God's Saving Grace

Scripture

Titus 2:11–15 KJV 1900

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

God’s Grace is for All

As we look together at the passage I just read there are several things that jump off the page. The first thing that stands out is in that first verse. “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.” A great theological truth is revealed immediately in this passage. Grace for salvation has been made available to all men! Scripture could hardly be more clear than it is about God’s intentions for mankind. We read that Whosoever believeth should not perish, we read that God is not willing that any should perish, we find conclusively in scripture that God has created all men with the express purpose that they would be saved! And yet some will twist scripture to paint a different picture of God. We read in the old Testament of Esau who found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears and how God had chosen Jacob from the foundations of the earth to be blessed. From these examples and certain other passages showing how God foreknows all things a doctrine that is anti-Biblical, and truly anti-God has been born. This doctrine would claim that God based purely upon His own whim has chosen most of mankind to spend eternity in hell regardless of their life or belief and has chosen some, apart from their own choice or their own lives to spend eternity with Him. Now some would have the lives of those whom God has chosen line up with His choosing, and yet some do not. This version of the doctrine of pre-destination purports that God creates some people to be evil without hope of changing, creating them to remain evil against their own will if their will ever could be to do good. Yet those people will then be punished for the evil that they were left without choice to commit. In this picture God causes to be people who will live evil lives, with evil natures, and with no allowance to change. Then punishes these evil people for the evil that they were forced to do.

Quite a number of things are wrong with such a view of God. First and of utmost importance is the issue of scriptural teaching. As I already have shown and is clear from our passage this morning, all can be saved. All are elected by God to have this grace that brings salvation appear unto them. Whosoever believeth shall be saved and it certainly is not the will of God to send any to hell. What then of the example of Esau who sought repentance and found it not? Some have differing opinions and yet I offer this. Esau was not rejected by God. He sought repentance and could not find repentance. Repentance is what we do, we repent of our wrongdoings and our sins and God justifies and forgives. It does not say that Esau found no place of justification, it does not teach that forgiveness was withheld to a repentant heart. Rather we read that Esau could not find it within himself to repent, though he sought it with tears. As to the election and predestination of some we read plainly that the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. So it is that all have an opportunity and yet only some are saved. God wills that all should be saved, God’s saving grace appears to all, so it must be on our side that the problem lies and not on God’s. God’s saving grace, though it appears to all is only applied to those who also choose to serve God. God based on His foreknowledge does know who these people are from before the foundations of the earth. Based on His foreknowledge He ordains and chooses blessing and the life of His children, and yet He is not forcing anyone’s hand to choose Him, nor is He rejecting any who do choose Him because He had not elected them to be saved. Knowing something will happen is certainly a thing altogether different than causing it to happen. Just because God does know what each will choose it does not mean He chooses for us.

God chooses all to have an opportunity to be saved, and yet He only chooses those who choose of their own will, within themselves with the help of God’s prevenient grace, to be saved.

There remains a philosophical problem with this idea that only some may be saved. God is revealed throughout scripture to be good, to be loving to all, to be holy, to be righteous, and to be just. A God who creates people with the express purpose of them committing evil without a possibility of doing anything else and then condemning them for the evil for which they had not choice is not good, is not loving, is not holy, is not righteous, and truly is the furthest thing from just. That God would create people who are forced to do evil and then punish them for the evil that they had no choice but to commit without any opportunity to be forgiven or changed is a great attack on the character and nature of God. That is certainly not how God operates! Our God truly is loving, kind, holy and just. His grace has appeared to all.

Yet there is another extreme that people go to. Since God is the creator and mankind was created in God’s image so all are in that very limited sense God’s children. They see the verses about God’s never dying love and how God loves all people, even sinners. They then wrongly assume that any failure to be exactly as good as God is sin and therefore all must remain sinners for we all are faced with infirmity and ignorance. Because of this they believe that all will be saved. That God will take to heaven every person. They believe that since God’s grace has appeared to all men and that it is God’s will that all should be saved that God does save all people. They miss the holiness and justice of God. They also miss the fact that God created man with a free will. Our eternal destiny is based upon our choices here on earth. God will not force a person to spend eternity with Him who has rejected Him, nor will he allow the unrighteous to enjoy the blessings of the righteous or the unholy to be mixed with the holy. They misconstrue sin to be any failure to be exactly as God, however scripture defines sin as disobedience to the law of God, which is a moral law, rather than a failure to be exactly like God. Infirmities and ignorance are not sin. Disobedience and rebellion are. God’s saving grace appears to all men, but God’s saving grace is not applied to those who reject him and continue in their rebellious and sinful states.

I did not intend to spend so much time on theological debate to begin my message, however I think it is good to have a proper understanding of how God’s saving grace has appeared to all men and how that means all can be saved but it does not mean that all are saved. I do have a big point here that I really want you to get. what all this means is that God’s grace is for you! All can be saved. You can be saved. The guilty man on the cross next to Jesus was saved with his dying breath. He had less than nothing to offer to Jesus it seemed and yet God gladly welcomed him into the Kingdom of Heaven. Peter rejected Jesus and Peter was saved. Cornelius was not a Jew but Cornelius was saved. Samuel Morris had never heard of Jesus and yet Jesus rescued him from captivity and when he came to hear of Jesus he knew it was this Jesus who had saved him physically and who saved him spiritually as well. Onesimus was a runaway slave who had probably stolen from Philemon and he was saved. Paul was a persecutor of Christians who used legal means to murder the followers of Jesus. He was saved. 1 Corinthians 6:9–11 “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” The Christians at Corinth had a horrible past and yet they were saved.

No matter who you are, no matter what you have done, no matter how many times you have failed, no matter what you have to offer God, no matter how much time you have left, no matter how deep your depravity, no matter how extreme your sin God’s grace has appeared to you. God’s grace is available to you. God will save you!

God’s Grace teaches us how to Live

Lets look at our passage again and see what else jumps out. Titus 2:11–12 “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;”

So we see that not only does God’s grace appear to all, God’s grace teaches us how to live. What does it teach?

It first teaches us how not to live. We ought to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. Scripture teaches that we are to resist temptation. Yet the teaching does not stop there. We are told to flee youthful lusts, to make no provision for the flesh and here we see that we are not just to refuse to give in to ungodliness and earthly desires, but we are to deny them. It is largely the same as resisting them, yet it goes one step further. It is not enough to simply not live for the world, we are instead to deny the very idea of it. Things that are ungodly are not to be participated in, but even further they should not have a place in our life at all. What’s the difference? I wonder if it something like this. Scripture says not to wear gold, silver, pearls, costly array etc. It says not to adorn ourselves with things of this world but to adorn ourselves with Godliness and sobriety. Many years ago I gave up any idea of wearing a fancy luxury watch, specifically those that are made with gold or jewels or appear to be. Yet I am not immune to desires. I found luxury watches to be intriguing. I enjoyed learning about which ones were considered to be truly nice by watch people, and which ones were considered classy and which ones were really a bit more a trashy display of wealth. Of course this lead me to have the desire to own one of these watches. An understated one that did not actually have any gold or jewels of course. You know one which would be a nice piece of jewelry on my wrist without actually breaking the letter of the law. Now one could make an argument that this would have been fine. I would not be breaking the rules, I would not have some excessively flashy watch that screamed for attention. Just a nice watch. And there is nothing wrong with nice things.

It may be that I could have got by with that, that I would have been fine, yet that I think at the very least is giving into earthly desires. Is that a safe way to live as a Christian? It certainly is not! If it is even Christian at all, trying to justify a thing to be ok, when it is questionable is unreasonably dangerous in our spiritual lives. So instead of buying such a watch I stopped watching videos about luxury watches, I stopped learning about them and looking at them. I think this illustrates what it is to deny ungodliness and worldly desires. Remember, we do not live for this world. It is but a passing vapor and will soon be gone. We live for the next world. In this world we should be careful not just to avoid worldliness and earthly desires but to reject them and remove them from our lives. To distance ourselves from the trappings of the world. Does looking longingly over the fence and watching others participate in their worldly lifestyles wishing we could join in, but being sure not to actually participate illustrate a separated lifestyle? Certainly not! Be careful to go further than avoiding such things but to fully deny ungodliness and worldliness in your life!

God’s grace does not just teach us how not to live, but it also teaches us how to live. How should we live? We ought to live soberly righteously, and Godly.

To live soberly is to live moderately and in self control. We ought not to be controlled by anything other than by God. To live soberly is to live in control of ourselves and our God. We ought not to be controlled by earthly desires, nor by earthly substances. We ought not to rely on earthly things for fulfillment and for satisfaction. It is easy to rely on some earthly thing but any reliance on that earthly thing is a reduction of reliance on God. We ought to trust God for peace and for strength and for fulfilment. Our greatest pursuit should be to serve and please God. Living soberly means living controlled by God’s spirit and not controlled by any earthly substance or desire.

The next way we ought to live is righteously. I think we understand what this means. God makes us righteous by His forgiveness and through the new birth. Then we live in obedience to Him. That is living righteously. To do as God tells us and to not do what He tells us not to do is righteousness. It is not an impossible standard of God-like perfection. Righteousness, just like everything else, has to do with the heart. The Sermon on the Mount shows that God looks on the heart. If the heart is bent in obedience and subservience to God the life is then righteous.

We are also taught by God’s grace to live a Godly life. Our lives are to have a religious focus and be of a religious nature. God is to be the focus of our lives. This world cares little for God and for the things of God. Religion is being purged from public life and anyone whose life and principles are guided by religion is considered to be an extremist. In this sense we are all called to be extremists. God is to be our focus, His word the decision maker in our lives both in the big picture and in the day to day grind.

God’s Grace Gives us Hope.

Moving quickly along through our passage we notice Titus 2:13 “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” God’s grace makes salvation available to all. God’s grace teaches us how to live and God’s grace Gives us Hope.

God’s grace first gives hope to the sinner. The one who has not yet been transformed by the grace of God. The one in the depths and bondage of sin has hope because of God’s grace.

Yet God’s grace gives hope to the Christian as well. It is by God’s grace that we live and it is through His grace we learn how we ought to live and it is through His grace that we are able to live righteously. It is God’s grace working in our lives in each aspect. From the beginning of all time until the day we reach eternity it is all because of God’s grace. He chose to offer us Salvation. He chose to save the repentant sinner. He chose to teach us how to live and help us to live and it will be by His grace that we enter into eternity with him.

What is the hope that God’s grace gives us? It gives us hope in the blessed and glorious day of the appearing of the great God and Savior Jesus Christ. I talked Wednesday about the portrait on the stained glass window behind me and how it is both a picture of a triumphant Christ ascending from the earth in victory and a triumphant Christ returning again in victory to take us to live with Him. That is our Hope, that is our focus. We do not build kingdoms here on earth, we do not strive for wealth, we do not strive for power. Politics is not our saviour, influence and power are not our redemption, wealth is not our hope, substances and pleasures are not our solution. Jesus is. We have this blessed hope that at His return it will be a wonderful day for us. and it is by God’s wonderful grace that we have this blessed hope!

God’s Grace is Redeeming Grace

Titus 2:14 “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”

This verse is full of wonderful things. The first thing in this verse is that God’s Grace is a redeeming grace.

God’s grace redeems us from all iniquity. This has a wonderful depth of meaning. What is redemption? Redemption bears the meaning of buying back and setting free. God’s grace redeems from all iniquity. That means that the ruin and wreck that was our lives is first of all paid for by God. We had no ability to redeem ourselves. We owe a debt that is un-payable by us, and God pays that price for all who will be redeemed. God buys us back. God’s redeeming grace not only pays the dept, but He sets us free. We were in chains of sin. So many of you know what it was like to try to be free from the chains and bondage on your own. You know how you would struggle and fail. Yet God does not simply pay the price for our sin, he redeems us. He sets us free. Some have the idea that our debt is paid so that in eternity we will live with God, yet here on earth we cannot be redeemed. We have made such a mess of our lives and are so far corrupted that God’s redemptive power can only pay the price but not truly redeem us. At death we will be release from bondage and be made holy and righteous. Yet God did not create us to be unholy, sinful, slaves of iniquity. God created us to live freely in obedience to Him. God’s power is such that no matter the mess He finds us in he can redeem it. He can make His corrupted creation truly good again. God’s wonderful grace is a redeeming grace that fully redeems, it buys us back and truly and entirely sets us free!

God’s grace redeems us to be a pure and peculiar people.

What is it to be pure? It means to be cleansed from any corruption. God redeems us and cleanses us. No sin remains. No sin can remain. God’s blood is the great cleaning agent. When we allow God to work unreservedly and freely in our lives he cleans just as deep as Satan corrupts. The nature of sin is entirely removed and we become once again the unmixed, unspotted, pure creation of God. He then fills the clean and pure vessel that we are and animates us in new life to live like Christ. This is what we are talking about when we talk of sanctification, of a second work of grace. In one sense I suppose it is wrong to separate the accomplishments of God’s grace into segments for His grace is working in us constantly from birth to death and yet there are two particular moments where God’s grace is poured out in a special way in our lives. There is the moment when he justifies. When applies the payment He made to our behalf. And there is the moment that He entirely sanctifies. That moment that He purifies and fills the justified. I suppose it is possible that God could have made these two moments one, however He did not. We know he did not for he said that the world cannot receive the infilling of the Holy Ghost. And every example we see in scripture plainly shows that one is first justified and then filled. We talked much more of the proof of this before during Pentecost season. Perhaps the reason is something like this. We are ignorant of the depths of depravity that we hold and the bondage we are in as unrepentant sinners. We are in bondage and ownership of and to sin and Satan. Since we are owned by Satan we cannot then choose to become love slaves to a different master. So it is that Jesus first justifies us. Then upon a more full realization of our situation we can then choose to become love slaves of Christ or to go back to our former state. When we surrender ourselves to be the love slaves of our redeemer he cleanses and fills us.

Now I also said that we are redeemed to be a peculiar people. What does this mean? We now use the word peculiar to describe that which is odd or strange. Something that is weird. Now God does redeem odd, strange, and weird people. I am proof of that for rarely have I been accused of being normal. Yet does being redeemed by God mean that we become weird?

I guess in a sense it does because we will be outside the worlds norm. Our lives, as reflections of Christ will stand out as unique from the world but that is not at all what peculiar really means.

Peculiar means selected from the rest, having nothing in common with them. Strong’s Concordance puts it this way. “Private possession, one’s very own, special, unique, distinctive.” God selects us to be His own private possession. Special, unique and distinctive. We are set apart from the world as God’s special possession. A thing altogether unlike the world. Distinct in attitude, in character, in nature, in lifestyle and in appearance. It is by God’s grace that we have been redeemed to be different. You may say that doesn't sound like grace, it sounds like a punishment. We naturally do not want to be weird. We want to fit into a certain degree of normalcy and yet we have been redeemed out of that. Out of the ordinary, out of standard way of living enough to be noticed and ridiculed. How is that grace?

Well take a minute and look around. The attitude of the world is not something to be desired. The sadness and the hopelessness and the waywardness and purposelessness. No thing is this world truly gives hope. Whatever people hope in other than God eventually reveals that it is a castle built on the sand. An image of a thing, but without the substance. Any earthly purpose eventually reveals itself to be pointless, any earthly ideal is eventual reveals that it does not satisfy. The worlds richest man recently sold nearly all he had to live a simple life without all the pointless stuff. A sports champion recently said that he thought getting a championship would fill the emptiness inside and it did not. Each thing of this world only leaves you hungry and sad and depressed. That is the attitude of the world. God’s grace has saved us from this.

The character of the world is likewise not to be desired. We live in a world filled with evil. The evil comes from evil people. In the world it is an accepted fact that all people are deeply flawed, are essentially selfish, and were there to be no consequences extremely depraved. That is why we must have laws and governments and welfare programs and militaries, and prisons. Were the character of people good we would not need this. When God, by His grace redeems us, He redeems us from this evil character and gives us a new heart, a new nature. One that is good instead of evil.

So far it is clear that it is grace that we are a peculiar people, a set apart, specially chose, unique people. Yet is in the area of lifestyle and appearance that most people perceive God’s grace to be a punishment. Yet it is here also that it is a blessing of grace that we are different. The lifestyle of the world is empty. Their lifestyle is a pursuit of selfish desires and if they ever manage to achieve the desires they are worthless. The entertainment of the world too is empty and often harmful. Things that world takes as its standard weekend behaviors are so evidently harmful that I do not even need to discuss them. The thing that is the worlds most common form of entertainment causes the destruction of families, the destroying of self worth, depression, addiction, exploitation and slavery in the literal meaning of the word, abuse and brain damage. It is the leading cause of divorce, a near ubiquitous factor in the lives of suicidally depressed people, and a constant in the lives of abusers, it reduces the brains ability to experience happiness or pleasure, destroys basic cognitive function and attention spans, and forms excessively strong psychological addictions. Yet it remains the number one form of entertainment for the world. It a blessing of the grace of God that we are redeemed from such a miserable existence.

It likewise is a grace of God that we are redeemed to be peculiar in appearance. The world cares obsessively about the outward appearance. In most cases they care to their own great shame. Shame in being uncovered, shame in being prideful, and eventually shame in simply being themselves. I have seen so many become so concerned with what other see when they see them that they become afraid to leave their house unless they are covered with things that make them look like what they wish they looked like, covered in the trappings of pride and wealth so that people will see an image that they project and not the creation of God. They dressed so peoples eyes will not notice their dissatisfaction with themselves, so people will look other places than the emptiness in their eyes. People who dress like the world and for the world are unsatisfied with themselves and unsatisfied with how God created them. It takes one who is satisfied with what God made to dress for God, to be dressed simply, modestly, and entirely. This inner peace comes out in the clothes that are worn and the look on the clear faces of God’s children. They are unafraid of what people will see if they really get to see inside. They do not need trappings of the world to be happy with God’s work. Is it really so wonderful to have to measure up to some worldly standard that is impossible, rather than simply living as a reflection of God. No, it is a blessing of God’s grace that we do not dress as the world does.

God’s grace redeems us to be zealous of good works. There is a fun song that I listen to. It’s called “Screen Door on a Submarine” Some of the lyrics are: “Faith comes from God and every word that He breathes

He lets you take it to your heart so you can give it hands and feet

It's gotta be active if it's gonna be alive

You gotta put it into practice Otherwise

It's about as useless as a screen door on a submarine”

Another place says:

“I think you need some works to show for your alleged faith Well there's a difference you know 'Tween having faith and playing make believe One will make you grow the other one just make you sleep Talk about it But I really think you oughtta take a leap off of the ship Before you claim to walk on water Faith without works is like a song you can't sing It's about as useless as a screen door on a submarine

God redeems us to be zealous about good works. No we are not redeemed by doing good works, and yet neither are we redeemed if we don’t do good works.

God’s great saving grace will cause us to do some things differently and to do good instead of evil. Otherwise our alleged faith is just words that are as useless as a screen door on a submarine.

So our passage this morning that has brought us dangerously close to the afternoon one more time. Titus 2:11-15

Titus 2:11–15 KJV 1900

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

God’s saving grace has appeared to all, and that includes you. God’s grace teaches us to live soberly, righteously, and Godly while denying ungodliness and worldly desires. God’s grace gives us hope in our lives no matter what and the great hope of the Christian is our returning savior who completely redeems us and sets us apart to be like Him instead of like the world. People will notice if we have been redeemed because we will be set apart from the world, different than they are in all manners of life and character and we will be passionate bout doing good.

If the pianist would come back. In closing this morning lets sing together “Grace Greater Than Our Sin” on page 84. lets all stand together.