Church family, if you would take your copy of God's Word and open with me this morning to Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2, as we continue once again on the Lord's Day, as we continue to work our way through a series on the church, we give ourselves to the reading of God's Word from Titus chapter 2, verses 11 through 15. And the focus today will be on the subject of sanctification. Read with me as I read aloud, this is God's Word, beginning in Titus 2 verse 11. And the Word of God reads as follows, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 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. Declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no one disregard you. And this morning I'm preaching on the subject of the church's pursuit of holiness. And you may be seated if you would join me in prayer. Oh, God, we come before your throne today, praising you and thanking you for the privilege of worship. We thank you once again for the privilege of gathering and to engage and partake in the ordinary means of grace. We are grateful for the privilege even just a moment ago to be able to sing of the glory of the gospel of Christ. And we pray even now that You would allow us, as our hearts continue in a posture of worship through Your Word, that we would engage as worshipers. That You would cause us to see and to apply this very text to us here in this present hour. We pray that You would encourage us, exhort us, that You would edify us, and that You would convict us where necessary. O God, we pray as we often do, If there happens to be one among us today under the hearing of the gospel who has yet to come to faith in Christ, we pray that today would be the day of their salvation. And again, we ask all of this in Christ's name. Amen. As we continue this series on the church, as we begin 2024, we give attention now to the church's sanctification, the church's sanctification. We've talked about in this series the definition of the church, the nature of the church, the functionality of the church, and then obviously putting focus on aspects of how we worship like the previous week when we were talking about and focusing in on the Lord's table. Today we give attention to Titus chapter 2 verses 11 through 15 on the church's pursuit of holiness. Now, the background of this specific letter was that the Apostle Paul wrote to a man named Titus, and this man was obviously there on the island of Crete. Now, this island was located, and still is, in the Mediterranean Sea, southeast of Asia Minor and north of Africa, about 160 miles long at its widest point, about 35 miles wide. With modern transportation today, you could travel across the entire island in a couple of hours. And as we consider this island there and where it was located, it had been greatly influenced by all sorts of various vile and persuasive sinful groups. And you see that with the Roman Empire in many different ways. But as we think about the Cretan population in and of itself, if you listen, if you go back to Titus chapter number 1, verses 12 and 13, Paul gives us an indication as to how these people behaved and how they were in many ways given over to all sorts of vile sins. And as a result of that, those specific sins were then coming into the church, and were impacting the church, and the functionality of the church, and the worship of the church, and the service of the church, and the fellowship of the church. And so, as he writes this letter, he encourages that Titus would do this very work in these churches that were young, immature, and in many ways needed to grow in their knowledge of God. They needed to grow in sanctification. They needed to grow in maturity. And yet, this is what he says in the opening words. In Titus 1, 12 and 13, he says, One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony It's true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. Now, the interesting thing is, is that when he says that in chapter one, and then you flip the page over to chapter two, he's not talking about just rebuking sharply the town square of Crete. He's talking about the church. the churches that were on the island of Crete. And so obviously he had a massive challenge that would lie ahead. One historian said it was almost impossible to find personal conduct more treacherous or public policy more unjust. than in Crete. And so, as you consider the landscape and all the problems that were happening there in this island region with all of these people that were coming into the church, and they were not leaving their worldliness behind, but they were bringing it into the church and into the fellowship of the church, and into the individual families that make up the church. This is what Paul says. He says, they need to be corrected. Challenges that they faced were idleness and corruption and false teaching and a disorganized life. All sorts of problems were facing the churches on this island. And so Paul says to Titus, this is your job. This is why I've left you there in Crete, so that you would put things into proper order. Now, as we think about the order of the Christian life, we think about all sorts of various doctrinal truths. We have the doctrine of election, the doctrine of the effectual call, and then the doctrine of regeneration, and the doctrine of conversion, and the doctrine of justification, the doctrine of adoption. But then there's also the doctrine of sanctification. And then the doctrine of perseverance. And then, of course, we know about the truth and the doctrine, the truth of God's Word about death. And then, obviously, coming in the future for all of God's children will be glorification. But while we're here on this journey of faith in 2024, we can learn much from what Paul said to Titus regarding the churches on the island of Crete. And as we begin this year together, it would be a wonderful thing for us to put much emphasis on personal holiness and sanctification for the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. As we turn to this passage here this morning in verses 11 through 15, the first thing that we see, we're going to see three divisions in this paragraph before us. We're going to see, first of all, God's grace in salvation. That's in verse number 11. But then in verses 12 through 14, we're going to see God's purpose in sanctification, God's purpose in discipleship, God's purpose in holiness. And then followed up with God's design in his purpose for pastoral ministry as it pertains to discipleship in the life of the local church. Look at verse 11 and notice what the Word says. For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people." The grace, charis, in the Greek. It's God's unmerited favor. In other words, we don't deserve salvation. God has saved His people based upon God's God's divine decree. He has saved people because God wanted to save people. He was not forced or coerced to save anyone. And so when we think about the doctrine of salvation, it is a work of God. It is it is God's work, not man's work. Romans chapter 3 verse 20 says, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. In other words, you can't work your way to God. This is one of the problems with man-made and man-focused religion, is that man is taught that he can somehow do something in the flesh that would appease God and satisfy holy justice. That is impossible. Galatians chapter 2 verse 16 says, Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Because by works of the law, no one will be justified. One of the great tragedies of man-made religion is that men, women, boys, and girls can just do enough to please God. But as we read and survey Scripture, starting in the Old Testament, making our way to the New Testament, and seeing how Christ is the fulfillment of the entire law, we see that there was a just demand in the law to punish all lawlessness and all lawbreakers. So how in the world can you and I inherit the kingdom of God? received by God and welcomed into the family of God. Well, it's not by works of the flesh. The Bible is crystal clear about this. In Romans 8, 32. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? It is Christ that was offered up. Christ is the substitute. Christ is the sin offering. Christ is the Lamb of God. It's not by works of righteousness that we have done that we are received into the very presence of God. Romans 3.27, then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded by what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. You see, it is only by faith in Christ alone that you and I can be justified in the sight of God. It is only through the grace that is extended to us that we can come to God and have confidence that every last one of our sins have been atoned for. Titus 3, 5 says, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. You see, this is the grace of God. And this is what we must realize is that it's Christ who was offered up for us. This is why Philip Bliss wrote in his hymn, bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned, he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah. What a Savior. This is grace defined. But then we see that salvation has come. Notice what it says in verse 11. For the grace of God has appeared. The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. The word appeared here in the Greek is where we derive our English word, epiphany, from. This idea that He has appeared. He was promised of old to come, and yet that's the doctrine of the Incarnation. Christ has come. The second person of the Godhead, God, became flesh and dwelt among us. This is the truth. From all the way back to Genesis 3.15, there has been a promise that has been extended to God's people that one day, That this Christ would come. The Messiah would come. The prophets were raised up by God and they continued to thunder that truth and to declare that truth and to point people in the direction of that truth. That one of these days, that the Messiah is coming. That the King of Glory would appear. That the Deliverer would come. And yet we see that as we flip the pages over to the New Testament and we see the announcement of the birth of Christ, then we see in the New Testament epistles words like Galatians 4.4, But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law. And it says in this text that He has appeared Bringing salvation. Bringing salvation. From Old Testament to New Testament, we see that the promised Messiah would be a Savior. You see that in Isaiah's declaration in Isaiah 12, verse 2. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my song. And he has become my salvation. In Isaiah 45, 22, it says, Turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. You see, that's a glorious truth from Old Testament to New Testament. Just like Isaiah 43, 11 says, I, I am the Lord. And besides me, there is no savior. But then you come to the New Testament. And you see that there was this young Jewish girl who was with child from the Holy Spirit, knowing the truth of everything that had been brought to her attention by the angel, the messenger sent by God. She sang a song. And this is what she said in Luke 1.47, And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. You see, she understood. that she needed to be saved as well. The announcement of Jesus' birth by the angels in Luke 2.11 calls Jesus what? Savior. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ, who is the Christos. He is indeed the Lord. And then of course, Paul in this very letter in Titus, in Titus chapter 3 verse 4 says, But when the goodness and lovingkindness of God our Savior appeared, And then Titus 3 says, "...whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior." So you see that language of Jesus being the Savior. God is Savior, and we needed to be saved. And so that's what verse 11 is teaching us, is that it is God who has saved His people. that were there sprinkled about on this island, that they were to gather every single Lord's Day, and they were to be reminded of the truth, that they did not save themselves, and that God did not receive them on the basis of their good deeds or because of their religiosity. But they were indeed received by God because of God's plan and His divine grace that had been extended to them. And that is true of us today, is it not? As we assemble in this room today, we can be mindful of the reality that each and every one of us in this room, as we were singing just a moment ago, should be reminded every single Lord's Day that we have not done enough for God to save us. We have not done enough for God to have mercy upon us. We have not done enough in our flesh for God to be pleased with us. But we are received on the basis of God's grace and mercy alone. God has been merciful to us, vile sinners who deserve the wrath of God. Second of all, in verses 12-14 we see God's purpose in discipleship. Notice the language there in verse 12. training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. Because God has been merciful to us, vile sinners who deserve the wrath of God, and He has extended His grace to us and lavished us with His mercy, He has a purpose in His church, regardless of whether it's the island of Crete, or whether it's Los Angeles, or New York, or Atlanta, Georgia. His purpose remains the same. His purpose is for us to be faithful disciples who are sanctified and who are pursuing holiness. Notice the word training there. Training to renounce ungodliness. The word training there means to provide ample instruction. It means to be informed. It means to understand what is required for responsible, faithful living to be educated according to God's Word. And so the point here is centered on the reality that God's will is for Jesus to sanctify His people through His gospel. In his earthly ministry, Jesus was a preacher. He was the prophet greater than Moses. But after his death, burial, and resurrection, and his ascension, he has sent his Holy Spirit among his people and in his people, and he has raised up pastors who are to do exactly what Titus was to do on the island of Crete. to preach, and to teach, and to rebuke, and to reprove, and to exhort. Listen to 2 Timothy chapter 3, Paul's words to Timothy. A young pastor who was there in the context of Ephesus, a very vile city, and this is what Paul said to that young man. He said, but as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." God's plan for His church is not to just spare His church from the eternal wrath of God in hell. Did you know that if God's will was for you to just merely miss hell, do you know what would have happened the day that you were saved? You would have immediately blasted off right into the very portals of glory. That's not what happened. You're here now, and you're not there yet, and you're living in this age between the first coming and the second coming of Christ, and death is yet pending for us all. And so God has a purpose in your life that is more than just saving you from the wrath of the abyss of an eternal hellfire. Sanctification is God's will for your life. Sanctification is God's will for my life, and so there's much work to be done. Training, this training comes through the gospel, through the word of God that confronts us. John Flavel stated it this way, did Christ finish His work for us? Then there can be no doubt, but He will also finish His work in us. Think about that. This is what God's will is for you. I don't know if God's will is for you to accept a promotion next month if it's offered to you. I don't know if some of you in this room are maybe considering a specific university to go to, or a college to go to, or maybe you're considering whether or not you should quit your job and engage in home education for your children. Listen, I don't know every specific detail about God's will for you and your individual life and family, but here's what I do know, is that God's will is for you to not be the same as you were yesterday. And God's will for you is that you would be sanctified, that you would be in pursuit of holiness. To renounce means to repudiate. It means to disown or to deny, to refuse. That's very strong language. And that's what we're to do as it pertains to sin and the hindrances of the flesh. God has called us out of the world, and until we meet Christ face-to-face, it is God's will that the world is brought out of us. Romans 12, 1 and 2 says, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed, this metamorphosis, by the renewal of your mind, mind engagement in worship. That's why we don't come to just sit and be entertained. We're to be engaged right now. It's not that I'm just up here preaching, it's that you are to be engaged in the preaching. It's not to just wait until you see reflection and application pop up on the screen and say, well, that's the end of the sermon, so now I can start trying to figure out ways to apply this. No, start trying to apply it the moment that the text is announced. You engage. You put forth some effort. Don't sit and just hit the snooze button and just wait until the very end when I feel like he's about to land the airplane. You know, I was on a flight just this week and I watch people do that all the time. They're just sitting there just snoozing along and suddenly it's like, boom, boom, boom, boom. And they jump, they're suddenly awakened and they realize, oh no, I'm actually on the ground now. So don't just come into a worship service and when the sermon starts, just kind of like ease back, you know, in the recliner and just kind of hit the snooze button. And then when you hear the words that are familiar that indicate that the plane is about to land, that you just start at that point trying to maybe engage with just a couple of points of application. From the moment that the text is read, start applying it to you. From the moment that the first verse is read, and you read it with your own eyes, start trying to work, to engage, to apply it. And then again, you see in 1 John 2.15, 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. God hates all sin. He doesn't just hate some sin. He doesn't just hate murder. Sexual immorality. He hates all sin. Sin is evil. It's destructive. It is disobedience to the will of God. It is to be rebellious against the plan of God. All sin is evil. And we, our job right now in this room, is to be submissive to the Holy Spirit through the power of the word of God preached so that we can see and make application of this text to us so that we can renounce all ungodliness and worldly passions that are still very much alive and well in this world in which we live and in us at times. We should not give in to sin and allow sin to become master of us. We should not give in to sin and become the slave of sin. We should not. I remember a number of years back, I was preaching in a conference and I told our bear story. Some of you have heard our bear story, right? About the bear breaking into our cabin when we were in Colorado. Well, if you haven't heard that one, well then maybe the next fellowship meal, gather around the table and I'll tell you the bear story. My wife tells it better than I do, but nevertheless, we'll maybe team up and tell you the bear story. But there's another bear story, because I was preaching at a conference, and I gave that as an illustration, and a man comes to me afterwards, and he said, I've got one better than that. And I said, well, what's your story? And he said, well, me and a friend, we were in the mountains and we were hiking. And he says, we were way up in northern Wyoming. And he said, we were up in the mountains and we had passed this specific trail. We were doing a switch back up and we looked off and saw some elk over there. And then the next thing we know, we turned the corner and we were face to face with a mama grizzly bear. and she had cubs behind her, which is even worse. And he says, I backed up, and when I backed up, I fell a few feet down a rock ledge and landed on my back, and before I could even catch my breath, the bear was down and on top of me. I tried to get away, I scrambled, I turned over, I put my hands over my head and just thought, this is it. Next moment, I'm gonna exhale, and I'm gonna be in the presence of the Lord. And suddenly he didn't feel her anymore and he looked up and she had just in one leap She bounded back up the side of this rock ledge to protect her cubs from her friend or from his friend. And so he's standing there trying to get up and he sees his friend grabs his bear spray and just sprays it in the face of the bear and in the nose as the bear's coming. And so the bear's blinded and starts swatting and hit his arm and cut his arm beneath his shoulder. and then turns and runs up the side of the mountain like it was nothing with her cubs, and they're standing there. He said, just for a moment, I thought maybe I'd become a Pentecostal. He said, I was on the ground praising God that he had saved us, literally. I mean, it was so, he says, I was so excited and openly praising God in the forest, it was like you can't imagine. But the point of the story is this. When that bear was on him, That bear was in complete control. Dominating him. There was no question about it. And if you and I do not do war with sin, sin will be just like that angry bear on top of you. There will be nothing that you can do about it. You will be helpless in your flesh. That's why we have to start fighting those bears when they're little cubs instead of allowing those bears to grow like massive angry mama bears that will dominate you. We have to be cautious of this in the wonderful story that we know is the pilgrim's progress. We we see that illustrated for us well as we see Christian and hopeful there and they they decided to take a detour off as they follow a bad example. They followed vainglory. They went off of the true path, and they went down a wrong path, and yet they heard vainglory fall into the pit, and of course, they're all lost, and then they're captured, and they're taken to the dungeon of Doubting Castle, and this massive, giant despair is just ruling them, punishing them, terrifying them, abusing them. And they thought it was the end. You remember the story. Christian realizes that he has a little key in his chest pocket that I do believe would open up any of the locks in this castle. And Hopeful says to his friend, by way of encouragement, well then, dear friend, please do try those locks and see if it does open. And he took his key out, the key of promise. He opened that lock, it opened with ease. I love the language there of Bunyan. It opened with ease. And they were able to escape. You see, here's the point, is that we should hide the Word of God in our hearts so that we would not sin against God. But not just so that we would not sin against God, but so that sin would not have dominion over us, and become a master to us, and that we would be slaves to sin anymore. Jesus Christ has come to set us free. And so we need to be free indeed. And sanctification involves this training. And John Owen said it this way, he said, be killing sin or sin will be killing you. You just choose. Either you're going to be killing sin, or sin is going to be killing you. One Puritan described the struggle with Satan's forces as a war that made all of the bloody battles of human history look like sport and child's play. The devil is very much alive, demonic forces are very much alive, and they hate the truth, and they hate God, and they want you to be captive. to worldly pleasures and ungodliness. That's the negative. The positive, he then flips in verses 12 to 14, and he talks about living godly lives. Training us to renounce, but then training us to persevere. Notice that language. And to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. Notice the language there. Self-controlled. To have a sobriety about yourself. To be in control and aware of what's happening in this war. To be upright. It's pertaining to the quality of character. To live a correct life. A just life before the Lord. And to live godly. We are Christians, right? We are marked out after Christ. We are the children of God, and our lives should exemplify that. And this is the way 2 Corinthians 5 says, for the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all that, here's the purpose, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised. That's the purpose of the Christian life. We don't live for ourselves anymore. Our heart is renewed. Our passions have been changed. Our appetite is different. Romans 6, 11 to 14 says, so you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body and make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. And your members to God as instruments for righteousness, for sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace." And this is the Christian life. That we are to live self-controlled. That we are to live upright. That we are to live godly lives. Listen to this. Anticipating Jesus' Return. A Christian is to be looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord. The interesting thing is, is that we do have this hope. Now, if you notice the word there, He has appeared. Epiphany. He has appeared. Christ has come. and took upon flesh and dwelt among us, but we live looking back, recognizing that He has appeared and still anticipating that He will appear again. Do you see that? It's the same language, it's that same word. And so we're living between the two advents of Jesus. We celebrate Advent at Christmastime as we're remembering the promise of God's people wandering onward and journeying onward, anticipating the coming of Christ. And then we celebrate His coming at Christmas. But we live between the two Advents, between the first coming, the first appearing, and the second coming, and the second appearing of Jesus Christ. But listen to 1 Thessalonians 5, 23. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is an extremely important text. Why is that important, you say? I'll tell you why it's important. Because there's so many people in the Christian faith that think this way. Christ saved me. I've got my ticket punched. And so I don't have to worry about that whole sanctification thing because I know what Romans 8 says, that if he has predestined us and he has called us, if he has justified us, I know that whole chain link that then says that we will be glorified, although it's phrased in the past tense to demonstrate the fact that it definitely will happen. How many Christians have you met that are on the journey of faith that think that way? That, well, I know that one of these days I'm going to be completely glorified in the presence of God, and all of my sins are going to be gone. He's going to wipe away all of my tears from my eyes. Death will be no more. No more weeping, no more pain, no more funerals, and no more struggles with sin. But until then, I'll just kind of hit the cruise control. If you are not killing sin, sin will be dominating and killing you. The interesting thing about that verse, why it's so very important is it says, may you be sanctified in your whole spirit and soul and body. Kept blameless at the coming. of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, we need to be living every day thinking Christ could come today. And if he does come, will he find me in an acceptable manner living for him? Or will he find me engrossed in sin and rebellion and the temptations and worldly passions of the flesh? Notice this text talks about the fact that we are to be living this way, anticipating his appearing because he desires to purify into himself a people zealous for good works. Purify, to make clean, to cleanse. One of the most difficult things about some injuries and sometimes road rash injuries, and with my son Judson, we saw this firsthand when he had an accident that resulted in him being transported to the hospital and they have to cleanse the wound. It is a difficult thing. Sometimes sanctification, hear me well, is not for sissies. It requires us trusting in God to ultimately perform it. But there is a means by which we cooperate in this engagement and pursue kicking and clawing and scratching along the way for us to be sanctified. But it will never happen in the flesh. It requires us to be completely submissive to God. It requires action on our parts. God is calling us to action today. And as we kick off this new year, I wanna ask this church, how has God been revealing areas of imperfection in your life that need to be addressed? Areas where you have been on cruise control, but you can't afford to do it anymore. You're gonna go off the cliff. I have sat as a pastor and I have counseled and counseled and counseled with individuals who have and are experiencing massive, massive effects from sin. We need to be made clean. He breaks the power of canceled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the phallus clean. His blood availed for me. Jerry Bridges said, God's ultimate goal for us, however, is that. We'd be truly conformed to the likeness of his son in our person as well as in our standing. Jesus did not die just to save us from the penalty of sin. nor even just to make us holy in our standing before God. He died to purify for Himself a people eager to obey Him, a people eager to be transformed into His likeness. Point. is that Jesus did not die. All that doctrine that he just now unfolded for us in 11 to 14, all this truth, was not just so that we would just miss hell. No, listen, Jesus is interested in your Monday morning commute. He's interested in your Monday morning coffee and breakfast. He's interested in your homeschool education with your children around the table tomorrow morning. He is interested in your Tuesday afternoon meeting, your Wednesday massive plans that you have. He's interested in all of it. Your daily life and your worship to God, He is interested. Purify. Now, if you study the practices of the royal family, you will find that any time the insignia is to be placed above a house where the monarch is to be in residence, there is great, great transformation that has to happen to that building before it is set in order to receive either the queen or the king. In our case now, the king. The interesting thing is, is that that's not the way the Christian life works. It's not that we are just cleaned up and go to church and clean ourselves up and go to church and clean ourselves up so that we can then be ready for the Holy Spirit to indwell us. God, the Holy Spirit, is indwelling every single person in this room this morning that's a child of God. And so it is the work of the Holy Spirit in us that is remodeling, rearranging, breaking things down, confronting and changing things for His ultimate glory. J.C. Ryle said, we must be holy because this is the one grand end and purpose for which Christ came into the world. Jesus is a complete Savior. He does not merely take away the guilt of a believer's sin. He does more. He breaks its power. And so it is that we should see that this is the will of God for us. Now, how does all of this work? Very quickly. Verse 15, God's plan for pastoral ministry is that. This is what Paul said to Titus. After he unpacked that, here's the doctrine of salvation. It's the grace of God, not by works. And here's why Christ came, not to just save, but also to purify. And then this is what he says in verse 15, declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no one disregard you. The pulpit ministry is at the center hub of all Christian discipleship. Anytime that there is a move to say, well, I'm going to elevate something higher and put more priority upon something else in the life of the church other than the pulpit ministry of the church, In terms of discipleship, it is backwards. Declare these things. Exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. Declare the truth. It means to utter words. It means to speak forth the truth. And that's what the preaching ministry of the church is intended to do. The interesting thing is, is that the very same word in verse 15 to declare is the identical word in verse 1 that starts off the chapter. It says, teach the things that accord with sound doctrine. Then he goes on from there and talks about teaching the men, and then teaching the women, and then the older training the younger. By the way, Titus 2 is not just for women's ministries. It's written to the men and the women of the church, and we can call Titus 2, and there can be a church that just has Titus 2, and it can be referencing women's ministry, but that's not all Titus 2 is talking about. Pitis, on the island of Crete, in the churches there, was to give himself to teaching the men and to teaching the women. I mean, I think it would be a shocking thing if If this model were to be practiced in so many churches across evangelicalism that have women's ministries that are basically just co-opted off to some gifted woman that has the ability to speak in the life of the church, or even worse, just turning on video screens and getting someone, some women's Bible study teacher to just do all the women's ministry. It's very likely that Titus had a big, big, burly beard. And Titus was called by the Apostle Paul to actually teach the women of the church. Imagine how many women's conferences across evangelicalism would sell out if the front line, headline speaker for the women's conference was a big, burly, bearded man. But even worse. is we think that we have to start there instead of in the pastors of the church that God has called to set forth and to put things in order. You can have women speakers, and there are many gifted speakers, and they should be teaching and discipling women, and I'm all for it. But in this text, it starts in the pulpit of the local church. And that is the way that God has ordered things. We can't minimize the pulpit ministry. Teach, declare these things includes doctrine and the sanctification aspects of what's required to put sin to death. But then also he speaks about correcting to exhort and to rebuke with all authority. To exhort and to rebuke with all authority. The word exhort there means to call alongside. Rebuke means to bring a person to recognize their wrongdoing, to convince them. And this is what Titus was to do in the life of the church, and he was to do it with all authority. Listen, preaching and teaching is not casual chats. It's not dialoguing. It is not life coaching. Preaching is commanding and declaring that this is what God expects of every single person in this room. That's what it means to preach a sermon. It means that there is a demand for action as a response. And it's to be done so with authority. You can't preach the Bible without preaching with authority. You can't. People try to do that all the time. And you know why they try to preach without authority? Because what they're trying to do is they're trying to make it relational. Preaching, there's a tension always in preaching. It's not just relational. We're not having a conversation here. The preacher is to stand up and declare, this is what God has said. In Mark chapter 1, Jesus preached like that. It says he preached as one who had authority and not as the scribes. And then in the Great Commission text, it says that all authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth, and then he commands his followers to go out and make disciples of all nations, teaching them what he has commanded them. You see how this whole thing works? And by the way, I have zero authority because of my office as elder. I have zero authority over you. None, nada, zilch. I don't have any authority over anybody in this room. You can ask me my opinion. I'll give you my opinion all day long. I have zero authority over you. And that goes for all the elders of this church. If we ever come to you and say, this is what you need to do and it can't be backed up with chapter and verse, you don't have to obey any of that. We have zero authority over anyone. My authority starts and stops with chapter and verse of God's word. But it's to be preached with authority. And by the way, that is a sobering thing. An imperfect man standing up before imperfect people declaring God's holy word. Let's think about that. Imperfect man commanding, thus says the Lord, to imperfect people. And I have no authority of myself. But I am to preach with such an authority that you understand that it is not my words, but God's word. And here's the beautiful thing about it. It's a sobering thing, but it's also a freeing thing. When I know that it's not my word. I didn't make this stuff up. This didn't come out of Josh's mind. This is God's Word. It is God-breathed, and it is to be bearing upon all of us. Let no one disregard you, Titus. Don't let anyone have disdain for you. Don't let anyone look down upon you or despise you. I was in the workshop in Florida this past week teaching expository preaching. A pastor told me a story about how he was laboring in his church and teaching and preaching and talking about how the canon is now complete. We have 66 books in the Bible. We don't need any fresh, new words from God. We don't need any new prophecy. It would undermine the authority and the sufficiency of God's Word. if one were to be uttered. And a man spoke up and said, Preacher, you try to tell me that when I almost died that I didn't hear God speak to me and tell me X, Y, and Z. And he went on with patience to declare that we all have all sorts of experiences. But God's not giving any fresh words today. God has spoken through His Word. And then he shows me a text message and he says, this is what I just received. He told me, because of what I said in that class, he and his family, they were gonna move on down and find them another church. And then I said, I just happen to be preaching Titus chapter two, 11 to 15. I wanna encourage you to read that, specifically verse 15. Don't back down from preaching the truth. By the way, discipleship involves this from the church. Patience, you might not like everything that's ever been preached from the pulpit, But the right heart is to say, I'm under the authority of God's word and under the leadership of the elders given to shepherd my soul. I'm not going to just get mad and pack up my suitcase and roll down to the next church until I get mad there and then pack it up and roll down to the next church and then pack it up and roll on down to the next church. receive correction and the rebuke that comes, not with the authority of the preacher, but with the authority of God's Word. This is God's will for every person in this room on this Lord's Day. So to the unbeliever, I would say, you need to repent and to believe the gospel. If you are dominated by sin and sin is your master today, see yourself as unrighteous before God and standing in need of God's saving grace and cast yourself upon the mercy of this great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is put on display for us in verses 11 to 14. and see yourself in need of Christ today and plead for His forgiveness. And the Bible says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And to the church, this precious church at Praise Mill that I have the privilege to preach the Bible to week after week after week, know this, Christ is coming. Christ is coming. We are either going to die and go to Christ or Christ is going to descend from the glory above and come to us. And both are coming to us at warp speed. We can't afford to just hit the cruise control button anymore. There are sins in your life that you know good and well that you've just been delaying, you've been putting up under the rug of life and sweeping up under the rug of life. Today is the day for you to just say, enough, to break with it. Cast yourself upon the mercy of God and plead for God to forgive you, so that God would give you victory over this, so that you can pursue genuine holiness that would please God. Since God said, I am holy, He says, you shall be holy. For I am holy. Holiness? Sanctification in the pursuit of God. By the Gospel, through the Spirit of God, to make you more conformed to the image of God's Son, rather than the image of this evil, fleshly world. That is God's will. for your life. Let us pray together.