Good morning. I invite your attention to Psalm
number 66, the 66th Psalm. My text will be found in verse
number 16. And my message is titled, The
Spiritual History of Jehovah's Saints. Or if you will, this
is our autobiography. My text reads, Come and hear
all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done. for
my soul." Sometime or other, someone's going to ask you, what
has your God ever done for you? And when you are asked, I hope
you can say, I'm so glad you asked. I can tell you what he
has done for me, and I will gladly tell you what he has done for
me. Now we are here in the congregation
of fellow saints, brothers and sisters. So I'm going to say,
come and hear all ye that fear God. That should be just about
all of you. Come and hear. All ye that reverence
God, worship him, and I will tell you, declare what he hath
done for my soul. When I have done so, you undoubtedly
will say, Moose, he did the same thing for me. And that's true. That's true. The circumstances Physically
speaking of our salvation will differ. The Lord saved me, converted
me in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Most of you probably have never
been there. And the Lord converted you or
saved you perhaps here in Montana. Different place, different dates,
different preachers, different circumstance. But with regard
to what God has done spiritually for you, it is the same as He
has done for me. This is a spiritual autobiography
of what God has done for my soul. Now this is the fourth message
in this series. On previous occasions when I
was here, we dealt with the first three parts of this message and
we'll conclude the series today, God willing. We introduced the
subject in the first message and we considered what I did
not do for my soul. Nothing I ever did for my soul
was good. Everything I ever did for my
soul was bad. That's why I'm going to tell
you what God has done for my soul. Come, all ye that fear
God, let me tell you what He has done for my soul. Our God
is one God in three persons. The Triune God, a Holy Trinity, and each person
in this Holy Trinity is involved in our salvation. Briefly speaking,
we may say that our salvation is of God the Father with regard
to its origination. Our salvation is of God the Son
with regard to its acquisition. And third, our salvation is of
God the Spirit with regard to its application. So, in its origination, acquisition,
and application, our salvation is of the triune God, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. With regard to the work of God
the Father, most everything He did for our soul was done before
the foundation of the world, in old eternity, before He created
the heavens and the earth. And there, in the hall of His
eternal counsel, God the Father did that which would result in
our salvation. Briefly speaking, God the Father
foreknew me, loved me, purposed my salvation, predestined the
way I would be saved, chose me to salvation, and highly favored
me to be eternally joined to Christ. So what God the Father
did in the origination of salvation was done before the foundation
of the world. What God the Son did for my salvation
in its acquisition was done about 2,000 years ago in the days of
His incarnation The days of His incarnation commenced with the
day of His birth. They ended with the day of His
death on this earth. Thirty-three and a half years, Jesus Christ walked upon this
earth doing that which would obtain my salvation for me. Almost that whole time he was
fulfilling God's law, he had to work out a perfect righteousness. And he did so for 33 and a half
years, from the day of his birth until the day of his death. But
almost all that Jesus Christ did in acquiring my salvation,
in obtaining it for me, was done in a three-hour span on the day
of his death. from high noon until 3 p.m. And there on that cross at high
noon, God pulled a veil over the sun and it did not shine. He plunged the world into outer
darkness as it were, a darkness like that of Egypt, a darkness
that could be felt. And there from high noon until
3 p.m., A holy transaction was done that no man was to see. It was a transaction between
God the Father and God the Son in order that the Son might obtain
my salvation for me. And there, in those three hours,
from high noon until 3 p.m., Jesus Christ suffered the wrath
that all God's elect deserved. Had it not been for the divine
nature in his human body, God's wrath would have consumed him.
My brother read this morning, Our God is a Consuming Fire,
in the epistle to the Hebrews. Were it not for the fact of the
divine nature and the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ,
he also would have been consumed during those three hours. But
for three hours, he bore the wrath of God that God's elect
deserved. All the hell, all the damnation
that God's elect deserved, he suffered it in three hours there
on that cross until he shouted, in glorious victory, it is finished. We might argue Those are the
three most important words in all God's Word. It is finished. And it was. And it was! He had performed what He came
to do. He had acquired the salvation
of every one of God's elect. And in so doing so, He saved
me, redeemed me, justified me, sanctified me, perfected me,
cleansed me, healed me, remitted my sins, and He reconciled me
unto God 2,000 years ago. Well, that was 2,000 years before
I was born. And I was born. dead in sins
and in trespasses. Conceived in sin, shapen in iniquity,
I departed my mother's womb speaking lies. And the older I became, the better
liar I became. And I practiced it diligently until one day, Spirit of God said, you've sinned long enough. And the Spirit of God did something
for me. God the Father had originated
my salvation with an eternal decree. God the Son, 2,000 years
ago, fulfilled the decree. and acquired my salvation. And
on the 17th of June in the year of our Lord 1975, the Spirit
of God arrested me while I was sitting in a church pew, as I
recall, second pew back on about the end. He arrested me that
night and he took everything that Jesus Christ had done for
me and applied it to me. God the Father originated my
salvation before the foundation of the world. God the Son acquired
my salvation 2,000 years ago on Calvary. God the Spirit applied
my salvation on the day that I was born again. Ah, now that brings me now to
the work of God the Spirit in salvation. What does He do? Well,
the first that He would do would be He regenerated me. He regenerated me. What is it
to be regenerated? Born again. Born anew. Born of God. Born of the Spirit. Born from heaven. Born again. That's the work of the Holy Spirit.
The work of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit alone. It is
absolutely necessary that one be born again. As Jesus said
to Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God. And then he said, except a man
be born again, He cannot enter the kingdom of God. Therefore,
you must be born again in order to see the kingdom of God. And
you cannot enter God's kingdom until you've seen it. And therefore,
you're born again so that you may see the kingdom and then
enter into it. It is absolutely necessary. No one can either see or enter
God's kingdom apart from being born again. I was born again
through being born of God. No one else was involved. I was born not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,
John chapter 1. For example, contrary to some,
I do not say I was born again through baptism. Some say so.
Not me. I was born of God. I was not
born in the baptistry. I was born of God. Furthermore,
I was not born again by believing the gospel. That point is important. Grasp
it. Life precedes faith. Remember those three words. Life
precedes faith. You cannot believe the gospel
until, first of all, you have been born again. You agree with
me, brother? All right. I saw his approval. Life precedes faith. Faith evidences
life. One must be born again in order
to even believe the gospel. I was born of God through being
born of the Spirit. Now that's interesting because
in John's gospel chapter 1, we're born of God. But Jesus in John
3 said, you must be born of the Spirit. Which is it? Are we born of God or are we
born of the Spirit? Yeah. No, no, no. Which is it? Are we born of God or are we
born of the Spirit? Yes. Both. We are born of God
through being born of the Spirit. When we're born of the Spirit,
we are born of God. To be born of God is to be born
of the Spirit. Therefore, the new birth is a
spiritual birth. My first birth was a natural
birth. through natural means, with natural parents, my new
birth, my regeneration, done of the Spirit, and is completely
a spiritual birth. Now, he performs this work through
the preaching of the gospel. through the preaching of the
gospel. The greatest illustration of this probably is going to
be found in Ezekiel chapter 37, where the prophet Ezekiel is
taken by God and placed in a valley full of dry bones. Evidently,
a battle had been fought, and the dead had been left in the
field, and nothing left now but bones. And the bones now have
become separated one from another. It's just a whole valley full
of dry bones. That's all it is. And the Lord
says to Ezekiel, Preach! Do what? Preach! Okay, preach
to whom? Preach to the dry bones! Now,
Lord, you sent me to prophesy unto your people, but you have
never asked me to preach to dry bones before. Preach! Okay. And Ezekiel begins to preach. And as he begins to preach, dry bones begin getting up. And there's an upper leg bone
and a lower leg bone, and they joined themselves together. And
toe bones over yonder, feet bones over here, they come together. And bit by bit, a skeleton is
scattered across the field, and the bones come back together
like they were before the man died. And as Ezekiel
preaches, you can imagine that he is awestruck what's going
on as he's preaching. Well, folks, you do not need
much more encouragement to keep on preaching than to see what's
going on as you are preaching. And Ezekiel keeps on preaching,
and bones begin coming together, and then sinews begin to come
on them skin, and pretty soon there's a whole army standing
right there before Ezekiel And all he did was preach. That's
all he did, just preached. And now there's a whole army
standing before him. A valley of dry bones had now
become a valley of living beings. Marvel of marvels, wonder of
wonders. How did that happen, Ezekiel?
I have no idea. All I did was preach. And the
Spirit of God began to do this work. Well, that's what happens
when I preach, when every other preacher preaches. We preach to dead people, dead in trespasses
and in sins. And through some work, beyond
my ability, beyond my comprehension, what happens? Dead sinners come
to life. They're born again, born again
to the Spirit of God. I was begotten through the gospel,
1 Corinthians 4.15. I was born again, not a corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible through the word of God which lives and
abides forever. I Peter 1.23. Of his own will
God brought me forth by the word of truth. James 1.18. Jehovah's
word has given me life. Psalm 119 verse 50. How was I born again? The baptistry
had nothing to do with it. No other person had anything
to do with it. It was done through the gospel
of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That's why I tell people
who tell me they are concerned for their souls, are you really
concerned for your soul? If you are, the best thing you
can do for your soul is to sit under the sound of a gospel preacher
because that's the way. God regenerates dead sinners. I was born again at the time
of my conversion, so grasp these two terms, regeneration, conversion. I've heard debates as to which
comes first, regeneration or conversion, and I must confess,
I'm not smart enough to participate in that debate. But I will tell
you this, regeneration and conversion are, as it were, two sides of
the same coin. You cannot have regeneration
without conversion. You cannot have conversion without
regeneration. At the time of my conversion,
I was regenerated. And at the time of my regeneration,
I was converted. And both works through God. And
I cannot tell you how it occurred. I do not know. In fact, it took
me completely by surprise. Because when the Lord saved me,
I was a sovereign Grace Baptist
preacher. I repeat, I was a sovereign grace-baptist
preacher when the Lord saved me, and I was as lost as I could
be. Lost as I could be. I walked into a church building
that night, convinced that I was a Christian. Within
a few minutes, I was convinced I was on my way to hell. In a
few minutes, I felt the condemnation of God upon me. In a few minutes,
I realized I was the worst sinner in the place. And I have no idea how it happened,
except that it did happen. Jesus said, being born again
is like the wind. You can feel it. You cannot see it, but you can
feel it, and you can tell it which way it's blowing. But tell
me this, where did it come from? Well, it came from the south.
Yeah, but where in the south? Where did the wind start? I have
no idea. Where will the wind stop? Pinpoint
the place. I can't do that. Well, that's
the way it is with being born again. It is mysterious. It is beyond
my comprehension. I cannot tell you how I was born
again, but I can tell you it happened. It happened. It is
beyond my comprehension. I still cannot explain it, but
I rejoice in it. My spiritual birth was somewhat
like my physical birth. I was born on the 1st of December,
1948. I do not recall a single second
of the event. I was there. I don't know anything
that happened except what my mother told me. I did not choose when I would
be born. I did not choose how I would
be born. I did not choose where I would be born. And so it was
with my new birth. I did not choose where I would
be regenerated. I did not choose how I would
be regenerated. I did not choose when I would
be regenerated. It just happened. It just happened. I was there, but I cannot tell
you much about it. But this I know. I was dead in
trespasses and sins, but I have been quickened, regenerated,
and born again. I have eternal life. I will never,
ever perish. Never, ever perish. Accordingly, I want you to grasp
three things about this new birth. The ground of regeneration is
God's grace. My works had nothing to do with
it. The agent in regeneration is God's Spirit. No mortal regenerates. And the instrument in regeneration
is God's Word and His Gospel. No ritual can do this work. Now, that's the biggest part
of my message for today. Briefly, I'm going to give you
just a few more points, just briefly. And you will find them
enumerated in 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 to 11. where we read,
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom
of God? But you were washed, you were
sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God. Now notice three works, three
works, by the Spirit of our God. You were washed, you were sanctified,
you were justified. by the Spirit of our God. The
Holy Spirit did this. Now, we can deal with these rather
briefly. The Holy Spirit washed me. You
were washed by the Spirit of our God. Jesus said, you must
be born of water and the Spirit. Water and the Spirit. They are inseparable in this
work of regeneration. Paul the Apostle expands upon
this when he tells saints that God saved him through the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. When I was
renewed, there was a washing that took place, a cleansing
that took place. God fulfilled the prophecy that
I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean. I
will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your
idols. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in
my statutes. Ezekiel chapter 36. Therefore,
when I was born again, I was bathed, I was washed, I was
cleansed, I was purified by the Spirit of God. through the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. Then third,
the Holy Spirit sanctified me in that same text. The Holy Spirit
sanctified me, but you were sanctified by the Spirit of our God. Now,
all three persons are involved in the sanctification of a sinner.
All three persons of the Holy Trinity. God the Father sanctified
me from eternity. He decreed that I be holy. He decreed that I be separated
from the world and consecrated to Himself. Now God the Son sanctified
me on Calvary. By His death, I was separated
from the world and consecrated unto God. And God the Spirit
sanctified me in my regeneration. He sanctified me by giving to
me a new nature. Peter tells us we have become
partakers of the divine nature. Have you ever considered that? When Jesus Christ became God
manifested in the flesh, he who was of the divine nature
took on our human nature, so that in his one person there
is the divine nature, inherently his, and the human nature, which
he assumed. Now, when the Holy Spirit regenerates
sinners, He takes people with the human nature and puts the
divine nature in them. We have become partakers of the
divine nature. Read Paul in the 7th chapter.
of his epistle to the Romans. And he talks about, you know,
the things I should do are the things I don't want to do. And
the things I should not do, they are the things that I want to
do. And it feels like there's a warfare
going on within me at all times. Well, there's a good reason for
that. There is in me two natures, a human nature that can do nothing
but sin, and the divine nature that cannot sin. And they're
both within me. And they struggle. They struggle
with each other, and they're filed against me, seeking mastery
over me. But this is the, this divine
nature that has been given to me by the Holy Spirit when He
sanctified me. We consequently read, whoever
has been born of God, that is regenerated, does not sin. For God's seed remains in him.
And he cannot sin because he has been born of God. Now does
that mean he'll never commit a single sin? No, that's not
what it means. It means this. If you have been born of God,
sin is not the manner of your life as it was before the Lord
saved you. Sin is not the tenor of your
life. You will run from sin as fast
as you can. You will run the righteousness
as fast as you can. That's because you've been born
of God. Then fourth, the Holy Spirit justified me. You were
justified by the Spirit of our God. Now, once again, all three
persons in the Holy Trinity are involved in this justification.
God the Father justified me from eternity when he decreed I would
be righteous. Yes, that is eternal justification. Before the foundation of the
world, he chose me to be without blame. Righteous. I was accepted in Christ as righteous,
therefore justified. Now, God the Son, 2,000 years
ago, he justified me on Calvary by removing my sins from me and
declaring me to be just, and I received the imputed righteousness
of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. That's what he does. He imputes
the righteousness of Jesus Christ to God's sinners so that, as
I described a moment ago, I walked into a church building on that
night, lost as I could be, unrighteous,
and yet there I received the righteousness of Jesus Christ
through the Holy Spirit applying it unto me. walked into that
building an unrighteous man, walked out as righteous as Jesus
Christ because He is my righteousness and I have become the righteousness
of God in Him. Last point, number five. He did something else for me.
Now the Spirit of God regenerated me, and the Spirit of God washed
me, and the Spirit of God justified me, and the Spirit of God sanctified
me. He did something else. One last
thing. He sealed me. In Christ you trusted
after you heard the word of truth. the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of your inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of
his glory." 2 Corinthians 1.22 and chapter 5, verse 5. I was sealed. I was sealed. What does it mean to be sealed?
It means I'm safe. I'm safe. God has put his seal on me. And it is indelible, unerasable,
uncorruptible, uneroding, I'm sealed, I'm sealed. There's an inheritance over yonder
in heaven's glory just awaiting for me, an inheritance. God's kingdom, I'm going to inherit
it along with Jesus Christ. He's inherited all things. I'm
a joint heir with Him. It's there. But preacher, you
just might lose your salvation before you get there. No, I can't.
I can't. Why? I'm sealed. The Holy Spirit
has sealed me. It is as good as though to say,
signed, sealed, and delivered, because that inheritance is already
mine. I'm sealed. I have the Holy Spirit
and He's the guarantee of the possession. I know that possession
is mine. The Holy Spirit is in me and
He has sealed me unto it. Well, that's the story of my
salvation. Come all ye that fear God, Let
me tell you what He has done for my soul. That's what He's
done. Now, it took me four messages to do it, but that's it. That's it. It's
kind of hard to get all of this into one message, but we did
it in four. And what He did for me is the
same as what He did for every one of God's children. Therefore, if anyone should ever
ask you, what has your God ever done for you? I hope you can
say, I'm so glad you asked. I can tell you what my God has
done for me. Come and hear. I'll tell you. I'll tell you. And if there be one here today who has never trusted Jesus Christ,
I pray that this might be the day when God reveals to you that
he did something for you before the foundation of the world.
And God the Son did something for you 2,000 years ago on Calvary. And I pray that he might do the
same thing for you in the regeneration of your soul as you sit here
this morning. This is such a glorious truth. Many people would say, let me
tell you what I have done for God. We do not talk that way, folks.
That is not the language of heaven. We do not brag about what we
have done for the Lord. They that do so, Jesus said,
He'll say, I never knew you'd depart. But some of us are going to stand
before God on that final day of judgment, and we're going
to thank Him for what He did for our souls. I hope you're one of them. O God, our Father, to the glory of your name and
to the honor of your Son, Jesus Christ. Bless, we pray, this
word, this message. Bless our worship of your Son
this day. We pray that our hymns have been
acceptable to you, our praise has honored you. We pray that
this message has magnified you and exalted your Son through
the power of your Spirit. Receive our thanksgiving for
all these blessings. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.