THE AMAZING GRACE OF GOD
Titus 2:11-13
On the Island of Trinidad is a crater in an extinct volcano which is completely filled with pitch. This asphalt is hard enough for folk to walk upon, although gas still escapes here and there from its surface. Men dig great chunks from this tar-like lake and load train cars full of it to pave roads. It is said that no matter how large a hole is made in this Pitch Lake, no cavity will remain after 72 hours, for it immediately fills up from down below. For over 63 years, they have been taking shiploads of asphalt out of this crater, yet it never runs empty. They have gone down as far as 280 feet and still they have found this black, gumlike substance bubbling up. There seems to be an unlimited supply.
“His love has no limits; His grace knows no measure,
His power has no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again!”
This is one of the greatest passages in the Whole New Testament, for it so rich concerning the Christian. In verse 11, we see the first appearing of Jesus at His birth, and in verse 13, we see the second of appearing of Jesus in His second coming.
It tells us that we begin the Christian life with Grace and We end our Christian life with Glory.
The real key is found in verse 11 in the phrase, the grace of God. John Newton would late call it the amazing Grace Of God.
When I was a young boy, my granddaddy worked in a general store out in the country. Every Saturday night, he would buy my-self and my brother five pieces of Candy, such as a power bar, a brock candy bar, a zero candy bar, a butter log, and a milky way candy bar. He would put it in a brown paper bag and give it to us on Sunday afternoon. When I would see him, I would run to meet him and say what did you bring? He would say your “Saturday night”.
Verse eleven say, the grace of God that bringeth. God’s Grace bring us something and it does something for us.
I-NOTICE GOD’S GRACE BRINGETH US REDEEPTION: 11
A-We See That God Provided It For Us:11A
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared
We cannot save ourselves, God has to provide it for us. He did it by revealing His son, Jesus.
What He is talking about is an actual event, it is Christmas when God revealed His Grace in His son.
There have many some great nights in Bible history but the greatest night was when Jesus was born.
The main thing it that He provided salvation in Jesus for us, nothing we did or can do for it.
ILLUSTRATION: I heard a story about a boy who had his first date with a girl in his school. When he arrived to pick her up, he had a dozen roses in one hand and with the other hand rang the door bell. When she opened the door and saw him with the roses, she was so excited, she begin to kiss him all over his face. He left running from the house. She shouted, did I scare you Johnny? He said no, I going to the store and get another dozen roses.
We don’t bring flowers to win God’s love, He loves us though we are sinners. THAT IS GRACE
B-We See That God Presented It To Us: 11B
hath appeared to all men,
Jesus provided Himself not for just a few many, but all men.
Do you mean everybody is going to Heaven? No, he provides salvation for all, but not all will accept it.
ILLUSTRATION: Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s parents disapproved so strongly of her marriage to Robert that they disowned her. Almost weekly, Elizabeth wrote love letters to her mother and father, asking for a reconciliation. They never once replied. After ten years of letter writing, Elizabeth received a huge box in the mail. She opened it. To her dismay and heartbreak, the box contained all of her letters to her parents. No one of them had ever been opened! Today those love letters are among the most beautiful in classical English literature. Had her parents opened and read only a few of them, a reconciliation might have been effected.
Some many today refuse to read God’s love letter, the Bible, and see that God want to all to be saved through His son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God is not willing that any should perish.
ILLUSTRATION: Years ago the public was horrified by the brutally sadistic slaying of eight nurses in Chicago. The man who was charged with the crime wore a tattoo on his arm, “Born to Raise Hell.” Since this fact was published quite a few young men have had a similar slogan tattooed on their arms. In Hamilton, Canada, it is reported that “twenty to thirty youths in their late teens have had themselves inscribed with this slogan.”
You and I were not born to raise hell, but be saved and serve Jesus and have eternal life.
II-NOTICE GOD’S GRACE BRINGETH US REFORMATION: 12
Salvation not only change our position, but changes our actions. What man can’t do in reformation, God can, for, He can make us act godly.
Paul gives us some positives and some negatives of the Christian life,
A-Paul Says Deny Your-Self:12A
Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,
He is saying we need to say “no” to some things. The word “no” is not some people speech, but it is still in the Bible.
ILLUSTRATION: One of my friends in high school went to Alabama and played on the 1961 national championship team. He told me that the first day at the team meeting, the coach told them there were certain thing they world have to do to have a winning team. But he also told them, there would be some things they should not do to have a winning season, such as no staying out late, no use of tobacco and alcohol, no trouble with the Law, no failing grades and etc. Of course history tells us they won the 1961 national championship.
Paul tells us to say no to ungodliness, which means anything that is not God like.
Satan has three lines of attack. First, he tries to keep men from becoming Christians.
Then, if foiled here, he tries to keep them from being active and useful as Christians.
And finally, as a last resort, he tries to blacken their characters.
ILLUSTRATION : A Businessman’s Prayer-Help me, O Lord, to remember that three
feet make one yard, sixteen ounces one pound, four quarts one gallon, and sixty minutes
one hour. Help me To do business on the square. Make me sympathetic with the fellow
who has broken in the struggle. Keep me from taking an unfair advantage of the weak, or
from selling my self-respect for a profit. Blind my eyes to the petty faults of others, but
reveal to me my own. And when comes the sound of low music, the scent of sweet
flowers, and the crunch of footsteps on the gravel, make the ceremony short, and the
epitaph simply—“Here lies a man... one who was of service to God and others.”
Paul tells us to say no to worldly lust, which means sinful desires.
ILLUSTRATION: “Just one letter of the alphabet makes all the difference between us now,” said a recently-converted young woman to an unsaved friend, who could not understand the great change that had come over her. “You love the world,” she said, “and I love the Word.”
When a man says he can’t keep awake through a thirty-minute sermon, and stays home with his 700-column newspaper, whom is he kidding?
When a man says Sunday is his only day to rest, and gets up at 4:30 a.m. to go fishing, or spends the day on a golf course, whom is he kidding?
When a man says church seats are too hard and uncomfortable, then goes some Saturday to sit on a bleacher for hours in a drizzle watching 22 men push one another back and forth across a mud lot, whom is he kidding?
When a man says he doesn’t have time for Christ and His church, then spends evenings shopping, bowling, watching television, going to clubs, playing cards and having evenings out, whom is he kidding?...Not God!
—Spire
B-Paul Says Dedicate Your-Self:12B
we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
Some might say, as a Christian, it doesn’t matter how I live. But Paul say yes it does.
He says to live soberly which means more than not being drunk. It means to have self control.
In our day, we see a lot of bumper stickers on cars. I have saw several which say, “if it feel good, do it”. Well that is not having self control. It would be better to say, “if God says do it, then do it.
I heard Bro. Jerry Vines say jokily once , he had victory over certain foods like bubble gun and peanuts but he still had trouble with chocolate. I have trouble with chocolate too. I remember one Easter, I almost ate all the chocolate candy out of my kids baskets. I was not practicing self control. .
Paul also says, we are to live righteously, which means right living, to do right.
ILLUSTRATION: In May 1994, Howard Jenkins of Tampa, FL, a 31-year-old roofing company employee, discovered that $88 million had been mistakenly transferred into his account. Although he initially withdrew $4 million, his conscience got the better of him shortly afterward and he returned the $88 million in full.—Guinness Book of World Records
III-NOTICE GOD’S GRACE BRINGETH US REWARDS:13
Grace brings us the blessed or happy hope of Jesus coming again , that is reward enough. For a Christian. For Jesus is our reward.
A-At His Coming There Is A Promise Of Gladness: 13A
Looking for that blessed hope,
Many people today, don’t have much to look forward to, but Grace gives every Child of God something to look forward to.
I am not looking for the great tribulation, but the great Savior, I am not looking for the anti-christ, but the real Christ.
ILLUSTRATION: I heard about a farmer, who driving near an airport, when he heard the boom of a jet airplane. It shook the pick up and he jumped outside for he didn’t know what it was. He then looked up toward he sky and said, it that you Jesus?
One thing for certain, he was looking for Jesus and His second coming. Some today are not looking for his coming, in fact, some don’t want Him to come again.
ILLUSTATION: Harry Ironside tells the following story: I remember one night in Stockton, California,...I was preaching about the coming of Jesus. As I was in prayer I was conscious of a woman getting up and going out, for in those days the skirts would swish whenever a lady walked. It seemed to me that this lady must have gone out in a hurry. When I finished my prayer and went to greet the friends at the door, I found a woman pacing back and forth in the lobby. The moment I came, she said to me, “How would you dare to pray like that—‘Come Lord Jesus?’ I don’t want him to come. It would break in on all my plans. How dare you!” I said, “My dear young woman, Jesus is coming whether you like it or not.” Oh, if you know Him and love Him, surely your heart says, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
B-At His Coming There Is A Promise Of Glory: 13B
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
What a sight when we Jesus face to face in His glory. The first time, He came riding a donkey, but the next time, a white horse, the first time, He bore a cross, but the next time, a crown, the fist time, He was stripped naked, but the next time, He will be wearing a royal robe, the first time, He had no place to lay His head, the next time, we will see His many mansions, the first time, He was a lowly carpenter, but the nest time, King of King and Lord of Lords.
ILLUSTRATION: I remember the time I saw on TV former Senator Jeremiah Denton of Alabama returning from captivity as POW in Viet Nam. When he got off the plane, he kissed the ground, then he ran to his family and started hugging and kissing them. It was a wonderful sight,
But far more wonderful and glorious will when we reach Heaven’s shore . Maybe, we will kiss those golden streets and run to see our loved ones and hug and kiss them. Then we will see Jesus and we will fall down on our knees before, and cry out with the angels, Holy, Holy, Holy.
Conclusion: No wonder God Grace is Amazing, for it saved us from hell, it gives us power to live a pure life, and give us an eternal in Heaven with Jesus. Have you responded to this Grace?
ILLUSTRATION: In Holman Hunt’s great picture, called The Light of the World, we see one with patient, gentle face standing at a door which is ivy-covered, as if long closed. He is girthed with the priestly breastplate. He bears in his hand the lamp of truth. He stands and knocks. There is no answer, and he still stands and knocks. His eye tells of love, his face beams with yearning. You look closely, and you perceive that there is no knob or latch on the outside of the door. It can be opened only from within. Do you see the meaning?
The Spirit of God comes to your heart’s door and knocks. He stands there, while storms gather and break upon his unsheltered head, while the sun declines and night comes on with its chills and its heavy dews. He waits and knocks, but you must open the door yourself. The only latch is inside.
