Titus 2:15-3:4

Obedience, sacrifice, humility.

Obedience, sacrifice, humility.

Now what happened in your heart when you heard those words?

Did you kind of retract a little bit?

Stiffen up?

Obedience kind of sacrifice?

Does it make you twinge?

Humility?

What happened in your heart?

Are these when you heard those words?

Are those words that characterize who you are?

Seek to obey.

You are others-oriented.

You're humble.

See, this is who Jesus is.

And this is what Jesus teaches his followers to be.

In the passage that we go through this, we'll go through this morning.

We see the ways of Jesus laid out for us.

We see the way of the world kind of laid out and explained.

We see the way of salvation.

We see that the way that we live matters.

It matters.

Salvation matters.

Following Jesus matters.

Rejecting of the things of the world.

It matters how we live.

The way of Jesus requires that we lay down ourselves, our own life.

And in that we find life.

The way of the world, in one sense, costs you nothing.

But yet it costs you your life.

It brings death.

For whoever would save his life will lose it.

But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

This is the way of Christ.

Now let us read this morning.

Titus chapter 2.

Titus 2 · chapter mention

Beginning in verse 15, into chapter 3.

I'm sorry, we're actually going to start in verse 11 of chapter 2.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works.

Declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority.

Let no one disregard you.

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

This is the word of the Lord.

So we begin kind of working through this passage.

As I read verse 11 all the way through, because a couple weeks ago we covered verse 11.

That grace has come, it's appeared, it's showing us how to live.

And then Paul instructs Titus here in verse 15 to declare these things, to exhort and to rebuke with all authority.

This is so important that the Christians, that the church understands these things.

Let no one disregard you.

And then going into chapter 3, there is this encouragement and this kind of admonition.

There's tender, fatherly language from Paul here to remind the Christians.

Remember the grace has come.

Now remind them how to live.

So verse 15 is kind of this bridge between verses 11 through 14 and then verses 1 through 7 of chapter 3.

And he begins in chapter 3 to kind of lay out the ways of Jesus, a life of sacrifice and grace.

He says, remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, ready for every good work.

Speak evil of no one, avoid quarreling, be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

This is the life that Christ has called us to live.

And as I mentioned a couple weeks ago, that our living for Christ, obeying Him, those good works are downstream from His grace.

We cannot fulfill the commands of Christ if we do not cling and experience the grace of Christ.

We may be able to be moral people and good people and do the right thing in the world's eyes, but even then our heart is still against God.

As we look at the commands here in chapter 3, we must remember this comes from the grace of God.

The ability to obey, the ability to follow comes from the grace of God.

Which makes sense when you read this list.

There is no way someone who doesn't have the Holy Spirit, who isn't regenerated, can do these things from a pure heart.

Submission to rulers and authorities.

Does anyone have any trouble with that?

We struggle with submission.

Obedience.

Paul doesn't even say specifically to Jesus, obedience.

They should be marked by obedience.

Remind them to be obedient people, ready for every good work.

This isn't just kind of prepare yourself occasionally to do a good thing and do a good deed.

Ready to honor the Lord, ready for every good work.

To speak evil of no one.

Avoid quarreling.

How often do we maybe do those things?

We're not outward in our quarreling.

We don't speak evil of someone, but we speak evil in our heart of someone.

Which we know from the Sermon on the Mount that Christ is after our heart.

Just outward obedience alone is not what satisfies.

He's after a heart that desires to obey.

Speak evil of no one, avoid quarreling.

Be gentle.

Be gentle with your words, be gentle with your actions, be gentle with the attitude of your heart.

Be gentle with how you treat others.

Be gentle.

Show perfect courtesy to all people.

And when I read that, I said, well, that's impossible.

How are we to show perfect courtesy?

How are we to show courtesy to all people?

The interesting thing is Paul's writing, right?

It's not like he has is writing from a very kind of comfortable position in life.

Where he's kind of buffered and insulated from the hard things of life and people who hate him.

This is a man who has been imprisoned, who has been beaten, who his adversaries are constantly trying to undermine everything he does.

The command show courtesy, perfect courtesy to all people.

That means from the heart.

Not just an outward, be kind and put a smile on, but strive to show courtesy from the heart.

See, a mark of Christians is that they're different than the world, right?

And if you're if you've grown up in the church, you've heard this a lot.

It's kind of emphasized a lot.

And as Christians, we we kind of we pull back from the things of the world.

We're not kind of engaging in all the things that they're engaging in.

We're not kind of just indulging in sin.

We should be abstaining from watching things and participating in things that the world does that dishonor the Lord.

So don't do these things, don't do these things.

And that's true.

As Christians, we should be doing those things.

The world should be like, man, have you noticed there's this group of people, they call themselves Christians.

They don't do these things.

That's what we're called to.

That's the way of Christ.

That takes humility, it takes the power of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ working in you to change your desires, to change your affections, so that we are not following the ways of the world.

But similarly, as Christians, we are also to do things that the world is not doing.

This is what this list that Paul lays out is getting to.

The world, they're not great at submitting.

The world's not ready for good works.

They prefer to speak evil.

They enjoy the quarrel.

They're not gentle.

They might be gentle outwardly, but inwardly they are not.

They do not strive to show perfect courtesy.

These are things that Christ did and he taught and he displayed in things we are to follow in.

Things he has for us to do.

So what areas do you feel weak in?

Kind of read through that list.

Verse 1 and 2.

What areas are you weak in?

Are you aware of those things?

Are you honest with others about those things?

Hey, I'm really good actually at being gentle.

That's genuine.

But I I really struggle with submission.

Or I'm I feel like I'm good with submission, but I really have a hard time kind of not quarreling.

Or whatever.

Are you aware in your own life?

This is this is rhetorical, but I want you to be thinking like, do you know?

What area are you weak in?

Be praying about that.

This isn't something where we read the list and say, hey, I'm doing okay.

I'm doing okay.

I'm better, you know, better than my neighbor, and I'm probably better than the guy, you know, the other Christian down the street.

Therefore, I'm good.

But are these things noticeable?

Is your gentle spirit noticeable?

Is your submission to authorities and rulers clearly happening in your life?

Are you known for not speaking ill of others?

See, the ways of Jesus are not easy.

That's why they take great sacrifice, they take obedience, humility, patience, and love.

But it brings us life when we follow Him.

The way of the world is self.

Self-grandizement.

We're gonna make much of myself, and it always brings death.

It always brings death.

This is the way of the world.

We see this in verse 3.

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

No, it's so important that we understand the first few words there.

We ourselves were once.

Paul is writing saying, listen, this was us.

This is who we were.

Let us not forget that.

So he's not writing saying, Man, look at the world.

How dare they?

Look at the world.

Who are they?

What are they doing?

They have no clue.

They're idiots.

He's saying, Listen, we were once fools, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

So he's reminding the church, remember the good news of the gospel that we just talked about?

Remember what Christ has called you to, the life that he's called you to, the way you're supposed to treat others?

Are you struggling with that?

Well, remember where you were.

Remember what Christ has saved you from.

A life of death.

A life of emptiness.

Sure, there's all kinds of things out there that you can fill your life with that you will give you happiness and satisfaction for a moment, but they will return empty.

It will be a diminishing return, and it will bring death.

So as we look at this and we read through these things, man, it should the pity, the heart of compassion for those who are lost, for those who don't know Christ.

Those who are in our family, those who are our neighbors.

We don't stand back and just kind of judge them.

Man, they need Jesus.

Yeah, so do you.

It is only because of Jesus Christ.

And so we should be the first to be praying for them and sharing the good news with them.

Because Christ has saved us.

Our hearts should break for them.

We should pray that they would repent and believe the gospel.

As we reflect on what God has saved us from.

If you've grown up in the church, this is kind of the struggle.

You grow up in the church, and you don't you feel like you never had this phase.

Wow, I wasn't like out running with the devil.

I wasn't kind of doing my own thing.

So I think I was foolish, but I wasn't that foolish.

And this is what scripture tells us.

We were just as lost, just as much without hope as everyone else, just in as in much need of saving.

So a heart of compassion as we think through the ways of the world.

And then in our own struggle with sin.

Sometimes we can kind of treat sin with this cavalierness.

Well, these are small things, and it's okay if they kind of hang around.

No one knows about them, and they don't really affect anyone, so it's not that big of a deal.

Just let them remain.

That's not the way sin works.

Sin brings death.

Sin brings ultimate death if you continue in sin and reject Christ, because you will die, and spiritually, you will spend eternity in hell separated from Christ.

But also every little sin that we partake in, it kills a little bit of our affection for Jesus.

It kills a little bit of our desire for the things of God.

Every time we we allow a judgmental thought to come through and we we entertain a covetous heart, we judge someone, we lust.

We're allowing sin to dampen our affections for God and to kind of quell our spirit for Him.

This is the way of the world, and it brings death.

And as Christians, we need to be reminded of what Christ has saved us from.

We're not chasing after these things anymore.

We're not being led astray.

We're not slaves to passions and pleasures.

We're not spending our days concerned, getting all worked up about what other people think about us.

And then what do I think about them?

And do they know that I think this way about them?

Trying to get right, trying to get even.

What a blessing that the Lord has delivered us from these things.

Again, it should create a heart of gratitude, a heart of love for them and appreciation for the way of salvation, the way that Christ has come for us.

We see this in verse 4.

The way of salvation.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us.

Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

So that, being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

There's so much to be said, and my concern is that we've all heard it before.

And you agree with it, and you like it.

But we're not moved by it.

My fear is that we read verse 4 and we simply move on with our day.

Life continues as normal, and we're not struck by the significance that God has come for us.

His goodness, his loving kindness has appeared.

See, if someone came up to you and they they give you five million dollars, which would be pretty nice.

They give it as a gift.

Inflation is up, but five million dollars, that's good money.

It's probably gonna change your life, right?

It's great.

But you're gonna move on.

Life's gonna happen.

It's gonna keep moving forward.

It's just money.

But think about it.

If someone came up to you and said, Listen, I'm going to heal every one of your broken relationships.

Someone came into your life and said, I'm going to heal every one of the broken relationships in your life.

But now we're talking.

That's something significant.

That is something that will change your life forever.

Restore joy and happiness in your life.

To see broken relationships made whole and healthy again.

But if you were dying of cancer, and your days on this earth were few, and your loved ones were preparing to say goodbye, and someone came to you and said, I'm going to heal you.

Your cancer, it's gone.

Your body, it's healthy again.

How amazing would that be?

Someone who's who's looking at death, their body is decaying, they're preparing to say goodbye to those they love.

Their body is healed, their body is restored.

How miraculous would that be?

What happened in verse four is more amazing than all of those things.

The fact that Christ has come for us, his love and his mercy shown to us, blows all those things out of the water.

And do not compare.

There is nothing like it.

And if your heart is dull about that, plead that God would reveal Himself to you and awaken His majesty to you.

And if you're like, well, I would prefer the money, or I would prefer the healthy relationships, or I would prefer just the health, then I pray that God would save your soul.

See, it is a wonderful blessing when God heals and provides.

He has brain cancer, he's in the hospital, he's in treatment.

Things are not great for him.

And I pray every day that God would heal him and save him.

But I don't pray that so that Josh can just get better and then live for 50 more years and then die.

I pray that because God is our hope and God has come for us, and God is working and moving.

It's not temporal things, these are eternal things that God has done.

The goodness and the loving kindness of God, our Savior, has appeared.

He's appeared in your life.

If you are a Christian, if God has, you're born again, if He has changed you this morning, God, the creator of all things, His goodness and His loving kindness has appeared to you.

So again, my concern is that we read this, and although we believe it, we are not shaped by it.

So I'm going to pause here.

The Lord wills, the Lord allows, and we return next week, we'll carry on through this passage.

But I want us to pause and reflect on this part, on verse four.

Do you struggle with verses one through two about the way of Jesus?

Obedience, submission, gentleness, perfect courtesy.

Do you struggle with that?

Or do you struggle with verse three, with the ways of the world?

Those are that's kind of where you're at.

It is because you do not understand or believe verse four.

It's because you do not understand and you do not believe that the goodness, the loving mercy of Christ has come for you.

Yes, verse 5 through 7, it's vital to all of this.

But we have to understand what Christ has done when he came for us, for us, when he appeared to us.

Goodness, kindness of God our Savior.

So here is my challenge.

This feels like we're stopping kind of midstream.

We are, but my challenge is this to pray and to meditate on verse 4 this week.

Write it down, read it often.

Maybe in the top of every hour through the day, you you read it.

Or every time you you wash your hands and you get in the car, whatever thing you can work it into the rhythm of your week to be thinking and to be praying.

Lord, reveal this to me.

I'm reading this, Lord, but help me to understand what this means, your goodness, your loving kindness.

Teach me, Lord.

Pray that this week.

Pray it often.

Focus on this.

The goodness, the loving kindness of our Savior has appeared.

This morning we're going to partake of communion.

The communion is the gift of Christ, it's given to the church for those who are baptized believers who are not living in unrepentant sin or who are not withholding forgiveness from others or withholding repentance from others.

Communion reminds us that Christ has come, that our Savior has come and we are partakers with him.

Our life is hid with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

I live sacrificially, putting others before myself.

A life of humility, laying down my life for others because Christ has come for me.

He has appeared to me.

He has appeared to you.

Paying the price for your sin, dying for your sin on the cross.

So we lay down our life for him.

Let's pray.