Oh, with what joy His face I
shall see. Oh, with what joy His face I
shall see. Now, let me ask you something. Do you really, do you really,
Do you really anticipate seeing his face with joy? Believe him, and you shall. Would to God you might go home
today with confident assurance in your
soul that with joy his face you shall see. And that assurance is the assurance
of faith in him of whom we've just heard. Oh, God give you
faith in Christ our Savior. For the Larry Criss, pastor of
the Fairmont Grace Church in Sylacauga, Alabama, We're delighted
to have him bring the final message of the conference. It's been a delight, and I want
to thank Grace Baptist Church for all the work. I was here, I know, a little
bit. about that, all that's involved,
and I appreciate it so much. It's been a delight. I thank
you, pastors, for your faithful and clear proclamation of God's
Word. It's been a blessing to my soul. Pray for me. Turn, if you will,
to Titus, the book of Titus, chapter 2. I'm just going to
read verses 11 through 14. The title of my message is, The
Grace That Brings Salvation. That's got a nice ring to it,
doesn't it? I like the sound of that, don't you? The grace
that brings salvation. Nothing else can. Nothing else
will. Never has, never will. Brother Henry Mahan, I recall,
telling the story of asking a lady one time, if she were a Christian. And she said, oh yes, Brother
Henry, I've been a Christian all my life. And Henry said,
woman, that's too long. That's too long. Grace that brings
salvation. Verse 11 of Titus 2. For 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 and the glorious appearing of the great
God in our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that
he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar
people zealous of good works. Two things I want to consider. First, where grace comes from,
and then what grace does. Simple outline, easy to remember. First of all, where does grace
come from? Where does real grace come from? And we're told very plainly in
this text, verse 11, throughout the Word of God, it can't be
obtained from or given by a preacher. Not this one, not this one, not
any of those you've heard. It can't be obtained from a priest. Can't be done. Or from a church,
a Baptist church, Catholic church, doesn't matter. It's not theirs
to give. It's the grace of God, did you
notice? It's the grace of God. That's
why it's good news. That's why it's good news. It's
God's grace. You start anywhere else, you
have to go wrong. You must go wrong. You start
with man. You have to go wrong. In answer
to this vast creation, this wonderful world, universe that God has
made. Ask the question, where did it
come from? What's the origin of it? Look
out upon it and ask, how did it begin? Where did it start? And the wise men of our day say,
well, there was, what is it they say? There was an organism stuck
in the mud for millions of years and he did a backflip. out on
dry land and lay there for a few more million years and then grew
some legs and voila, here we are. No, no, no. Bound to go
wrong. No, we turn to the Word of God
in answer to the creation. In the beginning, God. In the
beginning, God. Not that God attempted to. God
created the heaven and the earth. God did it all. And in answer
to the new creation, How are helpless sinners brought to Christ? How does one obtain grace? The answer is the same. God. God. The God of all grace. The God who is in the heavens,
doing whatsoever He has pleased, has determined. has determined,
has purposed. I think Darwin said the other
night, yes, God does things on purpose. Isn't that amazing? On purpose, and He has purposed,
He has determined that He will be gracious. I've heard people,
it's usually religious folk, make this statement. And I think
they have some odd idea that this is glorifying to God, but
it's actually the very opposite. They say, now if God had His
way, if God had His way, and I want to knock on their
noggin and say, now think about what you just said. If God had
His way, if He doesn't have His way, He's not God. He's not God. And if He is God,
who stops Him from having His way? He declares, I have my way
in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of
His feet. He always has His way. And that
great God who has His way has determined, has declared, I will
be gracious. Does that matter? Is that a factor? If God determines something,
does that make it so? Absolutely. Absolutely. And He's determined to be gracious.
Grace comes from Him. Therefore, it must be. It must be absolutely free. Absolutely free. The very nature
of grace, the very essence of God's grace is that it's undeserved. Undeserved. I know as Brother
Rupert just preached, that cuts against the grain of old Adam,
against our nature, but there's nothing we can ever do to deserve
God's mercy. There's nothing in us that attracts
God's mercy. It's always undeserved. It's
always unmerited. It's always unearned. It's free. Turn, if you will, to Isaiah
chapter 55, a familiar verse of Scripture. But the prophet
in Isaiah 55 verse 1, we read these words, Everyone that thirsteth. Everyone that thirsteth. Come
ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, don't
bring money. No. You can't buy this. Come ye buy and eat. Yea, come
buy wine and milk without money and without price. This is good
news, Tommy, to bankrupt sinners. The sinners who have been taught
by God's stripping them, that they are bankrupt before the
throne of a sovereign God, and they have nothing to pay. Justice
calls for payment, and they don't have anything to pay the bill
with. Oh, and they hear this news,
oh, is anybody thirsty? Come, wherefore do you spend
money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto Me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness." That passage reminds me of what our Lord said in John
7. He'd gone up to the Feast of
Tabernacles. That lasted seven or eight days. And we're told on the last day
of that feast, the Lord Jesus had for days watched men and
women going through the motions, just going through the motions
of useless religious tradition. He watched that for days. And
then as though he could stand it no more, he stands and looks
out on those men and women. And he cries out above the noise,
is anybody thirsty? Is anybody really thirsty? Is anybody tired of all this
tradition? Does anybody really want to know
God? Does anybody really feel their
need of mercy? Do you want to experience God's
rich, free grace? Real salvation? Anybody out there? Is there one that's thirsty for
God? Oh, that I might know God! That I might lie down tonight
and sleep the sweet peace of a sinner reconciled to God. And as we sang a moment ago,
know that it is well, bless His name, it is well with my soul. Anybody desire that? That's what
our Lord asked. Is anybody thirsty? And he said,
well, come to the front of the church. Is anybody thirsty? Make a decision. No. Are you thirsty? Do you want grace, mercy, salvation,
forgiveness of sins? He says, come to Me. Come to
Christ, the glorious Redeemer, the great God and Savior, who
changes not. The same yesterday, today, and
forever. Yes, if it's God's grace, it
must be free. And if it's God's grace, it must
be sovereign. We read the verse, or quote it,
what Paul said concerning salvation. And he said, so then, so then,
it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. And people say, ooh, that's terrible.
That's terrible. Don't say that. We don't want
to hear it. We just can't stand that. Ask
any rebel that God in His mercy has ever come to and strip them. Strip them in order to clothe
them. Old Hart wrote a very good hymn. Ask a good question. What comfort
can a savior bring to those who've never felt their woe? Those who've
never felt their need. A sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost has made him so. Every sinner that's been taught
of God, that's learned something of his utter helplessness, his
sinfulness, his total depravity, is thankful when he hears, it's
not of him that will. It's not of him that runneth.
It's of God that showeth mercy. Grace is free. And grace is sovereign. There must be grace for me. There
can be grace for me because I'm a helpless sinner. Our Lord said
to the religious folk of His day, search the Scriptures. And then you think you have eternal
life. And they testify of me. And you will not come to me that
you might have life. In another place he said, you
cannot come to me. You cannot come to me except
God. Except a great shepherd of the
sheep comes to where you're at this very hour. this very day. Don, isn't that a glorious thought?
The great shepherd who said, I've come to seek and to save
my sheep. He does both. He does both. The reason he seeks them is in
order to save them. He may come to someone today
that he brought here on purpose. He may come to where you're at.
and in majestic sovereign power say, come down, today I must
abide at your house. The God of glory may look down
from the throne of grace this morning, and as you leave here,
say, there goes a sinner going home justified. There may be
a declaration in glory today that will set the angels rejoicing
that says, not guilty. Isn't that glorious? Oh yes,
this is what God's grace is. This is what God's grace does.
Reigning grace where sin abounded, Paul said in Romans 5. Grace
doth much more. Much more abound. Grace greater
than all my sin. The only hope, the only sure
hope any sinner has is the hope that grace gives to them. They
can't have it on any other grounds. It's a good hope through grace. A hope arising from and resting
on God's grace shall bear me up. I can roll all the weight
of my immortal soul on this and rest easy. Just rest easy. Oh, when darkness veils his lovely
face, I'll rest on his unchanging grace. Unchanging grace. He's the God of all grace. Isn't
that comforting? All grace. All the grace necessary
to keep me today. That's not an easy task. Because right now, right now,
there is within me a heart that's prone to wonder, prone to leave
the God I love. That makes me join with the apostle
and cry out, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me? Who's able? Who's up to that
task? Jesus Christ Himself. All the
grace I need today, tomorrow, to bring me all the way home. All the way home, Mary. Not partway. No, He seeks His sheep and He
finds His sheep. And then He says, jump on? No.
He puts them up on His shoulders. And He brings them all the way
home. All the way to glory. Grace will
never, ever leave me. or ever let me quite leave Him,
Jesus Christ, the personification of grace. He that's begun a good
work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Someone read this last night,
Brother Gene. Our Lord said in Mark 4, the
great shepherd said to his disciples, let us pass over into the other
side. And then in verse 1 of chapter
5 we read, and they came over to the other side. Because the great shepherd said,
let us pass over. He went over and his sheep went
with him. The bridegroom and the bride,
Christ and His church. John said in Revelation 14, And
I saw the Lamb, a Lamb standing. A Lamb stood on the Mount Zion. And he wasn't alone. With him. With him. The 144,000. the exact number representing
all of His elect, all of those that the Father entrusted into
His hands, all those that He became responsible for, all those
that He agreed in the fullness of time to come and do everything,
everything necessary to obtain their eternal redemption. to
put away their sin and then bring them back by His same mighty
grace to the throne of God one day. And it will be the boast
of King Jesus, Father, here they are. They're all here. I've lost none. And we'll all cry, worthy is
the Lamb. Isn't He something? Isn't He
something? This grace of God can only be
found in one place. One place. One person. John said, I saw Him. We saw
Him. The eternal Word that created
all things that were created. That made it all. John said,
behold, what a wonder. That Word was made flesh. Because His brethren were flesh
and blood, He likewise took part of the same. He took hold of
the seed of Abraham. And John said, We beheld His
glory. And He's full. Full of grace and truth always. Isn't that something? Full of
grace. Grace that covers all my sin. Grace that shall present me faultless
before the throne of God. Grace that can pardon. Grace
that can cleanse. Grace that can keep. Grace that
can preserve. Grace that brings us all the
way to glory for a multitude of sinners that no man can number.
And with all that grace given to all those sinners, He's just
as full as ever. Do you want grace? There is one. mediator between God and man
at this very moment, setting upon a throne of grace and says,
I will be gracious. He will be gracious. He delights
to show mercy. In Exodus 33, someone like Rupert
said, they referred to every verse I had written down in my
notes. But Moses, Lord show me your
glory. And you remember, How the Lord
God replied, I'll do this, Moses. There is a place by me. There
is a place by me. There's a rock, and I'll put
you in the cleft of that rock. There is a place at the right
hand of the majesty on high for sinners. in Christ Jesus, in
Christ Jesus, while I draw this fleeting breath. And when mine eyes shall close
in death, when I soar the world's unknown, and behold thee on thy
throne, O rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in
thee. When I'm ushered into the presence
of the thrice holy God, I want to be wrapped up in the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. There'll be no playing some sort
of spiritual hopscotch. Here on this square, I'm justified,
but over here, I'm sanctified by my own words. Christ is made
unto us, sanctification and justification, wisdom, redemption. Christ is
all, and I'm complete in Him. And it feels so good. It feels
so good. It's so comfortable. That one
is the glorious God-man. The one way. the one mediator,
the one advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous. Now secondly,
what does this grace do? The grace of God. And we read,
very plainly, that bringeth salvation. What a great work. What a glorious
work. The salvation of a sinner. Only
God can perform that. Only God can accomplish that. It includes election, and we
read that it's an election of grace. It includes redemption. Likewise, in whom we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to what? The riches of His grace. Sinners
chosen to salvation. Sinners redeemed, effectually
redeemed by Christ, but they must be called. It's not possible. There's no way to know that I
was one of God's chosen, that I was one of the redeemed, until
I experienced His grace in time. And grace does that too, does
it not? Saul of Tarsus? Saul of Tarsus? Would you pretty please? Saul
of Tarsus, come down! Come down, you proud Pharisee!
Come down, rebel! What happened, Saul? What happened
to you? He said, when it pleased God.
You'll be saved this morning when it pleases God. Salvation
is according to His mercy, His purpose, His grace. Paul said,
when it please God. Please God who has His way. Always,
all the time, with everyone who called me by His grace and revealed
His Son in me. The grace of God brings salvation. Will you turn to Exodus chapter
14? I'd like to read just the last
two verses in that chapter. This is a summation of what has
taken place. The Lord bringing the children
of Israel across the Red Sea. When I was a young boy at home,
my father would come in from work And around six o'clock or
so, he'd sit down after his supper and watch the evening news. We'd
better not bother him, leave him alone. He's watching the
national news. And there was a broadcaster at
the time named Walter Cronkite. Yeah, y'all old enough to remember
him. But he would, every evening,
he would close his broadcast with the same words. He would
say, and that's the way it is, and give their whatever date
it was for that particular day. That's the way it is. And we're
told here in Exodus 14 verses 30 and 31 that this is the way
it is concerning God's salvation. This is what happened at the
Red Sea, a picture of our redemption. Verse 30, thus the Lord saved
Israel that day. Thus the Lord did it. The Lord
did it all. What did Israel do? What did
they do? Nothing. Nothing. We'd have been
better off in Egypt. Moses, we knew it. I knew better
than to listen to you. Stand still. Shut up and see
the salvation of the Lord. Thus the Lord saved Israel that
day out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians
dead up on the seashore. And Israel saw that great work.
Oh, what a great work! What a mighty work the salvation
of a sinner is! That great work which the Lord
did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord, and believed
the Lord and His servant Moses. The salvation of a sinner requires
a miracle. It requires the triune God. It requires what with man is
utterly impossible. All around us this morning, all
around us, People are being told, preachers are trying to convince
people that salvation is easy. That it's all up to them. It's
just all a matter of their will. It's just a simple thing. And
that's a lie. That's a lie. It's not easy. It's impossible. God's salvation
is the greatest display of His glory. He's been pleased to reveal. or how great thou art, don't
accept a cheap counterfeit, depending upon its success, or rather for
its success on you. If God needs me, if my salvation
in any part whatsoever, in any degree whatsoever requires my
help, if God needs my help, to bring me to glory, we're both
in trouble. He's in trouble and I'm in trouble. Oh no, our God declares that
salvation in its entirety is all of Him and it's all a matter
of His free, sovereign, reigning grace. The grace of God brings
salvation. It doesn't offer to save. What
good is that? But it saves to the uttermost
all that come unto God by Him. T'was grace that wrote my name
in God's eternal book. T'was grace that gave me to the
Lamb who all my sorrows took. Grace taught my heart to pray
and made my eyes overflow. It's grace that's kept me to
this day and will not, will not let me go. God's grace doesn't
come to the sinner and say, let me. Let me. Won't you let God? But the grace
of God, we're told, brings salvation. When grace comes, the real true
grace of God comes, grace saves. Where grace comes, sinners come
to Christ. Grace is always successful. Always successful. God's grace
can never be defeated. It can't be resisted. How you
like that? It can't be resisted. Come down. Oh, I won't. Oh, but you will.
Come unto me. Oh, I don't want to come. Oh,
you will. Because all the Father gave me will come to me. And they will. And I'm so thankful
for that, aren't you? Grace is always successful. The
lion of the tribe of Judah always prevails. God doesn't depend
on sinners to take the first step. Preachers do that all around
us. Won't you take the first step?
And what's going to be the result of that? When I was about 13
years old, I took the first step. They scared me into doing it.
I had a friend. When school wasn't in session
during the summer, if he wasn't spending the night with me, I
was spending the night with him. And one night, we were walking
to his house in that little coal camp that I lived in. And in
the summer, it was a common practice for men to come and set up a
pretty large tent. They were always of the charismatic
persuasion. And as long as they thought there
was a dollar to be fleeced in the community, they would stay
there for weeks during the summer. Just late, late at night, whole
long meetings. Me and my friend Johnny were
going home one night and they were still going on. We could
hear the organ playing, pretty good beat. Let's go in there
and see what's happening. So we went in and sat down. Sat
on the very last row of seats, you know, hugging the back near
the flap so we could get out. And we sat a few minutes and
said, we've seen enough of this. Got up to leave and the preacher
up front said, don't you leave this tent. Don't you leave this. You leave this tent, you'll be
dead in 12 months. If you don't come up here and
get saved, you'll be dead in 12 months. I'm 13 years old.
Scared me to death. Me and Johnny sat back down in
the chairs. And he starts counting. This preacher starts counting.
I'm going to count to 10. Every lost person in the tent,
he said, look over at them because this time next year you won't
see them. They'll be dead and they'll be in hell. And he started counting.
One, two. He said, keep your head down. I look over at Johnny.
Johnny, what are we going to do? He said, shut up. Don't worry
about it. He said, he doesn't know what he's talking about.
He said, three, four, five. And I said, Johnny, we've got
to do something. He said, I told you just be quiet.
He doesn't know what he's talking about. Seven, eight, nine. And
I said, Johnny, look, Johnny's gone. He doesn't shout up front.
He doesn't run up there to make his decision. And I ran up there
with him. We made our decision. And you know what it amounted
to? We left the tent, went home, went to bed. How long it lasted? When we woke up in the morning.
We thought, what did we do? What was that about? Why did
we listen to that idiot? He didn't know what he was talking
about. And we threw down our tobacco products, so we went
back out hunting for them. That's not salvation. Salvation
is not what the sinner does for God. It's what God does for the
sinner. And it's a glorious salvation.
It's a great salvation. When grace comes, bless His name,
grace saves. Grace, all the works of the crown,
through everlasting days, it lays in heaven this topmost stone
and well deserves the praise. Let's look at one more verse
in closing. Revelation chapter 14. All those that God the Father
chose, all those that His glorious Son, our surety, our great God
and Savior, all those He redeemed, shall be brought to glory. In
verse 4 of Revelation 14, we read this, These are they which
were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are
they which follow the Lamb, whether so ever he goeth. Now that's
heaven, isn't it? Father, I want all those whom
you gave me to be with me where I am. that they may behold my
glory." And we're told, we shall see His face, my soul. These were redeemed from among
men, from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and unto
the Lamb. And in their mouth was found
no guile, for they are without fault. Did I read that right? They are without fault. They
are without fault before the throne of God. That's the grace of God that
bringeth salvation. God bless you.