Titus chapter 2, verse 11 through
15. And the title of the message
is, The Grace of God That Teaches Us, or Teaching Grace. The Teaching Grace of God. Titus chapter 2 and verse 11
says, For the grace of God, the grace of God, that bringeth salvation
hath appeared to all men." Teaching us that denying ungodliness and
worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly
in this present world. Looking for that blessed hope. and the glorious appearing of
our great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself
for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify
unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These
things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no man
despise thee." Teaching grace. The Apostle here begins in these
texts with these words, for the grace of God. The grace of God. What is the grace of God? Well, the grace of God simply
means the unmerited favor of God. That's all it means. Grace. Grace is something that is not
seen, not looked for. Grace is something that man cannot
earn. It's something that God must
give freely. It is God's election of a people
from before the foundation of the world. This is the grace
of God. that God chose a people for Himself unto salvation. God's amazing grace that took
such undeserving sinners as we are, such hell-deserving sinners
as we are, and chose us. Chose us in eternity
past. and set His love upon us, and
this was manifest by His sending His Son, Jesus Christ, into the
world." This is the grace of God, that He sent His Son to
die in the stead of sinners. "...that He took upon Him the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for our sin He suffered in the
flesh." He died in our stead, suffering the wrath of God so
that we might go free. It was by the righteousness and
the blood of Christ that God could both be just and justify
the ungodly. The Scriptures are clear we all
have sinned. Is that not clear even in your
own conscience? to be true. All have sinned. And what does this mean? We've
come short of the glory of God. We've come short of the perfection
that God requires of His creatures. So how then are we justified? Paul says, being justified freely
by His grace. Now if you want a word that's
synonymous with grace, there's one, freely. without merit, without
cause, in the object of grace, God by grace justifies us. But not just any way He can't
justify us by just any means. He justified us by Jesus Christ. through the redemption that is
in Jesus Christ, who God set forth to be the propitiation
through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God, to declare, I say, at this time, His righteousness. Why? That He might be just and the justifier of them that
believe in Jesus. in grace chose us. And all who
believe upon the holy name of His begotten Son have this hope. God in grace chose us to salvation. God purposed our salvation. I've
told you this story before. A pastor was preaching and a
woman came up after the service and she says, I know the difference
between your doctrine and our doctrine. You believe in election. You believe God saved people
according to election. And we don't. What does that
mean, election? He made it very simple. He said,
did God save you on purpose or on accident? Well, she said,
on purpose. She said, then you believe in
election. God saved you on purpose. God purposed that you should
be saved. and then sent His Son to redeem
you, and then saved you even in the midst of your sin. You
didn't deserve this. This was a work of God's grace. And this, we come by grace then. Scripture says, for by grace
you are saved through faith. And that faith is not of yourself. Faith is a gift of God, not of
works. Why? Lest any man should boast. That's why it's done this way. It's done by grace. And all who
come to Jesus Christ by faith and trust in Him, we have confidence
then to stand before God, don't we? We have assurance that when
we stand before God, we should be accepted, not because of any
merit in ourselves, but because the merit in Christ. There's
our merit, there's our standing before God, because God purposed
to save. And we know this, that there
is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved.
You see, there's no other Savior. There's only one. Only one God
purposed to be the Savior, Jesus Christ. And listen, by this name
we must be saved. That's something, isn't it? Do
you realize that all those that God chose by grace, all those
that Christ died for, must be saved? They must be saved. Why? God purposed them to be
saved. Christ died for them. It is of
necessity that they must believe. And this is the work of the Holy
Spirit, isn't it? The Holy Spirit comes by grace and saves us.
And so all then who come by faith in Jesus Christ, faith, friends, is the evidence
of our election. You know that? Faith is the evidence
of our redemption. When God by grace chose me, I
wasn't there. When Christ died, I wasn't there.
How do I know I have any part in that election or that redemption
of grace? Because by grace I was saved
through faith. And faith was a gift of the Almighty. It was a gift of grace. It wasn't
something men can do themselves. That's what religion teaches.
Religion teaches that man has some ability left that he can
make a choice or he can reject. No, man can't make a choice because
man is dead. How can a dead man make a choice?
He can't. The only thing men can choose
is sin. Jesus said, no man can come to
Me. That's how desperate man is.
That's how depraved man is. That's how ruined man really
is. That he cannot even come to Christ,
except what? The Father which has sent Me,
draw him. That word is very powerful. It
is though one would pull a sword from a scabbard, they would draw
it out with force. And so that's how we were called.
We were drawn. We were drawn not by law, but
by love. It was the love of God that drew
us. It was the grace of God that
saved us. Now, let me ask you this. Since
grace saved us, grace purposed us to be saved, grace redeemed
us by the blood of Jesus Christ, and grace called us to life and
faith so that we should be saved. Now, what are we saved from?
You hear that a lot. You need to be saved. Well, saved
from what? A lot of religion believes you
need to be saved from the devil. No, devil can't save himself.
We don't have any need to be saved from the devil. We need
to be saved from God. Remember, we were under the wrath
of God. So God saves His people by grace
from Himself. Isn't that wonderful? He saves
us from Himself to Himself. That's what God does when He
saves us by grace. Now, if you're here today and
you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, the Scriptures are abundantly
clear, this is the only way of salvation. There is no other
Savior. There is no other way. Jesus
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man, now listen,
no man comes to the Father but by Me. Now, plainer words cannot be
spoken. It's clear that He is the only
way. But I'm here to tell you this,
no man could hear that or believe that except God reveal it to
him. Can't. Listen to the words of
Jesus Christ. These words might be shocking
to some. Jesus said, I thank Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth. Matthew 11, 25. You can write
it down, you can read it later. Matthew 11, 25. Jesus said, I
thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou
hast hid these things from the wise and prudent. Do you know
God hides His Word? Now what did He just say? I thank
You that You have hid these things from the self-wise." That's what
it is. These people, they think they're
wise and they think they're prudent. And Jesus said, I thank you,
you hid their word from them. And revealed it to who? Babes.
I'm glad you hid it from the religious folks and gave it to
sinners. That's what He's saying. Even so, fathers, it seemed good
in thy sight. You know who believes this word?
Only those that God gives it. Consider this, you who do believe.
How many did God pass over, and yet He chose you? Is that not the most astounding
thing? That He chose the worst. That He didn't go out and try
to find the best. But He chose sinners. to manifest
the greatness of His grace. And Jesus said, All things are
delivered unto Me of My Father, and no man knoweth the Son but
the Father." Wow, that's a revelation, isn't it? No man knoweth the
Son but the Father. That's what Jesus said. Neither
knoweth any man the Father save the Son. And listen, "...to whomsoever
the Son will reveal Him." Now then, who knows the Father and
who knows the Son? Only those to whom He reveals
Himself. Isn't that remarkable? Grace
is so particular that God has purposed it only upon certain
individuals. Now men will scream and cry and
kick at that. Well, let them kick. They kick
against God. They suppose that they deserve
it. That's why they kick against
it. They suppose that God owes them something. Listen, God owes
us nothing but hell. And if He gives us salvation,
it's by what? It's by grace. By grace. And Jesus goes on to say, He
said, "...Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden."
You know, that's the whosoever He reveals Himself. That's the
whosoever. Those who are laboring and are
heavy laden with their sin and cannot by any means obtain righteousness
by their works. There's somebody who's working
and can't do it, and they're so burdened that they can't come,
they can't earn anything before God. And Jesus says, well, that's
the person I'm going to reveal this to, sinners. And he says,
you shall find rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. I am meek and lowly in heart. Isn't that a wonderful
thing that Savior says? He says, come to me, I'm meek
and lowly. Isn't that the most inviting
thing? And all who come, you shall find
rest. Without a doubt, I'm going to
give you rest. He's not going to pull the rug out from underneath
people who come. He is not like the enemy. The
enemy does that. He promises peace and happiness
through sin. And as soon as you get it, he
pulls the rug out. It's empty, it's vain. It's like
you ever go fishing and you put the bait on the hook, and the
bait looks so attractive, and as soon as he bites, there's
a sharp hook, he's caught. That's what sin is. But when
Christ says, Come, I'm not hooking anybody. Come. And you find rest
unto your souls. And so then, this is grace. This
is grace. The Apostle says here in our
text, He says, for the grace of God. Listen, that bringeth
salvation. God's got salvation and what
does He do with it? He brings it. He brings it, bringeth
salvation, hath appeared to all men. Now, we that believe, have
we yet attained unto perfection? That's a rhetorical question
because the answer is obvious. We who believe know that we are
not yet what we shall be. Not yet. We know that we have
the righteousness of God. I am righteous in the eyes of
God. Yet we know this too, that we
are still in this body of death. We still possess this old nature
around our necks, this corpse. We still know that we are not
what we want to be. We still do not know all there
is to know about what it is to believe, do we? We don't know
the fullness of His grace yet. We have not yet fully experienced
or known the fullness of this message. This grace of God is
found where? Where did you learn the gospel
of God's grace? God's Word. This is the means
by which God conveys His Spirit through the preaching of His
Word. We preach the Word, the Spirit of God then takes the
Word and applies it to the hearts of His people by which we come
to life and faith in Christ by the Word of God. This Word is
sharp and powerful. It's effectual. Not physically. The world gets excited hourly.
They want this book to be exciting to what? This flesh. They want
the flesh to be excited. They want it to be something
like a pep rally. They want something that gets them energetic and
jumping up and down. That's flesh. This Word is powerful
to affect the heart and the mind and the body, the will. This
is what it is powerful to do, to save sinners. Now if God by
His grace has quickened you and given you life and faith in Christ,
you have come to know Him as your Savior, then it behooves
us to know that this grace that saved us also continues to teach
us. This same grace that saved us
is what the Apostle says here in our text. It teaches us. Look
at that verse 15. Verse 11 says, "...the grace
of God." The grace of God that bringeth salvation and a period
to all men." Listen, teaching us. Teaching us. This grace of God that has been
given to us who believe on the only begotten Son is not a one-time
gift, but a lifetime experience. You see, I was saved by grace
through faith. But when I believed, I didn't
stop believing, did I? We believe now more than when
we first started. So what does that mean? It means
that we grow in grace. Faith is a grace of God, just
like love or peace or meekness. It's a grace. And so as we grow,
we are growing in grace and knowledge. We are saved or not left to ourselves
to figure out what all this means. You know what? God didn't wind
us up and then just let us go out on our own, trying to figure
out. No, He gave us His Word that
we may be taught, taught by God. He shows us. Christians, we're not to place
ourselves above others according to knowledge. Now listen, I can
read this book, and I have. I've read this book for many,
many, many years. And I know quite a bit about
this book. You may read this book all your
life. But listen, if that's all you have is knowledge, knowledge
can only do one thing. It can puff you up. It can make
you proud. Paul says, knowledge puffeth
up, but love edifies. Love edifies. If any man think
he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing as he ought to know.
But if any man love God, the same is known of him. You see,
it's not my knowledge about God that gives me any comfort. It's
His knowledge of me. His knowing me matters. If I am known of Him, I am loved
of Him, I am redeemed of Him, I am called of Him, and I am
kept of Him. That's what I want to know. I
want to know what? Exactly what I've been telling
you, the grace of God. I want to know the grace of God.
And the grace of God is what God teaches us. And how does
He teach us this? Now, like I said, you read this
book, you know every doctrine in this book, you can be able
to be a great scholar. But if you are not taught of
the Holy Spirit, you know nothing. The Holy Spirit is the Teacher. And He only has one lesson. It's
amazing because we're so ignorant, we couldn't handle more than
one message. Christ is the message. That's what the Spirit of God
does. He doesn't point to Himself. That's what Jesus said. He said,
He shall testify of Me. Now then, every time I preach,
do I preach about the Holy Spirit? I tell you His person, His work.
He's worthy of praise, yet the Holy Spirit always points to
Christ, never to Himself. You see these people jumping
up and down, dancing and hollering and saying, that's the Holy Spirit.
No, it's not. No, it's not. Why? The Holy Spirit doesn't
make a festival of Himself. He points men to Christ. That's
His business. That's His work. And so then
if the message is about Christ, about the grace of God in Christ,
that's the Spirit of God working. That's the Spirit of God teaching
us. about Jesus Christ in His person. So therefore, I love
to learn of Him. I love to know more about Him. And so we do this through the
Word, through the preaching of the Word, the hearing of the
Word, the reading of the Word. Now Paul did not set himself
above anybody else. Now listen, I'm a preacher of
the Gospel, but I'm telling you this, I'm learning. The grace
of God is teaching me every day through providence, through His
Word. He is using all of these things
to teach us of His grace, to show us His grace. I think sometimes
when I'm most down, I feel as though the Lord has left me. It's a very painful experience.
David had often asked, Lord, have You forgotten me? Will You
leave me forever? I ask that question sometimes
when I don't feel His presence and I don't know His presence.
And I think, how could this be for my good? And yet God is using
this for my good because now I long for Him more than if I
had never lost His presence. He's teaching me to adore Him,
to praise Him, to love Him more. Isn't that what you want? That's
what He's doing. And so, we who learn from the
grace of God, the first thing we learn, anybody who is chosen
of God, redeemed of God, and called of God, the first thing
we learn is the gospel. The gospel of God's grace. God's
grace brings salvation. Now listen, God's grace and His
gospel appears to all men, but it doesn't save all men. It doesn't. If it did, there would be no
hell. There is a hell. This tells us that though the
gospel appears, in other words, it's very clear, God did not
leave Himself without witnesses, did He? Jesus Christ died under
the wrath of God, and He rose again from the dead. Paul said
there were 500 witnesses of His resurrection. So without question,
Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. You can't deny that.
Men cannot deny it. Not one. There are too many witnesses. As a matter of fact, God witnessed
it long before it happened in His book. He said, Thy soul shall
not see corruption. He told us that through prophecy,
that He would rise again from the dead. And this appears to
all men, but it's not effectual to all men. It's only effectual
to those that God gives it. And believer, therefore, we should
avail ourselves to this. This is how we learn. How did
you learn the grace of God? Hearing. Faith cometh by hearing. And hearing not just anything,
but hearing by the Word of God. We learn the Gospel that I just
preached, the grace of God, the election of grace, the redemption
of grace, the calling of grace, the keeping of grace. This is
the Gospel we heard. And by grace we believe. And
so then, we availed ourselves to it. And we still do, don't
we? That today, you are availing yourself to this same Gospel.
I'm not preaching anything new, am I? You that have heard me
this whole time I've been in this facility, is there any other
message I've preached? I've preached Christ every message.
We've got it on record. If you want to go back and look
at them all, you can. Preach Christ. And yet, this
message never grows old. It just gets bigger. It gets
fuller. This is what it is to grow. The
Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, isn't
it? And so when we come by the Word of God, we are taught by
the Spirit and the grace of God. And how then are we to come to
this Word? If the grace of God teaches us the Gospel, and we
need to come to the Gospel, how should we come? We should come
as repentant, humble, and believing sinners. Trusting only in the
grace of God. This morning, this afternoon,
I am trusting in the grace of God for anybody to be affected
at all by the message. Even myself. Even myself. I trust in His mercy. Trust in
His mercy. And so then, what else does this
grace of God teach us? It teaches us the Gospel. But
notice this, it teaches us to deny some things. It says, "...teaching
us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts." Now, what I want
you to get from this is this. He's not pointing you back to
the law. He's not pointing you back to
the law. The law requires men to deny things, right? Do this,
don't do this, and what? Live. That's what the law says.
The law is based solely on performance. You work, you merit, you earn. And the moment you stop performing,
you fail, and the whole thing is ruined. Now, we failed a long
time ago. We've all sinned. So we've already
failed the law. The law can by no means save
us. Paul says, you are not come to
Mount Sinai. You're not coming to the law
that burns. You're not come to the mountain
that burns with fire and darkness and sound of a trumpet. Why?
You cannot endure the commandments of God. You cannot obey them. But we are not come to that mountain,
thank God. We are come to Mount Sinai. We've
come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, the spiritual Jerusalem, accompanied to an innumerable
company of angels, a general assembly of the church and firstborn,
which, listen, were written in heaven. You got that? Our names were written in heaven. We've come to heavenly Jerusalem
because our names were written. Because God chose us to this,
and we have come to Jesus Christ, the mediator, which is the evidence
that we believe. The evidence of our election
is coming to Christ. Therefore, we say this, come
ye sinners, lost and hopeless. Jesus' blood can make you free,
for He has saved the worst among you when He saved a wretch like
me. I know. Yes, I know Jesus' blood can
make the vilest sinner clean. How do I know? Experience. Experience. I've experienced the grace of
God. And this grace of God, it teaches us to deny things. It's
not telling us to go to law. Some people believe that you're
saved by grace, and then somehow you go back to the Ten Commandments
as a rule. No! No. You go back to that one
commandment, and you've taken on the whole law again, and grace
does you no good. No. Paul said, are you so foolish,
having begun in the Spirit, you think to be made perfect by the
works of the flesh? No. No. Grace doesn't teach us
that. So we're not going back by law.
So these things that I'm telling you to deny are not for life,
but because you have life. We deny these things because
we have life, not to earn life. There's a big difference. So
what is we, we who have life, what are we to deny? Look what
Paul says, ungodliness and worldly lust. When we come to know the
Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of God, I want you to remember
that you still have two natures. You who are born again have two
distinct natures inside that one body. One is called the flesh,
the old man, Paul says. It's that same nature you were
born with. that corrupt and evil nature of sin you still got that
yet God has created in us a new nature and by this new nature
we are able to believe and love and serve God so therefore there's
a warfare now inside of us. A constant battle, a constant
struggle within. Paul says, "...the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." These two
are contrary. They're not ever going to mix.
They're like oil and water. They'll never mix, no matter
how much you try. Won't mix. So that you can't do what you
want to. What does the flesh want to do? He wants to leave
God. What does the Spirit want to do? He wants to run to God.
So you've got these two opposing things that are always battling
inside of us. Paul says, therefore, put off
concerning the former things the conversation, the old man
which, listen, is corrupt. That word is present tense. That
word means that your flesh is corrupt as it was in the beginning. Jesus said, "...that which is
born of spirit is spirit, and that which is born of flesh is
flesh. Never the twain shall meet." They're not going to come
together. They're at a warfare. He says,
"...but be ye renewed by the Spirit of your mind, that you
put on the new man, which is after God, created in righteousness
and true holiness." So in denying these things, we are constantly
putting off the old, constantly by faith putting on the new,
renewing our mind. You know, I have to set my mind,
I have to renew my mind constantly about how things really are.
I see things and it just don't appear. It appears that everything
is going wrong. Everything's not in order. It
appears that God is against His people. There's not many that
believe this gospel of grace. There's not many that love this
gospel. And I think, how could this be?
This is the most wonderful gospel that was ever preached in all
the world, and yet men don't love it. What's wrong? No, everything's
going right. Remember, God's ordered all things. And everything is running just
as smooth as God purposed it to. God is over all profitants. I need to renew my mind about
that. I need to constantly remind myself of these truths. Things
are not as they appear. So to deny ungodliness, To deny ungodliness is to deny
the fruits, the works of the flesh. Paul said the works of the flesh
are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, strife,
seditions, heresies, envies, murders, drunkenness, revelings,
and such like. I didn't even list them all,
but anything like that, That's the work of the flesh. Now, what
must we do? What must we do? Deny it. Your
flesh and my flesh always are going to want sin. You're not
going to stop that. Martin Luther said this. He said,
I can't stop the birds from flocking, but I can stop them from nesting. I can't stop wicked thoughts,
but I can stop them from taking hold and laying their eggs in
my mind. I can do those things. This is
what he's saying. Put it off. Push it out. And
always look to Christ. Always. You can't do this in
your own strength. I'm not... You should determine to do it,
but you can't do it. It's only in the strength of
Christ, only by looking to Him by faith through these things.
I think of that song that says, when he's looking by faith to
Christ, he said, the things of earth grow strangely dim in the
light of His glory and grace. That's right. When we're looking
with Him and setting our affection on Him, the things and temptations
of the world, they grow strangely dim to me. But I tell you, the
moment I take my eyes off Him, they're not dim anymore. So this
is a constant struggle that we are to deal with. And he says,
put off not only that, the lust of the flesh, ungodliness, the
lust of the flesh. This is talking about the philosophies
and desires of the natural man. This world is so geared toward
lust. It is. Passions of men. Not just talking
about sexual passions, but rather greed is another one. Covetousness,
that's another one, isn't it? Who isn't lustful about having
good health? Who isn't lustful for the things
of the world? We are. We must put these things
off because we have something better than the things of the
world. We have heaven itself, Christ Himself. Put these things
away. And listen, the grace of God,
conversely, teaches us the opposite, to live. Those things are death. Ungodliness and worldly lusts
always lead to death. They do. But conversely, God
says, no, the grace of God teaches us to live. To live. We are not only to deny worldly
lust and ungodliness, but to live. Believers, we have been
given life. If you have faith in Christ,
you know that's the evidence of spiritual life? That's the
only evidence of spiritual life, is faith in Jesus Christ alone.
And if you have life, what are we to do? We're to live unto
God. Live unto God. Paul says, for
in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth,
he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon yourselves to
be dead to sin, dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, that you should obey the lust thereof. I'm so
thankful that He has called me from death to life. and given
me faith." Now then, listen, he says, live. How should we
live? Instead of ungodly and worldly, how should we live?
Live soberly. Verse 12, soberly. Of a sound
mind. Do you realize believers are
the only ones who have a sound mind? Everyone in the world that doesn't
believe in Christ is running to hell like it's heaven, and
running from heaven as though it were hell. That's madness.
That's madness. It's insanity. It's depravity. I'm talking, it's like if a man
had cancer, and he was dying, and a doctor says, I have a cure,
and he says, I don't want it. We would say, are you crazy?
And yet here I am, Christ saying, I am the cure. And man says,
I don't want it. It's madness. That's not what we say. Give
me Christ and you can have everything else. I want Christ. I want to be found in His righteousness,
not my own. His righteousness, not mine.
His blood. We're to live justly or righteously.
Not only soberly of sound mind, we're to live righteously or
justly. Now, our righteousness does not
come by our living righteous. That's what the world thinks.
That's what the lost people and religious world think. Our righteousness
comes from Christ. Yeah. He's my righteousness.
All my merit before God is in His righteousness. And now His
righteousness is my own through faith. Now listen. even the righteousness
of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ." In other words,
righteousness of God was merited by his faith, by his obedience
and his death. And then he says, "...which is
unto all and upon all them that believe." Now then, that I believe,
by grace I have faith, and now that righteousness is mine. It's
mine. So then how is a righteous man
to live? Righteously. Isn't that right? Is it not reasonable for us to
emulate Christ? Is it unreasonable to ask us
to try and mimic our Savior in how He treated others? No. That's just reasonable, isn't
it? If we are followers... He said, "...be ye followers
of God as dear children." You know what that word followers
means? It's like if a dad put his footsteps in the sand, it's
like a son trying to... follow right in the footsteps
of his dad. That's what it means. Be you
imitators, is what the word means, of God as dear children. How
did God treat men? Graciously. Remember, He fed
5,000 men besides women and children, and listen, they weren't even
His elect, yet He fed them. We most definitely should. That's
what the grace teaches me. Grace teaches me that's what
I should practice. Most definitely. But you know
what? He never compromised the gospel.
Neither should we. That's what a righteous man should
do. A righteous man never compromises the gospel, yet he loves. He loves. And thirdly, we are
to live godly. We are to live godly. What does
this mean? It means to walk by faith. The fruits of the Spirit,
love, joy, peace, meekness, temperance, faith, these come by walking
in the Spirit. How can one walk in the Spirit?
You say, walk in the Spirit. What does that mean? It means believe on the Son of
God. Remember, that's His work. His work is to instill faith
in you. So that's how we walk by the
Spirit, by faith. And it's by faith that He produces
these fruits in us and works them out of us. They don't start
outside and go in. They work from the inside out. And listen, this grace also teaches
us to look. Look at verse 13. So the grace
of God teaches us to deny godliness, worldly lusts. It teaches us
to live how? Soberly, righteously, and godly. When are we to do
this? Right now, in this present world. That's when we're to do
this. Now then look, it says grace of God also teaches you
to look. Verse 13. Looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus
Christ. Grace teaches me to look forward to something. You know
what? If you're not looking forward
to His coming, you surely are sad. We're miserable if we don't
look forward to His coming. That's because we're all so focused
on this present mess that we're in. Don't focus on this present
mess. Look forward to His coming. You've
got something to look forward to. Every day you wake up, every
day you get up, you've got something to look forward to. He's coming.
He's coming. He said He was. The second thing
is, look backward. Don't just look forward, look
backward. Verse 14, "...who gave Himself
for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity." and purify
unto Himself a peculiar people zealous to good works." Look
back at the cross. Are you ever down and discouraged?
Look back at what He's done. By faith, look at Him. See Him
nailed to the tree. See how He died for all your
iniquity. Why? That He might purify him
for Himself. He's doing this for Himself.
I love that. He's not doing this for you or
me. He's doing it for Himself. That guarantees me it's going
to get done. If He's doing it for me, then I'm doubtful He'll
finish. I don't deserve Him to be finishing.
But if He's doing it for Himself, I know this, He'll finish it.
He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ. So look back. That's what grace
teaches me. Look forward and look back. Look back at His coming. And the last thing that grace
teaches me is to speak. Look at this in verse 15. These
things speak. That's what I'm doing today. I'm speaking these things. Are
we not His witnesses? We are His witnesses. You are. the light of the world. You are. No, not you're supposed to be.
You are. You are. That's what He tells you. He
says you are. And you are the salt of the earth.
You realize the only reason this world spins is because of us.
That's it. Now, there's no boasting in that.
I'm not being proud. That's all grace. It's all grace
that this is happening to us, that we receive these benefits.
But it is so that this world spins only because God has other
elect people out there. That's it. Once that last one
is brought in, it's done. When that last elect soul believes,
I know this, God's going to roll up this world like a scroll,
and He's going to unroll it as perfect as it was before. Better. These things speak with what? All authority. Grace teaches
me authority. Now, the authority is not in
the voice. People think you speak with authority. My authority
is not in my voice. I could speak with a little squeaky
voice or a big voice. It doesn't matter. My authority
comes from right here. Here's my authority, right here.
The whole of our faith and practice is the Word of God, right here.
That's it. So this is my foundation. This
is my authority to speak these things. So when you speak these
things, speak with authority, confidence. This is God's Word. How are men saved? Saved by grace.
God chose them. Christ redeemed them. The Spirit
is going to call them and not one of them is going to be lost.
How do you know that? God said that. Well, why do I
need anybody else's opinion about it? I don't care what men think.
And it don't matter what men think. It don't matter what I
think. I've told you all that at the beginning. I'm not coming
here to give you opinions. I don't want to give you my opinion.
I'm going to give you God's Word. Then I have authority to speak,
don't I? You too. You too. Speak the Word of God. How? Because grace doesn't teach
us to be proud. Grace teaches us humility. I love this. One person said
that the gospel is the great leveler. It puts all men so low
and exalts God so high. And it shows us the great gulf
that Christ spanned at Calvary, doesn't it? Grace teaches us. And I've not learned half. I've
not learned Just a small portion, a mustard
seed. That's what I've learned. But
I'm learning, and grace is teaching me. Most definitely. Yes, you speak
the Word with authority because God said. And speak it to whoever,
anybody. Seize your children, your parents,
anybody. You have the authority because
God said to. And what do we speak? Not just
anything. Grace. Salvation by grace through
faith in Christ. Listen to this word. Alone without
works. You have to.