Living As Positive People in a Negative Word:
2 How We Live
Text: Titus 2:12
Consider this...
If you can start
the day without caffeine, If you can get going without pep pills, If you can
always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains, If you can resist complaining and
boring people with your troubles, If you can eat the same food every day and be
grateful for it, If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to
give you any time, If you can overlook it when those you love take it out on
you when, though no fault of yours, something goes wrong, If you can take
criticism and blame without resentment, If you can ignore a friends limited
education and never correct him/her, If you can resist treating a rich friend
better than a poor friend, If you can face the world without lies and deceit,
If you can conquer tension without medical help, If you can relax without
liquor, If you can sleep without the aid of drugs, If you can honestly say that
deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed, color, religion, or
politics, Then, my friend, You are may live a life ALMOST as good as your dog.
Today I want to
talk about living the positive Christian life we find it described in Titus
2:12
Titus 2:11-14 For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present
world; Looking for that blessed hope,
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem
us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of
good works.
Review
verse 11
Grace: From the
Greek word charis khar’-ece; It means God’s undeserved, unearned favor and love
Salvation that is
ours through the gift of God’s love through his Son, Jesus Christ. Who had
appeared on the earth born as a baby, lived as a sinless man, died as our
redeemer, and rose from the grave as our savior.
And in Titus 2:11 we
were challenged to show that grace to all men through our own lives.
Now we come to
verse 12 of Titus 2 and the subject of positive living continues.
Teaching
Titus 2:12 Teaching
us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly, in this present world
The One Teacher, Grace
This verse
continues the subject from verse 11 which is grace. Grace is our teacher. The
word teacher in the Greek is παιδευουσα / paideuo (pahee-dyoo’-o)
The word was used
for two types of instruction, gently teaching a child and not so gently
chastisement.
1 Corinthians 11:32
But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be
condemned with the world.
2 Corinthians 6:9 As
unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and
not killed;
Paul tells us that
grace teaches us but exactly how does grace teach us? Sometimes the
undeserved love of God , is as a father instructing his child with tenderness
and loving words. Sometimes still as
a father, still in love, punishes a child to direct us back to Him. Whether positive or
negative it’s still of God’s grace and still because He loves us.
Becoming a willing student of God’s grace.
The real question
is not how grace teaches so much as it is, “Am I willing to learn from grace?”
Willing to listen
when He speaks from His word the words of love or willing to accept the
chastisement because I know he does it from a heart of love.
Willing to learn
from God in both the difficulties and the victories of life? The joy and the
sorrow, the light and the dark, the blessings and the defeats that come with
following Him.
Hebrews
12:5-6, 11-12 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as
unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint
when thou art rebuked of him: For whom
the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
… Now no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the
peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Illustration: “When I Consider How My Life is Spent” by John Milton
John Milton was the
writer of Paradise Lost, the longest poem in the English language. It is about
the rebellion of Satan and first sin in the Garden of Eden. He finished the
book after he was impoverished and blind by quoting it to his daughters, who
wrote it down.
When I consider how
my light is spent
Ere half my day, in
this dark world and wide,
And that one talent
which is death to hide
Lodged with me
useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith
my maker, and present
My true account,
lest he returning chide.
"Doth God
exact day-labor, light denied?"
I fondly ask; but
patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon
replies, "God doth not need
Either man's work,
or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke,
They serve him best; his state
Is Kingly;
thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land
and ocean without rest;
They also serve who
only stand and wait."
Transition: First we must know that grace teaches us and next we see the lessons that grace will teach.
Denying
Teaching us that,
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and
godly, in this present world
The Double Denial
The first lesson
that grace will teach us is a lesson about denying two things in our life, ungodliness
and worldly lusts.
Denying ungodliness
Ungodliness means
lack of reverence toward God.
It means not
acknowledging God as the creator and sustainer of all
It means
overlooking God in the blessings of life
It means not
thinking of God in the decisions of life.
That is ungodliness,
simply leaving God out of my life.
Along with denying
ungodliness we are to deny worldly lusts.
Denying worldly
lusts
Worldly lusts are
the desires of this world and the things it offers us.
It is dressing,
talking, acting, planning, scheming and working as if this world were all we
had and there was no eternity. It is
placing a priority of today and discounting tomorrow, it is loving this world
more than the world to come.
Paul says “Grace
teaches us to deny these things. Shut them down in our own lives.
I think of it in
the same way doctors kill a tumor in the body by shutting off the supply of
blood to the tumor. Without new blood, it simply withers and dies.
In the same way
through God’s grace we are to deny our time, attention, money or thoughts to
these things and they will wither away.
Living in denial in a positive way.
Living in denial is
usually a negative term it means not willing to confront reality but in Titus 2
it’s a positive thing.
As positive
Christian we live in the right kind of denial. We deny the ungodly attitudes
that remove God from our life and we deny the worldly lusts that removes
eternity from our life.
This kind of living
makes Christianity count in a world where too many times we don’t make much of a
difference. Lets face it Christianity today is weak and irrelevant. It has lost
its power and its ability to change the world because the two things we should
have learned from grace, denying ungodliness and worldliness, have not been
learned.
Quote: Peter
Marshall, was the chaplain for the US Senate in the 1940s, describes 20th
century Christians in these words: "They are like deep-sea divers encased
in suits designed for many fathoms deep, marching bravely forth to pull plugs
out of bathtubs."
Scripture: Romans
13:12-14 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off
the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk
honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and
wantonness, not in strife and envying.
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the
flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
When that is true
then Christianity counts in this world, and when enough Christians count in
this world then the world will be changed.
Living
Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present
world
The Triple Way
Grace teaches us
first to deny that which would be detrimental to our life as children of God,
but the lesson does not stop there. Next grace teaches us how to live and the
lesson is in three parts. Living soberly, righteously and godly.
Living
Is to live,
breathe, be among the living (not lifeless, not dead)
That’s what we are
supposed to be doing, living.
Just get that
definition down and you’ve got more out of this sermon then most ever get. Live!
Christians are supposed to live!
Paul tells us then
how we are to live.
Living Soberly
Sophronos /
so-fron’-oce: with sound mind, self-controlled, temperately, discreetly
This is the word
Paul uses most often when describing the ideal Christian life. Live it in self-control, in balance, not in
the extremes but in moderation.
Titus 2:1-6 But
speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: That the aged men be sober,
grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women
likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers,
not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young
women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be
discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that
the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men likewise exhort to be sober
minded.
Next our living is
to be righteously
Righteously simply
means doing what is right.
Along with soberly
and righteously we are to be living godly.
Which means living
with God always in the forefront of your thoughts, decisions and actions.
To live in the way
God would have you to live.
Are you living the PCW (Positive Christian Way?)
Are you under the
teaching of Grace, living the triple? Sober, right and godly.
Soberly, Just means
under control.
It means positive
living with your self.
Are your sins
confessed and your weaknesses under the cross?
Are you giving
yourself to God and letting his Spirit control your body, soul and mind?
Living soberly is
the cornerstone of being a disciple of Christ.
Righteous, simply right
living.This is positive
living with others.
Do you treat others
according to the standard Jesus set?
Matthew 7:12
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even
so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
Paul said it this
way in Romans 12:10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love;
in honour preferring one another;
Godly
This is positive living with God.
How long since
you’ve really spent time with Him? How
long since He made a difference in your life?
In other words, how are you and God getting along? It is a question each
of us should ask every day. Where is God in my life today and how do I know
that to be true?
What grace teaches
us, in the end, can be summed up by just saying, Be what you are, be what grace
has made you, be a Christian. That truly would be powerful.
Illustration: AW Tozer on Christians
A real Christian is
an odd number, anyway. He feels supreme love for One who he has never seen;
talks familiarly every day to Someone he cannot see; expects to go to heaven on
the virtue of Another; empties himself in order to be full; admits he is wrong
so he can be declared right; goes down in order to get up; is strongest when he
is weakest; richest when he is poorest and happiest when he feels the worst. He
dies so he can live; forsakes in order to have; gives away so he can keep; sees
the invisible, hears the inaudible, and knows that which passeth knowledge. -
A.W. Tozer
Conclusion: In This Present World
Paul’s Conclusion
Paul says we are to
live this life now, “in this present world.”
It starts right
here it begins this moment, or it probably never will begin. This moment, this
day, this present time and how you live it, is of vital importance. The past is
gone and the future is waiting. What we do now in this present time is what is
of vital importance.
Illustration: Tom Young cheers me up.
In a hundred years
nobody’s going to remember you let that guy get a touchdown.” It made me think
of something else though. In a hundred
years what will people remember? What
difference will I have made in this world? If I’m living the way Paul says
soberly, righteously and godly, then it is eternity that will remember.
In a hundred years
most of the things you are giving your life’s blood for will not even exist or
matter. But the acts of a life lived in
positive relationship with yourself, your fellow man and your God will go on
forever. So, how are you living your
life? How are you learning and showing the lessons of Grace this morning?
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