The Manifestations of God’s Grace

Transcript

GRM 713
12/10/2000
The Manifestations of God’s Grace
Titus 2:11-15
Gil Rugh

So many things are going on in the world these days, I just have to take a few minutes to draw your attention to some of them. I think these are amazing days to be alive. In our study of the Book of Acts we’ve noted that that’s the first thirty years of the church’s history, but it may well be in the plan of God that we are privileged to be living out the last thirty years of the church’s history. We don’t know but there are many things taking place in the world today that may point to that very fact. The news is filled with the elections that are going on and I have to say I have to smile every day to see how simple it is for the Lord to bring what is known as the most powerful and stable country in the world to the brink of confusion. We seem so powerful and strong and for the Lord, how long would you string this out. You know, who would have thought six months ago in a country where multiplied millions of votes are going to be cast there’d be battles and bickerings and the Supreme Court of Florida and the Supreme Court of the United States and everybody else would be being in the process of trying to sort out a few hundred votes? Just a reminder that we don’t know how quickly the Lord can bring about change—major change—in world events.

I clipped a couple of articles out of this morning’s World Herald. The first regards Israel. Israel’s Barak Resigns Triggers New Elections. As most of you have heard, yesterday the Prime Minister of Israel submitted his resignation. “In a stunning but calculated move, Israeli Prime Minister Barak announced Saturday that he is resigning, throwing the Mid-East crisis into deeper turmoil. Barak said in a televised address, ‘Israel is in a state of emergency.’” He’ll remain Prime Minister for 48 hours and then they’ll have, uh, elections within sixty days. Notes here, over the past ten weeks over three hundred people have been killed in the conflict over there.

You know we get so used to turning on the news or reading in the newspaper and seeing three people, five people, ten people, but you look at the size of that country and the population and compare it to the United States and put the ratio down and think of what the impact would be if we saw people being killed in conflicts in the streets at this rate and realize there is indeed a crisis of major proportions there.

“Barak called the coming election a referendum on peace.” Interesting to me just Israel’s predominance in world news headlines and the ongoing pursuit of peace in that part of the world. Then of interest to me in the order of the articles, you can’t see, but this is from the World News Page of the Herald, Israel’s article here and then right under it “Progress is Difficult at the European Union Summit”. Talking about events in the European Community. “A European Union Summit Conference designed to pave the way for ending the division of Europe caused by the cold war more than fifty years ago was deadlocked Saturday.” The fifteen European Union leaders have been meeting to try to work out details of the treaty and so on. It talks about contentious issues and so on.

What is particularly interesting to me as I read this is here is Israel on the top and their pursuit of peace and right under you have the article on the European Union and we know from what the Bible unfolds that it’s the European Union and the leader of that union that will ultimately be the key figure in bringing about the peace that is so longed for. Right across the page “Russian Reaching Out Now to Cuba” and some related events like that. Just so many things going on. I’m still pre-tribulation rapture but I read the paper every day just to be sure that I still am.

Also, I believe it was in yesterday’s paper and it’s been in the news magazines as well, some of the problem with diseases noting that in Africa alone there are over 4 million people carrying the Aids virus. Of course, they don’t have any way to finally determine how really broadspread that is. Some of you have been reading about the problem of ebola in Uganda. There are some 400 cases of that. One of the news magazines is writing an article on these diseases noting how easily major epidemics can be transported to other parts of the world. You know the days when different countries were isolated, and it took a long time to travel from one to another are over. But somebody with a disease like ebola that kills in a matter of days and is devastating, and we have yet to know how to deal with it, can, somebody gets on a plane and flies to another country, gets off. Well, that virus can be dormant in them and spread. You know I was out of the country here for a couple of weeks. You don’t know what I picked up. But that’s the way the travel goes. People going back and forth from country to country and millions of people already infected or potentially could be infected by diseases over which we have relatively little or no control. You’re reminded of what the Bible says will happen in the Tribulation when hundreds of millions of people are going to die around the world with various catastrophes and so on. All these things moving toward the climax of the church’s earthly history with the rapture of the church and then the seven-year conclusion of God’s program with the nation Israel and the glorious return of Christ to earth.

I want to draw your attention to the Book of Titus today. In our last study together, we looked into the Book of Colossians chapter 4 and denoted our responsibility to be devoting ourselves to prayer and to be living lives that are a testimony before the world. Paul has a similar burden in the Book of Titus where he focuses primarily on the godly conduct of believers and the stand, we are to take in the world with the doctrine we preach and the lives that we live. All of this focuses in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The heart of the Book of Titus we have an emphasis on God’s grace as demonstrated in the First Coming of Christ and causing us as believers to live in anticipation of the Second Coming of Christ.

Paul had left a younger man named Titus on the island of Crete to complete the organization of the churches there. In verse 5 he tells Titus, “I left you in Crete, that you might set in order what remains, and appoint elders in every city as I directed you.” He gives some of the qualifications for elders in the following verses concluding in verse 9 by saying, these men are to men who are “holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching that he may be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.” The spiritual leaders of the church have a two-fold responsibility in the ministry of the Word: to teach and exhort God’s people with His truth and to refute and oppose those who are teaching contrary.

There are some who think that they can have a one-sided ministry today and they’ll
simply just teach the Word of God and allow it to do it’s work and will not get
involved in the conflict or negative emphases. The Bible says the spiritual leaders.
have to exhort in sound doctrine and also refute those who would contradict. The
reason in verse 10 is “there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers,”
verse 11, “who must be silenced.” You see here already in these brand new
churches that have not even yet experienced formal organization and the
appointment of godly leaders the devil is already at work in attacking the work that
God has done. Already there are many rebellious men, empty talkers, deceivers,
particularly those of a Jewish background and the Judaizers that we have seen in
other portions of the New Testament. They must be silenced. We’re reminded.
that the devil’s work in opposing the work of God is relentless. It begins before
conversion as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “the god of this world has blinded the
minds of the unbelieving lest the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ shine
in.” So, as we carry the gospel out to others, we know we have a fearsome diligent
opponent, the devil who is doing all he can to keep those that we would share the
truth with in spiritual blindness and darkness. But you understand once a person
turns from their sin and places their faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior, the devil’s
work does not cease but he attacks all the more now that a foundation has been laid
to prevent a building from being constructed which will honor the Lord.

Paul says concerning these men in chapter 1 verse 16 of Titus, “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable, disobedient, worthless for any good deed.” That’s a strong language. You remember from previous studies we have done, like in the Book of Galatians where we talked about the Judaizers, their presence at the Jerusalem Conference in Acts chapter 15. These were men who claimed to believe the Old Testament in its entirety. They also claimed to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. They were more like true Christians than any other people in the Roman Empire at the time. The Roman Empire, a multi-god, a polytheistic system of worship, involved in worshipping emperors, and Paul launches his strongest attacks on those that are closest to being like Christians. These are men who claim to believe the Old Testament, they claim to believe in the Messiah, but their doctrine is not genuine. Their lifestyle does not conform to biblical truth. Paul says they’re worthless. They must be silenced.

A good reminder for the church today. We often look for people who are most like us and think well, they’re more like us than the world out here so at least we can be more accepting of them. Paul’s approach is just the opposite. Since they are more like us but are not genuine, they are more dangerous to us. His exhortation to Titus in the elders he will appoint is they must stand against these men, do all they can to silence them, they are worthless. They don’t help the cause of Christ because they claim to believe the Old Testament. They don’t help the cause of Christ because they will agree that He is the Messiah of Israel. They are the fierce opponents of the genuine gospel of God’s grace and so they must be opposed.

In contrast to these men, chapter 2 begins, “But as for you.” We want to note key words like conjunctions and prepositions in the flow of the biblical text remind us and draw our attention to contrasts or reasons. Here Titus is to stand in strong contrast and the elders he will appoint are to be in strong contrast to these false teachers. “But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.” Sound doctrine that word sound is the word healthy. We talk about a healthy physical body. Here he uses it in the context of the teaching or the doctrine. The same Greek word is sometimes translated teaching. Its sometimes-translated doctrine and we sometimes make a distinction. You hear people say well, I’m not interested in doctrine. Well, all doctrine is, biblical teaching. When he says speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine, things which are characteristic of healthy teaching—teaching that will produce spiritual health in God’s people is what he is talking about. Things that are fitting, suitable, consistent with healthy sound teaching. He goes on to give some of these examples because he’s concerned not only with the doctrine that is being corrupted, but with the way that people live. God’s people not only believe biblical truth, but they also live biblical truth. Come down to the last part of verse 10 of chapter 2, his concern is that they may “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.” We are like the clothes on the doctrine. Our lives and our lifestyle are to be a true reflection and manifestation of the teaching of God our Savior in every respect. He has addressed in verses 2 down to the first part of verse 10, “older men, older women, young men, young women, slaves” how we are to conduct ourselves.

I was reminded when I was going through this again, there are no new battles and conflicts. The devil’s work is the same; attacks the basic doctrine; you know salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, relentless assault on the gospel. With that comes the relentless attack on godly living and godly lifestyle, and some of the battles we have today over the roles of men and women and here we have in unfolded in Titus. Teach the things that are characteristic of healthy teaching because Satan is opposed to God and the truth of God is unchanging and the opposition of Satan is just as unchanging.

His concern is that God’s people in every are and aspect of their lives manifest the beauty of God’s character so that when people see us, they should see the truth that we teach being lived out and practiced in all that we do. You come and share a portion of the Word of God with someone, and they work with a Christian they should say, “You know that’s exactly like so and so lives. I know someone who’s just like what you’re reading about in your Bible. They’re my neighbor. That’s the way they live.” That we are adorning the doctrine of God; we are manifesting in a physical way the truth that God has entrusted to us. This truth is not only something that is for our minds, something to be believed, but it is something that is taken into the life and is lived.

Verses 11 to 15 what Paul is going to do is give us the heart of the letter to Titus, the foundation for the exhortation, different than other religious systems and practices. We do not exhort and challenge people to live godly lives without giving them the foundation. The foundation is a living, life changing relationship to Jesus Christ. In fact, we do not believe it is possible for a person to live a life pleasing to God unless that person has been transformed on the inside by the power of God. Everything else is counterfeit, like these false teachers. Chapter 1 verse 16, “They profess to know God,” but profession isn’t necessarily reality. The reality would be demonstrated in the gospel that they believe and in the life that they live and it’s not either or. It is both and. Remember James argument? Show me your faith without your works. You can’t do it because faith is an intangible, not something seen, and I will show you my faith by my works. We are not saying you are saved by your works. We’re saying saving faith produces a changed life, thus your conduct, your works are different. That’s what Paul’s talking about.

You note verse 11 of chapter 2 of Titus the preposition “for”. You ought to circle that because here he has told them in verse 1 of chapter 2 to speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine, told them the kind of lifestyle and living that characterizes good doctrine, including verse 10 that they may “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. For the grace of God’s appeared.” Here’s the foundation for what I’ve been exhorting you to do. Here’s why you do it. The grace of God has been brought to your life in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He has done a work in your life that’s made you new, that has purified you and cleansed you and now enables you to live differently. What he’s going to say in verses 11 to 14 in particular will be God’s grace manifested in the First Coming of Christ, and His work of redemption accomplished there shapes and molds us so that now we live with our focus on the Second Coming of Christ which is the blessed hope of the believer.

So here in verses 11 to 14 one long sentence. Most of our English Bibles probably have it as a long sentence in English as well. If you remember back to your school days a sentence has to have a subject. The subject of this sentence is the grace of God. So, verses 11 to 14 are about the grace of God and believers live differently than the world because of the grace of God. The greatest manifestation and demonstration of the grace of God is Jesus Christ and the work He accomplished, and that work will be brought to completion with His Second Coming.

He says in verse 11 of chapter 2, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.” The grace of God is the subject. We have to have clearly defined terms. We have to be careful of those who use the same terms or language that we do, the same words, but mean something different. This is the problem between Catholics and Protestants. Some people think, well, the Roman Catholic Church talks about the grace of God. They believe salvation is by grace. We believe salvation is by grace. So, we’re talking about the same thing. No, we’re not because the Roman Catholic’s concept of grace ends up being something that is meritorious. It is brought about in the context of our works. So even though we use the same word we do not mean the same thing. We have to be careful by being duped by those who would use the same terminology but give it different meaning and so bring confusion.

The grace of God is what is undeserved or unmerited, what God has done on our behalf and done to us that we did not deserve or earn or merit. We did nothing—no works contributed to the bestowal of God’s grace. Nothing that we have received in grace had any of our works included in it. As Romans tells us, if it’s by works it is no longer by grace otherwise grace wouldn’t be grace. So, we have to understand grace from the biblical context.

The grace of God has appeared and the context of it’s appearing is with the coming of Christ. When he brought salvation to all men. He’ll talk about this in verse 14 when he talks about “Christ gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us.” Look in chapter 3 of Titus verse 4. “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy.” Mercy, love, kindness, grace, all different facets of the work of God. Our works are not included.

Look in II Timothy chapter 1. Paul exhorts Timothy, another young man that he worked with in verse 8. “Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.” But note verse 10. “But now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus.” God has always been a God of grace, but the full manifestation of that grace comes in the person of Jesus Christ. In John chapter 1 we are told the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. But there was truth in the Old Testament. I mean God is a God of truth. The whole Old Testament is His truth. God was a God of grace in the Old Testament and saved Abraham by grace for example. But the full manifestation of God’s grace in the provision of salvation for fallen man comes in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.

That’s what we’re talking about in Titus chapter 2, verse 11, “the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men.” That does not mean every person is saved. If you know anything about the Scripture, you know it speaks directly and clearly to the fact that many people will spend an eternity in the suffering of hell, something that modern man does not like to contemplate. Some refuse to even consider it a possibility as though we act like a little child who refuses to believe something reality changes. We understand only God can speak definitively to the issue of heaven and to the issue of hell and He has! Passages like Romans 14 tell us that there will be people whose eternal torment will rise up endlessly. An awful concept! But God has brought salvation to all men in the sense that men of all classes, all races, all nationalities, all groups are privileged to benefit in the salvation Christ has provided. He’s talked about some of these groups with older men, older women, younger men, younger women, slaves in the first part of chapter 2. This salvation brought in the person of Christ is for men, it’s for women, it’s for old men, it’s for old women, it’s for young men, it’s for young women, it’s for slaves, it’s for masters, it’s for Jews, it’s for Gentiles. It is bestowed as a free gift upon all who believe in Jesus Christ. He brought salvation to all men. It’s God’s grace that brought the salvation. Ephesians 2: 8-9, “For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.” God’s salvation is a matter of grace—not of works—so that no one can boast. That salvation is offered by God’s grace on the same terms to all. There is not a different standard for Jews, a different standard for Gentiles, a different standard for men, a different standard for women. It’s by grace through faith in Christ and that is it, to all men.

Well, we are to learn, be taught by this grace. But some people act as though Paul’s sentence here begins and ends with chapter 2 verse 11. “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.” Praise God I have entered into that salvation through faith in His Son. But the sentence is not over. Verse 12, “instructing us.” We are being taught by God’s grace. We have a word in English, pedagogy. That’s this Greek word here, we’ve just transliterated it over into English. It means child training, the training or bringing up of a child. God’s grace is instructing us, is child training us in the matter of godliness, verse 12, “instructing us to deny ungodliness, worldly desires, to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.”

Note this connection. People who claim to have experienced God’s grace in salvation but demonstrate nothing of the child development process do not know the living God. They fall into the category of the false teachers. Back in chapter 1 verse 10, “rebellious men, empty talkers, deceivers.” Verse 16, “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him.” We’ll see here in a moment, God’s grace, when experienced in salvation, not only delivers you from the penalty of sin; it delivers you from the power of sin and we are in the process, God’s child training, child development process of learning and growing to deny ungodliness. Ungodliness is everything that is opposed to the character and will of God. We deny everything that is contrary to the will of our God that is contrary to the character of our God. We renounce it and we avoid it with our lives.

We deny worldly desires. You know worldly desires are the desires that are centered in the world. The unsaved man has no place in his life for God. Oh, there may be superficial adherence, attendance at religious services with varying degrees of regularity. But really the unsaved individual is consumed by worldly desires, worldly interests, worldly passions. The believer is to deny worldly desires. Look in, I John chapter 2 and verse 15. We are told, “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” You cannot love God and the world. That doesn’t mean there is not an allurement to the world, an attraction that at times draws us. But a genuine love relationship cannot exist in a person for both God and the world. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” You know we’re reminded of how the world appeals to us. “And the world is passing away and its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.” One of the difficulties we have as believers is not understanding the concept. We sometimes say this is simple but it’s not easy. It’s not complicated to understand. We just find it not easy to implement and consistently live out. We do live in the world. I am surrounded by the world and its allurements all the time. It’s constantly appealing to me, telling me I’ve earned this, I deserve it. The advertisements appeal in that, that it will make my life fuller, happier, more joyful. You’ve earned it; you deserve it and on it goes appealing to me. You will have a fuller life. You will enjoy your life so much more. All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life. We’re reminded the world is passing away and its lusts. You stop and think. We’re going to come in a moment to the blessed hope of the believer. If Jesus Christ would come tomorrow morning, what that you have invested your life in will be significant to you tomorrow afternoon? Things that absorb us and shape our lives and direct our lives. But you understand the things of this world are passing away. It’s not the home you have because if Christ comes in the morning, the home you’re living in tomorrow afternoon you won’t care a bit about. The job you have the money in the bank, the honor you received from people, all these things. I stop and think if Christ comes tomorrow morning, what really will matter out of my life tomorrow afternoon? What will endure in my life tomorrow afternoon if Christ comes in the morning? The things of this world are passing away.

I stop and think. Is too much of life been drawn to the world and what the world offers to me as a believer? We are to deny worldly desires and we have to be careful as the church of Jesus Christ of those things which in and of themselves seem neutral, but they have a way of sucking us in. They draw us away from faithfulness of devotion to Christ. Oh, this is neutral, I mean there’s nothing wrong with that. But what is right with it? One of the battles we have as a church is with time. Isn’t it amazing how the church becomes more pleased to have less and less? Cancel Sunday night service. Oh, wonderful. You know that was always just a difficult and a hassle to get going. I’m not saying Sunday night service or lack of it is the mark of godliness, but I’m saying there ought to be a concern that we have less and less time for things of eternal value in our lives and oh, yes, boy if we could cut the service from an hour and a half in the morning to an hour that would be better. I have one of the few jobs where people are happy to pay me for less than more. Twenty-minute sermon? That would be a lot better than a forty-minute sermon. But a forty-minute sermon? I’ll take it over your sixty minute one’s, I guess. Then of course if we could have Sunday School at the same time as church and we could put our kids in Sunday School while we come to church, we could get it all done in an hour. This is getting better! I wonder what are we doing that is so important with our lives, that makes such a difference in light of what we’ll endure for eternity that we have so little time for the things of God? The church has go so much going on and the youth group has so many activities I can hardly keep my kids involved in all the sporting events. Hmmmm.

You know the devil is satisfied to distract us with good things at the expense of the best things. We need to be careful as believers about getting trapped by the things of the world that don’t seem so bad but when all is said and done, we have precious little time for the things of eternal value and significance. We arrange everything that relates to the Lord and how it will interfere as little as possible with what I’m doing with my life. Paul says that because of the grace of God we ought to be growing and maturing and learning as God’s children. We are denying worldly lusts, what the world has to offer to us.

Back to Titus chapter 2. That’s the negative side. We “deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and we live sensibly.” Paul is burdened under the direction of the Spirit with this concept of living sensibly. This is the fifth time in these two chapters that Paul has talked about sensibly, used the world sensibly. In chapter 1 verse 8 elders are to be sensible. Chapter 2 verse 2, old men are to be sensible. Verse 5 the older women are to teach the younger women to be sensible. Chapter 2 verse 6 the young men likewise are to be sensible. Now we’re told in verse 12 of chapter 2 that the grace of God is teaching and training us to live sensibly. The word means to have a sound mind. Self-controlled carries the idea. Remember Paul said in writing to the Corinthians in I Corinthians chapter 9, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection.” I have the world surrounding me, appealing to me and drawing me all the time. You add to that I live in this unredeemed body. You add to that the desires of the old man and it’s such a combustible nature it seems at times. But we are to live sensibly, self-disciplined lives, lives that are disciplined for godliness. Not lives that say I don’t feel like it. It’s not convenient. What does that have to do with it? Paul says I discipline my body and bring it into subjection. The word he uses in that context at the end of 1 Corinthians 9 literally to beat his body black and blue. You didn’t find Paul saying, well, I don’t feel like it today. No, it’s too much bother. I’ve disciplined myself for godliness.

Concern, I’m concerned about us as adults, the lack of discipline we often evidence in this in the children coming up we allow them to have that as their motto we allow our children today. I read an article in the paper that we don’t give enough attention to children and allow their opinions to count. Well, you know there are things that kids ought to be learning from us. Some of the things are they can’t play in every sporting event every night. Why? We discipline ourselves for godliness. We have a different goal, different perspective in our lives as God’s children than the world does. They can fill all their time with these things that won’t matter, but we discipline ourselves to do what matters. We have parents following the kids around. Oh, the kids want to do this. Well, this is what our kids want to do. At least they’re not taking drugs, as though that’s the alternative. I’ll go wherever they want as long as they’re not taking drugs or doing something really vile. How do we evidence sensible lives, lives that are disciplined for godliness? We have parents paddling around with children.

We had some good people who, uh, have left here in times way back. I talked to them and said, “Why did you leave?” “Well, you know, we had a teenager, and they didn’t want to come. So, they thought they would like it better here, so we went.” You know when I was a teenager, they didn’t know they were supposed to follow me, and heaven knows I didn’t know I was supposed to make those major decisions for our family. We’re supposed to be godly parents here living sensible lives and we’re waiting to see what our teenager, who can’t even decide what kind of shirt to put on in the morning, wants to go to church, and we’re modeling for them being sensible, self-disciplined people?

We are to live sensible, righteous, an upright life. The same Greek word translated basically righteous, justice—lives that conform to what is right and just before God. Godly lives, lives that conform to the character and will of God, that’s what our life is about. You see we’re totally out of step with the world. We live in the world and the world’s going one way and we’re going the other. The world’s living one way with one set of values, one set of focuses and we’re living in a totally different world while we live in this world. We’re constantly thinking, “Oh, if I could make this adjustment maybe I could fit. If I could make this adjustment maybe I could fit.” You don’t find any, the Scripture telling us how we can fit better in the world. It’s constantly telling us how we should not fit in the world.

We are to live sensibly, righteously, godly in this present age, literally in the now age. God is telling us how we live now, what His will for us as His people is now. Look in II Timothy chapter 4 verse 10. “For Demas, having loved this present world,” and it’s the same word, having loved this present age, “has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” You know it got too much. We’ve talked about this before. There’s a good church in Thessalonica. Paul wrote two letters to the church at Thessalonica. Demas didn’t belong in Thessalonica. Demas belonged with Paul. Why has Demas gone to Thessalonica? He loved the now age. He loved this present world, this present age. He didn’t heed what Paul had exhorted and now what he writes to Titus in Titus chapter 2 verse 12, how we are to live sensibly, righteously and godly in this present age. He fell in love with this present age and the result he deserted the work of God, abandoned faithfulness to God.

We live properly in this present age because the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation; and that salvation has a future dimension. We live “looking,” verse 13, “for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” We live properly because the grace of God has been manifested in Christ and His work of redemption and we are looking for, it denotes expectation, anticipation. How would we live if we knew Christ was coming tomorrow morning? Would the things that are so important to us, that have become absorbing to us, will they matter tomorrow afternoon or are they part of the, this world which is passing away that have no durable significance for the believer?

We are looking for the blessed hope. That’s why I take time periodically to remind you of what is going on in the world. We just need to be reminded. You know, if you’ve been a believer a long time you begin to think, “Yes, I know. We’ve been hearing Christ is coming and church has been preaching that for 2000 years and I’ve heard it ever since I was a young person and I know.” We become somewhat callous towards it and I can’t say that every day I live with an eye looking for the coming of the Lord, looking for that blessed hope and that shapes and controls the way I live and how I think. You know it’s like if you have someone coming to your house that you’ve been really expecting, and you know they’re due anytime this afternoon. Some one calls up and says, “Let’s go do this.” You say, “I can’t.” Why? “I’m looking for so and so. I’m expecting them.” There are certain things you have to do in the normal flow. But there are certain things I don’t do. Why? I’m looking for so and so, expecting them any time. So, I cut off the other things that aren’t significant in light of that event. I minimize them. So that person comes to your door, and you open the door you know. What? You put your arms around them, and you say what? I’ve been expecting you! I’ve been looking for you! Chances are you were looking out the window, you saw them pull in the driveway. It’s not like when they finally come you say, “Oh, my goodness. Caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting you.” That’s the way sometimes the church seems to be living today. If the Lord would come this afternoon would it be Lord, I was looking for You, I thought it might be today. Everything I’ve done today has been in light of, “I thought You might be here today.” Or would it be, “It just totally caught me off guard. I just wasn’t expecting You today.”

Paul says because of the grace of God and its work in instructing and teaching us, we are a people “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory.” The blessed hope is the appearing of the glory. It’s that hope that will bring the fullness of God’s blessings upon His children. It’s the appearing in glory of the One who is our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. For us as the church that will be at the rapture; we’re caught up into His, into the presence of Christ in the clouds, the fullness of His glory as I Corinthians 15:52-53 says, “In a moment, in an atom of time we will be transformed. And these physical bodies, mortal bodies, will put on immortality.” That is the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our Great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

That puts all other events in proper perspective. What else do I want in life? What am I looking for? What do I hope to have? Well, you know, if Christ is coming tomorrow morning, all those things are put in proper perspective. Life is put in proper perspective. I’m not overwhelmed, I’m not fussing and fretting about these things that are transitory anyway. Let me ask you. What you’re worrying about today, if you knew for sure Christ was coming tomorrow morning, would you be worried about it? What you’re worried about today, will it make any difference tomorrow afternoon if Christ comes tomorrow morning? Well, certain things I’m diligently in prayer over. Lord, I want so and so to be saved. Lord, I want to be a testimony. But there’s certain things I want to be about my Lord’s business. The responsibilities unfolded in the first part of chapter 2 have to do. Certain obligations we have and the duties of life. I want to be being faithful if He comes tomorrow, today, next week. But it shouldn’t be a surprise if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ and walking by His grace.

He is the great God. He’s our Savior Christ Jesus. He’s the One “who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed.” He gave Himself for us. We’re talking about the sacrifice of Christ. So, you see the grace of God has appeared and it’s been manifested most fully in the death of His Son on the cross when in His own body on the tree He bore our sins that we might die to sin and live to righteousness as Peter wrote. “That He might redeem us.” The word redeem means to set free by paying the price. When you went into the slave market of the day and you paid the price demanded for that slave, required to set him free, you paid it and he’s free. Now he belongs to you. Christ set us free from sin, purchased us for Himself.

You note in doing that, “redeem us from every lawless deed.” Every lawless deed is every sinful deed. I John chapter 2 tells us that sin is lawlessness. I John chapter 3 verse 4, sin is lawlessness. Every act of sin is an act of rebellion against God. It is a rejection of His authority and sovereignty. It is an act of lawlessness. Christ died to set us free from every lawless deed—the control of sin, the domination of sin in our life—to purify for Himself a people for His own possession. This is remarkable! He not only died to set us free from the domination of sin; He died that we might be made pure. Remember in Colossians we’ll be presented before the throne of God in glory by Christ as those who are holy, blameless, without spot. In the presence of the infinite holy God, we will be holy and blameless and without spot because we have been purified by Him for Himself. How beautiful can that get? The great God who is our Savior, Christ Jesus, gave Himself for us to set us free from sin to purify us for Himself as a people for His own possession.

Isn’t it amazing that the world has any appeal at all? Christ has set me free and cleansed me and made me His own possession. King James has a peculiar treasure, but the word peculiar carries a different meaning today than it did then. It’s something that belongs to someone in a special way, His special possession. He did this so we would belong to Him. I belong to Him. Do I care what the world thinks? What could the world offer me? I belong to the great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. I am looking for the hope that will bring me all the blessings that He has promised for me in glory. I fuss and fret and devote my life and time in the pursuit of the transitory nothingness of this world and find it worthy of my time? I think that I want my life to be free from trouble and easy going? All those things don’t matter if you understand Christ died for me. I am His own possession. I am His. In the blessed hope it’s blessed because at that hope all His blessings will be showered upon me.

These are to be a people zealous for good deeds. You know there’s just not a passiveness about the Christian life. There is an activeness about it. They are zealous, eagerly and aggressive in the pursuit of good deeds. To be saved? No! Because they have experienced the grace of God, because they are looking for the blessed hope, because they have been set free, because they have been claimed by Christ, they are a people passionately in pursuit of good deeds, the works of God, godliness, righteousness. Does that characterize our lives? Does that characterize this church? People in the world around us ought to see us as raving fanatics. We are in a zealous pursuit of the manifestation of the character of God in the world. The more brilliantly God’s light shines in and through us, the more manifest is the dark darkness around us. Is anything more a plague on the church than people who claim to know the living Savior and are relatively passive and indifferent, anything but zealous in their pursuit of the righteousness of God, pursuing the will of God? Oh, it’s enough. I’ve fulfilled my duty. I’m busy. You don’t get the idea that Christ is their life, nothing else matters. I can do with less money. I can do with a less important job. I can do with a house that is not so nice. I can do with a small bank account or no bank…. But I can’t do without Him. I am passionate about that and that’s the pursuit of my life—zealous for good works.

“These things speak, exhort and reprove.” Three sharp commands: speak, exhort and reprove with these things, with all authority. Because he’s someone great? No, because he serves a God who is great. This is the instruction of the living God. This is what I am to speak and teach, to exhort and urge, to rebuke those who would do otherwise. Do it with all authority. My authority? No. Your authority? No. The authority of the living God who has spoken. “Let no one disregard you.” As Titus pursues this ministry there needs to be a settled fixed course and there are no alternatives, and no one can name the name of Christ and take any other road. Titus, don’t let those false teachers put you off, don’t let them go around the message. Their feet have to be held to the fire. This is the way it is; this is the way it must be for God’s people.

What a hope we have. We live today in a world that sometimes all the sudden seems fragile. What’s going to happen? You know what? If Christ is coming tomorrow morning, I really don’t care who’s president tomorrow afternoon, anybody is fine with me, just any one; and you know that puts it in perspective. When I think about it I say, “Will it matter to you tomorrow afternoon, Gil, if the Lord comes in the morning who’s president?” No, it won’t. Well, that’s not one of those things of eternal significance to you, is it? No, it’s not. It helps put my life in perspective. Will it matter to you how many people thought you were wonderful and great? No, I don’t think it will. Well, what about how the stock market did? Anybody can have it; I’m going to leave it all here. What about your house? I’m leaving it here, too. All the sudden things are put in perspective. I’m looking for the blessed hope. The grace of God’s appeared. I am in the pursuit of the beauty of His character, the honoring of Him with my life in anticipation of seeing Him soon.

Let’s pray together. Thank You, Lord, for abundant grace. Thank You for the power of Your grace that is brought to a life in a transforming way that we are never the same, we are never again what we were. We have been redeemed by the power of the living Christ, purified and made His own. Lord, I pray for those who may be here in this church who profess to know God but it’s an empty profession, maybe young people who have been raised in this church, maybe older people who have been here for years, maybe new visitors. You know our hearts. Lord, this is the matter, this is the matter of eternal importance and significance and may we as a church demonstrate by our passion for You by the way we live and serve, may we believe what we teach. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.
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