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Well, let's go back to Romans chapter 1. Going to continue this and by no means going to finish it today.
It's just too much here in this great verse, or two verses, but here we have the good news of the gospel.
In a nutshell, last week we looked at God's power that brings the salvation,
God's omnipotence power, and here's the word of God, Romans chapter 1 verse 16 and verse 17.
The Apostle Paul, by the power and the unction and the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, and he says this, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation, to everyone who believes, for the
Jew first, and also for the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just, or the righteous, shall live by faith.
Let's pray. Father, once again we approach your holy throne, we come to you to hear your holy word.
Father, we pray that once again you would save us from an apathetic attitude toward your word, from being over familiar with this glorious truth of the good news.
Help us to see that the foundation of our salvation is all right here in these two verses.
It is the good news of the gospel that saves us by your spirit, it is your hand, your power, your right arm that has delivered us from this perverse generation.
You have most of all saved us from yourself, from your wrath, through your mercy, but it's only done by your son
Jesus, and through his mercy, and through his blood, by his blood.
So Father, may we see something here beautiful before us. So Lord, as we hear your word explained, and Father, we realize it's your holy spirit that opens our ears, and our hearts, and our eyes to see, to perceive.
Father, we cannot do this within ourselves, it takes the holy spirit to truly lay a hold of us, and make us to see these things.
It's a revelation given from you. So Father, may we not take this for granted. So as we worship you within this hour, we pray,
Lord, change us, transform us by your word, and by your spirit, and do it for your glory.
In Jesus' name, amen. Well, I've chosen this text because of 500 years ago, a little monk by the name of Martin Luther, a
German reformer, was inspired,
I should say, or moved by the spirit of God to nail the 95
Theses on the castle of Wittenberg, and like a domino effect, God did something powerful in that day.
He was used of God in a mighty way. I even heard that this was before he was actually regenerate when he wrote the 95
Theses. God, what I've read,
God regenerated Luther when he started studying this text here before us of the
Apostle Paul. It's a great verse. It changed the face of Europe, and it changed the whole world, didn't it?
As God did a mighty work. So we praise God for what he has done through this man,
Luther. He was only an instrument. Actually, Luther, if he was here today, he would say he did nothing.
The word did everything. The power is in the word of God. So we see that the
Apostle Paul was not ashamed of this gospel. There was no shame that he had.
Actually, if you read throughout the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul was imprisoned in Philippi in Acts 16.
He was chased out of Thessalonica in Acts 17. He was smuggled out of Berea in Acts 17.
He was laughed at in Athens in Acts 17. He was regarded as a fool and current in 1
Corinthians 1, verse 18 and 23. And then we read in the book of Acts 14 that he was stoned in Galatia, and yet he said he was unmovable.
Now I want you to think about that. He was unstoppable. He continued to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and Paul remained eager and just as bold to preach the gospel in Rome.
That was the seat of the contemporary political power in that day and of pagan religion.
And he still said, I am not ashamed of the gospel. Nothing could stop this man because he was absolutely filled and controlled by the
Holy Spirit of God. And there the ridicule, criticism, physical persecution, which he counted light affliction, could curve this man's boldness for the gospel.
Every time, Paul is my hero. He is one of the greatest men of God that ever lived.
And if you read about his life, you see the way he came into the
Christian church and he was on the road to Damascus to persecute
Christians. And God stopped him in his tracks. Converted him. He was not seeking
God, but God came after him. Now that should encourage you because salvation is of the
Lord. And he says this. Now, let's look at what he says here. I am not ashamed of the gospel.
The gospel is good news. Let me first point out here in verse 16. This verse, verse 16 and 17 specifically, when it speaks of the righteousness of God, it is the theme throughout the book of Romans.
Also keep in mind, as I read this verse in this chapter, verse 16 of chapter 1, he made an introduction of his prayer and he prays.
And then he goes straight to giving the good news. Now, doesn't it remind you in Genesis that God gave the good news before sin entered into the world?
The Pro Evangel gives the promise of the Messiah, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Speaking of that seed, that seed, the seed will be
Christ and it will bruise. His heel will be bruised one day and the head of the serpent will be crushed.
God gave the good news before sin literally devastated and plunged the whole human race into despair and no hope, but there was hope.
The hope was the gospel. Now notice here in Romans chapter 1, Paul gives the gospel before he gives the good news, before he gives the bad news.
The bad news is in verse 18 all the way through verse 32.
And constantly we see a specific detail of the wrath of God.
And that God's wrath is on all the unrighteous. But isn't it encouraging that Paul, before he brings that out, he goes specifically, he gives out the good news.
He gives the good news of the gospel. Now what is the good news? The gospel is
Jesus Christ. It speaks of the life and death of Jesus Christ. When Paul is writing the gospel, in his mind it is the life and the death of Jesus Christ.
Christ is the good news, the person of Christ. We must keep that in mind. When we talk about good news, we give it a proclamation, but what's the proclamation about?
Well, it's talking about deliverance, and we're going to look at that, and to rescue us from our sin, but who does that?
Jesus. Paul gives us this good news first before he gives the bad news, the judgment to come and the whole world in verses 18 through 32.
Then he speaks about the just shall live by faith, and he speaks about who can be just.
How can you be just? Who can be just and how can you be just? It is
God that justifies who? The ungodly. We see that later on. How? By faith.
That's how we are justified is by faith, and we recognize through Scripture, faith is not of ourselves.
Faith is the gift of God. The offer of salvation is to everyone, right?
We know this. It is to the whole world, but who will be saved? Will everybody believe?
No. Now, then comes the doctrine of election. This is a very powerful thing.
I'm not going to have time to go into this, but Scripture says, to those who were appointed into eternal life, believed.
Those that are elect will believe. We don't know who the elect are, but we do know this, that the gospel offer is to all people.
You can see that when Jesus entered into the world, but not everyone will be saved.
It is only to those who God has appointed unto eternal life.
So it is, those that are appointed will believe.
Those will be the believers. We must do the believing, but it is God that makes us capable of believing.
See? He gives us that gift to lay hold of Christ, that faith.
That's a tremendous thing to understand. So the offer is to the world, but only to those gods of elect, the ones who will believe the gospel, are justified by faith.
And Paul was not ashamed of this gospel. And only the gospel has the power, the dynamite of God, that's what we looked at last week, to save us.
Nothing else is going to be able to save. It takes the power of God to save people. Look at how lost people are in this, and how lost you and I were in our sins and darkness.
Ravenhill says there's really only two classes of people. And he's right.
If you look in Scripture, and Scripture verifies this, so Ravenhill didn't come up with it, but I like the way he said it.
Two classes of people. He says those that are dead in sin and dead unto sin.
You see, most of the human race is dead in sin. They're like corpse. So who can raise a corpse from deadness to life?
Only the power of God can do that. Only God can say, let there be light, and there's light.
It takes the power of God for a person to even believe the gospel, the life and the death of Jesus Christ, and carries with it the omnipotence of God.
That is Christ, the gospel. He has that power. He has that authority, and authority is in God's word.
It is ineffective, and though it will sound foolish, but to us that are saved, it is the power of God unto salvation.
Well, then he says, who's it for? I'm not going to have time to get into all this, but it's to the Jew first. He says that.
It first came to the Jews, God's people, Israel. Then it went to the
Gentiles, that's what he says, in that order. So salvation is only in Jesus Christ and Christ alone, by faith alone, by grace alone.
Nothing else you can add or subtract from it or to it. Now today we're going to look at salvation.
Salvation is a wonderful word, isn't it? It means deliverance.
It means deliverance. It's a powerful word. It's a marvelous word, and according to Ephesians 2, all are dead in trespasses of their sin, and salvation is the act of God that makes dead people live, and to live forever.
He gives eternal life, and that life begins here, and it continues throughout eternity in heaven.
And Christ is that eternal life. That eternal life, it is the person of Christ. It is through his works and through his personhood. He cleanses us from all sin and makes us ready for heaven, right?
Heaven's a holy place for holy people, and he prepares us and makes us ready for it.
God brings that deliverance through Jesus Christ. That's what salvation means.
It means to rescue, to deliver. It can also mean to make whole, to make whole.
It does. So I want you to think of this. Here's some things I like to throw out at you.
What God delivers us from. Thou shalt call his name
Jesus, and thou shalt save his people from their sin.
He saves us from sin. That sounds simple, but that's a huge thing. That's a powerful thing.
He delivers us from the deadly consequences of sin. That's the purpose of God's deliverance through Jesus Christ, to deliver us from sin.
It took the mighty power and the mighty hand of God to deliver Israel from Egypt, which is a type of the world, and sin.
He brings them out. He leads them out with a strong and powerful arm. It took the power of God to do that.
So here, this was a very purpose why Jesus Christ came into this world. And Scripture says to destroy the works of the devil and to rescue his people, his people, the church, from the deadly consequences of sin.
That pretty much sums what salvation is. So what does God save us to?
You ever think about that? He saves us from sin, but he saves us to something. He brings us out of Egypt and out of darkness, but he brings us into his marvelous light, his glorious light.
He saves us from the wrath to come. That's what God saves us from, from his wrath.
God saves us from God, Sproul put it. Through his mercy and his compassion, he pulls us out by his power, and through Jesus Christ, which is the merciful, compassionate side of God, and then he saves us from the wrath.
Jesus came to save sinners. He came to call sinners, but he came to call them to repent, and to repent it.
So it's through repentance and by faith. So he saves us from sin to himself, from his wrath to come.
He saves us unto good works. Now, our works means something. Good works does not save us.
We're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, but he saves us unto good works. And why
I say that is, once you read the book of James, it almost sounds like James is contradicting
Paul, but he's not. He talks about being justified by works, and he's not talking about the works within ourselves, but what he's saying is on a human standpoint,
Paul brings the God standpoint. This is how God sees it. You're justified by God, by his grace, and by faith.
And James says from the human standpoint, okay, you're saved unto good works, and he said,
I'll show you my faith by my works. In other words, faith works. True faith works.
People's got faith in something, but it's living faith or dead faith. But the faith that God gives is living faith, and that living faith has effective power behind it, and it shows, doesn't it?
How would you know? How would you know anyone is saved by grace and through faith unless that faith is working faith?
It was actually the apprentice of Luther said this during the
Reformation. It was a Reformation verse. Philip Malathon, I probably abused that.
He said this. It is faith alone that saves, but the faith that saves is not alone.
Did you get that? He said it is faith alone that saves, but the faith that saves is not alone.
Good works follows, and we're made just and right before God, but it carries out in a righteous life, doesn't it?
So if there's sanctification, sanctification is not before justification.
First we're justified, then something happens in regeneration, and then there's conversion.
We looked at that, and then there's good works that follows it. People's got it in reverse today, don't they?
They try to think, well, I'm saved by my good works, and somehow I'm earning my way to heaven, but that cannot happen.
Jesus talked about that. You can't put new wine into old wineskins. In other words, you can't earn heaven and get into heaven by being reformed.
What happens, Jesus said it's not the outside in. He said inside out. It's God doing something within us, and that's what happens in salvation.
God does the work in our hearts. So God saves us from sin, to himself, from his wrath, unto good works, and in the process of all this, he reconciles us to himself through faith, by believing, by trusting, to make us worshipers of God.
You see how it all connects together. He connects, he brings us to himself, and then by doing it, we worship, as Brother Keith was talking about.
Showing our affection, our adoration unto God. A person that's dead in sin cannot do that.
They are in darkness. They're groping, and without hope, and without God, and they cannot worship.
But we are worshipers, and God has made us worshipers because we're justified.
Well, I want to pick up later on. Later on, we're going to look at the power of God's righteousness, and I want you to keep this in mind in verse 17.
In all this in salvation, God gives us the righteousness of Christ. He dresses us in Christ's righteousness, in something we cannot earn.
It's like he gives us a wonderful robe of white, and he gives it to you, and he actually puts it on you.
Isn't that a blessed thing? It's like you can't... You can appropriate that by faith, and that's how it comes, because faith is the instrument, but you sure can't earn it.
You can't earn it. It's something that is a gift from God. And Paul says, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
So when he says in verse 17, for in it, he's speaking of the gospel, in the good news, in the gospel, in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, and as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
And he recognized that the righteousness of Christ, the Luther recognized this, and Paul recognized this, that the righteousness is something, the righteousness of God is imputed to us and put to our account.
It's not transferred and transmitted, I should say, the way
Catholics look at that. They look at a transmission, but it's really an imputation.
It's an accounted word. It's a mathematical term. It's put to your account.
It's like God puts it to your account. We're undeserving of it.
We don't deserve it. And he says the gospel, the righteousness of God, in the gospel, in it, is the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed.
It's a revelation from faith to faith, and we are to believe it, even believing it.
That's why we cry out, Lord, don't pass me by as we some. Have mercy, because we cannot bring this unto ourselves and by our works.
It's by what Jesus did. See, God did this. And that's the gospel.
It's not something we do, it's something he did. Now, I don't know about you, that really encourages me.
Now, let's look at this term salvation. Regardless, well, let me say this, let me back up a little bit.
The word salvation is used 18 times by Paul, 18 times in Romans, 5 times,
I'm sorry, 5 times in Romans, and the verb form, 29 times by Paul, 8 times in Romans.
It's a very key word to the gospel. It means deliverance, as I said. And surely this is one of the greatest manifestations of God's power, is that bringing men to salvation.
A person cannot be saved within their own strength. It takes the strength of God. And of transforming, think of this, transforming a person's nature.
You know, and I know, you look at the world about you, and you look into your own heart, the nature of sin is ever ingrained in people.
Who can change their nature? Who can change a hardened heart? And take a hard heart, a crusty heart, a heart of stone, and melt it.
And give a complete transformation, and give a heart of flesh.
Then take that heart of flesh and write the laws of God. Only the power of the
Holy Spirit can do that. And giving them that eternal life through the Son. See, we learn from the psalmist that despite of the rebelliousness that God saved
His chosen people Israel for His namesake, that He might make His power known.
And God incarnate, and Jesus Christ manifested His divine power in healing diseases. He went about doing good, restoring the crippled limbs.
He stilled the storm, raising the dead. Jesus Christ came to rescue people from their sin, and from the ultimate penalty of sin, which is spiritual death.
And extended, giving eternal life, and saving from eternal torment.
Only God can do something like that. And through Jesus Christ, and by Him alone, men can be saved to the uttermost.
And that's why the scripture says it's a salvation to the uttermost. And let me say this, also, it's not a half salvation.
It's a full salvation. It's a salvation that is complete. Now we're still in the process of being saved.
And it is God alone that does this work. He saves us from sin, saves us from His wrath.
He saves us from Satan. But ultimately, from the threat of His wrath.
That is the most horrible thing that people need to fear, is God and His wrath.
The judgment. That eternal judgment. That eternal separation. I don't know about you, but if you think about, it literally makes me sick in my stomach, physically, if I start thinking about it too much, how it would be to be, not only in the torments of a burning hellfire for all eternity, but to be alone forever, and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever in derogation.
It's mind -boggling, to think about. But this is what God come, and Jesus Christ came to save us from.
This eternal hell. And Jesus took that eternal hell upon Himself, regardless of the words people may use to describe their quest.
And people are continually looking for salvation of one kind or another. Some look for economic salvation.
Some others look political or social salvation, don't they? I mean, look at the world around you. People look for some kind of inner salvation.
They look within themselves. They are looking here and there, and they're not looking in the right place.
Frustrations and unhappiness that makes their lives miserable, and they think somehow, eh, if I can just live a happy life, everything will be okay.
They suppress the truth. And that's not going to do it. It's still there because there's still a time of judgment that's going to come.
Is it appointed for once man to die and after death the judgment? So all of us is going to have to face the eternal
God, but here God gives the good news. Even before Paul's day,
Greek philosophy has turned inward and begun to focus on changing man's inner life.
This inward look within yourself of salvation is not anything new. Isn't it true?
You read in Ecclesiastes, there's nothing new under the sun. Satan's tactics has not changed.
He still has his strategy, is still presenting something before mankind and saying
God has kept you from something good. God is withholding, and Satan still slanders
God's character. By love of God, he's lying and saying, yea, has God said?
That still whispers in the hearts and minds of people throughout the world. William Barclay, a commentator, said this of the
Greek Stoics philosopher, Epictetus called his lecture room the hospital for six souls.
Another famous Greek philosopher named Epicurus called his teaching the medicine of salvation.
I mentioned this last week, but I'm giving a little up -to -date for those that did not hear. Seneca, a
Roman statesman and a philosopher and contemporary of Paul, taught that all men were looking to ad salutem, meaning towards salvation.
That was in that time period. He taught that all men are overwhelmingly conscious, this is the commentator
Barclay, overwhelmingly conscious of their weakness and insufficiency in necessary things that we therefore need, listen to what he says, a hand let down to lift us up.
Even the philosophers recognized that, that they needed salvation. But where do people turn to salvation?
See it about you today. People are looking for satisfaction. There's a heart longing in everybody.
There's a void. Even if they admit it or don't, it's there. And you know what
I'm talking about. And that's what sin has caused within our nature, that separation.
Our sins have separated us from God. Salvation through Jesus Christ, God's powerful hand as it were, that he let down to lift man up.
And this is where this comes in, the good news. The powerful right hand of God comes to it.
Let me give you a few scriptures about salvation, which is wonderful, meaning to deliver or to rescue, but listen to Exodus 15 -2.
It says this, the Lord is my strength and song and has become my salvation.
Notice that, that God himself has become our salvation. He gives us salvation, but it's not only giving us salvation, have you ever thought that God, the person of God, is our salvation?
God is our salvation. It's like saying, I think
Piper wrote a book, the gospel is God. See, he is the good news.
It is in Christ that he has shown us that salvation. And the verse continues, he is my
God and I will praise him. Why? Because he's become my salvation. He is my strength, my song.
He gives you a song. He becomes your strength. The joy of the
Lord becomes your strength. And he says, my Father is God and I will exalt him. Why?
Because he has become my salvation. First Chronicles 16 -23, sing to the
Lord. We've got a reason to sing, don't we? Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. All the earth, all the earth, let's sing to the
Lord, all the earth, proclaim the good news. We have a proclamation to make, the good news is the gospel, right?
This is back in the Old Testament of his salvation from day to day.
And did you know the psalmist technically says the same thing in Psalm 96 -2, sing to the
Lord all the earth, bless his name, proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day.
I believe the psalmist was reading from First Chronicles because that part of history was before the psalmist in Chronicles.
Psalm 27 -1, the Lord is my light and my salvation.
Don't you love the psalmist, he makes it personal. It's almost as if King David was, before he was king of course, he was a shepherd boy at the time in Psalm 23.
The Lord is my shepherd, my, is he your shepherd?
And like the psalmist says, the Lord is my light, my salvation.
It was personal to him. Whom shall I fear? If God is my light and my salvation we have nothing to fear, only
God himself. And we don't have to fear of being thrown into the torments of hell because God has delivered us from that.
And it's nothing to really, we're only boasting the Lord of his goodness and his salvation, we cannot boast in ourselves.
We humble ourselves. All of our boasting is in God because he's the one that has become our salvation.
The Lord is my strength and my life and whom shall I be afraid? We've got nothing to be afraid of when you are in the very palm of his hand.
Psalm 62 too. I'm just giving you a few verses. You can go through the references of scripture and look up salvation.
You tell me how many scriptures throughout the verses, I mean throughout the verses and how many scriptures there are from Genesis to Revelation.
It's loaded down with so many promises of God's salvation. But here's just a few.
Psalm 62 too. He only is my rock. Is God only your rock?
No one else. Only God. My salvation, he only is my rock and my salvation.
He is my defense and I shall not be greatly moved because of God.
You're in God and you're in God because of Christ. Christ is the mediator that brings us to God.
Now, Psalm, here's another one. I'm sorry, not Psalm. Turn with me here.
This is kind of a lengthy verse, but turn with me to Isaiah 61. Let's look at this, what
Isaiah says. We're going to turn to a few verses of scripture here. Isaiah 61.
This is a lengthy verse, but I love what it says. Verse 10.
The prophet Isaiah says this, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. Wow. It just doesn't say rejoice in the
Lord. Paul says that, but he says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. I think we've got a great rejoicing.
There's a reason to rejoice. My soul shall be joyful in my
God for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation.
Wow. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. Notice the garments of salvation and he has covered me with the garments of salvation and with the robe of righteousness.
As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Here in the Old Testament, picture of imputed righteousness right here. You see it. The essential heart of the new covenant is given to us in this verse.
When a penitent sinner recognizes he can't achieve his own righteousness by works, he repents and calls on the mercy of God and God's compassion is, blind
Barnabas cried out, have mercy upon me, oh son David. The Lord covers him.
He literally covers him with an act of love, with his own divine righteousness by grace through faith.
Here the gospel is given to us in this wonderful, wonderful verse. Now that's a loaded verse, isn't it?
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. We've got a reason to rejoice and he tells that rejoicing. My soul shall be joyful in my
God and he tells you why. For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness and I love the picture he gives.
As a bridegroom decks himself out with ornaments and as a bride adorns herself with the jewels. Like a wedding day.
Isn't that salvation? Isn't that a beautiful picture of salvation? And that's what God does. And as you know, you don't have to turn here,
Jonah 2 .9 salvation is of the Lord. Now remember when he said that, by the inspiration of the spirit of God, Jonah had a prayer and he cries out to God for deliverance.
Where is he? He's in the belly of the original sea monster. People say it was a large whale.
Well, more likely it was a whale. We say Jonah and the whale, right? We say it's a kid's story, but I don't know.
If you start reading, it's more than a kid's story. Jonah, I like the way
Raven Hill said it. He said he was rebelling against God as a rebellious, prejudiced prophet and he was trying to go in the opposite direction that God told him to.
Well, God actually spoke to the whale, the sea monster, and later on you see
God speaks to the worm just the same. If you believe God is sovereign over the big things, you've got to believe God is sovereign over the little things too.
The mass universe, but also there's a universe within the small things. But here God speaks to the whale.
He swallows up Jonah. Can you imagine being swallowed up in darkness and what that man was hearing and experiencing for three days and three nights?
And some people felt he died. Well, I don't think he literally completely died. He probably felt like he was going to die of suffocation and darkness and he was praying.
I don't know about you, but if I got swallowed up by a creature of that immense size, I would be praying too.
But God knew what he was doing. Not only was God transporting him within that whale as a submarine, as Raven Hill said, like the first submarine.
He gave his transportation back to Nineveh. He was trying to run away.
And what was he doing? At the point as God had a transportation given to him, he was humbling
Jonah. And he humbled him. God humbled him. And what was he doing?
He was repenting. Read it. He was repenting, calling out on God.
And then he says, salvation is of the Lord. Isn't that great? Isn't that great? Well, that's another sermon in itself.
If you turn to Luke chapter two, go with me there very quickly.
Luke chapter two into the New Testament. We give an introduction here of what salvation is.
And somebody makes a proclamation of what this wonderful salvation is in verse, look at, it's
Simeon's prophecy, actually, in verse 25. Christmas time is approaching us. And I think these are wonderful stories to give your children about the true meaning of Christmas in Jesus Christ.
Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.
Oh, he heard about the promises, right? And the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed.
Notice this. There's a revelation right there. And it has been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit.
It came as a revelation that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. So he came by the
Spirit. The Holy Spirit was doing this. And to the temple. And when the parents, talking about Joseph and Mary, brought in the child
Jesus to do for him a ccording to the custom of the law. Notice, you could just picture this elderly man,
Simeon. He took up in his arms and he started praising and blessing God.
And he said, what does he say? Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace.
In other words, I'm ready to die now. I'm ready to go. According to your word.
Don't you love that? According to God's word. And then he says this, and I love this. For my eyes have seen your salvation.
He was looking at that little babe. And he knew that babe was special.
He knew he was the promised Messiah. He put his faith right here. And notice what the
Holy Spirit revealed to him. Notice the next verse. Which you had prepared before the face of all peoples.
The world. A light to bring revelation even to the
Gentiles. And the glory of your people Israel. And this is beautiful.
And then it goes on in verse 33. And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him.
You know why? Because the Spirit of God was present. Then Simeon blessed them. He gave them a blessing.
And said to Mary, his mother, behold this child is destined for the fall and the rising of many in Israel.
And for a sign which will be spoken against. And listen to this in verse 35. Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
He even knew that something there was going to pierce. He knew that Christ, the purpose that Christ came into this world.
And that was to die upon the cross. All this was by the revelation of the Holy Spirit to him.
But don't you love it? Verse 30, my eyes have seen your salvation. There's the salvation right there folks.
If we're not preaching Christ and we don't proclaim Jesus Christ to this world, we're not proclaiming true salvation.
That He is the salvation. And what does it say in Acts 4 .12? There's no other salvation given among men but Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is that salvation. If you turn to 2
Corinthians 6 .2, turn with me to 2 Corinthians 6 .2. Listen to the
Apostle Paul. 2
Corinthians 6 .2. This is a good word. Chapter 6, verse 2.
Well look at verse 1. And we then as workers together, he's speaking to the church. This is the marks of ministry folks.
With him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, in an acceptable time
I have heard you. And in the day of salvation I have helped you. Then he says this, behold now is the acceptable time.
Behold now is the day of salvation. Oh we are not to put this off.
You know people have a tendency to think they've got so much time to wait to the very end of their life to put this off.
But scripture says right here, Paul is actually applying Isaiah's word to the, he quotes the prophet
Isaiah. There's a time in God's economy when he listens to sinners and he responds to those who are penitent.
And if you, if people say well I'm going to keep putting it off, well they don't realize their heart becomes more hardened and hardened.
And that's a judgment. But when God is dealing with the heart to repent, they better repent while they can.
And cry out to God for mercy. Today is the day of salvation, not to put it off.
Scripture also says in Philippians 2 .12, to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
You notice what it said there? Your own salvation. See, no one's going to be able to do this for you.
A lot of people like to hold on to the coattails of someone that was a Christian. Said well my dad was a
Christian, he was a minister and blah blah blah blah. Hey look, that doesn't mean nothing. They're not going to be there on the day of judgment to help you.
You have to go to Christ yourself. You have to fall at the feet of the Savior yourself.
And it says right here, work it out. You go before, examine yourself and see whether you're in the faith.
You go before God and no one else is going to do it for us, right? I mean, you've got to go to God yourself.
I have to go to God myself. And we need to plead with God, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
Well, there's so much to be said about that, but I want to close and give application to Titus chapter 2.
Go to Titus chapter 2 and I'll close with this. Titus, it's a wonderful book.
First and second Timothy and Titus is actually called the pastoral epistles.
Here we have everything we need to know. Qualifications of elders and deacons, how the church is to be organized and how the church is to be run.
Right in the middle of this, all these exhortations, Titus speaks a lot to elders actually, if you read it.
There's a greeting, qualifying, then he speaks about the qualifications of elders, chapter 1. Then in the last part of chapter 1, the elders task, but here in chapter 2, he speaks of the qualities of a sound church.
And then right at the last part of chapter 2, there's a great exhortation.
I want to bring this right to where we are about this great salvation, this great salvation that is given to us in Jesus Christ.
There's a lot here for us, okay, and people tell me salvation is free, and yes it is free, but it sure cost
God everything. I want you to think about that. It cost God everything.
It cost Him the blood of His own Son. The Father sent the
Son, and even though we know the Son was always the
Son, some people deny that, that there's always been the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in eternal heaven.
There's three in one. Don't ask me to try to explain that, I can't, but there's a divine mystery here, but the
Father sent the Son. There's an authority there that the Son submits to the Father, and Jesus said this,
I had this command. It was a command by the Father to die on the cross.
That was Jesus' very purpose to enter into this world. He came into this world,
He knew exactly His mission, His task, His command, and the Bible says He set
His face like a plant. He went all the way to the cross. That was His divine purpose, to go to the cross.
He knew He was the Lamb of God. He knew He was God's Lamb. He was the Son. Then it says right here in verse 11, notice these wonderful words, for the grace of God that brings salvation.
God's grace has brought salvation, folks. It's not simply the divine attribute of grace here, but Jesus Christ Himself.
He is that grace. This is the heart of the letter, folks. This is emphasizing
God's sovereign purpose in election, calling us out, and commanding His people to live righteous, to provide the witness that brings
God's plan and purpose and salvation to fulfillment. That's what I want to close with. Here's the application for us about our salvation.
Paul has condensed the saving plan of God into three realities. I got this from MacArthur, and I'm looking at his study notes.
Salvation from the penalty, salvation from the power, and salvation from the presence of sin is all right here.
This is what salvation does in its great and wonderful act.
God's grace brings salvation, has appeared to all men, has appeared to all men.
Then it teaches us something. Don't listen to these people that grace is something cheap.
It's not. Oh, I got my fire insurance from hell, and now
I got my ticket to heaven. Well, that cheapens salvation. It costs God everything.
By the way, to follow Jesus, it's going to cost you everything. It's going to cost me everything to follow Him. Even though salvation is full and free, it's given to us in faith, but I guarantee you there's a cost that goes with it in following Jesus after conversion.
God's grace, then he says this, it brings salvation, has appeared to all men. It teaches us something. Notice what he says in verse 12.
It teaches us, teaching us that denying ungodliness, anything that's ungodly, and worldly lusts.
That means worldly desires. You know this as well as I do. Look at the world that we live in.
It's ever bombarding us with the flesh, doesn't it? Cut your phone off.
Look at your eyes on the billboards, in the movies. Bam, bam, bam. The sinful nature is there.
The fleshly lusts, the desires are there bombarding us. Our eyes, our ears, what we hear, it's bombarding us.
Worldly desires, but yet the grace of God brings us to salvation. It teaches us to live holy, folks.
This is holy living right here. To teach us to live holy, listen, to teach us to deny, to say no to ungodliness and worldly desires, worldly lusts, that we should live soberly.
We've got to be sober. Sober. Soberly, righteously, godly in this present age.
Right here and now. That's what it's teaching us. And then he gives the promise in verse 13, looking for that blessed hope, that glorious appearing of our great
God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Right there he says Jesus is God. God and Savior.
He's our Savior. He's God. He's our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us.
Look, he goes to the price. Notice the price of salvation right here. Who gave himself for us.
I want you to meditate on that. That's the gospel. That he might redeem us. That means buy us back from every lawless deed.
Purify for himself, he wants a clean bride. Purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works.
And notice what Paul says. Speak these things. He's speaking to young pastors actually. Paul is saying this is what you're to speak.
Speak these things, exhort, encourage, rebuke with all authority, let no one despise you.
These are the things, this is the heart of the letter right here. So MacArthur says this, all men speaks of this, not teach universal salvation by no means.
All men is used as man in chapter 3 verse 4 to refer to humanity in general, so as a category, not an individual.
And then he says this, Jesus Christ made a sufficient sacrifice to cover every sin of everyone who believes.
That's what it means right there. The salvation, we are to believe it. Paul makes it very clear, this is
MacArthur, in the opening words of this letter to Titus that salvation becomes effective.
Now listen to this, what he's saying is very important here. It becomes effective only through faith of God's elect.
It must take hold by faith and that's why it says the just shall live by faith.
Not by our feelings, not by what we see, we don't walk or live by sight, we walk and live by faith.
Out of all humanity, he goes on, only those who believe will be saved. And he gives a ton of scripture here and I don't have time to get into that, but salvation is a transforming thing through Jesus Christ.
It transforms us through the new birth, it produces a new life in which he gives and regeneration in which the power of sin has been broken.
And whom the son has set free will be free indeed. We're going to talk about believing unto salvation next week, but today, look at the salvation.
It's full and it's free, it's complete, it's been paid for by the blood of the lamb, it's been bought for, by the purchased for, by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Isn't that a great act? Wasn't that a high price? And oh, what debt we owe. We can't pay back nothing, we can't come close, can we?
But we sure owe him our life, we sure owe him our all, as Isaac Watts said, and I get all, what can
I do? What can I do? That pours contempt on all my pride, what can I do? Give my life, my soul, my all.
Isn't that what we, we're a debtor to grace, we're a debtor to that, we're a debtor to him, we're in debt to God in that sense that we owe him everything.
People that do not have that attitude in loving God, folks,
I don't believe that they're even understand a small portion of what it means to be saved by grace, but we are to believe, we are to believe.
And we'll pick up right there next week, Lord willing, let's pray. Father, we do thank you now for this time.
Lord, your salvation is full and it's free, and it's been purchased, it's been bought, it's paid for by the blood of the lamb.
How precious is that blood? Not a silver and gold of these worthless things that the world values so much and all that's going to perish, but the blood, the blood of the lamb, and it's by the blood of the lamb we will overcome, and by the word of our testimony, but it's through the blood of Jesus Christ that we have, we are overcomers.
Father, we have placed our faith in Jesus Christ, and Father I pray that if there's anyone here, any child here that, that doesn't, that has not come to this, this resolution, this firm foundation, this firm choice of placing their full and complete trust and faith in Jesus Christ, may today be the day of salvation as your word says.
Lord, not to put this off, because eternity is at stake, there is eternity before us, and our life is like a vapor, it's like a shadow.
It's here and it's gone, but our souls live forever and ever. The only thing that's going to redeem and purchase, the only thing that's going to make it count for all eternity and save us from the wrath to come is the blood of Jesus Christ.
We must be covered, we must be washed by that blood. Oh, precious is that blood.
So Father, may this day be the day that you do that work within the heart of someone that is here that has not made that resolution.
Father, we thank you for this time that we have to study and worship you, study the word of God, to worship you in song, to pray to you and seek your face and to just encourage one another in the faith as we are in this evil world.
Father, keep us as Jesus prayed for his apostles. He prayed, Lord don't take them out of the world, but keep them from the evil one.
Keep them! There's that keeping power. So Father, may we persevere and continue and press on as we forever love you and look unto