Psalms 37, 39. My subject is my text. The salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. Now, I rejoice in the word salvation. I like the word. It's a scriptural
word. I like to preach salvation. I like to hear others talk about
being saved, about salvation. It rejoices my heart to see men
and women seeking salvation. To me it's a word of great meaning. But salvation, when we talk about
salvation, when I preach salvation, when the Bible mentions the word
salvation, It does not only signify salvation from hell. Now, when the people of this
world, and I think most preachers and most church people, when
they hear us talk about salvation, when they hear one mention salvation,
they think that we're only referring to escaping punishment and escaping
the condemnation of God and the damnation of God. In other words,
their conception of salvation is being rescued from hell. I
think that's what's influenced the way that church services
are conducted today. Have a lot of singing, special
music, entertainment is what it is, religious entertainment.
Then a preacher brings a brief message that has one goal. and one point and that is to
get people to make some kind of religious profession or some
kind of decision to believe on Jesus so they won't go to hell
so that they will go to heaven. This message takes about 15 or
20 minutes and it's geared for one purpose and that is to get
folks to make a commitment and then they begin to sing an invitation
hymn and another 15 or 20 minutes almost as long as it took to
present the message, they are busy getting people to make those
public professions so that they won't go to hell. So that when
they die, they'll go to heaven. Now, I'm glad that we're not
going to hell. Don't misunderstand me. And I
believe that when Christ saves a man, he does save him from
the penalty of sin. And all who are saved are saved
from the punishment of sin. But salvation is not only from
the punishment of sin. If you think that salvation consists
only in being delivered from hell, you are not even close
to understanding salvation. If you think salvation consists
only in being delivered from the punishment of sin and enjoying
the luxuries of heaven in the sweet by-and-by, you don't have
the faintest conception of salvation, not even the faintest conception.
You have a false profession and a false religion. Now that's
all there is to it. That's fact. Because Jesus Christ
the Lord didn't come into this world only to rescue people from
hell. That was not his mission. Salvation
is not only, as Arthur Pink once said, from the punishment of
sin and the penalty of sin, but it's from the practice of sin.
And it's from the power of sin. And someday, by God's grace,
from the very presence of sin, from the tendency to sin, one
of these days we shall be in such a condition it will be impossible
to see. Now that's salvation. Salvation, actually, our life,
our life as a believer is a series of salvations. I believe in instantaneous
salvation. I believe in once for all salvation.
I believe that when God redeems a man, he's redeemed. But the
life of the believer is a series of salvations. That's where people
have missed it. Now let's be perfectly honest,
and let's speak the truth. Paul said, I've kept back nothing
profitable unto you. False evangelism and Hollywood
evangelism and this modern-day evangelism is damning men's souls. because it's giving them a false
conception of Christ, a false conception of salvation, a false
conception of God, and a false conception of the death of the
Son of God, and a false refuge to hide in to think they're saved
until God comes in judgment and wrath and sends them to hell.
And they stand there and they say, Lord, we made a profession.
Why, we said we believed on Jesus. We walked down the aisle. We
joined the church. Life is a series of salvation. You're not saved. There's nobody
in this building saved yet. You're being saved. There's not
a person here in this building who is finally and ultimately
and completely saved, because there's not a person in this
building, either in the pulpit or the pew or the classroom,
who is just like Jesus Christ yet. Now that's a fact. Now let me show you some things
from the word of God. In Colossians chapter 3, in Colossians
the third chapter, now stay with me, and you say I've made a profession
of religion. Well, there are very few people
who haven't. There are very few who haven't. About everybody
I know has made a profession of faith. Well, I'm a member
of the church. Well, there are very few people
who aren't. There are very few people who aren't members of
somebody's church. Every cheat, every thief, every
drunkard, every adulterer, every liar is a member of somebody's
church. Pity the poor pastor, but they're
members of somebody's church. And Colossians chapter 3, verse
8 through 10. Now listen to this. But now you
also put off these things. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,
filthy communications out of your mouth. Lie not one to another,
seeing you put off the old man with his deeds, and have put
on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image
of him that created him." We are chosen to share the image
of Christ. That's what salvation is, it's
to bear the image of Christ. It's not just being plucked from
the burning. It's not just being rescued from
the fires of hell. It's not just being insulated
against God's wrath. It's being actually made into
the image of Him who created him. That's what salvation is.
It's being conformed to the image of Christ. Christ is holy and
we're being conformed to His image. Christ is love. We're
being conformed to His image. That's what salvation is. Our
life is a series of salvation. It's a growth in salvation. It's
a maturity. Look at this verse over in 1
John 4. Now listen to this. 1 John chapter 4. Not only have
we been chosen to share His image, we've been chosen to share His
love. In 1 John chapter 4 verse 7,
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone
that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God, and he that loveth
not knoweth not God. For God is love. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us, Because God sent His only begotten Son into
the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love,
not that we love God. This is not the way we started.
We didn't love God, we didn't love our neighbor, we didn't
love anybody when we started. But God loved us. Herein is love,
not that we loved Him, He loved us. And sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sin. Beloved, if God so loved us,
and we're being made into the image of God, and we're being
conformed to the likeness of God, then we ought to love one
another. We'll share His love. We'll grow
in His love. And then we're chosen to share
His holiness. Turn to Hebrews 12. Hebrews chapter
12, verse 10. It says here in Hebrews 12, 10, for a few days chastened us after
their own pleasure." Talking about our parents. In other words,
we were corrected and we were disciplined according to their
wisdom, according to the way they felt that we ought to walk.
They did that for a few days until we grew up and left home
and then we were out from under their discipline and their chastening
and their direction and we were on our own. But our parents,
for a few days, for the early years of our lives, tried to
direct us and chasten us and correct us that we might walk
in the path of truth and righteousness. But God, according to His wisdom,
He chastens us for our profit, that we might be partakers of
His holiness. That's why God sends us through
the trials we go through. That's why God puts us under
the burdens that we bear. That's why God brings upon us
the afflictions that he brings upon us, and the chastening hand
of God, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Not that he
might keep us out of hell, but that he might make us holy. God
brings these trials upon us, not that he might rescue us from
the burning, but that he might make us holy. We're chosen to
share His image, we're chosen to share His love, we're chosen
to share His holiness, we're chosen to share His fellowship.
Now turn to 1 John 1. Here the Apostle John talks about
fellowship with God. Fellowship with God. There are
a lot of people who never read God's Word who say that they're
saved from hell. Now, I like to illustrate that
this way. We have a son who lives over
in Indiana, and we like to hear from him. We like to get a letter
from him. Darcy's people live down in Alabama. We like to get
letters from them. We like to get telephone calls
from them. We like to get visits from them. We like to go see
them. The fellowship is good. Just last week, my brother was
with me, and our fellowship was good. We love each other. We
enjoy being together. If a man loves God, he enjoys
God's fellowship. He enjoys the hearing from God,
he enjoys the word of God, he enjoys talking to God, he enjoys
prayer. He enjoys and looks forward to
the fellowship of God's people. You dread to go to the house
of God. You don't know God if you do. Do you look forward to
the worship services? Do you look forward to the reading
of the Word of God? Do you look forward to the singing
of hymns, giving Him praise? Do you look forward to seeing
the people who know God? They're not without their afflictions,
and you're not without yours. They're not without their infirmities,
and you're not without yours. Somebody says, I'm looking for
a perfect church. Well, when you find it and join,
it won't be perfect anymore. The people who love God look
forward to fellowshipping with those who know God. They look
forward to the reading of God's Word. They look forward to the
worship of God, because they know Him. They walk with Him.
And that's what salvation is. Look at 1 John 1 verse 3. John says, "...that which we
have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you also They
have fellowship with us. A man who doesn't know God, I
don't care if he thinks he's saved from hell or not, he doesn't
enjoy fellowship with God. He doesn't enjoy fellowship in
the gospel. He enjoys his fellowship in carnality,
in the flesh, in the things of the world. He doesn't enjoy the
things of God. I mean, enjoy them. You know
what fellowship is? Fellowship is fellows in the
same ship. That's exactly what fellowship
is. They have the same faith, the same family, the same Lord,
the same hope, the same goal, the same love, the same object. They have those things in common.
And our fellowship, look at it, is with the Father and with His
Son, Jesus Christ. I'll tell you what will wean
you from the things of this world, is to be saved. And when you
come to know God, you'll lose interest in the vanities of this
world, and your interest will be in the things of God. And
that's something that nobody can do for you but the Holy Spirit.
And that's something that'll be true of you if you're ever
saved. So salvation is more than just
being rescued from hell. We don't want to go to hell.
Well, who does? Salvation is more than being delivered from
judgment and from the penalty of sin. Salvation is a process. Salvation is a purpose. Salvation
is the work of God, and our lives consist of a series of salvations
as we are being conformed to His image, as we are being brought
to love as He loved, as we are being brought to be conformed
to His holiness, and as we are being brought into His fellowship.
And bless your heart, we are chosen to share His glory. Turn to Romans chapter 8. We
are chosen to share His glory. In Romans 8, verse 15, it says
here, you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear,
but you have received the spirit of adoption. You know, salvation
to most people is a real burden. One of these days they're going
to get religion and then quit living. They're going to get
morbid and depressed and despondent and they're going to try to put
up a front and make everybody feel like they're religious.
You're not chosen to bondage. The fellowship and family of
God is not a bondage. It's a sonship. You're chosen
to adoption. These little fellows in the orphan's
home don't dread leaving the orphan's home to go to the home
of the king. And he said, you receive the
spirit of adoption whereby you cry, Father, and the Spirit himself
beareth witness with our spirit that we're children of God. And
if we're children of God, we're heirs of God. And if we're heirs
of God, we're joint heirs with Jesus Christ. If so be that we
suffer with him, we might also be glorified together. Now then,
our salvation. will not be full. Our salvation
will not be complete. We are being saved. It will not
be complete till every trace of vanity, every trace of covetousness,
every trace of sin, every trace of evil is removed, and we stand
without fault before the throne of the living God. And that's
being done. When we are redeemed, we are
bathed in Christ. And as the years go by, we are
being developed, we are being saved, we are being conformed
to the image of God. And there is a maturity and there
is a growth in grace until in glory we are going to be just
like the Son of God. Now you will run across the word
perfect in the New Testament. He that is perfect. And we preach
the gospel to them that are perfect. That's talking about those that
are mature. That's what that word is. There's
no man perfect on this earth. There's no woman perfect. But
no man and no woman has the right to call themselves saved unless
there is evidence in their life that they are being saved. Turn to Galatians chapter 4.
We have no right to call ourselves saved unless there's evidence
in our lives, in our hearts, in our attitude, that we are
being saved. In Galatians chapter 4, verse
19, My little children, Paul said, of whom I travail in birth
again. He's talking about saved people. He's writing to the church at
Galatia. He's talking about redeemed people. He's talking about believers.
I prevail to Christ. Christ in His holiness. Christ
in His love. Christ in His mercy. Christ in
His patience. Christ in His humility. Christ
in His grace. I prevail till Christ be formed
in you. And brethren, if Christ is not
formed in you, or being formed in you, you have no right, I
have no right, to call myself saved. I don't even have a right
to call myself a candidate for salvation. I don't even have
a right to hold to the hope that I won't go to hell when I die.
I will go to hell when I die unless Christ is being formed
in me. unless I'm being saved. Now then, let me bring two or
three points out from this scripture here in Psalms 37. Salvation,
the salvation of the righteous, the deliverance of the righteous.
We have been delivered, we are being delivered. Jesus Christ
is no fire escape to keep people out of hell. Most every one of
us here have an insurance policy. We've taken it out, we've paid
the premium. And when we die, we'll collect it. You don't get
it out of the box and read it every once in a while. You don't
go to the company meetings. You don't write to the president
of the company and want to know how the company's doing. You
just got the policy, slip it in a drawer, push it aside, and
you sit back and relax and say, something happens to me, my wife
and children will be taken care of. That's not what Christ did,
and that's not salvation. Salvation is joining the company.
Salvation is being part of the family. Salvation is a process
by which God conforms His people to the image of His Son. We're
growing in faith and growing in grace. Now look at this, first
of all. Salvation, the salvation of the
righteous, well, that's of the Lord. It's of the Lord. Now say the truth. As Paul said,
I lie not, my conscience bearing me witness. I want to preach
the gospel. I'm not the faintest interested,
not the faintest bit interested in standing in a pulpit, nor
in pastoring a church, nor in succeeding in what they call
the ministry. I'm interested in one thing.
I want, above all things, God being my witness to preach the
gospel. The gospel. For the gospel is
the power of God unto salvation. And I know without the gospel,
men will never be saved. Now who God saves, that's his
business. And what happens when I preach
the gospel, that's God's business too. But I want to preach the
gospel. I want to be honest. I want to
be fair. I want those who hear me to come
to know God. And this process, this life,
this person, this way to become a part of them, to possess them,
to become their life and their way in Christ their Lord. Now I know this. I go back yonder
and the gospel says that God planned salvation. Before he
created the world, before the fall, before man's sin, God ordained
a covenant by which he would redeem a people. It says the
salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. God planned it. God planned it. There was a choosing. I know there was a choosing.
And it was not us that chose God, it was God who chose us.
Christ said to his disciples, you didn't choose me, I chose
you. And in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse
13, Paul said, Brethren, we are bound to give thanks always to
God for you, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation. So this is where it all started.
This salvation, this life, This conformity to Christ, this sonship,
this glory which I shall enjoy, it started way back yonder. You
with me? It started way back yonder. The
revelation of the sons of God comes from the election of the
sons of God. That's where it started. Salvation
of the righteous is of the Lord. So we have to look back, way
back there in the Council Halls of Eternity, where known unto
God were all His works from the beginning. when he declared the
end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that
are not yet done. Now that's of the Lord. Secondly,
the gospel says that salvation is of the Lord in that He provided
salvation. It was God who gave His Son.
It was God who, for God so loved the world. The world didn't love
Him. The world didn't petition God to do something for them.
God loved us when we were without hope, when we were without strength,
when we were ungodly. He loved us, and He sent His
Son. And He not only sent His Son
to the earth, but He sent His Son to the tree. It pleased God
to bruise Him. Christ in the garden prayed,
Father, if it be Thy will, let this cup pass from me. Now He
was going to the cross to die, and He knew it. He was going
to the cross to suffer, and he knew it. He didn't go to Pilate
and ask Pilate if he could let him miss the cross, because this
cross was not Pilate's direction, it was God's direction. This
cross which Christ was to bear, and this cross which he was to
suffer upon, Pilate didn't have any control over that. Oh, Pilate
said, I could let you go or crucify you. Christ said, no, no you
couldn't. You don't have any power over
me at all, except it be given you from above." It was the Father
who sent Christ to the world, and it was the Father who sent
him to the tree. He used wicked men and their
wicked wills to nail him to that tree, but it was the Father's
will. It was the Father who sent the Holy Spirit. Listen to Paul
in Galatians 1. In Galatians 1.15, he said, when
it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace, it pleased the Father to reveal His Son
in me. And then it was God who reconciled
us to Himself, for God was in Christ reconciling the world
unto Himself. So the salvation of the righteous,
and as I've said so many times, this thing of salvation is from
eternity to eternity. It goes back yonder when the
Father planned it. It comes down to the cross when
the Father provided it. It comes down to time when you
were born and lived and rebelled and the Father awakened you and
quickened you and convicted you by His Holy Spirit and brought
you to faith for regenerations of God, repentance is the gift
of God, faith is the gift of God. Now watch this. And it's
God who carries on my salvation right now. Now Paul said to the
church at Philippi, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. You read that? But he goes on
and he says, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and
to do his good pleasure. Now a man can fake a profession
of religion and claim to be saved from hell. A man can join the
church and claim to be saved from the penalty of sin, but
a man cannot get any victory, any understanding, any holiness,
any love, any growth, except as God the Holy Ghost works in
him these virtues and these graces, and that's the reason there are
so many ungodly and worldly church members. There are some things
they can do. They can walk an hour. They can
shake a preacher's hand. They can be baptized. They can
join the church. They can even keep up a profession
of religion for a while, and they can quit some bad habits.
But they cannot give themselves a love for the Word, and a love
for God, and a love for His people, and a love for the Gospel. They
cannot give themselves a right attitude, a correct understanding. They cannot enter into the mysteries
of the Word. These things only God can give. And God gives it to those whom
He saves. Listen to this poem. Listen to it. Every virtue that
we possess, every victory we have won, every thought of holiness
is his and his alone. Now that's what modern day preachers
don't know anything about. They think it's normal to have
twelve hundred members and two hundred of them in Well, they
think it's normal to have a thousand church members and sixty in prayer
meetings. Well, they think it's normal to have to sweat and beg
and borrow and steal to raise money for the church. They think
that's normal. They think it's normal for people
never to read the Word when they get together for fellowship,
not to talk about the Lord. They think it's normal for a
church to have fusses and splits and feuds and crises. They think
that's not normal, that's ungodly. And that's characteristic only
of unsaved people. I'm telling you the truth. I'm
telling you the truth. A man can walk an aisle, he can
shake a preacher's hand, he can say he believes in Jesus, he
can be baptized, he can join the church, but the only one
who can work in him the graces of God is God himself. And that he does for everybody
whom he saves. And if he's not working those
graces in you, you haven't yet been saved. By this shall all
men know you're my disciples, if you love one another. They
talk about, well, you're talking about the victorious life, preacher.
No, I'm not. I'm talking about the life of
Christ. Well, you're talking about, you're talking about the
higher life. Now, in the church, everybody's saved, but there
are those who are carnal, and those who are indifferent, and
those who are worldly, and then there are those who are nominal,
and then there's the good Christian. These folks up here are scarcely
saved. Those down there are not saved
at all. If the righteous scarcely be saved, or with difficulty,
where shall the ungodly appear? The people who claim to have
a victorious life are just now coming to know the Lord. That
is the victorious life, and that's the only life. Is the life of
Christ a defeated life or a victorious life? We overcome by the blood
of the Lamb. In Christ we win the victory.
And then, let's go on, this thing of salvation started with the
Lord. The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord, in its planning,
in its providing, as He carries it on, as we grow in grace and
in the knowledge of Christ, and the salvation in eternity is
of the Lord. A man came to Spurgeon one time
and he said this, Mr. Spurgeon, I don't know whether
I believe in the doctrine of eternal security or not. I don't
know whether I believe in the doctrine of final perseverance
or not. Spurgeon said, well, my friend,
will you turn to John chapter 10. So the man turned over to
John chapter 10 and verse 28. He said, what kind of life is
it that Christ gives his sheep? The man looked at him and said,
he gives them eternal life. Mr. Spurgeon says, how long does
eternal life last? Does eternal life last six months?
Six years? Six hundred years? The man said,
well, no, eternal life has no end. Well, Spurgeon said, there
you have it. He gives them eternal life. But
Mr. Spurgeon supposed, is it possible
for them to have eternal life given to them and then lose it,
perish? Well, he said, look at the next
line. What did the Lord say? I give them eternal life and
they shall never never perish. But he said, Mr. Spurgeon, suppose
that somebody comes along and tempts them, and somebody comes
along and persuades them, and somebody comes along and robs
them from Christ. Spurgeon said, what's the next
line? Neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. But Mr. Spurgeon supposed, supposed that
it was possible that somebody could pluck them out of the hand
of Christ. Spurgeon said, read the next line, My Father which
gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck
them out of my Father's hand. I find that most church members
want to talk about maybe the election, and they want to talk
about the final victory. They don't mind being chosen.
And they don't mind being preserved, but they don't want to talk about
the life of Christ that's in here. But that salvation that
has its beginning in election and has its completion in final
perseverance and final preservation is that salvation also that has
a growth right here. Right here. We are saved, we
are being saved, and one day we shall be saved. Regeneration
is the free gift of God. Repentance is the free gift of
God. Faith is the free gift of God,
but also spiritual growth is the free gift of God. Listen
to this. When I stand before His throne, dressed in beauty
not my own, When I see thee, God, as thou art, and, Lord,
love thee with an unsinning heart, then, Lord, shall I fully know
how much I owe." Oh, how much I owe. Those who are saved know who
saved them, they know what they're saved from, they know why they
were saved, and they know what they're saved unto. And they
know this, I may be in a sad condition right now. And things
may seem to be going all wrong. And I don't know what to do.
And I see not one ray of sunshine. But the salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. And I'm in good hands. And the
great pilot knows how to navigate the river of life. There are
snags everywhere, but he knows where they are. There are rocks
and there's shallow water. But He knows where that is. He
knows all about it. And I must trust Him. I must
rest in the Lord. I must wait upon the Lord. I must commit my way unto the
Lord. I must turn loose of the wheel,
for He will carry me through. This is my Father's will, that
of all which He hath given me, I lose nothing. all which he
hath given me, all for whom I suffered, all whom I will one day present
faultless before the throne. I'm not going to lose them anywhere
in the process. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. He's the Alpha and Omega. We are being saved. Are you? Are you? And it's not
a heaven, hell proposition. It's not a fire or gold proposition. It's a person. It's a living,
reigning person. Our Father, take the message. And in the hands and by the power
of Thy Holy Spirit, do a work of grace, of regeneration
in these hearts of ours. O melt our cold hearts. and shed abroad thy love in our
hearts for the Holy Spirit, and conform us to the image of thy
divine Son, make us to be more like Christ, give us evidences
that we're thine. Am I the Lord's or am I not? Can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood? Whatever it pleaseth thee to
do with this message this morning, Use it, O Lord, for Thy glory
chiefly, and for the good, the eternal well-being of this congregation. For it is in the name of Thy
Son we pray, and for His sake. Amen.