Our Blessed Hope In This Present World (Blessed Assurance - How Great Thou Art)
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Titus 2:11-15
Titus 2:11-15
13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
LOOKING
We have all heard it asked, “what are you looking for in this life” or “what are you looking to get out of this?”
It is a word and thus a question that speaks of a consuming of effort, a pursuit, and anticipation and expectation.
In verse 13 “looking” is the key verb. It is the key spoken action.
The interesting note of this word is though it rings a thought of pursuit within us… “I am looking for and thus I am searching”…the word is actually translated as a “waiting” or a expectantly waiting”. It is a picture of one looking out over a ship, expectantly waiting to see land. The verb itself in this present verse is in the present tense and is thus a continual action of the one who is born of God. The “looking” or “waiting” here is speaking therefore of a present continual lifestyle that is manifest by our choices.
In other words, as we travel through the waters of life, are we actively looking over the bow of the ship trusting in the promise that is set before us, or are we looking to chart a new corse, to set up the ship itself or just simply not looking, not waiting, not mindful that, that is what we are to be doing?
The point is that God is directing the ship, God is controlling the waters, there is nothing on the boat nor behind the boat that can call me away from waiting for that first sight of the promise.
One of the root words for looking holds the meaning “entertaining”. In other words, the waiting is that which occupies the chambers of the mind and heart of the believer. The church is not only to give a great deal more thought to the coming of Christ than it is to the things of the world, but it is especially to give greater thought to the coming of Christ than it is to death. We don’t look over the bow of life’s ship and see death, we see Christ.
The believers life is blessed in that it is fully occupied by the expectant waiting for Christ Jesus our Lord. That is what it is to live godward or godly. God said I am coming, so we wait for His coming. To be godless is to live as though He is not coming or to be ignorant of it, to live in pursuit of the fleeting. Or to live as though you can cause it or delay it.
There are three positive teachings of grace given to the believer that lead up to the word “looking”:
Sobriety/ Sensibly
Righteously
Godly
These three things are adverbs describing the manner of our living or our life that is tought to us by means of the teachings of grace. That is to say the teachings as those favored of God, born of God, belonging to God - redeemed by means of Christ perfect work.
So then, the verb is “live”. It is important to understand here that the Bible, the Word of The Everlasting God is very dogmatical. When the Holy Spirit speaks, when the Word is given, it says what it means. When the Bible speaks of “how you shall live”, it is saying just that. The action, the activity of your living - what you will be taught by the grace of God in regards to the activity of living is universally applied to the believer as follows.
The problem is that we believe living or how we should live is something to be worked out in terms of our successes, our wants our desires. We’ve even made the understanding of how we should live to be psychological - but that is not true - that is nonsense. Your life - your “living” is not something that is to be pressed under a burden, not something that is to be sought in any of what is here below: it is a godward lesson of grace. I don’t preach to you works of the flesh, but the doctrine of grace and the Spirit teaches you by means of grace how to live. And that lesson of grace is not left up to human creativity but is defined. To live is to live in such a way as to enjoy real life, how it has been purposed to be enjoyed by God, as defined in His Word:
Sobriety - sensibly: Everything is under God’s sovereign control, thus we live with self restraint, seriousness, and not upon impulse. We don’t live in retreat, but in the display of confidence that God is in control even in this present age. Notice here that to live under the banner of truth that God is in control is also a moderator. That is the bening of sober, it is to be set in moderation. To be governed. To be ungoverned is to pursue things of the world - by world, what is meant is that which pertains to the prevailing interest of the world. To be governed by God being in control is to no longer be in pursuit of such, because such a pursuit contradicts the grace of God. We don’t pursue the things of the world by putting a Christian spin on them, but our pursuit is stopped. It is to be governed differently. The world and the things of the world in this present age is at enmity with God. But we are His righteous ones, so we live under the understanding of His rightful position over all things, and that being especially all things of our life, and we also live under the understanding that we live now:
Righteously - This idea is also connected to God’s sovereignty over our life and the learning of it. To live righteously indicates behavior that cannot be condemned, being that believers are under the instruction of the grace of God. It is where the individual recognizes the lesson taught that God has rights upon your life, and such a truth demands the submission of oneself as God’s rightful possession. This is where the acquiring of God’s nature and the performing of Chirstian duty toward God is recognized by the individual. To learn the lesson of grace that in Christ you have been made righteous, is to at the same time to learn that in Christ you are to live righteous. The two truths are not sepearate, nor can they be reversed. The lesson of righteousness demands a godward mind.
Godly - Godly is a well reverence sacred awe of God. It is proper mindfulness of God in all things. You are thus taught by grace to be sensible in that God is over all of your life and that He has made you righteous and as such you live righteously, and righteous living is a mind full of God - the truths of God, it is the doctrine of the grace of God.
These three truth lessons of our living are taught to us and applied to us by grace in this present age, then comes the word “LOOKING” or “WAITING”.
In other words - it is the lesson of grace that teaches us the actions of our living which postures us in the front of the boat on the seas of life in the position of waiting…of looking…of a active anticipation.
If not for grace then you would have to be manning the ship in some other way, with nothing in your sights. If God was not in control, then you would be creating your own attempts at direction or choices - but God is in control - He governs your life, and in His Word, by His spirit He has led us not to that which is below, but that which is ahead. He has prepared us and set us to where we are to be, and here we are looking unto Him in sacred awe of He who has called us…
We are looking - waiting
As fanny Crosby penned in her hymn Blessed Assurance:
Perfect submission, all is at rest;
I in my Savior am happy and blest,
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.
Watching & Waiting:
13 Looking for that blessed hope,
BLESSED: is speaking of a spiritual prosperity. It is the fullness of satisfaction independent of circumstance because of the enablement of the grace in which we stand. Grace is our standing, grace is our teacher, thus circumstances of this age have no hold - we are spiritually speaking independent of present circumstance. Why is that spiritual understanding important?
24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
What we are presently, actively looking at because of the teaching of grace is something that removes us from dependence upon the flesh right now. In this sense, our present waiting…is liberating. It is liberating because that blessing is HOPE. So our hope is a hope of liberation.
HOPE: The hymn perhaps better translates this as “blessed Assurance” The word hope is “elpis” - it is a certain expectation of what is favorable. The grace of God sets our sights upon a certain and favorable future. While the faithfulness of God has opened our eyes, the Hope of God has set our sights. In this, hope is made more than a future event - when we speak of the hope of God, we are not speaking alone of a prophetic event, but of a present lesson of grace that is descriptive of our living now. Right now you have assurance of liberation from this present age.
13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
AND THE - that liberation from this present age that is taught to us by grace has us also activley looking at…
THE GLORIOUS APPEARING
With our eyes set at the bow of the ship, looking upon that which the grace of God has set our sights upon, we are anxiiously waiting to see something glorious. This is the description of something that you don’t turn your eyes away from.
It will appear. Litterally here it is a shining upon. It describe the thought of a sudden event. The word for appearance is “epiphaneia” from where we get “epiphany”. This appearance is not as the first appearance which was in humility, but it is a sudden appearance of glory. Now when we read glory - it is the word “doxa” from “dokeo” which means to think. The word glory itself means to give a proper opinion or estimate of something. When we read of the “glory of God” then we understand it to be expressing all that God is in His being, nature, character, power, and all of His actions. The glory of God is to speak of the fullness of who He really is. To see His glory is to see the fullness of God and of what He has purposed.
So what we have here in the language, culminating in the teachings of grace and our living - is that we are actively looking for the reality which will suddenly appear when we see the fullness of something - and that fullness that we see is:
OF THE GREAT GOD AND OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST;
At that appearing we will say with no hesitancy - “how great Thou Art!”
But I want you to see the orderly, intentional, beautifully logical and even dogmatic nature of the text…
You are in the school of grace. This grace of God is what brings deliverance, it brings salvation.
How? It teaches us the denying of ungodliness, it teaches us the putting off of a mind not fully consumed by God, it teaches us the denying of worldly lust…and it teaches us to live.
So our deliverance from this present age is unto a present and future living.
We live governed by God, righteously instructed by God and godly being mindful of God with our spiritual sight being the sight by which we walk and being set upon the anxious anticipation and blessed liberation knowing the certainty of our seeing the fullness of who God is and what He has proposed in our Great God And Savior Jesus Christ. All of this is to be taught to us, or brought to understanding and knowing within us by the channel of God’s grace.
God is great, His grace is great and great are His purposes for those who are called unto Him. To walk in His school of grace is to be one who is learning that you are found in the greatness of who God is - that is where life is and that is where we live and exist - it is in the greatness of God - the greatness of His love - the greatness of His grace - the greatness of His Word, Justice, Forgiveness - redemption - promises and purposes. Our God is great, and His greatness is made known in the person and work of Jesus Christ in whom we are made to be born again not of works, but of grace.
These are not merely theological truths - this is as a believer your life - it is the reality that you live in -it is the living truth that is before you. - Amen.
Vance Havner once said that someone spelled out "grace" as…
G stands for Gift, the principle of grace.
R [stands] for Redemption, the purpose of grace.
A [stands] for Access, the privilege of grace.
C [stands] for Character, the product of grace.
E [stands] for Eternal Life, the prospect of grace.
