Pray with me, please. O Lord, we beseech You. You are
gracious and You are merciful. I pray, Lord, that You would
make Your Word as You have given it to me to preach powerful in
the hearts of Your people. That You might use it to draw
them to Christ. Draw them not only in comfort,
but draw them to Christ as their Savior. Give them the faith of
Christ, Lord, so that they might trust Christ. And whosoever will
come to Christ in their need for salvation, let them come
to Christ, that Christ of Scripture, that Christ that I pray You will
enable me to preach of this morning. And it is in His name we pray,
Amen. Open your Bibles please to Jonah
2 verse 9. and also to Romans 10.13. Now, we're going to be looking
at a number of texts this morning. I'm convinced that God has called
me to preach the Gospel to you here in Acomba, and so I take
that responsibility very seriously. How shall they hear the Bible-ass
without a preacher? It is a heavy responsibility
to be called by God to preach His Gospel. So as with His help,
I pray, as with His help, I try to do the best I can to preach
Christ to you. I can only praise God that nearly
all of you seem to be growing in your knowledge of Christ.
That's not my doing. I can't cause you to grow in
Christ. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. But it does tell me, as you grow
in Christ, and it should say the same thing to you as you
see yourself learning more and more of Christ, it should tell
you that the Holy Spirit has been teaching you and me all
about the things of Christ. all about things in general because
we know that only the Holy Spirit can reveal to us the things of
Christ. But when I, many years ago, used
to play basketball, some of you might not believe that I ever
did, but a long time ago, I played basketball and the best coach
that I ever had said over and over again to us, probably every
time that we had a practice session, and he would have us run the
grapevine and do all those fundamental things that you do in training
for basketball. He said over and over again,
games are won on fundamentals. Well, what we're about today
is not a game. It's very serious business. But
still, I try to preach the fundamentals
often. God has told us that we are all
sinners. I may preach that fundamental
too often. And we know that our bodies are going to die, but
our souls are bound for eternity. And yet there are some, not necessarily
anybody that I think of, but there are some who sometimes
seem confused, and may not be clear about the fundamentals,
those fundamentals of Christ. We have much to learn of Christ.
The Bible is filled and we'll never finish learning of Christ
even when we're with Christ in heaven. But it is my prayer, it's an
earnest prayer, that each of you would know Christ Let me
say it more plainly than that. I want you to be saved. My prayer
and my heart's desire to God for you is that you all might
be saved. But my concern for you is increased
by the fact that we're living in a day of terrible religious
confusion. We all have been exposed to many
conflicting, confusing voices of religion, which is another
reason to keep coming back to the fundamentals of Christ. If
you know the fundamentals of Christ, the other questions that
might be raised about Christ or about your salvation become
easier. But no matter what, We need to
be taught by God. I pray that the reason that each
of you has come to this church today is that you're seeking
the Lord. There's no other reason to be
here. As a good friend of ours said to me recently on the telephone,
he says, there's not a lot of reason to go to Hakomba except
that you preach Christ. And I took that as a high compliment.
We don't have so many frills. We've got a basketball goal,
but we don't have much else. But we preach Christ. I pray that you'll come to this
church because you want to know God. And you want to know His
Son, Jesus Christ. You sincerely want God's salvation
because you know you're a sinner. But some of you may be confused.
I don't know. You've heard so many conflicting
doctrines that you don't always know what to believe. And so
I want to ask you a question today that I'd like for you to
think very sincerely about. Who among us, who among this
group of people will be saved. Are you one? Who among you will
be saved? That's the fundamental question
I would like us to think about today. Who among us will be saved? As I said, it's my overwhelming
desire that all of you would be saved. But if you'll give
me your attention for a few minutes, And if God the Holy Spirit will
enable me to do it, my job this morning is to open God's Word
for you and answer some questions for you about God's salvation.
If you'll notice in the bulletin, I'm going to be preaching about
God's salvation again next Sunday, unless the Lord changes my mind.
That's a woman's and a preacher's prerogative to change their mind.
But I hope and pray that God will enable me to clear up some
of the confusion which is often expressed, expressed by sincere
people, I might add, about this thing called salvation. It's
my prayer that God would enable me to speak plainly, to speak
clearly, to speak simply and very distinctly to you about
salvation. I know that if the trumpet call
of the Gospel gives an uncertain sound, a timid sound or an unclear
sound, no one will prepare himself for the battle. If the preacher
is not understood, no one is going to profit by the message.
But I need not only your sincere attention, but we all need the
Holy Spirit to teach us of these things in Christ. Because Christ,
you see, is our only hope. Christ is the only salvation. With that background, I want
you to look with me at these two texts of Scripture that I've
asked you to turn to. Both of them are inspired by
God. Both, in fact, are the Word of
God. Both were written for our learning
and for our admonition. And if God will be our teacher,
the study of them, I am very sure, will be a blessing to our
souls. The first text is Jonah chapter 2 and verse 9, in which
Jonah says, and by the way, that whole chapter of Jonah 2 that
we read is just a marvelous picture of salvation. But here at the
end, Jonah says in verse 9, not quite at the end, but he says,
But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving.
I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. What a glorious message that
is. And I'm so glad that we sang
about it this morning. Jesus saves. God saves sinners. Salvation does not in any way
depend on us. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is God's work alone. Salvation is not the work of
man and it's not the work of God and man. Salvation is of
the Lord. We rejoice in that gracious,
delightful, Gospel truth which is taught all the way through
the Scriptures, all the way through the Word of God which is truth.
We rejoice in it. Now look at Romans 10 and verse
13. That's my second text for today. In Romans 10, verse 13,
God makes this promise. He says, For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." How in the world
do you reconcile those two verses together? But this second verse, Romans
10.13, is just as good a news as the first one is if you're
a believer. Because anyone Anyone in all the whole world, whosoever
calls on the name of the Lord, whosoever calls on the name of
the Lord, whosoever trusts the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. That promise of God is made without
condition. It's made without any qualification
or without any exception. If I trust the Lord Jesus Christ,
I shall be saved. If you trust the Lord Jesus Christ,
you shall be saved. If you believe on Him, you shall
be saved. As it is written in Revelation
22, 17, And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Let Him take the Word of life.
Let Him take the Gospel. Let Him take God's Word freely. The water of life freely. In
Jonah 2.9, we have a clear declaration of God's sovereign grace. Sovereign. God rules over all things sovereignly. In Romans 10.13, We are given
a clear declaration regarding man's responsibility. But both
of these things are equally true, and both of them need to be understood. Both must be believed, and both
must be preached. And they must be preached with
equal clarity. It's my prayer that God will
give me the ability to preach these truths clearly to you today,
and that they would be the water of life to us leading and drawing
us to Christ, Christ who is our salvation. Oh, listen to me,
please. Listen to me carefully. God Almighty
is totally, totally sovereign in the salvation of sinners.
And we are, each one of us, responsible to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. These two facts are, as I pray the Lord will enable
me to show you clearly, they are revealed in Scripture. We
can't believe without God's sovereign grace because faith is the gift
of God. Faith is the fruit of His Spirit.
Faith is the operation of His grace. And yet God's sovereign
grace will not save us if we do not believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Regrettably, there are some people who have distorted the understanding,
I guess, of God's sovereignty. They've distorted the doctrines
of God's grace. And they become hard and uncaring
and negative in their preaching and in their attitudes about
salvation. It seems to me that They're opposed to everything
and in favor of nothing. Like a big wrecking ball. They
know how to tear down anything, but they don't know how to build
up. They are anti-missionary, anti-evangelistic, and anti-responsibility. In fact, as a good friend and
former pastor of mine said as I began to preach God's grace,
He warned me of exactly that problem. He said, you're going to lose
your desire to see people saved. Well, he was wrong. But there
are some who take Jonah 2.9, salvation is of the Lord, and
they make it say something that it does not. Turn please to Matthew
23 and verse 37. Really it's true, as Don Fortner
says, that some men talk as if they're afraid that some non-elect
person might be saved. I've heard him say that several
times. But if you're afraid that some
non-elected person would be saved, that's a good indication that
you really don't believe that salvation is of the Lord. What
a pity. Such a spirit is not of God.
It is not the Spirit of Christ or of His Apostles or the New
Testament. Oh, that we all might long to
see the salvation of souls from the bottoms of our hearts. In
Matthew 23, verse 37, Jesus says, and I think He's speaking in
love. He's speaking out of His anguish. Anguish for lost souls. And He says, O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem,
thou that killest the prophets and stones them which are sent
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together
even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings. And then the
condemnation. And you would not. You would
not come to Me. You would not come to Me to be
saved. Then in Romans 10.1, Paul says,
Brethren, and listen to Paul's anguish here. Brethren, my desire
and my prayer to God for Israel, all of Israel, is that they might
be saved. And in 1 Corinthians 9.22, Paul
said, To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak,
that I might see their salvation. I am made all things to all men,
that I might by all means save some." God is God. And His sovereignty rules over
all things. Salvation is of the Lord. But there are some people who
totally deny God's sovereignty. They deny God's purpose of grace
in election and predestination. They don't even like the word
predestination. They deny the effectual, irresistible
power of God's grace in salvation. All they can see in the Bible
are those words, whosoever will. They interpret everything in
terms of salvation. Everything in the Bible, in the
light or in their case in the darkness of those two words,
whosoever will. No matter what you say to them,
and I've argued with a number of them. The fact is I have resolved
that I will not argue with them anymore. But no matter what you
say to them, no matter what text you read to them, their response
is always something similar. I believe in whosoever will. They preach human responsibility
in such a way as to make the word responsibility mean to have
the ability. They make the will of man rather
than the will of God the determining factor in salvation. Well, I
tell you, I detest this doctrine of free will. It isn't of God. It's of the devil. People who talk like this don't
trust Christ because they're trusting themselves. They're
trusting in their own intelligence, their own free will. As Don Fortner
would say, Lucifer or Satan was the first free willer. If you
study chapter 14 of Isaiah, you'll see how often Lucifer says, I
will. And you'll see what Don means,
I think. Lucifer, Satan is all about I will. Free will religion
is the religion of Satan. It's the religion of I will.
Not God's will, but I will. And it's a doctrine that makes
rebellious man his own Savior and promotes the worship and
honor of man's will rather than the worship and honor of God.
To insist on your free will puts God under the dominion of man's
will and it makes man to be the God of God. And I put that first
God as a small g because there are no other gods besides Him.
This morning I pray that the Lord would enable us as we look
into the Word of God to see what God says, not what we think in
our minds or what we think we believe. But let's bring both
our opinions and our reason into subjection to the Word of God.
Should people inquire of the dead on behalf of the living
for their teaching and for their testimony? If they won't speak
according to the Word of God, it's because they have no light
in them at all. Are you willing to do that? Are
you willing to submit to the Word of God? I pray that you
are willing because God's truth is truth. Men often lie, you
see, but God is truth. The Bible teaches these two facts
to me, and they seem just as plain as the noonday sun. Or
another way that we say it back in Missouri, as plain as the
nose on your face. These two truths. You can't deny
either of them without denying the Word of God. And you can't
really believe either of them as they're taught in Scriptures
without believing both of them. These two truths are not opposites. They are two horses pulling the
same cart. They are two doctrines drawing
God's people to Christ as their Savior. They are true because
they are the Word of God. And the Word of God is truth.
It's absolutely true, as Job said, salvation is of the Lord. But it is equally true, as Romans
10, verse 13 says, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. And so I ask you, who among us
will be saved? But you know, Actually, that's
kind of a foolish question, isn't it? It's a foolish question to
ask who among us will be saved. Because it really doesn't matter
what we think. It doesn't matter at all what we think. I can't
look at you and know whether you're saved or not. The only thing that matters is
what God says in His Word. And so let's look in God's Word
to see who it is that God says will be saved. And because this
is so fundamental, there is plenty of God's Word to tell us about
who's going to be saved. Turn, please, to John 15 and
verse 16. First, God's Word says that the
elect will be saved. The elect. I attended church
and Baptist churches with good preachers, or I thought they
were good preachers, for many, many years. And I hardly ever heard the word
election. They didn't teach about election
because they didn't believe election. There's some men, some women,
some boys and girls who were chosen predestinated and ordained
to eternal life by God before the world began. In John 15,
verse 16, God said, You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen
you. And I have ordained you that
you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should
remain that whosoever whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in
My name, He may give it to you." Then in Romans 8, verses 28-30,
God says, And we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are called according to His
purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate. to be conformed to the image
of His Son, that His Son might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
then He also called, and whom He called, then He also justified,
and whom He justified, then He also glorified." We're talking
about salvation. And in Ephesians 1, verses 3-6,
Paul says, Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He has
chosen us in Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the
world. In other words, older than I am, a long time
before me. according as He had chosen us
in Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Having
predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself,
according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of
the glory of His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the
Beloved, Then in 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 13 and 14, it says,
But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord. Why would they give thanks to
God? We're bound to give thanks always for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord. Why? Because God has from the
beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. Whereunto He called you by our
Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the final verse that I want
to show you from God which is teaching us about God's election
is in 2 Timothy 1 verse 9 which says that it is God 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. Now please, don't
misunderstand me. Election is not salvation. But
election is unto salvation. And election is just as necessary
a part of salvation as redemption and regeneration. Election is
the guarantee of salvation. Election is the eternal, unchangeable,
unalterable will, purpose and pleasure of God to save people
He has chosen mercifully to love in Christ. And God's will, God's
will must be done. He is a sovereign God who rules
over all things. His pleasure will be fulfilled
and His purpose must be accomplished because He is God. God will save
His people from their sin. Salvation is of the Lord. You
and I don't know who the elect are, but God does. God knows
every single one of His elect. He predestinated them. He chose
them. All before the foundation of
the world. All before creation. God knows
who they are. He knows where they are. He knows
what it will take to save them. And God knows when He's going
to save them. It is impossible for even one of God's elect to
perish. Those who are loved by Him with
an everlasting love cannot perish in hell under His wrath. Those
that God predestinated unto salvation can't perish until God ceases
to be God. And that can't happen. God is
eternal. And God will save His people
and He will not only do it, but He'll do it in Christ, Jesus
His Son. So then the second thing which
God's Word tells us about who will be saved is that every sinner
who is brought, redeemed, and purchased by the precious blood
of Christ will be saved. So it is with Paul in Galatians
6.14 that I say, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why do we glory in the cross
of Jesus Christ? We glory in the cross of Christ
because the cross of Christ is the revelation of God's love
and compassion for sinners who can't save themselves. In 1 John
3.16 it says about Christ's death on the cross that by this we
know love. that He laid down His life for
us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. And in
Romans 5.8 it says, but God shows us His love for us and that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If you, by God-given
faith, can look to Christ on the cross and see and believe
that Christ died for you, then you know the love of God for
you You know the glory of Christ because He died to save you from
your sin. We glory in the cross of Christ
because the cross of Christ is a covenant respected and fulfilled
by God. It was fulfilled by God. The
covenant was fulfilled by God by Christ on the cross. In Hebrews
13, verses 20 and 21 it says, and it's a prayer that I'm reading,
It's a prayer that Paul makes. And this is his prayer. Now the
God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus
Christ, talking about His resurrection, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, may God make you perfect in every
good work to do His will. That's the prayer. Working in
you, that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. We glory in the cross
of Christ because the cross of Christ means to us a curse removed. As Galatians 3, verse 13 tells
us, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, Christ
being made a curse for us, For it is written, Cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. The curse of the law of sin and
death was removed from us by Jesus Christ on the cross, which
the result is we have been made righteous. We have been made
perfect. It makes us righteous in Christ. It makes us perfect
in Christ. Hard to believe, hard to understand,
but it's what God says in His Word. We glory in the cross of
Christ because the cross of Christ is a conquest realized. As Romans
8 verse 31 to 39 asks, what should we then say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not
with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is He that condemneth? It is Christ that Thy, yea, rather,
is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also
maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? As it is written,
For Thy sake we are killed all day long. we are counted as sheep
for slaughter. Nay, in all things we are more
than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." I
could preach all afternoon on these verses that I've just read
to you. The Lord Jesus Christ cannot
possibly fail to save His people. He cannot possibly fail to save
those that He bled and died for on that cursed tree. Because
as God says in Isaiah 42 and verse 4, He shall not fail. He's not even going to be discouraged
till He has set judgment on the earth and the isles shall wait
for His law." And the cross of Christ can never be discovered
to be a miscarriage because in Isaiah 53, verse 11, God says,
He shall see of the travail of His soul and He shall be satisfied. Now that means a lot of things.
But it certainly means, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5.21, that
all for whom Christ was made to be sin shall be made the righteousness
of God in him. All who were redeemed by Christ
from the curse of the law, forever freed from the curse of the law,
as God has said in Galatians 3.13, Christ hath redeemed us
from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for as it
is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on the tree. And
all all for whom the Son of God obtained eternal redemption,
will have eternal redemption. God has promised it. He promised
it in Hebrews 9-12 when Paul said, by the inspiration of God,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood
He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. Notice he calls it eternal redemption.
And the blood of Christ the blood of God's own dear Son, was not
shed in vain. Christ did obtain eternal redemption
for us. In Christ, washed by the blood
of Christ, we are made perfect. We are made free from the law
of sin and death. And then the third thing that
God's Word tells us about who will be saved is that all who
are called by the Spirit of God, all who are called, all who are
affectionately called, by the Spirit of God will be saved.
Now don't get confused here. I added that word effectually
called and I mean effectually called. There is a general call. It's a call which goes out to
all who hear the Gospel preached to them. Jesus said in Matthew
22 and verse 14 that many are called but few are chosen. But
here's another call. It's an effectual call. It's
personal. It's effectual. It's irresistible. It's a saving call that God makes.
This effectual call by which all faith and all life are produced
in chosen, redeemed sinners by the power and grace of God's
Holy Spirit is both the fruit and the evidence of God's election
and of Christ's redemption. In 1 Thessalonians 1, verses
4-6, Paul said, Knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God,
For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in
power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. As you
know what manner of men we are among you for your sake, and,
as a result of this, and ye became followers of us and of the Lord,
having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy
Ghost." And in Psalm 65, verse 4, David said to God, Blessed
is the man whom Thou choosest and causest to approach unto
Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts. We shall be satisfied
with the goodness of Thy house, even of Thy holy temple." I think
he's talking about Christ there. And in Psalm 110, verse 3, David
said to God, Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy
power and the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning.
Thou hast the dew of Thy youth. And in John 6, verses 37 and
38, Jesus said, All that the Father giveth Me shall come to
Me, and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. For
I come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will
of Him that sent Me. And again, in John 6, verses
44 and 45, Jesus said, No man can come to Me except the Father
which has sent Me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last
day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall all be taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that has heard and has learned of the Father cometh unto me.
And in John 6, verse 63, Christ said, It is the Spirit that quickeneth. It is the Spirit that makes alive.
The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you
are Spirit, and they are life. So to be affectionately called
by God, is to be regenerated, it's to be born again, raised
from spiritual death to spiritual life in Christ by the power and
grace of God the Holy Spirit. That's a miracle from God, isn't
it? It's a miracle which will take a little bit more than the
power of your free will to accomplish. This work of regeneration or
of a new birth requires a sovereign power of God's irresistible grace
to accomplish it because salvation is of the Lord. As Ephesians
1, verse 19 says, And what is the exceeding greatness of His
power to us who believe, according to the working of His mighty
power? And as Paul said in Ephesians 2, verses 1-5, And you hath He
quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein time past you
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of the wrath even of others. But God, but God who
is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even
when we were dead in sins, has quickened us. He's given us a
new life, a new birth in Christ. Together with Christ, by grace
are you saved. Yet, it's your responsibility. Salvation is of the Lord, but
it's your responsibility to come to Christ. I cannot emphasize
that strongly enough. It is your responsibility to
come to Christ. All who were chosen by God the
Father in eternal election, all who were redeemed by God's Son
at Calvary, shall at God's appointed time, be brought to Christ by
the irresistible saving operations of the power and grace of God
the Holy Spirit. And they can never be lost. Because
a sovereign, all-powerful God is the one that is saving. They
are being saved according to His will. They can never be lost. As the preacher said in Ecclesiastes
3 verse 14, I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it nor
anything taken from it. And God does it that men should
fear before Him. This is what God's Word is saying
to us. God will save His people. And
yet it is our responsibility to come to Christ. Not one of
the elect of God can ever be lost because election is God's
Word. Not one of those who are redeemed
by Christ can ever be lost, because redemption is God's work. And
not one of those who are called by God can ever be lost, because
the calling is God's work. And so they will come to Christ
seeking their salvation. God brings them. God makes them
willing to come. And yet it is their responsibility
to come, because if they don't come, they are forever in their
sins. And the fourth thing that God's
Word tells us about those who will be saved is that every sinner,
every sinner who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ will be
saved. There is absolutely no contradiction
between that statement and everything else that I've said so far this
morning. Faith in Christ is the proof. Faith in Christ is the
evidence of the Father's election. the Son's redemption, and the
Spirit's call to come to Christ. In Hebrews 11, verse 1, God says,
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. We make our calling and election
sure when we trust Jesus Christ. If you trust Christ, then your
faith in Him is the result of God's grace in you and God, who
can't lie, declares that you are saved by the God-given faith
of Christ. In Mark 16, verses 15 and 16,
the resurrected Christ appeared to the eleven of Christ's apostles,
and He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach
the gospel to every creature. And he that believeth is baptized,
and will be saved. But he that believeth not shall
be damned. And in John 3 verse 36, God says,
he that believeth on the Son has everlasting life. And he
that believeth not, the Son shall not see life. But the Father
of God, but the wrath of God abideth on him. And when the
jailer asked Paul and Silas what must he do to be saved, in Acts
1631, we're told and they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. at thy house. And in 1 John 5,
verse 13, the apostle says that these things have thy written
to you that believe on the name of the Son of God. And here's
why I wrote them to you. That you might know that you
have eternal life and that you might believe on the name of
the Son of God. I'm rather sure that some of
you may not see the connection between God's election by His
grace and our responsibility to come to Christ. You won't
see it until the Holy Spirit reveals it to you. You won't
see that they're both the same work of God's salvation until
the Holy Spirit teaches it of you. But in both, in God's election
and your coming to Christ, it is all the work of God. But if
God does draw you by his word, and you do obediently come to
Christ by faith as a sinner seeking Christ as your Savior, then I
think you will understand clearly that God's election and your
coming to Christ are each the work of God. You will see clearly
that God the Father, before the foundation of the earth, elected
a people for Himself and He gave them to His Son, Jesus Christ,
who came as their Savior to save them from their sin. and He did
it by dying on the cross as their substitute. And it is the Holy
Spirit of God who shows Christ to God's people, causing them
to come to Christ, and yet it is all done by God's love. You
see, God makes His people willing in the day of His power. And
so they come to Christ. They are given ears to hear the
Gospel call and eyes to see their need for a Savior and their faith
of Christ to believe that Christ did die to save them from their
sin. And so I ask you the question again, the question that I began
with at the beginning of this sermon. Who among us will be
saved? I pray that you've heard the
answer. I pray that the Holy Spirit has shown you the answer,
speaking to your heart. Whosoever comes to Christ shall
be saved. And all of those who reject Christ
and refuse to come to Christ will not be saved because there
is no other name by which we are saved but the glorious and
wonderful name of Jesus Christ. Believe on the name Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. But refuse to come to Christ
and you'll be damned to hell for all eternity." That's a message
from God that I have preached to you today. And so I'm calling
you right now to do what you are responsible to do by God. And I pray that God will cause
you to do what only God can enable you to do. And yet it's you who
must do it. I'm calling on you who can hear
my voice to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. I'm
not asking you so much to seek Christ as I'm asking you to believe
on Christ. I'm not asking you to pray for
salvation so much as to believe. I don't call you to feel something,
but to believe on Christ. I'm not even asking you to mourn
over your sin, but to believe on Christ, the Savior of sinners.
I'm not asking you to do anything, but to believe on Christ and
thou shalt be saved. But I warn you, don't put anything
between yourself and Christ. Don't let anyone else put anything
between you and Christ. Anything that keeps you from
Christ or which comes between you and Christ is nothing but
idolatry and it's damning to your soul. Oh, how I pray that
you will listen to me and that God would give you the faith
to believe because I'm telling you on the authority of God's
Word that if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you not only
will be saved, but you are saved. It's not so much that you will
be saved, but if you believe on Jesus Christ, you are saved. Because God the Father elected
you to salvation. You're saved because the Son
of God redeemed you. And He purchased salvation for
you with His blood. God the Holy Spirit has called
you today, but your salvation has already been accomplished
by God. And you will not come into condemnation. Not if you
believe. The evidence of that, that you
won't be condemned, is that you do believe. This is what God
says in His Word. And He says it clearly. Salvation
is of the Lord. And whosoever shall call on the
name of the Lord shall be saved. You can't understand your election
until you believe. But you never could or ever would
believe with God's electing you unto salvation. When time shall
be no more, when all things are finished, when all believers
are with Christ in glory, and when all of the damned are in
hell, this will be the conclusion of the matter to the praise and
honor and glory of our great God and His Son, Jesus Christ. As God says in Romans 11, verse
7, the election hath attained it, and the rest were blinded. Oh, how I pray! How I pray that God would open
your eyes to see the glory of God in Jesus Christ, your Savior.
May God in His mercy bless His people in Christ with the joy
of obediently coming to Christ by faith. And it is my prayer
this day, by the power of God Almighty, that you would be made
willing to come to Christ to find your salvation in Christ
your Savior. Who among you will be saved?
You will be if you come to Christ. And I pray by the grace of God
that you will come to Christ. And if you do, you'll be saved
in Christ. May it be so. May God be glorified
in the salvation of souls. In Jesus' name I pray.