From the heart of the
pastor:
“…instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly
desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly
in the present age” (Titus
2:12).
Christianity makes
ethical demands upon its adherents. God makes His
grace evident via His word concerning the manner of
life you should live. His word is your Instructor’s
instrument, so you must train yourself to receive
God’s instruction. His instruction book commands
you to discipline yourself to accept His teaching,
chastisement, correction and training in
righteousness (II Ti. 3:16). You know that your
fallen nature is biased against His tutoring;
nonetheless, you must become schooled in the
lifestyle of the Lord.
Your Christian education
will not occur without pain. You must effect
self-denial (Mt. 16:24). Your responsibility is to
become more aware of the hollowness that even
Christians experience when they fail to add their
own sacrifices to the afflictions of Jesus (Col.
1:24). You have the burden of (and the capacity to)
unlearn the natural life in order to more fully
embrace the life of Christ.
You are saved by grace.
God’s gift of saving grace is without conditions.
His grace is not dependent upon your worthiness, but
upon the character of grace’s Provider – grace is
so amazing! Nevertheless, when you have
received His grace, He expects you to become the
revelation of His character to a lost and dying
world (Ro. 8:29; II Cor. 3:18).
The demands God makes
upon you concerning your spiritual growth are most
reasonable. He paid a dear price for you (Col.
1:13f.). Consequently, you are not your own, for
you belong to God (I Cor. 6:9-20).
Your world is estranged
from God, for a separation exists between the child
and the Father. The child must “deny ungodliness.”
Ungodliness exists when the child actively
suppresses God’s truth (Ro. 1:18). The child
curtails his awe of God because he rejects the
character of the Father as expressed in Scripture.
Man’s rejection of
godliness is fueled by his “worldly desires.” The
yearnings of man are toward the applause of the
world’s positions, pleasures, possessions, power and
personal glory. Nevertheless, God chastises those
with worldly yearnings: “You adulteresses, do you
not know that friendship with the world is hostility
toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend
of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (Js.
4:4).
God gifts you with three
adverbs arranged to invite you to recognize the
contrast between worldly lusts and eternal designs.
Your charge is “to live sensibly, righteously and
godly.” These three terms superintend the yielded
Christian life.
You are most sensible
when you are exercising self-control. Your
appetites must be chaste and tempered, avoiding
licentiousness because you are most godly when the
allures of the world have lost their charm.
When are you supposed to
live sensibly, righteously and godly? God says, “in
the present age.” Can you maintain a cohesive and
consistent course of Christian growth in the present
age? You can by virtue of Jesus’ enabling. Paul
says that Jesus “gave Himself for our sins, that He
might deliver us out of this present evil age,
according to the will of our God and Father” (Gal.
1:4).
Jesus has delivered you
out of the domain of darkness in order that you will
be a beacon of light to the darkness of the present
age (Mt. 5:14, 16). You are the exemplar of Christ
to this world. Do not allow the zeitgeist of
this present age to become yours. Instead, you set
the standard for the society wherein you live. You
be the candle of the Lord (Prov. 20:27).
