Salvation And Knowledge of It pt.1

Q: What does the Bible say about salvation?

The Bible emphasizes that salvation is a completed work accomplished by Jesus Christ, not dependent on human merit. The Bible presents salvation as an accomplished fact through Jesus Christ, who stated, 'It is finished' on the cross (John 19:30). This signifies that all the necessary work for our redemption is complete and cannot be supplemented by human effort. For instance, in Ephesians 2:8-9, we learn that we are saved by grace through faith, not by works, ensuring that no one can boast in their own efforts. Salvation is a divine project initiated by God, fulfilled through Christ, and applied by the Holy Spirit to those who believe.

Q: How do we know if we are saved?

Assurance of salvation comes from faith in Jesus Christ and the witness of the Holy Spirit. The assurance of salvation is found in the believer's relationship with Christ. 1 John 5:11-13 emphasizes that eternal life is in His Son and that we can know we have eternal life through our faith in Him. John states that assurance is not based on our feelings or actions but on the objective work of Christ. When you trust in Jesus alone for salvation and recognize Him as your Savior, the Holy Spirit assures you of your salvation by giving you peace and understanding of God's promises (Romans 8:16).

Q: Why is understanding salvation important for Christians?

Understanding salvation reinforces our faith and equips us to spread the gospel. A clear understanding of salvation is vital for every Christian as it lays the foundation for our faith and witness. The knowledge of salvation allows us to have a confident assurance in Christ, grounding our identity and hope in Him (2 Peter 3:12). It enables us to navigate the complexities of life without succumbing to despair or false teachings. Moreover, the more we understand salvation's depth, rooted in grace and the complete work of Christ, the more effectively we can share this message of hope and redemption with others, fulfilling our call to be ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20).

Q: What does the remission of sins mean?

Remission of sins refers to the forgiveness and removal of our sins through Christ's sacrifice. The remission of sins is central to the message of salvation as proclaimed in Luke 1:77, which states that John the Baptist would give knowledge of salvation to His people through the remission of their sins. This concept implies that our sins are not only forgiven but also covered and removed by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 9:22). When we believe in Christ, our transgressions are cast away, and we are granted a clean conscience, allowing us to approach God with confidence (Hebrews 10:22). The assurance of this remission is what brings peace to the believer's heart and enables them to serve God without fear.

Q: Is salvation a work of human effort?

No, salvation is entirely the work of God from beginning to end. Salvation is exclusively a divine work, as the Bible makes clear that it does not depend on human efforts or merits (Titus 3:5). It is God who initiates, accomplishes, and applies salvation to those He has chosen. This is affirmed in Philippians 1:6, which states that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. The grace of God is what saves us, not any of our actions or decisions, ensuring that all glory goes to Him alone (Ephesians 2:9). Thus, Christians are encouraged to rest fully in the finished work of Christ rather than striving to earn their place in salvation.

Now I invite you this morning,
if you have a copy of the word of God with you, to turn with
me to the book of Luke chapter one, the gospel of Saint Luke
chapter one. I'd like to read beginning with
verse 67 and read down through the 79th verse. Luke chapter
one, beginning with verse 67. And his father, that is, the
father of John the Baptist, Zacharias, was filled with the Holy Ghost
and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for
he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up
an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. as he spake by the mouth of his
holy prophets, which have been since the world began, that we
should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all them
or all that hate us. to perform the mercy promised
to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which
he swore to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us that
we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve
him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him
all the days of our life. And thou, child, shalt be called
the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face
of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation
unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender
mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high hath
visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness, and
in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. I like what the father of John
the Baptist had to say as he prophesied in the spirit. He was in the Spirit, the Holy
Spirit had come upon him and he had some great things to say.
And in verse 77, I want to take this for our text today, to give
knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their
sins. I want to speak this morning
on salvation and the knowledge of it. Salvation and the knowledge
of it. I do hope that the Lord has given
you a place this morning in your heart that is tender, and it's
tender toward His Word. Beloved, we're living in a day
when we need to be more aware than ever before that the Word
of God is our rule of faith and practice. And whenever we leave
the Word of God, as many have, they have nothing, they have
no compass, they have no chart, they have nothing to look to
for leadership and guidance in this world of sin and woe. And we know that many are struggling
because we have heard this week of some who, in their confusion,
utter confusion, because of their lack of knowledge of the Word
of God, have committed suicide, thinking that they could go to
heaven, meeting a spaceship behind a comet out in the air, and they
would go to heaven in that way. Well, beloved, we know that when
you leave the Word of God and the teaching of the Word of God,
then you're on your own. You're on your own. You have
nothing to fall back on. You have nothing to depend upon.
Nothing that's sure. And when one is left to his own
mind, my friend, he's bound to end up in a terrible way. And I say to you this morning,
let's come back to the authority of the word of God. If you want
to know how God saves sinners, then look to this book. Look
to this word. Begin to pray and seek the face
of God. Read the word of God. Listen
to it preached. And you'll find out about God's
salvation. You'll come to a knowledge of
it if you'll look to this book. We believe that the Bible, that
it is the inspired word of God. And we believe that every word
of it is profitable for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
and that this book will give you a knowledge of God's salvation. Now, beloved, what a blessed,
blessed word this word salvation is. It is indeed a blessed word. Now, God's servants are not sent
into this world to save anybody. I'm not here this morning to
save you. I've heard of some who spoke of their preacher and
said that our preacher saved so-and-so. He saved this one
and that one. But beloved, those that are true
preachers sent of God are not here in this world to save anybody. We're not here this morning necessarily
to persuade you to do something that you don't want to do. There
are many who give high-powered invitations and try to persuade
men and women to get up, to walk the aisle, to come into a prayer
room, or to come to the front and kneel down at a bench, an
old-fashioned altar they call it, and get saved. But beloved,
we're not here to persuade you to do anything. this morning
as far as anything yourself. We're not here to get you to
make a contribution toward your own salvation. That's not our
business here in this place. We're not here, as the saying
is, to get people saved. The God of the Bible does indeed
save sinners. He is able to save. We couldn't
give an ant life, but God can give you spiritual life. He can
save you. He can raise up your soul and
give you life in your soul. He can make you live before Him. Now the text says to give knowledge
of salvation. John the Baptist was to go out
and to give knowledge of salvation through the remission of sin.
Now we do not preach to you a possibility of salvation. I want you to know
that. Now if these people over in California had of known what
I'm preaching to you this morning, they would still be among the
living. But they do not, they did not
know what we're preaching to you this morning. I want you
to listen carefully to what I'm saying. We want to give the knowledge
of salvation. We do not preach a possibility
of salvation only, but we preach the fact of it. The fact of it,
there is salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not tell
you how salvation may be accomplished, but how that it has been accomplished. I want to tell you this morning
that we're not working on salvation. We're not working on salvation.
I'm not working on it. And I want to go further than
that and tell you this morning that the God of the Bible is
no longer working on salvation himself. Salvation is an accomplished
fact. It is an accomplished fact. There
is salvation, and that salvation has been bought by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, beloved, when Jesus said
it's finished on the cross, what he meant by that was that all
of the work necessary to save a poor sinner and to deliver
a poor sinner out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of God's dear Son has been accomplished. He said it's finished. Somebody
says there's something more I must do. I last week listened to some
members of different cults that the media was interrogating in
regards to why it was that these people had committed suicide
in California. And different ones told their
various ideas about how that it was necessary to live and
to conduct oneself in order to be saved. And one would say it's
necessary to do this, necessary to do that. If it's necessary,
it's necessary for one to commit suicide, then we must do that. Whatever we must do. If we must
become a eunuch, then we'll become a eunuch. Whatever we must do
in order to be saved, we'll do it. You know, the Lord Jesus
said, did we hear him? Did we hear him when he spoke
from the cross? Did we hear Him when He was under
suffering the wrath of God in the place, in the room instead,
in place of sinners? When He bore that agony on the
cross, did we hear Him say, it's finished? That's what the Word
of God says, it's finished. I'm not talking to you about
a possibility of salvation. I'm talking to you about an accomplished
salvation. Jesus bought and paid for our
salvation. Now all the watchmen of Zion,
John the Baptist, and all those God called preachers that are
in this world, they see eye to eye in this matter. They all
lift up their voices together as one and they publish salvation. Now the verses that our brother
read to us, out of Isaiah 52 this morning. I want you to turn
back there quickly, if you will, and let me read verse seven and
verse eight, and you'll see the very thing that I just mentioned. He says, how beautiful upon the
mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings. Now,
beloved, if a man gets up and talks to you about a salvation
that you must work out, that you must earn yourself, a salvation
that you must purchase by and through your own merits and works,
then that man is not telling you anything that's good. He's
not giving you good tidings. He says how beautiful upon the
mountains are the feet of him that's got something to say that
is good, that's real, that is practical, that is helpful to
a poor sinner. A sinner who's not able to save
himself. A sinner who's got a nature that is contrary to God. A sinner
who's got a heart that is full of enmity against a thrice holy
God. Something to help that sinner
where he is in the condition that he is in. This man is bearing
good tidings. He publishes peace. He's saying
that peace has been made between sinful man and a holy God. That
that peace has been made not by your works or mine, but that
peace has been made by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ being
shed. God is satisfied. He's been propitiated
through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know that
on the behalf of God's people that God has never been more
satisfied. He's satisfied with their representative,
satisfied with their Redeemer, satisfied with that one that
is their surety. that one who suffered and died
in their room and place. Now, that bringeth good tidings
of good. Now, beloved, that's wonderful.
Somebody comes to me and says, now you do the best you can and
you'll be saved at last. Somebody comes, if you'll just
get down to business and just become more obedient, if you'll
quit sinning, if you'll quit spitting, chewing tobacco and
spitting, and quit going to the movie theaters, and if you'll
just do good, Then you'll at last be saved if you do the best
you can now beloved. That's not good news to me I
don't chew tobacco, and I don't spit on the sidewalk, and I don't
go to movie houses But that don't save me had nothing to do with
my salvation somebody said if you just quit drinking beer then
you can go to heaven when you die and Drinking beer has got
nothing to do with the salvation of a man's soul one way or the
other. It's got nothing to do with whether you do or whether
you don't. It's got nothing to do with the salvation of your
soul. I want to say that bringeth good
tidings of good. I want to hear something that's
good, something that's real, And I don't want to hear a bunch
of this stuff about going out and picking sin off of a tree
and man telling me to quit doing this and start doing that. I
want to hear something about this accomplished salvation. Something that's finished. Something
that's been done on my behalf. something that somebody else
has undertaken to do in my place in my room and in my stead and
Beloved the Lord Jesus has done that I'm talking about salvation
not the possibility of it But up the fact of it Christ has
died to save sinners that publishes Salvation. That goes out and
says there is salvation to be had. Salvation is accomplished
and Jesus accomplished. That saith, undesigned by God
reigneth. God's in control of this business.
Salvation is of the Lord from the beginning to the end. Salvation
is not something that's in our hands. Salvation is not a human
project. Salvation is a divine project. God Almighty is in control of
this business of salvation. Now, beloved, what is this salvation
that God has commanded His servants to go out and with their voices
and seeing eye to eye are to proclaim? You know, it's tremendous
when we find men and women that are of the same mind. And whenever
we see people, and in our visiting with one another, we see people
that are eye to eye, that have the same view of these things
as we do. And God's servants, God's true
servants in the world, now you say what you want to about it,
They see eye to eye on this business that salvation is an accomplished
fact, that I'm publishing salvation this morning, that God has sent
his son and that his son accomplished what he came into the world to
do. Now, salvation is that vast, indescribable, glorious thing
that was accomplished by the Son of God as the sinner's substitute. It's the deliverance of our souls
from all our enemies. Now, what is the enemy of our
soul? Well, sin is the enemy of our
soul. sin, the darkest day in human
history, when Adam fell in the garden when he sinned, when Adam
forfeited our righteousness and forfeited the family jewels when
he fell in the Garden of Eden, and we were born sinners in this
world. Sin and death was passed upon
us because when Adam did what he did, we did too. And we were
all born sinners in this world, and we were all born lost and
in need of a Savior. But the Lord Jesus, His salvation
delivered us from our enemies, from sin, from death, and then
hell and the grave. Do you think that hell is not
your enemy? Hell is indeed your enemy. Hell
is open wide to receive your soul. And if you do not escape
the wrath of God to come by fleeing to the Lord Jesus Christ, hell
is one day going to close. The great iron gates of hell
will close on your soul and you'll be forever eternally lost. There is only one way to escape
hellfire, and that's by fleeing to God's provision, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and believing on Him, trusting in the Lord Jesus
Christ, trusting that one whom God sent, that one whom God has
provided in order to give us deliverance from hell. All right? You know, and this enemy of death,
The Lord Jesus has delivered us from that. Oh, it is true
that the day will come when we will die if Jesus doesn't come
back first. And I've often said I'm not really
looking for a hole in the ground, I'm looking for one in the sky.
I believe that Jesus is coming back for his people. But I don't
plan to, my body's not leaving this earth, I'm not going out
of here in a spacecraft, I'm not doing that. the Lord Jesus
will come back for his people. And when he does, the Bible says
the dead in Christ are gonna be raised. Now, when we bury
a Christian, when we bury somebody that's a believer, we bury them
in certain and sure hope of the resurrection from the dead. Now,
the reason we've been delivered from the grave is we're in Christ. Christ was raised up out of that
borrowed tomb. He was buried, you know, in the
tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. And God raised him up. He was
raised up. And the Lord Jesus has passed
through the tomb. All of us will pass through.
And if we're believers in Christ, if we're trusting Christ, if
he's our all in all, Then, beloved, we'll come out of the other side
of that tomb one day. The Lord Jesus is going to come
back, and the Bible says the dead in Christ will be raised
out of their grave, and then we which are alive and remain
will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and
we'll have a glorified body, a body just like the body of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and we'll go off yonder to be with the
Lord forever and ever. We believe that. We're going
to be delivered for our enemies, and that's what this salvation
is all about. It's talking about being delivered
from the enemies of our soul, and the enemy, which is sin,
death, and hell and the grave. Now, beloved, this deliverance
is one that is full and it's one that is perfect. The Bible
talks about it as being the glorious liberty of the sons of God, not
one that is a partial deliverance, but it's a glorious deliverance
by His sovereign grace. Now salvation includes all that
God has done for us, all that He is doing in us, and all that
He shall do with us in Christ by His almighty grace. Salvation is the work of God
from the beginning to the end. Since tis thy work alone, the
poet said, and that divinely free, come, Holy Spirit, and
make known the power of faith in me. I want to believe the
truth of God. I want to believe what the Bible
teaches. Now then, when our Lord Jesus
Christ entered into heaven, The Lord Jesus, when He died, He
was buried, He rose again, He entered into heaven, and He took
His blood, and the Bible says He obtained eternal redemption
for us, and He took His blood, and He put it on the mercy seat.
And now God is free to have mercy on every sinner that looks to
Him in faith. He obtained by His merit and
virtue, and the merit and virtue of His own precious blood, all
that is involved in the deliverance of our souls into His heavenly
kingdom in perfect righteousness. And that brings me to say that
this salvation is indeed God's work alone. It was planned and
purposed by God the Father. It has been purchased and obtained
by God the Son. It is effectually executed and
applied to the hearts of chosen sinners by God the Holy Spirit. This is God's work, my friend.
from the beginning to the end. And you say, are you sure I don't
have some part in that? Tell me truthfully this morning,
honestly, what part could you have in the salvation of your
soul? It may be that you may have a
high opinion of yourself. It may be that you may feel that
maybe you're able to make a contribution. But my friend, let me tell you,
let me hasten to tell you that God demands absolute, total perfection. And there's none here in a position
to render unto God absolute, total perfection before His holy
law. If there's anybody here who can
keep the law of God perfectly, then you can say, I can make
a contribution. But if you can't keep it perfectly,
you're guilty of all of it, And you'll go to hell, my friend,
unless you have a substitute, unless you have one that stands
between you and God as a mediator and one that will answer to God
for you and then lift you up and and receive you Himself into
His bosom, and take you into glory Himself. Now salvation,
then, is God's work alone. It does not, in any measure or
any degree, depend... No, it doesn't. Now somebody
says, Preacher, you make me nervous when you say it don't depend
on us. My friend, I'll tell you something. Somebody says, well,
I've got an awful problem, Preacher. You know, I just can't turn loose. I'm like a drowning man and I'm
trying to swim to shore. I'm trying to do something, preacher. And you say it does not depend
upon us. It is not in any measure or to
any degree determined by us. Salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. It's His work.
Now while all three persons in the Holy Trinity are united in
the affair of salvation, I want you to understand something that
the God, the triune God, has devised a plan and a purpose
and a method of salvation that was designed to give all the
glory and honor and preeminence to the God-man, to the mediator,
the one mediator between God and man, our most glorious Lord
Jesus Christ. And we make much of him. I said
earlier that we celebrate his resurrection the first day of
every week. We preach Him here in this place. He is our message. Christ is
our message. Now, beloved, it's a wonderful
message because we have no way of pleasing God, satisfying God
ourself. But our substitute has. He's
perfect. He's perfect and it's wonderful
to be in Him. Now, beloved, in the purpose
of God, then, in all things, Christ is to have the preeminence. So when we're talking about an
accomplished salvation, it is right that we should look, as
the psalmist said in Psalm 25 and 1, unto thee, O Lord, do
I lift up my soul. I lift up my soul to thee, because
my hope is not in myself. My hope is in thee. Now the burden
and the responsibility of the work of salvation was laid upon
the back of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want you to understand
what I'm saying here. The burden and the responsibility
was laid upon Him. He agreed to it. He said, Father,
whatever they owe I'll pay. He said, Father, I'll represent
them. I'm going to live a perfect life.
And then, Father, that life will be their life. And what the Lord
Jesus Christ did, you know, the Holy Spirit prepared Him a body
in the womb of the Virgin Mary. And the Lord Jesus grew up in
that body. And He lived a perfect life in
that body. And you know that was on the
behalf of His people that He lived that life? He lived that
life that the Father might accredit that life to His people. Somebody said, well, you've got
to be righteous to go to heaven. Amen. That is right. But beloved,
that righteousness is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. and you cannot go on your own,
but he gives us a perfect righteousness through faith. And that righteousness
God honors, God accepts. And that's what I want to say
when I'm saying that the burden and the responsibility of the
work of salvation was laid upon the back of our representative
and he accomplished it. Now beloved, either he did what
he came to do or He was a fake. He was an imposter. He was a charlatan. Now then,
do you believe that Jesus did what he came to do? Well, I believe
he did what he came to do. I believe that he, sure enough,
indeed. You know, they called his name
Jesus, and Matthew 1 and 21 says it's because he will save his
people from their sin. So you see, the Lord Jesus accomplished
what he came to do. And if he did not, then he's
the biggest liar that ever walked the face of this earth. He said,
it is finished. He said, I'm the resurrection
and the life. He said, he that believeth on
me shall never perish, but shall have everlasting life. There's
no middle ground. This is the teaching of the Word
of God that the Lord Jesus did indeed. that salvation is accomplished
by Christ. Now then, let's hurry on here
this morning. This salvation holds right now,
I want to say it's not something that is mystical in the sense
that somebody says, well, I don't know whether you can be sure
that you have it or not. This salvation is something that
we can be absolutely certain of. It is a salvation that is
not something that is that we have to live out our days and
not know we have it. Salvation and the knowledge of
it. Now, here John the Baptist was
to go out, give the knowledge of salvation, and it was unto
the people of God through the remission of their sin. Now,
the Holy Spirit here declares that God's salvation is something
that His people, God's people, are caused to know in this world. Now, some people say, I don't
believe you can know that you're saved until you die. Now, beloved,
that's entirely too long to wait. You see, because we must stand
before God. We must stand before a God of
inflexible justice. And we must give an account before
God. And so we better know whether
or not we are saved before we leave this world. Now, I know
that people don't like to be asked searching questions But
are you, do you know this morning that you are saved? Do you have
assurance? Now, I know that there are many
who struggle with this business of assurance. No doubt some who
are here today are struggling with this business of knowing.
whether or not they have God's salvation or not, whether God
has in Christ fully met all the demands that he himself has made
of you. Some people just say, I just
don't know whether it's true or not, whether he saved me or
whether or not. Now there are some here who will
tell you that whether they're a child of God or not, they just
simply do not know. I've met with a number of those
kind of people in my travels in this world, but I would do
nothing this morning to lead somebody who is not a Christian
to believe they are. And I would do nothing to discourage
the weaker brethren and sisters that are in this building. But
I do want you to understand that the Word of God speaks about
a salvation that God himself makes known to his people. It speaks about a salvation,
a no-soul salvation. It talks about a salvation that
a man or woman, boy or girl, can know that they have, and
this knowledge is imparted through the preaching of the gospel.
Now then, I want you to turn, if you have your Bible, to 1
John. Turn to 1 John, chapter 5. First John chapter 5, and
I want to read here beginning with verse 11 through verse 13,
and then we'll skip down to verse 20. Verse 11 says, and this is
the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this
life is in His Son. This life is not in what you
start or what you quit, but this life is in a person. This life
is in a person. This life, eternal life, is had
through a union with a living person. He that hath the Son
hath life. Now that's simple, isn't it?
It means that you've got to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. It must be said that you have
the Son. Now listen to what it says, and
he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Don't have it
unless you have Christ. Now the only way to have Him,
listen to verse 13, these things have I written unto you that
believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that
you have eternal life. That you may know that you have
eternal life. I've written these things, John
said. This is the purpose of the writing of this letter. Is
that you may know that you haven't. That you have eternal life and
that you may believe. on the name of the Son of God. That you can just keep on believing
on the name of the Son of God. Now beloved, let me say this
to you this morning, that if you're struggling with this matter
of assurance, if you don't know whether you're saved or not,
the problem is one of two things. Either you're not saved, or you're
looking in the wrong place for your assurance. You're looking
in the wrong place for your assurance. Assurance is not found in ourselves,
but it's found in Christ. That's where it's found. It's
found in the Lord Jesus. We're saved by a life we did
not live, and we're saved by a death we did not die. Christ
did the living, He did the doing, and He did the dying. A salvation
is an assurance of it is by looking away from ourself and looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. My assurance before God is not
based upon what I think or what I feel or what I do. It's not even based upon what
I've experienced. My assurance is my Savior. My assurance is Christ. How could
we ever be His witnesses if we cannot determine whether we even
know Him or not? Now look at verse 20, 1 John
chapter 5, and we know. Remember now what verse 13 said,
that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may
believe on the name of the Son of God. And we know in verse
20 that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding
that we may know him that is true and we're in him that is
true even in his son Jesus Christ this is the true God and eternal
life now then my friend this morning you see clearly here
how that this is a salvation that God makes known unto his
people it's a salvage not that God hides from anybody and says
you can't know it until you die. I'm going to keep you in a state
of confusion until you die. We know that the Son of God is
come and has given us an understanding. We know that He's come and that
we may know Him that is true. He came that we might know Him
that is true and we're in Him that is true even in His Son
Jesus Christ. Now beloved in order that we
might be able to appreciate this. Let me say a couple things more
here about this assurance. Now, I said, how are we going
to be his witnesses? You know, the Bible teaches that
God's people are Jehovah's Witnesses, not the Jehovah's Witnesses of
the cult, but we're His Witnesses in this world, testifying of
the grace of God wherever we go. We're out here preaching
the gospel to every creature. But Peter, over in the book of
2 Peter chapter 3 in verse 12, he talks about us looking for
that blessed day coming when the Lord is going to come and
when he's going to judge the world in righteousness and how
he's given us a promise of a new heaven and a new earth. My friend,
how could any mortal, any sinful man or woman anxiously await
that great and terrible day of judgment if he does not know
that God's salvation is his? How could we do that? We could
not do that. We would be so under such a terrible,
terrible... We'd be in such a terrible, terrible
state of doubt and confusion looking and knowing that the
end of all things is at hand, knowing that the judgment of
God is coming. And there are many predictions
out in the world that there will be a lot of suicides between
now and the year 2000. Many, many people are under great
stress and great strain in this world. Many people are looking
for answers, looking to find the way. And beloved, I'm telling
you here this morning, that the only way that we can look forward
to the coming of the end and the coming of the day of the
Lord is for us to have this matter of our salvation settled and
to know that it's an accomplished fact that Jesus has answered
to God for us and that it is accomplished already. Now Paul
in the book of Titus chapter 2 verse 13 he spoke of that glorious
appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. That
glorious appearing. But how can it be called a blessed
hope and a glorious appearing by people who do not have an
assurance before God that they belong to Him? How can it be?
Well, only the Lord's people can look forward and have this
blessed assurance. Now this knowledge of salvation
accomplished by Christ is imparted to the chosen, to the redeemed
of the Lord by the supernatural work of God the Holy Spirit in
regeneration and conversion through the knowledge of their sins being
remitted. That's what the text said, through
the remission of their sins. Now we believe that when Jesus
died he shed his blood and that through the blood of the Lord
Jesus our sins are put away, they're covered by his blood. The Bible says without the remission,
without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Now what does it mean to have
one's sins remitted? It means that they're released
from them, and it means that they're dismissed. It means that
they're covered. That's what David said in Psalm
32 when he said, Blessed is the man whose sins are covered. They are covered by the shed
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when a sinner is born again,
when a sinner believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Spirit
comes and convinces that sinner of his sin, And then he convinces
that sinner of the righteousness, not his, but Christ's righteousness,
and of the judgment, God's judgment to come. And then he gives that
sinner faith in Christ, and he applies the blood to that sinner's
conscience. And that sinner then has peace
in his heart. He speaks peace to the heart.
He speaks peace to the inner conscience. and he gives that
sinner forgiveness. He blocks out. He casts behind
his back, God's back, his sin. His sin is cast back and it's
never remembered against him anymore. His sins are put away
and his conscience is purged from dead works so that he might
serve the living God. So he can serve God with a clear
conscience. This knowledge of salvation by
the remission of our sins should be in every believing heart a
fixed, unwavering, assured fact of life in Christ. Indeed, just
to the degree that we trust Christ alone, having no confidence in
the flesh, it is an assured fact. It is indeed an assured fact,
and we live upon Christ and the fact of His work, just like a
man would live on a piece of property that is rightfully his,
that he rightfully owns. Now get what I'm saying here,
that if a man is trusting Christ, and Christ alone, and he has
no confidence in his flesh, he has no confidence in anything
else but in Christ, then he can live on that and be just as settled
spiritually as a man would be if he went out here and bought
him a piece of property, had him a house on it, and his outbuildings,
and he moved in, and he was comfortable there, he lived on that property,
it belonged to him. Now, beloved, we're changing,
all of us, we change every day. But the Lord Jesus Christ, He
never changes. And what He did is a fact. And
you need to believe it. and when you do believe it with
all of your heart and rest yourself in him you will have the knowledge
of your salvation and you'll know that God has indeed provided
for your soul and that you have eternal life now that's salvation
and the knowledge of it and so nobody around here I hope will
keep on working trying to get saved Jesus does the saving. He did the work. It's His work
from the beginning to the end. He accomplished it. Don't you
in any way, don't you in any way believe a doctrine, entertain
a thought that would in any way bring a reproach on your Savior
or cast a bad light on the work of the Redeemer. Don't you go
out of here saying, I'm just going to keep on working and
trying to save myself. Don't you do that. Don't you
do that. That's a smack in the face to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Savior. Believe in Him. Trust Him. Depend
upon Him. And He'll save you. He'll save
you. Forsake all other confidences
and all other trust. Say, well I was raised this way
and I was raised maybe this one was raised that way and another
one was raised another way and I've been taught different. Well,
you know what we said earlier? We said that when you leave this
book, when you leave this book, you're at the mercy of whatever
heresy that comes along. Every wind of doctrine that blows,
you're at the mercy of that. Come back to this book. You say,
Preacher, I don't know whether you're telling us the truth.
Read the book. Read the book. Study the book.
Meditate on the Word of God and ask God to give you light and
to give you understanding of His salvation. But you'll remember
this statement, and that is that salvation is not a human project. Salvation is a divine project. It's God's work from the beginning
to the end. And wherever that puts you, wherever
that puts me, it'll just have to put us there. But that's the
truth. That's the gospel truth. I'm publishing salvation this
morning. May you receive it in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we ask that you will
bless this message and use it to thy glory. May some poor sinner
here today find hope, take hope, and trust Christ with all their
hearts. We beg it in Jesus' name and
for his sake. Amen.

Salvation And Knowledge of It pt.1

What does the Bible say about salvation?

How do we know if we are saved?

Why is understanding salvation important for Christians?

What does the remission of sins mean?

Is salvation a work of human effort?

Sermon Transcript

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Salvation And Knowledge of It pt.1

What does the Bible say about salvation?

How do we know if we are saved?

Why is understanding salvation important for Christians?

What does the remission of sins mean?

Is salvation a work of human effort?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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