Genesis chapter 28. Genesis chapter
28. Our text will be found in verses
12 down through verse 15. We begin reading here in verse
10, though. And the title of the message
just said this morning is, Our ladder. Christ, our ladder. And we'll see the meaning of
this in just a minute. Verse 10 says, And Jacob went
out from Beersheba, and went to Haran. And he lied upon a
certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was
set. And he took of the stones of
that place, and put them for his pillow, and lay down in that
place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, a
ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven.
And behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above
it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father and the
God of Isaac. the land wherein thou liest to
thee will I give it and to thy seed and thy seed shall be as
the dust of the earth and thou shalt spread abroad to the west
and to the east to the north and to the south and to thee
and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed
And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places
whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land. For I will not leave thee until
I have done that which I have spoken to thee Now in this place we read of
Jacob having fled from Esau, his brother, after obtaining
the birthright and the blessing by deception. You remember he
tricked Esau and Esau sold that birthright for a bowl of beans. And he tricked Isaac into giving
him the blessing and Esau, being angered, sought to kill him. And Jacob fled to this place After he had been manifest to
be the chosen vessel of God, to be the one by which the Messiah
should come, he flees to this place, Haran, and he sets up
a stone behind his head, a pillow, and he goes to sleep. And he
dreams. He's been given a dream, a vision. And he dreams of a ladder, a
ladder that is set upon the earth. And this ladder reaches all the
way to heaven. And he sees God, the Lord, standing
above this ladder and the angels of God ascending and descending
on it. And God gives him many blessed
promises. He says, this land that you're
on, I'm going to give it to you. He said, I'm going to be with
you wherever you go. I swear I'll be with you and
I won't leave you until I give you what I promised. What was this for? Why was he
given such a dream? Well, I want you to see this
is the main point of the message, and if you get nothing else,
you should get this. The vision of the latter has
one meaning, one purpose, and that is to show us Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the ladder. He is the one by which we are
able to approach unto God. The ladder that was set upon
the earth and reaches heaven is Jesus Christ. One preacher
said this. He said, blessed is the man who
has the key to understand the scriptures. You know, we used
to have those maps, you'd unfold, and they'd have legends over
there. They were keys. You know, you didn't understand
any of the symbology. You didn't understand any of
that without the key. And you listen. You will not
understand this book if you don't have the key. A lot of people read this book,
study this book, and do not understand this book. Why? They don't have
the key. They don't understand what the
book is for. I tell you the key is Christ. The key is Jesus Christ. He is the sum and the substance
of this book. Now you can go to this book and
you can find a lot of decent good things to live by. That's
what people usually go to the Bible for. They say, how am I
going to live? Well, let me look at the Bible and see how I live.
The book is not how to live. The book is about Christ. The
book is about the Son of the living God. That's what the book's
about. If you miss this, you miss the
whole purpose of the book. You don't understand the book
if you don't understand it's Christ. Just to show you this,
I'm not making this up. This is not something I... One
thing I don't do is I don't make up things. I'm not very good
at it. I'm not very imaginative. So, let's go over to Luke. Go
over to Luke's Gospel. And I want you to see this. It's
very important to know that this is a symbol, it's a picture,
it's a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Go to Luke chapter 24. You remember our Lord had died,
and His disciples were very fearful and afraid, and they didn't understand. They thought Christ should live
forever. They thought that Christ should not die. What happened?
They didn't understand. And the Lord appeared to them
in the flesh. And He asked, Why are you so
sad? In verse 25 He says, O fools and slow of heart to believe
all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into His glory? And listen, beginning
at Moses. And all the prophets He expounded
unto them in all the Scriptures. What? How to live? How to do
good? What did He expound them? In
all the Scriptures, things concerning Himself. This book is about Christ,
and if you miss that, you miss the whole book. He later in that same chapter
told his disciples, he said those words in verse 44, those words
which I've spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all
things must be fulfilled, what? Which were written in the law
of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning, who? Me.
Me. The book is about Christ, friends,
and if you missed that, you missed the whole point. If you think
that Jacob dreamed about some physical ladder, what good is
that to you? What good is that to your soul?
It's not of any value at all. The ladder is Christ. The ladder
is Christ. And I like this, back in Luke,
he said, "...then opened he their understanding that they might
understand the Scriptures." You see this? I want you to understand
this. You will never understand the Scriptures. You will never
know that they are about Christ until God opens your understanding. You see how helpless man is?
Man is helpless to understand anything. Man is educated, but
man cannot understand the Scriptures no matter how much education
he has. Except God open your understanding. And when God open
your understanding, this book opens up like a flower. It's
beautiful. You begin to read the Old Testament
and you begin to see all of these lambs and goats and sheep. They're
not lambs and goats and sheep to us. They're pictures of Christ.
They're pictures of His blood, of His righteousness, of His
work, of His salvation. I tell you, how many today know
theology but don't know God? How many have no understanding? They claim to believe in God
but have no understanding of the pardon of Christ, the blood
of Christ and His work. Which work was written in the
prophets long before it was accomplished. We're reading of a prophecy that
was given thousands of years before Christ came and actually
accomplished the work. But I'll tell you this, to one
who is not born again of the Holy Spirit, they don't understand
this. They have no love for the gospel
of Christ. They have no love to hear of
Christ. They love to hear about themselves now. That's true.
If I want to go to the Bible, I've got to hear about myself.
I've got to hear about how good I am or what I need to do. I
need to be me, me. No, it's all about Christ. And
if it's not about Christ, you've missed the book. You've missed
the whole purpose. The whole book's about Christ. But one who is born again, we
see this. I see this clearly. Every time
I open a scripture, I see Christ. You know, because I look for
Him. I look for Him. It's because God has opened our
understanding. And throughout this text, as
well as all the Old Testament, if this is just about Jacob and
that land in Palestine, what good is that to you? If this
is just a history, what good is that to the souls of men?
Does you no good, does it? This book is more than just a
history book. It's not just a book of interesting
stories to be made into movies. That's what Hollywood's doing
now. They're taking the Old Testament, they're running out and making
stories, taking the stories of the Old Testament and saying,
oh look, we're worshiping God. No, you're not. If you can't
find Christ in that story, you're not worshiping God. This book is much more about
than laws of how to be moral. This book, the key to this book
and understanding it is to know that it speaks of Christ. You remember those Pharisees,
they thought they knew the Scriptures, didn't they? Well, those people
could quote the whole Old Testament from their youth, and they didn't
know Christ. They didn't understand Christ.
And what did Jesus say? Search the Scriptures, for in
them you think you have eternal life. Listen, they are they that
testify of Me. And all who will not find Christ
in this book from cover to cover, you search the Scriptures in
vain. They're empty to you. They don't mean anything. Christ
is all in the Scriptures. Now then, look at the key. Let's
go ahead. Since we've got the key to understanding this vision,
now then let's deal in and look at the vision itself. First of
all, the ladder. The ladder. He dreamed, and behold,
a ladder was set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to
heaven. And behold, the angels of God ascending and descending
on it. Friends, Christ is this ladder
that was set up upon the earth and reaches to heaven. I want
you to think about the length of this ladder. How tall was
it? How tall was it? How high is
heaven above the earth? Well, you remember that heaven
is where God sits. Heaven is where God sits. It's
where God's throne is. And the earth is the place of
man. It is cursed because of sin. You remember the scripture says,
Wherefore as by one man's sin entered into the world, and death
by sin, so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned.
Therefore man by nature is separated from God. I want you to see that. That's the distance. How far
is man separated? How far has man fallen from God? You listen, as far as the heavens
are above the earth. As far as the heavens are above
the earth. Scripture tells us that no man
is righteous. There's none righteous, no not
one. There's none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They are all together become unprofitable. There's none that
doeth good, no not one. Man cannot understand. Man cannot
come to Christ. Man is dead. How far? You think of a dead man laying
out, and you were to have some miracle potion that could give
him life. Put it ever so close to his hand,
but how far is it from his mouth? It is an eternity away from His
mouth. He could never take it. He could never use it. It is
infinitely far, though it be close. Listen, the gospel is
nigh thee, even in thy mouth. Yet man cannot believe, except
God give him life to believe. How far is that? It is an eternity
away. His eternity is a far distance. And in this scene before us,
Jacob, you know, he pictures the elect. He pictures all God's
chosen people. He was chosen and loved of God
from eternity. Paul tells us that in Romans
9. He was chosen and elected of God. But you listen, at this
point in his life, he had never heard from God. He had heard the word. He had
heard the promises by his mom's mouth. His mom had told him the
promise that he was to be the one. That he was to be the one.
And Jacob believed his mom's promises, but God had never spoken
to Jacob. Not until now. Here it is. Now God speaks to Jacob. At this
point, Jacob was lost. Isn't that what God says in Deuteronomy
32? He says, I found Jacob in a waste-howling wilderness. So too are all of the elect of
God lost at birth. Though we were chosen and redeemed
in Christ, we were born dead in sins. We 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.
We all had our conversation in time past in that. We all walk
in that by nature, born dead in sin. Sinner, do you see the distance
then between you and God? Can you see the distance that
your sin has separated you from God? It is as far as the heaven is
above the earth. That's how far man is separated
from God. Many of you have heard of Christ.
You've heard of the grace of God. You've heard of the blood
atonement of Christ that forgives sins. And yet men still refuse
to come, still refuse to bow down, still refuse to worship
Christ, to believe on Him. You're still walking after the
sins and lust of your flesh. Still will not surrender and
bow to Christ? You will not give up your religion
of free will, works, salvation? We by nature, by nature, men
desire Christ to be like themselves. Equal. That's what man wants
Christ to be. He wants Christ to be his equal.
He wants to have just as much power and say so about salvation
as Christ does. Well, Jesus, you did your part.
Now then, I've got to do my part, and we can work together and
bridge this gap from heaven to earth. Nope. No, you won't. Why? Your sin has separated you
from God. How far? As far as heaven is
above the earth. That's how far. See, men want to partially surrender. They want to partially surrender.
They want to give up just what they can give up or want to give
up and keep what they want to keep. Nope. Not and be saved you won't. We want a ceasefire. We want
God to compromise with us. Well God, if you'll just do this,
then I'll do this. Nope, no compromise. You know
why? Because you are as far from God
as the heaven is above the earth. That's how far your sin has separated
you from God. And I tell you this, unless God
strips a man of all he has to offer, unless God casts you out, and
sets you alone like He did Jacob, you will never be saved. And when God intends to save
a man, this is exactly what He'll do. He'll remove all your helps.
He'll strip you of all your righteousness. He'll strip you and expose you
of all that you really are by nature. Guilty sinners. That's what God exposes. He must
expose us for what we really are. By nature, sinners. And all we can do is sin. That's what we can do. All of
our righteousness, you listen to what God says by the prophet
Isaiah, all your righteousness, and that's the best you can do,
are as menstrual claws in the sight of God. That's the best
we can do. So how far does this ladder have to reach? in order
for you to be accepted with God, in order for you to reach heaven.
How high does this ladder have to go? It has to go all the way
from the earth to heaven, which you and I cannot bridge. We cannot make. God must then expose us that
we have no way to reach heaven. If a man has never been driven
out and lost to see his lost estate, he'll never see the gulf
that separates him and God. He'll never be able to understand
his works, cannot save him. And I'll tell you this, when
God sends a man in the wilderness like he did Jacob, he's going
to see this one thing. The bed is shorter than a man
can stretch himself out on. And the covering is too narrow.
He cannot cover himself. What is he talking about? He's
talking about righteousness. Your righteousness is too short.
Your righteousness cannot reach heaven. Your good works cannot
reach glory. The covering of your self-righteousness
cannot cover your nakedness before God. It may cover your nakedness
before other men, but it won't cover your nakedness before God. I tell you, the ladder of free
will works religions too short. You know what works religion
reminds me of? It's the Tower of Babel. Those
men said, we will reach to heaven. We will build a tower that reaches
to God. That's what man says with his
words. I will do enough to please God. I will be moral enough. I will be righteous enough to
please God. You know what God did to them?
He confounded their language. What does God do with all false
religion? He confounds their language.
The language of false religion is so confusing. They sing that song, Jesus paid
it all, Jesus paid it all, oh but you've got to do something
too. Wait a second, does that make
any sense to you? Jesus paid it all and you've
got something else to pay? No! That doesn't make any sense.
Their language is confusing. That kind of language doesn't
make any sense. False religion never makes any sense. But you listen to this. I'm going
to show you a ladder that reaches all the way from earth to heaven.
It was only accomplished by one man, Jesus Christ alone. Alone. By Himself. He bridged the gap between the
sinner and God. Jesus Christ is this ladder that
reaches all the way from earth to heaven. He is the only mediator
that bridges the gulf from man to God and from God to man. First
of all, this ladder, look at it, it was set up on the earth.
What does this tell us? Well, behold the wisdom of God,
that before sin was ever entered into His creation, God purposed
that Jesus Christ should be the representative of all His elect
people. This was already purposed of
God before there was ever sin. That Jesus Christ should be the
Savior. That He should be the Redeemer. What was the first promise given
to Adam when he sinned? After he had sinned. What was
the first promise? The seed of the woman. What does that tell
us? He's going to be a man. That's
what it said. He's going to be a man. And it
is going to be a man that is going to crush the head of the
serpent by the bruising of his heel. Scripture says, Behold,
a virgin shall conceive and shall bear a son, and he shall call
his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. God with us. You listen, this ladder was established
upon earth by this, Jesus Christ was made flesh and dwelt among
us. The eternal Son of God condescended
to be made a man. so that he might destroy the
works of the devil, that he might put away sin, that he might restore
righteousness. And by this he builds the ladder
all the way to God by his own hands, by his own works. Jesus was sent to establish righteousness
and judgment. You listen. Just in the same
way Adam was a representative man, Jesus Christ came to be
a representative man. Okay, how did Adam represent
us? Well, when Adam sinned, we all sinned when he sinned. When
he sinned, we sinned in him. As I just quoted, wherefore is
by one man's sin entered into the world? And death by sin,
so death passed upon all men. Why were we born dead? Because
of Adam's sin. He was a representative man.
Most men don't like that. They don't like that idea. Doesn't
matter what you like, that's exactly how God says it is. You
were representative by Adam. Do you suppose you could have
done better? He was the best of us. But I'm thankful for representation
because this is how God saves men. This is how men become a
sinner, by a representative. But this is also how God saves
men, by a representative man. Jesus Christ came to be a representative
man. He was sent as a representative
to accomplish what none of His people could do. None of us could
reach heaven by our works. Jesus Christ, by His work, did. Go to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians, chapter 5. 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, and look
at verse 18. Paul says, "...and all things
are of God." who hath reconciled us to Himself," listen how, "...by
Jesus Christ." What is reconciliation? Isn't that bringing together?
Right? We were separated from God by our sins. Jesus Christ,
God had determined to reconcile, to bring together God and man
by Jesus Christ. "...and hath given to us the
ministry of reconciliation," and this is the ministry, "...to
wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." not imputing
their trespasses to them. Well, wait a second. Where did their trespasses go?
If God was wanting to reconcile us to Himself, does it not stand
to reason that He would be unjust just to overlook our transgression? man being wicked and defiled.
If you were to say, okay, let's just take that school shooting,
okay, just recently. That guy killed the children.
And you were to go, and the judge were to say, not guilty! I imagine there would be a little
outrage, wouldn't you? A little indignation. Self-righteous indignation,
but indignation nonetheless. We'd be upset. You suppose if
God did that, people would be okay with it? That's what people
want God to do, just overlook my sin, just overlook my guilt.
God can't overlook your guilt. God is just and holy, and He
must punish sin. He must punish sin. How then
can He reconcile the sinner to Himself by Christ? How is it
that He can reconcile and not impute my trespasses to me? Look at verse 21, 4. He hath
made Christ to be sin for us. You see, God's not going to overlook
any sin. God's going to punish all sin.
And what did God do with the sins of His people, of His elect
people? What did He do with them? He
made Christ to be sin for us. who knew no sin, who did no sin,
and yet He was made sin for us. He bore my guilt and shame upon
the tree of Calvary. And God poured out all His anger
and justice on His Son. For what reason? that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. By the work then of this ladder
of grace, Christ firmly established by His flesh and by His work
He reaches all the way to God. Now I want you to pay close attention,
He did it without any help from you. or me. He did it all by himself. Moses, when he said to make an
altar, God told him, he said, Moses, when you make me an altar,
I don't want you to take one hammer or one tool and shape
it at all. I don't want you to touch it.
He said, Moses, if you touch that altar in any way, you defile
it. And you listen, you put any work
of yours with the work of Christ, you defile His work. You make
it of none effect to your soul. You add one thing to Him, you
ruin it. He did all by Himself. He did
all by Himself. And just so you know, I'm not
just telling you this. I'll give you an illustration.
The church of Galatia said, well, you need to believe in Jesus,
that's good, but you just need to be circumcised. You need to
add that one thing. Circumcision. You know what Paul
said? Christ shall profit you nothing. Nothing. You add one
thing to Christ, you've ruined it. This work was done all by
himself. Christ is a ladder by which men are able to be accepted
with God. The only one. The only one. His work is complete. You notice
it didn't reach partial away. It went all the way. All the
way. Second of all, we see the angels
ascending and descending on the ladder. This shows that there's
only one way that sinners are saved. Jesus Christ said, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to God but by Me. Have you seen that? If you have, why have you not
come to God by Christ? Why would you not come to God
by Him? And if you have, then listen,
this is going to be a blessing to you. These angels ascending
and descending. Now I know this does talk about
angelic beings, and I have very little understanding about angelic
beings. Don't know much at all about them at all. God uses them,
they do work, and they are in work in God's providence of keeping
and His people. I know that they are. So they
do come from God. I know that, to be with us. But
this has greater purpose than just angelic beings. We who believe
on Christ, listen, this is the way we ascend unto God. This is the only way we ascend
unto God. If you're ever going to be accepted by God, you cannot
be accepted in any other way. By coming to Christ. Therefore, we who believe should
rejoice. We should rejoice in this truth. We have constant and perpetual
access to God by Christ. As these angels were ascending
and descending, even so this morning, we ascend into the presence
of God before the throne of grace to find help. Alright, who among
us believers need help? Do you need help? I know it's a rhetorical question.
You always need help. I know this because I always
need help. Well, this should be comforting as I view Christ
as the ladder I am able constantly, perpetually to ascend unto God. Daily. In a moment's notice,
the Scripture says what? Come boldly before the throne
of grace. that you may be able to find
help in time of trouble. Come boldly before the throne
of grace. Why? You have such a high priest that
understands. You have one that understands
your trouble, one that understands your hurt, one that was inflicted
in your pain, one that had his friends die, one that had his
friends forsaken, one that needed help constantly, perpetually
from God. Christ always depended on God
for everything, didn't He? Don't you? Well, if we have such
a high priest that ascended into heaven, we too are able to ascend
into heaven and find help. But also, I know this, they descend. What is that? The blessings of
God. The providences of God. They're always pouring out on
us. They're always protecting us.
They're always keeping us. God is always. And how are these
things done? By Jesus Christ. I know this, we sometimes when
we're doing well, we go to God and we are confident that God
will hear us because we did well. And then it all turns to mess. Why? Because God will show us
that you're not going to be heard because of you. You're going
to be heard because of Him. I'm always heard because of Christ. He's my representative. He's
my mediator. He's my high priest. He's my
offering. He's my sacrifice. He's my righteousness,
my salvation. He's my everything. And the only
reason God's ever going to hear me is because of Him. God loves
me because I'm in Him. God accepts me because I'm in
Him. And so I go to God, how? By Him. And how does God send me blessings? By Him. The reason you're blessed
is because of Him. Not because you did well. You're
blessed because He did well. And this is good because we're
never robbed of our blessings. Even when you do wrong, God still blesses. This is grace. This is love. This is mercy that God made a
way for us. And by this way, all our access
is granted and all the blessings rain down upon us. And I want
you to see this. I've got plenty more. I've got
plenty more. I'm not getting to, but I've
got plenty more. But I want you to see this. One
more thing. Look at this in your text. This
ladder, it is ascending. Look at verse 13. And behold,
the Lord stood above it. Who is at the top of this ladder?
It was God. What does this mean? He stood
above it. You pay close attention. He's responsible for it. He's in charge of it. He purposed this ladder. He keeps
this ladder. Friends, and he's responsible
for it. That's what it means he stood
above it. You know, they used to have that... I believe it
was Reagan that had that on his desk. The buck stops here. Oh, Truman. Truman, that's right.
Truman, the buck stops here. You bet. In this matter of salvation
and providence and everything, the buck stops at God. God is
in control of everything. Everything. This One who purposed the latter,
who decreed it, the salvation, is God. And it is God who oversees
it to make sure it's done. Go to Isaiah chapter 46. Isaiah
chapter 46. Learn a little of God. Behold
Him. Isaiah chapter 46. And look at
verse 9. Remember the former things of
old. For I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there
is none like Me." Listen, this is God declaring the end from
the beginning. When did God declare the end
of all things? Is He just making it up as He
goes along? No. God declared the end at the beginning. And from ancient times, the things that are not yet done,
saying, listen, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Calling a ravenous bird from
the east. Now he gives an example. He's
talking about Cyrus, that wicked king. He said, I'm going to take
this wicked man and I'm going to use him to bring my people
back to their land. That's how in charge of things
I am. I use men that don't even know me. Don't even worship me. And I use them for my own glory
and the good of my people. I have spoken it, I will also
bring it to pass, I have purposed it, and I will also do it. You
listen, whatsoever God decreed in eternity, that's exactly what's
happening right now. Everything is moving right on
schedule. Everything is moving exactly
as God determined before the world began. Everything. Nothing is outside of the control
or dominion of God. Nothing. And what is God's purpose? Look
down at verse 13. The sovereign God. What is His
purpose? Listen. I bring near my righteousness. and it shall not be far off,
my salvation it shall not tarry, and I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel my glory." The righteousness and salvation is
Jesus Christ. The righteousness He obtained
by His obedience and the blood, He obtained the atonement for
sins. And what message He purposed
and declared He now sends to rebellious sinners? This same
message. Listen, I bring near my righteousness. Did I not just declare to you
the righteousness of God this morning? Did I not bring it near
to you? I brought it near. I showed you
Christ is the ladder, Christ is the key, Christ is all. Why
should you not believe on Him? Why should you not ascend by
Christ to God and be accepted? Why should you not believe on
Him? This is the preaching of the Gospel. And yet some of you
will not believe. Some of you will not come to
Christ. Now let me ask you this. Is God's plan foiled? Is His purpose thwarted? Did God purpose something that
didn't come to pass? Is His purpose disannulled? No,
in Isaiah 14 He said this, For the Lord of hosts hath purposed
it, who shall disannul it? None can or will ever upset the
purpose of God. For the arm of the Lord is stretched
out, who shall turn it back? The Lord stands above this ladder
of salvation, He stands above the salvation, and He oversees
it. And listen what He says in that
Isaiah 46, He said, I will, this is what God said, I will. Now,
who's going to disannul this? Who's going to turn it away?
Who's going to change it? Who's going to mess with it?
I will place salvation where? In Zion. Now, Zion is always
a picture of His church. Zion is a picture. This morning,
you who are believers, you are the church. Buildings are not
churches. God's people are the church. And this salvation is
the gospel. He gives the gospel to Zion.
And gospel is preached. It is declared. But listen, not
all are going to believe it. Look at that. Who does He do
it for? Who does He place this salvation in Zion for? For Israel. Not for everybody. For Israel. My glory. The Lord God, whose Word cannot
be broken, is the author and finisher of
all the salvation of sinners. Why then will sinners not trust in Christ, but rather cling to
their religion? Why will you trust in a salvation
that doesn't reach all the way to heaven? Is that not a Adequate
question. Why would you trust in a work
of yours that cannot reach to God? Why? I'm telling you of
one that actually reached to God. And I'm telling you that
God oversees this salvation. You see, man doesn't need a weak
salvation, he needs something strong. And I'm telling you God
oversees this salvation. God purposed it. God accomplished
it. And all who believe in Christ,
I know this, you believe because God ordained it. Isn't that great? That's marvelous in our eyes.
We were not looking for God. We were not seeking after Christ.
And God gave Him to us. Isn't that something? Grace,
grace, all of grace. Who then gets the glory for salvation? Who gets it all? God does. Why? He stands over it. And this I
know, that though millions may reject Him, may not come to Him,
I know this for sure, all that God gave to Christ will come
to Him. All the elect of God will come,
and not one of them will be lost. Jesus said, I came not to do
mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is
the will of the Father which has sent me, that of all He hath
given me, I should lose what? Nothing. Nothing. but raised up again at the last
day. Therefore, you who have come
to God by Christ, because God stands above it, our salvation
is sure. Sure. It doesn't depend on you. It depends on God. All my salvation depends solely
upon God. And you know these promises He
gives us. He says, I'll be with you. I will keep you. Why is it that you continue in
the faith? Why? Because God keeps you. He said,
I'm going to give you heaven. And not only am I going to give
it to you, I'm going to make you fit for it. I'm going to
make you acceptable for it. And I don't care where you go.
I don't care what you do. I am going to never leave you. I know people get mad at that
and say, well you're just encouraging men to sin. Not if you know Christ.
No, no. Because in my sin I see more
of my need of Him, not less. I need Him. Christ is the ladder
by which men may be able to ascend to God and be accepted. Why then
will you not believe on Him? May God give you such grace to
believe.