Sermon: The Grace of God Has Appeared

Please send with me to Titus and chapter two, Titus and chapter two.

We were read from verse 11 to verse 14 from Titus and chapter two,

the difficulty with being a visitor is that, uh, you don't know the people in the congregation. So for all I know, you all look like the people I was looking at a few minutes ago when I preached in the last service. I'm trying to convince myself right now that this is a different congregation altogether.

You really are. All right. Okay.

Verse 11, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce and godliness 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. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. Thank you that you are a God who has not only created the universe, but in putting us on this planet. You have also spoken, spoken that we might know, you spoken that we might know the way of salvation and spoken that we might know how to live in the light of those two realities. Father, now as we attend to your word, speak to us each one for the sake of your glory.

Amen. My wife and I have thoroughly enjoyed being among you, uh, in the last few days, and I'm mindful of the fact that this is the, the final session that I have. And so I like to use the opportunity to thank the leadership of, uh, this church for having us here and for looking after us. So well, we are going away with pleasant, uh, memories. Uh, after this, I'm mindful that this is not part of the conference as such,

but I, as I was thinking about what to preach on this, uh, day, uh, I still thought I should maintain the theme of the amazing grace of God. And, um, so as I was contemplating that, I realized that in, um, the apostles letter to Titus even before the passage that we had looked at over the last few days, uh, which is in chapter three verse three, down ones, the apostle actually deals with the grace of God in the passage

that we have now just read together from verse 11 down to verse 14. And so I thought, let me deal with that passage. And, um, it's, it's appropriateness is in the fact that the, in dealing with the subject of the grace of God in chapter two, uh, the, the apostle really deals with what comes in chapter three, but in capsule form, he opens it up further. When we are looking at chapter three, perhaps the main difference being that in the next chapter,

he, he begins with where the grace of God finds us. And we saw that during the conference when Paul described the, the fallenness in which we all are before salvation reaches out to us and transforms us, induces and taking us all the way to glory. Whereas in this particular passage that we are looking at, he comes straight to that point. We, grace has already saved us and now is transforming us, turning us more and more into the beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That's what he deals with. But in terms of theme, it is literally the same. And it is this, that if you are Christians, you must be different from the people that are around you. You ought to be different. That's what is dealing with chapter one, chapter two, all the way to chapter three and is dealing with it, first of all, in terms of that the, the elders of the churches that are being established in creat ought to ensure

that they are dealing with God's people that way, seeking to convince them that they should live lives that are like that. But it's also the same with respect to Titus. The Titus should, should do the same, that they should be a clear difference between the people and the Christians. So we notice for instance, in chapter one and verse 12, he says, describing the people in Cret, he says, one of the Cs, a prophet of their own said, CENS, saids are always lions,

evil beasts, lazy gluttons. And Paul adds the phrase, this testimony is true. So what should titles do? He says there therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith. They should be different from this picture that is painted by their own prophets. And therefore, as he enters into chapter two, he is saying that Titus should teach what chords with sound doctrine. He's not saying teach sound doctrine.

He takes that for granted that Titus will teach sound doctrine. But he is saying, teach what chords with. In other words, if sound doctrine is this straight, then the lives of God's people should be equally following the lines of sound doctrine, hygienic doctrine. Their lives should be morally in line with this ethically in line with this spiritually in line with this. And hence, when he proceeds with verse two downwards, that's

what he is now going on to instruct very well. Then as we reach verse 11 of chapter two, what is Paul doing there? He is giving the reason why the lives of believers should be different. And his argument begins by asserting that the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people. If you notice the phrase at the beginning of verse 11, that little word four is simply the word because, and that way we can see the connection.

Why should these people live different lives? Because the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people. That's the reason he gives. And by grace here, he is using the phrase slightly differently from what we noticed he was saying when he was dealing in chapter three and verse nine, with justification there, he said in chapter three, sorry, verse seven, he said, for so that being justified by his grace. And there, those

of you at the conference would remember I mentioned the fact that it's, it's being treated in a way that is the exact opposite of what you deserve because you have spoiled your relationship with the person who is doing good to you. So it's the exact opposite. And that is referring in this case with our records in heaven, our records that are really defiled by our own sin and therefore we deserve the punishment of God.

God has instead declared us righteous. He has canceled our debt, he has filled our records with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But the way in which Paul is using this word grace here is in terms of God's power that enables us to live a life which is otherwise impossible for us to live. It is still a favor from God. And in that sense it is grace, but he is now dealing with it as a power, a transforming power. And uh, I just want to show you from first

and second Corinthians how Paul uses this word that way. For those of you with pen and paper, you can take note of chapter three and verse 10. But for now, let's go to first Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 10, chapter 15 and verse 10, the apostle there says, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ appearing to him and then talking about his own life after that, he says, invest in, but by the grace of God, I am what I am and is referring there

to his condition rather than the status that is being given. And then he goes on to say, and his grace toward me was not in vain. In other words, it was not without effect to negatives. In other words, it was impactful. It was impactful. And then he explains on the contrary, I worked harder than any of them. That was the impact. And then he goes on to quickly say, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

So he is attributing this life that he was living that was no longer with hatred towards the people of God, but a deep love for the people of God. He was energized to save them to the point of real sacrifice. And he's saying, don't praise me, it is the grace of God. That was the, the turbo engine driving me forward in, uh, second Corinthians. I'll leave those with pen and paper to take note of chapter eight, verse one and two.

But please turn with me to chapter 12, chapter 12 verse nine. In that chapter, Paul is complaining, or let's make it a little bit more sanctified, pleading with God concerning this phone in his flesh. He is, it's frustrating him, whatever it was. He doesn't tell us what exactly it is. And as he is praying, thus to God, God answers him. So let's begin with verse eight. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me,

but he said that it is my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. So they is saying, this thing is killing me. It's, it's frustrating me. It's, it's, it's causing me to be so weak when I really ought to be, uh, with strength. And the Lord is saying to him, don't worry, my grace will enable you to live that life which is otherwise impossible. It'll empower you to live this kind of life. So it is in that sense that Paul is referring

to the grace of God. And in a way it's two ends the favor with respect to the status and the favor with respect to the condition. And Paul here is saying, for the grace of God, this power has appeared and it is bringing salvation for all people. It is bringing this transformation, this deliverance that brings about a moral change for all people. What does it mean by all people? It's not in terms of every person that has ever been born on planet earth.

It's not that what what means is all kinds of people, all categories of people. And you can see that from the earlier verses in chapter two. So for instance, if we go back in verse two, he had said all the men had to be sober-minded, dignified, and so on. Verse three, older women like wise had to be reverent in behavior, not slanderous and so on. And then verse four, they then were also to train the younger women to love their husbands

and children and so on. And then he says verse six, like, why is age the younger men to be self controlled? And then finally in verse nine it says, bond servants are to be submissive to their own masters and so on. In other words, it doesn't matter who it is,

old, young, male, female, slave free is matter. This salvation that has appeared brings salvation to all. And you can understand why he brings it up, especially when you look at the last category, the born seven. So the slaves who are to be submissive to their own masters in everything, who are to be well pleasing, not argumentative, who are not to pilfer, but show all good faith, it's easy for them to say, oh, that's very hard for us.

I mean, those who are free, you can understand them living their lives that way. But for us, we've got these terrible masters, abusive masters, insulting masters. Look at the way that they have treated us. Look at all these scars that I hear. And you want me to live like that.

Paul is saying yes. Why? Because the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all kinds of people, including you. There's no excuse. And that's important because often that's the kind of excuse people want to give with respect to their behavior. I was terribly abused when I was young, so I'm now bitter. I I anybody who just comes close to me, I, I react, I explode and and and so forth. Those of you who did not have that kind

of experience in your childhood, you, you may live a better life, but not me. Paul says, sorry, the grace of God has appeared for all people including you. So it doesn't matter what our background might be. If we are Christians, we must be different. That's the point that he's making here. Well, what kind of difference are we expecting? Let's go back to our text. It says there, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce

and godliness and worldly passions. I want you to notice the, uh, word that he begins with there, the order and godliness first and then worldly passions. And then I want you to notice when he moves to the positive, how he changes the order and to leave self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age. He is saying there that what the grace of God does is that it trains us. And the phrase training has to do with, with two

activities that are joined together. Training has to do with education, instruction, information and then discipline. The discipline necessary to ize what you have come to know. So for instance, if you are an athlete and you are involved in, um, track events or let's just suppose you just an individual who has begun going out to the gym, you'll find that as you get to the, you don't know how to uh, do the exercises that are there,

the equipment is there quite okay, but the, the trainers, the moment they see you, they'll come over and say, now look, if, if you want to exercise these muscles or these muscles or your back or your shoulders, this is the way you are to pull this or lift this and so on, to maximize on that, that training process. So you, you've gotten your instructions, but that's not training, that's just half the process. Then you begin to actively do

what you have been instructed to do. And that's how the two of them together produce that kind of life. Similarly, with track events, the first time you get onto the trucks and you start running, the trainer will be shaking his head saying, this guy won't get us anyway. You are breathing wrongly. You are pushing yourself the wrong way. You are looking in all wrong directions and everything else. So they begin to give you instructions.

Instructions, that's what the coach does. And then he begins to observe you putting into place the activities that he has instructed you about and he's watching you seeing how you're doing it. He's got his timer and everything else, and you keep improving. And a good coach will keep encouraging you to do even better because he's seeing the changes that are happening in your life. Well, that's exactly what the grace of God does.

The grace of God festival instructs us. And that's the reason why we have the words in chapter one and the words in chapter two that are saying, this is the way you ought to leave. This is sound doctrine, hygienic doctrine, God's word. But this is now the way you should respond to God's word.

And then by that extraordinary power of God, the grace of God within you, there is the drive for you to begin doing what previously was impossible, previously was impossible. That change begins to happen that we refer to as sanctification. And to begin with, it is what we are seeing here as a renouncing, a saying no, a giving up, a denying of a certain kind of lifestyle. And what is that lifestyle? He begins there with ungodliness.

In other words, a life where God, his law, his rule, his authority is shoved aside, shoved aside. He is saying you say no to that kind of lifestyle because once you've shoved aside the true worship of God and submission to God, something else takes that place. And what is that something else? Your own passions, your worldly passions, your worldly desires, it becomes me, myself, and I, that rules and that's the world. But when the grace of God comes in, God breaks

that altogether. So that as an individual, you now turn around and you say no to that worldly passion.

And that's what self-control is. Ultimately it is Conrad saying to Conrad, no, no, Conrad no, which part of no, don't you understand? I said, no, you control self. That's exactly what the grace of God does. It trains us to deny ourselves, to control ourselves. And as we do so, we live a life that is upright and we live a life that is godly. So Paul is saying, that's why you should be different. It's because there is this taboo engine

that has been put in you that enables you to defeat that which is true of so many and giving you a life that is the exact opposite. So for instance, when it speaks about self-control here, if you are familiar with chapter two, you'll notice that's the one thing that Paul is instructing to Titus to teach everybody. Uh, the older man you will notice after saying sober minded dignifying, he says, self controlled. And with respect to the older women,

before long they are to teach the younger women. And what are they teaching them? These five to be self controlled. Well, before we go too far, the younger men, there's only one thing they are to be told or taught. And it is self control. It's the main thing that will differentiate you Christians from everybody else. There's no reason why you should be saying, well, you know, I i just don't know what happened. Dunno what happened. I just found myself doing this.

Now leave that to your old life.

You are now a new person in Christ. You must be different. Now, the second half of this text that we have read, Paul is dealing with the ambience, the the atmosphere, the the surroundings, the circumstances in which we are to be different. And first of all, he uses the phrase that it is in the present age. In other words, this is not a kind of life that I'm saying you should live in an age to come in this same fallen world.

Yes, you're a student on a campus where people are living obnoxious, sinful, immoral lives there in that same present world. That's the way you must live a different life. Well, I I wish it was those days when there was no internet and therefore it was difficult to find pornographic material, then I would've lived a life that is different. No, sorry. In this same age where there is internet and pornography is all over the place, you

must be different. So there's no excuse because this grace of God has appeared and is bringing about the transformation from the inside out, from the inside out. Darkness does not extinguish light. The light makes the darkness disappear. So that's the first. The second is the context of of waiting for the Savior. Waiting for the savior as you wait. Verse 13, for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God

and savior Jesus Christ. There is something about what you hope for, that something you are longing for that changes your priorities in the moment. Something about that, and I I'm reminded of this, um, by a lesson I learned long ago. It must have been about 40 years ago. I was a student in university and uh, I got involved with, um, helping out in the church library. And on one occasion, I, I got this stroke of genius.

You know, this is some idea if we can just implement this, it will change the way, uh, our library will, will be, people will be falling over each other to come in and so on. So, so I went to the librarian. She was a lady and she was due to get married, uh, the following Saturday. So that was a Sunday, about six days before her wedding, and it was in the car park after the service. And there I was with excitement trying

to tell her about all these changes. And I noticed that I wasn't quite getting through, you know, she was sort of g glassy eyed looking right past me or something. So I, I kept repeating what I was saying and finally she just stopped me in my trust. I said, Conrad, Conrad, stop. She said, look at me, look at me. So when I looked at her, she said, I'm getting married on Saturday,

so can this thing wait?

Yeah, it was a wake up call. She was busy. There was an agenda on her hands, and if I recall correctly, she must have been busy giving out invitation cards in the car park. And then I came in and disturbed all that. There's something about what we are longing for that changes our priorities now. Now it's what the Apostle John taught in, uh, first John chapter three when he says in this two, beloved, we are God's children now

and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, we shall be as he is, we shall shine with the splendor of the Nunes sun as he shines, because we shall see him as he's now listen to verse three, one John three, three. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. This is our blessed hope that when our great God and Savior Jesus Christ appears in that glorious state,

we shall be like him. So we don't wait until then. We begin now seeking to be like him, to show something forth of that glorious power that has already invaded our souls and has begun to change us by way of sanctification. We don't wait until then, we begin now. So that's the environment, that's, that's the ambience in which we are seeking to be different. It's simply the fact that this hope that we have is one that moves us in that direction.

In, in Paul mentioning the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, he, he, he takes that up one step further.

And it is with that, that I must end. And it is this, that this change, this being different is actually according to plan, the very plan of our salvation. The reason why Jesus died was not simply to, to take us to heaven, but it was to transform us, to make us different. Look at the way he puts it there in uh, verse um, 14, verse 14. He says this, Jesus who gave himself for us to redeem us not simply from hell, but from all lawlessness

and to purify, to, to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession. A people who are zealous for good works, a people who love him and because they love him, they love others.

A people who now live under the authority and rule of this God, and therefore they are instruments in his hands for good. Isn't that where we ended yesterday? Remember chapter three and verse eight, the saying is trustworthy. And I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. It is according to plan.

God has not saved you, brought you back, so that while you are on earth, your own sinful self rules, until you die, then he brings you into heaven. No, he saved you. So that even while you are here on earth, you may display through your life the saving power of Christ. That change that makes people say, how come you live like this? How come what is it that makes you so different?

And you'll be able to say, Jesus Christ, he is the one who makes me different. Where we ended in, um, in verse John chapter three and verse three, if we were to read verse four all the way to verse nine, that's exactly what John is also saying. There he is saying, you, you cannot claim to be a Christian and then be living in sin. If you're living in sin, then you're not a Christian. And that's the, the, the apostle of love speaking so directly.

And the reason why I remember to speak like this says, John, it is because when he appeared referring to Jesus Christ, he came to destroy the works of the devil. He came to, to deal with lawlessness because sin is lawlessness.

So if Jesus has saved you, then it ought to be seen from your life, your life being different. So as I close, let me quickly ask,

is your life different? Is it in your home, in your marriage, in your family, in your school, in your workplace?

Are you different? And don't start giving excuses here. Don't, don't, we, we've, we've gone through that start saying, well, look, maybe when I was younger, you know, I'm now an old man. You know, you can't teach an old man, uh, no dog. New tricks. You can't, sorry. The grace of God has appeared and bring salvation to old dogs too. There's no excuse.

If Jesus has saved you, your life should be Different. If your life is not different, Christ is saying, come to me. That's what he say. I am the change maker. I am the transformer. My power will change you. Whether you are a male or female slave, or free, educated or uneducated, someone who had did rough, terrible childhood, or someone who was brought up on a silver spoon, it doesn't matter. Just come to me. And with my power,

I will change you from the inside out with such a powerful change that even the world will notice that you are different. Don't give an excuse. Go to Christ and experience his saving power. Let's pray.

Eternal and gracious God, thank you for your salvation.

Thank you for that which appeared

during the conference. We're learning about your goodness, your loving kindness, appearing and saving us. And now today we've learned about your grace appearing and saving all kinds of people. Lord, thank you. Thank you that in a congregation like this, we have many that can testify of that great change. The great change. And they know it's not of their own efforts, it's the grace of God. But again, in a congregation like this, there'll be those

that don't know this change, this transformation, this power we pray, oh God, that such individuals will put aside their pride and in helplessness, cry to your son the Lord Jesus for that transformation that they too might say that it's not them, but Christ in them that makes the difference. For this we pray, amen.