That's why I'm going to try to
preach to you this morning one more time. One more time, I'm
going to tell us to look to Christ. I've entitled the message this
morning, A Salvation Message. I thought about that title for
a while because every message should be a salvation message,
shouldn't it? Every message should declare
Christ the Savior. That's a salvation message. Every
message should tell us to look to Christ and come to Christ. But this morning, I want to,
with very narrow focus, talk to you about this thing of salvation
as clearly and as simply as I know how to do. I would like for us
to know how God saves sinners. I would like for us to know where
salvation for our souls is found. That is my desire. But most important,
this is what I want. I want us to leave here this
morning believing Christ, not simply knowing how to be saved
or how God saves sinners or where salvation is found. I want us
to leave here this morning saved because we know and believe the
Lord Jesus Christ. God, the Holy Spirit will give
us eyes to see him and heart to believe him. That's just exactly
what we'll do. Now, this is a salvation message,
so we have to begin with where salvation begins. It begins with
God. Verse 25, this will be our text
this morning, Hebrews chapter seven. Wherefore, he is able
also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Now, if you and I would
be saved, we must know and we must believe God. We must come
to God. But now salvation is not found
in just any God. You can't see my notes, but my
notes have a little g. Salvation is not just in any
God, anything that somebody calls God. Look at Psalm 115. All the
gods of this world are idols. They are figments of man's imagination. Dead men have made them up And
they made them just like themselves, they're dead. So those gods,
those idols, cannot save. Psalm 115 verse 4. Now here's
a description of them, these gods who cannot save. Their idols
are silver and gold. The work of men's hands. They
have mouths, but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear not. Noses have they, but
they smell not. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet have they, but they walk not. Neither speak they
through their throat. They that make them are like
unto them. So is everyone that trusteth in them. They're all
dead. They're all dead. Here is a summary
of these false gods, these idols, so you can easily recognize them.
Men have made them up. You don't find them described
in God's word. Men have made them up. They might be described
in their little booklets or, you know, theology or whatever,
but you won't find them described in the word of God. They're works
of men's hands. Now, men make up a God because
inherently men know there is a God. I mean, nature tells us
there's a God, right? Our conscience tells us there's
a God that we must answer to. And our conscience tells us God
must be pleased. But here's our problem. When
Adam sinned, we died. So we don't know God. We don't
know what God is like. So men make one up. And every
time we make one up, we're wrong. Every time. Because we're dead.
Idols can't make you hear their message. It's up to you to conjure
up the faith to believe it. They have mouths, but they speak
not. They can't make you hear. They
can't speak to your heart. Idols, they don't see into the
heart of men. They can be fooled by just the
exterior of religion, They can't see into the heart, they have
eyes, but they see none. Idols can't hear the cry of a
poor sinner. Now they might be able to hear
the prayer of a good man, you know, man who's following all
the rules and doing what he's supposed to do, but they can't
hear the cry of a weak sinner. They can't hear the heart cry
of a sinner because they have ears, but they hear none. And
idols can't deal with sin. This is the big problem that
men have when they make up a God. Men have not yet devised a God
who can deal with sin. Idols can't deal with sin because
they don't know it's there. They have noses, but they smell
not. Now sin, in false religion, God
says there's smoke in my nose. They're an offensive smell that
God cannot and he will not accept. But idols can ignore sin, because
they don't know it's there. And they don't know it's there
because they're just like the man that created them. They don't
know it's there. They don't know the depth of
the problem of sin. Now, if your God can ignore sin
and not fully punish it, if your God can accept the best that
you can do, if you'll accept something that's not absolute,
perfect righteousness, my friends, your God's an idol. He cannot
save. And idols cannot accomplish their
own will without your help. That's an idol. They have hands,
but they handle none. Feet have they, but they walk
not. An idol's got no hands but your hands and no feet but your
feet. They got a mighty poor set of hands and a mighty poor
pair of feet don't they? An idol can't save you unless
you let him. You gotta be doing the action.
An idol can't work all things after the counsel of his own
will. An idol can't reach down and turn men, whether so ever
he will, to accomplish his will. He's got to wait and see what
men do. Now, the way the Bible describes God, that's the other
way around. Men wait on God to see what God's going to do. But
an idol, he's got to wait and see what men will do and he'll
react to them. And God's not like that. Now, if you want to
know what God is really like, if you want to know who he really
is, you read this book. You just start reading it. You
find somebody that's preaching it to listen to him preaching.
God gave us a whole book to tell us what he's like, who he is.
And he's nothing like these idols. If you and I would be saved,
we must know the God of the Bible, the true and living God. And
I'll tell you where we start. God is suffering. He's suffering. Someone told me recently, it
was last week, they told me about an article that they read. And
the title of the article was this, Is God a Democrat? And
my response to that was, no, he's not. He's a monarch. He's the sovereign. God does
his will. Whatever it is God is pleased
to do, that's exactly what he does. Look here at Psalm 115,
verse one. This is how David describes him.
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory,
for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? But our God's in the heavens.
He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased, and he always will do
whatsoever he is pleased. So tell you what that means to
you and me. We can't get God to do something that we want
Him to do. We can't bribe God by doing something that'll make
Him happy and obligate Him to do something for us. God is going
to do His will. Always, in everything, God's
going to do His will. Where does that leave you and
me? I'll tell you where it leaves us. It leaves us begging Him,
begging the Sovereign to do something for us that we cannot do for
ourselves. This is the God to whom we must
come if we would be saved. And I can tell you what God's
been pleased to do. God gives glory to his name, David tells
us in verse one, for his mercy and for his true sake. Salvation
is always done in God's mercy and truth. Never one without
the other. God's mercy and his truth. God
saves sinners in truth, not by ignoring their sin, but by punishing
their sin in truth, in absolute strict justice, even punishing
every sinner with death. Now that's truth, that's justice. Well, then we might wonder, well,
how can a sinner ever be saved then? We've got all this sin,
we are, we've got all this sin we've committed. How can a sinner
ever be saved if God demands death for sin? truth and mercy. Salvation is through the death
of the sinner substitute. This is mercy. God put his son
to death so that he could save sinners in mercy and truth. Now
that's mercy. God punished the sin of his people
in truth. He didn't pretend. He poured
out the full extent of his holy wrath against sin upon his son,
putting his son to death for the sin of his people. And the
death of Christ satisfied justice forever for his people. The death
of Christ truly makes his people what God will accept. He makes
them righteous. So God accepts his people in
truth. He's made them righteous through this great display of
God's mercy that he would kill his son in a horrible sacrifice
so that he could show mercy to rebellious sinners in justice. Sinners like you and me. I tell
you, that's a mighty good reason for sinners to come to this God,
begging him for mercy. He shows mercy in truth. The
God of the Bible is the God of creation. We read about that
to open the surface. He's the one that spoke everything
into existence. He just spoke it from nothing.
There it was. And God rules over that creation.
Everything that happens in God's creation happens by his will.
Not the devil didn't do it. It's not evil men didn't do it.
It's not good men didn't do it. It's not a good angel and a bad
angel. God did it. It happens by his determinant
counsel and foreknowledge to accomplish his will. The God
of the Bible has all power and all authority. There's nothing
he can't do. There's nothing too hard for
God. Now in His goodness, He may be
pleased to use you and me to accomplish His purpose. Isn't
that something? I remember our dear friend, Brother
Cody Groover, and you were in his home, or he was in your home,
and he would pray before a meal. In every single prayer, this
is what he would say, God be pleased to use us in your service.
Well, he might, he might. Don't ever be mistaken into thinking
God needs you and me. No, he don't. He said, if I was
hungry, I wouldn't tell you. He is the self-sufficient God.
He is all wise, all his wisdom. Here's something else. No idle man ever made up could
do this. But God's so wise, he found a
way to be both just and justified. He found a way to be just. and
still justify the likes of you and me. Now that's wisdom. And if your God's not both just
and justifier, he's an idol. The God of the Bible is inflexibly
holy. He is holy. Perfectly holy. And he's unchangeable. God will
not change. He will not violate his holiness.
He will not violate his holy character. And mar himself just
to do something for you and me. No, he's going to do it in mercy
and truth because he's holy. And the God of the Bible is the
God who gives us life, who gives us breath. We live and move and
have our being in him. We're squatters on his earth.
We're breathing his air, drinking his water, eating his food. It's
all his. And he is the God with whom scripture
says we have to do. We must appear before this God. Well, I tell you what, we'd be
awful wise to come to this all wise, all powerful, all sovereign,
merciful king and begging to save us. This is the God who
we must come. All right, number two, we're
talking about salvation. Well, save from what? Save from
what? You know, you hear a lot of people
talk about salvation, don't you? And this is one you hear a lot,
I got saved. I got saved. Last night I got saved. Well,
what is it to be saved exactly? Saved from what? Now, I talked
about this in the lesson. I looked over, I finished my
message in Sunday school lesson this morning, days apart from
each other. And I got looking over them and I thought, well,
you're saying the same thing. This is the message, I guess,
of today. Salvation is being saved from sin. And this is important
now because all we are is sin. Sin is not just what we do. Sin
is what we are. The nature of man hasn't changed
one whit from Noah's day to our day. Why did God in Noah's day
destroy the world with a flood? Because God looked down and he
saw that every imagination of the thoughts of our heart, Same
nature. You and I might not have been
living there then, but it's the same nature. Every imagination
of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually, nonstop. We are only evil. You and I are
only sin. That's all we are. That's all
we are. I know we have to constantly
be reminded about that. A number of years ago, I went
to preach in Cottageville, West Virginia. And there was a little
girl there. I stayed in the home of this
family. She was just a little thing. She would run in the room
and look where me and her daddy were sitting. And she was so
little she couldn't even say Frank. She'd say, Fwink, Fwink.
This past week, that little thing came to our house with her firstborn
son. And he's a beautiful baby. Oh,
my word. I looked at that precious baby
and thought, he's got my nature. He's a snake. Oh, the nature of a snake. It's hard to think it's a beautiful
baby, but no, that's what we are. We're born that we've come
forth from our mother's womb speaking lies. We're conceived
in sin. Sin is all we are. And so salvation
is not being saved. from the troubles of this life. Tell you what, salvation involves
troubles in this life. Our Lord promised us trouble.
If you want trouble, you want trial, I'll tell you what to
do. You believe on Christ. You're going to have them. The
moment you believe on Christ, that's when your trouble begins.
Suddenly, there's going to be an inward struggle between the
old man and the new man. It's going to cause you trouble.
It's not going to end until this flesh goes into the ground. You're
going to have trouble in this world because you're not from
this world anymore. God changed your citizenship. You're going
to have trouble. God promised his people trouble.
So salvation is not being delivered from trouble, is it? Salvation
is not being to be saved from poverty in this life. Most of
God's saints have been very poor in this life. There have been
a few. But it's hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom
of heaven. You know what our Lord said? Few of them have been rich. Most of them have been poor.
Now they've got spiritual riches untold, but most of them are
poor in this life. Salvation is not being saved from bodily
sickness. We're still going to get sick
and die. There are too many just in this little congregation.
There's too many from this congregation and people who are close friends
to mention them all by name right now. So many people are sick
and hurting and salvation not being saved from these, from
these sicknesses of this body. But I'll tell you what it is.
It's to be saved spiritually from the wounds and the bruises
and the putrefying sores that we received in there. That's
salvation. Salvation is to be saved from
sin. is to be saved from the condemnation of sin, from the
punishment of sin, because Christ bore that condemnation. He bore
that punishment as a substitute for his people. That's why the
apostle Paul said, there is therefore now, right now, no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. He bore the punishment for them.
To be saved from sin is to be saved from the ruling power of
sin. I went through this in the lesson,
I'll just cover it briefly. If you want a more detailed explanation
of this, you go listen to that lesson. The ruling power of sin,
the ruling power of our sin nature is this. It keeps us from seeing
Christ because it's blind. It keeps us from believing Christ
because it's dead. It keeps us from loving Christ
because it's got an eightfold heart. To be delivered from the
ruling power of sin is to be born again with a heart that
loves Christ. eyes that see him, faith, the
heart of faith that believes him so that you can't not believe. You can't not believe. Brother
Fortner, somebody asked him one day, do you ever not believe
or do you ever try not to somehow? He said, every day, every day. This old flesh keeps trying not
to, but God won't let me. That's being delivered from the
power of sin by being given a new nature. And one day, Thank God
one day his people will be saved, delivered from even the very
presence of sin. When we're made just like Christ
and be with him face to face. The glory of heaven. Everybody
wants to go to heaven. Let me tell you the glory of
heaven is not walking around streets of gold. It's not having
a huge mansion to live in. It's not seeing pearly gates.
It's not floating around on a cloud. having an eternal vacation. The
glory of heaven is being made just like Christ. And to forever
worship Him face to face. Not like we do now. Face to face. I somehow suspect that heaven
is glorious. The new heavens and the new earth
that our God will make when his son returns is going to be spectacular. This one's beautiful, isn't it? I wonder how much of it we'll
see. How long will it take to see some of it? We'll have to take our eyes off
the face of the Savior to see it. This is a poor example, I'm sorry.
But when Jan and I got married, I reckon that she wore a white
dress. I've seen pictures of it, you know. This is at the
house. But on that day, I don't remember
one thing about it. Not one thing. Because I couldn't
take my eyes off her face. I could not look in her eyes.
I was so happy she showed up. She was walking down the aisle
to marry me. You think of the face of the
Savior. To look in those eyes. Saw his people from eternity.
Saw us for what we are ruined in Adam and said, I love them. I'm going to go redeem them. I'm going to bring them to myself.
His prayer will be answered to the Father. Father, I will that
all those whom thou has given me be with me where I am, that
they may behold my glory. I don't think anything else is
going to... We're not going to think anything else is glorious
after we see Him and behold His glory. That's the glory of heaven. If you and I would be saved,
I'll tell you what we ought to do. Come to God as a sinner who
needs saving from our sin. Come to God as a sinner who's
got nothing to offer, the Holy God, and come to Him because
we need Him to do all the saving. We can't do anything about our
sin. Let's come to that. All right,
thirdly, who will be saved? Well, our text tells us back
in Hebrews 7 verse 25, here's who will be saved. Everyone who
comes to God by Jesus Christ. Thank God, all we are is sin.
Thank God there is a friend of sinners. Oh my goodness. He'll
save everybody. that comes to Him by Christ.
Now, what does that mean? What does that mean to come to
God by Christ? Let me give you a few things.
Number one, it's to come by faith in Christ. It's to come believing
Him. And believing Christ is no more
complicated than this. It's believing that He is all
it takes to save me. I just believe He'll do everything
He says. I just believe Him. It's believing
He is all my salvation, so I don't have to do anything to be saved. I just believe Him who already
accomplished everything that's necessary for me to be saved.
Our Lord said this, He's so gracious to sinners. He said, all you
who are weary and all of you who are heavy laden, come unto
me, come to me and I'll give you rest. My friend, if you're weary, and
you're so heavy laden, you're so borne down with the burden
of sin and the burden of religion and the burden of ceremony and
the burden, the weight of trying to get rid of your sin. If you're
so tired of trying to make yourself believe God, if you're so tired
of trying to make yourself good enough, I tell you what to do.
Just quit. Come to Christ. Just come to
Him. and believe him. Believe he'll
do what he said he'll do and he'll give you rest. There'll
be no more work to do because he's already finished it. He
made sure we knew it. He cried from the cross. It is
finished. Then come to him and rest. He's
finished it all. Believing Christ is rest. The Savior said, come to me. Are you tired of trying to make
your sin go away? Are you trying to scrub it and wash it and get
rid of it and make it so it's not so obvious? The Savior said,
come to me. Though your sins be as scarlet,
I'll make you white as snow. See, coming to Christ in faith
is simply believing He's all it takes to make me righteous.
He's all it takes to put my sin away. His blood is all, it's
believing Him. Number two, coming to Christ,
is to come to Christ as your representative. Now, God sees
every human being in one of two representatives, either in Adam
or in Christ the second Adam. Well, God will never accept us
as we are in our sin. He'll never accept us as we are
in Adam. We need another representative.
Well, coming to God through Christ, by Christ, is coming in Christ. It's coming in Christ. And by
that I mean this, it's got nothing to do with me. God accepting
me, God saving me, God having mercy on me. It's got nothing
to do with me. It's got everything to do with
Christ. And I come to God in him. And the best illustration
I can think of is a baby in the womb of his mama. And that mother
walks into the room, so does the baby. Mama sits down, so
does the baby. When mama lays down, so does
the baby. When mama goes to the doctor, so does the baby. When
mama eats, so does the baby. Everything the mama does, the
baby does, because the baby's in his mother. That baby lives
because he's in his mother. That's obvious, isn't it? Coming
to Christ is the exact same thing. It's being in Christ. It's being
accepted in the beloved. Not in something I've done, but
in what he's done in the beloved. Coming to God by Christ is believing
I'm righteous because Christ is my righteousness. I don't
have to do anything. He is my righteousness and I'm
in Him. He is my sanctification. I'm holy in Him. He is all my
salvation. I'm saved because I'm in Him. And that's the only way a sinner
can be saved is by being in Christ. Just like we were in Adam. What
Adam did really made us sinners, didn't it? What Adam did really
made us dead, didn't it? Well, in the exact same way,
what Christ did as a representative of his people really made them
righteous, really made them holy, really gave them life. Because
when Christ kept the law, I did too. Just like I disobeyed the
law in Adam, I obeyed God in Christ if I was in him. When
Christ suffered and died for sin, I did too if I was in him. And when Christ was raised from
the dead, because all the sin that was laid upon Him was put
away by His sacrifice, when He was raised from the dead, I was
too. If I was in Him, when a person
confesses Christ in believer's baptism, isn't that exactly what
they're confessing? They're confessing salvation
in Christ. When He died, I died in Him.
When He was buried, I was buried in Him. And when He was raised
again, I was too. He was raised again as proof
positive He justified me from all my sin. It's all in Him. And actually, this thing is so
real. I know you all see me standing here right now. But you know
what? I'm already seated in heavenly
places. It's exactly right. You are too
if you believe Christ. And you think, Frank, how can
that be? You're not a mirage. You're real. I shook your hand
earlier. I gave you a hug earlier. You're real. You're here. That's
true. But I'm seated in heavenly places in Christ. He sat down
on high, accepted, I did too. That is the only way we can be
accepted. It's in Christ, for Christ's
sake. Remember when David became king
of Israel? He'd been anointed king, but
Saul's getting so much grief, so much problem trying to kill
him. And finally Saul died. David became king of Israel. You know how it was in that day
when the king would take power. The very first order of business
is I'm going to put every son of that king to death so that
family can't rise up against me and lay claim to my throne
anymore. You know what old David did? It's a picture of our Savior.
He didn't say who's left of the house of Saul. Ziba killed him.
He said, Ziba, come here. He said, is there any left of
the house of Saul that I might show him mercy and kindness? Jonathan said. Jonathan said. Ziba said, yeah, there's one.
But David, you don't want him. He's worthless. He's nothing.
He's lame. He's a lame, dirty beggar. And David said, you fetch
him. You fetch him. And they brought old Mephibosheth
to David. And he just fell down at David's feet and said, I'm
just such a dog. Mephibosheth knew he was going
to die. David said, old Mephibosheth,
it's a day of mercy for you. Oh, how I loved your daddy. I'm
going to show you mercy and kindness for Jonathan's sake. Because
I love Jonathan, you're going to have a seat at my table the
rest of your life. You have plenty to eat. Because
I love your father, Jonathan. For Jonathan's sake, you've got
the best of everything. You've got a room in my house.
You've got the best bed, the best sheets, the best pillows,
the best of everything. And if you need something, I'll
give you a bunch of servants to take care of it for you. Because
I love your daddy. It's for Jonathan's sake. And
that salvation, it's for Christ's sake. It's being in Christ. And there's no salvation without
this vital living union with Christ. And the writer to the
Hebrews illustrates it here in verse nine. And as I may so say, Levi also,
who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham, for he was yet in
the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. See, he
paid tithes to Melchizedek long Long before Levi ever came on
the scene, because he was in Abraham. It's this vital living
union. If you would be saved, come to
Christ. Come to God through Christ as
your representative. And thirdly, come to Christ. If you come to God by him, you're
going to come by Christ. And if you're going to come somewhere,
this is pretty simple. It's the way I try to think.
You're going to come somewhere. You've got to leave where you're
at. You gotta quit what you're doing. You gotta leave there
and go somewhere else. Is that right? Next week, Lord
willing, Jay and I are gonna go on vacation. Well, you're
gonna have to quit doing everything you do at the house, cleaning
it and watering your flowers and all that stuff. You're gonna
have to leave that stuff. And you're gonna have to go on vacation.
And it's not gonna be hard to get you to do it. This is why I always only preach
Christ. God ever let you sin. It won't
be hard to get you to do it. To turn from your idols and turn
to God. Turn to Christ and come to Him.
See, coming to God by Christ is coming to Christ the way,
the way, the truth and the life. I come to Christ because He's
the way of salvation. There are not many ways of salvation.
There's one way. It's in Christ. In the Old Testament,
there was one way to worship God. in only one, in the tabernacle
through the high priest. If you wanted to come to God,
you're going to come through that tabernacle and through that
priest or you weren't coming at all. Is that right? Christ
is the way. If you want to come to God, you're
going to come through Christ or you won't come at all. He's
the way to God. Coming to God by Christ is coming
to Christ as the only truth. Christ is the truth. of how God
saves sinners. If you want to see the truth
of God, the truth of his character, go to Calvary. There you'll see
God's holiness. There you'll see God's justice.
There you'll see God's mercy. His whole character is revealed
in Christ. Christ is the truth of God. And
the gospel that declares Christ, this gospel that I preach, is
the only gospel that God uses to save sinners. Now, don't misunderstand
me. I'm not the only one preaching
it, but this gospel that I preach is the only gospel God uses to
save sinners. Only one. And that, please understand me,
I'm not exalting me. I'm exalting the Savior. He's
the only one. This is the only gospel that
God is pleased to use to save sinners. Coming to God by Christ
is coming to Christ as the only life. The only way I can have
life is through this vital union with Christ. I go back to that
baby in his mama's womb. The only way that baby has life
is through a vital union with his mama, through the umbilical
cord. If that umbilical cord is severed,
if he's cut off, that baby in the womb is cut off from mama,
the baby dies, doesn't it? It's a vital union with his mother. Same thing's true, you and me.
Spiritual life can only be had in this vital union with Christ. And if we're cut off from Christ,
we can't have life. Then come to God by Christ, pleading
only Christ, trusting only Christ. And this is what I mean by that.
And I want to get right down where we live, right down to
the things that we think. Don't ask, well, have I done
enough religious things to be saved? Brethren, that's not the
question. The question is, have you come
to Christ? Don't think, well, do I believe enough? That's not
the question. The question is, have you come
to Christ? Don't think, well, if I repented enough, am I sorry
enough? How much is sorry enough? It'll
never be enough because we don't even know all of our sin. That's
not the question. The question is, have you come
to Christ? Simply come to God by Christ. Trusting only Christ. Pleading only Christ. Just come
to Him. And you'll be saved. That's what
God's Word says. Now someone's going to say, preacher,
I've heard you preach before. I thought you said only the elect
will be saved. So there's no point in me coming to God, because
whatever will be, will be. If I ever figure out I'm one
of the elect, then I'll come to Christ. Let me tell you something. Don't ever use the truth of God's
electing love as a reason not to come to Christ. Nowhere in scripture, I mean,
you read it. Nowhere in scripture does God
ever command the elect to come to him. Never. God commands sinners
to come to him. Are you a sinner? Answer that question in your
heart. Are you a sinner? Then come to God. Because God commands
you to come. He commands you to come as a
sinner who needs forgiveness in the blood of Christ. He commands
you to come as a filthy sinner who needs washing in the blood
and the water that flowed from his side. He commands you to
come as a dead sinner who needs life in Christ. Now right where
you sit, you come to Christ. And I'll tell you what you'll
find out right off. You'll find out, I didn't come because I made
a decision. I came because God loved me with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness, he's been drawing me
to Christ all along. You come to me. All right. Fourthly, someone might say,
well, I want, I want to be sure, you know, I don't want to come
and be rejected. Is Christ really able to save somebody like me?
Yes, he is. Because what does God's word
say? He is able to save them to the uttermost. Yeah, he's
able. And that word uttermost means
the whole. It means any. It means the entire. Christ is
able to save to the uttermost. He's able to save from the whole
depth of sin. He's able to save from any sin. Just like you don't let the truth
of God's electing love stop you from coming to Christ, don't
you let the truth of your sin stop you from coming to Christ.
Don't say, oh, I'm such a great sinner that he wouldn't save
me. He's able to save from any sin, from any amount of sin. I know that the amount of the
sin debt looks insurmountable, but he's able to save to the
uttermost. He's able to pay the entirety
of the sin debt. because the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's son, cleanses us from all sin, all sin, from sin that we've
committed, from our sin in Adam, from sin that we wanted to commit,
to sin that we've thought about, to sin of word, to sin we don't
even know about. He saves his people from all
sin. All sin is forgiven in Christ.
Look back at Matthew chapter 19. This is when the rich young ruler
came to the Lord and went away sorrowful. And his disciples
thought, this is the best we got to offer. He can't be saved.
That's it. He can't be saved by what he's
done. Even the best we got to offer. In Matthew 19, verse 25,
when his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed,
saying, who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them and said
unto them, with men, this is impossible. It's impossible.
But with God, all things are possible. Now, listen to me. Listen to me. I got something
for everybody here. I don't care how far off and
how lost that you think you are. Christ is able. He's able to
come where you are and save you and bring you to God. I don't
care how long you've been hardened in your sin. Christ is able to
save you. And it doesn't matter how long
you sat here rejecting the gospel. Doesn't matter. I used to think,
no hope for me. No hope for me. I've rejected
the gospel too long. It doesn't matter how long you've
rejected the gospel. Christ is able. And you trust Him. You trust
Him. Nothing's too hard for God. that come to God by Christ. And
then lastly, why is Christ able to save? Well, the writer tells
us, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for his people.
Christ died for sin. He died. They took a dead body
down from that cross and laid a dead body in a tomb. He died
to satisfy God's justice that demands death for sin. Well,
how do we know he got the job done? How do we know he was made
sin for us that he might make us the righteousness of God in
him? How do we know his sacrifice really put the sin dead of his
people away? Now I want to know the answer to this, don't you?
I don't want to be wrong on this matter of salvation. It's too
important. It's eternal. How do we know
Christ got the job done and saved his people from their sin? Just
like the angel told Joseph he would, how do we know he got
the job done? He was raised from the dead. never to die again. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification, raised again because all the
sin laid on him was put away by his sacrifice. He rose from
the dead never to die again. And at this very moment, he is
seated at the father's right hand, making intercession for
the sin of his people. And that intercession is always
accepted because he's not asking his father for favor. He's not
asking his father to sweep the sin of his people under the rug.
He pleads his sacrifice for the sin of his people that paid for
their sin. And when he makes intercession
for the father, don't think, oh, he's saying, no, my father
forgiven for that sin. My blood, my blood paid for that
one. Oh, father forgiven for that one and that one and that
one and that one. That's not what he's doing. He's sitting
there in complete ease. Without saying a word, making
intercession for the sins of his people, because he sits on
the right hand of his father with the evidence of his sacrifice
still seen in his body, the scars in his hands, in his feet, in
his head, in his side. And the father looks at his son
with such love and says, I'm so pleased with him. Oh,
my heart delights in him. I'm so pleased in him. I'm so
pleased with him that I'm delighted that everybody is in him. That's why everybody who comes
to God by Christ is saved. I want to ask you something. What's stopping him? What's stopping him? He is able
to save to the uttermost everybody that comes to God by him. God
help us to do just that. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father,
we thank you for this blessed portion of your word that so
clearly reveals Christ our Savior. We thank you for him. Oh, how
we thank you for him who took the sin of his people away from
them and put it away forever through his sacrifice and has
saved his people from their sin. Father, we're thankful. Father,
bless Your Word, I pray. Bless it to Your glory. Cause
us here this morning to see the glory of Christ our Savior in
the Word. And Father, I pray You'd give
us a heart of faith that would believe Him and love Him. Father, enable us to look away
from ourselves, from our failure. Enable us to look away from the
things we think we've done right and look to Christ. and have
all of our hope, all of our trust, all of our confidence in Him,
and cause us to come to Him, whether it's the first time or
the thousandth time. To whom? Come to Him. Father,
draw us to the Savior. Give glory to Your name. Save
Your people. Comfort and strengthen the hearts of Your people for
the sight of Christ our Savior. It's in His blessed name we pray
and give thanks.