Look up Titus chapter 2. If you found Timothy, just keep
turning to your right. If you go to Hebrews, you've
gone one or two books too far. Titus chapter 2. I want to begin reading in verse
11. For the grace of God that brings
salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly and righteously
and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us in order to that he might
redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works." Wonderful phrase here in verse
11, "...the grace of God hath appeared." That's a wonderful
phrase, ain't it? The grace of God. If you look
this up in your dictionary, one of the most common names used
for grace is favor. It's a favor. God's favor. We've
all asked someone, would you do me a favor? I mean, I find
myself asking that a lot lately. I had to call Glenn and Gene
yesterday. I need a favor. Would you do me a favor? I can't
repay you. I sure ain't earned a favor off
anybody. But would you do me a favor? And that's what grace
is. It's God's favor. And you know
there's a sense in which everybody can relate to God's favor. You
hear this evening. Whether you're saved or lost,
you're here this evening enjoying God's favor. You're breathing,
every breath that you breathe into your lungs, what is that?
Favor. God's favor. All we have, your
beautiful families, your beautiful children, your jobs, the vehicles
you drive, the houses we live in, what is that but favor? Anybody this side of hell, is
enjoying God's favor. So all of us can relate in that
sense to God's favor, can't we? It's favor. But there's one more
definition. There's a little addition that's
very, very important when we talk about God's favor. And you'll
see it in most definitions. It's free favor. God's free and unearned favor. Do we deserve our next breath? that we deserve, we go to the
nursing home sometime. And I've told those dear old
ladies and men there in their wheelchairs, you think you've
got it bad off? You don't have it as bad as you
deserve to have it. Life may be bad, but it's not
as bad as it could be. And the reason life isn't any
worse than it is, is because of God's free favor. He's given
us something that we can't earn. We don't deserve. In all the
natural realm, if you're living in this world, you don't deserve
to be breathing. It's God's favor. But when we
go out of the natural realm, as Paul did here in verse 11,
we go into the spiritual realm, the spiritual blessing. Because
he says here in verse 11, the grace of God that bringeth salvation. But you know the same principle
applies, doesn't it? If we don't deserve our next
breath, if everything we have in our movement is by God's favor
and it's free, how much more salvation? The grace of God that
bringeth salvation. What brings salvation? God's
grace. God's grace. Salvation from what? My goodness, from sin. From sin. Ain't it a blessing to be saved
from sin? You know there's one thing in this world that God
Almighty hates? Just one thing that He hates,
and that's sin. Only one thing that God has threatened
to punish, and that's sin. One thing the wrath of God is
on is sin. Ain't it a wonderful thing then
to be saved from sin? From the love of it? From all
the consequences of it? From the wrath of God upon it?
From hell it is in, from death. The wages of sin is death. Physical death, eternal death,
the second death. How wonderful it is then to be
saved from sin. And what is it that brings salvation?
Grace. Grace. The grace of God that
bringeth salvation. The free favor of God. What a blessing. What a blessing.
The grace of God that brings salvation. But you know, it's
not just salvation to the soul. That's a wonderful thing, to
be reconciled to God, to have God as our Father, to have all
your sins put away, to be saved. I had a fellow tell me one time,
he didn't use that word. He said, I just don't use that
word much. Well, you ought to start using it. Being saved is
a Bible word. You don't get saved. I got saved. How did you got saved? You don't
get saved. The grace of God that brings
salvation saves you. And it saves you from all the
consequences of sin. But it's not just the soul that's
saved. The grace of God brings salvation
to our souls. But you know something? It's
going to bring salvation to our bodies too. Salvation It saves
the whole man. Someday you and I, we're going
to be like we are now. Someday they're going to wheel
us off to the nursing home or the emergency room or the ambulance
is going to come and pick up our body. And they're going to
haul us down to the morgue. They're going to suck all the
blood out of these bodies. And they're going to put embalming fluid
in there. And they're going to stick us in the ground. And our
bodies are going to rot. But you know there's coming a
day when that body will be raised from the dead. and made new. The soul in heaven with the Lord
Jesus Christ, in joy in Him, in the presence of God, in the
presence of those elect angels and the spirits of just men made
holy, the soul is there with Him. Oh, Paul said, I have a
desire to depart and to be with Christ. That is where the soul
is when it dies. The body is in the ground. But
one day the Lord Jesus Christ is coming again and He is going
to speak and He said, Those that are in the grave are going to
come forth. And the soul and the body is
going to be reunited and salvation to both of them. And what is
it that brings such a salvation? The grace of God. The grace of
God that brings salvation. Ain't that so plain? If you read
to these little children up here, I could sit down and read this
to these children. And I would say, The grace of
God brings salvation. And you ask one of those little
children. You could ask Sissy that. What brings salvation?
And you know she'd turn around and tell you. The grace of God.
Isn't it strange that this verse is so plain? What is it that
brings the grace of God? And yet men will proclaim all
of these other things that bring salvation. But the Scripture
is so clear. The grace of God that bringeth
salvation, it hath appeared. And who's it appeared to? Well,
he tells us here in the last portion of verse 11, it hath
appeared to all men. Now, he doesn't mean it's appeared
to all men without exception. I bet there's somebody here this
afternoon. And I could ask you, if you'd
be honest with me, I would say, has the grace of God appeared
to you and saved you? And if you was honest with me,
you'd say, no, not really. Not really. If you just go up
and down this street here and you would say, has the grace
of God appeared to you? And you know what so many people
would say? I just don't know really what you're talking about.
Well, what does that tell us? The grace of God hath not appeared
to everybody without exception. There are so many people who
know nothing of the grace of God. It's not appeared to them. Then what does he mean when he
says, You're the grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared
to all men? All kinds of men. The grace of
God brings salvation to old men. An old man just called me, well,
he's 70 years old and he hasn't been saved too awful long. The
grace of God just appeared to him not long ago. The grace of
God appears to young men and saves them. It appears to old
men, it appears to men, it appears to women, it appears to rich,
it appears to poor, it appears to kings, it appears to servants. The grace of God brings salvation
to all kinds of people. That's what he said. You remember
Joseph of Arimathea? The Bible says he was a rich
man, and yet the grace of God appeared to that man and saved
him. Barnabas was a blind beggar, but you know something? Grace
appeared to him and saved him too. It appears to all kinds
of people. There's different people in this
congregation. I bet you if it wasn't for the gospel, that some
of us here, we wouldn't have a thing in common. Do you know
that? Barb's a retired English school
teacher. What does me and Barb have in
common? It's sure not language. It's short on our pronunciation. What do we have in common? The
Gospel. The Lord saved me and the Lord
saved her. All kinds of people. Paul talked
about it here in the context. You can read the context about
aged men, aged women, young men and young women. So that's what
he's talking about. And I tell you something, I tell
you you'll know how the grace of God, when it appears to you,
I tell you how you'll know. He'll save you. That's the way you'll
know it. He'll save you. One of the best examples of this
that I know of, one of the most marvelous things in the New Testament
that grace appeared to was Saul of Tarsus. Terence read something
about that this morning. Man, he's an example of grace. But if you go in the Old Testament,
I tell you a man that I marveled at, the Lord saving him, he was
a king. He was a great king, a famous
king, a powerful king. His name was Manasseh. He had a godly father, but boy,
he was a wretch. He was an ungodly man. Burn his
children to idols in the fire. God sent prophets to him to warn
him. Who's the Lord? I don't care
what he says. I don't care what his opinion
is. And take another kid out. Sacrifice him. Burn his children
in the fire. A wretched, miserable man. You
know what the Lord said? My grace is going to appear to
that man. And the way it appeared was he sent the army, Manasseh's
army, down on Judah. And they whipped Judah. Manasseh
was trying to flee and they caught him in a bra patch. Wrapped him
up in thorns. hauled him off to another country,
put him in a dungeon. And you know what the scripture
says that man did while he was in that dungeon? In his affliction, he humbled
himself and sought the Lord. And he knew the Lord, he was
God. You say, Bruce, now wait a minute.
Now wait a minute. A man who burned his children
in the fire? A man who was such an idolater,
such a wicked man, how in the world could he be saved? One
way, by grace. You see, if it's not free, if
it's not sovereign, if it doesn't come to us at first unsought
and unearned, it can't save you. If God waits until we seek, then
we'll never be saved. So grace gets on our trail, grace
seeks us out, and grace saves us. I tell you, there's nobody
in this building tonight that grace cannot save. I don't care
who you are. I don't care what you've done.
I don't care how bad you've been. There's nobody in this building
tonight that grace cannot save you because grace is unmerited. And it usually lights up on the
sorry sinner in town and saves him. You can relate to that,
can't you? Grace. The grace of God that
bringeth salvation. It hath appeared. Has it appeared
to you? I'd say it's appeared to some
of you. It sure has. I know it has. And
you know it has. And he says here, In verse 11,
it hath appeared. It hath. The grace of God that
bringeth salvation hath appeared. That's past tense. It hath appeared
and it hath saved you. Grace has saved all kinds of
people. It hath done it. And when it
appears to you and saves you, you know what? Everything from
their back is gone. You're saved from a past life
of sin and shame. Isn't that a wonderful thing?
They're all gone. They're all gone. One of the
most precious verses of the Bible, I think it's in Colossians 2,
12 or 16 in there somewhere. He hath forgiven you all trespasses. Oh, they're gone. They're gone.
I will remember their sin. No more. You'll never forget
them. I still remember the sins of
my youth. And sometimes they break my heart to think about
them. I think about them. You know something he never thinks
about. I know them. You know something he don't.
I still remember them, but he don't. The grace of God that
bringeth salvation hath appeared. And when it appears, the past
is gone. You don't turn over a new leaf.
That's not what salvation is. Salvation is getting a new book.
Salvation is not improving your life. Salvation is your new life. And the old one, the old one,
it's gone. Oh, bless God for that. It's
gone. I will be a God to them and they
shall be my people. And their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. No more. No more. It's gone. Grace has put it away. Blood
has washed it away. The past. So grace deals with
our past, doesn't it? Grace deals with our past. He
saves us from our past. And he tells us here in verse
12, look at this. He comes now to the present.
Look what he says about the present. The grace of God takes care of
the present, too. Teaching us that denied ungodliness
and worldly lust. We should live soberly and righteously
and godly, look at this, in this present world. He not only saves us from our
past, grace secures our righteous living in the present, this present
time. It's the most amazing thing to
me that when the Lord saves you, He enables you to live for Him.
They used to scare me to death, and I know I've told you this
so often. But this is one of the things that bothered me all
through my teenage years. You can't live the Christian
life. You can't live for the Lord. The most miserable hour
of my week was sitting in church on Sunday morning. Me, live for
the Lord? Me, live a righteous life? Me
denying ungodliness and worldly lust? I love lust. I live to
suck on it. But I tell you what He did to
me and what He did to you and what He does to everybody He
saves. He gives you a new heart. He gives you a new spirit. And
He causes you to walk in His statutes. Those things that you
used to love, you hate them. Those things you used to delight
in, the desire is gone for them. The ruling desire is gone. They don't rule you anymore.
And those things that you used to hate, sitting in a worship
service for an hour, singing the precious old hymns, depths
of mercy, can there be? Now you love those things. You
love to follow the Lord. Why? He's doing something for
you. You know what He's doing? He's
teaching you. He's teaching you. He can teach
us more in the blink of an eye than I could teach us in a lifetime.
When the Holy Spirit has come, He will guide you. He will teach
you. He'll teach you. He's the teacher.
He's the teacher. You say, oh Bruce, I'm afraid.
I'm afraid when I leave Leave the assembly. Get out there by
myself. I know good and well I'll go back. I'll fall into
sin. Well, here's the secret to that. You won't be by yourself. He don't save you and go off
and leave you and say, I just hope you can make it. I hope
you don't fall away. I hope the devil don't snatch
you. I'd put you on probation. Time
will tell. Bullshit's not that way. When
the Lord saves a man, He teaches him. He works in him. He opens his heart. And he loves
the ways of the Lord. David said, He leads me in the
paths of righteousness. It's a marvelous thing that sinners
can love righteousness and can love God and love Christ. It's
amazing to me that I can sit down and read my Bible and love
it. It's amazing to me I can get on my knees before the Lord
and say, what a sweet hour of prayer. But that's what he does. The grace of God teaching us. He teaches us that denying ungodliness
and worldliness. I'm not saying the Christian
life is not a struggle. I'm not saying that at all. I'm
not saying you're without sin. I'm not saying you'll never fall
into sin. I'm not saying that at all. I am just saying this.
If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things, those
old principles that used to rule, those are passed away. They don't
rule anymore. And all things are new, and all
things are of God. And you beware of these people
that talks about grace, and they can live like the devil. They
can tell their filthy jokes. They can get drunk. They can
curse. They feel more comfortable in a society of ungodly than
they do in the society of the saints. Beware of those people,
because the grace of God won't allow that. The same grace that
saves us teaches us. Charles Fergin was going down
the streets of London one time. Everybody recognized Charles
Spurgeon. He was the most famous man in London at that time. And he was walking down the streets
of London, and this old drunk jumped up and grabbed his hand
and said, oh, Mr. Spurgeon, I'm one of your converts. He said, it's obvious. It's obvious
you're one of mine. You're not one of the Lord's.
And that's it, ain't it? Why could Spurgeon say that?
The grace of God teaches us. We deny. We deny ungodliness. Those things that are contrary
to God, we don't love them anymore. We despise them. We deny them. You know why we open our Bibles
and preach from them? You know why we believe what
the Bible tells us to believe? Because if you don't, it's ungodliness.
Anything that's un-God-like is ungodliness. You know why we
don't put pictures on the wall behind us? of this long-haired
fellow, blue-eyed guy. You know why we don't? That's
idolatry. That's ungodliness. We open the Bible, and what it
tells us to believe, we believe because everything else is ungodly. Here's why we practice what God
says, because everything else is ungodly. That's why. And the Holy Spirit, the grace
of God, teaches us that there are nine ungodliness and worldly
lust. And I tell you, in spite of all
the trials, isn't the Christian life wonderful? I've heard Clarence
say, I don't know how many times, man, it's the happiest life I've
ever lived. I heard Donnie Bell say one time, Brother Gerald's
sister, Faith's pastor, he says, you know, If it wasn't, just
don't even consider Christianity, he said. For the sake of an argument,
don't even think about Christianity. He says this life is the best
life to live. And isn't that right? Look at
the people. Look at the people out here.
I've got a son that's over in Dayton Hospital. And he has so
abused his brain and his body, now he's probably suffering the
consequences of it. Look at the misery our young
people are putting themselves through. Out all night drunk,
that's got to take its toll after a while. Putting these drugs
in your body where you can't even think, that's got to take
its toll. I tell young people, you better
not go looking for trouble, because it's already looking for you.
It's already looking for you. But you know something? The Christian
life, It's not only the best way to live in this life. It's
the most joyful and safest way to live in this life. But I'll
tell you something else grace does. It not only takes away
the past. It not only secures our living
for the Lord now. But you know what it does for
the future? It gives us hope. It gives us a good hope. Look
what He said. Look what He said in verse 13.
Looking far. Looking forward. That's what
that means. Looking forward. for that blessed
hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior,
Jesus Christ. If I asked you a question, who
is our great God and Savior? Could anybody tell me? Who is
our great God and Savior? The Lord Jesus Christ. Ain't
that so plain? Ain't it something how men could read these and
go off and deny the death of Christ? He not only is a great
man. He not only is a great prophet. He's a great God and Savior. Jesus Christ. That's who He is. He's a great God and Savior.
Jesus Christ. And boy, look what a hope. Looking
forward. Looking forward. I read that
somewhere. I don't know if there's an amplified version of what.
Looking forward. Looking forward. Having something
to look forward to. Isn't it wonderful? I remember when I used to work
in the Ford shop. Now when they hired me in there,
95 degree days, they fed us these salt pills. I don't think that
was a good idea. They finally found out. We'd
eat salt pills. Probably why I'm having blood
pressure problems now. But we sweat so much. When we
come out of that place, our clothes were white. And I sat in my vehicle
for 10 or 15 minutes, just resting, so I could go home. Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays,
and Thursdays. I was always looking forward
to Friday. Well, Friday. I won't have to go to work Saturday.
I can rest Saturday and Sunday. Having something to look forward
to. Isn't it wonderful to have something
to look forward to? If you and I had to live in this life, and
maybe the doctors come on our beds, and they shut their heads,
and said, oh, ain't no hope for him. He's gone. He's leaving
here. A few more days. A few more days, he's gone. Frank
Singleton. A few more days, he's gotten
up in this life, and he's gone. What if you were there? What
have you got to look forward to? Not just in this life, but
what have you got to look forward to when this short life is over?
Well, this is what grace does for a person. It not only puts
away his old life, it guides him and secures his living for
the Lord and loving the Lord now. But when this short life
is over, it's got a hope laid up for him, looking far Looking
forward to that blessed hope and the glorious appearance of
our great God and Savior. The Lord Jesus said, I'm going
away, and I'm going to prepare a place for you, and I'm going
to come again and receive you unto myself that where I am. Where is He? He's in heaven,
ain't He? He's seated there on the right
hand of God. Where I am? There. You may be
also, not just your spirit, but your body. What a day that will
be when my Savior I shall see, when He takes me by the hand,
by this hand, this glorified hand, and leads me through the
promised land. When we sat at His feet, when
we sat with Him in His throne, when we're dressed in white,
when we're with Him. Oh, what a day. What an eternal
day of rest and worship. To see Him without any sin, to
see Him without any dimness in our eyes, to see Him in His love,
to see Him in His kindness and all of His divine saving attributes,
to see Him. John said, You shall see Him
as He is. What a hope! And what is it that
gives us hope? Grace. You can't attribute it
to anything else but grace. The grace of God that bringeth
salvation. And he says here in verse 14,
quickly, look at this. He tells us here what brings
all of this. How can grace come to us? How can grace save us?
Well, he tells us in verse 14. This great God and Savior who
gave Himself for us. Who gave Himself for us. in order
to redeem us from all iniquity. Who gave Himself for us? The
great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, we'll never
get over this, will we? God in His Son coming in our
humanity and gave Himself. He gave Himself in His deity.
Somebody says, God, it wasn't God. The Bible says they crucified
the Lord of glory. He gave himself. The Lord of
glory gave himself. He gave himself in all his humanity. He gave himself. He could have gave heaven. That
was his. He could have gave all of his
angels the earth. The earth is the Lord's. But
he never gave any of that. He gave himself the great God. gave himself. I think often about a debate. Richard Dawkins, the great atheist,
Larry gave me the debate. Richard Dawkins, a great atheist
there at Harvard University, was debating with John Lennox.
He was a professed Christian. And these two men are professors. They know something about this
universe. And how it's made up and the wonder of it. And Lennox,
the Christian, was talking about he got off on redemption. About
the Lord redeeming us by His blood and suffering and dying.
And the atheist, Dawkins, he got so agitated. And he said,
this is what bothers me. We can't even talk about how
this world and the universe came into being except you get off
on this redemption business. And then he made this statement.
Now listen to this. He said, let's suppose that there
is a God and He created this universe. And I'm telling you,
Dawkins knows something about this universe. He studied it.
He knows something about the vastness of it, the immensity,
the order, the glory and the beauty of it. And he says, let's
suppose that God created this universe and this earth. He said,
what kind of a God would He have to be to do that? How wise would
he have to be? How powerful would he have to
be? And he said, you want us to think that such a God like
that would be mindful of us upon this little terrestrial ball?
That's it, ain't it? What fills Dawkins with unbelief
fills us with belief in wonder. Died He for me who caused His
pain? Me who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be that
Thou, my God, hast died for me? Old David went out one night
and he looked up at the stars and he said, Lord, when I consider
Your heavens, the moon and the stars that You've made, how glorious
You must be! How awesome you must be! What
is man that you are mindful of Him? But there it is, ain't it?
This is it. We're told it right here. The
great God and Savior laid down His life to redeem us. And we'll never get over it.
We stand amazed at it. Do we not? Oh, people throw this
around so flippantly. Christ died. Christ died. And never give it a second thought.
Oh, who is Jesus Christ? He's the great God and Savior.
And what did He give? He gave Himself. All of Himself. He gave all of Himself. He held
back nothing. Here's my cheeks, He says. Take
my cheeks and pluck off the hair. Here's my holy brow. Take it and crown it with thorns.
Here's my hands. Here's my feet. Take them and
nail your spikes through them. He gave. He gave. He gave. Here's my blood. Open up my side
and pour it all out. He gave Himself. Why did He give
Himself? Nothing else could redeem us.
This redeem means to purchase by a price. To buy back by a
price. When someone is taken captive,
they demand a ransom price. And they won't let them go until
the ransom is paid. The law of God, the wrath of
God, was securing, was seeking our damnation. And justice said,
I will not let them go. I can't let them go. What's the
price? Emmanuel's blood. Emmanuel's
blood. What does he do? He pours it
out. He pours out His blood. And mercy comes and says, let
them go. Here's the price. Blood. He's redeemed us. But I tell
you, not just anybody's blood. The blood of the great God and
Savior. And you know He did all that
on purpose. You notice that here. He gave Himself for us in order
to redeem us. Don't that tell us there was
a purpose in that? Why did he give himself? Well,
perhaps, well maybe, something good will come out of it. No.
There was a purpose behind it. In order to redeem us. This wasn't plan B. This was
God's plan from all eternity. It was purposed. Those who would
be saved, already chosen. The one that would save them,
he's already standing good for. And when He came to go to the
cross, that's why He came into this world, to go to the cross.
And upon the cross, upon the cross, He knew, I'm here on purpose. I'm going to accomplish the redemption
of my people on purpose. Ain't it a wonderful thought
that when He was on the cross, you were on His mind? While He
was suffering, He was thinking about you. Isn't that wonderful?
Redemption. Our great God and Savior, Jesus
Christ. And what do we attribute this
to? Grace. The free unmerited favor of God. Grace. Let's pray.