Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Titus chapter 3. Titus chapter 3. I want to begin here in verse 8.
The Apostle Paul is instructing the young preacher Titus. And
this is so vital for any preacher and it's vital for you and me
to understand. He said in verse 8, this is a
faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly,
that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain
good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men. but avoid foolish questions and
genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law, for
they are unprofitable and vain. He says in verse 8, this is a
faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly. Now what's he talking about? John Gill has one of the best commentaries
on all of the Scriptures. And he got it exactly right.
He's referring to the Gospel that he just declared in verses
3 through 7. Let's read this together, verse
3. For we ourselves, speaking to believers, we ourselves also
were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving different lusts
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating
one another. But after that, the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness which we've done, but according to his mercy he
saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and
these things, these things I will that thou from constantly, that
they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain
good works. These things, this constant reminder
that sinners are saved by the grace of God in Christ Jesus
alone. These things are good and profitable
to men. They will make God's people careful
to maintain good works. Continually hearing the gospel,
and it's evident he's talking to us and he's telling Titus
to preach constantly the gospel of Christ because he tells him
in the next verse to avoid foolish questions and the doctrines of
men because they're unprofitable. He says, verse nine, but avoid
foolish questions and genealogies and contentions. and strivings
about the law, for they are improbable in vain." You see, the Spirit
of God declares here through the Apostle Paul that it is the
constant affirming, the constant preaching of God's grace, His
free and sovereign grace of the person and the works of our Lord
Jesus Christ of the work of the Holy Spirit in regenerating and
keeping and blessing the Word to us. It's the constant preaching
of this message that motivates the believer to good works. It's the message the Lord blesses
so that those that have believed in God might be careful to maintain
good works. Now, without a doubt, God's preacher
preaches good works. Believers maintain good works
by the Spirit of God, by God's grace. I encourage you to go
home and read this entire epistle. He tells us here that the aged
believer and the young believer also are to be serious-minded,
sound in faith, in charity, in patience, and what will help
us have self-control and not be shaken by providence is remembering
that God our Savior is sovereign and he's ruling in the hearts
of each of his people, he's ruling all men in this world, the king's
hearts in his hand, the scripture says, he turns it with us so
ever he will, like the rivers of water. It's remembering that
the Lord is working in the midst of His people that'll keep you
settled and sound no matter what providence. He tells us in this
epistle that the aged women and likewise the young women are
to be in behavior that becometh holiness. He tells us here that
servants, this would be employees, workers at a job, that we could
be good workers at the job, not purloining, be good workers at
the job. And he tells us in this epistle
that we're all to be in subjection, submit to those God has put in
authority. There's no power but of God.
Whoever is in the office of authority, God put them there and God rules
them, and so we can just submit to them. We can submit to them. But in most pulpits, The preaching
of good works is what you hear predominantly. You hear the preaching
of good works. You don't hear very much preach
concerning God's grace and salvation by Christ alone. That's not what's
being preached. And so many do these good works. Many do these good works. But
the motive of the heart is wrong. The motive of the heart is wrong.
They do these works to indebt God to save them. Or they do
these works to merit God's favor. To seek a reward from God. And men feel like God owes them
a reward because of their good works. They're trying to save
themselves or at least contribute in some way to their salvation.
Because to hear it preached from most pulpits, you would think
salvation is by doing these good works. You see, the difference
between a work being a good work and it being legalism, being
a legal work, it's not the work. Two men may do the same exact
work, but what one's doing it to be justified or to be holy
or to make himself more holy or to contribute to his salvation,
to indebt God. And the other is doing it simply
because God has justified him. And the Spirit of God has sanctified
him. And he does behold the mercy
and grace of God to him. You see, the one who's doing
it to try to make himself accepted of God is doing it from a legal
motive. And he's trying to indebt God.
But the one who's doing it out of gratitude, because he's constrained
in his heart by the love of our Lord. And what the Lord's done
for us, that is the one who's doing a good work. That's who's
doing a good work. But it's the constant hearing
of the gospel of God's grace. We need to be reminded constantly
of the gospel of God's grace. We need to be reminded what we
are by nature, sinners. And we need to be reminded of
what God has done for us in Christ freely by His unmerited, sovereign,
free grace. Then the works of faith are constrained
by the love of Christ for us. The motive then is faith. We do them in faith, trusting
in the Lord, and we do them because we're constrained by God's love
for us in Christ. So the motive of the heart is
this. Back up there in Titus 2 and
verse 10. Here's the motive, the true motive
in the heart of the believer. At the end there, he wants to
do all things that he may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior
in all things. That's the motive. For the grace
of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching
us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking
for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great
God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that
he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works. So let's hear this gospel again.
Let me do what Paul has exhorted Titus to do. I want to affirm
to you again the good news of the gospel of God's grace. First
of all, to make his child meek, meek in heart, and to keep us
meek so that we show all meekness to all men. The Lord continually
reminds us that by nature we were spiritually dead. By nature
we were rebels against God. We were rebels against God. when He called us. He said there
in Titus 3 and verse 2, He's saying there, be gentle and show
meekness to all men. And He said, and here's why,
here's the motive right here, because we ourselves also were
sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving different lusts
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating
one another. Now some of us, might have appeared
this way outwardly and it was obvious. We were just rebels
against God. I would certainly fall into that category. But some might have been in religion
doing this. You see, what he's declaring
right here is the sin nature. Paul was in religion doing these
things. If you would have looked at Paul
outwardly, you would have said that man does nothing but good
works. but in his heart, and this is
what the sin nature is right here. This is the true description
of every sinner as we come into this world. This is what our
sin nature is right here. By our fallen Adam, by being
born of his corruption, this is what we are by nature. We
come into this world foolish. We don't know God by nature.
We're disobedient. We're deceived because our nature
is. We're spiritually dead by nature,
scripture says. We were the slaves of our sin
nature. Men like to brag about their free will. You can only
do what your nature permits you to do. That's true. You know,
a man in a jail cell, he can get up and move around all he
wants to within the confines of that jail cell, but he can't
get out of that prison. That sin nature that we're born
with is that prison. You can only do what your nature
dictates. There's a reason a cow eats green
grass. That's his nature. There's a
reason a buzzard eats roadkill. That's his nature. And while
our nature is sin, we feast on dead things. That's all, and
we can't break free from that. We were the slaves of our sin
nature serving different lusts and pleasures. We not only would
not believe God's Word, we could not believe it. Go home tonight
and read 1 Corinthians 2 again. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God, the foolishness to him. because they're spiritually
discerned. Romans 8 says the carnal mind's
enmity against God, not subject to the word of God and neither
indeed can be. That was all of us by nature.
So we can't very well deal in anything but meekness toward
sinners who oppose the gospel. We have to deal meekly with them
because we ourselves were foolish and disobedient. You couldn't
hear the gospel and I couldn't either. We couldn't love Christ. They can't. They can't hear the
gospel. They can't submit to the gospel.
So we have to preach this gospel and pray to the Lord to bless
it. And wait on the Lord to bless it. And be kind to folks in the
meantime while you're waiting on Him to bless it. It's the
gospel of salvation by our Savior. reminding us constantly that
we're the sinner that keeps you meek. Keeps you meek. Keeps you meek. And it's through
this gospel He checks us. When we start sitting in judgment
of others, and we start wanting to throw stones, and we start
sitting in judgment, He'll use this gospel, and the Spirit of
God speaks affection in our heart like He did the first hour, and
He will check us. I was preparing this and I received
a bulletin from Pastor John Chapman and he had an article in there
from Pastor Henry Mahan that Brother Mahan wrote years ago.
Listen to this. He said, the thing that troubles
me most when it comes to the validity of our profession of
Christ is that we talk, preach, and sing of love, mercy, and
forgiveness. But then, when the opportunity
comes for us to love the unlovely and forgive the offender and
bind up the wounded heart, we join the circle of Pharisees,
clutching our stones, ready to wound and maim. And when that's
our case, brethren, when you and me fall into that judgmental
attitude, our Lord will send this gospel again and He will
remind you, you the sinner, You're a sinner and I'm a sinner. You
know, that's the best thing that we can hear to keep us humbled
is knowing we are sinners saved and being saved by the grace
of God. Nothing more. That's how the Lord's going to
make us obey his command to love your enemies. Bless them that
curse you. Do good to them that hate you
and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you. How
are you going to do that? By Him reminding you over and
over, you're a sinner by nature. You're a sinner by nature. And
even now, He keeps you knowing, in my flesh was no good thing.
That's what the Apostle Paul said. I have a sin nature still
that's just as sinful. Just as sinful. Now secondly,
we need to hear constantly of the love and kindness of God
toward us. That's what's gonna make us love
and be kind, is hearing of the love and kindness of God toward
us, verse four. But after that, the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. Even after we fell
in Adam. Even after we came forth from
our mother's womb, speaking lies, conceived in sin, even after
we lived all those days of rebellion against God, after that, the
love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared. Why did God not
just, when Adam sinned in the garden, when the first man sinned,
why didn't God just destroy the whole world right then? Because
God, Ephesians 1 verse 4 says, God the Father blessed the people
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places according
as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.
And He says to us over and over in Scripture that His love is
everlasting. He knows no change. Either God's
grace is grace and it's free. That's how you know it's free,
because He didn't destroy mankind when Adam sinned. Because He
would save a people. He would save a people. And it's
hearing of that kindness toward us in Christ, and for Christ's
sake alone, that's going to make us deal kindly. It's that everlasting
love of God in the heart, that commitment, that agape love is
commitment. And God was committed to us.
And He wouldn't take no for an answer. And God saved His people
in Christ. And when He's put that love in
your heart, He makes you committed to God. He makes you committed
to your brethren. And He makes you committed to
this gospel. To speak this to God's people. And trust Christ
to save His people. And trust Christ to bless His
people. Because you know, you couldn't do it to yourself. You
couldn't save yourself. So you know it takes this gospel
to do it to others. What will keep us from looking
to our works? What's going to keep us from putting confidence
in ourselves? What will make us merciful to
one another and make us merciful to sinners that don't know Christ?
It's constantly hearing this, verse 5. Not by works of righteousness
which we've done, but according to His mercy He saved us. You
know who that's good news to? That's good news to sinners.
That's good news to sinners. That's good news to this sinner.
You're talking to a sinner, looking at a sinner right here. That's
good news to me. God didn't call us because of
any works in us. We didn't clean up our act, turn
over a leaf, a new leaf, and that's why God showed us mercy.
No, sir. It was not by works of righteousness
we've done. It was according to his mercy
that he saved us. In every epistle, in every epistle
Paul wrote three-fourths of the New Testament, in every epistle
when Paul writes and exhorts brethren to maintain good works,
he spends chapter after chapter declaring that we have sinned
and we are sinners, ruined in Adam. And then he spends chapter
after chapter declaring that the love and kindness of God
is manifest in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we're
saved by grace, by God's mercy. And then he gets to the good
work. When I'm preaching on a particular
work, if I'm preaching on any particular work, first thing
I want everyone to know is we have totally failed to do it.
We failed to do it way back there in the garden in Adam. And then
I want you to see how Christ fulfilled it and He's the righteousness
of His people in it. He put away our sin for not doing
it. and then exhort the believer, now do this work. Then your motive
is what God's done for you. Then your motive is grace. I'll
give you an example, verse 1, chapter 3, verse 1. He said,
put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers
to obey magistrates. That means everybody that's in
an office of authority, whether it's in the home, it's in the
church, it's in the government, wherever. And there's a big problem
with this in the world today, in our nation today. Nobody wants
to submit to authority. Here's what I'm going to say
to you about that. Now, I hope you do this. I hope you will be in submission
to every power and principality. But don't think you're going
to be made righteous by doing that. Don't think that God is
going to save you because of that. Because back in the garden,
when Adam rebelled, he rebelled against the authority, God Almighty,
and so did we. We broke the whole law of God
then. And then in the love and kindness of God, he sent forth
the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what God's own son
did? This one who is God took flesh like those he came to save
and made himself under his own law. He put himself in subjection
under his own law to represent his people. And he submitted
to God the Father. And he submitted to every power
and authority God put in place. He put them in place! And then
he came and submitted to them himself. That's our righteousness. In that one good word right there,
that's our righteousness, Christ. And then he went to the cross.
And for every time you've had a thought of the police officer,
wrote you a ticket and it just made you upset, oh he should
have let me off. Or whatever it is, the school
teacher said something to you and it offended you. Or any authority
and you felt that rebellion in your heart welling up. Christ
went to the cross and took all of the sin of his people and
put all that away. Justified us, purged us. That's
how we're righteous, that's how we're justified. Now, knowing
that, now, be in subjection to the powers and authorities. You
get what I'm saying? That's our constraint now. He's
ruling them. The Lord raised him to his right
hand and gave him all power and authority over all in heaven,
earth and hell and he's ruling all brethren. A man in this earth
can't do a thing. He can't take that office unless
the Lord put him there. And you can submit to the Lord.
You know that. That's what's going to keep you settled. That's
what's going to keep you settled, knowing, confident, knowing my
sovereign God. He's got me. He's got me. He's
got me protected. We gotta be reminded of this
constantly. It's by his mercy, it's by his
grace. He said, I'll be merciful to
their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities, I'll remember
no more. He didn't just forget them, he just didn't sweep them
under the rug. He sent his son and he paid for them. He paid
the price. The soul that sinneth must die. Christ died and when
he died, the law was satisfied and the curse was removed from
his people. Now remember this, brethren,
if it's by grace, it's what Paul said in Romans 11, 6, if it's
by grace, then it's no more of works. Salvation is not by works.
Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it's of works, then it's
no more grace. In other words, the two can't
mix. We're not saved partly by grace and partly by works. It's
either all of grace or else you've got to come to God trying to
do all the law by yourself and expect God to receive you. And
He won't. He won't. Here's the believer's motivation
for good works is to be reminded continually that we didn't make
ourselves be born again. He said there in verse 5, It's
not by works of righteousness we've done, but according to
His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. I was sitting in a congregation
just like this. I was a young person sitting
there not not wanting to hear the preacher, not wanting to
pay attention to what was going on. I was there because I had
to be because my mom and dad made me go. And the word went
forth and as hard as I tried to keep that word out of my heart,
I had my heart balled up like Jericho. And that gospel trumpet
blew and those walls fell down. And I didn't know what was happening.
All I knew is I started believing what I was hearing. I started
believing the Word when I heard that I'm a sinner. I saw it for
the first time. And I started believing the Word
when I heard that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only righteousness
of His people. And I found myself realizing
the only hope I have is Christ the Lord. The only hope. You
know what happened? The Holy Spirit came forth and
blessed that word and created life in me and made me know Him. Gave me faith to believe Him.
Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth that we should
be a kind of first fruits of His creation. That's how we're
born again. It's by the word of God, by the
will of God. And that's how we're renewed
day by day. We're washed in regeneration and we're renewed day by day
by the Holy Spirit. We keep coming to hear this gospel
because this is the children's bread and he keeps feeding our
inner man. He keeps strengthening us with
the word of the gospel and renewing you inwardly. And as he renews
you inwardly, he subdues that sinful flesh. We go out of here
and we We hear the world, we live in the world, we have to
do our jobs, we do the things we have to do in the world, and
that old man gets a little stronger and our inward man gets weaker.
We come back to hear the Word of God again. And that inward
man is strengthened by the Spirit of God, renewed by the Spirit
of God, and that old man is weakened a little bit more. You just do
it over and over and over, don't you? It's just like coming to
your dinner table. Why do you come to the dinner table? You
get hungry. And if you don't eat, and you go a while without
eating, what happens? You get weaker and weaker and
weaker. Well, the same is true with this
Word. And that renewing is by the Spirit of God. This is my
comfort and my affliction, for thy Word hath quickened me. It's the Word of the Lord. Brethren,
look over Galatians 3. Galatians chapter 3. This is
so clear right here. You know the Galatians, they
were being turned back to the law and to the works of the flesh
and saying this is how, now, and what they were being told
was this. You've been justified by Christ, but now if you want
to sanctify yourself and make yourself perfect, you're going
to have to do that by your works. I want you to hear what Paul
said to them. Galatians 3.2, this only would
I learn of you. Received ye the Spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith? How did you begin? How were you born again? Was
it by hearing of Christ's faithfulness and God's salvation and the works
that God has done to save his people or was it by hearing of
the works of the law that you have to do to save yourself?
It was by hearing the gospel. He said to them, Are you so foolish,
having begun in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? See that? Look now at verse 5. He therefore
that ministered to you the Spirit, that's Christ, He sent the Spirit
forth to His people, and worketh miracles among you. Being born
again is a miracle of God's grace. He said, I'll give I'll give
hearing to the deaf, I'll give sight to the blind. That's what
he does spiritually in us. All those miracles he worked
physically were pictures of the spiritual works he works in the
hearts of his people. He said, now he that did this
for you, doeth he it by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith? Is it by the hearing of Christ's faithfulness toward
us in his works that he blesses to turn you to him and quicken
you, or is it by hearing what you must do? He said, even as
Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
And I remind you of something, Abraham believed God and walked
his whole life, 430 years before the law of Moses was given at
Mount Sinai. How did he do that? through the preaching of the
Word, through the Spirit of God, he was regenerated in his heart,
and he was renewed in his heart, and the Lord directed him and
kept him walking by faith, just like every other believer that's
saved. That's why the Lord holds him up as the father of the faithful,
and he says, the way I saved Abraham, that's how I'm going
to save all my people. That's why we got to hear this
word constantly. We were born again of this word.
Why would we preach any other message but the gospel of Christ?
If that's how He quickened you and made you be born again, don't
you think that's how He's going to make you zealous to maintain
good works by hearing of His good works for you? I'll tell you this, nothing makes
a person want to do something for another person like hearing
of some good work they did for some poor, downtrodden person. When you hear that, that makes
you, I want to do something for them. That was so kind of them
to help that person that was so cast down. Well brethren,
the Lord Jesus Christ did the greatest work there ever was
and he did it for people absolutely helpless to help ourselves. And
that makes you want to do for Him. That makes you ready to
every good work. You want to help sinners. And you know what you want to
do? You know, I want to feed people. I want to clothe people.
I want to do whatever I can do to help poor folks. I do. But
more than that, I want them to hear this gospel. I want them
to have the unsearchable riches of Christ. If they have the riches
of Christ, You don't have to have all the riches of this world.
You'll be blessed beyond measure. You have eternal life. You're
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. That's what he tells
us here. Now here's the greatest thing,
and I'm going to be brief here. Look at this. This is where His
kindness and love and mercy toward us is shown. It's in Christ His
Son, verse 6. He shed on us abundantly. The Holy Spirit and His regeneration
and His renewing, it's all shed on us abundantly. His mercy,
His grace. Through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified
by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. God the Father chose His people
in Christ. He sent His Son forth to work
the works of salvation for His people. And then He sent the
Spirit of God to us and gave us spiritual life to hear what
He had done and gave us faith to believe what He had done.
And you know why He did this? You know why the Lord, what He's
saying here, the reason the Lord sent the gospel to you and called
you, gave you life and called you, the reason He did it, is
having been justified by His grace. You see, when the Lord
Jesus Christ went to the cross, He didn't try to justify His
people. He justified His people. He didn't try to redeem His people.
He redeemed His people. Every single one of them. You
read Hebrews 1-3, he by himself purged our sin. Hebrews 9, when
he had by himself obtained eternal redemption, he entered into the
holy place. He perfected forever them that are sanctified. That's
what he did. He didn't fail. Christ is not
a helpless baby in a manger. He's God, our Savior, and He
accomplished what He came to do. When He cried, it's finished,
that's what He was saying. I did it. I finished it. And
so then God sent the Spirit to us. Why? Because it was a just
thing. It was the righteous thing because
God had justified His people. It's righteous for God to send
the Spirit to you and give you an understanding of these things.
It's the only right thing for God to do is to show you mercy.
Listen to 2nd Timothy 1.9. He saved us and called us with
a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. But now is made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death. He did that for His people. He
abolished death. Do you believe it? Then get this
good news. He abolished death for you. Death's
been abolished for you. Oh, you're going to die physically.
This body's got to go back to the earth. But you're not going
to die. You'll be with Him immediately.
He abolished death by what He did. And He brought life and
immortality to life through the gospel. If you have been born
of the Spirit of God, you're immortal. You have eternal life
through Christ Jesus. That's what we're to preach.
Verse 7, that having been justified by His grace, we should be made
heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Child of God, this
is what Paul said in Romans 8. If you're Christ, Christ is the
heir of all things. And you're a joint heir with
Christ. An heir of God. and heir of the
Lord Jesus. You know what that means? One,
it means we're gonna, our inheritance is God our Savior. That's what
the scripture says. He's our portion and we're his
portion. But also it means everything that's his is ours. Eternal life. That's the hope of eternal life. We're going to be with our Redeemer.
You know, people talk about heaven being streets of gold and this
and that. Well, if they are streets of gold in heaven, you know why
they're streets? Because gold don't amount to
much. Christ is everything. I had some
fellows tell me one time, from a different religion, they told
me that they thought I'd go to heaven, but I wouldn't be in
the place they would be. And I said, well, will Christ
be where I am? They said, yeah. And I said,
that's all that matters to me. I'm not concerned about where
you fellows are going to be. If I'm where Christ is, that's
what I want. That's our inheritance, our Lord Jesus. of His fullness
we've all received grace for grace, brethren, where His workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them." You know, whatever
work God has for you to do, you're going to walk in that work because
God ordained it. He's going to work it in you.
He's going to make it clear to you, this is the way, walk you
in it. He's going to supply you with
every need you have to do the work. And you're going to do the work.
So knowing all this now, knowing all this, be careful to maintain
good works. Be careful to maintain good works.
Paul said, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever
you do, do all to the glory of God. He said, whatsoever you
do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God and the Father by Him. He said, whatsoever you
do, do it heartedly, as to the Lord and not to men. That's who
we're serving, our gracious Heavenly Father, who saved us by grace.
I pray He blessed that. Amen.