Sermon: From Grace to Grace to Grace (Titus 2:11-15)

From Grace to Grace to Grace Sunday, November 9th, 2025 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA Titus 2:11-15

Prayer

Father, we praise You for the grace You have given through Your Only Begotten Son. We thank You for sending the Holy Spirit into our hearts, the same Spirit who authored and breathed forth the Holy Scriptures, and through which we are taught and led to eternal life. Please renew now our faith and joy in knowing You, as we hear Your Word preached, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

This morning, we are picking back up in Paul’s letter to Titus. And after giving everyone in the church a list of things to work on, vices to avoid, virtues to pursue, we come now to this most beautiful doctrinal interlude. An interlude that contains within it the totality of grace in the Christian life.

• Here in verses 11-15 Paul extols the appearance of God’s grace in the past, He magnifies that grace which continues in the present, and then he lifts our minds to the consummation of grace which we shall possess and enjoy in the future.
• And so I have titled our sermon this morning From Grace to Grace to Grace, because when you love Jesus, and when you walk with Jesus in the power of the Spirit, everything in life can be received as grace.
  • As Paul says in Romans 8:28, All things conspire (work together) for our good to them that love God and are the called according to His purpose. And what is that purpose God intends for you, His saints? That we might be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom 8:29).
• And so you can consider the first two chapters of Titus up to this point, as describing what true conformity to Jesus looks like in practice. Paul has described what this looks like if you are a Bishop/Elder, an older man, an older woman, a younger woman, a younger man, or even a slave/bondservant.
  • No matter who you are, regardless of your age, your sex, your education, your station in life, high or low, God has a plan to conform you to His Son. The same Son who is the king and heir and ruler of all creation.
  • This means that faith in Christ joins you to the royal bloodline.
    • As it says in Revelation 5:9-10, And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
    • And in 1 Peter 2:9 it says, But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
• So when you were baptized into Christ, and took the name Christian, which means “little Christ,” “little anointed one,” “saint,” you became a co-heir with Christ, a royal son or daughter, and that means, you must learn now to walk the same royal road that Jesus did.
  • Where did that road begin? In Bethlehem, with humble beginnings, with persecution and poverty, fear and flight. That road then led to years of obscurity in Nazareth, humble and hidden. Until the time appointed when Christ’s public ministry began, and the Most High Son of God became the most lowly servant of all.
    • As it says in Philippians 2:8, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
    • This is where the royal road leads, up to Golgotha, down into the Hades, and only then to the ascent of glory and resurrection. There is no crown for those who carry no cross.
    • As Jesus says in Luke 9:23, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
• Now if that sounds hard, or even impossible with your natural strength, you are absolutely right. No one can follow Jesus, carrying their cross to the end, unless a supernatural power is given. The Bible calls this supernatural power grace. Grace in its most general sense is: God’s action in man that leads us to salvation. Grace is therefore an effect of God’s mercy, something given to us that is undeserved, and apart from receiving that grace, there is no hope for anyone.
• And so this morning I