Thank you so much for that song. Open your Bibles back to Hebrews
chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5. Let me read again two of the
verses that Our brother just read to us from Hebrews chapter
5 verses 8 and 9. Hebrews chapter 5 verse 8, though
he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which
he suffered. Our Lord Jesus had to suffer. He suffered throughout his life. He suffered the wrath of men,
the hatred of those around him. Even as a baby, he suffered from
the wrath of King Herod, who sought to take his life. began his public ministry, he
suffered at the hands, he suffered ridicule and mockery at the hands
of the Pharisees and the religious leaders of Israel. He suffered, he endured their
sharp words toward him. And then, at last, he endured
the sufferings of Calvary. He suffered as a man all of the
hatred that men could heap on him. And he suffered
at the hand of God in his soul. He had to suffer. Because that's
what sin deserves. It deserves awful suffering,
body and soul. And then he suffered death. Though he was the son of God,
yet he had to suffer. I'll tell you, here's the good
news. Because the Lord Jesus suffered the wrath of God, because
He endured all the judgment due to our sins, we're never going
to suffer the wrath of God. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. No suffering, no suffering of
the soul. God's not angry with His people. God's not going to take out any
vengeance on us because we don't have any sin. Our sins have already
been remitted. They've already been dealt with.
Isn't that wonderful? Dealt with at the cross. Dealt
with by our suffering. substitute and great high priest. That's verse 8, then we get to
verse 9, and being made perfect, that is, having finished his
obedience, he did finish the work that God
gave him to do. God never started a work but
what he doesn't finish it. And our Lord Jesus, when he went
to the cross of Calvary, he was obedient to the Father's
will to redeem his people. We had to be redeemed from justice. God's law arrested us and held
us for ransom. And we didn't have anything with
which to pay. In fact, we had no interest in
being ransomed. But He had an interest in ransoming
us. He had an everlasting loving
interest in redeeming His people. And He was obedient to God. All the way through His life
He was obedient. And it was the culmination of
His obedience. He was obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross.
He finished His obedience. That's what the Savior said when
He died. Just before He died, He said,
it is finished. It's completed. The work is done. It's accomplished. And therefore,
He became the author. He became the source. He became
the cause of eternal salvation. What is eternal salvation? That's our subject. You take
that word eternal, that's something without beginning and without
end. This salvation, it really didn't
have a beginning. Oh, we say it began in the mind
of God, but our salvation is as ancient as God Himself. It
is as everlasting as God. God purposed to save a people.
God in His infinite wisdom. He designed this method of grace,
this method of showing grace to sinners in such a way that
he would not compromise his law and his justice at all. This
is all due to that which was found in the heart of God before
the world ever began, before there was ever such a thing as
time. This salvation is an endless
salvation. It is a timeless salvation. God purposed it. You see, salvation is not a knee-jerk
reaction by God to Adam's fall. It wasn't that God created Adam
and then Adam sinned and then God said, oh my, what am I going
to do now? This is a crowning touch of my
creation. Here on the sixth day I made
man. God looked over everything that
he made. He said it's very good. And then
man goes out and he falls. He disobeys God. That didn't
throw God a curve. That didn't fool God. That didn't
disturb God. This was already purposed in
God's eternal salvation. Man would fall. Man would sin. Man would fail. And thereby God's
greatest glory would be revealed, His salvation of sinners by substitute. This is God's everlasting salvation. It's a salvation without beginning. And it's a salvation without
ending. And this salvation, the very
source of it, is Christ Jesus. He's the author. He's the source
of it. Examine this salvation. And y'all
ought to. We start Bible school tomorrow. Might as well have a session.
I'll teach the kids each morning. I'm going to be talking about
salvation. Examine God's salvation. Any aspect of it. And I know
salvation is a great big word. It's a great big word. And it's
a lot of things come under the umbrella of God's salvation. But you examine God's salvation,
whatever aspect you want to examine it, whether it's at the beginning
or as we say in God's election of grace, examine it there. You'll see who the very source
of it is. You'll see who everything surrounds
Him, everything's centered. around the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. That's at the very beginning.
He's the source of it there. You look at this salvation as
it comes to pass. During this age, when our Lord
Jesus came into this world, He's the one who obeyed God's law. He's the one who was made lower
than the angels. He's the one who suffered. He's
the one who bled. He's the one who died. He's the
one who faced the judgment of God. He's the one who was buried.
He's the one who rose again. He's the one who ascended back
to heaven. He's the one who rules. He's
the one who reigns. He's the Lamb of God to whom
we willingly are brought by the Spirit of God. That is, He makes
us willing in the day of His power. We come to the Lamb of
God. who is executing God's decrees, God's will, all during this age. Everything in salvation, everything
in divine providence, it all finds its source in Christ Jesus. And then go out to the ending
of salvation. Go out to where time doesn't
exist anymore. Out in the everlasting future.
And you'll find everything is still Everything has its source
in Christ Jesus. Everything surrounds Him. He's
the source of all of it. Now I want to make some statements
here to begin with that I think need to be made every once in
a while. We're living in very, what I'd call troublesome times. I don't think any of you would
disagree with that. There are troublesome times as
far as morals are concerned. Troublesome times as far as perversion
is concerned. We're living in a day in which
people have individual troubles, individual trials. But those are not the things
that I really want to address. And I'm not speaking about economic
troubles and budget troubles and not on a personal level or
a state level or a federal level. These are troublesome days, but
those are not the troubles that most concern me. I'm not referring to troubles
regarding weather, the climate, ecological troubles, or national
troubles, or troubles with other nations. I'm not talking about
those. Here's the most disturbing thing
to me. Religious troubles. We're just
all surrounded by false religion. If you listen very much to religious
broadcasting, and I don't. I don't listen to it very much.
Every once in a while I do, but if you watch some of the religious
fools on television, if you know anything about the Word of God,
you've got to admit that the most troublesome area today is
in the area of religion. That's where we're just way off
base. We're covered up with religion
and its religious error. Anyone who has any wisdom at
all surely must see that what goes under the banner of religion
today is not of God. It doesn't honor God. It doesn't
glorify God. It's not according to the Scriptures.
The things that men and women who are influential in religion
today, the things that they do, the things that they say, the
God they speak about, It doesn't even resemble the God of the
Bible. You, even in our relatively small
community, travel around and you read the signs out in front
of churches. It shows the religious stupidity
of our day. People don't know anything about
God. They don't know anything about
the Lord Jesus. I jotted some things down that
I've seen recently on quips and quotes from church signs. Jesus
believes in you. Where does that come? Does that
come from the Word of God? Jesus believes in you? Another one said, God weeps for
you. Maybe your God weeps for you,
but not the God of the Bible. Another one said, been misunderstood? Imagine how God feels. Another one said, if God had
a refrigerator, would your picture be on it? Another one said, have you made
God smile today? Another one said, extreme makeovers
available here. Last Easter, a local church had this one,
no Easter bunny loves you like Jesus. Another one said, are you in
good hands? Another one said, ready or not,
here I come, signed Jesus. Another one said, why don't you
hang out with Jesus? He hung out for you. Another one said, and I saw this
on a t-shirt down at the mall, body piercing saved me. Men try to be as clever as they
can be. They try to be witty. They try
to be funny. God didn't call us to be funny. He didn't call us to be some
kind of religious clowns. He called us to set forth the
gospel of His free grace. All of these things are demeaning
to God. They're demeaning to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He didn't call us to ignore His
Word and come up with a bunch of smart-alecky sayings on our
own so we can attract the attention of people. He gave us His Word. His Word to instruct us, to tell
us about Himself, so we can identify God, so we can tell people about
God, so we can worship God. He identified Himself in this
book. He's not weeping over anybody. The religious message of this
day has been so diluted and so weakened that preaching concerning our
God and the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't come anywhere close to
resembling the God or the Lord Jesus or the Holy Spirit of the
Bible. that God preached today from
most pulpits. There's no need to fear Him because
He can't do anything unless you let Him. The Bible says the fear of God
is the beginning of wisdom, but the God most preachers preach
today, the God you hear about on television most of the time.
I know there are some exceptions, thankfully. But by and large,
the God people hear about on television is not to be respected
or worshipped, you just feel sorry for. One national religious broadcaster
and I have somebody must have lots of money to keep these folks
on. But just about every broadcast ends with this, study your father's
word, it will make his day. Isn't that absurd? Most people in religion have
no idea of who God is and what God's demands are. Most people believe in a God
who loves everybody and hates nobody. The God most people believe in,
He's ready to give you whatever it is you want if you'll just
ask for it in Jesus' name. I went to a Bible college where
there was a guy in the college who believed that God would give
you anything if you went out and laid hands on it. He went
out to a used car lot, laid hands on a car, and a guy came out
and said, you interested in buying this car? He said, I'm laying
my hands on this car, and Jesus is going to give it to me. He
said, I'll give it to you too for $5,000. I hear preachers talk about the
things that God wants to do. He wants to heal your marriage.
He wants to help you raise your children. He wants to increase
your finances. He wants to bless you. He wants
to do this. He wants to do that. Boy, God
wants to do a lot of things, doesn't He? He just wants to
do a lot of things. Look over at Isaiah chapter 46.
I'll tell you what I'm interested in. I'm interested in finding
about the God of the Bible. Who is the God of the Bible?
Because this God who's a figment of men's imagination, He's just
an idol. That's all He is. He's just an
idol, somebody cooked up in their vain imagination, and He's not
worthy even... I'm not even going to talk about
Him anymore. He's not worth wasting the time over. The only reason I raise this
is because we need to be warned. about false religion, about what
people are saying about God, what they're saying about Christ
Jesus, what they're saying about His death. They talk about His
death being an effort, that the gospel is an offer. It's not
an offer, it's an accomplishment. The death of the Lord Jesus actually
was successful. And I know the world doesn't
know anything about that. They don't believe anything about
that. They just know He died on a cross to show us He loved
us. Well, I know love was back of it all, but the reason He
died was not to show us He loved us. He died on the cross to satisfy
justice for us. That's why He died. He died to
satisfy the law. And men don't know anything about
that. They don't know anything about the justice of God in the
death of the Lord Jesus. They think it was an effort.
It wasn't an effort. It was an accomplishment. It
was successful. He did what He came to do. He
didn't come to lay down His life for everybody to make salvation
a possibility. He came down here to lay down
His life for the sheep, to save His sheep. He came to put away
the sins of all those the Father gave Him in covenant love. And
He did it! Somebody needs to say it. Isn't
that right, Alan? We need to raise our voices and
let this religious generation, if they'll ever listen, to the
fact that the Lord Jesus was successful in His work. God always
accomplishes His purpose. The Lord Jesus accomplished what
He came to do. And the Spirit of God is going
to break down the will of every elect, redeemed sinner, and make
them willing to be saved God's way in the day of His power.
And that's just the truth. Preacher, don't you think these
people are sincere out here? I believe many of them are. I'm
not calling into question their sincerity. I'm just saying they're
wrong. You believe you're right and
everybody else is wrong. I believe we're all wrong by
nature and God's right. And we better find out the truth.
There's only one way to find out the truth. That's to get
in this book. And I'll tell you, any gospel, any gospel that is
ever set forth that glorifies man in any way, shape, or form
is wrong. You can just mark that down.
That's a rule. That's a standing rule. Who gets the glory? If they're spotting salvation,
From beginning to end, where man can say, ah yeah, that was
me, that was all me right there. Then you got the wrong salvation. Because the salvation of the
righteous, I began the service by reading Psalm 37, the salvation
of the righteous is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. God is doing what He set out
to do. And the God that wants to and He can't. He wants to do some things. The
Savior that tried but failed. It's like one guy wrote a book.
I said I wasn't going to say anything more about these false
religions, but I'll say this. There's one guy who wrote a book.
He said, what is hell? Hell is a colossal monument to
the failures of a triune God to save every sinner on earth.
The failures of a triune God. The failures of God? God fail? I believe they got the wrong God,
don't you? A God that can fail? David said, my God's in the heavens.
He's done whatsoever He's pleased. I don't know about your God,
but I know about the God of the Bible, and I know about the God
you're going to have to answer to. I know about the God who
demands righteousness. I know about the God who demands
perfection. He's not going to accept the
best you can do. He only settles for perfection.
And I'll tell you what, we better figure out a way, we better get
in this book and try to understand how we can be equal to God's
demands. And there is just one way, in
Christ Jesus the Lord. You want to see who God is? Isaiah
46. Look at verse 3. Hearken unto
me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel.
Isaiah 46. 3. Which are borne by me from
the belly, which are carried from the womb. God said, I have
been carrying you. Even to old age I'm he, even
to whore hairs will I carry you. I've made, I'll bear you, even
I'll carry and will deliver you. I'll save you, that's what he's
saying. He said, to whom will you liken
me and make me equal and compare me that we may be like? He says
in verse 6, they lavish gold out of the bag and waste silver
in the balance. They hire a goldsmith and he
maketh it a god. They fall down, yea, they worship.
This is my God right here. They bear Him up upon the shoulder,
they carry Him. Well, I'm going somewhere, so
I'm going to take my God with me, so I'll wrap up my God and
put Him up on my shoulder. I got news for you. If you carry
your God around on your shoulder wherever you want to go, You
definitely got the wrong God because the God of the Bible
says, you don't carry me, I carry sinners. That's what He said.
I carry you, I bear you. You don't bear me. They carry
Him on His shoulder, they carry Him, set Him in His place. He
stands and from that place He can't move. It puts you in mind
of that psalm where it says, they have eyes but they see not,
and ears they hear not, and hands they can't do anything. That's
the gods that he's talking about. It says, yea, one shall cry unto
him, but it can't answer. It can't save him out of his
trouble. Can your God save anybody? This
God can't save anybody because He can't hear anything. The God of today's religion can't
save anybody. He can't even do what He wants
to do. He can't deliver anybody. God says, now remember this.
Look at verse 8. And show yourselves, men, bring
it again to mind, O ye transgressors. Run this over in your mind a
little bit. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God. These are pretend gods. These
are idols that men fashion out of their vain imagination. But
I am God, that's what he says. This is the one I want to know,
right here. The one who says, I am God and
there is none else. I am God, there is none like
me. Well, what does he do? Declaring the end from the beginning.
From ancient times, the things that are not yet done. My counsel
shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Calling a ravenous
bird from the east, the man that executed my counsel from a far
country, yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed, I will also do it. Doesn't say I'll try to
do it, I'll make an effort to do it. Would you let me do my
purpose, my will? God says I purpose, I'll do it. He says, now hearken unto Me,
you stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness. Righteousness
is what you've got to have, and if your God is one you can pick
up on your shoulder and carry Him around, you're far from righteousness,
I can tell you that. You're a long ways from righteousness
with your false God and your false Jesus and your false profession
of faith. You're a long ways from righteousness
because it's found in the sovereign Christ alone. And that's the
one you don't know anything about. God said, I bring near my righteousness. It shall not be far off my salvation. It's my salvation, God says,
shall not tarry. You know what the word tarry
means? It shall not be delayed nor hindered. It shall not be
delayed or hindered. And I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel, my glory. I will place salvation in Zion
for Israel, my glory. And you know what kind of salvation
it is? Eternal salvation. Just what you read about. Just
what we read about back over here in Hebrews chapter 5. It
is eternal salvation. God said, this is my salvation. I will bring it. I will bring
it. I will try to bring it. I will
bring it. He is bringing it to somebody.
I can guarantee that by effectual sovereign grace. He is bringing
this salvation to His elect throughout the world. Oh, this is an eternal salvation. And I'll tell you a few things
about it just real quick. As you go back to the book of
Hebrews, this salvation without beginning and without ending
is designed for particular people. Look at Hebrews 1.14. Hebrews 1.14. You know who this
eternal salvation is designed for? For people who are the heirs
of salvation. And there are some people who
stand to inherit salvation from the Father. Speaking of angels,
the last verse of Hebrews 1, Are they not all ministering
spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of
salvation? When you think of an heir, what
do you think of? A man goes to a lawyer. He tells the lawyer, I want you
to draw up my last will and testament. And in that legal document, he
assigns or appoints certain people to inherit his worldly possessions. This salvation, deliverance from
sin and every effect of sin, It comes to a specific people
by divine design, by God's appointment. Those set apart in the election
of grace will be the beneficiaries of this salvation because God
has appointed them to be heirs of this salvation. I know the world uses the word
saved in a way that they don't know the meaning of it. We understand
saved is rescued, preserved, kept by the power of God, delivered. And with that understanding,
I would ask you, are you saved? Are you saved? And you say, by God's grace,
I am. Well, I'll tell you why you're
a participant in God's salvation? Why you have grasped God's salvation? I'll tell you why you believe
God's salvation. I'll tell you why God's salvation
has come to you. Because you're an heir. You inherited it. Look over in
Hebrews, a little further in Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter
9. In our Lord's last will and testament,
He put your name down. You're an heir. You're a beneficiary. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 15, For
this cause He is the mediator of the New Testament, that by
means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were
under the First Testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there
must also be the necessity of the death of the testator. For
a testament is a force after men are dead. Otherwise, it's
of no strength at all while the testator liveth." Let me tell
you something. Back before God even made the
world, the Lamb of God wrote down some names in His book,
the Lamb's Book of Life. It's a multitude which no man
can number. And all of these stood to inherit
this everlasting salvation. That's in His will and testament.
Don't talk about your will. I'm not interested in your will.
I'm interested in God's will. Your old puny, flimsy, defiled,
depraved will is not going to accomplish anything. His will
accomplishes everything He purposed. And I tell you, He wrote down
His last will in the Testament. He ordained all those to be the
beneficiaries. And then he came down here because
you see a last will and testament is a force when men die. And he died. The will is in effect. But unlike other men who leave
last wills and testaments, which may or may not be their will
may or may not be executed. There might be some red tape,
some legal stuff arise or whatever. It don't happen with our Lord
Jesus Christ because, you see, He ever liveth to make sure everybody
whose name was written down in the Lamb's Book of Life of the
beneficiary of this great salvation He ordained for them. It's His
salvation. It's designed for specific people. And I'll tell you, it's a great
salvation. In Hebrews the second chapter, in Hebrews chapter 2
and verse 3, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation. It's a great salvation, alright.
Got a great author. The Lord Himself, it was designed
in great wisdom. You see this salvation, it's
got to satisfy God. fully, and it's got to meet every
need of the sinner. And it does through the death
and the resurrection of the God-man. And this great salvation, it
comes to us at great price. The substitutionary justice satisfying
death of the Son of God. What does it cost to save us?
The blood of Christ. That's what it costs. It's an
expensive salvation. You go ahead and put your checkbook
away. You can't write a check this big. That's impossible. You can forget about working.
Well, I'm going to work my way into heaven. You can just forget
about that. It's too expensive. You can't
pay the price. What price does God demand? He
demands perfection and He demands the death of an absolutely innocent,
innocent substitute who is equal to Himself to pay for the sins of those
in whose stead He died. Now, can you do that? You can't
even pay one sin. You can't pay for one sin. People
who go to hell, they don't go to hell to pay for their sins.
They don't do that. They're never going to pay for
one sin. But our Lord Jesus, by His death,
He paid in full all of our indebtedness, all of the indebtedness of His
people. It came to us at great price. It comes to us in great
power, the quickening work of the Spirit of God. And I tell you, it's a great
result to this great salvation. We're conformed to the image
of Jesus Christ. And this salvation without beginning
and without ending, this eternal salvation, it glorifies the captain
of our salvation. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 10 says
that. Verse 9 says, Hebrews 2, 9, but
we see Jesus who was made a little lower. than the angels for the
suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the
grace of God should taste death for every man, that is, for every
one of the sons in whose stead he died, for it became him for
whom are all things and by whom are all things, and bringing
many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation
perfect through sufferings." It glorifies the captain of our
salvation. And in this salvation, there
are no co-captains. It used to be years ago when
I was a kid, you know, God is my co-pilot. No co-pilots. There is but one
author. There is but one who died and
arose again. There is but one captain. One
captain. I saw an article in the local
newspaper. And the article was about somebody
who had died and a person in the family said, he's gone to
heaven to help God out with a project. That's sad. That's really sad
that somebody would say that. that they know so little about
God, so little about the Lord Jesus Christ, that they think
they're going to help God with a project. God who spoke the
world into existence. Didn't need anybody to help Him
with that. God who governs the world. He's
been governing it every day ever since He made it. But somebody's going to go up
to heaven and help God with a project. What foolishness. And you know
all of that stuff. You say, why do people believe
that stuff? Why do people grasp that stuff?
Where do people come up with that stuff? Well, they come up
with it from their preachers behind their pulpits. And that's
the biggest devils of all. The preachers behind. Well, you
ought not talk about that. Well, I'm going to do it anyway. I'm going to do it anyway. A
bunch of false prophets, they are lying to people, trying to
steal God's glory. That upsets me. They ought to
disturb all of God's people. These men are lying to men and
women and young people, not telling them the truth of God and ourselves
and Christ Jesus. That lying bothers me. And all
liars shall have their part in the lake of fire. They all will. A famous preacher died a few
years ago, and I made this statement to somebody. I said, I'm glad
God finally shut his mouth. He said, oh, you shouldn't say
that because he'd done a lot of good in his life. I said,
well, he never preached the Gospel at all. He's always lying on
God. I'm glad God shut his mouth.
I know this. There'll be others that'll rise
up and say the same things he did. I know that. Tell you, I'll be thankful when
the day comes when God shuts the mouth of every false prophet
in this world. Every man that lies against God.
Just puts him out of business forever. That'd be a glorious
day. And I'm thankful for my brethren
who do preach the gospel. And some of them I know, and
many of them I'm sure I don't know. But I tell you, I support
them, and I pray for them. I'm thankful for them. But there's
a world full of false prophets out here. One of these days,
God's going to say, that's it for all of you. You're not going
to lie anymore. I want to hear about a salvation
that glorifies the Captain of our salvation. A salvation that does include
everything that has to do with salvation. From election all
the way to glorification. That's the salvation I want to
hear about. That's the only salvation I'm interested in learning about.
This is what we read here in our text in Hebrews 5. Eternal
salvation. That's the only God I want to
hear about. And I'll tell you, an eternal salvation has to be
by an eternal God. It had to be formulated in eternity
past and it's got to last way off into eternity future. And
God's salvation through Jesus Christ does exactly that. Oh yeah. This is a good salvation
right here. Yes, indeed. Well, I'm done.