Pupils of Grace
Text: Titus 2:11-15
Introduction
1. Illustration: The story was passed on over internet about Little Billy, a Jewish boy, who was failing his math lessons. His parents tried everything they could to get him to do better in this subject, but he continued to fail. At last, they took him down to the Catholic School, and enrolled him. After the first day, Billy came home and went up to his room, closed the door, and went to work on his math. His parents could hardly get him down for supper. After supper, he went back and "hit the books again." When his report card came next time, he laid it on the table for his parents to find. When his mother read it, she was amazed. He had an "A" in math. She questioned him about it wondering how such a change had come about. She asked him if it were the teachers, or the kind of books they used, but he said "no." Then why the change in his math scores? He said, "That first day at school, I looked up on the wall, and I saw a man nailed to a plus sign, and I knew that they were not fooling around here. So I went to work on my math." We all need a little motivation now and then.
2. We all know that grace saves us, but grace also teaches us.
a. It teaches us what to give up.
b. It teaches us how to live.
c. It teaches us who to look for.
3. Read Titus 2:11-15
Proposition: Grace teaches us how to live for Christ.
Transition: First of all...
I. Grace Teaches Us What to Give Up (11-12a)
A. Denying Ungodliness
1. Paul begins by telling something we are already familiar with "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men..."
a. We know that it is by grace that we are saved.
b. The entire program of redemption is rooted in "the grace of God," his free favor and spontaneous action toward needy sinners to deliver and transform them. - Expositor’s Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM
c. The verb appeared, from which we derive our word "epiphany," means "to become visible, make an appearance," and conveys the image of grace suddenly breaking in on our moral darkness, like the rising sun.
2. However, Paul also tells us something we may not know about grace: it teaches us. How can grace teach us?
a. If you recall, we said that grace is a part of God’s character.
b. Since it is grounded in God’s nature, grace makes ethical demands of Christians consistent with his nature. - Expositor’s Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM
c. If grace is a part of God’s nature than it is going to be in line with the rest of His nature.
d. Since God cannot contradict Himself, any part of His nature cannot contradict another part of His nature.
3. Okay, now that we know that God’s grace can teach, what does it teach us? It teaches us two things: one positive and one negative.
4. First, the negative thing that it teach us is "denying ungodliness and worldly lusts..."
a. I like the way the NIV phrases it: " It teaches us to say "No"
b. Rom. 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
c. The word ungodliness means "anything that is not like God, not holy, righteous or pure; anything that does not honor God by word or deed, that does not show reverence and worship toward God; anything that does not obey God, that violates God’s commandments and goes against His will.—Practical Word Studies in the New Testament
5. We live in an evil world where many totally reject God’s influence in any area of life. Christians must renounce that attitude.
6. We must say no to:
a. Lying
b. Cheating
c. Stealing
d. Lusting
e. Anything that is contrary to the nature of God.
1. Illustration: The surrender of one’s will to Jesus is essential to a life of joy and victory. Oswald Chambers called this “giving up my right to myself.” We hold nothing back—no earthly life, no material gain, no pride-filled position—but simply say, “Jesus, do with my life whatever You want.”
2. When we say no to ungodliness, we say yes to Jesus!
B. Worldly Lusts
1. Another thing that grace tells us to say no to is worldly lusts.
2. What Paul is talking about is "all the desires of this world that are not fit for heaven and could not be presented to God; all the desires that push us away from God.—Practical Word Studies in the New Testament
3. It means all the desires and lusts of the world that stir us...
a. To look when we should not look.
b. To do when we should not do.
c. To get more when we should give more.
d. To be selfish and vicious when we should be sacrificial and kind.
e. To be sensual and immoral when we should be disciplined and pure.
f. To seek the recognition of men when we should seek the recognition of God.
4. The fact that these desires are worldly characterizes them as belonging to the human society that ignores or despises God. (Liefeld, NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, 339).
5. 1 Jn. 2:15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
6. Illustration: "If I had a brother who had been murdered, what would you think of me if I ...daily consorted with the assassin who drove the dagger into my brother’s heart; surely I too must be an accomplice in the crime. Sin murdered Christ; will you be a friend to it? Sin pierced the heart of the Incarnate God; can you love it?"
C.H. Spurgeon.
Transition: Grace teaches us to say no to anything that would break the heart of God.
II. Grace Teaches Us How to Live (12b)
A. Soberly
1. There are also positive aspects that grace teaches us, and these have to do with how we should live.
2. First, Paul says that it teaches us to live soberly.
a. The word soberly pertains to being sensible and moderate in one’s behavior —Louw & Nida: NT Greek-English Lexicon
b. It is restraining desires, lusts, and appetites.
c. It is never giving in to excess—to the lust for more and more.
d. It is controlling everything and using it for its proper purpose.
3. Illustration: Someone said of this concept of self-control that "strength is the ability to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands--and then eat just one of the pieces."
4. Before we accepted the grace of God, we were at the mercy of the devil and our own evil desires.
a. But grace teaches us that we can over come through the power of the Holy Spirit.
b. Grace teaches us that we don’t have to give in to temptation.
c. Grace teaches us that there is victory in the name of Jesus!
B. Righteously
1. Paul also says that grace teaches us to live righteously.
2. This refers to:
a. Rendering to every man his due, injuring no person in his body, mind, reputation, or property;
b. doing unto all as we would they should do to us; —Adam Clarke’s Commentary
3. If they are well-off physically and materially, we are to treat them righteously, just like we would want to be treated.
4. If they are needy, poor, destitute, hungry, diseased, lonely, bed-ridden, and sinful, we are to do right toward them and meet their needs.
5. Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?
C. Godly
1. Paul says that grace teaches us to live godly, or to live as God would live on this earth.
2. To live in the consciousness that God lives within the very body of the believer—that the believer’s body is the very temple of God.
3. It is living and moving and having one’s being in God. It is living just like God says to live, obeying Him in all things.
4. 1 Pet. 1:14-15 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.
5. Illustration: "Holiness does not consist in mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervours, or uncommanded austerities; it consists in thinking as God thinks, and willing as God wills."
John Brown, Nineteenth-century Scottish theologian, quoted in J. Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness, p. 51.
Transition: Grace teaches us what to give up, how to live, and...
III. Grace Teaches Us Who to Look For (13-15)
A. Looking for the Blessed Hope
1. Grace teaches us that because we have been saved we can look for that blessed hope.
2. In verse 13, Paul says, "looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ."
a. Paul tells us that He came the first time in grace, but He is coming the second time in glory.
b. This future appearing in glory is the greatest hope of the believer (Stott, Guard the Truth, 194).
3. However, we must understand that Paul neither centers on the future consummation of our hope in the return of Christ to the neglect of our character and way of life here and now, nor centers on matters of conduct without setting these in the context of the Christian hope ( Liefeld, 339).
4. In other words, before Paul addresses that "blessed hope," he mentions the virtues that grace teaches us to adopt and live out "in this present age."
5. The motivation for righteous living is looking forward to that wonderful event when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed.
a. We can look forward to Christ’s wonderful return with eager expectation and hope.
b. Our hope makes us live each day ready morally and ethically to serve him.
B. Looking for Jesus
1. Illustration: Remembering is sometimes hard work. There were three old sisters who lived together. One sister got up to go to bed, and half way up the stairs she stopped and asked "was I going up or was I coming down"
One sister replied with a hint of aggravation, "you were going up to bed."
A second sister headed into the kitchen to make herself a sandwich. Once in the kitchen she hollered back to her sister who was still down stairs: "What did I come in here for?"
The sister responded again, this time a little more annoyed than the last: "You went in to make yourself a sandwich.
"I’m so glad I am not as forgetful as the both of you are" she said as she ’knocked on the wood’ of the end table.
Then she got up, walked over to the door, and said "Who is it?"
2. When Jesus comes a second time, we won’t wonder who it is, because we will know who He is. However, will He know who we are?
3. Grace teaches us to live in such a manner that we won’t have to be ashamed when Jesus returns for us.
4. Grace teaches us to look forward that blessed hope because we know that we are in a right relationship with God.
5. By grace are we saved, and by grace we will remain faithful until Jesus comes to take us home!
Conclusion
1. Grace teaches us:
a. To give up those things which keep us from God
b. To live in a way that is pleasing to Him.
c. To look forward to His glorious return.
2. What has grace taught you?
3. What do you have left to learn?
