Turn with me please in your Bible to the book of Titus in the New Testament. Titus chapter 2 comes after 1st and 2nd Timothy and just before Philemon and Hebrus. Titus chapter 2 and We will read from verse 1 to the end of the chapter. But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, that the aged men be sober, grave temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women and Likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given too much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers of home good, obedient to their own husbands, that 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, in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own 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. 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 Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no man despise thee. Thus far we read in God's holy and infallible word. Well, our text for this evening you'll find in verses 11 to 14 of those verses that we've just read. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. What Paul speaks about here in these verses is the outworking of what he calls in verse 1, what he calls sound doctrine. Salvation, redemption of course, and the blessed hope that we have, that Paul speaks of here, is only and ever on the basis of what God has done in us, for us, and given to us. The power and the enabling come before the practice. We cannot practice the sound doctrine, we cannot perform the outworking of these things that Paul exhorts us to until, and unless that is, God has worked in us powerfully and enablingly. It's all of grace, really, is what Paul is saying here. And of course, Paul, in his letters, he never seems to tire of telling us that fact, that it is all, from beginning to end, It is all of grace. We were once without any ability at all concerning the things of God. In Ephesians 2 verse 1 he says, And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit, that now worketh in the children of disobedience. And then in verse 4 he breaks in and he says, but God, but God, thank God for the butts in the Bible in the New Testament. But God broke in by his grace who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. These verses that we are looking at this evening are a glorious summary of salvation doctrine the doctrine, the message, the good news of the gospel that changed the entirety of our lives from ungodliness to people who are able under God to perform these good works that we are exhorted to hear. When we speak about the grace of God we are talking about the mighty, the almighty power of God breaking into the arena of human experience. The light dispels the darkness, but of course as we are told in John's Gospel, the light also exposes sin and of course it brings judgement. In John chapter 3, everybody I think in England must know the most famous verse of all, John for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. We are wont in terms of evangelism ever to be speaking those words. But very few people go on to read what comes afterwards. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God and this is the condemnation that light has come into the world via God's grace and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. When Paul speaks here of the grace of God appearing to all men he doesn't mean all men head for head He means all kinds of men, rich men, poor men, black men, white men, all classes of men. The grace of God has appeared in this world. One of the great impediments to Christian mission in this world in our day and generation and to Christian growth as well within the churches. This idea that people have that everybody goes to heaven regardless of what they believe and regardless of how they behave. That simply just is not true. Just a superficial reading and understanding of the Bible would give you that message. Another hindrance of course to Christian mission is the idea that works, good works, religious works, morality, respectability, and even partaking of the sacraments, the Lord's Supper and Baptism, that somehow or another these things work as brownie points with God, favour with God, grace with God. No, they do not. Paul again is quite clear in this matter. He tells us in Romans chapter 3 and in verse 19 there he says that we know that what things whoever the law says it says to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin. It is only by grace, this grace of which Paul speaks about here in verses 11 and 12. 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. You see we come empty handed to Jesus. We come with nothing at all, nothing to offer God. The only, realistically the only thing that we've got that we can honestly, truthfully call our own is our sin. We come to Jesus empty handed and even that desire, the Apostle tells us, even that desire to come to Him is of God's grace. Some would have us, in terms of preaching God's word, some would have us to make everything positive, they don't like negatives, let's all be positive. Well, here is an absolute positive here, and that is what Paul is saying in these first two verses, 11 and 12, you cannot have Christ and God and have your sins too. That's an impossibility. A sure mark, a sure evidence that the grace of God has come to a man or a woman is that they have also received and are working out in their lives the grace of repentance. There is a new desire implanted in their hearts by God, a desire to please God. Yes, imperfectly, but there is a desire to please God. And to this end, for that purpose, you see, the watchdog of the law of God's commandments stand to warn us, to rebuke us, to correct us. The administration of God's law to a believer is completely different to what it is to an unbeliever. It's a gracious administration by God to warn us, rebuke us and correct us, not to condemn us. Because God's desire is to establish us, to strengthen us and settle us. And so Grace becomes our personal trainer. You might have noticed in the newspapers just before the World Cup began that Mr Rooney had engaged, hired a personal trainer to equip him, to get him ready for the World Cup. It seems as though it didn't do him an awful lot of good, but that's what he did anyway. But God, you see, God's grace is our personal trainer to teach us, to instruct us, to equip us, and to get us ready for that great day when we pass from this world into heaven's glory. When Paul says he is teaching us denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, these two really are both the same. He doubles up for emphasis sake. The grace of God is the power that breaks these, the ungodliness and the worldly lusts. There is with the person who has received God's grace, there is a decisive rejection of that attitude that we find in the world that forgets about God or even sits lightly to God. You know, that pleases self, a life of self-gratification. Paul tells us in Romans 1.18 that the wrath of God, the holy displeasure of God is revealed from heaven against such ungodliness and unrighteousness of men through hold the tooth in unrighteousness. This is a generation of Christians, I tell you today, that really do need to learn to begin to take the Bible seriously. And especially so, especially so with regards to worldliness. I'm sure you already know, but let me read the verses to you in 1 John 2 verse 15, what the apostle says, they are about the world. Love not the world, he said, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love 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, the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away in the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. You don't hear very much preaching about separation these days. from pulpits by and large, generally speaking, throughout the land. The antithesis that God has placed there, he has called us out of the world and away from worldliness. He has called us to be his own special, his own peculiar people, saved by his grace, trained by his grace not to be worldly, but to reject worldliness. to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. We need to be very very careful of course in judging one another, very extremely careful, but with the advent of the television and the internet, Christians in this day and generation are watching stuff by the means of those mediums in their living rooms They are watching stuff which in former days would have been consigned to what we used to call dirty books. We would never have countenance having such in our homes. The sexual revolution that has taken place in the western world has led to the most gross, improper and immodest behaviour out there. But it has no place, beloved, it has no place in the church amongst God's gracious people. Then of course we could speak about assemblies where Christian sport is the in thing. There's the organisation Christians in Sport. There's nothing wrong with sport as long as it doesn't take you away from the Lord on the Sabbath day. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Churches where you can veritably enjoy a Christian disco. Well, if you want to enjoy that, you would be better going to a night club, because they can do it far, far better than we can. But I suggest to you, beloved, that such has no place in the Christian Church. It is worldly, and the grace of God, the grace of God that brought salvation to us, that has appeared to us, teaches us to deny such ungodliness and worldly passions and lusts. But secondly, verse 13, the grace of hope. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. The work of God's grace is connected with the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that's our goal, that's our expectancy, not this world. And again, it has to be said there are far far too many Christians who are living today for this world. And we should not be so. This is the very motivation, this is the driving factor in regards to our purity. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 2, again the Apostle says Beloved now, are we sons of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and every man that has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. That's our motivation. Hope is a grace that is implanted in our hearts by the Holy Spirit when the grace of God comes to us. Faith believes and hope waits and longs resolutely for that thing upon which our hope is fixed. That is our complete, our full redemption, salvation when the Lord Jesus Christ appears again. Hope is that that enables us to overcome all the difficulties, all the hurdles that are placed before us in our pilgrimage. Hope is that which enables us not to give up what we have hoped for. It enables us even in the extremest of difficulties, whatever life has to throw at us in this world, we have this hope beyond them, the appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He's coming again. And he's coming for us, he's coming to acquit us, he's coming to vindicate us, he's coming to acquit and to crown his own people. These verses are full of concentrated theology, doctrine, salvation doctrine, and of course there's the application, there's the practice too. Because all life and service are geared to this, the consummation, the end of our salvation in the glory of God's Kingdom. We are saved in hope and we rejoice in hope. Why is it that people embrace the Good News? Why did you embrace the Lord Jesus Christ when you once heard of Him? Because He offered you this hope, the hope of forgiveness. the hope of deliverance from your sins, the hope of heaven, of glory to come. But here's the question, do we live this way? Do you live this way? Do I? Do we live as pilgrims who are traveling through this world, holding lightly to the things of this world, as though almost as though they were non-existent? looking for something much, much better, a city whose builder and maker is God. Do we honestly, do you this evening, I ask you the question lovingly and graciously, I ask you, do you honestly, truly believe that it is better to be out of this world than to be with Jesus Christ? Because the New Testament says it is. Does anyone who sees, who listens to us and who observes our lives, do they get it? Do they really understand these people don't belong in this world. These people are citizens of heaven. These people are so remarkably different. This is what the grace of God is supposed to do in our lives. The big emphasis in the New Testament concerning the return of the Lord Jesus Christ is not escapism, and neither is it a means to frighten people, though some have used it that way. I know some people might be in Stafford who who have confessed to me that they indeed once used the return of the Lord Jesus Christ that very way to frighten their children. One day he's coming and he'll take us away but you'll be left behind. That is absolutely atrocious, abominable. That is not the emphasis of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. in glory. The New Testament emphasis on the return of Jesus is on the triumphal fulfillment of all that he has accomplished. It's a wonderful, glorious hope for the people of God, for those who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a wonderful, it's a glorious hope we are waiting for and longing for the appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. It keeps us from ever falling into a spirit and attitude of defeat and despair. However dark the clouds may become, and I fear for England that they are going to get a measure, more darkened before much longer. The night is far spent, the day is at hand, he is coming again soon. And the mighty spirit of God is working in the whole order of creation. You see all the things that cause us disturbance and fear and anxiety in our hearts. all the business in Iraq and Eastern Europe between Russia and Ukraine and we wonder to ourselves when is all this going to spill over into our own country and we hear of wars and rumours of wars and people in starvation, we hear about earthquakes in various places All these things the New Testament tells us are signs of His coming. He's coming and He's coming quickly. The Lord Jesus is straying at the bit, at the reins you might say. He's in a hurry to come again. But of course there are things that must happen. before that happens, sin must come to its full development in the world, ready for God's judgement. So we live in the world, in grace we live in the world, not abusing it because it's God's, but not anchored to it because we are looking for that blessed hope, we are looking for the glorious appearing. of our great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. We are looking for the fulfilment of these words of Isaiah. He says in chapter 25 verse 9, And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God. We have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for Him, and we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. But then in verse 14 Paul tells us that this grace that God has implanted in us, that works in us, that is our personal trainer, this grace has to be expressed. How do we express it? Verse 14. He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. This is the outworking of the salvation doctrine. The hymn writer asks the question, is this world's empty glory costing me too dear? Over against our worldliness is this magnificent statement of the apostles, our, our, our, he's ours, our personal, our saviour, for amazing love, for our lawlessness, for our iniquities, he purchased us to take us away from ungodliness and worldly lust. He gave Himself up to the death of the cross for that very reason, to wash us, to purify us, to make us His own peculiar people and to make us zealous for good works. Himself for us. He took what is ours and He gave us that which is his. He took our eternal damnation and he gave to us eternal salvation. In all the virtue and benefit and power of his death and resurrection by the eternal spirit of God within us, three objectives are Three objectives are outward in this. He has by his own death on the cross, he has redeemed us from all lawlessness. Not just freed us from the guilt of our sin, not just forgiven us, wonderful though that is, but to deliver us from it. There wouldn't be much to rejoice in if he just simply forgave us, would there? If that was all that there was to it? If he just kept on forgiving and forgiving of our sins? And just left us in the miserable struggle against the power of sin? No, he does forgive, he does remove the guilt, but he delivers us from the power of sin. Again, as the hymn writer puts it, he breaks the power of cancelled sin and he sets the prisoner free. Then secondly, to purify us and to reserve us for himself, his own special, his own peculiar people. The word peculiar of course can have different connotations, not peculiar in the wrong sense, 1 Peter 2 verse 9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar or a special people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which have not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. This is what Jesus has done for you, beloved. He wants you in a very personal, in a very special way. You are His. And He wants you to live for Himself and in Him to enjoy the most pleasurable fellowship. That's what He redeemed you for. And then thirdly, the objective of obtaining for himself a people mastered and motivated by a desire to do his will, to serve him with and in love, and with a delight, not because it's burdensome to you, not because you have to do it, not just merely out of duty, with a delight in doing His will. This is salvation. And of course, if we live out this salvation, if we live in the way that the Apostle here instructs us to, by the power of God's grace, Well, it would hardly be any wonder to us, would it, if the world were to despise us for it. In fact, the Apostle Peter says that much in 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 4 wherein they think it strange, the world that is, they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you, who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. They can't understand. You're a strange phenomena to them. Why won't you come to the pub or the nightclub and do the drugs and the and all the immoral stuff that goes with it. Why won't you run riot in the streets on a Saturday night through West Houghton or wherever else it is that you live? They think it a strange thing. But to us who know and to whom the grace of God has appeared, it's not strange at all. But beloved, shall we not be such Such people as He has redeemed us to be because He's coming and He's coming soon. The question is will we be ready? What will we be doing? What will you and I be doing when He comes? Where will He find us and what will He find us doing? I hope I trust that He will find us with our hearts full of zeal on fire for Him and serving Him to the utmost of our beings. But in this of course we have to ask the question where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? But hope, well if we have this blessed hope of which the Apostle here speaks, hope makes soldiers Christian soldiers of men and women. No, not the kind that bomb and kill people. I mean Christian soldiers who fight the good fight of faith. People who have this blessed hope in them. It has the effect of purifying them. Revelation chapter 21 and verse 7. He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and star-throwers, and adonisers, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. No, such a hope ought to make us to abound in the work of the Lord, should it not? Because our hope's a joyful one. I mean, the looking for the appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. For in this world that's full of turmoil and despair, there are so many people without hope, aren't there? no hope at all. They hope in something because, well, you can't live without hope, can you? When a person runs out of hope, that's when they take their own lives. The Testament makes that clear. No one can live without hope. They hope they might win the lottery on Saturday night. They hope that somebody or something will come round the corner. They hope and they cling to Anything at all that will give them some hope in the midst of their misery and turmoil. But that's no hope at all. It's the Good News, it's the Gospel, it's our Lord Jesus Christ, what he has done to redeem sinners, and what he's going to do when he comes again. That is a sure anchor for our soul. That is a hope that will not disappoint. It is real. It is concrete. It is sure. It will take us through every circumstance of this world. And it will bring us to glory. In the hope of what God has promised. And not a word of all that God has promised, not a single word of it, shall fail. So, renew your trust this evening in Jesus. and continue to look for that glorious hope that we have, the great and blessed hope of the appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.