it that has a part
in the first resurrection? What is that first resurrection?
The new birth. Regeneration. The Word of God
goes forth. And it results in as the Spirit
of God takes that living word, that incorruptible seed of the
Word of God, the Spirit of God takes that and puts it in the
heart and miraculously and mysteriously, there's spiritual life there.
And then the one who was dead sets up and speaks. So I say two things are sure. If you answered, yes, I'm saved,
I'm delivered, I'm rescued, the first thing is you didn't save
yourself. And here's the second thing then.
Since you did not and could not deliver, rescue, or save yourself,
who did save you? Someone else? A dear preacher, a very persuasive evangelist. Back when I was a kid and in
the religion I was involved in, if you walked down the aisle
at the end of a service, somebody would take you back to a room
back in the back of the building. and tell you the ABCs of the
gospel. Accept, believe, and confess,
and you're saved. That's all it is to it. Did the church save you? Well, this book says salvation
is of the Lord. That's what this book says. And
my subject this evening is truths about your salvation. Truths about your salvation. Don't you rejoice as you go through
the Word of God and you see the many descriptions of salvation
given in the Holy Scriptures by the Lord Himself? It's interesting that the very
first time the word salvation is used, it came forth from the
lips of a man we've been studying on Wednesday nights here for
the last several Wednesday nights, a man by the name of Jacob. And in Genesis chapter 49, he's blessing his sons, speaking
to them from his deathbed. But then, all of a sudden, he
stops speaking to his boys, to his sons, and he says to Almighty God,
just right in the middle, in Genesis 49 and verse 18, he just
stops, doesn't say anything to his sons, and he says this. I have waited for thy salvation,
O Lord." Then he goes back to pronouncing blessings upon his
son. See, Jacob recognized what most
people don't recognize. Salvation is of God. And it is
God's salvation. and he gives it to whoever he
wants to. And so we read, the Lord says,
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. We say, that's not fair. Well,
now wait a minute. It's his salvation. And he has the right to give
it to whom he will. If you have something, let's
say you have a, I don't know, an extra television. We'll say
that. And you got a neighbor who lives
over here and a neighbor who lives over here and you like
them both equally. You and your wife talk about
it and say, you know, I think I'm going to give my television
to the Smiths over here. And so he gives you television
to the Smiths, but then the Joneses who live over here, they say,
that's not fair. How come you didn't give that
television to us? It's my television. I give it
to who I want to. And that's a very elementary
story or illustration of God's sovereignty when it comes to
grace. when it comes to salvation. It
is God's grace, it is God's mercy, it is God's salvation. And if
he wants to give it to Mr. Smith and not give it to Mr. Jones, who's going to argue with
him? Because you see, neither one
deserved it. God just exercised His sovereign
prerogative and gave to one and didn't give to the other. This
is God's salvation. The book of Hebrews says of this
salvation, it is eternal salvation. It is eternal. You know what
that means? It extends both ways. Go back
into eternity past if we can express it that way. And go out, John, into eternity
future if we could express it that way. That's God's salvation. You see, the salvation of a poor
sinner is of God. It's only of God. It was devised
by God. It was purposed by God. And God
is making no new purposes. Therefore, the salvation of His
people is an everlasting choice and an everlasting salvation
from eternity past to eternity future. It's got to be that way. It's as old as God. And I've said before, it's very
accurate. If someone were to ask you, well,
how long have you been saved? Well, how about eternally? And somebody says, well, can
you make good on that? Oh, yes. 2 Timothy chapter one
in verse nine. who have saved us and called
us. Look over there with me. Hold
your place here in Ephesians. Look at 2 Timothy. I want you
to read this for yourself. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 1.
Because people think that calling precedes being saved. But, that's not how the Apostle
Paul, writing by the inspiration of God, records it, 2 Timothy
chapter one in verse nine. God, verse nine, who, that is
God, hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not
according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus, when? Before the world
began. You say, Jim, how long have you
been saved since before the world began? How long have you been saved,
Jim, since Christ Jesus shed his blood and paid my sin debt? I've been saved. How long have
you been saved since the Holy Spirit gave me a new heart? took
away the heart of stone, gave me a heart of flesh, gave me
a heart to love the gospel, to love God's grace, to believe
and love Christ Jesus, the only Savior of sinners. And now is my salvation nearer
than when I first believed. Someday I'll be, as the fellow
said, I'll be plum saved. I'll be totally saved. in eternity. This is God's salvation. Jude speaks of this salvation
as being a common salvation. And in Hebrews chapter 2 and
verse 3, we read that this is a great salvation. It's a great
salvation. Listen, anything God does is
great. Why is it called a great salvation?
Because it has a great author, God. It comes with a great purpose,
the glory of God. It was purposed in great wisdom.
How can God be just and justify folks like you and me? Through the substitutionary sacrifice
of His Son. It is for great sinners. This
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I'm chief.
It comes at a very great price, the blood of Christ Jesus. And it comes to us out of the
reservoir of God's great love. It says that, look the next chapter. Go back to Ephesians and look
at chapter two of Ephesians in verse five. But God who is rich
in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us. What a reservoir is the love
of God. It is as infinite as God himself. People talk about the love of
God today as if it's just some kind of sentimental wish on God's
behalf to help you out and do good things for you if you'd
let Him. God's love for us is infinite. For God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son. that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And about this salvation, it
comes to us in great power. Great power. What kind of power? Life-giving
power. And it secures for us a great
inheritance. This is God's salvation. And
I'm struck especially by verse 13 of Ephesians one. And let
me just make a few comments. I'll be brief. Look at verse 13. In whom ye
also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth. What is the word of truth? It's
the gospel. of your salvation, in whom also
after that you believed, then you were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise. Let me give you six things. Back when I was in Bible college, late 60s, early 70s, We had a professor there who
believed sovereign grace. He had to leave in the purge
of all the sovereign grace people. Brother Fortner and I had him
for a professor. And I remember distinctly him
writing the five points of grace on the chalkboard and teaching
us about the sovereign grace of God. But he gave us, he gave
to the preacher students a wonderful outline here from this verse
of scripture, and especially about this subject of your salvation. Here are truths about your salvation. I'll give them to you quickly.
Number one, it was designed for God's glory. God's salvation, it was designed
for God's glory. One of the things you have noticed,
most all of you, and it's been often pointed out to you from
this pulpit, is that in Ephesians chapter 1, the things done by
the Father, the things done by the Son, and the things done
by the Spirit of God are to the praise of His glory. The Father's work is set forth
in verses three through six, or five, and then look in verse
six. It is to the price of the glory
of His grace. That is the price of the glory
of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in His beloved
Son. This is designed for God's glory.
You see, one of the reasons that the message of grace is so offensive
to the natural man is this. Man doesn't get any glory. Man doesn't get any credit. We don't preach and say to you,
now it's all up to you. We don't say that. But that's
what people want to hear. They want to hear that this matter
of salvation is like a door. And my will is like a hinge. And it all hinges on my will. But that's contrary to the Word
of Truth. It's all to the price of the
glory of God's grace. What the Father did in choosing
us to be holy and without blame. What the Father did in predestinating
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself. What the Father did in accepting
us in the beloved and old eternity. It was all to the praise of the
glory of His grace. And then we pick up at verse
seven and you go down through verse number 12, it talks about
Christ Jesus. And everything that He did is
said in verse 12 to be that we should be to the praise of His
glory. Our salvation by Christ Jesus,
that redemptive work, that reconciling work, that work of making us
righteous through His own righteousness. He established a righteousness
for us and then imputed it to us. It was all to the praise
of His glory. And then the Spirit of God working
in us, the earnest of our inheritance. The One who gave us life, it
says the last phrase of verse 14, under the praise of His glory. This salvation, this salvation,
your salvation, it was designed by God for His glory. And then secondly, this salvation
is based on a divine trust. a divine trust. Again, look at
verse 13, in whom ye also trusted. Somebody trusted the son of God
before we did. who first trusted Him, go back
to verse 12, that we should be to the praise of His glory, who
first trusted in Christ, who first trusted Christ, who first
trusted His Son, God the Father. And He trusted Him with all the
elect. He trusted Him with all of the
brethren that He gave to Christ Jesus. You saved them. You redeemed
them. You reconciled them. You paid
their price. You established righteousness
for them. You send your Spirit. You send
a preacher with the message. God the Father trusted Him first. He had confidence in His Son. And I'll tell you what, if God
the Father could trust Him, you can trust Him. You can trust
Him. He was our eternal surety. Just like Judah spoke up there
in the book of Genesis. when Simeon had been held in
Egypt. And Joseph there, the ruler second
in command, said, well, if you guys are not spinning a yarn
about, well, you got a younger brother at home and a father
and you're just looking for food, if you're not really spies, you
go home and bring your youngest brother to me, Benjamin. And so the other sons go back,
he holds Simeon captive. The first one, Reuben, firstborn. He said, Dad, I'll take good
care of Benjamin. No. Reuben can't do that. That's left for the line of the
tribe of Judah. Judah said, I'll be surety for
him. Dad, I'll take care of Benjamin. You can trust me. I'll look out
for his welfare. I'll bring him home to you. Christ
is the eternal surety, and he made a pledge to the Father.
I'll bring all my brethren home. I'll bring them all safe and
sound, washed and robed. That's what he does. God trusted
him. Thirdly, this salvation is obtained
and enjoyed by divine gift, in whom ye also trusted. Trusting
is a gift. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by
grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. Whoa, what? And that not of yourself,
it's the gift of God. I thought everybody had a little
faith inside of them. Well, you thought wrong. God has to give us faith. This salvation is obtained and
enjoyed by divine gift. God gifts us with faith. And number four, this salvation
is your salvation and my salvation because it came to us by special
message. The word of truth, the gospel
of your salvation, not the word of error. I do not believe for a moment
that God uses false preaching or another gospel to save His
people. He is not desperate like that.
He sends forth His servants with that message that honors God,
that honors Christ Jesus, His person and His work. It is the
word of truth. It is the gospel, the good news
of salvation. And this salvation, it came to
you because of a special message. God sent you a messenger. And
in your own mind, you can think of the messenger that God used
and still uses to bring you the truth of the Word of God, the
truth of the Gospel. But it isn't the messenger, it's
the message that He brings. because the messenger of the
gospel is just as much a needy soul as you are. But it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. These are truths concerning your
salvation. And I'll tell you this, number
five, it's made sure to every believer by divine Sealed. The Spirit of God seals the message
home to us. He preserves us. He keeps us. Joy made lots of tomato juice. And she gave me several jars
of tomato juice, which I absolutely love. And I put it in the refrigerator
and get it good and cold. Boy, that tastes so good. And
I got all these jars yet, and don't you look for them. I would
share if you insist, but they're all sealed. And you ladies and
men too, you know what it means when you put your vegetables
in jars or your tomato juice in jars and you hear them pop.
That's sealed. Well, I'll tell you what, the
Spirit of God has sealed us. He's preserved us. We'll keep. We'll keep forever. Because of the One who has sealed
us. The Holy Spirit of God. And then the Holy Spirit dwelling
in us in this salvation is God's very, very pledge of our resurrection
glory. You were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise. Verse 14, which is the earnest
of our inheritance of the redemption of the purchased possession under
the praise of His glory. That's the earnest. I had the joyful privilege of officiating
at the wedding of Joy and Mike last Monday evening. And I asked
him, I said, is this a double ring? Yes. It's a double ring
ceremony. And each of them gave to the
other a ring. That's their pledge. That's their
pledge. I'm yours as long as life shall
last. As a token. of their love and
esteem for each other. Let me tell you something. God
has given to us a token or a pledge of how highly He values us as
His precious jewels. He has given unto us His Holy
Spirit. And that Holy Spirit is the earnest
Here's the pledge of our inheritance under the
day when we're fully glorified in heaven by Christ Jesus. Oh yeah, these are truths about
your salvation. And we just rejoice in the Lord
who saves us. And there's a sense, I know it's
past tense, but it's also a sense in which our salvation is still
present tense. He's still saving us. He's still
rescuing us. What if He left you alone? I
know that can't happen, but what if He did leave you alone? Well,
you'd fall. So He's still saving you. He's
still rescuing you. Because I'll tell you, a sinner
will perish if he can. That's just the way we're made. If it were left up to us, we'd
be sheep that jump the fence and keep on going, never come
back. But the Shepherd won't let us go. And He never will. These are truths of your salvation.
Let's get our songbooks. We'll sing a final song. Let's
sing of the Redeemer. Our Redeemer, 488. My Redeemer. Sing the first and
last stanzas. 488. We've had a blessed day and we're
thankful to the Lord that we've been able to meet and I trust
the Word of God. It's been a blessing to you,
it's been a blessing to me, and I appreciate what God has done
for us and what He continues to do for us here. So let's stand
and sing 488, My Redeemer. I will sing of my Redeemer and
His wondrous love to me. On the cruel cross He suffered
from the curse. to set me free. Sing, oh sing, of my Redeemer. With His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon. Take the dead and make me free
I will sing of my Redeemer and His heavenly love to me He from
death to life hath brought me, Son of God, with Him to be. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer,
With His blood, He purchased me On the cross, He sealed my
pardon Paid the debt, and made me free You're dismissed. Good to see you today. Wednesday
night, Marty will be back with us.