The All-Encompassing Grace of God - Titus 2:11-14 (Doug Biddle)

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Titus 2 verses 11 through 14.
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I don't know about you, I don't really watch much television, especially late -night television.
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Maybe some of you here do, but I don't, primarily because it's way past my bedtime, for one thing.
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But I will say when I have caught some late -night television, maybe a little insomnia or something to that effect, one feature about late -night television that's always captured my attention is that there are a certain kind of commercial that seems to appear quite often during that time period.
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And these commercials promote the sale of all kinds of fascinating and interesting gadgets.
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How many of you out there have one of these gadgets that you purchased because you saw it on late -night
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TV in your garage or in your kitchen? Raise your hand. I'm raising my hand.
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I know where it is. It's in my garage. The question is, when was the last time you used it?
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For me, never. Okay, that's probably about five, seven years ago. But anyway, it's amazing to see the creative minds that are out there.
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It just is amazing. And these devices that are being sold do all kinds of amazing things, as I mentioned.
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They chop vegetables. They allow you to pursue a certain kind of gardening need.
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Some of them even offer pillows for your aching back, among other things. But you know, there's one universal characteristic about these commercials that you always see, and it goes like this.
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After the initial pitch, at, of course, the incredible price of either $19 .99,
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maybe $29 .99, and maybe at the most, $49 .99.
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Even after that, there's usually one other enticement to get you to buy.
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And here's the tagline. But wait, there's more. And sometimes that second item is another one for the same price, just two for one throw in.
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Or sometimes it's a different handy -dandy gadget that's thrown in as part of the deal.
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Now, I realize that the analogy that I'm bringing up is imperfect at best, but I bring that up because our text is going to reveal that there is much more to the of God than we might expect.
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And you know what? It doesn't even cost $29 .99. It's free. So that's why
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I've entitled this message, The All -Encompassing Grace of God. So with that, let's dig into our text and see what
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God has for us in his grace. So now, if you've got
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Titus 2, verses 11 through 14, turn with me there and follow along as I read in the
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New American Standard. Titus 2, starting at verse 11.
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For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great
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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.
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But before we proceed any further with this, let me just give you some context about this letter very briefly.
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So this passage is part of a larger letter written by Paul to a co -laborer in the gospel,
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Titus, and he is mentioned in verse 4 of chapter 1. This letter includes, among other things, instructions to Titus to appoint leaders in churches, planted by Paul and Titus in Crete, during a missionary journey that apparently is not recorded in the book of Acts.
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In addition to those appointments, this is one of the go -to texts that we, as a
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Bible -believing church, look to for guidance and direction on the qualifications of those church leaders.
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This letter also instructs, includes instructions to proclaim sound doctrine so that error will be refuted and opposed, and also that sound doctrine would promote godly living.
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A little background as well, Paul has had a longtime collaboration with Titus. Titus was
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Greek, and he appears to have known Paul for some time.
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We can look, goes back to Paul's time in the city of Antioch. We see that in Galatians chapter 2 verses 1 through 3.
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And of course, their collaboration began early on, during the early days of the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem.
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So Paul has a longtime association with Titus, and he had confidence in this assignment for Titus because of their longtime working association and Titus's mature faith.
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So with that context, let's now dig in to the text. And I'll say for you, as you'll, as we go through, you'll find out that this section of this letter, verses 11 through 14 in chapter 2, it's a hinge point for explaining the basis, the foundation, and the cornerstone of some very key instructions communicated by Paul to Titus for the church in Crete, and by extension to us as well today.
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So as I previously mentioned, this instruction that Paul gives Titus in this small little section of the letter includes not only some issues about false teaching, which actually talks, is talked about in chapter 1, but it further goes along.
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This instruction includes directions about godly living in chapter 2 verses 1 through 10, and also about living honorably before God within society at large.
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And you'll find that in chapter 3 verses 1 and 2. So with this little section as our hinge point for all of that that I just summarized, we see that this passage begins with a particular word, and that word is the word for.
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And this is the type of grammatical correct connector that should be a heads -up to us.
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It's similar to other things like therefore, so that, or but, and it is a clue to us to look at the context before this specific section, and also to search for a relationship to that which follows in the text.
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And in this case, for is used to express a purpose, a cause, or an explanation.
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So under the inspirational Holy Spirit, Paul clearly states in this passage the reason for his opposition to false doctrine.
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This passage also includes the explanation for his encouraging godly living in the life of the believer, and it also has instruction to pursue these things that, and they're all due to the truth and the impact of the gospel of Christ.
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And here, the gospel of Christ is actually described as the grace of God.
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So as we go further, we really need to make sure that we define terms.
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Just like we explained the use, or the background for the use of the term for, we need to spend a little time digging into what is the grace of God.
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And that's, of course, begins our section in verse 11 of chapter 2.
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Now we know that in any kind of conversation or discussion, it's important to make sure that they're, that all the parties understand the meaning of the terms that are used.
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And this brings to mind the favorite, a phrase that's made famous in one of my favorite movies,
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The Prince's Bride. It's the phrase uttered by Inigo Montoya in response to Vicini's repeated use of the word inconceivable.
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Paul was mouthing it along with me, I appreciate that. Montoya finally responds at some point and utters the following statement,
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I do not think it means what you think it means. So we want to make sure that we start with a biblical definition of grace, specifically the grace of God.
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So in the context of this, not just this section of Scripture, but in the
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New Testament record itself, and even going all the way back and through into the
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Old Testament, we see that God's grace is undeserved kindness bestowed by another, even upon the ill -deserving.
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And as an outworking of God's grace, God bestows this undeserved kindness by granting sinners a repentant heart and a trust in Christ's death on the cross as a sacrificial payment for their sins.
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We see this clearly explained in Ephesians 2 verses 4 and 5, which say, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.
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By grace you have been saved. But you know, in thinking about the grace of God, I am concerned that this is the only meaning that some
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Christians have for the grace of God. In other words, he forgives my sins. He definitely does do that in Christ.
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However, with apologies to our friend from the Princess Bride, I do not think it only means what you think it means.
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So here in our passage in Titus, we will find out that there is so much more to the grace of God.
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And that's where we get to the big idea of this passage. And we'll see that Titus 2 verses 11 through 14 that God's grace is an appearing grace.
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It's a training grace, as well as a redeeming grace.
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All right, so let's tackle the first point, appearing grace. Paul starts out in his explanation of the grace of God by describing it as an appearing grace, as I mentioned.
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Just the very first part of verse 11. For the grace of God has appeared.
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If God's grace is an appearing grace, well, what does that mean? Let's start with another definition.
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The word appears or appear in the Greek is from the word epiphany.
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I'm gonna say that again. Epiphany. Does that sound similar to a word that you might have heard before?
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Probably. It means in the Greek to appear or reveal for a fitting or suitable purpose.
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And as you probably suspected, the origin of that word is for the word that we use in English, epiphany.
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A moment when you suddenly feel that you understand or suddenly become conscious of something really important.
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You've had an epiphany. In summary, it means what has been revealed is unknown to the recipient until their eyes have been opened.
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And it's revealed for a specific purpose. Well, what is this purpose? Well, we'll see that as we get to verse 14.
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So just hang there, hang in there with me till we get there. So we see that God's grace is not known to the recipient until God initiates it and reveals it.
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So do we see examples of the grace of God appearing or being revealed in such a sudden and unexpected way?
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Oh yes. And here's just a couple. So for example, we've been walking through the life of Abraham.
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And if you go back in your memory to following along that life story of Abraham's in chapter 11 of Genesis, we start out with a genealogy from the line of Seth, continues on.
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We finally get to, toward the end of that chapter 11, with Abraham's father,
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Terah, who leaves his land and moves to the northern part of Mesopotamia.
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It says in the scriptures that Terah's intent was actually to go on to Canaan, to the land of Canaan.
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But for some reason they stopped there. We don't know if it's because Terah just decided to stop or he became ill, but it does say he died there.
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But then after that little snippet is described in chapter 11, the first verse of chapter 12,
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God speaks to Abraham. We have no record of God speaking up to that point until we go all the way back to the account of Noah.
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From Noah's time to God speaking to Abraham, there's been a silence.
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But God appears suddenly and speaks to Abraham and calls him to follow him to Canaan.
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Another example is Moses in the Sinai Desert. Moses, shepherding sheep after he flees
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Egypt, wanders around in his shepherding duties and suddenly sees a burning bush, goes over to examine it, and all of a sudden that bush speaks to him.
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Suddenly, without warning. And God has a message for Moses.
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And then finally another example is Paul on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter 9, verse 3, where it says that suddenly a light from heaven flashed around Paul.
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It appeared without warning, and those accounts revealed that God in his timing does what he does for his own purposes in the lives of his children.
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So I think a main thing that I want to emphasize here, because we also looked at Ephesians 2, verses 4 and 5, there, it's important for us to acknowledge that the grace of God does not originate in us.
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And because we are under sin, as I mentioned in Ephesians 2, 4, and 5, it says we were not even looking for God.
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We were dead and could not know or experience the grace of God in Christ until we were made alive.
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And in Romans 3, verses 9 through 12, Paul speaks to this in very stark terms.
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He describes mankind like this, quoting starting in verse 9.
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What then? Are we better than they? Not at all, for we have already charged that both
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Jews and Greeks are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one.
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There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside.
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Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one.
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Quoted from Psalm 14, verses 1 through 3. So, because we're under sin, we didn't choose
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God. In fact, we were unable to choose God. Rather, he and his grace chose us.
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And this is established in a number of places in the Scriptures. John 6, 44, Ephesians 1, 4, and 5, and Acts 13, 48.
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I'm not going to read those. Feel free to ask me about those references if you wish later.
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But I think the the main point here is that because we were dead to God in our state as a sinner, our receiving our salvation in Christ was due to God's unmerited grace.
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It's not based on our intellect or reason. And that's very clearly stated in 2
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Corinthians 1, 12. And it's also not based on our good works. In Titus 3, 5, it really clearly states that.
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And because salvation is a result of God's grace, we should respond in humble gratitude to God for his great mercy toward us who believe.
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Colossians 3, 12 is actually a really good summary of what our response should be as believers to those who have, now that we have received our salvation in Christ through the grace of God.
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Here's Colossians 3, verse 12. So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
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No room for self -importance or thinking that I'm good enough for this.
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No. Since we have received salvation in Christ solely through God's mercy, we know that it should motivate us,
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I should say, to put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
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Now, there's another section in verse 11 of back to Titus chapter 2 that I want to also make mention that really ties into this whole issue of the grace of God.
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We also note, as we read the latter half of verse 11, it says, bringing salvation to all men.
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Does that mean that everyone is saved? Well, no. And that's why context is really important.
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And I think many of the verses I've already cited actually speak to that quite a bit.
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But I will mention this, that because salvation is the result of God's grace, he,
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God, mercifully chooses people from all cultural backgrounds and stations in life for salvation in Christ to his glory.
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As it says in Galatians 3 28, there is neither
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Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
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And the reason I wanted to make sure not to skip this part is this. Scripture plainly teaches, and we just read it, that there are no second -class
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Christians. There's also no hyphened labeled
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Christians. Unfortunately, we see a lot of those folks running around today. I am a blank hyphen blank
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Christian. God's Word actually condemns that kind of thinking. These kinds of designations not only divide
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Christians, but they demean and devalue the unity that God designed his church to portray before a watching world.
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God's Word says that we are all one in Christ. All right, let's move on.
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So we see in this passage that God's grace is an appearing grace. But back to our late -night
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TV example, but wait, there's more. Point number two,
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Paul continues to explain that the grace of God is also a training grace.
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So let's continue in in our reading of Titus 2, and we're going to focus on verses 12 and 13.
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Reading Titus 2 verses 12 and 13, 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 appearing of the glory of our great
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God and Savior, Christ Jesus. Before we dig too far into this little section,
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I want to maybe add a little bit of a clarification to one of the words that you'll read there.
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The word righteously. It does not mean sinless. It means with integrity or with honesty, so that someone can have integrity or be a man over God's, after God's own heart, but still a sinner, because they acknowledge their sin and their need for God's forgiveness.
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So as we go further in our section, these two verses 12 and 13, let's also go back to a definition again, and let's understand what
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Paul means here. The word for instructing in the New American Standard, which is used here, and it's also the same word that's translated in the
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CSB. In the ESV, the word training is used.
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Same, same concept. In the Greek, that word means training, education, teaching.
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So far, so good. But there's actually a specific deeper or additional meaning to that term in the
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Greek. It's particularly used for children, so that they properly mature.
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And the word also implies that there is a need for discipline, especially with an emphasis on causing one to learn.
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So what kind of training does God's grace provide? According to this passage, God's grace trains, educates, and teaches us three things.
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It teaches us to deny, to live, or to look for, or to wait.
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It instructs us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts. Why? Why deny those things?
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Well, that's because these things no longer represent who we are in Christ. As believers, you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God, Colossians 3 .3.
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Our natural bent toward these things, our old man or flesh, it also has died.
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And in Ephesians 4 .22, we're told, lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit.
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This verse also, the grace of God also instructs believers to live consistent with who they are now in Christ by his grace.
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And Ephesians 4 verses 23 and 24 sum this up quite well. That you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which is the likeness of God, has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
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So we've been instructed to deny godlessness, to live consistent with the holiness and our union with Christ.
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And finally, we've been instructed to wait, or to look for, or anticipate.
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And that really comes out in verse 13. Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great
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God and Savior, Christ Jesus. God's grace instructs us and strengthens us to wait, to look for, or to hope in the consummation of God's redemptive plan in Christ.
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We are to wait or hope in the appearing and revealing of the full glory of Jesus Christ.
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And to hope and wait and to look for the eventual fulfillment of Christ's ruling and reigning in righteousness over all things.
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So just as we needed his appearing grace for salvation, we need
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God's training grace to be instructed by and empowered to live this new life in Christ.
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Going back to the definition of training that I explained a little bit deeper, it implies that we are children needing guidance and training and discipline to follow
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Christ. We face opposition in this world, in the flesh and the devil, and we need the supernatural grace of God by his spirit to strengthen and keep us.
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We need to be reminded to await expectantly in hope for the appearing of the glory of Christ at his return in verse 13.
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This is really emphasized in 1 John 3 verses 2 and 3, and I'll read those for you.
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Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be.
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We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is, and everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure.
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So I have a question for you, actually more than one. Do you see yourself as one who needs continual and ongoing training in all that God's grace has for you as a believer?
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It's so easy to be distracted by the cares and allures of this life to fall prey to the promises of salvation offered in this life other than in Christ alone.
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Lots of things can draw us away. Well, if I only have enough money that will that will satisfy me or that will set me up or you know, if the right political party would just come into power, that will take care of everything.
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Or gosh, if my family just turns out right, that'll be it.
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That'll be good. Well, God's Word doesn't promise any of those things to us.
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They don't describe salvation in any such terms like that, only by the grace of God.
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So are you submitting yourself to the discipline of God's grace and denying living and waiting?
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What are you doing in your training program? Do you have one? How about regular personal
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Bible study and prayer? Meeting with smaller group of believers for study encouragement?
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How about consistent participation in church to sit under their preaching and teaching of God's Word?
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Here's one. Reading books to expand and stretch your understanding of the scriptures and our witness as believers in our current culture.
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Training goes poorly without a plan. A lot of you, I know that.
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You know that. And without the consistency to stick with it.
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So how about a Bible reading plan for this year? How about asking another believer or a group of believers to read a godly book together to encourage you to stretch your knowledge and strengthen your faith?
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Ask God for the grace to formulate such a plan or to guide you to someone who can help you. Back to our television analogy again.
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I said that term a couple times already, but I'm not done. Well, wait, there's even more.
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So far, we've seen that God's grace is an appearing grace and a training grace. Now, Paul continues in this letter to Titus to explain that the grace of God is also a redeeming grace.
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Look to verse 14. That's where we see that. 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.
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Here, Paul closes the circle by explaining why or for what purpose the grace of God appeared.
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Why did God's grace appear in the person of the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ?
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Well, we're actually given the answer in verse 14. God in Christ would redeem a people for himself and purify us from lawlessness.
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Once again, we want to understand what Paul means here. In the original
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Greek, the word for redeem means to rescue from the possession and power of an alien possessor.
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Did you catch that? To rescue someone from the possession and power of an alien possessor, someone who rightfully does not possess that thing or person.
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Christ, on the other hand, would claim his people as the rightful, not the alien possessor.
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And as believers, it shows in the scriptures that we were rescued from an alien possessor, the power of darkness, dominion of sin.
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Colossians 1 verse 13 says, for he, Christ, rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved
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Son, meaning the Father there. We needed the rescue to come from a power outside ourselves because we were helpless to rescue ourselves.
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We've already mentioned Ephesians 2 verse 1, and you were dead in your trespasses and sin.
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Dead people cannot rescue themselves. They need power from the outside to effect that kind of rescue.
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Christ would spiritually cleanse and purify people for his own possession, according to verse 14.
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His aim was to possess a people for their joy and to the praise of his glory for all eternity.
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First Peter 2 verse 9 says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
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And finally, when it comes to this, Christ would free his possession so that they would be eager to serve others in good works for his sake.
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See that at the end of verse 14? Zealous for good deeds. Free his people from the dominion of darkness.
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Give Christ the proper and preeminent worship he deserves. And as a result of that, or out of gratitude for that, for such grace in our lives,
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God calls us to serve others in his name. So how do you view
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God's grace in your life? Is it solely a focus on your salvation from God's righteous judgment?
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As I mentioned before, his grace does provide that to us as believers. But I hope you can see that we have a much higher calling as believers as a result of the grace of God.
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That calling entails worship, obedience, and service.
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Are you faithful to that calling as a believer in whatever circumstance God has placed you?
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In representing him to the world, I trust that that's so. So we have seen so far that God's grace is not only an appearing grace, it's also a training grace, and a redeeming grace.
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But as we start to close our time in this passage, I want to make sure that we cover one more thing.
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And it's the motivation behind these words, verses 11 through 14, that Paul wrote to Titus.
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So were these words from Paul to Titus used to convey an inspirational message?
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And an inspirational message not only to Titus, but the church at Crete? You know, the kind of message that you'd see in a
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Hallmark card. No. For a little more insight there, we need to actually go a little rogue here and step down to the next verse, verse 15, where we see
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Paul has some other instructions to Titus that also apply to us today.
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Verse 15 of chapter 2 of Titus. Paul instructs
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Titus to proclaim these things, encourage and rebuke with all authority, let no one disregard you.
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Well, what jumps out at you about the style and the tone of this verse? Do you see that these words are pretty blunt, pretty straight to the point?
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There's no flowery language in here at all. There's no nuance, no subtlety here at all.
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The verb here, actually all the verbs here in this are in the form of a command.
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Paul is commanding Titus to do these things, and I just want to peel back the layer of the onion a little bit and to say that the verb tense here is the present imperative active.
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Okay, well, that sounds really highfalutin, but what does that mean?
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Well, it's actually quite meaningful in this context. These commands that Paul gave
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Titus were not only to be followed by Titus, but actually they're there for us as redeemed as well.
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But the tense of these verbs, as I was mentioning, it actually indicates a call to action that is something that's not just a one time, one and done, it's an ongoing action.
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So, Titus was commanded by Paul to proclaim and encourage and rebuke the church in Crete regarding all the things that were in this letter and to continue to do that.
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The church in Crete is commanded not to disregard or despise Titus in his duty to communicate these things to the church, and by implication, not to disregard or despise these truths about the grace of God.
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And by other further implication, us as well. In fact,
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Paul considers the grace of God to be so important that he actually repeats the same ideas in verses 11 through 14 in chapter 2 in the next chapter, chapter 3 verses 4 through 8.
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If you are following along, why don't you follow along as I read those verses? But when the kindness of God, our
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Savior, and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us, not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the
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Holy Spirit. He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Christ Jesus, our
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Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.
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This saying is trustworthy. I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed
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God might be careful to devote themselves to good works. These are good and profitable for everyone.
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Did you catch the word insist? It didn't sound like Paul was kind of making an option.
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No, this is a command, and not just a command to do it once, but it's to be a continual aspect and attribute of our lives as believers.
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So this, as I mentioned, this letter was written to give Titus instructions for the proper governance of the churches on the island of Crete, and to give godly instruction to the believers in those churches.
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But what does something related to events happening on an island far away and long ago ultimately have to do with us today?
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Well, in two cases. First one, if there are any here who have not experienced the grace of God, according to this passage, you do not have salvation from the penalty of sin that all deserve before a holy
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God. That includes me. That includes you. This grace is only expressed through a trusting, through trusting in God's provision for another to pay that penalty in your place.
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That one is our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, as we read in verse 13, who died on the cross for sinners.
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His death and resurrection redeems those who by faith trust in his sacrifice on their behalf, not only to redeem them from the power and dominion of sin, but also to be his possession forever.
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If you would like to know more, please come and talk to me or one of the other leaders about forgiveness of sin and new life in Christ that he provides to those who trust him.
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If you claim to be a Christian, I have a question for you to consider. Based on this passage, is your life as a believer being fully impacted by the broad scope and breadth of all that the grace of God does in and for you?
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Are you being instructed by the power of God's grace to deny godlessness?
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What training do you undergo to live daily with integrity in a sensible and godly way in your family, at work, at school, at brief encounters at the grocery store?
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How much regular thought do you give to our blessed hope and appearing of our
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God and Savior, Jesus Christ? Is this a source of assurance?
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Do you long for that day? I trust so. I also encourage you to employ or continue with the disciplines of the means of grace, sitting under the regular preaching of the word of God, taking time for individual and group prayer to the
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God of all grace, and engaging in consistent personal Bible study, reading, and small group
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Bible study as well. Through these means and by the power of the
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Spirit of God, may you grow in the knowledge, appreciation, and enjoyment of the fullness that is in the grace of God.
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Let's pray. Father, thank you for such passages as this that challenge us to dig beyond the surface of some wonderful truths, but we see in your word that there is so much more to the grace of God.
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If we have been guilty of not seeing how much you want to do in our lives by your grace, how much you want to teach us, not just now but on an ongoing basis, how much you want to grow us, train us, how much you want us to long for the appearing of our great
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God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, may we be challenged to see where we need to look to you for strength and guidance as we walk in this pilgrimage as a believer in Christ.
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If anyone hearing my voice has not trusted Christ as Savior, as I said before, these promises are not yours, but they could be.
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I pray that you would consider your need for repentance and to trust
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Christ even today. Lord, we thank you again for your word and for your patience with us.
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We look forward to celebrating that patience, that wonderful work on our behalf as we come together around your table celebrating