Welcome, everybody. Wayne and
Vicki are out west, as I've already mentioned. And for anybody tuning
in on the internet, I'm not the pastor here, by any means. I'm
just filling in for Wayne, who is our regular pastor. And he
will be back next week. So tune in again next week to
hear him. Name of my message is, such as
love, thy salvation. Reasons for loving God's salvation.
Open your book or your Bibles to Psalm 70. We'll read the entire Psalm. Make haste, O God, to deliver
me. Make haste to help me, O Lord.
Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul. Let
them be turned backward and put to confusion that desire my hurt. Let them be turned back for reward
of their shame that say, aha, aha. Let all those that seek
thee rejoice and be glad in thee, and let such as love thy salvation
say continually, let God be magnified. But I am poor and needy, make
haste unto me. O God, thou art my help and my
deliverer. O Lord, make no tearing. Focus of my text will be on verse
four. Let all those that seek thee,
rejoice and be glad in thee. And let such as love thy salvation
say continually, let God be magnified. All people seek something that
they love. We're willing to sacrifice almost
anything to get that that we love. And we'll sacrifice anything
for whatever we love most. Those that love money will sacrifice
family, They'll lie, steal, cheat, even kill for money. It means
that much to them. Those who love fame will sacrifice
honesty, principles, and pursuit of that fame. Those who love
pleasure will sacrifice their very health and physical well-being.
You know, sports people sometimes push themselves and get themselves
hurt, so they're sacrificing themselves just for that pleasure. What sacrifices men and women
make pursuing suing possessions of this world.
When they have caught their dreams, what do they really have? I want to talk to you today about
people who love something so dearly, who value something so
highly that we are willing to sacrifice anything and everything
in the pursuit of it. May the Holy Spirit enable me
now to talk about these people. who are here described by God
himself as such as they love salvation, or such as love thy
salvation. Let's read Psalm 70, verse 4
again. Let all those that seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee, and let such as love salvation
say continually, let God be magnified. This same prayer is almost the
exact same words in Psalm 40, 16, is prayer made by Christ
upon the grounds of his blood atonement, where he was made
sin, sin for us, where he was hung on the cross and died for
our sins. He says here, Father, this is
what I ask of you as the reward of my obedience and blood. And
Psalm 40, verse 16, Let all those that seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation
say continually, the Lord be magnified. These are almost the
exact same words as in verse four. He describes God's people
in two ways, and he asks two things of them. He describes
those who are truly born of God as those that seek thee and as
such love salvation. Here is his twofold request.
The first half of the verse, of verse 40, let all those that
seek thee rejoice and be glad in these. Believers are people
who, by the grace of God, have been made known their need of
him. Knowing our need of him, we seek
him. Lamentations 3.25 tells us, the Lord is good unto them
that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. All those that
seek Him know their need of Him. Those that seek Him believe in
Him. They seek Him. They seek Him sincerely and earnestly. They seek Him continually. When
you seek Him out, you will find Him. In Jeremiah 29, 13 and 14,
it says, and ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search
for me with all your heart, I will be found of you, saith the Lord. So if we look for him, he will
find us. You know, there is no doubt that that he finds all his chosen
people. Believers are men and women who
seek the Lord. Now let's look at the second half of the verse
of Psalm 40. The second half goes, let such
as love salvation say continually, the Lord be magnified. Thy salvation is God's salvation.
It is His and His alone. It is His prerogative, His property,
His gift to His chosen people, and His work, not man's work.
We all need God's salvation. We have nothing that we can add
to that salvation. It is not our handiwork or our
choice and stuff like that. It is God's. totally gods. Most people neglect and despise
God's salvation. Proud, self-righteous sinners
stumble over the stumbling stone of Christ. They never obtain
salvation because they vainly believe that they can make themselves
religious, or righteous rather, one way or another. And there's
nothing that we can do to please God or to make us righteous or
acceptable to God. Self-righteousness will only
condemn those people. Turn to Romans 9, and let's start
reading at verse 31. And I'll read down through 10,
chapter 10, verse 4. Romans 9, beginning at verse
31. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness,
hath not attained the law of righteousness. Wherefore, because
they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of
the law. For they stumbled at the stumbling
stone, which is Christ. As it is written, behold, I lay
in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Brethren, my heart desireth
and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being
ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. But there are some people in
this world who love God's salvation. Look in the second half of our
verse again. Let such as love salvation say
continually, the Lord be magnified. True believers are people who
love God's salvation. Let me ask you, do you love God's
salvation? Most of you can answer yes to
this question. I'm not asking whether you love religion, or
religious activities, or religious music, or love religious studies. or love the idea of just being
saved. All who are born of God, love is salvation. Let's explore
why we love it. I want to look at seven things
about God's salvation, which compels saved sinners to love
salvation. Number one, the performance of
it. Two, the plan of it. Three, the price of it, which
was extremely high. Four, the perfection of it. Five,
the promise of it. Six, the person of it. And seven,
the praise of it. Number one is the performance
of it. We understand that salvation does not begin in time, but in
eternity. It did not begin when we came
to know God, but when He knew us in covenant grace and chose
us in Christ before the worlds were even made. It is hard for us to comprehend,
but we can still believe it. Yet no one knows anything at
all about salvation until he experiences it. So let's begin
where we all must begin, with the experience of God's salvation
as it is performed in us by his grace. We love God's salvation
because of the sheer joy and pleasure of its experience in
our hearts and lives. God's salvation is a perfect
work, decreed for us from eternity. Ephesians 1.4 tells us, he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. So our salvation
was right from the very beginning of not our existence, but the
existence of the whole world. So our salvation is planned and
purposed right from the beginning. Our salvation was purchased for
us at Calvary by the blood atonement of God's dear son. It is the
work of grace performed in us by God, the Holy Spirit, in regeneration
and conversion. Salvation is something we experience.
A glorious blessing of God's almighty, irresistible grace.
His grace is irresistible because God chose us. We will believe
when the Holy Spirit reveals it to us. And when he reveals
it to us, we cannot resist it. It's irresistible grace. Philippians
1.6 tells us, being confident of this very thing, that he which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ. So it tells us here that he's
done the work. We don't have to work for our
salvation. He's already done it. It's complete. And it was
completed. at the cross for us. And it was
also established at the beginning of time at the foundation of
the world. In Galatians 1 verses 15 and 16, But when it pleased
God, who separated me from a mother's womb, called me by his grace
to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the
heathens, immediately I conferred not with the flesh and with blood. in Ephesians 1.13, in whom ye
also trusted. After that ye heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after
that ye believed. Ye were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise. We heard the truth, and when
we heard the truth, we believed. And like it said, we're sealed
with that holy promise. In Ephesians 2, chapter 2, verses
1 through 9, and you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses
and sin, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in children of disobedience, among
whom also we all had our conversations in times past in the lust of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind, and
were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God,
who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved
us. Even when we were dead in sins,
he quickened us together with Christ. By grace, ye are saved
and hath risen us together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come, he
might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
towards us through Jesus Christ. For by grace are ye saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man can boast. in 2 Timothy verses 9 and 10, who has saved
us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was
given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made
manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who
hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to life through the gospel. There's a hymn, I believe the
name of it is All Taken Away, and it goes, Did you hear what
Jesus said to me? They're all taken away, away.
Your sins are pardoned and you are free. They're all taken away.
And all our sins have been taken away by Christ. He done that
on the cross for his chosen people. Like I say, not for All people. A lot of people want to take
that one verse, I think it's 317, that for God so loved the
world that he sent his own begotten son. And when they hear the word
world, they think everybody in the world is saved. And that's
just not the case. God has a chosen people, and
those are the chosen people that Christ saved on the cross. Number two, the plan of it. We
love God's salvation because of the beauty and perfection
of its plan. Nothing about God's salvation was left to chance.
The fact that our salvation is revealed, that fact is that our
salvation is revealed in the Holy Spirit. Our great and glorious
God in sovereign predestination and by infinite wisdom, planned
and purposed to save us from eternity, laying up everything
needed for the honor of His name and our souls. Everlasting good
in His dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. in Philippians 4.19, that my
God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. He will supply all of our needs
for our salvation. There is nothing left that we
need to supply. He supplies everything. In Romans
8, 28, 34, and we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. To them who are called
according to his purpose, not our purpose, but his purpose,
for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son. that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
then he also called. And whom he called, then he also
justified. And whom he justified, he also
glorified." So that is all of our salvation. He'd done it all
right there. What shall we then say to these things? If God be
for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. This next set of verses,
some of my favorite in the Bible, and it sums up salvation so completely. It's in Ephesians chapter one,
verses three through seven. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us acceptable in the beloved,
in whom we have redemption through his blood, forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of his grace. It says it all, it says, that he chose us before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and blameless. That was
all his choice. He predestinated us. He chose
us before the foundation of the world, even. And he adopted us as his children. And he made
us acceptable. We can't make ourselves acceptable.
There's no way that in my own self that I can do anything to
make myself acceptable to Christ or to God. Number three is the
price of it. We love God's salvation because
the performance of it, because the plan of it, and because the
price of it. God's salvation is not without great price. It
cost Jesus his life's precious blood that he shed on the cross
for his chosen people. We did not deserve it or earn
it. It is all paid by Christ. In 1 Peter 1, verses 18 through
20, for as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversations received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily
was ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest
in these last times for you. And that you there is chosen
believers. And 1 Peter goes on to say in
chapter 3, verse 18, for Christ also hath once suffered for sin,
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being
put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. Christ
done it all for us. Here's another words from another
hymn. I'm not sure the name of this
one. But it goes like this, once it was mine, the cup of wrath,
but Jesus drank it dry. Went in my place, he bore God's
wrath, and for my ransom, died. No mortal knows the wrath he
bore, so justly due to me, but all the hell that I deserve,
Christ suffered there for me. Now not a drop of wrath remains,
tis finished was his cry. With one tremendous draft of
love, he drank damnation dry. Number four is the perfection
of it. We love God's salvation because of the perfection of
it. The perfection of God's salvation is seen in the fullness and completeness
of it. There's nothing that is left to chance or no gray areas
or anything like that. In Colossians chapter two, verses
nine and 10. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him. So we are
totally complete. We can add nothing to it. Which
is the head of all principality and power. First Corinthians
chapter 1 verse 30. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Nothing is unfinished or lacking.
God's salvation is not waiting upon the sinner to add something
to make up to make it complete or effectual. No, Christ done
it all. He does not need our help. He
finished it on the cross. God's salvation is perfect, complete,
finished, and accomplished. God will only accept that which
he provides. Sin has been put away. Redemption
has been obtained. Righteousness has been brought
in and established. Justice has been satisfied. Reconciliation
has been accomplished. And the gospel we preach is good
news, not just good advice. Number five, the promise of it. We love God's salvation because
of the promise of that sure and absolute, unchangeable promise
of grace. This is a sure thing. In Romans
4.16, Therefore, it is of faith that
it might be by grace to end the promise might be sure to all
the seed, not to that only which is of law, but to that also which
is of faith, of Abraham, who is the father of all. We run
no risk when we trust our souls to Jesus. God's salvation is
safe and secure. safe and secure salvation, because
it is a salvation that is altogether the work of His amazing and free
sovereign grace in Christ. In Psalm 62, verses 5 through
8, my soul Wait thou only upon God, for
my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. In God is my salvation and my
glory. The rock of my strength and the
refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times. Ye
people, pour out your hearts before him. God is a refuge for
us, sealeth. He gives and guarantees eternal
life to all those who believe on his name. John 3, 336. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. And I would
not want to be on the receiving end of God's wrath. We see examples
of his wrath through the Old Testament and stuff, and that
is not where believers are. Believers will not see that wrath.
John 10, 27, 28. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they me. I give them eternal life, and
they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
from my hand. Believers are held in his hand. How much more secure can we be?
If we're in his hand, there's no way that anybody can remove
us. We cannot fall out of grace. Some people talk about falling
out of grace or losing their religion and stuff like that.
If you've been saved by Christ, given the salvation of his grace,
you can't lose it. Number six, the person of it.
Above all else, we love salvation because of the person of it.
Jesus Christ himself is the sum, substance, and subject of the
gospel. He is altogether lovely. That's
in Song of Solomon 516. We love the doctrine and experience
of God's salvation, but salvation is not a profession, a doctrine,
or an experience. It's a person. Salvation is not
church, but a person who is God's salvation, and that is God's
own dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is not in a
place nor a position, but rather in a person, Jesus. We've got a church building here,
but our salvation is not in this church or anything else or in
Wayne, when he preaches to it, it is all in Christ. In Genesis 49, 18, I have waited
for thy salvation, O Lord. And that's the salvation that
he reveals to us. In Isaiah 49, 6, and he said, It is a light thing that thou
shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to
restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give thee for a light
to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end
of the earth. And Luke 2, 29, 30, Lord, now
let us thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word.
For my eyes have seen thy salvation. And that was when Simeon picked
up the baby, Jesus. Romans 1, or verses 1 to 3, Paul,
a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated onto
the gospel of God, which he had promised, therefore, by his prophets
in the holy scriptures, concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord,
which was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh.
And then in 1 John, chapter 5, He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
his Son. And this is the record. that
God hath given to us eternal life, and his life is in his
Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the
Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto
you, that believeth on the name of the Son of God, that ye may
know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may also on the name
of the Son of God. All who know Christ, all who
believe on Him, all who are taught of God's love, love God's salvation. Because of the performance of
it, the plan of it, because of the price of it, because of the
profession of it, perfection of it, because of the promise
of it, and because of the person of it. And last, we love salvation
because of the praise of it. Our salvation, which is God's
salvation, is the praise of His glory. We show forth the perfection
of His holy being in all aspects. Let God be magnified. This salvation
ascribes all praise to God and reserves none for man. Man doesn't
deserve any praise in this. It compels all who experience
it to say, the Lord be magnified. In the experience of it, the
proclamation of it, the remembrance of it, and the remembrance of
it hereafter. As this was our Savior's prayer,
let it be our prayer ourselves and our brethren. Going back
to our opening verse, Psalm 70 verse four, that all those that
seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee and let such as love
salvation say continually that God be magnified. Brother Dave, would you close
us in prayer?