Open your Bible, please, to Hebrews
chapter 2. It's kind of warm yesterday,
and I think it's going to be just as warm today. There might
be a time when I grew up on the farm. We were out working in
the field, and came in at lunchtime, and gave the old mules some water
and put them in the barn. Gave him some corn. Went to the
house and had lunch. We came back out. It was so hot. And my dad used
to grow some popcorn, a special kind of popcorn. He'd put it
up on the top plate next to that tin roof. While we were eating,
it got so hot. That popcorn all started popping
all over the barn. Those old mules started snowing,
they froze to death. Hebrews chapter 2, Therefore,
in light of those glorious things he said, mind-boggling things,
in chapter one. Therefore, we ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things which we've heard, lest at any
time we should let them slip, or if you have a Scofield Bible,
and everybody ought to have one, slip away from them, slip away
from the truth. For if the word spoken by angels
was steadfast, then every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompense of reward, and it shall." As Brother Wayne just
said, God's going to deal with sin, He don't just overlook it.
Every sin and disobedience shall receive a just recompense of
reward. The God with whom we have to
do can by no means clear a guilty man. Something has to be done
about his sin, about his guilt. How shall we escape? If every
sin, disobedience, transgression shall receive a just recompense
or reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard him,
God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders,
and with diverse miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, all
according to his own will." Like everything else, all according
to his own will. I was listening to a tape recently,
this old preacher, twenty years ago when he was a preacher. He
said, religiously speaking, we live in the most ignorant
and messed up generation of people that God ever had to put up with.
And I believe he told the truth. ignorant and messed up, confused,
deluded, deceived, awful. Preachers have whittled down
God's so great salvation in the minds of the people until Christ
is little more in the minds of the vast majority than a fire
escape from hell. We were following a car yesterday
and it said, escape from hell. Then it said free. Escape from
hell free. And people get into the churches
and they've turned them into counting houses. These reverend
go get them. Turned them into counting houses.
They just want to get them in and they might stay in two weeks. not come back to next service.
But they've escaped hell. They've made that decision or
prayed after the preacher what he told them to say. And that's
the end of it. You're saved from hell and everything's
alright. You'll wake up in glory some
day. If you decide to serve the Lord, that'll be alright. That'll
be good. But it's not necessary. That's what preachers have done
in our day. Everybody loves Jesus. Everybody's saved, everybody's
going to heaven. Messed up generation of people. And we hear strange statements
on TV and from these radio preachers and others like he or she, they're
a born-again Christian. As if there was another kind.
There ain't no other kind. And if any man is born again,
he's a new creature. And it makes such a radical change
in his heart that old things are passed away and all things
are become new. We hear people say, and I've
heard this so many times, she's a loving Christian. There ain't
no other kind. The Bible says all who are born
of God love their God. And they love all who are begotten
of God. John, 1 John said in another
place, if you don't know there's love, you don't know God. God
is love. And we hear people say, that
boy, he's a dedicated Christian. I'm going to tell you the truth,
there ain't no other kind. There ain't no other kind. He that loseth his life for my
sake in the gospel, he and he alone shall save it." Christ is his Savior, but not
his Lord. And yet the verse they use makes
a lie out of that. And they use this verse all the
time. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, the Lord
shall be saved. Not just some sissy-wimpy Jesus,
the Lord. Jesus is the Lord. The old leper came to worship
God, came to be cleansed. He worshiped the Lord. The first
word out of his mouth was, Lord. Saul of Tarsus said, we heard
last night, Lord. What would you have me do? Who
is it, Lord? Christ came into this world to
save His people from their sins. He saves them from the penalty
of sin. He saves them from the dominion
of sin. And pretty soon, He'll save them
from the repressions of sin. That's salvation. And salvation,
our salvation, my salvation, is not complete until that process
has been fulfilled. I have no more sin. I don't live
with sin, it's gone, put away forever, and I dwell in the presence
of my Lord. He came to deliver us from this
present evil age, and he does. His people are described as those
who are in the world, but they're no longer of it. As those who
live down here, but their citizenship is in heaven. They live down
here, but they, like Abraham, we're just passing through, thank
you. I stayed in Okinawa a year and a half, but my citizenship
was over here. You know where my heart was? It's over here. I counted the days, and 90 days
you become a short-timer, and so forth and so on. My citizenship,
my heart was always over here in America. I lived over there,
did fine over there, everything's alright. That wasn't where my
heart was. And we live down here, but we're
just passing through. We're looking for a city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. We're looking
for a place, a land, wherein dwelleth righteousness and nothing
else. And Peter said there is such
a place. We have an inheritance, said
the Apostle Peter, that's incorruptible, undefiled, and you never get
tired of it. Never fades away. That's what
Spurgeon said that meant, never fades away, you never get tired
of it. He said you can listen to your most special, special
kind of music, and you keep on listening to it long enough,
and pretty soon you get tired of it. Now let me hear something
else. But this inheritance we have
in glory. You never get tired of it. I
think it grows and grows and grows. Well, I want to talk to
you about this salvation that he says is so great, so great. And the first thing that I would
make, first statement, is that in light
of the sacrifice made and the price paid, it has to be great. This salvation comes at an infinite,
infinite, infinite price. God gave himself. He who was God in human flesh
gave himself. That's an infinite sacrifice.
Infinite sacrifice. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth his Son, his precious Son, his only begotten Son. And the Son came freely with delight, said, I delight
to do thy will, O God. And he knew what he talked about,
he knew what he faced. Delighted thy laws within my
heart." And he came freely, he came voluntarily, he came on
purpose, even though he was sent by the Father. God gave his only
begotten Son. Wonder what it's all about, just
to give people a chance to be saved, to give people an opportunity
to vote on whether they'd receive his Son or reject You know, the
angel came to Joseph and said, don't put that woman away. Said,
she's going to bring forth a son. And she did. And thou shalt call
his name Jesus. And behold, they did. For he
shall save his people from their sins. And I just leave you with
him. He has a people given him by
the Father before the foundation of the world. and he's going
to save them from their sins. He came voluntarily, made himself
of no reputation. The humiliation, shame, suffering,
and death he bore voluntarily on purpose. Lo, I come. Lo, I come. That rang down through
the centuries for seven hundred years. One day a virgin conceived,
and he was here, the Son of God, God in human flesh. This same
old preacher that I was telling you about, I read these words
from at the beginning, he said, one day back in eternity, the
Lord God got up early one morning and said, He just gazed at His
only begotten Son. He looked upon Him, gazed at
Him. In all of his purity, preciousness, altogether lovely, and he determined
to make a multitude and innumerable to us, an innumerable multitude
of sinners just exactly like him. That's what this world's all
about. Told you the other night, I heard about this fellow who
bought a farm to raise some sheep. God created this world to call
out His sheep. God determined, that morning
He got up early, He determined to make an innumerable multitude
of dead, dull, worthless, ill-deserving, hell-deserving sinners to be
just like His to the praise of the glory of his grace. For his
great namesake, did it for himself, for us, for himself, for us,
for himself. Magnify his own name. Salvation then, we talk about
salvation. is being conformed, some sinner
being conformed, a bunch of sinners being conformed to the image
of God's Son, the Lord Jesus, the Mediator, the Lord Jesus. Christ came into this world in
Hebrews to bring many sons under glory. That's his purpose. And he shall. I just want to
be one of those sons. I want to be one of those sinners
and he turns into a likeness of Christ, a portrait of Christ. No man will be fully saved until
he is fully conformed to the image of God's Son. No. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
1 just a moment. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse
18. I don't know much about Greek.
In fact, hardly anything. I've got A.T. Robertson. I don't
have to. But they tell me that you look
at the verbiage here in the Greek and it's continuous. For the
preaching of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
being saved, the verb is being saved, it's the power of God. Being saved is the power of God. Those who have been saved are
being saved, and one day in the future they'll become saved.
But it's a continuing process. When the Almighty God lays His
hand, His Almighty hand on a sinner's head, He never takes it off,
never will take it off, till he comes saved. It's His purpose
to make him like His Son. And He makes us willing, makes
us desire it. The great grace of our God. The
saved are said to be, as I said before, in this world, but no
longer of it. I want to look at two or three
things about this so great salvation. But I'll say this before we turn. Once again, no man shall be fully
saved. He is saved to be made like Christ. Being saved to be made like Christ.
And he won't be plumb saved until he is like Christ. That's just
the story of the Scriptures. This so great salvation I'm going
to repeat this as a work of God from the very beginning. Brother
Wayne said, salvation is of the Lord, and that means exactly
what it says. From beginning to end, first
to last, salvation is of the Lord. He puts forth his mighty
hand upon a sinner, and he does not take it off till the work
is done. Philippians 1, 6, he which has... Paul said, I'm convinced of this
one thing, I'm persuaded This one thing, that he which hath
begun a good work in you, you keep on working till it's done,
till the day of Jesus Christ. And in the meantime, he works
in us. The second chapter, 12 and 13, he works in us both the
will and to do of his good pleasure. God working in us. Isaiah said
he worked, he wrote all of our works in us. It's of the Lord.
God working in us by the Spirit of God through the Word of God. Now, salvation, I'm going to
look at it this morning in this way. There are many ways you
can talk about salvation. Many terms used even in the Scriptures
to describe closing with Christ, coming to Christ, believing Christ,
trusting Christ, submitting to Christ. All these things, but
they're all epitomized in this one little term, knowing Christ. If you know Him, you'll come
to Him. If you know Him, you'll submit
to Him. All who know Him do. All who know Him trust Him. All
who know Him love Him. That's why the Bible says this
is life eternal. Knowing God. Knowing God. Because if you know Him, everything's
going to be alright. You'll come, you'll learn, you'll
believe, you'll trust in Him, you'll rest in Him. You'll worship
Him if you know Him. And if you ever get to know Him,
it's only because you've seen Him. You've seen Him. What's
He look like? Well, He's described here and
here. You see Him on the pages of Holy
Scripture. Somebody said, where shall I
seek the Lord? On the pages of Holy Scripture. That's where
you seek Him. And that's where you'll be found.
And if you seek Him with all your heart, He said, I'll be
found of you. What an encouragement. If you don't find him then, it's
because you don't want to. You're not serious. You seek
him with all your heart. He has said, I'll be found of
you. Isn't that wonderful, Moose? That's wonderful. Salvation, first of all, begins with a look. 2 Corinthians 4 Remember the appearance of the
Apostle Paul on the Damascus Road? He said, God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, has shined into our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus of Nazareth. He saw the Lord. He saw the Lord. It begins with a look. That's
why Isaiah said, Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, for
I am God, and there is none else. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all ye ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. The Bible said in John chapter
1, now this is a spiritual sight. This is God turning on the light.
This is a revelation from heaven, if you please, by the Spirit
through this book. It goes, How many in his day? saw him in his physical presence. I never really saw him at all.
Paul said, had they known it, the crucifiers, they would not
have crucified the Lord of glory. That man, meek and lowly, was
the Lord of glory. That man's subject made himself
subject to those delivered into the hands of those men, was the
creator of all things. But it had to be revealed. Had
to be revealed. The Bible said he was in the
world, the world was made by him, and I didn't know him. And he came to his own, to whom
he was prophesied to come. Came to his own, and they received
him not. But as many as received him,
To them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name, which were born." You've got to add
that on, which were born. That's why they received it,
which were born. They're born of God. Not of blood, not of the will
of the flesh, not even of the precious will of man, but they
were born of God. of his own sovereign will, beget
he us with the word of truth. Born of God. And the very next
words out of the mouth of the apostle, those who are born of
God, we saw him. We beheld his glory. The glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full
of truth. full of grace and truth, oh,
to see the Lord, to see the Lord. Salvation begins with a look,
a sight of the Son of And salvation continues by looking
unto him, seeing him. It's not just learning scriptures
and training yourself to walk in certain scriptures. It's seeing
him. That's the heart of the whole
matter. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
3 just a moment. Back in the Old Testament, verse
fourteen, their minds were blinded. For until this day remaineth the same veil untaken
away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. He makes it clear. He makes it
plain. But even unto this day, when
Moses is raised to the Jewish people, you're talked about, the veil is upon their Nothing
wrong with the scripture, nothing wrong with the message. It's
not unplain, it's not unclear, but there's something wrong in
here. Now, the Lord is that spirit,
and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, believers, with open
Beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord are changed
into the same image from glory to glory to glory to glory, even
as by the Spirit of the Lord. God's people are predestinated
to be conformed to the image of his Son, and that confirmation
begins when they first see Christ, and that confirmation continues
as they look to Christ. Have you ever met somebody, the
more you know them, the more you've been around them, the
more you'd like to be like them, more like them? Well, if you haven't,
you've never met Christ. If you haven't, you've never
met the Son of God. We are only made like Him as
we look into His lovely face, consider His amazing works, and
we're conformed to His image, mysteriously. And yet, truthfully,
by the glory of God, by the grace of God, that's just the way it
is. And salvation, my dear friends,
will only be complete when we see Him face to face. It starts
with a look. It continues with a look, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Look at Hebrews
12 just a moment. I want to show you this. Hebrews
chapter 12, verse 1, Wherefore, seeing we all so accomplished
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight, every hindrance, everything that sloweth down, and the sin
which doth so easily beset us, the sin of unbelief. That's amazing. Unbelief. Oh, I have it, and
if you're human, you have it too. Unbelief. God has wrought miracles in my
life. And I still have unbelief. I
went to college. I sold everything I had and moved
down to Clarksville with a wife and two sweet children. And I
had no job, no nothing. But the people down at the college,
they'd been trying to find a job for me, you know, and they gave
me a list of places to go. And I was driving down the road
and I got to a tool and die company. I saw it there beside the road.
I pulled in and they hired me right on the spot. And I worked
there, and I went to work when I got ready, and I locked up
when I left at night. But first we got there, and there's
a house we looked at a month before that had just been rented.
And so we had to rule that one out. But when we came back down
there, it was open. Men never did move in. And it
was right beside the school. Everything worked out so well.
Those fellas down there, they thought, surely the Lord sent
me down there, and I know He did. Anyway, one of the first
months or two that we were there, the rent came due and I didn't
have the money. And I actually didn't know whether
it was the right thing to do or whether it wasn't. I'd never
acted like that before. I told my wife, I said, I'm just
going to wait on the Lord. I could have called my daddy,
called two or three brothers, but I said, go wait on the Lord.
A day or two before it had to be paid, I received a letter
in the mail from a fellow for the exact amount. I never heard
from him before, never heard from him since. You think the
Lord don't know where his people are? Why can't I believe it when
he says, cast all your cares on me? Why can't we believe it? But that sin which doth so easily
beset us, unbelief. Lord, increase our faith. Lord,
increase our faith. And the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that's set
before us. That has, Paul used that sometimes, talking about
the Olympic Games, a runner in a race in the Olympic Games.
took off his heavy clothing, his big clodhopper shoes, and
he dressed lightly, and didn't wear anything that would hinder
or slow him down. And let's do that. Anything that's
a hindrance, get rid of it. And boy, especially that old
unbelief. And then when you get rid of
that unbelief, let us run that race ever and
always looking unto Jesus. the author and finisher of our
faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the
cross. And we have a joy set before
us to cheer our hearts, encourage our hope, give us zeal. He endured the cross, despising
the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne
of God. Let us keep our eyes on him.
We see not yet everything put under his feet, but you don't
need to if you see him. You know where it's going pretty
soon. Under his feet, for he shall rule until every enemy
is put under his feet. Salvation begins with the sight
of God in Christ, Christ the Savior. Salvation continues and
progresses as we look to the Lord Jesus Christ, the author
and the finisher of our faith. We are only made like him as
we look unto him. Now a lot of what I call legalists,
they just are studying and searching what to do and what not to do
and all these things. but the motivating principle
is not there. You know why we do what we do?
We see Him. Titus chapter 3, read that sometime. It says if you continue to remind
the people what they are, where they came from, where God found
them, where He brought them to, all by His free and sovereign
grace, you continue to preach these things. What they now have
in Christ, what they are in Christ. continue to preach these things,
from where they were to what they are, and where they're going,
and they that believe. This one says, we'll be careful
to maintain good works. Well, we've got to preach these
commandments, we've got to keep pressing them with the, from
the whip of the Lord to the hands of hell, but that's not Christian
obedience. Christian obedience, following
Christ, We see everything sprinkled in the blood of Christ. The love
of Christ constraineth us. Not the fear of hell, the whip
of the law, losing rewards or gaining them. I read an old fellow
one time, I think it was Alexander McLaren, he said, those who do
what they do for future rewards, he said, that's not love and
that's not obedience, it's just long-sighted selfishness. And
that's what it is. That's what it is. And our salvation will be complete. I've thought about this a lot.
Turn to 1 John, chapter 3, just a moment. Our salvation will
be complete when we see him face to face, when we see him face to face. Look at chapter 3 and verse 1. Behold, I'll get your attention,
that's what that's there for, behold, something important. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, offered us. No, it doesn't say
that, it does not, it says bestowed upon us. He just came by and
bestowed it upon us. He came by in our death and blood
and said, And it was a time of love and a time of life he bestowed
it upon us. Born of God, what manner of love
the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. Therefore, now listen, if you're
a son of God, if you're born of God, if you're a new creature,
the world knoweth us not no more than it knew him. Did the world
know Christ? They turned thumbs down on him,
his own people. and the world knoweth us not,
because it knew him not. But beloved, listen, now, right
now, sitting here this morning, think about it. I think about
it sometimes, marvel at it, that somebody like me, an old dead
dog sinner, has the right to call God, Almighty God, Holy
God, by And if I could just know all
the implications and ramifications of that and take it to heart
by faith, I don't think I'd let anything disturb me. My daddy's
bigger than your daddy. Don't talk to me like that. I
don't care what you say. Our Father, we say it sometime
without thinking what we really say. Our Father, God help us. Are we the sons of God? What
manner of love? Consider that love that made
us the sons of God. And it does not yet appear what
we shall be. And I've wondered about that
a lot. What will heaven be like? What will we look like? All that
stuff. I've wondered about that. I don't know. But we know this. that when he shall appear, when
we see him as he is, face to face, we shall be like him. For we
shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this
hope in him, he's not a carnal Christian, he's not a Christian
somebody's gotten away from the Lord. Every man that hath this
hope in him, and that's all believers to one degree or another, purifieth himself even as he
is pure. And this hope is not primarily
the coming of Christ, but this hope is being made perfect, seeing
him face to face. No amount of structured religious
lifestyle can take the place of seeing the Lord. When we see him as he is, we'll
be made like him. But let me show you something.
I want you to turn with me to Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, I believe. Let's begin reading with the
very first verse of the second chapter. I'm talking about seeing
him as he is. Now we beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering
unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled,
neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us. That the day of Christ is at
hand, let no man deceive you. by any means. For that day shall
not come, except there come a falling away first, that man of sin be
revealed, a son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that
he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that
he is God." Remember ye not that when I was with you, yet with
you I told you these things? And now you know what withholdeth
that he might be revealed in his time. The Holy Spirit restrains,
holds this day back. For the mystery of iniquity,
though, does already work. Only he who now letteth or hindereth,
restrains, will let until he be taken out of the way. And
then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall
consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with
the brightness of his coming, when he appears. His people,
when they see him as he is, at the brightness of his coming,
they shall be made like him. and the rest of the world should
be destroyed by that same appearance, the powers of darkness by the
brightness. I've thought about it as the
stark reality of truth, the glory of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ, only the brightness of his coming I read about a fellow one time,
he said, I won't be satisfied, I will be satisfied when I awake
with his likeness, not until then. You read that? Yeah, me
too. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. Isaiah 45, 22. He that seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, hath everlasting life." Seeth the Son. But everybody's
saying, look, believe, believe, believe, but they're not preaching
the Son, and so folks can't see the Son. You only see the Son
in this book, and only then as God is pleased to reveal it.
Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, you've seen the Son. Blessed
art thou, Paul, you've seen the Son. Blessed art thou, John,
you've seen the Son. And you're astonished at the
love He bestowed upon you, that you could see Him And you're
going to be made like it. God bless these words to every
heart. Thank you so much. Thank you
ladies for all the work you've done and the men. And it's been
a pleasure to be here. And our prayers are with you
in the future as you look with pastor and our prayers also with
the pastor as he plans to go back to the islands. I'll say
what Bill Clark used to say whenever he would talk to me on the phone. At the end of every conversation,
he would say, every blessing. And to me, from him, that was
enough, every blessing. Oh, I didn't fall. I didn't see that first step
up. I felt it though. Okay. We have come to the conclusion
of our 14th annual Sovereign Grace Conference. We have, over these 14 years,
been blessed to hear some of the most faithful preachers of
our generation. We have, in these conferences,
enjoyed the sweetest of fellowships. There have been no spats, there
have been no feuds. I will add, however, and I may not have told many
of you about it, but there was a...