Titus chapter 2. Let's begin and read again in
verse 11. Titus chapter 2, verse 11. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly and righteously
and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us
from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people,
zealous of good works. These things speak and exhort
and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee. Now I know that we're going slow.
We looked at these a few weeks ago, and then we've come back
and been looking at them one verse at a time. So I hope these
aren't being boring. Sometimes a preacher can get
caught up in these things and think, man, we're really doing
something here. And the people are getting nothing
out of it whatsoever. So I hope it's not that way.
I hope at least you're getting something out of these studies
that we've been studying here one verse at a time. It's very
interesting and I think we looked at this one time before how each
of these verses is built, just naturally built one upon another. There's such a graduation you
might call it here. You begin here in verse 11 and
it tells us that the grace of God that brings salvation has
appeared to us. It's shined into our hearts and
what does it do? Well, the very next verse tells
us, it teaches us. It begins to teach us, verse
12, teaching us. The grace of God that bring us
salvation has appeared teaching us. That's where grace begins. It doesn't begin by giving us
some feeling or some emotion. It begins by enlightening our
understanding. It meets the very need that we
have because our mind is in darkness. So He teaches us. And He teaches
us of our need to be saved. He teaches us of our need of
salvation by His grace. And then He says He teaches us
how to think. He teaches us how to live. He
teaches us how to act in this present evil world. In other
words, what our attitude should be as we live in this world. What our attitude should be towards
this world that's contrary to God. denying ungodliness. There's two characteristics of
this world that almost sums up this world. One, it's an ungodly
world. It's opposed to God. It's opposed
to the law of God. It's opposed to the gospel of
God. It's opposed to God. It's a wicked, perverse society. Somebody says, boy, things are
really getting bad. Things have been bad since the
fall, haven't they? It's not going to get bad. It's
already bad. This world is an ungodly world,
and the way you characterize it is that way. It's an ungodly
world. It's wicked. And then worldly
lust, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust, forbidden longings,
unlawful desires, and this world is full of mischief. The church
has complained, if you read the history of the church, Every
century the church has complained about ungodliness and worldly
lust. But it's still around us, isn't
it? Have you ever seen a day in your
life where worldly lust is so rampant? You see it in all of
our media. You see it in the schools, every
place. Worldly lust is rampant. It's
all about lust, isn't it? Fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind. lust of this flesh. That's what
this natural world does. And Paul says here, we deny it. We deny it. The grace of God
teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust. It teaches
us this. In other words, it makes us aware
of it. There was a time when I didn't
think this world was bad. Did you? It was a pretty nice
world to live in. But when grace comes, it makes
us aware. If a person is not aware of the
ungodliness in this world and the worldly lust, and he thinks
all this world needs and all that takes to remedy its problem
is just get your politics right or just get a good education
system and that will fix our problem, If a person thinks that,
then the grace of God is never shined into his heart. Because
when the grace of God shines into our heart, these two things
become evident because God teaches us, this world is ungodly and
it's fulfilling the lust of its flesh. We see that, don't we?
A sinful course of this world, the sinful course of this world
will not be remedied. by this world. It will only be
remedied when Jesus Christ comes again in the last day and there
is a new heaven and a new earth. And it is this teaching, the
reality, that leads us to verse 13. While we live in this ungodly
world and denying it and denying the lust of the flesh and we
seek to live soberly and righteously and godly, what are we looking
for? It leads right into verse 13,
doesn't it? Looking for that blessed hope. So here we've got the grace of
God appearing to us. It's teaching us. It's teaching
us to deny this world and all that's in this world, the ungodliness
and worldly lusts. But the Christian life is not
just about denying. You know, we have some, some
especially in the holiness movement they call them, and it's all
about denying things. You deny this and you deny that
and you deny this other thing. But you know the Christian life
is not just about denying things. Sure it's about denying ungodliness
and worldly lusts. Sure it's about how to live.
But it's more than that, isn't it? It has to do with hope in
a world that's to come. And that's what he tells us here
in verse 13, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious
appearance of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is why a believer, the more
and more he lives in the reality of this hope, the more and more
he'll be separated from this world and its course because
that's what a hope has a tendency to do, isn't it? To separate
you from this world of ungodliness and worldly lust. John said this
in I John 3, he said, Beloved, now are we the sons of God. Right
now are we the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall
be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is. Now that's our hope. That's the
hope that we live in our daily lives. It's got the world behind
it. with its lust and ungodliness,
and it's looking to the future, a world that's to come, being
like Christ. And he said every man that hath
this hope in him purifieth himself. So it has a purifying effect,
this hope does. It's not just about laying everything
aside and denying yourself of everything. We live in this world,
don't we? There's nothing wrong with some
things, but we know there's a time for self-denial. But it's more
than that. It's living in this ungodly world
full of lust with a hope that there's a better world. There's
a better life. There's an eternal life that's
to come that's beyond this life. And of course, this naturally
brings us to verse 14. Why has God's grace appeared
to us to start with? Why is He even teaching us to
begin with? Why are we denying ungodliness
to begin with? Well, here's the answer in verse
14. Christ who gave Himself for us,
that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to Himself
a peculiar people, zaleas of good works. Why are we doing
these things? Why is this grace teaching us
these things? That's His purpose in His redeeming death. That's
what He purposed to do in His death, to send His grace to our
hearts, to teach us, to purify to Himself a peculiar people. The Lord is working and accomplishing
something today. And what's He doing? What's He
doing in your heart? What's He doing in my heart?
What's He doing by His Word with you? What's He doing with you
in His providence? and all the means that He's using
to deal with you on a daily basis. What's He doing? He's working,
isn't He? God is a God who works. And what's
He doing with you? He's purifying you. He's purifying
you. That's the purpose of His death.
not only to redeem us from all iniquity, but to purify to Himself
a people zealous of good works. And this hope is one of the means
He uses to purify us, to separate us from this present evil world. I used to look at my troubles
and my disappointments and my discouragements, I used to look
at it as something that was so unprofitable. I would look at
myself and thought, how unprofitable, what a failure I am, And all
these disappointments on every hand in your family, among your
friends, wherever place there's disappointments, isn't it? and
failure. And I used to look at that and
I thought, boy, this is so disappointing. Life can be so disappointing
and all of these failures and heartbreaks. It's just so disappointing. And I used to look at that and
I thought, you know, this gets me down to think about this.
There's just nothing profitable about all these failures and
losses. But you know, I changed my mind about that. I changed
my mind about that. I have found out for myself that
the way the Lord has brought me through these long dark valleys
and the disappointments in my life and the heartaches in my
life has had a purifying effect on me. Have you noticed that
in your Christian experience? And what it has a tendency to
do is wean us from this world. If a person gets too satisfied
with this world and sort of relaxes and at ease in Zion as the old
prophet used to call it. That's not a good thing, is it?
The good thing is when the Lord deals with us in such a way,
He's weaning us from this world and we're looking and we're desiring
and hoping. That's when we know that God
is working in us, purifying us to accomplish the very end for
which He died. that He might redeem us and purify
to Himself a peculiar people. I want to turn to a couple of
passages, and one of the reasons I want to turn there, Wayne has
quoted these, and I think probably I've memorized them just from
the times he's quoted them, in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Look here what he says in verse
16 through verse 18. And he's speaking here of these
afflictions and there's disappointments in these things, but they're
so profitable. They're so profitable to cause
us to live more in a lively hope. The Lord's not like us. He's
just not like us at all. He's willing to afflict us sore.
He's willing to watch us go for days, weeks, months, and sometimes
years in our utter disappointment. and discouragement about things
to wean us of this world. We see our children in trouble,
and they need to be weaned from some things, but we just don't
have the nerve to do it. We don't have the love, let's
admit it. We just don't have the love that
he has for his children. We take one of the little devices
that they've wore their thumbs out playing on from them for
one day, and we feel awful. What are we doing to that child?
And we can't wean them, can we? He's got a way of weaning us
from this world. And here's one of the ways He
does it. Look in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 16. For which cause
we faint not? All the trouble. But though our
outward man perish, boy, it's getting old, isn't it? It's decaying. Weak. Sick. Yet the inward man,
that never gets old, that'll never wear out. He'll never get
arthritis. He'll never get diseased. He's
not only an inward man, but he's a young man and a lively man. He's renewed day by day. In verse 17, For our light afflictions,
which are but for a moment, worketh for us. Now that's a key word
right there. Worketh for us. a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory. And the Apostle here is not speaking
light of our afflictions. He knows sometimes they bow us
down. But what he is saying, compared
to the eternal glory, they are light. And compared to eternal
glory, they are temporal. They are just temporal things.
And what does this do? Verse 18, While we look not at
the things which are seen, But it is the things which are not
seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things
which are not seen are eternal. And sometimes it is these afflictions,
these disappointments that causes our hope to be more lively within
us. And he goes on in chapter 5.
This is not one of those chapters where they should not have put
a division, but they did. For we know that if our earthly house
of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, and
a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Now you
need to study on that and find out more than your pastor knows.
He knows very little about verse 1. For in this we groan earnestly,
desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.
If so being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that
are in this tabernacle, Ain't that strange that He calls these
bodies tabernacles? They're tents. And the reason
He calls them tents is because what do you do with a tent? You
don't intend to live in it, do you? You camp out in it for a
while. Then you take it down or it falls down. It's just a
tent, a temporary dwelling. If these tents, in these tents,
we groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed
but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
Now He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who
also hath given unto us the earnest of His Spirit. Therefore we are
always confident, knowing that while we are at home in this
body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not
by sight. We are confident, I say, and
willing rather, to be absent from the body and to be present
with the Lord. Burdened. Burdened. I've learned
this, brothers and sisters. If my burdens and my trials in
this world causes me to live more in the exercise of this
hope, then I prefer to live that way. Because as you get older,
as you get older, you get more homesick, don't you? You learn
more about this hope and what it's all about. And then when
afflictions come and trials and disappointments, it's encouraging
to you because it turns your eyes back home. It turns your
eyes back home. Look at another verse, and Wayne's
mentioned this many times in Philippians chapter 3. This is
one of my favorite verses, and it speaks to this hope. These
things you're talking about are hope. Look what he says in Philippians
chapter 3 in verse 20. He tells us here something about
our hope. For our conversation, and that
word means citizenship, our citizenship is in heaven. Now how can he
say that? We were born from heaven, were we not? We were born from
above. And don't the Bible teach that
we're dead and our lives are hid with Christ in God? We are made to sit together in
heavenly places in Christ. There is a true sense in which
our citizenship is in heaven. And when we think of that, that's
where we want to go, is it not? That's the place, you could say,
of our nativity, where we were born again, our conversations
in heaven. Look at this. From whence also
we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We look for Him. "...who shall change our vile
body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body,
according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all
things unto Himself." Our citizenship is in heaven. And I think that's
very telling when we talk about that because it takes such a
fear out of dying Because we are going home in
my Father's house. Who is scared of going home to
his Father's house? We used to sing that old song,
I forgot, This World Is Not My Home. You remember that old song?
We used to sing it, This World Is Not My Home. I am just a passing
through. My treasures are laid up somewhere
beyond the blue. My Savior beckons me from heaven's
open door. And I can't feel at home in this
world anymore. And I think that's what our text
is talking about. Looking, looking for that blessed
hope. It's looking for the appearing
of our Savior to go home. But verse 21 gives us a little
information on it. Maybe we'll get into more detail
on some things about this hope. But notice what he says here
in verse 21 about our Lord Jesus Christ. having a glorious body. And it's a human body. He shall
fashion their body like unto His glorious body. Jesus Christ is in heaven today
and He's in a body. He's in a human body. And it's
a glorious body. The incarnation of the Son of
God that is taking our humanity and dying in that humanity And
being buried and ascending back to heaven in that humanity is
one of the most amazing things in all the world. It's got to
be one of the, probably the number one wonder in the Bible, the
incarnation of the Son of God. The creation of this world, that's
a wonder, isn't that a wonder? Everything was made out of nothing
by the voice of God. Being born again, what a wonder
is that? God in all of His providence
and all the miracles, but I tell you, the Incarnation, the Son
of God assuming our humanity, has got to be one of the wonders
of the whole Bible, the miracle of it all. And He joined Himself
to us and it's obvious that He'll never be separated from us again
because He's there in heaven now in our humanity, in a glorified
humanity. And you know something, if there
was nobody, if there was nobody in heaven but Jesus Christ in
a glorified humanity, the angels would stand amazed at Him. There
is no doubt, the Scripture teaches that they are amazed at Him in
His humanity. They saw Him in His humanity.
They worshipped Him in His humanity. And now He's in heaven and the
angels look upon His glorified humanity. He has glorified humanity. I just can't get over that, can
you? His glorious body. But Jesus Christ is going to
do more than just glorify humanity in Himself. He's going to populate
that world to come with an untold number of humanity just like
Himself in glorified bodies. Listen to this, He shall change
our bowel body and fashion it like unto His glorious body. See that? It's not only Him that's
glorified our humanity. But He's going to glorify a great
number that no man can number. Heaven is going to be populated
with a glorified humanity. That's how much He loves humanity.
That's how much He loved His fallen creature. You know, Adam,
in his innocent state, in his holy state, back there in the
garden before he sinned, you know, he had no hope of being
any more than what he was. And in a sense, he was satisfied
with what he was. He was a perfect man, wasn't
he? He had no sin about it. But he had no hopes of getting
any higher than that. One man said he was on probation,
and after he got off probation, he'd step up higher. The Bible
teaches no such thing. He was the son of God. He was
perfect. And he lived in the garden, and
everything would have been well, but he had advanced no higher
than that. But you know something? Fallen
Adam, sinful Adam, poor Adam, and the sons of Adam, the redeemed
sons of Adam, have the hope now of being glorified and taken
up to heaven. That's the difference between
the first Adam and the second Adam. The first Adam had a soul. He had a body. And He'd never
advance above that natural state. But it's not so in the second
Adam. In the second Adam, we're going to advance. We're going
to be glorified. We're going to be likened unto
the glorious Son of God Himself and His glorified humanity. That's
our hope. Looking for that blessed hope. Jesus Christ is coming again.
in His glorious body. And He is going to change our
vile bodies and fashion it like unto His glorious body. Those Old Testament saints not
only look to the cross, but they look beyond the cross to the
second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that because
they made such statements as this. David said, I shall behold
thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake
in thy likeness." That's what this verse says, isn't it? And
Job said almost the same thing. He said, If a man dies, shall
he live again? All the days of my appointment
will I wait till my change come. What's he talking about? The
Lord changing our vile body. And he said, I'm waiting till
that change comes. And He says, Thou shalt call,
and I will answer thee, and you shall have a desire to the work
of your hands. What is that? He's able to subdue
all things unto Himself. He's able to change the bow body.
And there's something else here in verse 21 concerning our hope,
and this is very, very important. He mentions these things right
here in verse 21. Who shall change our Thou body,
our body. And fashion it like unto His
glorious body. Now why am I emphasizing that?
Our body. Because the body, the human body
that's going to be glorified is the same body we have now.
I had a friend of mine that used to say that when the body dies,
that's it. The body goes back to the dust
and it's decayed and that body will never live again. That's
very, very wrong. I emphasize to him that's very,
very wrong. That's not the scriptural definition
of the resurrection. The resurrection means that the
body you live in now is the body that's going to be raised. It's
not going to be like the body now, but it's going to be the
same body. It's going to be likened to Jesus
Christ, the glorious body. But it will be your body. When He raised, did He raise
in the same body that He suffered in? Well, He did, didn't He? Behold my hands. Behold my feet. It is I. A spirit hath not flesh
and bones, as ye see me have. Put your hand in the prints of
these nails." That was the same body, wasn't it? His glorious body and the body
that the saints will have will be their vile body changed and
glorified. Paul made that statement in 1
Corinthians 15 when he said, this corruptible. must put on
incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. And then he repeats it after
this mortal puts on immortality. And this corruptible will put
on incorruption. Then shall be brought to pass
the same. So see, it is this. When you die, your body goes
back to corruption. Wanda knows more about this than
any of us. She knows what happens to the body. It decays. It corrupts. But this corruptible shall be
raised again. and you are living that's mortal,
your mortal body shall put on immortality. But it will be you. If we say it's another body,
that our bodies are gone and it's going to be a completely
new body that we've never occupied before, that wouldn't appeal
to me. Not like it does when I say my
body. I love myself, don't you? I love
myself. No man ever hated his own self.
My body is a vital part of me, and I don't want to lose it.
And this is the hope that we have, that Jesus Christ, when
He died, He purchased these bodies. Paul talked about the redemption
of the purchased possession. He not only purchased our soul,
our soul's redemption from sin, but you know something? He purchased
these bodies, and He'll have what He purchased. He'll have
these bodies. And when He's finished with them,
though they're vile now, not when He's finished with them,
they'll be glorious. Now they're sinful. But when
He's finished with them, they'll be holy. No sense or stain of
sin whatsoever. That's a good hope, isn't it? Some people think this. And I
think this is what causes them to err in this body, this same
body being raised up again. Some people think that sin has
had such a devastating effect upon our bodies that there's no recovering of
these bodies. The devastation that's come upon them, and it
has been terrible. It has been terrible. Look at
some of our forefathers. Their bodies are no more. They
were burned at the stake. Look how many saints have been
burned at the stake. There's nothing left of them. If they didn't take time to bury
their ashes, they blew away. Many bodies of the saints were
eaten by beasts or boiled in oil. When the Lord comes, what
will be the condition of some of our bodies? Man, we're getting
old. There'll be sick people, weary
with pain. But all of this, let sin affect
the body as it will. And let Satan and the ungodly
affect these bodies in whatever way they will. It will make no
difference when the Lord comes. It won't be a hindrance to Him
in glorifying these bodies and making them new. Well, the body
is gone. Nobody knows where it is. He
knows. He knows where it is. And He can remove all the evil
effects that it has, that sin has had upon it, and bring them
back together. Well, that valley of dry bones,
look what He did to them. They brought them back together
and put them together and put life in them. They stood upon
their feet, a great army. Lastly, and this has been entertained
I think in the thoughts of some men, that the effects upon creation,
for instance, when the Lord comes, a glorious coming. This fly has
been aggravating me to death. One little old devil in here
just to bother me. But it's a glorious appearing. He called it a glorious appearing,
didn't he? And it will be a glorious appearing. But there will be
some things in that appearing that, my goodness, he's coming
with his mighty angels. And he's coming in flaming fire.
to take vengeance on them that know not God. And when He appears,
the Bible says that the elements are going to melt with ferment
heat, and the works of man is going to be burned up, and the
world is going to pass away with this great noise. And somebody
says, how can our humanity survive such a thing? We couldn't in this weak humanity
as we are now, we couldn't survive such a thing. Who could survive
devouring fire? But in that day, the saints,
the glorified bodies of saints will not be affected in any way
by such things. Now it has effects upon us, but
not in that day. You remember when the three Hebrew
children were thrown into the fire furnace and it had no effect
upon them? At the most it burnt the binding
that they had on their feet and their hands, but the smell of
smoke wasn't even on their clothes. How could that be? And they were
still mortal. You remember when Elijah and
Elijah were walking along together? And Elijah had parted the Jordan
River and they went across and he kept trying to separate himself
from Elijah and said, You stay here and I'm going over there.
And he said, No, I'm going with you because I know before this
day is over God is going to take you up to heaven. And they were
walking along together and suddenly this chariot came out of heaven
and these horses. But you remember what kind of
chariot it was? And what element the horses had
taken on? Fire. He was a chariot of fire
and horses of fire and swept down and separated these two
men asunder and didn't neither one of them any harm. And Elijah
stood and watched Elijah go up to heaven in a whirlwind of fire. And it had no effect upon him
whatsoever. That's what the resurrection
will be like. It will be a glorious coming. Mighty angels, flaming
fire, the earth passing away with a great noise. But that
will not affect the saint at all. He won't be subject to any
of the elements like that. There's no need to fear that. It's a sad and devastating and
heartbreaking thing to live in this world without a hope, isn't
it? And the only thing that gives
us hope is the Gospel. You won't find it in any other
religion. You won't find it in any other book. It's the Gospel. It's a Gospel hope. And isn't
it sad? And won't it be a devastating
thing for this world that the God of hope is opposed by this
world? and they hate the only Gospel
that preaches to them this hope. How would you feel tonight if
you lost your hope? How would you feel tonight knowing
what you know now, what God has taught you about this world and
what's coming, and everything that He's taught you? How would
you feel in your heart if suddenly you were without your hope? Oh,
our hearts would break, wouldn't they? Our hearts would break
to be hopeless. So, Lord, wean us. Wean us more
and more. Teach us more and more of this
world and its ungodliness and the lust, and give us grace. Not in a self-righteous way to
deny this and deny that, but it is just because of who we
are. We are born His children, and it is because of this blessed
hope. that we have. Clarence, would you dismiss us?