Our first speaker this morning,
Pastor Tom Harding, Zebulon Baptist Church. I've looked forward to
this message this morning. Tom said he'd been awake preaching
it to himself for 12 hours. He's warmed up. But I've looked
forward to this. I like listening to a man preach
when I know he wants me. Believe what he's saying. I just
thoroughly enjoy that, but when you're preaching, Tom, you come
preach the message. God's laying on your heart. Don't
look at the clock. Just preach the message God's giving you. Well, good morning. Truly my
privilege to be with you. Always good to come back to Ashland. I consider this my second home. When we came here many years
ago, the Lord brought us here for one reason. One reason. To hear the gospel. To hear the
gospel. Take your Bible, please, and
turn to Psalm 37. Psalm 37, verse 39. Psalm 37,
39. I love that word but. Be you
too, but God who is rich in mercy. For his great love wherewith
he loved us even when we were dead, dead in sin, hath quickened
up together with Christ. But the salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. That means God is a God of salvation
of his people. Those who are righteous are those
who are justified in the Lord Jesus Christ by His blood. But the salvation of God's elect,
His people, salvation is of the Lord. Now, I need salvation. You know
why I need salvation? I'm a sinner. This great sinner,
I used to say this great sinner needs a great Savior. But I've
changed that a little bit. This great sinner needs a greater
Savior, the only Savior that God has provided. The salvation
of the righteous is of the Lord. He is their strength. He is the
strength of our salvation, the strength of our righteousness.
In the time of trouble, when is that? All the time. I'm in
trouble all the time. I need His mercy. I need His
mercy daily. Thank God the Word says and His
mercies are new every morning. They do not fail. And the Lord
shall help them and deliver them. That's those righteous people.
The Lord shall help them and He shall deliver them. He is
called the Deliverer. He shall deliver them and shall
deliver them from the wicked and the salvation that is of
the Lord. He will save them. I think of
that scripture over in, I believe it's Hebrews, the book of Hebrews
chapter seven, where it says that he is able to save them
to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing that he ever
liveth to make intercession for them. The Lord has a covenant
people, covenant children. He chose them, redeemed them,
justified them and calls them with the gospel. And the result
of all that is they trust him. They trust in him. We have no confidence in the
flesh. We are the true Israel, which worship God in the spirit,
that rejoice in Christ Jesus. And we have, we have, what's
that word? No confidence, no confidence
in the flesh. It's hard for me to get everybody
I'm used to going right here, but this crowd is so spread out,
you'll forgive me if I don't. I like to make contact. I like to communicate. That's
what preaching is, is communicating. If you're not communicating,
as our dear brother Henry used to tell us, you're not preaching. So the title and subject of my
message is Salvation, salvation is of the Lord. Not some of it, all of it. Entirely,
completely, salvation is all of God. Man contributes nothing,
because he is a nothing. Man in his best state is altogether
vanity. Man contributes nothing to the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor to the salvation of sinners. Man contributes no part. Nothing. Nothing at all. The
Lord Jesus Christ alone is a power of God. The Lord Jesus Christ
alone is a power of God unto salvation. That's why salvation
is of the Lord. You remember the scripture from
Romans 1, where Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ, for it is a power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth. to the Jew or to the Gentile
therein is that righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Now, salvation. This came to
me about one, two o'clock in the morning as I was been preaching
this message for the last 12 hours to myself. And it is just
a delightful thing to think about. Look at If we just look at those
words, salvation. Salvation. What is it? What is salvation? What is salvation? Well, to me, as the scripture
describes it here, the Lord shall help them and deliver them. Salvation is a deliverance. It's a deliberate deliverance
of God. He never saves sinners by accident. Always by purpose. Salvation
is a deliverance. Over in Romans 11, don't turn
to this because you're familiar with it. And so all Israel shall
be saved, as it is written, there shall come out of Zion the, capital
D, Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
That's all the Israel of God, all the elect of God, not talking
about that Jewish nation. For this is my covenant unto
them, that's that them again, when I shall take away their
sin. Sin is pretty hard to put away.
The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin. It took
the blood of God himself to put away our sin. So salvation is
a deliverance. Deliverance from the power of
sin to condemn. There is therefore now no No
condemnation to those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Who
can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that
justifies. Who is He that condemns? It is
Christ that died, yea rather is risen again. Who is even at
the right hand of God. Who also ever lived to intercede
for us. Salvation is the deliverance
from the power of sin to condemn and from the guilt of sin The
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all our
sin. Thank God. All our sin. I have a lot of them. But I can rest in Him,
knowing His blood puts away all the sin of God's covenant children. So salvation. We can just camp
on that word right there. Salvation. Salvation. And then
the next word that I'm going to use here where it says salvation
is of the Lord. In other places in the scripture,
Jonah said that salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is. Salvation is. You know why salvation
is? Because God is. That's why. Because God is. He is everything. From eternity to eternity, from
everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Salvation is because
God is God. I like that definition. God is
God over all things. Of Him, through Him, and to Him
are all things. To whom be glory both now and
forever. Amen. Salvation is because God
is. God is love. He earned His love,
not that we loved God, but that He loved us. And that He sent
His Son to be the propitiation, the sacrifice that makes complete
satisfaction to God's law and justice for us. God is love. Salvation is because God is God. Salvation is because God is love.
Salvation is because God is good. He's good. He's good to His people. Oh, the goodness of God. The
goodness and longsuffering of our great God. He's good. Everything about Him is good. And then salvation is because
God is merciful. God is merciful. And thank God
that He delights to show mercy. Let us come boldly unto the throne
of grace that we may Obtain mercy according to His purpose and
grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. The psalmist said in Psalm 62,
Psalm 62, if you want to take a peek with me, you can, but
if not, Salvation is, in Psalm 62, I call this the only Psalm,
verse 6, He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense,
I shall not be moved. In God He is my salvation, my
glory, the rock of my strength, and my refuge is in God. Trust
in Him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before Him.
God is. God is. He is. I am that I am. God is a refuge
for us. So salvation, what is it? It's
deliverance. Salvation is because God is.
God purposed it from all eternity to save the people. To save the
people for His own glory. And then salvation is the next
word, of. Salvation is of the Lord. That means it originates with
Him. It's in His planning, it's in
His purpose, it's in His will. Everything has to do with our
salvation is determined and dependent and accomplished by our great,
and I love the way the Scriptures talk about God, our Savior. He's God, our Savior, and He's
my Savior. David said, the Lord is my light
and my salvation, whom shall I fear? I take that personally.
I hope you do too. I hope you can say in your heart,
from the depth of your heart and cry out in your heart, God
is my life and my salvation. I don't care what he is to the
rest of this world. They can make fun of him and
do whatever they want to. Makes no difference to me. He's
my savior. He's my salvation. And that's
my hope. Salvation is of That means salvation is all of
grace, not of work, lest any man should boast. Salvation is
not of works. It's not of works, not at all.
Salvation is not by the deeds of the law. We read in the book
of Romans, by the deeds of the law shall... What's that word? No flesh be justified in God's
sight. No flesh should be justified
by the deeds of the law. Do you know what the law says
to you? Cursed. Cursed is everyone to
continue, if not at all, things which are written in the book
of the law to do them. Folks up Pike County, they put
a little sign up in their yard, doing the ten, planting it in
their yard, sticking on their business. All they're pronouncing
is, I'm living under the curse of God. Thank God the Lord Jesus
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us. The law shall not have dominion
over you, for you're no longer under the law, but under grace.
Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free, and be
not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. We've been set
free, brethren. Christ has delivered us. He's our deliverer. that delivers
us from all our sin. Salvation is of the Lord. It's all of grace, for you know
the grace. First time Brother Henry asked
me to bring a gospel message back 35, 36 years ago. I got a hold of this verse here
in 2 Corinthians 8, 9. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he
became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich. That
was the first time I stood in the pulpit to try to preach the
gospel of God. Still trying. It's amazing how
the Lord uses such frail instruments, and he does so that he might
get all the honor and the glory. And then I love what Peter says,
we believe to the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be
saved even as others. It's all of grace. You see, salvation
is of and then salvation is of the Lord. What does that mean? Salvation is of the Lord. I mean,
it kind of has a lot of people probably say that and like they
say, praise the Lord. But really, what does it mean?
What does it mean, salvation is of the Lord. Let's narrow
it down a little bit more. Salvations of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He accomplished salvation for
us. He didn't come down here with an effort to try to finish
the work that God gave Him to do. He said, my meat is to do
the will of Him that sent me and to finish everything God
gave me to do. Over in Luke 2, it talks about
His first recorded words where it said, remember the Lord said,
I must be about my Father's business. He was always about the Father's
business. And then His last recorded words
there upon the cross. You remember what those words
were. It's finished. Done. Don't bring anything. Don't add anything. Bow to the
Lordship. of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation
is of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Got to be a sacrifice for sin.
There's no sin put away, no righteousness established, no salvation complete
unless there's a sacrifice for sin. And that sacrifice for sin
is the one that God determined in Him being delivered by the
determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and with
wicked hand have crucified and slain the Lord of glory. And
then it says over in chapter 4, you preached on it recently,
they only did what God determined before to be done. They did what
they wanted to do in their wicked heart. But they did what God
determined before to be done. But remember this. The wicked
works that men did and the punishment that the Lord received at their
hand did nothing to put away our sin. It's not what men did
at the cross that's our hope. It's what God was doing at the
cross. That's our hope. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him in our stead. I know it pleased Pilate and
the Romans and the Jews and the Gentiles to gather together against
the Lord and against His Christ. But it pleased God to bruise
Him. That's our hope. He shall bear our sin in His
own body on the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. He said, I'm determined, the apostle,
I'm determined not to know anything among you. Not to know anything
among you. No other remedy for sin, but
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. His crucifixion was not a failure.
It was an accomplishment. They spoke of the death that
he should accomplish. And he did. When he had by himself
purged our sin, he sat down at the right hand of God. Brother
Scott used to tell us all the time, when we preach, we preach
the doing and dying. The doing and dying of the Lord
Jesus Christ. What he has done for us, not
what we have done for him. Christ also suffered once for
our sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us unto God.
He's the captain of our salvation that brings us unto God. All
those sons, given to Christ. He said, all that the Father
giveth to me shall come to me, and those that come to me I will
in no wise. Cast out God, made Him to be sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made to righteousness of God in Christ. Is the bloody sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ absolutely necessary? Yes. No other way.
That's why salvation is of the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. Peter put it this way, neither
is there salvation in any other for there's no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Well, that's what came to me
about 1.30 in the morning. And I got up early this morning,
five o'clock or so, and jotted those things down. Now I have
eight more pages of notes, and I don't know what to do. I really don't. Let's go here. What do we mean when we say that
salvation is of the Lord? What do we mean? We mean that
salvation is by the power of God. We mean that salvation is
by the power of God. Our Lord prayed this way. Father,
you've given me power over all flesh that I should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given to me. He has all power. It takes all power to save such
a wretched sinner like me. If God's not almighty to save,
I that speak to thee in righteousness, He is almighty to save sinners. What do we mean when we say that
salvation is of the Lord? We mean that salvation is by
the power of God. Knowing, brethren, beloved, your
election of God. For our gospel came not in word
only, but also in power. Oh, we heard the gospel. Thank
God for that. Thank God for that. We heard
the gospel. We have been so blessed. So blessed. I think where I came from, what
I heard growing up, I grew up a long way from here. Out in
the mountains of the West. Grew up in false religion. Believed
the lie that they told me that salvation depended upon me. Oftentimes
when people ask me, where are you from? I tell them I'm from
Gooding, Idaho. What are you doing in Kentucky?
How'd you get here? Well, you got a few minutes.
Salvation's of the Lord. That's how I got here. He sent
me here to hear all things commanded of God. Without faith comes by
hearing. And hearing by the word of the
Lord of His own will, He begat us with the word of truth. We
mean, secondly, we mean that salvation is by the sovereign
will of God. Not by the will of man. Not by
the will of man. There's a preacher down the street
from me, and I like him, he's a nice guy. And we talked once
in a while. Ran into him one day at the Wal-Mart. Chinatown, I call it, but Wal-Mart. You forgive me. But he knows,
and he used to watch Brother Henry on TV. And he knows every
time he bumps into me, and I bump into him, we're going to talk
about what thus saith the Lord. And he said, you can't show me
in the Scripture where it says sovereign grace. I said, you're
wrong. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life. There it is. Grace reigns. That's sovereign grace. And that's
the only kind of grace that there is, is sovereign grace. The grace
of God alone. Thank God that God is sovereign
in all things. creation, providence, and most
especially, he is sovereign in salvation. We mean that salvation
is by the will of God, not the will of man. Not the will of
man. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. So then, so then, it's not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God, of
God who showeth mercy. When Moses said, Lord, show me
your glory, remember? I'll be merciful to whom I will
be merciful. It leads me to believe this.
God's greatest glory, mercy, sovereign mercy is my greatest
need. I need mercy. I need mercy. I need the mercy
of the Lord. You see, it's not by works of
righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy,
his mercy. He saved us. He saved us. But we mean, thirdly, we mean
that salvation is by the grace of God alone, not by the deeds
of our sinful flesh. What could we possibly bring?
When God said all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, when God
said there is none righteous, no, not one, what could we contribute
to that which is absolutely holy? Nothing. We mean that salvation
is by the grace of God alone and the sovereign grace of God
alone. One of my favorite verses In
Romans chapter 3 verse 24, being justified freely by His grace. Don't leave out the rest of it.
Through the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. justified
freely by His grace through the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Fourthly, we mean the whole of
the work whereby a lost dead sinner, a rebel against God,
a guilty son of Adam is justified, saved and sanctified and redeemed
is of the Lord and of Him only. But of Him. I had one of those knockers come to my study one day. And he was a big
preacher from over in town. And I don't know why he wanted
to come over and pick on me. But maybe he read something I
put in the paper or something. Maybe he heard me on the radio.
I don't know. But he wanted to come over and pick a fight and
challenge me to a public debate. Let's debate. Let's rent a hall
and debate. I'm not going to debate you,
I'm going to preach the gospel. Well, I quoted this verse to
him and he just looked at me so puzzled like he had never
ever read this verse before. But of Him are you in Christ,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption, that according as it is written, He that would
glory, let him glory in the Lord. And that's our hope. We glory in the Lord. God forbid. I see glory saved
in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that leads me to believe
that salvation is not something we do for God or something we
do for ourselves. Salvation is not something we
do for God or something that we do for ourselves. Salvation
is something that God must do. Now listen to this carefully. That God must do for us and in
us. He doesn't work for us. He suffered
once for our sins, the just for the unjust. But there's that
regenerating work of God the Holy Spirit in the quickening
power of God. You have the quickened who were
dead in trespasses and in sin. God must raise us up from the
dead or we'll never believe the gospel of God. Matter of fact,
that's the only people who believe the gospel. whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. The Lord must do what
we cannot do, put away our sin, and he must raise us from the
dead. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things
are passed away, and behold, all things have become new. Christ
in you, Christ in you is the hope of glory. We have a good
hope We have an everlasting consolation and a good hope through grace,
through grace in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Alpha and the Omega of all of our salvation. Christ is all
and in all. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily and in Him we are complete. 2 Timothy 1.9, you know this
verse, one of my favorites. I love this verse. It's God who
saved us. You read it last night. It's
God who saved us. Wouldn't that take place? Don't ask me. Ask Him. From eternity,
He chose a people in Christ. God who saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our work, but according to
His own purpose and grace. I love those two words. Purpose.
God saves every sinner whom He saves on purpose. Grace which
was given us in Christ before the world began. I love that,
don't you? All the way through the Bible,
the message is salvation of the Lord, is it not? All the way
in the beginning. The woman's seed that would crush
Satan's dominion. All the way through the Bible,
the message is salvation of the Lord. Call His name Jesus. Why? He's the Savior. He shall save
His people from their sin. Did he get it done? Did anybody
in hell for whom Christ died? Can't be, because his atonement
is effectual, definite, particular for his covenant people. Call
his name what it is. Call him what he is. Savior,
God our Savior. He shall save his people from
their sin. Moses declared salvation's completely
of the Lord. Remember, they were up against
it, weren't they? Barrels arming, oh man. Mountains on one side
and on the other side. Water dead ahead. What are we
going to do? Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. You don't need to fight. The
Lord shall fight for you. And then Jonah declared as well,
didn't he? Did he not? I will sacrifice unto thee with
a voice of thanksgiving, I will pay that I have vowed salvation
is of the Lord." He says that's the message of Scripture. That's
our message. That's our message. That's our message. Someone asked
me this morning about preaching. I said, well, I've got the message.
The Lord just gives me the strength to deliver it. We've got the
message. The gospel is the power of God
and the salvation. Never, ever, ever. You know this. These preachers know this. Never
ever entertain the idea of compromise to get along. I'd rather die. I'd rather be burned than to
compromise. Just to try to satisfy somebody.
To try to remove the offense of the cross. What did our pastor
teach us? When you remove the offense of the cross, you remove
the power of the cross. I know the gospel is offensive
to the natural man, but let's offend him. Let's tell the truth. Sin is sin. We're sinful. That's
what I am. That God is God, holy, just,
righteous. Salvations in the Lord Jesus
Christ. David declared salvations of
the Lord, did he not? The Lord is my light and my salvation. And then his last words, you
remember the last words of David? 2 Samuel 23, 5, Although my house
be not so with God, he hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things, and is sure, this is all my salvation
and all my hope. And you know that last statement
in that verse is a little bit kind of hard to get your hands
around. Although he maketh not to grow. You know what that means
to me? Never needs improvement. Doesn't
change. The salvation of the Lord does
not change. Does not change. I am the Lord, I change not.
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Simeon declared,
remember waiting for the consolation of the Lord? Simeon declared
it in the temple. He said, Lord, I'm ready to die. I am ready to depart according
to thy word. Mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. Now
watch it. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. In the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation
is in a person. He is the Savior. Salvation is
being vitally united to the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ is salvation. Salvation is not in a pool. Salvation
is not in a profession. Salvation is not in a persuasion.
Salvation is in a person. In a person. The Lord Jesus Christ. I can make good on that. He that
hath the Son hath life. Now I love this scripture. The Lord used this particular
scripture to teach me the gospel. There in Philippians 3 where
Paul said, I count all things but lost for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered
the loss of all things and do count them but done that I may
win Christ and be found in Him. Not having my own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness
of the covenant mediator. the surety of the covenant, the
sacrifice of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. He that hath
the Son hath life. This is a record that God has
given to us, eternal life. And this life is in His Son.
He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. I'm going to skip all these pages
because I was going to give you a five point outline on salvations
of the Lord in its origination, its execution, its application,
sustaining power, and ultimate perfection. We've all preached
those outlines before. It's good preaching. It's good
preaching. It's good preaching. Todd, you
come up here and preach these five points for me, will you?
I'll give you the rest of time. I'm going to quit. Salvations
of the Lord in its ultimate perfection. It's all about His glory. The
elect of God are predestinated to be conformed to the image
of Christ. People say, well, I don't believe
in predestination. If you're a believer, you better
believe in biblical predestination. I tell you who the man is who
believes in predestination. That we are God predestinated
to people to be conformed to the image of Christ, and that's
what it's all about. But those who believe in biblical predestination
are those who are predestinated unto eternal life. That's who
believes that. As many as were ordained to eternal
life believe God. Who then can be saved? With man
it is impossible, but not with God. With God all things are
possible. As sure as there is salvation
in Christ. As sure as there is salvation
in Christ. Now I'm sure of that. I'm sure
of that because I believe the record of God. I believe the
Word of God. I am the way, the truth, the
life. No man comes to the Father but
by and through me. As sure as there is salvation
in Christ, be sure of this. There's no salvation apart from
Christ. There's no salvation apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look to Him. Look to Him. He said, I am God,
beside me there is no other. I'm the only just God and Savior. Now, look, look, look to Him
and be saved. It's a look of faith. Come to
Christ and don't move a muscle in your heart. Look to Him. Looking
unto Jesus, who's the author and finisher of our faith, who
for the joy that was set before Him endured all the suffering. seated at the right hand of God.
Now look to him. That's why I can say come boldly
to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, find grace
to help in time of need. When is that? All the time. All
the time. Thank you. God bless you. I love
you. Thank you so much for taking
this wayward Mormon in years ago. And you welcome me. Our dear pastor, just so generous
and loving and kind to me and my dear wife, my family. And
we thank God for his ministry. What a blessing, what a blessing
Brother Mahan has been. There's not anybody in this crowd
this morning that's not been influenced or affected by that
man's ministry. We thank God for it. We thank
God for it. All right, I'm done.