Speaker: Greg Sanders

Passage 2:11-15

TITUS 2:11-15

We got about fifteen minutes or so left, and I’m just going to take us into the Scriptures. If you have your Bible, let’s go to Titus 2. 

Pastor Dustin shared a teaching last week about the difference between grace and mercy, and how sometimes we conflate those two ideas. And the real difference is that mercy deals with our histories and our sins and our pasts. And it was given to really deal with our patterns of brokenness. 

But grace is a propulsion that’s given. It’s the supernatural authority of Heaven to live forward. I think that’s an incredible  difference for us to understand, that the mercy of God I’m grateful for because it dealt with my history, but the grace of God I’m in desperate need for to live towards the future, to live in the Kingdom. 

And so, Pastor Dustin was teaching that, and we read Titus 2, verses 11-15, and this phrase, “For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people.” I was sitting here in the front row listening to him teach, and I just got hung up on that phrase.

I was planning on going to chapter 3 this week, and I could not shake this statement: “For the grace of God has been revealed.” Because instantly in my mind, what was happening was this question of, when was it revealed? How was it revealed? What is this grace of God? 

And I started to process it, and I realized something: Paul’s doing something for Titus, and he’s doing something for the church in Crete. He’s trying to aim their eyes on the right thing. And I love this phrase, “For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people.” In other words, salvation has already been presented. Now, we have to live into it. 

THE NATURE OF CHRIST

And so, if we ask those questions: when was the grace of God revealed? What is the grace of God? How was it revealed? We come to a conclusion: if we study the rest of Scripture in Romans 13, Paul will talk about this thing called the nature of Jesus Christ. 

Here’s what I felt like the Lord whispered to me all week long: I am the grace of God. Jesus is the grace of God. The life of Christ revealed is the grace of God. 

What do I mean by that? Jesus Christ, His life and His person is the living revelation of the grace of God. So, the power of God for life. For you and I, the power of God for life. In other words, how we’re going to live, how we’re going to make it, how we’re going to succeed, was revealed in the life and pattern of Jesus. 

So, the grace of God for us is putting on the life of Christ and mirroring the life of Christ, we’re learning to live like Him, act like Him, be like Him. Sometimes, I think we assume the life of Jesus was just for salvation through His death and resurrection. 

Yes, His life dealt with our sin, but His life, church, is to become our continued salvation by learning how to live like He lived. We’re patterning ourselves after Him. We’re invited to pick up His life and live it, not just to observe it. 

So, Paul will say the grace of God has been revealed, and I think he’s just aiming our attention at Jesus, saying, Look how to live, this life has already been shown to you. It’s Him. It’s the man Jesus Christ. Grab onto Him, take Him, put Him on, act like Him, talk like Him, hold attitudes like Him. 

And then Paul will step into a teaching. He says we were instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. And sometimes we say this word– godless living– and we instantly think of all the big stuff, the really ugly sin. 

But the truth about godless living is, godless living is simply a life pattern that’s not of God or not in alignment with Him. So, godless living can be our attitudes, can be our perspectives, it can be our beliefs, for sure it’s behaviors, but godless living really encompasses anything that doesn’t align with Him– His values, His ethics, His purpose. 

And I would offer that a lot of times, as believers, we make a tremendous amount of space in our lives for attitudes that don’t line up with the Lord, for beliefs that don’t line up with the Lord, for perspectives that don’t line up with the Lord. And Paul says we’ve actually been instructed to turn away from those. 

The word holiness really refers to this concept of the restoration of God-mindedness in His people. God-mindedness, meaning all of us are supposed to be like Christ, think like Christ. That includes our attitudes, all of it. 

Philippians 2 says have this attitude in you that was in Christ Jesus. Paul doesn’t say, Hey, here’s a thought you might want to consider: the attitude of Jesus. He says, Have this attitude in you, which means not only are my behaviors subject to the life of Christ, my attitudes, my perspectives, my beliefs, my communication, all of it. 

So, to accomplish that, Paul wants to teach Titus, here’s some things I want you to give your people now. At the end of this, in verse 15, he says, If they disagree with you, don’t let them. He says, “For the grace of God has been revealed bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world–” or you can put the word age in there because that’s really what it means– “with self-control, right conduct, and devotion to God while we look forward to the wonderful event when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us and to make us his very own people who are totally committed to doing what is right. You must teach these things and encourage your people to do them, correcting them when necessary. You have the authority to do this, so don’t let anyone ignore you or disregard what you say.” 

So, Paul’s pretty strong. He’s like, Hey, I don’t care if they argue or not. Tell them this is right. Why? I would love to offer that everything given in Scripture is actually for our benefit. It’s given because we have a Father who loves us and wants what’s good, pleasing, and perfect for us. 

And so, He will admonish us away from every place that erodes that. He’s not the fun police trying to make sure we don’t have any fun. His goal is to keep us from life patterns that bring destruction. 

So, what Paul says is, Let me show you how to live this. Let me show you what it looks like to step into this life that He calls us to, which is the life of turning away from godless living and sinful pleasures. Let me show you how to do that. 

SELF-CONTROL

The first thing Paul says is we should live in this evil world with self-control. I’m just going to break it into four steps because that’s what Paul does. The first step is control yourself. Doesn’t that seem obvious? Control yourself. 

How many have paid attention to the therapeutic world or the counseling world? They talk about self a lot. Anybody notice that they talk about your true self? Well, the Scriptures talk about your self, but in self-talk in the Scriptures, it comprises your appetites, your attitudes, your perspectives, and your behaviors. 

And Paul teaches that you and I are responsible before the Lord for ourself. We have to be ready to give an account for our willingness and our ability to control ourselves, according to what Jesus says. 

So, historically, Paul’s dealing with the people in Crete who were pretty sensual, they were somewhat known around the world for their appetites, for their debauchery, for their sin patterns. 

So, what does it mean for you and I to live with self-control? Give you two things. Number one: it means we are not willing to allow ourselves to be controlled by impulse or desire. I want you to consider that for you to live with self-control in the Kingdom, you have to be willing to say, I am not going to be controlled by impulse or desire. 

What’s an impulse? It’s a reaction. It’s a sense of how I want to manage myself right at this moment. It’s a desire. It’s an appetite. 

The second thing is, it means that I’m not willing to be controlled by my emotions or my passions. While those are things the Lord has given me, emotions and passions, wonderful servants, terrible masters. 

Jesus will teach it this way: as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. What Jesus is dialing into is the root of self in our heart and in our mind. I would say that living with self-control is rooted in learning to manage our minds and our thought life. 

So, how do we do that? How do we manage our minds and our thought life? Well, Paul will teach to take every thought captive and bring them into obedience to Jesus Christ. For us, that just simply means we can think it, but we are not allowed to put it into action, to let it cement into belief, or to build our lives until we’ve run it through the grid of Jesus. 

You and I, as believers, are not allowed to just think it and bring it into existence. We are to take it captive and ask this question. I want you to picture, just close your eyes for a second, just picture a stream, and thoughts are just kind of in the stream, like little boats rolling by. 

You’re not allowed to let them just roll by. You’re supposed to pull them into the harbor and inspect them and ask the question: does this align with Jesus? Is this going to lead me into Godliness? And if the answer is no, you reject it, and you say, Go away, little boat. You’re not allowed. And when we do this, we are putting control on ourself through Christ. 

THE ANTIDOTE TO ENTITLEMENT

How many remember Galatians 2, I am crucified with Christ, yet I live? It’s one of my favorite verses in Scripture. The secret to the crucified life is self-control. Why? Because, church, self-control is the antidote to entitlement. 

Entitlement teaches us that our response patterns and reactions are right and justified because we feel them. Is that not the language of the world that we live in? How dare you ask me to shut down what I feel. I will not suppress that. It’s mine, and I have a right to it.

That’s not what the Scriptures teach at all, because self-control in the Scriptures calls us to assess the accuracy or rightness of those reactions and responses in light of Godliness and Jesus Christ, and that we are encouraged to kill them as necessary. “I am crucified with Christ,” is this really beautiful, poetic verse. But if we really think about it, it’s kind of visceral. I am invited by the Lord to put to death anything that’s not of Him. 

Let me tell you a really bad story about myself. I shot a bunny once. We were at a small group, bunch of guys, a .22, and they’re like, Come on, shoot it. I felt so bad because the thought of killing a bunny and the reality of killing a bunny felt very different. Putting something to death made me feel awful. I felt tragic.

Okay, so think about this: putting your sin nature to death is going to be a lot more difficult than you think, it’s going to require a lot more discipline than you think, and it’s going to hurt a lot more than you think, but that’s the call. 

I would offer that the secret to this life is rooted in the Scriptures. How do I know that? Luke 4, we don’t have time to read it, I just want to take us there, and I’m going to walk us through it. Luke 4, Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. In order for Him to be tempted, it means what was in the temptation had to be in Him as a desire. It had to be things He wanted. 

Now, if that screws up your theology, I want to help you work through your theology. He was fully man and fully God. For Him to be able to atone for our sin nature, He had to have one and subdue it. He had to have an ability to want sin and say no to it supernaturally. That’s the narrative of the Scriptures. 

So, He’s led into the wilderness and He’s challenged and tempted on multiple fronts, and He wanted those. And if we remove the fact that He wanted those from that narrative, it kind of removes any hope for us because then we come to a conclusion: the only reason Jesus was able to supersede these temptations is because He actually was just pure and holy and was perfect and didn’t have a sin nature like you and me. 

I don’t know about you, but that would make me very sad. On the contrary, if the truth is He was wired just like we were, and yet had a supernatural ability from the Lord, because of His love for the Father and His discipline, to transcend that, then we can start looking at how He did it. 

How did He transcend that temptation? So, think about every time He’s tempted, what does He respond with? What is the first phrase He says? It is written. It is written. He overcame the emotion and desire for those things by using Scripture to anchor His decisions. And Jesus’s pattern and process of allowing the Scriptures complete authority over His emotions and feelings is now ours, for the grace of God has been revealed. 

What’s been revealed is the man, Jesus Christ, who teaches us what it looks like to overcome our attitudes and our desires by saying, You know what? The Scriptures tell me I can’t do that. Scriptures tell me I can’t feel that. Scriptures tell me I can’t say that. It’s written. It didn’t matter what Jesus thought about something. What mattered to Him was what the Scriptures said about it. 

RIGHT CONDUCT AND WRONG CONDUCT

Paul will go on and say we should live in this evil world. I want to highlight that just for a second. Isn’t it interesting that Paul doesn’t say, escape the world, get as far away from those people as you can? He says we should live in this evil world. It’s kind of like this marching order of, go out there and be with them, but do it the right way. 

You should live in this evil world with self-control and right conduct. This word, right conduct, here’s what I’d love to offer, just a simple, simple, not rocket science idea: in order for there to be a concept called right conduct, there has to be the reality of something called wrong conduct. 

We live in a world right now where one of the common things that is pushed upon us is whatever I feel and want is okay. I’m just going to tell you Scripturally, there are right and there are wrong conducts, and it is okay as believers to say, That’s wrong. I can’t do that. 

Aren’t I shutting myself down? No, you’re choosing Christ. Aren’t I stuffing my desires? Yes, you’re stuffing them into a hole to kill them because you’re told to crucify those desires. Any life choice, whether that’s a behavior, an attitude, or a belief that is not in alignment with the Scriptures, church, is wrong conduct. Therefore, right behavior begins with a submission to the authority of Jesus. It begins with a personal decision to allow His voice full government over what I do. 

I think there’s three areas that this will touch most commonly for all of us: our personal relationships, which really deals with how we handle and love others. That there are right and wrong conducts that the Scripture teaches, you and I are not allowed to hate, we’re not allowed to act out towards others. We’re not allowed to sin in our anger. You can be angry with somebody, but you’re not allowed to sin, which means even though you’re mad, you still got to be kind and loving. 

Those are things the Scriptures teach us, our responses to authority, like how we walk in honor towards others around us. And I would offer that once you really start digging into authority and the Scripture, you start realizing, like, it’s kind of everywhere. 

And I’m taught by the Lord to submit in all things, just to be easy-going, easy to lead as a person, and I think it deals with our pursuits and our pleasures, which expressly deals with how we manage our appetites. 

And Paul says we are to choose right conduct, which means we are to lean into the Scriptures and let them lead us and guide us. I would offer a simple thought for you before you act on it, before you feel it, before you think it: go to the Scriptures and find out what it says about it. 

The third step, Paul will say, is we should live in this evil world with self-control, right conduct, and devotion to God. I love the phrase devotion. It’s all over the Book of Acts. In Chapter 2, it says that they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship. This idea of devotion is to give yourself fully to something and make it your focus. 

And I want to land this here because Paul seems to be building a foundational concept for the Cretans. He’s given Titus something to teach them: they are to put on the mind and nature of Christ, and then they are to make the rest of their life about connecting with the Lord in relationship. 

ENCOUNTERS WITH GOD

This third step of devotion to God, I would say it this way: the third step is protect your encounter with God. Protect your encounter with God. How? How do I do that? The first step is really simple. You have to prioritize an encounter with God. You have to make time with Him a priority. 

I will offer that time with Him shapes you and changes you. Any of you that have spent a significant amount of time with the Lord realize immediately, I need to spend more time with Him. And then any of you have spent time with the Lord, and then let it dissipate and quit, realize Oh, I was a better person when I hung out with Him. It shapes and it changes us to prioritize an encounter with the Lord. It has to be habitual. 

Psalm 91 says, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.” The word “he who dwells” is the idea of one who systematically goes someplace on the regular. It’s a systematic idea. It has to be habitual. 

In other words, you have to set time aside and be consistent. Church, if you’re alone time with Jesus is something you have to work to fit in, you won’t. So, you prioritize an encounter. That’s the first step in protecting your connection with Him. 

The second step is to realize the power of personal rhythm. What do I mean by that? The power of personal rhythm. How many have ever heard the phrase creatures of habit? We, by nature, are very habitual people. All of you that are married, ladies, tell me, if you give your husband the option, will he not choose one of three restaurants, and you already know what he’s going to order? We’re creatures of habit. We have to put aside this idea of a casual encounter. 

I really want to call something out, and hopefully, we just shut it off. You know, I listen to the Bible, or I throw worship on. That’s how I hang out with the Lord. That is not hanging out with the Lord. It’s good, it’s wonderful, it’s a great addition to your life. But I’m talking about building a one-on-one personal encounter with Jesus. I’m talking about digging in and actually setting aside time with Him. 

If we look at Genesis, it says, in the cool of the day, the Lord would come and meet with them every day. There was this rhythmic pattern. He would show up every day. What I believe is that is to become the type and shadow where we understand that for the rest of our lives, what He’s hoping for is we have a systematic set aside time that we hang out with Him. 

And I would say the third thing: if you want to protect your encounter with God, plan your life around your encounter. Don’t plan your encounter around your life. Which one gets the ordinal? Treat it like a job. Pick a location where you’ll meet with Him. Show up, be regular, protect it. 

You’re like, I don’t know how to do that. Start, give five minutes. Set five minutes aside. I don’t care what time it is. I don’t care if it’s 6 am. I don’t care if it’s 8 am, if it’s 10 am, you should go to bed earlier, but pick a time to sit with the Lord, and say, I’m going to show up and be with You every day. Well, that’s not enough. I agree. But I also agree that starting a habit is how you develop a habit. We have to learn to prioritize and protect our encounter. 

KEEPING OUR EYES ON THE ENDGAME

And Paul will end it this way: he says we should live in this evil world with self-control, right conduct, and devotion to God while we look forward to that wonderful, wonderful event when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. 

Paul’s simple statement is, Guys, you’re going to live this way with your eyes on eternity. You’re going to think about the endgame. That’s what’s going to keep you going. Why? Because you, like me, want to stand before the Lord some day and say, I gave everything for You because You gave everything for me. None of us want to stand before Him and go, Oh man, this incredible God who’s full of grace and mercy, and I really couldn’t discipline myself to give my life for Him. 

So, he says, the secret to living this is to keep your eyes on the endgame. What’s that mean? It means you’re going to have to fight against every desire to get chewed up in the world around you. You have to keep going. 

No, no, that’s not my focus. Well, you don’t know what my marriage is like. You know what I do know? That you’re going to stand before the Lord and give an account, so think about that before you think about how bad it is. 

You don’t know what my job’s like. I do know you’re gonna stand before the Lord and give an account for it. So, think about that before you think about how bad it is, that you and I don’t have the right to live temporal. We got to live eternal, with our eyes on the long game. Jesus, I’m going to stand before You, and then in that time, I want to be able to say to You, I gave You everything I had. 

Stand with me, please. Not going to lie, landed that plane a little faster than I wanted to because we’re out of time. For the grace of God has been revealed, it’s us grabbing on to the nature of Jesus Christ, and we do that through self-control. We do it through right conduct. We do it through devotion to put on the nature of Jesus. 

Yeah, I screw up a lot. It’s okay. It’s just not okay to continue, and it’s not okay to call it okay. I think there’s tremendous mercy for the people of God when we fail in the nature of Christ, and we say, You know what? That wasn’t Christ-like, forgive me. 

How many would agree if someone said to you, Would you please forgive me, that wasn’t very Christ-like. I stepped out of character. It’s pretty easy to go, Okay, let’s move on? But when somebody’s like, I don’t know what you’re talking about, you’re like, Okay, you go away. 

Put on the nature of Christ because it’s been revealed to us. And all of us have the nature to look at. We have the man, Jesus Christ, to see, to itemize, to identify, and Paul’s statement is, put Him on, act like Him, be like Him. 

Jesus, we love You, we honor You. Lord, what a clarion call for us to let go of every excuse and to put on Your nature. To put aside every place where we’re not self-controlled, to put aside every place where we’re in wrong conduct, and to reassess our devotion. 

Lord, I love the Scriptures. I love how clear they are. I love the call to us. May Your face shine upon us today. In Jesus’ name, amen.