Turn with me to Titus chapter
1. Titus chapter 1, in this letter
that Paul wrote to Titus, Paul is encouraging Titus in the work
of the ministry on the island of Crete. And he told Titus to
establish preachers of the gospel throughout the congregations
of believers. And he gave Titus instructions
on what to look for in true preachers of the gospel and then false
preachers of man. True preachers of the gospel,
false preachers of man. And he said the difference is
true preachers that have actually been called of God will turn
you and people and will turn, will point people and will declare
to men and women the commandments of God. And false preachers that have
not been called of God will turn men and women and declare to
men and women the commandments of men. That's the difference. That's the difference, the false
religious traditions of men that have been passed down generation
to generation as opposed to the truth of God's word. The biggest tradition, the biggest
lie that has been passed down is concerning man's works. All right, that's the biggest
lie, the biggest tradition that has been carried down generation
to generation, it's concerning man's works. The greatest point
of error in false religion is concerning man's works. This Bible study and what would
have been our message in a moment. which will be, Lord willing,
our Bible study in two Sundays. I have so much to say and so
little time to say it. And I have so much to say and
I'm struggling to get it out. And I'm asking the Lord to make
this clear. But I wanna have a little moment right here to
just tell you what we're about to look at is of such critical
importance, heaven or hell depends on it. All right, this is so
important. This is so important. The greatest
point of error in false religion is concerning man's works. What man has to do. That's the whole question. What
does man have to do? What is man's responsibility
in salvation? The gospel is concerning Christ's
work. That's what the gospel is. It's
concerning Christ's work. What Christ has done. What Christ's
responsibility was in salvation. That's the gospel. But for some reason, the natural
flesh of man hates the true gospel of Christ's finished work. And it loves the lie of man's
unfinished work. You want to know if you're listening
to a false religion? False religion says the work
is unfinished. Man needs to go to work. If you
hear anything like that, that's wrong. The true gospel is the
work is finished. Jesus Christ finished it. Period. But the natural flesh of man
loves that unfinished work of man. That's what it prefers.
So Paul wrote Titus to deal with that issue and that point of
division between the truth and a lie. And so we're picking up
today with verse 15. And Paul said, Titus, this is
the truth concerning works. as a result of what Christ has
done, as a result of what Christ has accomplished regarding those
that He redeemed and regarding those that He did not redeem.
There are two types of people on this earth, the redeemed and
the not redeemed. Our Lord's effort on the saved
and the lost The effect that he brought to
them. Okay. He said, here it is. Look
at verse 15. And let me just one more time
say, Oh, this is so important. Beg the Lord to help you dial
in. This is so important. Verse 15. He said unto the pure,
all things are pure. But unto them that are defiled
and unbelieving is nothing pure. But even their mind and conscience
is defiled. They profess that they know God,
but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient and
unto every good work reprobate." What he's saying is the result
of Christ's work, the result of Christ's accomplishment produced
an all or nothing effect on mankind. It was either all or nothing,
to those that He made pure, to those that He purified, washed
clean in His own blood, perfected forever. Isn't that what the
scripture says He did? By His own blood? Perfected forever
by the sacrifice of Himself. Verse 15 says, unto the pure
All things are pure. Now, I know that it's hard to
fathom. I know it doesn't feel right
to say or to believe that we are pure in God's sight. We hear that and based on the
things that we think and based on the things that we do and
based on the things that we say, we know that all that we are
in the flesh is impure. That's all we are, is impure.
We know that in this flesh, think about this, all of our righteousnesses
are filthy rags. Vile, wicked, dead, putrefying. Oh, wretched man that I am. Here's the only problem with
that. Our Lord told Peter, don't you call unclean what I have
made clean. That's what he said. If I have
cleansed it, it's clean. If I have made it pure, what
did he do? What did Christ accomplish on
the cross? What happened? Did he do what he set out to
do? Yes or no? Did he accomplish
the work? Yes or no? He says, if I've made
it pure, and if I've made it white, and if I've made it spotless,
it is pure, it is white, it is spotless. If I have perfected it forever,
it is perfected forever. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
12. Matthew chapter 12 verse 1 says,
At that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn
and his disciples were and hungered and began to pluck the ears of
corn and to eat. You couldn't do that on the Sabbath
day. That was against God's holy law,
not man's law, God's law. God came up with that. God delivered
that to Moses. God said that. You can't do that. Verse 1, at that time, Jesus
went on the Sabbath day, threw the corn, and his disciples were
hungered and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. But
when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples
do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. And you seem fine with it. That's
what they're saying. You're not doing anything. You're
not reprimanding them. You seem fine with it. Verse two, when the Pharisees
saw it, they said unto him, behold, thy disciples do that which is
not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. But he said unto them, have
you not read what David did when he was and hungered and they
that were with him? How he entered into the house
of God and did eat the show bread, which was not lawful for him
to eat, neither for them which were with him. but only for the
priest. The Lord said it wasn't lawful
for him to eat that, but he ate it. The Lord said, have you not read
that in 1 Samuel 21? Have you not read 1 Samuel 21? Verse 5, or have you not read
in the law how that on the Sabbath days the priest in the temple
profaned the Sabbath? No one is allowed to work on
the Sabbath, no one. But he said, they're in there
working all day long. And the end of verse five, he
said, they're blameless. Verse six, but I say unto you
that in this place is one greater than the temple. But if you had
known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. You would not have condemned
the guiltless." You see that? The guiltless. Turn to Matthew
15. Verse 1, then came to Jesus,
scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why
do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For
they wash not their hands when they eat. But he answered and
said unto them, Why do you also transgress the commandment of
God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, honor
thy father and mother, and he that curseth father or mother,
let him die the death. You're supposed to take care
of your parents with your money when they took care of you, and
then when they're old, you're supposed to pay to take care
of them, verse five. But you say, whosoever shall say to his
father or mother, it's a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be
profited by me. Well, I would take care of you,
but I had to give my money away And they work it out, I'll give
my money to you as a gift, and then you give your money to me
as a gift, and neither one of us have to give it to our parents.
Verse six, honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment
of God of none effect by your tradition. You hypocrites, well
did Isaiah prophesy of you saying, this people draweth nigh unto
me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And he called the multitude
and said unto them, Hear and understand. Not that which goeth
into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of
the mouth, this defileth a man. Then came his disciples and said
unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after
they heard this saying? But he answered and said, every
plant which my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted
up. Let them alone, they be blind leaders of the blind, and if
the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Then
answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, Are you also
yet without understanding? Do not ye yet understand that
whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly and
is cast out in the draft? But those things which proceed
out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the
man. For out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemy. These are the things which defile
a man. But to eat with unwashing hands
defileth not a man. Our defilement is the direct
result of the heart. Our defilement is the direct
result of the heart, okay? The only way that a man or woman
can be defiled is by the heart. God's people hear that and say,
well, I have a defiled heart. And to that, the gospel of Jesus
Christ replies. No, you don't. Listen, I know
this doesn't make sense to your flesh. You all are sitting there
in flesh. I'm standing right here in flesh.
And I understand it. I understand this is not natural
to the flesh. It's not common to the flesh.
I understand these things can't be perceived and understood without
the Spirit of God making it known. And convincing of it, but listen.
The Lord Jesus Christ said. I took out your heart of stone,
your heart of death, your heart of sin, your heart. I took that,
you say, but I'm still doing those things and I still feel
that way. Yes, he took it out, cradle to the grave. Are you
still carrying it around with you? Yes. But he's saying I already dealt
with that heart. I've already dealt with that heart. I have
given you a new heart. I gave you my heart. The gospel is not in us giving
this vile, wicked, horrible, sinful, wretched, disgusting
thing to him. Won't you give him your heart?
Why would you want to defile his hands with that? The gospel
is in him giving us his heart and creating something new in
us. Something that's of Him. He says, I put my heart in you. That heart that belongs to this
new creation that has been born of God lives in you. Christ in
you is the hope of glory. Not you doing a better job and
obeying the laws and don't touch that, that'll defile you. Touch
not, taste not, handle not. That's not it. The scripture says your life
is now hid with Christ in God and therefore you cannot be defiled
ever again. If God did the work, who did
he do it for? Whoever he was pleased to do
it for. But if God did that work, as he is pure, so are you in
him, with him. Not with yourself, not in yourself,
not by yourself. In Him, with Him, by Him. Thanks be to Him. Turn with me
to 1 John chapter 3. Now, the point that I'm trying
to get to is in Christ there is rest. This is the point I'm
trying to make from all of this. In Christ, we can rest in these
things. Look at 1 John 3 verse 1. It says, Behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God? Therefore the world knoweth us
not because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that
hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Watch verse four. Whosoever committeth
sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression
of the law. Now watch this. And you know
that he was manifested to take away our sins. And in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him Sinneth
not. You say, I don't understand that. Neither do I. Not really. Not
really. But if he did that for us, God
will give us faith to believe it. He'll give us faith to believe
it. He'll give us faith to believe
that we have been joined to him. And all you have to do if you
want to go back to sin, you want to go back to all this stuff,
In your mind, think about yourself, picture yourself with your eyes,
look at yourself. You go to this flesh, it's sin.
You go to this flesh, it's death, it's wretchedness. You go to
him, it's perfection. It's perfection. And God's people
have been joined to him. You say, but I can't stop looking
at this flesh. One day you will. One day you will. Right now,
this flesh blinds us. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know that the moment he comes back for us,
whether in death or on the day he returns, the moment these
eyes, Job said, with these eyes I'm going to see him, and the
moment they see him, in the twinkling of an eye, will be changed. And
this corruption is going to put on incorruption. And He's able
to change these vile bodies to be fashioned like His glorious
body. And when we see Him as He is, we'll see us as He is. And we are that right now in
Him. Rest. Stop looking to the flesh. I don't know if that's making
any sense to you, but it's making a little bit of sense to me. Look at verse 9. This is true,
okay? God is true. Everything else
is a lie. You say, I don't know if I can believe that. This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. OK, look
at verse nine. Whosoever is born of God, people talking about
being born of God, I'm going to be born again. OK, whosoever
is born of God does not commit sin. For his seed, the seed of God
Almighty remains in him. and he cannot sin because he's
born of God. Are you saying we're not sinners
anymore? No, what I'm saying is this flesh is sin from cradle
to the grave. And when Jesus Christ died on
the cross 2,000 years ago, he paid for the sins that I would
commit the day I was born and cried out in anger, feed me,
change me, whatever a baby gets mad at in sin. I did that 48
years ago. He paid for that. Roughly 2000
years before that, all of my sins were future sins. You say,
but you know, I still have future sins. All of my sins were future
sins. He paid for him. He dealt with
him. He took him away. He put what he to do with him.
He laid him on himself. He laid them on himself. He took
everything that I am and laid it on himself, impressed it into
himself. And the reason he did that is
because whoever is born of Adam, whoever is born of man, does
not commit righteousness. He cannot commit righteousness
because Adam's seed is in him. So Jesus Christ traded places
and he made himself to be what his people were before God on
the cross of Calvary. And by that transaction, this
is what we get to be. You talk about amazing grace. You talk about the glory of the
gospel. All purity, all of this purity
is in him. It's all in him. All right. Now. This is so important. I used to be so good at sticking
to my notes. I'm going to keep going because
this is too important, but we're going to have to have a fast
turnaround in just a minute. All right, this is so important,
because it has to do with, we're talking about works. This is
all about works. When we get into Titus chapter
two, he's gonna tell aged men, this is what you need to be,
and aged women, this is what you need to be, and employees,
this is what you need to be. Works, works, work, good works. He said in our text, we're looking
at, Men and women have become reprobate. Their judgment is not right on
what good works are, and that's true. And I'm gonna try to very
quickly get to the point here. Outside of Christ, outside of
Christ, there is no purity. All right, to the pure, all things
are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, those who are
outside of Christ, is nothing pure. Outside of Christ, there
is no purity at all. Just listen to this. Proverbs
21 verse four says that a man outside of Christ, even him just plowing his field,
is sin against God. Well, a man's got to eat, right?
He's got to grow vegetables. Just preparing his dirt to plant
a garden, even just that is wickedness and sin in God's eyes. That's
all he has to do and it's just absolute wickedness and sin in
God's eyes. Go back quickly to Titus 1. Verse 15, it says, unto the pure,
all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving
is nothing pure. That means you can't do in quotes,
good works to please God. You know, I think I'm going to
go out there and not only am I going to plow my field, I think
I'm going to plow my neighbor's field for him. Nothing is pure. It says at the end of verse 15,
but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that
they know God, but in works, which works? All works. They deny him. They deny his word. They deny
his accomplishment. If you came, you know, if I was
doing something, I don't know, building a house or who knows
what, and you came to me and said, can I help you? And I said,
nope, it's finished. Then you got a hammer out and started
hammering nails all over the place. That would be an insult
to me because you would be saying, nope, you didn't finish this. And nope, you didn't finish this.
I see a spot over here you didn't finish. When he said it is finished,
it was finished. What works do we need to do?
None. It's finished. But don't we have
to do works? God rested from His, what do
you think we ought to do? In works, they deny His Word,
they deny His accomplishment, they deny His declaration that
His sacrifice, the work of redemption, is the only one God will accept. And that's what Cain did, all
right? That's what Cain did. I'm wrapping
this thing up. Cain killed Abel because God
wouldn't accept Cain's works. That's the whole reason, okay?
Abel didn't bring any of his own works. Abel trusted that
the blood of God's lamb was the offering that God would accept. And that's the one that God did
accept. And Cain, just him plowing his field and growing his vegetables. You know, well just a few years
after that, didn't the law say that you're supposed to bring
your first fruits and you know, you gotta tithe your vegetables
and aren't you supposed to bring all that to God? Christ has already done it. He
is the first fruits. He is the first fruits. And just him growing his vegetables,
that was sin in God's eyes. He denied God's word. He denied God's provision. Okay. And verse 16 says, they
profess that they know God, but in works, they deny him being
abominable. That means disgusting, horrible,
repulsive. That's what workers are in God's
eyes and disobedient to his word under every Good work reprobate. That means void of judgment.
Under every good work, they're completely void of judgment.
They don't understand anything about it, and here's the reason
why. Man can't produce a good work. Man cannot produce a good
work. Only Christ can produce a good
work. Christ must establish the work
of his people's hands. And the faith that God gives
to his people will cause them to believe that. Only Christ
can go about doing good. Only Christ. There's none that
doeth good. No, not one. Except for Christ. Except for Christ. Abraham believed
God and it was counted unto him for good works. Counted unto
him for righteousness. So the good works that Jesus Christ
produced and counted to his people for
righteousness. Those are the only good works
that are acceptable in God's eyes. That's the only one. And
in those works, God's people are pure. They're counted to
them. They're pure. And we can rest. Rest in the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. All right. Quick.