WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.840 We're jumping right in this morning because we've 00:00:01.840 --> 00:00:03.980 got a lot to talk about. So let's go ahead and 00:00:03.980 --> 00:00:08.380 go to the book of Titus. We're looking for Titus 00:00:08.380 --> 00:00:13.519 chapter 2. And we are going to find verse 11. 00:00:16.339 --> 00:00:19.100 Titus 2, beginning in verse 11. So this morning 00:00:19.100 --> 00:00:21.059 we're going to come really, really close to finishing 00:00:21.059 --> 00:00:23.280 this amazing chapter. And I admit it's taken 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:26.699 us a while to get through this. I think about 00:00:26.699 --> 00:00:30.030 two months now. in Titus chapter 2, but I think 00:00:30.030 --> 00:00:32.429 it's been worth the time. And today we're going 00:00:32.429 --> 00:00:35.670 to cover just these verses, 11 to 14. The final 00:00:35.670 --> 00:00:38.130 verse in this chapter, verse 15, we'll save until 00:00:38.130 --> 00:00:42.909 next Sunday. I have a reason for that. So as 00:00:42.909 --> 00:00:48.570 you arrive there and you find verse 11, I want 00:00:48.570 --> 00:00:52.710 you to notice that in every major translation 00:00:52.710 --> 00:00:55.950 that I'm aware of, the first word in this section 00:00:55.950 --> 00:01:00.579 is the word for. That's a particular connective 00:01:00.579 --> 00:01:03.460 word in the original Greek. It's agar, and it's 00:01:03.460 --> 00:01:06.280 translated for in the English. And that is an 00:01:06.280 --> 00:01:08.500 interpretive sign for us that we should take 00:01:08.500 --> 00:01:10.939 notice of. It tells the reader that there is 00:01:10.939 --> 00:01:13.340 an important connection that's about to be made. 00:01:13.459 --> 00:01:16.140 So we have to first look back to see what Paul 00:01:16.140 --> 00:01:18.140 has just written about and then look forward 00:01:18.140 --> 00:01:20.319 to what he's going to say next. There's going 00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:22.790 to be a connection. And if you've been with us 00:01:22.790 --> 00:01:24.709 in recent months, in the previous section, Paul 00:01:24.709 --> 00:01:27.930 gave to Titus a series of instructions about 00:01:27.930 --> 00:01:32.810 how he should exhort certain categories of people 00:01:32.810 --> 00:01:35.769 in the churches on the island of Crete. Right? 00:01:36.010 --> 00:01:38.810 So we started, first of all, he addressed the 00:01:38.810 --> 00:01:42.150 older men in the churches, then the older women, 00:01:42.290 --> 00:01:45.170 then reversed that order to the younger women 00:01:45.170 --> 00:01:48.629 and the younger men. And then finally, we talked 00:01:48.629 --> 00:01:51.290 about this two Sundays ago, he addressed the 00:01:51.290 --> 00:01:53.989 bond slaves and the household servants there 00:01:53.989 --> 00:01:56.810 in the churches. And essentially, by addressing 00:01:56.810 --> 00:01:58.730 those five categories you see on the screen, 00:01:58.810 --> 00:02:02.290 Paul covered every type of adult believer that 00:02:02.290 --> 00:02:05.230 would have been in the churches in Crete. And 00:02:05.230 --> 00:02:07.530 as we saw, those exhortations were given to each 00:02:07.530 --> 00:02:11.169 category of believer for a very specific purpose. 00:02:11.409 --> 00:02:14.490 The idea was to exhort them to live godly lives 00:02:14.490 --> 00:02:17.800 as a testimony. to the unsaved people on the 00:02:17.800 --> 00:02:21.180 island of Crete. And they were to reflect two 00:02:21.180 --> 00:02:24.240 things, one positive, one negative. First, they 00:02:24.240 --> 00:02:27.780 should live lives of integrity so that the word 00:02:27.780 --> 00:02:30.060 of God will not be dishonored. That's the negative 00:02:30.060 --> 00:02:34.039 application of this. So that in your life, you're 00:02:34.039 --> 00:02:36.240 not a hypocrite. You're not dishonoring God's 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:39.300 word. On a positive sense, and the second way, 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:42.180 they should live so that their lives adorn the 00:02:42.180 --> 00:02:45.000 beauty of the gospel and thereby attract people. 00:02:46.799 --> 00:02:49.379 So this is what Paul's been talking about thus 00:02:49.379 --> 00:02:51.460 far. Now we come to verse 11. You're going to 00:02:51.460 --> 00:02:54.479 see Paul connect this command to live a godly 00:02:54.479 --> 00:02:57.639 lifestyle to one essential thing. And it is the 00:02:57.639 --> 00:03:00.379 heart of Paul's theology in all of his letters. 00:03:00.599 --> 00:03:03.699 It's this concept of grace. He's going to make 00:03:03.699 --> 00:03:05.639 that connection to living that godly lifestyle 00:03:05.639 --> 00:03:08.620 to the concept of grace. So what we have today 00:03:08.620 --> 00:03:11.360 in our text is a critical connection between 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:15.599 what we believe and how we live. What we believe 00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:17.520 and how we live, or if you prefer these terms, 00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:20.520 our faith and our works. And that is a subject, 00:03:20.599 --> 00:03:22.520 every time you hear that, faith and works, that 00:03:22.520 --> 00:03:24.680 is a subject that is always at the center of 00:03:24.680 --> 00:03:27.599 the debate between Protestant Christians and 00:03:27.599 --> 00:03:30.979 those of other branches of Christendom. So we 00:03:30.979 --> 00:03:32.780 need to make sure that we have a handle on this 00:03:32.780 --> 00:03:35.979 important distinction between who saves and what 00:03:35.979 --> 00:03:38.500 saves us, and on the other hand, what provides 00:03:38.500 --> 00:03:41.719 the evidence that we've been saved. We've got 00:03:41.719 --> 00:03:43.719 to make sure we understand this. And Paul has 00:03:43.719 --> 00:03:45.879 a whole bunch to say about this in the letter 00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:49.479 to Titus, both in this passage and coming up 00:03:49.479 --> 00:03:51.819 in chapter three. But I want to get ahead of 00:03:51.819 --> 00:03:54.919 myself. Let's read the rest of chapter two, beginning 00:03:54.919 --> 00:03:58.819 with Paul's emphasis on grace. Verse 11, for 00:03:58.819 --> 00:04:02.259 the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation 00:04:02.259 --> 00:04:06.400 to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness 00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:10.719 and worldly desires and to live sensibly. righteously 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:13.819 and godly in the present age, looking for the 00:04:13.819 --> 00:04:16.240 blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:19.560 our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave 00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:23.019 himself for us to redeem us from every lawless 00:04:23.019 --> 00:04:26.480 deed and to purify for himself a people for his 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:30.459 own possession, zealous for good deeds. These 00:04:30.459 --> 00:04:33.579 things, Titus, speak and exhort and reprove with 00:04:33.579 --> 00:04:38.019 all authority, let no one disregard you. That's 00:04:38.019 --> 00:04:41.290 a whole mouthful. And that is a lot of interesting 00:04:41.290 --> 00:04:43.430 theology in there. So I want you to underline 00:04:43.430 --> 00:04:45.569 two key words here if you're one of those people 00:04:45.569 --> 00:04:47.610 that likes to mark up your Bible. And I think 00:04:47.610 --> 00:04:50.110 you should, by the way. It's a good thing. Underline 00:04:50.110 --> 00:04:54.410 the first word is obvious, verse 11, grace. And 00:04:54.410 --> 00:04:57.990 then in verse 12, the word instructing. Or your 00:04:57.990 --> 00:05:01.910 translation may say training. Or even teaching, 00:05:02.110 --> 00:05:04.829 I believe, in the NIV. So that is going to be 00:05:04.829 --> 00:05:08.149 the big theme for this morning. How the grace 00:05:08.149 --> 00:05:13.509 of God works in us. First, to save us, and second, 00:05:13.649 --> 00:05:17.149 to instruct us in how we should live. Faith and 00:05:17.149 --> 00:05:20.430 works. Make sense? Now, this passage is often 00:05:20.430 --> 00:05:22.329 looked at by New Testament scholars as what we 00:05:22.329 --> 00:05:25.410 call a summary statement that we find from time 00:05:25.410 --> 00:05:28.389 to time in the Bible, meaning it sums up in just 00:05:28.389 --> 00:05:32.329 a few sentences an absolute core message of Scripture. 00:05:33.550 --> 00:05:36.110 In just a few sentences, it gives us this major 00:05:36.110 --> 00:05:37.970 thread that runs from Genesis to Revelation. 00:05:38.310 --> 00:05:40.529 So every time we see a summary statement like 00:05:40.529 --> 00:05:43.050 this that is so loaded with theology, we should 00:05:43.050 --> 00:05:45.829 savor every drop of truth that's being given 00:05:45.829 --> 00:05:48.610 to us. So if you were to back up and zoom out 00:05:48.610 --> 00:05:53.290 on verses 11 to 14, you'd basically see a sort 00:05:53.290 --> 00:05:55.589 of a story of redemption in the New Testament. 00:05:55.850 --> 00:05:58.250 Because in those four verses, you see the incarnation 00:05:58.250 --> 00:06:01.610 of God the Son, and you see his atoning death. 00:06:02.410 --> 00:06:04.949 And by extension, his resurrection and ascension. 00:06:05.110 --> 00:06:07.550 And then you also see the promise of his return, 00:06:07.769 --> 00:06:10.410 the second coming. All of that in these four 00:06:10.410 --> 00:06:13.670 verses. And then on top of those big theological 00:06:13.670 --> 00:06:16.509 themes, you also see this brief description of 00:06:16.509 --> 00:06:19.149 the calling that every single Christian in this 00:06:19.149 --> 00:06:22.430 room today has on his or her life. And that is 00:06:22.430 --> 00:06:25.670 a calling to live a life of faith and a life 00:06:25.670 --> 00:06:29.189 of hope and a life of increasing godliness and 00:06:29.189 --> 00:06:31.360 good deeds. All of that is packed in here in 00:06:31.360 --> 00:06:33.480 these four verses. So we're told about a great 00:06:33.480 --> 00:06:36.540 God and Savior, a great appearing of grace, a 00:06:36.540 --> 00:06:39.300 great salvation, a great future hope, and this 00:06:39.300 --> 00:06:43.180 great mission we have to adorn the gospel. Anybody 00:06:43.180 --> 00:06:47.560 encouraged, excited by that? Okay, good. Just 00:06:47.560 --> 00:06:50.079 checking. All right, so let's work our way. This 00:06:50.079 --> 00:06:53.600 is a densely packed passage, so let's work our 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:55.740 way through. Verse 11 starts, for the grace of 00:06:55.740 --> 00:06:58.300 God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. 00:06:58.839 --> 00:07:00.839 Now, you may look at that verse and go, well, 00:07:00.899 --> 00:07:02.399 that's pretty straightforward. That's pretty 00:07:02.399 --> 00:07:06.079 clear. Trust me, that one sentence could be an 00:07:06.079 --> 00:07:09.139 entire sermon series, an entire series. And the 00:07:09.139 --> 00:07:11.240 reason for that, a lot of it comes out of church 00:07:11.240 --> 00:07:14.600 history. Primarily the question, what is the 00:07:14.600 --> 00:07:19.540 role of grace in salvation? Now, in the 16th 00:07:19.540 --> 00:07:21.800 century, the reformers looked at the Bible and 00:07:21.800 --> 00:07:24.269 said, this looks pretty clear to us. Just as 00:07:24.269 --> 00:07:28.089 this verse says, salvation came from God by his 00:07:28.089 --> 00:07:31.529 grace, which is sufficient for our needs to have 00:07:31.529 --> 00:07:34.389 our sins washed away. It doesn't come by the 00:07:34.389 --> 00:07:37.209 addition of our good works or through some seven 00:07:37.209 --> 00:07:40.069 sacraments of the church and certainly not through 00:07:40.069 --> 00:07:43.610 purgatory, et cetera, et cetera. So this was 00:07:43.610 --> 00:07:47.569 Paul's heart. Salvation as an act of God's will 00:07:47.569 --> 00:07:50.889 by his grace alone. And the reformers obviously 00:07:50.889 --> 00:07:54.620 picked up on that way back in the day. Now, let's 00:07:54.620 --> 00:07:56.500 make sure we understand what Paul means by grace. 00:07:56.920 --> 00:07:59.579 Definitions always matter, so the short classic 00:07:59.579 --> 00:08:04.660 definition is best. Grace is unearned or unmerited 00:08:04.660 --> 00:08:11.379 favor from God. Unearned or unmerited, which 00:08:11.379 --> 00:08:13.800 means that God showers favor and blessing upon 00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:17.360 people who do not in any way deserve to receive 00:08:17.360 --> 00:08:22.939 it or in any way able to earn it. We can't deserve 00:08:22.939 --> 00:08:26.519 it. We can't earn it. In fact, if you think you 00:08:26.519 --> 00:08:29.300 can earn or acquire grace through your good works 00:08:29.300 --> 00:08:31.939 or through your own religious efforts, you end 00:08:31.939 --> 00:08:36.179 up nullifying grace. You cancel it out. See, 00:08:36.259 --> 00:08:38.360 if you earn something, it becomes a wage that 00:08:38.360 --> 00:08:41.460 you're owed, right? If you're earning something, 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:43.940 you're owed that. It's a wage. That's the opposite 00:08:43.940 --> 00:08:46.720 of grace. And don't take my word for it. That's 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:50.070 exactly Paul's... God breathed the argument that 00:08:50.070 --> 00:08:52.149 he makes in Romans 4 when he talks about the 00:08:52.149 --> 00:08:55.250 justification of Abraham. He literally says this. 00:08:55.289 --> 00:08:59.549 He says, to the one who works, Paul writes, his 00:08:59.549 --> 00:09:03.490 wage is not credited as a favor, but as what 00:09:03.490 --> 00:09:08.570 is due. But to the one who does not work, but 00:09:08.570 --> 00:09:12.210 believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his 00:09:12.210 --> 00:09:18.049 faith is credited as righteousness. Such an important 00:09:18.049 --> 00:09:20.769 verse to understand the relation of grace to 00:09:20.769 --> 00:09:23.889 salvation. So the reality is all human beings, 00:09:24.070 --> 00:09:27.250 you know, we deserve a wage, but it's not the 00:09:27.250 --> 00:09:29.970 wage we want, right? The wage that we deserve 00:09:29.970 --> 00:09:32.789 is God's judgment and wrath. But because of God's 00:09:32.789 --> 00:09:36.509 great mercy, he has instead marked out some and 00:09:36.509 --> 00:09:39.129 shown us favor. That is literally the good news 00:09:39.129 --> 00:09:42.289 of the gospel. So we do deserve something. It's 00:09:42.289 --> 00:09:45.149 just not grace. And if we thought we deserved 00:09:45.149 --> 00:09:47.429 it, we'd nullify it. Because it'd be no longer 00:09:47.429 --> 00:09:50.509 a free gift from God. Does that logically make 00:09:50.509 --> 00:09:55.490 sense? So the question is, why do so many well 00:09:55.490 --> 00:09:57.350 -meaning religious people out there today not 00:09:57.350 --> 00:10:01.009 understand this principle? Do you know some people, 00:10:01.090 --> 00:10:04.450 if you brought up the issue of grace, they probably 00:10:04.450 --> 00:10:07.990 don't quite get it. In our circles, we tend to 00:10:07.990 --> 00:10:10.029 understand this. We've talked about it. We read 00:10:10.029 --> 00:10:14.139 about it. We preach about it. But why? And I 00:10:14.139 --> 00:10:16.940 think the reason is two primary reasons why it's 00:10:16.940 --> 00:10:20.460 misrepresented or misunderstood. On the one side 00:10:20.460 --> 00:10:22.799 of the coin, folks won't believe what the Bible 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:25.259 says about grace because it runs so counter to 00:10:25.259 --> 00:10:30.440 the way we naturally think. Our world, especially 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:33.559 here in the West, in America, is driven by a 00:10:33.559 --> 00:10:36.360 system of achievement. Everything is achievement. 00:10:36.559 --> 00:10:38.620 If you do well in school, you get good grades 00:10:38.620 --> 00:10:42.000 and you win awards. If you do well in sports, 00:10:42.440 --> 00:10:44.600 you win championships. If you succeed in business, 00:10:44.759 --> 00:10:47.740 you get promoted and you get a raise. It's all 00:10:47.740 --> 00:10:50.440 built on achievement. So the idea of merit is 00:10:50.440 --> 00:10:53.600 baked into our minds from birth. That's why if 00:10:53.600 --> 00:10:55.740 you went up to somebody in the street and you 00:10:55.740 --> 00:10:57.580 asked the question, well, how does a person get 00:10:57.580 --> 00:11:01.240 into heaven? Most people will answer what? Gotta 00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:05.379 be a good person. That is sort of the initial 00:11:05.379 --> 00:11:07.259 answer. How do you get into heaven? Gotta be 00:11:07.259 --> 00:11:09.440 a good person. Or they'll expand on that and 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:11.460 say, well, I know there's a whole bunch of rules. 00:11:12.120 --> 00:11:13.840 that you have to follow. They're in the Bible 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:15.500 somewhere. You've got to follow those rules and 00:11:15.500 --> 00:11:17.460 do a whole bunch of good things. The problem 00:11:17.460 --> 00:11:20.220 is, A, they can't define what a good person actually 00:11:20.220 --> 00:11:23.899 is. That's a good follow -up question. So, okay, 00:11:23.940 --> 00:11:25.860 I have to be a good person. What is a good person? 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:29.059 Generally, they don't know. Or if it's about 00:11:29.059 --> 00:11:31.720 obeying rules, well, which rules and how many 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:34.039 good things do you have to do to get into heaven? 00:11:34.539 --> 00:11:36.440 And these are thoughts that they often have not 00:11:36.440 --> 00:11:40.590 worked through. So that's one reason why Grace 00:11:40.590 --> 00:11:42.830 gets misunderstood out there. The other reason, 00:11:43.009 --> 00:11:45.009 the other side of the coin, is that some people 00:11:45.009 --> 00:11:48.009 are so free with their definition of grace that 00:11:48.009 --> 00:11:50.429 they use it as a license for unrighteous living. 00:11:51.629 --> 00:11:55.409 In fact, Jude talks about these people in verse 00:11:55.409 --> 00:11:57.809 4 of Jude's letter. He says, certain persons 00:11:57.809 --> 00:12:01.789 have crept into the church unnoticed, those who 00:12:01.789 --> 00:12:04.509 were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation. 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:08.539 ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God 00:12:08.539 --> 00:12:12.120 into licentiousness and deny our only master 00:12:12.120 --> 00:12:14.960 and Lord Jesus Christ. So there's some folks 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:17.820 out there who profess to be Christians wrongly 00:12:17.820 --> 00:12:20.000 thinking that God's grace means, oh, we have 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:22.860 a free pass to do as we please, a free pass to 00:12:22.860 --> 00:12:25.480 sin as much as we want without any consequences. 00:12:26.299 --> 00:12:28.480 And what they do is they take Pauline theology 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:31.559 and they make a mockery of it. It becomes cheap 00:12:31.559 --> 00:12:33.840 grace. And then if you point this out to those 00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:36.080 folks, they'll say, oh, well, you must be a Pharisee 00:12:36.080 --> 00:12:37.820 or a legalist because you're calling me to obedience. 00:12:39.080 --> 00:12:41.759 As if there's no laws or no commands in the New 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:44.899 Testament. So we have errors on both sides. So 00:12:44.899 --> 00:12:47.379 all that to say, we have to make sure, as Bible 00:12:47.379 --> 00:12:49.360 -believing Christians, that we have a precise, 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:53.240 balanced view of what grace is and how it relates 00:12:53.240 --> 00:12:58.470 to salvation and sanctification. Right? Salvation 00:12:58.470 --> 00:13:01.269 and this transformation process that we're a 00:13:01.269 --> 00:13:04.450 part of right now in sanctification. Well, today's 00:13:04.450 --> 00:13:08.389 passage in Titus helps us to do that. Now, when 00:13:08.389 --> 00:13:10.029 Paul writes, for the grace of God has appeared, 00:13:10.330 --> 00:13:13.470 what's he referring to? Obviously, he's talking 00:13:13.470 --> 00:13:16.190 about the physical incarnation of grace in the 00:13:16.190 --> 00:13:19.090 person of Jesus Christ. Remember, John says that 00:13:19.090 --> 00:13:25.299 he was full of grace and full of truth. It came 00:13:25.299 --> 00:13:27.799 in its fullness. Grace comes in its fullness 00:13:27.799 --> 00:13:30.000 in the incarnation, but that doesn't mean that 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:32.620 grace didn't exist before the incarnation. It 00:13:32.620 --> 00:13:35.419 did. And we sometimes don't understand this. 00:13:35.519 --> 00:13:39.340 Remember, Jesus predates his incarnation. He's 00:13:39.340 --> 00:13:42.399 eternal. He predates the Old Testament. He predates 00:13:42.399 --> 00:13:45.720 creation itself. So grace has always been around, 00:13:45.860 --> 00:13:48.620 and we see grace in both testaments, including 00:13:48.620 --> 00:13:52.000 the great statement that Paul... uses in his 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:55.879 argument from Genesis 15 about how Abraham was 00:13:55.879 --> 00:13:58.240 saved in the Old Testament. Here it is. You probably 00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:01.460 know this verse. Genesis 15 says, Abraham believed 00:14:01.460 --> 00:14:04.740 in the Lord and it was credited to him or reckoned 00:14:04.740 --> 00:14:09.259 to him as righteousness. That's the Old Testament. 00:14:09.500 --> 00:14:13.240 That's before the incarnation. That's the same 00:14:13.240 --> 00:14:16.100 verse again that Paul cites in Romans 4 as part 00:14:16.100 --> 00:14:19.399 of his argument for salvation by faith alone. 00:14:20.490 --> 00:14:23.309 That's what Genesis 15 says was the deciding 00:14:23.309 --> 00:14:27.450 factor in Abraham's salvation. He believed in 00:14:27.450 --> 00:14:30.590 the Lord. Doesn't say Abraham believed in the 00:14:30.590 --> 00:14:34.049 Lord and practiced many good deeds. Doesn't say 00:14:34.049 --> 00:14:36.429 Abraham believed in the Lord and participated 00:14:36.429 --> 00:14:39.269 in all of the prescribed religious ceremonies. 00:14:40.850 --> 00:14:44.570 What's implied in Genesis 15 is that Abraham 00:14:44.570 --> 00:14:47.470 heard the voice of God and he... believed in 00:14:47.470 --> 00:14:50.250 his promises. He trusted in his word. He put 00:14:50.250 --> 00:14:53.629 his trust in Yahweh. That is the same salvation 00:14:53.629 --> 00:14:56.409 mechanism, if you will, that saves you and I 00:14:56.409 --> 00:14:59.409 today. And it was present back in Genesis 15. 00:14:59.789 --> 00:15:02.450 Now, I've heard the objection before, well, Abraham, 00:15:02.649 --> 00:15:04.950 we know he was willing to go and sacrifice his 00:15:04.950 --> 00:15:07.929 son Isaac. So maybe that was the work or the 00:15:07.929 --> 00:15:11.710 deed that secured his salvation. But guess what? 00:15:11.750 --> 00:15:14.409 The Bible doesn't make that connection, right? 00:15:15.019 --> 00:15:16.740 There's no question that God was pleased with 00:15:16.740 --> 00:15:18.899 Abraham when he did that. In fact, this is what 00:15:18.899 --> 00:15:21.799 God says. Because you have done this thing and 00:15:21.799 --> 00:15:26.000 have not withheld your son, your only son, foreshadowing, 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:29.580 right, of Christ, indeed, I will greatly bless 00:15:29.580 --> 00:15:32.460 you, and I will multiply your seed as the stars 00:15:32.460 --> 00:15:34.980 of the heavens and as the sand which is on the 00:15:34.980 --> 00:15:39.299 seashore. I will bless you, God says. Why? Because 00:15:39.299 --> 00:15:42.659 of your practical expression of your trust in 00:15:42.659 --> 00:15:46.340 me. That's what's going on there. By this time, 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:50.120 by the time of Genesis 22, when this offering 00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:53.779 of Isaac is brought, guess what? God had already 00:15:53.779 --> 00:15:56.919 declared Abraham righteous in his sight by faith. 00:15:57.700 --> 00:16:00.419 What he did in offering up Isaac was simply evidence 00:16:00.419 --> 00:16:04.700 that his faith in Yahweh was real. And that relationship 00:16:04.700 --> 00:16:07.240 between faith and works that James will much 00:16:07.240 --> 00:16:09.379 later famously write about in the New Testament 00:16:09.379 --> 00:16:13.220 when he says, faith without works is... and that 00:16:13.220 --> 00:16:16.259 is true, it's in scripture. So if Abraham had 00:16:16.259 --> 00:16:19.960 said to God, look, I will not sacrifice my son 00:16:19.960 --> 00:16:22.659 because I love him more than I love you, then 00:16:22.659 --> 00:16:24.879 his faith would have been proved to be false. 00:16:26.179 --> 00:16:28.759 But it was his willingness to sacrifice Isaac, 00:16:28.840 --> 00:16:31.259 to trust God, that proved that his faith was 00:16:31.259 --> 00:16:34.820 not dead, but alive. And this is the argument 00:16:34.820 --> 00:16:39.059 that Paul makes in Romans 4. So back to our text, 00:16:39.100 --> 00:16:42.929 back to this idea that grace, The incarnation 00:16:42.929 --> 00:16:46.029 of God the Son coming into our world in the fullness 00:16:46.029 --> 00:16:49.610 of time was the embodied expression of his grace. 00:16:49.870 --> 00:16:52.370 This word appeared in the original Greek is quite 00:16:52.370 --> 00:16:56.049 beautiful. Epiphano, and it means to shine forth, 00:16:56.129 --> 00:16:59.009 the way the sun shines upon the earth. That was 00:16:59.009 --> 00:17:01.679 the coming of Christ. In fact, the other important 00:17:01.679 --> 00:17:04.420 place you see this same word used is in Luke 00:17:04.420 --> 00:17:07.059 chapter one. You have this great prophecy from 00:17:07.059 --> 00:17:09.339 John the Baptist's father. His name is Zacharias. 00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:11.839 And I want you to listen to all the connective 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:15.039 language that Zacharias uses, both in terms of 00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:17.880 grace, but also in terms of messianic language. 00:17:17.980 --> 00:17:21.559 It's on the screen. This is what Zacharias prophesies 00:17:21.559 --> 00:17:24.380 over John. He says, you child will be called 00:17:24.380 --> 00:17:44.680 the prophet of the most high. There's the word. 00:17:44.920 --> 00:17:55.750 Same word from Titus 2. So we look at the language 00:17:55.750 --> 00:17:57.849 there. We surmise from this prophecy and from 00:17:57.849 --> 00:18:00.890 Paul's language in Titus 2 that the appearing 00:18:00.890 --> 00:18:03.750 of Jesus in his first coming was the dawning 00:18:03.750 --> 00:18:07.309 of light and grace upon this sin -darkened world 00:18:07.309 --> 00:18:10.890 where the shadow of death reigns. But for those 00:18:10.890 --> 00:18:13.609 of us who trust in him, we become partakers of 00:18:13.609 --> 00:18:17.900 grace and not death. So this is what's happening 00:18:17.900 --> 00:18:20.099 here in Titus 2. Now let's look at the back half 00:18:20.099 --> 00:18:23.940 of verse 11. The grace of God has appeared in 00:18:23.940 --> 00:18:27.019 Christ, right? And what does that do? Bringing 00:18:27.019 --> 00:18:32.039 salvation to all men or to all people. Now, a 00:18:32.039 --> 00:18:34.720 couple things. Again, this looks very simple, 00:18:34.759 --> 00:18:37.619 but theologians over the centuries have picked 00:18:37.619 --> 00:18:40.099 this apart to no end. So let's look at this. 00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:44.450 Notice grace has been brought to mankind. Mankind 00:18:44.450 --> 00:18:48.049 doesn't seek after it. Mankind doesn't go out 00:18:48.049 --> 00:18:50.470 and grab hold of grace. It is brought to mankind, 00:18:50.569 --> 00:18:54.130 and God is the bringer. We have to know that. 00:18:54.190 --> 00:18:57.109 He is always the initiator of grace, not us. 00:18:57.670 --> 00:19:00.650 Because apart from him doing a work in us to 00:19:00.650 --> 00:19:03.329 breathe life into our hearts, we're not able 00:19:03.329 --> 00:19:06.130 to take hold of grace. Scripture's very clear 00:19:06.130 --> 00:19:08.029 on this. In fact, that's a truth straight out 00:19:08.029 --> 00:19:10.849 of Ephesians 2, where it says, when we were dead 00:19:10.849 --> 00:19:14.789 in our transgressions, spiritually dead, God 00:19:14.789 --> 00:19:19.190 made us alive. He initiates that. He made us 00:19:19.190 --> 00:19:22.750 alive together with Christ. By his grace, you 00:19:22.750 --> 00:19:25.930 have been saved. See that? That's very important 00:19:25.930 --> 00:19:28.470 to recognize. Now here in Titus 2, Paul speaks 00:19:28.470 --> 00:19:31.009 of salvation being brought to all of mankind. 00:19:31.150 --> 00:19:33.710 What does that mean? All of mankind. Does that 00:19:33.710 --> 00:19:37.390 mean all men get saved? Clearly not, right? So 00:19:37.390 --> 00:19:39.490 whenever we see a statement like that, we've 00:19:39.490 --> 00:19:41.430 got to let Scripture interpret Scripture. So 00:19:41.430 --> 00:19:43.789 we clearly know that's not true, so we have to 00:19:43.789 --> 00:19:46.529 look at other principles to interpret this. And 00:19:46.529 --> 00:19:48.910 I think it's pretty simple. Paul is saying that 00:19:48.910 --> 00:19:51.569 when the grace of God appeared, it came in the 00:19:51.569 --> 00:19:55.089 form of one message of salvation for all of humanity. 00:19:55.609 --> 00:19:59.089 Just one message. And this is one of the, there's 00:19:59.089 --> 00:20:02.170 a number of key places in Scripture where because 00:20:02.170 --> 00:20:04.730 of the context, when you see the word all people, 00:20:05.529 --> 00:20:07.990 it's best to read it as all types of people. 00:20:08.269 --> 00:20:11.049 And the context is gonna tell you that. And that 00:20:11.049 --> 00:20:13.710 is the context here in Titus 2. Remember, Paul's 00:20:13.710 --> 00:20:16.650 just come out of talking about all types of people 00:20:16.650 --> 00:20:19.809 in the church, five categories of people in the 00:20:19.809 --> 00:20:23.009 church. So he's referring to all types of people 00:20:23.009 --> 00:20:25.410 here. Salvation has come to all of those categories 00:20:25.410 --> 00:20:29.230 of people. So he's saying here, there's one means 00:20:29.230 --> 00:20:33.789 of salvation, one path, one way, regardless of 00:20:33.789 --> 00:20:37.660 a person's age, or rank in life, or class, or 00:20:37.660 --> 00:20:40.839 culture, or race, or ethnicity. One path for 00:20:40.839 --> 00:20:43.480 everybody. Salvation has been brought to all 00:20:43.480 --> 00:20:47.000 of mankind. And the call now is for all types 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:50.079 of people to hear the gospel and believe. All 00:20:50.079 --> 00:20:53.140 types. Whether you're young or old, whether you're 00:20:53.140 --> 00:20:55.859 male or female, Jew or Gentile, slave or free. 00:20:56.400 --> 00:20:58.799 The call of the gospel goes out, and it's universal. 00:20:59.160 --> 00:21:02.180 One message for all types of people. Does that 00:21:02.180 --> 00:21:05.519 make sense? Now again, we know that not all people 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:07.559 are going to be saved, but we do know that all 00:21:07.559 --> 00:21:11.460 types of people will be saved. Correct? Because 00:21:11.460 --> 00:21:14.099 this is really the good news, that no type of 00:21:14.099 --> 00:21:17.000 sinner is beyond the reach of God's grace. If 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:19.700 God wills it, he can reach into any country, 00:21:19.859 --> 00:21:23.440 into any culture, into any ethnic group, any 00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:27.859 moral category, and save whom he will save. That's 00:21:27.859 --> 00:21:29.859 the promise we have of the gospel. He can do 00:21:29.859 --> 00:21:32.480 that. And by the way, Paul understood this in 00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:35.980 a very personal way, right? Because think about 00:21:35.980 --> 00:21:38.339 his life. He's the perfect example of this principle. 00:21:38.539 --> 00:21:41.880 Here's a persecutor of the church, a man who 00:21:41.880 --> 00:21:45.319 ordered the death of Christians. He calls himself 00:21:45.319 --> 00:21:48.079 the chief of sinners. Listen, he's the least 00:21:48.079 --> 00:21:52.980 deserving of all men. If you think you can deserve 00:21:52.980 --> 00:21:56.319 grace or earn grace, Paul is the least deserving. 00:21:57.069 --> 00:22:00.789 Yet God came to Paul, brought that grace to him, 00:22:00.789 --> 00:22:04.490 and saved him. What a miracle. That's given to 00:22:04.490 --> 00:22:06.970 us as an example. By the way, every one of us, 00:22:07.009 --> 00:22:10.130 it's a miracle that we're saved. Correct? But 00:22:10.130 --> 00:22:13.710 Paul's given to us as this prime example of how 00:22:13.710 --> 00:22:16.789 the gospel can reach anywhere and save somebody. 00:22:17.190 --> 00:22:20.289 That's the nature of it. And it's so counterintuitive 00:22:20.289 --> 00:22:23.750 to the way the world sees things. It bypasses 00:22:23.750 --> 00:22:27.250 people who are self -righteous. It bypasses people 00:22:27.250 --> 00:22:30.349 who are trusting in their own goodness and goes 00:22:30.349 --> 00:22:33.769 to undeserving people. In fact, Jesus said it 00:22:33.769 --> 00:22:36.349 in Luke 5, I've not come to call the self -righteous, 00:22:36.410 --> 00:22:39.769 I've come to call sinners, people who know they're 00:22:39.769 --> 00:22:43.450 sinners. So to receive God's grace, you first 00:22:43.450 --> 00:22:46.269 have to know that you are justly under his wrath, 00:22:46.410 --> 00:22:48.670 under his condemnation, that you're headed for 00:22:48.670 --> 00:22:51.950 judgment. As Spurgeon once said, you have to 00:22:51.950 --> 00:22:56.079 know that the rope is around your neck. To be 00:22:56.079 --> 00:23:00.079 saved. And even though you're guilty and you 00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:02.960 deserve death, it's God's grace that cuts that 00:23:02.960 --> 00:23:09.140 rope and saves us. Amen? So I know that's a lot 00:23:09.140 --> 00:23:11.960 of work to build a foundation here, but we have 00:23:11.960 --> 00:23:14.900 to understand what Paul means by grace here. 00:23:15.039 --> 00:23:17.880 Then verse 12 is where we get this distinction 00:23:17.880 --> 00:23:21.400 now between salvation. and sanctification. This 00:23:21.400 --> 00:23:23.960 becomes very important. In verse 12, we see that 00:23:23.960 --> 00:23:27.480 grace not only saves us, but it also instructs 00:23:27.480 --> 00:23:31.980 us. Make sure you see that. Grace saves us, but 00:23:31.980 --> 00:23:36.000 also trains us. Verse 11, for the grace of God 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:39.299 has appeared, now go forward to verse 12, instructing 00:23:39.299 --> 00:23:43.559 or training us to do what? To deny ungodliness 00:23:43.559 --> 00:23:48.799 and worldly desires and to live sensibly, and 00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:50.359 by the way, we've seen that word in the Greek 00:23:50.359 --> 00:23:53.519 multiple times in Titus. It means to live with 00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:58.400 self -control, to live righteously, or another 00:23:58.400 --> 00:24:00.599 way to think of that is to live upright lives, 00:24:00.900 --> 00:24:05.559 and to live godly in this present age. Now that 00:24:05.559 --> 00:24:08.019 word instructing in the original Greek is interesting. 00:24:08.259 --> 00:24:11.579 It's not the standard word that we see for teaching, 00:24:11.700 --> 00:24:15.900 didasco. Here Paul uses the word paiduo. There 00:24:15.900 --> 00:24:19.319 it is for you Greek nerds. Paiduo, which has 00:24:19.319 --> 00:24:21.920 a very specific meaning. It's the training of 00:24:21.920 --> 00:24:27.720 children. The grace of God trains us like children, 00:24:27.819 --> 00:24:31.339 which I think what the implication is, Paul's 00:24:31.339 --> 00:24:34.799 saying that grace doesn't function like a standard 00:24:34.799 --> 00:24:37.059 teacher in a classroom. It's more than that. 00:24:37.099 --> 00:24:41.930 Teaching, yes, but also correcting us. And rebuking 00:24:41.930 --> 00:24:44.730 us and disciplining us and encouraging us. All 00:24:44.730 --> 00:24:47.329 the things that we do with our kids. That's what 00:24:47.329 --> 00:24:50.450 grace does for us in teaching us. So grace is 00:24:50.450 --> 00:24:52.390 a teacher in our lives in the sense that it does 00:24:52.390 --> 00:24:55.190 all of those things. And grace tells us that 00:24:55.190 --> 00:24:58.069 we've got to say no to some things even as we 00:24:58.069 --> 00:25:01.150 say yes to other things. Right? There's both 00:25:01.150 --> 00:25:03.630 a negative and a positive word here for us this 00:25:03.630 --> 00:25:06.009 morning. By the way, this is something Paul loves 00:25:06.009 --> 00:25:08.809 to do in a lot of his letters. We call it a double 00:25:08.809 --> 00:25:10.930 motion. He says, you got to do this, but you 00:25:10.930 --> 00:25:13.829 also got to do this. And oftentimes he uses language 00:25:13.829 --> 00:25:16.529 like, look, you got to put off that old self 00:25:16.529 --> 00:25:19.309 and you got to put on the new self. You've died 00:25:19.309 --> 00:25:21.849 to that old nature. Now clothe yourself with 00:25:21.849 --> 00:25:24.250 your new nature. We see that in Colossians. We 00:25:24.250 --> 00:25:26.710 see it in Ephesians. And we see that same kind 00:25:26.710 --> 00:25:29.769 of double action here. First, deny these things. 00:25:30.049 --> 00:25:33.079 What are they? ungodliness and worldly passions. 00:25:33.440 --> 00:25:36.980 And then second, put on these things, self -control, 00:25:37.180 --> 00:25:40.380 righteousness, and godliness. So let's look at 00:25:40.380 --> 00:25:41.859 both the negative and the positive, starting 00:25:41.859 --> 00:25:46.500 with the negative. Grace trains us to deny ungodliness 00:25:46.500 --> 00:25:49.000 and worldly desires. Now, how does that work? 00:25:50.319 --> 00:25:54.460 How does grace do that? When you receive God's 00:25:54.460 --> 00:25:57.529 undeserved favor in Jesus Christ, and you have 00:25:57.529 --> 00:25:59.529 all of your sins washed away, and you begin to 00:25:59.529 --> 00:26:02.470 understand what that actually means, over time 00:26:02.470 --> 00:26:04.769 what that does is it changes your affections. 00:26:06.150 --> 00:26:09.089 You have to know this. If you begin to grasp 00:26:09.089 --> 00:26:12.609 what Christ has done for you on the cross in 00:26:12.609 --> 00:26:15.609 cleansing you from every sin, past, present, 00:26:15.710 --> 00:26:18.869 and future, and giving you eternal life, a promise 00:26:18.869 --> 00:26:21.670 that cannot be taken away, when you begin to 00:26:21.670 --> 00:26:24.789 grasp that, over time it begins to change your 00:26:24.789 --> 00:26:28.599 affections. More and more, you realize what you've 00:26:28.599 --> 00:26:30.700 been given and you want to please the Lord who 00:26:30.700 --> 00:26:33.480 died for you. You want to devote more of your 00:26:33.480 --> 00:26:35.720 life to him. You want to study his word more. 00:26:36.200 --> 00:26:37.980 And the more you begin to realize that there 00:26:37.980 --> 00:26:40.220 is so much in your life that needs to be transformed. 00:26:41.460 --> 00:26:44.059 Anybody else experience this? Just when you think, 00:26:44.180 --> 00:26:47.039 okay, I'm grasping what Christ has done for me 00:26:47.039 --> 00:26:49.059 and I'm looking at the word, I'm like, oh man, 00:26:49.180 --> 00:26:52.210 there's so much more. that I need to clean up 00:26:52.210 --> 00:26:53.849 in my life. By the way, that's a good thing. 00:26:53.890 --> 00:26:55.549 It's a good thing to see those things, right? 00:26:55.809 --> 00:26:58.589 We shouldn't be afraid of that. God's like a 00:26:58.589 --> 00:27:01.430 wonderful father who says, look, I'm going to 00:27:01.430 --> 00:27:03.390 keep showing you these things. It's good for 00:27:03.390 --> 00:27:05.509 you. You need to deal with these things. But 00:27:05.509 --> 00:27:07.589 more and more we see that we've got to be transformed. 00:27:08.170 --> 00:27:11.230 And when I say transformed, not just our external 00:27:11.230 --> 00:27:14.690 actions, but transforming the inner man, right? 00:27:15.279 --> 00:27:18.680 What's deep inside because what comes out is 00:27:18.680 --> 00:27:20.839 what's first deep inside. So we start with the 00:27:20.839 --> 00:27:24.000 inner man, our wants and our desires. Those things 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:27.000 need to be transformed over time. Our pride and 00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:30.880 our selfishness. And for the true believer, that 00:27:30.880 --> 00:27:34.059 begins a whole life's journey down a path. And 00:27:34.059 --> 00:27:36.099 I hope that everybody in this room this morning 00:27:36.099 --> 00:27:38.259 is on that path right now where you're denying 00:27:38.259 --> 00:27:41.660 yourself. more and more as the years go by, where 00:27:41.660 --> 00:27:44.099 you are taking up a cross, where you are walking 00:27:44.099 --> 00:27:47.440 in the footsteps of your Savior. And the longer 00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:49.839 you do that, the more you begin to see that what 00:27:49.839 --> 00:27:52.720 Jesus said in Matthew 11 is true, that following 00:27:52.720 --> 00:27:56.359 him is actually not a burden. His yoke is easy, 00:27:56.480 --> 00:28:00.440 that it's a joy, isn't it? That's where we find 00:28:00.440 --> 00:28:03.690 rest for our soul. Because the world thinks you've 00:28:03.690 --> 00:28:06.130 got to grit your teeth and just do all these 00:28:06.130 --> 00:28:08.069 things you don't want to do to follow Jesus. 00:28:08.210 --> 00:28:11.410 And it's not true. Not for the true child of 00:28:11.410 --> 00:28:15.890 God. We see it as peace and joy and, again, rest 00:28:15.890 --> 00:28:19.490 for our soul to follow in his footsteps. So more 00:28:19.490 --> 00:28:21.230 and more you begin to say no to the things of 00:28:21.230 --> 00:28:23.670 this world because you recognize that God and 00:28:23.670 --> 00:28:26.250 his grace are far sweeter than anything that 00:28:26.250 --> 00:28:29.309 the world can give you. And, again, that's a 00:28:29.309 --> 00:28:33.200 process, right? The denial of self is a process. 00:28:33.259 --> 00:28:36.119 It's a maturing in the faith. So the reality 00:28:36.119 --> 00:28:38.079 is not everything gets cleaned up quickly and 00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:40.140 we don't get victory in every situation that 00:28:40.140 --> 00:28:43.160 we encounter, but because God's grace and forgiveness 00:28:43.160 --> 00:28:45.640 are ever present in the life of his children, 00:28:45.779 --> 00:28:48.240 we don't despair in that journey. We don't give 00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:52.339 up in that process of transformation over a lifetime. 00:28:53.960 --> 00:28:57.099 So that's how grace teaches us to say no to some 00:28:57.099 --> 00:29:00.440 things. We got to dive more and more into the 00:29:00.440 --> 00:29:02.900 person and work of Christ, what he's actually 00:29:02.900 --> 00:29:05.460 done for you, and to try to grasp hold of the 00:29:05.460 --> 00:29:07.660 mystery of all that. It's going to change your 00:29:07.660 --> 00:29:10.500 affections. Amen? Now, what about the positive 00:29:10.500 --> 00:29:15.380 side of verse 12? Grace instructs us, trains 00:29:15.380 --> 00:29:18.819 us to live in these three ways in this present 00:29:18.819 --> 00:29:21.299 age, in ways that please the Lord. Look at those 00:29:21.299 --> 00:29:24.630 three character traits. They touch on every major 00:29:24.630 --> 00:29:27.210 area of our lives. They're sort of like concentric 00:29:27.210 --> 00:29:31.410 circles that start within and go out. I'll give 00:29:31.410 --> 00:29:34.130 you a list here. The word sensibly, again, refers 00:29:34.130 --> 00:29:37.930 to our personal self -control. That's the center 00:29:37.930 --> 00:29:40.289 ring where we have to get control of our own 00:29:40.289 --> 00:29:44.609 passions and desires and affections. Then second, 00:29:44.690 --> 00:29:47.349 living righteously refers to living with integrity 00:29:47.349 --> 00:29:49.549 in your dealings with other people. That's the 00:29:49.549 --> 00:29:52.390 next ring out. And then the biggest ring is living 00:29:52.390 --> 00:29:55.509 godly, obviously in your relationship toward 00:29:55.509 --> 00:29:58.869 the Lord. And that begins in the heart and then 00:29:58.869 --> 00:30:01.490 extends outward to everything that you say and 00:30:01.490 --> 00:30:05.130 everything that you do. So this is the positive 00:30:05.130 --> 00:30:07.670 side of it. Now, keep this in mind. This is something 00:30:07.670 --> 00:30:11.210 I've seen so many Christians miss in their walk 00:30:11.210 --> 00:30:13.710 with the Lord. It's easy to fall into the trap 00:30:13.710 --> 00:30:17.009 of thinking that Christianity is primarily a 00:30:17.009 --> 00:30:20.210 religion of saying no. At least that's what the 00:30:20.210 --> 00:30:23.349 world tells you. Christianity is this religion 00:30:23.349 --> 00:30:25.430 where you constantly have to say no to everything. 00:30:25.809 --> 00:30:30.009 We tend to be defined by the world mostly as 00:30:30.009 --> 00:30:32.730 here are the moral things that Christians have 00:30:32.730 --> 00:30:36.809 to say no to. And we do have to say no to some 00:30:36.809 --> 00:30:39.410 things, but is that what defines us? No. But 00:30:39.410 --> 00:30:41.609 we get so focused on saying no to the things 00:30:41.609 --> 00:30:44.630 of the world that we miss what is, in my opinion, 00:30:44.670 --> 00:30:47.210 the more important step. And that's the putting 00:30:47.210 --> 00:30:51.450 on of the new self. We're so focused over here, 00:30:51.529 --> 00:30:54.750 we miss this. Think of it this way. It's not 00:30:54.750 --> 00:30:57.890 enough to take your car in for repairs and have 00:30:57.890 --> 00:30:59.970 the mechanic take out the parts that are broken. 00:31:03.089 --> 00:31:06.829 Okay, parts are gone. Here's your car back. Good 00:31:06.829 --> 00:31:10.400 luck. He's got to put in the new parts if it's 00:31:10.400 --> 00:31:14.519 ever going to work again. Think about parents 00:31:14.519 --> 00:31:18.240 with kids in school having to do homework. It's 00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:23.839 the worst. Happy Mother's Day. I still have flashbacks. 00:31:25.099 --> 00:31:28.000 It's not enough to get your son or daughter to 00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:31.299 put down their phone and stop procrastinating. 00:31:31.640 --> 00:31:35.049 They've got to put on. Good study habits. They've 00:31:35.049 --> 00:31:37.990 got to put on the virtue of hard work if they're 00:31:37.990 --> 00:31:40.690 going to succeed in school. So it's a good start 00:31:40.690 --> 00:31:42.309 to put down the phone, but then you've got to 00:31:42.309 --> 00:31:45.170 put something on in order to get that done. So 00:31:45.170 --> 00:31:47.529 it's the same for us as Christians seeking to 00:31:47.529 --> 00:31:49.970 live a godly life. We have to do both of these 00:31:49.970 --> 00:31:52.750 things. Deny some things, but make sure to put 00:31:52.750 --> 00:31:55.869 on some other things. And here's why I think 00:31:55.869 --> 00:31:57.650 the putting on is the more important step. I 00:31:57.650 --> 00:32:02.329 remember years ago. you know, studying this topic 00:32:02.329 --> 00:32:04.450 for myself because I wanted to understand. I 00:32:04.450 --> 00:32:07.190 saw this in Pauline language, put off and put 00:32:07.190 --> 00:32:09.470 on. And as a shepherd, I wanted to be able to 00:32:09.470 --> 00:32:11.730 talk to any of you guys and say, this is how 00:32:11.730 --> 00:32:14.609 this works. And so as I was studying, I was led 00:32:14.609 --> 00:32:17.549 to a sermon by an early 19th century Scottish 00:32:17.549 --> 00:32:20.670 preacher by the name of Thomas Chalmers. It's 00:32:20.670 --> 00:32:24.349 got this great name called the expulsive power 00:32:24.349 --> 00:32:27.009 of a new affection. I mean, it's nerdy stuff, 00:32:27.250 --> 00:32:30.619 but it's really, really powerful. The premise 00:32:30.619 --> 00:32:33.480 of his sermon was this, that our love for Christ 00:32:33.480 --> 00:32:37.000 and our striving to please him in our lives is 00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:39.319 not only the right thing to do in and of itself, 00:32:39.660 --> 00:32:43.960 but it also serves to expel what is displeasing 00:32:43.960 --> 00:32:49.460 to him. Let me say it again. Our love for Christ 00:32:49.460 --> 00:32:52.119 and our striving to please him is correct. That 00:32:52.119 --> 00:32:54.480 is the correct desire for us to have, but it 00:32:54.480 --> 00:32:57.039 does more than that. It actually helps us to 00:32:57.039 --> 00:33:01.420 expel sin in our lives. The putting on process, 00:33:01.700 --> 00:33:04.740 when it's empowered by the Holy Spirit, helps 00:33:04.740 --> 00:33:08.339 us to expel the sins of the flesh and the worldly 00:33:08.339 --> 00:33:10.779 desires that have got a foothold in our lives. 00:33:11.940 --> 00:33:14.059 So if we're just putting off but not putting 00:33:14.059 --> 00:33:17.519 on, we're missing that key piece. And I think 00:33:17.519 --> 00:33:20.000 Chalmers has it right. At least that's what I've 00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:22.759 experienced in my walk with the Lord. As I've 00:33:22.759 --> 00:33:25.059 grown over the years in my putting on of spiritual 00:33:25.059 --> 00:33:28.519 disciplines, like consistent prayer and faithful 00:33:28.519 --> 00:33:32.119 worship careful study of God's word and practicing 00:33:32.119 --> 00:33:34.720 the one in others and discipling others, all 00:33:34.720 --> 00:33:37.480 of that, as I practice those things with diligence, 00:33:37.779 --> 00:33:40.460 I have found that the Holy Spirit, I don't even 00:33:40.460 --> 00:33:42.700 know how this happens, but mysteriously the Holy 00:33:42.700 --> 00:33:45.279 Spirit over the years changed my affections, 00:33:45.400 --> 00:33:48.740 changed me from within. The things that I once 00:33:48.740 --> 00:33:51.660 desired sort of melted away and suddenly I was 00:33:51.660 --> 00:33:55.000 like, wait, I don't, it's mysterious, isn't it? 00:33:55.240 --> 00:33:57.700 Like, I can't give you a blow -by -blow, you 00:33:57.700 --> 00:34:00.019 know, step -by -step process of how the Spirit 00:34:00.019 --> 00:34:03.380 did it, but over time, as I practiced the putting 00:34:03.380 --> 00:34:07.980 on, He began to change me in the inner man. It's 00:34:07.980 --> 00:34:09.420 a beautiful thing, isn't it? It's a beautiful 00:34:09.420 --> 00:34:11.599 promise we have from the Lord. So whatever you 00:34:11.599 --> 00:34:14.039 wrestle with in your spiritual walk, if you want 00:34:14.039 --> 00:34:17.219 to get victory, it requires more than just trying 00:34:17.219 --> 00:34:19.820 and gritting your teeth to deny those things. 00:34:19.960 --> 00:34:22.320 That's a good start, but you have to set out 00:34:22.320 --> 00:34:24.960 to practice the things of God that will over 00:34:24.960 --> 00:34:28.199 time, by the power of the Spirit, help you expel 00:34:28.199 --> 00:34:32.239 those recurring sins of the flesh. Putting off 00:34:32.239 --> 00:34:35.219 and putting on. So we plan to do those things, 00:34:35.400 --> 00:34:38.230 and then we go do them. And we're diligent about 00:34:38.230 --> 00:34:40.789 them, right? Not that we're going to make those 00:34:40.789 --> 00:34:43.710 changes in our own strength, but we cooperate 00:34:43.710 --> 00:34:46.090 with the Spirit in our sanctification by saying, 00:34:46.130 --> 00:34:48.130 look, I'm going to practice these things. I'm 00:34:48.130 --> 00:34:49.670 going to plan to do it. I'm going to go do it. 00:34:50.510 --> 00:34:53.909 And we actually see this in Romans 6, the call 00:34:53.909 --> 00:34:56.849 to worship that we read earlier. Paul gives us 00:34:56.849 --> 00:34:59.530 this very same call to action. Let me show it 00:34:59.530 --> 00:35:02.190 to you again. He says, present yourselves to 00:35:02.190 --> 00:35:06.489 God. That is an action step on our part. Present 00:35:06.489 --> 00:35:09.889 yourself to God as those alive from the dead 00:35:09.889 --> 00:35:13.969 and present the parts of your body as instruments 00:35:13.969 --> 00:35:17.369 of righteousness to him. That's what we do. We 00:35:17.369 --> 00:35:20.610 say, Lord, I am coming to you. I can't change 00:35:20.610 --> 00:35:23.489 myself. You have that power, but I am presenting 00:35:23.489 --> 00:35:26.469 myself before you. Take my body and do as you 00:35:26.469 --> 00:35:29.349 please. And then we practice the things, the 00:35:29.349 --> 00:35:33.949 putting on of the new man. Amen? And as you do 00:35:33.949 --> 00:35:37.750 that, Here's the thing, and we've all experienced 00:35:37.750 --> 00:35:42.050 this. We fail at times, don't we? And we get 00:35:42.050 --> 00:35:46.030 discouraged, and we want to give up. But trust 00:35:46.030 --> 00:35:48.849 that God's grace abounds in the process of sanctification, 00:35:48.869 --> 00:35:51.909 even when you fall short of what you want to 00:35:51.909 --> 00:35:54.869 be, of how much you want to please him. Be diligent, 00:35:54.969 --> 00:35:58.369 but give it time. The Christian life is a marathon. 00:35:58.389 --> 00:36:02.010 It's a lifelong process of change. It's not a 00:36:02.010 --> 00:36:05.280 sprint. And if you don't give up, if you persevere, 00:36:05.280 --> 00:36:08.320 the Lord will reward you. He will do that work 00:36:08.320 --> 00:36:12.699 in you as a child of God. Remember, he's not 00:36:12.699 --> 00:36:17.000 mad at you all the time. You're his child. Yes, 00:36:17.019 --> 00:36:19.619 he wants better for you. He wants you to get 00:36:19.619 --> 00:36:21.860 victory. He wants to empower you for victory 00:36:21.860 --> 00:36:25.000 over sin. But he's not constantly mad at you. 00:36:25.079 --> 00:36:27.860 He can't love you any more than he already does. 00:36:28.800 --> 00:36:33.050 He died for you. And sometimes... As Bible -believing 00:36:33.050 --> 00:36:34.949 Christians, we often beat ourselves up over this, 00:36:35.030 --> 00:36:38.309 right? We keep doing what God tells us to do, 00:36:38.369 --> 00:36:40.630 presenting ourselves to him, putting off and 00:36:40.630 --> 00:36:43.349 putting on, and then walking through this process 00:36:43.349 --> 00:36:46.690 with him as his grace abounds. And remember this, 00:36:46.889 --> 00:36:51.449 your sanctification is ultimately his work. It's 00:36:51.449 --> 00:36:54.329 not your work. Yes, there's things we do to cooperate, 00:36:54.449 --> 00:36:57.349 but it's his work. It's his promise to fulfill 00:36:57.349 --> 00:37:01.230 in you, correct? To complete the work that he 00:37:01.230 --> 00:37:06.760 began. Okay. So grace trains us to say both no 00:37:06.760 --> 00:37:10.699 and yes. And now look at verse 13. Here we see 00:37:10.699 --> 00:37:13.579 that grace also trains us to hope in another 00:37:13.579 --> 00:37:16.659 kind of appearing, two appearings. Verse 13 says, 00:37:16.780 --> 00:37:19.920 looking or waiting for the blessed hope and the, 00:37:20.039 --> 00:37:23.260 underline it, appearing of the glory of our great 00:37:23.260 --> 00:37:26.199 God and Savior Christ Jesus. So there was the 00:37:26.199 --> 00:37:30.130 appearing of Jesus. bringing the fullness of 00:37:30.130 --> 00:37:32.650 grace in his first coming. Now we have the appearing 00:37:32.650 --> 00:37:35.530 of Jesus in all of his glory. So we have these 00:37:35.530 --> 00:37:38.670 two references here. Verse 11, a reference to 00:37:38.670 --> 00:37:41.690 the first coming of Christ, the Lamb of God who 00:37:41.690 --> 00:37:44.590 takes away the sin of the world. Verse 13, a 00:37:44.590 --> 00:37:47.389 reference to his second coming when the Lion 00:37:47.389 --> 00:37:49.630 of Judah will arrive bringing judgment and a 00:37:49.630 --> 00:37:52.670 rod of iron in all of his glory. So first grace, 00:37:52.670 --> 00:37:56.500 then glory, not two messiahs. Right? But two 00:37:56.500 --> 00:38:00.179 advents of the one and only Son of God. This 00:38:00.179 --> 00:38:01.840 is what we're told throughout the New Testament. 00:38:02.500 --> 00:38:04.619 And Paul says this is our blessed hope. This 00:38:04.619 --> 00:38:07.380 is what we watch for. This is what we wait for. 00:38:07.480 --> 00:38:09.980 And we have eager expectations. And by the way, 00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:12.480 when we say hope, understand biblically hope 00:38:12.480 --> 00:38:16.920 is not finger crossing. Right? It's not, well, 00:38:16.960 --> 00:38:19.360 it may happen, it may not happen. The Bible says 00:38:19.360 --> 00:38:22.239 it's a certain hope. It's as certain as the promises 00:38:22.239 --> 00:38:25.309 of God. which are always 100 % trustworthy. It's 00:38:25.309 --> 00:38:28.389 a certain hope that we have. So we wait and we 00:38:28.389 --> 00:38:31.030 watch. And I've seen people compare, and I like 00:38:31.030 --> 00:38:35.070 this picture, a young wife whose husband has 00:38:35.070 --> 00:38:37.630 been overseas fighting in a war, but then she 00:38:37.630 --> 00:38:40.670 hears the word that he's coming back. How excited 00:38:40.670 --> 00:38:43.550 is she? And she looks every day outside the front 00:38:43.550 --> 00:38:46.510 window of her home, just waiting to see that 00:38:46.510 --> 00:38:49.230 vehicle pull up with her husband returning from 00:38:49.230 --> 00:38:52.559 war. That's the type of eager expectation. Remember, 00:38:52.639 --> 00:38:54.699 we're the bride of Christ, right? And we're watching 00:38:54.699 --> 00:38:58.000 for our bridegroom. We should have eager expectations. 00:38:59.219 --> 00:39:02.000 By the way, his return is part of the motivation 00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:05.340 for us to live sensibly, to live righteously, 00:39:05.440 --> 00:39:08.420 to live godly. Because when we see him face to 00:39:08.420 --> 00:39:12.340 face, we want to be pleasing in his sight. So 00:39:12.340 --> 00:39:15.139 that's part of our motivation for this. Now, 00:39:15.159 --> 00:39:16.980 I've heard nonbelievers ask the question, like, 00:39:17.019 --> 00:39:18.719 what is the big deal about the second coming? 00:39:18.800 --> 00:39:21.480 Why is this so important to you? And the answer 00:39:21.480 --> 00:39:24.820 is, it's because it's the completion of Jesus' 00:39:25.019 --> 00:39:28.360 mission in the world. It's the completion, right? 00:39:28.480 --> 00:39:31.579 The first part is done. That was to make atonement 00:39:31.579 --> 00:39:35.500 for sin, to defeat death. But there's a second 00:39:35.500 --> 00:39:38.179 part of his mission which remains open and needs 00:39:38.179 --> 00:39:40.840 to be completed. So there's still prophecy to 00:39:40.840 --> 00:39:43.420 be fulfilled. And there's justice to be imposed. 00:39:44.030 --> 00:39:46.590 And there's the Messiah's earthly rule, which 00:39:46.590 --> 00:39:49.050 remains to be experienced. All those things still 00:39:49.050 --> 00:39:51.469 have to happen. So the promise we've been given 00:39:51.469 --> 00:39:54.309 is these things will happen, so keep watching 00:39:54.309 --> 00:39:58.769 and be ready. And this should be a more regular 00:39:58.769 --> 00:40:01.550 thought for us, especially the days we're living 00:40:01.550 --> 00:40:04.750 in right now, to keep watching and to make sure 00:40:04.750 --> 00:40:08.150 that we're ready. Don't be lulled into thinking 00:40:08.150 --> 00:40:10.869 that Jesus just, you know, one day he ascended 00:40:10.869 --> 00:40:12.889 into the spirit realm, never to be seen again. 00:40:13.449 --> 00:40:16.510 A day is coming and we should be ready for that, 00:40:16.530 --> 00:40:19.110 right? And it will be glorious for those who 00:40:19.110 --> 00:40:22.150 know him, for those who trust in him and for 00:40:22.150 --> 00:40:24.469 those who've rejected him, for those who are 00:40:24.469 --> 00:40:26.289 trusting in their own goodness and their own 00:40:26.289 --> 00:40:28.869 religious efforts, for those folks, it's gonna 00:40:28.869 --> 00:40:32.369 be a day of terrifying judgment. So we should 00:40:32.369 --> 00:40:35.349 be ready for this. So it's important for us to 00:40:35.349 --> 00:40:38.010 take note, the proper motivation for living a 00:40:38.010 --> 00:40:40.110 godly Christian life comes from both of those 00:40:40.110 --> 00:40:43.789 two directions. First, looking back, with gratitude 00:40:43.789 --> 00:40:46.389 to the grace that appeared at his first coming 00:40:46.389 --> 00:40:50.610 when salvation came to us, but also looking forward 00:40:50.610 --> 00:40:52.570 to the grace that we'll receive at his second 00:40:52.570 --> 00:40:55.789 coming when we will be raised and glorified with 00:40:55.789 --> 00:40:58.650 him. And both of those things are motivation 00:40:58.650 --> 00:41:04.170 for us to live godly lives right now. Amen? Now, 00:41:04.250 --> 00:41:07.349 last thing, something I cannot ignore. Look again 00:41:07.349 --> 00:41:11.449 at the phrase in verse 13. Our great God and 00:41:11.449 --> 00:41:17.239 Savior. Christ Jesus. Is this saying that Jesus 00:41:17.239 --> 00:41:22.079 is God? Is this saying that he's Yahweh who took 00:41:22.079 --> 00:41:27.699 on flesh? Yes, it is. Guys, this is an explicit 00:41:27.699 --> 00:41:33.219 statement about the deity of Christ. He is called 00:41:33.219 --> 00:41:38.420 our great God and Savior. Unitarians out there, 00:41:38.539 --> 00:41:41.039 opponents of Trinitarianism, they will object 00:41:41.039 --> 00:41:43.480 and they will say, well, what Paul means is our 00:41:43.480 --> 00:41:47.480 great God, meaning God the Father, and the Savior, 00:41:47.559 --> 00:41:50.800 Jesus Christ. And they will basically say Paul's 00:41:50.800 --> 00:41:53.360 referring to two persons here. But there's three 00:41:53.360 --> 00:41:55.760 really obvious reasons why that is wrong, why 00:41:55.760 --> 00:41:58.559 that is a false claim. First of all, the grammar 00:41:58.559 --> 00:42:02.639 in the original Greek only has one article governing 00:42:02.639 --> 00:42:06.369 both of those titles, God and Savior. If Paul 00:42:06.369 --> 00:42:08.130 were referring to two persons, you would expect 00:42:08.130 --> 00:42:11.670 to see two articles. But more importantly, notice 00:42:11.670 --> 00:42:14.210 what Paul writes, the appearing of the glory 00:42:14.210 --> 00:42:17.650 of our great God. That has to be Jesus because 00:42:17.650 --> 00:42:19.849 we are not waiting or watching for the return 00:42:19.849 --> 00:42:25.230 of God the Father. He is spirit. This has to 00:42:25.230 --> 00:42:28.079 be Jesus, right? God and Savior. And then third, 00:42:28.199 --> 00:42:30.659 in verse 14, if you look at that, this great 00:42:30.659 --> 00:42:33.500 God is said to be the one who gave himself for 00:42:33.500 --> 00:42:36.400 us. Again, that has to be Jesus. That has to 00:42:36.400 --> 00:42:39.920 be the Son because that was his unique role to 00:42:39.920 --> 00:42:43.219 take on flesh and die on the cross. This is clearly 00:42:43.219 --> 00:42:47.719 a reference to Jesus as our great God. So if 00:42:47.719 --> 00:42:50.420 somebody comes to you and says, I don't see anywhere 00:42:50.420 --> 00:42:54.380 in the Bible where Jesus is said to be God, Titus 00:42:54.380 --> 00:42:57.570 2 .13. Seal it up in your brain. Take them right 00:42:57.570 --> 00:43:00.630 there and go, here you go. This is a very explicit 00:43:00.630 --> 00:43:05.030 statement. Got it? Good? Okay, we're going to 00:43:05.030 --> 00:43:07.690 wrap up with a quick summary of verse 14. And 00:43:07.690 --> 00:43:09.550 the reason why we can do a quick summary of verse 00:43:09.550 --> 00:43:13.329 14 is because it's a loop. It brings us full 00:43:13.329 --> 00:43:16.929 circle back to verse 12. Okay, catch this now. 00:43:17.070 --> 00:43:20.670 It closes the loop between two things. What grace 00:43:20.670 --> 00:43:23.670 instructs us to do and what grace has accomplished 00:43:23.670 --> 00:43:26.289 for us. Through the person and work of Christ. 00:43:26.769 --> 00:43:29.070 And there's also a double motion to this. I'll 00:43:29.070 --> 00:43:31.650 put this on the screen to help you see it. On 00:43:31.650 --> 00:43:34.030 the negative side in verse 12, we're to deny 00:43:34.030 --> 00:43:36.570 ungodliness and worldly desires. That's what 00:43:36.570 --> 00:43:40.369 grace trains us to do. In verse 14, it says Jesus 00:43:40.369 --> 00:43:44.250 gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless 00:43:44.250 --> 00:43:47.110 deed. That's what grace has accomplished for 00:43:47.110 --> 00:43:49.800 us. So it loops back to verse 12. Then on the 00:43:49.800 --> 00:43:52.539 positive side, in verse 12, we're told to live 00:43:52.539 --> 00:43:55.739 in these certain ways in this present age. That's 00:43:55.739 --> 00:43:59.159 what grace trains us to do. In verse 14, it says 00:43:59.159 --> 00:44:03.739 that Jesus gave himself for us to purify us as 00:44:03.739 --> 00:44:06.440 a people for his own possession. That is what 00:44:06.440 --> 00:44:09.420 grace has accomplished for us in him. So the 00:44:09.420 --> 00:44:11.960 way Paul wrote this is beautiful symmetry between 00:44:11.960 --> 00:44:15.679 verses 12 and verses 14, both positive and negative 00:44:15.679 --> 00:44:19.619 with this double motion. Take note of that, go 00:44:19.619 --> 00:44:21.619 home, study it. It's really quite beautiful. 00:44:22.119 --> 00:44:24.480 Finally, I wanna look at what Paul means when 00:44:24.480 --> 00:44:28.219 he says, zealous for good deeds. Look at verse 00:44:28.219 --> 00:44:33.000 14. He purified a people to be zealous for good 00:44:33.000 --> 00:44:35.659 deeds. Now, this is a good time to ask the question, 00:44:35.780 --> 00:44:37.820 what exactly does the Bible mean by good deeds? 00:44:38.659 --> 00:44:40.500 A lot of good things we can do out there, but 00:44:40.500 --> 00:44:42.739 what does the Bible mean when it talks about 00:44:42.739 --> 00:44:45.559 good deeds? Well, the short answer is, Deeds 00:44:45.559 --> 00:44:49.139 that are done out of sincere love for God and 00:44:49.139 --> 00:44:51.639 for serving others in obedience to his word. 00:44:53.099 --> 00:44:55.099 Specifically, things that are done in devotion 00:44:55.099 --> 00:44:58.920 to God and others in obedience to his commands. 00:44:59.679 --> 00:45:01.480 Those are the good deeds we're talking about 00:45:01.480 --> 00:45:03.699 here. And let me just say, this is one of the 00:45:03.699 --> 00:45:06.559 places where Protestant Christians can sometimes 00:45:06.559 --> 00:45:10.380 fall into error. We can find ourselves... as 00:45:10.380 --> 00:45:13.380 children of the Reformation, so enamored by the 00:45:13.380 --> 00:45:15.500 doctrine of salvation, by faith alone, apart 00:45:15.500 --> 00:45:18.719 from works, that we don't talk about being zealous 00:45:18.719 --> 00:45:21.340 for good deeds very often, where we downplay 00:45:21.340 --> 00:45:23.920 our need to practice the works of obedience. 00:45:24.960 --> 00:45:28.119 We've got to be balanced about this. And at times 00:45:28.119 --> 00:45:30.619 we rightly come under criticism for this. We 00:45:30.619 --> 00:45:33.380 fall into what we call easy believism, where 00:45:33.380 --> 00:45:35.639 we think we can verbally profess to have faith, 00:45:35.739 --> 00:45:37.739 but then say it doesn't matter if we don't have 00:45:37.739 --> 00:45:41.559 any evidence. that our faith is real. And that's 00:45:41.559 --> 00:45:43.539 out of balance. That's when we fall into James' 00:45:43.739 --> 00:45:46.639 condemnation, when he says that faith without 00:45:46.639 --> 00:45:49.760 deeds is dead faith. And there are too many of 00:45:49.760 --> 00:45:52.139 us that darken the doors of modern evangelical 00:45:52.139 --> 00:45:55.659 churches today where cheap grace is peddled to 00:45:55.659 --> 00:45:57.800 the masses. So we've got to be aware of this. 00:45:59.119 --> 00:46:01.440 Keep in mind that when Paul uses a descriptor 00:46:01.440 --> 00:46:04.199 word like being zealous for good works, it has 00:46:04.199 --> 00:46:07.039 a specific historical context. How many of you 00:46:07.039 --> 00:46:10.019 guys have ever studied what a zealot was? Back 00:46:10.019 --> 00:46:13.539 in the day, what was a zealot? It was a very 00:46:13.539 --> 00:46:15.980 specific group of people. That word would have 00:46:15.980 --> 00:46:19.380 stood out in the New Testament context. The zealots 00:46:19.380 --> 00:46:22.820 in first century Judaism were a fanatical Jewish 00:46:22.820 --> 00:46:26.500 sect who used terror and violence to try to push 00:46:26.500 --> 00:46:29.719 the Romans out of Israel. And you can say a lot 00:46:29.719 --> 00:46:31.440 of bad things about the zealots, but the one 00:46:31.440 --> 00:46:33.099 thing you can't say about them is that they were 00:46:33.099 --> 00:46:35.980 lukewarm, right? Or that they weren't committed 00:46:35.980 --> 00:46:39.320 to the cause. So now when you see Paul say we 00:46:39.320 --> 00:46:42.199 should be zealous for good deeds, what does that 00:46:42.199 --> 00:46:43.920 mean? It means we shouldn't just be dabbling 00:46:43.920 --> 00:46:47.960 in good things when it's convenient for us. I 00:46:47.960 --> 00:46:51.639 mean, is that not modern evangelicalism? Consumer, 00:46:51.880 --> 00:46:55.559 in the church, well, I'll get involved if it's 00:46:55.559 --> 00:46:58.530 easy for me, if it fits into my schedule. If 00:46:58.530 --> 00:47:01.670 we're not just dabbling in things, considering 00:47:01.670 --> 00:47:04.070 the grace that we've received in Christ, if we 00:47:04.070 --> 00:47:07.190 really take that seriously, I must say, this 00:47:07.190 --> 00:47:08.769 is going to be controversial. We should be growing 00:47:08.769 --> 00:47:12.429 more and more fanatical about good deeds. I know 00:47:12.429 --> 00:47:14.570 we don't like that word fanatical, but that's 00:47:14.570 --> 00:47:17.250 the implication that Paul has here. It's because 00:47:17.250 --> 00:47:19.730 of the grace that's been lavished upon us that 00:47:19.730 --> 00:47:22.130 we should grow more fanatical in obeying God. 00:47:22.610 --> 00:47:25.750 Not in a pharisaical way, but because we want 00:47:25.750 --> 00:47:29.159 to please him. So it's a great question to test 00:47:29.159 --> 00:47:31.300 your heart with. Would anyone around you today 00:47:31.300 --> 00:47:35.260 say that you are fanatical about your faith in 00:47:35.260 --> 00:47:38.300 the best of ways? And if they said that about 00:47:38.300 --> 00:47:40.539 you, would you be embarrassed by that or would 00:47:40.539 --> 00:47:44.579 you be encouraged by that? Something to consider. 00:47:45.980 --> 00:47:48.679 Many of you are familiar with Elizabeth Elliot's 00:47:48.679 --> 00:47:51.059 book, Shadow of the Almighty, that she wrote 00:47:51.059 --> 00:47:54.409 back in 1958. where she documented the death 00:47:54.409 --> 00:47:57.050 of Jim Elliott, who, as you probably know, was 00:47:57.050 --> 00:48:00.050 killed by a native tribe in Ecuador while trying 00:48:00.050 --> 00:48:04.150 to land in their homeland and to spread the gospel. 00:48:04.730 --> 00:48:07.269 And among the many things that Jim wrote in his 00:48:07.269 --> 00:48:12.190 diary and in his letters, the guy was fanatical 00:48:12.190 --> 00:48:15.230 about his faith and about the gospel. You cannot 00:48:15.230 --> 00:48:18.389 deny it. He was zealous for Christ. He wrote 00:48:18.389 --> 00:48:21.250 this to his sister one day. Whoop, here we go. 00:48:21.349 --> 00:48:23.860 He said, He said this to his sister, fix your 00:48:23.860 --> 00:48:27.440 eyes on Jesus, the morning star. Live every day 00:48:27.440 --> 00:48:30.739 as if the Son of Man were at the door and gear 00:48:30.739 --> 00:48:33.239 your thinking to this fleeting moment. How can 00:48:33.239 --> 00:48:36.739 it be redeemed? Walk as if the next step would 00:48:36.739 --> 00:48:41.579 carry you across the threshold of heaven. He 00:48:41.579 --> 00:48:44.480 was zealous about the Christian life. This was 00:48:44.480 --> 00:48:46.440 one of his great prayers. He said, Father, make 00:48:46.440 --> 00:48:50.739 me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to a decision. 00:48:51.320 --> 00:48:54.079 Let me not be a milepost on a single road. Make 00:48:54.079 --> 00:48:57.960 me a fork that men must turn one way or another 00:48:57.960 --> 00:49:03.099 on facing Christ in me. And then lastly, one 00:49:03.099 --> 00:49:06.300 of his prayers was this. God, I pray, light these 00:49:06.300 --> 00:49:09.619 idle sticks of my life and may I burn for you. 00:49:10.260 --> 00:49:15.039 Consume my life, my God, for it is yours. I seek 00:49:15.039 --> 00:49:20.139 not a long life, but a full one. Friends, my 00:49:20.139 --> 00:49:24.400 prayer as I was reading about Jim Elliot last 00:49:24.400 --> 00:49:27.599 night, my prayer for myself, for you guys, is 00:49:27.599 --> 00:49:30.440 that the grace of God, the same grace that saved 00:49:30.440 --> 00:49:32.739 us, the same grace that instructs us and motivates 00:49:32.739 --> 00:49:37.000 us to live rightly, I pray that that grace will 00:49:37.000 --> 00:49:40.840 make us so thankful and so full of love for our 00:49:40.840 --> 00:49:44.219 Savior that we would become that zealous, as 00:49:44.219 --> 00:49:46.579 zealous for the things of God as Jim Elliot was. 00:49:47.199 --> 00:49:51.599 during his short 28 years of life. Christian, 00:49:51.659 --> 00:49:55.380 do you see it? Do you see what Paul says in Titus 00:49:55.380 --> 00:49:59.300 2, what a great God and Savior we have? What 00:49:59.300 --> 00:50:02.599 does that mean for your life? Do you see what 00:50:02.599 --> 00:50:06.300 a great salvation that was brought to us? What 00:50:06.300 --> 00:50:09.400 does that mean for the way you live today? Do 00:50:09.400 --> 00:50:11.699 you see what a great future hope we have, eternity 00:50:11.699 --> 00:50:16.679 with our Savior? And as we live our days on the 00:50:16.679 --> 00:50:18.440 earth, what a great mission we've been given 00:50:18.440 --> 00:50:21.260 in the days on the earth that we have. This mission 00:50:21.260 --> 00:50:23.760 that we've been given by the one who gave himself 00:50:23.760 --> 00:50:27.119 for us. What does that mean for the way you'll 00:50:27.119 --> 00:50:30.440 live life this week? How can any of us walk out 00:50:30.440 --> 00:50:35.219 of here today not a changed people? So let's 00:50:35.219 --> 00:50:41.260 bow our heads. And let's ask God to seal some 00:50:41.260 --> 00:50:44.969 of these truths in our hearts. Ask him to grow 00:50:44.969 --> 00:50:52.789 us and change us. Let's pray together. Father, 00:50:52.829 --> 00:50:55.110 what a great challenge this passage gives to 00:50:55.110 --> 00:50:57.530 us. And what a great encouragement, Lord, that 00:50:57.530 --> 00:50:59.710 you, first of all, that you are such a gracious 00:50:59.710 --> 00:51:04.210 God. We are an undeserving people. We have not 00:51:04.210 --> 00:51:08.809 earned the right to call you Father. But you 00:51:08.809 --> 00:51:10.650 have lavished your grace upon us. You brought 00:51:10.650 --> 00:51:14.670 it to us. You marked us out and you drew us to 00:51:14.670 --> 00:51:17.710 yourself and you justified us and now you've 00:51:17.710 --> 00:51:22.570 promised to glorify us in the future. Lord, make 00:51:22.570 --> 00:51:25.389 us a thankful people as we look back on the grace 00:51:25.389 --> 00:51:29.050 that you have given to us. And Lord, to take 00:51:29.050 --> 00:51:33.230 this grace now and to say, Lord, how does this 00:51:33.230 --> 00:51:36.429 grace instruct us to live today and this week 00:51:36.429 --> 00:51:40.400 and this month and in the years to come? to live 00:51:40.400 --> 00:51:43.360 with self -control, to live righteously with 00:51:43.360 --> 00:51:46.820 integrity, upright lives as a testimony to your 00:51:46.820 --> 00:51:50.800 goodness, to live godly in a way that shows the 00:51:50.800 --> 00:51:53.119 world exactly what kind of transforming power 00:51:53.119 --> 00:51:55.219 you have. Lord, we've been given a great mission. 00:51:55.780 --> 00:51:58.679 And so, Lord, this passage, just four verses, 00:51:58.760 --> 00:52:02.500 challenges us in so many ways. And I pray first 00:52:02.500 --> 00:52:04.559 for myself, Lord, that I would respond well to 00:52:04.559 --> 00:52:06.900 it, but for my brothers and sisters, too, that 00:52:06.900 --> 00:52:10.579 they... would hear and believe, hear and grow, 00:52:10.760 --> 00:52:13.920 hear and be diligent to strive after these things. 00:52:14.260 --> 00:52:16.880 And that you, God, would do that mysterious work 00:52:16.880 --> 00:52:19.739 and change us from within. Let that be the prayer 00:52:19.739 --> 00:52:21.900 of every person here this morning. We want to 00:52:21.900 --> 00:52:25.539 be changed from within. So Lord, do a work in 00:52:25.539 --> 00:52:27.619 us. Fulfill that promise to complete your work 00:52:27.619 --> 00:52:31.099 in us and we will glorify you for it. Thank you, 00:52:31.119 --> 00:52:33.639 Lord Jesus, for our time in your word. We pray 00:52:33.639 --> 00:52:34.360 in your name, amen.