We're jumping right in this morning because we've
got a lot to talk about. So let's go ahead and
go to the book of Titus. We're looking for Titus
chapter 2. And we are going to find verse 11.
Titus 2, beginning in verse 11. So this morning
we're going to come really, really close to finishing
this amazing chapter. And I admit it's taken
us a while to get through this. I think about
two months now. in Titus chapter 2, but I think
it's been worth the time. And today we're going
to cover just these verses, 11 to 14. The final
verse in this chapter, verse 15, we'll save until
next Sunday. I have a reason for that. So as
you arrive there and you find verse 11, I want
you to notice that in every major translation
that I'm aware of, the first word in this section
is the word for. That's a particular connective
word in the original Greek. It's agar, and it's
translated for in the English. And that is an
interpretive sign for us that we should take
notice of. It tells the reader that there is
an important connection that's about to be made.
So we have to first look back to see what Paul
has just written about and then look forward
to what he's going to say next. There's going
to be a connection. And if you've been with us
in recent months, in the previous section, Paul
gave to Titus a series of instructions about
how he should exhort certain categories of people
in the churches on the island of Crete. Right?
So we started, first of all, he addressed the
older men in the churches, then the older women,
then reversed that order to the younger women
and the younger men. And then finally, we talked
about this two Sundays ago, he addressed the
bond slaves and the household servants there
in the churches. And essentially, by addressing
those five categories you see on the screen,
Paul covered every type of adult believer that
would have been in the churches in Crete. And
as we saw, those exhortations were given to each
category of believer for a very specific purpose.
The idea was to exhort them to live godly lives
as a testimony. to the unsaved people on the
island of Crete. And they were to reflect two
things, one positive, one negative. First, they
should live lives of integrity so that the word
of God will not be dishonored. That's the negative
application of this. So that in your life, you're
not a hypocrite. You're not dishonoring God's
word. On a positive sense, and the second way,
they should live so that their lives adorn the
beauty of the gospel and thereby attract people.
So this is what Paul's been talking about thus
far. Now we come to verse 11. You're going to
see Paul connect this command to live a godly
lifestyle to one essential thing. And it is the
heart of Paul's theology in all of his letters.
It's this concept of grace. He's going to make
that connection to living that godly lifestyle
to the concept of grace. So what we have today
in our text is a critical connection between
what we believe and how we live. What we believe
and how we live, or if you prefer these terms,
our faith and our works. And that is a subject,
every time you hear that, faith and works, that
is a subject that is always at the center of
the debate between Protestant Christians and
those of other branches of Christendom. So we
need to make sure that we have a handle on this
important distinction between who saves and what
saves us, and on the other hand, what provides
the evidence that we've been saved. We've got
to make sure we understand this. And Paul has
a whole bunch to say about this in the letter
to Titus, both in this passage and coming up
in chapter three. But I want to get ahead of
myself. Let's read the rest of chapter two, beginning
with Paul's emphasis on grace. Verse 11, for
the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation
to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness
and worldly desires and to live sensibly. righteously
and godly in the present age, looking for the
blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of
our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave
himself for us to redeem us from every lawless
deed and to purify for himself a people for his
own possession, zealous for good deeds. These
things, Titus, speak and exhort and reprove with
all authority, let no one disregard you. That's
a whole mouthful. And that is a lot of interesting
theology in there. So I want you to underline
two key words here if you're one of those people
that likes to mark up your Bible. And I think
you should, by the way. It's a good thing. Underline
the first word is obvious, verse 11, grace. And
then in verse 12, the word instructing. Or your
translation may say training. Or even teaching,
I believe, in the NIV. So that is going to be
the big theme for this morning. How the grace
of God works in us. First, to save us, and second,
to instruct us in how we should live. Faith and
works. Make sense? Now, this passage is often
looked at by New Testament scholars as what we
call a summary statement that we find from time
to time in the Bible, meaning it sums up in just
a few sentences an absolute core message of Scripture.
In just a few sentences, it gives us this major
thread that runs from Genesis to Revelation.
So every time we see a summary statement like
this that is so loaded with theology, we should
savor every drop of truth that's being given
to us. So if you were to back up and zoom out
on verses 11 to 14, you'd basically see a sort
of a story of redemption in the New Testament.
Because in those four verses, you see the incarnation
of God the Son, and you see his atoning death.
And by extension, his resurrection and ascension.
And then you also see the promise of his return,
the second coming. All of that in these four
verses. And then on top of those big theological
themes, you also see this brief description of
the calling that every single Christian in this
room today has on his or her life. And that is
a calling to live a life of faith and a life
of hope and a life of increasing godliness and
good deeds. All of that is packed in here in
these four verses. So we're told about a great
God and Savior, a great appearing of grace, a
great salvation, a great future hope, and this
great mission we have to adorn the gospel. Anybody
encouraged, excited by that? Okay, good. Just
checking. All right, so let's work our way. This
is a densely packed passage, so let's work our
way through. Verse 11 starts, for the grace of
God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.
Now, you may look at that verse and go, well,
that's pretty straightforward. That's pretty
clear. Trust me, that one sentence could be an
entire sermon series, an entire series. And the
reason for that, a lot of it comes out of church
history. Primarily the question, what is the
role of grace in salvation? Now, in the 16th
century, the reformers looked at the Bible and
said, this looks pretty clear to us. Just as
this verse says, salvation came from God by his
grace, which is sufficient for our needs to have
our sins washed away. It doesn't come by the
addition of our good works or through some seven
sacraments of the church and certainly not through
purgatory, et cetera, et cetera. So this was
Paul's heart. Salvation as an act of God's will
by his grace alone. And the reformers obviously
picked up on that way back in the day. Now, let's
make sure we understand what Paul means by grace.
Definitions always matter, so the short classic
definition is best. Grace is unearned or unmerited
favor from God. Unearned or unmerited, which
means that God showers favor and blessing upon
people who do not in any way deserve to receive
it or in any way able to earn it. We can't deserve
it. We can't earn it. In fact, if you think you
can earn or acquire grace through your good works
or through your own religious efforts, you end
up nullifying grace. You cancel it out. See,
if you earn something, it becomes a wage that
you're owed, right? If you're earning something,
you're owed that. It's a wage. That's the opposite
of grace. And don't take my word for it. That's
exactly Paul's... God breathed the argument that
he makes in Romans 4 when he talks about the
justification of Abraham. He literally says this.
He says, to the one who works, Paul writes, his
wage is not credited as a favor, but as what
is due. But to the one who does not work, but
believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his
faith is credited as righteousness. Such an important
verse to understand the relation of grace to
salvation. So the reality is all human beings,
you know, we deserve a wage, but it's not the
wage we want, right? The wage that we deserve
is God's judgment and wrath. But because of God's
great mercy, he has instead marked out some and
shown us favor. That is literally the good news
of the gospel. So we do deserve something. It's
just not grace. And if we thought we deserved
it, we'd nullify it. Because it'd be no longer
a free gift from God. Does that logically make
sense? So the question is, why do so many well
-meaning religious people out there today not
understand this principle? Do you know some people,
if you brought up the issue of grace, they probably
don't quite get it. In our circles, we tend to
understand this. We've talked about it. We read
about it. We preach about it. But why? And I
think the reason is two primary reasons why it's
misrepresented or misunderstood. On the one side
of the coin, folks won't believe what the Bible
says about grace because it runs so counter to
the way we naturally think. Our world, especially
here in the West, in America, is driven by a
system of achievement. Everything is achievement.
If you do well in school, you get good grades
and you win awards. If you do well in sports,
you win championships. If you succeed in business,
you get promoted and you get a raise. It's all
built on achievement. So the idea of merit is
baked into our minds from birth. That's why if
you went up to somebody in the street and you
asked the question, well, how does a person get
into heaven? Most people will answer what? Gotta
be a good person. That is sort of the initial
answer. How do you get into heaven? Gotta be
a good person. Or they'll expand on that and
say, well, I know there's a whole bunch of rules.
that you have to follow. They're in the Bible
somewhere. You've got to follow those rules and
do a whole bunch of good things. The problem
is, A, they can't define what a good person actually
is. That's a good follow -up question. So, okay,
I have to be a good person. What is a good person?
Generally, they don't know. Or if it's about
obeying rules, well, which rules and how many
good things do you have to do to get into heaven?
And these are thoughts that they often have not
worked through. So that's one reason why Grace
gets misunderstood out there. The other reason,
the other side of the coin, is that some people
are so free with their definition of grace that
they use it as a license for unrighteous living.
In fact, Jude talks about these people in verse
4 of Jude's letter. He says, certain persons
have crept into the church unnoticed, those who
were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation.
ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God
into licentiousness and deny our only master
and Lord Jesus Christ. So there's some folks
out there who profess to be Christians wrongly
thinking that God's grace means, oh, we have
a free pass to do as we please, a free pass to
sin as much as we want without any consequences.
And what they do is they take Pauline theology
and they make a mockery of it. It becomes cheap
grace. And then if you point this out to those
folks, they'll say, oh, well, you must be a Pharisee
or a legalist because you're calling me to obedience.
As if there's no laws or no commands in the New
Testament. So we have errors on both sides. So
all that to say, we have to make sure, as Bible
-believing Christians, that we have a precise,
balanced view of what grace is and how it relates
to salvation and sanctification. Right? Salvation
and this transformation process that we're a
part of right now in sanctification. Well, today's
passage in Titus helps us to do that. Now, when
Paul writes, for the grace of God has appeared,
what's he referring to? Obviously, he's talking
about the physical incarnation of grace in the
person of Jesus Christ. Remember, John says that
he was full of grace and full of truth. It came
in its fullness. Grace comes in its fullness
in the incarnation, but that doesn't mean that
grace didn't exist before the incarnation. It
did. And we sometimes don't understand this.
Remember, Jesus predates his incarnation. He's
eternal. He predates the Old Testament. He predates
creation itself. So grace has always been around,
and we see grace in both testaments, including
the great statement that Paul... uses in his
argument from Genesis 15 about how Abraham was
saved in the Old Testament. Here it is. You probably
know this verse. Genesis 15 says, Abraham believed
in the Lord and it was credited to him or reckoned
to him as righteousness. That's the Old Testament.
That's before the incarnation. That's the same
verse again that Paul cites in Romans 4 as part
of his argument for salvation by faith alone.
That's what Genesis 15 says was the deciding
factor in Abraham's salvation. He believed in
the Lord. Doesn't say Abraham believed in the
Lord and practiced many good deeds. Doesn't say
Abraham believed in the Lord and participated
in all of the prescribed religious ceremonies.
What's implied in Genesis 15 is that Abraham
heard the voice of God and he... believed in
his promises. He trusted in his word. He put
his trust in Yahweh. That is the same salvation
mechanism, if you will, that saves you and I
today. And it was present back in Genesis 15.
Now, I've heard the objection before, well, Abraham,
we know he was willing to go and sacrifice his
son Isaac. So maybe that was the work or the
deed that secured his salvation. But guess what?
The Bible doesn't make that connection, right?
There's no question that God was pleased with
Abraham when he did that. In fact, this is what
God says. Because you have done this thing and
have not withheld your son, your only son, foreshadowing,
right, of Christ, indeed, I will greatly bless
you, and I will multiply your seed as the stars
of the heavens and as the sand which is on the
seashore. I will bless you, God says. Why? Because
of your practical expression of your trust in
me. That's what's going on there. By this time,
by the time of Genesis 22, when this offering
of Isaac is brought, guess what? God had already
declared Abraham righteous in his sight by faith.
What he did in offering up Isaac was simply evidence
that his faith in Yahweh was real. And that relationship
between faith and works that James will much
later famously write about in the New Testament
when he says, faith without works is... and that
is true, it's in scripture. So if Abraham had
said to God, look, I will not sacrifice my son
because I love him more than I love you, then
his faith would have been proved to be false.
But it was his willingness to sacrifice Isaac,
to trust God, that proved that his faith was
not dead, but alive. And this is the argument
that Paul makes in Romans 4. So back to our text,
back to this idea that grace, The incarnation
of God the Son coming into our world in the fullness
of time was the embodied expression of his grace.
This word appeared in the original Greek is quite
beautiful. Epiphano, and it means to shine forth,
the way the sun shines upon the earth. That was
the coming of Christ. In fact, the other important
place you see this same word used is in Luke
chapter one. You have this great prophecy from
John the Baptist's father. His name is Zacharias.
And I want you to listen to all the connective
language that Zacharias uses, both in terms of
grace, but also in terms of messianic language.
It's on the screen. This is what Zacharias prophesies
over John. He says, you child will be called
the prophet of the most high. There's the word.
Same word from Titus 2. So we look at the language
there. We surmise from this prophecy and from
Paul's language in Titus 2 that the appearing
of Jesus in his first coming was the dawning
of light and grace upon this sin -darkened world
where the shadow of death reigns. But for those
of us who trust in him, we become partakers of
grace and not death. So this is what's happening
here in Titus 2. Now let's look at the back half
of verse 11. The grace of God has appeared in
Christ, right? And what does that do? Bringing
salvation to all men or to all people. Now, a
couple things. Again, this looks very simple,
but theologians over the centuries have picked
this apart to no end. So let's look at this.
Notice grace has been brought to mankind. Mankind
doesn't seek after it. Mankind doesn't go out
and grab hold of grace. It is brought to mankind,
and God is the bringer. We have to know that.
He is always the initiator of grace, not us.
Because apart from him doing a work in us to
breathe life into our hearts, we're not able
to take hold of grace. Scripture's very clear
on this. In fact, that's a truth straight out
of Ephesians 2, where it says, when we were dead
in our transgressions, spiritually dead, God
made us alive. He initiates that. He made us
alive together with Christ. By his grace, you
have been saved. See that? That's very important
to recognize. Now here in Titus 2, Paul speaks
of salvation being brought to all of mankind.
What does that mean? All of mankind. Does that
mean all men get saved? Clearly not, right? So
whenever we see a statement like that, we've
got to let Scripture interpret Scripture. So
we clearly know that's not true, so we have to
look at other principles to interpret this. And
I think it's pretty simple. Paul is saying that
when the grace of God appeared, it came in the
form of one message of salvation for all of humanity.
Just one message. And this is one of the, there's
a number of key places in Scripture where because
of the context, when you see the word all people,
it's best to read it as all types of people.
And the context is gonna tell you that. And that
is the context here in Titus 2. Remember, Paul's
just come out of talking about all types of people
in the church, five categories of people in the
church. So he's referring to all types of people
here. Salvation has come to all of those categories
of people. So he's saying here, there's one means
of salvation, one path, one way, regardless of
a person's age, or rank in life, or class, or
culture, or race, or ethnicity. One path for
everybody. Salvation has been brought to all
of mankind. And the call now is for all types
of people to hear the gospel and believe. All
types. Whether you're young or old, whether you're
male or female, Jew or Gentile, slave or free.
The call of the gospel goes out, and it's universal.
One message for all types of people. Does that
make sense? Now again, we know that not all people
are going to be saved, but we do know that all
types of people will be saved. Correct? Because
this is really the good news, that no type of
sinner is beyond the reach of God's grace. If
God wills it, he can reach into any country,
into any culture, into any ethnic group, any
moral category, and save whom he will save. That's
the promise we have of the gospel. He can do
that. And by the way, Paul understood this in
a very personal way, right? Because think about
his life. He's the perfect example of this principle.
Here's a persecutor of the church, a man who
ordered the death of Christians. He calls himself
the chief of sinners. Listen, he's the least
deserving of all men. If you think you can deserve
grace or earn grace, Paul is the least deserving.
Yet God came to Paul, brought that grace to him,
and saved him. What a miracle. That's given to
us as an example. By the way, every one of us,
it's a miracle that we're saved. Correct? But
Paul's given to us as this prime example of how
the gospel can reach anywhere and save somebody.
That's the nature of it. And it's so counterintuitive
to the way the world sees things. It bypasses
people who are self -righteous. It bypasses people
who are trusting in their own goodness and goes
to undeserving people. In fact, Jesus said it
in Luke 5, I've not come to call the self -righteous,
I've come to call sinners, people who know they're
sinners. So to receive God's grace, you first
have to know that you are justly under his wrath,
under his condemnation, that you're headed for
judgment. As Spurgeon once said, you have to
know that the rope is around your neck. To be
saved. And even though you're guilty and you
deserve death, it's God's grace that cuts that
rope and saves us. Amen? So I know that's a lot
of work to build a foundation here, but we have
to understand what Paul means by grace here.
Then verse 12 is where we get this distinction
now between salvation. and sanctification. This
becomes very important. In verse 12, we see that
grace not only saves us, but it also instructs
us. Make sure you see that. Grace saves us, but
also trains us. Verse 11, for the grace of God
has appeared, now go forward to verse 12, instructing
or training us to do what? To deny ungodliness
and worldly desires and to live sensibly, and
by the way, we've seen that word in the Greek
multiple times in Titus. It means to live with
self -control, to live righteously, or another
way to think of that is to live upright lives,
and to live godly in this present age. Now that
word instructing in the original Greek is interesting.
It's not the standard word that we see for teaching,
didasco. Here Paul uses the word paiduo. There
it is for you Greek nerds. Paiduo, which has
a very specific meaning. It's the training of
children. The grace of God trains us like children,
which I think what the implication is, Paul's
saying that grace doesn't function like a standard
teacher in a classroom. It's more than that.
Teaching, yes, but also correcting us. And rebuking
us and disciplining us and encouraging us. All
the things that we do with our kids. That's what
grace does for us in teaching us. So grace is
a teacher in our lives in the sense that it does
all of those things. And grace tells us that
we've got to say no to some things even as we
say yes to other things. Right? There's both
a negative and a positive word here for us this
morning. By the way, this is something Paul loves
to do in a lot of his letters. We call it a double
motion. He says, you got to do this, but you
also got to do this. And oftentimes he uses language
like, look, you got to put off that old self
and you got to put on the new self. You've died
to that old nature. Now clothe yourself with
your new nature. We see that in Colossians. We
see it in Ephesians. And we see that same kind
of double action here. First, deny these things.
What are they? ungodliness and worldly passions.
And then second, put on these things, self -control,
righteousness, and godliness. So let's look at
both the negative and the positive, starting
with the negative. Grace trains us to deny ungodliness
and worldly desires. Now, how does that work?
How does grace do that? When you receive God's
undeserved favor in Jesus Christ, and you have
all of your sins washed away, and you begin to
understand what that actually means, over time
what that does is it changes your affections.
You have to know this. If you begin to grasp
what Christ has done for you on the cross in
cleansing you from every sin, past, present,
and future, and giving you eternal life, a promise
that cannot be taken away, when you begin to
grasp that, over time it begins to change your
affections. More and more, you realize what you've
been given and you want to please the Lord who
died for you. You want to devote more of your
life to him. You want to study his word more.
And the more you begin to realize that there
is so much in your life that needs to be transformed.
Anybody else experience this? Just when you think,
okay, I'm grasping what Christ has done for me
and I'm looking at the word, I'm like, oh man,
there's so much more. that I need to clean up
in my life. By the way, that's a good thing.
It's a good thing to see those things, right?
We shouldn't be afraid of that. God's like a
wonderful father who says, look, I'm going to
keep showing you these things. It's good for
you. You need to deal with these things. But
more and more we see that we've got to be transformed.
And when I say transformed, not just our external
actions, but transforming the inner man, right?
What's deep inside because what comes out is
what's first deep inside. So we start with the
inner man, our wants and our desires. Those things
need to be transformed over time. Our pride and
our selfishness. And for the true believer, that
begins a whole life's journey down a path. And
I hope that everybody in this room this morning
is on that path right now where you're denying
yourself. more and more as the years go by, where
you are taking up a cross, where you are walking
in the footsteps of your Savior. And the longer
you do that, the more you begin to see that what
Jesus said in Matthew 11 is true, that following
him is actually not a burden. His yoke is easy,
that it's a joy, isn't it? That's where we find
rest for our soul. Because the world thinks you've
got to grit your teeth and just do all these
things you don't want to do to follow Jesus.
And it's not true. Not for the true child of
God. We see it as peace and joy and, again, rest
for our soul to follow in his footsteps. So more
and more you begin to say no to the things of
this world because you recognize that God and
his grace are far sweeter than anything that
the world can give you. And, again, that's a
process, right? The denial of self is a process.
It's a maturing in the faith. So the reality
is not everything gets cleaned up quickly and
we don't get victory in every situation that
we encounter, but because God's grace and forgiveness
are ever present in the life of his children,
we don't despair in that journey. We don't give
up in that process of transformation over a lifetime.
So that's how grace teaches us to say no to some
things. We got to dive more and more into the
person and work of Christ, what he's actually
done for you, and to try to grasp hold of the
mystery of all that. It's going to change your
affections. Amen? Now, what about the positive
side of verse 12? Grace instructs us, trains
us to live in these three ways in this present
age, in ways that please the Lord. Look at those
three character traits. They touch on every major
area of our lives. They're sort of like concentric
circles that start within and go out. I'll give
you a list here. The word sensibly, again, refers
to our personal self -control. That's the center
ring where we have to get control of our own
passions and desires and affections. Then second,
living righteously refers to living with integrity
in your dealings with other people. That's the
next ring out. And then the biggest ring is living
godly, obviously in your relationship toward
the Lord. And that begins in the heart and then
extends outward to everything that you say and
everything that you do. So this is the positive
side of it. Now, keep this in mind. This is something
I've seen so many Christians miss in their walk
with the Lord. It's easy to fall into the trap
of thinking that Christianity is primarily a
religion of saying no. At least that's what the
world tells you. Christianity is this religion
where you constantly have to say no to everything.
We tend to be defined by the world mostly as
here are the moral things that Christians have
to say no to. And we do have to say no to some
things, but is that what defines us? No. But
we get so focused on saying no to the things
of the world that we miss what is, in my opinion,
the more important step. And that's the putting
on of the new self. We're so focused over here,
we miss this. Think of it this way. It's not
enough to take your car in for repairs and have
the mechanic take out the parts that are broken.
Okay, parts are gone. Here's your car back. Good
luck. He's got to put in the new parts if it's
ever going to work again. Think about parents
with kids in school having to do homework. It's
the worst. Happy Mother's Day. I still have flashbacks.
It's not enough to get your son or daughter to
put down their phone and stop procrastinating.
They've got to put on. Good study habits. They've
got to put on the virtue of hard work if they're
going to succeed in school. So it's a good start
to put down the phone, but then you've got to
put something on in order to get that done. So
it's the same for us as Christians seeking to
live a godly life. We have to do both of these
things. Deny some things, but make sure to put
on some other things. And here's why I think
the putting on is the more important step. I
remember years ago. you know, studying this topic
for myself because I wanted to understand. I
saw this in Pauline language, put off and put
on. And as a shepherd, I wanted to be able to
talk to any of you guys and say, this is how
this works. And so as I was studying, I was led
to a sermon by an early 19th century Scottish
preacher by the name of Thomas Chalmers. It's
got this great name called the expulsive power
of a new affection. I mean, it's nerdy stuff,
but it's really, really powerful. The premise
of his sermon was this, that our love for Christ
and our striving to please him in our lives is
not only the right thing to do in and of itself,
but it also serves to expel what is displeasing
to him. Let me say it again. Our love for Christ
and our striving to please him is correct. That
is the correct desire for us to have, but it
does more than that. It actually helps us to
expel sin in our lives. The putting on process,
when it's empowered by the Holy Spirit, helps
us to expel the sins of the flesh and the worldly
desires that have got a foothold in our lives.
So if we're just putting off but not putting
on, we're missing that key piece. And I think
Chalmers has it right. At least that's what I've
experienced in my walk with the Lord. As I've
grown over the years in my putting on of spiritual
disciplines, like consistent prayer and faithful
worship careful study of God's word and practicing
the one in others and discipling others, all
of that, as I practice those things with diligence,
I have found that the Holy Spirit, I don't even
know how this happens, but mysteriously the Holy
Spirit over the years changed my affections,
changed me from within. The things that I once
desired sort of melted away and suddenly I was
like, wait, I don't, it's mysterious, isn't it?
Like, I can't give you a blow -by -blow, you
know, step -by -step process of how the Spirit
did it, but over time, as I practiced the putting
on, He began to change me in the inner man. It's
a beautiful thing, isn't it? It's a beautiful
promise we have from the Lord. So whatever you
wrestle with in your spiritual walk, if you want
to get victory, it requires more than just trying
and gritting your teeth to deny those things.
That's a good start, but you have to set out
to practice the things of God that will over
time, by the power of the Spirit, help you expel
those recurring sins of the flesh. Putting off
and putting on. So we plan to do those things,
and then we go do them. And we're diligent about
them, right? Not that we're going to make those
changes in our own strength, but we cooperate
with the Spirit in our sanctification by saying,
look, I'm going to practice these things. I'm
going to plan to do it. I'm going to go do it.
And we actually see this in Romans 6, the call
to worship that we read earlier. Paul gives us
this very same call to action. Let me show it
to you again. He says, present yourselves to
God. That is an action step on our part. Present
yourself to God as those alive from the dead
and present the parts of your body as instruments
of righteousness to him. That's what we do. We
say, Lord, I am coming to you. I can't change
myself. You have that power, but I am presenting
myself before you. Take my body and do as you
please. And then we practice the things, the
putting on of the new man. Amen? And as you do
that, Here's the thing, and we've all experienced
this. We fail at times, don't we? And we get
discouraged, and we want to give up. But trust
that God's grace abounds in the process of sanctification,
even when you fall short of what you want to
be, of how much you want to please him. Be diligent,
but give it time. The Christian life is a marathon.
It's a lifelong process of change. It's not a
sprint. And if you don't give up, if you persevere,
the Lord will reward you. He will do that work
in you as a child of God. Remember, he's not
mad at you all the time. You're his child. Yes,
he wants better for you. He wants you to get
victory. He wants to empower you for victory
over sin. But he's not constantly mad at you.
He can't love you any more than he already does.
He died for you. And sometimes... As Bible -believing
Christians, we often beat ourselves up over this,
right? We keep doing what God tells us to do,
presenting ourselves to him, putting off and
putting on, and then walking through this process
with him as his grace abounds. And remember this,
your sanctification is ultimately his work. It's
not your work. Yes, there's things we do to cooperate,
but it's his work. It's his promise to fulfill
in you, correct? To complete the work that he
began. Okay. So grace trains us to say both no
and yes. And now look at verse 13. Here we see
that grace also trains us to hope in another
kind of appearing, two appearings. Verse 13 says,
looking or waiting for the blessed hope and the,
underline it, appearing of the glory of our great
God and Savior Christ Jesus. So there was the
appearing of Jesus. bringing the fullness of
grace in his first coming. Now we have the appearing
of Jesus in all of his glory. So we have these
two references here. Verse 11, a reference to
the first coming of Christ, the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world. Verse 13, a
reference to his second coming when the Lion
of Judah will arrive bringing judgment and a
rod of iron in all of his glory. So first grace,
then glory, not two messiahs. Right? But two
advents of the one and only Son of God. This
is what we're told throughout the New Testament.
And Paul says this is our blessed hope. This
is what we watch for. This is what we wait for.
And we have eager expectations. And by the way,
when we say hope, understand biblically hope
is not finger crossing. Right? It's not, well,
it may happen, it may not happen. The Bible says
it's a certain hope. It's as certain as the promises
of God. which are always 100 % trustworthy. It's
a certain hope that we have. So we wait and we
watch. And I've seen people compare, and I like
this picture, a young wife whose husband has
been overseas fighting in a war, but then she
hears the word that he's coming back. How excited
is she? And she looks every day outside the front
window of her home, just waiting to see that
vehicle pull up with her husband returning from
war. That's the type of eager expectation. Remember,
we're the bride of Christ, right? And we're watching
for our bridegroom. We should have eager expectations.
By the way, his return is part of the motivation
for us to live sensibly, to live righteously,
to live godly. Because when we see him face to
face, we want to be pleasing in his sight. So
that's part of our motivation for this. Now,
I've heard nonbelievers ask the question, like,
what is the big deal about the second coming?
Why is this so important to you? And the answer
is, it's because it's the completion of Jesus'
mission in the world. It's the completion, right?
The first part is done. That was to make atonement
for sin, to defeat death. But there's a second
part of his mission which remains open and needs
to be completed. So there's still prophecy to
be fulfilled. And there's justice to be imposed.
And there's the Messiah's earthly rule, which
remains to be experienced. All those things still
have to happen. So the promise we've been given
is these things will happen, so keep watching
and be ready. And this should be a more regular
thought for us, especially the days we're living
in right now, to keep watching and to make sure
that we're ready. Don't be lulled into thinking
that Jesus just, you know, one day he ascended
into the spirit realm, never to be seen again.
A day is coming and we should be ready for that,
right? And it will be glorious for those who
know him, for those who trust in him and for
those who've rejected him, for those who are
trusting in their own goodness and their own
religious efforts, for those folks, it's gonna
be a day of terrifying judgment. So we should
be ready for this. So it's important for us to
take note, the proper motivation for living a
godly Christian life comes from both of those
two directions. First, looking back, with gratitude
to the grace that appeared at his first coming
when salvation came to us, but also looking forward
to the grace that we'll receive at his second
coming when we will be raised and glorified with
him. And both of those things are motivation
for us to live godly lives right now. Amen? Now,
last thing, something I cannot ignore. Look again
at the phrase in verse 13. Our great God and
Savior. Christ Jesus. Is this saying that Jesus
is God? Is this saying that he's Yahweh who took
on flesh? Yes, it is. Guys, this is an explicit
statement about the deity of Christ. He is called
our great God and Savior. Unitarians out there,
opponents of Trinitarianism, they will object
and they will say, well, what Paul means is our
great God, meaning God the Father, and the Savior,
Jesus Christ. And they will basically say Paul's
referring to two persons here. But there's three
really obvious reasons why that is wrong, why
that is a false claim. First of all, the grammar
in the original Greek only has one article governing
both of those titles, God and Savior. If Paul
were referring to two persons, you would expect
to see two articles. But more importantly, notice
what Paul writes, the appearing of the glory
of our great God. That has to be Jesus because
we are not waiting or watching for the return
of God the Father. He is spirit. This has to
be Jesus, right? God and Savior. And then third,
in verse 14, if you look at that, this great
God is said to be the one who gave himself for
us. Again, that has to be Jesus. That has to
be the Son because that was his unique role to
take on flesh and die on the cross. This is clearly
a reference to Jesus as our great God. So if
somebody comes to you and says, I don't see anywhere
in the Bible where Jesus is said to be God, Titus
2 .13. Seal it up in your brain. Take them right
there and go, here you go. This is a very explicit
statement. Got it? Good? Okay, we're going to
wrap up with a quick summary of verse 14. And
the reason why we can do a quick summary of verse
14 is because it's a loop. It brings us full
circle back to verse 12. Okay, catch this now.
It closes the loop between two things. What grace
instructs us to do and what grace has accomplished
for us. Through the person and work of Christ.
And there's also a double motion to this. I'll
put this on the screen to help you see it. On
the negative side in verse 12, we're to deny
ungodliness and worldly desires. That's what
grace trains us to do. In verse 14, it says Jesus
gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless
deed. That's what grace has accomplished for
us. So it loops back to verse 12. Then on the
positive side, in verse 12, we're told to live
in these certain ways in this present age. That's
what grace trains us to do. In verse 14, it says
that Jesus gave himself for us to purify us as
a people for his own possession. That is what
grace has accomplished for us in him. So the
way Paul wrote this is beautiful symmetry between
verses 12 and verses 14, both positive and negative
with this double motion. Take note of that, go
home, study it. It's really quite beautiful.
Finally, I wanna look at what Paul means when
he says, zealous for good deeds. Look at verse
14. He purified a people to be zealous for good
deeds. Now, this is a good time to ask the question,
what exactly does the Bible mean by good deeds?
A lot of good things we can do out there, but
what does the Bible mean when it talks about
good deeds? Well, the short answer is, Deeds
that are done out of sincere love for God and
for serving others in obedience to his word.
Specifically, things that are done in devotion
to God and others in obedience to his commands.
Those are the good deeds we're talking about
here. And let me just say, this is one of the
places where Protestant Christians can sometimes
fall into error. We can find ourselves... as
children of the Reformation, so enamored by the
doctrine of salvation, by faith alone, apart
from works, that we don't talk about being zealous
for good deeds very often, where we downplay
our need to practice the works of obedience.
We've got to be balanced about this. And at times
we rightly come under criticism for this. We
fall into what we call easy believism, where
we think we can verbally profess to have faith,
but then say it doesn't matter if we don't have
any evidence. that our faith is real. And that's
out of balance. That's when we fall into James'
condemnation, when he says that faith without
deeds is dead faith. And there are too many of
us that darken the doors of modern evangelical
churches today where cheap grace is peddled to
the masses. So we've got to be aware of this.
Keep in mind that when Paul uses a descriptor
word like being zealous for good works, it has
a specific historical context. How many of you
guys have ever studied what a zealot was? Back
in the day, what was a zealot? It was a very
specific group of people. That word would have
stood out in the New Testament context. The zealots
in first century Judaism were a fanatical Jewish
sect who used terror and violence to try to push
the Romans out of Israel. And you can say a lot
of bad things about the zealots, but the one
thing you can't say about them is that they were
lukewarm, right? Or that they weren't committed
to the cause. So now when you see Paul say we
should be zealous for good deeds, what does that
mean? It means we shouldn't just be dabbling
in good things when it's convenient for us. I
mean, is that not modern evangelicalism? Consumer,
in the church, well, I'll get involved if it's
easy for me, if it fits into my schedule. If
we're not just dabbling in things, considering
the grace that we've received in Christ, if we
really take that seriously, I must say, this
is going to be controversial. We should be growing
more and more fanatical about good deeds. I know
we don't like that word fanatical, but that's
the implication that Paul has here. It's because
of the grace that's been lavished upon us that
we should grow more fanatical in obeying God.
Not in a pharisaical way, but because we want
to please him. So it's a great question to test
your heart with. Would anyone around you today
say that you are fanatical about your faith in
the best of ways? And if they said that about
you, would you be embarrassed by that or would
you be encouraged by that? Something to consider.
Many of you are familiar with Elizabeth Elliot's
book, Shadow of the Almighty, that she wrote
back in 1958. where she documented the death
of Jim Elliott, who, as you probably know, was
killed by a native tribe in Ecuador while trying
to land in their homeland and to spread the gospel.
And among the many things that Jim wrote in his
diary and in his letters, the guy was fanatical
about his faith and about the gospel. You cannot
deny it. He was zealous for Christ. He wrote
this to his sister one day. Whoop, here we go.
He said, He said this to his sister, fix your
eyes on Jesus, the morning star. Live every day
as if the Son of Man were at the door and gear
your thinking to this fleeting moment. How can
it be redeemed? Walk as if the next step would
carry you across the threshold of heaven. He
was zealous about the Christian life. This was
one of his great prayers. He said, Father, make
me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to a decision.
Let me not be a milepost on a single road. Make
me a fork that men must turn one way or another
on facing Christ in me. And then lastly, one
of his prayers was this. God, I pray, light these
idle sticks of my life and may I burn for you.
Consume my life, my God, for it is yours. I seek
not a long life, but a full one. Friends, my
prayer as I was reading about Jim Elliot last
night, my prayer for myself, for you guys, is
that the grace of God, the same grace that saved
us, the same grace that instructs us and motivates
us to live rightly, I pray that that grace will
make us so thankful and so full of love for our
Savior that we would become that zealous, as
zealous for the things of God as Jim Elliot was.
during his short 28 years of life. Christian,
do you see it? Do you see what Paul says in Titus
2, what a great God and Savior we have? What
does that mean for your life? Do you see what
a great salvation that was brought to us? What
does that mean for the way you live today? Do
you see what a great future hope we have, eternity
with our Savior? And as we live our days on the
earth, what a great mission we've been given
in the days on the earth that we have. This mission
that we've been given by the one who gave himself
for us. What does that mean for the way you'll
live life this week? How can any of us walk out
of here today not a changed people? So let's
bow our heads. And let's ask God to seal some
of these truths in our hearts. Ask him to grow
us and change us. Let's pray together. Father,
what a great challenge this passage gives to
us. And what a great encouragement, Lord, that
you, first of all, that you are such a gracious
God. We are an undeserving people. We have not
earned the right to call you Father. But you
have lavished your grace upon us. You brought
it to us. You marked us out and you drew us to
yourself and you justified us and now you've
promised to glorify us in the future. Lord, make
us a thankful people as we look back on the grace
that you have given to us. And Lord, to take
this grace now and to say, Lord, how does this
grace instruct us to live today and this week
and this month and in the years to come? to live
with self -control, to live righteously with
integrity, upright lives as a testimony to your
goodness, to live godly in a way that shows the
world exactly what kind of transforming power
you have. Lord, we've been given a great mission.
And so, Lord, this passage, just four verses,
challenges us in so many ways. And I pray first
for myself, Lord, that I would respond well to
it, but for my brothers and sisters, too, that
they... would hear and believe, hear and grow,
hear and be diligent to strive after these things.
And that you, God, would do that mysterious work
and change us from within. Let that be the prayer
of every person here this morning. We want to
be changed from within. So Lord, do a work in
us. Fulfill that promise to complete your work
in us and we will glorify you for it. Thank you,
Lord Jesus, for our time in your word. We pray
in your name, amen.