to the 62nd Psalm, Psalm 62. I want to read verse 1 and 2
and then skip down to verse 6. Verse 1 and 2 and verse 6. Truly
my soul waiteth upon God, from him cometh my salvation. From him cometh my deliverance. He only, in verse two, is my
rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be greatly moved. And then in verse six, he only
is my rock and salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. David was convinced of it. He
told us twice. in this very blessed psalm, that
he only, that he is God only, is my rock and my salvation,
he is my defense, I shall not be greatly moved. Now we're not
ashamed of the gospel. Paul said it is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believes, unto the Jew first
and also unto the Greek. He said, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. Ours is a declarative ministry. We're not here to apologize for
the gospel. We're not here to defend the
gospel. We're not here even to explain
the gospel, even though we feel that we can do that in a measure. that we're here to declare the
gospel. We believe that God has sent
his son into the world on a mission, that he was sent into the world.
He did not come into the world uncommissioned. He came here
because it was the will of God to give him a body in the womb
of the Virgin Mary. It was the will of God that he
suffer in that body and that he die the death that was due
us. as sinners, and that through
him we might have everlasting life. He said, I give unto my
sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. And my Father which gave
them me is greater than all, and no man can pluck them out
of his hand." We believe that salvation is truly a work of
God. As we come to this psalm this
morning, David said, truly, truly, my soul waiteth upon God. He
waited upon God because this was his God. He believed that
the God of the Bible was his God, his own personal God. Do you have this morning, this
God, the God of the Bible, the God that David worshiped, the
God that David served, do you have him as your personal God
this morning? Many, many people talk about
God, but they do not own the God of the Bible as being their
God. I wish this morning that all
of us could say, truly, my soul waiteth upon God. What are you
waiting upon? What are you waiting upon? I believe the best posture for
any soul is to be in the posture of waiting upon God. He goes
on to say, from him cometh my salvation. From him, that is,
from my God, from the God of the Bible, cometh my salvation. From the God of Holy Scripture
cometh my salvation. Now the word salvation means
deliverance. It means deliverance. And so
I believe that the life of the child of God is one continual
deliverance. He has been delivered, He is
being delivered, and He shall yet be delivered. The people
of God are on their way to glory. They're pilgrims in this world,
and they're on their way to glory. And they find often their need
of deliverance, and they're praying. I believe that probably most
of us this morning have a prayer in our hearts, O Lord, deliver
us. Deliver us. There are so many things from
which we need to be delivered. But one thing that I'm certain
that every son of Adam needs to be delivered from is he sinned. He needs to be delivered from
that iron bondage that he's in by virtue of the fact that he
was born of a woman, born into this world a descendant of the
first man, Adam. We're all sinners by nature and
by choice and practice, and we need to be delivered. We need
to be delivered, lest we die in our sin and perish for all
eternity. We desperately need to be delivered. Well, it's a joy this morning
to come to verse 2, where David said, He only is my rock. and
my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation. How noble a title, so sublime,
so suggestive, and so overpowering. My rock. It is a figure that
is so divine that to God alone shall it ever be applied. God
is indeed our rock. He's that place of refuge. He's
that place that we've been set upon the rock of ages, the Lord
Jesus. And we regard this God, this
rock of our salvation, we regard Him with great reverence. And
we bestow upon him our praise this morning. He is worthy to
receive our adoration and praise. And then in verse 5 he says,
My soul wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him. Now the soul of a believer waits
only upon God. We do not look to second causes.
We try desperately not to lean on crutches. We try every way
that we can to look past men and look to the hand, the able
hand of God. And David said, my soul, he speaks
to his soul. He admonishes his own soul. We
need to do that. Oh, how desperately we need to
do it. My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation
is from him. Everything that I expect will
come from his hand. I recognize that God uses means,
David would say, but yet my soul waiteth upon God because my expectation
is from him. He's that God that performeth
all things for me. He's that God that works out
his providence and blesses me with his providence and brings
to pass that in my life. which would be for my good, and
for his glory, and for his honor. This is our God, and we're waiting
upon this God. Isn't it wonderful when we can
come to the place through experiences in our life where we learn this
great lesson? that our expectation is from
the Lord, and that when we pray, we cry unto God, and necessity
is indeed the mother of prayer. Some people say, well, I pray
every day. I pray three times a day like Daniel did in the
Old Testament. We know that some people are
very proud of their prayer life and how often they pray and so
on. But I truly believe that necessity
is the mother of prayer. I believe that people only really
pray when they must pray, when they need to pray. It's when
a man gets desperate, it's when a woman gets to the place where
they're in, where they're at the end of themselves, that they
begin to really cry out unto God. Now, you brethren could
tell me whether that's so in your life. You sisters can certainly
testify as to whether that's so or not. But I believe it to
be so. It certainly has been in the
many, many years that I've tried to walk with the Lord. In my
experience, it is whenever I must pray that I'm able to pray. And
it's when I'm driven to it. It's when I'm summons to pray
by the circumstances of life that I'm able to pray. Many,
many times a man will go to sleep, half asleep on his knees when
he's just going through a form of prayer, but whenever your
soul is in need, I mean, when you're desperate and when trials
are heavy upon you, then, my friend, you won't go to sleep
while you're praying. You won't go to sleep in the
closet, as the expression is. Necessity will drive you to seek
His face with all your heart, because the only one who can
deliver you is God. And the only one who is able
to touch your situation, intervene in your situation, the only one
who can come down and leave his footprints on your trial and
your test and touch your situation is God. And David said, He, I,
my soul, wait only upon God, only upon God. I'm not waiting
for Mr. So-and-so to come through for
me, I'm waiting on God. God may use Mr. So-and-so, but
we're waiting on God to do something for us. That's a wonderful testimony,
I believe. He only is my rock, in verse
6, and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. And it's a joy to be able to
have been led by the Spirit of God to claim this God as our
rock and our salvation. that the God of the Bible is
my salvation. And I want to talk to you a little
bit this morning about God alone being the salvation of his people. And there are many things that
we could say, I suppose, in the way of preface about this great
rock of ours. But I want to speak primarily
this morning about our God and Him being the source of our salvation. Three things primarily that we
want to talk about. Number one is the doctrine that
salvation, our salvation, is of God only. And secondly, we
want to talk about the experience of it. Praise God, there is an
experience of God being our salvation. And thirdly, we'll talk about
the duty that's involved seeing that God is indeed our only rock
and our only salvation. But you know, I was thinking
about how we must all come to die. Do you know that we were
not consulted when we were born into this world? We came into
this world, we had nothing to do with our birth in the flesh. Nobody consulted us. We just
came on the world scene in the purpose and plan and program
of God. We just came here. We just came
here. And here we are. And we live
out our days here. And it behooves us to find our
feet upon the rock before we begin to cross that Jordan, that
Jordan, the river of death. You know the song on Jordan's
stormy banks I stand and cast a wishful eye to Canaan's fair
and happy land where my possessions lie. Well, the wonderful thing
is this God who is our rock, once our feet is planted upon
him, we know that we shall go across Jordan's stream on that
rock. We shall be on that rock when
we cross Jordan's stream. We shall not have to walk on
a slippery foundation but on him who cannot betray our feet.
You see, we shall not be consulted. when time comes for the Lord
to take us out of this world. There's no discharge in this
war. We cannot get out of it. We must
die and we're going to. But isn't it wonderful to have
our feet on the rock and to know that when the time comes and
when we're summonsed I mean when we're summoned by God and say,
this night thy soul is required of thee to know that there's
a foundation under you. And beloved, there's no foundation
that can be laid except that foundation which is laid, which
is Jesus Christ. Well then, we want to proceed
on in our subject this morning. He only is my rock and my salvation."
First of all, then, we said that we would talk about the doctrine,
the doctrine that God only is our salvation. Now, if any of
you this morning would ask me, what would you choose, preacher,
as being your motto, or what do you think should be the motto
of this church of the people of God here that assemble here
from week to week. What should be our motto? Now
as a preacher of the gospel, I think I would reply, God only
is our salvation. God only is our salvation. Now the sum and substance Now,
we've often, and I've taken an awful lot of flack for it in
my years in the ministry, is we often mention Joseph Arminian,
and then we've also mentioned John Calvin. We often mention
them. Not that we believe that John
Calvin is a savior, or that Joseph Arminian is necessarily the devil.
But we believe that the sum and substance of old Calvinism is
salvation is of the Lord. God only is our salvation. And I never back down from telling
people that's where I stand. That salvation is of the Lord. And I am indeed a Calvinist. Now I don't know when I'm dead
and gone whether anybody will ever stand again in this place
and tell you. I don't know whether they'll
have the backbone to do it or not. But I am here to tell you
this morning that's exactly what I am. I am indeed a Calvinist.
Now if anyone ever asked you what you mean by a Calvinist,
you just tell them that he is one who says that salvation is
of the Lord. That's the man that is preaching
that he only is my rock and my salvation. That's where he stands.
That's what he believes. Now, I do not see any reason
why that we ought to be ashamed to stand right there. That he
only is my rock and salvation. That's exactly what the Word
of God teaches. Now, I know people try to get
away from identifying themselves with any position on the doctrine
of salvation. They want to get away from it.
There, you know, sometimes you hear them say, Well, I'm not
an Armenian, and I'm not a Calvinist. I'm a Biblicalist. I'm a Biblicalist. I just believe what the Bible
says. But my friend, that is entirely too vague. And most
of the time, the people that say that, all they're trying
to do is to get you to let them to stay on the fence. So that
when they're talking to John Doe No. 1, who is a rank Arminian,
they can get down on that side of the fence. And when they're
talking to John Doe No. 2, that's a three-point Calvinist,
they can get down on that side of the fence. But we believe
here in this church that salvation is of the Lord. Now, here's a
little parable for you. There was a feathered creature.
He was walking alone, trying to mind his own business. when
he happened upon a group of birds having a discussion, and some
of them claimed to be ducks and others claimed to be swans. And
they looked at him and asked him, what are you? And he looked
at the ducks and he knew the ducks had a bad reputation. He
really did not want to be called a duck. Then he looked at the
swans and he'd been told that they were too cold and snooty. And he really, he really did
not want to be called a swan. So he drew himself up to his
full height and stuck his beak in the air and said, I am a bird. I am a bird." And with a self-satisfied
air about him, he waddled on down the road, quacking his pleasure
at having escaped being classified as anything other than a bird. Now, this is the way a lot of
people are about the doctrines of grace and Calvinism and Arminianism. They do not want to be identified
with either school of thought. But in this place, I'll tell
you what we mean when we say we're a Calvinist, is that he
only is our rock and our salvation. And I hope that you do not find
that offensive. I cannot find in scripture any
other doctrine than this, and I challenge you to see if this
is not the very essence of the Bible, that he only is our rock
and our salvation. Now, tell me, if you will, a
heresy. Just bring up a heresy, and I'll
find its essence right here, beloved. I'll find it right here,
that it has departed from the great, from the fundamental,
this rocky truth that God is my rock and my salvation. What is the heresy of Ominianism
but the addition of something to the perfect merits of Jesus
Christ, the bringing in of the works of the flesh to assist
in our justification. What is it? But the addition
of something to the complete work of the Redeemer, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now you'll find that every heresy,
if brought to the light, will discover itself right here. It departs from this. He only
is my rock and my salvation. Now by salvation, I understand
deliverance. from the house of bondage where
in my nature I am born and being brought out into the liberty
wherewith Christ makes us free, together with the putting of
our feet on a rock and establishing our goings. This is what I understand,
beloved, to be salvation, and this is said to be holy of God. And I know this is right, because
I find in scripture that man is dead. And how can a dead man? You know, salvation is pictured
in the Bible as being a spiritual resurrection. How can a dead
man assist in his own resurrection? You see, we'll shut up to it.
I told you we were born into this world, wasn't consulted.
We're going out of this world, will not be consulted. And the
day will come, When we will be resurrected, the Bible says,
marvel not at this, the hour is coming when all that are in
the graves are going to hear his voice and they're going to
come forth. The hour is coming when the Lord's
going to wake the dead and bring them out. Now salvation, this
personal experience of regeneration in time, is a picture of that
resurrection that's going to take place later when our bodies
are brought out of the grave. But I find that man is utterly
depraved and he hates the divine change. You see, we believe that
man was totally and utterly ruined at the fall. that man is dead
in sin and that he cannot assist God, that he's not in a position
in any way, shape, or form, he cannot assist God in his salvation. How can a man work that change
which he himself hates? John 5 and 40 says, and you will
not come to me that you might have life. You willed not to
come to me that you might have life. This is an unregenerate
sinner. This is his attitude. He cannot
receive the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness unto
him. Neither can he receive them because only one who has the
Holy Spirit can receive them. Now, I believe man to be utterly
powerless in this work of his salvation. He's utterly powerless. He cannot break his own heart.
He cannot give himself a disposition to repent. We've often told you
that repentance is more than an act. It's a disposition of
the soul. How can a man give himself a
disposition contrary to the one that he already has? And by nature,
his disposition is, I hate God, I hate the things of God, I will
not bow my knee to God to his will, I will not respect his
word, reverence his word, I'm going on in my own way. Well,
he can't give himself a disposition wherein he will say, I love God. I love Christ. I love the Word
of God. I will bow my knee in reverence
to everything the Bible says, the best I understand it, and
I'll walk in God's ways and please God and live for His glory and
honor all my days. No one can give himself that
kind of a disposition. God must do that. Deliverance
is of God and repentance and faith are inseparable gifts of
God that are wrought in the heart by those Oh. had disturbed the ether air.
Where were you back yonder when God entered into eternal covenant
with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit to
plan and to provide eternal salvation for His people? Where were you?
Well, who aided him? None aided him. He tread the
winepress of the wrath of God alone. Salvation is older than
creation. Salvation, it is indeed of the
Lord. As it was of the Lord in his
planning, so it is of the Lord in his execution. God has done
it all himself. The banquet of mercy is served
up by one host. And that is the one who owns
the cattle on a thousand hills. That is the one who said the
silver and gold is mine. He's the one that serves up this
banquet of salvation. He's the one that invites unto
the marriage supper. He's the one that says, come,
all things are now ready. It is God that serves up this
great banquet. None have contributed to the
gospel feast, that royal banquet, but God himself. He's the only
one. It's not a potluck. He hasn't
asked you to bring something, to bring a dish, a covered dish. No. He just says, I'll provide
it all. It's ready. Come, it's all ready. The feast is ready. That royal
bath of mercy wherein black souls are washed was filled from the
veins of the Lord Jesus Christ. filled with the blood of the
Lord Jesus. Not a drop was contributed by
any other being. Is that so? I tell you it is
so. No blood of martyrs mingled with
that stream. No blood of noble confessors
and of heroes of the cross entered into the atonement. No, the atonement
is the unaided work of Jesus Christ our Lord. As we said,
he tread the winepress of the wrath of God alone. He was solitary
conqueror who came to fight single-handed, his own arm brought him salvation. It brought this salvation. Salvation
is of the Lord as to its provisions also. Father, Son, and Spirit
has provided everything. Beware, my friend, of anyone
that you hear preach that tells you that God demands something
of you that He has not provided for you. Beware of it, my friend,
beware of it. I'll tell you, there is no such
thing as a man making a contribution to his own salvation. You can't
do it. Everything God demands of us,
he has provided for us. And so in provision, this salvation
is of the Lord. I'd cease to preach if I believed
that God in the matter of salvation required anything whatever of
a man which he himself had not also engaged to furnish. I'd
give it up. And I quit preaching altogether. I'm preaching to hopeless. I'm
preaching to helpless. I'm preaching to undone men and
women. I'm preaching to men and women
that cannot even please themselves, much less please a thrice holy
God. I'm preaching to you this morning
and telling you that salvation is of God in His provision and
that everything He demands of your soul, He provided for you
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you want to go
out of here saved, then look to Him. Go out here and believe
in what this psalm says, that salvation, that He only, He only,
He only is our salvation. And let me say it's also of the
Lord in its application. Well, we know that many feel
that on the Armenian side that man is not totally ruined, that
in the fall he was just partially disabled, and that he still has
the ability, he's still got a will, and he can will to do that. which
would please God. But we know man's will is biased
towards sin, and he cannot will to do anything that is contrary
to his nature. We know the water that flows
over Niagara Falls cannot will to run back up over the falls.
It's not its nature to do that. Water cannot just run right back
up over the top of the fall. It would have to be pumped back
up. And I'll tell you this, man's nature is not such as would make
him love Jesus, cooperate with Jesus, come to Christ, seek the
Lord. It is not such as would enable
him to do that. Christ has done all he can do
now. The Arminian says, and the sinner
must do something. He must do something. He must
walk the aisle. He must take the first step toward
the Lord. He must do something. I read
a story one time about King Charles, and he was in Carisbrook Castle,
and some of his loyal followers, they brought a boat, they come
to the shoreline, everything was provided for his escape.
All Charles had to do was get out of the castle. That's all
he had to do, get out of the castle. Well, came time, everybody
waited. He thought he had it figured
out, but it didn't work. He could not get himself out
of the castle. Now you see, if God requires
anything of a sinner dead in sin, that sinner is, as it were,
behind bars. That sinner is locked in prison.
That sinner's in a cell, and that sinner cannot get himself
out. Now you can take all the keys
you got on your string, and you can try them all, but you can't
get out. and try all of them, and it'll not get you out. No
way. You cannot. You have no key to
fit yourself. I'll tell you, you'll never get
out until God only delivers you. Until God saves you, you will
never get out of your cell. Now, somebody said, well, if
you just take the first step, then surely God will meet him
halfway. Well, I tell you what, if a sinner
can take the first step, he can go all the way. I tell you, he
can't take the first step. He has no will to take the first
step. The Bible says we're born not of the will of the flesh
nor the will of man, but of God. Bible says, of his own will begat
he us with the word of truth. John 1 or James 1 and 18. Seeing
man is as unable to believe as he is to obey and is just as
much without power to come to Christ as he is to go to heaven
without Christ, he only. is my rock and my salvation.
I come to that. I came to that years ago. I'm
settled on it. Nobody can move me off of it.
This is a doctrine which I believe and which I stand for and which
this church stands for. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
what Jonah learned in the College of the Whales Valley. Salvation
is of the Lord. Okay, so much then for the doctrine
of the text. Now let's talk about the experience
a little bit of this. The experience of it, because
you see, somewhere between the cradle and the grave, we must
experience the Lord's salvation. Or if we die lost, then we shall
perish forever and die the second death, that death that never
dies for all eternity. So the experience of it. Now
John 17, we're told that, Thou hast given him, that is Christ,
power over all flesh. Christ was praying. He said,
You've given me power over all flesh, that I might give eternal
life to as many as Thou hast given to me. And this is life
eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. Now, Jesus spelled it out. He said, If you want to know
what salvation is on Sunday morning, The last day of January, 1999,
if you want to know what salvation is, if last night when you went
to bed you wanted to know what salvation is, Jesus said, this
is what it is, that they might know thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. 1 John chapter 5 says,
we know that the Son of God has come and hath given us an understanding
that we might know him that is true. I'll tell you the experience
of this is for God to reveal to your heart and soul who Jesus
Christ is. We know that life is in his Son,
and he that hath the Son hath life. Now, this is the problem
we face in witnessing. We know nothing. The most people
that are witnessing, doing what we call witnessing, know nothing
about God's salvation. They haven't experienced that
salvation themselves. And it's much easier to do something
than it is to trust God to do His work. Now what I mean is,
it's much easier for you to get you a little Roman's Road track
and go out and face people and try to tell them what they must
do. Oh, you must first of all agree with this proposition.
Secondly, you must do this. Thirdly, do that. And so on and
so forth. And then when they went through all the steps, you
pronounce them saved. when God Almighty had to have
a thing in the world to do with them. And you slipped them as
it were, tried to slip them into the kingdom of God as with a
shoe spoon, get them in without them ever knowing it, and you
know, suddenly you tell them they're saved and they're as
shocked as you are. because they don't know anything about it
and you didn't either. This is why there are so few fellow workers
with God and so many workers for Him. People that are out
trying to do something for God. Now in this business of salvation,
it's His work entirely. It's altogether His. We would
far rather work for God than to believe than to believe, listen
to me, that he can do his own work. But when it comes to salvation,
he must do it. Now I'm not saying God doesn't
use human means to preach the gospel. God does, because the
Bible says he is chosen through the foolishness of preaching
to save those that believe. Scripture says faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And how can they believe
unless they hear? We all know that that's true.
Do I believe God can do what I cannot do? I never knew a preacher
in my life who could give life to an insect must give life to
a soul. You can't do it. I cannot born
you again. I have no way to born anybody. There's no way. This is God's
work. I despair of men. Listen to me
now. I despair of men in the degree
in which I have never realized that God has done anything for
me. Now, if I believe that salvation
is agreeing with a proposition, then what am I going to be spending
my time doing? Trying to get people to agree
to a proposition. If that's all I've done, I just
agreed with a proposition that some preacher presented to me.
Now listen to me, our business, my friend, is not to go out and
get somebody, talk somebody into something they're not really
interested in doing. Now a salesman, a good salesman,
they tell me, can do that. But when it comes to the gospel
and when it comes to people's never-dying soul, I'm not in
the business of trying to talk you into a proposition or agreeing
with something that I would think that you ought to do. Has God
done anything for me? Praise God, he has. And in my
experience, such a wonderful realization of God's power and
might that I can never despair of anyone I come in contact with. I just cannot despair. You're
here this morning, you say, Preacher, I don't think I'll ever be saved.
Well, well, well, there might have been a time when I would
have said the same thing about myself. But I'm going to tell
you this, when God chooses to lay hold of your soul, when God
means to save you, I mean the God of the Bible is the God of
salvation, the God of deliverance, and He's saved worse sinners
than anybody in this building, and He can save anybody that's
here. He saved the chief of sinners.
Paul said, this is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am
chief. He can do it. But the degree
of panic is the degree of the lack of personal spiritual experience. Do I believe God can save my
children? He saved me. Why not my children? Do I believe
that God can save my uncles and aunts and my cousins and so on? Do I believe God can intervene
in their lives? He intervened in mine. So we
can intervene in theirs. Behold, O my people, I will open
your graves. That's what God said. Preacher,
you'll have to give an invitation, they said, or nobody will ever
get saved. Well, don't panic, my friend,
don't panic. God only is our salvation. God is able to save. He can open graves. And if He
can open a grave, He can raise your soul up. He can deliver
your soul. He can give you some hope in
your soul. He can give you something. I mean something to get you through
life. I mean something to face death with. He can put His life
in your soul. He can save your soul. How did you come to be a Christian
anyway? How did you get here? You see,
this is our problem, isn't it? This is our problem. Now, we
do not go out and try to rob people of their hope. I don't
do that. I just preach the Word of God.
Do you know whether you got any hope or not? How did you get
it? If you got any hope, do you have any really, truly, honestly? With Judgment Day honesty, have
you got any hope in your soul? Any hope whatsoever? Well, how
did you come? You say, well, preacher, I sought
the Lord one time. Well, how did you come to seek
the Lord, the power of God? Made me seek Him. I remember
when I sought the Lord, going from one side of the bed to the
other, seeking God, weeping my soul out before Him. Absolutely. But I'd have never sought Him
if He hadn't sought me first. Never would have. Never would
have. Never come to Him. God alone is the salvation of
His people. All I know is whatever I have, the Lord, whatever I
have, the Lord gave it to me. Can you testify of that? Whatever
I got, the Lord gave it to me. If I could have lost it, I'd
have lost it before now. If fickle, feeble souls alas
could fall, I mean my soul, I'd fall a thousand times a day.
If I could fall and be lost forever, then I would be lost. I'd be
lost. I'd be lost. I'd have no hope.
But the Lord has indeed done something for me. Do I have faith?
I once was a faithless creature. Once I had no faith. Once I knew
not who Jesus was, been no revelation of him in my heart. Do I now
see? Well, I was blind as a bat once. I was. I didn't know anything
about who he was. I didn't know about what he could
do. I didn't know what he had done. Jesus said, He said, I
have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. I have
glorified thee on the earth. I have finished what I come to
do. And that was to save your people
and to bring in an everlasting righteousness for them. Until
now I am called the Lord, our righteousness. Jesus is our righteousness. Am I alive to God? Well, I tell
you, and I tell you the truth, I was dead in sin once, I was,
but now I'm alive in the Lord. I want you to turn with me to
John chapter 9, and I'll hurry on here, but I want you to see
these verses. John chapter 9, the Gospel of
John, and look at these verses with me. and 20, 21 here, and they ask
him, this man had been born blind, his parents were still living,
and Jesus had healed him of his blindness. And they asked them,
that is the parents of this man, is this your son? Who, you say,
was born blind? How then doth he now see? His
parents answered them, and said, We know that this is our Son,
and that he was born blind, but what means he now seeth, we know
not, or who hath opened his eyes, we know not. He is of age, ask
him, and he shall speak for himself. And then, if you will, look down
here at verse 23 through 25. Therefore said his parents he
is of age ask him ask him Then again called they the man that
was blind and said to him give God the praise We know that this
man that that's that that you say healed you that this man's
a sinner They were talking about Christ He answered and said,
whether he be a sinner or no, I know not. I'm no theologian. I don't know anything about his
pedigree or his birth or how he got here in the world or whether
he was born of both man and woman or whether he's born just of
a woman. I don't know anything about that. I don't know whether
God was his father. I don't know anything about that.
I don't know. I know not. One thing I know. That whereas I was blind, now
I see. That's what I know. I know that
I was blind, but now I see. Then said they to him again,
What did he to thee? How opened he your eyes? He answered
them, I have told you already, and you did not hear. Wherefore
would ye hear it again? Will ye also be his disciples?
And they reviled him and said, Thou art his disciple, but we're
Moses' disciple. We know that God's speaking to
Moses. As for this fellow, we know not whence he is. Listen
to verse 30. The man answered and said unto
them, Why, herein is a marvelous thing, that you know not from
whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. This is a marvelous
thing, that you religionists, you followers of Moses, you that
are always quick every day to run to Moses, that you've never
been to Calvary, and you don't know a thing on earth about men
experientially being brought out of death to life, blind men
being brought to see. You don't know a thing about
it. You don't know anything about the marvelous workings of the
Son of God in the souls of men. You never experienced it, and
therefore you're still dead in your religion, dead in your religion. So at the present time, if you're
experienced, be that of a child of God, you will trace all back
to Him, to the Lord Jesus. Here you are sitting in your
seat this morning, I just want to review with you where you
stand. Do you think you would be where
you are now if it were not for the fact that God only is our
salvation? Where would you be? If it wasn't
for the grace of God, where would you be? Where would you be? You
that profess to know the Lord, where would you be? You couldn't
save yourself. Now you might be somewhere, you
know, with Moses' disciples and you might be somewhere with,
you know, in an Arminian camp somewhere where they're shouting
praises to themselves or where they're building up, you know,
and trying to make everybody feel good. But you wouldn't be
glorifying God, praising his name, and declaring his wonderful
mercy. David said, I'll talk all day
long about your salvation. He said, I'll talk about your
righteousness all day long. Your righteousness all day long. Have you anything good in your
heart that grace did not give you, really? that really did
not come from the Lord. If I thought I had a grace that
did not come from God, I'd throw it down, trample it underfoot.
Counterfeit, it could not be right if it did not come from
the men of glory. If it didn't come from the men
of glory, then it'd be counterfeit. Christian, can you say, all things
past and present, he only is my rock and salvation? Cowper
wrote these words. Since the dear hour that brought
me to thy foot, and cut up all my follies by the root. I never
trusted in an arm but thine, nor hoped but in thy righteousness
divine. that now, he said, I trusted
no arm but thine and did not hope in any righteousness but
in that righteousness divine. Well, so much for the experience.
Now, lastly, the duty of all of this. What the duty is, if
God only be our rock, and we know it, and we know it, are
we not bound to put all of our trust in God? to give all our
love to God, and set all of our hope upon God, to spend all of
our life for God, and to devote our whole being to God. Amen, says the true believer. For those who would hesitate,
I want to bid you now, as God has put all salvation in himself,
bring all thyself to God. Bring thyself to God. Well, what
do I mean by this? First of all, never join anything
with Christ. Don't stick your old rags into
the new garments he gives you. Don't put Christ and self together.
That is putting Christ and a worm together. That's what it is. Don't say it's Christ and man
together. Don't say it's Christ and company. It can never be. It's all together
of the Lord. He must be all. I'm trying to
get you to see that if he only is our rock and our salvation,
he must be all and he must be glorified as the provider of
all. Now listen, he must be all. Christ
will never tolerate or bear to have anything else placed with
him. He only, He only. He will have
your whole heart to trust in Him and Him alone. Your whole
soul to love Him, your whole life to honor Him. Christian,
it is a sin to keep back anything from God. So foolishly, you know,
some people talk about how that, you know, there's some things
they just can't give up to the Lord. Well, let me tell you this,
we're dealing with a sovereign, you know. We're dealing with
a God that's Got to give you every breath you take. We're
dealing with a God that's got to wake you up every morning.
That's right. You just might not wake. You
say, well, there's something I'm not going to give to God.
Well, now you go ahead and talk that way if you want to. You
can go ahead and be foolish if you want to. But I'm telling
you that God can take anything you've got. He can do whatever
he pleases. Our God is in the heavens, and
he hath done whatsoever he pleased. He can do it. Now, the poet said,
Yet if I might make some reserve, and duty did not call, I love
my God with zeal so great, that I should give him all. Now, John
3 and 35 says, The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things
into his hands. Now, if the Father has given
all things into his hands, Why should we not? The Father has
given all things into the hands of Christ. Are you going to say,
I can't give myself into the hands of Christ? I can't give
all that I have. I've got some things that I just
don't want the Lord to have. You must not grieve him and vex
the master. You see, you must not. You must
give all to him. Now then, he is so fond of you
that he's jealous of your love. He is. He's a jealous God. If
we're looking at anything else, we cannot see Christ as well.
I mean in the matter of salvation and in the matter of living our
lives for the Lord. We must get our eyes on the Lord.
If we're looking at anything else, we know man can look at
two objects at the same time and see both distinctly. You
cannot serve God and mammon. Christian, look only on Him.
He only is your rock and salvation. Christian, never let anything
come between you and Christ. Never. God has sent out a search
warrant, I think, against all of us. And do you know what He's
told His officers to search for when He comes to our houses,
when He comes to us? I'll tell you what. He has told
them to search for all of our idols. All of our idols. everything we listen, all our
treasures, and all our crutches and usurpers of his throne. He said, you go out and search
out to find out whether those people love me with all their
heart, all their mind, all their soul, all their strength. I'm
God and I'm their salvation. I'm their rock. Their expectation,
they said, is from me. You go find out what it is they're
trusting. whether they're trusting in their
own flesh, trusting in their own righteousness, trusting in
their own merit, you're going to find out whether they're trusting.
I tell you, there's nothing in the world that you let come between
your soul and God that shall not sooner or later be hung upon
a gallows higher than Haman's. It sooner or later will. I'm
telling you, we're dealing with a jealous God. Somebody said, that preacher
preaches that everything's in the Lord. Everything's in Christ.
I do. But there's a duty that comes
with that. You don't take this, my friend, and walk off with
it and say, I'll go live as I please. No, you won't either. God, if
he saves you, you're his child, and he'll raise you. He will! He knows how to discipline children,
how to chasten people. If you love your house better
than Christ, He'll make it a prison to you. If you love your child
better than Christ, He'll make it an adder in your breast to
sting you. If you love your job and your
provisions better than Christ, he'll make what you drink bitter
and what you eat like gravel in your mouth till you come to
live wholly on him. He will. This is serious business. There's nothing you own which
he cannot turn into a rod for your back. And if you love it
better than him, my friend, he'll turn it into a rod for your back.
Don't rob Christ of his glory. Christian, always keep your eye
to the cloud and not to the rain. Always to the cloud and not to
the rain. Look not to the sunbeam, but
to the sun. Look not to the blessing, but
the blesser. Look not to the gift, but to the giver. Keep your eyes on the giver.
Worship the giver. Trace your mercies to God and
say, He only is my rock and my salvation, my expectations are
from Him. Now just a word to those of you
that are not the Lord's children. You've heard what I've told you,
that salvation is of Christ alone. That's a very good doctrine for
you because you don't have anything yourself, do you? Really? Do
you have something that you think that you could offer to a thrice
holy God who finds fault with the angels and is so holy that
he cannot look upon sin? Do you have something that you
could offer? Well, I think it's a good doctrine for you because
really and truthfully, I think when you rummage through your
possessions and rummage through everything, that you will find
you really don't have anything to offer to God. And so isn't
it wonderful that there's a message to poor, lost, unworthy, undone
sinners, helpless, hopeless, damned sinners, that there's
a God who says, Salvation is my work. Salvation is not a human
project. It's my work from the beginning
to the end. It's my work. You're a poor, lost, ruined sinner.
You don't have anything and further, you need everything. You need
everything. Everything you need. But might
I hasten to say that Christ has all. And He can save you and
give you everything He has and still not be the poor for it.
He can do it. He can save your soul. He can
meet every need that you have. He can do it. He can do everything
for you that must be done. Must be done. Before you can
stand in His presence. He can put you in His Son and
accept you in Him and you'll be just as righteous as Christ
is. And God will give you that righteousness
so you can stand before Him, not be ashamed at His coming. He'll dress you up in garments
not your own. In garments not your own. How
wonderful it is to be able to give you a message of hope and
a message that will show any sinner who is desperately in
need that there is a feast, and you're invited to it. And that,
like we said earlier, it's not a potluck. You don't bring nothing. Old Spurgeon was fond of quoting,
nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. People found fault with him.
Said it's obvious Mr. Spurgeon don't have anything
in his hands. Well, that's good. That's good. I tell you what,
I don't want to be found presenting my own case before the Lord,
and I don't want to be found bringing what little bit I can
scrape together to Him, trying to satisfy Him. All I want to
do is be found, like Paul said, in Christ. Be found in Him, not
having a righteousness of my own, which is of the law, but
that which is of the faith of Jesus Christ. That's the way
I want to be found, when the Lord summons me. as He will,
as He will every one of us. Oh, to be found in Him, to be
found in Him, having His righteousness.