Friends, I honestly believe that
preaching should change you in your seats, that the preaching
of the Word of God should not be an adventure in academia,
but should be an adventure in the glorious majesty of the awesomeness
of God. And you see its face in such
a way that you've never seen it. And you're reminded of the
way that you have already seen it. And you are breathless and
you are in wonder and you cannot stand it. And so you just go,
oh. You don't get that in commentary. And I don't get that study. I
just I don't get I'd rather bog down and see Jesus more and more
than get through and say we did something. What have we done?
Charles Spurgeon in his lectures to my students, not my students,
his students, but that's the title of the writing lectures
to my students. There's a lot that he says, especially
on preaching and prayer, you know, with the spirit of God,
push us to pray for that's what he does. And I believe he does
it through preaching. of the Word through the study
of the Word of God. But there's a line that Spurgeon
says that just strikes with me a chord. Of repentance, a chord of examination,
a chord of just looking to make sure of caution, warning. And you're thinking, well, what
is this law? What is this great theological phrase? It's a very
deep, amazing thing. And here's what Spurgeon, the
prince of preachers, said. A dog. Or what good is a dog
that does not bark? What good is a dog that does
not bark? There it is. Now you're thinking, well, now
what now where we're going with this, what does that mean? Well, friends,
we have dogs. Because we love their smell and
their treachery and we love their shedding and their fur and their
digging of holes. We love the fact that they chew
charging tables to to important and expensive lawn equipment
and that they chew the seats off of lawnmowers and that they
tear the siding off of houses. We love that. That's why we have
dogs. No, we have them so that when big bad man comes in the
backyard at 3 a.m., you hear... That's why we have them. So what good is a dog that does
not bark? In the same sense, what good is a pastor who does
not preach? Oh, may God have mercy on me
and the souls alike. That we, if we do not preach
the gospel, would he kill us and take us home? What good is a dog that doesn't
bark? What good is a pastor that doesn't preach? And what good
is a sermon that's not the gospel from start to finish? In the prior weeks, we've seen
in Titus one, look at this introduction as we look and I'm going to add
verse five because it'll it'll It's not going to drive us into
anything that's going to then hit the booster rockets on the
back and go, oh, it's going to boost us into the next week and
the next few months as we start to see the outcome of what Paul
is trying to see that Titus takes care of. And so it's not wow,
all that good stuff. The introduction is just the
priming. It's the lighting of the fuse.
And so if you think what's been here has been glorious, you have
seen nothing yet. Because that is the overview
of what is about to take place in more detail that the church
is going to see how it can apply it to its life and to its glorious
worship of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And so here, Titus 1,
Paul, an apostle, excuse me, 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 –
and there's the key today for today's sermon – through the
preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God
our Savior to Titus, my true child in a common faith grace
and peace from God, the Father and Christ Jesus, our Savior. 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 have directed you. OK. So where we go with
Don't we already have, you know, the reality of God's call to
repentance, the holiness that comes from being saved? Don't
we already know that that is the elect of God? Don't we already
see the sovereignty of God and salvation of his people through
the preaching of the gospel? Haven't we already talked about
all that? Haven't we already seen the clear picture of the
magnum opus of the gospel, which is the word of God and sola scriptura
has an effect? far reaching. It's not just a
surface thing yet. Believe the Bible. We got more
to do than just say that we understand that the word of God affects
change in our lives. We got all that. So why are we
going to pick on the little word preaching? Because we need to
see that in this whole introduction, that what he's priming Titus
to do is to prepare to put people in place to preach. in the same manner that he was
saved in order to preach. Paul was saved to preach. He
hated Christ. He hated the way he hated followers
of Jesus. He hated them. And in his zeal,
he went against the Roman authorities of his day, as we see in Acts
chapter six. And that's chapter seven. When they gathered Stephen, a
man full of grace and full of the Holy Spirit, and they brought
accusations against him and brought him before the Sanhedrin, who
had lost, as you were here Tuesday night, the Romans had taken away
the governing authority of the Sanhedrin to hear or try capital
crimes. They were just magistrates dealing
with traffic court and things of the like. They had no governance
of their people anymore, to the point where the Roman authorities
would not allow them to go into the grand area of their temple
where they actually heard and tried people unto death. They
no longer could even enter that place. And now Jesus has come
and been crucified and we see the turmoil of the day and we
see the hatred of the Romans and the suspicion of the Jews
toward the Romans. And then anyone who is not sound
in the obedience to the Sanhedrin and the Mishnah and their Mishnah,
their laws and their precepts, they are suspect. And so here's
the seven, as we see in Acts chapter six, who were called
out because the elders are so busy with the work of the ministry
to the church and administering the needs of the church that
they don't have time to do what? Pray in order to preach the word
of God. And so the apostles say, you
people need to get together and you need to elect seven men from
among you who are full of the Holy Spirit. Who are who are
able to do the work. And lay hands on them and call
them out and say, these are the slaves. Doulos, diakonos there,
as we see Paul using the very same word, a servant, a slave
of God. Doulos. Call them out. And one of them
was Stephen, full of grace and full of the Holy Spirit. And
they paid people to come and bear false witness against him.
Ironic. I find it very, very dark that
the very people who hate those who do not follow the law are
breaking the law and bearing false witness against their neighbor
to put him to death so that they can get their power back. That's
what the Jews did. And when I say the Jews, especially
as we see in John's gospel, talk about the political regime of
the Sanhedrin, the ruling Jews, not the Jewish people by ethnicity. But they made accusations against
him. They brought Stephen in. They said, what do you say? And
what does Stephen do in Acts chapter seven? He starts in the
beginning of time and he preaches to the death of Jesus Christ.
And then he looks at them and he says, in every prophet that
has come, you've murdered them and you murdered the one to whom
they pointed, Jesus the Christ. And now you stiff neck people
with uncircumcised hearts and ears will be to you. And they
held their hands over their ears and they yelled with a loud voice
and they rushed him and they carried him outside the city
and they stoned him. And as they stoned him and they
pummeled him with rocks, he looked up and he said, I see the son
of man standing at the right hand of the father. And he died. What did Stephen do in the face
of persecution? He preached the gospel of Jesus. It wasn't about arguing what
was right and defending himself and going to court and being
found innocent and getting witnesses on his behalf. That's not why
he was born. And that's not why he was born
again. And that's not why he was stoned. He was killed so
the gospel could come to you. And the very one who oversaw
the stoning of Stephen against the authority of Rome, With fear
of crucifixion themselves, they all laid their clothes at the
feet of a young man named Saul. Who oversaw the stoning of Stephen. And in chapter eight, verse one,
I think it is an ax. He says, and in that day, great persecution
began against the church and unnamed men. They took the body
of Stephen and with loud lamentations, they didn't hide under the under
the under the cover of darkness, with loud lamentations, wailed
through the streets of Jerusalem and gave him a proper burial.
And Paul and his people went house to house, dragging Christians
out to be arrested and thrown in prison. And in chapter eight and in chapter
nine, we see Paul now has gotten word that the apostles who fled
Jerusalem, who left as they were, they were hunted. They are in
Damascus and Paul is going to Damascus. Why? To have them arrested. Somebody
snitch on him and he's going, he's like, we know where they
are, we know where the house is. He's going. And on the way to Damascus, Jesus
Christ, the living, the living risen Lord, stops him in his
tracks and says, why, Saul, do you persecute me? And God made Jesus, God made
Paul alive. Saul became Paul. Paul means
nothing. little, insignificant, humble,
small. So Paul, then blinded by the
glory of God and the prophet going then to the apostles and
saying, this man who comes to persecute you will come and he
will be of you, you will receive him. And you've got to be kidding
me. And so this preaching of the
gospel is what Paul was saved to do
so that you and I could know the gospel today and be alive
in Christ. There is no other way into salvation except to
hear the Word of God and through that hearing, the Spirit of God
lets you hear and you're born again. So when I think about preaching,
when I think about how we need to worry about this little idea,
we know what preaching is. No, we don't. No, we don't. I
don't know. I do it and I don't know what
it is. I'm just doing it. Fullness of how preaching is
affected is a mystery, but what it does is clearly showing is
shown to us here. Why was then Paul talking to
Titus so that Titus could put elders who would preach and govern
through the Word of God, the people of God to protect him?
I've written a lot of words about preaching and about pastoral
ministry. And I started out with one paradigm of pastoral ministry,
and then now I'm in a whole new place. And I've only been in three places
in my pastoral life. I've been in that which I observed.
And then I was been in that which I had been taught. And now I
stand in that which God has revealed to me. How? Through his word. It is the place you want to be,
which is why when I preach this today, it is where you need to
be a Berean and you need to test that which I preach and not take
it like a baby bird with our mouths wide open and hope that
the mother doesn't put poison in our mouth. Friends, taste
and see if what I give you is true. And if it isn't, woe be unto
me, and you better tell me because I don't need a surprise, I want
to hear it. God, the Father, has sent sovereignly
the Son, the eternal Son, to be a man, to be the God-man and
to die like a sinner. The Son has sent sinful men,
redeemed by his own blood, to do the preaching of his good
news to the lost and to the blind and to the dead and to the poor
in order that their faith may be affected. Just review. And through the preaching of
the word of God, who also is Jesus Christ, the word, many
are made alive. And this preaching has full effect
on some and no effect on others. Unto salvation. Why? That's the
Lord's business. Second Corinthians four. And
if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are
perishing. For in their case, the God of this world is blind
to the eyes of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the glory
of God. But the gospel then in verse
six of that, for God has said, let light shine out of darkness
is shown in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's beautiful. This preaching. Does not have effect, because,
as Jesus says in John three, that people love the darkness
rather than the light, because their works are evil. So this
eternal decree and the promise of God is yes and amen. It is
done because God cannot lie. Therefore, the hope of the church
rests in the word that the church has been given. The hope of the
church rests in the nature and the character of God who has
spoken and still speaking only through his apostles, which means
only through the written word. It is through this word that
the church is saved and sealed by the power of the Holy Spirit
in order for their faith to be true with one object of their
faith, who is Jesus Christ, the righteous. So this is why. And when I think and I looked
yesterday and today and some other stuff that I've written,
some of it's garbage and some of it's just awesome just to
see how God's brought me, you know, just in the time that I've
looked back there and then look and Thank you, God, for giving
me light in this. And I can't wait to see that
which God will show me in my error in years to come. And I
pray that you would have that same anticipation that God will
sanctify you in your doctrine and in your worship. There's
several thoughts I have about preaching. And when you think
of preaching, what Paul is now instructing Titus to do is to
go appoint elders for the purpose of preaching that would put things
in order. The teaching of the apostles
puts things in order in the church. The word of God and the New Testament
epistles put things in order in the church. Why, why is so
many American churches so disjointed, so disfigured, so disjuncted
and all around people go, what are we going to do? Let's hire
a, let's hire a mediator. Let's hire a commentator. Let's
hire this team to come in and revamp and refocus and redo. Let's build a leadership over
here. criticism team over here, and a committee over here, and
let's get together and see what's going on. You know what's going
on? We're sinners, and none of us are submitting to the authority
of God's Word through the preaching of it, thereof, in the church,
through the people that God has appointed to be the elders, to
preach the Word, who are also brothers and accountable to that
same Word. And so, when it comes to the
point of what preaching is, we need to understand what Paul
is about to teach us about who elders are. And I've seen books and I've
written, not written books, and I've read books and I've heard
sermons on how to be a good pastor, how to be a good preacher, how
to be this, how to communicate effectively, how to not communicate.
I've taken communication courses and I've found that through the
years I just throw all that garbage away. Because one of the worst
things that have ever been said to my face is at the door of
greeting. Don't we say that we're going
to greet you at the door as you leave? Is that really greeting? It's
like the door of get out of here. Because people say, I really
enjoyed that. Don't throw yourself under the
bus yet. But the question then is why? And one of the most indicting
things that was ever said to me in my face after a sermon
years ago, I was in Virginia, is when a young couple and their
three children, and they had a child who was about 13, came to the door and the young
man looked at me, shook my hand and
he said, I didn't know I was coming to a
comedy show. His parents were, they loved
it. It's awesome, man. We just, we're going to take
a lot away from this. We never last a heart in our lives. Out of
the mouth of You know what it offended me? That kid don't have
a clue he's talking about, but it didn't. So what is the purpose of a pastor? We don't have time to do that,
but let me give you very quickly some thoughts that I've had that
I keep with me and that I teach others. Pastors are to feed the flock.
They all start with F. And this isn't a sermon. They're to feed the flock. We
are to feed the flock. First Timothy 3, 2. Therefore,
an overseer must be above reproach. The husband of one wife, sober
minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. Second Timothy 4, 2. Preach the
word. Commandment. Preach the word.
Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and
exhort with complete patience and teaching. Now, I always knew
the first half of that, but I never remembered the second half. It's
sort of like the man that remembers Ephesians 5 when it says, laws
submit to your own husbands. And they don't remember the next
verse which says, husbands love your wife as Christ loved the
church. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Preachers are
no different. We hear that. Preach the word,
reprove, rebuke, and exhort. And we're all experts in our
younger age at rebuke. And we think it looks a lot like
what we think that Bruce Lee, Jesus, did in the temple. And
he kicks everything over and he throws everything in the air
and he whips them and beats them. And we're thinking, yeah, let's
be like Jesus and rebuke. We want to walk into these churches.
Hey, you old man, sit down and shut up. You don't know what
it means to have a coffee in the bullpen with my stool. I'm
cool. You're old. And I'm just being
a little humorous, but that is the attitude in churches. So we're to feed the flock. Secondly,
the pastor is to fend for the flock, to protect the flock.
The pastor's role is to teach, but to protect the flock. What
is Paul writing this letter for? What's the occasion? False teaching.
False teaching. False doctrine. False theology.
False gospel. Backward thinking when it comes
to the things of God in Christ. That's why he wrote this. That's
why he wrote Galatians. That's why he was writing to
Timothy. Bad doctrine, bad teaching, bad
teachers perpetrating bad stuff. And the Bible is telling us we
don't need to do that. So a pastor protects the flock
from false teaching, from heresies. We just sang that the church
is one foundation, though we fight and toil and struggle and
we're at war against strife and everything else and heresies.
We have glorious hope for the word of God shall not be overcome. Pastors must Fend for the flock. In the verse nine of Titus one,
look what it says there, he must hold firm to the trustworthy
word is taught so that he may be able to give instruction in
sound doctrine and also rebuke those who contradict it. Thirdly, a pastor should fight
for the flock. Ephesians six, but we don't wrestle
against flesh and blood, against the rules and the principalities
and authorities of darkness, the cosmic powers of a present
darkness, the spiritual forces. How does the pastor fight for
the flock in his prayer, in his study, in his teaching, in his
discipleship, in his fellowship with the church? The final two things I believe
a pastor ought to follow Christ before his flock. Don't be like
a whitewashed tomb. I read this recently and don't
know who said it, but what good is a pressure wash on whitewash?
You're still a tomb. I do know where I read it, and
I won't tell you, it'll mess you all up. I exhort you, the elders among
you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the suffrage of Christ, as
well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.
Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight,
not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for
shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your
charge, but being examples of the flock. And finally, fulfilling
faithfully the call to Christ. What is the call? To faithfully
feed, fend, fight, to do the work of the ministry. Moses was
called to a fruitless ministry in the context of salvations.
Isaiah was called. Jeremiah was hated. We don't
measure success in ministry by the number of people in the pews
and the number of money, much of the money in the bank and
the great amounts of buildings. We don't measure success in ministry
by the number of souls that say they worship Jesus. What in the
world did John 6 do? Jesus ministry was a failure
as he went from city to city, to region to region, and hundreds
of thousands of people had heard the gospel and tens of thousands
of people followed him there. And when he came back across
to Capernaum and they followed him over there, where did you
come here? He says, you didn't come over here because of me and my
power and my glory. You came here because you're hungry and
you want to get your stomachs full again. Don't labor for the food
that perishes, but labor for the bread that endures to eternal
life. Give us this bread. We want to see it. I am the bread
that comes down from heaven, that gives life to all men, eat
of my flesh and drink of my blood. I'm the satisfaction of your
soul. You think you're hungry in the flesh, man, your spirit
is very much more hungry than your flesh is. And if you want
to hear the preaching, if you want to be full, hear the preaching
that I say to you, Jesus says, and it says all of them, not
some of them, all of them could not bear to hear the teaching
that he gave and they walked away. All that was left were the twelve. Faithfulness. It's about doing
that which God's called us to do. Feeding the flock. Preaching is a must. Preaching is how you are going
to be filled. You are going to transform as
you hear this. You're going to think as you
hear this. You're going to see things differently as you hear
this. You're just going to memorize
the first five verses of Titus. I got it! Check! It's not got
you! Much more to say there. Romans
10, 17 says these words, as you all well know. Fate comes by hearing and hearing
by the words of Christ. Feeding the flock. first effect salvation. It is
through preaching that Paul is able to write to Titus. It is
through preaching that Titus, a Gentile, became a child of
God. It is through preaching that
all of God's purposes are fulfilled in Christ as the revelation of
himself to us in the world. So now let's look at it. Wow. Preaching. In these first five verses, let's
look at verse one. We see preaching, I want to affect
preaching, makes one a child of God, makes one a slave of
God, makes one an apostle of God. It was the preaching of
the disciples and the preaching of their disciples that rang
in Paul's ears and the preaching of the gospel from Jesus to Paul
to Saul that saved him. You see in Luke's Gospel, you
see where Jesus preaches and they love him. And then when
he says, I ain't talking about you, they hate him. When he preaches
the Old Testament, it's just the days, the year of Jubilee.
Here it is in your presence right now talking about himself, but
you reject it. So I'm not talking about you.
They want to kill him, so he goes from town to town. Why don't
you stay here? I got to go preach to every city.
I got to preach to every people. Jesus ministry was a ministry
of preaching. Let's not misconstrue the reality of what the miracles
were for. The miracles were to validate
what? The preaching. Miracle without the right message
is just a bunch of garbage. People worship the miracle, people
worship the miracle maker, and they miss the majesty. Preaching makes one a child of
God. For the sake of the faith, the believing of the elect, Paul
was made a slave of God and of Jesus Christ so that he would
preach. So Paul's preaching was for the
salvation of the people of God. Preaching the gospel brings life. Preaching the gospel is several
things that we need to understand about that. Because what is the
gospel? See, I could go on forever. Well,
what is the gospel? You just say we preach the gospel. What's
the gospel? And how do we understand the gospel? Make that your lifelong
journey. But preaching the gospel is always
foundationally good news, it means good news. Evangelism,
where the word evangelism comes from, the taking of the good
news. It's the preaching of the gospel,
and it's good news about God's plan. And most importantly, God's
promise to save his people through Jesus Christ, through his life
of obedience and holiness, thus fulfilling all the requirements
of the law, the righteousness of the law, and then through
the cross, through substitutionary atonement. through being sacrificed
and killed because you and I deserve it. And so something holy must
take our place. It had to be a human being. So
God made himself like us. The son, Jesus Christ, who is
the eternal son. Modalism and oneness has been
all over me this last few weeks. I don't know where these people
are coming from. I guess strange fires causing strange things
with some folks. Preaching the gospel is always
about Jesus Christ and his work and his certain finished work
and not about what man must do. The gospel is not good news you
can. The gospel is good news God has. The gospel, preaching the gospel,
is the answer to man's dilemma, is the answer to man's wickedness,
is the answer to man's death, is the answer to depravity. It's
the answer to sin and to suffering. Because all of us are dead in
sin without the gospel. Preaching the gospel brings,
as Paul says here, the knowledge of truth. And when one becomes
a child of God, he is adopted by God. Do you know one thing
that doesn't happen in adoption? Children don't pick their parents.
And in the adoption of God's children, we don't stand there
with our hands up, go and pick me. For when we have been made a
child of God, we say, pick me up. I'm yours. Send me, help me, grow me, test
me, push me, protect me. So then, verse two, the knowledge
of the truth, if that's changed, the preaching of the gospel,
if that's changed, look at it. New life in hope of eternal life,
which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began. What else
does it do? Preaching of the truth creates new life. This knowledge places one in
the understanding they are justified by grace alone. Not their own
works, not their own doing. We can't say I'm going to clean
up and get straight and then I'll be able to stand before
God and he'll understand that I'm trying. Show God a try and
see what it looks like. What does it look like? How do
you try to be holy? How do you try to be healthy?
How do you try to be alive? Are you alive or are you dead? Well, I'm almost alive. No, you
can't be almost alive. You can be close to death, but
you're still alive. If you're dead, you're dead.
Used to get a lot of laughs when I say this, and I was being serious,
and then all of a sudden I realized how silly it was, but I used
to talk about waking up dead. Doesn't work like that, does
it? Preaching of the truth creates
new life. This knowledge places one justified, and this preaching
brings hope and life of eternal life. This knowledge through
preaching teaches about God. It teaches what we call theology. doctrine, theology, teaching
about the study of God who is God. Well, what does the preaching
here in this introduction teaches? Look at it. There's. The faith that God's
elect receive, there's truth that can become that we can have
the knowledge of, there's godliness that is the outcome thereof.
There's hope. There's eternal life. The fact
that God does not lie. The fact that the that God is
amazingly sovereign, because before the ages began at the
proper time, look at all that. We see the nature of God through
preaching, we see the plans of God through preaching, we see
the son of God through preaching, we see the sovereignty of God,
like in verse three, through preaching. So preaching is the
means through which his message is given. It's not osmosis. It's not divine revelation apart
from the word. As the church needs to preach.
When the church gets together, it needs to hear preaching. Well,
it doesn't really do anything for me, then I pray you find
whatever it is that is more glorious than the face of God and you
hold fast to that. Whatever is greater in your heart
of affection than the Lord Jesus Christ, you go right after it.
You get it. You make yourself happy with
that. And you will live the best life you've ever lived. With
a grave anticipation of judgment. And friends, fear of judgment
will not make one justified before God. Fear of hell will not set
you straight. Though it is a truth, though
it is a Bitter awakening for the child of God. The reality
of those things make a shudder. It is grace that taught my heart
to fear, but grace, my fears relieved. And how many years have you saying
that? Grace, yes. Fear not man, nor what he can
do to you, nor what he thinks of you, but fear the one who
can cast both your body and soul into hell. I tell the story that
my mother told me years ago when I was a little baby boy and the
rattlesnake out under the carport or whatever, and I hear the story
about how she shot it. I don't remember that. I remember
the story. And then I have to have children
of my own and I think of how horrifying it might be. I think of what
it must be like had I not been saved from that. And then to
think of the horror. I shudder in fear. But then the
joy is that I was saved from it. You see how that metaphor
fits perfectly with the gospel. When we come to see the glorious
beauty of Christ our Savior, then we see just how amazing
his love is and how amazing his death is and how gloriously beautiful
his life is that we've been given life in Christ because of God's
great love and mercy toward us while we were sinners and dead
and enemies against him. Then we fear what could have
been recognizing that we deserve it, but we rejoice seeing that
we have been spared. The beauty of the sun comes first
preaching. Was the final outcome of preaching,
preaching sanctifies and secures evidence of adoption. In other
words, preaching makes us godly. And preaching sanctifies us in
that godliness, continually making us into the image of Christ and
preaching, then produces the fruit thereof of faith, which
is evidence of the fact that we've been called out and saved
by God. Will you get that? Let's just
think of the construct of this of this salutation to Titus. Who's Titus? Titus is a Gentile.
Not a Hebrew, not a Jew, not a person of God. Titus is a Gentile
through the mercy of God given to Paul, to whom he is a minister
to preach to the Gentiles the untold and unmeasurable, immeasurable,
amazing, glorious, beautiful, new everyday mercies of God in
Christ Jesus. For by grace you've been saved
through faith. Titus, and he calls him his true
child in a common faith. That he says, grace and peace
from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. We've already
done this, man. What are you doing? No, we've
looked at it, but we've not done it yet. The preaching of the gospel made
not only the knowledge of these things certain, but made the
reality of them certain. So what do you mean? Look at these relational statements
here in verse four. Titus is the true child of Paul. In other
words, Paul recognizes by the fruit of the Spirit of God, through
the preaching of the gospel, that Titus is indeed a child
of God. Thus, he has appointed him to
oversee the planting of churches in Crete. And there's nobody
else to help him, so Titus has a tall order to identify and
screen elders by himself. Sounds familiar in my history
of ministry. It's a horrible place. Titus
is a true child of Paul in the faith. Titus is a partner and
a sibling of Paul in a common faith. The faith there meaning
also the fact that they believe in the same God, believe in the
same Christ. There's an exercise thereof of
faith in what? In the faith. Faith being then
the precepts and the knowledge of truth, that there is one set
of doctrines that are true and everything else is not true.
So therefore, the preaching of the word of God has shown that
Paul and Titus are brothers in Jesus Christ. Friends, this is
beautiful. As Paul teaches in Galatians,
there's no male nor female, nor slave, nor master, nor barbarian. And he goes on, we're all one
in Christ. There's no Jew or Greek. And as Paul teaches later to
the Romans, he says that not all who are descendants of Abraham
are Israel, but all who are in Christ Jesus are Israel. We've
got to look at that, church. This preaching of the gospel
brought to reality what it means when we sang Revelation song.
Where does that come from? Revelation five. And I looked
and I saw. What does he see? Chapter Five. And then I looked and I heard
around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the
voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands
of thousands, and saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb
who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing. And I heard every creature in
heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and
all that is in them saying to him who sits on the throne and
to the Lamb Be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and
ever. And the four leaving creatures
said, Amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped. And we see other places and.
People from every time and every trial. From every nation. Worshipping the Lamb of God.
Friends, the gospel is that all who are estranged are one. The preaching of the gospel then
has given the authority for Paul then to tell Titus to go find
others who will preach the same gospel. Why? Not so that we can have us a
country club and call it church, so that we can see multitudes
come to faith and live out godly lives. in the faith. Through
the preaching. Of the gospel. Titus. Because and only because he's
a child of God has grace and peace, look at this next one,
grace and peace to you. It's not it's not Prince, this
is not just I sign my letters like that sometimes. It's just
habitual as a New Testament student. I sign my letters, grace and
peace or D.V. I get real cool. Deo Valente,
if the Lord wills. Sometimes I'll sign it, Quorum
Deo, the eyes of God, real neat stuff, but usually I'm not thinking
very deeply about what that constitutes because I'm just getting the
letter done or getting the email done or whatever. Paul doesn't
sign this stuff frivolously and put grace and peace to you from
God, our Father, and from Jesus Christ, our Savior. There's a full impact here that
needs to be realized before we began to read this letter, and
I guarantee you. Yep, if you look over at the
very last line of Titus, all who are with me send greetings
to you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with
you all. So he starts his letters, grace
to you, and he ends his letters. Grace be with you. What does
that mean? That means that the fullness
of the grace of God is empowered to those who hear it through
the words of the apostles and that which they wrote. And you
and I get to hear it when we study it and preach it. And so
the grace of God is only effective in our lives and in our minds
and in our hearts through the word of the apostles. And only through the grace of
God, through preaching, do you have grace to begin with. Romans
10, 17. And only through the grace of
God in preaching do you have peace. For you once were an enemy
of God. We once were dead in our trespasses. We once were who were dead and
enemies. Christ died that we might become
friends, that we might be set right. He's preparing us for
the presence of God, the Father. God is the father of all who
have heard the preaching of the gospel and been saved by it. The manifestation of the word
through preaching. Grace is an unmerited favor. Peace is an opposite of enemy. There is peace. This grace through
preaching comes not from Paul, he says. This is where we really
this is where I and most of us who have pastors who have a national
spotlight or even some that are sort of obscure that we listen
to some that you may have never heard of or may have never read.
And I might not tell you because I like having something unique.
I'm just playing. But we go, oh, I just love that
preacher. I just love that. Have you heard
that sermon he preached about such and such? You've got to
listen to that. Put it on YouTube, put it on Facebook, put it on
Twitter, tweet it and all that other kind of stuff and get it
out there, copy it, paste it, print it, slap it, bop it. Oh, did you hear that preacher
is going to be at that conference? Let's go. Let's spend a week
of vacation and a thousand dollars and go. I want to see. Oh, I'm
sitting a thousand people back. He looks this big. I'm looking
now, I'm here. I preach something good. That
was a terrible sermon. Because it's not our sermons.
It's not our message. It's not Paul's gospel. It's
Paul's gospel in possession. It's been given him. But it's
the gospel of Jesus Christ, our Savior. It's the gospel that
comes through grace from God. Not Paul. From Jesus, not James. And finally, what's the full
outcome, what's the end of all this? We've seen it, we've said
it, we've surfed around on it. And last week in my fog, I don't
even know if I talked about it. I didn't listen to my sermon
this week because I didn't want to. I didn't want to try to fix
that yet. I'll listen to it later. But the preaching of the gospel
effects holiness. What's that mean? I preach the sake of the elect
and their faith and their knowledge of the truth, which is faith.
Which accords which has to do with which affects godliness. Holiness, right living. And so I've sort of got a byline
for this Titus series. Right preaching. Right living. If the church and we've been
living by that, I've been living by that, I've been preaching
that to myself, right doctrine creates right living. Right preaching brings right
living. Why are so many Christians still
stuck? As legalists. hoping that they're
pleasing God, not able to even see how to live and fulfill the
law of the commandments with the power of the Spirit, but
even go beyond that to make things that aren't even commanded as
requirements. Oh, we've never preached circumcision,
but you do, friends. We hear the preaching of circumcision
when we hear anything but the gospel of Jesus Christ. and his
grace. As a means to holiness. Holiness. What's mixed up in
that cake, the cake of holiness is blended in and here's some
things that are there. The first thing is that it means
that you have a right relationship with God. If you are holy, you
can stand before God. If you are wicked, you cannot.
He who knew no sin, had no sin, became sin. You know that text?
What's the next part? What's the very next breath?
That we might work it out somehow and get better as we go along. That we might strive for holiness. He who knew no sin became sin.
That we might become the right. No, I messed it up again. That
we might be. Does everything to do about becoming
has everything to do about being? He who knew no sin became sin. Who is that? Jesus, that we might
be the righteousness of God. How? Through the preaching of
the words of Christ. It's the only way. There is no
lure. That's not cunning or twisting. There is no. Exposition that
would gather the audience that that might get them to want to
hear Jesus fed people with a sack lunch. They don't want to hear
it. They just wanted more sack lunches. This holiness comes through preaching
and it starts by creating us in a creating in us a new heart,
we are not made better, we're made new. We are new creations. We're recreated. The old is dead. The new is come. That's what
baptism is about. It's about dying. The old self
is dead and we have been raised to walk in newness of life. It's
not getting under the sheet and having a makeover. There's no
makeover in the gospel. There's no transformer in the
gospel. There's death and life in the
gospel. Death to the old, life to the
new in Christ. And friends, this preaching affects
holiness, which entails right relationship with God, meaning
we're justified before him. We are set as holy, though we
still have some sin, we are no longer slaves to it. And we're
forgiven of it. And so that then entails right
motivation for life. The law of God, John says, is
not a burden to the saint, but it is a blessing. It's a glorious
thing to know if it were not for the grace of God in Christ,
I would never be made righteous. Now, because of his love and
mercy toward me, because of his power through the preaching of
the gospel to my soul by the Holy Spirit, I now can walk before
him. striving for sanctification,
striving for holiness and live out in the best of the power
of God in that way. And I'll just tell you, church,
sins that we commit are acts of rebellion. They are struggles
that we see the flesh and that which we think will give us joy
and give us hope. I'm not talking about salvificly.
We may very well hang the ornament of Jesus Christ and his glorious
beauty and grace on our left ear while letting the sin and
temptation tug us on our right ear. And thus we drag Jesus into
the wickedness of our sinfulness. And it's rebellion. You are not
powerless against sin, church, but you will never be perfect
until Christ comes back. And then finally, I'll just point
this out because it's here, this true child of a common faith.
With this common father, with a common savior, with a common
doctrine, with a common word being preached. shows a unity, as I've already
alluded to, of two people that could not even exist in time
together in the same place to even do business, much less worship,
are now brothers in Jesus Christ. And they love each other with
a supernatural love that supersedes everything, because there is
no common ground with Paul and Titus. Nothing. Where they dress, their music,
their food, their thoughts, their philosophies, their politics,
their athletics, nothing. So let me give you a damnable
heresy when it comes to the church of Jesus Christ. When we think
we must find commonality apart from the gospel that is preached
from the Word, we have put another gospel on the table. So you mean these people I like
to hunt with, I'm not supposed to... Yeah. But when the hunting's
over, where's your common ground? Think of the church. Is your
common ground a sports team? A cookout? A program? A hobby? A doctrine? Or is it the Spirit of God? Whoa,
whoa, whoa. And you've never seen truth like
the truth of the Holy Spirit of God with people who have nothing
in common, being able to talk for years about the one they
do have in common. And when they haven't seen each
other for ten and they connect and they pick up the phone and
they pick right back up and we don't care about what the dog
is chewed or what the weather's like. It's supernatural. And the church grows into that
through preaching intimacy and the elders, as they're appointed,
Like cats under rocking chairs, walk around, not scared, but
cautious, making sure that nobody's messing that up through the preaching. And without the preaching of
the gospel, none of this would happen. I've been told many times over,
even when I first began to be involved in ministry, When a
pastor friend of mine would say from the pulpit and people would
drive for an hour to come and he'd say, the church alive is
worth the drive. I thought that is so cliche.
But are they? Is the gospel? In May of 2000 and. Two. I preached a sermon out
of Revelation. Out of the seven churches out
of Revelation. And I made the comment as I turned
out the lights in the auditorium where nobody could even see to
get up, it was pretty cool. No windows in there. And then
as I raised the lights after that point, because Jesus talks
about removing our lamp stand. I could see that people were
aggravated because we'd gone about five minutes late. I was
just sitting there. And I made this comment out of
pride. Big auditorium, a bunch of people,
a bunch of space, and we had counseling rooms in the back
and dressing rooms and bridal rooms. And I said, you know,
I do believe if I dismissed right now and said Jesus has come today
and he's over there in that room, I said, I don't even think you'd
have to stand in line. Because most of you would go because
your roast is burning. And then I went and then my flesh
got up and I said, and if you're mad about that statement, point
taken. And I really do believe that.
And it's not to say at that time I thought all these unregenerate
people, these heathens. And now I look back and I told
you with patience and loving kindness. Rebuke, rebuke, rebuke
patiently. Wait, just wait. As the father
waits for us. But I look at it now and I think,
you know why so many of them? wouldn't stay in my heart and
my mind and aggravated them that I'd even take time to say that
is because they'd never seen Jesus through preaching. Maybe. Prince, do not neglect. The gathering
together, as some are accustomed to doing. Because it brings rot. It brings rot, and it's not just
to get the sermon, it's to get life. And so I stand before you today
and I pray that the fullness of all that God is, is clearly
seen by all that He said through the preaching of His sermon today,
as we begin to look and see just how the church is to look and
to function, primarily and foundationally, for those who will oversee its
welfare and care through the Word of God. And as you sit here
today and you say, I see Jesus and He set me free from my sin,
You need to share that. You need to live that first and
foremost in obedience to baptism. And then obedience to fellowship
with the local church, obedience to holy affections and study
of the word and living as a worshiper should. And we'll help you. So let us pray. Because of the preach word given
to us.