Titus chapter one. Talk about the faith of God's
elect. 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." I'm
going to bring a message on all God did before the world ever
began. I've got a great big list of all the things that he did,
and it has everything to do with our old salvation. And look what
he went on to say. But hath in due times manifested
his word through preaching." Now, we wouldn't have known about
the faith of God's elect, the knowledge of the truth, wouldn't
know nothing about godliness, wouldn't know nothing about the
hope of eternal life, wouldn't know anything about that God
cannot lie, anything about his promises, had he not through
his word, through preaching, manifested his word, these things,
through preaching, which is committed. to me according to the commandment
of God our Savior, to tithe us, my own son, after the common
faith, grace and mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ our Savior." Paul here calls it the faith of God's
elect. He is an apostle according to
the faith of God's elect. God's elect has a faith, a faith
that the world knows nothing about. Paul told the Thessalonians,
all men have not faith. And the faith he's talking about
here is not the subjective faith. It's the faith we believe. It's
the things that we believe. It's the truths that we believe.
You know, people say, what is your faith? I'm Catholic, or
I'm a Methodist, or I'm Pentecostal, I'm Presbyterian. But somebody
ask us what our faith is. We say Jesus Christ, sovereign
grace, free grace. We don't go to a denomination.
We don't say we're Baptists. We say we believe in the grace
of God. We believe that Christ completed
and accomplished salvation. The faith of God is elect. It's a faith that the world don't
know anything about. It's a faith that God gives us.
It's a faith that God reveals to us. It's a faith that's precious
to us. And it's a faith that once you
get it, it begins to increase as you increase in knowledge
and as you increase in truth. And here's what he says in this
faith of God's elect, that God gave us in hope of eternal life,
which God became our life, promised before the world began. Now this
faith of God's elect is that God's done this faith and gave
us this faith, and gave us this blessed truth, and made us His
elect because He chose us in Christ before the world ever
began. Promised us life. before the
world ever began. Now how could he promise somebody
something that didn't even exist? Because he made a promise to
his son. He said, I'm going to give them
a people. I'll give you a people. And you die for those people.
You bear those sins, people. You bear their burdens, you bear
their sorrows, you bear their reproaches, you bear their iniquities,
you bear their woes, you be numbered with them transgressors. And
I tell you what I'll do, I'll give them faith to believe you.
I'll give them faith to believe everything there is about you.
I'll give them faith to embrace you and acknowledge you and always
do that until you bring them to be with yourself. Now, he gave promises right before
the world ever began. And so he gave this promise to
Christ, and all promises are in Christ. And what is this faith
of God's elect? Well, it says here, according
to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth.
It's the first thing about the faith of God's elect. They acknowledge
the truth. Do you know how many folks I
read it to you. I read it to the men in the study.
Look over here in 2 Thessalonians. Back to your left in chapter
2. Let me show you something here. They acknowledge the truth. And we'll get into some of the
truths that we do. Look what is said here down in
2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 10. It says, And with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness in them that perish. Why do they perish? You
know, because Satan comes with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
and they were deceived and perished. And here's the reason, because
they received not the love of the truth that they might be
saved. They didn't acknowledge the truth.
They didn't hear the truth. Somebody told them the truth.
But they didn't receive the truth. They didn't believe the truth.
Our Lord Jesus said, I'd be a liar like you if I said I didn't know
God. I read it to you this morning.
And watch what I said in verse 11. For this cause, God shall
send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie. And
over here it says the faith of God's elect is that they acknowledge
the truth. What truth do we acknowledge?
Let me show you something over in John 18. Look with me in John
chapter 18. You keep that now. In John 18,
talking about truth. Men always talk about, well,
truth is relative. Well, in some things it is. But
when it comes to the gospel, when it comes to God, when it
comes to man, when it comes to salvation, when it comes to sin,
there's nothing relative about it. It's just black and white. But I tell you, beloved, the
real truth is not left to the subjective of man. You know,
we've got a truth to acknowledge. And men who won't acknowledge
the truth, we pray that God will bring them to that place. And
look what Pilate had the Lord Jesus Christ here in his presence.
They had delivered him up to it. In verse 37, Pilate therefore
said unto him, Art thou then Jesus? Art thou a king then?
Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was
I born, and for this cause came I into the world. Now listen,
that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of
the truth heareth my voice. We acknowledge that Jesus Christ
tells the truth. He is the truth. Now watch this.
Pilate saith unto him, and he said this in the most sarcastic. He wasn't looking for truth.
He said this in a sarcastic, mean, disbelieving, what is truth? What is truth? There's no such
thing as truth that you can nail down. There's no such thing as
truth. And when he said this, he went
out again unto the Jews and said, I find no fault in it. Well,
what is truth? Well, Paul said here, we acknowledge
the truth. Well, I'll tell you what the truth is. Look down
there in verse 3, here of Titus chapter 1. have been few times
manifested through His Word through preaching. First thing we do
is we acknowledge the truth. We believe God's Word. We acknowledge
the truth about God's Word and everything that it says about
it. When we read, you know, you go through Isaiah, you go through
these books, and God describes Himself in the most glorious
way. You read through Job, you read
through Isaiah, and God compares Himself to every God that's ever
been. He says, I'm this way, and they're that way. I'm this
way, and they're that way. I do this, and they can't do
that. I can make the heavens. They
can't do anything. Man-making sets him down there
on his shelf, and he says, but you can't put me on the shelf.
The heavens is my throne. The earth is my footstool. I've
declared the end from the beginning. Tell me, you be a witness to
what I've done. You be a witness to what I've
said. You be a witness to how great I am. You be a witness
to my power. You be a witness to my grace.
He said, you be a witness to what I do for sinners in this
world. You be a witness to my judgment,
even. God says that many times, all
through Isaiah 40, 45, 46, through there. So we believe God's Word,
what He says about Him. There was a time we didn't believe
what He said about Him. We had a God of our imagination.
He was just like us. He would judge like us. He would
act like us. He would give us peace according
to what we did. But, beloved, that's not what
we say about Him now. We say, Lord, You're God. You do what You will, when You
will, for whom You will, and I will not say a word about it.
If you save our children, we'll bless you. And if you don't,
we'll still bless you. If you cause the church to grow,
we'll bless you. And if you don't cause it to grow, we'll bless
you. Whether we're in darkness, we'll bless you. Whether we're
in light, we're going to bless you. Whether we're on our deathbed,
we'll bless you. Whether we get up and jump on
a bench, we're going to bless you. You know why we're going
to bless you? Because you're God. It's you
that saved us, and not we ourselves. You're God. You've got the power. You're God. You've got the grace.
You're God. You've got the strength. You're
God, and you're the one that provided salvation for us. You're
God, and we would have never known you had not you brought
some preacher to us and took your word and made yourself known
to us through your word. We would not have known you. Oh, I say, we believe what it
says about Him. I'll tell you another truth we
acknowledge. We believe what it says about us. And you know what it says about
us? It don't have anything complimentary to say about us outside of Christ,
does it? God called Jacob. He said, O Jacob, thou were,
and he was a prince of Israel. O Jacob, you were. And oh, what does it say about
us? It says us that we were shaken in iniquity and conceived in
sin. We came forth from a mother's womb speaking lies. It tells
us, beloved, that how we became sinners, not because we did something,
because we was born that way. We was born in sin. We lived
in sin. And we not only lived in sin,
but sin lives in us even yet. We don't have to go anywhere.
We've learned this and that. We're not a district. We don't
have to go anywhere. We don't have to do anything.
We don't even have to talk to anybody. And we've said enough
in our thoughts and our feelings and our understanding and our
emotions that we condemn ourselves and this human race. And it gets
worse. Do you feel loathsome? Do you feel the disease of sin
in your heart, in your soul, in your nature? We didn't know
what that was. We were worried about sins. Sins. And with this sin, that sin,
another sin, and you start doing this, you start doing that. We'd
be alright, but we found out it's not what we do that's our
problem, it's what we are. And so Christ had to come, and
in His coming, He took and gave us a new heart. He gave us a
new nature. He made us new creatures. He
took us from being child of wrath and made us children of obedience. He took us from being rebels
and made us obedient servants. He took us when we found us dead
and polluted in our blood, and He said, live, and He brought
us to life. He found us in our nakedness,
and He clothed us with His righteousness. He found us in our darkness,
and He told our life, and He opened it with understanding,
and the light come flooding in. We acknowledge that truth. And,
oh, beloved, we acknowledge what it says about salvation. And when we talk about salvation,
you cannot talk about salvation without talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the first thing you've got
to say about Him is about His person. If He wasn't who He said
He was, He didn't save anybody. And He came into this world as
the Son of God, and God the Son, God Himself. Our Lord Jesus says,
My Father sent me into this world. And He said, through this cause
came I into this world. And my hour, He read it, my hour
has not yet come. And beloved our Lord Jesus Christ
in His person. He has such virtue. He has such
glory. He has such power. He was God. When you looked at Him, you saw
God. When you saw Him do acts, you saw God do something. When
He forgave a man of sins, it was God forgiving a man of sins.
When He said, get up and walk, it was God who said, get up and
walk. When He raised Lazarus from the dead, it was God who
gave him life from the dead. He was God manifested in the
flesh. And beloved, because He was a sinless man, He was able,
not adorned to us except by flesh, He was able because of the worth
of His person to bear our sins in His own body on the tree and
able to put them away because of who He is. And then His work,
And His work, our work, don't amount to nothing. You know why?
Because of who we are. That's why we cannot do any kind
of a work to make ourselves acceptable to God. It's because of who we
are. Even as children of God, and
this is the truth we acknowledge, we can never do anything that'll be acceptable to God,
except through Jesus Christ. We can't pray. And our prayers
won't be heard except through Christ. We can't give. And it won't be accepted unless we
give it out of love for Him. If we're here for any other reason
than out of love for Him to hear His gospel, hear about Him. I
mean, there's nothing we can do. But beloved our Lord Jesus
Christ's work, Everything he did was accepted. All the work
he did, every prayer he prayed, every deed he done, every thought
he did, every law he kept was accepted of God and because of
he was such a worth of a person that he could take all that he
did and charge it to our account and God regards us as if we was
the one who done it. The Father said, He does always
those things that please me. I don't even do things that please
myself. I don't even please myself very
much. But He, the Father, God the Father,
Holy Father said, He does always those things that please me.
Christ said, I do always please my Father. He satisfies everything
He does. And I tell you what, when we
come to Him, We come to Him knowing who He is. And knowing that He
said, Father, I finished the work that you gave me to do,
and now glorify me with the glory I had with you before the world
was. And, beloved, when we trust Him who did the work, then everything
He did is ours. Now God can look at us I'm satisfied
with that bunch. Christ said, I'm not ashamed
to call them brethren. God said, I'm not ashamed to
call them, say, I'm their God. God's taking brethren right now
in His glory, in His power, in His holiness. And He says, I'm
not ashamed to be their God. Our Lord Jesus Christ said in
God's right hand, said, I'm not ashamed to be their brethren. How can that be? How can that
possibly be? That God's not ashamed of us.
That Christ's not ashamed to call us His brethren. Because
we are His brethren. And what He did, we did. He's
holy, we're holy. He's righteous, we're righteous.
He obeyed God, we obeyed God. He loved God, we loved God. When
He died, we died. When He was buried, we were buried.
When He rose, we rose with Him. And when He sat down, we sat
down with Him. Together with Christ, what do
you say? Huh? And all of a sudden, when we
talk about salvation, not only do we have to talk about Christ,
His person and His work, but we've got to talk about grace. You've got to... Grace! Oh, grace is a sweet word. Oh, we've got to talk about salvation
by grace. Since we're going to have to
be saved by somebody else's doing, how are we going to know what
somebody else has done unless they save us? And how does God
save us? He saves us by His grace. And grace is God in power coming
to us. And salvation is of the Lord.
And let me give it to you in five ways. Salvation is of the
Lord in His planning. God planned. He said He gave
us, promised us eternal life before the world began. It's
of the Lord in His planning. God, before the world ever began,
had a people that He called them His. They're not their God. They're
My elect. I foreordained them. I predestinated
them. I chose them. I elected them. I set them apart. I sanctified
them. They are mine. And then, beloved, if it's one
thing to plan something, but then to carry out that plan,
to execute that plan. How many plans have you made
and wasn't able to carry them out? Remember, God makes that
plan. He's able to execute His plan.
And you know what that execution of that plan is? Since He gave
us to Christ, the execution is that Christ would come into this
world. And Christ, as I've already said, would take upon Himself
flesh, He'd come in the likeness of sinful flesh, and He by Himself
would bear our sins in His own body on the tree, that He would
go to the cross, and the wrath of God, and the judgment of God,
and the justice of God would fall on Him, and that He would
put away all of our sins by the sacrifice of Himself. And it's one thing for Him to
execute that salvation. And Christ executed. But how
in the world am I going to get it? How am I going to get this
salvation? I don't know where I get it.
I don't know any church I can go to and a preacher can give it
to me. I don't know any denomination that's given it out. I don't know any denomination
you can go to and say, well, listen, we've got it here. Well,
how in the world am I going to get this? If God planted it,
Christ executed it, carried it out, this salvation, well, how
in the world is it going to be mine? The Holy Spirit, when He
is come, He'll guide you into all truth, and He shall take
the things of mine and shall show them unto you. He shall not speak of Himself,
but He'll take the things of mine. He'll take the things of
my promises, the things of my person, the things of my work,
the things of my worth, the things of my personality, the things
of my character, the things of my attributes, He'll take the
things of mine and He'll show them unto you. Huh? Oh my. And then, so we get it. He comes by grace. And the Holy
Spirit comes and regenerates us and gives us life. Well, how
are we going to know we're going to get to keep it? You know,
we're sinners. We're weak. We're frail. We're
dust. Well, how in the world are we
going to keep this salvation that He executed, God planned,
and then supplied to us? Are we going to lose it because
it's left up to us? How are we going to keep this
salvation? We're not. It's going to keep
us. We're not going to keep it. You ask the wrong question, how
are we going to keep it? The question is, will it keep
us? If God, Christ executed it, the
Holy Spirit brings it to us, and if we didn't have anything
to do with it, how can we lose something that we didn't have
anything to do with? And so God will preserve this
salvation. He'll keep us in faith. He'll
keep us believing. He'll preserve us in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then one of these days, Paul
says, He'll gather us together with Him. This salvation will
be consummated. There'll be a marriage of the
Lamb and His bride. And one of these days, this salvation,
God will take us, and it'll be over, done, no more faith, nothing. And then look what it says, so
be acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness. And
this word godliness here, it means according to godliness,
it means it produces godliness in us. Godliness in us. I know if you're like me, you
do not feel godly. This is a strange, But it produces
Godliness, and what that means is that, beloved, there is God
in us that answers to God in the Scripture, that answers to
God in prayer, that answers to God in what He does for us. It
produces a desire in us to know God, to be like God, and God
Himself said He would conform us to the image of His own Son.
And this acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness,
it gives us hope of eternal life. Eternal life. And oh, bless His
holy name. And we've got eternal life. That
don't mean we're going to get it. We've got it now. And let
me tell you something about hope in the spirituals. Wherever you
find hope in the New Testament, it always has to do with the
resurrection of Christ in the future. Always. Never has to
do with, I hope I'm saved, or I hope I'll end up being saved.
It always has to be in hope of the eternal life which God promised. And so this eternal life, it's
out there in the future. It's in what Christ does. It's
in the resurrection of Christ. And when Christ comes again,
it has to do with that. Always. And we acknowledge the
truth about this, in verse 2, that God cannot lie. You know
where lying started? You know where the first lie
was ever told? Our Lord Jesus said it in John 8 this morning. He said Satan was a liar from
the beginning. He told a lie to our first parents. Our first parents believed it.
And the first thing Adam done when God found him in the garden,
he lied to God. A sage started the first lie.
God hath said, oh, you mean to tell me that God, well, surely
you won't die. You won't die? Talk about that
holy. Talk about that just. You surely won't die. All he's
doing is just hiding, hiding. You know, you're God yourself
and he don't want you to be like him. He wants you to get all
the glory, and He don't want you to have any. And said, you're
not really going to die. He said, go ahead and eat that
fruit. Go ahead and eat it. I'll show
it to you. I'll prove it to you. She ate that fruit. Gave it to
Adam. God who cannot lie. Just like
God said He would. He said, you eat that fruit,
you're going to die. If you die, you'll die. And Adam
that day, He went off with him, and he went off and got some
fig leaves, and he hid in a bush. The Lord Jesus Christ came walking
down through the... Adam, where are you? I'm naked. Who told you you was
naked? What'd you do? The wife you gave
me. She said everything but the truth. And all life started in the garden.
And lies keep on keeping on. And the people who the best liars
are, the greatest liars are, two people are greatest liars
in this world, politicians and preachers. Politicians and preachers. The liar will put their shoes
on and get around the block three times before the truth even gets
out the door. But politicians and preachers
are the biggest liars there ever was. They lie on God. They lie to men. They lie about
the Scriptures. They lie every time they open
their mouth. They're lying. But God cannot lie. He's not
like us. He has no flesh. He has no infirmities
like us. Now let me give you three parts
of truth. Three parts of truth. First,
there's a searching for truth. Truth ain't gonna just drop out
of the sky. There's a searching for truth. And here's one of
the lies that preachers tell you. They say, men are out there
dying, perishing for the truth, searching for the truth. Nobody
searches for the truth until God starts from searching for
the truth. And God is searching for the
truth. I want you to know when I remember very, very vividly,
vividly I remember this. In 2 Timothy 1.9, this has been,
oh my goodness, decades ago. But I wanted to know whether
salvation was of God or of man. If holiness was of man or of
God. And what part man had in salvation, what part God had
in salvation. I'd heard enough truth that I
was skimmed up between the two. It's, what's my part in salvation? What's God's part in salvation?
What's my part in living a holy life? What's God's part? And so, one time, I earnestly,
I was in agony over this question. And God gave me a verse of Scripture,
and I mean, it opened my mind just like that. But see, what
I'm saying is that God confronts you with truth, and you've got
to find, I've got to know the truth about this. And this is
the first scripture God gave me, 2 Timothy 1.9, God who hath
saved us. God, starts with God, who hath
saved us and called us with a holy calling. Our calling is holy
because it comes from a holy God. He calls us to a holy walk. He calls us to a holy, and then
He'll call us with a holy calling, not according to our works. So
I see not then and there, God had nothing to do with it. but
according to His own purpose. And then I seen right then, I
start certain scriptures and I like that word purpose. And
the Bible became a brand new book to me that day. Acknowledge
according to our worship to His own purpose, according to His
own purpose, and grace, which was given us in Christ before
the world began. You know what I seen I had for
salvation, to do a salvation that day? Absolutely nothing. And I started searching for the
truth from then on. I started looking for preachers
that were preaching the truth. I started looking for books that
taught the truth. I started wanting to be around
people who knew something about the truth. And then you search
for this truth, and then you know the truth. When God brings
you to it, you know it. This is the truth. This is it. You know it. And then you believe
it. And you enjoy it. And you rejoice
in it. And you receive the love of the
truth. Not just, you search for it.
Then you say, that's it. And you say, I believe it. And
then you start resting and enjoying it. Huh? Oh, the scriptures prove
it. The scripture view of God proves
that he cannot lie. He don't have to lie. He himself
is truth. And let me ask you this question.
What motive could God have for lying? We sometimes have a motive to
lie. Cover up something we've done, protect somebody. But what motive would God have
for lying? A man's experience proves
that God cannot lie. God told Adam, the day he ate
of the fruit, you'll die. Adam died. God cannot… He ain't
gonna lie to you, Adam. I told you what had happened.
Huh? He told Noah and that generation. He said, I'm going to send a
flood. I'm going to destroy all flesh on the face of the earth.
And Noah preached that for 120 years. It took him 120 years
to build that ark. And people helped him build that
ark. And people who helped him build
that ark ended up perishing in that flood because they did not
believe the truth. God said, is the flood going
to come? He got Noah and his family in that ark and he shut
the door. And then a little while, that
rain started coming, that flood started coming, and that's what
that are. And all living things perished
on them. God said, it's going to be a
flood. A flood come. Then He said, after the flood
was over, He told Noah, said, Noah, there'll never be another
flood again. Because you know, he got out there, and every time
he'd see a rain cloud, he would just get nervous. He said, oh
my, we're going to go through this again? It's like Tom Hardy. He lived up there in John's Creek. Every time it started raining
up there, he couldn't sleep. Been flooded out so many times,
water up in his house, water up in the church. Inside of almost
two years, water got even up under the church. So you know,
he was caught there one night, he was trying to get out of the
house and water coming in so fast. It's been a fortune trying
to make that place work. Every time it rained, he'd go,
oh, I couldn't sleep, couldn't rest, I gotta get out of here.
After the last flood, he said, I'm not living here anymore.
And that's what God told Noah. He says, Noah, there'll never
be another flood. And he said, whenever you see
a rainbow in the sky, after the rain, I'll read the covenant
that I told you. There ain't gonna be no more
rain. Every time you see a rainbow. I said, God, God cannot lie.
He said, see if you'll see that rainbow, I'm gonna take it. Every
time you see a rainbow, it tells you God can't lie. And I showed
you this morning, God came to Abraham and said, Abraham, you're
going to have a son. And he did. And he did. And you know who that son was? The Lord Jesus Christ. Not the
seed, as of many, the seed, which is Christ, Galatians 3.9. And
oh, God promised him that he would bring his people out of
Egypt, and he did. And God promised that when the
fullness of time come, that He send forth His Son, made of a
woman, made under the law. And He did. And God made a promise. Whosoever believeth, our Lord
Jesus Christ said, whosoever believeth on Me hath everlasting
life, and shall never perish. Come unto Me, our Lord Jesus
Christ said. He says, no man comes unto the
Father but by Me. Will you believe that God's true
when He says that? Will you believe that God's telling
you the truth when He says that? And He said, come unto Me. He
says, come to Me. Believe Me. And He didn't say, come to the front.
He didn't say, raise your hands. He didn't say, get on your knees. He says, come to me. How do you
get to Christ? Scott Riggs, the first person
I ever heard say this, you come to Christ without moving a muscle. And the minute you come to Him,
the minute you start Him, you're there. When you come to Him,
the minute you say, I'm going to Christ, you're already there.
How can you get from there to here that quick? Because He's
ever present. Would you believe that truth
about him? Would you believe he's true? God can't out-lie
you. You reckon you don't let God start lying to you, do you? God help you to believe him,
trust him, and save him. Lord, I believe you. I believe
you. I believe you. I need you. I'm
going to acknowledge you. I'm going to say you're true. You're true. Our blessed Savior, gracious
God in heaven, how blessedly gracious, how blessedly longsuffering,
how blessedly patient, how blessedly kind, how blessedly gracious and full
of tender mercies, for people like us. Oh, we acknowledge
the truth. What truth we know, we acknowledge
it. What truth You taught us, we acknowledge it. What salvation
we have, You gave it. What we know, You taught it. And Lord, we bless You for it.
We acknowledge the salvations of You from Alpha to Omega. We
acknowledge, Lord Jesus Christ, that you're our Savior, you're
our Redeemer, you're our great God, you're our all in all, you're
our righteousness, you're our peace, you're our shield, you're
our strength, you're our butler, you are our life, you are our
life, and we bless you. in Christ's holy name. Amen. Amen.