Titus chapter two. The heading at the top of my
page in my particular Bible says that Titus chapter two is directions
on how to live in this present world. This is what God says we ought
to be. And in summary, this is what
it is, all right? In summary, we've already looked
at the majority of Titus chapter two. In summary, this is what
it is. Holy and without blame before him. That's what it is. That's what it's saying. Our
purity and our spotlessness is what God demands of us to stand
in his presence. Purity and spotlessness. And we will never see in the
scripture a command from our God that says or even insinuates
that it's okay to be anything less than absolute spotless purity
before him. Every time we read, this is what
you ought to be, it is going to be complete, total holiness
and absolute purity before him. God does not condone sin. We do. Man does. God does not. God does not excuse
sin. We do. God does not. God demands absolute,
perfect holiness and righteousness from his people. And that's why
he sent Jesus Christ into the world. All right? That's the
very reason why he sent Christ into the world. Ephesians 1 says
that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the
praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted
in the beloved. I know those were a lot of words,
but is that, was that, could we retain it? God said, this
is how I want you to live. All right. This is what God said
to man. This is how I want you to live. Man didn't do it. Starting with Adam. Starting
with Adam. Man did not do it. That's why
Christ came. Why did Christ come into the
world? Because man didn't do it. That's
the whole reason why man didn't do it. Every law in God's Word
condemns the flesh of man and glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ.
People read this and say, OK, well, this is what it says. So
that's how we have to be. In reality, we read this and
say that's what it says, and that proves to me that's not
what I am. Every law. in God's Word condemns the flesh
of man. We won't live up to any of them.
It condemns the flesh of man and every law glorifies the Lord
Jesus Christ. Every law reveals what Christ
is actually able to do. What man can't do and what Christ
not only can do but has done. Turn over to Romans 3 with me. We're going to come back and
forth, you can hold your place if you want, but Romans 3. Romans
3 verse 28, it says, therefore. We conclude that a man is justified
by faith, and to really understand what he means by that, substitute
the word faith with Christ. We conclude that a man is justified
by Christ. Faith causes us to look to Christ
and hope in Christ and seek Christ, without the deeds of the law. What does that mean? That means
without us obeying the Bible because we can't. You know, back
in verse 24, or 23, he said, all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Look up at verse 10. As it is written, there's none
righteous. No, not one. There's none that
understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all gone out of the way.
They're together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good. No, not one. Aren't we supposed
to do good? Yep. But here's the problem. There's none that doeth good.
Wait a minute, are you actually saying none? Yes. Or another
way of saying that is no, not one. None that doeth good, no.
Not one. So verse 28 says, therefore we
conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of
the law. Without the deeds of the law.
People are justified by Christ without the deeds of the law.
All right, now look at verse 31. Do we then make void the law
through, you could say Christ, because of Christ, because we're
looking to Christ. Our faith is causing us to hope
in Christ and cast our all on Christ. Do we then make void
the law? What was the purpose of the law
then? What was the purpose of the Bible then? Do we make void
the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish
the law. We establish the law because
the law only condemns us. Because it only condemns us. Do we just throw away the holy
law of God? Absolutely not. We establish
the holy law of God. We establish the commandments
that must come to our flesh. The condemnation that the law
has given to man. We establish that. The wages
of sin is death. We establish that. There's none
that doeth good. We establish that. And the condemnation
that comes because of it. We establish that based on the
holy law of God. The Apostle Paul is the one who
said this right here in Romans 3. The Apostle Paul is the one
who said what he did in Titus 2. And he's saying the same thing
in both places. All right, go back to Titus chapter
2. We're picking up today with verse
11. Titus 2 verse 11, it says, for the grace of God that bringeth
salvation. The grace of God that bringeth
salvation. Salvation was brought by the
grace of God. Not by the deeds of the law,
but by the grace of God. Verse 11 says, for the grace
of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." God
has made His way of salvation known to all men, meaning He
has written it in a book for everybody to read. Salvation is by grace alone without
works. Not with works as an afterthought,
not with works on the side, not with works as the icing on top, God's people are saved by God's
grace and God's grace alone. Alone. Look with me at Galatians
3. Galatians 3 verse 1, it says,
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should
not obey the truth? What is the truth? Yep, Jesus
Christ. He said, I am the truth. O foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose
eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth? He is the truth. Crucified among you. That's our
salvation. Verse two, this only what I learn
of you. Received ye the spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith? If you want to know
what he means by that, substitute the word faith with Christ, by
the hearing of Christ, hearing about Christ, who he is, what
he did. Verse three, are you so foolish
Having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Think about what he's saying
right there. Are you now made perfect by the flesh? Are you now made perfect by right
living in the flesh? Which is what so many people
think. He's saying if the flesh didn't
have any ability in the beginning, Do you really think the flesh
has any ability in the end? If it didn't start there, do
you really believe it ends there? Turn with me to Romans 5. Romans 5 verse 6, for when we were yet without
strength, why did Christ have to do it? Because we didn't have
any strength. We really didn't have any strength.
We were dead. When we were yet without strength
in due time, Christ died for. Who did Christ die for? Who did
Jesus Christ die on the cross for? The ungodly. The ungodly. If Christ came to us and if he
died for us and if he redeemed us to God by his blood, Did He then turn over the responsibility
to us to make ourselves perfect and acceptable to Him by the
deeds of the flesh? No. We were ungodly. We were ungodly. Christ died
for the ungodly. He came and died for His people
because they could not make themselves perfect and acceptable by the
deeds of their flesh. They were ungodly. Salvation,
redemption, forgiveness, acceptance, all of that is by the grace of
God, by the gift of God, the work of God alone. So go with
me back to Titus chapter 2. Verse 11 says, for the grace
of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching
us that denying ungodliness. How do you do that? People read
that and they'll say, okay, that's what we need to do right there.
We have to deny ungodliness. How do you do that? If we're
going to deny ungodliness, we're going to have to deny ourselves. Who did Christ die for? The ungodly. We have to deny ourselves. That's
how you deny ungodliness. Ungodliness means, when you look
up the translation, it means a lack of reverence toward God. It means being destitute of reverential
awe toward God. It is ignoring God, having no
concern for God. How do we do that? How do you
do that? Here's how you do that. By being
completely concerned with man. Completely focused on man, which
is what people do in religion. They focus completely, totally
on man. It's all on man. They reverence
man. They think man has the ability
to do what only Jesus Christ can do. We're reverencing the
wrong person when we do that. We're in all of the flesh of
man. All right. So verse 12 says,
teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust. That is, you
know, people say, okay, well, I'm not going to lust anymore.
Great. Let me know how that goes for
you. All right. The worldly lust is a desire
for what is earthy. of the earth. What's that? Man. Teaching us verse 12 says
that denying, denying this lack of consideration and lack of
acknowledging God and denying this craving for man and the
things of the flesh. It says, we should live soberly. People say, well, don't get drunk.
Don't do that either. But that's not what it means.
It means we should live with a sound mind about this. That's
what soberly means. We should live soberly. And then
it says, righteously. That means agreeably to what
is right. Well, now you know you've got
to live righteously. That's right. You need to live agreeably to
what is right, what is correct. We should live soberly, righteously. Verse 12 says, and godly. That is reverencing, having concern toward
in all of God. That doesn't turn us to man.
That doesn't turn us to the flesh. Well, now you've got to live
godly. That's not what it is, it's reverence toward God, it's
being in awe of God. Paul said, that's how we ought
to live in this present world with all of our concern being
turned to God. That's exactly what he said in
verse 13. Verse 12, look at this right
here. Verse 12, he said, teaching us
that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, semicolon. You see that? You see that semicolon? That means this is how you do
that. All right, that's what that semicolon
means. This is how you do that. This
is how you live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.
If anybody wants to do that, if anybody reads it and says,
that's what I want to do. I want to live soberly, righteously,
and godly in this present world. Okay, here's how you do it. Verse
13, looking for that blessed hope. and the glorious appearing
of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. That's how you live soberly,
righteously, godly in this present world, looking for that blessed
hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ. Verse 13 ends with a semicolon. That semicolon means this is
why Jesus Christ, the great God, is our Savior. This is the reason
why. Verse 14, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us
from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people
zealous of good works. He gave himself, he gave his
body, he gave his blood, he gave his life and he died to redeem
us from all of our iniquity and to purify us to himself by making
us zealous. All right, now listen to this. Zealous means, see if you can't
say amen to this. Zealous means jealous for. It means one who will contend
for. One who will take a stand for. Good works. Actual good works. What are actual good works? God's
works. The works of God's flesh. Those are good works. Go with
me to Romans 10. Romans 10 verse 1, it says, brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear
them record that they have a zeal of God. They're willing to take
a stand, but they don't realize they're
standing for the wrong thing. Verse 2 says, I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God, but not according to righteousness,
not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's
righteousness. That means the works of God's
flesh. And it says, going about to establish
their own righteousness. That's the works of man's flesh. They have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. Paul said that's what they're
ignorant of, that's where they're going wrong, that's where they're
missing it. And the whole world falls into
this category. Now listen, I wrote this in my
notes and I thought if anyone doesn't understand where I'm
coming from, this is gonna sound so arrogant, it's gonna sound
so self-righteous, it's gonna sound so narrow-minded. And I
understand all that and I don't mean it any of those ways. It's
just the truth. The whole world has fallen into
this category. The internet says there are over
47,000 different Christian denominations in the world. And that's hard to imagine. I
wouldn't have believed that unless, since I've been the pastor here,
I felt like, you know, 46,999 of them have contacted me. But that's just
the Christianity religion. That accounts for one
religion, okay? There are 47,000 different denominations
in that one religion. That one religion, Christianity.
There's only one truth. There's only one truth. All right,
47,000 different opinions on this one religion. It's estimated
that there are over 10,000 different religions in the world. And every single one of them,
every one of them is finding their hope in the works of man's
flesh. Every single one of them. It
does not matter if you're talking about Islam or Hinduism or Buddhism
or Christianity. I know this is shocking. The
whole world has missed Christ. The whole world has missed Jesus
Christ. Even Christianity has missed
the righteous accomplishments of Jesus Christ. You say, how
in the world do you know that? It's because they make it known.
They make it known that their hope is built on what they see
in their flesh. They make it known. That's not
where the true people of God's hope is. That's not where their
hope is. Their hope is built on what they
see in Christ's flesh. When I look at these hands, all
I see is sinful hands. When I look at this mind, this
body, this heart, all I see is sin, sin, sin. I tell people all the time, if
you could see me like I see me, you wouldn't be here listening
to me. You'd go find you a better man than me. Sin, sin, sin. God's people, their hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. They dare
not trust the sweetest frame. That's a liar in a pulpit saying,
you're a good person. God loves you. He wants the best
for you. He has a wonderful plan for your
life. Everything's fine. You just go about your business.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly, completely
lean on Jesus Christ's name. On Christ the solid rock I stand.
All other ground is sinking sand. It's all sinking sand. Verse three right here says,
they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about
to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He's the end
of it. Now I'm done, I'm closing, but
go back to Titus 2. Titus 2, Paul said in verse 13 that this
glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ,
verse 14, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from
all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous
of good works. He said, that's the blessed hope.
That's the hope of all of God's people. And in verse 15, Paul
said, Titus, these things speak and exhort and rebuke with all
authority. let no man despise thee. He said you declare this as the
oracles of God Almighty. You declare this as the very
word of God Almighty and let no man despise thee. And what
that means is let no man question you or condemn you for saying
this. Because this is the word of God
Almighty. This is God's actual word. Amen.