Let us open our Bibles tonight
to Titus, the letter of Titus, chapter two. The apostle Paul had left Titus
on the Isle of Crete to teach and ordained elders there
in the churches where God had saved his people. And part of
the teaching is very practical. And I want us to begin our reading
tonight in verse 11 of chapter two, just after he had given
practical instructions concerning servants or workers. Verse 11, 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 and 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. These things speak and exhort
and rebuke with all authority that no man despise thee. From this passage of scripture
tonight, I want to bring us four truths, four truths for us to
see about God's saving grace. about God's saving grace. Four
very simple truths. Number one, grace brings salvation. Do you see that? For the grace
of God that bringeth salvation. The word grace is a very important
word among God's people. And we know it means unmerited
favor. The salvation that is spoken
of here For the grace of God that bringeth salvation, the
salvation that is spoken of here in this text, and the grace that
brings salvation is salvation from sin. Salvation from sin. You know, people might use that
word saved in a number of different ways. person might be on the
edge of precipice or falling over a cliff or something like
that and someone reach out and grab them and save them. Save
them. Someone may be going down in
a lake for the third time and someone gets a life buoy out
to them and saves them. But we're talking about this
verse of scripture, of course, is speaking about salvation from
sin. The angel told Joseph that Mary's
son should be called Jesus, Jehovah Savior. He shall be called Jesus
for this reason, because he shall save his people from their sins. It is grace that brought us the
Savior. Or, you know, the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ. that though he was rich, yet
for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty
might be made rich. This is what the scripture says
in 2 Corinthians. It is grace, it's unmerited favor
that brought us the Savior. All of us, by nature, we know
we have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And what
did sin bring us? Grace brings us salvation. But
think for just a moment, what has sin brought to us? What has sin given to us? Well, sin brought death, first
of all. Spiritual death, yes, but liability
to eternal death. Yes, sin has brought death and
sin has brought separation from God. We're separated from him
because of our sins when we come into this world. But it is God's
grace, God's unmerited favor that brings salvation through
the Lord Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 2, the apostle said,
for by grace are you saved through faith. And in Romans, Paul said,
therefore it is a faith that it might be by grace. Salvation,
for by grace are you saved through faith. It is of faith that it
might be by grace. Any other, any other thing other
than faith would be worse, and therefore it would not be by
grace. But faith has been described as just this empty hand. That's
all it is, just an empty hand to receive, not to merit, But
to receive, if it was salvation by love on our part, that would
be works. But it is by faith that it might
be by grace to this end, Paul said. This is Romans 4 16, to
this end. Therefore, it is a faith that
it might be by grace to the end, the promise might be sure. All the seed. All the seed of
Abraham that God told him when he took him out there in the
night season and told him to look up into the skies and if
he could number the stars, so shall the seed be. And we know
he had a natural seed, the nation of Israel, but he also had a
spiritual seed. And that seed is a multitude. When John saw in heaven, he saw
a multitude which man cannot number. You know, I was listening
yesterday to a program that they have people call in questions
about the scriptures, and I've listened to them several times,
and this is the first time someone called in with a question about
Calvinism. Of course, these men are Armenians. They wouldn't dare say anything
bad about Calvinism, but I thought to myself, the two things that
they mentioned, how easy it is to build a straw man and knock
him down. But the first thing they said
about Calvinism is, they said, I've never read in the scripture
where God elected anyone for hell. Well, you never will find
that in the scripture. And no Calvinist would ever say
that. You've been listening to me preach,
many of you for many years. Election is unto salvation. And election never kept anyone
from being saved. Election assures that those whom
God loved shall be saved, yes. But election never kept anyone
from being saved. But I thought that was the first
thing they misrepresent what Calvinists teach and believe. We don't teach that God elected
men to hell. God elected men to obtain salvation
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And there was another thing also
that they mentioned that was just as obnoxious because of the misrepresentation. But God's grace through the Lord
Jesus Christ brings us. Sin brought us death. Sin brought
us separation from God. But God's grace through the Lord
Jesus Christ brings us life, spiritual life, eternal life. It brings us forgiveness. Our
sins are forgiven. The psalmist said, there is forgiveness
with thee that thou mightest be feared. And that fear there
is not that slavish fear, but the beginning of wisdom is the
fear of the Lord. It's that reverential fear that
God's people have in their hearts once they have been forgiven.
But salvation, grace brings to us salvation through the Lord
Jesus Christ. It brings us life, it brings
us forgiveness, and it brings us reconciliation. We have peace
with God. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. Look down to verse 14 in our
text. How has he accomplished this?
Who gave himself for us. It's through his redemption,
through his work, That is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a pastor years ago
in England by the name of Alexander Carson. And I have a couple of
his writings, a couple of his books, but the story goes that
one night, one winter night, he was sitting by the fireside
reading the book of Revelation. And he dozed off and went to
sleep, and he had a dream. And in his dream, the judgment,
the great white throne judgment, was set up. And the thousands,
yea, millions of people were all there. And he heard from
the throne the call, Alexander Carson. And he thought, that's
my name. I'm being called. I'm being called. And then he said in his dream
he was frozen. He couldn't move. And he heard
the voice again, Alexander Carson. And then he heard someone say,
here, here am I. And he thought, oh, there must
be some other Alexander Carson here. But then when he looked,
he saw that it was the lamb. as though he had been slain from
before the foundation of the world, who answered for him. The grace of God brings salvation
through the Lord Jesus Christ, not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saves us. So
the grace of God brought us the Savior and the grace brings us
the gospel. How many hear the gospel? How
many people do you think hear the gospel, and it's just like
water off a duck's back? If it goes in one ear, it comes
out the other ear just as fast as it goes in. But yet, you,
you heard the gospel. If you're saved here tonight,
you heard the gospel, and what caused you to enter while there's
room when thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than
come. Didn't the apostle Paul clarify
that when he asked the Corinthians, who maketh thee to differ? Who
maketh thee to differ that you hear the gospel and receive the
gospel, believe the gospel? God's grace, it's only God's
grace. Another thing that these men
that I mentioned earlier said about Calvinism or God's sovereign
grace, he said that we believe whosoever will may come. Well,
doesn't everyone? Doesn't every sovereign grace
preacher preach that? Whosoever will, let him come
and take of the water of life freely. But the problem is man's
will. Yeah, whosoever will. Let him
come. Let him taste. Oh, taste and
see that the Lord is good. The Lord is gracious. Grace of
God that bring us salvation. It brought us a savior. It brought
us the gospel and not only brought it to us, but opened our hearts
to receive the gospel. Just like in Acts chapter 16,
we're told that Lydia, that lady by the name of Lydia, who she
wasn't from Philippi. This happened in Philippi, but
she was there on business. But you know, God's going to
cross the path of his chosen people somewhere between the
cradle and the grave. He's going to cross the path
of his chosen people with the gospel. And in Lydia's case,
it was her hearing Paul along with other women. And she's the
only one we are told of. that God opened her heart that
she attended unto the things spoken by Paul. It's grace. It's grace. For the grace of
God that bringeth salvation. Unmerited favor. And then, on
the same topic, it's grace that wrote our names in the Lamb's
Book of Life. Look with me in Revelation chapter
21. Revelation chapter 21 and verse
27, the scripture says, and there
shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth. Speaking
of that city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God,
that is heaven. There shall in no wise enter
into it anything that defileth. Neither whatsoever worketh abomination
or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book
of life. And earlier in the book of Revelation,
we are told that the names were written for the foundation of
the world. It's grace. So back in our text
tonight. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation. Grace brings salvation. And I
know I saw a title of a message today, Amazing Grace, the most
widely known hymn in the world and the most misunderstood hymn
in the world. How many people can sing with
beautiful voices, Amazing Grace, who do not have a clue as to
what John Newton was talking about when he wrote that hymn? God's amazing grace that he would
save such a wretch as I. John Newton, the old slave trader,
never got over that awful business that he had been in, did he?
He knew that he had been saved by grace and only by grace. All right, notice the second
thing. Grace appeared to all men. For the grace of God that
bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. How do we understand
that? How do we understand when the
scripture here says that the grace of God that bringeth salvation
hath appeared to all men? Well, we recognize it immediately. It cannot mean all men in the
sense of every man, woman, boy, and girl who has ever lived in
this world. We know it cannot mean that.
There was when Paul wrote these words, many in the world's population
who had already lived and died had never heard the gospel. And
since Paul wrote these words, there have been many who have
lived and died and never heard the truth about God's sovereign
grace. And what does it mean, all men?
Well, it clearly means all men without distinction. All men
without distinction. all sorts of men. The Lord commanded
his disciples and thus the church to go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature, every creature, men of every
nation, men of every age, both men and women, poor and rich,
educated and uneducated, of all sorts, the gospel The grace of
God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men. We have examples in the word
of God. I want us to look at a couple
here in just a moment. We have example of rulers. Rulers
who heard the gospel. One ruler, Paul preached before,
remember, and he trembled. He trembled. And he said, almost,
almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. A ruler, civil authority. Look, for instance, at this ruler
with me in Acts chapter 13. This is relating something that
took place on Paul and Barnabas' first missionary journey when
they were sent out by the church at Antioch. In Acts chapter 13, beginning in verse 6, we read, Acts chapter 13, verse 6. And
when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found
a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus,
which was with the deputy of the country. Now think about
this, the deputy, this false prophet was with the deputy of
the country. His name was Sergius Paulus,
a prudent man, who called for Barnabas and Saul and desired
to hear the word of God. Then look down to verse 12. Then the deputy, this man who
had desired to hear the word of God, he was a ruler. He was somebody on this isle. When he saw what was done, Believed
now his faith is not based upon what he saw You've got to you've
got to see that here People say well if I could just see a miracle
I would believe Faith does not come by seeing faith comes by
hearing and that is hearing the Word of God When Paul Then the deputy when
he saw what was done believed now notice being astonished that
at the doctrine of the Lord. In other words, at the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was astonished at this wonderful,
this glorious, this joyful message that Paul and Barnabas had brought
there to that island. Never heard anything like that
before. That God gave his own son in the stead of his people,
paid their sin debt. He believed. Notice in chapter
16 of Acts, the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath
appeared unto all men, all sorts of men. Here's a man here in
Acts chapter 16. He's called mostly the jailer,
the jailer. Now these jailers, who were they?
Well, they were rough men. They were rough men. Most of
them were ex-soldiers who had reached the age where they could
no longer be a soldier of Rome. So they were given a position
like this to maintain themselves and their family. This man was
a jailer, but most of them were rough men. They were coarse. Many of them cruel. They had
to be. They dealt with the scum of the
earth. But here they have two men who
were not the scum of the earth. They were God's saints, Paul
and Silas, in his jail. He put them in the bottom of
the jail, where the refuge just kind of fell down on top of them. They were in stocks. And what
were they doing at midnight? They were singing psalms, praising
the Lord. Praising God, I don't know what
all they praised God for. They may have been like James
and John in the early part of the book of Acts, that they were
counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. But notice
it says in verse 30, You know the story how there was an earthquake
and the man, the jailer, he called for a light and he springs in
and verse 30 says, and he brought them out and said, sirs, can
you imagine that, this man calling one of his prisoners, sir? Sir? That's not the way he talked
to prisoners. Oh, now he does. Sirs? Because
God not only shook the earth, he shook this man. Sirs, what
must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house. And they
spake unto him the word of the Lord and all that were in his
house. You know, those who like to sprinkle
babies, they always run here. And so you see there, there had
to be babies. There may have been babies in
his house, but those he baptized, as we will see, are those who
he preached the word to. The scripture says that they
spake unto him the word of the Lord. Have you ever tried to
preach in the nursery back here? We've got a television in there
and ladies who stayed there, they can tune into the service
here, but many of them have told me that that's useless. That's
too much going on back here to pay attention. No, this is no,
no proof text that it's right to sprinkle babies. Baptism is
immersion. That's what the word means. It
means And the scriptures speak of baptizing believers. First of all, a person is a believer,
as in this case. They spake unto him the word
of the Lord unto all that were in his house, and he took them
the same hour of the night and washed their stripes, and was
baptized he and all his straight way. And when he had brought
them into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing
in God with all his house. Those who were baptized along
with him in his house, they all believed. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Whosoever believeth and is baptized
in that order and never reverse. Think of the prisoner. The grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared unto all men, all sorts of men. We've got one man here by the
name of Onesimus. You remember him. He was a runaway
slave. He left Philippi, and where did
he go? He went to the capital. He went
to Rome, I imagine, to get lost in the crowd. But lo and behold,
he encounters the Apostle Paul there. And through the ministry
of Paul, through the gospel, the grace of God, Onesimus was
saved, a slave. Many, all sorts of the gospel
of the grace of God hath appeared unto all men, all sorts of men.
Here's the third thing. Back in our text, grace teaches
those to whom it brings salvation. Grace teaches those to whom it
brings salvation, teaching us We see both the negative and
the positive in the lessons of grace. You know, I'm sure if
you've witnessed much at all of the grace of God, salvation
by grace, apart from any works, someone has probably told you,
well, if that's so, then person just believes he's saved by grace.
He doesn't have to work and he's saved eternally so he can live
any way he wants to. Well, I know you can make the
argument, yes, that's true any way he wants to, but his want
to has been changed. But what those people misunderstand
is there are three things that make that an impossibility. Number
one, when a person is saved, God the Holy Spirit takes up
residence in that person. He comes to live in us. Number two, that which is born
of the spirit is spirit, that is that new man that's created
in righteousness and true holiness, a partaker of the divine nature. And number three, God writes
his laws in the hearts of his covenant people. Let's look at three texts to
support what I've just said. First of all, God the Holy Spirit
takes up residence in the saved. When a person is saved, God does
the saving. I wouldn't make a person, I wouldn't
judge a person for a word, but you know when you hear someone
say, well, I got saved. I got saved. No, you didn't get
saved, God saved you. It makes a difference, doesn't
it? It does to me, the terminology. Just get saved. Well, God does
the saving. When a person is saved by the
grace of God, then God, notice with me in 1 Corinthians chapter
six, 1 Corinthians chapter six, the
Holy Spirit comes to live in that person. And He is a Holy
Spirit, isn't He? He is the Holy Spirit. But in
1 Corinthians 6 and verse 18, the apostle writing to encourage
believers to live in a godly way said, but flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is
without the body, but he that committed fornication sinneth
against his own body. What? What? Know you not that
your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you,
which you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are
bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. So that verse clearly
shows us that our bodies become the temples of the Holy Spirit. He comes to live in us. Look
with me at the second thing I said, the saved person is a partaker
of the divine nature. Notice that in 2 Peter. 2 Peter
1, beginning in verse 2. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
according as his divine power hath given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him
that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might
be partakers of the divine nature. or takers of the divine nature. That is that new man that is
created in the heart of those that the Lord saves. Remember,
we have the spirit and the flesh, which the flesh lusts against
the spirit. The spirit is that new man. The
flesh is that old man. And then God writes his laws
upon the hearts in Hebrews chapter eight. This is one of the promises
of the new covenant. Hebrews chapter eight and verse
10. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord, I will put my laws. Now you notice it's laws as plural. I will put my laws into their
mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them
a God, and they shall be to me a people." Sometimes people say,
well, that's the Ten Commandments. Oh, no. The Ten Commandments
was written upon man's heart at creation. And every man, this
is what the scripture says in Romans chapter 2 and verse 15,
every man, it may be marred, no doubt about it, but every
man has the commandment, the Ten Commandments, and that's
the law of the commandments. One law. They're a whole. To
break one is to break them all, James says. The Ten Commandments. Man knows it's wrong to steal.
Man knows it's wrong to lie, to murder. You don't have to
teach a person that. He already knows that. We're
born with that knowledge, that law that has been written upon
our hearts in creation. But these are laws, plural. And this is another message.
I don't have time, but in the Bible, in the New Testament,
we read of the law of righteousness, the law of sin, the law of faith,
the law of love, the law of liberty, and the law of Christ. And those
are the laws which God writes in the heart of his people. We see in our text, if you turn
back with me now to Titus chapter two, we see in our text that grace
teaches what we call both the negative and the positive. The negative may all fall under
what the apostle John calls in his first letter, all that is
in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye,
and the pride of life. The grace of God teaches us that
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. That's the negative. Here's
the positive. We should live soberly, righteously,
and godly in this present Now here's the fourth, here's
the fourth thing. Four things about the grace of God that brings
salvation. Number one, grace of God brings
salvation. And number two, the grace of
God that brings salvation hath appeared unto all men, all sorts
of men. And number three, the grace of
God that brings salvation teaches us, teaches us. That's the reason
Peter said, but grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. That's
one reason these services, Wednesday night service, Sunday morning,
Sunday night, they're all important. Why? Because we are teaching. Bible study before our worship
service on Sunday morning. Teaching the word of God. That's
the way we grow. And we've been born again. And everyone who is born of the
spirit of God is not born full grown. You know? When we came
into this world naturally, we were about 20 inches long and
8 pounds or something like that. And now look at us. We've grown. And the same thing is true spiritually. We grow. We grow. And there are certain things
that were necessary for us to grow. We had to have a good diet,
good environment. Exercise, that's important, isn't
it? And all of these things have their spiritual analogy. Now the fourth thing, grace causes
us to look for the blessed hope. The blessed hope at the coming
of the Savior, verse 13. Looking for that blessed hope.
What is the blessed hope to which grace causes God's people to
look? What is that blessed hope? It's
to be with Christ and to be like Christ forever and ever. To be forever done with sin and
to be in His presence where there's fullness of joy at His right
hand. It's to be where God shall wipe
away all tears from our eyes and where there shall be no more
death, nor sorrow, nor crying, Neither shall there be any more
pain. This blessed hope is when we
all shall be home in our Father's house, in that mansion, that
dwelling place that the Lord Jesus Christ has prepared for
each and every one of his people, to be with God and to enjoy him
forever and ever, to be with the saints of God and all the
holy angels. What a day that will be. And
when shall we see this blessed hope? When the Lord Jesus Christ
appears for us. Now, you say, when shall this
blessed hope come to us? When the Lord appears for us.
Whether he comes for us in death, or at his second coming. But
that's when we will enjoy and enter in to this rest that he
has prepared for his people. The grace of God. We can't hear
too much about grace, as far as I'm concerned. I pray the Lord will bless this
word to all of us here tonight. Let's sing a hymn and we'll be
dismissed. We'll be dismissed by the singing
or with the singing of the hymn.