the acknowledging or the acknowledgement
of the truth. I'm asking myself this question,
have I acknowledged, embraced, discerned, loved the truth? Quite a question, isn't it? What
do I know about the acknowledgement of the truth. Verse 1, Titus 1, Paul, a servant
of God, a slave of God, a willing bond slave of God, and an apostle
of Jesus Christ. Now there were only 12 apostles.
They were men who God taught them the gospel directly. and taught the gospel. He took
Judas' place. As I said last week, when someone
claims to be an apostle, they're a liar. There are only 12 apostles. Paul, a servant of God, and I
love the order he puts it in. First, a servant of God. then
an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle means the
sent one, the messenger, the one with God's message, and that
message has something to do with the declaration of the faith
of God's elect, which is according to godliness. I'm going to preach
a message next Wednesday, Lord willing, on godliness. That's
the subject. But this is the, according to
the faith of God's elect, the acknowledging of the truth, which
is after, which is always with godliness. Where there's godliness,
where there's true godliness, there's the acknowledgement of
the truth. Where there is the acknowledgement
of the truth, there is godliness, devotion, reverence, the fear
of God. Piety is the Latin word toward
God. I love that scripture and I know
you do too. Great is the mystery of godliness. It is great, isn't it? God was
manifest in the flesh. How great is that? He was justified
in the Spirit. God the Holy Spirit bore witness
to the justifying of everything he did for this great work of
justification. That's the message of the gospel.
Scene of angels. I love to think about this. Angels. They're so uninterested in much
of what goes on in this world. It's not important to them. They're
not going to even be watching. But I know what angels watch
nonstop every second of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm
sure they were wondering, what's he doing here? Why did he become
flesh? And I'm sure they were ready
to smite at every moment when they saw the Lord Jesus mistreated,
just waiting for the Lord to give them some direction to do
something about it. Don't you love when the Lord
prayed? Don't you know that if I ask
the Father, he'll send 12 legions of angels and wipe this place
out, if that's what I want to do. He was seen of angels. He was preached unto the Gentiles.
That's me and you. Is that great? To be able to
hear, to be allowed, to be privileged to hear the gospel of God. He
was believed on in the world. Oh, what a great mystery that
I believe, that anybody believes. Everybody ought to believe. If you do believe, you're a part
of this great mystery. received up into glory, having
accomplished everything he set out to do, and he's received
back into glory. Great is the mystery of godliness. Wherever there is godliness,
it comes from this great mystery of godliness. That's where godliness
comes from. And it's seen in the acknowledging
the discernment, the embracing of the truth. And I love this
term, the faith of God's elect. Election is God's sovereign choice
of his people before time began. I love election because I love
the God of election. The God who elects, the God who
is God, the God who exercises absolute sovereign control. Somebody doesn't believe in election. They just refuse to bow to the
authority of the word. Because the Word, there's no
excuse. The Word clearly teaches the
glorious truth of God's electing mercy. For the children being
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God, according to election, might stand. What is
God's purpose? Salvation might not be of works.
I love that, don't you? But of him that calleth. The faith of God's elect. If somebody doesn't believe in
pre-election, they don't really believe salvation by grace. You
can't believe in grace and not believe in election. Paul even
called it the election of grace in Romans chapter 11 verse 5.
Now, you'll notice the faith of God's elect. All of God's elect have faith. That is the evidence of them
being elect. They believe the gospel. And this faith is the gift of
God. By grace are you saved through faith, and by not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And this faith of God's elect
is expressed by these words, the acknowledging of the truth. the evidence of godliness. Have I ever acknowledged the
truth? Now, there are eight different
words in the New Testament that are translated knowledge. This particular word is found
twenty times in the New Testament. And it always has reference,
always has reference to the knowledge of God. You know, there's a lot
of knowledge that's pointless, useless, doesn't do anybody any
good. Not this knowledge. This knowledge
is the knowledge of God. Now I'm giving you the meaning
I got from the Greek dictionary. It means precise and correct
knowledge. recognition and discernment of
the truth. That's what the word means. Precise. I like that word. You got to
be precise. Yeah. Yeah, you do. Oh, you're
being too precise. You can't be too precise. Precise. Correct. Knowledge. of the truth, recognition of
the truth, discernment of the truth. You know, this is something
that only the elect have. I think about that. Only the
elect have this discernment, this knowledge. As soon as they
hear the truth, they know it. So. Turn back to Romans 10 for just
a moment. Verse one, brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. Now there are two things that
stand out in that verse. One, these people were not saved. Two, Paul greatly desired that
they be saved. He didn't have some hard-hearted
attitude toward these people. He said, my heart's desire, my
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. May the Lord put that in my heart
and your heart. A recognition that somebody that
doesn't believe the gospel, they're not saved and I'm not going to
call them saved. but a desire for their salvation based upon
a love for God and a love for them. And look what he says next
in verse two. I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God. They're zealous, they're religious,
they're very active. They believe the Bible is the
Word of God, they'll say. They stand for things in the
Scripture. They have a zeal for God, the God of the Bible, but
not according to, and here's this word, knowledge. This acknowledging
of the truth, same word. Four, they being ignorant of
God's righteousness, this is the knowledge they do not have,
They being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about
to establish their own righteousness. Lord, you got to save me. I've
done this. I've done that. I've performed this work. I've
stopped doing that. I've worked out a righteousness
that obligates you to save me. I ought to have it. They're ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish their own righteousness. You
see, if you have any understanding of God's righteousness, you know,
you don't have any. Now that's so important. You ever see his
righteousness, you'll know dead sure you have none. They've not
submitted themselves under the righteousness of God. Now that's
the righteousness of God in their damnation. Would God be just
and right if he sent you to hell? And they're having submitted
themselves to his righteousness and their salvation being saved
by his righteousness. For here is saving knowledge
for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. Now that's the knowledge he is
talking about. There's a recognition. There's
a perception. There's a discernment of the
truth. Christ said to Pilate, I came to bear witness to the
truth. Remember the acknowledgement
of the truth? The knowledge of the truth? I came to bear witness
to the truth. Does anybody remember what Pilate
said to him after that? What is truth? And he meant three things by
that. Is there such a thing? Is there such a thing as absolute
truth that anything contrary to it is an absolute lie? Is
there such a thing as truth? He meant, let's say there is
truth. Can we know it? Isn't it an act
of presumption to say I've got the truth? Isn't that proud?
Can we, can anybody really know the truth? Say the truth out
there. Can we know it? And I think this is what he meant
mainly. Truth. Is this what this is about? You're willing to die for the
truth? What is truth? Now, the answer
to those questions, yes, there is absolute truth. Yes, we can
know the truth. And yes, the truth is worth dying
for. The acknowledging of the truth. What is the truth? The truth
is a person. This is not so much Explained
as declared, Jesus Christ is the truth. I love saying that. John chapter 14, verse 6, the
Lord said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. We read in John 1 14, and we
beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. Now, wherever you have the truth,
what do you have? Grace. Wherever you have grace,
what do you have? The truth. And he's full of grace
and truth. And we read in John 1 17, the
law was given by Moses. Well, the Lord gave him that
law, didn't he? Moses didn't come up with it.
The Lord gave him that law. The law was given by Moses. Would
anyone say there's anything in the law that's not true? I sure
wouldn't. The law was given by Moses. I
love God's law. This is not to say anything derogatory
about the law, but hear what the Holy Spirit says. The law
was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. You see, the law is not the truth. It's true, but it's not the truth. The truth is the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth. And if all I give is half the
truth, what have I done? It's a lie. The law was given
by Moses, but the law does not set forth the entire character
of God. It doesn't tell us of His grace,
or His love, or His mercy, His way of saving sinners. The law
doesn't tell us that. We love God's law. Yet God the
Holy Spirit says the law was given by Moses but grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ. In John chapter 8 verse 32 we
read these words, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you
free not your knowledge of the truth None of us know the truth
as well as we ought to know it. Amen. Is there anything that
you understand as well as it ought to be? No. It's not our
knowledge of the truth that makes us free. It's the truth himself
who makes us free. The truth is a person. God the Father is called in Deuteronomy
32 for a God of truth. Without iniquity, just and right
is He. Psalm 33 verse 4 says, the Word
of the Lord is right and all His works are done in truth. The Spirit of God is called on
numerous occasions, the Spirit of truth. And what does the promise
with regard to Him for us state? He will guide you. Oh, don't
you want him to be your guide? He will guide you into all truth. Let's turn to John chapter 18
for a moment. John chapter 18, beginning in verse 28. Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas
into the hall of judgment and it was early and they themselves
went not into the judgment hall unless they should be defiled.
It's kind of ironic isn't it? They're getting ready to have
Christ crucified but they don't want to get defiled. They're
going to stay ceremonially okay but they're going to murder the
Son of God that they might eat the Passover. Pilate then went
on to them and said, What accusation bring ye against this man? They
answered and said unto him, If he were not a malfactor, we would
not have delivered him unto thee. Then said Pilate unto them, Take
ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore
said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death,
that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake
concerning what death he should die." The death of crucifixion. That's the way the Romans put
people to death, enemies of the state. Jews weren't allowed to
do that. Then Pilate entered into the
judgment hall again and called Jesus and said unto him, Art
thou the king of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou
this thing of thyself? Or did others tell it thee of
me? Pilate answered him, I do. Thine
own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me.
What hast thou done? Jesus answered, my kingdom is
not of this world. I hope you and I can remember
that. My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of
this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered
to the Jews, but now is my kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore
said unto him, you are a king then, or are thou a king then?
You're claiming to have a kingdom. Are you a king then? Jesus answered,
thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born. And for
this cause, I came into the world that I should bear witness unto
the truth. And that lets us know how important
truth is. This is why I came into the world,
to bear witness unto the truth. And the truth is always going
to have an audience. Everyone that is of the truth, heareth
my voice. Now, Jesus Christ, the God-man, The eternal son
of God nailed to a cross, having that cross lifted up and dropped
into the stand. And there he is. That's the truth. That is the truth concerning
the true character of God. Every attribute of God is displayed
in the crucifixion of His Son, Jesus Christ. His eternal purpose,
His absolute sovereignty, His holiness, His love, His power,
His wisdom to make a way to be just and justify the ungodly,
His power to execute it. His every attribute of God is
displayed in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, tells us the
truth concerning God, tells us the truth concerning me. The
only accurate assessment that I really have of myself is the
cross. Well, I've done some bad things,
not near as bad as killing the son of God. That's the problem. That's God's issue with you.
That's God's issue with me. We have hated his son so much
that we killed him. And you would have been right
there with him had you been there apart from his grace. That's
how bad you are. That's how bad I am, an actual
hatred of God that is manifest in what we did to his son. That's
how bad you and I are. You know, When we preach, I hope
we're not just trying to convince people to agree with us on doctrines.
We're talking about who God is, who man is. I see that. I'm gonna see the truth regarding
salvation. Turn with me for a moment to Colossians 1. Beginning in verse 20. And here's the truth with regard
to God's salvation. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things
into himself by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things
in heaven and you that were sometime or before time alienated and
enemies in your mind by wicked works. Yet now has he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death. And here's what that blood
accomplished to present you. holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight. That is what He accomplished
by the blood of the cross. Now, the cross is salvation. Now, the truth. Here's another
example of the way the word is used. I love it in Galatians
chapter 2. We read this phrase twice in
Galatians chapter 2. It would be a benefit to me and
you to go back and read it. We read of the truth of the gospel.
And there were two events that took place in Galatians chapter
2. First, Titus. That's who he's
writing to right now. I think that's kind of neat,
isn't it? This is the man he's writing
to. But Titus, some people wanted to circumcise him. They said,
he needs to be circumcised. And Paul refused to do it. He
said, we didn't give him a minute's thought that the truth of the
gospel might remain. You see, if he would have submitted
to circumcision, he would have been saying, Jesus Christ is
not at all. You're better off being circumcised.
And the other event is when Peter doesn't say anything. All Peter
does is move tables. He's eating with the Gentiles,
he's eating pork or chicken or whatever it was, maybe scallops
or shrimp. You couldn't eat that under the
law. And he was having a good time and then these fellas from
Jerusalem come who were Jews and who were Peter thinks, what
are they going to think about me being with these people? Without
saying a word, he gets up and moves tables and sits down with
the Jews and eats with them. And by that movement, without
saying a word, he's saying Jesus Christ is not all. It's better
for me to be at this table than that table. And Paul publicly
reprimanded, gave him a public reprimand. He said that the truth
of the gospel might remain. Did you know that there's no
such thing as trusting Christ without hearing and believing
the truth of the gospel? I want you to think about what
I just said. There is no such thing as trusting Christ, true
faith in Christ without hearing and believing the gospel. Now let's make good on that in
the scripture. Turn to Ephesians chapter one, because I don't
want to say these things without seeing that it is in fact what
the Bible teaches. Verse 13. Let's go back to verse 12, that
we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in
Christ. Who first trusted in Christ?
God the Father. He's the first one to trust his
son. You know, he trusted his son to save me. He gave me to
his son and trusted him completely to do everything in my salvation. Oh, how he trusted his son. We
trust the same one father does, don't we? But he's the one who
first trusted Jesus Christ. Verse 13, in whom you also trusted. After that, you heard the word
of the truth of the gospel of your salvation. You didn't trust. until you heard
the word of the truth of the gospel of your salvation. Now
here's what happens. When you hear the gospel, you
find out God saved you. That's what you find out. The
Lord saved me. You know, please don't say things
like, I got saved. The Lord saved me. That's just
wrong language. It's wrong language. The Lord
saved me. by His grace. When? When you
heard the word of the truth of the gospel of your salvation. Listen to this scripture. Thessalonians
2.13 says we're bound to thank God always for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through, don't miss this, through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. When God the Holy Spirit
gives you life, you know what you do? You believe the truth. What is the one evidence of God's
saving work in you? The belief of the truth. If you
really believe the truth, it's because you've been sanctified
by the Spirit of God. I love the way the Lord said
in John 17, 17, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word,
Now listen to this, this is found in John chapter 4 with regard
to the truth. There is no worship of the living
God apart from the truth. John chapter 17, God is Spirit,
that means He's other. He's not confined by place and
time. He's other. God is spirit. And they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth. Now, he who is spirit
must give me a spiritual nature, the work of God the Holy Spirit. And there is no worship of God
apart from being born of God, apart from being given a spiritual
nature, one that you didn't have until God gave it to you. Remember
when Adam fell, he died. Well, he didn't die physically,
he died spiritually though. And a lost man doesn't have a
spirit. He has a soul, he has a body, but he doesn't have a
spirit. When God saves somebody, they're birthed by the spirit.
And they have this spiritual nature. Well, what's the evidence?
The truth. Spirit and truth. There is no spiritual worship
apart from the truth. Listen to this scripture, James
118, of his own will. He us with the word of truth. God does not work independently
of the truth. He just doesn't do it. Why should
he? He's God. Well, he can't find anybody to preach it. Well,
that's ridiculous. He gives people the truth to
preach, and he gives people the grace to receive the truth, and
that's what worship is. They that worship Him must worship
Him in spirit and in truth. Salvation is described in 1 Timothy
2.4 like this, coming to the knowledge of the truth. A salvation coming to the knowledge
of the truth. And I'm not just talking about
Saying, yeah, I agree with that. I see the Bible teaches that.
This is coming to this knowledge, this saving knowledge that only
God's elect have, this discernment, this perception of the truth.
We've already read that faith is called the faith of God's
elect, the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness. Repentance is defined by Paul
like this. In 2 Timothy 2.25, If God's prevention
will grant them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth.
That's what repentance is. It's the acknowledgement of the
truth. You used to didn't believe. You do now. Why? Your mind's been changed. And
when your mind's been changed, you've changed your mind, haven't
you? You change your mind after your mind's been changed, yes?
I've changed my mind. I used to didn't believe, that's
why I do now. repentance, the acknowledgement of the truth. And there is no salvation apart
from, now listen to this, and this is just as important, there
is no salvation apart from the love of the truth. because they received not the
love of the truth that they might be saved. God shall send them
strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might
be damned who received not the love of the truth but had pleasure.
in unrighteousness. And second, I don't know if I'm
quoting it exactly right, you can look it up, verse 10 though,
the love of the truth. Now, I love the truth that the Bible's
the word of God, don't you? I love that. I'm so thankful
for that. I love what the Bible tells me
with regard to the character of God. He really is God. He's absolutely sovereign and
in absolute control. He's God. I love the truth with
regard to what the Bible tells me about myself, that I'm dead
in sins by nature, that I can't save myself. Well, why do you
love that truth? Because it teaches me not to look into myself, but
to look somewhere else for salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. I love
the truth regarding the work of the triune God in salvation,
election by the Father, redemption by the Son, regeneration by the
Holy Spirit. I love the truth that God causes
his people to persevere all the way to the end. I love the truth. I don't just agree with it, I
love it. And when somebody says something
contrary to it, it upsets me because they're talking about
the one I love. You see, going against the truth is going against
the person who saved me, the person I love, the love of the
truth. Now, I want to end where this
service began. Would you turn to Matthew chapter
15? Verse 21. Then Jesus went thence and departed
into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan,
a Gentile woman, came out of the same coasts and cried unto
him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. But he answered her, not a word. And his disciples came and sought
him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after. She's driving
us crazy. But he answered and said, I'm
not sent, but into the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now,
that means one thing. I've only come to save the elect.
I didn't come to save everybody. I only came to save the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. Now, first ignores her. That would have been rough. She
comes crying from the depths of her heart with this great
need in great respect to him. Thou son of David, have mercy
on me. You're the Lord. She came the
right way and she came for this right thing. Have mercy on me.
And he ignores her. Does she stop crying? No, she
continues to cry to the extent that it was irritating. The disciples
send her away. She's driving us crazy. I'm not
sent. but to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. Now, what was her response to
that? Verse 25, then came she and worshiped
him. And this is so important. She
had not received her request, but she worshiped anyway. You
see, the Lord is to be worshipped with whatever he does with me
or you. He's worthy of worship. And if he sends me to hell, he
is worthy of worship. Then came she and worshipped
him, saying, Lord, Help me. If you don't help me, there's
no hope for me. I have nowhere else to go. Lord, help me. And then he says to her in verse
26, it's not neat. It's not appropriate. It's not right to take the children's
bread, the gospel of my grace, and cast it to dogs. Now there's
only one way to take this from this woman. You're a dog. Look at her answer. Truth. Lord, if I ever heard the truth,
this is it. Everything you're saying is The
truth, truth, Lord. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from their master's table. What you said is the truth. I'm a dog, but I'm your dog. I won't deny
being a dog, but I'm your dog. And I'm not asking for a place
setting with the children, far be it from me to think of that. I'll be grateful for any crumbs
that fall my way. And Jesus answered and said unto
her, Oh woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. Let me tell you what this lady
did. She acknowledged the truth. That's what that looks like.
She acknowledged. the truth. May God give me and
you the grace to acknowledge, to discern, to perceive, to embrace,
to believe the truth. Let's pray. Lord, we Ask in his name who is the truth that we might be enabled by your
grace to acknowledge the truth of who you are, who we are, and of who thy son is and what
he did. Bless this message for Christ's
sake, in his name we pray, amen.