Salvation Summed up in 3 Words

Q: What does the Bible say about salvation?

The Bible teaches that salvation is a work of God, not based on our works, but on His mercy and grace. The Bible clearly states that salvation begins with God and is entirely a work of His grace. In Titus 3:5, we see that we are saved not by works of righteousness, but according to His mercy. This doctrine emphasizes that human effort cannot contribute to our salvation, as we are inherently sinful and unable to save ourselves. God's love and kindness appeared in Christ, which is the foundation of our salvation. For instance, in Luke 15:3-7, the shepherd goes to find the lost sheep, illustrating that it is God who seeks and saves the lost, confirming that salvation is solely initiated by Him.

Q: How do we know God's grace is sufficient for salvation?

We know God's grace is sufficient as it guarantees our complete forgiveness and reconciliation to Him through Christ. God's grace is sufficient for salvation, as highlighted in Ephesians 2:8-9, which underscores that we are saved by grace through faith, not of our works. This grace is complete, offering total forgiveness for our sins and undoing the enmity caused by our rebellion against God. Moreover, in Titus 3:7, we are reminded that being justified by His grace makes us heirs according to the hope of eternal life. We see that grace not only initiates salvation but also carries us through our entire Christian journey, demonstrating that we are fully reliant on God's favor and mercy rather than our own merit.

Q: Why is Jesus's atonement crucial for our salvation?

Jesus's atonement is vital because it pays the penalty for our sins and provides reconciliation with God. The atonement of Jesus Christ is crucial for our salvation because it satisfies God's justice by bearing the penalty for our sins. In 1 Corinthians 15:3, we learn that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, fulfilling the sacrificial system established in the Old Testament. His blood serves as the perfect sacrifice that cleanses us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:7) and restores our relationship with God. Through His vicarious suffering and death, we are not only forgiven but also made whole, allowing us to be reconciled with the Father and to become heirs of His eternal promise as stated in Titus 3:7.

Q: What is the role of faith in salvation?

Faith is essential in salvation as it is the means by which we accept God's grace and His work on our behalf. Faith plays a critical role in our salvation, serving as the channel through which we receive God's grace. Ephesians 2:8-9 emphasizes that we are saved by grace through faith, indicating that faith is not a work we perform to earn salvation, but a response to God's initiative. Our belief in Christ's finished work on the cross allows us to accept the gifts of forgiveness and righteousness freely offered to us. Thus, while salvation is entirely of God's doing, faith is the necessary response that opens our hearts to receive the transformative power of His redemption. Faith, therefore, is deeply personal and reflects our trust in God's promises and His character.

Q: What does it mean that salvation is all of grace?

Salvation being all of grace means it is entirely a gift from God, not based on our efforts or worth. The phrase 'salvation is all of grace' encapsulates the Reformed understanding of salvation as being entirely the work of God. Romans 11:6 makes it clear that if salvation were based on works, it would no longer be grace. This principle highlights that our righteousness is like filthy rags before a holy God (Isaiah 64:6) and emphasizes our total dependence on His mercy. Grace is unmerited favor; thus, no action on our part can earn or contribute to our salvation. God's grace forgives our sins, justifies us, and makes us heirs of eternal life, highlighting that our relationship with Him is not grounded in our efforts, but solely in His loving kindness.

So that's where we will be at this morning is in Titus 3 and in the first six verses. But before we look at that particular, a particular verse there, I'm gonna read to you out of 2 Corinthians 11, verses one through three. This is from Paul to the church at Corinth.

Would to God you would bear with me a little in my folly and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste version to Christ. But I fear, but I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity, and that word is singleness, that is in Christ. That's my concern as well.

Though when I leave this pulpit, I was telling Bruce the other day, whoever fills this, whether it's Bruce or Matt or Nathan, I don't have to worry. I'll always listen to them. I'll come back, listen to them, put them up on sermon audio. But I don't have to worry about major doctrinal errors, which we have seen this in grace churches and the Lord splits the church because the young guys thought they knew more and one particular instance, he disagreed with the pastor and then waited until the pastor left and then started, and then that split that church. I don't have to worry about that and I am thankful.

I think we stick with the simplicity that's in Christ. Well, but it's, how can you, Find the depth of the riches and the fullness of Jesus Christ. How can you exhaust that? I'm not saying there's more, there's not more in here, deeper studies, but I'm saying if you have Christ, you truly do have all.

Okay, and then also, you don't have to turn, like I said, but in another passage, in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, He says in verses one through five, and I brethren, when I came to you, says Paul, who was, he talked about predestination. He talked about foreordination. He talked about God's providence and purpose. He talked about the deep things of God.

It wasn't milk, it was meat. But he says, I came not with excellency of speech or wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God, the gospel. For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Really? You've been your pastor here 30-something years and that's, yes, that's what I'm going to stick to because that's safe for me and safe for you. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of the power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. That's my desire, is to preach continually And as Maurice Montgomery said, if you can get tired of the gospel, then you haven't heard the gospel. If you can get tired of the excellencies of Christ, his shed blood, the guilty, the innocent for the guilty, if you can get tired of the same old story, then you need to examine yourself to see if you be in the faith. We are to preach the simplicity, the singleness of Christ. Therefore, it is of necessity that I do not overcomplicate the gospel message or the work of Christ to sinners.

And I remember this, and I was talking to somebody about this the other day, when I was in college and was doing interpretive work, we had to go to Knob Noster State Park in Missouri, and then all the naturalists and the head naturalists of the state of Missouri, we all came together.

And we had a two-week crash course. One guy was a specialist in geology. One guy was a specialist in ornithology, birds, entomology, insects. And I loved it. It was so much fun. We just went into it. The last thing I remember is George Kessler. Wonderful guy.

He was the head naturalist over the state of all Missouri. He stood up and he said, before you go to your respective parks, remember two things. The average, and this is a long time ago, he said, the average intelligence of the American is seventh grade. He said, so start, if you don't know where to start, unless you've got a bunch of older folks, start at seventh grade and go up or down. And he said, the average attention span is 15 minutes.

So, that's simple, but that's okay. That's okay, I can stay out of trouble if it's that simple. So, we state this glorious truth as plainly and simply as we can. So this is the title of today's message, and now we're going to Titus. Let's look at the first six verses. Titus chapter 3, 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, Be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves were also sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers' lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another." That's what we were by nature.

But after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. In the midst of that, He appeared. Here's our verse, chapter five, or verse five. 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. The gospel Well, we'll look at our text, the message, salvation summed up in three words. Three words. And found in the lower part of the middle of verse five, he saved us. That's it, he saved us. He saved us. First, he.

Salvation begins with God. He said, mom, dad, whoever, where do I start reading? Where do I begin with? You begin with God. You begin with God. He saved us. Salvation begins with God. This verse points to the one God our Savior, the Lord of heaven and earth, the only wise God, sovereign, holy, potentate, and ruler over all, He. You start with salvation there. You start with Him. He's eternal, therefore salvation is everlasting, without end, and ultimately honors the one who initiates it. He saved us.

We weren't looking for Him. We weren't searching for Him. And it's emphatically not started by man. Salvation is emphatically not started by man. But as Jonah stated, salvation is of the Lord. God's salvation is distinctly set apart from man's own works or worth or human center salvation. It's distinctly set apart. Look at verse seven in our text, in our chapter of Titus. That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Being justified by his grace. It's all of grace and no more works, Romans 11. If it's works, it's no more grace. If it's grace, it's no more works. It's oil and water.

You can't mix the two, which is what modern-day religion tries to do every time somebody comes up and speaks the false gospel. They start with man, and they may start with God, and then man's involved in all these different things. Salvation, It's all of grace.

God in his infinite mercy and free grace sought out his wandering and lost sheep. And it is he that carries us. You don't have to turn there, but in Luke 15, the parable of the 99, that lost sheep, it says he goes and finds it. The sheep wasn't seeking the shepherd. He goes and finds it, and when he finds it, puts it on his shoulders, and carries it back to the fold. That's Luke 15, verse three through seven.

It was God who initiated the whole of the work of renewal and created those, Ezekiel 37, those very dry bones. You know, Ezekiel goes out to this valley and there's just bones and they're very dry. And the Lord's asked the prophet, can these bones live? And he said, you know, Again, he started with God. You know. And he said, preach to them. Prophesy.

So I did that. And stuff started to happen, but there was no life. And a lot of times religion, it'll shake the bones and people act like they've done something, but it's only until the Spirit, like in the creation, the Spirit went over chaos. Nothing. The Spirit breathed life into those bones, And they rose up a great army. Oh, wouldn't it be, this is an army, this is a little platoon here. Wouldn't it be nice to see an army in Jackson, Missouri? Your friends, your neighbors?

He, he, we're starting with God. He states this in this holy text. He, he, he is the author and finisher of our faith, Hebrews 12. Think on this, think on this last statement for this first point. The one most offended by our sins is the one who provided the remedy. Let me re-read that. The one most offended by our sins is the one who provided the remedy. Secondly, saved. He saved us. Saved. The word here is delivered.

It's protection and I like this third they amplified, to make whole. To make whole. See, we were born whole, or I'm sorry, we were created whole, and when Adam died, we all died. So we are born in trespasses and sins, we're born not whole, by way of God's looking at it. We were made whole, He, the Lord God, omnipotent, who rules and reigns, who speaks in the world's work.

He saved, he delivered, he protects, he makes whole. He rescued us from ourselves, from the wrath to come and the penalty of sin and eternal damnation. He's the one that saved us. Salvation is not a minor adjustment to our character, our nature, but it's a radical deliverance from guilt and the second death. The guilt and the second death. Turn to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 15. Well, verse 14, but now in Christ, who saved us, we're speaking of Christ, He's our peace, verse 14. Verse 15, He's abolished in His flesh the enmity or hate Even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace."

We're new creatures. We're new men. Yes, the old man is still there. And like Lynn and I, we've talked about this before at, was it Abraham's funeral? The two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, that's the flesh and the spirit, which is in Galatians, it's pretty clear there. They were both there. So it's only after death that we get rid of the old man.

But we are new men, so making peace. And then Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3 and verse 10. Put on the new man, Colossians 3.10.

Put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image, the image, the image of him that created him. The image. And you can turn, you don't have to turn, but you can look sometime when you get home. Talks about we're new creatures in Christ, old things have passed away. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17. So I ask you, He, the Lord God, only Lord, only God, saved or delivered, made us whole.

Well, what's the cause? Well, back in our text, not by works of righteousness. That's the emphatic not. What's the cause? Not, that word not is no, it's an absolute negative. Absolute negative. There's no amount of good works or religious rituals or moral effort can ever satisfy God's demand or earn this deliverance. Can't be done.

We're born in the whole. We're not like this country, we're innocent until proven guilty. We are guilty, period. That's the pronouncement of death upon us. In Adam we all die. We're guilty until made made innocent. We are fully pardoned, said saved, fully pardoned, fully forgiven, totally redeemed by the pure blood and righteousness of our beloved.

Or said another way, we're clothed from head to toe in his garments. They're white and without blemish. But now in us, it says, We have open sores and they weren't mollified. I can't remember where that's in the Old Testament. We weren't mollified. They're open sores. That's what we are. But He covers us. We're like that prodigal. Put on the best robe. Put on the best robe. The best, the ring. The ring? And kill the fatted calf. Best, best, best. There's no better. There's no better righteousness. We have no better clothing. We are married, espoused to Christ. Thirdly, first we saw the one who's doing this work, how he did it. He saved us. And lastly, us.

Salvation is most personal. It's not as it comes. It comes by the Holy Spirit's convincing. It's not theoretical. I think Matt said something about that. It's not theoretical. Hmm. Let's hear of salvation today. Let's talk about it and then let's go home. Let's leave the church stuff at church and let's go out into the world and just enjoy it. No. It's not theoretical. It's not aloof.

But it opens the heart of hearts, it transforms, it softens, the stony heart is removed, and now it beats after the God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. Because He, and I could have said the Trinity, saved, delivered us. What about you? What about me this morning? Your parents can't be saved for you. You can't be saved for your parents. You can't do this. It totally relies on the work and worth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he says, us, who is this? I gotta ask this, who is this? Well, they're called sinners, unworthy, unwise, without hope, without God in this world. They're hell-deserving wretches, that's what we are, rebels, and strangers and there's a lot more I could have used but these are just some. This is the us. Yet these same people are brought nigh by the blood and of the reigning Lamb of God. Turn with me to Revelation 7. I like how this is worded. Revelation chapter 7. Verse 14. Well, let's look at verse 13.

And one of the elders answered and saying unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? And I said unto him, sir, I knowest. And he said to me, these are they which come out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

That's our hope. This free gift is to be adored and admired. Therefore, he gets all the glory and honor. Do his precious name. Us, he saved us, those whose lives are not our own, but were reconciled, purchased with blood, and that at a costly price. And if you want to look at, you don't have to turn there, 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20, it says we're bought with a price, we're not our own.

There are certain things, if we could just remember, when we get up in the morning and give thanks to our Lord for another day of life, and just say, I'm not my own. What would you have me to do? I'm not my own. What can I do to promote your gospel, to spread your gospel, to be kind to a neighbor, a friend, a believer, an unbeliever? We are not our own. And we have to be reminded, because the old nature says, me, give me, give me, give me. So I close in summation. These three words contain the depth of gospel truth. The source, he, the act, saved, and the objects, us. It's very simple, but I like it that way.

Let us then go forth in humble gratitude. Let us detest Arrogant pride, but let us follow him in renewed praise and thankfulness and live daily as the apostles by our master's side, knowing he did for us what we could never do for ourselves. Again, we know he did for us what we could never do for ourselves.

That's a direct quote from Mr. Spurgeon, and that's a good one to finish on. Thankful for Mother's Day, you better believe it. Thankful for Father's Day, that's coming up, you better believe it. But thankful to God for this great grace that he has given us in his son.

And like we were talking, Matt and I were talking back there, he did it voluntarily. Who does that? Who does something without pay? Not in this country. Who does something without recognition? Who goes as a lamb to the slaughter? Who opens not their mouth when they know they're right? We always do. He didn't justify himself. He submitted to him who judges righteously. May we do the same. Bruce, would you close this?

Salvation Summed up in 3 Words

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about salvation?

How do we know God's grace is sufficient for salvation?

Why is Jesus's atonement crucial for our salvation?

What is the role of faith in salvation?

What does it mean that salvation is all of grace?

Sermon Transcript

About Drew Dietz

Comments

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Salvation Summed up in 3 Words

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about salvation?

How do we know God's grace is sufficient for salvation?

Why is Jesus's atonement crucial for our salvation?

What is the role of faith in salvation?

What does it mean that salvation is all of grace?

Sermon Transcript

About Drew Dietz

Comments

More from Drew Dietz

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Drew Dietz

Suggested for You

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book