If I Loved You

Q: What does the Bible say about truth and love?

The Bible teaches that truth and love are inseparable, as seen in Ephesians 4:14-15. The Scriptures emphasize that truth and love go hand in hand. In Ephesians 4:14-15, Paul instructs us not to be like children who are easily swayed by every doctrine but to speak the truth in love. This relationship between truth and love reveals that to love someone is to tell them the truth about God and their own condition. By speaking truthfully, we can help others grow in their understanding and faith, reflecting the nature of Christ who embodies grace and truth.

Q: How do we know the doctrine of Jesus Christ is true?

The doctrine of Jesus Christ is affirmed in Scripture, asserting that He is the truth as stated in John 14:6. We can be confident in the truth of the doctrine of Jesus Christ because Scripture directly attributes truth to Him. In John 14:6, Jesus claims, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life.' This declaration affirms that He is not just a witness to the truth, but the very embodiment of truth itself. Understanding who Jesus is and His fulfillment of Scriptures reveals the reliability of His teachings and promises, establishing a fundamental basis for our faith.

Q: Why is loving the truth important for Christians?

Loving the truth is essential for salvation, as it's through the truth that one is set free, according to John 8:32. Loving the truth is crucial for Christians because it determines their spiritual condition and relationship with God. Scripture states that one cannot be saved without a love for the truth, as seen in 2 Thessalonians 2:10. Those who reject the truth are subject to strong delusion, which leads to condemnation. Conversely, when we embrace and love the truth, we are set free by it, as affirmed in John 8:32. This freedom enables us to grow in our faith and reflect the character of Christ in our lives.

Q: What does the doctrine of predestination mean?

Predestination means God has chosen certain individuals for salvation before the foundation of the world. Predestination is a vital doctrine within sovereign grace theology, meaning that before the world was created, God determined who would be saved. This is emphasized through Scripture, such as in Ephesians 1:4-5, highlighting that God's election is not based on foreseen merit but solely on His sovereign will. The doctrine reassures believers of God's control over all aspects of salvation and underscores His grace by showing that salvation is entirely His work, not dependent on human efforts or decisions.

Q: How are sinners saved according to the Bible?

Sinners are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, who bore their sins and paid the penalty on the cross. The Bible teaches that sinners are saved through faith in Jesus Christ, who accomplished salvation through His death and resurrection. According to Romans 5:8, 'God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.' This act of grace is not earned by works but accepted by faith. The concepts of justification and propitiation are essential in understanding this salvation: through Christ's sacrifice, God is satisfied and freely declares believers righteous, signaling a complete reconciliation.

for them, Freddie Bear, Pat Panther, and Tina Landis, and also add Nancy Bird to your prayer, if you will. They and I are going to Ashland, Kentucky tomorrow. So we won't have Wednesday night service. Nancy Bird is here. contracted something while she was down in Hawaii, and you know she has that horrible disease. She's been on oxygen for years from the lungs, and she's not doing well. So we went up to, kind of, a few days with her up there in Ashland, where we live tomorrow morning.

So remember us as we travel. And remember Nancy and Jim in your prayers, and the congregation there, because we're all concerned about her health. We all are, and she's our oldest and dearest friends. You know, we've known each other since we were little babies. Remember them in your prayers, especially if you will. Other announcements that I'll notify everybody in the text on the cancellation of Wednesday night service. So we'll be coming back, planning to come back Thursday. So do remember them if you will.

We begin our worship service with hymn number 266, Faith, Faith, East, Earthly Joy. Jesus is mine. Break, break, eternally joy, Jesus is mine. Break every tender tie, Jesus is mine. Earth and the rest in place. Jesus, the long and blessed, Jesus is mine. Tent on my shoulder with Jesus is mine. Here would I ever stay, Jesus is mine. dreams of night. but a dismal void Jesus can satisfy, Jesus is mine Farewell mortality, Jesus is mine Welcome eternity, Jesus is mine After the Holy Scripture reading and prayer, let's sing number 255, Blessed Assurance Jesus is Mine.

Now your Bible's turned to me, to the epistle, to Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 43, verses 14, 15, and 21. Paul says in verse 14 that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in him in all things, which is the head, even Jesus Christ. And in verse 21 it says, and if so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus Christ.

Our Father, we come in the blessed name and perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ our Lord. Who loved us and gave himself for us. Who is King of kings and Lord of lords. Who loved us with an everlasting love. And we are thankful for that, that we can speak such things as sinners, saved by grace, who struggle daily with our own nature, our own nature, contrary to the Spirit.

We are thankful that our salvation, from stem to start, never looked to us or counted on us for anything. what was accomplished in the great panels of sovereign majesty, fulfilled, performed, accomplished by Jesus Christ, the triune Godhead. Help us, Lord, to ever think on these things, to remember always our sin, that we might better and more fully appreciate what Jesus Christ has done for us. Father, we pray for those who are sick, those who've been added to the prayer list, we ask Lord you'll help for them. Pray you'll strengthen them, bring them back to a good measure of health and be according to your will.

We know you will do what's right. You, the judge of all the earth, shall always do what's right. And you know, we know that you are good. We know that's your glory, that you'll make your goodness pass before us. Providence often is difficult at heart for poor old wretched sinners to receive, but we're thankful for the knowledge. Though sometimes we wonder and our hearts are full of unbelief, we are thankful for the faith you've given us to believe that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that call according to His purpose. Help us to bow to you today and worship you in spirit and in truth. We pray in Christ's name, amen.

In number 255, Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine. This is my story. Praising my savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfectly light. This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long This is my story, this is my song I thank you. I thank you. This is my song. my savior.

In the name of Jesus Christ, our majestic, glorious, sovereign, successful Lord and Savior, who died in our womb and stayed, he is the gift that you have given to your people. And with him, you've freely given us everything. that are given reflect the knowledge of what we've been given and who has given it to us. We pray in Christ's name, amen. you you you you I invite your attention back to Ephesians chapter 4. And finally, my message this morning is, if I loved you, God, in his words, speaks intensely, unawfully, about truth and about love. These two things go hand in hand throughout the scripture. It also speaks about love for the truth. Love for the truth. Intensity about love and truth together. Truth is the singular thing that discovers the lie. Nothing else will do it. You can't discover a lie by studying the lie. You discover a lie by knowing and understanding the truth. Truth discloses unbelief.

Our Lord said to a group of Pharisees who lived their life in the Bible, He says, because I tell you the truth, you believe me not, John 8. Scripture says to know the truth is to be set free. To know the truth is to know the Son of God. And it says, and thus you are made free. The Son shall set you free, you shall be free, Indeed, the truth as a body of doctrine is entirely enveloped in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's where all truth resides. He is the Word made flesh that dwelt among us and He is full of what? Grace and truth. Grace and truth. Scripture says grace and truth came by Him and not by Moses. He declares that He Himself is the truth. He said in John 14, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes to the Father but by Me. The Word declares that if you do not love Him, you will be accursed when He comes. The Word likewise declares that if you do not love the truth, that God will send a strong delusion to you. causing you to believe a lie.

And then God will condemn you and damn you for believing the lie that he has caused you to believe because of the delusion he has sent into your mind. But that's all based on one thing. Look over at 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. It says in verse 10, and with all the sinfulness and unrighteousness of them that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth, the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. in the word of God. When John was writing his first epistle, or his second epistle to the elder lady, he wrote these words in 2 John chapter 1, verses 1 through 3, to the elder, an elect lady and her children whom I love in the truth.

And not only I, but also they have also known the truth. For the truth's sake, which dwell in us and shall be in us. Grace be with you, mercy and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son and the Father, in truth and love. In truth and love. The elect find out the good news that God has redeemed them and saved them and justified them and sanctified them after According to Ephesians chapter 1, after they have heard the word of truth, of truth, the Lord said of this book, thy word is truth, is truth. What you rest in your lap is the truth, not a truth, not your truth, not my truth, it is the truth.

And if there is such a thing as the truth, If that really exists in this world, then everything is measured by that. Everything is reckoned by that. We elect to arrive at the truth and believe according to the word, the truth, through the preaching of the gospel, which is also called the truth. by whom the Lord has sent. This is why Paul told young Timothy and Titus, as they were in the ministry of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, no less than 17 times in these two epistles of Timothy and Titus, the three epistles, to preach sound doctrine, teaching, sound words. the truth of the word of God.

John told the elder lady, the same one that we just read about in 1 John, that if anyone did not abide in the doctrine of Christ, God was not in them, neither was Jesus Christ. He said it this way, whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. That's pretty clear, isn't it? You don't abide in Christ's doctrine, that is, the teaching of Jesus Christ, the teaching about Jesus Christ, the words that Christ has spoke. You don't abide in that if you transgress, and it's a sin not to abide in it. If you transgress and abide not in the doctrine of Christ, he hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you that bring not this doctrine, Receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. For he that bid him Godspeed is a partaker of his evil deeds. It's pretty clear, pretty clear. This matter of truth is of utmost importance. It's of utmost importance.

In the context of what I read this morning in Ephesians chapter four, Paul asserts that preaching is speaking the truth in love. speaking the truth in love. And I said, the Bible says a whole lot about love. The Word of God says that the law is fulfilled in these two things. You love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. And that's the full, complete fulfillment of the law. Love. Our Lord admonished His disciples.

He says, by this the world shall know you. that you have loved one for another. This is how they're going to know. In other words, they're also going to love your enemies. For what profit are you? If you love those who love you, that's kind of a done deal. But love your enemies. How are we to love our enemies? I've had enemies in my life I didn't care much for, to be honest with you. But how are we to love our enemies?

To love someone is to do what is best for them, if you possibly can. It's to give to them, to give up for them. Love always travels outward, it never looks for reciprocation. I know people talk about love today as, I have love to give, or I want to give my love. You don't give love, you love. Love is not a commodity, it's an action. If you love someone, you love them. Nothing changes.

I have friends whose loved ones have done horrible things, have ended up in penitentiary. They just stopped loving them. They might have despised what they did or despised the life they've chosen for themselves, but they never stopped loving them. You have children, we have children that have done things we wish they'd never done. We just stopped loving them. Love doesn't end. Shakespeare knew that. He says if love could end, no man ever wrote and I never loved.

We're to love our enemies. How do we do that? How do we do that? Speaking the truth in love. One man said we love them redemptively. We seek their salvation. We seek and we're not talking about convincing them to come to church. We're talking about telling them the truth about God. Speaking the truth in love is how Paul expressed this.

And before declaring that, he warns and admonishes the brethren not to be as children, as babes, who because of immaturity tend to take as truth anything that comes down the pike. We're seeing a lot of that today in the world in which we live, grownups. telling children things that they don't understand, but children believe them anyway, because Lawrence had told him. Our Lord, through Paul, said, don't be like children. Somebody tells you something just because they look like they have authority, or they're a grown-up and you're not. Don't believe them. Don't be as children.

He says it this way, that henceforth be no more children. which suggests they were once children, which the Bible also says milk is for children and strong meat is for the mature, speaking of the word of God, from henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried away with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie away and wait to deceive.

The false doctrines are described as winds of doctrine because they are so light and unsubstantial as to be carried away on a light breeze into the ether. The purveyors of these ethereal doctrines are described as flim-flam artists practicing religious chicanery through subterfuge and subversive measures. They lie in wait to deceive, is how they're described. The only manner by which these illusionists are discovered is disclosed this way. speaking the truth in love. That's how they're discovered.

If I love you, and I think you know that I do. All day, yesterday, the day before, I was whistling that tune. I don't know who wrote it. If I love you time and again in a million ways, I was whistling that tune because that was the title of my message and it stuck in my head. But if I love you, I'll tell you the truth. If I love you. That's the title of my message. If I tell you the truth, there's only one way I can accomplish that.

I must tell you of Christ, because He is the truth. That's what He said in verse 21. If so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by Him as the truth, is in Jesus this is where the truth is now leave that those parameters I've missed the truth Paul makes it pretty clear Christ is also where God's love resides we know that it says that in Romans chapter 8 and verse 39 nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ Everything that God has for the elect is invested entirely in the Lord Jesus Christ. John the Baptist said, the Father loveth the Son and hath put all things in his hands. Whosoever believeth on the Son hath life, whosoever believeth not hath not life, and shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Now this is a simple message, a simple outline, three things I want you to consider. If I loved you, I would tell you the truth about God. If I loved you. When I say God, I speak of Creator, Judge, Ruler, King, Savior, Word, Son, and Spirit. These are all in one and fully revealed in a single person. Remember the truth is in Christ. in him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

He's described that way throughout the scripture. John chapter 5, God said he's going to judge the world. Time and time again, he's called the King of Kings. He's the ruler, he's the sovereign. He's the heavenly father. And the blessed son. For unto us a son is born, and the government shall be upon his shoulders. His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Almighty King. the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

This is the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is described and declared in all these capacities throughout Scripture. The primary aspect of these titles is a singular thing that empowers each one and the paramount aspect of declaring Him. Jesus Christ is absolutely unequivocally Sovereign. Sovereign.

Nothing moves or occurs outside his intent, rule, purpose, and will. Whatever he has declared must come to pass. Whatever he has spoken shall come to pass. His will will be done in heaven and earth and all the deep places. He doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand to say unto him, what doest thou? He rules with absolute sway over all things. Jesus Christ is the truth about God.

No one really understood who God was fully, except that he was out there, that he was the creator. Even they understood that he was the sustainer and the consummator of all things. They understood that he was all powerful. They had some grasp of that, but what they didn't see, and what the Pharisees refused to see, what men refused to see today, that Jesus Christ is that God.

He is God Almighty, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. He's all of the, how is that possible? Don't ask me to explain the trinity. Thousands of Bibles have been written, tried to explain, nobody's got it yet. But scripture says there are three that bear witness, the Father, the Son, the Father, the Spirit, and the Word, and these three are one. That's what the scripture says in 1 John 1. So if I'm going to tell you the truth about God, the first thing I'm going to have to tell you, the primary thing I'm going to have to tell you, the thing of paramount importance for you to understand who God is.

He's not some gray-haired granddaddy, not somebody sitting in some cosmic muffin, sitting on a cloud in a rocking chair. He's not any of those things. He's not really a sweet old fella. He's God Almighty, the judge of all the earth, who will always do right, who must have justice, who must have righteousness, who cannot accept anything shy of perfection. Who are we talking about? We're talking about Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. So I'm going to tell you the truth about, if I love you, I'm not going to lie to you about this. If I love you, I'm going to tell you the truth.

Jesus Christ, the son of God is God and he is absolutely Isaiah said that in Isaiah chapter 52, which is quoted in Romans chapter 10 when Paul talks about one being sent to preach the gospel and say that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. In Isaiah chapter 52 verse 7, Paul quotes this.

He says, how beautiful upon the mountains, or the feet, or the sound of one coming to bring good tidings that publishes peace, and peace we know is only established by the blood of the cross, that brings good tidings of good things, after you heard the word of truth, the good news of your salvation, and publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, the church, what in the world shall we say? This is it. If I'm going to tell you the truth, if the sound of my feet is going to have any good news, if I will publish peace, if I will publish salvation, I must say that first. This is what comes. That precedes the glorious remainder of chapter 52 through 53 of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it starts here. God is sovereign. God is sovereign. Donald wrote a book called Sovereignty of God. One of the greatest things that's ever been written. If you haven't read it, you shouldn't get it. If you can find a copy of it nowadays, then read it. Awful Pink wrote it.

When he wrote it, he wrote to a man who published religious works named John Harrington. And he wrote John Harrington, he said, I've written a book on the sovereignty of God and I want you to think about punishing him. John Harrington wrote back, what do you mean by the sovereignty of God? What do you mean? He wrote back John and John, these words from John.

No man comes to the Father but by me. That book went on to be one of the paramount understandings of that concept in the world. If you haven't read it, seriously, pick up a copy somewhere. The sovereignty of God, the AWP. If I loved you, I'd tell you the truth about God. Secondly, if I loved you, I'd tell you the truth about yourself. There's a multitude of descriptions of mankind in the book that's the book of truth. It's to tell you the truth about men.

It's not one of the descriptions given in this book from except for Genesis chapter 2 when God said everything was good. including the creation of man and his wife. And then everything went bad because they wanted the knowledge of good and evil. But nothing after that said about man would ever serve to build up someone's self-esteem. It simply would not. Not one of the things spoken in this book declares fallen men to be good, or to be righteous, or to be godly. Just the opposite is true.

When Paul wrote in Romans chapter 3, he began his writing quoting from Psalm 14. When David wrote that God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, and saw that there was none good and none righteous. They were all together become filthy. That word is stinking. They all stunk. None of them sought after God, and God was not in all their thoughts. Under their tongue was the poison that lasts. Lies were upon their lips. No thoughts of God in their hearts. None good, no, not one. None that doeth righteousness. No, not one, not even one. This is how man is described in scripture. Not as a fine upstanding fellow with a heart of gold, his heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.

And who can know it? Even as a child of God, he must readily admit that when he would do good, as lame, as dead, as doomed, as drinking iniquity like water, as coming forth as soon as he is born, as soon as he proceeds from the womb, telling lies. As soon as he is born. He is said to be conceived in iniquity, concede in iniquity.

He is guilty of his father's sin, Adam, from the beginning. He cannot redeem himself. He cannot justify himself. He cannot make himself any better. He may make reformations in his life, He may be somewhat kinder. He may stop doing some socially unacceptable thing and pick up some socially acceptable thing in its place. He may do all those things.

But all things apart, all things apart from Jesus Christ and His salvation are by nature evil. They're all evil. The elect, those chosen by God from all eternity to be heirs of salvation and heirs of promise, do not differ one whit from those who will spend eternity in hell separated from God.

There is no difference. No difference in nature, in ourselves. None at all. Not one person who is saved, redeemed and justified has any part, any part in their salvation. That's the truth about you and the truth about me. Not one molecule of natural man or spiritually awakened man contributes anything to his salvation.

When Paul said, I count all things but done, you read what he counted done prior to that, it was everything before he knew Christ and everything he knew after Christ that he had anything to do with. He counted as done. Man is entirely and completely passive in the salvation of his soul.

How was I saved? It happened to me. by God's grace. It happened to me. The hap of grace fell upon me, if you will. Human fingerprints are nowhere to be found in salvation. So you realize, if I'm going to tell you the truth, that that excludes about 90% of what people call salvation today in religion. And I know this is true because I was a product of that religion until I was 32 years old. If I loved you, I'd tell you the truth about yourself, about myself. Finally, if I loved you, I'd tell you the truth about how sinners are saved. Salvation, said Jonah, from the belly of a whale is of the Lord. Involved in this thing called salvation, first of all, the necessity of it is found in the word itself.

Who needs saving? Those who can't save themselves. That's just simple math. If you can save yourself, or will yourself to be saved, or decide to be saved, you don't have any need for salvation. It's a word that has a definition in itself. Salvation is for those who can't be saved otherwise. Salvation is of the Lord.

Involved in this salvation is this thing called predestination. determining beforehand what would happen and what would take place and who would be benefit of that. In fact, the six times in the New Testament that the word provorizo is used, it all has to do with the death of Christ and the benefits of that death for those for whom he died.

And it was all predestinated by him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. The cross was predestinated. Us hearing the gospel was predestinated. Us believing was predestinated. Being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ was predestinated. Take away predestination, you don't have a God who knows what's going on. You have a God not acting, but a God reacting. And God don't react to nothing. God is the actor in all things.

I use an example, an illustration of flower following the sunlight. We know that's true. You have a flower sitting in a window. As the sun comes up in the morning, the flower leans over that way. As the sun moves, it follows the sun. Why does it do that? Is the flower acting? It's being acted upon. Well, God created that flower with these things called photosynthesis cells, and heliosynthesis cells. Big words. What does that mean?

That down the stem of the flower, on each side and surrounding the stem, there's these little cells that when light hits them, they expand. And when heat hits them, they expand. But they only expand on the side where the heat hits them. So if the flower's here, and the sun's here, begin to expand and there it goes. Each side either expands or contracts according to the light that hits it.

What's the fire doing? It's being acted upon and it's acting just like it's supposed to. This is what happens. What do you do? You know, let me tell you about your life. I'm going to tell you about your life. Your steps are ordered by the Lord. Now, you make your decision.

One day we're going to find out that every step we took, every decision we made, every thought we had, every word that was upon our lips and upon our tongues was all according to God's predestinated purpose. The fellow said, do you believe in predestination? Or do you believe in absolute predestination? My answer's always the same, absolutely. Absolutely.

When we talk about salvation, we talk about this thing called foreknowledge. Another Greek word, progenosko, to know beforehand. But generally, it's used in scripture to mean to forelove or to love beforehand, to intimately love like a man knows his wife. Foreknowledge. God knew who he would save. That's another thing about foreknowledge. It never has anything to do with what. It never has anything to do with events. It's always about people. It's always about persons. Election. Election.

God, before the world began in this matter of salvation, who's going to be saved? God predestinated who would. He foreknew who would. How are they going to be saved? God CHOSE them! How did He do that? According to His own will, He picked them out of a fallen race that did not yet exist. He picked them out and separated and separated them from all of humanity to make them His own, His trophies of grace. He said, I choose this one and I choose that one. Why did He do that? Because He's God and He can do that sort of thing. He can do that sort of thing. We knew that. We knew that.

My wife chose me, and I chose her. And it was a particular choice. I did not tell my wife, I love you, and I chose you like I chose so many other women, or all other women. She would have slapped me upside the head if I had said something like that. That's stupid. Election is personal and exacting. It has to do with predestination. and for knowledge and purpose.

I'm going to tell you the truth about salvation. I'm going to talk to you about substitution, about me owing God a debt I could not pay, and someone else paying that debt for me and relieving me of ever being accounted responsible for that debt. That happened 2,000 years ago on Calvary Street when our Lord Jesus Christ went on that lonely wooden tower and hung in agonies of blood and died in the room instead of his people. And when he died, when he gave up the ghost, when he ceased to live by his own power and will, you know what happened?

The Lord looked at Tim James and said, debt paid. You don't owe me nothing. I owe him an eternal debt of gratitude and love, but I don't owe him anything legally. The debt has been paid. Jesus Christ died my death. He died my death. He lived a perfect life, so he would be a perfect sacrifice. We're not saved by his life and death. We're saved by his death and life.

And there is a difference in those two things. If I'm gonna talk to you about salvation, I'm gonna talk to you about imputation. A lot of people are having arguments about this and that. That simply means that you're charged with something. I know that Jesus Christ is my righteousness, and righteousness imputed to me. I can never fully explain any of that, just as he was made to be sin on Calvary Street. I know some real smart people got an answer for that, but this fellow don't.

It's enough to hear it from the mouth of God. That Jesus Christ was made to be sin for us. And the result of that is that we were made the righteousness of God in Him. By imputation, Adam's sin was charged to us. That's what imputation means. Our sin was charged to the Lord Jesus Christ.

His righteousness is charged to us of Him. who of God made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Propitiation. If I want to talk to you about salvation, I've got to talk to you about propitiation. The Old Testament word is atonement. And it's okay to use it in this sense, that our sins are covered by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the New Testament word is propitiation, which means satisfaction.

If I want to talk to you about salvation, I cannot talk to you about a God who, if you're His child, is angry with you because He's not. I can't talk to you about a God, if you're His child, who's out to get you or out to wait for you to mess up. If He was waiting for us to mess up, He wouldn't have to wait a second. If I want to talk to you about salvation, I'm going to have to talk to you about a God who's so satisfied with the death of the Lord Jesus Christ that he looks at you without sin as perfect as his very own son or daughter. God's son or daughter.

Think about that. I had an earthly father who I adored and an earthly mother I adored. It was a fine thing, but they died. They died. I have a heavenly father who will never die, who is life itself, and he calls me this vile, stinking pile of putrefying humanity.

Son, come boldly into my throne room and talk to me about whatever you need. Come boldly. Why? Because he satisfied me. Because I'm in his Son, Jesus Christ, who propitiated God for my sins. I'm going to talk to you about salvation, I must talk to you about justification.

And somewhere, if a record was kept of my sin, if you would open up that book today, there wouldn't be one thing on it of me having ever sinned. It was all my sin. From A to Z, from my first breath where I come forth speaking lies, to my last breath when I finally will admit my will has no power whatsoever, and I finally pass in this world. My sin, from start to finish, before God, does not exist. It will not be remembered. I will never forget it. I'm reminded of it every day when I wake up in the morning. Every time I read this book, every time I sing a hymn, every time I come to preach or go hear the gospel preached, every time I take the Lord's table, every time I baptize someone, it's always all about my sin.

And God says, you're justified, just as if you never sinned. If I'm going to talk to you about salvation, I'm going to have to talk to you about sanctification. Sanctification, being set apart for God's purpose and His use, and being declared to be holy and godly, which I would dare, had God not said it, ever apply those names to myself. But Christ is our sanctification. He's our holiness. I want to talk to you about salvation.

I want to talk to you about purchase and possession. People say today in Pope's day that Christ paid our sins and he purchased us. We were bought with a price. And then they say you have to do something. Or somehow you might lose that. Listen, if God bought you, you're paid for and you're his. We know, we all understand that. We buy something, we pay for it. It's ours. Unless we suddenly live in what is called a true democracy, then the democracy could actually decide with 51% that it's not yours, it's theirs.

But we don't have, we live in a theocracy where God says, this is mine. Thou, that's what he said to that little girl in Ecclesiastes 16. You are bought with a price. And you're called a peculiar possession throughout the New Testament in several places. You know what that word peculiar means? Purchased and possessed. So what God has bought is His. And He'll not be robbed. You'll not take that from Him.

If I'm going to talk to you about salvation, I'm going to talk to you about this. It's all according to the blood and death of Jesus Christ. All of it. That great, wondrous, strange and glorious transaction that took place between God Almighty and God Almighty in human flesh. the Son of God, by His blood and His death, His people are saved. His death paid for their sin debt. His blood was shed for cleansing and covering their sin. His blood and death. He gave us something to talk about. When I preach the gospel, what am I talking about? When we take the Lord's table, what are we talking about? His blood and His death. When we baptize somebody out there in Creek, what are we talking about? His blood and His death.

I'm going to love you. I'm going to have to tell you the truth about God. I am. I love you. I'm going to have to tell you the truth about yourself. And if I love you, I'm going to have to tell you the truth about how God saves sinners. Father, bless this church in every prayer in Christ's name. Amen. God bless you.

If I Loved You

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about truth and love?

How do we know the doctrine of Jesus Christ is true?

Why is loving the truth important for Christians?

What does the doctrine of predestination mean?

How are sinners saved according to the Bible?

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If I Loved You

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about truth and love?

How do we know the doctrine of Jesus Christ is true?

Why is loving the truth important for Christians?

What does the doctrine of predestination mean?

How are sinners saved according to the Bible?

Sermon Transcript

About Tim James

Comments

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