Titus lesson 9 start
Titus · Courtney Hemenway · Nov 26, 2023
Titus, No. 28
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261933232956

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We are in Lesson 9. I'm assuming, Miles, you got done last week. I had to bail out a little early, but... Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, now I just have freedom to go for, what, five weeks now I can go on this lesson? Is that right? As long as you want, yeah. All right. We are in Lesson 9.

This is Titus. We're in the study of Titus. The verses for today are in Titus 2, 13 and 14. However, for context, I'm going to start at verse 11 and go through 14. They come together. Myles took the first couple verses. I'll take the last two here. So, I'll start in verse 11.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness, worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age. And now for the verses for today. Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works or good deeds.

So actually, since Roger's not here, this is more of a word study. Mike put the questions together as I was going through it. I feel like Roger. Roger is very detailed and word oriented. This is about, so the other class that's come in, you'll feel right at home, I think, because a lot of this is about words and structure and grammatical, more of a grammatical study. The joke is I'm way here.

I didn't know this. I was going to say grammatical or grammarical. Do you know the difference? What is the difference? Just out of curiosity. I am an engineer, so English is a second language to me. It's grammatical. I think it's grammatical. It's grammatical. I don't know. I mean, I'm Texan, and we don't say grammatical. So it is grammatical, but I thought, you know, grammar is like grammar is grammatical. So I guess we studied it on the way here, and it said for those who think it's grammatical, it's really grammatical, but it says other words for grammatical. Anyway, grammatical. It's going to be more of a grammatical study today. So, beginning with question one. And also, do you guys have that in your class, the microphones? Okay. So, if you hit the button and get the green light, so those who are in video land here, virtual land, can hear your responses. So, question one.

What does the word looking mean in this context? So, in verse 13, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus. So, the question is, is this a casual look? Is this something you do occasionally? And what are you looking for? Is it a thing? Or is it looking for the blessings in your life? What does this looking mean? Is it a casual look? Is it sometimes? Is it always? What is it? What would you think it is if you haven't thought about it?

I think it's a sense of expectation. Expectation, okay. So expectantly looking. Other thoughts? Is it looking for a thing? Looking for the blessings in your life? I think it's looking for the hope. Say again, Cheryl? Looking for the hope. The hope. We'll get into that, too. Yep. There's an aspect of receiving here as well. Yep. So this isn't just, you know, as I studied through this, I thought about this, too.

You know, you don't have to be a Greek geek, but it really kind of is interesting to look between what we, we have a word that's look. look. When you look into the Greek, verbose, and what that word means in the Greek. I go back to when Hal was here and we went through, he had the Greek class. For some reason, Hal just made it always sound really cool. You know, he'd get the Greek and then he'd get a word and then he'd just eloquently say what that word was in the Greek, you know, and it was like, look, but he'd make it. looking expectantly for the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and it's like, wow, you know, I just saw look, you know. So he made a very, it kind of made it interesting. And the Greek really is much more expressive when you get into it.

And like I said, we're kind of into a word study today about what this means. So the Greek word for looking is, and I butcher it, And that's to expect, look for, or wait. So again, our word for look, but this has expectantly, waiting for, we're not just sitting there looking like deer in the headlight. We're actually expectantly, we're looking for something, kind of aggressively looking for it.

I said the verb has an atmospheric expectancy about it and a readiness to welcome the person looked for and expected. So it's kind of like, you know, as a kid I remember I had my favorite uncle and when he was coming, you know, to be at our house, man, I was at the door waiting for him, you know, looking for him. When's he going to show up? When's he going to be here?

And I think it's the same sort of thing in here And again, was this looking for something, or what are we looking for? An event. An event? Well, yeah, an event. But what are we really looking for? Oh, let me see. Yeah, we're looking for the blessed hope, I think. The blessed hope is looking for the event. But what are we looking for? The Lord. The Lord. Yeah. And specifically, we'll get into that. It's not only the Lord, but something even more detailed about that. So we're expectantly looking for the blessed hope, and then it's for a person. It's for Christ.

That's why I said it's almost like, again, I just equate it personally to waiting for my uncle. I just couldn't wait. He was a crazy uncle. And when I was a little kid, it was so fun to have a crazy uncle. And so I just loved when he was coming. I would just wait. And I knew he was coming. I'd wait at the door, wait for him to come. And I was just expectantly, and man, when he came here, it was awesome. He came. This is the same sort of thing. but a lot greater than my uncle, you know.

It's really looking for the Lord. And so, you know, I always have the question here, you know, when I get into these, how many of us daily look with an atmosphere of expectancy and readiness for the Lord's return? Did you wake up this morning and just looking for the Lord? I think in these days now, a lot more of us are looking for the Lord coming. I talk to a lot more Christians who are believers who are like, yeah, the Lord's got to be coming soon, got to be coming soon.

I think there's much more, almost because of the turmoil that's in the world, we tend to look at it. But do we have, like me looking for my uncle, do I look for the Lord in the same way? I don't, you know, but it's telling me we should be looking for him expectantly, waiting for him. I think that colors your day, I think.

When you think about the Lord's return, it could be any time. It's not just to give up your work and sit in a room and think about this, but it's just that expectancy that the Lord's going to return and what that means and what you will see when the Lord returns. And we'll get into that when we parse this a little bit more. But I feel a lot of us don't really get that expectancy, that looking, that waiting for the Lord.

I was thinking that the verses that we covered the last couple of weeks, that grace has appeared and now he's starting to tie it into a person. Grace isn't some nebulous stuff that shows up and teaches us, it's tied to the person of Christ. Yeah, and actually, I remember when we were going through this, when Myles was doing it, there are the verses, I think John and others, that grace and truth were realized in Christ. That's where we get truth and we get grace. It's realized in a person. And so, yeah, the grace of God has appeared, Christ. grace and truth are realized. And so it's appeared, bringing salvation to all men who accept it.

Yeah, Bob? I think looking also has to do with the way you conduct your life. Like if Heidi's been gone for a while, but I know she's coming back, I'm going to wash the dishes, clean the bed, bring the bathroom. Yeah, it's, you just want, you just have this I don't know, desire that when she's coming back, everything will be good. And it's not that we have to totally clean up our act, but I think it's the attitude that the Lord's coming back.

You know, what am I focused on? Actually, in the verses before this, it's about worldly desires and different things like that. What's your focus on? And I think what you're kind of saying is that when You're looking for her coming back. Your focus changes from all the tedious things or other things.

I want to make it right for her and the expectancy. I guess it's like I said, it's not that you have to suddenly change everything and clean up your act, but it's just a different attitude that, as I said, colors your day. If you wake up and expecting the Lord coming, does that color your day? I'm just thinking the Lord could come back today. What am I focusing on? Am I worried about all the troubles of the world? Or am I thinking about the Lord coming back? And I think that's kind of the attitude here, this word look, is I'm not worried about all the other stuff. I'm waiting for the Lord to come back. When I was in the service, I lived with a couple of blind folks who were friends of my folks. In integration, Harry, that was the thing The thing we're really looking for is to see Him face to face.

Yeah. That would be the, you know, it was just really prevalent in their minds all the time. Yeah. You know, and that's, I mean, just think of that. When the glory appears, think of that. You know, that's what this is saying, looking for that, that the glory of the Lord will appear. So, I mean, that's the expectancy. And again, that's just what Titus, and remember the whole context of this.

This is Paul giving Titus instructions for his work in Crete. So, color it all with that, that he's saying, really you should have, teach them to look for the Lord. don't get tied up in all these worldly desires and all what creepy for you who weren't in class.

It's really kind of have you ever heard, you know, that you're a Cretan? You know, have you ever heard that term? You're a Cretan. You know, that comes back to Crete. I, we didn't know that, know that. But when you look at the first of Titus, it says not very pleasant things about people from Crete. They're liars, they're creeps, they're terrible people. And that's where our word comes from, you're a Cretan, is that that's kind of a slur word because they were nasty people. Why are you pointing at me? I just happen to be. It just happened. Yeah, why are you thinking? Are you a little guilty there, bud?

So, again, just in the context of all this, remember, this is Paul giving Titus instruction on how to minister in Crete. And so, now we have this bringing salvation, instructing us to deny ungodliness, willedness of the earth, to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age. Miles went over a lot of that. That's all that. Now what are we doing?

You know, you're tied up in all this worldly and all these, you know, ungodliness, worldly desires, all these different things. Now, he's flipping it and saying, look for the blessed hope. Don't be caught up in all of this other jazz. Look for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of the Lord coming.

And so, you know, this is just an instruction. And again, translate it to today. Same thing. Don't get caught up in everything that's going on in the world. Get caught up in looking for the Lord, or at least have that color of your day. The Lord could come back today, right now, to any day. So look expectantly for that. So that's that's the instruction from Paul. And I think it's it's very apropos for today that we get so tied up in politics and worldly matters and, you know, business and mortgages and voting and yada, yada, yada, that we lose that focus of looking the blessed hope.

I have a question. Yeah. Do you think that grace has an effect on our looking? I mean, if we weren't under grace, would we be looking? Good question. Yeah. I don't, you know, we wouldn't be, I think the grace, you know, the grace eliminates the work. And I think, I think that's where you get to the work is, you know, I need, I need to do something. I need to, you know, where grace is just received. This is the same thing. You're looking to receive the glory that's about to happen. As opposed to your own effort doing a thing. Yep.

It's a different perspective altogether. And the word perspective is really interesting because salvation is mentioned, grace is mentioned. We talk about behavior and then we talk about where we're looking and where our perspective is. And that's a radically different thing under law. Yeah. Oh, totally different. Law focuses on you. Grace focuses on the Lord. So, other thoughts? I feel like you started off by talking about your uncle, your crazy uncle.

Christianity essentially is about a person. Yes. You know, we sometimes make it an academic pursuit. of grammar and translations and theologies and all of that kind of stuff. Well, what it's really about is the person of the Lord Jesus. And so, I think it takes a while in your journey to come to that realization.

And wait a minute, what the whole of Paul's epistles are introduce you to, point you to, and acquaint you with the person of the Lord Jesus. Yeah, you know, the intimacy with Him is the whole thing. Where He's conforming us to who? His image. How do you become conformed? You have to know.

And 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, we behold His glory reflectively now, but then face to face. So I can see As you grow in the Lord Jesus, this expectancy to see Him face to face, all that He is, you really start looking for that. And it isn't because you want to get out of the cesspool of the earth. It's not that. You want to see Him. Yeah, it's not a lifeline. It's a desire for the person.

And you know, the others, you know, what, 2 Peter 3, 18? Growing the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus. That was Paul's prayer. Growing the grace and the knowledge. And that's the intimacy. You know, the John 17, where, you know, just really our intimacy, our union with Him. As we become more in sync with that union, all this becomes chaff. It becomes more of the focus of your life. And as you grow in the spiritual maturity, I think that really becomes more evident. At least, hopefully, less of the world becomes impacting and more of just that desire to know Him. And that's really Paul in several of his, to know Him.

And that's the key. And that's why I kind of in one of my questions is, what are we looking for? Is it a thing or the blessings? Are we looking for the blessings? It's not that. It's a person. It's a person. So very different. You know, we're looking, you know, I think, I think under the law and going back to kind of JD and the law, the law is more, it's a quid pro quo where if I do this, I get this. If I do this, I get this. If I, if I obey the law, I, you know, I avoid this. And, and it's a, it's a tit for tat, you know, this is resultant where grace is from our definition, unmerited. We don't do anything to deserve it. He provides that. That's in Romans 5 where it's the reigning principle now in a believer's life. Grace is the reigning principle.

So, you know, that's what we're looking for is the one who grace and truth are realized in is Christ. So, question two. Can you connect the blessed hope with the glorious appearing of the glory? So this is again verse 13, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus. So I think it's fairly obvious. Are those two connected, the blessed hope with the glorious appearing? What's that? Absolutely. That was an answer. That was it. Like I said, I tried to make some other questions, but it was like, nah, it's pretty obvious. Pretty obvious on this one.

So what Mike found was, and this is in his notes when he was sending the questions over, he says, the AB makes that blessed hope and the glorious appearing to be two different things, whereas the Greek text requires that they be constructed as one. We have the Granville Sharpe's rule here. Okay, raise your hand if you know what the Granville Sharpe rule is. Okay, yeah. Mike is the only one. Oh, do we have somebody? Did you? Did you get the Granville? No, well, you're getting there. So he gave the definition which I held because I had no clue what a Granville Sharpe rule was.

So, which says, that when there are two nouns in the same case connected by Chi, and the first noun having the article, the second noun not having the article, the second noun refers to the same thing the first noun does, and is a further description of it. Thus, that blessed hope is the glorious appearing of our Lord. The translation should read, that blessed hope, even the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So, it's the old Granville Sharpe rule says that they're one and the same. So, it was kind of interesting because I went through all the translations on my PC study Bible. I started pounding through all the translations and really the only one that had it that way was the NIV. which to me has always been kind of a soft translation of all this stuff. I'm an NASB, that's the most literal translation is through the NASB.

And so it says in there, while we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our Lord, of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. So that was the only one that really eliminated kind of the and in there. And so they're one and the same, the blessed hope and the glorious appearing. So again, that blessed hope, even the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. So I guess the distinction in this question is that it's one thing, not two different, the blessed hope and then the glorious appearing. They're not two things. They're one and the same or identified in the same. So any questions on that or thoughts? All you Granville Sharp people.

You know, like I said, as an engineer, I confess, I think when I did the Greek class with Hal, I had to get the English for Dummies book, because he was talking about all these things. I had no clue. You know, I are an engineer. You know, I speak in equations, not in English. And so I literally had to get an English for Dummies book, because he was, well, now in the article, the adverb, blah, blah, blah, and I was like, I've got to figure this out because I need the English. If he's going to translate from Greek, I need to understand the English. So, anyway. Alright, so that we have established by the Granville Sharp rule. Those are the same.

So now, in question three, can you also connect the great God with our Savior Jesus Christ? Verse 13, again, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So is this speaking of God the Father and Jesus? The great God and with us, can you connect the great God with our Savior, Jesus Christ? Or is it speaking of God the Father and Jesus? It's talking about Jesus being deity. So God and Jesus Christ being the same in this one? It's not referencing the Father and Jesus Christ?

Is the Granville Sharp rule in play there? Wow, you sharp Granville Sharp person? Yes, it is. My note was, back to the old Granville Sharp and his rule. So that's exactly right. We have the old Granville Sharp. So the same rule applies to the words the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.

Both expressions refer to the same individual. The deity of the Lord Jesus is brought out here by the rule of the Greek syntax. Therefore, this is not speaking of God the Father. So again, some will try and say, you know, split this to be God and Jesus, but Russ, you're absolutely right. This is really equating deity to the Lord Jesus.

So that's the purpose, the great God and our Savior. So He is deity and He is our Savior, which we'll get to. So any other thoughts on that? All right, moving on to question four. Why does Paul put our before great God and Savior Jesus Christ? So, again, verse 13, looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

So, you know, I started off the word study. If we're going to talk about what our is. So, what is the definition of our? Not H-O-R-U, R-H-O-U-R, but O-U-R. What is the definition? What? It's possessive. Possessive. Okay. Possessive. Anything else? You know, I've got a King James, and mine means the appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Okay. It's a little different. Yeah. And in fact, I think I may get down to that a little bit. I think it's personal. Right. Personal. So our possessive, personal. Any other thoughts on our? Plural. Oh, there we go.

So, of course, I went to the all all inclusive, famous Miriam Webster's dictionary, the ultimate source for definitions. And it says, of or relating to us. And I don't agree with this. What's my rule about definitions? For you and the other class, I don't allow you to use the same word in the description of the definition.

So of or relating to us or ourselves or ourselves, especially as possessors or possessor, agents or agent, or objects or object of an action. Yeah. Do you know there's that much definition for our? Our? Would that be considered a church? We'll get to that. That's actually what we're going to talk about. What that means. So, our means, basically I said our means identification with or possession of. I broke it down. So, our means identification with or possession of. So, who is the our in this verse? Believers. Believers.

So this isn't like, when we look up that, let me go back up to the full verse here. For the grace of God is appeared, bringing salvation to all men. So this hour doesn't mean the whole world. Or does it mean the whole world? Bringing salvation to all men. Does that mean it's our inclusive of that? Or is it to believers only?

Could we say that this is Titus and Paul and representative of all believers? Say that again? We say that in this letter it is Titus and Paul. I mean, in the letter it's Titus and Paul, but it is representative of all believers and instructional for all believers. Yeah, it's to all believers. I think, yes, it's our being, I think, between Titus and Paul, yes, but I think it's inclusive of all believers.

Yeah. Because he's our God and Savior. Yeah. Why would he have to emphasize our Savior? That's right. I will get to that. I know, but the point is here, and I'm not going to give it away, but the point is that it's specific directed towards Christians and their Savior. Yep.

So, it's two believers, not unbelievers. So, I said this is backed up by the use of Savior. Is it Savior for unbelievers? No. So, if he's saying, you know, our great God and Savior, That's exclusive to believers. Yes, He brought salvation to all men, but you have to accept the Lord, death, burial, resurrection. You would have been using the definite article, THE God, Savior, and you would be looking to Him for salvation as opposed to the inclusive, personal, our. Yes, we have identification or possession of the Lord through our belief. in the Lord Jesus.

So, besides the old Granville Sharpe rule, Mike had another word in there that I had to look up. Mike had this, the pronoun our is polemic. Okay, so, who knows what polemic means? Aha, what? Mike does, I know. He doesn't get an answer. He may not even know it, I don't know, actually. So does anybody know what polemic means? No cheating, no cheating, no asking seriously.

If I were to write a polemic paper, I would be taking somebody else's information and saying this is wrong. The polemic means that I'm saying and pointing out why it is wrong, why the information isn't accurate. So our is polemic and our, so I went back to the infamous definitions, polemic, an aggressive attack on or refutation of the opinions or principles of another. Who would have guessed that in this, that would have been a polemic word, so our. So it's an aggressive attack or refutation of the opinions or principles of another. That's interesting. So, looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So how would that be an aggressive attack? Why would it be? What would it be attacking?

You're saying our God... People that create an image of God, that is something to do, an act to know God, and they have to do something where believers, it's total faith. And so they're saying that our God is those that have accepted that gift as if it's a gift. It's those that are trying to do something dirty. Yeah, that could be, kind of. Yeah, it's basically saying, this is our God. Everything else is not.

So, in specifics here, it says, Mike had this note, that the God and Savior of the Roman Empire was the Emperor himself, who was looked upon as a God and as the Savior of the world, and that he, by his government, brought peace and prosperity to the people. He was worshipped as a God in the state religion of the Roman Empire, which was empire worship. So, basically, what he's saying here is, our God is the real emperor, the real God, and not what you worship over here, which is a Roman emperor, or anything else, really. Anything else that is not related to Jesus Christ is of the world. People ask me before, what's the difference between your God and mine?

Yeah, yeah. Honestly, any other religion you look at, you do something to earn it. Any other one. That's a good point. And I was thinking just along those lines, is that he brought something to us, which makes it ours because he gave it to us. And we often talk about religion seeks to reach up to God and provide something to him, whereas grace reaches down and provides something to us, but we possess it. And such a radical difference in terms of what you possess based on grace versus effort. Right. Works versus grace.

You know, and any of the others there are. Usually, all the other religions, they know God hates, you know, has something against you and you have to do something to appease Him. Even up until then, you know, the law was kind of based on you have to do something to keep God happy. And now, with Christ appearing, grace and truth were realized through Him. we now receive, we don't have to do any of the unmerited part. And it's ours. It's ours possession. And that's completely different than every other system. Every other religion, every other worldly system, it's different than that.

Regan? Well, I was thinking back on the King James, what you're saying there, the appearing of the great God, there's only one, and that one God is our Savior. Right. Again, polemic. It's attacking him. It isn't, you know, because remember going around, remember, you know, uh, where is it? Uh, it was in Corinthians where they got our, our, our, our, our, our, whatever, whatever it is, you know, um, you know, and, and the whole God, they have gods everywhere. When he walked into town, there were several gods, this, this lamb on him, this is the God. And, and I think that's the attack and he's ours. You don't have to go to the temple. You don't have to worship. You don't have to provide whatever. We haven't, and it's our possession. And that's completely different than what all the other religions around there or the people we're used to.

And so this is the polemic, the attack. This is what it is. It's saying, hey, you're wrong. This is our God, the God, and it's ours. Plus, Paul was talking to the Greeks, or the Jews, or the Gnostics, the believing people, so he was... Oh, it's all of them. And the Romans, you know. He was God. The Emperor was God. He was a God.

And so this is an attack of all of that. And when you think about it, it is pretty rough, you know, if you're saying my God, the only God, and He's mine. Think about even all the other religions, you say, my God's better than your God. Well, there is only one. How do you attack that? I just go to the truths of the Bible.

So many of the prophetic things that have come through, there's so many things that For me as an engineer, when I came to know the Lord, one of the things was, what's his name, Josh McDowell, evidence that demands a verdict. It was a lot of proofs. It still ultimately is by faith, totally by faith, but there's so many things that support Christ was who he was and what he did. When I get into those discussions, I kind of go, Did your God, you know, did he prophesize 500 things and 490 are already done, you know, and thousand a year ahead and things like that? I mean, you can get into those arguments, but still it comes down to faith. It's still faith. And you have to provide, you know, provide who Christ is. But again, this was an attack on the emperor and all of the religions. And our God is the God. So that would be the answer to that. Our God is the God.

Sorry, Courtney, I'm a little delayed. I think there's something really important here about the possession, right? The possession is because it was offered to us, not because of what we have or what we possess initially, it has to do with us being in a state where we have nothing and God bringing salvation to us.

And when we think about the God comparison concept, we're talking about comparing a God that will In any other case other than the Lord Jesus Christ that will take from you But here you have a God that is giving himself to you and making himself available to you And so that possession is not based on anything other than the very grace that he he operates according to and that separates him tremendously from all other gods and it's not a it's not a like versus thing it's a Acceptance thing we we are here because of what he brought to us Not because of what we have accomplished and that is every other world system every other God Artemis or not is all The same it's what do you do for him? What? Sacrifices can you make for them? How do you appease them and he's saying I'm bringing you and I'm offering you and it's not exclusive to Paul and Titus and believers It's to all men which is a much different situation.

Well, I think that was brought out. I mean, it's a completely different whole set up. You know, I think even this is somewhat would be even on the Jews, you know, that they were under the law and they still couldn't accept this. They had to do something. And this was brought to you by grace. Yeah. That's a good commercial for what's next. Stay tuned for version two next hour. We will get to the question five next week. We'll start on that. So let's close.

Father, we thank you. We thank you again just for just the grace that we live in right now and what that means. It's you, the definition, unmerited blessings and unlimited blessings from you. It's not what we do. It's receiving the blessings from you. And the only thing we can say is thanks. There's no work, no anything that we deserve that.

You provided everything at the cross with your son and just taking all of the sin upon himself and paying for all of those sins. And then that wasn't enough. You graciously offered us salvation through Jesus Christ. And we just thank you for that. that gift through faith of salvation through your son. So we just thank you for that and we just pray for Mike in the next service just to thoroughly bring us the word and just prepare our hearts to receive it. And we thank you for all these things in Jesus name we pray. Amen.