Address—P. Wilson
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General Meetings. Walla Walla, June 1965, addressed by Paul Wilson.
So we sing together.
278.
Savior, we long to follow the.
Daily thy cross to bear.
And count all else, whatever it be, unworthy of our care.
278.
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I could turn this afternoon to the Epistle of Titus.
Titus, chapter 2.
But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine.
If the aged men be sober.
Grave, temperate sound in the faith.
In charity, in patience.
The aged women likewise that they be in behavior as the cometh holiness.
Not false accusers.
Not given to much wine.
Teachers of good things.
That they may teach the young women to be sober.
To love their husbands.
To love their children.
To be discreet, the.
Chased keepers at home.
Good, obedient to their own husbands. That the word of God be not blasphemy.
Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.
In all things, showing thyself a pattern of good works.
In doctrine showing uncorruptness gravity.
Sincerity.
Sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed.
Having no evil thing to say of you.
Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters.
And to please them well in all things.
Not answering again.
Not for learning, but showing all good fidelity.
That they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation has appeared to all men.
Teaching us the denying ungodliness and world with us.
We should live soberly.
Righteously and godly in this present world.
Looking for that blessed hope.
And the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity.
And purify unto himself.
A peculiar people.
Zealous of good works.
These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority.
That no man despise thee.
Now in this epistle.
We have the Apostle Paul's instructions.
Or shall we say, instructions?
About.
Establishing elders.
Setting everything in order.
Among the assemblies on the island of Crete.
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No doubt that was quite a task.
We're told that the Christians are always liars.
Evil beasts. Lazy Guttons.
So there were some natural tendencies among these creations to be overcome.
And Paul set Titus there to instruct.
The Saints on the Island of Creeks.
But I'd like to go down in the chapter a little ways.
Like to go down 1St to the 11Th verse?
I've heard in the prayer meeting.
Expressions of concern.
For some of the dear young people who are present.
Who are not saved.
I don't know who they are.
Perhaps you do?
Perhaps some of you.
Are acquainted with the fact that you do not know Christ as your Savior.
Now in this 11Th verse.
For the grace of God.
That bringeth salvation.
To all men has appeared.
That is a wonderful statement.
And I think we do well to take it apart word for word.
The Great.
Great. What a word is great.
That which speaks of something that we did not merit the.
That which speaks of goodness.
Grace.
Something bestowed upon us.
For the grace.
Of God.
Think of this as we analyze these words. The grace.
Have you ever felt the need of grace?
All of a soul ever gets the consciousness in his soul that he's lost.
That is ruined.
He'll lookout for grace. He'll be desiring grace.
He needs it.
Grace of God.
That is a. That is a great word.
The grace of God, you can't rise higher than that.
That God.
Should come out in grace.
And come out in grace to poor fallen creatures.
It just exactly what is suited to the needs of those that are not safe.
The grace of God.
What about this grace of God for the grace of God?
That brings salvation.
If we go back into the Old Testament, we find that God foretold.
Of a day of grace.
We find out in the Old Testament that these things were prophesied.
But that isn't what's spoken of here.
It's the grace of God that brings it brings something.
Think about that. God comes out and brings something.
That's exactly as suited to our needs.
The grace of God that brings.
Oh, we would get if we got hold of the idea that the grace of God was actually bringing us.
Something of value.
Something suited to our need for the grace of God that brings salvation.
Now, it isn't said that the grace of God brings reformation.
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It's the grace of God that brings salvation.
All in this world today, there are many people.
Who are looking for reformation?
They're thinking about turning over a new leaf.
They are thinking about amending their ways.
Walking in a more upright manner perhaps, but for one that is lost.
For one, the son says.
Grace of God that brings him salvation is the only thing that will meet his needs.
You take a poor criminal condemned to death.
Is in the death cell.
Someone goes to see him.
And he comes to him with the idea of how to improve his lot.
How he could mend his way?
Suppose they would take along with him a law book, the laws of this state.
And make him a present of a nice bound volume of the laws of the state.
And this book is recommended to him as the ideal that which will keep him out of difficulty in trouble.
With the poor criminal would have to say, but your law book won't help me.
Your law book won't do me any good.
I have broken these very laws.
And by these very laws, I'm condemned. I'm condemned to death.
So no need of coming to me with the idea of reformation.
Or how to improve my lot?
My doom is sealed.
And though the poor culprit might say to the man that came, unless there's one thing that you could bring me.
If you could bring me a message of pardon signed by the governor of this state.
Nothing else would matter.
But until you can bring me as a pardon signed by the government.
I must reject all your offers of law books and how to improve myself.
But the grace of God.
You can't get anything higher than that. The grace of God.
Always say poor lost men and women on their bro to perdition.
And we long that we could tell them of a savior.
Wish that we could give them to see their need of a savior.
Well, we have just to say just such a savior.
The grace of God that didn't promise, that wasn't the point.
But he's actually brought salvation here through the work of his own beloved son.
And think what it cost God to give the darling of his bosom.
To give that one in whom his soul delighted.
Had him come down into this world and go on through it.
To God's glory, and then at the close of that pathway of obedience.
Have man nailed him to a tree?
And give him all kinds of ill treatments.
But all that Blessed One went steadfastly forward to the cross.
And God now has brought salvation to every poor Sinner in me.
Now it's not only the grace, but it's the grace of God, and it's not promised. It's here, the grace of God that brings salvation and it's brought it within the reach of all.
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There isn't anyone in this building that is beyond the reach of grace.
The grace of God.
I remember hearing a brother one time speak preaching the gospel and he said you think you're you may think you're the worst Sinner.
You may brand yourself as #1.
But he said #1 The worst Sinner has already been saved.
Number one was Saul of Tarsus, the one that hated Christ above any other man.
Now you might be #2, he said. But you can't be #1 So there is a, there is salvation for it that will come within the reach of anyone.
Here today.
Well, it's come, it has been, it has been here and offered to all men.
I wonder about the dear young people here this afternoon.
Is there a boy or a girl here this afternoon?
That doesn't know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Is there one here this afternoon that could? Can't say from the heart.
I know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I know that Blessed One that came down and died on the cross.
To save my soul.
Trust most fear. I would like to think that everyone, boy and girl, man and woman, here this afternoon can say from the heart, yes, I'm saved. Christ is my Savior.
Now the grace of God has brought salvation, but I want to tell you about a story that was told to me.
I heard one dime years ago by a brother who was present.
He was telling of what the great lengths that some of these metropolitan water districts go.
To bring water to a city.
And it's a tremendous task to bring water to a big city.
To bring it great distances.
And supply it to all in the city.
But this brother said.
But if you but if you don't open the faucet.
You won't get any.
Oh, how true that.
If man brings you a life, a supply of life, giving water into a city.
And the inhabitants of the city refused to accept it.
They will die of thirst. They will die.
But suppose now that we turn, we bring it to this.
God has provided us Savior in His great love.
To save you from your sins.
It's all provided, it's all there free for you, but unless you accept it.
It will do you no good.
You must accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, I trust.
Every boy and girl here this afternoon can say from the heart.
Before this afternoon is over, well, I have accepted Christ.
I know that he is my favorite.
May it be so, but now I want to go down to the next verse, the 12Th verse.
Because this epistle of Titus, and particularly this second chapter stands out in my mind.
As a scripture that has to do with practical Christianity.
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Someone has said to me that if our Christianity isn't practical, it's worthless.
Christianity is not something to be believed when we're in trouble.
That isn't just the point of it.
Christianity, that is something that comes to a man in his need.
It meets him in his needs.
So the grace of God has brought salvation.
And it's brought it where we were. We don't have to reach for it. All we have to do is accept it and make it our own.
But now the 12Th bird.
The 12Th verse.
I'd like to call your attention to the change in two words in the 12Th verse.
In the 11 verses, the grace of God that brings salvation to all men disappeared.
In the 12Th verse.
There's another There's a different word, and it's us teaching us.
God teaches Saints.
He teaches us who are saved.
He teaches Christians.
He saves sinners.
Teaching.
Us that denying ungodliness and world and lust, we should live soberly.
Righteously and godly in this present world.
I like to connect these two verses.
For all our hope.
Depends on this eleven verse to know that God has sent salvation to us that meets us in our needs.
But after his wrought salvation doeth, he teaches us how to live.
I remember 1 dime of salesman came to my door trying to sell me a set of books on psychology.
And he was trying to impress me with the need of buying this set of books.
He says it will tell you how to live.
I said Mr. I have just such a book.
He said what kind of a book is that? I said I have the word of God.
The Bible and it teaches me how to live. He got quite furious with me.
As I am not talking about how to die, I'm talking about how to live.
Now you see, that's a common idea that people get. If you talk to them about their souls, they think you're talking about their dying.
But here is something teaching us how to live.
The Word of God gives us explicit directions for our pathway down here as people of God. Isn't it a wonderful thing to have a guidebook?
I have driven into some of the big cities in this country.
And I have longed at times to find somebody that could lead me through the maze.
Rather than just try to find it myself.
But we have a perfect book.
We have a book that instructs us in all our ways as Christians, and that's something that you, dear young people, and all of us need every day of our life.
By the words of thy lips have I kept me from the paths of the Destroyer.
We need the word of God. We need to treasure that word.
We need this, store it up.
You know that if we don't use it, we're going to lose it, and we need the Word of God for direction.
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Teaching us.
All I think it's very especially important to young people and to all of us.
That God has not only brought salvation to us, but he tells us how to live.
And to live down here to His glory.
Teaching us the denying ungodliness. Let's analyze this part for Part 2.
Teaching us the denying ungodliness.
Now, dear young people, you and I are living in a wicked world.
We're living in a world that is ripening for judgment. Judgment is at the very threshold.
Wickedness is on every hand, and the devil will seek to tempt you out of the path of obedience.
You remember that? That's how our first parents were pulled down.
You remember that Eve listened to the serpent and he told her that God wasn't good.
Suggested other things to her. She was pulled down and she pulled down her husband with her.
I know it says that Adam was not deceived.
But I like a remark that one brother wrote, he said, no, Adam wasn't deceived, but he was influenced.
He was influenced.
Even launched him.
And dear young people, we're going through this world and we have influences on every hand. You'll find them among the boys and the girls at school. You'll find them in the office, you'll find them in the shop, you'll find them in the neighborhood. And they will try to get you to depart from the paths of righteousness, from the path to God's glory down here.
Oh, May God help you dear young people to refuse the evil.
Teaching us the denying ungodliness. Here's something to reject. Here's something to deny.
Ungodly.
Oh, there are so many things in this world that can be summed up in that one category.
On God.
You'll hear it in school, you'll hear it at work, you'll hear the profanity all around you.
Teaching us the denying ungodliness.
And worldly lusts. All this world is filled with lots.
Remember, there's a lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye and the pride of life.
Those things look that stock and pray that Satan uses on his poor Dukes in this world.
Teaching us the denying ungodliness and worldly luck.
May God keep us.
Savior, we were saying we are not. We are not now our own, but dying.
May the Lord give us who are His, a desire to live for him and to please Him.
Denying ungodliness and worldly last, we should live.
I told that man I have a book that tells me how to live.
You can't find a better vote?
All the books of men will lead you astray. They'll give you all sorts of wrong ideas.
Teaching us the denying ungodliness and worldly lust. We should live soberly.
What does that mean soberly?
That means with self-control about myself.
Or if I'm tempted to do something, May God give me grace if it's not according to His will to turn away from it.
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To be here to His glory, teaching us.
We should live.
Soberly.
Then the next word is righteously.
Righteously, righteously means to walk uprightly. Do those things that are upright.
Before men.
And if you do, if we do not walk uprightly before, men were going to get a bad conscience. And if we once embark on that path, we'll we're sure to fail.
For bad conscience is bad property. I had a dear brother in California tell me that he had a dear friend who was well known at 1 dime in seeking to serve the Lord.
And he said, I can point to the he missed the path. And he said, I can point to the day when that dear man gave up a good conscience.
And did an unrighteous deal.
He did an unrighteous act.
Oh, let's beware of unrighteousness. Live soberly with self-control.
Righteously toward others.
And the next is and godly. Now these three things we should consider.
One is with regard to myself before God, the other is toward others.
And then the third thing is to live godly in this world, to live down here in this world, doing those things that I would do if God instigated.
I think that's about the best definition that I have heard.
Of godliness.
Now, soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.
Remember, God didn't tell us that as soon as He saved us, He was going to take us out of the world.
He's left us down here in the world. Someday he's going to come and talk, call all his redeemed ones home to be with himself.
That blessed moment is nearing, and we look forward to it with joyful anticipation.
But in this present world.
God has left us down here. You remember the Lord Jesus said to one man. He says, Go home to thy friends.
And tell them how great things the Lord has done for these.
Or to be faithful, to be witnesses for Christ in the sphere where God and his gracious places.
Now then, the 13th verse.
While we're living in this world.
It says we must. We can't go out of the world. We'll have to wait God's time to take us out.
Maybe that day will come, and before this day is over, that would be wonderful. But if we're left here a little longer, we're going to have trials and difficulties. We're going to have temptations from without and from within. May God help us and give us the grace to press on.
Looking for that blessed hope now, while we're living in the world, we should be live.
We should be looking out of it.
Living in the world.
But looking out of it.
Looking for that blessed hope.
Oh, I know it's common for young people to have hopes before. They look forward to the time when vacation will come. They look forward to the time when they will graduate, when they look forward to one thing and another. But dear young Christian, are we looking forward for that blessed hope? The time when the Lord Jesus will call all the redeemed home to be within himself?
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Maybe today. And you know if the Lord would call us all home today.
We never have another trial, we never have another temptation that all be gone and we'd be off to be with strength. What a glorious thing it is.
A blessed prospect looking for that blessed hope.
May the Lord.
Make that blessed hope a reality in our souls.
Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing or the appearing of the glory.
Not only the blessed hope, that's the Lord Jesus coming to take us home, and the appearing of the glory is when He will come back and set this world in order.
To God's glory, looking for that blessed hope, and the appearing of the glory always coming back in power. And great glory is going to judge this world in righteousness.
Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory.
Of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
You know, there were, there was a man years ago in the church history by the name of Arias who denied the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and he taught that Jesus was inferior, that he was a little ghost. All how the Spirit of God strikes at the root of this, the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
Who gave himself for us?
All this is calculated to touch the heart's affections.
Who gave himself for us? Does that warm your heart and mind the things that he gave himself for?
That he might redeem us from all iniquity.
Not only taking us to heaven, but redeeming us from all iniquity.
And purifying unto himself a peculiar people. Now that really means a people for his possession.
Think of a very young people that God wants you and me as a people for his possession.
And we're down here in this world, waiting for Christ to come, and we're living in this whole.
And.
Gave Himself for us, and he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself of purchased people.
Jealous of good work?
Oh, there's something for a Christian to do. There is something for a Christian to do. Zealous of good work.
All a Christian's life is not a dead thing. It's not a dull thing.
It's not a life without purpose if you're if you young Russians are thinking we're just slipping through this world without any purpose in life.
We've missed the whole point.
God has chosen us for himself, for His own treasure, and He's left us down here to live to His glory.
Jealous of good work. Now I have thought to refer to the earlier verses in the chapters.
They're full of good instruction for each one of us. There's instruction here for the elder men.
There is instruction here for the younger men, there's instruction for the elder women.
And for the younger women, each in its place.
And this was all given by inspiration of God and is profitable for us. Well, may the Lord bless these few remarks.