Well congregation before we put our blue Psalter hymnal too far away Would you notice that we begin this evening back in the Heidelberg catechism? So we'll read that first Lord's Day those two questions and answers in a moment page 8 page 8 in the back section again of the blue Psalter hymnal We'll come to that in a moment. But first and I know that's a couple of books to hold to the Bible and to god's word into the book of tightness i know that uh... our brother thomas brought good words from tightness chapter three and the beginning of the harbor catechism last week so if you don't mind will be encouraged and instructed again this time in tightness chapter two And in the Heidelberg Catechism, as we set before us some significant and important matters for us to take up there. So I'll be reading the entire chapter. It's not too long, Titus chapter 2, but our attention specifically will be on the last part of it, 11 through 15. So let's begin. The word of God this evening, the book of Titus, I noticed that's on page 1858, if you haven't already found it, and chapter two. The apostle says, you must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love, and in endurance. Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything, set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching, Show integrity, seriousness, and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted. so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. Verse 11, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you. Beloved we'll keep our Bible near us will of course pay very careful attention, especially the verses 11 through 15, but tonight let's make our Beginning in the summary. It's not the Word of God But it is a summary as we've been reading in our pastors page articles in the messenger about our use of the confessions and so tonight Lord's Day one is And I'll ask the question of question one, and then we'll come to question two. Seems reasonable to do those in order. And then congregation will give the response. So Lord's Day one, now question one, asks this. What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him. Well, congregation question two asks us this. What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort? Three things. First, how great my sin and misery are. Second, how I am set free from all my sins and misery. Third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance. Beloved, again, these things do summarize Significantly so, what it is we learn from God in the scriptures. Let's ask his help tonight as we continue that in prayer, shall we? Well, Heavenly Father, we want to live knowledgeably. That is, we want to know you. For there is no knowledge higher than the knowledge of you, your person, your quality, your nature, your characteristics. Heavenly Father, we ask that we might make a beginning in that tonight. To know God so that then we might know ourselves. We might understand sin and know Jesus Christ and the power of the Spirit. We might know of eternity, Lord, all of these things. And so tonight we pray that you would help us to desire to know Give us a thirst, a hunger after righteousness, and as you have promised, Lord, fill us. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, the congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the letter named Titus in our Bible was written, humanly speaking, by the Apostle Paul, to the young pastor Titus, assigned to ministry on the island of Crete. And that was a tough assignment. Cretans, says Paul by the Spirit in chapter one, verses 12 and 13, are a rough bunch with lots of untamed wildness. The Holy Spirit then has Paul tell Titus that what was needed on Crete was doctrine. Titus chapter two, verse one. Titus, you must speak. The NIV is a little bit loose in the way it translates several different words in chapter two, all into the same English word, teach. There are several Greek words behind that, but they all have the same force and emphasis. Titus. You must speak, verse 1, what will be understood to be doctrine. This teaching ministry born of grace, verse 11, shapes behaviors, verses 12-14. Notice that again. The teaching, the setting down of the truth of the Word of God in section by section, verse 11, shapes, verses 12-14, behavior. Now race ahead, pause there and race ahead 1,500 years. We're no longer on the island of Crete, but now having jumped ahead 1,500 years, we've landed in the Palatinate. Now we call it Germany. We're by Heidelberg. And there's Ursinus, Olivianus, and likely others. What were they doing? Well, in a sense, they're doing exactly what tonight we are doing. They were pouring over the Word of God to seek the answer to the question, what is it that shapes the lives of Christians? Those now in 1500s and the 1600s and beyond who had been rescued out of the Roman Catholic Church, what was needed? What was the significant truths they needed to know? And now, again, we're talking about doctrine. Because you see the Holy Spirit says. The truth doctrine shapes lives. Well, people of God, and here's your first fill in the blank. If you're keeping score people of God, we believe that biblical ministry today. Like in the days of Titus on Crete. And young Christians in Heidelberg. Includes teaching the doctrines of grace. For the shaping of lives in Christ. For the shaping of lives in Christ and parents, grandparents. Isn't that what you want for your children and your grandchildren? Not even to speak about what it is we want for ourselves to have our lives in Christ well shaped. So God's grace for redemption also makes us ready to do what is good. God's grace for redemption also makes us ready to do what is good. Notice then, first of all, we belong to him because of his given grace. So notice this about what Paul says to Titus. Again, Titus, now chapter two and verse 11, the apostle says, for the grace of God that brings salvation. Or to use one of those catchphrases that the Reformation got a hold of, salvation is by grace alone. Or as the Heidelberg Catechism puts it, our only comfort in life and in death is of that of belonging. And we belong by grace, that grace which has come down from God. So the catechism right out of the gate, question and answer one, is laser focused on Jesus Christ. Nobody can charge otherwise in terms of the Heidelberg Catechism. It is Christocentric. It is Christ-centered and focused. You know that. You agree with that, if you know anything about the catechism. But have we paused to ask the question, historically, well, why was that? Why is that? Well, it is because of those baby Christians, or maybe you'd want to say baby Protestants, in Heidelberg, in the areas there, having then been rescued out of Roman Catholicism. What did they need? They needed Christ. They needed to hear about the Jesus Christ who was alive for them rather than as the Roman Catholic Church still presents Jesus Christ, one who is dead, who is still on a cross. No, that's not the one we need. We need the one who is alive and whose life by the Spirit enlivens us and gives us life and causes us to live. And so Paul begins here, and it's the foundational place to begin, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. Here is the appearing of Jesus Christ. What, beloved, what the church needs today is no different than what Paul, by the Spirit, told Titus, he must preach on Crete. Dearly beloved, we need to be taught We need to be taught the very first truth and the doctrines of grace. That is, it is by Christ alone, through grace alone, that we have peace with God. Every generation must be taught these truths. I come at this a little bit from the position of we're very familiar with the Heidelberg Catechism, and perhaps that's true about most of us, some of us. And as it begins, what is my only comfort in life and death? We automatically begin rehearsing the answer, don't we? That I am not my own. Well, do you know what we're saying when we say that? I belong. What we're saying is that I am in union with Jesus Christ. And isn't that the first thing we must know? Paul reminds Titus 2.11 that grace, notice the language here, has appeared. Why would he use that word? Because that's the reality of what happened for the old covenant believer in the promise that they waited and waited and waited for, and then all of a sudden, he appears. He comes, born of the Virgin. God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under law. Because He needed to live perfectly, because we don't. Because He needed to die satisfactorily and sufficiently for us, because we are sinners. because He needed to be laid dead in the tomb so that we might have grace and that He was raised again on the third day that we might have hope and justification. The very things we considered this morning. Beloved, when Paul says, verse 11, that the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared, he is talking about Christ. Do you know Him? That's the first question that must be asked. Do I know Jesus Christ savingly? Well, so as we consider that and think about that, notice that the apostle is already rushed ahead, verse 12. He's already said, well, that's a settled matter and we need to move forward, but beloved, just pause and think about that. How we would sort of do the same thing in the way we process When we move from salvation to sanctification, it's a little bit artificial. We need to be settled here first. May I put that differently? We need to be well grounded in the first matter, which is this, as the Nicene Creed puts it, that for us men and for our salvation, he what? He came down from heaven. Verse 11 again, he appeared. Now we're stressing this, beloved, because this sort of knowledge does not come naturally. You might love the desert at night like I do. You might want to see the glories of the stars at night in a place where there isn't light pollution. But if we were to transport ourselves out to the middle of the desert tonight at midnight and look up into the sky, not knowing anything about the gospel or the Bible or being saved and converted, we would not come to the knowledge about which we are now speaking by looking up at the stars. They've got a new space telescope now. It's a tremendous blessing and we can see all kinds of things way off into the depths of the universe. But those things do not teach us what we are here striving to know. This knowledge does not come to man naturally. Why? Because of man's fallen condition. We are born without the ability to grasp these things. And yet, as Paul will put it in Romans 1, man reaches out. Man wants to find out how he can find God. And so you've got all kinds of world religions structured by the old song, work your fingers to the bone. Well, what do you get beside bony fingers? Not much. That is the structure of every other world religion. men, women, trying to work out how to find God and how to find peace with God. And all of the structures of the Muslims and the Hindus and Roman Catholicism is that very thing. Work, work, work, work, work, and maybe God will accept you. This is not what the scripture teaches us. You see, people of God, the Reformation, the Reformation of the 16th century taught people what Paul told Titus. He must teach the people. And it is this. Grace is what Jesus Christ has already done for us. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Could you go up to somebody this week? Somebody that it seems to you to be struggling in trials and difficulty. Maybe they've tried, quote, religions before. Could you go up to them and say to them, listen, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Are you confident about the gospel that way? Would you say that to somebody? This is what Paul tells Titus, he must And we're going to come back to that word with some emphasis. He must teach the people on Crete. We are not our own. We cannot save ourselves. Can I press us a little bit about that? We need to stop thinking that our Bible reading saves us. Because it doesn't. We need to stop thinking that our praying, and if we can pray more earnestly, all the better, to stop thinking that our faithful praying saves us, because it doesn't. We need to stop thinking that our earnest evangelizing saves us, because it doesn't. Or our faithful church attendance saves us. It's the golden ticket to grant us access into heaven. Now, none of those things, of course, are bad, and they're not wrong. They're very good in their right place. But if we get into the mind of thinking, well, now these things make me more pleasing to God. He loves me more. He will surely let me into his heaven, because I read the Bible and prayed and evangelized, and I went to church twice every Sunday. Oh beloved, grace has appeared. The grace of God that brings salvation. So dearly beloved, the doctrine, dearly beloved, the doctrine that must be taught and believed today, do you know the next two fill in the blanks if I didn't tell you what they are? Is that we are saved by grace? Alone. Because of all Jesus Christ. Has already done. He has already done enough. And this, of course, is what Paul says must be taught. He began in v. 1 of chapter 2. You must speak. The NIV says teach. You must convey, instruct, give what is in accord with sound doctrine. What's the first thing about sound doctrine? It is that we are saved by grace alone through Christ alone. If we don't believe that, Everything else I'm about to preach to you is meaningless. Because you see, you cannot moralize people into heaven. You can't give them an ethical list and say, well, do all of these things that we're about to study in the rest of this section and say, well, therefore, then you're good to go. No. Salvation by grace alone through Christ alone. As the catechism puts it, I am not my own. I belong and by the way. Did you catch that? Did you see that and will come back to it in verse 14? Titus 2. Verse 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify here it is. For himself, a people that are his very own. Who belong? who belong to him, he claims us. He says about us, my possession. I love you, you are mine. Well, then if we know that, we can go on. Secondly, therefore, therefore, notice the therefore, it's important. We have been fully set free from all our wickedness. In verse 11, now again in Timothy in Titus Chapter 2 verse 11, Paul reminds Titus that what needs to be taught on the island of Crete. Is salvation by God's grace again? Jesus appeared on the scene. He says that in verse 13 he gave himself to redeem. The glorious appearing of our Lord, our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who verse 14 gave himself for our redemption. Well, what now exactly does that mean? What is Paul talking about? He is simply saying that Jesus arrived to deal with all our sins. Have you noticed this, by the way, about the relationship between the first and the second questions and answers of the catechism? You think of the long and wonderful first that we've memorized, and then you think about the second, the short, pithy answers, but have you noticed that question and answer two is a summary of question and answer one? That what we have in long form in answer one is put in three bullet points in question two. That what Jesus has done has arrived to deal with all our sins. That's the first thing we need to know according to question and answer two, how serious is my sin problem? I was reading again this, and I mentioned this to the men on Saturday morning, I'm right now reading through a biography on Jonathan Edwards, and it's interesting and very instructive to see what was being taught in the colonies around the turn of that century into the 1700s, before we were even a nation. And what was being taught in the colonies before we even became a nation was, and this was rich, Stress, Edwards was taught by his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, stress to the people the significance of sin. Well, that's a real downer. Why would you want to do that? Because if you do not stress the significance of sin, grace will have no value. It will not be meaningful. Isn't this so significant in what the catechism says? What's the first thing I need to know? How great my sin and misery is. Look at how that long form puts it in the first question and answer. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood. He has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. Do you know that the devil wants to keep us tyrannized? He wants to keep us under that wicked impression of his hand saying that really, imprisonment is freedom, and this is what he has convinced the world of. He's convinced the world, Satan has, that imprisonment is really freedom, you know? Imprisonment to gambling is freedom. Imprisonment to drug addiction is freedom. Imprisonment to all these other things, says the lie of the world, is freedom, no? Jesus Christ has set us free. Set us free. Fully paid for all our sins. Verse 14 Titus 2. Who gave himself for us to redeem us from notice the preposition all wickedness. All. People of God, we learn here in Titus 2 verse 14. And Lords day one. That Jesus Christ gave himself to redeem us. Fully pay for all our sins. By his precious blood. So that we become again verse 14, a. A purified people. Now, do we still struggle with sin? Yes, of course. We're going to come to that in a moment and begin to realize what that means. But we have been seated with Christ in the heavenly places already. Our sin debt has been paid in full. The account has been settled. It is no longer something that can be held over us. As Paul says it in Romans 8, there is therefore now, what's the rest of that verse? No condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. This is what we need. And again, the end of verse 14. To purify for himself a people that are his very. Own. I don't know if you can put on a license plate very many letters anymore, but if you could and you could say to the state of Illinois or whatever state you live in, I want my license plate to say owned by Jesus. Wouldn't that be something to have on the back of your car? I am his. I belong to him. Now maybe you could just put Q&A 1, and some of us would know what that means as you drive down the road. But that's exactly it, isn't it, beloved? And so Paul is saying here to Titus, now you're going to Crete. It's a tough place to do a ministry. The people there are rough and tumble. They live on the Wild West of the ancient world. What is it that they need? They need doctrine. doesn't necessarily follow in our way of thinking of things, but that's exactly what he says. What kind of doctrine? The doctrine that exalts Jesus Christ and the free gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ. That's what doctrine needs to be taught. Why? Why does faithful preaching also need to be didactic? That is, why does it need to be, and you can almost put the words together, teaching preaching? I kind of like that. Teaching, preaching. Why is that necessary? Well, because as we said a moment ago, the world will lie to us. The devil will lie to us about these very things. All that will come to us from the world and from Satan and our own flesh, in terms of how that goes, is a lie. Sleep with the right person. Shack up with the right person, as we thought about this morning. Join the right political fervor and upheaval, and you're going to have position and success in life. Or go to the right college and get the right job and invest the money in the right way, and you're going to have freedom and ease. All of those things, beloved, are a lie in terms of the thing that really matters most, and that is our eternal situation. But what answers that eternal situation is the gospel and in its doctrine to make us secure. To make us secure. So we could say, if we're bold enough to say it, there's no better basic summary of the biblical gospel than what is found in Lord's Day 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism. It is, by the way, an excellent reflection of Titus 2, 11 to 15. We'll get into it more in a moment. Paul tells Titus that he must teach this doctrine so that there is no disharmony, no disagreement between the words gospel and doctrine. We are to preach and teach good news. Well then dearly beloved, it is a rich blessing, it is a rich blessing for us and our children to be taught God's gracious good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. A salvation by grace of the forgiveness of all our wicked sins. We preach and teach the gospel while, that is at the same time, while earnestly asking God in prayer for revival. That is to say, you don't just pray, Lord, revive us, but you preach and teach in agreement with that prayer. Beloved, we can't do less. Today in America, in American Christianity, we can't do less. We must preach in a teaching way. Teach through preaching every biblical doctrine. What truth is filtering into our hearts through our minds tonight? Stop and assess for a moment. What truth is filtering into our hearts through our minds tonight? This truth so far, that Jesus Christ has fully paid the price that my sins demand. Could you rest tonight on that truth? Could you rest tonight in terms of your loved one, your family, your congregation, our beloved around the world who know Jesus Christ? Could you rest on that? No matter what comes in this world tonight, tomorrow, the rest of this week, knowing this solid truth from the scriptures, this doctrine, this gospel, that Jesus Christ is fully paid for the sins of all who believe on him, can we rest? If you're with me answering that question in the affirmative, if you're saying yes, And what you're doing is reflecting the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism. What is my only comfort? Can I rest on this? When Paul instructs Titus on what it was that was needed on the island of Crete, Do we understand that at least initially the first goal, the plan, the reason for that teaching was a restful heart, a peace in their hearts about the most important thing, their standing with Almighty God? Can I put that to us another way? When we come by death. To stand at the Great White Throne judgment. God is not going to ask us how many days we read our Bible, how many times we prayed. Whether or not we went to church faithfully twice every Lord's Day, though again, all of those things are important. I'm not trying to minimize them. The question then which will matter and the only question is do we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? That beloved is the peace. That brings us the comfort about which the catechism so rightly, richly, wondrously grasps. And we must be ready to answer too. So that we have rest and peace and comfort. And if I can say it now this way to turn the corner. We're free. but to what end? Freed as Christians, but to do what? And this is why Paul in Galatians will say it is for freedom that Christ has set us free, but freedom for what? Thirdly, we are now ready, willing, and eager to do what is good. So let's review it again, verse 11, God's grace which appeared, that is the coming down, as it were, of the Lord Jesus Christ and the glorious salvation granted to us. Now look at it again, verse 12, teaches us. That grace which appeared in the work and the worth and the person of Jesus Christ, which is a grace then given to us, Kindly powerfully by the Spirit. There's a lot in that we can't cover because it's in other places in the Bible verse 12 that grace teaches us To exercise our freedom by saying no Verse 12 It teaches us to exercise our freedom By saying no Because the Christian is in that position of freedom, we are again in the position to say yes or no to sins. The unbeliever is not in that position. The unbeliever only says yes to sins, only gives way to sins. But the believer is in that position to use his or her freedom in saying, I will or I won't. Well, Paul says here to Titus, tell the people that grace tells us to say no to these things on godliness, worldly passions, and to say yes about self control, which is a fruit of the spirit to live self controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. While we wait. We are a people. Hoover's 14 belong to him. We must exercise that. We must live out of that. Verse 14, he gave himself to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. Verse 15, these then are the things that you should teach. And now Paul is saying to Titus, these are the things, if I can put it so bluntly, which you must bark out to the people. That's kind of the force of the language here in the original. You must speak to them in such a way that they're impactful, almost like an order, like I'm commanding you, beloved. These things, like verse 12, you must do. Notice again. How the catechism gets this right? And makes me the end of the first answer and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him in its summary form in the second question and answer how I am to thank God for such deliverance. We must, I say this cautiously, advisedly. We must say more than saved by grace. We need to say living by grace for God's glory. Because those two things always go together. You cannot separate them. Saved by grace, yes, unto a living for God's glory by grace. That's what the apostle is saying here. People of God, you see, people of God, his grace. makes us ready, willing, and eager to do what is good, but also instructs us in what that life is like, what that life is like. God's grace conveyed to the believer by the Holy Spirit through teaching preaching, there's that mashed together word, conveyed by the Holy Spirit through teaching preaching, instructs us in how to live thanking God. Now, of course, these first two questions and answers are a setup. It's a summary preparation for what comes in the rest of the catechism. You know, if you've studied it at all, that the whole of the catechism, all of its questions and answers are now divided by these three sections. And when we get to the third one, we will have full explanation of what it means to live thanking God. But how will you put that into practice already this week? What will it mean to you to go to your job, to go to the store, to meet with your neighbor, to engage with your family members with the mindset of, I'm so thankful to God. Now what does that look like? Paul puts it in very strict ways, doesn't he? He says, verse 12, it means saying no to certain things and saying yes to other things. To refraining from behaviors the world says is entirely acceptable and allowable, no to those things. but living in such a way that others will look at us as though we're kind of weird. Why are you living that way? And we'll be able to say something to them about Jesus Christ as the answer to why we're living this way and not the other way. Well, in all of this, dear Christians, I've just put you in class. Our seminary brothers are saying, well, wait a minute, I'm done with class for the summer. No, dear Christians, we're all in class. We're all in the school of Christ. We're all students. That's one reason why catechism, with its ancient history and its practice, is teaching preaching, a style of preaching, if I might put it, weighted a little bit in the intellectual, because, you see, the heart is informed through the mind. The best reformed never separated heart and mind, always saw them wed together. We receive this which warms our hearts through our thinking, through our intellect, which means we're in school, which means we're in the process of adding faith to faith, to go from glory to glory, Growing a knowledge, yes, but that knowledge which leads to godliness, which yes, then brings glory to the Lord, showing forth an excitement about the salvation we have received. There is so much more we need to know about God, about man, about sin, about Christ, about salvation, about eternity, about everything. And beloved, these things are here The Apostle, and I didn't burden us with going through every single word in chapter two that talks about teaching. You know, I emphasized it when I was reading for us the text. How many times he says teach, teach, teach, teach, teach, teach, teach well. Teach implies learn. Learn, learn, learn, grow. Puts a lot of responsibility on the preacher. Yes, pray for the preacher. Pray for preaching. But it puts a responsibility on the hearer, doesn't it? To say, oh, I need to learn. I want to grow and know the Lord better, more gloriously. The one verse 13. Who appeared so that we might say no to the ungodly? And yes to what glorifies him while we verse 13 wait. While we wait. For the blessed hope, notice he says it again. The glorious appearing. The second coming, the only other coming. The appearing. Of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. So dearly beloved, dearly beloved, since we are committed to doing what is good, we want to live lives of thankfulness to God. Therefore, we will come in every Sunday eager to learn, growing in godliness, growing in godliness. May the Lord help us. And may we delight in his salvation. Amen. Our Father, we are so thankful for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit, who is at work in every believer, by the word, shaping us and strengthening us. And Lord, we pray that you would help us tonight, that you might be pleased, that we might be helped. And that your name might be glorified. And so Lord strengthen your church. May we receive this word with great delight. And find all our comfort and hope in you. We pray tonight asking all of this now in Jesus name. Amen. Well, let's sing congregation. It looks like 301, not 310, so 301. In our blue Psalter hymnals. We'll sing the stanzas there, hallelujah, praise Jehovah, and then our doxology will be 490. So let's stand at 301 tonight and praise God in song together.