Turn with me, if you would, to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. One verse will be our text for
this Bible study. It's verse 13, Philippians 2,
verse 13. It says, for it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. It is God
which worketh in you both to will and do of His good pleasure. Jonah is the one who said, salvation
is of the Lord. Salvation is totally of the Lord. And I want us to really see that
this morning. We're gonna have a true Bible study. We're going
to, I'm gonna do, Not so much explaining, but declaring. I want to declare something and
then move on and declare something and move on and declare something.
I want us to really enter in, in every way, shape and form
that we can and have time for. I want us to understand the fact
that salvation is totally of the Lord. It's God's work that
he does in his people. That verse says it is God, which
work is in you both to will and do of his good pleasure. It's
his work in his people. And it's all according to the
good pleasure of his will to say that it's God's work is to
say it's not ours. To say salvation is of the Lord
is to say salvation is not of us. It's not of us. Now, in this
allotted time, normally when the number is this big, I don't
announce it because it scares people into thinking that this
will be, you know, an hour and a half long. But I'm gonna tell
you, I have 10 things. in our allotted time. I'll stay
in our allotted time, Lord willing. I have 10 things that I want
to declare concerning God's salvation. And I'm gonna try to just move
quickly. I'm gonna state a fact and move on, all right? We're
gonna state a fact. And I pray the Lord will bless this. When
it comes to salvation, until we know what God has to say about
it, We have a lot of questions about it. Don't you know that
everybody has questions about salvation? Everybody does. They
ponder these things. Every question that a man or
woman could ever have concerning salvation will be answered in
the pages of the Word of God. Every question that anyone could
ever have. If a person comes in needing
to have some questions answered, all that person needs to do is
sit and listen to the Word of God preached, and every question
will be answered. Every one. The question that
I hope the Lord will answer through the Word today is, Usually the first question that
people have, whenever they consider this thing of salvation, the
question is, what is my role in it? You know, if you start
a new job or something like that, you want somebody to tell you,
what do you want me to do? All right, that's where people
start. How, when it comes to salvation, how do I make it happen? How do I get the ball rolling?
How can I be a part of it? How can I know that I'm a part
of it? How does it work? That's what people wanna know.
How does it work? All right, I wanna answer that by reading
a scripture and then declaring a truth. Reading a scripture,
declaring a truth. The first one is in Philippians
chapter one. Just turn back a page to Philippians
chapter one. I'd love to read all these verses
around it, but we don't have time. We'll stay on track. Philippians
1, verse six, it says, being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. We do not begin the work of salvation. God does. When a person first comes to
the subject of salvation, he or she will search to try to
figure out, people do, they get into the Bible, they search to
try to figure out how do I get this process started?
Everybody thinks that the ball is in their court because that's
what false preachers have told them all of their lives They've
heard that whether they've been in church or not. They've heard
statements, you know Men will literally get up in here say
now the balls in your court What are you gonna do Are you
gonna do something? Are you gonna make your decision
to do something? Or are you gonna let your opportunity
pass you by? What are you gonna do? All right,
that's what men and women have been told. People hear that, they think,
all right, well, what do you want me to do? What do I have to do?
How do I get this thing started? We don't start the work of salvation,
God does. Verse six says, being confident
in this very thing that he, which has begun a good work in you
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Here's the second
thing. We don't perform the work of salvation. God does. We don't start it. We don't perform
it. Don't turn back, but our text
said, it is God which worketh in us. Worketh. Worketh in us. We don't begin the work. We don't
perform the work. Here's the third thing. Turn with me to
John 19. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
on the cross of Calvary. John 19, look with me at verse
30. When Jesus therefore had received
the vinegar, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. We don't finish the work of salvation. God does, He did. Christ did,
God did. People think, you know, this
is very, very common, but they think, they wonder, they do wonder,
now do I need to take the first step and then that'll cause Him
to take the second step? Or does He take the first step
and then He's gonna wait on me to take the second step? It's
neither. It's neither. He took all the
steps, we took none. This is what Charles Spurgeon
said. He said, if I was standing at the threshold of heaven and the last step to enter in
was dependent on me, I'd never make it. I'd never make it. He takes all
the steps. We take none. So, we don't begin
the work of salvation, he does. We don't perform the work of
salvation, he does. We don't finish the work of salvation,
he does. He's already done that. Hebrews
1.3 says, he by himself purged our sins and he has now sat down
on his throne. Number four, turn with me to
John 15. John 15 verse 16 says, our Lord
Jesus Christ said, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen
you. and ordained you that you should
go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain,
that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he
may give it you." When it comes to salvation, we don't do the
choosing, God does. That's a tough one for men and
women to swallow. That is a prick that they kick
against. I understand why. I'm sinful
flesh too, I understand why. To hear that God does all the
choosing, that is so hard to understand. To a sinner, who
in hearing that realizes this thought goes through everybody's
mind, what if he doesn't choose me? Everybody thinks that. You mean
to say, like he does half the choosing, right? You know, he
has half to say if he wants to take part and I have the other
half to say if I want to take, no, he does all the choosing. People say all the time, I can't
tell you how many times I've heard this. Well, what about
that verse that says, choose you this day whom you will serve?
You ever heard that? If people only knew what that
was talking about, that's a rebuke. Joshua said, you're not serving
the true and living God, you're serving false gods, you're serving
idols, and none of them can save you. Just go pick one, doesn't
matter which one you serve. When it comes to the salvation
of the true and living God, he does all the choosing. He does
all the choosing. Ephesians 1 verse 4 says, according
as He hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world. That had to have been Him choosing. Had to have been. All right,
I'm gonna give you five and six together. We don't seek Him. He seeks us. We don't find Him. He finds us. There was a man who came to me
one time, and I love this man dearly, and I understand what
he was saying, and I agree with and like what he was saying.
But he came to me with, he had questions, this and that, and
the first thing he was saying is, I'm seeking the Lord. And
I appreciate that. Seek the Lord. When the Lord reveals Himself,
He will reveal this to us. Turn with me, if you would, to
Isaiah 65. And before we read this, I'll
just say, this is what He will reveal. He's God. This is God we're dealing with.
This is God. Isaiah 65, verse one says, I am sought of them that asked
not for me. They were not going around asking. I've got questions and they weren't
doing that. He said, I am found of them that
sought me not. They were not seeking me. You
know, the commandment is seek the Lord while he may be found.
Seek the Lord. That's the commandment. But the
sinful flesh of man won't do it. That's the command. Seek
the Lord. But the sinful flesh of man won't
do it. He'll seek religion. He'll seek
doctrine. He'll seek self-gratification. He'll even seek lies, but he
won't seek Christ. Not in truth as he has declared
himself to be in his word. God is the one who does the seeking.
God is the one who does all the finding. Right here, Isaiah 65
verse one. I am sought of them that asked
not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not. I said, behold me. What a great thing. I wish God
would say that to somebody for the first time today. And I wish
God would say that to somebody for the 10,000th time today. Behold me. I want to behold him
today. Don't you? I want to behold him. He said, verse one, I said, behold
me, behold me unto a nation that was not called by my name. David
said in Psalm 27, when you said, seek ye my face, my heart cried,
thy face Lord will I seek. So we don't begin the work, he
does. We don't perform the work, he
does. We don't finish the work, he
does. We don't do the choosing, he
does. We don't do the seeking, he does. We don't do the finding, He does.
All right, number seven. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
two. Ephesians chapter two, verse
eight says, For by grace, and that means free gift, by grace
are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. We don't produce our own faith
to believe on Christ. He puts His own faith in us and
causes us to believe on Him. That's what happens. The command
is, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It sounds so simple, doesn't
it? Here's the only problem for man. He does not have any faith. With man, it's impossible. It's
impossible. Even believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ is His work in us, causing us to will and do of His good
pleasure. Hebrews 12 verse two says that
the Lord Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. Faith is not of ourselves, it's
the gift of God. It's the work of God, it's the
object of God. What does faith do? It just looks
to Christ, that's all it does. It just looks to Christ. Number
eight, turn with me to Titus chapter three. Titus 3 verse 5, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us by
the washing of regeneration. and renewing of the Holy ghost,
the washing and the renewing of the Holy ghost, which he shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our savior, that being
justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life. We do not earn any perfection
of our own. To me, that is one that even
after we come to know the truth, that is some religious baggage. That's some of the last baggage
to let go of. And the reason is because when
the Lord has mercy on us and saves us and calls us, well,
I'm gonna get ahead of myself. We wanna obey him. We do. I'm going to go ahead and say
it. We love him. We do. And, you know, I don't do the
things I do for Hannah and my girls out of law. I do it out
of love. So because we want to obey Him
and we want to be obedient to Him, we're just so disgusted
by what we see in ourselves. You know, we're always so frustrated
right here, but here's the thing. We don't earn our own perfection
before God. When it comes to, well, I better
just hold up. All right, I'm about to ruin
the whole thing. We don't earn any goodness. We don't earn any
record of our good deeds. He earned every bit of that for
us. That just thrills my soul. That just makes me, every time
I think about that, it just makes me rise up a step. He earned every bit of that for
us. Our perfection before God, Christ earned that for us. He
earned it. As He is, so are we because He
made it to be so. When God looks at us and He says,
worthy to enter in, Christ earned that for us. We didn't earn it. We didn't earn God's favor. People, you know, they're trying
to earn God's favor. We don't earn God's favor. Christ
earned that for us. And we can't keep ourselves in
God's favor. We didn't earn God's favor. and
we can't keep ourselves in God's favor. That's number nine, all
right? Christ is the one who keeps us
there. Turn with me to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, verse three. These are precious verses right
here. 1 Peter 1, verse three, it says,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a
lively or living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and
that fadeth not away. Reserved in heaven for you who
are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. People wonder how they're
going to be kept in salvation. They're always talking about
losing salvation. You know, if you do that, no,
you're going to lose your salvation. How are we going to be kept?
It's not gonna be by us keeping ourselves. Christ has to do that,
and He will, He will. If He started the work, He'll
finish the work. He will keep us by the power of God, which
is Christ Himself. He is the power of God. So we don't begin the work of
salvation, He does. We don't perform the work of
salvation, He does. We don't finish the work of salvation,
He does. We don't do the choosing, He
does. We don't do the seeking, He does. We don't do the finding, He does. We don't produce the faith, He
does. We don't earn the righteousness,
He does. We're not the ones who keep ourselves,
He keeps us. Here's the last one, number 10.
This could be the first one. I've already told you what it
is. Go to 1 John 4. 1 John 4, boy, I love this. 1 John 4, verse 10, it says,
herein is love. Not that we loved God, but that
he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our
sins. It is not that we loved God. There was a man that I had some
dealings with a few years ago and he knew I was a pastor and
that always sparked some very interesting conversation for
me. And it, you know, we were talking and it was kind of clear
to both of us Oh, wait a minute, we're not on the same page here.
So to end it, he just said, do you love Jesus? Like, can we
just walk away on that? And I said, oh, I do. But my
concern is, does he love me? That's my question, does he love
me? It's not that we loved him. Our salvation is not because
of the fact that we love God. It's because he loved us and
sent his son to be the bloody victim. That's what propitiation
means. The bloody victim for our sins.
Can we see that salvation truly is of the Lord? Isn't it amazing? So amazing. It's a one-sided thing. It's
a one-sided thing. If any man glory, let him glory
in the Lord. For it's God which worketh in
us both to will and do of His good pleasure.