SALVATION AND SOVEREIGNTY
[p. 378] SALVATION AND SOVEREIGNTY
2 Corinthians 4: 3, 4; Luke 19: 1 - 10; 1 Corinthians 1: 21; 2 Timothy 2: 10
These scriptures treat of salvation. It is because people are lost that they need to be saved. There are people lost who will not be saved. There are people lost who will be saved.
Our first scripture contemplates a class of persons that are unsavable. There are, it is said, lost people; and they are lost characteristically. Paul says that if his gospel was veiled, it was in these people. You might as well preach to a cow as try to point out the gospel to these people, who are lost even when the gospel is preached by the greatest preacher, for it would be of no avail. It is not a question of pointing these people out, or listing them, for God alone knows who they are. It is a most solemn matter. “If also our gospel”, says the apostle, “is veiled, it is veiled in those that are lost”. He goes on to say, “In whom the god of this world has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine forth for them”. Judas was one of these people. Such people know that perdition is their own place. You may urge them to believe, but they will only say, ‘We cannot believe, we are lost, we have trifled with the truth of the gospel’. We may assume this is exceptional, but one in that attitude of mind is in great danger. God may say to him, ‘You have heard the gospel and been appealed to a great many times, but you have neglected it and have trifled with it’, and God may say to such a one, ‘The matter is settled as regards you’. God may say that to him, for God knows. It is serious to trifle with God and with the gospel. The Lord is coming with His mighty angels, “taking vengeance on those who know not God, and those who do not obey the glad tidings of our Lord Jesus Christ”, 2 Thessalonians 1:8. You are leaving out God and Christ. This is not an optional matter. What are your intentions? To carry on as always? God will say one day, ‘That is final as far as you are concerned!’.
God may end the matter in that way. He may say, ‘This is final with you’, for He hates triflers, “Let the filthy make himself filthy still”, Revelation 22: 11. These are the Lord Jesus’ own words. You have elected to stay as you are. We only say these things because God is so resentful of any who despise the gospel. Furthermore, man or woman, whoever you are, you are exposing yourself to the god of this world, who blinds the eyes of the unbelieving, so that the radiancy of the glad tidings of the Christ should not shine for you. They are shining and Satan cannot stop them shining, but he can stop them for you by blinding your eyes in your neglectful attitude. Another scripture says, “If any be ignorant, let him be ignorant”, 1 Corinthians 14: 38. If you will not heed the words of God, you are ignorant, and He will say, ‘You can remain in your ignorance’. God will not be mocked. It is a serious matter. Salvation is too great in His mind to be trifled with. He marks the man or woman who does so. If you neglect the gospel, the devil blinds your eyes, and God may say, ‘You can just be that!’. You will die that way, and appear before the great white throne as one who neglected the gospel. You will not have a word to say. You cannot over come there! God has the last word, “That thou mayest be justified when thou speakest, be clear when thou judgest”, Psalm 51:4. For when one is called before the great assize, the books condemn him; no word can be said; the matter is finished.
Now we want to turn you to another side of this glorious subject. In Luke 19 there is a person who is [p. 380] lost but is savable. God can save. These words are spoken to Zacchaeus, a man in reproach in this world. He used to go with the world, but he has changed his mind. He is not in the class who are lost; a change comes out in him; he is interested in Jesus. I do not know you, for I have not been here before. Perhaps your presence here means that you are interested in Jesus. Jesus says, “To-day salvation is come to this house”. Zacchaeus has reached it. May God grant that there are some like that here! You can reach it by receiving the truth of God, and not allowing the devil to blind your eyes. The Lord says, “The Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost”. Zacchaeus was in that class. The Lord came to seek him, and not only to seek him, but to save him. He lifted up His eyes and saw Zacchaeus. He is always lifting up His eyes, looking even around this audience, and speaking to one who is likely to get saved. Such ones are of interest to heaven; they are likely persons, like the man at Lystra who was lame from his birth. It is said that he “heard Paul speaking”, Acts 14: 9. It was no accident that he heard Paul speak; he never forgot hearing that speaking! Paul looked upon him “and seeing that he had faith to be healed” (Paul made no mistake!), would see that man was a savable man. There is great pleasure in looking into a man’s face when he is seeking salvation. In Old Testament times they waited for salvation. Now, those looking for it do not have to wait; it comes about right here! So with Zacchaeus we have a man that is savable. He had one desire, he wanted to see Jesus, “who he was”. That man was interesting to heaven. He was exceedingly little of stature, but he ran on ahead and got up into a tree. Perhaps you have got up into a tree to see Jesus; you have taken up a superior position. But you will only see Jesus rightly by coming down to Him. We must be on the horizontal, we cannot look down on Jesus. It says [p. 381] that Jesus called him by name; it is of interest to heaven to be called by name, “Zacchaeus”; that name was, I believe, music in his ears as he heard Jesus call him by name, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down”. He says to him, “To-day I must remain in thy house”. Now think of the interest to heaven. The Lord has something in mind, a man here, a father, with a wife and family. The Lord has them all in mind, as with Paul and Silas in prison, when the jailor comes trembling and cries, “Sirs, what must I do that I may be saved?”, Acts 16: 30. What a question that was! It was not, ‘What shall other people do to be saved?’. But it was ‘What shall I do?’. You are an interesting man, you are an interesting person, the father of a family. The apostle knew that. The apostle says in his answer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house”, Acts 16: 31. “Thy house” includes the wife and the children. You say, ‘I do not believe in that household gospel’, but God will secure the family; the family is the thought of God. He has moved in regard of families; so the family is the thought here in Luke 19, “To-day salvation is come to this house”, and Paul would say the same to the jailor.
Paul does not make much of baptism, but he makes a great deal of the teaching of baptism. “I thank God that I have baptised none of you ... that no one may say I have baptised unto my own name”, 1 Corinthians 1: 14, 15. Paul says, ‘I do not want to assume anything of my own’. He may have baptised Crispus and Gaius, and he remembers that he baptised the household of Stephanas, a household well worth baptising! But in the chapter in Acts Paul says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house”. If the man were saved by himself, he would never reach the full thought of God, that God would save his house. “And he took them the same hour of the night and washed them from their stripes”. What [p. 382] a changed man he is! He is a saved man, and as head of his house also, for you cannot dissociate the man and his house. He “was baptised, he and all his straightway”, and there was great joy in that house. So the Lord says to Zacchaeus here, ‘I am coming to abide in your house today’. A fine thing that! This man says, ‘I want to see who He is, and to hear what He says’. He comes down. How agile he is! He has joy in his heart. Why? Because the Lord Jesus is coming to his house. Let us not neglect the thought of households! God is saving households continually through the gospel. It is said that he received the Lord gladly. He had had many a friend up to now, but a Person like this had never been in his house before!
The Lord says, “the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost”. Here is a lost person. The Lord did not have to go to Jericho to find this man. Zacchaeus is looking for Jesus. Jesus did not have to go far to find him. Sometimes the Lord seeks and cannot find the sheep. In Luke 15 the Lord leaves the ninety and nine and goes after the lost sheep, “until he find it”. There is no question there; it is found. The sheep there is a findable person. In Matthew 18 it is, “If ... he find it”; that is to say, if the Lord came to Winnipeg to find a man, He might find him in a theatre. That is not a very likely place to be found in, for he is unlikely to hear anything about salvation there. So Matthew says, “If ... he find it”, but in Luke the Lord finds His lost sheep. If you are here tonight the Lord does not have very far to go to find you. You are right in His way. Zacchaeus was in His way, and the Lord found him. He was a savable person. “The Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost”. I leave the word with you. Zacchaeus “made haste and came down, and received him with joy”. That is Luke’s line. The Lord was not content to have Zacchaeus [p. 383] simply look at Him, but He would abide at his house. At that moment the devil, Satan, comes in; they say, “He has turned in to lodge with a sinful man” (verse 7). But Zacchaeus does not deny that; he offers an excuse: “If I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I return him fourfold”. That is more than one hundred cents to the dollar! But the Lord brings in that which puts him in his right mind, a changed view. Zacchaeus does not deny the sin, but Christ is the Saviour, the Saviour who died for sinners. “Faithful is the word, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”,
1 Timothy 1: 15. He died for them. “Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he was raised the third day, according to the scriptures”, 1 Corinthians 15: 3, 4. “Therefore having been justified on the principle of faith, we have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ”,
Romans 5: 1. Now this man did not deny he was a sinner, but told the Lord he returned fourfold. The Lord does not discredit that, but pointed out that he was a savable person, “a son of Abraham”. “To-day salvation is come to this house”, He says. As I was saying before, salvation is for the household. Satan would destroy households, discredit headship, and encourage disobedience, but he is to have no further place in this household, for the Lord has brought salvation: “To-day salvation is come to this house, inasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost”. He was lost and is found, and he is saved. “Who has saved us ... not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time”, 2 Timothy 1: 9.
Now I come to the third scripture, “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom has not known God, God has been pleased by the foolishness [p. 384] of the preaching to save those that believe”, 1 Corinthians 1: 21. It does not say, ‘to save them that are lost’; I have already spoken of that. But if I am lost and savable, I must believe. Here He is pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of the preaching. The apostle is dealing with worldly wisdom; by it none know God. But by the foolishness of the preaching God is saving a certain class, “those that believe”.
You are lost, and you judge yourself like Zacchaeus; the Lord comes seeking you, and if you believe you are saved. Paul says to Agrippa, “Believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest”, Acts 26: 27. Paul gave him credit for believing the Scriptures, but, alas, that was as far as he went, for he says, “In a little thou persuadest me to become a Christian”. Poor, poor king! He knew the Scriptures, yet he was lost. You know in your heart tonight where you are. The Lord challenges you as to your faith; can you believe? By the foolishness of the preaching God is saving a certain class; the people who are saved, they believe. Are you lost or saved? I challenge you tonight! Look into your heart. Do you believe God?
Do you believe the Scriptures? Do you believe the gospel? Can you face that, and go the whole way? This is the line upon which to commence being a christian, to believe an the gospel. It is the only ground on which anyone can stand. And so the apostle says that “by the foolishness of the preaching” God is saving them that believe. You may never hear the gospel again. This is your opportunity. Believe the gospel, believe God, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ! God is saving a certain class of people, not simply those that are lost, but those who believe. That is all I had on that point.
Now to come to the fourth scripture, “For this cause I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory”. The greatness of suffering is seen in Paul; we are so far behind him in preaching, in which, as he says, he endured “all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus”. It was that point that was before me, “the elect”. The apostle suffered all for them, that every man classified as such should be saved. The Lord Jesus, we are told in Acts 2, “added to the assembly daily those that were to be saved”. The apostle had the elect in mind when agonising in the preaching. He is going to tell us something of the magnitude of salvation and, incidentally, of the greatness of believers who get it, “the elect”.
In Acts 13 Paul and Barnabas appear to win the whole town. The whole town turned out to hear the gospel; you say, it is a great ingathering of souls; but there were not so many as you may think. We have to apply the principle of selection. “Many are called ones, but few chosen ones” (Matthew 22: 14), as the end of that chapter shows, for the Jews stirred up a disturbance against Paul and Barnabas, and it is said in verse 48 that “as many as were ordained to eternal life” believed. They were those foreknown of God before the foundation of the world, those whose names were written in heaven. These are the people Paul is agonising about in this chapter: “I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory”.
Paul endures all that we may obtain that. It is wonderful, God’s salvation in Christ Jesus! It is magnificent that I may come to Christ and obtain all that. The preacher is suffering that the class of people, called ‘the elect of God’, might not lose this, but that we might know our calling, the salvation in Christ Jesus, and the expanse of it, ‘eternal glory’. God drew us from this world through the gospel that we might obtain the salvation in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
[p. 386] The Lord says to us that we must go in for the salvation that is to be obtained, and obtained with eternal glory. You cannot afford to miss these things and not to be a real christian; it is the eternal purpose of God. May the Lord bless His word!