Titus chapter 3. We are coming to the end of the book of Titus. And I want to. Recap and. Repeat everything that we've said going. Throughout the process of this book, everything that we've said throughout the three chapters in this book.

But I don't want to just recap, I wanna dive deeper into what we've considered so that I pray we'll have a clearer understanding of what God has written concerning the issue of good works. That's what we're gonna look at this morning. Good works.

Look with me at verse eight. Titus chapter three, verse eight, it says, This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.

We are going to look this morning at the subject of maintaining Good works. And there is so much that I have to say about it. I'm gonna make a part one and a part two from this Bible study and then the morning message. And it's not that these two are just gonna go hand in hand. They are one message. I'm gonna start it right now. And then when I get halfway through, we're gonna stop. And then for the worship service, we'll pick back up and keep going. I just have too much that needs to be said to get it all into one message.

Before I even begin, let me say this. I say with David, and I believe we all say with David in Psalm 119, oh, how I love thy law. Oh, how I love. Thy law, I hate vain thoughts, but thy law do I love. If we do not love God's law, may God have mercy on our souls. God's people love and they thank God for his law. Is there anything on any page in this book that you don't love? They love and they thank God for his law.

Now, why do I say that? It's because God's law is what tells us what the good works are. Good works are whatever God says good works are. Whatever God says to do or not do, that's a good work. So whenever Paul told Titus to tell God's people to maintain good works, what he was saying was you tell God's people to do or to not do whatever God says.

Now, I've been doing that since I was about three or four years old. When I was a kid, I had a toy tractor trailer, a truck and trailer. And I used to take the trailer, my father was a preacher, and I used to want to imitate him. And so I'd take the trailer, turn it up on its end, stand it on the hearth of our fireplace. I would make my two parents sit in the floor in the living room, and I would bang on the top of that trailer, crying, God said you better not do it, so you'd better not do it. And Brother Henry Mahan heard about that, and he said to me, he said, you weren't a grace preacher back then, were you? I said, no, I was a false preacher. I would always end the service by asking Brother Mama to come up and sing a special. And my Brother Mama would do it every time.

All right, now listen to this. Romans chapter 2 says that the law of God, the law of God is written on the heart and conscience of every man and woman, boy and girl in this world. Even at the age of three or four years old, I knew that if God said you'd better not do it, you'd better not do it. I knew that. Every soul on this earth knows that we need to do good and not do bad. That is written by God into the nature of every soul on this earth. You don't need for me to tell you that you need to do good and not do bad. You know that. You know that. If that's all that we get out of going to church, then I don't think I would personally see any need in going to church. What did you learn at church today? Well, I learned that you need to do good and not do bad. Oh, I already know that. I already know that. Everybody knows that. Every religious and non-religious person knows that. It's already written into the old nature of every soul on this earth.

I would venture to say there's not a soul in Kingsport, Tennessee that needs to get into God's Word to search and really find out. Now let's see what God has to say about this. Does God want me to murder somebody or not murder somebody? Hold on, give me just a minute. Let me see if God wants me to commit adultery with my neighbor's wife or not commit adultery with my neighbor's wife. Which would God prefer, for me to honor my father and mother or dishonor my father and mother? Does God want me to steal that or not steal that? It's already written on the heart. It's already written on the heart.

Now I'm gonna tell you something. If we can't see Christ in this, if we can't hear some good news for wretch, law-breaking, hell-deserving sinners against God, then there is no point in us being here. There's no point in us being here. You already know that. You already know that. It's already written on the heart and conscience of your physical nature. The original state of our flesh already knows that we need to do good and not do bad.

Let me tell you why we're here. We're here to learn something that the natural flesh of man does not know. We're here to learn something from God's Word that is completely foreign to natural man. And man cannot know unless the Spirit of God reveals it specifically to a heart. My prayer is that God will reveal this to us today, okay?

By us heavily looking at God's word, I want to dig deep into what he has to say, not what I have to say or what anybody else has to say, but what God has to say about good works. So turn with me to Genesis chapter two. Genesis chapter two. Verse 15, it says, And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat, but Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

The Lord told Adam and Eve, do not eat of that tree. Not eating of that tree was the good work. All that Adam and Eve had to do was not eat of that tree and they would have maintained good works. That's all they had to do. Don't eat of the tree and they would have continued and maintained good works. What did they do? We all know the answer. They sinned against God and did it.

All right, turn to Genesis 4. Verse 1, and Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived in bare cane and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord, another soul born into this world. What did he do? Did he maintain good works? God said, Do bring a lamb, and he didn't do it. God engraved on his heart, don't kill your brother, and he did it.

All right, look at Genesis 6. Verse 1 says, And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, the world was populated with people. Verse 5, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made them. And that's exactly what he did. with a flood, he destroyed the world, except for Noah and his family. Verse eight, it says, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

All right, turn to Genesis nine. Verse 18 says, And the sons of Noah that went forth of the ark were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah, and of them was the whole earth overspread. And Noah began to be in husbandmen, and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and he got drunk. And he sinned against God immediately, as soon as he got off the ark. The wickedness of Noah was great.

And then came along a man named Abraham. And God said, Abraham, stay the course. You just maintain the course and I'll give you a sign. And you know what happened. You know what happened. Abraham didn't maintain the course. He ended up being unfaithful to God. He ended up being unfaithful to his wife. He tried to give her to other men, you know, two or three times to save his own skin. His grandson, Jacob, ended up being one of the biggest scoundrels that ever walked this earth, our representative. His whole family tree ended up being slaves in Egypt.

So God raised up a man named Moses. Oh, Moses. What did he do? He killed a man. He had to flee for his life. He led God's people out into the wilderness and God said, don't strike the rock twice. Man, I would love to just like take a side road and preach that. Christ is the rock. And in order for us to be saved, in order for the people to live, living water, the law, Moses' law had to strike the rock. And with the rock being stricken, that's it. Don't strike it twice. We're not going to repunish sins that have already been paid for. But what did Moses do? He struck it twice. And he was condemned by God for it by not being allowed to enter into the promised land, Moses. And neither was anybody else except for two men over the age of 20.

And it's because God gave them commandments that said, do this and don't do that. And they broke every single commandment that God gave to them. And that trend continued through David, and Solomon and Jonah and everybody else until God finally sent the Son of Righteousness into the world.

Jesus Christ the light came into the world and what did men do? They loved darkness rather than light. Our Lord came unto his own and what did his own do? They received him not. Some of the very ones that he saved, you know, after he arose. And the apostles started preaching the gospel, you know, 5,000 were saved and 3,000. The very ones who he was saving, crying, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.

While he was praying that, they were spitting on him and cursing him and mocking him. Kill that man. We hate him. But he died putting away those sins. He died bearing those sins. Those sins were on him, on him. Father, forgive them. He suffered the consequences for what they did. He paid the debt for what they did. He put away all of the sins of his people that they committed in spite of what he told them to do.

He died, he was buried, putting away all of the evil works that his people maintained. They just kept maintaining evil works and maintaining evil works. And with that payment being dealt with and settled forever, he rose again. And now he says to all of his people, if you love me, keep my commandments. If you love me, keep my commandments. For love and honor and respect and thankfulness sake, just keep my commandments.

All right, now what have we done? Let's find out. Turn over to Matthew 5. Matthew 5, our Lord started this chapter by saying in verses 3 to 11, if you act this way, you will be a blessed person. Okay, blessed are, blessed are, blessed are. And then from verses 13 to 16, he declared the importance of his people being the salt of the earth. and the light of the world.

And then he said in verse 18, verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so that it's okay to break that commandment, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I say unto you that except your righteousness, goodness." Good works. except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees." Scribes were the ones who copied, made copies of the Bible. They just kept writing the Bible. They just had the Bible open all day, just writing the Bible, writing the Bible. And the Pharisees were the preachers and teachers and church leaders.

And he said, I say unto you, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. And what he's saying is your good works need to exceed theirs. They can't match theirs because they are not going to heaven. Theirs is not good enough to get them into heaven. What they're doing That man who writes the Bible all day long. Here, here's a copy for you. He writes the Bible all day long. That's not good enough to get that man into heaven. That man's not going into heaven based on that.

Verse 21, he said, let me clarify to you what I'm saying in all this. He said, you've heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Rekha, that means you're a vain fellow. shall be in danger of the council, but whosoever shall say, thou fool, you're a fool, without just cause, shall be in danger of hell fire. You just get angry with a person. And he said, that's murder. You've murdered him.

Verse 27, you've heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery. And you know, Everybody who hasn't done it likes to pride themselves on the fact that they haven't done it. Well, I hadn't done that. Well, not according to God. Verse 27, you've heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her. Anybody ever done that? And you girls are no better than the boys. Any woman who has looked on a man and lusted after him, has committed adultery already in his heart. If you think it in your mind or feel it in your heart, then you have not maintained that good work. That's what he's saying. Let it be known the commandment was given. Maintain that good work. And you haven't let it be known.

Now, if God says something once, it stands forever. But what we're about to read, God has said over and over and over again. Turn with me to Romans 3. Romans 3 verse 10, it says, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. That does not say there are some righteous. Yes, there are some. Verse 10, there are none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. Men will seek after religion. They'll seek after doctrine. They'll seek after heaven. But there's none that seeketh after God. God has to seek a man. Verse 12, they are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. pile up everything they've done, it's unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no not one.

All right, now listen. Make sure you maintain good, okay? You need to maintain good works now. Do good, don't be bad. There is none that doeth good, no not one. Either that verse is the truth or it is a lie. You either have to say, Now, that's not true. Somebody will say, no, wait a minute, hold on, this is saying they are all going out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. That's not talking about us, that's talking about them. Well, look at verse nine. What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise. For we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. Everybody is under sin. No one is righteous. Nobody is good. Make sure you maintain your good now, okay? Nobody does good. Our Lord told a rich young ruler who came to him and he said, good master. The Lord answered and said, why do you call me good? There is none good, but God. There's none good, but God. There's not a soul on this earth that can maintain good works, but God. That's it.

You say, well, then why were the good works written down? Why were the commandments even given? Verse 19. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.

Every time this law says to you, you need to do good, you're convicted by it. I am too. By the commandment of our God for us to do good is the knowledge of our sin to us. That's what Paul is saying all through Romans 7.

Turn over to Romans 7, and I'm almost done here. Romans 7, verse 7, it says, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet.

He said, the moment the law said to me, don't covet. He said, that's the moment I realized, that's all I've been doing. That's all I'm still doing. Verse eight, but sin taking occasion by the commandment. brought in me all manner of concupiscence. That's lust, coveting. For without the law, sin was dead. It was dead to me realizing it was there.

Verse nine, for I was alive without the law once. I thought alive in my flesh, alive in my deeds. But when the commandment came, Sin revived and I died. What was the commandment? Maintain good works. He said, sin revived. I died.

And the commandment verse 10, which was ordained to life, the commandment that said, if you do this, you'll go to heaven. The commandment that was ordained to life I found to be unto death. I found that the very commandment that was supposed to give life to me, that's the very commandment that secured death to me.

Verse 11, for sin taking occasion by the commandment. deceived me, my sin deceived me into thinking that I was maintaining good works. God's law said, maintain good works. And I said, okay. And he said, buddy, I deceived myself. I didn't realize that in me thinking I was maintaining good works, I was only condemning myself.

Verse 11, for sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. The law is good works.

Verse 13, was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. Absolutely not. It's not the law's fault that it can only condemn me to death. That's my fault. Verse 13, was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid, but sin, that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

This good word from God has exposed to me just how evil and how wicked and how incapable of good I really am. Verse 14 says, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold unto sin. We know the law's spiritual, but here's the problem. I'm carnal, sold unto sin.

All right, now, we're about to pause. Okay, we're about to pause and come back to this in a moment, but just in case somebody dies before the next service. Just in case. Because I told you this is not its own separate message and then the next one is its own separate message. I told you I'm going to give you half and half just in case either somebody doesn't make it to the next message or just in case somebody listens to this on the internet and then they don't get access to the next message.

Let me leave us with this. What is our hope in all of this? All right, what's our hope in this terrible outlook concerning our flesh? What is our redeeming hope? What is the hope? What hope do we have? Sinners like us who are just slaying, just slaying ourselves before God. I kill me too. What hope do we have?

Look at verse four. Wherefore my brethren, You also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. That you should be married to another in the death of Jesus Christ. You're not married to the law anymore. You're not under the bondage of the law anymore. You're married to Jesus Christ. Even to him who is raised from the dead. That we should bring forth fruit unto God, not fruit unto the law. Fruit unto God.

When Christ died on that cross, we died with him. By the fulfillment of the law, the law, when that, when he died, the law said, period, that's it. Fulfilled. And then when He arose from that death, we arose in Him, being joined together with Him. Done. Completed. With the Law.

And this fruit unto God that is brought forth in us, it's not a fruit of the flesh, it's a fruit of the Spirit. It's not a fruit unto the letter of the Law, It's a fruit unto faith in Christ.

Verse five says, for when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Everything we were trying to do to abide by the law, we was just bringing forth death, death, death.

Verse six, but now we are delivered from the law. that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

I'm pretty sure it's about to get good. We're dealing, what we're dealing with right here is deeper than the flesh of man can possibly understand. It's deeper than any natural man. These things are spiritually discerned and they must be given by God's spirit if we're gonna understand this. And so I do pray that the Lord will really reveal this to us, okay?

Now, let's pause. I'll see you in a minute. You're dismissed.