Chapter 1. Two verses I want to read. I'll
say a few things about them. Paul had been afflicted, had
been in great trouble and tribulation. and pressed above measure and
strength and disparity even of life. But he said in verse 9
and 10, But we have the sentence of death in ourselves, that we
should not trust in ourselves, but in God, which raises the
dead, who delivered us from so great a death, doth deliver,
and whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. Now Paul talked
here about salvation in three tenses. And he's saying that
God saved him, is saving him, and will yet save him. Has been saved, are being saved,
and shall be saved. And so it deals with our past,
deals with our present, and deals with our future. But tonight
I want to talk about more than just a threefold salvation. Salvation
in three tenses. I want to talk about a four-fold
salvation. Salvation in four ways. Mr. A. W. Pink says that God
saves us from the penalty of sin. Therefore, if any man be
in Christ, there is no condemnation. Penalty is gone. Payment has
been made. God can require no more. Secondly,
he said we would be saved from the power of sin. Sin shall not
have dominion over you, shall not reign over you. Why? Because
you're not under law. If you're under law, sin reigns
over you. But you're under grace. You're not going to Moses for
justification. We've been justified and we're
under grace. That's why sin don't have any
power over us. And then he says that we'd be
saved from the pleasure of sin. And I think you know, and I know
this, sin is a burden to the Lord's people. It only bothers,
sin only bothers the Lord's people. And things that other people
wouldn't think about is such a burden to the Lord's people.
That's why John says, you know, all that's in the world is the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
And these things are not of God. And that's why we love righteousness
and we hate iniquity. Our affection is set on things
above where Christ sits on the right hand of God. And I tell
you it's a bitter sin, it's a burden to us, it's a bitter thing to
us. Just to be cold, to be indifferent, to be seeming lifeless and not able
to, well you know what I'm talking about, it's a great burden to
us. When I imagine, we sit down to
read a Bible and our imagination goes this way. We get down to
pray, and all of a sudden we'll be praying in something that's
going to happen tomorrow, or happen yesterday, or we need
to be doing, come proudly in our mind, and we say, Oh God
for... And those things are burdens to us. They're not a burden to
other people. They're not a burden to a hypocrite. And one of these days, not only
from the penalty of sin, the power of sin, the pleasure of
sin, But one of these days, bless God's holy name, we're going
to be saved from the presence of sin. Sin will no longer be
anywhere on this earth or in the new heaven and new earth.
And all this is true, but I want to look at it just a little different
today. I want to look at salvation in a fourfold sense. And not
only have we been saved, we are being saved, we shall be saved,
but I say that God saved His people. on purpose, in Christ,
before the foundation of the world. That before any man ever
sinned, before Adam was ever put in the garden, God had salvation
for his people. Couldn't be any other way. He's
God and He does things on the basis of eternity. He does everything
that He does on purpose. And if He does it on purpose,
then that means He had to purpose our salvation. Because we certainly
didn't purpose it. We certainly didn't choose Him.
And I believe I can back that up from the Scriptures. Look
with me over in Isaiah 46. And I'm going to give you some
other Scriptures in the New Testament. Look in Isaiah 46 in verse 9. And how in the world can this
be? Because God has a purpose. And he has an eternal purpose.
He declared his, he works all things out to the counsel of
his own will. And look what he said here in
Isaiah verse 46 and verse 9. God said remember the former
things of old. I am God and there is none else.
And there is God and there is none like me. I declare the end
from the beginning. Now you and I can't do that.
We can't get up in the morning and know what's going to happen
before the day's out. We can't tell what's going to
happen from one hour to the next. But God can say, I know from
the beginning. And you know when the beginning
was? When God said the beginning was. In the beginning was the
Word. The Word was with God. There
was no beginning until God said, right now we're going to start.
God's eternal. And he don't need to go by time. Time is sent for you and me.
He don't need it. And that's why the scripture
says there's coming a time when there will be no more. Clocks will be done away with
and we'll be just as eternal as God is and never worry about
time ever again. And look what he says, declaring
the end from the beginning and from ancient times. The things
that are not yet done. Things that ain't never happened.
That's what he says. God declares things that be not
as though they were. He calls things that don't exist
as though they do. He called us and we didn't exist. But yet, He had us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Now listen to this now. And my counsel shall stand, and
I will do all that pleases me. You know if He declared the end
from the beginning, and let me, you all read this scripture,
and I've quoted it so many times, this is the one God used to reveal
the gospel to me over in 2 Timothy 1, 9. Every one of you all can
sit here and quote this verse of scripture if I called you
to. Look at it with me just a minute. That's why the Apostle says God,
who He had chosen us in Christ, now when did He do this? Before
the foundation of the world. And God asked Job, He said, Job,
where was you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Where
was you when I hung the world on nothing? Where was you when
I put Planities and Orion in the skies? Where was you, Job? And our beloved, listen, he said
he has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And this is the reason why that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. And then the next word said,
having predestinated us to the adoption, I'm going to make you
my children. I'm going to make you legally
my children and heirs with my son. Now look what he said in
2 Timothy 1.9. It's talking about the gospel
being the power of God who has saved us and called us with a
holy calling. Not according to our works. Listen
to it now. But according to his own purpose
and grace. What did he say? He claimed the
end from the beginning? According to his own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus. When did he
give us that grace and that calling before the world began? Oh, listen, whom he did foreknow,
then he also justified, then he justified, then he also, then
he, for whom he did foreknow, then he also called, then he
also justified, then he also glorified. Did you notice every
bit of that's in the past tense, as if it's already been done?
And I tell you, beloved, the only way in the world God could
have ever ever not destroyed the whole human race, is had
he not chosen a people in Christ before the foundation of the
world, and viewed us in Christ, if there had not been a Savior
before there had ever been a sinner, he would have damned the whole
human race. But no hope for any of them. But because God had
an election, and because God chose a people to be in Christ,
that's the only reason that this world is blessed at all, is because
God's got the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and His
people in this world, and He has to have a bunch of wicked
people to feed us, and clothe us, and take care of us, and
bend airplanes, and medicine for us. Everything that's been
done has been done for God's elect. Do you know why Jonas Salk come
up from polio vaccine? For God's elect. Do you know
why they made airplanes? To get God's preacher someplace
faster. Now that's the truth. I'm mad,
we go buy a loaf of bread, we don't know what kind of man made
them raise that wage. He may hate God and fast seven
days a week. But the bread tastes good because
God has a man breaking wheat to feed his elect. I'll tell you something else
it says to us. Don't the scriptures say that
Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world?
And you know what else it says? That our names were written in
the Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the world. People say, you know you want
to put your name in the book of life? If you believe tonight, God will
write it down. No, God wrote our name in the book of life
from the foundation of the world. That's what it says. You look
at it yourself in Revelation 13.8. And I tell you, beloved,
all of God's elect, as far as God was concerned, was saved,
the debt was paid, and at the time that all these things were
done in God's eternal purpose, all of it was done before you
and I ever drew a breath, before you and I ever knew anything
happened. What's the difference? in God saving us and choosing
us in Christ before the foundation of the world and paying for our
sin on the cross. We didn't exist either time.
Is that not right? Was you alive when Christ went
to the cross to pay our debts? Was you alive when Christ endured
the wrath of God when He bore your sins on His body on the
tree? No! So you tell me that that
was done 2,000 years before you and I ever existed. Why can't
we just go on back into eternity when Christ stood as a lamb slain
from the foundation of the world and God viewing us as His bearing
our sins then? You know everything God does,
all of it's always in the past tense. You read Isaiah 53 and
it's something that's already happened and it didn't happen
for 700 years later. Ain't that right Gary? We were saved, beloved, because
Christ stood as our repayment, Christ stood as our redeemer,
Christ stood as our surety, Christ stood as the one who entered
into covenant with God to save us. He didn't enter into covenant
with us, they entered into covenant between themselves. And oh beloved,
they looked, oh listen, our Lord Jesus Christ came and He paid
the debt. Our justification I used to fight
this tooth and nail until God made me understand it. But let
me tell you something. Everything God does for us, He
has to do for us based on eternity. He's an eternal God. And how
in the world could He ever not save His people that were given
to Christ? Our Lord Jesus says, they were
yours and you gave them to Me. Well, when were we His? And when
were we given to Him? It certainly wasn't in time.
He says, they were Thine. Father, glorify Me with the glory
I had with You before the world was. That's what He's praying
for. And He says, now I've come and done the work that You gave
Me to do. What was the work? They were Thine. You gave them
to Me. I saved him, I did everything you told me to do for him, and
now Father, glorify me with the glory I had with you before the
world was. And that's why I know, that's why we preach the gospel.
We're not on a fool's errand. We're not on a fool's errand.
God's got a people in this world, and I don't know who they are,
but He does. And if He chose them in Christ before the foundation
of the world, just as sure as God's on His throne, they're
going to come to Christ. If Christ, beloved, died for
them, stood as the Lamb slain for them as their surety, just
as sure as God's on His throne, they're gonna be brought to faith
in Christ. Let me tell you the second thing. So we're all saved for the foundation
of the world. God's people were. God's people
were. I have no problem with that.
And none, that's why he says, you know, being justified freely
through His grace, through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Paul, Peter says, you know, for
as much as we were redeemed, not by corruptible things, but
incorruptible, by the blood of Christ as a Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world, and we by Him do believe in God. Now, we're saved in Christ before
the foundation of the world. Then, now listen to me, saved
in time by the hearing of the gospel. If we were chosen, and
this is how you know whether you are God's elect or not. He
says, my sheep hear my voice. And I know them, and guess what
else He said, I call them by name. I call them by name, and
so you see beloved, there is no salvation, the gospel is the
power of God under salvation. No salvation apart from the hearing
of the gospel. Just know Paul, that's why the
scripture said, you know that after you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, And everybody has to have a time,
a day, in which they hear the gospel of their salvation. Two
people sit side by side, one hears the gospel, and they say,
God save me, and I hear it, and I believe it, and I'm going to
rejoice in it. And the person sitting right
beside them absolutely hears nothing. Who in the world made
that difference? But you've got to hear the gospel.
That's why Paul says, you know, I endure all things for the elect's
sake that they might believe the gospel. God has from the
beginning chosen you under salvation through sanctification and belief
of what? The truth. The truth. I tell you, beloved, the Holy
Spirit takes this salvation that God gave us in Christ. that we
were chosen unto. And what He does, He comes and
He brings the gospel to us in power. The power is not by the
preacher. The power is in the Word. And
He works this salvation in us. He gives us faith. He gives us
repentance. Look with me over here in Romans
10, just a minute. Look in Romans 10, in verse 13. You know, we would have faith
if not Christ gave it to us, we would have repentance if God
hadn't gave it to us and the Holy Spirit didn't work it in
us. You see, God planned it and He executed it and He applies
it and He works His salvation in us. And that's how we know, how do
you know you're one of God's chosen? Do you believe the Gospel? How do you know you're one of
those predestinated people? Do you believe the Gospel? How
do you know where one of them gods elect? You believe the gospel. People make fun of that, but
I'm telling you, that's the way it can't be any other way. Look
what he said here in Romans 10, 13. For who? So ever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now listen to him now.
Listen to what he says. And this is what Dirk read tonight.
Paul starts out asking questions, and if you answer those questions
as he asked them, all foolish relations will have to be with
you. that you should not obey the gospel. He said, did you
receive the gospel by the hearing of faith and by the works of
the law? Well, you know good and well the works of the law
didn't bring the gospel to you, but the hearing of faith did.
So you start answering these questions as he asked them, and
you find out real, real quick where you're at. And here he
asked another question. He said, Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now he then asked a
question. How then shall they call on him on whom they have
not believed? How are you going to call on the Lord if you don't
believe the Lord? And then he goes on to say, How shall they hear and how shall
they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? How are you going
to believe in Him if you have never heard anything about Him?
Somebody's got to tell you about the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody's
got to tell you about how glorious, how powerful, how sovereign,
how immutable. Got to tell you about His blood.
Got to tell you about His righteousness. Got to tell you about His blessed
suffering. Got to tell you about His sacrifice
and His satisfaction. They've got to tell you about
the Lord Jesus Christ. You've got to hear about Christ.
Not a pretender. Not a pretender. I mean one who
is high and holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sin. Someone who
is a successful Savior. Someone who can actually do what
He said He did. Someone who blood actually cleanses
you from your sin. Someone who has the power to
save you. Someone who has the power to
keep you safe. Someone who has access to the
Father and by Him you can come to the Father. You got to hear
something about the Lord Jesus Christ. And look what else He
goes on to say. So now how are you going to believe
in Him of whom you've not heard? And oh listen, if God has brought
you the gospel and you've heard about Jesus Christ and you know
who He is, If you know who He is, you ought to bless God every
day that you wake up that I know who Jesus Christ is because God
made me to know who He is and I worship Him and adore Him and
bow to Him and submit to Him and the only access I have to
God is through and by and because of Him. My salvation is what
He gives. The only righteousness I have
is what He gave me. Oh, bless God that you know who
Jesus is. Somebody told you who Christ
is. And I tell you that's why I appreciate
these preachers. When I first met them, oh, they
was... What did that woman tell Scott after 3 or 4 years? She's
going to his church and she followed him all the way through the Bible.
And she wanted a law. She wanted a law. She said, you
know, you need to start telling us what we need to do and what
we don't need to do. And she sat down and said, I've
been listening to you for 3 years. And all you've ever done is preach
Christ and Him crucified. Well, Scott said, would you put
that on my tombstone? Oh, he'd reacted years and years
and years. He preached Christ so clearly
and so plainly and so powerfully. Somebody told him one time, said,
you've made an idol out of Jesus Christ. He said, oh, thank God
that I have. That's what we're talking about.
Do you know who he is? You cannot call on him if you've
not heard. And then look what he says, and
how are you going to hear without a preacher? People say, well,
I can find Jesus for myself. No, you can't. Every place you
go in the scriptures, God had it. If it wasn't, if it was Christ
himself, that woman at the well, Christ wouldn't preach to her.
He sat gas up the tree. Christ said, I'm going home with
you today and you're going to learn something. Ain't that right?
In the open unity, Philip had to meet him on the domestic.
When Cornelius, Had lots of good things. Lot of wonderful things. But somebody had to go preach
the gospel to him. And who is it? Simon Peter went and preached
the gospel to him. Somebody had to preach the gospel to Saul
of Tarsus when he was led blind. And Ananias went over there and
told him what God said to tell him. Somebody is going to tell
you the gospel. And God didn't call angels to
do it, He called men to do it. Vessels just like yourself, earthen
vessels and clay pots. And this is why we preach one
gospel, because you got to hear the gospel. And that's Christ
and Him crucified, and we do this that your faith won't stand
in the wisdom of men. Now if a man can talk you into
it, another man can come along and talk you out of it. And when
we talk about standing in the wisdom of men is, is that men
talk you in to accepting Jesus. They do, they'll do the Psalms
just right. They manipulate you just right.
They use psychology. And the next thing you know,
they'll, they'll say, somebody, somebody needs to come forward.
I just, I know the Spirit is telling me somebody just got
to come and accept Jesus. We're not closing this service.
I know somebody here needs to come to Jesus. And they'll just
wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait. And sure enough,
somebody doing just a little service will get over it. Just
get this over and done with. I'll go up there so we can get
out of this service. That's the way that, you know,
that happens all the time. We've seen that all, most of
y'all have seen that stuff when you were younger in all these
churches, you've seen that stuff. But oh, beloved, listen, that's
why we preach one gospel. And that's why I said, oh, how
beautiful, look what he goes on to say. And how shall they
preach except they be sent? And as it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace. Oh, I've
told you all this before. We're going to have, God willing,
we're going to have eight preachers this summer in our conference.
And every single one of them, when they get up, every one of
them got beautiful feet. Oh, beautiful feet. What makes
them beautiful feet? They're carrying the gospel.
Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of the people. They're getting up, their feet
carry them to preach the gospel. They use their feet to get in
the pulpit. They use their feet, and they get up and that's why
I said, how beautiful are the feet. Of them that preach what? The gospel of peace that publishes
glad tidings undesigned. You know what them glad tidings
are? Thy God reigneth. That's good news. God reigns. Oh, that's why, beloved, let
me tell you something. Because the gospel comes, and the gospel
comes and doesn't work in us, that's why a time and a place
And His Spirit is dangerous because He goes on to say here in verse
17 of Romans 10, Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
Word of God. And that's why time and place
is a very dangerous thing. I mean a lot of people have a
time and place. I don't have a problem with that. But you
know, when did you actually hear? We hear and we hear and we hear and we hear
and we hear. And could you, any of you right
now, go back and say, well, I was saved in 1968. I take it at the time and I tell
you the plus. Or will you say, I started hearing
the gospel, and I started believing it, and I started hearing it,
and it got brighter and brighter and brighter and brighter and
clearer and clearer and clearer and clearer until I understood
it, and then I believed. Most of us couldn't go back and
say this happened to me back then. I couldn't go back. I know
I had a lot of experiences until God brought me to Christ. But
actually that time when I... And it don't make any difference.
I know what I'm doing right now. I'm trusting Christ. And if God
lets me live in the morning, I'm going to trust Him again. And if he lets me live until
I'm laying on my death bed and I'm still in my right mind, I'm
still going to trust Christ there. I'm not going to go back and
say, well, I'll stay way, way back here. I'm going to, that's
what he says. I have been saved and I am being
saved. Being saved right now. And that's
my next point. We are being saved. Remember
what he said? He has saved us, he has delivered us, and he does
deliver us. We have been saved by hearing
the gospel. We are being saved. Romans 13,
11 says, Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
Paul told, he said, Young men, lay hold on eternal life. And
to lay hold on eternal life, you must carry the loose of some
things. And let me tell you some things we are being saved from.
We're being saved. Right now, we're being saved.
And I'll tell you something. Right now, I want to be saved.
I want to be saved. I want to be saved. I want God
to save me. I want salvation. I want God
to save me every day. Because I need it every day.
And we're being saved from sin's power? Oh! Sin has such a power. We'll say,
God help me, I won't do that again, and then boom. We're being
saved from sin's pleasure. We're being saved from the world.
God just keeps bringing us and bringing us and bringing us out
of the world. We're being saved from self. Oh, self. God saved us from self. Oh, we
got so much self. Save us from self. Save us from
our error. All the errors. God save us from
our ignorance. Save us from all our preconceived
ideas. Save us from our strength. Save us from our strength. Save
us from our self-trust. Save us from our self-confidence
and our confidence in the flesh. That's why David said, Save me
and I shall be saved. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. Purge me and I shall be like
hyssop. And how did God save us now?
How does He save us now? By the word, by this blessed
gospel, by the word of God that we preach constantly and continually
in the hands of the Holy Spirit. David said, wherewith shall a
young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto to according
to your word. He said in another place, I have
hidden thy word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
And he asked the question in Psalm 19, he asked this question,
who can understand these errors? Who can understand these errors? Do you ever have any idea how
many times you sin in a day? Anybody want to take a guess?
You know, he says, well, I ain't done bad. Anytime that you know to do good
or you don't do it, the scripture says it's simple. Do you know
to do something good and didn't do it? That's what I say. We need saving. We need saving. That's what I'm talking about.
That's why I said, who can understand these errors? And that's why he says, cleanse
thou me from my secret faults. things that nobody knows about.
God, you know. And not only does He save us
from by His Word and in the hands of the Holy Spirit, but He chastises
us. You know, what father has a son
that he don't chasten? What father has a son that chastens
him and doesn't... You know, you can't let children... If you love them, you instruct
them. If you love them, you teach them.
If you love them, you know how to say no. If you don't love
them, let them go. If you don't love them, let them
stand and touch you to your face. If you don't love them, let them
kick you in the shins. If you don't love them, let them
go out in public and bend and bash my teeth. But if you love
them, you say no! And you mean no. If you love
them, you grab them up and you smack that little... You get their attention. And that's the way God's with
us. He don't let us just run willy-nilly. He chastens us.
And the way He chastens us, sometimes He'll take away the presence
of the Spirit. He'll take away the joy of our salvation. Or
He'll make us lay awake all night. He'll do something to get our
attention. And I tell you what, and then
He saves us by intercession for us. When Simon Peter was fixing,
our Lord Jesus said, Satan has sought to sift you as wheat.
But listen to him. He intercedes for them. He said,
I pray for thee. I pray for thee. And that's how
we save Christ praying for us. How many times has He kept us
back? Satan's sifting us like wheat,
but Christ said, I prayed for you. And we don't know it, but
He knows it. He knows it. Oh my. Now let me tell you something,
beloved. You all know this well as I do. We've all had or do
have grave clothes. When Lazarus was brought out
of the tomb, he had life. But you know what he had? He
had old grave clothes. He was as alive as he was ever going
to be. But he had old grave clothes. Clothes that showed that he had
been in the grave. That he had been dead. And the
first thing they take off of him is that thing that went over
his face so he could see. Then they start taking them grave
clothes off of it. And we all of us have or do have
grave clothes, just like us. No body comes into the kingdom
of God full born. We come into the kingdom of God
as babies. We come into the kingdom of God
as newborn babies. And a baby can't eat strong meat.
A baby has to have milk. A baby has to be nourished. A
baby has to be cared for. A baby has to be washed out for.
You can't expect too much out of a baby. And then you grow
up from being a baby, that's why he said his newborn baby
desires the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby.
And then you grow up and you become children. And you start
growing up and you become children. You get 5, you get 10, you get
12, you get 16. You grow up and you become children.
Then you become young men. And then you grow on up and you
become a father. You become like a father. You
have some sense. You watch out for those newborn
babies. And oh, what some of the grave clothes we've had.
We've had the grave clothes of ignorance. We had the grave clothes
of ignorance as to who God is. His word, how ignorant we was
of His word in ourselves. And I'll tell you what, this
is a grave clothes that some people had a hard time getting
rid of. Sentiment. Sentimentality. They, you know,
when they first start hearing the gospel and God began to deal
with them, this time they're more grave close. Well, when
I say, what about my brother? What about my mommy? Oh boy, I'm going to go do this
for old time's sake. Listen, brother and mommy don't
make any difference. What about you? We cannot undo
what somebody, what somebody, after life leaves this body,
we can't undo where they're going and what's going to happen. We
can't undo that. But that's what people say, if
what you're saying is so, and I don't know how many times I've
had people say this to me, and some of you have questioned this
yourself. If what you're saying is so, then my mother didn't
believe that, so what is that saying about my mother, and my
brother didn't believe that, my daddy didn't, what does that
say? I ain't saying nothing about them, all I'm saying is this
is what the gospel says. And you can come to whatever
conclusion you want to. Is that not right? And I tell you what,
tradition? Oh, this may be the very last
to come off, these old traditions that we have. And I tell you,
if you start hearing the gospel, start hearing the truth, and
you'll say, that's against everything I've heard all my life. I've
never heard anything like that all my life. Oh, they call it the Old Fashioned.
They got Old Fashioned Way Baptist Church up here in town. They
call it the Old Fashioned Baptist Church. Wonder what Old Fashioned
is. Mary'll put on some clothes and
sometimes she says, this make me look too old. Is this too
Old Fashioned? Do you all ever get something
out of your closet and say, Boy, that's so Old Fashioned. I don't
believe I'll wear that. Now that's what Old Fashioned is. There
ain't no such thing as Old Fashioned religion. No, no, they've been
but one religion and it's always, it's exactly like God always
is the same. Never has changed. And oh beloved,
they call the old me right way. And oh Paul left off his tradition
and by God's blessed grace we must be saved from our way to
his way. This is what I'm going to preach
on Wednesday night. Lord, help me take heed to my ways. Psalm 39, that's what I'm going
to do. And oh, we all had morality. We wanted to preserve our dignity
at the expense of God's glory. But we found out we wasn't saved,
we wouldn't become lost by doing anything. And we're not saved
by doing anything. Do you do anything to become
lost? We're not saved by anything that we do. And our works, oh
my, our works are hard to give up. Hard to give up. And let
me tell you, beloved, not only are we saved, from some things,
but we're being saved to some things right now. We're being
saved to the glory of God. You go through Ephesians 1 and
in three, four times it says there, to the praise of the glory
of His grace, to the praise of the glory of His grace, to the
praise of the glory of His grace. God is going to get such glory,
and He does get glory to us in saving us, and God is going to
get glory to Himself by His Son in our salvation. And I tell
you, He brings us to the place where we want Him to have all
the glory. We don't want no glory. Not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name be glory. To God be the glory, great things
He hath done. I heard a story, and you probably
all probably heard this story, of John Jasper. He is an old
black preacher. Years and years and years ago,
you can read about him, you can find his biography and things
that he done. John Jasper was his name. And
one time this fellow asked him, he said, Brother Jasper? He said, you sure you're going to
heaven? You sure you're saved? He said, yes I am. He said, how
do you know? He said, God promised me. He said, I've trusted Christ
and God promised me. Well, what if you get there and
you find out that you're not? He said, well, if I get there
and find out I'm not and they won't let me in, God's got more
to lose than I have. He said, all I'll lose is my
salvation and my soul. God will lose all of His glory
because He didn't keep His promise. And God ain't gonna give up His
glory. You know, He saved us to His glory and He's going to
take us to glory by His grace. Ain't that right? And oh, let
me tell you something else we've been saved to, to a greater conformity
to our Lord Jesus Christ. No, wait a second. This is the
mark of the high calling we're present to, to be conformed to
the image of Christ. This is predestination. Oh my! One of these days God is going
to take everything that's not like Christ off of us and we're
going to wake up one of these days and we're going to be like
Samson. We're going to wake up and we're going to have the strength
and the grace and the power of Christ in us and we're going
to enjoy Him forever and ever and be just like Him. We won't
look like Him but we'll have the same body. We'll have the
same nature. We'll be without sin. We'll be
perfect. We'll have a body that you can
taste, you can eat with, and you'll enjoy it, and you'll enjoy
Christ, and we'll be conformed to His image one of these days.
Oh my! And we're being saved to a greater
willingness for His will to be done. Don't you, ain't you got
a greater willingness for Christ's will to be done now than you
ever have? And let me tell you, hurry on. He saved us to a greater
understanding and appreciation for the grace of God. That's
what we're being saved to. A greater understanding and appreciation
of the grace of God. Ain't you thankful? You know
why you're here tonight? Because you want to hear the
gospel. You want to hear the grace of God. You want to hear
about Christ. And you know why? Because God's bringing you a
greater understanding of it and a greater appreciation for the
grace of God. You're like Paul, you said, by
the grace of God, I am what I am. We appreciate it for its saving,
keeping, upholding power. And that is sufficient. And look
what else it tells us here now. In all, He gives us a greater
love. We're being saved to a greater love for an understanding of
the gospel, of the righteousness of Christ and His precious blood
that cleanses us from our sins. And then let me look here in
Romans chapter 8, and we shall be saved. This is my last part.
We shall be saved. This is the fourth thing. Have
been saved from the foundation of the world. Have been saved
in time by hearing the gospel. Are being saved from some things
to some things. And then we shall be saved. One
of these days we're going to be plumb saved. Romans 8, 18. For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. Oh, we're going through some
suffering, you know, but as Paul says, don't even mention it.
Don't even mention your sufferings compared to the glory that God's
going to reveal in you. Going to reveal in you. Oh my,
bless his name, and that's why, and look with me at 2 Timothy,
you know, we go, this thing of salvation, oh my, of being saved,
we shall be saved. You know our Lord Jesus Christ,
He told us in John 7, He said, you know, my time is not yet. My time to go to the cross is
not yet. My time to die is not yet. My time to suffer is not
yet. But he says your time is always ready. Your time is always,
you can go any time. Whether you are prepared, he
was going to that, he had a time to do it. He said but your time
is always ready, always present. And look what it says here in
2 Timothy chapter 4 in verse He said, I fought a good fight.
And boy it is a fight sometimes, ain't it? You feel like you're
in a war sometimes, you feel like you're in a great fight.
In fact, it's a fight in your own heart, in your own mind,
your own soul. I fought a good fight. I finished my course.
I finished my course. God laid you out a course. I
run and I say, well, I'm going to go this course. I'm going
to go down this way and I'm going to go that way and I'm going
to go around this way and I'm going to come back here. And I finished my course.
He says, God's got us a course laid out. And he said, and I
finished my course. And oh, bless this. Listen, I
kept the faith. But that faith he's talking about,
it's not his personal faith, but the things that God taught
him. The things that he taught me and I believe, he said, I've
kept that. henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, and this is how he describes him, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day. And not just to me, but
unto all them also, that love, love is appearing. You ever seen
anybody come and you just tickled to death to see them? You know, you just, oh, I just
love to see so and so. And they show up. Well, that's
the way it is with Christ. We just love His appearing. Loving for Him to show up. And
He'll come to get us one by one. One by one by one by one by one. I went through the pictures the
other day in there. I counted eleven people. There's no longer
with us. In just one picture frame in
there, we had all the people. And there's more than that, but
I just kind of live it in one picture frame. They used to go
here, been here, lay here for you, and they're gone. God come
and get us one by one by one by one by one by one by one.
But one day, He's going to come and take us, all of us at the
same time. Huh? And all of us which are,
you know, Paul told the Thessalonians, he said, we're not like those
who have no hope. We're not like them. But we believe that Jesus Christ
who raised with the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with
a shout, with the voice of an archangel. Then we which are
alive and remain shall be caught up in the air and forever be
with the Lord. Paul said, I am in a strait between
the two, departing to be with Christ or to stay far better. And we shall all be changed no
matter where we are when we call home. Paul says, you know, flesh
and blood ain't going to inherit the kingdom of God. He said, this mortal's got to
put on immortality, this corruption's got to put on corruption, and
I show you a mystery, we shall all be changed in a moment in
the twinkling of an eye. Just like that. We're going to
be with Christ. You know, in Bunyan's progress,
Christian and hopeful, after they killed faithful in Vanity Fair, Christian and hopeful
they got, it says so many characters in there but Christian and hopeful
they got to the river crossing they saw Emmanuel's land afar
off and they got to the crossing of the river and they got there
to get ready to go over to Emmanuel's land and there was several people
there, there's old Mr. Redhawk he'd been all his life
going on a crutch when he got to the river he threw his crutch
away There's old Miss Diffident, she was shy and bashful, didn't
have much to say. She got confidence. And there's
Miss Much Afraid. She just lost her fear when she
got to the river. And there's Mr. Fury. They all
went across the river and they went across it very easily. But
when Christian got in the water, and he started to cross the river,
The water started pulling him and tugging him, and he said,
oh, the water is going to swallow me up. And he got the flounder,
and he got the flounder, and then he started doing his feet
like that, and he said, oh, here's a rock, here's a rock. And he
went across the river on that rock, and beloved, And he says,
then the crossing was easy. We don't know what will happen.
And that's why I saw the Lord said, lift up your heads, your
redemption draws nigh. Oh, we're coming to the time
no more struggles of heart, we shall be saved. No more fears,
no more infirmities, no more discouragement, no more darkness,
no more goodbyes, no more goodbyes. And we'll be in the glorious
presence of Him we've longed to see, and in His presence nothing
but joy and life and perfection and sinlessness forever. Girls
sing this song. What a day that will 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 will
be. You all know that? Let's all
sing it together. What a day that would be, when
my Jesus I shall see, when to look upon His face, the one who
saved me by His grace. God's hand, and leads me to the
promised land. What a day, oh, it's a day that
will be.