This We Teach: Salvation (Part 1)

Now, to get us started this morning, and I've kind of done this with each of the lessons,! I want to look at a passage of Scripture to begin with, kind of introduce ourselves to the subject. And the one we want to look at this morning is found in Hebrews.

And so if you would, turn to Hebrews chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. Now, just because I've got it up here on the screen doesn't mean I don't want you to open your Bible. So you can open your Bible. If you don't have one with us, with you, then you can look at the screen, of course. And I want to read through this, comment just a little bit about this passage, but again using it as an introduction to our subject this morning. Hebrews chapter 2, starting with verse 1. We must give, and I want you to really think about each of these words. We must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard. Now, that's more than just simply attentiveness, okay? When the Bible says earnest heed, it's talking about obedience. So not just listening, but obeying. So we must give the more earnest heed or obedience to the things we have heard. By the way, what things? Well, in this context, the gospel. The gospel, the plan of redemption as revealed in Scripture. So we must give the earnest heed to these things that we've heard, lest we drift away from them. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, that means if they proved binding, and every transgression and disobedience, that is, to that word, disobedience received a just reward. I don't get thrown by the word reward. That's not used in the positive sense. That's a reward of retribution or judgment. If what God spoke through the angels, and we have records of that in the Old Testament, was binding, and disobedience to it, rejection of it, brought about the appropriate reward, judgment, then what? How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord? That's a reference to Jesus, of course, and was confirmed to us by those who heard him? That would be his initial disciples, specifically his apostles. All right, so how should we escape? Now, last time, we looked at our doctrinal statement on man a couple of weeks ago, and if you have read our doctrinal statement, then you may have noticed that I didn't finish it, so we're going to finish that this morning in a very quick way. But we looked at our statement on the doctrine of man, and everything we talked about a couple of weeks ago pertained to man in his innocence, in his innocence, that is, how he was originally created, not to man as he is today. So the focus was primarily, and this is the focus of the first part of our statement on man, the focus was on man in his innocence, or the nature of man as he was originally created. The nature of man before the fall, fall into sin, before sin wrecked us. See, that's what we need to know. See, we lost it all when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. The good news is, and this is the good news of the Bible, what we lost in Adam, we can gain in Christ. The Bible refers to Christ as the second Adam. What we lost in Adam because he sinned, passed that sin on to us, all of us. What we lost, we can gain in Christ. That's the good news of the good news, right? The good news of the gospel. That's salvation.

Salvation. And so what I want to do this morning is quickly walk us through the last part of our statement on man, man after the fall. So really our statement kind of moves in that direction from man in his innocence as he was originally created, what God originally intended for man, to what happened after Adam and Eve sinned, the fall. And so that's what we want to look at to begin with, and that would be, I think, would serve as a perfect intro to our statement on salvations.

What we teach about man, and again, I want to just walk through these very quickly. A lot of passages of scripture that are presented for us in the document, our five doctrinal statements, you can look those up on your own. I might comment a few times as we go through this, but I just want to lay it all out before you as an intro to our doctrine on salvation. And by the way, much of what is said in the latter part of our doctrine on man is explained, followed up on in our doctrine of salvation.

So, we teach that Adam's sin of disobedience, Adam's sin, and he sinned in the garden, his sin of disobedience to the revealed will and word of God. Man lost his innocence. That's what we teach. He lost his innocence. That is, he lost what he was originally created as. And incurred then, based upon that, incurred the penalty of both spiritual and physical death. That's what God said to Adam and Eve. The day you eat of the fruit of that tree, the knowledge of good and evil, on that very day you shall surely die. That's what God said, and they did die that day. Died spiritually and eventually physically, which they would have never done if they had not sinned. So, they incurred the penalty of spiritual and physical death and became subject to the wrath of God. Subject to the wrath of God. You say, well, Adam and Eve didn't receive any wrath of God that day, did they? Well, they did receive a curse that was passed on, that was received by them and passed on to all those who will come out of Adam and Eve, including us. But they did incur the wrath of God, although as a testimony, as a precursor to the truth of salvation. An animal there in the

Garden of Eden that God created bore the wrath of God for their sin. God killed an animal, shed its blood, and gave the skins of that animal, I think it was a lamb, as a covering for Adam and Eve. So, the wrath of God did come upon them, but a substitute, again, as a foreshadowing of the coming of Christ, came upon that animal. All right, so let's go on. And became inherently corrupt. Now, we're not just talking about Adam and Eve here. We're talking about all those who come, have come out of Adam and Eve.

We're talking about the human race, mankind. Because of their sin, all that have come out of Adam and Eve are inherently corrupt. That is, corrupt is what we are. That's our nature, sinful nature. And utterly incapable of choosing and doing. Choosing or doing that which is acceptable to God.

That's what happened to us because of Adam's sin. Making us inherently corrupt and utterly unable to choose and to do that which is acceptable to God. Remember, God's word says, our acts are works of righteousness. Our goodness is as what? Filthy rags to God. Filthy rags.

So we are utterly incapable, man is utterly incapable of choosing and doing that which is acceptable to God apart from divine grace, which, of course, is salvation.

And so, with no recuperative powers to enable him to recover himself, that means we can't save ourselves.

We can't get back what we lost in Adam. We can't get back our innocence, not on our own. No recuperative powers to enable us, enable man to recover himself. What? Man is hopelessly lost.

Hopelessly lost. Man's salvation is thereby holy of God's grace.

Holy of God's grace through the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ. God's grace. Salvation, all of it, every part of it, is holy of God's grace.

God's grace. We teach that because all men were in Adam, and we were.

Adam, as Adam walked this earth, you were there in him. Adam, as Adam walked this earth, you were there in Adam. Adam walked this earth, you were there in Adam.

Adam walked this earth, you were there in Adam. Adam tainted his blood. That blood was passed on to every one of us. And so, that's why we say and why we teach that we were all in Adam.

All in Adam. Therefore, the nature corrupted by Adam's sin has been transmitted to all mankind in all ages.

All mankind in all ages. That's every single one of us. So we were all in Adam. A nature corrupted by Adam's sin transmitted to every single one of us.

Jesus Christ, of course, being the only exception. So, all men are sinners. Sinners. By the way, I shouldn't have to remind you ladies that you're included in that, okay?

All of us are sinners. We're sinners in what way? By nature? That is, sin is what we are. Remember, we're inherently corrupt.

So, by nature, but also by choice. By choice. We choose to sin. Begins with our nature, and therefore we choose to sin. We're all sinners by nature and by choice.

And we add a third thing, by divine declaration. God has declared it. Declared that we are all sinners. Isn't that what Romans 3.23 says?

Where God unequivocally declares, All have sinned. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All right. So the question is, it leads us to this question, What hope is there for us?

I mean, what hope do we have? Well, only one. Only one hope. Because there's only one solution. Salvation. And that is salvation, the salvation that is secured for us by Jesus Christ at his cross.

At his cross. All right. So then this morning, what does the Bible teach us about salvation? About salvation.

Well, we teach that salvation is, again, holy of God. That is every part of it. By grace. On the basis of redemption.

Ephesians chapter 1 verse 7. In him we have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of sins. What? According to the riches of his grace.

Grace. According to the riches of his grace. It's by grace that you are saved. See. According to the riches of his grace. Which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and insight.

And what else? Well, on the basis of redemption. And through Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ. The merit of his shed blood, specifically speaking.

And not on the basis of human merit or works. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9. A passage that we're all familiar with. For by grace.

Grace you have been saved through what? Faith. Faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.

Now what's the gift of God? Grace and faith, by the way. Faith. It's the gift of God. Not of works. Lest any should boast.

Not of works. Present or future. Lest anyone should boast. I mean, you're not going to get to heaven and say, Phew, I made it. I did what I had to do.

And good, I'm glad I was successful. You don't want to have any reason to get to heaven and say, I somehow did that on my own or even any part of that. Lest anyone should boast.

All right, so if not by personal works and merit, then what? The blood of Jesus. 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 18 through 19.

Knowing that you were not redeemed. That is, you were not saved with corruptible things like silver and gold. But with what?

The precious blood of Christ. The precious blood of Christ. As of a lamb without blemish and without spot. You're not saved by your own good works. Or even the potential for good works.

It is by the precious blood of Jesus as a lamb without spot. Blemish or without spot. That is, he was sinless and perfect. Becoming the, being then therefore the perfect sacrifice.

Someone has put it this way. The worst form of badness is human goodness. When human goodness becomes a substitute for the grace of God through the blood of Jesus Christ.

And that's true. All right, so let's move on. We teach that God owes sinners no mercy of any kind.

And only condemnation. God did not have to save us. Do you understand that? God did not have to forgive us.

God did not have to save us. And so, God's provision of salvation is a matter of endless praise. Why? Why is that?

Because, well, endless praise that he should choose to save any of us. See, we need to have the right perspective. The biblical perspective on salvation. This is the catalyst for endless praise and worship.

You think about the story of Esau and Jacob, you know, and that very story brings up some questions. But a couple of times in Scripture, both in the Old and the New Testament, God says, Esau have I hated?

Jacob have I loved? And we want to say, well, that's not fair. I don't understand that. The question is not why God would hate Esau. The question is, why would he love Jacob?

Jacob was a sinner. The question is, why should God love any of us? That's the right approach to the doctrine of salvation. God owes us no mercy of any kind.

Only condemnation. Why? Because we deserve it. We've sinned against him. And we continue to sin. It doesn't owe us any salvation.

It owes us any kind of forgiveness. And so, therefore, our salvation is a matter of endless praise. All right, so let's look at the rest of this. God's provision of salvation is a matter of endless praise that he should choose to save any of us.

Doubly so. Doubly so. When the choice involved the giving of his own son to suffer as sin bearer.

To bear our sin. Your sin. My sin. That God would send his son to do that. Romans chapter 8, verses 31 and 32.

If God is for us, who can be against us? We love that, don't we? He who did not spare his own son, but did what?

He delivered him up for us all. And don't pass over that little word for. I've mentioned this many times before. For here means in our place instead of us as a substitute for us, taking upon himself what we deserved.

So, it pleased God. He delivered him up for you, for me. If so, then how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

I like what Adrian Rogers said. He said, God did not spare his own son when he received his cross. What makes you think he's going to spare you if you reject his cross?

We also teach that the unmerited favor that God grants to totally depraved sinners is not related to any initiative on their own part, our own part.

That is, if left to ourselves, our own devices, if left simply to who we are and what we can do, we would continue in sin.

We would continue in unbelief. And I might add and love it. Be perfectly fine with it. And why is that?

Well, as our statement says, we are totally depraved sinners. And don't misunderstand this word depraved. And that is, don't limit it, actually.

Depraved does not here refer to the measure of wickedness in man. That's usually how we apply it and limit it to that application, the utter wickedness of man.

Now, it does include that. But really, depraved is not a synonym for sinfulness or wickedness. It's not just another word for sinfulness.

Rather, it refers to our absolute weakness. Our utter weakness. More specifically, our inability to do a single holy thing.

Our inability to do anything that would please God. In and of ourselves. Our absolute inability to come to Christ on our own. That's what depraved means.

Really ought to be unable. Our inability. And so then, getting back to the statement, we also teach that the unmerited favor that God grants to totally depraved sinners is not related to any initiative of our own or to God's anticipation of what they or we might do by our own will.

Or their own will. You know, the idea that God is looking down through the corridors of the future, future time, and he sees that Don Coleman is going to believe in him, and so he chooses me.

That's not what Scripture teaches. Or, like those of the Pelagian or Arminian persuasion, that God somehow knows your potential to believe and serve him, and so he helps you out a little bit.

It gives you just enough grace to believe in him on your own. No, that's not what Scripture teaches. That's what emotion might teach us.

Or what logic might teach us. But what does the Bible say? It says that salvation is solely of his sovereign grace.

His sovereign grace. Soly of his sovereign grace and mercy.

Say, Pastor, are you just kind of coming up with that on your own? Well, no. Here's a key passage. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 through 7. Now watch this.

Look at this closely. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him.

When? Before the foundation of the world. That is before he created the very first thing. He chose us.

Chose us for what? That we should be holy and without blame before him in love.

Now what is that? That's salvation. That's salvation. In the fullest sense. That we should be holy, totally separated unto him, without blame, that is completely sinless before him.

Without blame before him in love. That's salvation. Look at it. Having predestined.

Predestined. I know a lot of people are afraid of that word. In fact, some people just bristle up when a preacher even mentions the word. But it's right here in Scripture. Can't deny that.

Having predestined us to what? To adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself. Adopted us as children to himself.

Now don't get worried about that word predestined. It's a good biblical term. It is the Greek prohorizzo. Prohorizzo. You'll probably forget that.

But it's just a two kind of compound word. It has a preposition on the front of it. Pro means before. And horizzo means to determine. Now you can put that together and it makes perfect sense.

To determine beforehand. In fact, the word horizzo is the word we get from which we get horizon. And so that makes it kind of an amazing thing.

Kind of a picturesque thing to think about. That God has determined, predetermined our horizons. Our destiny. And so it means to predetermine.

To decide beforehand our destiny. Our horizons. And what had God determined beforehand? Well, Paul says to adopt us as sons by Jesus Christ to himself.

And this is amazing. Absolutely amazing. What was God's motivation for doing that? What was God's sole motivation?

Well, according to the good pleasure of his will. Period. He said, that's not fair.

Really? Would you rather have what is fair? The good pleasure of his will.

So that it would be what? To the praise of his glory. The praise of the glory of his grace.

And nothing else. Dear people. Nothing else. Not sympathy. Not even, again, a sense of fairness.

But simply, according to the good pleasure of his will for the praise of his own glory. There's only one person who can act like that and be right.

And that's God. For any of us, because we're sinners, it would be, we would be self-righteous, self-serving.

God is holy. And he did what? He made us accepted in the beloved. Accepted by God.

He made us that. Not you. Not me. Not by virtue of your goodness and your greatness and your kindness and your, you know, your potential and your desires.

And not based upon the fact you're a member of this church or born into a Christian family or have Christian values and live according to them. It's not based upon any of that.

But simply, he made us accepted. With the beloved. In him we have redemption through the blood. His blood. The forgiveness of sins.

According to what? The riches of his grace. There it is again. I was just over and over in scripture. The riches of his grace. And I need to add here another passage.

Titus chapter 3 verses 4 through 7. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done.

I might add, might one day do even. Not according to that. But according to his mercy, he saved us.

You know, if you can make a distinction and it's difficult to and maybe it's pressing it, pressing something into it that we don't have a right to. But you can see sort of a distinction between the words grace and mercy.

Grace usually refers to God giving us something we could never deserve. Mercy oftentimes refers to God withholding from us what we do deserve.

So it's according to his mercy. His mercy. He saved us. Through the washing of regeneration.

That just simply means through the new birth. Through the new birth accomplished by the Holy Spirit. Regeneration. Being birthed from above. And the renewing of the Holy Spirit. So the washing of regeneration.

New birth and renewing of God the Holy Spirit. Renewing, making us brand new. Through that whom he poured out on us abundantly.

Through Jesus Christ our Savior. That having been justified by his grace. We'll get into the word justified next time.

We should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And this glorious basis upon which God has saved us.

Not by works of righteousness which we have done. But according to his mercy he saved us. And what else?

Well we teach that the work of salvation as taught in scripture. Is based upon the sovereignty of God.

And that's what we've been talking about here. Based upon the sovereignty of God. It's based upon solely something within God himself. And his power. His sovereignty. John chapter 1 verses 12 through 13.

To them he gave the right to become children of God. To those who believe in his name. Who were born. That's talking about the new birth. Saved.

Regenerated. Born not of blood. That is you're not born into God's family. Because you came out of a Christian family. You've got Christian blood in you.

Not at all. We've got Adam's blood in us. So not of blood. Nor of the will of the flesh. That is your own personal desires.

Nor of the will of man. But of God. Born of God. Born again of God. Saved of God. That's about as clear as you can get it. Right there in scripture.

Now having said all that. It certainly brings up a question. What is man's part in this? Don't you want to know that? And how can you jive those two things?

And so really what we're talking about here in our doctrine of salvation is God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. We also teach that God's sovereignty in no way contradicts or negates the responsibility of man.

Now this is an important thing here. His sovereignty does not negate your responsibility to do what? To repent. Turn from sin.

Turn from self-trust. And turn to God. To repent. It doesn't negate that. God is sovereign in salvation.

I will say to you, according to scripture, absolutely sovereign in salvation. But that does not negate. Does not contradict. Does not cancel out or minimize your responsibility.

Both those things are taught in scripture. Ezekiel chapter 18 verse 23. This is God speaking directly.

Do I have any pleasure at all with that the wicked should die? And I'm just talking about physical death but eternal death. Do I have any pleasure in that? Says the Lord God.

Repent. And not that he should turn from his ways and live. Repent. Verse 32 of Ezekiel chapter 18.

For I have no pleasure, no pleasure in the death of the one who dies. Of one who dies, says the Lord God. Therefore turn. And this is man's responsibility.

To turn. To repent. Ezekiel chapter 33 verse 11. Listen to what God says. As I live, says the Lord God. I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

But that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn. Turn from your evil ways. That's God speaking. This is the responsibility of man in salvation.

Turn. That is repent. And do what? Trust. Trust. Trust Christ as Savior and Lord. John 3.

John 3. Part of Jesus' dialogue with Nicodemus. John 3. 18. He who believes in him is not condemned. But he who does not believe is condemned already.

That is, you're already in a state of condemnation. As every one of us are. Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation.

That light has come into the world. That's Jesus. Jesus. And the gospel. The full revelation of God has come into the world.

And men love darkness rather than light. That's the condition of man. Loving darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds are evil.

They love their sin. They want to stay in their sin. Want to remain in the darkness. And the light exposes that sin. So men love darkness rather than light.

Because their deeds are evil. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life. And he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life. But the wrath of God abides on him.

Let me add one other passage here. Revelation chapter 22 and verse 17. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. Come. This is the responsibility of man.

To come to Jesus. To repent. To turn to Jesus. The Spirit and the bride say, Come. The Spirit and the church, They say, Come. And let him who hears say, Come.

And let him who thirsts, Come. Whoever desires, Let him take the water of life freely. What an invitation.

I'm all for giving an invitation like that. Come. Come. Come take of the water of life freely.

Because it's been bought and paid for for you. So we're talking about God's sovereignty in salvation. And man's responsibility in salvation. And God's sovereignty in no way negates or cancels out the responsibility of man.

And so our statement on salvation goes on to say, And really it kind of anticipates what we're thinking about, What comes naturally in our thoughts at this point.

From the viewpoint, Human viewpoint, This truth is a seeming paradox. It's a paradox.

It's a seeming paradox. That is, You know, Think about it. I mean, It's logical to say that God is sovereign, Absolutely sovereign in salvation, And at the same time say that man is responsible in salvation, Seems self-contradictory.

Just logically speaking. Or paradoxical. I mean, How can both statements be true at the same time? God is absolutely sovereign in salvation.

Every part of it. Holy. All of it. Man is responsible to repent and to put his faith in Christ. How can you say both of those things and be saying the truth at the same time?

My answer is very simple. I don't know. I don't know how those two come together. I just know they do.

And I know that the Bible teaches both truths. Because in my mind, They can't be both true. I mean, Just logically speaking.

In my mind, They are irreconcilable. But Scripture teaches both things. And so we then say, Teach that It is totally reconciled in the mind of God.

Not my mind, Not your mind, But in the mind of God. Otherwise, God would not put both of those realities, Those spiritual realities, Together in Scripture.

And He has. We call it a seeming paradox, But actually the proper term, And you've heard me mention this before, Is Antenomy.

It's an antenomy. I've never heard of that word before. Let's break it down. Anti, Anti, Against, And nomi, Antenomi, Nomos is the word for law.

Anti-laws. That is, They're two laws, Spoken of in Scripture, But they, Are against one another. That is the sovereignty of God, Truth and sovereignty of God, And salvation, And the truth of the man's responsibility, And salvation.

Those are two laws, Truths, Taught in Scripture, But they seem anti to one another. And you can use the word paradox, If you want to.

It's kind of like, You know, The idea of two truths, Kind of parallel to one another, Moving along. And for us, They never ever come together. But in the mind of God, They come together.

And that's all we have to worry about. And so then we can, Then say in our statement, That even the ability to repent, And trust Christ, Is granted, By the grace of God.

In fact, That's what Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 says. Clearly, And even based upon the grammar of the statement, For by grace, Are you saved through faith, And that, Not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God. And the gift of God, Refers to both the grace, And the faith. God brings it together. Now let's move on.

We teach, That God, Through his sovereignty, And before the moment of creation, Chose those out of the fallen human race, Whom he would, Redeem, Bring to faith, Justify, Sanctify, And glorify.

That's a pretty full statement there. Through the sovereignty of God, Before he created the very first thing, He chose those, Out of the fallen race, Fallen human race, It gets quite technical, But, We're not talking about God, Making his choice, Without any regard, To the fall, Fall of man.

And he made his choice, Before that fall, In his mind. That would make God, The author of sin. But he, Looked after the fall, And chose those, Out of the fall, To be, Saved, Redeemed, Brought to faith, Justify, Sanctify, And glorify.

And these are powerful terms, Powerful terms. And we'll spend, Next week, Talking about each one of those. But let's move forward. This divine choice, Is an expression, Of free, Unconstrained, Sovereign grace.

2 Thessalonians 2, Verse 13, We are bound, To give thanks, To God always, For you, Brethren, Beloved of the Lord, Because God, From the beginning, Chose you, For salvation, To which he called you, By our gospel.

He called you, By the gospel. Therefore, Brethren, Stand fast, And hold the tradition, Which you were taught, Whether by word, Word of mouth, Or, Our epistle, Our letter.

So, God, From the beginning, Chose, You to be saved. And he called you, To salvation, Through the gospel.

Through the gospel. Faith comes, By hearing, And hearing, By the word of God. 2 Timothy chapter 1, Verse 9, Also, God has saved us, And called us, With a holy calling, Not according to our works, That's works of righteousness, Or goodness, But according to his purpose, And grace, Which was given to us, In Christ Jesus, Before time began.

All these verses are saying, Pretty much the same thing, Aren't they? At least the basic elements of it. And we don't have time, Really, To dig into every part of this. That's why I say, You need to read these statements, For yourself.

Look up all the passages. Study them. And so, Let's move on. We teach that, The action of God's sovereignty, God is sovereign, And where that sovereignty acts, Does something, It will result in what God determines.

That ought to go without saying. God is absolutely sovereign, And as his sovereignty acts, It's going to happen.

The result will always be what God determines, Which includes, Because this is our subject, Salvation. All whom the Father calls to himself, Will come in faith.

Will come in faith. And all who come in faith, The Father will receive. This is the truth of Scripture.

John 6, Verse 37, All that the Father gives me, Will come to me. And the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out.

Those are two wonderful truths. Sovereignty of God, The responsibility of man. Sovereignty of God, To save. Responsibility of man, Come.

All those the Father has given me, Jesus has gifted me. All of the redeemed, All of my bride, Will come to me. What God has gifted to me, Will come to me.

Every last soul, Will come. One who comes, To me, I will not cast out. God's not going to refuse, God's gift.

He's not going to refuse you, If you come to him. I will by no means cast out, For I have come down from heaven, Not to do my own will, But the will of him who sent me.

This is the will of the Father who sent me, That of all he has given me, I should lose nothing, But should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of him who sent me, That everyone, Everyone, Everyone, Who sees the Son, And believes in him.

All those who see the Lord Jesus, And believe in him. All those who see the Son, And believe in him, May have everlasting life. That is, Will be saved.

And I will raise him up, At the last day. See, God's sovereignty, Man's responsibility. All that the Father gives me, Will come to me.

That's the sovereignty of God. And all those who come to me, I will not cast out. So the responsibility of man is to come. That's looking at salvation from two sides.

From God's side, As it's revealed in scripture, And we must just simply trust. This is the way God sees it. All those, I've given to my Son, Jesus, They will come to him.

Every last soul. And from our perspective, As we look at it, From our finite minds and perspective, All those who come, Will not be denied.

Will not be cast out. And somehow those two, Come together perfectly. Come together perfectly. Not in our minds, Maybe.

But in the mind of God. The doorway to heaven, If we could, Maybe illustrate this, Make a visual of this.

The doorway to heaven, On this side, Has placard above the door, Whosoever will may come.

That's what it says on the top of the door of heaven. I'm not talking about literally. I mean, We're trying to imagine this great truth in kind of a picture. From our perspective, And therefore, Based upon, What we're responsible to preach to the world.

Whosoever will may come. You want to come to Christ? You may come. And you will not be rejected. And on the other side of the door, From heaven's view, The sign above the door says, God's elect only.

That's God's perspective. All those, That he has given to the Son, Will come to him. They will. Predestined elect, Of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What's our message? Whosoever will may come. And we don't just preach that and speak that because we want to, You know, Not contradict scripture.

We preach it out of conviction and believe it. That whoever comes, Will not be cast out. Whosoever will, May come.

And that includes, You. There are those who would say, Well, you know, It just doesn't seem fair. That my good friend, Not saved, And perhaps, Not one of God's elect.

It's not fair. Well, does that person want to come to Jesus? If, If, You want to come to Jesus, You may.

You may come, Right now. Today. In fact, I plead with you, Come to Jesus.

The Spirit and the Bride, Right now. Say, Come. Come. Those who have heard, Say, Come.

Come. All those who desire, May come and drink of the water of life freely. Have you come?