Christ and All His Benefits (Burial)

Titus 2:11–14 ESV

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Illustration: Snow storm last time you had the retreat here…coming from Chicago we could have snow on the ground any where from October to April. In order to make it around they would have snow routes…they would clear certain streets first so that the main routes would function well…if you got on the side streets it was really every man for himself. My car was horrible in the snow. I had a 2005 Nissan Altima 2005 that I bought from my mom.

When I bought the car it needed new tires so I figured, we will have the car fora while let’s go ahead and get a good set. (70k).

I was slipping and sliding everywhere all winter and all spring I felt like the car was fighting itself. I just thought, man I guess this car just drives weird…it will be a bit of a learning curve. Summer time rolled around and my parents came up and we were out getting ice cream and my dad looked down as he was getting out of the car and he noticed something shiny on the side of my tire. We both when over to get a closer look and you know what we saw? (It wasn’t a penny! It was something that was going to cost me a whole bunch of pennies!) It was the steal belt. My 70k miles tires lasted for about 8k because they were severely out of alignment.

I got new tires, but they wheels were not aligned. They were put on properly, but they were never adjusted.

It made driving really difficult (trying to get “up” my driveway) - there are no hills…but I didn’t make it. I tore through the neighborhood!!!

The tires were fine. They were good tires but they were put on wrong.

All this to say, we have had the grace of the Gospel applied to us, but now we must align ourselves with the Gospels intentions if we are to make any progress down the road that is mark out for us.

Grace has appeared, been applied, and accepted, but now we need to align ourselves with God’s purposes. What does that practically look like in our lives? That is what we want to look at this morning.

God’s grace..

Trains us to renounce ungodliness.

Titus 2:12 (ESV)

12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions,

Training - Padewon learner - these young kids that are learning the ways of the master jedi. Jedi in training.

παιδίον - child - What do you have to do with children? you train them.

παιδεία - instruction (is this something you do just one time? (download a bunch of info and then they are able to be sent off in the world or the workforce and succeed? No there is a learning curve or a learning process.

παιδεύω - training (on going) - (present active participle). there is always more to learn…it is an ongoing process.

Illustration: Think about the Olympics that are coming up. How many of you are excited about the Olympics? How many of your wives are excited about it? If the last time (Shawn White - worked on stuff over time. Double McTwist 1260) - got to keep working on that one (Summit Trampoline park - ). It is ongoing.

This word was the word Stephen used to describe how Moses ascended to a place of prominence in Egypt. Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. Pretty good education.

Acts 7:22 (ESV) 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.

He could “talk like and Egyptian” and “walk like an Egyptian.” (that was my only reference to the Benglas for the weekend…unless we start talking about the Chiefs game).

So anyway, instruction...we need to be provided with instruction so that we can begin forming a proper appetite for godly habits of behavior.

So we are God’s kids and we need to be TRAINED. We need to receive His training. His training is two fold in nature…there are things you need to cut out of your life…and then there are things that you need to add into your life.

Last night we looked at Death…this morning we are going to look at Burial, this afternoon we will look at Resurrection.

Q. What do you do with dead things?

A. You bury them.

What do you do with a corpse? You put it in the ground. The call to Christ is a call to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow. I mentioned this last week in the message time.Or to use the language Paul used to Titus you “renounce” them.

ἀρνέομαι: to refuse, to deny, to refuse to give thought to, to pay no attention to, to SAY “NO!”

This is the word Jesus used in Luke 9:23

Luke 9:23 ESV

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Do you know the first thing that is required to follow Jesus?

Deny yourself. The “yourself” that Jesus had in mind is “all of you.” The entirety of “who you are” both body and soul, material and immaterial not “SHOULD” be DENIED, but “MUST” be DENIED.

The end goal of Christianity isn’t to have your life get better because you put Jesus bumper stickers on your car, as if He is some good luck charm. The goal of you coming to Christ is to get you to recognize that apart from Christ you can do nothing.

“You can indulge every dark desire and explore every avenue of sin”…it will not be enough for you because to borrow the language of the prophet Jeremiah, you have forsaken the fountain of living water, and hewn out for yourself a broken muddy cistern that can hold no water. What will it profit if we gain the whole world and forfeit our souls. We must die to self and be raised up alive in Christ. As Paul says to the Galatians the only thing that counts is “the new creation.” (Gal. 6:15)

So once we are ‘new creations” we make it our ambition to keep denying ourselves by picking up a cross which is an instrument of torture that will assist in KILLING any remnants of the OLD YOU that occasionally pops up. And then you carry it throughout the duration of your NEW LIFE and as you follow in the footsteps of a crucified Messiah. That my friends is Christianity. Who wants in?

The Gospel is never slotted easily into our lives without major adjustments to our lifestyles. As Peter who left his nets. Ask Matthew who left his lucrative tax collecting booth. Ask Simon, who became zealous in a whole new way.

His grace has allows us to say no to the ungodliness and worldly passions that once controlled us. We area able to do that because we have a bigger and grander and more controlling passion…we have tasted of His ridiculous grace and it has whet our appetite to be zealous for good works and so we want to do that which maximizes our enjoyment of God in our bodies.

So we say no to ungodliness and any and every type of ungodliness. They all must be renounced and discarded. They must be denied and deserted. Forsaken and walked away from. Every type of ungodliness.

I want you to think of one sinful thought, one sinful use of emotion or one sinful action that you just want just much to get rid of. Maybe it you have tried so hard and just can’t seem to gain any ground on. No advancement. Or maybe 2 steps forward 3 steps back kind of. What is it? What is God revealing to you? Name it...

THOUGHTS (Lust, Pride, Apathy)

EMOTIONS (Anger, Anxiety, Depression and Despair)

ACTIONS (Gluttony, Sloth, Tongue Lashings)

This next section of teaching will apply to all of these sins, but I am going to take this opportunity to look at a rampant ungodliness that so often trips us men up. The teaching will apply to any sin across the board, but I want to make sure I highlight one area of ungodliness that needs to have a hard “NO” screamed at.

The rampant use of Pornography.

It isn’t a comfortable topic. It’s hard to face up to it, but we must…because it is rampant and killing so many of us in this room and those that gather for worship at 586 Birch Bay Lynden Road.

It has a massive ripple effect on the whole fellowship and the cause of Christ in our community.

Pornography gives a false expectations of sex and promotes selfish sex. It will twist your tastes and push you to live our unhealthy fantasies. And it will keep you longer than you wanted to stay and take you further than you wanted to go…because it is an ADDICTION. It will undermine your love for your wife or your future wife if your not married and cause you to begin resenting her and “when” she finds out, not “if” it will make her think that she can never satisfy you. That she isn’t enough and she will certainly loose trust in you and maybe for good.

It will destroy you.

I’ve seen jobs gone. Marriages gone. Respect and love from wife and kids gone.

It will destroy you.

As a kid you were probably afraid of monsters in the dark. Your mom or dad likely tried to help you overcoming your fears. There’s no such thing as monsters, they said and eventually you grew up believing what they told you was true. But it isn’t true. Not anymore. Monsters do exist and pornography is one of them. Pornography has a rigor mortis death grip on men and boys who sit in the pews. It is truly an epidemic in our society with devastating effects on men, their marriages, and their kids. If you give into pornography you will crumble your marriage, your kids respect for you, and everything you value as a Christian.

We must hear the call to arms and wage war against this evil that plaguing those who sit in the pews.

Now some of you are sitting here, trying not to look guilty…I was there too. I was there twice in my life. (Mission conference and Moody Founders Week) (dating relationship and in my marriage).

I was determined to carry my secret to my grave, but the thing about secrets is we don’t carry them, they carry us. We are enslaved to them and it absolutely handicaps all of our relationships and our effectiveness for the cause of Christ.

Like I said, your personal secret sin, has massive ripple effect on the whole fellowship and the cause of Christ in our community.

Now for those of you in the room, that have been made into a new creation in Christ that OLD NATURE is DEAD. I know it doesn’t feel dead, but it is dead, because the God says it is dead. We have to believe what He has said. It is, you must consider yourself dead to sin as Paul tells the Romans in 6:11.

Now I know this is dated, but who in the room has heard of Frankenstein? Dr. Frankenstien wasn’t the monster, Dr. Frankenstein made the monster and the way he made the monster was by digging up thing in the place of the dead. He was rooting around a graveyard where he shouldn’t and then he added electricity and brought this thing to life. Then that thing (the MONSTER) turned on him. All of a sudden he couldn’t control the monster anymore. The monster became the master.

Monsters (outside of Mike Wilszowski and the Monsters at Monsters Inc.) always want to get out and wreak havok.

We need to wage war…and this battle plan will work for all types of sins that you just identified in your mind.

“always be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.” John Owen

C E A S E

Call upon the Lord

Psalm 50:15 ESV

15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

Expose your darkness to someone

Ephesians 5:13 ESV

13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible,

Hebrews 3:12–13 ESV

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Proverbs 28:13 ESV

13 Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

Look at all the “One Another’s” in the NT…it will take a village to overcome this (addiction) (James 5 confess sins to one another).

Arm Yourself with Scripture

Ephesians 6:13 ESV

13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

Ephesians 6:17 ESV

17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,

Romans 6:11 ESV

11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV

13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Index cards in your back pocket.

Sever the root

Romans 13:14 ESV

14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Cut off all access (some of you are not taking is serious enough. How much sexual imagery are you taking in (sit coms, movies, music, suggestive videos on Facebooks, youtube or Instagram…or just television (cheerleaders, racing, boxing, mma) SEX SELLS…and there is product placement EVERYWHERE.

Some of you need to cut off access.

Make “NO” provision for the flesh. The other day the Buffalo Bills had a wide Receiver that set and NFL record for 4 touchdown receptions in a playoff game. He was drafted 128th over all in the 4th round. He was underestimated and he almost destroyed KC chance to go to the AFC championship game. They needed to cut off access to him…double team him, triple team him, do anything to him, but just don’t underestimate him.

“sweep the leg.” - ha ha (Sensei Kreese) (Johnny)

The way to sever the root of sin is ultimately the last word of the acronym CEASE (Enjoy)

Enjoy the pleasure of obedience

Here is a secret that I want to let you in on. Human beings always end up doing what they want to do. Paul is in a battle in Romans 7 and he is honest…sometimes he give in and caves to the old man. We must enjoy the pleasure of obedience to Christ than the fleeting pleasures of sin. If sin wasn’t something you wanted or that promised you pleasure you would never do it!

We need to love Christ more than sin.

Jesus endured hostility from sinners because of the joy set before Him. It was more important and “enjoyable” for Christ to obey His Father and obtain us as his brothers and sisters, than it was to elude the cross. He endured the cross, despised it shame because of JOY.

Psalm 4:7 ESV

7 You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.

Stores houses full of grain are good. Wine abundantly flowing is pleasurable, but we can have MORE joy put into our hearts by God.

Hebrews 11:24–25 ESV

24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

Psalm 84:10 ESV

10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Psalm 16:11 ESV

11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

We must engage in this battle against all types of ungodliness. Your passivity is not neutral. If you are not fighting you are floating downstream toward and being carried away by a current that will lead you to a waterfall of destruction. So start swimming! And cry out for help and let the lifeguard come in and rescue you.

Proverbs 7:25–27 ESV

25 Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths, 26 for many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng. 27 Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.

Psalm 101:3 NIV84

3 I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me.

Finally, God’s grace...

Trains us to renounce worldly passions.

There are so many living illustrations of people around us that look like they have the perfect life because you can see it in the filtered instagram stories or facebook post.

There is probably a reason that, “Thou shall not covet” is the last commandment…probably because that one needs to be the freshest on our minds at all time. So often our problems stem from the false idea that God is somehow holding out on us. He is not withholding any good thing from you because the only good in the world thing actually did come out of Nazareth and He was pinned to tree with out stretched arms and offered to you. God has not withheld ANY good from you. But when we look around and compare ourselves to others and what they have (house, spouse or respect from kids and coworkers etc), we think God is holding out on us. Or when we compare our present situation to our hopes and dreams and ambitions for a comfortable life and we see there is a great chasm between the two…we call God into question.

I could show you snap shot after snapshot of people who in the bible seemingly gained the whole world and came up short (Those that mocked Noah and lived for themselves when there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Sampson who was able to basically crush anything he laid hands on. MMA fighter. Rip lions apart with bare hands. He was smart too…he could come up with riddles that outsmarted 30 people. Jawbone as a murder weapon - 1000 slain philistines, this dude had it all and ended up with nothing).

So many examples of people in the Scriptures and in the world who gained it all and lost in the end.

Maybe the primary example outside of Lucifer himself is Solomon.

As an old man he looks back on his years. He sought and attained laughter and pleasure and riches. His wisdom and riches impressed the queen of Sheba. He built houses, planted vineyards, gardens and parks. He had fruit trees and tall vines. He made ponds of water to irrigate his gardens which caused his vines to grow so that he could drink the finest wine.

He had flocks of all types of animals. He had all types of servants…300 sex servants (concubines). He had 700 wives many of which were foreign (exotic) women.

All of this he had, but none of it satisfied…all it brought about was an ever increasing emptiness.

What are you hoping for? What dreams are in you that need to die? The call to manhood is a call to die! Yes, you are the head…that is where the crown of thorns goes.

What do you want? Do you more lucrative salary? Do you want a more lucrative salary to be generous with it? Or do you want to get a more lucrative salary to get the boat or the camper or to get the dream home to get the recognition and to get the fame but only to get in the end, “Depart from me, I never knew you.”

If you live your life according to worldly passions, you will certainly get worldly results and it will cost you in the end.

“Only one life 'twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last.” - CT Studd

The grace of God has appeared and has been applied to us and we have accepted it so that we might be continually trained by it to renounce all types of ungodliness and so that we may shout out a resounding “NO” to the worldly passions that so many of us are tempted to live for.

Discussion Questions

I had good tires on my car, but they were out of alignment and the car was fighting itself. Where do you feel like you are fighting yourself and making things harder for you to make any progress in your walk with Christ. Be killing sin or sin will be killing you. What sin is trying to kill you these days? What is it in your life that needs another shovel full of dirt thrown on it?

Take time to interact as a group on the follow passage and answer the following questions:

1 John 2:15–17 (ESV) 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

3. What worldly passions are men tempted to live for these days? How can we help each other renounce these tempting passions?

4. Review the CEASE acronym and discuss how it might aid you in your battle with sin.