Two weeks in Titus, part two. If you got a copy of the scriptures with you, go ahead and turn to Titus. My name is Jacob. I'm associate pastor here. I'll be preaching this morning.
Trevor will be back in the pulpit next week, definitely. Go ahead and look this up. The screens are blinking this morning, if you haven't noticed. So they're going to blink again during the sermon. Just take it as a note of God saying, hey, pay attention.
Draw your attention back up here. I was thinking about having you guys say amen when it blinked, but it might not be at the best time, so don't say amen when it blinks. I'll know it blinks. Just know that it will probably blink again. Trevor will be starting a series next week in acts.
So he'll be teaching through. He'll start at acts seven, and then he'll go eight and nine over the next three weeks. So if you want to get ahead a little bit, get an idea of where we're going the next couple weeks, go ahead and read the book of acts a couple times, especially acts seven, eight and nine. And so you can come prepared for those sermons coming up. So I've been married for 20 years.
Shout out to my wife putting up with me. She usually tries to get us to watch our anniversary video on our anniversary, but it's on VHS, so it is proving more and more difficult as we go through this. Don McKenzie actually shot the video for us, so it's entertaining. The only blooper I really like wedding bloopers. And the only blooper in my wedding that I can remember is the baby face that I had.
I looked just like my son, who was, you can look at old pictures and I looked just like him. And then I couldn't grow a beard. Now, now I can grow a beard. So blooper over. I did it.
Now, usually if you're ever looking, it used to be what? America's funniest home videos with Bob. Right. Kids don't know that now. That's how we used to have to watch what you call now reels.
We'd have to wait one time a week to watch these videos. And the wedding bloopers were always my favorite because they typically had something to do with the best man. The best man in a wedding is the absolute best man the groom can think up. And I don't know why the bride thinks this is a good idea to task the future groom with finding the best person that he can come up with, because usually it's the old buddy from college or something like that. There is an entertainment factor that typically happens when that takes place.
I want to tell you a story about a young couple who were getting. Who was going to get married. The ceremony was here, the big day. It's a big occasion. The bride was nervous.
She wanted everything to go perfectly. And so the preacher kind of sensed that, oh, man, they're a little nervous. They need to be comforted. So he found a Bible verse. It was one John four eight, which says, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
And so the preacher asked the best man to gather everyone together and read the verse to the bride and groom. He felt that it would be very encouraging to them. And make sure you mention, I'll be preaching on this during the service, so hopefully that will be encouraging to you guys. Now, the best man was not a regular churchgoer, and so he did not know the difference between John's gospel and the first letter of John. And so he gets the bridal party together, and he says, hey, guys, the pastor wants me to read this verse.
He thinks it's going to be encouraging to you, and he's going to preach on it later. And he goes on to read John 418, which says, you have five husbands, and the one that you have now is not your husband. Look, instead of calling him the best man, I'm on a campaign. What if we just called him the mediocre man? Kind of like, lower the standards a little bit for this poor groom who's a nervous wreck, right?
Or maybe the good enough man. I wanted to tell you, though, the reason I told that story is I wanted to tell you about the best man I could find in the Bible not named Jesus. All right? And here's who I came up with. Did it just happen?
Okay, good. So this is the best man I could come up with. In the scriptures not named Jesus. There was a man. It just happened then, didn't it?
Amen. Thank you. There was a man named Nicodemus, a jewish religious leader who was a pharisee. Now, Nicodemus was a respected religious leader in the first century. He would be considered by many a good man.
He would actually have been a great best man at a wedding. He was both a pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin. He was devotedly religious, theologically well trained, and held in the highest esteem by all of those who knew him. He was, by many standards of measurement, a good man. However, visiting the young traveling rabbi from Galilee, who we know is Jesus, Nicodemus was shocked by what Jesus said because he found out in a conversation that he was not ready to enter the kingdom of God.
This good man was not good enough to earn salvation. Listen to verse two and three. After dark one evening, he, Nicodemus, came to Jesus to speak with Jesus. Rabbi, he said, we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.
And Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. See, Nicodemus, the good man, who was not good enough to earn his way into the kingdom of God, had never experienced the miracle of new birth, which is the work of the spirit that the Bible calls regeneration. Now, a great definition of regeneration. One of my favorites is from a guy named Millard Erickson, and he defines regeneration like this. He says it involves something new, a whole reversal of a person's natural tendencies.
It's a flip flop. It's a turn on its head of the natural tendencies that we used to have versus where we are now as believers. So Pauldin, when writing to Titus, was stubbornly convinced that the new birth would be evident by a new life and that this new life would be exploding with good works. And it's a reversal of a person's natural tendencies, which begin to occur at salvation. And that's what we'll be covering today.
And I love the light bulb that went off in my head when Blair was sharing from the devotional about magnifying Christ. And that's really what it's talking about, that these we are redeemed to magnify Christ. We are to magnify Christ through our good works. And so here's Titus three, one, eight. Paul divides his thoughts on the relationship between regeneration and good works by three parts.
And so I'm just going to tell you, here's all the points to the sermon. So you don't. You can just write them all down right now, get that over with, and then you can kind of follow along because you'll know where I'm at in the sermon. The first point's the longest, so they're not all even. And then it goes quicker and quicker.
So the first one is Titus three. One, three. We learn that we must be ready for good works. We must be ready to magnify Jesus. The second one is in verses four to seven.
And it is, we have been regenerated for good works, or we have been regenerated to magnify Jesus. And then finally, verse eight, we will be rewarded for good works. We'll be rewarded for magnifying Jesus. So the first part, we must be ready for good works. We see this in the first three verses of Titus.
Now, the Bible provides several really good examples of what a good work is. And you can boil those down to basically this. It's an action that involves some type of charity, compassion, or kindness. It always aligns, these actions always align with biblical teaching. So some examples might be of good works, might be giving to those in need is an example of a good work or an example of magnifying Jesus.
Spreading the gospel to those who have never heard is considered a good work. Comforting those in need, like a child who has a bad dream and you go and take them to their bed and comfort them and pray over them is considered a good work. Offering a cup of cold water is considered a good work. People who are hurting, when you put their arm around them and start praying for them is considered a good work. People need decent jobs, and so you use your entrepreneurial skills to create a company which hires employees is considered a good work.
And then the opposite of that is also true. Companies need reliable workers. So staying sober and showing up on time and following the boss's orders is an example of a good work. Ephesians 210 is a prime example of this. It says that for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus.
For what? For good works, which God prepared beforehand, which blows my mind so that we should walk in them. So Ephesians 210 reminds us that we were created in Christ Jesus for these good works. Good works never save, but good works do flow from those who are saved. And they're a big deal through the scriptures and a lot of confusion, I think, is on the topic of good works, because our natural tendency is to do good work.
You get good rewards. And so we think if we do enough good works, we can get the reward of heaven, and that's not what we're seeing or saying at all. So Paul addressing those in the city of Crete, which was a very hostile city to the gospel, this was corruption at every turn. Sin city, before Sin City was a thing. This was them.
And so Paul warns these people and create these believers to live distinctively different lives, to be set apart. And he does so by giving them and us. This applies to us now. Principles to live by in verses one and two. And we'll walk through those principles that stand in contrast to how we used to live, that we'll see in verse three.
So the first two verses we're going to see, hey, here's the believer's natural tendencies now versus how those tendencies before you were saved of the things that used to draw you in back then. All right, so follow with me. That's how we're looking at this. So first point, we must be ready for good works. How must we be ready for good works?
Verse one and two. It says, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities to obey, to be ready for every good work to speak. Ye've loved no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. And that's what we're gonna walk through over the next five minutes. So in the present, we can help others.
How are we ready for good works? Well, right now we can help others. How do we do that? Verses one and two shows the application of the gospel to the believers lives. And we see an example in these verses of what a new life, a regenerated life, looks like when it's exploding with good works.
First of all, we submit obediently. Verse one starts off by saying, we are to be subject to rulers and authorities to obey. And we see this in Matthew 22 21. Blair quoted this verse earlier. It says, therefore, give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.
And then we see this again when Paul adds in romans 13 one, it says, everyone must be, must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except for God, and those that exist are instituted by God. Christians are not rebels. We are not anti government. We are not anti submission. We're not anti rulers.
The submission to authority, be it your parents, your bosses, there's someone who is over you in every category of your life. Obeying, being submission to that authority is evidence of submission to and trust in God. Saying, God, you know what's best for me, even though I am not content in this situation, but I am submissive in this situation. And as believers, we do not undermine or disobey these governments and authorities that are in our lives unless it brings us into direct conflict with the commands of goddess. And you see that in acts 529.
But Peter and the apostles replied, we must obey God rather than any human authority. And even then, our disobedience is passive, it's not active, and we willingly accept the consequences of our actions. This reminds me recently, really, of canadian preachers being thrown in jail for preaching, or even more so, John Bunyan, if you're not familiar with his work, of the pilgrim's progress. Fantastic work, by the way. He was a pastor who was arrested in November of 1660 for holding an illegal religious meeting he was having church, and so he gets put in jail.
He was sentenced in the Bedford jail for three months. Three months in jail for preaching to a congregation. And this is when it gets interesting. He continually refused to assure the authorities that he would stop preaching. Hey, John, are you ready to go?
Yeah, I am. Are you going to preach again? Yeah, I will. Well, you can't go. This went on for twelve years because he wasn't willing to stop obeying God.
He stayed in jail for twelve years. And we get the work of Pilgrim's progress and a couple other things he did. So we must be ready for good works. How must we be ready for good works, is the question. Well, in this present we can help others.
Right now we can help others by submitting obediently, and next by serving eagerly. Again. Verse one says, we are to be ready for every good work. And complimenting this command is Galatians 610. It says, therefore, we have opportunity.
We must work for the good of all, especially for those who belong in the household of faith. It says, we gotta be ready for good work, especially to your family, your church. That's where we start. Last week, dawn looked at Titus 214, which reminds us that Christ has redeemed us to create a people for himself who are eager to do good works. And so we look to help others at every opportunity, starting with the local church, which is the household of faith.
And if you want to begin to do good works, get involved with the people at church. You start going to small group. You see lots of needs that you can meet. You start serving on a ministry team, you start meeting a lot of needs in the church. And of course, Sunday morning, as we're ministering to each other, there are so many needs, good works that you can do.
You can magnify Jesus in so many ways by getting involved with the people, people of God. And what you're going to find out is the more involved you get with God's people, the more you're going to find out that God has gifted them and gifted you to meet each other's needs. So in the present, we can help others. Right now, today you can start. We submit obediently.
We serve eagerly. And the third one is, we speak gently. Verse two says, we are to speak evil of no one. We are to be peaceable, avoid fighting. We badmouth or curse no one with our words.
We don't stir up trouble by talking poorly or falsely about people. We avoid gossip. We are not argumentative. We are to be friendly and considerate. We exercise a life of wisdom that refuses to hold a grudge and also gives others the benefit of the doubt.
As far as it is possible on your part. We seek to live at peace with everyone, and we see this in Romans 1218. It says, if it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. It's your responsibility, believer. And so how do we help others in the present?
Well, we submit obediently, we serve eagerly, we speak gently, and we show humility. The final part, verse two, it says that we are to be gentle, showing all humility to all men. It is a conscious placing of others ahead of yourself.
Philippians two three says, don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. So that sets up this new mindset that believers start developing from the time of salvation. We start seeing things a little differently, we start living a little differently.
Our natural tendencies start shifting towards these good works. Not that we do them perfectly, by any means. Don't hear that, but our thought process changes, and it's going to be helpful. I think, once we go through verse three, you'll see the contrast to it. So Paul knew that one way to appreciate how we are now is to remember who we used to be.
And so in verse three, he compares how we cannot act with how we acted before we met Jesus Christ. So we must be ready for good works. In the present, we can help others. In the past, we harmed others, so we can help people. Now that were believers, we help people.
But in the past, we were harming people. So Titus three three says, for we ourselves were once foolish. And Paul begins this, verse three, with this emphasized, we. He's like, we were all foolish. He's like, hey, guys, we were foolish.
We were not right. But through the new birth, we are now a new creation. And we see that in two corinthians 517, it says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, because the old things have passed away. Behold, all things are becoming new. What a difference Jesus has made.
And if we are to see clearly and understand fully our need for the new birth, we must deeply know the nature of our own sin. And the farther removed I am from the time that God saved me, the foggier that gets, and that's a good thing, but it's also good to be reminded of how I used to think and behave. Sin is a lot like the mythological creature Hydra, you know, the one who has all the heads, attacks from every which direction. And as soon as you feel like you lobbed one of its head offs. It grows two more.
Right. Anyone battled with sin before? So, Paul documents for us six ways that sin enslaved us, six ways that sin held us captive, chokehold on us. And so we're going to go through those in Titus three. Three, it says, for we ourselves, we are also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
What a loaded sentence that is, Paul. So I'm going to go through them step by step. It'll take about two minutes. The first of the six ways that sin enslaved us is that sin deceives. It says, we, all of us, without exception, were once foolish.
We were ignorant. Without spiritual understanding, we were deceived and guided by another to go in the wrong direction. In short, sin makes us stupid. Number two, sin disobeys. We were disobedient.
The verse says, our natural bent was to disobeye. Our natural bent was to seek our own way, disobedient to God, disobedient to authorities, disobedient to parents, everyone and everything. If you remember what it was like to be a teenager, you know what it was like to be disobedient at every turn. Number three, sin dictates we were once serving or enslaved to various lusts and pleasures. We were enslaved, slavery, to the cruel and never satisfied taskmaster called lust and pleasure.
They controlled us, and sometimes they rear their ugly heads back up, only to discover that no matter how much we gave them, they were never satisfied. They always wanted more. And even so, they just raised their ugly heads back up. Lust and pleasure. Fools.
We were truly to give ourselves to two mistresses who promised so much but gave us so little of real value. Number four, sin detests. You can see it in our verse. We once were living in malice. That word is basically the evil attitude of having a desire to injure someone, or this desire to be unkind to someone.
This describes the character trait of someone who desires to bring good to no one. It's malice. Number five. The fifth way that sin ensnared us is that sin desires. It says that we once lived in envy.
This is an unquenchable desire to possess what we do not have. John MacArthur defines envy like this. He says, envy is a sin, sin that carries its own reward. It guarantees its own frustration and disappointment. By definition, an envious person cannot be satisfied with what he has and will always crave more.
I think sexual sin is probably defined perfectly with envy wanting more, until it goes all the way, only to find that that's still not enough. That's envy number six. Finally, the 6th way that sin destroys and ensnares us is that sin destroys. We were hateful and were constantly hating one another. In contrast to living a life of love that's characterized by disciples of Jesus.
And we see this in John 1335, that Jesus disciples were characterized by love for each other. It says, by this, all will know that you're my disciples if you have love for one another. Yet how we once lived is a life of hate that gave evidence to we were disciples of the devil. And those six traits of sin held us captive. And those are a picture of who we were, but not who we are.
This lifestyle no longer defines who you are as a believer. Because the gospel changed everything. We begin to lose our taste for evil works and begin developing a taste for good works. We stop wanting to minimize Jesus and we start wanting to maximize him in our lives. We start wanting to stop wanting to shine the devil to people.
And we start wanting to shine Jesus to people. We are now a new creation and are ever ready for good works. But how? How is this possible? Well, the next big point is found in verses four to seven.
This is when we go a little quicker, so you gotta pay attention. A little quicker. Okay. We have been regenerated for good works. We have been regenerated to magnify, to shine Jesus.
So after showing us who we once were and how brutal that is and how sobering that is, Paul then reveals what has been done for us. At one time in our lives, we were dead, spiritually doomed, wicked. At one time in our lives, we were spiritual corpses, controlled by our sin, nature and Satan and the world, condemned with no hope, no future. But verses three, Titus, three, four, says, when the kindness and the love of God, our savior, toward man, appeared, everything changed. So verse four, we learn that God cares for you.
Paul begins with the basic and beautiful truth, that God loves you and is kind to you. And the source of this love and kindness is found in our savior, Jesus Christ. And not only does God care for you, but God changes you. Verse five says, not by the works of righteousness, which you have done, but according to the mercy, his mercy, he has saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. This regeneration, this being made new, is expressed by those who repent of their sins and trust completely and exclusively on Jesus Christ.
And Paul begins by first telling us how regeneration did not happen. He is countering this false thinking that has plagued generation after generation. And this thought process still plagues us today. His words could not be clearer. God saved us not by works of righteousness, which we have done.
Salvation is not earned. Regeneration is not something that you can work up. We were spiritually dead, right? Without a heartbeat, no pulse. Anything that we thought we did on the best day was like filthy rags to a holy God.
But verse five says, he saved us according to his mercy. He delivered us from sin and its bondage and its slavery and rescued us from death, hell, and the grave. And regeneration consists of the removal of filth and the renewing that's done by the Holy Spirit. Regeneration washes us, makes us clean. It's a new birth.
And the imagery of washing has nothing to do with baptism and everything to do with the Holy Spirit, who is washing us not externally, but internally. And this picture goes all the way back to Ezekiel. Listen to this, what the prophet wrote. He said, I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all impurities and from all your idols.
And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit within you. I will remove that heart of stone, and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will place my spirit within you to cause you to do good works, to cause you to magnify Christ. It reminds me of the planet of the apes. If you haven't seen it, I'm not recommending it or anything, but it's these. Basically, these monkeys, these chimpanzees that start mimicking humans.
And an ape can imitate the actions of a human. It can learn basic sign language, mimic facial expressions. But it's not a human, right? It's pretending like it's one. It's like when you come in here and you start pretending like you're a Christian because you're doing christian things, it doesn't make you a christian, just like it doesn't make the ape a human.
It would not be by the works by which he imitated a human, but by something else. It would have to be an active God. If a chimpanzee were to be a human, and then, and only then, having been made a human, he would start performing the works of a humanity. Not only does God care for you and he changes you, but he has come for you. Verse six.
God is generous when he gives us his spirit to live inside of us, to help us. Verse six says that he poured out his spirit on us abundantly. Through Jesus Christ, our savior. His spirit comes to be with us and is in us abundantly. God cares for you.
He changes you. He's come for you, and he comforts you. Verse seven. That having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. To be justified means to be declared righteous.
Because of the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross, we stand before God just as if we had never sinned, just as if we had always obeyed God perfectly. We are not made justified, we are declared justified, and we are comforted by the words of our savior about our future. Verse seven. We are heirs according to the hope of eternal life. You have an eternal life in front of you that belongs to you, and as the work of our triune God, the Father, the Son, it is a sign, sealed and settled issue.
It is yours, believer. So we must be ready for good works. We have been regenerated for good works, and finally we will be rewarded for good works. Verse eight says, this is a faithful saying, and these things I want to affirm constantly that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.
And so here Paul spells out specifically, he says, I want to affirm constantly these things. I want you to insist on these things always. These are good. They're profitable for everyone. These are words of truth, and we do a good work when we teach them repeatedly.
Maintaining good works is profitable. It's good. It's beneficial to all those who have been regenerated. And the renewing of the Holy Spirit are now described in verse eight simply as those who believed in God. Believers.
And because they have believed and because they still do believe, they should be careful to maintain good works, and we should be careful to devote ourselves to good works. You see, the new birth will result in a new life. Death is replaced by life, the flesh is captive to the Spirit, and evil works are overcome by good works. The minimizing of Christ is now replaced by the maximizing of Christ, and such works are profitable for everyone, the saved and the unsaved. As the unsaved see the beauty of our new life and are drawn to the Christ who has changed us, the same Christ that can change them.
This is a great reward for believers to see their family and neighbors and coworkers be compelled to come to Christ, to be regenerated by the gospel of King Jesus. To see our loved ones regenerate and experience this new birth is such a great reward and that that new birth will overflow into a life of good works that testify to the goodness of our God and his love for all people in Jesus Christ. This is the power of the gospel. This is the power of the gospel. Would you pray with me this morning?
Father, we are grateful in Jesus name to proclaim and to magnify with our lives our king and father. I pray you would give us wisdom and encouragement as we go out this week and live a life full of good works. We love you. In Jesus name, amen. Hey, guys, our prayer ministry will be up front this morning.
Love for you to come and receive prayer. They have been preparing for you also, if you're newer here, we have a gift for you in the lobby. It's a beautiful gift. Swing bye the you belong here area. I love to meet, greet with you, grab a gift, send you home with something today.
Would everyone stand with me? And if you're on the prayer team, come on forward. Hey, guys. I implore you to go and shine your redemption to your coworkers, your neighbors, and your families this week. You're dismissed.
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