If you would open your Bibles
with me to the book of Titus, Titus chapter three. As you're
turning, I have a couple of announcements. I'll put this in the bulletin
next Sunday, Lord willing, but on Friday, December the 10th,
we're gonna have a church Christmas party at Gary and Janie Holbach's
house. Starts at six o'clock, and we'll
really look forward to that. So try to mark your calendars,
and I'll put that in the bulletin. next week to help us remember.
Also Wednesday, I always like to do this on the Wednesday right
before Thanksgiving. We'll observe the Lord's table
in a special treat. Brother John Chapman is going
to be in town. He's going to preach for us on that night.
So we look forward to that. All right, Titus chapter three.
We'll read the first nine verses. 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
diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful
and hating one another. But after that the kindness and
love of God our Savior toward man appears, not by works of
righteousness, which we've 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. This is a faithful saying, and
these things I will that thou affirm constantly. that they
which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.
These things are good and profitable unto men. But avoid foolish questions,
and genealogies, and contentions, and striving about the law, for
they are unprofitable in vain. All right, let's stand together
as Isaac leads us in singing our call to worship. The blood of Christ, thy spotless
Lamb, O God, is all my plea. I have not merit of my own which
I can bring to Thee. O sacrifice, save His who bore
my sins upon the tree! No other plea which lips could
speak could intercede for me. O wondrous cross, O precious
blood, O death by which I live! The sinless one, nor be made
sin, eternal life to give. By that blessed cross, that cleansing
blood, I know His power to save. I stand in Him completely. Be blessed, O conqueror of the
grave. Be Thou my vision, O Lord, and
my heart, Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art, Thou
my best thought by day or by night. Waking or sleeping, Thy
presence my light. Be Thou my wisdom and Thou my
true word, I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord. Thou my great Father, I Thy true
Son. Thou in me dwelling, and I with
Thee one. Riches I heed not, nor man's
empty praise. Thou mine inheritance, now and
always. Thou and Thou only. my heart my king of heaven my
treasure thou art my king of heaven my victory won Heaven's joys, O bright heaven's
sun, Heart of my own heart, whatever befall, Still be my vision, O
ruler of all. Open our Bibles to Ephesians
chapter 2. Read the first 10 verses of Ephesians
2. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. wherein in times past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
you're saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. that in the ages
to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained,
we should walk in them. Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Our God and Father in heaven,
we thank Thee for this Thy word. Lord, we thank Thee that salvation
is of the Lord, that it's by Thy grace. Lord, how we thank You for our
Savior. the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, bless us to know him. Bless
us to rest in him and all things. Lord, again, we thank you for
this opportunity to gather together as a people. We're thankful that
you brought us here this morning. And Lord, we pray that you would
bless us as we've gathered together. Lord, we thank you for our pastor.
And Lord, we pray that you would Lord, bless him as he stands
in this place. Lord, take that which you've
laid upon his heart, that which he's studied and prepared, and
Lord, bless him. Lord, enable him to speak freely
to us. Lord, cause us to hear not just
the words of a man. Lord, that you would be pleased
to speak through your servant here this morning. And Lord,
give us a hearing ear. Lord, set aside the thoughts
and cares of this life, those things that so easily beset us. Lord, let us see Christ. Let
us worship him. And may, Lord, all that's said
and done in this place be for thy glory. Lord, that you would
get glory to your name here this morning. Again, we thank you
for your many blessings. Pray again for your presence
here this morning. Bless us with your presence.
Lord, forgive us our sin. We pray these things for Christ's
sake. would sing with me on the course
once my soul was astray from the heavenly way and was wretched and vile as
could be. But my Savior in love gave me
peace from above when He reached down His hand for me. When Christ Jesus reached down
for me When He reached way down for
me I was lost and undone Without
God's precious Son when he reached down his hand for me. I was near to despair when he
came to me there. And he showed me that I could
be Then He lifted my feet and gave
me gladness complete When He reached down His hand for me
When Christ Jesus reached down for me I was lost and undone without
God's precious Son when He reached down His hand for me. How my heart does rejoice when
I hear His sweet voice. In the tempest to Him I then
flee, there to lean on His arms, safe, secure, from all harm since
he reached down his hand for me when Christ Jesus reached
down for me when he reached way down for I was lost and undone without
God's precious Son When He reached down His hand for me I was lost and undone Without
God's precious Son When He reached down His hand Aren't you thankful the Lord's
arm's not shortened? Oh, my. Alright, open your Bibles
with me again if you would to Titus 3. This morning, I want us to look at
six vital truths. These truths are so vital, they're
so central to the Gospel, that it is impossible to preach the
Gospel, and it's impossible to believe the Gospel. unless we
preach and believe these six truths. They're simple, but they're
vital. And I pray that we'll all pay
very close attention and Holy Spirit will enable us to believe
and to cling to these truths. The first vital truth that we
have in our text is found all throughout scripture is this,
man's total depravity. When Adam sinned in the garden,
Every son of Adam sinned in him. We're all made sinners in Adam. And we're all born with a sin
nature, the nature of Adam. So that everything that we do
is sin. I'll tell you what that means.
That you and I can't do anything to earn salvation. We can't earn
salvation and righteousness by our sinful works. We can't even
do anything to get God to save us. because everything that we
do is sin. Look here at verse one of Titus
chapter three. Put them in mind to be subject to principalities
and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work. I wonder why Paul says put them
in mind to be that, to be subject, to be obedient citizens, to obey
the powers that be. I wonder why he has to tell Timothy,
put people you preach to mind of that. I wonder why he has
to say that. because we're rebellious sinners, that's why. That's exactly
why. Verse two, to speak evil of no
man. Now put them in mind to this, to speak evil of no man,
to be no brawlers, but be gentle, showing all meekness unto all
men. Now why shouldn't believers vilify and make fun of, just
be brawlers and mocking and just, why shouldn't believers vilify?
and just make fun of people who are in false religion. Why shouldn't we do that? Because
we got the same nature they do. We're born with the exact same
nature that they do. A depraved, sinful nature is
standard equipment with every son of Adam. Verse three, for
we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived,
serving divers lust and pleasure. living in malice and envy, hateful
and hating one another. That's the nature that every
person is born with, believer and unbeliever alike. When we
come into this world, that's the nature that we're born with.
It's a totally depraved nature. It's a sin nature that was ruined
in Adam when Adam sinned against God. Paul describes it as a foolish
nature. It's a nature that doesn't have
any spiritual understanding. It's a nature that has no spiritual
wisdom. It's a nature that's foolish
physically and naturally, those things too. That's why we gotta
teach our children, send them to school. We've got a foolish
nature, a nature that lacks wisdom. But we're talking about spiritually.
It's a spiritually foolish nature. It has no idea who God is. It has no idea who man is. We're
so foolish in our depravity and our sin, we think we're righteous.
We think we're good enough. It has no idea who God is or
who man is. It has absolutely no idea how
it is that God saves sinners. It's no wonder that people who
are in false religion do so many crazy, crazy things trying to
please God. It's because they have no understanding. Well, brethren, don't make fun
of them. Pity them. The only reason you and I are
not right with them, I mean leaders of the pack, is God's been merciful
and delivered us. Paul describes our fallen nature
as disobedient. Not only are we disobedient to
God's law, we're disobedient to God's remedy for sin. God
gave us the law to show us how sinful we are. We can't obey
it, we're disobedient. But then God showed us the remedy
for that sin, his son. And we're disobedient. We're
disobedient to believe him. By nature, no man will repent. No man will repent of his self-righteousness,
his own works, trying to earn his way to God. He will not bow
to Christ. Paul said he was heartbroken. His brethren did this, but we
all do it. We go about to establish our
own righteousness and we're disobedient. We refuse to submit. to the righteousness
of Christ. People are just doing their dead
level best to keep the law. They're so strict. They're legalists. Trying to
earn their way to God. They ignore the laws that they
think that they can't outwardly keep and just exalt the one that
they think that they can keep. They're legalists. But don't
make fun of them. Yeah, it's foolish. They're not working
their way to God, but don't make fun of them, pity them. The only
reason you and I aren't doing that very same thing is God's
grace. It's the only reason. Paul says
our fallen nature is deceived. It's deceived. We're easily deceived,
just like Eve, aren't we? But the word means to wander,
to wander. We've all wandered from God,
haven't we? We've wandered away from God because we're deceived
by sin. We're deceived by Satan. We're deceived by the trinkets
of man's religion. It's just glitter with no substance
to it. Y'all, I guess they're out of
style now, but did you ever used to, on your Christmas tree, have
those icicles, is what they're, icicles, aren't they? They might look pretty, but they're
nothing to them. There's nothing to them. We're
deceived by the trinkets of man's religion and by our own works.
But don't make fun of somebody that's out there in left field.
Yeah, they're dingbats, but don't make fun of them. Pity them. Pity them. We have the exact
same nature. And the only reason you and I
aren't out there in left field is God's kept us from it. That's
the only reason. Our nature, Paul says, serves
divers lusts and pleasures, all the different lusts and pleasures
of the flesh. And when we read that, most people
think of sexual sins and being out there, Brother Henry's talking
about being out there in the honky-tonks, you know. But I'll tell you the
worst, the worst of these divers lusts and pleasures of this flesh,
you don't wanna know what the very worst of it, is folks who
dress up in their Sunday best come sit in services just like
this one, trying to take some credit for their salvation. Hearing
a message and believing that message and chasing after that
message that takes some pleasure in working out their own righteousness,
their own salvation. It's the worst sin of all. Self-righteousness. The most vile sins that you can
think of. Something just went through your
mind, was vile sin, you think. That sin won't keep you from
Christ. That sin won't keep you from being saved. No, Christ
came to save sinners. His blood cleanses us from all
sin. You know the thing that will
keep us from Christ? It's the biggest lust of this flesh. Self-righteousness. That's the sin that keeps us
from Christ. Nothing brings more pleasure to this flesh than thinking
we're earning our way to God. You all know people that do it.
Don't make fun of them. Don't make fun of them. That
attitude bothers me. Don't make fun of them. I know
Elijah made fun of them at Mount Carmel, didn't he? You and I
aren't Elijah. Let it go. Don't pity him. The
only reason you and I are not right there is God's grace. He kept it. And I'm talking about
sitting under the sound of the gospel now. The only you can
you can I can tell you this from experience. You can hear the
gospel. You can know the gospel in your
head and be self-righteous as can be thinking that that being
under the sound of the gospel thing, knowing those doctrines
of grace saves you. Self-righteousness, it's self-righteousness. Paul describes our nature is
full of malice and envy. We hate God. We hate God. We're jealous of His glory. We
hate His crown rights to rule over us and do with us as He
pleases. We hate that. And we hate others. We're jealous of something somebody
else has that we don't. And I tell you, when we become
unforgiving and we become hypercritical of others, you know when we do
that? When we forget our own sin nature. That we're just like
them. That somebody out there ain't
doing something that I wouldn't do if God didn't keep me from
it. That's when we become so hateful and hypercritical. Now
that's our fallen, depraved nature. That's the nature every one of
us come into this world having. It ought to be obvious to us
that nature can never produce a righteousness canon. It can
never produce salvation. It can never produce something
that makes us, you know, where God has to save us. That's our
nature. But Paul says, verse four, but,
After that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward
man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we've 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. But, Paul says, that makes it
sound like there's some hope for sinners, doesn't it? It sounds like there's some hope.
Oh, thank God there is. There's some hope. There's a
good hope for sinners. But listen, it's not by our works.
It's not by our works. It's a good hope through God's
grace, which is in Christ Jesus. Something we cannot earn or produce
by ourselves because of man's total depravity. All right, here's
the second vital truth. There is redemption in the blood
of Christ. There's full, free salvation
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the way God saves
sinners. It's the way he eternally purposed
to save sinners. It's through the obedience and
through the sacrifice of his son. Through the pure, precious
blood of his son. Never by our obedience to the
law. The only reason that God gave us the law is to show us
our need of Christ. God always purposed to save his
people, to cleanse them of their sin by the blood of his son. There is salvation for sinners,
but it's in the obedience of another. It's in the sacrifice
of another. And God gave us the Old Testament,
which is just plum full of pictures of how it is God intended to
save his people. He gave us all those animal sacrifices
that were required by the Old Testament law. All those animal
sacrifices were all pictures of Christ telling us there's
someone coming. Now these animal sacrifices,
they're not getting the job done. Offering those sacrifices and
thinking I'm obeying the law and that's putting my sin away,
those sacrifices didn't put any sin away. We know that they didn't
because they had to keep offering them every day. There were daily
sacrifices, there were monthly sacrifices, there were annual
sacrifices. They offered them over and over
and over again. A man would become the high priest and he'd offer
those sacrifices for years, And he died and his son take his
place and offer the same sacrifices over and over and over and over
again, because those sacrifices never put one sin away. But they
pointed to one who's coming. They pointed to one. Abraham
saw him. Our Lord said, Abraham saw my day and was glad. Oh,
and he took his son Isaac off that altar, because that ram
was behind and caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham said, I
see it. I see the lamb's coming. His
sacrifice is gonna save his people from, I see it, he rejoiced,
he saw it. We had those promises for thousands
of years. Abel was looking for that. That's
what his lamb pictured. And one day, God's promise was
fulfilled. His son appeared in human flesh. And when he did, that's when
we saw God's kindness. That's when we saw God's love
for his people. Oh, God loves his people. Herein
is love, not that we love God, but he loved us. And here's how
he showed us he loved us. He sent his son to be the propitiation,
to shed his blood, to cover the sins of his people. And this
word kindness means more than gentleness and goodness, like
we typically think of the word. It also means usefulness, usefulness. The son of God appeared in human
flesh. perfect man. I'm telling you,
there's a useful man. This man, he appeared in the
flesh and he was obedient to God's law in every jot, in every
tittle, thought, word and deed. He was perfectly obedient. Now,
why is that so useful? Because that's the obedience
he gave to his people. They obeyed the law in him. That's
how they were made righteous. We can't keep the law, but Christ
our representative did. We're made righteous through
His obedience. Our nature is depraved and sinful,
but He's holy. He made His people righteous
and holy through His obedience to the law for them. Now let
me ask you, what could be more useful to a sinner, a totally
depraved, totally ruined sinner, than righteousness? That's useful,
isn't it? That came by our Lord Jesus Christ.
He's useful. This man gave himself as the
sacrifice for the sin of his people. And unlike all those
animal sacrifices had to be offered over and over and over and over
again, this man offered one sacrifice for sin forever. And then he
sat down because his sacrifice was successful. His sacrifice
put away all the sin of all of God's elect. See, he's useful. He has the strength to bear the
weight of the sin of his people. He's useful because his blood
is purified. His blood is perfect so that it can blot out the sin
of His people. His blood is precious so that
He can pay the sin debt of His people. And what could be more
useful to a totally depraved sinner, defiled by our sin, than
being cleansed from all of our sin in the blood of God's Son?
Oh, He's useful, isn't He? When Christ appeared, we saw,
oh, God loves sinners. God loves him. He loves his people. He has to love them. He has to.
He spoke audibly from heaven and said, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. You know what the father did
to that son that pleased him so much? He slaughtered him. He slaughtered him. In such pain of body and soul,
you and I can't imagine. The father slaughtered him. You
know why he did that? Because that's the only way his
people could be. He loves those people. That's
the only way those people could be saved. Oh, how useful. How useful, how precious is this
man? If sinners are to be saved, the Holy Son of God had to be
made sin. He had to make his people righteous
by his obedience for them. But he's also got to do something
with their sins. Their sins got to be put away.
And the only way it could be put away is if he was sacrificed
for that sin. Now God can't kill a man. He
can't punish a man for somebody else's sin. So you know what
the father did? He made his son sin. He made
him sin. He made him guilty of the sin
of his people. He made that to be his sin. Now
again, that's something that's so horrible. You and I can't
imagine it. All we've ever known is sin,
so we just can't imagine how horrible that that was. But it
was so horrible to our Lord Jesus when He was just the thought
of being made sin. That body that the Father prepared
for Him, His body just, if I can say, rebelled against it. His
blood started flowing out the pores of His skin. It just did
the horrible thought of being made sin. But he submitted to
it. You know why? He loves his people. He loves his bride. She has a
debt she can't pay. He said, I'll pay it for her.
I'll pay it. I'll pay it with my own blood.
The son of God, who is life himself, he had to die. He had to actually
die. How can God die? I don't know.
But he did. Lord Jesus Christ died to satisfy
the law's last demand, there's got to be death for sin. So he
died. What love that the son of God
would do that for the likes of you and me. The Lord Jesus Christ is so useful. His life, his death, his resurrection,
purchased the eternal redemption of a number nobody can count.
You can't count that high. You think of the blessings of
being redeemed, redeemed by the blood, being bought back from
sin, being bought back from the law and set free through the
blood of Christ. Oh, there's redemption. There's
redemption for sinners. It's in the blood of Christ and
nowhere else. What can wash away my sin? but
the blood of Jesus. All right, here's the third vital
truth, the new birth, regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Verse five,
Paul says, not by works of righteousness, which we've done, but according
to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost. I love that phrase, he saved
us. That's how God accomplished the
salvation of his people. He saved us. He did it by himself. He's the
one that chose the people to save. He's the one who chose
the Redeemer. He elected the Redeemer to save
his people. He's the one who did all the
redeeming. He's the one who did all the work to make his people
righteous. He's the one that offered to sacrifice, to put
away the sin of his people. And he saved us also, Paul says,
by the washing of regeneration. Now that's the new birth, being
born again. Now he talks here about water
and washing. Regeneration does not happen
by being washed in water, H2O. It's not like, well, somebody's
baptized and they're cleansed of their sin in that water. We
baptize people, we pull our baptistry out here, and I fill that pool
with water from a garden hose. I mean, it's just water, there's
nothing special about it. If it was gonna cleanse anybody,
You're probably not going to do it with water coming from
just a garden hose, are you? Baptism is not what washes away
the sin of his people. Baptism is a confession of what
Christ has already done for me. He put my sin away by his blood,
not the water in this pool. The water in the pool, all it
does is give us a picture. This is how God saved me. He
did it by the death, the burial and resurrection of his son.
But the scripture frequently uses water as a picture, a picture
of the Holy Spirit. Pure water can wash away the
filth of the flesh, but the Holy Spirit washes away the filth
of sin from our soul, from our soul. And I tell you how he does
that. He does it by causing a new man
to be born, a new spirit, a new heart, a new man who's never
existed before. I know Paul says here the renewing
of the Holy Ghost, and that does not mean that the new birth is
the renewing of the old man. The new birth is not this flesh,
it's not this nature, the fallen, ruined nature that we're born
with. It's not somehow the spirit renewing that and putting it
back into a spiritually living state. No, that's not what it
means at all. If that were so, that would mean
our nature's not totally depraved, wouldn't it? If the Spirit just
renewed this flesh, that would mean that our flesh is not ruined
in sin. Something that's ruined can't
be repaired. It can't be fixed up. Our Lord said that which
is born of the flesh is flesh. It'll only ever be flesh. It
can't ever be anything else. This renewing is a refreshing. It's a refreshing. It's the strengthening
of that new man through the preaching of Christ. The believer continually,
feeds upon it, is refreshed by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
how the new man is renewed. Every believer here can attest
to this, that you come in here, especially on a Wednesday night,
but could be any service, and you're dragging, you feel just
beaten down, and you're so just down, you think, I can't see
a thing, I'm just wasting my time. And you leave, and your
heart feels refreshed, You've got a spring in your step. Like
Adam said, I can make it till Sunday now. What happened? That new man was refreshed, wasn't
he? He was strengthened. He was encouraged by the preaching
of the gospel. But now, before that new man can be refreshed
like that, we've got to have a new nature born. See, that
old nature can't be encouraged, can't be thrilled with the preaching
of the gospel like that. So we've got to have a new man
born. that can be renewed, that can be refreshed by the gospel.
We've got to be born again. This flesh can't be remodeled.
It's got to be thrown away. God's going to start over with
a new man. And that's what the new birth
is. The new man is a birth of a totally different nature. It's
different from the old man in every way. You know why? Because it's born from different
seeds. is born from a different father.
This flesh was born from sinful seed. The new man is born from
pure, holy seed, the word of God. That new man is holy because
his father is holy. And it's that new man that one
day will finally be separated from this flesh and enter straight
into glory. He's qualified. He's fit. You
know why? He's been made me. He's fit.
He's pure. He's righteous. He's sinless.
And he enters straight into glory. Look at John chapter three. This
is one of the most well-known passages where our Lord teaches
about the new birth. And it's something that's not
optional. We must be born again. John three, verse three. Jesus answered and said unto
him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see, he can't understand, he can't enter the kingdom of
God. Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he's
old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and
be born? Jesus answered, there's that foolish, blind nature. Nicodemus didn't understand.
Can a grown man enter back into his mother? He just had no idea,
did he? Jesus answered, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of water, of the spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the
flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
And marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.
You must be born again. And this is something that we
can't make happen to our own selves. You know, we can't make
ourselves be born again, spiritually, any more than we could have made
ourselves be born the first time. The new birth is something that
God the Holy Spirit sovereignly does, when he will, to whom he
will. Verse eight, the wind bloweth
where it listeth. Thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth.
So is everyone that's born of the Spirit. The spirit sovereignly
moves. He uses the preaching of the
gospel, the preaching of God's word, and causes his people to
be born again, born with a new nature, a nature that's not foolish,
a nature that understands, a nature that sees, a nature that believes,
a nature that loves. You must be born again in this
operation of the Holy Spirit. Now don't miss this. The work
of the Holy Spirit in salvation is just as important as the work
of the Father and the work of the Son. The Holy Trinity, you
can't exalt one above the other, they're all equal. Our Lord said
you must be born again, you must be. In order for a sinner to
be saved, our sin must be put away. It's gotta be paid for,
it's gotta be blotted out, we must be made not guilty. But
we must also be born again. See, if a sinner is just made
not guilty, Suppose Christ came, he paid the sin debt of his people,
and he left us the way we were. He left us in our depraved nature.
If we're not given a new nature that cannot sin, what will happen? We'll make ourselves guilty all
over again, won't we? Yeah, he paid the debt, but if we're not
made where we cannot sin, there's not a new nature born in us,
we're just gonna rack up more debt. Now our sin must be put
away, must be paid for, and we must be given a new nature. A
nature that cannot sin. And that's the nature that God
the Holy Spirit causes to be born in his people. So there
can't be any salvation without the new birth. It must be the
work of the Father, the work of the Son, and the work of the
Holy Spirit. They're all necessary. All right, number four. This
is the fourth vital truth. Salvation is by grace. It's by grace. By grace alone,
and we can't say that once too often. Verse six in our text. Which he shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Lord, that being justified, how? By his grace. By his grace. We should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. Now look back at 2 Timothy chapter
one. We just can't say this too often.
Salvation is by grace. By grace, by grace, by grace,
by grace alone. 2 Timothy one verse nine. who has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace. His grace which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Our salvation is by grace. And the definition of grace is
this. It's God giving us what we do not deserve. Well, if God's
gonna give us something that we do not deserve, then that
makes it obvious it can't be earned, can it? We can't deserve
it. We can't earn it by our works. Salvation can't be because we
did something to deserve it. Salvation by grace means this,
that God gives his people not what they deserve. He gives them
what Christ deserves. He gives them what Christ earned
for them. See, we haven't earned a righteousness by our obedience. You and I haven't been obedient
for one second in our lives. Then why does God call his people
righteous? Because that's what God made them. God gives his
people the obedience that Christ earned for them because when
he's their representative, when Christ obeyed the law, they did
too. Because they're in him. God calls his people righteous
because that's what he made them. You and I deserve, by our works,
we deserve eternal wrath and damnation. Then why doesn't God damn everybody?
We read heaven's gonna be populated with the people. Why doesn't
God damn everybody? God saves his people. He delivers
them from that wrath because he gave that wrath to his son,
our substitute at Calvary. And Christ suffered until the
wrath was gone. Christ suffered until the sin
that brought that wrath had been put away. And there's no more
wrath. That's grace, the son of God
suffering in our stead. so that God wouldn't pour out
his wrath on us. Is there any note sweeter than
God's sovereign grace? Not to a sinner, there's not.
That's why we love to sing amazing grace. Oh, how sweet to sound. It saved a wretch like me. Grace
is a charming sound, harmonious to the ear. That grace is just
tuned right to my ear. It was grace that kept me to
this day. His grace will not let me go. Say by grace alone,
this is all my plea. Jesus died for sinful men and
Jesus died for me. It's by his grace, by his grace.
Salvation is all of grace from its beginning to its ending.
And since salvation is all grace, here's my fifth point, fifth
vital truth of the gospel. God's elect have a good hope. Verse seven says that being justified
by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. Now the believer's hope of eternal
life is not a hope, like there's so many examples that we think
of. I was 11 years old the first
time I ever laid eyes on Janet. And I'm telling you, I was smitten,
I mean smitten. And I did what kids do for, they're
done forever. I'd find a flower. And I was
trying to work up the, it took me two years to ever talk to
her, but I was finally trying to work up the nerve. I thought,
well, if I think she loves me, I'll go talk to her. So I'd find
a flower. She loves me, she loves me not. I hoped she would, but I didn't
know. I didn't know, I hoped, but I
didn't know. As a matter of fact, I thought
it highly unlikely. That's not the believer's hope.
We're not hoping, I hope, I hope, I hope, but I don't know if God
loves me. I don't know if God will accept me when I die. I
don't lay on my deathbed while I hope, but I think it's highly
unlikely that God will accept me. No, the word is an expectation. The believer's hope is an expectation. It's something that cannot be
lost, cannot be. And you know why this is an expectation?
The believer's hope of eternal life, of being with Christ, where
He is, beholding His glory, being made just like Him. You know
why that's an expectation? Because God shed His grace on
us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Lord. See, everything the
believer expects God to give them, we expect it because A,
He promised it. I expect God to do what He promised,
can't I? B, I expect it because that's what Christ earned for
me. That's what he purchased for me. And I can expect it.
That's not presumption. That's believing God. It's believing
him. A believer's hope is an expectation
because we're an heir. We've been made an heir of God.
A joint heir with Christ. It's only right that the Father
give us everything he promised. Because we're joint heirs with
Christ. Paul calls us heirs. Believers are heirs and an heir
receives an inheritance that somebody else promised to give
them. It's an inheritance somebody
else earned and somebody else gives to them freely. They didn't
earn it, they received it as a free gift. That's the salvation
that we have in Christ. Look at 1 Peter 1. Every believer
will receive that inheritance. 1 Peter 1, verse 2. Peter says he's writing
to the elect. According to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, and obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you
and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again. He's caused us to be born again
unto a lively hope a living hope, a living expectation by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance, an inheritance
that is incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. This inheritance
is incorruptible. It's undefiled. It'll never fade
away because it's been purchased by God's grace. by the death
and resurrection of Christ our Savior. And every believer will
receive that inheritance. You can expect it. You can expect
that God give you what he promised to give you. All right, here's
the last thing. Sixth vital truth of the gospel.
Salvation in Christ produces good works. Verse eight. This
is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm
constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful
to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men. Now, believers are careful to
maintain good works. We have to be taught that, it
has to be constantly affirmed, but believers are careful to
maintain good works. Now, you know this, a good work.
A good work is not something that we do that's without sin
or has less sin in it than anything else we do. Everything we do
is sinful. Everything we do is mixed with
sin. Good works are works of faith and love. Good works are
works not that I do to make myself more savable or get God to save
me. They're works that are done because God has already saved
me. He's already saved me by His grace, and I want to serve
Him and serve His people of a grateful and thankful heart. And here's
the way we do good works. It's when we serve others. We
serve the body of Christ for the glory of Christ. When that
poor woman came in with that alabaster box of ointment, broke
it on our savior and all the people were mad and they were,
you know, I don't know why they said that money could have been,
you know, given to the poor, what has sold and given the poor.
They're probably just jealous. You know, I wish I'd have thought
to do that. You know, our Lord said, you leave her alone. She's
come to anoint my body for the burial. She's done a good work.
a good work on His body. When you and I serve the body
of Christ, serve the family of Christ, that's a good work. You
want to wash the feet of the disciples? Refresh them by your
kindness. Refresh them by your kindness.
You see them have a need? You meet it. Don't make them
ask, you know, do you want, no, you meet it. You see them need
something, you give it to them. You see somebody down? Go see
him. Give him an encouraging word.
Help him out. Refresh him by your kindness.
Good works are simply this. It's being faithful to serve
God in whatever capacity he's given you. Whatever it is God's
given you to do today, do with everything you got. You might
think it's small and it's not noticeable, but do with everything
you got. Now, Isaac, I don't want to embarrass
you, but I'm going to tell you a story. I was over here Friday, and I
noticed leaves. Man, leaves on the steps. And
I thought to myself, I'm going to bring my leaf blower. Somebody
told me Bob Coffey does that. He brings his leaf blower, blows
the front of the leaves off. I thought, I'm going to do that.
Well, I forgot my leaf blower. And I got here, and the leaves
were still, you know. So I got the broom out. I started sweeping
the leaves off, you know. And Isaac got here, and he said,
here, Frank. He said, let me take that and do that for you.
I'll finish this. I mean, it seemed like a small thing. You
probably haven't thought another thing about it. But that's a good word.
Just be nice. Just be a good guy. Help somebody
out. That's what I'm talking. You
think it's a small thing, but it makes a difference to somebody.
You know, our gospel is profitable to men and women. Isn't our gospel
profitable to the souls of men? God saved you by his grace. How profitable is that? We who
believe the gospel should be profitable to others too. How
useful is our Lord? Well, follow him and try to be
useful to somebody. But now don't get this backwards.
Don't get it backwards. True salvation produces good
works. Any salvation that comes from
your works is not salvation. That's works. That's works. Salvation
is by grace. But any salvation that does not
produce good works, that's not salvation either. It's just as
wrong. God's salvation produces a new man who loves God, who
has faith in Christ and true faith in Christ will produce
good works every time, every single time. Good works are works that are
produced by faith, and they're simply evidence God's put faith
in your heart. And you cannot separate faith
and conduct. You can't. Where there's faith
in Christ, there's a new sheriff in town. And I know that conduct's
not going to be perfect. We mess it up all the time. But
generally speaking, it's going to direct our conduct. If you
believe God, it's going to direct your conduct. It will. Now, that's
the gospel that the scripture teaches. In any message that
does not include all six of those vital truths, it's not the gospel. I pray, Lord, give us faith to
believe Christ. If we believe Him, these vital
truths will be easy for us to believe. All right, let's bow
together. Our Father, how we thank you for your word. How
we thank you for your gospel, the gospel of your grace that
you've sent to us. You've given it to us to preach.
and you've given so many the faith to believe in. Father,
how we thank you. And Father, I pray you'd bless
your word this morning, that you'd bless your word to your
glory and continue to bless it till you return for your glory,
for the good of your people. Apply this to our hearts that
we might believe in and trust in and rest in Christ our Savior.
It's in his precious name. For his glory and his sake, we
pray. Amen. All right, Isaac. Stand and sing 93. World angels sing, glory to the
newborn King Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled
Joyful, all ye nations, rise! Join the triumph of the skies,
With angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem! Hark! the herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King! Christ, my highest heaven adored,
Christ the everlasting Lord. Late in time, behold Him come,
offspring of a virgin's womb. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead
see, hail the incarnate Deity. Pleased as men with men to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel. Hark! the herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King. Hail the heaven-born Prince of
Peace! Hail the Son of Righteousness! Light and life to all He brings,
risen with healing in His wings. Loud he lays his glory by, Born
that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth, Hark the herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King. Come, desire of nations, come
Fix in us thy humble home Romans come bring seed, bruising us
the serpent's head. Adam's likeness now we face,
stamp thine image in its place. Second Adam from above, reinstate
us in Hark the herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King.