Speaker 1: So if you would, if you haven't already gone there,
Speaker 1: open up to Titus chapter two. And like I said,
Speaker 1: we get to have this baptism service in both services
Speaker 1: today to hear from in this service one individual and
Speaker 1: in the second service two about how God has intervened
Speaker 1: in their life and has become has started a process
Speaker 1: of making them more godly by the power of the
Speaker 1: Gospel at work in them. And I just want you
Speaker 1: to think about this as you have gathered here, some
Speaker 1: of you members, some of you guests, but have come
Speaker 1: here this morning to Crossway Bible Church, and you might
Speaker 1: be looking around going, I don't know, these people seem
Speaker 1: pretty buttoned up. I guess maybe that's how they've always been.
Speaker 1: And the answer to that is not true.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Kara. You are sitting next.
Speaker 1: To people that before Christ have been ravaged by drug addiction,
Speaker 1: have had lives that had been overtaken by alcohol by all.
Speaker 2: Sorts of sexual impurity.
Speaker 1: Maybe on the other side of the equation, some that
Speaker 1: had given themselves over to legalism apart from the Gospel
Speaker 1: of Christ, or were just going through life in lukewarm
Speaker 1: religiosity apart from the Gospel of Jesus. And what God
Speaker 1: has done is come into their life. He has appeared
Speaker 1: to them, bringing His salvation, and their lives began to transform.
Speaker 1: And by God's grace and by their efforts and by
Speaker 1: one another in this church, their lives are continuing to
Speaker 1: transform for Christ's glory, because he or because.
Speaker 2: They are His possession.
Speaker 1: And so if you don't know much about Titus, we're
Speaker 1: we're gonna learn more today. But one of the key
Speaker 1: aspects of context that I want you to know is
Speaker 1: Paul is writing this letter to his fellow pastor Titus,
Speaker 1: who is situated on this strategic island in the Mediterranean
Speaker 1: called Crete.
Speaker 2: And if you don't know much about Crete.
Speaker 1: Really we can summarize Crete by this. It was a
Speaker 1: rough place made up by a bunch of rough people.
Speaker 1: It was notorious in antiquity and in this age for
Speaker 1: immorality and evil behavior. These people were scoundrels if you
Speaker 1: look in chapter one Paul referring to how much of
Speaker 1: scoundrels they are, He says that even a person of
Speaker 1: your own, he quotes saying Cretans wrote, even a person
Speaker 1: of your own refers to Cretans.
Speaker 2: As always liars.
Speaker 1: Evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. And yet still on this
Speaker 1: island that was notorious for immorality, the Gospel had the
Speaker 1: power to change. The Gospel had the power to change
Speaker 1: lives forever. And so as we think about how we
Speaker 1: apply this here in San Antonio, I don't think it
Speaker 1: would be fair to say that San.
Speaker 2: Antonio is a one for one to create.
Speaker 1: I don't think people refer to San Antonio as being
Speaker 1: filled with people that are always liars, evil beasts, and
Speaker 1: lazy gluttons. And yet, as we've already discussed, we all
Speaker 1: come from somewhere. We all have a testimony apart from God,
Speaker 1: apart from our relationship with Jesus Christ. In this serve
Speaker 1: as a reminder to each one of us. This message
Speaker 1: serves as a reminder to each one of us not
Speaker 1: just that we do change when we interact with the
Speaker 1: God of the Bible.
Speaker 2: Through Jesus, but that God that has called us as his.
Speaker 1: Own possession is going to continue to change us until glory.
Speaker 1: So if I were to say the title of this
Speaker 1: message in one sentence, it would be as simple as
Speaker 1: this Christian's change.
Speaker 2: Christian's change.
Speaker 1: And so we're going to take these verses through three
Speaker 1: moves The first one is because Christians change our internal
Speaker 1: motivation to that change, which is our integrity. The internal
Speaker 1: motivation is our integrity. Then there's an external motivation, which
Speaker 1: is to say our witness.
Speaker 2: To the outside world.
Speaker 1: And then lastly and most importantly, there is an eternal motivation,
Speaker 1: and that is because we are now God's possession.
Speaker 2: So let's read. Starting in verse one.
Speaker 1: Paul writes, But as for you, teach what accords with
Speaker 1: sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober minded, dignified,
Speaker 1: self controlled, sound and faith, in love and in steadfastness.
Speaker 2: Older women, likewise.
Speaker 1: Are to be reverent in behavior, not slanders or slaves
Speaker 1: too much wine. There to teach what is good, and
Speaker 1: so train the young women to love their husbands and children,
Speaker 1: to be self controlled, pure, working at home, kind and
Speaker 1: submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God
Speaker 1: may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to
Speaker 1: be self controlled, show yourself in all respects, to be
Speaker 1: a model of good works, and in your teaching, show integrity, dignity,
Speaker 1: and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an
Speaker 1: opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to
Speaker 1: say about us. Bond servants are to be submissive to
Speaker 1: their own masters.
Speaker 2: In everything.
Speaker 1: They are to be well pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering,
Speaker 1: but showing all good faith, so that in everything they
Speaker 1: may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior, because the
Speaker 1: grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
Speaker 1: training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to
Speaker 1: live self controlled, upright and godly lives. In the present age,
Speaker 1: waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory
Speaker 1: of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave
Speaker 1: himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and
Speaker 1: to purify for himself a people for his own possession,
Speaker 1: who are zealous for good works. Declare these things, exhort
Speaker 1: and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.
Speaker 1: So Christians change? Why do they change? What is the motivation?
Speaker 1: The first is internal that we would eliminate hypocrisy, the
Speaker 1: elimination of hypocrisy in our lives. This internal reason that
Speaker 1: God gives us through Paul writing to Titus, which is
Speaker 1: our integrity. Let's look at the text and see Paul's
Speaker 1: reasoning and where I'm getting this from the very first
Speaker 1: verse of our passage starts with but as for you,
Speaker 1: teach what accords with sound doctrine, or to put another way,
Speaker 1: teach what accords to teach a Christian living that aligns
Speaker 1: with the Gospel truth, the truth of scripture that we
Speaker 1: that that's revealed in the Bible. And to understand that
Speaker 1: first verse, which is the but as for you part,
Speaker 1: we have to look up and so look at the
Speaker 1: end of chapter one. See there was these these teachers
Speaker 1: here in crete that had duplicitous lives, that had hypocritical lives.
Speaker 2: They were teaching.
Speaker 1: Away, and yet their lives reflected a different way, an
Speaker 1: ungodly way. It says that their minds and their consciences,
Speaker 1: their their internal consciences were defiled. They professed to know God,
Speaker 1: but they denied him by their works, of course that
Speaker 1: was detestable, and and all sorts of things. But they
Speaker 1: were living hypocritical lives. They talked about spiritual things, they acted,
Speaker 1: you know, they they would they would come across as
Speaker 1: communicating as if they knew God. But by the manner
Speaker 1: of their lives, they it became clear that they did
Speaker 1: not know Him. Their lips said one thing, but their
Speaker 1: actions revealed a heart that believed another. And then we
Speaker 1: see further here in verse seven where where Paul is
Speaker 1: encouraging Titus and he's saying, make sure that your life
Speaker 1: matches up with your teaching, show integrity. It's for your
Speaker 1: integrity before the Lord. Paul's instructing Titus now the importance
Speaker 1: of protecting his conscience before the Lord, that he would
Speaker 1: not be duplicitous, that he would not say one thing
Speaker 1: but live another way. You've already heard talk and many
Speaker 1: of you I know were there on Wednesday night at
Speaker 1: our member meeting, but a part of that meeting, if
Speaker 1: you weren't here, Richard was up on the platform and
Speaker 1: he was One of the things that he was talking
Speaker 1: about was the importance of church membership, and he was
Speaker 1: talking about what entails church membership. And then he was
Speaker 1: talking about this thing called church discipline. And the praiseworthy
Speaker 1: thing was there was nobody that was informal church discipline
Speaker 1: at the church level, but he was making the point
Speaker 1: that church discipline happens every day all through the life
Speaker 1: of the church in our discipleship relationships with one another.
Speaker 2: He also talked about the.
Speaker 1: Importance of elders, and we talked about the importance of
Speaker 1: elders and overseeing the discipleship of the church and also
Speaker 1: being a part of that discipline process where God gives
Speaker 1: us one another.
Speaker 2: God gives us the church so that.
Speaker 1: We might have our integrity with the Lord protected. And
Speaker 1: we see that here in crete, and we see that
Speaker 1: throughout God's word that he gives us one another, He
Speaker 1: gives the members of the church, He gives the leaders
Speaker 1: of the church, the elders of the church, so that
Speaker 1: we would be able to be admonished and rebuked and exhorted,
Speaker 1: so that our consciences wouldn't be defiled before the Lord
Speaker 1: with a duplicitous life. Did you know that that is
Speaker 1: one of an elder's jobs is to teach sound doctrine,
Speaker 1: to protect doctrine, but then also in verse fifteen, to
Speaker 1: declare and exhort and rebuke when we become deceived by
Speaker 1: our own sin. And I'm taking a little bit of
Speaker 1: a tangent here, but this is a very important part
Speaker 1: of the life of this church here at Crossway. If
Speaker 1: you look at your bulletins, you'll see that there are
Speaker 1: four elder candidates that are listed on there those four
Speaker 1: candidates were presented to the church that are members me
Speaker 1: and or remember meeting on Wednesday, and one of their
Speaker 1: main rules is that they would be involved in the
Speaker 1: shepherding so that your life would match up with the
Speaker 1: sound truth that you profess with your lips. And that's
Speaker 1: not to say, especially if you're new around here, it
Speaker 1: might feel like, well, so what are we to be
Speaker 1: without sin? And the answer to that is an affirmative. No,
Speaker 1: there is not one of us in here that is
Speaker 1: without sin.
Speaker 2: But there are two types of people in the world.
Speaker 1: There are Christians that are repentant sinners, and that there
Speaker 1: are those separated from the faith that are unrepentant in
Speaker 1: their sin. And so we have the Church, we have
Speaker 1: God's word, We have these things to push us toward
Speaker 1: a life that comports with the gospel that we profess
Speaker 1: with our lips, that we would believe it.
Speaker 2: In our hearts.
Speaker 1: And so the answer is, no, we are not without sin.
Speaker 1: But it is true that as Christians we can't go
Speaker 1: on sinning in the egregious ways that we once did
Speaker 1: before the Gospel changed our lives, before we knew the
Speaker 1: Christ that appeared bringing his salvation to you and So Christians,
Speaker 1: we change for our own integrity, and we have pastors
Speaker 1: that help us in that. We have one another that
Speaker 1: helps us in that. But one of the motivators for
Speaker 1: why we change and become more godly throughout our lives
Speaker 1: is for our own integrity. But then there's also this
Speaker 1: external motivator that I've already mentioned, and that takes us
Speaker 1: to point to the external motivation for why we changed
Speaker 1: is for an enhanced witness, an enhanced church witness to
Speaker 1: the onlooking world. Really, a majority of this text is
Speaker 1: examples of different types of people within God's family and
Speaker 1: how they change. This isn't an exhaustive list of what
Speaker 1: is change, But in every one of these examples, what
Speaker 1: Paul grounds it with is the fact that these ways
Speaker 1: in which you change are so that the word of
Speaker 1: God may not be reviled. It's so that an opponent
Speaker 1: of the gospel, and and that was in verse five,
Speaker 1: Verse eight says, so that an opponent of the gospel
Speaker 1: may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say
Speaker 1: about you, or in verse ten, so that in everything they,
Speaker 1: being God's people, may adorn or where beautifully the doctrine
Speaker 1: of God, our Savior. So what did protecting Christ's witness
Speaker 1: look like in crete? It looked like these things that
Speaker 1: older men do, the way that older men live their lives,
Speaker 1: the way that older women live their lives, the way
Speaker 1: that younger women live their lives, younger men live their lives,
Speaker 1: and the way that the bond servants.
Speaker 2: Live their lives.
Speaker 1: So we're going to run through each one of these quickly,
Speaker 1: and I'm not going to pick up every example here,
Speaker 1: but for the purpose of understanding this better, let's start
Speaker 1: from the top verse two older men. They're to be sober, minded, dignified,
Speaker 1: self controlled, sound and faith and love and in steadfastness.
Speaker 1: In summary, older men are to have a certain gravitas
Speaker 1: to their lives. There to have a dignity, a maturity
Speaker 1: that only an older man can have because he only him,
Speaker 1: has lived this long to be able.
Speaker 2: To develop this character.
Speaker 1: There is a powerful witness in an older man, in
Speaker 1: a church that has been committed to God's word over
Speaker 1: many years, that has been committed to the discipleship life
Speaker 1: of Christ for many years, that has seen many trials
Speaker 1: and tribulations and has seen God take him through those,
Speaker 1: there is a powerful witness that only an older man
Speaker 1: can have in these ways, he becomes a safety for us.
Speaker 1: When the storm clouds roll in, we can call that,
Speaker 1: we can call on that older man's experience and wisdom
Speaker 1: and receive comfort that Christ extends to us personified in
Speaker 1: this man. And so my call to the older men
Speaker 1: in this room, which I'm not really sure where I land,
Speaker 1: older man, younger man. My kids love to point out
Speaker 1: I have gray hair, so I don't feel like I
Speaker 1: can say I'm a young man, but I sure don't
Speaker 1: feel like an older man.
Speaker 2: But older men, we need you.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna say I'm a younger man right now,
Speaker 1: and I need you older men in my life.
Speaker 2: The young men of this church are sons. They need you.
Speaker 1: And I'm so encouraged that at Crossway we have older
Speaker 1: men that are committed to, you know, like in our
Speaker 1: small groups where we have multi generational small groups, and
Speaker 1: sometimes that irks us, and you know, but I'm so
Speaker 1: thankful for the older men in this church that are
Speaker 1: committed to the small group life that we have set up,
Speaker 1: that are giving themselves to the discipleship of the younger
Speaker 1: men in this church, myself included. We need you, And
Speaker 1: to the younger men, We're about to get to you
Speaker 1: and talking about these things. But I want to encourage
Speaker 1: you right now to find older men in your life
Speaker 1: that you can lean on to disciple you, to encourage you,
Speaker 1: to give you perspective that you.
Speaker 2: Don't have yet in life.
Speaker 1: You need older men in your life. So, continuing to
Speaker 1: move through this verse three, we get to older women.
Speaker 1: Older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers
Speaker 1: or slaves too much wine. There to teach what is
Speaker 1: good and so train the young women. Older women are to,
Speaker 1: as a commentary put it, practice the presence of God.
Speaker 2: Isn't that what this describes?
Speaker 1: Practicing the presence of God?
Speaker 2: There to be worshipful.
Speaker 1: Their lives are there to live lives of worship of
Speaker 1: the one who has saved them. And then the Paul
Speaker 1: points out these two moral failings here that they are
Speaker 1: not to be slanders or addicted too much wine. I
Speaker 1: don't have to look too far around in my community
Speaker 1: and maybe even my family tree to see older women
Speaker 1: that have kind of just given themselves to their bridge
Speaker 1: game and wine and gossip, and that's that's kind of
Speaker 1: what they're living for. So I guess maybe San Antonio
Speaker 1: isn't too different from crete in that regard. I don't
Speaker 1: know if y'all can relate to me if you've if
Speaker 1: you've seen some of these older women. But instead the
Speaker 1: instruction is instead of spending their time on themselves and
Speaker 1: tearing up down there to there, to spend their time
Speaker 1: sacrificing themselves, sacrificing their lives and building others up, namely
Speaker 1: the younger women that they're so qualified to help. Just
Speaker 1: this week, I was having a conversation with I'm not
Speaker 1: going to say an older woman of the church, but
Speaker 1: she was a woman, and she might be older than me,
Speaker 1: but she was just sharing, she was testifying to just
Speaker 1: a sweet time that her and some other older women
Speaker 1: and younger women spent over the past I think it
Speaker 1: was last fall semester going through I think it was
Speaker 1: Titus and and just the mutual encouragement that they provided
Speaker 1: one another, the older women teaching the younger women, and
Speaker 1: the younger women even teaching the older women through.
Speaker 2: This mutual discipleship.
Speaker 1: And I just thought, how beautiful it is that these
Speaker 1: women are sacrificing their lives when this is the time
Speaker 1: for them, you know, like they've already done the heavy
Speaker 1: lifting with their own children. Or they've already done the
Speaker 1: heavy lifting with their careers and now they can kind
Speaker 1: of just sail off into the sunset. But no, these
Speaker 1: women were sacrificing their time, their bridge game, their whatever, majhon,
Speaker 1: which I hear.
Speaker 2: Is a wonderful game. I still haven't learned to play it.
Speaker 1: You can play majhon and disciple at the same time.
Speaker 2: But you get the picture.
Speaker 1: They're not giving themselves over to their own selfish desires.
Speaker 1: They're serving others. This is what biblical community looks like.
Speaker 1: And I tell you, the world on the outside is
Speaker 1: looking in and going that's different, and I kind of
Speaker 1: want some of that. And so this is the reminder
Speaker 1: that Paul is saying, like, do this so that the
Speaker 1: Gospel would not be maligned, This beautiful picture of helping
Speaker 1: one another's lives accord with sound doctrine. The world is
Speaker 1: watching and marveling at your selflessness, sisters, So thank you
Speaker 1: for that, and all of us let's engage in that
Speaker 1: kind of sacrificial discipleship. Okay, Younger women Verses four through five.
Speaker 1: Younger women are to love their own husbands and children,
Speaker 1: to be self controlled, pure, working at home, kind.
Speaker 2: And submissive to their own husbands.
Speaker 1: Paul has married younger women in mind here who are
Speaker 1: to love and prioritize their husband and their children.
Speaker 2: When children are young, it.
Speaker 1: Is so easy to weary of that primary responsibility, which
Speaker 1: is to your husband and to your children. I know
Speaker 1: how easy it is to weary of that, not because
Speaker 1: I've been a young woman, but because I've lived with one,
Speaker 1: and I've seen the struggle and the hardship it is
Speaker 1: to raise a household of children, to have daily responsibilities
Speaker 1: of managing the household well, loving a difficult to love
Speaker 1: husband at times, and how easy it is to grow
Speaker 1: weary of that and to lose sight of that being
Speaker 1: a primary call. We see the phrase in here working
Speaker 1: at home, which I just want to be clear, is
Speaker 1: not a proof text for a stay at home stereotype
Speaker 1: or even a prohibition of wives working vocationally outside of
Speaker 1: the house in some professional context. That's not what Paul
Speaker 1: has in mind here, And I think that we can
Speaker 1: balance that just by looking at Proverbs thirty one to
Speaker 1: see a woman who loved her husband well, who loved
Speaker 1: her children well, and who was a rock star entrepreneur
Speaker 1: business woman that would buy fields and.
Speaker 2: Tend to them.
Speaker 1: That they would grow fruit. But it is what Paul
Speaker 1: is saying is there is a special priority and emphasis
Speaker 1: placed on your role in first and foremost loving your husband,
Speaker 1: loving and supporting and raising up your children, and handling
Speaker 1: things there at the house. And that's not to say
Speaker 1: that you can't work outside of it, but it is
Speaker 1: to say that that is our God given priority and
Speaker 1: responsibility as Christian young women with families. When we in
Speaker 1: my house, when our kids were very young, like little
Speaker 1: little I remember coming home and seeing my wife exasperated
Speaker 1: by the discipline that had to be doled out that day,
Speaker 1: the house, managing the things in the house that needed
Speaker 1: to be done that didn't stop, the unending loads of
Speaker 1: laundry that just seemed to keep coming, and a peer
Speaker 1: out of nowhere. And in those times, one of the
Speaker 1: most encouraging things that helped get her through it was
Speaker 1: when she could pick up the phone or be in
Speaker 1: small group with an older woman that was just a
Speaker 1: little bit further along the path to say, sister, I know,
Speaker 1: and yet this time will pass. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: five years, ten years down the road, you're gonna look
Speaker 1: back on these days with fondness. You're gonna forget the
Speaker 1: worst parts of it, and you're actually gonna miss having
Speaker 1: those little children in there that seem like so much work.
Speaker 2: You're gonna miss the.
Speaker 1: Time that you're spending right now shepherding and shaping them.
Speaker 2: You're you're you.
Speaker 1: Know, the warning against you know, bitterness with your husband,
Speaker 1: and the encouragement that I always appreciated when they would
Speaker 1: remind her, Yeah, I know he's difficult, but he is
Speaker 1: still worth loving and sacrificing for. Thank you older women
Speaker 1: for that reminder to my wife. But as we think
Speaker 1: about just out there in the world and the ways
Speaker 1: that even the world would look down on that type
Speaker 1: of work, loving your husband, loving and sacrificing for your children,
Speaker 1: taking care of things that need to be taken care
Speaker 1: of at the house. But what Paul is reminding us
Speaker 1: is that God prioritizes.
Speaker 2: That, and that he even uses that.
Speaker 1: For out that the outside world looking in that might
Speaker 1: be scoffing at that, deep down, he knows that they're
Speaker 1: going to be attracted to it, and they're going to
Speaker 1: desire that.
Speaker 2: And then when we live our lives.
Speaker 1: Out in these godly ways, then we have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to share why we're doing that.
Speaker 2: Where our hope is coming from, and we.
Speaker 1: Get to point back to Christ appearing, bringing salvation and
Speaker 1: reordering our lives completely. Okay, younger men verse six, Guys,
Speaker 1: it's super simple. Be self controlled.
Speaker 2: It's like Paul.
Speaker 1: Understands that, like we need just the plane, straightforward instruction, dudes,
Speaker 1: be self controlled. That means that we need to control
Speaker 1: our temper. We need to control our tongue. We need
Speaker 1: to control our ambition. We need to control our appetite.
Speaker 1: We need to control our sexual urges. We can't be
Speaker 1: young men that give ourselves over to too much TV
Speaker 1: or too much video game, or too much me time,
Speaker 1: or too much exercise or too much recreation.
Speaker 2: We need to show restraint.
Speaker 1: That is that looks like a life that's been transformed
Speaker 1: by the Gospel. As I was thinking about just the
Speaker 1: simple command to be self control, I was laughing to
Speaker 1: myself about the proverb and this is my paraphrase, but
Speaker 1: it's like too much of one good thing, too much honey,
Speaker 1: will make you barf. Young men, we must not barf
Speaker 1: on our witness for Christ.
Speaker 2: We have to be men that are self controlled. You
Speaker 2: got me on that.
Speaker 1: Working on self control today is going to turn you
Speaker 1: into the older man that this church is going to
Speaker 1: rally around in the next thirty years. Okay, lastly, bond servants.
Speaker 1: Bond servants are to be submissive to their own masters
Speaker 1: and everything there to be well pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering,
Speaker 1: but showing all good faith. And without getting into a
Speaker 1: full we could take a twenty minute sidebar and what
Speaker 1: a bond servant is. But I'm just gonna cut to
Speaker 1: the chase and say we can apply bond servant to
Speaker 1: being an employee in this modern day. I think it's
Speaker 1: right for us to just cut right there. And so
Speaker 1: a Christian employee is to be submissive to their boss.
Speaker 1: They are to be a well pleasing employee. They are
Speaker 1: not to be argumentative. They're not to be pilfering or
Speaker 1: stealing their employer's time, but working hard and showing good faith.
Speaker 1: A life that does this is a life that comports
Speaker 1: well with the truth of the Gospel. So how can
Speaker 1: we expect to adorn Christ at work when we gather
Speaker 1: around the proverbial water cooler to tear our bosses down,
Speaker 1: or to tear down the things that we're working on.
Speaker 1: That's saying with our lips that we believe something, namely
Speaker 1: Christ in his ways, but with our actions are showing
Speaker 1: that our heart is far off from that. This un
Speaker 1: Christian behavior. And there's obviously other ways with which you
Speaker 1: know that gets worked out, stealing time from our employers
Speaker 1: when when we're at work we're you know, doing our
Speaker 1: own things or just getting by on the bare minimum.
Speaker 1: This is not the Christian way. This is the way
Speaker 1: of the world, but this is not the way for us,
Speaker 1: for those whose lives have been transformed by Christ. And
Speaker 1: to be sure, how can we share the Gospel with
Speaker 1: those that we work with when we're engaging in that
Speaker 1: kind of pilfering Like to protect Christ's witness, we need
Speaker 1: to work hard unto him and we need to live
Speaker 1: out submissive lives at the workplace to those who are
Speaker 1: giving us instructions, and we're to be a well pleasing employee. So,
Speaker 1: like I said, this list of these people is not
Speaker 1: an exhaustive list of everyone in every scenario. It's what
Speaker 1: Paul uses here, But you get the point. There's a
Speaker 1: certain Christian way of living that we find revealed in
Speaker 1: God's Word, that is motivated by a life transformed by
Speaker 1: the Gospel, and that God uses to evangelize the lost.
Speaker 1: This external reason for holiness is that so that others
Speaker 1: would see and desire God's salvation. So we've gone through
Speaker 1: the internal reason for change. We've seen these external reasons
Speaker 1: for change, and now and most importantly, let's look at
Speaker 1: the third point, which is eternal, that we have been changed.
Speaker 2: For God's possession. We're his for those in Christ.
Speaker 1: God has exchanged a sinner's heart with a pure heart.
Speaker 1: He has exchanged an old life for a new life,
Speaker 1: old ways for new ways, and he's doing it to
Speaker 1: set a people apart straight from verse fourteen, to set
Speaker 1: a people apart for his own possession.
Speaker 2: Verse eleven says that.
Speaker 1: Bringing salvation training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions,
Speaker 1: training us to live godly lives. In the present age,
Speaker 1: he is training us in verse fourteen that Christ gave
Speaker 1: himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and
Speaker 1: to purify for himself a people for his own possession.
Speaker 1: If you are in Christ, he is committed to change you.
Speaker 2: He is training.
Speaker 1: You, he is redeeming you, he is purifying you for
Speaker 1: his own possession. So a reasonable question that we might
Speaker 1: ask then is like, okay, how does the first two
Speaker 1: points of the sermon fit with the third point, Because
Speaker 1: you're saying that God is purifying me, that God is
Speaker 1: training me, that God is helping me to renounce on Godliness.
Speaker 1: Should I just sit back and just let God do him?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask a Josh question from up here. Is
Speaker 1: God doing it? Or are we doing it? There we go, Yes,
Speaker 1: it's both. God is doing it. He has promised that
Speaker 1: he's doing it right here, and he is also calling
Speaker 1: us to do it as well.
Speaker 2: God is changing you.
Speaker 1: His spirit is working in you, convicting you of sin
Speaker 1: and unrighteousness and giving you the pa to forsake it.
Speaker 1: Apart from God's initiating work in you, you would never
Speaker 1: start down the road. Apart from God's grace to you,
Speaker 1: you would not be able to endure on the road
Speaker 1: toward godliness.
Speaker 2: He is doing the work.
Speaker 1: And because He is doing it, we can step into
Speaker 1: it ourselves with our own personal responsibility to train ourselves
Speaker 1: to push ourselves in these godly ways, trusting that He's
Speaker 1: already doing it. It's both and and as a grace
Speaker 1: and a gift, He has given us the church one another,
Speaker 1: our pastors, our small group members, our small group leaders
Speaker 1: to help us.
Speaker 2: Walk down that road.
Speaker 1: And we're about to hear from one baptism testimony, a
Speaker 1: baptism that the grace of God has appeared to him.
Speaker 1: And we all know this, but we're gonna be reminded
Speaker 1: of it. That baptism is an outward expression of this
Speaker 1: internal reality of God's salvation. And in each of the
Speaker 1: candidates this morning will share about how they have had
Speaker 1: God work inside of their hearts in their lives, and
Speaker 1: how they are now renouncing ungodliness, how they are as
Speaker 1: zealously as the scriptures would put it, pursuing good works.
Speaker 1: How Christ is making them his own possession for his glory.
Speaker 1: And everybody's story in that regard is different, but it's
Speaker 1: all the same. We were all far off and then
Speaker 1: He intervened, and now He is creating in us a
Speaker 1: trophy of possession for his glory.
Speaker 2: And so if you're here this.
Speaker 1: Morning and you would say, like, well, I wouldn't refer
Speaker 1: to myself as Christ's possession, then I would just encourage
Speaker 1: you to listen to the testimony of the baptism. If
Speaker 1: you have questions on the text, I'm happy to talk
Speaker 1: with you after at the step one table. But but
Speaker 1: listen to how God intervened in this baptism candidate's life,
Speaker 1: and and just think you being here this morning is
Speaker 1: God calling you into that relationship, into that possession of
Speaker 1: his and calling you into being a part of His
Speaker 1: church that he that that's not just a church in.
Speaker 2: This age, but it's it's it's a church and.
Speaker 1: It's a people for eternity and for Christians that are
Speaker 1: here that might be growing weary of zealously pursuing good works.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're here this morning and you've been stuck in
Speaker 1: some certain sin pattern for many years. Now, Christ is
Speaker 1: calling you out of that. Christ isn't just calling you
Speaker 1: out of that and saying good luck, Bud and giving
Speaker 1: you a butt pat. He is in the trenches with you.
Speaker 1: We have this great high priest that can relate to
Speaker 1: our struggles, that can relate to our weakness. And He
Speaker 1: even uses a testimony during baptism to remind us of
Speaker 1: the hope that we had when we first tasted the
Speaker 1: Gospel of Christ and we first started forsaking the sin
Speaker 1: that once had total control over us. And so I
Speaker 1: want you to listen to this, and I want you
Speaker 1: to be encouraged by that that we get to worship
Speaker 1: a God that brings in all sorts of jacked up
Speaker 1: people and makes them holy for his glory, for his possession,
Speaker 1: and that he's even using you to call others throughout
Speaker 1: this world of all nations, into relationship with him. Meditate
Speaker 1: on these things this morning, Meditate on him this week,
Speaker 1: and be encouraged to continue to fight the sin and
Speaker 1: pursue a godliness that he has called you too. Let's pray,
Speaker 1: Heavenly Father, we thank you and we praise you for
Speaker 1: the grace that you have shown to us through the
Speaker 1: appearing of your son, Jesus Christ. We thank you that
Speaker 1: you have not just called us on our own and
Speaker 1: in our own strength to pursue godliness, but that you
Speaker 1: have started that work in us, training us for righteousness,
Speaker 1: helping us to forsake our old ways for yours and Lord,
Speaker 1: for those of us that might be discouraged even this morning,
Speaker 1: being freshly reminded of the zealous pursuit for good works,
Speaker 1: would we be reminded of your sweet grace and your
Speaker 1: sweet mercy that enables us to pursue your works for
Speaker 1: your glory. Lord, Christians, change help us do that Lord
Speaker 1: help us be a church marked by your gospel, grace
Speaker 1: and change in our lives.
Speaker 2: We pray in Christ's Name, Amen,