Where like every page of scripture, if we're arrogant, if we're more full of ourselves than full of God's word, we might find it somewhat offensive. There's a great preface for Sunday morning. The word of God is about to be offensive. But we find it's in the household code where we're studying Titus two, where Paul, just like in Ephesians and just like in Colossians is saying, there's a right way to conduct yourself in the household. Part of the Roman household and their culture involved household slaves. And so Paul is now going to address the slaves in Titus two, beginning in verse nine. Now we've heard a lot last week about how, uh, Now Titus, we did a deep dive on two, six through eight on how Titus is supposed to be an example for the young men of good work in his teaching and how that is to basically put Christians in a posture showing themselves an example. And therefore we live kind of in a fishbowl. That was the deep dive in Titus two, six through eight. Now we're going to survey mode again and go through hopefully verses nine through 15 today. Paul says, urge bond slaves to be subject to their own masters and everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. And then he summarizes what all this household code teaching is supposed to accomplish. We had, remember, older men in verse two, are supposed to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith and love and perseverance. Older women are supposed to be the same thing. They're supposed to be that. But then they also have, Paul gives Titus instruction that they have a teaching responsibility and it's to teach the younger women to be sound minded women, good wives, obedient, but also lovers of their husbands, lovers of their children. I'll read it so they don't get in trouble going beyond what the text says. You have to be teachers of the good in verse three, so that the older may encourage the younger women to love their husbands, love their children, be sensible, pure workers at home, kind, subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. And we say, wait a second. He's not, I know it's not up to you. He's not saying, he's not saying that I want you to, just do this because it's the right thing. It is true. He's saying older women need to help the younger women have a sound mind to be sensible about this part of life because the word of God is on display. It's so the word won't be spoken against. In other words, it's not just that your marriage is for you, your marriage and everything about your life is about God and about his work. And that means that it no longer has temporary, transitory insignificance. That means that your marriage, your life, your choices, your relationships have eternal significance because God is saying these are part of your witness for Christ. See what happens if you hang on to your life? Jesus says you lose it. If for his sake you lose your life, then you find it. What's this mean? This means that go to Ecclesiastes. Everything's going away. It's like a vapor. It's very short. Time is ticking. It's very short, this life, however long you get. And so if all there is, is this transitory moment of my experience, that's not good enough. But when God says your choices matter to me eternally, now we see infinite significance because God is saying, I consider this important. I consider it significant. So now your marriage is your mission and Older women should be sound minding literally. So for needs though to cause to have a sound mind, they should be training the younger women in this in the sense of encouragement. And then Paul, again, goes after the young men. He says, Titus, you urge the young men, encourage them to be sensible, and all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds with purity and doctrine, dignified sound and speech, which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us. Again, the young men, often a cause. Listen, the young men, often a cause for the scandal. Young men are angry and all the things, and they're responsible to know everything, and they know very little. And all, you know, think about marriage. You make the biggest decision about how your life is going to turn out when you're young and clueless. And we pray that you have wise people around you to help you with this. But for the most part, we know what, how that goes, especially in the culture we live in. That's our, that's, that's the old people culture. We're the young people culture we've separated. And so we're going to just do what we feel like doing because we think it's right. And we can all attest as we get a little bit of gray hair that, um, you will pierce yourselves. Let me borrow something out of context. You'll pierce yourselves through with many griefs, like the person who wants to get rich in this life now. The apostle has encouraged Titus to take the young men at hand. They're Cretans, literally, they live on Crete, and he needs to train them by his example to be pure and doctrinally dignified, sound in speech and beyond reproach, and so that the opponent will be put to shame. And again, we're on display. Pay no attention to us testing our speakers as we figure this out. All right, let's get into Titus 2.9 and sink down a little bit into what Paul says about slaves. First of all, he starts off with slaves, doulos. It's the stock word for somebody that is owned by another in the Roman system, a doulos. It's just a Greek word. It means slave. If you soften it by saying bondservant, then you're missing the point, I think, very often because, It means that you, even if it's just for a period of time, a seven year bond, you still are owned by that person and you're still their property. And so to our sensibilities, Americans really, because of our founding, if you think about history, because of the founding, not in spite of the founding, because of the founding where we said all men are created equal because of our sensibilities as Americans and our desire for freedom and that heart cry to not be owned by others. And that's really the whole argument in the war for independence. We're English citizens, but they're treating us like slaves. This is unthinkable to us, but that's our sensibility based on our history, and it isn't what the scripture says. The scripture says, if you find somebody that's a slave, and I argue that very likely the majority of the early church in Paul's day was enslaved. This is the lowest caste of society. These are the people, James says, that are rich in faith, rich in faith and marked out to be heirs of the kingdom. And so what Paul says about the slaves is important. He says, live your life for the Lord in your situation. And we've called this your temporal mission context, YTMC, your temporal mission context. And that's, in my understanding, how to think about slaves. Paul is even stronger in 1 Timothy, as we saw on this topic, by saying, if you don't endure these sound words, the words of Jesus, then you're arrogant. You already have a problem. You're already rejecting God. and his word. But this is what the Word of God says. Encourage slaves to be to their own masters, to their own despots, master the word despota, to their own masters, to be submissive or subordinate to hupotasa, to put themselves under. And this is the problem of every human being in life, is that we have authority over us and we have arrogance in us. And our arrogance in us looks at the authority over us and says, I don't like that. And then we say, I don't want to have authority over me in any form, slavery or otherwise. And so I will reject and oppose that authority. And what the Holy Spirit comes in our hearts to do is to restrain We walk by the Spirit. We cannot fulfill the lust of the flesh in Galatians 5.16. So we don't resist authority. We submit to the Lord, who is the author of all authority. And so that's the idea here, is if you find yourself enslaved, this is your lot as a believer in Jesus Christ, under the ministry of God, the Holy Spirit, to subordinate yourself in everything, in all things huerestos, to be pleasing, and not talking back. Now, we're not dealing in a culture that has legal slavery, so you don't have to apply this directly to your situation. But that's its own testament to the wonders of what God has done for us in our history. The world is enslaved. The world knows nothing but mistreatment of human beings. Only those who recognize God's image in the other human are going to think like we tend to. It's interesting that the godless in our culture are using our ethic to destroy the freedoms that have given us our ethic. But I don't want to be a political commentator today. I want to be a Bible teacher. So we're not talking back to our authority. Now, is that a hard thing for some of us to do? Yeah, it's hard to restrain our tongue, especially when we think the boss is dumb and we think we're smart and we know so much better. And, but I said, but I thought, but, but, but, but, but, and this is a problem for all human beings because of their sin nature. And Paul is saying the work of the spirit and the life of the Christian slaves should look like this. You're that good servant that isn't putting up a bunch of opposition. You should be rolling with it and working under the, Now, where would we go in the Bible to see God working in someone's life despite being enslaved? Where is that taught in the Bible as a central story, a central message that really helps us understand God is in it and God is working? Where in the Bible would you go to understand the way God is working despite someone being unfairly enslaved? Yeah, you go to Genesis, the last 10 chapters, you study the life of Joseph. 10, 11 chapters, but then chapter 38 isn't really about Joseph. So 38 and then 40 through 50 is Joseph and God using the unfairness of slavery, promoting Joseph through it to become the top of economic status in that society. And the difference between being a slave or being in prison or being the prime minister of Egypt for Joseph, is the context. His mission didn't change. God's plan for him didn't change. His relationship with God didn't change. His eternal status with God didn't change. And so that's why I call these discussions of slavery and submission to authority, this is helping us to recognize our temporal mission context. All right, in verse 10. What else are they supposed to do? Not stealing by taking a little at a time. This is a specialized word for stealing, but it's been translated pilfering, and that's good. If you understand, this is the little mouse that just grabs one piece at a time and swirls it away. It's the guy that works at the, I heard a silly song once about a guy who worked at a car manufacturer and he took one bolt at a time home and then 13 years later he built a 1972, four, five, six, eight, and nine Cadillac because he had all the parts. that he took home over time. This is pilfering by stealing a little bit at a time. And so this is, see, these are problems that servants will run into, but what's the application for us? One, God doesn't think that if you find yourself enslaved, that your job is to tear down society. It's not a Bible thing. It's not God's view. Second, the next and more indirect application is that if you are under authority, even unfair authority in your work, because that's a slave, that's his labor, it's his employment. If you find yourself under a boss, you can see how morally you should function in your work. And so we'll talk about management and labor. Showing all good faith. But showing all good faith, that's the idea of somebody that's faithful and dependable who is, again, showing just like we heard from Titus needs to show himself an example of good works. You need to be on display even for your master. And here's the way this works. If you find yourself enslaved and you are free in Christ to do God's work and not subject to your sinful nature. If that's your person and your experience, then who is your audience is the only question you'd be asking about how to live out the gospel, how to represent Christ as an excellent beneficiary of his grace, who's received all the things of Ephesians 1, 3 through 14. You have the Holy Spirit in you. Yeah, you're enslaved. That's your temporal mission context. The point is, other slaves around you can come to Christ because of your example. The masters can come to Christ through your example. The owner, the house owner, and then the subordinates under them can all watch and observe, and they do, and they will. And as you are promoted, the people under you will see it. And so it doesn't matter, for God's perspective, for Paul's teaching, it doesn't matter your economic circumstance, because the real economics is the judgment seat of Christ. The real payday is the recompense for the works done in the body in 2 Corinthians 5.10. So we're not worried about the temporal. And that's hard to get a hold of. And again, Marx knew that. And that's why he, in a paraphrase, said that the religion is the opiate of the masses. You won't worry about your temporal circumstance because you're looking for your reward in heaven. storing up treasures in heaven. And that's not to put us out of excellence in our work. It's not to say we shouldn't be making a living or providing for our families or even making money. It has nothing to do with the rejection of that wonderful goal of having, as Paul says, working hard with your hands so you have something to share with others. What this means though, is that it's not your life. Your life is the ministry that God has commended to you. And so these people are to show all good faith. And then this is why, and this is why I'm preaching this, so that they may cosmeo. Cosmeo. K-O-S-M. Do you see the K-O-S and then the upside down, the little U thing? That's really an M. Cosmosin is the contextual form for cosmeo, K-O-S-M-E-O. It's where you get the word cosmetics. And it doesn't mean that you're putting makeup on something, but it does mean you're adorning it. You're making it attractive. That's the idea. Adorning the doctrine of God our Savior in everything. But I'm not a pastor, so I don't have any role. I'm just a lowly slave. Well, Paul says you are adorning the doctrine, the teaching of God our Savior in your work if you're doing it this way. And so again, the summary of the New Testament teaching, whether it's Ephesians 5 or Colossians 3, or Titus 2, or 1 Timothy 2, or Titus 2, the summary teaching on slavery is if you find yourself enslaved, then you need to recognize that you're God's free man. And if you're free and you're not enslaved, recognize you're God's bondservant. And the point is that your life isn't about your 70 or 80 or 90 years of temporal experience and your job. It's hard to accept. And for some of us, it'll be hard to get up in the morning on Monday and go do a good job at work because we're workaholics and we just want to work for the work's sake. this is a little bit of a switch. It's a little, it's a little bit of a change of attitude that I'm working for God's sake and I'm thanking him for the work and I'm thanking him for the enjoyment I get from it. And you just bring God into that. If you're a worker, if you're not a worker, if you struggle with work, if work is a, is an affirm, it's a four letter word to you. Again, God helped me with this. You've put me in this life to be a laborer, a workman that needs not be ashamed. So help me, help me enjoy it. Help me find the joy of my salvation in the work you've given me. It's about God. So let me put it together. Encourage slaves to their own masters to be subordinate and all things to be pleasing, not talking back, not stealing, but showing all good faith so that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our savior and everything. I just solved the problem of slavery. See, the secular project is to eradicate all the evils from the world. so that then we can finally be free. But if every human being was fully autonomous, fully funded, fully capable of living every day without worry of want or opposition or oppression from other humans, if every human being just lived in a bubble and it wasn't isolated, you were able to be around other human beings, but there was no oppression, There was no warfare. There was no famine. There was no lack. If you lived in that Star Trek, the next generation utopian society that the sci-fi people want there to be. The Bible shows us that you would still be struggling with your own sin nature. Your sin nature would rub up against other people's sinful natures. And unless there was some sort of overpowering despot to force the peace with a rod of iron, breaking the nations like earthenware, it would go to war and hell on earth very quickly. And that's the millennial kingdom that we're looking for. the next phase, okay, after the conclusion of this age. and the seven years of Jacob's trouble, there is the coming of Christ to set up his kingdom. And for a thousand years, humans with sinful natures will be ruled by Jesus in perfect environment with no warfare, no damage from the nature. There won't be, I contend poison ivy will have run its course, right? The earth is no longer attacking us, it's just us. And this thousand year reign of Christ in Revelation 20 ends in rebellion against the Lord Jesus Christ. And that rebellion is quickly put down and will then usher in the great white throne judgment. My point is, our job in this life is not to rearrange the economic furniture. There's nothing wrong with telling slaves to be good at their job. But it will be hate speech to say that now because of our myopic, ahistorical approach to life and whatever I want is moral and the way our culture is today. But you have to basically stand in judgment of the culture when it rejects the Word of God. And my point is not that slavery is good. Paul says, seek freedom if you can. My point is that slavery or a freedom or economic circumstance, these are not your life. Your life is your savior. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And so in this life, you're going to have trouble. Paul says that about marriage. In this life, you're going to have trouble. But the point is you have work to do. That's what your time is for. And so reckoning that And part of what I'm showing you in saying this is Paul is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. The same things Jesus said about treasure in Matthew 6, Paul is instructing here by saying it's not about getting economically free, it's about being excellent in your work for God's sake. Now, why would I say that there are economics to being a good slave? Why would I say there's an economic recompense for the slave doing good work as unto the Lord? Well, I would say it because I read it from the Apostle Paul in Colossians chapter three and verse 24, which I'll just grab real quick. The slaves are to obey those of their masters, in verse 22, but in verse 24, knowing that from the Lord, you'll receive the reward, the misthos, of the inheritance, the cleronimia. You'll receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. It is economically to the slaves' greatest advantage eternally to do what God is saying toward his authority for the gospel's sake. Well, I'm not Paul and I'm not Apollos, so I really can't be part of this building project of making disciples that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 3, when he says the building project is Apollos watered. I planted Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth and we're building with these materials. I can't be part of the building project. I'm not a builder. Right here, even the lowly slave is a builder. by what he says that they're adorning the doctrine of God, our Savior. They're the finished carpenters on the project, right? They're adorning the teaching. So what? In verses 11 through 15, Paul says, the new American standard for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age. looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. These things, Titus, you speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you." So we've had basically a third household code from Paul, Ephesians 5, Colossians 3, now Titus 2. This is the household of the church family. It's the church household. So like in 1 Peter 1 Timothy 3. And he says that the gospel and the word of God is the bigger context for these instructions. For, literally, it has appeared. We start with a passive verb, it has appeared. And then we have the subject of what has appeared, the grace of God. And then we have an interesting second position, attributive adjective, the soteria, the salvific. to all mankind. And this is a hard verse, and there are basically two ways it's been translated, and I'll show them to you. If you're looking at a King James or a New King James, and this is not an instance of different manuscript backgrounds, like Texas Receptus versus Alexandria. It's not that. It's a difference in philosophy of translation, really. Now watch this. It has appeared, that's the verb, the grace of God has appeared, and then an adjective describing the grace of God, the saving, and then possine, to all mankind. Now, one way to take that is the saving to all mankind grace of God has appeared, and that's how all the modern, the more recent translations take it. New American Standard, Darby did it, New King, or not New King James, ESV, Holman Christian Standard, the updated Christian Standard Bible, everyone does it this way. They say that the word saving is an adjective describing grace, but it is also describing the accusative, I'm sorry, the dative to all mankind. To all mankind is in the dative case, and you may not know what that means, but that's okay. And so they're saying that it's a double adjective. It's describing the grace of God, and then it's also describing who it's for, for all mankind. And so the saving to all mankind grace of God has appeared. And it has, and that's true, but I don't think that's what Paul's saying. The reason they do it is because, watch right here, because these two words, to all mankind, follow the word saving or salvific. These two words follow it. And so they think by the position in the sentence that that makes it what is connected. But that's really not always necessarily how Greek works. Here's the other way, for the saving grace of God has appeared to all mankind. Here's what I think it is. I think it is the saving grace has appeared to all mankind. And it's obviously that the word to all mankind is talking about the word appeared, to whom it has appeared. Meaning the gospel offer is universal. It's to everyone. And that seems to be Paul's emphasis. It has appeared. He puts it in the front of the sentence. The recipients of this appearing are all people. How? The great commission to all mankind. And this is God's saving grace that has appeared to all mankind. This is my translation. For the saving grace of God has appeared to all mankind. Which by the way, people have tried the other way. They say it makes for universalism, that all people are saved whether they believe or not. And that's not even an argument because it's not even what he says. It's not the saving of all mankind grace has appeared. It's that the saving grace of God has appeared to all mankind. And the reason I think that is because what comes next in verse 12, training us, you have to interpret the participle, but it starts with training us so that, what is the grace of God? Train us. It trains us so that after denying impiety and the worldly lusts, a lot of people think Christianity is what we don't do. Well, what we don't do is a paragraph in the question of what is Christianity. There is what we don't do. And piety is basically the opposite of godly. It's bad worship, not worshipful toward God. Piety or godliness is a reference to worshiping God appropriately, living a life of worship and the worldly lust. This is the sin nature in man and the world's system calling to it. attracting us to disobey our creator. But these things, the grace of God trains us so that after denying impiety and the worldly lusts, sound-mindedly, adverb first, and righteously, and worshipfully, what? So that we may live in this present age. Now I've put it in Greek order, and that makes it hard to read because we don't read things in this kind of order, but the Greek person has no problem reading it this way. But I just wanna show you what's highlighted. The word or the grace of God, as it appeared to all men, trains us so that we may live in this present age the way God wants us to. Now, the grace of God is training us so that we may live in this present age sound-mindedly, righteously, worshipfully, having put away in piety and worldly lusts, the way God wants us to. The grace of God trains us so that we can live the way God wants us to. This is the opposite of the sacramental view of grace, that grace is occasioned on you doing pious things. that you do what's right, what's the good thing, and then God dispenses a measure of grace, the seven hoops. I'm sorry, that's somewhat offensive. The seven sacraments and the sacramental systems that say you have to do these things that impart measures of grace to you. And by doing the pious thing, you get grace. the grace. And so once you have enough grace accrued, there's a line. And once you get above the line, you don't have to go to purgatory. You go, you get right in because grace has been accrued to you. It's the opposite where in that view, in that frame, grace has become merit for work performed. Now the grace of God that we've received, which is Jesus died for your sins without you doing anything about your sins. The grace of God has appeared for us and it trains us Because of the grace we've received, you have it. It trains you to walk as you should. Because you already have the grace of God, there is the obvious reciprocation of how you live in gratitude. In fact, we get the word gratitude from the same word, we get the word grace. Someone gives you something, so being the recipient, you are grateful, and that's what grace does. When God heaps his wondrous blessing of his son on you, and you live your life where, irrelevant, eventually, You will either just end up with a seared conscience and the sin unto death, or you will catch for a second and say, wait a second, what has God done for me? And what does that call out in me in my response of love to him? That's what he's saying that the grace of God trains you to do. Because after denying impiety and worldly lusts, we live in this present age, sound minded, righteous, and worshipful. So for the saving grace of God has appeared to all mankind with the result that it's training us. And by the way, verses 11 through 15 are a long sentence. It's very challenging. And I know it's involved, but that's Paul. And that's what we signed up for. We wanted to read the Bible. With the result that this grace of God is training us so that after denying impiety and the worldly lusts, we may live so that we may live sound-mindedly, righteously, and worshipfully in the present age. That is a big bite of doctrine to chew on, but we're surveying, so let's keep going. In verse 13, he continues the participles. He says, while we're looking forward, this word, prostechemi, is to look forward to, to anticipate, almost to live on your tiptoes. I'm welcoming this. Come on, let's have it. Even so, come Lord Jesus. While we're looking forward to, with anticipation, the blessed hope, the blessed hope and appearing, Do you see this word? Epiphaneia, epiphany, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, what all doctrines are addressed here, just let's catalog them. The coming of Christ, that it is our only hope, it is our blessed hope, so we're future-oriented believers in our hope. Remember the three things that have to be there for there to be hope. It has to be an expectation. The basis of that hope has to be something that we can expect in, like the promises of God, and it is future-oriented. You don't have it yet, it's future. That is what hope is in the Bible, and the ultimate hope, our blessed hope, is the glory, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so again, let's look at the doctrines. You've got the doctrine of Christian hope. You've got the doctrine of the appearing of Christ. You've got the deity of Christ because he's called in Titus 2.13, our great God and savior. I had a friend that doesn't believe in the deity of Christ. Well, he's not of the same essence as the father. He calls that philosopher's religion. And he'll say, well, yeah, right there, he's God to me, our God. He's God to me, little g, but he's not God of the same essence as the father. And so if you're like me, that just rings really flat. How you got that from this was wanting it. You had decided beforehand. But Jesus Christ is the God who we worship, but we worship one God in three persons. He's God the Son, the second person of the Trinity. And so here he's called our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Titus 2.13 is one of those verses you have to deal with when you're putting together the doctrine of God, that somehow our Savior Jesus Christ is of the same essence as the Father. And verse four, now we'll put it together. For the saving grace of God has appeared to all mankind, that's verse 11, with the result that it's training us so that after denying impiety and the worldly lusts, we may live sound-mindedly and righteously and worshipfully in this present age. while looking forward to the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Y'all are seeing why from Titus 2, 11 through 13. This is why systematic theology. This is why we break it into pieces and figure out categories, because just think about this pile of information he just gave us. It's beautifully arranged. And we've had to make some interpretive decisions. You have to figure out how the participles are modifying previous clauses. And I think this is a result participle. I think this is a temporal participle. I think this is also temporal, why we're looking for. But in doing this, there is a book of doctrine to be written about the Christian life. based on the grace of God. The grace of God has appeared and it trains us to live like we should while we wait for our savior. Now I can say something simple like that and put it in a postage stamp. It's really simple, really short. But if you, this is how the word of God works. If you meditate on this, it changes your life. We can read through kind of as we're doing, or we can work and think and reflect on it. And this is a survey. But we're not done with the sentence because now we have relative clause, so you would put comma who in the next line, who gave himself as a substitute for us. I've translated who pair plus the genitive of Hamon, of Hamas, of Sioux, the first person pronoun. Huppert plus the genitive translated here, us, is very often used in the concept of substitution. And I think it's important to bring that out because the biblical doctrine of the substitutionary tone of Christ is under attack. What does it mean that he gave himself for us? Well, it can't mean that he gave himself for us as an example, unless he specifically says so. He gave us himself in our place is what the grammar seems to say. He gave himself for us in the sense of in our place. So that, what? He might do this word. He might redeem us. So that he would redeem us. Another consequence statement from what he did. He gave himself for us so that he would redeem us from all anomia. Anomia, all lawlessness. All lawlessness defined as that which contradicts the character of God here. And That's the negative, he would redeem us from lawlessness, but on the positive, he would cleanse himself. He would cleanse for himself. He would katharizo, cleanse unto himself a people for himself, zealous for kolon, for beautiful works, for works that are attractive. This is why he did it. Okay? He did this so that he would redeem us from sin and that he would cleanse us for his possession, a people zealous for good works. Now I think verse 14 recapitulates what we have in verse 11, the grace of God has appeared. The grace of God, the saving grace of God has appeared to all men. And in verse 12, teaching us how to live in a way that pleases him. In verse 13, waiting for Jesus for the blessed hope. So now we get to verse 14, Jesus who gave himself as a substitute so that we would, full circle, live that life that his grace has set us up to live. Zealous for good works. In other words, twice now in this paragraph, Titus has emphasized that grace first works second. Grace first, the works that come from that grace are a derivative of the grace. They're lived out because of the grace. It's Philippians 2.13, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For God is working in you both to want and to do what pleases him. He doesn't say work up your salvation or work for your salvation. He says, you have it, work it out, live it out. And so that's what this grace is doing, it's grace first. It is the Red Sea Deliverance first, and then it is the instructions of Mount Sinai that sanctify them second. To give you a biblical example of this pattern, it is the grace of God that trains us, we already have it, and then it teaches us to live in accordance with it. So in other words, Titus 2, 11 through 15, give us great instruction on living out the grace of God. See, when you read through this passage, you don't think about it, words jump out at you. You're not putting together the relationship of the clauses to one another in the reasoning process like I'm trying to do with you. That's called exegesis. You're not thinking that through necessarily. I mean, I pray that you are, but a lot of times we're reading along and we're not kind of grasping the full depth of what he's saying, but words will jump out at us. And you get that last phrase, zealous for good works. There you go. We're just supposed to be doing good works. Well, yeah, we are. That's one description that Paul gives of the life that God gave us. That we would walk in the works he prepared for us. That's Ephesians 2.10. A description of this life is works. But understanding the way our works relate to our salvation is very important. And so I'm thankful for the opportunity to bring that out today. If you have Christ, then you have been made new in Christ as by God's design, a workman specially equipped by God with special equipment, special enablement to do his work. Now, it doesn't mean that you are doing that work. That's why the New Testament is constantly inducing us, encouraging us to be about our Father's business. So why did Jesus give himself as a substitute for us in verse 14? He gives you two reasons. He says so that he would cleanse us, he would redeem us, buy us out of slavery to all lawlessness. He would break the power of sin, it's hold on us by dying for our sins. And that death applied to us breaks the power of our sin nature over us. But then, It's not just the negative. It's not just getting rid of that problem. It's a positive. He would cleanse for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. Cleanse to set you apart. I will illustrate this idea with Isaiah chapter six. In Isaiah six, you have the first word of God to Isaiah portrayed in narrative. And you can say, wait a second, Isaiah six comes after chapter one through five. Isaiah chapter six is the throne room scene where Isaiah is commissioned to be God's prophet who will speak for me, I'll go, says Isaiah. So how can you say Isaiah six is the first word that God got hold of Isaiah with? I can say that because of the arrangement of Isaiah chapters one through 12. It's a center seeking arrangement focusing on chapter six and arguably chapter seven, Isaiah six, the throne room scene. When Isaiah is commissioned to serve God, he benefits from God's grace. First of all, in several ways, the first way is that he sees the glory of God and it breaks him because he sees the difference between God's righteousness and his sinfulness. And that's the grace of God to him to see that. We can go about in our lives with our little blinders on and never think about the righteousness of God or about his expectations for us or how we differ from these things. But if God tears those blinders off, and as a heavenly surgeon does a wonder for us where we see the difference between me and God, something of the difference, that's grace to us. It hurts. It's surgery, but it's grace. Because I didn't have that unless he gave me that. So Isaiah sees the glory of God, and he says, woe is me for I'm ruined, for I've seen the Holy One of Israel. That's God's grace. But what else is God's grace? Isaiah then, based on what he has observed, has it in himself to confess his sin. I live among, I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. Isaiah functions almost as a priest there, interceding for the people, confessing the sins of his people after confessing his own. And then you know what happens? More grace. One of the angels that's glorifying God goes to the heavenly throne room's incense altar, grabs a coal from the altar with the tongs, comes and sears it on Isaiah's lips. And that's the grace of God. It's also a vision, it's a figure, but what is this, what's happening? The angel says to him, this has touched your lips and you are cleansed. Isaiah confessed his sins, an angel did something with Cole, and then he told him he was cleansed from his sin. That's God's grace. Isaiah doesn't deserve for his sins to be cleansed. He deserves to be wallowing in his sin and separated from God, at least in his experience. But the angel says, you've been cleaned, cleansed by this coal. So what? Obviously the picture is that God is calling his prophet, one who will speak for him, the little miniature Bible, 39 chapters of judgment, basically, and this is an oversimplification, but 27 chapters of comfort. The little miniature Bible, 66 chapters in Isaiah. He's gonna speak for God, not as long as Jeremiah and Lamentations, but almost as long. He's one of the great spokesmen for God. And now the point at which he sinned that's been cleansed is fit for service because he's cleansed, he's clean. And so then God says, who will go for us? Who will be a messenger for us? And Isaiah says, I'll go. Does he deserve to go speak for God? No, no human being does except Jesus Christ, the God-man, born of the virgin, without sin, never having experienced personal sin. He's the only one who deserves. what we receive in grace. He deserves it. It is his message and it's his privilege to carry that message. But God makes Isaiah fit for it. He doesn't deserve it, but he is made able. This is the grace of God. Whether it's seeing the difference and seeing your problem of sin and being prompted to confess it, whether it's the cleansing you receive from that or the commission to go and speak for God, It's God's grace from beginning to end. And then Isaiah went through a lifetime of ministry. And I believe Hebrews 11 says he was sawn in half for his trouble. At the conclusion of Isaiah's works, when his time on this life was done, he was sawn in half according to Isaiah. the writer of Hebrews, at least one of the prophets was, and this would have been under, I believe, Manasseh. Very interesting the way God can take what is broken and make something eternally significant of it, like the life and ministry of Isaiah. I would use this as an example for you to see why Jesus gave himself a substitute for us. so that he would redeem us. Well, that's good. I'm not sinful. At least I'm not in my sin anymore. I'm not identified with my sin and it's penalty. That's right. But what else? That he would cleanse you and you being his own possession, you would be, because of this grace that's teaching you that you've received, you would be zealous for beautiful work. You would be desirous to do the work that God has for you to do in the power of God, the Holy Spirit that he's provided for you to do it. These things speak, laleo, speak, and parakaleo, encourage or urge, come alongside. The main word Paul uses for what we do in ministry for one another. It's what Jesus said he was going to do to send another paraclete, the Holy Spirit, that would walk alongside them. And this is now how Paul describes the ministry we have for one another. We encourage, often translated encourage or urge or comfort, to come alongside and bring encouragement. Speak and encourage and elego. I translated this exposit, my Bible says, reprove, because it could have a negative connotation. Reprove means make a correction. But it could also mean to just expose it, to make these things manifest. And so, He's using synonyms for speak. Speak, encourage, reprove, or exposit with all authority. This word epitage is related to the word to command. You could translate it with all command, with all dogmatic authoritative instruction. This is why we say this is how it is and not this is how I think it is when we teach the word of God. Now he doesn't say, and so you have license to kick the pulpit over. to pound the pulpit until people are scared, to scream them into submission. He doesn't say any of that. He just says, this is the word of God, and this is the way we need to live, and so you need to insist on it. And this is how we should all be. We should all be insistent that the grace of God is teaching us. The grace that we've received through the gospel of Jesus Christ is teaching us to live the way God wants us to live. And when it says godly, when it says with all piety, when it says that, it's talking about not being a good boy and making sure that you tuck your shirt in or all the things that good boys do. It's saying you're relating to him as he wants you to. It's talking about being in a personal rapport with him. That's, I have to emphasize that as we close. This is meaningless if it's a set of rules. It's meaningless if it's a set of I don't do's and I do do's. If it's a personal rapport with him because he's opened the door to this relationship, and that's his grace, and that opening of himself to you is teaching you to live pleasing to him, then you're understanding the relationship that the Apostle Paul, Apostle of Jesus Christ, is training us to engage in. And then he gives a third person imperative, peripheral to look down upon or to disdain or even disregard. And it's, my English Bible says, let no one disregard you. The difference between no one is to disregard you and let no one disregard you is kind of a difference between me being a little more hands-on or aggressive with you or just saying, this is how it is. Now, this is what's great about Preston City Bible Church. There's one reason that you're here. It's the same reason that I'm here and that those go together. It's because we believe that God's word is the source material for our spiritual lives. We believe that we know him because he's told us of himself and his word, and that's where the power of our spiritual lives is. And we want a relationship with God on God's terms, according to what he's said. You've noticed, we talked about seminary in the prayer time earlier. The seminary exists because the Bible was written in Greek in the New Testament, including the Gospel of Matthew. Without any question, the manuscript evidence is settled throughout all of church history. The Gospel of Matthew is in Greek. I know we had a guy say that it was written in Hebrew. We don't have a good manuscript evidence at all of a Hebrew Matthew. We don't. What we have is thousands of Greek manuscripts that agree for Matthew. The Bible is written in Greek in the New Testament and Hebrew in the Old Testament, except for a very small handful of verses that you could take someone through in just a few hours of translation that are in Aramaic. If you do it in English, it's just a couple of minutes. That's not 50 verses of the Old Testament that are written in Aramaic, I think. It's, well, it's not 10 chapters, I'll say that. A chunk of Daniel, a little bit of Ezekiel. The point is that the Bible's hard. I haven't meant to make it hard this morning, but I hope this long sentence and all these related participles that you can see, this is involved. If you really want to dig in this, if you really want to understand it, you have to dig. And so, What are we doing here? We're studying the text to know God, to worship him on his terms. And so what's our summary conclusion? Today, the summary of what we've said is, the grace of God is our teacher. You've already received it. And reflecting on it should constantly be inducing you to this relationship that God called you to. Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill, Luther said, God's truth abides still. This is how to think about your life. And if you will, by God's grace, your moment by moment walk with him, your daily work at work, your interactions with other people, these take on eternal significance. They take on eternal significance because they are representing, they are adorning the grace and the doctrine of God. Our Father, we thank you for this eternal life that we've enjoyed today by thinking through some challenging material from the Apostle Paul and his reasoning process where he has a long sentence with a lot of biblical doctrine in it. We thank you that the grace of God is indeed our teacher. It's instructing us to live the way you want us to. Father, there are entanglements, there are the sin that so easily entangles us and all kinds of distractions that drive away our joy. and our love for you just by function of attention, just by taking our attention away. And I pray that you will strengthen us to constantly draw our attention back to the things above where Christ is seated at your right hand. For we walk by faith, not by sight in this life, and it's challenging because there's so much to see. We recognize it's all part of the playpen and it's many distractions. And we're looking for the blessed hope, the glory, the appearing of our savior. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.