Grace to All Men

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Transcript:

Titus chapter 2, we’re going to look at the end of the chapter. After he’s been talking about their behavior through most of the chapter, he goes to the end of it and explains why he’s been talking about this. And as I’ve been studying this, I kept thinking, these few verses seem awfully familiar.

And more than just I’ve read them, I felt like I’d taught on them. And it took me a while to realize, when I was a senior in high school, in our English class. We had to give a speech as our final grade.

We had to give sort of a farewell address to the school and what we wanted to be, how we wanted to be remembered and give final words of wisdom to each other. That doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it? We’re all in the same boat, but we’re going to give words of wisdom to each other.

And if you can find much wisdom in a collective group of 18-year-olds, you’re better than I am. But nevertheless, I took this passage and spoke on it, and I don’t remember everything I said about it, but I remember thinking at the time, and it’s still true today, that this is good advice for all of us. It summarizes the gospel, and not only the gospel, but the change that’s supposed to take place as a result of the gospel.

And it explains why in the previous ten verses he has been so concerned with their behavior. And we’re going to go back to verse 1. We’re really just going to look at verses 11 through 15 tonight in any kind of depth at all.

But we’re going to go back to verse 1 and get the context of the whole chapter before we move on, starting at verse 11. But in verse 1 it says, But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded. In all things, showing thyself a pattern of good works, in doctrine, showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.

And so the whole sense of this is that he wanted him to understand the importance of living the right kind of life, Because if a Christian lives the wrong way, then he can discredit very easily the doctrines that he professes to believe. He can discredit in the minds of others. Now, the gospel is the gospel regardless of what you or I do.

But we can discredit in the minds of others at least the very gospel we proclaim. And the world will look at us and say, well, if he acts like that, then this Jesus thing is not for real. And woe will be unto us if we have that kind of witness. And so he gives all these instructions and says, you know, the older men need to behave a certain way, the older women need to behave a certain way, the younger men, the younger women, they all need to behave a certain way.

It all comes back, though, to doing the right thing and making sure our actions, you know, we could summarize the whole of the chapter in saying make sure that your actions are fitting what you claim to believe. If you claim, you know what, If you don’t claim to be a Christian, go out and do whatever you want to do. I mean, I’ve said before, we get mad at unsaved people for not acting like saved people.

How about we get some saved people to act like saved people? We can’t be too mad at the unsaved world when they act like unsaved people. They’re just exercising their job description.

Now, we won’t help them change that, but the fact is we can’t beat them up about that. That’s just our nature. But what he reminds us here is that we as saved people, if we profess to know Jesus Christ, if we profess to have been converted, to have been born again, to have had this experience where we’ve repented, we’ve understood the gravity of our sin against God, we’ve understood the reality of judgment, and that we needed a Savior from our sin which was very real. And we have, because of what Jesus Christ did, because of his shed blood and his death on the cross, we have thrown ourselves on the mercy of God, and he’s given us his righteousness, and he’s given us his Holy Spirit, and he has begun to change us from the inside out, then ought we not to act like it?

Of course, the answer is yes. But the world sees that, and they may not like us. They may not like the way we live.

They may not like the way that the way we live makes them feel. Does that make sense? You with me on that?

we live a certain way, they see it, it doesn’t make them feel very good about themselves just in comparison. That may be the case. The world may not react well when we live for Christ. We’re not promised that they’re going to love us because we live for Christ. But the one thing that they can’t do is honestly in their own mind reject the claims of Christ because they don’t see, because, well, the change is there.

If the change is there, then they’re going to be convicted. If the change is not there or we don’t live as changed people, then it’s on us. Now they still make their own decisions, but it’s on us a little bit if they refuse to take seriously the claims of Christ. And so after going through all of this, after going through all this explanation of how we’re supposed to act, he gets into the reason why, because we should not, we should not ever take Christianity as though it is just a list of rules for how we are supposed to act.

Too much of Christianity, too much is taught in churches all around this country that if you’ll just come in and you’ll act right and you’ll do certain things, then you’re in. That’s not how it works. Can you earn your salvation tonight?

No. Really expected a louder response on that. No!

That’s the whole purpose of what we’re doing here. We can’t earn our own forgiveness. It’d be great if you could be good enough to earn your way into heaven, but the problem is we can’t.

It’s impossible. And so any talk we have about being good comes not in order to get salvation, but as a result of having salvation. And so he says in verse 11, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.

That word therefore, it can be used in different ways. This is one of the things we run into with the interpretation of Acts 2. 38.

Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. That word for in the Bible can be interpreted, the Greek word just as the English word can be interpreted one of two ways. I’m going to give you a dollar for your car.

Or many more dollars for your car. I’m going to give you $5,000 for your car. That’s to get your car.

I’m going to take aspirin for a headache. Now do I take aspirin because I want to have a headache? No.

I take the aspirin because of the headache that’s already there. That’s sort of the simple explanation for Acts 2. 38.

There’s more to it than that. Baptism comes as a result of the remission of sins, not in order to obtain it. Same thing here, ladies and gentlemen.

It doesn’t follow the first ten verses and say for the grace of God as though we do these things in order to get the grace of God. if it’s of works, then it’s not grace. I think the Bible is very clear in other areas about that.

That if we’re trying to work for it and earn it, then it’s no more grace. That if we’re trusting that we’re getting into heaven and it’s 99% because of Jesus and 1% because of what we’ve done, then we’re not trusting Jesus at all. We’re trusting in our own effort.

It’s either all grace or it’s no grace at all. But this instance here, he says, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. We are supposed to live the way that he instructs us to live in the first 10 verses because the grace of God that brings salvation to all men has already appeared.

Now we need to be careful with this verse. Are we saying that all men will be saved? No.

Unfortunately, no. I’m sure we wish in here that everybody would be saved. And I don’t believe, as I’ve told you before, some people do believe this. That’s fine.

I don’t happen to believe that God sat up there and said, okay, you’re not going to be saved, and you’re not going to be saved, and you will be. I like you. You’re going to be saved, and you’re going to be saved.

Again, there are people who believe that. There are even people in some of our BMA churches who believe that. That’s fine.

I just don’t see it in the scriptures. But the Bible does also tell us that God is not slack concerning his promise. As some men count slackness, that’s talking about why is the judgment delayed?

Where is God’s judgment? Why is he not? Okay, it’s not that God is forgotten or that God is lax about his judgment, but God is merciful, and hear this, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

It is God’s perfect will. It is God’s preference. It is God’s desire that all men everywhere come to repentance, that all men everywhere come to a knowledge of salvation through Jesus Christ. And yet God also doesn’t force, as I understand the scriptures, God does not force that grace on anyone.

He offers it and we take it. Does that mean salvation is all up to us? No.

And some would say, well, yeah, you’re saying salvation is all up to you. No, that’s not. I don’t believe it’s all up to us.

any more than somebody who’s drowning and has thrown a life, or, you know, anybody who’s drowning and somebody comes out to save them and says, take my hand, can be credited for their own saving from drowning by taking the guy’s hand. No, it’s the one who grabbed the raft and swam out there to him to rescue him who gets all the credit for saving him. I was just not so dumb that I fought him off.

It’s still God’s salvation. It’s still by God’s framework. We don’t get to say, well, you’re gracious, so you’ll let me in the way I want to come in.

No, we come in through Jesus Christ. And he makes the offer of salvation and says, here it is. Through Jesus Christ, take it or leave it. I’ve offered mercy.

I’ve offered mercy. Your choices are judgment or mercy. But no man comes unto the Father but by Jesus Christ. And God tells us in his word that there will be some who will choose to be saved.

And there are those who will choose to remain in their sins and die in their sins and go to eternal separation. Folks, it should break our hearts. It should break our hearts that that choice is made every day that people choose to reject God.

Think it doesn’t break God’s heart? That mercy is there. It’s freely available.

The grace is freely available. Christ has done everything necessary to make it available. There’s nothing to earn or to deserve.

Just take it. And so many will not take it. But he says, Straight is the gate and narrow is the way, and few there be that find it.

And we could easily sit back and be satisfied with ourselves and pat ourselves on the back and say, Aren’t we great for having found it? We’re just better than that. No.

We have nothing to congratulate ourselves on for having obtained salvation that he paid so much for. It’s all by God’s grace, ladies and gentlemen. And even though all men will not, unfortunately, receive that salvation.

Again, that’s not the decree of God that they won’t. That’s just God stating what He knows is going to happen, that few there will be that will find it. In spite of that, God offered the mercy.

God offered the grace and says, here it is. And what He’s talking about the grace of God that brings salvation to all men, or hath appeared to all men, that does not mean that everybody, He’s just going to throw open the gates and everybody’s going to be there. There are people who believe what’s called universalism, that eventually everybody’s going to be saved.

And my question is, if everybody’s going to be saved, whether they accept Christ or reject Christ, then what was the purpose of Christ coming and dying on the cross? It all seems pretty pointless. If God could forgive sins without the righteousness of Christ being imparted and imputed to those people, then he could have just forgiven sins for everybody that way, without Christ dying on the cross.

But the Bible says, without the shedding of blood, there’s no remission of sins. There’s no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. And that blood is there for those who are there to be covered in it, who trust Christ to have died on their behalf.

So it’s not talking about when it says, has appeared to all men. It’s not talking about salvation itself, but this grace that brings salvation, I believe is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The very fact that Jesus Christ would die, would shed his blood and die, that our sins could be forgiven, and that that message would be voiced around the world. God was under no obligation to do any of that.

God didn’t owe us Christ’s death on the cross. God doesn’t owe us the opportunity to hear the gospel. And yet he chooses to make that available.

He chose to send Christ to the cross. Christ chose willingly to go to the cross and to shed his blood and die. He knew where he was going and knew what he was going for.

And then God chose to send his church, his churches, to carry the gospel to the ends of the world. God still calls people into his service to drop what they’re doing and go tell somebody about Jesus. And that’s by God’s grace that he set things up the way he has, that not only would a lost and dying world have a shot at salvation, but would also be able to hear about it.

Had God not sent people, had Jesus Christ not told his disciples, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, if he had not told them that, you and I would not be sitting here tonight having heard the gospel. It might still be just a story that was local around Jerusalem, but because God was gracious and said this story needs to be told and sent people out to do his work. Here we sit over 2,000 years later, thousands of miles away, secure in the knowledge of Christ and his grace tonight if you’ve trusted him as your Savior, and knowing that that grace was for us.

And God’s desire is that that grace, that message of salvation be available to all men. I don’t know that I’m going to get through this tonight. That’s all right.

It’s God’s desire tonight that that grace that brings salvation appear to all men, that the gospel be shared with every creature. And we can fast forward to Revelation. You don’t have to turn there because I don’t remember the exact place it’s found.

But I remember this week looking in one of the early chapters of Revelation shortly after John’s vision of the churches ends and then his vision of heaven begins. And we’re told in the book of Revelation that when John saw what was to come, that there would be those who were redeemed out of every nation and out of every tribe and every tongue who were there proclaiming the greatness of our Savior because he had died for them. Now the gospel, the gospel, God’s intent for it was to be made known to every nation.

Now we still have people on the face of the earth today who die without hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. But the goal, God’s goal, should we carry it out? Should Christians all over the world be as available as we ought to be to carry it out? God’s desire and God’s plan is for that gospel to be proclaimed to every nation, tribe, and tongue and every person in every nation, tribe, and tongue that they at least have access to the gospel.

Now, some will reject it and some will accept the message of good news. But that grace is to appear to all men. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.

So he says, you’re supposed to behave this way because the lost and dying world has heard this message of salvation that you profess to believe. And part of that gospel, verse 12, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Because, folks, part of the gospel, well, part of the gospel is what happens after conversion.

Now, understand me on this. Going back and reiterating this, because we can’t make, I’m convinced we can’t make this point often enough or strongly enough. You cannot earn your salvation.

The reason I say that is because there are two religions in the world. There are two religions in the world. One that says, be good enough.

And ours that says, you can’t be good enough. Christ was good enough for you. Two religious systems. and so many who claim the name of Christian, who claim the name of Christ are in this first religious system of saying just be good enough.

And we want to be reminded, even as I’m saying part of the gospel is what happens after conversion, that what I am not saying is that being good enough after coming to Christ is part of your salvation. It is the result of salvation. But the gospel was not given to us just for us to be saved.

The message of Christ and this message of redemption that he shed his blood and died to purchase our forgiveness, to purchase our pardon, to redeem us, and to bring us back to God was not so that he could leave us in our sins. Was not so that he could leave us in our sins. Spiritually, he doesn’t leave us in our sins.

He forgives us. But when it comes to the way we live our lives, the goal is that we are to be changed. The goal is that we are to be different.

The Bible talks about conforming us to the image of his son. We were predestined. I think I preached on this a few weeks ago.

We were predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. God’s plan for salvation. When it talks about predestination there, it’s not you get to be in, you get to be in, you don’t get to go to heaven.

It was those who come by Christ. The plan has always been that we would be converted to Christ, we would be purchased by his blood, and then we would be changed. A little more every day to look more and more like Jesus Christ. Paul writes about how his goal was to warn every man until he presented every man mature in Jesus Christ, complete in Jesus Christ. The goal of the gospel doesn’t stop at conversion, but also continues on with the changed life that comes as a result. So he says, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

See, we can’t profess to believe a story such as the gospel. It said we’d sinned against God, fallen short of His glory, needed a Savior. Jesus Christ shed His blood and died for us so that we could be forgiven, so that we could have a relationship with God and have a hope of eternal life in heaven.

And part of this relationship with God means that we’re indwelt by His Holy Spirit. We can’t profess to believe that and not be different than we were before. Now I’ve seen people who’ve come to Christ and their entire life is just 180 degrees opposite of what it was before.

Sometimes the change is radical. Overnight, I mean instant. Overnight even is longer than. .

. I mean it’s instant. That somebody could get up off of their knees after praying and receiving Christ and even their countenance is different.

And then there are some who the change is not so radical. It takes a little longer. But it’s there nonetheless. So the question for us as believers is not, you know, is our entire life different overnight?

But are we different at all? Are we the same as we were? See, that grace that brings salvation has also taught us that denying ungodliness of worldly lust, we should live the right way in this present world.

Part of repentance, well, not part of repentance, repentance itself is changing your mind. There’s this idea taught today in many churches that repentance means you get your life cleaned up and come to Christ. That all the sin is gone and you come to Christ, otherwise you didn’t really repent and come to Christ. And I don’t want to be too harsh with them because at least somebody’s preaching repentance. But the fact is, I don’t believe that’s biblical repentance.

Because I can’t clean up my life enough to come to Christ to deserve His love and forgiveness. But it’s this change of mind that says, beforehand, before today, I was a wicked, depraved sinner, and I was okay with that. I don’t care what God says.

And now, I’m a wicked, depraved sinner who sees the problem with that and realizes this is not God’s way and this is not right. See, the gospel informs our flesh and our minds. It teaches us that these things that we once embraced are things that we need to deny, things that we need to get out of our lives we’re powerless to do so and that he does it for us.

See, this gospel brings us to repentance and helps us change our mind and these things that we once embraced. It doesn’t mean necessarily that we’re going to be able to kick them out of our lives first thing, but we see the problem with it now. God has changed our minds about our sin.

Do you still sin, ladies and gentlemen? You don’t have to raise your hand. I can tell by the nodding of your hands.

Do you still sin? You feel bad about it afterwards? Yeah, because we know we’re not supposed to.

There was a time before when in the flesh we sin and that’s the way we like it. And now we understand what it means when the Bible says sin is fun for a season. Because not only do consequences come down the road, but also there’s when you’re finished with the sin or maybe when you’re in the middle of the sin, you feel that conviction of the Holy Spirit and you know you’re letting your Father down.

So this idea of repentance that comes from the gospel, it teaches us what we didn’t quite grasp that these are things to deny ourselves. These are things to put aside. We should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world.

Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I had a friend in high school who I never went in her bedroom to see it, but I was told by her that she had a sign over her bedroom door that said, maybe today. And it was a reminder to her or she would leave her room, leave her house every morning, Christ could come back today. And honestly, you may disagree and that’s all right.

I’m going to be honest with you about what I think and how I feel. I hear a lot of people say we’re in the last days, we’re in the last generation. Maybe.

I don’t know. I hear all the time just taken for granted that we’re in the end times. Maybe we are.

I don’t know. What I know from the scriptures is that I don’t know. and I promise you that’s not a cop-out that’s just being as honest as as I know how to be he could come back this second he could come back 2,000 years from now I have no idea but I know he’s coming back I know at some point he’s coming back and it could be today and when we start to think every morning maybe today how does that change our perspective on the way we go through our day.

How does that change our priority list? How does that change the things we invest our time and energy into? You see, I think we’ve gotten comfortable as American Christians, and we know we have a hope, but we don’t look for our hope.

You understand the difference there between having a hope and looking for a hope? Sometimes I order things off of eBay. I could very easily get addicted to eBay.

I love eBay. I love getting mail. I love getting packages, and when I order something, even if it’s something that cost me a dollar, I’m excited when it comes in the mail.

And sometimes it’ll tell you, okay, it’s going to be two weeks shipping. It’s going to take two weeks to get there. And I feel silly comparing getting a package to the second coming, but you guys have no idea how excited I am when I get a package.

It may say it’s going to take two weeks shipping. And so during that two weeks that I’m waiting, okay, I know my package is coming, but I’m not really thinking all that much about it. I know it’s out there.

I know it’s coming, but it my day at all. We start getting close to that two-week mark, though, and I start getting excited. Maybe it’s going to come today.

Maybe when I get home from work, my package is going to be here. I start going to lunch and texting my mother or sister or whoever’s at home and saying, did the mail come yet? Have you seen the UPS guy?

And all I can think about is my package could be here today. Now, please don’t think I’m being blasphemous by comparing the two things. Obviously, the second coming is much better and of much more importance.

But the difference here. We have a hope. We know He’s coming at some point.

We know we’re going with Him. But looking for that hope is different, isn’t it? It’s the expectation.

He could be here today. Oh, what if He came now? I’ve got to hurry up and get finished so I can go home because He might He might.

. . it changes our whole perspective when we go from having a hope to looking for a hope.

So we’re to look for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us. You know what? He gave himself for us.

I mentioned this this morning, and I’ve heard preachers preach in the last few years that he died so that he could get the glory he deserved. They’re not entirely wrong, and I see where they’re going because for so many years, our presentation of the gospel has been too man-centered. It’s all about you and getting you saved and getting you right with God and very little emphasis on repentance and judgment and the blood and all of these things.

But you know what? I think even if you’re trying to correct the trend, if you go too far out of bounds one way, it’s just as wrong as going too far out of bounds the other way. And we can’t neglect the fact that he says it was for us.

And yes, he is glorified because of what he did. And he’s deserving of glory for what he did. But you know what?

He’s the creator of the whole stinking universe. And he’d be as worthy of glory, of all the glory we could ever give him and then some, whether he died for us or not. And he tells us, as I said this morning, he came to seek and to save that which was lost. And the Bible tells us right here, this is not my opinion, this is not Jared’s word, this is what it says in God’s word right here, he gave himself for us.

When he died, he died for you, Miriam. Frida, he died for you. For the day, because he died for you.

He died for me. And if I left you out, that’s not say he didn’t die for you. He gave himself for us.

That he might redeem us from all iniquity. That word redeem means to buy back. We were in bondage to slavery and death and hell and sin.

And he bought us. He didn’t just buy us with money or something that he had an infinite supply of. He shed his blood and gave his very life for us.

that he might redeem us from all iniquity, that he might buy us back and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works, that he might gain to himself a people that he had purified, that he had cleaned up, not that had purified themselves, but that he might purify unto himself, that he might clean us up and reserve us for himself as a peculiar people, a standout, a stickout kind of people that are supposed to be just a little bit different, well, quite a bit different from the world we live in, who are supposed to be obvious, zealous of good works. Not that we do good works out of fear, not that we do good works out of a sense of obligation, but that we are thrilled to do the work that he’s put us here to do, and that we are thrilled for the opportunity to live for him. He says, these things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority.

You tell people what I said. is what he says with all authority and let no man despise thee. Folks we’ll get to the points next week.

We didn’t even get to the points tonight. I got a little wound up when I started talking about verse 11. But the point of it is the gospel ought to change us.

Not just our eternity but it ought to change our lives now.