Saving Grace on Display

I want to take an opportunity this morning to say, first of all, say thank you to the elders of the church, first for this opportunity to be able to preach to you this morning, but also because ever since about a year ago when I came to them and told them that I felt that God had called me to ministry full time, they've been very supportive in many ways in praying for me and giving me various opportunities.

And so thank you, because it's not in every church where men who aren't fully trained or qualified, as we would say, are given these kind of chances. And so thank you to the elders and thank you for being here this morning.

The Gospel of Grace in Titus 2

I want to talk to you this morning about a passage of scripture that's in the book of Titus in chapter two. And so as you're turning there, I'll just give a short introduction. It's a sad and unfortunate reality that there's a lot of confusion over what the gospel is in our time.

It's the most basic message of Christianity, the good news about our savior, Jesus. But unfortunately, it's been twisted and watered down and totally changed by many churches and many preachers. Some churches and some preachers have retreated so far that it's hard to even recognize if it is the gospel or not, because there are so many perversions and various things that are taught.

Other people have tried to take it and make it a message that's more easy to consume. We we hear people say things like, try Jesus as if it were try Coke or try Pepsi. And, you know, unfortunately, that's that's a really sad thing.

But I find that another issue that's very common in the modern church is that so many people don't understand the purpose of the gospel. They've heard the message about their sinfulness and of the work of Christ on the cross.

But so many people struggle to answer the question of what comes next. And so today in this passage of scripture, I want to look at exactly that. I want to look at this passage because it gives a great summary of what the gospel is.

And it really drives home the point of what comes next in our lives. And so, in other words, I want to answer this one question. Now that I'm saved, what should I do? And so let's look in the Titus chapter two, we're going to look at verses 11 through 14 and see what the scriptures have to tell us about this.

If you will stand with me as we read God's word, Titus two, verse 11. 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 the people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Let's pray. God, I come before you again this morning, Lord, seeking that you would give me wisdom. As I speak this morning, Lord, as I teach your word, Father, that you would keep me from error and Father, that your word would affect the hearts of your people.

God, that it would lead those of us who are believers closer to you and God, that it would convict those who are not yet believers. Father, the power is not in the message that I may teach, Lord, but it's in your word.

And so we put our faith and trust in that this morning and we ask you to work amongst your people in Jesus name. So the text that we're addressing this morning is one that's overflowing with both doctrinal and practical issues.

If I was given a couple of months, we could sit right here in these two or three verses and never mind the depths of what all is being said here. There really is a lot. This is one of the greatest summations of the Christian faith that's found in the Bible.

And so that's the reason with with one week to preach to you, that's kind of one of the reasons I ended up here. There's a natural flow that we're going to see in this passage where the writer switches from looking at what God has done or is going to do and then comparing it to what we are to do in response to that.

And so we're going to use that as our guide this morning and try and kind of draw the outline right out of the text. So we're going to find this morning four instructions for living in light of our salvation.

And I'm going to try and give you guys the points, they'll be up on the screen. So one by one, just so you get them. The first of these instructions we're going to look at is look back to Christ. And it's found right there in verse 11.

Let's look back again at what it says in verse 11. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. Now, the concept of grace has been addressed in pulpits all over the world, many thousands of times uncertain.

We've heard numerous definitions, probably the simplest definition I've heard, and you've probably all heard it before, is that grace is unmerited favor. God is gracious to us in salvation because he gives us something that we in no way deserve or could have ever earned.

But when the passage here says that the grace of God has appeared, I submit to you that it's saying more than it's talking about more than just the concept of grace. When it says the grace of God has appeared, it's referring to Jesus Christ himself, the one who brought salvation to the world.

And so we look at this passage and it's really pointing us back to the first coming of Christ. There's a Greek word here. I'll try not to bury you guys in the Greek just because I'm a seminary student, but there's a Greek word here.

It's Epiphania and it translates as appeared. That's what we read in the English as appeared. But that really only gives us a part of what this word conveys. It's the word that the Greeks would have used to describe when their little G gods, their many gods of Greek mythology would intervene in the affairs of men.

And so this is a God or a supernatural force intervening in normal everyday life. It really could be better translated as the grace of God has been manifested or shown forth. It's it's the root word where we get our English word epiphany from.

So we all know what it means to have an epiphany. The idea is that there's something that's been hidden, not that it wasn't there, but it's been hidden or not revealed to us. And now it's been revealed.

And so in the same way that the sun breaks over the horizon every morning in the eastern sky and light shines into the darkness, Christ came to earth in human form and shown forth the light of salvation for all men to see.

And so this is this is, again, pointing us back to the first coming of Christ. Now, I want to point out something that this verse is not saying, because there has been some common misunderstanding here.

Look at it again, it says, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. In no way is this first teaching that there is universal salvation, that everyone is saved. There are churches that believe that that may be news to some people, but there are churches who teach that all will be saved.

And that's not what this is saying. If we were to believe that, we would have to ignore not only the context of this specific passage, but pretty much the rest of the Bible as well. And so looking back, just to give you a little bit of context in verses one through ten of Titus chapter two, Paul has been addressing different groups of people or categories of people and telling them how they should live so that their lives give credence to the gospel.

He addressed older men, then younger men, older women, younger women, and then finally bond servants. And then we come to this verse where he says, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.

And so reading this in context, we see he's not saying every single person is going to be saved. He's saying all types of people. Salvation has appeared for everyone. The gospel is for all. And as believers, we have a responsibility to call all men to repent and be saved, regardless of their race, their age, their ethnicity or any other unique trait.

So very clearly. The gospel is for everyone. We can also understand that when he says salvation has come for all people, really, in a lot of ways, that did happen through Christ appearing on earth. Scripture frequently teaches us that God is a loving, a patient and a long suffering God.

We know that in our own lives to be true. If you just look back and think about all the things that God has not dealt with you about already, not judged you, not not poured out his wrath upon you. But also you can take a look at the Old Testament and see time and time again how God is patient and long suffering with his people.

And so we realize that every inhabitant of the earth is a partaker in the common grace of God. Because God is going about the business of redeeming his elect people, he patiently and lovingly restrains final judgment from those who sin against him.

In reality, we should be totally and finally judged the very first time we sin. Because sin earns us death and the wrath of God, but God doesn't do that, we can see in Matthew 525, you don't have to turn there, but it says, for he makes a sunrise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

And so we know from this passage and many other in the scriptures like it, that all have partaken in common grace. There are benefits to the believer and the unbeliever because of the appearance of Christ.

And so as we look back to this truth of Christ coming to the earth to make a way for salvation, that should ignite in our hearts a desire to serve him. If we're trying to answer the question of what should we do as believers now that I'm saved, what do I do?

Well, look back to Christ. That should burn a fire in your heart to want to serve him. Think about what he's done. It's just like we talked about at the communion table this morning when we focus on what Christ has already done there.

If we're truly believers, that should that should come out. That should make us want to do something. If it were not for this epiphany, the grace of God being made manifest to us in Jesus Christ, we would really have no reason to rejoice and no foundation for good works.

If Christ hadn't come, we wouldn't be here. We'd be dead in our sins and destined to receive the wrath that we so greatly deserve. But thank God he didn't leave us in our sinful, fallen state. He sent Christ to pay the price for our sins and give us a righteousness that we could never earn.

And so looking back to this should be the first thing we do when we're trying to decide how we live as believers. Once we get that thought in our minds, we should be ready to act. And that's the point of the next instruction we're going to look at is that we are to live now like Christ, live now like Christ.

Living Self-Controlled, Upright, and Godly Lives

While it's absolutely essential for us to understand the basis of our salvation, that's not enough. We don't stop there. God doesn't save us just so that we can avoid hell. So many people take their salvation as a license to live however they want to say, oh, I prayed a prayer when I was younger.

I believe in God, so I just do whatever I want. They think they're going to narrowly miss hell and inherit all the benefits of salvation. But that shouldn't be the case. Verse 12 says, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age.

So this appearance of God, this grace of God that's come to the earth. He does make a way for salvation, but it also teaches us something. It trains us. The word that's translated as training is one that was originally used in the context of teaching children or disciplining children.

So we're not just talking about teaching somebody something they don't know. We're also talking about an understanding of discipline, someone disciplining someone who's not behaving correctly. And so we know that God's grace chastens us and disciplines us to live in a way that promotes the gospel, not make a mockery of it.

If you look over in Proverbs 3, 11 and 12, there's a word about the discipline of the Lord. It says, my son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be wary of his reproof for the Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father, the son in whom he delights.

And so much like we love our children and we discipline them because we want them to learn how to behave. God disciplines his children. He doesn't just save us and say, OK, now go do whatever you choose, just like I wouldn't let my six year old, my little child just run rampant and do whatever they want.

They would hurt themselves. It wouldn't be very loving of me at all. So the grace of God disciplines or trains us, but how in the verse, it's broken down into two different parts. There are two negatives, two things that we aren't to do, and then three positives are things that we are to do.

We're going to look at them one by one. So as we look back at the verse, it says, training us to renounce ungodliness. That's the first negative instruction. And the idea behind this word ungodliness is that it's a lack of reverence towards God.

It's the flippant, carefree attitude that we see from so many people today, people who give no thought to the fact that there is a God and that one day they're going to have to pay a price for their sins, that they'll be called to account for their every action.

We hear people say things like, oh, yeah, hell's going to be a big barbecue. Want to be fun there? We probably all heard people say that kind of stuff. And it really makes you shudder when you hear an unbeliever say it.

But the sad thing is that many people who would call themselves believers live in a way that says the same thing. They give no heed to how they behave or what they do. There's no thought of God in their decisions that they make.

And so ungodliness is a lack of reverence towards God, it's basically acting as if there is no God. But how can we say we're saved by the work of Christ while living in such a way that denies his existence and authority?

I heard a preacher talking this week in a sermon I was listening to, and he basically said this, every time we sin in a way, we're just denying that there is a God and that he will hold us to account.

In a way, you're just saying we say with our lips, God is there, but then we behave as if he wasn't. And so in marked contrast to this, the believer's life should be one that is devoted to considering God and worshiping him in all things.

And so we move from the first instruction to the second, that we are to deny worldly desires. Now, worldly desires are those things that are common to this world and those who are a part of it and love it.

We would call desires for money, power, fame, glory and many other things worldly desires. One commentator I read put this very smartly, he said, these are desires that rise no higher than this world.

They're concerned with nothing greater than what's right here and right now. And we see this in our society that people are so concerned with instant gratification, they're not thinking of any further ramifications.

But the believer's life should not be characterized by desiring much of and for this world. The grace of God instructs us to keep ourselves free from being so entangled in this world that we fall to its evil ways.

And unfortunately, American Christianity is particularly susceptible to this trap because we're so we have so much. In Second Timothy, chapter two and verse four, it speaks to this saying, no soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.

And so we think of the mind of a soldier going off to battle. He's got all of his gear and his armor and everything suited up, and we think about the things that that soldier might have on his mind at the time.

He's probably not thinking about, did I leave the toaster on or the curling iron or not the soldiers use curling irons, but his mind is on things that are important and pressing, not things that are silly.

And as believers, that's what he's warning us again. Don't be so trapped up in worldly desires and things for this life that you forget about the things that are truly important. And unfortunately. This is so common amongst us, we're so wrapped up in now and in our lives and in our jobs and our careers and all these things.

Take a moment to think about the things that you want most in life. Really stop and think in your head, what do I want most in life? And in fact, if you're a parent and you have children, think about what you want most for your children, because I find this to be a really instructive exercise.

What do you want your kids to grow up like? What do you want them to have? What do you want them to do? Unfortunately, when we think about these things, we think of a lot of things that we would call good.

We want our kids to have a good education. We want them to grow up and find a good spouse. We want them to have a good career. We want them to be financially stable. All these things that any parent who loves their child would want for them.

But so many times we think of those things and desire those things and work towards those things at the expense of what is best. What should we truly want for our children? Their salvation, that they live a life committed to bringing God glory in every way.

I would rather my child grow up poor and know that he has Jesus than that he has everything in the world, but no concept of who God is and why he's here on this earth. And so we know all these other things will pass away.

And what a shame it would be for us as parents or as people to know that we checked off all those boxes. We were very successful. We had a great career. We were financially stable. We were even able to give to the poor.

All those things, but we missed the big point of why. Why are we here to glorify God? And so we know that I'm not saying by this that any parent can will salvation upon their child. Don't hear me saying that at all.

But thinking this way because of the way we often think about our children helps us to see how worldly minded we can be because I'm just like all of you. I want those things for my child as well. But our great focus for ourselves and for our families should be on how to glorify God, it shouldn't be worldly desires.

And so now having laid down two behaviors that we should avoid, the verse switches gears and goes from the negative to the positive, and we'll look at three ways that we should live. The scripture says in the second half that we are to live self controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age.

Now, the Bible is full of lists of character traits or lists of sins, and a lot of times we just read through them as, you know, five, six or seven bad things or five, six or seven good things. But I think there's more than just a list of three ways we should behave here.

I think this actually specifically addresses our behavior in three different realms. First, how we relate to ourselves, second, how we relate to others, and then third, how we relate to God. And so the first thing he tells us is that we're to be self controlled, and this addresses how we behave and live concerning ourselves.

As believers, we shouldn't be overcome by every temptation that comes our way. God's grace and salvation has set us free from sin so that we can overcome those temptations which come to us. We shouldn't be addicted to anything, but instead we should be people who are temperate and sober minded.

The second thing he tells us is that we're to be upright, and this exhortation concerns how we deal with other people. We would say that a man is upright in all his dealings if he dealt fairly with others, you know, when he bought things and sold things and had different transactions with people, we would say he was upright if he did those things in a fair and honest way.

And so as Christians, we should be the most pleasant and trustworthy people in the world to deal with. But are we? What reputation do you think that church people have out in the world? I can tell you from the last 10 years of being in retail that church people have a very bad reputation.

In fact, many, many people lost church or otherwise dread to hear that they're coming because they don't behave in a way that honors God. And this shouldn't be the case. It's I mean, how sad is it that that people know because you call yourself a church person or a Christian, people expect you to behave poorly.

That's the exact opposite of the way things should be. But know this every action you perform in public and every dealing you have with an unbeliever should be an example of the love and kindness of our Savior.

And so think about that as you go out into the world. Think about that when you go on to the Internet and you get on social media and you interact with people. How is it perceived? Are you perceived as being kind and loving and gracious?

A lot of times that's not the case because we're too eager to defend ourselves. But we should be upright in our dealings with others. We don't have a right to treat other people poorly because we're Christians.

In fact, much to the opposite, we have a command to love others because we're Christians, because we're following the example of Christ. And so the third instruction he gives us is that we are to be godly.

And this word is the exact opposite of the earlier negative instruction that said to deny ungodliness. Really in the Greek, these are really just one root and one that says be this and then one that says don't be this.

And so it means that we're to live with reverence to God in all things. And again, I would say, ask yourself a question. Do you consider God? Do you consider how you might bring glory to God in everything you do?

Do you consider it in anything you do? You know, a lot of times what we do is just go through life, however, not really stopping to think about it. We coast. You know, we come to church on Sunday. That's great.

We sing some songs. We listen to a sermon. We go to lunch afterwards. And then do we think about it again until the next Sunday? Because that's not what God called us to, to be once a week Christians or to think about it only occasionally our entire life.

The reason you're here on this earth is to bring glory and honor to God. And so if we're going to be godly, we really need to seek to obey him and exalt him in all things that we do. And just like I asked the question before, how can we see the grace that appeared in Jesus Christ and what he did to purchase our salvation and to say that we believe in that, but ignore him in our daily lives?

It can't be so both. Both things can't exist at the same time. You're either telling yourself a lie or you're not behaving like you're supposed to. And so we see that God's grace is to be on display in the believer's life in two different ways.

First of the things that we do, just as a recap, we don't live irreverently towards God and we don't live just for the things of this world. And then secondly, we don't, it's through the things that we do.

We display it by being self-controlled. We display it by being upright in all our dealings. We display it by doing everything with an eye to how we can glorify and honor God. And this should serve as a reminder to us that Christianity is not just a list of things that we can't do.

It's much more than just saying, I don't do that. I don't do that. I don't do that. I don't do that. Because it's more than legalism and it's more than moralism. The gospel is not just here so we can follow a set of laws.

Jesus was so clear about that in dealing with the Pharisees. We're set free by God from the bonds of the law, not to licentiousness, but to be able to overcome sin and glorify God in this life. And I know that we all struggle with this.

I struggle with this. It's not easy just to, sin is there, the flesh is real. We're tempted every day in numerous ways that we can't even imagine. And just when we might think that we're starting to get a handle on it, some new and innovative way overtakes us.

But God's grace has set us free. And so as we think about that thought, the verse actually continues with giving us more motivation of how we can be energized to do these things, to obey God. And that brings us to our third point, that we're to look ahead to Christ.

The Blessed Hope of Christ's Return

Look with me at verse 13, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. I want you to stop for a moment, take notice of the structure of this passage and how it's put together.

There are instructions for Christian living, which we just went over, the negatives, the positives, the things we aren't to do, the things we are to do. But look where they're found in the verse. They're found right between looking back to Christ and his first coming and what he did at the cross and looking forward to Christ and his second coming and what he will do.

And so I think that's important, not to overemphasize how things are put together, but I think that's important because as believers, that's where we find that we can truly be victorious and do what it is God has called us to do.

When we're remembering what he's already done for us and we're looking forward to what he's going to do because the power is not in us. Again, it's not just a set of rules that we can follow. You will not be able to do it.

You can't, someone can't become saved just by going, OK, here's these rules. I'm going to follow those. In fact, I heard of a guy a year or so ago who was doing some TV show and this was the concept, he had read the Old Testament through and through and become familiar with every Old Testament law.

And he was going to live for a year by obeying all the, according to all of those laws. And I thought, what a shame, because that's not going to benefit him one bit. In fact, if you're trying to do that, you've missed the point entirely.

Far too often we fail because we're too focused on what we're doing and we've forgotten Christ. And I know we don't literally forget. You haven't forgotten the gospel, but you've taken your attention off of it.

You stop looking to him. You fail to abide in him. We don't look back to what he's done. The work at the cross is complete. It's perfect. It's done. The price for sin has been paid. And we don't look forward because we know that God hasn't just saved us and left us.

We know that we'll be with him again. And so when we fail to keep our eyes focused on Christ and what is to come, we inevitably fail in our struggles with sin. Looking back at the verse, it says, Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing, and catch this phrase, of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I just want to take a minute to address this particular phrase here, because some people have mistakenly seen this as referring to both God the Father and Jesus Christ separately. A careful study of the original Greek language will prove very simply that this is not the case.

There's a rule in Greek grammar called the Granville Sharpe rule, and I won't bore you with the tedium of how it works and what it means. But what I want you to catch and know is this. In no uncertain terms is this passage affirming the deity of Christ.

And so while there are many who there are many false religions who would say that Christ is not truly God, they would relegate him to something lower than God. This passage is very clearly affirming the deity of Christ.

It calls him our great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Another reason that we know that is because nowhere else in scripture is God the Father referred to as coming at the second coming. And so it's talking about the second coming here.

The blessed hope is the second coming of Jesus Christ, the one who is both fully God and fully man. And so that's just kind of something I want you to know if you ever someone ever approaches you with that.

This passage very clearly points to the deity of Christ. So as we look to the second coming, we should be motivated, encouraged and overjoyed at the thought of God, our Savior and Jesus Christ returning to us.

This isn't just some pie in the sky thought something that we read about that doesn't really strike us. It really can help us as we struggle daily to live for him. Stop and take a minute to think about what's going on in the world around us today.

If you've watched the news in the last two weeks, more than 10 minutes and you're not depressed, you're doing a great job because there is there are terrible things happening all over the world. There are tyrannical leaders who are systematically killing off thousands of people just because they're from a different tribe or a different culture because they don't like them.

There are thousands of unborn children killed every day in the name of choice. There are Christians who are having their heads cut off. People who are being killed for their faith. If you look around long, you'll see that all over the world there's disease and pestilence, people who are starving.

And all kinds of bad things that are happening. And don't think for a minute that because we live here in America where we're so comfortable that this world is not full of the horrendous effects of sin because it's everywhere.

If you think about it too long, you really will be overcome with sadness and fear. But that's exactly the reason why we call it the gospel. It's good news. It's what people need to hear. This world is temporary.

The suffering and the sinfulness of this world is temporary. The evil and disease in this world is only temporary. This world is not our home if we're believers. But we completely overlook that when we stop focusing on what is to come, that Christ will return and that we're only here for a time and that we'll live for eternity with him.

The great news of the gospel is that not only did Christ come to die for our sins so that we could be freed from bondage and the penalty of our sins, but that he will also return and we will live with him forever.

So when you feel despair at the situation that's going on around you, look forward to Christ because he will come again. We should be longing and pining for that day when Christ returns and frees us from this sinful world.

As a believer, it should be our hope. We should constantly be fixed on that thought. And when we do this, it helps us to be better prepared to live in a way that shows God's grace to the unbelievers around us.

And so by fixing our eyes on him and what is to come, we will be able to live in him and in his power. And that's our final instruction for today. The fourth point is that we are to live abiding in Christ.

Redemption, Purification, and Zeal for Good Works

In verse 14, it says, 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. Our entire source of motivation, strength and ability to do any good work comes from Christ.

In both his past work on the cross and in his imminent return, we find encouragement and the power to do his work. Verse 14 shows us the whole intention of God's plan of redemption. The first thing we see in the text is that he gave himself for us to redeem us.

This is the embodiment of the truth that we see in Matthew 20 and 28, where we read the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. The idea of redemption, it says he came to redeem us is similar to the idea of ransom.

It means that Christ gave himself up for us because we were slaves and we could in no way free ourselves. Christ came to pay the price for slaves to sin so that we might be made free. This alone should encourage us to live for him and in him because we were bought with a price.

But there's more to the story. There are nuances in the scriptures we continue to read that further brings to light the glory of our savior, Jesus Christ, and what he has done for us. So the first thing it says is that he gave himself.

That tells us that the sacrifice he made was voluntary. God, the son, the second person of the Trinity, didn't come to earth unwillingly. He willingly and voluntarily humbled himself to become a man. Have you ever thought about what that really means?

That he was God, yet he humbled himself to become like his creation in every way, but without sin. We really think about that, what great love he showed for fallen man and humbling himself to become a man.

But it gets better as we continue to read. It says he gave himself for who? For us. Christ humbled himself to become a man so that he might die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. He was our substitute.

He died for my sins and your sins, not just the concept of sin. We often think of this and we think of he died for sin, some abstract concept. No, he died for the specific sins. Galatians 2 .20 says, I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. In the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. The very next chapter, chapter three and verse 13, it says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.