 Titus chapter 2, beginning at verse 11, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. Speak these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no one despise you. Ask yourself, perhaps you are, maybe you're not, but let me say this, you may be asking yourself, why does Pastor David want to share this particular portion of Scripture tonight? What makes this a unique portion of Scripture that would be appealing to him and why would that be something he would want to share with us on a Wednesday night in a midweek Bible study? Well, the answer to that is it's none of your business. No, the answer to that is real simple. Now, this upcoming Sunday, I'll be sharing with you in a continuation of our study through the Gospel of Matthew, I'll be sharing with you this upcoming Sunday out of Matthew chapter 7. And in Matthew chapter 7, the very first verse of that particular chapter is one of the most controversial misquoted Scriptures that you're going to find in Christendom today. Judge not, lest you also be judged. How many of you have heard that? Don't be judging me, brother. Don't be judging me, sister, judge not. Don't we hear that quite often? Well, I'll be sharing a little bit about that and teaching you this upcoming Sunday to judge everybody. No, I'll be teaching you on Sunday what that means. But I wanted to take tonight to kind of lay a foundation because I'm not able to do this to the same degree on Sunday morning. And so this, for you who came midweek, you're going to have a step ahead of the rest of the fellowship in a sense and then I'll be sharing a little bit with you concerning why it's important for us to take that Scripture and understand its context. Because, again, that's one of the Scriptures that many people quote, but they unfortunately don't understand the point that Jesus is making and hopefully this upcoming Sunday I'll have opportunity to share scripturally what he's intending to communicate and it'll help us as we live our lives for the Lord. But as we look at this verse here and these verses really before us in Titus chapter 2, verses 11 through 15, we're looking at the grace that brings salvation. Now this particular portion of Titus in chapter 2 is a very powerful portion of Scripture because it gives us insight. It gives us insight into the grace of God, the grace of God that has been manifested or revealed to us, clearly presented to us through Jesus Christ. And so he begins in verse 11 by simply saying, the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared, he says, to all men. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared unto all men. Now I want to develop this as a foundation for you. Let me give you an introduction by asking a question. What is he referring to when he speaks of the grace of God appearing to all men? Well, obviously first we notice that he's pointing to God's grace. The word grace is the Greek word carous, C-H-A-R-I-S, carous. And its most basic fundamental definition is usually just referred to as the undeserved favor of God. Under normal circumstances that is the basic definition. It's the undeserved favor of God. We do not deserve it. It is something that he gives to us though we do not deserve it at all. It's called carous and it's translated by the word grace. And so God's undeserved favor is actually at work in every element of our Christian lives, in every element of our walk with God. When you start looking at grace and you just start looking up scriptures that use the word grace in them, you're going to find some things out. You're going to find that Christians are saved by faith through the grace of God, that we are justified through grace, that we are spiritually gifted through grace, and we are called to serve God by His grace. Grace permeates every element of a believer's life, every element from salvation to service. Everything about our walks with God is permeated and fundamentally founded on God's undeserved favor in our lives. God's grace undergirds and empowers every facet of our Christian life. Because of God's grace, we are actually by faith granted entrance into heaven itself. And none of us, and we all know this, I'm just saying what we know, none of us is good enough to enter in through our own works or our own righteousness. Not a single one of us. You know, Isaiah tells us that our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, lepers' quads. During that day when Isaiah was writing and he spoke concerning our righteousness being like filthy rags, during that day if somebody had leprosy and it was an oozing disease, the leper would wrap his arm or her arm with a cloth. And so that which was being emitted from their arm, their leg, whatever, wherever the leprosy was active, it would soak the cloth. And as it soaked the cloth with this moisture and they would be out there because they couldn't be in the city. They were outside of the city. They were living in dusty regions. The dust of the region would settle on the cloth and it would cake on it. And Isaiah is saying your righteousness is like that leperous cloth. That's a pretty graphic illustration of our sinfulness. Somebody says, I'm not that bad. Yes, you are. That's what God says. He says, no, you are. In comparison to him, all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. In comparison to him, anybody who thinks that they're almost as righteous as God on their own, they just don't know God. They just don't know God. That's their imagination. They've been a God that's less than themselves. They've humanized him. They've elevated man and reduced God. That's what happens, you see? And so we don't understand that today in our society, in a society that really rejects a message like that, which it quite obviously does, rejects a message like, oh, that's a downer man. I'm not that bad or you don't know my circumstances. When we make excuses, we really are simply saying, I'm not interested in that at all because I'm not really interested in having a relationship with God. That's basically what that is. But the Bible makes it very clear that none of us is good enough in and of ourselves by our own works or even religious activities that have been foisted upon us and times perhaps that we weren't even aware that these things were taking place. Those religious things, those religious behaviors, none of that saves us. Titus chapter 3 verses 4 and 5 says, when the kindness and the love of God, our savior toward man, appeared not by works of righteousness which we've done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration, renewing of the Holy Spirit. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. It's God who did it, right? God did the work. What we do is we receive from him by faith and we enter into his grace. You see, the grace of God is intended to produce holy lives. We do not use the grace of God to excuse ungodly living, which I have to tell you, I see that commonly today. Commonly today. And this isn't, by the way, I never thought the day would ever come when I felt it necessary to sit down and actually give a study like this. I thought that every Christian understood that. For years I did. I almost felt I was insulting people by reminding them of what God has done for us. I did. As a matter of fact, every time I've taught for years, I have taught with this attitude you already know that you'll even hear me say that. It's just a habit that I have. I'm just telling you what you already know. But knowing and doing, those are two different things. Knowing here isn't the same as knowing here. You know, some people are missing heaven by 18 inches, the distance from their head to their heart. They may have knowledge. They may have accumulated information over time. They may have gone, like I, to catechismal classes as a child and received rudimentary instruction related to God and the Bible and the work of Jesus on the cross and things. They have a basting knowledge. They've heard these things. The gospel, quote-unquote, in and of itself is not a brand new thing. They've heard elements of it before. You can speak to them and ask them, is there a God? And because they were raised in a somewhat Christian environment and the nation at one time had a more Christian feel to it. Well, they'll say, well, of course there's a God and of course there's a Jesus and of course there's a heaven and of course there's a hell. And I'm not sure about the hell thing, but I do think there's a heaven. And then you ask them, how do you get there? And then you get all kinds of interesting responses. Do your best. Try your hardest. Go to church at least twice a year on Easter and on Christmas. Things like that, right? I mean, that's kind of how we were raised. If you get married, get married in the church. Things like that. If you have children, get them baptized. You know, it's just religious rituals. That's how I was raised and some of you in this room were probably raised similarly. Whether it was Baptist Catholic or whatever, you probably had, if you had any religion at all, you probably would agree with, yeah, that's generally, that's kind of how it was for many people. But the fact is, it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration, the renewing of the Holy Spirit. That comes from God. Not by works of righteousness we've done, but his work, you see, and it's all grace. And so God's grace has been given to us not to give me permission to continue living a godless life. But it's really been poured out on me and you to set us free from the bondage of sin that I might live a life that is pleasing to him and blessed by him. Paul said that in Romans chapter six verses one and two. You see, when Paul was writing the book of Romans, there were people who were arguing against the Gospel of grace. There were legalists and there were Jewish individuals who rejected this idea of grace. And so they would argue and they argued in Romans and all you need to do is begin Romans chapter one and get to chapter five and you'll see the argument as Paul begins to lay it out. When he gets into chapter five in the book of Romans, Paul begins to speak concerning the fact that there are those who are accusing him of saying, well, let's just continue in sin so that grace may abound. And he's saying, you know, because they're saying, look at, no matter how, Paul is saying, no matter how deep you go into sin, God is deeper still. Now instead of us saying, what a god we have, they were saying, you're cheapening man's responsibility before God. You're giving people an excuse to continue in sin. And so that's the whole argument. And so he says in chapter six verses one and two, he says, what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? Because that's what they had been saying. Go on sinning so that grace may increase. The more you sin, the more the grace. So really just run it to the end so that you have all kinds of grace, Paul. That's what they were saying. So he says, oh, what are we supposed to do? Continue sinning so that grace might increase. But he goes on and answers his own question. He says, by no means, we died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? So you see where he's going with that? Listen, if I have been saved by Christ and I've been crucified with Christ, he says that actually in chapter six, but he says it to the Galatians too, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. The life I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He says, listen, I'm alive right now. I live in the flesh. I have animal life. I have life, he says. But I understand something. I have been crucified with Jesus Christ. When Jesus took upon himself the sin of mankind, Paul was simply saying he took his sin too. When Jesus died on the cross 2,000 years ago, he took the sin of mankind. And that means he took my sin. That means he took the sin of the world. He's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He took it upon himself. And when Jesus died on the cross for you and me, he took my sin upon him. So now that I have received by faith the grace of God into my life, Paul would be saying that does not give you or me the right to continue in sin so that grace may abound. No, if I'm dead in Christ, then why should I continue living in sin? And so grace has not been given to you and has not been given to me so that I can continue sleeping with my girlfriend, doing drugs, getting drunk, cussing at people when they cut me off in the freeway. And all the things that sometimes happen. There was a guy in his way to a prayer meeting. True story, not making it up on his way to prayer meeting. In an early morning prayer meeting, as he was driving, he was being tailgated. And the guys flashing the lights and there's only two cars on the street. A guy could have driven around him if he wanted, but no, they're on a two-laner. This guy's right behind him flashing his lights on him, tailgating him. And finally, the guy who was tailgating goes around him and gives him the California Howdy, revealing his IQ and goes on down the road. And this guy's on his way to a prayer meeting and he said, oh, Lord, I'm so angry. This, what an idiot. Oh, God, forgive me. I'm going to pray for you. And he's just praying and praying and the car's up in front of him and he's turning in the same place he's turning because the guy was going to the same prayer meeting. True story, true story. And here, so grace wasn't given to me to continue in sin, but to set me free from its bondage. To set me free from its bondage. So that's what I want to center my attention on for a few moments. God's grace is in permission to continue living an ungodly life with a ticket to heaven. God's grace has been given to free me from bondage, not to encourage me to continue in sin. Again, I mentioned this earlier. One of the things I hear very often today is the comment, don't judge me. Well, we need to understand that the Holy Spirit is the one who brings conviction and we need to also understand that he often uses people to do that. Sometimes I wonder when somebody is in obvious sin and a good-hearted brother or sister says, you know, you really need to be aware that the life that you're living is in pleasing to the Lord and I love you and I'm telling you the truth. That isn't easy to do. I mean, the majority of Christians I know over the years I've known hesitate or will not even do that. They won't even do that. They don't want to be judges. They say, my goodness, who am I to judge you? And they really are hesitant. I don't know that I know many, if any, self-righteous people. I'm not saying they don't exist. Of course, there are those who are. But in my ministry experience and my Christian life, I have to be honest with you. I, at the top of my head, I can't think of anybody that I know that is like, oh man, you know, I'm going to sniff out sin and I'm going to point it out. I just, there are those who do that. I just, I don't know them. The ones that I have known over the years who come up to me and said, listen, I'm concerned. I have a friend who's living with her boyfriend and they're claiming to be Christian and I don't know what to do. They don't come to me with this, this half-fire and brimstone attitude of self-righteous judgmentalism. They come broken, always. I don't know what to do. And I'll say, you know what to do. You just don't want to do it. Can you do it? No. I don't know them. You want me to introduce you to them? No. Well, what should I do, pastor? They're going to get mad at me, right? They're going to get mad at me. I may lose their friendship. Do you love them? I wouldn't be talking to you about them if I didn't. You love them? Tell them the truth. How? Well, with a broken heart. With a broken heart. Pastor Chuck Smith, my pastor, who went to be with Jesus, shares the story of how that one time he had a friend who was a pastor also who had left his wife, started living with a woman and it broke Pastor Chuck's heart. So he shares how he went to visit his friend and he said, I knocked on the door. The man opened the door and his woman he was living with was in another room. This man had left his children, left his wife and now his girlfriends in the other room closes the door. Pastor Chuck walks in, sits down with his pastor friend. Pastor looks at him and says to Chuck, why'd you come over? And Chuck shares how that he looked at the man, didn't say a word and just started weeping. And if anybody here knew Chuck or knew him in any way, that's one of the things he doesn't do. He wasn't a weepy kind of guy at all. He wasn't me. He was a man's man in every weather. He was real strong, stoic. I mean, the man had a root canal without any nobikin. Isn't that amazing? It's amazing. Amazing. He wept. Didn't say a word, cried, stood up and walked out. Didn't say a word. The man broke up with the woman, moved home to his wife, reconciled, moved on with his life without a word. It was a tear. It was a broken heart. So when you encounter somebody in sin, uniquely and gently with humility, considering yourself, approach them with brokenness, that's how you do it. Because your heart breaks when people are not walking with Jesus Christ. It isn't this angry thing where you have a sign, you're going to hell and you march in front of the house. Whore and whore monger live here. It isn't that way at all. You know, the Apostle Peter, we all love him from what we read about him. Many of us can identify with this man. He would remove his foot from his mouth only to insert the other one in. You see that over and over again in scripture. You know, he had this experience with the Lord. He was there in Joppa. He was showing him a sheet. It had all kinds of animals and the voice of the Lord said, rise and slay and eat. And the Apostle Peter argues with the voice, argues with the Lord, not so Lord, I've never eaten anything unclean. I'm absolutely kosher and you have these unclean, creeping things? I can't do it. And the Lord says to him, what I have declared to be clean, you are not to call unclean. And he doesn't know exactly the meaning of this vision, but this man by the name of Cornelius, who is a Gentile, has sent some people over to pick them up and talk to him, bring them back to the house to bring the gospel. And as Peter is on his way to a Gentile's house, it hits him. So this is what it is. God is sending me to bring the gospel to Gentiles and then the Jews had no dealings with Gentiles. And so he says, oh now I see clearly what God is saying. There's no difference between the Gentile and the Jew. I see Jesus Christ. You see that in Acts chapter 10. But later on in the book of Galatians, the apostle Paul has to speak to this beloved man named the apostle Peter. It's found in Galatians chapter 2 verses 11 through 13. And what had happened is Peter had become a stumbling block for non-Jewish Christians. Even after he said, God has made it crystal clear to me. So Paul speaks and says, when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him publicly, speaking strongly against what he was doing for it was very wrong when he first arrived. He ate with the Gentile Christians who don't bother with circumcision. But afterward when some Jewish friends of James came, Peter wouldn't eat with the Gentiles anymore because he was afraid of what these legalists would say. Then the other Jewish Christians followed Peter's hypocrisy. Even Barnabas was influenced to join them in their hypocrisy. This is a man who said, God has 100% made it very clear to me that I am not to separate myself from those who call in the name of Jesus Christ. And yet under pressure, he had to be confronted by the apostle Paul who did so publicly because the ones who were sinning publicly are rebuked publicly. It causes others to fear, Paul told Timothy. And so sometimes the Lord will use people to bring conviction into our lives. A lot of times, don't judge me. Don't tell me anything. If God has anything to say to me, he'll tell me personally. But he is right now. You don't look like God. But he is right now. When's the last time you read the Bible? Well, you know, I don't have to read the Bible to be a Christian now, so you haven't. When's the last time you had fellowship with a brother or sister in the Lord and spoke about the goodness of Christ? Well, you don't have to have people in your life, man. All I need is God. Me, God, granola and some trees. Really. And you know what's going on right now. And that person is not walking with the Lord. They're hiding from God. And so the Lord sends a Jonah over who may not even want to go and says, you know, 40 days and you're going to burn. Brings a word and says, it's time to repent. And I'm telling you, my experience in yours is probably the same as this. When you come even with tears in your eyes and a broken heart, the first thing people do is they say, when did the Holy Spirit stop convicting people and appoint you to do it? I had a woman one time. She was gossiping in church. I was in the pastor at that time. I was a member of the church. This woman enjoyed gossip. She was a dear friend of mine. I loved her very much. She had great things to say about everybody. No. No, I loved her very much. She was a dear friend. But she had a habit of gossiping. And finally one day I said to her, I said, you know, you gossip. And the Lord didn't like that. And I'll never forget, she spoke to me straight in the eye and she said, so when did the Holy Spirit give up his office and give it to you? When did you become the Holy Spirit? I said, well, I don't think I'm the Holy Spirit. Pretty sure I'm not. But I am a brother who loves you and what you're doing is wrong. And you know it. So shut up. Stop gossiping. Listen, grace is not provided to allow us to continue in sin. Sometimes sin must be openly dealt with. And so grace. Notice what he says in verse 11 concerning grace. He said, the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. When he says the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared, the word appeared means has become clearly known. God's grace has been openly revealed. Paul is saying that God's grace has openly been revealed and has become clearly evident. God's saving grace has become clearly evident in Jesus. In the sin-stained darkness of men's lives, God's grace as the early morning sun has risen. He says God's grace has been openly manifested by Jesus' coming to planet earth. He is the incarnation. His ministry of death is burial. His resurrection. All of that reveals the grace of God. The Bible in John chapter 1 verse 1 simply says in the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. The word is Jesus Christ. According to verse 14, John 1.14, the word was made flesh, dwelt amongst us. We beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. The word of God, Jesus Christ, has incarnated, taken upon himself human flesh, dwelt amongst us, tinted amongst us. He abided amongst us. We beheld his glory. The glory is the only begotten Son of God. And he was filled, he said, with grace and with truth. God's grace has been manifested through Jesus Christ. God's grace has come to the rescue. And God's grace saves men from the greatest possible evil. What would the greatest possible evil be? God's curse and judgment upon sin. He has come to the rescue and he has saved us from God's judgment. The Bible says in Psalm 7, verse 11, God judges the righteous. God is angry with the wicked every day. In John 3.36, all who believe in God's Son have eternal life. Those who don't obey the Son will never experience eternal life, but the wrath of God remains upon them. Romans chapter 2, verses 4 and 5, do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience? Not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance, but because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath when his righteous judgment will be revealed. You don't understand that it's God's kindness that leads you to repentance. So many times people think that, if God doesn't come down on me, he must approve of it. Right? That's true. You've done it. I've done it. I've just been coasting along in sin. God hasn't killed me yet. Must be okay. Must not be that bad. Maybe I'm being harsh on myself. I shouldn't judge myself so harshly. God's okay with it. And Paul would say, what you're doing is you're storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath. You're not dealing with it. And you don't understand it's God's mercy and goodness towards you. It's his kindness that leads you to repentance. So you see it's God's grace incarnated in Christ that brings salvation. His grace is revealed to us in Jesus and proclaimed to us through the gospel. We receive salvation through personal faith in Jesus Christ by receiving the gospel. He said in Romans 5, 1 and 2, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And so this gospel has been declared to be notice for all men, not just men of course, for all mankind. And all mankind includes the old men and the old women, the younger women, younger men. It includes every element of mankind because salvation is for everybody. God is gathering together his people from all mankind through the Great Commission and it's his desire to save everybody and he does that through Jesus Christ. In 1st Timothy 2, verse 4, it says, God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. All men, not just some men, not just certain men. God wants all men. God wants every person to know him. You know there are times, not always, I wish that I walked in this constantly. I don't. But there are times when the burden to see people saved is so overwhelming that sometimes it hurts, it can physically hurt me. I actually physically feel heaviness when I see people who are so lost. And it breaks your heart. How long, oh Lord, how long? Look at what they're saying about you. Look at the emptiness of the life, Lord. And I've seen young women grow into older women, young pretty women who never got right with the Lord, who lost their beauty through a bad life. I had a friend of mine, I can use her name, her name was Debbie, because I don't remember her last name. I was, I knew her when I was 17, 18 years old, 10, 12 years ago. We used to party, a lot of my friends, and she was part of the group that would party together. You know a lot of you had groups of people you hung around with, maybe you still do. I had a large group of friends, large circle of friends, and we partied a lot. That's what we did, go to houses and just party. It didn't matter if it was in the afternoon, it was at night, it was the weekend, or the weekday, I mean we partied all the time. That's what we did, that was my life. And she was part of that party scene. And that's what we did, we drank, we smoked dope, we did, that's what we did. I went into the military, I hadn't seen her, I'd gotten saved, I hadn't seen her. I got saved when I was 20, went into the military, I got out of the army, I was about 22 years old. I was in front of my parents' house when Debbie came walking towards me. I did not recognize her, she was 21 years old. 21 years old. I did not recognize her. She used to be the epitome of a hippie girl, you know with her hair parted in the middle, long hair, granny dresses, real, real pretty girl. Her skin was real sunken. She had black rings around her eyes. Her hair was falling out. This beautiful brown hair was falling out and she was missing her teeth. And I looked at her. She says, hi David, do you remember me? And I looked at her and I said no. No. Who are you? Debbie. And I remember looking at her like, Debbie, Debbie, we used to part, Debbie, Debbie. She goes, I've been into meth. She was doing all kinds of drugs. And that'll, anybody here who knows anything about meth knows what it does to you. And it did it to her. I'm looking at a girl who at one time was like a pinup girl for a hippie magazine. Just as vivacious, smiley, happy and she goes, you look good. I said, man, I got away from drugs long time ago. I got right with Jesus Christ. She says, oh, I said, you need to, to Debbie. I was at a wedding a few years ago now and a lady that went to high school with me, I hadn't seen her in many years since 68. This was probably in 2007, 2008 or so. I hadn't seen her in 40 years or whatever. I hadn't seen her. She's at a wedding and she walks up to me. David, do you remember me? I went to high school with you and I'm looking at her and I'm going, what's your name? She gave me a name and I said, oh yeah, I remember your name. It's not like we were buddies or that we dated or anything. You know how it is in high school. You know some people in your class and all. She knew me that way. I knew her that way. I said, oh yeah, how are you? Her husband's standing next to me, kind of a heavy said guy, you know, big old beard and stuff. And she says, David, she says, you look good for your age. I said, well, I appreciate that. Thank you. I'm not in the coffin yet. I guess that's a compliment. Thank you. And I said, you know, I said, I got right with the Lord when I was 20 years old. I said, and I had a new life, man. I stopped doing the drugs and stopped drinking. I stopped doing all of that. And her husband made me laugh. He says, man, I should have done that because it's so sweet. You know, I said, you ought to come to our church. He says, I'm not interested in that stuff. She comes here now. I saw her a few months ago. But you know what? God's grace, man. God's grace has appeared unto all men. He wants us to be saved, to remove us from the mystery of the life that you live without Jesus Christ. Jesus came that he might set you free. And he gives you grace. And grace is intended to affect every element of our lives. Notice how it says here, teaching us. The word teaching is a word that is usually used to train children. It speaks of being instructed or taught. It speaks of chastising with words or correcting. It speaks of molding the character of somebody else through reproof as well as admonition. And so through God's grace, we are walked step by step into maturity in Christ. And God's grace is to train us. What is it training us to do? Well, he says to deny ungodliness and worldly lust. And there it is. Instead of the grace of God being poured on me so I can continue in sin, it has been given to me to train me to avoid these things. Ungodliness and worldly lust. To reject it. To reject wickedness. Again, 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 7. God didn't call us to be impure but to live a holy life. Ephesians 1-4. He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. There's a fellow who was a gangster. The old-style mobster, what we used to call mobsters, a guy who was like an Al Capone type gangster. And a very famous man for his being, a gangster. And he went to a Billy Graham crusade in the 50s. This shows you how long ago this was. And he went forward at the invitation and Billy Graham gave the invitation to get saved. This mobster, well-known mobster, went forward. It was in the newspaper. So-and-so comes to faith in Christ through ministry of Billy Graham and it was front-page type news. I mean, it would be like Don Corleone coming to Jesus one of those things. So the follow-up minister goes to visit him and the guy is still in racketeering. And the guy says, you know, now that you're saved, what are you going to do? He says, I'm going to be a racketeer. That's what I do. He says, no. That's not what believers do. And the guy said, listen, they're a Christian businessman and Christian athletes. I'm simply going to be a Christian racketeer. True story. True story. Is there such a thing as a Christian or a racketeer mobster? Oh, don't be a judge, Pastor David. You're judging him. You don't know his heart. He has called us to live holy lives. That means we stay away from killing people and stealing their money. Well, how do we live? Soberly. The word soberly speaks of having a temperate or discreet or a sound mind. Now, we are also called to live righteously. The word righteously speaks of being upright before God. To live righteously means to live fairly and honestly. It speaks of having integrity. He says we're to live godly. Godliness is a life earmarked by reverence and respect for the Lord. And so we have soberness, a sound mind. We have righteousness. We live fairly and honestly. And we live in a godly way. People see the reverence that we have. That's the life that we should be known for. And we live with anticipation. He says looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So God's grace also trains us to wait for Jesus who is returning. Now, our faith that Jesus will return provides a motivation to live a godly life. In 1 John 3, 2 and 3, now we are children of God. It has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he's revealed, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. In other words, the anticipation of seeing Jesus motivates us to live for him as we wait for him. 2 Corinthians 5, 14, the love of Christ compels us. This is love for Christ. It's the love that Christ has had for us that causes us to love him in return. And we await. We're waiting for his return. I was reading something. I don't know how to pronounce his name. I actually went to a Japanese pronunciation so I could learn how to say it. I can't. If anybody here speaks Japanese, forgive me. But his name is Onada Hiro. Hiro. Hiro was a second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. And he was sent to the Philippine island of LeBang in 1944 and he received orders from his commander to remain there. You have no right to take your own life and you stay there until I come personally to relieve you of your duty. Well, the war ended and he didn't know it. And he stayed there from 1944 until 1974, almost 30 years under orders. And people would see him out there in this particular region and go after him and he would not accept that the war was over. He said, my commanding officer has not relieved me of duty and he would not come in. This is a true story. He would not come in. A young Japanese adventurer was going through the jungle and he encountered him and said to him, the war is over. It's been over since 1945 until I hear from my commanding officer that it is over. I will not lay down my sword or my arms. He would not do it. You know what happened? This Japanese adventurer went back to Japan and reported that he had seen this man. They got in touch with the commanding officer and shipped him to Leban. And he came and found this Japanese soldier and said to him, war is over. Lay down your arms. And he said, now that my commanding officer has come and told me what to do, then I will do it. And there's a real famous picture of him laying his sword at President Marcos in the Philippines back in 1974 as he laid down his weapon before him and finally was relieved of his duty. This was a guy who was told, you occupy until I come. And it was a Japanese soldier in an actual war who refused to give up until his commanding officer came to relieve him. And the Bible tells me that my commanding officer is returning and I must be faithful until he comes. And that's why I am not to be living an ungodly and unrighteous life filled with worldly lust, blaming it on the grace of God, but I'm to live soberly and righteously before the Lord as I await his return. God's grace has not been given to me or you to continue in sin, but to set you free from its power. And so when someone says, don't judge me, bro, the word is judging you. You're not lining up with it and you know it. And Jesus is calling you to repent and get right with him. And finally, Paul simply says, and I'll close with this, speak these words. This is a command to a pastor, speak these words, exhort, rebuke with authority, let no one despise you. Don't worry what men say, do what I say. And that's what God calls us to do. May we live in the grace of God, not as an excuse to continue in sin, but to live as those who've been freed from its power.