You would open your Bible back
to the book of Romans. I think it's Romans 13. I'll
be reading one verse of scripture. Romans 13 verse 11. And that, knowing the time, that
now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our
salvation nearer than when we believed. We tried to look the
last several weeks in the subject of salvation, and there are so
many aspects of the work of salvation. And I'll say this, first and
foremost, salvation is a person. Christ is God's salvation. That from back in old eternity
when God chose a people and elected a people and gave them to Christ
in the covenant of grace, all the way through their lives and
everything that's ever happened in this world and ever will happen
to the time that everyone that God chose will be totally delivered
from this thing called sin, and we will all be glorified and
made conformed unto the very image of the Son of God. Every
bit of that is salvation. Every bit of it. And we just
look at small aspects of it. We looked at regeneration. It's when God saves a person
from the pleasure and love of sin. By nature we love sin. By nature we drink sin like,
we drink iniquity like it's water. Just trying to satisfy our thirst. We have this longing, this craving,
which can never satisfy. And God's got to save a man from
that. Or he'll never be saved. You
can't save yourself. Only He can. And let me tell
you this. He saves a man from the pleasure of sin. From the
craving of sin. I didn't say we quit sinning. No. We know better than that.
But He saves you from the craving of it. The longing of it. That's
in regeneration. He saves us from the penalty
of sin. When He justifies us and declares
us righteous. Now all these things happened
in eternity. When God chose you, you were as good as glorified
because God ordained it. It's not an afterthought, it
happened. Whom He did foreknow, He did predestinate. Whom He
did predestinate, He justified. Whom He justified, He glorified. But as far as us experiencing
it, as far as us understanding it, when God regenerated us,
He saved us. He came to indwell our heart.
He came to set up His throne and He justified us. He declared
us righteous and not only declared us righteous, He made us righteous. Read, as I'll use many times,
the example of Job. You say, well it doesn't seem
like Job was a righteous man. Read the account in the Old Testament.
But what does God say about him? God said he vexed his righteous
soul. God made him righteous. God justified
him. God saved him from the penalty
of sin. He should have died with everybody
else in Sodom. He should have perished with
everybody else. But he didn't. You know what salvation is? It
just means God delivers. God delivered. Delivered. Just like. How did he deliver
him? God sent angels down there. And took him by the arms. And
drug him out. And God delivered him. God saved
him. That's salvation. God's got to
drag you out. He's got to deliver you from
the pleasure of sin, from the penalty of sin. And He saves
you from the power of sin. In sanctification, now all these
things happened in eternity. I know this. Sanctification means
when God sets something apart, it makes it holy. He set apart
the seventh day from all the other six days and He sanctified
it. He made it holy. Remember the Sabbath day and
keep it what? Holy. When God sets something
apart for His use, He made it holy. If God had wanted this
table and God set it apart for His use, like He did the tabernacle,
He makes it holy. It's sanctified. And when God
sets you apart, He sanctified you. And listen, He made you
holy. Not part holy, holy. Break it down. Holy, that means
it's whole. That means it's complete. It's
holy. You say, well, I want to be more
holy. How much more holier can you get? We're seated at the
right hand of the Father in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the very
holiness of God. Holiness. Sanctified. And you know what God is doing?
Listen to me. He not only declares you to be holy, but He makes you. And He grows
you up in grace. He makes you humble. He breaks
you. He wins you from this world.
That's God saving you from the power of sin every day in your
life. You've heard me say many times,
God has saved you and God is saving you. And you are being
saved. God has to save you right now
from the power of sin. The power of sin that tries to
distract your mind. Isn't that the power of sin?
Does this world not have an attraction? That's the power of sin. Who's
to deliver you from that? He does. How does He do it? By
weaning you. By chastening us. By drawing
us to Himself. God is saving us. He is sanctifying
us. And you can call it progressive
if you want to. God is drawing up His people.
I know what the world calls, and religion calls, progressive
sanctification. They say, well, if you do what
you're supposed to do, and do everything that God requires
of you, then you will, of your own accord, of your own will,
make yourself holy. That's foolishness. But God makes
you holy. God makes you holy. It's just
exactly like the article in the bulletin today by Clay Curtis
which says, believers do not sit under a false gospel. Why
won't they? God won't allow it to happen.
I've heard people say, well, they're just babes in Christ. Well, if they're babes in Christ,
God will get them out of that mess. He'll get them out because they're
His. They'll grow. They won't eat on briars and
thorns, and they won't chew on cans. That's what goats eat. We're sheep. And sheep wonder,
prone to wonder, Lord I feel it. We know it. We leave Him
every day. Our hearts are filled with sin.
We know it. We experience it. And how are
we to be saved from the power of sin? I'm no match for sin.
You're not either. He saves you from the power of
sin every day. Every day. So now, today, with
God's help, we're going to look at another aspect of this, of
salvation. It's when God saves us, and this
is something in the future, when God will actually save us from
the very presence of sin. This is something we know very
little about. We only read about it in the
scriptures because none of us have ever experienced it. Everything you do, everything,
even when you lay down to go to sleep, you have to deal with
a thing called sin. There's not a single moment you
don't deal with sin. And to think that one day we
will be actually delivered, set free from the very presence of
sin. No more sin. No more heartache. No more pain. No more suffering. No more death. No more dying. Nothing. Delivered. We're born in sin, we live in
sin, we deal with this awful thing called sin every second
of our lives. But one day, all of God's redeemed
will be delivered from the very presence of sin. He will deliver them. He's going
to deliver them. Now listen, He's going to deliver
their vile bodies. Your body is redeemed. Your body
holds the temple of God. It is the temple of God. That's
where the Spirit of God dwells, is in your body. Well, one day
your body's gonna die. You'll be delivered in from the
presence of sin, but your body, your body which will decay, your
body which will rot in the grave, must also be delivered from the
power of sin. It says when Christ died, His
body saw no corruption. You know what it says? It means His body was not affected
by sin. Because when He said it's finished,
it's finished. And you know what he did when
he rose from the grave? He's the firstborn among many
brethren. The firstborn is the first one
to be born. He's the firstborn of many brethren. That means there's more to come. He raised his body and he's going
to raise the bodies of all his people. Everybody, everybody's body and
spirit will be united. Everybody that's ever died since
the foundation of the world, able. First man to ever die,
physically, his body and his spirit will be united. God will
raise his vile body. The first wicked man to ever
die, the dying sin that went to hell, his body and his spirit
will be united and he will have a body that suffers for all eternity. That's right. But we will be
delivered from the presence of sin. We don't know anything about
it in these bodies. This has to do with something in the future. This will not happen. Now listen
to me. While we live on this earth, we will never be delivered
from sin. Not in these bodies. Your body,
as you sit there this morning, the older you get, the more pains
you have, The more wrinkles you get, the more gray hair you get.
And it seems like only yesterday, I was, I'm 53, and it only seems
like yesterday I was just a teenager. 20 years seemed like eternity. I've been out of school 30 some
years. He said, boy, you are old. You're
older than I thought you were. One day, Lord willing, you'll
be right where I am. And it'll be at the snap of your
fingers. Our life is but a vapor. We're dying. Get used to it. But that's not the end for a
believer. It's a blessed hope. If all we have to hope for is
what we have in this life, you're of all men most miserable. You'll
never be satisfied in this life. But one day, one day, For our
salvation to be complete. Now listen to me. I know it was
complete when He chose us. When He ordained us. But as far
as us experiencing it. Our salvation will be complete. When He delivers our vile body.
And He raises our bodies. To be made like His glorious
body. Whom God did foreknow. He did
what? Predestinate. To be conformed. Conformed to what? The very image. of Jesus Christ. Let me give you some scripture. Philippians 3.24, our conversation
is in heaven from whence we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Hebrews 9, 28, so Christ was
once offered to bear the sins of many and to them that look
for him shall he appear the second time. What's this? When he appears
the second time, he appeared the first time. He appeared the
first time and was made sin. But when he appears the second
time, without sin, unto salvation. 1 Peter 4 and 5, who are kept
by the power of God through faith. unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. How are we kept? By the power
of God. Our salvation from the presence
of sin will be accomplished at Christ's second advent when He
comes again. He's coming. He is coming again. He came first time as the Lamb
of God that takes away the sin of the world of all His people.
But when he comes the second time, he's coming without sin.
He's coming to get his bride. When the last chosen sinner,
when the last elect sinner is brought into the family of God,
listen, that's it. That's the only reason this world
exists, is to save God's people. That's the only reason the United
States has ever existed And it seems like all hell's breaking
loose, but don't get upset. God's will's being done. God's
going to save his people. Every last one of them. Every last one of them. You know
what this country is? It's nothing more than a scaffold
that you put up around the house to build the house. When the
house is done, you take down the scaffold and put it away. It's used its purpose. Listen, 1 John 3, 2. And I'm
going to make several references to this verse in a few minutes. But it says, Beloved, now are
we the sons of God. When are we the sons of God right
now? And it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we do know
this. We do know this. That when He
shall appear, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall appear, we shall
be just like Him. For we shall see Him. as he is,
perfect, holy, righteous. What did God say? Nobody can
see my face and live. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. God said, Moses, nobody can see
my face and live. But there's a rock by me, and
I'll put you in the cleft of that rock, which is Christ, and
when I pass by, you'll see my counterparts. But we are going
to, listen to me, we will actually be able to look into the face
of the Son of God and behold His glory and be changed into
that very glory. Delivered from the presence of
sin. That's good news. Do you know
Adam was made in the likeness of God? You ever noticed in Genesis
it says, let us, let us make man in our image. God the Father,
Son and Spirit, let us make man in our image. And they did. You have a body, you have a soul,
and you have a spirit. And your soul, like God, is eternal. Your soul will never die. Never. It's going to live forever
somewhere. Adam was made in the likeness
of God. Adam had a holiness. Adam had a righteousness. And
he reflected the perfections of his maker. But when sin came
in, it marred that glory. And we sure don't look like God
now. Do we? When you think about the
word glorified, glory, it's something to do with glowing. Boy, it's
marred now. We don't love righteousness,
we love sin. And it was marred, but Christ came in the likeness
of sinful flesh. And for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh, that we might be made the righteousness of God. But you know what our hope is?
Is that that image, that Adam lost, will one day be restored. no more sin, no more pain. For whom he did foreknow, he
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. Our salvation from the presence
of sin not only has to do, listen, not only has to do with us not
having to deal with sin anymore. It's not that we just want it
over with. It's not that we're just tired
of dealing with sin. It's much more than that. We
want to see the one that put away sin. It's not like Paul said, I'm
in a straight betwixt two designed to depart and be with Christ
which is far better. But it's more needful for me
to be right here. It's not that I just want to
be done with it. I want to see Him. I want to see Him. Believers worship God. Believers believe God. Believers have faith in God.
We know all this is a work of grace, but we just do it. We
see Him with the eye of faith, but there's so many things that
cloud our vision. It's like looking through the
lattice. Have you ever looked through a lattice wall? You know what
lattice is. You ever tried to look through
a smoked up glass and you could see, but it wasn't just real
clearly. That's how we see God. Because of sin. Sin is the smoke. Sin is the lattice. But one day
it's gonna all be gone. It'll be crystal clear. And we'll
know as we're known. We'll see Him. See Him. This is our blessed hope. And
believers look forward to this. Believers look forward to this
with delight. Now religious people, they talk
about, oh I can't wait to go see grandma and grandpa and everybody
else. Now listen to me. I hope that
every one of them is there. But they ain't the ones I want
to see. What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see. When I look upon his face, the
one who saved me by his grace. He's the one. Religion talks
about it's just heaven or hell. Don't you want to go to heaven
when you die? You don't want to go to hell when you die. It's
not heaven and hell is not the issue. It's Christ who's the
issue. When Christ who is my life shall
appear. He's not a part of my life. He's my life. My life. Anything short from that is not
salvation. We shall literally see him who
loved us and gave himself for us. David said, as for me, I
will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied. Have you
ever been satisfied? I shall be satisfied. And when
will I be satisfied? When I wake. You know the Bible always talks
about a believer's death. He don't call it death, he calls
it sleep. When I wake, it's just like we lay down. You
lay down at night and you close your eyes. You look just like
you're dead. And you wake up the next morning. That's where
it's going to be in death. We're going to lay down, and
we're going to rest, and we're going to wake, and I'm going
to be satisfied when I wake. And when I wake, I'll be in His
likeness, and then I'll be satisfied. I'll be satisfied then. That's salvation. And we shall
literally see Him. The word seeing, listen, implies
a clear, full, undimmed sight of Christ. We will see Christ
clearly because everything that hinders our sight of Him now
will be removed. The lattice is our sin, it's
our misconception, it's all these, it's going to all be taken away.
And we'll see Him clearly. with my literal eyes. See Him. Our sins, our carnal nature will
be completely removed. All those earthly cares that
now cloud our vision will be taken away. All of our sorrows
will be ended. All of them. There'll be nothing
to stand between us and our Savior. In glory there'll be no rivals
and we will love Him. Now believer, now He wants to
love Him supremely, don't you? But you know sin just hinders
you. We won't deal with it then. Love Him. Love Him. We can't
even imagine it. I can tell you this is something
we don't know nothing about. How can we love Him supremely
without sin? For now we see you through a
glass darkly, but then we will see him face to face. Now I know in part, I only know
in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known." Did
Peter know who Moses and Elijah was on the Mount of Transfiguration?
They knew exactly who they were. And we shall know as we're known. We shall see Christ personally. Now we see him by faith, but
then faith shall be turned into sight. We shall see Christ personally
for ourselves. This is what Job said. Listen
to what Job said. Do you know Job is the oldest
book in the Bible? The oldest book. Job, you knew
something of a Redeemer. And he knew something about this.
You said, how in the world did Job know about this and he's
the oldest book? He didn't have any other book.
God taught him. Job said, I know. You said, how
can he know this? He said, I know. I know that
my Redeemer liveth. He's not a dead Savior. He's
a living Redeemer. He's a Redeemer. One that bought
me. One that purchased me. And I
know that my Redeemer liveth. And that He shall stand at the
latter day upon the earth. He's going to stand upon this
earth. He stood in the incarnation. He stood then. And He's going
to stand in the latter day. And though my skin worms destroy
this body, Remember Job when he probably wrote this, his body
was covered up in boils. And though after my skin worms
and worms shall destroy your body and mine, yet in my flesh shall I see God. And this body of sin and pain. You know, some people deal with
pain every single day. Every day. Some people live with
cancer for years. Yet in my flesh shall I see God. Now that's a blessed hope. I know Job probably didn't know
if he'd survive or not. We know he did, but he didn't
at that time. I shall see God, now watch, whom I shall see for
myself. And mine eyes shall behold, and
not another. Nobody's gonna see Him for me.
And come back and say, Job, oh, here's what Christ is like. Oh,
you can't imagine how beautiful and how glorious. He said, no,
I'll see Him for myself. If I came and told you something
so glorious and told you about Christ, you'd say, wait a minute,
I want to see Him for myself. Don't you? I want to see. I want to behold. Joseph said,
that's what I want to do. I'll do it for myself. And when
we see His face, our eyes shall be full of adoration for Him
alone. In that time of glory, there
won't be anybody speaking and talking about man's free will
and man's good works. No, we will say, not unto us,
not unto us, but unto thy name be honor and power and glory
and dominion forever and ever. And listen to me, when we shall
see him, our salvation will be complete. What more do you need to see? I want to see Him. I believe that's the whole life
of a believer on this earth. You long to see Him. And you see Him now by faith.
You see just glimpses of Him. In His Word, you read and sometimes
you don't see anything. Then someday you pick it up and
just out of a sudden you say, Oh, I see Him! I see Him! Soon the resurrection day will
come and all men shall see the great God and Savior Every eye,
every eye is going to see him I hope I don't bust somebody's
bubble, but if I do that's fine. There's no such thing as some
secret rapture That's the stupidest thing. People put bumper stickers
on their car and say, well, when the rapture takes place, this
car is going to be unmanned. Somebody asked somebody one day,
they said, well, can I have it after you're gone? When He comes, every eye is going
to see Him. Every eye. We will behold Him
in righteousness, but it's going to be terror to those who know
not Christ. They will experience His wrath
and what they say, hide us from His face. They don't want to
see His glory, His righteousness and His holiness. They run to
the mountains and cry for the rocks to fall on them. He's coming
back. And every eye, every eye shall
see Him. Every eye. shall behold Him. Every eye. We will be like, believers
will be like the burning bush. Remember in the Old Testament?
Glowing with the glory of God, but not consumed. You remember Moses, when Moses
went up on the mountain? You remember what Moses did when
he came down off the mountain? He had to put a veil over his
face. Because you know what His face did? His face glowed. His face glowed. But that glory
just faded away. But now we see with unveiled
face. We behold the glory of God. How
do you behold the glory of God? You want to see the glory of
God? Where do you see the glory of
God? It's in the face of Jesus Christ. Look at somebody's face. Just look at anybody's face.
What do you see? What do you see? You see maybe
they look like they're angry. Maybe they look like they're
mad. In Deuteronomy it talks about making God's face to shine
in favor upon you. Look my way and smile upon me. Behold His face, He's not angry
with me anymore. And when I see Him, listen to
me, when you see Him, you'll know who He is. You'll know exactly
who He is. Because you'll know Him. We will stand in the presence
of God in perfect salvation. Our souls will be eradicated
forever from every spot of sin. Our bodies shall be made immortal,
uncorruptible, and glorious. They'll never die. When we see
His face, we shall be conscious of His favor and have a perfect
and uninterrupted fellowship with Him. Perfect fellowship. You know what it says in the
book of Ephesians? That in the ages to come He might show us
the exceeding riches of His grace toward us. In glory we shall
walk with God perfectly. Not until we see His face will
we fully know the meaning of being one with Him. When we see Him there will be
a complete transformation in the moment in a twinkling of
an eye the dead in Christ that means those that died believing
and trusting and resting in Christ shall rise first then we which
are alive and remain shall be changed in the moment in the
twinkling of an eye we're going to be changed we're going to
be transformed to his image that's not a fairy tale That's salvation. Salvation. We'll see things as He sees them.
We'll think as He thinks. We'll want what He wills and
love what He wills. And we'll hate what He hates
perfectly. We can't understand this, but
listen, this is how it is. When your loved ones stand before
God, And they are sentenced based on their works. And they are
cast into the lake of fire. When you have a glorified body,
you know what you're going to say? Amen. Amen. That's what it says in the book
of Revelation. Who are those that will experience
this salvation from the presence of sin? Who are these people?
Who are these people that will be raised? Who are these people
that will be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye? Who
are they? Those whose names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world.
That's them. Every one of those who are the
objects of God's eternal grace shall see his face. Every soul
that was chosen of God in the council of love shall see Christ
in the courts of glory. Everyone to be predestinated
to his sons shall be son. Every soul for whom Jesus died
at Calvary shall see his face in heaven. Not one's going to
be lost. Every man, woman, boy or girl called by the Spirit
of God, regenerated by the divine power of God shall see his face. Everyone that repents of his
sins and believes in Christ shall see the King in all of his beauty.
Everyone who loves Christ shall see Christ. They may have been the wickedest,
most vilest person upon this earth. but if they are redeemed
and regenerated by His grace, they shall see His face. Colossians 3.18 But we all with
open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed
into the same image from glory to a glory, even as by the Spirit
of the Lord. John Gill said, Believers look
for Him in every duty, in every ordinance, in every providence,
and they expect His second coming and are preparing for it, knowing
therefore, knowing the time, therefore, brethren beloved,
your salvation. is nearer than when you first
believed. It's high time to wake out of
sleep. Why? Our salvation's nearer than
when we first believed. And though it will be sudden
destruction to the rest of the world, it's sudden destruction.
Sudden. Sudden. He's gonna come like
a thief in the night. They're unaware when they least
expect it. That's when He's coming. They
scoff at his report, but it will be eternal salvation to those
who look for him. A lot of those verses I read,
it talked about we look for him. We're watching for him. It's not that every day I said,
I better get up and look for him. No, you're looking for him.
He may not come today, but I'm looking for Him this evening
or tomorrow. He's coming. He's coming. Why is He coming?
He's coming to redeem and deliver His people. Like I said, Abel, the first
one to die. He's going to unite his spirit
and his body. They're going to be changed in
the moment in the twinkling of an eye. That old corrupt body
of yours, if one's devoured, you go to Abel's grave, that
body's long gone. You probably couldn't even find
any bones. There ain't nothing left. But he's going to have
a glorified body. You say, what kind of body is
it? I don't know. And I don't know what we'll need
it for. I just know we're going to have one. And it's going to
be just like his. Did he have nail prints in his
hands after he rose from the grave? Did he still have the
place in his side after he rose from the grave? Did he? And you know what the scripture
says? When he was taken up in the glory in the book of Acts,
it says this same Jesus that went away is coming again. Which
one's coming back? That same Jesus. He came to represent His people. He came to die for His people.
And when He rose from the grave, we rose in Him. We're seated
in Him. We're united in Him. We're going
to have a body just like His. Just like His. You know why?
He purchased it. He bought it. He raised His body. And He's going to raise your
vile body. That's part of the redemption. This earth's got
to be redeemed. This earth has to be delivered
and set free. He redeemed it. Listen to me. Everything that He bought, He's
got to have. If He bought it, it's His. And
you're His. And literally, now listen to
me, he actually bought everybody. That don't mean he paid everybody's
sin debt. That ain't what I'm saying. You know better than
that. But he bought the right to do with every man as he sees
fit. You remember the story, the parable
of the pearl of great price? He bought the whole field to
get the pearl. He bought the whole world to
get the pearl. That's right. And when he's done
with it, he's done with it. He's done with it. Salvation
is in him. And it's complete. And we will
be. And it's hard for us to imagine.
We can only think about it and look forward to it. One day be
delivered from this thing we call sin. No more pain. No more heartache, no more going
to the cemetery to bury any loved ones, no more that, no more death,
no more pain, no more heartache, no more. And to be forever with
Him. What a day that's going to be.
And it's not a hope so, not a maybe so, it's like where I, Job, I
know my Redeemer liveth. And that in this flesh the worms
eat this body, yet in my flesh I shall see him. Only God can give you faith to
believe that. Only God can enable you. That
is salvation. It's in a person. It's not what
you do. It's not you holding on and holding
out. You're kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time. And when you see Him, that's
it. That's enough. Let's stand.