me this morning to the 2nd book
of Timothy, 2nd Timothy, chapter 1, verses 8, 9, and 10. Chapter 1, verses 8,
9, and 10. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but
be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God, 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, 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." It's premature to talk about
when a man is saved unless we understand what it means to be
saved. A lot of talk. on the television, the radio,
various forms of mediums of communication. It could be newspapers or tracks. We're living in a time of a certain concept of religion that
is appealing to the masses. There's a certain popularity
about religion in our day. And the expression, being saved,
is a common expression, one that's used frequently. We hear it on television, as I mentioned, radio,
the tracks, and so forth. Folks talk about being saved.
But I think we're getting ahead of ourselves. And I think it's
premature to talk about when a man is saved until we find
out what it is to be saved. Let's try to find that out this
morning. Let's try to find out what it means to be saved. Our Lord said in John chapter
17 to be saved He said it was to know God. Just
to kind of sharpen up your memory, let me read it to you. In John
chapter 17, verses 2 and 3 of the 17th chapter
of the book of John, I want you to pay particular attention to
it. Now, these are not my additives. These are not my comments on
the scriptures. These are the scriptures speaking
for themselves. And the second and third verse
is a part of the prayer that comes
from the heart and from the lips of Jesus Christ himself. The
first verse gives indication of this For it says these words
spake Jesus as he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and he said,
Father, the hours come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may
glorify thee. Now, this is part of this high
priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ unto his heavenly Father.
And the second verse, first part of his prayer unto his heavenly
Father, This is what he said. Now this is what the Lord Jesus
said. This is not what I'm saying. This is not what I discovered
or found out and made mention of it through second-hand information
or through some college or through some professor, some teacher
of some sort, or read in some book. or picked up some tract
that someone passed out and said, this is what this says. This
is the Son of God, God in human form, prostrate before His Heavenly
Father, these words coming from His heart
and lips, and He says, The Son of God says this. Now this will
all be just theological talk to some of you who don't know
Him. But those that know Him savingly,
that have been acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ, it will
be more than just theology. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh. God has turned over this whole
world to Jesus Christ. That's what it says. As thou
hast given him power, authority over all flesh. Everything that
wiggles and moves. Every man and woman that is a
member of this human race, the Son of God has power over
them. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal. What is it I want to know? Don't
you? I really want to know what life eternal is. I want to know
what this quality of life is. I want to know something about
the quantity of this life. I want to know where it comes
from. I want to know who gives it. And I want to know if it comes
by a gift. And this is life eternal. What is it? Tell me what it is
that I might know something about. All right? And this is life eternal,
that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou sent. Now what I'm saying this morning
is this, I'm saying that it's premature to talk about when
a man is saved. unless we understand what it
is to be saved. And our Lord says to be saved
is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom God the
Father has sent. Now, any salvation that leaves
out or neglects or places in an inferior spot or capacity,
the Lord Jesus Christ is not the salvation that the Bible
speaks of. It is to know Him. The Lord God
said Himself it was to know God and His Son. That means to be
savingly appointed with him. Job knew something about it.
Job said, acquaint thyself with him and be at peace, or be at
rest. Enoch of old, it is said, that
he walked with God and was not, for God took him. Which is saying
that Enoch knew God savingly and was acquainted with him.
David of old, who was a man after God's own
heart, he said, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Which is saying that he knew
God savingly and was acquainted with God. The Apostle Paul here in the
New Testament says, I know whom I have believed. That is, he
is saying, I know him. He does not say, I know in whom
I have believed, but Paul says, I know whom. I know salvation,
you see, is in a person. The eternal life that the Bible
speaks of is in a person. It's in a man. It's in the God-man. You remember the scripture says
that there is no mediator between God and man, save the man, Christ
Jesus. Salvation is in a person. Paul
says, I know whom I have believed. I know Him. Savingly, I am acquainted
with Him. Faith must have for its object
a person. And that person is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now to be saved, First off, then,
means to know Him. That's what the Scriptures say.
Now, what does it mean to be saved? Well, it means that when
a man savingly knows Him and becomes acquainted with Him in
all of his attributes, then there's some things involved in that,
and the first thing that I can think of is this. It is to be
delivered from the guilt of sin. Now, I know that we are concerned
about guilt. Guilt brings about depression
and fear and remorse, and sometimes depression and remorse and fear
and guilt can so overwhelm us and weigh us down. burden us
down till we're virtually rendered useless to society, rendered
useless in the home, to our family, rendered useless in the church,
rendered useless on the job because of guilt, hidden fear, remorse,
guilt, Now, to be saved means that we're delivered from the
guilt of sin. Now, I'm not talking about being
depressed about something that you said, or something that you
thought, or something that you did. I'm talking about a guilt
before God. Over in the book of Romans chapter
3 and verse 19, it talks about being, that the whole world might
become guilty before God. That's Romans chapter 3 and verse
19. That every mouth may be stopped,
that the whole world might become guilty before God. Now, I know
many of us, as I suspect all of us, have a guilt about something
that we did five years ago, or ten years
ago, or twenty years ago, or even last week. Something that
we said. But this is not the guilt that
I'm talking about. The guilt that I'm talking about
has to do with God Almighty. Guilty of breaking His law and
laws. having a hand in killing God's
Son. Have you ever been made to feel
a guilt in this area? That you have had a hand in the
murder of the Son of God? And now, whether you understand
that or not, or whether you see it, or whether you believe it,
does not nullify the facts of the Scriptures which teach that
every member of the human race, God charges them with the murder
of His Son. He sent His Beloved, He sent
His Only Begotten Son into this world. The Bible says that he
came unto his own, but his own received him not. Instead of
receiving the Son of God as the gift of love from the bosom of
God, sinful man with cruel and wicked hands and ugly hearts
and thoughts took the Lord Jesus Christ. and nailed him to a tree,
and murdered him, and said to God, we will not have this man
Jesus whom you have sent, we will not have him, we prefer
to have by us a murderer in place of him. That's the message that
every one of us sent back to God in regard to God giving His
Son. We said, we will not have Him.
When He was presented to us, we said, no, we will not have
Him, we don't need Him. And the Jesus that we accept
will be the Jesus of our own making, the Jesus of our own
concept. We don't want the Jesus that
you've sent. Kill him! Away with him! Crucify
him! We're guilty of that. Every one
of us here this morning was or is guilty of the murder of the
Son of God. I'm not talking about you having
bad thoughts about me before you come to church this morning,
or me having bad thoughts about you five years ago or two years
ago. That doesn't enter into it. I'm
talking about a guilt. an absolute guilt before God
because we have transgressed His law and we had a hand in
the murder of God's Son. Now you can believe that. Every
one of us. Every one of us. And that's the
issue that God has with this world today. I know that men
would fog the issue, would cloud the issue, and they would talk
about the drug traffic, would talk about the alcohol business,
they'll talk about poverty and the ghettos and making the world
a better place to live in if we do this. That's not the issue! The issue is that God says, you
killed my son! You murdered him! That's the
issue. Brother, we've got that guilt in our hearts before God. The Bible says that the law might
stop everybody's mouth. They might become guilty before
God. Everybody. You and me. All of us. Guilty before God. That's what
I'm talking about. Now, to be saved, No need for
me to talk about when a man is saved until we find out what
it means to be saved. Now to be saved means to be delivered
from this guilt that I am talking about before God. The guilt of
the murder of God's Son. We've got to be delivered from
that guilt. Some people, listen now, I know
there's some problems, questions real quick that come up in your
mind about this guilt before God. You say, well, does everybody
have it? No. There's a lot of people,
as a matter of fact, I believe the majority of people are born
into this world and go out of this world and never feel any
of the guilt that I'm talking about. But those people are going
to hell. See, they're going to hell. You
say, well, they believe something. Well, they're real religious.
I know that. There's a lot of people who are religious. But I'm saying is, brethren,
that we've got to, if we're ever going to be saved, we've got
to be delivered from this guilt. this guilt before God, actual
guilt before Him. We've got to have it removed.
We've got to have that guilt taken away. Let me read something
to you over here in the book of Romans chapter 5, I believe
it is, and verse 19. Turn over there if you will.
You see our records this morning before God are in bad shape.
They are bad shape. Look here at verse 19. It says,
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners. so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Now what
am I saying? I'm saying that that 19th verse
there says that many shall be made righteous. This is what
we need, a deliverance from our guilt before God and against
God, and we need to be made righteous before God. It says that the
law of God will stop everybody's mouth and bring him guilty before
God. We need to be delivered from
this guilt before God unto a righteousness before God. And it says here,
by one man's Disobedience, that was our father Adam, and we stood
in him. He acted as our representative.
He was the offspring of the creative power of God Himself. God formed
a man out of the dust of the earth, and then leaned down and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became
a living soul. And we are from our father Adam,
and Adam, as he rebelled against God and sinned against God, He
stood as our representative, the first Adam. We were represented
before God in Adam, the first Adam. And we were made sinners
by what He done. We received the same nature that
He had. And it says that By one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous." Now that's what we need. We need
to be delivered from this guilt before God and be made righteous
before God Himself. A deliverance from guilt unto
righteousness. One more scripture over here
in the book of Romans, chapter 8. Turn with me there, if you
will. Chapter 8, verse number 1. I
want you to see this. I know you're familiar with it.
Look at it again now. Romans chapter 8, verse number
1. There is therefore now, right
now, no, absolutely, condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit." What's he saying? Well, he's saying
that there's no charge, there is no judgment to those that
are in Christ Jesus, to those that have been savingly acquainted
with the Son of God as their Redeemer and as their Savior.
that because he stood in their place, and bore their judgment,
and bore their penalty, and gave unto them his righteousness,
there is now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. It means to be delivered from
the guilt of sin, from the curse of sin, from the penalty of sin,
and the freedom of condemnation for this guilt that we have before
God. Look at the thirty-third verse
of this chapter. Look at that in light of what
we are saying. It says, Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Who? Who can bring any charge,
great or small? Who can bring any act of accusation
against any one of God's people? Who can do it? It says, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's election? That's a question.
Who can do it? Nobody can do it if God justifies
it. It is God that justifies. It's God that makes them righteous
before Him. It's God that delivers them from
this guilt, from this penalty. of sin before Him? Who is He
that condemneth?" Verse 34 says, "...it is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Jesus Christ?" Then it goes on and on and on
about There's nothing that can separate us. Well, that's what
I'm talking about. I'm saying that the Lord God
Almighty has so removed the condemnation and guilt and the penalty that
the law of God has against us that nobody can accuse us because
the Lord Jesus Christ has satisfied the law of God. Well, what is
it to be saved? Well, as I said, it's to know
Him, savingly and lovingly, and to be acquainted with Him. It's to be vitally joined to
Him. It's to know Him in His character,
in His power, in His attributes. It's to know God in Jesus Christ. That's what it means to be saved.
It's to be delivered from the guilt of sin. Now, you can feel
guilty or ashamed of something you said this morning. And you
can go home and you can say, well, why did I say what I did? And I've felt that way lots of
times. Lots of times I've felt that way. I've said to myself,
why did I say that? I knew better than that. Why
did I say that? That hurt that man or it hurt
that woman. It hurt their feelings. I shouldn't
have said that. You know what I'm talking about.
You'll do this all your life. Your tongue will get you in trouble. It always gets us in trouble,
our tongue. We can't seem to control our
tongue. Our tongue gets us in trouble.
But I'm not talking about this as guilt before God. I'm talking
about this actual rebellion and this charge that God has against
us of the murder of His Son. Well, what I'm saying is that
the man who savingly knows the Lord Jesus Christ, he has been
delivered from this guilt before God of the murder of His Son. And he has no condemnation now
or guilt before God. There's no charges. It's not
saying that a man doesn't mourn over his sin. You do mourn over
your sin. I mourn that I'm not a better
preacher than I am. I mourn over the fact that I
don't spend more time praying than what I should. that things is not what they
ought to be with myself and with everybody else that I come in
contact with. I mourn over the fact that this
building's not full of people. I mourn over that. I mourn over
inward sins. I mourn. But brethren, that's
guilt, the guilt of the murder of the Son of God. I've been
delivered from that. I've been delivered from that.
There's no guilt in my heart anymore in regard to the murder
of God's Son. There's no condemnation. You see what I'm talking about?
There's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. None
whatsoever. I still repent. I still long
to grow in knowledge, in the grace of God. You see, But after
I've done everything that I know to do, if I could get to that
point, which I haven't, but we'll just, for the sake of argument,
let's say that after I've done all that I know to do, then I
look at myself and say, well, you're still an unprofitable
servant. You see, man at his best is altogether vanity. There's no guilt in my heart
anymore in regard to the murder of God's Son. There's no condemnation. You see what I'm talking about?
There's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. None
whatsoever. I still repent. I still long
to grow in knowledge, in the grace of God. You see, But after
I've done everything that I know to do, if I could get to that
point, which I haven't, but we'll just, for the sake of argument,
let's say that after I've done all that I know to do, then I
look at myself and say, well, you're still an unprofitable
servant. You see, man at his best is altogether vanity. His very best efforts, even if
he can consolidate the The best things that he ever did in all
of his life, the purest of his thoughts, the purest of his works,
if he could bring them together and maybe they'd constitute thirty
minutes. All of his good thoughts and
all of his good deeds and put them together and it'd be thirty
minutes of the best part of my seventy years on this earth thing.
Half an hour to look at it. You know what God says about
it? God says, your best thoughts, your very best deeds. You haven't
got many, but bring them all. Bring them all up here, and under
the spotlight of the white light of the righteousness of God Himself,
your good works is as filthy rags. No need for me to have any feeling
of guilt as far as God is concerned why my debt is paid. I owed God. I couldn't pay it. Someone paid
it for me. The Lord Jesus stood in my stead
and place and room and paid my debt. Well, the Bible says he
paid my debt. He says that Christ died for
the ungodly. Well, who are you? I'm the ungodly. Can't you see that? I'm the ungodly. It says the just died for the
unjust. I'm the unjust. He died in my
stead. My debts are gone. Why should
I feel guilty before God now? If I feel guilty before God now
when Jesus Christ said, I died for you, I paid your debts, well,
then I'm saying, well, I just don't hardly believe Jesus did
that. I don't believe He did that. I believe He did do that. I believe He paid my debts. I
believe my sins are gone. As a matter of fact, let me show
you something here. I ought to read something to
you about this, and maybe this will help you. It's always helped
me. In the book of Hebrews, chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, listen
to this. Verse number 12, and he's talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sin, forever sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us, for after that he had said before, This is the
covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my law into their
hearts, and in their minds will I write them, verse 17, and their
sins and their iniquities Will I remember no more? Brethren,
I'm telling you, I don't amount to much. But I have no guilt
before God in this matter of the question of sin, because
the debts that I owed, my Savior paid. And He said, that he took
my sins, all of my sins, sins of yesterday, sins of today,
and sins of tomorrow. He took them all and cast them
away as far as the east is from the west. And he said, I will
remember them against you no more. God will not even remember
my sins anymore. forever than that are sanctified. That's how God views the individual
that's saved. God looks at him as though He
had never seen him. He looks at him as He would look
at His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. No need for us to talk about
when a man is saved until we find out what it means to be
saved. If you don't find out what it
means to be saved, you're going to experience a whole lot of
difficulties in this life because you're going to think you're
saved sometimes when you're not saved. Because you're going to
think sometimes you're saved because you're baptized. And
that hasn't got anything to do with it, does it? I don't have a thing to do with
it. I don't have the first thing to
do with it. If you don't understand what
it means to be saved, you might think that you're saved when
you're seven years old or four years old and they bring you
before the church and confirm you. You might think that you're
saved because your mother and father are Christians and you
were brought up in a Christian family. You might mistake salvation
into meaning because you don't cuss, or you don't violate your
marriage vows, or you don't drink, or you don't gamble, or you don't
do this, or you don't. You might think that that's salvation. You might think that salvation
depends upon what you do and what you don't do. You see what
I'm talking about? There's no need for us to talk
about Where the man is saved until we find out what it means
to be saved. What does it mean to be saved?
It means to know Him. I'm positive of that, to know
Him. Secondly, it means to be delivered from the guilt, to
be delivered from this awful, awful, terrible, tormenting guilt
of the murder of the Son of God. and to be made to see that before
God our debts are paid. And that nobody, I mean nobody,
can bring any accusations before the believer. You can do it here.
We can accuse one another here. We can get around and say, well,
so-and-so's this and so-and-so's that, and I charge him with this
and that. We can do all that we want to. We ought not to do
it, but we can do it if we want to do it. But we can't do it
before God. Can't do it before God. God says
they got no sin as far as I'm concerned. Well, what do you
mean that? Well, because I laid all of their
sins on my Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and I punished their
sins in Christ my Son. He bore the penalty that was
due them. He bore it all. And I am satisfied. Most people are not satisfied
with what God has done. But God is satisfied with what
Jesus has done. He raised Him from the dead.
The people, back during the days that our Lord walked upon this
earth, when they said, thumbs down on this man Jesus, when
they said, away with Him, away with Him, we have no King but
Caesar, crucify Him, crucify Him. That's what they said, but
God said. But God said, I'm satisfied. And God raised him from the dead.
God raised him from the dead. And right now, the Lord Jesus
Christ is there on God's right hand. And I read the Scripture
to you where it says that that's where he'll be until he makes
every one of his enemies his footstool on God's right hand. Ah, no need for me or anybody
else. to have any feeling of guilt as far as God is concerned. That is, if they are believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And thirdly, to be saved means
to be delivered from the domineering or the conquering power of sin. Sin, the Bible says, shall not
have dominion over you. That is, when the believer has
been brought to the place to see his need of the Lord Jesus,
when he's been brought to the place to understand and know
and to feel in his heart this guilt against God, his own vileness
and unworthiness, when he's been brought to that place and has
received the Lord Jesus as his substitute and his Lord, well,
then he has come under new management. You see? It's like as I've oft
times told you about going down the street and you see a sign
on the hangs in front of a store building and it says under new
management. It's arresting. It's been a restaurant
for years. But now it says, it may have
a different name on top of it, the Doo-Dop Inn, or the Welcome
Inn, or You All Come, or something like that. But underneath it,
it says, Under New Management. Now this is what it means. It
doesn't mean that the floors will always be clean in that
building. It doesn't mean that. It doesn't mean that the food
will always be perfect. It doesn't mean that either.
It doesn't mean that the waiters will always, every time they
come to wait on you, be polite. It doesn't mean that the service
in that restaurant will always be the best. It means that there's
going to be something different happening around here because
we're under new management. It says there's a new boss in
this place. There's a new president. It means,
brethren, when we are delivered from the conquering power of
sin, that the reigning power of sin will not completely domineer
and dominate and control our lives as it used to. It means
we come under new management. New management. In Christ, you
see, we're a new creature. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. All things have passed away.
Behold, all things become new. Well, that is, the service may
not be always the best in this restaurant, and the floors may
not always be clean, but I'll tell you this, it's going to
be different than what it used to be. And that's what I'm talking
about when I'm saying that to be saved means to be delivered
from the conquering power. You're not going to be perfect,
but I'll guarantee you it's going to be different than what it
used to be. It'll be different. It'll be different. The floors
won't always be absolutely spotless. No, sir. The service won't always
be the best. And the waiters won't always
be polite. But it'll be a little bit different than what it used
to be under new management. That's what he's talking about.
To be saved means to be delivered from the control, from the domineering
control of sin. It means to be delivered from
the control of sin and brought under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. To be saved means that someday
I'll be delivered from the very presence of sin. We're going
to be changed. Let me read something to you
here. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. If you care to turn, chapter
15 in the book of 1 Corinthians and verse 51, listen to this. It says, Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall
not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. How quick Paul shall
we be changed in a moment, that quick, in the twinkling of an
eye. Boy, that's quick, isn't it?
At the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall
be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Going to be changed that quick. That is, we are going to be changed
if we are still alive when the Lord Jesus Christ comes. We are
going to be perfectly conformed to the image of the Son of God. Well, when a man is saved, it
means that one day he will be free from the very presence of
sin. You remember I read to you, and
we talked so much about that verse in the book 1 John 2, where
it says, Beloved, we do not know what we will be, but we know
that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall
see Him as He is. We shall be like Him when He
comes. When we come and we lay hold,
our eyes lay hold of the Lord, we'll be exactly like Him. Free
from the very presence of sin. We're not free from the presence
of sin now. We've got a bad heart and a bad
nature. And we sin. We sin constantly. I'm not bragging about it. God
help us. But I'm just facing the truth
of it. We are sinners. Sinners. Sinners. Sinners. If you examine yourself
by me, you may come out looking pretty good. But if you examine
yourself by the Lord Jesus Christ, well, then you'll come out, like
I say you look, before God, guilty, guilty. Well, now listen. When does a man say, well, he
has an experience here in this life, he has an experience. And
his experience depends entirely on what the Lord has done and
decreed in the past. No need to talk about being saved
until we know who gets the glory from it and who does the work. Now, I want you to see something
over here in the book of our text in 1 Timothy, was it? 1 Timothy. Something that that
not many Christian people understand, not many preachers understand
what this says. But I want you to see it, and
I think you'll understand it, at least theologically, after
I read it here again for you. We're at 2 Timothy, chapter 1. Look at what it says now in this
ninth verse. Who hath saved him? and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began." You see, what is done here in time, now listen to me,
what's done in time depends on what God has done in eternity
past. Do you see that? What is done
in time depends upon what God has done in eternity past. Not
according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
Paul says here, Timothy, that He called us not on the account
of our works. He didn't call us on account
of anything that we'd done, or anything that was in us, or anything
that He foreseen in us. He called us according to His
own purpose. His own purpose. And grace. Now what was His purpose? And
when did He purpose to do this? His purpose was to save us, and
He gave in us, in Christ, a purpose to save when according to His
own purpose and grace which was given us in Jesus Christ before
the world ever was. Huh? Oh, listen to me. If we are going to find out when
a man is saved, you are going to have to first of all determine
what it is to be saved and know what it is to be saved. And like
I said, if you don't know this, you're going to mistake a lot
of experiences for salvation here. You're going to have to
determine who it is that saves you. And you're going to have
to realize that the fact of the salvation of God, which He reveals
in time, is that which He predestinates and ordains in eternity past. Now this is what Paul said here
in this verse that I read to you. Paul tells Timothy that
God did not call him Paul or Timothy according to their works,
according to their decision, according to their profession,
according to their own righteousness, but according to his own purpose.
You see, brethren, everything is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's not in the preacher, it's not in It's not in the church,
it's not in the law, it's not in baptism, it's not in the Lord's
Supper, but it's in Christ Jesus. And the reason that we love the
Lord Jesus Christ right this morning, the reason that we love
Him is because He first loved us! When did He first love us? According to His own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
ever was. It wasn't an accident. There's
no accidents with God. God does everything on purpose.
Salvation is not by choice. It's not by decision. It's not
by chance. Salvation is by the grace of
God, and the grace of God was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. That's what it means. You look
over there, well I haven't got time, I've got a little time,
a few minutes here. Let me read something to you
here in the book of Ephesians, chapter 2. A man's not saved then when he
walks down the aisle. A man's not saved when he shakes
the preacher's hand. Man's not saved when he joins
the church. He's not saved when he's baptized. Man's saved when God reveals
Christ to his heart. That's when he's saved. When
he knows in his heart that the Lord Jesus Christ died in his
place. That's when he's saved. And that
which happens here in time depends upon what God done in eternity
past. You see, because the salvation
of the Bible is so planned and purposed that God, through Jesus
Christ, might receive all the honor and all the glory out of
it. If you had anything to do with it, or if I had anything
to do with saving myself, I'd glory in it. And you'd glory
in it. And if you don't believe it, just talk to people today.
Talk to people today that, for the most part, that come under
an Armenian ministry. and see if they don't manifest
a glory in their salvation. They're thankful that they're
not as bad as somebody else. They're thankful that they made
that decision. I know we make decisions. I know
we say yes to God. But the saying yes to God and
the making decision to God depends upon what God done in the eternity
past. We're saved here in time when
in our hearts we embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as our own.
We say, I've heard the gospel that Christ died for sinners.
I'm a sinner, a poor, hopeless, helpless sinner. I have been
made to feel my awful guilt before God in my heart. I embrace in
my heart God's love in Christ. I receive Him as my Redeemer.
That's when we're saved. by our experience, when God reveals
Christ to our heart. Not when we made a decision that
we wouldn't go to the picture show no more, or we wouldn't
steal a watermelon, or do this or do that. Well, look at this. Look at this 2nd chapter of the
book of Ephesians. And you hath equipped them who were dead in
trespasses and in sin. That's how the believer is. Prior
to being saved, he's dead in trespasses and in sin. If he's
dead before God, what can he do? What can he do? If a man's
dead, and the Bible says, and you have to be quickened. Quickened
means to give life. Who were dead in trespasses,
prior to God coming along with the Holy Spirit and quickened
us, given us life. Prior to that, we was dead. Not
physically, not physically. Dead spiritually. Dead spiritually.
That is, we couldn't make one movement in the spiritual realm
that was pleasing unto God. Not one. We was dead. Dead, dead,
dead. How dead? As dead as a man can
be. How dead can a man be? How dead
can a man be over in the funeral home this morning? How dead is
that man? You don't go around and say, he's dead, dead, dead,
dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, do you?
You just say, dead! And you know what you're talking
about. You call me up and you say my wife's dead. I don't have
to say to you how dead is she? You say, she's dead. I know she
ain't got a life in her no more. How dead is a man spiritually
that has not been converted unto God through the quickening fire
of the Spirit? He's dead unto God. He can't do anything. Nothing. You say, well, preacher, you
mean my prayers and my almsgiving, my good deeds, that went for
aught before God quickened? It wasn't no account. I'm not
saying that God didn't use it to bless the individual that
you gave it to, but you didn't make any marks with God by doing
it. God wasn't pleased with what
you'd done. What you'd done only added to your condemnation. And
I'm not saying that to discourage you from doing good, but I'm
just saying it hadn't got anything to do with saving you. If you're dead towards God, dead
towards God, you can't do anything that would please God. Not one
single solitary thing. Nothing. That's what he tells
these people. Where in times past this is the
way you walked, according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience. That's the way you were. among
whom also, me too," Paul says. We all had our conversation in
times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others, but God who is rich in mercy for
his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace." Are you
saying? I'm going to tell you this morning,
brother, if God ever saves any of us, it will be by the grace
of God and He'll get all the glory out of it, every single
solitary bit. So it's just premature. to talk
about when a man is saved until we find out what it means to
be saved. The Apostle Paul said this, he
said, Galatians chapter 1, when it
pleased God to reveal His Son in me. That's what he said. When
it pleased God. When it pleased God. God help
us. This is the God of the Bible
I'm talking about. This is the salvation of the Bible. I'm not trying
to convince anybody of anything. I haven't got a thought in my
heart or mine trying to say, well, I hope I can convince that
fellow. Listen, I got away from that. If I could convince you
of anything, there's other fellows that could come along and they
could convince you of something else. My only object in