The Grace of God and Our Salvation

You've heard, no news is good news. If it wasn't for bad news,

there wouldn't be any news at all.

I've heard these phrases many times, and especially in my field of work as a news director.

But more often than not, I've found them to be very true.

How often do you see a good news story in the paper, on television, or in the radio?

If there is one thing, it is not making the headlines, but thrust to the back.

Have you ever noticed your feelings in hearing the news?

When it's bad news, I feel down or sympathetic towards the victim,

or even angry about the situation.

When it's good news, I have a feeling of hope.

Today's text comes of good news for us, and this is the good news that we can all look at every day.

Today's scripture comes from Titus 2, verses 11-14.

Titus 2:11–14

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions,

and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age.

While we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God

and Savior Jesus Christ,

who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself

a people that are his very own,

eager to do what is good.

It informs us that the grace of God appeared in remarkable form to make our salvation possible.

Paul grew up in a world that believed only good Jewish people could obtain salvation.

I think we'd all be in trouble if that was the case.

The new covenant brings salvation to all people, including Paul,

who began as a persecutor of the church.

So what is this great salvation that has been made possible through the grace of God?

John writes in chapter 117, For the law was given through Moses.

Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

The Jewish people considered this law to be primarily aimed for them,

but both John and Paul claim it to be for all people, including all of us.

The New Testament was written in Greek. The Greeks thought of grace as a favor

conferred or bestowed freely on a friend.

In Hebrew, though, God's grace is his unmerited favor, freely conferred to those

who have made themselves his enemy.

It's free. We don't have to pay for it. It's already paid for.

The grace of God is much more than a favor conferred to a friend.

It's God moving toward the undeserving sinner, offering freely the gifts that

we so desperately need, but do not deserve.

So what is this salvation that Paul is talking about for all people?

Salvation by grace includes new birth or rebirth.

John chapter 3, 3 through 7 says, In reply, Jesus declared, I tell you the truth.

John 3 · chapter mention

No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. How can a man be

born when he is old? Nicodemus asked.

Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born.

Jesus answered, I tell you the truth. No one can enter the kingdom of God unless

he is born of water and the Spirit.

Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit.

You should not be surprised at my saying you must be born again born again in

this scripture in greek can also mean born from above and both are consistent

with jesus's redeeming work.

Born of water in the Spirit is a phrase understood in various ways.

It means much the same as born in the Spirit. Our water here refers to purification.

Water refers to baptism, that of John or that of Jesus and his disciples.

Because when we are baptized, our sins are washed away and we are made anew.

Our old life is gone and we are reborn.

Christ's work on the cross has made it possible for the sinner,

you and me, to look to Jesus and receive his rebirth.

John chapter 3 verses 14 through 16 state, Just as Moses lifted up the snake

John 3:14–16

in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes

in him may have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

God so loved the world is the great truth that motivated God's plan of salvation.

The one and only Son, although all believers are also called sons of God,

Jesus is uniquely God's Son.

Salvation by grace includes spiritual rescue.

Luke 19.10 says, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.

An important summary of Jesus' purpose, to bring salvation, meaning,

eternal life, and the kingdom of God.

The Holy Spirit seeks us out so we may experience this spiritual rescue.

But to experience salvation, we must answer when we are called upon by the Holy Spirit.

Salvation by grace includes spiritual restoration.

Peter speaks of the substitution nature of the death of Jesus Christ on the

cross for the guilt of all mankind.

1 Peter 3.18 states, For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for

the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

He was put to death in the body, but made alive by the Spirit.

Salvation by grace also includes spiritual

renewal romans 12 1 through 2 states

therefore i urge you brothers in view

of god's mercy to offer your bodies as living

sacrifices holy and pleasing to god this is your spiritual act of worship do

not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the

renewing of your mind then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is,

his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Spiritual act is not merely ritual activity, but the involvement of heart, mind, and will.

We can't just go through the acts of worship. We need to live them.

We need to be transformed.

Spiritual renewal is a process. it's not just a single event.

You don't just come in today and say, oh, I'm renewed and you go out and live your old life.

It's a renewing and everyday building up.

And then you need to ask yourself in this renewing, is it real to you? Is it real to me?

Or are you just putting on a face?

God's will is what he wants from here and now.

His perfect will is no improvement can be made on his will. It's already perfect.

Don't mold yourself to the things of the world.

Stand out and strive to have a Christ-like attitude and live a Christ-like life.

Salvation by grace includes some revolutionary changes.

2 Corinthians 5.17 states, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old is gone, the new has come.

In Christ, we're united with Christ through faith in him and commitment to him.

The new creation is the restoration and fulfillment of God's purpose in creation.

This takes place in Christ through whom all things were made and in whom all

things are restored or created anew.

We can be created anew by believing in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and

that he died to rescue us from sin.

God is eager to help each of us experience our full potential.

Salvation is by grace from God. It cannot be bought.

It can only be received as a gift by faith when you open up your life to Jesus Christ.

So what are Christ's motives for carrying out God's plan of salvation?

And what is required of us, our accountability for our salvation?

When someone does something for you, do you often wonder what their motive is

behind the action? What are they going to want in return?

When you do something nice for someone else, do they ask you what you want in return?

By studying the Bible, we can find the motive behind God's actions.

The motive behind an action adds significance to that action.

The New Testament tells of the many motives Christ had in his ministry to bring

salvation to a lost race.

Today, we're going to look at three motives for his substitution sacrifice.

Christ died for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity is the first.

Webster's Dictionary defines iniquity as a wicked act, in other words, sin.

Jesus' death sets us free from all wrongdoing.

His death rescues us from our evil, self-destructive ways.

And it frees us from the wickedness that comes from living away from God.

To redeem someone is to purchase a person who occupies the role of a slave.

It means to rescue someone from self-destructive attitudes, aims, and actions.

Jesus liberates us from our lawless way of life that disregards the laws of

God and selfish disobedience.

Second, Jesus gave himself that he might purify for himself a people that are his very own.

His death was not to preserve our sinful nature, but to bring about changes within us.

Isaiah 1, 16-18 states, Wash and make yourselves clean.

Take your evil deeds out of my sight.

Stop doing wrong. Learn to do right. Seek justice.

Encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless.

Plead the case of the widow.

Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord.

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.

Though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

The fatherless and the widowed represented the weak and often oppressed part of society.

The rulers were warned not to take advantage of them. The scarlet and crimson

refers to the blood of the hands of murderers.

And white as snow is a powerful, figurative description of the result of forgiveness.

He continually works to bring about this purification by making us aware of

the imperfections of our life.

Do you ever get that gnawing feeling when you do something, and then you second-guess

yourself that maybe it was not the right thing to do.

1 John 1, 7 states, But if we walk in the light as he is in the light,

we have fellowship with one another.

And the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

A part of God's plan for bringing about our purification at the time of our

conversion is to bestow us with the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 4, 6-7 states, Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.

The Spirit who calls out, Abba, Father, so you are no longer a slave, but a son.

And since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

When we sin, we become slaves of that sin.

But God can purify our hearts and redeem us so we're no longer slaves.

Abba Father expresses an especially close relationship to God,

and that is available to each and every one of us.

Galatians 5, 16-17 states, So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify

the desires of the sinful nature.

For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit,

and the Spirit what in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.

But I'm a kid. I want to do what I want. That's our human nature.

But the Holy Spirit is there to guide us so we don't screw up our lives totally.

Living by the promptings and power of the Spirit is the key to conquering sinful desires.

Has given us his holy word, the Bible, to instruct us on how to live a clean and holy life.

Psalm 119 states, how can a young man keep his way pure by living according to your word?

Think of a young man as a new Christian, someone who has just accepted Jesus

Christ as his Lord and Savior and is new to the Christ-like lifestyle.

Even though God is a loving God, he disciplines those who turn away from his will.

How many of us have been disciplined by our fathers when we were growing up?

Seemed like it was a constant thing, wasn't it?

Hebrews 12, 4 through 11 says, In your struggle against sin,

you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood,

and you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons.

My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline and do not lose heart when

he rebukes you because the Lord's disciplines those he loves and he punishes

everyone he accepts as a son.

Endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as sons for what son is not

disciplined by the father.

If you are not disciplined, and everyone undergoes discipline,

then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them for it.

How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live?

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while, as they thought best.

But God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.

Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those

who have been trained by it.

Suffering and persecution should be seen as corrective and instructive training

for our spiritual development, even though it's hard to remember that at the

time that you're being disciplined.

God chastens us in order to correct us. God's discipline is evidence that we are his children.

God's discipline is a basis for encouragement and perseverance.

When we accept our discipline in a submissive manner, it can be beneficial to our growth in Christ.

Third is our Savior gave himself for us to produce a people zealous to do good.

Christ did not die just to rescue us from going to hell or to assure us entrance into heaven.

He died to bring us a heavenly way of life in the here and now.

He wants us to be characterized by doing good things for others.

God, our Father, wants us to do good.

Our Savior is described as one who went about doing good.

Acts 10.38 states, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and

power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the

power of the devil, because God was with him.

We are his workmanship, created in Christ unto good works.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 2.10, for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ

Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

I don't know about you, but I have a hard time remembering that when I get up

in the morning and I'm looking in the mirror.

I see all my flaws. I don't see God's workmanship.

Maybe it's time that we put a post-it note on that mirror so when we look into

it, we remember that we are perfect, made in God's image.

Jesus made an impact on the world then, just as he does now,

by his emphasis on a positive response to God and a positive response to the needs of others.

In order to recognize true religion, we must recognize the negatives of religion.

We are to renounce worldly possessions and desires.

We are to have no other gods before him.

This includes all forms of worldly desires that keep us from spending time in

a relationship with him.

This can even be good things such as work and family. We must truly repent.

True repentance is a change of mind which redirects our life.

It is a transformation of our mind and attitude towards God and others.

To be truly Christian, we must not only be positive about our great spiritual

values, but negative about ungodly values.

True religion calls for the repudiation of ungodliness.

We need to ask God for help in becoming holier in all aspects of our life.

We must renounce all things that are contradictory to living righteous lifestyle.

True religion calls for rejection of worldly cravings.

We cannot overcome captive by worldly desires.

Matthew 6, 19-21 states, do

not store up yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where

thieves break in and steal but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where

moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal for

where your treasure is there your heart will be also

How many of you need to do, like me, spring cleaning and kind of get rid of

all kinds of stuff in your home.

Is that our worldly goods and our worldly desires?

Or is it right here? You know, really all we need is this Bible.

We don't need all those earthly things in our home.

Christ chose to die for you and me.

There was a motive for his actions of caring and dying that we may have eternal life.

We must have motives in our lifestyle as well to realize the negatives and positives

of true religion and rid ourselves of the negatives and focus on the positives of righteous living.

The good news is that the grace of God brings salvation for all of us,

but it can only be done by allowing Jesus Christ into your heart and have power over your soul.

If you have not already done so, I invite you to ask him into your heart today.

Allow the Holy Spirit to direct your path and take control of your life and

experience God's grace today.

Lord, as we've heard the many passages that you've placed on us today,

if there's anyone here that has not yet invited you into their hearts, I pray that they do that.

Keep us mindful of what the

true religion is what true worship is it's

not coming here once a week and praising

you in song and listening to the pastor speak it's a lifestyle that we must

all pick up rely on your holy spirit to guide us and to be a light unto the

world may we go out today and be that light that this world so desperately needs amen Thank you.