Teaching Grace

Q: What does the Bible say about grace teaching us?

The Bible teaches that grace instructs believers to deny ungodliness and live righteously. In Titus 2:11-14, the Apostle Paul reveals that the grace of God brings salvation and effectually teaches believers to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. This teaching from grace does not merely inform; it transforms the believer's heart, prompting a desire to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world. Through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, believers are enabled to fight against their former sinful inclinations and pursue a life that honors God. Grace, therefore, is not just a concept but an active force that shapes our conduct and desires.

Q: How do we know God's grace is transformative?

God’s grace changes our desires and empowers us to live for Christ. God's grace is not a passive gift; it actively transforms individuals. As noted in the sermon, grace teaches believers to hate ungodliness and live a life that glorifies God. When one experiences true grace, the desires for sin diminish, replaced by a longing to please God. This transformation is evident as believers strive to live soberly, righteously, and godly, contrasting their previous lives marked by sinful behavior. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer's life ensures a continued transformation, reflecting the limitless power of God's grace in action.

Q: Why is looking to Christ important for Christians?

Looking to Christ is essential because He is the source of our hope and salvation. In the sermon, it's emphasized that believers should continuously look to Christ for hope, guidance, and salvation. This perspective is vital for Christians as it reinforces that our strength comes not from ourselves but from our relationship with Jesus. As we face life's trials, fixing our gaze on Christ reminds us of His ultimate authority and our identity in Him. The hope of His glorious return is a source of encouragement that sustains us through difficult times, urging us to live a life that reflects His love and grace.

Q: How does grace relate to good works in the Christian life?

Grace produces good works as an outflow of a transformed heart. The relationship between grace and good works is foundational in Reformed theology. In the sermon, it is stated that while salvation is by grace alone, this grace always results in good works. These works are not the basis for salvation but rather evidence of a saved life. God's saving grace transforms a believer's character, leading naturally to a life marked by good deeds, which are ordained by God. Believers may not always recognize when they do good works, but as they grow in grace, their lives increasingly reflect Christ’s character, demonstrating their faith through love and service.

Open your Bibles, if you would, to Titus chapter 2. We'll read verses 11 to 14. Now, when I tell people about how free I am in Christ and how free we believers are in Christ, a lot of times they say this, and it's such a foolish statement, but it's because they don't understand the freedom that the believer has in Christ. They say, well, if I believed like you did, I could just go ahead and do whatever I wanted to.

Number one, that tells you they don't know grace. Because the love of Christ constrains us from sin. And number two, they don't like God being in full control. Because who God saves, he keeps. But we're gonna look at something today. We're gonna look at teaching grace. Do you know God's grace teaches us some things? It teaches us some things. And here in Titus chapter two, we're gonna see some of the things it teaches us. And we know we can't go out and live however we want, and we don't want to, do we? Whenever somebody asks me that question, I'm always like, I don't want to live how I used to live. No, not at all.

I want to live for Christ. I want to glorify Him, and I want to praise Him all through my life. I'm a poor, wretched sinner who's saved by his grace. And I'll tell you what, I'm clinging to him, but more so he's clinging, he's got me in his grip. That's what's most important. That's what's most important. Oh my.

So we're gonna look at God's teaching grace. The name of the message is teaching grace. Again, Titus chapter two, we'll read verses 11 to 14. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation appeared to all men. Christ has come into the world. It's appeared to all men. Some, by the mercy of God, receive Christ, and others are just left in their sin.

Oh, my. Teaching us. Now, what has God's grace taught us? Look at this. Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Now see, the religious world takes this and says, oh man, look at that, you gotta do all these things. No, this is what grace does. It teaches us. It teaches us to deny ungodliness.

As a matter of fact, we hate ungodliness more in ourselves than anywhere else. We're sinners. And then worldly lusts. We don't, we don't, cater to the lusts that we once had. Whether it be the lusts of the flesh, whether it be addictions that we had. My, we, we, we, we fight against that stuff now. When before we just run, ran riotlessly. Riotlessly.

And then look, live soberly. righteously and godly in this present world. We desire to serve our king. We desire now to live a life pleasing to God. But why do we desire that now? Because we're born again. We've been washed in the blood of Christ. We're clothed in his righteousness.

Isn't that wonderful? But our salvation has no bearing on what we do. And see, when you say that, people say, oh, you can do whatever you want. I am not saying that, and I've never heard a grace preacher say that. We just know that we're saved by God's grace and mercy, because it's sovereign mercy. And now, as Corinthians says, the love of Christ constrains us.

I was talking to some men the other night, and how our desires have changed, and how God restrains us. Imagine if God didn't even restrain a believer. What kind of trouble we could get into? I get enough trouble with my own sin, do you? Praise God for restraining grace.

Now look at this. Looking for that blessed hope. Looking for Christ. Looking for Christ's return. That just means keeping your eye on Christ. The blessed hope. He's our hope, isn't he? He's our hope. the glorious appearing of the great God in our Savior Jesus Christ." Look at that.

That verse proclaims that Jesus Christ is God. And when people ask me, who saved you? God saved me. God saved me. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's God in the flesh. I remember Years ago, someone said, you say that way too much. You say God in the flesh way too much. I'm telling you what, till my dying breath, I'm going to keep saying, God saved me. God was incarnated in the flesh. If the Lord gives me the ability to do that, God, who was incarnate, saved my soul. Praise his mighty name. Praise his mighty name. My.

And then it says this, who gave himself for us. Titus, Paul's writing to Titus. He's writing to believers, right? So Paul's writing to Titus. And he says, he says, Christ gave himself for us, brother. Gave himself for us, for our sins. My, why? That he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

And oh my, and remember those good works, we don't even know when we do them. They're ordained by God, and we have no clue when we do them. None at all. Remember those two groups? One says, oh, I've done all these things for you, Lord. I've done all these things. And he says, I never knew you, to all them religious folks. And then the others are going, well, when did we do those things, Lord? He said, well, when you helped my brother out, when you came when he was sick, you visited him, gave him a cup of cold water. Oh, my, in his name, my, oh, my.

Now, whenever the gospel of God's grace comes into the sinner's heart, And it's always by life-giving, regenerating power of God the Holy Spirit, right? You must be born again, so God regenerates us. We're born again. Then we're given faith to believe on Christ and we're given repentance before God. You won't get faith without repentance. They're like the same piece of paper, just different sides of the paper. My.

And when that life-giving, regenerating grace of God comes into our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit, it effectually teaches God's people some things. And God's grace doesn't just present a lesson which we ought to learn. God's grace effectually teaches chosen sinners this, verse 5, or verse 12, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. That's the opposite of how we used to live. See, but by God's transforming power in Christ, we glorify God. My. And the grace of God, which brings salvation, teaches us what? To look to Christ. We used to look to self. Now we look to Christ for everything.

I had one person, one of my cousins, Even Facebook, he said, I gotta befriend you, you love Jesus too much. Well, praise God. Praise be to God. I said, do you love your wife? He goes, yeah. And I go, well, I love the bridegroom of God's people, the Lord Jesus Christ. He saved my soul with his precious, precious blood.

And so God's grace teaches us. This is something that God's grace teaches us, to look to Christ. And the older we get in God's grace, right, the more we realize that this world, oh, it's just so temporary. But we're looking to the Eternal One. We're looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of our soul. You know, I know sometimes we can get worked up about world events. Just keep looking to Christ. He's in control. Someone told me, oh, we're heading for a recession recently. Got all worked up. I said, well, if that happens, it's according to God's will. I don't have to worry about it. And I know he'll take care of his sheep, doesn't he?

Always. Always. Always takes care of his people. Think of how many presidents you lived through in your life. God's always taken care of you, hasn't he? Oh my. You might not always have what you want, but you always had what you needed. It's incredible.

So we look to Christ. God's grace teaches us to look to Christ for salvation, for eternal life, for righteousness, for atonement, and for everlasting acceptance with God. There's no, there's no acceptance with God outside of Christ. And no one's saved in any other way. Christ alone is a solitary object of true faith.

Listen to this. Isaiah 45, 22. This is the Messiah speaking. Look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is none else. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the word of God before he came to this world. Look unto me and be ye saved. There's life in the look. Cry out to him, God save me. Oh my, look unto me and be saved. All the ends of the earth, for I am God and there's none else.

Also the grace of God affectionately teaches regenerate sinners what to believe, what to believe. As God's grace teaches sinners that we are indeed sinners. We're indeed sinners. We're bonafide sinners. And then God's grace teaches us that the only way a sinner can be saved is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, and by him alone. God has sent his son as a sacrifice for sin, and God is satisfied with Christ's sacrifice. And the only way for God's justice to be satisfied and God's just law to be fulfilled is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, by his perfect obedience to the law and through the shedding of his precious blood to redeem us from all our sins at Calvary's cross. And all the sheep of Christ know the shepherd's voice. They know the shepherd's voice. They know not the voice of strangers, no. No. Who come proclaiming will works. Get away. I don't want nothing with that. You're going to proclaim will works? I ain't listening. I don't want to even know that. I was already caught up in that, and it's a lie. You can't be saved by yourself, by anything you do.

And I ask you this, can a dead man exercise his will? Have you ever seen a dead man say, Hey, I'm getting up now. Dead men can't exercise their will. We're born dead in trespasses and sins. You know what? God's gotta quicken us. He's gotta reanimate us, beloved. You must be born again. And he does that by his almighty power. My. So we now hear the shepherd's voice and we follow him. Let's read Titus again.

Titus 2.12, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. So we see the grace of God that brings salvation also teaches saved sinners how to live in this world. Because how should I live in this world? Well, this verse tells us, doesn't it? Oh, my.

And God's grace makes sinners gracious. Do you know that? God's grace makes sinners merciful. God's grace makes sinners compassionate. God's grace changes, changes us. We're objects of his mercy. Being born again changes a person's character. If you ever see a mean Christian, I mean just downright mean, they don't know no grace. Because God's grace changes people. I know a fella, he's a professing Christian. He is the meanest professing Christian I've ever met. I mean, he's just rotten. But I pray for him still. And I tell him the truth when I see him.

Because that's what we're to do, right? Because we don't lash back out. God's grace has taught us something. Taught us grace. Taught us grace. Taught, you know what else it teaches us? That that was our, that was us before the Lord saved us. Whether we were in religion or not, we were mean as rattlesnakes. Just, did rattlesnakes just bite you for the fun of it? My. So we see the grace of God bring salvation and teach us sinners how to live in this world. My, oh my.

It not only being born again changes a person's character in Christianity. True Christianity is manifest in the believer's conduct. Now, we know we're sinners. We know we sin all the time, but we hate our sin now. I often like to ask the folks here, do you sin more than you want to? And everyone says, yes, sir. Me too. Me too.

But praise God. Sovereign mercy has saved us, has washed us. Oh, by the regenerating power of God, the Holy Spirit, and giving us faith to believe in the crucified one. He's not crucified anymore, is he? He is risen, beloved. Seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for his people.

In God's grace, God's grace teaches us, plainly, what we are to do. What we are do—and what we're not to do. What we're not to do. We know what not to do. Oh, yeah. We know what not to follow. We know what to shun. And our works have nothing to do with our salvation. Praise be to God. But saving grace always produces good works by the power of God the Holy Spirit. And these—these works are by love. Listen to this. Galatians 5, 6.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. Jew or Gentile. Doesn't matter. If you're saved, you're no longer a Jew or a Gentile. You're in Christ. Look at this. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.

So marvel at God's teaching grace. as the grace of God affectionately teaches saved sinners to deny ungodliness, to deny worldly lusts. And we struggle with these things all the time, don't we? Yeah, and the gospel teaches us to say no to worldly lusts. And by God's grace and power, he gives us the power, doesn't he?

Oh my. We say no to sensuality. We say no to covetousness, no to ambition. I want Christ to be proclaimed. I want him to be lifted up. Miles McKee says, he's a missionary. I love the guy. He says, I'm here to make Christ famous, to just keep lifting him up. Oh, amen, brother. Amen. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. And we say no to ambition. We say no to the desire for recognition. And we say no to the praise of man. And the love of Christ constrains us from sin. My. So we see that. We see that the grace of God teaches people, God's people, to live right. With respect to ourselves, grace teaches us to live soberly. Soberly. In respect to others, grace teaches us to live righteously.

That's just in Christ. In Christ. Walking in Christ. And resting in Christ. my and with respect to God's grace teaching us to live godly we desire to walk before God with reverence now oh yes in faith in Christ and submission to his will you find yourself going well it's the Lord's will let it be done when you hear something going on it's his will even something in our life well it's his will You can't fight God, and the believer doesn't want to. So we submit to His will by the grace of God, and we seek to glorify Him in our lives, don't we? In all things. And the motive and inspiration compelling believers in these things is the grace of God in Christ. God has had mercy on me in Christ.

Praise His mighty name. I'm going to close with 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 20 and in Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 1st Corinthians 6 20 for you are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's Always seek to glorify God don't we and then Romans chapter 12 verses 1 to 2 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service and and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Amen and amen.

Teaching Grace

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about grace teaching us?

How do we know God's grace is transformative?

Why is looking to Christ important for Christians?

How does grace relate to good works in the Christian life?

Sermon Transcript

About Wayne Boyd

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Teaching Grace

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about grace teaching us?

How do we know God's grace is transformative?

Why is looking to Christ important for Christians?

How does grace relate to good works in the Christian life?

Sermon Transcript

About Wayne Boyd

Comments

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