Now Paul, as you see in the beginning
of this epistle to Titus, Paul is all business. He immediately
begins to speak of the reason that he sent Titus, where he
did, and what he was to do, his business that he was to be about. And in verse nine, Paul expresses,
as he so often does in many places, the concise summary of what his writings are all
about. This letter, as I said, it's
all business and it concerns the business of the church, appointing
elders and looking for men who might, that the Lord might have
gifted to hold these offices in the church and to to preach
this gospel, and every phrase of this verse, verse nine, is
a sermon holding fast the faithful word as he had been taught that
he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince
the gainsayers. clear division here, it outlines
itself. It says holding fast, and this
means to cleave to and to hold firmly. But the best way to understand
the use of words like this in the scriptures is to see where
else the Lord used them, especially in the New Testament. In Matthew
6, 24, it says this, no man can serve
two masters. For either he will hate the one
and love the other, or else he will hold, that's the word in
Artaic, he will hold the one. Hold to him and despise the other. So you see in that verse, it's
synonymous with love. With love and hate. He loves
one, he hates another. The one he loves, He holds on
to. He holds on to. You hold on to
the word like you would hold your wife or your children or
your husband. How do you hold them? Good way
to sort of get to the bottom of things is keep asking questions. When you answer one, ask why
about that one, about the answer too. Why do you hold them like
that? How is it that you hold those
that you love? Well, you never really let go
of them. Not really. Even when you're
not holding them, you're holding them in your heart. That's how
we're to hold the word of God. It's not just a document. It's
not just a good luck charm. It's not just instructions for
life. So many called it many things.
It's not God's love letter to mankind. Christ in the verse that we just
read there is using this word to describe how a person loves
his God. There are two. God, mammon. God, self. God, the flesh. And he uses the
word hold to, to show how people feel about God, that knowing. Respect and love and cherish
this book because it's God's book. God is holy and reverent. I trust this book because God
is almighty and faithful and true. I bow to the truth of this
book because God's sovereign. You see how it's synonymous with
the person. This book is my hope because
God is gracious to sinners, because his throne is called the throne
of grace. And this book is my comfort because
Christ is our rock. He's a refuge like none other.
I love this book because the one that wrote it and the one it's about is altogether
lovely. It's called The Faithful Word.
We've seen that word faithful recently. It means trustee. able to be relied upon. A compass that's faulty is a
dangerous thing. It's a deadly thing. Because
the point of it is to show you the way. And if the way it's
showing you is the wrong way, the consequences are terrible. Think about that with regard
to spiritual things. There are a lot of compasses
out there that are broken. A lot of broken compasses. With regard to the things that
this book deals with, you must be able to trust. Trust the one pointing the way. Matters of eternal life and death
are dealt with here. Especially here, we need that
which can be relied upon. Only the word can be relied upon,
no human being. We trust a human being, a spokesman
as far as he sticks to this compass, the only compass there is in
the things of God. How can you trust what's contradictory? Religion is in a perpetual state
of contradiction. They'll say God is sovereign,
but also you have a free will. Something wrong there. Both can't
be true. One or the other of necessity
is a lie. They'll say that salvation is
all of grace and then start telling you what you need to do to be
saved. It's a contradiction. How do you trust that? But this book, God's book is
66 books of the Bible with various numbers of chapters in those
books written by 40 different men over a period of 1,500 years. Very different types of men from
all different walks of life. Isaiah was a prophet. Simon Peter
was a fisherman. David was a shepherd boy and a king. Matthew was a tax
collector Paul was a great scholar and a high official, but then
a tent maker And they all wrote the same thing
and using a lot of different words But always the same message and
that's because the Bible has but one true author He just used
me and to pin it on Its author, God, forbids anyone to add or
take anything away from the sayings of this book on punishment of
eternal death. We saw that in our revelation
study. Why? Because this is the faithful
word. It's the trusty word. You don't
alter it. It's life and death to alter
it. If anybody who presumes to expound
God's book or speak for God from this book adds anything, any
thought, any interpretation that's not included and clearly revealed
in this book, then you can't trust it. You can't trust them.
All you can trust is this book. We trust it together. We hold
fast together. to this book, if anyone takes
away from the clear truth of this book. We always deal with the major
things that religion, the biggest lies they tell, there's a lot
of them. The biggest ones are God loves
everybody. Well, God said he didn't love
everybody. Somebody's you see you tell people
that that God loves sinners in Christ, but he also hates sinners
outside of Christ He hateth all workers of iniquity And they'll
say well that doesn't mean that you can read it right from the
scripture and they'll say that doesn't mean that Don't trust
them. Don't ever ever ever trust them. I God says, I'll have mercy on
whom I will, and whom I will, I'll harden. And somebody rejects
that. They don't mean that. Well, you
never ever can trust them. Religion ignores the truth of
scripture entirely until somebody actually reads the Bible and
says, what about this? And then they deny it. That don't mean that. Effectively erasing the clear
declaration of scripture from the record of God don't trust
them How can you trust something you
don't understand This is the faithful word and
Paul said seeing we have such hope we use great plainness of
speech and You can be very plain when declaring the faithful word
because it is the simplicity that's in Christ. Everything that God has to say
to sinners concerns his son. And those who hate him understand
very well. You can't hate what you don't
understand. You can't trust what you don't
understand. The word could not be the trusty
word. You could not embrace and hold
fast this word until by God's grace, you understand it. And may God give us grace to
never be a hindrance to that by preaching in the flesh or
according to the wisdom of the flesh. Paul is telling Titus
here to hold this word in the highest regard. Love it and embrace
it and never let go of it. Because only this word can be
trusted. And trusted regarding that which
is vital. The word of God. These holy scriptures, God says,
are able to make a sinner wise unto salvation. through faith, which is in Christ
Jesus. That's how this book makes you wise into salvation. It points
you to Christ that you might believe on him. 2 Timothy 3.15. Look with me at
Romans chapter 10. Let's turn there, please. Romans chapter 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've not heard and How shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As
it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.
But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah saith,
Lord, who hath believed thy report? And to whom, who hath believed our report?
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
It's able to make a sinner wise unto salvation through faith
that is in Christ Jesus So the faithful word is God's means
of saving sinners in this world by pointing them to Christ These
are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ so that
believing you might have life Through his name and it's That's why the person who preaches
it must be faithful to the word because the word is faithful
to God and to sinners whom he has saved,
faithful to point them to Christ. So those men, verses six through
eight where we read, they have to be faithful and faithful in
the preaching of it. This word is trustee because
it reveals him who is alone, the sinner's trust. There's only
one that a sinner can trust. Salvation is trusting Christ
as your righteousness. That's what it is, in our experience
of it. Believing on him as our sin offering,
as our only savior, as our righteousness before God,
as the only righteous one, and righteous for us. We get to see
him as our righteousness by his grace. He reveals himself as
the Lord, our righteousness, not just the righteousness of
God, yes, but my righteousness, my sin offering, trusting the
efficacy of his blood. You remember in Romans chapter
three, it talks about the Lord has done this through faith in
his blood. Do you trust the blood of Christ?
The efficacy of that blood, the precious nature of that, the
redeeming power of that blood. Being justified freely by God's
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. And this just simply means that
we trust him as redeemer. We trust Christ crucified. We
trust what he did. And what he did is what it is
because of who did it. We know that his precious blood
is price enough to redeem me from all of my sin. We trust
him as redeemer. We trust him as righteousness.
We trust him as sovereign. Is your God able to save you,
Daniel? Is he able to save? Does he have
the power to do it? Does he have the authority? To
save you who have broken the law that cannot be altered Do you trust him Is he able to save you as he
hath been taught that's the next phrase in our As he's been taught
a bishop must hold fast the trusty word as he hath been taught You
can't teach what you've not been taught That's why I'm leery of self-proclaimed
teachers preachers of the gospel Somebody just decided one day.
I think I'll preach the gospel There's a reason for ordination
services I was thinking about this recently we do that and
it's it's we don't have scriptural details on that exactly the way
we do it, but we do have what was called in the scripture the
laying on of hands. That wasn't done just to transfer
gifts of the Spirit. That was done as confirmation
of someone that they're gifted to preach the gospel of Christ.
It was testimony when my pastor ordained me along with Brother
Fortner and Brother missionary to Mexico, Walter
Groover and others, they were saying they witnessed the Lord blessed me. You know
how the Lord blessed me to preach? He put me under a pastor of the
gospel for 25 years and taught me the gospel. That's how that
happens. You don't just jump up and say,
well, I think I'll preach. The Lord will just give me a
church to preach to. This is what this is talking
about. You've got to learn the gospel before you can preach
it. That's an issue, right now. This is God's way, it's God's
way. The things that thou hast heard
of me among many witnesses, the same, commit thou to faithful
men who shall be able to teach others also. That's how you know
the gospel and can tell the gospel. It's committed to you by somebody
that preaches the gospel. Paul taught Timothy. Timothy,
he said, you teach others and those others that you teach will
someday be able to teach others also. That's how he does it. You don't have to have a university
degree. In fact, that's a mark against you. some establishment
that makes money doing that, I highly recommend that's not
where you learn the gospel. You're not gonna find it in the
word of God that way. How many times did that have
to happen over the years, over the centuries even, for you to
be one day taught the gospel? How many men had to teach how
many men the truth of Christ before one day you were taught the holy scriptures that make
sinners wise unto salvation. God uses just a man or two in
a person's life to teach him the gospel. Paul taught Timothy. My dad taught me, and Jack Shanks,
my pastor in Texas, taught me the gospel. I've heard and learned
from others, a few others, but very few, and very little compared
to what I learned from those two men by God's grace. Who has God used to teach you
the gospel? If I'm included in that, what a sacred trust that
is. I don't take it lightly, you shouldn't take it lightly. and how vital and consequential
that we're true to the faithful word that we've been taught by
God's grace. And this is how God teaches. It's God that teaches, but he
uses men. He does use men. Philip asked
the Ethiopian, do you understand Isaiah 53? Not in those exact
words, but he's reading Isaiah 53. Do you understand what you
read? And the man said, how can I except some man should guide
me? God just told us right there how he teaches the scriptures
to people that don't yet understand. I thank God for those men that
guided me in God's good providence and grace. And then the next
phrase in our text that he may be able by sound doctrine, by
sound teaching. You know what sound doctrine
is? I've told you this hundreds of times over the years. Sound
doctrine is not a confession of faith that some man came up
with. However good that may sound and however much you might agree
with it, that's not sound doctrine. Holding fast the what? The writings
of the fathers? No, the trusty word of God. And by that, Teaching sound teaching. That's the means by which God
teaches by sound teaching. Teaching what? The faithful word,
not the five points. You might be able to pick them
out, the five points, you might be able to pick them out of my
messages somewhere along the line because they're true. It's not what we preach. We preach
the word, the faithful, trusty, life and death, vital word of
God. The message of Christ and what
he did for sinners and every word that came out of his mouth. Calvinism, I believe to be true.
Generally speaking, at least to the word of God, some people
call Calvinism things that And what difference does it make?
You say, well, it depends on your definition of Calvinism.
Why are we defining that at all? Just go right here, how about?
Just go right here. You don't need to define it.
Just shut up about it and preach Christ. If Calvinism is in there,
it'll come out on it. That which is concocted by men
can be easily changed by men. This don't change. It could be
nuanced and embellished by men, not this. Can be interpreted by men. That's
not trustee. If you start with the doctrines
of men, however true, you're gonna have the wrong perspective
on the word of God. Just simply expound the scripture. Some start with a scripture,
but then go straight to the doctrines of men and use that scripture
to support those. The word doctrine in our text
doesn't mean what they take it to mean when they do that. Many,
if you answered what sound doctrine is, they would say, well, the
doctrines of grace or Calvinism or this creed or that. This highlights
the problem. That's a problem. Sound doctrine
is teaching that is done by someone who holds fast the faithful word,
not the creeds of religions or men. Do you see that in our text? Sound doctrine is taught by somebody
to whom this word is precious. This word is everything. This
word is our hope. This is what we trust because
it tells us of him. It's written by him who we can
trust, of him whom we can trust. If your doctrine is even a statement
of biblical facts, then you've already strayed too far from
the source of true doctrine. And men who are prone to stray
from the scriptures at all are prone to stray farther and farther
and farther from them. If your trust is a set of deductions
based upon the word of God, And pretty soon you'll be deducing
things that are not even in the word of God. You'll find yourself, for example,
talking about what order eternal things were done in. Our doctrine is the faithful
word of God. The doctrinal treatises of men,
even believers, are not able to make you wise into salvation.
The Holy Scriptures are. May God give us grace to stick
to them, to hold fast. Jesus came and spake unto them
in Matthew 28, 18, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven
and in earth. Go ye therefore. You see what's
happening right there? All authority and ability is
mine and I'm sending you. That's how we go. Not with our
own authority, not under our own authority or wisdom or ability
or anything, us. Because of who he is, we go. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. Where does the Philadelphia Confession
of Faith fall in that scripture? There's no room for it. Teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I Have commanded you That's simple. That's just simple And lo I am with you always even
unto the end the world the one who has all authority is with
us I Pray that he is I pray that
he is. Now there are two things that we're able to do, and I
say we're able to do because that's what the text says, that
you may be able. That we may be able, the scriptures
are able, and so if we stick to the scriptures as teachers,
we're able. Otherwise, We have no ability
whatsoever. But two things, to exhort and
to convince. Now the word exhort, a lot of
times two words will be, two things will be given in scripture
and then the third thing will apply to both of those. Like
to exhort the gainsayers and to convince the gainsayers. That's
not true here. Exhort is by itself. We're not
exhorting gainsayers because that's futile. They're gonna
have to not be gainsayers before you can exhort them. The gainsayers
are to be convinced. Convinced. They must be convinced
before they can be exhorted. The word exhort here is very
instructive though. It's that word that we see so
often in the scripture, to call to one side. It means to call
to one side and admonish. I picture a child, a father or
a grandfather calling a child to his side and saying, now son,
here's what happened now, and here's why, and here's what needs
to happen, and here's how. Admonish, exhort, comfort even,
instruct, to call to your side, not to face off in a debate.
That's not how God teaches people. It's a beautiful word to exhort. You can't exhort according to
this word if you're talking down to people and beating them over
the head with the law, being just plumb mean. Most religious
people are mean and they preach mean. Or they're just so sentimental
that they But I've heard some brow beatings
from pulpits. It's not just a cold announcement
of facts either. There's love in this word exhort.
Come here to my side, I have something important to tell you. It's important to me to tell
it to you. And it's important to you to
hear it. And when this word exhort is
what we're doing, numbers can't have anything to do with that.
I'm calling everybody that means something to me to my side. You
can't call numbers to your side. Only people. God will never send
you somebody to preach to you who does not love you. You show
me in the scriptures where he ever did that. Now he's made
donkeys tell the truth. But he said, when I send you
a pastor, he'll be one after my own heart. And you think about
what that means. What's the first thing that comes
to your mind when you think, what is God's heart toward his
people? He's proven that, has he not? If he comes to pronounce judgment
on somebody now, then he may not be after your own heart,
I don't know. But if God's blessing is on his church, he sends someone
that loves him like he does. It's the heart of God. Now listen
to how God does it. This is the heart of God. Come,
come now and let us reason together. Can you imagine God talking to
a sinner like that? A sinner who from the time he
drew his first breath was a rebel against God? And as soon as he
learned how, he spit in God's face and defied his very throne
and did everything he knew to do to cast off the bands and
cords of God and stomping around this world like
he's something. And God says, come now. Is that
the way you'd do it? Somebody, their whole life, it
seemed like everything they did was because they hate you. Is
that the way you do it? Come, let's reason together.
Say it to the Lord. Come to my side and let's talk
about this. What about, Lord, your sin? Your
sin, but here's what we're gonna talk about. We're gonna talk
about how your sins, though they be as scarlet, can be as white
as snow. And though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. That's how we'd have preached
the gospel right there. Come, come now. And convince the gainsayers. You know why you convince the
gainsayer? So he won't be a gainsayer anymore.
That's why, that's the point of it. Not, I know more than
you. That's not the point of it. It's
so that they won't be gainsayers anymore. Not just to prove that
we're right. I've known a few men over the
years who claim to be preachers. They're just in the business
of proving people wrong and consigning people to hell as heretics. who don't know as much as they
know. Listen to what Paul said to Timothy
and tell me, if this is the spirit in which Paul taught sinners
the gospel, just to condemn them, to prove them wrong, to debate
over things and say, I know more than you, listen to this. 2 Timothy
2.23, see if you hear our text in this. exhort, convince. Why? So they won't be gainsayers. So they'll hear and believe.
2 Timothy 2.23, but foolish and
unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.
I've been in on a few of those strifes. and the servant of the
Lord must not strive. God teach me that. When he says that part of it,
it kind of sounds like he's talking about period. That's one way to gender strife. And striving is something that
the servant of God must never do. But be gentle unto all, apt to
teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves.
They're not against you, they're against themselves. Did Judas sell the Lord Jesus
Christ or did he sell himself? It's not a personal affront when
people don't know Christ. You're not their enemy, they
are their own enemy. Act like that when we're teaching them. In meekness, instruct those that
oppose themselves. If God, just maybe. I've never seen, in any of the
big old books, I've never seen the doctrine of just maybe. Theologians don't like just maybes
when it comes to God, but I'll tell you this, just maybe God. This is the way he does it. Come
over here and let's talk about this. God says, come now, let
us reason together. And if God gives them repentance,
you know what they'll say? That's the truth. Oh, what you're
saying is the truth. Bless God, it's the truth. that
they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who
are taken captive by him at his will. God uses us in this work of his. They're their own worst enemy,
not mine. They oppose themselves. Look
what Satan has done to them. Look what he's done. I know that the Lord uses Satan
however he pleases. It's their own fault, isn't it?
But how you gonna let him go? When we preach the gospel, we
are committing those that we love to the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what that looks like? You do, don't you? Here's what that looks like.
When we preach the gospel, when we support the ministry of the
Lord here, when we make sure there's a place where the light
of Christ shines, We're committing those that we love to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And here's what that looks like.
Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is
grievously vexed with the devil. Have mercy on me by doing something
for them. It will be a mercy to me if you
have mercy on the one that I love. When we care that much, we'll
be faithful ministers of the word of God and not until. And
may God make it so. Let's pray.