Every knee shall bow to thee,
? I shall swim through blood for
me ? ? No more shall they fill in scorn ? ? No more shall thy
crown be thorn ? ? Shame is shamed and fear is led ? ? For thou
art risen ? ? From the dead ? ? Every knee shall bow to thee ? ? Precious
Lamb who bowed for me ? ? Every tongue shall sing of thee ? ? Lives in me ? ? Macon, tis thy
jail-like tomb ? ? Vanquished, or its change its doom ? ? Thou
art free, thus form I ? ? And through thy triumph death shall
die ? Every tongue shall sing to thee, praise our man who lives
in thee. Every tribe shall come to thee. Worthy them, so speak through
me. Kingdoms, kindreds, tribes, and
tongues, Proud of thee shall praise be sung. Make from every shade and race
A tapestry of lavish grace. Every tribe shall come to thee,
Worthy lambs so speak through me. Please open your Bibles this
morning to the book of Acts. To Acts chapter 4. Men have titled this book, The
Acts of the Apostles. It might be more properly titled,
The Acts of God Through the Apostles. But if I could begin by just
maybe refreshing your minds and setting the scene before you
in this text. God has just enabled Peter and
John to raise up a man who had been lame from his birth. It says that he sat at the gate
of the temple that was called Beautiful. And they raised him up. They were enabled of God to heal
him, and it brought about a great commotion. And the crowds began
to gather. And as the crowds began to gather,
They began to preach the gospel to those that were present. They began to preach the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Bible says, and his resurrection from the
dead. And when they did that, the religious
leaders and others They became very disturbed, and
they went and gathered them and held them overnight. And then they began the next
day to interrogate them, to question their authority to do such things,
things that they could not deny. but that question their very
authority with the people. And so we read in verse 1, And
as they spake unto the people, the priests and the captain of
the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, being grieved
that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection
from the dead. And they laid hands on them and
put them in hold until the next day, for it was now eventide. Howbeit many of them which heard
the word believed, and the number of the men was about five thousand. And it came to pass on the morrow,
that their rulers, and elders, and scribes, and Annas the high
priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as
were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together
at Jerusalem. And when they had set them in
the midst, they asked, by what power Or by what name have ye
done this? And when they ask this question,
Peter speaks in a very clear and distinguishing way. He could have just spoken in
a general sense. He could have just spoken in
a kind of generic way and said, we did this in the name of Jehovah
God. Or we did this in the name of
the God of Israel. But God in some generic way was
not the issue. And so the true and living God
especially now as he is made manifest in the flesh, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the issue. And it's as this people, for
the most part, especially these religious leaders, they now stand
in rebellion against God at this very point. that the man that they have just
taken and crucified, he is the Lord of glory, and God has now
raised him from the dead. So verse 8 begins, Then Peter,
filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, ye rulers of the people
and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed
done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole,
be it known unto you all Or let me make myself clear. Be it known unto you all and
to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, that very one that you said concerning
that place that no good thing could come out of Nazareth. Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom
ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth
this man stand here before you whole. This is, and this is a direct
statement associated with a prophecy concerning the Messiah, spoken
many years before. This is the stone which was set
at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. This is Jesus, who is the Christ,
who is at the same time Jesus of Nazareth, and He is the one
that you crucified, but that God raised from the dead in His
name, by His authority, and through His power, This man stands before
you whole today. And that was not well received
at all. But then he speaks what he says
in verse 12. And this statement in verse 12
is a real cornucopia of truth. It is like a flowing, gushing
fountain of blessings and of things that must be said. He says, neither is there salvation
in any other. For as there is none of the name
under heaven, given among men whereby we must be saved." Now here is a statement that
we need to hear and think about because if you remember Peter
is not just saying these words of himself. This is not just
his idea or his opinion or my opinion or anyone else's. He speaks now, as it says, being
filled with the Holy Spirit. God speaks through him. words that were necessary to
be spoken to all these people and to us. And he speaks here with this
great necessity such as we find in other places when Christ said
to Nicodemus, you must be born again. And it's this for many, many
reasons. Because he's talking here about
the thing most vital and important to you and I as sinners. He's talking about being saved. He's talking about God's salvation. And that is because this word
salvation, as we find it in scripture, it means to be rescued. It means to be delivered. It means to be rescued or saved
from our sins. We have to be saved from our
sins. It means to be saved from Satan,
the great enemy of God and enemy of our souls. It means to be
saved, as the scripture says, from this present evil world
that is bound for destruction. It even means to be saved from
ourselves. We need to be saved from ourselves. And what he's saying here is
that God's salvation, which is in the Lord Jesus Christ, it
is a total rescue. It is a total deliverance. And so what we read in scripture
is things like this, words that when God loosened the tongues
of Zacharias, he spoke of his son that had just been born,
the one we know as John the Baptist, that he is the prophet of the
Most High. John was the last prophet, and
he's described as this man is led by the Spirit of God to say
he is the prophet of the Most High, and that is to give knowledge
of salvation unto his people by the remission
of their sins. He is the forerunner of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the forerunner of the prophet,
that great prophet, that Messiah. And He is, this prophet is, to
give knowledge of salvation to His people. And then we read such text as
this concerning Christ, who gave himself for our sins that he
might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will
of God and our Father. And so the very last part of
that statement and verse Peter says, we must be saved. That's the title of my message. We must be saved. And when Peter speaks here, he
speaks as a sinner acknowledging what he is in himself. He speaks also as an apostle
of God, declaring the truth of God. And he speaks as one of
God's elect, who God has saved. We must be saved. And what I want us to note this
morning is why it is that he says this, why must we be saved? And let me begin by saying this
first of all. We must be saved simply because
God says we must be saved. In other words, all that we are
responsible to believe We are to believe basically and essentially
and first of all because God said it. If he's the God of truth,
If He's the God with whom we have to do, we will not be left
to our own wisdom and our own opinions and our own ideas, but
we will be brought to bow before His sovereign throne and acknowledge
Him as the God of truth. Why must we be saved? Because
God says we must be saved. And you and I may say a lot of
things, and we do say a lot of things that absolutely and positively
are not true that cannot ever be said of God. He cannot lie. And we are to bow before His
throne, we are to believe what He says simply because He said
it, and that is the mandate of faith. We believe God because
He is the God of truth, and we believe what He says. We look back at our Mother Eve.
And our mother Eve believed a lie of the devil in the garden paradise
rather than believe the truth of God. We know what happened,
don't we? We must be saved because God
says that we must be saved, and we have to begin right there.
If He's our Creator, and He is, If he's the holder of all sovereignty
in his own hand, if he rules, if we're going to stand before
him, we have to be brought to bow and believe what he says
and what he says he says in this book. It's not what you think he says,
it's not what I think he says, it's what he says, and what he
says by this book. And not only that, we must be
saved because of our condition. You see, that's what Peter says
here. He says we must be saved. He didn't say we are to save
ourselves. He says we must be saved. And such is our condition as
sinners that we must be saved. Somebody outside of ourselves
has to save us. In other words, in every situation
that we look at, even in the natural for the most part, how
many times and in how many circumstances do we find ourselves in that
the only way we can be saved is by somebody other than ourselves? And we're like men and women
who've fallen into a pit. And when we fell in the bottom
of that pit, it broke every bone in our body and we lay there
helpless and weak. We don't need somebody to drop
a rope into us. We need somebody to come into
that pit where we are and take us up in their arms or take us
up on a stretcher or something and deliver us out of that pit
because of our condition. And there is no mistaking in
this book what God says our condition is as sinners. We know what we
are if we believe what God says that we are. And what he says
is this, we're dead in trespasses and sins. I thought about recently maybe
preaching a sermon by this title, What Don't You Understand About
Dead? He doesn't say we're simply sick. He doesn't simply say we're simply
weak, although he does say all those things. But what he says
really about us is what he says to those Ephesians, Ye hath he
quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. He describes us as blind. He describes us as lost. He describes us in this book,
in ourselves, as being without hope. He tells us that the mind
that we're born with, our natural mind, our natural way of thinking,
is enmity against God. He describes us as ungodly. He tells us that we are like
a leopard, spiritually, in a picture, from our head to our toes, nothing
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. And then, as if we have
not got it in our heads what our real condition is, he tells
us this, no man can come to me except the Father draw him. Somebody says, well, we have
a free will, don't we? We have a will, but our will
is bound. It's like a ball and chain on
us. We cannot act in difference to what we are. He said to those Pharisees, he
said, you will not come to me that you might have life. And so here we are. This is what
God says that we are. This is what He, in His all-seeing
eye and all-knowing eye, this is how He describes us. You see,
God doesn't deal with His people in their salvation based on what
they think that they are. He deals with them based on what
He knows that they are. Hallelujah. And He says we're dead, spiritually. He says, you will not come to
me that you might have life. Your wills are bound because
of a fallen nature that only loves sin, that naturally hates
God. You're lost. You're without hope
in yourselves. We must be saved because of our
condition. And then we must be saved because
of God's description of himself. Oh, there are so many descriptions
of God. But listen to this one. Turn
over to Isaiah chapter 45 and listen to how God describes Himself. In Isaiah chapter 45, God describes
Himself. He declares Himself as how He
is. He doesn't wait for you or me
to come up with our description of God. He says in verse 21 of Isaiah
45, "...tell ye, and bring them near, yea, let them take counsel
together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord, and there
is no God else beside me?" They're not gods. There is God. And if we weren't so blind, if
we weren't so in natural rebellion against the truth of God, just
thinking about it, how could there ever be but one God, one
supreme, sovereign, almighty God? And that's what he says. I'm God and there's none beside
me. And not only am I God and there's
none else beside me, I'm the way I say I am. You say, well, I think God is
this or I think God is that. And the only thing in our generation
that men seem to know about God or think about God is this. If
we have one word to describe God, they'll say God is love. And do you know in this book
it says that two times? God is love. But many more times
than that, just like we sang in that opening hymn, it says
that God is holy. It tells us that God will not
act in a way, even in salvation, that is inconsistent with Himself. So if he's to be one thing that
he says he is, he must at the same time be the other thing
that he says he is, and those two things are not contradictory,
but the glory of grace is they're in harmony with each other. So he says, I'm God, and there's
no God else beside me. And then, in the Scriptures,
it gives us a colon. And you certainly know that I'm
not an English or grammar major by just listening to me. But
I do remember this. Whatever was said before, a further
clarification or description of that is about to follow. So how is he? He said, a just
God and a Savior. There is none else, there is
none beside me." How does God describe himself? He says, I'm
a savior. What does that tell us? That
tells us that God is going to save some people. That tells
us if he's God, there's no possibility that this cannot happen. And
at the same time, and actually before he says that I'm a Savior,
he said, I'm a just God and a Savior. So that means that God, in His
saving, in His being a Savior, is a Savior in such a way that
He does not cease to be a just God. My friend, if God ever teaches
you that, how He can be both, If you are ever brought to understand
that and believe that in your heart and rejoice in that, you
will know the truth." He said, I'm a savior. He's not inactive. He's not somewhere
in heaven oblivious to what's going on in this earth. He is
in this hour as he's been in every hour prior to this and
will be in every hour as long as this world stands saving his
people. Why? Because he says, I'm a savior. I'm the savior. Isaiah 43 says,
For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Saba for thee. And one of the ones, one of the
human beings, one of the sinful human beings that men and women
oftentimes make to be some sort of a savior, which was the earthly
mother, Mary. She's no savior. She's no mediator. She was a sinner just like you
and me. And so this is why she said that. She said, my spirit
hath rejoiced in God my Savior. God is a Savior. When Jude is led by the Spirit
of God to close out that brief epistle on that last and 25th
verse, he says, to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and
majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. We must be saved because God
is a Savior. He's going to save some folks.
He's going to save them from their sins, from Satan, from
their selves, from this evil world. He's going to save them,
rescue them totally. And I want to be one of them. And here's another reason. We
must be saved because of His purpose. Do you know God has
a purpose? There are a lot of people in
this world that are willing to say God has a plan, but it depends on you the success
of His plan. or it depends on your will or
your decision or your works as to whether or not God carries
out this plan or He's able to carry out this plan. They say
God has a wonderful plan for your life if you only will thus
and thus and thus. No, God has a purpose and He
has a sovereign will. You see, in reality, there can
only be one free will in the universe. If I've got a true free will
and you exercise your will in contradiction to my will, my
will is going to trump your will. That wasn't a political plug
either. God's will is going to overcome
and rule over every will. As a matter of fact, in salvation,
in saving them, it says that His people shall be willing in
the day of His power, of His will exercised toward them. He has an ordained plan. not just a blueprint, he has
an ordained, fixed, decreed plan which must be and will be executed
and he will do it and there's not anybody that can stop it.
That's what Nebuchadnezzar was brought to say. He does his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth
and nobody can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? In Proverbs it says, there are
many devices in a man's heart. Nevertheless, the counsel of
the Lord, that shall stand. I read where an old preacher
said one time, he said, men raise their bows and they shoot arrows
to heaven, but they always fall back on their own heads. In Isaiah 46, it says, declaring
the end from the beginning. Here he is still describing himself,
declaring the end from the beginning. How can you declare the end from
the beginning? How can you be so sure of it? If you're able to carry it out. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I
will do all my pleasure. And man, is that true in Providence? That's true in all the affairs
of this life. That's true in everything that
happens in this world. But it's true mainly because
in the midst of that, at the heart of that, is his salvation. You see, if God didn't have a
purpose, if he didn't have a will and a determination to save a
people, if he didn't have the power to exercise that power
against everything and everybody and every being and every creature
and every breeze that blows and everything else, how could he
ever be sure it would be accomplished? It's sure because he works all
things after the counsel of his own will. And when Paul writes to Timothy,
and he's seeking to encourage that young man, and those he
preaches to, He says of God, he says, who hath saved us and
called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. You see, it says that that love
that people talk about so much, the love of God, he describes
it himself this way when he talks to Jeremiah and others. He said,
I've loved you with an everlasting love. Before you were lovable, you
never were lovable in yourself. Before time began, before you
ever breathed your first breath, before you ever had a knowledge
in your head, before you ever whippered out of the mother's
womb. I've loved you with an everlasting
love." And not only that, it says that for his people, he
has from the beginning chosen them to salvation. Now, whose choice do you think
is going to outweigh every other choice? There are those who say, well,
this is the way election is. God votes for you, the devil
votes against you, and then you cast the deciding vote. That
is so utterly foolish and unbiblical. Because when this purpose of
grace, when this choice of grace of a people in Christ was made,
it was before any other being. Before the foundation of the
world. He hath from the beginning chosen
you unto salvation. when Christ came into this world and He began to talk among men,
especially the Pharisees who despised what He said, who were
not of His sheep, who did not believe on Him. But he didn't fall down and whimper
and cry like the Jesus of modern day religion, so sad because
you won't let him have your will, so sad because this is that way
and that's the other way, so sad because the world is run
amuck and all these other things. In so many words, he said, I
didn't come to save you. I didn't come to make you salvation,
savable. I didn't come to offer you anything."
He said, is the will. I came down from heaven not to
do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this
is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which He
hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth
on Him, may have everlasting life, and I'll raise him up at
the last day." Whose will is that? Christ said, the will of
Him that sent me. He's talking as the surety. He's talking as Jehovah's servant. submissive to the Father, come
to accomplish the Father's will, which is that none of those that
have been given to Christ in that everlasting covenant, that
not one of them will perish, but every one of them will have
everlasting life. But we must be saved because
of who Jesus is. Who Jesus is. You see, the very name Jesus
means Savior. Joshua or Jehovah's Savior or
Jehovah the Savior. If he doesn't say, If He doesn't save, He'll have
to give up that name. We must be saved because His
very name means Savior. His very honor and His very glory
in His humanity, God come in human flesh, is that He saved. His glory does not depend on
how many He saves. Now you be sure you understand
that. If He doesn't save you, He will
not be diminished in His glory not one bit. You'll be justly
punished for your sin, but He will not be diminished in His
honor and glory as a Savior. Why? Because it was said in the
very beginning, and you can read it yourself in Matthew 121, Thou
shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from
their sin. His glory depends on Him saving
His people from all their sins. In Acts chapter 13, as one of
the apostles is preaching, he says, "...of this man's seed
hath God, according to His promise, raised up unto Israel a Savior
Jesus. He's just one Savior. But bless His holy name, that's
exactly what He is. He's the Savior. Behold the Lamb
of God, John said, that taketh away sin. That's salvation. The only one there is in this
world. 2 Timothy. Speaking of God's purpose, he
says, "...but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior
Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life
and immortality to light through the gospel." You see, the gospel is not about
an offer of salvation. The gospel is about a Savior. He's the Savior. Peter says, but grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him
be glory both now and forever. Amen. We must be saved because
Jesus Christ is the Savior. He's the Savior and He saves
His people. He's the only Savior and He's
the one who does all the saving and it's all in Him and all accomplished
by Him alone. He's the one who's washed us
from our sins and purged us from our sins and brought us to God
and redeemed us to God by His blood. In reality. We must be saved
because He has saved us. That's what He's doing on that
cross. Oh, I'd be the first to say that
salvation certainly does include our experience of it. God bringing us to the knowledge
of it and the faith in it and the confidence and the delight
and the rejoicing in it, but make no mistake about it. That's
what He's doing on that cross. He's saving His people from their
sin. They must be saved because He
saved them. As a matter of fact, in our text,
in that twelfth verse, He says it this way, neither is there
salvation in any other. Now what would make anybody?
After reading that concise, direct, true, God-given statement, what
would make any person, any sinner, put a but behind that? No. This is the truth of the
gospel. Neither is there salvation in
any other. Bring your religion, bring your
hope, bring your savior, bring all your confidence, bring all
your hope of heaven, bring all your acceptance before God, before
that statement and try it and test it. You see, it says Jesus Christ
plus nothing. There is salvation in no other. There is no other name, none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. But we must be saved also because
of divine justice. That most maligned, most misrepresented,
most abused attribute of all that God is, we read it just a moment ago.
He's a just God. But not only does that mean that
he will not save his people in a way in which he is unjust, he won't take you or me or any
other son or daughter of Adam unto himself and into his holy
presence until that matter of sin is dealt with. You and I
don't have anything to pay. I might say anything to pay with. You and I cannot in any way please
God in ourselves. Work all you will. Try to obey
the Ten Commandments all you will. But man at his best state
is altogether vanity. Not only do we have nothing wherewith
to pay the debt of sin, the debt to divine justice, Not only do
we have nothing to pay with, we have such a deficit that we cannot even comprehend
it. We're so helpless of ourselves,
so unable to save ourselves, so unable to satisfy God so as
to satisfy His justice in the matter of sin, which was that
the soul that sinneth shall surely die. So unable are we not only to live in such a way
as to satisfy that death, but even in our natural death to
satisfy it. that God, in order to be our
Savior, had to take on Himself human flesh, sinless human flesh,
and be born of a woman, come into this world, and live and
be made manifest as the sinless man He was, the Lamb without
spot and without blemish, and then do the one thing necessary
to save us, and that is to die. the death of the cross, death
before the justice of God, and pay that debt. All the sins of His people being
charged to Him or imputed to Him, as the Scriptures say, laid
upon Him, He goes to that cross and dies in the room and the
stead of His people. To accomplish what? To save them. You say, but will they really
be saved? They'll all be really saved.
Why? Because they must be saved. You
see, that justice that requires the payment is a two-sided justice,
if you will. And that justice that required
the payment of sin, once that that sin debt is paid on the
behalf of his people, that same justice now requires that they
go free. Many, many years ago, I read the verse in an old hymn
And it is to this day stuck to my mind, because it is so gospel
true. The hymn writer said, payment
God cannot twice demand, first at my bleeding surety's hand,
and then again at mine. He won't require double payment.
The notion that anybody that Christ died for will wind up
finally and eternally in hell is the most blasphemous thought
and notion that I can think of. These preachers stand up week
after week and they say, well, Christ died for all of you, but
if you don't do this or that or the other, you're going to
go to hell. Or there are some people, they're saying hell is
full of and heaven is filled with empty seats where people
that Christ died for perished. That ain't gonna happen. Why? Because divine justice says
they must be saved. They must be. If those that Christ died for
If they finally perished in hell, hell would be the greatest monument
to the injustice of God rather than what it will be, a monument
to the true justice of God. I know how you are. You know how you are. And there
ain't nothing that makes us any madder, iller, ready to fight
than to go into a place of business where we owe a debt of like $20
or $50, and we walk in there and write our check, or we walk
in there and hand them cash, go home, and then a few days
later we get that statement in the mail that says we still owe
it. Oh, we're ready to fight then. All right, we're full of that
righteous indignation, as we call it. How dare they? How unfair that
would be. How unjust that would be. We'll
go down there tomorrow morning and we'll straighten them out
on this matter. I'll show them my receipt. Well, everyone for whom Christ
died. And he hangs there on that cross,
satisfying justice on their behalf. Making God so as to be not only
just, but the justifier of those who believe on him. That same
justice says, they must be saved. We've been looking in John 18,
where they came and got Christ in the garden. And when the matter is settled
as to who he is, for his word's sake and for those disciples'
sake, and he declares himself, am I the one you're looking for?
They said, yes. He said, then these have got
to go free. That's the gospel. That's why it's good news. Christ
died for me. I must be saved. You say, well,
what about your will? What about this? What about that?
He'll overcome. Justice will require that I be
saved. Since Christ died for the sins
of His people, since He bore them in His own body on the tree,
since He suffered as our substitute, since He satisfied justice on
our behalf, they must be saved. That's why he looked at those
there in John 10 who were mostly Jews around him.
He said, other sheep have I that are not of this foal, them also
I must bring. I must bring them. He laid down his life for the
sheep. They're going to be saved. He
purchased the church with his own blood. That church is going
to be saved. He bought us with a price. We're
going to be saved. Fully, finally, eternally. Then
let me give you this one last thing. We must be saved because God
has sent this gospel out and he's enabled some folks to believe
it. They're not able to believe it
in themselves. They'd never hear it, did he
not send it particularly to them. You know how many people in this
world will have lived and died and never heard the gospel. And
yet you're here this morning. He's going to bring somebody
to hear the gospel. It's like a love letter to his
people. It's like a special message. It's glad tidings and good news
to His people. And He's enabling them to believe
it. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves, faith not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. If he's given faith to some people
to believe on Christ, to believe the truth about Christ, to believe
the truth of the gospel and rest in his finished work alone, they're going to be saved. You
sure about that? Well, if he gives the faith, his faithfulness depends on His promises. And Paul writes in Romans 10,
he says, For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth in him shall
not be ashamed. You say, what? They may fall. No may to it. They will. They
may fail. They will. They may show themselves
on occasion as certainly not as those who are saved, but they must be saved. They
must be saved, because he that believeth and is baptized shall
be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. God's given faith to some people
to believe this truth. Believe what it says about his
son. They must be saved. Because he
that believeth shall be saved. Not just he that believeth what
he wants to believe, but he that believes the truth. Or, what
does the truth do? It lifts up one savior. and whosoever believes on Him.
That's said so many times all through the Old Testament and
the New Testament. Whosoever believes on Him, they'll not
be disappointed. They'll not be ashamed. They'll
not be confounded. They'll be saved. And when the Lord the Spirit
comes to work in our hearts, brings us to see what we are
in the light of who God is, There's one thing for sure. He brings
us down to know we have to be saved. And the only way we could ever
be saved is by grace alone. The only way that we could be
saved is to be saved by Christ alone, outside of ourselves. And the only way we could be
kept saved is if he keep us. He's the Savior. And brother, sister, when the
Lord reveals that to your heart, you'll go, whew. A man told me recently, he was
talking with his mother, and she said, I'm so tired of working. I'm so tired of trying to be
saved. I'm so tired of doing this and
that and the other in order, if not to save myself, to improve
on my salvation. Let me tell you, He's the Savior. All you've done is the sinning. All you'll ever do is the sinning.
But He does the Savior. That's a wonderful thought. So
that psalm we read, he said, let all those that seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee and let such as love thy salvation
say continually. You love God's salvation? Well, let them say continually.
Let God be magnified. God be praised. God be exalted. He's God, our Savior. In the
person of the Father, He's God, our Savior. In the person of
the Son, He's God, our Savior. In the person of the Holy Spirit,
He's God, our Savior. We must be saved. That's good news. Our Father
this morning, We thank you so much for the liberating, blessing,
saving truth of your word. Let God be true and every man
a liar. Give us grace as your people to look to you as our savior
in all your blessed persons. and to trust that finished and
accomplished work. And whenever the enemy of our
soul who'd condemn our conscience, who'd whisper in our ears that in some way it depends on
us, Whenever it would rise up in
us those natural inclinations to work, to save ourselves, may they be turned into desires
to work because we have been saved and not in order to be
saved. Help us to remember that in Jesus
Christ and by your grace, we must be saved. We thank you and
we pray, and may this word be a blessing to the hearts of those
sinners you saved by your grace. For we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. Amen.