Now here this epistle of Paul
to Titus. Titus was a Gentile from Antioch
who the Lord saved under the ministry of Paul. And this man
became very dear to the Apostle Paul. Look over at 2 Corinthians
chapter 7. You probably remember how many
different times in the epistles to the Corinthians Paul mentioned
Titus. In 2 Corinthians 7, here's one of the references to Titus
that show us how dear this man Titus was to the Apostle Paul.
In verse 5 he says, For when we were coming to Macedonia,
our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side.
Without were fightings, within were fears. Nevertheless, God
that comforted those that are cast down, comforted us by the
coming of Titus. Heareth all this trouble within
and without, Paul said, I was comforted. by when Titus came
and got to see him and visit with him. They were just very
dear to one another. And it's pretty evident Paul had a lot
of confidence in Titus. He sent Titus to places to preach
where there were problems that needed to be corrected. The problems
in Corinth that needed to be corrected, Paul sent Titus there
to preach. Here where Titus is now, when
Paul writes in this letter in Crete, there were problems there
that needed to be corrected. Well, Paul sent Titus there to
preach and correct these things. And during the course of his
ministry, Titus traveled fairly extensively with Paul to different
places. He traveled with Paul in Barnabas
for a while, then he traveled with Paul alone for a while.
Tradition says that after those missionary travels were finished,
Titus went back to Crete. He became the pastor there and
he stayed there as a pastor until he died as an old man. So that's
what we know about this man, Titus. Now, in this epistle,
it's a relatively short epistle, but In this book, Paul so clearly
lays out the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he also lays
out how that faith in Christ, how saving faith in Christ will
direct the walk of a believer through this present world. So
that's some of the things we'll see as we go through these three
chapters. Now, verse one of chapter one
begins, Paul, a servant of God and apostle of Jesus Christ,
according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging
of the truth, which is after godliness. Now, Paul takes to
himself, first of all, this title of a servant. And that's a very
humble title, the title of a servant. You know, where I work, we have
nameplates, you know, on the offices with somebody's title
underneath it. Nobody has the title servant.
You know, you have some title that sounds real important, you
know. Well, Paul takes to himself a humble title, the title of
servant. Matter of fact, that's the title
that all the apostles took to themselves. Servant. That's the
way they wanted to be known as a servant of God. But, you know,
servant is really the highest office in God's church. It's
just upside down from the way men view things. A servant is
the highest office in God's church. Look over at Matthew chapter
20. Our Lord himself came to this
earth as a servant. He was a servant to his father.
And he came as a servant to his people. In Matthew 20 verse 25,
but Jesus called them unto him and said, you know that the princes
of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great
exercise authority upon them, but it shall not be so among
you. But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And that word minister means
a waiter or a deacon. Let him be your waiter, your
servant. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your
servant, even as a son of man came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. And then
John preached on it just a few weeks ago. Our Lord showed the
apostles, the importance of being a servant of taking the lowest
jobs by washing the feet of his disciples. And the more that
we mature as believers. The more that we'll see ourselves
as nothing, just and the more we see ourselves as nothing,
the more we'll be willing to become a servant, a bond slave
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what the title Paul
takes to himself, a servant. And he says he's an apostle.
He received his gospel directly from the Lord Jesus Christ. He
received his commission to preach straight from Christ. And the
Lord gave him special gifts of miracles and healings and tongues
and so forth to confirm to unbelievers, not for believers, but to confirm
to unbelievers that he was speaking for God himself. And you could
just imagine the special place that this apostle had in the
place of Titus's heart. He must have held a special place
to his heart. And just many of the church there
in Crete, he must have held a special place in their heart. And he
says he's coming to them according to the faith of God's elect. And that's the title or the theme
of our lesson this morning, the faith of God's elect. Now, Paul's
gospel was the gospel of the faith of God's elect from all
ages. He had the same message that
Noah had, the same message that Moses and Abraham preached, the
same message of David and Isaiah, of all the prophets. The same
message we have today is just one gospel. There's just one
message. Now, that gospel has been preached in different dispensations
and different revelations of the person and work of Christ.
We have a much more clear revelation of the person and work of Christ
than Moses did, because we look back on a finished work. He was
looking forward by faith to a work that hadn't happened yet. So
we have a different dispensation of a better understanding of
the work of Christ. But it's the same gospel because
it's the same Christ. There's just one Christ and there's
just one gospel. Many different servants of God
all through the ages, but all their messages agree. There's
just one faith of God's elect, one message for God's elect.
And Paul's commission, his preaching was for this purpose. That God's
elect would be given faith and that the faith of God's elect
would be promoted and stimulated. Because faith comes by hearing.
Hearing the word of God. Hearing the word of God preached.
Look over at Matthew chapter 28. And our commission today
is the same commission. Our commission is to preach the
word of God. So that men and women believe
Christ. So that they look to Christ and
believe him. In Matthew 28, verse 19. Here our Lord is getting ready
to ascend and he says, Go ye therefore and teach all nations. And that word teach means to
make disciples. You teach them so that they believe. That's not just, you know, words
and air. You teach them so they believe, so they become disciples. And then you baptize them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe, to believe and to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you. That was Paul's commission. That's
the way he was to preach. And that's the way we're to preach.
We're to preach the word so that the faith of God's elect is fed,
so it grows, so it grows stronger. That's a lot of what our Lord
meant when he told Peter, you feed my sheep, you feed them
so that the faith of God's elect grows stronger. Now, someone
might wonder, well, do I have the faith of God's elect? What
is the faith of God's elect? Do I have that faith? Well, there
are six characteristics here of the faith of God's elect.
And the first one is this. The faith of God's elect is in
Christ alone. Christ alone. The faith of God's
elect cannot rest in religious ceremony. Can't do it. Just like
Dan prayed, I don't want to meet here out of habit or form because
faith can't rest in that. The faith of God's elect can
only rest in Christ and him alone. The faith of God's elect cannot
find any comfort in feelings. Matter of fact, all we find in
feelings typically is discomfort. Faith of God's elect can find
comfort only in Christ. It's all in Him. The faith of
God's elect cannot find any assurance in tradition. Well, yeah, this
is what we've always done. This is what my parents and grandparents
have always done. This is what we've always done.
The faith of God's elect can't find any assurance in that. The only way we can find assurance
is in Christ, in the Christ that's revealed in the scriptures. So
the first characteristic, the faith of God's elect, is it's
in Christ alone. Here's the second one. The faith
of God's elect will always acknowledge the truth. That's what Paul says,
according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of
the truth. The truth. God doesn't give faith
through the preaching of a lie. It doesn't happen. It's by believing
the truth. What did James say? Of his own
will begat he us with the word of truth. Look back at John chapter
17. Acknowledging the truth. John 17, verse 17. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. And one more
scripture from Colossians chapter 1. Thy word is truth. That's why
we preach the word. Thy word is truth. In Colossians
1 verse 4. Paul says, as we heard of your
faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have to all the
saints for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven. Where
have you heard before? Where did you hear about this
hope that's laid up for you in heaven? You heard it in the word
of the truth of the gospel, which has come unto you as it is in
all the world, and bring it forth fruit as it doth also in you,
since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God in
what? Truth. That's what the faith
of God's elect always leads to acknowledging the truth. And
we're to preach the word so that people are led in the truth.
so that they can recognize and discern the truth, that they
can discern the difference between truth and error. And the only
people who have this faith and acknowledge the truth are God's
elect. That's the only people. You know,
if someone wonders, well, how do I know if I'm one of God's
elect? Well, you know, it's pretty simple.
Do you believe God? That's what faith is. Do you
believe God? Do you believe what God says
about you in His Word? That you're a sinner. I mean
completely, totally, utterly a sinner. Absolutely no good
in you. Do you believe that? That's what
God's Word says. Do you believe the Lord Jesus
Christ? Do you believe in Him that your
only hope of salvation is found in Christ? that the only hope
that you have your sin being put away is in the sacrifice,
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe that? Well, that's
the faith of God's elect. The only people who believe that
are God's elect, because the only people that God gives that
kind of faith to is his elect. So the faith of God's elect always
acknowledges the truth. And third, the faith of God's
elect always leads godliness and holiness. Paul says the acknowledging
of the truth, which is after godliness. Now, salvation is
a heart work. Salvation is God giving a person
a new heart and a new nature, a nature that's holy. It's the
nature of Christ. And that inward nature, that
inward holiness is seen outwardly in a godly walk, which is after
godliness. Now, it's not a perfect walk
and never will be a perfect walk, but it's after godliness. We're
never going to be godly, but it's after godliness. David was
a far from perfect man, wasn't he? Far from perfect. But what
did God say about him? He's a man after my own heart. That's what he was after. And
that's what the believer is after. It's a walk that's after godliness. And that walk, A godly walk must
come from a new heart. You can't fake that. You just
can't be done. A head knowledge of the truth.
That's not going to lead a person to a godly walk. A head knowledge
of the truth. All that does is make a person
mean spirited, hard, and judgmental. That's all it does. But a heart
knowledge of the truth makes a person fear the Lord, worship
Him, and reverence him and walk in a way that's pleasing to my
Redeemer. In any religion that does not
produce that kind of walk in its converts is false religion. You just mark it down because
the faith of God's elect is always after godliness. Now verse two,
he says, in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised
before the world began. Here's the fourth characteristic
of the faith of God's elect. The faith of God's elect gives
us hope of eternal life. And all of God's elect live in
hope of eternal life. We live resting in that hope,
the hope of eternal life. Now, we say the hope of eternal
life, it's not something that you hope to have someday and
that you don't have now. The believer right now has eternal
life. Look over at 1 John chapter 5
and I'll show you that. 1 John 5 verse 13. and that you may believe on the
name of the Son of God. You have eternal life if you're
a believer. But you don't possess it in experience
yet, do you? You can't have it as your experience
while you live in this body of death. But we know that that
new man that's been created in Christ Jesus will never die. He's going to live eternally
with Christ face to face. And that's our hope. And it's
not just, well, a hope Maybe I'll have it. This word means
expect. We wait for it expectantly. The believer has every right
to expect to enjoy eternal life. You expect that. That's not presumption. That's faith, isn't it? You expect
to have eternal life. That's not presumption. Now,
we don't have any hope in ourselves. If you're hoping to have eternal
life with Christ someday because something you've done, That's
presumption. Because we're born having no
hope and without God in this world. That's why this flesh
is born. But the believer, one who's been given the faith of
God's elect, should expect to have eternal life. Why? Because God, who cannot lie,
promised it. It's wrong not to believe the
promise of God in them. Well, then we ought to expect
to have eternal life, because in the halls of eternity, God
the Father promised it. He promised it before the world
began and He cannot lie. So we expect to have God's promise
because we believe Him. That's what faith is. We believe
Him. And God's promise of eternal life, God's promise of the forgiveness
of sins has always, before the world began, it was based on
the Lord Jesus Christ. It was always found in one person.
In eternity, Christ, God the Son, stood as the surety of his
people. He agreed to be our substitute.
He agreed. He knew full well what he was
agreeing to. He agreed to be made sin for his people. He agreed
to put away our sin through his death, through the sacrifice
of himself. He agreed to live as a man, to
work out a perfect righteousness as our representative and impute
his righteousness to his people. An eternal life is promised to
God's people based on the Lord Jesus Christ, what he would do. And I'm telling you, he did not
fail. What did Isaiah say about him?
He shall not fail or be discouraged. He got the job done. And the
promise From God who cannot lie is sure because it's based on
Christ who cannot fail. And this promise of God of eternal
life is a gracious promise, isn't it? It's a gracious promise. It's a promise of grace that's
made to the undeserving. Any promise you make to the undeserving
has to be a promise of grace, doesn't it? Unless you're promising
him justice, if you're promising the undeserving, if you're promising
a sinner eternal life, it must be a promise of grace. An eternal
life is the promise of God. Now, it's not something you can
earn. It's not something you can do to kind of ratify the
deal, make it effectual. It's a promise. It's given by
promise. And that's what makes eternal
life sure. It's the promise of God. Look
at a couple of scriptures. First Galatians chapter 3. Now
this is the promise of God. It's a promise of grace. In Galatians 3 verse 18. For
the inheritance be of the law. It is no more promise, but God
gave it to Abraham by promise. Now that promise doesn't just
apply to Abraham because look over in verse 29. And if ye be
Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed and your heirs according
to the promise." The very same promise. One more scripture,
1 John chapter 2. Now this promise of eternal life
is based on the promise of God. 1 John 2 verse 25. Now your heirs according to the promise.
So what's the promise? This is the promise that He had
promised us. Eternal life. Eternal life is
the promise of God. And it's promised by God who
cannot lie. It's promised by God who is truth. It's promised by God who cannot
deceive. It's impossible for God to lie. I remember a message Henry preached
one time on some things that God cannot do. And one of them
was He cannot lie. Look over at Psalm 138. Show
you how important this is to God, that he cannot lie, that
he'll keep his word. Psalm 138, verse 2, I will worship toward
thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness
and for thy truth, for thou hast magnified thy word above all
thy name. That's how important God's word
is to him. He's magnified it above his name. The glory and
the reputation of his name depends on it, him keeping his word.
And you can rest assured that all those elect that God promised
to give eternal life to are going to have it. Christ redeemed them,
the Spirit called them, and God's going to glorify them. It's his
promise of eternal life. And we find out about God's promise
of eternal life in the gospel. We find out about this promise
of eternal life when Christ is declared. That's the fifth thing
about the faith of God's elect. It comes by hearing the gospel
preached. Look at verse 3 back in our text.
But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which
is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our
Savior. Now in God's appointed time,
he made this promise in eternity past. But in his appointed time,
he made known this promise to his people, to his elect, through
the preaching of Christ, through the preaching of his word. And
you know the word is Christ. Christ is the one who made the
father known. What did he tell his disciples?
He said, no man knoweth the father save the son, and he to whomsoever
the son will reveal him. Christ came and he manifested
the father, made the father known, made this promise of the father
known. When Christ came, he revealed. How it is that God saves sinners
through this man, through this substitute. He revealed the truth
of God and He revealed the promise of God. Christ revealed eternal
life because He is our life. Eternal life is to know Christ. That's what eternal life is.
And this word that every one of you is holding in your lap,
this word, every word of it, every page of it, is Christ. So you can't separate the written
word and the incarnate word. Every word, every page of this
is Christ. He is the incarnate word. And
the Bible, the written word, is given to us to reveal Christ. The Bible is not written to us
to reveal the law and give us some rules and some patterns
that we should live after. That's not why the Bible is given.
The Bible wasn't given to show us how to live. The Bible wasn't
given to show us some history of the world. The Bible is written
and given to us to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ. That's its
sole purpose. Christ is the Word, and He is
the Gospel. And life, eternal life, springs
from the seed of the Word, the incorruptible seed, the Word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And we find This promise
of eternal life revealed in the word, revealed in the gospel.
And that's why we must preach the word. We must preach Christ
because God reveals his son. He reveals the gospel. He reveals
the promise of eternal life through preaching. That's what Paul says
here. It's manifested through preaching. It's manifested through
what men call the foolishness of preaching. They call it foolishness
because it's not interesting to them. Now, I grant you most
of what men call preaching and think what men are doing, what
they call it, preaching is foolishness. But the preaching of Christ that
is done by men who, like the Apostle Paul, have the gospel
committed unto them. Paul said, this gospel has been
committed unto me. That preaching is not foolishness
at all. That preaching is the power of
God to eternal life if it's committed to a man. Real preaching is preaching
Christ. It's preaching his person, who
he is. It's preaching his glory, the
glory of what he has accomplished. It's preaching his sufficiency. It's preaching his blood as the
only hope for sinners. It's preaching His righteousness
as the only hope to make us accepted before the Father. It's telling
people His sacrifice is successful. You don't have to ratify it.
It's not become effectual to you when you believe. It's effectual
because God did it for you. That's what makes it effectual.
And the Spirit comes and reveals it to you. It's preaching Christ. And the man who does not preach
that gospel who preaches anything else does not have the gospel
committed unto him by God. Anybody can get up and act like
a preacher. Not very many people have the
gospel of God committed unto them. And when God commits His
gospel to a man, I'm telling you, He's put a burden on that
man. It's a burden to preach the gospel. Woe is unto me if
I preach not the gospel. When God commits His gospel to
a man, that man's determined to preach that gospel as fully
and the best he can. And you know why? Because it's
our commandment. It is our commandment to preach
Christ. That's what Paul says here. According
to the commandment of God, our Savior, we're commanded to preach
the gospel, to preach Christ, because this is the means that
God uses to give faith to his elect. The faith of God's elect
comes through preaching of the gospel. Now, verse 4, Paul says
to Titus, my own son after the common faith, grace, mercy and
peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.
Now, you know Titus is not Paul's natural son. He was never married
and never had any children. But Paul was the instrument that
the Lord used to preach the gospel when Titus was converted. And
Paul was his spiritual elder father, if you will, his leader
and his teacher. And a father and a son relationship
developed between these two men. And Titus was a true son. He
was truly born again. And he worked together with Paul
in the ministry, just like a son works with his father in the
family business. That's the way he worked. And
here's this relationship between these two men. Paul feels like
his father. Now you know this letter that
he's writing to Titus, his son, is written from the heart, isn't
it? It's written with love and care and concern for his son.
Just like a daddy talks to his child. That's the way it's from
the heart. This is heart language from a daddy to a child. And
it's full of love and concern for Titus. And we can understand,
most of us here can understand this relationship between Paul
and Titus. It's the way you feel about Brother
Henry. And I thought about this. If the Lord's merciful, he tears
years down the road, all these little ones that are running
around here, that's the way they're going to feel about John. Only
pastor they ever knew. If the Lord uses his preaching
to reveal Christ to them, that's the way they're going to feel.
Because God's people are thankful for the instrument. Not putting
the instrument out of its place. Our faith is in Christ. But how
beautiful are the feet of them that bring good tidings of glad
things. And Paul says he's writing to his son Timothy after the
common faith. Every believer has the exact
same faith, exact same faith, the same object of faith, which
is Christ. The faith of God's elect is a
common faith. They all have the same faith.
Now at times, It's different degrees. Even in yourself it's
different degrees. Some days you find yourself,
you know, your faith is stronger than other days. Other days it's
weaker. You know it grows and wanes. But no matter, it's always
like precious faith. And Paul, the Apostle Paul, had
the same faith that you do. That's right. You say, well,
I'm nothing like the Apostle Paul. I'm not a great preacher.
I'm not a great leader like Paul was. Well, that's true. But it's
the same faith. Paul knew he was nothing without
Christ, just like we're nothing without Christ. Because salvation
is by grace through this common faith. And then Paul gives his
usual salutation. And this is the salutation he
uses all the time because it cannot be improved upon. Grace,
mercy and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the sixth. This is
the last thing about the faith of God's elect. It enables us
to enjoy grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ our Savior. Now, you know Titus is a saved
man. He already had grace, mercy,
and peace from the Lord. But Paul says, I pray that the
Lord will grant you fresh and new discoveries of His grace
every day. And if you want grace, if anybody
here is interested in grace, go to Christ. He's full of grace
and truth. He's the fountain of grace. Go
to Him. This hope that we have of eternal
life is a good hope through grace. And if you want more grace, if
you want any grace, go to Christ. He's the fountain of grace. And
then mercy. He says, may the Lord give you
a fresh application of His pardoning mercy every day. May He wash
you in the blood again every day. Mercy. Only the miserable. Only a guilty
man needs mercy. And we read in scripture, the
Lord is merciful. He's rich in mercy. He delights
to show mercy. The psalmist says, mercy endureth
forever. And if you're interested in mercy,
if you find yourself in need of mercy, go to Christ. He's the mercy seat itself. He
is our propitiation. His blood is the propitiation,
the mercy seat that covers our sins. enables God to be merciful
to sinners like you and me. And then peace. Paul says, may
you not just have peace, you got peace with God, but may you
enjoy that peace in your heart every day because Christ has
put away your sin. I'm telling you this. True peace
can only be found and only be enjoyed when your sins been put
away. That's true. You cannot have
peace when you've got a guilty conscience. And the only way
that our conscience can be soothed is by the blood of Christ being
applied. When your sin is put away in
the blood, covered, propitiated in the blood of Christ, the guilt's
gone and you can have peace. And you can't have any peace
without grace and mercy. God the Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. So Paul says, may you enjoy grace,
mercy and peace. All right. Lord bless you.