Sermon Tone Analysis

*Amazing Grace!*

[Titus 2:11-14.]

*Intro: * - Society is lawless, evil abounding, out of control – that is the the way Crete was, that is the way the world is going today.

What do you do? ?reform the law, go back to Biblical standards, impose righteous laws.

The world is rotten, all man is corrupt – God knew it – what was His solution?

Gave the law – did it do any good?

No, just revealed how utterly sinful we were.

Sent prophets, pronounced judgements, called for people to reform – they were rejected.

What was God's solution?: JESUS! */He poured out His grace/*! ( *2 Corinthians 8:9** */For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich./)

- Jesus gave Himself!

There we were going our own way, heading at full throttle for destruction, godless, without any thought of God or inclination toward Him – and He came!

The grace of God appeared!

Hallelujah! "For the grace of God has appeared" The solution is God's grace!

– grace is what you don't deserve – the key idea is a gift that is completely free, something you have done nothing for – associated with the word is the idea of thankfulness.

The response to grace is thankfulness that motivates and reforms our life.

[Read Tit 2:11-14]

*Grace appeared – Jesus came! **Acts 20:24** *talks about "*/the gospel of the grace of God"/* what is the "Good News", this "grace of God" that has appeared?

*Grace defined: *given freely what we haven't merited.

Jesus gave Himself for us – He was the price of redemption.*/

/*Jesus gave Himself – God's free grace gift (*Tit 2:14** *"/Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed/" *1 John 4:10** */In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

/*Galatians 2:20,21 */the Son of God loved me and gave Himself up for me.

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”/).

Jesus is God's grace!

(cf.

*John 1:14-18* /And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him./).

When it says the grace of God has appeared it is the coming of Jesus in the flesh - that is God's grace.

Jesus actually appeared!

God actually living here amongst us as a human being, in a form that we can comprehend!

We could never know God, we weren't even interested in doing so – but Jesus made Him known!

Hallelujah!

*Salvation only by grace  *This grace has brought salvation – Jesus came as Saviour, that is what His name means (*Matthew 1:21** */She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins./

*Luke 2:11** *f/or today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

/*Acts 4:12** */there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved./).

Salvation is only by grace, a free gift that God gives, there is nothing you can do to earn it, it doesn't come by our efforts – this is a stumbling block to many because there is no place for human pride.

It was to the false teachers in Crete who where teaching legalism – you had to keep a certain standard.

(*Ephesians 2:8-9** */For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.*

*/*Acts 15:11** */But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus,* */*Acts 18:27* /those who had believed through grace,/) It's completely free -*/  /Romans 3:24 / /*/being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus/).

The only thing required to received the gift is faith, humble complete dependance on what Jesus has done, the sufficiency of His sacrifice, on His having pleased God perfectly.

Faith opens the door to receive grace.

(*Romans 4:16**/ /*/For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants,  to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,/*Rom 5:2,15-21* / through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand;* */*Rom 5:15 */But the free gift is not like the transgression.

For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.

The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.

For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.... as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord Romans* **Rom 6:14** *sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.*

*/*Rom 11:6** */But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.*

*/*Ephesians 1:5-7**/ /*/He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace* */*Titus 3:7**/ /*/so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.*

*/*1 Peter 1:13*/ fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ*.*/)

It is all of grace and grace alone.

Praise God for His glorious grace.

Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

*Available to all but not automatic  *God's grace has appeared: JESUS! - grace has brought salvation to all men – not just Jews but available to us also - ? any not received that grace gift, it is available to you today.

It is available to all but that doesn't mean everyone will be saved.

Remember, those who have faith receive grace.

John the Baptist said (*John 1:29** *“/Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!/").

Does this mean that all will be saved?

- no, because not every one believed in Jesus, some reject Him.

They could be saved but they reject the means of salvation.

The free gift must be received (*John 1:12** */But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name/).

Jesus could say (*Luke 13:34** * /O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!/).

So salvation has been brought to all men, not all receive it.

You can bring all the horses to water but you cannot make them all drink it.

God grace has appeared!

That is Jesus Christ, the Messiah!

Salvation is available to all!

We are fools to reject this incredibly gracious, undeserved offer!

*Grace teaches – it's not license*  God's grace is wonderful – it is everything, we have nothing without it.

This Good News~/Gospel is beauteous and our whole life is to adorn the beauteous Gospel (Tit 2:10).

Because God’s grace in salvation has been revealed, we are to adorn it, to show off its beautiful effect in transforming lives.

We die, now we live a new way.

The legalist says grace is license but it isn't antinomianism – that is to misunderstand grace – motive of gratitude and love, law within.

Crete lawless, but Paul didn't meet it with imposing law but with teaching grace.

Grace brings lawfulness from the right motive.

Legalism actually promotes lawlessness because it does nothing about motives and provides no power or ability to keep the law.

Grace teaches us – it teaches us to be what we could never be by trying to keep a set of rules.

Some misinterpret grace to mean that you can do what you like – they did in Paul's day (cf.

*Romans 6:1*/ //What shall we say then?

Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?*

*/*Rom 6:15* / What then?

Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?

May it never be!/)/ /["Christian" prostitutes] – those who say such and behave such have not understood grace – what wretched sinner they are and how by their sin they have been responsible for the death of the Lord of glory, how they have been forgiven.

If they truly appreciated this truth they would have a horror of sin!

We died, we now live a new life, a new way (*Romans 6:2-18* /How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

we have been buried with Christ through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,  and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

Thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness./).

Salvation and grace /teach/ us!

Instruct us: What it instructs us (or trains us) in is "living in this present age" - all the participle and adverbs relate to this main verb of "living".

Salvation and grace affects the /way we live/ - our conduct, our manner of life.

If it fails to do this, its reality must be called into question.

Our life must be changed - different from the world around us.

There is a false concept of grace - that it excuses and overlooks everything (cf.

*Jude 4** */ ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ./).

Here it says that grace instructs, it disciplines and trains us - it isn’t "anything goes - God’s grace covers it all".

Rather, God’s grace, true grace, trains us "It is grace that taught my heart to fear".