Well, good morning. Before Dan
comes and reads scripture for us and leads us in prayer, we'll
make a couple of announcements. Eric and Abby are in Danville
this morning. Eric's preaching there. I want
to remember him in prayer. And I'll give you the update
that I got from Dan Culver on his daughter, Jessica Clark.
The surgery, as far as they can tell, is a complete success,
and she is recovering at home. And when she recovers from the
surgery, they will have one more chemo treatment. They are pretty
sure they got all of the cancer in the surgery, but they'll have
one more chemo treatment to make sure there's no stray cells.
And the plan is That'll be it. She'll be done with treatments,
and she'll be checked and so forth. But that's such good news. So thankful. And just very, very,
very happy to see Gary and Janie back with us. It blesses my heart
to see them. So thankful. Thankful. Thankful
to our Lord for his mercies, the healing mercies to you. I'm
glad you're back. All right, Dan, you come read scripture. If you would turn to 1 Peter
3. I don't know where to put that except on my face. 1 Peter 3, and I'd like to pick
up our reading in verse 8. Finally, be ye all of one mind,
having compassion one of another. Love is brethren, be pitiful,
be courteous. Not rendering evil for evil or
railing for railing, but contrary wise blessing. Knowing that ye
are there unto called, that you should inherit a blessing. For
he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his
tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile. Let
him eschew evil and do good. Let him seek peace and ensue
it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his
ears are open to their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. And who is he that will harm
you if you be followers of that which is good? But and if you
suffer for righteousness sake, happy are you. And be not afraid
of their terror, neither be troubled. but sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asketh you the reason of the hope that is in you with
meekness and with fear. Having a good conscience that
whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers, they may be
ashamed that falsely accuse you, that falsely accuse your good
conversation in Christ. For it is better if the will
of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing.
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,
that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit. By which also he went and preached
unto the spirits in prison, but sometime were disobedient, when
once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while
the ark was a preparing wherein few, that is, eight souls, were
saved through the water, that word should be through the water,
saved by the art of Christ. The like figure were unto even
baptism that also now saveth, not the putting away of filth
of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who's gone into heaven
and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers
being made subject unto him. May the Lord bless his word.
Let's pray. Our great. Mighty. Sovereign
Heavenly Father. Come before you. A needy people. Praying Lord that you would send
your spirit to be among us that you might. Give our pastor a
word from the. That you might give us hearing
ears and receiving hearts. to rejoice in the preaching of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And Father, we're so very, very thankful that you've
brought us here this morning. Father, we're thankful for the
good reports that we've had on Jessica. We're so thankful that
you brought Gary back to worship with us. When one of our number
is feeling sick or heavy at heart, we all feel it, Lord, and we
pray that you would continue to make it be so, that you would
lay the cares of each other on our hearts, that we might lift
our brothers and sisters up in prayer to thee, knowing that
thy will be done. Father, we pray that you would
Intervene on the behalf of the Elmquist's daughter, Jennifer,
that you might move those insurance companies to approve the treatment,
and that you might use that means to heal her body. Father, we
know thou art the great physician. All healing comes from thee,
but we know that you've ordained means. We give all the glory
to thee. Father, we pray that you would
bless our children, leave them not to themselves, cause them
to run to thee, cause them to look to Christ for their salvation.
Father, we pray that this virus that you've sent to our nation
and to this world, that you would accomplish your will through
it soon. that you might bring some normalcy
back. That our children might be able to enjoy school and activities. That people might be able to
congregate together and see each other's smiles. Lord, that we
might be able to hug our brothers and sisters. Father, we know
it's thy will. And we're grateful for it. Now, Lord, we pray once again
that you would be with us this morning. Leave us not alone. We met in vain. Give us an hour
of worship. Cause us to rejoice in our Lord
Jesus Christ. What's in his name that we pray
and ask these things and give thanks. ["Pomp and Circumstance"] My faith looks up to Thee, Thou
Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine. Now hear me when I pray, Take
all my sin away, O let me from this day be wholly Thine. May Thy rich grace impart strength
to my fainting heart, my zeal inspire. As Thou hast died for
me, O may my love to thee, pure, warm, and changeless, be a living
fire. While life's dark maze I tread,
and griefs around me spread, be thou my guide. Mid-darkness turn to day, wipe
sorrow's tears away, nor let me ever stray from thee aside. When in life's transient dream,
When death's cold, sullen stream Shall o'er me roll, Bless, Savior,
then in love Fear and distrust remove, ? Oh, bear me safe above
a ransomed soul ? So good, thank you. All right,
if you would, open your Bibles with me now to the book of 1
Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter four. I titled the message this morning,
The Savior of All Men. I know that title's gonna make
some Calvinists here wonder and even stumble, but we should not
be afraid to call our Lord the Savior of all men, because that's
what scripture calls him. My text is 1 Timothy 4, verse
10. For therefore, we both labor
and suffer reproach, because we trust in a living God who
is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe. Now, what
does it mean that the Lord is the Savior of all men? I would
imagine, I know everybody here, I would imagine everybody here
already knows that this does not mean that the Lord is the
Savior of all men without exception. It does not mean that the Lord
Jesus Christ died for all men without exception, that he is
trying to save every son of Adam. We know that so because of what
he said. Before he went to the cross,
he clearly said he was not dying for all men. He said, I pray
not for the world. He wasn't going to suffer and
die for everybody without exception in the world. He said, I pray
for those whom thou hast given me. Now without apology, we boldly
and as clearly as we are able to the spirit, preach Christ
who has fully and completely saved God's elect. We preach
the gospel that declares that God saves sinners by his sovereign
grace, through God-given faith, without any of man's works, before
or after conversion. That's the gospel that we preach,
because that's the truth. That is the truth that is revealed
all throughout the word of God. Now, if we preached that Christ
died for every son of Adam, without exception, if we preach that
God is trying to save every son of Adam, if you'll just decide
to let him, then we wouldn't suffer the reproach of the world. But we do. We suffer reproach
from the world. We suffer reproach from the flesh.
Anytime we preach salvation is in God's sovereign, free, electing
grace. Paul begins this verse, he says,
for therefore, therefore, we suffer reproach because we do
preach and we do believe what was in the preceding verses.
Let's read them quickly. Verse one, make a few comments,
kind of review a little bit of last Sunday's message. Now the
spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times, some should
depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and
doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their
conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry. Now we preach that salvation
is in Christ our bridegroom. who clothes his bride, his people,
in a beautiful wedding garment of his righteousness. And salvation
isn't in any of our works. Salvation is not in what we do
or what we don't do. Salvation certainly is not denying
ourselves the pleasure of a relationship like marriage. That is a relationship
that Almighty God says is good. Now this tells you something
about man's works religion. They call something evil that
God calls good. God said it's not good that man
dwell alone. But man's worst religion says
it is good for you to dwell alone. You'll be more righteous. You'll
be more holy if you don't get married. But God said it's good.
Now go figure that. You know where that comes from?
A dead, depraved nature. Somebody believes that and preaches
that because their conscience has been seared with a hot iron.
It's been killed. That's the only reason. But we
suffer reproach when we preach that that work, that we take
away that work, that that work can't earn you righteousness,
that's in Christ alone. Now the flesh doesn't like that.
So we'll suffer reproach for preaching that. Read on in verse
three, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats,
which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of
them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of
God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with
thanksgiving. for it's sanctified by the word
of God in prayer. Now we preach that salvation
has nothing to do with this body of sinful flesh, what we put
in it or what we don't put in it. By God's grace, we preach
Christ. Salvation is in him, what he
has done for us and what he has put in us in the new birth. Not
in what we put in this sinful flesh to feed this flesh, this
body of flesh that's dead and dying. not eating or not drinking
something that God calls clean, now that's a work. That's a work
of righteousness that comes from a dead, depraved mind to think
up that kind of work, trying to earn righteousness by not
doing something that God says is good for you. God created
this for you to eat. How foolish to say I'll be more righteous
if I don't eat it. And a person will be damned for trusting a
sinful work like that. And we'll suffer reproach when
we preach that. Because the flesh doesn't like it. Look at verse
eight. For bodily exercise profiteth
little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise
of the life that now is and of that which is to come. Now we
preach that salvation is in Christ. It's not in the motions of religion. God is spirit. God's not worshiped
in the motions of religion, what we do with this flesh. Saying
that, the motions of religion, motions that get this flesh noticed,
profiteth a little. And what Paul means there are
profits for a little while, a little while. I remember being a boy,
I loved the big red machine. I mean, I loved them. I mean,
wow. And I still do. But I remember
this being a little guy and watching Davy Concepcion come up to bat
every single time. He made this sign of the cross,
you know, and I thought, well, he's the worst hitter on the
team. I mean, is this helping? It profits little, profits little. And what Paul means is it profits
for a little while, for a little while. It only makes the flesh
feel better. It makes the flesh feel more
religious for a little while, just for a little while. There's
no eternal, no sole benefit to that show of religion because
God doesn't look on the outward. countenance on the outward motions.
God looks on the heart. God's never pleased with the
flesh. God's worshiped from the heart.
He's worshiped in spirit, the spirit that he gives. And we'll
suffer reproach anytime we take away that work of religion as
a way to earn righteousness, the motions of religion. Oh,
the flesh don't like that. No, the flesh loves the motions
of religion because it makes them feel better about themselves.
And we'll suffer reproach when we preach that. So what does
it mean? Now we suffer reproach for preaching
this. What does it mean that the Lord Jesus Christ is the
savior of all men? Now you can't take that phrase,
the savior of all men, just pluck it out of scripture and say,
here's, and hold it up by itself and say, here's what that means.
That it means that Christ died for everyone, that God's trying
to save everyone. He's the savior of all men if
they'll just decide to accept him. Now the meaning of this
phrase, the Savior of all men, the meaning of any phrase that
you find in scripture, if we're gonna have the correct definition,
if we're gonna understand what it's saying, it absolutely must
agree with all of the rest of scripture. So who is the Savior
of all men? What does this mean, he's the
Savior of all men? Well, God's given us a whole
book so that we'll know him, so we'll know who he is, the
Savior of all men. But in this verse in particular,
1 Timothy 4.10, I see four descriptions of the Savior of all men. As
I read them to you, we talk about them a little bit. If God has
saved you, you'll recognize this is the Savior that saved me.
This is the Savior that I know and I trust and I love. Number
one, the Savior of all men is the living God. Paul says, for
therefore we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in
the living God. Now the living God has several
meanings. Number one, it means this, the savior of all men.
He's not a dead idol who's been made up from the mind of a fallen,
depraved man. He is the living God. Now that
means more than Jesus lives. You see those bumper stickers
like Jesus lives, Jesus is alive. It means more than that. The
living God means that the Lord Jesus Christ, the savior, he
has life in himself. He is independent. Now, you and
I are not independent. Our life is completely dependent
on God in it. God must be the one to give life.
God must be the one to sustain life. He's got to keep us breathing.
He's got to keep our heart beating. We'll live as long as he does
that. And this body will die the moment
he takes it away. We're dependent on God. But the
Lord Jesus Christ is the living God. He has life in himself. He's independent. He's independent
of everyone and everything. He is in need of nothing because
he's God. Now, if God's going to be truly
God, he must be independent. Isn't that right? He's got to
be independent because if he's God, everything depends on him. He's dependent on nothing, but
everything else is dependent upon him if he's God, especially
you and me. especially as we are completely
dependent on him. And the only reason any of us
have spiritual eternal life this morning is God gave it to us
by his free and sovereign grace, the living God. Number two, the
living God means this is what I just said. He gives life to
his people. And if we're going to have life,
he's got to give it to us, doesn't he? Because we're born dead in
sin. And if we do have spiritual life,
the reason for it is God the Holy Spirit has given us life. And when he gives us life, he
gives his people the life of Christ. The life of Christ. Now what does that mean? That
sounds like a great religious term, doesn't it? God's given
me the life of Christ. What does it mean? What means
this? That the life of a believer is
the perfect, righteous, obedient, holy life of the Lord Jesus Christ. His obedience is our obedience. His righteousness is our righteousness. His life is his life. What he
did as a man on this earth, what he did, we did in him. Everything he did, his people
did too. That's what union with Christ
means. That's what it means to have his life. We have union
with him. We did everything that he did. That's why God accepts us in
Christ. And if God has saved us, we trust
the living God. We trust that the Lord Jesus
Christ is absolutely everything that God requires of me. I don't
have to add anything to it. And third, the living God is
the life of his people. He is our life. Christ is more
than he gives life to his people. He is our life. In Colossians
3 verse 4, the apostle said, when Christ who is our life shall
appear. Then shall you also appear with
him in glory. He is our life. Look back at
Galatians chapter two. He is our life. And if the Savior
of all men has saved you, you know this, that Christ is your
life. And the life that you now live
in the flesh, you live serving him. It's his life. He gave it
to you and you live to serve him. to learn more about Him,
to follow Him, to worship Him. You live to serve His people
in any way that you can because He is your life. That's what
the Apostle Paul said. Look here at Galatians 2 verse
20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. I live here in the flesh. Yet
not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. And if the Savior of all men
has saved you, you know that he is your life and you live
looking to him, depending on him, trusting him and serving
him. All right, number two, the Savior of all men is the ruling
sovereign Lord over all. Paul says back in our text, 1
Timothy 4.10, we trust in the living God who is the savior
of all men. Now this word, savior, normally
when it's used in scripture, it means exactly what you think
it means. It means the savior of sinners,
the savior of souls. In Luke 2 verse 11, the angel
said, for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior,
which is Christ the Lord. the exact same Hebrew or Greek
word, Savior, the Savior, the Redeemer, the deliverer of sinners. But this word Savior also means
a deliverer and preserver. This word is the title that the
ancients gave to their kings and to their rulers, a Savior,
Lord over all. So the Savior of all men has
to be the sovereign ruling Lord over all. He's sovereign, he
rules over everything and everyone in his creation. Now the Lord
is the deliverer. He's the preserver of all men,
all sons of Adam in this sense, physically, physically. For a
time, the Lord gives life and he keeps every son of Adam alive. He's their deliverer. He's the
one who gives them life and sustains them. And he does it as long
as it suits his purpose. Now the Lord may damn them in
the end, but he gives them physical life for a time. He gives them
physical blessings and uses them to accomplish his eternal purpose
here on earth. These folks, God's their Lord.
He's their provider. They have food to eat because
God gave it to them. They have air to breathe because
God gives it to them. He makes their lungs work so
they can take in the air and expel the CO2 and It goes in
their body and does what it's supposed to do because God gave
it to them. God makes it all work. They have clothes to wear
and a house to live in because God gave it to them. Now, mostly
they don't know it and they're certainly not thankful for it,
but God gives it to them and he sustains their life for a
time. And I can tell you why God does
that. Because somehow in the way that God has ordained, they
live on this earth to serve God's purpose and to accomplish His
purpose, to serve His people. Now, they can't help it. They
don't know God. They don't love God. They have
no desire to serve God and serve His purpose, but they can't help
but do it. They can't help but serve God's
purpose because God's sovereign over them, and He's using them
as He will to accomplish God's will, not theirs. And the most
shining, clear example that we know of of this truth is the
cross, is the cross. Hanging on that cross is the
eternal father, the son of God. Now, how'd that happen? How did
he come to hang there? Well, God made the wood, he made
the tree to grow, and gave the man the ability to cut that tree
down and make a cross, didn't he? God put the ore in the ground,
and somehow he gave the man the intelligence to go mine that
thing and do whatever is smelted, do whatever they did to make
a nail out of it. God did that. God put it in the
hearts of men to shout, crucify him and give us Brabus. I mean,
can you imagine crucify the only perfect man that ever lived and
give us this horrible criminal, this horrible criminal Brabus.
God put it, he said that they're going to do it. And then he put
it in their heart to do what he said before they would do.
to part his garments among them and cast lots for him. God put it in the heart of that
soldier to shove that spear into the side of a man who's hanging
there dead. So out of his side would come blood and water. Now,
all of that that they did, all of it was their free decision. They decided to do it, didn't
they? Yet God put it in their heart to do it. God did that
because he's sovereign Lord over them and he did it for this purpose,
just like he does everything else. to accomplish His purpose,
His purpose of the redemption of His people. So the Savior
of all men is the sovereign Savior. He is the Lord, He's the ruler
over everyone. And every son of Adam is in His
hand to do with as He will. And since He's the sovereign
God, He says He'll save whom He will. He'll give mercy to
whom He will. He'll be gracious to whom He
will be gracious. See, God provides fleshly things for all men, whatever
they have, God provides it for them. Oh, but especially, especially,
God wonderfully cares for and provides spiritual blessings
for His own, for His own. God's elect, they have all the
fleshly things, material things, God gives them too. But God especially,
wonderfully cares for them, giving them spiritual blessing in His
Son. And He gives it to them just
because He will. Not because they deserve it,
just because He will. Now I'll tell you what, that
makes God's people glad. It don't make them mad. If that
makes you mad, you don't know the Savior of all men. You don't
know the Lord Jesus Christ, but if you know Him, that makes you
awful glad to hear He saves whom He will. You mean to tell me
that God would save a sinner like me? That He'd save a rebel
like me? Oh, that makes me thankful. That
makes me bow to him in worship. That don't make me mad, it makes
me glad. It's the only hope of salvation that I have. God saves
his people by his sovereign will, by his electing grace. Aren't you glad salvation depends
on God's electing grace? That it does not depend upon
the depraved, sinful decision of the creature. If it depended
on our decision, none of us would be saved, none of us would come
to Christ. But God saves his people by his electing grace.
God saves his people by sovereign grace that he gives to whom he
will. Not because somebody did something
to deserve it. Not because somebody did something
to make God a debtor to them. No, God's Lord over all. He's
independent. We can't make God a debtor to
us. Not because we did something
good, but just because God would give a free gift of grace to
a sinner and save him. That's how God saves sinners.
Now God's sovereign over all things, physically and spiritually,
and God always does as he pleases. He uses the physical to accomplish
his will of spiritual redemption, spiritual blessing for his people.
Everything God does in creation is for this purpose, that his
son is gonna get the glory, saving his people from their sin. God
always does according to his eternal will, and nobody can
change it. And that simply means this, whatever
God's will is, that's what's gonna happen. And God has willed,
he's purposed to save his people from their sins. Then it's gonna
happen. They're gonna be saved. Now here
is what sovereign savior means to me. Here's how this directly
affects me. God, the savior of all men, can
do with me as he pleases. You know, it's one thing to say
all men out there in God's hand do with as he pleases. But I'll
tell you where the rubber meets the road. God can do with me
as he pleases. And whatever it is that he chooses
to do with me is right. That's what it means to be sovereign. Whatever it is he chooses to
do with me is right. He doesn't owe it to save me. God can save me
by his grace if he would choose to do that. If he would choose
to magnify his mercy and his grace by saving me, God can do
that. Or God can damn me, because that's
what my sin deserves. God could choose to damn me to
exalt his justice. But whatever he does is just
and right and good. And nobody can stay his hand
or ask him, what are you doing? Nobody can say, wait a minute,
God, I think that's wrong. Nobody can say that, because he's the
sovereign. See, God never saves any sinner
by an act of their depraved, sinful will. The sovereign Savior
saves sinners by His sovereign will alone. Salvation is not
by our will. Salvation is not by our decision. Salvation is wholly and totally
the will and decision of God. And if God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Savior of all men has saved you, you know that. You know
that so. You know you didn't choose God.
He chose you. You know that you didn't love
Him first. He loved you first. Now, if God saved you, you do
choose Christ. I mean, you willingly choose
him, you believe him, you follow him. But you didn't first choose
Christ anymore, and you first loved him. You choose Christ
because God overrode your sinful will, and he gave you a new will
and a new birth that can't help but believe Christ. And if God
saved you, you know it. You know that is the Savior that
saved me. And I love it that way. I love
it that way. All right, number three, the
Savior of all men is the successful Savior. He's the Savior of all
men. Now this word all, like I said
at the beginning of the message, it cannot mean all sons of Adam
without exception. It can't. If the Lord Jesus Christ
died in an effort to save all men, and that's what we hear
from false religion, right? No matter who it is, they say
Jesus loves you. Jesus died for you. He died for
all men without exception. If the Lord Jesus Christ died
in an effort to save every son of Adam, then he's a horrible
failure. And Sean, we're wasting our time
preaching, aren't we? I mean, we know there's a place called
hell and there are people in it right now. That's what scripture
tells us. Well, if Christ died for those
people, you and I are wasting our time worshiping him. We're
wasting our time asking him for mercy because he died for people
he couldn't save. His blood wasn't enough. His
sovereign will and power wasn't enough. So this word all cannot
mean all sons of Adam without exception. He is the Savior. Now that's one of the sweetest
names of the Lord that I know. Savior. He came to save. To save His people from their
sin. He came to save His people from
the penalty of sin. so they can never again be punished
for their sin because he was punished in their stead, in their
room as their substitute. He came to save his people from
the power of sin. I've told you this before, when
we read about being saved from the power of sin, it still feels
like sin has a pretty powerful influence on me. How about you?
Does that mean Lord hadn't saved me? No, it means this. The power
of sin is the power to keep us from believing Christ. It's the
power to make us stay under the bondage of the law. But Christ
has delivered his people from the power of sin. And now they
can't not believe him. Now they can't not look to him.
Now they can't not trust him. Now I believe what I once did
not believe. I spent my entire life, from
the time I understood language, being under the sound of the
gospel. and didn't believe it. Didn't
believe a word of it. I mean, I mentally believed the
truth of it, but I didn't believe a word of it. Not a single solitary
word. I hated it. I hated it. I would
sit and Henry would be preaching, and I'd think, how long is he
gonna preach? I'd be thinking about the big red machine. I'd
be thinking about, you know, cute girl I sit next to. I'd
be thinking about so many, just... And one day, I believed that. One day, I loved what I used
to hate. What happened? God delivered
me from the power of sin. I used to wonder, Henry would
say, look to Christ. If you just tell me where he
is, I'd look. He'd say, come to Christ. Where'd he go? I'll
go. One day I looked. One day I came. I came to him.
What happened? God delivered me from the power
of sin. Many of you just experienced the exact same thing. And he
came to save his people Thank God one day, from the very presence
of sin, when He shall appear, we'll be like Him. We'll be without
sin. Oh, I want to tell you, He did
it. And that makes His name Savior,
the sweetest name that I know, because He came to fulfill my
greatest need, to save me from my sins. But that name, Savior,
is not a sweet name if he came to save people who perished anyway. That takes away all the sweetness
of it, doesn't it? I can't find any rest, any comfort for my
soul in trusting a Savior who often fails to save. But he didn't
fail. He came to save all. Look here
at John chapter six. Let me show you who this all
is. He came to save all. He came to save all that the
father gave him to save. John chapter six, verse 36. But I said unto you
that you have also seen me, and you believe not. You believe
not. But that doesn't mean Christ
is a failure, because look what he says in verse 37. All, 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 again at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone, all, everyone, which seeth the Son
and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I'll raise
him up at the last day." That's who Christ came to save. He came
to save the all. He came to save all of God's
elect, all that the Father gave him to save. And they will all
come to Christ. All of them will, every last
one of them. Look over at verse 43. John 6,
Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not among
yourselves, no man can come to me. They're under the power of
sin and it stops them from being able to come to Christ. No man
can, they don't have the ability, they don't have the will to come
to me, except the Father which sent me draw him, and I will
raise him up at the last day. It's written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me. That's the all, it's the all
that the father gave him to save. Look over at John chapter 10.
The all that we're talking about here are all of God's elect. Scripture calls them sheep. Sheep. John chapter 10 verse
14. I am the good shepherd and know
my sheep and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And
other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I
must bring. And they shall, all of these
sheep, they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and
one shepherd. Now the Lord here is talking
about a specific people, his sheep. He's not talking earlier
in the chapter, he talks about leading his own sheep out. He
didn't lead all the people out, but his sheep, the ones that
the father gave him. And he's not giving his life
for every son of Adam, but for his sheep, for his elect. Look
over verse 26, the same chapter. He tells these Pharisees, you
believe not. You know why you don't believe?
Because you're not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep
hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I will
give them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither should
any man pluck them out of my hand. Christ didn't come to try
to save everybody, did he? No, he came to save his sheep,
his elect. Now look over at the book of
second Peter, second Peter chapter three. Here's another verse and
I want you to understand what this first means because Because
these folks with this seared conscience, they use that to
try to tell people that Christ died for all men. He's trying
to save all men. 2 Peter 3 9. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. Now, if you took that verse of
scripture out just by itself and said, well, this is what
that means without comparing the rest of scripture, you make it
sound like God's not willing that any son of Adam would ever
perish. His will is to save them all.
And just unfortunately, his will is frustrated. He doesn't always
make his will come to pass. If you took that verse of scripture
out and didn't compare with the rest of scripture, I could see
you'd come up with that understanding, wouldn't you? But that's not
what that verse means. Who is the us? Who is the all
that Peter's writing about? It's not every son of Adam. You
have to remember these epistles are letters. They're letters.
When Jan and I were dating, we for a while lived in different
towns and we wrote letters. I wrote her love letters. I mean,
heartfelt love letters. But now, You know, someday we
die, somebody's gonna find those letters and the kids might throw
them away. Jan's always afraid somebody's
gonna get stuff out of the garbage and read it. Somebody might get
them letters out of the garbage and read it. And some woman could
read that and say, oh, this guy loves me. Wait a minute, wait
a minute. Who did I write the letter to?
To her, to Juan, to my bride. Who did Peter write this letter
to? You can only take this promise to yourself if he wrote a letter
to you. We'll look back at the start of the letter. Epistle
is a letter. Second Peter, chapter one. Here's
the us, here's the all. It's the people to whom this
letter is written. Chapter one, second Peter, verse one. Simon
Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that
have obtained like precious faith with us. through the righteousness
of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. The us is those who have
obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness
of God. God gave him faith. He gave him
the gift of faith. He made them righteous in our
Savior, Jesus Christ. He says grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord.
This letter is written, the us, the all, that God's not willing
that any should perish are those who have a knowledge of God.
through the preaching of Christ. According as his divine power
has given to us all things that pertain under life and godliness
through the knowledge of him that have called us to glory
and virtue. This letter is written to the
all, that the Lord is not one that any should perish, are those
who have been given life and godliness through the power of
God. Not through their works, but through the power of God.
Verse four, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust.
Those, the all, the any, God's not willing that any should perish,
are those who've been made partakers of the divine nature through
the new birth. Now this is an exceeding great
and precious promise. that's made to those people.
And God's not slack concerning his promise to those people.
Isaac, those people are going to be redeemed. They're going
to be saved. They're going to be brought to Christ. None of
those people will perish because Christ died for them. You see
that? It's not every son of Adam, it's God's people. In Ephesians
5, verse 23, you don't turn there. Paul wrote this, that Christ
loved the church and gave himself for it. He gave himself for his
bride, for his elect. And every last one of them, all
of them, they're justified, they're sanctified, they're holy, they're
redeemed. And it's utterly impossible that any of them should perish
because Christ gave himself for them, for his bride. And she
shall not perish. Now, if the Savior of all men
has saved you, You know and you love this successful savior who
cannot fail to save his people from their sin. He saved you
all by himself without your input from beginning to ending. He
saved you by himself without any input from he's a successful
savior. He didn't need input from you. He did it by himself.
All right, here's the fourth thing. The savior of all men. gives His people faith in Him.
Verse 10, back in our text, 1 Timothy 4, who is the Savior of all men,
especially of those that believe. Now the Savior didn't do something
so wonderful for His people as to save them by the obedience
and by the bloody sacrifice of His Son and then not tell them
about it and give them the faith to believe and to rest in Christ.
God the Holy Spirit comes to those people and He gives them
life. He gives them faith, particularly,
especially, namely, those who believe because God, the Holy
Spirit, gives them faith to believe. God, the Savior of all men, isn't
trying to give faith to all men, but some men still reject Him.
Some men still refuse the gift He's trying to give them. No,
the Lord said you don't believe because you're not machine. You
don't believe because I didn't die for you. You don't believe
because the Father didn't choose you. You don't believe because
the Spirit hasn't given you faith in Christ. If you were of my
sheep, if the Father did die for you, or the Father did choose
you, if the Son did die for you, you can rest assured of this,
the Holy Spirit is gonna give you faith to believe on Christ. And if Christ, the Savior of
all men, has died for you, he'll give you faith, faith in Christ,
to believe him and to rest in him And he's going to do it through
the preaching of Christ. So you know him, so you hear
of him, so you know him and believe him and trust him. And here's
good news. You don't have to make yourself
believe on Christ. Because let me tell you, by my
experience, you can't do it. You can't make yourself believe
on Christ. Don't make the gift of faith a work, something you
have to do. God, the Holy Spirit, will give
you faith. He'll give his people faith.
He'll give you a new nature and a new birth that believes Christ
and can't not believe on him. And if God has saved you, when
you hear of him, you know that's the Savior that saved me. That's
how God saved me. And no other way, no other way.
I know that so because I have faith in Christ. And the only
reason I believe him, the only reason I trust him, the only
reason I put all my eggs in one basket is God gave me faith to
believe him. Now let me tell you this in conclusion. Best I know how that that's the
doctrine of the Savior of all men. And if the Lord will enable
me. Well, if the Lord will do it,
take what I'm getting ready to say and apply it to your heart.
I want this to be applied to the heart of every single person
here. There is freedom. There's rest
and there is joy in Christ. There's freedom. and there's
rest for your soul found in the gospel of God's sovereign grace
that cannot be found in works religion. Can't be. There's freedom
and rest in this message that Christ died. This is the truth
of scripture. Christ died for God's elect and
only God's elect. God's elect and only God's elect
will be saved. Now that truth does not stop
anyone from being saved. Anyone. Matter of fact, it's
our only hope. It's only hope of salvation.
Christ is the savior of all men. You know what that all is? It
is all sorts of sinners without exception. Without exception. Romans 10 verse 13 says this,
for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. Whosoever. Whosoever. It doesn't
matter who you are. It doesn't matter what you've
done. It doesn't matter what you haven't done. Whosoever. All sorts of
sinners shall be saved if you call upon the name of the Lord.
You know why you'll be saved? Because he's able. He's able
to save. Now don't put the emphasis on
that verse on the wrong word. Whosoever. I don't care how vile
a sinner you are. I don't care your background. Whosoever calls on the name of
the Lord shall be saved. But the emphasis on that verse,
the word, the emphasis, the word to be emphasized is not whosoever,
like it's dependent on you to call. The emphasis on that verse
is the name of the Lord, the Lord. The name of the Lord tells
us who he is. It tells us about his attributes,
that he's holy. that he's just, that he's sovereign,
that he's electing, that he's gracious, that he's merciful,
that he has the capacity to love sinners, that he's successful,
he cannot fail to save his people from their sin. Whoever calls
on that savior shall be saved. See, the emphasis is not on whosoever.
If you put the emphasis on whosoever, you put a burden on people that
you gotta do something, you're putting work on them. But if
the emphasis, the emphasis in salvation can never be on a creature,
never. The emphasis is on the Lord,
on his character, his name. He is able to save all, all sorts
of sins, no matter how vile they are. So I tell you, you, each
of you, you come to Christ, whether it's for the first time or whether
for the 10,000th time, you come to Christ. Peter said, to whom?
Coming. Whether it's the first time or
the 10,000th time, You come to Christ. You look to Christ. You
don't. I'm not just talking to the air
now. I'm talking to you, each individual person here. You come
to Christ. You come to Christ. Listen to
me. We preach election. Haven't I
preached that in this? God's going to save his elect.
But you don't have to know if you're one of the elect to come
to Christ. Don't try to figure out if you're one of the elect
and then you'll come to him. Nobody yet ever came to Christ because
they knew they were one of the elect. You come to Christ because
you're a sinner. You're a sinner who needs a savior
and he'll save you. He saves all sorts of sinners. He saves even the worst kinds
of sinners who are found not out in the bars and brothels
and following after things of this world and never ever thinking
about God. God saves the worst kind of sinners.
who are found week after week after week sitting under the
sound of the gospel and won't believe it. God will save even
you because he saves all sorts of sinners, the worst of them.
So you see sinners come to Christ begging for mercy, all sorts
of them, big sinners and little sinners, old sinners and young
sinners, black sinners and white sinners, religious sinners and
heathen sinners all come to Christ, the savior of all sorts of sinners. And we read it earlier, we have
his promise on this. He said, I'll never cast you
out. Never. So no matter who you are, no
matter what you've done, you come to Christ. You come to Christ
and he'll save you. If he's the only hope you have.
If he's the only hope you have. Our cry is, Lord, save me. You said you're the savior of
sinners. I'm a sinner that needs saving. Lord, get glory to yourself
by saving a sinner like me. You get an awful lot of glory
in saving a lost cause like me. Lord, save me. You said you're
the savior of all men, all sorts of sinners. I fit in that category. Lord, save me. Save me by your
grace. I hope the Lord blessed that to you. Let's bow together. Our Father, oh, how we thank
you for the gospel. of your free and softened grace.
How we thank you that you are the savior of all men, of all
sorts of men. You rule and reign over all and
you're the successful savior who has fully and completely
saved your people from their sins. Father, we thank you. Father,
I pray you take your word and bless it to the hearts of each
one here this morning. Take your word and reveal your
glory to the hearts of your people, your glory, your redemptive glory
in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. For his blessed name
we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.