Titus chapter 3 and verse 8. 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. but avoid foolish questions and
genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law, for
they are unprofitable and vain. 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. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading, short as it is. The Apostle Paul has been writing
to Titus. We've been thinking about this
lovely little letter now for a number of weeks together. And
he has been writing to Titus with a particular purpose that
he should establish the churches and set in order the things that
were lacking in the churches in Crete. And it's been a task which the
apostle was happy to leave in the hands of Titus, but he has
blessed the whole church by providing Titus, as it were, With these
words of advice, I wouldn't perhaps go so far as to say it was a
blueprint, but it certainly shows the care and the attention that
the Apostle was putting into this matter of the order and
organisation of the churches of Jesus Christ. and the apostle
has referred to a number of different subjects but last week we were
thinking about how he had just reminded Titus of what is arguably
the greatest truth ever revealed to sinners and that is that we
are justified by his grace and justification by grace and what
has gone before, especially in this chapter, but probably we
could enlarge it to the whole of this letter, but expressly
what's gone before in this chapter is what the Apostle is referring
to when he begins verse eight by saying, this is a faithful
saying. The Apostle Paul is speaking
about this justification by grace or justified by his grace And
not, he's not referring to what he goes on to speak about in
this verse, about being careful to do good works. That comes
after. He's making a point about what
he has just said. We'll come back to that a little
bit later on. But I want to stress this fact
about what he is saying is a faithful saying. To be justified by His
grace is an amazing truth that has been revealed to us in the
Gospel. And perhaps there are not four
finer words ever heard by mortal men and women than these four
words, justified by His grace. I do not think that we could
better explain the Gospel or summarise its message if we had
a whole lifetime to try. And this is the beauty of inspiration. These are the Holy Spirit's words
laid upon the heart of the Apostle, as it were sent even to his very
pen, that God himself reveals to sinners that we are justified
by his grace. And we have seen in what we've
been thinking about in the last few weeks, how that those who
are justified by His grace are made heirs according to the hope
of eternal life. So that you and I, brothers and
sisters in the Lord, have this firm, lively, confident hope
of eternal everlasting life because we are justified before God. I say eternal and everlasting
because I don't really think of these words as being synonymous,
although maybe they are. But I tend to think of eternal
as the quality of the life that we will have, and everlasting
as to its duration, be that as it may. What we're being told
here is that we are justified. And to be justified means that
we are made righteous. righteous with the righteousness
of God himself, spotless in our spirit, perfect, whole, complete
in the sight of the all-holy, all-pure, all-knowing God, and
heirs of eternal life in those heavenly mansions that the Lord
Jesus Christ has been preparing for us for the past 2,000 years. It may sound amazing to time-bound,
earth-bound, flesh-bound sinners like us that such a blessing
exists in this world, that we are justified by His grace, that
such a blessing exists in this world. And yet it is true, and
it can be possessed by faith. and it is sure and it is a comforting
hope to all believers. It is, in essence, the Gospel. It is the pearl in the field,
it's the hidden treasure that once found is the most precious
promise and blessed hope to be possessed in this life. And we're
further reminded here by the Apostle of how our possession
of this gift of righteousness by grace flows from divine quickening
and holy spirit regeneration because that's what the apostle
has been speaking about in verse 5. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy ghost and so It is
this that the Apostle has in view. This is the heart of sovereign
grace teaching. because it speaks of the cleansing
from sin by the blood of Christ, it speaks of regeneration and
renewal by the Holy Spirit, it speaks of the purpose of God
in sending Christ into the world to save his church and all the
covenant purposes that are accomplished by the Saviour. It is the fulfilment
of divine election. It is the securing of our hope
of eternal life. It is the end and object of our
predestination by God. And there's no doubt but that
this is Paul's gospel. There's no doubt this is the
gospel that he committed into the hands and the care of Titus
to be preached on Crete. It was the gospel of free and
sovereign grace. And that's the message that the
apostle is speaking about when he says that it's a faithful
saying to be constantly affirmed. a faithful saying to be constantly
affirmed. And that's our reason. That's
our defence, if you like, against those who accuse us of only having
one message. I've heard that said about us.
Oh, you just keep saying the same thing over and over and
over again. Well, yeah, because it's a faithful
saying to be constantly affirmed. When our message is as great
and glorious as the one we have, why would we want to seek something
else? This is the message, says the
Apostle, that is to be affirmed constantly. It is to be reinforced. It is to be upheld amongst the
people. And I want to just make a point
there, I hope you don't think I'm overstressing this point,
but I think it's important. I know a lot of people who have
church statements of faith that can undisputably be termed reformed
or even sovereign grace confessions or affirmations. And yet, from
the pulpits, those doctrines are rarely, if ever, heard in
those churches. And that won't do. Paul is saying
that he, as an apostle, a man, an apostle of authority in the
church of Jesus Christ, will have this doctrine affirmed constantly. And if we are to be faithful
to the New Testament apostolic teaching, then we must affirm
the doctrines of sovereign grace constantly. It's unacceptable
to say, oh, these things are in our church confession and
we don't need to repeat them. We just take them as read. We
just take them as believed. That won't do. Paul would have
Titus affirm the Gospel of Sovereign Grace because it is this message
that inspires and motivates all who believe in God. And I say
there believing in God in the sense of there has been a work
of regeneration and quickening in their spirit. It is this message
that enables them and encourages them and inspires and motivates
them to be careful to maintain good works, which are the fruits
and effects by the divine influence which result from this renewal
by the Holy Ghost. Good works are the fruit of grace,
not the cause of grace. Paul says elsewhere, Ephesians,
for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus, that's the initiative,
that's the first work, that's the motivation created in Christ
Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we
should walk in them. And that doctrine of grace, this
truth that Paul commends to Titus, is what is to be affirmed constantly
because it is a faithful saying and it is good and profitable
unto men. The gospel, not the fruit of
the gospel in a way of good works, but the gospel itself is what
is inherently good and profitable to men and women. It is the good
news and it brings to light the power of God in salvation. And
all the discipline of all the church officers in government
and all the moralising in the world will never make a black
heart clean or heal a sick soul. But the gospel is good for our
sins and profitable to our souls. And again, I admire the way the
Apostle emphasises the Gospel and not the Law for being good
and profitable for our life and witness before the men and women
of this world. The Apostle knew what the Law
would produce. He'd been there, he'd done that.
He much preferred what the Gospel produces in the lives of believing
men and women. He tells Titus, avoid foolish
questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about
the law. The Apostle had had his fill
of that. He was a student in Judaism. He was a Pharisee. He'd lightly
debated with the very best and he'd found it to be unprofitable
and vain because all it did was fostered contention and pride. And we have Christian equivalents
to this day. Paul was aware of it in Crete
and we find the same things today. There are people who love to
show off their vast Bible knowledge and to dominate others with foolish
questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about
the law. And it's sometimes amusing to
hear such people defend their pet ideas and justify their opinions,
telling us what we can do and what we can't do, what we should
wear and what we shouldn't wear, what we should eat and drink
and when we should do it and when we shouldn't. John Gill's
got an interesting little sentence about these vanities that are
unprofitable. He says, these unprofitable and
vain things are empty things of no manner of use to inform
judgment, improve the mind, or influence the life and conversation
of the Lord's people. And I think that's a good summary. The Apostle ends this little
passage by speaking about a heretic. A heretic is someone who invents
or concocts or persists in their own ideas of what the truth is,
to the opposition of what the Scriptures teach. Or else it
could be someone who denies what the Bible teaches, and usually
does the one or the other, or maybe both, publicly with an
intention of drawing off followers after themselves or convincing
others of their own ideas. And Paul tells Titus that such
a person is to be rejected and put out of church fellowship.
Now, it may be that Paul knew that there were certain individuals
in Crete who would contend with Titus, he being the younger man,
he being, as it were, the deputy, thinking, well, Paul's not here,
we'll have our own way with Titus. But Titus is advised not to engage
with their heresies, not even to argue with them. but to dismiss
and publicly reject them as being troublers of the brethren and
of no value for the well-being of the body of the church. And
after two rejections, two repudiations, they were to be put out to admonitions. And I think we should note something
here which is important. Paul's not talking about an open
sin here or open immorality. This kind of sin was spoken about
at other times in this little letter and in other letters,
sins of immorality, we could talk about them again, but that's
not what Paul's referring to here. He's speaking about doctrinal
matters. people who deny the gospel that
he has just been speaking about, people who deny the essence of
this faithful saying that has to be affirmed constantly. And
that is why it is an important and serious matter to be a minister
to the souls of men and women. Such a heretic is himself subverted
and sins in their doctrine. If you're not preaching the truth,
it is an extremely serious matter. Let me just give you a quick
example. Anyone who preaches a gospel
of free will or links man's own works and efforts with the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ are treading underfoot the blood
of Christ. They are subverting the gospel
because they inherently deny the efficacy of the blood of
Christ. They deny the only power that
can save by taking from it its uniqueness or adding to it man's
merit. And their very doctrine condemns
them. Maybe not in the eyes of the
world. Perhaps free will works religion makes perfect sense
to the men and women of the world. But whether they believe it or
not, whether the world believes it or not, in the sight of God,
it is damnable heresy. And that's what a heretic preaches. Once again, we see how the apostle
carefully emphasises the primacy of the gospel, the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the blessedness of salvation, and the true fountainhead
of good works in a believer's life. He shows us the primacy
of the gospel and for that reason we are grateful for this letter
that the apostle wrote to his friend Titus. May the Lord bless
these thoughts to us today. Amen.