Today I would like you to turn
your Bible to the book of Titus, the book of Titus chapter 2.
The book of Titus chapter 2. I'll be speaking from these verses
this morning. Let's read verse 9 down to verse
14 of Titus chapter 2. The apostle writes, exhort servants
to be obedient unto their masters and to please them in all things,
not answering again or not contradicting, not stealing, but showing all
good loyalty. that they may adorn the doctrine
of God our Savior in all things. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously,
and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus
Christ. who gave himself for us that
he might redeem us from all iniquity, all sin, and purify unto himself
a peculiar, a purchased people who were zealous of good works."
Now, upon reading this short epistle, the very clear statement
of basic fundamental truth, Jesus Christ is God, God our Savior. Three or four times throughout
this epistle, Paul uses this phrase, God our Savior. Paul believed in a divine Savior
who was not just a mere man, although He was, God manifests
in the flesh, but He was also God Almighty come to save His
people, who being in the brightness of His glory and express image
of God's person, who also accomplished the salvation of His people by
the sacrifice of Himself. We read in verse 14, "...who
gave Himself that He might redeem us." He shed His blood that He
might bring us unto God. Now, if you take away the deity
of Christ, the Godhead, the Godhood of Christ, you have no gospel.
You have no good news to preach. It's not that some important
man died, but rather, He who died is God. It's just not that some important
man died, but the Lord Jesus Christ who died to put away sin,
He Himself is God Almighty. None but God could be our great
Savior. That's why Paul said in Acts
20, it's recorded, that God purchased the church with His own blood.
He could not be God our Savior unless He is God's Christ. He
could not reveal the way of salvation except He be God's prophet. He could not work out salvation
except he be the priest of God. And he could not bestow salvation
except he be the king of the universe, God Almighty. He could
not be prophet, priest, and king except he be God our Savior and
God's Christ. Now, we're exhorted in this portion
of Scripture to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things."
What is this doctrine of God our Savior? My friend, it's nothing
less than the gospel. The gospel of God, Paul said
in Romans 1, he was separated unto the gospel of God concerning
his Son, Jesus Christ. To adorn the doctrine of God
our Savior is to believe, love, to receive, to profess, to submit
to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, to appreciate to identify
with it and to bow to it and receive it and believe it in
all things. To earn the doctrine of God our
Savior in all things. This is God's gospel. This is
God's message. This is God's salvation. Now
receive it, believe it, and bow to it. And then he says in our
text here in verse 11, the grace of God that bringeth salvation,
and this is what the grace of God does, it brings salvation
to God's people. The grace of God. Now what is
this grace of God? It's the gospel of God. It's called the gospel of His
glory, the gospel of His grace, the gospel of His glory, the
gospel concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. So called because in
salvation, God's grace and God's glory and mercy are revealed
in Jesus Christ and they're magnified. were saved, how? By the grace
of God. Were redeemed, how? Through the
mercy and the blood of Jesus Christ. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to God's mercy, He saved us by
the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit,
which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. There's God our Savior again.
Redemption is by the grace of God through the blood of Jesus
Christ. God has never saved, redeemed,
or justified any sinner apart from the grace of God. You go
all the way back through the Scripture and everyone who has
been saved and justified, they were all justified by grace.
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God's people are
chosen by grace. There is a remnant according
to the election of grace. We're called by grace. We're
saved by the grace of God. were justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And believing. How does a guilty, vile sinner
believe this gospel? Well, believing is all of grace.
It's the work of God. We believe according to the working
of God's mighty power. And my friend, it's the gospel
of the grace of God. Now watch this. The gospel of
the grace of God that brings salvation. It brings salvation. The preaching of the gospel is
a means God has been pleased to use to put in the hands of
men and in the hands of the Holy Spirit to convey grace to the
heart of the guilty sinner. The gospel message not only brings
grace to the sinner, but also brings the sinner to the grace
of God in Christ Jesus. It was free, sovereign grace.
When it first thought of the sinner in the covenant of eternal
grace, it was the free grace of God when it found and laid
hold of the sinner, and it's the free grace of God that brings
the sinner home to glory. Christ suffered once for our
sins, the just for the unjust, that He might, do what? Bring
us unto God. He's the captain of our salvation
in Hebrews 2, 10, we read, "...who is bringing many sons unto glory,
and will never be brought any other way." He said, now, adorn
the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. How do we do that?
By believing the gospel of God's grace. And then he says, it's
the grace of God that brings salvation. Salvation of all of
God. Salvation of the Lord. And then
it says here in our text in verse 11, Titus 2, 11, said, hath appeared
to all men." Now what does that mean? Well, the grace and the
gospel of Christ was never intended to bring nor to appear in a saving
way to all men everywhere without exception. The gospel to some
is a stumbling block. The gospel to some is an offense. The gospel is hidden to the natural
eye and must be revealed. I believe he's talking here about
preaching the gospel. We're commanded to preach the
gospel unto all people, go into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature. But it only appears and brings
salvation to God's people, to God's elect. We're commanded
to preach the gospel unto all men everywhere, but it only appears
in a saving way and brings quickening, revealing grace unto God's elect. I'll give you a good example
of that. Over in John chapter 10, when our Lord preached to
those Jews and those Pharisees over and over and over again,
and it says in John 10, 24 that the Jews came round about Him
and asked Him, they said unto Him, How long do you make us
to doubt if you be the Christ? Tell us plainly. And the Lord
said, I told you, and you believe not. The works that I do in my
Father's name, they bear witness of me. Now watch this verse here.
You believe not, because you're not of my sheep. As I said unto
you, my sheep hear my voice, I know them, they follow me,
and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my Father's hand." To
some, the message of grace, and to some, the gospel is a stumbling
stone, a rock of offense. However, to God's sheep and to
God's elect, it's a savor of life unto life. And it appears
under God's elect in a saving way, and it brings salvation
to their heart and brings them to Christ in faith. And then
it says in verse 12, Titus 2, 12, teaching us, this grace of
God not only brings salvation, but it's teaching grace. It teaches
us, listen to this verse, teaching us that denying ungodliness,
worldly lust, that we should live soberly, righteously, and
godly in this present world. This is teaching grace. The gospel
and the grace of God not only reveals the beauty and glory
and necessity of Jesus Christ to our heart, but it also teaches
us to reject and deny all former idolatry and religious experience
as rubbish. That's what Paul said in Philippians
3. He counted all his religious
background and his religious experience, his religious tradition. When he met Christ, he counted
it all but lost. that he might win Christ and
be found in him. And this is what the grace of
God teaches us. It teaches us that salvation
is in Christ. And it teaches us to deny and
reject all former idolatry and religious experience as rubbish. Does God save his people with
a false gospel? No. Were you saved by listening
to a false gospel? No, not at all. How do you identify
a false gospel? Anything that's contrary to the
grace and glory of God. God uses a message of grace,
the message of sovereign grace, the message of free and sovereign
grace in Christ Jesus to call out His sheep. And His sheep
hear that voice. His sheep hear that gospel and
they follow Him. The grace of God in the gospel
gives the strongest, clearest motive and argument for obedience,
His glory. It's the grace of God that brings
salvation, and not only brings salvation, it doesn't only appear
in a saving way to His people, but it teaches us. In verse 13
of our text we read this, looking for that blessed hope and the
glorious appearing of our great God. Here's that phrase again,
our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. The believer has a blessed
hope, and my friend, that blessed hope, that this grace of God
brings us to and teaches us is Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ
is our hope. And we live in a state of looking. Notice, it's teaching. It's a
continuing process. And it's a state of looking for
that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and
Savior Jesus Christ. We're looking for His appearing.
Believers are not taken up with a day and a time and a place
and looking for all the signs and different things. They're
taken up with the Lord God Almighty who is coming. And we're exhorted
in Scripture to look for Him, looking for the glorious appearing
of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Now, it describes
Him who's coming in verse 14. Now, let me give you this in
closing. Who gave Himself for us that
He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself of peculiar."
That means they purchased people who were zealous. Zealous of
God's glory, zealous of the gospel, and zealous of good work. Now
in verse 14 we see four things. The first thing we see is this.
The one who purchased salvation. The one who purchased our salvation. The Lord bought us with His own
blood. It says in verse 14, He gave
Himself. Who gave Himself? And it refers
back to what is said in verse 13. Our great God and Savior. So the one who purchased salvation
is God Himself. Our Lord was both God and man
in one person. Man that He might obey, suffer,
and die, and God that He might satisfy, honor, and honor His
own law and justice. The God-man. He thought it not
robbery to be equal with God. He said, you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. He must be the God-man in order to redeem. This is who purchased our salvation,
our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Both God and man in one
blessed person. Notice, secondly, the price of
our redemption. The one who purchased salvation
got our Savior. The price of our redemption It
was real expensive. He gave Himself. What a gift! And what a price! God gave Himself. Himself for our sins. He appeared
once in the end of age to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself. We read over in 1 Timothy 2,
verse 5, there's one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom. What a price! We didn't merit such a sacrifice. We didn't merit such a gift of
God's love. God so loved that He gave. God
sent His own Son to be the propitiation for our sin. We merited His wrath,
but He gave us Himself. It must be grace, not merit,
nor our deserving. The One who purchased our salvation? God Himself. The price? Himself. He gave Himself. We see also
the persons who He redeemed. He said He redeemed us. Who gave
Himself for us. Perishing sinners, lost, undone,
ungodly rebels. Christ died for the ungodly. He suffered the just for the
unjust that He might bring us unto God. Our blessed Lord died
for His sheep. He said that in John 10. I lay
down my life for the sheep. Now, contrary to popular opinion
of the day, Most people preach and believe universal atonement,
that Christ died for all the sins of all men. My friend, that's
just not so. It's just not according to the
Scripture. For the transgression of my people, he says, for us,
laid down his life for his sheep. He redeemed us. Can it be for
the transgression of my people he was stricken? Can it be? Now,
I want you to think about this. Can it be that he died for those
in hell the same as he died for those in heaven? Even common
sense won't allow such a thought. My friend, all those given to
Christ in the covenant of grace, all those for whom He stood as
surety and representative, all those for whom He died at Calvary
must be saved by His blood and by His grace. And then notice
this in closing. Verse 14, He gave Himself for
us that He might redeem us from all iniquity. Here's the glorious
result of Christ's atonement, Christ's blood perfected forever
them from all iniquity. He said, their sin and their
iniquity will I remember no more. Jesus Christ has accomplished
all our salvation, a justifying work for us with his blood and
a sanctifying work within us, purifying unto himself a peculiar
people, a purchased people who were zealous of God's glory,
zealous of good work.