All right, let's open our Bibles
again to Hebrews chapter 6. I titled the message this morning,
Now I said my ABCs. I hope the reason for that title
become obvious as we look at these verses. Hebrews 6 verse
1 says, Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of
Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation
of repentance from dead works and faith toward God. Now the
word that the writer uses here, principles, means the beginning
or the commencement. It's where everything begins.
It's like us learning to say our ABCs. The ABCs, we learn
to say those things, but those ABCs, all the letters of the
alphabet, that's the beginning of communication, isn't it? We
have to learn our ABCs before our communication can grow. And
we have to learn them so that they're just automatic. You just
say your ABCs without even thinking. I mean, some of you, how long
has it been since you sung your ABCs and you could sing right
now because it's just part of you. It's automatic. Well, the
same thing is true about our gospel ABCs, the gospel foundational
truths. We have to learn these things. They have to be ingrained in
us. We can't constantly be questioning these ABCs of the gospel. Something's wrong if they have
to continually be proven to us again and we continually have
to learn our spiritual ABCs over and over and over again. Until
we learn those spiritual ABCs of the gospel, we'll never grow
to a spiritual maturity. And God's people learn these
ABCs. They learn these truths so completely
that they're just part of us. We automatically believe them
when we hear them because they've been ingrained in us by the Holy
Spirit. Now, we never leave these foundational
truths and move on to bigger and better things. You can't
move on to something bigger and better because we just read that
to open the service. There's just one foundation. There's
just one salvation. You don't move on from him. Remember
the apostle said, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid,
which is Jesus Christ. And we never move on from Christ,
our foundation, do we? No, we always stay on him. The
foundation is laid and we grow to completeness. And that's what
the word perfection he uses here. That word perfection means completeness.
The foundation is laid and we build on it and we grow to completeness
in Christ. So the principles are the beginning
thing, the commencement. But this word principles also
means the chief thing. The chief thing. Everything in
the gospel is founded upon these truths. These are the chief things.
So you never abandon these truths. You don't say, yeah, I got that.
Now I go on to something bigger and better. No, these are the
bigger and better. This is the chief thing. And we make sure
we're firmly established in these truths so we can build upon them
and grow to spiritual maturity. It's just like the foundation
of your house. Well, you never leave it. When you're in the
house, you never leave the foundation, do you? Now, you build walls
on it, you paint it, you decorate it, you put furniture in and
out, you move furniture around all over the place, you know,
you do all those things. You have to repaint the walls a different
color because, you know, your wife's tired of that, got to
have the new updated colors. But, you know, all that stuff
you do, you know what you never do? You never leave the foundation. Everything always stands upon
it, held up by that foundation. And we never leave these spiritual
ABCs. Well, the physical ABCs, you
never leave those ABCs. All the words we write come from
those ABCs. Learning those ABCs leads us
to learning to write words and sentences and paragraphs and
papers and books. I can remember vividly coming
home from work and Janet had taught the girls her ABCs. I
remember coming home from work, Holly learned her ABCs. And a
while later, Savannah's learned her ABCs. And oh, it was big
goings on. We clapped and they said their
ABCs 10,000 times, you know. They got them down. But you know,
we see them now, they never sing their ABCs, do they? No, they
talk about something that they've read or something that, you know.
Now, they didn't leave the ABCs, they didn't forget them. They
just built upon them. We could never enjoy books and
the things if we didn't learn our ABCs first. We had to learn
those things. Well, the exact same thing is
true of these gospel ABCs. You don't have to relearn them
all the time, but everything that you know about Christ is
built upon these things. In our text this morning, the
writer gives us six ABCs, six foundational truths that must
be firmly established in our hearts so we can go on to completeness,
maturity in Christ. And we got real trouble if we
got to keep proving these spiritual truths. These truths, they may
not be proven in every message. We may not take every one of
these ABCs and go to different verses of scripture and prove
every one of these ABCs in every message. But these ABCs are part
of every message. They're there holding everything
up, just like every book you read. The ABCs are part of it.
Well, these eight gospel ABCs are part of every message holding
everything up. And here's the first ABC. Verse
one, repentance from dead works. Now, repentance, what is repentance?
Well, repentance is not just being sorry for your sin. If
repentance is being sorry, How sorry do I have to be? And normally
when we're sorry, the only reason we're sorry is we're sorry there's
consequences to our action. Repentance is a whole lot more
than being sorry. And repentance is not turning away from your
sin and never doing it again. If that's repentance, not one
person in this room is repentant. Not one of us. What sin have
you ever quit committing, at least in your mind, in your heart,
in your desire? Can you name one sin you quit?
But that's not what repentance is. And you know, I've always
said this, that repentance means a turning. But I looked this
word repentance up, and the writer uses here, and it means even
more than a turning. It means a radical turning. It means a reversal, 180 degrees. It means that you turn to believe
everything the exact opposite of what you used to believe and
used to think by nature. It's a radical, not a slight
turn, it's a complete turn toward God. Now, by nature, we think
that God loves everybody. But you know what? We change
our mind about that when God saves us. And we know God loves
his son. God loves his people in his son. God loves Jacob and he hates
Esau and he's right both ways. But here's the real matter of
repentance. Repentance is a radical change, a radical turning, knowing
that God does not have to love me. My mama's gotta love me. Sorry, you just didn't. God don't
have to. God does not have to. That's repentance, knowing God
would be just in sending me to hell. That's repentance. By nature,
we think that God wants to save everybody. I mean, why wouldn't
God want to save me? Well, when God saves us, He changes
our mind about that. And we begin to love the God
of election, that God chose to save a people. And the only reason
I'm saved, the only reason that I know Christ, the only reason
I believe Him, the only reason I believe the gospel is God chose
me unto salvation. That's repentance. By nature,
we think Christ died to give everybody a chance to be saved.
You know, if they just be good, if they just be good boys and
girls, God, he wants to save everybody. Well, when God saves
us, we change our mind about that. And we know that Christ
died for his elect. Christ died only for his elect. And those people shall be saved. Now we know that that's true.
If God saved us, we know that's true. Christ did not die for
anybody that went to hell. And there are people in hell
right now. So Christ didn't die for everybody. And I'm thankful
This is, I guess you could know that doctrine really and not
repent. Here's repentance being so thankful. This is what I know
now after God saved me. The only reason I'm not in hell
right now is Christ died for me. The only reason I'm not going
to go to hell when I die is Christ died for me. That's repentance. By nature, we think we got to
keep the law in order to be saved. If we'll just do our best, God
save us. I bet you every person in this room, especially if you
grew up hearing the gospel, I bet you when you were little and
you heard the Bible story of Cain and Abel and you just couldn't
understand, well, Cain brought the best, why couldn't God accept? Cain brought his best, why couldn't
God accept? We just think God will accept
us if we just do our best. But when God changes, when God
saves us, we change our mind about that. God's not going to
accept it. anything that I bring. Oh, but
he'll accept me in Christ. See, that's repentance. And by
nature, we think we've got to be good enough to keep ourselves
safe. We've got to do some things to keep ourselves holy or God's
going to cast us off. But after God saves us, we change
our mind about that. And we know God makes his people
righteous in Christ. Christ is our righteousness,
that Christ is our holiness. We now believe in God's electing,
calling, saving, sanctifying, preserving grace. It's all of
grace from beginning to end. See, I used to think, well, you
know, I've got to keep myself saved. I repented. I changed
my mind about that because God saved me. God's keeping me right
now. See, that's repentance. But here
the writer's talking about something very specific. He's talking about
the repentance from dead works. Now, what are dead works? Well,
dead works are the works that we do, trying to earn eternal
life. Those are dead works. And those
are dead works because they can only ever produce death. They
can never produce life. Never. Dead works are works that
we do that we think, well, God will make, this will make God
more happy with me than with my brethren. I know they're savage,
I know God's, but God will be more happy with me if I do this,
I live better than they did not. I want to tell you what, nothing
stinks of dead, rotting flesh more than that. Christ is our
salvation. Christ is our righteousness.
We're accepted in Christ. But because a believer lives
in the body of this flesh, You know what we're doing? Repentance
is not a one-time thing. We're constantly turning from
that. We're constantly saying, what are you thinking? Turning,
a radical turn, and turning to Christ, aren't we? Look at Hebrews
chapter 9. He talks about these dead works
again in Hebrews chapter 9, verse 14. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God. See, after the blood of Christ
has been applied to our hearts and we've seen him, we've seen
him sacrifice for us, we repent, we change our mind about our
works. My conscience doesn't bother
me about my works or lack thereof anymore. I'm trusting Christ
alone. See, seeing Christ makes me see
all of my works are dead works and Christ is my life. See that? Now, that doesn't mean the believer
quits working. Now, seeing Christ, having His
blood applied to our hearts does make us work. But it's a totally
different motive. We serve Him out of love and
gratitude, not in a mercenary way. See, that mercenary way,
trying to earn something from God, that's dead works. The believer's
works are works of love and gratitude, works of faith. Now, that's repentance. And the truth of and the necessity
of repentance May not be proven in every message, just like we
went through right here, but it's in every message, holding
everything up. It's an ABC of the gospel. All
right, the second ABC in verse one is faith toward God. Now
these two are put together because faith and repentance, repentance
and faith, faith and repentance, they always go hand in hand. They're two sides of the same
coin, two sides of the same piece of paper. I got this paper here. I can't have one side without
the other. You can't have faith without repentance. What is faith? Saving faith is to be dependent
upon God to save. I'm dependent on God to choose
me. I'm dependent on God to elect
me because I will never choose God. Left to myself, I won't.
I'm utterly, completely dependent on Christ to redeem me because
I got nothing to pay, nothing I can use to pay for my sin.
I'm dependent on Him to redeem me. I am dependent on Him to
forgive me. That's why in our prayers we
always pray, Father, forgive us of our sins. I'm dependent
on Him to forgive me. Nobody else can. I'm dependent
on Him to wash me, His blood to cleanse me from my sin and
make me righteous in Him. I'm completely dependent upon
Him. I can't do any of that. I'm dependent on Christ to call
me. I can hear the gospel and hear
the gospel and hear the gospel, but I'll never come, never come
to Christ unless the Father would send me. I'm dependent on him
to draw me to Christ. And I'm dependent on him to keep
me. He's got to keep me or I'll leave. I'm completely dependent
upon God. That's saving faith. And if you
look at Romans chapter three, I'll show you this, that salvation
by faith, by faith in Christ, You know what that does? That
makes salvation by works an impossibility. Romans 3 verse 28. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Justification
by faith, salvation by faith means my works have got nothing
to do with Well, if I'm not justified by my works, doing the best that
I can, me keeping God's law, how is a sinner justified? One way. It's in Christ. By Christ
putting away his sin. And that righteousness is received
through faith in Christ. Simply by trusting that Christ
is all it takes. Just in being dependent on Him
to do everything for me and me doing nothing to contribute to
my salvation. Because if I contribute something
to it, I'm going to mar it and ruin it. that salvation by faith. Now, the necessity of saving
faith might not be proven in every message, but faith is underlying
everything we preach and holds all of the rest of the gospel
up. None of the gospel is any good to you without this ABC
of faith in Christ. All right, the third ABC is in
verse two in our text, Hebrews chapter six, the doctrine of
baptisms. Now, what on earth is that. And you'll notice that the writer
says baptisms. He doesn't say the doctrine of
baptism. He says plural, the doctrine of baptisms. I'll tell
you what he's referring to. There's two baptisms that are
talked about in the New Testament. There's water baptism and baptism
by the spirit. And the doctrine of both of those
baptisms, the teaching of both of those baptisms is one thing.
The believers union with Christ. I'll show you that. Water baptism.
Let's look at that first. Water baptism. Now that water
baptism is the way that a person publicly confesses Christ. They
confess. In water baptism, we're confessing
union with Christ. When we're baptized, we're confessing.
I am so sinful that the only way I can be saved is by union
with Christ. What Christ did, I did in him. That's the only way I'm saved.
When Christ lives, And he obeyed the law and he pleased the father.
I did too, because I was in him as my representative. I have
union with him. So what he did, I did. When he kept the law,
I did too. That's my righteousness. And
I have union with Christ. It's eternal. It never quit.
So when he died, I died in him. I died too, because I have union
with him and his death satisfied justice for my sin. See, when
Christ died, I died in him. So justice Justice is satisfied
for me too, because the law says I already died, because I died
in Christ through union with Him. That's the reason the law
is not hunting me right now. It's already satisfied in Christ,
because I've union with Him. When He died, I died. And when
Christ arose from the dead, you know, we baptize somebody, we
don't hold them under the water. I didn't hold them under the
water. I didn't bring them back up. Because Christ died, but
He didn't stay dead. He rose again from the dead.
Now this is the doctrines of baptism. What does that mean
that Christ rose from the dead? When he rose from the dead, he
gave evidence that he justified everybody for whom he died. His
death made every one of them sinless. That's what the Apostle
Paul said. He rose again for our justification
as evidence that he justified everybody for whom he died. Now
when I'm baptized, I'm confessing. I have union with Christ. So
I'm justified. Because when Christ arose, Christ
arose free from sin, didn't he? I have union with Christ. When
he arose, I arose free from sin, too. I'm justified because I
have union with Christ. That's the doctrine of water
baptism. And what a glorious way that God has given us to
confess Christ our Savior. Isn't that wonderful? What a
way that we can publicly confess union with Christ. What a miracle. miracle that somebody like me,
somebody like you, has union with Christ. Oh, what a glorious
way He's given us to confess Christ, to confess our Savior. All of us not preachers, but
every believer that's baptized preaches that message. I'm saying
there's union with Christ. If you're here this morning and
you've not been baptized, I got a question for you. I got a question
for you. Why not? Well, you ain't not. You're not
going to change. The gospel is not going to change.
The Savior is not going to change. This is the way we publicly confess
that God saved me. He saved me in Christ. And I'll
tell you this, this foundation must be laid before we can move
on to maturity. We've got to be obedient to this
ABC. We've got to be obedient to this
first commandment. or we can go on and grow in grace.
What are you waiting on? That's what baptism teaches.
Now the other baptism teaches the exact same doctrine, teaches
union with Christ. It's the baptism of the spirit.
Now you're the baptism of the spirit. The world's got you thinking
some mystical, you know, wild thing. What is the baptism of
the spirit? What does God's word say? The
baptism of the spirit. Well, the baptism of the spirit
is not giving people gifts to speak in tongues and roll around
the floor and foam in the mouth and all that kind of stuff. The
baptism of the spirit, all it is, is the new birth. Baptism
of the spirit is being baptized into, being immersed into the
body of Christ. So we have union with him. I
show you that in two scriptures. Look first at first Corinthians
chapter 12. 1 Corinthians 12 verse 13. For by one spirit are we all
baptized into one body. Now that's not talking about
water baptism. This is the baptism of the spirit. We're baptized.
We're immersed into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles,
whether we be bond or free, no physical differences matter.
And we've all been made to drink into one spirit. We've all been
put into one body. That's the baptism of the spirit.
Now look over to Galatians chapter three. Here's the other places
this is mentioned. Galatians three, verse 26. For ye are all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ, so you've been baptized into his body,
into Christ, you've put on Christ. There's neither Jew nor Greek,
there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female,
for you're all one in Christ Jesus. Now that's the baptism
of the Spirit. It's being baptized into, immersed
into, put into the body of Christ so that you are one with Christ. Now here's the glorious doctrine
of baptism. It's union with Christ. Now get
a hold of this. If we've been baptized into Christ,
God sees me. He doesn't see me. He sees Christ
because I'm in Him. And I know this about the Father.
He always loves the Son. He always accepts the Son. He
always delights in His Son. So if I've been baptized into
the body of Christ, when the father sees me, he loves me,
he accepts me, he's pleased with me, just like he is his son,
because I'm in the body of his son. Now, this doctrine of union
with Christ might not, we might not take the time like we've
just done to prove this doctrine from scripture, but it's in every
message, it's part of every message, holding everything up, just like
the ABCs are part of a book. All right, here's the fourth
ABC. Verse 2 says, and of laying on of hands. Now many writers
think this is referring to the apostles giving the gifts of
the Spirit and so forth by the laying on of their hands. And
I have to say I disagree with that for this reason. Now the apostles could do that
and there is a sense in which the apostles laying on of their
hands tells you something about this doctrine. He's not talking
about the apostles laying on of their hands because that doesn't
really, the apostles laying on their hands and giving gifts
of the spirit doesn't really teach a foundational truth of
the gospel. I'll tell you what he's talking
about. The doctrine he's teaching here
is the doctrine of transference. That's what the laying on of
hands, the doctrine of transference, the transferring of sin and the
transferring of righteousness. That's a fundamental truth of
the gospel. The transferring of sin and the
transferring of righteousness is an ABC of the gospel that
we must understand. So the writer here, what he's
referring to is the high priest of old. The writer to the Hebrews
is obviously very, very, very astute in the Old Testament scriptures. So what he's talking about here
is something from the Old Testament. The high priest laying his hands
on the head of the scapegoat. Remember the day of atonement?
The high priest would lay his hands on the head of the scapegoat,
confessing the sins of Israel. And that symbolically transferred
the sins of Israel to that goat. And that goat was led out by
the hand of a fit man to a lane uninhabited, never seen again,
giving us a picture of Christ, how he took away the sins of
his people. So the foundational truth of
the gospel, the ABC of the gospel being taught here, is the transference
of sin from God's elect to Christ. transference of Christ's righteousness
from him to his people. Now, Calvary, we have a fulfillment
of what that high priest did on the day of atonement. The
father, not symbolically, but actually, literally, he transferred
the sins of his elect to Christ, our sacrifice, Christ, our scapegoat. And then the father sacrificed
his son to put that sin away. At the same time, the righteousness
of Christ was transferred to His people. Now there can't be
any salvation without that transference. The transferring of our sin to
Christ and the transference of Christ's righteousness to us.
When the sin of God's elect, God wasn't playing games at Calvary.
When the sin of God's elect was transferred to Christ, that sin
actually became His sin. That's the only way he could
die. An innocent man cannot die. Those sins became his. That's
why he died. Now, I can't understand that.
I can't explain that. But I know it's real. I know
this is something only God could do. The Savior felt the guilt
of that sin. He felt the shame of that sin.
He called it mine. It's mine iniquity. He says,
it's gotten a hold of me. So I cannot look up. He felt
the guilt of it because it really became his. If the father just
pretended to charge sin to him, he wouldn't, he wouldn't have
felt shame. He wouldn't have felt guilty. No, he felt like
a hero, putting away sin somebody else. I had something I didn't
know. He felt the guilt of it. He felt the shame of it because
the sin of God's elect was literally transferred from them to him.
And he took it in his body on the tree, and the father put
his son to death, to a horrible, shameful, painful death, because
that's the one and only way the sin of God's elect can be put
away, by the sacrifice of Christ, our sinless sacrifice. At the
same time all that was going on, the righteousness of Christ
was transferred to his people. Now the righteousness, that righteousness
actually became theirs. It's not something we're going
to have one day. If you believe Christ, you've got this righteousness
right now and you can call it yours. God said you can call
it yours because he gave it to you. It's yours. It belongs to
you. Now get a hold of this. This is a glorious doctrine.
God made his people what he's pleased with. He made them righteous. He made them holy. Aren't you
thankful for this glorious doctrine? Our only hope of having our sin
put away is that Christ took it away from us and put it away
at Calvary's tree. And our only hope of being made
righteous is that Christ gave us his righteousness. God made
his people what he's pleased with. Oh, that's what 2 Corinthians
5.21 is all about. He had made him sin for us who
do no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Now we ought not have to constantly prove this doctrine of transference,
transferring of how it is that sinners can be made righteous.
We ought not have to constantly prove that in every message.
This is just an ABC of the gospel that's in every message, upholding
everything that we preach. All right, here's the fifth ABC.
Verse two, the resurrection of the dead. Now there are three
resurrections spoken of in scripture. And they all go together to teach
us this one doctrine. It's the doctrine of life in
Christ. Now the resurrection, the first resurrection that scripture
mentions is the bodily resurrection of Christ from the dead. Now
Christ actually died for sin. When Joseph of Arimathea took
that body, he took a dead corpse off that tree and he went and
laid a dead corpse in his tomb. The Lord was dead. There has
to be death for sin. In order for God to be satisfied,
in order for the law and justice to be satisfied, there has to
be death for sin. Christ died for sin. Three days
later, he arose from the grave. Do you know why? Because the
sin laid on him was gone. He justified everybody for whom
he died. That's why I quoted this earlier,
Romans 4.25, who was delivered for our offenses. He was delivered
because he had made sin for us, and he was raised again for our
justification. He was raised again as the evidence.
He justified everybody for whom he died. And this is the doctrine. This is the teaching of that.
God's elect have eternal life. Eternal life you can never lose
because Christ died and was resurrected, rose again for us. All right,
the second resurrection scripture speaks of is a spiritual resurrection. And the spiritual resurrection,
all that is, is the new birth. And the new birth of believers
given spiritual life. He's dead. He's dead in sins.
He's dead in trespasses and sins. And suddenly God gives life that
was not there before. A new man has been born. A spiritual
man has been born. Don't be confused by the term
resurrection. The new birth is not the resurrecting
of the old man. It's not fixing up the old man.
That old man is dead. He's ruined in sin. The only
thing he's fit for is the grave. He's going to decay and rot until
he gets there. But that new man, born of God, born in that dead
center, is going to live forever. And one day, this is what happened to our
sister Sharon. That new man, is going to be set free from
that clay prison. You're going to put that old dead clay, that
old dirt, you're going to put it in the ground. And by the
time you do it, by the time you gather everybody together and
have a funeral service, that new man's going to be in with
the Lord, I reckon, for what seems like eternity. The moment
we close our eyes in death, that new man is free from this body
of sin, free from this world of sin, free from the effect
of sin and going to be with the Lord and be there forever for
this reason. Christ both died and rose again.
His life is in Christ. Because he lives, we live also.
All right, here's the third resurrection. It's the resurrection of these
bodies. One day God's going to call all these bodies out of
the grave. We're going to be raised, God's people are going
to be raised in glorified flesh. They're going to be made, they're
going to be given a body, raised in a body, just like the body
of our Lord Jesus. And we'll look like each other. We'll know one another. Oh, how
different we'll be. Just like Christ. And we're going
to be given that body when our Savior returns. He's going to
return to judge the earth and gather his people to himself.
And the point of all three of those resurrections is this one
point, that the believer has eternal life because Christ both
died and rose again for us. Now, we don't have to prove that
in every message, but that life in Christ is part of every message
that holds up as a pillar of every message we preach if we're
preaching the gospel. All right, here's the sixth ABC.
Eternal judgment. I think this can be a blessing
to you. Eternal judgment. Now, there are two sides to this
judgment, two verdicts in this judgment. There's going to be
the judgment of the innocent and the judgment of the guilty.
Judgment of the sheep, judgment of the goats. Well, here's the
first judgment, the judgment of the guilty, of the goats.
The verdict in that judgment will be eternal damnation. eternal,
without end. And the reason that their suffering
will never end is because their death, their suffering can never
satisfy God's justice. The only death that can satisfy
God's justice, the only suffering, the only sacrifice that can satisfy
God's justice is the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, they refused Him.
They refused to believe Him. Their suffering will be eternal
because their suffering can never satisfy God's justice. But the
second judgment will be the judgment of the innocent, of the sheep.
And the only verdict for them is eternal glorification. It's
the only verdict, because Christ has already suffered hell for
them. He already died for them so they can never die. He already
gave them his righteousness and made them fit to be in God's
presence. See, this does just, when you think of eternal judgment,
it's not only talking about eternal damnation, is it? It's also talking
about eternal glorification of God's people. Well, that's an
ABC of the gospel. You know, just because we're
trapped in these bodies and in this world and it's confined
by time, we tend to think of everything in terms of time,
don't we? You know, I got saved and whatever, you know. We think
of things like redemption and justification and salvation in
terms of time, when that happened. I guess we think of it when it
happened to me. But you know, all the details
of redemption, all the details of salvation, sanctification,
justification. Now, they must be taken care
of in time, but they're all eternal. Eternal. Both ways. You know, we're so full of ourselves,
we think of eternal, we think what starts with me goes on for
eternity. But eternity means without beginning or without
ending. The believer's justification is eternal. Eternal. Because the will, the purpose
of God, is just as surely done as something God already did,
isn't it? When Christ died for his people,
God didn't change his mind toward them, did he? When Christ died
for his people, God didn't change the way he looked at his people
or thought about his people. Christ died for his people. Christ
died for his people and the father said, okay, well, three hours
ago they were in their sin and now they're justified. God didn't
change the way he looked at his people. Do you know why Christ
died for his people? Because in eternity, God purposed
their justification in the sacrifice of his son. And God always saw
his people in Christ, the lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. And God always has seen his people justified. He's always seen them as without
sin. God didn't start loving his people
when Christ died for him. He said, oh, I hate these people.
My anger is on them. But now Christ died for them
and I love them. No, no, no, no, no, no. You know why Christ
died for his people? Oh, because God loved him. He
loved him so much, he sent his only son to die for them. Now
here's the doctrine this is teaching. That salvation is eternal. God
has always accepted his people and his son. And he's not about
to change now, because it's eternal. God's always loved his people
and his son. And he's not about to start hating
them now, because his love is eternal. He's always seen his
people as justified and righteous and holy, and he will never,
ever, ever see them any other way. So their salvation is sure,
it's certain, it's secured in Christ our Savior. That's the
doctrine of eternal judgment. And we don't have to prove that
in every message, do we? It's just part. It's the ABCs.
It's part of every message. It holds every message up. Well,
now I've said my ABCs. Now I've said my ABCs. Now we
can take those ABCs and grow to completeness, grow to maturity. Now we can use them to spell
words and communicate. He says in verse three, that's
what we'll do. If God permit. If God will permit,
we'll take those ABCs and we'll move on. move on. We'll never
leave them, but we'll take them, believe them more fully, see
them and enter into them a little more fully and build upon them
a foundation of faith in Christ. Let's bow together in prayer. Father, how we thank you for
your word. How we thank you for the clear, plain teaching of
Christ that we find in your word. How we thank you that you didn't
leave us to our own thoughts and ways and interpretations
of your scripture, but that you've interpreted scripture with scripture,
that you've taken it and pointed us to the Lord Jesus Christ this
morning. Father, I pray you'd give us a heart that would believe
you, that you'd give us eyes of faith that would see you,
that you'd cause each of us to run to Christ. to run to Him
as our Savior, to run to Him as our justification, to run
to Him as our sanctification, to run to Him as our Savior,
and to hide in Him. Oh, that we may win Christ and
be found in Him, that You'd put us in Christ, our Savior, and
that You'd see us and hear us only in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know in Him we'll be accepted
and loved. Father, how we thank You for
this gospel, how we thank You for such a great Savior, and
we pray for faith to believe. It's in His glory.