I was sound asleep in that deep sleep of the early morning. It was five o'clock. And someone put a hand on my shoulder and shook me gently, and I opened my eyes. And there was the most beautiful face in the world looking down, and Grace said, Jim, get up. Instinctively, I thought there's a robber in the house, something's happened. And she said, no, no, but get up. Well, I'm very obedient, and I got up that morning wondering why in all the world, when it was still dark, Grace was asking me to get up, and she took me by the hand. I was still half asleep. Led me out onto the gallery or the porch of our second-story apartment. We live right on the beach on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, and we look over the Atlantic Ocean. And as we moved out onto the porch, you could see already the beginning of those beautiful colors just before the sun comes up. And I was still wondering why I had been called out of bed to stand on the porch. And Gray said, you'll see. And all of a sudden, of course, I saw there was that great ball of fire we call the sun. It appeared. on the horizon of the Atlantic Ocean. And it rose that day and it filled a new day with vivid colors, with life, with hope, with joy. And we just stood there, no conversation. And we watched that beautiful sun coming up in the tropics and filling a new day with vitality and hope. Now we're talking about the grace of God. And Paul tells us in Titus chapter two, let's go back again to our chapter, Titus chapter two. And down in verse eleven, Paul has taken us to the experience of conversion. And he says in Titus chapter two in verse thirteen, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. We talked about that yesterday. I like to think of it in that conversion experience when the grace of God touches us for the first time and we are brought face to face with the reality of Jesus Christ and we make our commitment to Him. Paul is talking about that. It brings salvation. help, new order into our shattered lives. It turns us around and starts moving in the right direction. But when the conversion experience is over, the grace of God does not leave us. It becomes a teacher. And the following verse reads as follows, verse twelve, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust we should live soberly,righteously, and godly in this present age. Some of us here this morning have sat now for many years under the teaching of the grace of God. It brings us to God. It fills us with new life and salvation and then it stays with us for the long course of our Christian life. And day by day, the grace of God is teaching us. This verse deals with the basic lessons that the grace of God teaches us. But before we enter into that aspect of the subject, let me take a moment and raise the question, how does the grace of God teach us? I know that we probably, all of us, will immediately respond, well, through the Word of God. And that, of course, is absolutely true. But it is also true that the grace of God usually teaches us by those who surround us. Our brothers and sisters in the Lord, the elders of our local congregation, the Sunday school teachers, the Bible conference teachers, those who write and we read their books, and we find that the grace of God employs human instruments to teach us the things of God. You'll find that all through your life. And sometimes you yourself, you will be a teacher, you might not even be aware of who the students are, or how you are teaching them. But all of us who belong to the Christian community by example and often by words, we are instruments in the hands of the grace of God. We are teaching others. Grace and I were invited to a meeting in Santo Domingo some time ago. and I was to give the message at the Bible hour. We arrived early to share in the communion service, and then when it was over, and the moment came for the Bible hour, a young man that morning was the chairman, handsome young man. And after they sang one or two hymns and made the announcements and led the congregation in prayer, this young man introduced me, and he said, probably Mr. Cochrane doesn't know. that not many years ago he spoke to the boys and girls and the young people in a daily vacation Bible school in the city of Porta Plata, and I was there. And he spoke that morning very carefully and clearly about the gospel of the Lord Jesus, and that day I made a commitment to the Lord Jesus. Well, he was right. I didn't know a thing about that. But then he said, And his wife is with us this morning. And it wasn't long after I became a Christian that the ladies in the main assembly in Porta Plata convened a conference. And they invited Grace to be the speaker. And the subject was Christian marriage. This was the message Grace prepared for the ladies who would be present at the conference. But there was going to be refreshments after the conference. And the ladies in their planning knew they would have the table set up in another room adjoining the main auditorium. They would even have the sandwiches and the napkins and everything ready so that when the service was over, the ladies could move in and have their refreshments. But all the ladies wanted to be present in the meeting. And in the tropics, our buildings are all open, and this room was right on the street. And they needed someone to look after that room while all the ladies were in the meeting. And so one lady said to this new convert attending the church, would you like to do something for us on the morning of the conference? Oh, he said, I'd be very happy to do that. Well, they said, we'd like you to come and sit in the door of that open room where all the refreshments will be set out and just watch over that until after the meeting is over. He said, I'll be glad to do that. And he went that day and he sat in that door, which also was right beside the door of the main auditorium. And with his eye on the door where the refreshments were, for about forty-five minutes he listened to Grace speaking about what Christian marriage is all about. And he said that morning from my background, where I came from, that was the first time that I ever heard what a marriage ought to be. And since then, he had met a young woman, and they were married. Grace had no idea. She was speaking to the lady. She didn't know about a young man just around the corner. And that day, the grace of God, through grace, taught a young man the basic elements of a Christian marriage. God works through individuals. And the grace of God, through us, moves out and teaches others. Some of the illustrations that come to mind, I finished a service once in Porta Plata in that main assembly, which is quite large, and I was at the door greeting some of the friends, and the man who was one of the first converts in the city of Santiago, where the Carters worked for so many years, and shortly after his conversion came to your country and lived his whole working life in New York City, When he retired, he went back to the Dominican Republic and chose the city of Porta Plata, where he would live. He was a good man, and I got to know him well. And that morning he came out with a very serious face. And he came over to me and he said, we're going to change Bibles this morning. Well, I looked down at mine. I don't really have a favorite Bible. I use whatever's available, but this man took this Bible right out of my hand. And I was sure that was the Bible I'd used that morning. And then he put into my hands what turned out to be his Bible. I knew it wasn't the Bible I'd used. He said, I'm taking your Bible home this week. And I'm going to read it every day to see if I can find some of these beautiful things that you taught us this morning. Well, he may have had the idea that I sat down just with my Bible during the week. and had come up with that message. I really should have invited him into my home where I have my library. And often Grace comes and looks at my desk and she just shakes her head. There are the translations, the word dictionaries, the ordinary dictionaries, good commentaries by contemporary scholars of the Word of God. Sometimes it's like a mountain. I know everything that's there and why it's there. And as I sit in my study, I am gleaning from others, and I receive what they have taught through their writings, and then I turn around and pass on in my own way and style what I have received. In other words, even there you have the human element. The people that God uses, He has gifted them, and they teach us, and we in turn teach others. So the human instrument is very important in the teaching of the grace of God to the Christian community. Two illustrations from the scriptures where I think you can see the importance of this. The Lord Jesus chose twelve men. The evangelist says to be with him. Now I know they were to be his messengers. I know they were to take his teachings and pass them on to others. But there is the basic meaning. He chose twelve to be with him. They would be his companions. On one occasion he even said to them, I'm not going to call you my servants, you are my friends. and friends support each other. They help each other. And when you think of the Lord Jesus, you might sometimes think, well, he's on a different level. He needed no help or support from those that surrounded him. But move into Gethsemane on the eve of his death. And he goes with his friends, his companions. And then he turns and he says to James, and to Peter and John, I want you. These are His closest friends. I want you to come with me. We're going to go a little farther in amongst those great olive trees. And then when they went farther, they said, Now, I want you to stay here, and I want you to watch and to pray. You can sense in the Lord Jesus. He needed them. He wanted them. They were His friends, His companions. They were to stand around him and to support him in that moment of crisis. But as you know, the emotions of that day, the physical exhaustion that came with the emotions, these men collapsed and they went to sleep. And then you find that one of the evangelists mentions when his companions failed, then God sent an angel who strengthened the Lord Jesus. But the impression given is his friends should have been there, to minister to him, to support him when they failed because of human weakness and limitation. Then God acted in a supernatural way and an angel appeared and strengthened the Lord Jesus. Or you can take the Apostle Paul. He says, on my first defense in Rome, everyone ran away and left me alone. They should have been there to stand with Paul, to minister to him, to encourage him, but they all ran away and left him alone. But Paul said, but the Lord stood with me. And in some way, when his companions failed, the Lord himself came and stood with the Apostle Paul. but the Lord usually ministers to us by those who surround us. And the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared in our lives stays with us to teach us. And the two basic messages that the grace of God wants to teach us, sometimes directly from the Word of God, more often through those who surround us and minister the Word of God to us, are two elemental lessons. They should be easy to learn. The first one is to learn how to say no. And the second lesson is to learn how to say yes. You know, most of us are grandparents here this morning. We live so far away from our grandchildren, but at this stage of our life we try at least once a year or once every eighteen months to spend a month or two with our children and our grandchildren. So when we do that, sometimes we arrive, as we did not too long ago, when a grandson who bears my name, J.R. Cochran, this time the third, he's around two years of age, he's beginning to talk and I'm teaching him words. I want him to learn certain ideas and words, not just to repeat them, but to understand them. And sometimes it take a long time. And then you think the child is learning, so I'll call great, listen now. And I say to my grandson, say it again, and he comes out with something. Grace says, Jim, you've got a great imagination. But what you're really trying to do is teach some words, some thoughts to your grandchildren. The grace of God comes, it lingers with us, it teaches us, first of all, to say, no. The verse says, the grace of God teaching us that denying, that's the no. No Christian will ever progress in the Christian experience until he learns there are certain things in life that are wrong. And you have to learn to say no. You know, it's somewhat of a shock. Most of us may not look very favorably on the Roman Catholic Church and perhaps less favorably on the Pope. But you probably know that last year, John Paul prepared a great document that has circulated now widely in many languages around the world. You may not agree with the Catholic Church. You may not agree with the position of the Pope. But when you listen to what he says on some fundamental issues, you have to add a quiet amen. There are some things that are wrong. They are always wrong. You can't turn them around and make them right. They are wrong. And the grace of God teaches us to learn to say, no, you deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. That is, there is a pattern of life that surrounds us. It doesn't make any difference if it's the Episcopal bishop in the city of Newark, New Jersey, that tells you there's nothing wrong with homosexuality. I have in my church today ordained certain deacons and bishops who are homosexuals, and I love them, and they are outstanding Christians. Or it doesn't matter whether it comes from a secular author who promotes that lifestyle. when you come to the Bible there are certain things that are wrong and you cannot make them right you learn to say no it's a very delicate issue and it's outside of the scope of our message this morning but you weep and you love and you care for those who may be lost in that world that is contrary to the will of God after all when that woman appeared in the house of Simon and stood at the feet of Jesus and wept and then anointed his feet and nobody in that house had any time for that woman. She had spoiled an otherwise very pleasant formal dining experience. Jesus had time for her. He did not agree with her pattern of life, but he loved her. He had time for her. He spoke to her, and as a result, she was turned around, and she left that place, a new person, to serve the living and true gun. There are things that are wrong. You live in the city of Ephesus. Two thousand years ago, you are a slave. Ephesus is the capital of the Roman province of Asia. It's one of the great cities of the world. If you ever travel to the Middle East, don't miss the city of Ephesus. The ruins today are majestic. I've walked that marble avenue. I've looked at the ruins of the old library, the theater. the different buildings still. You can see the outline, the marketplace. This was one of the great cities of the world, one of only three cities that on the main street had light at night in that ancient world. This is a great city. The Temple of Diana is one of the marvels and wonders of the world. People traveled. from long distances just to see it. And then they would buy a silver miniature model of the temple and take it home. And they would say to their friends, it's like this, but it's so big, so wonderful. That whole city existed because of slavery. There probably were more slaves than free people. You are a slave, and you live your life. You don't own anything. It's against the law for you to own anything. Anything that comes into your possession belongs to your master. And how do you sweeten your life? You steal. You don't steal anything big. You stole anything big and they caught you. That's the end. You just steal little things. When the lady's not looking at the house, you take a little bit extra food. When the man is not looking, you take a little bit of wine. You just pick up little, your whole life you're stealing all the time, little things to sweeten your position as a slave. And then one day you heard Priscilla and Aquila. And along with them was Paul and then Apollos. And they're talking about Jesus Christ. You'd never heard a message like this in your life. And you turned to the Lord and you were gloriously converted. but you're still a slave and you still work in the house of your master and you've done it all your life and you keep doing it a little bit more food and a little bit more wine you're stealing every day just little things Paul knows all about it so he writes the letter to the church in Ephesus and he says let those who stole steal no more Stealing is wrong. It doesn't matter how you do it. It doesn't matter the amount you steal. It is something that is wrong. And as a Christian, you learn to say no to ungodliness, the pattern of the world. And you learn to say no to these lusts that come because of the world. You live in Corinth. Corinth is one of the great cities also. of that age, but great particularly because of its wickedness. It's not really a port city, it's a port city. It's the city between two ports. And the ships would come and on one sea they would unload their cargo and it was carried across that little part of the land. The ship itself, if it wasn't too big, was dragged across the land to the other port in the Aegean Sea. And then they reloaded the cargo and the way you went. It was a city for sailors, for businessmen, for commerce, and it was a wicked city, especially in the sexual sense. You were born and brought up there. You're married and you have your children, but when you finish your work at night and you go back towards your home, Sometimes you decide, well, I'll just have a few moments of relaxation, and you go into one of the temples, and you spend some time with one of the temple prostitutes. Everybody did it. And then you go home to your wife and your family. And then one day along came this man called Paul, standing on a street corner, or somewhere he began to preach the gospel, and you heard it. And again, you heard this message in such a powerful way. You turned to Christ. You received Him. You were born again, but you still live in Corinth. And so one day, after you're working, you've had a hard day, and you're on your way home. The most natural thing in the world is just to slip again into that temple, meet with one of the prostitutes, spend your half hour, and then go home. That's why Paul writes in his letter, anyone who joins his body to the body of a prostitute, how can that person understand and really believe that he's now a part of Christ? There are some things that are wrong, and you learn to say no to worldly lust and to ungodliness. I don't want to press that point this morning because you come to the second part and that's the yes and that's the part that has to be emphasized. You won't find a yes in the verse but you will find this as you go into that portion down in verse twelve teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust we should live. That's the yes. And perhaps one of the greatest tragedies in our Christian history is that so often we've given the impression you become a Christian, well, you're going to live a convent type of life. And if you're a young maiden, you put on a chastity belt. Or if you're a man, you go into a monastery and you live a type of life that is so contrary to to the ordinary life. But the grace of God comes into the life of a Christian and teaches that Christian to say yes to life, to all of life, in the way God wants it to be lived, and He wants you to enjoy that life and to live it to the full and for the glory of God. The limitations are very simple. You live life according to the will of God. Your sexual life, your business life, your recreational life, your family life. You live and you live to the fullest. But you live according to the Word of God. Most of us here this morning with gray hair, we know that we have no assurance of what is going to happen tomorrow. And so Grace and I a long time ago made the decision, we're going to live each day to the fullest. We're going to do all that we can in the service of God. We're going to take time now and then to enjoy each other. There's going to be time for some recreation. We're going to live, live fully for God in all the aspects of our life. This is the Christian message. that we are to live and say yes to life. And it's the message that we must communicate today to our young people. To be a Christian does not mean that you do not live to the full. You live according to the Word of God. And most of us here today know from experience there is no greater life, no more beautiful life, no greater joy than to live. according to the will of God. And now the apostle is going to break it down into three aspects. The first word in our King James Version, I think is unfortunate. It says that we should live soberly. You're going to have a hard time with young people today if you want to project the positive aspect of our Christian life and the first thing you say to them is you must live soberly. Sometimes we think of these words as we understand them today and we miss what they meant so long ago. With all due respect, most of you are still reading a version that was written in the language of the age of Queen Elizabeth I. And words have changed in their meaning down through the centuries. Soberly does not reflect today the original meaning. of the word that stands behind it. That's why some of the translations use the word self-control. Now that is a good word. We've just come through the Winter Olympics. Grace and I had one or two opportunity to see some of those young people. And I think of all the self-control down through long years that led them eventually to that place where on the world stage they went through their particular sport and received the applause of the world. That did not come easily. It has nothing to do with Christianity. There are young men and women in the world today that know the importance of self-control, of discipline. In this particular verse, I'm sure Paul uses the term in the inward sense. That's why I would even maybe suggest to you better still than self-control is the word orderly. Some of you folks will remember G. H. Lang. I never knew him. He was one of the Bible teachers in England a long time ago, a little controversial in some aspects of prophecy, but he was a good man and a holy man. He was the man who wrote his autobiography well on in years, and he entitled the book, An Ordered Life. Beautiful title. Life can only be orderly if we are inwardly orderly. That is, our life inwardly is being lived according to the Word of God. You'll find in First Thessalonians chapter four that Paul talks about it. We so often spiritualize these things. He says, now I want you to develop in sanctification, not in fornication. And you wonder, how do you relate these two terms? We all take sanctification. in that spiritual sense of growing more and more in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. How do you link that to fornication which we know is wrong? Because Paul is not thinking in spiritual terms. He's thinking about sexual activity. That's sanctification in that context, a proper ordered life sexually, not the disorder that belongs to the non-Christian. That happens when you are ordered inwardly according to the will of God. So Paul is saying, I want you to live. I want you to live to the full. But I want you to live beginning with a life that is ensuing with the will of God. And then he says, and righteously, that's outwardly. The ladies will be kind with me this morning. This could be a group of men. But you know that Mary heard from Susan that Janet said that Florence did. And then you find out a week later that Florence did nothing of the kind. And also that the second person exaggerated. And that spread all through the community. That is not living righteously. When you live like that, you are hurting people. It borders sometimes on character assassination. When you spread things about others that are not true. When you live for God, Ephesians four, your conversation is going to be spiced with grace. It's going to be a conversation that builds up other people. It's not a conversation that detracts from or destroys the lives of others. You live justly, righteously as you project yourself out to the community round about you. And then finally, the apostle says, and godly. And that, of course, is looking upward into the presence of God. I don't know how you maintain your life as a Christian, but Grace and I, like probably many of you, we try each day to have a moment with God. we're not thinking about messages we read the scriptures we comment sometimes grace teaches me sometimes I share with her a comment we explore the word of God together and then we spend the time in prayer this is our personal married experience of maintaining a good relationship with God for we are to live how self-controlled lives, orderly lives, inwardly, righteous lives, outwardly, and lives that are ensuing with God day by day. And as we close, listen to the last phrase, in this present age. That is a very solemn word. You're not in a convent, you're not in a monastery. Those of us who are here as visitors, we leave on Saturday, And I begin a ministry in Georgia on Sunday. You're going to be here for a few weeks, and then you're going back to the plains of Manitoba, or to the province of Ontario, or to Minneapolis, or Chicago, or some other great city of your nation. You're going to go back to the real world. And it's in that world, this present world, that you are to show what life in Christ is really like. and the Spirit of God. He wants to teach you that. I wonder if you're seated here this morning and you're saying to yourself, Jim, that's a great message, but that's for young people. Oh, no. Oh, no. Those of us who are mature, we need refresher courses. How many older people sometimes forget to say no, and they spoil a whole lifetime? of testimony for the Lord Jesus. How often as we grow older, our world becomes smaller. We live in a more confined way. And because through health or other reasons, we are limited like that, we would like to make sure that everybody else lives in the same way. Instead of remembering that the Bible teaches us to live fully according to the Word of God, take your hymn book now as we close on We'll sing a verse or two of four hundred and forty-five. May the mind of Christ, my Savior, live in me from day to day by his love and power controlling all I do and save. We're going to sit quietly and we will sing this morning the second, the third, and the last verses of four hundred and forty-five. Worse two? May the word of God dwell richly in my martyrs, our true power, so that all may see our triumph through his power. May the people of God my Father rule my life in every way, that I may be called to comfort, sit and follow me. Verse six. And now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you,