Psalm 37. Look in verse 36. Excuse me, verse 37, I'm sorry. Mark the perfect man, behold
he upright. For the end of that man is peace.
But the transgressors shall be destroyed. The end of the wicked
shall be cut off. But the salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. He is their strength in the time
of trouble. And that's what I want to talk
about. I want to talk about the salvation of the righteous. The
salvation of the righteous. I love that word salvation. It encompasses everything that
God has done for his people. The whole life from start to
finish of a believer is a life of salvation. It's a life of
salvation. He is saved in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Grace was given to him in the
Lord Jesus Christ before the world ever began. but they're
saved in the Lord Jesus from whom all blessings flow. All
blessings are given to us in heavenly places through our Lord
Jesus Christ, all spiritual blessings. And I'll tell you something else
about God's people. They're always being saved, always
being saved. The moment of his election, being
chosen in Christ before the world began, to his being crossed by
the gospel, God causing his path with the gospel, and being begotten
by the gospel. He's always being saved from
that moment, always being saved. He believes the Lord Jesus Christ
until he closes his eyes in death, and all his whole life all around
him, God is saving him, and saving him, and saving him. His whole
life is a life of salvation. God's working salvation in him. God's working salvation for him.
And God is working salvation by him. And what a blessed, blessed
word is that word salvation. I read it to you this morning.
For by grace are you saved. By grace are you saved. To be
saved. Saved. Not a one-time experience. It's a lifetime experience. It's
a lifetime of experience until we leave this world and we love
and rejoice in that word salvation. It means salvation from the penalty
of sin. Christ bore the penalty of our
sin, which was death. He bore the punishment of our
sins. God can't punish me now because
Christ has done bore my punishment, endured my punishment. And we're
saved also from the power of sin. Sin no longer has dominion
over us. And then we're also, not only
that, but we're saved from the love of sin. And one of the,
that's why the old hymn writer said, from sin be the double
cure. Save me from the power, save
me from the love of sin. And I do know this, one of these
days we're gonna be saved from the very presence of sin. And
what a day that'll be. What a day that will be. To most
people, salvation's just an insurance policy. You cash it in at the
pearly gates. Shirley and I watched this documentary
about a man. And when he died, he died with
both fingers. They found him, he had both fingers,
or both hands crossed. And he sent, somebody asked him
if he was going to give him the pearly gates. He said, yes. He
said, oh yes, of course. He said, I got all these bad
things over here. But then he said, I got all this
good over here, and the good's going to outweigh the bad. But
he died with both fingers crossed. You reckon it helped him? But that's what most people
have. They've got a no soul salvation.
They've got a salvation that happened at one time. And they
have to be assured all the time that they're okay. Have to be
told over and over again that you've done enough to get you
there. But to the believer, salvation is his whole life. Is his whole
life. And let me give you a few things
about it. The very heart and soul of sound
doctrine is this. The salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. That's what we're talking about.
We're talking about salvation of the Lord. You know, people,
I've run across a lot of men in my lifetime, and they say,
yes, we ought to preach grace. Well, we need to preach grace.
We need to preach salvation by grace. But they think that if
they preach it too much, that, you know, people will be misunderstanding
them. So they have to bring man in
just a little bit. And you know, religion is selfish.
Religion is selfish. It's all about man, and what
man wants, and what man accomplishes, and what man can do, and how
man can do something. But beloved, it's not for the
glory of God. Oh, they say, and another person
say, well, they'll give people a license to sin. You may need
a license to drive, a license to practice medicine, a license
to be a nurse, A license, a special license to drive a truck, but
I ain't never met anybody needing a license to sin. Have you? Do you need a license to do that? No. But we're all giving them
a license to sin. People are going to do it anyway.
What we're telling them is, is who put away their sin. And how
it was put away. And oh my, they're afraid they'll
be misunderstood. And people get the impression
that salvation's not for everyone. I got news for you, it's not
for everybody. It's not for everyone. You know
who it's for? For the needy? For sinners? For people that ain't got nothing?
And they ain't gonna never have nothing? Oh, listen. It's only
for the needy, for those who want Christ. Those who need Christ. Paul said, I'm poor! I mean,
David said, I'm poor? And this is the king sitting
on his throne. And not only am I poor, but I'm
needy. And that's what he says. The
Scriptures tells us that everyone that heard of him, they followed
him, and he healed all them that had need of healing. That's people's
problem. They ain't got a need. And the
only place you're going to get a need is get it from the Lord
Jesus. And Paul said this, if we fear
men, we will be the servants of Christ. You cannot please
men and Christ at the same time. You can't give God all the glory
and try to bring men in just to hash bread. It can't be done.
And I tell you, salvation is of the Lord from start to finish. You know, Jonah 2.9, it says
this, Jonah learned this when he was in the belly of that whale.
He said, this I know, that salvation is of the Lord. If I'm saved
from this place where I'm at, it's gotta be God that has to
do it. If I get on dry ground again, it's gonna be God has
to do it. If I ever see the sunshine again, God's gonna have to do
it. Oh my, and that's why he said all things work together
for good to them that love God, that's called according to his
purpose, for whom he did foreknow, them he also called, them he
also justified, them he also glorified. What shall we say
then to these things? If God be for us, whom be against
us? Huh? And that means from the
day we was born to the day we leave this world, God's got his
hand on us. And then one day when his purpose
was fulfilled, he crossed our path with the gospel. Huh? It's of the Lord, salvation's
of the Lord in his purpose. In his purpose. You know, God
had a covenant, and it was from God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Ghost, before this world was ever formed. Huh? Listen to me now. I'm telling
you, Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
The Lord Jesus Christ was brought again from the dead, that great
shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. And I'm telling you something,
beloved. Our Lord Jesus Christ, God gave him a people. He said,
all that the Father gives me, I give eternal life to as many
as the Father hath given me. Oh, why won't you tell us if
you're the Christ? Tell us plainly. He said, you
don't believe because you're not my sheep. And I tell you, our Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world God had a purpose and he had a covenant.
And Christ promised, now listen to me, Christ promised as our
good shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep, as our chief
shepherd who sits now at the right hand of God, he promised
God himself that I'll guarantee you that I'll bring every soul
you give me all the way to glory. And the Holy Spirit said, I'll
cross every one of them's path, and I'll bring them the gospel,
and I'll bring them life, and I'll regenerate them, I'll give
them a new heart, I'll give them a new mind, I'll give them a
new spirit. And I'll make them new creatures in Christ. And
you know what our Lord said? Oh, let the Father give us what
He said about them. Well, they might come to me.
They might come to me if they're convinced. No, no, they shall
come. I give them to them eternal life,
and they shall never perish." Huh? Oh my! Wisdom and love chose
the persons that was included in this. That's why we preach
the wisdom of God. Oh, the wisdom of God devised
a way that He could save sinners and give Him life at the same
time. That they could be dead in sins and He'd give them life
at the same time. How can He do that? In Christ
Jesus our Lord. And oh my, not only is it the
Lord in purpose, salvation's on purpose. Salvation's on purpose. And I tell you, not only that,
but it's the Lord's in His providing. God could purpose something,
but how in the world is it gonna come to pass? I didn't know nothing about God's
purpose when I was 17 years old. I didn't know nothing about God's
purpose when I was 20. I didn't know nothing about God's
purpose when I was 22. I didn't know anything about
it. But you know how I found out? The Lord provided. Well, what
did He have to provide? He has to provide salvation itself. And oh, how did He provide it?
He sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law. Christ was made a curse for us
to redeem us out from under the curse of the law. God so loved
The world. The world of His elect is what
I'm going to say. The world of His elect, no matter
where they are, what color they are, what nation they are, what
language they speak, how prosperous they are, how poor they are,
it don't enter into it. No, no. God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son. that whosoever believes
on him. How do you know you're going
to believe on him? God purposed for you to believe. As many as
were ordained to eternal life, what did they do? Believed. He set the price. You know, somebody
captures some wealthy, you know, This happens all the time. Somebody
that's extremely wealthy, they'll take their child or take a wife
or somebody in their family and they'll say, now this is what's
going to cost you to get them back. Well, here we are. We were held captive by sin,
held captive by justice, God's law. And the consequences of sin is
death. So what did God do? He said,
this is the price it's going to cost to set these people free
and to give them life. What is it? The blood, the death
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He set the redemption price and
you know what he did? He paid it himself. No wonder John said, there's
the Lamb of God. What's he here for? Take away
our sin. To bear our sin. To be punished
in our stead. To bear our wrath. To bear the
penalty of our sin. Oh my. And I tell you, he made
the price and then he paid the price. It was like Isaac and
Abraham when they went up on the mountain. He said my father
here. We got everything we got we need
offer sacrifice, but we're in the world the lamb My son God will provide himself
a lamb And oh he provided us a lamb
and You know what that this lamb had to be without spot and had
to be without blemish. Oh He was he was And not only
is it the Lord in His purpose and the Lord in its providing,
He gave the Son. He gave His own Son. He loved
us enough that He gave His Son. His only begotten Son, the Son
of His love. And it's of the Lord of its supplying. He provided it. He purposed it. But how are you and I going to
get it? Do we deserve it? Does he owe it to us? Have we
been good enough? Have we prayed enough? Have we read enough? Have we
attended enough services? No, you know what he has to do?
He has to do like he did that infant cast out in the field,
laying there polluted in his blood. He passed by and it was
a time of love. And he said unto it, live, I
say live. Look over with me in Ezekiel
37. This is what I'm talking about. Ezekiel 37. Oh my. It's all God purposed
it. God provided it. But how in the
world are you and I going to get it? Oh, I'll tell you something.
The need of mercy doesn't come from nature. It comes from a
work of grace. Over in Samuel, it says there,
1 Samuel chapter 2, it says that he took the beggar off the dunghill. The dunghill. And you know what
it says? Took him off that dunghill and
took him over here and set him among a bunch of princes. Look what it said here. Now this
is what I'm talking about. It's of the Lord of His supplying.
The hand of the Lord was upon me. And that's what we need. And carried me out in the Spirit
of the Lord. Sent me down the midst of the valley, which was
full of bones. Oh my. And caused me to pass
round about them. Walk around them. Walk around
and look at them. He said, now walk around them.
Walk around this valley. And he said, when I went around
that valley, there were very many in the open valley. And
lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, when he
walked around all them bones, oh, as far as you could see,
he said, son of man, can these bones live? Can they? Oh, my. And I answered and said,
oh, Lord God, you're the only one who knows that. You're the
only one who knows if anything can live or not. You're the author
of life. You're the giver of life. You're
life itself. And he said unto me, son of man,
he said unto me, preach unto these bones. Oh my goodness. It's just, can you imagine what
he felt like when he said, preach unto these bones? And he said, tell them, say,
oh dry bones. Oh dry bones, hear the word of
the Lord. And that's what it takes. How
are you gonna hear the word of God? How are those dead, dry
bones gonna hear the word of the Lord? Bones don't hear. Dry bones don't hear. Dead bones
don't hear. But when God speaks, that makes
all the difference. Thus saith the Lord God unto
these bones. And that's what he said. This
is what God said about you bones. This is what God said about you
bones. Behold, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you,
and listen to this, and ye shall live. You know when God created Adam,
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, what he has to
do is come by the Holy Spirit, by the Gospel, by the Word of
God, and breathe into us and give us life. And you know how
he does it? Say unto these dry bones, I say
unto thee, saith the Lord God, Liam. Oh my, I do know this, I know
this. If he had not sought us, we would
have never, ever sought him. No, no, we'd have never sought
him. He said, there's other sheep which are not of this fold, them
also I must, I'd be one shepherd and one foal. And I tell you
what, He's the one that seeks the sheep. He's the one that
finds them. He's the one that carries them.
You know when we cry out to Him? When He calls us. You know when
we cry out to Him? When He gives us life. They just
had a new baby last week. Well, their daughter just had
a new baby, a son-in-law. And you know what? He was born
at home. Dr. Cody delivered it. Fine little boy. But I'll tell
you something. That baby being born, you know when it cried? After
it was born. After it had evidence of life.
And life was in the womb. And that's what the seed of God
does. God puts it in that heart. And that heart germinates, that
seed germinates, and when that seed germinates, live. How do you know? You start crying. Oh, Lord, will you have mercy? Lord, who I am? Oh, you old sorry
dog. Yes, Lord, I'm a dog. You stink. Yes, Lord, I stink. You're sinful
all over. Yes, Lord, I'm sinful all over.
You got nothing to offer. Yes, Lord, I know that. But Lord, I'm coming anyway.
And I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving until you do
something for me. I'm not leaving. I'm going to
stay right here. I'm going to stay right here. And once we
start crying out there, that's exactly where we stay and we
never stop crying. Never, never, never, never. Oh
my, we love Him because He first loved us. I found a thing the
other day, Kim, going through some things. And the thing is
you wrote way back when you was a young girl and we went up to
Indiana for a meeting and you come back and wrote it, I'm gonna
bring it to you and give it to you. Talking about how that he
first loved us and what a blessing it was to go up there and hear
the gospel and fellowship with the Lord's people. And the last
thing you said, we love him because he first loved us. Oh my, well, I got to hurry on. You know, you've heard this so
many times, but oh my, it's worth repeating. Old Scott said, you
know, the secret to learning anything is repetition, repetition,
repetition. Not only the salvation of the
Lord of His purpose and providing and applying, but it's also the
Lord carrying it on. Oh my, thank the Lord for this.
Where God works his salvation, there's life. And where there's
life, there's growth. Oh, you can't grow without unless
you got life. You can't do it. Oh my. You know the scripture said,
he which hath begun a good work, in you shall perform it. And oh God, only God, God always,
the only thing He can do is a good work. He can't do nothing but
a good work. Oh, it's a good work. Do you know why it endures
and why it's carried on? Because it's God's work and it's
a good work. And I tell you what, when the
Lord carries it on, it's growing in grace. And let me tell you
what this carrying it on and growing in grace is all about.
It's not growing more holy. Holiness is an absolute state
or condition. Either you are or you ain't.
That's good vernacular ain't it? That's good grammar. Either
you are or you ain't. Either you is or you not. But
here's the thing about it. The slightest imperfection makes
one unholy, and one who is holy cannot be made more holy. And
the Scriptures tells us you're complete in Him. Now what in
the world you got more than that? You are complete in Him who's
the head of all principalities and powers. And in Him dwells
all the fullness of the Godhead body. Everything God's got for
us is in the body, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
you can't, people say, well, you know, you got to grow and
be sanctified. You cannot be more sanctified
than being in Christ. You can't be more holy than being
in Christ. And oh, a growth is, and I'll
tell you something, listen to me. A growth is an awareness
of our need of grace. You know how you grow? Do you
need grace? Huh? The older you get, the more
you need it. Oh, I need it, Lord. Oh, I need
it. Oh my. One thing for sure, we're
aware we need grace. So aware of needing grace. And here's another thing about
growing in grace and God carrying it on. It's an assurance that
all grace comes from God. All of it comes from God. Oh,
we ain't got none. It ain't inherited. It don't
belong to us. And every bit of grace we have,
it comes from God. He's the God of all grace. We
didn't deserve it. We didn't desire it. And this
grace is in Christ. God gave us grace in Christ before
the world ever began. And let me tell you this, this
hymn carrying it on, And it's growing in grace where this life
is at. It's a growing dependency and
confidence in Him, in God, in Christ, for grace for every trial. Oh, we have a confidence and
we're assured that God will give us grace for every trial that
He gives us. And He'll never put no more on
us than we can bear. He'll give us grace for every
affliction that he afflicts us with. He gives us grace for every
temptation, for every persecution. He said, my grace is sufficient
for you. How sufficient is it? Have you
ever been without it? Have you ever went through anything
without it? Have you ever went through any
trial, any burden, any tear, any trouble, any heartache, any
sorrow, any burden, any worry, any fear, any fret without the
grace of God? Have you ever made it without
that? No. And here's what we know, that
He's gonna give it to us. He is gonna give it to us. No
matter what's going on, we're gonna have the grace for that
time, for that hour. Say, well, I hope I have a dying
grace. Well, you will when you're dying.
But you're not dying yet. We need, we know what it gives
us? Living grace. Living grace. And we have to
live in this old world. And I tell you something, the
growth in our willingness and proneness to be gracious to others,
because God's shown us grace. And let me give you this. We are sustained, sustained in
salvation wholly and completely of the Lord. We are kept through the power
of God, A man can sin by his free will, but he can't put his
sin away by his free will. He can fall, but he can't get
up by himself. Let me show you in John chapter
12. Look over here in John chapter 12. You need to see this. It's a wonderful thing. John
17, excuse me, John 17 in verse 12. You know, we can fall, but
we can't get up. Oh my. Look what our Master said
here now. We are sustained in salvation,
holy and completely by the Lord. Look what our Master said here
now. He's praying, and He's praying to His Father. While I was with
them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those thou gavest
me I have kept, and none of them's lost. I was only one person that was
a son of perdition, that was and that the scripture might
be fulfilled. That was Judas he's talking about there. Every
virtue we possess, every victory won, every thought of holiness
are his and his alone. We must give him all the glory
for he's given us all the grace. The last step we take in this
world will be as much by grace as the first one we ever took. Oh my, you think about this,
somebody, there's a lot of the Lord's people right this minute,
during their last moments of life, they may be in a coma, they may
be unconscious, they may have dementia, they may have Alzheimer's, Well, how in the world are they
going to know God when they get there? It's not... That's what
we're talking about. The Lord is going to sustain
them, and He's going to take them to glory. And that's what's
so wonderful about this salvation's holy of the Lord. You know, Rick Gehr's daddy was
a preacher. God taught him the gospel. He
ended up, if I'm not mistaken, preaching in the home. Is that
not right? Preaching in their house. His dad is a preacher. Now he's got dimension. He don't
know nobody, don't know nothing. Well, how in the world is he
being held up? He don't know nothing about calling on God
for grace. But God knows him. And God gives
him grace, even though he don't know it. He gave me grace and
I didn't know it. He gave me grace in Christ and
I didn't know it. He gave you grace in Christ and
you didn't know it. You know when you know you got
grace? It's when God gave it to you. Oh, that's why we lift our hearts,
lift our heads, lift our souls up to Him. To God be the glory,
great things He hath done, great things He hath taught us through
Jesus His Son. And let me give you this and
then I'm gonna quit. I don't know if I will or not. I might oughta back up from that. I might oughta back up a little
bit from there. Oh my. We preach a great salvation from
a great and glorious God, through his great and glorious Son, anything
else is not worth preaching. Not worth preaching. Let me give
you four reasons why believers are, and must, must be saved. First one is, God said they would.
God said they would. Huh? He said, you know, He said,
you know you will not come to me that you might have life.
But he said this, he said, everyone, no man can come unto me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. And everyone that hath
heard and learned of the Father, what does he do? He comes unto
me. He comes unto me. And I tell
you, look over here in Isaiah 45. Look, and you know God said they'd
be saved. He promised us salvation. He
promised us salvation in Genesis. He promised us a Savior in Genesis. Look what He said here in Isaiah
45. He said here, verse 17, but Israel, see up in verse 15,
he says, for they are to God that hideth thyself, O God of
Israel, the Savior. They shall be ashamed and confounded,
all of them, they shall go to confusion, together, them that
make makers of idols. But Israel, spiritual Israel,
God's elect, shall be saved in the Lord, listen to this, with
an everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed nor
confounded, listen to this, world without end. That's a long time,
isn't it? Oh my, God said they would, that's
why they have to be saved. And here's the second reason,
the Lord Jesus Christ said, I give unto them. eternal life, and
they shall never perish." Huh? Never perish. I give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given me. And then the third reason is
they're in Christ's hands. He said, I give them to eternal
life and no man's able to pluck them out of my hand. And then
he says this, the fourth thing is that we're in the Father's
hands. No man's able to take me out of my Father's hands,
no one's ever taken me out of my hands. And I'll tell you something,
beloved. To preach salvation any other
way is to rob Christ of His glory, rob Christ of His power, rob
Christ of His deity, His Godhead. To preach salvation any other
way is to rob God of His glory. God said, I will not give my
glory to another. I will not do it. And I tell
you what, to preach salvation any other way is to rob the saints
of their comfort. To take away their comfort. Comfort
you, comfort you, my people, saith the Lord. Well, comfort
them. You've received double from your
sins. All of grace. I want you to look
with me now. Now go, you know, Malachi is
the first book before Matthew. And then right before Malachi
is Zechariah. Malachi is the last book in the
Old Testament. Zechariah is the one right next
to it. I want you to look at this. And
then I'll close. I may finish this tonight. I
may finish this tonight. Look what he said here. Oh my,
to preach salvation in the other ways, rob Christ of his power,
rob God of his glory, rob the saints of their comfort. And
it's all of grace, from the bottom to the top. Every course is put
up in the building, all of grace. Planning, rearing, grounding,
sovereign grace, and grace alone. Look what he said here in Zechariah
chapter 4 in verse 6. Then he answered and spake unto
me, saying, This is the word of the Lord, and that's what
you've got to always talk about. Who's talking? This is the word of
the Lord, undeservable, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but
by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts, Who art thou, O great
mountain, before Zerubbabel, thou shalt become a plain, and
he shall, listen to this, and he shall bring forth the headstone,
thereof with shoutings, crying, what? Grace, grace, unto it. Grace is a cornerstone, grace
all the way around. Let's put the headstone on this
thing. Grace. You all believe salvation is
by grace? And you know you believe you
need it? Not only do we need it, but everybody
that's ever been shown grace, they want grace. They don't want
to live without it. Don't want to live without it. Our Father, the blessed name.
Oh, that name that's above every name. The name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, bless his name. Bless his
holy name. Oh, Lord, who's like unto thee. Wondrous in mercy, great in power,
blessed in grace. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank
you for such glorious, free, precious, powerful salvation. Thank you for it. Oh, thank you,
thank you, thank you. Blessed be your name. Oh, bless
your holy name. Praise, praise, praise be unto
thee. Lord, it's in our hearts to just
bless you, bless you, bless you, praise you. Bless these dear
saints as they go their way. Bring salvation to that heart
that's never felt it, never experienced it. Bring it to them for Christ's
sake. Amen. Amen. 209 in the hymn book. 209. Let's stand together and
we'll sing this and then you'll be at liberty to go. 209. Is that marvelous grace? And
that's why we won't sing. Marvelous grace of our loving
Lord, our guilt. Yonder on Calvary's
mount aboard, there where the blood of the Lamb was shed. God's grace, God's grace, Grace
that will pardon and cleanse within. Marvelous grace, infinite
grace. Grace that is greater than all
our sin. Did a despair like the sea waves
go? Threaten the sea? Voice to the refuse, the mighty
cross. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that no pardoning gives
worthy. Grace that is greater than all
our sin. Dark is the stain that we cannot
hide. What can avail to The day is flowing of crimson
tide. Heard in the snow you may be
today. This grace, God's grace, Grace
that will pardon and cleanse with Thee. Grace, grace, God's
grace. Grace that is greater than all
our sin. Marvelous, infinite, matchless
grace, freely bestowed to all who believe. You that are longing to see His
face, will you God's grace that is greater than
Tim's within. God's grace that is greater Well, I've seen it all