Absolutely wonderful. Well, here's
one of them fellas I've known forever, the other fella. And I just, you know, all I can say
is I love him and his wife very, very much. Love his preaching. And Brother Todd, pastor of Todd
Road Grace Church, you come and bring the Lord's message. Cody, that was such a blessing,
and it was delivered so well and blessed my heart, and I'm
thankful. So happy to be with everybody
here. Love you all dearly. Would you turn to the book of
Titus? Titus chapter one, Paul, a servant of God and an
apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect. and the acknowledging of the
truth which is after godliness in hope of eternal life which
God that cannot lie promised before the world began. But hath in due time manifested
his word through preaching which is committed unto me according
to the commandment of God our Savior to Titus, mine own son,
after the common faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. I've entitled this message, The
Common Faith. If you and I have faith, the
gift of God's grace, this is what we will have, this common
faith. It's that which every believer
shares in, without exception. And you can leave tonight knowing
whether or not you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't
you want to know? I want to know the common faith. Now Paul's addressing Titus as
his own son. I think it's interesting that
this man, Titus, he's spoken of quite a bit in 2 Corinthians
and the book of Galatians, but he's not even mentioned in the
book of Acts when we have the history of all of Paul's traveling,
but here he's addressing this man, Titus, and he calls him,
my own son, after the common faith. Now, obviously he wasn't
his biological father, but Titus heard the gospel. through this
man. And Titus believed the gospel through this man. And I love
the way he says my own son after the common faith. Now, the word common means that
which is general to all. As opposed to that which is peculiar
to the few. This is the faith that every
believer without exception possesses. Did you notice in verse one,
he talked about the faith of God's elect. I love that. This is the faith that all of
God's elect possess. You can't get much clearer than
that. Jude calls it the faith once
delivered to the saints it knows no amendments it's the faith
once delivered it's the faith that all of God's elect possessed
from the first whether it was Adam I hope it was I think it
was I know even Abel was and I think Adam was and you know
it could be that the last of God's elect that hasn't been
called yet is walking upon the face of this planet right now
isn't that glorious to think about it But this is what all of God's
elect possess, this faith, this faith once delivered to all the
saints. It knows no revisions, no amendments,
no adapting, no changes. This is what Paul called in Ephesians
chapter four, the one faith. The one faith. There's not two
things you get confused about. It's not this or that. This is
the one faith. It's the faith that the newborn
believer possesses that has only been born of God in his own experience
for one second. And it's the faith that the man
who's believed the gospel for 50 years possesses. same thing
the common faith common to every believer to ever live now i want
to know if i have this faith don't you the common faith now
this faith comes about from hearing the faith the gospel is called
That's what Paul was talking about when he said, I've kept
the faith, the faith of God's elect, the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the one message. The one faith comes from the
one message. Everybody hears the same message
that has this faith. Now, what do I mean by that? I love what Paul said to the
Corinthians. He said the Jews require a sign. They need to see something. They
say things like, I'd rather see a sermon than hear one. I want
something that gives me some evidence that I can see something
tangible that I can feel that proves to me. I need something
I can see. The Greeks require a sign, I
mean the Jews require a sign, the religious fellows, they want
something, give me some proof to show me how good you can make
me or how good you are, they require this sign. The Greeks
seek after wisdom. These are the men who want to
make this world a better place. We want wisdom to improve education
and improve health care and improve the economy, improve the government. We want wisdom to do all this,
but Paul says, but we preach Christ crucified. That's the entire message. You know when you believe Christ
crucified? When he's all you got. If it's
Christ and, you've never believed. Christ and my experience, Christ
and my works, Christ and my whatever, put it in there. You haven't
believed. We preach Christ crucified, salvation accomplished by what
Christ Jesus the Lord did on Calvary's tree when he said it
is finished. My salvation was finished outside
of my experience. Well, I'm thankful for that. This one message, No alterations,
not a different message for different people, not one for the religious
and another for the irreligious, not one for the old and one for
the young. I don't know how many times people
have asked me about our church, said, what do you got for the
young people? Well, same thing we got for the old people, the gospel. What
else is there? The gospel, the one message,
the common faith, the same message for all. The common faith, as I said,
the word means by definition that which is common to all,
as opposed to that which is peculiar to the few. Now, I'm glad people
are different, aren't you? But all these different people
still only have the one message to hear. You know, there's people
talking about racism. You know, if you understand there's
only one race, that eliminates racism. There's only one race,
the human race. Now, there are different ethnicities. There are different people. And
because of our depravity, whatever ethnicity you're in or where
I'm in, I have a tendency to think that's better than somebody
else's, which is foolishness. No, there's one race, the human
race, and the human race all needs to hear the same message. Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now, with people, some have a
stronger faith than others. Scripture teaches that. The Lord
said, where is your faith? His disciples once couldn't even
be seen. We read of people who are weak
in the faith and we read of people who are strong in the faith.
There's no doubt that there's different degrees of weakness
and strength in the faith according to God's grace, but it's still
the same faith, the faith of God's elect, the common faith. You know, if I do have this faith
and you're going to understand this when I say this, if you
have it, if you have faith, you know, God gave it to you. You are sure of that. There was a time when you did
not believe. There was a time when you didn't even know what
believing meant. I would if I knew what it meant. What do you mean
believe? And you even find out you can't
believe. You're unable to believe. And
then all of a sudden you find yourself believing. That's the
way that works. You didn't decide to believe.
find yourself believing and if you believe you know God gave
you that faith by grace are you saved through faith and that
not of yourselves it's the gift of God not of works lest any
man should boast of his own will begat he us through the word
of As many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become
the sons of God, even to them which believe on His name, which
were born," birthed, not of blood, not because you're mom and dad,
not of the will of the flesh, not as an act of man's free will,
not of the will of man, a bunch of men getting together and saying,
we're praying for them until they get saved. No, you're born
of God. Now, for the big question, what
is the content? of the faith that all believers
have. And I want to know because I
want to see if I have it. You can know whether or not you
believe. I'm not asking you right now
if you know you're saved. You might balk at that, but you
can know whether or not you believe what's being said tonight. May God give us grace to enter
in to The content of the common faith, that which all of God's
elect possess. Now, the best way we can answer
that question is, what does a newborn believer believe? I mean, one
that's just been converted for a second. You ask an older believer, and
he might have some greater understanding than that newborn believer, and
he might even believe some doctrines that the newborn believer's never
heard of. So he might have some things, in a sense, that that
newborn believer doesn't have. But the newborn believer and
the old believer believe the same thing, and they have the
same experience. So what we need to do is look at what it is from
the Scriptures now. from the scriptures, what is
it that a newborn believer believes? I mean an immature newborn believer. Now, we have so many examples
in the scripture of newborn believers. The first person I thought of
was the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus. When he was on the
road to Damascus, He hated Jesus Christ. He thought it was his
responsibility before God to stamp his name out. Something
happened. He found out who Jesus Christ
was. Now that's it in a nutshell.
He found out who Jesus Christ really was. Ananias comes to him and says,
Brother Saul, isn't that powerful? Receive thy sight the same hour
I looked upon him. And he said, the God of our fathers
hath chosen thee. First thing he heard. That thou
should know his will. See that just one and hear the
words of his mouth for thou shalt be his witness to all men what
you've seen and heard. I thought of the Roman centurion,
the day of the Lord's crucifixion. He got up that morning, business
as usual, put to death one of the enemies of the state of Rome.
I mean, his job was to crucify people, to preside over the crucifixion. He started that day out having
no idea who Jesus Christ was. Surely this man was the son of
God. Faith is knowing who he is. What about the Philippian jailer? Sirs, what must I do to be saved? I know I can't save myself. I
have to be saved. I'm sure that what must I do
to be saved? Well, let me give you a list. No, no. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. The Ethiopian eunuch, he'd gone
to Jerusalem to worship. He's coming back as more empty
than he was when he came there, reading Isaiah the prophet, had
no idea what it meant. The Lord sent Philip to him. He comes up into his chair and
says, do you understand what you're reading? I love the man's
answer. He didn't say, well, here's what
it is to me. Here's what I think. No, how can I? Except some man
should guide me. And at that time, Philip preached
unto him from Isaiah 53. Scripture says he preached unto
him, Jesus. Well, I pray that happens again
tonight. But the person that I thought
of that seemed most powerful to me in thinking of what is
it that a newborn believer believes. I thought of the thief on the
cross. What an example. The thief on
the cross. Now what I think is so interesting,
we know from Mark's account You know, I thought of the two thieves
when you were preaching. You know, the two, I thought,
well, I'd never seen that before, how that is a picture of the
Lord on the cross and the two thieves. But when those two thieves,
these were hardened, wicked men, they were murderers, they were
thieves. They were enemies of the state,
hardened, wicked men deserving to be crucified. And when they
were nailed to the cross on either side of the one between them,
the Lord Jesus Christ, they both did not know Jesus Christ. They
both were spewing out their venom and hatred of him. If you're
the Christ, come down, save yourself and save us while you're at it.
And they were making fun of him. They had no respect for him.
They both hated Jesus Christ. And they were both going through
the same horrible physical pain. I don't see how anybody could
even think about anything when they're nailed to a cross. And
here they were. with the same physical pain as
the Lord Jesus Christ being nailed to a cross. But something happened. John Calvin called this the greatest
instance of saving faith in all the scripture. Now, I don't know
whether any man is capable of making that judgment, but I wouldn't
argue with it. I know the Lord said of the Roman
centurion, I've not found so great a faith, no, not in Israel,
but this hadn't taken place yet. So here we have, if you want
to know what the common faith is, what all of God's elect possess,
and I want you to ask yourself if you believe these things with
regard to what the thief believed. Turn with me to Luke chapter
23. Luke 23. Verse 32. And there were also two others,
malefactors, led with him to be put to death. Now what all
was going on in those men's mind? Here's the end of my life. Resentful,
probably to some extent felt like they were victims. I was
raised wrong and now look what's happening. Fear, can you imagine
how afraid you would be to the thought of having nails driven
into your hands and feet and being put up in a stand and oh
how, how, concerned both of these men must have been. True, they
were hardened criminals, but how concerned they were. And
like I said, from Mark's account, we know they were both reviling
Christ and hurling insults at Him. Verse 33, And when they
were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they
crucified Him. And the malefactors One on the
right hand and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, and these
fellows both heard this. Remember, faith cometh by hearing. They heard this. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive
them. For they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment and
cast lots, gambling for who was going to get the vesture that
didn't have a seam in it, the seamless robe. And the people
stood beholding, and the rulers also with him, derided him, saying,
He saved others. Let him save himself, if he be
Christ, the chosen of God. Well, if he's gonna save others,
he couldn't save himself, could he? They didn't realize that
they were giving glorious gospel truth at that time. And the soldiers
also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar and
saying, if thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And to
superscription, Also was written over him in letters of Greek
and Latin and Hebrews, Greek, the letters of the common man,
Latin, the educated man, Hebrew, the religious man, and they all
had the same message. Jesus of Nazareth, the King,
of the Jews. And isn't he truly the King of
the Jews? You see, he's not a Jew that's
one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision,
that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which
is one inwardly. That is every single believer,
the King of the Jews. Now, I want to remind you that this
man, while he was hanging on the cross, heard the gospel. Faith cometh by HEARING, hearing
by the Word of God. And when God opens up, gives
you a heart to hear, and gives you a new heart, you understand
what's being said. the Lord's first words. If he
was converted at that time, and I think perhaps he was when he
first, after he heard this, Father, forgive them. He knew everybody
he prayed for was forgiven. This wasn't some generic prayer. Everybody he prayed for was forgiven. Father, forgive them. The Father
always hears his prayer. He heard the Lord say to his
mother, woman, behold thy son. And he looked at John and said,
behold thy mother. And he took her into his house
at that very moment. He saw the glorious, perfect
humanity of Jesus Christ. He heard the Lord say to him
today, nobody's ever been given insurance
like this. Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. He heard the Lord say, my God,
my God, why has thou forsaken me? He knew he was forsaken of
God. He knew that. How much did he
understand about it? I don't know, but he knew he
had been forsaken by God. And it had something to do with
how those people were gonna be forgiven, who he was praying
for. He heard him say, I thirst. And he knew there was
never a statement like that ever in the history of the universe. He heard him cry out, it is finished. And he knew it was finished. He heard him say, father into
thy hands, I commend my spirit. And he knew that this man was
such that death could not come and take him until he gave her
permission to come. He heard the gospel. He heard
the things the men said around him. the cross. His blood be on us and our children. And he thought, that's what I
want. May his blood be on me and my
children. He heard the things that faith
cometh by hearing. Faith cometh by hearing. You
can't believe what you've never heard. He heard the gospel. Now in verse 39, Let me read verses 39 through
43. And one of the malefactors, which
were hanged, railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself
and us. But the other answering, rebuked
him, saying, Does not thou fear God? Do you know who this one
you're railing on is? Dost thou not fear God? He knew. He believed that Jesus
Christ is God. Now that's where you begin. Dost thou not fear God, seeing
thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly for we receive
the due reward of our deeds. But this man hath done nothing
amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, verily
I say unto thee, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Here is the common faith. Number
one, Jesus Christ is God. That's where we begin. Jesus
Christ is God Almighty. Jesus Christ is the Creator of
the Universe. Jesus Christ is the Second Person
of the Blessed Trinity. Jesus Christ is the one the scripture
says in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In Him dwells all the fullness
of sovereignty. He controls everything. He's
the first cause of everything. He has all power. He's got the
power to make sure His will always comes to pass. He's all wise. He's never learned anything.
He's absolutely just. He'll never let sin go unpunished.
He was doing this for the honor of His Father. He's independent. He has no needs. He has all the
fullness of immutability. All that God is, Jesus Christ
is. He said, you believe in God? Believe also in me, that word
believe also in me can just as easily and just as accurately
be translated, even so believe in me. Jesus Christ is God Almighty. Now if he's not God, he can't
do anything for me or you. That's settled, isn't it? Do
you believe, this is what I'm asking you, this is what I'm
asking myself. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God? Yes or no? Yes. I believe that Jesus Christ is
God. Now look what he says next. Verse
40. But the other answering rebuked
him, saying, Does not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds." Now, here is the second
thing that every believer believes. that I deserve to be condemned. Now do you hear that? What did
this man say? We indeed justly, for we receive
the due reward of our deeds. Now here's the second thing every
believer believes. This is common faith. If God condemns me, and passes
me by, I am getting exactly what I deserve. Now let me tell you
when you see that, when you see who he is. You don't see this
until you see who he is. And when you see who he is, you
see that this is so concerning yourself. We're getting exactly
what we deserve. Now, let me say this as well.
If you believe that, but you don't feel it, believe it anyway. Okay. You see, this is what the
Bible says, but you don't really feel it. Believe it anyway, because
this is what God's word says, and this is what every believer
believes. They believe Jesus Christ is
God. I believe that and I believe God would be absolutely just
if He cut me off and pass me by. Now, when I hear people complain
with the gospel, how can it be fair for God to elect some and
not elect everybody? How can it be fair for Jesus
Christ only to die for the elect and not die for all men without
exception. How could that be fair? You don't believe he'd be fair
if he sent you to hell, do you? That's where that kind of thinking comes
from. If you know who he is, only by knowing who he is will
you know who you are. And when you see who you are,
you know that he would be just in your condemnation. Do you
believe that? Yes or no? Verse 41, and we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man, hath done nothing amiss." Not
only do you believe that Jesus Christ is God, you believe that
He is the man, Christ Jesus, the God-man. God manifests in the flesh. You believe He is a real man,
the real man, the God-man. Now, there was a time when He
wasn't a man, But when he became flesh, he became a man, the man,
and there is a man right now in glory, the Lord Jesus Christ,
a real man, bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh. You see,
man sinned, man must die. He had to become a man to put
away my sin. You really believe in the, oh,
the man, Christ Jesus. There's one God, one mediator
between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. Do you believe that this one
who is God is man? Not part God and part man. He's holy God. He's holy man,
the man Christ Jesus. The man who was tired and asked
a woman for a drink. A man who felt all the pains
of humanity. The man, Christ Jesus. But notice what else this man
says about this man. Here is the fourth thing. You
believe he's God. You believe he'd be just in condemning
you. You believe he's man. Look what else he says in verse
41. This man hath done nothing amiss. This man never committed a sin. He has done absolutely nothing
amiss. He's perfect. He never seemed
in thought, in word, in deed, in motive. kept God's law perfectly. He's done nothing amiss. Now,
somebody may think, he didn't know him more than an hour or
two. How did he know he'd never done anything amiss? Because
he knew who he was. If you know who he is, you'll
know he's done nothing amiss. He's the man who never sinned. And the only way I can be saved
is if the man who never sinned gives his righteousness to me
so that I stay incomplete in him. You know He never sinned. You know, I've heard people question
the impeccability of Christ. That's his sinlessness. They
say, well, he could have sinned, but he didn't. No, he couldn't
have. No, he could not because of who
he is. And if you know him, you know this is so. He hath done
nothing amiss. This is the man that never sinned. This is part of the common faith. Next, verse 42. And he said unto Jesus, now remember
who he saw at this time. He saw a man with a crown of
thorns pressed upon his head with the blood running down,
whose beard had been pulled out, who couldn't even be recognized,
hanging, nailed to a cross, seemingly so helpless. And he says, Lord, you reckon somebody Does he realize
what he's doing? He's called him Lord? Yes, he
knew he was Lord of all. Lord of creation. He spake the
world into existence. Lord of Providence, He controls
every event. Why, even the strength that those
men had when they drew over the nails in His hand, He gave them
the strength to do it. He was in complete control of
everything at all times. Don't you love when they came
to arrest Him and He said, Whom seek ye? They said, Jesus of
Nazareth. He said, I am. And they fell backwards, driven
back by irresistible force. Why? He's letting them know,
you're not in control of this event. I am. I'm in absolute
sovereign control. He's the Lord. He's the Lord
of salvation. Now let me, yes, he's Lord of
creation. He created the universe. Yes, He's Lord of Providence.
He controls everything. It's only His will being done.
Everything, everything. But when we talk about His Lordship
and salvation, that means it's up to Him as to whether or not
I'll be saved. You believe that? It's up to
Him. It's His decision, not yours.
He's not in your hands. You're in His. He's the Lord. And this man recognized this.
And what faith? When he saw the Lord like this,
he knew who he was. Isn't that faith? Knowing who
he is? That's the issue. Who is Jesus
Christ? He knew he was Lord. Now, this is what every believer
has in common. They know He's God. They know
He'd be just in condemning them. They know He's man. They know
He's the man who has done nothing amiss. They know He's Lord. And look what it says next. Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. Now there's several things that
I see in that statement. Number one, he knew that Jesus
Christ was incapable of failure. You're not gonna stay on this
cross. You're gonna come back as a mighty reigning king. You are incapable of failure. Now if the Jesus Christ you believe
in Is he is capable of failure in any level to any degree where
his intentions are not met? He intended to do something,
but it didn't quite work out. That's a false Jesus. That's
that's that's a non-existent Jesus or no such thing as Jesus.
He's incapable of failure. This man knew that. He said,
you're coming back as a mighty reigning king. You believe that? Do you believe
he's incapable of failure? Oh, I do. I believe he's incapable
of failure. If he died for me, I must be
saved. I can't be anything but saved.
I can't run the risk of the hazard of the possibility of being anything
but saved if Jesus Christ died for me because his intentions
can't be frustrated. He cannot fail. The scripture
says he shall not fail nor be discouraged. This man believed in the resurrection. You're not going to stay dead.
You know, he saw him die. Don't forget that. He was still
alive when the Lord died and he witnessed the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He saw it. But he said, you're
coming back as a mighty reigning king. You're going to be raised
from the dead. You see this thing of the resurrection. He was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our resurrection. Understand
this, I love what Peter said, the answer of a good conscience,
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. You know
the only thing that satisfies my conscience? The resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. All God requires of me, I have,
and that's seen in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe that he's incapable
of failure and that he had to be raised from the dead because
of who he is? Do you believe that? And listen to this. This man
understood that the only way he could be saved is if the Lord
represented him before the Father. He said, Lord, remember me. When you come into your kingdom,
the only way that I'm going to be saved is if you represent
me and you remember me before your father. Remember me. He
didn't say. You need to remember me. He said,
Lord, please remember me. He didn't say, I know you will
remember me. He said, Lord, remember me. Remember me. The only way I can be saved is
if you stand as my representative before the Father. And if you
don't remember me, there's no hope of my salvation. Remember
me when you come into your kingdom. Do you understand? I'm not even saying, do you know
you're saved? I'm not saying do you know for
sure that Jesus Christ died for you. I'm not saying do you know
for sure that you're one of the elect. But do you know this for
sure? The only way you can be saved
is if he represents you before the Father. And your only plea
is, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. This man, had the same ground
of assurance that every believer has. The Word of Christ. It's the only ground of assurance.
Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. What was the only
ground of assurance this thief had, that he'd be in paradise?
Christ said it. Christ said it. We're basing
everything on what he has actually said. Now this man, he'd only
been a believer for a very short time, and there's probably things
that he didn't know. I bet if you would ask him if
he believed in the doctrine of total depravity, he'd say, well,
what do you mean by that? Or if you would ask him, do you
believe in predestination? Now let me say this. He would
have believed it if he heard it, because he knew who God was. You know, somebody says, the
thief didn't believe that. Yeah, he would have, though. I guarantee you
he would have. There's nothing he wouldn't have
believed that's in the Word of God. But if you said to you,
are you familiar with the three persons of the Trinity? He probably
would have said no. I mean, he would have said when he heard
him, he would. But as far as infant faith, the common faith,
the faith that every believer has in common. Every believer
believes that Jesus Christ is God. Every believer believes
that God would be just in passing them by. Every believer believes
that Jesus Christ is man. He's the man who has done nothing
amiss. He is Lord. He is incapable of
failure. He was raised from the dead.
My only hope is that he represents me. And the only ground of assurance
I have that any of this is so is his word alone. The common faith. Okay, pastor. Oh, boy. I tell you what, it's
been a while since we heard two wonderful messages back to back.
And I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful. Oh, how merciful. How merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful,
blessed Lord. How merciful thou art to me. Boy, let us hear such a thing
tonight. You and Todd go back there by
the doors. Now, let me go on back there
so folks see you, shake hands with you, tell you how much they
love you and appreciate you preaching. Everybody got to tell you that.
But here's what's going to happen in the morning. We won't have
a meeting here in the morning. We're going to have, me and is going to have
breakfast right back here. And Shirley's going to take the
women's downtown at the place called the Grinder House. And
I'll see you here tomorrow night at 6 o'clock, 6 o'clock. Good night, God bless you.