Psalm 37. You know it said there, where
I read this morning, that salvation, verse 8 of Psalm 3, said, Salvation
belongeth unto the Lord. Thy blessing is upon thy people.
And when something is yours and belongs to you, You can do with
it whatever you want to do. Give it to who you want to give
it to, withhold it from who you want to. And that's what God does with
His salvation. It belongs to Him. He gives it
to whom He will, and withholds it from whom He will. And I know
that most folks don't believe that, but that don't change the
truth. Because somebody don't believe
it, don't make it not so. But let's read here in Psalm
37, starting in verse 37. Mark the perfect man. Behold
the upright. For the end of that man is peace.
Peace. Peace forever. Peace with God. Peace to dwell in eternity with
the Lord Jesus Christ. But the transgressions shall
be destroyed together. The end of the wicked shall be
cut off. The end of the righteous man, the upright man, is peace. The wicked's going to be cut
off. But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. Salvation
belongs unto God. He is their strength in the time
of trouble. And the Lord shall help them
and deliver them. That word delivers, the same
word as salvation. He shall deliver them from the
wicked. and save them because they trust in Him. Salvation
and being saved. Those of us who know the Lord
Jesus Christ, we love and rejoice in that word salvation. Just
love that word salvation. Find great comfort and strength
in that word salvation. You know, the whole life of a
believer is a life of salvation. The whole of it. He's saved in
the Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all blessings flow. You know,
all spiritual blessings are given to us in Christ Jesus. In the
heavenlies, all spirit, everything we need has been given to us
in Christ. Now, the believer's whole life
is a life of salvation. He is being saved from the moment
of his election. Before the world ever began,
that's when our salvation started. That's right. You know that's
what the scriptures teach. Chosen unto salvation. Election's
not salvation, but that's where our salvation starts at. God
chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. From
His being saved, from the moment of His election, unto the moment
of His being begotten by the gospel. The gospel comes and
it becomes the power of God unto salvation to Him. It becomes
the gospel of His salvation. And not only that, but he is
always being saved from the moment he believes the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he trusts the Lord Jesus Christ. Until the day that he
closes his eyes in death, his whole life is his life of salvation
from eternity to eternity. And it's manifested in time.
His election is manifested when he believes the gospel. His faith
in Christ is manifested when he lives to the glory of God.
And when he closes his eyes, great shall be the end of that
man, his peace. And that's why we love, love
and rejoice in that word salvation. Salvation means that we're saved
from the penalty of sin. Sin is a horrible thing. God,
you know, I know you're going to, I'm going to try to say this
in the right way, because the scripture says, you know, blessed
is the man who God forgives. We have forgiveness of sins in
Christ. But before sin can be forgiven, it has to be paid for. And the penalty of sin is death.
And we've been saved from the penalty of sin and we'll never
have to go under the penalty of sin ever again because Christ
put away sin once in the end of the world by the sacrifice
of himself. Now God will never ever charge
me with sin again. They said, right, blessed is
the man to whom the Lord is purest, not iniquity. And oh, beloved,
not only that, but we're saved from the punishment of sin. I
have no, there's no danger, none whatsoever. You know, people,
people think that whenever they do wrong in this world, if they're
a Christian, that God's going to get even with them for whatever
they do wrong. And so they're always trying
to do right, and when they mess up and make a mistake or fall
or sin, then they always feel guilty and always trying to make
up for it, because they don't want to be punished. They'll
say, God's punishing me for my sin. We can't punish this for
our sin. He's done punished Christ. Christ bore the curse for us,
and we're no longer under the curse. And then, beloved, salvation
means being saved from the very power of sin. Sin's dominion
has been broken over the believer. We used to love sin, drink it
like it was water, and sin had dominion over us. But we're no
longer under the dominion of sin. You know why? Because we're
under grace. Whenever you go under law, whenever
you go back to works, you come under the dominion of sin. But
grace sets you free from law. Grace sets you free from sin.
Grace sets you free from works. It enables you to rest in Christ.
So we're no longer under the dominion of sin. I'm not trying
to live right in order to get something from God. My faith
works by love. Does your faith work by love? We're saved from the power of
sin. Oh, like the old hymn writer said, be of sin the double cure,
save from wrath. Oh, be of sin the double cure,
save from the wrath of God and the power of sin. And beloved,
I tell you, this salvation means also not from the penalty of
punishment and power of sin, but salvation from the love of
sin. Love of sin. There are people
who love to sin. They enjoy sinning. They have
pleasure in sin, and there is pleasure in sin for a season.
They enjoy it. They delight in it. They rejoice
in it. They wag in it. What ought to
be their shame? They glory in it. They love it. But God took the taste, the love
of sin, away from us. Saved us from it. To most people,
salvation is nothing but an insurance policy that they cash in at the
pearly gates. And Simon Peter asks them when
they get there, Peter says, have you got your insurance policy?
Yes! Signed by my decision, signed by my overcost, signed by my
free will, signed by my dedication, signed by my words, signed by
my sincerity. Yes! Salvation is born in insurance
policy. Huh? Let me tell you this. Let
me give you a few things about salvation. Salvation belongs
to the Lord. Salvation of the righteous. You
know what? The very heart, the very heart
and soul of sound doctrine, in this blessed book, sound doctrine,
is the salvation is of the Lord. The salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. You know, a lot of folks are
afraid to preach the glorious gospel of free grace. And you
know we say free grace because most people, everybody believes
in grace. Free willers believe in grace.
Pentecostals believe in grace. Methodists believe in grace.
Holiness people believe in grace. Everybody says they believe in
grace, but they don't believe in free grace. But what their
grace is, is that when God gives you grace, then you cooperate
with that grace, then you'll be saved. That if you repent,
believe, then God gives you grace, and then you're enabled to be
saved. But free grace is that you have no part, parcel, or
lot in your salvation. Grace is free. You don't work
for it, you don't earn it, and you certainly don't deserve it.
It belongs to God. We call it free and sovereign
grace. You see, they're afraid to preach
the glorious gospel of free grace because they're afraid they'll
be misunderstood. So what they do is they bring
in man just a little, just a little, but a little leaven let us a
whole lot. You see, religion is selfish. It's just for man. They just want to meet the needs
of a man. They're not interested in glorifying
God. And salvation by most men has
to do with what you do to get God to do something for you.
But they're afraid to preach it. People say this to us all
the time. If I believe what you did and preach what you did,
that'll give people a license to sin. Shall we continue to sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. Listen, let me tell
you something. You may need a license to drive.
You may need a license to have a business. But you certainly
don't need a license. You don't need a license to sin.
People do that without a license. I've never had anybody, oh who
did? The gospel's never, it's the
only thing that's going to save a man from sin. It's the power
of God unto salvation. People don't need a license to
sin. They're going to do it anyway. Ain't that right? And oh, they're
afraid they'll be misunderstood and people will get the impression
that salvation's not for everyone. They want to make sure that everybody
understands that salvation's for everybody. Well, it's not
for everybody. It's not for everybody. Do you
know who it's for? For people that have need. Who
needs Jesus Christ? Who needs being saved? It's for
sinners. Find me a sinner and I'll show
you a man who trusts in Christ. It's for lost people. It's for
people without power. It's for people without ability.
It's for the needy. Those who had need of healing
came to Christ. When everybody who came to Christ,
they had something wrong with them. And everybody who Christ
does something for, there was something wrong with them. And
what this day is, beloved, you can't find anybody that there's
nothing wrong with them. They don't need Christ if they've
got their own righteousness. They don't need salvation if
they're not sinners. They don't need healing because
they're not sick. And oh, beloved, that's why our
Lord Jesus couldn't cry on that last day, that great day of the
Feast, and any man's thirsty! If you're thirsty, you'll come.
If you're hungry, you'll come. And I'll tell you, salvation's
not for everybody. It's not. So, it's for beggars. You know what the scripture said
over in 1 Samuel, it said, God took us beggars off the downhill. A beggar. Nobody wants to be
a beggar. I've seen lots of beggars. You
go to Nashville, they're sitting on the sides of walks. You've
got a quarter. Go down to Mexico, there's people
blind and sitting there old, trembling up, people with a bucket,
you know, where people are drawing their patience on them. Beggars.
Nobody wants to be a beggar. Nobody wants to go stand on the
street corner and cross for a bag. But if you're going to be lifted
off the dunghill, and that's where we're at. This whole world's
nothing but a dunghill. Everybody knows what a dunghill
is, don't you? You clean your barns out and
you take it out and you put it in a big pile. That's what we
are, beggars. And we're on a dunghill. And
God has to reach and get us off that dunghill, and once you ever
are a beggar, you'll be a beggar the rest of your life. But the
only difference is, you won't be on the dunghill anymore. Dunghill
anymore. Will you? You won't be on the dunghill
anymore. Alright. Let me show you this over in
Galatians. Look with me in Galatians chapter 1, just a moment. Galatians
chapter 1. You know, the very heart of self-doctrine
is the salvations of the Lord. Anything short of that's not
self-doctrine. Fellas told me last night that a woman came to pick up some
stuff from him and told him, said, well, our granddaughters,
great-granddaughters, getting baptized. I said, yeah, she's
five years old. And of course, he didn't think
as fast as I thought, you know. I said, you know, why didn't
you ask her? She said, if they're old enough to be baptized and
to be saved, they're old enough to be lost and go to hell. So you think somebody's lost
at five years old? You think God puts five-year-olds
in hell? But they're getting them saved
at five years old. That's not sound doctrine. And all that'll do is just, you
know, when she gets 25 years old, she'll say, I was baptized
when I was five. Preacher come talk to her about her soul, I
was baptized when I was five. I was took in to church when
I was five. I got converted when I was five. And she'll hold on
to that and she'll face God. I sang when I was five. She'll
hold on to that all her life. God don't have mercy on her.
Ain't that right? And that's like you. You'll hold on to whatever
you have hope in until God reaches and breaks your hands and takes
it away from you. Ain't that right? That's what
He'll do to you. I'll tell you what, God's got to come where
you are and take away from you what you're trusting in or you'll
ride it and we'll all take it right with us into eternity without
God, without Christ. Look here in Galatians 1. You
see, if we fear men, we won't be the servants of Christ. So
we must preach the salvations of the Lord. Paul says, for do
I now persuade men or God? Now we certainly are not persuading
God. What are we going to persuade God to do? God's will, He works
all things out to the counsel of His own will. His will is
decreed. His will is determined. He has
declared the end from the beginning. So what are we going to persuade
God to do? Huh? So what we're doing is we're
persuading men. Persuading men to what? To come
to Christ. Persuading men of their awful
state before God. Persuading men of their utter
depravity. Persuading men of their utter
inability. Or do I seek to please men? Do
I seek to please men? Tell them, oh yes, God loves
you. Oh yes, Jesus died for you. Oh yes, if you'll just do the
best you can, and then quit your anger, and get rid of your pride,
and get all that, you know. If I can't please men, though,
if I tried to please men, I wouldn't even be the servant of Christ.
So that's what the gospel is. If you try to please men, you
ain't going to be a servant of Christ. All right, let me tell
you this. Oh, you see, a heart of sound
doctrine is salvations of the Lord. You know, with salvation
to the Lord, let me give you a few things about it. It's of
the Lord and His planning. Of His planning. No one could
have planned salvation to save sinners like us, but God. And
you know, God had a Savior before that Adam ever sinned in the
garden. Christ stood as the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. Now let's look in Romans 8 just a moment. We will
read these things and we quote them all the time, but look with
me here. It's on the Lord in His planning.
There was a covenant between God and Christ before the world
ever began. Now the God of peace who brought
again from the dead that great shepherd of the sheep through
the blood of the everlasting covenant. Turn to Romans 8 and
verse 30. You see, wisdom and love chose
the persons included in this salvation. And it was given to
us in Christ before the world ever began. Now this is what
God does. This shows us the salvations
of the Lord. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, for whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate. What does that word foreknow
mean? This know what she's going to do, what she's going to be,
what she's going to think, when you would believe? No. For know
means he foreknew who you was. He foreloved you. That word know
is like a man knowing his wife on the marriage night. That's
the same word what it means. Confirmation of a marriage. Confirmation
of a union. An intimate acquaintance with.
And for whom he did foreknow, them he also did predestinate.
to be conformed to the image of his Son, that Christ might
be the firstborn among many brethren. Now watch this, moreover whom
he did predestinate. Huh? He done this predestinate. When did he predestinate us?
Before the world ever began. As many as were ordained to eternal
life believe. And he planned this salvation.
If he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world,
that means he had to plan this thing. And you know, I don't
know how else to say it, God don't plan things. I mean, He
really don't. I mean, it's just that. But for us to understand
it, we've got to think of planning. We don't do anything without
planning. And for us to understand it, God declared the end from
the beginning, and we're in that middle there. Now watch this. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
in verse 30, of him he also called. That's where we have begun, by
the gospel. And whom he called, then he also justified. That's
what Christ did for us on the cross. And whom he justified,
this is what's going to be the end of it, the end of the righteous's
peace. He's going to glorify it. That's in the past. It's
in the past tense. And it was in the past tense
for me, before I was ever born. before I ever believed it was
in the past tense. And when I believed, it was still
in the past tense. Why is it in the past tense? Because God planned it. And everything
He does is in the past tense because He's not doing anything
in the future. The future is already in the
end for Him. The end's already there. We just
ain't got there yet. He's already there. Why shall
we have to look like this? Why shall we have to fade into
these things if God be for us? Who can be against us? And all
the rest of it, not only is it of the Lord and His planning,
but it's of the Lord and His providing. Now, it's one thing
to be able to plan something. It's another thing to be able
to carry the plan out. Has He got the power to carry it out?
So if He plans something, then He's got to provide it, and He
plans salvation. before the foundation of the
world. Christ the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Then how in the world are we going to get this salvation?
It's there in eternity. Christ the Lamb slain. It's in
the predestinated purpose of God. Well, how are we going to
get it? How are we going to get it? Christ was given. God provided His own Son. He gave His Son. You see, the
price of our redemption was set by God Himself. was the blood
of his own son. It's like Abraham when he started
up on the mountain with Isaac. Isaac said, Father, we've got
the wood, we've got the fire, we've got the knife, but where
is the lamb? Where is the lamb? Abraham said, My son God will
provide himself a lamb. You see, we were born sinners.
That's why Christ came into this world. That's why He stood as
a Lamb's slave. Because we were sinners, though we were chosen
of God. and elected of God, and saved
by the predetermined purpose of God. Beloved, still yet we
were sinners, and because we were sinners, this salvation,
our sin had to be paid for. The dead had to be eradicated.
We had to be redeemed from our iniquity. Well, God gave us the
redemption price, the blood of His own Son. Huh? Oh, that's why John said, The Lamb of God. There have been
lambs all the way from Abel. 250 Passover lambs have not yet
come out of Egypt. Passover, every morning there
was a lamb. Every evening there was a lamb.
Every year there was a new Passover lamb. But there was one lamb. that John saw and said, that's
the Lamb of God, that's the one that's going to take away sin
forever. Oh, that one's disappointed the
best. Look in Isaiah 53. Look with
me in Isaiah 53. Oh, bless His holy name. Isaiah
53 and verse 10. Oh, the Lord provided this salvation. The Lord provided it. We couldn't
have provided the salvation for ourselves. How would we have
done it? How would we have planned it?
How would we have provided it? Look what it says here in Isaiah
53.10. Talking about the Lord providing
it. Planned it and provided it. Yet
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. It pleased Jehovah to bruise
his son. He has put him to grief. God put him to grief. When you
shall make his soul an offering for sin, when God makes his soul
an offering for sin. What's this? He, God, shall see
his seed. His seed is Christ, and his seed
in Christ. He shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. Now, what's
this? He shall see of the travail, the pain, the agony of his soul,
and shall be satisfied. Who's satisfied? God's satisfied.
Not by our burdens, not by our trials, not by heartaches, not
by our sins, not by our works, but saw the burden, the pain,
the agony of His soul. My God, my God, why hast Thou
forsaken me? He saw the travail of His soul.
He said, I'm satisfied. I don't want any more. And by
His knowledge, shall my righteous servant, by him giving us knowledge
of himself, and how he saves sinners, he justifies many, for
he what shall bear their iniquities." So God provided this. It says
that the Lord did this. The Lord did this. It tells us
most about the salvation of the Lord. Not only is it of the Lord
in His planning and providing, but it's of the Lord in His supplying. It's of the Lord in His supplying.
Christ, God planned it, Christ came. How am I going to have
Christ? How's he going to be mine? How's
that blood going to wash my sins away? Huh? How am I going to
know, have this life that Christ provided? Huh? Well, God's got
to give life to a soul. You've got to believe Him. We're
dead. How are we going to live? God saw us polluted in our blood.
Yea, when He passed by, He sped His skirt over us. Yea, I say
unto thee, live! Yea, I say unto thee, live! And
what happened? They lived. Oh, beloved. When God took Ezekiel out, took
him on that mountainside and said, see all these dry bones?
Oh, I see them. He said, son of man, can they
live? Oh, Lord, you know. You know. And he said, speak to them. That's
what the preaching does. Speak to them. begotten through
the Word, born again by the gospel. The gospel is the power of God.
And He says, sell to them to live. And they lived. Speak to
the wind, and the wind came and breathed into their souls. And
they stood up. A great army, an army that no
man could number. And, O beloved, the need of mercy
doesn't come from nature. It doesn't come from nature.
It comes from the work of grace. If you ever, ever cry out for
mercy, it's because God does something in your heart. You
may want to be saved from some temporary trouble. You may want
to be saved from some kind of a pain. But that need of mercy, that
need of mercy does not come from your nature. It comes from a
work of grace in a man's heart. Beloved, if God had not sought
us, we would have never sought Him. Is that not right? I sought a God, but I didn't
seek the God. You know, He said, I have other
sheep which are not of this fold, them also I have. What? Must. Must bring. He seeks his sheep, and when
he seeks them, what does he find? He finds them. He leaves ninety-nine and goes
and finds that one that's lost. And if you want his lost sheep,
mark her down, he's going to come find you. When we cry out
to him, It's because He first called
on us. When we call on Him, it's because He first called on us.
We love Him because He first loves us. He applies His salvation. He comes, and I like the way
old Barnard says it, He invades your little world. He comes crashing
in in your little world. He comes crashing in to your
will. He comes crashing in to your mind. He invades. People
always say, You're invading my space! Don't get too close to
me, you're getting in my space! Listen, this is God's space,
and if He's going to get in your space, you better hope He gets
in your space, and breaks it in good little space, and does
something for you only He can do. Ain't that right? Ain't you
grateful it's that way? Oh, my. He'd come, He'd take
all the space from me He wants. He's had a chance. It says, and
oh, I hope and pray that he'll come in and break into your space,
break into your will, break into your mind, invade you. Talking about, you know, in his
enemy territory he invades. And guess what? He conquers it
and he sets the flag. He says Christ is that flag.
Christ is the incident. When He sets His flag, you know
what? You wave that banner high for
me and all. Christ my righteousness. Christ my hope. Christ my life.
Christ my peace. He is the incident that we raise
up. Not only is the salvation of the Lord in His planning,
in His supplying, and in His providing, but it's of the Lord
in His carrying over. It's got to be carried over.
Where God makes His salvation and works His salvation. There's
life. Where God comes and worships,
there's life from the dead, and where there's life, there's grace.
Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's
God which worketh in you both to will and to do according to
His will. And so you see, beloved, when
God carries it on, where there's life, there's growth. And where
God comes, there's growth, and there's a carrying it on. He
don't just save us and just leave us alone. Let us do the best we can. Let
us work out this son. No, no, no, no. He has to carry
it on. He's got to cause us to grow.
We're alive after he's grown. He's like a baby when he's born.
He's got everything he needs as an adult. Ten fingers and
toes and eyes and ears and everything. But the only thing is they're
not grown and they begin to grow. And that's the way it is when
God saves us by grace. We have everything we need as
a spiritual being, then we start growing. And where God gives
us life, there's growth that grows in grace. What is it to grow in grace?
What is it to grow in grace by God carrying on? Well, I'll tell
you what it's not. It's not growing more holy. You
don't get any holier. Holiness is a state, an absolute
state or condition. You're not more holy at one time
than another. I know people preach progressive
sanctification, that you get better, you get more holy, you
get more sanctified as you get older. That's not my experience. That's not mine. No, if you're
growing in grace, it's not growing more holy. Holiness is an absolute
state or condition. Is God more holy at one time
than He is at another? And if we're in Christ and we're
completely in Christ, we're perfect in Christ, He in him dwells the
fulness of the Godhead body, and if you're in Christ, you're
complete and you're perfect. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified, not being sanctified, are right now, as
it is, sanctified. Huh? And oh, beloved, and I'll
tell you what, it's not being more holy. A growth in grace
is an awareness of our need of grace. Oh, it's an awareness. When you grow in grace, you become
more acutely conscious of how much you need grace, how much
you've got to have grace, and that you can't do anything apart
from grace. Huh? Paul says, we're of the
circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ
Jesus, and have absolutely utterly no competence in this flesh before
God. Huh? And, Lord, growth in grace
is an assurance that all grace is from God, that what He gave
us, He'll continue to give us. He's the God of all grace. We
didn't deserve it, we didn't desire it, and God gave us this
grace in Christ before the world ever began. We've got to have
it. Got to hear it. Got to cry for it. Desire it. Never known of God for anything
but grace and mercy. to help us in our time of need.
Never come to God with anything in our hands for nothing. Oh,
growth in grace is a growing dependency and confidence in
His grace, His grace for every trial He calls us through, for
every affection He sends us in, every temptation that comes our
way, every persecution that comes our way. I mean, beloved, I'm
convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that His grace is sufficient
for whatever happens in this world. And neither here or anybody
else who is one of His. His strength is made perfect
when you ain't got none. And I have seen that happen time
and time and time again. I remember a preacher one time
in one of our conferences here. Came to me and he'd had a rough,
rough, rough day. And he was supposed to preach
and he says, Don, he says, I just, I don't know if I can, you know,
it's just, oh, I said, listen. I said, you go on out and you
preach. God said his grace is sufficient and he'll sustain
you and he'll be every need you've got when you're in that poor
place. And he was reluctant. He said, no, get somebody. And
I said, no, go on. And he did, he got to all the
motions. But he was so, he didn't have
no strength. When you have no strength. When Henry Mahan preached
his daughter's funeral, his strength was made perfect right there.
God's strength, Christ's strength was made perfect in his, he gave
him grace. That's what I'm talking about.
We're absolutely confident of that. You got an affliction?
You're afflicted with a disease? You're afflicted with something?
His grace is sufficient to carry you through that. You're tempted
with something? His grace will get you through that. Oh my,
that's no wonder Paul said, this is the grace wherein we stand. Stand in this grace. A growth
in grace is in our willingness and proneness to be gracious
to others. Because we've been shown grace.
Some of our dear ladies, when somebody's sick, they've been
here for a while somewhere, they've been going to visit them and
taking them food, spending a few hours with them. I can't tell
you how that blesses my heart. What a blessing. Do you know
why they're gracious like this? They've been shown grace. And then we're sustained in salvation
wholly and completely by the Lord. Sustained in it completely
and entirely by the Lord. You know, could we sustain ourselves
in salvation? You know, kept by the power of
God through faith. Now listen to what I'm going
to tell you right here. Now listen to what I'm going to tell you.
A man can sin by his free will. But he cannot put away one sin
by his free will. He can sin by his own will, but
he can't put away sin by his own will. He can fall by himself,
but he can't get up by himself. So how in the world are we going
to be sustained? Huh? Well, look over at John 17 with
me just a moment. How are we going to be sustained?
You know, I can see it by myself that I can't undo it. John 17. Every virtue we possess, every
victory won, every thought of holiness are His and His alone. John 17 and 12, here's what,
we're going to be sustained, we're going to be kept. Our Lord
Jesus praying here to his father, and he says, while I was with
them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou
gavest me, I have kept. Oh, he didn't say, now they kept,
he said, I have kept them. And none of them is lost. Now,
beloved, this is my country. I will not be lost because Christ
will keep me. Kept by the power of God. Now
watch this. But the son of perdition, he
is lost. Who was that? That was Judas. And he was lost
that the scripture might be fulfilled. And we're kept that the scripture
might be fulfilled. We must give him all the glory.
because He's given us all the grace. Brethren, we're bound
to thank God for the grace that's given to you in Christ. And the
last step we take in this world will be as much by the grace
of God as the first one we took. We don't walk, everything we
do is by the grace of God. We preach a great salvation from
a gracious God through His glorious Son, And everything else is not
worth preaching. Not worth the breath that cools
your coffee, huh? Our Lord Jesus said, I give unto
my sheep eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand, my Father which gave
them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them
from my Father's hand. Let me give you four reasons
why believers are and must be saved, and I'm through. Four
quick reasons. You see, salvation is of the
Lord in this plan. That's the very heart of Sanhedrin,
is salvation of the Lord. And it's of the Lord in His providing.
He gave His Son. He gave us the Lamb. It's of
the Lord in His supplying. He applied the salvation. He
brought the salvation to us. We didn't go to Him. It came
to us. And He carries it on. While He
starts, He finishes. And He'll sustain it right to
the very end. He'll carry every one of us all
the way to glory. Now let me tell you why. Why
believers are and must be saved. They must be saved because God
said they would. God said they would. Look in
John 6.14. Just a moment. John 6.14. God
said they would. You know, God said in His Word, Look what he said here in verse
40. This is the will of him that
sent me, that every one which sees the Son, and believeth on
him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am
the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, is not
this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?
How is it then that he said, I came down from heaven? Our
Lord, therefore, Jesus, therefore, instead of them, murmur not among
yourselves. No man can come to me except the Father which hath
sent me to draw him. God's going to draw him. And
I'll raise him up at the last day. And here's the promise of
being saved. God said it'd be saved. It is
written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God,
every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father."
What does he do? He comes to me. I'm going to
read you another, and you'll have to look yourself. Let me
look at it here real quick. I'll read you a verses picture
out of Isaiah 45, 17. But Israel shall be saved in
the Lord. Israel shall be saved in the
Lord with an everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed nor
confounded. Oh, my. God said they'd be saved.
Secondly, the Lord Jesus has given them eternal life. He'd
give it to them. And the gifts and tolls of God
without repentance, what Christ gives you, it's yours. And it's
as sure and as powerful and as mighty as Christ Himself. And they'll be saved because
they're in Christ's hands. Nobody's able to pluck them out
of that. They're in the Father's hands and nobody's able to pluck
them out of that. To preach salvation any other way is to rob Christ
of His power, Christ of His deity, God manifest in the flesh. It's
to rob God of His glory because He don't get all the glory if
He don't give all the grace. And it's to rob saints of their
comfort if you preach salvation any other way. Comfort you, comfort
you, my people. There's no comfort in telling
men what they must do to be saved. There's no comfort in a man's
free will. There's no comfort in a man being
saved by his own works and cooperating with God. There's no comfort. What if you fail to cooperate
with Him? Someday. All of grace, and I
want you to look with me in this and I'm through, in Zechariah.
You go to Malachi, last book in the Old Testament. Zechariah
is the book right before that. Zechariah chapter 4. To preach salvation any other
way than salvation to the Lord, to rob Christ of His power, to rob God of His glory, to rob
the saints of their comfort. All of grace from base to summit,
grace in every course of stone, grace in planting, grace in rearing,
grace in crowning, sovereign grace. Look with me here in Zechariah,
chapter 4, verse 6. Then he answered, Speak unto
me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel,
saying, Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, saith
the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain,
before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become a plain And
he shall bring forth the headstone there with shoutings, crying,
Grace! Grace! unto it." When God finishes
building, you know what the last word's going to be said? Grace!
Grace! Oh, salvation's a reward. It
belongs to God. It's going to belong to God. May He give it to you. Do you
desire to be saved? Do you desire to know Christ?
Do you desire to be free from your sin? Do you desire to be
done with yourself? Do you desire to be done with
your vain, foolish, ignorant traditions and religion? If you do, right where you sit,
right where you sit right now, without moving a muscle, come
to Christ. Trust Him. Leave yourself alone,
by yourself, and come to Him. Flee to Him, rest in Him, embrace
Him. Salvation's the reward. Come
to Him.