WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.919 Well, good evening. It's lovely to be with you again. Thank you for the invitation. 00:00:04.560 --> 00:00:11.099 And for those of you who do remember in your prayers the work of the Christian unions or the 00:00:11.099 --> 00:00:17.199 outreach of the Christian unions, thank you for that. I'm the team leader for the staff and relay 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:24.379 workers in Scotland. And there are Christian students serving Christ together in 19 Christian 00:00:24.379 --> 00:00:29.660 union groups across Scotland, many of them at this time of year inviting their friends to 00:00:29.660 --> 00:00:36.480 carol services. And that obviously is a wonderful opportunity for students who don't know the 00:00:36.480 --> 00:00:43.500 gospel to hear the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ and to perhaps engage with the significance 00:00:43.500 --> 00:00:49.159 of the gospel. So do pray for them at this time of year, the next two weeks especially. 00:00:51.340 --> 00:00:59.159 We're going to look at this idea of the fact that we believe certainties, that we base our 00:00:59.159 --> 00:01:09.640 lives upon certainties, but we do so in a world of relativism. We have an increasingly 00:01:09.640 --> 00:01:20.140 strong tendency in our culture for people to say that anything is okay, anything is acceptable, 00:01:20.140 --> 00:01:30.620 anything is allowed unless you're certain about it. And that is the kind of conversation that we are 00:01:30.620 --> 00:01:40.519 increasingly exposed to. And that of course brings us into an enormous situation of clashing and tension 00:01:40.519 --> 00:01:48.340 when we are wanting to proclaim a gospel which is full of certainties to our culture that doesn't want 00:01:48.340 --> 00:01:55.640 to hear or believe in certainties. The tendency might be for us to think that that situation is 00:01:55.640 --> 00:02:01.120 getting worse and worse and worse and that what we are facing is unique in human history. I don't think 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:08.980 it is. I think it's actually the norm. And I think what we are growing out of in our Western British 00:02:08.979 --> 00:02:19.780 culture is a kind of protected and abnormal situation where there was a Christian legacy or a legacy of 00:02:19.780 --> 00:02:26.899 Christian belief that is now, of course, running out and no longer there. And I suspect the situation 00:02:26.899 --> 00:02:33.239 that we're in today where our culture doesn't want to engage in the certainties of the gospel and even 00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:40.120 objects to the idea of their being certainties when it comes to spiritual and moral things. 00:02:40.540 --> 00:02:45.920 I suspect that if you took the world as a whole and history as a whole, what we're facing today is 00:02:45.920 --> 00:02:54.820 actually normal and actually common throughout many cultures of the world. So that's just an introductory 00:02:54.820 --> 00:03:02.920 thought. So maybe what we're facing is faced by brothers and sisters the world over. 00:03:03.240 --> 00:03:12.900 And has been down through the ages of history. One of our Christian unions in England had lined up the, 00:03:13.140 --> 00:03:18.719 you might have read about this in the Spectator, had lined up their carol service to be held in 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:25.439 Derby Cathedral. And Christmas being historically a bigger cultural thing in England than it ever was 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:32.560 in Scotland, the CUs quite frequently pack out these vast cathedrals with students for their 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:38.560 carol services. And hundreds and hundreds of students have an opportunity to hear the gospel. 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:48.319 However, plans have run amok in Derby because the cathedral authorities have banned the preacher whom they 00:03:48.319 --> 00:03:56.900 had asked to come and be their speaker at the carol service. He's an Anglican vicar in the Anglican church. 00:03:56.900 --> 00:04:02.780 You'd have thought that there wouldn't be a problem, but is known, of course, for preaching the gospel as you 00:04:02.780 --> 00:04:10.640 and I would understand it. And so the cathedral doesn't want anything quite as certain or solid or clear 00:04:10.640 --> 00:04:18.759 presented. And the reason given, well, any preaching in the cathedral might be thought to be approved of by 00:04:18.759 --> 00:04:25.459 the cathedral. Isn't that extraordinary? So, well, maybe it's not. Maybe it's entirely believable and 00:04:25.459 --> 00:04:31.539 probably more likely. But that's the kind of situation that we read about all the time, we hear about all the 00:04:31.539 --> 00:04:40.259 time, and we sense that Christians who put their beliefs out there into the public square are going to face 00:04:40.259 --> 00:04:50.459 an increasing amount of hostility from our relativist culture. The section of Psalm 119 that was just read for us 00:04:50.459 --> 00:05:01.719 includes this verse, number 95, the wicked are waiting to destroy me. That's a statement of the ultimate oppression, 00:05:01.939 --> 00:05:10.240 isn't it? The wicked are waiting to destroy me. The psalmist felt that. And yet he goes on in the second half of the 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:18.259 that very verse to say, but I will ponder your statutes. Isn't that a lovely description of what the 00:05:18.259 --> 00:05:28.759 Christian does when faced with a hostile culture that does not accept the sovereignty or the gospel of 00:05:28.759 --> 00:05:39.879 God's grace and knows it. But the Christian says, but I will ponder your statutes. That's got to be 00:05:39.879 --> 00:05:51.060 something of our prayer that we would be like that, and that we would adopt that posture before God in 00:05:51.060 --> 00:05:55.620 our culture. Turn with me to the New Testament, though, because we're going to spend most of our 00:05:55.620 --> 00:06:05.879 time this evening thinking about these verses in Titus. Titus chapter 2 and verses 11 to 15. It's a 00:06:05.879 --> 00:06:16.939 lovely little gospel summary, indeed a great little text for Advent Sunday that describes the incarnation 00:06:16.939 --> 00:06:26.240 of the Lord Jesus Christ in doctrinal terms. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:35.259 all men. That's the gospel, isn't it? The grace of God appearing in Jesus Christ. And over the coming 00:06:35.259 --> 00:06:43.339 Sundays, this is our message, this is our opportunity, this is the certainty that we want to make known 00:06:43.339 --> 00:06:52.399 to our relativistic culture and to our friends who have no idea that there is a foundation so solid that 00:06:52.399 --> 00:07:01.279 they could be brought to stand on. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:12.099 It, the gospel of grace, teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, and that is 00:07:12.099 --> 00:07:19.439 negatively, say no to these things, but positively, the verse goes on, to live self-controlled, upright, 00:07:19.439 --> 00:07:26.819 and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing 00:07:26.819 --> 00:07:35.639 of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and 00:07:35.639 --> 00:07:43.300 to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. It would be hard to 00:07:43.300 --> 00:07:54.180 write a more succinct, Christ-centered summary of the gospel. We have Christ's coming into the world, 00:07:54.180 --> 00:08:03.379 his dying on the cross, and his second coming on the day of judgment, all perfectly put and all 00:08:03.379 --> 00:08:15.960 described in terms that enable us to see the huge need for living Christian lives in the present age. 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:21.500 Indeed, that is, if you know this little letter, the whole message of the book of Titus. 00:08:21.500 --> 00:08:29.500 Titus, this three-chapter letter to this young pastor who's battling away in Crete, 00:08:30.379 --> 00:08:38.220 Titus, the letter, interweaves teaching and living, teaching and living, teaching and living, 00:08:38.299 --> 00:08:43.279 all the way through the letter. Many of the New Testament letters have a great big long section 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:55.679 of teaching, and then a section on living, Romans 12 to 16, and so on. Many of the letters are like 00:08:55.679 --> 00:09:03.620 that. But Titus interweaves teaching and living all the way through the letter, and his big emphasis is 00:09:03.620 --> 00:09:09.639 that the gospel that the gospel that Titus proclaims, the certainties that he teaches, 00:09:10.580 --> 00:09:18.899 have to be and must be and need to be adorned with lives, Christian lives, 00:09:18.899 --> 00:09:32.459 that reflect and mirror the teaching of the gospel. Let me just try and show you that briefly 00:09:32.460 --> 00:09:47.900 in the letter. And if you look with me to chapter 1 and verse 9, he must hold firmly to the trustworthy 00:09:47.900 --> 00:09:57.980 message as it has been taught. Why? So that he can encourage others by sound doctrine. That is, 00:09:57.980 --> 00:10:09.940 his teaching has to have an outbox in the lives of others. Here's another example in chapter 2, verse 5. 00:10:10.659 --> 00:10:17.220 To be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind and to be subject to their husbands. 00:10:17.220 --> 00:10:26.420 Why? So that. What are these lives for? So that no one will malign the Word of God. 00:10:26.419 --> 00:10:35.199 Look down to chapter 2, verse 9. Now speaking to slaves. Teach slaves to be subject to their 00:10:35.199 --> 00:10:40.519 masters and everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them and not to steal from them, 00:10:40.740 --> 00:10:46.599 but to show that they can be fully trusted. Why? Why are slaves to live like that? So that, 00:10:46.699 --> 00:10:54.980 in every way, they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. And so on. There are many 00:10:54.980 --> 00:11:02.360 examples like that. You can go through the letter and look for the phrase, so that. It comes again and 00:11:02.360 --> 00:11:13.639 again and again and again. Live this way as those who have been, as our passage says, purified for Christ, 00:11:13.639 --> 00:11:20.600 a people that are his very own. A people that are his very own. Live this way as these people so that 00:11:20.600 --> 00:11:31.939 the world can see the transformed life and think about the certainties of the gospel as a result. 00:11:31.940 --> 00:11:44.440 I suspect it's true to say that most of us, if we were to have a conversation with friends or neighbors who 00:11:44.440 --> 00:11:55.940 don't believe the gospel, I suspect that quite quickly the conversation would either get onto the topic of 00:11:55.940 --> 00:12:05.600 of how do we know that our religion is true or any better than anyone else's religion. 00:12:07.160 --> 00:12:16.820 Or, maybe even more likely, it would get onto the topic of marriage and sexual morality and sexual behavior 00:12:16.820 --> 00:12:25.400 and sexual relationships. And where is there more relativism in our culture and society today? 00:12:25.940 --> 00:12:32.300 And there, one of those two topics, I imagine, would come up pretty quickly. 00:12:34.220 --> 00:12:42.500 And our fear as Christians, if we're engaging in those kind of conversations, well, what is your fear? 00:12:44.680 --> 00:12:47.980 When would you start to find the conversation getting difficult? 00:12:47.980 --> 00:12:58.159 When would you want to be praying, Lord, could you just let the ground swallow me up now because I don't know what to say next? 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:05.000 When would you find yourself saying, ah, I don't know the answer to that? 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:19.580 It might be when the person starts accusing you or the Christian church or Christianity in general 00:13:19.580 --> 00:13:28.639 of being one of two things, either judgmental or hypocritical. 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:43.460 Because there's nothing our society likes to do more, right from the headlines down to the man in the street, 00:13:44.080 --> 00:13:51.699 than to debunk the gospel by pointing at what it calls judgmentalism or hypocrisy. 00:13:52.360 --> 00:13:53.120 Is that right? 00:13:53.120 --> 00:14:08.060 If they can throw those assertions at Christianity, then they can disregard the convictions and the clear doctrinal beliefs of Christian people. 00:14:08.899 --> 00:14:16.679 And the whole push and thrust of this letter to this young pastor is that he must teach 00:14:17.960 --> 00:14:22.639 and encourage to live in such a way that that can't happen. 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:33.259 Listen to the verbs that Paul uses as he writes to Titus. 00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:37.779 He says these are all the things that Titus has got to do there in Crete. 00:14:37.919 --> 00:14:40.700 He says he's to encourage people. 00:14:41.419 --> 00:14:42.700 He is to refute. 00:14:43.600 --> 00:14:45.399 He is to silence people. 00:14:45.539 --> 00:14:46.700 He is to rebuke. 00:14:47.060 --> 00:14:49.379 He is to teach with all authority. 00:14:49.379 --> 00:14:55.059 He is, at the end of our passage, not to let anyone despise him. 00:14:55.620 --> 00:14:59.200 He is to remind and stress and warn. 00:15:00.039 --> 00:15:08.379 These are all really, really strong, active, verbal teaching verbs, aren't they? 00:15:08.379 --> 00:15:14.340 Titus, you must put your message over so strongly. 00:15:14.860 --> 00:15:20.700 And you must tell people what is right and what is wrong for Christianity and for Christian living 00:15:20.700 --> 00:15:28.120 in such a way that there can never be any doubt about the certainties of the gospel. 00:15:28.320 --> 00:15:30.059 You must keep doing that. 00:15:30.059 --> 00:15:42.479 Because if you keep doing that, the witness of Christian people's lives will be irrefutably 00:15:42.479 --> 00:15:45.659 adorning the gospel the church believes. 00:15:45.959 --> 00:15:46.719 Do you see that? 00:15:46.720 --> 00:15:53.980 It's a very strong letter to put a really strong spine into this young pastor. 00:15:54.460 --> 00:16:02.139 And that so that the church can be demonstrably in line with what it believes. 00:16:05.220 --> 00:16:07.100 Let's go back to our passage. 00:16:08.040 --> 00:16:10.720 Here are the certainties that we believe. 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:18.100 The incarnation, verse 11, the grace of God has appeared to all men. 00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:26.720 Now that's as true today as it was when Paul wrote that. 00:16:27.139 --> 00:16:34.759 The news of the appearing of the Messiah King and the coming of the grace of God into this world 00:16:34.759 --> 00:16:39.399 has been heralded for 2,000 years and believed by millions. 00:16:40.720 --> 00:16:49.460 There is no figure in the whole of history more greatly publicized or revered than our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:16:49.460 --> 00:16:51.779 He has appeared to all men. 00:16:52.680 --> 00:16:53.800 His grace. 00:16:54.960 --> 00:17:02.399 The gospel has been enfleshed, incarnated in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:08.799 And this gospel, this Savior, once he has a grip of someone's life, 00:17:10.160 --> 00:17:17.859 teaches people, as Paul says, to say no to certain things and to live in a certain way. 00:17:17.960 --> 00:17:19.879 So we have the incarnation. 00:17:21.720 --> 00:17:25.879 We also have the great certainty of the second coming. 00:17:25.880 --> 00:17:35.200 Verse 13, while we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:46.940 There is probably no Christian doctrine more scorned or disbelieved than the doctrine of a last day of reckoning, 00:17:47.019 --> 00:17:47.840 a day of judgment. 00:17:47.839 --> 00:18:00.519 The idea of heaven and hell being two eternal realities, destinations that all human beings who have ever been created in the image of God 00:18:00.519 --> 00:18:05.359 will be spending eternity in. 00:18:05.359 --> 00:18:18.479 Nothing would be quite so offensive to our culture than the idea, the solid idea of a Lord who will be judge, 00:18:18.819 --> 00:18:25.879 who is Savior and who will be judge, and who will discern rightly between all human souls. 00:18:27.619 --> 00:18:29.819 Oh, I don't want to believe in a God like that. 00:18:31.439 --> 00:18:33.539 Hell, what kind of God would allow that? 00:18:35.359 --> 00:18:40.559 That's almost more than sexual morality. 00:18:40.819 --> 00:18:47.919 The Christian teaching of marriage would be even more unacceptable if the idea wasn't even laughable 00:18:47.919 --> 00:18:53.219 to believe that a judgment and heaven and hell exist. 00:18:56.679 --> 00:19:03.000 And yet we are those who wait more than we wait for anything else, 00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:08.460 for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 00:19:09.299 --> 00:19:11.940 That is our hope, the writer says. 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:14.339 The blessed hope that is ours. 00:19:14.700 --> 00:19:16.720 That is our goal. 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:18.799 That's what keeps us going. 00:19:18.940 --> 00:19:21.319 That's what we look forward to. 00:19:21.460 --> 00:19:22.900 That certainty. 00:19:24.339 --> 00:19:26.339 Oh, I don't want to believe in a God like that. 00:19:26.339 --> 00:19:29.299 God says your friend over the garden gate. 00:19:32.179 --> 00:19:42.480 Just recently, there was a discussion in a primary school management team about whether or not to invite the local minister to come and do a Christian assembly. 00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:50.000 And one person said, no, I don't think we should because I used to go with my child to a playgroup in that church, 00:19:50.140 --> 00:19:53.079 and I didn't like some of the things that I saw on the church walls. 00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:57.620 And so the Christian teacher said, well, what things? 00:19:58.440 --> 00:20:06.900 And she said, oh, you know, Jesus being the only right way and that kind of thing, that kind of thing, 00:20:06.900 --> 00:20:10.960 that kind of certainty that we surely wouldn't want our children to hear. 00:20:12.759 --> 00:20:16.160 Then someone else said, well, maybe we could ask him to come and do a Christian service, 00:20:16.280 --> 00:20:19.400 but just not speak from the Bible or mention the Bible. 00:20:20.519 --> 00:20:25.120 And the Christian said, you can't ask a Christian minister to come and speak and not speak as a Christian minister. 00:20:26.220 --> 00:20:28.200 And this conversation went round and round. 00:20:28.259 --> 00:20:30.080 I can't remember what was decided in the end. 00:20:30.360 --> 00:20:31.320 He wasn't coming anyway. 00:20:33.120 --> 00:20:35.080 Because there would be too much certainty. 00:20:36.900 --> 00:20:44.480 Even certainty about Christmas is suspicious. 00:20:45.519 --> 00:20:52.680 Even that, because people have so little clue about what the gospel is. 00:20:53.720 --> 00:20:59.980 And yet here, Paul says to Titus, no, the grace of God has appeared to all. 00:21:00.380 --> 00:21:03.500 We are waiting for Christ to come again. 00:21:03.500 --> 00:21:09.900 And in the meantime, we must live upright, godly lives. 00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:13.519 Self-controlled, upright, godly lives. 00:21:13.599 --> 00:21:19.400 We've got the incarnation, the second coming, and thirdly, the meaning of the cross. 00:21:19.500 --> 00:21:21.180 Look at verse 14. 00:21:21.180 --> 00:21:34.120 The Christ who comes again is the one who, verse 14, gave himself for us on the cross to redeem us from all wickedness 00:21:34.120 --> 00:21:42.600 and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. 00:21:42.599 --> 00:21:53.759 The Christ who will come and judge is the Christ who died for us to redeem us, his people, from all wickedness. 00:21:55.059 --> 00:21:57.899 So we must live as if that were the case. 00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:02.899 We must say no to ungodliness. 00:22:03.319 --> 00:22:06.119 We must say no and help one another to do so. 00:22:06.119 --> 00:22:09.459 We must say no to worldly passions. 00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:14.879 And we must live self-controlled, upright, godly lives. 00:22:15.759 --> 00:22:27.599 Our living is the only undeniable certainty that unbelievers have access to if they are going to believe the gospel. 00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:33.599 Or our living will be a denial of the gospel. 00:22:33.819 --> 00:22:36.439 One or other is true, isn't it? 00:22:40.259 --> 00:22:44.939 These, then, says Paul in verse 15, are the things you should teach. 00:22:45.659 --> 00:22:50.000 The incarnation, the second coming, the meaning of the cross. 00:22:50.099 --> 00:22:52.219 These are the things you should teach. 00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:55.500 Encourage, rebuke with all authority. 00:22:55.500 --> 00:22:59.980 Don't let anyone despise you when you teach these things. 00:23:02.619 --> 00:23:05.200 That's a very brave thing to say, isn't it, in our culture? 00:23:05.299 --> 00:23:06.660 Don't let anyone despise you. 00:23:06.720 --> 00:23:11.140 If I go out and say to the man in the street, this is what I believe, he's likely to despise me. 00:23:15.500 --> 00:23:18.640 But if we make the gospel known to people who know us, 00:23:18.640 --> 00:23:23.940 and who have a window into our lives, 00:23:23.940 --> 00:23:26.300 and who know how we've treated them, 00:23:27.900 --> 00:23:34.160 and who know how we've expressed care for them in their lives and situations, 00:23:35.300 --> 00:23:39.520 then it's much harder for them to despise you, 00:23:39.880 --> 00:23:40.920 or the gospel. 00:23:40.920 --> 00:23:48.980 And actually, our culture unwittingly gives us an opportunity here. 00:23:49.980 --> 00:23:51.519 Because when someone says, 00:23:52.460 --> 00:23:56.340 at one mention of the second coming, 00:23:56.440 --> 00:23:57.360 or a day of judgment, 00:23:57.519 --> 00:23:59.340 you know when something appalling happens, 00:24:00.160 --> 00:24:02.380 and people are wringing their hands and saying, 00:24:02.380 --> 00:24:06.060 how can this kind of evil take place? 00:24:06.760 --> 00:24:09.740 I just saw that there was a film released, 00:24:10.080 --> 00:24:11.660 I've not seen it yet, 00:24:11.740 --> 00:24:13.380 but it was recommended to me, 00:24:13.480 --> 00:24:15.840 a kind of documentary-type film 00:24:15.840 --> 00:24:20.480 of the appalling events of the 22nd of July in 2011 in Norway, 00:24:20.640 --> 00:24:23.520 when 77 people were killed by one person. 00:24:23.760 --> 00:24:25.300 That's the kind of catastrophe 00:24:25.300 --> 00:24:28.560 that plunges people into these conversations. 00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:31.319 There is no justice then. 00:24:32.279 --> 00:24:33.679 And we are the ones who say, 00:24:33.740 --> 00:24:35.079 oh, yes, there will be. 00:24:36.159 --> 00:24:37.079 Yes, there will be. 00:24:37.159 --> 00:24:38.299 There is a day of reckoning, 00:24:38.440 --> 00:24:41.200 and that person, along with every other human being, 00:24:41.259 --> 00:24:43.019 will stand before a judgment seat. 00:24:43.240 --> 00:24:44.000 I believe. 00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:46.240 Oh, I don't want to believe in a God like that. 00:24:46.619 --> 00:24:47.460 Oh, well, we say, 00:24:48.200 --> 00:24:49.139 what if it's true? 00:24:51.119 --> 00:24:52.700 We maybe don't want to believe in it, 00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:53.639 but what if it's true? 00:24:57.240 --> 00:24:57.639 Surely, 00:24:57.640 --> 00:25:03.480 surely you would give credence to the fact 00:25:03.480 --> 00:25:06.380 in our society where everything is fine 00:25:06.380 --> 00:25:09.000 that maybe my beliefs are fine as well. 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:10.980 Are they not? 00:25:12.460 --> 00:25:17.160 And we can win them onto their own ground 00:25:17.160 --> 00:25:22.060 of supposedly giving every viewpoint an airing 00:25:22.060 --> 00:25:23.640 and a legitimacy. 00:25:24.380 --> 00:25:26.600 Oh, is my belief the only illegitimate one? 00:25:28.380 --> 00:25:29.940 I think it would be rather good 00:25:29.940 --> 00:25:32.360 if there was an ultimate day of reckoning 00:25:32.360 --> 00:25:35.380 and all evil and all punishment 00:25:35.380 --> 00:25:37.920 was given out in a perfect, righteous manner 00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:39.759 so that every lip was silent 00:25:39.759 --> 00:25:42.860 and nobody even wanted to issue an appeal 00:25:42.860 --> 00:25:44.860 because everybody the whole world over 00:25:44.860 --> 00:25:47.220 can see the justice of what's being done. 00:25:47.220 --> 00:25:48.960 That would be quite good, I think. 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:49.500 Isn't it? 00:25:49.579 --> 00:25:51.339 Isn't that not what we long for? 00:25:52.460 --> 00:25:54.539 And the conversation can go on like that. 00:25:54.779 --> 00:25:56.819 And you can say, 00:25:56.960 --> 00:26:00.000 well, maybe you should consider 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.299 the certainties that I believe. 00:26:04.299 --> 00:26:07.299 I wouldn't like to live without them. 00:26:15.980 --> 00:26:18.099 Living with certainties 00:26:18.099 --> 00:26:20.119 in a world of relativism 00:26:20.119 --> 00:26:22.799 is what the Christian life is 00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:25.180 and always has been. 00:26:25.180 --> 00:26:32.480 But gospel and gospel living, 00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:33.840 gospel and godliness 00:26:33.840 --> 00:26:37.180 must be, as the New Testament always says, 00:26:37.299 --> 00:26:38.759 hand in hand, 00:26:39.960 --> 00:26:41.740 glued together fast. 00:26:43.019 --> 00:26:45.700 If doctrine isn't producing godliness 00:26:45.700 --> 00:26:46.840 in our lives, 00:26:46.839 --> 00:26:53.480 then it's not doctrine worth having. 00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:01.000 Just jump with me before we finish 00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:04.419 to Titus' next, 00:27:04.419 --> 00:27:08.279 or to Paul's next little gospel summary. 00:27:08.559 --> 00:27:12.079 And this is where he puts judgmentalism to bed. 00:27:13.279 --> 00:27:15.379 Look at chapter 3, verse 3. 00:27:16.839 --> 00:27:18.619 At one time, 00:27:19.159 --> 00:27:20.859 we too were foolish, 00:27:21.500 --> 00:27:22.220 disobedient, 00:27:23.059 --> 00:27:23.720 deceived, 00:27:24.759 --> 00:27:27.799 enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. 00:27:28.639 --> 00:27:30.659 We lived in malice and envy, 00:27:30.779 --> 00:27:32.659 being hated and hating one another. 00:27:33.720 --> 00:27:34.179 But, 00:27:34.980 --> 00:27:36.740 when the kindness and love of God, 00:27:36.819 --> 00:27:37.839 our Savior, appeared, 00:27:37.939 --> 00:27:38.839 he saved us. 00:27:39.240 --> 00:27:41.579 Not because of righteous things we had done, 00:27:42.500 --> 00:27:43.799 but because of his mercy. 00:27:43.799 --> 00:27:47.339 That's the end of all judgmentalism, 00:27:47.399 --> 00:27:47.759 isn't it? 00:27:47.759 --> 00:27:48.359 Or should be. 00:27:49.960 --> 00:27:52.700 We can never say to someone 00:27:52.700 --> 00:27:56.559 with a holier-than-thou attitude, 00:27:56.700 --> 00:27:58.440 looking down our nose, 00:27:58.720 --> 00:28:01.859 with pious righteousness at anyone else, 00:28:02.539 --> 00:28:06.019 that our way 00:28:06.019 --> 00:28:09.700 is right because 00:28:09.700 --> 00:28:11.420 we are better. 00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:11.940 No, 00:28:12.039 --> 00:28:13.099 our way is right, 00:28:13.240 --> 00:28:13.740 and we 00:28:13.740 --> 00:28:16.339 were without hope. 00:28:17.079 --> 00:28:19.059 We were and are 00:28:19.059 --> 00:28:20.440 no better than anyone else, 00:28:20.539 --> 00:28:21.660 because the certainty 00:28:21.660 --> 00:28:22.819 that we believe in 00:28:22.819 --> 00:28:24.859 is the certainty that 00:28:24.859 --> 00:28:28.299 the mercy of God alone 00:28:28.299 --> 00:28:31.559 is the thing that has touched us 00:28:31.559 --> 00:28:32.460 and changed us. 00:28:32.460 --> 00:28:35.240 not my righteousness, 00:28:35.460 --> 00:28:36.900 precisely not that. 00:28:40.600 --> 00:28:41.240 Friends, 00:28:41.360 --> 00:28:42.600 let me encourage you. 00:28:45.019 --> 00:28:47.440 If you speak without judgmentalism, 00:28:47.920 --> 00:28:49.160 which the gospel gives us 00:28:49.160 --> 00:28:50.200 no ground to have, 00:28:51.200 --> 00:28:54.559 and if we speak without hypocrisy, 00:28:55.019 --> 00:28:58.779 which the gospel empowers us to do, 00:28:58.779 --> 00:29:01.680 then the certainties 00:29:01.680 --> 00:29:02.960 by which we live 00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:04.079 and hope 00:29:04.079 --> 00:29:05.859 are very, 00:29:06.139 --> 00:29:06.980 very attractive 00:29:06.980 --> 00:29:09.160 to a world 00:29:09.160 --> 00:29:10.720 that is at sea, 00:29:11.740 --> 00:29:13.539 to people who do not know 00:29:13.539 --> 00:29:14.539 where they are, 00:29:15.899 --> 00:29:17.200 or what they know, 00:29:18.279 --> 00:29:19.619 or what anyone knows, 00:29:20.220 --> 00:29:21.519 or what they believe, 00:29:21.779 --> 00:29:23.139 or what anyone believes. 00:29:23.140 --> 00:29:27.360 We know 00:29:27.360 --> 00:29:28.520 that the gospel 00:29:28.520 --> 00:29:32.780 is supremely attractive, 00:29:32.780 --> 00:29:34.540 because the Lord Jesus Christ 00:29:34.540 --> 00:29:36.340 is the only Savior, 00:29:37.080 --> 00:29:38.420 and he's come to live 00:29:38.420 --> 00:29:39.300 in the likes of me 00:29:39.300 --> 00:29:40.120 by his Spirit. 00:29:40.220 --> 00:29:40.940 We know that. 00:29:43.560 --> 00:29:44.300 And so to live 00:29:44.300 --> 00:29:45.140 in a world of relativism 00:29:45.740 --> 00:29:46.140 is our 00:29:46.660 --> 00:29:49.600 highest calling 00:29:49.599 --> 00:29:52.559 and our greatest joy, 00:29:54.779 --> 00:29:56.099 even if, 00:29:56.919 --> 00:29:57.799 like the psalmist, 00:29:57.919 --> 00:29:58.399 we think 00:29:58.399 --> 00:30:01.119 the wicked are 00:30:01.119 --> 00:30:05.259 just waiting 00:30:05.259 --> 00:30:06.299 to oppress me, 00:30:08.159 --> 00:30:08.919 but I 00:30:08.919 --> 00:30:10.779 will consider 00:30:10.779 --> 00:30:12.359 your statutes. 00:30:12.359 --> 00:30:14.639 Amen.