upon me as your teacher so that
you might hold me to it. I'm going to read Titus chapter
3 starting in verse 3 all the way down through verse 11. We're
going to cover this whole section here. Titus 3. Starting in verse three, for
we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves
to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and
envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness
and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us.
not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according
to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of
the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus
Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might
become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying
is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things so
that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote
themselves to good works. These things are excellent and
profitable for people. But avoid foolish controversies,
genealogies, dissensions, quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable
and worthless. As for a person who stirs up
division after warning him once and then twice have nothing more
to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful,
he is self-condemned. So I will not be teaching out
of Ephesians this morning, but that is okay because Paul is
saying the same thing here, isn't he? His words here should be
very familiar to you at this point because this section of
Titus 3 is very similar to what we've been working through in
Ephesians 1. But to understand Paul's letter
to Titus, we need to understand what its purpose is. It's a little
bit different from the letter to the Ephesians. Remember, Timothy
is the pastor of one of the Ephesian churches. He was appointed by
Paul in the letters to Timothy to appoint the elders in all
the churches in Ephesus. Then the book of Ephesians is
addressed to the Ephesian church. Titus is more similar to Paul's
letters to Timothy, first and second Timothy. It's written
from an apostle to a pastor. Titus was the pastor on the island
of Crete, and like Timothy, he was charged with establishing
churches there. Paul writes, this is why I left
you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order
and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. So there's
two guiding principles we need to understand as we read Titus. First, it's written as a handbook
for establishing the churches. You find instructions and expectations
for church life. You find commands and exhortations
to guide the elders in planting and governing local assemblies. And then you find commands and
exhortations for God's people who are a part of these assemblies. Second, this context is laid
out as the only context in which
Titus really makes sense. It's given to elders. It's instructions
for elders. And there is, in some sense,
a general equity. You might hear me use that phrase
from time to time. General equity. When I talk about
the commands of God. Every command in scripture has
an immediate context. The command is given to the people
that it is given to, to be applied in the situation that they are
in. And sometimes the situations
we find ourselves in are different, right? We might find ourselves
living in a different context than the one in which a command
is given. But when I speak of the general equity, what I mean
is that there is some sort of fundamental moral principle that
applies to everyone in all situations that is sort of undergirding
that command. And so while Titus is written
to and meant to be applied in the context of the local church,
to the elders of the local church, there are instructions in this
book that apply to you, the sheep. There are instructions in this
book that can be applied just in our everyday lives. But there are many instructions
in this book that cannot be meaningfully applied apart from the local
church. The majority of the instruction
from Titus is meant to be and can only be applied in this context. It doesn't make sense outside
of the local church. And so this shouldn't really
be a new principle for us, right? We've talked about this before.
We've talked about this when we are in Ephesians. It's a letter
written to the church, meant to be applied by the church in
the context of the church. The reason for this is that the
gathering of the assembly, the gathering of God's people, is
the primary identifier of God's people, collectively. The primary
way you are individually identified as an individual member of the
body of Christ is by your profession, that Christ has secured the redemption
of his people by his work in his life, death, and resurrection.
But collectively, as a body, we are identified as individuals
who share that same profession. This is something that churches
today and throughout history have missed. We identify with
our brothers and sisters by a common profession of the one true gospel. Yet many make this error of marrying
their church identity with their profession of the gospel. How do you know that you are
saved? I go to Grace Truth Church. Wrong. If the way that you know
you are saved is because of some church membership, some church
attendance, Even if that church preaches the true gospel, you
have misunderstood the hope of your salvation. You may have
misunderstood the gospel entirely. The body of Christ is identified
together under the umbrella of the true gospel, united by a
common profession that Christ alone has affected and perfected
the salvation of his people. And so Titus 3 here is the concluding
summary of the letter, and Paul reminds us first who we are apart
from Christ, then he reminds us what Christ has done for us
to bring us into him, and then he tells us who we are and who
we are to be as we persist in him. So Paul begins here in verse
three of Titus three by telling us who we are apart from Christ. He says, we ourselves were once
foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and
pleasure, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others
and hating one another. And so we begin our study here
with an examination of the nature of man. an examination of who
the natural man is, an examination of our flesh. Paul often takes
great care to give elaborate descriptions of human nature
and state that those apart from Christ who live in the curse
of Adam are dead. We often talk about human nature
and how it relates to the doctrine of original sin in terms of free
will, Free will, libertarian free will,
liberty of conscience, these are extra biblical words. These
are ideas brought to the table by men. Now, there are words
and phrases that I use, that we use, that we collectively
together affirm to be truth that aren't native to the language
of scripture. So just because a word is not
found in scripture does not mean that it is wrong or false or
heretical. We have countless examples of
language that we use to better understand scripture that isn't
really biblical language. So the issue here is that Paul
rarely speaks in terms of the will of man. It's not a phrase
that Paul used. Instead, he tells us what men
do apart from Christ. This idea of free will, these
conversations about whether or not we can choose or we would
choose, these are philosophical conversations that Paul doesn't
really get involved in. He instead speaks more practically
in terms of what the natural man does. One of the few times that Paul
actually does speak of the will of man is found in Romans 8.
If you turn to Romans 8, I'm going to read this section here,
starting in verse 5. He says that those who live according
to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. Those
who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things
of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh
is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. It does
not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who
are in the flesh cannot please God." So here Paul actually makes
a statement about the will of man. He makes a statement about
man's ability to perform good works, about man's ability to
affect salvation. He says that those who are in
the flesh cannot please God. Now, men have invented all manner
of false interpretations of this text from Romans 8. If you spend
any time on social media in Christian circles that talk about theology,
this has come up. You might hear things like, all
people have some measure of God's spirit or God's grace in them.
and that is at war with their flesh, fighting to bring everyone
to faith. The thing I want you to see here is that when Paul
gives a list describing the vices of men, he's talking about the
same thing he's talking about in Romans 8.8. The mind that
is set on the flesh cannot please God. Man, apart from Christ,
apart from the regeneration, the conversion given to us by
the Holy Spirit, cannot please God. So here in Titus 3, where we
have these descriptions of what men do, we see the same thing
in 2 Timothy 3, when Paul speaks of the last days. 2 Timothy 3,
starting from the beginning of that chapter, people will be
lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient
to the parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous,
without self-control, brutal, not loving, good, treacherous,
reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than
lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its
power. Avoid such people, for among
them are those who creep into households. See, you get to verse
five and you think he's done, right? Avoid such people. He's
only halfway there. For among them are those who
creep into households, capture weak women, burdened with sins,
led astray by various passions, always learning and never able
to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as John Ace and John
Brace opposed Moses, so these men also opposed the truth, men
corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. They will
not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was
that of those two men. Paul does the same thing in Romans
3 when he quotes the psalmist. None is righteous. No, not one.
No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have
turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does
good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their
tongues to deceive. The venom of serpents is under their lips.
Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are
swift to shed blood, and their paths are ruined in misery. In the
way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. But you have what it takes to
choose God. In the former days, in the current
days, in the future days, man is guilty, unable to please God.
This is the whole testimony of Scripture from Genesis to Maps. None is righteous except for
Christ. None can please God except for
Christ. None is able to secure salvation,
to bring you to the Father except for Christ. But notice, Paul was talking
in the past tense, right? Back in Titus 3, he says, we
were once ourselves foolish, disobedient, led astray. Is he describing what we used
to be like? Is he describing what we were like before we were
saved? Read the list again and answer
the question. Foolish. Have you ever acted foolish after
God has saved you? Have you ever been disobedient
to scripture now that you are saved? Have you ever been led
astray by nonsense or error? Have you ever spent entire days
angry with someone such as your spouse? Looking for spouses to
elbow each other there, right? These things still describe us,
don't they? These lists of sins that Paul
brings up still describe, in some measure, the lives that
we live. So what is Paul talking about?
For we were once these things, and yet we are still these things. He isn't talking about your behavior.
He isn't saying we once did all these bad things, but now we
don't. Because we do. Paul did these things. He says
in Romans 7, I do not understand my own actions. I do not do what
I want and I do the very thing that I hate. So instead of saying that we
once were sinners and now we are no longer sinners, Paul is instead making the declaration
that God's people, us, the church, the assembly, We have been made
no longer guilty of these things. Even though we still do these
things, we are not guilty of them in the eyes of God. And
this is what Paul goes on to explain for us. Verse 4, Not
because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy,
by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior,
so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs
according to the hope of eternal life. So, but when? We used to be wicked. We used
to be dead in our sins. We used to hate God. We were
as far away from God as we could possibly be. But when? the goodness and loving-kindness
of God our Savior appeared." So we might be tempted to understand
this appearing to be referring to the incarnation of Christ. Right? John 1 14, the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen His glory, glory
as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. That's not what Paul's talking
about. When he writes that the goodness and loving-kindness
of our Savior appeared, He's not talking about the incarnation,
something more personal. He's talking about the particular
mode, the particular mechanism of the calling of his people
out of darkness. We were once guilty sinners,
but now we are not because Christ has appeared to us. This appearing
of our Savior is none other than the revelation of the gospel
of Christ to our hearts in the work of the Holy Spirit and regeneration.
The testimony of the gospel is the appearing of the goodness
and the lovingkindness of Christ our Savior. Now there's something I want
you to understand about this goodness and lovingkindness of
God. This is something different from
God's righteousness. When Paul speaks of the goodness
of God, he's speaking of something different from the righteousness
of God. This goodness is distinct from
God's righteousness. Goodness and loving kindness
are describing the manner of the appearing of our Savior in
the gospel, not righteousness. The righteousness of God speaks
of duty and requirements. Goodness and loving kindness
speak of something more, something beyond what is required. We see
God's righteousness displayed in his judgment, don't we? Right,
when I speak of the law, when I speak of God's justice, right,
I always say God demands justice. I've said things like God is
compelled by His justice, right? Because God is just, because
God is justice, He is compelled to act justly towards the sinner.
For the one who lives in wickedness apart from Christ, that justice
looks like the pouring out of His wrath. God is righteous to condemn the
sinner, and God is righteous to condemn Christ on the cross
for the redemption of His people. Christ's work on the cross is
necessary for our redemption because God is righteous. God
cannot permit the guilty into his presence. He cannot suffer
the wicked to live. So in order to permit his people
to have eternal communion and unity with him, his righteousness
requires that his justice be satisfied. And it is on the cross
where Christ pays the penalty. for the sins of his people and
his people alone. That's the gospel that has appeared,
but that is not why or how this gospel has appeared to us. It
has appeared through his goodness and loving kindness, right? Because while God has a duty
to be just, while God has a duty to judge the wicked, he has no
duty to save any of us. because God will not find anything
in us which his justice will compel him to love. God will
not find anything of us that his righteous demands that he
love. Instead, he loves us because
he is good and because he is merciful. He's not compelled
by his justice to love us. He is compelled by the liberty
of his own mercy. God's righteous does not compel
him, but his goodness and his mercy do. And by his goodness
and his mercy, he has freely chosen to love us, his people,
the least deserving of it. That is the appearing of the
goodness and the loving kindness of our Father found in the gospel. Explicitly at this time, this
appearing, this moment, the Spirit of God opens our eyes to see
the gospel and believe it. It is at this time that Paul
says, he saved us. When the goodness and loving
kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us. When it appeared
to us, that is when he saved us. So Paul is identifying an
explicit moment in time where we went from being in a state
of being guilty before God, damned for our sins, to being no longer
guilty before God, saved. And then everything that follows
in verses five, six, and seven is a part of this very moment. It's very easy when we read sentences
one after another to say that this sentence occurs sometime
after the previous sentence. But verses 5, 6, and 7 here are
things that happen all at once, all at the moment of regeneration,
all at the moment that you become saved. Remember, I said God will never
find in us anything which he ought to love, but he loves us
because he is good and because he is merciful. Paul says the
exact same thing. He saved us, not because of works
done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. Nothing in you pleased God to
save you, but only God was pleased in himself, compelled by the
liberty of his own mercy and love to save you. for the purpose
of glorifying himself and the redemption of his people, for
glorifying his son and the marriage of his son to the bride. And this next bit is interesting
and it's, there's something here that's easy to miss that is fundamentally
important to our understanding of this gospel and how it works.
If you just read through this passage once or twice without
dwelling on Paul's arguments, you could miss this bit. Previously,
when Paul said that goodness and lovingkindness appeared to
us, Paul is not only telling us when Christ saved us, he's
telling us how. There's more wrapped up in this
word appeared that I want us to understand. Our Savior has
appeared to us in the sense that light has shone upon him. That's
what that word literally means. Christ has appeared to us because
we were in darkness, but now we are in light. We are blind,
our eyes are closed, our ears cannot hear, but now light has
been shown upon us. And as Paul continues, remember
I said verses five, six, and seven are all a part of this
moment. He's not telling us what happens next. He's telling us
more about this salvation. Paul gives further details into
the method of our redemption. He says, he saved us by the washing
of regeneration, the renewal of the Holy Spirit. This regeneration is properly
the cause of our faith. This regeneration is the thing
that enabled and compelled us to believe. The revelation of
the gospel is the means by which the Holy Spirit performs this
work of regeneration and renewal. Remember I said, there is nothing
in us that compels God to save us. Paul says, the Holy Spirit, whom
he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. This
should remind you of Paul's letter to the Ephesians. What we've
been studying in Ephesians 1, he writes, blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in
Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. What is Paul talking about? Every
blessing. Those whom Christ died for, his
people, have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places. We have been blessed in every spiritual way. Our sins have been forgiven,
God's wrath has been satisfied against us, and Christ's righteousness
is our own. And we have been declared holy,
set apart in Christ. When Paul says we have been blessed
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, it means
that we cannot receive the grace of God in part. We cannot partially
receive God's grace. We cannot receive God's grace
for salvation and not God's grace for anything else. If you ever read systematic theology,
you might see the chapter on grace broken down into different
categories, different applications or dispensations of God's grace. One author was able to come up
with 15 different types of grace. Regenerating grace, electing
grace, sanctifying grace, relational grace, financial grace, traveling grace. I can't even think of 15 different
things to put the word grace after. Now there's nothing wrong with
this, right? There's nothing wrong with sort of systematizing
or categorizing the way in which God relates to us for the purpose
of understanding the scope, the breadth of the way God has given
grace to us. But the problem is when we do
this, if we're not careful, We can divide God's grace in such
a way that our minds see them as different ways, as distinct
dispensations of God's grace. We can make the mistake of dividing
God's grace in such a way that we might have received God's
grace for regeneration, for salvation, without having received God's
grace for peace or maturity. Paul says this cannot be. God's
grace is given fully in Christ. This is what it means that the
Holy Spirit has been poured out richly in Christ. So back in verse four when we
said, but when, Paul identifies a particular time in which we
are saved, the moment we are regenerated through the Holy
Spirit, through the revelation of the gospel to our hearts.
And everything that follows in verses five, six, and seven is
a part of this moment. Paul gives exposition on what
happens the moment we are saved. So that being justified by his
grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal
life. So here, Paul makes an explicit
statement of what we call justification by faith. At the time of faith. At the moment you were saved,
the moment that your eyes were opened, that the Holy Spirit
revealed to your heart the truth of the gospel of Christ, Paul
says you are justified by his grace. And all of these things work
together so that we are made to be heirs together with Christ,
according to the hope that is in eternal life. So what Paul has done here is,
this is where I'm going to get into sort of the expectations
that Scripture places upon the elders. Paul establishes for us the foundation
of all preaching. He establishes for us the foundation
of everything that I am called to do when I stand before you
to teach. He says in verse 8, the saying
is trustworthy and I want you to insist on these things so
that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote
themselves to good works. These things are excellent and
profitable for people. So here in verse eight, Paul
actually gets very practical, right? Verses three through seven,
he establishes the theological foundation of our hope that we
have in Christ. And then Paul tells us here that
this is the foundation of how we are to understand good works. This is the foundation of how
I am supposed to encourage you to good works. He's giving us the so what. So remember at the beginning
I said that Titus is primarily written to Titus the elder. It's
instructions for elders. It's a manual for elders for
establishing and governing the churches. But verse 8 here really
has two audiences. Paul says, those who have believed
in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These
things are profitable for people. And so here, Paul gives a very
explicit practical reason why we, the church, you, the sheep,
should devote yourselves to good works. These things are profitable,
right? And remember, you should devote
yourselves to good works, right? I should encourage you unto good
works. I should encourage you to avoid
sinful practice. Because scripture instructs us
to do that, right? And why should we do these things?
Paul says it is profitable. It is good for you. I mean, there
are some preachers out there who see that word profitable
and see dollar signs. No, it's beneficial. It's good
for you. Devote yourselves to good works. And this is sort of congruent
with what we know about sin, right? Sin has consequences. We understand that sin has eternal
consequences, right? Wickedness, sin, earns the judgment
of God. God promises that His judgment
will be poured out on all unrighteousness. But we know that sin has consequences
here on earth too, doesn't it? You pay for your sins today. Sin damages our relationships
with one another. Sin can physically harm your
body. God has erected the government to execute a temporary justice
on sins. And of course, the opposite is
true of good works. There are temporary, material,
physical, natural benefits to doing good works, to not sinning,
right? There are also spiritual benefits.
As we, the church, grow together and closer in our intimacy, as
we serve one another, we grow closer to Christ. We grow closer
to one another. We grow in our love for one another
when we serve each other. when we don't sin against each
other, right? Good works are a good thing.
And if they weren't, they wouldn't be called good. It is good for me to exhort you
into loving one another. It is good for me to encourage
you to serve one another. And it is good for me to encourage
you to be killing that sin that is still in your life. And these
are good things. And Paul gives very, very specific
instructions about how I am supposed to do this. Right? This is the expectation that
scripture places upon me, the teacher, upon me, the elder. He gives me an explicit formula
for teaching good works, for teaching the putting away of
sin to the sheep. And it is very, very not ambiguous. This is a command. He says, the
saying is trustworthy, right? This saying is trustworthy. What
saying is he talking about here? This saying is trustworthy. But
when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior appeared,
he saved us. That is the trustworthy saying.
Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according
to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal
of the Holy Spirit. This is the trustworthy saying. He's talking about how we were
once lost in darkness, dead in our sins. He's talking about
how God in his goodness and mercy chose to love those he would
call his people, the elect. He's talking about how our Savior
has appeared to us through the revelation of the gospel to save
us, to justify us, and to sanctify us. He's talking about the Spirit
of the Lord and the manifold graces that he has bestowed upon
us. This is the trustworthy saying, and Paul gives this explicit
instruction to me, that this is how I am to teach you. Good
works. This is how I am to equip you
to kill the sin in your life. Insist on preaching the fullness
of the pure and simple gospel of grace so that God's people
may be careful to devote themselves to good works. What's not here? basically everything
you see about how we are taught good works and killing sin everywhere
else in cultural Christianity. Paul tells us how I'm to teach
you good works, and it looks nothing like what we see in the Christianity of our culture.
It looks nothing like what you see in the faith of those evangelical
cults where sin is judged, right? This typical hellfire and brimstone
sermon, this, you better quit sinning or Satan will be winning. Sermon style, this is all completely
opposed to Paul's instruction to Titus. It's the opposite. of what Scripture teaches. You
want to teach good works? Insist on the gospel of Christ.
You want to teach good works? You want to encourage your brothers
and sisters in the faith to put sin to death? Insist on the righteousness
of Christ imputed to the elect. Insist on the sins of the elect
imputed to Christ and propitiated on the cross. Insist on these
things. This is how I am to encourage
you unto good works. Right, because this gospel is
the reason that we do good works. It is because Christ has loved
us that we love him and want to serve him. And this is consistent with how
we should understand church discipline, too, isn't it? Remember, church
discipline's not punishment. It's not punitive. Turn to Matthew 18. We talked
about this a bit last week, and we're gonna talk about it again. We can almost substitute Paul's
instruction here to what Jesus answered Peter, right? Peter
came up and said, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me
and I forgive him? Seven times? Which again, shows
you Peter thought seven was a lot. I do not say to you seven times,
but 77 times, or 70 times seven. Peter. When your brother has sinned
against you, insist on the gospel of Christ. If your brother sins against
you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have
gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take
one or two others along with you that every charge may be established
by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen
to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even
to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. At each step, if our brother
repents, it is as though we have gained our brother. It is as
though the gospel of Christ, the righteousness of Christ has
been revealed to them and their eyes have been opened and they
have repented. When we work through church discipline,
it looks like encouraging our brothers and sisters to rejoice in the gospel of Christ.
It looks like exhorting our brothers and sisters to cling to the work
of Christ. That is how I am to instruct
the church. What does it look like in cultural
Christianity? It looks like guilt and judgment. It looks like fear. We keep going back to Matthew
18. Remember, what did Jesus say about causing his children
to stumble, causing his children to fear? Tie a giant rock around
your neck and hurl yourself into the ocean. If my teaching about good works
gives you cause to fear, tie a rock around my neck and throw
me into the ocean. Instead, I insist on the righteousness
of Christ. I insist on the grace found in
God's sovereignty in redeeming his people. Because that is the trustworthy
saying. But avoid foolish controversies. Why? Because they make God's
children fear. That's what I'm talking about
when we talk about sort of that putting intellectual requirements
on faith. Saying that things that have
nothing to do with the salvation of God's people have something
to do with the salvation of God's people. Foolish controversy.
Makes the people of God fear. Tie a rock around your neck.
Genealogies, right? That's what the Jews were into,
right? Remember the Pharisees? Abraham is our father. I guarantee
you every single one of them had a piece of parchment in their
house where they had their father's name, their grandfather's name,
and every single person's name all the way back to Abraham so
they could point at that and say, this is my salvation. This
is why God loves me. Dissensions. Quarrels about the law. These are the things where you
don't like what someone else did. You don't like how they're
acting. These things are unprofitable
and worthless. For the person who stirs up division
after warning him once and then twice have nothing more to do
with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self-condemned. Right, so when I warn you about causing division, right,
what does that look like? Again, it's not about causing
you to fear. Even if you're the one causing the division, Even
if you are the one who is sinning, the one upon which we are exercising
church discipline, at every step it looks like encouraging you
unto the gospel of grace. It looks like reminding you of what
Christ has done for you and what Christ has done for your brothers
and sisters. These are the expectations placed
upon me as your pastor. And if ever I step on these expectations,
let me know. Remember, this saying is trustworthy. For we ourselves were foolish,
disobedient, led astray, slaves to passions and pleasures, passing
our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one
another. But when the goodness and lovingkindness of God our
Savior appeared, He saved us. Not because of works done by
us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing
of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured
out on us richly. through Jesus Christ, our Savior,
so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs
according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy. Scripture demands that I insist
on these things so that you who have believed in God may be careful
to devote yourselves to good works. These things are excellent and
profitable for you, church. And as we live together, as we
grow in our intimacy, as we love one another, avoid foolish controversies. Remember, that doesn't mean we
can't disagree, and that doesn't mean we can't have fun and lively
conversations and debates about these things, about doctrine. But sometimes those disagreements
are foolish, and we should forget about them. Avoid foolish controversies,
genealogies, dissensions, quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable
and worthless. And as for a person who stirs
up division after warning him once and twice, have nothing
more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped
and sinful, he is self-condemned. When I send Artemis, Antiochus,
to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have
decided to spend the winter there. Do your best to speed Zenos the
lawyer and Apollos on their way. See that they lack nothing. And
let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so as
to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful. All who
are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us
in the faith. Grace be with you all. Let's
pray. God, we thank you that while
your word does give instructions for what is right and wrong,
it also equips us to live those things out. It equips us to see your glory, the righteousness
of Christ through his work. The power of your Holy Spirit
has enabled us to grow, to live, to love one another. And God, as we take of your table,
remind us that body, that body of Christ broken, the blood poured
out for the redemption of your people. Let us grow together in this
one gospel. We pray these things in the name
of Christ. Amen.