Fickle. That's the nature of
humanity. Like the Athenians, we most naturally
are impressed with whatever's newest. And we are always looking
for some new thing, something unusual, something different. That's especially true with regard
to apostate religious men and women. But we find something
new, and the novelty soon wears off. And we start looking for
something else new. That's just the nature of man.
When I was in school, I suspect the same is still true today. I'm sure it was true of the older
folks. We were required to learn the seven wonders of the world.
You remember that? Had to find out where they were
and what caused them to be such wonders when they were built.
And I was thinking about that the other day. I thought, I've
forgotten. Do you remember? Something more impressive came
along. Something more impressive came along. Something superseded
that, at least in our opinion. The same thing is true with regard
to all those things which seem to be very important for a little
while. All those things which seem to
be significant for a little while. Those things which seem to be
wonderful for a little while. So I want you to turn with me
to Titus chapter 2 and hold your hands open here. And let me talk
to you about seven wonders which will never be surpassed and never
be forgotten by those who are privileged of God to see them
and experience them. If you're taking notes, the title
of my message is Seven Wonders of Grace. Now, this book is itself
a wonder. It is absolutely unexplainable. Its existence is unexplainable,
except you declare it is inspired of God. This book, you can't
explain its origin, except you say God did it. You can't explain
how such men who were used to compile it could have possibly
compiled such a book, so diverse and yet with one message over
such a long period of time, spread over vast countries and continents,
never knowing one another, never conspiring with one another.
And yet the book is given to us. And the only way on this
earth it makes sense to say this is the word of God is to say
this is the word of God. God gave it to us. God wrote
it. God inspired it. And yet of all
the wonders revealed in this sacred volume, nothing is more
wonderful than His free grace. John Newton described it this
way, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch
like me. I once was lost but now am found,
was blind but now I see. Now, as the word grace is used
here in Titus 2, it is used not so much to describe God's attribute
as God, nor even His work in us, which is sometimes called
grace, the graces of the Spirit, faith, hope, love, and so on.
But rather it is talking about the doctrine of the grace of
God, the gospel of God's free grace revealed to us in Jesus
Christ as the gospel is preached to us in the power of His Spirit.
All right, begin reading with me in verse 11. For the grace
of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Now there's the first wonder
of grace, its exhibition. During the days of the Old Testament,
the grace of God was hidden, as it were, in the types and
shadows of the Mosaic economy under the types and shadows and
ceremonies of the law. During the days of our Lord's
humiliation upon this earth, the grace of God was like a light
lit in one remote small corner of the universe, the land of
Israel. But now the light of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ has been dispelled throughout all the universe for
all men to see by the preaching of the gospel. So the gospel
is no longer limited to one nation or one people, but rather it
is dispersed among all men so that the light now shines brightly
through all the world as the gospel has been preached by the
outpouring of God's Spirit. Certainly, the days in which
we live, it certainly appears that the darkness has come across
us because of God's judgment. Darkness has come across the
land so that men cannot see. But God has yet sent His Word
into all the four corners of the earth, so the grace of God,
the gospel of God's grace that brings salvation has appeared. It's exhibited to all men in
the gospel and folks who don't see it. Don't see it because
they will not see. Folks who don't see it, don't
see it because they will not believe. The grace of God is
revealed by the power of His Spirit. What a wonderful exhibition
this is for those who have eyes to see. Notice how the Spirit
of God speaks of God's grace here. It does not say the grace
of God that offers salvation. It does not say the grace of
God that provides salvation. It does not speak of the grace
of God that presents salvation. It speaks of the grace of God
that brings salvation. The grace spoken of in this age
is a grace that it offers, a grace that provides, a grace that presents. That's not grace. Of what use
would grace be if it only offered salvation to dead sinners? Of
what use would grace be if it only provided salvation for dead
sinners to reach out and take? Oh no! The grace of God, as is
revealed in this book, is grace that by omnipotent power brings
salvation, working it in you by the hand of God Himself. Now,
I make no effort to exhaust this inexhaustible subject, but as
Paul speaks here and says, the grace of God that brings salvation
has appeared to all men, it strikes me that there's at least three
ways in which it appears. First, the grace of God appears
in divine election. How we rejoice in the gospel
doctrine of election. What a delight it is to hear
the Son of God declare, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen
you. God chose the host of His elect
in Jesus Christ their head, chosen to all eternal good before the
worlds were made, chosen to know the Prince of Peace, chosen to
taste His grace, chosen to be conformed to Christ in perfect
righteousness. Nothing but grace, free grace,
appears in God's eternal choice, free grace to charm poor sinners'
hearts and make God's saints rejoice. Let the unbelieving
reprobate of this world, deride it as they may. Let the unbelieving,
the reprobate of this world, seek as they may to deny it.
Let the unbelieving, the reprobate of this world, seek as they may
to pervert it. God's people rejoice in God's
sovereign electing love. We rejoice to know He chose us. We see the grace of God also
exhibited gloriously at Calvary. Turn over to Romans chapter 5
for a moment. Romans, the fifth chapter. Hold your hands here
and tie this. Romans, chapter 5, verse 5. Paul has been explaining the
glorious gospel doctrine of justification. And he tells us that Christ was
delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification.
And now believing, he says, therefore being justified by faith, we
have peace with God. And here he explains the grounds
of it all. Verse 5. And hope. Hope. This hope that's given by God's
Spirit in the new birth. This hope that's given when you
believe on the Son of God. Hope maketh not ashamed. Hope
doesn't cause us to be ashamed before God. Hope's what gives
us confidence. Hope doesn't cause us to be ashamed
before men. Hope's what gives us confidence.
Hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. What love? For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good
man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Here's grace. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, laid down his life for men who wished
that he should be made to die. He suffered for men who cried,
crucify Him, crucify Him. He died for men who accounted
Him worthy of death. He died for us when we were His
enemies. He laid down His life for us
to redeem us and make us righteous before God. The grace of God
cannot be understood, it cannot be appreciated by anyone until
it is seen streaming to poor, needy, guilty sinners in Calvary's
crimson tide. The word grace cannot be understood
until it is inscribed on your heart in the blood of Christ
by the power of God himself. Grace! is that which flows to
guilty sinners through Calvary's blood. Grace is that which comes
to sinners through the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ the Lord.
The hymn writer put it this way, yonder amazing sight I see, the
incarnate Son of God expiring on the cursed tree and weltering
in his blood. Behold, a purple torrent run
down from his hands and head. The crimson tide puts out the
sun, his groans awake the dead. Oh, that these chords of love
divine might draw me, Lord, to Thee. Thou hast my heart, it
shall be Thine, Thine it shall ever be. The meaning of the cross
is grace. Grace displayed for the satisfaction
of justice. Grace displayed so that guilty
sinners might go free. Grace is that which sent God's
Son. Grace is that which reveals God's
Son. Grace is what's revealed in the
substitutionary work of our Lord Jesus Christ. But this grace,
this grace exhibited in God's election and exhibited at Calvary
can never be known by anyone until it's exhibited in your
heart in conversion. Oh, I pray God will make His
grace to shine in your heart in the face of Jesus Christ by
the almighty work of His grace converting you to Himself. You
see, conversion is not a sinner turning to God, though certainly
it involves that. Those who are converted by God's
grace willingly turn to Christ, willingly turn from the world
and themselves to surrender to Christ with glad hearts, but
they turn because they've been turned. And you will never turn
to Him until God turns you to Himself by almighty grace. It was grace that taught my heart
to fear. You never will learn what godly
fear is till grace teaches you. And grace, my fears relieved,
how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed. Grace is known when it's experienced. Every heaven-born soul, every
one of them, you can talk about this religious world being Christians
and you can talk about them being saved if you want to delude yourself
and delude them all you want to, but I'm going to tell you
something. Every heaven-born soul traces his salvation back
to the fountainhead of free and sovereign grace and says, by
the grace of God, I am what I am. Every one of them. You keep trying
to hold on to something and say, I did that, you're going to go
to hell with it. You keep trying to hold on to your little patch
of self-righteousness and say, I know it was saved by grace,
but you're going to go to hell with it. Believers say, by the
grace of God I am what I am. Alright, now look at the text
again. Here's the second wonder of grace. It's teaching. Teaching us. Teaching us. Rex, when God Almighty comes
to a center in grace, He doesn't display things, only He teaches
them, teaching us, teaching us. The old folks in old days used
to talk about being learned. That's a good word. The teachers
these days don't learn you anything. Now, I know the English I'm using,
they just said it before, you say, get it if you can. But in
old days, you either got it or you didn't get out. You were
learned. You were learned. I'm going to
tell you something. If you ever go to the school
of grace, you're going to be learned. You're going to learn
something. You're going to learn something.
Grace doesn't just present the lesson. Grace inscribes the lesson
on your heart by almighty power teaching us. But what does grace
teach us? that denying ungodliness and
worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly
in this present world. The grace of God that brings
salvation effectually teaches chosen, redeemed, called sinners
to reject, to deny, to say no to idolatry, ungodliness, and
worldly lust. Grace teaches sinners, every
sinner who experiences it, to live uprightly, temperately,
and godly in this present world. In this present world. Our daughter's growing up. I
never attempted to make any excuse before her, in her hearing, or
to anyone else. I said, well, you know, they've
got things to face we don't have to face. You kids don't have
a frazzling thing to face we didn't have to face. Not a frazzling
thing. And say, well, this is a different
age. That doesn't mean beans. It doesn't mean beans. Grace
teaches folks how to live. I told folks Tuesday night, last
Sunday morning, I hope the fellow gets this message. I didn't find
out until it was too late for me to tell him in person. I had
a couple come hear me preach. First time I ever had this, Michael.
Folks came from a nudist colony to listen to me preach. They
were wearing clothes, but they came anyhow. Came from a nudist
colony. As much as, well, you know, if
they believe in Jesus, they don't. They don't. Well, how can you
say that? Because grace teaches you to
live right. It just teaches you to. Well,
you can't say that. I didn't. God did. The grace
of God that brings salvation. Now, your little notion of grace,
and your little talk about grace, and your little song about grace
doesn't teach you a frazzling thing. And if the preacher talks
to you, it talks you into making a profession of grace. It doesn't
teach you anything. But grace that brings salvation teaches
folks to deny ungodliness. Say no to it. Ain't right. This
ain't right. Say no to worldly lusts. Well,
this interferes with me worshipping God. No! Say no to those things
that would drive a wedge between you and your God. No! The grace
of God is that which says you're not your own. Don Fortner, you're
not your own. That means you don't have the
right to choose anything. Nothing. Nothing. I'm not happy. I wish somebody would slap folks
in the face and say, wake up and smell the coffee. What's
your happiness got to do with the Fraser thing? This is right
and this is wrong, that's all. The grace of God says, you're
not your own. Lindsey Campbell had been bought
with a price. He bought you. Lock, stock and barrel. Bought
you. He bought you. Children of God,
he bought you. bought you with His own blood.
Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirits, which
are God's. And then look at the third thing. The third wonder of grace is
described here as its prospect. Looking for. Looking for. I'm looking for something, are
you? I'm looking for something. I'm looking for somebody. looking
for the blessed hope. That blessed hope is just one.
And the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ. We ought to live constantly on
the tiptoe of faith, looking for Christ with anxious hearts. Ron, it's a blessed hope we've
got. It's a blessed hope. This is the thing desired. It's
the coming of Christ. Not just that we can escape difficulties
and troubles here. Sometimes, you know, we get to
feeling sorry for ourselves and we get to misjudging God's providence.
You know, we sit down like Elijah or like Jonah and we say, oh,
what's the use? God, come take me. And we think
that's piety. That's just frustration. But
this looking for Christ, this looking for Christ is looking
for Him because of what He's doing. Looking for Him because
of what He's going to bring. Looking for Him because this
is the end of our salvation. This is a blessed hope because
this hope will be the consummation of God's salvation. Now is our
salvation nearer than when we believed, Paul said. Well, I
woke up today one step closer. One step nearer the consummation
of God's work, looking for this blessed hope. When I shall at
last stand before God Almighty, perfectly, perfectly conformed
to Christ. That's it. When we see Him, we're
going to be like Him, for we'll see Him as He is. The believer's
hope is a happy, blessed hope, because it's a confident hope.
So I don't know. how on earth anybody could speak
of something future and say, I know. The fellow who lived
back in the days of Abraham or earlier, whose name is pinned
to the first book to be written in historic time by inspiration,
a fellow named Job, he spoke this way. He said, I know that
my Redeemer liveth. And I know that one of these
days, he's going to stand right here on this earth. And I know
that though I'm buried in this earth and my skin worms destroy
this body, my flesh returns to dust in my flesh with these eyes. Personally, I myself shall see
my God in the flesh. It's called faith. It's called
faith. How can you be confident of that?
I trust Him. I trust Him. Over the past 30 years, I've
traveled a good bit in and out of this country. And whenever
you go into another country, you've got to have three things.
You've got to have three things. You've got to have a birth certificate
or something like it to prove your citizenship. And you've
got to have a visa. That is, you've got to have a
legal, lawful invitation from the country you're going to visit.
And you've got to have a clear record. You can't go if you've
got a charge against you. Can't go. Can't go. Just can't
go. Not legally. Now listen. I'm
going to another country. A country for which I'm qualified
because I've been born of God. And he bids me come. And he's made my record clear
that no charge is against me. You understand that? Why should
anyone looking to Christ ever tremble at the prospect of judgment
and eternity when Christ comes for the believer? That's a blessed
hope, a blessed hope. All right, here's the fourth
thing. This fourth wonder of grace is its mediator. The great
God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. What a regal title. The only mediator there is between
God and man is the man, Christ Jesus. Sometimes folks talk about
the Pope or priest, Anglican or otherwise, and say, we need
these to stand between us and God. But Baptist folks ought
not to cuss them too much, because most Baptists do the same thing.
You get a preacher down here and you come talk to me about
your sin, and confess your sin to me, and now I'll walk you
down this road to that, and I'll tell you your sins are forgiven.
It's still the same stuff. It's called priestcraft. Priestcraft. I'm not your priest. No other
mere man is your priest. Our only priest, He who alone
can lay hold of me and lay hold of God and bring us together
perfectly, is the God-Man, Jesus Christ our Lord and our Redeemer. Alright, now fifthly, here's
another wonder of grace, its gift. Now I've been hurrying to get
here. who gave Himself for us. What a gift. Gave Himself. I thought about this. It's impossible
for us to really get hold of this. Because, Larry, it's impossible
for any mortal man to truly give himself to anybody. We give of ourselves. That's
the best we can do. He gave himself. Oh, what a wonder. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, The great God and our Savior, the great
glorious Creator, Sustainer and Governor of the universe, He,
before whom the angels bow with all dust reverence, gave Himself
for us. He didn't give another. He didn't
give what another had. He gave Himself. Himself, not
just His own things. but his own self, not just the
world, not even the riches of the world, not the silver and
gold, corruptible things, treasures of the earth, not the cattle
on a thousand hills, not men, not angels, but himself. He gave
himself all that belongs to him. All
that's dear to Him. His name. His fame. His credibility. His reputation.
His honor. His time. His strength. His service. All the comforts of life. Life
itself. He gave His whole being. All
His manhood, body and soul. And that in union with His divinity. All Himself. The Son of God and
the Son of Man, He gave Himself into the hands of sinful men,
into the hands of divine justice, gave Himself up to death, the
painful, shameful death of the cross. Look at it now. For us. For us. For us. Such contemptible, despicable,
vile, corrupt, nothings as us. And He did it for a purpose.
The sixth wonder of grace is its object. That He might redeem
us from all iniquity. The Son of God came here on a
mission, with a purpose. He came here to give Himself
for us. God's elect. The people of His
choice. People of His covenant. Us. Us who have been redeemed by
Him. He redeemed us from all the penalty
of our sins. He's going to redeem everyone
of His elect from the dominion of sin. By the power of His grace,
He's going to deliver His people from the bondage and curse and
dominion of sin. He's going to deliver us from
its presence and its being. But, Rex, when it gets done,
He's going to have redeemed us from all the evil consequences
of it, so that these eyes will no longer weep over it. No sorrow, no mourning, redeemed
from sin. All right, here's the last thing. Next to him giving himself, there's
no greater wonder of grace than this. It's people. And purify unto himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works. God's people are people purified
by grace, purified in two ways, in two ways. We have a pure record before
God in justification. The righteousness of Christ has
been imputed to us. Our sins have been put away.
And we have been made partakers of the divine nature. Oh, the
old man's still there. All the corruptions, all the
lusts. But every redeemed sinner, every soul called by grace, every
one born of God, every one of them, every last one of them,
has got a holy nature put in him. I just caught Doug's eye
just a minute ago. I have a lot of friends who have
adopted children. Special, special, special parents
they are who go to the time, trouble, and effort to adopt
children. But an adopted child, you can give that child your
name. You can give that child your possessions. You can give
that child your reputation. You can give that child your
place in society. The one thing you can't give
that child, Doug, is what you gave to yours, your nature. That comes only by birth, your
nature. God Almighty gives to His adopted
sons and daughters His nature. He makes them pure. He makes
them pure. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. Old things are passed away, and
behold, all things have become new. And there are peculiar people,
not just purified, but peculiar. Now, that doesn't mean odd. I've met a lot of odd folks traveling. A lot of odd folks flock around
religion like they do about anything else. That's not what it means.
It doesn't mean folks who dress funny and act funny. It means
distinct. Distinct. of people unlike other
people. Unlike other people. How do you
mean, Pastor? We've been loved, Larry, with
a peculiar love. He loves us. We've been called
with a peculiar distinguishing grace. We've been redeemed by
peculiar atonement. And we have been made partakers
of a peculiar family. We walk in this world as the
sons and daughters of God Almighty, and the world doesn't know us.
It doesn't understand us. We are people under God's peculiar
protection, under His peculiar care. He cares for us as a father
cares for his children. And we are people with a peculiar
ambition, motive, and concern. What's your ambition, pastor?
God's will and God's glory. What's your motive? God's will,
God's glory. What's your concern? God's will,
God's glory. That's it. These people, these peculiar
people, being born of God's grace, are zealous of good works. That's what the book says, isn't
it? That's what it says. They're zealous to honor God,
zealous to benefit His people. And that's what good work's all
about. You read the Bible. I know religion tells you good
works mean you quit smoking, quit drinking coffee, quit drinking
liquor, quit going to picture shows, dress strange, cut your
hair funny, do funny things. That's not good works. Read Matthew
25. Read it carefully. Good works in the religious world
is something you point at and say, look, boy, we did that.
Ah, we did that. According to this book, good
works is something believers are totally unaware of. in themselves,
called love. Love for Christ, love for His
people, love for His kingdom, forgiving, forbearing, caring.
That's what it's all about. You see, faith and grace work
by love. They work by love. We begin confessing
Christ. He saved me by His grace. I'm
going to identify with Him right here. I'm going to identify with
Him right here in His family. I'm going to identify with Him
in His gospel before this world. We confess Him. We confess Him. We walk with Him. We follow Him. Amen. Let's sing a hymn.