Will you turn with me please
to Paul's letter to Titus, the book of Titus, chapter 1, and
follow as I read in your hearing the first four verses which constitute
the opening paragraph of this epistle. Titus, chapter 1, verses
1 through 4. Paul, a servant or literally
a bondslave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to
the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth which
is according to godliness, in hope of eternal life which God,
who cannot lie, promised before times eternal, but in his own
season manifest his word in the message, wherewith I was entrusted
according to the commandment of God our Saviour, to Titus,
my true child after a common faith, grace and peace from God
the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior." The two letters of Paul
to Timothy and this letter to Titus together have been designated
as the pastoral epistles. Now there is something both practically
helpful but also potentially misleading in that designation. That which is practically helpful
is the fact that because they are called the pastoral epistles,
we are reminded immediately that they contain a rich deposit of
concerns with reference to the shepherding of the people of
God. and therefore all pastors ought
to soak their souls in these epistles continually, and all
who are concerned to know those perspectives and emphases which
godly pastors ought to reflect in their ministries have in these
epistles a basis of evaluating pastoral life and ministry. But they are not only, or the
designation is not only practically helpful, it is also potentially
misleading. And that designation is potentially
misleading because in the very strict sense, neither Timothy
nor Titus were pastors in the sense that we use that term and
in the sense in which it is used in the Scriptures. To quote one
careful student of the Word of God, the term pastoral epistles
dates from the 18th century and has become current. Yet it is
not exact, for it leaves the impression that Paul is coaching
Timothy and Titus as pastors of congregations. This is not
the case. Timothy and Titus were not pastors,
either in the sense of the word, one or two pastors to a congregation,
or in the older sense of elders, each congregation having a number
of them. Nor were Timothy and Titus head
pastors, each being a chief of a group of elders in the congregation,
as James was among the elders in the church at Jerusalem. They
were also not bishops with Episcopal jurisdiction over a diocese. This was an office developed
much later in church history. Timothy and Titus were representatives
of Paul for the guidance of the churches, the one being Paul's
agent in Asia Minor, that of course referring to Timothy,
the other Paul's agent or representative in the island of Crete. Through
them, Paul exercised his apostolic care and oversight. His directions
are accordingly. Do what Paul would do if he were
present and could do the work himself. So that the potentially
misleading element in that terminology is that we come to regard Timothy
and Titus as pastors when in reality they were apostolic representatives
implementing apostolic functions in the churches to which they
were called to minister or directed to minister by apostolic authority. Now then, with that little bit
of clarification behind us, it is accurate to say that if we
have any felt degree of desire that our church grow more and
more into the divinely ordained apostolic pattern, then surely
we will prize these letters, commonly called the pastoral
epistles. In them, the will of God for
church life and practice is clearly delineated. And what I propose
to do this morning, and God willing to follow up and conclude next
Lord's Day morning, is to give what really is an introduction
to Paul's letter to Titus and an interpretive clue or key to
that entire epistle. Is there an organizing principle
for Paul's letter to Titus which, if grasped, will give us a framework
within which to study, to meditate upon the book of Titus? Well, I'm convinced there is
such an organizing principle, not artificially imposed upon
the book for homiletical purposes, but right here in the letter
itself. And it is found in verse 1. Paul,
a bondslave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to
the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth, which
is according to godliness. And it is this phrase, the truth
which is according to godliness, which constitutes in a very real
sense the key to an understanding of the book of Titus. This entire
introductory paragraph is one of the richest and most profound
in all of the Pauline letters. A careful analysis of the paragraph
would yield rich and helpful insights concerning many facets
of apostolic ministry and of apostolic truth. However, this
morning and again next week, God willing, we shall limit our
attention to this fascinating phrase, the truth which is according
to godliness. Now notice its connection with
the preceding. As Paul identifies himself on
the one hand a bondslave of God, and on the other hand as an apostle
of Jesus Christ, he says that this bondservitude to God and
his apostolic office have distinct reference to the faith of God's
elect and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness."
In other words, the apostle is an apostle as a bondslave of
Christ with respect to this great concern of the faith of God's
elect and the knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness. Now the word translated, according
to godliness, is the preposition which can mean for the purpose
of, or according to, or in accordance with. And so the apostle is saying
that his apostleship is concerned with the heart knowledge of the
truth which accords with godliness. His great concern has to do with
the truth which accords with, which is according to, which
exists for the purpose of the promotion of godliness. Now, if we're to understand the
significance of these words, it's obvious that the two key
words are truth and godliness. Now, what is truth, the question
a heathen ruler asked many centuries ago? Well, in terms of the Pauline
usage, truth is the body of revealed facts concerning the redemption
of sinners in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Truth is
that, according to verse 3, which is manifested in the word of
the message. To Paul, truth is not a plastic
nose of wax, but truth is made of those unchangeable, substantial
realities embodied in the word of the message, that which is
called in verse 4, the common faith. So you see how the apostle
can move from the language of the truth to the word of the
message, to the common faith. And as we trace out the significance
of those words in the apostolic usage, they mean nothing more
or less than a body of revealed facts concerning the redemption
of sinners in the person and work of Jesus Christ. But now the apostle says, it
is that truth which is according to godliness. And this word godliness is used
broadly and translated religion, piety, or most frequently, as
it is here, godliness. It refers to the duty man owes
to God and the expressions of that duty in the particulars
of life and of worship. Notice how it's used in 1 Timothy
2 and verse 2. We are to pray for kings and
all that are in high office that we may lead a tranquil and quiet
life in all godliness. That is, that we may live a life
in which we render to God the duties owed to God and are able
to carry out the practical expressions of that relationship in the particulars
of a godly life and a godly worship. It's used in chapter 4 of 1 Timothy
and verse 7. Paul says to Timothy, Refuse
profane and old wives' fables, but exercise thyself unto godliness. That is the cultivation of the
fulfillment of your duties to God and the practical expression
of those duties in life and in worship. It's used again in 2
Timothy 3 and verse 5. Paul, speaking of the aggravated
expressions of sin amongst men, says, 2 Timothy 3 and verse 5,
holding a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. Here
are a people who hold a form of confessed or professed desire
to be rightly related to God, to discharge obligations Godward,
and some semblance of this in external patterns of life, but
they deny its power. Now then, growing out of this
phrase, the truth that is, the body of revealed facts concerning
God's saving work in Christ, which accords with godliness,
that is, which is according to the exercise of true religion,
there are two great principles that emerge and form the framework
of the entire letter to Titus. We'll look at the first principle
this morning, unpack it and demonstrate its validity, and then, God willing,
the second one next Lord's Day morning. And the two great principles
are these. It is truth alone which is the
parent of godliness. It is the truth which is according
to godliness. But it is the truth alone which
is productive of godliness. And so that's our first great
principle. And that principle, as we shall
see, is illustrated again and again in Paul's letter to Titus. It is the truth alone which is
the parent of godliness. But then the second great principle
is this. It is godliness which is the
necessary and the inevitable child of truth. as surely as
it is the truth which is according to godliness, it is also the
truth which is according to godliness. And so it's just a matter of
which word you underscore that will help you to grasp the two
great principles. Now for those of you who frequent
this place of worship, you'll notice that I'm sticking much
more closely to my notes, and the reason is I am mentally exhausted
from the past week, the preaching and the counseling some days
literally from 7 o'clock in the morning till 11 o'clock at night
in between the preaching, and I do not trust myself to roam
far, and so you forgive me if I'm stuck more to my paper this
morning. Now then, let's take up, for
the remainder of our time, this first great principle found in
Titus 1 and verse 1, the truth which is according to godliness,
namely, truth alone is the parent of godliness. First of all, I
want to explain the principle, and then secondly, illustrate
and enforce the principle from the Epistle to Titus. In explanation
of the principle, let me say, first of all, that given the
condition of the human heart by nature, godliness will never
grow of itself. Given the condition of the human
heart by nature, godliness does not grow of itself. You will
never find a man or woman, boy or girl, of any age, in any situation,
in any culture, at any point in history, who is seeking to
render to God that which is His due, and seeking with all of
his being to work out the implications of that relationship to God in
life and in worship. You will never find that kind
of a godly lifestyle growing out of unblessed, abdominal soil. Just as surely as you will never
find a fruitful, well-arranged vegetable garden growing on a
dry, cracked, parched, weed-infested, uncultivated, unsewn, and unnurtured
plot of ground. If you go to someone's backyard
and there see a lovely garden, and everything is neatly arranged
in the various rows and well weeded, you know that that didn't
just happen, that there was some kind of native power in that
particular soil to give birth to lovely tomato plants and broccoli
plants and zucchini plants and all of the rest. Somebody's been
at work. Nature didn't produce that, for
since the earth was cursed for man's sake, Weeds and nettles
and all of the things that are counterproductive to a good crop
have to be dealt with before the soil will yield the same.
Well, what is true of the soil literally is true of the soil
of the human heart. Godliness does not grow of itself. All the heart produces of itself
are the thorns and the nettles and the weeds of sin. For Jesus
said, from within, out of the heart of man proceed what? Does He describe love, joy, peace,
longsuffering? No. He says, for from within,
out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts, murders, adultery,
Pride and foolishness, that's what the soil of your heart and
my heart produces unless the grace of God goes to work cultivating,
planting, nurturing, and bringing to fruition something other than
those things. The universal testimony of the
Word of God is that godliness does not grow of itself. but it only grows when grace
has been at work in the human heart by means of the truth. And so in this very epistle,
the apostle who speaks of the truth which is according to godliness
gives two rich doctrinal statements, one concerning the work of Christ
in his redeeming love and death upon the cross, and the other
concerning the mighty work of the Spirit in renewing the human
heart. It is the truth of Titus 2, 11
through 14, which alone can produce godliness. For the grace of God
hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to
the intent that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts We should live
soberly and righteously and godly in this present world, looking
for the blessed hope in the appearing of the glory of our great God
and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he
might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to himself a people
for his own possession, zealous of good works. What is the truth
which is according to godliness? I said that the truth is the
revealed facts concerning the redemption of God in Christ,
and that was not an imposition of my own notions. It was simply
a summary of what we have here at the end of chapter 2. Paul
knew that there in the isle of Crete, if the hearts of men were
left to themselves, there would be no godliness. But thank God
the gospel had come. And that gospel came announcing
the wonderful truth concerning one who gave himself for sinners
to break the bondage of sin and to bring men into the godly lifestyle. And then he goes on in the second
rich doctrinal section of this epistle, a section that was expounded
some months ago by Pastor Nichols and speaks of the grace of God
bringing salvation to us. one in which we have, according
to verse 5, this mighty work of the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Spirit. And as surely as it was the message
of the gospel of God's grace in a dying Savior which came
to the soil of the hearts of those Cretans, so it was also
the mighty operation of the Spirit attending that Word which brought
them into a renewed state. And so when I make the assertion
that truth alone is the parent of godliness, I am simply echoing
what Paul has indicated in this epistle, that it was the great
truth of the objective work of Christ for sinners and the mighty
internal subjective application of that work by the Spirit which
had brought these people into their present condition. The
condition of the human heart by nature is such that godliness
will never grow of itself. But then there is a second thing
I want to say in this matter of explaining the principle,
and it is this. Given the nature of error, godliness
does not appear as the child of error. or of ignorance. Given the nature of error, godliness
does not appear as the child of error or of ignorance. And in these so-called pastoral
epistles There is this constant exhortation by the Apostle to
Timothy and to Titus to guard the truth. Why? Because the truth
alone can be productive of godliness, and error is always counterproductive
of godliness. Notice chapter 1 in verse 9.
What are elders to do? What is their specific function?
Verse 9. holding to the faithful word
which is according to the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort
in the sound or the healthy doctrine, but not only the positive, and
to convict, bring to the test, bring to the touchstone of absolute
truth, and convict the gainsayers. For there are many unruly men
vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose
mouths must be stopped. Well, Paul, don't you believe
in the liberty of every man to believe as he believes, and to
speak forth his beliefs as he chooses? Isn't that the height
of arrogance and intolerance, to go around talking about people
who got to be shut up, whose mouths must be stopped? Why this
vigorous language? Whose mouths must be shut? Because Paul recognized that
error was counterproductive of godliness. Error never, never
gave birth to godliness, and so the mouths of those who speak
error must be shut, not by the power of the civil government.
But in the context stopped by the clear, convincing, powerful
proclamation of truth, if necessary, even such a polemic form has
to show error in its true light. You find this in chapter 2 and
verse 1. Speak thou the things which befit
the sound or the healthy doctrine. indicating that there is another
kind of teaching that is not sound or helpful. It is like
rancid, putrid, infectious and diseased food. That is what error
is. What rancid, diseased food is
to the body, error is to the soul. Now a man may come upon
some rancid, diseased food, that has been so doctored up that
it tastes good to his taste buds, it will nonetheless make him
a sick man or kill him. And error may be made very palatable
so that it tastes good as it were on the aesthetic and mental
taste buds. But if it's error, it has no
power to convey health. The apostle knew this. It is
the truth and the truth alone. which accords with godliness.
And in explaining that principle, I set before you those two simple
concepts. Given the condition of the human
heart by nature, godliness will never grow of itself. And given
the nature of error, godliness does not appear as its child. Now then, consider with me the
principle illustrated and enforced in the book of Titus. All the
way through this epistle, we find the apostle urging upon
Titus the vigorous maintenance of truth and the forceful, aggressive
arrest of error. Let me give you that again. All
the way through the epistle, you find the apostle urging upon
Titus the vigorous maintenance of truth and the forceful, aggressive
arrest of error. Now there are some people that
don't like anything negative. Be positive. Be positive. I'll
never forget old Dr. Tozer taking on those who came
to him and said, Dr. Tozer, you're too negative. Be
positive. Be positive. And you remember
his classic answer. I quoted this a number of years
ago. He said, I tell them, look, my friend, all of life is made
up of the negative and the positive. You inhale the oxygen. And you
exhale the poison. And he said, the man that's so
determined to be wholly positive in his breathing process is soon
a dead man. You inhale and you exhale. And so it is with us as God's
people. We cannot think biblically if
we have a subtle aversion to the negative. You cannot think
biblically, and in most cases, Aversion to the negative is not
a matter of temperament or psychology. It is a revelation of an either
subtle or overt controversy with God. Because God is not wholly
positive. He loves righteousness and therefore
He hates iniquity. He will reward the righteous
with life. He will damn the wicked with
eternal destruction. And how desperately in our flabby,
saccharine age do we need to have this vigor of biblical balance,
of this love and forceful and aggressive pronouncement of truth,
as well as this forceful and aggressive and compassionate
and at times awesome denunciation of error. Well noticed specifically,
and this is only suggestive. What I'm trying to do this morning
and next week is to give you some key or set of keys with
which you can study the book of Titus on your own and absorb
the weight of its impact for our life together as God's people. Let's now see the principle illustrated
and enforced in Titus chapter 1 and verse 5. For this cause
I left thee in Crete. Now, why did you leave Titus
in Crete, Paul? That thou shouldest set in order
the things that were wanting or lacking in the churches, particularly,
he says, and appoint elders in every city as I gave thee charge.
And then he gives this broad overview of the kind of character
and gift that must be manifested in a man who is to be appointed
as an elder. But now, why is the apostle so
concerned, particularly in that historical setting, that there
should be more elders in the church at Crete? Is his primary
concern that all the church members, instead of getting a visit once
a year from the elders, will get visits twice a year? Is his
primary concern that there should be more opportunity for individual
counseling and shepherding? Well, no doubt those concerns
were present, but that is not the primary emphasis of the passage. He says, I left you in Crete
to put in order the things that are wanting and appoint elders
in every city. Then he gives the requirement
for that office and says this. He is to be, verse nine, the
voice, the verse we already looked at, one who holds to the faithful
word that is in accordance with the teaching that he may be able
both to exhort, to comfort, to instruct. That word exhortation
is a broad word, not just in its more, what we usually think
of, sort of a peroration at the end of a sermon when having laid
it out, you then lay it on the consciences. But the word exhortation
is broader than that. That he may be able both to exhort,
to instruct, to comfort, to convict in sound doctrine and, and, to
convict the gainsayers. Now then, he doesn't pick up
that positive element again until chapter 2 and verse 1. Speak
the things which defeat the sound doctrine. And then he gives him
some of the areas that he wants him to go over as answering to
the task of an elder in exhorting in the sound doctrine. And so
he gives directions concerning how the old men should conduct
themselves, how the old women should conduct themselves, how
the young men and young women, etc. But from verse 10 to verse
16, he's dealing with that negative element of the elder's responsibility,
stuffing the mouths of gainsayers. And he describes these unruly
men, vain talkers and deceivers, and then he specifies the party
with which they are generally associated. He describes how
they operate, overthrowing whole houses. And then he goes on to
admonish Titus, verse 13, for which cause reprove them sharply. Why? Notice now that they may
be sound or healthy in the faith, No one can be healthy in the
faith who is eating the rancid meat of error. It is impossible. And so his great concern is that
elders should give themselves to the preservation of truth
and the exposure of error, because truth and truth alone is the
mother of godliness. Turn to chapter 3 for an additional
example of this. Chapter 3, verse 8, Faithful is the saying
in concerning these things, I desire that thou affirm confidently
to the end that they who have believed God may be careful to
maintain good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men. shun foolish questionings and
genealogies and strifes and fightings about the law, for they are unprofitable
in vain. A factious man, after a first
and second admonition, refuse, knowing that such a one is perverted
and sinneth being self-condemned. He's telling Titus that if you
have someone in the midst who is determined to continue to
traffic in error, who is not committed to speaking wholesome
things, that man must be reproved and rebuked. And if there's no
repentance, he must be rejected. Why? Isn't that intolerant? No, it's not intolerant. It's
recognizing that as surely as no mother in this place would
allow any relative in the house to serve up rancid food to her
children, so no godly overseer will allow rancid spiritual food
to be served to his spiritual children. Truth and truth alone
is the mother of godliness. Now you see then, this concern
of the apostle for the maintenance of pure doctrine is not simply
a doctrinaire spirit manifesting itself. It is not an overly fastidious
and persnickety concern of a theological nitpicker. This is not a crotchety
old man who has become a heresy hunter. He recognizes that Practical
godliness in the church at Crete will be maintained in direct
proportion to the maintenance of the purity of truth, because
truth alone is the mother of godliness. And you say, why is
Paul so concerned then for godliness? Because he knows that the end
for which Christ died was to have a godly people. He says
in chapter 2, the grace of God that has been revealed brings
a salvation that instructs us to deny ungodliness and to become
godly. And why does the message come
in that way? Because that's the purpose for
which Christ died. He gave Himself for us that He
might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to Himself a people
for His own possession, zealous of good works. This great passion
for godliness and for the preservation of the truth which alone is the
mother of godliness is inextricably bound up in the apostles' passionate
concern that the purpose for which Christ died would be realized
in the Christians in the Isle of Crete. And so the passion
for maintaining the purity of truth by which alone godliness
is promoted is not a matter of the resurrection of Puritanism. It is the heart of the very end
for which Christ died. Let me say by way of application
that it is my contention that this Pauline perspective and
conviction, with all of its attendant fruits, is especially needed
in our day, the conviction that truth alone is the mother of
godliness and that a balanced godliness is the child of the
whole truth. We live in an age of ecumenia
when people say the only thing that matters is to come to some
low, minimal, common denominator of indistinct commitment to nondescript
statements that can mean anything to anyone who happens to be a
little religious, and let's all give ourselves to the togetherness
orgy and come together in the midst of this ecumenia. We live
in an age in which the in thing is to say that, well, I have
some distinctive convictions, but yours are just as worthy
of consideration as mine. And the whole climate of our
age is against saying, if this is truth, then that is error. And if truth is life, error brings
death. We live in the climate of acumania,
and we live in the climate of charismania as well. And the
whole emphasis is, look, doctrines divided us ever since the Reformation. For over 450 years there's been
division between the great imposing Church of Rome that is, quote,
a Christian church, and all the great, quote, Christian, Protestant
denominations in Christendom. And that great wall of doctrine
raised by the nasty hands of Luther and his cohorts and a
host of others, that wall, we have not been able to tear it
down with hands that bring with them distinct doctrinal convictions. But now we are being told by
great leaders who influence multitudes, the Holy Spirit seeing that wall
and being grieved by that wall says, shame, shame on that wall. But what I'll do, my people are
so perverse, is I will give them an experience in the Holy Ghost
that will catch them up into the third heavens, and when they
have this common experience in the Holy Ghost, they will find
themselves united above the wall. And that is the passionate vision
of some of the most renowned leaders in the charismatic movement
in our day. And so they boast that at their
great Jesus rallies they have Father so-and-so, and the Reverend
so-and-so, and the Reverend Doctor so-and-so, representing the whole
spectrum from the most blatant kind of liberal theology to the
most conservative Roman Catholic theology, and they have their
big banners above them, all one in the Spirit. And I am not creating a caricature And oh, my dear people at Trinity,
how desperately do we need to stand against that tide of pressure. It does make a difference what
you believe. And to say that the Holy Ghost
has come upon a man who dares to assert that he has the power
to turn wafer and grape juice or wine into the very body and
blood of Jesus, To say that that blasphemy is anointed of the
Holy Ghost is sheer nonsense and an affront to every bit of
religious sensitivity in the hearts of those who love Christ
and Him crucified. And then we live in a climate
not only where we have ecumania and charismania, but a climate
of relativism. There is no such thing as absolute
truth. Everything is relative. Relative
to whatever you want to make it relate to. And to see the
moment you say, it is the truth which is according to godliness,
and you define truth in terms of a body of revealed facts and
propositions, you are out of step with the climate of our
age. But if we prize godliness, We must stand against that relativism
and say there are absolute truths. With regard to morals and ethics,
with reference to the deepest religious questions, Jesus said
He was the way, the truth, the light. No man could come to the
Father but by Him. That's absolute truth. Then we
live in a day of subjectivism. Whatever you feel, whatever makes
you feel good and meet your needs, that's all right. Makes you live
a better life, makes you more useful, makes you more kind,
that's fine. Every man for his own thing.
That's the climate of our day. And, oh, dear people, may we
get hold of the significance of this pregnant phrase, Paul,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect,
and the knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness.
And take that truth away, and there is no godliness. And where
there is no godliness, there is no salvation, for without
holiness no man shall see the Lord. What is needed in our day? We
need men in our pulpits who believe, who feel and who act, under the
same conviction as did the Apostle. Men who regard the deposit of
truth as an inviolable trust. Look at verse 3 that I read in
your hearing. He speaks of this great blessing. Let's pick up the thread of thought. The knowledge of the truth which
is according to godliness in hope of eternal life which God,
who cannot lie, promised before times eternal, but in his own
seasons manifested his word in the message. Now notice, wherewith
I was entrusted. Paul never looked upon himself
as a clever originator of truth. He said, I had a message that
was deposited in my hands as a trust. And this is why the
apostle had this great passion. that anyone who would dare alter
the content of that trust must be exposed, his mouth must be
stopped. This is why when there were people
at Philippi, not altering the trust, but handling it out of
wrong motives, he could say, Christ is preached, I rejoice,
God will bless the preaching of Christ. But there at Galatia,
they were tampering with the trust itself. They were fooling
around with the content. And he says, though we or an
angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we preach, let him be accursed of God. Now, how do you reconcile
the two attitudes? You reconcile it only in terms
of this conviction that truth and truth alone is the mother
of godliness. And even though some preachers
had a bad motive, they were holding the truth intact and preaching
Christ according to the deposit of apostolic truth. And Paul
says, I'll leave their motives to God. God will bless the preaching
of Christ. Christ will be magnified. The
gospel will triumph. I rejoice. When these people
came along and started tampering with the essential content of
the message, his soul was filled with white hot and holy anger. And he says, let them be accursed
of God. Why? Because he knew that their
error would damn the souls of men. That's the spirit that needs
to grip the hearts of those of us who preach the gospel. But
I say it's the spirit that needs to grip those of you sitting
in the pew. If you ever get to the place where you tolerate
anything less than full-blown biblical proclamation, the devil
will see to it that there's someone there to give you what you want. The saddest commentary on the
Church in almost any period of its existence is the kind of
leadership it tolerates. The Prophet Jeremiah had to say,
the prophets prophesied falsely. And my people love to have it
so. Why? Error always makes men feel comfortable in their sins.
Truth is according to godliness, so it goes after a man's sins. So we have a built-in aversion
to truth in terms of our remaining corruption, don't we? We have
a built-in affinity for error. Yes, we do. And you see, the
reason many embrace error is not because they have intellectual
problems with the truth. They have moral and ethical problems
with the truth. Jesus said, this is the condemnation
that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather
than the light, and they will not come to the light lest their
deeds should be reproved. Oh, dear people, it's an awesome
responsibility to have the deposit of the truth and to believe that
under God we are charged as a people as well as official overseers
to preserve and guard that truth. And if you just look at this
opening paragraph, you say, what are those great truths that form
the spectrum of the revealed message? You just go through
this first paragraph. Let me just give you a little
suggestion. You can meditate further at your leisure, as I
see my time is almost gone already. Look at the great concept. Paul,
a bondslave of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to
the faith of God's elect, the knowledge of the truth which
is according to godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God
who cannot lie promised, before times eternal, in his own season
manifested, in the word of the message. Do you see the profound
theological concepts all bound up in a man's greetings? You
have the uniqueness of the apostolic office, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
the blessedness of voluntary servitude to God, bondslave of
God. You have the election of grace,
the faith of God's elect. You have eternal life as the
crowning blessing of the gospel. God is the sovereign Lord of
history, manifested in His own time. God is the giver of a fixed
body of truth. These are the things, dear people,
that form the rich deposit of truth. And we have a solemn responsibility
to cling to those great concepts. But not only so, the body of
truth contains very practical things. In chapter 2, you have
the apostle delineating the responsibilities of older men and younger men,
indicating there are fixed domestic responsibilities and functions
and divine guidelines for domestic relationships, unchanging ethical
and moral standards. And he says to Titus, these things
you are to teach, you are to exhort. Now, what's the purpose
of my saying all of this? It is that we as God's people
will feel the pressure of this great principle, that it is the
truth which is according to Godliness, and if that is so, each of us
must feel a renewed responsibility with respect to that truth. I
close with this very practical word of direction. If we've heard
anything of what's been said this morning, then we've heard
a fresh summon to the reverent study of the truth as it is embodied
in the Word of God. If the truth which is according
to godliness and that truth is embodied in the Scriptures, then
we dare not allow neglect of this book, either in our private
reading and meditation upon it, or in the public teaching and
proclamation of that truth, ever to mark us. And I would be greatly
surprised if it were not true that the disrupted schedule of
the summer months has taken its toll upon many of you. And there's
been an erosion of the discipline of private meditation and reflection
upon the Word of God, an erosion of your faithful attendance at
Sunday school, an erosion of your faithful attendance, perhaps,
Lord's Day evening. My friend, listen, it is in these
places that truth is taught and preached. And without that truth, you will
not make advances in godliness. And don't you say you're pursuing
godliness when you neglect the very means ordained to produce
it, any more than you tell me that you're pursuing good health
and you neglect a well-balanced diet. And as we stand on the threshold
of entering a new building and into new contexts, in a new context
of new contexts, or how we need to be as a congregation as well
as official servants of the Word, those whose souls are perpetually
soaked in the truth. So it's a summons to a renewed
commitment to the study of the Word of God privately and publicly. It's also a summons to renewed
confidence in the whole Word of God. Oh, that we may come
to that conviction that the whole counsel of God is productive
of a balanced life of godliness, and that we'll never sit there
and sigh, as I've seen some of you almost do, when the leader
of the service says, now for our consecutive reading, you
ought to lean forward with all the eagerness of a man who's
being fed his favorite piece of meat. The reading of the Word
of God! Think of it! For centuries, throughout
the great masses of humanity, no one could stand and say that
God had given the deposit to one little nation in Palestine.
And here we have the privilege, and yet we despise our great
privilege, don't we? I say this constitutes a summons
to renewed confidence and eager expectation to know the mind
of God in all of its breadth. And then finally it's a summons
to a renewed determination to get this Word of God out to others
at any cost. Do you groan as you see the ungodliness
on every hand? Do you have any capacity to feel
inward pain at the abounding ungodliness? There's only one
thing that will check it, and it's not putting Reagan in the
White House. It is no platform of any political
thing within the whole spectrum, from the most rabid right wing
to the most woolly-headed left wing. It is the truth. which alone will give birth to
godliness. But that truth cannot give birth
to godliness until it impinges on men's minds and then upon
their hearts and upon their affections and their wills by the power
of the Holy Ghost. But the Holy Ghost isn't going
to speak it to them directly. He is going to speak it through
you and through me. And therefore we have a solemn
obligation to pray if indeed we are praying for a return to
godliness in our nation, in our homes, in our communities, in
our neighborhoods. It is truth and truth alone which
gives birth to godliness. And God's put that truth in our
hands as the people of God. And oh, how we need to pray and
then seek with sanctified wisdom to take appropriate steps to
get this word into the hands of others. Pastor Ernie Reisinger,
in his closing message at the conference, spoke on soul winning.
And one of the things he said that so moved many of us, he
said, there are many of you who could never, by temperament and
everything else, walk up to an individual, introduce the subject
of the gospel, and give them a five minute summary of the
gospel. But he said this, who among you cannot write a letter
to a relative. An evangelistic letter. Who among
you, he said, cannot sit down and just pen a few lines urging
someone to consider the claims of Christ? Enclose a tract or
a little booklet? No, you see, the problem is not
our lack of ability. It's either our lack of conviction
that truth alone is the mother of godliness or our lack of love
for truth which is the mother, or our lack of love for the ungodly
who desperately need that truth. And whichever it may be in any
one of our cases, may we cry to God for such a love for that
truth which is the mother of godliness, and such a love for
those who are held in the grip of their ungodliness, that we
will be determined to bring that truth to them at any cost. That
was the history of the apostles' life. As he saw the ungodliness
of the Roman Empire, and he describes it in Romans 1, what did he do?
Wherever he went, he brought the truth. What truth? Not truth
in the world's sense of that term, but he brought the truth
of the gospel. Fixed, unalterable, propositional
truth concerning God and man. the one mediator between God
and man, the man Christ Jesus, the demands of repentance and
faith, and then the outworkings of that response in a life of
godliness. It is the truth which accords
with godliness. Truth and truth alone is the
mother of godliness. I commend for your meditation
the book of Titus with that principle in mind, and you'll see how it
is woven through the entirety. God willing, next week will take
up the corollary, godliness is the inevitable and necessary
child of the truth. Let us pray. Our Father, we are indeed grateful
that to us, who by nature are shrouded in darkness, chained
by our ignorance and our love of the darkness. Truth has come
to us in the person of your Son and in the power of the Spirit
by means of the message of Scripture, and that many of us can testify
that our chains which bound us to our lust, to our self-will,
have been broken. And though we are painfully conscious
of so much in us that is unlike your Son and displeasing to you,
we are equally conscious that we can say with Peter, Lord,
you know that we love you and that loving you we desire to
please you by a life conformed to your revealed will in the
Scriptures. Right upon the heart of this congregation is great
principle that truth and truth alone is the mother of godliness. Give us a love for the truth,
that we will be prepared to teach and to instruct and to admonish
men in the truth, and prepared where necessary to convict the
gainsayers, to oppose error, to stand up against anything
that would raise itself against your revealed mind in the Scriptures. We pray that from our ranks you
will raise up men who will become mighty heralds of that truth.
who will love the truth and hate error, who will preach the truth
and defend the truth. And then we pray for us as a
congregation that you will come to us with a fresh infusion of
Christlike love to the souls of the ungodly about us, and
that it will be our determination to bring the truth to them. O
God, help us, we pray, that we may be graciously aggressive
in seeking to bring the truth to men. We pray for those who
are yet in their sins, to whom the truth of the gospel has never
come with power. We pray that they may be haunted
with the things they've heard this morning and have no rest
until they too have come to embrace the truth as it is in Christ. Seal then your word to our hearts. Bless the further meditations
of this day. And for these mercies, we will
give you our praise through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.