to the book of Titus. Titus chapter three. As Paul begins to conclude his
letter to Titus, his son in the faith as he calls him, he gives
us, or he tells us a glorious truth. We find these words, he
saved us. He saved us. What hope there
is in knowing I can't save myself. I'm unable to save myself. I
didn't even want to save myself, but he saved us. That's the title
of the message. He saved us. Paul tells us how
God saved his people and why God saves his people. Let's start
reading here in verse four, chapter three. But after that, the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. not by works of
righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy,
he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ, our Savior, that being found that being justified by
his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. He starts out by saying, but
after, and you could just put in when the fullness of time
was come, if you want to, everything that the Lord does, everything
the Lord does is just coming to pass as he has purposed it.
And we love that about our God, don't we? Here we see that God's
love and kindness appeared. Now it had already existed in
eternity. God is changeless. God is unchangeable. Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, today and forever. So if he loves you and
he loves me right now, he has always loved you and he has always
loved me. That's comforting to the believer.
He doesn't fall in and out of love with us. Even though our
hearts grow cold, His never does towards us. He's constant. He's
consistent in everything. He's unalterable. And when He
decided to manifest it, He sent forth His kindness and His love. His kindness and His love. He decided to make it known.
Now, If we could just stop for a moment
and have the viewpoint of ourself, whatever little bit of understanding
we have of being a sinner by nature, a sinner because of what
we are, if we could really enter into that just for a moment and
then hear those words again that God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
The thought of him loving is amazing. The thought of God choosing
to love The creature, the creature is amazing. The creator loved
the creature in so much, in so much that he gave his only begotten
son to be the propitiation between the creature and the creator.
Now, whenever the Lord purposed this, it says he appeared. This
love and this kindness appeared. Well, when did it appear? when
the Lord purposed it. On the cross of Calvary, the
Lord purposed to show forth his love and his kindness. And in
time, whenever he says live unto these dead corpses that we are
and gives us life, he reveals this love and this kindness again. Our focus should be very much
drawn to the fact that he loves his elect. He actually, truly
loves. And you can't say that it's just
a little bit. And you can't say that it's,
no, this is a complete love. This is a perfect love. Jacob
have I loved. That's amazing. We say that all
the time, that he loves his people. But do we ever stop and really
try to take that in? It's unfathomable. It is. It's impossible to really understand
the depth of the fact God loves me. God loves you. What greater honor, what greater
privilege, what more glorious news could you receive as a sinner
than to hear the Lord say, I love you. I have redeemed you. My love didn't try to do anything. My love accomplished your salvation. I've bought you by my own blood.
You are mine and I am yours forever. Nothing shall separate us from
that love, neither height, nor depth, nor any creature. It's
not possible. It's not possible to be separated
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. And in time,
the Lord says unto us, live. And we love him in return because
he first loved us. to say that he loves everyone
the exact same as foolishness. God doesn't love everybody. God
does not love everybody. If I was to look at one of you,
if I was to look at you, Steve, and I was to say, I love your
wife the exact way that you love her, and I love my wife the way
I love your wife, well, my love doesn't mean anything. Then we're
probably going to end up fighting, I guess. You might get mad at
me. But it's true, isn't it? That's
his wife. It's his wife. You see what I'm
saying? And he is her husband. There's the love that's there
between them that's meant for them only to share. There's a
love that's, what about the Lord's love? It's the same in that regard.
His love is towards his people. He doesn't love everyone. If
I was to tell every woman here, I love you just as much as I
love my wife. What good is my love towards my wife? Nothing.
Nothing, but if I look at her and I say, I love you, that means
something. I love you. That means something
whenever you can look at your beloved and say that to them,
doesn't it? The Lord loves his people. The Lord gave his love
towards his people. He's shown forth his love in
his time. He purposed it and he reveals
it. Look what I've done for you.
Here's my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. He gave his
only begotten son because of his love for his people. Something else to say about love
is that when I tell my wife that I love her, what good does that
do you? Does that make you feel loved? No. No, it's a particular
love. It's a peculiar love, isn't it,
that our Lord has towards His bride, towards His people. He
so loved, and in so loving, He gave. He gave His only begotten
Son. In doing so, whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Lord,
I need to believe on You. Cause me to believe on You. But
He loved us so much, He gave us the ability to do that, too.
He loved us so much that He gave us the grace and the faith to
believe him also. He didn't just love us and die
for us. He loved us and died for us and gave us his righteousness
and justified us and made us just as holy as he is and give
us the faith to believe it. Everything he required because
of his love, he accomplished. He accomplished what rest there
is to the believer. Now pertaining to the love of
God, He only has one kind, and it's holy, and it's particular,
and it's peculiar. We don't understand it because
it's perfect. Nothing about us is perfect.
Nothing in our flesh is perfect. Not a thought we've had, a prayer
we've prayed, nothing we can do is perfect. But everything
He does is perfect, and therefore everything He produces is perfect.
If you're His, He loves you perfectly. I can rest in that kind of love,
can't you? Can you rest in your love? No. No, I worry about falling
out of love with my spouse. Marriage is work, isn't it? You
have to work on your love for one another and grow in it and
dedicate to each other. That's what I would tell anybody
that's going to get married. Marriage is work. It's about
sacrifice. But nothing compares to the love
and the sacrifice of the Lord. What did we sacrifice? What did
we contribute? Our sin. The utter vileness that
we are, the ugly, that's what we gave him in exchange for his
love. It's embarrassing, isn't it?
We couldn't give him anything that he would be pleased with.
So he took our sin and he made us the righteousness of God in
him. And I love the thought at the marriage supper of the lamb,
whenever the bride is presented, I just can't enter into that. The Lord says he's gonna girt
himself and serve us. Lord's going to girt himself
after everything else that he's already done in salvation. He's
going to girt himself and serve you and I. And we will be pronounced
unto him as they say at a wedding. I now pronounce Mr. And Mrs. Jehovah. Sit. Can you the Lord our righteousness? That's the presentation. We're
in him because of his love. We're in him because of him doing
it. Thank God he saved us because
he loved us. He has a perfect love. He, the
one that inhabits eternity, Jehovah, the immortal, the only God, what
Paul said to the only one, the invisible one, God, he, by himself
saved us because he loves us perfectly. He loves his people
perfectly. He chose to make his kindness
and love known unto his people. What good would my love do if
I don't let my wife know about it? Wouldn't do any good, would
it? If I don't serve her, if I don't communicate with her,
if I don't, some people, they say you have different love languages.
I know that's true. I know that's true. Mine's, well,
anyways. We have different love languages,
don't we? And I gotta be careful not to tell too much myself.
It's good to expose your heart, but not all of it. You understand
what I'm saying? What good would it do for me
to tell my wife I love you? but not ever show it. He showed
it, didn't he? The Lord did. You remember whenever,
uh, Gomer was, uh, she married Hosea and, uh, the Lord told
Hosea, go and take a harlot and marry a harlot. And he did. And
what'd she do? Well, she went back to her harlotry
and, uh, he would continually woo her in saying, I love you.
And he would leave gifts on the step, but she was, So self-absorbed
and so interested in self that she thought those gifts are from
my lovers. Those gifts are from the men that I've been with and
that desire me. And she thought she was something
special. It wasn't until some time that the Lord finally caused
her eyes to be open that every single gift that was left on
the doorstep was by Hosea and nobody else. She became ravished
in her heart. She said, my beloved, she fell
in love with him because of his love. And is that not a picture
of us that did not love the Lord in any way, shape or form in
the grace that was given to us? Before we even knew what grace
was, we had gifts on our doorstep from him. The sunshine that he's
let shine forth on our lives and the The love that he's shown
forth even before we knew that he loved us, the goodness of
the Lord, that's what leads men to repentance. We realize every
gift that's been on the doorstep came from him. No wonder Solomon
put it this way, the Shulamite woman said, I am my beloved and
he is mine. We get to claim him as our own
because of his love towards us. The Lord chose to make his love
appear. Now Paul interjects this statement
about this love appearing. He obliterates any and every
notion of it being deservant of you and I. Meaning he shows
forth the fact that you and I didn't deserve it in any way that it
had nothing to do with anything we have done or anything that
we are going to do. It's all by grace and mercy. Let's read that together in verse
five, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy, he saved us. According to his mercy, he saved
us. Can't make that any clearer,
can we? Nothing that you've done, nothing that I've done, no working
of righteousness on our part. But according to his mercy, can
you rest in mercy? Can you hope in mercy and in
grace? Yes, but I can't hope in self. I can't hope in my works. I can't
hope in my righteousness, but oh, I can rest in mercy. I can
rest in grace. I can rest in his love towards
me, not my love towards him. Lord asked Peter, Peter, do you
love me? And Peter, the Lord said, do you agape me? You love
me with a godly love. Peter said, I paleo you. I love
you with a physical love. I don't know how to love you
with the godly love. That's the truth, isn't it? Lord, I don't
know how to love you. I want to. Cause me to. Cause me to love you. Cause me
to be found in you. That's our heart's desire, isn't
it? That's what we pray. Lord, cause
me to love you. If you're gonna be pleased with
my love, you're gonna have to give it to me. And you're gonna
have to draw it out of me. It's gonna have to be that you
are the vine and I'm the branch. And that everything that comes
through me has to come through you. Or I won't have any hope
whatsoever of producing anything that's good in your sight. Not
by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to
His mercy, He hath saved us. He saved us. It's all of grace, isn't it?
I love the fact that there's not one single responsibility
to man. Well, somebody says you have
to believe. Yes, that's still God's responsibility. He's got
to cause you to believe. He's got to enable you. He has
to give the power to believe because we're dead in trespasses
and in sin. A lot of people think that he
passes by and he says, if you'll accept me, I'll make you alive. If you'll let me into your heart,
I'll let you live. Nothing can be further from the
truth. We can't let God do anything, can we? No, in his great love,
he knew everything required he would have to provide, and he
provided everything in the person of his darling son. And in time,
he sends his spirit that says, live, believe, and guess what
we do? We live and we believe. It's
all because He will and we shall. It has nothing to do with what
we chose. Now that we are in Christ, we
wouldn't choose anything else, would we? No, He's the best.
He's the fairest of 10,000. All the responsibility is on
God, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not based on our
performance. It's completely based on His
purpose. Aren't you glad it's not a...
Lord's not given us performance reviews. They talk about having
performance reviews and jobs and you can get promoted or demoted
or you can get a raise or you don't deserve a raise because
your performance is not this. He's not looking at my performance.
He don't give performance reviews to his children. No, he looks
to his darling son and he says, perfectly righteous. Everyone
that's in Christ Jesus, perfectly righteous. Yep. You've performed
everything. Perfect. Everything. Every thought. Perfect. Every prayer. Perfect.
Every deed. Perfect. How can that be? Because
we're in the precious son of God and he saved us. He saved us. This purpose of his was given
to his people before the world began. As we heard, I was going
to quote Ephesians 1, 4, but he read it. It was given before
time began from the foundation of the world. This purpose was
given. We've been chosen in Christ Jesus before the world began.
God's gospel begins and ends with God choosing, God saving,
God calling, God keeping. What is your and I's part in
that? What is our duty in that? What is our obligation in that?
Nothing. You have a hard job, rest. That's
what you do, rest in the finished work of Christ alone. Can you
rest? It means you're not working. There's no work to be done, rest. That's what his love accomplished.
2 Timothy 1.9, I quote this probably as much as any other verse. It's
on the bulletin, you know it is. God saved us. God hath, that's
past tense. God hath saved us and then called
us. God saved us and then called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works. but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given to us before the world
began in Christ Jesus, but now is made manifest. That's that
appearing he's talking about. That love he talks about and
his kindness appearing, we went forth. That's what he's talking
about. Same thing here at appearing. now is manifest by the appearing
of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and
hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. How does the Lord Jesus Christ
appear? Do we do something to obligate
him to appear? No. No, he's God. He chooses
to appear. Thank God he really chooses to
appear. He doesn't have to, he chose to. He made it His purpose
to appear unto His people. And every single person that
Jesus Christ died for on the cross of Calvary in time, the
Holy Spirit will go forth through this glorious gospel and shine
the light according to His purpose and say, live. That's how he
appears. He does it all. This is his love. This is his token, if you will,
of his love, what he has done for his people in salvation.
And because of it, he reveals it unto you and I. Manifests
his love, just as I was describing, I have to show my love. He's
shown his love. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. That's what His love accomplished.
We are the sons of God. He saved us in Christ Jesus before
time and in time. And in time He makes known His
saving by calling His people and He reveals, I've given you
life. and I've given you immortality. He brings that to light. It's
in darkness until he reveals it. We're in darkness until he
shines forth his light, the light of his gospel, all by his spirit. This is what he's saying in verse
five, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration.
That's the shining forth of the light right here and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. That's what the spirit does. We are regenerated. We are made alive. We are brought
into the light. We are given the breath of life
all by the gospel, by his spirit. He says, live. This is what he's
speaking of, the regeneration here. I love the word renewing. He's
constantly renewing His people, isn't He? How does He do that?
He leads me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul. That word
restore is the same as renew, isn't it? How does He do that?
He constantly points me to Christ, the bread of life, the fountain
of living water. He allows me to partake of heavenly
food. And unlike the Israelites, we
don't say we loathe this light bread, we say we love this bread,
don't we? This bread of life, this necessary
sustenance, or we would be dead. We love our Savior because he
first loved us. He tells us that this is done
by the washing of regeneration. Now, You only wash something
if it's dirty. That might seem like silly to
say, but maybe you've not had children that throw their clothes
on the floor whether they're dirty or not. It drives my wife
crazy. And I found out early on, just because you wear a pair
of pants one time, they can be folded up and put it back in
the drawer. Who knew? She let me know, those are not
dirty. I'm spending all this time washing
these garments, And then she threatened me to have to do my
own laundry, so you better believe I started folding them back up
and putting them in the drawer. But you only wash something if it's
dirty, typically, right? You only wash things that are
dirty, typically. Men have this perception that
doing something wrong makes them dirty. And then they need to
be washed. They have to fix it somehow,
some way. Doing something wrong equals
sin. But the perception's wrong. Understand
that we are sinners by nature. We are sinners by practice. We're
sinners by choice. And that everything about us
is utterly sinful. I pollute this by touching it.
And that's evident whenever Uzzah touched the ark, the Lord killed
him. He was unholy and he touched something holy. God struck him
dead. One sin. That's all it takes. Just one
sin to be deemed as unclean, unholy, and to have the necessity
of needing to be washed. Needing to be washed. Just one
sin. That's all it takes. And unlike my brain, whereas
I wore the pants one time and they really weren't dirty, we're
talking about one little speck on the garment. It has to be
washed. It has to be washed. There's
no exceptions. God is absolute in this. He's
absolute in holiness. And if there is one blemish whatsoever,
if there's one, the tiniest spot of leprosy, the leper was declared
leprous, unclean. The tiniest spot had to be washed. I find it glorious that whenever
the leper was covered in leprosy from the very top of his head
to the very bottom of his feet, what was declared then? Clean.
What is that a picture of? It's a picture of if you see
one spot of sin and think you need to be washed, you don't
realize that you're covered from the top of your head to the bottom
of your feet, completely unclean. And only then, when you see yourself
as the chief of sinner, only then when you see yourself as
the chief of sinner, the Lord says, clean, clean, washed. Why does snow? Why? Because I
see that I'm the sinner and that he's the savior. I have to have
his blood, his righteousness, not works of righteousness, which
I have done, but according to his mercy, I've got to have mercy. I've got to have grace. I have
to be washed in the precious blood of Christ. Doing wrong don't mean we get
dirty. We do wrong because we are dirty. We're filthy. We're
vile. We're wretched. We've got to
be washed. We've got to be washed. Our righteousness is filthy rags. It's not what we do. It's what
we are. I say that often, but it's a
simple truth that if understood, will bring the Lord's given repentance
for us to understand that. When we see that we're utterly
polluted, when we're utterly vile, not just a little bit.
Most people in religion will say that they're sinners, but
that means that they've done some bad things. No, the issue is,
is that I have no good thing about me in my flesh. In me,
that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Lord, you're gonna
have to wash me. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done. It's gonna have to be by your mercy. It's
gonna have to be by your grace. You're going to have to do all
the saving, all the calling, all the keeping, all the washing.
I don't have any hope to do this. I can't make the blood of Christ
effectual. Lord, you're gonna have to do
that. You're gonna have to make it effectual. He does for his
people, don't he? David said, wash me. He said,
purge me with hyssop. Hyssop was the branch used to
sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat. He said, purge me with
hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. That's what he does for his people. We're unable to fix the problem,
aren't we? We see that, we know that's true. I mentioned this
the first hour, but the maniac of Gadara, what hope did he have
of getting to Christ? The maniacic Adara, what hope
did he have of finding himself in his right mind all of a sudden?
He had cut himself, they had put chains on him. That's a picture
of a freewill works religion, a man trying to make a covenant
with God saying, here's my oath to you, here's my vow to you,
here's what I've done. I'm gonna forge these chains
and it's gonna be a bonding chain that I've obligated God to do
something. And what had happened, they just kept breaking. We can't
keep a promise to God, can we? No, not in a holy manner, not
the way the Lord Jesus Christ kept all of his promises then
the Lord was pleased with. But what hope did this maniac
have of finding himself in his right mind? Well, in and of himself,
zero. But in and of the Lord Jesus
Christ, being that he was found in Christ, being that he was
chosen before the foundation of the world, he had all the
hope, didn't he? Because he was found in Christ.
In and of himself, he had no hope, nothing that he could do
to cause the demons to leave him. And that thing of demons,
that's demonic thinking. Demonic thinking, very simply
put, is anti-Christ. Anything that says Christ is
not sufficient, Christ is not enough, I have to do something,
that's demonic thinking. That's anti-Christ spirit. He
had no hope of changing his mind in these things. He had no hope
of coming to the knowledge of the truth or being made right
in and of himself. So he cut himself every day,
didn't he? He says often, cut himself often. What's that a
picture of? Well, maybe penance will do the job. Maybe if I sacrifice
enough, I can get in my right mind and maybe the Lord will
love me if I sacrifice enough. No, his love isn't found in one
person. God's love is not unconditional. God's love is very conditional.
You must be found in Christ or he does not love you and I. We've
got to be found in him. He loves his son. He doesn't
love anything about our flesh. He loves his darling son. Cutting
ourselves isn't gonna help, is it? So what does the Lord do?
Well, not by works of righteousness, which this maniac had done, but
according to his mercy, the Lord condescends from the top of the
Sea of Galilee all the way to the bottom and goes to this tomb
where this man is living. And he approaches him. And as
he's approaching, the maniac recognizes the Lord Jesus Christ
and runs to him. And legion speaks, the demons
speak. But I love the fact that it says
they worshiped. They had to kneel down to him
as God. They recognized him and said
unto him, have you come to torment us before the time even the demons
believe in Tremble? Believing in Jesus is not enough.
Believing that he exists is not enough. We must believe on him
and he must enable us to do that. Demons believe, but not into
salvation. So what transpired? Well, this maniac, Because acknowledging
the Lord demands an answer, what is your name? And when the Lord
demands an answer, we have to be honest, don't we? Whatever
the question is, We have to be honest, if the Lord demands it,
if the Lord demands it. Now, a lot of people have it
in their mind that they have God fooled because they're really
not that bad. They haven't done as much as
so-and-so. And that's what that Pharisee we mentioned the first
hour was saying. I think, God, I'm not like this or like that.
But when God demands, an answer. We will confess this, Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. That's what everybody
is going to confess. Now, this maniac that was demonically
possessed with spirits, unclean spirits, the scripture says,
The Lord says, what's your name? He says, Legion, for we are many,
for we are many. And he tells him to depart. And he has to, I love that he
has to request. The demons have to request the
Lord. Can we, don't send us away. They beg him. They beg the Lord,
don't send us away, but send us into the swine. Please, please. I love that he is all powerful.
As the Lord Jesus Christ, God and man in one, he's all powerful. He's the sovereign creator of
the universe standing right there on the dirt that he made talking
to this maniac. Well, the Lord bids them, as
you know, and the demons go into the swine and the swine go down
into the ocean and they choke themselves. It's a picture of
all the demonic thinking that that man had, all of that false
religion that pictured him performing. That's the end of it. It's gonna
go into the swine, the unclean animal, and it's gonna choke
him out and kill him in the end. What about our brother, the maniac?
What happened to him? Well, when the farmers came,
they found him clothed and seated. and in his right mind. That's
what the Lord does by grace, not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy. We are now clothed
in his righteousness. We are now seated, seeing him
as God. That's repentance. We see him
as God. We worship him in spirit and
in truth. We are clothed in his righteousness.
We are seated and worshiping him as God, and we're in our
right mind. We know we can't fix it. We know
that it's not by works of righteousness that we have done. But there's
only one reason, according to his mercy. That's how he saved
us. That's why he saved us. All for
his glory. All for his glory. Philippians 3 9 says and be found
in him not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ. the righteousness which
is of God by faith. There's our righteousness. It's
his righteousness. And he gives it to his people. Is your hope his mercy? Yes. Yes, as a matter of fact, his
grace and mercy is my only hope. That's our only hope, isn't it? His grace and his mercy alone.
Not me, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name
be glory and honor and praise. Not, not according to what we
have done, but according to what you have done all by your grace
and all by your mercy. Lord, if I'm to be found in Christ,
you're going to have to do it. That's why the hearing the glorious
news that the Lord said, I will, and you shall bring such comfort
to the believer. He promised he would. He promised
he would never leave his people nor forsake them. All that the
father given to me shall come unto me. And him that cometh,
I'll in no wise cast out. Why? He gave the ability. He
gave the desire. He gave the need to come unto
him. And then the declaration goes out, come unto me, all you
that are labored and are heavy laden. If you're a maniac, If
you're out of your mind with false religion, thinking you
have a righteousness that's of the law, that's maniacal thinking,
isn't it? Come unto Christ. Stop being burdened. We try to
carry a burden in fixing our sin. We can't fix it. He did.
He did. He put it away by his own blood,
his own sacrifice, his own doing. With that same blood, he washes
us. That's what he says here, doesn't it? by the washing of
regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. This is what
he does by his spirit for his people. And let's read this one
more time. Titus three, verse four. But
after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared
towards man. Towards man appeared, not by
works of righteousness we have done, But according to his mercy,
he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ, our Lord. I love that word abundantly,
abundantly. That word means richly. He shed
on his people abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that
being justified by his grace We should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. He shed abundantly. He shed his love abundantly. He shed his grace on his people
abundantly. He sheds his mercy on his people
abundantly. I love that word abundantly.
How saved are God's elect? Abundantly. How are we kept? Abundantly kept by his power,
because his power is abundant, isn't it? How guaranteed are
we, if we are in Christ, that we have eternal life? Abundantly. Abundantly. How do we know? Because Christ said, it is finished. I have finished the work that
thou hast given me, Father. I have finished that work. What
was the work? What was the means? What was
the reason for Christ coming to this earth? to redeem his
people, to save his people from their sin. Did he do it? Yes.
How do we know? He said it is finished and God
cannot lie. Christ was born to honor his
father in the covenant of grace and save his people, and our
God did that abundantly. He abundantly pardoned. Because
of this, we are now justified freely by his grace. We are heirs
of God and enter into this just for a moment. I'm coming to a
close. We are now heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
We are heirs of God. That means everything he owns. is our inheritance by the purchased
blood of Christ, by the blood, what the blood of Christ purchased.
We are heirs of God and joint heirs. I can't enter into that.
What does God not own? He owns everything. What has
he given to his people? Everything in Christ. That's
what his love accomplished. We are his people in the sheep
of his pasture. I wonder if Paul said, I reckon
that the suffering of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. The glory that
shall be revealed in us. We are heirs of God. We say that flippantly. We say
that not even entering into it, but just to take a bite of that
just for a minute and chew it and digest it if we can, we're
heirs of God. What would I withhold from my
children whenever I pass? What would I not give them? I
would give them everything. What did the Lord give us in
his death? Everything. What? No greater love hath any
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
The Lord Jesus Christ loved and therefore purchased salvation
for his people and gave us everything. We are now his purchased possession
and he's given us everything he's purchased. Isn't that glorious? The Lord chose to appear. The
Lord chose to save. The Lord chose to wash. The Lord
chose, he chooses to renew. He shed all of this on his people
by the Lord Jesus Christ. He justified us by his grace.
He alone made his people heirs. And he tells us what it's according
to. The last five words, last six, seven words here, according
to the hope of eternal life. That's our hope, isn't it? It's
according to his purpose, according to the hope of eternal life.
He successfully redeemed his people. Because of this, we have
abundant hope. Our hope's not just a, we don't
have a little bit of hope. I have a little bit of hope that
I might be able to do this, or a little bit of hope I might
be able to go here and accomplish this. No, we have abundant hope
because of what Christ accomplished. He abundantly purged our sin
by his own blood and God was abundantly satisfied by the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. In so much, he looks at his children
now and says, justified freely by his grace, not by works of
righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy,
he saved us.