Adrian Rogers - From Grace to Glory (02/06/2026)
In this sermon on Titus 2:11-15, Pastor Adrian explains that God's amazing grace brings salvation to all, teaches believers to deny sin and live godly lives, redeems us for service as His special people zealous for good works, and gives us the blessed hope of Christ's glorious return—from grace to glory.
The Amazing Story Behind "Amazing Grace"
Take God’s Word and be finding, please, Titus chapter 2, in the book of Titus, and we’re speaking about God’s amazing grace. Titus 2 verses 11 through 15, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, 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. Let no man despise thee.”
Now, John Newton was an English preacher of the 18th century, and he preached many sermons and he wrote many books. I doubt that many of you have heard any of John Newton’s sermons, read any of them, or read any of his books, but I think all of us know the song that John Newton wrote, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found. Was blind, but now I see.”
John Newton, when he was a little boy, had a very godly mother, but he had a very wicked father, an ungodly father. John Newton’s mother died when he was yet a little boy and John Newton’s father was a sailor, a mariner who sailed primarily in the Mediterranean. And John Newton decided he wanted to go to sea. And when he was an 11-year-old boy, he went to sea and he went into sin, into the depths of depravity. He began to live a very wicked and a vile life. He got into the slave trade and began to put people into slavery and to sell slaves. But then he sank so low that he himself became a slave of slaves. As a matter of fact, he had a mistress that owned him and she would keep him chained there at her feet at his table, and all that John Newton had to eat were the crumbs that she would throw to him as he was chained there beneath the table of his mistress. He became later a slave of slaves. He got as low as a person could get.
There on a ship one time, there were some sailors who were godly men who knew the Lord. They got concerned about this young lad, and they gave him a book to read. It was by Thomas a Kempis; it was called “The Imitation of Christ”. He took it to read it, partly out of curiosity and partly just almost in jest. He began to read this book about the Lord Jesus, written by this saint and this theologian. Then one day at sea, there came a tremendous storm. The storm was so great that John Newton thought the ship would sink, and he began to be frightened for his life thinking that he might die and go down into Hell. And a great wave came and washed him overboard. He cried out to God for mercy, and another wave came and washed him back on deck. That was enough for John Newton. And John Newton gave his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ and was gloriously saved by the grace of God, and it was that John Newton who wrote this song that we sing, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” And the God that saved John Newton is the God that wants to save you today if you’re not saved.
From Grace to Glory in Titus 2
Now, the passage that we read begins in verse 11 with grace. And then look, if you will, at Titus 2 verse 13, it speaks of, “the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” This is a wonderful passage that goes from grace to glory. It tells us what God’s grace can do and what it is, if you’re saved, it is your spiritual biography. And if you’re not yet saved, it is your spiritual possibility. So I want you to listen and I want to show you some things that grace has done.
First of all, I want you to see what grace has brought. Look, if you will, in Titus 2 verse 11, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation.” What has grace brought? Grace has brought salvation. There’s no other way to be saved apart from grace. And Ephesians 2 verses 8 says, “For by grace are ye saved.”
Why We Needed Salvation — Our True Condition
Now, we told you last week that grace is God’s riches at Christ’s expense. Now, you’re in the book of Titus and keep your book, bookmark there but turn left, if you will, to the book of Ephesians for a moment and I want you to see why you needed to be saved, if you have not yet been saved, why you still need to be saved. Ephesians chapter 2, and read with me verses 1 through 5 before Paul tells us that we’re saved by grace. Ephesians 2 verses 1 through 5, “And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Do you see that? Now, why did you need to be saved? Well, very frankly, friend, you were spiritually dead. You needed more than forgiveness; you needed life.
Now you say, “Well, I was already alive.” No, you were existing. You don’t have life until you have Christ. Death is not the separation of your soul from your body. Death is the separation of your soul from God, and you were separated from God. And so, the reason that you needed to be saved is that you were dead. Now, you don’t have to have eternal life to exist forever. You will exist forever, either in Heaven or Hell, but you have to have eternal life to go to Heaven. John chapter 17 and verse 3, “And this is life eternal, that they may know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.”
And so you were dead. But look again in Ephesians 2 verse 2, “Wherein ye in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” Who is that? That’s the devil, the prince of the power of the air. Not only were you dead, that’s the first D, You were devilish. The devil was your dictator, your task master. You were a slave of Satan, but not only were you dead and devilish you were disobedient. Look in the last part of verse 2, “The spirit that now worketh and the children of disobedience.” You were not subject to the law of God. You claim to be free, but you were only free to sin. You weren’t free to serve God. There was a rebellious spirit in you.
And then not only were you dead, and not only were you devilish and not only were you disobedient, but you were depraved. Look, if you will also in verse 3, “In whom also we had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” You were born into this world with a sinful nature. You had lust and desires that came, that you got from your parents. Your parents got it from their parents and they got it from Adam. You are depraved in your nature. You are, by nature, a child of wrath.
Don’t get the idea that a little baby is born with a wonderful nature and then the little baby gets depraved. The baby is born with a depraved nature. In Psalm 58:3, the Bible says, “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray speaking lies as soon as they’re born.” As a matter of fact, a baby can lie before it can speak. It can deceive and will deceive. Children are naturally selfish. Take a baby rattlesnake, take him away from all other rattlesnakes, treat him with love and kindness, and he’ll still grow up to be an adult rattlesnake. And take a baby, and no matter what you do to that child without Jesus Christ, he is a child of wrath, by nature, a child of wrath.
But God — The Turning Point of Grace
Now, that is why we needed to be saved. We were dead, we were devilish, we were disobedient, and we were depraved. But I want you to look at that verse. Ephesians 2 verses 4 and 5. I love verse 4, “But God,” do you see that? “But God.” Now God broke in and where God broke in, that is grace. “But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together,” that word quickened means made us alive, “together with Christ,” and then he says, “For by grace are you saved.” See, “But God. But God.” Apart from God, what could you do? You were dead.
What True Grace Really Is
Now, let’s suppose that we had a dead man here on this platform. And those of us on the platform decide we’re going to try to raise him up, to give him life. Now, what could we do to give that dead man life? Here he is, he’s dead. And so we want him to come back to life. Well, one thing we might do, we might set an example. I might ask David Scott over here to do some deep knee bends in front of him. I said, “David, you know, show him what an athlete you are, and what a specimen of physical culture you are. And go over here and do some deep knee bends and some push-ups for this dead man. Maybe an example will help him.” Well, that doesn’t seem to do much good, and so I asked Brother Dan. You know, Dan is a scholar. He’s working on his doctorate. I say, “Dan, would you come over here and give this man some lessons? Would you give him 10 lessons on life? Would you read to him and see if you can educate him?” Well, example won’t do it and education won’t do it.
And then I say, “Well, maybe we don’t need to do anything. After all, he’s in a room with five or six thousand live people, so maybe environment. If we just put him with a lot of other live people, maybe then he will have life and see if that will do it.” Well, that doesn’t work and so we say, “Well, maybe he just needs a little encouragement. Come on, get up. You can do it. Come on, give it a try.” Now you say, “Adrian, none of those things are going to give life to a dead man,” and you’re right. Example can’t do it. Education can’t do it. Environment can’t do it. And encouragement can’t do it. But do you know most of the religions of the world are trying all of those things to raise the dead? That’s what they’re trying to do to raise the dead. They can’t do it. It’s impossible. You can’t raise a dead man that way.
But look at Ephesians 2 verses 4 and 5 “But God, God, when we were dead in trespassers and sin, but God hath quickened us together, for by grace are you saved.” Now, you could not save yourself any more than a dead man could get up and walk by his own power, but it is God that has worked in you. You see, what has grace brought? It has brought salvation. We are saved by the grace of God. “But God.”
Now, what is grace? Friend, grace is the amazing thing that drives me to my knees in thanksgiving. I was telling Bob Sorrell one day, coming to work, I was thinking about grace, knowing I was going to preach this particular message and I thought to myself, “What is grace?” Well, grace is love. Yes, grace is love, but it is more than love because when you love somebody who’s lovely, that’s not grace. That’s just natural to love the lovely. So it is grace that gives. Well, yes it is love that gives. Well, that’s true. It is love that gives. But you can give to someone who is lovely and that’s not necessarily grace.
Well, we say then grace is love that gives where there is no merit. Well, we’re getting a little closer to grace, but that’s not all there is to grace. It is love that gives. It is love that gives where there’s no merit. But let’s go a step further. It is love that gives, it is love that gives where there’s no merit, and it is love that gives where there’s great un-merit, where there is deep sin. Well, we say, “Yes, now we’re getting a little closer to grace,” but that’s not yet it. It is love. It is love that gives. It is love that gives where there’s no merit. It is love that gives where there’s great demerit. But its love that gives to an enemy that has great demerit and no merit. Now we’re getting a little closer to what grace is, but we’re not there yet.
It is grace that gives to an enemy that doesn’t want to be given to. It is grace that gives to an enemy that’s running away from that love, that grace has to chase us down to save us. Romans 3:11, “There’s none that seeketh after God.” Friend, you love Him not because you decided to, but because He first loved you. While you were an enemy, He sought you and chased you. He had to run you down to save you. If He couldn’t run faster than you could, you never would’ve been saved.
It’s now love that gives. It’s love that gives where there’s no merit. It’s love that gives where there’s great demerit. It’s love that gives to an enemy. And it’s love that gives to an enemy that doesn’t want what is given. And on top of that, it is love that gives to an enemy that costs the one who gives it everything, everything. Jesus took our sin that we might have His righteousness. Jesus took our Hell that we might have His Heaven. Whoever heard of a doctor that went out seeking enemies to make them well and serve those enemies at no cost and then took the disease Himself in order to make His enemy well? That friend is grace. That’s the grace of God.
Think about what grace is. Grace is love that gives, that gives where there’s no merit, that gives where there’s great demerit. It gives to an enemy, it gives to an enemy that it has to persuade to be given to, and it gives to an enemy at great cost and takes into itself the hurt so that that enemy might have the blessing. That’s what Jesus has done for you. And I want to say, “Love so amazing, so divine demands my soul, my life, my all.” Amen? That’s the grace of God.
What Grace Teaches Us — The School of Grace
Now, that’s what grace brought. Grace brought salvation. Now the second thing, what has grace taught? Well, continue to look here, “Teaching us,” Do you see verse 12? Titus 2 verse 12, “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” This is what grace taught. Now with grace, there’s nothing to earn but there’s much to learn. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28 and 29, “Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me.”
You see, when you get saved, God takes you out of law school and God puts you into grace school and God begins to teach you. God begins to disciple you. The teacher’s never absent, you never get recess, and the school never closes. The grace that brings salvation now begins to teach us. You might say to me, “You know, Adrian, you claim to be saved, but you don’t look so saved. I wonder if you’re saved, Adrian.” Well, now wait a minute, I’m still in school. I am saved, but God is not finished with me. He’s still working on me. Philippians chapter 1 verse 6, “Being confident of this very thing that He who hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.”
God puts us in the school of grace. I am learning so much more. I was saved as a teenage boy by the grace of God, but since then, I have learned so much more about Him and I have learned so much more about me, but I enrolled in grace school the day I got saved. This same John Newton who wrote “Amazing Grace” wrote this, and I want you to listen to what he said. Listen, “I am not what I might be. I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be, but thank God I am not what I once was, and I can say with the great Apostle, by the grace of God, I am what I am.” Isn’t that good? Listen to it again, this is the same man that wrote “Amazing Grace”, “I am not what I might be. I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be, but thank God I am not what I once was, and I can say with the great Apostle, by the grace of God, I am what I am.”
Grace Seeks a People Zealous for Good Works
Now there’s a third thing I want you to see. Not only what grace brought, salvation, not only what grace taught, that’s sanctification, but I want you to see what grace sought, and that, my friend, is service. Look down in Titus 2 verse 14. Why did Jesus do this? “Who gave Himself for us, that,” now, this is what He’s seeking, “that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.” This is what grace sought.
You see, our Lord redeemed us unto Himself a peculiar people. In olden days when a general would go and win a mighty battle, he would look at all of the booty of the battle and he would go in and find some particular treasure, a something, a trophy, something that would remind him of his victory and that would be his particular treasure. He would keep that as a trophy of the battle. Do you know what you are? You are God’s particular, God’s peculiar treasure. You are the trophy of his grace. That’s what He is seeking. He is seeking you, friend, that He gave Himself for you, that He might give Himself to you, that He might redeem you from all iniquity.
You don’t have to serve the devil anymore. You don’t have to serve the flesh anymore. Sometimes, God just has to remind me of this. When I’m in a battle with my flesh or when Satan’s after me, I just say to myself, and I say it out loud sometime, “Adrian, you don’t have to serve your flesh. You don’t have to serve the devil. You don’t have to do it.” I can tell the old man, the old Adrian I used to be, where to get off and I can tell the devil what he can do also, because Jesus redeemed me. He purchased me. He gave Himself for me in verse 14. I was Satan’s slave. I was in the slave market. Jesus with the silver of His tears in the gold of His blood bought me out of that. He redeemed me from all iniquity. I have been redeemed.
And so when Satan comes after me, I can say, “Satan, you have no right. You have no authority. I don’t belong to you. I am His. I belong to Him. I am His particular, peculiar person. I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.” And so this is what grace has sought. Grace has sought someone to serve Him. Don’t get the idea that when you’re saved by grace, it doesn’t make any difference how you live. Look again at Titus 2 verse 14, “He gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
Being saved by grace, does that cause you not to serve God? I’ll tell you one thing, it causes me to want to serve Him all the more. I do not serve the Lord in order to be saved, but because I am saved. He gave Himself for me and He sought from me a servant. And I want to say, “I cannot work my soul to save. That work my Lord has done. But I will work like any slave for the love of God’s dear Son.”
The Blessed Hope — Grace's Ultimate Work
Now, here’s the last thing I want you to see today, not only what grace sought, but I want you to see what grace wrought. Look, if you will, in Titus 2 verse 13. The Bible says that we are to be, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” Now what has grace wrought? It has wrought a blessed hope, a blessed hope.
What has grace brought? It’s brought salvation. What has grace taught? It taught sanctification, that teaching us that we ought to deny ungodliness and worldly lust, that we ought to live righteously, soberly and godly in this present world. What has grace sought? Grace has sought a peculiar people, zealous of good works, someone to serve the Lord, someone that is His particular, wonderful treasure. And what has grace wrought? It has wrought in me and in you a blessed hope. I am living, looking for the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Look at Titus 2 verse 13 again, “Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us.” And so one of these days, we’re going to see Jesus. What has begun with grace always ends in glory. Now that phrase, “the glorious appearing” may be translated “the appearance of the glory”.
You know, I would love to have seen the Lord Jesus Christ when He was here on Earth. Sometimes I’m a little envious of those who lived here in the days of His flesh, although I know that we who are Spirit-filled Christians have something they did not have. And I know that in John 16 verse 7 Jesus said, “It’s expedient for you that I go away, for if I don’t go away, I can’t send the Holy Spirit.” And they had Jesus beside them, we have Jesus inside us. And so in a sense, it’s better for us than it was for them; I know that.
But still in my heart of hearts, I would love to have seen Jesus. And when I visit the Holy Land, I sometimes try to imagine the Lord Jesus in the different places where He was. I love to go to Galilee and walk the shores of Galilee and sometimes, I just imagine the Lord Jesus standing there on the seashore teaching. I would love to have seen the Lord Jesus doing that. Sometimes when we get out on the Sea of Galilee, I can imagine Jesus walking on the water. I think I would surely have loved to have seen that. I can just see the wind blowing in His hair and the foam in His beard and His garments there spread out as He plants His footprints on the sea.
I would love to have seen Jesus feed the 5,000 and watch Him continue to break the loaves and the fishes, and there would always be more left. I would love to have seen the Lord Jesus cleanse the temple. I would love to have seen the Lord Jesus on that cross. I think it would make a better Christian out of me. I would not want to see it, but I would need to see it. Oh, oh, what would it be to see Him on that resurrection morning in that glorified body? I would love to have seen the Lord Jesus as He tore the bars asunder and came out of that grave. It would’ve been wonderful to see Jesus on the Mount of Olives as He stretched out His hands and blessed them before He ascended into Heaven. It would’ve been wonderful to see all of that, but I didn’t see any of that.
But I’m going to tell you something, folks. He’s coming again and I will see Him. I will see the glory. I love Jesus. I love Jesus. If Jesus were in the heart of red China, physically right now, I’d be making plans to get over there. I don’t know how I’d go, but I’d be making plans to go to see the Lord Jesus Christ. I would. But one day, I will look upon His face, the one who saved me by His grace. I will see Him. I will see Him.
The Preacher's Personal Testimony of Grace
I was a teenage boy. I didn’t get into the things that kids get into today. I don’t know what it is to be drunk, to drink liquor. I don’t know what it is to be addicted to cigarettes. Dope was something we put on model airplanes when I was a kid. Oh, I didn’t know about that. I went to the marriage altar a virgin, and I thank God I did. I didn’t get into some of the trouble that others got into, but I was still a sinner. I knew I was a sinner. I was under the burden of sin. Oh, I did those things that some boys do and I’m ashamed of. I got in fist fights. I took things that didn’t belong to me. I used bad language, and I skipped school, and I cheated in school, did a lot of things like that I ought not to have done, and I was under the burden of sin.
Had a revival meeting in our church, and some good people invited my mom and dad to come to that revival meeting. That little Baptist church was two blocks from our house. We went to that revival meeting. I had nothing against going. As a matter of fact, I thought it was great that my folks would go to a revival meeting. And I could see there was activity in the church, that people were excited and they were talking and they were praying. Some good people had come. I can see in my mind’s eye when, as they walked up to our driveway on that particular day. My dad was working in the yard and they told him about the revival and said, “We’d love for you to come, Mr. Rogers.”
We were sitting in the church. I was sitting here and my dad was sitting there. It was a small building, just about as many people in that little section right there in that building that day. That preacher was preaching on the grace of God and he gave an invitation. And my dad got up and went forward. I was amazed! Not that I thought that he was so wicked; He wasn’t wicked. He was a good, honest, straightforward, hardworking, decent guy. I guess that’s one of the things that amazed me. I never even thought about him needing to be saved. But my dad went up to give his heart to Jesus Christ. And in my heart, I knew I was the sinner. I knew that I needed to be saved. That put such great conviction in me and I thought, “Well, if my dad needs to be saved, I surely need to be saved.”
And I got up and went forward in that little church to give my heart to Jesus Christ. And I was a teenager and they said, “Well, we’re glad today that Adrian Rogers has come to be saved.” But let me tell you what they did. And I wish they had done something a little different. They just said, “How do you spell your name?” Wrote it down, got some facts about me, and said, “We’re glad you came.” They didn’t give me any Bible. I mean Bible knowledge. They didn’t give me any reason for knowing that I was saved by the grace of God. They didn’t explain much to me. It was sort of a pencil and card religion. I meant business with God, but friend, I didn’t know anything. I mean, I was dumb. I really was dumb. If I’d have taken a course in ignorance, I’d have flunked it. I was that dumb. I didn’t know anything about spiritual things. And they took my name, but I meant business with God.
But oh, how I stumbled. Oh, how I failed. One of the things, and I’m ashamed to tell it, but one of the things I used to love to do was get in fights, street fights. If anybody wants to fight now, don’t come see me. I used to be a fighter, now, I’m a lover. But I think I was insecure. Used to get in street fights. And I used bad language. Well, when I went forward in that service, I meant business with God, but I didn’t have any material to work with, and they didn’t really help me. So I went back to the old haunts and the old friends and things at school, and you know what? I would find myself opening my mouth and some of those old words would slip out and I’d find that temper coming back. I was wanting to fight and do all of these things. And I rode a roller coaster for about two years, sometimes wondering if I was saved at all. You ever been there? I mean, I would fail and I’d cry out to God and say, “Oh, God, forgive me,” and I’d clench my fist and grit my teeth and start again, fail again. Folks, I was miserable part of the time, happy part of the time.
Finally, on the corner of 39th Street and Calvin Avenue, one block from where my girlfriend lived and one block from where I lived, after I walked her home one night, I stopped and prayed. And I’ll tell you why I prayed, because in that two years I learned something. I learned something of the grace of God. I learned that I was saved by grace and grace alone, and I finally came to enough understanding that I just made up my mind I was going to get it settled. I think I was saved when I went forward in that little church, but I didn’t have the assurance cause I didn’t understand grace like I should have understood grace.
So I just stopped and I said, “Oh God, I don’t know whether I’m lost and the Holy Spirit has me under conviction, or whether I’m saved and the devil’s trying to make me doubt it, but God, I want to be saved for certain. I want to know that I’m saved.” And I just looked up into the heavens. I didn’t bow my head, not because I was not reverent, but I wanted to look into the face of God. I just looked up into the stars over West Palm Beach. And I said, “Oh God, I understand now that I’m saved by grace, by grace. And Lord, right now, as much as in me is, with all of my heart, with every inch and with every ounce and every fiber of my being, I just trust You to save me. Forgive my sin and save me. I don’t depend upon anything that I have done or ever will do. I believe on You. I don’t look for a sign. I don’t ask for feeling. I stand on Your Word. If I was saved back yonder, I still am. But if I wasn’t then, I am now. I am driving down a stake and a peg once and for all, now and forever. Thank You, Jesus, for saving me.”
And friend, a wonderful river of peace began to flow in my heart, and it’s still flowing right now. That is the grace of God. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” This is what grace brought, salvation. This is what grace taught, sanctification. This is what grace sought, service. And what grace wrought, a blessed hope.