Ok, this morning I want you to
find again Lamentations chapter 3. Lamentations chapter 3. It is of the Lord's mercies,
verse 22. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. The wages of sin is death. The
gift of God is eternal life. We are not consumed because His
love does not fail. The love of God never fails.
Never fails. Because He cannot fail. They're
new every morning. Every morning God's mercies are
new. Every morning His love to His
people is an everlasting love. Great is Thy faithfulness. Talking
about our Lord Jesus Christ. He is a great and faithful God. Faithful to His Word, faithful
to His promise, faithful to His people. Jeremiah said, The Lord
is my portion. The Lord is my salvation, saith
my soul. Therefore will I hope in Him.
Our hope is in Him. He is our hope. He is our hope. We have a good hope through grace.
And then it says, verse 25, The Lord is good. The Lord is good. The Lord is holy. The Lord is
merciful. The Lord is love. The Lord is
gracious. The Lord is good. Everything
about Him is good. The Lord is good unto them that
wait for Him. Remember, David said, wait upon
the Lord. And again, I say, wait to the soul that seeketh the
Lord. It's a good thing to seek mercy where it's found in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It is good that a man should
both hope and quietly wait, for his blessings are worth waiting
for, for the salvation of the Lord. Salvation of the Lord. Well, that's the title and subject
of my message. Salvation that we desperately
need. Salvation is because God is. Salvation is of what? The Lord. The Lord alone. He's
the God of salvation. Salvation of the Lord entirely,
wholly, completely, totally, all of God. Man contributes nothing
to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, nor to the saving or
salvation of sinners. It's all of God, all of His grace. The Lord Jesus Christ crucified,
risen, alone is the power of God unto salvation. The Lord
Jesus Christ alone. He is my salvation. Therefore, we can say with the
Apostle Paul, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that's blessed to
believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you need salvation? Whether you realize it or not,
you absolutely do, because you're just like me. I'm a sinner. I'm
a sinner guilty, and I need a Savior and I need saving. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the only one that can do that. Now I grew up a long
way from here. People often ask me, where are
you from? Where did you grow up? Somehow
my speech betrays me. Somehow they know I'm not from
the hills of East Kentucky. I grew up a long way from here.
I grew up and was taught in false religion. I lived the first 17
years of my life out in the Rocky Mountains of the West. Still
had family out there. I was able to visit with my family
on vacation this summer in Utah and in Idaho. But I grew up in
what's called Mormonism. Mormonism. My dad was a Mormon. My mom was raised in Mormonism. And therefore, that's all I knew,
that's all I heard. If you were raised in the same
household I was raised in, you would have been a Mormon too.
They teach, what do they teach? They teach that salvation is
achieved or performed or accomplished by what you do. In other words,
they think salvation is totally dependent upon you rather than
upon the Lord. They teach that salvation is
by works of the flesh, or deeds of the flesh, or at least certain
religious achievements that you must bring according to their
church rules. You've got to follow the rules.
And then you have salvation. Well, that's nothing but works,
right? Well, I grew up believing that. That's all I heard. That's
all I knew. rather than what the Lord Jesus
Christ had accomplished for His people. Sadly, that same lie
is taught by most churches in this very town right now. Salvation all depends on you. God done all he can do, now the
rest is up to you, they say. Your decision. Something you
bring. Well, that's nothing but what
Adam tried to do. Fallen Adam in the garden. He
tried to cover his guilt and his sin with fig leaves. Have you got fig leaf religion?
I hope not. I hope you're resting on the
solid rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in the bulletin today, don't
look at it right now, but in the bulletin today, there's an
article by my friend Milton Howard, Pastor Milton Howard, down in
Ball, Louisiana. And he wrote an article from
Psalm 57 verse 2, one of my favorite verses. It says, He performed
all things for us. That is the Lord Jesus Christ
performed all things for us. Like Abraham was fully persuaded
of all that God promised, He's able to perform. Our friend Milton
Howard wrote this in that article. You can read it later. Our Savior
performed all things for us. Our sin has been all put away. The righteousness with which
we are clothed is complete. All that God's infinite justice
can demand of us has been performed for us by our substitute. Our
warfare is accomplished. Our sin is pardoned. There's
not one thing for us to do to complete the work of Christ. It's done. Well done. To which
I wrote, Amen, brother. I'm right with you. In Him dwells
all the fullness of a Godhead bodily, and in Christ we stand
complete. We're complete in Him. Now, one
of the first recorded words we have in the Word of God, spoken
by the Lord Jesus Christ when He was the God-man mediator in
the flesh upon this earth, He said in Luke chapter 2, He said,
I must be about my Father's business. Remember? I must be about my
Father's business. He came on a mission, a mission
of mercy. He came to seek and to save the
lost. In John chapter 4, He said, My
meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish the
work, His work. In John 17, the Lord prayed,
I have glorified Thee on the earth, I finished the work you
gave me to do. He finished what the Father gave
him to do. And then his last words, spoken
from a tree, the crucifixion tree, at Calvary's Hill, the
Lord Jesus Christ said, it's finished. It's done. It's complete. Salvation's complete. Don't add
anything to it. He'd just mess it up, wouldn't
you? We have perfect redemption in
Christ. Don't bring your works. Don't bring your good deeds.
Look to Him. Rest in Him. Now, what do you
mean? What do we mean? What do I mean when I say that
salvation is of the Lord? What does that mean? We mean
that salvation is by the power of God. Again, referring to John
17, he said, Father, I thank you. You've given me power over
all flesh that I should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given to me. Salvation is by the power of
God. What does it take to raise a
dead sinner from a dunghill of sin and make him a prince of
God, a son of God? By nature, we're children of
wrath, even as others. What kind of power does it take?
The power of God. That's not in any person, church,
or organization at all. It's the power of God. The Father
hath given me power over all flesh that I should give eternal
life to as many as the Father hath given to me. What do we
mean when we say that salvation is of the Lord? We mean that
salvation is by the sovereign will of God, not the will of
men. Now people may talk about free
will religion all they want to. Man's will is not free. It's
in bondage to his sinful, rotten nature. Man's will is not free. Salvation is by the sovereign
will of God, not the will of men. The will of man. Now, I can make good on that.
You know I can. I'm going to go right to the
Scripture. I'm going to quote the Scripture. "...of his own
will begat he us with the word of truth. It's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth. It's God that showeth mercy."
We're born not of the will of flesh, not of the will of man,
but we're born of God. Of God. So we mean that salvation
is by the will of God, not the will of man. He makes His people
willing in the day of His power. That's true. Willing in the day
of His power. We mean, what do we mean? We
mean that salvation is by the grace of God, the sovereign grace
of God, not by the deeds of our sinful flesh. By the deeds of
the flesh shall no man be justified in the sight of God. You know
the verse I want to quote there, Romans 3, 24. I quote this almost
every sermon. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace freely. Free grace. Free sovereign grace. I love it. That's my only hope. Christ. Salvation by the grace
of God. What do we mean? We mean the
whole of the work whereby a lost, dead, guilty, rebel, sinner against
God, a guilty son of Adam is justified, saved, sanctified,
redeemed. All that is of the Lord. Of Him
only. But of Him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us. But of Him are you in Christ
Jesus. How did you get in Him? chosen
in Him before the foundation of the world. But of Him are
you in Christ, who of God has made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Salvation, therefore, we can
safely conclude, salvation is not something we do for God or
something we do for ourselves. Salvation is something God must
do for us and in us. For any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Christ in you is a hope of glory. The Lord Jesus Christ alone is
the Alpha and Omega of all our salvation. Starts with Him, it
ends with Him. Right? From election to glorification,
and all the way in between, we can say, rightly so, safely so,
salvation is of the Lord. You remember this scripture?
I quote this one all the time too. I got nothing new to say. It's the same old story. Second
Timothy 1-9 is God who saved us and called us with a holy
calling, not according to our work but according to his own
purpose and grace, giving us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Thank God he chose us before
we were born. He never would have done so afterward. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, Titus 3, 5, but according to His mercy
He saved us. By the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which He shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
All the way through this book, from Genesis to the Revelation,
all the way through this book, the message is sound, loud, and
clear. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is of the Lord Jesus Christ. Alone. Alone. Always. Always. Now, the first time I looked
this up this week, the first time Salvation is used in the
book of God is Genesis 49, and Jacob said, I waited for thy
salvation. First time the word grace is
found in the word of God. Genesis chapter 6, Noah said,
it says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Jacob
said, I waited for thy salvation. Moses declared salvation completely
of the Lord. Remember when they are on the
banks of the Red Sea? They couldn't get across the
Red Sea. They didn't have time to build
boats. Pharaoh and his army was thundering down on them with
those chariots. And Pharaoh was determined to
destroy all of Israel. And Moses said to the people,
fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord,
which he will show you today. The Lord shall fight for you. Now how was that water parted? How did they get across that?
seabed on dry ground. Salvation's of the Lord. Jonah
declared the same message we read a moment ago. That salvation
is of the Lord. He cried from the fish's belly,
looking to the temple, mercy seat. And he said, I will sacrifice
unto thee with a voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that I have vowed.
Salvation's of the Lord. That's our cry, is it not? Salvation
is of the Lord. Now I read, actually I looked
this up this morning. I got to thinking about, I had
one reference written down in the book of Psalms. David declared
in Psalm 37, 39, that salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. And then I got to thinking about
this word salvation, how many times it's used in the book of
Psalms. I knew it was used many times, but I looked it up 63
times to read about the salvation that is of the Lord. Let me read
a few of them to you. Psalm 9 verse 14 says, I will
rejoice in thy salvation. Psalm 18 too says, the Lord is
my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, the horn or power of my salvation. Psalm 21 five, his glory is great
in thy salvation. Psalm 25 five, for thou art the
God of my salvation. Psalm 27, we studied this recently,
the Lord is my light and my salvation. And then Psalm 46, let all those
that seek thee rejoice and be glad. Let such as love thy salvation
say continually, let the Lord be magnified. Let the Lord be
magnified. Let the Lord be honored. Let
the Lord be glorified. Let me read this one to you.
Don't turn, let me just read it to you. You're familiar with
this. Psalm 62. My soul waiteth upon God, from
Him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my rock and my salvation.
My soul wait thou upon God, for my expectation is from Him. He
only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense, I shall not
be moved. In God is my salvation and my
glory. The rock of my strength and my
refuge is in God. Why does he keep saying that
over and over and over again? Because it's so. Because it's
true. That's the only hope any sinner
has. Salvation is of the Lord. Jacob said it. Moses declared
it. Jonah declared it. David declared
it. Simeon in the temple in Jerusalem
waiting for the consolation of Israel. He was waiting for the
Messiah. And when they brought the infant
man-child the Lord Jesus Christ to him. The Lord made him a promise
that he would not die until he had seen the Lord's Christ. And
here's what he said, Lord, now let us thy servant depart in
peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. He is the Savior. He's the only
Savior. Salvation is of the Lord and
it's found in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we say this, salvation
is in a person. Salvation is in a person, in
Christ, in Him, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is not, now
here's the negative, you need to know what salvation is not,
right? Salvation is not in a pool. Salvation is not in a profession.
Salvation is not in persuasion. Salvation is in a person, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He that hath the Son hath life. No wonder the apostles said,
I count everything else dung, lost, and ruined, that I may
win Christ and be found in Him. He that hath the Son, John said,
hath life. This is a record that God has
given to us in eternal life. And this life is in His Son.
He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God,
He doesn't have life. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now I want to give to you five
things. Five things. And I won't wear you out here.
I want to give you five things that the Word of God teaches
about the salvation that's of the Lord. Salvation is of the
Lord. And I'll borrow this outline
from an old English preacher named Charles Spurgeon, who used
these five points in a sermon back in 1857. 1857 was a good year. He said, Salvation
to the Lord, in that he planned it. provided and purposed it
from all eternity, salvation of the Lord, in that He planned
it and provided salvation from all eternity. Salvation is older
than creation. God planned salvation. Without
God, it could not have been planned or could not have been provided.
God in His infinite wisdom provided the Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ
is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Before there was a sinner, There was a Savior. Salvation is not
an afterthought of God. When Adam sinned, God didn't
scramble around to find a solution. Before Adam was ruined, the Lord
Jesus Christ as Redeemer stood as a surety of the eternal covenant
of grace. Peter put it this way, we are
redeemed. but not with corruptible things.
We are redeemed with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
a lamb without spot or blemish, who was verily, truly foreordained
before the world, but was manifest for you in these last days. Salvation
of the Lord, in that God planned it from all eternity. Our Lord
said in Matthew 25, when he gathered all nations together before him
at judgment, He said, The sheep shall be on my right hand, and
the goats on my left hand. Then shall he say to them on
their right hand, Enter ye in, blessed, into the kingdom of
God. Enter ye, blessed of the Lord,
into the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world. God chose the people unto salvation
and we are bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren, because
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. So, salvation
of the Lord in that He planned it, purposed it from all eternity.
Secondly, salvation of the Lord in that He performed it. He purchased
it. He executed it. He accomplished
it. Salvation of the Lord in that
He accomplished salvation. That is, He purchased us with
His own blood. Paul said, you are no more your
own, you are bought with a price. You are bought with a price.
God bought the church with His own blood. He executed our salvation. He performed salvation. He purchased
salvation. He accomplished salvation. He
put away sin. by the sacrifice of himself.
He appeared once in the end of the age to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. Call his name Jesus, he shall
save his people from their sin. He did it all. He executed this
salvation. He accomplished this salvation. This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that the Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to save sinners. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law. He planned it, and then He executed
His plan perfectly. Thirdly, salvation of the Lord
in His application. How does He apply this to us,
who are His people, who are sinful, who are guilty? Salvation of
the Lord in His application. He said, I will have mercy upon
whom I will have mercy. Being confident of this very
thing, Philippians 1, 6, that He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." He
makes application of this salvation to us. He grants faith. He grants
repentance. My God shall supply all your
need according to His riches in glory through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Says the Lord who quickens the
dead and causes the dead sinner to hear and believe the gospel. We only believe the gospel according
to the working of His mighty power. It's the Lord who makes
us willing in the day of His power, is it not? He said, no
man can come to me except the Father which sent me draw him.
It's the Lord who makes us willing to seek Him, to call upon Him.
It is the Lord who calls us out of darkness into His marvelous
light. It's the Lord. who sovereignly grants and gives
mercy unto us. It's the Lord who gives us repentance,
who gives us a broken heart. He denies them of a broken heart.
Save us such as be of a contrite spirit. It is of the Lord. Salvation
is of the Lord. In its application, He applies
it to whom He will. And when He saves a sinner, He
saves them eternally. We'll see that in just a minute. The next point actually, point
number four. Salvation of the Lord in its
sustaining power. Have I given you this before? I hope this is familiar. It's
good to be told what you already know. You know it? It's good
to be told what you already know. Salvation of the Lord in its
sustaining power. But Israel shall be saved in
the Lord with an everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed
nor confounded, world without end. He said, My sheep, hear
my voice, I know them, they follow me, and I give unto them eternal
life, they'll never perish. No can any man, neither can any
man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave to me is
greater than all, and no man can pluck Him out of the Father's
hand. I am my Father, we are one. We are kept by the power
of God, Peter said. In the book of Jude we read,
Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to
present you faultless before the presence of His glory with
exceeding joy, through the only wise God our Savior be glory,
majesty, dominion, and power both now and forever. The salvation
of the Lord in its sustaining power. He calls us out of darkness,
and He saves us by His grace, and He keeps us secure. Are believers secure? Do you
believe in eternal security? It depends who saved you. If
God saved you, you're saved with an everlasting salvation. If
you made some little silly decision sometime in your life, well,
yeah, you probably get in trouble. Those whom God wisely saves,
He saves them with an everlasting salvation. Here's the last point.
Salvation is of the Lord in its ultimate perfection. What is
predestination all about? Believers are predestinated to
be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going
to raise us from the dead. And He's going to make us just
like the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what predestination is
all about. People think it's an ugly word.
It's a terrible word. You who believe the Gospel and
know the Word of God, it's a blessed truth. He's going to make you
just like Christ. You're predestinated to that
end, to be conformed to the image of the Son. Every believer delights
in that, don't they? He's going to make you just like
Christ. The elect of God are predestinated to that end, to
be just like Christ. Now, who can do that for you?
Who can raise you from the dead and from the grave? Here's a
body that's been dead for years. Rotten. Dust. Nothing there. Bone. Dried. Dead. Bleached. How's that body going to come
out of that grave and have a new body fashioned like unto His
glorious body? Is the church going to do that
for you? Is your religious profession going to do that to you? How
about your baptism? Is that going to work? Is that
going to raise you from the dead? Who's going to raise you from
the dead? Thank God, salvation is of the Lord. He was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification, and we
are raised up in Him. Thanks be to God who has given
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the disciples
asked the Lord one day, well, who then can be saved? When that
young, rich ruler came to the Lord and said, well, all these
things I've done. And the Lord said, you sell everything
and follow me. And he turned and walked away.
The disciples said, well, that man was a real candidate for
salvation. He could have helped us with his money and with his
wealth. But he turned and walked away. And the disciples said
to the Lord, well, who then can be saved? Remember what he said? With men. It's impossible, but
with God, all things are possible, even your salvation, even mine. Never despair. God still saves
sinners. Are you sure, preacher, that
there is salvation in Christ? I'm sure because this Word teaches
it so, to be so. Our Lord said, I'm the way, the
truth, the life. No man come to the Father but
by Me. Neither is there salvation in
any other, nor the name under heaven, given among men whereby
we must be saved. Be sure of this, there is no
salvation apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Is there any other
Savior? Is there any other salvation?
Absolutely not. All in Him. Salvation is of the
Lord. Five words. Think about it. Five
words. And yet, those five words sum
up the whole book of God. Salvation is of the Lord. It's the sum and substance and
subject matter of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation
is of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Because Christ
is all and in all. Now what do you think? What do
you think? Salvation is of the Lord, isn't
it? You who are saved know who saved you.