In 'The Grace That Teaches,' Scott Brown explores the multifaceted role of grace in Christian life, primarily through the lens of Titus 2:11-15. Brown emphasizes that grace is not only the unmerited favor of God that brings salvation but also a transformative force that continually molds believers' lives. He explains that true conversion leads to a life that reflects God's grace through righteous living, driven by sound doctrine. The sermon highlights how grace actively teaches believers to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts while encouraging them to live soberly, righteously, and godly. Brown also addresses common misconceptions about grace, such as viewing it as mere permission for sin or something to be earned. Instead, he presents grace as an enduring, active blessing and a teacher that guides believers in their everyday lives, ensuring their actions align with their faith. The sermon underscores the idea that grace is integral to the Christian experience from justification to sanctification, and it should be continuously proclaimed and celebrated within the church community.

Please open your Bibles to Titus chapter 2, find verse 11. Titus 2 11. Titus 2 11. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter-than-honey word of God. 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, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might Redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works.

Speak these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Let's pray. Lord, these words are so revealing and they teach us what is so amazing about grace.

Lord come and teach your little flock here today. Send the devil to flight. Bless your children. Raise up a new generation oh Lord. Amen.

Please be seated. Well in these verses is really the doctrine of grace in all of its fullness. It's one long inspiring sentence. Did you notice that? Verses 11 to 14 is just one sentence.

Praise God for long, really crisp sentences like that. But the most wonderful thing in the world is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We sing a song here called Grace and I love the lyrics to that song and these words are there, by grace I am redeemed, by grace I am restored. That's the whole doctrine of grace in just two lines. It's what the the hymn Rock of Ages refers to when it speaks of the double cure saves from wrath and makes me pure.

And we all know, you don't come into the family of God by grace and then stay in it by works. You can't say you're in the family of God at the same time unless your works show it. But it's all of grace. All of it is a work of the grace of God. And all of this really means that if you're truly converted you'll be living differently and the grace of God will keep on transforming you.

And this is how the apostle Paul is framing this entire argument in Titus. Well, you've been with us before in Titus, and what we've seen is that Paul tells Titus to minister in the island of Crete a really messed up island where all cretins are Evil liars evil beasts and lazy glutton's and he's there to create a church a little community that will transform that island it would It will at least transform the culture in that church. And this happens when you are, when the elect are actually, they live their lives in accordance with sound doctrine. That's the first few verses. And then you appoint elders that have particular qualities in the church and what you have is you have older men behave in a particular way when they're converted older women do the same younger women younger men even workers and slaves their lives are totally transformed that's the whole context Paul ends that section in verse 10 by saying this is how you adorn the doctrine.

In other words, you make the doctrine visible. The doctrine isn't just meant to be something that sits and rots in your head. Oh some have such sound doctrine rotting in their heads but it doesn't come out in their life. They're the most boring people in the world. They're not adorning the doctrine.

But so after explaining what a transformed church looks like on the island of Crete and how that culture is shaped, now he's explaining how it happens. How in the world can this happen? And it's interesting that the apostle Paul does something very different in Titus. In most of the letters of the New Testament, the apostle lays down the doctrine and then the application. He does that in Romans.

He does that in Ephesians. He does that in the Colossian letter, the doctrine first, and then the application here. He reverses the order. He speaks of the application first and then the doctrine beginning right here in verse 11. This is the reason for it all.

And all of these things, all of these beautiful things that can emerge in the culture of a church they can only come about by one single thing one single five-letter word grace grace now you have an outline in front of you and I want to walk through this passage first you have the appearance of grace in verse 11 secondly you have the training of grace and grace teaches you what to reject and what to pursue we'll get to that in verse 12. Thirdly the hope of grace verse 13 fit forth the purpose of grace in verse 14 and then finally the proclamation of grace how important it is to proclaim the whole doctrine of the grace of God, which is for life and godliness. And that's in verse 15. So now last month, May 20th, we passed the 20 year anniversary of Hope Baptist Church. And over these 20 years, I've seen the grace of God.

I've seen the grace of God operating every year. Praise God. I see it now and I'm so thankful for the grace of God. You know what is so amazing about grace? Well, that's what we're really here to talk about.

And you know what? It's important, well, I know most of you, you do have the grace of God, you have the marks of the grace of God in your life. But it would be wrong not to ask the question, do you have the grace of God resting on you? Do you live in his daily unmerited favor? Are you experiencing the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Spirit?

That's the most important question. The other is, what is grace teaching you? What has grace been teaching you if you're a Christian that grace has taught you a lot already so far? Now by the end of this sermon I hope you'll have firm answers to all these questions that I just asked. There's so much that we could say about the biblical teaching about grace.

I can't help but saying if you're a believer something is happening to you that doesn't happen to every person in the world. You are being trained by grace often you don't even know it because grace is is an ever-flowing stream that never stops in the believers life and God actually favors his people he he treats them differently treats his children differently he in Exodus 15 he calls his people his special treasure, a chosen people, a precious possession. And he's treating his children differently by giving them grace every single day. And you know in the Christian life there are different elements of it. There are things to know the things that you need to know.

There's doctrine that you need to understand. There are also things you need to realize about yourself. And then there are the things that you do. All of that is really brought together in the doctrine of grace. In one sense, the grace of God is his ever-present favor, his unmerited favor.

Some have defined it according to the acronym, G-R-A-C-A-E, God's riches at Christ's expense. In 2 Corinthians, Paul at the very end of 2nd Corinthians is calling down blessings. He says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. This phrase, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ it appears in 1st Corinthians 16 it appears in Philippians 423 and Philemon 25 it's how the Apostle Paul opens most of his letters grace to you this is such a critical doctrine there are probably over a hundred and seventy references or appearances of this word you know in the Bible but what do they what do they refer to they in some context they refer to conversion they convert they they refer to salvation they refer to justification by faith which you do nothing to accomplish And in other places they refer to sanctification, the ongoing process of the flowing grace of God in your life. And it's referring really to the whole basket of blessings of redemption.

It's a big basket and we get to experience it really every day. In St. Corinthians there at the end, you have all three members of the Trinity mentioned. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. And these are just the blessings that flow from the Godhead to his children.

Heretias Bonner said, it is pressing for entrance into your souls like the light which is beating on your windows every morning. Let it in. I just want to begin by just saying don't minimize the impact of grace in your life. Grace is more active than you think. It's an unstoppable blessing.

It's an ongoing help from heaven. You know the Bible ends with this whole idea. Some of you are with us when we preach through Revelation in Revelation chapter 22 verse 21. The book ends with may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

What that means is that the grace just keeps on rolling in the believer's life. It's an unstoppable blessing. Romans 15, I'm sorry, Romans 5 verses one through five make this very very clear he says therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have access by faith and I love this statement into this grace in which we stand We are like standing in a waterfall of grace all the time. When you sleep, when you wake up, this is the life of the Christian. God favors you.

You are his precious possession. The Bible says you are his treasure. He treats you differently and he's letting his grace flow even when you're insensible to it. This is the grace and the unmerited favor and the beauty of the kindness of God. The believer just has unbroken access to this grace.

That's what Romans 5 says. We have access into this grace in which we stand and Paul is using that word, charis, you know, means favor, goodwill, the disposition of God toward his children. Do you think that about yourself? When we get to the Lord's Supper, I pray that you have a sense of God's kind and gracious and merciful, unmerited favor toward you, and you will celebrate that God saved your soul and this is God's work in in man. The Bible speaks of the riches of his grace in Ephesians chapter 1 where the whole idea is that we were adopted we were adopted into God's family for what?

To the praise of the glory of his grace which he made us acceptable in the beloved so grace is not just that it's not just the power that saves it It's not the hand that holds you. It's also the walker that teaches you how to walk in this life. And the grace of God just keeps on going and flowing. And what God has done is he's made his children purveyors of his grace, like Mary, male carriers of his grace, the delivery method of his grace through their conversations, through their encouragement, through their correction, through their restraint of their tongue, through their acts of love. We are carriers of his grace.

That's why God created us. We were created to give a blessing and created to have a blessing says the Apostle Peter and all of this is part of God's training. He's training us in grace. I want this church to rejoice in the new desires God has given them. I want this church to rejoice in the things that God has done in their lives since they have been converted.

I want you to look back and say, oh Lord, thank you for the new standards you gave me. Thank you for the new way of talking. Thank you for the new way of raising my kids. Thank you for the new way of being married. Thank you Lord.

Thank you for the new way of gathering among the people of God and worshiping God. I used to do my own thing on Sundays. Now I can't help it. I want to come and worship God. Thank God for all these marvelous blessings that God has given rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Well, that's what Romans five is talking about. We stand in grace and we rejoice in the glory of God and we also rejoice in our tribulations because we know that God is in control. We don't lose our minds while everybody else is. We don't lose our minds when the world is going out of control or we lose everything. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, because we stand we stand in that waterfall of grace.

You cannot get out of that waterfall. It's yours. What a blessing it is. This is the blessing of being converted. Now, my my experience, I'm sure it is yours that many American Christians can be very confused about grace, about what the Bible teaches about grace.

I mean Paul corrects this in different places. Should we send that grace may abound. Well there you know here here I'm going to give you six misunderstandings of grace here. First some view grace as permission rather than transformation. Titus talks about this.

They profess to know God, but in works they deny him. They view it as permission, and they view it as permission to do what they want to do but without any expectation of a changed life. I had a farmhand one time, many, many times over the 15 or 20 years that he worked for me he would he would be doing something I'd say what are you doing he said it doesn't matter God's gonna forgive me yeah that's called a really wrong view of grace he was just looking he was just looking for permission and forgiveness. And then there are some who view grace as something that must be earned. That it depends on your moral performance, it depends on your moral, your duties, your personal achievements.

And what does this look like? Often it looks like the person who's in constant fear of God's rejection if they fail. Constant disturbance of the soul over assurance of salvation. There is no Christian that does not sin and does not struggle with sin. There's no Christian that doesn't want to be better than what they are.

But some view grace as something to be earned but God makes us very clear Romans 11 6 and if by grace it is no longer of works otherwise grace is no longer grace by grace we have been saved not by works the next is some some reduced grace to just simple leniency grace is being lenient with everything grace is just letting everything be whatever will be will be and they they think of grace as just being nice you know God is not God is full of grace God's nice and so I'm gonna be nice about everything actually there's certain things that you should hate Another misunderstanding of grace is that when it's separated from discipleship, grace separated from discipleship. Dietrich Bonhoeffer talked about this. He referred to it as cheap grace. He's talked about people who they're just so happy to receive the benefits of Christianity but they don't follow Jesus Christ. And then finally some treat grace as if it's just an individual experience.

They're really thankful that God has forgiven them but they can't forgive anybody else. They can't let anybody else off the hook. God let you off the hook. You're not gonna let anybody else off the hook. See the parable of the unmerciful servant.

Forgiveness means you let somebody off the hook. It's almost like a word picture of fishing. You catch a fish and you decide whether you're going to it's a keeper or not you're gonna let that fish off the hook you're gonna let that fish go so all all this to say is it's easy to misunderstand grace and this passage of scripture I think enlightens us to help us to understand what grace is all about here we learn that grace teaches you how to live and There is justifying grace, but that's different than what Titus 2 11 is speaking of in in broad terms So let's talk let's get into the text verse 11 first of all the first thing we must learn about grace is the appearance of grace. For the grace that brings salvation has appeared to all men. Now before we get into that I don't want us to miss the word for you see that three critical letters for what he is saying remember all the teaching before you have the elect who live their lives in accordance with the word of God, godliness.

The men are transformed, the old men, The old women are transformed, the young women are transformed, the young men are transformed, the employees are all transformed. So all of this happens, why? That word for is like because. How can it be that these changes could possibly happen to all these people and all these ages from top to bottom? How could that possibly happen?

And so now He is addressing how it can happen. It happens according to the appearing of Jesus Christ. Very interesting word the apostle uses. We get our word epiphany from it. It's like a sudden appearance, you know, slam, flash, something comes before you, and you receive it.

Jesus Christ came and it struck you, just like light in the morning, and then everything became clear. Something life-changingly powerful happened when Jesus Christ came and so he's referring here to the whole package of God's mercy towards sinners, both justification and sanctification. When you read this, the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, he's talking about the birth, the life, the death, the resurrection, the appearances of Christ seated at the right hand of God, and also praying 24-7 for his saints. This is the cascading grace of God that began when Jesus Christ came into the world. And the word salvation here, it's an all-encompassing term.

It includes the entire scope of the saved person from beginning to end. Here's how you can say it we've said it before I was saved I am being saved and I will finally be saved everything will be saved in heaven thank God for that now this grace though actually began before Jesus Christ came it was conceived in heaven It was conceived before the universe began. This was God's plan. Grace existed before creation. Ephesians 1 tells us about it.

Ephesians 1, 4. Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy without and without blame before him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Why? To the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the blood. In other words, in eternity past, God chooses his children.

God ordains grace for his children. You could not help yourself. He was going to save you and he did and you couldn't hold back now some of you are still holding back don't hold back any longer so it says here that the grace has appeared to all men what does that mean It obviously doesn't mean every single person who's ever been born because we know some are bound for reprobation and some are bound for heaven. But what does he mean appeared to all men? He's talking about all kinds of men.

He's just been speaking of different kinds of men. The old men, the old women, the old young women, and the young men. And the slaves, the workers. He's already been speaking about all kinds of men. I think that's what he's speaking about.

And the gospel is proclaimed to all kinds of people so that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. We give the gospel to whoever. We don't know who will be saved. We know God is sovereign in salvation, but we don't know who's going to be saved so we speak to everybody. We're not respecter of persons in that sense at all.

So this is this unmerited favor toward undeserving sinners. God chose you. God pours out his grace on you as a Christian in spite of you. It's entirely dependent upon his character and his intentions. In Ephesians, his intentions are called the kind intentions of his will toward you.

Ephesians 2, 4, but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses. He made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Jesus Christ that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Jesus Christ I hope you caught that why did God do this God wants to set himself as the most gracious being in the universe. He wants to prove the exceeding riches of his own grace. That's what God is doing.

That's what God is doing in your life. He's trying to prove something in your life about His own grace. It's so amazing. So the appearance of grace, Jesus Christ came and he rose from the grave and he is continuing to pour out his grace on his people. The second thing here, the training of grace, verse 12 teaching us that.

So the idea is it's the grace is teaching. Grace teaches and he, the apostle uses a word that he uses about raising children, training children, the training and admonition of the Lord. God is training his children the way that parents are supposed to be teaching their children. If you have children, you're charged to bring your children up in the training and the admonition of the Lord. This is the heart of Christian education.

This is the center. It's the apex. It's everything about Christian education. It is the bringing them up. In other words, That whole idea there in Ephesians chapter six is you're teaching them everything about life.

Parents are supposed to teach their kids everything before they hit life big time. Don't let your children leave without it, okay? You want them to be ready to rumble. And you do that by teaching them everything they need to know everything about money everything about love everything about marriage everything about relationships everything about the church everything about everything that's what you're supposed to teach them and he uses that word idea it's it's the It's a child training term, teaching us all of the ethical commands and the great doctrines of the Bible. But notice this.

This is so interesting. The Bible does this all the time. Grace is now personified as a teacher. Grace is a teacher. Your teacher has a name.

Her name is Grace and she's teaching you and she's always teaching you. There are many ways that grace teaches. We could talk about this. I'll speak of some of this, but people speak of common grace. You know, what common grace has to do with all the things that God has provided for humanity.

He's provided many manifestations of His grace in nature. God says that He causes His rain to fall on the just and the unjust and his son to shine. God has poured out his grace in the world making it a beautifully habitable world. Isn't it a beautiful world? It's a wonderful world that God has created.

Everywhere you look, it's beautiful. It's stunning. It's more complex than your brain can even fathom. And he gave you this world where there's food and there's air and there are people and all kinds of just elements of common grace we keep discovering things in nature that we never knew that were there you know we we didn't realize you know and until you know about 60 years ago that you could send pictures across the whole world how did you know because there are there are things embedded in nature that we're still discovering and there's more much more to discover this is common grace all of these are the acts the all of these are manifestations of the love of God. He wants to care for his children.

When you walk outside and you see the sun and you breathe, you get air in your lungs, God is just telling you, I'm here to help you. I'm here to bless you. Jesus Christ himself was full of grace and truth we become like him that's what we should be great Grace not only fits us for heaven, but it fits us for earth, it fits us for everything. And it teaches, it teaches the heart all things pertaining to life and godliness. God's riches at Christ's expense.

Grace does many practical things. If you scan your Bible you'll learn that grace does stuff. Like for example in 1st Corinthians 3 10 it was grace that taught Paul how to plant churches. It was grace that gave him the wisdom for it he says it's according to the grace of God which was given to me as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation and another builds on it but let each one take heed how he builds on it. In other words the activity that the apostle Paul performed in the planting of churches was a work of grace in his life.

Think about that for your own life. There's so many things that you're involved in. Are they works of grace in your life? Paul attributes wisdom to the grace of God in 2 Corinthians 1.12. He says, not by fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we conducted ourselves toward you.

It was God's grace that taught him how to behave before the Corinthian church. It was the grace of God that taught him how to treat the Corinthians. In 2nd Thessalonians 1, 11, we learned that it's the grace of God that Christ has glorified in you. He says this, we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith and power that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be glorified in you and you and him how according to the grace of God and our Lord Jesus Christ this is the ongoing work of the grace of God to glorify himself through your life The Apostle Paul makes it very clear that it was the grace of God that carried him through trials. Anybody going through a trial?

Well, here's the reality. Either you are, you have gone through a trial and have emerged from it, or you're in one, or you're, or you're just in front of the next trial that's how that's how life works on the following planet you know Paul prayed that that this thorn in the flesh we don't even know what it was would be removed from him Lord take it away from me He cried out to God three times. And God says to him, My grace is sufficient for you. My grace is sufficient. All you need to get through your trial is the grace of God.

People reach for all kinds of things to get through their trial, reach for the grace of God, which is really the the panoply of all of his goodness. God carries you on. Paul said in first Corinthians 5 15 10 he said by the grace of God I am what I am and his grace toward me was not in vain." That's what you'll say when you get to the end of your life. You'll say, his grace in me was not in vain. His grace was the only good thing that he gave me and there are a thousand manifestations manifestations of it in my life.

We live in the midst of an American Christianity where works are minimized. This passage does not minimize works. The outward manifestations, the adornments, the life lived in conformity to the law of God has has really fallen on hard times but it shouldn't fall in hard on hard times in a church. The Christian life has been reduced to I'm just fine and I know the doctrines of the Bible. But there's not a lot of shoe leather, there's not a lot of street level wisdom in it.

And that's what the apostle is praying. He's saying grace is your teacher. You know, Trent read this marvelous quote from Matthew Henry that he said that grace is a talent that you trade, It's an element of wealth that God gave you and you trade it with one another. You give grace, you receive grace that we mediate the grace of God toward one another. You know it's it is sad you know the the Christian life is often reduced to read your Bible, pray, trust in God, come to church.

You know it's a little bit more than that actually. It really has to do with the manifestation of the glory of Jesus Christ through his grace in your whole life. You know, what the New Testament teaches really is that all theology is practical. You know when I was going to seminary you know back in the in the 1970s, 1970s, how about that? Our professors were telling us don't apply the text that would bind people's consciences that was wrong that was some of the dumbest unbiblical teaching and a lot of a lot of a lot of pastors in my generation picked it up and they're still running with it and then their sons in the faith are running with it too.

Don't run with it. That's not what this is teaching. What does grace teach you? It teaches us what to reject and it teaches us what to pursue and I'm just recognizing that I'm not even halfway through this sermon But here's what I want to leave us with here today. I want you to ask seriously do I do I have the grace of God have I received the grace of God?

Have I submitted my life to God? Am I following him? Do I have the manifestations of the grace of God? Do I look like a Christian? Because a Christian looks like a Christian.

If a person doesn't look like a Christian, they probably aren't. That's just the truth of the Bible. And they have a form of godliness but they deny his power. In other words they say all the right words they know all the right doctrines but but they don't have the power of God working in their hearts. But if you're a believer something is happening to you that doesn't happen to everybody in the world because God turned a switch and he broke the power of sin.

Yes you still are tempted but you're not like what you used to be and you never will be if you keep walking toward the Lord. You may fall, You may fail, but you'll always come back. The righteous man, my fault, but he always gets back up again. And, I don't want us to miss how amazing grace is, how broad it is, that it's not just for the forgiveness of your sins, but it's actually for the redemption of every single part of your life, every day of your life, because grace is a wonderful teacher. So here we are, we're gathered together today.

Let the grace of God flow toward one another. Let's trade in grace. Let's take that marvelous gift of grace that we heard about earlier today. The serviceableness of this grace, says Matthew Henry, Grace for grace, for the promoting of the advancing of grace. Grace to be exercised by ourselves.

Gracious habits, gracious acts, grace to be ministered to others. Gracious vows, chaste vows, chastements for gracious performances. Grace is a talent to be traded. So I'm gonna finish this sermon the next time I preach and I'm gonna talk more about What does grace train you to do? What does it train you to reject?

What does it train you to pursue? What's the hope of it? What's the purpose of it? And why you should keep proclaiming the grace of God in all of its fullness. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for grace. Grace is so amazing. It's so wonderful. I thank you. It's good for the heart to be strengthened with grace, so said the Apostle.

So Lord, let this be the place of grace. You've told us that we are living in the state of grace, not only the state of North Carolina. Amen.