What grace has visited upon hard-hearted
sinners to be brought to a place where their mind and heart weeps
at the thought that Christ died in their behalf. There's no greater
blessing to a man in this world than to be taught what he is
by nature and to be given a view of what Christ did. in the behalf
of his people. Certainly there is no joy that
can exceed that which comes when those things are pressed upon
a man's heart. And his mind, his desire is no
longer trying to do things to please the Lord in the sense
that he might earn the Lord's favor. but that he might be found
to be grateful for that which the Lord has done in his behalf.
And there's a great difference in that. That's the difference
between heart religion and the religion of the flesh. Because
the religion of the flesh stirs men up to do something for the
Lord. There's nothing wrong with that
mind in itself as long as it's motivated by the desire to give
God glory. You see, there's a big difference
in the man that goes out to earn God's favor by doing things And
the man who, because he desires for God to have glory, he goes
about his life in a manner that he desires would be pleasing
unto the Lord. A big difference in that. And
only by the grace of God can we be made to see that difference
and brought to that place where that is our hunger. Because you
see, the natural man can see everything in the crucifixion
of Christ that the spiritual man can't. He can see all of
those things. I mean, anybody can pick up this
book and read it. It's not hidden from anybody.
It's right there in black and white. But it's only as the grace
of God visits a man and shows him the glory Because that, you
see, the world looks at the crucifixion of Christ as a sad event. And
surely it is in many ways. But it's a glorious thing. Because
before the foundation of the world, the Lord ordained His
purpose to bring salvation to his people and the means by which
he would do that was through this very thing that he, by the
determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, as Peter says, that wicked
men took the Lord Jesus Christ and slew him. And there's nothing
that can mitigate the guilt of men in doing what they have done. But there is glory in the consideration
that God is a gracious God and those for whom he has shed his
blood, he will bring with him. He loves them. What a glory and
what a wonderful thing it is to be able to know those things
that he has done in the behalf of his people and see them as
they are. Not just some historic event,
that took place, but that which is the very lifeblood of the
believer. I mean, nothing is more important
to the man who's fled to Christ for refuge than the glory of
Christ. I mean, that's the goal of his
mind and heart, of his desire before the Lord, is that Christ
might be magnified. And he takes great delight in
that. Can't help it. I'm going to continue on here
as we began there a few weeks, months ago in the book of 1 Timothy
in his letters to Timothy and continue here with his letter
to Titus, which follows right behind his second epistle to Timothy. We read there, it says, this
is in Titus 1, it says, 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 times 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. For this cause left I thee in
Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are
wanting, and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed
thee. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful
children, not accused of right or unruly. For a bishop must
be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon
angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy
lucre. But a lover of hospitality, a
lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast
the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able
by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and
vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision. whose
mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things
they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. One of themselves, even
a prophet of their own, said the Christians are all the way
liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true. Wherefore,
rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not
giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that
turn from the truth. Unto the pure all things are
pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing
pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess
that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable
and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. Now Paul begins his letter, as
he often does, to Timothy and to others, to the churches, speaking
of himself as a servant of God. And every man who by the grace
of God has been called out of darkness into the light, uh... sees servitude to the lord not
as a bad thing now you know we don't want to be the servant
of anybody there's there's a bad connotation that goes along with
being a servant I'm not going to be a servant uh... that was
the thing that the mind set that caused uh... the american revolution
uh... as men said we're not going to
serve a king who doesn't pay attention to us who would not
have our best interest in mind. We're not gonna be his slave.
We're not gonna bow unto him. So there is that connotation
of servitude, which is contrary to the mindset of men. Nobody
wants to be somebody's servant. The Lord said, however, to his
disciples, he said, if a man would be great in the kingdom
of God, then let him be the servant of all. And so that is, the Lord
would contrast the mindset of serving someone as being a lowering
of oneself to the blessing of being able to serve someone. And see, that's the mindset that
the Lord gives to His children. in their servitude to the Lord. We're not serving Him as those
who are bowed down under some heavy load with a taskmaster
as the Hebrews served the Egyptians and had this tale of bricks that
they had the number of bricks they had to make each day and
this heavy load was laid upon them. That's not the picture.
We don't serve the Lord because it's a requirement. We serve
the Lord because we delight in it. We want to. Moses, in the works of Moses,
in the law that the Lord gave to Moses, was about a man who,
after a certain number of years, The servants, usually what they
were indentured servants or slaves of one type or other, I believe
it was after seven years, somebody can correct me if that's not
right, but after that period of time, that if a servant had
grown to the place where he loved his master so much that he did
not want to go out from his master. He was set free, but he didn't
want to go out. Then they would take him, it
said, to the doorpost and they'd take an awl, pointed instrument
like an ice pick sort of, and they'd pierce his ear and put
a ring in it. And then he would be that man's
bond slave from then on. Not because he had to, but because
that marked the fact that he wanted to serve his master. That was his delight. That was
the thing that fulfilled his life. And so when Paul says that
he's a servant of God, he's not saying, well, I got to serve
God. I mean, that's kind of, when I was a kid, And they used
to, you know, lay guilt trips on us about things we ought to
be doing, you know, to serve God. You need to be serving God. And that was always about how
I looked at it. You know, well, you know, this
is not something I really want to do. But that's not the servitude
Paul's speaking about. He's not speaking about serving
God as if it's some burden, but he's saying, I'm a servant of
God, a servant of the most high God. I mean, here I am, but David
said he'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than dwell
in the tents of wickedness. And so it is, that's the place
that God calls his people to, a delight. I mean, why? We're not made to, some people
look at coming to church, well, we gotta go to church, you know.
We don't really want to, but we're going to, because we ought
to. Well, you know, all of us have that from time to time,
don't we? I mean, anybody could be telling a lie if they say
every time that, you know, they're just ready to meet together with
God's people. You remember that song we sing
sometimes, says sometimes we want to stay home, but sometimes
When we actually do come together, we realize why we came and we're
delighted in it. So the flesh is weak. We're not
saying that everybody wants to always do the things they ought
to do, because the flesh certainly does not. we do delight that
we can be called the servants of God. And the servants of one
another. See, that's the thing that the
Lord has brought us together, to be servants one of the other. Not lording ourselves over one
another, but each man esteeming the other better than themselves. Now that's true love, is it not?
When we consider the benefits of others above our own. bear
ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
And so it is that Paul says, I'm a servant of God in all the
things that that entails, which is to be a servant of the people
of God, is to be a servant of God in that he would desire to
do whatever the Lord would have him to do without quibbling about
it or arguing about it. Now Jonah, he's a good example
of somebody who was a servant of God, wasn't he? Because he
couldn't help it. I mean, the Lord sent him to
Nineveh, and he went by a way that he didn't like, and he didn't
like it once he got there. And once he did what the Lord
told him to do, and he saw the results, he still wasn't happy
about it. Because he said, Lord, I knew if I went down there and
preached that you was gonna give these people repentance. And
he said, sure enough, you did. And he says, I don't like it. But a servant of God is one who
goes about that gladly. and whatever that entails. But it is a glad thing, and so
it is. Paul, a servant of God, and an
apostle of Jesus Christ. Now, I believe that there are
12 apostles spoken of in the scriptures. Don't think there's
an ongoing apostleship. I believe that these guys that
go around claiming to be apostles in the present day are false
apostles. because there's twelve apostles.
There were twelve that walked with the Lord during his earthly
ministry. One of them, as the scripture
tells us, was a devil. And he was ordained unto the
end that the Lord used him for. And his apostleship ended. Paul
was one who was born out of due time. He was one who was called
to be an apostle. and uh... i believe that that
makes up the apostles and when the apostles died the era and
the power that resided in the apostles died with them and uh... but that was for good reason
because uh... you know when when uh... men
like to look to other men i mean this is the way the flesh is
and religion all religions are like this you know there's a
head man Every false religion has a head
man. But the true religion of Christ,
it does have a head man, but he's not walking among us at
the present time. He sent us a comforter in his
place because he's not with us in the flesh. Our head man is
Christ. Christ is the head of the church.
He's the head of every believer. And we don't seek another. And
so it is that the apostles passed. There was a purpose for them
and a time for them. And the Lord raised them up and
He used them. And He made them the foundational teachers of
the truth of God. And when that era was done, He
was done with their work was done. And so it is that now we
are not waiting on the apostles, but we look at that which the
apostles taught us. And I believe that the greatest
of the apostles was Paul. because he's the one really basically
most of the doctrinal truth that we know concerning the gospel
of Jesus Christ is taught to us by Paul. And the Lord raised
him up for that. It wasn't that Paul was, I mean
the Lord could use anybody he wants to. He chose to use the
apostle Paul. And so it is that he says here,
an apostle of Jesus Christ. He was not ashamed of that. He
didn't claim it. See, a lot of people claim, come
along and they say, well, I'm a prophet. You know, I'm an apostle. I'm a bishop. I'm a this, I'm
a that. And they come telling you what
they are. Well, Paul didn't come announcing what he was in order
that you might be in awe of him, but he's just telling the fact
of what God made him to be. He wasn't any more worthy to
be an apostle than anybody else was, but the Lord made him one.
Not because of what he was or who he was, but because the Lord
chose to do that. And that's the way He raises
up men that He uses in the present time. The Lord doesn't go around
looking for somebody that's able to do something. He raises up
men who are able to do something. He makes them able in His own
time, according to His own purpose. And so it is that He says, I'm
an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect. Now what is the faith of God's
elect? Or I might say, who is the faith of God's elect? Christ. Christ is the faith of God's
elect. I mean, He's that one in whom
our confidence is built. Our faith is not in what we've
done, it's not in what we think, it's not in what we believe in
our mind. See, we live in an age when it
is on every corner, men telling you, well, you just gotta believe.
I mean, if you believe strong enough, you know it'll come to
pass. That's not the faith of God's elect, that's the faith
of men's imagination. Faith of God's elect is Christ. Because it's Christ is our hope.
Christ is that in what we trust. I mean, we have no other, as
Peter said, Lord to whom shall we go, thou hast the words of
eternal life. He's our faith. And so he says,
according to the faith of God's elect. Now, we never, As you are quite aware, we never
shy away from considering the elect of God as being those whom
the Lord has chosen according to the good pleasure of His will.
Now, the only people that get upset about God having elect
people are those that are rebels against God. I mean, that's just
the way that it is, because the Lord said that He could make
one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor as it pleased Him. And who can say anything about
that? I mean, why would we say anything about that? I mean,
do we not believe He's a sovereign God? If He is, then if He says
He has an elect people, then we bow down before Him. And we
say, thank you, Lord, that you do. Because, you know, men think
that if God didn't have to elect people, they'd be better off.
Isn't that what they think? Because they think, well, you
know, if God doesn't have to elect people, then it's all up
to us. We can just do whatever we want
to do. Well, brethren, if the Lord left
your salvation up to you, you'd be in bad trouble. Because you'd
never be saved. Because your heart's hard. Your
mind is set against the way of God by nature. You won't be persuaded. Like that song we sang there
a moment ago. I mean, your heart will not break
at the things that Christ underwent unless the Lord breaks your heart
about it. Because you see, men can look
at what Christ did and just pass it off. They don't have any concern
about it. It doesn't cause them to weep
when they think about the fact that Christ died for sinners.
But you see those in whom the grace of God is visited, the
elect of God, they look on these things and their heart is broken
by it. Because they see themselves as
sinners before a holy God and they tremble. And they think,
how can it be so that Christ would love us in such fashion
to die for us? The elect of God. God's elect. The faith of God's elect. What
is the faith of God's elect? It's Christ. How can you know
who the elect of God are? Because all they want to give
glory to is Christ. When they're awakened and brought
out of darkness and into the light. Now you see, Paul was
one of the elect, was he not? But he didn't, he wasn't born
praising Christ. He didn't come to adulthood praising
Christ. He was against Christ, was he
not? But in such time as it pleased the Lord to open his eyes on
the road to Damascus and show him who the Lord was, then he
bowed down before the Lord and he said, oh Lord, who art thou? And the Lord calls out his elect. He says, according to the faith
of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth, which is after
godliness. Now with the mouth, confession
is made unto salvation. Because you see, the Lord calls
a man and then He fills a man's heart and mouth with the desire
to confess Christ. Then he might be known to be
the follower of Christ. There are those that say, well,
I want to remain as an anonymous believer. No such thing. You know, no such thing. To know
Christ is to confess Christ. To believe Christ is to confess
Christ. And the Lord has given a very
plain, as far as I can see, manner in which men confess Christ before
other men. It's called baptism. Now when
a man makes confession with his mouth, he makes confession with
his whole being, and the Lord said that we ought to be baptized. And so that a man who confesses
Christ desires to be so. Why would he not? I mean, why
would a man object to that? If the Lord, the one whom he
says he wants to serve, that he loves his way, why would he
have an objection to it? I don't understand it. It's always
been a puzzlement to me. And so it is, that this is to
the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness. This
is the acceptable form that the Lord would have, according to
godliness. Now, often men try to come up
with ways that they can be godly. And they think this is godly,
and that's godly, and they design various ideas and things that
they will do. The scripture says that all of
our righteousnesses, those things that we go about to do, are filthy
rags inside of God. There's one righteousness, one
godliness, which is pleasing in the Lord's eyes, and that
is the godliness of Jesus Christ. Oh, that he might make that to
be the desire of our heart, that we might be found to be in him
as godly men walking according to the truth that he has taught
us in hope of eternal life, which God cannot lie a promise before
the world began, in hope of eternal life. Now, there's not a man
alive, well, I can't say that, but most people, I'll put it
that way, they won't live forever, don't they? Nobody, by and large,
wants to die. I mean, even a lot of times,
people that commit suicide and whatnot, they don't really want
to die. They just want to be rid of their trouble. You know,
because they think that by doing that, they'll be free. Because
that's what men want to do. See, we want to be free to do
whatever we want to do. And so it is that That's not
the hope of eternal life, however. Because, you know, a man that
he thinks that heaven is going to be a place where he can go
do all the things that he wanted to do in this life, but he never
got the chance to do it. You know, he wants to just keep
on doing all the things that he likes to do, and he thinks
that's wonderful. That's not the hope of eternal
life. Because, you see, when a man is brought out of darkness
and into the light, he knows that life is more than what he
sees in this world. See, life is that which is built
upon those things that don't pass away. All that's in this
world is temporal. Everything that you look around
this room and see is temporary. I mean, everything you see, the
scripture says that the elements are gonna melt with fervent heat.
I mean, there's gonna be everything you see and know about in this
world is going away. Now that's disconcerting to a
man that wants what this world has to offer, is it not? But
the man who has a hope of eternal life. See, our hope is not just,
well, you know, maybe it'll be so. See, a lot of people hope
that everything will be all right when they die. A lot of people
hope that, some people even hope that they're one of the elect.
That's not the hope of eternal life. The hope of eternal life
is Christ. He is our hope. He's that one
in whom all of our confidence is placed. He's that one, you
know, if I'm gonna stand before the Lord and be received into
His presence, my hope is Christ. My hope is that He will stand
in my place. That is my hope. And so it is,
Paul says, in hope of eternal life. But he said, this isn't
something that men made up. This isn't just a natural consideration
that we want to live on without dying. I mean, every man wants
to take one more breath, does he not? I mean, that last breath
is not the last one we're hoping for. You know, we want one more
after that last one. But that's not the hope of eternal
life. The hope of eternal life, it says, which God that cannot
lie promised before the world began. Now you didn't know about
it, did you? I mean, you weren't there. He promised it before the world
began because it was in his purpose to give eternal life to as many
as he gave to his son in the current covenant of redemption
according to the good pleasure of his will. And it says, in
hope of eternal life. That's the life we want. See,
we don't want a life that we came up with, do we? I mean,
I don't want a life that began because of something I did. I
want a life that's more than that. I want a life that began
before me. Christ, who is our life. See,
He is our life. He is life. And our eternal life
is found in Him, which God that cannot lie. That's an interesting
thought. You know, God can do all things,
can't He? Sure He can. And when the scripture
speaks about God who cannot lie, it's not speaking about He's
limited in some way. Well, you know, He can do everything,
but He can't lie. I got him. There's one thing
he can't do. I remember one time an old man
that I used to work with years ago, and I was a young believer,
and he would see me at lunchtime. I'd take my Bible and sit there
and read my Bible during lunchtime a lot of times. And he'd see
that and he'd ask me, hey, you believe that stuff, you know,
and all this? And he said, you believe God can do everything?
And I said, well, yes, sir, I believe I do. He said, well, do you believe
God can throw a butt-headed cow over the fence by the horns?
And he just laughed, you know, he thought, buddy, he had it.
And I said, well, I don't know. I said, but I believe he can.
Because, you see, men try to limit God according to their
understanding of things. And when the scripture says,
God who cannot lie, it doesn't mean he lacks the ability to
do anything, but it means that he will not lie. He cannot lie
because he will not lie. See, he is the embodiment of
truth. It's not that some cosmic force prevents him from lying. He cannot lie because he will
not lie. And we can trust those things
that he says. He can do whatever he wants to
do, but what he wants to do is to bring his people out of darkness
and into the light that they might rejoice in the redemption
that's found in Jesus Christ. That's his purpose. That's the
reason why he sent the gospel into the world. You realize that
he could have chosen a people in Christ and brought them to
eternal life when they died without ever letting them know anything
about it. He could have done that. That's not what he chose
to do. Thank God. But he chose to make
his salvation known unto his people through the gospel of
Jesus Christ. What a glorious thing. Brethren,
we are such a privileged people to live in a world, in a time
when the gospel is declared openly and clearly. See, the scripture
speaks about those that died in faith not having seen the
promises. Now they confessed that they
were strangers and pilgrims in the earth, but they didn't see
it. Brethren, we are blessed because we have seen the salvation
of God. Just like Zechariah when he held
that baby on the day of his circumcision and he held it and he says, my
eyes have seen the salvation of God. How'd he know that? Huh? How'd he know it? God showed
it to him, that's why. He was blessed because he saw
the promise of God fulfilled. And dear brethren, we've seen
even more clearly than Zechariah because we have seen the unfolded
purpose of the Lord to go to walk among men as a pure and
steadfast adherer to the law of God without one jot or one
tittle passing from him or before him without his fulfillment of
it. And we have seen Him stand before
men and declare the Word of God truly. And we have seen Him go
to Calvary's cross. We have seen Him pour out His
life's blood in the behalf of sinners. We've seen Him agonize
in the garden in the behalf of those whom He loved. We've seen
that. We know that. It's right here
before us. These things were unfolded. They
were written before us. They were testified to us by
men and also by the Spirit of God as He has taken that Word
which He gave to those men and He's applied it to our heart
and mind and we believe it. And He's shown us the truth and
we rejoice. God who cannot lie promised before
the world began. All of these things have come
to pass and we have seen them. What a glorious salvation there
is in Christ. Hath in these due times manifested
his word through preaching. He didn't have to. You know,
preachers, a lot of preachers, they think that's really important.
I mean, they think they're really important. Preachers are a dime a dozen.
I mean, the Lord can raise up stone from the ground to preach
if he wanted to. And because a man is given a
gift of preaching, it doesn't set him apart or make him anything
different than anybody else, except that the Lord is pleased
to use that. But let me tell you this, when
the Lord is pleased to send forth His Word through preaching, nothing
can stand against it. You see, those who are ordained
to eternal life will believe it. How do we know that? I mean,
look at the day of Pentecost. Peter stood up before that great
crowd, a multitude of Jews. I don't know how many were there.
There was a bunch of them there. And he testified of the gospel
of the grace of God. He testified of Christ dying
for sinners. And the scripture says that 3,000
men believed. 3,000. That wasn't all that was
there. But 3,000 did. Why did those
3,000 believe? Because God opened their mind
and heart to believe. They said, what must we do to
be saved? Oh, we need a Savior. We need
this Savior, the one you spoke about. Tell us. All hell can't stand against
the gospel when the Lord sends it forth with power. Can't be
resisted. I remember back years ago when
Brother Curtis, all of us, was coming to have some greater understanding
of the of the gospel. And one of his objections about
what we were saying was that he said, well, you know what?
You can bring a cow up to a gate, but you can't make him go through
it. And I know we laughed about that later on, but when the Lord
opened his eyes, he understood the Lord. When the Lord brings
a cow up to the gate and he opens the gate, the cow's going through
the gate. Because it ain't up to the cow. It's up to the one
that called the cow. Oh, what a glorious Savior He
is. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. What a glorious thing. You see,
that's the gospel which is committed unto me according to the commandment
of God our Savior. And lest any should despair,
who find themselves desiring a Savior, and finding it hard
to believe that they could be numbered among those whom the
Lord would call, He said, In him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. So the gospel is a message for
sinners, The gospel's a message for those
that need a Savior. The gospel's a message for those
that have no hope within themselves. He is the Savior of sinners,
and He'll save those that call upon His name. You know, if I
could somehow or other cause every man in the world to call
upon His name, I would do it, but I can't. He didn't call me
to do that. He could do that if it pleased
Him. It hasn't pleased Him to do it. But it has pleased Him
to send forth the Gospel through preaching. And it has pleased
Him to call men that they might believe the Word of God that's
declared in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May He do so with us.
May He give us an ear to hear and a heart to believe it.