Sound Doctrine: The Way of Salvation

Well, if you have your Bibles, you can open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2. And because we're doing a series on doctrine, let me just back up. It is customary here at Beulah Baptist — it is our typical practice for Pastor Casey to work through a book of the Bible and to do exposition on the text and to work systematically through. And that is, of course, the ordinary and customary way that we ought to go through the Scriptures, as it shows a high view of the Scriptures. But it is also appropriate on occasion to give emphasis sometimes to certain issues of our day and also, of course, to the essential doctrines of the faith. This morning we are going to look at the way of salvation. And I have referenced you to Ephesians chapter 2, but the fact of the matter is we'll be dealing with a number of verses as we work through the message today. Before we wander, however, into kind of the deeper waters of the way of salvation, I want to begin with kind of a more vanilla question. All right? And here's the question. What does it mean to be a Christian?

What does it mean to be a Christian? Do you know the word Christian is only used three times in your Bible? In Acts chapter 11, it says the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. In Acts chapter 16, Paul the Apostle was standing before King Agrippa in defense, and King Agrippa says, "Paul, you almost persuadeth me to be a Christian." And then in 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 16, Peter says, "Do not be ashamed when you suffer as a Christian, but give glory to God." And so three instances alone, only three instances in which the word Christian is used in your Scriptures. And you know that the term Christian originally was a term of derision.

It was not a term of endearment. It was what non-believers used to describe these people who were willing to forsake everything and follow Jesus. And it wasn't until about the third century when the word Christian became popularized. And for 17 centuries, or 17 centuries or more, we've been using that word Christian. And yet there is much misunderstanding about what it means to be a Christian. Jack Wilburn and Frank Koss, they have occasion on many Saturdays to go downtown Winter Garden and witness. And I'm guessing that if you asked them what would happen when they asked people downtown Winter Garden, "What does it mean to be a Christian?" — that you will get various — is that right, Jack? I'm guessing probably the most popular answer that you would receive would be, "Well, it means to be a good person." Now we know biblically speaking, there's no such thing as a good person. Only Jesus is a good person. And it's laudable to try to be a good person, but no amount of human goodness makes one a Christian.

I think another common thing you would hear is that they have to invoke their religious activity. "Oh yes, I have been a member of Beulah Baptist Church for 50 years. My great grandmother, she sang in the choir and my grandfather, he taught Sunday school." And so they begin to list their denominational affiliation. But being a member of a church doesn't make a person a Christian. Some people, I think, have the idea that it is hereditary. And they'll speak about their father being a pastor and their grandfather being a missionary. Well, you get the color of your eyes and the color of your hair sometimes from DNA, but being a Christian is not a matter of DNA. It is not hereditary. Some people think because they were baptized, they're a Christian. Maybe they were sprinkled as a baby, or maybe it was baptism by immersion, and they rely upon that ordinance for salvation.

None of these things make one a Christian. What does it mean to be a Christian?

Number one, it means to be saved. It means to be saved. When I was a boy growing up in church, just about every Sunday, I heard that word at some point during the message — the word save. That word is not used as much anymore in modern churches, the word saved. But saved is not a Baptist word. Saved is not a Reformed or an Arminian word. Saved is an excellent Bible word to describe what God does for those who put their trust in Him. Take a survey with me through the New Testament. Now help me out here. This is participatory. All right. In the book of Acts, it said, "The Lord were adding to their number daily those who were being saved." All right. Moving on through Acts, it says this,

"Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name given among men under heaven by which we must be saved." In Acts chapter 16, the Philippian jailer calls out to Paul and Silas after the earthquake and he says, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they answered, "Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." In Romans chapter 10, it says, "Believe upon the name of the Lord. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved." And in 1 Timothy, the Bible says God desires that all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. And so salvation is a Bible word and we need to use that word more often. Now this begs a couple of questions, doesn't it?

What does it mean to be saved?

Saved from what?

Saved by whom?

When I was in high school, I invited my baseball team to what we call a revival service at our church and the evangelist was up there preaching. And one of my friends who was on the baseball team, in the middle of that sermon, I heard him say, "Saved from what?"

Many people — most people — are totally unaware of the need for salvation. This morning as we consider the way of salvation, I want to begin with this question, and that is the need for salvation. What is the need for salvation? Number one, you and I must be saved from our depravity.

Saved from our depravity — fancy word, four-syllable word. Depravity speaks of that corruption and that pollution of sin that we get from Adam.

This depravity is pervasive. It's devastating. It affects the whole being. It affects the mind. The mind is darkened. It affects the heart. Our affections are distorted. It affects the will. It affects the ability to be inclined toward sin. It is absolutely pervasive and absolutely devastating, and as human beings we all have it. Now listen, that's not what I see when I look in the mirror and I judge myself amiss and I compare myself to others. It's not even what I see necessarily when I look at my neighbor across the street, who seems like a friendly person.

All right, but depravity is the reality that a holy, righteous God sees when He looks down at sinful and rebellious man, and it is pervasive. We're a chapter and verse kind of church, right? So let me give you a few verses. Titus chapter 1: "To the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled." Ephesians 4: "They're darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart." Jeremiah 17: "The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately sick — who can understand?" And in Romans chapter 1: "They are futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened." Number one, we must be saved from our depravity. I ask you, is there a remedy for man's depravity?

Number two, we'll get there.

Number two, I must be saved from spiritual death.

When Adam and Eve sinned, instantly they died spiritually. Now Adam, he lived on to be, I think, 930 years old.

But as the Lord warned, there was instant death. They died spiritually.

To be in a state of spiritual deadness is to be alienated from the life of God.

It is to be totally devoid of spiritual life so that one cannot even perceive the objective beauty of Christ and His gospel. And rather, just the opposite, one perversely sees as beautiful his own sin and his own glory and his own sinful way. Spiritual deadness — we read about it from Ephesians chapter 2: "Dead in trespasses and sins."

Is there a remedy for spiritual death?

Is there a way by which a spiritual corpse can be made alive?

Number three, we must be saved from eternal death.

The Bible clearly teaches that everyone who dies physically, who remains spiritually dead in sin and unbelief, faces what we call the second death or the eternal death. You can read about it in Revelation chapter 20.

The eternal death is eternal destruction, eternal ruin — not annihilation, not a cessation of existence, but eternal punishment. In Revelation, it's referred to as the lake of fire.

I ask, is there a remedy for my depravity? Is there actually a remedy for a spiritual corpse to be made alive? Is there a rescue from eternal destruction?

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I have come today to proclaim the good news that God has made a way of salvation.

Our God is a saving God and He has acted in grace to save men and redeem them from sin and the curse of the law. And so I want to speak to you this morning about the way of salvation.

But I need a drink of water.

I want to speak to you about the way of salvation.

Jesus is the way.

God sent forth His Son, born of a virgin, conceived of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness. There's no other type of righteousness. He lived a life of righteousness. He lived a life of perfect obedience. He fully met the demands of the law. He lived a life that you and I cannot live.

And such obedience was necessary for Him to be a suitable substitutionary sacrifice on our behalf.

If you go back to the Old Testament, to the Levitical priesthood, in order for a penalty executed on a sacrifice, that sacrifice had to be what? Without blemish and without spot.

And this principle extends, of course, to our Passover Lamb, the Lord Jesus. He is the Passover Lamb.

The Lord Jesus was without spot and without blemish. John the Baptist declared when he came on the scene, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world."

And so Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience. You know what? That obedience was also necessary for you and I.

Because you and I need a righteousness we don't possess. For righteousness is the very ground of justification.

And so Jesus lived this perfect life. Your Bible talks about this in a very interesting way in both the book of Romans and in 1 Corinthians when it compares Adam, the first Adam, and Christ, the second Adam. Let me read these verses of Scripture.

"For as" — now talking about the first Adam — "for as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous." In other words, here you have Adam. He lived out an actual life of disobedience. And through our union with him, you and I are justly condemned as sinners — by nature and by choice. But then Christ lived out an actual life of obedience and righteousness, so that if there be some way that we might be united with Him, then we have a basis of righteousness to be declared not guilty and righteous before God. Jesus lived a righteous life, and His righteous life opens up a way for salvation.

But listen, Jesus didn't just live a righteous life. He didn't just live a life that you and I could not live. He died a death you and I could not die.

I want us this morning to go to the cross. And I want us to see the chemistry of the cross where God's love and God's mercy meet.

And in the finished work of Christ on the cross, we see the way of salvation. First of all, when Jesus died on the cross, it was a work of penal substitution.

Theologians call it penal substitution.

A work of penal substitution. In other words, when Jesus was dying on the cross, He was not bearing the penalty for His own sin. He was bearing the penalty for all of God's people who would believe on Him.

He was bearing the penalty not of Himself, but of others. Here are the Scriptures, chapter and verse. Isaiah, speaking of the coming Messiah, said the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. 2 Corinthians 5:21: "For God made Him who knew no sin to be sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." And so when Jesus died on the cross, He was not bearing the penalty of His own sin. He was bearing the penalty of our sin — of those who would believe in Him. The sinner's penalty. And so the work on the cross was one of penal substitution. That is fundamental, of course, to the way of salvation.

Not only so, but it was also a work of propitiation. I know that's a big word, propitiation — I think it's five syllables. I counted it out the other night. All right, propitiation means this.

When God bore the wrath that we deserved, God's wrath was fully exhausted on Him on behalf of God's people.

When He bore the sin of our guilt, in those three agonizing hours on the cross, the full wrath of God that was due to His people was laid on Christ. And so with the guilt of sin removed, His sacrifice was a wrath-averting sacrifice. If the Lord Jesus received your wrath, then there's no wrath for you in the eternal death. You see, His sacrifice was a wrath-averting sacrifice, and therefore God can be propitious to us.

Not only was it a work of propitiation, it was a work of reconciliation.

The fact that it was on our behalf, we have that grand principle of imputation. I want to go back to 2 Corinthians 5:21. Listen closely now to the Scriptures. "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might have the righteousness of God in Him." Do you see the principle of imputation?

My sin was imputed to Christ that His righteousness might be imputed to me. All right? And so the work on the cross was not just a work of substitution. It was not just a work of paying one's penalty. It was also a work of reconciliation.

When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, the basis for the enmity between God and man is removed.

Listen to Colossians 1: "You who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He is reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight."

So when I am born into depravity and I'm born with a sinful nature, I am not a friend of God. The Bible says there's enmity between God and man.

The mind of the flesh is set against God.

But when Jesus died on the cross and my guilt was taken by Jesus and God's wrath was spent on Jesus, then the ground of that alienation has been removed. And now I can have peace with God. His finished work on the cross is the basis for reconciliation. I can have peace with God.

His work was also a work of redemption. For in my sin I am enslaved to sin and to self. I am enslaved to the law. But when Jesus paid the penalty for my sin and took the wrath of God for my sin, I am now made right with God.

I am now made right with God.

And so the work of redemption, it sets man free from sin and from self. We are a redeemed people. We are a bought people. We are a purchased people. The song says, "Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, redeemed by His infinite mercy, His child and forever I am." We are a redeemed people bought with the price of Jesus's blood on the cross. He's redeemed us. He set us free from sin and set us free from the curse of the law. We are a redeemed people.

And now listen, His work on the cross was also a work of victory.

You know the gospel from 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Jesus died for our sins. He was buried, but on the third day He rose again.

And when Jesus rose from the grave, He demonstrated that Satan had been conquered. The power of sin, the power of death had been conquered, and He dealt a decisive death blow to Satan and the kingdom of darkness. And so we have complete victory in Jesus. It vindicated that the work was finished. And Jesus provides salvation. There's a song for that, isn't there? "Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever." Oh, I feebly try to express to you the finished work of Christ, how it provides completely the way of salvation. He bore our penalty on the cross. He satisfied the wrath of God. He removed the ground for alienation that we might have peace with Him. And He's redeemed us from sin. What a victory that we have in Jesus.

And so we have the need for salvation.

Jesus has provided the way of salvation. And now I want us to consider this morning the means of salvation.

What hope does a spiritual corpse have?

I mean, what hope does a spiritual corpse have? It would seem that a spiritual corpse is in need of a remedy that only a life-giving, creating God can remedy.

And so I turn you to Ephesians chapter 2, verse 5: "But God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses" — what did He do? — "made us alive together with Christ, for by grace you have been saved." The means of salvation is the new birth.

God the Father powerfully summons forth the sinner from spiritual death and imparts to him spiritual life. And just as depravity was pervasive, so the work of God in the new birth is pervasive. And so He imparts to the sinner a new mind. I now can see and appreciate spiritual things. I now can discern things that I had no clue about before because He's opened up my spiritual eyes. It changes my mind. He takes a heart of stone and He creates a heart of flesh so that now my affections are toward the things of God and not towards the things of sin and self. And in the new birth He changes the will, and He inclines me toward the things of God.

This is only something that God can do.

You know, birth is used to describe this. You go to John chapter 3 and Jesus is dealing with Nicodemus. He says, "Nicodemus, you must be born again." And Nicodemus says, "I'm confused. How do I do that? Do I climb back into my mother's womb?"

And Jesus is making it clear. It's an act of God.

And He talks about the wind blowing. Of course the wind is not at our beck and call, but God summons forth sinners. And what does He do? Through the preached word He calls them to repentance and faith. This is the instrument of salvation. The instrument of salvation is a preacher standing behind a pulpit like this, or a missionary out in the field, declaring what Jesus has done, proclaiming the finished work of Christ and calling sinners to repentance and faith. Don't ever undervalue the preaching of the Word of God. It is the means by which God calls people to Himself. And so He calls us to repentance and He calls us to faith. And by the way, these two things are used — repentance and faith, these two things — repentance and faith are inseparable.

Repentance and faith are inseparable. You can't turn to something without turning from something.

A saving faith is a repentant faith.

And a saving repentance is an obedient repentance. This is why these are so often used in Scripture together. In Mark chapter 1, now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God saying — this is Jesus, okay — "The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel."

Acts chapter 20: "Paul proclaimed to you publicly and from house to house, testifying repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." And so let's talk this morning about repentance and faith. Now in just a few weeks, our pastor is going to bring us a message on the doctrine of repentance and faith, but we can't talk about the way of salvation without talking about repentance and faith, and so we're going to do just a little bit of that right now. May we? All right, repentance.

Repentance is turning from self and from sin.

And it affects the whole person — it involves the whole person, I should say. It involves the mind. Now I see my sin differently than I once did. Now I see my sin as a transgression against a holy God.

It's like the psalmist David. He had sinned against Bathsheba. He had sinned against Uriah the Hittite. He had sinned against his nation. He had sinned against his body. But when he came to repentance, he said, "Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned." Repentance is when the heart realizes, "I have sinned against a holy God," and I change my mind about my sin. But also there's a change of heart. There's contrition. Godly sorrow leads to repentance. And understanding I've sinned against God, there's a true, heartfelt contrition over my sin. And then it affects the will, because now, abhorring my sin and hating my sin, I will abandon my sin and I will turn and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable. And that's a theological necessity. We can talk more about that when we get to the doctrines of repentance and faith. Where there's no repentance, there's no salvation.

All right, and so a man then, because of the gift of God, having opened up his spiritual eyes, having changed his heart, having changed his will, he says, "I'm disowning myself, I'm disowning my sin, and now I am turning in faith and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ." That's faith. Faith is the soul giving itself to the Lord Jesus Christ. And just like repentance involves the whole person, faith involves the whole person. For with my mind, I have to understand the truth of the gospel. That's why the preaching of the gospel is so important. I need to understand that Jesus is the Son of God. He was Messiah. I need to understand I'm completely helpless, but that He bore my sins on the cross, He bore my penalty on the cross. God made Him sin for me. And so I have to understand the gospel. You see, our faith is not some fairy-tale faith. Our faith has a historical, intellectual understanding. There's content to our faith. Jesus really died for your sins. And so faith involves a knowledge of what Jesus has done, a knowledge of the finished work of Christ. Oh, but that's not all.

I had professors of religion at Stetson University. They could have stood up here and done a much better job talking to you about these doctrines than I can — barely pronounce.

They could have told you all the ins and outs of propitiation and penal substitution. They knew it all in their head.

But I have very sound reasons to believe they didn't believe it in their hearts.

There's a difference between knowing the facts of the gospel and believing the gospel. And so faith involves the mind. It has an intellectual component. I understand what Jesus did for me. But then it has a heart component. I wholeheartedly embrace what Jesus did. I believe — okay, I believe in the truth of the gospel. But then it also has that volitional component of the will. Do you know that the demons know and believe?

They know and they believe. They're orthodox.

Most demons would qualify to be a deacon in a Baptist church.

I mean, they can answer the test, right? You give them a test and they can check the right boxes. You see, it's one thing to know the gospel.

It's another thing to say with your mouth, "I believe the gospel." But trusting in Jesus is wholly relying upon Him. It is putting my life and my death in His custody because I know that He is fully suitable to cleanse me from sin, to forgive, to provide a righteousness I don't have and to give me eternal life — eternal life consisting in knowing God and fellowshiping with Him. And that's why He made us. All right. So saving faith — repentance and faith — is the call of the gospel.

You might be here today and maybe you've gone to church most of your life and you know the facts.

You know the gospel in your head.

There's also the call of salvation.

There's the means of salvation. There's the call of salvation, and the call is to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this morning, as best as I could, you've heard about the finished work of Christ, what He did for you that you could not do for yourself. And so today I would call you to repentance — that is, acknowledge your sin before God.

Abandon sin and selfishness as futile, futile attempts to be made right with God. Forsake sin, forsake self, and wholeheartedly trust in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. There is the promise of forgiveness and there is the promise of eternal life consisting of knowing God and having fellowship with Him.

What does it mean to be a Christian?

It means to be saved.

I want to go back to the finished work of Christ. I butchered it up so badly.

Jesus paid it all. That's what you need to know. He paid it all. But listen, being a Christian means more than being saved. Being a Christian also means to be sure.

You can be sure that you're a Christian.

Can you imagine going and knocking on Peter's door after he preached and 3,000 people were saved, or Paul the Apostle's door after he met the Lord on the road to Damascus, and saying, "Peter, Paul, do you think you're saved?" — and then giving some mealy-mouthed answer like Joel Osteen on Larry King: "Well, I hope so. I think so. You can't really know until you die." Not on your life. It was Peter who said, "Brethren, be diligent to make your calling and election — what? — sure." Paul the Apostle said, "I know in whom I have believed" — not in what I have believed, but I know in whom I have believed — "and I am fully persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day." You can be sure of your salvation.

Now let me call a few witnesses to the stand to prove this proposition. Witness number one, the external witness. I believe it's in 1 John chapter 4 verse 16.

"We know" — not we think, not we hope — "we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren."

I was hoping Ken would be here today. I'm going to use Dan.

You know, one of the reasons I know I'm saved — I love Dan.

Thank you.

You know, we have teachers here. We have cops here — cops and teachers, united for mutual benefit. But I would ask you, what is it that brings us together?

How is it that we have this common bond?

That's exactly right. We're family. We're united to Christ. We have a bond in Christ and it's real. Every time we would do the Lord's Supper when I was a boy, we would finish with this hymn. I hate to sing it, I'm terrible. But it's called "The Bond of Love." Have you heard that song?

We are one in the bond of love.

We are one in the bond of love. We have joined our spirit with the Spirit of God. We are one in the bond of love.

I can see my dad standing there and singing that.

And a congregation loving one another. And we're united because we're united in Christ. And so there's the external witness of the Holy Spirit. You can be sure also because of the internal witness of the Holy Spirit. In 1 John chapter 3 it says, "We know He abides in us because of the Spirit He has given us." And so here we are in a service and we're reading the Word of God. And we know that God's Spirit is speaking to us. We're listening to Jimmy and Joanne as they sing.

And God's Spirit ministers to us. We're praying and we hear God speaking to us. And so He's given us His Spirit and His Spirit attests to the surety of our salvation.

But you know what I want to call the smoking gun witness to the stand? And that is the eternal witness. God has put it in a book. And if I can find my Scriptures here — I've been scrambling around for it. Listen to 1 John chapter 5, verses 11 to 13: "This is the testimony" — or depending on your translation, "this is the record" — "God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things have I written to you that you believe in the name of the Son of God and that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God." God has put it in a book. And you know what that means? That means my salvation is predicated upon the veracity of God, and God doesn't lie. "Let God be true and every man a liar," it says in Romans chapter 3. And so you can be sure of your salvation.

Number three, what does it mean to be a Christian? It means I'm saved. It means I'm sure. It also means I'm separated.

There is separation.

In other words, when God saves us, we begin to live a life that is qualitatively different than before.

We don't hear a lot about this anymore, but it's the truth. You know, when He called His own children of Israel out, He said, "I have brought you out of Egypt that I may bring you into the land of promise." And so you have the negative side, "I've brought you out," and you have the positive side, "I'm leading you in."

And so when we become a Christian, there are just certain things now that we no longer will do. We don't go along with every fad or every fashion that is contradictory to the Word of God. There's something different about us. And see, the beautiful thing — now look, the Pharisees, they had that kind of religion that's just about what we don't do. We don't want to be known just by what we don't do.

That's the spirituality of a tree stump, right? They don't do those things either. But it's more than that. It is also the positive. It is going forward in the will of the Lord and in the will of God.

And what we're doing for the Lord.

And you know, once we begin to get in the will of God and start doing for the Lord, all that other crud that we thought was important before — suddenly, that's what it is, it's crud.

Paul kind of used that word in Philippians chapter 3. The Greek word is skubala. I'm not going to give you the literal translation. It's crud with a smell. All right?

And so when I begin to appreciate the things of God, all that other stuff — just, it's nothing. I remember when I was a boy, there was this little baseball game I played on the floor. I was probably six or seven years old. I played it constantly. It was my life. I tried to find it on Google and I couldn't. Probably '73, '74. You dropped a little ball down a ramp and you had this little thing that you turned and it knocked the ball. And if it went up this ramp, you had a single or a double. That was everything to me. That game — I sat on the floor, I played it constantly. But you know what happened at Christmas? I opened up a box and there was a glove and there was a ball.

And I went out in the front yard and I threw it with my older brother.

And guess what? That little childish game — I was done.

You see, the Lord, He changes our desires. He changes our affections. He changes our "wanter." That's why the preacher said, "I can go out drinking and carousing and run around with whoever I want to." And then he says, "Praise God, I don't want to anymore." All right? He changes our affections. And so to be a Christian, it means I've been saved — that's number one, get that right. Number two, it means I'm sure. Number three, it means I'm separated. Number four, it means I'm spiritual.

It means I'm spiritual.

Now that doesn't mean that I talk like this.

"Bless you, brother. Bless you, sister." All right? Being spiritual is a very practical thing. Pastor Casey has been taking us through Colossians. Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." And so to be full of the Spirit is to be full of the Scripture. Saturate yourself in the Word of God.

And then in Ephesians chapter 5, it says, "Be ye filled with the Spirit." Now here's the neat thing, and I learned this three weeks ago. I shared it with one of you and you were not impressed. I didn't perceive.

But he was going through these Scriptures. You want to know if you're spiritual?

It's not because you get goosebumps, or you laugh in the aisle of the church like a hyena, all right, or that you speak in an unknown tongue. In both Ephesians chapter 5 and in Colossians chapter 3, where it talks about being filled with the Spirit, immediately after that — you know what happens? He begins talking about your home life.

Wives, submit to your husbands.

Husbands, love your wives. Children, obey your parents. And so do you want to know if you're spiritual?

Ask your wife.

Ask your husband. You see, this is real. This is real.

We're going to move on. Lastly — first of all, it means we're saved, get that right.

Turn from sin and believe on the Lord Jesus. And when you do, you're going to be separated. You're going to be spiritual. But lastly, you're going to be satisfied.

You're going to be satisfied.

Christ is all in all.

Jesus plus nothing.

He provides for physical needs.

"The Lord is my Shepherd."

"I shall not want."

He provides for material needs.

I've been around preachers. My dad was a preacher. Grandfather was a preacher. And I've heard Pastor Casey's testimony. Do you know that 90 percent of the pastors that you talk to have this testimony?

"I went off to seminary and I..."

How do I say this? I'm going to say it. I'm going to fill in.

I went off to seminary and I didn't have a pot to pee in.

Dirt poor. No financial resources. And the testimony that you hear over and over and over again is how God provided fully for their needs.

That's the testimony of someone who sold out for the Lord. David said, "I have been young and I have been old, but I have never seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread." He takes care of the physical needs. He takes care of the material needs. He takes care of the emotional needs.

Living for Christ in this world is tough. It's hard.

It's difficult. But the Scriptures promise, "He whose mind is stayed on Thee, I will keep in perfect peace." And so He provides for our emotional needs. And lastly, as we close, He provides for our future needs.

The older I get, the more I appreciate this.

But He gives dying grace.

You never know how you're going to die. Have you ever rehearsed your death? I know it's a little macabre, isn't it?

You could die in a crash today. But if you have a more conventional death — if there's such a thing — I want you to just imagine as we close here that you're on your deathbed and you actually know that you only have an hour or two to live.

You know what doesn't matter at all at that time?

Your body.

Politics.

What's going on in the Southern Baptist Convention.

International affairs.

The only thing that matters is the certitude that all is well between me and my God.

And that I can claim the promise: "To be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord."

He fully satisfies. We have a God who saves. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we are absolutely nothing without You, as was sung about earlier by Jimmy and Joanne.

But we thank You that we have full provision in Christ.

I pray, Lord, that You would work today.

In this little building, Lord, there may be one. And they've known the gospel for years in their head.

They've even known it in their heart, but they've never sold out and trusted You, committed the custody of their life to You. I pray today You would call them to repentance and faith, and Lord, that they might respond to You.

We thank You for Your salvation. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.