GRACE FOR TODAY Radio Message #524

           

            SALVATION BASED UPON A DIVINE TRUST

           

            Pastor Don Fortner

            Grace Baptist Church of Danville

            2734 Old Stanford Road

            Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438

 

“That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.”                                                                      Ephesians 1:13

 

            The Apostle Paul, writing by divine inspiration, tells us of a twofold trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He tells us that God the Father trusted Christ as the Mediator and that all who are born of God trust him as the only Mediator between God and man.

 

The Father’s Trust

 

Be sure you notice the language of Holy Scripture. The Holy Spirit here informs us that God the Father trusted his Son long before we came to trust him. In the covenant of grace, before the world began, when the Son of God volunteered to become our Surety, God the Father trusted his elect and all his purposes of grace toward his elect, into the hands of his dear Son. God the Father trusted Christ as our Surety, Shepherd, and Savior long before we did (John 6:37-39).

 

“All that the Father giveth me (giveth me presently, in regeneration and conversion) 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 (Hath Given Me from eternity, as a Trust into my hands) I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”

 

            Thus it is that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke of all his sheep as being his sheep, which he must bring into the fold, long before many of his sheep were born. He spoke of the all as his present possession, though he declared plainly that they were not yet in his fold (John 10:16).

 

            In the everlasting covenant of grace, God the Father trusted his Son, our all glorious Christ, with the salvation of his elect, and thus with the glory of his name from everlasting. When our Savior had finished his great work of redemption whereby he secured the salvation of all the chosen, he asked and the Father gave to him, as the just reward of his obedience, the glory he had with him before the world began (John 17:1-4; Heb. 1:1-3; 10:1-14).

 

Our Trust

 

            “In whom ye also trusted.” - At the appointed time of mercy, grace and love, every chosen, redeemed sinner is born again and called by the irresistible power and grace of God the Holy Spirit to faith in Christ. This God given faith is not the trust of some imaginary Jesus who tries to save, but cannot do so without the consent of man. Oh, no. That Jesus is an idol. This God given faith is faith in the same Christ the Father trusted from eternity - THE ALMIGHTY COVENANT SURETY WHO CANNOT FAIL!                                                                                                                                          AMEN.