Titus lesson 8 continued from Q. 4

So let's read our verses before we start, just to refresh our memories on where we are at. This is Lesson 8, continued, and we're in a two-verse block, Titus Chapter 2, Verses 11 and 12, and it has really neat key verses in the middle of Titus. It says, 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. And it continues into verse 13, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. I'd have to add on verse 13 because it's just so glorious, you know, the appearing of our God and Savior Christ Jesus.

That's a powerful statement. But there's a lot packed into verses 11 and 12, and that's why we're here for three weeks already just on these verses. We finished off with question four, what came with the appearance of grace? And we talked about that a bit. And we said that, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.

What's interesting, and I can't remember if I mentioned this last time or not, but has appeared is the only verb in that sentence. Bringing isn't really there in the Greek. Salvation is actually an adjective modifying the noun grace. So, you could render that sentence, for the grace of God has appeared, dash, salvation to all men. So, salvation is modifying grace. Does that kind of make sense? It's really kind of an interesting thing, right?

Grace hasn't brought salvation. Grace is salvation. So, and it's to all men, which means that there's no one who, you know, who couldn't be saved. There's no one outside of that grace whose sin hasn't been dealt with. But it must be received. It must be received.

So, let's look at question number five. What does verse 12 mean by grace is an instructor? So, starting into verse 12 now. So, two weeks on verse 11, and we'll see. Verse 12. What does verse 12 mean by grace is an instructor? Everyone clear on how that connects there? The grace of God has appeared. We said, dash, salvation of all men, comma, instructing us to deny ungodliness. So, it's grace that is instructing. The word there behind instructor is Pai da Uwo. It's related to our word pedagogue or pedagogy. And it's a child training word. It means to educate, correct, or discipline.

So this is an important question. It's an interesting question. Because we could kind of ask, if Grace is instructing us, what can Grace teach us? Now, the verse continues on, right, instructing us to dot, dot, dot, dot, you know, we got an itemized list there. And so we could answer this question by saying, what is grace instructing us, you know? And you could give that list, but we want to kind of understand this. Turn to Romans 11, verse 6, because I want to ask the question, can grace teach us to work? This is a really, really hot-button issue. But I want to look at it in light of Romans 11, verse 6. It was there. Does someone want to read it?

But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. Yeah. I remember listening to Chester McCauley's four tapes on grace, and he made an interesting point. Nobody understands what grace is unless they're taught. So he emphasized that the teachings of grace are so important in the curriculum of the body of Christ because there isn't anything in the world system or in sin that would teach you about grace. So we've got to learn it. And that's the big problem, I think, with reformed churches is they don't teach grace because they don't know what it is. And so the default position is to, in some manner, to put the believer under some sort of a performance system, which is a work system, which is not grace. Yeah. Yeah.

One of the ways that I kind of think about the way Reformed teachers often teach grace is that it's the, it's kind of the mop-up rag for where I you know, where I can't, you know, I just, I can't quite pull it off. And, and we need a little bit of grace to, to, to clean up those areas where I'm, where I'm imperfect, though I'm pretty close, but, but, you know, but where, where I don't quite measure up, I need a little bit of grace. Um, it is kind of, it's kind of the way it often comes across, you know, they would never probably express it quite like that, but, um, but that's often how grace is, is looked at. Um, Or, you know, grace is often looked at the other side of the way they would view grace or teach grace, is that grace is the Lord, the Holy Spirit, you know, helping me to carry out good works.

And that misses the mark as well. The Lord isn't about helping the old man to be better. He's not about self-improvement projects, right? So then how can grace teach us? Because I think this passage could easily be taken. Actually, we are getting into question six now. I'll hold that thought for a second. But let's just say this.

I think the only response that is consistent with grace is a response of faith. The only response that is consistent with grace is a response of faith. Therefore, if grace is teaching us something, it has to be something that we respond to by faith, not by works. So, grace teaches us what God has done, and we are simply to accept that by faith. So, in terms of what grace is teaching us as believers, as those who are saved, we're to come to understand what this life is. And it's the life of Christ. It's not I, but Christ. And I am to reckon myself to be dead, to everything of the world, of the flesh, and to count on the fact that there's this new life operating in me.

And that's something that I can accept by faith. That's not something I can work for, though. Right? I can't work that up, but I can accept that by faith. And so if grace has taught me something, as a believer, I think it's along those lines. One thing that... I'm writing a note. The question that came to mind, that grace is not I can say that grace is not do as I please. And so therefore, if it isn't that, then there must be principles involved in how grace works.

And sometimes there's a confusion or a misrepresentation between a law and a principle. You know, a statute a law, a statute that says if I catch you going over 30 miles an hour, I'm going to stop you and you're going to get a ticket and you're going to have to pay a fine. You know, if I violate bigger laws, there's always a consequence to be paid, either an atonement or, you know, where a principle An operating principle is something that's inherent in what you're talking about and it works and functions the same way every time, like gravity. You know, if I drop something, it's going to hit the floor.

Why? Because it's operating under the principle Well, it's the same thing with grace. Grace has principles and it operates a certain way. And one of the things that I need to be instructed about as a believer, well, what are those principles and how does this operate? Like raising up a child, he's got to know what the principles are of his stature in the family. what's expected of him and not expected of him. And although children are under more law than they are grace, but as they get older, they begin to be educated about grace if they're believers. And they recognize that the principles of grace are just as motivating, maybe even more so than a law ever could be. Would you say that a principle of grace is a response to understanding who the Lord is and what he's done? Yeah, that's pretty good. I think grace always starts with God's unmerited favor.

It's based on the principle of the cross. I mean, I don't operate in the dress of these verses because I understand that's a principle that I do it. The reason I respond is because I'm overwhelmed by what the Lord Jesus has done for me and to me, and as I grow in Him, I find that I am doing these things. Would that be unreasonable? Well, yeah, I think that's okay.

The definition here, or grace has appeared to instruct us, and the first thing is to deny ungodliness. Well, I got to learn what ungodliness is and what godliness is, and how does denying that play into the principles of grace? Well, the denial of ungodliness means that it's not of the one who is grace. Does that make sense? Yeah. It's, it's, it's the ungodliness is, is, how do you say that Mike? The ungodliness is not, um, uh, of the one who is grace and, and we are, um, and we are now of him.

Let's look at question number six. Why don't we turn to Romans, if you're still in Romans, just flip back to Romans 4 verse 5. Where we'll see question number six says, what is the first thing that grace teaches us? Now in our Titus text, it says, as we've moved into already, teaching us or instructing us to deny ungodliness. And Romans 4 verse 5 is quite, where are we now?

Someone want to read that one out? But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justified the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. Yeah. I know Newell in his Romans, man, when he gets to that verse, he seems to get pretty excited, and we should.

You know, God declared you and I righteous while we were ungodly. And on what basis could God do that? When I got to this verse with our Bible study here, I said, doesn't that sound to you like lying? You know, if something is, you know, is ungodly and you declare it righteous, you know, that's a lie unless there is some basis for it. Unless there's some basis for it.

And that's what we're talking about in Titus when we say the grace of God has appeared and it is And it is Christ Jesus, right? On the basis of who He is and what He's done, God can declare us who are ungodly righteous by faith. And I just wrote down the question, if God has declared us righteous rather than ungodly, can't we do the same now as believers? We could say that God Himself has denied your ungodliness as a positional fact. He has declared you righteous, and when we bring it back to this this way of thinking about it, we understand the basis of that declaration of righteousness, that declaration of denying our ungodliness.

You know, most people would read through that verse and take it very easily as just, you know, try to stop being bad. You know, try ungodliness. You've got to try to stop being bad. You know, stop being ungodly. The reality is that we can't. We weren't able to save ourselves, you know, and we're not able to. in our walk. So to just say, oh, you know, deny ungodliness, if we take that as stop being bad, no, we can't just do that. We have to recognize the basis for that, the ground of that. And that is in Christ Jesus and in our union with Him in His righteous life so that we can accept that.

And this comes back to accepting that by faith, right? Well, this verse is interesting because it names the one thing that man can do that isn't a work. And that's belief. Because all of the value in believing is in who and what I believe in. I can't go to God and I can't pump up faith. I can't make a work out of faith. You know, so much of Christianity when it comes to presenting the gospel is based on repentance and all this and asking God to forgive us and all this other nonsense, rather than just say, all you have to do is believe in the person and work of Christ. He did it all. And he does it, you don't have to add anything to it. And by the way, your faith accrues to you all the benefits of the resurrected Christ. And you have nothing to do with that. It's free.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, let's say we were born by faith and we live, we walk by faith. Right. And that's hard. That's what makes it so difficult, I think, to learn, because from the time we're born to the time we become a believer and we live, like it or not, under some sort of a law system, cultural mores, whatever it is, I have to perform in order to get. And then you're introduced to the grace of God which is, well, I did everything, all you have to do is believe me.

That doesn't make any sense to the natural man. Well, I think we should connect this denying ungodliness and worldly desires together. I don't know enough about the grammar here, or have looked into it enough to know if that denying is attached to both. When we get to question 8, we'll talk about what worldly desires are. But, you know, ask, you know, how many sermons or, you know, messages have you heard that basically tell you, well, just deny your desires, you know, and, you know, start being godly.

You know, that whole kind of mindset is wrapped up in so much of church teaching and theology. The only good thing about teaching that is that if you believe it and you try hard enough, you'll eventually get to the end of your rope. I mean, that was my experience. I believe that strongly enough that I thought, okay, you know, I can and I will, you know, make myself godly. I will, you know, do all these things. And man, I did hit the end of that rope.

And it allows you to see grace by strong contrast to works. But I think that really highlights that this is not something that we can do. You can't just bootstrap denying ungodliness and worldly desires. It has to be something that we accept by faith. I had a friend years ago who told me one day, we were talking about this subject, and he said, well, when you get to the end of your rope, you find out that the end is tied to the beginning.

Yeah. Yeah. So here we go again. Yeah. Yeah. Can you clarify? It seems like when Paul says, shall we sin that grace may abate. creatures do, we are able to have a more pure life by the power that God gives us, right? Yeah. Okay. I think you were cutting up a little bit there, Russ, but I think I caught the gist of it. The, that we, that we are able to, you referenced the verse, shall we sin that grace may abound? That's, that was the scripture I heard you quoting there. Yeah. Okay. And, um, okay.

And that we are able to, or, or we, I think this is kind of the way you said it, are able to, to live a more godly life. Was that kind of the way you said that? Right, as new creatures in Christ. As new creatures, yeah, yeah. Now that's, yeah, okay. We could probably spend a little time on that. You know, I think it can sound like It can maybe sound a little bit like splitting hairs or, you know, but sometimes I hear, you know, guys teaching, well, you're a new creation. Therefore, go out and act like it.

And so they've read a piece of scripture that tells them they're a new creation, but they don't understand yet the reality of what that is. The new creature is not the old man renovated and just with a little bit of extra power to do better. This new creation has to do with the crucifixion, the death of us to our old nature. And so, you know, sometimes when, you know, when grace is emphasized, and yet the co-crucifixion death and resurrection isn't understood, people can come out saying that, well, then I'll go on, you know, go on sinning all I want, you know, sins that grace may increase.

And that's why Paul deals with that there in Romans 6. That's what he gets into is the fact that, you know, grace doesn't just mean that your sins are paid for. Grace also means that you've been taken down into death with the Lord Jesus, so that you have his life. In union with him, his life is your life.

And that is to be the source out of which this righteous living, however we termed it there, holiness or whatever, is to be coming from. I don't know if that's clarified anything or not. I would add one thing to that, and that is the grace of God appearing, appeared in the person of Christ. And so the issue is, I have eternal life, but John 17 says that this is eternal life that you know me and the one who sent me. So pretty quickly within the writing of the New Testament, there's a marriage between knowing intimately the Lord Jesus Christ and functioning under grace.

You can't do one without the other. It's like an example of a marriage. Why am I faithful to my wife? Because I love her and I know her and I want to do it. I didn't have, nobody gave me the list on the refrigerator that said today you're going to do this and this and this and this. You just do.

So as we grow in the knowledge and intimacy of Christ, then grace begins to be the teacher and we begin to learn Oh, this is how it works. It's all connected with the person of the glorified Christ in whom I belong to, who I am in, and he's knowable right now. And by knowing him, I'm motivated by who he is, you know. In other words, he wins over my heart and I don't want to do anything that's not like him, which can be termed ungodliness. Yeah. For sure. Yeah, thanks. Let's look at question number seven, where we ask, what is ungodliness, or define ungodliness? That might be helpful to this conversation.

The Greek word is, I wrote down the two roots, I actually don't have, I don't know if this is, I think this is full. Sebo, if I'm saying that right. So, when you see a Greek word with the alpha prefix, that's often a negation. So, a would mean, could be translated here, without, and sebo could be translated worship, perhaps.

It is it's actually the negation of the word godly later in the verse. So we have, um, live soberly, sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age. And this is just the reverse, ah, ah, sabo. Um, so, um, and, uh, and one way it was defined was that it's a lack of, um, a lack of reverence for the Lord and who He is. And that's why that word is kind of related to worship there, and that's where you get that sort of definition from, which is a little bit different, perhaps, than simply what we would tend to look at ungodliness and say, well, it's just, you know, immorality or, you know, madness. But the way that I think this, and this might come from Mike's notes, this is basically a human viewpoint.

This is denying God and His Word. And it's the opposite of God-consciousness. I know, I think listening to Ron Merriman, he'd often talk about human viewpoint, divine viewpoint. I know that was Charlie Clough, often used that phraseology, human viewpoint, divine viewpoint. And there's something in that, you know, when we fail to see things and look at things the way God sees things, we're denying Him. Because He is truth, the way that He sees things is right.

And when we fail to do that, we are failing to reverence Him or respect who He is as righteous and true. I wrote down a question, can we as believers think and act as if God and His Word are in error? Of course, we do it all the time, you know, daily. There are things, there are areas in which we do not yet think and agree with God and what His Word says. It could be partly just because we don't understand it yet, you know. But we often do think contrary to God's thoughts.

Does that make some sense? Yeah, I would refer to Romans chapter 1, verse 18 says that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. So it's interesting that that verse doesn't say against all sin, it says ungodliness. And of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness that talks about, you know, man knows better, but he suppresses it.

But God's standard is to be like him. Yeah, yeah. It isn't to be a warmed up, Adam, who, you know, it's like a forgiven sinner isn't good enough. I've got to be like God. Yeah. And so in order to be like God, the whole idea of identification has to come into play. I'm dead, buried and resurrected and seated in Christ. I am like him. Yeah. Because of what he did, not because of what I did. Yeah. Yeah.

I was thinking too, Mike, on that verse that you're talking about, isn't that, that's all men. All men. That's not like some men are unrighteous. or ungodly. That's our all men. So we have to get out of all men. Yeah, we've got to somehow leave that band of bad guys called the ungodly. Yeah. Now we're really, really hitting on the core of it. I like that, Donna. We somehow have to get, how do you say it? We have to get out of that all men. You know, that's exactly it. We somehow have to get out of that all, man, because that man, and it's Adam, right, Adam's race, is ungodly.

And you know, it started with a denial of God's Word in the garden. It all started with that ungodliness of saying, no, Lord, I know you said not to eat that tree, but I'm going to deny your Word here. and with really a slap in the Lord's face, you know. And that's kind of ungodliness. I think that Genesis 3 probably pictures that maybe best, what ungodliness looks like. It looks pretty innocent actually eating an apple, you know, or whatever fruit. But it was... It was ungodly at the deepest level, wasn't it? Yeah.

Well, we don't really have time to probably get into what are worldly desires, but I think it is really related to that. Perhaps it's even almost another way of understanding or thinking about ungodliness. because the world and the world system and the desires of the flesh that we have in this world system are all contrary to the Lord and His character and contrary to His Word. And that's the word there behind worldly is the word cosmos or cosmic cost. And it's a world system that's contrary to who God is.

And it's what we are totally enveloped in and entrenched in, in Adam. And all the desires that we have in that all men, that all, you know, that Adamic race is characterized and sort of described or within the sphere of the cosmos or the world. And our worldly desires are all encapsulated there. And so, on the one hand, ungodliness is what our worldly desires are. Our worldly desires are ungodly. So it's kind of almost two sides of the same coin, perhaps. Any thoughts on that, just before we close? And then we'll pick up that question next time. I think it's a hard thing to recognize that, how do I say this? Everything you watch on TV is ungodly. Everything. Even the videos. They're ungodly. Yeah. So, you know, we try to make moral judgments about whether people are making good decisions or not. The good decisions have nothing to do with it. It has everything to do with is it godly or not. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Have you been listening to Miles Stanford lately? Yeah, I have.

Then you'll recognize the phrase, a lovely crash. And if you don't know what that is, then I'm just going to leave it at that, and you've got to listen to those recordings and see what he says about Lovely Crash. But it's related to worldly desires, so... Yeah. If you're really, if that really, really, you know, if you just can't listen and it really irritates you that you don't know what I'm talking about, you can just message me later. Clear that up. Anyway. But no, you're right. I think that's, that's right.

You know, everything, everything that the world Everything that the world promotes and pursues and desires and looks for is quite contrary, you know, to who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Because, yeah, that Romans 1 passage really is key there, you know, suppressing the truth. Everything that the world chases is designed to suppress who God is and what His Word tells us is true. So, you know, sometimes through blatant and obvious rejections and sometimes through subtle distortions and twists that just take our eyes off of who Jesus Christ is, and it's very, very easy to be wrapped up in that.

Closing prayer there, Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have extended your grace to us. You didn't leave us abandoned without hope in Adam, in our godless and ungodly state. Lord, we thank you that you have loved us and you sent your son. And he not only died for us, but we also have been taken down into death with him and raised to new life so that we are no longer in Adam, but we are found in Christ Jesus clothed in his perfect righteousness. and able to, with you, deny ungodliness, because it's done. It was laid aside at the cross, and we thank you for that, and we pray that we would count on that righteous life, not as a thing, but as it is in Jesus Christ, the man. the God-man who loved us and gave himself for us. We just thank you for all this in Jesus' name. Amen.