My text this morning will be
found in the 37th Psalm. If you would turn there with
me, please. Psalm 37. While you're turning, let me
say that in this Psalm, David is teaching us something of God's
salvation. All through this 37th chapter,
David is contrasting the wicked with the righteous. In verse
37 of Psalm 37, David says, mark the perfect man and behold the
upright for the end of that man is peace. Now that word mark
there means to observe or to take notice of. And the Hebrew
word perfect in this verse means complete, which no human is by
nature. David is telling us here what
God does for chosen sinners. Mark, observe, be assured, have
confidence in the fact that those whom God makes perfect, those
whom God makes complete and God makes undefiled, in the end,
they'll have peace. That peace that passes all understanding. However, notice that David says
of the wicked in verse 38, but the transgressors shall be destroyed
together and the end of the wicked shall be cut off. You see the
man that God makes perfect, the woman that God makes perfect
and complete in the end has peace, but the wicked, no, they're cut
off. They'll perish. And then David
again shifts his attention to the saved man or woman. And then
the next verse, he explains to us why the righteous have peace. Verse 39, and here's my main
text this morning. But the salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. He is their strength in the time
of trouble. And the Lord shall help them
and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the
wicked and save them because they trust in Him." And what
a beautiful explanation of what salvation is. The reason the
saved sinner is perfect and complete and upright and undefiled and
righteous is of the Lord. It's God's doing. God is their
strength in the time of trouble. By the way, if you don't know
this, that's pretty much all the time. Man that is born of
woman is a few days and full of trouble. What is salvation? Well, we see here that it's help
and it's deliverance. Deliverance from the wicked,
deliverance from being wicked. God's elect are delivered from
many, many things. What are believers delivered
from? Well, let me just give you a few. They're delivered
from this body of death, according to Romans 7 24. They're delivered
from the law of God. Oh, I'm thankful for that because
I can't keep God's law. God's law condemns me. They're
delivered from corruption, Romans 8, 21. They're delivered from
so great a death, 2 Corinthians 1, 10. Well, they're delivered
from the wrath of God to come, 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 10. They're delivered from this present
evil world, Galatians 1, 4. They're delivered from every
evil work, 2 Timothy 4, 18. And David here says that the
believer's salvation is of the Lord. And He, God, is their strength
in time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them.
Do you need help? Oh, it's the Lord that can help
you. He shall deliver them. Do you need deliverance? It's
the Lord that delivers and save them. It's the Lord that saves
sinners. And preachers today preach salvation
as a isolated experience. You know what I'm saying. Many
sinners who claim to be saved act as if salvation is something
that's quickly accomplished and then over with. They say things
like, well, I was saved on such and such a day and was baptized
and joined the church. And that's pretty much it, I'm
saved. But true salvation is the life
of the child of God from his or her first consciousness of
sin. When God the Holy Spirit convicts
a man or a woman of their great need, of their great sin, until
their entrance into glory, salvation is the whole experience of the
believer's relationship with Christ. Paul said, for now is
our salvation nearer than when we believe, Romans 13 11. Salvation
begins with God, the Holy Spirit, revealing to us through preaching
something of our sin and something of our guilt before a holy and
just God. And from that day forth until
we depart from this life and leave this body of flesh, the
true child of God strives to grow in the grace and in the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus. And the Lord said, he or she
that endures till the end shall be saved. It's certainly not
a one-time experience and event. Paul said that the child of God
must work out their salvation with fear and trembling. It doesn't
mean that we're to work in order to obtain salvation because Paul
goes on to explain with his very next breath that salvation is
God working in you both to will and to do His good pleasure.
In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18, the King James Bible reads, let
me show you that. Would you go ahead and turn there
with me? Mark your place in Psalm 37. Look at 1 Corinthians 1,
verse 18. The King James Bible here reads,
for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us who are saved, it is the power of God. Now, I found
it very interesting that most every other translation of the
Bible that I had, and I've got several, reads differently. Even
the new King James translation reads this way. For the message
of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but
to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. And if God's
elect are saved by the preaching of the gospel, by the preaching
of the cross, and they are, then the glorious message of the cross,
the message of substitution is the power of God unto those who
are being saved, not already saved. We're growing. in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord. We are enduring until the end. In other words, we're being saved.
We're kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time, 1 Peter 1 5. Paul told
Timothy, he said, from a child, you've known the Holy Scriptures,
which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith,
which is in Christ Jesus. Now, I believe and I trust in
Christ today, and I must believe and trust in Christ tomorrow.
And I must believe and trust in Christ all my days. In order
to be saved, I must believe until the end. And if I don't, then
I never really believed at all. Hebrews 3.6 tells us that Christ
has a son over his house, whose house we are if we hold fast. the confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope firm until the end. Hebrews 4.14 says, seeing then
that we have a great high priest that has passed into the heavens,
Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Beloved,
if God has saved us by his grace, then we will hold fast until
the end, because having loved his own, which were in the world,
he loved them until the end. My only hope of salvation is
being kept by the power of God. And it's that Christ having loved
his people in the world, you and me, that he loved us until
the end. Those whom Christ loved into
the end are those who will endure to the end. Why? David told us here in Psalm chapter
37, for the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. Salvation is a complete deliverance. A salvation that can be lost
is not salvation. It's not complete. True salvation
is being kept forever by the power of God from ever being
lost. And I find such hope in that.
Salvation's of the Lord. It's not in a religious profession. Salvation is not a one-time decision. Paul and Barnabas preached to
the souls of the disciples and exhorted them to continue in
the faith. And that we must, through much
tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. We're gonna meet with
reproaches, we're gonna meet with afflictions and persecutions,
and we'll go through much tribulation while pressing onward towards
the kingdom of God. but the people of God will continue
in the faith. How do I know? Because it's by
the power of God that we're kept. When that good, that moral, that
rich young ruler went away sad, do you remember that? The disciples
asked the Lord this question. They said, who then can be saved?
And you remember what the Lord said? He said, with men, it's
impossible, but with God, all things are possible. Now there's
my hope of redemption. Peter said, Lord, we've forsaken
all and have followed you. What shall we have? And the God-man,
God in the flesh said, Verily I say unto you, that you who
have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit
upon the throne of His glory, you shall sit upon 12 thrones,
judging the 12 tribes of Israel. and everyone that has forsaken
houses, our brothers, our sisters, our father, our mother, our wife,
our children, our lands, for my name's sake, shall receive
a hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life." True salvation
is of the Lord. The Lord can't fail. A salvation
that can fail is not true salvation. Now, when our first parents sinned,
immediately God told them that he would send the seed of a woman
who would redeem his people from their sin. That seed of the woman
would have God as his father. Salvation is of the Lord. It
was then that God drove man and his wife out of the garden, away
from the tree of life. And God placed a flaming sword,
which turned in every direction to keep man away from the tree
of life. How then can man be saved? God had already told them
that he would send one, and they would call his name Jesus, for
he shall save his people from their sin. Friends, salvation's
of the Lord. When God saw that all the hearts
of men and women upon the earth were only evil continually, He
pledged and He purposed to destroy the whole world. We're told that
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And according to
the word of the Lord, he built an ark to the saving of his house. Eight souls got into that ark. And as it began to float, and
as it began to rise above the waters, all that saw that ark
on the outside, before they drowned, and that was under God's wrath,
I might add, they all knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the
salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. The night that God
passed through Egypt to destroy the firstborn. Above the doors
of every Israelite's dwelling place, next to the blood of the
Passover lamb, you could have written salvation is of the Lord. There was no doubt in the minds
of those who had that blood over the door that that was so. Salvation's
of the Lord. None in Israel had the power
to save themselves or their firstborn. But all God's chosen were saved
because the salvation of the righteous, those whom God makes
righteous, is of the Lord. I think about Isaac, as Isaac
laid upon that makeshift altar that his father Abraham built.
his father that loved him more than life itself. He drew back
his knife to slay and kill that boy. And it was then that they
both heard a commotion and looked to see a ram caught in the thicket
by his horns. It was then that Isaac knew that
it was as his father had promised, God will provide for himself
a land for burnt offering. It was the same as saying, salvations
of the Lord. God will provide himself an offering
and God will provide himself as the offering for in salvations
of the Lord. When the Lord Jesus died on Calvary's
cross, that veil in the temple that separated the holy place
from the holy of holies, where God accepted the blood sacrifice
upon the mercy seat while it was torn in two, ripped from
the top to the bottom, only God could do that. And when God tore
into that middle wall partition between His elect people and
Himself, the message of God echoed through heaven and earth and
hell. And it said, salvation is of
the Lord. When the stone was rolled away
from the door of the Lord's tomb and the Lord wasn't there, the
heavenly host must have been singing, salvation is of the
Lord. And beloved, when that glorious
day comes, when God calls forth those from their graves, and
the corruptible shall put on incorruption, and the trump of
God will resound, and all of God's elect will hear and say,
I know that song. Why, it's written upon my heart,
and its salvation is of the Lord. God purposed the redemption of
His people and He provided the perfect righteousness that He
required to redeem them. And He will not compromise His
justice in order to save His people. It pleased the Lord to
bruise Him. It was God who put Him to grief.
It was His Father who made His soul an offering for sin. The
salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. It's everywhere
you look in this book. Now our works can't save us.
Our works, our righteousnesses are filthy rags. It's not by
works of righteousness that we've done, but according to what?
His mercy, he saved us. Salvation is of the Lord. Men
and women being ignorant of God's righteousness, go about to establish
their own righteousness. And when they do, they've not
submitted unto the righteousness of God. If you don't submit to
the righteousness of God, you're gonna perish. Because salvation
is of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can come to church, and
you can come to the altar, and you can come to the priest, and
you can come to religion, and you can still be lost. It happens
all the time. but you and I must come to where
Peter came. When he walked on the water,
he came to Christ. He said, Lord, bid me to come
to you. But then he looked at the wind
and he looked at the waves and he looked at the storm. And when
he stopped looking to Christ, he began to sink. And it was
then that he cried three words, Lord, save me. took Peter by
the hand and put him safely in the ship. Do you remember, child
of God, when the Lord reached down his hand for you? That's
where we got to come. We've got to come to the end
of ourselves, knowing the salvation is only of and in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, there are three insurmountable
obstacles, three impossible mountains for us to climb. The first one
is death. The soul that sins, it shall
die. The wages of sin is death. But in Christ, death is swallowed
up in victory. The second thing is a resurrection. We cannot bring ourselves or
others back to life. Can't do it. but our Lord Jesus
can. And the Scriptures say, therefore,
we are buried with Him by baptism into death, that just as Christ
was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
should we walk in newness of life. And then the third thing,
the insurmountable obstacle, the third one is judgment. Every
word we utter, every deed that we do, will stand accountable
for according to our works. For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may be recompensed for
the things done in this body according to what he has done,
the scripture says, whether it be good or bad. But Prince Paul
went on to say, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. All things are passed away. All
things have become new and all things are of God who has reconciled
us unto himself by Jesus Christ. Salvations of the Lord. Is it
not? Am I deceived? Salvations of
the Lord. I believe that with all my heart.
Someone once said that sovereign grace is not mentioned in the
Bible. Oh, yes, it is. Romans 5.21 says that his sin
has reigned unto death. Even so, my grace reigned through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Friends,
grace reigning through righteousness and that righteousness being
in Christ, that's sovereign grace. It's the only kind of grace there
is, sovereign grace. Salvation is not by the will
of man. It's not of him that willeth,
it's not of him that runneth, but of God. There we have that
phrase again, but of God that showeth mercy. Romans 9, 16.
Salvation is by the will of God. How do I know? God said, I will
have mercy on whom all have mercy. God said, I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. Moses said, Lord, I beseech you,
show me your glory. God said, okay, here it is. I'll
be gracious. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Friends, God's greatest glory,
I will be gracious. I will have mercy. That's God's
greatest glory, but his greatest glory is my greatest need. And it's your greatest need.
I need the mercy and the grace of God. You know, without it,
I'm gonna die. I'll be forever lost, forever
condemned. Without it, I will forever perish. Lord have mercy on me. Salvations
of the Lord. Of His own will beget He us with
the Word of truth. Salvations of the Lord. For our
gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and
in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. What can you and I
contribute to perfect holiness? Our hearts are deceitful. That
word means fraudulent. It means crooked. It means polluted. Above all things, Jeremiah said,
it's deceitful above all things. And that means deceitful above
all things that are fraudulent, crooked, and polluted. Our hearts
are desperately wicked. That word desperately means extremely,
urgently, exceedingly wicked. Not just evil, but the Hebrew
word means frail and feeble and incurably sick. That's what we
are. So much so that only God can
know the depths of our depravity and deliver us from it. You tell
me that's not sovereign grace. You tell me that's not reigning
grace. You tell me that's not amazing
grace. The very God that knows us and
our depravity actually sent his son into the world to die and
to redeem us. Salvation has to be of the Lord. It can come no other way. There's
no other way that God would save us but by His grace. 1 Corinthians
1, and this time I want you to look at verse 30. I want you
to see this in your own Bible. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. Look at what Paul wrote here. Paul said this, verse 30, he
said, but of him, that being of God, are you in Christ Jesus? God is why you are in Christ
Jesus. There's no other reason. If you're
in Christ, God is why. Salvations of the Lord. Read
on. Who of God is made unto us? Who's that speaking of? Well,
he's speaking of Christ, the sinless substitute, the perfect
Savior. And it's because of God that
Christ is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. There's no other reason. Do you
know what that means? Well, I bet you can guess. Salvation
is of the Lord. Look at verse 31, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Salvation
is of the Lord because that's the very thing that gives God
all the glory. Paul said, and you hath he quickened. Speaking of Christ. Who's quickened
us? That word means made alive. Who
made us alive? God did. And He did so in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Who did He quicken? Who did God
make alive? You who were dead in trespasses
and sin. I'm gonna say it again. Salvation
is of the Lord. Have you ever raised anyone from
the dead? Well, if we could, we'd have to start with ourselves.
We can't raise anyone from the dead because we ourselves are
dead. The Christ in you and Christ
in me is the hope of glory. Christ in us is the hope of salvation. The salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. Paul told Timothy the very thing
that David is telling us. Paul told Timothy, he said, who
had saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our word. but according to His own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began." Salvation is of the Lord. And salvation is in the Lord.
Paul said this salvation is now made manifest by the appearing
of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death. Who
abolished death? The Lord did. and hath brought
life and immortality to light through the gospel." You know
what that means? You can say it with me if you
like. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is in the Lord. Salvation
is in a person. Salvation is not in a pool of
water. Salvation is not in a profession
of faith. Salvation is not in a persuasion
of our will. Salvation's in a person, and
that person is Christ. Salvation is of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ. I can prove
that. He that hath the Son hath life. Isn't that so simple, so plain,
but so true? He that hath the Son, he that
has Jesus Christ has life eternal. Do you have Christ? If you do,
then you have life. But remember, there's two sides.
He that hath not the Son hath not life. Oh, may God be pleased
to show us our great need. Oh, we're so needy. We have such
a great need. And may He at the same time show
us our great remedy. Lord, show us our sin, then show
us our Savior. Show us your wrath and then show
us our salvation. Show us the Lord Jesus Christ
who is our salvation. Salvations of the Lord. But now
in Christ Jesus, you who were sometimes a far off, far off,
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. for we are His workmanship
created in Christ Jesus. Now friends, if we're made nigh
by Christ, then He's our salvation. And if we're God's workmanship
created in Christ Jesus, then He has to be our salvation. According as He has chosen us,
we're in Him before the foundational world that we should be holy
and without blame before Him in love. One day I'm gonna stand
before the throne of God in judgment, and I'll be as perfect and as
holy as my Lord and Savior is. Chosen in Him, made holy and
without blame, Christ is our salvation. May God be pleased
to make it so for His own glory, for Christ's sake and for our
good. Amen.