Whom Does God Save?

Q: What does the Bible say about who God saves?

The Bible teaches that God saves sinners, particularly the worst of sinners who recognize their need for Christ. According to Acts 13:48, God saves those who are ordained to eternal life. The message of the gospel is to the worst of sinners, and it is precisely recognizing one's depravity that qualifies someone for salvation. As illustrated in 1 Timothy 1:15, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom Paul considered himself the foremost. This means that the only requirement for salvation is to acknowledge oneself as a sinner in need of God's grace.

Q: How do we know God's grace is sufficient for salvation?

The Bible affirms that salvation comes through grace alone, and God's grace is always sufficient for those who believe. Salvation by grace alone means that it is solely through God's unmerited favor that any sinner can be saved. Ephesians 2:8-9 states that we are saved by grace through faith and not by works. This distinguishes the Christian belief in salvation from any merit-based systems, emphasizing that it is entirely God's decision to extend grace to whom He wills. Understanding this grace as sufficient encourages us to trust in Christ alone for our salvation.

Q: Why is belief in Christ essential for salvation?

Belief in Christ is essential because it is through faith in Him that we receive eternal life and God's promise of salvation. John 3:16 makes it clear that whosoever believes in Christ will not perish but have eternal life. Believing in Christ means recognizing Him as the only means of salvation. It's God that grants the gift of faith, enabling sinners to see their desperate need for a Savior. When we believe, we receive assurance that we are counted among those whom God ordained to eternal life. This belief changes us and secures our hope in Christ's redemptive work.

Q: What does it mean to be chosen by God for salvation?

Being chosen by God signifies that God has elected certain individuals, granting them faith to believe and be saved according to His will. The concept of divine election is rooted in the sovereignty of God. Ephesians 1:4 explains that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. This divine election is not based on any foreseen merit or action on our part; it is purely by God's mercy and grace. Those who are chosen will inevitably respond to the gospel because God arranges everything for His elect to hear and believe, fulfilling His promises to save them. This assurance brings comfort and joy to believers.

Q: How does God save the worst of sinners?

God saves the worst of sinners by showing them His grace and enabling them to recognize their need for redemption through Christ. In Romans 5:8, we learn that God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This shows that God's plan for salvation reaches out to those who are fully aware of their plight as sinners. The preaching of the gospel reveals this grace to the worst of sinners, as evidenced in Acts 13:47-48 where Paul proclaims that God's salvation is available to the Gentiles. This message assures even the vilest among us that there is hope when they come to Christ in faith.

Well, good morning again. If you would open your Bibles with me to First Timothy, Chapter 1. First Timothy, Chapter 1. After the service today, Jan and I will be leaving on vacation. And Wednesday, Jonathan will be preaching. And then next Sunday, Kevin Thacker will be here to preach both messages. I know you'll enjoy getting to see and hear him. First Timothy chapter one, we're gonna begin reading in verse eight.

But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully. If a man uses the law to see his guilt and drive him to Christ, that's the right use of the law, and that's good if a man use it lawfully. Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners. for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.

And I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. He was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Albeit for this cause, I obtained mercy, that in me first, Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him, to life everlasting. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

All right, let's stand together as Sean leads us in singing our call to worship. Sing ye saints, admire and wonder, Jesus matchless, love adore. Sing for Sinai's awful thunder, shall upon thee burst no more. Sing in spite of Satan's lying. Sing those sins are black and large. Sing for Jesus. by his dying set you free from every charge. Sing those synths and carnal reason. Fain would stop the joyful song. Sing and count it highest treason for a saint to hold his tongue. Sing aloud whose holy calling your election surely shows. Sing nor fear a final calling, Jesus love no changes knows.

Sing for you shall Heaven inherit. Sing and ne'er the songs be done. Sing for He alone is worth it. He our sins did all atone. Sing aloud among God's people in your heart when all alone. Sing to Father, Son, and Spirit, one in three and three in one. Okay, if you would, turn in your hymnal to song number 296. We'll sing All the Way My Savior Leads Me. 296. All the way my Savior leads me, what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy, who through life has been my guide?

Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, here by faith in Him to dwell. For I know what e'er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well. For I know what e'er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well. All the way my Savior leads me, cheers each winding path I tread. Gives me grace for every trial, Feeds me with the living bread.

Though my weary steps may falter, And my soul a thirst may be, Gushing from the rock before me, lo, a spring of joy I see. Gushing from the rock before me, lo, a spring of joy I see. All the way my Savior leads me, O the fullness of His love. Perfect rest to me is promised in my Father's house above. When my spirit, clothed immortal, Wings its flight to realms of day, This my song, through endless ages, Jesus led me all the way. This my song through endless ages. Jesus led me all the way. Pastor, so we read from Acts chapter 13 this morning. We're going to read Acts chapter 13, picking up in verse 44 through the end of the chapter.

And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you. But seeing you put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed.

And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and came unto Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost. May the Lord bless His Word. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we come before you a thankful and needy people.

Lord, we're so thankful. that we can call Thee Father through our Lord Jesus Christ, that He was made man, became sin, put our sin away on the cross, and that we can come before You righteous in Christ. Lord, we pray that You would calls us to cling to Christ, to cleave to him, complete union. Father, we're so blessed that you've given us this word, this completed word that shows Christ fulfills everything you have for sinners. We pray, Lord, that you would leave us not alone, but that you would give us a word from thee this morning. We hold up our pastor to thee, pray that you would give him words to feed your sheep. Give us hearing ears, Lord, and receiving hearts filled with joy of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Father, don't let us ever take this blessing for granted. We're so thankful that there's salvation for Gentile sinners, and that you've given us that picture of sinful Israel that is not worthy of your blessings, but that you chose them from the foundation of the world, a spiritual Israel, to reveal yourself to them, Father, we pray that you would have mercy on our souls. We pray especially for our young people and friends and family that don't know their need for Christ, that you would reveal to them their sin and reveal to them your mercy for sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Cause them to Seek Christ, cause them to run to him, to fall at his feet for mercy. Lord, have mercy on their souls. Save them. We know thou art able. We pray it would be your will. We're thankful that you accomplish all your will throughout this world. We pray for those who are going through trials, emotional, physical, spiritual, Lord, we know that these trials come from thee and we pray that they would be your will to accomplish your purpose in them quickly. We pray that you would save sinners. Lord, we ask all these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. for our good and for his sake. Amen. Keep your Bibles open there to Acts 13. That will serve as our text this morning.

It would be my hope that there's someone here this morning that wonders, would God save me You know, in a group this size, there's always some who believe, some who do not believe. It would be my prayer that there's someone here this morning who does not believe and is wondering, would God save me? Well, he will, if you fit the description of a sinner. You'd fit the description of those that he saves.

And I'd like to answer that question this morning. I've titled the message, Who Does God Save? Now you remember last week we looked at, I think this was the first message that the Apostle Paul preached, the first one that was recorded. And he so plainly preached Christ. And just like always happened, some believed, some did not believe.

But those who believed, they wanted to hear more. Now they wanted to hear more the next Sabbath day, but they also wanted to hear more between the Sabbath days. I don't want to wait seven days. I want to hear between these Sabbath days. Tell me more of Christ. Tell me more of salvation in him. I can't afford to wait till next Saturday. This is vital. I need to hear it now.

So throughout the week, Paul went wherever he was going and preached Christ to the people. Well, now it's the next Sabbath day. He and Barnabas are going to preach Christ again. And the same thing's going to happen. It's the same thing that happens every single time the gospel is preached. Some believe. Maybe not for the first time, but they believe for the thousandth time. They believe. Others do not believe.

And our text gives us a description of who it is that God saves. God's not going to save everybody. He never intended to save every son of Adam, but thank God he will save some. He will save sinners. And I want to look at this description so we know who does God save. Do I fit the description? If so, God will save me. God will save you. But first, we have to start off, when this is where the text begins, with who cannot be saved, or who is not saved. Maybe that's a better way to put it, who is not saved.

Verse 44 says, and the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and they spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.

Now, this I know for sure. Those who contradict this book, who contradict the things that are written in this book, they contradict the word of God, They have not been saved yet. Now you'll notice I didn't say they can't ever be saved. At one time, the Apostle Paul contradicted the word of God, didn't he? We saw Tarsus. But those who do contradict the word of God, they haven't been saved yet.

The word contradict, it means to deny and refuse to obey. Now that's our problem. We refuse to obey the gospel. We refuse to obey Christ. We refuse to submit ourselves to the righteousness of God. We refuse. And whenever somebody contradicts the word that way, they deny it, they refuse to obey it, what they're doing is blaspheming God. To deny what is written in scripture, to contradict it, blasphemes God. We read all throughout the word of God and we unashamedly preach God's electing love.

That God the Father, before time began, chose a people, a sinful, vile people, fallen and dead in Adam, and he chose to save those people. Out of the lump of Adam's fallen race, he did it out of his goodness and out of his love. He chose to save sinners.

Not all, but some. Now to contradict that and to say, now wait a minute, God gives everybody a chance. I get my chance to say whether I want to choose God or not, whether I want to choose Jesus or not. That's contradicting the word. And to say, no, wait a minute, God gives everybody a chance that they can choose God if they want to, that's blaspheming God. It's taking the glory away from God.

All through scripture, and we preach this unashamedly, man's total depravity. That everything we are is sin. Everything we do, everything we want to do, everything we think about, It's sin. We even sin in our sleep, dreams. Every breath we take, we're taking in sin. That's all we do. And by everything we do, being so opposed to God, it's no wonder that God's wrath is upon us because of our sin, that everything we do is sin.

And I never want to categorize sin and say, well, this sin's worse than this sin. But I tell you what's so offensive to God is to think that we can put together some works that are so good, God will accept them. That'll make us more savable than somebody else who doesn't do these works. And to say, no, that's not true.

Now, I mean, I know I'm a sinner. I know I commit sin, but I'm not as bad as so-and-so and so-and-so over here and so-and-so over here. these false religions and all these, you know, crazy things we can see going on in the world today. Well, I'm not that bad. I mean, I still can choose to straighten up and fly right and turn over a new leaf and God will accept me. I'm not dead. I have the choice of my own free will. Choose God.

That's contradicting the word of God. And by contradicting the word of God and saying you're able to do something, when scripture says you're dead in sin, That's blaspheming God. I mean, it's not just disagreeing here on a point of doctrine. That's blaspheming God.

All through scripture it teaches and we unashamedly preach limited atonement, that Christ died for God's elect and only God's elect. And he completely and utterly saved those people from their sin. He said it so plainly before he went to the cross, Father, I pray for them, those that you have given me. I'm not praying for the world, but for them, those that you have given me limited atonement. Christ's atonement isn't limited in his power to save. It's limited in the scope of who it was meant to save.

And everybody inside that scope is completely and utterly saved. They have no sin. But to contradict that is to say, now wait a minute, I don't believe that. Jesus died for all mankind to give every man, woman, and child the chance to be saved by accepting Jesus as their personal savior. Christ died, but now it's up to me to say whether or not I accept it or I reject it. My friend, that's blaspheming God. That's not just disagreeing with some Calvinist. That's blaspheming God. Scripture teaches and we preach.

I don't even want to say unashamedly, but with joy and gladness, we preach. that salvation is by grace alone, through God-given faith alone, without any of our works. And if you're a sinner, you love it that way, that you're dependent on God's grace. You can't do anything to please God, but you're dependent upon his grace, and he's promised he's gonna be gracious to somebody. I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious. He's gonna be gracious to somebody. I need grace, maybe he'll be gracious to me.

God, the Holy Spirit moves in power and gives life and faith in the hearts of his people so that we believe and we can't not believe. I'm so happy to hear that because I spent a lot of years trying to make myself believe and couldn't do it. But if God the Holy Spirit moves in power, I don't know where he came from, where he's going, but if he'll move in power, he could give me the gift of faith in Christ and I'll believe him and I'll never quit believing him.

Oh, I love that. That's my only hope. And that's a good hope, isn't it? But to contradict that says, now wait a minute, wait a minute. That's, you know, salvation's by grace, certainly. But now we gotta do some good works to keep ourselves saved, or we gotta do some good work to make ourselves a candidate for grace.

That's contradicting the word of God, and that's blaspheming God. I mean, it's so serious to contradict these things. That's blaspheming God and calling God a liar. This book is the word of God. It's not the word of Moses and David and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and Paul and Peter. This is the word of God and to contradict it is to call God a liar. It's to despise the blood of Christ and trample his blood underfoot to say, I don't need Christ. I don't need him to do it all for me anyway. There's some things that I can do. That's blaspheming God.

Now when believers hear the gospel and hear these things in the word, they believe Because that's their nature. This is what believers do. They believe. Unbelievers, here's what they do. They don't believe. It's their nature to not believe. But believers, they believe everything in God's word. Everything. I may have never thought about it before, but when somebody shows it to me in God's word, that's what I believe. I believe that. We'll read on verse 46. Paul dealt with these contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said it was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you.

But seeing you put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. Now how is it that you judge yourself unworthy of everlasting life? It's by contradicting the word of God. is by contradicting and blaspheming the way God says he gives eternal life to his people.

To say, you know, I'm not that bad of a sinner, and I have a free will. I can choose to accept Jesus or not anytime I want to. Well, if that's what you think, then you judge yourself to be unworthy of everlasting life that's in Christ alone. Christ did not come to save you and give you eternal life if you're not a sinner. if you're not a sinner by the definition of this book. Christ didn't come to save you if you're not a sinner.

What is it that the angel told Mary and Joseph before he was even born? He came to save sinners. He came to save sinners. The Apostle Paul said it, what we read in the, to open the service, he came to save sinners of whom I'm chief. Now if you're a sinner, And you need Christ to do all of the saving for you. You are worthy of eternal life. You qualify to receive eternal life. If you're a sinner and all you can do is sin, and you need Christ to do all of the saving for you. But if you say, one, I mean, I know I sin, but I can do some things to make myself more savable. I can do some things that will please God. Then you're unworthy. to receive everlasting life. You think you can earn it your own self. You don't qualify for this gift of eternal life if you think you can earn it your own self. That's how you judge yourself unworthy of eternal life.

And you know, that scares me to death. I mean, that scares me to death. And my prayer is God, make me a sinner. Keep me a sinner. Don't ever let me graduate past the point of needing you to do it all for me. Don't let me get so wise and big in my own imagination that I don't think I need you for everything.

One of the old writers said something about it like this, if you find a sinner, you found a sacred thing because God's made him so. Nobody knows that they're a sinner unless God makes them so. But if he makes you a sinner, if he makes you see that you're a sinner, then you qualify to receive this gift of eternal life.

So that's who cannot be saved. Now let's look at who can be. Who was saved here by the preaching of Paul and Barnabas? Well, God saves the worst of sinners. If you're just a little sinner, Christ didn't come save you. But if you're the worst of sinners, I can tell you this without fear of contradiction, Christ came to save you. Look at verse 47. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

Now, the Jews, they thought the Gentiles were the worst of sinners. And you know, only the Jews had the right worship of God. Only the Jews had the Old Testament scriptures, Only the Jews had the tabernacle and the sacrifices and the priesthood. And every Gentile nation, without exception, they were idolaters.

And the Jews looked down their noses at them like somehow they're worse than me. They're worse than me. I mean, the only thing you can call that is self-righteousness. To say somebody else is worse than me. I'm better, so God should bless me because I'm better. The only thing you can call that is self-righteousness.

But listen, you know who the Lord came to save? The worst of sinners. He didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And the Lord always sends the gospel to sinners. Now this was the Lord's purpose. It's something that I can't explain, but it's so plain in scripture, you can't deny it. All throughout the Old Testament scriptures, God promised, there's coming a day, he's sending the gospel to the Gentiles. Now he didn't at that time, but there's coming a day, he's gonna send the gospel to the Gentiles, and here's why he's gonna do it. Because the Jews are gonna reject him. He came into his own, his own received him not, And the Lord used that to fulfill his purpose, to send the gospel to the Gentiles.

And that's what the Apostle Paul here, quoting the Old Testament scriptures, that Christ is gonna come and he's gonna give light to the Gentiles. Light, they sit in darkness, the darkness of ignorance, the darkness of unbelief. And Christ is gonna come and bring light to the Gentiles, to the worst of sinners. They're going to have light. God's going to give them light to see themselves. In the light of Christ, now I can see myself as I really am. You know, if I'm in a completely pitch black room, I can't see myself. I mean, there might be a mirror there. There might be somebody able to tell me what I look like, but nobody can see because we're all blind. We're all in darkness. But when Christ comes, I have light. He's the light of the world.

Now I can see my sin. Now I can see how desperately I need Christ. Now I can see that Christ is my only hope. When he brings light, he gives light to the worst of sinners. When he comes, I have light to see Christ. I mean, that's pretty obvious. And if Christ is the light of the world, when he comes, I see him. I see that righteousness is only in Christ. I see His perfect righteousness, His perfect holiness. He's the only one who has blood that's capable of paying my sin debt.

I see the love of Christ. I already see I'm the worst of sinners, and He loved me enough to die for me, enough to put my sin away and save me, the worst of sinners. I see His love. I see the power of His grace. I see who He is. I see His glorious person. And I love Him. And of course I believe Him. Of course I trust Him. If I see Him.

I promise you, if you see Christ, you're gonna believe Him. You're gonna love Him. You're gonna cling to Him. That's why we always preach Christ. Because if you see Him, you'll believe Him. And if you already believe Him, when you hear Him preach, you'll feed on Him. He's what I need.

If Christ comes and gives me light, now I'm gonna see how God saves sinners. God doesn't save sinners by me doing my part and Jesus doing his part. It's not by Jesus doing everything that he can do, now the rest of it's up to me. Now I see how God saves sinners. How can he be just and save a sinner like me?

It's through the obedience and through the sacrifice of Christ. That's how that he gave Christ my substitute, the punishment that I deserve. Now I see, oh, that's how God saves sinners. It's not through animal sacrifices. It's not through religious ceremony. It's by the obedience and the sacrifice of Christ.

Once God turns the light on, that's so obvious. And I love it that way. If you see Christ, don't you love salvation that's all in him, that you don't have to do anything to contribute to? That's who I need. When Christ comes, I see, I have light to see the mercy of God. And I rejoice in it, because mercy has to be reserved for the worst of criminals, doesn't it? Mercy for me? I see. I see how God can be merciful to me. I see my need of Christ, and I run to him because I see he's everything that I need.

And that light is only given to the worst of sinners. To the worst. That's why he talks here about the The Gentiles. And the Apostle Paul said it for every believer. He said, this is worthy of all acceptation. Everybody ought to accept this as true. True for my own, I'm not just saying I agree that the Apostle Paul is the worst of sinners, because I don't. I say I'm the worst of sinners. This is what every believer claims. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I'm chief.

I'm the worst one. I'm the worst one. I can't look down my nose at anyone. I can't find some Gentile idolater and say I'm better than him. I have to look up at everybody. I have to esteem others as better than myself, because God's given me light to see myself. It's not possible your heart can be as wicked as mine.

And even after all these years of hearing the gospel and believing Christ and loving Christ, being taught of God, I still can't say I'm better than anybody else. I'm less than the least of all the saints. But if we preach the gospel right, and we shed light on how horrible the flesh is, how helpless we are in the flesh, the flesh will always be offended, always, always. Even a believer, when we hear the gospel, our flesh is offended, isn't it? And that's a good thing. I mean, I don't want to be offensive. I mean, I like for you to like me. I don't want to be offensive, but I do want to offend your flesh. I do.

I want your, I want you to see that the only thing in our nature of flesh is sin. Because if we see all we are is seeing that we're going to see, there's no hope of salvation in the flesh. And I've got to run to Christ. If our flesh, if we ever see how awful our flesh is, we're not going to depend on our flesh in any way, but we're going to run to Christ. And you know what? We're not going to stumble and trip and fall over anything and not get to Him. Because in Him, we have light to see. Light to see the path to Him. And we'll run straight to Him.

But that light is only given to the worst of sinners. Now, you're such an awful sinner. that nobody can be a worse sinner than you. Are you such a horrible sinner that the only way you could be saved is through the blood of God's Son? Then salvation is for you. Did you fit the description? Number three, God saves sinners from all over the world. Verse 47, for so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I've set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth."

You know, the Jews thought that salvation was confined to the Jews, confined to that little nation, Israel. And salvation in Christ is not confined at all. It's not confined at all. It's not confined to just the Jews, that little nation over there. Salvation is for sinners from all over the world, to the ends of the world.

Not just to natural Jews, to natural descendants of Abraham. You know, God's salvation is a whole lot bigger than that, isn't it? A whole lot bigger than that. And I'm thankful. All of us ought to be thankful, because there's not one natural Jew in this room. Now, there's spiritual Jews. There's spiritual Israel, but not natural Jews. If salvation was only for natural Jews, we're all Gentiles. We'd have no hope.

But thank God, salvation, Christ is gonna bring salvation to the ends of the world. And you know, it was always the Lord's purpose to send the gospel, to send salvation to the ends of the world. And like I said a little bit ago, it's because the Jews rejected him. And then the Lord sent the gospel to the whole world. And this is what he's teaching us. And this is a vitally important lesson. We need to learn this. God must teach us this.

Because we can understand a little bit about how the Jews felt, right? They're the only ones that had the temple. They're the only ones that had the priest. They're the only ones that had the sacrifices. They're the only ones that had the word of God.

And many of us have been here under the sound of the gospel our whole life long. Our whole life long. And we'll tend to think we got something the rest of the world don't. And I'm just a cut above them Armenians. No. No, sir. Just as rotten. Just as rotten And this is why what the Lord's teaching us here went by sending the gospel to the Gentiles.

Salvation does not come to anyone because of our flesh. So our young people, this is an important lesson. Don't think that God's going to save you because your parents are believers. Salvation doesn't have anything to do with our flesh. It's only by the grace of God that God sends salvation to the worst of sinners. and he does it through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's by his will, by his doing, by his accomplishment, and by his application. Salvation is of the Lord.

And if you're a sinner who fits between the ends of the world, you're a candidate for grace. You're a candidate for salvation. And then, if God has saved you, hearing the gospel makes you glad. When God saves somebody, hearing the gospel makes them glad. Even though it offends their flesh, it makes them glad. Verse 48 says that when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad. Oh, I'm so glad to hear that God the Father chose sinners to save.

That I don't have to do something good enough to make God accept me. He chose to save sinners who would never choose Him if He didn't choose them first. That I don't have to be a Jew. God didn't just choose a physical nation, but He chose people from all over the world.

Oh, I'm so glad to hear that. I'm so glad to hear Christ died for sinners. Christ died for sinners. You know, maybe this is not your experience, but I bet you it is. If after a long time of hearing the gospel and you think, well, God only saves his elect. I see that in scripture. He's going to save his elect. Christ died for God's elect and only for God's elect.

So, oh, well, nothing I can do about it. I'll just wait and see, you know, if I'm one of the elect. Or, even more convoluted than that, I'm gonna try to figure out if I'm one of God's elect. If I can find that out, then I'll believe. My friend, nowhere in scripture does it say, all you who are elect of God, come to me.

It says, sinners, if you're a sinner, come to me. My question to you is not, are you one of God's elect? Are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? If you are, Christ came to save you. If you're righteous in your own self and you're better than other people, then Christ didn't die for you. But if you're a sinner, Christ died for you.

And that makes me so glad, because I'm a sinner and that's my only hope. I love to hear that salvation is by grace. That makes me so glad, that salvation, God gives it to me freely, even though I don't deserve it, and that he's gonna keep me by his grace. It's not even God saves me by his grace, and then I gotta keep myself. He's gonna keep me by the same grace that saved me.

Oh, that makes me so glad. It just takes all the pressure off. I love that. I love to hear that. I love to hear about the gift of God, that he gives salvation freely. that he gives the gift of eternal life. He gives the gift of faith. He gives it freely. Oh, I love that. I love that so much. I'm so glad to hear that because I have no other hope but Christ. But if Christ is my only hope, I have a good hope. That's a sure thing, trusting Christ. And that makes me so glad.

You know, I mentioned this in the class this morning. I'm going to repeat myself here. This is very serious business. We gather together to hear the gospel preached, to worship Christ. This is serious business, serious business. But it also makes us glad. Oh, it makes us glad.

I'm gonna read you some scriptures. We won't take the time to turn to these. You can jot them down if you want, but let me just read them to you about things that make the believer glad. Psalm 31, verse seven, I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy.

Oh, the mercy of God makes me so glad. Don't it, you? That he would give Christ what you deserve so that he could give you what Christ deserves? Oh, what he earned by his obedience? I'm just so glad to think about God's mercy. Psalm 40, verse 16. Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee, in thee. You know, I'm thankful for earthly blessings that the Lord gives us.

Our jobs, our families, our homes, our children. I mean, you know, everybody out there's got a nice car and got nice homes to go to. You got, you know, food to eat. You're not wondering where your next meal's coming from. And I'm thankful for all those things, aren't you? I mean, wow, God's blessed us. We're the richest people on the planet.

But I tell you what makes me glad. It's to hear of Christ. I'll rejoice in thee, the psalmist said. My rejoicing is in Christ and who he is. Oh, the glorious person and what he would do, the great things that he has done for a sinner like me. Oh, it's him. It's not the blessings, it's the blessor that gives us joy. And we rejoice in him. I'm glad for him. Psalm 92, verse four, for thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work.

I will triumph in the works of thy hands. Now, the works of the Lord are different from the work of the Lord. You know, the Lord has many works, all his government of creation and many wonderful works, but there's one work of God that's the preeminent work of God. It's the redemption of his people.

Oh, that work makes me glad. It's a work done for sinners. It's a work that's finished. That's complete. That's a sure salvation. Oh, just hearing about God's salvation, that work that he would do for a sinner like me, that makes me glad. Psalm 97 verse one, the Lord reigneth. Let the earth rejoice.

Unbelievers can hate God's sovereignty over everything and, you know, most people are willing to allow God to be sovereign over everything except salvation. And I guess, you know, the weather or death, because they say the devil did that, you know, but let them argue against it all they want. I don't care. Don't listen to them. Don't fuss with them. Just let them go.

The Lord reigneth. Let the earth rejoice. I tell you, it makes me glad. It makes me glad to think of God's sovereign mercy. That he'll have mercy on whom he will have mercy. That he'll be gracious to whom he will be gracious. He'll even be gracious to those who are not seeking him. I was found of them that sought me not, he said.

That's because of God's sovereign reign over everything. And I tell you this. If God didn't sovereignly save me, I can never be saved. If he didn't save me against my will, with my full consent, I can never be saved. If God didn't sovereignly choose me, Christ didn't sovereignly die for me, he didn't sovereignly send the gospel to me, he doesn't sovereignly keep me by his power, I'll never be saved.

Oh, it makes me glad. David said, let the multitude of Isles be glad. Be glad. that God's sovereign over everything. Even in times of trouble and trial, how can you lay down and go to sleep at night? With all this trouble and trial and weight that the world seems like on your shoulder, how can you go to sleep at night? God's sovereign. He's sovereign over these things. He's able to deliver thee. And here's one, Psalm 122, verse one.

I was glad when they said unto me, let's go to the house of the Lord. Aren't you glad to be able to go to the house of the Lord and hear one more time that glorious gospel of Christ? To hear of his glorious person. That same gospel that offends your flesh makes you so glad, makes your spirit so glad, doesn't it? Aren't you glad to have a place to come hear the gospel of Christ? I was glad when they said to me, let's go to the house of the Lord. And then lastly, If God has saved you, it's because he ordained to save you before the foundation of the world. Verse 48. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad. And they glorified the word of the Lord. You know, they didn't argue against it. They didn't contradict it. They didn't blaspheme it. They glorified the word of the Lord.

And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. You know, the root cause of salvation, where it all begins, It's God's electing love. They said it here plainly, as many as were ordained, ordained by God to eternal life, that's who believed. They believed because God purposed for them to believe at that exact moment.

It's the purpose of God. Now we know that the Father elected a people unto salvation, but election is not salvation. It's unto salvation. everyone that the Father elected, they will hear the gospel. They will. And they will believe on Christ when they hear him preach because God will see to it.

Remember, he's sovereign. So he sovereignly arranges everything to bring you to the point to hear the gospel and believe it. And when he does that, it's because he ordained to do it from before the foundation of the world. And all man's time on earth is, is the unfolding of God's purpose. And if God purposed to save you before time began, you're gonna hear the gospel and believe on Christ because God's gonna see to it.

Let's look at a couple scriptures, 2 Thessalonians verse two. 2 Thessalonians two verse 13. But we're 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. Now it's through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto, now God chose you to salvation, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody that God's chosen from the beginning, he's gonna call by the gospel, and they're gonna believe it. Now look back at the Gospel of John, chapter six.

Verse 37. All that the Father giveth me, those that he chose, sovereignly chose before the foundation of the world and gave to Christ, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.

And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the son and believeth on him may have everlasting life. And I'll raise him up at the last day." Now, why is he gonna do all that? Raise them up at the last day, give them faith when they see him? Because the father chose him before the foundation of the world. And he's gonna send the gospel to them, they'll believe it.

Look at John chapter 10. Verse 26, but you believe not because you're not of my sheep. You don't believe because I didn't choose you, as I said unto you. My sheep, those who I chose before the foundation of the world, those that the Father gave to me, they're my sheep. I'm the great shepherd, they're my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life. And they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Because those that the Father chose before the foundation of the world, they're gonna come to Christ and believe. And one more scripture, John 1. Verse 11.

He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power. He gave them the right or the privilege to become the sons of God. even to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. Why did those that received him, why did he give them the power to become the sons of God? Because God ordained them before the foundation of the world to hear and believe. And that happens every time we hear the gospel preached.

Some believe, some do not believe. Now what's the difference? It's God's grace that makes the difference, isn't it? And if you need God's grace to make the difference for you, because you're such a hopeless, hell-deserving sinner, you need God to make the difference for you, you're a candidate for salvation. You fit the description of those that Christ came to save.

And I hope that we all see ourselves fitting that description. All right, let's bow together. Father, I beg of you that you bless your word, that you would bless it to each heart here that we might see the glory of Christ in everything that he has done and accomplished to save his people from their sin. And Father, that you might cause us to see he's our only hope and to run to him and to find in him everything you require of us and everything we need. Father, if you'd be so pleased to be so merciful to sinners like us here today, surely we'll give you all the praise, all the glory, and all the honor for it, because it all belongs to thee. Father, give us the gift of faith in Christ, we pray. For it's in his name, for his glory's sake, we pray. Amen. All right, Sean.

Okay, if you would turn in your hymnal to song number 127 and stand as we sing Hallelujah, What a Savior. 127. Man of sorrows, what a name for the Son of God who came. Ruined sinners to reclaim, hallelujah. What a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned He stood, Sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we, Spotless lamp of God was He. Full atonement can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior. Lifted up was He to die. It is finished was His cry. Now in heaven exalted high. Hallelujah. What a Savior! When He comes, our glorious King, All His ransom home to bring, Then anew this song we'll sing, Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Whom Does God Save?

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about who God saves?

How do we know God's grace is sufficient for salvation?

Why is belief in Christ essential for salvation?

What does it mean to be chosen by God for salvation?

How does God save the worst of sinners?

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Whom Does God Save?

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about who God saves?

How do we know God's grace is sufficient for salvation?

Why is belief in Christ essential for salvation?

What does it mean to be chosen by God for salvation?

How does God save the worst of sinners?

Sermon Transcript

About Frank Tate

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