I invite your attention back
to the epistle of Paul to Titus, the young preacher. Paul admonishes Timothy and Titus
no less than 16 times to make sure that they abided in sound
doctrine and sound teaching, telling Timothy in the first
chapter that anybody who tries to bring someone back under the
law for righteousness or rule of life, actually discounts and
disowns the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of the
sinner. And in this passage of scripture
he's talking to the children of God. The us in this passage
is to Titus as a young preacher who is about the business of
preaching the gospel to those who hear him. And in this passage we find the word grace, the grace of God. And this word grace in this context
does not refer to the attribute of God or the work of God in
our hearts, but rather to the gospel and the preaching of the
gospel and the manifestation of the doctrine and the teaching
of the gospel. For this says the grace of God
teaches, teaches Now every believer knows of grace as it is revealed
here because this grace is known through the gift of faith that
God gives to believe His Word. That is the gift of God that
comes through preaching and hearing the gospel. Whoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, saith the scripture.
But how shall they call on him who not believed? And how shall
they believe on him whom they not heard? How shall they hear
without a preacher? How shall they preach except
they be sent? So faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God. Paul said to the Ephesian church, you believed
after you heard the word of truth, the good news of your salvation. Only sinners saved by grace can
appreciate grace and know what grace is. The person feels that
within him there is a spark of goodness, a hint of righteousness,
a modicum of merit, whatever. He knows nothing of the grace
of God. The grace of God is pure, unmerited
favor. What does that mean? It means
you didn't merit it. You couldn't merit it. There's nothing you
can do to get it. Thank God there was nothing you could do to keep
you from getting it. Because it's God's grace. And
He gives it as He sees fit. He said unto Moses that his glory
was tied up in this. And Moses said, Show me your
glory. He said, My glory is this. I will make my goodness pass
before you. I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you.
And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And I will
be merciful unto whom I will be merciful. So only a sinner
knows anything about this grace. A sinner who's been saved by
it. The gospel is only good news to those who are ruined by nature
and undone and hopeless without grace. And in this context, there
are several things declared concerning the teaching of grace and what
grace teaches us. When speaking of the teaching
of grace, I'm not speaking about some offer of grace or some gentle
outlay of facts concerning grace. I'm speaking of the effect that
grace has upon the recipients of grace. God teaches grace. He's the God of grace, the God
of all grace, the gracious and merciful God. And He teaches
grace, and what He teaches is learned by His people. And the
result of Him teaching them is that they come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. As it is written in Isaiah 54,
verse 13, Christ quotes in John chapter 6, verse 45. As it is
written, all shall be taught of the Father. And they that
are taught of the Father and learn of God come to the Lord
Jesus Christ, all of them. And it is the same all that our
Lord said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast down. But all
that are taught of the Father come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the effect and the result of God's grace and gracious teaching. We don't trust an unknown Savior.
We don't trust somebody we've not heard about. You remember
the blind man whom God gave sight in John chapter 9? He didn't
know who Christ was. He just known that somebody named
Jesus had come along and touched his eyes and made him to see.
And when he was asked about it, he said, I'm not really sure
who he is, but I know his name is Jesus of Nazareth. And the
Jews and the Pharisees tossed him out of the temple because
he refused to give credit to himself or some other thing,
but only to Christ. And then Christ came to him after
he was cast out and said, do you believe on the Son of God?
And the man said, who is he, Lord, that I might believe on?
Who is he? We don't trust an unknown Savior. And the only
way you know Christ is through God teaching you who He is. This passage does not speak of
the grace of God as an offer of salvation or merely as an
available provision that can be taken or left according to
the inclination of man's will. Such a convoluted notion renders
grace void and empty. How useful is an offer or a provision
of salvation to a helpless dead man? Offer all you want. They can't hear you. They're
dead. And we are said to be dead spiritually, dead in trespasses
and sin as we are born into this world without life, without hope
and without God. Now though this is a common and
erroneous idea about grace being offered, that idea of grace is not grace.
It's not grace. It's not the grace of God. This
grace that's spoken of in this passage of scripture is said,
the grace that bringeth salvation. Doesn't offer it. Brings it. Brings it. Brings and gives to
the possession of someone. That's what that word means.
The first thing clearly revealed here is that the grace of God
is manifested. It says the grace of God that
bringeth salvation hath appeared hath appeared to all men." In
the Old Testament, it didn't appear. It was shrouded in types
and shadows, and every lamb slain, and every priest in his clothing,
and every offering, and every sacrifice. But it was a mystery. During that time, during the
time our Lord walked this earth, the grace of God was like a little
bitty beam of light. of sunlight shining down in a
dark patch of the universe called Israel. And after Pentecost,
it went from Jerusalem to Samaria to the uttermost parts of the
earth. Through the preaching of the
gospel, the light dispersed by the gospel shines throughout
the uttermost parts of the earth today. I'm on a little thing
on the internet called sermonsaudio.com. I get letters from people in
Afghanistan, I'm here in Cherokee. I've never
been to Afghanistan. Got letters from people in Australia.
Letters all over the world. Nigeria. The light is everywhere. The
gospel has been preached to every creature. It hath appeared. It hath appeared. The grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared unto all men. And in that sense, that
it has spread throughout all the world, it has. It's not been
hidden under a bushel. It's not a secretive thing where
men don't tell people about it. Those who know it can't help
but tell about it. If Christ is in you, He's going to leak
out on you. It's not shrouded in type and
shadow any longer. It's a clear declaration by the
Word of God. And how is this grace manifested? It's manifested in election to
all kinds of people. We know this can't mean all men
at this time because as it was written at this time, it was
a real book to a real preacher. The ministry of the gospel pretty
much was defined in Asia Minor and in the Middle East. Hadn't
reached across the great blue yet. So it was limited. What he's
talking about is when he uses the word all in reference to
men throughout the scripture. It means all kinds of men, as
he says, those who are of every tribe and out of every tribe
and kind and tongue and people upon the face of the earth. Well,
how is this grace manifested? It's only manifested one way
and that is through the gospel which teaches you first of all.
This is not a secondary high theological doctrine that you
must go to some seminary to learn. The first thing a sinner who
knows he's dead and ruined and without hope and has no natural
interest in Christ whatsoever, this grace is manifested in divine
gracious election. Christ says, You have not chosen
me, I have chosen you. Now the world will not receive
that truth, but it's the chosen of God will, all of them do.
Our Lord said over in John chapter 15 to His disciples, concerning
that very truth, that they were going to be hated by the world,
and they gave a reason for it. It ain't because they went around
and got in everybody's business, they didn't do that. That's what
preachers think they're supposed to do, go around and get in other
people's business. But that's not what they're supposed
to do, they're supposed to declare the gospel. Now the gospel will get in your
business. It will read your mail, it will read your heart, discern
the thoughts and intents of your heart, open up your mind, and
disclose all things that shines a light on these things. Now
why does the world hate God's people? Our Lord said in John
chapter 15 and verse 19, if you were of the world, remember He
said in chapter 19, they are in the world but not of the world.
If you are of the world, the world would love His own. The
Lord would love you if you are of the world. But because you
are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hates you. They hate the concept of God
doing as He pleases with His good favors. And those good favors
did not begin in time, they began in eternity past. God has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in Christ according as He's chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy without blame before Him. Now though religion may despise
this truth, chosen sinners adore it because they know without
this grace of election, they would be left to their own
devices. Now a lot of people think they can pull themselves
up by the bootstraps, but there's coming a day where they can't.
A lot of people be their self-sufficient and they may seem to be all throughout
their life, but there's coming a day when they're not. On that
deathbed, they ain't going to be able to pull themselves up
by the bootstrap. They're not going to be able
to will themselves to live. They're going to cry for grace.
Oh, grace. Grace and more grace. Paul said,
you know your calling, brother, not many wise, not many noble.
God has chosen the foolish things of the world, the weak and the
stupid things to confound the wise, and the weak things to
confound the mighty, and things that aren't even existing to
destroy the thoughts of those that think they've got a handle
on existence. The grace of God was gloriously
manifested in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll not
find grace anywhere more manifested than in the cross of Christ.
Why would Christ go to the cross? Because wicked men put Him there?
That's just part of it. And that wasn't even about your
salvation. That was about a revelation of the character of man. Christ's
physical sufferings didn't save his people. Christ offered his
soul unto God. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, and the Lord shall
prolong his days, and the work of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. Christ's physical sufferings are a revelation of what we are. What happened when God let us
touch him? God Almighty, our Creator, gives us life and breath
and earth to walk on with gravity to keep our feet grounded. He
gives us food for our table and a house over our heads and clothing
on our back. What did we do as a way of thanks
when He allowed us to touch Him? We beat Him to a pulp and hung
Him on a tree. That's what we did. That shows what we are. That shows what we are. What
do you see on the cross? On the cross you see grace. Because
there Christ bore the punishment of His people in those three
hours of darkness and then died in the room instead of His people
that the law might be satisfied. He gave up His life. Nobody killed
Christ. When you see the word killed
applied to men, what this is talking about is
intent. They wanted to kill Him, but they couldn't. He gave up
His life. And the grace of God cannot be
known or understood or appreciated by anyone until it is seen flowing
down from the crucified Christ. The meaning of the cross is grace,
grace displayed in the satisfaction of justice for the guilty sinners
by the propitiatory satisfying death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The grace of God is manifest in regeneration. and regeneration,
new life from the dead, life from the dead, except you be
born from above. You shall not see the kingdom
of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which
is born of the spirit is spirit. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God, saith the scripture. What do you need? I've got to
be made alive, or if I'm dead, I have to be made alive. Now,
can I do that? Well, I've buried a lot of people.
I've never seen one of them make themselves alive because they're
dead. And God gave us that physical picture so we'd understand the
spiritual. If you are born of God, you can trace your salvation
back to the wellspring of grace as it's revealed in the Gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every blood-bought, grace-taught
sinner reaches for Christ and marches under one banner. Every
true sinner says this, by the grace of God. I am what I am. Not by anything
I've done or can do or will do. By the grace of God. Another
thing manifested concerning the grace of God is that this grace
is a teacher. It says this, For the grace that
bringeth salvation hath appeared on all men teaching us. Teaching
us. In fact, the word doctrine in
scripture is just another word for teaching. Didactos. The word didactician, which is
a teacher from it. That's what a teacher is, a didactician.
And so when you read the word doctrine in scripture, it's not
talking about some high holy theological principle. It's talking
about what God teaches. What God teaches. And the grace
of God teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,
we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.
That's what it teaches us. The grace of God teaches us that.
Clears a bell. Clears a bell. What this means
is the grace of God that brings salvation puts us in a lifelong
classroom and we never stop learning about what grace has to teach
us. When grace comes to a sinner, he is immediately enrolled in
some sort of divine academy, some spiritual academy. And there
grace effectively teaches us to reject or deny or disown or
disallow ungodliness in every form. Whether it be idolatry,
whether it be personal ungodliness, worldly lust, and that's not
only talking about burning inside after worldly lust, it's talking
about the way the world can take the concept of lust and make
it less than it is. Because it does. You who have
been around for a while know that we simply would not accept
the kind of behavior we're accepting today 20, 30, 40 years ago. in any society. We wouldn't allow
a child to mock an elder. That would never happen. Whether
it was us or our neighbor, we'd get it across the mouth if such
a thing happened. We wouldn't allow that. We wouldn't
even allow people to think that sex outside of marriage was a
permissible thing. We just wouldn't allow it. It
would be beyond thinking that. That's not allowed. That's prohibited
by God. But what is it now? They say, you know, well, a man's
got to do what a man's got to do. Isn't that right? You know, man's got, he's got
needs. I hear that all the time. What
is that? What is fornication? It's a mockery
of the marriage. What is marriage? It's a picture
of Christ in his church. Isn't that right? So any type of activity like
that outside of marriage, what does it mean? Christ's bride
can cheat on him. That's what it means. That's
what it means. Ungodliness and worldly lusts.
But the world has said it's okay. I heard somebody call adultery
the other day polyfidelity. That's being true to more than
one person. Polyfidelity. How sad. That's what worldly lust is. That's what you deny. The grace
of God has taught us to deny worldly lust. Grace teaches sinners,
every sinner who experiences it, to live uprightly, temperately. And in a godly way, weighing
all choices in life of their effect on the relationship with
God. And I'm not talking about this fox face holiness that comes
with the way you comb your hair, the kind of clothes you wear,
the way you carry your demeanor. I'm talking about thoughts and
hearts and minds. That's what this is talking about.
It's talking about denying these things. Discounting them, disallowing
them, disowning them. Refusing to have part in them. Grace teaches us that. Grace
teaches us. Now, I'm not expecting that to
be with those who don't know God. I don't expect that out
of them. And neither does the Bible. The Bible is not for all
men. It's for God's people. It's a
book that can only be spiritually understood. The natural man receives
it, not the Spirit. Their foolishness to them neither
can he know them nor assure them. But God says this is what grace,
the grace that brings salvation teaches us. Teaches us. When he's talking about uprightness
and godliness, it means temperance in life and sobriety. And I'm
not talking about not having a drink of wine or a beer. I'm
talking about losing your conscious ability to think right. That's
what the Bible talks about. Also sobriety is singularity
of thought toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, no believer would ever point
to his own life as an example of godliness. I can't. As an
example of moral rectitude, I can't and I won't. Because that would
just be self-righteousness. But every believer has been taught
to live according to the grace that he's received, to live in
that constant understanding of who Christ is and what he's done
for us. The grace that bringeth our salvation
is what's being addressed to you. The believer is not ruled
by the law. He seeks to honor Christ and
to avoid that which is prohibited because he's been saved by grace. He's been saved by grace. He's
not ruled by the law. He's not motivated or governed
by law. He's under grace, Scripture says. And that God has shown us mercy
and love and grace in Jesus Christ is the strongest possible motivation
for obedience to God. Present your body as a living
sacrifice unto God. Walk circumspectly in this world,
Scripture says. Secondly, to denying God in this
world, he loves us to deny, to refuse and deny, to refuse, to
embrace or even countenance any deviation from the truth of this
word. We all got our commentaries.
This word judges what a preacher says. What a man who stands in
the pulpit and claims to speak for God, this word judges him.
If that man don't judge the word, this word judges him. And you'd be well-to-do to take
this book home. And after the preacher's preached,
open it up and see if he told you the truth. Because you're
not going to find it anywhere else. Don't look at anything
else but this book. This book. The Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Another thing manifested by the
grace of God is a true expectation. A true expectation. Looking. for that blessed hope
and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Looking for it. This grace teaches
to patiently wait for the Lord, to have our affections set on
things above and not on things of the world. Behold, He cometh,
John said. And he was having that vision
on the Isle of Patmos. There he was looking at Christ. He
could see that vision. Not some future event, but he
could see Christ approaching. And he said, Behold, He cometh!
And he ends the book by saying, Even so, Lord, come! Come, Lord
Jesus! Nobody wants to die. Everybody
wants to go to heaven. Nobody wants to die. But I'm
like the old fellow said, If I could die and take everybody
I love with me now, I'd die in the moment. It'd be a good time
to go right now, I think. But if you're going to leave
me here, I just, you know, I want you all around too. I want to
be around you. This is a real hope. Behold He
cometh. The hope of glory is not a whimsical wish. This is a sure expectation of
the heart taught by grace. Job expected it. I know that
my Redeemer liveth, and one day I shall see Him on this earth
with mine eyes and not the other, not somebody else's eyes, even
though the worms eat this body. I shall see Him. I know my Redeemer
liveth. David said, I shall dwell in
the house of the Lord forever. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, and there awaits for me a crown. A crown. The grace of God has appeared
unto you and has taught you to live in anticipation. Anticipation. The believer is unashamedly optimistic. I don't care much for believers
who walk with a downcast look or say that believers walk with
a downcast look and sad about everything. Of all people on
this earth, our chains have been removed. We're no longer in handcuffs
and over the bondage of sin. If anybody ought to smile, it
ought to be us. And wait with anticipation. He's coming. He's coming to take us to Himself. The believer expects and anticipates
that shortly his Savior will return and consummate what He
began for him before the world began. Now is our salvation nearer
than when we first believed Paul said. Your Father has laid up
treasure for you and glory. Your Savior has entered into
glory as your forerunner and taken possession of that which
you are, a joint heir with Him. You've been begotten again into
a lively or living hope. God has made you meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints of life. And all glory belongs
to Him. Another thing manifested by grace,
another thing that grace teaches us is there is a mediator. between
men and God, the great God and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The grace is not a common, as I said, grace. This grace is
not a common or generic commodity. It's not some anemic pond of
kindness that men may avail themselves to at their whim. This grace
arises in the hearts of sinners through the one mediator between
men and God, the man Christ Jesus. He is fully man, and by this
description, He is fully God. The God and our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Can you explain that? No, great
is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh. The great God and our Savior.
Our Savior is the great God. In Him dwelleth the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And He is the single mediator.
God is not going to speak to you, nor will He be spoken to
by you, save through a mediator. the Lord Jesus Christ, one who
is both God and can talk to God and touch God, and one who is
man and can reach down to the depths of the violence of humanity
and touch human beings like us. That's what we've got to have.
Job said, oh, is there not a dazeman that can touch God and touch
me? Is there not a dazeman that can
reach God and reach me? We've got a dazeman. Mediator
the Lord Jesus Christ another manifestation of the grace of
God is that it teaches that salvation by grace Through faith is a gift Listen how this is described
Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of
the great God and our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who gave
himself for us Gave himself The value and power of this fact
is truly the subject of all subjects. And will be a matter for the
mind of the child of God to ponder through all eternity. For even
in eternity we will rejoice and our song will be of this redemption,
this death, this lamb that was slain, that is redeemed thus
by his blood out of every kindred, nation, tongue, and people. Made
us kings and priests unto our God. If our life were spent in meditation
and studied for all our days, we could never plumb the depths
of this thing. The unsearchable riches of Christ, of whom, and
through whom, and to whom, are all things, are all things. We whose unworthiness and vowedness
knows no bounds are taught by grace to speak of such things
as countless. That's a miracle and a wonder
in itself that we know what we are and yet we can speak of grace
with confidence. We can speak of this salvation
with confidence because we're not looking to us, we're looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave Himself for us. For us. He gave Himself into the hands
of sinful men. Into the hands of divine justice.
He gave Himself to death. He gave His life up to death,
death itself. He gave Himself to men to handle
and put on the painful cross, the shameful, ignominious death
designed for the capital crime. Ponder what grace has taught
you and teaches you. Meditate upon it day and night,
those who have been taught by the grace of God and only those
may enter into the wonder of grace. And it's a wonder because
we still wonder. We're in wonder of it. He gave
Himself for us. He who is God gave Himself for
us. How particular is this gift. He did not give Himself for all
in hopes of garnering the sympathy of multitudes of people who hoped
who he hoped would someday give him the time of day, no, he gave
himself for us. Who are the us? Look at it up
through scripture, you'll find he laid down his life for the
sheep, he loved the church and gave himself for it, he died
in the room instead of sinners, he died for his elect, his bride,
his church, his people. This is the language of scripture,
not otherwise. He gave Himself for us. He gave Himself for us. I can
just say that over and over again. He gave Himself for us. Who are us? Us dead, us ruined,
us vile, us God-hating enemies of the cross. Another thing taught
by the manifestation of grace is the purpose of grace. Grace
is not given willy-nilly, it's given on purpose. Why does grace
teach us? What does grace teach us? Who
gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar
people. This is the purpose of grace.
and has been from the beginning of the world. The purpose of
God's everlasting love, the intent and design of Christ's death
was the redemption, deliverance, and purification of God's elect.
This is the reason why He came to the world. This is why He
made the world in the first place. He made this planet to come here
and die on this planet in the room instead of His creatures.
He came to redeem His people by His blood and the power of
His might, and His people are redeemed from all sin. You do
not find redemption spoken of in a future tense in the New
Testament. You won't find it. And you will not find anyone
given the title of Redeemer who didn't redeem. Finally, this is manifested grace.
It has taught us about God's people. Who are they? Gave Himself for us that He might
redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar
people. Zealous unto good works. Zealous
unto good works. And herein lies the manifested
distinction that severs the people of God from all other people
in the world. His people are people that are purified by grace.
Pure at heart. You say, well my heart's not
pure. Ask God. Don't go looking inside, go look
it up. Go look it up. They are purified by justifying
grace, the grace of His propitiatory death. Scripture says, God says,
I will remember their sins no more. They are righteous by imputation. He was made sin for us, who do
you know sin that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. God has made Him to be unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. The word peculiar means His special
possession. I know if you look around you,
you can say, well, a computer peculiar might mean something
else. Might mean odd and eccentric, because most people of God are.
Odd bunch of folks. Odd bunch of folks. Different
ages, different educations, different cultures, different backgrounds,
different races. All one in the Lord Jesus Christ.
What a peculiar thing. What a peculiar thing. But this
means His special purchased possession. That's what peculiar means. Specially
purchased people, bought for and paid for by the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 20-28, when Paul gave instruction
to the elders in Ephesus when he was going to Jerusalem, he
said, you oversee the church of God that he purchased with
his own blood. Acts 20-28. Bought and paid for
and treasured. I know it's hard for us to imagine,
but we're said to be precious in His sight. Precious in His sight. He, in one place in this book,
calls us His jewels, His gems. In another place he
calls us his portion. That has always been an astonishing
verse to me. When God looks down at this rag-dag
bunch of nobodies and says, that's my portion. That does it for
me! That's what that means. We can
gladly say and fully understand, we say Christ is our portion.
But for God to look at us and say that? You're our portion, you're my
portion. That's what he calls us. Consider what we are by nature.
The only way that such sweet appellations could be applied
to us is that the grace of God had appeared to us and taught
us. Taught us what we can never be taught otherwise or otherwise
believe. These grace ones, these taught
ones, these peculiarly purchased ones are zealous unto good works. Good works. What are they? Well, Scripture seems to say
that, well, really there's only one person who had a good work
before Christ. You know, that was the woman who poured the
alabaster box on his head and prepared him for his burial.
He said she had done a good work, she had done what she could.
But good works are a kind of an open, almost a generic term. Why? Because if God gave you
a list of stuff to do, that's what you'd do and you'd say,
well, I've done a good work. Our Lord said if you've done all
your duty, you count yourself zero, most unprofitable servant. That's what He said. What are
good works? The Lord said to His people in
Matthew chapter 25, He says, I was hungry and you fed me.
I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you come see me.
I was in jail and you visited me. He said in another place, if
you give a thirsty man a drink of water, he'll be remembered
in glory. And everywhere he talks about
taking care of the household of faith. Say you love God, and your neighbor's
in need, or your brother's in need, and you want to open up
your life and wallet to help out your brother in need, then
you don't have a love of God. That's just what it says. 1 John
chapter 3 verses 18 through 21. Sell us unto good works. What
is it? Looking to Christ and living in this world, looking
to Christ. And I know what will happen if
opportunity arises for you to help your brother. You'll help
your brother because that's what you're doing. You're not going
to say, boy, I'm going to have me a good work here. You're just going
to help him because you love him. They loved him. Carol's daddy
came down and put in a murphy bed for her. My goodness. So
I said, put in a murphy bed. I said, I sleep in a murphy bed.
Who wants a murphy bed? He came down and did that. Did
some other stuff. Helped her out. Designed some
stuff like that. He did that so he could say, well, I've done
a good work. He did that because he loves his baby. That's why
he did that. He loves his child. Why do we
do good works? We don't even know what they
are. We love people and we act according to the love we have
for our brethren and the love we have for Jesus Christ. We
just act. That's what love does. It's always
outward. It's always that way. It's never
this way. We love the Gospel. We love the glory of God. That's
the good works we do. We're saved under good works.
By grace you're saved. Through faith in that, not of
yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works, unless any man
should boast. And we are His workmanship created in Christ
Jesus on two good works which God had before ordained that
we should walk in them. Now if God has ordained something,
you can count on this, it's going to come to pass. Don't look for
works. Look to Christ. Love Christ. Love your brethren. The works
will be there. And you'll never pay attention
to them because you're just doing what's in your heart to do. The grace of God appeared unto
us. And it's taught us something.
Father, bless us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen.