Amen. Aren't you glad there's a bomb in Gilead? Aren't you glad that it reaches down even to the most vilest of sinners? Amen. Again, I'm appreciative of the privilege that the Lord has given me to stand in this tremendous pulpit. Thank you for coming back and listening what I believe the Lord would have us to hear tonight. Billy Graham was driving through a small southern town, and he was stopped by a policeman and charged with speeding. Graham admitted his guilt, but was told by the officer that he would have to appear in court. The judge asked if he was guilty or not guilty. When Billy Graham pleaded guilty, the judge replied, that would be $10. A dollar for every mile you went over the limit. Suddenly, the judge recognized the famous preacher. The judge said, you violated the law. The fine must be paid. But I'm going to pay it for you. And he took out a $10 bill and attached it to the ticket. The judge then took Billy Graham out for a steak dinner. Folks, that's like the grace of God. He pays our sin debt, and he gives us benefits besides. Amen? Tonight, we're going to be looking at Titus chapter 2, verses 11 through 14. We're going to be looking at the grace of God. And a lot of times when we speak on such things, people will ask the question, well, how is that important for me tonight, the grace of God? Well, I think that can help. I can show you that. Have you ever had a teacher give you a test question and then answer the question for you? Probably not. They usually don't do that, do they? But I'm going to give you the answer. When we stop and think about a gift, the gift says a lot about the giver, doesn't it? Let me give you an example. If I gave my wife a dozen red roses, that says one thing. But if I buy my wife a shotgun, that's a totally different message sent, doesn't it? Some of you understand. Maybe you bought your wife the shotgun, huh? Or put it this way. If I buy my son a shotgun, that says one thing. But if I send him a dozen red roses, that says something totally different, doesn't it? The gift tells us a lot about the giver, doesn't it? And I want to look at the grace of God tonight. I am so thankful for the grace of God. The grace of God gives you and me what we don't deserve. But it's more abundant than what we normally think of. Let's read Titus chapter 2, beginning in verse 11, then we'll pray. For the grace of God to bring us 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 and 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. Shall we pray? Lord, we thank You for this evening. We do pray for Pastor Savage, Lord, that You'd give him the words that he needs to have. Lord, I pray, Heavenly Father, that You'd meet with us. Speak to us through Your Word tonight. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. I've got each one of these verses titled themselves. In Titus verse 11, we see the great revelation In verse number 12, we see a great education. In verse 13, we see a great observation. And in the last verse, verse 14, we see a great salvation. A great revelation. Have you ever stopped and thought about Jesus Christ's first coming? Oh, we celebrate Christmas and, you know, we decorate the house and maybe the lawn and maybe the house. But have you ever thought about Christ at that time? Our world gets all caught up in the giving of gifts and the lights and the songs and all those sort of things. But they're missing the point. They're missing what God wants us to understand. If you'll read those precious words to many of those Christmas songs, You will see great doctrine. Great truth in them. Yet, so often we sing them without even paying much attention. But let's look at this. It says, For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Notice that it has appeared. Let's run over to the Gospel of John. John 1 and verse 17. John 1 and verse 17. Notice what it says here. It says, for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The grace of God was demonstrated. The grace of God was brought to light through Jesus Christ. The grace of God that bringeth salvation was brought to us by Jesus Christ. When was the last time you reached and just rejoiced that the grace of God came to you? So many times we just take it so for granted. But notice a couple of things from this verse. Notice whose grace it is. You know, it's not Rick's grace. It's God's grace. It's not the church's grace. It's God's grace. It's the grace of God. Now, I may give you grace. Maybe you do something against me and I may say, that's okay, brother. Don't worry about it. I'm not upset. And we just forget it all. But you know what the grace of God does? For by grace are you saved. Grace of God brings salvation. Have you experienced that new birth that only the grace of God brings? Rick Hunt can't bring you that grace. He can just point you to the One that has it. Have you received it? The grace of God. So, first of all, it's God's grace. And as I shared before with you just a few moments ago, it tells us about the giver. God's got something He wants to give to you. And it's called grace. See, grace is withholding what you rightly deserve. You rightly deserve God's judgment and wrath. That's what you deserve. You say, how do you know that about me? Because I know that for all has sinned. And I know that you're a sinner just like I am. And I know that you deserve God's judgment and wrath just like I do. But by the grace of God, we can have that eternal salvation. The grace of God. It belongs to God. Ephesians 2.8 says, for by grace are you saved. So often we overlook that, don't we? Oh, I've been saved, and we just go on. But we need to let it grip a heart. Look at the giver behind that wonderful gift called grace. He loved you so much that he gave you a gift. You know, when a young man and a young woman start seeing starry eyes, the young man may come and give her a gift of a ring. And we call it an engagement ring. And it says, oh, I love you. And I want to spend the rest of my life with you. But stop and think. That's a nice gift. But that's not half the gift that God has given to us. He loved you so much, He gave His Son. Wow! That ought to make us say, praise the Lord. He loved me more than anybody else in the entire universe. Notice it was God's grace. Notice what it brings. That bringeth salvation. Aren't you glad you're saved if you've been born again? I know this. Rick Hunt enjoys his salvation. I love to laugh, and I love to joke, and I love to have fun, and I love the things that God has done in my life, and I love to be around God's people. Salvation changed my life. It turned me around. The grace of God that bringeth salvation. I'm glad for salvation. You know, now that I understand the Scriptures, I realize what would have happened to Rick Hunt if he'd never trusted Christ. He'd still be on his way to hell. Praise the Lord for salvation. And there's been many, many sermons and many, many more sermons that could be dealt with just that one subject. What is salvation? But it's the grace of God that brings salvation. See, you can't earn it. We've had some wonderful music here today, but that doesn't earn salvation. We've got a wonderful pastor, but that doesn't bring salvation. We've heard tremendous messages, but that doesn't bring salvation. It's the grace of God that brings salvation. And because of that, we have many benefits. Notice who it's appeared to. Let's go back to verse 11. Hath appeared to all men. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. The grace of God has appeared to Yankees. Now, who can say amen to that? I didn't hear any amens on that one, but it has. It's appeared to the American and any other nation you want to talk about. What am I saying, my dear friends? Aren't you glad that the grace of God reaches out to all? It doesn't matter whether you're young or old, black or white, red or purple, polka dotted. It reaches out to all. Aren't you glad of that? No matter what you are, or where you're from, or what you can or cannot do, the grace of God is there for you. I remember when I first took the pastorate on the Indian reservation so many years ago. And this woman came up to me and she said, after she heard me preach several times, she said, have you ever worked with a Native American before? And I said, no. I said, but I know two things about the Native American. And you could see the hackles on the back of her neck, right? She's getting ready. What are you going to tell us about? And I said, there's two things I know about them. She says, what's that? I says, they're all sinners. And they need Jesus Christ. And as she melted like hot butter, she realized, I wasn't judging because of her being a Native American. I knew their need. And you know, that's the need of every lost individual is their need for the grace of God that bring us salvation. Praise the Lord. You know that about every person you come in contact with. Either they need the Lord or they have the Lord. You know that. And that's what the grace of God brings. But notice, it's because it's God's grace and God wants people saved. And yet, it seems like in America it is so hard to reach folks. It appears to all men, that word is a very powerful word. It has that idea of a very bright light. When you get to be my age, sometimes you take the glasses off to see. Sometimes you put them down here so you can see. Sometimes you put them up here. You just can't sometimes figure out where you need to put your glasses in order to read what you need to read. Now, I realize I'm not the only one in this room that probably does that. But sometimes I can't even be doing all three of those things. My bifocals and my trifocals, they just don't work. But you know one thing I've noticed? If I get a lot of light, I can see things that I can't have any troubles with. And that's exactly what is being said here. Jesus Christ was that bright and shining light so that people can see the grace of God. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. The grace of God. Praise the Lord for it. But not only has He brought us a great revelation, there's a great education. Let's look at verse number 12. Let's go back to Titus chapter 2 and verse 12. Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Notice here what the grace of God's doing. It's teaching us. Do you like teachers? We all have teachers, don't we? We all have teachers. Sometimes teachers get after us. And in this case, we're going to see that. Notice what it says here in verse number 12. Teaching us, first of all, some negative things. And then second, some positive things. Let's look at the negative things first. Teaching us denying ungodliness and worldly lust. or to deny ungodliness. You know what ungodliness is? Those things that don't please God. Do we know what pleases God? For the most part. Do we know what doesn't please God? For the most part. And the more you're in the book, the more you understand what pleases God and what doesn't. Ungodliness. We're supposed to deny that. That word deny has this thought. Is there some particular food that turns your stomach? For me, it's sauerkraut. I dislike sauerkraut. Now, I know some of you like sauerkraut, and I'll pray for you. But sauerkraut turns my stomach. Just the very thought of sauerkraut makes my stomach queasy. You say, how can that be? Because I don't like spoiled cabbage. I realize some of you are thinking to yourself, you don't know what good is. OK. But that is the fault of this denying. Something that turns your stomach. Something you say, ooh, yuck, that's bad. I don't want nothing to do with it. That is the thought of that word denying. I don't want nothing to do with it. I don't want to think about it. I don't want to smell it. I don't want to see it. I don't want to hear it. I just want to deny it. I want it away from me. And notice what we're supposed to put away from us. Ungodliness. Those things that don't please God, we say, that turns my stomach. That makes me want to regurgitate. Notice the next thing, though, that we're denying. Worldly lust. How many of you ever noticed the programs on TV reach out to touch your flesh? They show you things. They tell you things. And all that other stuff to react with your wicked flesh, doesn't it? And that's supposed to disgust us. That's supposed to make us want to regurgitate. And yet, we'll go and we'll sit in front of that TV. And we'll let those shows come into our homes. And we'll see those things on that TV that we know is wicked. That we know is evil. That we know is wrong. That we know that it is lustful and worldly lustful. And we sit there and we take it in. Can I put it this way to you? That would be like my wife making me a whole great big pot of sauerkraut and setting it on the table in front of me at dinner time. It disgusts me. And yet the worldliest things that we see and hear don't disgust us. You know, 20, 30 years ago, they would never show on TV what they show now. Was it wrong 20, 30 years ago? It was. Is it wrong today? Yeah. But it doesn't disgust us today. Because we've gotten used to eating at the pig slop. I love raising pigs, but I'd never want to eat what a pig eats. And folks, the grace of God says that should disgust you. But, not only does it disclose some things we should deny, but it also shows us some things that we should be doing. Notice, let's look at that in verse number 12. We should live soberly, righteously, and godly. We see three things here that we need to be doing. Live soberly. This has to do with what you put in yourself. What are you feeding your mind? Are you feeding this precious old book into your mind and heart? Are you listening to some of the garbage that's on the radio or the TV? What are you feeding into your mind? I am not a computer expert, but I know one thing about computers. They have a hard drive. And a hard drive remembers what you put on it. I understand you can erase hard drives, but I'm here to tell you some of the things that you put into your head and into your heart, you just about can't erase. There's things that I regret that I put in before I was saved. Listen to me. We should live, what's it say in verse number 12? Live soberly. That means under control. That means not allowing something to control you that isn't right, that isn't proper. Notice the second thing, we're to live righteously. Now, living righteously has to do with our actions towards our fellow man. How do you treat your fellow man? Do you snap at them when they don't do something you like? Are you mean and nasty to your fellow man? We're to live righteously. That means we're to live right. You know something about this wonderful book? It tells us how to live right. It tells us how to live and treat our neighbor. That's what it does. And yet, we spend more time doing other things than allowing this book to teach us what is right. Now, this is God Almighty's book. This is God's Word to us. And it says that the grace of God teaches us that we should live soberly, righteously. In other words, we should be treating ourselves with control and not allowing the things of the flesh to take us ways we shouldn't go. We should be treating our neighbor the way we should be treating him. And then lastly, it says we should be living godly. That's our relationship to God Himself. Is God pleased with you tonight? You know one of the things about God? He knows what's in your heart. You can fool the preacher. You can fool the deacons. You can fool your parents. You can fool your spouse. You can fool your children. You can fool everybody in the world. But you can't fool God. And by the way, it's God you answer to anyway. Ultimately, every one of us will answer to God Himself. So you can fool the entire world. But you can't fool the one that you're going to answer to. So let me ask you the question again. How is your heart towards God? Are you seeking to live godly? That means are you seeking to please Him in all you do? Your attitude, your actions, your words. Are you seeking to please Him? This is what the grace of God teaches us. That bring you salvation. Once you're saved, it gives you a new mindset. It gives you a new direction. It says, this is what you should be doing. You say, but that's not fun. Folks, I'm telling you, I have a lot better time now that I've been saved and born again than I ever did before I was saved. Better that way. But notice the last part of the last phrase of verse number 12. In this present evil world. Does that not describe our world? It's evil. It's evil. Look at the corruption that is in our country. Look at the things that they're promoting. Look at the things that they say is right. And the Bible says, no, it's wrong. No, don't do it. But the Bible says we should live this way in this terrible, evil world. I believe, I really believe that the Lord carries. We're going to see some very hard persecution of God's people in this country. The country that for many years stood as a place of religious freedom. I believe it's coming. I believe it's coming. Let's go to look at verse number 13. Looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. How many wish Christ would come back tonight? How many would say, Lord, even so, come right now! Oh, I know why you're saying that. You want the sermon to be over with, don't you? That's what we're supposed to be looking for. You know, the Lord can't come back too soon for me. Folks, one day He's coming. One day He's going to break that cloud and they're going to split apart. Oh, folks, it's going to be glorious. Can you just stop and think with me for just a moment? If the trunk of God was to sound right now, what kind of activity would we be doing the next moment? We're going to be praising the Lord. We're going to shout with glory. We're going to praise our God. It's going to be fabulous. And all the heartaches, all the pain, all of that stuff is going to be left behind. Hallelujah! Why wouldn't we want the Lord to come back? We do. But notice, that's what the grace of God says. Looking for that blessed hope. I don't know how many of you ever have lost anything. We have a little joke in my house. And I guess I'm the culprit for why it is. I left something on the kitchen table and my wife was cleaning and picked it up and it disappeared. That's my side of the story. For you husbands and wives, you understand that. So now if I can't find something, I say, I left it on the kitchen table. And sometimes we get to looking for something that I have misplaced, and we look diligently. That's that idea. Are you looking with anticipation? Are you looking diligently for the Lord's return? That blessed hope. You should be designed to see that even tonight. The Lord coming back. Wouldn't it be grand? Wouldn't it be grand if just in a couple of moments we were all sitting around the throne of God in heaven, worshiping and praising Him? Wouldn't that be just... doesn't that just excite your soul? It ought to. That's what the grace of God that appeared unto all men says that we should be looking for that blessed hope. Are you looking? Are you desiring to see it? You should. I think many times we get so comfortable in this world that the things of eternity just are delegated to second place. But the grace of God that brings salvation to all men, that appeared to all men, says, look, there's a hope, a blessed hope. This same Jesus that went away up in the clouds one day is going to come again. He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. We know it because He said so. And it's impossible for God to lie. He's coming. Are you looking? You need to be. But notice the description that is given here in verse 13 of this individual that is coming, looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Upon casual reading it, you say, oh, it must be God the Father and God the Son. No. It's all referring to Jesus Christ. It's all referring... He's a great God. Jesus Christ is God. A lot of people in our society think Jesus Christ is not fully God. He's a lesser God. That's heresy. He's God. But notice the description. Great. Magnificent. Awesome. A lot of people use the word awesome to describe, maybe they say, oh, that's an awesome car. To me, there's only one that's awesome, and that's God Himself. There's nothing else that inspires fear, that ought to inspire fear, than God. But notice, He's a great God. But notice the second adjective, and our Savior. The grace of God that appeared to all men shows us our Savior, Jesus Christ. Notice it says that. It says Savior, Jesus Christ. There is none other Savior. There is none other that can save you than Jesus Christ. You can't save yourself. Your mama can't save you. Your daddy can't save you. Nobody can save you but Jesus Christ. I've raised three boys. Well, I call it two and a half because our youngest one was almost 14 when we brought him into our home. If I could have trusted Christ from one of my boys, do you think I'd have done it? I absolutely would have done it. But I can't do it for them. And neither can I do it for anybody else. I've got two wonderful grandsons. If I could do it for somebody, I would do it for them. But I can't do it for them. See, God does not have any grandchildren. Do you realize that? He only has children. Those that come to Him in faith are His children. But notice, He's our Savior. Well, let's look at our last verse, verse 14. And we're going to see the great salvation that we've been talking about. In Titus chapter 2 and verse 14, it says, "...who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." The who? This is Jesus Christ. The who is Jesus Christ. In Luke chapter 19 and verse number 10, it says, "...He came to seek and to save that which was lost." Have you ever been lost? I've been lost. both physically and spiritually. One night I was riding a horse home, and I got nailed into the woods, and during daylight hours I knew right where I was. But it was one of those nights, there was no moon, there was no stars, a heavy cloud cover, and I'm in the woods, and I can't see the hand in front of my face. I have no idea where I'm at, other than a general idea. I'm lost. But praise God, I had a horse that could see in the night. I gave my horse, Flicka, her head. And you know what? She headed for home. And that's what I needed. She was able to guide me all the way home. But I've been lost spiritually. The Bible says that if we're not saved, we're dead in sin and trespasses. I'd been lost. And one day I realized just how lost I was. I was lost spiritually. I could not help myself. Just as that night, if that night had remained, I'd still be in those woods because I could not see. I could not see. But Jesus took me by the hand and led me to Himself. And I placed my faith in Him and He saved me that day. Praise the Lord. He gave Himself for us that He might redeem us. Notice it doesn't talk about us doing anything. It's all what Jesus Christ did for us. He rescued us. He bought us back from the slave market. Notice what He redeemed us from. Iniquity. He's talking to Jay this afternoon about how Jesus Christ's blood cleanses us from all sin. All sin. Aren't you glad of that? Aren't you glad that there's not a sin that He doesn't cover? Just think about that, folks, for a moment. If there was one sin that He did not wash away, what does that mean? You're still in your sin and you're still on your way to hell. That's what that means. But He cleanses us from all sin. Let's look at this verse and we'll close. "...who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity." Notice that wonderful next couple of words, "...and purified unto himself a peculiar people." He purified me. If you've been born again, He's purified you. Why? Because the grace of God has appeared unto all men. What? That Jesus Christ is your only hope. Look at this giver that we call God. Look at this giver. He says, the grace of God. And he talks about the grace of God. And the grace of God brought Jesus Christ to die on that cross that you and I might have life. Praise the Lord. Iniquity. Well, let's just look at a couple of things about this iniquity. First of all, let's run over to 1 John 1, verse 7. I've quoted the verse, but let's just look at that for just a moment. 1 John 1, verse 7. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. This word purify. Sin makes us dirty, but Christ's blood purifies us. Salvation cleanses the wickedest of sinners. While we're over here in 1 John, let's look at 1 John 3 and verse 2. 1 John 3 and verse number 2. Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when He shall appear, We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him purify himself, even as he is pure." I asked you, how many of you believe that Jesus Christ is coming? And we say, amen. I believe it. Then live like you believe it. Then I need to live with a pure heart and abstain from worldly lusts and abstain from those things that God calls wicked and wrong and live soberly and live righteously and live godly. This is what the grace of God teaches us. This is what God wants from us. If we go over to 1 Peter 1 and verse 15, it says, Be ye holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord. Are you living a holy life? That's what the grace of God wants from us. It seems in our churches, praise the Lord that Bethel is an exception, but it seems like most of the churches, holy living has gone out the window. There was a while that I was traveling for a ministry and I was in a lot of different churches. Churches that call themselves Independent Fundamental Baptist Church. And I don't know how I could even attend one service sometimes. Some of the things that were going on. God wants us to be a peculiar people. In other words, a people sold out to Him. Are you living for Christ and Christ alone? He's the One that brought grace that you might have life. We've been bought with a price. The precious blood of Christ. We're peculiar. I've been called peculiar more than once in my life. Sometimes we denote that as being odd or unusual. But for the Christian, he should be odd and unusual compared to the rest of the world. He really should be. He should look different. Oh, I don't mean in his face and that sort of stuff, but just the things that he does and says, he should look vastly different. Notice that last little phrase, and we'll close. Zealous. Are you zealous of good works? Notice what it says. Zealous of good works. Doing things that please God. Football season started this past week. And the only reason I know is my son is a football fanatic. More specifically, he's a Green Bay Packer fan. Okay? To me, football is a waste of time as far as watching professional sports. I have no time for it. But folks, listen to me. My son knows the people on the Green Bay Packers squad. I have no idea. I don't even know if Adrian, is it Adrian Rodgers? No, it's not Adrian Rodgers. It's Aaron Rodgers, isn't it? The quarterback? I don't know. Okay. But my son knows, my son knows the people that are on that squad. He knows what they do. He knows their, Stats. Folks, if we're going to be zealous for God, we need to know what this book says. We need to be in this book learning about what we should be doing and what we shouldn't be doing and why. And what is God doing in our life? Folks, are you zealous for God? That's what the grace of God teaches us. Because He loves you so much that He died for you. He loves you more than you even can comprehend. Whenever I get to contemplating the love of God, it amazes me that He could love me. As I look back at my life and I think of some of the things I've said and done, why would He love me? How could He love me? He shouldn't. But praise God, He does. By the way, He loves you too. And you may be looking at your heart and saying, I'm not worthy of His love. Well, you may not be worthy of His love, but He loves you anyway. Folks, the grace of God that has appeared unto all men teaches us that we should deny worldly lust, deny ungodliness, live soberly, live righteously, and be in a people that is zealous of good works. I don't know how the Spirit of God has touched your heart tonight, but I know as I was studying how God touched my heart, And I want to be more zealous for the Lord Jesus Christ and less tainted by what this world has to offer. Shall we stand? God has given us another precious gift called His Word. His Word teaches us things about Himself, about us. Is it precious enough for you to be part of your daily life? Let the grace of God grip your heart and let it teach you and admonish you. As the ladies come to their instruments, I want you to just bow your head. And I want you to say, Lord, speak to me. Lord, a lot of things were said tonight. But Lord, what do you want me to learn from your Word tonight? Let the Word of God and the Spirit of God speak to your heart.