Salvation Is of the Lord

There will be a great deal of
help in this message this morning for anyone in this congregation
who is concerned about your soul, your relationship with the living
God, who is concerned about salvation. Because Jonah is a picture of
the sinner, he's a picture of the rebel. at the extreme, his
wit's end, at the end of himself. And he was delivered. He was
saved. God intervened. God did something
for him. When Jonah ceased to do for himself,
God did something for him. Jonah was cast over the side
of the ship, and he was sinking down through the water. He talked
here in verse 2. He said, I cried by reason of
mine affliction, or because of mine affliction. For thou hast
cast me into the deep, into the midst of the seas, and the floods
compassed me about. All the billows and thy waves
passed over me, just sinking down. And then this huge fish
swallowed him, according to the Word of God. And he says, the
waters compassed me about, the weeds were wrapped around my
head, seaweed. I went down to the bottom of
the mountain. The earth with her bars was closed about me
forever. He said, I was shut up. Past deliverance. Unable to help
myself. No one else could help me. My
soul fainted within me. And then he said, I remembered
the Lord. I remembered the Lord. And back
there in verse 4 he says, I will look toward thy holy temple.
That's the tabernacle. It's the temple of the Lord.
That's Christ. Christ is that. The temple was
the place where God met man and where man met God. That's Christ. And Jonah said, I looked to the
temple. I remembered the Lord. I looked to the temple. Beyond
human help, beyond the help of anyone, beyond helping himself,
there's nothing he could do. He was at the bottom of the sea,
in the belly of a fish, with the weeds about his head, the
iron bars closed forever, in the grave, he said. And then
he uttered these words in verse 9, salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Now
I would say that those five words just about sum up my theology. I know we write our books on
systematic theology and they're that thick, and they serve their
purpose, I know they do. We write our articles of faith,
we write our constitutions and bylaws, and I'm sure these have
a place and they serve a great purpose. But I believe Jonas
sums up what we preach and what we believe in this short five-word
sentence, salvation is of the Lord. That's what I believe. Salvation is of the Lord. Deliverance
is of the Lord. Redemption is of the Lord. Justification is of the Lord.
Sanctification is of the Lord. It's all in His hand. Now it
may be interesting to you to turn to Exodus chapter 14 with
me a moment. Exodus 14. I want you to read
something with me. Exodus 14 verse 13. Israel had left Egypt, and they
were journeying in the wilderness, and they came to the Red Sea.
And someone said Pharaoh and all of his forces were pursuing
them, intent on destroying them. And the people began to come.
They saw Pharaoh's forces coming away off, saw the cloud of dust
from the horses' hooves, and they heard the rumble of the
chariots. And they turned on Moses. The
Red Sea was at their backs and Pharaoh's forces thundering down
upon them. And they turned upon Moses and
they said, it would have been better to have served the Egyptians
than to die in the wilderness. And you know what Moses said,
look at verse 13. And Moses said to the people,
Exodus 14, 13, Fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of
the Lord. That's what sinners need to do. We've got all of our plans of
salvation and all of our recipes, you know, and Moses just said
to the people, here was the Red Sea and the forces of Pharaoh
thundering down upon them. He said, stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord. Also, turn to 1 Samuel 17. Here's
another example of this. 1 Samuel 17. I love this story. The Philistines had gathered
their great forces against Israel. And they were in two armed camps,
heavily armed camps, and the Philistines had a fellow named
Goliath who was close to 10 feet tall. That's tall. Close to 10
feet tall. And he came out and challenged
the people of God, Israel. And he said, came out, and he
gives the weight of his armor and the size of his shield and
his sword, ten feet tall, almost to that ceiling. And he stood
there in front of the, defying the armies of God, the armies
of Israel, and he said, send out a man to fight me. And whoever
wins, if it's your warrior, if it's me, then the forces will
surrender. If I win, You surrender. If you win, I surrender." And
David came out there to visit his brothers who were in the
armies of Israel. And it was a stalemate. No one would go
out and fight him. And David stood out there and
challenged Goliath. He got permission from Saul and
from the armies of Israel to fight Goliath. And he went out.
Listen to what he said to that man, Goliath. Verse 46. Verse 45, David said to the Philistine,
Goliath, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and
a shield. I come to you in the name of
the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you
have defied. This day the Lord that this day
will the Lord deliver you into my hand, and I'll smite thee,
and take thine head from thee, and give the carcasses of the
host of the Philistines to the fowls of the air and to the wild
beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there's
a God in Israel, and that all this assembly shall know that
the Lord saveth." Who saved? The Lord saveth. and not with
sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he'll give
you into our hands." Who does the saving? The Lord saves. That's what Jonah's saying in
his inability, in his helplessness. He's saying salvation's of the
Lord. And just as soon as he learned it, God delivered him. Just as soon as he confessed
it, just as soon as he gave up, cast himself on the mercy of
God alone. God saved him. Same thing is
true of Israel, when Pharaoh's forces were coming down upon
them, and there's the Red Sea, and Moses said, just stand still
now. Salvation is of the Lord. And God opened the sea. And the
same thing, David came out against this huge Goliath, and he said,
You come to me with your sword and spears and your shield. I
come to you in the name of the Lord. God save it. The Lord save
it. And He'll deliver you into my
hand. You know, that was David's theme throughout the whole book
of Psalms. I won't ask you to turn to all these, but I want
you to listen all the way through the Psalm. This is the theme.
Psalm 2-8, salvation belonging to the Lord. Psalm 25, we rejoice
in the Lord's salvation. Psalm 37-39, the salvation of
the righteous is of the Lord. Psalm 62-1, my soul waiteth upon
God, from Him cometh my salvation. Psalm 69-29, let thy salvation,
O God, set me on high. Psalm 79-9, help me, O God, of
my salvation, for the glory of thy name. Psalm 88-1, O Lord
God of my salvation, I have cried day and night unto Thee. Psalm
98-2, The Lord hath made known His salvation, His righteousness
hath He showed to the heathen. Psalm 119-174, I have longed
for Thy salvation, O Lord. Thy salvation. Now here's another
interesting example. Turn to 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles
chapter 20. Once again, the Israelites were
surrounded, this time by the Syrians. And Jehaziel, the man
of God, the prophet of God, spoke up. They had given up. They saw
no way of escape, of deliverance. And Jehaziel spoke up in 2 Chronicles
20, verse 17. Listen. You shall not need to
fight in this battle. Set yourselves Stand ye still,
and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Fear not, nor be dismayed. Stand
still, see the salvation of the Lord. Turn to Luke chapter 2. Here's another one. Luke chapter
2, verse 30. Luke 2, verse 30. Our Lord Jesus
Christ came into the world, was born of Mary the Virgin. He received
a human body. He was in the body of this small
child. And his parents brought him to
the temple to do after him according to the tradition, the ceremony,
the custom of Israel. And when they brought him into
the temple, there was an old man there, a priest by the name of
Simeon, who had waited for the Messiah, the consolation of Israel,
it's called in the Scripture. He had waited till God would
send his Redeemer, his Savior, his Messiah. And the Holy Spirit
had told Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the
Lord's Christ, the Messiah, the one of whom Moses wrote, the
one for whom Israel looked, the one of whom all the types and
sacrifices and all of the prophecies had spoken. And so they brought
this infant in to go through the religious ceremonies because
our Lord was in subjection to every law, God's moral law, God's
ceremonial law, the law of the home, the civil law. And they
brought him in and handed him to this old priest, and this
is what he said, verse 28, Luke 2. Then took he him up in his
arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now lettest thy servant
Let us thou thy servant depart in peace according to your promise,
according to your word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
thy salvation. Mine eyes have seen thy salvation. And there's no way that a man's
going to get any comfort till he sees the Lord's salvation.
There's no way that a man is going to have any peace any fellowship
with God, any real joy or rest until he sees God's salvation.
I don't care how many hours he walks and how much theology he
learns. I don't care how many churches
he joins, how many times he's baptized, or confirmed, or catechized,
or comes to the sacraments, or the Lord's table, or communion.
I don't care how many sins he quits, and how many new leaves
he turns over, or how much service for God he does, how many doors
he knocks on, or how many sermons he preaches, or how many Bible
classes he teaches, or how many souls he wins to Jesus. I don't
care what he does till he sees God's salvation. He's not going
to have any peace. He's not going to have any joy.
He's not going to have any comfort. He's not going to have fellowship
with God. Every man whom God saves comes, maybe not to this
extremity, but he comes to the point where Jonah came, where
God brought Jonah to the end of himself, to his wit's end. And he sees that the whole of
salvation is of the Lord. God is the Savior. And God does
the same. That's what I'm saying. Now,
what do we mean, salvation is of the Lord? Will you listen
to a few of these definitions? This is what I mean when I say
that salvation is of the Lord. And I'm saying this, you're not
going to find any peace. There's peace in sin for a season. I'm talking about lasting peace. There's pleasure in sin for a
season. I'm talking about lasting joy. You're not going to find
any real relationship with God that's unbroken and undisturbed. And it's filled with confidence
and assurance till you quit trying to do something for God or for
yourself or for the world and stand still and wait till God
does something for you. Now that's so. You read that
all the way through, these examples. Stand still, Moses said, and
see the revelation of himself. of his wisdom, of his power,
of his grace. Stand still! David said, you come to me with
your sword and your spear and your shield and all of your armaments
of war, I come to you in the name of the Lord. Jehaziel said,
you people, you're just panicky, you're going to do all these
things, just be still. The battle is not yours, it's
the Lord's. You wait upon God. And Simeon,
he looked into the face of that child and he said, I'll die now. I've seen God's salvation, God's
salvation, peace. What I mean, this is what I mean,
I mean the whole of the work. Whereby a lost sinner, a rebel
son of Adam, the whole of the work, whereby a rebel son of
Adam is justified, sanctified, pardoned, redeemed, is of the
Lord, and of him only. That's what I mean. I mean the
whole of the work, whereby a child of wrath, even as others, a child
of darkness, is translated from the kingdom of darkness, the
darkness of religion, the darkness of tradition, the darkness of
sinful ignorance, the darkness of a total fleshly fall, He's
delivered from that darkness to light, the light of God's
kingdom, the light of God's Son. That's of the Lord and of Him
only. I mean the whole of the work,
whereby a man who is a slave of sin, a servant of sin, under
the dominion of sin and the curse of sin, is changed. That man is changed and he becomes
a servant of righteousness. He becomes a servant of God.
He becomes a man before God who walks with him. That's of the
Lord and of him only. Charles Spurgeon used to say,
the banquet of mercy is served up by one host. who prepared
the feast, who invited the guests, who provided the robes, that's
the Lord of glory. Charles Spurgeon said he visited
a dear old widow lady one time. This was back in the days before
all of us had so much. He said she'd been inviting him
for a long time. He was so busy, but she'd been
saying, come by and have tea with me someday. Well, if you've
ever visited in London or Ireland, you know they don't drink tea,
they eat tea. That's right, they eat tea. And
you eat tea at tea time, too. I went to a restaurant over at
noon one day and ordered a cup of tea, hot tea, and the girl
told me it wasn't tea time. Four o'clock in the afternoon,
tea time, and that's when you have tea. And you don't ever
just have a cup of tea, you have something to eat with it. Cakes
and cheese and crackers and all these different things, you know,
you eat tea. And she invited him to come and have tea. That
meant that to have tea, you had to have a tray of dainies along
with the tea, you know, pour the tea. So when he was in his
wife's kitchen, he said, honey, I'm going over to a dear old
wit of so-and-so's to have tea with her this afternoon. Do you
have some home-baked cookies I could take along? His wife
said, yes, I have some over here that I baked fresh. And so he
got two or three, and he put them up in a little bag, and
he put them in his pocket. And he went to this dear old
lady's house. It was a poor house, very poor. She had nothing. But this great, great pastor,
Brother Spurgeon, great leader, preacher, orphanage leader, president
of the college and all that, he walked in, sat down, and she
was so glad to see him. They had a little fellowship.
She said, we'll have some tea. So he reached in his pocket,
proudly, and pulled out those cookies and laid them on the
table. And that dear old soul frowned,
and she looked at him, and she took her hand, he said, and swept
those cookies off the table onto the floor. She said, I invited
you to have tea, not bring tea. And I'll tell you, you want to
insult the living God, you try to provide the cookies. The banquet of mercy is served
up by one host. the Lord of Glory, who provides
the fare, who invites the guests, who even provides the robes and
serves the table. It's all of the Lord. That's
what I'm saying. I'm saying the royal bath of mercy. where in
black souls a wash, white, was filled from the veins of Jesus
Christ, and no blood of martyrs mingles with that stream, no
blood of noble confessors or heroes of the cross enter that
river of atonement. The atonement is the unaided
work of the Master himself." Salvations of the Lord. Jonah
sank beneath the waves, helpless. He's no more helpless than you
are spiritually. Jonah encased in the belly of
the fish, helpless. You say it's impossible. Well,
with God all things are possible. With man it's impossible. With
God all things are possible. He's no more helpless than you
are or I am. Let me give you five things,
and you jot these down at least in your mind or in the back of
your Bible or somewhere, and you remember they're salvations
of the Lord. And if you ever come to this
place to which Jonah came, God brought him. Most people haven't. They can still wiggle a little
finger. They've still got something to recommend them to God. But
if you can ever come to this place, God will save you. He delights to show Mercy. God doesn't delight to bargain
with anybody. Let the pot sherds of the earth
strive with the pot sherds of the earth. God's not going to
bargain with any man. He delights to show mercy. God
delights to deal with the down and out. God delights to deal
with the hopeless, with the helpless. God delights to deal with those
who cry unto them out of their trouble. out of their distress,
out of their affliction. He always answers. Help me, Lord. No, no. You need more than help. You need more than help. Assist
me, Lord. No, you need more than assistance.
Aid me, Lord. You need more than aid. You need
total deliverance. There's no cooperation in this
thing whatsoever. First of all, God planned salvation. God planned it. Without God,
it wouldn't have been planned. It's a plan too splendid and
too wise to have been the product of any mind except that mind
which could carry it out. God planned salvation. Look up
these scriptures sometime, Ephesians 1.4, chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. 2 Thessalonians 2.13, we're bound
to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. From
the beginning, before the foundation of the world. God plans salvation. 1 Peter 1.19, I want you to turn
over and look at this one. 1 Peter 1.18 says this, 1 Peter 1.18 says, "...as much
as you know, you are not redeemed with corruptible things, such
as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by
tradition from your father, but with the precious blood of Christ,
as of a lamb without blemish, without spot." Now watch verse
20. was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but
was manifest in these last times for you. How old is salvation? Well, it's older than Bethlehem.
It's older than Calvary. It's older than the tabernacle.
It's older than the first man, Adam. It's older than the world. It's older than the angels. God
hath from the beginning, in the beginning God created, from the
beginning God chose. Christ is the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world, ordained, planned, purposed,
but manifested in these last times. You see, friends, what
God does in time is what he purposed to do in eternity. God doesn't change. The Lord
of glory doesn't change. He plans salvation. Let me ask
you this. Suppose God called a council
of the angels. This is before the creation. This is before the world was
made. God called a council of angels, and he declared this. This is what God said. Man, whom
I shall create, will rebel against me. I know that. God knows all
things. Man will sin. And I shall have
to punish man. I'll have to punish sin because
my law and my justice demand that I punish sin. God's just,
God's holy, God's righteous. He must punish sin. Now then,
yet I intend to show mercy. I intend to punish sin. I intend
to show mercy. I intend that my justice shall
be honored. I intend that my love shall be
manifested. So how can this be? How can both
my law be honored, my justice have its demands fulfilled, and
my mercy reign? Give me an answer to that, you
angels, you men. Why, they would have still been
sitting there in silence. They'd still been wondering how.
Who would have ever come up with this, that Christ, who is God,
perfect, holy, without spot or blemish, should come into this
world and assume the nature of fallen creatures and obey the
law as a man and satisfy justice as a man, the infinite man, the
God-man, and pay everything that the law demanded and meet every
requirement and satisfy God's justice so that God can be just
and justify the ungodly who is in Christ. God figured that out, God planned
it, and that's the only way that God... Now listen to me. If your God is not just, your
God is not God of heaven and earth. If your God is not righteous,
I hear people say, well, my God's too good to do that! Now wait
a minute. If your God is good, or if your
God is love to the exclusion of righteousness, Your God's
not the God of the Bible, because the God of the Bible is righteous.
He is love, but he's righteous. He is merciful, but he's truth. He's holiness, he's honesty,
he's integrity to the nth degree, to the infinite degree. He's
holy, perfectly holy. Holy, holy, holy Lord God of
hosts. Even the angels veil their faces
in front of him, and the cherubims and seraphims cover their faces
and cry, Holy! If your God is all love, he's
not the God of the Bible. But if your God's all wrath,
he's not the God of the Bible. He's both just and he's both
merciful. He's both righteous and he's
both love. Both attributes have to be revealed, and in Christ
they are. At the cross, when Christ took our sins in His body,
judgment and wrath and punishment came down upon Him. That's God's
wrath against sin. My God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Because God is holy. And Christ
was made sin. But I'll tell you this, When
our Lord arose from the grave and our Lord sent his disciples
to preach repentance and remission of sins to all nations, that's
God's mercy, God's love. Secondly, not only did God plan
salvation, but he executed it. He executed it. He carried it
out. You didn't, I didn't, the priest
doesn't, God does. Why, he proclaimed it to Adam,
the seed of woman shall bruise the serpent's heel. He revealed
it to Moses, Moses wrote of me. He showed it to Abraham, Abraham
saw my day. He taught it to Isaiah, a virgin
shall conceive and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his
name Immanuel, God with us. He announced it to the shepherds,
we bring you good news, glad tidings. He preached it to John
the Baptist, and he fulfilled it in the man Christ Jesus. Turn to Acts 2. I want you to
look at this. Now, everybody's trying to get rid of the guilt
of crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews, the Romans,
the Gentiles, all these folks, you know, are trying to lay the
blame on somebody else for crucifying Jesus Christ. Actually, now listen to me, I
wouldn't offend you. We're all responsible for his death. It
doesn't matter who drove the nails. He was representing every
one of us. It doesn't matter whose voice
cried, crucifying the loudest. It doesn't matter whether Pilate
washed his hands or didn't wash his hands, turned him over to
them or what he did. The greater guilt belongs to
the whole human race. The whole human race. But my
friends, it was God It was the Father who sent him that cross.
Acts 2.23. Now listen. Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have
taken by wicked hands, have crucified and slain. You've done what God
determined before to be done. That's right. Turn to Acts 4.
Acts 4.27. It talks about Herod and Pontius
Pilate and the kings of the earth and the Gentiles and the Jews.
It says here, of a truth, Acts 4.27, against thy holy child
Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. Salvation of the Lord. And he
planned it, purposed it, and he executed it. He didn't send
Christ down here into the world saying, well, I'll send him down
there and maybe somebody will nail him to a cross. He sent
him down there knowing who would nail him to a cross, decreeing
it. You go back and read the Old
Testament, you'll find the price of his betrayal, 30 pieces of
silver is in there, the plucking of the beard, the crown of thorns,
the denial by his brethren, The crucifixion, all of his bones
pulled out of joint, the cutting of his side, the crying, I thirst,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? All of it's right there.
Buried in a borrowed tomb. God executed it, pleased the
Lord to bruise him. All right, thirdly, now listen
carefully right here. This will help you. The Lord
applies salvation. The Arminian, you know what an
Arminian is? Well, this is what an Arminian
is. He is a person that says this. Now listen to me, I'm not
splitting hairs here. The Arminian says God has done
all he can do. God has given his son, God has
made a way, God has provided an atonement God has provided
salvation. Now it's up to you to accept
it. Now it's up to you to believe it. Now it's up to you to want
it. Now it's up to you to accept
it. Now it's up to you to seek it. There's a problem here, though. There's a real problem. Here's
what the Armenian is saying. He's saying God loves sinners,
and God sent his son. And that's true. God planned
to save and God sent his son. His son died. His son's gone
back to heaven. Now here it is. It's up to you
to seek it, want it, to accept it. It's up to you. There's a
problem here. Here's the problem. Can the Ethiopian
change his skin? Can the leper change his spots?
Can a dead sinner give himself life? Can a man who loves darkness
love light? Can a lost sheep find himself?
Can an unborn sinner begat himself? Can a man who hates God create
love? Can a man who loves sin create
hate? For that's sin. Certainly not. That too is of the Lord. God
Almighty makes us willing in the day of His power. Now turn
to John 1.12. And you listen carefully to me,
and I may be able to help you. We do receive Christ. That's true. We do receive Christ. We receive Him intelligently
and consciously and willingly and lovingly. We embrace Christ. We receive Him. That's what it
says in John 1, 12. As many as received Him, to them gave He
the privilege, the right to become sons of God, even to them that
believe on His name. We do believe on His name. But
there's no period at the end of that sentence. That's a colon. You've got to read the next verse.
Which were born, not of blood, that is, not of fleshly inheritance,
not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of
God. My friends, I'm saying we do
receive Christ. We do believe on Christ. But
everybody who receives Christ and believes on Christ, were
born of God. They were begotten. They were
given life. They were brought forth from
the dead state. They were brought to desire and to want Christ. This is all in his purpose and
all in his plan. You here this morning, you have
an interest in spiritual things. Five, ten years ago you didn't.
Who gave you that interest? God did. Why is it your companions
don't have the same interest? Why is it that two children can
be born to the same mother, and sit at the same table, and eat
the same food, and read the same books, go to the same school,
and play with the same companions, and one of them desire the things
of the Lord, and the other not have the slightest interest in
this world, in the things of God? God makes a difference. God makes a difference. He certainly
does. We receive Christ consciously,
intelligently, that's so. Believe on Him. You do believe
on Him. But I guarantee you this, if you do believe on him, God
gave you that light and life. Let's look at another verse.
John 6, turn to John 6. We do come to Christ. We do come
to Christ. Yes, we do come to Christ. He
said in John 6, 37, All that my Father giveth me shall come
to me. Him that cometh to me I'll in
no wise cast out. Yes, sir. Anybody who comes to
Christ, he won't cast them out. Will you come to him? I'm not
talking about physically, I'm talking about in your heart,
spiritually. Will you come? But now you look at verse 44. Verse 44, John said, No man can
come to me, except the Father which sent me. Draw him, and
I'll raise him up at the last day. It's written in the prophets,
And they shall be taught of God. Every man that hath heard and
hath learned of the Father cometh to me. I'm not talking about
being taught by the Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic,
or taught by a priest or a preacher, evangelist, or a missionary,
so what? Taught of God. Taught of God. The man who comes
to Christ in a saving manner is taught of God. And God uses
the means that he pleases to use. He may use just his word,
he may use his word in the hands of a preacher, he may use his
words in the hands of a Sunday school teacher, a friend, a wife,
or a husband, or a father, a mother, even a child. But you'll be taught
of God if you come to God, if you come to Christ. You're not
coming to Christ unless God teaches you something. You may come to
another Jesus, you may come to a false Jesus, you may come to
a religion, you may come to a church, but you're not coming to God.
to the Christ, to the Bible, until you're taught of God. Yes? Yes, we believe on Christ. Turn to Ephesians 2. Let me show
you this. Ephesians 2. It's so. We're saved
by grace through faith. Faith! Ephesians 2. Look at it. Ephesians 2.8. For by grace are
you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God. Face the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. We're his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good work. Yes, we call on the Lord. Turn
to Romans 10. Let me show you this. This is
so important. We call on the Lord. And any man who will sincerely
call on the Lord, out of the fish's belly, at the foot of
the Red Sea, Before the giant if you call on the Lord out of
his out of his affliction out of his need out of his helplessness
I'm not talking about Lord. Now if you do this, I'll do this.
I'll serve you Lord if you'll do this. No sir In my hands no
price I bring Simply the cross of Christ I cling could my tears
forever flow couldn't my zeal no respite No, these for sin
could never atone God save me. I perish I mean, which sin? Anybody who'll call on the Lord,
there, God'll save him. But now look at verse 13, Romans
10, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. But that's not the end of that exhortation. How then
shall they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how
shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard? And how
shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent?" God sends them. So all of this,
you're here, you're interested, you're concerned, you're not
yet where Jonah was, you've still got to a little bit to say. You've still got a little bit
to contribute. Well, if you ever get to that
place, God brought you there. God brought Jonah there, and
God will bring you there. God will bring you there. All
right, fourth thing quickly. I've preached too long, but let
me give you two more things. The Lord sustains salvation.
Now, learn this and learn it well. The Lord sustains salvation when
a man is made a child of God. He has grace for that day. He
must have grace for the next day, and the next day, and the
next day. As a man does not make himself
spiritually alive, he cannot keep himself that way. Now listen
to this. Day by day the manner fail, oh,
to learn that lesson well. If it's ever my lot, if it's
ever my lot to set my feet on the threshold of heaven's paradise,
if it's ever my lot to put my hand on the latch that leads
to eternal glory, on the door of that pearly gate, that last
step, Cecil will be taken by the grace of God, or I'll fall
right there. I'll fall to hell right there.
If that last turning of the latch depends upon any spiritual strength,
motivation, power, righteousness, I'll fall to hell right there.
That's what I believe. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on thee. Leave, O leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on thee is stayed,
all my help from thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of thy wing. Day by day. God sustains it.
You know what old Charles Wesley wrote? He said, Just and holy
is thy name, I am all unrighteousness, false and full of sin I am, thou
art full of grace and truth. Last of all, the ultimate perfection
of salvation is of the Lord. The ultimate perfection. Now
I have a strong hope of being resurrected from the grave. This
corruptible shall put on incorruption, this mortal immortality. But
let me tell you this, I have no strength or power to make
that come to pass. Now listen to me, I cannot trust
the church to bring me out of the grave. Now if my church,
if I were trusting the church for salvation, then I'd trust
the church to bring me out of the grave. But the Church has
never been able to resurrect anybody, but Christ did. So I'm
going to trust the one who has the power to bring me out of
the grave, I'm going to trust him to redeem my soul. Someday I have a hope of being
like Christ. David said, I'll be satisfied
when I wake with his likeness. I want someday this vile body
to be changed into the likeness of his glorious body. Who can
do that for me? Only the Lord. So I trust him
to do that. I have a strong hope of eternal glory, of living forever
as an heir of God. Who can do that for me? Only
Christ. So what I'm saying is this. Salvation
is of the Lord. That's my theology. That's what
I believe. That's what I'm preaching. I'm
preaching that anything that's done for you, spiritually, if
it's a good gift or perfect gift, cometh from above. And if we
could just, if we could just open our fist and present our
hands in this fashion to God, if we could just shut our mouths
and open our ears and say, speak, Lord, If we could just turn these
hardened hearts of ours away from our philosophy and away
from our things that we think and open our hearts to God and
say, Speak, Lord, Thy servant hearing. Command. And I walk
in that command. But Lord, don't leave me alone.
Save me or I perish. I remembered God, Jonah said,
as the seaweeds closed about my head and darkness enveloped
me and I was in the grave, I cried salvation to the Lord. And boy,
that's when God saved him, right there. He meant that. That's
when God saved him. Our Father, for the blessed promise
of life eternal, for Thy sovereign power in bringing the dead to
life, for thy sovereign grace in turning our darkness to light,
for thy mercy in lifting us from a fallen state and making us
sons of God in fellowship with the Living Lord, for all that
thou hast done, and art doing, and will do, and for those mercies
that have not yet been made manifest. And for that day of eternal glory,
O Lord, we give Thee thanks, in Jesus Christ our Lord. For
His sake we pray, Amen.

Salvation Is of the Lord

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Salvation Is of the Lord

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