over here in the second chapter and the fifth
verse. Even when we were dead in sin hath quickened us together with Christ, and by
grace Ye are saved. Now how are you
saved? According to what Paul has said
here in this particular chapter and that particular verse, the
answer to the question is the Lord Jesus Christ. By grace are
ye saved through grace. Now, just for a few minutes here
this evening, I want to, if I can, I want to
talk about where is salvation to be found? Now that's a controversial subject
among the majority of the peoples of the world. Where is salvation
to be found? Now, salvation is not to be found
in the church, and this is the reason why. The church in itself,
as we know the church, the church consists or is made up of sinful
men and sinful women. All here tonight, though I view every one of you
as a fine person, love you more than anything I know of, but
yet We are sinners. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. The church consists, or is made
up, of sinful men. Sinful men and women that are
called out of darkness into the marvelous light of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's where salvation is
found in the Lord Jesus Christ. The church in itself cannot grant
repentance or remission of sins or the forgiveness of sins, although
there is certain institutions and bodies of men and women all
over the world that believes that the church in itself can
give remission of sins. They believe that upon their
confession of a Sunday morning or another particular time, they
come before the man who's the priest or whoever,
and they say a few words and sprinkle a little water on and
say, go your way. But the church has no authority
whatsoever to forgive anybody. Salvation is not found in the
church. The church certainly has not that authority. The church cannot grant remission
of sins or give anyone that righteousness which God demands. God demands a righteousness absolutely 100% pure, a righteousness without
spot or without wrinkle. That's the demand of God. Now,
the church cannot come up with that or produce that. Only God
himself. The church cannot grant remission
of sins, or give anyone that righteousness which God demands. Now, salvation is not to be earned. It's not to be earned by good
works. And that's one of the biggest
problems in religion that I know of, is that they promote good works
to the extent that God will recognize what they've done, and on the
basis of what they've done, he'll grant unto them an eternal life. But, as I read to you where it
says, not of works lest any man boast. You couldn't work enough. to gain any confidence in God
Almighty. If you worked 24 hours a day,
if you prayed 24 hours a day without let-up, if you prayed
a month without let-up, or a year without, you wouldn't move God
at all. Salvation is not in the church. That is, when I say it's not
in the church, I mean It's not dispensed from the pulpit to
men or women or boys and girls. It's got to come from God himself. It's not to be earned by good
works, for the Bible through and through says there is none
that doeth good, no, not one. Good works. No, not one, not
your son or daughter or aunt or uncle or your blessed mother
and blessed father. There is not one of the world's
population since the days of Adam. Adam, the first man, fell
and sinned against God, and every one of Adam's offsprings are
born in sin and far off from God, they're so far off that
they cannot find their way back. As a matter of fact, they're
not even looking for a way back. So salvation is not earned by
good works. It says here in the Bible, there
is none that doeth good, no, not one. It says, Not of works,
lest any man should boast. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none that doeth good. Where, then,
can salvation be found? If it's not found in the church,
if it's not found by good works, where can it be found? I know where it can be found.
It can be found in a person, and that's the only place you'll
ever find it. You might travel from here to
China. You might be the smartest man
on the universe, but none of your smartness and your education
and your devious ways will you find salvation by work. No, not
one. There's no one exempt from being
a fallen sinner. All sin did come short of the
glory of God. Now, God Almighty resolved in
His eternal purpose Marvin speaks a lot about the
eternal purpose of God. God has a purpose. God does not
do anything without reason, without rhyme or reason. God has a purpose
for all things. God has resolved in his eternal
purpose to save a vast multitude of Adam's fallen race. That's the purpose of God, that
He's purposed to save a multitude of people, boys and girls and
men and women. He does it on purpose. He purposed
to save them, and He's going to save every one of them. Salvation is not one of, or I'd
say it's not one of the many ways, so-called, of salvation. Salvation is in one place. Salvation's
in a person. I talked to a fellow here the
other day a little bit, He got real religious with me, so I
asked him, I said, well, what hope do you have, brother? Oh,
he said, do you know so-and-so? And I said, well, I've heard
of him. He said, well, he's a preacher. I was out to his church here
recently. I said, well, what did he have
to say? Well, he said, I don't remember
now what he had to say. But all he was telling me about
what an ice belly was, speaking of himself and all of that. And
I said, well, what part does Jesus Christ play in your theology? What does it mean to you? Well,
he said, I don't know. He said, you've got to do this. You've got to do that and so
forth. And I said, you sound to me like
you don't know. who Jesus Christ is. I said,
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He's God and man in one person. He rules and reigns. I said,
there's no other than, there's none like Him. He's God Almighty. And I said, you've got to do
business with Him. You don't do business with the
preacher, or with the church, or with your wife, or with your
mother, or your cousins. You've got to do business with
Him who sits on the throne, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, He's not one of many. He's not one of the many foundations
whom which men try to build upon. The Lord Jesus, He is the way. He's the way to God. He's the
way to heaven. He's the way to live forever.
The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the truth. He's the life. He's the way, and He's the rock
of salvation. Apart from the Lord Jesus, there
is no hope. I don't care how old you are,
how young you are, what you think and what you don't think if you
don't know who He is and what He has done. You've got to know
who He is. He's God manifest in the flesh. That's who He is. He's God Almighty
over all and above all. He's God and man in one person. Got to know Him. This other business,
it's just all a lot of hot air. All who are saved are saved in
Christ. Now, you can put that in your
pipe and smoke it right there. All that has been saved, is being
saved, and will be saved are saved in Christ. Not Christ and plus my love for
my mother or any other work. All who are saved are saved in
Christ, by Christ, through Christ, and Christ the Savior, and through
Christ the Savior alone. In order that he might have all
the glory. You cannot share God's glory. God's glory is what you can't
do, but what he can do. That's the glory of God, and
he's the only one that has it. He's the only one that has it.
Glory, glory, glory. All right? A lot of professors
do not like to be told. that they're dead in trespasses
and in sins. Most people don't like that.
I don't know if I liked it when I first heard it. I think when
I first heard it, I thought, well, I think there's just a
little good in me. But I've come to the conclusion
from the written word here, written by the finger of God, that all
have sinned and come short to the glory of God, and all deserve
to go to hell. That's where every one of us
here tonight, big, little, or small, we deserve. We deserve the pits of hell,
and apart from the grace of God putting us in Christ, that's
where we'd wind up. Well, professors of religion
don't like to be told that they are dead in trespasses and in
sins. Now, I was telling you about
this fellow that I was talking to, and I said, well, Christ
is salvation. And I said, do you know who Christ
is? And he kind of sat back. Everybody knows who Jesus is
and all that. I said, well, if he's not, if you don't know
him, then you don't know what he done. I said, well, what are
you talking about? You're going to church and this
and that and so forth and talking about religion and you don't
know what he done. I said, the greatest, the greatest,
most glorious person that ever walked the face of the earth.
of the millions and trillions of people that lived and died,
this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, stands head and shoulders above
all. He's the lily of the valley,
the bright morning star. He's all in all. And I'll tell you, before a man's
ever saved, he's going to have to do business with this man,
Christ Jesus. Salvation is not by chance. Salvation is according to His
purpose. God has a purpose. And salvation
is when God says it's ready. When it's God's time. You know
there's time. I was watching the television
the other day and over in one of the Muslim countries, and
they had a, oh, they wasn't at war or anything like that, but
someone had done something, and so they all got mad, and there's
a bunch of, there's a bunch of kids, boys and girls, oh, anywhere
from 10 to 18 years old, they all got, they all picked up rocks,
and they threw them rocks at the crowd. There were just, oh,
there was thousands and thousands of people there, And hundreds
and hundreds of boys and girls picking rocks, throwing them
up there, hard as they could. And I said to myself, I said,
well, there's a time to throw rocks. The Bible said there's
time to pick up stones and there's time to lay them down. And there's
a time to be born and there's a time to die. There's a time. Listen, salvation is not by chance. Salvation is by purpose. Saving grace, how sweet the sound. Where shall praise enough be
found? Praise to tell what God has done,
and praise to honor Christ the Son. Members of a royal race
chosen by a sovereign grace, what a wonderful, gracious plan
that God would raise up a fallen man. He alone is our plea. He alone is all we need. All our hopes on Him rely. By Him we are justified, and
we shall soon be glorified. Over here in John chapter 17,
let me read a few verses and I'll quit. Chapter 17, the book
of John, verses 7 or verses 2. Listen to this now. See if it
sounds like you can merit salvation. It says, As thou hast given him,
God has given the Lord Jesus, that's what it means, as thou
hast given him power over all flesh. Everything that moves,
wiggles, and turns in this world, our Lord Jesus Christ has power
over. He has the power over all flesh. He has power over the storms.
He has the power of the sun and the moon and the stars, power
over it all. Do away with it with the flick
of his finger. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give. Oh, work? No, a thousand times no. It's a gift. It's a—salvation
is a gift of God. You can't barter with God and
work out problems to your advantage to get to God. Listen now. It says, As thou hast given him
power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life. To who? To as many as thou hast
given him. Isn't that what it says? And
this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee
on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. And now, Father, glorify thou
me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee.
before the world was. Y'all look there at verse 12.
It says, while I was with them in the world, I kept them in
thy name. I kept them. You're kept by the
power of God. You ain't going to die till God
says so. You ain't going to move a muscle
until God says so. We're kept by the power, power
of God, who rules and reigns and sits on the throne and does
what pleases Him. When I was with them in the world,
I kept them in Thy name. Those that Thou gavest me, He
chose. He chose a people before people
ever was, before the foundation of the world. He chose a people. The people that he chose found
favor in God's eyes. And he chose this one, and this
one, and this one, and this one. Chose them before the foundation
of the world and called them here in time. Everyone that God
has chosen unto himself and given into Christ shall be called here
in time." He said, I've kept them and none of them is lost. Not one of them will ever be
lost. They're safe as God can make
them safe, Bob. Can't get any safer than that
to be in the rock of ages. I've kept and none of them is
lost but the son of perdition. That's the devil himself. That
the scripture might be fulfilled. Well, what does God have that
nobody else has? What is it then that makes up
God's glory? His glory is that which sets
Him apart from everybody else. And His glory is His sovereignty. He's on the throne. He always
was. He always will be. He had no
beginning, and He'll have no end. And He has set up a time,
a judgment time, when He'll gather men before Him. And those who
do not know His Son, those that are not wrapped up in His Son,
those that do not love His Son, those that are not faithful to His Son,
those He's going to call up before Him. in judgment and take your
place in the lake of fire. I tell you here this evening
to know Him. You better know Him. If you don't
know Him, you don't know nobody. If you don't know nobody, it
would be better to know somebody. And that's somebody's Christ.
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. That's what
He said. Come to Me. Not to the church. Don't bring
your good works. You haven't got any. Come to
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. You know what he'll
do? He says, and I'll give you rest.
Rest for your soul. Rest for your soul. I believe
he gave me that. I believe he gave me rest for
my soul. And I thank God for it. And I
hope every one of you know who He is. And as Marvin says, he prayed that God would give
you a heart to love the Lord Jesus. And I hope He has. Well, that's about all I can do.