Open your Bibles to the book
of Titus. Titus chapter three. Now my text is verse eight of
this wonderful book of the Bible. Paul the apostle wrote this to
a man named Titus to encourage him in the ministry. Titus had
the overseer of a group of people group of believers. Paul writing
this letter to him to encourage him and the people in several
areas summarized in the phrase that you find in verse 8. Look
at verse 8. I want to go back and read the
whole chapter or the whole up to this point where Paul writes,
this is a faithful saying. Whenever you see those words,
it's the Apostle Paul saying this is a true saying. that cannot
be denied by God's people. Now we talk about God's people,
Christians, true Christians, true believers, differing over
certain issues. And there are certain issues
that we can differ over without denying and differing over the
gospel. Because the gospel is something
we cannot differ over. We cannot divide over how God
saves sinners. And so he says, this is a faithful
saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that
they which have believed in God might be careful, very careful,
concerned to maintain good works. The title of the message is Maintaining
Good Works. These things are good and profitable
unto men. Now, they're good because God
says they're good. We talked about that last week
in Unto Good Works. And they're profitable not in
the sense that they earn us anything, but they're profitable because
they glorify God and exalt Christ. And that's great profit for the
people of God. The more we can glorify God,
the more we can exalt Christ, that strengthens us in the service
of God, in the maintenance of good works. Now, as I said, he
starts back in chapter one, actually. This is a short book of the Bible,
and I'm not going to read the whole thing. But this whole book
is an exhortation, an encouragement in the work of grace. And it
starts back in chapter one. Let's look at just a few verses
here. He says in verse one, Paul, a
servant of God, and whenever Paul identifies himself as a
servant, he's talking about not a slave to the law, but a willing,
loving, bond-servant of Christ, whose debt has already been paid
in full, his debt to the law, which was paid by Christ on the
cross as he redeemed us from our sins, And the service that
he gives is out of love and grace and gratitude, the assurance
of salvation. It's not serving to earn his
keep or to earn his position before God. So he's a servant
of God and an apostle, a messenger of Jesus Christ according to
the faith of God's elect. And what is our faith? We look
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We rest in him.
We believe in him, the gospel. We submit to him as the Lord
our righteousness. That's the faith of God's elect.
We believe salvation by grace, as I preached last week, for
by grace are you saved. Through faith, that not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
We're his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. Unto, not because
of, but unto good works, which God hath before ordained that
we should walk in them. We trust in the sovereign will
and purpose of God to save us by His grace through the blood
of Christ. And we rest in Him for all of
salvation and its blessing. So that's according to the faith
of God's elect. Who are God's elect? Those who
were chosen by the Father in Christ before the foundation
of the world. God chose to save a people. And He left others. He chose
not to save others. And I know people don't like
that, but that's what this book teaches. And this is the God
with whom we have to do. So this is the faith of God's
chosen people. And He chose us not because of
anything in us, anything we are, or anything that would be done
by us. This notion of looking down through
a telescope of time and foreseeing what we would do, that is not
biblical. In fact, it's anti-biblical and
anti-gospel, anti-grace. This election is called the election
of grace. And we don't know who God's elect
are until God brings them under the gospel and gives them the
gift of faith and the gift of repentance and perseverance to
believe and continue in that obedience of faith. That's how we know. It's the
faith of God's elect. And so he says, and the acknowledging
of the truth, which is after godliness, Godliness is obedience
unto God, serving God, God-likeness as we say, following His word,
not to be saved, not under law, but under grace, in hope of eternal
life. And you could say it this way,
in assurance of eternal life. That's what our hope is. It's
the assured prospect of eternal life and glory, based upon a
proper ground, and that ground is the person and the work of
Christ. That's our hope, hope of eternal
life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began.
Remember Paul in 2 Timothy 1 and verse 9 talks about a salvation
that was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. This
was all set up and affirmed and made sure in Christ before this
world was ever created, before Adam fell, before the first sin
came into the world. And it says in verse 3, Behath
in due times manifested his word, made it known through preaching,
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. Preaching what?
The cross, Christ crucified, risen from the dead, which is
committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior. And so when he says to Titus,
verse four, my own son, after the common faith. Now not common
in that it's ordinary, but common that it is the same for all of
God's elect. It's common to us. That's the
common faith. Grace, mercy, and peace. There's
the motive. Grace, mercy, peace, love. He
says, from God, the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Titus
was a pastor on the island of Crete. For this cause left I
thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that
are wanting or lacking, and ordain elders in every city as I appointed
thee. And now he gives the qualifications
of an elder. I told you I wasn't going to
read this whole thing. That's what I'm doing. But think about it. The reason I'm doing that is
because this happens to fall into the category of those good
works that we maintain. And as I said last week, it's
not things by which we earn God's favor or establish our relationship
with God. These are things that are the
fruit of God's grace and favor in Christ. and that recognizes
that he is to be glorified. He says in verse six, if any
be blameless, the husband of one wife, I don't believe that
disqualifies divorced people from being elders, but I believe
it's talking about not a polygamist, which was so common in that day
and age, where a man had many wives, that was forbidden. If you had many wives, you couldn't
be an elder. And that's not because you're worse off or less saved
than anybody else. But now other people think that
if a person's been divorced, they're not qualified, but I
disagree with that. But it doesn't matter, all right?
It says, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly,
that doesn't mean that their children have to be saved necessarily,
but it means they have to be disciplined, all right? Disciplined children. And he
says, for a bishop must be blameless, that is, according to the eyes
of men, you know, not to be a thief or a crook, the steward of God. That's what we are, good stewards
of His grace. Not self-willed, not out for
himself and getting his own way. Not soon angry, that is, not
carrying a chip on his shoulder. You've seen these things. not
given to wine, he's not to be a drunk, nor a striker, a brawler,
not given to filthy lucre, not in it for the money, but a lover
of hospitality, a lover of good men, good men there being sinners
saved by grace, sober, that is clear-minded, just, in other
words, in the realm of justice, holy, separate, temperate, holding
fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may
be able by sound doctrine by good doctrine, to exhort and
to convince the gainsayers, those who would always oppose it, for
there are many unruly." Now he goes on here, like I said, I
am not going to read the whole thing, but he gives these things
in the church, that these are the wise and good words of God
for the perpetual existence of the church here on earth as we
struggle in the battle between the flesh and the spirit, and
with each other. But let's look at verse 13 of
chapter two. Now I've preached on this book
verse by verse before, and I'm not gonna do that today, but
I wanna lay the foundation here. Look at verse 13. Well, let's
go to verse 12. Well, let's go to verse 11. How
about that? I keep doing that. He talks about the grace of God.
Verse 11. He says, the grace of God hath
bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. That's the gospel. And it's being preached to anybody
who'll listen. All there doesn't mean all without
exception because you can't say that everybody without exception
has even heard the gospel. We know there are certain things
that God has revealed to all without exception. Think about
the glory of God in creation. the glory of God in the conscience,
all of that. Of course, we know what we'll
do with that by nature unless God brings us salvation in regeneration
and conversion, we'll turn it into idolatry. But the grace
of God, teaching, verse 12, us to deny ungodliness, worldly
lust, and anytime I see that worldly lust, now don't just
think of it as sexual immorality, that's part of it. But it's also
talking about religious lust. Sinners desiring salvation, seeking
salvation by their works, that we should live soberly, righteously,
godly in this present world. Look at verse 13 now. Looking
for that blessed hope, that assurance, the hope of eternal life based
on the righteousness of Christ, the glorious appearing of the
great God and our Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us. that He might redeem us from
all iniquity. Redemption. That's a beautiful
word. What that means is that we're
bought with a price. And it's not with the traditions
of men or the works of men, it's the blood of the Lamb of God,
the spotless, pure Lamb of God. And purify unto Himself a peculiar
people. Now peculiar there doesn't mean
odd, it means purchased. Zealous, On fire, I always think
about zeal, being worked up. On fire for what? For good works. To do right. That's what he's
talking about. To honor God with our actions
and our relationships, our worship, our witness, all of that. And
again, this is part of the grace of God. This is a gift from God.
Again, we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works. He says, these things speak and
exhort and rebuke with all authority, whenever there needs to be correction,
bring it, that no man despise thee. In other words, what He's
saying there is if people get upset, let them get upset. You're
telling them the truth. So here we come to chapter three.
Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers,
to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work. That means
obedient to the powers that be and civil government when they
do right. Now you always have to make an
exception here is when the civil government commands believers
to do that which is contrary to the word of God. And I think
about the Apostle Peter and John, and I think, I can't remember
who else was with him there, and I think it's in around Acts
chapter 2 or 4, can't remember. But they brought him up before
the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Sanhedrin, the court of the unbelieving
self-righteous Jews, and they said, we forbid you to speak
in the name of Jesus. Remember what Peter's response
was? He said, well, whether to obey you or to obey God, which
is right, you judge. And Peter said, we're going to
obey God. We're going to go against your law that you made to forbid
us to preach the gospel, and we're going to preach it anyway
because that's what God says to do. So anytime you see passages
of scripture that talk about being subject to the government,
to the officials, to the judges and the magistrates and the sheriffs
and the policemen and all that, always keep in mind that we're
to obey them in a way that we can still follow the Word of
God and not anything else. Verse two, to speak evil of no
man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all
men. Now again, you remember the motivation
for these things. Look at verse three. For we ourselves
also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived. Boy, doesn't
that describe you and me before we were converted? Serving diverse
lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and
hating one another. Now you can take that in a lot
of different ways, but go on verse four. but after that the
kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared."
Here's the motivation. Not by works of righteousness
which we've done. Now he's talking about the works
of believers here. We know that works that we did
before conversion were dead works, evil deeds. works of iniquity,
fruit unto death. The Bible says that. I want you
to look at that. Turn over to Romans. Romans chapter
seven. And this needs to be seared in
our minds whenever we deal with the subject of good works and
what they are and how they're the fruit of grace and not the
cause. how they don't earn anything
for us as far as our relationship with God, but they do glorify
God. And that's what we want to do.
Look at verse 4. Paul writes, Wherefore, my brethren,
you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. The
law cannot condemn us because Christ died the death that we
earned and deserve. He was condemned in our place.
Our sins were imputed to Him. and His righteousness to us.
So we're dead to the law. And in order that we become dead
to the law by His body, by His death, that we should be married
to another, that we should be united to Christ, even to Him
who's raised from the dead, that we should bring forth what? Fruit
unto God. That's what these good works
are. They're the fruit. Christ is the vine, we're the
branches, we bear fruit from the life of the vine. We're not
the source of them, we're not the power of them, we're not
the goodness of them, it's Christ. And he says in verse five, for
when we were in the flesh, that is when we were unregenerate,
the motions or the passions of sins which were by the law, in
other words, as sinners in our depravity, looking at the law,
we thought in our minds, well, I need to keep that to be saved.
Well, that was a motion of sin. You realize that? I listened
to a message by a brother on keeping his commandments, and
it was a great message. He made it clear, what are his
commandments? And think about it this way. In all the Bible,
did Christ ever command his disciples to keep the law in order to be
saved? The answer is no. And so when
we talk about keeping his commandments, what were we talking about? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of dead works and love
the brethren. Stick with each other in that
message. So the motions of sin which were by the law did work
in our members to do what? To bring forth good works? No,
to bring forth fruit unto death. Because that's where that kind
of thinking leads to, death. Verse six says, but now we are
delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held,
dead to the law, that we should serve in newness of spirit. Now
this is where the Spirit of God has brought us to see the grace
and the love and the gratitude, the assurance of salvation in
Christ gives us that newness of spirit and not in oldness
of the letter. Faith which worketh by love.
And he says not by works of righteousness which we have done. How can they
be called works of righteousness? Well look back across there to
Romans chapter six. They are works of righteousness
because they are works done and that God does through us and
that we do who are servants of righteousness. Now what is it
to be a servant of righteousness? It's to be a servant of Christ.
It's to be only a sinner saved by grace. made righteous by His
righteousness imputed. And so we follow Him and serve
Him and rest in Him, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. Look at verse 17 of Romans 6.
But God be thanked that as you were the servants of sin, but
you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was
delivered you, or which you were delivered to, being then made
free, liberated from sin, that is the bondage and the deception
of sin, you became servants of righteousness, servants of Christ. Now go back to Titus chapter
three. Not by works, verse five, of
righteousness which we've done, but according to his mercy, He
saved us. God have mercy, I'll have mercy
on whom I will have mercy, he said. By the washing of regeneration,
that's the giving of life from the dead. You hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses. And it is a washing. Now what
is that washing? It doesn't cleanse us from any
thoughts, notions, and actions of sin, but we're washed by the
application the Spirit gives of the knowledge of the blood
of Jesus Christ by which we are washed clean legally. And it's
put within our minds and our hearts, you see. That's the washing. When that fact, that glorious
truth of that my sins were washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ
on the cross. that I cannot be condemned and
my sins cannot be charged to me when that glorious fact is
imprinted on my heart by the Holy Spirit so that I know whom
I have believed and I'm persuaded that He's able to keep that which
I've committed unto Him against that day, that's the washing
of regeneration. That's the cleansing of the conscience.
The guilt, the legal guilt is washed away by the blood of Jesus
Christ. and the renewing of the Holy
Ghost. That's the continual application to our minds as we study and
preach and talk about and learn and grow from the Word. And it
has to be renewed, doesn't it? Don't we have to be reminded
of that all the time? That's a glorious thing. He goes on,
verse 6, which He had shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's where life comes from.
that being justified, forgiven, declared righteous by our works? No, by his grace we should be
made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. There's that
assurance again that we find in Christ. And so therefore,
now having laid that foundation, therefore this is a faithful
saying that these things I will that thou affirm constantly.
that they which have believed in God." And who is it that's
believed in God? Not just people who say, well,
I believe there's a higher power, or I believe in the man upstairs,
or I believe there is a God. Those who believe in God are
those who have been brought to Christ to see how God can be
just and justifier through His blood and righteousness alone.
Believed in God. Might be careful. Now this is
what He's saying to us. Don't be nonchalant here. Don't
be negative here. Don't be neglectful here. To
maintain, that means to excel. You see that? To maintain it.
Make them the concern of our lives as witnesses of the gospel
of Christ to the lost and as those whom the Spirit motivates
by grace and love and gratitude. and those whom the Spirit encourages
to honor God, they who have believed to maintain good works, these things
are good and profitable unto men. All of this is by the grace and
the power and the goodness of God. And I think about this,
this shows us that our efforts to maintain good works are not
motivated by legal thoughts and the law. But they're motivated
by grace. This is that faith which worketh
by love. And I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians
with me. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. You know,
we've studied this verse quite a bit because especially in verse
21 has been under attack so much by people who want to exalt themselves,
I think. I want you to look back up before
that. He talks about judgment here
in 2 Corinthians 5. He spoke of our labor. He spoke
of his own labor. Verse 9 of 2 Corinthians 5, he
says, wherefore we labor, we endeavor, that whether present
or absent, we may be accepted of him. Now Paul's not talking
about his salvation there, but he's simply speaking of this,
he says, whether I'm with you or whether I'm away from you,
I'm going to labor in the gospel and I want to do what's accepted
with God. Remember over in Romans 12, he
spoke of that, that we might prove that which is good and
acceptable with God. The sins that we fall into at
times, and I know now, I'm not getting into this thing about
the flesh and the spirit yet, but the sins which we fall into,
they're not accepted with God, but now in a believer who's in
Christ, they're forgiven. They cannot condemn us. Aren't
you glad of that? They cannot be charged to us.
God said, I've thrown them behind my back. That's metaphorical
language. In other words, He doesn't see
them in a legal way. He said, I'll remember them no
more. I'll never bring them up against you. But now God chastises
us, sometimes for the sins that we commit, sometimes just because
out of His sovereign will He chastises us. But that's not
condemnation. That's teaching. But look at
what Paul says here in verse 10 of 2 Corinthians 5. He says,
we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Now
we know the standard of that judgment, don't we? Acts 17,
31, God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained and that
he hath given assurance unto all men and that he hath raised him
from the dead. There's the standard now. And
I won't say that my works Even the good works measure up to
the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ.
Now there are some who want me to say that, but I'm not going
to. You know, I always look to him alone and his righteousness
imputed alone as my only righteousness. And he said that everyone may
receive the things done in his body according to that he had
done, whether it be good or bad. as I stand before God at judgment. And I've already been judged. The Bible teaches that believers
have already been judged. We were judged for our sins at
the cross. Isn't that right? Christ as my
surety, having my sins imputed to him, came and became my substitute,
taking into union with himself a perfect sinless humanity, and
obeyed unto death, even the death of the cross, and he died there
for the iniquities of his people. And he put it away. He satisfied
law and justice. And that's the perfection of
righteousness that God has imputed to us, you see. So what is this
judgment all about? Well, it's a declarative matter.
Where God, he's not going, listen. You don't appear at judgment
to find out if you're going to be condemned. No, it's a declarative
thing. God is going to make it known
whose works were good and whose works were bad. And this is not
a judgment of believers based on their works. It's a judgment
of our works where they're the fruit of God's grace in Christ.
And so he says in verse 11, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord.
Now what is that? It's the terror of standing before
God on our own works without Christ. Think about how terrible
that would be. To be found before God without
the blood of Christ to wash away my sins, without his righteousness
imputed to justify me. But he says, but we are made
manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your
consciences by the preaching of the gospel. That's how we
come together. For we commend not ourselves
again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf,
that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance
and not in heart. For whether we be beside ourselves,
it's to God. Some of them have said that Paul
was crazy, that he was loco. He said, well, it's to God. for
His glory. Whether we be sober, it is for
your cause. Now look at verse 14. This is where I wanted to
get to. For the love of Christ constraineth us in this maintenance
of good works. What we have to be diligent and
as Paul wrote to Titus, careful, is that it's the love of Christ
for us. results in our love to Him, as
pitiful as it may be, it's His love for us that constrains us,
motivates us, guards us, keeps us from going the full length
into our sinful thoughts and attitudes. It's His love. And what is His love for His
people? It's unconditioned. Just like His forgiveness. Just
like salvation. There's nothing in us that's
worth His love. Do you see that? There's nothing
that we've ever done that would earn His love. It's the love
that grace grants. It's the unconditional love.
It's the source and originator of salvation of God from the
beginning. Setting His love on His elect. before the foundation of the
world, and knowing that his love must result in justice satisfied,
salvation. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and gave himself to be the propitiation
for our sins. And so here it is, now how do
you see it? For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus
judge. Now this is our assessment. If
one died for all, if Christ died for all his people, that's what
he's talking about, then we're all dead or literally all have
died. When he died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried.
When he arose, I arose. That's the legal aspect of salvation. And it works out to living for
him in this careful maintenance of good works. Look at verse
15. And that he died for all that they which live should not
henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them
and rose again. You see that? This is setting
things in its proper order. So Paul writes to Titus. This
is a faithful saying, and these things I will, that thou affirm
constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful
to honor God, to maintain good works, to try to be the best
we can be of each other and to each other, but not in a way
of legality or law or trying to earn anything, but because
He has given us so much freely and unconditionally in the glorious
person and the finished work of Christ. Maintain good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men. All right.