Now, last week we looked, the
last verses in our lesson were verse five and six of Titus three,
where Paul said, not by works of righteousness, which we've
done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that being
justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life. Now clearly, this is, I'm not
telling this group anything you don't know. Salvation is by grace. Salvation is all of grace. And
all the different parts, you know, how people want to technically
break down salvation, the different parts of salvation. All those,
all of it, from beginning to end, is of grace. In eternity
past, our election is of grace. It wasn't earned. It wasn't deserved. It's by grace. It's a choice
of God that he made in his mercy and grace to his people. Our
regeneration, the Spirit comes and gives life. That's not by
our power or by our will or because of something we just heard. It's
by the will of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And here
Paul mentions specifically justification. We're justified. And the word
justified is made without sin. We're made without sin by grace. If a sinner is going to be justified,
that sin has to be removed. The guilt of sin has to be removed.
The stain of sin has to be removed. And that can only happen by grace,
through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Justification is
not something a sinner can earn. It's by grace. It is God's will
to justify a sinful people by grace, by imputing their sins
to His own Son. Now, my friends, that's grace. That God would impute the defilement,
the wretchedness, the guilt of my sin to His holy, precious
Son. That's grace. It just takes grace. And justification is all wrapped
up and found in the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way a sinner
can be made without sin is for God to impute our sins to someone
else and to impute the righteousness of someone else to us. Well,
that's found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the sinner's substitute.
We're justified. It's in Him. Romans 5 verse 9
says we're justified by His blood, by the blood of Christ. Romans
4, we read that we're justified by the resurrection of Christ.
Christ was raised again for our justification. It's in His blood,
it's in His resurrection, and it's by faith. All of the book
of Romans tells us we're justified by faith. By faith in Christ. And here in our text, Paul says
that justification is by grace. Not by anything that we do. Not
by anything that we haven't done. Not by anything we ever will
do. Either before or after the Lord saves us. Justification
is all in the imputed righteousness and shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look back in Acts 13. It's all
in Christ. In Acts 13, verse 38. Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man, through this man, the
Lord Jesus Christ has preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
And by him, all that believe are justified from all things,
are justified from all their sins, from which he could not
be justified by the law of Moses. You can't earn it. It's a free
gift in Christ. That justification is all in
Christ. Now, God justifies sinners by
grace, but he does it in a way that's gracious to the sinner,
but just to God. It's just to his law and honors
his justice. And that's only possible through
the Lord Jesus Christ, our substitute, that God can be gracious to a
sinner and be just to himself. And in Christ, the believer is
completely free from the guilt of sin, and from the condemnation
of sin, from the punishment of sin, because of the sacrifice
of Christ, because Christ has already suffered for our sin.
Now, you're free from sin. If you're a believer, you are
free from sin. We say, you know, you're free
from the guilt of sin. I still feel guilty every day.
I mean, just every day I feel guilty. I hate my sin, feel guilty
over my sin, wish I didn't do it, wish I could stop doing it.
But I'm here to tell you, if Christ died for you, Hate your
sin, but know this. You're free from the condemnation
of sin. You're free from ever being punished
for that sin. Why? Because Christ was already
punished for you. He already bore the punishment
of your sins, and you're free from those sins. And I tell you,
come to Him. You come to Christ. Come to Him. Beg for mercy. Beg for grace. Beg for washing in His blood.
Because in Him is the only way you'll ever be justified. free
from sin. Now, justified by grace, without
any works of our own. Well, what about all these good
works Paul's been talking about? He's been talking and teaching
us to be ready to do good works. We're going to see in these next
verses how he tells us to be careful to maintain good works.
That sound doctrine, he said, that believers are to maintain
good works. Where do these good works fit
in? What about these good works? Well, these good works are the
fruit of justification. They're not the cause of it.
They don't add anything to your justification. They don't add
anything to your salvation. They're the fruit, the product
of God's mercy and grace to you. Now, they might justify your
faith before men, but not before God. That before God is done
by the blood of Christ. It's by his grace. Sonship is
by grace. Paul says we've been made heirs
of God by grace. Now, who are heirs? Heirs are
almost always children. Children are the heirs of their
parents. And a sinner is that God saves, God's elect are his
children. We've been adopted into the family
of God. I mean, think about that. Being
adopted into the family of God, that takes grace. You can only
attribute The adoption into God's family to grace. The only way. Who'd want you? Who'd want me? Who'd want to
adopt somebody like us into their family? That takes grace. God's grace. He adopted His people
into His family. And then, because of God's grace,
He gives us the nature of children. In the new birth, we've been
given the nature of children. And you can only attribute that
to grace. That God would give you a nature
that's opposite of the nature of the flesh that you were born
with the first time? That He gives you the nature
of His Son? The nature of His children? That's
God's grace. Well, if you're a child, then
you're an heir. Heir of God. Children inherit things from
their parents. Things that they didn't earn.
They inherit. They're given things they didn't
work for. Their parents worked for them. Their parents earned
them, their parents saved them up, and then they give them as
a free gift to their children. In our day, it's not so free.
The government wants to take half of it, but you know, it's
the parents' will that that gift be free. That's the parents'
will. They earned it, and they're giving
it to their children. Well, parents give inheritance
to their children simply because they're children. Not because
they earned it. Not because they deserved it,
simply because they're children. And that's the will of their
parents. Well, a child of God is an heir of God and joint heirs
with Christ. And we have an inheritance, not
because we earned it, not because we did anything, simply because
we're children of God. And that's the will of God, our
Father, to give an inheritance to his children. We've been made
heirs. Now, Heirs of God. Heirs to possess everything that
God has. But we don't possess much of
it now, do we? We're still in this world, in this flesh, but
we expect to enjoy all the blessings that God has promised us in Christ.
We expect to possess the fullness of that in reality someday, don't
we? Because God promised it. Look
back at Matthew chapter 19. Here's our inheritance in Matthew
19. I was watching a movie earlier
this week about a man. He died, and his whole family
was gathered in the attorney's office just with breathless anticipation. He had this one precious item,
and they all wanted to know who he was going to give it to, which
one of the children was going to get it. And I thought, that's
the way we ought to come to the house of God, to hear with breathless
anticipation what's the inheritance that our Father's given us. Well,
here it is in Matthew 19. Verse 29, And everyone that hath
forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother,
or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive
an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. And that's
our inheritance, everlasting life. And when we talk about
everlasting life, life eternal, we're not talking about the length
of it. Because everybody's going to live forever someplace, either
in the presence of God or in hell. One place or another. Everyone's
going to live forever. We're not talking about the length
of it. We're talking about the quality of it. The glory of life
eternal that the child of God inherits. It's the glory of it. To be with our Lord Jesus Christ
and behold him face to face. That's our inheritance. Let's
go to 1 Peter chapter 1. And you can bank on this inheritance.
You can count on it. You can just expect it, because
it's the will of our Father in heaven, and it's been purchased
by our Lord Jesus Christ. In 1 Peter 1, verse 3, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a lively hope,
a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
to an inheritance, and here's the description of it. It's incorruptible,
it's undefiled, and it fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. That's our inheritance. It's incorruptible, it's undefiled,
and it's never going to fade away. And it's reserved in heaven
for you because it's the will of our Father and because Christ
our Lord purchased it. Paul says, this is a faithful
saying, and these things I will, that thou affirm constantly,
that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain
good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men. Now, this is a favorite saying
of Paul's, a faithful saying. This is a faithful saying. He
uses that when he's getting ready to make a statement that he wants
you to sit up and pay attention to. This is worth listening to.
This is a faithful saying. And what he's talking about is
everything that he said before leading up to this. This is a
faithful saying. When he talked about the conduct
of aged men and women, the conduct of young men and women, the conduct
of servants, when he talked about how salvation is in Christ, it's
of God's mercy, not of works of men, but it's of God's grace. These things are sound doctrine
and sound doctrine teaches both faith in Christ and conduct in
this world. And Paul tells Titus and all
pastors, you teach this sound doctrine constantly, constantly,
over and over and over and over and over again. For as long as
the Lord allows you to have a ministry, you teach this sound doctrine
constantly. Constantly remind people that
salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every person in this
room has heard that a million times, but I'm here to remind
you again this morning. Salvation is found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Righteousness is in Christ. Salvation
is of the grace of God and the mercy of God. You remind people
about the sinfulness of all men, that all men are totally depraved. You remind them of that constantly.
And hand in hand with that, you remind them that believers are
to maintain good works. Don't just do one good work and
think, boy, I did that and now that's going to stay in forever.
No, you have to maintain it. Even if you build an awful good
house, I mean the thing's just solid as can be, you've got to
maintain it or that thing's just going to fall into disrepair
really quickly. It's just one of the joys of
home ownership. You've got to maintain it. And
believers are to maintain good works. You've got to constantly
look for ways, opportunities to do works of faith and labors
of love. Now, good work is a work that's
done in faith, believing God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. So you can't do something that
pleases God without faith, can you? Good work has to be done
in faith. A good work is not trying to do something righteous
that will improve your standing with God or make God save you.
That's not faith, is it? So it can't be that. A good work
can't be something that you're doing to commend yourself. A
good work is done in faith. It's done believing God for the
good of the body of Christ. Look back in Matthew 26. Here's
a definition of a good work, of good works. Matthew 26. Verse 6 Now when Jesus was in Bethany,
in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman,
having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured
it on his head as he sat at meat. And when his disciples saw it,
they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?
For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given
to the poor. Now, when Jesus understood it, he said unto them,
Why trouble ye the woman? She hath wrought a good work
upon me. Now, first, your good works served
in faith and love on the body of Christ is never a waste. You
know, the disciples said, Well, that's a waste. She's wasting
her time and money. That's not a waste to do a good
work on the body of Christ. And that's what a good work is.
It's done in faith and love for the good of the body of Christ.
Now, look over at 1 Timothy chapter 5. Here's a good question. Some might say, well, how am
I going to do this in my everyday life? How am I going to serve
the body of Christ? And this woman, she poured an
ointment on the Lord, but he's not here. His physical bodily
presence is not here now. So how am I going to do these
good works, maintain good works in my everyday life? It's so
simple. Just don't overcomplicate this.
It is so simple. Just as you go through your life,
do the right thing. Just as under the Lord, this
is a good work in Matthew or first Timothy five, verse 10.
Well, look, verse nine, he says, let not a widow be taken into
the number under three score years old. Having me in the wife
of one man, well reported off for good works. Now, what has
she done, but she's well reported up for good works. If she's brought
up children, did she bring her children up in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord? That's a good word. If she lauds
strangers, has she been hospitable to people, kind? If she's washed
the saint's feet, and I don't mean getting a basin of water
and washing everybody's feet. Everybody washed their feet before
they came here this morning in the shower. That's talking about
doing things to help people. To just find things to help people,
to just make life better for them. It can be just an extraordinary
simple thing, but to do something to help people, to make their
life better, that's a good work. If she's relieved the afflicted,
Did she just give a kind word to somebody in trouble? Maybe
fix a meal and take it over to them or just give them a hug
and tell them I'm praying for you? Did she just relieve the
afflicted? If she's diligently followed
every good work, just as you go through your everyday life,
there's plenty of opportunities. That's a good work. A good work
is done in faith. And then it's a good work as
a labor of love. Now, it's not in order to get
God to love you, because that's a mercenary attitude. That's
not the attitude of a child. I don't have to do anything to
make my mother love me. She loves me because I'm her
kid. You know, she doesn't really have much choice in the matter.
I don't do things to get her to love me. It's because she
does. And that's the way a child of
God does. A child of God does things, serves the Lord because
God loves them. And we love him in response,
in return. And listen, only a believer. Now, this is only talking to
believers. The only person who can do a
good work is a child of God, is a believer. People do kind
things. They donate big money to charities
and do kind things. But if they're not a child of
God, that's not a good work. A good work is done in faith
and love. Well, the only people have faith
is a child of God, is a believer. And the only people who love
God, despite what everybody says, the only people who love God
are children of God, believers. So only a believer can do a good
work that's done in faith and love. And Paul says, you do these
things because it's good for you. These are good and profitable
unto men. It's good for you. Back in chapter
three here, Titus verse one, he says, put them in mind to
be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates,
to be ready to every good work. You'd be ready to every good
work, and then he says, you'd be careful to maintain these
good works. A few weeks ago in the study,
Cecil came in. He told Gary, he said, I got
a job. You want to help? Gary said, yep. Cecil says, don't
you want to know what it is? He said, no, I'll help you. Cecil
said, it's a hard job. He said, that's all right, I'm
in. Now, it was a hard job. It was a hard job. And Gary wouldn't
back out. No, I'm in. I'm ready to every
good work, to maintain good works that's good and profitable unto
me. It's good for you and it's good
for the person that you're helping. And all of us, and particularly
the pastor here, is warned Don't ever get off on a tangent. Don't allow yourself to be pulled
off of this tangent of sound doctrine that Paul's been teaching.
You constantly affirm these things. Let other people talk about this
stuff that does not matter and will not edify people. Don't
waste your time in the pulpit talking about anything other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 9. He says, but
avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and striving
about the law, for they're unprofitable in vain. Avoid foolish questions. And that means a question that's
really not a real question. It's not a question that's asked
for information. It's a question that's posed so that people will
have something to debate about. That's what it is. It's something
that you pose to start a debate. And when you do that, do something
that's posed so you can start a debate, you really think you've
got the answer. And you want to argue about it
to show how smart you are. Well, that's vain and unprofitable.
This is a question that's not been asked to show the wisdom
and glory of God. It's been asked to show your
wisdom, man's wisdom. Well, that's vain and unprofitable.
You know, this is a question that's not asked so that man
will be edified. It's to show man's wisdom. So
avoid that. Just don't do that. You know,
I'll just give you a couple of examples. Boy, people love it. To pose these questions that
will cause debate. Was it possible for Christ to
sin? That's a foolish question. A
better question would be to talk about the wonder of our sinless
sacrifice. That he would come and work out
a perfect righteousness for his people. And talk about how thankful
we are. Talk about the glory of that.
Instead of talking about was it possible for him to sin, that's
a foolish question. You know, they talk about what
will happen in the end of the world, you know, millennium reign. I
mean, they got it so technical. Oh, my. Instead of talking about
who's coming, Christ the king, when he comes, I guarantee you
this. He's on the throne just like he is right now. He's the
king. They don't care about this millennium
reign and what's going to happen, the events surrounding it. What
we're looking for is who's coming. I saw this week, boy, they love
to argue about this one. When's the exact moment God justifies
a person? Instead of talking about the
glory, that we're justified in the Lord Jesus Christ, the simplicity
of that is so wonderful, just be thankful for that. Now, this
isn't saying we should never ask a question. There are good
questions we ought to ask, the things we need to learn. You
know, Job asked, how should a man be just with God? That's a good
question. Let's talk about that one for
a while. But let's limit our questions to what the Lord has
been pleased to reveal in His Word. Don't get in so deep into
these things that are not clearly revealed in God's Word because
you're trying to figure God out. You can't do it. Let's just stick
with what God's clearly revealed in His Word and believe Him.
Just believe Him. And the things that aren't clearly
revealed, just believe God. Just believe Him and leave it
there. You do that, you'll avoid these foolish questions. And
avoid genealogies. Now, you know, it's fine to have
some interest in where you came from and your ancestors and so
forth. That's fine. But spiritually, this is a complete
and utter waste of time. Trace back the genealogy. You
know what you're going to find? The tree's rotten. All the branches
are rotten. The leaves are dead. You know,
you might find some famous person or something you're related to.
Keep going back and you'll find you're related to a mass murderer
or something. Go back far enough, you'll find the trees rotten,
the leaves are rotten and corrupt. And you know why I know that's
true? Because the root's rotten. Trace it all the way back to
Adam. The root's rotten. You're not going to find anything
that improved your spiritual situation at all in your genealogy.
And your landmarks spent a lot of time doing this. I mean, they've
got a book of the history of their church, you know, tracing
it back all the way to the apostles. And that's a waste of time. The
only relationship that matters is Christ. The only blood relationship
that matters is the blood of Christ. And do you know Christ?
Are you in Christ now? I'm not real interested in what
somebody that you think your church, your local church is
connected to, what they preached 2,000 years ago. I don't really
care. What I want to know is who do you preach now? That's
what's important. So avoid these genealogies and
avoid these contentions and striving about the lost. You know, a believer
shouldn't want anything to do with the law. Haven't we earned
that? Learned that? That we don't want anything to
do with the law? Now, legalists love to debate about these things.
And that's what this word, contentions, means. It's a lot like the foolish
questions. It's something that somebody can bring up to debate.
You know, they love to debate about, well, you know, is something
that this person's doing, is that breaking the law? Is that
wrong? There's no debate. There's no debate about that.
Of course, what we're doing breaks the law because we're sinners.
Everything we do, everything is a sin. Everything breaks God's
law. I don't care how long your hair
is or how long your dress is or if you cut your grass on Sunday
or if you give candy to trick-or-treaters or not. It doesn't matter. It's all a violation of God's
law because we're nothing but sin. And when we want to debate,
about whether the strivings about the law, all that is, is self-righteousness
manifesting itself that I think I didn't write the law but somebody
else did. That's unprofitable and it's
deadly to men. So just avoid that. I'll tell
you a good subject to talk about in regards to the law. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. That's
profitable for men. Now verse 10, he says, a man
that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject,
knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth, being
condemned of himself. Now a heretic by definition is
someone who denies the fundamental truths, doctrines of the gospel
that are clearly revealed in scripture. You know, they deny
the Trinity. Well, we can't understand the
Trinity, but it's a common thing in our day to say, yeah, I can
see that God, the Father, he's God, and the Son's God, but now
the Spirit, you know, he's not. That's a heretic. That's denying
the Trinity. You know, people like to deny
the deity of Christ. You know, he's a man. He can't
be God. That's a heretic. It's denying the plain teaching
of Scripture. People deny the infallibility
of Scripture. They say, well, you know, the
Scripture is pretty much true, but now you can find these phrases
in there that aren't true. You know, what you're reading
in James, that's not part of the Scripture. They want to pull
it out. They're denying the infallibility
of Scripture. A person's a heretic. And they do. The problem with
a heretic is they prefer their own ideas and their own thoughts
as opposed to the clear revelation of Scripture. And the difference
between an heir And a heretic is an heir can be taught. An
heir will believe God and believe the truth when they hear it and
bow to it, and a heretic won't. And heretics always cause division. That's why Paul mentioned first
about these avoiding foolish questions and debates and strivings,
because that's what a heretic does. They just find things to
debate and question to cause division, to get people to follow
after them. And they are not to be tolerated. You refuse to get caught up in
their constant fighting and debating. Here's what Scripture says. We're
to talk to them about it. You go show them by the word
of God their error and try to try to get them to correct their
error. Because if you're talking to
an error, you've recovered a brother, so talk to him about it and then
be patient with people. Talk to them. Their behavior
doesn't change. Well, then you talk to him about
it again. And use the Word of God. Don't debate with them.
Don't get caught up into your ideas and their ideas. Use the
Word of God. And if he proves he won't listen,
he won't bow, he won't change, the church is to cut that person
out, to reject them, to cut the gangrene out before it kills
the rest of the body. There's no saving a heretic. Paul says he's subverted, and
that word means corrupt and twisted. Twisted off the foundation. So
the building is decaying and falling down because it's twisted
off the foundation. He's turned off the foundation
of Christ the solid rock. Years ago, I was over on the
West Coast a couple of weeks after an enormous hurricane went
through. And I was going through town,
you know, the person who lived there, he showed me this bank
building. He said, is that bank building over there? And it was just a
little thing. Probably nobody ever went in. It was just strictly
a drive-thru. And the canopy was still there for the drive-thru
and the building. Looks fine to me, you know, from
a distance it looks fine. He said, look where the window
is. Here's the canopy where the people
would drive up. The window that the bank teller looks out the
window at is facing this way. That building was turned 180
degrees off the foundation. That was still sitting real close
to being on the foundation, but it was twisted off the foundation.
And because it was twisted off the foundation, it looked good
from a distance. But that building was no use
to anyone anymore. That thing had to be torn down
and start over, building a building that was founded on the foundation.
That's what Paul's saying about a heretic. He's twisted off the
foundation. He looks mighty religious, looks
mighty holy, but he's twisted off the foundation. He's of no
use to anyone. He's condemned already by the
scriptures that he rejects. So verse 12, Paul says, Now when
I send Artemis unto thee, or Tychicus, be diligent to come
unto me, to Nicopolis, for I have determined there to winter. Bring
Zenos the lawyer, and Apollos on their journey diligently,
that nothing be wanting in them. This just goes back to these
good works. Be hospitable. Make sure they have everything
they need in their travels. And let ours also learn to maintain
good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful.
See how many times Paul keeps reminding us You be careful to
maintain good works. These good works are important
in the life of a believer because they're the fruits of salvation. They're the fruits of righteousness.
If you're connected to the vine, you bear fruit, bear the fruit
of the spirit. And good works, Paul keeps reminding
us of this because good works are necessary. Now, they're not
necessary to your salvation, but one of the writers said this.
Christianity is not a fruitless profession. It means something. If you're connected to Christ,
then you do these good works done out of love for Christ and
a desire for the glory of Christ. And then verse 15 says, all they
that are with me, salute thee. Greet them that love us in the
faith. Grace be with you all. Amen. All right. The Lord bless
you.