But Paul, he starts out talking
about being a servant. And what Paul, he was used of
God to establish a church in Crete. And he left Titus there. After
he left, he left Titus there to finish the work that he had
started. And what he left him there to do was to put the churches
in order. Churches have an order to them. There's an established,
things are not in chaos. in a church. You've been in places,
and I remember years ago, that that's what it was. It's chaos.
I mean, anybody could say anything they wanted to say, anytime they
wanted to say it. And people could throw up their hands, well,
you got something to say? Oh, yeah. They could just jump
up and say anything they wanted to say, witness, testify, preach. Just take over, you know. And
that's not right. And he says, so he's called here,
Titus was, to put the churches in order. And see to it that
they had the right pastors, pastors that were God's own heart, proper
pastors, leaders, people that understood the doctrine and practice,
and they lived the doctrine, they lived the practice, they
were leaders of the church. And he left them there to refute
and rebuke false teachers, lots of false teachers. And Judaizing
preachers, ain't that what he says, says, especially they of
the circumcision, vain talkers, unruly. especially they of the
circumcision. So rebuke these false teachers.
Get on them. Don't let them get by with it.
And Judaizing preachers who made holiness to be in certain foods
that they ate, in ceremonies that they had, holy days that
they kept, rituals that they kept. And he left him there thirdly
to exhort believers to fulfill their responsibilities and use
the scriptures and the grace of God as the motive and the
argument for them to live according to the gospel of the grace of
God that they themselves heard. Look what he says down in verse
9. He said, he said, "...exhorting believers, holding fast the word,
the faithful word, as he hath been taught this what the preacher
ought to do." that he may be able by sound doctrine both to
exhort and convince the gainsayers, and that word gainsayers means
those that are deniers, deniers. Look over here in chapter 2 in
verse 6, talking about preachers again and young men. He says,
young men likewise to be sober-minded, to tell young men, the young
women, how they're to be. And then look over here in verse
9, talking about exhorting believers. Exhort servants to be obedient
unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things,
not answering again, not arguing with them, not saying, I don't
want to do that. I've seen a fellow being interviewed
that started out in yards, three employees. Now he's got around
40. And he says, you know, he says,
His employees, they average making about $18, $19 an hour working
in a restaurant. But he said this, he says, I'm
not going to hire somebody who comes to me with their shoes
untied, pants hanging down. He said, I want somebody that
works for me, and these people that work for me, if they do
a good job, they just keep getting promoted and keep making more
and more money. He said, I'm not going to put
money out on people that's going to argue with me and debate with
me that don't know anything. And if they'll do what I tell
them to, and they do that well, then they go on to the next thing.
He said, I'm not going to let nobody work for me that argues
with me. That's what Paul's saying here.
And a believer won't argue with somebody when they tell them
what to do, if it's scriptural. And then not proloning. That
word proloning means stealing. but showing all good fidelity,
faithfulness. And here's the reason that they
may adorn, dress up, make beautiful the doctrine of God our Savior. Make it look good. Make it look
good. Dress it up. So here comes Titus. Now, Titus was an uncircumcised
Greek. He was an uncircumcised Greek,
and God gave him an abundance of grace and gave him abundance
of gifts. And he was loved of the apostle.
And Paul mentioned him often. Look over here in 2 Corinthians
with me just a moment in chapter 8. Let's look at this together.
2 Corinthians chapter 8. Paul loved him and often mentioned
him. And in 2 Corinthians 8, look
what he said about it. about Titus. He loved him very
much. And Titus, when they circumcised
Timothy, people said, why wasn't Titus? Well, Titus was a full-blown,
he was a Greek. He wasn't a Hebrew. He wasn't
a Jew. Timothy was a half-Jew and half-Greek. His father was
a, his mother was a Hebrew married to a Greek man. So because he
was a Jew, He was circumcised to stop the mouths of the Jews.
But Titus was never a Jew. He was a Gentile. He was like
me or you. And if he had been circumcised,
they would have brought him under the law and said, oh, the Greeks
undermined all the Gentiles, going to have to live like Moses.
And that's what they said in Acts 15. Those people, these
Gentiles, they can only be saved if they're circumcised after
the law of Moses. And Paul stood up and said, that
ain't going to happen. This gospel is for all men, Jew
and Gentile, bond and priest, circumcised and uncircumcised.
It's not that circumcision of the flesh that cleanses a man,
but the circumcision of the heart. And so that's why he was circumcised. But look what Paul said about
him here in 2 Corinthians 8, verse 6. He loved Titus, and
he's mentioned him often. He said, It is so much that we
desire Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish
in you the same grace also. Now look down in verse 16. But thanks be to God, which put
the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you. Whatever heart, earnest desire
in heart that Paul had, he says, God put it in Titus too. Then
down in verse 23, he says this, whether any do inquire of Titus,
he is my partner and fellow heifer concerning you and our brethren. Be inquired of, they are the
messengers to the churches and the glory of Christ. So Paul
highly recommended him, spoke highly of him. Now Titus was
a public letter. It wasn't a letter to an individual,
though it was to him, but it was a letter, a public letter
for all believers, how to act and conduct themselves. And let's
go through these verses that I, just a few minutes, won't
take long to do this. And first he says in verse one,
Paul, a servant of God, This was a title that Paul and Peter
and James, he says, I'd rather be known by being a servant of
God than anything else. As one who serves, as one who
waits, as one who does for others. And not so much a slave, but
one who actually serves and waits on other people. That my life
is not my own, I give it over to do for others. And to serve
my Lord Jesus Christ. To be His servant, at His beck,
at His call, at His will. Wherever He sends me, I go. Whatever
He tells me to do, I say. Whoever He tells me to love,
I love. And so, that's what they want to be. It was a humble title,
but it was a high title. A servant. That's what our Lord
Jesus Christ, He that's the greatest among you? The greatest? Let
that one be the servant. Let that one be the servant.
And Paul was one time a servant of sin. A servant of sin, just
like us and everybody else. But God called him by his grace,
revealed Christ to him and revealed Christ in him. And when he did
that, he became a willing, living servant of the Lord Jesus Christ,
a servant of God, a servant of righteousness even. Where as
he was a servant of sin, he became a servant of righteousness. And
then look what he says here, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Do you know how Paul was called? He wasn't called. He was called
like the rest of them. God called him. But he was especially
called in a miraculous way. He was a man who was a persecutor. He was injurious. He said one
time, he said, I thought evil against the name of Christ. I
thought meanness toward the name of Jesus Christ. And then he
turns around and he says, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ.
Christ called him. Christ called him, qualified
him. He was sent by the Lord Jesus
Christ to preach the gospel. And he received, this is something
he did, that the rest of the apostles, he received his doctrine
directly from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Look over here
in Galatians chapter 1 with me. The other apostles, they followed
Christ around for three years. And after all of his teaching
and all that, they had to remind him and constantly... They said,
oh, we remember what he said. He'll remember what he said then.
But when God struck Paul down on the Damascus Road, he didn't
go to Jerusalem, he didn't go to James, he didn't go to Simon
Peter, he didn't go to the apostles. He didn't go to Matthew. He didn't
go to Lee. He came to the Lord Jesus Christ. Men, if they wanted to know the
gospel, they would go to Jerusalem, it said, under James and Peter
and John. Paul didn't do that. Paul didn't
say, I need to go to Jerusalem. I need to find out what them
fellows know about Christ up there and sit at their feet and
learn of them. That's not what happened to him.
That's what I wanted to do years and years ago. When I first really
started learning the gospel, I wanted to quit preaching and
go sit down under somebody else and learn something about the
gospel. That was my desire to do. Either go to Stock Richardson
or go to 13th Street and sit under one of those faithful men
to learn something about the grace of God and the gospel.
But they both said to me, says Noah, we'd love to have you. But you stay where you are, we'll
help you all we can. And that's why Paul said, I want
to go somebody else. Paul said, I'm not going to go
somebody else. And look what he said here in Galatians chapter
1 verse 11. But I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I
neither received it of man, neither was it I taught it, but by the
revelation of Jesus Christ. He may not have said to him,
but he said it's a master's thing. And then look what he goes on
to say here. Paul, a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
according to the faith of God's elect. His message, when he talks about
the faith of God's elect, his message was the message that
all the people preach, the message of Moses. Moses believed God. Abraham, the faith of God's elect. Abraham believed God. Isaiah
believed God. All the elect of every dispensation,
they had a faith that God gave. Abraham, come out. Moses, go
down. God met him on the mountain there,
and that burning bush, go down and tell Pharaoh to let my people
go. That was the faith of God's elect, and he went down. Abraham,
go out. He went out, not knowing where
he was going. No, prepare an ark. What for? It's going to
rain. All right. He built that ark for 120. This
is what he's talking about. The faith of God's elect of every
dispensation. It's all the same. When God calls
you, you answer. God says you believe. He brings
you the gospel and you say, I believe. I believe what Abraham did. I believe what Moses did. I believe what Noah did. I'm
preparing them. Oh, I believe the gospel. And,
oh, beloved, the message of the apostles and the prophets was
redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the lives lived by
Him, and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And all
of that was given to us by the grace of God, through the merits
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the blood of Christ. That's the
faith of God's unit. Christ bought us. Christ paid
for us. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's bank, and sinners plunged beneath that
flood lose all their guilt and shame. And, O beloved, what worth
do we have? None, but Christ is worthy, and
we're in Him, so whatever worth He is, we are. And that's what the message is,
the faith of God's elect. And look what else he went on
to say, in the acknowledging of the truth. What this is, beloved,
this explains the nature of the faith of God's elect. What's
the nature of the faith of God's elect? They acknowledge the truth.
Their faith rests on the truth. Their faith trusts in the truth,
trusts in Christ, and it holds to the truth that's revealed
to them in the Scripture. That's what this nature of the
faith of God's elect is. I tried to say it this morning,
that He opened their understanding to the Scriptures. You know,
a faith can find no strength, or no comfort, or assurance.
Its feelings can. Has your faith ever found any
assurance in your feelings? Ever had any comfort in your
feelings? Can you find any assurance in
your emotions, or any ceremony you care for, tradition you have?
But faith, beloved, this faith is the acknowledging of the truth.
It's the acknowledging the truth that God taught us in the...
That's where our faith rests, on this right here. Sometimes, beloved, I wouldn't
give you that. I don't have enough faith to even talk about, even
mention it. But it's in this right here.
Fillings come and fillings go, and fillings are to cease. Not
else, not else is worth believing the God-blessed Word. How do
you know God said it? God said it in whatever... If
God said it, I agree with it, don't you? And like I said one time, if
the scripture said, look with me at John 17, I'll tell you
this, John 17. I remember saying one time that
people, they, you know, intellectuals and that, they cannot find that
even some people in churches now, so-called churches and preachers
coming out of seminaries, they think that most of the Old Testament
is just fables, illustrating moral things. And they said,
like Jonah, that was swallowed by the great fish. And by that
whale, they think that whale said, you know, that really didn't
happen. That really didn't happen. Well, I tell you what, if the
scriptures had said that Jonah swallowed the whale, I'd believe
that. I'm not going to doubt this word. If you doubt it one place, you've
got to doubt it all of you. And if Christ, if you doubt Him,
had been in one part of His office or His work, you've got to doubt
Him in all of it. We either take everything, or
we take nothing. We either believe it all, or
we can't pick and choose and bless His holy name. That's why
it's called the faith of God's elect, because it acknowledges
the truth. When you heard the truth this
morning, when you hear the truth this evening, you know what you
have? You have the faith of God's elect. And you said, yes, that's
right. You acknowledge it. That's the truth. You start bowing
your head. Yep, that's right. Huh? Look what our Lord said here
in John 17, 17. Sanctify them through thy truth. That word sanctify there means
set them apart. Set them apart. Make them holy. And listen here. Sanctify them
through thy truth and thy word is truth. The truth, what separates
us from the world, separates us from our conditions, separates
us from our falsehoods, separates from everything. And oh, that's
why our Lord Jesus says, Know the truth, and the truth shall
set you free. And then he says the acknowledging
of the truth, which is after godliness. The gospel, the faith
of God's elect, acknowledging of the truth, It is a gospel
according to the doctrine of dominance, the truth, the truth
believed, the truth experienced in our hearts and in our lives. It promotes dominance. It promotes
worship. It promotes a fear of God. It
makes us sober. It makes us honest. It makes
us sincere. It makes us concerned over our
conduct and our conversation, the life that we live. I preached
on that here, I don't know, several weeks ago. And I was talking
to a preacher and he listened to it and he said, I was talking
about being honest, that the Lord's people are honest. And
he says, I got so convicted, you know, he said, I was having
some troubles, financial troubles and some things. And he says,
he says, I told my wife and I told this
other fellow, says, I'm making up, said, I've got I've got to
straighten this stuff out. He just heard about believers
being lost from the Scripture. And he says, I've got to start
taking care of business, where he just was getting lackluster
about it. And I tell you, that's the way
the Lord's people are. They're honest people. The Gospel makes
us honest. That's why if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. Now look what he says in verse
2. In hope of eternal life. Oh, and hope of eternal life.
Our hope, beloved, is not in anything that you can see right
now. Our hope is not to not be seen
right now. It's not possessed by us right
now. But our hope of eternal life
is in something. We find hope, it's always in
the future. It always has to do with the
life in the future. Always has to do with the resurrection
of our Savior. But, beloved, our hope, That
now is the life of Christ. The life begotten in us by the
Holy Spirit, Paul of Peter said it this way, begotten again unto
a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And this hope
is secure in the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ, laid up for
us. Peter, Paul told the Colossians,
for the hope that's laid up for you in heaven, a hope laid up
there for us. And, oh beloved, then look what
he says, in hope of eternal life which God, that cannot lie, promised
before the world began. Now let me tell you something
about eternal life here. He says eternal life is a promise.
If it's a promise, then it wasn't owed to him. It wasn't owed to
me. It's not a wage. It had to be paid. So that means
eternal life is a free grace. He said eternal life is promise.
He says, I'll give it to you if you do this, I'll give it
to you if you do that. Eternal life is a promise. And
so it's not reward, it's not wages paid, it's a free grace. And then not only is eternal
life promised, but it's God that promised it. God that promised it. Do you
reckon God will be true to His word? Do you reckon He'll be
faithful? He is faithful. He cannot deny Himself. He cannot
lie. And listen to this. This eternal
life was promised before the world ever began. I've got a
people that I promise eternal life to. Who are they? Those given to Christ in the
covenant of grace before the foundation of the world. Those
that have the faith of God's elect. Those that acknowledge
the truth. Those that God has worked Godliness in, though I
promised them eternal life, and we have faith because He gave
us life. We acknowledge the truth because
He gave us life. Those are not the things that
give us life. He promised us the life, and we have the life.
That's where the faith comes from. That's where the truth
comes from. Oh, bless His name. And that's before the world ever
began. And I tell you, it was given to us in Christ from the
beginning. Paul told the Thessalonians, thanks brethren, we're bound
always to thank God for you. Because God hath from the beginning
chosen you unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth. We've been chosen from the beginning. Gave us grace in Christ before
the foundation of the world. And I tell you, beloved, We wouldn't
have it if not God promised it. We wouldn't have it if not God
gave it to us. And you know when he gave it
to us? Gave it to us in Christ. Grace given us in Christ before
the world began. Gave us eternal life before the
world began. I think that was before he said,
ever let there be light. I think that's when he done that.
The only reason he created this world was to show one thing,
to say, the sin reigns in this world and starkness is in this
world, but I created this world, and if you think this is something,
you wait till I create a new heaven and a new earth, and there
ain't nothing but righteousness that lives in that place. If
you think this is something, wait till you see the next thing.
Oh, beloved. Now, look what he says in verse
3. So He gave us this hope of eternal life before the world
began. But hath in due time, in His
appointed time, God manifested His Word. Now in His appointed
time, God has made known His Word. And He made known, and
let me give you three things, and then I think they're all
three of the same thing. He made known His Word, He says,
you know, He made known His Word through preaching. But He made
known His Word by Christ. Christ was with God, was God,
and was with God. And the Word was made flesh and
sent to dwell among us. Christ, He made known His Word
by Christ, the essential Word. Then He made known His Word by
the Word of truth, the Gospel of our salvation. And thirdly,
He made known His Word by the promise of eternal life in Christ. So let's just say that all three
of them are true. Christ, is the Word. Christ is our life that God brought
through us in the Gospel, and Christ is the Gospel that brought
us salvation in Himself. And we have nothing else to believe,
nothing else to preach. And then it goes on to say, But
hath in due times manifested His Word through preaching, which
is committed unto me. Here's the thing that God does,
and I read a thing that David Edmondson wrote about preaching.
This gospel, this word, is manifested through preaching, and it's committed.
It's committed by a commandment. It's committed. Somebody asked
me, how do you know you're called to preach? You just do. You just do. God gives you a gift, you just do. And I tell you, these fellows
that say, well, God's called me to do something, I can't do
it, I ain't gonna do it. Well, that's why Paul said, who
is sufficient for these things? Nobody's sufficient for them.
Who do you give your sufficiency from? The same private person
who called you. He commits the Word to us, and
bless his name, if he commits something to you, If somebody
trusts you with something, how are you going to treat that if
somebody trusts you? And God trusted us with the Word of Truth,
the Gospel, and He committed the Gospel to us, to men that
He called. And that's why I'm so thankful
for these men that take the services. Gary, or Obie, or Gary Spraker,
or Gary Williams, or Brad. These fellas, None of them would
call themselves a preacher, but I do know this, they'll get up
here and when the service is committed to them, to their trust,
they are faithful to the trust that's committed to them. And then he said, it's
by commandment. God commands a man. Credit if you can. But I'll tell you what, beloved,
the Word is the seed. And that seed is planted into
a heart by the Holy Spirit. The Word is the seed. The Holy
Spirit plants it in the heart. And that seed is germination.
It brings forth life. Being born again. Not a corruptible
seed, but incorruptible by the Word of God which is living and
abiding forever. That's why He said the Word is
committed to us. And James 1.18 says, By His own will be carried
us. with the Word of Truth. Now look
what he says in verse 4. To Titus, my own son, after the
common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and
the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. Now Titus wasn't Paul's natural
son. He called Timothy his son. Paul Titus, his son, he was the
spiritual father. He begot him through the gospel.
He taught him and cared for him and nurtured him just like a
father would a son. He was the instrument of his
conversion. He was his spiritual father, and he treated him and
loved him like a son. And then he says to Titus, my
own son, after the common faith. Now, what Paul has said is, our
faith, we have the common faith. What's common in me is common
in him. We have the same thing. It's common to them both, this
faith, this common faith, and this faith that's in us, this
faith that's true, this faith of God's elect. It's common to
Paul, it's common to Titus, and it's common to all who know the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we know one another
so well. That's why we know one another
so well. You don't have to tell me nothing about you, and you
don't have to tell me nothing, and I don't have to tell you nothing
about me. We all know one another. We've got the common faith. We
believe the same thing, we know the same things, we understand
the same things, and we ain't... You know? And all of you love it. He has the
faith, and when he talks about this, it's the faith that only
God gives. because we are nothing and can do nothing unless God
gives it to us. And then look what he says, and
I'll close with this. He said, Grace, mercy and peace
from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. And this is what he means. May
you have a fresh discovery of the grace and the love and the
free grace of God in Christ. May you have a fresh application
of the pardoning mercy of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
May you have peace of heart through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ."
And this was Paul's prayer for Titus, and this is what we ought to
pray for one another, grace, mercy, and peace. May we have
an abundance of Christ's discovery of God's love and grace in Christ. May He apply the pardoning mercy
given to us in Christ. May He abundantly give us peace
of heart through the blood of Christ. May that be our prayer
for one another, that we have that for one another. Our Father, in the gracious,
blessed name of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you
for your Word, O that was manifested at your appointed time through
our Lord Jesus Christ, manifested in the Gospel, manifested in
our hearts and in our lives, manifested at your appointed
time. O Father, blessed be your name.
Open hearts, open minds, open understanding. Save you people
in this place. Cause us to grow in the grace,
knowledge, love, mercy, and peace of our God and Father. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen. Amen.