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A day of light and gladness, on which no shade will fall, tis this at last awaits me, my father planned it all. I'll trust in whatever befall. I sing for I cannot be silent. My Father plenty know. Amen. Thank you for your good singing this morning. You can go ahead and set your kindles aside. And we'll let the little ones escape with Mrs. Shore to the creche. And the rest of us. Again, open up our Bibles to the Pastoral Epistle of Titus. What's an epistle? It's a big word for letter. So this is a letter that was written by Paul to his preacher boy, Titus. He also wrote to his preacher boy, Timothy. Remember that? 1 and 2 Timothy? Those are pastoral epistles. Titus is a pastoral epistle. And he's giving very practical instruction in this as to how to lead the church, how to guide the church. And this chapter, chapter two, begins by him speaking about how to help the aged men and the young men and the aged women and the young women and servants to do that which is pleasing to God. And he's going to be speaking to them or challenging Titus with the need to preach to the church sanctification. Sanctification is the big word, right? I want the kids to listen to this. Sanctification. Afterwards, I'm going to ask you what it is. Sanctification is being set apart unto God and set apart from the world. Set apart unto God is set apart from the world. Sanctified. It's holy. Right? Something that's not defiled. It's something that's pure. It's something that's right. It's something that's clean. And it's supposed to be us as we're sanctified. John 17, 19 says, And for their sakes I sanctify myself, Jesus was pure, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Jesus wanted us sanctified. He wanted us set apart from the world, set apart unto God. 1 Corinthians 1.2 says, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place, call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. The sad thing is, as I mentioned when we read the scripture this morning, sanctification is foreign to most modern churches. You're not going to walk into the average church in Scotland today and hear a preacher preach on the need to be sanctified. As God's people, we should be different. That we shouldn't be like the world. That we shouldn't sound like the world. That we shouldn't say the things the world says. We shouldn't dress the way the world dresses. That we shouldn't be worldly. But that we ought to be set apart unto God. You know the Bible says, what know you not? That your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you. which you have of God. This body is the temple of God. Why should I profane the temple? I mean, heaven forbid, back in the day when they had the temple, that the temple would be defiled. That they would bring wicked things into the temple. The temple and wickedness are to be separate. And so the New Testament temple, our body, housing God the Spirit, ought to be a body that is pure. You know, again, sanctification is a foreign concept to many, even to many kind of with almost within our circles. I was reading a biography about James Stewart's wife. Ruth Stewart. James Stewart is the young man that used his biography to call us to Scotland. It's called James Stewart Missionary. And I've shared about him many times. But Ruth Stewart was in the first classes at Bob Jones University, back when Bob Jones Sr. had started the school down in Florida in the United States. But having gone through that academic training, at that point, fundamentalism didn't really exist back then, even though I'm sure it was taught. I'm sure holiness was taught. But having had that experience, then she went to a Southern Baptist school, and then God called her into missions. And she was a missionary in Budapest. Remember that we had the Kinesis that were with us about three years ago? They're missionaries in Budapest. It was two separate cities back then until the bridge connected them, I guess. Buddha and Pest. And I forget, I think she was in Buddha. And at a girls training school for theological training. And she met James Stewart at a meeting. God brought them together. And what she said about James Stewart when she first heard him, She said often she had gone to the meetings for young converts and had been amazed at Mr. Stewart's counsel, hearing things she had never heard before. He had taught that a holy life sanctified, right, is God's plan and purpose for every born-again soul, not an elective which is left up to the believer to choose or reject at will. The Holy Spirit not only transmits to the redeemed saint the holiness of Christ, but he makes him practically holy in Christ. If I could just break down what she just said. He taught, not only when you're saved, you receive the righteousness of Christ, you are made righteous, but he also makes you to live righteously. It's practical holiness, that there is the mandate upon every believer, not suggested, not to be picked or chosen at will, The mandate that God's given us is to be holy, to be sanctified. And so this morning, that's what we want to look at as we come to Titus 2, 11 through 15. Our text here is that we need to be sanctified. We need to be holy. And let's pray and ask God to bless His word to our hearts this morning. Father, may the Spirit of God guide now as we look at such a vital truth. Lord, we've talked about revival. Without sanctification, revival will never take place, or when it takes place, we will become sanctified. Father, you cannot dwell with wickedness. And Father, it's our desire as a church to be holy, to be sanctified. And Father, it's not a burden, it's a blessing to be set free from the bondage of sin, to be set free from the guilt of sin, and to have victory, and to live in victory. So I pray the Spirit of God again would help me as I speak, guide me. Lord, I pray that our hearts would be tender to what you desire to say to us during this time. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen. So as we come to sanctification, my message this morning is how do I do what is right? How do I do what is right? Well, the first thing is let grace teach you sanctification. Let God's grace teach us sanctification. Teach us how to do what's right. Teach us how to live right. Look at verse 11 and 12. It says, For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Teaching us that. It's going to be speaking about sanctification. But who's the teacher? Look at the verses and say who the teacher is. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Teaching us that. You know who the teacher is? The teacher is God's grace. Just like it was for salvation. It was the grace of God reaching into our heart before we got saved and saying, look, you're a sinner. Look, Jesus Christ died for you. He paid the price for your sin. And you can be saved. You need to trust in Jesus as your savior. That's the grace of God wooing us in and challenging us to obey the gospel and get saved. But after we're saved, God's grace continues to speak to us and say, look, you need to live a holy life. Jesus even, in Luke 2, 40, says, the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. God's grace even was to teach the Lord Jesus Christ, encouraging him in God the Father's will for his life and directing his steps. You know, it's a wonderful thing to see somebody have a changed life after they get saved? It is. I'm burdened. I want our young people to get a chance in this church to see somebody get saved and see a life that is dynamically different because that's the power of the gospel. I would have loved in my life to have seen it more than I have. I hope I get to see it much more than I have. But I had a buddy that at 22 years of age, he was very shy, introverted. and grew up in a godless environment. Parents didn't go to church. He was split home. He moved out of his house at 16 because he was just so rough. Lived on his own. Got reading a set of books called the About the End Times Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye. Reading that, and he goes, is this true? Is this going to happen? It's speaking about the end times. Rapture is going to take place. Believers are going to ascend up into glory. And chaos is going to ensue. And the wrath of God in the tribulation period is going to fall on this earth. He said, is this true? And he read the book of Revelation. And he goes, it is true. All you need to do is pray and ask God to save him. He did. He started coming to our church two and a half hours away. His brother went to our church. Got so interested in what we taught, he built a room in his brother's, we call it a pole barn, it's a metal barn. Built a room up in that so that he could live there and go to our church. This guy was hungry for the word of God. He was shy before he got saved. After he got saved, God just brought him out of himself. He became very outgoing. He went to Bob Jones University for a year, met his wife there. And last I heard, after three or four years, he was already preaching in his church in Michigan. How? Because the grace of God took a hold of Earl's life and transformed Earl's life. That's the power of the grace of God to teach us what is right, what is wrong. You know, there's a lot of churches that say to sinners, they come in and they say, God accepts you as you are. Isn't that the message of the modern church? God accepts you as you are. The sad thing about that message, when they say that, in doing so, they leave the sinner unrescued, unsaved, the same as he was when he came into the church. That's pathetic. I saw something sad last night. I saw a migrant boat with Muslims trying to find a harbor. And this wasn't where all this other stuff's been taking place between Africa and Italy. This was actually near Thailand. And a reporter got onto this boat with these migrants. And I mean, they are starving. You can see their ribs. And the Thai government wouldn't let them land. All they did was fix their boat and put them on their way, telling them they had to go on the next day. That's sad. That's pathetic. That's like going to these migrants in the Mediterranean, and they're treading water. And you say, hey, you're doing a great job treading water. That's great. That's like a church that looks at sinners that come in that need to be saved, that need to be set free from the bondage of their sin, and they say, hey, you're fine, God accepts you as you are. No. It does nothing for somebody to tell them, hey, you're fine, God accepts you as you are. What they need to hear is, look, that's sin, but God gives victory over sin, and you can be forgiven of sin, and you can be set free from sin, and you can be saved. Grace does that. Grace changes. If you don't want, if anybody doesn't want to be changed, then go away from the gospel because the gospel changes. Forget it. You don't want the gospel because the gospel is transformative. The gospel sets free. So what does grace teach? Grace teaches us to say no. It teaches us to say no. There used to be an ad campaign back when I was a kid. It probably still goes on today against drugs. Just say no. Just say no. Well, grace teaches us to say no. It says, the grace of God teaching us that denying ungodliness. Just say no. Say no to ungodliness. Well, what does that word ungodliness mean? That word means want of reverence towards God. You guys know what reverence is? Reverence is giving honor to whom honors due. Say we're at a funeral. If you're showing reverence, what's your demeanor like? Sober. What's your dress like? Nice. Why? Because you're showing reverence. It's respect for the dead. So denying ungodliness is irreverence specifically towards God. One of reverence toward God. Listen to modern worship songs. This kind of touchy-feely, God's just like me. He's just like me. He's one of us. And it brings God down to men's level. It's wanting reverence. The church in St. Peter's, I mentioned, in Dundee, where Robert Murray McShane was the pastor. I walked in there seven years ago. It had the old pulpit that McShane preached in, and William Burns preached in, and got to stand in that. And it was ornate wood. backdrop to the platform and it actually had an elevated pulpit as well. I came back into church a few years ago and it's drywall down the back, it's a flat platform, doesn't even have a pulpit. It just had musical instruments like guitars and things up there. I just thought they're just trying to dumb down Christianity, trying to make it real, but they're irreverent, right? Towards God. And it's not this warning about ornate stuff, it's just why would you try to, the only reason I can say for making that church that way is trying to make people feel comfortable and appease people rather than appease God. I mean, there's some great old things, and I know we're just talking about things there, but I saw it too this past week, the Annual General Meeting of the Church of Scotland staying place. And it was a news story on the fact that they're recruiting ministers. And I'm thinking, right, why are you recruited? Why don't you pray? Why don't you get on your knees, ask God for ministers rather than advertising and saying, anybody will do. Hey, we want you, right? So that, I mean, that's grieving enough. But, you know, the minister they showed, it's the youngest minister. He's got jeans on. He's got, you know, his real casual jumper on. His jeans are ripped about three inches below his waist and then about five inches below his waist. I mean, right basically at his underwear. I think, hey, that's, that's great. You know, that's, that's, that's really, you know, yeah, make a minister just, just anybody. You think about this. Would you want them to advertise for MPs? Hey, we need MPs. And advertise in that way? Come as you are. Represent us with your ripped jeans and your casual attitude. Hey, that's great. Represent us in Parliament. Now, think about it. Who's a minister represented? Well, actually, he represents God to people. How should a minister dress? How should we dress when we come even to worship God? Why is it back in the day people would dress up and they'd look nice because they were showing honor to whom? God. You know, where's the reverence today? Grace denies ungodliness. Grace says no to irreverence. We want to revere God. Then it also says no to appetites of the world. It says, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. Do you know that the world has desires that a believer should not entertain? It might be tempting to you, but it's not something that a believer's life should be characterized by. Our world, think about our world, they lust for rock music, they lust for pornography, they lust for crass, sensual entertainment, they lust for alcohol, they lust for drugs, they lust for material things, they lust for revenge. Is that like Christ? No. It's like, go back to the idea of an MP. Would you want an MP that supports terrorism? No, because those things are polar opposites. Terrorism and good parliament. I mean, they are opposite. So is Christianity in the world. You know, the sad thing is, modern churches are trying to blend the two and say, you know what, you can be like the world and you can be like Christ. And you can't. You can't. And God's grace teaches us that. Call it Christianity if you want, but God's not going to have anything to do with it. God's grace takes us out of that. God's grace comes in and says, look, that's sin. Look, you need to change that. Grace will teach us to think soberly, denying godliness and worldly lusts, that we should live soberly. That word sober, that stands out to us, doesn't it? We kind of have an idea of what that means. Soberly is the idea of a sound mind. Somebody's sober, they're thinking right. They're talking intelligently, soberly. Someone who's drunk is out of their mind with alcohol, right? They're drunk, alcohol is controlling their mind. They're no longer sober. They're no longer in control of their mind. Somebody that's murderous, they're out of their mind with rage, right? And so rage has taken control of their mind. Someone who's a fornicator is out of their mind with lust, sexual lust. And so, God's grace teaches us to live soberly. What's that mean? It means we're not controlled by alcohol, we're not controlled by rage, we're not controlled by lust. We're controlled by God's Spirit. Be not drunk with wine, wherein is success, but what? Be filled with the Spirit. Where sinners are controlled by sin and sensuality and wicked desires, the Spirit of God is to be our controller. The grace of God teaches us that. That we're to be godly and think right about these things. God has given us in 2 Timothy 1, 7, not the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Are you thinking right? God wants us with grace to think right, not be controlled by lust, not be controlled by wrong desires, not be controlled by anger, but be controlled by God's Spirit. Grace will teach us to think soberly. And then grace will teach us to do right, that we should live soberly, then it says righteously. Righteously. Grace will teach us to do what's right. We've been talking in our parenting class a bit about kids. Kids aren't born with wisdom. There's a process of teaching them wisdom. In fact, the Word of God says in Proverbs 2.15, foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. You come into this world, foolishness can be. It's parents' discipline and instruction saying, this is wrong, this is dangerous, this will hurt you. That helps them to be wise. You know, when somebody gets saved, the Bible says that they are born again. There's a spiritual infancy. And there's a process of growth where grace teaches us and says, look, you need to grow. You need to take in the truth of the Word of God. Hebrews 5.14. It says, with strong meat belonging to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. It's speaking about food. When you're a baby, what do you drink? No, but when you get my age, what do you eat? Steak, burgers, meat. Right? Because I'm an adult. You know, we get saved, yeah, we're on the milk of the Word of God, where it's like, grace is just teaching us the simple things. But as we grow in Christ, we get meat, and what does the meat do according to the Word of God? We can discern both good and evil. You want to hear something sad? The Church of Scotland voted yesterday to allow for homosexual ministers. Does the Church of Scotland have the ability to discern good and evil? The answer, no. You know what that tells me? It tells me that the vast majority of the people within the Church of Scotland are not born again. Why? Because the grace of God teaches us to live righteously. The grace of God helps me to know what's right and what's wrong. And by the way, is the world going to agree with what I say is right and what I say is wrong based on the truth of the Word of God? They will not. Categorically, they will not. But you'll notice that the world embraces the decision that the Church of Scotland came to yesterday. Why? Because it sides with the world and not with God's Word. God's grace teaches us to do what's right. Now think about it as a believer. Are you mature? Do you this morning know right and wrong about entertainment, about places to go, about dress, about all these things that are standards or things we do, things we don't do, things we believe. Do you know right and wrong? Because when you get saved, grace begins to teach and says, look, I'll teach you what's right. I'll teach you what's right. Listen to me. I'll teach you what's right. But it never contradicts this book. Never. Grace will teach us to do what's right. Grace will teach us to live like a child of God. That we should live soberly, righteously, and godly. If I'm ungodly, am I like God? No. If I'm godly, am I like God? Yes. If I'm godly. And Grace is going to teach me and say, you know what? Live in a way that looks good with Christ. Live godly. And there's one question you could ask yourself this morning. Say, am I godly? Or how godly am I? Well, how often have you been reproached by the world? Because that's the test. If you want to ask yourself this morning, am I godly? Ask yourself, when's the last time an unbeliever was bothered by the fact of what I stand for as a Christian? Why would I say that? Well, 2 Timothy 3 verse 12 says, Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Can I say it again? All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If you stand like Christ stands, you're gonna get it. Who's the world gonna attack? Somebody that says there's absolute truth, that the word of God means what it says, says what it means, and that it's without exception. But by the way, can I say, because it says what it means, means what it says, it's sin and you can have victory over sin. And you can be forgiven. Our message is a message, again, that changes people's lives, doesn't leave them where it found them. It sets them free. If we think about it, it teaches us to live like Christ. But if we do, we're going to be attacked by the world. Matthew 10.25 says, It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Satan, Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? If when Christ walked this earth, guys, as He took a stand, the unbelievers pointed their finger at Him and said, ah, He's from the devil, He's of Satan. If they said that about Christ, what more would they say about His servants? How could they possibly say, how could they possibly honor us when they hated Christ? That's why, again, this modern church, they got it so wrong, even the world ought to wake up and look and listen and go, that's not a church because if it was like Christ, we'd hate it. But because it's like us, we love it. And we hate those that are like Christ. Grace is going to challenge us to identify with Jesus despite persecution. And then grace will teach us to do this despite our environment. Where does it say we're supposed to do this, guys? In the verse. Live righteously, soberly, godly. Do you see it in the verse? Anybody there? In this present world. You're joking? In this present world? By the way, our world says times have changed. Get with the program. Now is a different time. Look, God says do this in this present world. He says live wholly in this present world. He doesn't say, get out of the world. He doesn't say, get away from all these things. He says, in this present world, you're to be holy. Jesus even prayed that way. John 17, 15. He said, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. God doesn't seek to discourage Zachary's away to glory. He wants us to stay here and have a testimony of righteousness so that the world looks at it and says, ah, now I can see something that confronts me in my sin so that either I get jealous and I want Christ or I have at least a testimony of Christ so that when I'm damned to hell, I can't say you sent me here and I didn't deserve to go. Nobody told me. God's left us here for a reason in this present world, but he sent us here to be holy. Grace doesn't take us out of the world, but can we say this morning that grace takes the world out of us? Yep. That's the way it should be, and that's said by somebody else, not by me, but grace doesn't take us out of the world, but it ought to take the world out of us. This morning, if you're saved, Grace has been shouting, look, you need to live a holy life. That's why I'm reading this biography again about Ruth Stewart. She used to pray, oh God, make me good. Oh God, make me good. But she didn't understand. Christ not only died to set her free from her sin. It's punishment. But he died to set her free from sin's control. You can be sanctified. So let grace teach you. Then let hope encourage you to sanctification. We've got to look up this morning. Let hope encourage us to sanctification. It says in verse 13, looking for that blessed hope. Hope. Who's our hope this morning? He's Jesus. And He's coming again. He's coming back in the same way that He went. How did He go, kids? To glory. He went up into the clouds bodily. You know how He's coming again? He's coming down from the clouds bodily. Just like the Word of God says in Acts 1.11, You men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven. Jesus Christ could come today the same way that He went into glory. You know the Bible says that every eye is going to see that. And it speaks about us seeing the prophets too, that will preach during the tribulation period, that the whole world is going to be focused in on them. You know what's interesting? 50 years ago, actually let's go 20 years ago, people didn't know how that's possible. But you know it's possible today for everybody to see it. just like the word of God said. You know, Revelation speaks about these vast armies of, what is it, not locusts, but with stinging in their tail. And we used to think, oh, what's that about? But you know, and I'm not sure this is it. Maybe this is just my own idea. But I saw that this past week, China is making an army of drones. Those little helicopter things, you know, they're very small. You know, there's mechanically, there's robotic things that are taking place that, and God's always worked practically. And I'm not saying it's not going to be something else that God does. But there's things taking place that open up revelation and you go, you know what, I can understand it. Earthquakes in diverse places. Earthquakes are going to increase in the end times. Have we heard anything about earthquakes lately? Yes, in Nepal. Yes, in New Zealand. Yes, in Japan. There's a lot there that ought to make believers start looking up and going, you know, Christ could come back soon. It could be today. How much more wicked could this world get? I mean, they've already said God didn't create. Now they say God didn't make man and woman for each other for life. I mean, they're just casting off God. How much longer can God delay the return of the Lord Jesus Christ? We must look up. 1 Thessalonians 4, 17 says, That's not a bad thing. Kids, don't be discouraged. Think, I'm going to miss out on life. You're going to get to miss out on the rubbish, in a sense, of life. If you're with Christ, that's it. That's living life. We don't understand what that's gonna be like, but we know it's gonna be awesome. If you've ever had very, very sweet prayer time, you've got just a small glimpse of what it'll be like to be with Christ for all eternity. We must look up. We must bow down in the glorious appearing of the great God in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Can I say it again? Great God in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus? He's God. Great God in our Savior, Jesus Christ. It says as well, Titus 2.10, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. Jesus is God. I'm excited about these verses. I want to be a Jehovah's Witness now. I want to go, what does this mean? What can this possibly mean? Great God in our Savior. God our Savior. He's God. We better bow. If I was your neighbor and you committed a crime, I could accuse you of civil disobedience. But if I was a judge, I could commit you for civil disobedience. Jesus Christ is not just a man. Jesus Christ is God. You know, how should we live if that God is coming back sanctified? Think about it. He's coming again. What do you want to be doing when He comes? He could come today. Are you going to be embarrassed? You know, oh, I wish I would have cleaned that up. Wish I would have changed that. What about this past week? You think, how do I want to be living when Christ comes? Well, how did you live this past week? If He came today, how would you feel about your life? That hope ought to make us say, you know what? I want to be sanctified. I want to live holy so that when Christ comes, I'm not ashamed at His coming. So let hope encourage you to sanctification. And then let Jesus motivate you to sanctification. Let Jesus motivate you to sanctification. See, before Christ came, we were the slave of sin until He brought us with His life. That's us. Before we got saved, we're the slave of sin until Christ came for us. Verse 14, "...who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity." Why? Children, why did Jesus come? He came to redeem us by His back from all iniquity. Do you know there's people that are in bondage to sin? We've met people this week that are burdened about getting victory over sin. They want to be set free from sin. I shared this story recently about a missionary that came to my church since I've been gone in the states, my mom and dad's church. This missionary was on drugs. He had $40,000 of debt because of his drug abuse. He wrote on the shower door, help me. And his sister, who went to a good church that supports us in our ministry over here, falls back to church, she's part of that church, and John McEldrin's brother is the pastor of that church. She has burden for him. She called him and he's gonna hang up. Stop talking to me. And she's saying, look, Christ is the answer. He's what you need. He can set you free. You know what he did? He got down on his knees and he said to God, OK, if you're God, save me and set me free from drugs. God totally took it away. It may not be everybody's story, but it was his story. He never desired it again. He didn't go through withdrawal. Instead, he got a job, paid off his drug debt, went to Bible college, now he's a missionary. Why? Because Christ died to set him free from all iniquity. That's the power of the gospel. That's the gospel that we preached this morning. It's not a gospel that says, God will save you and you can stay in your sin. Who wants that? It's that God will save you and He'll set you free from your sin. Let me point out, what did Christ do to set us free from all iniquity? He died. Do you still want to defend your sin this morning and say, I can live an unsanctified life if I want, and Jesus died for that? What an ingrate. We ought to live for Him, because He died for us. Why do you do that? You're purified by Him, for Him. He died to purify unto Himself a peculiar people. He wanted to purify us to Himself. Why? Because sin separates. Remember the Garden of Eden? Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? And God said, the day thou eatest of the tree, the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt surely, what? Die. But when they sinned against God, what did they do? They hid. Why? Because sin separates. They couldn't have fellowship with God anymore. God came down to walk with them as at other times, and He couldn't. Because they're ashamed. Sin separates. So why did Jesus die to set us free from all sin? To restore us to Himself. It's another proof that He's God this morning. He died to reconcile us to Himself. Listen to this, Colossians 1.20. Having made peace through the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile. That's to bring together all things unto Himself. Why did Jesus die? He died to restore us to Himself. Who is He? He's God. Listen to this verse, Ephesians 2.16, that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. Jesus died, why? To reconcile us to Himself. To reconcile us to God. Because He is God. You know, this morning Jesus wants you to be purified. Can't you feel in your heart of hearts, if you're not right with God, that there's sin that's a stain, that God has broken fellowship between you and God? But Jesus can set it aside. Jesus can cleanse you. You're to be notably good, purifying to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Zealous. You know, this morning I can say, with authority, Jesus doesn't want moderate Christianity. He wants people that are open and blatant Christians, that identify with Christ. Matthew 5, 16 says, Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. The world ought to look at a Christian and say, your life is so different, but you seem happy. You're not doing the things that we do. You're not drinking. You're not in drugs. You're not cursing. You're not immodest. You're decent, but it looks like your life is so much fun, I don't understand. That they may see our good works. They ought to be the people that, you know, get upset at us, and by God's grace we don't get upset at them. They ought to be the people that we try to do a good turn to, we try to encourage, and we try to be a blessing to. Why? Because we want to be like Christ. Why did He die? Because He wanted a people that were zealous of good works. What is that? Sanctification. Why should we be good? Because Jesus died to make us good. He died to set us free from sin. He died to make us an example of His love and His ability to restore somebody. So, He died to set us free. Let that motivate us this morning. And then lastly, obey God's demand for sanctification. God's demand for sanctification. Verse 15 says, these things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no man despise thee. Paul, come on, you didn't say it clearly. I'm sorry, Titus. He didn't say Titus. Titus, if you preach that, nobody's going to come to church. They're all going to run away from that. They're all going to hate that. They're all going to despise that. We want simple bodies in church. At least we have bodies there. And so, don't give that if people don't like that. You know what he said? He said, if somebody twists their face up and goes, I don't want anything to do with that kind of gospel. that under the authority of God, Titus was to point at them and say, but God says, you're to be holy. He wasn't to bow to the world. He wasn't to just let it go. He was to confront them and say, you're wrong. You're wrong. We've got a great example before us with the Church of Scotland. What they voted on yesterday. Why? Because they did not exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no man despise him. If John Knox would have stood in that meeting, he would have put the fear of hell into the heart of every man in that place. Right? I would love to see, I wish I could see what John Knox would have done yesterday in that place. Because they would have faced the wrath of God in that assembly. They wouldn't have meekly bowed down, quieted themselves and curled their tail between their legs and hushed themselves to the world. They would have roared with the lion of the tribe of Judah against ungodliness. And they would have given men who are bound in the sin of homosexuality hope that they could be restored to a loving God who could set them free from their sin. Because it is sin. It's sad. sad. God's demanded sanctification and yet the modern church steps away and says I'm not going to preach that because people don't want to hear it and yet God's demands are the same. Are you sanctifying? We've got to look at our entertainment and say, is my entertainment pleasing to God? Is what I'm listening to pleasing to God? In the way that I'm dressing pleasing to God? Is the places I'm going pleasing to God? Are the friends I'm associating with pleasing to God? Because God says, be sanctified. Be sanctified. Are you letting grace teach you sanctification? If you're saying, if grace is saying, look, this is what's right. This is how to live godly. This is what you need to do. He's speaking to us. Is your hope in the return of Christ encouraging you to be sanctified? He's coming again. I don't want to bow my head in shame. Every minister that voted for homosexual ministers yesterday, they're just going to crumble in shame before a holy God when God comes back. And I'm assuming that some of them are actually born again. I would say many of them are not born again. Does the death of Jesus motivate you to sanctification? Kids, He died to set you free from sin. Don't get bound up with sin. Adults, He died to set you free from sin. Don't stay in that which He died to deliver you from. And I would say this too, He can deliver anybody from anything. So if somebody thinks, well, my sin is too involved. No, Christ can set you free. And then will you obey God's demand for sanctification? Because God demands it. God's not, this morning, up in heaven saying, well, it's okay. The world's really against sanctifying the living today. They're against my word. And so, you don't have to take a stand anymore. By God's grace, we've got to take a loving stand. Stand where Christ stood. In the power of God to set sinners free from sin. That's the message they need. May God bless His word to our hearts this morning. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the word of God. Thank you for the time that we've been able to spend in it. Father, give us grace to be convicted. Give us grace to be convinced. Father, set sinners free. That's what we long to see. We want to see revival. Revival is not going to come from accommodating sin within our churches. Father, it will only come as we deal with sin in our churches. And Father, for the sake of the millions on their way to hell, give us grace to live like Jesus. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen.
How Do I Do What is Right?
How do I walk through an unclean world with purity? What is the Bible's take on modern churches that say that times have changed? Does God require us to be holy? If it does require this, can I succeed in being sanctified?
Sermon ID | 517151450103 |
Duration | 44:49 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday Service |
Bible Text | Titus 2:11-15 |
Language | English |