I invite you this morning to
turn with me to Titus chapter 1. Titus is one of several epistles
that are called pastorial epistles. Within their contents are the
design, qualifications, manners, and message of the ministers
of Christ which are sent to preach to His people. We're not left
to aborted deacons. We're not left to a vote of the
church or a church covenant as to the regulations of the pastor
or who is or who is not a pastor. God's taken care of that for
us in His Word. He's taken care of all those
things. But this morning I want to look
at another doctrine. That's not the full content of
the pastoral epistles. There's other doctrines contained
in them. And this morning I want to look
at another doctrine which Paul uses to open his epistle to Titus,
and that is the faith of God's elect. The faith of God's elect. There are many kinds of faith
in the world. All kinds of faith in the world. Don't ever think when a man tells
you, I have faith, or I'm a believer, that that means anything. It
doesn't mean anything until you understand who he is, and what
he's doing, and what it is he believes. There's all kinds of
faith in the world. But there's only one faith pertaining
to the salvation of God's elect. In Ephesians chapter 4 and verse
5, He tells us that there's one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. And this is
the teaching of the Holy Spirit, which we're told is one spirit,
not three or four or five or different. Some spirit which
is different in his character and different in his works than
others. This is the teaching of the one Holy Spirit, which
we're told is one Spirit. And He testifies through men
in this world to other men. One Spirit teaches one calling
and one hope of that calling and teaches us about the one
Lord Jesus Christ. The one faith of God's elect
and the one baptism which is commanded of our Lord to be submitted
to and administered by His preachers. The Jews had faith, all kinds
of faith in the world. The Jews had faith, but their
faith was not the faith of God's elect. It was a faith in a blood
covenant given to their father Abraham. It was faith in a system
of religious works and of self-righteousness. And Paul said, I bear witness
they have a zeal of God. He didn't say they had the faith
of God, but they had the zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge, because they were ignorantly going about to establish
their own righteousness. The Gentiles had faith, but it
was an idolatrous faith, a faith in the gods of their imaginations.
They carved out gods out of wood and took them to artisans who
overlaid them with gold and silver and precious stones and set them
up inside these elaborate cathedrals and journeyed from everywhere
to come and worship those gods. And all men have a faith in something
they hold to be right and good and worthy to be kept. All men
do. There's all kinds of faith in
the world, all kinds of faith. But these are not what Paul here
describes as the faith of God's elect. Now, there's four things
that Paul gives us in these first three verses of Titus which outline
the faith of God's elect. Do you want to know this morning
if you have the faith of God's elect? Here it is. He gives us
four things that outline this particular faith. The first thing Paul tells us
about the faith of God's elect is that it acknowledges the truth,
which is after godliness. Godliness is a rather broad subject,
so I'll just hold my comments to two things concerning godliness. First of all, godliness has to
do with the character of God. the character of God as it was
manifested in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Turn back
six or eight pages, if you will, to 1 Timothy chapter 3. Since this is what Paul's writing
about, being manifested in his word through preaching, I believe
this to be the main content of the verse We're considering here
1 Timothy 3.16. We're talking about godliness.
This gospel is acknowledged by its recipients. It's acknowledged
and it's after godliness. So what is this godliness? What's he talking about? Well,
here it is, 1 Timothy 3.16. And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Huh? Those who know and believe the
gospel understand this. They receive, they acknowledge
this. This message has everything to do with the glory of God and
His glory is who He is. It has to do with His character.
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit. He received
the Spirit of God without measure. It was given to him. The Spirit
descended on him at his baptism, declaring him to be the Son of
God. John the Baptist didn't know who he was, but he saw him
coming down that path and he saw that heavenly dove descending
on his head. He said, behold the Lamb. Not a lamb, the Lamb. The miracles performed by him
were performed in the power of the Spirit, testifying that he
was the Messiah, and his holy nature, which did no sin. Which
of you convinces me of sin, he said? Or maybe even in relation with
his resurrection, which testified of God's full satisfaction of
him. He was justified in the Spirit. He was manifest in the
flesh. Justified in the spirit, seen
of angels, elect angels who accompanied Him at His birth and attended
Him all through His humanity and carried Him back into glory
on the cloud. Preached unto the Gentiles. Oh,
my soul, if you've ever listened to any history of the Romans
and Greeks and those Gentile nations, how wicked and how ungodly
they were in their practices. Adultery was just commonplace.
It was just commonplace. All of these things that used
to make men shiver in this country, now it's getting to be commonplace
in this country. These nations were guilty that
they worshipped frogs and snakes and lice and flies and you name
it, they worshipped. Who but the incarnate God could
preach a gospel and it be believed by the Gentiles? Huh? And he was believed on in the
world. Oh, my soul, I tell you, if you
know anything at all about the depravity of the flesh, this
is a miracle of miracles right here that any man should believe. Any man should believe. How do I know Jesus of Nazareth
is God come into the flesh? Because only a Messiah and His
resurrection could be followed by the faith of God's elect.
Only a victorious. You see, the ascended Savior,
the ascended Savior, He gave the means of preaching. And He
sent the Spirit, which makes faith effectual. By grace are
you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It's the gift
of God. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. And let me tell you something.
I'm not ignorant of this. I was raised in religion. I know what
men boast of. They boast about their decisions
and their free will. That's what they boast about.
I remember the time and the place. And they'll go on and on and
on with all these testimonies. How different is the Apostle
Paul when he begins to teach about faith? By grace are you
saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift
of God, not of work, lest any man should boast. And then it says this about godliness. He was received into glory. How
do I know that true godliness was manifested in Jesus Christ?
because God raised him from the dead and received him into glory
and said, sit right here in my right hand. Oh, my soul. You see what? This is godliness.
You want to know something about godliness? This is godliness.
Godliness is a mystery to this world. They talk about giving
being godliness. That's not godliness. Godliness
is god-likeness. And there was only one who had
the likeness of God, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. So
this is the first thing that he's telling us, that the faith
of God's elect acknowledges that this gospel is after godliness. It has everything to do with
the true character of God, His holiness, His justice, His mercy,
His grace, His righteousness, all of these things. And then
secondly, There is a godliness manifested in the lives and manners
of all gods alike. It's by no means equal to that
which was manifested in Christ, nor is it in competition with
that which our Lord manifested. It's simply the desire of His
children to be like Him. They want to be like Him. And
He calls this desire godliness. Godliness. They want to imitate
their beloved Savior in their lives. They want to walk as He
walked. They know they can't. But it's their desire to. John said, Beloved, he said,
now are we the sons of God. Right now. But look at me. He said, it doth not yet appear
what we shall be. You can't tell what I'm going
to be by talking to me and listening to me and watching me. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know this, when He shall appear, we'll be like
Him. We'll be like Him, for we'll
see Him as He is. Now watch this. And every man
that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
1 John 3, verses 2 and 3. Both of these understandings
of godliness are perceived and acknowledged by the faith of
God's elect, but especially here I believe he's talking about
that godliness manifested in the person of Christ. The gospel
is the way God saves sinners without compromising his character. If you believe a gospel and in
some way that gospel compromises the justice of God, or the righteousness
of God, then that gospel does not acknowledge the godliness
of Christ. You see what I'm saying? He said it is the truth which
is after or joined together with godliness. God pardons sin, I
want you to listen to me, by satisfying His justice. That's
the only way He can pardon. He doesn't take an eraser and
here's all these sins up here, slash, slash, slash, sin, he
stole Farmer John's watermelon when he was six and on and on
it goes. And then God just takes this big eraser and erases it.
That's not how God forgives sin. God forgives sin by punishing
that sin to the full satisfaction of His justice. And you can't
do it. Those in hell will never do it. That's why it's everlasting punishment. It will never satisfy the infinite
justice of God. But Christ did. Christ did. He wasn't the only one who died
on the cross. Three of them died on the cross
that day. But His death on that cross satisfied the justice of
God because of who died. Who died? God pardoned sins by satisfying
his justice. We're justified, he tells us
in Romans 3, 24, freely by his grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
for our sins through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness
in the remission of sins. He declared that in the Old Testament
by those typical sacrifices of the lamb which pointed... And
those Old Testament saints looked at it and they saw the coming
Redeemer, saw Him, what He was doing and why He was doing it,
and they received Him. That's what the Scripture is
telling us. And He says the same thing today through the Gospel.
And He says it to show us the righteousness of God in the remission
of sins that God may be just and the justifier of them which
believeth on Jesus. So the faith of God's elect is
the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness, after
the character of God which is manifested in our Savior in His
accomplished redemption on the cross. All right, the second
thing I know in these verses about the faith of God's elect
that it leaves us in hope of eternal life. All God's people
have a hope of eternal life. Turn with me to John chapter
17. You say, now wait a minute, preacher.
All faith has hope in eternal life. Does it? Does it? They have hope in everlasting
life. They have hope in a life hereafter.
They don't have hope of eternal life. Only God could let them
have hope of eternal life. What is eternal life? Well, listen
to this, John 17, verse 1. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Thy Son that Thy Son
also may glorify Thee. as Thou hast given Him power
over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many
as Thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent." You mean eternal life is to know God? That's exactly
what it is. That's exactly what it is. Our
Lord told those Jews, He knew they were religious. He knew
all about their zeal. He knew everything about them. He needed not that anybody testify
to Him about man. He knew exactly what man was,
and He knew what they were. He knew what their religion was.
And He said, you neither know Me nor My Father. You don't have
eternal life. That's what He's telling them.
You know neither Me nor My Father. What does faith see when it sees
the Son in His redemptive work? In 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6,
he said, For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God. What glory? The glory of His
character. The glory of His justice. The
glory of His grace. The glory of His love. The glory
of His mercy. the glory of His righteousness.
He shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The condescension
of Christ into this world, His life, His death and resurrection,
they all manifest and all magnify every attribute of God. You won't
find a single thing in His life, in His person, in His coming,
in the Father sending Him, in His accomplishments, and in His
present reign and glory that compromise the character of God.
You won't find it. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
5. God's power, His wisdom, His
justice, His righteousness, His wrath, His kindness, mercifulness,
gracious, long-suffering, goodness, and truth. Now watch this here
in 1 John chapter 5. How can I know these things?
You can know these things in Christ. In Christ. 1 John 5 verse 20, And we know
that the Son of God hath come, and hath given to us an understanding
that we might know Him that is true, and we are in Him that
is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and eternal life." How does one know if they have eternal life?
They acknowledge the truth, which is after God's glory manifested
in Christ. And in embracing Him, they have
hope of eternal life. I have hope that I know God.
Because no man knoweth the Son save the Father, neither knoweth
any man the Father save the Son, and He to whom the Son will reveal
Him. I have confidence in my understanding
about who God is, about His attributes, about His purpose, about all
things. Because I've learned them in
Christ. I've learned them in Christ. Believers seek to know their
God not as enemies, but as sons. As He is our Father, and the
Father of all glory, and the Father of all mercies, and the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We seek to know Him. And I'm going to tell you something.
On that day, When these men come, and I don't know if they'll actually
come or if this was just given as an example of man's own belief,
but he said at the judgment, he said some of them were going
to come and they were going to say, now wait a minute, wait
a minute. Have not we done many wonderful works in thy name?
Have not we cast out demons in thy name? Have not we done all
of these things in your name? He said, depart from me, you
workers of iniquity. You never did any good thing.
That ain't what he said. He said, I never knew you. I
never knew you. Eternal life is to know God. And the only way you can know
God is in Jesus Christ. Does that make sense? Now, he
said, this is what the faith of God's elect is. It acknowledges
the glorious character of God. And it has hope of eternal life. Actually, if you go over here,
I'm going to get away from my notes here for just a second,
and I know I'll be sorry for that. Over here in the book of
Ephesians, he says here that we're to the
praise of His glory. Those who have received this
adoption by Christ through the gospel, we're to the praise of
His glory who first trusted in Christ, talking about the Father.
In whom ye also trusted, verse 13, after that you heard the
word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also
after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the
redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory.
That is that knowledge, that knowledge of God and our confidence
in him as God our Savior. That's what he's talking about
here. The Holy Spirit sealed us with that. And we have that. We have that. And we'll never
lose that. If I lose that, I've lost all
hope. Because this is the hope. This
is the hope. Believers seek to know their
God and to see His glory. Isn't that what Moses said? He
said, if I found favor in your sight, show me your glory. Show
me your glory. And the Lord said, there's a
place by me. Isn't that where Christ is? And He set Him on a rock. And He said, I'll pass by before
you, and I'll show you my glory. I'll be merciful to whom I will
be merciful. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. That's His glory. That's His
glory. All right, here's the next thing.
Thirdly, the faith of God's elect believes God. Believes God. It takes the Word of God over
what learned men call established truth. Believes God. Say, I believe God created the
world. Wait till you get a little older and go to college. Well, you get down there, and
they start throwing down the facts of this, that, and the
next thing. They'll have you tangled up. You don't know what
you believe. But you can't take it away from
faith. It believes God. God said he spoke, and it was
done. He commanded, and it stood fast.
It said in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Faith lays hold of that. And all the learned men in the
world can come along and contradict it. It won't make one ounce of
difference to the believer. The faith of God's elect believes
God. It believes God. You know, for
centuries this world, and especially those who sailed off in these
little sailing vessels, they went out there on the sea believing
the world was flat because some learned men Well-respected scientists
of their day and philosophers said the world's flat. And you
be careful when you get out there in that boat. You'll go right
off the edge. So you can go out here in the
yard and look up and the moon's round, isn't it? Every planet
that you can see with your naked eyes round. But the world's flat
because some idiot with a pointed hat said it was. Huh? Faith takes God at His word. It believes God. Learned men. Learned men say
that there was a collision of the suns and the heavens and
the earth was formed by the residue. And then over time, as they begin
to accumulate and form a mass, The gravity began to call in
things from outer space and particles of water. And pretty soon, there
were seas. And in those seas, in that salt
water, a tiny paramecium came into being and crawled out on
the bank. And then a million years later, it was a man. Learned
men say that. God said he created man in his
own image. He took some clay in his hand
and spit in it and formed a man. Before you get thinking of yourself
too highly, you remember this. You ain't nothing but God's spit
in a bunch of clay. That's all you are. That's all
I am. He's God. And he can take that
clay and that spittle, and he can make a slop jar, or he can
make a vessel of mercy for a fool prepared unto glory. He's God. He's God, and we believe God. These same learned men now tell
us that we can save ourselves by our intellect and by our self-will
and by our discipline. They say man's not really as
bad as preacher's been making him out to be. He's not really
that bad. Think about it. You ain't that
bad. Are you? Huh? You've never had a thought
or a conception of how evil you really are. You never have. The faith of God's elect believes
God. Paul said, let God be true and ever manlier. Huh? God said man is totally depraved,
sinful from the sole of his foot even unto the top of his head.
He said there is no soundness in him. God said he comes forth
from the womb speaking lies. God says there is none righteous,
no, not one. He says that all their so-called
righteousnesses are as filthy rags, an abomination before Him. God says there's none that seek
Him, none that understand Him, and none good, no, not one. That's
what God says. God says we're all by nature
children of wrath. God says our minds are enmity
against God. God says that man drinks iniquity
like water. God says man at his best state. It's altogether vanity. What
does your faith say? Huh? Now, I'm telling you, the
faith of God's elect agrees with God. Might not understand it,
might not feel it, but they believe God. He said, out of the heart
proceed adulteries, fornications, evil thoughts, huh? All these
things come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. What's
your faith say? I tell you, the faith of God's
elect says, I believe God. And they act on it. Act on it. They quit trying to reform that
old flesh. They quit trying to look to that
old flesh for salvation, and they look to Him. God said there's only one way
of salvation, and Christ is the way. What's your faith say? Your
faith say, well, I believe Christ is the Savior, but it has to
be mixed with my faith. It has to be mixed with my good
works. It has to be mixed with my good
intentions. It has to be okayed by my will. That's not what God
says. God says Christ is the way. God
says the suffering and death of His Son was sufficient to
put away my sin. I believe God. That's it. I don't understand it. I don't
understand how somebody as wicked and vile as he testified that
I was could be justified and righteous and holy in Christ.
I don't understand it. I just believe God. I'm getting tired of these theological
intellectuals standing up and trying to explain away all these
things of God. You don't understand how He does
these things. You're not God. He said, who
was my counselor? Who told me these things? I'm
God. I'm God. And God says, I've given to you
eternal life. And this life is in my Son. And he that hath the Son hath
life. And he that hath not the Son of God, whatever else he
has, he hath not. God said Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He's
my righteousness. I don't have any. I don't have
any. Oh, Paul said that I might be
found in Christ. We're talking about a man who
wrote the majority of the New Testament, the Apostle Paul. And this was his prayer at the
end of his life. He said, oh, that I might win
Christ and be found in Him. Now listen, not having my own
righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ, the righteousness
of God. Christ is in the law for righteousness.
That's what God said. What's your faith say? God said He chose us from the
beginning to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth. Isn't that what Paul is saying
here in these first verses? Hath in due times manifested
His Word through preaching. Through preaching. Do you believe
that? What God said. Faith believes God. It rests
in His testimony and in His faithfulness. We have hope of eternal life
with God that cannot lie, promised before the world began. And my
friend, the scripture says in Hebrews 6, 13, that when God
made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater,
he swore by himself, saying, surely blessing I'll bless thee. You mean to tell every promise
of God in Christ. is backed up by the name of God. By the name of God. He puts His
whole name, His whole glory on the line behind every promise. And I tell you this, if there
was ever a time when true faith could be conquered and done away
with, God would be the greater loser. He'd be a much greater
loser than you. He'd cease to be God. Do you
understand what I'm saying? This is what the faith of God's
elect, it believes God, God who cannot lie. He cannot lie. He puts his glory, the glory
of his own name on the line in all that he promises to chosen
sinners. And then I know this, the faith
of God's elect believes God and then fourthly and finally the
faith of God's elect is manifested through the preaching of the
gospel according to the commandment of God our Savior. Now that's
what Christ said. My friend, we live in a day when
men make all their own decisions, and they make these decisions
based on what they feel, on emotional experiences, dreams, circumstances,
experiences, and instructions given to them by men who don't
know God. Preaching is how God our Savior
has commanded that the faith of God's elect be established.
And then somebody will come back and tell me this. I always hear
this every time I make that statement. This third verse has to do only
with the apostles and the finishing of the New Testament. After that,
there's no more need of it. If that's so, why are the next
words out of Paul's mouth the tightest to instruct him to ordain
elders in every city? every city where God's people
are gathered to worship. Why would the ascended Christ
give evangelists and pastors to His church if He didn't intend
to use them? I know there were days when God
spoke to men in dreams and visions, and I know there were days when
He spoke to men through the prophets. But that was then and this is
now. Listen to this. I'm going to read it to you again
here in Titus. God hath in due times, in that time before ordained
by Him, in due times manifested His Word through preaching. And
Paul said, it was committed unto me according to the commandment
of God our Savior. I don't know if you know this.
You're here this morning. Some of you I know, and some
of you I don't. So I want to say this. God commands his gospel
to be preached. It's not a suggestion that the
church go out and preach. It's the commandment of God.
We don't sit around here on a Wednesday night business meeting and say,
well, you know, how many here think we ought to preach the
gospel? We're commanded to preach. There's
no other reason for a believer to be in this world except the
preaching of the gospel. I'm not getting any more righteous.
I'm not getting any more holy. I'm as saved as I'm ever going
to get in this world. So why am I still here? Why don't
He just take me into glory? Does He leave me here just to
suffer so He can laugh at me a little bit? Does He leave me
here to suffer because His blood wasn't sufficient to put on me?
Why am I still here? One reason, preach his gospel,
gather in his elect. And he commands me to do it.
Paul said, woe be unto me if I preach not the gospel. We're
commanded to do it. He commands his gospel to be
preached and I want you to hear me now. He commands that man's
hearers to believe. It's not a suggestion and it's
not an invitation. I'm just so sick of hearing that
word, I can't understand it. It's not an invitation. It's
a divine ultimatum. That's what it is. It's not believe if you want
to. It's believe or suffer the consequences. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. Isn't that what the Scripture says? It's a divine ultimatum. It's a commandment. Well, I believe
when I get good and ready. You never will. You never will. I took this excerpt from an article
Brother Don wrote in this week's bulletin. He said, you cannot
disobey an invitation. You can turn one down, but you
can't disobey it. But a command is altogether different. If you refuse to obey God's command,
if you refuse to repent and believe, God will judge you as a disobedient
rebel. That's just so. He that believeth
not shall be damned. Our Lord said to the 70, He sent
them forth to preach in His name into the cities where He Himself
would go. I'm going to tell you this and
then I'll close. Here's what he told them. He said, whosoever
shall not receive you nor hear your words, listen to this, when
you depart out of that house or out of that city, you shake
off the dust from your feet. Verily I say unto you, it shall
be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the
day of judgment than for that house or that city. Does that
sound like an invitation? Sound more like a command to
me. You say, well, you know, who's this man think he is? He
don't think he's anybody. But I tell you, you don't have
to be anybody if God sends you. That's enough. That's enough. You know, we look at these ambassadors
our country sends into these various nations around. There
ain't nobody until that Signature goes on
there that they're ambassadors of the United States. That makes
a difference. That makes a difference. And
we're ambassadors for Christ as though God didn't beseech
you, be you reconciled to God. He is ambassador. And the way
you treat an ambassador is the way you treat him who sent him.
Believe. Believe. You don't have to have
perfect faith. You don't have to be a theologian.
But with whatever faith and knowledge you have, you're commanded to
believe. And if you believe, and if you
profess these things, the next commandment is to be baptized.
And that's not a suggestion either. That's a commandment. That's
a commandment. May God help you to see in His
Word the difference between the faith of this world and the faith
of God's elect.