Just three little chapters in it, but lots of rich truth to be gleaned, even from this little book, Titus, obviously one of the pastoral epistles, the others being 1st and 2nd Timothy. And these were letters, obviously, that Paul, the great apostle, then addressed to, not to churches as such, but to individual men, individual leaders. of these particular fellowships. They were pastors in these particular places, and I often find it appropriate to turn to these to learn from them. But before we write them off and say that these are letters just simply for those in positions of pastor or those in positions of leadership, I would say that many people, even before us tonight, are called to be leaders in many spheres of life. Maybe leaders of a particular ministry within the fellowship, perhaps called to lead a home as a head of a home or perhaps to lead children and teach them, perhaps even a leader within the business world. So there's much even to be gleaned from these that is useful even for those who aren't leaders, much to be learned from them. perhaps even just an individual who is called to lead and to live their life even before men as an example. So there's much to be gained from these pastoral epistles although they were written specifically to individual men in particular circumstances we can learn very much about them. So Titus was the a man who had been left in the island of Crete. Obviously, we don't know when Paul visited the island of Crete. It's not recorded in any of the Book of Acts in any of his missionary journeys. So we assume that it happened after the time of the Acts, after Paul had been in his first imprisonment in Rome, sometime between that and the second imprisonment when he lost his life. He must have visited the island of Crete, and he left this man, Titus, on the island of Crete with the charge of placing elders and all the fellowships that existed along the island of Crete. So it was a tough society to minister in. We read a little about the Cretans and the isle of Crete in the Book of Titus. And it was a hard place to minister. It was a little island, probably not dissimilar to our own, and also a hard place to minister within a tough society to minister in. We read about the Christians there in Titus, even in chapter one there, on verse 16, did I, no, verse 12, where one of the philosophers, I suppose you'd maybe call them, perhaps in that day, one known even outside the Bible, that says there, one of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Christians are always liars, evil beasts and slow bellies. Now that's not a very glowing report of these men and ladies who are living on this island of Crete, but it does show how difficult a situation that Titus had to deal with. And then Paul goes on to, if that's bad enough, he goes on then, verse 13, to say that this witness is true. He agrees with what this prophet of their own has said concerning these men. That little phrase, slow bellies, is a bit of an unusual one, The closest I could get to in our common tongue is probably a couch potato. Somebody who is maybe lazy, somebody who lies about, somebody who's basically just a belly walking about. All of those kind of characters. So we see the idea behind this little epistle here that's written to these people. Now it's a tough, tough time, tough ministry for Titus and tough challenges for him. in this situation where there's a lot of carnality, there's a lot of sin in this little island. But it's chapter two that I want to focus on really tonight. So we'll begin to read, and Paul here speaking obviously in the letter to Titus. And he says in verse one, but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. Talking to Titus, giving him an exhortation. But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith and charity and patience. The aged woman likewise that they be in behavior has become a holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things. That they may teach the young woman to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not, the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men, likewise, exhort to be sober-minded, in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works and doctrine, showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is off the country part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Exhort servants to be obedient unto their masters and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our saviour in all things. I think that's a very special little phrase that by our behaviour that we can even adorn the doctrine of God our saviour in all things. Verse 11 then reads, 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 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. These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee." It's a pretty short little book. Titus there, we've read almost a third of it, just in a few minutes there. So it's a book I would encourage you to read again. in its entirety. But in general terms, even as you read that little passage that we shared together there in chapter two, you can tell that what Paul has to write to Titus is very practical in nature, very practical book. And even the first part of that chapter, he spent much time even talking about practical things, instruction to what you would maybe call natural groups within the church. He's talked about older women, he's talked about older men, younger women, younger men, And he's also talked about the relationship between even slaves and their masters. And Paul, I suppose, recognizing that there's a danger within talking about practical things out there, that people might think that you can live the Christian life, you can earn some sort of merit with God by the way that we live. He, recognizing this danger within this little book that is so practical, he turns then in verse 11 and he begins to talk about grace. That's why the hymns that we sung together this evening. The last part of this chapter is really what I want to focus on, verses 11 through to 14. And the word really is the heart of this little letter. It's at the heart, probably physically of this little letter, is this little message concerning the grace of God. And it's at the heart of Paul's theology. This is why it's here. This is very much the heart of Paul's theology, is this word grace. And it's the heart of the gospel. The heart of the gospel message is the word of grace. So what is grace? We often ask that question, as opposed to we're speaking on such a subject, and it's God's undeserved favor. It's a very simple definition. Others use the acrostic, G-R-A-C-E, and they say it's God's riches at Christ's expense, and two very, very good ways of defining what grace is. Grace is really all that is opposed to merit, all that's opposed to working our own way to salvation. Our wages that we are due for sin is death, but grace is all that is not deserved. It's not a wage, it's not a wage because it's called a gift, because we didn't deserve it. We did deserve our wages of death, but we don't deserve this gift of grace that has been given to us. But our Christian life from beginning to end, we don't read too far within scripture to recognize that it's grace from beginning to end Grace is the foundation for faith that is placed upon, we are saved by grace through faith, so grace is that foundation that we place our faith on. We can see these parts within the passage, this little section from verse 11 to 14, that grace is that foundation. And we can also see that grace is the founding that we live our Christian life through. we don't live in our own strength, we don't obey the rules without reference or without the grace of God even within our lives, that power that empowers us to live the life that we are called to live. And it's also that grace that gives us the living hope even as the passage there speaks about the blessed hope there in verse 13. So just work our way through the verses here and I'll comment on them as we work through them. In verse 11 we read For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. So in this little verse, what I commented and what I noted when I was studying through it was that we see here the source of the grace of God. And we also see the salvation that the grace of God brings. And then we see the scope of the grace of God. So we see there that God is the source of the grace. For the grace of God, that's what is referred to as God's grace. So that's the source. He is the God of all grace, as we read in other places. And this grace that he talks about here was manifested to us through the Lord Jesus Christ, through his son. We could say that the Lord Jesus Christ, in many ways, we see him almost as grace personified, as grace incarnate coming down into this world. So this grace finds its source and it comes from God. This is the only place where grace can come from. It comes to us in this living way through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the gospel of grace that we believe. But then we read that grace brings salvation. This is the grace of God that bringeth salvation, as the verse says. Now this is something that comes to us. We don't go out, we don't find salvation. We can't work our way to God. We can't, by merit, earn any of these things. No one has ever earned or deserved their rescue from sin, from Satan, from the world, from the flesh or the devil. It has always been given to us freely through the gift of Jesus Christ. It's the grace of God that bring us salvation. But this grace is the only thing that can bring salvation to man, as we look at it from the other side. There's no other way described in this little passage. There's no other way given here, whereas salvation might come to us. It's just simply the grace of God. There isn't another path for grace to come to us. So it brings us salvation. The little chorus says, one way, God said, to get to heaven. Jesus is the only way. There's no other way. no other way to go. So we see the grace that comes from God, we see that it is a grace that brings salvation to us, but we also see the scope of this grace in the little verse, it says that it has appeared to all men. Now that doesn't mean that every man who's ever been born, every man, woman and child that's ever been born has heard the gospel story from someone's lips. We read in Romans, in the early chapters, Romans chapter 1, about the natural revelation of God through the creation, through conscience, and This is how grace may appear. Men will be judged in the light of what they understand and what they know about God. But here we see this grace has appeared to all men. It's really meaning that there is a message of salvation here for all men. It's not that every man has heard this message, but this is the only way. This is the message of salvation that is there for all men. But we see that in a general sense within this here that has appeared to all men, but then also in the context is quite particular. We see the grace of God that's appeared. We see this church laid out here. There's older men, there's younger men, there's older ladies, there's younger ladies, there's servants, there's masters. This is the grace of God that comes to every person, every kind of person, every type of person, and this church is really a blood-bought people, and it's a group of very different people, different personalities, different backgrounds, different abilities, different skills, but the grace of God has appeared to all. There's no respecter of persons here, and God's grace comes to each and every one and every type of So many think grace perhaps is some kind of impersonal force. We think of the grace of God and we think it's maybe some sort of impersonal thing, something that's just a force, something that we read about. But I think it's quite amazing, this little verse, because It goes on in verse 12 here to tell us that this is not the truth. Grace is something that interacts with us. Grace is something that changes us. It teaches us. It teaches us how to behave. And if we read in verse 12, Spurgeon says regarding this little verse, it says that grace has disciples. I don't know whether you ever considered that or not before. And he goes on and says, are you a disciple of grace? That was his challenge, even from this little verse. It says there, for the grace of God that bring us salvation have appeared to all men, teaching And you ask the question in the grammar there, what is doing the teaching? And the very simple thing is, it's the grace of God that's referred to in verse 11 there. So the grace of God is something that teaches us. And that's, to me, interesting. Precious as well, actually, as you work through the thought and the teaching behind that. But this was something the Cretans weren't doing they weren't living out the grace of God within their lives Titus 1 16 just the chapter before says there there were those who lived in Crete and it says there they profess And they were professors they professed a faith, but it wasn't real they profess That they know God, but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and on to every good work and reprobate. So there's a grace of God here that affects change. It teaches us what should happen. So they make the assumption that these Christians here who were professors didn't really possess the grace of God within their lives because their works were abominable. They were disobedient. They didn't follow the grace of God and the working of God even within their lives through the Spirit. So There were those who, if you like to say, these people in Crete, in chapter one, verse 16 there, they were professing, they were perhaps making all the right noises. I was driving my mum's car this week and I was making all the right noises, but I wasn't necessarily doing the right things. It's an automatic car and I was trying to make it go and it was sitting in neutral, so it was revving away. It wasn't going anywhere. This is a wee bit like these Cretans they had. profession but there was no power there was no authority behind it there was the grace of God was not within their lives and they remained unchanged really in their nature and they remained ungodly there was no power there was a form of godliness but there was no power really behind it there was nothing to make it work there was no fuel in the tank as it were so this verse 12 says that God's grace as a teacher is The word teach here is quite a full word, it's quite a rich word and it means teaching in every aspect of it. As a parent for a child there's a lot of tools in the toolbox used to try and teach children. It could be encouragement, teachers among us would know these things, you could be encouraging children, you could reprove them, you can give them correction, you can do all sorts of things, discipline to try and modify their behavior in many ways and this is what this word teach here has it's a very rich full word that means a kind of discipline really disciplining process that comes through your knowledge and the understanding of the grace of God that corrects our hearts, corrects our behavior and helps us to live in a right way. But the little verse there in verse 12 there tells us that we're taught in two different kind of ways, if you like, two directions the teaching comes. The first one is a negative. You want to put it in the second aspect of it as positive. It says, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. So that's kind of putting things off. That's that aspect of putting things away and putting things off. But then it says that we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. And that's that aspect that we read elsewhere of scripture, of putting off and putting on. So this is what grace does. And teaching us, it wants us to put certain things out of our behavioural vocabulary, if you like, and it wants us to put certain things in. It wants us to act in a certain way and it wants us not to act in certain ways. We're to hate, as Romans says, what is evil and to cling to what is good. So the positive aspect of that, we are to deny those ungodliness, the worldly lusts, the world, the flesh and the devil, all those things that you know as Christians we should put behind us and we should put off and then we should put on this aspect of living soberly. We say nothing to do with alcohol, but probably it could be involved to live soberly. But it is that aspect of self-control, the last fruit of the spirit, the idea of self-control, living self-controlled lives, to live soberly and righteously and godly in the present world. Now, when you look at some of the commentaries, they take these three words and they look at them in a kind of hierarchy. Almost soberly, they say, is kind of how you live your life in reference to yourself, your self-control, your ability to overcome sins and things within your own life. And then this aspect of being living righteously is that as to how we treat other people, how other people see us and how we treat other people has to do with our righteous living. And then the godly aspect obviously then is how we relate to God and how we interact and how we come before the God of heaven. So with that aspect of the personal, and then the interpersonal, and then that aspect where the grace of God affects our relationship then with the Lord himself. So the arena, really, of this godly behavior, and it says that we do this, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly. Then it adds a little phrase at the end, in this present world, That's present age. This is not something for when we get to heaven. This is something for the here and now, for the present age. a full word really, the present age, I mean this is a tough world, it's a hard world, there's many trials, there's many tribulations, there's many troubles, many problems within this world, but this is where we are called to live out this godly life, this is where we're called to deny these lusts that are placed in front of our faces and our eyes, this is where we're called to live godly in this present world, at this time in this world. So the Christian's expression of grace even in this environment is essential. This is what Titus is calling or Paul is calling Titus here to teach that we are to live this manner even in the present world that we live in. It doesn't say it's to be a good world or a bad world, it just says that this is the way we're called to live regardless of how we find ourselves or what circumstances we find ourselves in. But then the verse goes on, the passage goes on in verse 13 and it says, looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our savior, Jesus Christ. One of the little passages within scripture that points very forcibly to the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, calls him our great God and our savior, Jesus Christ. But this is a very practical book, as I said. It talks about behavior. And that behavior should be prompted by the grace of God that we have received as we became Christians. But how does the grace teach us? How does it teach us? How does this work within our lives in a practical sense? Well, it teaches us through two avenues. Within this passage, certainly, and it draws our attention to two things. The grace of God draws our attention in two directions. And the first one is to look to the future. And this is what verse 13 calls us to. It says, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. So Grace is our schoolmaster, it's our teacher, and it teaches us first when we look to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's always a great impetus in Paul's writing. We read books like Thessalonians, where he speaks much about the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's always a great impetus and a great emphasis of Paul really upon the Lord's return. This is an often neglected truth really today, one I think we should hear much more about. But if we often thought, if we thought much more about what lies ahead of us, both in the glories of heaven but also the soon return of our Lord Jesus Christ, It does be that that changes our behavior. It does be that that says, well, if the Lord Jesus Christ is standing at the door, we better behave. It's that that does constrain our behavior. This is where grace is one of those aspects of grace that teaches us as we look forward, even to that time when the Lord returns. If the King was coming, as he has been doing over these past few weeks, travelling around the various countries, if he was coming the house would be swept clean, everything would be in place, even the ink pens would be tested and made sure they were working so there would be nothing to cause any hassle or any difficulty. But if the king was coming, we would make sure everything was clean, everything was in place, everything was neat and tidy. Well, this is the same aspect that Grace here is teaching us, that as we look for that blessed hope, that we would make sure our lives were clean and tidy, that everything was spotless, everything was in place. So this is one of the directions that Grace has the ability to teach us how to live godly in this present world. It's described here as a blessed hope. Now, it wouldn't be a blessed hope if we weren't living well, it would be a scary prospect, but this is something that if we are living well, it should be a light on the horizon, something we long for, something we look forward to as the Lord Jesus Christ returned, and it would be a blessed hope to be among that great crowd when the Lord returns. Jesus came in his first advent, he didn't come in glory, he came and his glory was veiled as he came and he went to the cross. But in the second Advent his glory will be fully revealed and it will be revealed to us in salvation, it will be revealed sadly to a lost world also in judgment. There's a little hymn, I think it's a Goodman's sing it, one of the Gaither bands that came to my mind when I was preparing this and I just noted it down. It says, high upon a mountain from where he ascended an angel of the Lord declared that it would be. He said, don't stand here grieving for the one that you see leaving, and like manner he's coming back for you and me. And I believe he's coming back like he said. I believe that a trumpet's going to sound so loud one day it'll wake the dead. In the twinkling of an eye, he'll split the eastern sky, and I believe he's coming back as he said. I believe the time is nearing, we'll soon see his appearing. This could be the hour, this could be the day, when the saints from every nation will lose their gravitation and in the middle of the air be called away. There's a couple, a godly couple looking forward to that time when the Lord would return for his bride. So the gospel teaches us to ready ourselves for the Lord Jesus Christ's return, to live in the light of that, to allow the grace to teach us to look forward to that time when Christ will return and to let it teach us how we should live. But then it goes on a little further in verse 14 that says, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. So as this little passage comes to a close, we focus on Christ as we ought. Grace doesn't only teach us and prompt us how we ought to live by looking behind or looking ahead, but also teaches us how we should live as we look behind, as we look to the Calvary, as we look to the cross. And this is a wonderful little verse, it says there in verse 14, who gave himself for us. Imagine five little words, a whole lot of the gospel, just encapsulate it very simply in very, very simple language. God's substitutionary atonement for us. So simple a child could understand that, that God has given himself for us. Very rich in meaning, that little phrase. But the word here, redeemed, as well, also within this passage, it would have a very special meaning, I'm sure, for those that we read about who were servants. who were to be obedient unto their masters. That little word redeemed is really what the servants would even have been looking for in their day to have been redeemed from their slavery. Now I'm sure Paul wasn't particularly seeking to attack slavery at this stage, but I do wonder sometimes when you read that little phrase, was he just laying the seeds there saying that within the church perhaps some of these slaves maybe even have been in a position of authority over their masters within the church because the church runs counter-cultural. It puts things in its head sometimes and maybe some of these servants were gifted and maybe they were teaching their masters, their earthly masters, even in this context. So you just wonder was Paul maybe sowing some seeds there concerning even that issue of servants and masters in that time. But how we live is important to God, that's why as we consider these things, that's why in the Old Testament we consider those who had every blessing brought to bear within their lives, the great provision even provided for them, we think of always used to amaze me that the rebellious son was included among those who would receive a death sentence. But a passage that's here tells us that it would be a terrible thing for God to provide all these things for us, to provide His salvation for us, to provide the grace of God for us, to give us breath in our bodies and for us to use them for wrong things against Him. So we can understand that the rebellion of this world will bring severe judgment. We can understand an angry God in the circumstances like that, where everything has been provided for man. He has caused the rain to fall on the just and on the unjust. And even those temporal blessings that are enjoyed by everyone who has come into this world, God desires our highest good. He desires for us to turn on to him, but for us to rebel, even in small ways against the grace that he has given to us, I'm sure grieves the heart of God in this way. So this is one of the things where grace can teach us our correct behaviour, how we should live. our lives before him by looking forward to that blessed hope, but also looking back that we might not grieve the one who has not just given us all these temporal blessings, but the one who has given us the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, a cost that was so high and so dear. How terrible to turn away from that and how terrible even to Mar, that great sacrifice and that great gift that he's given to us, to reject it, to reject that power of grace within our lives. So this is also not just looking forward to God's coming again, but looking back to the cross where we see the great provision of God, to reject that is also where grace becomes a teacher within our lives, that we let it bring these teachings to our heart, and we begin to understand how grievous it is when we do sin, when we do wrong things against the Lord, and we do grieve the Holy Spirit within. He gave his best for us, the best that he could ever give, and we should do the same in return. So this verse tells us that the Christian life isn't simply one where we're freed from guilt, from the penalty of sin, but it's also speaking to that idea that we need to be freed from the power of sin within our lives. Freed from the power of iniquity, as the verse says there, ungodliness, we should be He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify it onto himself, a peculiar people zealous of good works. So that aspect that he might redeem us from all iniquity or sin is that idea of redeeming us from the penalty of sin, but then he wants to purify us and to purify us. And that's talking about that aspect where he wants to redeem us even from the power of sin as we live, even in this present age, as we read a little earlier there. Many people would say, as Paul even speaks elsewhere, that I'm not under law, I'm under grace, so I can live how I please, but this little passage speaks very sharply and very plainly against that, any such silly notions as that. We're saved by grace, yes, but that same grace, as we allow it within our lives, teaches us and it constrains us, even within the light of the great truths of Calvary, as we look back to what Christ has done for us and also his coming again. as we look forward, it teaches us to walk worthy of the call with which we are called. But then the little verse goes on, an unusual word, but it calls us a peculiar people. That could be true more of some than others, I suppose, perhaps, but it's an interesting word. I suppose it's an old word, probably from the King James Bible, but it really is that idea of being a set apart people, a special people, a different people. not peculiar. The world may see us as peculiar at times, but not peculiar in that sense as odd or strange, but really a set apart people. You might even use the word holy because that's what that word means. So it's kind of talking about a set apart special people, but it also has that idea of value contained within it. Other translations use the little word special rather than peculiar. And I think it's a good word because it conveys both those aspects of it well. Special is that which is kind of set apart, but it's also that which is Valuable we'd use that word specially in that sense as well as that thing that was precious or valuable to us So there's a peculiar people we are set apart people were precious to God It wasn't a price God paid a great price for our redemption, but it wasn't a price he had to pay He didn't have to go to the cross. He didn't have to shed his blood, but it was a price He was willing to pay so we learned from that we learned from the price that he paid for our salvation that that's what makes us precious. It was the price of God's blood, or Lord Jesus Christ's blood for us, is that price that he was willing to pay that makes us precious even within his side. So we also read there that it makes us zealous for good works. Zealous isn't really, it's not a lukewarm word, as we might say about the Ephesian church. It's not lackluster, it's not a half-hearted word. it's a word with almost fanatical aspect to it. that we should be zealous of good works, that we should be enthusiastic, that we should be engaged very much, heart and soul, every aspect of our being, when it comes to these good works that grace calls us to be involved in. No-holds-barred approach, really, to the Christian life, and out of devotion, really, for what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. But the verse 10, just to go back to it, it wasn't really speaking on it, but verse 10 really calls that we should, and we should live in a manner that we may adorn the doctrine of God, our savior, and all things. And I think that's quite amazing that how we live, how we live in this world, can beautify, if you like to put it, or adorn even the very doctrine of God our Savior and how we live. And obviously the other side being if we don't live well, we bring shame, we bring dishonor even onto the doctrine of God. But I think it's an amazing thing that we, even by the way we live our lives, can adorn even something that you would consider already perfect, but yet can be adorned even by the lives of Christians as we live here in this world. So I hope this was a portion of God's Word that I find challenging as I studied through it. As I say, I do apologize for a little bit of unpreparedness for it because I came to him a little late. But it's a passage of God's Word that I find particularly challenging to me personally and encouraging as well in many places, encouraging in the right sense to live better, to live closer to God and to keep short accounts with him. in my own personal life but I hope as I share it with you that it will be a benefit even to you this evening as we share together. But just at this stage then we'll come to a time of prayer. I don't have particular announcements now from Pastor