Good morning, everyone. The Lord willing, I will be preaching
this evening in Wheelersburg, Ohio, for our brethren, where
Brother Eric Floyd is the pastor. And please remember us as we travel
in the service there. And Brother Cody will bring the
message to you tonight. Be remembering him. Let's go
to our Lord in prayer. Our high and holy Heavenly Father,
we thank you for this day. We thank you, Lord, for all of
your kindness to us and giving us another day of life and thank you for another breath
of air. Lord, thank you for everything. There are so many things that
we forget to thank you for. And we thank you, Lord, that
you have allowed us to gather in your name one more time. This great privilege of being
able to gather with your people and gather around your word.
We pray, Lord, that you will not let us take this for granted.
We pray that you will let us truly enter into the blessing
that you've given us. We thank you, Lord, for this
means of preaching the gospel and hearing the gospel. And we
pray that you'll help us this morning. We pray, Lord, that
you will speak to us. We want to hear from you. And
we pray that you'll send your spirit into this place and send
your spirit among us and in us and. Bless us, Lord, bless us
with your presence, let us know your your presence and teach
us and help us, Lord. Do this for our teachers and
the children in their classes. We pray that you'll save us,
Lord. We beg you for mercy. We pray
that none of this is going through motions and none of this is in
vain. We pray that we might sincerely
worship from the heart and that you might bless your word and
save us. Lord, please, please call us
to yourself. If we have yet to see you, open
our eyes, we pray. If we've yet to hear you, open
our ears, we pray. If we've yet to truly believe,
open our hearts, we pray. Be with our brethren everywhere.
Be with those that are not with us today. Be with those that
are going through trial and sickness. Help us, Lord. Forgive us. We
ask all of this in Christ's name. Amen. Turn with me to Titus chapter
1. Titus 1. I was going to bring our Bible
study from the first part of verse four, and then the morning
message from the second part of verse four. But I feel led
to swap them. So verse four, Titus one, verse
four says, to Titus, my own son after the
common faith. We'll look at that in a moment
in our message. Verse four goes on to say, grace, mercy, and
peace from God the Father. and the Lord Jesus Christ, our
Savior. Grace, mercy, and peace. That's the title of this Bible
study. Grace, mercy, and peace from
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Let's begin by looking at each
one of those words individually, all right? Paul is telling Titus
These are the things that I truly desire for you. And this word
is going out to all of God's people. This word is to us. And
as someone who is called on to stand up here and repeat this
word, I say with every fiber of my being, this is what I desire
for you. This is what I desire for me.
If I, It just overwhelms me sometimes, just the deep, deep urgency and
the deep desire that I have, Lord, please let us get all of
this. Please let us see this. Paul
is telling Timothy, this is what I desire for you. This is what
I desire for us. The first thing he said is grace. I desire grace. I desire grace
for you. What is grace? What is grace? People talk about grace. Everybody
talks about grace. We sing about grace. Everybody
claims grace. What is grace? First, let's start
with what it's not. Grace is not works. Let's start with what it's not. Grace is actually the opposite
of works. It's not even that grace goes
hand in hand with works. Grace is the opposite, the exact
opposite of works. Grace means gift. It means an unmerited gift. an unmerited gift. If it's grace, if it's true grace,
you don't earn it. You don't earn it. Grace is the
opposite of works. Turn with me to Romans 11. Romans 11 verse 5, even so then at this present
time also there is a remnant. That means a very small number
of saved people. That's what that means when you
see a remnant. Talking about, you know, you go to a carpet
store to buy a remnant. Are you expecting to bring home
a whole roll? All of it? No. It's that little bit of leftover.
All right, so that's what a remnant is, a very small number of saved
people. Even so then, at this present
time also, there's a remnant according to the election of
grace. And if by grace, then there's very little works
added. That's not what it says, is it? If by grace, then it is no more
of works. No more. Not at all. Otherwise, grace is not grace. Grace is no more grace. But if
it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise, work is
no more work. It's one or the other. It can't
be both. It can't be both. They're opposite
of each other. They cannot mix like oil and
water. You can try all you want to.
You can try all you want to. They're not going to mix. You
cannot pay for something or work for something and get it for
free. You can't. You can't earn it. And it be unearned favor. That's not a possibility. It's
one or the other. Grace is the exact opposite of
works. Turn with me to Galatians 5. Now I will, I just wanna, you
know, I wanna point out that I've got the next page and a
half of notes could be a real help to some people. This is a real help, okay? See if the Lord, if anyone's ever struggled with,
you know, works and grace and all, this could be a real help.
Galatians 5 verse 4 says, Christ is become of no effect unto you,
whosoever of you are justified by the law, by obeying the law,
by doing the commandments of the law, the Bible, Okay? Christ has become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law. You are
fallen from grace. You're falling from grace. People
sometimes naturally think that falling from grace is falling
away from doing the right thing. Falling away from doing the good
deeds of the law. You know, falling into sin. That's what people think. Falling
into sin is falling from grace. You know, well, he's just not
on that right track anymore. He's not obeying the deeds of
the law to the fullest degree. He's falling from grace. The
scripture says the exact opposite is so. Doing the good deeds of the law
for the sake of being accepted by God, for the sake of God being
pleased with us and accepting us and saving us and giving us
an entrance into heaven. Trying to do the deeds of the
law in order to earn God's favor is falling from grace. That's what it is. You've fallen
to works. Away from grace, to works. Verse 4, Christ has
become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified
by the law. You are fallen from grace. Turn over to Romans 3. Verse 24 says, being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption. That's a payment. That's an earned
reward that is in Christ Jesus. That's where the payment was
made. That's where the reward was earned. being justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God had set forth to be a propitiation, a covering, an atonement through
faith in His blood to declare His righteousness. Righteousness
is obeying the law, doing good. He went about doing good. 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 that He might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. All right, so where's
boasting then? It's excluded. By what law? Of works? No, by the law of faith. Look into Christ. Verse 28, therefore
we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of
the law. Grace is the opposite of works. It's a free gift from God that
has nothing to do with the flesh of man. Now, in John chapter
three, our Lord said to a man named Nicodemus, That which is
born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit
is spirit. And what he was saying was, you
can't mix the two. You cannot mix the two. Every
soul in this room started out, I don't care what your background
is, every soul in this room started out in the error of our own false
religion, Whether we came up with it on our own or somebody
told it to us or whatever, we all started out in the error
of our false religion thinking that which is flesh is spirit
and that which is spirit is flesh. That's what man naturally thinks. In our error, we All we can do
is try to mix them. As we grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, a separation of those two takes
place. That's what happens in growing
in grace. You get farther and farther away
from works. And a separation takes place
and we start to understand that the grace that comes from God is of God alone. It's of God alone. It's freely given to us without
the involvement of our flesh at all. That's grace. That's grace. Now, we won't take long on the other
ones, but let's look at mercy, okay? Mercy is the opposite of vengeance. Mercy is the opposite of punishment. Mercy is the opposite of spewing
out wrath. Mercy is a compassionate, pitiful
sparing of what is owed. That's what mercy is. Grace involves something being
given to us without us doing anything. That's grace. Without
us doing anything. And mercy involves us being spared
wrath and punishment in spite of what we've done. One of them
has something to do with us doing nothing, and the other one has
something to do with everything we've done. Okay, you have grace. And then mercy. All that we've
done is sin. That's all we've done is sin.
That's all we've done is sin against God. Because of what
we didn't do and can't do, we need grace. And because of what
we've done and cannot stop doing, we need mercy. All right, this
is grace and this is mercy. And go back to Titus 1. The middle of verse 4 says, grace, mercy, and peace from
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Both grace and mercy come from
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. So what that
means is it's sovereign grace and sovereign mercy. Now what does that mean? Sovereign
grace, why is the name of our church Kingsport Sovereign Grace? Why is it sovereign grace and
sovereign mercy? What does that mean? What does
that mean? Go with me to Exodus 33. This is Moses speaking with the
Lord. Verse 18, Exodus 33, verse 18. And Moses said, I beseech thee,
show me thy glory. And the Lord said, I will make
all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will
be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. It's God's grace to give to whoever
He wants to give it to. And it's God's mercy to withhold
punishment from whoever He wants to withhold it from. It's all
in His hands to do with it as He pleases. He's God. He's God. There is none else.
Go over to Romans 9. Romans 9 verse 10. And not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand,
not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto her,
the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore, he hath mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. In verse
14, the question is asked, is there unrighteousness with God? Is there unrighteousness with
God? How can a holy and just God who does everything according
to the law, according to the balance of a just scale, how
can God give a free gift, an unearned favor
to someone who hasn't earned it? If it has to be just and
right, how can he give an unearned favor to someone who hasn't earned
it? How can he withhold punishment from someone who has earned it,
has earned punishment? Here's the answer. Christ. That is the only answer that
there is. It all comes together in Christ. Turn with me to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 verse 1 says, And
you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this
world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Among
whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lust of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ. By grace, you are saved. Christ was the gift. Christ is our grace. He is our grace. Verse four says,
but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ. Christ is our mercy. He is our
mercy. Verse five says, when we were
dead in sins, he joined us together with Christ. He made us to be
one with Christ. This made him to be a partaker
of our sins. And us to be a partaker of his
righteousness. This made him to be a partaker
of our condemnation and punishment and us to be a partaker of his
justification and acceptance with God. How could God give
us grace like this? Christ earned it. Christ was
worthy of it. How could God punish us? Christ
took it. How could he set us free and
show mercy to us because Christ suffered the wrath and took the
punishment. Christ was made to be a partaker
of our death and that made us to be a partaker of his eternal
life. He was our grace, he was our
mercy, therefore he became our peace. He is our peace. Look at verse 11. Wherefore,
remember that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who
are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh made by hands. That at that time you were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God
in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you
who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ,
for he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken
down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished
in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man,
so making peace. And that he might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby,
and came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to
them that were not, for through him we both have access by one
spirit unto the Father. God's grace brought God's mercy. And God's mercy brought God's
peace. God's grace, which is Christ,
brought God's mercy, which is Christ. And God's mercy, which
is Christ, brought God's peace, which is Christ, the Prince of
Peace. He said, my peace I leave with
you. Romans 5 verse 1 says, therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, Titus, that's what
I want for you. That's what I want, peace with God through the mercy
and grace of the blood of Christ. That's what Paul wanted for all
of God's people. And because that's what God wanted
for all of his people, that's what all of his people have.
That's what we have. Grace, mercy, and peace from
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.