Sunday Sermon: For the Grace of God Has Appeared (Titus 2:11-15)

You're listening to the Preaching Ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an

Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday. Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series.

Here is Pastor Gabe. If you would please, in honor of the word of the King, let's stand.

Titus chapter 2, verses 11 to 15, I'm reading from the English Standard Version. Hear the word of the

Lord. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self -controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great

God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works.

Declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

You may be seated as we pray. Our Father in heaven, we are so grateful for this declaration, for this reminder of the grace that you have shown us through Christ our

Savior, that all who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

And more than this, we see the life that we have been called to in Christ Jesus.

We have, we've been reading about this as we've been going through Titus, and now coming to this point here, where Paul points to the grace of God, that it is by your grace not only have we been saved, but are being sanctified, are being shaped and molded and purified, the word that is used here, that we might be holy and blameless before you in love.

Father, as we comb the depths of this text today, we'll feel like we're barely scratching the surface, but yet stir in our hearts that passion and love and zeal we have for Christ Jesus and the works that you have called us to in his name.

It is in the name of Jesus that we pray, amen. If you'll remember just last week, earlier in Titus 2, we read these instructions for younger men, likewise urge the younger men to be self -controlled, and then instructions for Titus, show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works.

And in your teaching, show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

It's rather providential, excuse me, it's rather providential that in the same week in which

I preach this, I found myself in something of a controversy this past week involving a particular ministry that had put out an ad for their ministry.

And in this ad, they flashed a middle finger. And they thought that this was necessary to try to stir and attract young men to their ministry.

When some of the ministers who were behind this particular ad sat down for a video chat, and were talking about the decision as to why they put that image in their ad, they said, look, there's a certain kind of young man we're looking for, and we want to be a part of the work that we're doing.

And if you don't like it, if it offends you, fine, you're not the kind of people that we want on the battlefield.

Now, I tried to reach out to some of these individuals that were involved in this ministry, and I was citing passages constantly out of Paul's letters.

Because if you're looking at what Paul has written to Timothy and Titus, you see very much the opposite of this kind of behavior.

One of the things I said to one of these particular ministers, I said, in 1 Timothy 2, Paul says,

I urge the men in every place to pray lifting holy hands.

How is what you're demonstrating the lifting of holy hands? Unfortunately, I never got an answer to that question.

I pointed also to 2 Timothy 2 .22, flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the

Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do, excuse me again, have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies.

You know, they breed quarrels. And I contacted one of these ministers and said, is that not what you're doing?

Explain to me how you are not going contrary to exactly what

Paul said for pastors to do and how they are to behave. You might be looking for a certain kind of young man, but when you use this kind of advertising to attract those young men, what you are communicating to those young men is this is okay.

And you don't sanctify them out of that for as the old adage goes, you may have heard this before, what you win them with is what you win them to.

They think, hey, I want to continue in my vulgarity and be a Christian too.

And you're giving them permission to do that. Where what we find in the scripture is actually a calling to a different kind of life, a different kind of living.

We are not to look like and sound like the world, whether that be in our actions or in our speech.

For as the apostle Paul illustrates here, it is our savior,

Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness, not continue in it and purify for himself a people that would be separate from the world for his own possession, who are zealous for good works.

We would have a zeal and a desire to do the works of Christ.

What did Jesus model in his behavior? What did his apostles, including the apostle

Paul, model in his behavior? What did he pass on to his pastors to exhibit?

And now what do those pastors, as we are even reading here in this letter, communicate to us with regard to an understanding of our salvation in Christ, and even how that salvation manifests itself?

What do I mean by manifest? But how do you see the evidence of that person's salvation in their lives?

This really kind of sums up some of those instructions that we've read here in chapter two, and encapsulates more, of course, than just what we've read in this short letter.

If you'll remember back to my introduction to the book of Titus, I said that there was going to be a lot contained in such a small package, and we could even spend weeks and weeks more than we're spending on this letter, combing the depths of this.

You could probably write volumes of books just on the things that are written about here in these five verses.

So we're just barely scratching the surface, but nonetheless, we have such a brilliant and wonderful reminder of the grace of God that is shown to us in our

Lord Jesus Christ. So as we look at this particular passage, you'll notice that it begins with a kind of a heading, the grace of God has appeared, and then it is going to explain to us what this salvation that has been brought for all people will mean for us.

What does it manifest in us, the word that I use? What does it train us toward? And so then verse 12, trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, trains us to live self -controlled, upright, and godly lives, teaches us to wait for our blessed hope, looking for the appearing of our

Savior Jesus Christ, and we are even called to a purity and a zealousness to good works, which we see in verse 14.

Now finally, verse 15, declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority. I'll come back to that at the conclusion.

That's very similar to a line that started this chapter for us. We'll see these two declarations bookend

Titus chapter two. So let's come back to the start here in Titus 2, 11, reading about the grace of God that has appeared.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.

Let's understand this a piece at a time. First of all, what does it mean when we use the word grace?

Now the common textbook definition of the word grace is unmerited favor.

Unmerited favor means that we have the favor of God and there is nothing that we do to earn it.

Nothing by our works gets God's attention. Nothing by our works earns his direction toward us, his affections for us.

We don't do anything to gain the heart of God. He shows us his love by his grace.

As we read about in Romans chapter nine, he has compassion on those whom he will show compassion and he has mercy on those on whom he will show mercy.

The same words that he gave to Moses in Exodus. So we don't do anything to earn the grace of God.

He just gives it to us. He just gives his affection because God is great, not because we've done anything great.

Now that is the easiest textbook definition of grace, unmerited favor. I like what

Jerry Vines said with regard to this particular verse, taking it a step further, it's more than just unmerited favor, but it's demerited favor.

And what do we mean by demerited favor? Demerited in the sense that what did we really deserve?

We deserved the judgment of God. We can't do anything to earn

God's affection, but we certainly have done everything to earn his judgment. What we deserve is to be separated from God forever.

We have sinned against God. We have broken his law. That understanding comes into this presentation of the gospel that Paul is giving to us here.

All of us are law breakers. What does it mean to sin? John said in first John, sin is lawlessness.

Okay. Whose law have we broken? It is God's law. And as said in Romans chapter two, it doesn't matter whether you are even aware of this law or not.

God has inscribed the law on every person's heart so that we all have an understanding of right and wrong.

And there is in the natural sense of a person, an understanding of the right way that we should go and we do not.

Instead, we rebel against it. And it is the natural state of every man, not only to rebel against this law, but to rebel against God himself.

As we read about in Romans 3, 10 through 12, there is none righteous, not even one.

There is no one who does good, not even one person. All have become worthless.

We were made in the image of God, which that in itself should be inherently worthy.

But we have taken that image and desecrated it with our sin. Instead of taking the breath that God gave to us to exalt him and glorify him with it, we exalted ourselves and glorified ourselves instead.

With the body that he gave us to glorify God, we went after our own sins and passions.

And whatever things that we have invested ourselves in sinfully with our bodies is as if to proclaim in the image of God that God would be so unholy as me.

And that is one of the most egregious blasphemies about our sin. In fact,

I think that our sin is so blasphemous that we won't really ever truly understand the depth of it on this side of heaven.

And when we enter into glory to be with our Lord, we will not only see him as he is, as it said in 1

John chapter 3, we will see him as he is because we will be made to be like him. We will not only see his glory, but I believe we will also have a fuller understanding of just how separated from God we really were, so that it is only by his grace that we have been drawn to himself.

As R .C. Sproul has said, sin is cosmic treason against the high king of heaven, he who created all things.

But we would dare to say, your way is not good enough for me, God. I know a better way for me than you have for me.

What blasphemy, what arrogance. And this is why we might define grace as demerited favor, because what did we really deserve?

Nothing from God, but his judgment. As Jonathan Edwards had said, you've contributed nothing to your salvation, but the sin that made it necessary.

And so what we deserve is death. But what God has given to us is life through Jesus Christ, our

Savior. This is the grace of God, and it has appeared.

It has been revealed to us through the person and work of Jesus Christ. We would not even know anything of this grace if not for our

Savior. And so the statement continues that the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.

Now, if you're in the King James Bible, it's worded slightly different. It will say that the grace of God bringing salvation has appeared for all people.

It moves the phrase a little bit, but I think that the English Standard Translators, NASB, Legacy, have translated this correctly in this particular order, that the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.

Now, who are all people? We have to be careful about this phrase. This is actually one that the universalists love to use and say that everybody gets saved.

Paul said it right here. Titus 2 .11, the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.

How could you read that any other way except the plain language in which it is given? And you have probably heard some preachers say something to the effect of all means all, and that's all all means.

Well, I have countered that statement by saying all always has a context.

For example, passage that I've already quoted from, Romans 3 .23, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Who is the all that we are talking about there? Well, if we were to say every single human being that has ever existed on the earth, well, then that would say that Jesus actually would qualify in the midst of that as well.

For God put on flesh and dwelt among us, he who was born in the likeness of sinful man, as scripture says.

So would we say that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God includes

Jesus? No, of course not. Far be it from us to ever declare such a thing. So what is the context of the all there?

Well, when you look at what Paul is laying out from Romans 1 .18 through chapter 3, verse 20, he's bringing all men into condemnation, whether Jew or Gentile.

And so all from all nations on the earth, all have sinned except for Christ, who is the one who brought salvation for all people.

You look at the context to understand the meaning of the word all. So what does all mean here?

To give you another example, we were back in 1 Timothy chapter six, verse 10. There's that famous verse that often gets misquoted that money is the root of all evil.

That's not really the passage. It's the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

And some translators of that passage have taken the liberty of adding the word kinds because that is the meaning and the understanding of all there is talking about all kinds of evil.

It can't possibly be every single evil. Friends, there's evil that I've done that money had nothing to do with.

So the context there is all kinds. And likewise here, when we see this reference to all, what are we talking about?

For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people, meaning everybody that we've just read about here in chapter two.

What have we read about with regard to these instructions? We read about older men and how they are to be helping to guide the younger men.

We've read about older women and the conduct they are supposed to exhibit and even train the younger women to behave in such a way.

We read instructions about slaves, about bond servants, and how they are to live in the world as well.

And it's fascinating that it's right after that instruction to bond servants, to slaves who are considered the lowest in society.

It's right after that that Paul says, for the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all people.

Even slaves get saved. That's the point. Even the lowest of the low get salvation in Christ Jesus.

The way this verse begins with for, it ties it to the previous section.

For the grace of God has appeared. So we're not just entering into some sort of a statement that's isolated and stands on its own.

It's continuing the thought that we have read through this chapter, instructions that have been given to people in the churches that span generations and sexes and even occupations.

Whether you are male or female, whether you are old or young, whether you are slave or free, salvation has appeared for all people.

And that is the context. All different kinds from all different generations, occupations, and even nationalities.

We know that it can't be salvation is automatically guaranteed for every single person for that would nullify the words, even of our

Lord Christ in the sermon on the Mount. Jesus declared that many of you will come to me saying,

Lord, Lord, and I won't have any idea who you are.

You will come to me saying, Lord, didn't we do all of these mighty things in your name? And Jesus says in Matthew seven, and I will say to them, depart from me, you worker of lawlessness.

I never knew you. And Jesus saying right before that, that those who would enter into the kingdom of God must enter by the narrow way for narrow is the way that leads to life.

And few will find it because that's the difficult path, but broad is the way that leads to destruction.

And many will find that because that's the easy way. It's later on in Matthew in chapter 25, that he talks about those who are gathered at the great white throne of judgment.

And he says that the king will sit on his glorious throne and he will separate the nations one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats and the sheep will go on his right hand and the goats will go on his left.

And to summarize the passage, the sheep on the right enter into the kingdom of God that had been prepared for them before the foundation of the world.

Those who are on his left, go to the place of fire and brimstone that had been prepared for the devil and his angels, which verse 45 refers to as eternal punishment.

So not everyone enters into eternal life. There is a salvation that is brought for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And it is only by God's grace that we receive it. Not by anything that we have done, but by what he has done for us.

If you'll skip down a little bit to Titus three, three, look at this here as we'll look at it next week.

But let me go ahead and give it to you now. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

That's every single one of us before we come to Christ. Verse four, but when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the holy spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior.

So that being justified by his what grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

That is God's grace for us. And the salvation that we have in Christ Jesus.

But as I said in the very beginning, this faith that we have and the salvation that we have in Christ is not simply a get out of hell free card.

And I encounter a number of Christians who came into their faith exactly that way.

I was looking for fire insurance. Now, for some, you see that demonstrated in their lives.

They don't actually show a transformation that has taken place. They might be able to point back to a particular date when they prayed a prayer and accepted

Jesus as savior, maybe even a particular date that they were baptized, but you don't see in their lives, any sort of example of the

Christian life that they say that they have been brought into. There was a man when

I was a pastor in Kansas who was traveling, had stopped in Junction City and was looking for some help, wanted some lunch.

And so I decided that I was going to take him down to the grocery store and we'd buy him a hoagie or something like that, get a sub sandwich for him.

And as we were driving down there, he was with me in my truck and I started sharing the gospel with him, asked him if he was saved, if he knew the

Lord. He said, oh yeah, I was, I went to camp and I was baptized when I was 11. But he had already said some things about his life that didn't demonstrate to me that he knew

Christ at all. And so we continue to talk as we're on our way to the grocery store and I begin confronting him in his sin.

I said, do you mind if I, if I ask you some questions? And he said, certainly. I said, if, if you were to appear before Christ today, would he accept you into heaven or would he send you to hell?

And he said, oh, I believe he'd take me to heaven. I mean, he loves me. Why would he send me to hell?

I said, well, you mind if I, if I test you on that a little bit. And he said, certainly. So I went through what

I've kind of walked you through before with regard to some of those questions you might ask somebody in an evangelism encounter.

Do you think you're a good person? Yeah. Have you ever told a lie before? Well, I lie.

Everybody lies. Who hasn't ever told a lie? Well, what do you call a person who tells lies? Call them a liar.

Have you ever stolen anything before? No, I've never done that. Well, are you sure? Cause you just told me you're a liar.

Okay. Well, maybe I've stolen a few things. What do you call a person who steals a stealer?

No, they play in Pittsburgh. You call a person who steals a thief.

Have you ever had sex outside of marriage? Yeah, I've done that.

Okay. That's called adultery. Have you ever called anyone names?

Have you said something so spitefully hatred towards someone else yelling at them, maybe even, and calling them something disparaging because you wanted them to feel bad?

Yeah, I've done that before. Well, Jesus said in Matthew chapter five, that a person who calls another person, a fool is guilty of the fires of hell.

I said, have you ever taken the Lord's name in vain before? I actually knew the answer to that question cause he had already done it in my presence.

I said, right here, just by these questions, we've established that you are a lying, thieving, adulterous, blasphemer at heart.

So if you were to stand before God in judgment, just based on these rules in his law, do you think that he would accept you into heaven or would he send you to hell?

The man became indignant, furious. By this point, we're actually already at the grocery store.

We're sitting in the parking lot and he's borderline yelling at me like, man,

I was just asking for a sandwich. I wasn't here to have you judge me and cast all of this blame upon me.

I just wanted you to do something nice. And I said, well, sir, we're sitting in the parking lot of the grocery store.

I'm going to take you inside and I'm going to get you a sub sandwich. I'm going to do that. But there's something that matters to me significantly more than the food in your belly.

And it's the food in your heart. Do you truly know

Christ? And he began sharing some things about his life and weeping there in the passenger seat.

And we pray that he would trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know if that man is still walking with the

Lord. I can't even remember his name, but I still think of him every once in a while and pray that when he went from junction city and continued on his journey,

I took him to the truck stop later on, that he would indeed remember that encounter. And he would think about the truth of the savior that I shared with him in the gospel.

We have all sinned, but there is forgiveness for our sins. And that is by faith in Jesus and believing in Jesus will require of us more than simply getting a get out of hell free card.

It is transforming in our lives. It will change the very way that we live.

As I've heard Paul Washer give this illustration, if you were to come into Bible study and you sit down with us and you would say,

Hey, I'm sorry, I'm late. I got hit by a Mack truck on the way here. Okay.

You look fine. You walked in here. You just sat down and you're grinning.

Sorry, but I don't believe that you were hit with a Mack truck. And at the very least, I expect to see Mack backwards on your forehead right there where you were impacted by this truck.

If somebody is going to make such a claim, there should be some evidence of the impact of that claim.

And if you are going to make a claim that you have had an interaction with the creator of the world who had shown his grace to you and brought you to himself, then there should be some evidence in your life that you have been impacted by God.

And this is what Paul goes on to teach about regarding the grace of God and salvation in our lives.

It's not just to get out of hell free card. It is further than this. There are behavioral implications to this.

There are things in our lives that will change as a result of the gospel that has come to us.

So look, first of all, at verse 12, we'll see three things that Paul kind of lays out here. But first of all, he says in verse 12, after saying that the grace of God has appeared and brought salvation to us, we're saved.

We're in the presence of God. Our eternity is guaranteed. No one can take it from us because no one is more powerful than God.

Jesus said in John 10, my father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand.

I and the father are one. So we are secure in the hand of the savior and nothing will take us from that.

So what things now in light of our salvation will also be working in our lives?

Verse 12, this grace of God that has brought us salvation also trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self -controlled upright and godly lives in this age.

Now I read just that verse to my kids this week and I asked them, what does that mean?

And it was my seven -year -old who said, repent. That's the easiest summary of verse 12.

If a seven -year -old can get that, then we all should understand that, that the grace of God trains us.

It is teaching us. Now, one of the wonderful graces of that word train, it doesn't say it is immediately transformed us, right?

It says it trains us. So one of the graces about that word is that you are not immediately fully sanctified at the time that you get saved.

So now I'm a follower of Jesus. I go and I sin. Oops, I just lost my salvation.

No, there are still things that the Holy Spirit is working out in your life. You are being trained to turn from the ungodliness that you were previously in and desire something greater, the godliness that we have in Christ.

So we're being trained to renounce ungodliness, renounce it, hate it, put it away.

As Paul says in Colossians 3 .5, put to death what is earthly in you.

And likewise in Romans, put to death those things that are worldly. So we don't live like the world anymore.

We don't follow and chase after the passions of our flesh. We desire something better.

We desire godliness. Where previously in our lives, we didn't want godliness.

As I had quoted to you from Romans 3, we were rebels against God. We wanted to go against God. We didn't want

God. We weren't seekers after God. But now with his grace that is given to us, our orientation has changed.

Instead of wanting to do the lawless thing, if you do fall into sin, how do you feel about that?

You feel guilty about it, right? I mean, the difference between when I was saved and when

I was not saved is when I was not saved, I could sin all the day long, didn't feel troubled about it one bit.

Or if I did feel guilty about it, I would get over it, and then I would go do it again anyway. But now with the

Holy Spirit in my heart, whenever I have sinned, I feel horrible about it. And God is using that to discipline me, as said in Hebrews 12, and to draw me closer to himself.

1 John 1 .9, if anyone asks forgiveness for his sins,

God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We are being trained to renounce those things that previously we loved.

And to say, to renounce ungodliness, it begins with the thoughts we had about God before we got saved.

Like you probably had some notion of God, either didn't believe in him at all, or had this version of God worked out in your mind that was really a version that would give you all of the things that you wanted, right?

But once you truly come to know God through faith in Christ, you renounce those things and you pursue

God himself and a desire to want to be like him. We renounce, we put it away, we hate it, we put it off, ungodliness and worldly passions.

And instead, what do we go after? It's interesting that the first thing that we see here is we are to live what?

Self -controlled. What did we hear was an instruction for older men in the church? They are to be self -controlled.

Older women in the church? Self -controlled. They're to teach the younger women to be self -controlled.

Young men are to be self -controlled. We saw this instruction over and over again.

And as I had said to you when we were going through those things, those aren't just standalone instructions. It is in light of the gospel of Christ that has been proclaimed to us.

And so by the power of the spirit that is in our hearts, we can live self -controlled lives.

When you go through the fruit of the spirit in Galatians chapter five, the ninth fruit on that list is self -control.

It's the one that seems to be the most often neglected. The one that we don't think about as much or desire to put into work, usually when you hear about the fruit of the spirit, what's the first one you think of?

Love. It's the first one on the list. But self -control is a fruit of the spirit, that we would not desire the sinful thing, but we would instead desire to do the thing that pleases

God. Live self -controlled upright and godly lives in the present age.

Upright, it's a statement that connects us back to the Psalms where God shows favor to the upright man in heart, the one who walks in his ways, who is not stooped over or burdened by his sins, but those have been removed from him, forgiven by the grace of God, and now we walk upright and are able to obey him in a way that is pleasing to the

Lord. We renounce ungodliness and we pursue godly lives in the present age.

So we're not just talking about some past sin that has been forgiven, but we're even talking about a present reality in which we are walking and demonstrating the goodness of God in our lives by the very way that we live.

So first of all, the grace of God trains us in this way to renounce ungodliness and to pursue godliness.

And secondly, verse 13, the grace of God gives us the strength to wait.

It gives us patience. It gives us a heart that yearns for the day of Christ, but we wait for that day, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great

God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, this appearing, involving his return, most certainly, that is probably the eschatological idea or concept that Paul has in mind here.

He's thinking of the return of Christ, for even those who are in heaven with God are also anticipating the return of Christ.

Their final state has not been accomplished yet because we're still waiting for the resurrection of our bodies to be transformed to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself, as we read about in Philippians chapter 3.

So all of us wait for that blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great

God and Savior. And then finally, number three, this grace of God also trains us in the sense that we desire purity and it stirred in us a zealousness for good works.

This is in verse 14. He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness.

What does it mean to redeem? It means we've been purchased. The apostle

Paul says to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, you have been bought with a price and that price far higher and greater than any amount of money can equal.

For it was the blood of the sinless son of God that was given for us to purchase our souls, that we would belong to him.

And my friends, if you belong to Christ, you will demonstrate that you are his possession.

You are no longer under the possession of sin. You are no longer under the curse of the law and the wages of sin, which is death.

You are no longer in the power of the evil one who is Satan. You are in the power of God, indwelt by his

Holy Spirit, possessed by Christ himself and redeemed from all lawlessness.

We are purified, a people for his own possession, and we are zealous to do good works.

Now, there are some that will want to put grace and law at odds with one another, or they'll have this understanding of grace that it somehow nullifies the law.

The law isn't necessary for us anymore. We don't need to pay attention to the law. We don't need to follow the law because we have grace.

And they'll misunderstand that passage in Romans 6 says, for we are no longer under the law, but under grace.

But my friends, I want you to understand that grace and the law are not at odds with one another.

They don't contradict each other. Grace and the law are in agreement with one another.

Look back over these things that we have read. Both grace and law train us to renounce ungodliness.

Both grace and law train us to renounce worldly passions and to live self -controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.

Both grace and law would even teach us to wait for our blessed hope, the appearing of our great

God and Savior. Both grace and law would stir in us a zealousness for good works.

They both do that, so they're not at odds with one another. What's the difference then?

The difference between grace and law is that grace has delivered us from the curse of the law.

What we find in scripture is that we can't keep the law. We couldn't do it.

We were incapable of accomplishing this. And so therefore, we're under the curse of the law and the wages that would result, which is death, for those who could not perfectly accomplish

God's law. But Jesus Christ did perfectly keep the law.

He perfectly fulfilled the will of the Father. And so that when he died on the cross for our sins, he was that perfect spotless lamb, that sacrifice for us, so that all who believe in him, our sins are imputed upon him as he dies in our place.

And his righteousness is imputed to us for those who have faith in him. So now, wearing the righteousness of Christ, or as we read previously in chapter 2, verse 10, adorning the doctrine of God our

Savior, we are able to live our lives in such a way that is pleasing to the

Lord because of God's grace. Consider this passage in Romans 8, verses 3 and 4.

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.

By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the

Spirit. Consider also verse 6. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the

Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. It was not possible for us to do the righteousness required to be in the presence of God.

God did that for us and gave it to us through his

Son. The very thing that God requires—perfection, righteousness—he gives.

The thing he requires, he gives, so that we are not left to ourselves to achieve this perfection, which we could never get to.

It has been accomplished and imputed to us in Christ. And so it is said of us, still in Romans chapter 8 verse 9, you, however, are not in the flesh but in the

Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the

Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. And now, with the Spirit of Christ in us, we have the power to fulfill the law's righteous requirement.

Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession.

You belong to God. Good news, brethren. And in Christ Jesus, we are likewise zealous, excited, driven, desirous for good works.

And this is the purpose of salvation in our lives. Not just that we would be saved, but even sanctified and made in the image of the

Son. Romans 8, 28, for God works all things together for good for those who love

God and are called according to his purpose. Verse 29 tells us the good that God is working toward.

And that would be that we would be conformed into the image of the Son. This is

God's purpose in salvation. Now, there are various different preachers that will have different interpretations of what they think

God's purpose in salvation is. A former Southern Baptist convention president preached God's purpose in salvation is to bring about racial diversity.

Is that God's purpose in salvation? Do we see racial diversity in the church?

Certainly. Is that the purpose? It's accomplished, but it's not the purpose.

You know, I grew up in Southwest Kansas. Everybody was white as bread in Southwest Kansas. It was not even possible to have a racially diverse church.

Although you did have various ethnicities, we would be some mixture of English heritage or Polish or German or something to that degree, but you can't actually force racial diversity upon a church.

That is a work that the Holy Spirit does. A woman professor at Durham University said,

God's purpose in salvation is not the salvation of souls. I mean, that's completely contrary to salvation.

She goes on to say God's purpose in salvation is not the salvation of souls, but to retrieve from the mire of earthly existence, a spiritual essence of each human being.

What in the world does that mean? A pastor preaching on biblical manhood said

God's purpose in salvation was to restore your dominion in the earth. Every man actually has dominion in the earth.

The one who is not of God will bring about corrupt dominion, but we still have that dominion.

That's what God put us on earth to accomplish, and do that to the glory of God.

A word of faith preacher said God's purpose in salvation was to bring you happiness. There are a lot of miserable

Christians right there who can't find the fulfillment of that word at all.

So what is God's purpose of salvation? It was Martyn Lloyd -Jones that said it very simply.

God's purpose in salvation is to save. That's what the word means.

Salvation is to save. Save sinners from death and destruction that we deserve because of our sins.

Save sinners from the wrath of God that we all deserve because of our rebellion. Save sinners and sanctify us to be made in the image of the son.

Do you realize that you are the reward that the father has given to the son for what he did in accomplishing the will of the father?

You are the reward. You are his possession, and those who belong to Christ will demonstrate that you are his when you are zealous to do the works that Jesus did and has called us to.

Last of all, we have this verse, and I said this was a bookend to this chapter. Declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority, and let no one disregard you.

And that is a bookend with the verse that we saw right at the start of the chapter. As for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

So Paul has this exhortation to Titus to teach what is doctrinally true and that which accords with it, the godliness that results from teaching true doctrine.

And then he concludes the chapter saying, declare these things, exhort, give application to it, tell people how they are to live in light of this, rebuke, call those to correction who go astray, and do so with all authority, and let no one disregard you, for the word that Titus preached would not be his own, but it would be the very word of God.

When we did our confessional reading today, you might have thought that the four confessions that we read were somewhat of a downer.

I usually don't try to end the confession with a harsh word, but rather with something glorious in the gospel as we go into the next song.

But question number 22 was, what is the misery of that estate wherein two men fell?

All mankind, by their fall, lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.

That was where we ended our recitation of the catechism. But I didn't want to leave you with that.

Rather, at the conclusion of this sermon, we would look at the next two. Question number 23,

I'll read it, and you say the answer with me. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?

Answer, God, having out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a

Redeemer. Question 24, who is the Redeemer of God's elect?

The only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who being the eternal

Son of God, became man, and so was and continues to be

God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever.

And if we belong to him, we will dwell with him forever.

Brethren, we are going through this state now to be sanctified and purified for that day when we will enter into glory.

And God knows exactly how many days he has for you to be sanctified. Remember seeing one of those gifts,

I don't know that you would necessarily consider it a meme, but a short video that was floating around on social media of a man stepping onto an escalator, but he didn't seem to understand how escalators worked.

And so he puts his foot on the escalator, and it starts taking one foot up while the other one remains on the ground behind him.

And he starts getting stretched out, and as he's going up, he can't ever find his footing. So he just starts tumbling, and he's tumbling, and tumbling, and tumbling.

And the escalator is still going up, and he's making progress, but the whole time he tumbles, and he tumbles, and he tumbles until he finally gets to the top.

That's a pretty good illustration of sanctification. We might feel like we're just tumbling, and tumbling, and we're struggling, and we're struggling, and we understand what the

Apostle Paul, what he says in Romans 7, the thing that I want to do is not the thing I do. I do the thing

I hate. Why do I keep doing the thing I hate? We feel like we struggle with that in our hearts, but it continues to remind us of the grace of God, that he was perfect for us.

And so that in his grace, which has brought salvation to us, we are trained to renounce ungodliness.

And all those worldly passions which previously held us captive, by his grace we live self -controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.

By his grace, we wait for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great

God and Savior, Jesus Christ. By his grace, gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness.

And by his grace, to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are by his grace, zealous for good works.

This is the grace of God that has appeared for us. Savior of my heart, who paid his arms all cares to take,

Thou art the King of mercy and of grace,

Reigning omnipotent in every place,

So come, O weep, and our holding stray,

Shine on us with the light of thy pure day.

Thou didst shallow our steps, and our strength we see,

Succeed us by thy faith and by thy power,

The strength in every trying hour,

All is in no other, save in thee.

Our faith is built upon thy promise free,

Lord give us peace and make us calm and sure,

That in thy strength we evermore grow.

You've been listening to the preaching of Pastor Gabriel Hughes, a presentation of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

For more information about our church, visit our website at providencecasagrande .com.

On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, thanking you for listening. Join us again