Does it say it's recording? Yeah,
it should be moving. Titus, would you turn with me
please to Titus? Titus chapter 2. I'd like to
begin reading at verse 11. Just read five or six verses
here. Beginning at verse 11. Titus 2.11 For the grace of God
that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, all nationalities,
all tongues, all people. all tribes, Jew, Gentile, teaching
us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live
soberly and righteously and godly in this present world, looking
for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great
God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that
he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purifying to himself a peculiar
people, a special people, his own people, zealous of good works. These things speak and exhort
and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee. I've read some comments the other
day by a guy that I hadn't really heard of, but I thought, those
are good. I didn't realize I would be using them so soon. Let me
share a few of them with you. This man said, what comes into
our minds when we think about God is the most important thing
about us. We can't think of anything better
than that. And he went on to say, without doubt, the mightiest
thought that the mind can entertain is the thought of God. Worship is pure or base as the
worshipper entertains high or low thoughts of God. And I thought, man, he's got
that right. He went on to say, there is scarcely an error in
doctrine which cannot be traced to imperfect thoughts about God. His last comment that I kept
was this, the current professing Christians' conception of God
is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most
High God. Is that not so? The average professing
believer's concept of God today is so beneath Him, so unworthy
of Him. When I was thinking about that
and reading those comments, I remembered something Robin told me just
the other day. She went out with a friend of
hers, a former neighbor, and they were having lunch and ran
into some other ladies that went to the same church as Robin's
former neighbor used to. And of course they turned to
the topic of religion, God, their concept of God. And Robin asked
her friend, this lady that's been going to a church just across
the way from where she lives for years and years, and Robin
asked her, don't you think that God is just? Don't you think
that God is just? And this woman who professes
to know God said, I don't know. I really don't know. Imagine
that. Imagine that. She's been going
to a church, sending service after service, week after week,
year after year, and has never heard the pastor deal with the
question, how can a man be just with God? What's she listening
to? What's she listening to? I don't
know if God is just or not. And the reason that can be, why
such a thing as that can happen is this, as God said, you thought,
this is your mistake, it's a vital mistake, you thought that I was
altogether such a one as yourself. That's how it happened. That's
how it happened. Psalm 115, your gods, your gods
are just like you. They're like you that have made
them, God said. Oh, but David, David said in
answer to the question, where's your God, David? He said, My
God's in the heavens. My God's in the heavens. He's
high and lifted up. He's above all. He's reign supreme
as He always is. He's in the heavens doing whatsoever,
not what evil fickle man will allow Him to do, but He's doing
whatsoever He has pleased. Oh, that's good news. If we maintain
a biblical, scriptural view of God as God, and On the same hand,
or other hand, a scriptural, biblical view of man as man,
not lowering God to less than he is, or exalting man to more
than he is, in light of those two things. Simple man. You can't get him to love. You
can't get him to love. And a holy God, you can't place
Him too high. Between a holy God and a sinful
man, again I ask the question, how can a man, how can such a
man be just with such a holy God? What's the solution to that? What's the answer to that? How
can that be? Well, I know this, I know this,
there's a lot I don't know. But I know this, it won't be
easy. It won't be easy, Brett. I know
it's not as simple as ABC. I know it's not just a matter
of making a decision. Being baptized, learning doctrine. No, no, that won't justify a
man before the Holy Lord God. I recall hearing Brother Scott
Richardson. on more than one occasion, say
this, Donny, you have too, Paul, many of you have. He'd say, God
has to do something for Himself before He does anything for you.
And that's exactly right. How can a man be just with God?
There must be a means, a way found whereby God can remain
perfectly just. Not lower his standard. Remain
perfectly just and still justify the sinner. You want to know
how he does that? You want to know how He does
that? We're going to come back to our text, but turn if you
will for a moment to Romans chapter 3, very briefly. Romans chapter
3, we're told how God does that. There's only one way God can
do that. And we're told here how He does so. Romans 3 verse
24. Being justified freely. freely, without any causing,
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, verse 24. Romans 3, 24. whom God hath set forth to be
of 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,
that he, that is God, might be just, and the justifier of him
which believeth in Jesus." Look across the page at chapter 5,
Romans chapter 5, verse 1. Oh, I like this. Therefore, being
justified by faith, we have peace with God. Peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith
into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the
glory of God. How is salvation obtained? The
answer is in our text. The grace of God brings salvation. That's the answer. There's not
another. One hymn writer put it this way,
it took a miracle to hang the world in place. You mean it wasn't
a big bang? No, it took a miracle to hang
the world in place and it took a miracle to put the stars in
space. Oh, but when He saved my soul
and cleansed and made me whole, it took a miracle of God's love
and grace. Nothing less than that will get
it done. A miracle of His amazing grace. Grace planned the way. Grace provided the way. Grace
puts us in the way. Grace keeps us in the way. And
grace is going to take us all the way. God gives grace and
glory. Now, if you have a problem with
that, you've got a problem. A real problem. Oh, thank God
that salvation is all of His grace. Otherwise, nobody would
be saved. It's not a multiple choice. No,
there is only one way sinners are saved. There's only one way
sins are forgiven. There is only one way by which
we can experience God's great salvation and have peace with
God. That's the grace that comes to
the sinner through the Lord Jesus Christ. John said, I saw Him.
I saw Him. What impressed you, John? Oh,
I saw Him. And He's full of grace and truth.
Think about that, Don. He's always for. I mean, how
much grace did it take to hold this sinner up today? So, how much grace does it take
to keep me? I can't calculate it. That's
higher than I can add. I don't know. But imagine, He
keeps me today Tomorrow, and He will keep me by His grace
and bring me to glory. And He'll do all that for His
people. Every one of them. He won't lose any, my soul. And
still, with all that overflowing grace, going to all of His chosen,
His redeemed, His called, He's still full. Still full. Oh, what a Savior. What a Savior.
I remember years ago, I was visiting my daughter when she lived in
South Carolina. Her and her husband lived there
for a while. And they wanted to go out to eat. I said, well,
leave the kids here with me. I'll watch them. Three grandchildren.
They were all young then. This was years ago. So after
a little while, they said, Pawpaw, we're hungry. So? I said, well, you don't want
Pawpaw to cook. Let's go out to eat. And good,
good, they said. I said, OK, where would y'all
like to go? They said, we don't care where we go, Pawpaw. Don't
care where you take us, as long as it's a buffet. As long as
we can eat all we want. I said, okay, you pick the place.
Children of God, these verses we just read in Titus 2, it's
a buffet, isn't it? A spiritual buffet. Verse 11,
look at this first table. Grace, grace. Look at this other
table. Verse 14, redemption. Look at this other table, verse
13. Christ is coming back for His own. And that which makes
all of this certain, all of this sure, is grace. Grace that brings
salvation. That is why, because salvation
is all by the unmerited grace that's in Christ Jesus. That
is why it makes such a promise as this certain and sure. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever. It's on the footing
of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that makes
that so. I was asked one time when I was
still living back in West Virginia The fellow I worked with, you
know, it kind of leaked out that I believed in election. You know,
it kind of slips out. And he, you know, I'm a hard
shell. That fellow's a hard shell. But
one time he asked me, he said, Larry, what are you going to
preach on Sunday? I said, Romans 10, 13. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And he said,
you can't preach from that. You can't preach from that verse."
I said, well, I beg your pardon, why can't I? He said, because
you don't believe that's true. You believe election. So you
can't preach whose servant will let him take the water of life
freely. And I said, I do believe that. And I intend to preach
that. And by God's grace, I'll preach it fuller and freer than
you ever thought about. It's because God's grace is free. Because God's grace is unmerited.
It doesn't make the promise void. It gives it its validity. It makes it so. If grace was
based upon anything else, then whosoever will would be pointless.
But it's because it's free and unmerited. I don't believe whosoever
won't. Do you? Christ said, to me, these
poor deluded souls. They're always advocating and
standing for it. Oh, just getting angry. If you
deny a man's so-called free will, free? Free? Christ said, you
will not. You will not come to Me. It is
not of Him that willeth. It's not of Him that runneth.
Well, then how is a sinner saved? It's of God that showeth mercy. That's the only reason. Always
has been. It's the very freeness of God's
grace that allows us to preach the glorious gospel of the blessed
God and say, is anybody thirsty? Anybody thirsty. Come and drink. Anybody thirsty, come and drink
of the water of life and live forever. I read the other day
in one of the dust jackets on the volume of one of Spurgeon's
sermons. Your daddy wrote an appreciation
in one of those volumes. And this man that wrote in this
particular volume was John R. Rice. Yeah. I mean, he's gone now. But I'll tell you what, that
man He just, Arminian, just Arminian
to the core. But this, when I saw his name,
I thought, are you kidding me? This is what he said, just a
portion of what he wrote. He said, I differ, I differ with
Spurgeon somewhat on some doctoral details. And I thought, yeah,
that's an understatement. He said, he was more Calvinistic
than I in some statements of doctrine. But, he wrote, but,
so great was the moving of the controlling Holy Spirit of God
upon him, so whole sold his compassion and love for sinners, so urgent
his great heart, that when the gospel came out of his heart,
his voice, his pen, it stressed, whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. Do you get that? It says, he's
saying, well, you know, Spurgeon might have been Calvinistic in
some areas, but when he preached the gospel, his Calvinism was
laid aside, you know, because you can't preach the free grace
of God to sinners and hold to the doctrines of God's marvelous
grace. You ever been accused of that?
When I read that, I thought, man, it's because Spurgeon did
believe that God's grace is sovereign, reigning. It's because he did
believe it's not of him that will it, but of God that showeth
mercy. That's what gives the gospel
its good news. That's what makes it good news.
The very opposite of what that man supposed is true. Because
salvation is all of grace and not of works. Oh, the glorious
promise is, whosoever will, let him come. There's no quarrel
between man's depravity, man's inability, and the promise of
salvation full and free. The grace of God brings salvation. It doesn't come any other way. It is only if it's dependent
upon any other grounds, like man's merit, man's worth, man's
work, man's will, the promise would be impossible on those
grounds. Free will. There's no such critter. There is no such critter. There's
no such thing. Thank God salvation comes to
sinners through the merits of Jesus Christ. What does the Word
of God tell us? even as God, for Christ's sake,
hath forgiven you." Oh boy! Now I can lay down and rest on
that. What would God not do for a sinner
for Christ's sake? For Christ's sake, not because
I deserve it. His Son deserves it, Donnie.
His Son earned it. His Son merited it. His Son's
worthy of it. Oh, for Christ's sake, that gives
me hope. That gives me peace. Nothing
else will. I love what old John Bunyan said. He said, Oh, Son of God, grace
brought you down from heaven. And grace made you bear such
burdens for sin, such burdens of curse that are unspeakable.
Grace was in your heart, and grace came bubbling up from your
bleeding side. Grace was in your tears, and
grace was in your prayers. And grace streamed from your
thorn-crowned brow, and grace came forth with the nails that
pierced you. Oh, here are unsearchable riches of grace. Grace to make
sinners happy. Grace to make angels wonder.
Grace to make devils astonished. That's the kind of grace I need,
don't you? Nothing less than that will help
a sinner like me. Only that gives me hope. Remember when Paul met with the
elders of the churches of Ephesus on his way to Jerusalem? And
he met him on that little isle of Miletus. And he said, I warn
you. He said, after my departure.
And he said, I'm never going to see you again. They cried. Paul said, I won't see you again.
Going up to Jerusalem, I don't know exactly what's waiting,
but God's told me bonds and afflictions abide there. And he said, when
I leave, he said, there's going to be wolves come in. from without,
not sparing the flock." And he said, from your own self, from
within, the same will rise up. My soul, Paul, you got any good
news? He said, I commend you to God and the Word
of His grace which is able to build you up and give you an
inheritance among them that are sanctified. the all-state insurance commercial,
they say, are you in good hands? Yes, I sure am. I'm in the hands of the great
shepherd of the sheep. And he said, there's nobody,
there's nobody going to pluck his sheep out of his hand. The
promise is not to whosoever shall work, come forward, be baptized,
or say the sinner's prayer, or learn great doctrines. Remember
what our Lord said to the Pharisees one time. He said, you know,
I'm not come to call the righteous like you can't claim to be. You
don't need me. I mean, you've told me you don't
need me. I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance. He said, go and learn what this
means. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Go and learn what that means.
Oh, when a sinner learns that, when he learns that, I'm the
sinner. James, I'm not going to point
at Paul or Donnie. No. I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner. Thank God He taught me that.
It was grace that taught my heart to fear. If someone would have
told me, Larry, God's being gracious to you, I'd say, man, you're
crazy. I said, I'm going to hell. I
can't sleep. My sin's ever before me. There's
not a sinner like me. And you're telling me God's being
good to me? Oh yes. God taught my heart to
fear. I learned that I was THE SINNER. But He doesn't leave us there,
does He, honey? old Newton rotate him, but I'm
not thinking about Newton right now. I'm thinking about Larry
Criss. I'm thinking about that long-haired
hippie walking down them railroad tracks because I didn't want
to be seen. So I got on railroad tracks going
through some of the mountains of West Virginia, and that's
about anywhere and everywhere. And it seemed like every foot,
or every railroad tie, I put my foot on screamed, lost, lost,
lost. God got me lost. Now His grace
relieved my fears. taught me that I'm the sinner
and Christ is the Savior. He opened my blinded eyes to
behold the Lamb of God. And all my sins just rolled away. Just rolled away. Oh, it's the
grace of God that brings salvation. Grace free. Grace unchanging. Grace reigning. Grace never failing. Grace greater than all my sin.
Grace that's everlasting in Christ and through Christ and by Christ. And this grace You notice in
our text, it doesn't say that grace offers salvation or grace
makes salvation available. No, grace brings salvation. Wherever
God's grace comes, salvation comes. Well, we couldn't be saved
otherwise. I would never be saved on any
other grounds and neither would you. Neither would you. It doesn't
wait for you to take the first step. No, grace takes all the
steps. Grace doesn't offer life to sinners. Grace raises dead sinners to
life. Grace gives us faith. Grace keeps
us. And the true grace of God will
bring us all the way to glory. Old John Burton, he wrote The
Mercies of a Covenant God. What did I do with it? But he wrote that the longer I live, he said, the
more I feel that there was one thing left undone. If the devil
were not conquered, sin not expiated, justice not satisfied, the law
not honored and magnified, death not overcome, and every burden
carried away, I should have not a ray of hope. on the Mount of
Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ undertook the cause of His people,
and there is not a jot nor a tittle that He left undone, but by one
offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." He
said this is complete salvation, saved in the Lord with an everlasting
salvation. That's good news, is it not? Grace that brings salvation through
our great God and Savior. Is it any wonder in glory that
we read the song that is sung there is worthy is the Lamb that
was slain? I mean, after all, it's speaking
of the Lamb when it says, He by Himself purged our sins. He entered one time into the
holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Call His name
Jesus. He shall save His people from
their sins. Oh, what a mighty Savior He is. He will seek and save and bring
each of them all the way home and present them without fault
before the throne of God." Now, don't let that run by too quick.
Without fault before the throne of God? You, dream team or not,
without fault before the throne of God, oh yes, that's what grace
will do. Spurgeon said, the blood of Jesus
Christ will soak completely thoroughly, wash us and cleanse us from all
sin, that when we stand before God, we will have suffered no
loss because of our sin, without fault, before the throne of God."
The last thing from this buffet of grace. Verse 13, looking for
that blessed hope. Your pastor mentioned this a
moment ago. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious
appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Oh, Christ is coming back for
His bride. It's not a fairy tale. He will
see it through the veil of His soul and be completely satisfied. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
we're going to see the King. How about that? We're going to
see the King. Let me share this story with
you. You may have heard it. Roland Hill, a preacher of yesteryear,
an old English preacher, somebody gave him a pretty large sum of
money with these instructions. To give it to another preacher,
Another pastor who pastored a church in a low-income area, and the
person that gave Rowland Hill the money knew this man and knew
that he needed it. But Rowland Hill thought that
it was too much to give him all at once. So he would put some
of it in an envelope and mail it to him with these words, more
to follow. more to follow. Within a few
days, the pastor received another envelope containing the same
amount of money with the same message, more to follow. Then
there came a third and a fourth. In fact, they continued with
regularity, always accompanied by those comforting and cheering
words until the entire sum had been exhausted. And Spurgeon
went on to say, when God forgives our sins, there's more forgiveness
to follow. He justifies us in the righteousness
of Christ, but there is more to follow. He adopts us into
His family, but there is more to follow. He prepares us for
heaven, but there is more to follow. He gives us grace, He gives us more grace, but there
is more to follow. He helps us in old age, but there
is still more to follow. Even when we arrive in the world
to come, there will still be more to follow. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know
that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall
see Him as He is. That's worth waiting on. God bless you. God bless you.
Thank you, Peter.