It's verse 39. Psalm 37, 39. It talks about the wicked being
cut off and they're destroyed. But the salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. We'll talk about the salvation
of the righteous. Salvation of the righteous. The
whole life of a believer is a life of salvation. The whole life
of it, everything from start to finish is salvation. He's
saved in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom all spiritual
blessings dwell. All spiritual blessings, everything
that God has for anybody in this world, that has to do with anything
spiritual, it comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. All spiritual
blessings are in Him. And that's what we're interested
in. Temporal, earthly blessings are temporal. They don't last
long. I mean, even ourselves are just
a shadow. We're here a little while and
we're gone. But the believer, God's people, he's always being
saved. Always being saved from the moment
of his election. being chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world from the moment of his election to
the time he's begotten again by the gospel God has given him
life through his word in the Holy Spirit he's always being
saved from the moment he believes in the Lord Jesus Christ until
he closes his eyes in death his whole life his whole life is
in this salvation that God has provided for him in Christ, his
whole life. Now, will you agree with that,
you all that are believers? Our whole life is a salvation.
From the moment of our election, till we are begotten by the gospel,
till we actually in ourselves believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
till we close our eyes in death. Our whole life is encompassed
in salvation. And what's wonderful about it
is, is this, that God is working salvation for him, God worked
his salvation out for him, worked salvation in him, and is working
salvation for him and by him. God's using him to work salvation
and bring salvation to others. And I personally, and I know
you do too, we rejoice, love and rejoice in this word salvation. Salvation. You know why? Because it means several things.
First of all, it means salvation from the penalty of sin. The
soul that sinneth, it must die. And I've died. Where'd I die
at? In Christ. Mary, let me listen to a song
the other day. Were you at Calvary, were you at Calvary, were you
at Calvary when Christ was crucified? Were you there when they crucified
our Lord? by the Carter family and died. And I said, yes, I was. I was. I was at Calvary. I was there when he was crucified.
I really was. And everybody else was. That's
why we were there. Where's the penalty of sin? It
was painful. And somebody's got to pay for
sin. Either you've got to or Christ does. And you can't pay
us. You'll be paying for all eternity
and you'll never be paid. And not only that, but we're
saved from the punishment of sin. God won't punish us. Even if we was punished in Christ,
then He wouldn't be just to come and punish us again. And we're
saved from the power of sin. Sin does not have dominion over
us anymore. That's why the old hymn writer
from sin, be the double cure. Save from his power and his penalty,
oh save me from his power. And to most people, and you know
this as well as I do, to most people salvation is an insurance
policy. You cash it in at the pearly
gates and you get in to keep from going to hell. That's where
everybody's got an insurance policy no matter how they live
in their lives, whether they believe Christ, whether they
attended the gospel, whatever happened, that when they get
to the end of the day, they've got them an insurance policy,
and they cash that in at the pearly gates, and everybody says,
well, they're better off now. But I'm not telling to the believer
this word salvation. Means more than just an insurance
policy. It's more but not that. It's
life itself. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now let me just give you a few
things about salvation of the righteous. The very heart and
soul of sound doctrine. Sound doctrine is the salvation
of the righteous is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Now
I know this, beloved, that many are afraid to preach the gospel.
A free grace. And what do we mean by free grace?
We mean that God saves a man. He chooses the man. He works
salvation for the man or the woman. And there's nothing in
this world that a man can contribute to his salvation because he was
lost, he was a sinner, born a sinner, lives a sinner, and dies a sinner.
So if salvation is done, God's got to do all the saving from
start to finish. Could God ever owe anybody anything? Could a man ever be in debt to
God? And that's why we mean free grace.
But many are afraid to preach the gospel of free grace because
they're afraid they'll be misunderstood. They got to bring man in just
a little bit. You know, they got to bring him in. They say,
well, religion. And you know, they say, well,
we got to have some part in it. We got to choose. We got to will. We got to start trying to live
right. We got to do that. No. You know,
the salvation that man preaches, all he does is preaches man up. Man up high. And then God, everything's
for man. But they never consider what's
for God. That God must be satisfied. That
God's got to be honored. God's got to be glorified. If
I see anybody ever say, God's got to get the glory for it.
God's got to be honored for it. And they're afraid to be misunderstood. Well, I'll tell you what. And
they'll give, they say, well, it'll give, if you preach free
grace and the salvation's all of the Lord, it'll give people
a license to sin. People don't need a license to
sin. Do you need a license? I need a license to get married.
I need a license to drive. I need a business license. I
want to start a business. But I don't need a license to
sin. Man sins enough without a license. And that's what they
say, you'll make man licentious. But men still sin anyway. That's
why Paul says grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life
through Jesus Christ. God forbid, shall we continue
in sin that grace may abound? God forbid, how can we that are
dead to sin live any longer there even? And I tell you another
reason why they don't want to preach free grace is they're
afraid they'd be misunderstood and people would get the impression
that salvation's not for everyone. Well, if you understand it's
not for everyone, if I give you that impression, you've got the
right impression. It's not for everyone. You know who it's for?
for sinners, for needy, for helpless, for hopeless, for people without
strength, people that has absolutely nothing in their hands that they
can offer to God. Now, if you're rich, you're increased
with goods, and you've got power, and you're good, and you're moral,
and you're righteous, then you don't need Christ, and Christ
didn't die for you. Christ died for people who has
no ability to save themselves. He died for people who are sinners
from the top of their head to the sole of their feet. Therefore,
He died for sinners who absolutely know, know in their heart and
soul that they have nothing but, oh, my soul, oh, Paul said it
like this, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
this body of death? Oh, I know that in me, that is,
in my flesh, dwells no good thing. We know that all of our righteousness
is ours in filthy rag. And I tell you, let me show you
something. You keep, look over with me in Luke chapter 9. This
is what our Lord said. This is what our Master said.
Oh, if we could find somebody needy. You know why? I do know this. David said, I'm
poor and I'm needy. I tell you what people, they're
not too proud to ask you for Will the church do this for us?
Will the church do that for us? They're not too proud to go after
this, that and the other. But one thing they're too proud
to ask for. Salvation. Based wholly on what Christ has
done. Men will ask for a lot of things and beg for a lot of
things. And take a lot of help from a lot of people. But they
don't want everything from Christ. They got to bring something of
their own to contribute to that. But look what our Lord said here
in Luke chapter 9 and verse 11, talking about the needy. This
is who Christ died for. And the people, when they knew
it, followed Him. And He received them and spake
unto them of the kingdom of God, and listen to this, and healed
them that had need of healing. You know the only people who
wasn't there? people didn't have any need of you. But everybody
had a need, they got in line. Everybody had a need, came to
Christ. Everybody had a need, stood right there. And everybody
had a need, Christ took care of their need. And I tell you
what, and I know this, if we fear men, we won't be the servants
of Christ. If we fear the priest, the gospel,
the way it is. So the heart of sound doctrine
is the salvation of the righteousness of the Lord. And salvation is
of the Lord. You know Jonah, when he was in
the belly of hell, God put him down there in that whale's belly,
and there was no way he could get out. He wasn't told to pray
the sinner's prayer. He wasn't told to repeat after
me. He wasn't told to sing us another verse of Just as I Am.
He couldn't get out. He says, the bars, the bars was
around me. And he was laying in there and
he said, this one thing I know, that salvation is of the Lord. And about the time he said that,
that whale got up on the seashore and spit him out on dry ground. Didn't wait to spit him out about
15 yards from the sea and told him to get out and walk the rest
of the way. They put him on dry ground. Said he would in just
a minute, he understood the salvation. God saved him. And I tell you
all, listen, look in Romans 8 just a minute. I don't want to take
too long on this, but let's look in Romans 8. I love salvation
being of the Lord. And I shall teach you. Look in
Romans 8, 28. Romans 8, 28. Salvation is of
the Lord in His planning. Everything about salvation the
Lord did it. Look what he said here in verse
28, and we know, we know some things. And we know this, that
all things work together for good. You say, well, my sickness
work together for good? Yes, it does. Does the sun shine? Yes, it does. So everything that
happens in this world works together for good to them that love God.
To them, listen to this, who are called according to His purpose,
on purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
had a people he foreknew. He also did predestinate to be
informed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn
among many brothers. Now listen to this. Those people
he foreknew and he predestinated, them he also called. Called them. How did he call them? Just like
I'm preaching the gospel today. That's how he calls them. And
then he goes on to say, whom he called, they also justified.
How did he justify them? Through Christ bearing their
sins in his own body on the tree and rising again. And whom he
justified, them he also glorified. Now you notice every one of those
saints in the past tense? They was in the past tense before
I was ever converted myself. They'll be in the past tense
after I'm gone. You know why? Because God does
everything on purpose, and if He purposes to do something,
it's as good as done. And then Paul jumps back and
he says, well listen, what happens then? What shall we say at the
end of these things that we just dealt with? If God be for us,
who in the world could be against us? Huh? So salvation is of the
Lord in His planning. You know, there was a covenant
that God made with Christ before the fall. And what is that covenant? God gave Christ to people. All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Our Lord in John
17 says, Father, they were thine and you gave them to me. Everything
that I have, you gave them to me. And then I say, Christ was
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world and the God of peace
that brought again from the dead that great Shepherd of the sheep,
the Lord Jesus Christ, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. And what happened was in this
planning. God gave this people to Christ,
chose these people and gave them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Wisdom
and love chose those persons included in it. Wisdom chose,
wisdom's behind it and love of God's behind it. And that's why
we say God made Christ unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. So not only is it of the Lord
in His planning, but it's of the Lord in His providing. Now,
if somebody plans something, how are you going to carry it
out? And I say, well, so how in the
world is this salvation that God gave us in Christ and gave
us to Christ and guaranteed that we'd come to Christ, how in the
world is this salvation going to be provided for us? Well,
God sent his own Son in the fullness of time made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law. He gave His Son.
God so loved, so loved the world. What world? Not the world of
the wicked. Not the world of the ungodly.
Not the world as we know it. But the world of Jew, Gentile,
bonded, female and female. And that's why our beloved says,
you know, and here's the thing, we had to be redeemed. We were
sinners told instead, slaves to sin. Listen, how did we become
sinners? Adam, in the Garden of Eden,
he sinned and ate of that tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. When he did that, he died. And in dying, he died. And we
all died in Adam. We sinned in Adam. We became
sinners that way. That's why you don't teach your
children to lie. You don't teach them to say no.
You don't teach them to throw pits. You don't teach them to
steal. You don't teach them to be mean to people, but that's
their nature. And that's man's nature. And so since
we're sinners and we're slaves, so to understand, how in the
world are we going to be saved from our sin? How are we going
to be saved from this bondage? God's justice says, I can't let
them go. They sinned against me. God's
truth says, Amen, I'll stand good by that. Righteousness stands
up and says, Hallelujah. I can't have the righteousness
demand payment. Well, Christ our Lord stood up
and he said, I'll tell you what I'll do. God you set the price
and I'll pay it and the price was my blood I'll shed my blood
and he came to this earth and for 33 and a half years he lived
on this earth and one day they came in the evening after he
prayed in the garden of Gethsemane and they came 500 above men and
lay hold on him and took him and mock trialed him And then they took him and beat
him and then hung him on a cross. And they nailed his hands like
this here, right through the wrist. And they put his feet
on top of one another and put them on there. And they crushed
that crown of thorns on his head. And blood, blood, blood, blood,
blood, blood, blood flowed from that man's body. And all of that was because God
said that I must punish sin where I find it. Christ said, lay their
sin on me. Christ said, put the price of
their salvation on me. Put their righteousness that
you require, put it on me. Let me pay for it. And I, Lord
Jesus Christ, I tell you, I don't know how much blood a human body
has in it, but I know this, when it came time for him to die,
and he lifted up his voice and he cried, it is finished, that
means salvation was done. I wasn't there, you wasn't there,
nobody else was there, only God the Father and God the Son, and
when he said it was finished, salvation was complete, sin was
put away, the payment price was accepted of God, and I, Lord,
went into heaven itself on the third morning, appeared in heaven
itself, and presented his blood to God Almighty. And beloved,
right then and there, sin was paid for him, over and done with. Then he, Christ himself, put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He put away sin once
and for all in the end of the world. He has protected forever
them that are in him. So God provided this salvation. And I tell you, when our Lord
was already dead, that soldier came by and took his spear, and
pierced his thigh, and you know all that came out of it? Just
a little blood and water. And God, He put him in the tomb.
And on the third morning, early Monday, Sunday morning, our Lord
rose from the dead, and He appeared unto His disciples, And how do
you know it's Him? Because all the prints He had
in His pocket. But you know why He rose again?
For our justification. How do you know you don't have
no sin? Christ put my sin away. How do you know the wrath of
God won't ever come on you? Christ bore the wrath of God
in our place. How do you know that God will
ever come and punish you for sin again? He came! Christ done
been punished. That's how come God is just to
justify them who believe in Christ. Because Christ doesn't bore the
sin. Christ doesn't suffer for sins.
Christ doesn't bore the wrath of God. And that's why He said,
where did you get these wounds? And I got them in the house of
my friends. And I'll tell you something else
about this salvation. The price has been paid. That's
why in my hands no price I bring, simply to Christ I cling. And
listen, I'll tell you something, beloved. If Christ paid it all, then what do you owe? If Christ did it all, then what
can you do? I'll tell you what I did when
I found that out. I thought up both hands and said, hallelujah,
salvation's done. I said, it just broke my heart. It made my heart to rejoice.
I've been working for salvation. I've been trying to be saved.
I've been trying to live holy. I've been trying to do what's
right. I've been trying to pay. I've tried every way in the world
to make myself right with God. But when I heard Jesus paid it
all, All to Him I owe. When I heard that salvation was
accomplished, done, finished by Christ Himself, and that God
gave this salvation, and God takes... When I heard that and
learned that, my soul went to rest and it ain't never got up
and went to work again. It sure never got up and went
to work again. Have you heard the Gospel? It ain't never tried
to do anything. To satisfy God. Never tried to
do anything to get on God's good side. Never tried anything to
give God a blessing from God. All it does now is just rest.
What do you rest in? Christ Himself. Huh? Let me tell you something else
about this salvation. Not only is it the Lord in His
planning, not only is it the Lord in His providing, He provided
this salvation. It's in the Lord as it's applying.
Now how more am I going to get this salvation that God planned
and God provided in Christ? He's got to bring it and give
it to me. He's got to bring it and apply
it to me. What do you mean? God's got to
cause that soul to live. God's got to call that soul to
live. Now look over in Ezekiel 37 just a minute. You know the
need of mercy in Ezekiel 37, the need of mercy doesn't come
from nature. Neither mercy doesn't come from
nature. It comes from a work of grace
in a man. He takes the beggar from the donkey and sets him
among princes. And here's the thing, how in
the world, you know, there had to be a time that life is given
to us. A man is dead and trespassing,
how is God going to give him life? How is this salvation that
God planned to provide? How are you going to get it?
How is it going to be brought to you? Do you have to go after
it or is it brought to you? Well, God has to apply this salvation.
And I tell you, look what happened here. The hand of the Lord was
upon me and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set
me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. and
caused me to pass by them round about and behold there were very
many in the open valley and lo they were very dry a valley full
of dry bones and he said unto me son of man can these bones
live and I answered oh Lord God thou knowest again he said unto
me prophesy now that means preach preach preach to these bones
How would you like to have to go into a big old valley of bones? I got a bone yard on my place
over everything, everything. Cow dies, a cab dies, a horse
dies, I got a bone yard. You go over there and there's
bones everywhere. There's something God told me to go over there
and preach them bones. Here's what God said, He said, Go preach
them these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the
word of the Lord. How in the world is dry bones
going to hear anything? They're dead and dry. Thus saith
the Lord God unto these bones. Now there's a difference. The
man's preaching, but God's preaching through him. But thus saith the
Lord God unto these bones, Behold, I'll cause breath to enter into
you. And what happens when he does
that? You shall live. And I'll lay sinews upon you,
I'll bring flesh upon you, I'll cover you with skin, and I'll
put breath in you, and you shall live, and guess what? And you
shall know that I'm Lord. Oh my, and here's the thing,
if He had not sought us, we never would have sought Him. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, He said, I have other sheep which are not of
this folk, them also I must bring. He's the one that seeks the sheep.
He's the one who finds the sheep and lays it upon His shoulder.
When we cry out to Him, it's because He first called us. You
go through the Scriptures, every place that a sinner is saved,
God did it, Christ did it. We love Him. Why? Because He
first loved us. And listen to this. Now let me
hurry. Not only salvation of the Lord is planning, is providing,
is supplying, but salvation is of the Lord and in carrying on.
You know, if you're saved, and you know there's people in this
world who believe if you're saved you can be lost again. You can
be saved a while, then be lost again, then be saved again, and
renew up, and come back, and oh, just go on and on and on
with it. But listen, salvation is of the Lord and is carrying
on. Where God works His salvation,
there's life. And where there's life, there's
growth. Now as you start out as a baby, and that's why Peter
says, grow in the grace. And how do you grow in grace?
Through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell
you, that's why Paul said, He's God which worketh in you both
to will and to do His good pleasure. And I'm confident of this very
thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you, He shall
perform it unto the day. He shall. Now, you know, where
there's life, there's grace. What is growing in grace? What
is it to grow in grace? Well, it's not growing more holy.
It's not growing more holy. Holiness is an absolute state
or condition. And nobody can be more holy at
one time than they can another, can they? If you're either you're holy
or you're not. If there's the slightest imperfection, then
you're not holy. And I tell you, one who is holy
cannot be made holy by doing something of himself. So it's
not growing more holy. You're complete in Christ, who's
the head of all principalities and powers. Holiness is a state
of condition. Okay, be more holy than you can
one time or another. And if Christ is our sanctification,
if Christ is our holiness, as far as God's concerned, we're
as holy as we're ever going to be. Holiness is not something
I'm going to do. It's something that God made
me. Well, let me tell you what a growth in grace is. A growth
in grace is an awareness of our need of grace. A growth is an
awareness of our need of grace. Growth is an assurance that all
grace is from God. He's the God of all grace. We
didn't deserve it. We didn't desire it. And this
grace was given us in Christ before the world ever began. And I'll tell you what else growing
in grace is. It's a growing, growing dependency
and confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. And His grace, a confidence
in His grace, and dependency of His grace for every trial,
every affliction, every temptation, every persecution, everything
that happens to you in this world. You're aware and dependent that
God's grace is sufficient for whatever happens in this world.
It's sufficient. It's sufficient to live by, it's
sufficient to die by, it's sufficient to go through the awfulest things
you can imagine to go through in this world. It's sufficient
for living, dying, sufficient for whatever you're going through. God's grace is sufficient. Has it ever failed you yet? And
I tell you something else a growth in grace is, it's a growth in
our willingness and proneness to be gracious to others because
we've been shown grace. Shown grace. And I tell you,
not only is the Lord's salvation of His planting, dividing, applying,
carrying it on. He's got to carry it on because
we can't carry it on. But I tell you what, we're sustained
in this salvation completely by the Lord Himself. Kept by
the power of God through faith. Let me tell you something a man
can do. A man can sin by his free will, but he can't put sin
away by his free will. Can he hear it? Can he read it? He can't do it. He can sin by
his own free will, but he can't put sin away by his own free
will. He can fall by himself into sin, but he can't get up
by himself. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, All
that you gave me, I've kept them, and I've not lost a one of them,
except for the son of perdition. When God saves a man, He's going
to keep a man. When God saves a man, He's going
to keep him from the day He saves him to the day He takes him to
glory. You see, in salvations of the Lord, then we must be
saved. Every virtue we possess, every victory won, every thought
of holiness are His and His alone. And that's why we must give Him
all the glory, for He's given us all the grace. The last step, and we're going
to take that last step, that last step will be as much by
the grace of God as the first thing we ever do. That last step, if we go from
this world to the next, it'll be of grace. And we gotta give
Him all the glory. And all we preach are great and
glorious salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. And anything
less than that's not worth preaching or even talking about. Our Lord
Jesus said, I give, I give, I give unto them eternal life. And they
shall never perish. For he says, I keep them in my
own hand, and the Father which gaveth them me, he shall keep
them in his hand. Now if you're in the hand of
God and the hand of Christ, do you think you could lose that?
I don't. Now let me quickly hurry on.
Let me give you four reasons why believers are and must be
saved. Four reasons why believers are
and must be saved. First one is, God said they would.
God sent him. God said, our salvation is of
the Lord. He said, look unto me and be
ye saved, all the ends of the earth. Our Lord Jesus Christ
says, you know, that I, for one, shall be taught of God, and they
that are taught of God shall come unto me. And I want you
to see, look in Isaiah 45, 15 with me. 45, 17, just a minute.
Isaiah 45, 17. God said they would. And God
says He's going to save a man. He's going to save him. And that's
why we know that everyone's going to be saved. Everyone for whom
Christ died is going to be saved. Why believers are saved. God
said they would. Look what He said here in Isaiah
45, 17. But Israel shall be saved in the Lord, with an everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed, nor
confounded, world without end. As long as the world is, and
long as there is no end to it, you will never be ashamed, never
be confounded. And I tell you, the Lord Jesus
Christ Here's the third, second reason why they must be saved
is the Lord Jesus Christ gave them eternal life. He said He
has power over all flesh that He should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given Him. Thirdly, the reason they must
be saved is because they're in Christ's hands. And no man, He
said, is able to pluck them out of His hands. And fourthly, is
because they're in the Father's hands. Nobody can pluck them
out of that. And to preach salvation any other way is to rob Christ
of His power. To say that you have to help
Him is to say He doesn't have the power to save you. And it's
to rob God of His glory. And He said, I'll not give my
glory to another. And if you preach it any other
way, it robs the sheep of their comfort. If salvation depended
on us in any way, where would you find any comfort or peace? All of grace from the bottom
to the top, grace in every course and stone, grace in planting,
grace in rearing, grace in crowning, sovereign grace, and grace alone. And I tell you, I ain't been
preaching, I don't know if y'all think I've been at it a long time,
but just barely over 30 minutes. I don't know if some of you think
I've been preaching an hour. It's been a little over 30 minutes. Don't take me long to get said
what he said, but I will. I turned the air conditioner on.
Let me turn the air on for you. Let me tell you something. Salvation
is of the Lord. It's a necessity. It's a fact. And let me tell
you why. It must be of the Lord, or we
would never be saved. Why wouldn't we ever be saved?
You know the best righteousness we've ever done, you know what
it says about it? There is filthy rags. The best thing you've ever
done on this earth, God looks at it and says, that's a filthy,
filthy, filthy, filthy rag. And when I check the oil, I've
got rags that I use, and after I use them two or three times,
I throw them away, because they're so nasty. And God says, you know,
the best thing you've ever done. When I look at it, I see the
nastiest rag that's ever been on the face of the earth. You
see, that's why Christ died. If righteousness could be done
by man, then Christ died in vain. Either Christ gives us a righteousness
or he's dead in vain. And that's what he says here.
And then our nature. Our nature is against holiness
and righteousness in God. There's not a nature man ever
been born, but nature that loved holiness and righteousness and
wanted God, it just didn't happen. It don't happen. And if it's
salvation of the Lord, we could never be saved. What about our
inward struggles? Look at the things that goes
on in our mind and in our hearts. And what about our outward temptations? Oh, the temptations that we have.
The temptations that comes and feel so powerful that it feels
like if we don't give in to them, we're just going to get buried. And what about the world that
we live in? What about on the job where everything
seems to be against you, and your boss is ill, and your boss
is hateful. What about in your home? All
the troubles you have in your home, all the arguments, and
all the fussing, and all the fighting, and all the trouble,
and all the heartache, and trying to keep things together. What
about our secret lives, our secret sins? What about our flesh? If salvation was not of the Lord,
every one of these things would destroy us. Every single one
of them. And let me tell you this, if
salvation was of the Lord, what do you think would happen to
you? If salvation was of the Lord, what would happen to you?
What would happen to me? You know what Paul said would
happen? He said you'd make shipwreck of the faith. You know what a
shipwreck looks like? They just had a shipwreck over
there in Korea. How many people died? Thing turned
upside down. Stuff floating everywhere. And
that's what he says, you know, when you, when you make, when
you, you deny Christ and you, you don't understand and, and,
and, and if you don't, if God don't save you, you make shipwreck
of the faith. Your faith will just be scattered all over the
place. You know, people say, well, if
anyone was saved, he really was. But then after a while, he quits.
I felt the witness of the Spirit when he got saved. Well, and
then they quit. I don't know what you felt, but
you didn't feel the witness of the Spirit. There had been too
many started out on the way. and go back to adulterous, vomitous,
salacious, wallowing in the mire. When you say somebody say, well
I know he's a Christian and I know he quit and I know he went back
to the world. How do you know he's a Christian? How do you
know it? The only way you'll know is for
somebody they keep on and on and on and on and on. You watch
them go through trials, they keep on. You watch them bury
a loved one, a child, or a mother, or a wife, or a son. You watch
them keep on going on. You watch them be persecuted,
be blasphemed, and be called a cult leader or something like
that. They just keep on keeping on. The doctor says you got cancer.
You keep on keeping on. Doctor says you got to have four
bypasses. You keep on keeping on. You have a child born with some
infirmity. You keep on keeping on. If anybody
can quit, you will quit. And that don't mean that you
knew God and just mentioned you had religion. God, when He saves a man, He
saves him like that old dog Grover when he died, he died all over.
And when God saves a man, He saves him all over. And how utterly, utterly dependent
upon God and His grace we are. And I wouldn't have it any other
way, would you? And I'll tell you, just give
me three or four more minutes. This blessed truth is a great
comfort and consolation to His people. You know why? If salvation is of the Lord,
I shall be saved. If salvation is of the Lord,
I shall be saved. If it had been of angels, we'd
have reason to despair, because many angels fail. If it was of
our free will, our choice, or of our words, then we may will
to not believe anymore. We may make the choice to go
back into sin. But salvation is of the Lord.
I'm sure He'll save us and preserve us. because he promised he has
all power and he's unchanging. You know what he said? I am the
Lord and I change not. That's why Paul said I'm persuaded
that neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor
powers nor things present or things to come shall be able
to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. And all this truth comforts us
It encourages us to pray and to seek the Lord and to look
outside ourselves. And this is what salvation is.
It's looking outside yourself. Not looking to yourself for anything.
Looking outside yourselves to Christ for salvation. And oh,
what a reason for humility. 1 Corinthians 4, 7 says this,
Who maketh thee to differ? Who makes you to differ? Why
isn't America like Somalia or Africa or Mexico? Why isn't America like some third
world country? Why isn't America? And why? Who made you to differ in nature?
Who made you to differ in birth? You could have been born somewhere
and over in New Guinea where they wear bones in their nose
and they still paint themselves with all kinds of colors and
eat monkeys and snakes and rats and everything else. You could
be one place where I see where these fellows are going out and
knocking big old rats in the head and tearing them to handfuls
at a time and take them home and eat them. Why wasn't you
born in a place like that? Who made you to differ? Who made you to differ? And let me tell you something,
oh my, who made us to differ? If it wasn't for the grace of
God, I would be a, well I'd be lost, that's for sure. I could
have been a Catholic, I could have been a, I could have been in hell by now,
been in prison, could have been a drunk or drug addict. The only
reason I'm not, is God made me to differ. I've got a brother. Me and him passed for twins.
God hasn't done a thing for him. You talk to him about Christ.
I'm fine. Talk to my mother about it. She said, I don't fear God. Why
should I fear God? Talk to my dad. Oh, me and Jesus
got our old thing worked out. Talked to my sister. She said,
Donnie, I've got enough religion to do me. Out of the whole family, who
makes you the different? Why didn't God say it? He may
yet. He may yet. And then there's whole families.
There's whole families. Gary's family there. Both his
children converted. Three, four children converted. Three girls. Oh my, the girls, some of them
are converted. Oh my. God saves, sometimes He saves
whole families, and sometimes He'll only save one out of a
whole generation. How many people in your family
Absolutely don't care anything about God, don't care anything
about the gospel, don't care anything about grace, don't care
anything about coming to hear the gospel. My grandson said
the other day, this man asked him, he said, you going to hear
your grandpa, you going to hear your granddaughter preach, you going to hear your
poppy preach? He said, I used to. And I told him, I said, you
need to get coming back, you need to come hear the gospel.
There's no hope for a person apart from hearing the gospel.
And God's the one that makes us to differ. If you're here
today and you care anything at all about the gospel, you know
who made you differ then? God made you differ. And let
me quit with this right here. Because salvation is of the Lord,
what a good hope we have. Because salvation is of the Lord,
what a good hope we have. Oh, we have a good hope through
grace. If He'll save a sinner, why not me? If He'll save, why
not me? Why don't you say that to yourself
today? If He'll save needy people, sinners, why not me? It's salvations
of the Lord. Why not me? Huh? If He came to save sinners, well,
I'm one of them. This old fella, Jack the Huckster.
I said, we ain't got nowhere else
to go today. for a while anyway, but listen. Remember old Jack
the Huckster? Old Jack the Huckster, he went
around making stuff, you know, and selling it, making tinkers
and things like that, and he'd go around Huckster selling these
wares and that. One day, you know, he heard some
women talking and he heard what they said, you know, and they
started talking about South sinners being saved and that. And boy,
he went and heard the gospel and got saved. And he wanted
to join the church one day. He was presenting himself to
the church and said, I'd like to join the church. And they
said, well, Jack, tell us your experience. Tell us what you
experienced. He said, I'm a poor sinner and
nothing at all. Jesus Christ is my all in all.
Well, Jack, there's got to be more to it than that. But what
about the time you got lost? He said, well, I know this. I once was rich, now I'm poor. And once I'm a poor sinner and
nothing at all. And Jesus Christ is small and
all. Well, didn't you do something? I couldn't do anything. I was
too poor. But what about you? No, I was just a poor sinner.
I ain't never done anything. And Christ is small and all.
They just kept trying to get him to have something to his
salvation. He wouldn't do it. You heard that old ditty, I'm
a poor sinner and nothing at all. Jesus Christ is small and
all. Could you say that today? Could
you say that today yourself? I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all. Paul said he was nothing. So
you'd be keeping good company. I'm a poor sinner. I'm nothing.
Nothing at all. But Christ is my all and my all. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for the day. Thank
you for the gospel. Thank you for the salvations
of the Lord. And I pray that you would be pleased to open
hearts, open understandings, and comfort your blessed people
with the gospel. Strengthen them and encourage
them and meet all their needs. Father, we... Oh, this salvation
is so wonderful, so great, so glorious. And oh, Father, we
find such rest and peace in the salvation you accomplished and
provided and work in us. Do that here. May somebody become
a poor sinner, nothing at all. And may Jesus Christ be there
all in all. Amen. Amen. Jesus Christ is made to me, all
I need, all I need. He alone is all my plea, He is
all I need. Righteousness and power, holiness
forevermore, My redemption full and sure, He is all I need. Jerry Scracker is going to be
preaching tonight, and you come back and hear him. I'm looking
forward to it, sitting and hearing somebody else. See you tonight,
God willing. Good night and good afternoon.