The Lord’s Day Morning
Titus 2:11-15
“What the Grace of God Teaches”
Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III
If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to Titus, chapter two. We’re continuing to make our way through the Pastoral Letters of Paul, First and Second Timothy and Titus; we’re taking them in chronological order, moving from First Timothy to Titus, and then to Paul’s last book, Second Timothy, rather than in their canonical (or biblical) order. They appear in the order of First and Second Timothy and then Titus in your New Testaments.
We’ve already been looking at Titus for a number of weeks, and we have seen Paul consistently concerned that this local congregation would manifest the grace of God, that they would adorn the doctrine of God our Savior through their lives. These Christians in Crete in these various little congregations spread in various towns and cities were in a very immoral culture. The culture of Crete was fabled for its immorality, and Paul wants these Christians to stand out. He wants them to bear witness to the transforming grace of Jesus Christ, and so he’s concerned throughout this book to give that as an exhortation.
This past week, in looking at Titus 2:1-10, we saw him give exhortations to older women, and then older men, and then younger women, and then younger men as to their character and conduct. And he exhorts them in their character and conduct to show that they are those who have been changed through the transforming work of God’s Holy Spirit. He calls on Titus to give a good example to them about how to live, and he especially gives them exhortations in their homes and their families, and their friendships and their relationships to others in the church, and even to those who are their employers and masters: to show in those relationships the transforming grace of God in Jesus Christ.
And in the passage we’re going to read today, Paul gives us the reason why Titus and the elders there in Crete ought to promote godliness amongst the various groups and types of people in these congregations of Christian churches in Crete, and it’s a surprising answer; and we’re going to hear it from God’s word in just a moment. But before we do, let’s look to God in prayer and ask His blessing.
Lord God, Your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our way. You are the Father of light, and You give Your people light and understanding by Your word, so we pray that You would open our eyes, and by the Spirit help us to understand, believe and embrace the truth of Your word. And we pray that we would receive Your word for what it is: not the words of men; not the opinions of men; but the very word of God to His people. We ask all these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hear God’s word.
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.”
Amen. And thus ends this reading of God’s holy, inspired, and inerrant word. May He write its eternal truth upon our hearts.
If you’re a young person here today, chances are you have heard, yourself, the immortal answer to the question, “Mom—Dad—why do I have to do that?” And that immortal answer, of course is, “Because I said so!” It’s one of the great answers of all time, and most of us have heard it at some point in life; and it’s a very good answer, I want to add! Young people, when you obey in response to that answer—“Because I said so”—you are pleasing God, because He tells us in the Fifth Commandment that we are glorifying Him when we honor our father and our mother. And sometimes even though we don’t like that answer, and even though we would like to have a more complete rationale supplied to us by our parents for the particular reasons that they want us to do something, yet, responding in obedience to “Because I said so” is a good thing.
And you know, you might have expected Paul to give a “because I said so” reason for why the Christians in Crete ought to obey the commands and the exhortations that he had just given in Titus 2:1-10. Why should I, as an older woman or as an older man, or as a younger woman or as a younger man, obey Paul’s commands about my character and conduct in Titus 2:1-10? Well, “because I said so” might have been a good answer from Paul. He could say ‘I’m an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ; I have been vested with Jesus’ authority to shepherd and to teach, and even to command and exhort His church. My word is the very inspired word of the Holy Spirit for these people, and you ought to do these things just because I said so.’
But Paul gives a fairly amazing answer as to the reason why these Cretan Christians, and why we as Christians in Jackson ought to obey the exhortations of verses 1-10, and you’ll see it there in verse 11: “For the grace of God has appeared....” In other words, Paul says the reason these Christians ought to obey is because of God’s grace Because God’s grace has been manifest in Jesus Christ to them; because God’s grace has been manifest to them though they are from every type and class of man and woman—they’re from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. They’re from every social station and situation in life. God’s grace has been manifest to them, and because God’s grace has been manifest to them, they ought to respond with a firm “Yes, I will. Yes, I will delight to do that” to the commands of God’s word.
I. Grace motivates/enables!
Now I want you to see four or five things that Paul teaches us in this great passage today. The first thing that he teaches us is that grace transforms.
Notice the logic in Titus 2:1-15. In Titus 2:1-10, Paul gives commands to various people in the Christian congregations in Crete: to older men and women; to younger men and women; and, he tells them to act in a certain way and to relate in certain ways towards one another. And then in verses 11-15 he tells them why. And the reason that he tells them to relate that way to one another is because of God’s grace. God’s grace has appeared to you all, and that is why you ought to act in this way towards one another. That is why you ought to conduct yourself in this way. This is why you ought to pursue godliness.
Grace transforms. Paul is reminding us that the salvation-bringing grace of God has been manifested to all these kinds of people who are Christians in these congregations, and that that salvation-bringing grace of God has not only brought them forgiveness, but it has brought them a transformation.
Grace, as you know, is the sovereign favor of God. And since we are fallen and rebellious sinners, it is of necessity unmerited by us. It’s unearned by us, it’s undeserved by us. Nobody deserves God’s forgiving grace, and God is saying to these people (all of whom, like all of us, were sinners)—he is saying to them, ‘God’s grace has appeared to you, and it has not only brought forgiveness, it’s brought transformation; and this is why you ought to obey these exhortations from God.’
When Paul says that God’s grace has brought salvation to all men, what does he mean? Does he mean that all humanity has been saved in Jesus Christ? That every last person who ever lived has been redeemed and saved by Christ? Well, of course not. Paul has already in this passage talked about false teachers who are headed for destruction in their false teaching. Paul, throughout the rest of his letters makes it clear that there are many people who do not embrace Jesus Christ for salvation as He is offered in the gospel, and they are thus destined for God’s eternal punishment, not for eternal fellowship with God. Paul does not teach universalism, that all are saved.
Well, is Paul talking about the free offer of the gospel here, when he speaks about God’s grace having appeared, bringing salvation to all men? Presbyterians love the free offer of the gospel. Many of our friends who are a little bit suspicious of us because we believe in God’s divine election and in God’s predestination have a sneaking suspicion that we don’t believe in the free offer of the gospel, but we do believe and love the free offer of the gospel to all peoples and tribes and nations. In fact, you give some million or so dollars a year to make sure that the free offer of the gospel is extended to the very ends of the earth here at First Presbyterian Church. I trust that that’s an example of putting your money where your mouth is—or putting your money where your heart is— you desire the gospel to be spread to all the nations.
But Paul’s not talking about the free offer of the gospel here. Paul is talking about God’s grace bringing salvation to all kinds, classes, and conditions of people, especially here amongst these Cretan Christians. This salvation has involved their rescue from sin, their forgiveness of sin, but it has also involved God’s rescuing them from the power or the dominion of sin. And in the manifestation of God’s grace to all sorts and classes of people here in these churches, Paul is saying that God’s purpose is not only to forgive you, but to change you: to renovate you; to sanctify you; to transform you.
God’s grace has dawned on these Cretan Christians regardless of their age or their gender or their social standing, and God’s grace always reigns in righteousness, Paul is saying. God’s grace not only forgives, God’s grace transforms. And therefore Titus and the elders in these churches must expect and encourage every member of the flock called by grace to live and grow in righteousness by grace.
You see, since God has manifested His grace to all kinds and classes of people in the Christian church, all kinds and classes of people in the Christian church are to commit to living a life of godliness. Sometimes Paul says it the other way around, doesn’t he? In Romans, chapters 1-11, he shows us God’s grace; and then, in chapter 12 he says ‘therefore, in light of God’s grace, live this way’. But he, in Titus 2, says ‘live this way’, and then in verse 11 says’ let me show you why’, and he points you to God’s grace.
Again, the logic is because God has manifested His transforming grace, we must manifest that transforming grace in our lives. Grace transforms. Grace changes us. That’s the first thing that Paul says to Titus in this passage.
II. Grace teaches!
But there’s more. If you look at verse 12, you’ll see that grace not only transforms, but grace teaches. Paul says “...the grace of God has appeared... instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age.” So, Paul says grace not only transforms, but grace teaches. Teaches what? It teaches us to deny ungodliness and to embrace godliness. We sang about this just a few moments ago. Take out your hymnals and look at No. 529. You prayed as you sang—in the second stanza, if you’ll look down the page, you prayed that the Lord would “take away the love of sinning.” And Paul is saying here in Titus 2:12 that grace, when grace is at work in you, it works to take away your love of sinning. You prayed that the Lord would take away your love of sinning.
But you not only prayed that, you prayed, if you’ll look in verse four, that the Lord would “finish [in you] His new creation” and that He would let you see His “great salvation perfectly restored [in you.]” And that you would be “changed from glory into glory.” In other words, you prayed the petitions of the two parts of verse 12: that you would deny ungodliness and worldly desires on the one hand (that’s the negative part of grace’s work in you, transforming you); and that positively that you would live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.
You see, the salvation-bringing grace of God is a teacher of godliness. Where grace reigns, grace trains. And where grace is reigning it trains us to hate ungodliness and to love godliness. And Paul describes that in a couple of ways here. He speaks of our denying ungodliness and worldly desires—that is, renouncing the sinful desires and urges and tendencies that our fleshly selves have—and then positively he speaks of God’s reigning in grace and training us in grace in three areas: self; our relation to others; and, our relation to God.
When he speaks about self, he speaks in terms of living sensibly. He’s talking about self-control, one of the fruits of the Spirit; self-mastery, in which we have control over ourselves and are not driven by our desires.
Secondly, he speaks of our relationship with others when he speaks of our living righteously. That is, that we are living in justice and integrity towards our neighbors. To say it in Jesus’ terms, we are loving our neighbors.
And then he speaks of our living godly in the present age; that is, we are living with devotion to God. We are seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness; we are glorifying God in all that we do. And so, he describes this salvation-bringing grace of God as teaching us this kind of godliness. He’s saying that God’s sanctifying grace is manifested in our self-mastery, in our neighbor love, and in our devotion to God. So grace not only transforms, but grace teaches.
But he’s not done yet. In verse 13 he says that it’s not only that grace transforms and teaches, but that grace looks—look at what he says:
“...live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed
hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
III. Grace looks!
He’s telling us that the salvation-bringing grace of God is a teacher of hope, and that grace looks for the blessed hope. Grace trains us in hope: the certain expectation of the fulfillment of God’s promises and plans, and especially the glorious return of Jesus Christ.
Paul knows that as Christians attempting to live a godly life, we do so in a fallen world. And that lends itself to discouragement, because we all find ourselves in situations, some of which are not going to get better. Some of you are struggling with hard things in your lives today. Some of you have friends struggling with very difficult things, and you have seen your friends struggle with those things to the point that they are beginning to lose hope that things will ever be better about those situations. It may be a marriage, and you’ve seen friends get to the point where they’ve almost lost hope that things will ever get better in that marriage. Or it may be a situation with a child, and a mother or a father has almost lost hope that things will ever get better with that young person, and you have seen them in the midst of their situation wonder if there’s any reason for them to hope for the better. And you have longed to tell them everything’s going to be all right, but you’re not God, and you don’t know whether that situation is ever going to get better. But if you’re a Christian, you do know that the blessed hope is coming.
God knows that there are some things in this life—remember, He didn’t even tell Job what He was going to do in Job’s situation. Although He remedied so many things that were going on in Job’s life that were difficult, he pointed Job to this hope, and Job himself confessed it: that in the last day he would see his Redeemer in his own flesh.
And Paul is reminding you that if you’re a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ today you have the confident expectation that in the last day you will see your Redeemer in your resurrected flesh, and that hope is an absolute hope to the Christian, and it fuels the Christian life.
And it does it in two ways: one thing that it does is that it reminds us that in this fallen world we do not have the ultimate hope. The ultimate hope is in the blessed revelation of Jesus Christ. God does not tell us that everything’s going to be fixed and fine here. In fact, if we’re hoping that we’re bound to be struggling with doubt and despair, because so many hopes are frustrated.
But secondly and more positively, by reminding us of the absolute certainty of the blessed hope of the appearance of Jesus Christ, God gives us something to hope that transcends every situation in which we find ourselves. And so Paul is telling us here that grace trains us in this kind of hope. We look for the return of our Lord.
You may recall what Jesus told His disciples in the story of the ten virgins, when He told them that they were to be watchful, that they were to be anticipating His return. He told them that they were to be in a state of watchful readiness, so that when the Bridegroom returned they were ready. Well, what does He mean by that? Well, He means of course that we’re living in a constant expectation of the Lord’s return, and therefore we are busy in all of our life and at every moment in our lives in glorifying Him and enjoying Him forever, and doing His business, so that when He returns, He finds us doing His Father’s business.
John Wesley was asked the question once, “Mr. Wesley, if you knew that you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do for the rest of this day?” And he said, “Exactly what I had planned to do.” And the person responded, “How so?” And he said, “Well, I am attempting to live my life for God’s glory, to do His will in everything, and when He returns I want Him to find me doing His will. So I’d better get about doing exactly what I had planned to do this way.”
He was stressing that all of us, in every day in every way in life, ought to be doing the Father’s business, and so be in a state of watchful readiness for His return; and, the life of grace is a life of watchful readiness, and of confident hope; and so, grace looks. It not only transforms and teaches, it looks. It looks to the blessed hope, the appearing of Jesus Christ.
IV. Grace Works!
But grace also works, and you see this in verse 14: “...who gave Himself ...” to “...redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” Notice in this passage that Paul stresses that Christ gave Himself both to redeem us from a life of practicing evil and to purify us so that we manifest His grace in a life that is zealous for doing good. And so grace not only transforms and teaches and looks, grace works.
Paul speaks of the negative purpose of Christ’s work here in terms of buying us back from a life of wickedness. We were slaves to sin, captive to sin. We were dead in trespasses and sin, Paul could say, and Christ has bought us back from that life of futility and sin. But He has also worked in order to establish us in purity. This is what Paul is speaking about in Ephesians, chapter two. Let me ask you to turn with me there.
In Ephesians 2, verse 8, Paul says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Paul is stressing there that our salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone; that the basis of our salvation is not found in ourselves; it’s not found in our goodness, our works, or our faithfulness. The basis of our salvation is found in God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ, who died on our behalf that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And so salvation from beginning to end is salvation by grace and by faith.
Now, throughout history there have been people who have said, “if you teach that, people will live godless lives, and therefore what we’ve got to do is figure out how to get at least a little something of our works back into that grace, in order that people will realize that they have to live a godly life.” And so some people will say “we’re saved by grace and works,” or “we’re saved by faith and works,” or “we’re saved by faith and faithfulness.” But notice, Paul has excluded that. Read it again:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God; not as the result of works, that no one should boast.”
He’s slammed the door on anything that we might do in order to receive this great salvation.
Now, someone might say, “Aha! Well, then, there’s no place left for obedience in the Christian life! There’s no place left for good works, for deeds which are in accordance with God’s will.” Oh, no! Look at verse 10:
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
You see what Paul is saying. We’re not saved by good works in any way. We’re saved to good works. We’re saved for good works, but we’re not saved by good works. We’re saved by grace. We receive it through faith. It is Christ who saves us, but when He saves us He not only forgives our sins, He begins a work of transformation which will culminate on the day of the blessed appearing of Jesus Christ, when all of our sin is eradicated and we never, ever sin again.
Christ is working not only to forgive us, but to transform us. And God in His mercy not only wants to see us forgiven, but wants us to be won from a life of sin to a life of goodness and obedience. And that’s what He’s saying in Titus 2:14, that Christ gave Himself to purify for Himself a people of His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
Now the last thing that Paul says to Titus is found in verse 15, and there he reminds us that grace will not be disregarded. These truths need to be proclaimed with authority. “These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.”
Titus is to say “thus saith the Lord” about these things, not “it seems to me....” He’s to speak authoritatively to the people of God that grace reigns in righteousness, not in sinning, not in anarchy, but in true Christian liberty—liberty, freedom from a life of sin, freedom unto obedience, freedom unto good works. And Paul says, ‘Titus, teach people that if they really understand grace, they will be the most zealous, willingly committed, faithful, Bible-believing, Bible-obeying Christians, because grace trains us and teaches us to deny ungodliness and to live sensibly and righteously and godly in this present evil age.’
Let’s pray.
Lord God, we long to be Christians who show Your reigning grace in us by living sensibly, righteously, and godly in this fallen world. Give us Your grace to desire it, to live by it, and make us to be faithful witnesses to you, receiving all the glory for this in Yourself. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. The God of peace be with you all. Amen.
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A Guide to the Morning Worship
The Sermon
“Teach people that God forgives sins and they’ll have no reason to live godly lives.” “Don’t talk too much about free grace or people will just live how they want.” Have you ever encountered someone who thought such a thing, someone who was deeply concerned about godly living, and in some ways feared that parts of the gospel message would lead to ungodly living? In some ways we can understand these concerns. A quick look around the church today and you’ll find that in many ways the morality and behavior of the world is alive and well within the walls of the church. And so we have a healthy concern for the behavior of Christians, and we are tempted to look and wonder if we have invited licentious living by stressing the grace of God. Or have you ever struggled with the same ideas. Perhaps at times, when you are most frustrated with some indwelling sin which seems to have you beat, somewhere in the deep recesses of your mind, do you wonder, “If Christ’s sacrifice on the cross covers my sin, why should I struggle against this enemy within? God’s going to forgive me anyway.” It is the relationship between law and gospel in the Christian’s life that is foundational issue here. If God justifies sinners, doesn’t that mean that we can go on sinning? If Christ’s life satisfied the law’s demands, what place does the law have in my life? How serious is this issue of sin? It is questions such as these that Paul has in mind as he writes to his young colleague, Titus. Today, Lord willing, we shall see that our problems do not arise by overly stressing the doctrines of grace, but by misunderstanding the implications of God’s gracious offer of salvation from our sins.
The Reading of Scripture
After a little more than a year, we have come to the last chapter of the Book of Proverbs in our morning Scripture readings. Pray that God would grant you heavenly wisdom as you attentively hear it.
The Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs
When Morning Gilds the Skies
This hymn is one of our congregation’s favorites. Written by an unknown German author around 1800, it was translated by Edward Caswall in 1853. The text calls on us to praise Jesus Christ in every circumstance by repeating the exhortation “May Jesus Christ be praised” in a variety of typical situations in Christian experience. The tune is rousing and helps build the sense of energy that corresponds to the widening of the scope of the lyric’s call for praise.
The Heavens Declare Your Glory (Psalm 19)
The first stanza of this psalm will help us thank God for his written word,
in response to our hearing it read publicly. The author of the paraphrase and
the composer of the tune are those twin Titans of hymnody: Watts and Mason. When
these two are put together, expect something special (for instance, Watts did
the paraphrase of Psalm 72 that we sing and Mason wrote the arrangement for “Joy
to the World!”). This song serves as an appropriate response to the revelation
that is found in God’s word.
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
This great Wesley hymn is not only beloved, but a beautiful and substantive expression of praise to God, and petition to God to aid us in our growth in grace.
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Robert Robinson’s widowed mother sent him to London to learn to be a barber when he was a lad of fourteen. He loved reading more than his appointed vocation and eventually became a minister (first a Methodist, then later a Baptist). This hymn poignantly points out why God’s sovereign grace is so essential to our assurance—our hearts “are prone to wander.” If our salvation and security rest ultimately on our actions, rather than on God’s sovereign mercy, then there is no hope. This is such a simple truth, and yet such a difficult one to continue to cling to. We so desperately want to contribute something to our salvation, or at least vindicate God’s activities by our own efforts. The grace of God may call us to holy living, but our holy living is never the source of our standing before the Great Judge.
This guide to worship is written by the minister and provided to the congregation and our visitors in order (1) to assist them in their worship by explaining why we do what we do in worship and (2) to provide them background on the various elements of the service.