2 Corinthians chapter 1, the
Apostle Paul is describing to the saints at Corinth some of
the dangers and difficulties he experienced as God's servant
in this world. I want to take that which Paul
states in verses 9 and 10 with regard to his deliverance from
physical death by the hands of wicked men as a description of
that which we experience in God's great grace in the salvation
of our souls. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse
9. But we had the sentence of death
in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in
God which raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so great a
death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver
us. Salvation is the deliverance
of our souls from death and hell into the glorious liberty of
the sons of God in everlasting resurrection glory. Salvation,
redemption is the deliverance of our souls from death and hell
by the grace of God, by the blood of Christ, into the glorious
liberty of the sons of God in everlasting resurrection glory. Now, let me speak a little bit
about my own experience. As I do, I'm sure that many of
you will have your own hearts echo what I have to say. There
was a time when Paul, as he put it, said we were pressed out
of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life. Here in verse 8. There was a
time when God caused me to see that I was a lost sinner, cursed
of God, justly condemned, rightly damned an heir of hell without
life and without hope before him. Time when God made me to
know that hell was my just portion. The bitter experience of personal
guilt. I pray God will make you to know.
Until he does, you will never seek his mercy in Christ. Until
God Almighty causes you to know that the sentence of death is
upon you, the terror of hell seizing your soul, you will never
seek his mercy. When I had the sentence of death
in my soul, I was made to see that I should not must not, indeed
could not, trust myself for anything. I tried and tried and tried and
tried to do better, to change my life, to reform my ways, to
make peace with God. I tried and tried and tried to
believe God by doing something. And I was finally made to see
that I was shut up to Christ. Just shut up to Christ. God,
if there's mercy to be had, you've got to give me mercy. If there's
salvation to be had, you must save me. If I would escape your
wrath, I must do so by your own work and by your own hand. I
was forced to trust in God, which raises the dead. And I'll tell you when you will
trust Him. When you're forced to. When you're forced to. By the sweet constraint of His
irresistible grace, He will cause you, cause you to believe Him. And if He doesn't cause you to
believe Him, you won't believe Him. Faith is the gift of God. Not only initially, not only
in the initial experience of grace, it's the gift of God in
the continual exercise of faith. Try believing God. Try believing God when you. I'm talking to you now who are
believers when you've you're faced with something that's devastated,
something that's just heart crushing. In the middle of the night, you
pace the floor and you try to figure things out and you realize
you can't do anything and you can't find rest and you try to
believe and you can't until God graciously gives you faith to
bow to him and trust him. That being true concerning God's
own people in this world, how much more so is it true with
regard to you who are yet dead in trespasses and in sins? You
will come to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ only when God graciously
shuts you up to Christ and forces you to believe. Now, trusting
him. Being saved by his free grace,
I'm here to speak to you as one sinner to another about God,
my savior, who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver
in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. I repeat what
I've said to you many, many times. Salvation's a big, big, big,
big word. We tend to think about salvation
in various stages. We begin to, we tend to think
about salvation as being the initial experience of God's grace. When first we begin to believe
on Christ, when first he called us out of darkness into light,
when first he gave us light and made us aware, gave us life and
made us aware of it. But salvation takes in the whole
thing. Everything that's involved in
bringing our souls from everlasting ruin to everlasting life Everything
that's involved and bringing us from the gates of hell into
the gates of glory Everything from election to everlasting
glory is God's salvation And we limit our thoughts greatly
and limit our understanding greatly when we try to limit God's salvation
to any one aspect of those things. So tonight I want to talk to
you about the four tenses of salvation. Brother Lindsey has
always asked me what is preaching on. I said the four tenses of
salvation. But Larry Brown said to just
three tenses. That's that's reason I said four tenses, four tenses,
four tenses. Let's see. First, turn with me,
if you will, to Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 3. Hebrews chapter
4 and verse 3. Salvation is a word including
all God's works, even from eternity. And salvation is a work of God
in what we will call first the eternal past. The Holy Spirit
tells us here in Hebrews chapter four and verse three. Look at
this. For we, which had believed to
enter into rest, as he said, as I've sworn in my wrath, if
they shall enter into my rest. Now, what's this? Although the
works were finished. Isn't that a good word? The works
were finished, not just predicted. not just predestined, not just
promised, finished from the foundation of the world. We were chosen
of God in Jesus Christ in everlasting love. He said, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
have I drawn thee. Our names are written in the
book of life of the Lamb of whom the Holy Spirit says He was slain
from the foundation of the world. Well, how can that be? How can
Christ be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world?
We know that He came the Lamb of God in time and died in time. But how could it be said that
He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world? God
said so. Well, explain that. When you
can comprehend God, I'll start trying to explain God. God Almighty
is bigger than your brain. Aren't you glad? He's the incomprehensible
God, not only in the immensity of his character and nature in
all things incomprehensible. You can't know God in all his
fullness. That's not possible. He's God. And in God's Word, we read about
Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Because
he is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, all
for whom he died before the world began. All for whom he died before
the world began. Yes. Christ the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. God Almighty accepted Him and
His sacrifice before ever His humanity was created in time
and He was actually slain in time. And that means that we
were redeemed by Him in eternity. We were justified by Him in eternity. We were accepted in Him in eternity. We were blessed of God with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ in eternity. We were ourselves saved in Him
in eternity. You mean, Brother Don, God's
elect have always been saved? Well, let's see what the book
says. Turn to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 verse 28. For we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. Wow, what does that mean? What
does that refer to? How is it that all things work
together in time? for the everlasting good of those
who are the called of God according to his purpose. What purpose? Read the next line. For whom
he did foreknow, whom he loved in everlasting love, approved
of in everlasting love, accepted and knew and ordained in Christ,
whom he did foreknow, Then he also did predestinate. Predestinate. Destinate beforehand. Determine
their destiny beforehand. Predestinate. Oh. Well, we don't like that word.
Well, let's see if we can learn to like it. Predestinate. That's
a good word. That's a good word. God did predestinate
somebody. What's this? To be conformed
to the image of his son. Those whom God loved from eternity. He predestinated to be conformed,
made exactly like Christ, His Son, not made to be conformed
to Him in His eternal deity. That's not possible. Made to
be conformed to Him who is the God-man, our mediator, in the
perfection of His glorious humanity for this purpose, that He, the
Lord Jesus, might be the firstborn. the chief one, the preeminent
one, the exalted one, the glorious one among many brethren. He chose
us in him that we should be holy and without blame before him.
That's what it means to be conformed to the image of Christ. Holy
and without blame before him. Read on. Moreover, whom he did
predestinate, them he also called. The word that's used there is
not the word we would use like we were going to call someone
to dinner. It's the word that's used like when a woman's fixing
to give birth to a child, you say, what are you going to name
him? What's he going to name him? What shall he be called? Those whom God predestined from
eternity, he called, called his sons, called them his sons. Called them his own. Called them
his sons and daughters. Called them by the name of his
son. Jehovah said, kidding you, the
Lord our righteousness. You can read it in Jeremiah 33
verse 16. Read on. And whom he called,
those whom he named his sons and daughters. Then he also said
that one of these days I'm going to justify them. And one of these
days I'm going to glorify them. That's not what it says. Those
whom he did predestinate and named his sons, whom he loved
from eternity with an everlasting love and accepted in Christ,
he justified and he glorified. How can that be? Larry, we're
in Christ. And Christ is the Lamb, slain
from the foundation of the world, into whose hands the triune God
gave the reigns of the universe from eternity, because the works
were finished before the foundation of the world. Well, then that
means that nothing in time matters. Do what? Where'd you get that
sort of notion? What God did and accomplished
in his purpose of grace in eternity made certain that which shall
come to pass in time and be accomplished in time. The Lord Jesus said
when he finished his work, Father, I finished the work you gave
me. Now glorify me with thine own self, with the glory which
I had with thee before the world was. Give me now publicly The
glory that you gave to me from eternity when I struck hands
with you as the surety of my people. Make the world to know
you've given me power over all flesh, that I should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given me. Look at 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy. Now, I want you to
see this is not a matter of theological conjecture. This is not a matter
of getting all your ducks lined up in a row. This is what the
book says. This is what the book says. And
I stress it because there are folks who get the notion that
somehow or another God doesn't mean what he says when he speaks
in his word. If God says we were justified and glorified in his
eternal purpose by which he governs the world in time, that means
we were justified and glorified in Christ by God's eternal purpose
and the whole world The whole world exists and everything in
the world is governed to accomplish this end that these whom the
Father chose from eternity be conformed to Christ in everlasting
glory. Second Timothy 1 verse 9. God
hath saved us and called us. There's that same word again,
named us with an holy calling. Not according to our works, Not
according to what he foresaw he would you would do he didn't
choose you because he looked at damn Bob and saw that you'd
pretty please choose him Well, that's nonsense That's nonsense. God's foreknowledge is not god's
pre-knowledge of things God's pre-knowledge of things is based
on his omniscience not his ordinance his ordination Foreknowledge
is an act of god He foreknew you for ordained you and loved
you and therefore called you not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace. Now watch it, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. We were
sanctified by God the Father, Jude said, and preserved in Jesus
Christ and called. preserved in Christ and called,
sanctified by him in eternity, set apart by him in eternity, and preserved through the sin
and fall of our father Adam, preserved through the various families and nations and races
of all the ages of time. God preserve him, preserve him,
preserve him, preserved in Christ until you came forth from your
mother's womb speaking lies. And born with your fist shoved
in God's face, the Lord God Almighty takes hold of that hand that
hates him and that heart that hates him and preserves you.
while you flirt with hell, while you live continually in rebellion,
preserved, preserved in Christ and preserved for Christ, until
at last the appointed time of love arise, at which God Almighty,
before the world began, said, hitherto shalt thou go and no
further, and called you by his grace. and now still preserved
in Jesus Christ. Salvation, then, is a work of
God in the eternal past. Second, the Spirit of God declares
to us that salvation, this work of God that was finished before
the world began, was finished by the obedience of Christ, our
substitute, in the historic past. That is, finished by Christ in
time. When our Savior cried, is finished,
it's finished. He, with his own blood, entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. So that when Christ came to save
his people from their sins, that's the reason he was born. Before
he left this world, in his glorious accomplishment of death, he had
saved his people, all of them, from their sins. Hadn't experienced
it yet. I Have I didn't know anything
about it yet. I wasn't born yet. But the book said he hath obtained
eternal redemption for us The book says we were justified when
Christ died He was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification the book says that he put away our sins
before ever we committed any and The book tells us that the
Lord Jesus made us holy before ever we had become sinners. We
were redeemed by Christ in time by the accomplishment of his
obedience unto death as our substitute. He lived on this earth in our
stead and we lived in him. He obeyed God for us and we obeyed
God in him. He bore our sins in his body
on the cursed tree, and we bear our sins in our bodies on the
cursed tree in him. And God Almighty poured out the
fury of his wrath until justice was satisfied on his son. And when he did, God Almighty
poured out all his wrath in the fury of his justice until justice
was satisfied on me. I died in Him. I'm crucified
with Christ. Do you understand that? I'm crucified
with Christ. When He died, I died. When God
killed His Son, God killed me. And when He arose, we arose in
Him. When He sat down on the right
hand of the Majesty on high, we sat down in Heaven with Him. Read Ephesians chapters 1 and
2. It's repeated time and again. In time, the Lord Jesus accomplished
our salvation. Not only is that so, but in the
experience of God's grace, our salvation is something in the
historic past in one sense of the word. I was dead. And he gave me life. I was lost. And he found me. I was guilty
and he purged my conscience with his blood. I was doomed and he
saved me. I was a child of wrath just like
everybody else. Hating God with the wrath of
God on me. Hating God with the wrath of
God on me. Brother Dodd, you just told us
we were saved from eternity and justified from eternity. How
can you say you were under the wrath of God? James in my conscience. I knew nothing about what God
had done for me. I knew nothing about what Christ had done for
me. But hadn't you heard he had died? Yes. Hadn't you heard that
he was risen from the dead? Yes. Hadn't you heard about the
accomplishment of redemption? Yes. But not in my soul. Do you
know what it is to go to bed every night with hell in your
heart, with guilt on your conscience, scared to death of meeting God? It's called guilt. It's called
the terror of God in a man's soul. It's called death, the
sentence of death, pressing you to despair. Only one reason I didn't commit
suicide when I was 15 years old. Only one reason. I was scared
to death of meeting God. Only one reason. And then the
Lord came. in sweet sovereign mercy, and
revealed Christ to me. And I have life everlasting.
I have been saved, saved, raised from the dead, forgiven and justified,
set free, made a child of God by God's free grace. And believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ, Trust in Christ, I have now received
the atonement. My faith in Christ did not atone
for my sins. Don't ever think so. My faith
doesn't justify me. Your faith in Christ does not
cause God to be gracious to you. Oh, no. Faith in Christ receives
all the blessings of God's grace. But faith in Christ is not that
by which we are justified and accepted and so on. Well, the
way you fellows preach, I'll talk about salvation by grace,
salvation by God's purpose of God's decree. You talk as though
faith is is meaningless. And you know, some people actually
will tell you that salvation is altogether at the cross. Others
will tell you salvation is altogether in eternity. Faith in Christ
is just as necessary as the blood of Christ to save you. Without
faith, it's impossible to please God. He that cometh to God must
believe that he is and that he's the rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. Except you repent, you shall
all likewise perish. Well, Brother Don, how can you
say that we're saved by God's purpose? God chose us and everybody
God chose is going to be saved no matter what. That's exactly
right. Christ died for us and everybody
Christ redeemed by his blood going to be saved no matter what.
That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And except
you believe on the son of God, you're going to hell. Well, how
can you say it? Because the book says that. The
book says that faith is the gift of God, and yet you must believe.
And that faith that is the gift of God that you making it so
that you yourself trust the son of God is as necessary as the
blood of Christ and the purpose of God and the call of God's
spirit. Not only that, but that faith that God gives. When God
gives it to you, he declares it to be your faith. We're justified by the faith
of the son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. That's
true. And yet the Lord Jesus speaks of faith as our personal
possession. I believe God. I have faith in
Christ, do you? If God gave you faith, then that
faith God gave you is your faith. This is what our Lord Jesus said
to the woman who was forgiven much, thy faith hath saved thee. He said to blind Bartimaeus,
thy faith hath made thee whole, go in peace. He said that repeatedly. He said that repeatedly. So we
shouldn't get too bent out of shape if we were to say the same
thing. Faith in Christ is effectual to the saving of our souls. Faith
in Christ is as effectual to the saving of our souls as the
blood of Christ, or as God's election, or as God's predestination. Oh, Brother Don's popped a cork.
He's lost his mind. What's he saying? Faith in Christ
is necessary, and faith in Christ is personal, and faith in Christ
is effectual. Effectual. What's that mean?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Our
Lord Jesus asked that man in John chapter nine, Dost thou
believe on the Son of God? That's all. That's all that matters. Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? You ask me what must I do to
be saved like the Philippian jailer asked Paul. My response
is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
Is that Bible language, Bobby? That's what the book says. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Now I ask
you, do you believe on the son of God? Now I'm fully aware. I'm fully aware. You probably
heard this discussed just a couple of weeks ago among folks sitting
here at conference. If not, I'd be surprised. Well,
who was preaching when you believed? What did you know when you first
trusted Christ? How did you come to know the
Lord? Now all those questions are perfectly
all right unless the person asking is trying to decide whether you're
saved or lost based on those things and trying to get you
to decide whether you're saved or lost based on those things.
Do you know what you knew when God saved you? Do you know what
you knew about God and about grace and about salvation? You
didn't know BS. You can't say that. All right,
we'll use scripture language. You didn't know dung. That's
exactly right. You didn't know anything. How
could you know something you did? You didn't know anything. Well, fellas got to know so much.
Got to know so much. I remember years ago, I was preaching
up at Randolph Street Church in Charleston, West Virginia.
A fella preaching in front of me thought he was one of these brilliant
fellas. And he said, now, in order to
be a Calvinist, You've got to have some gray matter, and you've
got to read and study, and you've got to know this and that and
the other. And I couldn't help it. I had
to say something. I got behind him. I was about
half his age, and I said, I don't know what it takes to be a Calvinist,
but I'll tell you what it takes to be a sinner saved by grace.
You've got to know Christ. Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? That's the only issue. Quit looking
to the past. Don't let anybody ask you to
look to the past. Well, I don't know whether I
saved yesterday or not. I don't know whether I saved
20 years ago or not. What difference does that make? You're not living
20 years ago. Do you believe on the Son of God? Yes, Lord,
I do believe. I do trust Christ. That's called
faith in Christ. And it's the gift of God. Well,
you just don't dare talk like that. Since when do we not dare
talk in the language of this book? All right, here's the third
thing. Salvation is frequently spoken
of in the scripture in the present tense. In First Corinthians 118,
Paul tells us that the preaching of the gospel is unto us who
are being saved the power of God. In Romans 13, he says, now
is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Yes, I have
been saved and I am being saved. I have come to Christ and I am
coming to Christ. I am being saved in this sense.
I'm kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time. Being saved. People talk about perseverance.
Yes, we must persevere. He that endureth to the end,
the same shall be said. But Rex Bartley, you and I wouldn't
continue following Christ a half a second if he didn't graciously
save us continually, preserve and keep us continually, kept,
preserved in Jesus Christ. Kept by the power of God through
faith and the salvation, ready to be revealed. Kept from temptation. And kept in the midst of temptation.
Kept in the midst of those many trials by which the Lord proves
our faith. And then, when fallen, kept still. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
Now let me add to that what that means. No matter what. No matter what. If I give them
eternal life, they shall never perish. If I redeem them, they
shall never perish. If I call them, they shall never
perish. If I chose them, they shall never perish, no matter
what. Well, Brother Don, you can't say that. That just opens
up the floodgates for all kinds of evil, for men to do all kinds
of stuff. Well, let's test it. Let's test
it. There was a man by the name of
Lot to whom God gave eternal life, a righteous man. fallen and fallen and fallen
again, who never perished, kept by the power of God. There was
a man by the name of David, a man after God's own heart, fallen
and fallen and fallen again, who could not perish. God had
given him eternal life. You see, There are some people
in this world of whom the scripture speaks as blessed. And the scripture speaks this
way. Blessed is the man unto whom God will not impute sin. Mark Henson, if you're his, God
will not impute sin to you. No matter what. No matter what. Now if that causes your heart
to freeze over in rebellion and ungodliness, I'm real concerned
for you. I'm real concerned for you. We're
kept by God's grace. No matter what. And when fallen,
restored. Forgiven, continually forgiven. He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Constantly
forgiving. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that
amazing? And so, well, we have to confess
our sins. That's for us to experience the forgiveness. The forgiveness was done long
before the sin was committed. We experience forgiveness as
we freely confess our sin. And the Lord speaks peace to
our hearts through the blood of Christ. But forgiveness is
ours, always ours. We rejoice in that which God
has done for us, that which God has done in us. We rejoice to
know of his work of grace for us and to know that it's not
over yet. But there's a fourth thing. The
scriptures speak of our salvation in the future tense as well. This is a salvation ready to
be revealed in the last time. Truly, with regard to our salvation, the best is yet to come. Joe, I can hardly imagine that
being so. The best is yet to come. Soon, I'm going to drop this
robe of flesh and live. Then I'm going to be saved. Then
I'm going to be saved. Aren't you saved already? Well,
yeah, sort of. But the best is yet to come. God's elect, when they come to
drop this flesh, don't die. they begin to live. To the unbeliever,
death is a horrible thing. For the believer, death is a
blessed thing. For the unbeliever, anything
short of death is mercy. Don't you talk. Please, I'm not
scolding you now. I'm just telling you for the
benefit of folks around you. Next time you go to the funeral
home, it doesn't matter whether it's your mother, your daddy,
Your son or your daughter, if they're lost, don't you turn
around and say to somebody, well, they're better off now. Anything
short of death is mercy for the unbeliever. Anything short of
death. But for the believer, why? That's just the best thing can
ever happen. Soon, Larry, your mom's going
to leave here. You might leave before her, but soon, all likelihood,
she's going to leave here. Faithful, faithful woman. And
she may not even know that anymore. But if she's God's, what a blessing
when she's gone. You understand that? What a blessing. While we will have all our prayers
answered, all our greatest desires fulfilled, we'll be brought into
the presence of our dearest friends. and know them immediately. People
ask me, so you reckon we'll know each other in heaven? I know
you here. I reckon I'll know you then.
I can't imagine being more ignorant then than I am now. And I won't
forget your name. Peter, James, and John knew Moses
and Elijah, and they'd never seen them. I expect I'll know
Moses and Elijah, though I've never seen them. It's true. See Christ, be with Christ face
to face. But I've got a lot of friends
I'm anxious to see. I guess it might have been the
very last thing I heard Brother Tommy Robbins say the night he
died, the night he went to glory. He took my hand and he said,
I'm anxious to see the Lord. He said, I'll see Brother Scott
soon. I'm sure glad of that. Oh yeah. Death opens for the
believer. The eternity of blessedness. Then we will be free of all sin. Perfectly righteous. And there'll
be no more sorrow. And no more weeping. And no more
sickness. and no more death, for there
shall be no more sin. And God, our God, shall wipe
away all tears from our eyes, and these eyes will see Christ face to face
forever. And one more thing's coming.
There's going to be a resurrection glory. Christ is coming to raise
these bodies from the dust of the earth. And this mortal shall
put on immortality. And this corruptible shall put
on incorruption. This body Raised or buried rather a natural
body That's this kind right here The
kind that gets age spots The kind where the hair starts to
fall off your head the kind that gets wrinkles and astute back
and painful joints this body Buried a natural body Shall be
raised a spiritual body. I don't have a clue what that
means. I don't have slightest imagination what that means.
Except it shall be glorious forever. Ultimately conformed in this
very body and soul. Ultimately conformed in this
very body and soul, I shall be, to Jesus Christ, God's darling
son, and that's salvation. Amen.