The Epiphany of Grace

Titus chapter 2 and we're looking at verses 11 through 15 which again if you remember takes us to the end of the chapter 2 of Titus.

As we work our way through this book, a very short little book but we're going to take our time. Started last week, kind of the close of our study time last week, I kind of introduced the passage by talking about this word that is somewhat familiar to us.

It's used a lot in our day and used wrongly usually and that is the word epiphany. People are always having an epiphany about this or that or the other and they have no idea what they're talking about when they use that term.

But of course, you know, language is a living thing and words in a language go through an evolution of meaning.

And so epiphany in our day means something a little bit different than it, of course, did in Paul's day when he wrote this letter. So we talked about epiphany and I mentioned that, in fact, this is kind of the title of this portion of our study.

And that is the two divine epiphanies, the two divine epiphanies. And so after the introduction, I just kind of introduced the two main points.

And so that's what we'll get into tonight. All right. So just to refresh your memory, if you were here last week in this second chapter of Titus, Paul's letter to Titus, Paul kind of introduces it by saying something about doctrine.

But primarily the first part of the chapter deals with practical things or ethical, ethical things. And then he moves to doctrinal, the doctrinal foundation for these ethical or practical instructions, which is a good approach, of course.

Though I mentioned last week, it's not Paul's normal approach. Paul almost always starts with the doctrinal and then with some kind of a conjunction.

He says, therefore, and then he makes makes it practical. So he begins with the foundation and builds on top of that the practical applications or instructions. But in this chapter, he does just the opposite.

So he begins with the practical, remember, or specific, we could call them specific duties that each and every member of the church, each one of us have specific duties.

Remember, for older men in the church, for older women, for younger men, younger women, for slaves, those kind of five categories that basically then cover.

For every single member of the church, every single member of the church. All right. So specific duties. And then he moves to what I called last week's sublime doctrines. And these doctrines really are sublime.

And they are doctrines that represent then the foundation for good works or the ethical instruction. If you look at the passage there in Titus chapter 2.

So the two verses in this passage kind of identify Paul's approach to laying before the people these sublime doctrines upon which the practical is built.

And all right. So what are those two verses? Well, verse 11 in Titus chapter 2. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

Appeared is that word epiphany or epiphaneus actually in the Greek pronunciation. Appeared. All right. So verse 11.

Verse 13 then looking for. And this, you know, the idea is future. We're looking forward. Whereas verse 11 is past. Past tense.

You know, that brings salvation. Has appeared. That's past tense. Verse 13 is future oriented. Looking for the blessed hope and glorious.

And there is the word again appearing. Appearing or epiphany. Epiphany of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. All right. So last week I spent a little time talking about that word epiphaneia or epiphany.

And which means, at least it means in the Greek text, Greek lexicon. It means a visible, the visible appearance of something or someone.

It can be applied to something or some person previously invisible. So the visible, the invisible rather, suddenly becomes visible. It's an appearing.

Remember I gave you a couple of secular illustrations. The sun suddenly appearing above the horizon, you know, at daybreak. So boom, there it is. So that's the epiphany of the sun.

It appears. Whereas it was invisible, now it is visible. It didn't just suddenly begin to exist when it came up over the horizon.

It existed before that. We just didn't see it. But now it has appeared. So that's an epiphany, epiphaneia. And the other illustration I gave was like an enemy that's, you know, hiding in the woods or behind some bushes or something.

And suddenly they appear in an ambush. It usually carries that idea of a suddenness, a sudden appearing. All right, so we talked about that word epiphany.

And so in the New Testament, remember the word occurs 11 times. And what is important for us to note is that of the 11 times, 10 times it refers to the comings of Christ.

And I say comings because four times it refers to the first coming, six times it refers to his second coming. And we looked at those passages last week. So the word epiphaneia is a significant, significant word here in Titus 2.

And why is that? Well, because of what Christ's appearings mean to us. This is why it's so important we understand this.

These appearings mean something very profoundly to us. Or should mean something very important to us. And for a number of reasons.

But certainly in terms of how we live our lives in this world. Or in the words of Paul in this text, in this present age. This present age.

All right, so then connected to Christ's first coming. We're ready for point number one. Now you can get to your notes, okay? The epiphany of grace.

That's the first part of it. Remember, there are two comings that Paul refers to in the passage. Two epiphanies. Two appearings of Christ.

There's the first one and the second one. And so he deals with the first one. And connects some very sublime doctrines. Very important doctrines to that first coming.

That first epiphany. And we find that in verses 11 and 12. So let me read verses 11 and 12. For the grace of God that brings salvation. Has appeared to all men.

Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.

All right, so this is all connected to the first epiphany. The first appearing. So let's just kind of take these bit by bit.

Kind of reduce it down to bite-sized portions. And really we can see two things here. In Paul's connection to the first coming.

Two things. Here's the first one. Or A on your outline. The grace of God has appeared to save us. That's very obvious from the passage, isn't it?

For the grace of God that brings salvation. Has appeared to all men. All right, so the grace of God has appeared. Appeared the first time.

To save us. To save us. And so let's kind of break this down a little bit further. And let's first take the words, has appeared. Again, I spent quite a bit of time last week talking about epiphania.

That's the word. But let's think about this, appeared. And so, again, Paul is referring to the first coming of Christ. All right? And we go back to a number of examples in the New Testament.

Where that very same word is used in connection with the first coming of Christ. I gave you Luke chapter 1, verse 79. And if you will remember, kind of remember these.

Actually, verse 79 is the closing words of Zachariah's prophecy. Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist. He's prophesying.

And at the close of that prophecy, he says, and he's speaking of the coming, the first coming of Christ. He says, to give light. Or to shine. And that's our word, epiphania.

To shine. And it carries the idea of sudden appearance. Shining. The light is shining. To those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace.

And by the way, that's somewhat of a quote of Isaiah chapter 9, verse 2. All right. So this is a reference. Appearing here is a reference to the first coming of Christ.

John R.W. Stott, one of my favorite preachers, commentators. He's Anglican. Low Anglican.

I won't take the time to explain the difference between low and high. But low Anglican are the good guys, theologically speaking. But anyway, John R.W. Stott is a tremendous theologian.

And he described the first appearing in this way. He said the first appearing includes more than just his birth.

It includes his lowly birth. These are his words. Quote. Includes, included his lowly birth, his gracious words, things he preached, his compassionate deeds or works, and above all, his atoning death and subsequent resurrection.

So when we talk about the first coming of Christ, we're not just talking about his birth. That's usually the first thing we think of. Maybe the only thing we think of. Someone says the first coming or the first advent of Christ.

We think of his birth. You know, his miraculous birth, the virgin birth. And it's a wonderful thing about that. We're getting close to the season. We're going to be thinking more about that again. But the first coming, the first epiphany, involves all of these things.

His birth, his life, his words, his preaching, his teaching, his miracles, his deeds, his works. But most importantly, his atoning death, his sacrifice upon the cross, and his resurrection.

So his has appeared. He has appeared. It includes all of these things. Next, let's add these words. For the grace of God has appeared.

The grace of God has appeared. Now, understand that when Paul said the grace of God has appeared, Paul did not mean that the grace of God came into existence when Christ came the first time.

It doesn't mean that's when it started. God's grace began there. God has always been a God of grace. Always. So don't ever get the idea.

Don't make the mistake. As some people make, many people make, in thinking that the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of the New Testament. You might say, well, he's the same God, but he acted differently.

You know, the God of the Old Testament is the God of law, God of grace. God of the New Testament, God of love. Not the law of grace. Law and wrath.

And the New Testament is the God of love and grace. So almost to the point, some people see two different gods. Don't make that mistake. It's not true. He has always been a God of grace.

In fact, you can go all the way back to the second book of the Bible, where there's a very specific reference made to the nature, the character of God. Exodus chapter 34, verses 5 and 6.

And this is in connection with the tablets being given to Moses and God revealing himself to Moses.

And this is what the passage says. I think I put this in your notes. Now the Lord, and notice that's in all capital letters, so that's a translation of the sacred name for God, Yahweh.

Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him, Moses there. And this is an interesting way of putting it. Proclaimed the name of the Lord.

Proclaimed the name of the Lord. And that means a whole lot more than just saying, here's what his name is. Just identifying his name. It's really a reference to his nature, character.

His name represents who he is. And so he proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him, passed before Moses.

And proclaimed, Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious. Gracious. Long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth.

Now that description is what some people seem to limit just to the God revealed in the New Testament. But this is the same God.

And God has not changed. He never changes. And he's the God of mercy and grace and long-suffering. And he's abounding in goodness and truth.

So God has always been gracious. And Peter said of God in 1 Peter 5, verse 10, he said that he is the God of all grace. The God of all grace.

So when Paul says here that the grace of God has appeared, he's not meaning that it suddenly came into existence.

It came about. It's always been there. Remember the idea behind the word epiphania. It is an appearance.

It is something that was not visible previous, suddenly appearing and becoming visible. And so Jesus, the Christ, when he came, he revealed the grace of God.

So the meaning really is quite simple. God's grace given to us before the beginning of time. It's not just enough to go back to, you know, the first part of the Old Testament.

You have to go back before. Eternity past. God's grace given to us before the beginning of time has now appeared to us in the person of his son, Jesus.

And that's the idea here. Paul wrote as much very clearly to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, 9, and 10. We looked at this last week. God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

That's important. But has now been revealed. How revealed? By the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ. That's a reference to his first coming.

Appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Third, let's add these words.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared. We're just kind of building, building again, trying to understand every part of this.

The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared. And, of course, the word salvation could mean a number of different things.

You know, save us from some enemy or to save us from some illness or to save. But, of course, in this context, the salvation that has appeared is salvation from sin.

That's very important. Not just to save us from, you know, like I was saying Sunday morning, save us from a poor self-esteem.

But save us from sin. Sin. And, specifically, its consequences. The penalty. The penalty of our sin, which is what?

Eternal judgment. So, that's the salvation that he's talking about here. And, this is exactly what we all need. There is no salvation apart from the grace of God. This is basic.

This is kind of Christianity 101. No salvation apart from the grace of God. And then, one last addition to the sentence that we need to touch on.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. That's a pretty important part of this. And, can be somewhat confusing.

To all men. Alright. So, now the word men. Let's just clear up this, first of all. The word men sounds like it's just exclusively to the male gender.

But, the word men here is the Greek word anthropos. Anthropos. And, it really means humanity. Humankind. You know, we sometimes call it mankind.

But, even that sounds a little gender exclusive. But, humankind. Anthropos. And, then the other issue is.

And, this is contrary to what many have taught over the years. Still teaching today. Paul is not teaching the universalism of salvation. That, you know, that everyone's saved.

Everyone's going to be saved. Or, ultimately, all people are going to be saved. Regardless of their religion. Or, even if they have no religion at all. And, I know it's hard for us to imagine that people believe that. But, there are many people who believe that.

And, teach that. A kind of universalism. Some would narrow it down to a universalism. In the sense of all those who are involved.

And, very sincere in some kind of faith. Some kind of religion. Or, some kind of concept of God. You know. As long as they're sincere. You know. As Adrian Rogers used to say.

If you believe that, you're sincerely wrong. But, so he's not talking about universalism here. At all. Paul is referring to the universal proclamation.

Of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. Universal proclamation of it. That is, in the sense of it's to every. Every tongue, tribe, people, nation.

And, that's the great commission. To proclaim the gospel. To every creature. Every one. And, it's not our business to know which ones God is going to say.

But, we're to proclaim it to all. And, so. It's not withheld from anyone. The gospel is universal in its proclamation. Some have called this the general call.

Of the gospel. Kind of the general call. That's what we're involved in. The general call. That is the proclamation of the gospel to everyone.

Because, we, you know. We don't concern ourselves. About who God is elected before the foundation of the world.

We don't have that kind of knowledge. We don't need that kind of knowledge. But, we have the responsibility to proclaim the gospel to every person. That's the general call.

The general, the call of the gospel goes out to everyone. Not everyone's going to be saved. But, we're involved in that general call. And, I think this is a reference to that.

As opposed to what is called the effectual call. The effectual call. And, according to John 6, 37 to 39. And, only those whom God has given to Jesus will come to him.

But, the gospel message will be proclaimed to every person in the world. Alright, so. But, there's only part of it. Part of the work of grace. And, it's the part that we're most familiar with.

Without a doubt. The saving nature of grace. There's a second part to this. It's rather interesting. So, you have, first of all, the grace of God has appeared to save us.

And, then, second, or B on your outline. The grace of God has appeared to school us. To school us. To teach us. To discipline us.

And, so, verse 12 says, teaching us. So, we're still talking about the grace of God here. So, you know, this is not a new sentence, new idea. This is carrying on from what is said in verse 11.

Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.

Alright, so this brings up. I didn't put this in your notes. You can jot some things down if you want to. But, I kind of as an afterthought, thought about this.

You know, Paul, here in this passage, is actually personifying grace. That is, grace is a person. Alright, grace didn't appear.

The person of grace, the grace of God. The person, Christ, is the one who appeared. So, he really is personifying the grace of God.

Grace is a person. And, when you think about it, you really cannot separate the activity or the work of grace. You can't really separate that from the person of grace.

That's what, I think, what makes Christianity unique from all other religions. Because, God works his grace by actually coming into the person's life.

So, he works from within. He doesn't sit on his throne and just, you know, kind of, you know, by extension, by long distance, work his grace.

He actually comes inside of us. And so, you know, when you say that the grace of God has come upon me, been given to me, it is synonymous.

It is the same thing as saying that Christ has been given to me. And so, it is very fitting that it seems that Paul, in the way he is writing this, is personifying the grace of God.

So, with that in mind, Jesus Christ is the grace of God. Just like we could make a very strong argument that gospel itself is Jesus. So, Jesus is the grace of God.

Jesus Christ has appeared to all men. Jesus Christ has appeared bringing salvation. So, it's personified. So, we could say that he is grace, the Savior.

Verse 11. Bringing salvation. And then we could say that he is grace, the schoolmaster, too. Teaching us.

All right. So, what does grace school us in? Well, two main lessons. One negative. One positive. Now, not negative in the sense it's bad.

But put in negative terms. All right. So, number one, negatively, he schools us to say no. No to certain things.

And he doesn't get real detailed here. He gives us a couple of very broad categories. But in verse 12, he says, teaching. Teaching us that denying.

Here's the key word. Denying. Denying what? Ungodliness and worldly lusts in the present age. I'm kind of skipping a few things.

And we'll come back to it. All right. So, here's the grace. Grace is schooling us in these things. Jesus schools us in these things. Teaching us to deny.

So, in the first place, the word denying is a very strong word. It defines a very conscious thing. Very deliberate.

Very purposeful. Act of the will. To say no to certain things. Now, we're not trying to...

We're not here separating this from somehow the enabling grace of God in our lives. In fact, that's all a part of this. But, we do have to make decisions as believers.

And I'm going to say no to this. No to that. And so, it's a very purposeful, deliberate, conscious thing. This, I guess we could say this is God's campaign against sin abuse.

Just say no. That's pretty corny. But long before we came up with that kind of slogan for drug abuse, God has in his word said, just say no.

Say no to sin. And what are we schooled in the Bible to say no to? Well, you know, everything that is sin.

I mean, we could make that statement very clearly. The Bible teaches that. But looking at the passage, we're to say no to those things that we are all confronted with every single day of our lives.

Those things in this present age. And, by the way, in this present age carries this implication. The wickedness of this age.

So, you know, you really need to consider what Paul is teaching us here. What Jesus is schooling us in here. We need to consider that in the context of the world in which we live, which is wicked.

We're in this present age. And it's not just simply a reference to the present. It's a reference to the quality. The quality, what the characteristics of this age in which we live, which is sinful.

Wicked. It's rebellious against God. And many other words that we could use. So, that's the first thing we need to note.

And so, then when we get into some of the specifics, really they're just two. And they're not real specific. They're kind of general, very broad terms. But when we get to that, then I think we understand that the things we are to say no to are, first of all, all around us.

They're all around us. But also within us. They're all around us and within us. Those are the two, kind of the two fronts in the battle.

Out here, inside here. All around us, within us. And so, Paul then groups these into two categories. We're to say no to, first of all, number one, the ungodliness around us.

That seems like a very general term. It's so general that we hardly, you know, hardly defines it. Ungodliness. Well, what does that include? It includes a lot of things, doesn't it?

But it is a more specific word than it perhaps appears to us. It's basically saying no to all things in our world that oppose God.

That oppose His glory. Refuse to give Him glory. That oppose His truth. Ungodliness is really the description of the lost person.

All right. So, is he telling us to say no to living like lost people? Well, basically that's what he's saying. Although I don't think a believer can live ongoing, in an ongoing sense, live like an unsafe person.

But again, it is somewhat more narrowly defined because we all sin. We all do things that lost people do because we still have a sinful nature. But specifically, it is kind of the world mindset that is in opposition to God.

Overt, deliberate, vocal, many times vocal, opposed to God. I mean the true God. The one true God.

The God of the Bible. And therefore, opposed to anything that He has said. And you can't look at our culture today or our world today. And I say that's a perfect description of lostness.

Not just simply those whose sin don't feel guilty about it. It's those who are actually in opposition to God. Opposition to the things of God and His truth.

And this is what we're being schooled in. We're schooled to say no to any kind of participation in that kind of sinfulness.

That kind of opposition. And sins of this godless world. And again, when I say godless world, you know, we think, well, most of this world believes in some kind of God.

So it's hard to say that they're godless. Well, I mean, of course, the one true God. They are void of the one true God.

The God of the Bible. And then second, we're to say no to the worldly lusts within us. So that covers it all, doesn't it?

Around us and in us. This is where the battle is waged every day.

I would say probably the most challenging battle for us is within us. Worldly lusts or worldly desires.

And what he's saying is say no to the sinful cravings of our flesh, our sinful flesh. And we have those. Every single one of us do.

I'm sorry, but you look like just really wonderful, moral, righteous, holy people. And you wouldn't have any thought of sin inside your heart.

Well, most of you look that way. But there is a pollution in us. That's probably the best word that we could use.

We're polluted by sin. And that will persist to be true of us until this flesh is one day redeemed.

When we die at the resurrection. Or Jesus comes first and changes us in the twinkling of an eye. We all have that pollution of sin within us.

And that sin craves certain things. Now, when I say it that way, don't think that we're split personalities. That sin is some other person living in us. It's who we are.

We have certain cravings and certain desires that are described here as worldly. That means opposite or in opposition to holy desires.

All right. So then, number one, negatively, he schools us to say no. Number two, positively. Positively, he schools us to say yes.

That stands to reason. No to certain things. Yes to other things. And so then he kind of shifts to a very positive note here. Teaching us that we should live soberly.

Righteously. And godly in the present age. I don't have to really explain the word live. But the word live, of course, is a reference to how we behave in life.

It's not just simply existing and breathing and eating and, you know, biologically alive, that kind of thing. But where is how we live, how we act, how we behave in life.

And really, it makes no qualification as to private or public. So, you know, who we are privately should be the same as who we are publicly.

In fact, I've said this many times before, and I borrowed it from somebody else, I think. But I can't give the person credit because I don't remember who it was. But, you know, godly character, your character is best defined by what you do when no one's looking, when no one knows or will ever know.

Who you are in private is a better revelation or revealer of your character. So, there's no qualification about that.

How you live. All right. We should live in these three ways. Soberly, righteously, and godly. And so the grace schools us or disciplines us to live, number one, soberly.

And, you know, right off, we think of sober. We connect it with drunkenness, the opposite of drunkenness, being sober.

But it didn't have anything to do with the drinking of alcoholic beverages. But the word really means sound mind. It literally means a sound mind.

Take the word itself. That's what it means. Now, the application, implication of it goes beyond just simply soundness of the mind. That can mean a lot of different things to us, different contexts.

Some translations, in fact, really only one that I know of, the ESV, translates it to live self-controlled.

We'll have to be careful about that terminology. Because the believer's life is not really characterized by self-control in the sense that, you know, somehow we can live it ourselves.

And make right decisions without any help. We're utterly dependent upon the grace of God. And the control of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

But God does expect us to be disciplined and have self-discipline. And to be sober-minded. And so it basically refers to a kind of thinking and behaving that takes God, His Word, our faith, takes all that seriously.

In fact, I think the American Standard maybe uses the word sincerely instead of soberly. It carries the idea of seriousness.

Now, we kind of dealt with this word when we were looking at qualifications, looking at passage in Titus chapter 1, on the qualifications of a pastor, an elder.

And sober, one of those qualifications. Talked about it then. It means to be serious about your faith. Serious about the things of God.

Serious about spiritual things. Now, it doesn't mean you have to be so sober that you're grim and no humor in you. I've met some people like that.

Usually men. I guess I've met some women like that too. You know. So sober that they don't have a single funny bone in their bodies. It's all right to be funny.

It's all right to be humorous. I mean, God made us that way. I think we can find examples in Scripture where Jesus was a pretty humorous fella. But when it comes to the things of God, our faith, our walk with him, his word, we're to be very serious about those things.

And so we are to say yes to living soberly. Soberly. And this, you know, this affects everything, doesn't it?

It affects our actions, the way we live, our thinking, feeling, our decision making.

It certainly affects our speaking, the things we say. You know, sometimes, you know, I've sat in a group of deacons. Not here.

I always have to make that qualification. Because we have some very seriously minded. In fact, all of them are very serious. Our elders and deacons are very serious about the word, about the faith.

But I have been in some situations where we've talked about, you know, something very serious. And have prayed. And then only to have some guy say some stupid joke about it.

You know, there's kind of a tendency for some people to, when things get too serious and too tense, they have to use a little comic relief. And maybe there's a time for that, appropriate time.

When we're talking about spiritual things. That's not a time to be funny. Or to tell some kind of joke about it. All right, then second to live, righteously.

So soberly, righteously. And these are such, I mean, soberly, you know, it's a word that's kind of problematic in our, because of our usage of it in our culture.

But righteously is one of those rich Bible words that we use quite often. Righteousness or righteously. So what does it mean here?

Well, it means to live according to the teachings of God's word. Just simply that. God's word, which is the only divine standard of what is right.

Right. So if you want to live righteously, and we're commanded to, then, you know, live according to the teachings of this book.

Pretty simply. Now that's contrary to what our world teaches, right? And encourages us. We're taught and tempted to stray away from the standards of God's word.

But God's word is the divine standard of what is righteous. What is right. Right is the root word there. And then third, to live godly.

You may think, well, that's just the same thing. Just a different word. But it specifically or narrowly speaks of our fellowship with God. Our communion with God the Father.

And it's talking about a level of fellowship. A fellowship that is so close and increasingly closer to him in our communion with him that our lives begin to express more and more his character.

Rather than our earthly character. We become more and more like the Lord in the way we live. And this is what he's saying to say yes to.

So that's the epiphany of grace. And then next time we'll look at the epiphany of glory. The epiphany of glory which is connected to the second coming of Christ.

The second appearing epiphany that we're looking forward to. And, you know, there are some ramifications for how we live.

That are connected, very strongly connected to our hope of the second coming of Christ. The second epiphany. Thank you.