Hebrews chapter five. Paul is, I said Paul, we don't know who
the writer of Hebrews is, I lean that way, but the writer of Hebrews
is bringing to our attention several different points that
he's gonna elaborate on throughout the remainder of Hebrews. One
of those is that Christ is the priest after the order of Melchizedek. That's elaborated much more in
chapter seven and so on, so we're not gonna be looking at that
this morning. We're gonna save that for that time, if the Lord
be pleased to give us a message then. But the writer here continues
to deal with the Hebrews in giving them and giving us a glorious
observation, a declaration. A declaration to the Lord's people
that completely exposes the lie of all false religion. Completely
exposes the lie of all false religion. Let's read our text
here in Hebrews chapter five, verse six through 10. As he said
also in another place, thou art a priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered
up prayers and supplication with strong crying and tears unto
him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that
he feared, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the
things which he suffered. In being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him,
called of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Now I've titled this message,
The Cause of Salvation. And we're going to look at verse
nine specifically saying, and being made perfect, the Lord
Jesus Christ wasn't made, was he? He wasn't created. So what
is he talking about there? No, he's the cause, the cause
being the author, the cause of eternal redemption. We're going
to, we're going to see that more in depth, but most of the time,
whenever you look at different passages, men, They delight in
debating, debating on what's being said, debating on what
they believe is right and what they see is right. Men oppose
or give opposite opinions saying, I believe this is true and you
believe this is true and let's go back and forth to figure out
the truth. Aren't you glad the truth is
declared, not debated? All the debating in the world
will not accomplish salvation. won't accomplish salvation. It's
not the cause of salvation. It's not the cause of it. People
get to the place where they believe they've arrived. They've learned
something. You ever been around somebody
that really thinks they know a lot about the Bible, a lot
about who God is? They've practiced And I guess
the word to use would be Christianity. I don't know what other word
to use. They practice Christianity. They practice the Bible. They
practice living a certain way, doing this and doing that. And
they seem like they've really accomplished something or they
know something. That's called a Pharisee. That's what the Lord
calls a Pharisee. He said, search the scriptures,
study them. For in them you think you have eternal life, but they
are they which speak of me. All of the scripture was written
to point the Lord's people to Christ, not to give us an intellect,
not to cause us to feel like we've arrived at some great understanding
of the vastness of the universe and this. No, it's Christ is
all. It's too simple. It was too simple for the Greeks,
wasn't it? And it was a stumbling block
to the Jews. And that's still the same today. We're falling
into the category of the Greeks, the Gentiles. It's just too simple.
And yet the Lord reveals it to us that it's not in debates and
intellects. It's not what you know. It's
who you know. It's Christ Jesus and him crucified. Men are ever
learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
You know why? It's not the result. I mean, it's not the reason for
salvation. It's not the cause. Debating
is not the cause of salvation. Ever learning is not the cause
of salvation. So what's the cause of salvation?
The Lord Jesus Christ is the cause of salvation. God, who
is rich in mercy, with his great love, and he loved us. He chose
to make Christ the propitiation for his people. He is the cause
of salvation to the Lord's people. But what about those that say,
you better get to church. You better
get your life right. You ever heard that before? I
have a friend in Tennessee that I was raised up with him. I loved
him. I talked to him many times. And
recently, in the past few years, I was able to share the gospel
with him, and he don't talk to me anymore. He chose to continue
in the things of self-righteousness, not that Christ is all, but yeah,
Christ is all, but you have to do your part. You have to live
this way. You have to do this and that.
And his son said on a message that he posted, if dad had never
started living for God, Dad had never started giving up dipping
tobacco. That's what he said, dipping
tobacco. That was the issue. See, their
family said, well, that's an addiction that you have, and
you need to break that addiction. If you want to be used of God,
if you want God to see you as good, you're going to have to
quit tobacco. Brethren, tobacco never sent anybody to hell. I
promise you that. All our unbelief sends us to
hell. That's what sends us to hell.
Not looking to Christ is all. Not looking to Christ. Someone
tells you that they're living for God, they're drawing attention
to themselves. They're probably not living for
God. Well, I've given up everything and started living for God. No,
you haven't. No, you want people to recognize
how good you are, the life that you're living. Look how much,
and that's exactly what the Pharisees did. The Lord said, you love
to put on those garments that you're wearing. You love to go
and pray in public and say, God, I thank thee that I'm not as
other men are. And he said, you know what you
are? You're self-righteous and you're of your father, the devil.
That's what he told them. That's what he says. This is
not the cause of salvation, the change of life. This is called
a moral change. All the revivals of old that
you'll read about where men stood up and gave altar calls and pressured
men saying, hell is coming fast. Hell is upon us. We're all gonna
die soon. Come up here and just give your
life to Jesus. That's what men would say and
do. All that, none of that was real. It was all moral reformation. Moral reprimand, it's all it
was. Men getting their lives straightened out, trying to live
better, to have approval before God. What's the Lord say? No flesh shall glory in my presence. I will not share my glory with
another. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. So it's not morality that we
need to seek after. That's not the cause of salvation. Someone may say, are you telling
us we just live however we want to? I'll tell you, I'll say it
like this. Live how you want, look to Christ. If you're looking
to Christ, if you're a believer and you live how you want, it'll
be looking to Christ in all things that you do. All things that
you do. It's every morning you wake up,
Lord, You've given us this day, keep me. Lord, don't leave me
to myself. In the afternoon, you're driving.
Lord, don't leave me to myself. Lord, save me, save my children.
Is that not the life of the believer? It's not this life of frivolousness
that we're accused with sometimes. That's not what we enjoy partaking
in. We enjoy worshiping our Savior. Yes, there's things that the
Lord's given us in this flesh we can enjoy as well. There's
nothing wrong with that. People say, oh, you're not a
believer because you do this and you don't do that. Where's
the chapter and verse? That's just morals that people
put. It's the moral law and it's the
lie. It's the lie. What is the cause
of salvation? Is it not the precious atoning
blood of Jesus Christ? And that's it. That's it. That's it. It's not your choice. It's not your life. It's not
your determination. It's not your will. It's his
choice. It's his life. It's what he determined
to do and accomplish. That's the cause of salvation.
It's what he done on the cross of Calvary. A man told me recently that's
I find that. As a pastor, you preach what
you live. I don't get up here and preach stories I've never
experienced or known about. I try to tell you things that
I've experienced. This week, a man told me, he said, I found
out I was a pastor and said, well, I need to get to church. I need to get my life right.
And I said, getting to church? doesn't make your life right.
And he said, yeah, I know, but he went through this whole list.
Like I'm now a priest that he's confessed and he sends to it.
I'm like, okay, wait, I don't even want to know. I don't need
to know that you smoke and drink and cuss and fuss. And he's like,
I need to quit this and this and this. And I'm like, that's
between you and the Lord. If somebody said, well, I, you
know, I need to, I need to quit those things. Well, if that's
what the Lord's put on your heart to do, then do it, but don't
do it for salvation. It's not the cause of it. What
you, it's not what goes in a man that defiles him. It's what comes
out. It's what we are by nature. You can't clean it up enough.
It's still, this flesh is still just a, it's a broken cistern. It's just a whitewashed sepulcher
and inward is just dead bones. No, God's the one that's going
to have to come by where you're at in your dead condition and
say, live. It's not gonna be determined
by whatever you do. It's gonna be determined by grace.
It's gonna be determined by mercy. This is who we worship. This
is God. This is what he does for his people. He's the cause
of salvation. I heard someone say, well, now
that I've become a believer, I have made better life choices
and I can see that my life is reflecting Christ more and more. Can you see that? Can you see
that you reflect perfection more and more? Men call that progressive
sanctification is what they call it. Aren't you glad that Christ
is all our wisdom, all our righteousness, all our sanctification, and all
our redemption before the Father? We're not getting better. We're
not getting better, we're getting worse and worse. If we were getting better, would
we not get younger instead of older? Would we not get, well,
I guess some people say we get wiser. I don't look at our society. We're not getting wiser. We're
getting worse. You know, it's true. At least not in things
pertaining to the Lord. I mean, we have technology and
things. None of that's brought us closer to God. Just like the
Tower of Babel, their intentions were to get closer to God. And
what did it do? It pushed them farther away. And that's man's
religion. That's man's works. That's man's
righteousness, his iniquity and filthy rags. We need a substitute. We need a savior. We're not getting
better. We need one that is our sanctification,
that freely gives sanctification to his people. The good news
of the gospel is the Lord saved us first, and then he called
us with a holy calling, not of ourself or our works, but according
to his own purpose and grace given to us in Christ before
time ever began. Brethren, now are we the sons
of God, right now. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Paul said this,
the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared to
the glory which shall be revealed in us. You're saying I have the
glory of God in me right now. If you're a believer, if you're
in Christ, yes. You are as holy as the Lord right now on the
inside. The new man, the new man. It
is, it's been given freely by grace. Now this flesh, is it
holy? No. No, the Lord didn't come
to set up an earthly kingdom and to make our flesh better. This flesh must go back to dust
from whence it came. But don't pretend, we can't pretend
that the flesh becomes better because all the flesh can do,
all the flesh can merit, all the flesh is is sin. But when
the Lord sees his people, he sees them in Christ Jesus alone. And in seeing them in Christ,
he sees them as perfectly righteous. This is the cause of salvation.
Seeing us in Christ. Well, who put us there? He did.
He did, all by grace. We know it's true, brethren.
We don't come to a building to be saved. We come to a person.
We don't come to a doctrine to be saved. We come to a person.
We don't give of our money and our time to be saved. We give
unto a person out of love, out of thanksgiving. We do what we
do because he's caused us to have what we have in our heart,
the love towards him. He first loved us. That's our
motivation. Everything in false religion
is motivated completely out of fear. You better do this or else. And the Lord, think about his
chastenings. And they're not, the scripture's
clear, they're not pleasant for a season. But whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth. And what does that chastening
do? It drives us to Christ over and over and over. Why do we
come here? To see him. Why do we come here? To see him. Not to be saved,
but the hope that we are saved in Christ Jesus because of all
that he did. We don't sacrifice, none of these
can cause salvation or are the cause. Although we're commanded
to gather together, a lot of men gather in the Lord's name
to obligate God to do something. I remember talking to one lady
one time, she told me, I've been faithful to that church for 49
years. She said, I've never missed a
service. That's her righteousness. If somebody tells you that, that
is their righteousness. When they stand before God, they're
going to say, I've attended faithfully in your name 49 years and never
missed a service. That's not the cause of salvation. As a matter of fact, if we're
doing that as any part of our salvation, it's called iniquity. And the Lord says, I hate the
workers of iniquity in Psalm chapter five, verse five, all
workers of iniquity. We don't go to obligate God or
persuade God. Brethren, you know why we come
to service. We get to. It's a blood-bought
privilege by the Lord Jesus Christ to be here, to hear the good
news of his finished work. That's why we come. Not because
we have to, but because we get to. We wanna hear how he is the
cause for salvation, not ourself. This is clear all throughout
scripture, isn't it? And it's clear here in our text, look
at verse nine again. And being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. Why is he the cause? Because
he's the author. I'll have elaborated briefly,
well, I preached a message to us about the author and finisher,
and I'll elaborate briefly on that again. But this is why he's
the cause of salvation. He has all the power of an author. I suppose most of you were here
for that. But I'll say this, if you were
writing a book, how much power would you have in that book,
on every page? You could put anything you want
to. Every character could have the hair color that you chose.
Every character could speak the language that you chose. Every
character could do exactly what you wanted them to do. The sun
could shine or it could rain. Every single detail, it would
be up to you to do it, by the Lord's grace, of course. That's
called being an author of a book. I'm talking about a book that
you have fiction and non-fiction. You understand what I'm saying.
If you were writing a fictional novel and you wanted to put characters
into that book, you could do it however you wanted to do it.
An author has all authority, all control, All design, every
detail, every detail. Everything is up to the author. How much more so the sovereign
creator of this universe whenever he made this world? You and I
can't speak the book into existence, he can. You and I can't make
the book have words upon it just by saying it, he can. You and
I can't say light, let there be light and light appears, he
did. He's God. So what about Him being
the author? He's the author of salvation
for His people. He's the one that created all
things and all things consist by Him and according to His will. It is His right and it is our,
it's the privilege purchased by the blood of Christ if we
come to know Him and the pardon of sin. It's all by His doing,
His design, for His will, according to His will and His good pleasure.
All things bend to His voice. He commands heaven, hell, and
earth, everything. And everything obeys Him. He's
the author. He's the author. He alone has
this authority. And you know something that I
thought of this week that I've never thought of this before?
I love that He's never lost control. Now, we've known that. We've
known that. How many times do you lose control
in a week? How about a day? You're driving down the road.
Somebody cuts you off. Maybe you lose control. Maybe
you don't. I don't know. Sometimes you get frustrated.
You get overwhelmed. You get overburdened. You lose
control then. Life throws all these things
at you. You become angry. You become this. You become that.
What about these people that really don't get their way? Have
you ever seen a toddler in a store? Wanting a toy? They throw a temper
tantrum, don't they? You say, well, grown men don't
do that. I beg to differ. Nebuchadnezzar did just that,
didn't he? He said, you're going to bow down and you're going
to worship this 60-foot statue I've made to Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego. And he said, if you don't, I'm going to throw
you in the fiery furnace. And what did they say? We're
not careful to answer you, O king. Be it known unto you, we will
not bow and we will not worship. And I can just see him jumping
up and down saying, I'm the king, I'm the king, I'm the king. Throw
him in the furnace, heat it up seven times hotter. And that's
what they did. It's exactly what they did. He
threw a temper tantrum. What about Cain and Abel? God
said, no, Cain, I will not have any respect to you or your sacrifice
because it's the works of your hand. You brought fruit from
your garden. But unto Abel and his sacrifice, I will have respect
because it's blood, the blood of the lamb. And Cain was wroth. And what did that wrath do? He
slew his brother. That's a temper tantrum. That's
what that is. That's it. That's exactly what happened.
Did you know the Lord has never once lost control, never once
through a temper tantrum, never one time. He has been seated
this entire time as God, the sovereign creator of all things.
Nothing takes him by surprise. He's not playing chess with Satan.
No, there's no game being played. Everything is coming to pass
according to his good and perfect will. And that is why he's the
cause of salvation. When men can't have their way,
they throw temper tantrums. Why? Because men want to be God.
Brethren, even when our flesh rears up its ugly head, When
our flesh rears up its ugly head, aren't you glad that he's giving
you a new man that always bows and he sees the new man? You
don't see this old flesh. When Satan goes before the Lord
and says, well, I see him down there. I see Caleb down there
doing this and doing that. The Lord sees the blood. There's
my hope. That's why he's the cause of
salvation. New man never doubts. Our flesh does. The new man can't.
New man believes and knows he's never lost control. Still seated,
come what may, he's the sovereign over all. Now, I want to elaborate here
on verse nine. I told you we would at the beginning of the
message, and I want us to. see that these words were translated
a certain way and there's other definitions of these words I
want to look at it will give more clarity. So in verse nine he
says, being made perfect he became the author of eternal salvation
and to all them that obey him. Made perfect means completing
the work. Completing the work. It means
perfect. Able He says, oh, it also means
able to finish or to accomplish, completing the work, able to
finish or accomplish. Because he was manifest as the
God man, he was able, he was able to complete the work. He
was the only one qualified to accomplish the work given to
him. He was manifest as the, and we've
already mentioned this, that word became means he was manifest. Because he was the eternal author. Because he was the eternal author
of eternal salvation. Author literally means the cause.
And I love that. He's the cause. And that's why
I ended up titling the message that I did, The Cause of Salvation.
That word author also translates the cause of eternal salvation. If God, somebody might say, well,
you have to obey the truth. That's absolutely accurate. That
is absolutely true. You who are dead and trespasses
and sins must obey the truth. Now, what good does it do to
tell a dead man to obey? We often use the term dead dog,
and I guess that's a little less offensive if I use this analogy.
If I throw a ball, for a dead dog and say, fetch, can that
dog obey me? Does it have any life? Does it
have any strength? So what comes first? The Lord
must say, live. He must first. There can't be
a choice made in death, can there? Can't be a choice made in death.
The Lord must say, live. Seek ye my face. And you know
what happens then? He gives faith to obey and believe. And he is pleased with that faith
that he gives. He's not pleased with you and
I, he's pleased with Christ. If God did not choose a people,
no one will be saved. If Christ didn't redeem those
people, no one will be saved. If the spirit doesn't quicken
and make alive, no one will be saved. Thanks be to God, he shed
his blood, taking their place, dying in their stead. He did
that on the cross of Calvary. What came first, the saving or
the calling that we're talking about? Well, the saving did.
God saved us, then called us. He just lets us know about it,
doesn't he? 2 Timothy 1.9. God chose to redeem. God chose
to elect, God chose to call in time those that are His. This
is why He is the cause of salvation. This was done not according to
our own works, but according to His grace, according to His
purpose, given to His people in Christ before time began.
This is the cause of salvation, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Someone says, yeah, but you have
to repent. You have to repent. Repentance
is a gift of grace in the heart. Are you going to repent with
your heart of stone? Or are you going to be begging the Lord? as the prophet did. Lord, take
out this heart of stone. Give me a heart of flesh. You're
gonna be like, I wrote an article about this. You're gonna be like
David. Lord, search me and know me. See if there be any evil
thing with me and lead me in the path of everlasting life.
Lord, if you don't, I'm never gonna be led. I won't come to
you. Christ told the Pharisees, you
will not come to me that you may have life. You won't. Why? Because you can't. You're of
your father, the devil. It's that simple. It's not up
to you. It's up to the Lord who delights in showing mercy. And say you have to repent. I
remember a couple, you all remember a couple days, I don't know,
weeks ago, it was an eclipse. Remember the eclipse? And then
a couple days, I don't know if you've heard about this, a couple
days ago, there was a solar flare. You could see the aurora borealis,
the northern lights. We couldn't, because it was raining
and overcast and whatever else. But all the way down into Tennessee,
they said they could see it, some of my family members. And
I heard a man speaking on the subject, and he said, you know,
it's a sign of the end times because of this eclipse and this
big solar, that's a solar flare from the sun is what causes those,
that northern lights. That's all what it's about. Magnetic
plasma, from my understanding, or pulled by the Earth's magnetic
pull, I'm not gonna get into all that, doesn't even matter.
God does that, purposed that. It's a sign of the end of the
times. And he began talking. He said, Matt, if you look, and the Lord
showed me this, he said, he showed me this. If you look in the book
of Revelation, you look in this certain chapter, in this certain
verse, he said, look, this is what's coming to pass right now.
Boy, we're on the threshold. You better do something. You
better change your life. You better straighten up, start living
right. You better repent. Repentance, brethren, is a gift
from the Lord. It's not that we come to an altar
and that we start crying out saying, Lord, Lord, I confess
this to you, and I confess this to you, and I'm broken. Lord,
I'm so broken over this, and I'm so broken over that, and
I'm really trying to repent. Repentance is a changed mind,
and only God can change your mind. That's a work of grace
in the heart. Only God can give you eternal
life. Only God can say, live. It's
not going to be done in signs and wonders. That's not the cause
of salvation. It's not going to matter of fact,
what did the Pharisees ask the Lord? Give us a sign. We'll believe
you. All we want from you is a sign.
Just give us one sign. We'll totally believe you. What'd
the Lord say? A wicked and adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign. You're not gonna see anything
with these natural eyes. He said the only sign given is that of
the prophet Jonah. What did he mean by that? It's
the three days and three nights, the resurrection of the Lord.
There's your sign. That's it. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
No, this whole ideology, solar flare eclipse, it was all about
fear. Be afraid and do something. You know what the fear of the
Lord does? It says, look to Christ. Flee
to Christ. Don't move a muscle. Don't do
anything in your flesh. Run to Christ by the faith that
he gives. Got to have him. The believer
says, Lord, show me yourself. Lord, let me see your face. I've
got to have you. God-given fear is repentance
towards God, a changed mind and faith, believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ. His fear points to him alone.
His faith points to Christ alone. Brethren, the revelation that
God shows is not a sign. It's not a wonder. It's not a
wow factor. The revelation that God shows,
the only revelation that God reveals is his darling son and
the finished work that he accomplished on Calvary. Nothing else. You
won't find some great mystery. You won't find some that they
talk about the Dead Sea Scrolls and all these other things. Men
are looking for something. It will not be found anywhere
else except in the simplicity of the finished work of Christ.
Lord, give us that simplicity. Give us the cause of salvation,
the Lord Jesus Christ. If He chooses to ever show us
anything, it will be the Lord. And the good news is, is if He
reveals His Son, you're His. He only reveals His Son to His
people. He only reveals his son to his
people. God gives us a need for Christ. We have fewer and fewer
questions now than we've ever had, don't we? Our questions
become less and less and the farther along we get. Think about
it. It really does. You start out, you have all these
questions. I remember I was, I think I was
talking to Todd Nybert early on and I was asking him some
questions. I said, well, what about this and what about that? And
he said, go sit and listen. And I said, yeah, yeah, but what
about this? And what about that? He says, go sit and listen. I said,
OK, well, he's no help. I went inside and listened. And
I kept sitting and listening, and I kept sitting and listening,
and I kept sitting and listening. And he remembered that. And one
time, a couple of years later, he came up to me. He said, now,
you had some questions for me. What were they? I said, I don't
have any questions anymore. Christ is the cause of salvation,
and Christ is the one that keeps his people after. He reveals
that he did all the calling, all the electing, all the saving.
He does all the keeping. He gets all the glory. Lord,
cause us to need you. Cause us to see that you're the
complete cause of salvation. Cause us to believe. Let's pray. Father, if you don't reveal yourself,
we will try to find some other cause for salvation, but Lord,
please, cause us to see that you are the cause. In Christ's
name, amen. Let's take a break.