You know, if I was sick, if I
was sick and had a lot of bodily pain and things like that, it's
automatically that you start seeking the Lord. I mean, Lord,
I need your help. I need your strength. I need
you to uphold me in this so that I can react the right way and
deal with this the right way. And I'd want people to pray for
me. I really would. Call me by name. So you remember
these dear folks, you remember Christina and Donna, Bill and
Daryl, and Rhonda, James's wife. These are real, real needs, real
needs. Let's look here together in Titus
chapter 3 and start reading at verse 1, read the first seven
verses and deal with them. Put them in mind to be subject
to principalities and powers. to obey magistrates, to be ready
to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers,
but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves
also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving
divers' lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful
and hating one another. But, thank God for these But
after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward
man appeared, 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, we know that Paul here is
instructing his son Titus in the faith, and he gives him instructions
and reminds him of some things to teach these people in Greece,
where he's at. And that's what the first line
of this, put them in mind, that means remind them. Put them in
mind, call it to their mind, remind them of these things.
And there's some things, times in our lives, and as believers,
we need to be reminded of some things. That's one reason why
we come and hear the Gospels, why we come and search the Scriptures
and try to find out what God has to say. And that's why God
gave us His blessed book, you see. So we can be reminded of
things. We can read it, we can read what
He has to say, and then we can re-read it. Read it and re-read
it and re-read it to see what He has said. And because we have
this blessed book and we can read it and reread it, that leaves
us all without excuse. There's no excuse for us not
knowing the will of God and the Word of God and how to carry
ourselves in this world. That leaves us without excuse.
You see, it already told him of what sound doctrine does for
all ages. Look back up in verse 1 of chapter
2. But speak thou the things which
become sound doctrine. Now, he told about sound doctrine
for the aged men. This is what it'll do for the
aged men. This is what sound doctrine will do for aged women.
This is what sound doctrine will do for younger women. This is
what sound doctrine will do for young men. And then it'll do
it for sound doctrine for those who are servants, because the
grace of God brought and taught us that we should live godly
in this present evil world and sovereignty. So you see, this
sound doctrine that he talks about, this truth that he talks
about, it has an effect upon all ages, upon all classes, upon
all characters. And beware of a doctrine, beware
of a gospel that does not change you. You know, a true sound doctrine
affects our lives, and that's why Paul said back up there,
In the last line of verse 10, he says that we may adorn the
doctrine of God our Savior. That's what true doctrine will
do for us. It's what the gospel will do for us. It'll cause us
to adorn, to beautify, dress up, make glorious and make, dress
up and beautify the gospel, the grace of God in our lives and
the doctrine of God. And that's why this salvation
that grace brings, brings us salvation through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Ain't that what he said in verse
eleven of chapter two? For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men. And look what he says, and
who brought this grace down to us. In verse fourteen it says
the Lord Jesus did, who gave himself for us to redeem us from
all iniquity. And oh, what a blessed motive
to live for the glory of God. What a blessed motive to adorn
the doctrine of God our Savior. But here in these verses that
I've read to you this evening, Paul gives Titus, tells Titus
to remind these folks of two things, to remind them of their
present and remind them of their past. Remind them of their present
and remind them of their past. And look what he says in verse
one, put them in mind It's a reminder of the presence, put them in
mind, bring to remembrance. And you know the apostle many
times throughout the scriptures, this is what he meant, you know,
put them in remembrance. Peter says, I've put you in remembrance,
stir up your pure mind by way of remembrance, though you know
these things. So when you're reminded of something,
you're not getting new information. You're just being brought to
remembrance of things. You're reminded of things. You
remember things. And that's what we're talking
about. Look over here in Philippians. You keep that Titus. Look over
in Philippians with me. In chapter 3, verse 1. Let's
show you what I'm talking about. And that's what Paul told Timothy.
He said, Timothy, put them in remembrance. Put them in remembrance
of God. Put them in remembrance. Charging
them before the Lord that they strive not about words. Just
don't strive about words. You got, we got the gospel. There's
no scribe without words in it to overthrow people's hearts
and minds. But look what Paul said here
in Philippians 3.1, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord,
to write the same things to you, to me indeed is grievous. I mean, I just, you know, I don't
want to just keep writing the same things to you. I don't want
to tell you the same things over and over. You know, it's grievous
to me. You hear me all the time. You
hear everything I say. But he says, you know who it's
good for? It's good for you. It's good for you. So you see,
that's we have a reminder of the past. And what is it that
he wants to remind us of? What is it he wants Titus to
remind them of? Well, the first thing he wants
to remind them of is this, talking about the present now, to be
subject to principalities. That word be subject to principality
means to be subject to governing. subject to rules, put a subjection
on the powers that be are ordained of God. And the reason that God
ordained magistrates and principalities and governments in this world
is for the good of the people, so that those who do wrong will
be punished, and those who don't do wrong won't be punished. You
know, let me give you an illustration here. When you're driving down
the road, And if you see a cop ahead of you, what's the first
thing that goes through your mind? I'm going to slow down. If you see one sitting over here,
and you go by him, the first thing you look in your mirror,
is he got me? That's why we have laws. He said
you'd be in subjection to them. That's why we have rules in this
world. And wouldn't it be an awful world that if we live without
rules, If we didn't have governments to protect us and preserve us
and keep us from certain kind of peopleness. You imagine these
anarchists, you know these anarchists speak, and they think that there
should be no rule whatsoever, no government whatsoever. And
this is the survival of the fittest. Do you imagine what it would
be like if there was no government and no rules and no sheriff and
no police? Nobody would punish the evil.
But then nothing but evil would rule. It'd be a horrible thing. So he says, so be subject to
principalities. God put him in power. He ordained
him to punish evildoers. And when we do this, we put to
silence the ignorance of foolish men. You see, we're not rebels.
And I know that we don't know what the future holds for us,
but I do know this about believers. The difference between us and
Muslims is this. They, if they're offended, they
grab guns and knives and anything they can and punish people severely. Believers have never done that.
They have been led to the slaughter. They have been martyred. They've
been burned at the stake. And no matter what goes on in
this world, believers cannot form an army and get a bunch
of guns and go fight for themselves. They can't do that. And another
reason God ordained The government is that somebody else will fight
our battles for us. Somebody else will fight our
enemies for us. Christians has always been, as lambs, led to
the slaughter. And we just refer to that as
when it comes to your own home, when it comes to protecting your
own home, your own property, your own family, that a man's
got to do what he's got to do. No matter what happens. If you
don't protect his own home, he's worse than anything. But we as
believers, we're not like these people that has to get up and
try to destroy government. That's why God gave us this privilege
of voting. And then he says, put them in
subject to principalities. And then he says to obey magistrates,
not only to be subject to government rulers, but to be obedient to
your superiors, subject to magistrates. particular things of the government,
what they say. Now, they tell us we have to
pay taxes. But what happens if you don't? Huh? That's what he says to particular
magistrates. And then look what he says there
in the last part of that verse, to be ready for every good work.
Oh, my. To be ready for every good work.
I mean, be ready to do something good. Be ready if you've got
a task, if you're given a work to do, if you're given a task
to do, be ready and do that. Get on it right now. And then
let me show you not only that, but look over in Galatians chapter
6 and verse 10. Galatians chapter 6 and verse
10. Here's another thing about be ready for every good work.
And you know this is something This is something that we're
ordained to. We don't just automatically say, well, I'm going to do this.
This is what I'm going to do. It'll be a good work. We don't
think like that. It's not the way God's made us as believers.
We just do what we do as a natural outcome of us being God's people,
of the nature that's in us, that new nature that's in us. You
see somebody in need, a brother or sister, or somebody in need,
and you help them. You automatically go to do something
for them. What can I do? And if you can't,
you just go and do it. And here's what the ECA said
in verse 10 here, Galatians chapter 6. As we therefore have opportunity,
let us do good unto all. Oh my, when's the last time you
mistreated somebody? Do you ever mistreat somebody
in the restaurant? You mistreat the people you buy
your gas? You mistreat your people, your wife or your children in
your home? Are you good to these folks? You say kind things to
them? You say thank you? Appreciate
it? No, that's what he said. Do good unto all men. We're not
out here. We don't want to go out here
and folks, be hateful and ill. And as you have the opportunity,
let's do good unto all men. Especially to them who are of
the household of faith. Them that are God's blessed people,
especially to them. And look what he said in 1 Timothy
5.15. Back over to your left just a
little bit when you come back from Galatians. Be ready for
every good work, for every good task, everything that God gives
you to do. When He gives you an opportunity,
do it good. Act good. Be good to all people. Now look what He said over here
in 1 Thessalonians 5.15. I said 1 Thessalonians 5.15. Didn't I? What did I say? I'm sorry. You all are being good to me.
1 Timothy 5.15. Now, here's what
he says. Huh? 1 Thessalonians 5.15. Did
I say Timothy again? I'm sorry. I've got Timothy on
my mind. Now look what he said here in
1 Thessalonians. See that non-render evil for
evil. When people mistreat you, that
gives you not, don't give you the right to mistreat them. I
argued with a man, say, one time, and this is a good lesson to
learn. If you get around people, and believers sometimes they
act this way, you get around people and they start acting
ugly. Ill, hateful, contrary, maybe out of pocket about something.
He said, let them be ugly by their self. You don't have to
be ugly with them. And you know why we tell our children, you're
acting awful ugly. That's being ugly when you talk like that.
That's being ugly when you act that way. And when somebody is
ugly towards us, acts bad towards us, evil towards us, don't turn
right around and give them tit for tat. That's what he said.
Don't do that. Be ready for ever good work, but ever follow that
which is good. Just because somebody's bad to
you doesn't mean that you're bad to them. You follow that
which is good, both among yourselves, among all of you as believers,
but you do that when you're out in the world. You do that when
you're out in the world. And then not only he reminds
them how to back over in our text now, in verse 2, not only
to be, and remind them of how they are to be, to governments
and magistrates and good works, but he reminds them how to treat
all men. He says in verse 2, to speak
evil of no man. Now this speak evil of no man,
what that means is don't malign somebody, don't slander them.
Don't malign them, don't slander them, don't rely on them. Don't
make up things about them. Don't come up with something
that's not true about somebody. And so whenever he says to speak
evil of no man, it says, don't you go out here and make up things
about somebody and say, did you hear what so-and-so did? And
you don't know that that happened. I read a story. I don't know
how true it is. You've probably seen it. But there's a woman in one
of these churches, and she saw a fellow in the church pick up
truck parked in front of a honky-tonk, a bar. She got to church, and boy, she
said, oh my, oh my. She used to church gossip and
tell everybody, oh, so-and-so, his truck was over there at that
barn. Oh, there ain't no telling what in the world he was doing,
who he was with and what was going on. When he got wind of
that, he took his truck and parked it in front of her house, fell
out of it, walked to the house and left his truck there in front
of her house all night. That shut her up. Speak evil of no man. You don't
know what somebody's doing. You don't know why they're doing
it. Now you know the truth about somebody, as my wife tells me
all the time. I'll say something about something. She says, the
truth is bad enough without lying on me. And that's what it is. The truth
on us is bad enough without somebody making it worse than it is. And
then he says, go on there and says, be no brawlers. That word,
be no brawlers, that means be peaceable. Don't be contentious. Don't be quarrelsome. Go without
fighting. Don't argue all the time. Be
contentious. Don't be like that. And that's
why Paul told the Romans, he says, it's possible, as it lies
in you, as it's possible, live peaceably with all men, as much
as it lies in you. Be at peace. Live peaceably as
everybody will let you. And if you can't live peaceably
around some people, just don't go around them. Just don't go
around them. And look what 2 Timothy 2.24
says. I know I got this one right.
2 Timothy 2.24. And he said, The servant of the
Lord must not strive, the argumentative, but be gentle unto all men, apt
to teach, patient, not quarrelsome, not argumentative, in meekness
instructing those that oppose themselves. They oppose themselves
because they oppose God and they oppose themselves. So if God
permits your, perhaps God will give them repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth. That they may recover themselves
out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him
at his will. Go get up and preach in an argumentative
way and argue with people and debate with people. Be peaceful. Don't be a brawler. And then
look what else he says here at verse 2. Titus 3. But gentle. Gentle. That word gentle means sweet
reasonableness. Sweet reasonableness. Think it
through. Be gentle. Sweet reasonableness. An attitude
of gentleness here, this means an attitude that holds no grudges. And always give others the benefit
of the doubt. James says, you know that wisdom
that comes from above is personal. Gentle and pure and peaceable. And oh my, that's what comes
from above. And oh, sweet reasonableness.
An attitude that holds no grudges. Give others the benefit of the
doubt. And then look what he says there
in the last part of that verse, showing all meekness unto all
men. Now, what in the world does that
mean? When we think about meekness, we think about somebody who is
very weak, very mild-mannered, with her head down, you know,
not much to say, diffident, bashful. But that's not what meekness
is at all. No, no. And our Lord Jesus is our example,
and He says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am
mean and lowly and high. It's a state of heart, it's a
state of attitude, and a state of grace that God puts in us
that wasn't there before. And what it means, showing consideration
for all. It's humility. And when you're
in the situation, you patiently trust God. And you submit yourself
to God. And when you're in a situation
and you show meekness unto all men, you understand that they
may not be like you, they may not understand things like you
do, and you show consideration to them, and you patiently trust
God while you're in an awful situation. And that's why he, our Lord Jesus
Christ, he says, you know, Well, let's look at Ephesians 4. I
won't quote it to you, just look at it. Ephesians 4. In Ephesians
4, this is what our Lord Jesus said. This is what our Master's
teaching us. And, oh my, that's a meek and lowly of heart. And He says here in Ephesians
4.1, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you, that
you want worthy of the vocation that life calling wherewith God
hath called you. And what's this? With all lowliness
and meekness. Don't exalt yourself. Don't put
yourself out. Don't brag on yourself. Don't
put yourself forward like you know everything, you've got everything,
and you're better than everybody else. With all lowliness and
meekness, with long suffering, Now, you have to be long-suffering
in this world. Mary must be long-suffering,
lived me 43 years. That's just a illustration. With
long-suffering for bearing one another in love. In love. That's the key. In love. Now, let me tell you something,
beloved. Our flesh, our fallen nature, is the very opposite
of everything I just said. The very opposite of it. We don't
want to obey anybody. We don't want to be meek. We
don't want to be lowly. We want to be heard. We want
our rights. We want to argue. If we think we're right and we're
not willing to be wrong just for the sake of somebody else,
we'll just keep our mouth shut. But he said, as the elect of
God, beloved, as the elect of God, put on vows of mercy, kindness
and compassion, tenderness, gentleness, and forgiveness. And then not
only we're reminded of that, but he gives us another reminder
of that was the present. Put them in mind about government
and about men and how to relate to them. Then look what he says
in verse three. He gives us a reminder of our
past. And for we are where all selves were. When you start dealing
out in the world, dealing with people, for we also, ourselves,
were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating
one another. Oh, my goodness. You say, was
I like that? Yes. Now, I'm going to show you two
places in the Scripture talking about the flesh. Look over with
me in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. I want you to see this. Paul
gives two lists of the works of the flesh and what we were.
1 Corinthians 6, 9. You know what we were. There's
a whole list of sinful living that we were. That we were. And that's the way we were. We
were foolish. Foolish. Foolish in our minds. Foolish in our livings. Foolish
in our attitude. Totally, totally ignorant of
spiritual things. Look what he said here in 1 Corinthians
6, 9. Paul says, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God? Don't you be deceived about this.
And that's why he says, But we were. Don't you be deceived. The unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Fornicators won't do
it, idolaters won't do it. Fornicators won't do it, people
living together. No, adulterers won't do it, effeminate
won't do it. People that got no backbone,
no gumption, no principles that can be swayed with the wind,
nor abuses of themselves with mankind. Nor thieves, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit
the kingdom of God." And such were some of you. Such were some of you. Now watch
what happens. But you're washed. Washed in
what? The blood of Christ by the Word
of God. Sanctified by the Spirit of God. Set apart by the Spirit of God.
Justified by our Lord Jesus Christ. Now look over in Galatians chapter
5. I'll show you another list of things. Galatians chapter
5. And that's what he says, there's
the, oh my, this is what we were. Thank God, bless His holy name. Salvation's by grace, because
listen, we'd never be saved if we had to overcome these things
in and out by ourselves. But look what he said here in
verse Now, the works of the flesh are
manifest. It's obvious what a person does
in the flesh, and the works of the flesh, the works of the fallen
nature, the works of the depraved sinner, the works of those that
are without Christ, the works of those not being regenerated.
Adultery is one of them. Fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry. Witchcraft. You think about that the next
time you read your horoscope. Witchcraft. Hatred. Oh, to have hate? Various. Immolations. Wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envyings, murders. drunkenness, revelings, parties,
and partying, and such like, of which I've told you before,
as I've also told you in time past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." And so he comes
back over here and he reminds us of our past. And he says there
in verse 2, verse 3, for we also ourselves were sometimes foolish. This is why we ought to act this
way toward other men. Be gentle, no brawler, speak
evil of nobody, be ready to every good work. Because we were foolish. What does that mean? We were
fools in our minds. Foolish in the way that we lived. How? We can't get over it. We
preach to people constantly and witness to people all the time.
And we say, oh, turn from your ways. Come on, hear the gospel,
believe the gospel. But they're foolish. They have
no spiritual understanding. They're totally ignorant. That's
what he means. Foolish. Living in our attitudes and totally
ignorant of spiritual things. And that's what we were. And
then look what he goes on to say. Disobedient. And you know
what this word disobedient means here? Unwilling to be persuaded. Unwilling to be persuaded. Disobedient. I'm not going to do it. I'm not
going to believe that. I'm not going to obey that. I'm just not going to do that.
And they were unwilling to be persuaded. That's why John the
Baptist, that's why they said about him, the forerunner for
Christ, that he would come and that he would turn the hearts
of the disobedient to the wisdom of God. And that's why he says, look
back up there in verse 16 of chapter 1, he called false teachers
disobedient. They were disobedient unto every
good work, reprobate those false teachers work. He said they were
unwilling to be persuaded of the pure, free grace of God. They wanted to mix works with
grace. They wanted to mix their own deeds with grace. They wanted
to mix their own righteousness with the righteousness of Christ.
And Paul says that they're disobedient and abominable. And look what he says here, what
we were. Not only were we disobedient, but we were deceived. Do you
remember when you were deceived? And that word deceived means
we were purposely led astray. And you know, the Scriptures
calls us to lost sheep and says we're lost sheep, compares us
to lost sheep. They go astray. The Scripture
said in Isaiah 53, we were like sheep which had gone astray.
All of us like sheep gone astray. And so he's got to be sought.
He's got to be brought back. And then when he's brought back,
then he has to be guided in the right way, or he'll go astray
again. That's just the way it is. You've got to find him and
bring him back, and then lead him in the right way. Let me
show you that. Look over with me over in Psalm
119 and verse 76. Look what he says here. And look what it says. And I'll
tell you, it's going astray here, because it means purposely led
astray. Psalm 119, verse 176. Chapter
119, verse 176. Psalm 119. There's 176 verses in it, and we want
to go to the last verse of Psalm 119. I'll wait." Now, look what he said, talking
about going astray. Deceived, purposely. I have gone
astray, David said. I've gone astray like a lost
sheep. Look what he said. Seek thy servant. And then, for
I do not forget thy commandments. But not only does he have to
find us and bring us back, but then he has to guide us in the
right way. And then, look what else it goes
back over in our text. I'm not going to leave us like
this. I've got... This is just reminding us of
things. And not only did we be deceived, but look what he says
what we did. And this is us, beloved. This
is what we were. This is what the world's like.
This is what we were when we was unsaved by the grace of God.
And he says, not only to sin, but serving God was lust and
pleasures. In other words, serving means
the same word as slaves. We were slaves to various lusts,
pleasures. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, he
that committed sin is the slave of sin. But thanks be unto God that you
were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine that was delivered unto you. God didn't
leave us like that. Various lusts. All kinds of different
kinds of lusts. That lust as strong as our craving,
pleasures, evil pleasures. And then it says there, living
in malice. That means, beloved, that we
did not care for anybody else or feelings of that. We just
would speak evil about anybody. Envy. Envy is a horrible thing. Envy is a despicable thing. You've
got somebody that you like and you know, and you hear about
them having some advantages or some prosperity or something,
and when you hear that or witness it, you feel displeasure at it.
That's when you have envy, instead of rejoicing at it. And then
he goes on to say, not only was we were hateful and hating one
another, hateful and hating one another,
hateful, detestable. hating one another. And I'll
tell you something about hate. Hate is a disease, and it's awful,
and it's a hard, it's a word. You know, when you hate someone,
or hate something, so do, there's a thing, David said, I hate every
evil way. But when you hate people, and you're hateful yourself,
you're detestable. When you've got a hateful attitude,
a mean attitude, you're detestable yourself. And when you hate one
another, and he said hating one another, you hate your neighbor,
you hate them down the road, you hate the way they do this,
you hate the way they run their house, you hate the way they
do this, the way they do that, the way they believe this, the
way they believe that, you hate them. But when you hate someone,
it's like you wish them the worst catastrophe, but you're the one
doing all the suffering. Do you think the person that
you hate is affected by your hate? It's like you wish they'd
drink poison, but you're the one who takes it. And so hate is an awful, awful
thing. That, oh, bless the Lord God.
Look what he says in verse four. He's going to remind us now. This is part of it. This is part
of it. Oh, what we, he says now, he wants to remind them of what
you've become. This is what you were. Now look what you've become.
But after, but from what we were, hateful, disobedient, foolish,
deceived, served and died, was lost, living in malice. He said,
but after the kindness and love of our God, sword, savior, amen.
And look what he says. not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to His mercy." He saved us! He
saved us! We've been saved! Saved by the
grace of God. Saved by the mercy of God. Saved
by the justification of Christ. Saved by the regeneration of
the Holy Ghost. And he says, after the kindness
and love of God, our Savior, toward men again. And kindness,
oh my! When it talks about God's kindness,
we see people that's kind. Can you imagine how kind God
is? Oh, let thy loving kindness,
David said, be towards me. Oh, such goodness and generosity
and love. Now, on my margin, when it talks
about the love of God here, it talks about the pity of God.
Compassion. And this love to save somebody
from pain, to save somebody from trouble, to save somebody from
danger. That's why the kindness and generosity
of God came toward us and saved us from pain and trouble and
danger. And, oh, beloved, and it appeared. I mean, we wasn't looking for
it. We didn't know it was going to come, but it appeared. And
it appeared through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then look over
in verse five. Oh my, not by works of righteousness. You know what our righteousnesses
are? As a filthy rag. Not any righteous thing that
we ever thought we ever did. As far as God was concerned,
was dumb, was garbage, was filth, was as a filthy rag, totally
unacceptable. We had no works of righteousness.
If we had had a work of righteousness whereby God would have accepted
us, we wouldn't have had to have been saved by the grace of God.
We wouldn't have needed the mercy of God. And if somebody's going to be
saved by their own righteousness, the Scriptures tell us that if
he's going to be saved according to the law of God, he's got to
continue in that all the days of his life. And if he ever fails
one moment, he's under the curse. But God has saved us according
to His mercy. He didn't look at us and say,
now those folks are doing a pretty good job. I believe I'll go down
and bless them and help them out a little bit. No, no. There we were, hateful,
hating one another, and then the kindness and love of God
toward us appeared. It came. sitting there in our
sins, sitting there in our rebellions, it appeared. And oh, bless His
name. And then He says, oh, not by
works of righteousness, which we've done. Paul said, you know,
that there's those who go about to establish their own righteousness. You know, if you have a righteousness
of your own, you think you're pretty good, you think that God's
going to accept you for what you think or what you feel or
what you've done or your intentions, it ain't going to happen. There's never been one soul on
the topside of God's earth, not one, listen to me, not one, from
Adam, any son of Adam, that's ever, ever done something righteous
that God has to reward him for it. If righteousness is done by deeds, by what you do,
then Christ is dead in vain. What was the purpose of Jesus
Christ being crucified on a cross if a man has a righteousness,
if a man can do something righteous? And Lord, He goes on to say here,
listen, but, here's that word but again, according to His mercy,
He saved us. Grace, grace is God. saving us, manifesting Himself
to us, without any merit in us, just because of His graciousness,
because He just favors us. But mercy is this, that we didn't
deserve anything but justice. And so mercy gives us not what
we deserve. It keeps from giving us what
we deserve. We deserve wrath, but we got
mercy. mercy. And all the mercy, and
this mercy saved us. And listen to what happens now.
Listen to what happens. And then he says, by the washing
of regeneration. What's that washing of regeneration?
How Holy Spirit comes and washes us? Worships us by the Spirit,
worships us in the Word, worships us in the blood, and gives us
that new heart, gives us that new nature, regenerates us, makes
us new creatures in Christ. That's why our Lord Jesus Christ
says, the words, the flesh prophet is nothing. The words that I
speak unto you, they're spirit and life. The flesh prophet is
nothing. The Spirit is what quickens you. The Spirit's what quickens
you. The Spirit's what regenerates
you. The Spirit's what purifies you. And then look what he says. And He shed it on us abundantly. Shed the Holy Spirit on us abundantly.
Mercy on us abundantly. Salvation on us abundantly. Through
Jesus Christ, our Savior. And oh, listen, everything we
got, that's what it said, through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Has
God got anything for anybody outside of Christ? He has nothing
for anybody outside of Christ. Everything that God has for any
sinner, anything that God has for any person on this earth
is through and by and because of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
all. It's just the way it is. And
I'm thankful for that. And He shed it on us abundantly,
richly. And look what He says in verse
7, "...that being justified by His grace." Justified by His
grace. Declared righteous. acquitted
before God. It's not as if I don't have any
sin. It is the fact that I don't have
any sin, that I have the righteousness of God. Justification means that
God Himself acquits you of everything that's against you, and He Himself
says, Who done this? Jesus Christ did
this for us. He declared us righteous, justified
us, and we stand before God right now without any guilt, without
any sin, without any spot, without any cleavage. And we are as close
to God and as holy as God and as righteous and as loved of
God as His blessed Son. Huh? Look in Romans 3 with me just
a moment. Let me show you this. Romans 3. Look in Romans 3.23
with me. Just a moment. 3.23 and 3.24. Oh my. Quitted before God. God calls
you before His throne. The law comes out and says, I
can't find any fault in Him. Conscience comes out and says,
I can't find any fault in Him. I'm satisfied. Justice says,
I can't find any fault in Him. I'm satisfied. Ransom, I owe
nothing against him. All because the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins to
redeem us from all our iniquity, save us from all our sin. Christ
did it all, all to him I owe. He says in Romans 3.23, all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now listen, that's
where we were. being justified freely by His
grace. What in the world does that mean,
justified freely? That means without a cause, without
a cause in us. You remember they told our Lord
Jesus, they hated me without a cause. They could find no reason
to hate me. They could find nothing about
my person to hate. They could find nothing about
my motives to hate. Nothing about the action I did
to hate. Nothing that I thought to hate. No deed that I've done,
no work that I've done. They hated me without a cause.
Could not find a reason. They hated me just because they
would. And it says, justified freely
by His grace without any cause in us or anybody else. Justified freely. And then back over in this text,
let me show you this, and I'll wind it up. It looks like I don't
want you to get tired. That being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Made heirs. Made heirs. Everybody knows what
an heir is. You've got to be in the family
to inherit anything. And because we're sons, He made
us heirs. The Spirit Himself bears witness
that we're the children of God. And He said in Romans 8, 17,
He said, if you're children, the Spirit bears witness that
you're children, if children, then you're heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. And look what he said. I'll just
read it to you. You don't have to look at it. I'll show it to
you. I'll go over and read it to you myself. But in Galatians
3.29, it says this, And if you be Christ, then are you Abraham's
seed and heirs according to the promise. Made heirs with him. Everybody knows what an heir
is. That means you're going to inherit something. You're going to inherit
something. Now, that ain't a whole lot,
you know. I don't know how much people are going to leave their
kids and their families, but I know this, and it won't be
nothing compared to this right here. To be an heir of God, to
be an heir of Christ. And look with me over in 1 Peter
1, and I'll close. 1 Peter 1, talking about heirs,
according to the hope of eternal life. 1 Peter 1. made heirs with Him, justified
by Him, saved through His mercy, by His grace, shed on us abundantly. Bless His holy name. Look what
he says here in 1 Peter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us again, give us this new life, regenerated
us unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. And look what he did, that did
this for us. To an inheritance. Begot us again, because we're
children now, because we're sons of God, children of God, sons
of Christ, saved by the grace of God. He begat us by the resurrection
of God Christ to an inheritance. Interruptible. Unbefouled, never will fade away. And guess where it's at? Reserved
in heaven. Reserved in heaven. You ever
been in any place where they had reservations made for you?
Had your name on the table? Said, you know, got your name
sitting there, and name sitting there. Now, this is reserved
for you. You know, whenever you have funerals
or weddings, the first fuse, you know, reserved for the family
of the bride, this over here, reserved for the family of the
groom. But there's a reservation. Everybody knows what it is to
have a reservation. Well, we have one reserved. We
got a reservation. And it's an inheritance. It's reserved for us. It's just
crazy. Laid out for us. Inheritance
laid out. You've got an inheritance laid up for your children. Well,
God's got an inheritance laid up for us. And you know what it's going
to be? It's going to be Christ Himself. Christ Himself. And that'll be enough on it,
to have eternity with Him, to be with Him.