A Daily Walk

John Randall: When someone is truly saved, good works are one of the natural byproducts of salvation. Faith apart from works is dead. I'll show you my faith by my works. I'm not doing things in order so that I can earn my salvation. I could never earn my salvation. I've been redeemed. I've been cleansed. I've been purified and so now the natural response is good works. This is the grace of God.

Have you experienced this? Do you know it firsthand? Are you growing in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord? Would you like to? You can.

Guest (Male): Today on A Daily Walk, we're plunging into the riches of God's grace, which is able to save and sanctify us. We thank the Good Lord you're with us as we do. Pastor John Randall is taking us through Titus, and we'll soon see God's grace is not just available to justify us or save us, it's also there to help us grow.

Just as it's foolish to try and get into the family of God by your own best efforts, so it is foolish to try and grow that way. We need God's grace for growth. Here's Pastor John with more about that from Titus Chapter 2.

John Randall: In writing again in Romans Chapter 6, Verse 1, Paul said this: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace might abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" Grace teaches us not to live in sin so God can show everybody how gracious he is.

"Lord, I've made a decision today. I figured I'm just going to present my members as unrighteousness. That way, you'll be able to show the world how gracious you are." No, that's a misunderstanding of the grace of God. The grace of God doesn't teach us that. The world teaches that. Some churches might point to that. Certainly the devil, that's his favorite doctrine.

"Live how you want to live. God doesn't care. There's grace. Just use grace any time you want." That's a misunderstanding of grace. Grace is given to us so that we don't have to live that way any longer. Grace is given to us so we can be free from the bondage of sin, not so we can run back into it and then God can be gracious to show everyone how gracious he is. We don't understand grace if that is the way that we live.

It's a work of God's grace. When we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, you know what happens? You know what happens when you begin to dive into the depths of God's grace? You begin to have a taste for the grace of God. You begin to lose your taste for the things of the world because you've tasted and seen that the Lord is good. You've tasted of his grace and you can't find that in the world.

There's nothing more wonderful, more of a blessing in the world. You can't find it but the grace of God. And you begin to lose your desire for those things as you just immerse yourself in God's grace. You live according to God's grace and you grow in the knowledge of God's grace. And listen, it's inexhaustible. We could never even—there are certain depths of the ocean that they haven't even fathomed yet, and so much more so the grace of God.

There are things that only heaven will reveal about how amazing this grace is. But friend, listen. Dive in headlong. Plumb the depths if you can, and you'll find that you'll lose the desire for the things of the flesh more and more as you live in the grace of God. Grace brings salvation and grace teaches us how to live by denying what is ungodly and what is worldly.

On the positive side in Verse 12, it says it also teaches us that we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. Grace teaches us what to run away from, but it also teaches us what to pursue. It teaches us to live first of all soberly, which means a self-controlled life. A life that is bent toward God's will instead of my own will.

A life that is no longer dominated or in bondage to the fleshly desires but now can overcome them. It's the mindset that now battles the flesh rather than just give into it. Grace teaches us how to live a self-controlled life. The Bible tells us that the fruit of the spirit, one of them at least, is self-control. Self-mastery. God help us through the power of the spirit to control ourselves.

I think the biggest problem that we have in our life is not so much everybody else, it's ourselves. And the world offers a solution for the problem of self by saying "love yourself, hug yourself, pamper yourself, adore yourself." That's not the solution. It makes it worse. Jesus said death to self. That's the answer. Death to self teaches us to live soberly, a self-controlled life. It's through his grace that I learn that.

But it also teaches me to live righteously, morally upright outwardly, or in a right place that pleases and honors God. A righteous life before God. Positionally, if I am born again, I'm clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Positionally, I am righteous in the sight of God. Not my own righteousness, but his righteousness that has been imputed to me. I am righteous in the sight of God.

And because I have that position, I want to live daily a righteous life, a life that pleases God. Do you seek to live a life that pleases God? Do you ask God as you go through your day and you go through your life, "God does this please you? Lord, are you pleased with this aspect of my life?" because I want to live a righteous life before you. Sometimes I fall short of that and yet I want to live a right life before God and before man.

The Bible says in Psalm 5, Verse 12: "For you, oh Lord, will bless the righteous. With favor you will surround him as with a shield." Soberly, righteously, but also godly. Noah Webster in his dictionary back in the 1800s defined godly in this way: "living in obedience to God's commands from a principle of love for him and reverence of his character and precepts."

I want to live a godly life because not only have I received God's love, but I also want to love God in return. To love God is to seek to live a godly life. Love is a powerful motivation, isn't it? You'll do crazy things when you love somebody. Spend some kind of crazy amount of money. Why? For the one you love. Loving the Lord in such a way that motivates me to live a godly life because I have received his love and I want to love him in response.

A godly life. Psalm Chapter 4, Verse 3 says, "But know that the Lord has set apart for himself him who is godly, and the Lord will hear when I call to him." God's grace, oh it provides us salvation through Jesus Christ. God's grace teaches us how to live through the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God tells us where to look.

It says in Verse 13, "looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ." God's grace teaches us to be looking for. The word is expectantly waiting, used in the present tense meaning that this should be a continual attitude or focus. We are to be looking for the blessed hope, the return of Jesus Christ. That's what grace teaches us.

Grace teaches us to live with eternity in our hearts, to look for Jesus, to be waiting for Jesus, to be anticipating the return of Jesus Christ. You remember during his earthly ministry the disciples were greatly discouraged over the fact that Jesus had informed them he was leaving them. He was going away. They were troubled.

That is why in John Chapter 14, he sought to encourage them that they would not let their hearts be troubled, but he said to them: "In my father's house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. And I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, you may be also."

Jesus said, "I am going away, but I'm also coming back and I'm going to come back to get you and take you to the place that I'm making for you." In Acts Chapter 1, the disciples are there on the Mount of Olives. Jesus is about to ascend back to the Father and he begins to ascend up through the earth's atmosphere into the very heaven of the heavens, and the disciples are standing there and they are looking up into the sky.

And two men in white apparel stand beside them and they said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven." And you know something? The church believed that. And they lived in the expectant return of the Lord Jesus.

And when you understand and grace begins to instruct you and teaches us to look for the return of Jesus, it is a powerful motivation. Powerful motivation for purity in this world. If you know Jesus is coming, could be here before this service is over, praise the Lord. It could happen before this day is over. If you live in that way, I want to live a godly life. I want to live a pure life.

"He who has this hope in himself purifies himself just as he is pure." What hope? The hope that he's coming. If I know that he's coming, I want to keep myself pure and unspotted from this world because my master is coming and he's going to hold me accountable for the way I've lived my life. If you know that Jesus is coming and grace has instructed you and you have heeded that instruction that the Lord is coming again, not only is it a powerful motivation for purity, but it is a powerful motivation for evangelism.

This week, Friday night, hundreds of names were prayed for that people had written down their names and we distributed them throughout the congregation and we pleaded with God for the salvation of people who are not ready to meet the Lord. They are not ready and if Jesus were to come today, they would be left behind.

A powerful motivation for evangelism when you live in the expectant return of the Lord Jesus Christ. The church needs to be awakened once again to this reality and reminded consistently that the Lord is coming. The word Maranatha, "come quickly Lord Jesus," is something that should be on our lips, it should be on our hearts, it should be on our mind, the return of the Lord Jesus for his bride.

In the moment and a twinkling of an eye, the Bible says he's going to come back. We're going to be caught up to be with the Lord, instantly changed, transformed in that moment when the trumpet sounds. The question is, are you ready for the return of Christ? I pray that you are. It was Harry Ironside, he said this: "It is the return of the Lord which is thus put before us to influence our daily lives.

It is one thing to hold the doctrine of the Lord's return, but it is quite another to be held by that blessed hope." Are we simply holding it or are we held by it? It was G. Campbell Morgan, he said this: "I never begin my work in the morning without thinking that perhaps he may interrupt my work and begin his own. I'm not looking for death, I'm looking for him."

That's a great way to live. To live expectantly and God's grace teaches us to look for this blessed hope of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Friend, make a note of that verse. It is another proof text for the deity of Jesus Christ. Don't let anybody ever tell you that Jesus Christ isn't God. It says it right here: "our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ."

That's not two separate people. That's one in the same. Jesus is God as the Bible tells us that he is. As we conclude this chapter, grace not only encourages us to look up as we are reminded of the imminent return of Jesus Christ for his bride, but the grace of God also encourages us to look back and be reminded of God's love.

In Verse 14: "who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works." Paul looks back to what Christ did as he says, "who gave himself for us." Most of us here this morning are probably familiar with John 3:16.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever would believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life." God gave. Here it tells us Jesus gave himself. God gave. Jesus gave himself for us. It was a voluntary act based upon his love for us. Jesus knew there was no other way for us to be saved.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed to his father, "Father, if there is any other way, let this cup pass from me." But there wasn't. That is why he followed up by saying, "Nevertheless not my will but yours be done." It was a voluntary act. He gave himself. And if Jesus gave himself for us, the reasonable service, the reasonable response is now to give ourselves to him.

He presented himself as a living sacrifice for us. The reasonable response is for us to present ourselves as living sacrifices to him. Lord, you gave your life for me. Lord, I choose to give my life back to you to use it for your purposes, God, for whatever your plan is for my life. He gave himself. Acts Chapter 20, Verse 28 tells us this: that Jesus purchased us with his own blood.

That's the only way you could be purchased, with his own blood. In Galatians Chapter 1, Verse 4, Paul said this: "He gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us out of this present evil age to the will and according to the will of our God and Father." He gave himself for our sins. Why? That he might deliver us.

Paul being mindful of this gift of the Lord Jesus said in Galatians Chapter 2, Verse 20: "I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." Jesus gave himself for you because he loved you.

You can reject that love or you can receive it. He gave himself for us. And why did he give himself for us? Not only because he loved us, not just to deliver us, here Paul tells us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed. The word redemption throughout the scripture, such a beautiful word, so full of meaning, so wonderful.

To redeem means to loose, to release, to unbind. In the simplest terms, it means to release someone who has been held captive, a prisoner, a slave. If you are living a life of sin this morning, you're a slave to it. I didn't make that up. Jesus said it. Whoever commits sin becomes a slave of sin. You're in bondage to it.

And those of you who have been saved, who have been redeemed, you know what it is to be in bondage. You know what it is to be a slave and you also know what it is to be freed from the bondage of sin. And there is nothing like it. Am I right? The freedom that comes from knowing Christ. The freedom that comes in being saved and redeemed by the blood of the lamb.

Freedom to be redeemed. And maybe today you're in a prison cell. The devil made it for you. It's attractive. "Yeah, just live in this. This is great. You'll love it. Come on in. Also, put these on. Everybody wears these." Man, I've got such freedom. This is awesome. I can't even believe how awesome. This is horrible. You don't realize it.

And also let me blind your eyes so you don't know you're in prison and you don't know you're in bondage. And let me also close your ears so you can't hear the truth. And by the way, while you're there in the prison with your eyes closed and your hands bound and your feet bound and you can't hear and you can't see, I'm also going to harden your heart.

But Jesus has the key and he comes and he opens the door. And he comes in and he breaks the chains. He opens your eyes, he opens your ears, he softens your heart. And you can receive salvation and be redeemed and walk out of that place never to return again as a free person. Amen? To redeem us. But wait, there's more.

Not only to redeem us from every lawless deed, but please notice the text, to purify for himself his own special people. It means to cause something to become clean that was contaminated or impure. To make clean by taking away an undesirable part. To cleanse from filth or impurity. It means to cause to become clean from physical stains of dirt.

If you live a sinful life, it's a filthy life. It's a perverted life. The filth affects your mind. It affects your speech. It affects your behavior. It's a dirty life, a sinful life. But Jesus wants to cleanse. He wants to purify. He wants to remove the stains of sin. Listen carefully, friend. There's not one stain of sin that the blood of Jesus cannot cleanse. Not one.

You say, "well, you don't know how filthy I've been." The Lord does. And that's why he died. That's why he wants to apply his blood to your sin-stained life so that you can be a blood-bought bride. He wants to purify you, cleanse you. Isn't it amazing how when the Lord steps in, he purifies your mind?