Titus chapter 2. We'll just read
the last few verses in the chapter beginning at verse 11. 4. The grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lust We should live soberly, righteously,
and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope.
Brother Don says, standing on the tiptoes of faith, looking
for that blessed hope. Still looking out the window. The blessed hope and the glorious
appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. What a blessed hope, who gave
himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity,
and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort,
and rebuke, with all authority, let no man despise thee. I want to begin with a question.
And the message will consist in answering that question. And
it is this. How does salvation come? And you might think, well, Larry,
everybody knows that. Well, I hope you know better.
Everybody doesn't. I dare say if you would stand
on the steps of churches in our town this morning, And as folks
came out, I would ask them that question. How does salvation
come to a sinner? Oh, the multitude of answers. The multiple answers that you
would get. How does salvation come? Well,
I know this. I know this. As old top lady
expressed it. It's not by the labors of my
hands. that can fulfill God's Law's
demands. And before any sinner is ever
saved, that must be done. God's Law must be honored, must
be satisfied. The precept of God's Law must
be obeyed. The penalty of God's Law It must
be satisfied. And I know this, it can't be
done. Neither of those can be done
by anything that I can do. Not by the labors of my hands.
It can't be done. Top lady went on to write, could
my zeal, no respite, no. Could my tears forever flow? What would be the result of that?
Oh my, look, he's sincere. How many times have you heard
that? Folks point to religious folks that are zealous, sincere,
and say, oh my, look at that. If anybody goes to heaven, they're
bound to. Oh no. All these for sin could
not atone. Could not atone. God, thou must
save, and thou alone. If I'm ever saved, and I mean
salvation to the uttermost. I don't mean saved in time. I
mean saved in eternity. Saved with an everlasting salvation. If I ever experience that, if
this sinner is ever brought before the throne of a thrice holy God,
If I have any hope of hearing him say, enter in, come on in,
welcome home, welcome home, enter into the joy prepared for you
before the foundation of the world, it'll have to be, it must
be on the merits of another. Because I don't have any, I don't
have any. The saved sinner, saved by God's
free grace, sings a tune something like this. They join with David. Every believing sinner does.
Every chosen, redeemed, called sinner joins with David in saying,
not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. We give all the glory to the
one from whom we have received all the grace. Who else would
we give it to? Unto thy name give glory, for
thy mercy, for thy matchless mercy. O Lord, have mercy on
me. Remember, we read in Ephesians
2, wherefore remember where you were when God's mercy found you,
when God in mercy came to you. Another hymn puts it this way.
Not have I gotten, but what I received. Grace hath bestowed it, since
I have believed. Boasting excluded, pride I abase. I'm only a sinner, saved by grace. I like that. I want to be in the company of
those. Sinners saved by grace. God deliver me from the Pharisee
within myself. Only a sinner saved by grace.
Only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the
glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. How does salvation come? Salvation is by grace, period. Period. Not plus. Not in addition to, but period. Did you have an opportunity to
read Brother Henry Mahan's quote in our bulletin today? Henry
said, there is no present salvation except that which begins and
ends with grace. No man can preach or possess
a present salvation except those who preach and believe that we
are saved by grace alone, period. The work is finished. Any other
way of salvation is dependent upon the sinner, and it will
fail. It's bound to fail. It's been
attempted. It's been tried, and failure
is written upon it. Depart from me. But Lord, we
tried. We did all these marvelous things
and we did it in your name. Depart from it. I never knew
you so much for the foundation of works. Our text says here
in Titus 2 verse 11 answers the question, how does salvation
come? And I love this. This gives me
solid ground. This gives me a sweet pillow
to rest my head on. This gives me a blanket that
will cover me up. For by grace, for the grace of
God rather, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation. Grace brings salvation. Salvation. What a glorious word. I remember once years ago when
my granddaughter, Laura, was just beginning to learn to read. I was visiting their home one
time, and she picked up a book, and she said, Paw Paw, I want
to read you a story. I said, well, good. Come on over
here. And she climbed up on my lap,
and she opened her book, and she started reading. And she
came to a pretty good word, pretty good-sized word. And she just
tried her best to sound it out. She tried and tried. Then she
looked up at me and said, Paul, Paul, that's a big word. That's
a big word. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
salvation is a big word. It's a big word. It includes
everything necessary. Everything a holy God demands. Everything needed to bring a
sinner out of darkness into light. the light in time that opens
His eyes to behold the Lamb of God and then to keep Him, keep
Him all the days of His life and then to bring Him to glory
where He shall be with the Lamb of God who loved Him and washed
Him from His sins in His own precious blood and be with Him
forever. Ooh, that's a big word. That's
a big word. Who can do it other than the
Lord Jesus Christ? All my life long I heard, and
still do, sad to say, people, poor sinners are being convinced,
persuaded, that salvation is just so easy. It's up to you. You can do it. It's simple. It's as simple as ABC. And then I turned to the Word
of God, and I don't find that. I don't find that. I see, as
we read in Ephesians 2, that our natural condition is one
of spiritual death. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. God asked the prophet Ezekiel,
Ezekiel, can these bones live? Oh, Lord, thou knowest. If they
do, You'll have to do it. It's not easy as a but it is
sad. It is sad and is so dishonoring
to our great God and Savior that his glorious work of redemption
and salvation is described as being easy, simple, nothing to
it. Oh no. Did you find it simple? When God turned the light on,
when God got you lost, When you were seeking peace and couldn't
find it? When you were wanting to know
God and couldn't find Him? When you wanted to have the sweet
realization that all your sins were forgiven, did you find it
easy? Did you find it simple as A-B-C? Oh, no. Anything but. In 1 Peter chapter 4, he said,
If the righteous scarcely be saved, Peter didn't think it
was easy. That word scarcely means with
difficulty. If the righteous with difficulty
be saved, where will the sinner and the ungodly appear? Oh no,
it's not easy, is it? This grace of God, we read in
our text, we're told, brings salvation. It doesn't come any
other way. That gives a helpless sinner
hope. It does nothing for a self-righteous
Pharisee. Oh, but for a needy beggar like
a publican, like that sinner who has nothing to pay, who can
only smote upon his breast and pray for mercy, God be merciful
to me to hear the words Salvation rich and full and free. It comes
by grace is good news to him. Because it comes through that
one mediator between God and man. In Romans chapter 5 we read
that grace comes by one man. Grace comes by one man and it's
not the preacher man, the priest man, the Baptist man. It's one
man. God has ordained one channel, one fountain
by which grace flows. Grace that is greater than all
my sin. Can anything less than that help
me? Can anything less than grace reigning help me? Grace abounding
do anything for me? Anything less than that? And
the channel from which that grace flows to needy sinners, oh, look
and behold, there He is. John, tell us about Him. You saw Him. You saw Him, John. You saw that one who was the
eternal God. You saw Him made flesh and tabernacling
among us. Tell us, John, what strikes you
about Him? John said, Oh, I saw Him. He's
the only begotten of the Father. And let me tell you what impresses
me most. He's full of grace. He's full
of grace and truth. The law was given by Moses, yes,
oh but. Thank God, grace. Grace that
can pardon and cleanse within. Grace that's greater than all
my sin. Marvelous, marvelous, matchless
grace. Grace comes by the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what makes a believer,
is it not? Now we all admire someone who, as they're
described as being a self-made man or woman. They came from
rags to riches. Good, good. That's admirable. But there is no such thing as
a self-made Christian. No such critter. Paul asked those
Corinthians that were puffed up. One was saying, I'm with
Paul. Well, if Peter's not preaching,
I don't want him to show up. Oh, Apollos, you've heard nobody. You ought to hear that orator,
Apollos. And Paul said, who are they?
Who are they? They're just instruments by which
he believed. He said, who? Who? Who made you
the different? Who made you the different? It
wasn't Paul. And it wasn't Peter. It wasn't
Apollos. Who made you the different? What makes a man a believer? What makes a rebel a servant
of the Living God? What makes him accepted and to
be loved? Nothing but grace. By the grace
of God. That's the answer. God's grace
alone brings salvation. It's not by merit. Not by merit,
and I'm happy about that, but by mercy. It doesn't come by
the exercise of my free will, but God exercising His mighty
free grace. I like what I watched on TV one
evening, not long, not shortly before Christmas one year. They
were interviewing this young lady that came out to this mall
where people had donated. Instead of having a yard sale,
someone suggested, why don't we give these things to the needy?
And it just grew and grew and grew. Needed a parking lot on
a mall because it got so big. And they were interviewing this
lady. They said, why are you here? She said, I'll tell you
why. You see all these stores. I don't have any money. I can't
buy anything inside. But out here, all this stuff,
it's free. It's free. I can have that. Oh, shout salvation full and
free. There's hope for the most wretched
sinner if salvation is free, really. There's hope for me. His salvation is free. And notice
what our text says. Grace brings salvation. Works
won't do that. Oh, but grace unmerited? God's
free favor? Grace undeserved? Grace even
unsought? Oh, that gives me hope. Peter
wrote to some suffering believers, both his epistles. When he closed
his first epistle, He said, know this, know this, let me remind
you of this, that this is the true grace of God wherein you
stand. Oh, what a comfort that must
have been to them. Nothing you're enduring at present, no amount
of suffering, no amount of loss can change this. The foundation
on which you stand hasn't changed. This is the true grace of God
wherein you stand. Oh, and look what God's grace
does. Bring me from the pit of my depravity
to be accepted in Christ Jesus. When I stand before God Almighty,
This is my hope and it's a good hope in Christ that I'm accepted
and to be loved. Paul said, forgive one another,
love one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven
you. Don't you just love that expression,
for Christ's sake? For Christ's sake? This is my
beloved son, hear ye him. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. What will he not do for Christ's
sake? Father, I will that all those
that you've given me be with me. You know, we have in our
day, and it has been true for a good while, experts on prophecy. You ever see these fellas? They
have it all figured out. They'll get out charts where Christ is coming, when
Christ is coming, how Christ is coming, and never talk about
who's coming. Who's coming? Oh, behold, the
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. We shall see Him, the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. Is that not the heaven of heaven
and the glory of glory? We read in Revelation 22, in
addition to no more pain or sorrow or any reason to weep, no more
death, because He that sits upon the throne says, the former things
are passed away. Behold, I make all things new. God's people are new creatures
in Christ Jesus, and He creates a new heaven and new earth, wherein
dwelleth righteousness. But in addition to all that, more than all that, we're told
they, those sinners saved by grace, those redeemed, those
called, those kept by the power of God, shall see His face. See the face of the Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ Himself. Again, notice our text. For the grace of God that brings
salvation, brings everything needed with it to get the job
done. I was reading again the autobiography
of a man who lived well over a hundred years ago. by the name
of John Warburton. The title of his book is Mercies
of a Covenant God, with this subtitle, An Account of the Lord's
Dealings in Providence and Grace with John Warburton. It's a fascinating reading. But
this is what he said, The longer I live, the more I feel if there
was one thing left undone, If the devil were not conquered,
sin not expiated, justice not satisfied, the law not honored
and magnified, death not overcome, and every burden carried away,
I should not have a ray of hope." That's just so. That's just so. He went on to say, on the Mount
of Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ undertook the cause of His people.
And there is not a jot nor a tittle that he left undone, but by one
offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." Here
is complete salvation, saved in the Lord with an everlasting
salvation. Now that's good news. We can
rest there, can we not? God doesn't offer the saved. Christ doesn't offer grace to
his people. He bestows grace on his people. An offer does me no good. That's
what the religious world talks about. The writer of this epistle,
Paul, he had experienced God's true grace. Oh, how often he
talked about what he was before. And then he would say, oh, but
I'm not like that anymore. I'm not that self-righteous Pharisee
anymore. God's made me to differ. Why, Paul? Why? Tell us. Give us a reason for this great
change in you. You're now preaching that gospel
that concerns Christ God's Son that you once labored to destroy. How did you... You've done a
complete about-face? How so? How so? Paul would put
it in these words. But God. But God. But God wouldn't let me go. But God called me by His grace. But God was pleased to reveal
His Son in me. But God. That's all the reason. All the reason. Oh, blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That day on the Damascus Road,
oh, look at Saul of Tarsus. What a determined man he was. Where are you going, Saul? I'm
going to Damascus. Why are you going there, Saul?
Because I've ran God's people, or those who call upon the name
of Christ, those deceived folks. I've chased them out of Jerusalem.
I've heard they're hiding in Damascus. I'm going to go get
them. I'm going to drag them back. I'm determined to do it. Nobody going to stop me. I'm
determined. Oh, but bless God, there was someone who had a determination
greater than Paul's. There was someone whose will
was greater than the will of Paul's, and that was the will
of God. It was God's will. God's determination,
God's purpose, that Saul of Tarsus that very day, before he ever
got to Damascus, would be brought down to the feet of Jesus Christ,
God's Son. Amazing grace. Amazing grace. The God of all grace determined
before time began that Saul of Tarsus was one of his chosen. How about that? How about that? Listen to the words of that one
that God gave, committed into the hands of before the world
was ever created. The great shepherd of the sheep.
Jesus Christ. The great shepherd of the sheep.
Oh, listen. Listen how majestically he speaks. How certainly he speaks. Speaking to some folks one day.
He said you You won't come to me You won't come to me Well,
does that make God's purpose void Does that mean everything
God's willed will come to naught Oh No Christ said All that the
fuck listen, this is the great shepherd. I He speaks and he
says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Every one of them is going to
come to me. They're going to be drawn to me by reigning, sovereign,
irresistible grace. That's good. That's good. They're going to be made willing.
Oh, no man is saved against their will. But no man by nature is
willing, then what's the answer? My people shall be willing in
the day of my power. They'll be made willing by my
grace. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. I will not come. Nothing can make me come. No
one can make me come. Oh, but the Son of God said,
you will. You will. You'll come to me,
Larry Criss. You're going to come to me, not
the proud rebel that you are, but you're going to come to me
as a beggar. You're going to bow before me,
begging for my mercy and my grace. You're going to be willing to
do so, most willing. And him that comes to me, I'll in no wise cast out." And
the Lord Jesus Christ, that one who is mighty to save, declared
that day concerning Saul of Tarsus, Sovereign Grace, arrest that
man. With men it's impossible. Oh,
but not with God. And Saul of Tarsus comes down. Comes down. And when He raises
the walking newness of life, His song now is, God forbid that
I should glory. Before it was Jesus Christ, that
deceiver, Jesus Christ, that imposter, but now it's Jesus
Christ. God forbid that I glory in anything
else other than the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul could
say, and every believer says, they know they're not self-made
men. I am what I am by the grace of
God. Saul was made willing in the
day of God's power, or he never would have bowed before him.
and neither did any sinner. I'm so thankful for this blessed
truth, that it's not of him that willeth, that is salvation. It's
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. Aren't you thankful that His
will prevailed over yours? That His grace reigns over your
sins? The only folks that have a problem
with that, with God's sovereign grace, are those seeking salvation
by some other means. Like that Pharisee that we mentioned
a moment ago. Those that are whole have no
need of a physician. He didn't. He didn't need a thing. He didn't ask for anything. Oh,
I'd like to meet a publican. I sure would like to meet a publican. Got good news for him. A publican
that's seeking God's mercy. Publican, you got a problem with
this? It's not of him that willeth,
but of God that showeth mercy. He'd say, oh no, a problem. No, no, not at all. That's all
my hope, that salvation is by grace alone. Otherwise, I'm lost. But if by grace, sinners are
saved and not by works, I have a hope of going home today justified. Justified. Not guilty. Justify in the sight
of God Himself. Bartimaeus, you got a problem
with God's sovereign mercy and grace? Oh, no. Oh, no. That's what brought me out of
this darkness into the marvelous light. That's what took me from
the dunghill and set me among princes. Oh, the gospel of good
news for needy sinners. Ask that poor woman in the house
of Simon, that self-righteous Pharisee, another one who had
need of nothing, but ask her. Aren't you thankful that salvation
is not of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy? And
she says, oh, yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. Because only that
gives me peace. When the Prince of Peace himself
said to me, go your way. Go in peace. Your sins are all
forgiven. All forgiven. Ask Lazarus. Lazarus, you got a problem with
reigning sovereign grace, the dead dog sinners? Lazarus, is
that all right with you? He's got no problem with it.
Lazarus would say, let me tell you something. I'm so glad. that God saves old sinners. Our text tells us that this amazing
grace brings salvation, everlasting salvation. This is what we read
in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 14. I know that whatsoever God
doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor
anything taken from it. And God doeth doeth it that men
should fear before him." Paul said, knowing this, knowing this,
that he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Uttermost salvation. Salvation
from sin's penalty. No condemnation. Salvation from
sin's dominion. It shall not have dominion over
And one day salvation from the very presence of sin in me. In me. No sin. And that grace that brings such
a great salvation will bring everyone who experiences it to
the throne of God. Perfect. Perfect. That blessed
hope. Look at verse 13. Titus 2, looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ. What a blessed, blessed hope
that is to see Him, to look upon Him. Verse 14, who gave Himself
for us. that He might redeem us, and
He'll have that which He paid for us. He'll have all of His
redeemed. He shall see of the travail of
His soul and be satisfied. Everyone Christ was a substitute
for, everyone He trod the winepress for, everyone whose sins He took
away will be with Him in glory. That's what we're looking for.
There is no possibility, no possibility that the Son of God shed his
blood in vain. Not possible, is it, Billy? Thank
God. No, we're redeemed. He didn't
attempt to do it. He did it. He by himself purged
our sins. He entered in one time into the
holy place. Having obtained eternal redemption
for us, we're looking for our Redeemer. the Lord Jesus Christ. Not a plan, but a person. Not a doctrine of redemption,
but the glorious Redeemer Himself. He redeemed us, the God. And John tells us, when He shall
appear, we shall be like Him. We shall see Him as He is. The object of our hope. The reason
for our hope. The foundation of our hope. We have a I think it's on page
219 of our hymn book. Grace is a charming sound. Grace first inscribed my name
in life's eternal book. Imagine that. It was grace that
gave me to the land who all my sorrows took. Grace taught my
soul to pray and made my eyes overflow. It was grace that's
kept me to this day and will not let me go. That's the grace
I need. Grace that will not let me go. Grace all the works your crown
through everlasting days. It lays in heaven the topmost
stone and well deserves the praise. Amen. Amen. God bless you.