Titus chapter three. Remind them to be submissive
to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for
every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling,
to be gentle, to show perfect courtesy toward all people. 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 the renewing
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 to insist, 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 and quarrels about the law, for they
are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who started 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. With all of that. We are going
to look at verse eight. The same 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. Church, it is gravely vital that
you break away from the conception and the concept of going to church
and doing church and belonging to church and associating as
with the church, you got to break away from this performance, methodological
perception of doing things and calling it church. We have to
break away from thinking that we are even learning at church
or growing at church or loving at church. There is no place
in the world within the cosmos of the created universe that
is the church. There is no such place in the
universe. But there is such people. There
is such a people as the church, the body of Christ, who, no matter
where they are, are gathered in perfection, being justified,
knowing that their God alone has saved them for the purpose
of his grace and glory being worshiped, that his power may
be seen, that his wisdom may be marveled, that his son may
be exalted, that his people may be holy. That is the church of
Jesus Christ. There is not learning, as you
prayed, dear brother, that we might think we're growing because
of what we got in our brains. There is learning through knowing,
through seeing, through the power of regeneration and the continual
renewal of the Holy Spirit by the renewing of the mind of everyone
who is part of the body of Christ. And friends, We are not saved
unto games of men, and we are not saved unto institutions of
our culture, and we are not saved unto labels of denominations,
and we are not saved unto the diversity of our union of different
congregations. We are either the body of Christ
or we are the sons of iniquity, and there is no option but those
two. And so as the preaching of God's
word is sent into your ears through the physical reality of the waves
of sound, may the Lord of all heaven and earth send his spirit
before them to break open your heart and to make new your mind
that you may see and savor the greatness and the riches of the
mercy and kindness of God in you, who is Jesus Christ, your
Savior and your God. We cannot play games and call
it church. We do not attend a church. We are the church. These things, this truth, as
Paul wrote this truth to the people of Crete, as he wrote
to dear Titus, a common brother, a child, a true child of a common
faith. He wasn't trying to get Titus
to get the program together. He was instructing and empowering
Titus to govern the people together. And that's why we're here today.
That's why we're here. We're not learning Titus, we're
learning Christ. We're not learning Paul. We're
learning Christ and we're learning Christ to the effectiveness of
our salvation, which is proven in our unity and the commonality
of our faith, which is empowering us to be a people of God's own
possession who, beyond the measures of the wisdom of the world, are
sanctified in union with an affection that is over and above every
cultural ideal. ever created in the world. We
supersede the promises of man and we supersede the affection
of brotherhood. We are the beloved of God. We are not a people who have
come together to do something. We are God and His work displayed
doing something. This is something that you need
to grasp and we cannot grasp it just mentioning it one time
a year. It is through the power of God's
Spirit, through the hearing of His Word, guided by the Spirit,
that brings this forever fresh and powerful in our lives. And
I will tell you now, if I were to entitle this sermon, I have
two thoughts. One is that I was thinking of
the idea of saying that we must be careful to devote ourselves
to good works. That would be a good one. But
I think ultimately a better understanding of what Paul is teaching here.
Is this. Is that we must be careful to see
that which is excellent. That's what Paul's teaching.
It's not a it's not a narrative and command that we're just supposed
to get with. Nowhere in Scripture do we see
that we don't we don't see any of the apostles in the New Testament
telling us, get with it now, get with it, get right, get it
straight, do it correctly. We see commands, and if we left
them as they were in their pretext, we could easily formulate a list
of things that we are to do. But the thing that we must see
as God's people is that we are not only instructed, but empowered
in that instruction by that instruction. And I just want to, I just want
to vomit sometimes because there's nothing in my brain and all of
its worklessness that can really grasp that. It's only by God's
grace that helps me see it. And only by God's grace that
you'll see it today and tomorrow and the days to come. Because
I don't want to do church. The people who can do church
are just as satisfied watching a good sermon on YouTube Listen
to a good sermon on the radio, watching a good television show
with good preaching. I mean, good preaching. People
who have that mindset are just as content to listen to this
sermon online than being the Fellowship of the Saints. So you see the difference? So
we're not comparing those people who just don't get it, who just
aren't with the right teaching. We're talking about ourselves,
that we're so held to the right words coming out of the right
pastor that we fail to see the right God and the right Savior
in the midst of it all. And because of that, we fail
to be the right people in the midst of the grace of God. And
I feel sometimes like Israel. And as the Shekinah glory of
God was given to them, and as the manna of God was given to
them, and as the pillar of fire and smoke was given to them,
and as the oracles of God were spoken to them, and they begged
Moses, no more. I don't want to hear anymore.
Cover your face. I don't want to see the reflection
of the reflection of the back of the glory of God. I don't
want to see it. I don't want to hear it. I can't bear it.
I feel like that's sometimes who we are as God's people. We're
in the wilderness, but friends, we've not come, according to
Hebrews, to that mountain. We've not come to the tempest.
We've not come in shirking in fear and shrinking back in horror. We've come to the new Jerusalem,
to Mount Zion, and to the vestal gathering of angels in celebration
of the glorious grace of God in the face of Christ. We've
come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, whose blood cries
louder than the blood of Abel. So what are we here for? We're
here to celebrate that which is excellent, profitable, who
is Christ and his righteousness. So let's look at the first. I
want you to see some things and don't know how it worked out,
they all end up in a start out with a who cares. Here they go. First, I want you to see the
audience that Paul is speaking to here in disclosing thought
of all that he taught. He's he's he's bringing together
all of this stuff. And he's he has an audience in
mind when he says to Titus, the saying is trustworthy. I want
you to insist on these things so that those who have believed
in God may be careful. You see that. So as as we gather today, we
need to understand that Paul is talking to a people who have
believed. These are those who are the body
of Christ, those who have been given Grace, those to whom the
grace of God has appeared, those who have seen the grace and the
loving kindness of their Savior, those who have been given the
gift of faith, those who have been given the sight of righteousness,
those who have been given. The blood of Jesus. This is the audience that Paul
is addressing, this is the one These are the ones that would
have been correct. This is the one to whom Paul
is speaking. About whom Paul is speaking to
Titus, Titus, this is true, so tell the people of God these
things. Paul isn't telling Titus to preach
to the lost, to obey these things. Paul is not telling the authorities
to do these things. Paul is not telling the unbelievers
to do these things. Paul is not telling the world
to do these things. Paul is saying that only to the
church will these things be true. OK, we get you. Why do you belabor
that? That's just a little. That's
obvious to the saints to To the Saints, to Titus, to my
true child in the common faith, we get he's talking to Christians.
Yeah, but we don't get that he's talking to Christians. We are the people of God. And when we measure this, we
measure it as in comparison to those who are not of us. When
we measure ourselves, we measure ourselves against the world.
Paul's not saying the world can do this, nor should they try. Because if he were teaching to
the world who had not received the grace of God and they were
also instructed to be this way and could pull it off, then what
good is being saved? Oh, well, the righteous works
of men are filthy rags. OK, we got that. And we know that even as Christians,
our righteous works do not constitute favor. Nor do they get and receive
an overling of blessing, because Paul teaches that at regeneration,
we've received all blessings, all blessings. We're not living
in a conditional culture, we're not living in a conditional legal
place to where the law, if not upheld, the blessings are removed. For our dispensational brothers
and sisters across the world, they would they would firmly
plant their feet in some kind of loose psychedelic soil and
they try to make it match and it doesn't match. Because if
it matched, then Paul was not just speaking to the church,
he's speaking to all men. He's not. Be careful. Be careful. The audience here is sanctified
of God. who are able to remember what
we preached a few weeks ago. Teach what accords with sound
doctrine. Teach what accords with sound teaching. Teach the
doctrine that accords doctrinally sound living. Teach that which
is right, so that right living is out of it. Then we see that
the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
training us to renounce ungodliness, to renounce worldly passions,
training us to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives right
now. The wicked don't live godly lives.
The wicked can't live self-controlled lives. And so it proves there
that Paul's not talking about a system of cultural morality.
He's talking about a supernatural picture of absolute holiness
and a perfection that is absolutely not able to be obtained by any
living man, except the God-man Jesus, who then gave it to his
own. We're justified. We're righteous. We're set apart. So that's the
audience of this little verse, of this letter. So what is the
attitude that we see here? What is it that Paul is teaching
the church to have? Well, let's look at verse eight.
The same is trustworthy. Titus, I want you to insist on
these things. So that those who believe so
that the church. May be careful. to devote themselves
to good works. So here we have this attitude
and it's a careful attitude and a devoted attitude. This is what
I see here. It's not just some ho-hum, yippee-yi-yay,
I love you and you love me. Here's a Coke and a smile and
we're done. Yeah, you aggravate me, but I
love you anyway. Give me a big hug and all this kind of stuff.
That's not. Since your attitude must be as
you have believed in God, I want you, Titus, to teach them, because
what I have said is true and trustworthy, teach them that
they must be careful. That they must be devoted. I
want you to look at that. Church, we must be careful. What does that mean? Pay attention.
Have some wisdom. Take your brain, as Paul would
teach in Romans chapter twelve, and meditate on the things that
are good and righteous and holy. Put your eyes and your passions
and your focus. Think on these things. As opposed
to what? The things of the world. The
passions of the flesh. The death of the mind. The things
that are worthless and futile and empty and vain. Godless. Don't focus your mind on these
things, be careful, pay attention. An exact translation there, I
think, would be think about. Think about. Think about not
only should our minds be totally captive by the gospel. But it
should be totally captivated by the gospel and it should be
focused on the things that the gospel produces. Jonathan Edwards
would call those holy affections. To which we use constantly and
friends, if you. If you don't have holy affections,
you don't have one who's holy, who has affection for you. That means if your affection,
if your attitude is not careful to pay attention to think on
the things of God, God is not yours as your savior. Because
he does give, as you pray, a new mind. He does give and grant
the grace to think as a new mind. Be careful. And then this devotion,
this passion, be devoted, be careful to devote themselves
to good works. And so this attitude is still
in line very cautiously and purposefully focused thinking, meditating
on carefully paying attention to being devoted to good works. And that's the action. But let's
continue on the attitude. What does it mean to be devoted? I believe it means what you love.
What is your affection? What is it that you thrive for,
church? As the people of God, are we
thriving for His glory? Are we struggling against sin
for the sake of sanctification? Are we at war with unbelief in
our members so that the grace of God may abound as our satisfaction
and as our security? Well, what's the outcome of such
things? If we know who Paul is speaking
of and to and we know the attitude that we are to have as that audience,
then what is the outcome? What's the action that we are
to have in our lives? Good works. And the problem with
good works is that our culture has made many. is the world that we live in,
in the so-called realm of, quote, Christendom, we have become inundated
with a book, volumes, library of good workings. And call them
ministry. We call them worship. We call
them holiness. We call them sanctification.
There's so many things. I could come here off the top
of my head and think of many, but I will offend so many if
I say them. I heard a pastor recently who
I completely disagree with on every single thing that he preaches,
but he made a good point in an illustration. When he talked
about how the old saying, the apple a day keeps the doctor
away. That's true, but could you live off of apples? Possibly
you could survive, but do you get everything you need is an
apple, though it's good, a substitute for protein. Is it a substitute
for bread? Is it a substitute for water?
So I take that metaphor, not sure he created it, but it was
good, so I stole it. And I put it in line, not where
he was going, but here. I put it here and I say to you
that good works that we think of and the volumes of good things
that we do in the name of Christ in our culture. In our American
congregations, I'm going to stop saying churches. Because they're
not churches, they're congregations. Grace Truth Church is a way of
identifying where you are, where you assemble, in what location. It's not who you are and what
church you are. And so as we look at good works,
it's often like we see all these things that we see, we see these
ministries, we see these focus things that we create and these
programs that come together and all of the stuff that we're busy
with and busy about and busy thinking about and busy planning.
And there may be a lot of apples or grapes or carrots or broccoli
pieces, and we enjoy the freshness of that healthy food and they're
good, but they're not good works. They're not the bread of life.
They're not the focus of what Paul is teaching Titus about
who the church is and what they should be about. And I think
the biggest thing that we need to understand as Paul begins
in chapter three there, remind them. The same is trustworthy. So we
could take that same is trustworthy. And I want you to insist on these
things, comma, and we put commas in our language. They don't in
Greek. So and then we back up to chapter
three, verse one, remind them of these things. But I would
say we go all the way to the beginning. Someone say, well, it's just
chapters three, verses four through seven. He's reminding them of
this. He's reminding them of all these things. He's reminding
us of all these things. And so the primary good work,
the first good work is to know God. To be reminded of his goodness,
to be known by him. Where do you get such things? I want to quote John. What is the work of God? We come to the light that it
may be clearly seen that these works have been carried out by God.
John 6, the work of God is to believe on the sun. What is the
work of God? God is the giver of life. God
is the lover of man. God is the redeemer of the lost.
Remind them of these things. The outcome of God's working
is good works which have been prepared beforehand, Ephesians
2, for us to walk in. It doesn't say in Ephesians,
by grace you've been saved through faith and this is not of your
doing, but is the gift of God that no one should boast for
you are Christ's workmanship, God's workmanship. It doesn't
say, well, you are a good person that now has come to gotten himself
together and you're going to do good works and please the
Lord for the rest of your life. It doesn't say that. It says
you are God's workmanship created in Christ. To do good works. which God prepared
beforehand for you to walk in. So the outcome, the action of
the gospel is the reality of God working. Not man working, not the church
working, not us even being careful and devoted. You notice it doesn't
say that. We ought to strive for good works.
We ought to thrive for good works. We ought to have affection for
good works. We ought to have a goal of good works. We ought
to practice righteousness, not lawlessness. We run the race to win the prize
that we've already obtained. We're not working to the prize.
We're just going to grab it when the Lord takes us out. This is
the work of God. So I believe the primary good
work for the church is to listen to the word of God. For without
hearing the word, you can't even be the church. Without hearing
the word, you can't even worship God. Without hearing the word,
you cannot pray. How can we hold God to his Word
when we don't hear it? That sounds very off, doesn't
it? Hold you to your Word, God. But
that's what God says. My promises are so be it. My
promises are yes. My Word is sure and trustworthy
is the Word. So that which God has said is
certainly sure, certainly true and certainly evident. Good works
is listening to the word that we might obey the word that is
inclusive of continued faith and continued sanctification,
listening to the word and meditating on the word and believing the
word, which is believing God. Good work. Titus, as an elder,
has to have the action of good works. He has to be careful and
thrive with a passion and devotion unto good works. And Paul has
told him what his good works must be, what they must look
like. How he must hold fast to the right doctrine. He must be
sound in his teaching. He must be sound in his learning.
He must be sound so that what he says is trustworthy, that
the church may grab that which is trustworthy and then repeat
the process and continue to just multiply themselves, which is
the work of God. So we see this right doctrine
as a good work, this right doing as a good work. Now we see this
right devotion as a good work. But then the question comes.
See, even though we say it's the work of God, how are we to
do this? What is it? What does it look like? Where's
the application to this? Friends, it starts with hearing.
It starts with holding fast to the word of God as you hear it.
It starts with listening to the scriptures and not just closing
them and going home and then forgetting them until it's time
for another study. It's the fact that the spirit
of God will resonate within our hearts and minds, his word on
a continual basis. And when we find ourselves scattered
from that, or in my case, scatterbrained from that, we must do something
about it. We return to that which is our
life, who is Christ, who manifests himself through his word. So where is our ability? Well,
now we're back to the beginning part of this, the same is trustworthy,
and I want you to insist on these things. How are we to do this,
that we are careful and good works and cautious and focused
and devoted? How are we to do it? Look, it
says it right there. The same is trustworthy. And
I want you to insist on these things, so now we see two things.
We see that the truth of God, the word of God, the teaching
of God, the doctrine of God is trustworthy. It is absolute. It is it is it is authoritative. Not because it's true historically,
not because it's true through evidence, not because it's true
through history or historical acceptance. But because it's
Jesus Christ to us, given to us, tabernacled with us, revealing
Himself to us, giving us of Himself, that we might be the righteousness
of God. That is the truth. And it's trustworthy. What does that mean? You can
hold to it. You can stand on it. You can rest in it. You can
lay in it. You can hope in it. You can never
let go of it because no matter what else may be around, no matter
whatever safety line may come our way, no matter whatever beautiful
picture may come on our focus, we know that there is no other
trustworthy, more beautiful, more focused, more glorious,
more powerful truth than Christ. The same is trustworthy. And I want you to insist on these
things. So it is the trustworthiness
of Christ and the continued insistence on obedience to Christ and teaching
of Christ. Do you see it? It's like the
recycle. There it is. We've got Christ revealed through
his word, taught to his people, points to him, Christ. Trustworthy,
revealed, taught, received, faith, believed. And when we move out
on our own and we try, we fail and we have to then stand and
go, I have no hope except for Christ. I can't do anything but
Christ, Christ alone, all I have is Christ. We sing it and we're
going to sing it again, but yet we just continue to To just sing
it and then we wipe our mouth with it after we eat. And we go, what do I do with
that? Where's that nice song? Oh, got it dirty. And we think,
well, I'll just clean it off. I'll make my life look a little
bit better and I'll do the things that I need to do. Oh, God, I
can't do this. You have to do this. How are
you going to do this? You've already done it. Christ,
I stand in Christ. Do you stand in Christ? So it is trustworthy, and I want
you to insist on these things because the continued insistence.
See, in our world, we think that's nagging in our world, we think
that's repetitive in our world, we think that's boring. But not
the church. Is it boring, is it boring to
see That Christ is the visible image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of all creation. Is it boring to see that Christ
is through whom we see the perfection of the face of the Father? Is
it boring to hear that in the depths of our death and wickedness
and decay, Christ saved us? I pray this. What is it that we must insist
upon and why? So that those who have believed
in God may be careful. So the way that we continue to
be careful to devote ourselves to good works is to hear the
insistence on who Christ is. The insistence on what he's taught
us. The insistence. Look at what's happened, Church.
Look at what's happened. The twisting and manipulation
of God's Word. the carelessness of his authority,
the worthlessness of his people worshiping something that's not
him. And we come and we see it for
my entire life, I've seen. And it's such a vague and ambiguous
and worldly and philosophical sermon coming from pulpits, coming
from then our own hearts. And then as we share life from
our own mouths, you don't have to be a pastor and have a pulpit
to preach. For when you share your faith,
even in conversation, you are preaching a sermon. Is it true? Is it trustworthy? Does it produce? insistence upon who God is and
who Christ is and who we as the people of Christ are. What is it that Paul is insisting
upon? Just remember. The kindness of
God for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation
to all men. To all people, the kindness of
God, this is God's grace, which requires no merit on us, which
overcomes the meritless wickedness of us. The grace of God, his
loving kindness, God's love toward humanity, God's love toward the
lost, God's love toward his own people. This is reminding us
of regeneration that comes through the hearing of the insistence
of the trustworthy word as preached. This is not the first time Paul
said it, even here, he says it over in chapter one and in chapter
two. Hold to the trustworthy word is taught. Hold to sound
doctrine. Hold to right teaching. We're
to be reminded because of God's kindness. We will devote ourselves
with careful watch to good works because of God's love. We will
devote ourselves carefully to good works because we have been
born again by the Holy Spirit of God. We will be careful to
devote ourselves to good works because we are continually every
day from one point of glory to another grace by grace, by grace
and grace. and grace alone, we are carried
into the presence of God, being prepared by Christ to stand before
Him where He will say, Righteous, well done. Surely, by the Holy Spirit, we
are reminded and we are able to devote ourselves carefully
to good works because we are justified, because we are heirs
to the promise of Christ. We are adopted. We are sons.
See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we might
be called the children of God. And so we are, 1 John 3. We are able to devote ourselves carefully to good works, because
our hope of eternal life is in the truth of Christ. So what? The ultimate question
at the very end, what difference does it make? What's the after
effect? Well, he says, insist on these
things. What is trustworthiness to create insistence What is
that? What if you if you're if something
is so trustworthy that you can insist upon it? What does it mean that we even
speak that way today, we talk that way, we think that way,
when somebody insists on something, it's like John and his friends,
we don't we don't know if they're really up for our good or not.
They just might be in it for themselves and the populace. When someone insists on things,
sometimes it's just them being stubborn and wanting their own
way. So is Paul being stubborn? Is Paul wanting his own way?
Is he teaching Titus to be like minded? He's already said to
us, follow me as I follow Christ. Christ, did Christ want his own
way? Throughout all of the gospel accounts, we see Jesus, not my
will, but your own, Father. I do not come to give glory to
myself, but to the one who sent me. I come not to testify to
my own power, but to the power of the one who sent me. I do
the works of God, the Father. You've seen the Father working
until now. I am working. You've heard the
Father. Now you hear Him. Because I speak,
I point to Him. I give glory to Him. Have this
mind among you, Paul says. Which has been our five verses
for the last three or four weeks, Philippians. That Christ, though he was equal
with God, did not take equality with God, something to be grasped,
but made himself a what? Slave, a servant, obedient unto
death, even death on the cross. Therefore, what happened? God
exalted him. to the highest position, to the
highest place, to the highest throne, to the highest glory.
He exalted Him because of His obedience, because of His submission. Christ is exalted above all things,
above all men, that at every knee will bow and every tongue
will confess that Jesus is Lord. That's confidence. And Paul wasn't
trying to get his way and he wasn't teaching Titus to have
his way. And I, as I stand before you right now, I'm not trying
to get my way. I want God's glory to be flat,
perfectly evident in Grace Truth Church. Now, you're contradicting
yourself, but you know what I mean. So how do we have that confident
insistence? I can insist, the Word of God
insists that we love one another. The Word of God insists that
we are humble. The Word of God insists that
we put the old man away. The Word of God insists that
we study our Bible. The Word of God insists that
we do all things for the glory of God, whether we eat or drink
or put on socks. The Word of God insists that
we instruct others in Christ. Forgot a thought there that that
I was starting and the thought was this is this church that
we live in in the world today. And these so-called congregations,
we see this idea of all this crazy teaching that's not Christ,
but sort of a human credit. Let's just do these things, church. And here's how. Oh gee, Willie
old me, I forgot about Jesus. So every eye closed and every
head bowed and God can see you peeking, so don't peek. Raise
your hand if you know that you know that you know you're going
to hell. Maybe you need to pray this prayer.
And if you prayed it and you meant it, did you mean it? Did
you mean it? Did you mean it? Did you mean
it, sir, laughing in the back? It's a sad tragedy. Well, if
you mean it and really, really mean it and you go into heaven.
We forgot about Jesus in the sermon, so let's let's attach
what we call the gospel presentation, but that's not the presentation
of the gospels to see Christ. Not man's will. The gospel is in good words.
The gospel is God saving a people that can't save themselves. The
gospel is Jesus Christ coming to earth to satisfy the wrath
of the Father and give his righteousness to a people who could not earn
it, nor do they deserve it. Do you believe that? See, that's
the gospel. Hope in that, in Him, or do you
hope in you and everything else that the devil has told you from
the men of the world? Well, that's divisive. It's the most divisive thing
that you'll ever hear. Anybody that wants to placate
to the will of man and pacify the satisfaction of man's own
glory so that he can stand and boast before God, oh, I'm so
thankful I came to Jesus. God help those people. God came to us. And I don't mean to sound so
funny or cynical with it, but it's all I can do not just fall
down. Because I have been one who preached
that. So we can have confident insistence
because of the power of the gospel. I, Paul, a slave of God and an
apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect
and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness
in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised
before the ages began and at the proper time manifested his
word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by
the command of God our Savior. See, that is the outline for
the entire letter. Gospel power. Keeps us focused
with confident insistence and gospel preaching continues to
remind us and insisting on these things with overwhelming confidence
that produce a gospel people. Maybe we should start, stop using
the word church and say we're a gospel people. Where do you go to church? Don't
say Haram. I don't understand that. Are
you speaking in the language? Are you speaking in tongues? Where's
the interpretation? Where do you go to church? Where's your
church? Maybe we just pretend like that doesn't compute. Smoke
comes out of our ears like R2-D2 and we just don't understand
it. And we go, I don't know. I'm the product of the gospel. I'm the body of Jesus. And so
many of us sit together over here. That's what you're talking
about. I'm not saying be a smart aleck,
but in our own hearts and minds, we've got to change that. While
we are thinking, as I began this sermon, we are a gospel people. Therefore, we have confidence
on the insistence of these things. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. Salvation is not this future
thing. It's a present thing. Where do
you get that? Do I really have to prove it?
Well, let's just use Titus to prove it. God appeared to bring you salvation.
I've already read it. Training us to renounce ungodliness, worldly
passions, to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in the present
age as we wait for our blessed hope, the appearing of glory.
Salvation is now. not perfection, salvation. So we're renewed. We regenerated
by the spirit. We renewed by the spirit every
day. We're renewed. And so therefore,
because of the power of the gospel, the preaching of the gospel,
we become a people of the gospel and we live in the presence of
the gospel. There you go. We can insist on these things
because we have a confidence because of the gospel. Secondly,
we can insist on these things because we are Christian people
and the outcome of Christian people, as we'll see here in
the last few seconds of our time together. 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. I don't have time and I might
preach next week about excellent and profitable, but I want you
to understand as we obey and do good works, these good works
are excellent for people and profitable for people. And it's
not just for the church. It's for all people. We can't say we're Christian
and we hate the poor and unwilling to give our money to the poor. Well, it's their fault. OK, lose
your job. That's your fault. We can't say that we're Christian,
but we hate our neighbor because he's a pagan. When the scripture
says to pray for those who are lost, pray for the rulers, that
they may come to the knowledge of faith, pray for false teachers,
that they may be sound in the faith. We like to be haughty. Supposed to be excellent. What
is excellent? I would say that. For the sake
of time, excellent things who profit all people, in other words,
everything that the church tries to accomplish should be for the
profit of all people. Excellent. Should be excellent. We should not do things which
are dead. Because that's not excellent. We should not do things
which are worldly because that's not excellent. We should not
do things which are man centered because that's not excellent.
We should not do things which are that are just, you know,
godless because that's not excellent. Think of these things, the excellencies
of his mercies, the excellencies of his love, the excellency of
his grace. Consider the fact that that which
God has prepared for us to do, he's done so in an excellent
way. to create an excellent people, a perfect people, a people who
strive and stand against the grain of culture, a people who
are empowered and when they are confronted, how are you able
to love that person? Because it's really the ultimate
outcome, isn't it? To love the Lord your God with all your heart,
mind, soul and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. Because we cannot say we're Christians
and love God and hate anyone. That's why it's so frustrating.
Some of these cultural things, some of these popular issues
that are going on, some of these political things that are so
polarizing. Christians have failed to even stand at the table with
Jesus because Jesus isn't there. Jesus stands in the glorious
throne of heaven. Ruling over everything. Wicked, saved, darkness, light. We don't need to go back to the
seventies or the fifties even. What would Jesus do? How about
we just say, who is Jesus? And what's he done? What is profitable? I believe
the opposite of profitable is empty. The scripture uses the
translation of the word vain. Empty, worthless. So it's either
profitable or it's worthless. It makes profit for people. I'm
not talking about material wealth, but it's profitable for the building,
for the learning, for the growing, for the affection, for the for
the encouraging. I think of Hebrews, I think of
Ephesians, I think of Philippians, I think of Corinthians, I think
of Galatians. Think of Romans. What do I not think of? This profit is something that
builds up and it invests in. But in finalizing our thoughts
today, what does this text specifically point to as profit? Let's look
at it. Just going to go from start to
where we are right now very quickly. Christian people and their good
works are profitable and excellent, and the profit is for the faith
of the elect of God. It's for the worship of Christ.
It's profitable for the preaching of the truth. It's profitable
by the correction of error. It's profitable by creating a
unified people in the common faith. It's profitable by having
an ordered community of faith called the church. It's profitable
by the church pressing to holiness. It's profitable by the servants
being obedient and submissive, who we all are. It's profitable
that we have a mutual love and a mutual ministry toward each
other, the older men and the younger men and the older women
and the younger men, younger women. And we have our place
in the church and our roles and our ministries. That's profitable
for one another. Not those like us, but all. and good works that are profitable
for a mutual, supernatural, spontaneous affection that overcomes all
wrongs, that forgives all sins, that allows all hurts and stands
bold in them and runs into them. Well, he hurt me or she hurt
me. It's an opportunity for the gospel. Or it's an opportunity
for the flesh. It's an opportunity for kindness.
Why do we love? Because God first loved us. The
good works of God is profitable. Because it is an opportunity
for truth and wisdom, discernment, knowing how to deal with this
world. And most importantly. It's profitable because it is
trustworthy and powerful. The works that we do from faith
to finish are profitable if they are the gospel, if they are empowered
by the gospel, if they are able, enabled by the gospel. The question then rests, are
you a product of the gospel? Do you see Christ? Do you love
Christ? Do you trust and hold that He
is trustworthy? That He is your righteousness?
That His work is finished? Let's pray. God, we thank You for sending this Word to us Oh, God, we need desperately
a help from your spirit. We need desperately guidance. We desperately need a shocking to stay in line with
good works. Or so maybe this text today has
done just that for us. Multiplied in us in a way that
only you can. To make it alive in us. And not be a dead faith as James
writes, but a faith that produces good works. In an abundance. Without fear. With solid fellowship. God, we need your mercy every
moment. So we rest in it. We're not trying
to get it for today and get it for tomorrow and fall in it and
try to find it. Lord, you've given it to us.
And because of that, we rest in a future grace and in a present
grace and the grace that was given at the cross and a grace
that was created and given and established at the creation. Father, help us to sing out of
our hearts that all we have is Christ. That we found an amazing grace
that saved a wretch. We were lost and now we're found. Father, that we are worshiping
the Holy One. That Your glory we cannot even
see. O God, You've shown us the fullness
of Your glory in Jesus Christ, the Living Word, who dwelt among
us and now awaits for us to become one with Him as He will present
us to You, blameless, spotless, without wrinkle. In Jesus' name,
amen.