Amazing Grace and Its Provisions

As you're turning your Bibles to Titus chapter 2 There's an outline in your bulletin Title today's message is called amazing grace and its provisions But as you're turning to Titus, let me ask the question when you leave here today and you're walking to your car In the parking lot of Christ Community Church and you look down and you see a copper penny How many of you would bother to stoop down and pick that penny up?

Well quite a few of you But I bet a lot of us would just look at it and walk on right now There's a nickel a dime a quarter.

You definitely pick it up, right? But what if it was a 1942 wheat penny? Would you pick that one up? It's worth about 20 bucks, right? But you wouldn't pick up just a normal penny a lot of people because it would take 400 of them to get one gallon of Gas across the street, but you might get if you sold this one you get 20 bucks, maybe But there are some very valuable pennies out there a 1909 SVDB you might get $1,300 just for an ordinary one a 1914 D Lincoln set you might get $2,200 for and the two most valuable pennies out there a 1943 copper wheat penny one sold for $250,000 and a 1944 steel Lincoln sent one sold for $400,000 a penny can be valuable, but we don't think it's very valuable, right?

But in the Christian world like me, I was raised in the Christian home and been to church my whole life There's a word we use that I don't think we really know how valuable it is how precious it is How amazing it is and we just sang this song and that word is grace Grace, do you think it's valuable? I really don't think we sometimes in our church realize How valuable it is if you did it would affect your giving it would affect your serving that affect your love for Christ We sing the song amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I Once was lost But now I'm found was blind, but now I see I don't think we see ourselves as wretches After all the hymn writer of that song was a slave trader Right, and he would throw slaves off that ship into the sea when they didn't have food He was guilty, but we tend to think we're pretty good people. Don't we raised in a good country good family. We do good Do we really understand amazing grace and how valuable is? You know, there's some denominations that have actually changed the hymn book to say Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a soul like me.

They've taken that word out now But do we Christians really understand it the Apostle Paul said in Romans 7 24 Wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death So we have groups of so-called Christians that have changed the words in the hymn amazing grace, and they don't really understand it I don't think the Mormon tabernacle choir can sing amazing grace, but they certainly don't know grace The LA gay men's chorus can sing amazing grace, but they don't understand grace The Catholics sing it and they don't understand grace, but do we believers in Jesus Christ?

truly understand Comprehend how valuable it is and what exactly provides many years ago. Somebody gave me the acronym G-r-a-c-e God's Riches at Christ's expense and I like to meditate upon that the riches that grace gives us but a proper definition of grace is unmerited favor toward wicked unworthy Sinners by which he delivers them from condemnation and death that leads us to our text this morning It was last April and I could not go to Myanmar and teach the pastors So we zoom but I taught the whole book of Titus and as I was teaching them pastors I came across these verses that we're gonna look at today, and I just fell in love with him And I'm still in love with him So in April when we went to eight days of hope in Louisiana, and we didn't know where to go to church We just met in the park I told Tommy I got to share these verses with the group and I just put a rush sermon together in about 20 minutes and I Taught these verses so some of you were there We're gonna hear some the same things, but I've had nine months to prepare this sermon now since then But I'm still in love with these verses as I am now I think these verses in Titus 2 11 to 14 are the greatest verses in the Bible on grace Let's read them Titus 2 11 to 14 before I read them just a couple things about Titus You know we call Titus the pastoral epistles 1st Timothy 2nd Timothy and Titus are called the pastoral epistles They're written for pastors to teach so of course when you come to Titus you have three chapters only 46 verses and Chapter 1 is about elder qualifications and appointing elders.

Then you come to chapter 2 and you notice in chapter 2 verses 1 to 10 Paul is going to address five specific groups of people older men older women younger men younger women and bond servants and when you have time read that again because it'll put our Sermon into the context he teaches those five groups, and he gives them 28 characteristics that sort of follow self-control steadfastness sober minded things like that five groups of people in the church and 28 characteristics then all of a sudden in the second paragraph in chapter 2 verse 11 to 14 He reminds them of the entire Christian life, let's read Titus 2 11 to 14 For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in this present age Waiting for our blessed.

Hope the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a People for his own possession who are zealous for good works Let's pray Father in heaven as we study your word today may your Holy Spirit teach us May we leave here knowing more of you and what it is. We are to do in Jesus name Amen There are three words. We're going to study today that are biblical terms. We use a lot and For some of you, you know them this will be nothing more than a science lesson But for others, I don't want anybody to leave today that doesn't understand the words about justification Sanctification and glorification which encompass the entire life of a Christian's walk Go to Titus chapter 1 verse 1 because he has these words right there there Chapter 1 verse 1.

He says Paul a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ For the sake of the faith of God's elect that's justification Then he says and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness that sanctification Then verse 2 he says in the hope of eternal life, which God who never lies promises before ages began. That's glorification so we have these three terms even before we come to chapter 2 verses 11 to 14 as We look at what I call the greatest verses on grace in the Bible verse 11 is about the past Justification is the salvation from the penalty of sin or saving grace Verse 12 is about the present sanctification your walk in Christ now and Salvation from the power of sin, so I would call that Strengthening grace verse 13 is about the future that great day when we go home to be with God glorification the salvation from the presence of sin and I would call that supreme grace and verse 14 backs up and Supports these three verses.

So let's look at point one in your outline grace that saves us from the penalty of sin Verse 11 and this is what justification is about it says for let's stop right there For our text begins with the preposition for J Vernon McGee says that word for is the cement that holds all the Bible verses together and it's true It's a function word that indicates a purpose before we talk about grace.

We have to talk about why grace is necessary Why do we need grace and you all think you know that the Bible says we're sinners Romans 3 23 says for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Every man woman and child who is born is born in sin and has lived in sin You know when we go to the parks on Saturday Christ meet Church We go to the parks on Saturday and we try to share with people the gospel We ask them questions and the first question we ask them is when you die Will you go to heaven or hell?

I think I've only ever had one person tell me hell in my life. Most everybody 99% of people would say heaven Then we follow up with a second Hypothetical situation question which we say if God should ask you why should I allow you into heaven?

What would you say? It still amazes me today that pretty much everybody says Because I'm a good person or I've done good They keep saying that you know, we seem to have a scale here in America Zero is Hitler right and maybe 95 is mother Teresa. So somewhere I'm between there. I'm certainly not like Hitler I'm not like a murderer, but I'm not as good as mother Teresa all those good works. We done I'm maybe at 80. I'm maybe at 90. We seem to think we're good in America That's why we got rid of that word wretch and amazing grace But what does the Bible say listen carefully the Bible says in Ephesians 2 1 we are dead in our trespasses The Bible says in Ephesians 2 3 we are children of wrath The Bible says in 1st John 3 10 we are children of the devil The Bible says in John 8 34 we are a slave to sin The Bible says in Romans 8 8 you cannot please God Romans 8 7 says you cannot obey God's law John 3 20 says we cannot come into the light and we hate the light Romans 3 11 says we do not seek God Romans 3 12 says we do not do good First John 5 19 says that we follow the course of the world and the prince in power of the evil one First John 5 19.

Well, you said it 2nd Corinthians 4 4 says we're blinded by the gospel by Satan Romans 11 32 says we're cosine to disobedience Ephesians 2 3 says we carry out the passion of the flesh and the desires of the body and mind Jeremiah 17 9 says our heart is deceitful and desperately sick John 8 44 says it's our will to do Satan's desire Romans 8 7 says that we're hostile to God Hebrews 3 13 says we're hardened by the deceitfulness of sin If you don't know Jesus Christ It was a 19th century Scottish preacher John Eddie who said men without Christ are death-walking The beauties of holiness do not attract man in his moral insensibility Nor do the miseries of hell deter him you can talk about heaven to him and he's not interested You can talk about hell to him.

He's not afraid Now this kind of man doesn't need renewal. This kind of man doesn't need repair. This kind of man doesn't need restoration Resuscitation this kind of man needs resurrection. He needs life because he's dead that was before grace Now, let's look at the arrival of grace We said for and then the next beautiful words come the grace of God has appeared in verse 11 Previously, we were under the law as the Apostle Paul said the law was our school master to bring us to Christ to show Us our need of salvation John MacArthur calls this phrase grace of God grace incarnate Jesus Christ in the flesh and John 1 14 says and the word became flesh and Dwelt among us and we have seen his glory the glory of the only Son from the Father full of grace and truth By human perspective when I think of when Christ came it seems like to me He came at the wrong time if you were with us on Wednesday nights when we study the book of Daniel you remembered we studied the the great prophecies in Daniel a lot and there were four great kingdoms prophesied by Daniel right and the last one was the Roman Empire and it was described as terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong beast in Daniel That's when Jesus came when the Romans had conquered Israel when crucifixion was the method of execution Seems like to me that Jesus came at the wrong time, but for God it was the exactly the right time Galatians 4 4 says but when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem Those who are under the law so that we might receive adoptions as son.

So grace arrived in the form of Jesus Christ What was the cost of grace for here? You need to go to verse 14 in Titus and the first part of verse 14 says who gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness, who is Jesus Christ from verse 13 and The cost of grace was the very life of Jesus Christ death on the cross It says redeem redeem means the releasing of someone held captive Who was released upon payment of a ransom?

Jesus Christ paid a ransom for us that we could have eternal life It was that very purpose that Jesus came to earth mark 1045 says that Jesus gave his life as a ransom for many Ephesians 5 25 says as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her Then let's move on to sub point D the effects of grace First off what it isn't and then what it is what it isn't The NASB and the ESV Bibles which most of you have say for the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people Time out.

Okay. We see a contrast when we look at here in verse 14 It says he gave himself for us to redeem us Okay, so there's us and then there's them it says that we're his possession Okay, and then there's others who are not God's possession So maybe the NIV which I don't use a lot has the best translation It says for the grace of God has appeared that offers Salvation for all people.

This text is not teaching universalism, which some people claim There's an opportunity for salvation. All you got to do is go back to Titus 1 1 we read for the faith of God's elect There are elect and then there's non elect like all people here in verse 1 refers to all humanity Salvation is available to everyone all classes of people all colors of people genders and age But it's only effective for those who believe so that's what it isn't. It's not universalism What is it? it says bringing salvation when you trust Jesus Christ and Make a decision to be a real born-again Christian.

You are declared not guilty of all sin past Present and future because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross Romans 5 1 says Therefore since we have been justified through faith We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ all those amities all those things We read about the non-christian We're at peace with God when you become to Christ. What does grace do grace saves us? The word grace is used four times in this book of Titus And if you look at chapter 3 verse 5 the first three words says he saved us Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his mercy grace saved us I would trust that all of you know that great verse about grace Ephesians 2 8 and 9 if you don't know that verse you better Memorize it.

Okay, because I heard yesterday that the Jehovah Witnesses are back going door-to-door as of yesterday So maybe some of you had your door knocked on it. You better have Ephesians 2 8 9 memorized There's 62 million Catholics in the United States today. You better have Ephesians 2 8 9 memorized So if you don't you got a homework assignment for it is by grace You haven't saved through faith and this is not of your own doing it is the gift of God Not as a result of works so that no one can boast grace saves us and only grace saves us grace is also free Romans 5 17 says that we received abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness You can't buy grace you can't do good works even mother Teresa and all her good works in India could not receive grit the free Gift of righteousness.

She was doing it by works Graces saves us grace is free and grace is the only way when you go to that great chapter of Acts 15 Which they have the Jerusalem Council, which is about How how is man saved is it by grace or is by works? Acts 15 11 says but we believe that we'll be saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ Romans 11 5 and 6 mentions grace four times. It says so too at the present time. There is a remnant chosen by grace But if it's by grace, it is no longer by the basis of works.

Otherwise grace would no longer be grace Grace saves us from the penalty of sin. That's justification Before we leave verse 11 and go on to verse 12. I need to ask the question. Have you been justified? Metaphorically speaking. Let's look of a metaphor. Have you gone into the great courtroom of the Almighty God? Have you gone in there knowing you are guilty? Knowing that the sentence is eternity in hell Knowing that the judge is going to sentence you to hell but you had heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and you had believed and you had accepted Jesus Christ and Before the judge will slam that gavel down and declare you guilty an advocate stands up in that courtroom named Jesus Christ and he's points to you and he says I died for him my blood she was shed for him and The judge Almighty God will slam the gavel down and will declare you not guilty That's justification because the Almighty God judge is looking at you Clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and he does not see sin because all your sin was put upon that advocate Jesus Christ That's a metaphor But you know, what's not a metaphor if you have Jesus Christ in your heart today You've gone metaphorically into that courtroom, but if you don't you're not gonna have that metaphor.

You're gonna have a real Description of judgment someday and it's in Revelation chapter 20 verses 11 to 15 I won't turn there for time, but it's called the great white throne judgment. That is not a metaphor That is one of the seven judgments in the Bible For all nonbelievers and it says twice the book of life was opened up If your name is not written in the book of life three times It says they were cast in the lake of fire. That is a real description of what will happen to nonbelievers That is where there will be some good Americans some good people who will cry out and say Lord.

Didn't we didn't we? Prophesy in your name didn't we cast out demons in name didn't we do mighty works in your name and Jesus Christ will declare to them. I never knew you depart from me you workers of lawless It's very simple. Either you pay for your sins in hell or Jesus Christ paid for them on the cross Are you justified? It's all by grace Indeed, it is amazing grace that God would save a wretch like me Verse 11 is about saving grace from the penalty of sin. Let's move on to verse 12 Once we're saved by grace, that's not the end of it.

It's the only beginning of it So point two is grace saves us from the power of sin It says in verse 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled Upright and godly lives in this present age. This is the verse of sanctification Once you're justified, it's only the beginning you have a long life to live. Well the thief on the cross It may have been a few minutes For other people like you and me it might be 50 60 70 years where we walk and work in this process of sanctification Sanctification is salvation from the power of sin It's conquering sin or I would call this strengthening grace God gives us grace the Holy Spirit gives us grace to conquer sin and to live a holy life But let me clarify what it's not Before I clarify what it is The Catholics state that like today we brought a baby now when we brought that baby for dedication today We're technically dedicating the parents There's no salvation in what we did today for that baby That baby must grow up and make a decision to follow Jesus Christ independent of their parents But the Catholics would bring a baby and they would sprinkle it and they would call that baptism and say that begins the process of Sanctification that is absolutely not true that baby cannot call upon the name of the Lord that baby doesn't understand anything There are nine baptisms in the book of Acts.

They're all by adults Okay, so the Catholics have it wrong, but then they're Christians that have it wrong, too We have the anti-gnomian view that says that the gospel dispensation of grace is no obligation because all you need is faith I just need to believe Closely related to that is easy Believism or the free grace movement and some of us who came from the previous church before Christ me church know this Because people like Charles Ryrie and Zane Hodges say all you need to do is have a mere Intellectual ascent of the truths of the gospel and you're saved now John MacArthur was the opposition of that who say no Jesus Christ is the Lord of your life and that's called Lordship salvation So easy believism free grace movement anti-gnomian Catholics as well as all the cults.

They have sanctification wrong Once you're justified once you're a believer once you've been adopted into Jesus Christ Once you've been regenerated and born again, you begin a process called Sanctification and what is that? Well, let's go to verse 14 again the middle part of verse 14 it says and to purify for himself a People for his own possession first Peter 2 9 says that we are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation of People for God's possession once we come to Christ.

It's time to get rid of this sin It's time for the drunk or the adult or the pornographer whatever sin has conquered your life to get rid of it Second Corinthians 5 7 says the old is gone.

The new is come. Okay, so positionally We are sanctified in Christ Jesus, but we still have to live a practical life of sanctification each and every day You know our society today They at first we overlooked evil today, right society overlooks evil today then society permits evil, right?

then society legalizes evil then they promote evil and now they're celebrating evil and Now they're gonna persecute those who still call it evil That's our society when it comes to evil, but what about Christians when we come to Christ Paul says in Romans 6 I won't take the time to turn there but very familiar chapter verse 1 says what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound and then Apostle Paul says by no means 14 times Paul will use that term by no means It's the strongest Greek expression basically slamming his fist down saying no you cannot live in sin Romans 6 14 says for sin will have no dominion over you since you're not under the law But you are under grace and some of us who are trying to live this life of sanctification Need to remember that we're living by grace.

We need to remember that we've been crucified with Christ It's no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me Turn with me to Psalm 149, you know, I like to preach psalms.

So I got to go there once right? Psalms 1 begins with Talking about the man who is blessed if he doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked if he doesn't stand in the way of sinners if he doesn't sit with scoffers, but Psalm 149 is technically the last Psalm Because Psalm 150 is a doxology so you start with holiness in Psalm 1 and when you come to Psalm 149, I Find it interesting that Psalms ends with holiness in Psalms 149 verse 1 it depends on your translation But it says praise the Lord sing to the Lord a new song his praise in the assembly of the Godly maybe your translation says holy ones Psalm 149 verse 5.

Let the godly exult in glory Psalms 149 verse 9 the last verse it says this is honor for all his godly ones So either your translation says godly ones or holy ones So from Psalms 1 to Psalms 149 is about the right path being holy as is the whole Bible The Westminster Shorter Catechism says says that sanctification is the work of God's free grace Whereby we are renewed in the whole man After the image of God and are enabled the more and more to die to sin and live to righteousness That's just a simple way of saying we die to sin We hate sin and we live for righteousness each and every day Probably the the best verse in the Bible about this is 2nd Corinthians 3 18 2nd Corinthians 3 18 write it down memorize it.

It says and we all he's talking about believers with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being Transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another For this comes from the Lord who is a spirit that verse describes us that we're going through a transformation Okay, the Holy Spirit is helping us to hate sin to sin less and to live for righteousness each and every day No excuses allowed. You can't say there's no little sins. You can't say well, everybody's doing it. You can't Deny and tamper with the Word of God.

We are to live sanctified lives and grace helps us now notice in verse 12 Paul will now say Two things negatively and three things positively.

He says he's gonna trains us grace trains us How does it work? There's a training process the word training there, maybe your translation says instructs us or Discipling us educating us nurturing us Jesus taught us The Apostles taught us in the Word of God and today the Holy Spirit teaches us So there's a training process when you come to Christ Paul would say in 1st Timothy 4 7 train yourself to godliness Okay for while bodily training is of some value, but godliness is of value every way You guys did anybody here go to the gym?

Okay. Now if you're like me, I was I was sweating I could fit in this suit today after Christmas because I ate so much the last few weeks But you know what you need to do, right? You know if you need to exercise, you know what foods you need to abstain for get rid of the sweets or whatever You know, that's the physical world You know when you need to get off the couch potato and start exercising what foods to eat what foods not to eat? You know that but in the spiritual world, you also know what you need to do to there's a there's a renouncing It says renouncing yourself Renouncing means you deny sin.

I'm not gonna sin. I'm gonna abstain from sin Okay, so he's gonna give two two negatives here. And first one is ungodliness and the second one is worldly desires Ungodliness is just a lack of reverence for God.

These are the characteristics of a non-believer, you know in Galatians 5 Verses 22 to 23. I'm sure you all know the nine fruit of the Spirit, right? We all know those but you ever read the verses before that the sins of the flesh it says they're sexual immorality impurity sensuality idolatry sorcery enmity strife Jealousy fits of anger rivalries dissensions divisions envy Drunkenness orgies things like these I warn you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God He lists 15 sins.

Those are characteristics of the non-believer Ungodliness, they want nothing to do with God Those are the things that we put away when we come to Christ when you live a sanctified life The second negative he says that we need to train about is worldly desires Now these are sins that we may not commit But we desire you can be poor and be filthy greedy, right?

Okay, you could be sexually immoral and not be involved by by lusting by looking at pornography not actually committing sexual sin So the worldly desires is whatever is ungodly things that we do things that we watch things that we see things that we hear First John 2 15 and 16 says do not love the world or the things of the world if anyone loves the world The love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the desires of the flesh the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father from this world.

So there's a denial process anything that is ungodly anything. There's a worldly desire Then he moves to three positives here in verse 12. He says that we're to live self-controlled Upright and godly lives in this present age. So first off he uses that word self-controlled.

Maybe your translation says live sensibly Okay, it just means you have control over all the faculties of your life when you come to Christ You're gonna learn to abstain from alcohol. You're gonna learn to abstain from drugs from all the evil things You know, there's no other book in the Bible It has that word self-controlled more than this book of Titus five times It has the book the word self-control and four of those interest legally Or at least three of them are Mentioned with the five groups in verses 1 to 10 of chapter 2.

He addresses older men to be self-controlled He addresses younger women to be self-controlled. He addresses younger men to be self-controlled interesting He doesn't address older women. So maybe older women are better at self-control than the other groups But self-control is you having control over the issues of your life in every way And you do that by hating sin by abstaining from sin by not wanting to sin by confessing sin Then he moves on to another positive characteristic upright Upright just means you righteously faithfully Obeying the Word of God, you know, there's 28 characteristics listed in Titus chapter 2 1 to 10 You read through them sometime and ask yourself.

How are you doing? But you know if you're not reading the Bible John Piper said if you don't read the Bible daily if you don't memorize the Bible in part if You don't linger over the Bible and meditate upon it and remember it and use upon it The best you can hope for is a weak Christian life. How you doing in that process of sanctification? It's the eighth day of January. Did you begin your Bible reading again in Genesis? Did you begin your Bible reading in Matthew? Okay, it's not too late to start okay, the third positive characteristic he mentioned is godly a godly person honors God a godly person loves God he Praised him.

He serves him. He tithes to him. Okay in verse 11 We use the metaphor of going into the courtroom of God But there's another metaphor we could use in verse 12 and that would be found in Luke 9 23 a very familiar verse That says if anyone would come after me Jesus says let him deny himself Take up his cross Daily and follow me.

That's a metaphor for the Christian life when you are justified and you come to Christ Metaphorically now in the process of sanctification. You are walking to your death with the cross of Christ Jesus Christ took his cross to his death and were to take ours. Okay JC Ryle says it costs something to be a true Christian. Let that never be forgotten To be a mere nominal Christian, all you got to do is go to church It's cheap and easy work just to go to church but to hear Christ's voice to follow Christ to confess Christ requires much self-denial and requires everything you have We've spoken of grace that saves us from the penalty of sin in verse 11 We've spoken of grace that saves us from the power of sin in verse 12 now Let's look at the glorious future because of grace in verse 13 Grace that saves us from the presence of sin verse 13 says waiting for our blessed.

Hope that's point one Working is point two and then the peering of our glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ is some point three So we had saving grace in verse 11 Strengthening grace in verse 12. I would call this supreme grace. Okay, you know that acronym We gave you God's riches at Christ's expense Well, we have riches on earth right we have peace with God we have forgiveness of sin we have fellowship We have a lot of riches here, but most of those glorious riches found in Christ Jesus when we get to heaven Okay.

So first off we have to wait it says in verse 13 waiting For our blessed. Hope for some of us it may be 50 60 70 years of waiting right but with confident certainty We wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, he's called the blessed hope here That's a name for Jesus Christ the blessed. Hope in verse 11. He was called grace incarnate but here he's called the blessed hope and There's two ways we receive that blessed. Hope if you die in Jesus Christ as Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 5 9 Paul says I'd rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord if you have Jesus if you're justified and you're walking in Sanctification and you go home to be with the Lord Instantly instantly your soul is with Jesus Christ forever But Paul's talking here about the rapture of believers I believe there are two famous chapters in the New Testament and I won't have time to read them today But first Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 13 18 It says that we will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air First Corinthians 15 is the other great chapter in the rapture and it says that we will be changed In a moment instantly.

Okay. This is the culmination of redemption Okay, we're instantly going to be changed and this body that you have now which is described as a tent You will get a new body when Jesus Christ comes But while we do that, what do we do? We don't just wait We work and go to verse 14. It says people who are zealous To do good works. You don't just sit around and wait for Jesus Christ to return If you're justified by grace and you're working in the process of sanctification by grace You're going to be zealous to do good works.

This book of titus only has 46 verses but the word works is mentioned seven times two times It says works then it says good works five times verses 2 7 Verses 2 14 here in chapter 3. It says in chapter verse 1 verse 8 and 14. Okay It's about works. Okay Works that don't save us but works that we do while we're waiting for Jesus Christ to come If you are possessed by god You're eager to serve in his kingdom by doing good works Because you're justified by grace and you're walking in a life of sanctification by grace This includes being zealous to do good works We mentioned that verse you need to have memorized ephesians 2 8 and 9 right by grace.

You've been saved through faith Verse 10 says that god has created in eternity past Works for you to do. Okay So we're going to be if you really understand amazing grace If you understand how valuable that grace is if you meditate upon it, you're going to want to be serving god You're going to want to be doing good works for god Let's move to the last point sub point the appearing It says the appearing of the glory of our great god and savior. Jesus christ Remember in acts 1 11 it said that the the angels told those Bewildered disciples who were looking at jesus as he went up in the clouds They said he will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven He's going to come back again in the same way.

He went up in the heaven and here in titus 2 verse 13 We have one of the greatest declarations of the deed of jesus christ in all of scriptures It says the appearing Of the glory of our great god and savior jesus christ now some commentators try to split this and say well It's god and jesus christ. It's not Uh, you can look up the grand the greek grandville sharp rule But I could I won't waste time talking about that. But when it says thee there There's a definite article which means god and the savior are the same person And then when you look at verse 14, it says who?

And himself reveres back to a singular person. So god and savior are jesus christ This is the verse that you need to share with the joe witnesses, by the way Number three in the old testament.

God is referred as great But the new testament only the son is referred as great and then Number four in the new testament the appearing always speaks of the son coming So this the god and savior are one in jesus christ and when jesus christ returns That's when we'll be glorified That's when We will be absolutely free from the presence of sin Okay Uh, there will be a total and permanent removal of sin from our lives. We will receive a new body and Glorification Is ultimate grace the race is over the fight is over the weight is over life on earth is over heaven awaits I saw a quote from the pastor yesterday.

He said soon christian No more pain No more depression No more sin No more fighting demons No more darkness No more night. No more despair. No more conflict. No more disagreement No more attacks. No more hate. No more evil You know, we will have a glorified body The apostle john said in first john 3 2 beloved.

We are god's children And now what will be has not yet been appeared But when he appears We shall be like him The greatest thing about glorification is we're going to have a new body And you know something about that body. It's going to be imperishable It's not going to grow old It's going to be powerful not like a marvel superman character But it's not going to have any stain of sin or any any sickness complete in power and strength It's also going to be recognizable It's also for some of you you like this.

It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be glorious in beauty The second thing about heaven I want you to realize that we're going to be citizens of heaven Right now I think we have about 18 people signed up to go to argentina in july Maybe more still contemplating and going but about half of them are applying to get a passport Because you need a united states passport to travel to a foreign country But if you're justified you're walking in the process of sanctification You have a passport of a heavenly kingdom Jesus christ is our savior and you have a citizenship philippians 320 says that we are citizens of heaven the third great thing about About glorification is eternal life We the fourth stanza that we read of amazing grace.

It says When we've been there 10 000 years Bright shining as a sun We've no less days to sing god's praise than when we first began So we're going to have a glorified body We're going to have a citizenship of heaven.

We're going to have eternal life number four when we're glorified. We're going to have a home I don't know if it's going to be a mansion on a hilltop when I grew up in a small church in pomona We used to sing that great song. Do you remember that song? i'm satisfied With just a cottage below a little silver and a little gold But in that city where the ransom will shine. I want a gold one that silver line I've got a mansion just over the hilltop in that bright land Where we'll never grow old and someday yonder we will never more wander but walk on streets of gold So we're going to have a glorified body.

We're going to have a citizenship in heaven We're going to have eternal life forever We're going to have a home and number five probably the least thing talked about in evangelical christianity in the new testament is rewards We're going to have rewards Second corinthians 5 10 says we must all appear before the judgment seat of christ So that each one may receive what is due for what he's done in the body whether good or bad This is not a judgment of sin.

This is one of the seven judgments in the bible But this is called the beam of seat judgment for what you've done good or bad Now the bad there doesn't refer for sin because sin has already been judged when you're justified What that means may be is if you're lazy if you're not serving we're going to receive a judgment for rewards Now we're ultimately going to take those rewards and cast them at the feet of jesus when we reserve him But I don't think we even talk about rewards in evangelical church because most people I got my ticket to heaven i'm happy i'm going It's going to be great, right?

But if you really understand grace How marvelous it is how magnificent and how amazing it is you are going to be serving him? You are going to be zealous for works and there's rewards for that You know when we come to church two things need to happen We need salvation And we need sanctification Salvation for those who do not know jesus christ those who are anxious to learn about jesus christ And then for everyone else who has jesus christ in their heart sanctification So today I close asking the question.

Are you justified? Do you have the son 1 john 5 11 12 says whoever has a son has life Whoever does not have this son does not have life does not have the son He says I write these things to you who believe in the name of son of god So you may know you have eternal life. Do you know tonight? If you don't know, please come up and see tom mason after this question. Okay, if you're justified How are you doing on that process of sanctification? Are you fighting sin? Are you battling sin? Grace will help you conquer sin And I hope you're all waiting for that great and glorious day The last verses of the bible said amen he who testifies to these things say amen Come lord.

Jesus. It's a prayer that jesus would come that we'd be glorified and it's all by amazing grace. Let's pray Father in heaven. I thank you for these verses, which I think are the greatest verses on grace in the bible Thank you that we are saved by grace Father if there'd be anybody today that has never made a decision to follow jesus christ May today at christ community church be the day that they would come to christ Father we are to live a life of sanctification to be holy vessels to you We can't be used if we're dirty okay and sinful and and be living in sin We need to be holy so I pray for all those who are struggling with sin who are battling sin That they would understand through grace that the holy spirit helps us that first corinthians 10 13 says that no temptation has ceased us Which is common to man, but god is faithful He will allow us to have a a way out of those temptations out of those trials that we are to live Sanctification and father we long for that great day when we'll be glorified we long for that day We live in a sin Sickful world and every day we see more and more But we long for that day when we'll be glorified when this body will be free from the stain Of wretchedness of sin and we'll be like jesus.

We long for that day. May we leave here today Knowing that we're justified Working on that process of sanctification and longing to be glorified in jesus name. Amen