 And this is our last session. We are taking a break. If you're visiting with us today, we're taking a break from working verse by verse through First Timothy. The last couple of days we have had our cheap grace conference, and so we've been preaching from text and scripture related to this heresy that's been attacking a church for 2,000 years, and certainly not letting up in our day and age, but this issue of cheap grace. This morning we're going to look at a topic, cheap grace and the Lordship of Christ. And we're going to look at that from Titus chapter 2, verses 11 through 15. The cheap grace and the Lordship of Jesus Christ. At its very essence, cheap grace is an attack on the authority and power and the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And what I've hoped is that through this conference, a number of things would be true. One is that maybe through preaching this to our people and edifying the building up the saints here at Cornerstone Baptist Church, that it would inform your understanding, would build discernment in you on these various issues related to this cheap grace heresy, but also that it would inform your evangelism. That as we share the gospel with a lost world that is by and large, if they claim any association or any relation whatsoever to any type form of so-called Christianity that you'd be able to speak to them from the word of God against this heresy and it would inform your evangelism. But also I hope, and there are many who are deceived by this. Our brother was speaking about that this morning, just deceived by one or more aspects of this heresy that Satan has masterfully woven into the fabric of the so-called church today and maybe woven into the fabric of your own thinking with respect to this. And what I hope to do, what I hope this conference has meant to you maybe, is that you've got those folks who are deceived by this and they are lost. They're not in Christ because they've been deceived by this error of cheap grace and yet they're sitting on a stool and while they're sitting on that stool, they're propping up legs under them, you know, trying to justify themselves, trying to hold on to some notion that they might be able to get away with living in their sin and be saved and so they keep propping legs up under their stool. And this may be for you and maybe the last leg you've got propped up under your stool and I want to kick it out from under you. We hope that the word of God would take away any false assurance you have that you're saved because you've believed or been duped by some error of cheap grace. I grew up in that. My light, before the Lord saved me, deceived my whole life by this notion of cheap grace. Calling myself a Christian, living in my sin, being deceived by the gospel that was being preached in the churches that I attended, many times faithfully went to church, thought that I was faithfully serving the Lord and yet I was lost. I had that leg up under my stool and if someone had come along faithfully preaching the word of God and it kicked that leg out from under my stool, maybe I would have woken up a little sooner, but many of you here today, some of you may need to be woken up. There are many out there that need to be woken up, need to be awakened from their deception and I hope this conference has been helpful in that. Cheap grace is an attack. It's an attack on the authority, the power, the lordship of Jesus Christ. Cheap grace is essentially a no lordship position. In the thought of many who are taught this heresy, it is accepting Jesus Christ, receiving him as Savior without making him, so to speak, Lord, without submitting to him as Lord. They claim for themselves a full forgiveness, a full forgiveness from sin. They claim for themselves an eternal security and I believe that often the no lordship position is an unbiblical attempt to explain how someone can get saved without their life changing. It's just a morphing of theology, your own personal made up in your head theology that you can somehow be saved and your life doesn't change. At some point they go back to living just like they did before they were quote unquote saved. They might say, parents about their kids, listen, I know Johnny, little Johnny is saved because little Johnny went down front, he cried big crocodile tears, he said that prayer, he responded to the altar call, the invitation and little Johnny, I was there when it happened. I know little Johnny is saved and little Johnny is a homosexual. Or I know that little Sally got saved. I know that little Sally is an adulterer, a fornicator. It is an effort on the part of some to morph their theology so that their kind and dear grandma who died is in heaven and not in hell. It is a cheapened form of the grace of God that leads to salvation in Christ. This faulty notion of lordship salvation or of cheap grace has given rise to what they call a crisis point theology. That someone comes to Christ, they believe themselves to be saved and yet their life hasn't changed. And so that later at some point there's this expectation maybe in their 30s, maybe in their 40s where all of a sudden now they get serious for Christ and they start serving him. It's created an unbiblical crisis point theology that tears down the biblical understanding that sanctification is progressive throughout the life of the Christian. And so what does that do? It breeds this wrong and unbiblical theology that, okay, I'm not living for Christ and so now I'm feeling convicted over my sin and so I'm going to rededicate my life. Listen, rededication, that's nowhere in Scripture. The Christian dedicates their life to Christ once by God's grace and never again because they persevere in the faith. The Lord preserves them in the faith. It's just a lot of unbiblical notions that arise out of this attack on the lordship of Jesus Christ and this perverse spread of cheap grace. All of this is due to a faulty understanding of God's grace and true biblical salvation. A proper view of the lordship of Jesus Christ is understood in the light of a proper view of the grace of God. This is from John MacArthur. I said this yesterday. It bears repeating. The question is not whether we're saved by grace but how grace operates in salvation. No lordship advocates love to portray themselves as champions of grace and grace to them is a blanket forgiveness and literally nothing else. It is inoperative in the life of the Christian. It's a one-time transaction. They love to portray themselves as champions grace but they characterize grace in an anemic way that misses the whole point. God's grace is a spiritual dynamic that works in the lives of the redeemed instructing us as we'll see today to deny ungodliness and worldly desires to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age. True grace is more than just a giant freebie opening the door to heaven in the sweet by and by but leaving us to wallow in sin in the bitter here and now. Grace, God's grace is God presently at work in our lives. You get that? The Lord's grace presently at work in the lives of those that are in him, those that are abiding in the vine. It's an active living, thriving, working, sanctifying, purifying, teaching grace. If you don't have that grace, you have no grace. By grace it says we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. By grace he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed. There's a purpose there. By grace he gave himself for us so that for the purpose that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself a people for his own possession zealous for good deeds. Ultimately those that would deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ deny the dynamic, working, thriving efficacy of God's grace in salvation. It's not a cheapened grace. It's not a watered down grace. It's not an ineffective grace. It's not a stagnant grace. It's not a one time grace. It's not a here and done grace. It's not a grace that saves you and then leaves you powerless against sin. It's not a grace that saves you and leaves you in sin. It's not a grace that leaves you unchanged. It's not a grace that saves and then leaves you with the old, stinking, hard heart you always had. It's a grace that transforms. It's a grace that works. It's a grace that's effective. It's a cheap grace on the cheap grace side. The cheap grace is a grace that doesn't work in the lives of the redeemed. It's not active. It's stagnant. It's inert. It's a cheap grace that isn't a dynamic or effective working grace. It's nothing more than a one time transaction and the rest is just up to you. And if you live the way you've always lived, then okay, so be it. It's a grace that is stripped of its life transforming power. It's life sanctifying power. You know, there's a trend in liberalism to deny the miracles in scripture. They deny the inerrancy, the infallibility of scripture. They deny the miracles in scripture. Well, cheapened grace, a watered down grace, a watered down gospel, an attack on the lordship of Jesus Christ is an attack on the miraculous power of God to convert a soul and then transform that person, to sanctify them, to conform them into the image of Christ. It takes the miracle out of salvation. It's just a strip down to a decision that you make. You know what? I think today, Lord's going to be lucky to have me today. I'm going to get saved. Cheap grace is a grace that flows to a supposed regeneration rather than flowing from regeneration. Flowing from regeneration means that you are born again by the Spirit of God, that you are made alive in Christ from being dead in your sin and only able to produce a continuously sinful life. You are made alive in Christ Jesus and then faith and the fruits of faith, submission to his lordship, repentance, all flow from the new birth. It's cheap grace that says it's a decision of man, the activity of man, the faith of man, the repentance of man, the decision of man, the will of man that leads to being born again. Again, it's a way of saying, listen, God, I'm not going to trust you to save me. I'm going to save myself. And when I save myself, you need to give me the grace that I need to, you know, it's man-centered. Cheap grace is a grace that produces by the millions people who think they are saved and are not. And it is so prevalent today. It is not an exaggeration to say that a vast, vast majority of churches teach this kind of cheapened grace, this no-lordship heresy. Often times, they will say, if you ask them, and I have many times, they'll say out of one side of their mouth, you can't have Jesus as savior without having him as lord. But it doesn't line up in their practice because if you look down the rows of their church, you look at the leadership of the church, they're in sin. There is doctrinal error. There is error in the life. There's fornication and adultery and cheating and lying and gossiping and that's among the deacons. It's not a grace that produces a transformed life. In effect, it's a cheap grace that represents in the Scripture the broad road to destruction. The road is wide. The gate is wide. It's easy to find. And there are many who are on it. There are those that say, Lord, Lord, who will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Who are those that say, Lord, Lord? They're saying, Lord, Lord, that means they're in the church. They're those at churches scattered around here that say, Lord, Lord, they profess Jesus Christ as Lord. Out of one side of their mouth, they say, Lord, out of the other side, they're living a hypocritical life. They're not submitted to his lordship. It's an attack on the lordship of Jesus Christ. They say, Lord, Lord, God says, I never knew you. I never knew you. God says, I've not transformed your heart. I've not filled you with my spirit. The death of my son wasn't efficacious for you because you've not repented and believed. Sometimes the denial of what has become understood as lordship salvation is a far-reaching overreaction. No lordship position is an attempt to protect the character of God, protect his attribute of grace. We know God to be gracious, to be loving, and many think of God as a grandfatherly old type that would turn a blind eye to your sin, would sweep it under the rug, give you a piece of candy anyway, just a grandfatherly type of a view of God. And cheap grace is an overreaction to try to somehow, in an unbiblical sense, to try to protect this view or this character of God as being loving and gracious. But God is excessively loving and gracious, and that's only understood in a biblical view, with a biblical view of biblical grace. But also it's an attempt, an overreach, to try to protect a salvation that is by grace alone, through faith alone, apart from works. This is where that issue of regeneration comes in. These works are not meritorious human works. The works that this grace produces, that God's grace produces, the works that are produced by faith in the life of the believer are not meritorious works. They don't earn you a place in heaven, but they are the fruit of God's work in you produced by His Spirit. They're the fruits of that grace, they're the fruits of that faith. This is not a salvation by works, it's a salvation that works. Often in churches it's far more insidious than either one of those denials. It is a demonic counterfeit used to deceive. You get as many people in as possible to pad the wallets of a false teacher. The Lord says among false teachers that a prominent reason for a false teacher, a prominent motivation for a false teacher is covetousness. From the least of them to the greatest of them, they're all given to covetousness. And we see that by and large all over the place today. In reality, the no-lordship position, saying that you can have Christ as Savior while not submitting to Him as Lord, has completely undermined the salvation by the grace of God alone through faith alone. They have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. Let's remove the veil, so to speak. Let's go behind the curtain and take a look at the reality of the no-lordship position. There are seven things that this no-lordship position denies. Let's take a look at these denials. One, on your notes here, the denial of Christ's lordship is a cloak for disobedience. It's a cloak for licentiousness, a cloak for hypocrisy. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 24 says, Christ himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness. Because of what Christ has done, because He bore our sins in his body on the tree, we have died to sin. We've died to the penalty of sin, certainly, but we've also died, as Romans says, to the power of sin in our lives. You are free from sin in Christ to live a life that is pleasing to Him, to deny yourselves and live for righteousness. But cheap grace would say that that doesn't matter how you live. Live as you want. Sin it up. The example of three free sins is unbelievable that you can get away with that kind of contradiction of God's word. Titus 1 verse 16 says, they profess to know God. They say, I'm a Christian. They say, Lord, Lord, but in works they deny Him being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. It's an attempt. No Lordship position is an attempt to have your sin, to clutch your sin with one hand and to hold on to Christ with the other. You can't do it. You can't do it. Number two, the denial of Christ's Lordship is a cloak for impenitence. No Lordship position says that repentance is unnecessary for salvation. And if you try to say that repentance is necessary, you're adding works. Say that repentance is in no way related to saving faith. The Bible says, repent or perish. Repent. Salvation to the no Lordship position is nothing more than simple belief, simple belief. Number three, the denial of Christ's Lordship is a cloak for rebellion against authority. Rebellion against the authority and Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is a rebellion against Christ's right to reign over you. Luke chapter 9 verse 23, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up the instrument of his own execution daily, and follow me. Verse 24, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life, listen, give it up, abandon it, forsake it, lose your life for Christ's sake. Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he clings onto his sin, if he clings onto his own reign over his own life, if he clings onto his own self-will, self-indulgence? What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or lost? Romans chapter 14 verse 7 says this, for none of us lives to himself and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lords. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. And additionally, it's far more here, right, than just an authority or a Lordship issue. We delight, if you're a Christian, you delight to live for Christ. You delight to be pleasing in His sight, to serve Him, to love Him, to evangelize with His gospel. It's a delight, and it is ridiculous, absurd to think that you can come to Christ apart from His right to reign in your life. At number four, the denial of Christ's Lordship is a cloak for a fruitless and heartless faith, a heartless external moralism, a heartless religion. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 7, to you who believe he is what? Remember? Precious, precious. To you who believe he is precious. That's a changed heart, a fruit of a changed heart. When Christ saves you, gives you a new heart, it's before you could give nothing for Christ, you could care less about Christ. Once the Lord saves you, gives you a new heart and dwells you with His Spirit, Christ is precious. Is He precious to you? Is He your heart, just in thinking on Christ, thinking on His excellencies, and what He has done on behalf of you, a wicked sinner, a deplorable sinner. All that He did, all that He said, all that He's done, His life, His perfect, beautiful life, His going to Calvary for sinners. It's just, is He precious to you? 1 Corinthians 16 verse 22, if anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Apart from genuine grace, we couldn't love Christ. Apart from the grace of God and in Christ Jesus, we had a heart that despised Him. At best, you were just indifferent. And that's hatred in the way the Bible would describe it. A believer may forsake the faith altogether, come to the point of not believing at all. There may be no growth, there may be no fruit, and they are eternally secure in the no-Lordship position, in the no-Lordship understanding of grace. You can claim Christ one day and be an atheist the next, and claim heaven and be eternally secure in the no-Lordship understanding of grace. Think about this, speaking of a fruitless and a heartless faith, in the no-Lordship position, it's enough simply to believe a set of facts. You know what? I believe Christ. But think about it this way, if you turn to someone that you know, turn to someone that you love, and you say I believe you, how is that different from I trust you? There's a difference, right? Expand that by a thousand, and you have faith in Christ, you have a depiction of what faith looks like. It's not just an I believe in a set of facts, it's different to say I believe you than it is to say I trust you. I trust you. In Christ, biblical saving faith is a trust of all we are, all we are to all that He is, all that He's done, all that He stands for, all that Christ is, to trusting Him with our very salvation, our eternal destiny. It is a trust, and that trust comes with commitment. And the denial of Christ-Lordship is a cloak for fruitless and heartless faith. Number five, the denial of Christ-Lordship is a cloak for spiritual midgets. It's a little cloak. It's a cloak for spiritual midgets. There may be absolutely no spiritual growth, no maturity, no sanctification. You can be saved, claim Christ, be eternally secure, and yet not be sanctified, not grow in the faith, not mature. First Thessalonians chapter four verse three says, for the will of God is this, your sanctification. That's the will of God in your life if you're a Christian. Number six, the denial of Christ-Lordship is a cloak for man-centered theology, man's sovereignty, man's decisions. It's a cloak for dethroning God. Man in the no-Lordship position is just worth it. You know how valuable you are, right? That God would create the universe around you and your glory and all that you want, all your needs. You're the one who is precious. Look at everything that he did for man, they might say. Reminded of that, him like a rose trampled on the ground, he took the fall and thought of me above all. Listen, the Lord is zealous for his own glory. The Lord is zealous for his own glory. It's the Lord's glory that we live for. Philippians chapter two verse nine says this, Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That the kingdom of heaven is like a great treasure that was hidden in the field and a man sold everything to acquire the field that he might have the treasure. The kingdom of heaven is like a pearl of great price that a man went out looking for it. He found this pearl, sold all that he had to acquire the pearl, to acquire the kingdom. In other words, you give up everything for who he is. It's not cheap. You give up all that you are. It's all about the glory of God. It's not going to be the Godhead in heaven worshiping you for all eternity. You're going to be in heaven worshiping God. Look quickly, very quickly at John chapter 17. Let me just give you an example of this. John chapter 17. This is hard. If you've grown up in these churches, it's a complete shift in your thought process to understand this. God loves. There's no question about it. And Christ paid the price for a redeemed humanity. He, we love him because he what? First love does. So God loves, but it's about the glory of God. Look at John chapter 17. Look at verse 1. John chapter 17 verse 1. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. He is about to be crucified. The hour has come. Glorify your son, that your son also may glorify you. As you have given him authority over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have glorified you on the earth. I finished the work which you have given me to do. And now, oh Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. In redeeming a lost and sinful and rebellious and wicked humanity to worship Christ, to worship God, God glorifies himself. Jesus Christ glorifies himself. In God giving a redeemed humanity to the Lamb, God glorifies the Son. In the Son giving that humanity back, that love gift back to the Father. He glorifies the Father. We are the love gift. We are the redeemed humanity that worships him to see God high and lifted up, to see him glorified. Look at verse 24 in the same chapter, verse 24. Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am. That they may behold my glory which you have given me for you loved me before the foundation of the world. Oh righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you. And these have known that you sent me and I have declared to them your name. And will declare it that the love with which you love me may be in them and I in them. You think about glorifying God. It's not that God, you can add anything to the glory of God. God is fully glorified in himself. He is perfect in his glory. When we say Lord I desire to glorify you, may my actions glorify you. Lord I want to glorify you in my prayer, glorify you in my obedience. What you're saying is I want to reflect your glory in my life. Reflect your glory in my thoughts and in my heart and in my prayer and in my obedience. You're reflecting the glory of God. We were created to reflect the glory of God and to worship him. It's about the glory of God. 7. The denial of Christ's lordship is a cloak for lost. It's a cloak for lost. It bears repeating, there are many who say, Lord, Lord, who do not do the will of the Father. For lack of time, we're familiar with Matthew chapter 7, verse 24, where those who hear these sayings of mine and do them are like a wise man who builds his house on the rock. When the storm of God's judgment comes against that house, it'll stand because it's founded and built on the rock of obedience to the commands of Christ. Here's those sayings and does them. But there's also a foolish man, a stupid man, who when he hears these sayings of mine, he listens to the preached word of God. He listens to the commands of Christ. He listens to all that we are to be in Christ. He hears these sayings of mine and does not do them. He is a foolish man, a stupid man who built his house on the sand and when the storm of God's judgment comes, that house crumbles, it falls, and great will be the fall of it. Lordship, this is the Lordship issue in a nutshell. The No Lordship, Sheep Grace Theology, describes the false convert that we're warned about repeatedly throughout Scripture. It describes that false convert. Sheep Grace, or No Lordship Theology, in that sense if you think about it, it's worse than purgatory. Purgatory, just a figment of some man's imagination. Just come up with the purgatory. At least purgatory attempts to deal with sin. Sheep Grace doesn't deal with sin at all. You're more than welcome in your sin and you can still be a child of God. This is so clear in Scripture, but Satan is all about boring lines causing confusion. And he's had 2,000 years to do it. There's no confusion with the word of God. Don't be deceived. Romans chapter 10 verse 9 says, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. So here's what it looks like in practice to confess Jesus Christ as Lord. Acknowledging one, acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord, involves obedience to his commands. Luke chapter 6 verse 46. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say? Two, acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord, involves surrendering your will to his Lordship. No longer living for yourself, but abandoning yourself, losing your life for his sake, abandoning your sin. Matthew chapter 10 verse 38 says, he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Take up the instrument of your own execution and follow Christ. Three, acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord, involves walking in those works that he has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Those good works that we just got to wait to heaven before we do them? No, he's talking about good works here. You become a Christian, he saves you to walk in good works that's submitting to his Lordship. Acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord, involves persevering in him to the end, not turning away. Luke 9 verse 62 says, no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. It speaks to that perseverance. Mark was speaking of this morning. We are not severe in the faith, and we are preserved in the faith by God's grace. Lastly, acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord, involves a sovereign work of God alone in the heart of every believer. It is God's working. First Corinthians chapter 12 verse 3, therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the spirit of God calls Jesus a cursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Now, you can teach a parrot to say Jesus is Lord. No one can say Jesus is Lord and have a life that attests to that reality apart from the Holy Spirit in them. That's what that's saying. That's just a small representative list. Jesus Christ is Lord. And then understand that this is all encompassed. This is all encompassed. All of this is encompassed in the grace that comes to us from God in Christ Jesus. It's encompassed in the grace that works. These are not our works that somehow merit favor with God. They're not our works. They are the Holy Spirit enabled, Holy Spirit empowered. God wrought works. They are fruit, if you will, of the new birth. Cheap grace proponents often speak of making Christ Lord at some point after conversion. Now, go live this sinful life and at some point in my 30s and my 40s, I'll make Christ Lord of my life. I'll begin living for Him. That is ridiculous. Christ is Lord. The New Testament acknowledges Jesus Christ is Lord 747 times in the New Testament alone. Acts chapter 2 verse 36 Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. That's our introduction. Let's turn to Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2. Let's look at this in Scripture, in practice. Titus chapter 2, beginning in verse 11, it instructs us what this grace of God looks like practically to the Christian who comes to Christ in repentance and faith. This is real-world application of this powerful, efficacious working grace of God. In Titus 2, beginning in verse 11, the Bible says, that brings salvation as a peer to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people zealous for good works. Speak these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no one despise you. He begins in verse 11, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared, has appeared to all men. That word for appeared there is where we get our English word epiphany from. It's an appearing. It brings to light something that was hidden or in the shadows, right? It's used elsewhere for the rising or the appearing of the sun. So this grace of God appears as the rising of the sun. It's a glorious thought, right? The picture, the grace of God appearing to all men as the rising of the sun. Which is brought to light then. That epiphany, that rising of the sun is the grace of God. And that one word encompasses everything. It encompasses the incarnation of Christ, the perfect life of Christ, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the ascension of Christ, the intercession of Christ. All of God's work in redemptive history is encompassed by that one word grace. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It doesn't mean that all men are saved. The same intent is meant here as we saw in 1 Timothy 2.6 where Christ was said to give himself a ransom for all. Here it's appeared to all men in the sense that it is the only one. It's the only hope. There is salvation in none other. This salvation that has appeared is the only one. There's one God, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. However, what it brings is it brings salvation, salvation from God's wrath, salvation from the penalty and power of sin, and notice it's the grace of God that brings that salvation you don't call it down by your decision, by your human will. It's not the exercise of your faith that calls down the fire from heaven, so to speak. John 1.13 says, men are born again, not of blood, not on your own nature, nor of the will of the flesh you can decide all you want to. It's not going to be the will of your flesh, nor of the will of man, it says, but of God. Romans 9.16 says, it is not of him who wills. It is not of him who runs. You can exert all the effort that you want to exert. It is of God who shows mercy. Salvation is of the Lord. Verse 12, he goes on to say that this grace that has appeared to all men, it teaches us it teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. Grace here personifies it takes on the role of teacher and instructor. Therefore that grace doesn't only deliver, it doesn't only rescue in a one moment in time transaction, it acts as a teacher, acts as a guide, it instructs by God's grace we come under the spirit of God, working through the word of God. The word there for teaching is present active meaning that it is ongoing. It's a continuous way of life, a continuous teaching to those who are under it. It also carries the sense that we're teaching there of discipline. There's a discipline or a chastisement that comes along with that training. And as important as it is that the salvation that we have in Christ is from the penalty of sin. The primary emphasis of this here from Paul is this is a salvation from the power of sin. That in grace teaching you and instructing you sometimes with discipline, right? Sometimes with chastisement. But in it's teaching of you and it's training, if you will, of you that training goes on in the life of the Christian. It is a removal of sin from you. It's a purifying of the believer. Not only just rescuing us from the penalty of sin, but also from the power of sin from the presence of sin in our life. This grace trains us two things. One, trains us to deny certain things, ungodliness and worldly lusts. But it also trains us to live in a certain way. That we should live soberly, righteously, and godly. Right? And this is already, you think about grace in this way just from verse 11 and 12. This is already way over the head of a cheap grace or no lordship position. If you believe that it's just the grace of God that shows up in a one-time moment of salvation this goes far beyond that in just these two verses alone. This is the grace of God that trains us, teaches us, instructs us, guides us, works in us to do into will according to his good pleasure. It's not just inoperative. It is operative. One here, it teaches us that we're to deny ourselves. We're to get rid of anything ungodly. Anything that stands opposed to God. Any worldly lusts, a good word for that is desires. Just worldly desires. You have a desire for worldly things. The grace of God teaches us to deny that. Anything that arises from within a person's flesh and it requires the training that we're guided under with this grace, it requires an act of your will. The grace of God trains you to deny ungodliness, so what do you do? You respond in an act of your will to deny yourself that worldly lust, that worldly pleasure. It's the grace of God, the power of God at work in us that teaches us to do that. Secondly, the grace here shows us how we are to live. There is a putting off of these worldly desires, a putting off of ungodliness, and there's a putting on of godliness, a putting on of sober thinking, sober acting, putting on of righteousness. There's a substitution that goes on in the cheap grace camp. You're no lordship. They don't think about anything of taking off. There's no necessity, no compulsion to free yourself from sin or to allow the grace of God to work in you to rescue you from the presence of sin in your life, and so there's nothing that can be added. You're in your filth, you're in your sin. You try to add righteousness to that. It's just filthy rags. All of it, the lot together. You put off that ungodliness. You put off those worldly desires, and you substitute those worldly desires from your old flesh, those worldly desires from the unconverted man, and you put on godliness. You put on righteousness. One goes out the door. If you don't fill that void, and that demon and seven of his buddies are going to come along, right? You got to fill that void. You put on godliness. You put on righteousness. There's a substitution that takes place. We can't live the Christian life. You can't live the Christian life if you're not going to say no to certain things. And if you're a Christian, it is the grace of God in Christ that is at work in you to teach you how to say no, to train you to say no, to deny yourself. But it's not all denial. We're to pursue other things. We're to pursue sober living, righteous living, godly living, to get rid of ungodliness and put on godliness. All right. All of this, remember, as it says here, is going on in the present age. That's not going to happen in heaven. It happens now. The grace of God is at work. In other words, grace here is not something, just something that is bestowed on to provide a one-time event of salvation. Grace is operative. It's dynamic and it's working now if you're in Christ. Grace not only delivers us in Christ Jesus, but grace transforms us until we are fully and finally delivered. So having been declared righteous through our justification in Christ, now under this training grace, we practice righteousness as a part of our sanctification. Romans 521 says this, so that as sin reigned in death, even so, grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So is this done yourself? Do you do this yourself? You think for a moment that you've been duped, you've been believing a lie, that you're under this lie of cheap grace, you cheapened grace to try to justify you and your sin? Do you do all this in your own strength? No. Grace is that which is operative. You are not. Grace is that which is active. The training under grace is a free gift, just like the free gift of salvation. This is a free gift of God's grace, and as a Christian you will be trained. It is God that works in you. You work and you do those works and you deny yourself and you take up your cross. You do those works that God gave you to do before the foundation of the world. You walk in them, but it is in this power of the spirit. It's God's spirit. It's God that has the victory in your life when you are trained under this grace. Think about the way that grace has taught you since coming to Christ. You're claiming to be in Christ. Do you think about the grace that works in you facing a difficulty? You think about the grace that is at work in you by the spirit of God through the word of God the grace that is operative in you when you face opportunity to sin. Do you say no? Do you deny yourself? Is grace operative? Maybe you look at your life and you've made no progress. Is it grace that is teaching you to deny ungodliness and worldly lust? One commentator said this. He says the sovereign purpose of all exhortations to holy living in Scripture is to honor and glorify God through the righteous living of His people leading to the salvation of more sinners. You're to live righteously. You're to live soberly. Verse 13 says, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for Mark's expansion on that from Jude this morning. Just looking for Christ hopefully eagerly anticipating His return. Is grace training you to do that? Is it operative in your life for that? The grace of God. And again, that glorious appearing that word appearing, rising of the sun. It says in verse 14, Christ gave himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed, purify us for Himself, His own special people. Verse 13, this is the culmination of our salvation, our eventual glorification. It's one of the strongest statements in Scripture regarding the deity of Jesus Christ. Do you look forward to the hope of His coming? Would you be found wanting if He came back now? For some, but only for some. This is a hopeful watching. Is it a hopeful watching for you? Verse 14, this salvation by this operative grace rescues us, it redeems us. That word there redeem means to secure rescue from penalty by the payment of a price. It purifies, purify there means to make clean, to cleanse. Redeem here is used of removing Christians from the control of sin. Removing Christians out from under the penalty of sin, out from under the power of sin. Redeemed, that price paid to remove Christians from the control of the power of sin. Purify here, purifying for Himself, His own special people, speaks of removing the defilement of sin from the life of the Christian. He purifies us in our sanctification, removing the defilement of sin from the life of the Christian, slowly, slowly, over time, conforming you into the image of Christ. This is all the redeemed of all time in Christ so that we are a special and personal possession of Christ. We're to be zealous for good works. That's a mark of conversion. Zealous for good works is a fruit of efficacious grace. Zealous for good works is a submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and zealous for good works. Zealous for good works as a fruit of this grace is the death knell of cheap grace. And we are in this preserved and persevere to the end, according to God's grace. So three things left to do, verse 15. You're to speak these things, you're to exhort, and you're to rebuke with all authority. We see in this one that grace is not a cheap, static, inert, powerless, toothless right grace. It's not an ineffective or a worthless grace. It's a working, living, healthy, vigorous, transforming, training grace, a grace in Christ that is truly precious and sought for in the Christian. Two, an outworking of grace is at work in the heart to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This is an outworking of grace. And there are implications for this in your life. If you're sitting on that stool with that one leg of a cheapened, watered down grace underneath you, humble yourself, allow for that leg to be kicked out from under you. Fall but the Lord may lift you up. Don't be deceived by this, examine your life. Christ makes demands on your life. He demands your life. And given the gospel it's a reasonable demand, isn't it? It would be saved and serve him. Aspergent said this, and it's a warning. It is extremely rare that an ordinary sinner who makes a profession of being what he is not to ever be converted. Because with this lie from Satan of a cheapened grace an inoperative grace a worthless grace we inoculate ourselves to the truth of God. You convince yourself your heart is such a deceitful betrayer that any kind of way out, any kind of way of escape any kind of notion that you can live in your sin and claim Christ you're only too willing to grasp hold of that with everything that you've got and to cling to that instead of clinging to Christ. And in clinging to that you are inoculated if anybody tries to come and pry your cold dead fingers off your own self-righteousness you'll gnash your teeth at them you'll become defensive self-righteous you're inoculated to the truth. That's why it's often said that in evangelism, man you gotta work hard to get them lost so that they can be saved. You're inoculated to the truth. What is impossible for man though is certainly possible for God and if you will pry, if you'll allow the Lord the spirit of God to pry your cold dead fingers off your own self-righteousness off your own self-justification John Bunyan made a comment and it stuck with me over the years that he wanted assurance of his salvation not because he readily and presumptuously picked it up himself but because the Lord God and his grace gave it to him and you think of that yourself you claim you wrap your fingers around your own self-righteousness, your own self-justification I'm saved because I believe and yet you're living in your sin you don't have a heart for the things of God you don't love the word of God you don't hunger and thirst for righteousness you don't have affection and love and zeal for Christ you're not a Christian and you need to allow the spirit of God to convict you of sin and of judgment and of righteousness you need to humble yourself you need to turn from this false notion that you can be saved and live in your sin and you just need to humble yourself and turn to Christ it is the humble that God exalts it's the proud, it's the haughty, it's the self-righteous that are cast down God be merciful to me a sinner needs to be your cry and the Lord will lift you up and tell you don't be deceived he who practices righteousness is righteous and that is the operative work of a thriving vibrant vital grace in your life it is the grace of God in the spirit of God through the word of God to turn his people from sin to purify you, don't be deceived practice righteousness, let's pray Father in heaven thank you for this instruction from your word God, I pray that you would blind eyes unplug stopped ears pry open stony hard hearts and save for your glory God teach us through your word pierce us with your word protect us God from this wicked deceptive lie of the devil and help us to see the truth in your word for what it is to not be deceived but to believe on Christ believe on you and to trust in Christ for this glorious grace God that works in the life of every believer we thank you for it God thank you for your grace in Christ to save us to rescue us God from the penalty of sin from the power of sin and to purify us, redeem us from the presence of sin from the work of your spirit and thank you Lord for your grace thank you for Christ thank you for the salvation that you've given us in him it's beautiful God and we hold it to be valuable and precious for your glory God in Jesus name Amen