Titus 2. Let's read again. Beginning in verse 11. Titus
2. Verse 11. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly righteously
and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope
in 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. We've been considering these
two verses, 11 and 12, all of these verses in the last few
months, And last week we looked at verse 11 from the standpoint
of how essential it is to be taught
of God and to be saved of God, to be saved by His grace. And
the change that this saving grace of God brings to us because He
says here in verse 11 that the grace of God that brings salvation
teaches us. And that word means it shines.
It shines into our hearts. And that word is a word that
we're familiar with, isn't it? Because that's what Paul said
about the gospel in another place. He said, God who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts. And
to give the light and the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. So that's what this word here
means. It hath appeared It saves us. The grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared. And that's what you and I have
been studying on. The grace of God brings salvation. It brings
salvation from sin. Ain't it a wonderful thing to
be saved from sin? Just to think about being saved
from every aspect of sin. The penalty of it. The guilt
of it. Oh, we carry the weight of guilt
around in such a burden to be saved from the guilt and the
power of sin. It reigned over us. It was like a king that reigned
and being saved from the love of sin. And what a blessing it
will be someday to be saved from the presence of sin, from the
being of sin of what we are. What a blessing. There's only
one thing the Apostle said here that brings that, and that is
the grace of God. The grace of God. And we looked
and saw that every aspect of salvation is by grace. All the
way from election to glorification is by grace. Grace brings everything
we need with it to be saved. Repentance is necessary to be
saved. Except you repent, you shall
perish. Where do we get repentance? Grace grants repentance. Grace
grants a broken heart. Grace grants faith in Christ.
Grace opens the understanding to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're saved by grace. It brings salvation to us. But this is the only beginning
of that life that we now live and the life that's to come.
The same grace that saves us, the Apostle Paul says here, now
teaches us how to live in this present world. You know, sometimes,
and we're bad for this, well, that may not be the way to say
it, but we're concerned about being saved. We're concerned
about the initial aspect of salvation, about being born again. We dwell
so much about how can I be saved? And how can I be justified? How
can I, being a sinner, be accepted with God? We dwell on that a
lot, don't we? The beginning of salvation with
us. And it's right to begin with
that. We need to be clear on that. A man preached a message
not long ago, and he used that where Paul said, what must I
do to be saved? And he said, the answer to that
question is critical. It's not to believe something.
It's not to believe a doctrine. It's to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall be saved. That's the only way we can be
saved by Christ and be justified by faith in Christ. So it's right
for us to dwell there, isn't it? We must dwell there because
that's the gate. Spurgeon called it the wicked
gate, didn't he? The old Puritans called it that,
the wicked gate, where we get to Christ. But we mustn't stop
there. We have to go on because this
is what verse 12 here is telling us, teaching us. Grace comes
to us and saves us and then the same grace that saves us teaches
us how to live in this present world. It's so important. It's
so important. I made the statement a few weeks
ago that living the Christian life cannot be forced. It just cannot be forced. As
we were looking at these verses, teaching us that denying ungodliness
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously
and godly in this present world, then I made the statement that
you can't force anyone to live a Christian life. It's utterly
impossible. We can't even force ourselves
to live the Christian life. When we're Christians, we can't
force ourselves. And I would go as far as to say
this, God doesn't force us. He never forces us. He subdues,
He wins our will. He enlightens our understanding.
He works in us to will and to do and to live the Christian
life. We're taught everywhere in the
Bible that for a Christian to continue in the faith, And everything
that entails is only done by God's power working in him. The Lord Jesus said, without
me you can do nothing. And yet at the same time, Paul
says, through Christ I can do all things. So without Him we
can do nothing, but with Him we can live out the Christian
life as He tells us here. I want you to look over here
to your right in Hebrews. The book of Hebrews chapter 1.
And here's what I'm talking about. That when we read the Scriptures,
it's so evident that the only way to live the Christian life
is for God to work in us. God's power to work in us. That's
the only way we can live the Christian life. And look here
what He says in Hebrews chapter 1. Look in verse 1. God who at
sundry times, different times, various manners, spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who be in the brightness
of his glory, and the expressed image of his person," and look
at this, "...and upholding all things by the word of his power."
He upholds everything by the word of his power. Now, if we
stop there and just limit that to the things that He's made
naturally, then we'll never see the necessity of the Lord upholding
spiritual things. It's not just the moon and the
stars and the planets that He upholds. It's not just us in
our natural state. Every spiritual aspect of salvation. When He begins the good work
in us, you know He has to uphold that. When He started the work
of creation and finished it, He upholds that. What would happen
to creation if He just let it go? Well, the stars and the planets
would get out of course, wouldn't they? The sun would go dark. The Scripture says that He that
created all things upholds or by Him all things consist. So
when we apply this to the Christian life, what is it or who is it
that upholds us in the Christian life? Who is it that not only
begins faith, but He upholds faith in us? It's Jesus Christ,
isn't it? He that hath begun the good work
must continue to perform it working in us that which is well-pleasing
in His sight. Everywhere we are told these
scriptures like this, Be strong in the Lord, and in the power
of His might. Strengthen with might by His
Spirit in the inner man. Inner man is strengthened by
His might. That's the way we live the Christian
life. The Lord working in us. It's impossible, therefore, to
say the Christian life has to be forced. It cannot be forced. We cannot live the Christian
life except He's working in us to do it, to continue to believe. And yet, having said that and
confirming that from Scripture, we can say this too, that it's
the most natural thing for a Christian to continue to believe and follow
the Lord and hope and resist evil and cleave to that which
is good because that's who He is. That's who God's made Him. That's what He's about. He's
living out what He now is and what God has made Him. It's not
anything forced to live the Christian life. He lives the Christian
life because He's a Christian. That's natural for Him to do
that. It's not forced. When the Lord
made the creatures, He made every creature to live in its proper
element. When He made the fish, where
did He put them? In the water. When He made the
fowls, what did He say? They would fly in the air. When
He made the beast, they would roam the fields. And it would
be unnatural for a fish to come out on land and walk around.
It would be unnatural for a beast to live in the water. They live
according to their nature as God made them. And it's the same
thing with the Christian, isn't it? We live the Christian life
because that's the way He's made us. It's natural for us to deny
ungodliness and worldly lusts. To live soberly and godly in
this present world. It's not forced. We're in our
natural habitat when we do it. God has created us that way. The Lord is working in us, molding
us, forming us in this life to live a happy eternity in His
presence. That's what the Christian life
is. It's looking for and desiring a happy eternity. with a holy,
triune God. And He'll make us fit for that
place. And that molding and shaping
begins here in this lifetime. This is where it begins. Now,
everybody wants to go to heaven. Devils want to go to heaven.
You know they want to go to heaven. But they'll never go there, will
they? People want to go to heaven. Christians want to go to heaven.
They have a desire to go to heaven. It would be strange for anybody
not to have a desire to go to heaven. But this desire begins
in this lifetime. And that desire and that will
is this, to deny ungodliness and worldly lust and to live
soberly and righteously in this present world. It starts here. That's why I'm going to say it.
And if a man is not happy living here, the Christian life, he
wouldn't be happy in heaven. It begins here. Some people say,
I just can't live a Christian life. Then you can't go to heaven. Bruce, it's awful. I just hate
the Christian life. Then you'd hate heaven. You'd
hate heaven. That's the meaning of this word
here that we looked at last week, son, teaching. The grace of God
that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching
us that denying unto Godliness and worldly lusts we shall live
soberly and righteously and godly in this present world. And this
word teaching means to train, to educate, to discipline, to
mold, to fashion. Now all of us have had, remember,
teachers in school. They had their blackboards, their
chalkboards, and they'd teach us. They taught us by writing
on that chalkboard. They would put down a math problem
and they would show us how to work it out and do it or they'd
put a sentence, write a sentence up there and diagram it for us
or write someone's historical names and tell us when they were
born and what they did and all of that. They were teaching us
by those means. But this word here, The grace
of God that brings salvation, teaching us, it goes deeper than
that. It goes much deeper than just
someone standing before you and trying to get something in your
heart or get you to understand something in your mind. The Lord's
teaching is Him riding upon the heart. It's Him riding upon the
heart. I want you to look at this over
here in Hebrews chapter 8. Right on over in the 8th chapter
of the book of Hebrews. Look in Hebrews chapter 8. The
Lord takes these gracious principles, these holy principles, and He
writes them upon the tables of our heart. He doesn't write them
on a chalkboard. When He teaches us, He literally
writes them on our hearts. He gives us a new heart and then
He teaches us. And look here how the Apostle
says it in verse 9, Hebrews chapter 8, and look in verse 9. Here
he's talking about a new covenant. The old covenant has been taken
away. They continue not in that old covenant, so God disregarded
them. And he says in verse 9, this
new covenant is not according to the old covenant. not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when
I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt,
because they continue not in my covenant, and I regarded them
not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind and write them
in their hearts. And I will be to them a God,
and they shall be to me a people." When Jeremiah printed this down,
he said, I will put my law in their inward parts. I'll write
my laws upon their hearts. So how does the Lord teach us?
He doesn't teach us by writing before our physical eyes. teaching
us principles, but He puts these principles in our heart. That's
what this means when He writes it upon our heart. He puts it
there in our hearts. Holy and gracious principle. God loves to write, I guess,
because you find so many places in the Scripture where He writes. He's just always writing, you
see, in the Scripture. He took His finger and wrote
the moral law, the Ten Commandments. Remember that on stone? He wrote
a note to Belshazzar. He saw the hand of the Lord,
your weight in the balance, and found warmth. The Lord Jesus
stooped down when He was here and wrote on the ground with
His finger. We don't know what He wrote, but He wrote something
that sent those guys out with convicted conscience. And you
know, the Bible even says He's written down in the Book of Life
the names of all His people. Those apostles came to the Lord
Jesus, those 70, rejoicing that the spirits were subject to Him.
And He said, don't rejoice because of that, but rejoice because
your names are written in heaven. Who wrote those? It must have
been God who wrote them down. He's a God who writes, isn't
He? And He writes upon the heart of the person He saved. He makes
them new creatures. And then He teaches them. They
become teachable then. Look at another place that talks
about His writing. Look over in 2 Corinthians chapter
3. This is what I'm trying to say
here. Look in 2 Corinthians chapter
3. And look in verses 1 through 3. I'm saying that when He says
here, the grace of God teaches us these things, teaches us how
to live the Christian life, He means more that He's just telling
us things. It means more than just the teaching
as you and I know it. It means God is farming our hearts.
He's molding our hearts. He's put in the desire there.
He's put in the understanding there, the grace there. Look
what He says in 2 Corinthians 3, in verse 1. Do we begin again
to commend ourselves, or need we, as other epistles of commendation
to you, or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle,
written in our hearts, known and read of all men, forasmuch
as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ,
ministered by us, look at this, written not with ink, it's not
like we're studying a book, but with the Spirit of the living
God, not in tables of stone, like the law was written, but
in fleshly tables of the heart." God is teaching us, but He's
not writing on a blackboard, a chalkboard, but He's writing
on our hearts. And when He puts that there,
He's really taught us. He's really taught us. And with
the understanding of how to live and serve Him comes the desire.
He molds us and shapes us. And that's what this word means
when He says, teaching us. teaching us that denying ungodliness
and worldly lust. So when I say the Christian life
cannot be forced, it cannot be. It cannot be. But when I say
it cannot be forced, I'm not saying it's easy. And I'm not
saying it's never a struggle. It would be wrong to say that.
There's a difference, isn't there? I remember when Wayne was teaching
through the book of Romans chapter 7, he was talking about the warfare
that's going on within our heart. And when I would do good, evil
is present with me. And I remember you referred to
the little Shulamite woman, Solomon's lover in Songs of Solomon, that
talked about when you look at the little Shulamite, what do
you see? You see a company of two armies. There's two armies. And they're warring with each
other. And that's a struggle. Struggle is going on inside your
heart if you're a believer. Good and evil. Faith and unbelief. Holiness and wickedness. Evil
is going on there. It's sort of like Rebecca when
she was with child and she had twins and the kids were struggling
within her. And she went to the Lord and
she said, Lord, what's going on? He said, there's two manner
of people in you. There's two manner of people
in you. And that's what the believer finds within himself, doesn't
he? There's two manner of people within him. I didn't know that
when the Lord first saved me. I've told you so many times,
I was ignorant. All of us, I guess, are ignorant,
especially if we haven't been taught. But when I was awakened
to see that, it brought all kinds of emotion in me of fear and
regret and everything. I thought I was finished with
sin. I had no idea my struggle with it had just begun. It was
a struggle. And the Christian life is a struggle,
isn't it? The Apostle Paul referred to
it as a pressing. I pressed. That shows some opposition
there that has to be pressed against. I pressed towards the
mark. The flesh lusteth against the
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And he talks about
fighting the good fight of faith, and running with patience. And
the Bible talks about cleaving to the Lord with purpose of heart,
and watching against sin and Satan, and laboring and persevering
in prayer, and enduring hardness as a good soldier. He talks about
all of these things. The Christian life is tough sometimes,
isn't it? I tell you, it's an enduring
way. Enduring hardness, a good soldier of Jesus Christ. This
is why we'll go on here next week to verse 13 here in our
text. And this is why you see these
verses located where they are. When he went on here to say in
verse 13, looking for that blessed hope. Looking for that blessed
hope. The Christian life, while it
can't be forced, is yet often a struggle. It's often enduring,
and waiting, and hoping, and seeking. But the reason for that
is found in verse 13. Looking for, while we're living
this life, denying ungodliness is worldly lust, and embracing
the positive things in the Christian life, we're looking. And living
the Christian life encourages us to look. After a while, we
have to keep looking or it will get so discouraging, will it
not? And you'll get tired. You'll get weary. The Christian life would still
have a burdensome aspect to it if we could shut ourselves up
from this present evil world. How much more then, when we're
living in this world, in the midst of a crooked and perverse
nation, and how much more when we're living in these weak and
frail bodies. And the Bible teaches us that
God does this on purpose. He causes us to groan on purpose. He so works in our hearts and
our lives and makes us face these oppositions that We long for this good hope. We long for
this blessed hope. If you're in the agony of a long,
dark night, don't you long for the day to break? The soldiers,
you've read about the soldiers on guard, it's dangerous and
it's dark and they hear things out there and they long for the
sun to rise. That's what living the Christian
life is. Even though it's not forced,
it's difficult sometimes. And it's supposed to be. We're
pilgrims and strangers here, aren't we? We're supposed to
be. And this world is not our home. Heaven is our home. And if you get too satisfied
here, and if it gets too easy here, here's what happens. All
of us have noticed this within ourselves. You quit looking.
You quit looking. This word looking is more than
just me looking and seeing you. It has to do with intensity.
It has to do with being anxious. It has to do with desire. Have
you ever been expecting company? Somebody you really were waiting
for? And you could not keep from sitting
at the window, going and pulling the curtains back, And when you
went in the kitchen and went in the living room and sat down,
it was still there. You're waiting. You're waiting
for somebody you love. And that's what this looking
is all about. But if we get preoccupied, as the Scripture tells us to
be careful not to do, then we're not so much looking. I was out
west preaching for a church out there. I knew this couple for
a while. They had a beautiful ranch. I
mean, it was a beautiful place, several thousand acre ranch.
And they sold that and bought another ranch. And I knew they
had quit coming to church very much. They had bought this ranch
a little farther away and they weren't coming. And when I went
out there to preach, they came and they had this whole stack
of photographs of the ranch. And I've never in my life seen
such a place. It had a huge guest house on
it. You'd love to live in the guest house. And there was a
huge lake and several, I don't know how many acres, but there
was elk out in their yards and field, wild elk. But they kept
on and on showing all of these pictures and that's all they
talked about before service. And they walked away and their
pastor walked up to me and said, boy, it'd be hard to leave all
that and go to heaven, wouldn't it? I knew what he meant. Are
they looking? Are they looking? The Christian life is to be lived,
not shut away in a monastery. We don't shut ourselves away
from the world. The Christian life is lived in
the midst of this ungodly, wicked world. That's where we live our
lives. We try sometimes to go to the grocery store and get
back home as quick as we can because we know what's out there,
don't we? But we don't hide out. The Lord
Jesus never said, Father, keep them out of the world. Just keep
them from the evil as they live their lives in this world. It's
supposed to be difficult. It's supposed to be trying. Because
that just works in us. To look and to hope and desire
a better life. And it's not just heaven. It's more than that, isn't it? We'll love heaven. But we'll
love heaven because who's there? The saints are there. And never
say goodbye to them again. Never make a basket and send
them on their way somewhere. And it's because of our Savior
that's there. And isn't it snot? It's just
snot. Even a new body. Will there be no more sorrow
and tears and death and suffering? But it's seeing Him. It's being
with Him. We love Him, don't we? We love
Him. And we say with John sometimes,
in the midst of our heartaches and sorrows, Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. And we're looking
for Him. And one more Scripture I want
to read, and then we'll get into this verse next week, the Lord's
Will. Now look over in Philippians. I like the way the Apostle Paul
says it here in Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. And look what he says in verse
20. Philippians 3 and verse 20. Our
conversation. Our citizenship is in heaven. That's where the grace of God
came from that saved us. It came down from heaven. From
whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 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. That's the blessed hope that
we're looking for. And that's what we'll look at
next week, the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our
God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Wayne, would you dismiss us,
please?