Open your Bibles with me to Titus chapter 2, verses 11 through 15 and then let’s review what we’ve learned from the book of Titus so far.

First, we’re all thinking it, so I’ll just say it. Titus is a cool name. Pastor Tony led off teaching us that Paul, and the Holy Spirit, wrote to Titus to “coach him up” about setting things in order in the churches in Crete. Don taught us that, according to God’s framework for a healthy church, the church needs godly elders. Robin taught that elders must identify and silence unsound doctrine and recognize sheep from wolves. Pastor Mike taught us about replicating ourselves and the value of intergenerational mentoring and discipleship to build a healthy church.

General overview of the text

Titus 2:11 to 15 is only two sentences, with verses 11 to 14 one, long sentence. You might be thinking, “hey, two sentences, we should be out of here in 15 minutes including the greet your neighbor part. This is going to be a beat the Baptists to the restaurant Sunday!” Not so fast my friend! These five verses are dense with Christian doctrine and we’re going to dive in deep to get everything we can from them.

So let’s get started on today’s passage from Titus 2. Reading verses 11 and 12.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, - Titus 2:11-12

We don’t get too far into these verses before we have to stop. In fact I stopped on the first word.

“For” in Greek is γάρ (gar)

(gar) is a pirate sounding word. (gar). I thought that In light of this, and for an early celebration of National Talk Like a Pirate Day (yes, that’s a real thing, celebrated on September 19th), I would give the rest of my message talking like a pirate. But, the internet is forever, so I’ll be on my best behavior. And Pat told me I couldn’t talk like a pirate today.

Anyway, back to (gar). It’s a compound word in Greek, formed from two particles. The first particle, γέ (geh), affirms the truth of what has come before it. The second particle, ἄρα (ara) shortened to (ar), then points to the reasoning behind it. Put together in this context it is saying, “truly, because.” What follows (gar) then is an answer to the question “why?” 

Namely, why do we need to appoint elders of high character? Why do they need to be vigilant for false teaching? Why do we need to teach the sound doctrine godliness built on discipleship? Ultimately, assembling these pieces together like building materials, why do we need a framework for a healthy church such as the one Paul gives Titus?

Asking Why

In process improvement and problem solving, we continually ask the question “why?” to determine “root cause”. Correcting the root cause of a problem creates a lasting solution. If a solution to a problem only fixes a symptom of a problem, that problem is bound to reappear. This would be like treating a broken arm with Tylenol. That seems silly, but people do similar things all the time in the interest of expediency. Likewise, we can ask why to investigate the reasoning behind something, to find the ultimate reason. This is like turning problem-solving on its head and answering why we should do things the right way or what’s our motivation. Without the proper understanding of why, the elders as church leaders may not abide by the framework God has given for the church and as a result, put the church in danger. So, let’s get to answering the fundamental reason for the framework of a healthy church.

Moving further in these first two verses…

The grace of God has appeared…

The grace of God has appeared to mankind in the form of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us, fully man and fully God. The subject of this very long first sentence is grace and grace is doing a lot of work here. Why did the grace of God appear rather than the righteousness or the judgement of God accompanied by His glory, majesty and splendor? Certainly, most Jews of Jesus’ time were not expecting the humble grace of God; they were expecting God’s judgement on their enemies meted out by an omnipotent Messiah. Why grace then? Because that was God’s plan for us. According to God’s plan, Jesus stepped out of Eternity and shed himself of His glory in submission to God the Father to show us grace. The prophet Isaiah says:

For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. - Isa 53:2-3

That’s next level glory loss there. But this was Jesus as the suffering servant, not the conquering hero. And that was God’s plan for grace. We have a hard time imagining what it means to be emptied of glory. We have a limited understanding of God’s glory to begin with and even less understanding of what it would mean to give up that glory for the cause of grace. But we see an example of this “fall from glory” in the story of Nebuchadnezzar, that can give us some insight. (Hat tip to Daniel Armstrong here for his message to the IRON MEN in June. Get a bootlegged copy if you can.) The book of Daniel chapter 4 basically proclaims Nebuchadnezzar the ruler of the entire world and then proceeds to tell of his descent into madness, spending seven years in the wild eating grass like cattle. This is truly a penthouse to outhouse story, but it only hints at the level of glory-downgrade Jesus took by his obedience to The Father’s plan. Interestingly, what follows in this story of Nebuchadnezzar is also a story of God’s grace. In an act of grace, God restored the kingdom of Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar when He ended his 7 years of insanity and Nebuchadnezzar blessed and honored the Most High God.

We’ll look at glory more later, but for now, let’s move on.

[Grace is] Bringing salvation for all people

Notice the verb “bringing”. What it doesn’t say is that Christ is offering salvation so that we would need to go get it. He is doing the work, the bringing, in His grace. But, if Christ’s grace brings salvation to all people, well then, why aren’t all people saved? I would like to thank Tony and the rest of the Elders for an opportunity to answer this eternal question of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility in my first ever sermon. So here you go: I DON’T KNOW. Predestination, Election, God’s sovereignty, our agency; how does it all work together? I don’t know. But I know who does know. God. This is not a mystery to Him, but it is a mystery the depths of which He has reserved for Himself. So let’s go to what do we know about salvation, reading from Ephesians:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. - Eph 2:8-9

Salvation comes by grace (there’s that word again) through faith, not by works. But works are a natural outgrowth of a life saved by grace. Works are an expression of thankfulness and worship. I’m an engineer, not an orator, as you’re no doubt realizing at this point. As an engineer, I think of things mathematically sometimes, it’s an occupational hazard. Expressed mathematically, the salvation equation looks like:

Faith = Salvation + Good Works

That is, the result of faith in Christ is both salvation and good works. Like most analogies, this breaks down if you decompose it, so don’t treat it like a formula, just look at it as the left side of the equation results in the right side. In our fallen, human minds, we get this wrong and assume the equation is:

Faith + Good Works = Salvation

That is, our faith AND our good works results in our salvation, which is not true. The problem with the second equation is that we make it depend on us. What’s right about the first equation is that it depends on God. I think we can all see that Salvation is clearly Christ’s work completed through the cross. We can also see that truly “good” works come as a result of God choosing to work through us – we are participants in His good works. But faith is trickier. We may be tempted to believe that we have conjured up our faith on our own. But that is not a Biblical understanding of faith.

The Greek word for faith πίστις (pis'-tis) comes from the root πείθω (pi'-tho) meaning to persuade or to induce one by words to believe. We have not persuaded ourselves to believe that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things, nor that Jesus is our Messiah and giver of eternal life. In our flesh, without the Holy Spirit, these things are non-sensical to us. It is only through divine intervention and His grace that God has persuaded us of these truths and thereby given us the very faith that saves us as a gift. In fact, it is grace all the way across. Grace gives us faith. Grace accomplished our salvation. And it is grace that God chooses to use us in the good works of His Kingdom. But still, we are left to wonder about those that God has not chosen to persuade unto faith by grace. What about that aspect of God’s sovereignty? These are hard questions and there are better theologians than me to help guide you through them. But let me offer this advice when you find yourself wrestling with these questions. Put up guardrails.

Those guardrails come from this sure knowledge: God’s character contains all good traits in perfect measure, not too much or too little, and it contains absolutely no flaws or bad traits. God’s character is perfect; it is perfectly holy, merciful, loving, gracious, just, patient, righteous, kind, faithful, and any other good character trait you can name. So when driving through life and wondering how to make sense of God’s sovereignty and our ability to choose, drive between the guardrails that maintain that God is perfect in grace and mercy and that God is perfect in justice and righteousness. To stray beyond these guardrails would be to make God permissive or disinterested in one direction or to make God impatient or mean in the other. Either way ends up driving you in a ditch.

For those of you who, like me, get antsy when we’re this far into a message without any blanks filled in, take heart! Number one in your outline: 

Why do we need a framework for a healthy church? Because Grace Appeared.

Moving on to finish these first two verses…

[Grace is] Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions

Notice here we’ve narrowed the focus from “all people” to “us”; us being believers, the Church. Once saved, since most of the time we are not taken up to heaven at the moment of salvation, God’s grace puts us on a training regimen. See the word renounce in verse 12? Some of your translations may use deny. Either way, the verse doesn’t tell us to avoid, ignore, or sequester ourselves away from ungodliness and worldly passions. It is telling us to face those things within ourselves, and defeat them, master them.

Martin Luther put it this way:

The apostle [Paul] means, not simply that we must flee the outward temptations to sin, but, as he says, that we must "deny" them, must mortify the lusts, or desires, within ourselves.… If we fail to mortify our desires, it will not avail to flee outward temptations. We must remain amidst temptations and there learn through grace to deny lusts and ungodliness. - Martin Luther

We must face, master and mortify (in Luther’s words), or put to death, the sinfulness within us, the root cause of our sin, by the power of God’s grace. Paul in Romans put it this way:

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit [capital ‘S’ Spirit, God’s Spirit of grace] you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. - Rom 8:13

Grace is doing a lot of work here. It is grace again that trains us; the Greek root word for trains, παιδεύω (pah-hee-dyoo-o), gives the sense that grace disciplines us, like a father.

For the Lord disciplines (pah-hee-dyoo-o) the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." - Heb 12:6

Now, finishing verse 12:

And to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age

It’s not enough for grace to train us to renounce or deny what is unrighteous. It also trains us in what is good in three aspects.

First self-control. As Pastor Mike taught us last week, this is not the same self-control that is named as a fruit of the Spirit by Paul in Galatians. This self-control is translated as sensible or sober in other versions and essentially means with sound mind or curbing one’s desires and impulses. Literally, the Greek means to keep safe or control your midriff (or the source of perception and judgement). All this is to say, God’s grace works on the inward person.

Second, upright. This one works on the horizontal plane. It works on our relationship with others. God’s grace is teaching us to “love our neighbor as ourselves”, to be honest, just, and kind.

Third, godly. This also plays out in the horizontal plane, on our relationship with others, but it is a reflection of our relationship in the vertical plane. This is loving the Lord God “with all our heart and soul and mind and strength” being lived out by loving “our neighbors as ourselves.”

All this training is for our benefit in the present age. We are still in the same age Paul was writing to Titus about, the Church Age. It is a good thing that God’s grace is training us to deal with life in this age. Have you been keeping up with what’s going on out there in the world? It’s a mess out there.

I have what I call my three “irrefutable laws of the material world”. I’ve developed these after years of observation of the world and too much free time on my hands. These three rules are:

1. There is no such thing as a free lunch
2. Life is not fair
3. 90% of everything is garbage

I recommend that you don’t take notes on these three rules of mine, because they weren’t pulled from scripture and, hey, look at #3. But, I think these sum up my expectations for the world we live in. As you see, these rules are deeply cynical. Yet I think I’m a fairly optimistic person. What gives? 

Here’s what gives: There is more to what is real than the material world. There is a spiritual world beyond what we can see and touch and it is the superior of the material world. Meaning that it is better than the material world and it is where the creator, ruler and savior of the material world reside. It is where the grace that we rely on to do all this work in us comes from. In many ways, the spiritual world is even more real than the material world, it’s just hard for us to perceive that in our everyday lives. So, even though we get no free lunches down here, and the world doesn’t treat us fairly, and we can’t always trust what we read, hear or even think, we have an Eternal Father that we can pray to for His grace and mercies and place our hope in. And our hope in Him defeats cynicism every time.

Speaking of hope, let's move to verse 13.

waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, - Titus 2:13 

What is our hope for finally overcoming the world? For overcoming everything that is burdensome, unfair and untrue? It is Jesus coming in His glory. Listen here to Jesus’ response when His disciples asked about the end of the age:

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. - Mat 24:29-31

For Christians, this is our blessed hope. The return of Jesus to begin His reign in the Millennial Kingdom, ushering in our eternal union with Him. A more thorough study of eschatology is needed to fully understand how amazing times will be upon the appearing of the glory of Christ, but for now know that it will be a time of peace, joy, comfort, holiness, and the knowledge of God. You can see in the passage from Matthew that this Jesus who will be appearing is no longer the limited-glory Jesus we received at His first coming. This Jesus is robed in glory and surrounded by glory. And He will have great power and it will be a fearful time, especially for the unsaved. One thing to note about glory. Glory testifies to the honor and majesty of the person it belongs to, but it is not the person themself. Don’t make the mistake of worshipping the glory. We worship Jesus who is full of glory.

So number two in your notes: Why do we need a framework for a healthy church? Because grace appeared to save and train. 

Why did grace appear to save and train? Because we await Christ’s glory.

And a short note on waiting. This is not a passive waiting, but an active one. Some versions translate the Greek word for waiting as looking, which gives a more active feel. Certainly we have the training from verse 12 going on, so we’re not just sitting still. It is maybe best to think of this waiting like Isaiah did:

but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. - Isa 40:31. The result of this waiting is not passivity, but action–soaring and running.

Let’s move on to verse 14.

[Jesus Christ] who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. - Titus 2:14

Within verse 14 we see what may be the most succinct expression of the Gospel of Jesus Christ anywhere in scripture. We’re going to cheat and jump to number three on your outline. Why do we need a framework for a healthy church? Because grace appeared to save and train. Why did grace appear to save and train? Because we await Christ’s glory. Why do we await Christ’s glory? Because of the hope of the Gospel. 

Look with me…

(Jesus Christ) who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness

This is our justification; the first part of the salvation process. Jesus died for our redemption. The Greek root word for redeem, λυτρόω (loo-tro-oh), means to liberate by payment of ransom. During Titus’ time, If someone was in debt and became a slave to pay that debt, another person could pay their ransom and free them from slavery. Likewise, our sin has placed on us a debt we can’t repay, and so we are enslaved to sin and therefore, death. Jesus willingly, joyfully even, paid our debt to sin and liberated us from eternal death. And it wasn’t to save us from some sin, or most sin, or even until He had had it up to here with our sin. It says all lawlessness.

So this is how we are justified, or declared righteous in God’s sight, through the redemption ransom Christ paid.

Now, let’s look at the many aspects of God’s sanctification work in us, the second part of the salvation process.

And to purify for himself

Not only does he redeem us, he purifies us. He cleans us up. He makes us ready. He creates within us what is pleasing to Him. He sanctifies us. For himself. For His purposes, His reasons. His pleasure. His will. This is the training or disciplining we talked about in verse 12.

A people for his own possession

This is how special God’s people are to him. He has redeemed us and cleansed us so that we are his very own.

His own possession is the Greek word περιούσιον (per-ee-oo'-see-on), which was translated peculiar in the KJV, that’s unfortunate for our modern use of the word, but kind of true for some of us. (per-ee-oo'-see-on) is a compound word formed from the Greek for of, for, or about and another Greek word for I am, to be or to exist. Does I am sound familiar to you? It did to those who translated the Old Testament into Greek. In the LXX the Greek word per-ee-oo’-see-on is used in this way:

"For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession (per-ee-oo’-see-on), out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. - Deu 7:6

In Deuteronomy, Moses was obviously writing about Israel as God’s treasured possession, but in Titus, Paul is expanding this to the Church. He is including us. He gave himself for us to redeem us, the verse says. We too are God’s treasured possession. Let that sink in for a moment. 

Need more convincing? Take a peek at verse 15. Paul tells Titus to declare these things to the churches in Crete. He is telling Titus to call those Cretan gentile Christians, and all gentile Christians, God’s treasured possession. This is great news. We are a treasure to God. But know this: This is NOT replacement theology. The Church of Jesus Christ has not replaced Israel in God’s eyes. 

Paul explains it this way to the Church in Rome:

For if you [gentiles] were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree [Israel], how much more will these, the natural branches [the Jews], be grafted back into their own olive tree. - Rom 11:24

We are a wild olive branch grafted into the olive tree of Israel, not an entirely new olive tree that replaces the old one. Still, don’t miss this: we are God’s treasured possession, right now.

Who are zealous for good works 

More sanctification! And this is where Titus takes a turn into good works. It was raised before, but it’s going to come up a lot more in chapter 3. This almost sounds like part of a job description. “Must be skilled in Microsoft Office and zealous for good works”. We have been saved by grace, redeemed from lawlessness, cleaned up, trained, and declared God’s treasured possession for a reason. It’s not because we, by ourselves, are all that and a bag of chips. It is because God has a purpose for us and that purpose involves good works.

You might be thinking, “Scott, my zeal left me in the late 1900s.” I get it. Let me encourage you by suggesting that you pray to the God who treasures you to light a fire within you through the Holy Spirit that is expressed as zeal for good works. If the work is truly good then it is truly God’s work and He will be intimately involved in it, so capitalize on His involvement up front, for the spark that lights the fire.

Charles Spurgeon put it this way:

Oh that all of us were ardent, fervent, vigorous, zealous! Come, Holy Spirit, and quicken us! We may not go about to get this by our own efforts and energies, but God will work it by His Grace. Grace given us in Christ is the fountainhead of all holy impulse. - Charles Spurgeon

We can also help one another by encouraging each other in good works, like the author of Hebrews said:

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, - Heb 10:24

With verse 14, Paul completes the reasons why we need a framework for a healthy church and we’ve found the ultimate reason – the hope of the Gospel.  God wants His Church and its elders to follow a framework so that it is healthy and can serve Him by proclaiming the Gospel to the world. The message that Jesus has already come in grace to do what we could not do for ourselves, to bring salvation and to train us for strength to stand against sin and for righteousness, and that Jesus is going to come again in glory to complete His redemptive work and to enable us to work alongside Him in His Kingdom.

Let’s now tackle verse 15…

Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. - Titus 2:15

Paul has completed giving Titus the reasons why we need a framework for a healthy church and he is now back to coaching Titus up on how to do his work.

A word of caution. If you are inclined to choose a life verse, be very careful in choosing this one. If, like Titus, you have found yourself leading churches full of liars, lazy gluttons, and evil beasts, by all means rebuke with all authority. There is especially a place for this among elders, as Robin taught us two weeks ago, but rebuking can’t be the only tool in your belt and it must be approached prayerfully. I know I just encouraged you to have zeal, but be cool. Listen to Titus 3 to get more context around how to declare, exhort and rebuke without being disregarded. Forrest Tilger will tell you how to do that next week.

Okay, back to the verse. Basically, Paul’s instructions for Titus for how to do this work are for him to declare these things. This is number four on your outline. How? Speak about these things with authority. Speak about what things? Not just the Gospel, although that’s of utmost importance, but also everything that Paul has written to Titus about how to “put what remained into order” in the churches of Crete: The qualifications of Elders. The warning against the circumcision party and other false teachers. The sound doctrines of the good qualities of older and younger generations and bondservants. But most especially, Titus, declare the grace, glory, and Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

To finish up, let’s take a look at two important words in verse 15 that are key to understanding what Paul is trying to convey to Titus. Take a look at authority. This is the same Greek word Paul used for command in chapter 1 verse 3 where he wrote about himself, “and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior;” Paul is saying that he was given a command or an authority from Christ to preach the Gospel, and he is giving his Apostle’s authority and a command to Titus to put things in order in Crete’s churches by declaring all that he has written to him and seeing to it that the framework for a healthy church is followed. 

Finally, let’s look at disregard. Paul is writing that, given Titus’ command and authority, he should not accept that anyone would disregard him by assuming their authority is greater than his or that they do not fall under Titus’ authority. This is similar to the warning Paul gave to Timothy in his first letter:

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. - 1Ti 4:12

In the Greek, despise and disregard are related because they share a suffix which means “to think” but they have different prefixes. Paul is telling Timothy to not let anyone “think against” or despise him because he is young. Similarly, Paul is telling Titus not to let anyone “think beyond or above” him, which would be to disregard him, because he has been given authority over the setup of the churches in Crete. These are wise pieces of advice to his two younger proteges because it was understandable for them to be concerned that they wouldn’t be seen as having authority.

So, Paul tells Titus, “you have authority to carry out this framework I have given you. This letter (which would have been shared across Crete) is proof. Now go forth and declare what I’ve commanded you and set these churches in order and don’t accept anything less.” That’s how.

Application

Well we’ve already broken the seal on application of this passage with my admonition about life verses, so let’s go ahead and finish.

First, know that if you are a follower of Christ, the grace that saved you is at work in you to train you to renounce sin and live with self-control and with righteousness in respect to God and others. We are to “workout our salvation”, so we must do our part, but the hard work is the Lord’s.

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. - Heb 13:20-21

Second, we live with “eyes for eternity”. Jesus is coming in His glory to complete this present age and set up His eternal kingdom. Despite how we may feel about the world we live in, we have this hope to carry us. 

having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, - Eph 1:18

Finally, be about the Gospel. Declare these things with your voice, hands and feet. “Let your light so shine before men that they see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Ask the Holy Spirit to awaken the zeal within you for good works and partner with the Lord in creating His Kingdom on earth.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. - Eph 2:10

Hmm. It’s almost like someone should teach Ephesians and Hebrews verse by verse. Let’s pray…