I invite you to turn back with
me now to 2 Peter chapter 1. I want to use the first four verses,
2 Peter chapter 1, and talk to you for the next
little bit about five things that I've come to know that I
believe this book teaches about the salvation of our souls. Now
this world is full of religion. Anybody that's ever got in a
car and drove down the road has to come to that conclusion. This
world is full of religion. There's a church building, a
church building on nearly every corner. I go through these little
towns, the little town of Taylor where I live over here, just
has 600 and some people in it. They've got churches over there
that would seat a thousand. And not one, but three. And maybe
some smaller ones that I don't know anything about. But there's
three fairly decent sized churches in the town of Taylor. Now I
drive down to Spring Hill, which is not a whole lot bigger down
here in Louisiana. And I look around and here's
big churches. There's three of them right at
one intersection. One here, one there, and one
across the street. Huge churches. This world is full of religion.
It's full of every kind of superstitious sect and cult imaginable. And if that ain't your cup of
tea, Christianity is full of every kind of twisted and perverted
concept that an unregenerate heart could ever desire. So-called
Christianity. Any religion that exalts the
free will of man above the free will of God is false religion. That's what it is. No sense trying to candy coat
it over. It's false religion. Any religion
that attributes the work of salvation in any degree to man is a false
religion. Any religion that does not submit
to the Word of God alone as its basis for all that it believes
and trusts is a false religion. Any religion that continues on
in the customs and ceremonial worship of the Old Testament
priesthood is a false religion. And any religion that does not
rejoice in Christ as the only mediator between God and man
is a false religion. This world is full of superstitious,
demon-possessed, satanic-influenced religions. That's what it is.
If you find that statement shocking surprising you need to read the
Bible. That's all you need to do. You
need to pick up this book and read it and see if that's not
how Christ described this world and how all the apostles described
this world and how we're instructed in all the epistles of Christ
to consider this world. The preaching of false religion
is called the doctrines of devils. Isn't that how Paul described
it? The doctrines of devils. Its ministers are called in the
word of God, Satan's ministers. Their churches is called in the
book of Revelations by our Lord Himself, the synagogues of Satan. That's how he describes them.
And the whole of them together is called Antichrist. And they
are, according to the Scripture, after the working of Satan, with
all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Paul said,
if our gospel be hid, and for the most part it is. It's hid
to the lost. Now listen. In whom the God of
this world hath blinded their mind. blinded their mind, blinded
the minds of them that believe not, lest the glorious light
of the gospel of Christ should shine unto them. And every man who will not receive
or believe the gospel of God's free grace in Christ is an unction
according to the prince of the power of the air, And called
in Ephesians chapter 2, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience. Satan exploits the fallen, ignorant
condition of men and gets them to do his bidding. Convincing
them that he is an angel of light and that they are ministers of
Christ. Now that's how he gets them to
do their bidding. And this world is full of religion
that appeals to the fallen lusts and appetites of men. Our Lord
called it the broad way, the broad way, the wide gate. And He said, many there be that
travel on this way. But there's also in this world
a true people of God called in the Scripture His church, His
elect, His chosen, His bride, called believers. and called
saints. They're described in the Word
of God as a remnant according to the election of grace. That's
the only reason. The only reason that there's
this little group left is because God chose a people and sent His
Son as a representative and a substitute for them, died for them, brought
out a righteousness for them, and ascended up into glory to
intercede for them. It's according to the election
of grace. And Paul said, if it's by grace,
then is it no more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. And there he is in the midst
of all this satanic chaos. A real work of God. A real assembly
of God. A real salvation of God. And
it's not a pretense. It's not a show. It's not a work
of man or devils. But it's the glorious work of
God. the Holy Ghost. If you'll give
me your attention for just a little while, I'd like to give you five
things that are taught in the Scripture about this glorious
work of salvation. I'm not talking about religion.
If you're offended here by what I'm saying this morning, it's
because you're still in religion. You're still in Satan's synagogue.
You're still over there in that other school, that school of
antichrist. There is a true religion, and
this religion is the result of this glorious work of salvation. Now, the first thing I know that
beyond all doubt, I know this. I know this is so by my own experience. I know this is so by the Word
of God. It teaches us that this salvation is altogether the gift
of God's free and sovereign grace. If you're saved or being saved
here this morning, It's the result of God's free gift. It has nothing
to do with anything, any potential in you. It doesn't have anything
to do with who your father was or who your grandfather was.
I don't care who you are. You go back far enough, you find
Adam. That's whose sons we really are. In Adam all died. Isn't that what Scripture said?
In the midst of all this satanic
chaos, there is a real work of God. I listen to professing believers
talk about stumbling onto the truth. I'll never forget hearing
a man tell me that one time. He said, I just kind of stumble
onto it. That's not how men and women
find it. 2 Peter 1 verse 3 says, according
as His divine power hath given unto us, all things that pertain
unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath
called us to glory and virtue." That's how you can. We obtained,
he said in Ephesians 1, he said we have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated. Huh? Being predestinated by Him
who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.
You didn't stumble on to the truth. God sent you a preacher,
and in His providence, He arranged for you to hear Him. And by the
power of His Holy Spirit, He gave you ears to hear Him, and
a heart to bow to His Word. And you become followers of Christ.
Nobody finds salvation by accident. Everything God does, He does
on purpose. That's how He said, you know
that I'm God alone. Because I declare the end from
the beginning. In ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying my counsel will stand, I'll do
all my pleasure. That's how God works. Now the
God of this world, He's subject to chance and circumstance and
accidents and all these other... anything we can't explain, we
call it an accident. Well, you can't explain what
God does except to say God does it. And everything God does,
He does on purpose. Paul told the Thessalonians,
he said that God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.
He told the Ephesians that both he and they obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. And he told
the church at Rome that all things work together for good to them
that love God and to them who are the called according to his
purpose. God does things on purpose. And
his purpose is to save a people that he gave to Christ for the
glory of his name. And everything concerning that
work has been ordained. Nothing left to chance or circumstance. He hath given us. Listen to what
Peter tells them. He just keeps telling them. He
wants them to remember this after he's gone and the grievous wolves
come in to separate and to bite and to nip at the heels of the
next man. He wants them to remember this.
And he just keeps hammering it home. Hammering it home. And
so the Apostle Paul. But He said, He hath given unto
us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. He gave them
to us. He gave them to us. Providence. Do you ever stop and think about
God's providence? Huh? I was born in Ashland, Kentucky
in 1949. Work there got bad and my folks
moved to northern Ohio where my dad got a job. And I was raised
up there in an ungodly Nazarene religion, self-righteous religion. Raised up there and listened
to folks up there and went my way for a while. Ran out of work
up there in the providence of God, had moved back to Kentucky.
Came back up to Kentucky and things happened in our lives
and we felt like it was necessary for us to start going to church
and we picked one out, began to go and began to listen Make
a long story short, God crossed my path with the gospel. He crossed
my path with the gospel. All of those workings, all of
those things that didn't make any sense, all that, you look
back into it, it looks like a maze when you look back into the providence
of God that's caused you to be where you're here this morning.
It's an absolute maze. But He worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. And what about preachers? How
shall they preach except they be sent? Huh? I wouldn't have a clue where
to start. I wouldn't have a clue. I wouldn't know where to go.
I just wouldn't know where to go. I'd pick out some places
but that wouldn't be the places. Huh? It's the providence of God
that opens these doors. How shall they preach except
they be sent? And then what about faith? He
said, by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works lest any man should boast. And what about this rest? Believers
are always talking about rest. I preached Wednesday night to
you about standing before those ten commandments, standing before
Sinai. And God gives them that fourth
commandment. And that fourth commandment is
the key to understanding all the rest of the commandments.
It's the key to being able to do our duties to God, which are
the first three, and our duties to one another, which are the
last six. That fourth commandment, because that fourth commandment
speaks of the rest of God. And if you ever get to glory,
you're going to rest your way to glory. That's the only way
you're going to get there. We rest in Christ. And He said,
come unto Me, all you that are weary and heavy laden. Now listen,
and I will give you rest. That sounds like grace to me. Understanding. What about that? That have to do with how smart
we are and how much gifts we have? What's that got to do with
this understanding? How come some men understand
and some don't? What's that all about? Does this
man have something, he's got some potential in him that he
can receive these things and this guy over here don't have
any? Is that what the... No. Listen to what it says. To you
it is given to understand. Ain't that what the Lord told
them? We go through all these big shenanigans and go through
all these arguments and all these things. To you it is given to
understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but unto them
it is not given. That's what the Scripture says.
I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love Him, but He hath revealed them unto you by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, even the deep things of God." And then what about
the good works of faith? He said, we are His workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. They're the gift of
God. They're the gift of God. What about preservation? What
about that? We just keep on keeping on? Is
that what it is? We just hang on with both hands
and set our jaws and our feet and just hang on and hope we're
going to make it? Is that how this thing works?
That's not how the disciples prayed. I'll tell you what they
said. They said, unto Him who is able
to keep us from falling, that's what they said, and to present
us faultless before the presence of His glory. Everything pertaining
to the work of salvation, comes to the believer by the free and
sovereign grace of God. And I tell you this, that's good
news to a sinner. That's good news to a sinner.
Now, that's bad news to a self-righteous man. That just, oh, that just
pours rotten oil on his good works. I told you back when we
studied Cain and Abel that God had no respect to Cain's sacrifice. He just basically spit on it.
Spit on it. Man, he worked hard for that.
He worked hard. That was a big sacrifice he brought
up there. He brought the best he had. But
he didn't bring what God commanded him to bring. And God had no
respect to it. He spit on it. And that's what
it is when you start preaching grace to a self-righteous man.
It's spitting on his sacrifice. That's what it is. But it's good
news to a sinner. It's good news to a lost man.
If I could find one, I've got some good news for him. Christ
is the way. He's the way. And it's good news
to a man condemned to die. I picture old Bartimaeus down
in that dungeon, that cold, damp, Roman dungeon. And all he can
hear down in there is the crowd outside, John. He can hear. When
their voices gets up, he can hear them. And then they quiet
down and he hears us. You know how it is. You hard
of hearing. I am too. I get in a room and sometimes
we have fellowship and everybody's talking back there and it's just
a buzz to me. I don't really hear anything
anybody's saying. It's just like a buzz. That's
how it was with him down in that dungeon. He just heard all the
buzz. And then every now and then he'd hear that crowd go
up. And he knew he was condemned
to die. He knew they were going to take him out and put him on
a cross and crucify him. He knew that. And he's laying
down in that dungeon. And now he hears this lynch mob
outside. And they're out there crying,
give us Barabbas! Give us Barabbas! How do you
think he felt? Huh? Oh, give us Barabbas. And then he hears, coming down
that, here comes these soldiers, down that hallway. Oh, I tell
you, all the strength drained from that man's body. They opened
that door. It was all he could do to stand
on his feet. And they come over and unlocked his shackles and
said, you're free to go. Another's been chosen to die
in your stead. Huh? Ooh, I tell you, that's
good news for a man condemned to die. Alright, here's the second
thing I know about this salvation of God. First of all, I know
that all that concerns this salvation comes to the sinner by the free
and sovereign grace of God. It's God's free will that chose
him. and God who redeemed him, and
God who preserves him, and God who will finally receive him
and accept him and perfect him. All of God and all of great. And the second thing I know about
this salvation of God is that the basis of all these divine
gifts are owing to the person and work of Jesus Christ. This
religious world knows nothing about this. Nothing whatsoever. They talk about these gifts as
though God... and they even use the words,
obligated. I heard a man one time stand
in a pulpit and he was pleading after the message was over. He
was pleading with the people to come forward and make some
kind of commitment or decision or whatever it was. And he was
standing up there and he said, now, God's only obligated to
call you once. God's not obligated to call you
at all. God obligates himself, himself. Oh, this religious world knows
nothing about this. They talk about human rights
and free will and God's obligations. They talk about infant innocence
and ages of accountability and forks in the road and I don't
know what all. My friend, the only reason God
didn't obliterate this world at the fall of Adam is because
He chose a people and appointed for them a sovereign mediator,
the Lord Jesus Christ. A substitute and representative.
Romans 8, verse 20. Listen to this. He said, For
creation was not made subject to vanity willingly, but by reason
of him who subjected the same in hope. That's the only reason
He preserved this world. God preserves this world and
tolerates the rebellion of ungodly men and devils because He's long-suffering
to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repent. And the basis of all this long
suffering and patience of God is the Lord Jesus Christ, the
sovereign mediator of the will of God. Salvation is not some
kind of twisted evolution of man who over time becomes reformed
to some kind of godly reform. It is the substitutionary work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. of God, the Scripture said, is
Christ made unto us. Now listen, wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. It's all in Him, Russell. We
don't find one thing in Him and then go over here to the law
and seek something else. It's all in Him. It's all in Him. Everything God demands of the
sinner, He supplies in the Savior. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. And we receive these gifts and
callings of God because God first trusted in Christ in whom we
also trusted after we heard the good news of the gospel, the
word of truth. Now the aim and goal of my ministry
is not to build some kind of a big following or build a big
assembly here in Walker's Creek. The goal of my preaching is to
point men to Christ. That's what I'm interested in.
Look to Him. Then go where you need to go.
Look to Him. Look to Christ. Everything God has for the sinner
is in this person who is seated at His right hand. Look to Him.
Yeah, but we've never seen him. We don't know who he is. That's
what this is all about. To him, give all the prophets
witness. Huh? That's what this book's
all about. It describes him. It tells you
who he is. Satan describes another Jesus. That's what Paul said. They'll
come preaching another Jesus, another gospel by another spirit. But this book sets forth the
true Christ of God. Take Christ out of the gospel,
and there is no gospel. Take away his person and work,
and all the rest is just a hollow form of religion. Take away his
authority and power, and men are left to themselves in this
ungodly world to be deceived of Satan. Christ is the basis
of all that's given to chosen sinners. You think I go out and
preach because I saw some potential in man, some little spark there,
and if I blow on it long enough, I can get a fire going? You think
that's why I go out and preach? My brother told me one time,
my only surviving brother, he told me one time, he said, if
I believe what you believe, I wouldn't preach. I said, no, if I believe
what you believe, I wouldn't preach. Because man's dead. Man's dead. And I don't have
the power to call him out of the grave. But I tell you, if
Christ died for a people, and those people were raised in Him
and seated with Him at the right hand of God, and He tells me
that He's ordained through the means of preaching to raise them
from the dead themselves and give them the first fruits of
His Spirit, I believe Him. I believe Him. The third thing I know about
this salvation of God is that everything that is given to us
of God is made official to us by the Holy Spirit of God. The
work of the Holy Spirit in you is to bring you to Christ. I
can't overemphasize that. It is to bring you to Christ.
We want to look for some kind of A raising up. The Nazarene
church that I was raised in, they talked about this thing
of sanctification as a second definite work of grace. In other
words, just like when Christ called you out of that death
and darkness and revealed to you the truth, and then if you
serve Him enough, fully enough, serve Him fully, Then there's
going to be another second definite work of grace called sanctification. And they're going to bring you
up on this plateau up here, and you're going to walk sinless
before God. That's hogwash. That's what that is. The work
of the Holy Spirit in you is to bring you to Christ. To bring you there guilty to
be justified. To bring you there stripped to
be clothed. To bring you there dead to be
raised unto life eternal. Disease to be healed. Blind to
be given sight. Deaf to be given ears. That's
how He brings us to Christ. And we come to Christ and we
see Him as God has sent Him forth into this world as a man, as
a representative man. And we know that the Son of God
has come. That's what Paul said, or John,
and given to us an understanding that we may know Him that's true.
We see God in him. That's how he's set forth, the
God-man. And we have assurance towards
God as we perceive God satisfied in Christ. That's where assurance
is. Thousands have no assurance because
they're trying to find it in the wrong place. You can't have
assurance in your assurance. That's what we want, isn't it?
Huh? We want to get that place we're
going to now, I believe. Well, I guarantee you, 20 minutes
from now, that'll all go down the drain. Huh? Tomorrow, that'll be gone. And
then what? And then where'd your assurance
go? You can't find assurance in your assurance, and you can't
have assurance in how you feel or how you act. You have assurance
as you find in Christ that which satisfies God concerning your
soul and concerning His holy character. If I could just get
your eyes off of your self-righteousness long enough to look to the Savior,
I'd ask you some questions. Can you find in any of His dealings
with sinners even a hint of reluctance or unwillingness to give them
eternal life? Huh? You can't find a single
example, can you? Not a single example. Preacher,
I believe He's able to save me, but I'm not sure He's willing
to save me. How do I know God's willing to save me? How can I
discern His willingness? Because He never in one time,
in His entire ministry on this earth, never one time turned
away a seeking sinner. Not one time. What basis would
you have for Him turning your way? The fact that you're a sinner?
Well, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Sinners
disqualifies you for His grace. It doesn't disbar you from His
presence. It qualifies you for His grace. The work of the Holy Spirit is
to demonstrate in you and to you how God saves sinners. To convince us of sin and of
righteousness and of judgment. To trust in Him whom God first
trusted. Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica
and he told them, he said, I know your election of God. How? How can any man know the election
of God? He said, because my gospel came
not unto you in word only, but it came in power and in the Holy
Ghost. Now, let me tell you something
here. Words are important. Don't you ever get the idea that
words are not important. What you say is very important. The Bible is a book of words. Open it up and read it. It's
a book of words. There is a man that sits over here when I take Kathy down
to the hospital for her treatments. He's sitting out there. He wasn't
out there the other day, but I see him out there at least
once a week. It's on Benton Road going toward Bossier City. And
he's got his car parked up on this high bank just off of the
road. And he's got his Bible like this and he's holding it
out. He never says a word, there's nothing playing, he don't have
any tape recordings or anything. He just stands there with his
Bible sticking out. Now I'm going to tell you something, that's
not going to do anybody any good. What it's got to do with this
is open it up and see what it says. See what it says. Not going to
do you any good just looking at the cover. If that were true,
just about everybody in America would be saved because about
everybody had one sitting on their coffee table. This book is a book of words. And it tells a story. His story. It's a book of redemption. To
Him give all the prophets witness. And preaching is a declaration
of Christ crucified. That's what it is. Preaching
tells how the Holy God can save sinful men and still be God.
You can't preach the gospel without words. It takes words. Words are important. Peter said,
We're born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the
Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And then he
goes on to tell us in verse 25, this is the word which by the
gospel is preached unto you. Words are important. But brother,
words are just words to dead sinners until the Spirit of the
living God accompanies those words. When He accompanies those
words, life is the result. I tell men about sin and they
get offended. Hurts their feelings. And they
go home mad. Oh, I tell you, when God convinces
of sin, He slays the sinner. He slays him. I can remember
preachers standing up Have that fanger boy tellin' us, you know,
this is wrong, and that's wrong, and this is wrong. Boy, all they
do is just make me mad. I think to myself, why, you hypocrite. I saw you the other day. I saw
you sayin' those very things. I heard you. I seen you doin'
this. You hypocrite. But I tell you,
when God accompanies these words, and that man talks about sin,
bein' dead in sin, talks about your righteousness as bein' filthy
rag, Huh? God slays the sinner. He slays
the sinner. Sin is revived. That's what Paul
said. He said, I was alive without
the law, without the understanding of it, without knowing anything
at all about the spiritual nature of it, that it judged my thoughts
and intents, also not just my deeds. But he said, when the
law came, sin revived. What happened? He died. He died. That man finds himself, he finds
himself left in this world without hope, without God. Finds himself
guilty before God. No more excuses, no more alibis,
no more justifying himself. And then he brings us to Christ.
brings us to Christ. So the work of the Holy Ghost
in you is a work that leaves you with no righteousness except
Christ. It shuts us up to Christ. And
there's no part of the Christian experience that is not the result
of the effectual working of the Holy Ghost in you. Here's what
Paul told the Philippians, and I think it's in verse 6 of his
opening address to the Philippians. He said, I'm confident in this
very thing. that he which hath begun a good
work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Then fourthly, I know that everything
involved in the salvation of God's elect comes to them by
way of promise. I've never seen anything that
has to do with my salvation. Nothing. That's why men seek
for these outward evidence. That's why tongues are so popular. That's why men do such radical
things as handling serpents and drinking poison and all those.
They want to see something. They want to see it with their
eyes. That's where all this faith healing and all these things
come from. They want to see something with these eyes. I've never seen
anything concerning my salvation. Nothing. Never seen any of it,
John. It's all in the promises of God.
I've never seen God. I've never seen an angel. And
if I have, I wouldn't have known it. I've never seen the Holy
Ghost. For that fact, I've never seen
the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you? I've never seen Him.
Everything concerning my salvation, I've received by the promise
of God through faith. Peter says this. Now listen to
him. He said, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust. It is the fruit of the divine
nature to receive by faith that Jesus Christ sits and reigns
at the right hand of God. I've got no other evidence for
that other than the declaration of the promise of God set forth
in this book. I can't take you out here and
get some big telescope, go up one of these observatories and
say, now see that right up there? I think that's the throne. No.
You've got God's testimony that the Lord Jesus Christ is seated
at His right hand. Are you going to receive it or
are you going to throw it in the dirt? Faith receives it. It's the fruit of the divine
nature that turns us from this world to Christ. Paul said, I
know your election of God because you turn from your idols to serve
the true and living God. It's the fruit of the divine
nature to rest in the Savior whose work of righteousness and
atonement presents us blameless before the presence of God's
glory, faultless. And it's the fruit of the divine
nature that finds eternal satisfaction in Christ. Being a partaker of
the divine nature is not a second definite work of sanctification,
climbing up to that plateau of sinless perfection. It simply
means that we're one with our Savior and we have the first
fruits of Him in us. and we have them by faith. All
right, here's the fifth thing. I know that the result of this
salvation of God is to deliver me from the corruption of this
world through lusts. And I believe that that has to
do with religious lusts as well as worldly. The truth in Christ
sets us free. It delivers us from this present
evil work. Knowing the truth, John, that's
what does it. That's what does it. He doesn't
give you a special feeling out in the darkness, out by the lake.
I was out in a boat one night and felt like warm honey went
down my... all that kind of stuff. I've
heard all these stories from men, but that's not where it
is. It's understanding the truth. Oh, you should know the truth
and the truth shall set you free. And it's the truth that we find
in Christ, and we find these great and precious promises of
God in Christ, and we see the truth, we know the truth, and
it sets us free. Free from what? Free from the
folly of following after this world and its lust and its ignorance. And free from the folly of following
after false religion and its lies. Listen to this. This is something
John said in 1 John 5. He said, Whatsoever is born of
God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even your faith. Huh? Even your faith. How does it do that? It reveals
to you the truth. The truth. And you stand on it. Had never seen it. Never seen
Him. Isn't that how Peter described
that situation? He said, having never seen Him,
we love Him. We love Him. Having never seen
Him, we believe Him. We haven't seen any of these
things. They all come to us by the promises of God. And those
promises and the truth revealed in Him deliver us from this world
and all of its lusts, be they religious or worldly, either
one. May the Lord add His blessing
to the preaching of His Word. Father, we thank You for this
day. Thank You for this opportunity to stand again this side of eternity
and preach this glorious Gospel. Father, we see here this morning
an assembly of men and women, boys and girls, eternity-bound
sinners, Lord, be pleased this morning to use these words for
their good and for your glory. We ask it for Christ's sake.
Amen.