In brutal retrials thy pathway
shall lie, my grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply. The place shall not hurt thee,
I only desire thy blossom and bloom. and thy goal to return. Thus, O head of Jesus, hath pleaded
for repose, I will, not I will, not be turned to his foes. I'll never, no never, no never
forsake you. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Still with a vision glorious,
her longing eyes are blessed. and the great Church victorious
shall be the Church at rest. Yet she on earth hath union with
God the free in one, and with this we communion with those
whose breath is one. O happy ones and holy, Lord give
us grace that we, Like them, the meek and lowly, All may well
with Thee. Standing on the promise, visit
Christ the Lord, Bow to Him eternally, Thy love's strong cord. Overcoming daily with the Spirit's
joy, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, Standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises I cannot
fall. Listening every moment to the
Spirit's call. Resting in my Savior as my own
in all. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. You may be seated. I want to
see if you're watching your song later. Alright, good singing. I remember
when 13th Street was small enough to meet in a little room like
this. It was a real blessing. Kind of an intimate gathering.
Titus chapter 1. Book of Titus chapter 1. As I
said, beginning this evening we're going to start studying
through the book of Titus. There are only three chapters,
but my, my, what a portion of Scripture. This is a letter from the older, experienced Apostle
Paul to a young preacher named Titus, a preacher that Paul was
very fond of, like Timothy, a young preacher named Titus. And while
this was a letter, a personal letter, yet it is written to
the church. It's written to all of us. And it's full of the gospel. And it's full of instructions
to the church. That's why I chose for us to
go through this. Now, it's not just a letter of
a man, though. Though it was the letter of Paul to Titus and
to the church, yet this is God's word. This is God's letter to
his people. So let's begin. Verse 1 begins
with a salutation. The first four verses are really
a salutation. Like you would write a letter
to someone and in the first paragraph you would say, I received your
letter last week and it's so good to hear from you and we're
doing fine and so forth. And then the next paragraph you
would tell why you're writing. But the first four verses are
a salutation. What a salutation! Where do you
see it? All right, verse 1. He says,
Paul, Paul, and in verse 4, two titles. Paul, verse 1. A servant of God and an apostle
of Jesus Christ. Though many call themselves servants
of God, and many do, many like to make that claim. Paul says
he's a servant of God. How do you know? Paul says, I'm
an apostle of Jesus Christ. And many, even today, call themselves
apostles. Did you know that? There are
some that still claim to be apostles today. Well, how do you know? How do you know a man And if it's a woman, you know
immediately she's false, because the scriptures forbids that.
But how do you know if a man is truly a servant of God, as
Paul said he was, an apostle of Jesus Christ? Well, a servant
of God first and foremost serves God's glory. He's in it for God's
glory. Come what may, he must glorify
God, and everything he does and everything he said is in keeping
with that. He gives God all the glory. Everything he says, his message,
is all glorifying to God. His methods are in keeping with
that. They glorify God. There's nothing
of man in it. That's how you know a true servant
of God. He doesn't speak of himself.
He doesn't exalt himself. He doesn't exalt man. He's in
it for God's glory. He serves God's Lord. That's
how you know. God still has servants today. His preachers are his servants,
and women, for that matter, but not preachers, per se, from the
pulpit. They do preach, you know, to
whoever will hear them out there, the workplace or wherever, but
this place is reserved for a man according to God's word. But
all of God's people are his servants, and how you know is there in
it for God's glory. Whatever they do and say, they
seek the glory of God. That's how you know. A servant
is not servant of a house about the business of the master's
house. He doesn't wait on himself. He doesn't do things for himself.
He's not seeking glory to himself, but he's trying to serve his
master. So it is with the true servant
of God, servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Apostle means
messenger. It means a hand-picked messenger.
Apostle, there are three qualifications for an apostle. Three qualifications. Number one, they had to see Christ
in person. Now, that absolutely rules out
anybody after Christ left to serve. There were twelve. twelve men, not counting Judas,
who was the son of perdition, chosen by Christ for that purpose.
But counting Paul, there were twelve apostles, and no more
after that. They saw Christ in person. Number
two, they received their credentials from Christ. They received their
commission from Christ. Every apostle had to hear Christ
personally tell them, You're my apostle, and I send you. And
all twelve of those men did. That's a requirement for an apostle.
So there are no more apostles today. Thirdly, they received
the gifts of the apostles. The abilities, such as several
languages, and healing people, and even raising the dead, and
Peter even told a man. Dare any fellow today claim any
of those No, no. There are no more. Those were
the apostles before the Word was completed. All right? So
Paul was an apostle. But here's the chief evidence
of an apostle. I said the word apostle means
messenger, hand-picked messenger of Christ. An apostle is somebody
who preaches Christ. Christ is his message. That's
how you know. That's how you know. And that's
what Paul did. He said, I'm determined not to know anything among you.
He'd go into the big cities of Corinth with all their arts and
politics and all of that, you know. He'd go into Athens, Greece,
all of these metropolitan areas, and they wanted to get in debates
and arguments about philosophy and all that. And he said, I'm
not interested. He said, I'm determined not to
know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
He said, I've got something here, not man's wisdom, but wisdom
from above. Man's wisdom is foolishness.
And I've got to go on. First of all, my dad called today
to, well he just called to thank for the flowers and asked me
where I was preaching from. I said, Titus chapter 1. And he began to quote the first
four verses over the following day. He said, you're not going
to get past the second verse. Well, maybe not the first. Let's go on. A servant of God,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect. Paul says, I'm a preacher, I'm
a messenger, in accordance with, that is, in exact agreement with,
and for the service of, and the building up of, the faith of
God's elect. The faith of God's elect. Paul
says, what I believe and what I preach and what I do is the
faith of God's elect. That's what this is all about.
The faith. Take each one of those words.
The faith. There's only one. So many people talk about, well,
he's of this faith. He's of that faith. That we're
all people of many different faiths. No. Ephesians 4 says there's one
faith. Right. One thing. One truth. There may be many different faiths,
but there's only one thing of God's faith. Only one saving
faith. Only one way. Truth and life. Only one way. One thing. The faith of God's elect. The faith which all of God's
elect have obtained. That's what Peter said in his
epistle. elect, according to the foreknowledge
of God, having obtained this faith by God, from God, the faith
of God's elect. What is that? Turn over to Romans
1. Very quickly, Romans chapter 1. It's the faith which all of
God's elect have obtained. Romans 1. I've got to be careful here, or I'll
stay right here in Romans. Romans 1 tells us what this faith
is. And I'm not going to comment
much. I've got to—I want to get through. But verse 16 and 17,
Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, the
Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein, that is, in the
gospel, is the righteousness of God. Revealed from faith to
faith, that means whoever believes it, he has faith, he has faith. Faith, faith. Righteousness of
God, righteousness of God. Whoever believes, faith, as it
is written, that just shall live by faith, whether it's a Jew
or a Greek, or whoever it is, male or female. Whoever believes
this has this righteousness of God. All right, go down to chapter
3, or over to chapter 3 of Romans. This is where the righteousness
of God is revealed in this faith. What is the faith of God's elect? Very important. All right, look, chapter 3, verse
20. Let's just read on down through here. By the deeds of the law,
no flesh shall be justified in his sight. What does that mean?
That means no matter how hard we try to keep the law, the Ten
Commandments, or whatever it is, it's not good enough. Not good enough. That's what
that means. Read on. Verse 19 says the law just tells
us we're guilty. All the law says is that every
mouth should be stopped. Let me disqualify this a little
bit. Our Lord preached on this, the Sermon on the Mount, did
he not? He took the law and went down through there and said,
you've heard it said by them, thou shalt not kill. Now, he's
the one who wrote that. But he said, you've heard it
said, thou shalt not kill. He said, I say unto you, if you
get angry with somebody, you've killed them, according to God. to get angry. And you've done
it, haven't you? Somebody should pull out in front
of you in the car. And if it weren't for the grace
of God, you'd road rage, wouldn't you? God sees that. God knows
that. He tries the heart, Scripture
says. So you take a law, pick a law, any law, we've broken
it. We've broken it. So no one can say, I'm righteous
by the law. No, no, no. Paul thought he was.
Remember, Paul saw Tarsus before the Lord revealed the law to
him. Paul said, I'm blameless. I've kept the law. I've never
done anything. And then God showed him what
the law really says. He killed him. He said, I died. All right. So by the deeds of
the law. See, all the law does is shut
you out. That's what the law says. Shut your mouth, you're
guilty. So by the deeds of the law, verse
20, no flesh will be justified by the laws and knowledge of
sin. You see, that's what the law is for. Verse 21. But now, the righteousness of
God, or that is being accepted by God, being considered holy
by God, God granting you entrance into his holy heaven, the righteousness
of God, that's what that's talking about. Without the law, that
is, without us keeping it, is manifested, is made clear, is
revealed. He's telling us how. How? Read
on. It's witnessed by the law. Wait
a minute. What are you talking about, the
law? Well, the law tells us we're guilty, and Moses, whom God used
to write the law, all those things pointed us to Christ. Everything
in the law pointed us to Christ, the only one that could keep
it. Let's go on. So it says, witnessed by the
law and the prophets, the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ. Now that's not a misprint. Are
you still with me? It doesn't say by faith in Jesus
Christ. It says by faith of Jesus Christ. It says that one, two, three,
four, five times. And it is by faith of. You see,
me getting to glory, getting to heaven, is not even by my
faith. It's by the faithfulness of Christ
to me. My faith, one day I think I believe,
the next day I feel like I've denied the faith. Up, down, up,
down. That's how I said it. Like waves
of the sea, tossed to and fro. He abided faithful. Faithful.
He abided faithful. If we deny him, we love this
scripture, don't we, John? If we deny him, and we do many
things, like Peter, to deny him, but Paul said he can't deny himself. And if you're in him, he won't
deny you. If he represents you, you catch
that, you follow that. If you're in him by faith. And
he gives his faith to all that are in him. And he won't deny
it, no matter how weak it is. He gave it. It's saving faith. Scroll verse 22, the righteousness
of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all
them that believe. It doesn't say that believe real
strongly. Just believe. Believe what? Believe Christ is your only hope.
There's no difference. No difference. God, there's no
difference between the weakest believer and the strongest. There's
no difference between that baby or that child that was in that
home in Egypt under the blood, who was shaking like a leaf,
and Moses sitting there, just confident as he could be. No
difference. Both under the blood. It wasn't
Moses' faith. It was God's promise to all those
under the blood. See that? "...for all have sinned,"
verse 23, "...and come short of the glory of God. But we are
justified freely by His grace." Well, that doesn't do anything.
By His grace, freely. See, it's free. Through what? Well, you keep on. No, through
the redemption. That is Him, Christ Jesus. And
I could go on and on. Let's look at verse 26. "...To
do declare, I say, at this time, His righteousness." his righteousness,
Christ's righteousness, that God might be just and the justifier
of them which believeth in him. All right, go back to the text
now. So the faith of God's elect is faith in Christ alone. Simple. It sure is. It's not
faith in yourself. It's not faith in your faith.
It's not faith in your faith. It's like a little child hanging
on to a parrot. And that little child realizes,
really, that a parrot's hanging on to me. Faith. It's faith in Christ. It's called
the faith of God's elect because nobody would have it unless he
elected them to have it. Right? The faith of God's elect,
no one would have it unless he chose for them to have it. Remember
when Peter, our Lord said, Whom do you say that I am? Peter said,
We believe and are sure that you're the Christ, the Son of
the living God. And the Lord said, Did not I choose you? Peter
didn't believe that before Christ came and chose him, did he? Peter
was out there fishing. He didn't care a hoot who Jesus
Christ was. He'd heard of him. Everybody
heard of this Jesus of Nazareth. Peter was out there fishing.
He wasn't interested. He's more interested in fish than the Son
of God. But God. But Christ, who loved Peter before
the world began, had him written on the palms of His hands, chose
him, and had to come call him. And He did. When He foreknew,
He predestinated. When He predestinated, He called.
When He called, He justified. When He justified, He glorified. So all of God's elect are chosen
to believe. You want to turn to 2 Thessalonians
with me? 2 Thessalonians 2. This is good. This is one of my favorites. 2 Thessalonians 2. Oh, I love this verse. Oh, you need to commit this to
memory. Second Thessalonians 2 verse 13, Paul says, We're
bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren. We don't
thank people for doing anything for God. No, no, no. We give God all the thanks for
doing something for God, for doing everything. We're bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God had from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Through what? Sanctification
of the Spirit. That is, this was the means in
which you know God's elect. The Holy Spirit comes and cuts
them out of the herd. That's what sanctification is.
That's what the word sanctification means. Separate. It's just like
cutting off Brother Kellogg. The Holy Spirit is a whole group
of people. Holy Spirit gets his own, brings
him out of the herd. So you're mine. God sent me. You're his. Don't you love that? Sanctification of spirit and
what? Belief of the truth. All those who he cuts out of
the herd, he gives faith. He gives us faith. There's gods
in that. So he gives them big faith. the
faith of God's elect." Where are we? Verse 1? Titus 1. All right? Titus 1. He says, "...the faith of God's
elect, and the acknowledging of the truth, which is after
God in us." All God's people acknowledge, believe, and love
the truth. The truth. What is the truth?
Well, that's all God says. That's the truth. There's nothing
in God's Word that God's people question or deny or disagree
with. Can two walk together except
they disagree? Amos said, no. God's people walked
with Him by faith. The just lived by faith. Enoch
walked with God. He believed God. What did he
believe? Everything. Everything God said.
Whether he could understand it or not, he believed it. And because
God said it, he believed that was right. The truth. They acknowledge the truth. And
though the whole world is saying one thing, and all science falsely
so-called, falsely so-called, claims this and claims that as
being the truth, that's not the truth. It's contrary to God's
will. And they don't acknowledge that. I don't care what they
put on the headlines, I guarantee you they'll be on the back page
in six months from now, denying it. Yes, they will. Wasn't I
showing you that the other day? Yes, today, in a magazine. I don't want to go into that.
All men are liars. The scripture says, let God be
true, and every man a liar, and it'll be proved. Eventually.
It's always proved. From the beginning, God They've
been trying to discount, disprove, and discredit God's Word for
a thousand years. More than that, they can't. Have not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1.
And Paul was such a student of Scripture. He said, where is
the wise man? Where is the scribe? Bring him on. God's Word will put him to shame.
It will. We suck. It's one little quick
note. You know this, but those who
might not. You see, they argued for years
that the world was flat. Didn't. For years. And it wasn't
until 14, what? What's the year? Columbus 1492. Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
It wasn't until 1492 that they, Columbus said, hey, it's round. Well, David wrote 2,000 years
before that, about God sitting on the circle of the earth. If you just read the Bible, and
all these astronomers and philosophers, we read over in the book of Job,
it was written how many thousands of years ago? It talks about
Orion. and all these constellations
and all that. Be truth. God's people acknowledge
the truth and they won't acknowledge anything else. To the point of
being accused as being, what are you, dumb, ignorant fool?
I am a man. I'll be a fool for Christ's sake.
Won't you, John? We'll see who proves to be the fool when it's
all over with. It's the fool who said no God. That man's a
fool. don't care how wise he is, he
don't care, professing himself to be wise, they became what?
Educated fools. The truth. They acknowledge the
truth, which is, verse 1, after godliness. Now that is for the
purpose of godliness. What is godliness? Well, the
word godly is in that. Godly, to make us godly, Man,
let me just give you a short history of man. What happened? Man in the beginning was holy,
like God. Man was like God. Man was not a materialistic creature. Man was not bound by his senses. Man was not sensual. Man was
not materialistic. Man didn't think about dirt. What man think of? God. He was godly. He was like God. Dirt was dirt, and things were
things. So beautiful, and he enjoyed
them, but that's not where his mind dwelled. You understand? Man was like God. He walked with
God. He loved God. He thought like
God. But sin entered this world. Sin entered man, and he became
ungodly. He became opposite of what God
is. God is spirit. Man is flesh.
Man became a creature of flesh. He became materialistic. He became
sensual. He lost his mind, the mind of
God. And now he's like an animal.
By nature, man is like a beast. He's sensual. He comes out of
the womb no better than a horse, and the Scripture talks about
it. All he thinks about is eating, drinking, and sex. Until God does something to him
to make him godly. To bring him back to God. That's
what godliness is. To bring him back to think about
God, to love God, to think like God, to walk with God, to be
like God. That's God-led. Understand? It goes much deeper than, like
with my this and with my that. No, it's to have a mind like
God. And that's what this whole thing
is about.