Devoted to Good Works
Titus 3:1-15
Devoted to good works
Titus 3:1-15
Main Idea: The grace of God saves us and empowers us for good works.
I. Adorning the Gospel in the World (3:1-2)
A. Ready for Good Works
Matthew 11:29: Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
B. Who We Were and What God Has Done
Until sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet
~ Thomas WatsonWe must plumb the depths of our own heart before we can grasp the height of God’s love.
~ Tim Chester
Psalm 14:1a: The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
II. Being fruitful and multiplying in grace (3:9-15)
A. Pruning
Ephesians 4:1-3: I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Paul does not say God condemns such a person. Rather, one who tries to justify himself by besting others (causing foolish controversies), presuming on his background or family status (debating genealogies), or by wrangling holiness from legal strictures (causing quarrels about the law) instead cuts himself off from his only hope of justification—grace. And thus he is ‘self-condemned.
~ Brian Chapell
B. Harvesting and Planting
Thus doctrine inspires duty, and duty adorns doctrine. Doctrine and duty are married; they must not be divorced.
~ John Stott
Between Grace and Glory
Titus 2:11-15
Between Grace and Glory
Titus 2:11-15
Main Idea: The gospel of Jesus meets us with grace and compels us toward glory with transformational hope.
I. God’s Grace (2:11-12)
Titus 2:11-12: For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
“When the apostle uses the same word to describe the coming of grace, he so intertwines who Christ is with what Christ provides that the two become inseparable in our consideration. Grace is not some abstract doctrine or theological construct. Grace comes as Christ does. Grace is as personal as he is. In fact, Christ is grace. The unmerited favor of God is what Jesus is about, but it is also who he is. We should thus see grace as a personal action by a personal God who saved us from our helpless condition out of pure love.”
~ Bryan Chapell
Revelation 2:5 “Behold, I am making all things new”
Romans 8:29 - “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son”
1 John 3:2 “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
“It’s true that the church is a hospital for sinners. But the point of a hospital is for the sick to get well. So, yes, the church is a hospital for sinners, but it is also a school for saints, a place where we experience progress on the journey toward the summit of Christlikeness.”
~ Trevin Wax, The Thrill of Orthodoxy
II. God’s Glory (2:13-15)
Titus 2:13-15: waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.
“The gospel is not for the pure and healthy, but for the losers, the failed and flailing, the fallen and falling. The path to the mountaintop of Christlike virtue is a path of penitence. The victorious Christian life isn't the sinless life; it's the repentant life.”
~ Trevin Wax, The Thrill of Orthodoxy
1 Corinthians 15:10 by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
“For mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man. It is not like teaching a horse to jump better and better but like turning a horse into a winged creature. Of course, once it has got its wings, it will soar over fences which could never have been jumped and thus beat the natural horse at its own game. But there may be a period, while the wings are just beginning to grow, when it cannot do so: and at that stage the lumps on the shoulders - no one could tell by looking at them that they are going to be wings - may even give it an awkward appearance.”
~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Adorning the Gospel Together
Titus 2:1-10
adorning the gospel together
Titus 2:1-10
Main Idea: We adorn the beauty of the gospel by living with ordinary faithfulness in every season together.
I. The Priorities of Ministry (2:1, 7-8)
In his role as pastor/elder, Titus must be a ‘model’ (prototype) of sound doctrine and good works, so that the church is built up (Eph. 4:11-12) and opponents are silenced (2:8).
Apart from Christian theology, we don’t know what the Christian life should look like. If we believe the Christian life should be characterized by hospitality, forgiveness, love, mercy, and faith, we need Christian doctrine to fill those words with Christian meaning. Without doctrine, we’re left with mere sentiment.
~ Trevin Wax, The Thrill of Orthodoxy
II. The Household of Faith (2:2-6, 9-10)
A. Older Men (2:2)
Ecclesiastes 7:10: Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.
B. Older Women (2:3)
C. Younger Women (2:4-5)
It would not be legitimate to base on this word either a stay-at-home stereotype for all women, or a prohibition of wives being also professional women. What is rather affirmed is that if a woman accepts the vocation of marriage, and has a husband and children, she will love and not neglect them… What he is opposing is not a wife’s pursuit of a profession, but ‘the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. (1 Tim. 5:13)
~ John Stott, The Message of 1 Timothy & Titus
D. Younger Men (2:6)
E. Bondservants (2:9-10)
While we cannot defend the indolence or cowardice of two further Christian centuries which saw this social evil but failed to eradicate it, we can at the same time rejoice that the gospel immediately began even in the first century to undermine the institution; it lit a fuse which at long last led to the explosion which destroyed it.
~ John Stott, The Message of Ephesians
Colossians 3:23–24: Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
Conclusion: Adorning the Beauty of the Gospel (2:10b)
Making the World a Better Place
Titus 1:7-2:1
Making the world a better place
Titus 1:7-2:1
Main Idea: Every Christian is called to strategically counteract error, especially those who nurture others.
I. Why is this so important?
The simple answer is that false ideas and bad behavior do not make the world a better place. They are like a cancer that invades a person’s life then metastasizes to their family, their neighborhood, and eventually their whole culture. If you know anything about cancer, it is an apt metaphor to the damage false ideas and bad behavior bring into the world. Cancer never makes things better. It must be counteracted.
II. How are we called to do it?
The right and simple answer here is: STRATEGICALLY. By this we mean thoughtfully, intentionally, tactfully. Keep in mind that Jesus’ objective for the moral wasteland that is Crete is to reclaim it for Himself, redeem its inhabitants to Himself, and release it to flourish and prosper under His generous rule. He wants to make Crete a better place. Central to doing that is addressing the bad behavior and false ideas that are currently
destroying Crete and its inhabitants
Holding firm to the word of God:
Confronting error strategically with a view to making the world a better place requires a reference point. Something must exist that differentiates error from truth, cancer from healthy tissue. Something must paint a compelling vision of what “better” looks like that is more than merely my opinion versus yours. And whatever that reference point is, we must track to it as we would to True North were we lost in a trackless wilderness. “Holding firm to the faithful Word” is being convinced that there is such a thing as True North and organizing all our ideas and actions into alignment and agreement with it.
Re-orient our expectations into alignment with the gospel and the “last days.”
Titus 2:11-14: For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
Putting into Order
Titus 1:1-9
Putting into Order
Titus 1:1-9
Main Idea: God’s church is rightly ordered when we hold to sound doctrine, pursue godliness, and follow exemplary leadership.
I. Eternal Gospel Hope (1:1-4)
Paul’s ministry as a servant and an apostle was for the sake of the “faith of the elect.” This faith is marked by two components, a “knowledge of the truth” that “accords with godliness.”
We can have confidence in the hope of eternal life because of:
God’s Promise (“...promised before the ages began”)
God’s Character (“God, who never lies…” cf. Num. 23:19)
“This is very comforting to the Christian, that whatever God has said in the divine purpose is never changed. The decrees of God were not written upon sand, but upon the eternal brass of his unchangeable nature.”
~ Charles Spurgeon, “What God Cannot Do!”God’s Word (“at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching…”)
2 Timothy 4:1–5: I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
II. Exemplary Gospel Leadership
Titus must “put what remained into order” by appointing elders (or pastors) who are “above reproach” in:
Marriage & Family (1:6; cf. 1 Tim. 3:5)
Character & Conduct (1:7-8)
Doctrine & Instruction (1:9; cf. 1 Tim. 4:16)
“[Pastors] have the responsibility of explaining what God has said in his Word, declaring what God has done in his Son, and applying this message to the hearts of people.”
~ Tony Merida, The Faithful Church Planter“The pastor ought to have two voices: one, for gathering the sheep; and another, for warding off and driving away wolves and thieves. The Scripture supplies him with the means of doing both; for he who is deeply skilled in it will be able both to govern those who are teachable, and to refute the enemies of the truth.”
~ John Calvin