S. SALVATION THROUGH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST

SALVATION THROUGH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST

TEXT: The grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and Godly in this present world; looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. - Titus 2:11-13. The object of the theme today is to show the origin, end and the means of salvation. The very term, salvation, implies that men are lost, and so lost that they can not save themselves.

Two things are distinctly affirmed in this context, that salvation is not by works of righteousness which we do ourselves, but that it flows from the grace of God. As Paul expressed it in another context, "By grace are we saved, not of works," putting the two things over against each other again, so we, in determining the, first thought of this text, are showing that the origin of salvation is God’s love. The Apostle John expresses the epitome of the gospel when he says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life." We sometimes allow our conceptions of certain doctrines to limit the range of our thought and the scope of our comprehension of the love of God. Sometimes, it is presented to us as if that love had been superinduced by the work which the Savior did-that the Savior having died for us, secured to us God’s love. But that makes the Savior’s work the origin of salvation, and contradicts the statement that the Savior was given because God loves us. It is the love of God that caused the Savior’s work, and not the Savior’s work that brought about God’s love.

Again, in our construction of certain passages of scripture, such as "God is angry with the wicked every day," we seem to limit the love of God to the good people. We say He loves the good and hates the bad, which is equivalent to saying, "By works of righteousness which we did ourselves." That not only puts the condemnation of a man on the ground of his evil deeds, but it puts our salvation on the ground of our good deeds and it supposes not that Jesus Christ by His works secured the love of God, but that we by our works secured the love of God. The Apostle Paul asks the question, "Whoever did first give to him that it might be recompensed again?" Where is there in the annals of history to be found the name of a man whose own goodness superinduces the goodness of God, so that God’s favor to him was an obligation, a debt arising from the piety of the man?

Again, we are disposed to place a limit upon the love as to nations, or as to congregations or sects. But not so the record: "God so loved the world." "The grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men." "God willeth (that is, desireth) not the death of any man." Indeed He swears by His own eternal existence that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked; that His pleasure rather, is that they should turn and live. The origin of salvation, then, is the love of God; that love not brought about by what the Savior did, but bringing about what the Savior did; that love not brought about by our piety, but our piety brought about by that love; not limited to Jews, but including Gentiles, barbarians, Scythians, bond and free, i.e., the world. "The grace of God hath appeared." It was often before dimly foreshown. It was adumbrated, i.e., the coming event cast its shadow before. It was obscurely hinted in types, but our Savior Jesus Christ hath brought life and immortality to light. "The grace of God hath appeared," that is, made itself manifest. No sun that shines in the skies is more apparent and conspicious. No truth has ever been so demonstrated and published. No proclamation has ever been written in larger letters and carried to greater lengths and extents than the grace of God.

It hath appeared. It appears in the declarations of angels. It appears in the revelation of this Book. It appears in the commission of Jesus Christ. It appears wherever church spires point to the skies. It appears wherever missionaries go. There is no voice nor language where the word of this grace is not heard. It means, to quote the exact meaning of the Greek, for this term is an adjective, and the only time that it is used in the New Testament, "bringing saving to all men." Wide as is the advertisement, wide as is the proclamation, so wide is the proffer of salvation to all men.

Now we are on questions today, of both doctrine and life, not of life versus doctrine, nor of doctrine versus life, but of the doctrine that there may be the right kind of a life, the right kind of a life growing out of the doctrine, the sound doctrine. And it is sound doctrine that the origin of salvation is God’s love, and that that love is now made manifest.

Angels once desired to look into the mysteries that today the Sunday School child is familiar with. Prophets themselves forecast things concerning salvation, that they were unable to comprehend, but it is now apparent, brought out of all original mystery and put in simple and plain language, so that a little child can understand it. The fundamental thought of it is that God, loving all the world, and every man in the world, offers salvation to every man in the world. "I would, therefore, that prayers be offered, supplications and giving of thanks for all men." "Who will have (or desires to have) all men to he saved."

Therefore we ought never to allow any view that we may have of an isolated doctrine to hamper our thought, to restrain our conception of the broadness of God’s love, and of the wideness of the offer of salvation.

It is a matter of divine sincerity. Suppose you, as a preacher, open the Book at your commission. You read it: "All authority in heaven and on earth is vested in me. Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all nations." Does God mean that? Do I myself believe that? When I preach must I preach for the salvation of all men? Have I the spirit of Jesus Christ, or have I the spirit of Jonah? When God said to Jonah, "Go and take my message to that great city, Nineveh," Jonah refused to take it. Why did he refuse to take it? He himself says that he refused to take it because he knew God, and that if he took that message and the Ninevites repented, that God would forgive them and save them, and as he did not want them to be saved he would not bear the message.

Jonah did not misunderstand. He did not think God was insincere. He believed that if God sent even a threat to Nineveh, the fact that He sent the threat was an intimation that if they would regard the threat, and break off their sins, and repent of them, and implore His pardon, that He would forgive them-every one of them. But I heard a preacher say that there were men for whom he had no message; that he never had a sermon to preach to a man until there was some proof to his mind that the man was a child of God.

Now, let us consider the next thought in this text. The origin of salvation being God’s love, what is the procuring cause of salvation? It is distinctly stated in the text and context, and all through the Bible, that there is but one procuring cause. We need not try to think of a great many things. There is just one thing, and it is the work and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who came on account of God’s love and grace into this world.

If any man be saved he is saved on account of what Christ has done and not because of anything that he has done or promises to do. The meritorious basis of salvation is the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now we have gone a long step toward the comprehension of salvation when we settle these two points: What is its origin? What is its meritorious ground? Starting in God’s love, a love revealed, a love bringing salvation and hope, it finds expression and merit in the work of Jesus Christ-that "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man he lifted up, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life." It is not, "Do and live," but it is, "Live and do." Moses describes the righteousness which is of the Law, that they which do those things shall live by them, but Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

Perhaps you do not always understand the purport of certain persistent questions addressed to candidates for church membership: "On what ground, on what account do you think you are saved? Do you think you are saved because you are sorry for the wrong you have done? Do you think you are saved because you are good? Do you think that you are saved because you have now promised to do good and think you are going to be able to do good, and do you think you are going to be able to do good, and do you think you are saved because of your emotions of joy or peace? What is the basis upon which your hope of salvation rests?" These questions are intended to fix the mind exclusively upon the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, embodied in the act of dying vicariously on the cross for men. Hence we have made, I say, a long step when we settle these two points clearly.

Now comes the next point. Men in their low estate by nature are children of wrath. Their mind is enmity, against God, not subject to His law, neither indeed can be. While Christ’s death is the meritorious ground of salvation, the question comes up,

"How is this saved man now to be fitted for the heaven which is his home, and for the service into which his salvation proposes to introduce him?" Hear the Scripture again: "Not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but by His grace through" ¾ through what? ¾ "the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost."

Well, from what flows regenerating grace? It is a question of order here. "Which He shed on us abundantly in Jesus Christ." As God’s love is the origin of Christ’s sacrifice, so Christ’s sacrifice is the origin of the Spirit’s regeneration and cleansing power, put forth to change the nature of men and fit them for the kingdom of God, for service here and for enjoyment hereafter: "The washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." That then is the third thing.

Now what does it mean? If we go back to Ezekiel’s time we find that there is involved in the saving of a man, first, a cleansing and then a renewing. To cleanse him by itself would not suffice, for unless he is renewed, as to his nature, he would be like the sow that had been wallowing in the mire. You might wash her with fuller’s soap, and yet she would go and wallow in the mire again, because not renewed, being still a hog. So two things are involved. One is the washing or cleansing, and the other is the renewing.

Ezekiel says, "Then I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean. I will take away your stony heart and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you." That is, I will not only wash you and make you clean from all past defilement, but I will renew your nature, so that it will love God where it had hated Him, and desire holiness where it had preferred unrighteousness. That is exactly what is meant in the third chapter of John, "born of water and of the Spirit"

There are two things in the Spirit’s work, a cleansing by the application of the blood of Jesus Christ, symbolically set forth in the water of purification. "Then will I sprinkle clean water," water of cleansing, water that represents the blood of Christ. "Born of water and Spirit," is equivalent to saying, "Born of the blood of Christ and of the Spirit," that is, the Spirit applies the blood of Christ for cleansing purposes, and then by His own power renews the nature, what is called here the "washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost."

Here arises a question: As the washing here is the washing that does the cleansing, is it not referred to in Zechariah, "In that day a fountain shall be opened in the city of David for sin and for uncleanness?" To this, Cowper in his song alluded when he said, "There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel’s veins, And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains." This is the clean water of Ezekiel, the clean water that typified the blood of Christ, not meaning pure water, not clean in that sense, but cleansing water ¾ water for cleansing ¾ which consisted of the ashes of a heifer, mingled with water, typifying blood. Hence Paul says, "If the sprinkling of the ashes of an heifer sanctify to the cleansing of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ purge your consciences from dead works to serve the true and the living God." Then, "born of water," in the third chapter of John, refers to the blood of Christ, set forth in the image of cleansing water, water of purification, which also shows the connection between regeneration and the Word of God. For we get to that cleansing through faith, and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, and therefore Paul says, "By the washing of water through the Word."

Then to put it in plain English, whenever I hear the gospel preached, whenever Jesus Christ is held up before me in faithful preaching, and I in my heart believe it, there has taken place in me that part of the work of the Holy Ghost, which is called purging the conscience from dead works by the application of the blood of Christ ¾ that part of the work which in this text here is called the washing of regeneration, and is called the washing by the Word, and hence it makes the Word of God an instrument in the salvation of men, and therefore it is said, "Of His own will begat He us through the Word."

Whatever may be the view of it from the divine side, a man comes in touch with this wonderful love of God, which produces this wonderful sacrifice of Christ, from which flows this wonderful work of the Holy Spirit ¾ a man comes in contact with that when the Word of God is preached, and in his heart he believes it.

It is on this wise. It does. not say, "Who shall ascend into heaven to bring Christ down here so that I can get at Him in person." It does not say, "Who shall descend into the deep and bring Christ up so that I can get at Him in person." But what does it say? "The Word is nigh thee, even in thy month and in thy heart, the Word of faith which we preach." "If thou shalt believe in thy heart that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead thou -shall be saved."

Now we see that salvation originates in the love of God, that from that love of God comes the wonderful sacrifice of Christ, that from that wonderful sacrifice, in order to make it efficacious, there is the Spirit’s work of two kinds, the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, the cleansing and the renewal, and that this cleansing part is apprehended on our side when we believe.

It comes by faith, and that solves the very question propounded by Nicodemus. When Jesus said that a man must be born from above, that he must be born of water and of the Spirit, Nicodemus says, "How can these things be?" What is the modus operandi? Jesus says that "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have eternal life." That is how it is done. That is how a man is born of the Spirit. That is how he comes in touch with the salvation which God has provided. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

So, if from your heart you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you need not waste any time over the question as to whether you are regenerated, because you could not be regenerated if that thing had not occurred. The washing of regeneration is through the Word, and the Word is apprehended by faith, and I need not puzzle a child’s mind about but one thing. Here is Christ set forth before your eyes as crucified for you. Do you accept Him? Does your soul receive Him? Do you say, "My Lord and my God?" Then you need not bother about election and predestination and regeneration.

How then can these things be? They are just that way. That is the Savior’s own explanation of it. I prefer His method of explaining it to all of the obscure and the endless metaphysical discussions of the subject in more than eighteen hundred years by the learned doctors of divinity who have spent scores of years to put their thoughts beyond the understanding of the people.

Now let us come to the next point. What is the end of all this? I am going to make an application of it directly that ought to startle some members here. Here is the end of it: "Who gave himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a people for His own possession, zealous of good works." "The grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men." The origin, the merit, the efficiency, the instrumentality, have all been set forth. Now what is the end of it? That He might redeem us from all iniquity.

Now to redeem means to buy back. You cannot use that word redeem in its etymological sense and exclude the idea of purchase. You cannot use it and exclude the idea of a purchase under an execution. That is to say, if a property is sold under a tax law, you redeem it and buy it back from under the execution. If a man has been captured in battle, you ransom him-you buy him back for a consideration given by you. He is bought back from captivity-from under the execution of his situation. Redemption involves in its very etymology not only the idea that the thing redeemed had been lost, but that it was a lawful captive, and that it is purchased back.

Purchased back how? Upon what consideration? Not gold and silver and precious stones, but the precious blood of Jesus Christ, says Peter. That was the price paid. But the end? When you bought it back, when you redeemed this man, when God’s grace appeared flashing its light over the darkness of this world, when God’s merit in Christ astounded the world, what was the object? What was the end? "That He might purify unto himself, for His own possession, a people zealous of good works." So you understand what Paul meant when he says, "I want you to speak the things that befit sound doctrine." If a man has the form of Godliness and denies the power of it, he is a heretic. If a man professes the faith of the gospel and in works is reprobate, his life is ¾ a lie. It is more than that. It is awful blasphemy and sacrilege. Why? Where is the sacrilege in it, the blasphemy in it? It says this to God: "You love me. You gave the Savior to die for me in consequence of that love. You paid a tremendous price, and on account of that price, to make it efficacious, you sent forth the Holy Spirit, and He cleansed me from past iniquity and renewed me within, and though I am cleansed and renewed within, being a new man, my works are just like they were before. Your good fountain sends out impure water."

You have heard the instance of a man’s being indicted before his church. Charges were preferred against him for heresy. The specification was that he was a heretic on the doctrine of election and predestination. "Why," he says, "I don’t think about anything else, and I don’t preach anything else but that." "Yes, but you don’t preach the Bible doctrine of election and predestination. The election of God is unto good works. The predestination of God is that you may be conformed to His image. But the kind of election and predestination you are preaching and illustrating is. an election and predestination that work no reformation in the life, and does not make God’s own possession zealous of good works." Now you can see how easy it was to convict him of heresy, and he was a heretic ¾ the worst kind of a heretic. The grace of God instructing us-instructing us what? A denial, which is a passive form, and a doing, which is an active form. The grace of God hath appeared bringing salvation to all men, instructing us, that we should deny ungodliness and worldly lust, the negative part; that we should live soberly, righteously and Godly in this present world, the active part, and "looking for the glorious hope and appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." That is the attitude toward the other world. In this present world denying certain things and doing certain things, and as to the other world, looking, hoping, longing, anticipating, moving toward it, and expecting to enter into it.

Oh, immortality, immortality, what a thought! The man that believes in it, the man that believes that he is deathless, that death makes no break in the continuity of his being, that this world is but a stepping stone to another world, that this is temporal and that eternal, that here he denies one thing and does another thing, and looks to the appearing and glorious hope of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ! I say to you today, brethren, that when I turn my mind toward that glorious hope, toward the nearness and certainty of that appearing of the great God, our Savior Jesus Christ, when I think how fleet are the days that belong to the temporal, how eternal that which belongs to another world, my heart glows as I hear His grace say, "Be faithful a little while. Do not become discouraged. Do not become weary in well doing. Do not lose heart. Do not give up. Do not run away. Do not skulk. Do not go into the brush. Fight the good fight of faith, looking for that glorious hope and the appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ."

Now, that is salvation in its entirety, commencing at the fountain, God’s love, going to the stream that flows from that fountain, Christ’s meritorious sacrifice, down the stream to the lake which is made up of the streams representing the work of the Holy Spirit in cleansing and renewing, and then the life that results from that denial of ungodliness and worldly lust, the active part of it, living soberly and righteously in this present world, which is a little while and will soon pass.

Ah, me! If our ship, storm-tossed and tempest-shaken, if the ship could but realize that we do not cast the anchor on an earthly bottom, but send it to yonder eternal shore, and fasten it to the coming of Jesus Christ, then would our hope be an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast. That is Paul’s argument The anchor of your hope cast forward, and every day you pull on the cable you come nearer, nearer to the port, nearer to the landing on the other shore, nearer to the light which has no night, nearer to the joys which have no sorrows, nearer to the body which has no aches and pains, nearer to Jesus and the spirits of the just made perfect. Pull on the cable and bring the ship nearer to the future, looking forward and hastening unto that great hope end appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.