Changed By Grace

Introduction:

As we continue with our worship of the Lord this morning, I want to invite you to open your Bibles to Titus chapter 2. Since I was not here last week, we are going to move rather quickly this morning as we look at all of Chapter 2. I know that it will be a lot, but I think that we can get through it…and to be honest, I think that there is a great benefit from seeing this whole chapter together because there is an overarching point that is being made.

So, as we get ready to dive into the Word this morning, let us prepare our hearts to receive this Word. Let us go to the Lord in prayer.

Let’s pray together.

I think that we would all agree that there should be a noticeable difference in the way those who claim to follow Christ and the rest of the world live life. Someone should be able to look at my life and the life of my neighbor, who does not know Christ, and see that there is a difference in our priorities, there is a difference in the way we spend time, there is a difference in the way we handle our families, there is a difference in the way we work, there is a difference in the way we approach life, right?

Now, does that mean that my neighbor is an awful person while I am not? No! That is not what I am saying at all. We are not trying to say that Christians are better than everyone else in the rest of the world....although that is often how the outside world feels about Christians.

Those who do not belong to Christ, often have this misconception about those who follow Christ by saying that they are judgmental or hypocritical. Is that true? Sure. That is true, well at least from those who claim to follow Christ but do not really know Him. A Christian, one who has given their life to Christ and surrendered to Him, will live differently than the rest of the world. Their goal in life is to represent Christ and His ways in the World. Christians are to live with this awareness that what they are doing and how they are living life are a reflection of what Christ wants them to do.

This is what we see in Scripture. This is actually what we are going to see in this text this morning as we walk through Chapter 2.

Body:

Before we read through this chapter, remember what is going on here. Paul is writing to Titus to help him address some issues in the churches at Crete. The local church there, or churches, were left in a state of undoneness and Titus is to set everything right. He is helping establish order. And part of his helping establish order is a reminder of what the Gospel has called those who follow Christ to.

Let’s read through this text together.

But you are to proclaim things consistent with sound teaching. 2 Older men are to be self-controlled, worthy of respect, sensible, and sound in faith, love, and endurance. 3 In the same way, older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not slaves to excessive drinking. They are to teach what is good, 4 so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and to love their children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, workers at home, kind, and in submission to their husbands, so that God’s word will not be slandered. 6 In the same way, encourage the young men to be self-controlled 7 in everything. Make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching. 8 Your message is to be sound beyond reproach, so that any opponent will be ashamed, because he doesn’t have anything bad to say about us. 9 Slaves are to submit to their masters in everything, and to be well-pleasing, not talking back 10 or stealing, but demonstrating utter faithfulness, so that they may adorn the teaching of God our Savior in everything. 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 14 He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession, eager to do good works. 15 Proclaim these things; encourage and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

As we think about this text this morning, here is the overarching point I want you to see this morning.

Main Point: We Are Changed By Grace

Do not lose sight of this point because it is the thing that holds all of this text together. Everything that we are going to talk about revolves around this one idea. If Christ had not done the hard work by changing your heart and changed the inside of your, then everything else is just behavioral modification.

This text is not about 10 ways to be a better person, although it is going to talk about distinct roles in which we are to play and how that affects life....that is not the primary point.

The primary point is that Christ has done a work inside of those people who have given their lives to Him....therefore they should be living differently....not because they are better or have life figured out....but because Christ has changed them! This is good news. This is where we have to start and end every week. We Start with the Gospel and we End with the Gospel, because if we do not have Christ....then we have nothing. And this Gospel does not just give us eternal life after we die, the Gospel changes how we live life in there here and now…and our lives should reflect that change so that we can be witnesses to the Grace of Christ. This is what we are seeing here in this text this morning.

So, as we think about the grace of God in Christ and the affects it has on our lives, I want us to focus on a few sub points that need to be made.

Our Teaching Should Be Sound.

We see this mentioned in both verse 1 & 15. “But you are to proclaim things consistent with sound teaching” (Titus 2:1) & “Proclaim these things; encourage and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. “(Titus 2:15).

These two verses act as book ends to this chapter. It begins with this idea of proclaiming, or teaching/preaching, messages that are consistent with sound teaching and it ends with a reminder that Titus is to be encouraging and rebuking with authority.

This is important for us because this is a reminder that our faith is not based on our feelings about a situation. The Church is not a group of people who get to make up all of the rules on what is going to be followed and what is not! This is why Christianity cannot change with the times! Our faith is based on a written document! Our faith is based on God’s revelation. Our faith in based on the Bible. We are not making this stuff up.

Our goal inside of the church should be to align ourselves to the Word of God. We read what this book says....and then we try our best to put that into practice. That is it. If what we are doing is not aligned with this book…then we MUST put an end to it!

But not only should we strive to have a church that is built on sound teaching....as important as that it for sure....look at where Paul turns next in this discussion because he does not focus on the church....he focuses on the home.

Our Homes Should Be Based On Sound Teaching.

This sounds strange to our ears....but for them…and really it should be for us too..the home was the most important institution of society. You have heard it said.... “Strong Families make strong communities.” Everyone seems to get that…both secular and religious people. If a community is going to be strong....then the family must be strong…the problem comes when we do not know what makes a family strong. What does this look like?

Thankfully we do not have to guess…because God is the one who designed the family to be the backbone of society. He is the one who instituted a man and a woman coming together to form a family. It is from there that every other institution is made.

And what we have when it comes to the church is that is it an extension of the family. The church, in many ways, is comparable to that of a family....and we see that as we look at verses 2-11. This is what a strong family is like....look at these verses with me again.

2 Older men are to be self-controlled, worthy of respect, sensible, and sound in faith, love, and endurance. 3 In the same way, older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not slaves to excessive drinking. They are to teach what is good, 4 so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and to love their children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, workers at home, kind, and in submission to their husbands, so that God’s word will not be slandered. 6 In the same way, encourage the young men to be self-controlled 7 in everything. Make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching. 8 Your message is to be sound beyond reproach, so that any opponent will be ashamed, because he doesn’t have anything bad to say about us. 9 Slaves are to submit to their masters in everything, and to be well-pleasing, not talking back 10 or stealing, but demonstrating utter faithfulness, so that they may adorn the teaching of God our Savior in everything. (Titus 2:2-11).

I wish that we had the time this morning to work through each of these sections, but I do not think that they are that difficult for us to understand.What we see here is Paul address 5 major groups in a typical household…and he is going to address them each in turn.

Older men

Older women

Younger women

Younger men

Household slaves

What is so interesting here about these different groups is how they are all interconnected. Does each one have their own role? Yes. We see that. God does not address them all the same way…and that is ok. Men and women are equal is God’s eyes. but that does not mean that we are the same. We each have different roles to play. We have complementary roles in the family and in the church… meaning that we need each other. One is not more important than the other. If we are going to be strong…then we each have to do our role.

Oldermen are to lead by being self controlled worth of respect, sensible, and sound in faith, love and endurance. They are to be Godly leaders in the the home. They are to be present bodies in the home. They are not sitting back just waiting to be waited on hand and foot. We do not get a lazy picture of men from the Bible. There is not… “Go make me a sandwich” man in the scriptures....well at least not one who is godly. That is not what we see here. They are to exhibit Christ like character.

Likewise, the older women have a role to play. They are to walk in Christ likeness by their conduct. Just look at the list there: reverent, not slandereres, not drinking a lot of drink. They are to teach…this is one of the few spots that Paul will say this in connection to a woman and her role in the family and church… it is not that she has no teaching role but rather she holds a very specific role.....as she is to teach younger women. She is to teach them what is good.... to love their husbands and children…to be self controlled....pure ..working at home…that being her focus.. We get the idea here.

Younger men, and from he structure of the text I think that we can assume that the older men are teaching them…need to be taught to be self controlled.

So, we need each other. Older men teach younger men…Older women teach younger women.....we cannot do this alone.

The next group addressed are the household slaves. They are told to be doing things that are very close to the other groups as well. They are not to talk back. They are not to steal. They are to demonstrate complete faithfulness.

As we think about about all of these groups…it really boils down to this.

Be Like Christ.

In whatever role you are playing in life right now....God wants you to be like Christ where you are. Are you an older man who needs to be walking with the Lord? Then start living like it and training others. Are you an older woman who needs to start training others and walking with the Lord? Then start walking in Christ likeness in your relationships. The same is true for those of you who are younger....find an older man or woman you can learn from. This is how strong families and churches are made.

But, there is one more important point I want us to see. As important as living for the Lord is....there is something else here at stake....and we see it in three different places in this text:

...so that God’s word will not be slandered. (Titus 2:5)

so that any opponent will be ashamed, because he doesn’t have anything bad to say about us (Titus 2:8)

so that they may adorn the teaching of God our Savior in everything. (Titus 2:10)

Thiscan be a hard truth for us sometimes, but I think that it is something that we need to be reminded of. Mona used to have a saying here and it was something like....”Sometimes you are the only Bible someone will ever read.” People are watching your life. People see how you are handling yourself and the things that you are doing. They are reading you.... and Your Life Reflects On Christ. That has a weightyness to it doesn't it? Like, we know that we are flawed, broken, and messed up. We get that. We know that we do not have it all together..and Christ does not expect us to have it all together....but when a watching world sees us living no different than them....what hope does that offer? If we are acting like everyone else....how much difference has Christ really made in our lives?

You see, when we live life Christ has directed us…people will see a difference and it speaks volumes about God and what is He able to do…and when we don't it has the potential to hurt our Christian witness and cause God’s word to be hated.

Conclusion:

I know that this is a weighty matter to consider this morning. This is a huge challenge for us. This is a higher calling than just doing a few right things. We are talking about how this impacts how people see God! That is huge. So how in the world do we live up to such a high calling? This is why I wanted us to do the whole chapter today because the Gospel call us to more than just behavioral modification. It is not about just doing the right things in our power…but rather it is God who empowers us to do His will.

Look down at veses 11-14 with me.

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 14 He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession, eager to do good works. (Titus 2:11-14)

Do you see that from the text? How are we to Live the Christain life? How is it possible for us to do the roles that God has called us to? How are to able to live like Christ? FOR THE GRACE OF GOD HAS APPEARED!!!! It is not about you and your effort… it is about the grace of God in your life. God is not asking you to get your act together and start doing better....he is asking you to rely on Him and His grace. He has already done the hard work for you. He has brought salvation to all people....no one excluded from His grace.....open to all who would come to him in repentance and faith....but look at what the grace does…it instructs us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts....but it does not stop there....it teaches us to live sensible, rightoues and godly lives. This is awesome. This is God’s way of saying that his grace is changing us.

I want you to focus on 14. Look at the text. Read through it slowly with me.

14 He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession, eager to do good works.

Main Point: We Are Changed By Grace

Jesus Christ came and died for us not only to save you from the penalty of your sins but also to give you a new life while you wait for His return. You are not given life to sit back and do nothing with it. God has good works prepared for you. We are to be egar to do good works. We are not to be idle…waiting. We are to be active…going....going in the grace that He has already provided.

What is your next step?

What are some good works that you could be doing?

Let’s pray together.