Good morning, brethren. Let's
go to our Lord. God, our Father and our Lord
Jesus Christ, thank you for bringing us to your house another day.
What a privilege you give to your people to be able to come
into your house and hear you speak. Lord, we're thankful that
you have carried us all our days, revealed to us that you have
accomplished our salvation full and free in Christ alone. And
we believe your promise, Lord, that you will continue to carry
us and you shall deliver us. And we ask you, Father, to please
carry us. There's no way we'll be separated
from our flesh and from this world except your presence go
with us. And we ask you, Lord, please,
please don't take your presence from us. Help us now, Lord, to hear your
word and to understand it and believe you. And make us bold, our savior,
our salvation. Forgive us our sins, Lord. We
ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Alright brethren, let's
go back now to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter
2. Last time Paul declared that
before Christ returns there will be a great falling away. God
will send men strong delusion because they receive not the
love of the truth that they might be saved. But this time we're
going to see a great contrast that's entirely due to God's
grace. He said in verse 13, But we're
bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren
beloved of the Lord. You see, we're bound to thank
God always. He's the only one to thank because
everything we have is of Him. And we see here salvation is
by our triune God, by the three persons of the Godhead, God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Our subject
is salvation, all of the Lord. And that's what we see here in
this passage. Salvation is all of the Lord. We're bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, loved before by
the Lord. He loved us simply because he
would. Everything he's done for his people is because he loved
us, because he would. Now, we see first of all, salvation
is by God the Father's electing grace. Verse 13, because God
hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. And secondly,
salvation is by God the Holy Spirit sanctifying us. Verse
13, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel. And then thirdly,
salvation is by God's Son, the Lord Jesus. Verse 14, He called
us to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're
going to see here Christ is preeminent in all three of these works of
our Lord. Christ is God's elect. Christ
is sanctification into whom we are called, by whom we're sanctified. And Christ is righteousness.
He is the glory of the Lord. The glory is Christ Jesus. So we're going to see Christ
in each of these blessings. First of all, we're bound to
thank God the Father for His electing grace. Verse 13, God
hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Election is
of God. God hath. That's what He says,
God have. And it has nothing to do with
you and me, nothing about us that made Him choose us. He did
this from the beginning. In eternity, before anything
was, before time, God chose whom He would. He's sovereign. That's
His glory. To choose whom He will and pass
by whom He will. That's when He showed Moses His
glory. This was the first thing God
said. He said, I will proclaim the name of the Lord. He said,
I'll make all my goodness pass before you, and I'll proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy. Romans 9.18, this was the conclusion
the Spirit of God made and gave to Paul to give to us. This is
what he said. Because God has mercy on whom
he will. Therefore, he hath mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hearteneth. What's the purpose of God's election
of grace? What's God's purpose in it? Paul
declared that plainly in Romans 9. He said, the children being
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose according Purpose of God according to election might
stand. Here's the purpose why God elects
whom He will and passes by whom He will. Here's the purpose of
election. Salvation's not of works. It's of God that calleth. Christ's purpose is so that His
people will know and He will make His people know. It's so
His people know that salvation is all of God's grace. It's of God that calleth. So
then, it's not of him that willeth, it's not of man's will, it's
not of him that runneth, it's not man running about doing all
his works that saves, but of God that showeth mercy. That's why Romans 9 is hated
so much by carnal religion. Carnal religion, unregenerate
religion hates Romans chapter 9 because it declares plainly
that God chose his people so that we know salvation is not
of man, it's not of our will, it's not of our works, it's of
God that shows mercy. I think I've told you this before,
but one time Brother Henry was undergoing quite a bit of oppression
and persecution. Men were rejecting the gospel
and trying to blame him. He just stood up in a men's meeting
and read Romans chapter 9. And a man sat there and stood
there as long as he could to take it. And he got more red
in the face and more red in the face. And he bowed it out and
he said, You're preaching the doctrine of election. Brother
Henry said, I'm just reading what God says. I haven't said
a word. I'm just reading what the book
says. Men have that natural response to God being the author of salvation
and the finisher of salvation all by His electing grace. Men
hate that word. And we did too. We did too. Till God gave us a new heart
and made us see if He hadn't chosen us, we wouldn't have chosen
Him. Salvation is all of God. But before He chose His people,
God chose His Son. He chose His Son. Go back to
Isaiah 42, verse 1. I've said this to you many times.
A man can't hate the doctrine of election without hating the
preeminent elect of God. And Christ is the preeminent
elect of God. Isaiah 42, verse 1. God says, Behold my servant whom
I uphold, mine elect. in whom my soul delighteth. Christ
is salvation. He's salvation. He said, He shall
not cry. I put my spirit upon Him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He shall not cry nor lift up
nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed
shall He not break. A smoking flag shall He not quench.
He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail
nor be discouraged till he has set judgment in the earth, and
all shall wait for his law, that is, his gospel. Look down at
verse 8. He said, I am the Lord, that's
my name, and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise
to graven images. Verse 12, he says, let them give
glory unto the Lord and declare his praise in the islands. Why? Verse 21. The Lord is well pleased
for Christ's righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. You see, Christ is God's preeminent
elect. He chose his son and his purpose
And not only was to make His people know salvations of Him,
His purpose is to give Christ all the preeminence. That's what
Colossians 1.17 says. Christ is before all things,
and by Him all things consist. And He's the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning. Our text says, God hath from
the beginning. Christ is the beginning. Everything
began with Christ. the beginning. He's the firstborn
from the dead that in all things He might have the preeminence
because it pleased God. It pleased God that all fullness
should dwell in Him. And what a blessing. What a blessing. I was thinking about this passage
this week and I just got to thinking about John Newton's Him. Amazing grace. How sweet the
sound. Isn't it a sweet sound? Amazing
grace. We thank God because if it wasn't
for election, we would not be saved. All blessings were given
as elect in Christ before time. We thank God the Father because
He blessed us with all spiritual blessings. all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ according as He chose us in Him
before the foundation of the world. Christ be my first elect,
He said, then chose our souls in Christ our head before He
gave the mountains birth or laid the foundations for the earth.
Brother Larry Brown was called home by our Lord Friday. And
this is what he heard Christ say. Come, you blessed My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. That's what He did in Christ
when He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Alright, secondly, we're bound to thank God the Holy Spirit
always for sanctifying grace. for making us believe the truth.
God has chosen you to salvation. 2 Thessalonians 2.13 says, Through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto
He called you by our gospel. Sanctification is holiness. Holiness is sanctification. They're
one and the same. To be separated, to be made holy. And it is entirely the work of
God. Entirely the work of God. In
the new birth, the Christ, the Holy Spirit, makes Christ sanctification
unto us. He has made sanctification unto
us, holiness unto us. You know, there's a There's some
folks that will say, you can't say that there's a new man, a
new nature, a new holy man created in a sinner, or they'll look
to themselves. This is the paradox about this new creation. It's
the only time you stop looking to yourself. It's only when you've
been sanctified by Christ being formed in you and a new holy
man created in you that you'll be separated from that vain notion
that you can sanctify yourself. You'll be separated from that.
You'll be sanctified from that and find Christ to be all your
sanctification. You'll start looking to Him alone
to be your sanctification. Yes, a work's been done in you.
But that work makes you look out of you. It makes you look
to Christ only. God the Father sanctified us.
He separated us into Christ when He chose His people before time.
Ephesians 1 verse 4 said, when He blessed us with all those
blessings in Christ in heavenly places, He did it that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. God's saints have
always been holy in Christ before time began. We were holy in Christ
according as He chose us in Him. Then Christ came and He sanctified
us by His work. We've looked at this several
times lately. Christ said, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God.
He said, Your law is in my heart. He's the only one that can do
the will of God and keep the law of God and magnify the law
of God and make it honorable and He did it for His people.
It's by His will, not our will. And the Scripture says, by the
witch will, by His will, we are sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. That doesn't mean
once for all men, that means once for all time. For by one
offering, He's perfected forever them that are sanctified. Those
that the Father sanctified in Him in eternity, Christ perfected
them forever by His one offering. And then the Holy Spirit regenerates
us and creates a new holy man within us, making Christ's sanctification
unto us. When He does this, He makes Christ
to be our sanctification. That's the first time we see
that both He that sanctified and they who are sanctified are
all of one, for which cause He's not ashamed to call us brethren.
He made us one with Him. He predestinated us to the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ Himself, according to the good pleasure
of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein
He's made us accepted in Christ the Beloved. because you're sons. You see, you don't become a son
when you believe. He said, because you are sons,
God sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying,
I am a father. We're so passive in this thing
of calling on God that He doesn't even say there He sent the Spirit
of His Son into your heart. He makes you cry, Abba Father.
He said He sent the Spirit of His Son into your heart crying,
Abba Father. Paul said in Romans 8, we don't
know how to pray as we ought. He said, but the Spirit Himself
makes intercession for us. With groaning, it can't be uttered. Sometimes you just can't even
Speak words, you've just grown, but Christ is interceding. The
Spirit of His Son is crying, Abba, Father, when you can't
even cry, Abba, Father. But by Christ being in you in
Spirit, there's a new Holy Spirit. There's a new holy man, a new
holy nature created within you in His image, in His righteousness,
in His holiness. Romans 8.10 says, if Christ be
in you, The body's dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness. The Holy Spirit within you, the
Spirit of Christ within you is life in you because Christ made
his people righteousness. That's why. You know, if you
have life, if you have spiritual life, you know why you have it?
Because the Spirit of Christ is in you, and the Spirit of
Christ is in you because He made you righteous. Righteousness
is life. Sin is death. The body is dead
because of sin. The Spirit is life because of
righteousness. That new man in you is righteous by Christ. Colossians
3.10 says, You have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created him. Christ created the new man
and He created the new man within us in His image. And He renewed
us in knowledge after the image of Him. And He keeps renewing
you in knowledge after the image of Him. Ephesians 4.24 says you
put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness. After God. God's righteous and
holy, isn't He? Christ is righteous and holy.
That new man is created in that image after the righteousness
and true holiness of Christ. True holiness as opposed to when
we were looking at our works and looking at our deeds and
claiming we had made ourselves holy. God says, now Christ in
you has made you truly holy. I said this the other day. I
don't know if I said it here or somewhere else. When you were
born of that corruptible seed and a man was created in your
mother's womb, you were conceived in your mother's womb, you didn't
have to do anything to be a sinner. You were corrupt by that conception. When this new man's created within,
you don't have to do anything to be holy. It's holy by the
incorruptible seed. There's a new holy man born in
you. This makes us live as holy sanctified saints. Now what does
that mean? First of all, we thank God always. He did it. We didn't do it. We
didn't have a part in it. We've been separated by God,
sanctified by God from patting ourselves on the back and boasting
we made ourselves holy. We give Him all the glory in
all things. In all things. We walk as holy
children, not to make ourselves holy, but because we are holy. It's your nature now to love
holiness. Just like before, the only nature
we had was to live ungodly, sinful lives because that was the only
nature we had. Now we have a new holy man within
us and the nature of this new man is to love holiness. We struggle
because we still got the old man who loves sin, but we got
this new man that loves holiness. And by Christ's willing in you,
the new man is going to triumph. Paul speaks of this two ways. In Romans 7, he said, because
of this sinful nature, we can't do what we would in our new man.
In our new man, we would walk before God and be perfect. We
can't do it because of our sinful flesh. But in Galatians, he said,
but because of the Spirit of our Lord dwelling in us, we can't
sin to the degree our old man wants to sin. Both of those are
true. Both of those are true. That's
not what the world's preaching, brethren. The world's preaching
you can triumph over sin, and you can conquer sin, and you
get more and more and more holy. That's not what the Word says.
The Word says you're going to have this struggle in you all
your days. And the only reason that you're
going to overcome is the Spirit of Christ has sanctified you,
created a new holy man in you, and He's going to keep your old
man from doing what you could if He let you loose. When we
worshippers preach sanctification by man's works, you know what
this sanctification of the Spirit makes you do? Not give an ear
to it. It makes you be separated from
it and say, I can't follow that. I can't follow that. I used to
say the Apostle Paul was a master using a play on words. But it's
not Paul, it's God. Because God made Isaiah use the
same play on words. We're going to see in Isaiah
47, God calls the great harlot Babylon, we're worshippers, all
false religion. He calls them, O virgin daughter
Babylon. Not because they were the virgin
daughter, but because they boasted, we'll work, self-sanctify me
and boast they've made themselves pure virgin by their works of
sanctification. Well, God gave Paul the same
play on words in 2 Corinthians 6. There were some at Corinth
who were boasting they had sanctified themselves by the works of the
law. That's why Paul spent all that
time saying we're not sufficient of ourselves to thank anything
of ourselves. He spent 2 Corinthians chapter 3 saying God has called
us from the glory of that old covenant, administered death
and condemnation to us, and translates it under the covenant, the new
covenant of everlasting glory whose glory is Christ alone.
And he said, and there were some there, he said, that are glowing
in appearance, not in heart. And then Paul said this. God's
saying this through Paul. He said, are you really sanctified?
You're boasting you're sanctified. He said, wherefore come out from
among them. Be ye separate, saith the Lord.
Touch not the unclean. I'll receive you. I'll be a father
to you. You'll be my sons and daughters,
saith the Lord Almighty. And men read that, and it's clearly
a play on words. He said, if you're really sanctified,
this is what you'll do. You will stop boasting you sanctified
yourself. You'll come out from that, and
you'll trust Christ to be your sanctification. And men read
that word, and without the Spirit of God, go on saying, see there,
we sanctify ourselves. That's not what Paul's saying
at all. God was saying to them, if holiness has been perfected
in you, you're out, you're not in. You're out from that, and
you're in Christ now. You're not in that anymore. Notice
this sanctification of the Spirit's not through the law, it's through
the gospel of Christ crucified. 2 Corinthians 2.13, Sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth were unto He called you
by our gospel. It wasn't by the works of the
law that you were sanctified. It was by the preaching of Christ
being all unto us. It's so vain for false religion
to imagine they can create sanctified sinners when they're preaching
works and they're not preaching the gospel of Christ. Christ is the gospel. Christ
is the truth. He prayed to the Father in John
17. Let's go there and look just
a minute. John 17. Hold your place in John 17 because
we're going to come back here. I want you to see what he prayed. John 17, 17. He said, sanctify them through
thy truth. Thy word is truth. Verse 19. What's the Word all about? What's
the truth of this Gospel all about? Here's what it's about.
Verse 19. He said, And for their sakes
I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified through
the truth. Christ is that truth through
whom God sanctifies His people. The mystery of godliness is Christ. Listen, 1 Timothy 3.16, without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached
unto the Gentiles, believed on the world, received up into glory. Christ is the truth. He came
down from glory and He's the holy God-man. And He's sanctification. He is the truth. He took the
place of His people as the one holy, faithful, righteous servant
of God representing His people. Christ separated Himself from
vain religion. He gave Himself for His people,
and God made Him sin for us. God made Him, therefore, a curse
for His people, and He bore that curse. Christ died, and He conquered
death for His people. Christ arose with His people
in Him, and we sat down in Him. Christ is our life seated at
God's right hand. And by this gospel, declaring
what Christ did for us, what Christ accomplished for us, by
this gospel, the Spirit of Christ enters into these dead, sinful
bodies. And we're born again of incorruptible
seed. We're given the mind of Christ,
we're given the Spirit of Christ, that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God. It's never entered into
the heart of man the things God's prepared for them, but God hath
revealed them to us by His Spirit. He's come and made you to know
the things freely given to you of God, nor the way we'd know.
And you know what that resulted in? Look at 2 Peter 1. Here's
what was accomplished by this work of Christ for us and in
us. 2 Corinthians 1.4, whereby through
this gospel are given to us exceeding great and precious promises that
by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped
the corruption that's in the world through love. You have.
You have. Christ, our holiness and our
righteousness is formed in us, and our new man is holy and righteous
by Christ. And having therefore, brethren,
boldness now to enter the holiest. You can now enter the holiest
of holies, God's holy presence. Because we have Christ as our
righteousness, Christ as our holiness, Christ as our high
priest, His blood has put away our sin. You can enter now with
a true heart, a heart He's made true, a heart He's made entirely,
created anew. And you have your heart sprinkled
from an evil conscience. You know you're not guilty now.
There's no condemnation. You've ceased from your works.
And your body's been washed with pure water. Men will read that
word where it says partakers of the divine nature, and they'll
say, God doesn't create a new holy nature in you. That word
means He makes you fellowshippers with Him. Well, let me ask you,
if He didn't create a new holy nature in you, what part of you
is fellowshipping with holy God? Your corrupt flesh? That ain't
possible. Your sin nature can't have no
fellowship with the Holy God. It's in the new man we have communion
with God, a new nature. That word partakers, it includes
the word fellowship, but I tell you it's this, he made his people
one with him. It's the same word used in the
Hebrews too when he said, because the children were partakers of
flesh and blood, he also partook of the same. Was He made flesh? Absolutely. Is He made a new
man in you, a new nature in you, created in His image? Absolutely. And it's in that new man that
we have everything and know everything freely given to us of God. Our
flesh don't contribute. And that new man's good. I don't
know why men don't want to give... It's a subtlety of Satan, because
it sounds good. Men will say, we want the glory
to be on Christ on the cross. We're not going to say there's
a new man, because men will start looking to themselves. That sounds
good. But that's denying the work of
Christ in you, which is just as necessary as the work He did
for you. Absolutely necessary. That's the only way God receives
us and we have access to holy God. And that work is good. When you get to glory, you're
going to be righteous and holy, body, soul, and spirit. You're
going to be righteous and holy in every way. Who are we going
to glorify? We're going to fall down and
glorify Christ and He did it all. Why wouldn't we do that
now? God's things do. When you've
been given a new holy nature, you glorify Him for having done
that work. When God made that first creation,
He looked at everything He made and said, it's good. And that's
why Paul said, I know that in me, that is, in my sinful flesh
of Adam dwells no good thing, because Christ is in me in the
new man, and that's good. Men get so upset about that.
Oh, you can't say that. You're saying a man's good. No,
I'm not. I'm saying God's good and God made something good.
And it's all of Him and it's not of us. It's the first time
you have communion with a holy and just God. And look away from
self to Him alone. Sanctification of the Spirit,
belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our Gospel. Lastly, We thank God because
we have Christ and we're in Christ. Verse 14 says, Whereunto He called
you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, when our Lord Jesus
reveals Himself in you, He gives you the glory that the Father
gave to Him before the world was made. What's that? Go over
to John 17 again. He gives you the glory that was
given to Him before the world was made. I preached a message
on this one time. I don't have time to go into
all of it now, but it's His righteousness. It's His holiness. It's His wisdom. It's redemption. It's everything
Christ is. That's the glory. God gave Him
the glory of being the preeminence, of being all fullness before
the world was made. And look here, John 17, 22. He's
speaking of those He had called out When He was walked this earth,
Christ said, The glory which thou gavest Me, I have given
them. Look at verse 8, I've given unto
them the words you gave Me. Verse 14, I've given them thy
word and the world's hated them because they're not of the world
even as I'm not of the world. The glory He gives us is the
gospel. He makes us know the truth of
the gospel to know that the glory God the Father gave Him in eternity. He gave Him the glory of being
the truth. He gave Him the glory of being
the covenant. He gave Him the glory of being the wisdom and
the righteousness and the sanctification and the redemption of His people.
He gave Him the glory of being salvation. And Christ comes to
you and says, I'm giving you this gospel so that you know,
now, I'm salvation. I'm everything in salvation. Verse 22, the glory, John 17,
22. Here's why he does it. The glory
which thou gavest me, I've given them, that they may be one, even
as we are one. I in them. That's sanctification
right there. Somebody wants to go into some
deep, muddy dissertation on what sanctification is, you just point
to the verse 23, I in them, that's sanctification. I in them, and
thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, in Christ
our perfection. and that my redeemed all over
the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them
as thou hast loved me." Verse 24, Father, I will The best is yet to come. We have
a foretaste right now with the best is yet to come. Verse 24,
Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with
me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given
me for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
Oh, when He gives you this glory, when Christ is formed in you,
that's when you know He's the truth. He's the gospel. He's
everything God's provided. Everything you need to be accepted
of God. God gave Him that glory for the world was made. And now
in Christ, you're one in Him. Perfect in Him. Perfect in one. Christ is in you, the Father's
in Christ, and you're one in Christ. And one day we're not
only, we see through a glass dimly now, one day we're going
to see Him face to face and be perfectly, perfectly, perfectly
conformed to His image entirely. What's this gospel going to do?
What's Christ going to do through this gospel for you that He's
called? Nothing will ever separate you from the love of God in Christ
Jesus. Verse 15. This is what He's going
to do. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the traditions which you've been taught, whether by
word or epistle. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
And God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, our
Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, will comfort
your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. That's what He'll do. Father,
we thank You for this Word. Thank You, Lord. Salvation is
all of You. What amazing, amazing grace that
You have given to Your people. What amazing grace You've shown
us in coming and working all this out, all Your purpose from
eternity. You worked it out and then revealed
it to us. Lord, give Yourself glory. Bring
all the praise and glory of Your people to You alone. Make Christ
preeminent in our hearts and make us fall down and worship
Him. Save us from our self. Our self-wisdom, our self-righteousness,
our self-sanctification, our self-proclaimed liberty, Lord,
save us from ourselves and make us glory only in the Lord. How
we thank You, Lord. What You've done is amazing,
free, fully complete by Christ. Lord, we pray today You'd make
this word effectually in the heart of one of Your lost sheep.
Unite them with us and cause them to rejoice like you make
us rejoice. And Lord, we look for that day
and pray you come quickly. We may behold you face to face.
Thank you for these mercies and this continual grace. For Christ's sake, amen.