The apostle Paul tells us that we are saved, not as we believe, but if we believe the right thing. Do you know the Christ Who is presented in the Gospel of God concerning His Son? We are to study what the Gospel is.
Romans 1:16: "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."
When the Gospel is preached in the power of the Holy Ghost, the power is in it to create faith itself, so you can believe it. You might believe everything the Bible teaches about prophecy and go to hell; or you might believe everything the Bible teaches about holy living and go to hell; or you might believe everything the Bible teaches about every other teaching, important as they are, and go to hell. But if you miss out on the Gospel, and if you base your faith and your hope of eternal life on anything except the truth as it is in the Gospel; why! you do so to the loss of your soul.
We are trying to be helpful in this day if we can; when everybody is preaching a gospel and everybody is preaching it different. There are not many who are interested in the Gospel of Christ which is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believeth.
We are going to study the Gospel of God concerning His Son, Who His Son is, what His Son did, and what God is doing now; that is the Gospel, that's God's good news. If you do not know by experience the only true God, that is to experience His power in your life; it doesn't make any difference what churchyou belong to, or what doctrines you believe, or anything else; you are yet in your sins, and you are headed for hell.
In John 17:3, God says: "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent."
Unless you know the only true God, and His Son Jesus Christ by a divine revelation, you are still a lost, hell-bound sinner. That is very serious, isn't it?
Where the Scriptures talk about the only true God, it recognizes the fact that people have gods, everybody has got a god. You can't have two gods, and if you have got two, you have really got none. And the only two gods that anybody could possibly have is the one you created yourself or the only true God, Who is revealed in the Bible. The only way to know about God and to find out Who He is, would be for Him to be pleased to reveal Himself to us. We are shut up to that. A man cannot find God unless He is looking for him. In Proverbs 1:28, God says: "Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me."
In Job 11:7, God says: "Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?"
You cannot discover God. God has to reveal Himself to you. That is the truth. I don't know whether you believe that or not, because that is contrary to the preaching of the last forty years. Matthew 11:27 says: "All things are delivered unto Me of My Father; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him."
Luke 10:22 says: "All things are delivered to Me of My Father; and no man knoweth Who the Son is, but the Father; and Who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him."
What most preachers are saying today is: If you will do this, God will save you, and God has done His part, now you do yours. They have fixed it where God has to wait to see what you will do, before He makes the move. And that makes God little and you big. This generation likes that, and there is just one thing wrong with that. It is not true, it is a lie of hell. God is not waiting to see what you are going to do, so you had better be interested in what God is going to do. That is right, dear ones.
Now if God is pleased to reveal Himself to us, we can find God and we can find out about God and that is the only way we can. God has to reveal Himself to you, if you ever know Him. If you go through this life, and God never reveals Himself to you; you are going to hell when you die. You are shut up to that. There is no hope at all for you; if God is not pleased to reveal Himself to you. But that is what Christianity is, and that's what the Bible is about, and that's what God has done and that's what God is doing. And that is the good news of the Gospel.
We must learn Who God is if we are going to have any ability whatsoever to believe and act upon His acts. We find out the key to understanding as we are able, by the help of God, to understand any of the works of God. First is to find out what kind of a God we've got. The Bible says God is Almighty. In Genesis 17:1, God says: "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God walk before Me, and be thou perfect."
God says of Himself, He is eternal. He had no beginning, and He has no ending. Deuteronomy 33:27: "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms;. . .
God says of Himself that he is holy. I Peter 1:16: "Because it is written, Be ye holy for I am holy."
He has all power. Psalm 62:11: "God hath spoken once twice have I heard this that power belongeth unto God."
Also Matthew 28:18 says: "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." The Bible says that He is righteous. Psalm 7:9b: "... For the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins."
Also Revelation 16:5 says: "... Thou art righteous, O Lord, . . ."
And He shows mercy. Romans 9:15 says: "For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."
He shows grace and He is patient, and He is longsuffering. The long-suffering of Our Lord is salvation according to 1 Peter. Psalm 86:15: "But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth."
We want to look at the way God does. Jeremiah 1:4-5 says: "Then the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Galatians 1:15-16: "But when it pleased God, Who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, To reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen;..."
It is a question of God doing for you and not you doing for God. Salvation is not something you do, salvation is something God does, and you receive. The only part a sinner has is to receive that which God gives and he doesn't receive that, except as a hungry man grasping for bread, or as a thirsty man grasping for water. Now there isn't any merit in that. Salvation is God working something for you and in you, that God does; you can't do that in you, that God does; therefore you can't save yourself, neither can you make God save you.
Now a man needs to be saved from this just penalty that is due him for violating God's holy law. The Bible is clear that man is a sinner, because of an act of his own will, he has sinned against the holy law of God. He is to blame for his sins. The Bible no where says that God is to blame for the mess that man is in. The Bible is very clear that if anybody is saved, it will be God's work, and if anybody is damned it will be his own fault. The Bible says that God is the author of holiness, and that man is the author of sin. The Bible says that all holiness comes from God, and that all sin comes from men.
The Bible says that by the disobedient act of one man, sin came into the world and thus came death. Therefore the Bible doesn't say that sinners are to be pitied, it says they are to be blamed. The Bible doesn't regard sin as a disease or misfortune, it regards sin as guilt. The Bible says that men are guilty and thus need to be punished, and God will punish them. And men need to be saved from the just punishment that God is going to meet out to them; and there is no escape, apart from the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now salvation is of the Lord, or it is of man, it can't be of both. God has to do His will, or He has to do yours, you can't mix them up. Everything that happens takes place because God wills it or it takes place because man wills it. It can't take place by both. The Bible teaches that whatever takes place is because God wills it. And this generation says that whatever takes place is because "I willed it." So somebody is wrong.
Now if the Gospel is God's good news, and if it is talking about what God has done, and is doing to save sinners; then I believe it will be well for us to take a look at "The Covenant of Grace," which is found everywhere in the Bible. There has only been two covenants in time or eternity. There has just been two covenants made, one is the covenant made between God and Adam in the Garden of Eden, that was the covenant of works. Adam was created innocent; he was created holy; he was created with a liability of disobeying; God didn't make him disobey. And Adam was promised salvation if he continued in the state of holiness. Now the Bible says that Adam sinned and lost his holy estate and the Bible says that I was in Adam, and you were in Adam, and that when Adam sinned, I sinned. Well, you say, "I don't understand that." I don't suppose anybody does, but that is what the Bible says. Now you do not show any evidence that you are a child of God, if you buck everything in the Bible, that you do not understand. Lots of people tell me, "I just will not accept that, I can't understand it, I just know God wouldn't do that way. I can't understand it." Of course you wouldn't, you hate God, you are not submissive to God, you have never bowed to His Lordship in your life. He is not your God, you've got a little god that you created.
The man who has been enlightened by the Holy Ghost, whose will has been energized by the Spirit, and who has been born again, he has got a conception of God that makes him understand that God's ways are above our ways and we don't have to understand what God does, we just have to obey Him and believe Him.
Now the Bible is plain that when Adam sinned, I sinned, and therefore under the covenant of works every human being has failed to keep the covenant between God and man, and therefore is liable to the death penalty and hell; that the law says is due everybody that breaks the law of God. But before God made a covenant with Adam, that Adam broke and you and I broke with him, God made a covenant with Himself. Now any covenant that God makes between Himself and man is going to fail, because man is in it, and therefore man has no claim on God whatsoever. And so before there was an Adam and before there was a star; the Bible tells us over and over that God Himself made an agreement with Himself. God as Father, God as Son, and God as Holy Spirit agreed to do something, and each one of them undertook to do a certain thing. Do you see it? That's what the Scriptures call "The Covenant of Grace." John 17:1 says: "These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee."
The hour is come, when was that hour decided? He was talking about His death; here was an agreement between the Father and the Son. The Father gave the Son authority over every human, and He did it that His Son might give eternal life, and watch it, here is some more of the agreement. Verse 2: "As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him."
Somewhere the Godhead had a meeting and the Father said, "I am going to give you these people and I want you to give them eternal life." Here is a covenant, here is a definite number of people involved, who will have eternal life given to them. Verses 3 and 4: "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do."
13:20: "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant."
This is the only place in the Bible we find these words "the blood of the everlasting covenant."
If you will start studying the Bible where we have started, trying to find out what God purposes to do, and how He purposes to do it, and depend on the Holy Ghost to teach you, then your Bible will open up. But if you don't, you may believe most anything the latest fellow you hear talk says, because they can take the Bible and prove their doctrine. We are warned about this in Mark 4:24: "And He said unto them, Take heed what ye hear...."
Also in 2 Peter 3:16 we read: "As also in all His epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction."
We have all gotten too far from the truth. But one doctrine in the Bible isn't true at the expense of another. If you want to get at the truth of the Gospel, spend much time in prayer, and depend on the Holy Ghost to teach you.
The Bible isn't worth a dime, except as it reveals to poor old sinners like you and me, the will of God, the work of God as Father, Son and Holy Ghost. If I can find out what the Bible teaches about what God the Father wills to do, because the God this Bible talks about, can do anything He sets out to do. If I can just find out what He says "I am going to do," I'm getting somewhere. That is the truth, dear ones. We want to find out what God in this covenant He made with Himself set out to do, and how He purposes to get it done, and that will open up your Bible.
We need to study this Book, and if you can get the Gospel right, you are likely to get right on lots of other things. If you go wrong at the main thing, you will be wrong the whole way, won't you? That's right and I want to help you understand what the Gospel is. It means that my Lord Jesus died in order to fulfill His agreement that He made with the Father in the covenant. The covenant that God made with Himself, God had a will. He said, "I want some things done, I want something accomplished." The Son said, "All right, I'll do that which will make your will come to pass"; and the Holy Spirit said, "I'll do that which will take what you do in your life and death and resurrection, and I'll bring it down and apply it to the people that God wills to be saved." Now that's what God is doing.
Now listen, which had you rather the world would be run by? By God or by blind fate, or be run by you? Which one do you think would do the best job running things? I'm glad the Bible teaches that God is absolutely over all. I am glad the Bible teaches that nothing takes place that He doesn't either personally direct or allows to take place. That is the God's truth. I am so glad that salvation is in the hands of God, not in your hands, and not in the hands of blind fate, aren't you? And I'm glad that I can pick up this Book, and all through it, if you are looking for it, you can see the truth of this covenant understood, that I read to you about. It just makes the Bible mean something and unravels the things. It shows you that this old world is not rocking along by chance. It shows you that this world is not in the hands of the devil, and that this world is not in the hands of men. This world is in the hands of God. And it will show you that the salvation of the sinner is not in the hands of a blind fate, not in the hands of a sinner; it is in the hands of God.
I have had people all over America say, "I don't believe what you preach" when I say "that God decides who will be saved." And He decided who will be saved in this covenant when He told His Son that He would give Him a people, and the Son said, "that He would die for them," and the Spirit said, "that He would apply the work of the Son to them." Some people say, "I don't like that," well, I do. I believe that if God decides who will be saved, more people will be saved, than if men did. I believe if it was left up to man, nobody would be saved and I can prove that by the Scriptures. I am glad since man can't save himself and God can save the sinner. I am glad that this business is in the hands of God, because He is wiser than I am. And the Bible is mighty plain that He doesn't get one bit of pleasure out of anybody going to hell. Do you see it?
Now in the covenant of grace whereby the Lord Jesus agreed to shed His blood in return for being given a people at the hands of the Father, and the Spirit said that He would make that effective. We find that the One God, and there is just one, there are not three Gods. One God acting as Father, has a will, that same God as Son did a work, and that same God as Holy Spirit applies that work. And so these little signs you see "Jesus Saves," that ain't so, God saves. God saves, do you see it? Listen to me now. Present-day preaching is that we got one God, then Jesus, then we got the Holy Spirit. The Bible says we got one God. 1 Corinthians 8:6-7a says: "But to us there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom are all things, and we by Him. Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge...."
God as Father, God as Son, and God as Holy Ghost. The Bible says there is one God, but in redemption, in the saving of the soul of a sinner, God acts in three ways. In one capacity He acts as having a will, in another He acts as dying, in another He acts in applying that work. What I am saying: "We don't have one God, then Jesus and the Holy Spirit; we've got God as Father, as Son and Holy Spirit."
In the salvation of a sinner, God has to will that he will be saved. God has to work that he will be saved and God has to apply that work before He saves. Some people say, "I don't believe that. They say God has done His part, now it is up to you to do your part. I don't believe God has to do it all." That is a lie of hell. Now if you understand me to say that the sinner is to do nothing, you're wrong. What I am saying, "He can do nothing to save himself. A sinner must receive, but that is not salvation, that's receiving salvation." Nobody is ever saved apart from an act of their will, receiving that which God gives him. That act is of God. Psalm 110:3 says: "Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power...."
I am simply saying that the Scriptures don't teach that does part of the saving, and the rest won't work unless you do your part. That's not so, God has to do it all.
What we have been hearing preachers say for a long time now is "God has done all He can do to save you, and now He is waiting for you to do the rest." And that is a lie of hell. Salvation is not of God, plus you, it is of God. Jonah 2:9b says: "Salvation is of the Lord."
The Lord says in Psalm 35:3b: "I am thy salvation."
Salvation is something that God provides, it is all of God. People say, "I don't believe that. I believe a sinner has to do his part." That is the perverted gospel that they preach today. I'm not going to trust in something that you and God together do. I want to find out what God has done. I believe I am safe when I put all my hope in what God has done, but I don't want to trust nothing that I had a part in.
Have you received from God His gracious gift? The gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Or did you have something to do with it? God did part of it, and you did the rest. That's dangerous doctrine. People say to me: "I don't believe that sinners are in the hands of God and it is up to God as to whether he will be saved or not." Romans 9:18 says: "Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth."
People say, "I believe it is up to man as to whether he will accept Jesus as his Saviour." To accept Jesus as Saviour is not salvation. One must surrender to Him as Lord to rule and reign over you. No sinner will be saved unless God quickens him and convicts him of his sins, and gives him the ability and energizes his will; and gives him repentance and faith, so he can repent and believe. God's people shall be willing in the day of His power. You can quit some sins, but you can't give yourself a new heart; you can make a profession and clean up your life, but you can't make yourself a new creature in Christ. We are all eternity-bound men and women and unless God Almighty is pleased to perform a miracle in you and reveal Christ in you; you are doomed for hell.
Three things has got to take place. If you are ever saved, God as Father has to decide He will save you. God as Son had to come down here and do something to save you, and not violate His holy law. God as Holy Spirit has to do in you what the Lord did for you in His perfect life and resurrection.
There is not much praying going on these days for the salvation of the lost. I'll tell you why. About forty years ago the preachers quit preaching the truth and went to preaching that which pleases the people. Where no law is preached, there is no Gospel preached because the Gospel can only be preached in the context of the Holy Law of God. The law must be preached in the power of the Holy Ghost to show man how sinful he is, and his great need of salvation in Christ. Most people have listened to a perverted gospel so long, till they actually believe that someday they will decide to repent and believe and get saved. But the Bible teaches nobody will be able to repent till he finds out he can't and unless God gives him repentance. And the Bible teaches that nobody will be able to believe till he finds out he can't. Nobody will ever seek the Lord until he finds out, unless God saves him, he will never be saved. God wills to save. Acts 5:31: "Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins."
One God acting as Father has a will. One God acting as Son has a work, and God acting as Holy Spirit applies that work. When we find out what God wills, what God works, and what God applies makes it effective; that's what the Gospel is and that's how people get saved. If you go wrong on either one, you will go to hell for your trouble. If you listen to present-day preaching that represents a god who don't know whether anybody will let him save them or not, you are going to hell. If you listen to present-day preaching which represents a salvation that is possible at all apart from utter dependence on the One Who did the work that Jesus was given to do. And if you trust in anything except that which Jesus did in your stead, if you trust in your feelings, or your prayers, or your experience, or anything except that which He did in your stead, you will have to go to hell for your trouble. And if you think that salvation is yours apart from the Holy Spirit making that effective in your own life, you will have to go to hell for your trouble. This is serious.
God as Father had a will. John 4:34 says: "Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work."
John 6:37-40: "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me and Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day."
John 17:4: "I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do."
If we let God tell us about Himself, one thing will be settled with us; anything He sets out to do, He is able to do it. Praise the Lord! God's will is going to be done. The devil, demons and all hell can't stop Him. I am glad that it is because God wills that some people would be saved, and that He sent His Son. This encourages me. Some may say, "I wonder if there is any hope for me." Well, I am encouraged to believe that anybody could be saved that wants to be, on God's terms. God sent His Son to do a work of redemption to save somebody, and I might be one of those.
The Scriptures are very clear that He came down here to save a particular people. He came down here, actually to do that which will enable God to actually save some people; not just make it possible to save them, but to actually save all those who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:3-6: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love; Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."
And the Scriptures say that no man can number the ones who will be saved. I can take the Scriptures and show you that everybody that is ever going to be saved, God determined to save them and Jesus came down here and shed His blood in their stead. And they are saved because God set out to save them and He sent His Son to do that which had to be done, so He could save them; not to get Him in the notion to save them. If I can find in the Bible where He came to save some, I have every reason to believe that I might be one of them. Luke 19:10: "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."
John 6:37 and 44: "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.... No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day."
Praise the Lord! Salvation is of the Lord.
"Blessed Father, we come to Thee in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank Thee for choosing us in Christ before the foundation of the world, and that God hath from the beginning chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Lord, please have mercy on those who read this message and convict sinners. We beg in His Name. Amen!"