“ARE YOU LIVING RIGHT?” Titus 2:12
FBCF – 1/10/21
Jon Daniels
INTRO – “Time for a Checkup” series – 5 basic questions about our spiritual lives this month. Last week: “Are You Saved?” Today: “Are You Living Right?”
Maps – Used to use them to chart the course of a trip that we were going on. Buy them at convenience stores & truck stops. Glove compartments in our cars would be stuffed with them. Now, they’re virtually obsolete w/ the technology that we have available to us now.
But there’s still an important concept that maps teach us: The importance of knowing which is the right direction for us to go. Whether using a paper map or listening to a voice speaking to us from our phone, we all want to make sure that we are going in the right direction to reach our destination.
You have a map book in your hand right now. It’s a spiritual map book & it’s called the Bible.
- It’s the only true & living Word of God. SETTLE THAT & BELIEVE THAT! There’s no other book like it or equal to it – Not Koran, or Book of Mormon, or corrupt NWT from JWs.
o Hebrews 4:12 – “See, the Word of God is alive! It is at work & is sharper than any double-edged sword — it cuts right through to where soul meets spirit & joints meet marrow, & it is quick to judge the inner reflections & attitudes of the heart.” (CJB)
- It’s given to us so that we will have the directions & instructions we need to go in the right direction in our lives.
o Evangelist Gipsy Smith told of a man who said he had received no inspiration from the Bible although he had "gone through it several times." Gipsy replied, "Let it go through YOU once, then you will tell a different story!"
- Its place in our lives must be a place of priority & practice.
o You’ve got to carve out some time out of each day to read the Bible. You need it to live spiritually as much as your body needs water to live physically. SO important to do this. (Big DOGS reading through the Bible together this year).
? To grow in your walk w/ the Lord, you need a plan for consistent intake of the Word. Devotional plans & books are great, but make sure that you are getting into the Word.
? Adrian Rogers: “No Bible – no breakfast.”
o Not enough just to read it. We read it, strive to understand its application for our lives, but then we must put it into practice in our daily lives.
o James 1:22 – “Be doers of the Word & not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (NKJV)
EXPLANATION – Titus 2:12
“Make no mistakes: What you believe will eventually determine how you behave” (Skip Heitzig, You Can Understand the Book of Revelation, p. 32). Paul’s instructions & counsel to Titus in this short letter are based on the firm foundation of solid Christian doctrine & theology.
- Oswald Chambers: “Your theology must work itself out, exhibiting itself in your most common, everyday relationships.”
- R.C. Sproul: “W/out right doctrine, right living is impossible. We have not really understood Scripture if we are not changed as a result of our study.”
Reading & studying Titus will help us understand how to live right by living a life that is pleasing to the Lord. It tells us what to do, & also what not to do – things we are to imitate & things we are to avoid. As we see in our Scripture verse today, there are things that we need to steer clear of & things that we need to strive to live right & glorify God in all that we do.
- Look at Titus 1:16 – How tragic if these words describe your life or my life!
- Look at Titus 3:3 – How tragic if these words describe your life or my life!
- Look at Titus 3:10-11 – How tragic if these words describe your life or my life!
The good news is that these don’t have to describe your life or my life! Like we said last week, we are saved FOR something, & that something is to serve the Lord. We don’t “get saved” & then just go & live any way that we want to live. Some people think that, if they pray a little prayer, they’ll get their “fire insurance” paid up so they won’t go to hell, but their lives never change. I would submit to you that that person was never truly saved in the first place. We certainly aren’t going to be a perfect person, but we certainly should live a different life b/c of the complete transformation that has happened to us when Jesus came into our lives.
- Christians aren’t sinless, but they should sin less.
- Simply put, we ought to live right not to BE saved, but b/c we ARE saved.
APPLICATION – There is a direct connection between our belief & our behavior.
To answer today’s question, “Are You Living Right?”, let’s take a look at what right living is.
RIGHT LIVING IS BASED ON GOD’S GRACE – Jump back to v. 11 that we looked at last week. Reminder of what grace is: God giving to us that which we do not deserve.
- “Grace is the love of God shown to the unlovely; the peace of God given to the restless; the unmerited favor of God.” (https://www.christianity.com/theology/what-is-grace.html)
- We know that we are saved by the grace of God. But we also live by the grace of God every day. Some folks think that we get saved by grace, but then it’s up to us to stay saved by doing good works. But that’s just not the truth. We receive God’s salvation by grace, His forgiveness of our sins by His grace every day, His provision of our every need by His grace, our right standing before Him by grace, our strength for living & our stability in times of difficulty & suffering by grace. “Grace transforms our desires, motivations, & behavior…grounds & empowers everything in the Christian life.” (https://www.christianity.com/theology/what-is-grace.html)
When we truly consider & dwell on all that God has done for us & all that He is doing for us right now & all that He will do for us in the future – ALL UNDESERVED TO US & ALL BY HIS GRACE TOWARD US – we will find ourselves desiring to live right out of our deep gratitude to Him.
RIGHT LIVING IS SERIOUS BUSINESS – GRACE TRAINS US
I have 2 nephews, 2 cousins, & an uncle who were all in the Marines. Marine Corps bootcamp – properly known as “Marine Corps Recruit Training” – is well-known for its intensity. USMC website: “There are few reputations more storied and none more deserving than that of Marine Corps Recruit Training. The difficulties this process presents to every recruit are as deliberate as they are legendary, as physical, mental and moral toughness are prerequisites to fight among our ranks.” There are drill sergeants who challenge the young recruits in unimaginable ways as they train them to “win for the Nation they fight for.”
- Crucible – Final element of the recruits’ training. Explanation from my nephew: “3 days. 3 MREs. Less than 8 hrs sleep total. Overall: 50 miles hiked w/ & w/out gear in the day & night. Numerous obstacle courses through mud, sand, dense forest, & water. Boxing & pugil stick matches. Movements to contact. Changing squad leaders to see how different recruits handle it. Finish it off w/ a full-pack 9 mi hike back to the Iwo Jima Memorial. Marching cadences get louder the closer you get to the memorial. Receive your Eagle, Globe, & Anchor. Get addressed as “Marine” instead of “recruit” for 1st time in 12 wks. Cry like a baby. Go eat as much as you want at the ‘warriors’ b’fast.’”
Training for the military is serious business. And training to live right for the Lord is even more serious. Look at these words:
- “training” – This is a serious word. Has connotation of educating & instruction. But even more serious, “discipline by whipping or scourging.”
- Not saying that God is a cruel taskmaster who rules w/ a whip. But this is definitely a word that has serious, critical, crucial training to live right for the Lord.
Part of that seriousness is to get rid of some junk in our lives that must not be there.
- “ungodliness” – impiety (lack of reverence for God); wrongdoing; profaneness; desires for ungodly things; ungodly deeds
- “worldly passions” – worldly desires, lusts, cravings, longings
A missionary society wrote to missionary David Livingstone and asked, "Have you found a good road to where you are? If so, we want to know how to send other men to join you." Livingstone wrote back, "If you have men who will come only if they know there is a good road, I don't want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all."
- He was saying, “If people are looking for an easy way, I don’t want them.”
- A lot of people are looking for the easy way around the sin & impurity that is in their life. Not going to happen! God takes is seriously!
Rev. 3:15-16 - Church as Laodicea
RIGHT LIVING IS FOR THE HERE & NOW – GRACE EQUIPS US
"...live self-controlled, upright, & godly lives in the present age..."
“self-controlled” – soberly; with sound mind; having good judgment; mastery of the passions
“upright” – righteous, just, correctly
CONCLUSION – Mountain climber in Switzerland died & on his tombstone were inscribed these words: “He died climbing.”
May that be true of us, too! Let’s continue to climb higher & higher in our commitment to & walk w/ the Lord. Let keep living right for His glory!
