How can it be? Amazing grace,
isn't it? That God could love a soul like
you or me, and yet he has in Christ. Chosen us in him before
the world began, sent Christ to work out all the conditions
of our salvation, and sent the Spirit in time to call us by
his marvelous grace under this preaching of the gospel to himself.
How can it be? But it is. I welcome you here. I had my welcome coincidence,
and I'm thankful to see all of you out here today to hear the
preaching of God's marvelous gospel. As you can see, and as
most of you already know, I'm doing a study through the book
of Joshua. The title is The Miraculous Entry
into Canaan. And we're going to be looking
at Israel actually entering into this promised land. They were
given this land. The land was given to Abraham
by promise centuries before this, some 470 years. But today, we're
going to see them actually crossing over this Jordan River and entering
in to take possession of this land. And it's not just this
miraculous way that God brought Israel in, but this is a picture
in type of how he brings each one of his elect into the salvation
that Christ worked out. How he brings his elect into
that salvation to possess it, to own it, to know it, to look
to Christ alone. So we'll be looking at that as
we look through these verses as well. To begin, I'm gonna
do a little background here. So let's look back at Joshua
chapter three and verse 10. We covered a lot of this verse
last time, but just as an introduction here, let's look at this again.
It says, and Joshua said, he's talking to the children of Israel.
He said, hereby, you shall know that the living God is among
you and that he will without fail drive out from before you
the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites
and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites. Joshua is
telling Israel here, you will know two things. You will know
that the living God is among you, that's first. National Israel
must know that God had determined for them to possess this land. That's what God had, and they
must know that what God had determined is backed by His power and His
strength. It won't be their ability and
their strength that brings them into this land. It'll be God's
power and strength. Their possession of this land
didn't depend upon them. It depended upon God. And the
second thing they'll know is that the living God will certainly,
that is, without fail, drive out from among you All your enemies,
those nations listed there, is all the enemies that Israel is
going to face. Those seven nations now occupied
Canaan. And they were, of course, going
to be standing against Israel. They're not just going to lay
down and let Israel come in here and take over their land. But
these seven nations are all the enemies that Israel will face
in that land of Canaan, and they represent the enemies that spiritual
Israel face as we live out our lives in this world after regeneration,
after God brings us into salvation. We face enemies. There are wars
to fight. We fight them every day. Doubts
and fears in our own minds, as well as enemies who would oppose
this message and try to cause us to go back to our old message
or to leave Christ or to look elsewhere. So that's what they would know,
that God would without fail drive out all their enemies. But how
were they to know this? It says, hereby you shall know. They would know hereby, that
word hereby means by this or by these. It's a word that indicates
how they would know. And then he gives them two inseparable
things by which they would know. First, they would know by the
one whom God had appointed to bring them into this land. That's
what we looked at in last message. So we're not going to study that
a lot. God had appointed Joshua. Joshua was the one who had the
words of God, and Joshua was the one whom God worked his works
through. In other words, his words and
his works were together. His works confirmed that his
words and his works were both from God. And so everything needful
for national Israel to enter in and take possession of the
land of Canaan was going to be provided for them by God through
Joshua. He's the one that God appointed.
And as we stated so many times in this study already, and I'm
sure I've stated a lot of times, what's written in this book of
Joshua, this is not just a history lesson about the nation Israel.
What's written is for believers in every generation. Everything
needful for national Israel to possess Canaan would be provided
by God through Joshua. And likewise, everything needful
for spiritual Israel, God's elect to enter in and possess that
salvation they were given in Christ before the world began,
has already been provided for them by the doing and dying of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel must know that the living
God was among them. They must know that he would,
without fail, drive out all their enemies. And the first way they
would know was by the one that God had appointed, Joshua. Second,
they would know by the miraculous way that God brought them into
this land. Now, that way is what we're going to concentrate on
today, the way he brings them in. It's a miraculous way. The
way would reveal that the living God was among them, and the way
would reveal that the living God would without fail drive
out from before them all their enemies. And here's what we'll
see today. We'll see that this miraculous
way involves three things. First, it involves the unmistakable
power of God. Second, the unmistakable preeminence
of Christ. And third, the total exclusion
of human effort. So let's look at these three
things in the remaining verses here of chapter three, starting
at verse 14. Look at Joshua chapter three,
verses 14 and 15. And it came to pass When the
people removed from their tents to pass over Jordan, and the
priests banged the Ark of the Covenant before the people. And
as they that bear the Ark were coming to Jordan, and the feet
of the priests that bear the Ark were dipped in the brim of
the water, for the Jordan overfloweth all its banks at that time of
harvest." This is the spring of the year, and the snow's on
the mountain. Lebanon is way up in the north,
and it's beginning to melt. and the rivers and streams, and
this Jordan River is overflowing, so it's got some shallow water
on its banks there. Look on with me at Joshua chapter
3 and verse 16. And it came to pass that the
waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon a heap
very far from the city Adam, that is, besides Zarethan. And
those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt
sea, failed and were cut off, and the people passed over right
against Jericho. and the priests that bear the
Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the
midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry
ground until all the people were passed clean over Jordan." Look
back at the outline now. The first thing we'll see in
the miraculous way that God brought national Israel into this land
of Canaan, the unmistakable power of God. Look back at Joshua 3.16. It came to pass that the waters
which came down from above stood and rose upon a heap very far
from the city Adam, that is, besides Zarethan, and those that
came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed
and were cut off, and the people passed over right against Jericho. According to some commentaries,
these two cities that are listed here, Adam and Zarethan, they
were located on opposite sides of the river, and they were some
distance apart, about 16 to 18 miles apart. So the water of
the Jordan was backed up in a heap stretching some 16 to 18 miles
long. Now you can imagine what a sight
that would be. That's some miracle. It doesn't take much to see that
it would take the hand of God to perform such a feat, such
a miracle. National Israel must know that
their entry into this land of Canaan was a miraculous entry. They had to know that it was
the hand of God, that they had nothing whatsoever to do with
it, that it was God's hand providing this way, that it was His power
providing their entrance into this land. And therefore, it
could not be by their hand, not in any way, not to any degree.
The sovereign God of this universe had determined for Israel to
possess this land, and the miraculous way he chose to bring them into
that possession reveals that determination. He was determined
for them to have it, and they would have it, and his power
is demonstrated here in his backing the Jordan River up for 16 to
18 miles. Remember, there's another miraculous
entry pictured here. It's the picture of a multitude
of sinners being given what they do not deserve and have done
nothing to earn. That's what's pictured in this
entry here. It's a picture of God's elect
entering into possession of the eternal salvation, that eternal
rest that they've already been given in Christ, given in him
before the world began. And how do sinners enter this
great salvation? How did you and I enter it? How
did other sinners enter this great salvation? Was it by our
power that we did so? No, not at all. It was by God's
miraculous power. Look at John chapter 1, verses
10 through 13. Now, John chapter 1 starts out
here, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. So he's talking about Christ
here, the eternal Word, and the incarnate Word of God. And it
says, He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and
the world knew Him not. He came into his own, that's
his own nation, and his own received him not, but as many as received
him, to them gave he power, privilege, to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood,
not because of who their parents were, not even if their parent
was Abraham, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, not
because they determined to bring themselves into this great salvation.
nor by the will of man, not if somebody else determined, praying
for them or or will them into this great salvation. They were
born not of any of those things by their hand or will. They were
born of God. Have you ever stopped to think
how amazing it is that any sinner in this generation or any other
looks to Christ and Christ alone for all of salvation? Well, it's
nothing short of a miracle. You see a miracle in God backing
up this Jordan River? Well, regeneration is just as
amazing a miracle, and it happens in our generation. And when it
happens, it is the unmistakable power of God working in the world. Now, most will say that salvation
is a gift of God. They will say it's God's doing
and not their doing. Those that name the name of Christ
will say that salvation is by Christ alone. They'll say it's
by grace and not works. In other words, most will give
God and Christ credit in their salvation. I know it's all of
the Lord. The problem comes when men learn
that God's salvation is conditioned on and accomplished by Christ
alone without men's effort. In other words, it's a salvation
where Christ gets all the glory, where Christ has a preeminence,
and that's what we're going to look at in our next point here.
Look back at the outline. We saw the unmistakable power
of God, and now we're going to look at the unmistakable preeminence
of Christ in this matter here, of Israel entering into this
land and of spiritual Israel entering into the eternal salvation
of God. we'll see the unmistakable preeminence
of Christ. Look back at Joshua 3, verses
14 and 15. And it came to pass when the
people removed from their tents to pass over Jordan, and the
priest bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and
as they that bear the ark were coming to the Jordan, and the
feet of the priest that bear the ark were dipped in the brim
of the water, for the Jordan overfloweth all his banks all
the time of harvest. And it goes on to say, when the
priest brought the Ark of the Covenant to the brink of the
Jordan, the river stopped its flow. It was the Ark providing
Israel this miraculous entry. And from a previous lesson, you
remember, this is the first time that the priest, those who attended
the tabernacle, those who killed the sacrifice, who put the blood
on the altar, who went into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled
the blood on the mercy seat, the priest who attended the tabernacle
bore the Ark. Usually there was just one tribe
called the Kohathites that bore that Ark. But this is the first
time that these priests bore this Ark. Now, the Ark here represents
Christ. And the priests bearing the Ark
represent Christ being set forth before Israel in picture and
type. Every time one of these priests killed a lamb, they were
picturing Christ, the lamb, the lamb of God, the unblemished
lamb being slain and his blood sprinkled on the altar. The Ark, you remember, is where
the tablets of stone, Ten Commandments, were kept. This is the second
writing of these commandments, not the first one that Moses
threw down and broke, but the second, the complete, the ones
that were kept whole. These Ten Commandments were kept
continually before Israel in this economy, and they were kept
because they declared the strictness and inflexibility of God's standard.
They were placed in the ark to remind Israel that God demands
perfection. We need to be reminded of that,
and we are every time the gospel is preached. He demands perfection. He demands perfect continual
obedience to his law. He can't command anything less
than that. The ark also represented the justice of God. Over the
ark was the mercy seat. Where God's law has been broken,
he demands the punishment of eternal death. God's justice
can't demand less than that. The soul that sins shall surely
die. The wages of sin is death, and
that's eternal death. And God's justice won't be satisfied
without punishment, that punishment that his justice demands being
carried out. It was on the mercy seat that
the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled one time a year on
the day of atonement, and it was by the blood that that atonement
for sin was made in that economy. The high priest entered into
the holy of holies, not without blood. The Ark of the Covenant
pictured the only place on earth where God who is ever holy and
man who is ever sinful, where they could come together, meet
together, and fellowship together. How did it do that? Because the
mercy seat pictured the law and justice of God and the mercy
of God coming together in union, in harmony. The Ark pictured
the law of God honored only by the obedience of Christ, and
it pictured the justice of God satisfied only by Christ's obedience
unto death. And that mercy seat pictured
God being just to justify ungodly sinners based on the penalty-bearing,
sacrifice-establishing death of Christ alone. He bore our
sins in his body on the tree. His death put away the sins of
his people. His blood cleanses us from all
sin. David the psalmist declared all
this in Psalm 85. Look at Psalm 85 in verses eight
through 10. He said, I will hear what God
the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace unto his people and
to his saints, but let them not turn again to folly. Surely his
salvation is nigh them that fear him, reverence him, that glory
may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Now mercy and truth have come
together, they've met, and righteousness and peace have embraced or kissed
each other, and they've done that only in one place. That's
in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ came to this earth to
save his people, and the only way that sinners and God can
come together, a God who is holy, and sinners who are ever sinful
can come together is based on that work, that righteousness
worked out by Christ and freely charged to the account of sinners.
National Israel understood that their miraculous entry into Canaan
was to be attributed to the ark of this covenant. They knew that.
Look ahead at Joshua chapter four, verses six through seven. This is something we'll look
at next time, but I'm just showing you what they knew here about
this ark. They're going to build a memorial to this miraculous
entry, this miraculous way that they were brought into the land
of Canaan. And Joshua tells them that this may be a sign among
you that when your children ask their fathers in time to come
saying, what do you mean by this memorial, by these stones? Then
you shall answer them. that the waters of Jordan were
cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. When it,
that Ark, passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut
off, and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children
of Israel forever. The priests bearing the Ark of
the Covenant of the Lord of all the Earth were setting Christ
forth in picture and type, as I said. They were doing back
then what I'm doing now. I'm doing it in words. They did
it in picture and type. By God's design and plan, they
were giving Christ his rightful place in this miraculous event. They were giving Christ the preeminence
in this marvelous way that he brought Israel into this land.
National Israel entered into the land of promise because Christ,
represented in the ark, was given the preeminence in this miraculous
entry. The scriptures are clear that
God has given Christ the preeminence in all things. There's no question
about that in the scriptures. The question of it is in the
minds of men. Look at Colossians 1, verse 12. Paul writes here to the Colossians,
giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet, are
fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who has
delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us
into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin, who is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him,
he's talking about by Christ, were all things created that
are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether
they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by him and for him. And he is before
all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of
the body, the church. who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. He has the preeminence in God's
design on all things and especially in the matter of salvation. For
any sinner to imagine the miracle of salvation without the preeminence
of Christ is perhaps man's greatest deception. It's the thing that
takes us the most by surprise and deceives us the most. And
yet, that's what all of us do by nature. That's what all of
us do before we're taught. That's what all of us do until
God stops us. It's on this issue, the preeminence
of Christ in salvation is the issue. And it's on this issue
that the scriptures declare the the heart of fallen man to be
the most deceitful thing on the earth. Look at Jeremiah 17 in
verse 9. This is a very familiar verse.
It says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? This verse is
talking about our hearts being deceived and desperately wicked
on the issue of salvation, God's salvation. We don't know how
God saves sinners by nature. We have to be taught. We have
to come and sit down under the gospel. But this is where the
hearts of fallen men are deceived the most. We all, all of us without
exception, imagine a salvation without the preeminence of Christ
until Christ stops us, until God stops us by the gospel. The
scribes and Pharisees of Christ's day pretty well summarized the
mind of fallen yet religious men on this matter of Christ
having the preeminence in salvation. Look at John chapter five and
verse 37. Christ said to these scribes
and Pharisees, and the Father himself, which has sent me, has
borne witness of me. You have neither heard his voice
at any time, nor seen his shape. And you have not his word abiding
in you, for whom he has sent him you believe not. Search the
scriptures. That literally says you do search
the scriptures. You're zealous to search the
scriptures. For in them you think you have
eternal life. And they are they which testify
of me. but you will not come to me that you might have life.
That's all of us by nature. We've come to a Christ of our
imagination by nature, and we don't come to Christ. We won't
come to Christ unless God does a work of grace in our heart,
sits us down under the gospel, and causes us to find our hope
in Christ alone. Well, what does it mean that
Christ has the preeminence? What am I talking about here?
It means that salvation is by Christ alone. It means that salvation
is absolutely exclusively 100% by the work of Christ. It was
Christ who was charged with the sins of his people. It was Christ
whose death put away that sin in full by a just satisfaction. It was Christ whose obedience
unto death established the one righteousness by which God declares
every sinner Christ died for righteous in his sight. Christ
did not die like many believe to make a way for sinners. That's
not why he died. He did not die to make salvation
possible if sinners will just do their part. On the contrary,
Christ's death bought and brought salvation to every sinner he
died for. Christ having the preeminence
in salvation means that no man has any part in either gaining
or maintaining salvation. It means that sinners do nothing
to get themselves saved or to keep themselves saved. They're
saved because Christ has done everything required for them
to stand holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in God's sight.
Can you imagine someone like you or me standing holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable? Well, it's not based on anything
we've done. It's based on Christ and his righteousness charged
to our account. Christ does not have the preeminence
where sinners think that Christ has died, but that any sinner
he died for might perish anyway. That's a prevalent thought in
this generation of religious men. But if Christ has died for
a sinner, that sinner is going to be in final glory. Christ's
death demands it. But such thinking as that attributes
failure to Christ. He died for a sinner, but that
sinner perishes anyway. Well, then how can that sinner
be saved? Well, of course, men think you've
got to believe, you've got to repent, you've got to conform,
you've got to get serious about religion. They say a lot of things. But Christ does not have the
preeminence where sinners think that they do something to gain
or maintain their salvation. That's self-righteous thinking.
And self-righteous thinking is what God must overcome before
any sinner can count himself or herself safe. We're all self-righteous
by nature, and we think we've done something to put ourselves
in the favor of God. But all that has to be overcome
if we're truly to enter into the salvation of God. Let's think
about this Jordan River here for just a moment. The Jordan
River was the first obstacle standing in the way of national
Israel's entrance into the land that they had been given. They're
on the east bank of this river, this Jordan River, and it's standing
between them and the promised land. They gotta somehow get
across this river. This river was blocking their
path. It was standing in the way of them entering in. It was
keeping them from what God had determined for them to have.
They were going into that land. God had determined it, but this
river was standing in their way. The river was an obstacle, but
it wasn't an obvious obstacle to them. It was rather a subtle
obstacle. I doubt whether Israel, these
Israelites, were standing there pondering about how they were
going to get across this river. They were worried about those
enemies inside. They were worried about a lot of things, but I
doubt if they were worried about how they were going to get the
millions of Israelites across this river safely. Likewise,
most think they're saved without any regard to how. How God can
be just in the process, how Christ can have the preeminence in this
matter, how that salvation is all of Christ and no part of
man. You see, we don't reason those kind of things until God
sends us down under the gospel. The way into God's salvation
is where God proves it's his salvation and not man's salvation. The way is where God proves that
salvation is by Christ's work and not by the work of men. The
way is where God proves salvation to be by his mercy and grace
and not by the will and efforts of men. The way is what gives
Christ the preeminence of salvation. He said in John chapter Sixteen,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. The way is what proves you to
be in God's salvation or in a presumptuous salvation. How did you get, how
did you get where you think you are? You think you're saved. You think you're headed for heaven.
You think you're free from the wrath of God. You think you're
in the favor of God. And that's no doubt an enviable
position to be in. if you can truly say that, but
how did you get there? This is without doubt the most
important question that any sinner can answer concerning their salvation. You remember back in school when
you were in math class, you didn't just have to give the right answer
to the problem. You had to tell how you got the
answer. And if you couldn't tell how
you got the answer, what to do? Count it wrong. You got to tell
how you got it because that formula you used to get there was the
consistent thing. You might figure out how to get
the answer, but you got to be able to tell how you got that
answer. If your answer to the question of how are you saved
is any way but Christ crucified, If it's any way but Christ doing
everything, if it has anything to do with you doing anything
to get saved or to stay saved, then it is a presumptuous way.
It's a self-righteous way. It fails to give Christ the preeminence
in your salvation. The priest bearing the ark entering
the Jordan River stopped the flow of that river. In like manner,
the revelation of Christ in the gospel must and shall stop the
flow of self-righteous thinking in the minds of God's people,
spiritual Israel. Jordan literally means descending
or the descender. When the Ark of the Covenant,
which typified Christ, entered the Jordan, the river which was
descending down was stopped in its flow, and the way was provided
for national Israel to enter in. Christ, typified by the ark,
provided the way. Under the gospel, Christ, by
the Spirit, enters into the mind of a sinner with the revelation
of what he has done for every sinner he lived and died for.
When that happens, the flood of self-righteousness in that
sinner's mind is stopped. It's not eliminated, as we'll
see in the next lesson. This river returned right back
where it was. When the priest moved out of
the river, this river came right back. But the stopping of that
river allows the sinner to see that the salvation Christ has
already accomplished for every sinner he was given. It allows
the sinner to enter in and possess the salvation already worked
out by Christ and given that sinner in him before the world
began. That's when a regenerated converted sinner attributes salvation
to God alone. He attributes salvation through
Christ alone. And that's when a sinner gives
Christ the preeminence he's earned in salvation. That's when Christ
is not a part of salvation, but all of salvation. That's when
a sinner has experienced the unmistakable preeminence of Christ
in his or her salvation. Until then, there's no evidence
that a sinner has taken possession of God's salvation. Until then,
we're in a salvation we think we contributed to, and that's
a presumptuous salvation. Look back at the outline. I have
one more point. The third and final thing we'll
see in this miraculous way God brought national Israel in the
land of Canaan is the total exclusion of human effort. Look back at
Joshua 3 in verse 17. It says, and the priests that
bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry
ground in the midst of Jordan. And all the Israelites passed
over on dry ground until all the people were passed clean
over Jordan. The priest stood firm on dry
ground and the Israelites passed over on dry ground. Ground that
was just moments before this flooded with water. It was inundated
by this river. What we're seeing here is God
removed every obstruction, every obstacle keeping national Israel
from entering this land. He removed this obstacle. And
what part did those entering in have in this great miracle?
No part. They didn't build a dam to get
over. They didn't build a boat to get
over. They didn't swim over. They walked over on dry ground.
Of all the generations of Israelites, what had this generation done
to deserve to be the ones to possess this promised land? There
had been quite a few generations of Israelites before them, and
this promise was made way back 470 years earlier. What had this
generation done to deserve to be the ones to enter into this
land? What would they need to do to obtain or to make this
possession of this land a reality? And the answer to that is nothing.
The fact that they are the generation that God had determined to possess
this land is totally the sovereign goodness and purpose of God.
It had nothing to do with who they were or what they had done. Israel must know without question
that it was God who gave them entrance into this land. They
must know that it was the Ark, Christ, providing them this miraculous
entry. They must know that their efforts
here were totally excluded. Now why is this so important?
for them and for you and me. Why is this so important? It's
important because if their efforts were not excluded, they'd glory
in their efforts and not God's miraculous entry. If their efforts
were not excluded, they would glory in their work and not in
Christ's work alone. God has to overcome the natural
thinking of all of us concerning salvation. He must drive from
our minds any notion that we have anything to do with being
delivered from the wrath of God or being in the favor of God. He must exclude all boasting
by us in this matter. What do sinners do to deserve
to obtain the eternal salvation that's found in Christ alone?
We do nothing. We enter into a salvation found
in God's mercy and grace alone, provided by Christ's work alone. The very nature of mercy is that
it's something that's given, never deserved by the recipient,
never earned by the recipient. If it was deserved or earned,
it'd be something besides mercy. It couldn't be mercy. And it
was given before the recipient knew anything or did anything
about it. Look at Romans chapter 9. Now this is a chapter about the
sovereign mercy of God. It says in verse 10, when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election might
stand not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said to
Rebekah, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written,
Jacob have I loved. Jacob have I intended to save. Jacob have I purposed to save.
Jacob have I provided a savior. But Esau have I hated. I hadn't
done any of those things for Esau. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? You mean this was done before these boys were born? Even while
they were in the womb, they hadn't done anything. Is there unrighteousness
with God? Is that fair? Is that right for
God to do that? There's no unrighteousness with
God. God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shall with mercy.
God had determined, He had determined to and He did bring a generation
of national Israelites into possession of a land that they had already
been given. Likewise, He has determined to
and He does show eternal mercy to a multitude of His choosing.
In time, in each generation, He saves that multitude. He brings
them into possession of the salvation they were each given in Christ
before the world began. He gives them the possession
of the salvation worked out for them by Christ through his obedience
unto death. He shows them mercy at the exclusion
of all their efforts. He saves and blesses those sinners
by the work of Christ alone. In time, those sinners each experience
God's salvation, which involves the unmistakable power of God,
salvations of the Lord, the unmistakable preeminence of Christ, it's his
doing and not man's, and the total exclusion of all human
effort. We don't meet a condition or
fulfill a requirement in order to enter into God's salvation. And I would pray that he would
enable you to rejoice in Christ and find no confidence in the
flesh.