Titus 2:11-15 - Grace Saves, Grace Teaches

[Music] we're continuing on now in our study through the book of Titus and we come to chapter 2 verse 11 and in the section we're gonna consider now it's only gonna be the five verses verses 11 through 15 that end Titus chapter 2 let me read all of those verses together it's only five verses and then we'll go back and take a look at him piece by piece ready here we go Titus chapter 2 starting at verse 11 for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in the present age looking for the Blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people zealous for good works speak these things exhort and rebuke with all authority let no one despise you here the Apostle Paul's words to his younger Protege Titus follow in a beautiful context in what he has written about previously in Chapter two previously in Chapter two he gave very practical instruction to Titus as to how he should instruct different groups if he want to use that term within the Christian family within the Christian community I mean after all you have the older men addressed at the very beginning of chapter two then he speaks to the older women and then he speaks about the younger women telling that the older women should teach the younger women then he speaks to the younger men then he speaks to Titus himself about how Titus should live as an example and then finally he speaks to servants and at the end of it all there in verse 10 he speaks about how when God's people and especially the context of servants but I think it goes as a principle for all of God's people when we live properly we adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things we decorate it we there's a way in which we make the truth of God even more beautiful then it is when we live the way that we should but please note this Paul does not want anybody for a moment to think that because he is speaking about and makes no apology for speaking about the importance of Christian living he doesn't want anybody to think that the Christian life is founded upon what we do for God that's why now in verse 11 he says for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men you see I love that phrasing grace brings salvation you don't go out and get salvation it comes to you and you have the opportunity to receive it grace brings salvation you grace the undeserved favor of God nobody has ever deserved or earned their rescue from sin from self from the world from the flesh from the devil nobody has ever earned that or deserved it it's given to us freely by the free gift of God given to us in Jesus Christ and it's fascinating how he says he says here that the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men now I don't think that Paul meant that everybody has heard the gospel of grace that brings salvation if that were the case Paul would not continue on his tireless missionary efforts trying to bring the gospel of grace and the message of the gospel of grace everywhere that he could I think what Paul has a sense of here is that there's one gospel of grace for all men God doesn't have one gospel of grace for some another gospel of grace or a gospel of law or gospel of works or a gospel of self justification for others all men find salvation in the gospel of the grace of God and nobody is outside the saving influence of what God can bring to us in Jesus Christ think about how wonderful that is older man is he addressed earlier in the chapter older women younger women younger men slaves masters Titus himself everybody receives us by the gift of God's grace now Adam Clarke mentioned something that I think it's kind of fascinating Clarke was a commentator that I always enjoy reading what he has to say just like any Bible commentator I don't agree with everything he has to say but there's there's some interesting things Adam Clarke points out that the word has appeared to all men is the ancient Greek word epifaño that the same word we get our word epiphany or appearance from the idea of has shined out Adam Clarke believes this is a metaphor taken from the shining of the Sun and the idea is that the grace of God is like a Sun that shines upon all humanity all the world and this is the goodness the greatness of God's grace and we can think about this that the light and the warmth of the Sun is for the entire earth but it does not shine upon the entire earth at the same time nor does it shine on the earth with the same intensity from place to place and so in some ways God's grace is like a beautiful Sun that shines down upon the earth but make no mistake about it there is one gospel of grace for all of humanity Jesus Christ is the savior of the world not just one race not just one ethnicity not just one language group but for the whole world now going on to verse 12 having introduced the idea of grace notices he says in verse 12 teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in the present age looking for the Blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ let me tell you something there is a lot for us to unpack in those two verses but really for us to understand what he says in verses 12 and 13 we're gonna have to go back to verse 11 because remember verse 11 is where he introduced the great idea of God's grace remember verse 11 for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men teaching us that well who's doing the teaching what's doing the teaching here in Paul's mind he's personifying the grace of God and he's saying God's grace teaches us now I want you to think about that God's grace is a teacher the ancient Greek word for teaching there has in mind what a parent does for a child it speaks of the entire training process encouragement teaching correction discipline grace is a teacher in all of these senses now let me read you something I think really wonderful from a Mandi Edmund Hebert there's an excellent commentary in the book of Titus he says this that grace teaches us declares I'm quoting now declares that grace also operates in the lives of the saved grounded in God's nature grace makes ethical demands of Christians consistent with his nature teaches pictures grace practically personified as instructing the believer in the things that are in accord with sound doctrine so in other words he means that God's grace teaches us grace a Spurgeon said has disciples and then Spurgeon asked are you a disciple of the grace of God now I think this is a very important thing for us to understand let me just say to you I believe in the grace of God matter of fact my life was profoundly changed when I did a study of every New Testament passage that speaks of or mentions grace I tried to understand it in its context I tried to understand it in the entirety of what the New Testament says about grace and my life was so touched by this study of the grace of God that I wrote a book about grace look I'll show it to you I'm not trying to but the the book that I wrote about God's grace is called standing in grace and basically what it is is it's the summer of what I learned of how I put together the New Testament teaching of the grace of God and how it impacts our lives I believe in the grace of God I believe in the unmerited undeserved favor of God that we don't deserve it we can't earn it it's given to us freely the only thing we can do is receive it by faith however I understand this that grace can be twisted and the twisting of grace is to think of a grace that doesn't do what Titus chapter 2 verse 12 says it does a twisting of grace is to forget that grace teaches us in other words if there's somebody who is living in sin and rebellion against God it tries to cover it by saying I'm under the grace of God I'm under the grace of God they're not listening to what grace teaches what does grace teach let's look at it again teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts grace puts ungodliness and worldly lusts into our past and then it teaches us how to renounce those things how not only to avoid them but to renounce them you see we live in a world where we are tempted to say yes to every desire yes to every feeling but the reality of our faith can be demonstrated by what we will say no to and when we deny ungodliness when we deny worldly lusts we are showing we are learning the lessons that grace teaches you see in sort of a paradoxical way if somebody isn't really understanding godly living they don't need less grace they need more grace and they need to listen to what the lesson grace is actually teaching them grace will teach us going on here that we should live soberly righteously and godly in the present age race teaches us how to live in the present age in the here and now and how is that well we must live soberly that is filled with self-control we must live righteously that is a life full of right and godly conduct and we must live a godly that is a god-like or taking god seriously kind of life I like those three terms soberly righteously godly and I would say you could talk about in these three terms soberly tells me how I should regard myself I should be self-controlled righteously tells me how I should live in regard to the world around me they should be able to see that I'm a righteous man and godly is the way that I should must live before God I must show him that I reverence him and take him seriously now when we take all of this together we can see that the fear of the legalist and what's the fear of the legalist the fear of the legalist is this is if you start preaching grace christians who are indifferent to obedience they will just flourish and they won't care about obeying god and they'll just live their lives that way we can see that the fear of the legalist is unfounded grace teaches us obedience let me read you something from Charles Spurgeon he says this wherever the grace of God comes effectually it makes the loose liver deny the desires of the flesh it causes the man who lusted after gold to conquer his greediness it brings the proud man away from his ambitions it trains the idler to diligence and it Sobers the wanton mind which cared only for the frivolities of life not only do we leave these lusts but we deny them this is how grace teaches us and again the idea is if we truly embrace the grace of God we will be taught by these things you see it's an analogy or maybe I should say it follows after the same pattern as what happens in our life when we are born again initially God works in our life not only giving us His grace and listen there's only one way God gives grace freely without reservation openly God gives his grace to us freely but then check this out he also brings to us regeneration the transformation of life well as God continues to bestow grace upon the believer because grace is not just for the beginning of the Christian life it's for every day of a Christians walk with God every hour every moment as we continue to walk in the lessons grace will teach us we will live a life of greater obedience not less I have to say brothers and sisters when I came to understand this this was so freeing to me because I used to think that that grace was almost like could I say it was like a sucker's game with God he gives us all this stuff and then we can just live any way we want but now I realize no no no what God gives alongside with grace is he gives transforming power of life and that's not all he also gives a teacher a teacher you could say that the Holy Spirit Himself is the teacher of Grace and he teaches us if I could just read it one more time because it's so wonderful the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in the present age that's a beautiful lesson that grace teaches I pray we'll all take to heart those lessons now that doesn't end there look at verse 13 continuing right along he says looking for the Blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ now here we look for the Blessed hope do you know what that is the Blessed hope is the return of Jesus Christ now I know that when we describe these things that God promises will happen in the future the return of Jesus the ultimate establishing of his kingdom there's debate among Christians as to the scenarios and the timing of all that I happen to be someone who believes that God will first return for his church something known as the rapture of the church and then sometime not very long after that Jesus will return with his church in great triumph and conquests to the earth now I believe the Blessed hope for us is that catching a way of the church that's mentioned in 1st Thessalonians so whether you believe it's that or just the ultimate return to Jesus Christ we are looking for the return of Jesus Christ I would say most specifically his return for the church other people say well his return for and with the church but whatever you say our focus is on the Blessed hope grace teaches us to expect and to prepare for the Blessed hope the return of Jesus Christ how about this could we not say that if grace is really working in someone's heart there will be an awareness of the return of Jesus Christ there will be a longing for the return of Jesus Christ and there will be some evidence of life preparation for the return of Jesus Christ you see the hope that we have the Blessed hope is the return of Jesus himself Our Blessed hope isn't heaven even though Heaven's gonna be wonderful Our Blessed hope isn't glory that will receive in a resurrection body even though I can't wait for that but her real Blessed hope is Jesus himself face to face closer than ever knowing that however I've known Jesus on this earth in a spiritual sense and when I say spiritual I don't mean to say unreal the spiritual is very real I've known Jesus and I continue to know him in a very real sense although it is spiritual that will be consummated one day in a greater knowledge a greater connection a greater communion a greater sharing of life with Jesus than ever before and we should be look King for that that indicates a state of active expectation for the return of Jesus Christ it should be very precious for Christians to consider that Jesus came the first time to save the soul of man he's going to come a second time to resurrect the body Jesus came a first time to save the individual he's gonna come a second time to save in redeem Society Jesus came a first time to a crucifixion but he's gonna come a second time to a coronation as the king of all kings he came the first time to a tree figuratively speaking that would upon which he was crucified he will come a second time to a throne from which he will reign forever and ever he came the first time in humility he's gonna come the second time in glory he came the first time in was judged by men he's gonna come a second time and judge all men he came the first time and stood before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate when he comes a second time Pilate and all of guilty humanity will stand before Jesus with Jesus himself being the judge can you see that I get excited about this idea of as it's phrased here in verse fifteen looking for the Blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ let me say one more thing about this when he says our great God and Savior Jesus Christ he's not talking about two persons he's not talking about our great God and then a second person Jesus Christ this is one of the clearest and most powerful ways though there's several of them within Paul's writings but one of the most clearest and most powerful ways that the Apostle Paul expresses that beautiful powerful truth that Jesus Christ is God he calls him so right there again verse 13 looking for he says right there the appear during of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ grammatically speaking God and Savior are referring to the same person there Jesus Christ never forget friends it is an astounding thing we believe together as Christians as Christians we believe that a man named Jesus of Nazareth who looked very much like other men there was nothing terribly distinctive in his appearance he didn't have a halo behind his head he didn't walk this far off the ground his voice didn't sound any different but but but we believe that that man because the Scriptures tell us so both in the Hebrew Scriptures and the Greek scriptures what we call the New Testament that Jesus of Nazareth was and is God the second person of the Trinity God the Son manifest in human flesh that's what Paul's talking about right here now going on and maybe I'll come back a little bit into verse 13 and then let you know when I start verse 14 here he says verse 13 looking for the Blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people zealous for good works okay check this out every word of this description of Jesus in verse 14 is important notice the first phrase who gave him self for us that's what Jesus gave when Jesus offered the perfect sacrifice the perfect sacrifice was him himself he didn't offer a bull or a goat or lamb even a perfect bull or a perfect lamb or a perfect goat if that could be possible no no what Jesus offered was himself now he gave himself which means it was completely voluntary he gave himself for or us which means he was given voluntarily for us as a substitute for sinful humanity why that he might redeem us that idea of redemption means to be bought out of the slave market by the paying of a ransom we are bought out of our slavery to sin and we are purchased for his service so that's how Jesus purchased us he purchased us out of the slave market and he purchased us for his own service now the death of Jesus was given to us not only to forgive our sins but so that we could live righteously unto Him as well brother and sisters the message of the gospel what God has done for us in the person and work of Jesus Christ especially what he did at the cross the end the empty tomb that message is not only for our initial rescue in God's court but for our ongoing walk with God and why did he do it look at it there in verse 15 that we might be his own special people that's a beautiful idea isn't it God has a special people are you one of his special ones you know I I think I'm one of God's special ones and I hope I say that the right way I don't want to say in a sense of pride and sense that I'm God's special one and nobody else is but it seems to me from the scriptures that God has a collection of his special ones and I sure would like to be one of them wouldn't you that status that place of being one of his special ones God wants you to know that God wants you to be a piece of that God wants you to receive and walk in the Peace of His grace knowing that and this is one of the things that I love to talk about grace regarding is that grace means that God doesn't just love us in an obligatory kind of way the way that you might have to love family just because they're family the grace of God means that he likes us that he sees us in terms of favor that he takes joy and pleasure in us why because we're so wonderful no because every reason for grace is found in the giver not in the receiver the greatness of God's grace is his making us one of his special people it's just because he's a beautiful powerful gracious God who loves to do such wonderful things for his people so let me go back and read a bit more from verse 14 here that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people zealous for good works God once has redeemed people to live their life with zeal now we're supposed to have zeal according to knowledge God doesn't want us just to live with this you know high emotional fervor that has no knowledge with it no it's zeal according to knowledge and it's a zeal for righteousness in our own life before the life of anybody else I know some people make the terrible mistake they're very zealous for righteousness but they seem to be zealous about righteousness in everybody else's life they don't seem to be very zealous for righteousness in their own life no God wants us to be zealous for good works in our own life leave it to the Lord to work on those other people for righteousness and good works in their life God wants you to be zealous for good works in your own life and this is the kind of people that God is looking for zealous people some of us we're just too cooled off we're just too casual we're just too blase we try to take everything so cool we don't exceed a sight about anything and I'm not saying that we should be the kind of person who were fundamentally excited and strange about everything and I know that listen God saves people of all different personality types and he's not trying to fundamentally change your personality but whatever zealous would mean for you God wants you to be zealous he wants us to be zealous about good works again I find it fascinating that throughout this entire letter of Titus it's so concerned with practicalities and it shows us that not only was Paul indeed a high-flying theologian you better believe he was read the book of Romans read the book of Ephesians those are the two books that come to my mind immediately to speak of what a high-altitude theologian the Apostle Paul was there's no doubt about that nevertheless please understand this that same apostle who was such a high-flying theologian was at the same time a man interested with very much street-level shoe-leather Christianity the kind of Christianity that we actually live and I'm here to tell you the two do not contradict each other not one bit we can be filled with the great thoughts of the glory and the doctrines and the truth and the understanding it might not even say the mysteries of God we can understand that and at the same time have a concern for practical godly living and I think that God wants to see both of those at work in our life which brings us to the last verse we're going to consider in this section here that's Titus chapter 3 now verse 15 speak these things exhort rebuke with all authority let no one despise you now Titus and I would say every one of God's messengers of grace are directed to speak the truth of God's Word use it to exhort others exhort kinda has the idea of a passionate encouragement think of a coach encouraging his team to better performance come on guys you can do it I taught you what to do now get out there and do it and act upon it um there's a real place for exhortation in the Christian life and God bless those people within the body of Christ to whom God has given the true gift of exhortation but but even if you don't have a particular gift of exhortation you should still seek to exhort to encourage people to put in action the truth that they've been given so speak these things exhort and rebuke with all authority and you know it's when I get in that last one is where a lot of trouble comes to pass doesn't a lot of people have a lot of trouble with that last one rebuked well pastured look you can speak to me pastor you can certainly encourage me everybody needs some encouragement but rebuke is it really your place pastor to rebuke me or anybody else well you need to understand brother and sisters there's a place for rebuke in the body of Christ and the first thing we should do is give a word to preachers pastors people in leadership and churches brothers and sisters in the proper context there is a place for us to speak a word of rebuke to one another a word of warning hey you what you're doing is against God's command you need to stop that that this isn't an obedience to Jesus Christ you you can't keep doing that and pretend that everything's right with God there's the place for direct pointed rebuke in the family of God so again pastors like myself preachers elders and even brother and sister one to another in proper context we don't want to become busy bodies we don't want to become sin sniffers and the lives of others on and on you can think of all different ways this can be excused but um this can be exaggerated but what we're simply speaking about is this need for Christians to speak sometimes a word of rebuke to one another now not only is it on our shoulders to give a rebuke in a proper time my question here is do you know how to receive a rebuke listen there's I'm sure more than a few people who will hear this or watch this however you'll get it and they'll think oh yeah man I can give the rebuke when it's needed ooh you just watch me I know how to give a rebuke yeah but what I wanna know is do you know how to take it is there somebody in your life that can tell you you're wrong and you'll believe them even if you haven't felt you're wrong Junior Sara I'm saying or are you the only judge in your life whether or not you're right or wrong if somebody can only rebuke you when you happen to agree with them and I mean agree immediately maybe later you'll come to a good no but I mean if you you said well I don't agree with you I'm not gonna receive it listen brothers sister you need to have people in your life that love you enough and know you well enough to where if they speak a word of rebuke to you you will receive it and take it seriously even if at first glance you haven't believed it so when he says speak these things exhort and rebuke with all authority to me that not only speaks of our need to be those who can give a rebuke but somebody has to be the one who is rebuked and God has something to say to us and that as well doesn't he now at the end of it all Paul says in this chapter let no one despise you if Titus was gonna speak with all authority he had to back it up with his life he had to live in such a way so that no one would despise him or the message that he spoke you see when Paul says let no one despise you I don't think he should go around look for people might despise hey stop despising me no no I'm just like Paul wrote to Timothy and he said let no one despise your youth but be an example to the believers in the same way when Paul wrote to Titus and said let no one despise you I think what he's saying is live in such a way that nobody can despise the message you preach because of the way that you live what a challenge this is for us isn't it and what an amazing chapter Titus chapter 2 is for us giving us such practical wisdom on how to live really the question is are we going to receive this wisdom are we going to go back through this chapter a few more times and read it and think about how the specific things in it reply to our life and if need be let God's Word rebuke us and then we're need be maybe let another brother or sister in Christ rebuke us when we need to hear it I hope I will and I hope you will as well we'll get into the third chapter of Paul's letter to Titus in the next session that we have together [Music]

Channel: David Guzik

Views: 6,947

Rating: 4.8490567 out of 5

Keywords: Titus, Paul, Grace, Liberty, Christian Life, Holiness

Id: 4IMJPnOdDkU

Length: 33min 40sec (2020 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 17 2018