Instructing Grace | Titus 2:11-14

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

Titus 2 · chapter mention

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

Titus 2 · chapter mention

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.