Transcript

The following is a true story: The city of Cairo has its own unique version of poverty called Garbage City. Each morning at dawn some seven thousand garbage collectors on horse-carts leave for Cairo, where they collect the garbage left behind by the city’s seven million citizens.

After their day’s work they return to Garbage City, bringing the trash back to their homes, sorting out what’s useful.

In Muslim countries there are certain religious restrictions on sifting through refuse, so the inhabitants of Garbage City are either nonreligious or from some Christian heritage. These are the poorest of the poor—outcasts among outcasts.

In 1972, a young Egyptian businessman lost his wristwatch, valued at roughly $11,000. As you can imagine, it would have been unthinkable to have a valuable timepiece returned by a member of Garbage City.

Yet an old garbage man dressed in rags, found the man’s name on the watch and returned it, saying, “My Christ told me to be honest until death.”

Because of the garbage man’s act of obedience, the Egyptian businessman later told a reporter, “I didn’t know Christ at the time, but I told the garbage man that I saw Christ in him. I told him, ‘Because of what you have done and your great example, I want to know your Christ, and will worship the Christ you are worshiping.”

The businessman, true to his word, studied the Bible, trusted Christ as his Savior and grew in his faith. Soon he and his wife began ministering to Egypt’s physically and spiritually poor. In 1978, he was ordained as a minister and began leading a church that met outside Garbage City.

A faithful testimony of a transformed life by God’s grace, can touch the hearts and lives of others around us, so they too might experience the grace of God in salvation, and the grace of God that changes lives.

Titus 2:11: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.”

This is the heart of the letter to Titus. The verses before and after v. 11 have everything to do with authentically living the Christian life before the lost and all men.

The reason for the instruction for elders, the reason for the warning against false teachings, the reason in commanding the church and God’s people to live according to sound doctrine, and to be people of good works, is all because the grace of God that bringeth salvation has appeared to all men.

All people can be saved. The provision has been made for all. And so God desires His church to provide a strong testimony and be a witness to all in trying to reach the lost, The church’s leadership, doctrine and behavior need to be strong and healthy, so that the church’s outreach to the world is strong, compelling, and real.

As the older men are strong examples of godliness, the older women live separated, holy lives, who teach the younger women God’s Word and will, and the younger women live out this godly instruction, and the younger men are sober-minded, as we have sound speech, are faithful employees who are obedient, don’t talk back or steal…

We do all this because God’s grace that brings salvation has appeared to all men. God loves all, and God desires every single man, woman and child to be saved.

God has extended and offered His saving grace to every person. There is not a single person that God does not desire to see saved and redeemed.

And so the mission of the church is to become a visible example of God’s grace to humanity. God wants His grace to be seen, heard, and experienced through you and me so that we can reach people for Christ through a strong testimony.

We all needed the grace that bringeth salvation to appear to us, because nobody can save themselves. In order for anyone to be saved, God’s grace had to bring salvation to lost mankind. And it appeared to the world thru the life, death, & resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ is grace incarnate. He is God’s gift of grace to fallen mankind. There is a universal need, and God provided a universal remedy through His Son. Christ died for all men. Christ’s sacrifice was sufficient for all. God’s salvation is available to “all men,” but it must be received, as only those who receive it by faith will be saved.

And we are given the choice to accept this grace or decline it.

Based off the construction of the original Greek, verse 11 could read: “Appeared the grace of God, salvation to all humanity.” “Appeared” is a “eureka!” or “wow!” kind of word, with an element of delight and surprise to the idea of discovery. It’s the idea of grace suddenly shining forth, and it being astonishing and overwhelming.

By God’s own initiative, motivated solely by His goodness and kindness, and despite our absolute unworthiness: “Appeared the grace of God.” God Almighty willingly reached down to rescue us from our own sinful condition and bring salvation to us.

And our reaction should be one of surprise and astonishment and “wow” at God’s grace appearing and being offered to me, and to all of us to save us, because we don’t deserve it. Grace is God’s unmerited favor to those who have merited the opposite.

We fall short, our righteousness is as filthy rags, we deserve hell, condemnation, and judgment, but by God’s amazing grace we receive heaven, glory, blessing, peace, and joy.

In June 1988, a Houston school district nominated a bus driver by the name of Lillie Baltrip, for a safe-driving award. Her colleagues even trusted her to drive a busload of them to her awards ceremony for safe drivers.

But unfortunately, on the way to the ceremony, Lillie turned a corner too sharply and flipped the bus over, sending herself and sixteen others to the hospital for minor emergency treatment. So did Lillie, who had been accident free before this, get her award anyway? No. Because award committees rarely operate on the principle of grace.

How thankful we should be that we who do not maintain a spotless life-record, who all fail and sin, that our salvation does not depend on our performance, it depends solely and completely on the kindness and grace of God.

Titus 2:12: “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.”

God’s grace saves us and it also transforms our lives. The grace we’ve received not only saves us from eternal condemnation in hell, it also teaches us how to live.

“Teaching” has the idea of “disciplining, correcting, guiding, instructing, training.” We are trained by God’s grace, trained to be the kind of people that glorify Him.

The Founder of the Berean Bible Society, Pastor C.R. Stam, wrote this: “[Grace] has positively no equal as an incentive to God’s people to live pleasing to Him. It does not thunder like the Law; rather it softens the heart, inclines the will and provides the power to put God’s precepts into practice.”

God’s sanctifying grace teaches us and enables us to live set apart lives for Him. Grace both teaches us what not to do, AND what we should do instead. Godly living involves both the negative and the positive.

Negatively, grace teaches us to deny, TO reject “ungodliness.” This refers to actions and a lifestyle of behavior that are unlike God and against His Word and nature, and for things that dull our love for spiritual things and pull us away from God.

Grace also trains us and motivates us to deny living only for ourselves or primarily for the temporal things of this world.

The “worldly lusts” Paul writes of here could include living only for pleasure or idolatrous kind of longing for wealth or material possessions, or lusting for power, influence, fame, and social standing.

But these things are temporal and passing, and they’re deceitful, as many believe they’ll find true, lasting happiness in them, but they will not.

Believers live “in this present world,” but we are not to be of the world, or to live only for it, or to be conformed to its ways, thinking, or standards. We live by a higher standard, by God’s standard found in God’s Word, and we are to live for the eternal.

In “denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,” the word “denying” in the original Greek means to “disown” or “renounce,” and it speaks of doing this once and for all.

We make a settled decision, a life choice, that in God’s power and for His glory, this is the direction that we’re going to go in life, and to leave these things behind and in our past. We don’t just keep telling ourselves, “I’m not going to do this, I’m not going to do this…”

Instead grace teaches to make a clean break and to live for what is better instead.

And by faith we move forward to the positive, and we are taught by God and driven by His grace that we should live “soberly,” or wise, sensibly, with balance, with common sense and sound minds guided by the sound teaching of the Word of God, and under the control of the Holy Spirit.

God’s grace teaches us that we should live “righteously,” by that which is good and right according to what the Word says is right and good. God’s grace trains us to live out the righteousness of Christ in our lives.

God would have our behavior match our identity. Positionally in Christ, we are righteous forever, and God would have us be righteous in our day-to-day practice as well. By His grace and Spirit and resurrection power, He enables believers to do so.

As Romans 6:13 says, “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.”

We are trained and instructed in God’s grace through His Word which enlightens us as to how to live right or righteously in this world.

II Timothy 3:16 says “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

Grace trains us also that we should live “godly” or God-like, living for the things that matter to God, living consistent with His heart of love and grace, living lives characterized by deep respect and reverence for God.

Grace teaches us how to live for God, how to live a grace-filled life. D.L. Moody once said: “Grace isn’t a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. Grace is a way to live. The law tells me how crooked I am. Grace comes along and straightens me out.”

Grace teaches us of our need of the Lord and our need to depend on Him. We need Him for our salvation, and grace teaches us that we need Him moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day. It teaches us that we cannot live a godly life without His grace and help.

Preacher Charles Spurgeon tells of a man to whom was entrusted a large sum of money for the benefit of a poor minister. He thought it would be best to distribute the gift, instead of sending it all at once.

So he mailed the poor minister five pounds and, inside the envelope, he placed a little slip of paper on which was written, “More to follow.”

Thus for many years, the old minister received regularly his little package of money, always with the “More to follow” note inside. And this is how God deals with us. The grace we receive today is but a pledge of that which will be given tomorrow; that which we receive tomorrow will likewise be stamped, “More to follow.”

There is always sufficient grace for each day, and “more to follow.” And His grace and presence is with us all the way and we can live a grace-filled life, until we experience the grace of Christ’s coming, or His grace in taking us home to be with Him.

And in between time, in the trials of life, and its ups and downs, peaks and valleys, God’s promise is, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Titus 2:13: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”

Grace also teaches us to look for that blessed hope and be ready for the return of Christ at the Rapture. It teaches us to be expecting His return and to live like those who will see Him face-to-face at any moment.

This is a blessed hope because it will bring blessing to believers; the blessing of Christ’s personal presence, the blessing of reunion with believing loved ones, the blessing of being delivered from the Tribulation and presence of sin, the blessing of our translation to our home in heaven, the blessing of glorifying grace, receiving our eternal, glorified bodies.

God’s grace trains us to be “looking” for our Savior. Keeping Christ on our minds is key to our spiritual growth. God’s grace teaches us to be “looking” for His coming which could happen any day, and this is God’s way of keeping our Savior at the forefront of our minds.

With a continual expectation and anticipation, we look for Him knowing that He could come at any moment. II Timothy 4:8 speaks of those who “love His appearing,” as out of our love and gratitude for Him, we long and look forward to our Savior coming for us.

The Christian life is all about hope: the hope of eternal life, the hope of heaven, the hope of our resurrection, the blessed hope of the Rapture.

The future we anticipate, the hope we set before us, it powerfully influences the way we live, the way we invest our time and energy—the way we conduct our lives.

And living in constant expectation of the blessed hope will cause our allegiance and hope to not all be pinned to the earth, where we are sure to be disappointed, and will in turn place our allegiance and hope above, where we’ll never be disappointed.

Grace teaches us here to live our daily lives in constant readiness for our Lord’s return and the certainty for His call, and to living a godly, service-filled life so that He would find us living for the eternal, serving Him, and ready for His coming when He does come.

We have two “appearings” in these verses, the appearance of the grace of God that brings salvation to all men, and the appearing of Christ at the Rapture.

Just like the word “Appeared” in verse 11, “appearing” again is a “eureka!” or “wow!” kind of word, with an element of joy and surprise. It’s the idea here of the Lord suddenly shining forth in the air, and it astonishing and overwhelming us. At the Rapture, this will happen to those who are alive at His coming.

And so as we look back on the amazing grace that appeared and brought salvation through Christ’s life, death and resurrection, and as we look ahead to the amazing grace of Christ’s appearing at the Rapture, we have power and motivation to drive us, move us, and constrain us to live a life pleasing to God by the grace of God.

Titus 2:14-15: “Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.”

Verse fourteen teaches us who He is returning for: those who have been redeemed from “all iniquity,” those who are purified by Him. As God cannot allow sin in His presence in heaven, so all our sins must be removed, and we must be pure.

And when we trust Christ that He died for our sins & rose again, all our sins are washed away, and we are made pure and righteous in Christ and are ready for heaven.

In grace, Christ “gave Himself for us,” sacrificially, willingly giving Himself, giving everything, as He laid down His life for us at the Cross.

And He gave Himself “for us.” He took our place, He took our sins on Himself, He was our Substitute, He took the punishment we deserved, faced the full wrath of God against our sins, sacrificially giving His life and paying sin’s penalty for us, so that we might be saved from our sins and be fit and qualified for heaven.

And Christ redeemed us. The word “redeem” means “to set free by paying a price.” We were all slaves of sin, and could not and are not able to pay the price to set ourselves free from sin’s bondage.

The Savior’s shed blood was what was needed as the payment for our sins. And by His shed blood, Christ met the just demands of God’s law and satisfied God’s justice, so that in His grace, God could free those who believe in Christ from their sins.

And notice that we are redeemed and set free from “all iniquity” in Christ. Christ died for all our sins, and we are set free from “all” our sins when we trust Christ. There’s no need to worry about any unforgiven sin. In grace, they’re “all” paid for and forgiven up front.

Have you received the grace of God that bringeth salvation? Have you been redeemed from all your sins? Just trusting that Christ died for you, for your sins, and rose again we are saved. In that moment of time when we make that decision to trust Christ we are redeemed from all our sins and iniquities and we are right with God forever.

And having been redeemed and purified in Christ, we are now His own “peculiar people.” “Peculiar” doesn’t mean “odd,” “strange,” or “weird.” Although Christians often do appear very strange and odd to the world. But that’s okay. We live by a different standard.

The word “peculiar” speaks of being God’s own treasured, special possession. We are Christ’s, we are His peculiar people, His possession, we are part of God’s household, His spiritual family, we belong to Him. And that is a blessing.

Israel was called God’s peculiar people in the past, but with God’s program with Israel temporarily set aside today, under grace the Body of Christ is God’s peculiar people.

We have been purchased out of slavery to sin by God’s redeeming grace, and we now are owned by a new Master, the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, and we are to be a people of good works who serve our Lord.

Grace teaches us to please our Savior by our service, and to work for the Lord, and to be “zealous” for Him because we want to, not because we have to. He’s been so good to us, now we are to do good works for Him out of our gratitude.

God in His grace, redeems us, purifies us, and puts us to work for Him, and it is amazing that He uses us. It’s grace that He uses us.

The word “zealous” here means “to boil, or be hot, or to glow.” As citizens of heaven, we are to glow with good deeds for Christ here on earth as we’re passing through.

The Lord wants His Church to be on fire, and burn white hot, being consumed with the things of the Lord and being on fire for the things that need done for Him.

In Missionary Jim Elliot’s diary he writes, “God makes His ministers a flame of fire. Am I ignitable? God, deliver me from the dread asbestos of ‘other things.’ Make me thy fuel, O God…that I may burn for you. Consume my life God, for it is yours.”

Christ gave everything in setting us free from sin, so we should be a people zealous of good works and give everything for Him, eagerly serving Him out of a grateful heart, burning with zeal and a passionate commitment to glorify His name.

We need to be “zealous of good works,” because of the principle of Matthew 5:16, where our Lord says in the Sermon on the Mount: “Let you light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

Finally, Paul tells Titus: “These things, speak, and exhort, and rebuke.” These 3 verbs identify the need for the proclamation, application, and correction by the Word.

Paul charges Titus with the responsibility to proclaim these truths of grace to the church. He was to “speak” it, share it, teach it, preach it, tell it to the church.

He was to “exhort,” i.e., he was make this teaching on grace the training regimen for church leaders and members, and to drive it home and encourage others to live by it. And he was to “rebuke” or correct, replacing incorrect ideas with correct ideas, correcting unsound doctrine with sound grace doctrine, committing himself to gentle, yet firm confrontation of error by grace.

And he was to do so “with all authority.” A spiritual leader stands on the authority of Scripture, the divinely inspired, inerrant truth of the Bible. And authority to instruct, correct, and command people in the spiritual realm comes from God’s Word.