Let's begin at verse 11. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men, Jew, Gentile, rich, poor,
black, white, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly
lust we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this
present world, looking for that blessed hope. And what is that? What's the hope of the believer,
the child of God? Looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem
us from all iniquity and purify 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." If we maintain, as we should
and do, the Bible picture view of God,
the scriptural view of God as he is. God as he truly is. God as he himself says that he
is. And at the same time, hold to
the Bible view of what man is. View man as man, as fallen in
Adam. There seems to be, I notice on
TV commercials about tracing your roots, you know, your DNA
to see where you come from. Well, I know where I came from,
fallen Adam. It doesn't make any difference
whose family tree you shake. Fallen Adam is going to come
out. And when Adam died, we died in
it. Whatever happened to Adam happened
to all of his children. If he died, we died. Everything was affected by the
fall. We are dead in trespasses and
sins. That's how the Bible portrays
man. That's how he is. We don't lower
God to be less than he is, to make him, as he said, likened
to one of ourselves. Ooh, that's a vital, vital mistake. And also, we don't exalt man
to be more than he is. Now, if we maintain those two
truths, bring them side by side, look at them honestly and clearly,
God wholly righteous, demands perfection, will accept nothing
less than that. And then we look at ourselves,
hmm, lost, undone, none good, none seeking after God. We bring
those two side by side and then in the light of those two things
ask yourself this question, how can a man be just with God. How can man be just with God? I know this, I know this, like
the message John brought here a few weeks ago, the vital question
the disciples asked the Lord, then who can be saved? If it's
impossible with man, impossible by anything he can do, Any merit
he claims, any right he doesn't have any. How then can a man
be saved? How can a man be just with God? I know this. It won't be easy. It won't be easy. If the righteous
scarcely, Peter asked this question, if the righteous scarcely be
saved, that is with difficulty, with difficulty, where will the
sinner and the ungodly appear? Oh, but here's the good news.
There is a way. Thank God there's a way whereby
God can remain perfectly just. Because that's necessary. God,
if he justifies a sinner, He must do it on the grounds of
himself remaining just in doing so. He doesn't change his character. Oh no, he upholds it. He upholds
it. I know this. If God justifies
a sinner, he must be just in doing so. And you know how he
does it? Turn back to Romans. We'll come
back to our text, but look at just a couple of verses in Romans. First of all, Romans chapter
3, Romans chapter 3, verse 24. Well, we should know,
let's read verse 23 as well. Here we are by nature, for all
have sinned, no exception, and come short, fallen short, missed
the mark, missed the mark, short of the glory of God, Is there
no hope then? Being justified freely, the word
here, freely, is the same word our Lord used in Luke 7 concerning
that woman. That woman, and he pictured it
by two debtors. And when they had nothing to
pay, our Lord said, he frankly, their creditor, frankly, the
word is freely. Freely. forgave them both," the
same word here, being justified freely by His grace, how? Through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be the propitiation
through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. To declare, I say at this time,
His righteousness, that is God's righteousness. that he might
be just. That's necessary. That he might
be just and yet and the justifier of him which does what? Believeth
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 5. Chapter 5 verse 1. Therefore, therefore because
Christ was delivered for our offenses and was raised again
because of our justification, therefore Being justified by
faith, we have peace. Oh, peace comes on the grounds
of justice satisfied, righteousness established, the law fulfilled,
our sins put away. Oh, that's the grounds of justification. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God. How can that be? through our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into
this grace wherein we stand and rejoice. We rejoice in the hope
of the glory of God. How is salvation obtained? Our text gives us the answer.
Titus 2 again, verse 11. It's not a multiple choice. There's
only one way sinners are saved. Only one way sins are forgiven.
And salvation is experienced. And they have peace with God.
Peace that is realized. And that is grace brings salvation. And that great salvation. That
great and glorious salvation of God brings all those things,
forgiveness of sins, peace, reconciliation, hope. Grace brings salvation. Years ago, when my daughter's
children, my grandchildren, were still pretty young, I was babysitting
them. And toward evening, they began
to complain that they were hungry. Well, Pawpaw wasn't about to
try to cook. So I said, well, I'll tell you
what we'll do. Let's go out to eat. There's a lot of different
places. Y'all pick. Well, they couldn't agree on
anything but one thing, one thing. They said, Pawpaw, we don't care
where we go. Take us wherever you want to
take us as long as it's a buffet, as long as it's all you can eat. When I read this text of scripture,
these verses here in Titus 2, Oh, does it not present before
us, for the children of God, a spiritual buffet? There's some
good things here to eat. The first table, verse 11, salvation. Full, free salvation. The other table, verse 14, redemption. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law. He didn't take a stab at it.
He didn't try to do it. Bless God, He redeemed us from
the curse of the law. Another table in this buffet
of good things. Verse 13 speaks of the blessed
hope we have of Jesus Christ returning. And that which makes
them all certain is this. They're served to us on the golden
platter of God's grace. Grace brings salvation. It doesn't
come to any sinner in any other way. That's why such a blessed
promise as Romans 10 and 13 is true. For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The only way that can
be so is if it's on the footing of grace alone through faith
alone, in Christ alone. Again, many years ago, when I
still lived in West Virginia, a man that I worked with asked
me, knowing I was going to preach that coming Sunday, he said,
what's your text going to be this Sunday? And I said, well,
I believe I'm going to preach from Romans 10 and 13. God's
glorious, gracious gospel promise, whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. And this man, knowing me long
enough to know that I believed and preached, didn't claim to
believe and not preach, but believed and preached the gospel of God's
free grace, knowing as he did that I didn't believe it was
of him that willeth or runneth, but of God that showeth mercy,
he said to me, you can't preach from that text of Scripture. He was matter of fact. He looked
at me and said, you can't preach from that text of Scripture.
And I said, well, why can't I? He said, because you believe
election. Anybody ever tell you that? You believe election. If
you believe election, you cannot believe whosoever will. And I assured him. I assured
him that I can preach from it, and intended to preach from it,
and I did preach from it. The very opposite is true. It's
because salvation is all of grace and not of works, that's the
very reason that whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. It's the very freeness of God's
grace that gives this promise its validity. Oh, it's the very
freeness of grace, not based upon man's merit, man's works,
man's worth. Oh, but it's all based upon God's
free, sovereign, reigning grace. That's the reason any sinner
at any time that sincerely calls upon God for mercy, he'll find
it. He'll find that God did lies
to show mercy. These glorious doctrines that
we believe are no hindrance to that. There's no contradiction
to that. Oh no, it's that which gives
it the truth and the sure sweetness in the promise. There's no quarrel
between man's depravity and inability. We don't deny that, but we don't
deny this either. The sure promise of salvation,
full and free. I don't know that any of you
ever heard of this man many years ago. Well, no, no, not many years
ago. He's been dead a little while now, but not that long.
The champion of his day among the Armenians, John R. Rice. I have all the Spurgeon
sermons, and in one volume, volume 24, on the dust cover, the jacket
of the volume, on each and every volume, someone commends Spurgeon. They have one in there by John
R. Rice. He hated the gospel of God's grace. But this is what
he said. I had to chuckle when I read
it. He said, I differ with Spurgeon somewhat on some doctrinal details. He was more Calvinist than I
on some statements of doctrine. I thought, man, that's the understatement.
But so great. Now notice how he says this,
but, but. So great was the moving of the
controlling Holy Spirit of God upon him, so whole-souled his
compassion and love for sinners, so urgent his great heart, that
when the gospel came out of his heart, his voice and pen, it
stressed whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
Do you see that? He seems to imply, he does imply,
that there's a contradiction. You cannot believe God's free,
sovereign, reigning grace and believe that the promise of whosoever
will can be true. That if you believe the one,
you cannot possibly believe the other. Oh, nothing could be further
from the truth. It is only because God's grace
is free that it comes on the grounds of nothing other than
God's free, unmerited favor that makes it so. If it was only dependent
upon any other grounds, then it would be impossible. It would
be impossible to be saved. If my acceptance before the Lord
God depended upon anything I've ever done, I could never be saved. I could never have peace with
God. I could never lie down tonight with the sweet assurance. I could
never be sure that I'm accepted with God. When is it enough?
When have I worked enough? When have I earned enough? When
have I merited enough? As old Bunyan said concerning
the law, when he tried to justify himself by the deeds of the law,
he found that it was a hill too high. Sinai was a hill too high. Oh, for mercy, for grace, for
salvation, for forgiveness full and free, he must turn from that
mount and look to another, Mount Calvary. Oh, their salvation
is sure. There their work was finished.
Turn, if you will, to Romans again, Romans chapter 10. Paul expresses sincerely his
heart's desire for Israel in chapter 9 that they might be
saved. But he knew as long as they continue
to do what he says in these verses in chapter 10 that they never
would be. And neither will any man today.
that attempts to be saved, to establish a righteousness before
God based upon his own work. Brethren, verse 1 of Romans 10,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved, for I bear them record that they have a zeal
of God, but not according to knowledge, not according to knowledge. And they prove it, verse 3, for
they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about
to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. They prove that they're ignorant
of what the holy Lord God demands by the very fact that they go
about and try to establish, try to fulfill that righteousness
by their own works. It's impossible. It can't be
done. It's never been done. No man's
ever done it except one man. One man did it. And that was
the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He could say in truth, I do always
those things which please the Father. Oh, that day at the Jordan
River, when he came up out of the water after being immersed,
after being baptized, oh, the cloud rolled back, the dove descended,
and God Almighty said something concerning his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, that he never said of anybody else before or since,
this is my beloved son, in him I am well pleased. Always. Always, all from the
cradle to the grave, he did everything necessary to fulfill God's law. In every jot and in every tittle,
he did it. And thank God he did it as the
representative of his people. Verse 4, for Christ is the end,
the consummation of the law for righteousness, verse 4 rather
of Romans 10, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone That believeth. Yes, thank God. Salvation comes to sinners on
the merits of Jesus Christ. Is this not what Paul said in
Romans 4? I'm sorry, Ephesians 4, verse 32. Forgive one another,
he said. And he said, this is really on
behalf of brethren. Forgiveness made easy. Do it
for this reason. even as God, for Christ's sake,
has forgiven you. Oh, man. Now, that gives me hope. That gives me assurance. That
gives me peace that God, for Christ's sake, forgives me, accepts
me. And that grounds of acceptance
can never ever change, never will. Never will. I like what
old John Bunyan said. Listen to this. John Bunyan wrote,
old son of God, grace brought you down from heaven. Grace made
you to bear such burdens for sin, such burdens of curse that
are unspeakable. Grace was in your heart. Grace
came bubbling up from your bleeding side. Grace was in your tears. Grace was in your prayers. Grace
streamed from your thorn-crowned brow. Grace came forth with the
nails that pierced you. Oh, here are unspeakable riches
of grace. Grace to make sinners happy.
Grace to make angels wonder. Grace to make devils astonished. That gives me hope. You remember
when Paul was on his way to Jerusalem? He met with the elders of the
churches of Ephesus en route to Jerusalem. And he said, I
want to warn you. I'll tell you now that I know
that after my departure, Acts 20, that grievous wolves shall
enter in, not sparing the flock. And he said, not only from without,
but also from within. From among your own selves there
will be false teachers sprang up. But he said, I do this. I do this. The best thing I can
do. I love this verse of scripture. I never read it. Or often when
I think of you, praying for you, I think of this verse of scripture.
Paul said, I commend you to God. I put you, you remember that
commercial on TV? Are you in good hands? You're
in good hands with all state. Paul said, I put you in good
hands. I commend you to God and to the
word of his grace that is able to build you up. and to give
you an inheritance among them that are sanctified. You're in
God's hands. Oh, what a beautiful picture.
The hands of your Heavenly Father, in the hands of that one who
had loved you with an everlasting love, and He will not, He will
not let you go. Oh, that is so much better than
hearing, I commend you to yourself. No, there's no comfort there,
but I commend you to God and to the Word of His grace. The
promise is not to whosoever shall work, whosoever go forward and
be baptized, or whosoever repeats the sinner's prayer, whosoever
understands the great doctrines of God's Word. Remember what
our Lord told the Pharisees on occasion. He said, go and learn
what this means. Go and learn what this means.
God's speaking and He says, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. It's not the labors of your hands
that can bring God's forgiveness. It's a matter of pure, unmerited,
free grace and His great mercy. Understand this. Understand this. I'll tell you this. When God
dealt with my soul, I didn't know anything about election.
If you'd say, what about election? I'd say, who's running? I don't
know who's running. I'll have to wait and see. Don't
know how I'll vote. No, it wasn't. I'll tell you
what God taught me. Christ said, every man that has
learned of the Father comes to me. What does God teach us? What
is really necessary knowledge? What is essential? And it's this. He teaches us that we're the
center. God gets us lost. God gets us
lost. We'll never cry out for mercy
until we're lost. We'll never cry out, God save
me, until we know we're lost. We'll never Throw away that robe
of self-righteousness until God Almighty in sovereign grace makes
us do so. He teaches us we're the sinner. Oh, but he doesn't stop there.
He doesn't stop there, thank God. He teaches us also this,
that Jesus Christ is the Savior. Jesus Christ is the Savior. Let
me give you a good example of that. Turn with me to Mark's
Gospel, Mark chapter 1. Here you have a Good illustration
of how a sinner comes to Christ for mercy. He doesn't come bragging,
he comes begging, he comes pleading. He doesn't come demanding, he
comes crying for mercy. The leper, the outcast leper. Here in Mark 1 verse 40, and
there came a leper to him, oh there's There's the first clue,
if you want to call it that. There's the first picture, the
first direction. He came to the right source. He abandoned the priest. He abandoned
the priest to the law. The law pronounced him unclean.
The law condemned him. By the deeds of the law, no flesh
will be justified. Therefore, there came a leper
to him, that is Christ, beseeching him and kneeling down to him. Oh, imagine that. He didn't come
feeling like Christ owed him deliverance. Christ wasn't obligated
to cleanse him of his leprosy. No, no, no. If he did it, this
leper knew. He'd been taught. He knew if
Christ did it, it would be a matter of pure mercy and grace. Because
Christ didn't owe it to him, he didn't have to do it. Oh,
doesn't that sound strange? Most people today feel like God's
obligated to save them. God owes it to them. They've
heard that all their life. God wants to save you. God's
trying to save you. It'll be unfair if he doesn't
give you a chance. Oh, thank God that salvation's
not by chance, but it's by God's own purpose and grace which was
given us in Christ before the world began. Can you picture
this poor man? I wonder how long it's been since
he'd been home. How long it's been since He had
companionship with anybody. He was an outcast. And he kneeled
down to him and said to him, that is Jesus, if you will, you
don't have to. I believe this man been taught
something, don't you? You don't have to. But if you
will, you can make me clean. If you're willing to do it, you
can make me clean. And I can go home again. Go back
to my wife and children again. I won't be an outcast again.
If you will." And I just imagined, oh I'm sure of it, that it was
his utmost desire with all of his heart. He was saying, oh
I hope he will. Oh I hope he will. Oh depth of
mercy can there be. Mercy still reserved for me can
my God his wrath forbear and me the chief of sinners spare
if you will and Jesus Remember what we read in Romans 10 whose
service will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I
Like this picture too. Oh, we see the leper. Oh, but
look at this Christ the great God and Savior Jesus moved with
compassion put forth his hand, I like to visualize that, and
touch the leper. Nobody would ever touch that
leper. They, like him, would be pronounced
unclean if they did so. Oh, but Jesus Christ moves with
compassion and reaches out and he touches that leper. And at
the same time he says, I will, I will, Be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken,
immediately, immediately the leprosy departed from him and
he was cleansed. The vilest offender that truly
believes that very moment from Jesus a pardon receives. It is the gospel of grace that
makes it good news, is it not? Grace free. Grace unchanging. Grace that can't be bought or
earned or deserved. Grace that reigns. Grace that
never fails. Grace that's never in vain. Grace
that's greater than all my sin. Grace that reaches deeper than
the stain that's gone. That's the only grace that'll
help this sinner. Grace that is everlasting. He that had begun a good work
in you will perform it into the day of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and this grace is in Christ, and through Christ, and by Christ. Notice it doesn't say or text
that grace offers salvation, or grace makes salvation available. I would never be saved on those
terms. No, it says grace brings salvation. God's grace actually brings salvation. It doesn't wait for the sinner
to take the first step. No, that's not good news to those
dead in sins, but grace takes all the steps. Grace doesn't
offer life to sinners. Grace raises sinners to life
and gives them faith and preserves them. And the true grace of God
will bring them, each and every one, all the way to glory. John Warburton, he wrote a book,
the only one that I'm aware of that he did write. It was more
an autobiography than anything. And after he was saved, he was
always, as he would put it, in straits. Always up against it. Had a large family, and he was
poor. But he wrote this, and I agree with it wholeheartedly.
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 have not
a ray of hope. On the Mount of Calvary, the
Lord Jesus Christ undertook the cause of his people. And there
is not a jot or tittle that he left undone. but by one offering
he perfected forever them that are sanctified. There is therefore
now, because Christ did that, there is therefore now no condemnation,
and there never will be, never will be, to those who are in
Christ Jesus. Here is complete salvation, saved
in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. Thank God for His
amazing grace. The salvation grace brings is
a great salvation because it comes through our great God and
Savior, Jesus Christ Himself. It is for good reason that all
the redeemed in heaven cast their crowns at His feet and cry, cry,
worthy, worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. He had redeemed
us with His own blood. When He had by Himself purged
our sins, Almighty God and Savior, purged our sins, He sat down,
His works finished, at the right hand of God. He entered one time
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. And Christ will never lose one
that the Father entrusted into His hands and for whom He became
mediator and surety. He will seek, as he said, the
Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. He said concerning the parable
of the Good Shepherd, one sheep is lost, he goes out in search
of it, and he seeks it until he finds it. And when he finds
it, not if he finds it, but when he finds it, oh he raises it
up. and puts it upon the shoulders
of His omnipotent grace and power. And He says, when, again, not
if, but when He brings it home rejoicing, O He for the joy,
Christ for the joy that was set before Him, the joy of redeeming
His people, the joy of bringing them all back to the Father's
house, the joy of saving them from their sins, the joy that
was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame. When He brings it home, He comes
home rejoicing. And by that same mighty grace
of our great God and Savior, He will present them one day.
Oh, child of God, think about this. This will cheer you up.
We have a lot to discourage us, it seems, but oh, we have so
much more to cheer us up. Greater is He that's in us than
he that's in the world. One day, Christ will present
you. without fault. Oh, my soul. Without
fault before the throne of God. What about that? One last thing. Look at verse 13. We stand on
the tiptoes of faith looking for that blessed hope. That blessed
hope. Oh, what a hope we have. Man,
we've got something to look forward to. Soon we're going to see the
king. looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God in our Savior,
Jesus Christ. Spurgeon told the story about
another preacher, old Roland Hill. He was an English preacher,
Roland Hill was, and he loved to bring the love of God and
the gospel to the poor in the struggling of London. On one
occasion he was given a large sum of money and told to use
it to help support another poor pastor in a low-income area. And thinking that the amount
was too much to send in one lump sum, Roland Hill decided to send
it in stages. So each week He would send a
portion of the gift with a note that simply said, more to follow. Within a few days, the pastor
received another envelope containing the same amount of money with
the same message, more to follow. Then there came a third and then
a fourth. In fact, they continued with
regularity, always accompanied by those same comforting and
cheering words until the entire sum had been exhausted. And Spurgeon
said, When God forgives our sins, there is still more forgiveness
to follow. He justifies us in the righteousness
of Christ, but there is more to follow. He adopts us into
his family, but there is more to follow. He prepares us for
heaven, but there is more to follow. He gives us grace, but
there is more to follow. He helps us in old age, but there
is still more to follow. And Spurgeon concluded, even
when we arrive in the world to come, in heaven itself there
will still be more to follow. And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed
away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband. without a spot or a blemish or
any such thing. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God, and God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. You're never gonna
cry again. But when that day will have no
reason to wait, wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there
shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall
there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne
said, behold, I'll make all things new. Amen. Amen. Thank God for his free grace. Amen. God bless you.