“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation unto all men hath appeared, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”— (Titus 2:11-1411For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. (Titus 2:11‑14).)
FIRST of all, in this beautiful passage, we read, “The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared.” What a very lovely statement! Such a message reached me fifty-three years ago. I heard of Christ having come to seek and to save sinners, and I said to myself that, if ever there was a sinner on the face of the earth, it was myself, and that night the Lord saved me.
Now that is just what men need today—they need CHRIST. Hungry men do not want lectures on the composition of bread. They need bread, and unsaved men need salvation.
You will find presented, first of all, in this Scripture, the salvation grace brings us; then the lovely lessons that grace teaches; and finally the blessed hope grace presents to the believer.
Now, note well that you are not a true Christian until you are saved. You may be called a Christian, but are you a real Christian or only a nominal one? It is a great thing to be real. You are a real sinner, and, as such, you are under the sentence of death, and after death comes the judgment, and that will mean the lake of fire. God has sent you salvation. You cannot earn it, you do not deserve it, and you cannot buy it, but, thank God, you may have it. Grace saves the worst sinners. Good sinners very often miss God’s salvation. Don’t you miss it, my reader, just because you are not a very gross sinner.
A poor, drunken tinsmith came to some meetings I held recently in Ireland. We fervently hoped that God would save him. He came, but did not decide for Christ. At length, I thought I would go and see him at his house. He was out, but his wife was in.
To her I said, “Are you converted?” She replied, “No, but I would like to be.”
I told her the gospel, and, bless the Lord, He saved her by the fireside. Joy came into her heart, and it beamed in her face.
I inquired, “What will you say to your husband when he comes in?” She replied, I will say to him, “The Lord has saved me this morning, and He wants to save you.”
You ask, “Was he saved?” Well, I got a letter from a servant of the Lord there, a few days ago, in which he said, “I could not say whether the tinsmith is exactly what you would call converted, but he has given up the drink, and I am expecting soon to hear that he is saved.”
Perhaps my reader is a sober man, but are you saved? Sobriety cannot keep you out of hell, but the blood of Christ can cleanse you from your sins, and open the gates of glory for you.
Perhaps you say, like many, “I mean to be a Christian before I die.”
When will you die? I have not been a doctor for over fifty years without seeing a sudden death or two. You have no lease of life. You may have a lease of your house, your shop, or your office, but not of your life. Now is the time to get saved. Now grace brings you the tale of forgiveness of sins and salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus, and you may take it just now.
Zaccheus wanted to see the Lord Jesus, and got up into a sycamore tree, for He was to pass that way. The Lord saw him, and said “Zaccheus, make haste and come down.” He did not wait, but “made haste and came down and received Him joyfully.” He received salvation that day. You do just as Zaccheus did and you will be saved today. The blessed Saviour is saying to you as you read this, “Make haste and come down.”
Zaccheus received Him joyfully, and took Him home. You do the same today. Take the Lord Jesus home with you. If you take Christ in simple faith, you will take salvation home with you.
Oh! but you say, “I do not think I can get saved in a hurry like that.” You do not think so because you do not know it.
Let me give you a chapter out of my life. I was converted on the 16th December 1860, at ten o’clock at night. I had a comrade, a young fellow as careless and godless as myself. He went home from the preaching—where I found the Lord—deeply exercised, and ploughed up about his sins. When I got to my lodging at 11 P.M., he was sitting by the fire weeping.
I came in and said, “Well, Tom, how is it with you?”
He replied, “I see how it is with you by the look of your face.” What was I looking like? A picture of joy. I was living then in Duncan Street, Islington. I left it, a little before six o’clock, an unsaved man, and I came back, a little after eleven, rejoicing in Christ, a saved man. Next day Tom got saved. Now you get saved today. “The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared.” It is not that everybody gets saved, but all may be; take you care that you get it. Receive Christ by simple faith and God’s salvation is yours, then you can take your place among the ranks of the saved, and must begin to learn the lessons which grace teaches.
I would now address myself to Christians. What is the next thing in our Scripture— “Teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.” Grace and godliness go together.
When a man gets truly converted, there is a, change. Have you, fellow-believer, learned to say “No” to the things you used to be governed by? You have got a sense now that worldly ways will not do. Take my advice. Deny these things, and begin at once to stand for the Lord.
“Well,” you say, “how did you manage it yourself?”
I will tell you. I was rapidly tumbling into hell by way of the concert room. When I was converted in London, I was booked to go down the next week and sing comic songs in Devonshire.
The moment I was converted I felt that I could no longer help people into hell with comic songs. So I wrote to the conductor of the concert, and told him what had happened. I said, “If I do come down and sing at your concert, I must sing about. Christ, and I am afraid that will spoil the concert.”; I told him all the gospel I knew, and begged that he would tell all the rest of my fellow-singers. The concert came off, and people said, “Where is young, Wolston?” “Oh!” they said, “poor fellow, he has gone wrong in his head.” That was the story that went round the town. The truth was I had got right in my heart. Have you?
The Lord in His grace help you to say “No” to these worldly lusts.
Next, we are to live soberly. We have to learn day by day to control ourselves. That is the life] within. Further, we are to live righteously. That is the life without. I do not know that I can define it, but righteousness is consistency with relationship. It would be no use my preaching to you, if you could say, “He does not pay his debts.” People generally do not read their Bibles, but they do read us, and how ready they are to say, if we give them the opportunity, “Look at that fellow! He says he is a Christian, but look at his ways. If that is being a Christian I do not want to be one.” Let us see to it that we do not give them the opportunity. Let us commend Christianity by our ways.
It is beautiful the way grace works. The Lord wants to have us, “that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people.” I should like to see you among the peculiar people, not by the cut of your coat, but by being “zealous of good works.”
Good works have their right place. When a man is godless he does nothing but wicked works. When he gets shaken up, and turns over a new leaf, he thinks he does good; works, but Scripture calls them “dead works.” The believer should bring forth “good works.” Good works have their proper place. Finally, grace teaches us to look “for that blessed hope, and the appearing of the glory of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” What are you waiting for?
The apostle Paul, speaking of the Thessalonian believers, tells us “they turned to God from idols.”
How did this happen? They were attracted by the grace of God. Let me give you a good illustration as to how attraction works.
A gentleman once took me over his brass foundry. In a corner I saw a heap of dirty-looking rubbish, consisting of iron filings and brass filings. He took me to another spot, where I found a man busy with a shovel, and I saw this rubbish disappear. I went along further, and in another compartment I saw two streams issuing from a closed box—one of dirty, rusty iron filings, and the other of brass filings. There was not a bit of brass among the iron filings, nor a bit of iron among the brass filing.
“Well,” I said, “how do you manage that?”
He took me back, and lifted a cover, and showed me an Archimedean screw at work. The man shoveled the rubbish into the clutch of the screw, and the stream moved along, and I saw that when it got to a certain place, it altered its color all of a sudden. I saw something revolving.
I inquired “What is that.”
He replied, “That is simply a revolving magnet, and when the iron filings get within reach of the revolving magnet, up they fly.”
“Yes, and the brass is left behind.”
“Yes,” he said; “that is it.”
I thought to myself, here is a good illustration for the gospel. I need hardly tell you who the Magnet is—Christ. Christ attracted me, a worthless old iron filing, a sinner like me. ‘And, you know, the decent, respectable, never-did-anybody-any-harm-sort of people are not touched. They are like the brass filings. They are not attracted. Dear reader, have you ever been attracted to the Lord?
But there is another side to the story. We have got a blessed hope—to wait for God’s Son from heaven. The Magnet—the blessed Lord Jesus Christ—is soon going to put forth His power in an altogether different way. The magnetic power of the love of Christ has already had its effect upon you if a believer. It has changed your life, your ways your character. But another thing is going to happen one of these days. That magnetic power is going to act, and it will change your situation altogether.
Read 1 Thess. 4:16, 1716For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17). “The dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds.” The Magnet will attract the worthless iron filings. That is what the world thinks of us. They say that we Christians are a downright worthless lot of fools. They are welcome to the thought, but when we are caught up in the air by the Lord they will alter their opinion.
I believe search parties went out in Enoch’s day. What were they looking for? Enoch. It says, “He was not found.” That means he was hunted for, and could not be found. Again, look at Elijah. Fifty men of the sons of the prophets spent three days searching for him.
I tell you what it is, there will be lots of search parties out in this world one of these days. Who will they be searching for? Well, they will be searching for you, dear Christian reader, and they will be searching for me. Enoch was not found; Elijah was not found, and most certainly we shall not be. That is our blessed hope. Our hope is the coming of the Lord.
Then, finally, there is the appearing of Christ. He is coming back to this earth, and we shall come back with Him. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Ah! Christian, there is a wonderful future ahead of us. There are certain things which must take place first. There is the judgment seat of Christ, the question of award and reward for any service we have done for the Lord down here. May that thought have a purifying effect on our lives now. May we be like men that wait for their Lord.
Now remember, grace brings salvation, grace teaches us to live righteously, and grace gives us the hope of the Lord’s return. Grace, godliness, and glory are inseparably united.
W. T. P. W.