I rejoice in the many 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. 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 going to take a few minutes to work my way to my
text for this evening. But let's look at Hebrews chapter
2 in verse 3 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 scroll 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 everlasting
salvation, and that obviously is not so. Esau was not saved
with everlasting salvation. Judas was not saved with everlasting
salvation. The sons of Korah were not saved
with 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. 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
in 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 in 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 I 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 it in a little
older car, got a few miles on it, but it's mine. I can get
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, brought 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 and 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. You're salvage. You're salvage. 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 saved. 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. If 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 and compassion, humility and faithfulness and
meekness and 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 vigilant.
holding a little candle out, marching down an aisle of a darkened
church, saying, this little light of mine, I was gonna 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 in 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,
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 got to work at it all
the time. We got to 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. 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 Pontcher,
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 and 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,
they'll come up and ask me, how do I know the will of God? I
won't tell you. Exactly how you know Exactly
how you 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. 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 ransom, 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
trust 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 six. Let
me show you. John chapter six. verse 37 all the father give it me now
we've looked at this a number of times present tense the gospel
is preached word goes out of the power of the Spirit and the
father gives chosen redeemed sinners to his son in effect
you'll call it all 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
hand. 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 kind
of thing, but I believe that's exactly what God says right here.
That's just exactly what he said. 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
blood sprinkled on your heart. The Lord told the prophet, he
said, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Declare into Jerusalem
that her warfare is finished that she has received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sin 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 2nd 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 believe
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 who he is. 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 you believe
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of prophecy. 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
saves you, He sends His Spirit, He gives you faith, He seals
you by His grace and He gives you His Spirit to tell you your
ends, assuring you. that you're his, the earnest
in 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, the world without end. Amen. That's your salvation,
child of God.