I begin reading in verse 13 and
read over to verse 10 of chapter 2. And I want us to think along
the thought of the word salvation. It's not as the world says. I
remember when I was in religion, one of the most popular tracts
that I remember was it was called God's Simple Plan of salvation. Oh, how it missed it. The term
salvation with the Lord's help, I want us to look at that this
morning. So let's begin reading in verse
13 of Hebrews chapter 1. But to which of the angels said
he at any time, sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies
thy footstool? Are they not all God's angels
ministering spirit ministering spirits sent forth to minister
for them who shall be heirs of salvation. Therefore, because
of this, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things
which we have heard. What things that we have heard?
The gospel of God's grace, the splendor and righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels
was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedient received a just
recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great
salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and
was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? God also bearing
them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles
and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will. For to the angels
has he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we
speak. But one in a certain place testified
saying, what is man that thou art mindful of him or the son
of man that thou visiteth him? Thou madest him, Christ, a little
lower than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory
and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands.
Thou put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he
put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put
under him. But now we see not yet all things
put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels. for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste
death for every man. For it became him, Christ, for
whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many
sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
suffering." So I wanted to read this portion of scripture, and
as I just began to think upon the term salvation, I just went
back and began to look in the scriptures. Many times, and we'd
be here all morning and tomorrow, if we looked at every passage,
but I just want to give you a few. The first time that it's mentioned,
The word salvation is mentioned in Genesis chapter 49 verse 18. And the context of this verse
is, this is when, you remember when Jacob is getting ready to
die and he's blessing all of his sons. And he said Judah,
who would be the lion tribe, he said the scepter shall not
depart from Judah till Shiloh come, talking about Christ. He
talked about Reuben and Gad and Simeon. And it's just like he
was just almost out of breath and he just Just took a breath. And it's like he puts a parenthesis
and you go, why does he put this verse here? And here's what the
verse says. I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. The first time it's mentioned.
There's a thing called the law of first mention. Most of the
time how a word is used in the Bible, the first time it's used,
it's how it's used all the way through scripture. And Jacob. This man's getting ready to die,
and he's looking at his children. But his hope is in his salvation. Salvation. Moses brought the
children of Israel. So that's the first one, Genesis
49, 18. Moses brought the children of
Israel out of Egypt. And God delivered them. But God
brings them to the Red Sea. Remember they're standing there
and I can imagine they're scared to death and Pharaoh's army's
behind them and the Red Sea's in front of them. And Moses said
unto the people, Exodus 14, 13, Fear not, stand still, and you'll
see the salvation of the Lord. Seize your salvation. David, a man after God's own
heart, David's house was in a mess. If you want to find out what
a man really believes in, go to him on his deathbed. It says
these are the last words of David. He's getting ready to die. He
said, my house is in a mess. Absalom tried to kill him, tried
to take the throne away from him, and here's what David said.
And though my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with
me an everlasting covenant. It's ordered And all things ensure
for this is all my salvation. Not in what I do, not in my house. Who's he looking to? He's not
looking to his family. I know God used Solomon, and
through Solomon, that's where Christ came through that lineage.
But he's looking to Christ. He's looking to the one that
God would raise up and sit upon the throne of David. He said,
that's all my hope. It's ordered in all things and
sure, and this is my salvation. This is my salvation. Psalm 38,
22, Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation. David, after he
sinned, said, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Isaiah 12, 2, Behold, God is
my salvation. He also is become my salvation. Most everyone knows this verse,
Jonah 2, 9. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and he went down
and he bought him a ticket and got on a ship and God caused
a storm to come. And they threw Jonah overboard,
and God prepared a fish to swallow up Jonah. And while Jonah was
in that fish, God told him something. You know what He taught him?
Salvation is of the Lord. If you don't get anything else
this morning, you remember that right there. Salvation is of
the Lord. David said, this is all my hope,
and this is my salvation. It's of the Lord. Remember Simeon in Luke chapter
2? God told this old man, God told him. How he told him I don't
know. He maybe told him in a dream, in a vision, I don't know. But
God told him that he would not die until he saw God's salvation. Couldn't die. Could not die. He's immortal. Mary and Joseph. Jesus is born, he's eight days
old, and after the custom of the law, they bring him to the
temple. And Simeon sees him. And he don't
just see a baby. Most people saw Jesus and never
saw anything but a mere man. But Simeon saw something more.
You know why? He had divine sight. He picks up that baby in his
hands and here's what he said, For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. And this baby, this is Christ. Salvation. Our Lord in Luke 19, remember
when Zacchaeus climbed the sycamore tree to try to see our Lord?
God had done a work in his heart to give him a desire to see Christ,
but he never climbed that tree. And let me tell you this, if
God ever gives you a sycamore tree, you better climb it to
see Christ. This may be your sycamore tree.
Where are you going to see Christ at? In his church? But he climbed
that tree and Christ came to that tree. And he said, Zacchaeus,
come down for this day you're a son of Abraham. Salvation's
come to your house. In Acts chapter 4 it says there's
salvation in none other but in Christ. Paul said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ because it is the power of God unto salvation. Philippians, I mean Ephesians
chapter 1 verse 13. Listen. In whom you also trusted
after you heard the word of truth. Now what did you hear? You trusted
after you heard. You can't trust before you hear.
You must hear the gospel. And what did you hear? Here's
what you heard. You didn't just hear words. You heard the gospel
of your salvation. Whose salvation? Your salvation. You know what the gospel is?
The gospel just proclaims the work that's already done. And
you just find out about it. You just find out that what God
done, He done before the world began. And it's the gospel of
your salvation. My salvation. David said, this
is all my hope and my desire. This is my salvation. And one
day, you may hear the gospel for years. But one day, God enables
you to hear it. And it's the gospel. It's the
good news of your salvation. 2 Thessalonians 2.13 But we're
bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation. He did the work. A few more. 2 Timothy 2 and 10. Therefore
Paul said, I endure all things for the elect's sake. He was
stoned, he was cast in prison, he was hated, despised. He said,
I endure all things for the elect's sake. Why? Why did he endure
all that? That they may also obtain the salvation which is
in Christ Jesus. That's why. Paul writing to Timothy, and
he says, Timothy, that from a child that has known the Holy Scriptures,
that book you hold in your hand this morning, is able to make
you wise unto salvation. You want to know what salvation
is? It's in that book right there. He says, Timothy, it make you
wise unto salvation. Salvation is an accomplished
fact. God did it before the foundation
of the world. Before sin ever entered in, God
determined to save a people and set apart the Lord Jesus Christ
as the salvation. But listen to me. Salvation is
a present process. It's something that's going on.
And it's a future prospect. See, when you just say salvation,
what does it mean? It's more than just a simple
plan of salvation. This is God's plan. This is God's
purpose. And God's purpose and God's plan
is being carried out even as I speak. What is it? Why does this world exist? For
the salvation of God's people. When God has saved the last child
of God, it's going to fold it all up. The earth shall pass
away and be melt with the fervent heat. Listen to me. Every child of God has been saved,
is now being saved, and one day will yet be saved from sin. The cause of salvation is not
one single thing. Salvation originated in the eternal
purpose of God. The predestinating grace of God.
Does that sound simple to you? That sounds amazing. Why would God save anybody? Because
he would. David said, David called it an
everlasting covenant. It's everlasting. It has no beginning
and it has no end. He said, who has saved us and
called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. And the world says, God
wrote your name down after you believed. They're crazy. We're saved so it's God's eternal
purpose, but we're saved by Christ being our mediator. He was chosen
before the world was made, but he still had to come. He still
had to become a little lower than the angels to suffer death
for his people, to make the captain of what? Their salvation. He
had to die. That's part of our salvation.
Election's not salvation, it's unto salvation. But that's not
the finished work. God ordained it. The Son gave
His life. Read again Ephesians chapter
1. The Trinity, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit must apply to your heart everything the Father did and
everything the Son purchased. And when you hear that, that
becomes the gospel of your salvation. Salvation. Salvation. The regenerating, sanctifying
work of the Holy Spirit. This is His work in us. And it goes on. And people don't, they don't
understand it. Religion didn't and I didn't. Obedience and perseverance
is a part of salvation. We're not saved because of our
obedience and our perseverance. But let me tell you this, you
won't be saved without it. He that endures until the end,
what shall be saved? That's part of your salvation.
You will endure. All God's elect will endure.
Every one of them. That's part of their salvation.
Part of their salvation. This is so big and so broad.
I hope I can just narrow it down. I want you to just think along
these thoughts. The first thing I want us to think about this
morning is salvation from what? I know we can talk about the
purpose of God and the plan of God, but when does it apply to
me? When does God begin the work
of salvation in me? when He applies it to my heart
and He saves me first of all and foremost from the pleasure
of sin. The pleasure of it. By nature
we love sin. I mentioned to the Bible class
this morning, by nature we drink iniquity like water. This is
who we are. This is where God begins to save
his elect. But how does God save, how does
he save his people from the pleasure of sin? He gives them a nature. He gives them a nature that hates
evil and loves holiness. The Bible calls it the divine
nature. The Bible calls it a nature, now listen to me, I don't understand
this and I can't explain it. But the Bible says it's a nature
that can not sin. It can not sin. But you also
have a nature that can do nothing but sin. What I want you to see
this morning, when we were in religion, we were taught that
you can refine the old nature, you can't refine it. That's not
salvation. Salvation is God giving you a
new nature. It's God giving you something you don't have to start
with. It's a new creation. It's a new man. It's a new nature.
It's a new desire. It's a new longing. Nobody. You can't yourself make you love
what you hate and hate what you love. You just can't do it. It's
impossible. But God can. A man is not born again because
he believes. Now listen to me. He believes
because he's born again. They get the cart before the
horse. If you'll just believe, if you'll just believe, if you'll
just... You can't believe. You can't believe to the saving
of your soul. I know the devil believes and trembles. He doesn't
know God. I mean, he doesn't believe in
God, doesn't trust in Christ. Save from the pleasure of sin. Now listen to me, most people
hate being told that they are by nature lovers of sin. Especially religious people.
They say, I'm not that bad. I'm really not that bad. Oh yes,
you're really that bad. You love sin. You wallow in it. You cherish it. You long for
it. You've got to have it. Why? Because
that's what you love. Any man loves the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. That's pretty plain, isn't
it? We're not only born in sin, we
love sin. We're so bent on sinning and
we are no more able to alter the bent of our will than the
Ethiopian can change the color of his skin. It's like a black
man saying, I don't want to be black anymore. Well, there ain't
nothing he can do about it. He's a black man because he's
born a black man. And the leopard can't change
its spots, it can't because that's his nature. And you can't change
who you are because that's who you are by nature. Love sin. I mean, and that's a strong word,
love. You crave it. Crave sin. Now what is sin? Most people
have just been told the results of sin. But sin is who you are. David said, in sin did my mother
conceive me. Sin is what I am. Sin is what
I do. You can't change the bin of your
will. You just can't do it. It's impossible. But listen,
this is the great miracle of grace. God Almighty stoops down
and picks up a loathsome leper from the dunghill and makes him
a new creature in Christ Jesus and gives him a new desire. Before
we hated Christ, we hated the gospel, there ain't nobody telling
me what to do. You are nobody else. But now
you willingly bow to Him. You're just like Saul of Tarsus
and say, Lord, what would you have me to do? Something happened
to that man's will. God makes you willing. Willing. Here's grace. In religion, people
try to beat you over the head to try to get you to do something
you just didn't want to do. So they had to try to make you
feel guilty and condemned all the time. So you're trying to
remove the guilt and the condemnation. So I better do something. No.
In grace now we leave it, if you want to do something, you
do it. If you don't, you ain't going to do it anyway. If you
want to give, give. If you want to come, come. You
know why? Because you love Him. Paul said the love of God constrains
me. Or the love of God restrains
me. He now loves what he used to
hate. And he hates what he used to love. You know what we loved
more than anything? I tell you what you love more
than anything. You love yourself. You love yourself. Lock, stock
and barrel, love yourself. And how in the world, in grace,
does God create in a sinner It puts a love in their heart that
they love God more than anything in this world. That's salvation. Simple and plain. He comes and
sets up His reign in your heart and you love Him, listen, supremely. There is no rivals. He said if
you love your father and mother more than Me, or if you love
your children, or even your own life also, you can't be My disciple. You just can't do it. You can't
serve two masters. It can't be. That's not salvation. What is salvation? What is it? Do we know salvation? Have we
been saved? Are we being saved? Will we one
day be saved? I think this is something to
think about. I don't want to be deceived. This past weekend
we was at the conference in Crossville. Most of you know that I've mentioned
several times, Donnie Bell's wife, Mary, she has lung cancer. She's taking treatments. And
Todd Nybert, one of the speakers, was over at their house. And
Mary asked him, she said, Todd, do you ever think much about
death? And he said, yeah, I think about it a lot. And she said,
what do you think about it? He said, have I been deceived? Do I really know God? Have I
been deceived? Have I deceived myself? Or do
I really know Him? Have I been saved from the pleasure
and love of sin? Have I? Have you? How does God accomplish this?
What does it consist of? Now let me tell you this. Here's
where people miss it, and they don't understand it. When God
saves a sinner, He does not eradicate that old sinful nature. He doesn't
take it away. He made me seem like everything
is peaceful and everything is fine for a while. Then all of
a sudden you go, where did that come from? I thought I was done
with that. Your old man, he's not improved. God didn't improve him one bit. He left him exactly like he was.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh. But that which is born
of the Spirit is Spirit. But He does this by giving us
a holy nature. God saves His people from the
pleasure of sin by putting His holy awe in their heart. It's
called the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. In Proverbs 6.16
it says the fear of the Lord is to depart from evil. Now that's
not a slavish fear. As I was thinking about this
the other day, I thought about when I was a little boy. I feared
my daddy. Slavishly feared him. You didn't
get in his way, especially if he was angry. I feared him. That's
no way to live. That's how people live in religion. Afraid if they do something wrong,
God's going to get you. God's going to get you. But let
me tell you, as I got older and got a little wiser, I feared
my daddy. I had not a slavish fear. I respected
him. And if God would God's help,
I wouldn't have done anything deliberately to have hurt him
because I feared him. You know what I'm saying? There's
a difference. And God gives you a desire. The law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. We're not under the law, we're
under grace. The fear of the Lord. Oh, I respect
Him. Respect Him. You know why? Because God shed abroad His love
in my heart. And I love Him. And I fear Him.
And I respect Him. This world has no respect for
God. It'd be like a child saying, I don't care what my daddy says.
To hell with him, I'm going to live the way I want to. See what I'm saying? No respect,
no fear. That's like a person saying,
I believe in God and I love God, but to hell with you, I'm going
to do what I want to. Don't tell me what I can do and
what I can't do. Let me tell you this and you
tell everybody you hear, that is not salvation. That person
is deceived. That person is lost, don't know
God. That's not salvation. I tell you, I want to find out
what salvation is. I want to know. God saves His people from the
pleasure of sin by giving them a new nature of idol principle. The love of God is shed abroad
in our heart. Sin's been dethroned. There's
a new master on the throne now. There's one that rules and reigns.
It's called grace reigns through righteousness. He's the master. He rules. God saves His people from the
love of sin by setting their affections on things above. Not
on the facts of this world. There's a lot of unbelievers,
they deny that they are in love with sin. But let me tell you
this, there are a lot of believers who are hard pressed to persuade
themselves that they're saved from the love of sin. You know
what John Newton said? To his point, I long to know,
am I his or am I not? It's like Todd Nyberg, he said,
do you think about death? Y'all think about it a lot. Am
I deceived? I know what sin is now. I hate it, but I still do it. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. A believer sees things in its
true colors. We refuse to call sweet bitter
or bittersweet. He now feels sin like he never
did before. Like Paul, old wretched man that
I am. Let me tell you this. I don't want to ever give anybody
a false hope. But I don't want God's people
to live in constant fear either. You know what I'm saying? There's
some people that ought to doubt. But believers do doubt. How can
I know God and act and feel the way I do? You see sin and you
see it and you hate it and there's nothing you can do about it.
You despise it. Not out here, but in here. You
see it in its true color. You're made to see who you are.
If you ever see who you are, you won't love yourself. You
want to crawl in a ditch somewhere. You don't know how bad I am. That's sin. That's hating sin. Hating it. You tell me what there
is to love. You tell me one thing there is
to love. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Why do we yield to temptation?
Why do we do the things and have the pleasure in this world and
draws our affections after them? Why do we find the work of mortification
so difficult? Can I really have a new nature
and think the things and feel the way I do? Believers ask those
questions. Let me tell you when I was in
religion and lost and didn't know God, I never asked those
questions. Because I thought I was making
myself holy. I thought I was making myself
better. That's exactly right. But that's just all I would never
do. I pray and I fast and I give my tithes. I do all these things. And that old publican over there
would not even lift up his eyes. And he beat on his chest because
in here was the problem and he said, God, be merciful to me,
the sinner. The sinner. How may someone be assured that
he has been saved from the love of sin? How can someone have
any peace? Have any rest? Any assurance? Before conversion, we only had
one nature. Now we have two that struggle
constantly. But listen, but like faith and
unbelief, they are side by side. You believe, but help thou mine
unbelief. Faith exists among many doubts
and fears. And listen, faith may grow among
thorns and flowers, but it grows How may a child of God determine
whether that new and holy nature has been imparted unto him? There's
three ways. Number one, sin becomes a burden
to us, a burden, a weight. Many people are loaded down with
worldly anxieties who know nothing of what it means to be loaded
down with a sense of guilt and shame. But if God ever opens your eyes,
you'll say like the psalmist did, for innumerable evils have
compassed me about. My iniquities have taken hold
on me, so that I'm not able to look up. They are more than the
hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart faileth me.
And listen, as I read in Psalms chapter 38, verse 4, for my iniquities
are gone over my head as a heavy burden. They are too heavy for
me. How are you going to get rid
of that load of sin that waits on your conscience? How are you
going to get rid of it? You're a sinner. The wages of
sin is death. The soul that sinned shall die.
You sinned. You're nothing but sin. How are
you going to get rid of that load? It's a load. Weight. Heavy. Heavy. Our awoken sinners think their
sin to be something that's kind of shallow. But He said, my sins
are like water that goes over my head. It drowns me. Can you imagine a man out in the
water? As long as he wades around in the water, he can have a weight
tied to his ankle and everything's fine. Let the water start going
over his head. I don't care how good a swimmer
he thinks he is. It's going to consume him. That's
the way sin is. But when the conscience is made
sensitive, when it's aroused and God begins to quicken that
man, they find out the depths of iniquity. So sin becomes a burden. Secondly,
sin becomes bitter to us. Now listen to me, everybody listen.
There's a lot of people who feel, who are filled with remorse over
the effects of sin. It may have cost them physically,
financially, whatever it may cost them. They feel bad about
it. But that's not repentance. This is not a hatred for sin.
When sin becomes bitter, this is anguish of heart. It's bitter. which then is open to us in the
sight of God's countenance when we discover the depravity of
our heart, we are made to feel the violence of our self-righteousness
in our unbelief. We are made to say with Job,
God, make of my heart soft. The whole need no physician,
but those who are convicted by the Spirit, they see that they
need the help and the aid of a great physician. The Lord killeth
and He makes alive. He brings down to the grave and
brings up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh
rich. This is the way that God slays our self-righteousness.
He makes poor and brings low by making sin to be an intolerable
burden. And makes it bitter as wormwood. Bitter. You ever tasted something
that was just bitter? I've been in religion. I know
what it tastes like. And it has a bitter taste. It's
bitter. Bitter. Now listen, there can be no saving
faith till the soul is filled with true repentance. And what
is repentance? Repentance is a godly sorrow
over sin. a holy hatred of sin, a sincere
purpose to forsake it. It is impossible for the gospel
to be a message of good tidings to those who are in love with
sin and determined to perish and depart with their sins. It's
impossible. As I thought about the word bitter,
in 1 Samuel 1.10 it says that, remember Hannah when She was
barren. She couldn't have a child. Her
husband had other wives and she had children. They had children.
She had none. And it says, and she was in bitterness of soul
and prayed to the Lord and wept. And you remember when Peter sinned?
We looked at this a couple of weeks ago. And our Lord turned
and looked at Peter and it said he went out. And he wept bitterly. You know what that is? That's
godly sorrow. It broke his heart. He saw and
knew what he did. That's when sin becomes bitter.
Has sin become bitter to you? Is it a burden? Is it bitter? Peter wept bitterly. Now listen.
But listen, Peter's repentance was not like Cain's, nor Esau's,
nor Judas's. Judas felt bad, remember? He
sold our Lord, betrayed Him for 30 pieces of silver. After he
realized what he'd done, he couldn't deal with the weight on his conscience,
and he goes back in there and he takes the 30 pieces of silver
and throws it back down. Why did he do that? He was convicted. He felt remorse, but he didn't
repent. Cain, Esau, and Judas, it was
not the repentance of one in despair, but Peter's repentance
was a repentance unto life and salvation, and needed not to
be repented of. What was the difference? What
made the difference between Judas and Peter? I know grace did,
but salvation, he wept bitterly. And then the last thing. How
do we know we've been saved from the pleasure of sin? Salvation
from the pleasure of sin may be recognized by the felt bondage
which sin produces. You don't want sin to bring you
into bondage. As I thought about this I looked
up and remember when Samson sinned He laid his head down in the
lap of Delilah, and she said, where do your strength lie? And
he should have known what she was doing, and how many times
should we not have known what was going on? And she cut his
hair. And they came in, and they gouged
his eyes out. And you know what they did? They
bound him with fetters. You know what sin will do to
you? It will bind you with fetters. You know what religion does?
It binds you in fetters. And you feel it. When God saves
us from the pleasure of sin, we are conscious of the fetters
that it's placed around us. Paul said in Romans chapter 7,
the things that I would do, I don't do. And the things that I don't
want to do are the things I do. He said, O wretched man that
I am. This is a man that's probably
been saved 30 or 40 years. What would make a man say that?
He said, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
And you know what that's referring to? You know what he was making
reference to? You know what they would do to
criminals in that day? They would take a dead body and
they would tie that dead body to the back of that man. They'd
put his hands here and his hands here and everywhere he walked
you'd have to carry around that dead, that dead corpse. Bound to it. Couldn't get free
from it. Does that not describe your old
nature? Who's going to deliver me from the body of this death? It smells. It stinks. I can't
get set free from it. It binds me. But He didn't stop
right there. I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord. He set me free. He set me free. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has set you free and be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage. So we preach all you've talked about is sin,
being bound by sin, being a bird, being bitter, having fetters
around us. God sets you free. We know that
we have this old nature. We're not trying to improve the
old nature. And the sooner you learn that, the better. But God
saves His people. He saves them from the pleasure
of sin. And Lord willing, we're going to look at how He'll save
you from the power of sin. Save from the penalty of sin.
And one day, thank God, thank God, this old flesh will fall
off. And we'll be saved from the very
presence of sin. You know nothing has to happen
for me to go to glory. Nothing. Nothing's going to change.
The only thing that's going to change is I'm going to lose this
whole vile body. I'll be able to love him then without a sinful
nature. That's right. That's exactly right. I just
have a glorified body. That's the only difference. People
don't understand that. This corruption must put off
incorruption. If He had a glorified body, all His people will have
a glorified body. And let me tell you, if you don't
worship Him now, you ain't gonna worship Him then. And if you
love sin now, you're gonna be out of place, sir. Cause there's
everything there, it's just righteousness. The angels cry, Holy, Holy, Holy
Lord God Almighty. And let me tell you, you love
Him. If He ever does a work in your heart, you love Him. We're
not gonna stand and sing, oh hell, I love Jesus. It ain't
worth talking about. But He loved me. And He won my
heart. And He gave Himself for me. He
set up His rule and reign in my heart. And He gave me a desire
to love Him more than anybody or anything else. And anything
less than that is not salvation. I'm telling you the truth. We
need to find out what it is. Who it is. It's Christ. It's
not things. Resolutions, it's not decisions,
it's not baptisms, it's none of those things. It's Christ
in you. The hope of glory. Christ in
you. That's that new nature. What did he tell Nicodemus? You
must be born again. And you know that takes the pressure
off me as a pastor and a preacher. I can't save you. God never told
me to save you. But He did command me to preach
the gospel. And through the preaching of
that gospel, God brings salvation to sinners. And that gospel is
the only thing, the only thing, which will take away the burden
of sin. which will relieve the bitterness of sin and set me
free. It will deliver you from the
fear of men. What good would it do for me
to impress you? What good would it do for you to impress me?
I'd just be one maggot bragging on another maggot. And I know if God does a work
in your heart, I know if he does it. It's a work that he does. What would make a person drive
an hour, hour and a half to come to hear the gospel? I know. Hungry. Thirsty. I heard Henry make a
statement one time. He said, how long will a man
go to a table where there's no food? How long will he keep going
to that table where there's no food? When he gets hungry, he'll
leave. How long will a man go to a well that there's no water
in it? He gets thirsty, he'll leave it. That's what God does
for a sinner. If you ever taste Christ, and
taste free grace and free salvation. Religion is bitter. Bitter. Bitter. May God apply His salvation and
reveal His salvation to you like He did Jonah. And you say salvation
is a lure. If I'm to be saved, God's got
to do it. If I'm to be saved today for myself, God's got to
do it. And if you're going to, if you will ever be saved, God's
got to do it. It's not something you do or
hope to do or plan to do. It's His work.