Grace Appears

Good morning. I assume most of you drove here and kind of curious, when you're driving, where were your eyes? Where were you directing your eyes while you're driving? What percentage did you keep looking in the rear view in order to get here moving forward? I ask that because what we're looking at this morning is where is our direction? In South Carolina where I grew up you could get your permit and even license to drive by yourself at the age of 15 Which is crazy So at 15 I I'm learning how to drive with my parents and my grandparents live a few hours away We take the interstate and that was where my parents felt safe that you know driving straight seemed like I could probably handle that And and so we're driving the interstate and I I don't know what to do. I don't know where to look and I know where the gas, the brake, and the steering wheel are. So I decided I was going to just keep my eyes focused on the corner of the car and keep the corner on the line. Can anybody guess what happened? I just kept veering over. I kept veering over. Even if I was trying to keep that line in the corner straight and parallel, I couldn't help but my eyes directing the direction I was going to go, I kept going over. My dad just got frustrated. What are you looking at? I was too embarrassed to say. I don't know, Dad. Where our eyes are is directing us. where our focus is. I learned this again in college where I took up mountain biking and I couldn't figure out why is it I keep hitting these roots and stones. I keep looking at them thinking I'll dodge them and then I was biking with somebody more experienced than I and he said, well yeah, you don't look at what you're trying to avoid, you look at where you want to go. This morning we're going to think about the directions the Christian must focus on. I fear I've been complicit in a problem in that there's a possibility Christianity is focused on the rearview mirror too much. Only the cross. Do we look back at the cross? Absolutely. Is the cross essential? Absolutely. But is there an expected hope of Christ coming back? This morning we're going to see how we have to look back, we have to live today for Christ, and that all is looking forward to the day He will come. We have to have lives that have gratitude for grace and expectation for glory. Gratitude for grace and expectation for glory. One of the questions that C.S. Lewis poses very powerfully, what do we expect from God? He actually gives the charge that we expect too little. We expect too little from God. Now, we do expect His grace when we sin. We expect His love when we disobey. But do we expect His discipline as He promised? Do we expect Him to complete the good work He began in us? Do we expect God to give us the grace to conquer our sins? Do we expect that He'll give us everything that is good because He gave us His own Son? Do we expect He'll give us wisdom when we ask for it? See, these are the promises of the God who does not lie. Are we expecting from Him what He's promised? If you're looking for a one-sentence summary, We will not do what God expects until we know what we can expect of Him. We will not do what God expects until we know what we can expect of Him. There is a call to depend upon God's grace, and that call makes us zealous for good works. We're in Titus. If you're new with us, we try to walk through books of the Bible at a time. We've been in Titus for some time. We're in Titus 2. And a key emphasis here, let's go back to chapter one, verse one, to make sure we're on the same page. Paul is writing as an apostle to Titus, and Titus being a pastor church planner on the island of Crete. And notice he says, for the sake of the faith of God's elect, that is his church, and their knowledge of the truth, their faith and the knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness any hope of eternal life. Paul is wanting to put forth the doctrines that lead us to the good works because of the hope we have. And it's important to also see verse 5, I left you in Crete to put things in order. Paul expects an orderly church that is made up of people who have orderly lives and orderly homes, who are well-ordered at work. We're going to not do 9 and 10 this week. We're going to come back to that next week. Because it's 10 to 15 that the grounding of, or 11 to 15, that the grounding of all these commandments, teaching what accords to doctrine. What we see here in 11 to 15, the actual sound doctrine of the gospel. We're gonna look at that, and then come back to what it means to work. There's four points. One, grace has appeared. Grace has appeared. Two, grace brings salvation. Grace brings salvation. Three, grace trains us in godliness. Grace trains us in godliness. And then, grace promises blessed hope. Let me read again our passage, just 11 to 15. 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. Declare these things. Exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. That first phrase, verse 11, four, everything he said about older men needing to be dignified and older women to be reverent and younger men to be self-controlled and younger women to be committed to the home and a life of purity and holiness is all based upon the fact that grace has appeared. And notice it's a past tense. It has appeared. This is an important word for Christianity, grace. It simply means a gift. It means an undeserved gift. If it's deserved, it's a wage. Grace is something that God gives to people in order to bless them in a way that they do not deserve. It has appeared. It's past tense here, and it sounds like it's definitive. And it leads to a question, has grace not always been in God's creation? Well, of course it has. God showed Adam and Eve grace when He covered their sin and promised that He would conquer the enemy. God shows Abraham grace when he makes a promise that I'll give you a son. God shows Moses and Israel grace when he takes them out of the land of Egypt. God shows Israel grace when he gives them the law. God shows grace to David after he commits adultery and murder. God's whole story is about grace. How is it that it just appears? What does it mean that it's appeared in such a definitive way? And here's where we have to ask, okay, grace is a gift, but what is the gift? If grace is giving, what was given? Look at verse 14. Who gave himself? Who? God and Savior Jesus Christ. He gave himself. When we talk about grace, it cannot just be, it's a free gift that is, blesses you. It's a free gift that God pours out. No, it's a free gift where God gives you the greatest gift, himself. The grace of God is God giving you himself. The father giving His son, and that's why grace has appeared. It's unique, it's powerful, because God himself, the creator of the earth, entered a womb and took on flesh and walked on this earth and depended upon the fruits of this earth in order to live. Why? So that he might die. So that he would live the life that we could not live. And that he would die for the sins that we've committed so that we would actually be forgiven. You see, grace is given to sinners. Grace is given to us. We deserve judgment because we have not honored God. We have not thanked God. But now the Son of God, the Word of God became flesh. We sing about that in our very first song. He has come to take upon himself the lowliness of an earthly creature so that we can know him, so that we would then be able to adorn the true doctrines of God. God himself came to save us. This is important because there's no guessing game. It's appeared. He's a showing God, he's a revealing God, he's a manifesting God. Just read through the book of Romans and how God is revealing and manifesting and declaring. He's showing himself because he wants to be known. because he wants to show you his love and to be loved. God is clear, he's trustworthy. He does not lie. What he has said is trustworthy and what he has said is good so we can know him who's given himself. Grace has appeared. Well, it's very important that when God does something, it has a purpose. What's the first thing grace does? Bringing salvation for all people. Our second point, grace brings salvation today. Now notice there, it's bringing salvation. The grace brings salvation. The grace is not salvation. The grace is Jesus Christ who brings salvation. But we can never confuse that we need to be grateful for salvation. We need to be grateful that God has given himself and we praise the one who's given himself for our salvation. Our eyes are on Jesus, not just the gift. Now here it says it's bringing salvation for all people. There's something very clear in scripture, not all people are saved. So what does this mean? I believe here we're seeing the public will of God. Jesus publicly declared that he was God. Jesus publicly declared that he was the Son of God, the Messiah. Jesus publicly declared that he would die on the cross and rise again. Jesus was publicly displayed on a cross. Jesus publicly rose again. And then his disciples are to go out and herald the good news. God's salvation, God's grace has appeared. The public will is that all people will hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. The public will of God is that He has come down and the people who will be saved are those who hear it and believe it. It must be proclaimed, church. It must be believed. Hearing is not sufficient. Many people hear good news and ignore it. People will hear good news and deny it. It must be received by faith. Faith that agrees that Jesus has come to save sinners, which means I'm a sinner who needs help. I'm not honored God the way he deserves. I'm not thanked God the way he deserves. That means I deserve his judgment, but it is his grace that sent Jesus Christ down to die on my behalf for my sins. God must be just, he must punish every sin, and in Jesus Christ, every sin is punished for those who believe. And then he rose again to give me a new life. If you're not a believer this morning, that is what you must believe. Jesus is the only way. God had to send his son to be like us and yet without sin so that he could become sin for us. If he is not the way, there is no way. If he's not the only way, there is no way. Believe. That means we trust Jesus more than we trust our own thoughts, feelings, desires. It means we recognize that there is something internally wrong with us that we cannot control, and grace has come. Jesus Christ has come, and he washes, he purifies, he cleanses from within. This is the key that we have to remember Christians, and if you're not a believer, this is the key here. If we remain in our sin, God is against us. If we believe in Jesus, God is for us. And what a difference that is. If we cling to our sin, God is against us. But we believe in Jesus Christ, God is for us. Grace has appeared. Grace brings salvation for all people, but notice church, verse 12, Our third point, grace trains us in godliness. The grace that saves also trains. If you profess to believe in a God who saves, you are persevering in the pursuit of godliness. There's no if. It simply is clear it's bringing salvation and it's training those who are saved in godliness. There's a weird trend and it's been stronger and stronger since the second great awakening that wants to separate somehow that you believe for salvation and that's separate from your sanctification and growth. As if God just hands out fire insurance, faith. If God hates sin and wants to save us from sin, he wouldn't save us from some eternal destiny so that we can continue enjoying sin. No, it's a call. to turn away from that what's destructive, and to turn towards what gives life. Grace appeared to save. Grace calls us to grow up. And this is the foundation for what we grow up to be. Older men, sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled. Older women, reverent. Younger women, lover of husbands, and pure and holy. Younger men, self-controlled. Notice there's two ways that grace trains. to renounce and to live. You see that? Verse 12, training us, that is the church, to renounce ungodliness, what you're gonna turn away from, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. Grace trains us in godliness today. Training. This word's interesting. It has the idea of a whole body, soul, mind training. Alexander the Great, when he did his great conquering, he set up polises wherever he went. And the idea of the polis was to be a place where he would train the people he's conquered in a new way of living, thinking, and practicing. And that was the way he infiltrated. He changed peoples with these polises. The church is supposed to be these little cities on a hill, these gymnasiums that trains the whole person. It's interesting, it's the same word that we prayed earlier, Hebrews 12, six. The Father disciplines those he loves. There's a training in correction. In Acts 7, Stephen talks about Moses being trained in the household of Pharaoh. He was built up and educated and trained Paul, trained by Camille in Acts 22. It's discipline, it's holistic, it's body, soul, mind, heart, it's affections. Training. The church is a gymnasium for the soul. The church is a gymnasium for our affections, our behavior, our practices. Training requires effort. Here's a question. What are we practicing? What are we training for? Is it to live for godliness in the present age, or is it to live the American dream of carefree, comfort, avoid real commitment? The American dream says you don't have to be committed, you can be comfortable. Jesus says, I came to die for you. Deny yourself, carry a cross. Follow me. What are we training for? No one accidentally grows up in Christ. If you're coasting, you're not growing up into the headship of Jesus Christ to be more like him. Let's look at these two parts. To renounce, to deny, to turn away from. Ungodliness and worldly passions. Those things which Christ has come to save us from, ungodliness, we're to turn away from them. God has not created with worldly passions, that is the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, that's the worldly passions. No, he's called us to embracing him and loving him and loving one another. Renounce the lawlessness. Now notice verse 12. Grace has a purpose to train us to renounce Those passions. Right? You see that? Grace has the purpose of training us to renounce passions. Look down at verse 14. Christ came with a purpose to redeem us from all lawlessness. We can expect from Christ that he is delivering us from lawlessness. That's why we can renounce ungodliness. Lawlessness. Why do you need to be delivered from lawlessness? That's odd. Why would we need to be redeemed from lawlessness? We usually think of the law as something that's constricting and binding. We need to be free from it. No. The lies of the devil, the lies of lawlessness says you're free, but really you're the most enslaved. Christ says, I'm good. I'm gentle. I have a good law, and what it is is reachable, and if you follow me, you'll live a good life according to the way we designed you, and it'll be a blessing. We need to be delivered from the lawlessness inside so that we can follow Christ and his law with love. The first part is put off the idea that whatever my heart is telling me has got to be true. Not when it is in complete contradiction and confliction with the law of Christ. Deny ourselves, self-control. The second purpose of training, to give life, to live. Put off death and ungodliness and put on life. The first one here is the word that is repeated throughout all of Titus over and over again, self-control, self-control, to live self-controlled. A youth who lacks self-control is like a city without walls. You have no protection, you've got no filter, you have no security. Upright, you have the right priorities, there's wisdom and godliness, there's no partiality. Godly lives, to live godly lives now. He has called us to be holy because he himself is holy. Notice the other purpose of Christ, verse 14. Jesus gave himself to redeem us, but also to purify for himself a people for his own possession. a people that he loves, a people, this is marriage language, for his own possession, a people that he puts his affection on and says, you are my bride. We were not pure, so he purifies us. He purifies us so that we are self-controlled, we are upright, we are godly in the present age. There's a goal. be built up by Christ, to be more like Christ. That is what training does, that is what the grace of God does. Christ came down, that is the gift. He comes down to save and to train so that we would actually be more like him. This is what the church is meant to be, a gymnasium. Not something casual, not just comfortable, not just convenient. Let me ask, how spiritually fit are you? If you could go to a doctor and not just have your blood pressure checked and your weight and all those different, your blood tests, there's a way of diagnosing very clear what's wrong with the body. What if we could diagnose clearly what's wrong with the soul? How spiritually fit would you be? How spiritually fit are we as a church? We could ask, what do we consume? That tells us something about how fit we are. What are we consuming? What are we digesting with love and eagerness? What kind of things are informing our soul? What kind of exercise routines do we have? Where are we setting our factions? Where's our practice? If you get a spiritual checkup, what would the doctor say? The church, it's not meant to just be here an hour and a half event. This is like a slow dripping IV. This is just to remind us of the truths of God and the call of God and the grace of God and the hope of Christ. It requires regular training. An hour and a half a week is not going to change your heart. An hour and a half a week is going to help us be reminded and set us forth to know what we should remind each other of and declare and teach. Let's just be honest. If you're not sweating in training, you're not getting what you're supposed to get out of it. If you're not sweating in effort, you're not growing. Oh, but it's grace. Yeah, it's grace to train with effort. We work hard because we actually trust God's promise. He wants to sanctify us. That's true with everything. What you put into it will determine what you get out of it. Are we training to renounce ungodliness? Are we training to live self-control? Let's go down to verse 14 because here's what tells us again what Christ's purposes are. Again, there's two purposes. Christ appeared, Christ gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession. We're to be renewed, to be a holy people. It's very important we recognize we're not lovely by ourselves. We're not lovely in our sin. Christ said, I will love you even though you are unlovely. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And then he begins to purify us. Notice here, he loves us. We are a people for his own possession. Notice here, he has a purpose to purify us and redeem us. We could simply summarize this, God loves you and has a wonderful life plan for your life. It's true for the church. His plan is holiness. His plan is to grow in a greater love for him. Jesus came and demonstrated the greatest love. I lay down my life for you. And then Jesus says, you love me. Come and love the one God. And how does he tell us to love him? By keeping his commandments. Brothers and sisters, I present this challenge of training because there's going to be a wedding day. There's gonna be a glorious wedding day that we should be expecting. And when that bridegroom shows up, when that bridegroom appears in his glory, how will we be found? Chocolate smear all over her face. Lots of trophies and accolades and achievements, look what my kids did, look what all we did. We're gonna come. Revelation 19, six says, dressed in fine linen that accords with the good deeds of the saints. How is Christ going to find us? How is Christ going to find us when he returns for that wedding day? Are we going to be there and hear from our Savior? Well done, good and faithful servant. And rejoice that a good God gives us crowns that do not fail. There's two motivations for training. There's thanksgiving for what he has done. Grace has appeared. The other motivation for training is what we're looking at next. waiting for our blessed hope. He has purified us. He is purifying us, and he will finish the work. And if we don't expect that to happen, we're not really gonna pursue purity. Gratitude is necessary. It's just not enough. Gratitude is absolutely necessary, it's just not enough. Our fourth point, grace promises blessed hope for tomorrow. Verse 13, everybody's favorite word, waiting. We are to be a waiting people in this present day. Waiting. I immediately picture the DMV. I mean, just painful. Necessary waiting, right? You have to be there. When I go to a theme park, I always judge, am I going to enjoy a three-minute ride? Is an hour wait worth it? No. The DMV, you don't get an option. You've got to go get those license plates. You've got to go do whatever it is you're doing there. And the waiting is painful. It just feels meaningless. We judge things in terms of are they worth waiting for? There's things we love to long for. A wedding day, an expected baby, a move, a promotion, some great change in life. God gave us these little celebrations to wait for, to practice, because what we're talking about here, waiting, notice the object. for our blessed hope. You should memorize this entire passage, 11 to 14. But if you just want one line, that's it. Waiting for our blessed hope. Because waiting here isn't meaningless. Waiting here isn't just kind of standing in line and moving, going through the motions until you get to the front and you get what you want. No, waiting is this watchful, eager expectation that something great beyond our imagination is gonna happen. Wait for what? Our blessed hope. What is the blessed hope? The appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. He's come. He's died. He's risen. He has ascended right now, the right hand of the Father, and he will come again. Not like he did before, in humility to die, but with glory. Verse 11, the grace of God our Savior has appeared. He took on flesh. But now he promises what we should expect. We should be waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing when Christ's trumpet sounds. When he comes back to renew all things, including our hearts and our minds and our eyes. Go back to Titus 1.3. Sorry, 1.2. God has made promises and he never lies. God has made a promise. We know how good he is at making his promises because we can see how Christ came to fulfill all those promises. He's promised Christ is going to come and he will come in glory and he will come as a judge and we all will have to give an answer for how we live this life. He promises it. Promises to know what we should expect of him. He promises that my grace is with you My grace is sufficient for you. You can train you can grow in godliness You can do good works that will glorify my name and I'll reward you It comes with that focus am I truly waiting regularly on our blessed hope Christian Our greatest frustration in this world should be that sin constantly hinders our worship. Yeah, the masks are annoying. Yeah, there's trouble in the world. It seems like chaos. This world is full of problems and sin and difficulties, but if our focus is where Christ has told us to put it, at the right hand of the Father, the things above, Colossians 2 here. The greatest frustration we should have is, my worship is always frustrated by my sins. And I long for the day that Christ will not only wipe away every tear, but He'll actually cleanse and purify my entire heart so that my love is no longer tainted by my self-interest. My love will be purified so that I can love Him who is pure, purely. That should be our greatest frustration if we are pursuing the training and the glory that God has prescribed and told us we should expect from him. The blessed hope. This is God making us happy. This is God's grace. The hope that's set before us is God saying all the blessings will finally be complete, final. We are to be waiting for it. Christian, when was the last time you thought, this is the last time I'll put my head on my pillow? How often have you thought, this could be the last sermon I hear? Have you thought, this could be the last 24 hours I live? How often are we thinking about the blessed hope and Christ is going to appear and we're not gonna expect it? We're not gonna know it's coming. How often are we really thinking about this could be the last moment, the last hour, the last day, the last week, and ordering ourselves accordingly? And if you really thought today was the last day, what would you do? The idea isn't go to the beach and enjoy something earthly. The idea is to do whatever is before you wholeheartedly, seeking to glorify the one who is going to come and reward. We expect too little from God. We expect too little because we keep thinking so secularly, and that just means we're only emphasized and focused on the present. We're only thinking about today. We're not thinking about the blessed hope that is to appear. Okay. But there's a danger. You don't want to be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. I dare you to try that. I dare you to try to be so earthly, I dare you to try to be so heavenly minded that you would be an earthly good. I promise you, according to God's word, that if you're heavenly minded, you'll be more earthly good for the glory of Christ. There is no way, that is the most ridiculous ungodly Christianese. Waiting on the blessed hope. not secular people living for today. Yes, train today knowing that there will be a tomorrow when Christ returns and rewards. Well done, good and faithful servant. As we conclude, I wanna give you some homework because you're supposed to train. Here's some passages to consider throughout the week to think about and meditate upon What is still to come? The first one is Ecclesiastes 12, 13 to 14. Ecclesiastes, we believe, is Solomon in his old age, and he's gone through and basically said everything is nothing and nothing, all is vanity, vanity, and it's a pretty discouraging book. And then after 12 chapters, he gives us a conclusion. The end of the matter. all has been heard, fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. Fear God, keep His commandments, That's not legalism, that's called love. Fear God, have a reverence for the one who speaks. Keep his commandments. This is the whole duty of man. It's not to be independent, it's not to be self-determining, it's not to be lawless. All is to be cared for under the good God who has a good law. It's our duty. It's our privilege. You can look at the words of Jesus himself in Matthew, chapters 24 and 25, there's all kinds of different declarations he makes there, but he talks about separating the sheep and the goats, and to the sheep he says, come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom. And they're the ones who have been zealous for good works. They're the ones who have been giving and giving and giving. Then he says to the goats, depart from me, you cursed, into eternal fire. There's a judgment. Okay, well that's about Christians and non-Christians. 1 Peter 1, 14 to 19. This follows the call to be holy in your conduct because your heavenly father is holy. Verse 17. If you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. He's talking to Christians. knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, the lamb without blemish or spot. It is back to the cross, it is recognizing what has been done for us, but it's also looking ahead. There's gonna be an impartial judgment, and I'm gonna have to give an answer for all the things that I have done. And then Jesus speaks again in Revelation 22, 12 to 13. Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he's done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. To repay each one for what he's done. We're not saved by works. We don't earn grace, that would make it a wage. We don't earn God's favor with works, but what happens is when the grace appeared and we believe it and it brings salvation, it trains us to be about the good work of sanctification, renouncing and living because Christ, his purpose was to purify us and redeem us. We don't just do it because of what Christ has done and is doing, we do it because we are promised. There's a future glory. There's a future glory. Romans 8 speaks of this. We see the sufferings of this present age as nothing compared to the glories to come. And so we wait with patience because we know that not only is the earth groaning, but inside of us the Holy Spirit is groaning because then we'll be finally adopted into the family of God when Christ appears. And so we wait patiently. with hope. Some key truths as we end our meditation here on this thick, rich gospel passage. First, who is God? Titus began with God does not lie. God makes promises. God has given his truths which are sound doctrine. That means it's healthy, it's nutritious, it's good, it builds you up, it gives you what is right and good for you and right and good for the church. He's called God our savior throughout the passage. But our passage emphasizes the God of grace. The grace of God has appeared. He's a giving God, a giving God, a giving God. And he doesn't just give us good gifts. gives us himself. The father gave us his son. He's the God who brings salvation, who gives us himself, and therefore he is redeeming us. He's redeemed us. He's purifying us to be his bride, holy. He will return in glory. That's who God is. Who are we? 1, chapter one, verse one, we're the elect. We've been given truth for godliness and hope. Chapter 1 verse 5, we're called to order. Chapter 1, 10 to 16, we're protected from dangerous teaching. Chapter 2, 1 to 9, we're called to live dignified, reverent, self-controlled lives. Why? Because we've been saved by grace. Because Christ gave himself up for us. Because we have a blessed hope. because he's made great promises to redeem us and purify us. We are now lovely and holy because of what he's done. What do we expect from God? To train us, to discipline us, to love us, to purify us, to carry us along and help us in every way. And what does God expect from us? to renounce ungodly and worldly passions, to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, to wait. He calls us to wait for the blessed hope. What a gift. We're not hopeless. You're never hopeless. We're called to wait. For that which is most glorious, for the God who can do more than we can ever imagine or think about, Ephesians 3, are waiting for that blessed hope. And that will ultimately and finally satisfy. Will you pray with me?