Last week we were looking at
this same passage. I wanted to make a few more observations
upon it. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verses
beginning there in verse 13. Let me just go back and let me
start reading from the first of the chapter. But that is where we are going
to look. This is beginning in chapter 2, verse 1. It says, Now we beseech you,
brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our
gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in
mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by
letter, as from us, that the day of Christ is at hand. Let
no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come,
except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be
revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that
he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that
he is God. Remember ye not that when I was
yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know that
withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the
mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now letteth
will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that
wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit
of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. Even him whose coming is after
the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish, because they receive not the love of the truth, that
they might be saved. And for this cause God shall
send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that
they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks
all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the traditions which ye have been taught whether by
word or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort
your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. Now, of course, as we looked
last week about those whom the Scripture says God shall give
them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they
all might be damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure
in unrighteousness. And of course the unrighteousness
in which they had pleasure, not necessarily speaking about the
unrighteousness of the flesh as far as what men would consider
to be the wicked and the lascivious acts of the fulfilling of the
flesh, but the loving of the way of unrighteousness, having
pleasure in unrighteousness, is really anything that the flesh
delights in that is not the truth of God. So that the worship,
or what men call worship, If it's not centered in Christ,
it is unrighteous. I mean, it doesn't make any difference
what men might say, well, we want to worship God. I mean,
it's like if another, let's say, let's just pick on somebody,
let's pick out the Jehovah's Witnesses, and they're on my
mind, and I'm not criticizing them in one way, but I mean either
what they're preaching is the truth or it's a lie. And if it's
the truth, we need to close up shop and go join up with them.
If it's a lie, we need to declare what the lie is and have no part
or parcel in it. And so the reason it's on my
mind, there was a lady that came in the store the other day, and
I forget what the situation was, I think there was something about
the car turned out not to be as serious a problem as she had
or whatever. And she said, well, may Jehovah
be praised. And of course she didn't say
anything else and I didn't say anything else either. But I knew
immediately what her line of thought was. Now there are a
lot of people who say, well, these people are worshipping
God. Are they? I mean, the Lord Jesus
Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes
to the Father but by me. He said to Philip, Philip, if
you have seen me, you have seen the Father. I and the Father
are one. Now, you can be sure of this. that those who would call themselves
Jehovah's Witnesses would not see and understand what the Lord
Jesus Christ said there in the same fashion in which I would
understand it, and hopefully that you would understand it,
that Jesus Christ is God. He is not a god. He is not merely
a son of God who did good deeds and did a very good thing As
they would tell you, they believe Jesus died on the cross for the
sins of men. Now, they don't think that was
good enough for the whole deal, because after all, you've got
to add your righteousness to it in order to earn the favor
of God and all of that kind of stuff. Now, is such worship as
that, can it be said to be righteous? not according to what Scripture
describes as what righteousness is. Righteousness is a love of
the truth. Now, why do they not believe
the truth? Because they have not received
a love of the truth. Now, that's the bottom line fact. How did we receive a love and
truth? Was it something we did or parted our hair right or we
just somehow or other did enough stuff to make God smile on us?
No. By the grace of God. And the
worship of the Lord which is righteous is that which gives
Christ all glory and all praise in all things. And that worship
or so-called worship which does not do that is not righteous. And those that love it love the
way of unrighteousness even though they might be morally good people.
See, that's one of the things that in our society and in our
mind has become to be that people equate morality with righteousness. Morality and righteousness are
not the same thing. Now, it is a true thing that
true morality is a manifestation of righteousness in a measure. But the morality of men is not
righteous. The Scripture says our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags inside of God. And so there are moralities
in which we walk that are among men considered as a righteous
thing. I mean, if a man is honest in
his dealings, we can say, well, that man is a righteous man among
men, is he not? I mean, that is a righteous thing
to be honest, but that is not righteousness. Because there
is only one righteousness with which the Father is pleased.
I mean, the Lord does not take notice because of man's honesty
in his business dealings. That is a good thing. The Lord
takes notice of perfect righteousness, and that can only be found in
one place, and that is in Jesus Christ. And therefore we denounce
and decry all other righteousness as being of no use. And we call
it unrighteous, even though among men we might label it as righteous. It is still unrighteous because
the very best that I have ever done in my life is not righteous
in the sight of God. It cannot be because there is
only one righteousness and it is the perfect righteousness
of Jesus Christ. So we need to understand that
when the Scripture speaks about those that had pleasure in unrighteousness,
it's not necessarily speaking about those who went off doing
wicked things as men would count them wicked. But it is anything
which is contrary to the way of Christ. So that's the thing
that says they might be damned who believe not the truth. Well,
what is the truth? The Lord Jesus Christ plainly
openly and very clearly declared what the truth is. He said, I
am the way, the truth and the life. So anything that man holds
to that he says is true that does not emanate from Christ
is not true. Now, it may be again, just like
we talked about, about righteousness among men. Something can be true.
I mean, if I tell you that the sun came up this morning, that's
true. If I tell you that two plus two
equals four, that's true. And of course, we know that all
such things that have a basis in real truth are true. But the
point I'm making comes from Christ, but what I'm saying is the things
that may be true among men may not be true. I mean, you know, a man may be,
again, he may be a nice man. He may be an upright man. He may even be in his own mind
a worshiper of God. But if he does not worship Jesus
Christ, it cannot be true worship. And so therefore it's not truth. When we talk about the truth,
a lot of times people like to quantify and describe truth in
a doctrinal sense. Well, we've got the truth. But
if you want to know what truth is, just come and listen to us. You need to read this book over
here and you will have the truth. There is not a book on earth
that you can read and get the truth. You can read this book
right here and not get the truth. People read it every day and
do not get the truth. Because the truth is not in the
book. Now this book is true. And it
comes from the one who is the truth. But I'm telling you, you
can have the book and not have the truth. And that's what he's speaking
about here when he said, they receive not a love of the truth. A lot of men love their religious
truth. A lot of people love sovereign
grace. They know what Calvin said. John Gill said and Tobias Crisp
said and all these different people, they know all that stuff,
but that's not knowing the truth. It's not loving the truth. Because
I can beat you down in an argument and I can show you where you're
wrong doctrinally, it doesn't mean I love the truth. Because
a man can be ignorant of all that stuff. He can never even
heard of who Tobias Crisp is. How many people know who Tobias
Crisp is? One, I figured Tim probably did. I don't think any less of you
because you don't know who Tobias Crisp is. I challenge you, you
need to read some of Tobias Crisp and you'll be blessed. I believe
you will. But you don't have to know what
Tobias Crisp said to have the truth. You certainly don't have
to know what I say to have the truth. But one thing that you
cannot be without and have the truth is Jesus Christ. And not
just in an offhanded way. He said, I am the truth. So everything
that does not come back and center itself in Christ is not the truth. You can have some truth about
Christ. and it not be the truth. Because
the truth is Christ. And so that's what it is when
it says they believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Because you see, a lot of the
Jews, they embraced part of the gospel. They liked part of it,
but they didn't like all of it. They liked some of what Christ
did, but they didn't think it was just absolutely enough because
you still needed to be circumcised. And those groups of well-meaning, Jewish-oriented so-called believers
today. And whether they are believers
or not, I have no idea. But they still want to hold on
to legal matters and say you need to do these things. Well,
dear brethren, that is not the truth as it is in Christ. Now,
I'm not making a judgment on their place in standing before
God, because God gives to every man a measure of faith according
to his sees fit. But I'm telling you that the truth as it is in
Christ knows no days. It knows no haircuts. It knows
no dress style. It knows no habit. It's not about that. But it's
about the person. and the work of the One who came
in the behalf of His people. And it is that which those who
love the truth love. You see, we love what Christ
did. We love who Christ is if we love
the truth. And that's what these words say.
They receive not a love of the truth. How can a man love Christ? He can't. He can learn about Him, but He
can't love Him. He can go to church every Sunday,
but He can't love Him. I mean, you know, your mom and
daddy, they can drum stuff into your head, but they can't make
you love it. Only the Lord can do that. And what a glorious
thing it is when He is pleased. to give a man a love of the truth. But he said here, as it goes
on in verse 13, But we are bound to give thanks all the way to
God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. Now last week we talked
about this verse. And speaking about the beginning,
and of course the beginning is the only thing that those who
are born of flesh and blood, those who are creatures of time,
we can only speak of something from the beginning. There has
to be a beginning. That's all that we know. That's
as far back as we can go if you want to use it in terms of chronology. That's it. I mean, that is it.
Bingo! There's a beginning. But you
see, God is not in the beginning. He is the beginning. He is all
things. He is before the beginning, if
you want to use chronological terms. He has no beginning. But the Scripture says, from
the beginning, He hath chosen you to salvation." Now, we know
and understand that that is the purpose of God to save His people. It is not an afterthought, but
it was from the beginning. He hath chosen you to salvation. Now, election and salvation are
not the same thing. We talked a little bit about
that last week. Election is unto salvation, but
you don't need salvation unless something needs to be saved. And the children of God, as they
are chosen in Christ, weren't lost. See, the children of God
were chosen in Christ before they were lost. Now, this is
an important point. It might seem like a doctrinal
issue that It doesn't make any difference, but it does make
a difference. Because you see, God didn't line up the lost human
race and go eeny, meeny, miny, moe, and say, I'll take this
one, I'll take that one, I won't take this one, I won't take that
one. No, He didn't do that. From the beginning, He chose
a people in Christ, and He loved them from the beginning. He has
never had anything but love for those who are in Christ. And from the beginning, the purpose
that He created them for was to manifest the glory of His
grace in their redemption. And so He has chosen us unto
salvation. And in order for us to be in
a place of manifesting the redemption of the Lord, there had to be
in the purpose of God that which brought that to pass. I'm not
going to go into that, but suffice it to say that the Lord loved
His people before they were lost, and they weren't lost by chance. nor in some off-handed way, oh
no, what am I going to do next? But he chose them unto salvation. He determined from the beginning
that he would bring glory to his Son. See, that's what salvation
is about. It's about bringing glory to
Christ. Now this is a very important
point because you see, today that idea is totally thrown out
the window in the preaching that is preached far and wide. Because
the purpose that most people think preaching is done for is
for the saving of souls. Because they believe, well, God
is just out here trying to save as many as He can. In fact, I
had a fellow come in the store the other day talking about that.
You know, the purpose of the Lord was just to save as many
as He could. Well, he's not doing a very good job, is he? If that
was his purpose, he probably couldn't get a job at most places.
The Scripture said there are few that be saved. Well, he's
not doing a very good job if he's trying to save everybody
and he ain't saving but a few. The Scripture indicates that
he's saving everyone that he intends to save. And those that
He intends to save are those whom He gave to Christ before
the foundation of the world. What a glorious thing, dear brethren.
Because when you pause and consider what you are by nature, a sinner
worthy of death, how on earth would you have ever been saved
otherwise? Unless you believe somehow or
other that there is some kind of a spark of good in you that
would cause you, as many tell us, to choose the way of Christ. Now why would a man ever choose
the way of Christ? Why would he do that which is
totally contrary to his natural being? Could he be reasoned into it?
Well, if he can, then he can be reasoned out of it, can't
he? I mean, if that be the case, so what would be the standard
and where would be the place that a man could ever say, I'm saved in Christ? No, he wouldn't
be saved in Christ. He'd be saved in himself. Because
it would all ultimately depend on Him and what He chose to do.
But you see, dear brethren, the Scripture says that it's not
dependent on what men choose to do, but it's dependent on
what God chooses to do. And I'm glad that it is that
way. Because you see, every man that
hungers and thirsts for righteousness in Jesus Christ shall possess
it. The Lord doesn't play games with
people. I mean, he doesn't give a man a love for Christ and a
desire to be saved and snatch his brand from the burning and
then cast him into hell anyway. What does he do? No, he said,
I've chosen you from the beginning. How? You see, he said, I've chosen
you to salvation. Now what does salvation mean?
Salvation means being brought out of something. We were by
nature, the Scripture says, the children of wrath even as others.
Now it doesn't say we were the children of wrath even as others,
but it says we were by nature. That is, we were just like them
and not a nickel's worth of difference between us and those who were
appointed unto destruction. Except this one thing, that the
Lord has given to us the love of the truth. He chose us. in Christ unto that end. And He has brought us to that
place, dear brethren. And that is what Paul says, we
are bound to give thanks to God for you, beloved brethren, because
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Now there are
those that say, well, the elect have always been saved. And I
say that is not true. Now they have always been appointed
unto salvation. And insofar as the certainty
of their salvation is concerned, there's never been any doubt
in it. But something can't be saved
until it's lost. I mean, if you have three children
and all of them are sitting there with you and they've never left,
and you say to them, well, I saved you. No, they're not saved, are
they? I mean, they're saved. They're
certainly not in any danger. But if one of them strays off
out into the woods somewhere and you can't find him, and then
you go looking for him, and you ultimately do find him and you
snatch him from the place of certain death, what have you
done? You have saved him. You see,
that's the place where the Lord in His mercy and grace has appointed
us unto salvation. We are the objects of His salvation. Remember the picture the Lord
gave of the ninety and nine? Ninety and nine that safely lay
in the flock? I love that song. There were
ninety and nine. But the Lord went out in His
search until He found that one which had gone astray. And dear
brethren, that's what salvation is. And that's what the Lord
said that He had chosen us unto salvation. And then He says something here,
and we talked about this last week. He has chosen you to salvation
now through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. When you hear the term sanctification,
again, you hear a lot of talk about sanctification out here
in the religious world, and most of it centers around the notion
that God is in the business of sanctifying His people on a daily
basis. And I wouldn't argue with somebody
that you could scripturally use that term in that fashion, but
that's not what he's talking about here, nor is it what is
spoken about normally in the course of the Scriptures about
what sanctification is. The sanctification literally
means to separate, to set apart. And that's what the Lord has
done through the work of the Spirit of God. Now, He does not
sanctify that which is unsanctifiable. He doesn't set apart everyone. He doesn't work in everyone.
The thing is that everyone in whom He does not work is glad. You realize that? There is not
a man on the planet earth that desires for the Spirit of God
to work in him, to conform him to the way of Christ. There is
not one, cannot be, a sinner who would desire that God would
work in him by the might of His power and draw him unto Christ
in whom the Spirit of God has not already begun that work.
Because you see, that is the work of sanctification. where
in the Spirit of God would work in a man, first off, to show
him what he is. The Lord said, when the Spirit
has come, he will convince the world of sin, righteousness and
judgment. You see there, brethren, a man
cannot be saved until he is brought into that place of knowing that
he is lost, because he won't have any desire after it. And
the world is going To hell in a handbasket, to use a common
expression, oblivious. They had no thought nor consideration
of it, nor any desire whatsoever to be delivered from the wrath
which is to come. But, oh, those who are chosen
unto salvation, you see, that is a different story because
the Lord has chosen them to salvation through This is the manner in
which He will save His people. He will bring them through sanctification. What is that? The work of the Spirit of God
to teach a man what he is by nature. A man cannot be saved until he
knows what he is. Because until a man knows what
he is, he will not want to be saved. Oh, he might hear some
preacher preach about hell and say, man, I don't want to go
there. I remember as a little kid hearing somebody talking about
hell and, buddy, I didn't want to go. I mean, I wanted to escape
that, but then, you know, next week I forgot all about that
and I was going off doing something else. But see, I'm not talking
about momentary fear and horror. I'm talking about that which
won't depart from a man. You see, a man in whom the Spirit
of God is at work cannot escape it. Ask Jonah about that. He said, but I am not putting
up with this. I am tired of this. off over here on the ship. Well,
the Lord knew where the ship was because the Lord made the
men that made the ship. And He grew the trees that the
ship was made out of. And He helped them make the nails.
He showed them what to do. And they put it together. And
it was sitting right at the dock, right at the time when old Jonah
decided to go down there and pay the fare thereof. And he
did, did he not? He paid the fare. But he could
not. escape the sanctification of
the Spirit of God because, you see, the Lord had chosen him
unto salvation through the sanctification of the Spirit. And the lesson
that the Lord taught See, people miss what the Book
of John was about. They think the Book of John was
about Nineveh being delivered. And that was a good thing, but
that was temporary because pretty soon they would destroy it anyway.
The book of Jonah is not about Nineveh. The book of Jonah is
about the sanctification of the Spirit in Jonah showing him who
the Lord was and the mercy of God. I mean, if God would show
mercy to a wicked city like Nineveh, He was showing Jonah, you're
in the same shape, buddy. And it's only by my mercy And so the Lord chose him unto
salvation through the sanctification of the Spirit. And that's the
same way in which He draws His people. And He draws some fast
and He draws some slow. And He draws some quickly and
He draws some in spurts. They come a little ways and they
go back. And they come a little ways and
they go back. And you cannot describe the manner
in which the Lord will bring His people unto Himself, but
you can be sure that the Lord has chosen His people unto salvation
through sanctification, the work of the Spirit of God, to draw
them unto Himself. And He will do that. And He will
teach a man exactly what he is. And when does a man learn what
he is? He does not learn what he is
at all. He keeps learning what he is. Because you see the work
of the Spirit of God. You see a lot of people think
about, Oh, well, I got saved, brother. Yes, sir, last week
I got saved. Well, did you? Paul said now
is our salvation nearer than when we first believed. Salvation
is not something that you get. Salvation is something that the
Lord has chosen you unto through the sanctification of the Spirit.
You see, He is working in His people, both willing to do of
His good pleasure. He is bringing them right exactly
where He wants them to be. And they cannot move from it
because of His mercy and His kindness. And there are times
when they do not see it as the mercy and kindness. of the Lord. I mean, Jonah, when he was in
the belly of the whale, he certainly didn't see that as a mercy, did
he? I mean, think how he was thinking about the Lord when
they threw him over to the side of the ship. He wasn't feeling good. But the Lord knew. And the Lord
worked. And the Lord called. And the
Lord sanctified him. And he brought him to the place
of knowing what he is. Now, dear Brandon, we won't ever
know how exactly wicked we are. I don't know if we'll ever know
it. But we will come to a place where
we know that we are so wicked that apart from the grace and
mercy of God, we will surely perish. How does a man come to
that conclusion? Only one way that I know of,
he won't come to that conclusion listening to Dr. Phil, as we
were talking about this morning. You won't come to that conclusion
listening to Joel Osteen. You won't even come to that conclusion
listening to me. The only way that a man will
ever come to that conclusion is that the Spirit of God, the
sanctifying work of the Spirit of God setting a man apart unto
the salvation to which he is appointed." Isn't that a glorious
thing? The salvation to which he is
appointed. Now some people don't like that, but dear brethren,
what a glorious thing, what a comforting thought it is that it is unto
the salvation to which we are appointed. We have an appointment. If the Spirit of God is at work
in us, teaching us what we are and showing us who Christ is.
Now, you see, He said, He hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit. But that's not
all. You see, the Spirit of God doesn't
come just to teach a man that he's a sinner. Now that's a necessary
part of it, is it not? Because you won't ever come anywhere
else until you come there. That's the mission gate there. But you remember in the book
Pilgrim's Progress that there was a time when Pilgrim carried
his burden. He was as much sanctified by
the Spirit. In fact, he was sanctified by
the Spirit of God at that point in time, was he not? Because
he knew himself to be a sinner. But you see, the Lord has chosen
His people not just simply to cause them to feel bad, not just
so they would be miserable, not just so they would know themselves
to be sinners. That is a necessary thing. But
He said, He hath chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. What happened when the
old Christian got down there to the foot of the cross and
he saw the Redeemer? The burden fell off of his back.
Oh yes. Why? Because he saw Christ high
and lifted up as His Redeemer. And, oh dear brethren, you see,
that's the place where the Lord has chosen to bring His people
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.
Now, this is the work of God and I can't explain it at all.
Some people are brought there quickly. Some people are not brought there very quickly. But it doesn't make any difference.
Because, you see, the appointment that God has made unto all of
those whom He loves in Christ, whom He's sanctified by His Spirit, that He would bring them to salvation
through that sanctification and belief of the truth. Because,
you see, there can be no true salvation until a man has seen
Christ. Now, I'm not talking about with
his eyes. I'm talking about that he sees Christ as the sin substitute. Till he throws down all of his
tools and implements of work before Almighty God and he says,
Christ alone, Christ is the Savior. Lord, I believe that Christ is
the Savior. You see, dear friend, that is
the belief of the truth. It's not about all these doctrinal
creeds and different things that people would put out here and
say, well, brother, you've got to believe this, and I don't
know about you because you don't believe this. No. It's Christ,
the true Christ. I'm not talking about a made-up
Christ. I'm not talking about the Christ of your imagination.
I'm talking about the true Christ, the one who died for sinners,
the one who poured out His blood to purchase Eternal redemption,
not to make it possible so you could come along and fill out
the blanks and ratify it and then they would write your name
in heaven, but dear brethren, your name was written in heaven
before the blood was ever shed. If He has chosen you in salvation
through sanctification and belief of the truth. Now why would a
man ever believe the gospel? Well, some people believe it,
and we'll put quotations around this, because somebody told them
that it was the truth. But then somebody else comes
along later on in life and tells them something else, and they
get to thinking, well, maybe that's the truth. Now what was the problem? Did they lose their faith? No,
they never had it. Because you see, what I'm talking
about here the work of the Spirit of God to bring a man to know
who He is, and by the grace of God to see who Christ is, there's
no way he can lose that. Because nobody gave it. I mean, the Lord gave it to him.
The gifts and calling of God are what? Without repentance. God doesn't do one thing and
then do something else. Can a man be saved one day and
lost the next? Absolutely not. Can a man make
a decision to be saved and then not be saved tomorrow? Well,
he sure can. It can happen. It happens all
the time. The Bible is full of examples of it. People that say,
oh, I want to be religious. I want to do this. I want to
walk in that or whatever for whatever reason. But you see,
that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the work of
the Spirit of God. That which the Lord brings to
pass cannot be overturned. Oh, what a glorious thing! We
are bound, brethren, to give thanks all the way to God for
you, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. through sanctification and belief
of the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel." Now, why
do we preach the gospel? Do we believe that the gospel
has power to somehow cause blind men to see? No, a blind man can't
see any better, or a deaf man can't hear any better after hearing
the gospel than he could before. in the power of the flesh. But
there is, dear brethren, the ministry of the Word of God that
is set forth through the power of God and indicted by the Spirit
of God that calls men by the gospel. All you have got to do
is look at the second chapter of Acts when Peter
stood on the day of Pentecost and some men, Hurley said, We
just heard something. Now, how did they hear it? The
Scripture says they heard every man in his own tongue. How did they do that? Huh? They did it because the power
of the Spirit of God caused them to hear it. And there's no other
way they could have heard it. But they heard it and they said,
men and brethren, what shall we do? Now, dear brethren, you
see, that's what the preaching of the Gospel is. It is the power
of God unto salvation because when the Lord indicts His Word
and sends it forth with power, it is not the Word spoken by
the man. It is the Word that is received
in the heart by the power of the Spirit of God. He called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. What has
the Lord called us to? He called us to glory. You see,
we come from glory unto glory. See, we were chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world. That's a place of glory,
is it not? But you weren't there. I mean, you didn't know anything
about that, did you? Do you remember that? No. Because
you weren't around. But that doesn't change the fact
that you were chosen in Christ. You were in Him just as surely
as you are in Him now. And we go from glory, from that
glory that we had in Christ to the glory that we have in Christ
having been brought to salvation. The angels do nothing. There are elect angels, Scripture
says there are. There were elect angels. I assume
they were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
I don't know what other election there is. They're elect angels,
but they weren't chosen to salvation. They were chosen never to fall. But you see, we were chosen to
salvation. And you know what the glory that
rings through heaven's corridors is? It's the glory of redemption. The glory of redemption. Because
Jesus Christ is the Redeemer. And all through the ages to come,
the people of God shall praise Him in a glorious state because
He is the Redeemer. He saved us there, brethren. His blood was necessary to pay
for our sins. Not somebody else, not some imagined
sin. See, this isn't theoretical sin
that we're talking about here. Christ never paid for any theoretical
sin. He paid for actual sin. Now,
dear brethren, if Jesus Christ paid the price with His own blood
on Calvary's cross, every sin for which He paid must be canceled. And if it be a true thing that
he shed that blood for every individual on the face of the
earth, then every individual on the face of the earth must
be saved. Now, I don't find that that's
taught in the Scriptures, but I do find that he said he chose
the people in Christ and he gave himself as a precious and lasting
sacrifice for sin, that they might be saved. And God has called
us out of the darkness and into the light. He called us to a
belief of the truth. And just like Peter who said,
when the Lord said, Peter, all these others are going away,
will you also go away? He said, Lord. He said, to whom
shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life." You see, that's what faith is right there. It's that which casts itself
at the feet of Christ and can go no further. It doesn't want
to go any further. It doesn't trust anything else. I've got no confidence at all
in anything in this world or the world to come except the
blood and the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Oh, what a glorious
place to stand.