Turn with me to Titus, Titus
chapter two. The lesson this morning is a
lesson taught to all who experientially know the saving grace of God. This is a lesson taught to all
believers without exception. They've all been taught this
lesson and will continue to be taught these lessons throughout
their journey. I titled our study this morning
Lessons of Saving Grace. Now there are literally untold
diversities of religion in this world, and the numbers are multiplying
daily. I've seen three new names on
buildings this past week. But I want you to understand
this, there's only two principles of religion, no matter what the
sign says out front. There's only two principles of
religion, works and grace. Now I don't care if it's purely
a fantasy. It'll be based on works. Or it'll
be based on grace. One or the other. Just two principles. And all works religion, no matter
what they say, no matter what they profess, all works religion
is of Satan. It's not of God. God, I've been told this by relatives,
God works in all religions. Well, it depends on what you
mean by works. If you mean works to save, no
he don't. No he don't. But he works in
those religions in a way that turns them over to their own
imaginations All works religion is of Satan
and it falls under what scripture defines as Antichrist. Their
message is that of Antichrist. And to be dead in trespasses
and sins is to walk, Ephesians 2 says, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit who now worketh in the
children of disobedience. Grace is not something innate
to man and it's not natural to him. He's not born with it. I
don't appeal to your minds and to your understanding when I'm
preaching. I appeal to the scriptures and I appeal to the manifestation
of the Son of God because the natural man doesn't know anything
at all about grace. It's alien to him. It's foreign
to him. He has no concept of it. He thinks
grace is a passion. It's an alien term and character
that men know nothing about. But true grace is the very character
of God, and as God reveals the glory of His grace, He reveals
it in the person of His Son. And that as he is engaged in
the salvation of chosen sinners. The scripture said, Christ made
us accepted of God to the praise of the glory of his grace. I know that his work is what
justifies us and what makes us accepted to God, but here he
attributes all that work to his grace. In Christ we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace. God's election is an election
of grace, and by grace ye are saved, talking about our being
quickened together with Christ and raised with him and seated
with him in glory, talking about that eternal union in Christ.
And he says this immediately after saying that in Ephesians
2, he said, by grace ye are saved. And then he goes on to say, by
grace are you saved through faith. So this faith is a gift of God's
grace. Now listen to me, in order for
grace to teach, grace must first be revealed. You understand what I'm saying?
It's foreign to you, it's alien to you. God has to reveal it
to you. It has to be seen somewhere else
other than in yourself. And I cannot preach appealing
to the hearts and minds of fallen men concerning a grace that they
know nothing about. Grace must appear. It must be
manifest. It must be brought to light and
seen by the sinner. Now, listen to our text, Titus
chapter 2 verse 11. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, 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, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us
from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people
zealous of good works." Now if you're going to preach grace,
he says, these things speak and exhort and rebuke with all
authority and let no man despise you, that is, Don't let them
despise your attitude. Don't let them despise your demeanor. You do this in a loving way.
You do this as a teacher. Now, let's deal with this first. The grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men. Not all men as of every
man, woman, and child. It has not appeared. has not
appeared, not all men. One writer said that's referring
to the birth of Christ being seen by the whole world. It wasn't
seen by the whole world. It's seen by some. It's not talking here about every
man without exception, but every believer, everyone enabled of
God to see it, perceive it, and receive it. That's the every
man. You have to read the chapter
before to understand who he's talking to. He's talking to the
church. He's talking to believers. And
the appearing of this grace is a three-fold appearance. It appeared
in the Old Testament types and prophecies. You mean those old
prophets preached grace? Well, let me read you something
from 1 Peter 1 and verse 10. It says, they prophesied of the
grace that was to come. Did they preach grace? Peter
said they did. The Holy Spirit said they did. They preached grace. Enoch preached grace. Noah preached grace. And Romans
chapter 3 verse 24 speaks of the free justification of grace. through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus who was set forth in the Old Testament as the propitiation
for our sins according to the grace of God. And then secondly, it appeared
in the incarnation and representative work of Jesus Christ, the Son
of God. God was made flesh, dwelt among
us. And he says of this that grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ. It was manifested in the person
of God's son as he took to himself our flesh and bone. And then thirdly, it appears
in the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ who
accomplished our redemption and was raised from the dead to publicly
declare that justification. So to preach The gospel is to
shut men and women up to the grace of God. Is it not? Isn't that what we're trying
to do? I'm trying to strip men of their works. Strip men of
their so-called honor and value and shut them up to the grace
of God. That's what we're doing when
we preach. That's why I have to preach to you the total depravity
of man is to shut you up to the grace of God. And we're shut up to the grace
of God by an eternal election of grace. And if by grace, then
it's no more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. We're
shut up to the grace by the universal fall of Adam. And Adam all died. Well, who's gonna be saved? Those
God chose by His grace. Shut up to grace by an eternal
purpose of grace. God has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. Shut up to grace by His coming
into the flesh. Shut up to grace by a holy substitute
and representative. Shut up to grace by divine resurrection. Shut up to grace by the presence
and power of the Holy Ghost. Shut up to grace by a heavenly
and effectual calling? Shut up to grace by a wonderful
and eternal resurrection at the last day? The gospel is the gospel
of God's sovereign grace. The way of salvation is the way
of grace, and Christ said, I am the way. I am the way. So what does the grace of God
that bringeth salvation? It teaches every man, every believer,
it teaches. That's what he tells us here.
The grace of God that bringeth salvation. You're being saved. And as you're being saved, you're
being taught. So what does the grace of God that bringeth salvation
teach? Well, if I have time, I have
five things for you to consider. If you look at our text in Titus
2 verse 12, it begins by teaching us to deny ungodliness. What in the world does that mean?
What is ungodliness? If you were to tell somebody
that, that the grace of God teaches you to deny ungodliness, and
then they say, well, what is ungodliness? Could you answer
them? Could you tell them what that is? Well, I'll tell you
what ungodliness is. It's anything contrary to the
character of God. Anything that you do or say that's
contrary to the character of God. It's the lack of true knowledge
of God. It's talking about God in such
a way that you're dishonoring His name. You're telling folks
that God is willing to compromise. That's ungodly. It's ungodly. And it's the lack of God's presence
and power in a man. That's ungodliness. And strictly
speaking, it's anything contrary to the character of God. In the
last days before the flood, God described this fallen world saying,
now listen to this, of all the things that he could have seen,
do you not think that all of the vices that we're experiencing
today that they didn't experience before the fall, sure they did.
Sure they did. Man's heart and character hadn't
changed one iota. But he didn't talk about any
of those things. He didn't talk about the brothels.
He didn't talk about all this. He didn't talk about that. Here's
how he described the world. Now listen. Every imagination
of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually. That's fallen man. That's fallen
man. Ungodliness springs from darkness
and ignorance and vain deceit. Paul said, don't walk as the
Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds, having their understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them. It springs from ignorance and
darkness. And then he quickly reminds them
But you have not so learned Christ. Believers are children of light.
Ephesians 5.8, he said, you were sometimes darkness, but now you're
light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. And he tells us this, he said,
had no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather
reprove them. Reprove them. So we are to deny
ungodliness. What does that mean? That means
shove it away from you. That's what it means. Shove it
away. Get away from it. Get away from it. Refuse to let
it in. Have no association with it. Evil company corrupts good manners,
don't it? Sure it does. You be talking
just like they talk, acting just like they act. It never goes
the other way. and it's not you go there and
you're you're trying to be a moral godly person and you're around
to some godly person and you try to have an association what
happened you pick up all his bad stuff you don't pick up your
goods that's right had no association with alright
secondly the grace of god to bring a salvation teaches us
to deny worldly I want you to listen to me, especially you
teenage boys and girls. Every adult in this place have
lived through the years that you're living through. Every
one of us. We know what you're going to
do before you do it. We know what you're going to think before
you think it. I told my kids, I've been down this road, I know
where all the holes are. I'm going to tell you where the
holes are, but if you don't want to listen, you've helped yourself,
you go right on down that road and fall in every hole. But you'd be better off if you
just listen. Just listen. I've been down the
road. He's been down the road. Every adult in this place has
been down this road. I know that your hormones are
running full blast. And that this whole world looks
like a bowl of banana pudding to you right now. It does. You
want everything you see, everything you hear, everything you... You
want it. You want it. And lust is not just sexual desire. That's what our generation defines
lust as sexual desire. It's not just sexual desire.
It's desire for riches and fame and reputation and authority
and anything else that's contrary to the will of God. That's something about forbidden
fruit. Old Doc come over one day, I
lived beside a doctor and we got to be good friends. I planted
bell peppers that year and who knows what I did, but I had giant
bell peppers. I mean, they were gorgeous. And
he kept looking at them and he come over and got him some while
I was away. And then he had to come tell
on himself. And he said, you know, forbidden
fruit is the sweetest. That's what he told me. And it
is. And your natural flesh lusts for it. It wants it. But all
the desires of the flesh, all of these things, fame and riches,
and all of these sexual desire is the strongest of these desires. It's not just a coincidence that
God describes false religion as a great whore. As a great whore. Or in Proverbs,
as the strange woman. This young man goes out at night
and he's walking down the street and he goes down her street.
You can read all about it over in the book of Proverbs. It's
not an overstatement in Proverbs 7.22 when he says, he goeth after
her straightway as an ox goeth to the slaughter. That's how
strong sexual desire is. He goes like a fool to the correction
of the stocks. Now, I'm talking naturally and
I'm talking spiritually at the same time, so I hope you'll listen
to You know where she lives, don't go in her neighborhood.
Isn't that what this is talking about? Just deny it. If you see her coming, get on
the other side of the street. Avoid her. The grace of God that bring us
salvation. There's a warfare immediately
when a man's born of God. The spirit, he lusts against
the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit. They're contrary,
the one to the other, and there's immediate warfare, and that warfare
continues till you die. This flesh wants one thing, this
spirit wants another. Now the difference is the natural
man don't have that. He's got a little bit of conscience
to restrain him, and some other natural means that God has given
to restrain him, and that's it. But he has no warfare. He's not
wrestling over it. The grace of God to bring us
salvation teaches us to deny worldly lust. You can't escape
them. The scripture said, for we all
had our conversation, our daily lives, and time passed in the
lust of our flesh. That's where God found us. Fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. And the sorry truth of
it, over in Romans 7 verse 25, is that our flesh will continue
to serve the law of sin. You can't, you can deny these
things, you can do the best you can, but your flesh still sins. And you'll continue to sin until
you die and God takes it completely away from you. But believers
are born of God and have a nature contrary to the flesh and it
engages in a warfare against the flesh and therefore we're
told to deny these things, don't feed them. Don't attempt to satisfy
them. Seek godly friends and fellowship
and godly literature and watch such things as do not excite
the flesh, if you're gonna watch them. All right, thirdly, the
grace of God that bringeth salvation teaches us to live soberly. Oh, you mean I can't have a glass
of wine? No, that's not what that's talking about. It means to live a straightforward
life in an honorable character. That's what it means. It means
to be serious and grave and not frivolous and carefree. Be careful
how you laugh at Satan's work. Be careful. He'll draw you in
like a gnat to a bonfire. Just be careful. Be sober. We're
saying keep your wits about you. You out here in the world, don't
relax. Don't relax. Keep your wits about
you. We're in a wilderness of sin,
just like those Jews were that come out of Egypt. Everything
out there is an enemy, it's poison, it'll bite you, there's enemies
on every hand. Keep your wits about you. Careful
how you walk. This life is not a playground,
it's called in the scripture this present evil world. And it's a wilderness out of
which God will one day extract his elect and burn it to cinders. Be mindful of what's out there
and learn what it's all about and be careful what you say and
do and how you mingle with live soberly, that is, reasonably
rational in the light of Christ. All right, fourthly, the grace
of God manifested in our Savior that bring us salvation teaches
us to live righteously in this present world. But there's none righteous. There's
none righteous. How are we going to live righteously? Well, first let me start with
this. These words, this present world, are important because
people want to spiritualize these things and say, well, we don't
really live here, we live in the spiritual realm. I beg your
pardon. Christ lived in this present
evil world and he obeyed that law perfectly in this present
evil world. He wasn't walking in a religious
realm, he was walking here, facing the same enemies and the same
problems and the same persecution that we do, yet without sin. He manifested a righteous life. He lived out his 33 and a half
years on this earth being tempted in all points like as we are,
yet without sin, and this world hated him. They mocked him, they
made light of him, they laughed at him, and when he died on the
cross, they laughed and told jokes. And yet at no time did
he cease to be obedient to his father nor dishonor God in anything
he said or did, even hanging on the cross. And we cannot be
in and of ourselves righteous in a way like Christ was righteous. He is our righteousness. But
we can live out our days with the mind of Christ who is our
righteousness and we can live in such a way as not to dishonor
the name of him who gave us this righteousness. Does that make
sense? To live righteously is to live
by faith, remembering who saved you, who called you, who gave
himself for you, and whose servant you are. All right, fifthly,
and I'll try to hurry. The grace of God to bring us
salvation had appeared unto us all, teaching us to be in a constant
state of looking for our blessed hope. We look to him and we look
for him. Does that make sense? He is our salvation. We look
to Him for everything. Of ourselves, we can't do anything.
I have to look to Him. He's my righteousness. He's my
wisdom. He's my sanctification. I look
to Him for all things. Scripture said, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He's the beginning
and end of our faith. We look to Him constantly. Look
to Him. And if we're looking to Him,
then we're going to look for Him. Is that right? Isn't that what He said? Our Lord said to His disciples,
He was about to go to the cross and He said, Let not your hearts
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in Me. In My Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself
that where I am, there you may be also. I'm going to ask you something. Look up here at me. I don't want
you daydreaming. I want you to listen to what
I'm telling you. Do you believe this? Do you believe what I taught
you here this morning? Do you believe in the one true
and living God? Do you believe that God exists
and all things exist in Him? In Him we live and move and have
our being? Do you really believe that? Do you believe that God the Son
came into this flesh, robed Himself in human flesh to accomplish
the salvation of a people given to Him by the Father? Do you
believe that? A people chosen of God and given to him in an
everlasting covenant of grace. And as our representative man,
he came and accomplished our redemption and then ascended
back into glory where he received redemption accomplished, seated
at the right hand of God, crowned with the crown of glory, securing
our salvation forever. You believe that when he's called
the last of his elect into glory, that he'll come again in all
the glory of his father's house, and in a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, will call out his elect from the grave, and they'll
be changed in a moment, will be robed with immortality forever? You believe that? You believe
that? Well, if you believe these things,
live that way. That's what Paul's teaching here
in Titus chapter two. If you believe these things,
walk that way, think that way, act that way, preach that way,
serve that way. Because the grace of God to bring
us salvation as it's manifested in the Son of God teaches these
things. Thank you.