Well, good evening. If you would,
open your Bibles with me to Psalm 125. Psalm 125. As your attorney, let me tell
you, I heard from Peggy Wooten today, and she got all the pathology
reports back from her surgery, and everything came back negative.
So we're very thankful for that. Alright, Psalm 125. They that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever. As the mountains are round about
Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth
even forever. For the rod of the wicked shall
not rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous
put forth their hands unto iniquity. Do good, O Lord, unto those that
be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. As for
such as turn aside under their crooked ways, the Lord shall
lead them forth with the workers of iniquity. But peace shall
be upon Israel." Thank God for his word. Let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, we've gathered here
this evening in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ with the heartfelt
desire the great need, Father, to hear a word from thee. And
I pray that you'd bless us, bless us with the presence of your
spirit and enable us to worship thee in spirit and in truth.
Father, I ask of you that you would not leave me alone in this
hour. Don't let your people just hear
the thoughts and the voice of a man. But Father, uphold me
with your spirit and enable me to rightly divide the word of
truth in all things glorify our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father,
be with the people who hear. Father, give us a hearing ear
and a believing heart that we would lay hold upon the message
that we hear preached tonight and believe upon, look to, and
rest in our Lord Jesus Christ. And we bow before you, a thankful
people. How can we begin to thank you
for all the blessings? How could we ever begin to number
all the blessings that you so freely bestowed upon us? You
blessed us materially and physically. We're so thankful for the good
report we've had on those who have been ill and hurting. We
thank you for the good report on PEG this week. Father, we
pray you continue to be with your people that you brought
in the time of trouble and trial. We thank you for the homes and
the families and the jobs how You provided for us, Father,
we're thankful, but especially how we thank You for the many
countless spiritual blessings You've given us in our Lord Jesus
Christ. We thank You for the forgiveness
of sins that can only be found in the blood of Christ. We thank
You for righteousness that could only come through His obedience. We thank You for Your love that
could only come to us in Your Son. Oh, how we thank You. Give us grateful and thankful
hearts always. Let us always keep in mind, no
matter what our circumstances, we have so much for which to
be thankful. We ask You to forgive us for the times that we're not
grateful and thankful as we are. Father again, we pray You'd bless
us. Bless us in this hour with Your presence. Let us leave here
rejoicing in Christ our Savior. It's in His precious name we
pray and give thanks. 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 promise it, 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, O live
thee then. While life's dark maze I tread,
Strife and grief around me spread, Be Thou my guide, bid darkness
turn to day, Wipe sorrow's tears away, Nor let me ever stray from
Thee beside. When end's life's transient dream,
When death's cold solemn stream, Shall bore me roam, Blest Savior,
then in love, Fear and distrust remove, O bear me safe above,
O ransomed soul. All right, if you would, open your
Bibles again with me. Psalm 125. I titled the message
this evening, They Cannot Be Removed. I thought as I was looking
over my notes, I have a very pleasant and happy task this
evening. Our text tells us about the eternal
security of God's saints. David says in verse one, they
that trust in the Lord should be as Mount Zion, which cannot
be removed, but abideth forever. God the Holy Spirit through the
psalmist David says God's people cannot be removed from Mount
Zion. And you know that in scripture
Mount Zion is given to us as a picture of the church. It's a picture of the place where
God dwells. That was, you know, where God
dwelt there in Jerusalem. That's a picture of the church.
Now the salvation that Christ accomplished for his people,
here's why the, they cannot, those who believe Christ, they
cannot be removed. Here's why the security of the
saints is eternal. It's because the salvation that
Christ accomplished for his people is so complete, it's so full,
that God's elect, for whom Christ died, can never be taken from
Christ. they can never lose their salvation
because it's perfect. And before I get into the heart
of the message, I'm going to give you seven impossibilities. Seven impossibilities. Number
one, the salvation that Christ accomplished for his people is
so perfect that it is impossible that anyone for whom Christ died
can perish. It's an utter impossibility. The death of Christ is effectual. Now whatever it is Christ meant
to accomplish by his death on Calvary's tree, he accomplished
it. And he told us before he, in
John 17, he told us why he was going to the cross, to die for
all those that the Father had given him. Those people, every
one of them, are eternally justified because Christ's death accomplished
what he meant for it to accomplish. David says that God's people
will abide forever with Christ. They'll abide forever in Christ. And absolutely nothing that happens
in this life can change that. Nothing that happens in time
can change what God purposed in eternity. Nothing that ever
happens in this life can cause God's elect to lose their salvation. Alright, number two. It is impossible
that God's people could be taken away from Christ. Because the
Father put his elect in Christ, in Christ our surety. And whatever
God does, it's forever. So those people who the Father
put in Christ, they're in Christ eternally. The Father has always
seen them in Christ. It's impossible that the body
of Christ ever be severed from Christ our head. It's impossible
that those people that the Father put in Christ could be found
outside of Him. Number three, it is impossible
for God's people to be separated from the love of God for His
people. You know, we think of ourselves. If God has given us
any clue, any vision at all of ourselves, we see ourselves as
unlovable. I can understand why God would
not love me. I can understand why you wouldn't
love me. But nothing that happens in time can change the love of
God for His people. Nothing. You know why that's
true? because the Father loves the
Son. And He'll never stop loving the Son. And He'll never stop
loving those who are in His Son. Turn with me to Romans chapter
8. As soon as I said this point, that
it's impossible for God's elect to be separated from the love
of God, most of you already thought of these verses in Romans chapter
8. But I want you to look at them
and listen to them as if you've never heard them before. and
let them run over your heart like the sweet balm of Gilead."
Listen to this now, Romans 8, verse 35. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? So tribulation, distress, persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Will any of those things
separate us from the love of Christ? As it's written, for
thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep
for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we're
more than conquerors, through him that loved us. For I am persuaded,
this is something Paul says I know for sure, that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now that's wonderful news for
a sinner. can ever happen that will separate
God's people from His love. Fourthly, it is impossible that
God's elect lose their righteousness in Christ. If Christ is our righteousness,
if we have been made righteous by Christ's obedience to the
law for us as our representative, then it would be impossible that
we could be made unrighteous by something that we do. Now
think about If I'm made righteous by what Christ did for me, by
His obedience to the law for me, and I didn't contribute any
of that to myself, I contributed no obedience, I'm a sinner, I
can't do anything but sin. Christ made me righteous by His
obedience for me, by what He did and He did alone. Then nothing
I can do can ever make me unrighteous. It's impossible for those who
have been made righteous in Christ to ever be made unrighteous.
Fifthly, it's impossible for God's people to lose eternal
life in Christ. Now, God's elect must live eternally. They must. God's justice demands
it. God's holiness demands that His
elect live eternally. Why? Because Christ died. Christ died for His people that
they would never die. See, God's justice will never
allow two people to die for one sin. God's justice will never
allow two people to die for the same sin. That would be unjust. And whatever God does is just
and right. So if Christ died for me, if
he died for my sins, I can never die. The same law that demanded
Christ die for sin, the same justice that demanded Christ
die for my sin also demands that I never die because Christ already
died for me. That's why the Apostle Paul said
there in Romans, who is he that condemneth? Who can ever condemn? It's Christ that died. If Christ
died for our sins, we must have eternal life. It's impossible
for us to be condemned. Then sixthly, it is impossible
for God's people to lose their peace with God. A peace with
God is not like a peace treaty between two parties or two nations
that could be broken at any time. Our peace with God is peace that
Christ bought with his own precious blood. He made peace by the blood
of his cross. Then God will never have a reason
to not be at peace. God will never have a reason
to be angry and go to war with his people because the blood
of Christ blotted out the sin that made God angry. And God's
people will never have a reason to go to war with God again.
Now, we did declare war on God in Adam, But once the blood of
Christ has been applied to our hearts, God's people will never
have a reason to go to war with God again. Because the blood
of Christ applied to our hearts makes us surrender. Surrender
to the righteousness of Christ and to be at peace with God.
And here's the seventh thing. It is impossible. It's impossible. Utterly impossible that any trial
would separate God's people from Christ. Not only will it not
separate us, it will draw us closer to God. It really will.
I know when trial comes, we think, oh, God's done this to me because
He's angry with me. In time of trial, our Father,
who is the master refiner, He's always near His people. He promised
to never leave nor forsake His people. That's true in time of
trial, too. Even if we can't sense Him, He's
there. He's there closely monitoring the fire. He's there monitoring
the heat of the trial. He's there monitoring the duration
of the time of the trial. He's there closely monitoring
that so that the only thing that burned off his people is ugly
draws that needs to be burned off in the first place. He'll
never let that fire harm his people. Now, why is that true? How can I be so dogmatic and
insist these things are impossible? How can I insist on the eternal
security of God's saints. But we need to remember this.
Saints. You know, we think of saints,
you hear, you think of St. Peter, St. Paul, people that
lived a long time ago. And, oh, there's no saints today.
Yes, there is, too. Every believer is a saint. Every
believer. Saints, made perfect in Christ. Why do I know, beyond a shadow
of a doubt, that those people are secure? I want to give you
four reasons. from our text. Number one is
this. The saints can never be removed from Christ because our
Lord protects His people on every side. Look back at our text,
Psalm 125. As the mountains are round about
Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth
even forever. Now, mountains are generally
considered to be a good defense because it's hard for a land
army anyway, to cross those mountains and get to you. But now remember,
this is only a picture. Mountains often have passes,
you know, that you can get through pretty easily. If you care to
travel long enough, you can usually go around a mountain. So a mountain's
not a perfect defense, is it? This is just a picture. But here,
the Lord Himself, the Lord Himself is the mountain that surrounds
His people. The Lord Himself protects His
people. and no one can overcome him.
No one can get through him. Look with me at the book of Zechariah. Next to the last book in the
Old Testament, the book of Zechariah. There's a song we sing talking
about the Lord as a wall of fire about us. Well, this is the passage
that the songwriter took that from. Zechariah chapter 2, verse
1. I lifted up mine eyes again and
looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand.
Then said I, Whither goest thou? He said unto me, To measure Jerusalem."
Now this is a picture. He's going to go measure God's
kingdom. He's going to go measure spiritual Jerusalem where God's
people dwell. I go to measure Jerusalem to
see what is the breadth thereof and what is the length thereof.
And behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another
angel went out to meet him and said unto him, Run, speak to
this young man, saying, Jerusalem, God's kingdom, shall be inhabited
as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein. For I, saith the Lord, will be
under her a wall of fire round about and will be the glory in
the midst of her." This city of God, the kingdom of Christ,
has no physical walls. Just like we read in Revelation
when John saw that picture of heaven, he said it didn't have
any sun. There's no sun in the sky. For
the Lamb is the light thereof. Here, God says, my kingdom doesn't
need any walls around it. I'm not going to build great
big stone walls, because I'll be the wall. I'll be the wall
of fire. All about to protect my people.
Now we have to remember this. This is talking about spiritual
protection. This is not talking about physical
protection. Certainly, if we are protected
from physical harm, it's the Lord that did it. Isn't that
right? He is able to protect us from any spiritual harm. He's
able to deliver us from any sickness, any disease, any earthly problem. He is able. We know that, don't
we? That's why we pray and ask Him,
Lord, deliver us, help us. You know, we pray for healing,
we pray for... because the Lord's able. But
now listen, you know, The fact that the Lord is able to heal
from these physical diseases and able to control anything
going on in this world. People take that and make a whole
religion out of it. Saying, come to our church and
get blessed. I actually saw this commercial.
I was up late this week and saw this commercial. This fellow
trying to sell this little old bottle of water. He said, now
if you take this water and sprinkle on it, you'll be healed from
whatever disease you have. People build a whole religion
around that. I thought about ordering to put on my back just
to show him what he's owed. You know why you can't build
a religion on this now? You just can't say the Lord's
going to protect me from every physical ill in the world. You
won't find one promise in this book he made, he'll do it. That's
why you can't say, I know he's able, but I can't say I know
he will because there's not one promise in this book made that
says he'll heal you or protect you from every physical ill.
He won't do it. That's why during this time,
we're wearing masks. Everybody washes their hands
often during the week. Try to stay away from people
you don't know. Try to stay... If you're out
taking a walk, see somebody you don't know, buddy, you cross
the street. Don't stay six feet from them. That's just prudent. The Lord had promised He'll protect
His people from this virus. So wear your mask. Wash your
hands. Social distance. This is what the Lord's talking
about here. This is what He's talking about. He's promised
to protect His people every spiritual enemy and from any spiritual
harm. And I'd a whole lot rather be
protected from that, wouldn't you? No spiritual enemy can harm
God's people because it is the Lord protecting us on every side. There's not a back door somebody
can sneak in. Nobody can just make a frontal assault on this
fiery wall that's about us because it's the Lord. The Lord Himself
is protecting His people on every side. You know, we think of our
own sin. Oh, how the believer hates our
sin. Oh, it bothers us so much. And
while it troubles us, and it should trouble us, shouldn't
it? Our own sin will never harm our souls because the blood of
Christ has already brought it out. He's made a wall of fire
about us. Satan is our enemy. Satan hurls accusations against
God's people. But you know, those accusations
can never harm God's people, ever, ever. Because Christ has
already made his people not guilty. Christ himself bore the guilt. What Satan's saying is not untrue,
but Christ already bore the guilt of sin away from his people and
made them not guilty. That's why Satan's accusations
can't stick. That's why Paul wrote in Romans
8 31, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's It's God
that justifies. God's justified His people so
nobody can lay anything to their charge. Paul went on to say,
who is He that condemned? It's Christ that died, yea rather
that is risen again, who is at the right hand of God, who also
maketh intercession for us. See, no sin, no accusation of
Satan can ever stick to God's people and harm them because
Christ, our intercessor, is there at the right hand of the Father,
making intercession for His people. And what does he plead when he
makes intercession for his people? He pleads his sacrifice. He pleads
his blood. And the Father says, not guilty.
So no accusation can ever harm God's people. Here's a third
thing. It's an enemy. It's an enemy
to this world. It's a blight on this world that
makes coronavirus look like nothing. False doctrine. False prophets. blight on this world. People will flock to it like
a moth to a flame. But false doctrine cannot harm,
cannot deceive God's people. Because God's given His people
a new heart. And that new heart, they've also been given a new
mind. They've been given the mind of Christ so that they can't
be deceived by somebody lying on God. They can't be deceived
so that they're lured away from Christ. Because the Lord Himself
surrounds them on every side. Then we're secure. But here's
the second thing. The saints can never be removed
from Christ because they belong to Christ. Back in our text,
Psalm 125 in verse three. For the rod of the wicked should
not rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous
put forth their hands unto iniquity. Now the key to understanding
this verse is the word rod. There's two meanings to this
word rod. The first one is this. It means a shepherd's rod. A
shepherd would use his rod to count his sheep. He'd count. They'd go by and he'd put his
rod and he'd count. He wouldn't count somebody else's
sheep. He's counting his sheep. The sheep that belonged to him
went under his rod. Turn to John chapter 10. Here's
the meaning of this shepherd's rod. John chapter 10. The wicked
cannot count. They can't use their rod to count
God's elect as belonging to them, because they belong to Christ.
They can't use their rod and say, this one's mine, because
they already belong to Christ. God's elect belong to the great
shepherd of the sheep, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He uses His
rod to count them as His own. He says, this one's mine. Anybody
going to touch it? He owns them. He owns those sheep.
He bought those sheep. The Father gave those sheep to
Him. And He keeps every one of them. He keeps every one of those
sheep. Those sheep are secure. They
shall not perish. They belong to Christ. Look here
in John chapter 10, verse 2. But he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and
the sheep hear his voice. And he calleth his own sheep
by name. and leadeth them out. And when
He put forth His own sheep, He goeth before them." He's going
before them to protect them. There's no danger coming up.
There's always sneaking up on them to get the sheep. He goes
before them. And the sheep follow Him, for
they know His voice. And a stranger will they not
follow, but will flee from Him, for they know not the voice of
strangers. See, the sheep belong to Christ.
And they follow Christ. They're not going to go the way
of the wicked. Because the shepherd won't let them. They're following
Christ. The sheep belong to Christ because He bought them. He bought
them with His own life. Look at verse 11. I am the Good
Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. Christ bought those sheep with
His own blood. And when the Son of God buys
a people, when He gives His life to buy a people, you better believe
He's going to have them. Verse 16. He says, other sheep
I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring,
I must bring them and they shall hear my voice and there shall
be one fold and one shepherd. All those sheep in that fold,
he uses his rod and he counts them. They all belong to him
and he's not going to lose one of them. Here's the second meaning
of this word rod. It means a scepter or it's a,
it's a mark of authority. Now the wicked, they think they've
got a rod, a scepter, mark of authority. But the wicked have
no authority over God's people because they belong to Christ.
Christ has his scepter, his mark of authority. They belong to
Christ and he rules over those people as their king. And the
wicked can never overthrow him. The wicked can never say, this
one's mine. I have authority over this one.
And that's why God's people will not put forth their hand to iniquity. That's what David says there
at the end of that verse. lest the righteous put forth
their hands unto iniquity." Now they won't do it. Now what does
that mean? Does that mean once the Lord
saves them, once they're converted, that they're going to quit sinning?
No. As long as we're in this flesh, that's all we're going
to do is sin. This is talking about spiritually. That new man
who's born of God can never sin. He can't because of the seed
from which he's conceived. He's conceived from the sinless
seed, the Word of God. And that new man can never sin.
He can only believe Christ. He can only follow Christ. So sin has no more dominion. Sin has no more mark of authority
over God's people because they're not under law, but they're under
grace. They all belong to King Jesus
and the Lord Jesus Christ, the shepherd of the sheep. He owns
those sheep. He rules over those sheep and
he'll not lose one of that innumerable number. He'll not even lose one.
Turn back, if you're still there in John, back a few pages. John
chapter 6. The Father gave an innumerable
number of people to His Son to redeem, and He's going to have
every one of them. John chapter 6, verse 38. 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 hath 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 which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life. And I'll raise him up at
the last day." That's the will of the Father. You know, we always,
people like to say, oh, I think I know what God's will is in
this matter, this matter. This is what God's doing in this.
I never do. I used to think maybe I could.
No. But I know I don't. I know better than that now. Whenever we wonder what God's
will is in this. This is the Father's will. That
of all which He gave Christ, Christ should lose nothing. Somehow,
everything that's happening in God's creation is working together
to accomplish that will. That all which the Father gave
His Son would be redeemed and Christ wouldn't lose one of them.
Not even one. Then we're eternally secure.
It all depends on who saved us. If Christ saved us, we're eternally
secure. Alright, here's the third thing. Look back in our text. The saints
can never be removed from Christ, because Christ has made them
righteous. Verse 4. Do good, O Lord, unto those that
be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. David
says, do good unto those that do good. Do good to those who
are upright in heart. Now, if you didn't know better,
you'd think that this sounds a whole lot like free will works
religion that preaches rewards on earth and rewards in heaven.
If you didn't know any better, it could sound like that, doesn't
it? That the Lord's going to bless those that do good. Those
who are upright in heart, God's going to bless them. But that's
not what this means at all. See, all of us are born with
a wicked heart. We cannot. It's impossible for
us to create an upright heart in ourselves. Look back at Psalm
14. All of us are born with a wicked
nature that can't do one thing. And that's true of every son
of Adam that's ever walked on the topside of God's creation. Psalm 14, verse 2. The Lord looked down from heaven
upon the children of men. He looked down at all the children
of men, all the sons of Adam from all time. The Lord looked
down from heaven upon them to see if there were any that did
understand. Was there any that seek God?
And this is what God saw. They're all. Every last one and
every son of Adam. Every one of them. All have gone
aside. They are all together become
filthy. There's none that do of good. No, not one. So that's us. We're
all born with this wicked, sinful heart. We don't seek after God.
We don't understand anything. All of us are filthy. There's
not one of us that does good. Not one. But the Scripture tells
us that there are some good. Our text says that. Do good to
those that are good. Look at Psalm 37. David says
the same thing here. Psalm 37. In verse 23, The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he
should not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with
his hand. Now who is this good man? The
steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. He delighteth in
his way. There's got to be a good man. Who is the good man? The
good man are those people who do good and have an upright heart.
The people who have been made good. The people who have been
made righteous in Christ. David says, do good to those
that are good and do good to those that are upright in heart.
God already has been good to them, hasn't He? He made them
good. He made them upright and righteous
in Christ. Those who are upright in heart
are people who have received a new heart from God in the new
birth. And that new man who's born of
God is righteous and holy and he can never sin. He can only
do good. And God will do good to him.
God will accept him because he's made him what he'll accept. That
new man who's born of God is upright in heart because God's
given him a holy heart and made him just like Christ. So he'll
always accept him. Accept him in the beloved. That
new man born of God has faith in Christ. He trusts Christ,
that new man. He trusts Christ implicitly and
Christ will never let him down. And the Lord's going to do good
to that man. He's made him to trust in Christ and the Lord's
going to save him. The Lord's going to keep him
and ultimately the Lord will glorify him. Because the Lord's
already made him good. And in judgment, the Lord will
do good to that man who trusts in Christ. That man will never
be ashamed. He'll never be like Adam and
be found naked because Christ has made that man to be not guilty. He has clothed him in His righteousness. Now, this applies to every one
of God's children. God will only ever do good to
His people. Only good. Ever. The Lord will never do anything
bad to His people. He'll never do anything harmful
to His people. Never, never, never, never. Now that you remember
that, next time you go into the valley of trial, you remind me
of this the next time I go into the valley of trial. In the heat
of the furnace of trial, the Lord is only doing good for His
people. Those times are painful to the
flesh and it makes us think that the Lord is doing something bad
to us because it's painful to the flesh, but that's not so.
The Lord never does bad to His people. He's only doing good. Even when He sends a painful,
dark trial, those times are good for us. They have to be because
the Lord only does good to His people. And that's true whether
we see it or not. I hope I can say this in a way
that we can understand it. It makes sense to me. Something
that is true is true whether I see it or not. Isn't that right?
Something that is true is true. No matter who looks at it in
any different way, whatever's true is true. And the best example
I can think of is this. Back when our girls were... I'll even go back to middle school.
They were in middle school. They were on the academic team.
If you're not familiar with that, they asked them all these different
kinds of questions, you know. By the time they were in middle
school, mostly, if they asked a math question, Mostly, I didn't
even understand the question. And this kid, this middle school
kid, in five seconds would give an answer. And they'd say, correct.
Now, I didn't understand. I didn't understand. I didn't see that that answer
was correct. But it didn't matter if I understood it or not. Something
that's true is true whether I understand it or not. I said all that. This
is my point. God only does good to His people. And whatever He does with us
is good. Whether we understand it or not.
Whether we understand it or not. Whether we see it or not. It's
good. And all we have to do is trust
Him. Just trust Him. Since the Lord only does good
for His people, those people are eternally secure. Alright,
here's the fourth thing. Those saints can never be removed
from Christ because in judgment The Lord will give everybody
exactly what they deserve. Verse five says, as for such
as turn aside into their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them
forth with the workers of iniquity, but peace shall be upon Israel. There's two groups of people
mentioned in this verse. And that's the only two groups
of people there ever are, the righteous and the wicked. Here's
the wicked, and David calls them Israel here, which is a picture
of God's elect, spiritual Israel. the righteous. Now the wicked,
they turn aside unto their own crooked ways. That's the way
that they want to go. What's the crooked way? Well,
there are many, many, many crooked ways. There are many false doctrines
you can find. A crooked way is any way other
than Christ alone. And what is Christ? He is the
straight and narrow way. So the crooked way is any way
other than Christ alone. The wicked don't want to go in
Christ the straight way. They want their own crooked way. And this frightens me to death
every time I see it. God's going to let them have
it. He's going to let them have, let them go their own crooked
way. And in judgment, the Lord will
give them exactly what they've earned. Damnation. Eternal separation
from God. And they won't have anybody to
blame but themselves. They can't blame God for not
choosing them. They didn't want God's way. They
heard the doctrine of election preached, they hated it. They
didn't want it. They can't blame God for not choosing them. They never
did come to Him begging for mercy. Can't blame Christ for not dying
for them. They didn't want Christ's particular redemption. People
say, oh, that Savior, that's my devil. Alright. They didn't
want Christ's particular redemption, then they can't blame Christ
for not dying for them. They can't blame the Holy Spirit for
not calling them. They didn't want to go into Christ the straight
way. They wanted to go their own crooked way. And God will
give them exactly what they've earned. Exactly what they deserve.
No more and no less. Eternal separation from God.
Thankfully, there's a second group of people. Israel. They
represent God's chosen people. Spiritual Israel. Those people
that God chose to save. And in judgment, the Lord will
give those people exactly what they deserve. Just like the wicked,
the Lord's going to give them exactly what they deserve. Now
what is it they deserve? David here calls it peace. Peace. Oh, what peace it must be to
dwell with Christ in glory eternally. That must be awful peaceful.
This is what David says they've earned. They've earned peace. Now how can the Lord give those
people, how can he give his elect peace. Weren't they born the
sons of Adam just like everybody else? Yeah. Weren't they found
guilty in Adam just like everybody else? Yeah, they're sinners.
Yes, they were born in Adam. They're natural-born rebels.
But here's the difference. God chose these people. He chose
to save these people from their sins. And the Lord will give
them exactly what they've earned. Exactly. What is it that they've
earned? What is it that they deserve?
everything Christ earned for them. Everything. So the end
of these people, who God has made righteous, is peace. They will be with Christ forever. Never to be separated from Him
again, and even better than now. Because there, it'll be face
to face. Face to face. Aren't you glad
you don't have to go into judgment expecting to get what you've
earned? but what Christ earned for you? No. You mark that man. The end of that man is eternal
peace. Peace with Christ. Never to be separated from him.
The Lord's gonna give them peace because that's what Christ purchased
for them with the blood of his cross. The Lord's gonna find
them not guilty because Christ bore their guilt away at Calvary.
The Lord will find them innocent, righteous because Christ has
made them righteous by his obedience unto death And the Lord will
give them eternal life. Eternal life with Christ. Because Christ, their substitute,
has already died. And He's risen again. See, the
Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth on purpose. With a mission
from His Father. He came to save. To eternally
save. Completely, fully save His people
from their sin. So that they cannot be moved. They cannot be moved away from
Christ. Because when Christ came to save
them, that's exactly what he did. He didn't try to do it.
He didn't make an effort doing it. He didn't make an offer to
them. He completely saved his people from their sins so that
they can never perish. Here's why we can be so dogmatic
on this point. The saints are eternally secure
and they will never be removed from Christ. It all depends on
who saved them. It all depends on who the Savior
is. Now I've said this so many times, what we know, this what
I know, the eternal security of the saints, all depends, completely
depends, on who we know. Now there can be no doubt, if
Christ saved us, we could never be removed. Never. But if you want to be saved,
if you want peace with God, then come to Christ. It's all in Him.
He is the only way of eternal salvation. Everyone who believes
on Him can never be removed. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank You
for this precious passage in Your Word that You've given to
us tonight. See that everyone in Christ,
everyone You've given to Christ, everyone for whom Christ died,
everyone who believes on Him, Everyone who casts their soul
on the mercy of God is eternally secure, can never be moved, can
never be removed from Christ our Savior, can never be removed
from the love of God, which is in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
I thank you. Oh, how we thank you for your
unspeakable mercy to sinners, that you would choose to save
sinners, sinful men and women such as we are, and send your
Son to redeem Father, we're thankful. And I pray that You'd cause Your
Word to be effectual tonight in the hearts of Your people.
Father, to open the heart of one who as of yet has not believed
on You. Cause this message to let them
see Christ and run to Him, be found in Him, to believe on Him.
Father, cause Your Word to go forth, comfort the hearts of
Your people who are in times of trial and trouble and those
who are just trudging through this valley, the muck and mire
of this world here below. Cause it to comfort the hearts
of your people. Encourage and bless us and feed the hearts
of your people that we might continue on on the journey that
you've called us to. All these things we ask and that
name which is above every name, the name