Titus chapter 1, our text today
will be verse 3, but let's begin reading in verse 1. Paul, a servant of God and an
apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and
the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness, in
hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before
the world began, but hath in due times manifested his word
through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment
of God our Savior. We are going to recognize this
morning the fact that what we are doing right now, preaching,
preaching, this is the means that God has chosen to use to
effectually deal with his people. The message in a minute is going
to go very much hand in hand with this Bible study. I feel
like the message is just going to pick up where we leave off
here, but men and women need to know this. Religion has almost forgotten
preaching. It's about everything else under
the sun. Our Lord has chosen to use the
means to spiritually and physically work in His people by way of
preaching. Preaching, what the world calls
foolishness. The word preaching means heralding. It means proclaiming, crying
aloud. We do this because number one,
God commanded us to. And number two, this is the means
that he said he would use to call his people, to quicken his
people. You know what we need? We need
life. And I'll tell you this, we need
life the first time, and then we need life every time
after. All right, you know there's a
moment where you go from dead to living, death to life. And you know what will happen
if God does not come back to us and keep working in us and
keep dealing with us? We'll resort right back to death.
This flesh will just become dead. You become dead. We're so dead. Right? So prone to wonder. I needed to be quickened the
first time. I need to be quickened every
day. I need to be quickened right now. Lord, remove this death
in me and quicken me right now. How does he do that? Through
this means right here. That's how he does it. We come
in, I guarantee you, I'm not going to speak for all of you.
Most of you came in here just like me, dead. Dead. Lord, I'm driving over here.
John B. Dennis. All along John B. Dennis.
Lord, quicken me. Wake me up. I'm the one who has
to stand up there and talk. Quicken me. Right? This is the means God has chosen
to use to call his people, to quicken his people, to keep his
people. You know, some people fall away.
If they go out from among us, it means they were never of us.
If they had been of us, they wouldn't have gone out from among
us. But how are we kept? Through preaching. Honestly,
through preaching. How are we fed spiritually? Through preaching. How are we
comforted? Our Lord said, comfort one another
with these words. That's what he said. Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, Jerusalem, by crying unto her the good news
that is written in these words concerning her. And even though
we would never diminish the importance of reading the word for ourselves,
that's one of the most important things that we could do in this
life. Get into God's word and read it. Get into God's Word
and read it. But with that being said, our
Lord did not say in Isaiah 40, you go tell Jerusalem to go read
it for herself. He said, I want you to speak
it to her. Speak ye to her. I want you to
tell her that I said her warfare is accomplished. and her sin
is pardoned. It has pleased the Lord to use
the means of preaching. A man telling other men and women,
know the Lord. I think in Jeremiah 23, Jeremiah
33, something like, somewhere in Jeremiah, in that day, there's
gonna come a time when no man will say, you need to know the
Lord, they'll all know me. But right now, this is the means
that calls all of those people to know Him. A man telling other
men and women, know the Lord, thus saith the Lord. It has pleased the Lord to use
the means of preaching to speak to the heart of His people. to
deal with his elect people, his chosen sheep at his appointed
time for each one of them. And this is one thing I want
to very much emphasize this morning. We need to hear the preaching
every opportunity that we can. And here's the reason why. You
never know when the moment will be that God will speak to you
and deal directly with you. You never know when that moment
will be that God will speak to our children and deal with our
children. It just breaks my heart every
time I think about the fact that the disciples so broken, so crushed,
just so hurt, so sad, so alone, so scared they were in that upper
room with the door locked. And all of a sudden the Lord
just peered through the door. But Thomas wasn't with them.
Bless his heart. We need to hear preaching. We
need to hear preaching. Now, let me go through the scripture.
Let's prove this like we do, okay? This is our Lord's means.
Turn with me to Matthew 4. Matthew 4, verse 17, it says, From that time, Jesus began to
preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Is that not an amazing thing? Do we need any more proof that
this is God's way? That is God himself manifest
in the flesh. That's the one who just speaks
and worlds are created. God just said, let there be light
and there was light. Speak the word only and my servant
will be healed. Our Lord went about conducting
his ministry, which was seeking and saving his lost sheep by
preaching. Look at verse 23. It says, Jesus
went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching
the gospel of the kingdom. Our Lord Jesus Christ was a preacher. That's amazing to me. Turn over
to Luke 4. This is our Lord Jesus Christ,
Luke 4 verse 16. And he came to Nazareth where
he had been brought up. And as his custom was, this is
what he did. This was normal and usual for
him to do as his custom was. He went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. He stood up in front
of everybody and read God's Word to them. That's all we're doing
right here, right now. That's all we're doing. That's
what preaching is. It's declaring God's Word. Our
Lord Jesus Christ was a preacher. He was a preacher. Turn back
a few pages to Mark 16. Our Lord died on the cross. He was buried in a tomb and he
has just risen from that death. He is soon to ascend back up
to his father. And verse 15, he said unto them,
he said to his disciples, he said to his apostles, go ye into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. He said,
that's the commission I'm giving you. He said, I was a preacher,
and I'm calling you to be preachers. And the scripture says that the
apostles, they were beaten, they were tortured, they were persecuted
for preaching what Christ told them to preach. But even so, it says, they ceased
not daily in the temple and in every house to teach and preach
Jesus Christ. So Christ himself was a preacher. His apostles who were given his
direct word, they were preachers. And that commission has been
carried down generation after generation, and it's still our
command from God to this day. Go ye into all the world and
preach. Preach what? The gospel. Preach the gospel. What is the
gospel? What is the gospel? Turn with
me to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 17. Paul said, For Christ sent me
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of
words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. What is the gospel? The cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why there was a cross. Who hung
on that cross. What was accomplished on that
cross. Who that accomplishment was for.
The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the gospel. Look at chapter
two, verse two. Paul said, I determine not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now those who have not been given
ears to hear, those who do not know Christ and do not know the
gospel, and it's a saver of death unto death, they listen to this
message that we preach and they say, you say the same thing every
time. All I hear is the exact same
thing. And to that I say, you are right. You're right. But to God's people, it's life. To God's people, it's fresh every
time. To God's people, it's like, I
needed to hear this again. This is all, this is all the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hearing why there was a cross. Why was there a cross? Why was
there a cross? Here's the answer. Here's the
only answer. My sin. It does not matter who
else's sin in the world was involved in that cross. Here's the reason
for the cross. My sin. Every child of God can say that,
my sin. What's the cross all about? Number
one, my sin. I am a sinner. I'm a sinner who
does not approve of himself. I'm a sinner who is not happy
with himself. I'm a sinner who condemns himself.
I'm a sinner who cannot do anything about my sin. I'm a sinner who
can't stop sinning. Why was there a cross? Here's the answer. My sin. My sin. Who hung on that cross? God Almighty. Manifest in the
flesh. It wasn't God's helper. It wasn't
God's representative. It was God himself. That's amazing grace. That is
amazing grace. What did God accomplish on that
cross? Salvation for me. His people, yes. His elect, chosen
people, yes. That's who he hung on that. That's
who the accomplishment was for. All of his elect people, he chose
them before the foundation of the world. Most importantly,
to my soul, me. Me. How can I know if I'm one of
them? How can I know if I'm included in the cross? He will give me
faith to look to Christ, to hope in Christ, to cast my all on
the cross. He'll give me faith to need the
cross, to desire the cross, to only want to hear the cross,
the Christ of the cross. Look back at 1 Corinthians 1
verse 17. Paul said Christ sent me not
to baptize but to preach the gospel. The gospel. Hold your place right here in
1 Corinthians 1 and turn to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 1 says, Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel. Here it is. I declare to you
the gospel, which I preached unto you, which also you have
received and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved,
if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed
in vain. For I delivered unto you, here
it is, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. Not according to my own opinion
on the matter, not according to what my grandfather thought,
according to the scriptures. Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures, verse 4, and that he was buried and that he
rose again the third day according to the scriptures. That's the
gospel. That's the gospel. The substitution
of Christ, the death of Christ in our place, the accomplishment
of Christ in putting away our sin and satisfying God's justice
and law. That's the gospel. That's what
we preach. That's what we preach. Go back
to first Corinthians one. Verse 17 says, for Christ sent
me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of
words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect,
for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness." Are you serious? You're going
to go hear that again? You're kidding me, right? Don't
you already know what he's going to say? The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it
is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews
require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the
Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom
of God. We preach the gospel. What does that mean? That means
we preach Christ crucified. We preach the good news of the
successful accomplishment of Christ crucified. Paul told Timothy
in 2 Timothy chapter 4, preach the word. And that's what this
word is concerning, Jesus Christ and him crucified. It's all about
him. And our Lord plainly declared
this. in Psalm 40. Turn with me over
to Psalm 40. This is so good. This is so good. Once you see this, you'll never
unsee it. Psalm 40, this is Christ speaking. Hebrews chapter 10 confirms that. Psalm 40, verse seven. Then said
I, lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of
me. I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within
my heart. Again, this is Christ speaking.
Verse nine, he said, I have preached righteousness in the great congregation,
Lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness
within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness
and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy loving
kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. Our Lord
said, Father, I have preached. This is what I've preached. Thy
righteousness, thy faithfulness, thy salvation, thy loving kindness
and thy truth. That's what I've preached. And
that's what we preach. We preach His righteousness,
Not ours. We don't have a righteousness.
There's none righteous but him. We preach his faithfulness, not
ours. We don't have a faithfulness.
We are so unfaithful. We are so unfaithful. But even
if we believe not, yet he abides faithful. It's good news. We preach his salvation, not
ours. There is no salvation with us.
Salvation is of the Lord. We preach his loving kindness,
not ours. His merciful grace. It's the only hope we have. We
preach his truth, not ours. We don't have a truth. Every
man is a liar. Only God is true. That's the message we preach
because that's the message of God's word. Now, before I end
this, let me just say a couple of things about the preacher
that God will use to preach, okay? This is, I believe, important
to end on. Turn with me to Romans 10. Romans 10 verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call
on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? If a man is going to preach,
if a man is going to be a true preacher of God, then that man
is going to have to be sent. sent directly by God. In Jeremiah 23, our Lord warned
of men who decide on their own that they're going to run off
and become preachers. And our Lord said, I did not
send them and they are not going to profit people at all. And that's the case. That's how
it is. If a man is not sent by God,
he is not a true preacher of God and he's not going to profit
people at all. If any man has a thought or a
desire to preach, wait on the Lord. Don't do anything. If the Lord is going to call
a man to preach, he will open the door for that man to preach.
That man will not have to go around telling everybody that
he wants to be a preacher. Which is what the flesh wants
to do. That man will not have to make phone calls, asking pastors
if they want him to come fill in for them while they're away,
which is what the flesh is prone to do. If a man is supposed to
preach, God will call the man. God will notify everybody that
he's calling the man. God will open the door. God will
put a message in that man. If a man doesn't have a message,
he's not called to preach. And if God does all those things,
then turn with me to 1 Peter 4. If God does all of those things,
Then look right here at 1 Peter 4. This is talking about preaching.
1 Peter 4 verse 11. It says, If any man speak, let
him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him
do it as the ability which God giveth, that God in all things
may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and
dominion forever and ever, amen. If we are preaching our own word,
there's no authority in that. If we're preaching our own word,
there's no authority. But if we are preaching God's
word, If we are repeating God's word, the Apostle Paul said in
second Corinthians five, we are ambassadors for Christ as though
God did beseech you by us. That's a humble, humbling, sobering,
fearful thing to say. But if we're preaching God's
word, it comes with the very authority of God himself. What that means is it's so. It's so. This word right here
is so. This word is dogmatically so. If any question it, and they
will. If God calls a man to preach,
he will be questioned. If any question it, it's still
so. If any deny it, if any reject
it, and they will. It's still so. If we're called to declare it,
we declare it in all confidence and authority. And again, we're
not talking about our own word, we're talking about this word.
We declare it with all confidence and authority. The end of verse
11 says that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus
Christ to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.