Yeah. All right. Well, I'm grateful to be here this evening. I thank pastor for the opportunity to come and just share God's word with everybody this evening. If y'all could turn with me to Titus chapter number one. I'll try to be quick, but I just want to preach this evening on the greatness of salvation. While I was going through my college classes, I was studying salvation and As I started studying through salvation, I started realizing that we could see greatnesses through salvation. We're going to be in Titus chapter 1 verse 1 and as y'all turn in there, I just want to give y'all a little bit of an update with the new year coming up and everything. Since me and Hannah started out on the mission field and started going out and traveling, I just want to give a little bit of a praise report. We've been able to see, I was doing some counting earlier, we've been able to see over 200 people get saved through just meetings that me or Hannah have been in. And I'm thankful that the Lord is still in the saving business and he's still using old sinners to see other old sinners get saved. I'm thankful for the greatness of salvation this evening. I don't deserve a single bit of it. I just deserve to be in hell right now screaming out, and asking for forgiveness for all of eternity. But you know what? I'm thankful that Jesus Christ come down my way one day. He come looking for me. I preached a message one time. I was going through and I was reading about the Garden of Gethsemane. The pastor hit on it a little bit earlier and it said, that he went a little further I'm thankful that Jesus Christ went a little further for me when he come down off of his throne and he was born of a virgin he was conceived of the Holy Ghost and he went further for me he didn't need to do any bit of it but he said you know what I'm going to go a little bit for him because someone needs to be saved they need to be able to be born again so they can come to heaven and I'm thankful for that salvation message this evening Titus 1 says, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness, and hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. but hath in due times manifested his word through preaching which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior to Titus my own son after the common faith grace mercy and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior I want to just look I'm thankful to know that salvation was it was known before the foundation of the world I'm thankful that God knew exactly what was needed. When he was over in past eternity, he was going and he was getting ready to step out into nothing and make everything. And you know what? He knew that there needed to be a way of salvation. He knew that a salvation plan was the only way. He knew that Adam and Eve were going to go and that they were going to sin in the garden. And a lot of people say, but if he knew all that, why did he make I don't really know the answer to that, but you know what? I do know that He loves me. I'm thankful that He loves me this evening. Let's pray. God, we love You, Lord. We thank You, Father, for everything You do. We thank You, Father, for salvation. God, we thank You, Father, for Your Holy Word. This King James Bible, authorized version, 1611 Bible, God, that You inspired. God, we thank You for Your Holy Word. God, we just want to ask you to just open our minds, God, as we go through and as we just study your holy word this evening. God, I pray, God, that you just let me be dead so you can be magnified. God, let there be nothing in me hindering you from moving, God. I pray, God, you just touch these lips of clay, mold them and move them the way you want them to be. Let me say what you want me to say and not say what you don't want me to say. God, I pray, God, that you just get the glory and magnify your name this evening if there be anybody lost. God, we pray. God, you just go down on them, send the conviction on them. God, we pray. God, you just pluck them out of hell. God, we thank you, Father, for salvation. We thank you, Father, for everything you do. We thank you, Father, for just being there for us. When we don't know what's going on, you're there for us. God, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And as we all know, I'm thankful that salvation's free. I'm thankful that I didn't have to do anything for it. I walked in them back doors. I didn't know what was going on. I couldn't hardly stand. I was on crutches. I sat back there on that back pew, and I didn't know what was going on, but I just waddled on in. That morning when my mom, after the pastor preached and she'd come running up the aisle and got born again, I didn't know what was going on. I said, I thought she was crazy. And then we went back home and God's conviction didn't leave me. We came back that evening and I ended up going home and got born again. I thought I didn't know what was going on. I knew I couldn't walk, but I was about to take laps around the house. I'm thankful that salvation is everything to me. I didn't know much of it. Growing up in Catholicism and everything, it was a miracle that we got born again from everything that was going on on my dad's side with the gangs and everything like that. I don't know why God saw it fit to bring me up to an old Bible-believing Baptist church on the hillside of Route 33 in Ripley, West Virginia, but I do know that the reason it happened was because it was what God wanted. I can't see what God has in store for me, but you know what? He sees it. He knows everything. And as long as I know who holds tomorrow, I'll be alright. I just had that scare. They still don't know what's going on with my eye. They don't know why I had a stroke. But you know what? I went through and I just started thanking the Lord for it. Because I'm thankful that He saved my soul. And if I don't know, why it's going on but you know what I'm gonna thank the Lord because I could be in a lot worse place than I am right now I could be in hell I could be in prison I could be anywhere but here but you know what I got saved and God's working on me and I'm able to stand up and preach the gospel to everyone that I can I don't ever want to back down I don't know where I'm going with this. I'm totally off my outline, but y'all just bear with me. We'll get back to it here in a minute. I don't know what goes on on the world. I see that we're living in the last days. It's getting a lot worse, but you know what? When it gets darker, your light starts shining brighter. The power just went out here a few minutes ago, and those four little lights turned on. and it lit up the whole entire place. You know what? Well, if you've got a little lighter and you shut off every single light, guess what? It's going to shine pretty bright up here. You know what? Even though we may have just a little tiny light, the world's getting darker and darker, but we just need to stand up and let our lights keep shining. We need to keep going on for the Lord, because the Lord knows what we need. And I'm thankful to tell you this evening, I don't care what anybody says, I don't care what the government says. If somebody comes up to me and says, quit preaching or you're going to jail, quit preaching or I'm going to shoot you, I'm just going to keep on preaching. I'm going to keep on going before the Lord because of what He did for me. He saved my soul from a devil's hell. I don't deserve a single bit of it, but I'm thankful that even though He went further for me, I can go further for Him no matter what goes on. He was arrested and tried. They told Him that Everything that he did was wrong, even though everything he said was true. He was completely innocent. And you know what? He said, you know, I love them. I'm just going to go and die for them. I still love them. Even though they're beating me, I still love them. Even though they got me chained up over here, I still love them. Even though they're whipping me with that cat of nine tails, I still love them. Even though they ripped my beard out of my face, I still love them. Even though they're jamming that crown of thorns on my head, I still love them. And I'm thankful that he said, I still love them. Because he could have just called 10 legions of angels and said, I'm done with it. I want to set up my throne right now. But I'm thankful that he come by and he said, you know what? I love them. Everyone in here this evening can know that you're saved and marvel in the greatness of our salvation. I want to look at seven illustrations I can see through the Bible this evening at the greatness of salvation. I was going to preach a message since it's getting ready to be New Year's and pastor was preaching about New Year's resolutions this morning. I was going to preach on seven ways we could be peculiar but throughout the singing I got to thinking we got to singing that old song. what a day that will be I'm thankful I get to know that one day I get to go see the Savior face to face and I still spell Savior S-A-V-I-O-U-R because there's seven letters in it and seven is perfect and I'm thankful I'm gonna just go with it I'm thankful for the Savior this evening But firstly, I see that salvation is so great. You might ask me, preacher, why is it so great? I'm thankful that it's great because of its divine author. God knew what we needed. He knew that we needed salvation. He knew, like I just was talking about, He knew that we needed it before the foundations of the world. A man of God, I read after, said that it came to us according to the eternal purpose of God. It began with God's foreknowing, but it was no immediate, unpremeditated plan to meet a sudden emergency. No afterthought on God's part. He knew exactly what we needed, and He knew that it needed to be His blood. He knew that it needed to be perfect, and He knew the way it needed to be. The only way to have perfect blood was to be conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of a virgin, not touched with the sin of the world. It says that Joseph knew not Mary until after he was born. Jesus didn't even have any way possible to be touched with man's seed. It was all divine. The divine author wrote everything in this book. And he wrote more. The book cannot entail everything that's in it. I remember Queen of Sheba, she goes and says, the half has not been told to me. And I get to thinking, when I get up to heaven, the half has not been told to me how great God really is. The half has not been told to me how great it's going to be when we're over there. But we'll be able to know when we get over there if we even got to thinking about a little bit of it. Maybe just a quarter of it. Our heads might explode this evening because we can't think it. We got such finite minds and everything like that. We can't think, even begin to understand it. But I'm thankful that He shed His own blood for me. He knew that it needed to be done. I'm thankful over in Romans. God knew that we needed a Savior. First Peter chapter number 1 verse 18 through 20 says, For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ. as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. I'm thankful that he was foreordained. I'm thankful that the divine author knew everything that needed to be done, and he knew that it needed to be that precious blood from that lamb without spot, that lamb without blemish. I'm thankful that it was, I don't got no other way to say it, but it was awesome. the way that it came. I can't think of any other words that I may be able to say but awesome. My mind, I can't think of big words that good, but I'm thankful as a lamb without blemish and without spot who verily was foreordained. before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. I thank God that He loved me enough to know what I needed, and He loved every single one of us enough to know what we needed, and He foreordained it before the foundation of the earth because He knew that we needed salvation. He knew that we would be sinners. He knew that we would mess up even after we got saved, and He said, I still love them. He said, I'm gonna die for them so they could be saved. from their sins past, present, and future, and I'll be there for him. He said he's a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. I'm thankful that he'd never leave me nor forsake me. I'm thankful that he is everything to me this evening. But secondly, I see that salvation is great because of the price paid to procure it. Now, if you're anything like me, I don't know what that word procure means. So I looked it up. I got a good friend. His name's Dr. Webster. And that word procure means to attain something by particular care, and effort. I'm thankful that God knew what we needed and he paid the ultimate sacrifice. He paid it with his own blood. He came as a babe in a manger and he is now, he's on the throne, right on the right hand of God and he is there and he's coming back for us one day. But I'm thankful he was conceived of the Holy Ghost. I see that he procured a payment for us. You know, when the firstborn lambs would get ready for the sin offering, they would have the priest, they would come over and they would check them and make sure, and then they would be good. And then after they were good, the high priest would come and he would check it. And after he would check over that lamb and make sure that there was absolutely no spot, no blemish, no nothing, he would go and he would say, it's good for the sin offering. or whatever animal they were using for the sin offering, he would say, it's good for it. When Jesus was born, the Bible says that some wise men went, and I believe that when Jesus was born, Mary picked him up, and as Mary picked him up, she was looking at him and saw that there was no spot nor blemish on him. She laid him in the manger. The three wise men got there, and as the three wise men got there, they looked at Jesus, and they made sure there was no spot nor blemish. But I'm thankful that the high priest come down, and he stamped his seal of approval on Jesus Christ over in Matthew chapter number 3, verse 13. The high priest stamped his approval on his son. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness that he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. And, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lightning upon him, and, lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son. in whom I am well pleased. And the high priest himself, the God of all glory, the King of kings, the thrice holy God, he's co-equal, co-eternal, co-identical, God the Father and God the Holy Ghost come and they put their stamp of approval on Jesus Christ because he was perfect for us this evening. and I'm thankful for they stamped the seal of God the Father stamped the seal of approval on his son because he was perfect to be the substitutionary vicarious death that we needed for glory to God I'm thankful that God loved us enough that he come by I can't get over the fact that salvation was free. I can't get over the fact that there was a price paid to procure it and that it cost God everything. It cost God His only begotten Son. But you know what? I'm thankful that He ain't dead. I'm thankful that He's alive this evening. I went and I was talking to some men in the prison one day and I said, could you imagine, just sit back for a second, close your eyes, roll your eyes back and just look and say, imagine if that was your son right there. Imagine if you were sitting there and you were watching and you watched them, they found your son guilty of nothing. And then they went and they beat him beyond recognition until his organs were hanging out of his body. And then you could probably see right through him. And then they go and they threw him on the cross and he carried that cross up Golgotha's hill. Would you be able to just sit there and watch them as they did that to your son? Would you be able to sit there as they ripped his beard out, as they spit in his face, as they put that scarlet robe on him and ripped it off like a fresh scab? Would you be able to sit there and watch your son get beat beyond recognition so much so that you couldn't even recognize that he was even a man? Would you be able to do that? I think that any single one of us in here, if we saw that happen to one of our children, I don't think we'd be able to sit by and just idly watch it happen. I think that we would jump up and we would say, this needs to stop, and we'd go in and we'd take matters into our own hands. But you know what? God the Father knew what needed to be done. And He said, alright. And He just let it happen. And they were there. They were waiting for Jesus Christ to call out. And the whole entire time, Jesus didn't call out. But you know what his crying words were? Was, it is finished. I'm thankful I can tell you that when he said, it is finished, I like to think that he was just over there yelling, lay it on my account. Put it on my account because it's been paid in full. I'm thankful that salvation was paid in full. But I see that salvation is also great because of its universality. Salvation is universal to everyone. And I ain't talking about no universal church or nothing like that. I'm talking about the universality of the great and mighty salvation. Some people believe that... You don't know whether you're saved or not until you die. Some people say you gotta be part of some 144,000, but I'm here to tell you that I'm thankful that I know that I got a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. I'm thankful that I know that I got an indwelling Holy Ghost inside of me. The moment I got born again, He come down and set up shop in me, and He's been working on me ever since. I'm thankful that it's universal for every single one of us and that you don't gotta pay for it. It don't matter who you are. I've seen murderers get saved. I've seen every single person you could think of get born again. And it ain't nothing I've done. It's all because of the Son. It's all because of the blood of Jesus Christ this evening. I'm thankful for that blood. I'm thankful that it's for everyone and not just for a select few. I'm thankful that God's not sitting up there and saying, all right, this God, these people over here get to go to hell. These people over here get to go to heaven. He said for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And I'm thankful to know that I'm part of the for whosoever and anyone in here could be part of that for whosoever too. I'm thankful that it is universal for all of us. The Bible says whosoever. It doesn't say someone over here or someone over here. But he died for everyone, for all of eternity, for the whole entire world, every single person that stepped foot on this planet. He died for Adolf Hitler. He died for every one of us this evening. He died for the little babies. that don't make it past one year old. He died for the little babies that grow up and become adults. He died for every single one of us this evening, and I'm thankful for it. Fourthly, we see that salvation is great because of the blessings that it bestows. Salvation has many blessings. We have joy, peace, we have satisfaction with our salvation. Salvation gives us perfect standing before God through the merits of our Savior, and it allows us to be able to pray and enter the throne room. The Bible says that we may come boldly under the throne of grace, and I'm thankful that not only does God give us these things, but many more blessings. He answers our prayers. He doesn't have to answer our prayers. He didn't even have to let us get saved. He could have just let us all go to hell, but if He doesn't answer another prayer, I've heard preachers say it, if He don't answer another prayer in my life, but to save my soul, that'd be good enough for me. I'm thankful that He still answers prayers, though. He's not just gonna save us and throw us out and let us die. Go high and dry like a little towel on the coastline in this wind we got going on. He ain't going to do that. He's going to save you, and He's going to work on you, and He's going to deal with you, and He's going to help you through it. Sometimes the answer may be no to your prayers. I know we always hear it. Everybody always preaches on prayer. But I'm thankful for the times, the answer's no. I'm thankful for the times that no matter what goes on, I'm thankful that God hears me and that no matter what happens, no matter what anybody says, there's a Father in heaven and there's an interceder up in heaven. I'm thankful that the Holy Ghost takes my prayers up to Jesus, cleans them up, takes them up. And Jesus prays them over to the Father, and every single prayer that Jesus prayed got answered. And I'm thankful I can say that sometimes our answers may be no, but I'm thankful for the times the answers are yes, and I don't deserve a single bit of it. But I'm thankful that he does. He still does it. God's still blessing and moving and hearing. And he will until we die or the rapture happens. But then I think he'll still hear. He's everywhere. He's everything. But fifthly, I see that salvation is great because of its longevity. Salvation is eternal. I'm thankful that God saved us for eternity and not just a little while, I don't gotta keep coming back every day and getting born again or anything like that, but it was eternal. 1 John 5, 11 through 13. And this is the record that God hath given to us, eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. John 10 28 through 29, and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my hand. Romans 11 says for the gifts and the callings of God are without repentance. I could go on all day And I know that Romans 11, that may not be talking about salvation, but I'm thankful that when God saved us, He saved it out of second thought. And He said, He didn't say, well, I want to take it back or anything like that. He saved us, and we're going to be saved for eternity because of His Son. It can never wash away. It don't matter how bad the storm gets. It don't matter how bad the rain's hittin' or anything like that. It ain't never gonna wash away. It don't matter how bad the boats are rockin'. You can see over there in math, throughout the Gospels, when Peter jumped down and started walkin' to Jesus, it didn't matter how bad it was. As soon as Peter said, Lord, save me, Jesus reached down in the water and picked him up, and they went back up into the boat. I'm thankful I can tell you that He'll be there for us. But then I see that salvation is incomparable. There's no other way for salvation. You can't compare it to anything else. You can't compare it to Buddha, putting your food out there and letting them take all the nutrients out of your food and everything like that. You can't compare it to some Allah. or somewhere you can't compare it to know Mohammed or anything like that. Salvation is incomparable because Jesus Christ is exactly who he said he was and he died for us. I don't know how all that other stuff works but I don't think I read anything about Mohammed dying for his people or Buddha dying for his people I don't know anything about that, but I do know that Jesus Christ come down and he died for you and I so that we could be born again. John 14 verse 6 says, Jesus saith unto the hymn, I am the way and the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Jesus didn't say by anyone else, Muhammad, Allah, Buddha, Confucius, all them people, before they died, their last words were, I'm not the way. Go seek ye the way. Find the truth. But Jesus said, I'm the way and the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. I like to think that it means it's incomparable this evening. But lastly, I see that salvation is great because it came to us personified. On Calvary's brow, my Savior died. T'was there my Lord was crucified. T'was on the cross He bled for me and purchased there my pardon free. Mid-rending rocks and darkening skies, my Savior bows His head and dies. The opening veil reveals the way to heaven's joys and endless day. O Jesus, Lord, how can it be that Thou shouldst give Thy life for me to bear the cross in agony? In that dread hour on Calvary, O Calvary, dark Calvary, where Jesus shed His blood for me, O Calvary, blessed Calvary, t'was there my Savior died for me. I'm thankful that He died for me. Salvation was personified at the fact that Jesus came down and was born of a virgin and died for us. The Lord became our salvation. Psalms 27 verse 1, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? If we had to keep our salvation on our own, we'd struggle. We wouldn't be able to do it. I ain't never heard of the sheep going to keep the shepherd, but I have heard of the shepherd keeping the sheep. And I'm thankful that everything that God's done for us, He's our Savior. He is everything that we need. But I'm thankful. We don't have to do anything to keep it. But can I say that salvation isn't tangible or isn't intangible, but it's tangible. We're able to get it. We cannot keep the Savior because he is the Savior and the keeper all in one. He committed himself for us. And I'm thankful for salvation today. Every single one of us in here today could be thankful for our salvation. we can go through and as we start the new year and as everything starts going on as we want to do more for the Lord and as we want to get out and start doing everything maybe we just need to step back for a moment and realize what God's done for us realize the salvation that he gave us and everything that he did for it and we just need to stand back and say wow Oh, and just stand amazed at Jesus every single day. I preach the message that way. One time we need to stand amazed in the presence of Jesus. We need to just be amazed at the salvation that He gave us because we don't deserve a single bit of it. We could be in hell right now. And there's hundreds of thousands of millions of people out there going to hell every single day. I'll be done. I'll say this and I'll be done. Some years ago, there was an 18-year-old girl. She went over. She was over in Washington State. And she went to a church one day. And she got to the church and the preacher was preaching. He was a leather-lung preacher. He was a good preacher. He was preaching on salvation. And after the service was over, it was the first time that she ever heard the gospel presented in that way. After the service was over, no one thought of it or anything like that. A couple weeks go by and the preacher got a letter. and he read it out to the congregation on Sunday morning. He said that it was from that little 18-year-old girl. And she said, Dear church members, me and my family have lived down the block from this church for all my life, as long as I could remember. And if that message that you truly preach of salvation and how people that they're not saved will go to hell is so true, How come no one ever came to my house and told me or my family about the Lord? She said, my parents died last year, and if what you say is true, they're in hell screaming right now. And why, if that's truly what you believe, why don't you actually get up and do something about it? And the preacher ended the service like that. And if that's truly what we believe, the greatness of salvation, if that is really what we believe as a church and that salvation is for everyone, why aren't we telling more people? We need to tell everyone we can because we don't know how much longer there is. Everything could be wrapped up tonight. We could be in heaven in the morning. But there's some people that could just roll off into hell tonight. And what are we doing about it? I know that we got a good church. We're serving the Lord. But we need to start, every one of us, me included, we need to tell more people as much as we can during these last days.