descriptions given by God of
his salvation in Holy Scripture. The Word of God, as we have seen,
describes salvation as God's salvation. The very first time
the Word is used, back in Genesis 49, Jacob speaks of God's salvation. He says, I have waited for thy
salvation, O Lord. It is described as an eternal
salvation in Hebrews 5, 9. And Jude tells us that it is
the common salvation enjoyed commonly by all true believers. It is that salvation in which
all believers have a complete and equal participation. That
is a salvation which every one of God's elect possesses in its
entirety because of God's free grace. Look with me if you will
at Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 3. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse
3. I'm gonna take a few minutes
to work my way to my text for this evening. But let's look
at Hebrews chapter two and verse three first. Here the Holy Spirit
tells us that our salvation in Christ is a great salvation. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? Which at first began to be spoken
by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. How do you expect to escape the
wrath of God if you neglect so great salvation? This great salvation
preached to you in the gospel, this great salvation of which
you have heard now, some of you all your life long, some of you
for many years at least. How shall you escape the wrath
of God if you neglect so great salvation? And what a description
of salvation this is. It is a salvation which comes
to great centers from the great God. Through the great merits
of our great Savior, it flows to us from the great reservoir
of God's great everlasting infinite love toward His own in Jesus
Christ the Lord. He said, I have loved you with
an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
thee. The hymn writer expressed it
very well. He said, could we with ink the oceans fill? And
were the skies of parchment made? Were every stalk on earth a quill,
and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above?
would drain the oceans dry, nor could the skull contain the whole,
though stretched from sky to sky. God's great salvation comes
from the great God for great sinners, through the merits of
His great Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, from the great
reservoir of His love, and it secures for undeserving, hell-bent,
hell-deserving sinners, the great inheritance of heaven's glory. Yes indeed, God's salvation is
great salvation. Now look at Isaiah 45 for a moment.
Isaiah 45. The prophet of God in verse 17
describes this thing we call salvation as an everlasting salvation. But Israel shall be saved in
the Lord with an everlasting salvation. Now that's not talking
about the ethnic Jew, Israel. That's not talking about the
physical descendants of Abraham. If that were talking about the
physical descendants of Abraham, then the promise would be that
every person born of Jewish lineage would be saved with an everlasting
salvation, and that obviously is not so. Esau was not saved
with an everlasting salvation. Judas was not saved with an everlasting
salvation. The sons of Korah were not saved
with an everlasting salvation. The Israel he's talking about
here is the Israel of God, God's elect out of every nation, kindred,
tribe, and tongue. He says, Israel, those chosen
of God to be his princes, shall be saved with an everlasting
salvation. And you shall not be ashamed
nor confounded, world without end. You see, salvation is eternal
both ways. It is from everlasting to everlasting,
and we know that it is for one reason if for no other. It is
from everlasting to everlasting because it is the work of God
himself. Now, mark this down. If salvation
is God's work, it's forever. If man has any part in it, if
any part of it is ascribed to you and me, then salvation must
be a fickle, perishing thing. It is something that is built
on the sand and not on the rock. But if salvation is God's work,
this work is forever. Listen to the book of God. I
know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing
can be put to it nor anything taken from it. Nothing can be
added to it. Nothing can be taken away from
it. And God does it that men should fear before Him. Sinners
saved by grace then will never perish. We are saved beyond the
reach of condemnation. Moreover, we are saved beyond
the reach even of danger. For we are saved with God's salvation
in Jesus Christ, who is God's Son, by the power of God's Spirit,
according to God's eternal purpose. God's love is an everlasting
love. God's election is an everlasting
election. His grace is everlasting grace.
The gifts and callings of God are without repentance. Christ's
redemption is described as an everlasting redemption. And the
Spirit's seal is an everlasting seal. Now having said all that,
no description of salvation can be found that is sweeter, more
delightful, more comforting, or more satisfying to our souls
than that which we read just a little bit ago in Philippians
chapter 2. Look at it for a moment again. Philippians chapter 2
and verse 12. Here the Spirit of God declares
to believing sinners that God's eternal, great, everlasting salvation
is your own salvation. Look at this. Wherefore, my beloved,
as you have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now
much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. Oh, how I like those words. I
take particular pleasure and that which is my own, don't you?
I take particular satisfaction in that which is my own. Somebody
else has a brand new Lexus sitting outside and look at that Lexus
and it's pretty and it's nice but it's not mine. I don't have
any keys for it. It doesn't do me any good. I got a little older
car, it's got a few miles on it, but it's mine. I can get
in the keys in that and drive across the country in it, it's
mine. I take particular pleasure in that which is my own. And
particularly with regard to spiritual things, what a delight it is
to be able to look up into heaven and say, with regard to God's
salvation, this, God says, is my salvation. Your own salvation. God devised it, child of God,
for you. Christ purchased it, believer,
for you. The Holy Spirit brought it to
you, wrote it in you, and causes you to know that it's yours forever. If you trust the Lord Jesus Christ,
oh, God help you now to trust Him. If you, right now, right now,
right where you sit, Look away to Christ. Cast your hope on
the crucified Son of God. If you trust Jesus Christ the
Lord, this salvation, which is God's salvation, is as much your
personal property and possession as it is God's himself. He gave
it to you. Your salvation. Your salvation. And it's yours forever. Now here is an admonition. Paul
says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Some folks get a hold of that
and say, now there, you see, God tells us we're going to have
to work to be safe. That's not what he says at all. He says,
work outwardly that which God has wrought and is working inwardly
in you. You work outwardly that which
God works inwardly. We read Philippians chapter one,
or chapter two rather, the apostle tells us this is what he means.
He said, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus. You, you who are saved by God's
grace. You strive and labor and seek
grace from God that you may, while you live on this earth,
live as did Jesus Christ the Lord in compassion, humility,
in faithfulness, in meekness, in love one for another. In Matthew
5, 16, our Lord Jesus says, let your light so shine before men
that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which
is in heaven. Now there's something involving
work there. He tells us that we were ordained to good works
by God from eternity in Ephesians 2, 10. Now God in His grace and
mercy admonishes us to do that which He by His grace alone can
enable us to do and yet it is something we must do. We must
let our light shine. He's not talking about some pretense
of religious hypocrisy. He's not talking about some show
of religious righteousness. He's not talking about folks
getting together on Easter Sunday and having a candlelight vigil
and holding a little candle out and marching down the aisle of
a darkened church and saying, this little light of mine, I'm going
to let it shine. That's silly, repugnant nonsense. God despises
it and you ought to. That's not what he's talking
about. What he's talking about there? He's talking about the believer, by
his good works, works of charity, love, kindness, generosity, patience. That's always what good works
are. Read the book one more time. He says, let your light, by your
good works, shine before me, and that they, seeing your love,
compassion, charity, generosity, may glorify your Father which
is in heaven. This is a faithful saying, Paul writes, and these
things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which had
believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These
things are good and profitable unto men. Now, you listen carefully
to your pastor. Please listen. Good works, not religious works. Religious works are, man, they're
easy to perform. Good works are terribly contrary
to human flesh. Works of kindness and charity
and forgiveness and love. Works unseen and unapplauded
and unapproved by men. Works of caring for one another. Those things are so unnatural
to us. Bobby, we gotta work at it all
the time. We gotta work at it all the time. Be careful, Paul
says, to maintain good works. He says, let ours also learn
to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful. God, don't let me go through
this life unfruitful. I mean by that, don't let me
go through this life without ministering to and assisting
and helping other human beings in this world. Don't let me go
through this life without instructing and teaching and guiding men
in the things of righteousness and faith and peace before God. Now that's our admonition. Work
outwardly your own salvation. Now here's the assurance. For
it is God which worketh in you both to will, to desire, and
to do of His good pleasure. Say, Pastor, I can't do those
things. I know they're right. I don't
know how to be forgiving and gracious. I don't know how to
be kind and selfless. I don't know how to put others
first. Me either. None of us do. It's contrary
to our nature. It's just not, even when we pretend
that we're doing so, there's a heart of selfishness and pride
within us that blackens and sullies everything we do. But faithful
is he that calleth you, who also will do it. Paul, in his benediction
to the Thessalonians, says, the very God of peace sanctify you
wholly, and I pray God, your whole spirit, soul, and body
be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And when Paul gives that benediction, he said, now, that's
not too high an expectation, because it's God who works in
you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Now then,
if you are saved, and I am saved, The salvation that is wrought
in you is your salvation. If I am saved by God's grace,
the salvation that's wrought in me is my salvation. I want
us together now to look at Ephesians chapter 1, verses 12, 13, and
14. And let me show you in these three delightful verses of Scripture, what God Almighty has inspired
the Apostle Paul to tell us concerning your salvation and mine. That
great, glorious, eternal, everlasting, common salvation which God has
wrought in us is distinctly ours. Here, God calls it your salvation. First, the Spirit of God here
tells us that your salvation Your salvation, Bob Pontzer,
is a salvation designed for divine praise. Look at it. That we should
be to the praise of His glory. That salvation revealed in Scripture
always honors the Lord God. It is a salvation becoming to
the character of God. If the salvation you have or
think you have does not give all honor and praise to God alone,
your salvation is not salvation at all. It's a delusion. The
great ultimate purpose of God in all things is the glory of
His own great name. That's exactly why He saves sinners
such as we are. In Psalm 106, verse 8, the Scripture
says, Nevertheless, He saved them for His name's sake. In
Jeremiah and in Ezekiel, as the Lord prophesied of the time when
He would gather His elect, He said, I didn't do this for your
sake, I did it for my sake, that you might know that I am the
Lord, the Lord God. Salvation then is first and foremost
that which is designed for divine praise. The end of God, that
is the goal, the purpose, the aim, the object of God in predestination,
in election, in adoption, in redemption, in justification,
in forgiveness, in the call of the Spirit, the object of God
in this whole thing called salvation is the praise of the glory of
His grace. He says it three times in this
first chapter of Ephesians. He says it three times over.
I did this now to praise my name, to give praise to me. That means
that it is God's purpose that we should be to the praise of
His glory. That His glory might be revealed
in us. That He might cause us by His
grace to see His glory in His salvation. That the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ
might shine unto us. These things are that we should
be to the praise of the glory of His grace in this sense as
well. that His glory might be revealed in and displayed in
us in the ultimate end of all things. He says in Ephesians
2, 7 that God's grace is for this purpose. That grace that
we've experienced that He might show forth in us to wandering
worlds the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness in
Christ Jesus. The purpose of God is that we
should ascribe all praise, all honor, all glory to Him alone
for the whole of our salvation so that we never look at any
aspect of God's salvation and say, now that depended on me.
That was determined by me. If the Lord God should take this
sinner and lift me from the gates of hell, and bring me all the
way up to the gates of glory and just leave it for me to step
across the threshold, I'd fall back into hell. And the same
is true of you. This salvation ascribes everything
to Him and to Him alone. All the blessings of grace are
things for which we give thanks to God. We are to order our lives
by the gospel so that we may glorify the triune God in all
things to the praise of His glory. so that we might also do everything
and behave in all aspects of our lives, so that in all decisions,
in all our works, in all our aspirations, in all our desires,
let us ask God to give us grace that we may have an eye to his
glory. I have people everywhere, from
all over the country. They call a writer when I'm traveling,
come up and ask me, how do I know the will of God? I want to tell
you exactly how you can know it. I'll tell you exactly how
you can know what God's will is for you in any decision you
make. Seek His glory. Seek His glory. And I promise
you, if truly you seek His glory, He will direct your steps in
such a way as to cause you to give glory to Him. Him that honoreth
me, I will honor. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart, and lean not into your own understanding, in all your
ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. That's His promise. All right,
secondly, your salvation, child of God, is a salvation based
upon a divine trust. that we should be to the praise
of His glory who first trusted in Christ. Now that deserves
much more time than I can spend on it this evening, but I want
you to be careful in noticing the language that is used here.
The Holy Spirit here informs us of God the Father trusting
His Son as our mediator, our surety, our substitute, our Redeemer,
our Good Shepherd, our Savior, long before ever we came to know
Him or to trust Him. This trust is a covenant trust. It is a trust between the Father
and the Son in the covenant of grace before the world began.
The Lord God committed to His Son the saving of our souls and
trusted Him as our mediator to bring us into glory. And when
Christ has finished the very last thing that He's purposed
to do in time, He will bring all His ransomed, all His saved,
all His called children before the Father and say, Lo, I and
the children whom Thou hast given Me, none of them is lost. The
Father trusted His Son. Now, I stress that, and Paul
stresses it here, I'm certain, to encourage you and me to trust
His Son. If God the Father has given His
elect into the hands of Christ, the Good Shepherd, and completely
trusts His darling Son to save His sheep according to His purpose
and His will, surely little peanut folks like us can trust Him.
He first trusted in Christ. Turn to John chapter 6. Let me
show you. John chapter 6. Verse 37. All that the Father giveth me. Now we've looked at this a number
of times, present tense. The Gospel is preached, the Word
goes out in the power of the Spirit, and the Father gives
chosen redeemed sinners to His Son, in effect, shall call Him.
Oh may He give some tonight. And if He does, every one of
them, shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. Preacher, you think he'll receive
me? Come to him, I guarantee you he will. For I came down
from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that
sent me. That is, I'm here on a mission.
I'm here with a commission. I'm here to do the will of my
father, who trusted me to do his will. And this is my father's
will. This is what God's doing in this
world. which hath sent me, that of all
which he, look at it now, hath given me. That's past tense. That's talking about something
that was done in eternity. The Father said, all right, I'll
trust you. Take them. I put them in your
hands. All which he hath given me, I
should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day.
Thirdly, the Apostle Paul tells us here that your salvation,
is a salvation obtained and enjoyed by a divine gift, in whom you
also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation. Now notice here that the object
of all true saving faith is a whom, not a what. Doctrinal instruction
is not sufficient. Doctrinal understanding is not
sufficient. That is not saving faith. Brother
Mahan has said it hundreds and hundreds of times. I've heard
him say it for all the years I've known him. I suspect I've
heard him say it every time I've heard him preach in a conference
at some time during the week or in a meeting at some time
during the week. He said, you don't come to Christ through
doctrine. You come to doctrine through
Christ. And what he means by that, I'm certain, is just this.
There is no proper understanding of doctrine apart from faith
in Christ. And it is not the doctrine that
we come to believe, but Christ whom we believe, and it is He
whom we believe who gives us light and understanding and proper
doctrine. So the apostle speaks here and
says, in whom you also trust it. Now how is it that we came
to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? First the Apostle says, we heard
the word of truth. The gospel of the grace of God
is here described as the word of truth. If you have a concordance
and you want to look it up at home, you will see that more
correctly it should be translated and read the word of the truth. because the gospel of Christ
is the truth. It is the truth of the living
God, who is the origin of all truth. It speaks of Christ, who
is the truth. It is revealed by the Holy Spirit,
who is the spirit of truth, and leads and guides and instructs
us in all truth. It is the word of truth, by which
the Spirit of God sets sinners free. The Lord said, you shall
know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. the truth
of God's free grace through the blood atonement of the Lord Jesus
Christ and righteousness imputed only by his obedience and by
his grace. And then the apostle says the
word of truth which we heard not only by word of mouth but
also by the power of God the Holy Spirit is the gospel of
your salvation. Now wait a minute. Are you saying
preacher that in order for a sinner to be saved and to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, he must first hear that he's been saved. No, I wouldn't say that for anything,
but I believe that's exactly what God says right here. That's
just exactly what he says. Before a person can experience
salvation, He must have God the Holy Spirit come and bring to
light the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,
revealing to him that Christ has saved him. And so the Spirit
comes. And as he turns your eyes to
look to Christ, you look away to the Son of God and he says,
your sins are all washed away. You're forgiven all your transgressions. Exactly right. That's called
the blood sprinkled on your heart. The Lord told the prophet, he
said, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Declare unto Jerusalem
that her warfare is finished. That she has received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. In other words, declare
the work is already done. Jesus Christ did not come here
to offer salvation. He came here to obtain salvation. And the Spirit of God comes and
proclaims it. to whom He will according as
the purpose of God and the blood of Christ dictate. Let me show
you. 2 Timothy 1, verse 9. You're familiar with this text.
God saved us and called us with an 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. Well,
that sounds like the works were finished from the foundation
of the world. That's what Paul said in Hebrews. But now, But
now, but now is made manifest by the appearing of our Savior
Jesus Christ. Not the appearing of Christ in
the flesh. That took place long before this.
But by the appearing of Christ through the Word and by the power
and revelation of the Spirit. By the appearing of Jesus Christ
who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the Gospel. This is what he says. We believed
after we heard the word of the truth, the gospel, the good news
that God saved us, spoken plainly in our own hearts. We read these,
or read about these how-to books. I recommend you don't read them.
I despise them, especially with regard to spiritual things. How
to be, how to do, forget all that nonsense. The spirit of
God comes and quickens whom he will. And when he does, he speaks
peace to your heart, causing you to look to Christ. And as
you look to Christ, you have peace of blood redemption, and
blood forgiveness, and grace bestowed. Then the scripture
says here that our salvation is a salvation secured by a divine
seal. In whom also after that he believed
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Now this sealing
work of the Spirit is mentioned after the experience of faith
because our salvation is attested to and revealed only after we
believe. In other words, no man or woman
knows whether he was chosen of God, redeemed by Christ, and
called by the Spirit until he believes. But as surely as you
believe, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise and
given this assurance. We have a salvation that is a
salvation assured by a divine pledge, sealed by the Holy Spirit
of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the
redemption of the purchased possession. He says now, when the Lord God
saved you, He sends His Spirit, He gives you faith, He seals
you by His grace and He gives you His Spirit to tell you you're
His, assuring you. that here He is, the earnest
of the Spirit, until the redemption of the purchased possession,
that is, until the resurrection of these bodies, when we shall
at last have the culmination of the redeeming work of Christ.
He redeemed us with His blood. He redeemed us with His power
and regeneration. And He is one day going to redeem
these bodies from corruption in the grave and present us holy
and unblameable before God Almighty without sin. and without sorrow
forever. That's your salvation. With this
great salvation, we have the promise, you shall not be ashamed,
nor confounded, world without end. Amen. That's your salvation,
child of God.