Titus 2:11

Titus chapter 2, we’re reading 11 to 14, our focus is on verse 11 tonight. For the grace of God that bring us salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteousness, 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. God blessed to us His sacred and holy word this evening. Years ago, Judge Kaufman presided over the trial of the Russian spies, the Rosenbergs, and they were charged with and convicted of treason against the United States, sentenced to death for selling government secrets to the communist. In his summation, at the end of a long and bitter trial, the defense attorney for the Rosenberg’s, said with an animated spirit, Your Honor, what my clients asked for is justice. Judge Kaufman calmly replied, The court has given to you what you’ve asked for, justice. What you really want is mercy, but that’s something this court has no right to give. There is a day when we will all stand before the ultimate judge, the Lord Jesus Christ, and give. an account of our lives. We are assured that God will judge this world in righteousness by that man that he has appointed Jesus Christ himself. You will receive strict justice. Everyone small and great will be carefully evaluated by the one who keeps a perfect record of all that happens on this earth. And, of course, there can be a death penalty. as part of your sentence. The Bible speaks about the lake of fire in the which men will be cast. Eternal death, or as the book of Revelation, calls it the second death. This is certainly a frightening prospect for the future. What you need is grace and mercy. For you cannot doubt the justice of your own condemnation in the eyes of God for all have sin and come short of the glory of God. Grace is God’s unmerited favor. Or as Paul says here in Titus in chapter 3 and verse 4, it’s the kindness and love of God, our Savior, toward man. Grace is always based on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that God forgives, that God cleanses, that God washes, that God washes away, sin on the basis of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Paul, having addressed the various groups of Christians in verses 2 through 10, now speaks of the grace of God in verse 11. He says that this grace, which brings salvation, hath appeared unto all men. What does this mean? and how does this relate to the context? Let me begin by saying this. You should realize it’s popular to teach universal grace. Now, there are those who believe in universal salvation. They’re called the universalist. They believe that all mankind will eventually live in eternal bliss and favor with God. There’s no other. everlasting punishment because all are touched by the grace of God. Today, you know, we’re told that man is intimately good. He’s been thrown off the right course in life by evil influences around him. So is the fall under some divine disfavor. And yet the grace of God has appeared to help all men overcome these evil influences and be fully restored to right standing with God. evidently the most notoriously evil people, whether we talk about Nero or Hitler or Dillinger or Saddam Hussein or Charles Manson will find themselves among the heavenly throng around the throne of God in the end because everyone gets safe. God’s grace is for all men. Suppose you had an opportunity to go to the seventh and deciding game of the World Series. But when you check to the world series, but when you check to all men, you know, on the prices of the tickets, they were astronomical, and you couldn’t afford it. But a friend of yours, through a great sacrifice, would manage to purchase a ticket for you and give it to you as a gift. So with your anticipation and excitement, maybe you head off to a historic Yankee Stadium or something, that nature. However, when you arrive at the gate with your precious ticket, you find out that they’re letting everybody in off the street without a ticket. It doesn’t really matter. matter. No ticket is needed. All are admitted. That’s the way it is with universal salvation. You might as well not worry about getting into heaven because everybody’s going to get there. The gates of heaven are open for everyone to go in. Some translations of the Bible here of this text in particular seem to actually suggest this conclusion. The New American Standard Version says, for the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation. to all men. The revised standard version has, for the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men. Of course, no one who takes seriously the teachings of the Word of God believes in universal salvation, or would give any credence to such an interpretation. For the Bible clearly speaks of the damnation of the wicked in hell. Indeed, the vast majority of mankind will be cast into the lake of fire, for Jesus said, broad is the way. that leads to destruction, and many there be that go in there at, and straight is the way, and narrow is, straight as the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth on the life, and few there be that find it in Matthew chapter 7. Universal salvation, some would like to have, but no Orthodox Christian would seriously entertain such a position. But then you’ll have those who hold to what I’ll call universal divine faith. There’s grace for all. The Armenian position is that man has free will, and therefore they pounce on a text like this and claim that it proves that God makes salvation in Christ possible for all mankind. Here’s how the Armenians argued their case in the synod of Dort in the early 1600s. The Holy Ghost confers was ready to convert as much grace to all men and to each man to whom the word of God is preached as is sufficient for promoting the conversion of men in its steps. Therefore, sufficient grace for faith in conversion falls to the lot not only of those whom God is said to will to save, according to the decree of absolute election, but also of those who are not actually converted. Article 3, Opinion C, Section. 6. And thus they would like to read this text as the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all mankind. If the sinner will only receive it, cooperate with it, he will be saved. We’re told that only if a person refuses to cooperate with the grace of God, resist it, only then will they perish. I have deemed this the frustrated God position. where God tries his best to save all men, but he’s just not able to do it. He gets checkmated despite his best efforts. God’s purpose gets thwarted. While my friends, anyone who honestly reads the Bible should realize there’s not a single area of truth in this thought. We read in Scripture, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion, so that it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runeth, but of God that showeth mercy. It seems to me that’s very selective. Is it not? Or as we read in Romans 921, hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel on the honor and another on to dishonor. The Armenian position is commonly held by many today. Then I will classify this third position here, even though it’s under the same idea of universal divine favor, as the modified Calvinist well-meant offer position. Amazingly, there are those who claim to adhere to the doctrines of grace who believe that God still earnestly desires the salvation of all men. They call it a paradox. They call it a mystery that we just can’t understand. On one hand, they believe that God sovereignly saves whom he will. unconditional election, and on the other, that he really desires to save all mankind is grace for all. We’re told that in the preaching of the gospel, that grace is offered to all men without exception. John Murray put it this way. The full and free offer of the gospel is a grace bestowed upon all. Modify Calvinist to quake God’s command that all who hear the gospel repent. and believe with God’s desire that he would save them all. Someone has summarized this in this manner. If God seriously commands all men to repent, God desires all men to repent. If God desires all men to repent, God desires all men to repent, God desires their wills that all men be saved. If he wills that all men be saved, he loves all men and is gracious to all men. Of course, the fatal flaw in this argument is when they equate God’s desire with it, with his command here, or just, excuse me, the argument that God’s desire is not his command. God’s command in the gospel tells the sinner what he or she ought to do. It’s their duty. It’s their obligation before God to repent and believe the gospel. However, God’s desire is no different than his decree. We read in scripture that our God is in the heavens He hath done whatsoever. he hath pleased. He does whatever he desires to do. And therefore if he desired the salvation of all men, we must argue that he would bring it to pass. The counsel of the Lord shall stand forever the thoughts of his heart to all generation. God’s counsel is equated with his desires, the thoughts of his heart. Or as we read in Job 2313. But He, God, God is in one mind. God is in one mind. and who can turn him. And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. He performeth the thing that is appointed for me. So whatever God desires, he does. And what he desires, he desires is what he has already appointed. So the modified Calvinist position is what I call the confused God position because God desires all men, we’re told, and at the same time he has decreed that not all men be saying. So he has two contrary wills, and it’s sort of a schizophrenic situation. In the book of Daniel, remember King Darius, faced a real dilemma. He’s made a decree which, in effect, seals the fate of Daniel. Death in the Lion’s Den is what Daniel’s going to get for praying to his God, and he’s going to get it because he violated the king’s decree. Daniel has to cast in the Lions’ den. Yet Darius is very unhappy, for he really desires that Daniel escaped this terrible death contrary to his decree. So you read that the king’s sword is pleased. He can’t even sleep. He’s upset. Yet what can he do? No decree or statue of the king may be changed. According to the law of the Medes and the Persians, it’s fast. It can’t be altered. So here’s a man torn between what he is decreed and what he desires. He works very hard all day long, trying to figure out a way to spare Daniel, but in the end he fails. Daniel is tossed into the den of hungry lots. Now, do we dare place God in such a position as this? Is there a struggle with the Almighty regarding what he desires and what he decrees? Does he reluctantly cast sinners into hell? Is he eternally sad because of his decree of reprobation that was made before the foundation of the world? Does he have everlasting remorse because he can’t change his decree and fulfill his desire? If you follow this modified Calvinistic position carefully, you’ll find that the argument that this universal grace is displayed, Christ’s death for everyone as well. Not that Christ died to save everyone, as definite atonement teaches, but, and I quote here once again from John Murray in his collective writings, there must be a certain universalism belonging to the redemptive events that lay the basis for and warrants the universal proclamation. Or some talk about removing some type of legal obstacles in the way of the center. So you end up with an atonement that in some way isn’t just for the elect. And you end up with the grace that God gives what it’s resistable. Does that sound familiar? It ought to. It sounds Armenian to me. A.A. Hodge in his book on the Atonement wrote this. All really consistent Calvinist ought to have learned by now that the original position of the great writers and confession of the reformed churches have only been confused and neither improved, strengthened, nor illustrated by all the talk which the church has in the meantime been distracted as to the double will of God or the double reference of the atonement. If men will be consistent in their adherence to these novelties, they must become Armenians. I think he’s right. So you should realize it’s popular to teach universal grace. either universal salvation, which the universalists would like to hold, or some type of universal grace that’s not actually saving that the Armenians and the modified Calvinist hold. But secondly tonight, you should realize the Bible teaches particular grace. It teaches particular grace. Now notice the grace here is for all classes of people. You see the word four that begins. verse 11, four, that comes after verses two through 10, correct? And the Bible uses the words all men many times for all classes of people, rather than for every single individual among mankind. In other words, verse 11 here states the basis for what Paul has previously stated in verses 1 to 10. Paul is thinking of various categories of people. The aged men, the aged women, the young women, the young men, the slaves, the masters, all these people are mentioned here. And then he says, for the grace of God, which brings salvation half the period unto all men. In other words, all men without distinction regarding age or sex. or social standing or race. Calvin writes this in his commentary. It describes individual classes or various ranks of life. And this is not a little emphatic that the grace of God has let itself down even to the race of slaves. God does not despise men of the lowest and most degraded condition. So the Apostle here as he is envisioning the church community. He’s saying this gives evidence of the fact that God’s grace goes out to all men. Look at the different variety of people that God has saved. So he ties here the all men with what he goes on to say in verse 12, teaching us, you see. And then you’ll notice in verse 12 he also says that we should live soberly, righteously, and godly and soful. So he’s tying, if you look at what precedes it and what follows it, he’s tying in the all men with the people of the church that he’s been talking about here. Jesus Christ gave himself that he might redeem us from all iniquity. Verse 14. Universal grace in verse 11 doesn’t make any sense in this context. Look at the flow of the argument in this text. God has saved various group of believers. This is because the purpose of God’s grace is to save people from all classes in all categories of life. Even the most menial slave has been touched by the grace of God. This being the case, the church community, redeemed. by the blood of Jesus Christ to be a special people under the Lord should renounce all ungodliness and live righteously in this life. Thus the all men of verse 11 are to be equated with the us of verse 12. The us are those who are the groups of believers mentioned in verses 2 to 9. So the grace here is for all classes. The word four gives us that indication. It ties us all up. Now notice this grace that he talks about bestows salvation. Doesn’t he say here the grace of God that brings salvation? He doesn’t say anything here about the grace of God that makes possible for people to be saved or gives you a chance. He says this grace of God brings salvation. The idea of bringing salvation expressed by one word here. Soteros, which modifies the noun grace. And what I’m saying is that this grace is a saving grace. We’ve talked about grace being the unmerited favor of God. Later, Paul’s going to say that the people of God are justified by this grace. Look at verse 7. That being justified by His grace. This is the grace. So we’re talking. about. They’re declared righteous in the sight of God on the basis of Christ sacrificial death. And I’ll say this. The Bible knows no other grace than God’s sovereign, God’s particular grace that saves men from their sins. Years ago, Abraham Kuiper, well-known theologian of the past, Dutch theologian, wrote a book he wrote two books. One was called common grace and one was called particular grace. Now, he used the term common grace for the good gifts of God that God bestows upon men, like the sunshine and the rain and the crops and so forth. However, he was concerned that his theory of common grace would be confused with particular grace and then it would end up being a serious error. He warned people about this. The problem was what he said was really prophetic, because that’s exactly what happened. The Bible never speaks of common grace for God’s good gifts, the sunshine, and the rain are not gracious in and of themselves. They don’t save. Some theologians, some confessions, still use the term of Kuiper, this terminology, common grace. You’ll find it sometimes in your confessions of faith. But it refers to the sunshine and rain. It refers to the good gifts that God gives men. But we have to be careful that it doesn’t lead to a serious departure if we think that somehow it is a true, you know, truly grace. Because grace in scripture is saving. So we have to define any. I’m going to use that term. We better define it very carefully so that we don’t get confused. It seems that people want to talk about the sunshine and the rain and, you know, this being all grace, but it never dawns them to talk about the famine and the earthquakes and the hurricanes and the hurricanes, and the drought. What about that? What does that mean? How can that be construed as graces? How can that be construed as thinking that God desires to save all who suffer such things? Remember that God’s grace always brings salvation. This being the case, how can one interpret all men as mankind without ending up as a universalist? If it brings salvation and it’s all men or mean mankind in his text and everybody gets saved. Sort of like 2. Peter 3.9. Very similar idea. So this grace bestows salvation. Notice, this grace has appeared to all classes of men. He says here, it hath appeared to all men. Appear’d is in the passive voice. It has already shown. It’s already been made. visible, sort of like the stars that come out at night. It made visible to all men. The grace of God that brings salvation has clearly been shown to all classes of people. Indeed, those who sat sat in darkness among all classes of people saw a great light. The grace of God, which brings salvation, appears to all classes of people, through the means of the preaching of the gospel of Christ. I read in scripture where blind men, cripples, lepers, the outcasts of society were brought to salvation by the grace of God as they heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. Think of the demon-possessed man who lived among the tombs who were so wild and ferocious that even, you know, shackles and bindings couldn’t hold him. Nobody could be around him you were so wild and unpredictable. And yet, he meets Christ and he’s sitting there in his right mind, a changed man by the grace of God. Think of that little covetous tax collector, Zacchaeus, that everyone despised. He gets saved by the grace of God. Think about the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. A woman that’s been passed from man to man, lived a very sordid life. And yet she gets saved. by the grace of God. The grace of God reached Mary the prostitute as well as Mary the Virgin. It appeared to the simple fisherman Peter, as well as to the well-educated Pharisee, Paul. Rich men, like Joseph of Arimathea, poor men like blind Bartimaeus, the beggar. Slaves, like Onesimus masters, like Philemon. And on and on we could go. To all these people, the grace of God was shown and they were saved. It appeared to them. If all men means mankind, then, how is it that the grace of God has appeared to everyone when not everyone’s even heard the gospel? How is there any evidence of it appearing to all men in the sense of mankind? How has God’s saving grace appeared to the natives in the depths of Central Africa or in the jungles of the Amazon where the gospel hasn’t touched them? So she’d realize the Bible teaches particular grace. Two or three years before his death, John Newton, who was the author author of Amazing Grace, when his sight was so dim that he could no longer read the Bible, he would have a friend that would call upon him every day, eat breakfast with him, afterwards read the Bible and then they would have prayer to get them. So one day his friend comes over and after the meal time his friend would read a portion of scripture and then Newton would usually make a few comments on what they had read. And then appropriate prayer would be offered. Well, this day there was silence after the words of 1 Corinthians 1510 by the grace of God, I am what I am. the passage had to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ, particularly the resurrection of Christ and how the grace of God affected the Apostle Paul. As he put it in the scripture, this grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. Think about that. When God bestows grace upon a person, it’s never in vain. For God worked mightily in Paul, brought him to salvation, sent him forth to be an apostle. That’s the key point. It’s never in vain. Newton broke the silence after several minutes and he said this, I am not what I ought to be, how imperfect and deficient I am, I’m not what I wish to be, although I abhor that which is evil and would cleave to that which is good. I am not what I hope to be, but soon I shall be out of mortality and with it all sin and imperfection. Though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor yet what I hope to be, I can truly say I am not what I once was, a slave to sin and Satan. I can heartily join with the apostle and acknowledge that by the grace of God, I am what I am. Newton was once a profane and vile slave traitor. As he classified himself, God saved a wretch like me. God’s grace touched him. The grace of God alone brings salvation to the soul. No human work can possibly save your soul. Nothing even added to Christ’s work is beneficial. It degrades the work of Christ as if it’s not sufficient. Salvation comes through Christ alone is bestowed solely by God’s unmerited favor. So the salvation of God touches all classes of people. Whether you’re young or old, whether you’re rich or poor, whether you’re black or white, whether you’re male or female, you can be the most miserable sinner on earth and the grace of God can still save you. from this, we should glean the fact that nothing will preclude a person from being saved. if you look at all the sins that they might have in their life, can still save. the person. Christ those who were filled with demons. Those with self-destructive tendencies he’s saved. Now, you may think yourself perhaps righteous. Maybe you’re like Nicodemus and you think, I’m a church go or I’m a pretty good person. Yet I tell you, you need the grace of God too. Else you will never see the kingdom of heaven. Can you not picture that wonderful scene where there’s Paul, the Pharisee in the past, one who kept the law blameless as far as humanly looking at it. Highly educated man, Paul, and he’s kneeling beside a runaway slave and thief, Onesimus, and you can see them praying together. That’s the grace of God touching all men, no matter what class you may be in. The question I have to ask you tonight is has the grace of God appeared to you? Do you know anything about this grace that brings salvation that the text speaks about? For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, as any man should boast. Let us close with the word of prayer tonight.