Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew 26. Matthew 26. We were just here
for our Bible study, and we saw that this is where our Lord gave
the ordinance of his table, the Lord's table. And he announced
that he was going to be betrayed by one who sat at that table
with him. So let's read those verses again.
All right. Verse 17, Matthew 26, verse 17, it says, Now the first day of the feast
of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying unto him,
where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover?
And he said, go into the city to such a man and say unto him,
the master saith, my time is at hand. I will keep the Passover
at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus
had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. Now
when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve, and as
they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you
shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful,
and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?
And he answered and said, he that dippeth his hand with me
in the dish, the same shall betray me. The son of man goeth as it
is written of him, but woe unto that man by whom the son of man
is betrayed. It had been good for that man
if he had not been born. Then Judas, which betrayed him,
answered and said, master, is it I? He said unto him, thou
hast said. And as they were eating, Jesus
took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to the disciples
and said, take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup
and gave thanks and gave it to them saying, drink ye all of
it. For this is my blood of the New
Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not
drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when
I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. For this message,
we are not going to look at the Lord's table. We are not going
to look at what the bread and the wine represent. We are not
going to look at this event at all. For this message, we are
gonna see that salvation is of the Lord. That's what we're going
to look at. Salvation is of the Lord. Remission of sins, as it says
at the end of verse 28, he said, that's what this represents.
That's what this is for. That's what is about to take
place. Remission of sins is of the Lord. That word remission
means release from. It means deliverance from the
hold and the disease of sin. That is totally of the Lord. That's totally of the Lord. Release
from sin. Sin has a hold on every person
here. Every soul here was born into
sin. Are you saying I'm a sinner?
Yes. And so am I. And we have one great need. We
need for that sin to let go of us. We need to be released from
it. And there's only one remission
for sin. Only one. Now that's what stuck
out to me as I read this. Just listen to the wording here,
all right? Verse 26 says, as they were eating,
Jesus took bread. He took the bread. It says, He blessed it. He break it. He gave it. Verse 27 says, He took the cup. He gave thanks and He gave it
to them. He, He, He. What can we take
from those verses? He. That's what we can take from
it. He, He, He. Salvation is of the
Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. The remission of sins, the release
from sin, deliverance from sin is of the Lord. Verse 24 says,
The Son of Man goeth as it is written of Him. Our Lord said,
I'm about to go do exactly what is written of Me to do. This
salvation, this deliverance, it was written that He would
do it, and He did it just as it was
written. It was written that He would
do it, And he accomplished it exactly as it was written. Turn with me over to 1 Corinthians
15. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 1 says, Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel, which I preached unto you, which also you have
received, and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved,
if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed
in vain. For I delivered unto you first
of all that which I also received, How that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures. And that he was buried and that
he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Exactly as
it was declared in this word. Christ lived for his people. He was betrayed for his people. He was convicted and condemned
for His people. He suffered and He bled and He
died for His people. Why did all this happen? Why
did He come and live here for 33 and a half years? Why did
He live on this earth? Was that not God manifest in
the flesh? He came and lived a life I could
not live for me. He accomplished a life, a walk
for me. Why did He endure everything
that He endured? He did it for me, in the place of me, as a
substitute for me. He arose for His people. He ascended
for His people. He reigns for His people. And He ever lives to make intercession
for His people. Salvation was of the Lord and
is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Now,
back in the 1800s, a man named Charles Spurgeon brought a message
declaring five things concerning the salvation of the Lord for
his people. And I want to tell you those
five things this morning. because in those five truths
from the scripture, and that's what he declared, it's not just
five things that he made up, just five things that he thought,
five truths from the scripture, in those five truths, we will
see how the sin of God's people was remitted. We will see exactly
how the process went when God removed sin from his people,
set them free from it. remission, set them free from
it, brought liberty from their captivity to it. And if God will
reveal these five things to us, and this is my prayer, I pray
that the Lord will open our eyes and our ears and our minds and
our hearts and let us really see this. Because if God will
reveal these five things to us, come the end of this, we will
realize salvation is of the Lord. It's totally of the Lord. He,
he, he. All right, turn with me to Revelation
13. While you're turning there, I'll
tell you the first truth concerning our salvation. Revelation 13, Charles Spurgeon
pointed out, he declared that salvation was
of the Lord in its origination." That's what he said. Salvation
is of the Lord in its origination. And what that means is, it all
began with Him. It all began with Him. When it
comes to the salvation of God's sinful people, it all began with
Him. The whole thing originated with
Him. I know that people naturally
think that God made man and woman to be perfect. And then man and
woman threw Him for a loop when they messed it all up and fell
into sin. And then He had to come up with
an emergency response. And He had to switch gears from
being Creator to Savior. To put it all back together.
That is not how salvation went. That's not how salvation went,
not at all. Revelation 13, the end of verse 8 says, look at
the last line of verse 8, it says, the lamb slain from, and
that word from means before. the foundation of the world,
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. This verse right
here is talking about the devil. It's talking about the devil.
Look at verse eight. It says, all that dwell upon
the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the
book of life. of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. God wrote names in a book. God wrote names in a book before
the foundation of the world. And God provided a Lamb slain
for those names before the foundation of the world. God wrote names
This is how it went. God wrote names in a book before
the foundation of the world. And God provided a lamb slain
for those names before the foundation of the world. Redemption from
sin, remission. The whole thing started with
Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world. Before God ever
made a man or a woman, before it was ever even in the mind
of a man or a woman to sin against God, because man and woman didn't
even exist. It was in the mind, will, and
purpose of God to provide a remission for man and woman when they did
sin. Our Lord told Adam, He said,
in the day that you eat this fruit. He said, you are going
to eat this fruit. He didn't say, if you eat this fruit. He
said, in the day that you eat that fruit, you are going to
die. Thou shalt surely die. But even
in that moment, before that moment ever happened, God had already
ordained forgiveness. He had already ordained life
for Adam's sin and Adam's death. Salvation was of the Lord in
its origination. It all started with Him. It all
started with Him. All right, turn with me to Isaiah
53. Isaiah 53, while you're turning,
I'll tell you the second truth concerning our salvation. From the Scripture, Spurgeon
declared that salvation was of the Lord in its execution. It was of the Lord in its origination.
It was of the Lord in its execution. And that means this right here,
Isaiah 53 verse 10 says, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. God put Christ to grief. God did. It pleased God the Father
to bruise God the Son. People naturally do not understand
the cross. People do not understand the
cross. People do not understand the
cross. That has to be the most well-known thing on this earth. And people do not understand
the cross. They do not understand what caused the cross. I caused the cross. They do not understand what happened
on the cross. What happened on the cross? The
Holy God was justly satisfied. That's what happened on the cross. They do not understand what was
accomplished on the cross. What was accomplished on the
cross? Here it is. My sin was brutally, brutally
punished. by the judge of this earth. My price was paid. I sinned against
God. What's the price? Death? Punishment? Damnation? Separation? Forsaken. Forsaken. Why have you forsaken
me? What was accomplished on the
cross? I was forsaken by God Almighty. God said, Gabe Stoniker,
cast him out. Forsake him. Men and women do not understand
what the result of the cross is. Well, now Jesus died on the
cross, but you better make sure that you can save yourself. What
happened on the cross? And it's all because people do
not understand whose hand it was that enforced and carried
out the cross. People do not understand this.
I say it all the time, but you've heard it. I've heard it so many
times and you've heard it. People say, if I would have been
around back then, I would have stopped it. I would have never
let them bruise my Lord. You couldn't stop the bruising
of the Lord on the cross. It was carried out by the hand
of God almighty. Man did not bruise him. Pilate
did not bruise him. Satan did not bruise him. It pleased God Almighty to carry
out the execution of His own Son on the cross of Calvary. Without the shedding of blood,
there would have been no remission. So God Almighty was the one who
shed that blood, and thank God He did. On the cross of Calvary, by the
substitution of Christ for his people, he paid the debt and
set them free. He paid the debt for every one
of them and he set them free. The just judge of heaven and
earth accomplished every bit of that for his people. Salvation was of the Lord in
its origination. Had it not been for the origination
and in the will and purpose of God Almighty, there would be
no salvation. Salvation was of the Lord in its execution. And
Spurgeon said, Salvation is of the Lord in its application.
Look at Isaiah 65. Isaiah 65 verse 1. I am sought of them that asked
not for me. God is saying, I am found of
them that sought me not. I said, behold me, behold me
unto a nation that was not called by my name. He said, that's how
it works. That's how it works. It is not
by my decision for Jesus. Now I'm going to tell you what,
now everybody here needs to make a decision for Jesus. It won't
do anybody a bit of good. It is not by me deciding to let
him into my heart. I've decided to let Jesus into
my heart. Well, great. Won't do anybody
any good. If he wants in a heart, he will
knock the door to that heart down and he will come take up
residence in that heart. He said, at my appointed time,
I say, behold me. That's how it works. Look at Psalm 27 with me. Psalm
27. David said to the Lord his God,
David is speaking to the Lord his God, verse 8. He said, when
thou saidst, seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, thy
face, Lord, will I seek. That's how it works. People talk about seeking the
Lord, seeking the Lord. That's how it works. He says,
seek my face. I pray he will say that to me
today. I pray he will say that to me
today. I want him to say it to you too, but I pray he will say
to my heart, to Gabe Stoniker, seek my face. If he does, my
heart will cry, thy face will I seek. He says, seek me. And all of a sudden, people say,
I think I'm gonna seek the Lord. I think that's what I'm gonna
do. The reality is sinners don't
seek Him, He seeks sinners. Sinners don't find Him, He finds
sinners. Sinners don't just say one day,
I think I'll love Him. He has to love first. He has
to create a love in that sinner first. If He doesn't move first,
nothing will ever happen because nothing can happen. If He doesn't
move first, nothing will ever happen. Because nothing can happen,
nothing. Turn over to John 6. John chapter 6, verse 44, our Lord said, No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him
up at the last day. People say, I decided to come
to Christ. I led someone else to Christ. Well, they love to
claim that credit. Yeah, right then and there. I
just led them to Jesus right then and there, you know. I got
saved. I did this. I did that. The Apostle
Paul said, I was blind and lost in my self-righteous false religion,
but when it pleased God, He revealed His Son in me. That's how it
happens. When it pleases God at His appointed
time, He turns on the light. He turns on the light. People
go from utter, foolish, lost, darkness, the darkness of religion. Religion is so dark. And all
of a sudden, if any, if any sinful soul ever sees Christ, the light,
the light is turned on. Who he is, what he has done for
his people. That's how it happens. Salvation
is of the Lord in its origination. It's of the Lord in its execution,
it's of the Lord in its application, and Spurgeon said salvation is
of the Lord in its sustaining power. That is such good news
to me. That is such good news to me.
Look at John 10. John 10 verse 27, he said, My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. If you are concerned about losing
your salvation, don't be. Don't be. If your salvation is
of the Lord. Now, if your salvation is of
you, if you made the decision and if you did the work, if your
salvation is of you, you don't have salvation in the
first place. If my, and I'll include me in that, if my salvation
is of me, I don't have salvation in the first place. I don't have
anything to lose. If it's of us, we don't have
anything to lose. But if it's of the Lord, if your
heart says it started with Him, it was executed by Him, it was
applied by Him, I am kept by Him, salvation's of the Lord.
If it's of the Lord, you're going nowhere. If God did it, you're
going nowhere. If He made the decision, not
me, and He did the work, not me, I'm going nowhere. Go back to John 6 with me, I'm
almost finished. John 6, Spurgeon said, salvation
is of the Lord in its origination, its execution, its application,
its sustaining power. And he said, salvation is of
the Lord in its ultimate perfection. That means God Almighty is the
one. And when I say God Almighty,
I mean Jesus Christ. He is the one who will carry
us all the way home. Verse 37, John 6, 37. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to
me, I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all
which He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. He, he, he, he chose, he died,
he calls, he keeps, he is the one who will raise us up and
take us to glory. That is the salvation of the
Lord. That is the salvation of the Lord. That is the only salvation
that will actually remit sins. The salvation that is in Christ
alone. And God will give that salvation to every single one
of His people. Every soul that the Father chose
to save and has given to Christ will come to Christ. We'll leave
religion, we'll leave self, we'll leave everything. And we'll come
to Jesus Christ alone. The salvation where he does it
all alone. Him alone, not him and me, not he starts it, I finish
it, him alone. All of our hope is in the start
to finish salvation of Jesus Christ. Amen.