Psalms 37, 39. David says the salvation of the
righteous is of the Lord. And my friends, salvation is
a very large term. The word salvation describes
the whole life and experience of the believer. It's not just
an isolated experience, it's a life. Salvation is not just
an isolated feeling, it's a life. It's the whole life and experience
of the believer from his first consciousness of sin to his entrance
into glory, and nothing else is salvation. Salvation is the
whole life, the whole experience of the believer from his first
consciousness of sin to the day that he enters into eternal glory. And a person who does not experience
that whole cycle cannot call himself a saved man. Salvation
is the whole life and experience of the believer. from the time
that he's first made conscious by the Holy Spirit of his guilt
to the day that he's entered into eternal glory and is perfectly
conformed to the image of God's Son. For Paul said, now is our
salvation nearer than when we believe. In other words, the
work of conviction and conversion is salvation. It's a part of
salvation. When the Holy Spirit comes and
reveals our sins and grants to us repentance toward God and
grants unto us faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, when we see Him
in His power to save, when we see Him in His power to keep,
when we trust Him and believe on Him and rest in Him, salvation
has begun. The work of perseverance, the
work of preservation is salvation. The Scripture says, to those
who are being saved, The gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
To those who are being saved, the gospel is the power of God.
To those who are perishing, it's nonsense. To those who are being
saved, we are being saved. We have been saved, we are being
saved. And the resurrection of the body,
when our bodies are called forth from the tomb, When our bodies
are called forth from the dust, when our bodies are called forth
from the grave, and we enter into God's eternal glory, that's
salvation. That's a part of salvation. Turn
to 1 Peter. I want you to read this scripture
here. 1 Peter 1. Now, I know today about all you
hear about salvation is, have you trusted Jesus and are you
saved? And a fellow says he trusts Jesus
and he's saved, and then the newness wears off, and the novelty
wears off, and he gets weary of the road, and he drops off
the sidelines, and he gets out of the game, and he quits playing
ball, and he sits on the sideline and he's no longer saved. 1 Peter
1, verse 5, says this. We are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. That's when salvation is going
to be revealed. He that endures to the end, the
same shall be saved. Christ is the Son over his house,
whose house we are if we hold fast our confidence firm unto
the end. This thing of salvation is a
lifetime experience. This thing of salvation is the
life and the whole experience of the believer from the time
that God awakens him, from the time that God quickens him, from
the time that God reveals his sin and reveals Christ as his
Savior through perseverance, through preservation, through
trial, through fall, through the liftings of the Spirit unto
the day that he dies, and they bury his body, and then God by
his power calls forth that body, and he stands perfectly conformed
to the image of God's Son. That's salvation. And you can't
call anything else salvation. He that hath begun a good work
in you shall finish that work. He shall perform that work. And
you can't call anything else salvation. You can call these
things religious experiences if you want to. You can call
this getting religion if you want to. You can call it reformation. You can call it turning over
a new leaf. You can call it joining an organization. You can call it quitting your
meanness. You can call it anything you want to. But the only thing
you can call salvation is that which God starts and that which
God continues and that which God completes. That's what our
text is saying here in Psalms 37, 39. The salvation of the
righteous is of the Lord. The salvation of the righteous,
He is their strength. The person, not a profession.
He is their strength in time of trouble. Sure, you're going
to have trouble, and a lot of it. But He is your strength. Not your profession. Not your
pastor. But He is your strength, and
the Lord shall help them, and the Lord shall deliver them,
and the Lord shall deliver them from the wicked, and the Lord
shall save them, because they trust in Him." It's not honest
to call anything else salvation. Not honest at all. And it's not
being truthful. We are saved And those who are
saved are being saved, and those who are being saved will be saved.
For whom he foreknew, them he predestinated to be conformed
to the image of his Son, and whom he predestinated he called,
and whom he called he justified, and whom he justified he glorified.
That's our spiritual biography. God wrote it. He's the author
and finisher of faith. And what he starts, he continues.
What he continues, he completes. That's salvation. And what shall
we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Now, there are four things that
I want to point out in this message. First of all, salvation is of
the Lord, from beginning to end. Salvation is. Not religious experience. That's not what I'm talking about.
not a decision, not something that a person professes and then
later denies or denounces. I'm talking about salvation.
The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. Now, that's sound
doctrine. That's the first thing I'm pointing
out. That's sound doctrine. Salvation is of the Lord. That's sound doctrine. That's
the sum and the substance of the whole Bible. That's one word
for the whole book. Salvation is of the Lord. When
you see that guilty pair, Adam and Eve, walk out of the garden,
driven out, the scripture says, forced out because of their sin,
because of their rebellion. When you see them walk out of
that garden in shame, in a fallen state, in spiritual death, and
you see God place the cherubims in front of that gate, guarding
it with a flaming You can write over that gate, if anybody gets
back in paradise, salvation will be of the Lord. You can write
that over that gate. Salvation is of the Lord. Adam
and Eve will never go back in by their own power. They'll never
go back in by their own strength. They'll never go back in by their
own choice. They made their choice. Salvation
is of the Lord. When Noah's ark was lifted above
the flood, All of this world was destroyed, and that ark was
lifted above that flood by the power of God. You can write on
that ark, Salvation is of the Lord. Deliverance from death,
that's of the Lord. You can write on every Israelite
door in Egypt where that blood is put on the doorpost and the
lintel. You can write across that door
in that blood on that fateful salvation is of the Lord. No
Israelite had power to stay dead. No Israelite had the power to
lift his hand to protect his firstborn. Salvation is of the
Lord. And that star twinkling over
Bethlehem's manger 2,000 years ago spells out in sparkling letters,
salvation is of the Lord. This man who has come to the
earth in the form of a babe is sent by God. This visit of the
holy God to this earth in the person of Jesus Christ is of
God. This visitation, this incarnation,
this divine gift, it's of God. Salvation is of the Lord. Christ
died on that cross, and the veil in the temple was torn in the
midst, rent entwined from top to bottom. As that veil tore
from top to bottom, the message was echoed through heaven, earth,
and hell. Salvation is of the Lord. Entrance
into the presence of God is of the Lord. The divine privilege
of visiting with God is of the Lord. Divine communion is of
the Lord. When the stone was rolled from
the grave of Christ and he came forth, the heavenly host must
have been singing, salvation is of the Lord. And I'll tell
you, on that day when God calls forth the dead from the tombs,
when the shout of the archangel and the trumpet of God sounds
forth, I know it'll be playing this tune. Salvation is of the
Lord. That's what this Bible's all
about. Salvation is of the Lord, from Genesis to Revelation. Salvation
is of the Lord. Salvation in its eternal planning
is of the Lord. No human wisdom entered into
that divine counsel. Not even the angels entered into
that divine counsel. God planned it, God purposed
it, and God provided it. In its perfect provision, salvation
is of the Lord. It pleased God to bruise him.
God sent forth his Son in the fullness of time. For God so
loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son. Salvation
is of the Lord in its application. It pleased God to reveal his
Son in me. For by grace are you saved. In
its sustaining power, salvation is of the Lord. In its ultimate
perfection, salvation is of the Lord. From beginning to end,
salvation is of the Lord. That's what this book's all about.
That's sound doctrine. Turn to Philippians chapter 3.
Look at this verse of Scripture here. Philippians, the third
chapter, verse 20. Listen to it carefully. Philippians
chapter 3, verse 20. For our conversation, our citizenship,
is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body. Who's going to
do it? He's going to do it, that it
may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. according to the
working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself."
Brethren, this is sound doctrine. Salvation is of the Lord. The salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. Now, the second thing I want
you to see is this. This is not only sound doctrine,
but this is a necessary This is a necessary fact. This salvation
is of the Lord, is absolutely essential. It's absolutely necessary. For first of all, we know this.
The law cannot save us. The law cannot save us. Listen
to the scripture. Galatians, in Galatians chapter
2. Paul writes this to the church
at Galatia, knowing that a man is not justified by the works
of the law. It can't be. It can't be. The law reveals the holiness
of God, and in revealing the holiness of God and the holy
requirements of God, the law reveals our shortcomings. All have seen and come short
of the glory of God. As the law reveals the holiness
of God, it reveals our unrighteousness and our unholiness. The law can't
save. Galatians 3.11, listen to this,
but that no man, no man, is justified by the law in the sight of God.
It is evident. It's evident to anybody but a
fool. It's evident to anybody but a
totally blind person. It's evident to anybody but a
totally prejudiced individual that the law cannot and will
not redeem a sinner. It can't do it. No way. There's
no way that the law can save. The weakness. Listen to this.
What the law could not do, the scripture says. What the law
could not do. God sending his only Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh condemns sin in the flesh. The law could
not save. The weakness was not in the law,
but in us. The law is perfect and holy and
just and good, but you and I are sinful. And when we look into
the law like we look into a mirror, it reveals our filth. It reveals
our guilt. Salvation is of the Lord. This
is a necessary fact because the law can't save, and our works
can't save us either. The scripture says, Not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy
hath he saved us. Turn to Isaiah 64. Here is a
picture of every one of us. Isaiah 64, verse 6. Isaiah 64,
6 says this, But we are all, we are all as
an unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. I can't make you see that. And the only way I know that
the Spirit of God enables a man to see it is not by looking at
others. I hear people say, well, I'm
as good as the folks down there at your church. I'm sure you
are. But you're going to have to be
a lot better than they are to get to glory, a lot better. Because we're not going to glory
by our works, except your righteousness. I'll tell you somebody else,
you've got to be better. When you're talking about, I'm better
than the folks at your church, I'm better than the folks in
somebody else's church, you may be. And I'll tell you something
else, you've got to be a lot better than they are and better
than the folks in that other church, and you've got to even
be better than the Pharisees if you're going to heaven by
your works. Because Christ said, except your righteousness exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not
enter the kingdom of God. Now, these scribes and Pharisees,
while we're on this, let's just dress it up real good. These
scribes and Pharisees fasted twice a week. How many times
do you fast each week? These scribes and Pharisees gave
a tenth, a tithe, of everything they had, everything that was
given to them, everything they earned. Do you do that? These
scribes and Pharisees stood on the street corner right down
on 16th and Winchester, and they prayed at a certain hour during
the day. Have you done that lately? They
weren't ashamed to stand on the street corners and roll out the
scrolls of scripture and read to the passing by. These scribes
and Pharisees were moralists. They were legalists. They kept
the Sabbath day to the letter. These scribes and Pharisees were
moral people. You couldn't touch the hem of
their garment for sheer, plain morality. And Christ said, you've
got to be better than they are to enter the kingdom of God.
We are all as an unclean thing, and listen to this, Isaiah 64,
6, and all our righteousnesses are filthy rags. When we examine
our so-called good works, don't look too close at them. It will
shock you. It will drive you to despair.
Your little old religious profession and your little morality, you
will find them tainted with pride and arrogance and selfishness
and sin. It will shock you. The only way
in the world I know that the Holy Spirit reveals to a sinner
the fact that his works won't pardon him and the works won't
save him and his works won't make him acceptable to God is
to see his works in the light of God's holiness. God's holiness,
not what man preaches and not what man professes, but what
God Almighty is. And I'll tell you, if you ever
get a sight of that, you'll wonder whether anybody could be saved. And that's what the disciples
say, well, Lord, who can be saved? Who can be saved? And Christ
said with me, and it is impossible. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
not only sound doctrine, my beloved friends, but it is a necessity. It's a necessity. Because the
law can't save us, and our works can't save us, and our religious
professions I was introduced to a dear lady yesterday by a
friend of mine from a certain town, and I said, Well, I know. She said, I'm a Baptist. You're
a Baptist minister. I said, Yes, ma'am. She said, I'm a Baptist.
I said, Fine. I said, Do you know so-and-so
in this town? She said, He's not a Baptist. I said, He's a
friend of mine. He's not a Baptist. I know he's
a Methodist, but he's a friend of mine. Now, you're not going
to go to glory because you're a Baptist. There's going to be
enough Baptists in hell to elect the whole council down there.
That's right. And Catholics and Presbyterians
and Methodists and all the rest of that shooting match. There's
going to be a lot of them down there. Judas was an apostle. He was an apostle. He was more
than a Baptist. He was an apostle. And he didn't
know the Lord. Simon Magus was baptized, but
he didn't know the Lord. We've got to come to the place
where the apostle Peter came out there in that water. Peter
tried to walk on the water, and he saw the wind, I mean, he saw
the waves, and he heard and felt the wind, and he got scared,
and he took his eyes off the Lord, and he began to sink. And
then he cried as he raised his hand, Lord, save me or I'll perish. Save me or I'll perish. I hope
God, by his grace, will take your eyes off the law as a means
of salvation. It won't work. But God will take
your eyes off of your religious profession back there on that
you made when somebody talked you into joining the church.
And God will take your eyes off the fact that you've lived a
pretty good life compared with other people, and you've been
pretty moral, and you've gone to church, and you've paid your
religious dues. And I hope God will take your
eyes off those things and let you see the awfulness of your
sins in the light of God's holiness, in the light of God's perfect
law, which says the thought of foolishness is sin. Which says
to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, is sin. Which
says if a man has two coats, and his neighbor doesn't have
any, and he doesn't give him one, it's sin. which says you
are to do unto others as you would have them do unto you,
which says you are to love your enemy, you are to pray for them
which curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you,
that says you must love God with all your heart and your neighbor
as yourself. I hope God will let you see yourself
in the light of that law. And when he does, you'll fall
down at his feet and cry with the Apostle Paul, O wretched
man that I am." Huh? Salvation is of the Lord. That's a necessary fact. That's not only sound doctrine,
that's just plain old necessary fact. And then the
third thing, salvation is of the Lord. This is our only hope. This is our only hope. This is
our only hope in reference to the fall. In Adam we died. The only way we're going to be made
alive is by God's power and by God's grace. When God took Ezekiel
out there to that valley, that mountain, and let him look down
in that valley, and he said, I saw a valley full of bones. and they were very dry and parched
and bleached and baked in the sun without life, some of them
covered over by the blowing sand. There had been a great battle
in that valley, and many people had been killed, and the animals
and birds had picked the bones, every bit of the meat off those
bones, and they were just dry and full of holes and bleached. And God says, Ezekiel, can these
bones live? And Ezekiel said, Lord, you're
the only one that knows. If it's left up to them, they
can't. If it's left up to me, they can't. But you know. And
my friends, there's been a battle down here on this earth. It was
fought in the Garden of Eden, and man died. And since that falls, death and
condemnation and judgments passed upon all men. We're like that
valley full of dead, dry bones. The only way we're going to live
is for God to speak life. No way. Salvation of the Lord, in reference
to the fall. And then salvation of the Lord
in reference to my sins. Piles of sin have buried us. Mountains of transgressions have
overwhelmed us. Job said, I have sinned. Achan said, I have sinned. What shall I do unto thee, O
thou preserver of men? I have sinned. As I think of
all the mountains of transgressions, as I think like a great cave-in
buried a man beneath it, hundreds of feet down in a valley covered
over with sand and scale and rock. My sins have buried me
and separated me from God. Can I live? I can't dig myself
out. I can't wheel myself out. My
hope is that God will come and save me, because He can. Jonah, down there in the belly
of that whale, he said, salvation is of the Lord. And that's where
you are, and that's where I am, down there in the deep, in the
deepest part of sin, down there covered over. The bars of hell
have covered us over, and the seaweed of sin is all about us,
and we cry, Salvation is of the Lord! And I'll tell you something
else. If God doesn't save me and keep
me, I'll perish on the journey to glory." Salvation is of the
Lord as to the fall, in reference to our sins and in reference
to our perseverance. Now, if salvation is not of the
Lord, I'll fall tomorrow, or maybe next week, or maybe next
year, and lose this whole thing. But Jude said this, who is able to keep you from
falling. Now unto him that is able to
present you faultless before the presence of his glory, now
unto him, now unto him. I don't stand alone. Y'all pray
for me that I'll hold out. Don't do it. Please don't do
it. Pray that God will hold me out. You'll hear that song clinging
to God's unchanging hand, I'm not clinging to him, he's clinging
to me. I don't have the strength to
hold to him. That's like a Russian freight
train. I'm trying to hold on to the
freight train, and the wind's blowing against me, and the cinders
are flying in my face, and the train's shaking on the track,
and I'm holding on to it. That's foolishness. I'm in Christ,
and he's holding me and keeping me by his grace. My Father, they're in my hands,
he said. My sheep, I know my sheep. I
give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. My Father
which gave them is greater than all. No man is able to pluck
them out of my Father's hand. They're in the Father's hand.
He's holding them. They're not holding Him. Salvation
of the Lord in reference to my perseverance and in reference
to my resurrection. Now listen to this. I have three
impossible mountains ahead of me. Now you people are talking
about you saved yourself and you did God a favor and you trusted
Jesus and God did all He can do. Now it's up to you. Well,
I've got something that's up to you that you can't handle.
There are three impossible mountains ahead of me, one of them is death.
I can't handle it. Lord, give me grace to die. Let
me die the death of the righteous. When that day comes, when that
hour comes, I want to die the death of the righteous, don't
you? And God will have to give me dying grace. I can't handle
it, it's too big. I know people can talk about,
when death comes, I'll face it like a man. No, you won't either.
You'll cry like everybody else. You'll beg for life like everybody
else. You'll cry out, save me like
everybody else. But I want the grace of God to
let me die the death of the righteous. And then I'll tell you another
impossible mountain out yonder, and that's the resurrection.
Now let's see you bring yourself out of that grave. Let's see
you put the dust back together, and put the bones back together,
and put the skin on those bones, and put life in that heart, and
put a beat in that heart, and put breath in those lungs, and
then put sight in those dead eyes. Let's see you do it. God's
going to have to do that, every bit of it, and call me forth. And then I face the judgment. When God says every idle word
shall be brought into judgment, every secret deed, every little
faint glimmer of imagination that wasn't perfect holiness
that's ever passed through your brain will be brought forth to
the judgment, everything spoken in the closet will be shouted
from the housetop. Huh? And we stand before the
judgment, and the books are opened. Oh, my soul, the books are opened,
and the dead are judged out of those books according to their
works. I don't want to face that. Do
you? What are you going to do about
it? What are you going to do about it? You're going to have
to have somebody stand for you, aren't you? And that person is
Christ the Lord. That's the only one. So I face
three mountains that are impossible. I have to face three insurmountable,
impossible mountains, and God's going to have to help me. He's
going to have to do it all. He's going to give me grace to
die. He's going to have to call forth my body. He's going to
have to change it from corruption to incorruption, from mortality
to immortality, from sin to life, from death to life, and stand
me in the judgment and not open those awful books. But oh, what
joy to see that book closed and a lock put on it and the seal
stamped on it in the blood of Christ, paid in full, do not
open. Paid in full, do not open. And
God takes it and casts it into hell with all the rest of the
sins because they've been paid for. Don't open. Now somebody
else is going to have to do that. I can't do it. And that salvation
is of the Lord. Now last of all, and I'll tell
you something else. And I know we face, you know
what God hates worse than anything? He hates pride. He hates pride. He says seven things God hates. Number one is a proud look. He
said, pride growth before destruction, a hearty spirit before the fall.
God resisted the proud. God resisted the proud. And I've
heard use when, and we've got too much pride in religion today. Those people are proud of their
race, they're proud of their place, They're proud of their
face and even proud of their grace, and that's the worst pride
there is, that old rotten contemptible religious pride, that holier-than-thou
snobbish religious pride. And I'll tell you, when a man
comes to see salvation is totally and wholly and completely and
utterly of the Lord, it strips all of his pride. It just whittles
him down. He cries, Who maketh me to differ? What have I that I didn't receive?
What do I know that I hadn't been taught? Salvation is of
the Lord. Now there is something else.
This salvation of the Lord will not only strip your religious
pride off of you, but it will strip you of all confidence in
your flesh. Put no confidence in the flesh. You better say, the Lord willing,
I'm going to do this. The Lord willing, I'm going to
do that. The Lord willing, I'm going to
do the other. We continue in the faith for
the grace of God. Oh, David sinned. When they brought Saul's body
back, he committed suicide. King Saul. Saul the mighty. Saul the wise. Saul the sovereign. Saul the king. And they brought
the news to David that Saul had killed himself and had cut off
his head and hung it up on the streets of the Philistines to
laugh at him. And David wept and David cried,
O how the mighty have fallen! How the mighty have fallen! And the mighty can fall too,
except by the grace of God. set by the grace of God, salvation
of the Lord. Oh, how they're mighty are fallen. And then I'll tell you something
else this doctrine will do when you believe it, when you understand
it. It'll strip you of your pride and it'll strip you of the confidence
that you have in the flesh. And then it'll strip you of undue
censure of those who fall. For we would fail except for
God's grace. The Word of God says, Let him
that standeth take heed lest he fall. You know, when a friend
falls, and when he fails, and when he sins, and when he makes
a mistake, you know who's the kindest, most understanding,
most sympathetic person? It's the person who believes
salvations of the Lord. Really believes it. Because he
knows himself what he would be and what he would do except for
the grace of God. And he's the tenderest, most
understanding You know the fellow that doesn't do any censoring
or criticizing is the man who knows because he's been there. Salvations of the Lord. And then
I'll tell you this. When we believe salvations of
the Lord, it'll strip us of all boasting about the future. Peter said, Lord, I don't care
what these other fellows do. I'm going to stand. He was the only one that publicly,
vocally denied his Lord. The only one. The rest of them
forsook him and fled, but Peter was the one that spoke up and
said, I don't know him. And yet he was the one who said,
I'll stand. I'll stand. I tell you, every
time you talk like that, I promise you that God will give you an
opportunity to see that you can. I promise you that. You start
talking about what you will do and what you won't do and what
you will do, God will show you. And that's the reason we have
these trials. They're good for us. That's the reason we have
these falls and failures. They're good for us. They show
us what we are. and that all of salvation from
first to last is of the Lord, even the keeping. Oh, to grace,
how great a debtor! Daily, daily I am constrained
to be. O Lord, let Thy goodness, like
a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee, prone to wander. Lord,
I feel prone to leave the God I love. Here is my heart, O take
and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. Here I raise mine
Ebenezer, hither by thy help I am come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to
arrive at home. I hope." not our good pleasure. I'm not there yet. There's a
lot of rocks and mountains ahead. There's a lot of valleys. There's
a lot of trials. And he that endureth to the end,
the same shall be saved. I'm not there yet. I'm not there yet. And I'll tell
you this. I started this journey by his
grace, walking today by his grace. And when that trumpet sounds
on the morning of resurrection, I'll come forth out of that tomb
for one reason. God willed it. It pleased God
to perform it. And now I stand in the presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ for one reason, not because of anything
I did or I gave, but only because of His mercy, His blood, and
His grace. That's my hope. That's my comfort. Salvation is of the Lord, and
that's the message. There is no other message. Anything
else is frustrating, anything else is failing, anything else
is a waste of my time and yours too. To get people to do things
for God, all they can do for God is not enough. God's got
to do something for them. That's the message. Like that
leper who came to Christ, he said, Lord, if you will, you
can make me whole. If you will. Our Father used
the message for the glory of Christ. He alone is worthy of
glory. There's nothing in us or about
us that's worthy of any recognition, even by man, let alone by God. were the chief of sinners, less
and least of all the saints, not worthy to be a messenger. But our confidence is Christ,
our sufficiency is Christ, our salvation is Christ the Lord.
I use this message for whatever purpose will please thee, for
the good of all who hear. For Christ's sake I pray, amen.