Titus chapter 3 this morning. Titus chapter 3. Now we've looked
in verses 7 and 8 at two words primarily. Let's read these verses
again in the words grace and works. We singled out and pretty
much just talked about that and how they go so beautifully together
in the sense in which they're expressed in these verses. Look
at verse 7 of Titus 3. That being justified by his grace
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
This is a faithful saying in these things I will that thou
affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be
careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men. You see the word grace in verse
7 justified by his grace, and then having believed in God,
they which have believed in God, be careful to maintain good works. And you see that last part of
verse 8, these things are good and profitable. I want to speak
to you this morning about what's profitable and what's not. That's
the title of the message, what's profitable and what's not. Now you see in these verses,
though we talked about last week how grace and works are opposed
to one another before salvation and in the matter of the work
of salvation, We're not saved by works. It's
not of him that willeth or of him that runneth. It's of God
that showeth mercy. Works have nothing to do. If
it's grace, then it's no more work. And if it's work, then
it's no more grace. They're unmixable. There's no
combination of the two involved in our salvation. But having
been saved, we're ordained by God unto good works. Most good
works don't add anything to our justification. We're justified
freely, it says there, by His grace. Justified by His grace. And then having been justified,
having been made perfect in Christ, spotless, holy, blameless in
Christ, we're to be careful to maintain good works. And this
is profitable. So let's talk about this for
a minute. We'll expand upon verses 7 and 8 and look at some other
phrases in these verses that we didn't focus on last time
and then maybe see the rest of the chapter too. Do you know
a good work from a bad one? Unbelievers could certainly be
confused about that. They would say, well, a good
work is going to church. Going to church is a good work.
Well, it depends on what you call a church. Not necessarily. That might be a real bad one.
But do we know a good one from a bad one? Let's talk more about
that in a minute. But first, notice something in
verse 7 we didn't particularly comment on much yet. It speaks of being heirs according
to eternal life. Justified by his grace so that
we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Does that remind you of something?
Heirs of eternal life. Turn to Mark chapter 10. Heirs of eternal life. Mark 10 verse 1. Let's start in verse 13 rather than verse 1. And they
brought young children to him that he should touch them, and
his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus
saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the
little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for
if such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he
shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms
and put his hands upon them and blessed them. And when he was
gone forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled
to him and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit
eternal life? There's our thought from our
text, that we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal
life. How do you inherit eternal life? I want to be an heir of
eternal life, don't you? This man did too. And Jesus said unto him, Why
callest thou me good? There is none good but one, and
that is God. Thou knowest the commandments.
Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear
false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother. And he
answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from
my youth. This young man had not heard
the Sermon on the Mount, or if he had heard it, he hadn't
heard it, where the Lord said, if you just look, if you just
think, if you just feel, it's not just outward. Then Jesus beholding him loved
him and said unto him, One thing thou lackest, go thy way And
sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt
have treasure in heaven. And come, take up the cross,
and follow me." Now remember what a cross is. What does he
mean, take up the cross and follow me? What's a cross? A cross has
one purpose. Remember that? You remember what
it is? There's one purpose for a cross. People die on them.
That's what they are. People die on crosses. That's
all they're good for. So what he's saying is you go,
you're going to have to die. The you that I'm talking to right
now has got to go. And the you that looks at me
and sees everything he needs is going to have to live. The
old you got to go. And he was sad at that saying
and went away aggrieved for he had great possessions. And Jesus
looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly
shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God. And
the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth
again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that
trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God. It is hard
for those that have them to enter in, because those that have them
trust them not. You say, well not everybody does.
Oh yeah they do. Everybody that has riches trusts in riches.
Unless God does something for them. Verse 25, It is easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich
man to enter into the kingdom of God. And they were astonished
out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved?
He just said, and the reason I read a little bit before this
story, The little children came and he welcomed them. This rich
young ruler he sent away. Walked away with nothing from
Christ. Who then can be saved? And Jesus
looking upon them saith with men, it's impossible. But with
God, but not with God, for with God all things are possible. I want you to notice a couple
of things about this passage as it relates to our text. Remember
our text. justified by his grace and made
heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This man came.
How can I inherit eternal life? How can I be an heir of eternal
life? I want you to notice something
about this. Our Lord did not say to this man that a sinner
can only inherit eternal life by God's choice and by God's
grace alone. He didn't say that to him. I
wonder why, because our text says we're justified by his grace
and made heirs of the hope of eternal life. So we know that's
true, but why didn't the Lord say that to him? He didn't say,
oh, you can't just inherit the kingdom of God. You've got to
be made an heir by grace, by the choice of God. Why didn't
he say that to him? There can only be two reasons
why he didn't. Number one, he just didn't want to waste the
gospel on him knowing that he was a reprobate. You reckon that
was it? I don't reckon so either. The
other possibility is this, what Christ did say to him is the
gospel. And what Christ did say to him
was simply this, get rid of everything that keeps you from me and have
nothing but me. You need to come to the place
in your heart where all you have is Christ. Is that what he said
to him? Go get rid of everything that's
valuable to you and there can only be one thing needful to
you and that's me. Is that the gospel? Either the gospel is a person Or it's a lot of complicated
systems and points and stances that people might take. Now think with me. Is doctrine
important? Oh yes, absolutely. But the gospel is either a person
or a doctrine. Which do you think it is? Now I can see the point that
those who trust doctrine and not Christ always make, which
is that you can't know Christ without being taught. Doctrine
is just teaching. You can't know Christ without
being taught something. I agree. But that doesn't change
the truth that salvation is either a doctrine or a person. What's the doctrine? Is the doctrine
the end game? Or is the doctrine the law itself? The commandments of God. The
law. Everything God ever said. Is
that just the means to the end? The goal of the law is a person. But for many, the goal is the
doctrine. I've arrived at the doctrines
of grace, or whatever doctrines. And the reason I emphasize this
again, and I know I've been harping on it some lately, is because
of our text. What's coming up in our text,
and we'll see it in a minute. I'll remind you again of what
our Lord said to the Pharisees with regard to this. He said
in John 5.39, Search the scriptures. And what I believe he's saying
there is you search the scriptures. Because in them you think you
have eternal life. Knowing the scriptures is not
salvation. They are they which testify of me. The scriptures
are written that you might come to me. And you won't come to
me that you might have life. Life is a person not a doctrine
not even the scriptures They are the words of eternal life
because that God uses them to bring us to his son who is himself
life Let me say something to you very plainly this morning
again doctrine When the word of God uses the word doctrine,
you know what it's talking about the Word of God Doctrine is the
Word of God and it is written that you might believe on Christ,
the Son of God. And that believing, you might
have life in His name. You might inherit eternal life,
in other words. Our Lord taught that rich young
ruler what life is. I know that my brother shall
rise again in the resurrection. Martha, you're looking at the
resurrection. You're looking at life. The Bible is not written that
you might make deductions from it and form man-made statements
of faith and write books and argue with one another about
who's right and who's wrong. The doctrine of Christ has already
been written in a book and it has one stated purpose that you
might believe on God's side. That's why. We are justified
by God's grace alone Through faith in Christ alone, and that
grace is free, and that faith has one object. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, being justified by God's free and sovereign
grace. What does that look like? How
do I know if I am? What does it look like to be
justified? You know what it looks like to be justified by free
and sovereign grace? It looks like you coming to Christ
and never going away. That's what it looks like. Because
if God bestows his free grace on you, that's exactly what you'll
do. You won't argue with people about
what free grace is. You'll come to Christ. And you'll want everyone you
love to come to Him. You won't just want them to know
some facts. You won't just want them to agree
with you. That'd be great. But you're going
to want them to be with Christ. That's what you're going to want. And they will come to Him by
the hearing of the clear message of Scripture that salvation is
in God's Son. This is the record that God has
given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. God
was saving people way before your articles of faith were ever
written. Does that shock you? God was saving sinners before
your denomination of creed was ever formed or you had ever argued
a single point or taken a stand on anything in your man-made
systems. Look at the last part of verse
8. These things are good and profitable. What? That you maintain good works. Do you know a good one from a
bad one? Well, we'll talk about that again
in a minute. But think about this. What is
good and profitable for believers to do is to be careful to maintain
good works, to act like believers in Christ. Apostle Paul in the
first three chapters of the book of Ephesians lays out the glorious
doctrine of free justification, which is right here also in our
text in Titus. We're justified freely by his
grace and made heirs. That's how you inherit eternal
life. God freely puts you in his Son and makes you a joint
heir with his Son. justified by the grace of God.
And then in chapter 4 he says, now you walk like it. Grace and works go beautifully
together when seen rightly. When the law is used lawfully,
Paul said, we love the law of God. But here's the thing, here's
the context of this. Verse 8 now, in Titus 3. These things are good and profitable
unto men, but, you see that but in verse nine? That's a reversal
of what was just said. He's fixing to say just the opposite.
These things, to maintain good works, to walk in the light of
Christ, to walk as he walked, to be like him, to walk to be
like him and strive to be like him. to be an imitator of him. That's what good works is. That's
good and profitable, but what's not good and profitable is what's
coming up in this next verse. Look at it. These things are
good and profitable, but arguing in contention about the scriptures
He's not among those things that are good and profitable. You
see why we're talking about what we're talking about? And like
Paul in Romans 9, now I see the objection coming. You remember
how Paul anticipated the objection of unbelievers in Romans 9? He
said, you know, you'll say then, why does God yet find fault?
I know you're going to say that. Well, I know what they're going
to say. that object to this. They're going to say, oh, but
look, Chris, you know, people that like to argue, debate, let's
have a debate. You know, let's debate free grace
versus free will, or let's debate creationism versus, you know, the other philosophy so stupid
I forgot what it's called. One says we used to be apes and
tadpoles and such. Let's debate that. Some people
want to argue and debate and blog to death every issue, you
know. No. But, there are things that
are good and profitable in the end, but that's not them. That's
not it. And Paul, as he anticipated their
argument, I know what their argument is going to be. They're going
to look at this and they're going to say, oh, but wait, Chris, it
says there avoid foolish questions. We don't debate foolish questions.
We just debate intelligent, smart questions, important questions. Yeah, here's the thing about
that. Do you know what the latest one is that's being argued? At
least that I'm aware of. Was Jesus Christ a sinner? That's a real doozy there, isn't
it? That's a real important question, isn't it? I say to you unequivocally
that that is the stupidest question that anybody ever asks. Can you
argue with me about that? Has there ever been a more stupid
question than is Jesus Christ a sinner? Is there anything more
evident? More revealed? More obvious? More clear and emphatic? than
the fact that Christ is the holy, spotless, blameless Son of God.
So you're arguing important questions? I don't think so. That's why
the scriptures, when men begin to argue and to reason and deduce
things from scripture and debate one another on who's right and
who's wrong, what are we left with? Stupid questions. Stupid
questions. Let me ask you honestly, you
who have actually read the Word of God, How much time would you
like to spend arguing about whether Christ was a sinner or not? Do
you think that would be time well spent? If you can argue, this might
surprise you. I've given a lot of thought about
this. If you can argue about the word of God, you don't believe
it. It's just the truth. Because if you believe it, once
you believe and are given faith by God to believe what God said,
once you are persuaded of Christ as Paul said he was. There's
nothing to argue about. Those who have been to the potter's
house don't argue the sovereignty of God anymore. When you know that he's the potter
and you're the clay, what is the point of a piece of clay
arguing about whether God is sovereign or not? Do you know what they do from
then on? Once a piece of clay knows he's a piece of clay that
was formed by the pauper and made into a vessel as it pleased
him, whether unto honor or unto dishonor, you know what they
do then? They don't argue anymore. Look
at verse 10 of our text. A man that is in heretic after
the first and second admonition reject. Now is doctrine important? Clearly. You see verse 10 here.
If somebody doesn't believe the truth, the word of God, that's
doctrine now. And the reason I keep saying
that is when people talk about doctrine, usually what they're
talking about is what they came up with. What they think God
meant by what he said. That's my doctrine. No. The doctrine
of Christ is what Christ said. What God said concerning his
son. Not what you said. But do you see this now? Doctrine
is clearly very important. The truth is important now because
that's what brings us to Christ. You're not going to get to Him. How should they believe on Him
of whom they've not heard? If somebody is preaching false
doctrine, you're not going to hear of the Savior. You're hearing
of an idol of a false Christ. How can you be saved then? How
can you believe on the Christ of the Bible if you're not hearing
about Him? So clearly, a man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition,
reject them. That's how important doctrine
is. Shun them, avoid them, and send them on their way. Send
them packing. That's how important doctrine
is. So don't anybody ever say, well he doesn't make much of
doctrine, does he? Oh yeah. But doctrine won't save
you. Christ is going to have to save
you. So believers don't argue though.
Don't miss a word in that verse there. After the first and second,
admonition. Once you believe God, that's
what you do. Now you don't argue, you admonish.
There's a big difference. Believers rejoice with one another. Believers don't argue with one
another. We are the circumcision, Paul said, the covenant people
of God. In other words, the circumcision
was the sign of the covenant. that God gave. We're the covenant
people of God who worship God in the Spirit and we rejoice
in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. We rejoice together
in Christ Jesus. I see a lot of people that would
much rather argue than just rejoice. Something wrong there now. I'm kind of partial to just rejoicing
with you. We rejoice together. We don't
debate. We don't invite others to opine about the scriptures
concerning what God said. Opinion, let me be clear about
this, opinion has nothing to do with the gospel. Nothing. You should not care what my opinion
is and I don't care what yours is. Let's find out what God said
and let's rejoice together in it. And if you can't or I can't,
That's why that word reject is there. Let's go our separate
ways. Those who outright reject the
gospel, we are to reject them. We don't argue with them either.
We don't argue with each other. We rejoice in Christ together.
And we don't argue with those that don't believe what we believe.
We admonish them. And we only do that a couple
of times. Did you notice that here? Just a couple of times.
And then that's the end of it. Admonish. Exhort and warn. That's a big difference from
debating, my friends. Exhort. Reiterate and remind
of what God said. And warn now. There's a warning. And I can't warn you with regard
to what I say. But I can warn you with regard
to what God said. There are no consequences to
you not listening to me. If it's something that I just
came up with. But if it's what God said, there are consequences
to rejecting that. So there's where the warning
is. This word admonishes as a father
with his child. Now it's done in love. You can
warn in love, can't you? You can exhort in love. It's
kind of hard to argue in love, especially these things. Because
what you're saying is, if you're arguing about this, both sides
are saying you're a heretic and you're going to hell for it.
That's not very loving, is it? But this is done in love. Admonish. I would to God that you were
such as I am, except these bonds. That's not an argument. That's
an admonishment. As a father his child, Ephesians
6 verse 4, here's our word. And ye fathers, provoke not your
children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord. That's what this word is, admonish.
Admonish them a couple of times, not just once, because it's important. We need to be sure. That they
can't be won, that they can't be convinced. And that's a good scriptural
word. That we might convince the naysayers. It's not us doing
it, but God will use men to do it. Exhort and warn as a father his
child. And once you've done this a second
time, and you see that there's no use, Time to part ways. That's the word of God. So says
God on the matter. Not have a decades long feud
about it. And I'm not going to let you
sit here. Now if you're disruptive, if you're a heretic, and everybody
knows it, and you hate the gospel of Christ, I'm not going to let
you sit here while I argue with you and disguise it as a gospel
sermon. And while you show utter contempt
for me. It's not to be. The scriptures are clear about
it. not to happen like that. Under God it can't be. If you're not satisfied with
the plain, simple gospel that we preach and rejoice in it,
I say we because it's not just me. It's just about, I'd say just
about everybody in here. If you're not happy with what
we preach, it is necessary that there be a rejection I just want
to read the last few verses. I want to be brief this morning. Let's look at these last few
verses here and just make maybe just one comment. Avoid these foolish questions
and genealogies, verse 9, and contentions and strivings about
the law, for they are unprofitable in vain. You see the word profitable
in verse 8 and the word unprofitable in verse 9. with the word but
in between them. That's as clear as it gets right
there. What is profitable and what's not? Alright, let's talk about what
good works are because he's going to mention it again. Look at
verse 10. A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition
reject, knowing that he that is such is subverted in sin,
being condemned of himself, he is forsaken his own mercy. There's
one hope for God, for sinners, and it's this gospel. It's the
reason the disciples said, where would we go? You have the words
of eternal life. And if you reject the words of
eternal life, if you are one of those ones that went away
and walk no more with him, you condemn yourself. You damn yourself
in a very great and true sense to hell. When I shall send Artemis unto
thee, verse 12, or Tacitus, be diligent to come unto me, to
Nicopolis, where I have determined there to winter. The apostle
had many men that were his fellow laborers, and he counted on them
for thanks. Be diligent to do this. And he
was able to count on them, and that's such a blessing. Bring Zenus, the lawyer, and
Apollos on their journey diligently, that nothing be wanting unto
them. And let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary
uses, that they be not unfruitful. You see, this is not just a doctrine.
It is a doctrine. We don't just believe in total
depravity. I believe that I am totally depraved. There's a difference in there. And you see yourself there. And
this thing of good works, it's not just that we say, oh it'd
be good, you know, but we're talking about us. You see that? Ours also. This is not just for the masses,
it's for you. And it's for me. Let's provoke one another unto
good works, the scripture says. Encourage one another to good
works. And then he says, finally, all
that are with me salute thee and greet them that love us in
the faith. Isn't it wonderful to have such
a family? Our Lord said, if you left any
family for my sake, you'll never be the loser. You'll have tenfold. Now, true that is. I don't even know how to say
this right, but I've experienced it. Even if you could think to yourself,
and the disciples did, they said, look, we've left everything,
Lord, and followed you. And we get to thinking like that
sometimes. It's foolish that we get to thinking sometimes
we've actually sacrificed something, you know, to serve the Lord.
What a joke. And yet we think like that, just
like the disciples did. And then our Lord reminds us
that we have by His grace and by His providence He sees to
it that if we serve Him with what we are by His grace and
what we have by His grace, that we'll have tenfold what we might
think we gave up. I stand before you a first-hand
witness of the truth. What a wonderful thing. There's
another one right there. Another witness of the truth
of that. But greatest, I guess, of all
of that is the family the Lord gives us. Those that love us in the faith. What a mighty blessing that is.
Jesus' grace be with you. But he mentions good works twice
in this text. So I want to talk about that
just for a minute. Just one passage of scripture. 2 Timothy chapter 3. What are good works? Well, can
I be honest with you? I don't have time to tell you
this morning. There's a whole bunch of them, but I'll tell
you how you can find out what they are. 2 Timothy 3 and verse
10. But thou hast fully known my
doctrine, my manner of life. What was Paul's doctrine? You
remember what it said? As his custom was, he went into
the synagogue opening and alleging that Christ, he opened, what
did it say? He opened the word of God, the scriptures, and opened
and alleged that Christ must needs have suffered. There he is right there. It wasn't
hanging on a wall, it was a book that God wrote. It wasn't a book
that man wrote. Now it's fully known my doctrine,
my manner of life. Must be doers of the word, aren't
we? Are we just hypocrites? My purpose, you've known what
my purpose is. My faith, I know whom I have
believed. That's Paul's faith. I know whom. Paul's faith was a person. His purpose was a person. His
doctrine was a person. Long suffering, charity, patience,
persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me. at Antioch, at
Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all
the Lord delivered me. And all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, but evil men and
seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and
hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. And that from a child thou hast
known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise
unto salvation. Now I want to, we got to jump
ahead here because I want you to see the last two words of
this passage in all of the other words that we read in this passage.
So we got to jump ahead and look at it. You see down there? Thruly
furnished unto all good works. How does that happen? How am
I going to be that? That's what I want to be. Well,
continue in the things that you've learned. I could sit here and tell you
reading your Bible is a good work, praying is a good work,
but all those things can be bad, can't they? Oh, but if we continue in the
things which we've learned, being and has been assured of knowing
of whom thou hast learned them, who maketh thee to differ? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? Our brother just read, it is given unto you to
know, to them it's not given. How do you know what you know?
That from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, verse 15,
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith
which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable. You see this? How are we going
to be thoroughly furnished unto all good works? Get your face
in this book. That's how. The scriptures. The scriptures. Paul said you've
been from a child. You've known the holy scriptures.
And they've made you wise unto salvation. They've been profitable
to you. What's the title of our message? Things that are profitable.
Things that are not. What's profitable? Good works.
What's that? Oh, look in the word of God.
Just look. You know, Paul talks about preaching
being a good thing. He that wants the office of a
bishop desires a good thing. But he also talks about a woman
who was full of good works named Dorcas and the only thing listed
that she ever did was make coats for people. There's a pretty
good range right there. Good works. Good works. Get in the Word of God and see
what's good. It's profitable for doctrine,
for reproof. When you're not doing something
good, how are you going to know that? The Word of God is going
to reprove you. The Gospel preached is going
to reprove you. This is our bread and butter,
my friends. I don't know how else to say it. for correction, for instruction
in righteousness. That, the man of God. You see how clear this is? What's
a good work? You want me to tell you, or you
want God to tell you? We're not gonna be here much
longer, y'all. Let's get in this, but let's find out what God said.
And be doers of his word. That's what a good work is. that the man of God may be mature,
throughly furnished unto all good works. Scripture, Scripture,
Scripture, Scripture is profitable for everything that furnishes
you. To these good works that we are
to be careful to maintain, to the glory of our Savior, may
it be so. Let's pray.