1. I would like to preach today on the subject of salvation. A young lady asked me what I meant by being "saved"?
2. This important doctrine, the doctrine of salvation by God’s grace, is the watershed that divides fundamental Christianity from Romanism, liberal Protestantism, and all of the false cults such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons.
3. God’s program for the local church is getting people saved, baptizing them, and then teaching them to go out and lead others to Christ.

1. THE NEED FOR SALVATION

1. We need to be saved from ungodliness and worldly lusts (2:12). We are living in a very wicked day and age where ungodliness and worldliness is all around us. Thank God, He saved us from it.
2. We need to be saved from our sins and saved from the penalty of sin, which is eternal punishment in hell (cf. Rev.14:10,11; 20:10-15; 21:8).
3. There are only two kinds of people in this world: those that are saved and those that are lost (cf. John 3).
4. Out in Arizona there was an old Indian who lived on a reservation. After living in sin for many years, he was gloriously saved through the work of a missionary. Friends asked him to explain how his life had changed so much. He grabbed some leaves and formed a circle, and then set it on fire. Next, he picked up a little worm and dropped him in the middle of the ring of fire.
5. The worm crawled around, frantically trying to escape the fire, but could not. Then the old Indian reached down his hand and rescued the little worm. He turned to his friends and said, "I was that worm and God reached down and saved me!"
6. One of my favorite songs is When My Saviour Reached Down For Me.
7. "I was lost and undone without God or His Son
   When my Saviour reached down for me."

1. It is "the grace of God" (2:11). The Lord Jesus Christ "gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity" (2:14).
2. What a blessing – the Bible says that our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ "gave Himself for us" (2:14). What does that mean to you?
3. He died on the cross in order to "redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people" (2:14). "Peculiar" doesn’t mean strange or odd, it means His special people.
4. According to the Bible, we were slaves to sin but Jesus paid for our redemption with His own precious blood. The source of salvation is God’s grace. God’s grace appeared when the Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven to die on the cross for our sins. His substitutionary death on the cross is sufficient for the salvation of all men – but only those who repent of their sin and turn to Christ for salvation will be saved.
5. Salvation has absolutely nothing to do with human merit, man’s feeble efforts to please God, maintaining good works, keeping the ten commandments (no one can keep the ten commandments), obeying the "Golden Rule," church ordinances or "sacraments," etc.
6. Spanish is a beautiful language and one of my favorite words in the Spanish language is gracias, from the Latin gratia. This is where we get our English word grace.
7. Sinners can only be saved by the grace of God (cf. Gen.6:8; Rom.4:1-8; Eph.2:8,9).
8. Salvation cannot come from sprinkling some water on a little baby, or by joining a church – salvation is by God’s grace plus nothing. It was the grace of God that sent Jesus to die for our sins on the cross and God’s grace flows from the cross.

3. THE EXTENT OF SALVATION

1. The Bible says that "the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men" (2:11).
2. This does not mean that all men will be saved, but only that God’s grace is available to all men – not just to the Jews, but to the Gentiles too – to "all men" – not just to America but to "all men."
3. Have you experienced the grace of God? There are many religious people who know nothing of the grace of God.
4. George Whitefield often declared that he would rather have a church with ten men in it that are right with God than a church with 500 whom the world laughs at behind their backs.
5. God’s grace teaches us many things, including how to live soberly, righteously, and godly (2:12).
6. Soberly – this speaks of our duty to ourselves.
7. Righteously -- this speaks of our duty to our neighbors.
8. Godly – this speaks of our duty to God.

CONCLUSION:

1. If you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you have been saved from the power of sin and the penalty of sin. And soon you will be saved from the very presence of sin (2:13).
2. This blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our Lord is the most powerful motive for godly living (cf. I John 3:2,3).
3. Notice Jesus Christ is called "the great God and our Saviour" (2:13). Soon He is coming back.
4. The apostle Paul is speaking of the rapture – it is imminent. Jesus could come today – are you ready?
5. The Holiday Inn had planned to build a hotel on the Mount of Olives. They sent a group of engineers to prepare for the construction project. After some investigation they said it could not be done – there is a geological fault under the Mount of Olives which is causing it to split. They could have saved themselves a lot of time and money if they would have read the Bible (cf. Zech.14:1-4).
6. Back in 1927 there was an earthquake which shook Palestine from the Sea of Galilee all the way to the Egyptian border. Even back then, geologists had discovered the fault line that was running east to west under Mount Olivet.
7. This blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our Lord, has had a profound affect on Christians throughout the centuries. Churches that emphasize the second coming of Christ are not going to dry up, they are not going to go liberal, they will keep up a missionary and soul-winning emphasis.