Turn with me to the book of 2
Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. In the book of 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2, we find as we do in all the scriptures, but I don't
know of another passage so revealing of God's way of salvation. And you spoke of someone that
was asking for a formula. There is no formula, but God
does have a way that he saves sinners. And we, in this formula,
we are passive. Or in this way that he has of
saving sinners, we are passive. We do the sinning. That's negative. That's passive
toward God. He does the saving. And in this
passage of Scripture, very familiar verse of Scripture, if you look
with me in verses 13 and 14. The Apostle was writing here
to believers. He was writing to those that
knew Christ. Not just those that knew about Him, but those that
knew Him. He said, Grace unto you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace unto you
is what He said in chapter 1 verse 2. Grace to you, peace. from God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Verse 13, he said, but we are
bound to give thanks all the way to God for you. We're bound. We're persuaded. We must give thanks to whom thanks
is due. God is to be thanked, not us.
Paul said, I'm not anything. I'm the least of all the apostles.
He said, I'm the chief of sinners. He said, I'm not worthy of any
praise. But he said, we thank God for
you. Thank God for you. Because God has done something
for you. I didn't do anything for you. I couldn't do anything
myself. God did something for me. And
God did something for you. Remember Paul said it like this.
He said, I thank God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me. I thank God that
He separated me from my mother's womb. He did. You mean God did
all of this to reveal His Son in you? That's the reason God
does everything. All that God does is to glorify
His Son. And all His Son did was to glorify
Him. He said, I've glorified you on the earth. God said of His Son, the Father
said of His Son, He said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased. He glorified me. He pleased me.
He's done my will perfectly. He's done my will. What did He
do? He glorified. He done what I told Him to do.
He did what I sent him to do. What did he send him to do? He
sent him to, number one, to glorify the Father, the truth, and he
sent him to save his people. And he said, I did it. It's finished. The Father said, I'm well pleased.
Has God ever been pleased with us? With me? Me? Has he ever been pleased
with me? The only person He's ever said
that I'm really pleased with is Christ. It's Christ. But I'll let you in on something.
You already know this. I'm not going to tell you anything that
you don't know. He is pleased with me. That's awesome, isn't it? That's
unbelievable, except by the revelation of God. It is absolutely unbelievable
that God would be pleased with me. Because I ain't nothing but
sin. You can tell I'm from Alabama
or Tennessee. I ain't nothing but sin. But God is pleased with
me because He sees me in His Son. He said, I thank God who
called me, separated from my mother's womb, called me by His
grace to reveal His Son in me. And He said, I thank God for
you because God does the same thing for you. He'd done the
same thing. And you know what? I thank God for you. I do. Most of you, I don't know. Some
of you, I do. But we have a relationship, an everlasting, eternal relationship,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think the lady told me
the other day, or she made this remark, that she said, I don't
know if anybody was praying for me before I was saved. before
I came to know the gospel, know Christ. I said, oh, but there
was. They didn't know you, and you
didn't know them, maybe, but they prayed for you. And I know
somebody that was really praying for you, and his prayer was affection.
And that was the Lord Jesus Christ. He's always prayed for me. He's
always had his people on his heart and in his hands. He said, they're mine. They're
mine. I've loved them, loved you with
an everlasting love. I don't know how long everlasting
is, Bruce, but it's long, not even time. Almost said long time,
but it's not even that. But that's how long he's loved
us. He said, I thank God for it. We're bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren. This relationship with God and
His Son. It's called a fellowship in one
place. We have fellowship, and this
fellowship is with the Father and with His Son. We have a relationship
and a fellowship with Him. Brethren. We're brethren. We're closer than blood. Believers
are closer than blood, Brethren. You know, if a family member
doesn't love Christ and doesn't love the gospel, you can only
talk about so much. You can talk about finances,
or the weather, or how it was when you were growing up. But
you can't. There's a barrier. are just a difference. But oh,
when you're around God's people, it's so sweet. He said, we're
bound. Notice how he worded this. Notice
how he said it. Look at the wheeze and brethren,
beloved of the Lord. He said, we're bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. And that's what everyone wants
to know, isn't it? Why? Isn't that what that word alludes
to? Why? Well, because. Because. Why is this relationship as such? Why do I thank God for you? Why are we bound together in
such a union as this? Because God... You know, I've
often said this, and I believe it's so. If we could believe
Genesis 1-1, the first four words, in the beginning, God. And that's
the way it always is concerning everything. God, He's first called
all things. He said, because God hath. And if we read that 500 years
ago, if it was written, it'd say that. And if we read it a
million years from now, it'll still say God hath. God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief in the truth. You see, there's only
one way of salvation for sinful man, just one. I was thinking
today how complex God is. You know, people try to make
God so familiar, but God is complex. No one can comprehend the Almighty. His thoughts are higher than
our thoughts. His ways are higher than our ways. He's unsearchable. And how complicated to me, I
don't know how it is when you study the Scriptures, but man,
sometimes I just, I have, it's a labor. It's complicated. It's hard. You know, you look
and you search and you pray. Man, have you ever quit preaching
since you started? I quit several times. I thought,
I can't do this. I can't do this. It's an awesome thing. But yet, the message of God's
grace and the way to save sinners is so singular and so simple,
isn't it? You know what the problem is,
or one of the problems, I'm not saying THE problem, one of the
problems is, it's not that men don't understand, it's that they
don't believe it. What God says, what God does,
who God is, is eternal. It's always been. He didn't just
say something today, it's always been. He didn't just do something
today, it's always been. God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. He's chosen sinners. He's chosen particular sinners. He's chosen individuals to salvation. He's chosen somebody to be saved. He sent Christ into the world
to save somebody, and that somebody is going to be saved. Nothing can stop it. Nothing
can frustrate the purpose of God in the salvation of His people. That's the reason we preach the
gospel, with confidence. Because God is going to save
His people from their sin. He's chosen to do so. That's
the reason. Are you saved tonight? Do you
know Him? You say, well, I believe I am.
Do you know why you're saved? Do you know what the because
is? God. God has from the beginning chosen
you, not because of who you are, not because of what we've done,
not because of what we will do, not because of what we didn't
do, not anything concerning us. You know, really, bottom line,
and listen carefully to this, I've rehearsed this to myself
over and over, I've looked in the Scriptures, and this is so.
The gospel salvation is really, really concerning Christ. I'm so thankful that He saves
sinners, but this is the glory of God revealed in Christ in
the salvation of sinners. That's God making His grace,
His love, His mercy known in the deliverance, the salvation,
the redemption of sinners. It's all about Christ. And as
long as preachers are preaching, it's all about you. It's all
about heaven. It's all about hell. It's all
about what you do or don't do. We're missing something. Do you
know what we're missing? Christ. That's what we're missing. That's who we're missing is Christ.
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation in and through and by the Lord
Jesus Christ. are just one God and one way
of salvation. Jesus came to Thomas in John 14 and 6 and said to
Thomas, He said, I am the way. He didn't say, I am a way, but
He said, I am the way, and I am the truth, and I am thee life. No man, not one man, has ever,
will ever come to me. No man cometh unto the Father,
but by me. And John 6, 44, he said, No man
can come unto me, except the Father which sent me draw him.
In Acts 4, 12, neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other than
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." All
other ways are not God's way, and any other way is no salvation
at all. That's narrowed. But the more
narrowed it is, the more simple it is. Isn't that right? You drive into Atlanta, Wouldn't
it be great to drive through Atlanta on just a one-way street,
drive all the way through Atlanta? But there's about a hundred and
eighteen lanes of traffic. That's complicated, especially
if you've never been there. And we've never been here before.
And God said there's one way. Christ said there's one way,
and I'm that way. There's no salvation for anyone any other
way. This is God's way of salvation.
We're saved because God called us by His grace. Because God
chose us and called us by His grace. John 10, verse 1 says, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that entereth in, not by the door
of the sheepfold, but climbing some other way, is the same as
a thief and a robber. Folks trying to get to God some
other way, they're not going to get to Him. They're not going
to get to Him. There's no way to get to God
except through Christ. And there's no way to get to
the Father except He draws us to His Son. This is God's way
of salvation. The vast majority of professing
Christians, and I say professing Christians, are seeking salvation
in the way that seems right. It just seems right. This is
what I think. This is my opinion. This seems
like the way it should be. And we're all going to heaven.
Everybody's going to heaven. We're just going different directions. There's just one direction. There's
just one way. And that's Christ. In Matthew
7, 13, 14, he said, Enter in at the straight gate. For wide
is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction.
And many there be which go in thereof, because straight is
the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life. And
few there be that find it. And the only folks that will
find it are those that God reveals it to. Folks, so you mean salvation
is entirely all up to God, and I don't have anything to do with
it? That's exactly what I'm saying. That's exactly what I'm saying.
I like things to be, you know, understood. There's just no other
way. There's nothing you can do. A
fellow sat across from me at our dining table this week, or
last week rather, and he opened up the conversation. He was a
very, very ungodly man, a relative, and he said, You mean I can do
everything I can do and look all I can and study all I can
and search all I can and it ain't going to do me no good?" And
I said, not unless God does something for you. I said, no. It's not you. It's not nothing
you do. It's something He does. He said, I just don't believe
that. I said, well. My brother Scott Richard said,
every man to his own poison. You know, if that's what you
want to believe, die and go to hell, just go. That's all you can do. Salvation
means deliverance. This is God's way of salvation.
He delivers dead men from death to life. He's delivered us from
death into life. He's translated us from death
into life, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light,
the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of his dear Son. Salvation is
by God's ordination. Salvation is by God's predestination. Salvation is by God's purpose. The purpose to save sinners. We're saved because God said,
I'm going to save my people. I'll be their God. That's what
He said. He said, I will. Well, what about them? He didn't
say anything about us. He said, I'll just be their God
and they'll be my people. Well, what are they supposed to do?
He didn't say anything about us doing anything. He just said, I will. And they shall. In that order. Not if you'll take the first
step. If you take any step, you'll perish. Several years ago, my
oldest daughter, she was mostly raised hearing the gospel. But she wasn't a believer. She
professed, but she didn't know Christ. And she finally told
me, she said, just don't even talk to me about it anymore.
She just stopped going, hearing the gospel. My father was real
sick, and I went to see him, and she was there, and we were
out, one of her children was just little. We were strolling
around the walk, pushing the baby and talking, and she started
just bawling. She said, I'm in trouble. I haven't
said anything to her about it. She said, she told me not to.
She said, I'm in trouble. I said, what do you mean? She said, I'm
in trouble with God. She said, I'm a sinner. What can I do? I stopped that buggy and stopped
her. I said, please, don't do anything.
Don't do anything. You'll mess it up. And she told
me, I don't have any time. I said, Dad, I'm so glad you
told me that. So glad you told me that. She
loves the gospel. Loves Christ. Salvation is of
the Lord. This is God's way of salvation.
He saves sinners. He purposed to save sinners.
He's chosen you to salvation. That's where it all started. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world, and do you know what He had on His heart and on His
mind? Of course you do. If you know Him,
you do. As unbelievable as this is, He
had me, and He had you, if you are one of His. And if there
had not been nobody else, if there had just been one elect
person, it would not have been that one. Every step He took,
every thought He thought, every deed He performed, all the scourging,
all the mocking, all the whipping, all the scorn, And then his soul was made an
offering for sin. All that he did was for me. All of it. If I'd have been the
only one, he did it for me. And personally, that's the way
that he's taught me to look at it. You know, he's my Savior,
as he hears. He's my God. Thomas said, my
Lord. And my God, He's mine. I'm His. The Lord Jesus Christ. This is God's way of salvation.
He came into this world and He had me on His heart and on His
mind. He's people. He's elect. And He came from
the womb and walked thirty-three and a half years to work out
a righteousness for me. Salvation is by works. I brought
a message last Sunday or Sunday before last. Salvation by works. But Christ works. He worked. He labored. He endeared. Isaiah said, He's a man of sorrow
and acquainted with grief. My stripes were laid on Him.
He was moved for my iniquities. The chastisement of my peace
was upon Him. He wept. He was heartbroken. You say,
you mean cry? Of course, he was a man of sorrow.
He fell in the garden and he said, let this cup pass from
me, the cup of drinking the dregs of sin, of damnation. A man that
knew no sin, that was holy and separate from sinners. He became
sin, all my sin. Not the part, but the whole.
All of my sin. He took all of it. All of the
filthy thoughts, the lies, the adulteries, the murder, the hatred,
the vile, wretched filth. All that I am. Not just what
I did and what I do, but He took all that I am. He emptied my
sin right out of me. And He drank it down to the bottom
of His soul. He's my Savior. That's God's
way of salvation. In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21,
God has made Him to be sin for us. Now what does that mean? I'm not going to get ugly here,
but I'm going to say something. If He did not actually, if He
was not actually made sin for me, I'm not actually saved. I've got a problem. God made him sin for me. He whom you know sinned. that
I might be made the righteousness of God in Him. What He did, He
did perfectly. What we see of Him in the Old
Testament, shatters types and pictures. What He did in this
flesh, what He did as the Son of God and the Son of Man in
this flesh, there was no figure, shatter, type about it. He did
it in the whole. Somebody said, well, He suffered
the equivalent of hell. I don't see equivalent in the
Scriptures. He didn't suffer the equivalent of hell for me.
He suffered all my hell, all my punishment. And I didn't deserve
one gulp of mercy. But He gave me abundant mercy
and abundant grace and abundant forgiveness. He gave me life
in His Son. He gave me life in Himself. This
is God's way of salvation. Beloved of the Lord. You see
that? Beloved of the Lord. He said,
You're beloved of the Lord. How do I know I'm beloved? Because
of what He did for me. That takes us right to, if you
want to know how sinful sin is, look at Christ. If you want to know how the depth
of God's love, as much as you can know, look at Christ. If you want to know Where salvation
is, look at Christ. It's all in Him. Beloved of the Lord. What is
it to be beloved of the Lord? If we could just get a hold of
that, Greg. If God would let us just go to the depth of that. I think we have some comprehension,
some understanding. But to be beloved of the Lord.
You know how it makes you feel when you know somebody loves
you? Makes you feel good, don't it? It does. Back there a friend
of mine, we've been praying for years. I believe that man back
there loves me. I love him. That makes me feel
good. Got a friend, got a brother.
But oh, listen to this. The Lord Jesus Christ, God's
blessed Son, loves me. He loves me. He's got me hugged
up right now. I just can't see it. I see it
in the Scriptures. I see it in my faith. I see it
when I hear the gospel preached. But oh, I don't see the depth
of it. I don't see the greatness of it. But someday maybe I will. And I will keep seeing it and
learning about it throughout eternity. Don't you think that's
what heaven is going to be? Is seeing Him and learning of Him and worshiping
Him. Beloved of the Lord. No wonder Paul said we're bound
to give thanks to God for you, brethren, because you're beloved
of the Lord. You know what beloved implies
in the scriptures? It implies a union. You know
that, don't you? Dearly beloved. We're gathered
together to join this couple. It implies union. Union with Christ. He's the husband where he's bride. He's from the beginning chosen
you. And here's the amazing thing about this, and I hope we can
get this, I hope I can, is you. I can understand why. More why
the Lord would love you than He would me. Or you than me. Why is that? Because I know exactly
what I am. I know I ain't fit to be loved. If I got justice for what I've
thought and said, done or whatever since I've come in this building,
I'd perish right in front of you. That's so. Because all unrighteousness is
sin, that's without faith it's sin. But he said, he has chosen you. Jeremiah said it like this, he
said, the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked. Now he's not talking about your
heart, he's talking about mine. You see what I'm saying? That's who I am. But in Christ, I'm perfect. That's God's way
of salvation. You say, well, explain that.
I can't. I'm not trying to explain anything. I'm just telling you
what God said. We can't explain God, can we? Just tell you what
He said. Just believe what He said. Through sanctification of the
Spirit. I think in this sense a two-fold
meaning in this passage, in this context. Sanctification in one
sense means to separate, set apart. And I think this may be
the true meaning in this context because he's speaking of the
actual salvation and calling of chosen sinners to faith in
Christ by the preaching of the gospel. And he separated his
people to hear the gospel. He set them apart. You ever wonder
why it is that some folks would sit and hear the same thing,
the same message, and one will hear it and another won't. And
spouses, one will believe and another won't. Children, one
will believe and another won't. Why is that? It's because God
sanctifies, He sets apart. And those that are His sheep,
the Christ's sheep will hear. He said, My sheep hear My voice. They hear My voice. The air is
coming at us when the day that you hear the voice of the Son
of God, neither year shall live. And He separates us under the
Gospel. When were you saved? When was I saved? Folks are asking
that a lot. When was you saved? Well, I was
saved when I heard the gospel. I can't give you a day or a year. Well, I could probably give you
a year. I could make a stab at it. But
I can't give you a time. But I was saved and heard the
gospel because Christ speaks to his people through the preaching
of the gospel. God has chosen the foolishest of the preaching
to save them that believe. And the Spirit sanctifies or
separates by doing this, by revealing Christ through the preaching
of the gospel and by the impartation of the divine nature. I think
this alludes to this as well. The impartation of divine nature,
Christ in you, the hope of glory and belief of the truth. Can
a fellow be saved and not believe the truth? I don't think so. You know who the truth is? It's
Christ. He said, I'm the truth. I'm the
truth. The gospel and Christ is synonymous.
Christ and the gospel and truth is synonymous. The preaching
of the gospel and Christ and the truth is synonymous. The
preaching of the gospel is to them that perish foolishness,
but to them that are saved, to them that believe, it's the power
of God. It's the power of God to what?
To reveal Christ, to give life, to quicken, to regenerate, to deliver, to raise from the
dead, spiritual death? This is God's way of salvation.
Salvation means, well, there are so many adjectives to describe
salvation in the Scriptures, but it means deliverance, to
be rescued, to be released from bondage, to set at liberty, and
that we are in bondage to sin and self. The way of salvation
of sinners is narrow and limited in the Scriptures. There's only
one Savior of sinners, and that's Christ. There's only one people
that he came to save, and his people, his sheep. And there's
only one way that he saves them, and that's by his grace. The majority of religious so-called preachers teach universal
redemption, that salvation is essentially by works rather than
by grace. And let me explain. Now, of course,
you know this. They say that God loves everyone,
and He would like to save everyone, is trying to save everyone, but
He can't because they will win. Isn't that the theory? I mean, that's all it is, is
a theory. They say that Christ died for
everyone, but is up to the sinner to make application of the atonement
by accepting Jesus by their own free will. Isn't that what they're
saying? That's not God's way of salvation. You know, I don't
know how much of the negative that we should mention from the
pulpit. I don't know. But I know this, that error should
be exposed. And the only way you can expose
error is laying down the straight stick. You won't ever see how
crooked something is until you lay something straight down.
And Christ, He's the straight way. He's the way of salvation. And everything else is crooked. They say that Jesus is anything from outward reformation
to obeying every precept of God's holy law. Have you ever thought
about that? You've got two extremes. Just an outward reformation,
just do the best you can. And then the other extreme, you've
got to keep every one of God's laws. and be perfect in the flesh
to be saved. And both of those are wrong. This is man's way, not God's
way of salvation. The distance between God and
man is incomprehensible by human reasoning and intellect. Folks
just don't get it. And I didn't get it. And you didn't get it, and no
one will ever get it until God reveals Christ to them. You cannot
beat on a dead man hard enough to get him to wake up. You can
kick him, you can stomp him, you can get mad at him. It's
like Brother Tim James said, there ain't no use in being mad
at a dead man. But you get aggravated sometimes,
don't you? You know, you just do. That's just when folks lie
on God, They blaspheme God in the gospel? God's way of salvation can only
be embraced by faith that He gives by His Spirit. You're thankful, and I'm thankful. Paul said, I thank God, brethren,
beloved Lord. I'm thankful for the day that
God spoke, that He came to the graveyard, You know, when he
went to the tomb of Lazarus, he loved Lazarus. He loved me. And one of the most
striking illustrations of how God saves sinners in regeneration
is Lazarus. That is one of the best to me. And he went to the tomb of Lazarus.
There were other graves around, don't you suppose? But he went
to the tomb of Lazarus, this one man. He loved him. And he said, Lazarus, come forth. Lazarus, aren't you thankful
for the day that he spoke to you? You didn't hear him call
your name. If you did, you better go back
and start over. It might not have been him. But he called you. You begin to hear. You begin
to see. You begin to understand. One
of the first things I remember that he bothered me about after
or when he was saving me was this, that I'm all wrong. There's something bad wrong with
me. I'm a sinner. And only a man can know that. I mean
in his heart. And that's God revealed it to
him. He can say it. But when he sees a sinner, he
can't do anything about it. It shuts us up to Christ. Aren't you glad? Paul said, I'm
happy. He said, I'm thankful to God
for you because God has chosen you, revealed Christ to you,
saved you by His grace. And I'm glad and you're glad
the day that the Lord spoke to you and to me. Begin to hear
the gospel. Begin to perk your ears up. Remember?
He said, I've got to hear some more of that. I ain't never heard nothing like
that before, but it sounds pretty good. And then you think, well,
that can't be right. Well, maybe it is. That's just
too good to be true. That God would save me without
me doing anything. Just lay down. Just lay down. Just lay down. Can you do that? You can't unless
God lays you down. You won't never do it. But boy,
when He does, and you lay there in sweet repose,
and you see His face, the glory of God in the face of Christ,
and you see His countenance, and He looks upon you with love,
That's what he said in the scripture, he looks upon us in love. He's
loved us with an everlasting love. And we look at him and
we say, he's altogether lovely. He's the fairest of ten thousand.
He's the rose of Sharon. He's the lady of the valley.
I told my wife, I told my children, I said, I can do without you.
And I mean it. I love them dearly, my grandchildren. But I can't do that to him. He is my hope. He's their hope. This is God's way of salvation.
And finally and lastly, He said, through the belief of
the truth, were unto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The obtaining of that glory by
the gospel changes men. Changes. Not an outward change, but an
inward change. It changes how we think. It changes
our understanding. It changes our desires, our loves,
our hates, our motives. It changes from the inside out.
Why is that? Because Christ is the glory of
God in you. Christ in you, the hope of glory. He said, I thank God for you.
Paul said to the church at Corinth, he said, when I came to you, he said,
I didn't come with excellence of speech or wisdom declaring
unto you the testimony of God. But I came in power. I came with
the truth and demonstration of the Holy Spirit. And he said,
when you heard me preach, he said, you didn't receive it as
the word of man. He said, you received it as the word of God.
You received it as His word. This is the glory of God in you.
This is exactly who it is and what it is. It's belief of the
truth. Believing in Christ. Embracing
Christ. Embracing with the heart. Not going through a form. Not
believing Calvinism. Not just believing a doctrine.
Not systematic theology, and I love to look at systematic
theology and the doctrines of grace. I believe there's five
points of Calvinism. But you can do all of that and
still not know Christ. It's when there is a God-given
love and embracing of the Lord Jesus Christ in the heart. That is it. Everything apart
from that is false. No matter what you know, believe,
you do, you think, it doesn't make any difference if there
isn't a love for Christ. Bruce and I was talking on the
way over here. I said, if there's not a love for the ministry of
the gospel, there's not a love for the gospel. If there's not
a love for the ministry of the gospel and a love for the gospel,
there's no love for Christ. It can't be. They go together.
And love is an emotion of the heart. One of the strongest emotions
there is. Men kill for love. Love and hate is two of the strongest
emotions there is. And He gives His people a love
for Him. Love for the truth and a love
for one another. You know, every believer can
look at another believer and say, I love you. And it's not
just saying it. I love you. Thank you, Brother Greg. The
Lord bless you. Thank you so much. I appreciate
the opportunity to come and be with you. I pray the Lord would
bless His Word, not mine, but His Word to your heart.