Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church,
located at 905 Yadkin Street in Kingsport, Tennessee, would
like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. And now, Pastor Gabe Stoniker. I would like to invite your attention
this morning to the book of Titus, chapter 3. Titus chapter three,
if you would like to read along with me, I'm going to read verses
five to seven. Titus chapter three, verse five
says, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Savior. That being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Now, I would like to set something
forth to you to consider today. And give great consideration
to this because most people don't. This is not something that when
it comes to religion and when it comes to salvation, this is
not something that men and women naturally consider that often.
They do not put much thought into this. And I pray that the
Lord will cause this to be very clear and very to the point because
this is critical. This is critical. Our lives depend
on this, our eternal lives. Once we leave this physical world
and enter into the presence of the judgment throne of God, our
eternal lives depend on knowing this right here, believing this
right here, having all of this revealed to us. Everyone can't be right. Let's just think about that for
just a minute. Everyone can't be right. You know, and I know
how different religions are, how different denominations are. There's one God, but people have many gods. There's one way, but people have
many ways. And the thing that I want to
make very clear this morning, the thing that I want us to see
in the word is everyone can't be right. Everyone has a way
that he or she is clinging to. There is a way that man thinks
is right. But if it's not God's way, it's
destruction. And everyone cannot be right. So what that means is, everyone
can't be all right. People think, well, he's all
right. She's all right. He believes something. He has
some kind of faith. He has some kind of religion.
He's all right. Well, if everyone is not right,
then everyone is not all right. When it comes to eternity, when
it comes to salvation, there's one way. There's only one way. Now, I'm gonna give you a little
illustration here of this religious thinking and hopefully this will
make a lot of sense. If you could picture three people
standing here, and one person over here says, makes this statement,
and he says, one plus one equals one. All right, that's what this
guy says. One plus one equals one. And
then you have a man right here standing and saying, no, one
plus one equals two. And then you have a man over
here saying, no, one plus one equals three. All three of them are saying,
no, no, no, your way's different from my way. Well, here's the
fact of the matter. They're not all right. All of
them are not right. This man's saying this and believing
this and telling everybody this, and he's convinced of it, he's
sincere about it. One plus one is one, and this
guy's saying one plus one is three. But they're not all right. Here's the truth of the matter.
When it comes to our illustration, let me declare the truth to you.
One plus one equals two. That's the truth. There's one
answer. There's only one answer, and
it's this. Man can say what he wants to
say, but when you get to the fact of the book, one plus one
equals two. All right, now, picture this
one over here saying, well, now, I think that's just too narrow-minded.
You're saying that one plus one equals two, and it can only equal
two, and that's the only truth that there is. That's just too
narrow-minded. The other one says, I think that's
too dogmatic. No, you're just being too dogmatic.
You can't be so emphatic and say this is the only answer.
You can't do that. That's just too dogmatic. This
guy's saying what you're doing is you're stifling 1 plus 1's
growth. I just believe, I just believe
in my heart that if 1 plus 1 works hard enough, if he puts in the
effort and he puts his heart into it, he can attain 3. I believe
1 plus 1 can attain 3 if he tries hard enough. Well, that may be. This person may believe that,
and that person may believe that. But here's the reality. There's
only one answer. There's only one solution. Everybody can't be right. Do
we see that? Everybody can't be right. When there is a truth to the
issue, everybody can't be right. Now, some people are going to
listen to this right now and say, as I'm speaking this, some
people are going to say, all right, well, let me ask. You
think you're right. All right, Gabe, I'm listening
to you tell me this, and you're saying everybody can't be right,
so you must think you're right. Here's my response to that. No,
I don't. No, I do not. I most certainly
do not. This word, this Bible that I
have right here in front of me, This Word is right. The Word is right. Only the Word is right. I'm gonna
be very honest with you. I have had thoughts of things. I have believed things. I've
felt strongly about things. And then found out later on that
the Word said otherwise. God revealed the truth to me
through the Word. At that moment, I only had one
option. Every time that moment comes
to us, you and I only have one option. If God reveals a truth
to you in His Word, and if God reveals a truth to me in His
Word, we only have one option at that point. We must change
what we think and change what we believe about the situation.
We must bow to, we must hold to and believe and cling to and
claim what God has to say about it. Only God is right. That changed mind is called repentance. That's what it's called. It means,
the word repentance means a changed mind. It's the goodness of God
that leads his people to repentance, this changed mind. It's a work
that God does. He is the only one who gives
repentance. Men and women do not and they
cannot change their mind about religion, what they believe and
what they see. And it's because they're blind to the word of
God, naturally. Deaf to the word of God and the
mind of God. They cannot know the things of
God. That's what the scripture says.
The natural, the carnal mind cannot know the things of God.
So it's only the goodness of God that leads people to repentance. And all of God's people are led
to it. All of them will be led to it. All of them. The flesh
of man, it starts out wrong. It starts out in error. A lot
of people don't realize that. They think that the flesh starts
out right and you stay right until you mess up and lose it
along the way. That's not how it works. The flesh starts out
wrong. David said, I was conceived in
sin. He said, I came forth from my
mother's womb speaking lies. But man is convinced that he
knows the truth. He's in error, but he's convinced
he knows the truth. He's very sincere about it, but
he's sincerely wrong. That's the only problem, he's
sincerely wrong. Until God reveals this, and this
is what the word of God says, God said, My thoughts are not
your thoughts. The way man thinks about it.
He said my ways are not your ways. Not at all. Only his ways are right and only
his thoughts are right. What that means is, what we conclude
from that is, I must be wrong. If only his ways are right and
only his thoughts are right, I must be wrong. I must be. Once God reveals that to his
sinful child, this is what the child starts crying. Teach me
thy way. If my way is wrong and error
and death, if there's a way that seems right to me, but it's going
to lead me to destruction and death, teach me thy way. That's
what the prophet said, David said constantly through the Psalms,
teach me your way. Let me not walk in my own ways. Lead me in your paths. Open my eyes that I may see. The scripture says, let God be
true and let every man be a liar. including me, starting with me. That's what a child of God will
start crying whenever God opens his eyes to see the truth. Now, every human being, no matter
what denomination, what doctrine, what religious position anyone
holds, every human being is going to find out that everybody's not right. Every
soul is going to find that out. Every soul is going to find out
that only God's Word is right. Conversion, evidence of salvation,
is God revealing that to a sinner right now on this earth through
the preaching of the gospel. The gospel coming to a sinner,
God quickening that sinner to see it, hear it, believe it,
bow to the fact that only God's word is right. Damnation He is
finding that out at the judgment throne after God calls a sinner
from this earth and he goes and stands before the judgment throne.
When he finds out for the very first time I was wrong and God
was right, that's damnation. So hopefully we will see right
now how critical this is. Hopefully God will open our eyes
to this, open our ears to this. I don't want to align myself
with a doctrine This is important, I want you to understand this
and I pray the Lord would cause you to say the same thing. I
don't want to align myself with a doctrine. Doctrines don't save
people. I don't want to align myself
with a denomination. Denominations don't save people.
I don't want to align myself with a man. I don't want to cling
to a man and say, well, I'm just trusting whatever that man tells
me. Men don't save people. Mortal, fleshly men do not save
people. I want to align myself with the
Lord Jesus Christ. I want to align myself. I want
to bow to, I want to believe the only way that He has declared
in His Word to be right. That's my heart's desire. I pray
it's your heart's desire too. Now with all of that being said,
concerning salvation, concerning what God says is right, concerning
what God will accept and will reject, concerning the truth
about what we ought to believe, regarding God's dealings with
us and our relationship with Him. And the only way that a
sinner can be justified before Him and be accepted to stand
in His presence. I have a few statements from
the three verses that we read that all of us must heavily consider. All right, let's heavily consider
these. And the reason is because everybody can't be right. Everybody
can't be right. God says there is only one way
of salvation. All right, one way. He said,
straight is the gate and narrow is the way. He said, I am the
way. No man cometh to the father but
by me. That's what he said. No man or
woman will be saved outside of his way. So here are a few statements
to consider concerning the truth of our salvation. Number one, It's either His righteousness
or it's mine. All right, now let's think about
that. It's either His righteousness or it's mine. It's one or the
other. It most definitely is not both,
all right? Righteousness means being right. That's what it means, being right.
It means rightness. It means integrity. It means
virtue. It means purity. It means moral
goodness. It's either His or mine. When it comes to salvation, when
it comes to being accepted, to stand in the presence of God,
it's either His or it's mine. Now, which one is it? Look with
me in our text. Titus 3 verse 5, it says, not
by works of righteousness, which we have done. That's clear enough,
isn't it? Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done. People all over this world are
trying to go before God on the merits of their own goodness. their own integrity, their own
virtue, their own purity, thinking God will accept me because of
my rightness. What will allow you to go to
heaven? It's gonna be my rightness. That's what men and women think.
Having no idea that the word of God says all of our righteousnesses
are filthy rags in his sight. All of them. all of them. People have it in their mind
that when it's their turn to go meet God, He's going to look
at them and He's going to be so proud of them and He's going
to be so proud of everything that they've done. He's going
to be so proud of how they've given their life to Jesus, so
they say. They're going to be so proud
of People love to, you know, all talk about the good Lord
and this kind of stuff and just proud of that, proud of that.
And they're going to get there and they're going to find out
I was wrong. I was wrong. I thought he was
going to be pleased with my self righteousness, but I was wrong. There's only one righteousness
to go meet God with and it's not ours. Matthew 7, he said,
many are gonna say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, and they're
not gonna enter into the kingdom. Over in Romans 10, this is a
portion of scripture that's so clear. Romans 10, verse one, it says,
brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved. I want to be saved. And I want
you to be saved. I truly do. That's the reason
I'm preaching this word to both of us right now. Paul said, my
heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might
be saved for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God
but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every
one that believeth." Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. We plead His rightness. We plead His integrity, His virtue,
His purity. That's good news, isn't it? That
means you can stop looking to yourself for perfection and start
looking to Christ. We plead His moral goodness. We plead everything He has done.
When you look at what you and I have done, oh, it's not a pretty
sight. Look at what He has done. He
is our righteousness. Our righteousness is in Him.
Alright, back in Titus 3, the next statement concerning our
salvation is, it's either His initiation or it's mine. What that means is it was either
His decision or it was my decision. Either He started it or I did.
One of the two. What does God have to say about
it? Well, verse five, Titus three, verse five says, not by works
of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy,
he saved us. He started the work. He began,
the scripture says, the good work. He authored it, the scripture
says. In John five, verse 40, he said,
you will not come to me that you might have life. That's what
we will do, not come to him. In John 6, 44, he said, no man
can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him. No
man can, no man will, no man can. In John 15, verse 16, he
said, you have not chosen me, I have chosen you. Men stand
up in pulpits and they lie to people saying, now salvation
is in your hands. What are you going to do with
it? That's the question. Are you going to cause yourself
to be saved? Are you going to make your choice
for Jesus? Any soul who goes to meet God
on any other grounds than salvation is of the Lord, completely of
the Lord. It's his initiation. It's his
decision. Any soul that goes on any other
ground is going to realize I was wrong. I was wrong. He will not accept the sacrifices
of my own hands. My decisions, anything I do,
I was wrong. So wrong. All right, here's the
next thing we need to consider regarding salvation. It's either
his cleansing or it's mine. It's either his washing or mine. Either His blood has cleansed
me or I have some cleansing I need to do. One of the two. Which one is it? Well, verse
5 says, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Savior. When He shed His blood, on the
cross, on the cross of Calvary, for the sin of His particular
people. That's who He shed it for. When
He did that, He cried, It is finished. It is finished. It's finished. It's finished. What was finished? The cleansing
of sin. The washing of His people unto
Him that loved us and washed us in His own blood. It says,
which he shed on us abundantly. That means the washing went deeper
than the stain, deeper than the stain of sin. And along with
his blood, he poured out his spirit to his people, giving
that renewing of life, giving life again. He left nothing undone
for his people to finish, nothing. Over in 1 Corinthians 6, it says,
He names all of these great sins that people will not enter for.
Verse 11, He said, but you are washed. You are sanctified,
you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the
spirit of our God. Men stand up in pulpits and say,
now you gotta progress in sanctification, you've gotta grow in holiness,
not according to the word of God. In Christ, you are as sanctified
as you're ever gonna be. That means you are as holy as
you're ever gonna be. You are complete in him, complete. Now back to Titus 3, all of this
comes at either his cost or mine. It's either his free gift to
me or it's something I earn. Which one does God say it is?
Verse five, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to His mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace. That means free gift. Free gift. Men stand up in pulpits
and say, now you better earn What's coming to you, that's
not so. Grace means free gift. If it's free, it's free. Verse seven, that being justified
by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. It's either His righteousness
or mine, and it's His. It's either His initiation or
mine, and it's His. It's either His cleansing or
mine, and it's His. And it either comes at His cost
or mine, and it's His. And one last thing to consider
is it's either His glory or mine. Either He gets all the glory
for it, or I get all the glory for it, or I share the glory
with Him, and here's the answer, here's the only thing that's
right. He gets all the glory for it. It's all His, everything. belongs to him. A man named John
Jasper was asked one time, an old preacher, he was asked by
someone else, he said, Brother John, when you get to heaven,
if they meet you at the gate and ask you what right do you
have to enter in, what are you gonna say? He said, here's what
I'll say. I have no right to enter in. But I'm not here on
my right. I'm here on the right of another.
My Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Any soul who enters that way
will hear, welcome in. Welcome in. That's the only way
to approach God. That's the only truth of salvation. Only way that's right. Till next
week, may the Lord bless His word to our hearts. You have
been listening to a message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport
Sovereign Grace Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like
a copy of this message or to hear other messages of Sovereign
Grace, log on to our website at ksgctn.org. If you would like to come and
worship with us, our service times are Sunday morning Bible
study at 10 o'clock a.m., worship at 1045 a.m., and 6 o'clock p.m.,
Wednesday evening at 730 p.m. Please tune in next week for
another message of God's free and sovereign grace.