Sermon: The Grace of God Has Appeared

Our topic tonight is grace. And as we were singing the two hymns we sang, I was just struck with how many times that that word was mentioned. And I know that was the Holy Spirit who sometimes orchestrates choice of songs and, uh, sermon topics. So tonight we are gonna talk about grace. It is my favorite word in the English language. It is my favorite biblical theme. When I hear grace preached or I read about it or I experience it, I am riveted

and often deeply moved. And I think there are two reasons for this. Number one, John Piper has convinced me biblically of what I already felt intuitively, and that is that God's grace is the highest point in his glory. And he bases that on Ephesians six, which we just read a couple minutes ago, where Paul talks about God choosing us in Christ before the foundation of the world and adopting us, uh, in love. And then it says in verse six, all this is to the praise

of the glory of His grace. So John Piper says, the apex of the glory of God is the grace of God. If the glory of God is Mount Everest, the grace of God is the peak. So that's one reason I'm convinced that God's grace most moves and enables us to worship and glorify him because without his grace, we would all be condemned. The second reason we sang about in our first hymn, uh, where the author says in the second verse, oh, to grace

how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. And I know you can relate to that too. The older I get, the more I am aware of my desperate need for grace for. So for those two reasons, when I was asked to preach and it turned about out to be tonight and there was no topic, I got to choose my own topic. And I think I deliberated for three seconds and chose Titus two verses one through 11. So I'm gonna ask you to turn in your Bibles to Titus two,

And I am gonna pray one more time for God's blessing on the reading and preaching of his word. Would you join me in prayer? Lord, you look down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there's anyone who does good and who trembles at your word. So we pray right now, Lord, we have come because we are hungry and thirsty for righteousness. We, we, we want to know your word because your word in scripture points us to your living word, Jesus Christ.

So by your grace, would you enable us to rejoice tonight with trembling to tremble at your word, not in fear, but enjoy. Would your Holy Spirit soften our hearts, enlighten and awaken our minds? May we receive this word with joy, treasure it, and live it out this week. And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. So before we read the text, I want to just share big three big ideas in Titus that will all show up in the text that we're about to read.

So Titus, a small book written by Paul two Titus, a pastor in Greece, a young pastor in a very challenging situation, there three ideas that form the background to what we're gonna look at tonight in Titus number one, grace creates an inseparable link between doctrine and duty, belief and behavior, the gospel and godliness. In other words, you cannot separate what we believe from our lives. And that was a problem in the church in Crete

where Titus was. And it's a perennial problem for churches. It's a perennial problem for all of us all the time. We're happy to believe certain things, but it doesn't always affect the way we live. But grace, uh, unites doctrine and duty in an inseparable way. Second, Paul is gonna teach in this passage that everything good in the Christian life revolves around the massive grace that clusters around Jesus. Two appearances we're going to, we're gonna hear a reference

to his first coming and his second coming, his first appearance and his second appearance. And everything that we experience of grace and goodness and blessing is because of those two appearances. Third, and this is important to remember as we, as we go through this passage, grace is not merely God's undeserved favor, it is also God's invincible power. So those three things are the context for looking at Titus three or Titus two, rather 11 through 14.

So I'm gonna read that and then give you kind of a short little three part outline for tonight's talk that's based on three questions 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. So three questions we're gonna look at tonight, and that's, that will, uh, give us an outline from the talk. First question is, what is grace? We sang about it in both hymns. It's all over this passage. What is grace? Second question, what does grace do? And the third question, what do we do with grace?

So first question, what is grace? It says the grace of God has appeared. Well, one definition we're all familiar with is grace is God's unmerited favor. It's a very good definition. It's in lots of theology books, and it, it works, it helps, it's, it tells us that God has a demeanor of kindness, undeserved kindness towards us sinners. There's an acronym that fleshes it out a little bit more that says, grace is God's riches at Christ's expense.

That tells us a little bit more. Grace is costly. It costs Christ his life. I'm gonna try my hand at my own definition. I'm not saying mine's better, but as I've thought about this, this is what I've come up with. Grace is God's free gift of himself through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit to people who deserve his wrath. I'll say that one more time. Grace is God's free gift of himself through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit to people

who deserve his wrath. So why do I say grace is God's gift of himself? Because there's no greater gift. Only God can save us from the wretchedness of sin and misery and only God can make us unspeakably happy. For God Himself is the source and the sum of everything that is good and true and beautiful. And so what? Because God loves us so much, he wants to give us the very best, and there's no greater gift than God himself.

Why do we say it's through Jesus Christ? Because there's no other way we can receive grace. We're sinners. We deserve wrath. We were following the devil. We were dead in our sins and trespasses. We were following the course of this world. We deserve wrath. But God and his love sent his son and he sent him to the cross. And on the cross as medieval and ancient writers used to say, Jesus made the great exchange or the wonderful

or the marvelous or the happy exchange. Jesus took our sin, our curse, our condemnation, our judgment and punishment. He bore that. And then he gives us all the blessings that we read about in Ephesians chapter one. He exchanged our depravity for his righteousness, our condemnation and judgment for his blessing. So there's no other way for us to receive grace than through Jesus Christ. Then we said, it's by the Holy Spirit. Why is that?

Because apart from the Holy Spirit, there's no hope that you and I would ever have saving faith. A dead, a person dead in their sins, cannot repent and believe that as I've said before, the Nicene Creed calls the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life. He's the only one who can open our eyes to the beauty of Christ, to the wonder of his benefits, and then move our hearts to receive this gift. So it's God's gift of himself, no greater gift

through Jesus Christ. There's no other way by the Holy Spirit. There's no other hope of saving faith. And it's to people who deserve wrath. We are born with the exception of one person, spiritually dead, condemned and headed for hell apart from God's grace. So there's the answer to our first question. What is grace? God's free gift of himself, the greatest gift through Christ who bore our sins to give us his righteousness by the Holy Spirit who awakens

and moves us toward Christ to people like you and me who deserve wrath. Second question, what does grace do here? We're gonna go through the passage Titus two 11 through 14. I'm gonna tell you five things that grace does. I'll, I'll read them off and then we'll go through each one. Grace appears, it saves, it trains, it redeems, and it produces good works. Grace is powerful. So in verse 11, it says, the grace of God has appeared

that word appeared is the word we get epiphany from. It's a bright appearing, it's a bright, uh, coming. Now, in one sense, we know that God's grace, his common grace is everywhere all the time. We know that from Psalm 1 45, the Lord is gracious and merciful. He's good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. So God's grace is everywhere all the time, but in salvation history in the Bible. And since then, God sometimes makes special

appearances of saving grace. Think about the Exodus, God's people in Egypt for 400 years. Slaves, helpless, hopeless, crying out, and God sends Moses, and through Moses there's 10 plagues. There's the blood on the lentil of the, of the Israelites, uh, houses that saves them from God's wrath. There's the parting of the Red Sea. There's God appearing and leading them in a pillar of cloud, in a pillar of of fire. That's a very special appearance.

Or think about Solomon's dedication of the temple. Many years later, Solomon dedicates the temple and he prays. And the Shekinah glory of God comes upon the temple with such power that the priest can't even go in and minister. That's a special appearance. But the most special appearance is God sending his own son into the world. And again, this passage mentions two appearances of Jesus. In verse 11, the grace of God has appeared past tense.

That's Jesus incarnation. Jesus displays the grace of God bringing salvation to anyone who will receive him. But it also says that we're waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. That hasn't happened yet. That's gonna be Jesus coming even more brightly to to display God saving grace and glory, which will be consummated in our glorification. So grace appears, and we know apart from what's in the Bible,

that God's grace is appearing all the time. As a counselor, as I meet with people who are dealing with hard things, I hear sometimes of beautiful, powerful conversion stories. Some when people were very young, some they're older, and it's beautiful. It's God's appearing through the gospel. Sometimes I hear about powerful deliverances from certain kinds of suffering or bondage or sin. Sometimes I hear and I see with my eyes the grace of God appearing

where people are going through excruciating circumstances, yet they're going through it with faith and hope and perseverance. So God's grace continues to appear. So that's the first thing. God's grace, which is everywhere, makes special appearances to do his work and to save us. Secondly, also in verse 11, grace brings salvation to everyone who will believe. It says, for the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people.

That means any race, any tribe, any tongue, any age, any demographic, anyone who will receive Jesus will find salvation. I think it would be hard to find a single word besides salvation that encompasses what the whole Bible's about. The whole Bible is about salvation, it's about rescue. It's kind of kind of a root meaning of that word, salvation rescue from 10,000 forms of sin and misery. But it's also restoration to righteousness

and holiness and life. And although people would not use those words and probably wouldn't even use the word salvation, I believe salvation is the passionate, longing and pursuit of every soul. Everybody wants to be rescued from certain things. Everybody wants a restoration to joy and life. So how do people tend to pursue salvation today? Well, in general, people seek every means possible to minimize pain and maximize comfort.

It's often through meaningful relationships, vocational success and satisfaction, marriage and family for some education, political involvement, medical technology, all those ways people seek salvation. I recently heard of a movement i, I was not aware of that really fits this, this motif of seeking salvation. Rescue. Transhumanism is a movement where people are about, they're seeking to abolish death. One of the leaders of this movement has t-shirts,

which he wears and I'm sure gives to other people that says, don't die. Great, good luck with that There, there's one that seems a little out there, but it is another attempt to bring salvation. Some people seek salvation through psychological means, self-help books. There's over 350 theories and therapies out there right now. People may seek to eliminate toxic relationships, surround themselves with supportive, pe, supportive people,

and engage in all kinds of self care. That is huge. We live in a therapeutic culture. We're all about saving ourselves, rescuing and restoring through psychology. But most people use that word salvation in a religious sense. And it's any attempt to, to seek and find a welcome and an acceptance by the deity through your own efforts, through personal piety, through good works, through successful ministry or community service or whatever.

And it's true that that a lot of people who call themselves Christians are seeking that too. So salvation is what everyone longs for, but the statistics aren't good. No one save one has ever accomplished it. Salvation by our own attempts always fall short. They always disappoint. And many times they self-destruct. A Christian man named John Blanchard said this, to save a single soul is beyond the combined legislation of the world's parliaments, the combined power

of the world's armies, the combined wealth of the world's banks and the combined skill of the world's orators. We can't save ourselves, but it's what everybody in some way or another is seeking. The reason we can't save ourselves is because, and here's another big banner across the Bible, salvation belongs to the Lord and that salvation is from the Lord through Jesus Christ. Grace appeared, Paul says, and Jesus brought comprehensive salvation

to hopeless and helpless people. He brought rescue from the captivity of sin, deliverance from the power of the enemy, healing of countless physical diseases. And he even raised the dead three times forgiveness and acceptance to the worst of sinners. In that day, it was tax collectors and prostitutes and transformation of people's whose lives were pretty ruined and pretty hopeless. Salvation belongs to the Lord, and it's only through Jesus Christ.

That's the second thing. Grace brings salvation. Third, we move on to verse 12. Paul says, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age, so the grace of God, or we could say Jesus through grace comes and confronts us with our sin and need. He forgives us. He calls us to follow him. He teaches us. But he goes one step further. He becomes our personal trainer. Trainer.

I wonder if any of you have a personal trainer. What do personal trainers do? Well, they, they provide motivation. You can do it. They, they provide accountability. Do it again. They promote and encourage success. So to have a personal trainer, which is kind of a sign of being in today, is very helpful. What Jesus trains us to do is three things. First of all, to say no, secondly to say yes, and third to wait. So Jesus becomes our personal trainer

through the Holy Spirit by the Word of God. And he trains us to say no or to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. He trains us to say no to ungodliness. What's that? Ungodliness is simply living as if there is no God. You may say you believe you may be a five point Calvinist, but how you live shows whether you believe there's a God. Ungodliness is functional, atheism living as if there were no God. John Piper tells the story of looking out his bedroom window

that looked out on an alley behind their house. And as he looked out, he saw a man walking down the alley who had a candy bar, and the man unwrapped the candy bar, looked around and then threw the wrapper on the ground. It's not a felony littering, but what was that man saying? Piper says he was a functional atheist at that point, he was very aware that there's other people and he did not want to be seen littering. That would've brought him shame.

But what was he forgetting or not caring? That there's a God who sees everything. Functional, atheism. Jesus trains us to say no to it. Worldly passions. What are those? A good, a good definition of worldly passions would be over desires, epi desires when something, anything that you believe or feel you need besides Jesus Christ, for your salvation, for your identity, for your sense of worth. And ultimate happiness is an over desire.

And usually it's not something bad. It's usually something good that we think we need for those core, uh, parts of our salvation. So we could call them Christ, excuse me, Christ ands. I need Christ and a comfortable lifestyle. That's a big temptation for me. I need Christ and approval from others. I need Christ and control over people in circumstances. I need Christ and a certain lifestyle or certain possessions, or I need Christ

and just being loved by other people. Not bad things, but when they hijack the plane, when they become ruling desires, it's worldly passions. And Jesus came to not only expose those things, not only to teach us, but to train us to keep working with us day after week after month after year, to say no to those, to ungodliness and worldly passions. But he also came to say, help to teach us and train us to say yes. And that's where it says to live self-controlled,

upright, and godly lives. As I thought about that, I, I thought, well, I could just define those like I did ungodliness and worldly passions. But what came to my mind was a person, a person very early in my Christian life who exemplified those three things. Self-control, upright godliness, maybe I would just call those righteousness. And it was our first pastor at University Reformed Church, a man named Tom Stark. Many of you remember him.

I learned those virtues, not just from what he taught, but from watching him. When I came here 50 some years ago, I had no college degree, no job, no place to live. I just came here to go to this church. Tom Stark was the pastor, and he invited, he and his wife invited me to live with them for two or three weeks. So I got to see Tom Stark, just being Tom, the husband. I was also in a disciple, a discipleship group that some other elderly gentlemen in this, uh,

in this church were part of. He met with us every week to teach us and train us and so on. And then we would have a meal with he and Joan. And those were wonderful times. And then I served under him for 30 years as he was pastor. And I led worship and, and did different things. So from Tom Stark, just from seeing him and knowing him and being mentored by him, I learned what a righteous life looked like. And I used to think that if I looked up the word

righteousness in the dictionary, it would give a brief definition and then it would say in really little letters, see Stark Tom. And then there'd be a footnote at the bottom with a little picture of Tom Stark. That's what I thought of. Righteousness. So Jesus trains us to say no and to say yes, not just by our study of the word, not just by the preaching of the word, although those are extremely important, but also by the people that he leads into our lives

to disciple us and mentor us. And I'm wondering who, who's a mentor? Who's someone in your life that has been extremely influential in your life. Uh, maybe sometime later. You can just take time to thank God for that person. Maybe even shoot 'em a text this week and thank them for the influence that they had in your life. So Jesus trains us to say no, to say yes, and then to wait, to wait for our blessed hope, the appearing.

There's that word again, of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is rich. So a couple points about waiting for our blessed hope. Number one, can I get an amen? Waiting is hard. Amen. Amen. It's hard to wait in a traffic jam when you're late for work. It's hard to wait in the checkout line, our inborn impatience that's just in us, combined with our cultures, get in, get out, get better kind of mentality that everything should be quick.

I have not found urgent care very quick. I I do get in and get out and get better, but it's not real quick. Those, that combination makes waiting for anything challenging, much less. Waiting for what Paul says is our blessed hope. What a beautiful phrase. Literally our happy hope, our confident expectation that there's something coming that's so big. It's so bright, it's so beautiful. It's so compelling that it will make us

not just happy, but increasingly happy forever. That's our blessed hope. And it's all focused on the return, the second appearance of Jesus Christ. So we need a trainer because waiting's hard. We also need a trainer because we so often forget what we're waiting for. We don't think about Jesus coming back, right? We, there's just so many things to do Monday morning, new week. Oh, just maybe today, Jesus will come back at 11.

No, we, that's not where our mind goes. So we substitute other things we're waiting for. If you're a little kid, you're waiting to grow up. So people can't tell you what to do.

You might be waiting to get your driver's license. You might be waiting to graduate. Some people are waiting to get married or have babies or your vacation or waiting for the end of treatment or surgery. Or if you're my age, you might be waiting for your 50th wedding anniversary. They're all good things. We should wait for them. We should celebrate them. But they're not the best thing. As CS Lewis said, they're only faint echoes little images

of what we're really waiting for. The appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. We're waiting for glory brothers and sisters, the radiance, the outshining of a perfect infinite goodness, truth and beauty radiating from the God man. And did you notice verse 13, how Jesus is referred to we're waiting for the appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Now there's commentary debate about,

is Paul talking about two people? God, our great savior, Jesus, I think, I think exegetically. He's talking about the same person. So did you notice that that is one of the clearest declarations of the deity of Christ in the whole New Testament? He we're waiting for our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, I believe with all my heart. That's what we're longing for. It's what our heart aches for. The appearing of an infinitely glorious person

who created the universe, who sustains it with the word of his power, who redeemed us, redeemed it with his blood. So what might that be like if we're supposed to wait? What, what might it be like? And here's where again, I go back to CS Lewis, he's kind of one of my spiritual fathers. It was through his writing that in many ways I came to faith in Christ. It's not that more reformed theologians don't have things to say they do, but they don't tend

to write a lot about the second coming. Or even heaven. Lewis was not a reformed theologian. His theology is not perfect by any means. But when he was converted, he saw glory and he was able to express it. So I wanna read something from a sermon that he preached called the Weight of Glory. And again, this just gives me, it, it kind of, it, it stirs not just our minds, but our imaginations as to what it will be like when the appearing of our great God

and Savior Jesus Christ happens. Lewis says, apparently then our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something from which we now feel cut off to be on the inside of some door, which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic, fancy, but the truest index of our real situation. And to be at last summoned inside would be both glory and honor beyond our all our merits, and also the healing of the old ache, the sense

that this universe, in this universe, we are treated as strangers. The longing to be acknowledged, to meet, to meet with some response, to bridge some chasm that yawns between us and reality is part of our inconsolable secret. And surely from this point of view, the promise of glory in the sense described, becomes highly relevant to our deep desire for glory means good report with God, acceptance by God, response, acknowledgement,

and welcome into the heart of things, the door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last. So Jesus trains us to say no, to say yes and to wait for glory. Number four, verse 14 talks about Jesus 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. The fourth thing that grace does is it redeems us from all

lawlessness and purifies us for intimacy with Jesus. To be redeemed is to be decisively and permanently liberated. You all know the story, uh, Dickens story, A Christmas Carol at the beginning of that story, uh, Ebenezer Scrooge, the, I hate to call him the hero of the story, but the main character. He has an appearance of his dead old partner, Jacob Marley. And if you remember, Marley is completely bound with chains.

He's clinking and clinking and stumbling all over the place. And you and I know it's, it would be very hard to love people very well if you're shackled. But Jesus said, I've come to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to those who are bound. And we are bound like Jacob Marley, except we can't see the chains. What has Jesus come to redeem us from the chains of lawlessness? Lawlessness is the soul sickness of this world

and modern culture. It literally means self-rule. And you know, it started a very long time ago. In Genesis chapter three, another voice comes into the garden. It's not the beautiful, authoritative, gracious voice of God. It's a sinister voice. And it says, if you listen to me and do what I say, you will be like God. You won't need to listen to anybody else. You can be your own God and friends. We've been, we've been pursuing that ever since.

Our inner voice says, I will decide who I am.

I will decide what I believe. I will decide who I how I live. And no one can tell me anything and no one can rule over me. That is the spirit of the age, isn't it? Or maybe as our little ones say, you're not the boss of me.

But this autonomy, this desire to be your own God, to determine what you believe and how you live, it only leads to self-deception. You lose touch with reality. It only leads to radical disappointment. Everything you grab for turns to dust and ashes. And ultimately it leads to destruction. Again. CS Lewis makes a very poignant, poignant comment. He says, what is thrown into hell is not human beings. It is the remains of human beings

who have ruined their lives.

We were made for something better, something bigger. We were made to know, to love, to learn from, to follow and to please and to enjoy someone else God as he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. Um, I I said to Nate after he preached this morning that there's a lot of connecting points. And here's one, Nate, you had everybody, or you said this, I'm gonna have everybody say it with me. We love the Westminster Confession of Faith.

First question and answer. I'm gonna ask the question. You answer it. What is the chief end of man Man's? Chief end is to glorify and enjoy God forever, to glorify and enjoy. One writer said it this way, Christ paid the price so he could be the prize. That's what we're given. We were made to know and learn and glorify and enjoy God in Christ. And, and you notice that this being redeemed from lawlessness, it doesn't stop there.

It's not just redemption. You're free. It's free for something. It's free to be intimate with Christ. We are the bride, bride of Christ. Friends. Jesus loves you more than you can imagine. We were made to enjoy intimacy with him. There is no greater good. There is no sweeter love. There is no more satisfying beauty than Christ himself. My favorite Puritan is a man named Thomas Goodwin. And you know, the Puritans used to pick a verse

and then write several hundred pages and send it to the publisher. And I don't remember, I think, I think the book that I'm gonna refer to, I think he picked, uh, Hebrews four 15. We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who has been tempted in every way yet without sin. And here he tells us why he chose that the name of the book was The Heart of Christ in Heaven towards Sinners on Earth.

And here's what he says. I've chosen this text as that which above any other, speaks about his heart the most, and sets out the frame and working of it towards sinners, that it does take our hands and lay them upon Christ's breast and lets us feel how his heart beats and his affections yearn toward us. Even now that he is in glory, Christ frees us from lawlessness so that he can love us deeply, intimately, passionately.

So that's number four. Grace redeems us from lawlessness for purity and intimacy with Christ. Number five, the last one also in verse 14, I read it already. Uh, it ends up with a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. If I was gonna flesh that out, I would say Grace captivates us with the glory of Christ. Grace liberates us from lawlessness. Grace obligates us to live for Christ. And then grace activates grace actually causes,

produces good works. We know that we're not saved by works, hallelujah. But we are saved for good works. Paul says it this way in Ephesians two, by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them, grace, the gift of God

through Christ, by the Holy Spirit. When we receive it, it actually moves us to do good works. Here's how Luther said it. Luther by the way, was often accused of completely denying good works and having no place for good works in theology. Nothing could be further than the truth. Luther says, oh, this faith is a living busy, active, powerful thing. It is impossible that it should not ceaselessly be doing that, which is good.

It does not even ask whether good works should be done. But before the question is asked, it's already done them and it is constantly engaged in doing them. We're just about to kind of end here, but I wanna, I want to just intervene right now with a, with a quick story. The whole idea that grace liberates and then motivates and activates good works. Uh, many years ago, I don't remember how long I was sitting in my favorite place, my porch swing.

It was a beautiful summer day and I was reading a book by Philip Yancy and the title had something, it had grace in it. I don't remember exactly, maybe what's so amazing about Grace or something like that. And in this book, Philip Yancy was, took some of Jesus parables and retold them in modern times. So he told the story of the prodigal son, but in his story, it was a, it was the prodigal daughter. It was a 13-year-old girl who grew up in Traverse City.

She grew up in a cherry farm, beautiful big family, uh, a very fair, kind, but righteous father. And she got tired of it. She got tired of all the rules, got tired of having to toe the line. She longed for freedom, lawlessness autonomy. So she left. She took part of the inheritance and she went to, you guessed it, Detroit. And it says there, she met a man. No, she's just a young teenager. She met a man who treated her very well

and he set her up in an apartment with everything she could ever want. And he put her to work. And you can guess what kind of work that was. And for a while, everything was, this is what I want, this is how I wanna live. Until she got sick. And the man kicked her out and she found herself sleeping on the streets of Detroit under a cardboard box and lying on top of a heating grate in the sidewalk. And one night, as she's crying herself to sleep,

and it's raining on top of the cardboard, her mind flashes back and she sees cherry trees and blossom beautiful white blossoms. She sees her dog chasing a tennis ball down the rose, and she's just pierced with longing. I wanna go home. So she calls her father, she says, dad, I'm taking the bus home. The bus will come into Traverse City at midnight tonight. If you're not there, I'm just gonna go on to Canada.

So through us, through the snow, she's going from east to west towards Traverse City. And all this time she's rehearsing her apology. Dad, I'm so sorry. I know you told me a thousand. I can't believe it. I, and, and so she's doing that. The bus screeches into the bus terminal at midnight, she's walking down the steps, she's kind of adjusting her skirt and she's just going through this, this apology. And she walks into the bus terminal

and to her surprise, there's a huge banner that says Welcome home. And she looks out and there's her father and her mother and her grandmother and her grandfather and aunts and uncles and friends. And she walks up to her dad and she starts saying, dad, I'm so sorry. I know you told me a thousand times I can't. And he says, hush child, there's no time for that. We'll be late for the party.

When I read that, it was like lightning hit me. I was already a believer, but just a fresh telling of that story. Now I need to tell you, I forgot to tell you this before, before that day, we had a neighbor across the street. His name was Nate. Sorry Nate. I didn't know Nate. I had never met him. I felt like I should several times because I'm a Christian and I'm supposed to meet people and share the gospel with him. All I knew was Nate. About Nate was what?

Two things that I had heard. One was that if you walk by his house, it smells like marijuana. And two, he didn't treat his wife very well. And like I said, I had, I had often thought, you know, I really ought to go over and introduced myself to Nate and so on and so on. But I just never got around to it. But after I read Philip Yancy's retelling of the prodigal son, I just got up off my porch swing. He was outside. I just went over there.

I wasn't thinking about doing my duty, I just wanted to meet the guy. And as we got talking, we, we did end up talking about the Lord and later on we were able to have a meal with him and share more with him. Grace moved me. It liberated me from my self-consciousness and my not wanting to, you know, get outta my comfort zone and maybe re be rejected. It just liberated from me from that. And it made me want to go meet him

because I had been touched by grace. So grace produces good works. Alright, last question. What do we do with grace? Let me suggest three things. First of all, we rejoice. Secondly, we repent. And third, we request, we rejoice in God because of his grace. That's why it's the pinnacle, the apex of His glory. Because it's what allows us to know him and to see all his other attributes in a way that's not gonna incinerate us.

Grace, the pinnacle of his glory is utterly amazing. It's always unexpected. And it's always so much better than we thought or or imagined. It seems too good to be true. That's grace. So there's much in this passage, Titus two 11 through 14, to stir our affections. There's past grace, the appearance of grace in the person of Christ in his first coming. The fact that Jesus gave himself his life's blood out of sheer love for us so we could be freed from lawlessness

and enjoy his immeasurable love forever. We can rejoice in past grace. There's present grace. God's grace in Christ trains us to say no to unrighteousness and yes to righteousness, to be holy as as as he is holy. God's grace works in us both to will and to do his good pleasure. And then there's future grace, his second coming. We look forward to the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, his

unimaginable goodness and truth and beauty. And we will, we will see it brothers and sisters. We will see what we've always long to see. I I'm gonna throw in another CS Lewis quote here. Lewis says, there is a face above all worlds merely to see is irrevocable joy. We will see his glory, but it's better. Paul says, we will appear with him in glory. We're not just gonna see his glory. We're gonna be enveloped in his glory.

We're gonna be transformed by his glory. We're gonna enjoy his glory forever. So I would encourage you to take time this week. Look over this passage. I'm gonna give you three questions. You don't have time tonight, not much time, but take time this week and answer some questions because you won't make progress in holiness unless the joy of the Lord and the joy of his salvation is your strength. So the first question to ask yourself is,

as you look at this passage, what thrills your heart? What thrills your heart? Secondly, we repent. So here's the second question. Where is the Holy Spirit gently pricking your conscience? Where have you drifted into saying yes to worldly passions and no to self-control and godliness? We all have that tendency. What God substitutes, what functional gods have caused you to hope for something more than the appearing of the great God, our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

So where's the Holy Spirit Gently pricking your conscience. So we rejoice, we repent, and then we request, we know we can't change our hearts on our own. But I love the book of Ezekiel where it says, where God says, I will take out of you the heart of stone, heart, insensitive, rebellious, and I will give you a heart of flesh, soft, responsive, and I will put my spirit in you, a new heart and a new spirit. And then he says, and I will cause you

to obey my statutes. There's the part about grace producing good works. So what, what graces do you need to ask him for so that you can walk in holiness and intimacy with Christ? So we're gonna pray right now and again we're we just have a moment and John and Company are gonna come up and lead us in a final song about grace. But I encourage you to look over the passage this weekend and again, ask those three questions.

What thrills my heart? Rejoice in him. Where's the Holy Spirit gently pricking my conscience. Repent. And then what specific graces do I need to ask him for? Let's bow in prayer.

Lord, we thank you that your grace is always the initiator we don't ever initiate. You do. The Apostle John says, this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. So your grace has always made the first move, but your grace both demands and draws out of us a response. If we see grace as it is, as Christ by the Spirit, we do rejoice. We do repent. We don't want to dishonor you

and we long, we hunger and thirst for righteousness. So would you do that, Lord this week? Would you cause us to rejoice and repent and request? And then, Lord, we always pray also that you'd give us opportunities to share this grace with others. And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.