so so so so Good morning again. Let's open
this morning's service with number 127 from your hardback teminal. 127. Hallelujah, what a Savior. And then have a bulletin nearby.
Our second hymn will be from the bulletin later. Man of sorrows, what a name for
the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood, Sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we,
spotless Lamb of God was He. Full atonement can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior! Lifted up was he to die. It is finished. In heaven exalted high. Hallelujah. What a Savior. When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring, Then anew this song we'll sing,
Hallelujah, what a Savior! Please be seated. If you would pray, the Lord will
bless the reading of His Word. If you would turn with me, please,
to John chapter 6. And we will, for the Sunday School
people, this is what we talked about. John chapter 6, verse
51. The Lord told the Jews, He said,
you search the Scriptures, Because in them, you think you have life.
The Jews prided themselves, just as religious people do today.
They had memorized scripture, they could quote scripture, they
could give you all the... But they couldn't see Christ.
He said, but they speak of Me. You have a great knowledge, but
you don't know Me. And when He spoke, they took everything,
they couldn't see the spiritual aspect of what He... And this
is spiritual. They couldn't see it. All they could see was the
physical aspect. Verse 51, the Lord says, I am
the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of
this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. That's not all men, that's for
his people. And the Jews therefore strove
among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh
to eat? They thought he was talking about
cannibalism. Then Jesus said unto them, knowing
what they thought, verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat
the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no
life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and
I in him. As the living Father has sent
me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me. He's teaching them. I'm your
existence. I'm not brother Greg said he's
not the most important thing in our life. He is our life There's
no life outside of him Not in us that he is life and all they
can see is he wants us to eat his flesh and drink his blood
People still see the same thing when the gospel is preached today.
I that this blood which came down from heaven, not as your
fathers did eat manna and are dead. They ate the physical bread
and they all died. He that eateth of this bread
shall live forever. These things said he in the synagogue
as he taught in Capernaum. And this is what happened when
the gospel was preached. Many therefore of his disciples
when they had heard this said, this is a hard saying. Who can
hear it? Eat His flesh? We don't want
to hear that. When Jesus knew it Himself that
the disciples murmured at it, He said unto them, Does this
offend you? The Gospel offends sinners because
it gives them no hope in self and says all life is in Christ. What, and if you shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where He was before, It is a spirit that
quenches the flesh profit of nothing the words that I speak
unto you They are spirit and they are life. He's telling these
are spiritual things and The Lord knows but there are some
of you that believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they
were that believed not and who should betray him and This is
what he said to him Therefore said I and you that no man can
come to me And I'm so glad he didn't stop there except Except
it were given unto him by the father We would never come to
Christ we don't want to come to Christ we're not able to come
to Christ That was the sermon a couple and it's great But thanks
be to God, he makes his people willing. And from that time,
many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus under the 12,
will you also go away? Then Simon Peter, you know Simon,
you think he could say something so wise and the next minute say
something so stupid? I can relate to Simon Peter.
Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. And Lord, we believe and are
sure, sure that thou art the Christ and the son of the living
God. That is the testimony of every
believer. I've read this today because
I thought, I will say, the opportunity to come and worship God in truth,
I take that far too easily and too much for granted. I said to myself, I had an incident
one time where I was looking for a job, forgive me for this,
but they said, come to Jackson, Mississippi. They interviewed
me, want me to fly over there. And the Lord, he scared me. Lord,
where will I go over there? I have no place to go. Only at
your church is there life. And that's what we're so thankful
this morning. The Lord has blessed us. blessed us with the opportunity
to hear the words of life. And I pray we not take that for
granted. I'm so thankful. As we said,
we have nowhere else to go, do we? Nowhere else to go. Let us
try to go to the Lord in prayer. Oh Lord, your words are spiritual. And we know that in our flesh
we are unable to do anything, anything to save ourselves. In
fact, we are rebels and we will not come. But oh, thanks be to
God that you have in the covenant of grace determined to save a
particular people. Thanks be, Lord, that you have
made salvation possible for your people, that you've accomplished
it through your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is a sure
hope. We ask this morning, Lord, that
you would send your spirit to us, that you would speak to us
through your servant, our brother, Greg. And Lord, that you would
give us ears to hear and faith to believe. And give us the ability,
Lord, to praise you and give you all, all the glory. We especially pray for those
who are strangers to your grace. They are here this morning or
in unbelief, Lord, that you would be pleased to pierce their hearts
and bring them to yourself. We ask these things, Lord, that
you would take these prayers, as sinful and wicked as they
are, and make them acceptable to God the Father. Amen. Let's all stand together once
again. We'll sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin. In thy name, O Lord, assembling,
we thy people now draw near. Teach us to rejoice with reverence,
speak, and may thy servants hear. Let thy word be food to nourish
those whom thou hast called thine own. May thy people's graces
flourish, all our trust in thee alone. ? Now with joy we come
before thee ? Seek thy face, thy mercy's own ? Lord of life,
of light and glory ? Bless this church before thy throne ? While
our days on earth are lengthened ? May we live them, Lord, in
thee Cheered by hope and daily strengthened, Till Thy glory
there we see. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles again
with me to 2 Thessalonians, please? 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. And while you do that, we've
been in touch with the brethren in Houston this morning. And
the word is that everyone's well, just dealing with a lot of water.
So very, very thankful for that. Also, we want to welcome Trevor
and Sarah to Orlando. They're from Fairmont, West Virginia,
where Marvin Stoniker pastors. And Trevor's working on his PhD
at UCF, and Sarah's teaching dance, and they're newlyweds.
So they're going to be here with us for a little while. Maybe
they'll decide to stay. So we're glad you're here. I've titled this message, When
Are We Saved? When are we saved? Or, to make
it more personal, when am I saved? That's a very important question.
We talk to, listen to folks in the world, they'll tell you about
when they got saved. They'll tell you about a decision
they made to invite Jesus to come into their heart and make
Him Savior and make Him Lord. They'll talk about an experience
that they had or they'll talk about walking an aisle and joining
the church and being baptized and all that and they look back
to that as their salvation. And then they, if you look at
the stuff that's being written and the stuff that's being promoted
in religion today, very little of it has to do with salvation.
It all has to do with living the Christian life. You know,
we've nailed that down. We've got saved. That's already
settled. So let's move on to bigger and
better things now and let's learn how to be disciples and learn
how to live the Christian life. Discipleship, following after
Christ, is part of our salvation. It's part and parcel of everything
the Lord does to save us. When are we saved? And I want to answer this question
from verses 13 and 14 in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Now somebody may be listening
that has a similar experience that I had growing up. The word
saved had no meaning whatsoever to me religiously. If somebody
talked about being saved, they were talking about saving money
on something. Saved from what? We never talked about being saved. What does that mean? Well, first
and foremost, it means to be saved from God. It means to be
saved from God. The God who is is holy. He will in no wise clear the
guilty. We come into this world guilty
sinners in front of a holy God. We've got to be saved from the
wrath that is to come. That's the first thing we've
got to be saved from. God's going to punish every sin.
Every single sin. And the Lord said, in the day
in which you eat of this fruit, you shall surely die. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin
is death. That's what God requires. God
requires death for the putting away or for the punishment of
sin. And I've got to be saved from
that. I don't want to suffer the wrath
of God. I don't want to be separated from God for all eternity. I've got to have a Savior. I've
got to have one who can bear the burden of my shame and my
guilt before God and suffer His wrath in order that I might be
saved from the wrath that is to come. Secondly, I need to
be saved from myself. I need to be safe from myself.
I genuinely believe myself to be my number one worst enemy.
Do you believe that? You know people talk about, well
I've got enemies here and enemies there. The Lord said that he
prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies. Now let me interpret that for
you. Your enemy, your number one enemy is sitting in the same
seat you're sitting in. And what the Lord's doing for
us right now is He's preparing a table for us. He's revealing
to us what He has said about our salvation in the presence
of your very enemy. What did Paul say? Oh, wretched
man that I am. I am. I've got an old man. I've got a sinful nature that
I need to be saved from. We've got to be saved from the
powers of Satan. He's a whole lot stronger than
you are. He's a lot stronger than me. You don't want to go
up against the devil. We've got to have a Savior to
deliver us from his wiles, from his deceits, from all his temptations
and all the things that he hurls our way. We've got to have a
Savior. to deliver us from him. So this matter of salvation is
at least in those three senses, safe from God, safe from ourselves,
safe from our sin, safe from Satan. So my question for you
is the same question I've had to ask myself. Do you need to
be saved? Do you need to be saved? A whole
lot of folks say, well, I don't need to be saved. I'm good. I'm
good with God. I love myself. I'm doing just
fine. Devil doesn't have anything on
me. I don't need to be saved. Well, if you don't need to be
saved, I've got no word for you this morning. But if you're here
this morning and you need to be saved, God tells us, He tells
us how and when our salvation takes place. So when are we saved? When am I saved? And the answer to that question
is fivefold. Let me just summarize them briefly.
We are saved in the covenant of grace when God, according
to his own will and purpose, chose a particular people and
put them in Christ before the foundation of the world. Before
time ever began, before Adam was ever created, God wrote the
names of his people in the Lamb's Book of Life and saved them in
Christ, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
Secondly, we are saved when the Lord Jesus Christ shed his precious
blood on Calvary's cross. When he bowed his mighty head
and cried to the Father, it is finished. The work of salvation
was completed. The sacrifice was made. Everything that God required
for the salvation of His people was accomplished in what Christ
did. Thirdly, I am saved when God,
by His Holy Spirit, opens the eyes of my understanding and
gives me faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. reveals
the gospel to me as the gospel, and gives me hope in Christ. Fourthly, I am being saved. As a sinner, I never graduate
beyond my need for salvation. I find myself every day, many
times every day, crying out to God, Oh Lord, have mercy upon
my soul. The title that David used more
often than any other to define himself was, I'm poor and I'm
needy. I don't have anything and I can't
do anything. I need to be saved. Lord, save me. And fifthly, fifthly,
we shall be saved. In the day in which the trump
of God shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall be raised, and
those of us which remain shall be caught up together with them
in the air, and we shall see him as he is and be made like
him, the fullness of our salvation will be realized. So being saved,
being saved is past, present, and future. We're not looking
back to an experience thinking, well, you know, I got saved,
that's all done, now let's move on to something else. The Lord speaks of salvation
in all five of those senses. So you have your Bibles open
to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, but we are bound to give thanks
to God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. There's the beginning of our
salvation. There's the beginning of it. But that in and of itself
is not salvation. Now I've heard people say, well
you know, God chose a particular people, their names have been
written indelibly in the last book of life and that's all settled
and so, you know, there's no need to call men to Christ, there's
no need to talk about the cross, there's no need to witness to
the world. Well, that might seem to be the
natural conclusion to the truth of election. But here's the truth. Reason, human reason and logic,
is not the arbiter of truth. God's Word is. God's Word is. So though it may seem, well,
the logical conclusion to the fact that God's already chosen
a people, God cannot change. Did He not say, I am the Lord? And I change not? And therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed? The only hope you have is that
I've settled in the eternal covenant of grace, my purpose to save
a people and nothing that can happen can change that. And that's
true. That's the foundation of the
building. And you can't have a building without a foundation.
And if the foundation becomes faulty, the building is going
to fall. Trish and I bought a house in Alabama back in the early
80s that was built in 1930. And we weren't living in that
house very long before I noticed, we've got some structural issues.
And I crawled underneath the house, and back in 1930, they
would build a house by making these little brick foundations.
About two feet square, and there was probably 20 of them underneath
this house. And then they built the house
on top of those little brick columns. Well, after 55 years,
the mortar and the brick had started giving way. And the house
was threatening to fall. I had to get onto that house
and build that foundation up. Put beams under there and put
new supports. That house is still standing
today. That was in the early 80s. I promise you, had I not
done that, that house would not be there today. It wouldn't be
there. It was falling down because it
had a faulty foundation. And that's the problem with people's
salvation. They've got a faulty foundation.
Election is the foundation. Predestination is the foundation.
God's sovereign choice, according to his own will and purpose,
is the foundation. And there's no salvation. There's
no building. There's no structure without that foundation. But
that foundation by itself is not the gospel, is not the whole
story. It's not the whole story. Turn to me, if you will, to Ephesians
chapter 1. The Bible says that Abraham looked
for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker was God. Oh, might God give us hope and
the desire to look for a city which hath foundations? And those
foundations are critical. When John saw the New Jerusalem
come down from heaven, he said it had 12 foundations. The whole
city was built on a sure foundation. Here's the foundation. Look at
Ephesians chapter 1, beginning at verse 4. According as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us according to the adoption of children, according to the
good pleasure of His will. That's the beginning of the story
that's our that that's That's the foundation of salvation But
he he says according as he has chosen us in him that we should
be holy You see choosing us by itself didn't make us holy. I
There still has to be one who comes and satisfies the demands
of the covenant. There still has to be the gift
of faith. There still has to be a work of grace in the heart
in order for us to be holy and blameless before God. Turn to
me to 2 Timothy, please. 2 Timothy chapter one. We just read, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children. Unto the adoption of children.
To as many as receive him, to them God gave the power to become
the children of God. I hear people say all the time,
well, everybody's a child of God. No, they're not. No, they're
not. God has to choose us in Christ
unto the adoption, and then he has to do a work of grace in
our hearts to make us believe. Second Timothy chapter one, look
at verse nine, 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. So the foundation of our salvation
is the electing grace of God. It's the lamb that was slain
before the foundation of the world. It's the fact that God
has put his particular elect people in Christ and he's never
seen them outside of Christ. He can't. His eyes are too pure
to look upon sin. That's what the scripture says.
God can't have, if he's going to love us with an everlasting
love, he's got to see us in Christ all the time. So before time
ever began God chose us, but that choosing is what caused
him to call us Call us look at verse 10, 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 through the gospel so this this Electing grace of
God has to be brought to light. It has to be brought to light.
The gospel has to be fulfilled. The purpose of God has to be
accomplished. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Savior of sinners. You shall call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins. Christ came
in order to satisfy the requirements of the covenant. And we are saved
through the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ made on Calvary's
cross, putting away our sins once and for all by the sacrifice
of Himself. You see, the covenant of grace
by itself would never have saved anybody. Would never have saved anybody.
The Lord Jesus Christ had to come The means by which God accomplished
His purpose in that covenant of grace was the giving of His
own Son. Bearing the sins of all His elect
in His body upon that tree and satisfying God's wrath. What did God say? I will in no
way clear the guilty. Everyone that Christ died for
was guilty. And everyone that he suffered
the wrath of God for has been cleared. Has been cleared. God's not going to clear the
guilty. But once the Lord Jesus Christ bore the sins of his people,
they're no longer guilty. Those sins have been put away.
We've been saved. What the Lord Jesus Christ did
on Calvary's cross was not an offer of salvation. It was not
an offer of salvation. To be made effectual by something
we do. It was actually the saving of
His people. He actually accomplished their
salvation. He actually put away their sin. so that all of God's elect are
saved in the sacrifice that Christ made. Not one cent is left unpunished. That having been said, you say,
well, if that's the case, if that's the case, then all God's people are saved. Let's
just go home and we'll just Eat drink and be married tomorrow.
We're gonna die. Everybody's gonna be saved Scripture doesn't
speak like that When the Philippian jailer asked the Apostle Paul
What must I do? To be saved Paul did not say
oh, there's nothing you can do God chose a people in the covenant
of grace cried out Christ already paid for their sins. Everybody's
already saved and Everybody's already saved. Just go home and
it'll be okay. That's not what he said. Paul
said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. There's no salvation without
faith. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. For he that cometh to him must
believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. Now, faith is not the cause of
your salvation. Faith is the result of it. We
call all men everywhere to believe. We issue the outward call. We
tell men, come to Christ, look to the Lord Jesus Christ, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And while we extend that outward
audible call, we are thoroughly convinced that if the Spirit
of God doesn't give faith, men won't believe. For by grace are
you saved through faith, and that faith is not of yourself,
it's a gift of God. Not of works, not of works, lest
any man should boast. God's got to give you faith.
But the means by which He gives to His elect, the ones for whom
Christ died, the ones that God chose in the covenant of grace,
the means by which He gives faith is the preaching of the gospel.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the Word of God. And so I say to you, Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. What did
the Ethiopian eunuch say? What doth hinder me to be baptized?
I want to be saved. If thou believest with all thine
heart, thou mayest. What did he say? I believe that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I can't help but to believe.
God's made me a believer. I believe what you just told
me. I believe. I cannot believe. There's no salvation. There's
no salvation apart from believing. Well that's what, go back with
me to our text. I told you these were all in
our text and I... What are we to believe? Everything
God says. That's it. Everything God says. God makes
you a believer. He's going to give you a love
for the truth. And you're just going to believe everything.
You're not going to pick and choose what you like. You're
not going to be like that king in the Old Testament who took
out his penknife and he cut out the portions of the Word of God
he didn't like and threw them into the fire. No, you're going
to believe everything God says. And you're going to cast all
your hope on Him. Knowing that His Word is true,
His Word becomes a light unto your path. His Word, as Michael
reminded us, is a revelation of the truth, the Lord Jesus
Christ. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you. We thank God because God's the
one who did it. God's the one who chose you. God's the one
who redeemed you. God's the one who regenerated
you. God's the one who gave you faith. We're not thanking men.
We're thanking God. Who hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. There's no salvation apart from
believing the truth. Believe God. Believe Him. Oh, sinner, come in faith. Cast
your soul upon Him and believe everything He says. Whereunto He called you by our
gospel. He called you by our gospel. Everyone He's chosen, everyone
for whom Christ died, will be called. And they'll be called
by the gospel. They won't be called by a lie.
They'll be called by the truth of the gospel. He called you by our gospel. He's revealed Christ in you. You've come to see I'm a sinner
in need of a Savior. I've got no righteousness outside
of Christ. I can't do anything. I don't
have anything. I don't know anything. Completely dependent upon Him
for everything before God. If God doesn't look to the Lord
Jesus Christ for everything He requires of me, I'm in trouble. If God should mark iniquity Who
shall stand? Now let me interpret that for
you. I shared this with a lady the other night and she, well,
she couldn't hear it. Couldn't hear it. If God judges
any of us on the best thing we've ever done, the best prayer you've
ever prayed, The best work you've ever performed. The best thing
you've ever done for anybody. The most selfless, sincere act
of sacrifice that you've ever made in your life. Take one moment
of your life, if God judges you for that, you're going to hell
for it. I don't know how to make that any simpler. If God should mark iniquity,
who shall stand? Now, the Lord shows you the gospel.
You'll find yourself falling down before Christ. Oh, Lord,
save me. Save me. I don't have any righteousness. I don't have any hope outside
of You. I need a Savior. Our salvation doesn't stop there. We don't look back to an experience
that we had last year, or last month, or 10 years ago, or 20
years ago, and say, you don't hear believers talk like this.
Well, you know, I got saved back when I joined the church, or
back when I heard the gospel, and I asked Jesus to come into
my heart, and that's nailed down, I got that settled. Believers never graduate above
being a sinner. As you received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk ye in Him. How did you receive Christ Jesus
the Lord? You received Him as a sinner.
You received Him as a mercy beggar. You received Him as a person
who didn't have anything and was completely dependent upon
Him for everything. And as you received Him that
way, so walk ye in Him. There's the Christian life. All
this stuff that men are writing and putting out there, how to
live the Christian life, how to be a disciple, that's all
you need to know. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Love the Lord Jesus Christ. Cast
your soul upon Him and live like you want. Preacher, did you really just
say that? Yes, I did. Yes, I did. If you look into Christ, you're
going to want what He wants. If He's giving you a love of
the truth, you're going to love Him. You're just going to want
to follow Him. You're going to hear His voice.
What did the Lord say? For this cause came I into the world.
For this reason was I born, to bear testimony unto the truth.
They which are of the truth hear my voice, and they follow me.
They follow me. Just look to Christ. Follow Him. And you're going to find yourself.
Well, look what Peter says. Turn to me to 1 Peter chapter
2. Now, I am fully aware of the fact
that people hear us talk like this. And they will come to the
conclusion that they can live like the devil. They can just indulge themselves
in all the pleasures of the flesh without any care. I was talking
to somebody just the other day who listens to me preach a group
of people And they're all living in adultery and in fornication. People are going to do that.
They're going to do that. Men are going to abuse grace.
And I want to preach the gospel in such a way as to not give
the antinomian or the legalist a place of rest. That's how I want to preach the
gospel. The lawless, I say antinomian, the word nomos, for those of
you who may not know, is the Greek word for law. And an antinomian
is a person who's taken grace and said, well, you know, I can
live like the devil. And they just become anti, they
live against the law. And I don't want to give comfort
to them. But neither do I want to give
comfort to the legalist. You see, we don't fight against
antinomianism by being legalistic. Now, let me say this. That ugly
monster, antinomian and legalism, will raise his ugly head in every
one of our lives. And I hate using the word balance
because balance seems like we're making a compromise, we're trying
to... But there's the truth of the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ
and the gospel of God's grace is not antinomianism and it's
not legalism. It's Christ. So look to Christ. Say, how do
I do that? Ask God to give you eyes to see.
What did the Lord say to blind Bartimaeus when Bartimaeus came
to the Lord? Bartimaeus, what would you have
me to do for you? Oh, Lord, that I might see. Open my eyes. And what the Lord said to Nicodemus,
Nicodemus, you can't see the kingdom of God unless you're
born of the Spirit. You've got to have the Spirit
of God to see the truth, to see Christ, to set your affections
on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of
God and not setting your affections on things of the world. You have your Bibles open to
1 Peter chapter 2, verse 4. Well, begin at verse 2. As newborn
babes, you see, we never get beyond that. Paul said in 1 Corinthians
chapter 13, when I was a babe, when I was a child, I spake like
a child. And when I became a man, I put
away childish things. And then he goes on to say, when
that which is perfect has come, that which is in part will be
done away. We look through a glass dimly now, but then we'll see
him. Face to face, it will be made like him. What Paul was
saying is, I'm a child. In my faith, I'm just a child.
I'm a babe in Christ. And one day, one day, the cloud's
gonna be taken away and I'm gonna see him in the fullness of his
glory. But here he says, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk
of the word that you may grow thereby, grow in grace and in
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God uses his word
as a means to that end. If so be that you have tasted
that the Lord is gracious. If you've tasted him, you want
more of him. To whom coming. That's present tense, isn't it?
He didn't say to whom you came. He said to whom coming. We just
keep coming, don't we? We keep coming. That's what faith
does. Faith keeps believing. Faith
keeps looking. Faith keeps casting its soul
on Christ. And so that's why we say that
we're saved in the covenant of grace, we're saved at Calvary's
cross, we're saved in our regeneration, and we're saved in our sanctification. As God grows us in His grace
and in the knowledge of Christ, we've been set apart. We've been
set apart. We're following after Him. To whom? Coming. We're just still coming, aren't
we? We never get beyond that. Disallowed indeed of men, as
unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of
God and precious. How do I know I have been, that
I've received the love of the truth? That word precious, Donnie and Mary Wiginton are
out and visiting their grandkids, and he sent me a picture yesterday,
and I wrote back, I said, precious. A picture of their grandkids.
We use that word, you know, to speak of a child. That's not
what the word means. It means priceless. It means
there's no value. That would be true of a child
as well. But here's the truth of the gospel. You've sold all
you've got for the pearl of great price. And He's priceless to
you. If you've tasted of His grace,
He's your life. You want more of Him. You've
got to have Him. The Lord said, when I send the
Comforter, That's the Holy Spirit. He's going to do three things.
He's going to convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and
of judgment. Now He's not talking about everybody
in the world. He's talking about those of us who He saved out
of the world. of sin because they believe not
on me. Now, if you're your number one
worst enemy, what's your biggest problem? What's the sin that
does so easily beset you? What's the problem that you have
that causes all the other sins in your life? It's unbelief. Lord, I believe, help them in
unbelief. Lord, I want to believe you more. And we continue with that, don't
we? So, Lord, save me from my unbelief. Save me from my flesh. Save me from looking away from
You. To whom? Coming. Of righteousness,
because I go to my Father. Oh, how often times our old pharisaical
nature rears its ugly head and we start taking pride in our
own righteousness, don't we? We think, well, I didn't do that,
and we look to something other than Christ. of righteousness,
because I go to my Father. We've got an Advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, and all our righteousness
is in Him, isn't it? Thirdly, of judgment, because
the Prince of this world is judged. How oftentimes in our Christian
walk, our following after Christ, our believing, believers now,
And we get these, the accuser of the brethren, Satan, the one
we need to be delivered from, the one we need to be saved from,
what's he say? He puts fear in our hearts. The
judgment of God's gonna come against me? And then the Holy
Spirit says, nope. That sin's been put away. God's
satisfied. Judgment's been done. And that experience continues
for the rest of our lives here in this world. One final point. Go back with me to our text,
please. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 14, where unto he called
you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Here's the way Peter put it.
We are Paul put it like this in wrong in Hebrews chapter 10
We are not of them which draw back unto perdition but of them
which believe Unto the saving of our soul You say well, I thought
my soul has already been saved it was saved in the covenant
of grace and saved on Christ I was saved when I believed it
say I'm being said no way and we shall be saved We shall be
saved Seeing Him in all of His glory,
I don't know what that means. I really don't. I get glimpses
of His glory when He's pleased to speak. But all the day when
the glass will be taken away, and will see him in the fullness
of his splendor. Eye has not seen, nor has ear
heard, nor has it entered into the imagination of man." We can't
even begin to imagine the things that he has prepared for us.
Paul, when he was caught up in the third heaven, he said, I
saw things that are unspeakable. Unspeakable. There's no words
in any language capable of expressing what I saw. I can't tell you
about it. That's why God's gonna have to
give us a new language when we get to heaven. Cuz there's vocabulary
in that language that'll be sufficient to describe that experience,
and we don't have it now. And in that day, we shall be
saved. We shall be saved. When am I saved? To the obtaining
of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ in you, right
now, is your hope of glory. Is your hope of glory. But you've
not yet been glorified. Not yet. Not until you take your
last breath. The Lord delivers you from this
world. Then the fullness of His glory will be known. And we shall
be saved. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for the revelation of truth that you've given us in your word
and for the hope of salvation that we have in Christ. We pray for your Holy Spirit to teach us. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 224, let's stand together,
number 224. I know not why God's wondrous
grace to me hath made known, nor why unworthy Christ in love
redeemed me for his own. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. I know not how this saving faith
to me He did give. in his word brought peace within
my heart. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. I know not how the Spirit moves,
Convincing man of sin, Revealing Jesus through the word, creating
faith in Him. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not what of good or ill
may be reserved for me. Of weary ways or golden days
before his face I see. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. I know not when my Lord may come
at night or noonday fair, nor if I'll walk the vale with Him
or meet Him in the air. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. Hey. Hi.