And I want to get my subject there in verses 9 and
10. The apostle said we had the sentence
of death in ourselves. The answer of death, if God's
will to take me out through this trouble, through this affliction,
he said that's fine. Brad preached a message there
one time. We had the sentence of death
in ourselves. You ought to download that and
listen to it. It was outstanding. Outstanding. Here's the reason that we should
not trust in ourselves. Man has a problem, even God's
people has a problem with that. Has a problem with that. Trust
in ourselves. But oh my, but we trust in God
which raises the dead. who delivered us or saved us
from so great a death and doth deliver us in whom we trust that
he will yet deliver us. Now when he talks about being
delivered, he's talking about being saved. That's the same
word. He says that God saved me, is saving me, and will yet save
me. Salvation in three tenses. Three
tenses. He has, He is, and He shall. And I'll tell you what, that's
past, present, and future. Mr. Pink said it like this, God
saves us from the penalty of sin. There's no condemnation to them
that are in Christ. He saves us from the power of
sin. Sin no longer has dominion over
us. You know why it don't have dominion
over us? Because we're not under law, we're under grace. And I'll
tell you another thing he said, God saves us from the pleasure
of sin. We don't enjoy sin. It's a great
burden to us. It's a heavy burden to us to
have sin. It is. That's why one of the
marks of the covenant is that he belongs us to loathe ourselves. And some days we loathe ourselves
more than we do others. But then the second thing he
says is this, the fourth thing he says is someday he'll save
us from the presence of sin. And what a blessing that'll be
to be saved. And all this is true, but I'm
going to look at it instead of a salvation in past, present
and future, I want to preach a four-fold salvation. Four tenses
if I can. And the first one is, God's elect,
God's people were saved from the foundation of the world.
Is that right? We were saved as far as God was
concerned before he ever created this earth and put the stars
in heaven and caused the sun to shine and the moon to shine
and filled up all the oceans and caused the mountains to come
up. We were saved from the foundation of the world. Well, how in the
world can this be? Well, God calls the things that
are not as though they are. Ain't that right? Look with me over here in 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy 1.9. I'll tell you,
if this doesn't prove it, nothing, you know, and the scripture says
God declared the end from the beginning. And you know God had
a purpose in everything and His purpose didn't start when time
started. His purpose started from eternity. What He purposed, what He purposed
it shall stand. He said I will do all my counsel,
I will do all my pleasure and my counsel or my will shall stand. And so that's why Christ, the
Scriptures tells us in Revelations 13 and 8, that Christ was slain
from the foundation of the world. Now that's the only way in the
world God can view us and view anybody is how He viewed them
in His Son. He's never viewed His people
outside His Son. Even before the world ever began.
As we were chosen in Him, when were we chosen in Him? Before
the foundation of the world. That's what the scripture said,
ain't it? Now that's a long time ago. I feel sorry for people
that think that God didn't start anything and can't do anything
until you're willing and let Him do it. I feel sorry for them.
But look what He said here in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse
9. It's talking about God. Now look what it says, and I've
told you this before. Everywhere you find God's people
saved, it's always in the past tense. always in the past tense
it was in the past tense before you and I ever got saved before
God ever saved us is in the past tense look what he says here
but God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling
not according to our works but according to his own purpose
and grace Watch it now. Which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world ever began. For whom he did foreknow. You
know what the next line says? Them he also did predestinate. I love that word predestination. Who he did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son. And whom He did predestinate,
you know what it says next? Them He also called. And whom
He called, them He also justified. And whom He justified, He also
glorified. What shall we say then to these
things? Now listen to what I'm going to tell you. All of those
things were done before you and I ever existed. Now listen, there's
a lot of folks that ain't been called yet. A lot of folks ain't
been justified yet. A lot of folks ain't been glorified
yet. That's what it means when it
says God calls the things that be not as though they were. Now
I ain't been glorified yet, but it's as good as done because
God said that it was predestinated to be that way. Huh? My that's why Christ is slain
from the foundation of the world and you know our names were written
in the book of life Before you Before you and I ever existed
God God put it all down everything that you know, and we're in revelations
and when I Lord Jesus took that book Took that book The next
thing you read there in Revelation 7, we read it yesterday, we'll
read it tonight. Yes, tonight. That, you know,
there was a multitude around that throne that no man could
number. Huh? How in the world that happened?
There was a multitude chosen in Christ that no man can number. All of gods were elect. as far
as God was concerned, was saved, because the debt was as good
as paid, because Christ stood as a Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. And although sin didn't exist,
I didn't exist, the world didn't exist, we were saved on the purpose
of God Himself with the payment already, as far as God was concerned,
paid. You know the greatest thing that
ever happened in the history of eternities. and we have to
talk about eternity's forward and eternal eternity's past and
eternity but there's no beginning or ending to eternity and God
inhabits eternity but God viewed that cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ from the foundation of the world and the greatest event
that this world has ever known and the universe has ever known
and will ever know is the death of Christ on that cross His burial
and His resurrection and His ascension God views the world
from that one man and what he did Now ain't that right? And I think that's why Paul said
I want to be found in Him I want to know Him I want to win Him And I tell you that everybody
that's ever been saved was saved on purpose. Every single one
of them. No, get in the ark if you want
to. No. I tell you what. So we're saved. That's the first thing. Saved
from the foundation of the world. That's why our Lord Jesus Christ,
our Lord said, all that the Father gives me. When were we given
to Him? When were we given to Him? Was I given to Him when
I was born? There wasn't nobody on this earth
when our Lord Jesus Christ stood as the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world and stood as our surety of a better covenant. And I tell you that's one of
the most comforting things that you'll ever hear in your life. That's one of the most blessed
things that I'm saved because God saved me on purpose. No accidents with God. No chances
with God. People say God's gotta give you
a chance. God's not from Las Vegas and He don't throw dice.
And if the dice comes up eight, you get saved. If it don't come
up eight, then you're lost. That'd be an awful way to live
in this world. It'd be an awful way to live
to think, well, if I'm saved now, if I sin, what will I do? The Christ, before He came here,
He stood good for all the debts of all His elect from all eternity
to eternity. And if He didn't pay all our
debts, I tell you what, there would be nobody saved. You're talking about someone
that has virtue, infinite virtue and infinite value. That's the
blessed son of God. Nothing in this world has infinite
value. You buy a house, it gets old.
You buy a car, it gets old. You buy clothes, they get old. But the only thing that don't
never get old is our salvation given us in Christ in the gospel. Old and you're getting old but
the gospel don't never get old All right, here's the second
thing We're saved in time by hearing the gospel By hearing
the gospel This is the thing God had a purpose and in that
purpose was for us to hear the gospel That's why Paul said I'm
not ashamed of the gospel. I I've got a shame to the gospel. Because the gospel is the power
of God under salvation. God's righteousness is revealed
in that gospel. My salvation, there is no salvation
apart from the gospel. There's no salvation. Paul said,
we're bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren. Who
has from the beginning chosen you under salvation. through
sanctification of the Spirit, and listen to this, belief of
the truth. And he says, you know, Paul said
this, he said, when you heard the gospel of your salvation. You know, when you hear the gospel
of your salvation, the gospel then becomes your gospel. Ain't
that? Ain't that right? They say, well,
my gospel. It's my gospel too. Paul said,
it's my gospel. It's my gospel. It's your gospel. It's the good news that we heard
from Christ. Paul said, I endear all things
for the elect's sake that they might be saved. Oh my. And what the Holy Spirit does
is this salvation that Christ did from the foundation of the
world and come here and accomplished in time, the Holy Spirit takes
and works in us what Christ did for us. Huh? The Holy Spirit comes and applies
this salvation. He works in us what Christ worked
out for us. We were chosen under this. He
works in us, and you know what He works in us? The first thing
He works in us is faith. That's the first thing He works
in us is faith. We weren't born with it. And
it's not natural to us. So He works in us and He works
in us and He gives us faith. And He gives us repentance. Look
over here in Romans chapter 10 with me. Look at this. Look in Romans chapter 10. The
Holy Spirit applies His salvation. That's what's so wonderful. You
know when we finally, God taught us the gospel. Saved us by His
blessed grace. This is how I did it. Look what
it says here in verse 13. Romans 10 verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. We called on the name
of the Lord this morning. We called on Him yesterday. Once
you ever start calling on Him, that's what this means. Once
you start calling on Him, you call on Him all the time. That's
what this means. And then He goes on to say, Well,
how then shall they call on Him? Now, if you call on Him, you'll
be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have
not believed? Huh? You can't call on somebody
you don't know nothing about. And how shall they believe in
Him, and listen to this now, of whom they have not heard? How are you going to believe
in Him if you've never heard anything about Him? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? Oh my goodness. Oh my. And how shall they preach except
they be sinned? It is written, How beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For Isaiah said, Lord, who hath
believed our report, believed our preaching, who has heard
us? Now listen to this, so then faith, it comes. You don't come to faith, faith
comes to you. You need to come to faith, no
faith comes to you. How's it come to you? By the
gospel. By you hearing. You know when
I have the most assurance? Is when I'm hearing the gospel. I tell you, I have more assurance
right while I'm hearing the gospel than I do any other time. I sit
and wonder sometimes how in the world could I be saved and how
could I possibly be a preacher when I don't know how many times
I thought, well I need to quit the ministry because there ain't
nothing to me at all. And if you all knew it, you wouldn't
have me in your homes, you wouldn't have me at your supper table,
you wouldn't have me out for lunch or nothing else. You wouldn't
have nothing to do with it. Huh? But oh my. And I tell you what, but he says
faith cometh. And how does faith come? It comes
by hearing. Hearing the word of God. And
I tell you what, faith operates right now as you're hearing the
gospel. It's responding to what you're hearing. Huh? And that's
why you know God purposed salvation, He executed, He applied it, and
He works it in us. That's why we preach one gospel. One gospel, Christ in him crucified
that your faith would stand in God's power, not in what some
person talked you into. Huh? Oh my, if a person can talk
you into it, somebody else will talk you out of it. Somebody
talk you into it, then they can change you and make you go somewhere
else. But if you ever hear that gospel, they can't run you off. Ain't that right? I mean the
preacher can get pretty upset sometimes and get aggravated
and may say some things. You know I've said things that
I just... And your wife will catch it when nobody else will.
They'll say, did you believe you said that? And I'll say,
what did I say? But oh my, but that's what's
so wonderful about the gospel. The gospel, you understand it. If your gospel, your faith doesn't
stand in what some person talks you into. You know how your gospel
comes to you? By God's power. God's grace. by the power of Almighty God
Himself. And oh, I'll tell you, that's
why, and listen to me, that's why having a time and a place
and an experience is so dangerous. Very, very dangerous. You find
somebody that always goes back to something that happened when
they was 12 or when they was 15 or when they was 6. I've heard
folks, you know, got saved when they was 6, 7, 8, 10, 12. But I'll tell you something,
if you can believe when you're six, you can go to hell when
you're six. If you die, you're lost. Now ain't that right? Steve Dishman was talking to
a preacher one time at a gas station. And if I'm wrong about
this Steve, you straighten me out. But this preacher was telling
about how many people they got saved, how many children. They
had got saved and had a meeting and got a whole bunch of 4, 5,
6, 7 year old children saved. And Steve told him, he said,
well, you know if they're old enough to be saved, they're old
enough to be lost and old enough to perish. And that preacher
didn't know what in the world to think. Didn't know what to
say. Huh? That's scary, ain't it? And that's
what I mean that the faith comes by the power of God. It don't
come in sending some man's wisdom. Honey, you believe Jesus, don't
you? Well, yes. You want to be saved? Yeah. It'll
make your mama so happy. Oh, she'll be so happy for you.
Come over here and let us baptize you. And all your mama will just
cry. She'll be so happy for you. And then you know they get 15,
16 years old and they just ran back to where they started. Out
there in the world doing all the things that the world does.
Ain't that right? Alright. There's a third thing. We're saved by hearing the gospel
in time. And then Paul says we have been
saved, we are being saved, and we shall be saved. Now we are
being saved right now. I mean we're being saved right
now. Huh? What are we being saved for?
That's why Paul said lay hold on eternal life. To lay hold
on something, you've got to turn loose something else. And there's
lots of things we have to turn loose of. I never will forget
Scott one time. He was talking about going into
business. Mary was talking about, you know,
getting into business. This one particular business.
And, you know, we was talking about it and Scott said, well,
you know the Bible said, lay hold on eternal life. And if
you're going to lay hold on eternal life, you ain't got time to take
up nothing else. And man, that just, whoo! That
just knocked that in the head that quick. That was forgot that
fast. And I tell you what, we're saved
from some things. Saved from sin's power. Saved
from sin's pleasure. Saved from the world. Saved from
self. That's the person that needs
saved from more than anything else is self. Huh? Self-trust, self-confidence,
self-righteousness. And that's something we have
to deal with all the days of our life. Save from error. Oh
God save us from error. Save from ignorance. Save from
our preconceived ideas. Save from our strength. Our own
strength. We got no strength. They said,
oh listen, you know you got a lot of strength, but you know my
weakest point is this. My weakest point is me. I ain't got no way to look behind
me. I can't look to my right. I can't look to my left. I can't
see tomorrow. I'm the, my weakness, do you
know this weakest link? It's me. It's me. And I tell you what, and I self
trust, oh my goodness. Oh my, how in the world does
God save us now? By the word being preached to
us all the time. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. And I tell
you what, He saves us by the word of God continually and constantly
in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Oh my. And let me tell you something. We've all had grave clothes. When God saves us and is continuing
to save us, when he called Lazarus from the grave, he had grave
clothes on. And I tell you, no one, no one
comes into the kingdom of God fully grown. We don't do it. You know, we
have to start out just like Lazarus did. He called us out of the
tomb. Saved us from so great a death.
And from then on, He's taken these old self-righteous rags
off of us. Taken these old self-confidence
off of us. Taken our carnal reasoning away
from us. Taken our self-righteousness
away from us. When we do something, we want
everybody to know what we've done. You know why we want people
to know what we've done? So they'll say, boy, boy, I tell
you what, they're really something. That's what we love to be bragged
on. Don't we? But God don't brag on us. No,
no, God don't brag on us. He don't do it. We give thanks for one another,
but oh my, And no one comes into this kingdom of God full-born.
We're born new babies. Then we become children. Then
we become young men. Then we become fathers. Old John
Newton's got a message and it's called, and he, I can't remember
the name of it, but he says, you know, over in Mark chapter,
I think it's chapter five, he says, there's the, there's the
corn that's put in the ground. comes the ear. It comes right
up, just a little blade. Then in a little while it grows
up bigger. And then you know it's full grown
and then there's the corn in the ear. And he says you know
when it's ripe? When the ear hangs down. That's the way we are. We're
just like a blade that comes up and we grow up And as we get
older, and our time gets closer, that ear of corn starts hanging
down. And you know when something's hanging down? That means it's
good and ripe. You know what you do when your
corn's good and ripe? You pick it. That's what God's
going to do. He's going to pick us. Oh my. And let Him wash some
of our grave clothes. Well, we're born ignorant. I
do know that. Born as ignorant as a... And
I tell you, one of the worst grave clothes that anybody's
born with is sentiment. Sentimentality. People start
worrying about when they hear the gospel. What about my brother? What about my mommy? What about my sister? What about
my granny? Oh my. It don't make any difference. They're gone. We can't undo anything
that's been done. And when we're gone, we can't
come back and do nothing. And I tell you, in our traditions,
oh my goodness, our traditions. And that's the, oh my. People say, I've never heard
anything like that in all my life. You know what Paul did? He walked
off and left his tradition, left his religion, left everything
behind. And he said, you know what he
said about it? That's done. Garbage. Put it in the trash
can. Throw it away. Oh, morality. Men love their
good works, their goodness. And I tell you what, men want
to preserve their dignity at the expense of God's glory. And
let me tell you something, we never become lost by doing anything. We was born that way. And we're
not going to be saved by doing anything either. Huh? Oh my. Well, not only we've been
saved from things, but we've been saved to some things. You
know what some of the things we've been saved to? First and
foremost is for the glory of God. He saved us to the praise
of the glory of His grace. God's going to get all the glory
to Himself and His Son by our salvation. And I tell you, not
unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name, give glory. And we sang that old song, to
God be the glory, great things he hath done. Huh? I tell you what, and here's the
thing about it, if he saves you to his glory, and you fully understand
that, then the rest of your life, you're doing ever, you're trying
by God's grace to glorify him in any situation you're in. Just
like Shirley in her situation this morning. And when she went
up there to be with her mother, I'll tell you this much about
her. I know she'll relax and she'll do what she's doing for
God's glory. And I know that God's grace will
be sufficient for her to honor God through this whole thing.
I know that. Why do I know that? Because that's
all of our purpose in this life. Huh? Bruce Crabtree and him and
his wife and the condition they're in. Three big tumors in her brain.
And the situation they're in. Only thing he says is, Oh God
don't let me bring shame on you. Let me do everything that I do
and everything we go through to your glory. Huh? Oh God help us to be good. And
I tell you what, to His glory. And here's another thing, we're
being saved to a greater conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ. I've
told you this before, you know that, you go in this little old
store and these folks have these Dogs all around up there, you
know, in this old country store. Fella come in there and all them
fellas sitting around the old pot belly stove whittling. Said,
how in the world did you get all them dogs like that? And
he painted them different colors. And he said, well, I whittle
off everything that don't look like a dog. And that's what God's
doing to us. He's whittling off everything
that don't look like Christ. Tim James can whittle. Oh, that
fella can whittle. He makes owls. that look so good, He makes these
chains out of wood and they just all one great big old long chain.
He can really whip them. And you know how He does that?
He cuts away everything that don't look like that thing. And
that's what God's doing for us. He is conforming us to the image
of His Son. And one of these days, that's
what predestination is. He's going to make us just like
His Son. Now when I say just like His
Son, the only thing that will make us like His Son is to be
without sin, completely and perfectly in the presence of God. We're
saved, we're in God's presence. and we'll love perfectly and
we won't even need to believe anymore because we'll be in His
presence and we'll be just like Him. Love God with all our hearts
and obey Him perfectly and glorify Him perfectly for eternity. Now that's how we'll be made
like Christ. Huh? Oh my! And I tell you, we are
saved to a greater willingness for His will to be done. And
we're saved to a greater understanding and appreciation for the grace
of God. Oh, how grateful are we for God's
grace. Huh? God's saving us. God's keeping
us. God's upholding us. And knowing
that His grace is sufficient for anything that goes on in
this world and in our lives. Huh? Amen? Oh my. In a greater understanding of
the gospel and appreciation. And then fourthly, this is my
fourth point. Saved from eternity. Saved by
the gospel. Being saved. From some things
to some things. And this is what I've tried to
get to. We shall be saved. Paul says, the time of my departure
is at hand. He said, boy I hate that. No, he said the time of my departure
is at hand. Surely Monday morning we missed
the first flight out, you know. She missed that flight. Her departure
time was a certain time. We didn't get there in time. So she didn't get to depart.
But when God calls us to depart, we ain't going to miss the flight. Listen, we have to buy another
ticket. But we ain't going to have to buy no tickets on this.
This is already paid for. Our Lord Jesus said, He says,
you know, my departure is at hand. I'm ready, listen to what
He said, I'm ready to be offered. Ready to be offered. And he said, I kept the faith.
I believe God. I believe the gospel. I believe
God's grace. I believe everything God ever
told me. And I'm trusting Him. The time
of my departure. And I'm ready to be offered.
And I've kept the faith. And we had that, oh, a war rages. He said, I fought a good fight. I fought for the gospel and the
glory of God and for the grace of God. Everything that God is
and His character and His glory and His honor and Christ's glory
and Christ's death and Christ's righteousness and purity and
everything. I fought a good fight. And I'm leaving this world. Oh
boy. And you know how he does? Our
time is always at hand. And most of the time he comes
and gets us one by one. That old song you know, going
down the valley, one by one. He comes to get us one by one.
Comes and gets this one and here's something. People wonder why God does things
and why He takes people out of somebody's family. They belong
to Him. He can come take them anytime
He wants to. No, we belong to Him. He can
come take our family. He can come take our children.
He can come take our home. He can come take our health.
He can come take us anytime He wants. It's His. That's all He
is. And so that's why he's going to come get us one by one. But
one day, one day, he's going to come and get everybody at
the same time. Everybody that's alive and remaining
shall be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. See
if you can see my twinkle. In the twinkling of an eye. And
we shall all be changed. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Comfort, comfort one another
with them words. Oh my. Our Lord Jesus Christ
said in my father's house. Oh there are so many mansions
up there. Oh there are so many mansions
up there. And he said, and I tell you,
I'm going to go away. But if I go away, he said, I'm
going to come get you again. And when I come to get you, you
know what I'm going to do with you? I'm going to bring you to
where I am, that you may be with me. Oh, Lord, even so come, Lord
Jesus, even so come. Oh, and I tell you, we'll all
be changed no matter where we are. We'll all be called home
at the same time. If you ain't read Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress, you need to read it. You need to read it a lot. The
Christian and hopeful, they came up to the river. Come up to the
river. And they looked across the river
and they saw over into Emmanuel's land. And then they had to cross that
river. And he had so many people in that, there was a man called
Mr. Ready-to-Halt. He went on crutches. He went on crutches. Mr. Ready-to-Halt, ready to throw
his crutches down. Well, he got to the river, he threw them away.
And then there was Miss Diffident. She was so bashful and backward
and she could never say much and she was just so diffident
and embarrassed and so quiet. And there's Miss Muchafraid.
She went all of her life. Oh, do you reckon I'm saved?
Do you reckon I'm saved? I'm so sinful. How could I be
saved? And then there's old Mr. Fearing. They all got there. An old Christian started a cross. He's the one that started, he's
the first character in Bunyan's Progress, Christian. And he got
out in that water and that water started, he said, oh my, it's
going to come over my head, it's going to swell me up, it's going
to swallow me up, this river is, I'm not going to make it.
But then all of a sudden he felt a rock right under his feet. And he went all the way over
on that rock. He said, then that crossing was
so easy, so easy. Our Lord said, lift up your heads.
Lift up your heads. Redemption draws nigh. No more
struggles of heart. No more fears. No more infirmities. No more
discouragements. No more weariness. No more darkness. And here's the best. No more
goodbyes. No more goodbyes. We'll be in the glorious presence
of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. And we'll be
in His presence whom we long to see. And there'll be nothing
but joy and peace and rest through all eternity. What a day that'll
be when my Jesus I shall see, when He takes me by the hand
and leads me to the promised land. When I look upon His face,
The one who saved me by his grace. What a day. What a day that'll
be. Huh? Amen? Amen. You reckon you girls could sing
that for us? Huh? Come and sing that for us. Oh my. What a future we have. You know when our future started?
Before the world ever began. We were ending up starting before
the world ever began. Ain't that such a blessing?