I want to read this morning verse
21, a very familiar verse of scripture. I felt it necessary
today to preach a message, very simple, very simple message,
one that I think will glorify God and one that will exalt the
Lord Jesus Christ. I do hope, knowing that our God
is a gracious and loving God, a God of providence and a God
of mercy, I do hope today that we'll be able to look to Him
and our attention will be given to Him and to His Word. we read here in verse 21 of Matthew
chapter 1 where it says and she shall bring forth a son that
is Mary shall bring forth a son and thou shall call his name
Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins for he shall
save his people from their sins. What a glorious verse of scripture. What a tremendous truth is set
forth for our edification this morning. I want us to look at
this verse of scripture because I think we have here a wonderful
name that is given to our Lord and that is the name of Jesus
and we want to try to expound this morning what his name means. You know, Bible names have great
meaning. Noah, if you remember, his name
means rest. And then Moses, he was drawn
out of the water. And his name was very significant. His name meant being drawn out. And he was drawn out of the water
when he was a baby. He had been put in that basket
of reeds and he was taken out. And then Isaac, his name means
laughter, because of the joy he brought to his aged parents.
You remember his parents, that they were up in years, and they
were past the time when they could bear a child. And God blessed
them, and they brought forth this child, Isaac, Abraham, and
Sarah, and you remember that it caused great joy, and that's
what his name means. His name means laughter. But
there is a name that we read about here in Matthew chapter
1 verse 21 this morning that is a name which is above every
name. We read in the book of Philippians
chapter 2 and verses 9 there and verse 10 where that He, Jesus,
has been given a name which is above every name. And then it
goes on to say that every knee should bow and every tongue should
confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
This name is a name which is above every name. Now in Isaiah
9 verse 6 it says His name shall be called Wonderful. His name
shall be called Wonderful. And all of us agree to that.
All of us agree to that, especially those of us that have an interest.
in our Redeemer, those of us that have been given an understanding
of who He is and what He came to do when He came into this
world and where He is now, seated at the right hand of God. He
is wonderful to us. Now the world does not see any
beauty in Him. We're told that in Isaiah chapter
53, and this is seen very clearly in their using of His name. in
their cursing and in their blasphemous songs and movies and etc. And so we know the world doesn't
see anything in the Lord Jesus. He's not wonderful to them. He's
not wonderful at all to them, but He is to those that believe
on Him. Now the Scripture makes much of this name that our Lord
Himself gave, the Father gave this name to His Son. And we know that Jesus was sent
down from heaven, and His name came down from heaven too. His
name was divinely given. And we know that no man knows
the Son but the Father, and the Father knows Him best, and the
Father said, Thou shalt call Him Jesus. You shall call Him
Jesus. Now the reason why His name is
Jesus is because of the work that He's been appointed and
anointed to do. And that work that He's been
appointed and anointed to do is to save His people from their
sins. Thou shall call His name Jesus. He's Savior. He's Savior. He's
a Savior and He's sent down from God and that is His work. And
the Father cannot in any way be deceived. The Father says,
I've sent Him to be the Savior. And if the Father sent Him to
be the Savior, I've named Him because His name corresponds
with His work and my purpose in His life. Surely that purpose
will be fulfilled and surely God must accept the work that
this one which He sent and divinely named is going to accomplish. The Father has named Him, said
He's Savior, and the Father will accept that people which He brings
home to glory. None of them will be turned out.
He'll bring a people home to glory with Him, and the Father
will receive them. Now, we must understand that,
you know, some people may think, well, his name was Jesus, I don't
know how he got that name. But the Father gave it to him.
The Father gave it to him. And that rejoices my heart. And it has to do with this grand
characteristic of His coming. that he came to be a substitute
for sinners. But the scripture makes much
of this name. If we read in Acts chapter 4
and verse 12, it says, neither is there salvation in any other,
for there is none other, none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. God says that there's
one name under heaven, which you must be saved. You must be
saved through that name. You must be saved through that
person that bears that name. You must be saved by that one
and his work, the work that he does on the behalf of his people. There's just one name, one name
by which we can be saved. And that is the name of the Lord
Jesus. And then in 1 Peter 2 and 7,
it says that unto those that believe, He is precious. And
is He precious to you? Do you believe on Him? Do you
believe on God's anointed, God's appointed Savior? This Savior
that will not be disappointed. This Savior that will successfully
accomplished the purpose that the Father sent Him to accomplish. We like to sing how sweet the
name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear. We like to sing that hymn
because the name of Jesus does sound sweet in our ear. Now the
name of Jesus is so sweet, I love its music to repeat. Old Bernard
said that the name of Jesus is honey in the mouth, and it's
melody in the ear, and it's joy in the heart. And we love to
sing these old hymns about our Savior that exalt Him and the
work that He came to do. The song, The Great Physician,
which tells us that this This name of Jesus is the sweetest
name on mortal tongue. There isn't any name that is
any sweeter than the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I
wish this morning that the Spirit of God would give me a tongue
to make much of this one, that I could exalt him as he ought
to be exalted, that I could exalt him as all heaven would that
he would be exalted. I would like to exalt this one
who is sweet and precious and this one who has the sweetest
name that was ever on a mortal tongue. Now, the name of Jesus
has, then, as we've already specified, a very special meaning. The Holy
Spirit has given special meaning to this name. The meaning of
this name is so important, and I want you to listen carefully
to the things we have to say. The name of Jesus relates to
His work. It relates to His work. This
work of our Lord is the saving of His people. It's salvation.
His name relates to that. Now, salvation. Salvation. That's a big word. Have you thought
much about it? And I know some of you have.
Some of you rejoice to be able to say, I'm a sinner saved. I'm
a sinner saved. I am a sinner, but I'm a sinner
saved. You know, John Newton, he wrote
that song, Amazing Grace, and I read a few statements he made
this week and rejoiced my heart. I just got happy in my soul when
I read what he had to say. He was talking about good works,
and he said, you know, it's so necessary and important. God's
people are Christ's workmanship created under good works. And
they ought to walk in good works. They've been ordained to do so.
But he said, you know, when it's all said and done, when I get
ready to die, he says, I'm not going to die as a saint. He said,
I'm going to die as a sinner. A sinner saved. I'm going to
die as a sinner. Now you can make much of what
you've become since God saved you, but beloved, the thing that's
important that we ought to look at a little bit is the fact that
God did. Sure enough, in time, at a point
in time, He arrested us and called us by irresistible grace and
regenerated our hearts, made us alive by His Spirit, and that
we stand this morning in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a
standing in Christ today and we are saved. Now I'd like to
say that salvation is man's greatest need. It's man's greatest need. It's your greatest need this
morning. Now I know I might have trouble
persuading you that you're in bad enough condition that you
need God to save you. But beloved, if you were to read
the Bible and read it carefully and if the Spirit of God was
to open your heart to what the scripture says about man in his
natural state, in his natural condition, I think you would
have to agree with me that salvation is your greatest need. Now you
may feel it's something else. You may think, I need a better
job, preacher. I need this, I need that, I need
something else. But God would say to you this
morning, your greatest need is My Son, and My Son is salvation. You can't be saved without Him,
and you cannot be saved unless you come to Him, and unless you
believe on Him and trust Him. Salvation is your greatest need.
Are you saved? Do you know that you are saved? Do you know that you have the
Lord's salvation? And then salvation, I think,
is God's greatest gift. He gave His Son. He gave His
Son. Here in His love, not that we
love God, but that God loved us and gave His Son to be a satisfaction
for our sin. A few weeks ago, I was having
a few words with Brother Chris here before he left the building
on Sunday morning. And I talked to him about God
being the great giver. And you know all through the
Bible as you read, you're impressed with the fact that God has a
heart to give, and not only does he have a heart to give, he has
something to give. And he is a giver. How wonderful
that is. That's grace that God gives. The Bible says the wages of sin
is death, gift of God is eternal life. The Lord Jesus told the
woman at the well, He said if you knew who was talking to you
and if you just knew what He could do for you, you would ask
of Him and He would give you living water. He'd just give
it to you. And all through the Bible it
makes it clear that salvation is a gift. Now there's only three
ways that you can get something. Number one, you can get something
by working for it. And you know that you can't work
for God's salvation because God didn't give it to anybody that
attempts to earn it. And you cannot earn it because
you're not capable of providing what God demands and therefore
God cannot and will not give it to you by you earning it.
And then you can steal something in this world and whatever you
get you steal. You know the Bible talks about
in John 10 about somebody coming up, you know, and entering in,
as it were, in a wrong way. And we know that nobody's going
to get to heaven and bypass the right way, and the way is Jesus
Christ. Jesus said, I'm the way, I'm
the way, and no man can come to the Father except by me. Nobody
can get there but by me. And you're not going to steal
salvation. You're not going to steal it.
in any way. And the other way is for it to
be given to you. You can get something in this
world if somebody gives it to you, and that's the way you get
salvation. You can't get it any other way. God has got to give
it to you. So we see that you can't work
for it, and we see you can't get it come up some other way,
and we see you can't steal it, and we see that only God can
give it to you. If you get salvation, you'll
get it free gratis from the hand of God. God is a great giver. He's a great giver. And if there
is any motivation ever comes upon your heart to be liberal
in regards to your means toward the work of God and the things
of God, if there is anything that will motivate you, it is
the fact that the God of the Bible that you worship and serve
is a great Giver he gives and you cannot out give God God has
given his son and the greatest gift Is his own son he that spared
not his own son But delivered him up for us all how shall he
not also through him freely give us all? all things. The God of
the Bible is a great giver, and He has given us His salvation. He gives us many things. He gives
us food, clothing, shelter, and water, the water that we drink.
We live off of God's bounty here in this world. In Him the Bible
says we live and move and have our being and we would die in
a moment if God did not continue to sustain us and give us that
which life demands. And every breath God's got to
give it to you and you'll not breathe one more. than what God
gives you, and when it's all over, it's over. When God quits
giving them to you, that's when your life will end. And so, beloved,
God's greatest gift is His salvation. And we think it may be a whole
lot of things. We may think it's good health. We may think it's
good living and all of that. But the greatest gift that God
ever gives to any man is His own Son, and that salvation in
Him. And then I think it's our most
wonderful possession. We brag about sometimes if we
get a new automobile, or if we get a new home, or if our job
is just more than what we ever anticipated it would be, and
we're blessed materially and financially, we brag about many
things in this world. But do we realize that the greatest
possession that we have is the Lord's salvation. It's Christ
living in our heart. It's the Lord Jesus dwelling
in us. That's the greatest position
that we can possibly have in this life. Now notice, if you
will, that this verse here tells us clearly that salvation is
not a plan but it is a person, and this is so important to see.
We hear so much said in our day and time about the plan of salvation,
about the Roman road, and about this way and that way, so many
steps, how to, you know, to be saved and so on. But this verse
of Scripture says, He shall save. He shall save. Now, if you want
a plan of salvation, if you must have one, you turn with me to
the 8th chapter of the book of Romans, and I'll give you God's
plan of salvation. God's plan of salvation. This
is the closest thing I can come to with a plan laid down in the
scripture. And I begin to read in verse
29. Verse 29, for whom he did foreknow,
that means whom God did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate
Them he also called. He predestinated them before
the world began. Them he called in time. And those whom he called, them
he also justified. He justified them through the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ on their behalf. And whom he
justified, them in his mind be an old eternity he also glorified. So God is foreknown, God is predestinated,
God is called, God has justified, and God already in His mind calling
that which is to be as though it already were, He's also glorified
His people. What shall we then say to these
things if God before us If God be for us in full knowledge,
if He be for us in predestination, if He be for us in calling and
justification and glorification, then what shall we say? Who can
be against us? This is God's plan for His elect,
His people. And he that spared, this is the
verse I quoted a few minutes ago, he that spared not his own
son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also
with him freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. That's God's plan. That's God's
plan. That's the Lord's way of saving
His people. He purposed their salvation,
and foreknew them, and predestinated them, and called them, justified
them, and glorified them. This is God's way. And so, beloved,
if you need a plan, but listen to me now, the individual... Salvation is not something that
Jesus Christ gives a man apart from giving him himself. Now this I want you to see, that
salvation is more than a plan. Salvation is Christ. And it's
not something that you're ever going to have. apart from Jesus
Christ living and dwelling in your soul. Christ must be in
you. We're told in Colossians 1 and
27 that Christ in you is the hope of glory. And vital Christianity
is Christ living in a man's soul. And until Christ lives in you
by faith, you're not alive unto God. And you're not saved until
He lives in you. You say, well I know the creed
of this church and that church and I've been baptized and I've
done this and I've done something else. That's not it. Are you
in living union with Christ? Is Christ in you? He shall save
His people from their sins. And your connection with religion
is not good enough. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30 says,
Of God are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. You've got to
be in Christ. You must be in Christ and Christ
must be in you. You cannot have salvation without
Christ. 1 John 5 verse 11 and 12 says,
He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. You must have a living relationship
with the Lord Jesus. Now you remember in Luke chapter
2 verses 28 and 30 where Simeon was about to die and he came
to the temple being led there by the Spirit of God. They brought
the babe Jesus in. And he took this baby in his
arms, he looked into his face and said, mine eyes have seen
thy salvation. Christ is salvation. He was salvation when he was
a baby. He was salvation before he was born into this world,
before he was conceived in the womb. He is salvation from eternity. Christ was the Lamb slain in
the mind of God from all eternity. And Christ in a sinner is life. Christ in the center is salvation. This is so important that we
see this. And now notice, if you will, the certainty of the
saving here that is mentioned. It says he shall save his people
from their sins. Now it does not say that he will
make an effort to save. It does not say that he will
try to save sinners. That he's coming to the world,
he's going to make an effort. He's going to make an effort.
I mean he's going to make an effort like nobody ever made
before. He's going to make an effort
that nobody can top. He doesn't say that. He says
that He shall save His people from their sin. Now here is the
proposition. Most preachers in America are
not preaching a Jesus that saves. I told you the other day that
the best adjective I could find to describe our Savior is successful. He's a successful Redeemer. The atonement is a definite atonement. The work of the Lord Jesus Christ
is a particular work on the behalf of those whom God destined and
ordained to be saved. It is a salvation. for those
that God purposed to bring home to glory, to bring to Himself. But now listen to me. Most preachers
in America are preaching a Jesus that cannot save unless the sinner
wants Him to save Him. In other words, according to
most Armenian preachers, God, through Christ, could not save
us all of Tarsus. Saul of Tarsus was a rebel against
God and had no intention of ever being saved and bow on his knee
and say, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Never had any
intentions of doing that. Now, there's not anybody here
that can tell me that the woman of the well, at the well, was
cooperating with Jesus when Jesus saved her. No, she was not. And I'm telling you this, that
the Lord Jesus, while he makes people willing, in the day of
His power, no man is saved until they are made willing by the
Lord Himself. Until God makes you willing,
you will not be willing. Preacher may talk you into something,
your mother may talk you into something, but that won't get
the job done. It's when God makes you willing,
that's when you'll be saved. You know, we talk a lot about
repentance, and I'm all for repentance. I believe a man ought to repent.
I believe he ought to. I believe the Bible commands
all men everywhere to repent. And I think there's genuine repentance
involved in regeneration in faith. I think there is. But repentance
is more than an act. It's more than you getting up
and saying, I'm sorry to your wife. It's more than you getting
up and saying, I'm sorry to your husband. It's more than you getting
up in front of the church and saying, I'm sorry for what I've
done. Repentance is a disposition. Now if you never heard anything
in your life, you listen to what I'm telling you now. Repentance
is a disposition of the heart that no individual can give themselves. Now you might get sorry that
you got caught maybe with your hand in a cookie jar or doing
this or doing that, something you shouldn't have done, but
nobody can give you a genuine disposition to where you feel
like you ought to feel about sin, but the Holy Spirit of God. That disposition can only be
created by God. That's why that a lot of these
deathbed repentances, I don't know a thing on earth about them.
I don't know whether God's give them a disposition to feel toward
their sin like a man will feel toward his sin when God saves
him. And this is so important to see.
The disposition. You can't give yourself a different
disposition, can you? You've tried that, have you?
Have you ever tried that? Have you ever gotten a place
where you knew you ought to believe God? And you couldn't do it to
save your life. You say, I just can't do it to
my comfort. I can't believe God. I can't
trust God. You say, I ought to be thankful.
But are you thankful? No, you can't be thankful until
God gives you a thankful heart. And when He gives it to you,
then you got it. And you can praise the Lord and you can lift
up your heart in praise and thanksgiving to God. But you're dependent
upon God to give you a thankful heart and to give you a disposition
where you hate sin and where you'll turn from it and feel
like God feels about it and until he gives you that disposition
you're in your sin clear up to your neck and you'll go to hell
and you'll die in your sin and go to hell because God only can
deliver you and give you a disposition where you will repent genuinely
and judgment won't even do it. I read in the book of Revelation
about how that God poured out the vials of wrath upon men and
they just kept on in their rebellion kept on, in their blasphemy,
they would not repent. Judgment won't do it. Somebody
said, preach hell, preacher. Preach hell until everybody feels
like they're going there. And then they'll turn away from
it and go toward Christ. It's not so. It's not so. Only
when the Spirit of God comes to you and gives you a fear in
your heart, a burning everlastingly in hell, only then will you say,
I must flee the wrath to come. Only then will you say, I must
flee to Christ. I must go to Him who is life.
I must, I must, I must. Only then, when the Spirit of
God comes and does the work, in your heart, in your soul.
You see, we shut up to Him. Salvation is of the Lord from
the beginning to the end. He saves His people from their
sins. And it's not enough to talk somebody
into it. It's not enough to talk somebody
into making a little decision. Get them to come down front.
Get them to agree with a proposition. That isn't enough. It's a living
union with a living Redeemer that is necessary and that is
required. And you better begin to seek
the Lord, and you begin to cry to God, Oh Jesus, who is the
anointed Savior, save me, come to me, save me, save me, from
the beginning to the end. Now then, I want to go on. Now,
beloved, this business of our Lord trying to save somebody. Armenian preachers, they tell
sinners that God's trying to save them. I heard a story one
time about one fellow that Armenian preachers have been telling him
all of his life. say God's trying to save you, God's trying to
save you and he said well he said when I die he said you've
been telling me all along God's been trying to save me and he
hasn't been able to and so when he gets ready to cast me into
hell I just simply won't let him just like I won't let him
save me I won't let him If I'm sovereign now, then I'll be sovereign
then. And I will not allow Him to cast
me into hell. Now you see, beloved, what's
wrong with that is that God, the omnipotent God, the almighty
God, the all-powerful God, He's saving who He will save. Salvation
is in His hands. Life is in the nail-scarred hands
of the man in glory. It's in Christ's hands to save
your soul. And you don't have anything to
do with letting Him do it. This business of letting God
do something is foolishness. There's nothing in the Bible
about letting God do something. God does according to His own
will. in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, none can say unto him, What doest
thou? None can stay his hand. We're dealing with an omnipotent
Savior. We're dealing with a sovereign
Savior, and He'll cast you into hell when you die if you're not
saved, if you're not in Him. He'll cast you into hell. He's
got the power to do that. Don't the Bible say that men
on earth, they got the power to kill your body, but they don't
have power to cast your body and soul into hell. But God has
the power to cast your soul into hell. And He's the only one who
has the power to save you in time. He's got to call you and
save you from your sin. Now then, let me just ask you
a couple of questions here that may help this to sink in a little
bit. You know, I might try to do something and I might succeed
and I might not. You might try to do something,
you might succeed, and you might not. That's because you're immoral. You're not omnipotent, you're
not sovereign, and you don't have the ability to do what you
purpose to do. You just guess what you'll be
able to do tomorrow. But listen here. Did Jesus, when
he was here, when he was out there in that boat on that stormy
sea, did he still the stormy sea, or did he just attempt to
still that stormy sea. Did Jesus heal the blind, the
deaf, the dumb, or did he make an effort to do it? Did he just
try to do it? Did Jesus raise Lazarus from
the dead, or did he just try to raise him from the dead? Well,
you know the answers to these questions. Did the Lord Jesus
come out of the grave, or did he just try to come out of the
grave. Well, I'll tell you this. Our
Lord Jesus Christ came out of the grave. He said the Father
gave him commandment to come out of the grave. He said, I
lay down my life, no man takes it from me. I have commandment
to lay it down. And I have commandment to take
it again. And He did come forth out of the grave. Well, how? We've talked about how. We've
talked about this Jesus and the certainty of His saving. How
shall He save His people from their sins? Well, it was not
as easy as making the world. It was more difficult than making
the world. And I believe God created this
whole world. His people from their sin was more difficult
than making the world. Now you may not agree with that,
but I think I could prove that that's the case. Now in order
for the Lord Jesus to save his people from their sins, first
of all they had to live a perfect life. He had to live a life with
absolute perfection. He had to live without committing
one sin. He had to live above sin. He had to live so as God could
look at him and examine him, scrutinize him from the day he
was born until the day he hung on that cross and not find one
blemish or one imperfection in him. Now that's what was required. A perfect life, a vicarious life,
a life He lived on the behalf of these people that He was going
to save. Now you say, well, I don't know,
that'd be impossible for me. It'd be impossible for me. I'll
tell you that. I know better than that. I know
I couldn't, I could no way. But Jesus did. He was a Lamb
without blemish and without spot. He was that Lamb, there was no
sin found in Him. There was nothing in him for
the devil to get a hold of. There was nothing in him that
the devil could seize. There's plenty in us, but nothing
in him that the devil could get a hold of. No Adamic nature in
him. He was God's lamb. He was God's
own son. Now then, it was necessary for
him not only to live this perfect life, but also for him to die. He had to go to the cross and
die. Die just like he had committed sin all the days of his life. He had to go to the cross and
die like a sinner. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter.
He was led out there to Calvary's cross and he was nailed to that
old cross. And the Bible says he was numbered
with the transgressors. The Bible says that God visited
upon him his wrath. Jesus died. He had to die a sinner's
death on the cross. And the judgment of God fell
on him. on that cross. You and I, we
praise God as I did earlier in my prayer this morning that I'll
never have to face my sin again. What a glorious thing. Sins behind
God's back never to be remembered against us anymore. God's memory
it's erased and God will never remember our sins against us
if we're in Christ. But I thought about the Lord
Jesus Christ And I thought about the fact that when he died, that
the Father laid upon him. He laid upon Him all of our sin. It had to be laid upon one, and
He had to bear that sin in His own body on the tree. He had
to suffer in our room instead in place. With strength enough,
the poet said, but with none to spare, He bore the Father's
righteous wrath. Strength enough, but none to
spare. Oh, He bore our sin. He bore our sin to that cursed
tree and died. The judgment of God Fell upon
him. He was made to be sin it pleased
the Lord to bruise him He poured out his soul an offering for
sin. I Heard a story one time about
a wagon train coming out to the west and they were out in the
plains and As they were going along They looked off and they
saw a huge prairie fire coming coming toward them and they knew
what that meant. They knew that eventually it
was going to catch them and it was going to burn them up. And
so one of the fellows on the wagon there, a very wise man,
he set a fire right near where they were and that fire took
off and burned a spot, burned a place, and then they took all
the wagons and they pulled all those wagons around and got all
the wagons off on this burnt part that they had deliberately
set on fire, and got all the wagons in there. One little boy
asked his father, he said, Father, he said, what's going to happen?
Are we going to burn it? And the father said, no son,
no son, we're standing where the fire has already burnt, where
the fire's already burnt. And beloved, in the Lord Jesus,
We stand where the judgment of God has already fallen. That's
the reason why we're not going to face our sin. That's the reason
why we're not going to go to hell. That's the reason why that
we can say SS, sinner saved, is because the judgment has already
fallen on us. He had to die and bear that wrath
of God, bear the fire of God's judgment in his own soul in order
that we would be spared, in order that we'd be saved from our sins. This is so important for us to
see that. Do you stand in him? I'm talking about how difficult
It was for Him to save His people from their sin. And then the
Lord Jesus was resurrected. We mentioned that a while ago.
He was resurrected to the right hand of the Father. There it
is. He had to be raised again. in order to appear in the presence
of God for us. Hebrews 7.25 says, He is able
to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him, seeing
that He ever liveth to make intercession for them. You see, the Lord Jesus
had to be raised from the dead and then be received to glory
in order to make the salvation of His people complete and entire. Now, beloved, don't you see then
that from a human standpoint it's absolutely beyond the possibility
that we could ever save ourselves. It's this one who was anointed
and so named that he would be the Savior. It's this one that
saves. Now then, just a word about who
are the objects of his salvation. Who are the objects of it? Well,
it says he shall save his people from their sin. In Acts chapter
18 and verse 10 the Apostle Paul was at Corinth and he had been
greatly tried and he was fearful of his life and the Lord came
to him in a vision and spoke to him, the angel of the Lord
spoke to him and said don't be afraid I have much people in
this city. God has a people that Acts chapter
13 tells us that as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. God has a people. God has a people. God has a people that are designated
in the Bible as being His sheep. His sheep. sheep, His people
from eternity, from eternity. And God has purposed their salvation. Our Lord Jesus Christ came and
He represented those people. He took upon Himself their nature. The Bible says he took upon himself
the nature of the seed of Abraham. The seed of Abraham are all those
who are born again. Not the Jewish race, but the
spiritual Israel. Those that were born of the Spirit
of God. Those in whom the Spirit of God
lives. They are the seed of Abraham. He says, I didn't take upon myself
the nature of angels. Our Lord did not die for the
angels, you that would champion the cause of the Armenians and
say that God ought to provide it and his son ought to have
died for every son of Adam. What about the angels? What about
the angels? There are some angels that left
their first estate and they're chained up, reserved for judgment. Somebody said, well, Christ ought
to have died for him. Well, I'm not here as an authority
on who Christ ought to have died for. I'm here to tell you who
He did die for. He died, took upon Himself the
nature of the seed of Abraham. He took upon Himself all those
that the Father loved in old eternity and gave to His Son
as a love gift in the eternal covenant. Jesus represented them,
and He came and bore their sin to the death in order to save
them. He came to save his people from
their sin. Isn't that what the text says?
That's exactly what the text says. Now, the Omnipotent God
is no failure. He is no failure. He is no failure. And I am here this morning as
living proof of the fact, and I believe that everybody here
that is saved, that is saved, and that knows that the Lord
has saved them. is living proof of the fact that
God is omnipotent. Now, there was not a ghost of
a chance that my old rebellious nature, I know who my daddy is,
and I know who his daddy was, and I know who his daddy was. I already got her traced back,
I know. And I know what they all were.
It's a miracle of mercy that this poor sinner has been in
the way of the Lord ever since he was just a young man. It's a miracle of mercy. It's
a miracle of mercy that I ever took the name of Jesus Christ
on my lips. It's a miracle of mercy, except
in cursing. It's a miracle of mercy. It's
all glory, all praise to the omnipotent God. who said, arrest that man, bring
that man out of his sin, put in that man the hope of eternal
life, clothe that man in the garment of salvation, put on
him the white linen, the righteousness of the saints, put it on him,
put it on him. Right here is living proof of
it. God is an omnipotent Savior. I didn't have anything to do
with it myself. I didn't have anything to do with it. I wish,
you know, that I could tell you a story or two. I mean, it might
sound pretty good. But it'd be a lie if I told you
I had a thing to do with it. I'd tell you I'd still be a rebel
if I was still alive. I'd still be blaspheming the
name of the Lord, cursing every breath. if it wasn't for the
grace of God. And there's not anybody here
this morning that I know you all are sinners like you are
that would lay claim to anything else. God is omnipotent, all-powerful,
and He saved this poor sinner. And He can save you, I'd like
to tell you that. He can save you. He can deliver you. He can
rescue you. I've told you how He can do it.
I've told you what He went through to do it. He can do it. He can
do it. Believe on Him. Trust Him. Father,
in the bloodstained name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
we commit this little congregation to You and this sermon, as poorly
as it was presented, we commit it into Your hand. To be someone
here today, Lord, that You'd be pleased to give a heart and
an eye to see, a heart to believe, the ability to believe. Lord,
we praise You for it. We give You the praise. We worship
You. We'd get up and talk about it just like we've been talking
here today. We'd exalt you among the heathen,
among the people. We'd lift you up if you'd save
some poor sinner here today like you saved us. In Jesus' name,
Amen.