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[0:01] Perhaps we'd turn together to Paul's letter to Titus on page 998 in our Pew Bibles, and we're looking at much of chapter 2 again this evening.

[0:19] Well, I wonder what you do when you've had a very busy and long and tiring day at work, but your busy day is followed by a free evening. You know that sort of day you've been conscientiously earning your crust from 9 until 5. You go home, you then have your tea, and then what? The evening is before you. You haven't got the energy to go out for a walk or to cut the grass, so you reach for your television guide, and you slump down on the sofa, and you say to yourself, now what shall I watch? And you flick through the programs on the different television stations, and you spot a good crime drama, a police drama. Jack Frost, for example, or Taggart, Midsummer Murders, Dixon of Doc Green, something like that. And for the next hour or two, you observe with keen interest. Now listen, you observe with keen interest murder, adultery, hatred, lying, cheating, violence, envy, betrayal, and malice. Now you're a Christian, perhaps a pretty grown-up Christian, and yet you find it extremely interesting to observe, from a safe distance, the more dramatic and gruesome forms of human sin. Now, what if the television guide were to show that there was a program on, a series, called The Happy Christian Family? And you read the blurb, and you discover that this program portrays the life of a happily married Christian couple, and their Christian, their fine Christian children. And week by week, the series shows the family living out the Christian life with joy and purpose. So one week, it's a day at the seaside. They're on holiday with the dog at lugs, digging in the beach, and so on. The next week, we see the parents leading a fine Bible study group at their house. The following week shows the children at school, models of good behavior in the classroom, compassionate with the tears and cut knees of other children in the playground. And of course, in the

[2:29] RE class, giving wonderful answers to the teachers' questions about the Bible. Now, which of those two series or types of program would get the better ratings? The Happy Christian Family, or the scenes of murder, mayhem, jealousy, and violence? Let's look at these first ten verses of Titus chapter 2.

[2:52] Now, these ten verses are, if you like, the Bible's version of the Happy Christian Family. This is the godly Christian family of the church, where people relate to each other in the most positive and loving way possible. They're living unselfishly. They're caring for each other. They're teaching each other.

[3:14] They're modeling godliness before the eyes of the world. They're bringing honor to the Bible and the gospel. Now, which would you rather be reading? This passage about the Happy Church Family, or something like David felling Goliath with a slingstone, or Cain rising up in the fields and killing Abel, or David doing the dirty on Uriah the Hittite and stealing his wife, or Ehud sticking his dagger into the belly of King Eglon of Moab? If you think that's a must-be-read before you go to bed tonight, you'll find it in Judges chapter 3. Now, isn't there a strange perversity in us that makes us suspect that teaching about godliness is rather dull, whereas Bible stories about murder, mayhem, adultery, and violence are the bits not to be missed? Isn't it a reminder to us that our minds are still a long way from being renewed? We've got a long way to go before we've learned to love godliness deeply.

[4:21] These first ten verses of Titus chapter 2 hold out to us a way of life not only to be practiced, but also to be loved and delighted in. So before we get into the detail of the verses, let's acknowledge to ourselves that it's our sinfulness that makes us sometimes reluctant to learn the godly life.

[4:43] It's our sinfulness and blindness that makes godliness appear to be rather dull at times. But the truth about it is that if we learn to live in a Titus 2 fashion, we will be deeply happy as well as godly. It's always the devil's lie that sin leads to happiness, whereas godliness leads to dullness and drabness. The truth is exactly the opposite of that. Sin leads to misery and bondage and everything awful, whereas godliness, although it's demanding, is the only route to a life that is full of joy. So to grow in the lifestyle of Titus chapter 2 is to grow in joy and delight and purposeful.

[5:27] The Lord made us for this kind of living. So let's blow a raspberry at the devil when he whispers in our ear that living by Titus chapter 2 will make us very dull jacks and jills.

[5:40] All right, well let's remind ourselves of what this little letter to Titus is all about. Paul, of course, is not writing directly to people like us in 2007 in Britain. He's writing to his friend and colleague Titus in about 50 or 55 AD and the situation, as chapter 1 verse 5 reminds us, is that Paul and Titus have been working together in a mission on the island of Crete and Paul has left Titus on the island to sort out things amongst the young churches and in particular to appoint the right kind of elders or leaders for leadership in these infant fellowships. The quality, of course, of a church will always, humanly speaking, be determined by the quality of its pastors and elders. So Titus has to find the right sort of people to appoint. Now if you look at chapter 1 verse 9, you'll see that the elders appointed by Titus need to be people who are themselves teachers, able teachers. So chapter 1 verse 9, so that they may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke or to refute those who contradict it. So Paul is envisaging two levels of teaching going on in the island's churches.

[6:56] There's to be this ongoing and permanent teaching ministry of the elders once Titus has appointed them in every town. But there is also, in chapter 2 verse 1, Titus' own teaching ministry, which is presumably a more short-term matter. We don't know all the details, but it seems that Titus is just to be there for, it may be, six or twelve months, until such time as each of these young churches has a good team of elders in place who will be able then to get on with the ongoing long-term task of teaching and pastoring the churches. But while Titus is there short-term, his job is not only to appoint suitable elders, but to do plenty of teaching himself. And this is where chapter 2 comes in. And Paul's purpose, surely, in telling Titus to get on with his teaching is not only so that the young Cretan Christians can learn the godly life, but also so that these newly appointed elders can have an excellent teaching ministry modeled for them before their eyes in what Titus is doing. So when Titus received this letter, I'm using a little bit of imagination here, but when

[8:06] Titus received this letter, he might have sent a message to Church A five miles down the road saying, I'm going to come and stay with you for about a fortnight. And while I'm with you, I want to interview personally all your adult men. And having done that, I'm going to select a group of them to serve as your elders. But during the evenings of that fortnight with you, I want to meet with the different groups of Church members as well. I think I'll meet with your older men on Monday nights, the older women on Tuesday nights, and the younger men on Wednesday nights.

[8:40] On Thursday evenings, I'll take the evening off. But Thursdays will be training night for the young women. But I shan't be teaching them myself, that's inappropriate. We'll get the older women to do that.

[8:50] And then on Friday nights, importantly, I want to meet with all the slaves in the congregations, those who've come to the Lord, because I want to teach them how to live the godly life, the Christian life, in relation to their masters. And I want all the newly appointed elders to be present for these teaching evenings, because then they can learn the arts of teaching the scripture by watching me doing it. I can only stay for a couple of weeks, and then I'll be off to Church B on the other side of the island for the next two or three weeks, and then I'll be repeating the process over there.

[9:25] So you can imagine that Titus had a very exciting few months, almost as good as setting up a Cornhill training course. His job, you see, was to identify the teachers and leaders of the future, and then to teach them how to teach. All right, let's turn to the text. First of all, we'll look at verse one again.

[9:45] Secondly, we'll look at the different groups as Titus instructs them, or as Paul instructs Titus how to instruct them. And then thirdly, some final thoughts to try and analyze a bit more of what is going on in the chapter. So verse one, but as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Now last week, we looked at this verse and we noticed that Titus is being instructed to teach what accords with sound doctrine. Yes, he'll be teaching the sound doctrine as well, that goes without saying, but what Paul is emphasizing here is that he is to teach the godly lifestyle which is the fruit of the gospel or the fruit of the sound doctrine. So verses two to ten are not an explanation of the gospel, but rather of the lifestyle which the gospel produces. Now Paul does mention the gospel itself briefly in verses 11 to 14, and again in chapter three, verses four to seven, which we'll look at, God willing, next week. But verses two to ten of chapter two are a description of godly behavior, godly lifestyle, the behavior which accords with sound doctrine. Now let's notice from verse one that this behavior needs to be taught.

[11:06] As for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Now somebody might say, well, when you're born again, you become a believer, the Lord puts his Holy Spirit into you, doesn't he? Transforms you. So why do you then need to be taught if the Holy Spirit is transforming you from within? Well, of course, the Spirit, thank God, does transform us from within. But part of the Holy Spirit's method of transforming us is to instruct us through human Christian instructors. So it isn't either the Holy Spirit or the human instructors, it's both together. The godly lifestyle needs to be taught, and this is a long-term course of instruction that we need. Now a number of you here are young Christians, you've perhaps been a believer for maybe only a year or two or three. Now look around the congregation, because you will see here quite a lot of people who've been believers for 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 years. Now do those people who have been Christians a longer time, do they still need to be instructed in godly living? The answer is yes, they do. They may have moved out of class one, they may have graduated from that and gone into class two or class three, but they certainly have not graduated from the school of godly living, and they never will this side of the grave.

[12:28] This is one of the many delights of being a Christian in later life. That is that you're still learning as the years tick on. And learning the godly life continues to be a joy. You don't just lose your appetite for it. When you're a younger Christian, you might think these older people, surely they get a bit set like a bowl of porridge. But it isn't like that. We don't have to lose our appetite for it at the age of 50 or 60. There are many things by that stage that we will have had to give up, like rugby and extreme rock climbing. But you never have to give up learning extreme godly living. Now look at that fifth word in verse 1. Teach. Not all Christians, of course, are called to be teachers, but all of us are called to listen to teaching and to be learners. And at the heart of any church that is worth its salt, there will be serious, ongoing, week in, week out, year in, year out teaching, both of the sound doctrine itself, the gospel, and also of the lifestyle that it produces.

[13:34] And we teach from the Bible. Many of those here who are younger people will, in the nature of things, have to move away from Glasgow at some future point. Your work will take you to Penzance or Edinburgh or Timbuktu. You'll have to move away to some different city. And when you arrive at some new place, you will look for a church to join. And let me say this. One of the big things to look for is to ask the question, is this church serious about its teaching? Does it teach the Bible? Does it teach the gospel? And does it teach the lifestyle that accords with the gospel, the Christian ethics, which are the fruit of the gospel? If the church you're looking at is not a Bible teaching, gospel teaching, Christian ethics teaching church, look for another one that is a Bible teaching church. This teaching that Paul sets out in his letters is for all Christians in every generation. The teaching church is the apostolic style church. It's the genuine New Testament church. All right, let's look now at the meat of this ethical teaching that Titus is to pass on to the different groups. There are six categories of people here in the churches that Titus is to have in mind. And Paul gives instructions for each category. Now, the very fact that he categorizes into six groups is a healthy reminder that we aren't all the same. There's a great deal in ethical teaching which is going to apply to all Christians across the board, but certain things apply to certain groups. So, first of all, older men. Verse 2,

[15:15] Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Now, who are the older men? Well, roughly speaking, they are, we are, the over 40s. So, you may be an energetic 42-year-old who still fancies himself as a footballer, but believe me, brother, you are like the Stilton cheese. You are maturing rapidly. In the ancient world, certainly in Greek culture and Roman culture, you were considered to be a juvenis, a young man, until the age of 40. But at 40, you had to wake up and take the strain. So, Titus's Monday night class, his first concern is to be the mature men of the church. Now, that is worth pondering in itself, because we can assume that the greybeards of the church are somehow okay, that they are beyond the need for instruction, that they have graduated from Bible school. Well, Paul certainly does not think of us old fellows that way. What does he emphasize in verse 2? Perhaps verse 2 could be summed up in the two words, dignity and maturity. Sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled. So, what he's implying is that the older men of the church need to have a rock-like steadiness about them. Verse 2 curbs the older men when we're tempted to be flamboyant or wild or to show off. Older Christian men need to be a bit like pillars. They can be relied upon, lent on and trusted. In a sense, humanly, they support the church. When they die, they're very much missed.

[17:03] Because they've given so much love and good advice to younger Christians. And notice the last part of verse 2. It's almost faith, love and hope, Paul's trinity of virtues. It's actually soundness in faith and love and steadfastness, but it's still the Christian hope that lies behind that quality of steadfastness, because it's the sure promise of the new creation which strengthens a person to keep enduring the buffetings of life. Just let me throw in a little PS here on the older men.

[17:38] One of the early church fathers, John Chrysostom, says this in a sermon on this particular verse. There are some failings which age has that youth has not. For example, a slowness, a timidity, a forgetfulness, an insensibility. I think that means when you just fall asleep and you don't pay attention. And an irritability. Don't you like that? Well, my older brothers, including myself, if the cap fits, we must wear it. But let's ask ourselves how our lives match up to verse 2.

[18:15] Because to some degree, the health of any church depends upon the dignity and the maturity of its older men. Now, older women. Sister, you may be sparkling, energetic, vivacious and a mere 41.

[18:32] But I can see a grey hair, even from here. So don't kid yourself. Verses 3 to 5 are for you.

[18:43] So verse 3, older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behaviour. Likewise means similar to the older men. And reverence in behaviour suggests a consciousness of the Lord's presence somehow in every activity.

[18:58] So whatever you're doing at home, at work, even waiting for a bus in the street, you're conscious that you're living life out in relation to the Lord who sees everything. Now, having said that, Paul introduces a rather sharp note. Not slanderers or slaves to much wine. Now, is he suggesting that those two failings are failings to which older women are particularly prone?

[19:24] Well, he probably is. Otherwise, why should he mention them in this section on older women? Possibly what Paul has in mind is this. The younger woman, the younger married woman he'd be thinking of, will have a string of children to run around after. And between the ages of approximately 20 and 40, she's washing clothes, she's cooking meals, she's darning socks, she's cleaning the house, she's up to her eyes in very hard work. But then the children grow up and leave the nest. And for the first time in, you might say, 20 years, she's got a little bit of time on her hands. And if she's feeling rather jaded and worn out and grumpy after all those years of hard work, she could be in danger of getting together with her peers and speaking badly of others. And indeed, the group of them together could prop themselves up with too many glasses of Chardonnay. The danger is that she gets browned off and fed up and runs to seed. So in the next two verses, Paul gives her the positive antidote to these dangers, namely that she should exercise her proper ministry. And that is a ministry of teaching and training the young women. Now I mentioned the different classes that Titus might have in the week. This class for younger women probably is something very informal that Paul has in mind. Not so much sitting them down for an hour on a Thursday night, but a much more informal kind of training. So to put this in very practical terms, if you're a woman, Christian woman of 40 or more, and you're wondering what your role in serving the Lord and serving the church should be, well there it is, laid out for you very clearly by Paul the Apostle from the end of verse 3 to the end of verse 5. It is a wonderful role. And the role is that of training the younger women of the church in the basic skills of marriage and motherhood. Now Paul is not teaching that women older or younger should not go out to work. Paul would have known his Proverbs 31 very well, which portrays the ideal godly wife. And she's certainly a woman who goes out to work as well as being busy at home.

[21:43] She's a businesswoman as well as a homemaker. So there's nothing inappropriate about a Christian woman today going out to work. But at the heart of verses 3 to 5 is Paul's conviction that marriage and family life are the fundamental and irreducible building block of human society.

[22:04] Any society therefore which undermines marriage and the painstaking care of children by their parents is a society storing up disaster for itself. And Paul is teaching us that Christian women of 40 and over have a major task and role in training the young women. Now if you're a girl or young woman and you're not yet married but think that you might be one day, just look at verse 4 and ask yourself what it's saying about you. Do you see what it's saying? It's saying that you are an ignoramus when it comes to husbands and children. It's worth putting it like that, isn't it?

[22:53] It's saying that you don't know, that's what ignoramus means, you don't know how to love a husband and to rear children in a loving way. Now that might be a surprise to you because you might imagine that when you get married you will automatically know how to love your husband.

[23:09] The thing is that when you do get married you will discover that you have married a man who is a rather different kind of being from yourself, really quite different in some ways.

[23:22] For example, you've been married a month or two, you're 20, 21, 22, whatever, you've just been married a very short time, he'll come to you one day with a big smile on his face and he'll say guess what sweetheart, I've organised a great treat for us for Saturday, two tickets for Glasgow Rangers.

[23:37] And you'll think to yourself, I don't even want to go and see Partick Thistle. But off you go dutifully to Ibrox Park, you shiver your way through the afternoon getting colder and colder all the time thinking, if only he'd taken me to the ballet or to one of those lovely little restaurants in Bath Street.

[23:56] And when you've been married for a few months, you'll be pondering these things, and by that stage a few other things as well, and one day as you sit in your kitchen feeling a bit like a prune, there's a knock on your door, and who is it but your lovely, beaming Aunty Rachel, keen Christian, mother of seven, married for 25 years.

[24:19] Hello sweetheart, she says, you're looking a bit like a prune. How's married life? Oh, Aunty Rachel, well, it's okay, I suppose it's alright really.

[24:34] Listen, we'll put the kettle on, we'll sit down, and we'll have a talk. And as they talk, and here's the informal training taking place, Aunty Rachel, as verse 4 puts it, trains her 22-year-old niece in how to love her husband, and also in how to care for her children when they start coming along.

[24:54] And other things too, verse 5, she trains her in how to be self-controlled, and pure, and working at home, kind, and submissive to her own husband, that the word of God be not reviled.

[25:09] And over the next few years, Aunty Rachel and her niece have many similar talks, and Aunty Rachel fulfills her precious, God-given ministry.

[25:22] And as she and the other older Christian women do that, these Christian women are not only giving invaluable help to their younger women friends, they are also immeasurably strengthening the very fabric of the church and its future.

[25:37] And the consequence? End of verse 5. The word of God, the gospel, far from being reviled, is honoured. Because people see these young Christian women living such full and happy and attractive lives.

[25:54] Now your neighbours know what goes on in your family life, don't they? And when the neighbours can see a young Christian family living life with joy and love and fun and good order prevailing, they begin to ask whether there might not be something in this Christianity after all.

[26:12] You see, Paul's concern at the end of verse 5 is not only for the families themselves, but for the reputation and honour of the word of God. Alright, we'll move a little bit more quickly now.

[26:25] Younger men, verse 6. You'll see that Paul mentions one thing only. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. But that one thing covers just about all the temptations to which young men are particularly prone.

[26:41] The temptations relating to food, drink, sex, vanity, speed limits, work and leisure, relating to your parents and other tricky individuals, etc., etc.

[26:54] In fact, if you're male and under 40, why not stick a sticker on the mirror in your bathroom, just over the basin, because you'll be tempted to look into that mirror more than the over 40s are.

[27:08] And on the sticker, why don't you write, self-control accords with sound doctrine. You'll see it every day then. It's the one thing that Paul mentions.

[27:21] Now verses 7 and 8. These are written to Titus himself about his own lifestyle. And in the first instance after Titus, they apply particularly, I think, to Christian ministers and Bible teachers.

[27:34] And in Paul's mind, as he expresses it here, the Christian minister, like Titus, has two areas of responsibility uppermost, his conduct and his teaching.

[27:46] How is it expressed here? Show yourself in all respects to be, here's the conduct, a model of good works, and in your teaching, show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned.

[27:58] And that's exactly the same as the ideas that Paul put before Timothy, in 1 Timothy 4.16, where he says to Timothy, watch your life and doctrine closely, your conduct and your teaching.

[28:11] The same thing here to Titus. His life needs to be a model of good works, an example for other men to follow, and his teaching needs to be characterized by integrity and dignity, and a soundness of speech that makes it impossible for an enemy of the gospel to speak evil of it.

[28:29] Notice that when Paul talks briefly here about teaching and preaching, teaching particularly, Paul says nothing about brilliance or sparkle or oratorical fireworks in Titus' teaching.

[28:42] Integrity and dignity are far more important than brilliance. And then verses 9 to 10. Slaves are the last but not least in Paul's list.

[28:55] Slavery, of course, was widespread in the ancient world. It was an important part of what made the Roman Empire workable. And many of the early Christians would have been slaves. Paul's concern here is not to argue for or against slavery as an institution.

[29:12] His purpose is to teach slaves who were Christians how to live Christianly despite the frustrations and limitations of their situation. And I think there's an obvious application to all of us who are employees.

[29:25] Look at the temptations sketched by Paul in verses 9 and 10. The slave then and the employee now will be tempted not to submit to those who are set over them, to talk back at the employer, to be resentful, to be unwilling to please, perhaps even, as verse 10 puts it, to pilfer, in other words, to pinch things from work.

[29:49] Heather, says Mavis, at 12.30pm, where Mavis is the boss and Heather is the employee. Heather, be a dear and slip out for me and get a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.

[30:03] I'm so busy at present I just can't leave my desk. I haven't a moment. Go out and get you a sandwich. Am I paid to do that? All right then, just this once.

[30:14] Now, that is not the behaviour, according to verse 10, that adorns the doctrine of God our Saviour. No, behaviour that adorns the Gospel, which shows up its beauty, is behaviour in which the employee submissively, gladly and willingly hastens to the sandwich bar, does whatever the employer asks, even if it's something beyond the contract.

[30:40] Well, I'd like now, just in a final few minutes, to summarise with a few brief observations about what is going on here in Titus chapter 2, especially in this section of verses 2 to 10.

[30:54] First, let's notice that this holy and godly lifestyle is in every respect relational. In other words, it's all to do with the way in which we maintain our relationships with other people.

[31:11] We're quite wrong if we ever think that we can live godly lives by withdrawing from society and withdrawing from other people. Everything here in verses 2 to 10 is about Christians regularly interacting with other people.

[31:26] So it's all to do with the way in which we get on with other people. So when we hear people, Christian people, speaking enthusiastically, as they sometimes will, about the holy joys of retreating from the world in some way, we need to resist them politely and perhaps open up Titus chapter 2 with them.

[31:45] Now, I'm not saying that we should never retreat from the hustle and bustle. After all, we all need a holiday and a break from time to time to recharge our batteries. I'm looking forward very much to holing up for a fortnight in August on a tiny Hebridean island so as to contemplate the full range of the glories of Scottish summer weather.

[32:03] But holy living, friends, holy living is not what we do in retreat. It's what goes on in Glasgow. It's what goes on in the midst of work and evangelism and the busyness of church life and the pressures generated by people coming and going all the time.

[32:20] That's what Paul is engaging with in verses 2 to 10. Godly living is always about the quality of our relationships. The outworking of the gospel is seen in the way we treat our friends, our colleagues at work, our employers, our spouses and children, our fellow Christians.

[32:41] Holiness is relational. Secondly, at the heart of holiness, you've probably noticed this as we've gone through the passage, at the heart of holiness is the principle of self-control.

[32:55] It's striking, I think, to see just how often self-control is mentioned here. Look with me at chapter 2, verse 2. The older men are to be self-controlled.

[33:08] Verse 5. The younger women are to be trained to be self-controlled by the older women. Verse 6. The younger men are to be self-controlled.

[33:20] Verse 12. God's grace trains us to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives. And not surprisingly, if you look back to chapter 1, verse 8, the good church elder is also to be self-controlled.

[33:37] So in the New Testament, we are taught to humble ourselves, to deny ourselves, and to control ourselves. The self is rather like an aggressive Rottweiler, always straining at the leash, slavering at the jaws, threatening to break out and run amok.

[33:58] Now, in this matter of self-control, who controls this self which is constantly threatening to cause mayhem? Is it the Lord who controls the self?

[34:09] Or is it you and I? Well, at one level, yes, it is indeed the Lord. He is our king. And as we grow in the Christian life, he is patiently and lovingly training us and controlling us and curbing the impulses of our self.

[34:26] But really what Paul is talking about here is the control that you and I have to exert as we take responsibility for our self. We have to train the self as we would train a Rottweiler.

[34:38] We have to curb it and discipline it and redirect its energies. So there is a good example here of the older women. The older Christian woman takes the self and she says to it, it's quite good to address yourself sometimes, the older woman says to herself, self, don't you dissipate your energies in speaking badly of other people and drinking too much, but rather redirect your energies into caring for and training the younger women.

[35:07] So the self is being controlled. It's being lifted out of damaging activities and redirected into gloriously positive work. So Paul is teaching us that self-control will always be right at the heart of godly living.

[35:25] Let's therefore pray for it and strive after it. In fact, why not turn to the person sitting next to you at the very end of the service in five minutes' time and ask him or her if their self-control is stronger now than it was twelve months ago.

[35:42] You might have a very interesting conversation for a few minutes. Alright, a final brief point. Paul the Apostle is never a mere moralist.

[35:57] He never wags his finger at us and says, now you behave or else. It isn't like that. In Paul's teaching, godly living is always carried on because of the Gospel and in response to the Gospel.

[36:12] And this passage demonstrates that fact beautifully. Between verses two and ten, we have a series of imperatives, commands. The older men are to live like this, the older women to live like that and so on.

[36:25] Why? In order to earn God's favour? No. Rather, because God has already shown his favour.

[36:37] You see, verse eleven explains verses two to ten. why live this way? Why live godly and self-controlled lives? Because the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation.

[36:49] That's why. So godly behaviour, behaviour that accords with the Gospel, is practised by Christians not in order to earn our salvation, but because our salvation has already been revealed in the first coming of Christ.

[37:05] Christ. This means that godly living is not a dogged, anxiety-ridden labour characterised by fear lest perhaps we don't make the grade in the end.

[37:18] Not at all. Godly living is a lovely, wholesome way of life which honours God and his word and blesses other people because holiness is always relational.

[37:30] And at the end of each day, when we get to the end of each day of our lives, the Christian who lives this way of life in response to God's grace puts his head on the pillow not with a furrowed anxious brow, anxious lest God reject him, but with a heart full of peace and joy because, verse 11, the grace of God bringing salvation has already appeared.