I want you to turn your Bibles
with me to Titus chapter 3. Let's begin reading here in verse
12. This is our last study now in
the book of Titus. It's been an enjoyable study. I hope we've learned something
from the Word of God from this epistle. But I want you to begin
reading with me here in verse 12. Titus chapter 3 and verse
12. When I shall send Artemis unto thee, or Tychicus, Be diligent
to come unto me to Decapolis, for I have determined thereto
winter. Bring Zenos, the lawyer, and Apollos on their journey
diligently, that nothing be warranted unto them. And let ours also
learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they
be not unfruitful. All that are with me salute thee,
greet them that love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Amen. The Apostle Paul, our Apostle,
and I tell you, I hope that you and I never cease to think about
the love of Jesus Christ for His church, especially the Gentile
church. You and I, that He called this
man and sent him to be an Apostle of the Gentiles, and what a faithful
man he was. He carried a burden daily for
the churches. He was like a general in the
army. Not only did he care for all
the churches himself and went off into several countries and
traveled there in places instructing them, but he had a host of these
preachers and missionaries and helpers that he sent out to the
different churches throughout all the countries. It was a miracle
that this man did. what he did, and you know, he
attributes it to the grace of God. It was a miracle of grace,
and that's what he said. He said, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. And he said, this grace which
was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored. I labored
more abundantly than they all. And yet he turns right around
and says, yet not I, but the grace of God that is in me."
I tell you, it's amazing what the grace of God can do in a
man. It'll save him. It'll justify him. It'll make
him a new creature. And it will cause him to stand
against the wiles of the devil, against the world, against flesh,
against his own family, and stand there until he dies. The grace
of God will make a man strong. Be strong in the grace that's
in Christ Jesus. This man tells us some of the
things that he suffered in his lifetime. He talks about his
shipwrecks. Three times he said, I was shipwrecked.
He tells us about his whippings. Five times he was whipped. His
imprisonment. We don't know how often he was
in prison, but he does tell us often he was frequently in prison. And his journeys often. He talks
about the pearls of waters. and pearls of robbers, and pearls
in his own country, and pearls among the heathen, and all the
pearls that he went through. And he talked about the weariness,
and the painfulness, and the fastings often, he said, and
the hunger and the thirst, and in cold, and in nakedness. I
tell you, he suffered as an apostle of Jesus Christ. And when the
Lord called him on the Damascus road, this is what the Lord said
of him. I'll show him. what great things
He shall suffer for my sake." And He did. But over and above
all of these physical things that He suffered, He cared for
all these churches. The care of all the churches,
He said, that comes on Me daily. The care of all the churches.
What He personally bore in His own heart and how He prayed for
them and how He went and visited them. But all the preachers and
missionaries that he kept track of and sent them out to help. It was just absolutely amazing.
I think probably it would be a good study if somebody wanted
to take it up. Just look at the different people
that was under the Apostle Paul, and he sent out and used them.
You read about them in the Scriptures. Artemis, Tychicus that we read
about here in our verse, and this man Zenos, the lawyer. Probably
Apollos, I would say. It seems like Paul was sort of
over him. Of course, Titus and Timothy. A man by the name of
Carpus. And we all know about Demas and
Crescens and Luke and Mark and Priscilla and Aquila and Onesimus
and Onesiprus. You could just go on and on.
And it would be a good study just to Look up these men that
Paul sent out to these different places. And Paul was over this
huge company. That's what he tells us here
in verse 12. He said, When I shall send Artemus or Tychicus, be
diligent to come unto me. And then he tells Titus here
to bring Zenos the lawyer and Apollos on their journey. So
he was obviously over these men. And you know he loved these fellows.
And they loved him. We read here in Ephesians. Look over there in Ephesians
chapter 6. And here's what he said about
this man by the name of Tychicus. Look what he says in Ephesians
chapter 6. Look here in verse 20. For which
he says, I am an ambassador in bonds. He was in bonds because
he preached the gospel. that therein I may speak boldly
as I ought to speak, but that you may also know my affairs
and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister
in the Lord, shall make known unto you." Now look what he says
about him here. He calls him a brother. He is
a brother in Christ. He is in the same family as this
great apostle is. They have the same father, the
same elderly brother. The Lord Jesus said, Who is my
mother? Who is my brother? I tell you, those who do the
will of the Father, those who believe in the Son of God, they're
one family. And Paul said, This is my brother.
But notice what else he said about him. He's a beloved brother.
He's just not a brother, but he's beloved. Paul loved him.
The churches loved him. But you know more than anything,
he is beloved of God. Loved of God with an everlasting
love. He is a brother. And then he
says this about him, he's a minister. He's a minister of Jesus Christ.
The Lord had called him into the ministry to preach the unsearchable
riches of Jesus Christ. And you can bet he preached the
same thing. He preached the same one that
the Apostle preached. Christ and him crucified. And
look what he said about his ministry, that he's a faithful minister. Not only did he preach, He preached
faithfully. He was faithful. Everywhere he
went, every time he had an opportunity, he was faithful to go and preach
the gospel of Jesus Christ to the souls of men. And I like what he says about
him here. Look what he says about him. And I think here tells the
tale. And he said he's a minister, but notice, in the Lord. He is in the Lord. I tell you, I want to be a brother.
I want people to recognize me as a brother. And I want to be
a minister. God helped me to be a good minister.
But I tell you, here is the key. Here it is for each one of us.
In the Lord. That's the key. Being in the
Lord Jesus Christ, Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an
everlasting salvation. So the Apostle Paul loved these.
men. He loved them, and they loved
Him, and they loved the Lord Jesus, and they loved His churches.
That's why they went and labored as they did. But back here in
our text again, we see this little nugget here. He says here back
in Titus chapter 3 and verse 12, he says, When I shall send
Artemis unto thee and Tychicus, be diligent to come unto me,
to Nicopolis, For I have determined there to win her." Now, notice
what Paul says here to Titus. He said, When I shall send Artemis
unto thee, or Tychicus, then you come. Notice how he made
that plain. He said, I don't want you to
come until they get there. Now, there's a reason that the
Apostle had for that. He was very careful. and not
leaving these churches without a man who was well established
in the faith. We found out in chapter 1 that
there were some things that were wanted in these churches, in
these different cities on this island of Crete. They needed
pastors. They didn't have men who were
established in the faith, experienced preachers. And Paul was concerned
about that. And one of the reasons he was
concerned about that, we know that everywhere he went, these
separatist Jews, these legalist Jews, they followed him from
church to church. And if the apostle left, they
would come in behind him. And they'd try to slip in and
preach a false gospel. That's what happened to the Galatian
church. They had men come in there that were saying, Christ
is not enough. Faith in Jesus Christ is not
enough. You must be circumcised and keep
the law of Moses. And it didn't take them long
at all to pervert the gospel among the Galatians. So Paul
said here to Titus, don't you leave until I get there. He knew
Satan had these false apostles waiting in the wings. But you
know it's not just false apostles. It's sometimes these open and
profane people slipping into the church. And that happens
also. The Galatian church had trouble
with doctrine. But boy, look at the immorality
among the Corinthian church. Fornication and drunkenness. It was awful. And you take some
fellow that comes in and he says, the Lord has saved me. Oh, I
believe in the Lord. I know the Lord. And he lives
like a devil. Sometimes that's like leaven.
that you put in flour or meal, it just finally, if you don't
stop it, it gets through the whole congregation. So the Apostle
Paul was saying, don't you dare leave until one of these men
get there. And you know that's the Word
of our Lord to all of his churches is to watch, be watchful. Be
watchful, he told the church of Sardis, and strengthen that
which remains. And he said in another place,
Be ye therefore watchful, watch, and watch in the prayer. Pray
always, watch ye, and stand fast in the faith, he said, and quite
you like men, and be strong. Another place he said, let us
not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. Watch
thou in all things, in dear afflictions. And Peter tells us the end of
all things is at hand. Be ye therefore sober and watch
unto prayer. Watch, brothers and sisters.
Watch your own heart and watch over the congregation in prayer
and be sober. The Lord Jesus said, if the good
man of the house had known in what hour the thief comes, he
would have watched and not have suffered his house to be broken
up. I tell you what a vital, vital
work you and I are involved in. The glory of God is concerned
in it, and the precious eternity bound souls of men are involved
in it. So watch. and pray and watch
and be sober. And here in verse 12, there's
another little nugget here. Paul said, I have determined
thereto winter. Be diligent to come unto me,
to Nicopolis, for I have determined thereto winter. In other words,
he had made plans. He had thought this thing through.
And he says, maybe it's July, maybe it's August, and I've done
I don't know where I'm going to spend the winter at." And
you know it's good. It's good to plan ahead. Some people say, well, James
told us not to do that. Well, when James said, don't
say, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that, and I'm
going to go into the city and make a lot of money and move
back to the country. But he added something to that,
didn't he? He said, you ought to say this, if the Lord's will. We always put that in there.
Brothers and sisters, we have to plan. We need to plan things. But we always say, if the Lord's
will, if the Lord's will. Now let's go on to verse 13.
Look here in verse 13. Brangzenus, the lawyer, and appall
us on their journey diligently, that nothing be worn unto them."
Zenos the lawyer. Now this is the only time in
the New Testament this man's name is mentioned. And we're
not for sure, no one's for sure what kind of lawyer he was. There
was the Jewish lawyers. The Gospels speak a lot about
the lawyers. They were scribes. Sometimes
they called them lawyers. Sometimes they called them scribes.
But if he was a Jewish lawyer, if he was a Jewish scribe, then
he would have been an interpreter of the law of Moses. They were
like theologians in the law of Moses. They professed to know
a lot about it. They gave themselves to the study
of it. And these men, these lawyers in the Gospel, you find this
as you read the four Gospels. Well, they were always trying
to catch our Lord in His words. They were always tempting him
to see if they could find something wrong with what he said or what
he did so they could blame him and accuse him. We have that
in Luke chapter 14. You remember when the Lord was
going to eat with the Pharisee? I think it was that time. And
there was a man that had the dropsy. He was probably paralyzed
or almost paralyzed in the lower part of his body. And the Bible
says these lawyers watched him to see if he would heal him.
That's amazing, isn't it? For the Lord Jesus to be able
to heal people and them be ready to stand to accuse Him when He
did. But they probably set Him there for that reason. I don't
know why they were going to accuse Him except it was on the Sabbath
day. But the Lord healed this man
on the Sabbath day, and then he turned to these lawyers and
he asked them the question. He said, which of you, having
a donkey or an ox, will not go home, unloose that donkey from
his crib, and take him down and give him water, and take him
back up and put him back in his crib? And he said, you've done
work to help a donkey or an ox. And he says, you're angry with
me. because I've healed this man on the Sabbath day." And
he said, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? And that's
why he asked these lawyers, you see, because he said, is it lawful? They should have known whether
or not it was lawful. But they didn't. They didn't.
There in Luke 10 we have another time where the lawyer came to
the Lord Jesus and said, what must I do that I could have eternal
life? And the Lord asked him this question.
He said, what does the law say? What's written in the law? You
profess to believe and know the law. And he said, well, I know
it says this, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and
your neighbor as yourself. And the Lord Jesus said, This
do, and you'll live. And he willing to justify himself
said, And who is my neighbor? Boy, these lawyers were slick. But the Lord Jesus turned right
around and gave him that parable of the good Samaritan. And you
remember that. These lawyers were supposed to
be expert in the law. And they tried to debate the
Lord Jesus. And every time He twisted them
up in their words, they couldn't out-debate Him for anything.
And it was always said of them that they couldn't answer Him
a word. And that's why they got offended.
I think it was Ambrose Bierce that said, contempt is the emotion
we feel for an opponent. whose arguments are too formidable
to refute. So they couldn't refute his arguments. He had the truth. And so what
did they do? Well, they got angry with him.
They even tried to kill him. And you know something else about
these lawyers? They wouldn't submit to the counsel
of God. God sent John the Baptist to
baptize men and to repentance. And the Bible says they rejected
the counsel of God. They wouldn't be baptized of
John. And I tell you, the Lord pronounced some awful, dreadful
woes against these men. He said, Woe to be to you, you
lawyers. You put burdens on people's backs,
on people's conscience, and you won't exert enough effort as
you could pick up with your little finger to remove those burdens. And He said, Woe to you, you
lawyers. You shut up the kingdom of God against men. You won't
go in yourself. And those who would go in and
those who are going in, You're hindering. And then, boy, he
said this to them. He said, How can you escape the
damnation of hell? Well, that was an awful wall
passed upon these lawyers. But here, Zenos was a lawyer.
And if he was one of these lawyers, one of these scribes that used
to be opposed to the Lord Jesus, isn't it a wonderful thing that
now he's a believer of the gospel? He's a lover of the Lord Jesus
Christ? He's a helper of this great apostle? Paul wrote and said, there's
not many mighty, not many noble are called, but I bet you Zenos
was saying when he read that epistle, I am so thankful that
he said, not any. That he said, not many and not
any. Because there are some exceptions.
And he was one of them. The Lord always seemingly calls
men Rich men. He's called rich men. He's called
nobles. He's called kings and queens.
But you know, that's an exception, isn't it? But thank God, we're
all exceptions in a way. Aren't you glad when He said
the wages of sin is death that He didn't stop there? Aren't
you glad He went on and said, but the gift of God is eternal
life? Know you not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Aren't you glad He didn't
stop there? That would have damned us all.
But thank God He said such were some of you. Oh, but you were
justified, you were washed, you were sanctified in the name of
the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. So if he was a scribe,
well, that was a miracle of grace, distinguishing grace too, that
chose him out of these fellows that hated the Lord Jesus and
couldn't escape the damnation of hell. Some say Zenos might
have been a civil lawyer, may have been a lawyer under the
Roman government, the Greek government. And you know, that's a miracle
in itself. When you see a lawyer who believes the truth and speaks
the truth, that's a miracle of grace in itself. One fellow said,
miracles happen now and then. Here's a lawyer and an honest
man. That is a miracle. Brothers and
sisters, that's a miracle. But we come here to Apollos.
He tells us there in verse 13, "...bring Zenos the lawyer and
Apollos." Now this was a famous man. He's very well known in
the early churches and very loved in the churches. And he is an
eloquent man, an eloquent speaker. The Corinthians, you remember,
they preferred him over the Apostle Paul. Some of them said, well,
you're of Paul, but I'm of Apollos. So he was a famous man, but he
was a help to the churches. But you know in Acts chapter
18, that tells us there was a time When this great man, this great
preacher, you know he wasn't very clear on the Gospel. There
in Acts chapter 18 we're told that all he knew was the baptism
of John. He was born in that beautiful
city of Alexandria down in Egypt, but all he knew was the baptism
of John. We don't know how far you could
take that. Did He know that the Lord Jesus
had came? Did He know the Holy Spirit had
came on the day of Pentecost? If He was born in Alexandria,
maybe He was just working His way up into Israel. We don't know, but it just said
that this man and his wife, Aquila and Priscilla, took him aside
and explained to him the way of the Lord more perfectly. In other words, they set him
down and they taught him the clear gospel of the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord used that man and
his wife to open this man's heart. And then as he went preaching,
the Bible says, he helped them much who had believed through
grace. Now here's something I gleaned
from this. You and I ought to be careful,
especially towards anybody, but especially towards poor preachers
who seem like they just don't have the understanding that they
need. They're not as clear on the gospel as they should be.
Instead of condemning them, instead of rejecting them, you know what
we need to do is patiently try our best under God to enlighten
them Take the Bible out, and if you're able to, enlighten
them, teach them, and you know it will help their ministry.
And I tell you, if you help them, you'll be like Apollos. You're
helping others. You're helping others. You may not be in the
ministry, but you may be like this couple, Priscilla and Aquila,
who can help somebody who is in the ministry. when Charles
Spurgeon was a young teenager, he was under conviction, and
he said he was so guilty in his mind, he had been sitting under
these preachers. I guess they were clear on the
gospel, but they didn't reach his heart. But on a snowy day,
snowy morning, he went into this old Wesleyan Chapel, and the
pastor couldn't be there, but there was this fellow up trying
to preach, and he could hardly read the Bible. He was almost
illiterate, Spurgeon said. We don't even know his name.
We don't know who this man was. But you know, when he got up
to preach the Gospel, the Lord used that poor man to reach the
heart of Charles Spurgeon, told him to look unto Me and be ye
saved. And he did, and he was saved.
And look what a blessing Charles Spurgeon was to the world, and
still being a blessing to them today. So, help people. Help people. It's easy to condemn
people. It's easy to find fault with poor preachers. It's easy
to say they're just not clear enough on the gospel. Well, pray
for them and talk to them about it. Now, look what else he says. You bring them on their journey
that nothing be lacking unto them. Now, there's people who
have given themselves to the full-time ministry. Some have
quit jobs. good paying jobs to support their
family, and they felt like the Lord was leading them to be a
pastor. And they did that, and they are
pastors. Some have gone off and left their
own countries for missionary work. And you know, they are
utterly dependent upon the church, upon the generosity of the Lord's
people to support them. And isn't it a blessing? Some
people say, well, it's our duty. Well, I've got nothing wrong
with that word. It is our duty. It's our privilege,
and it's a blessing and an honor to help those people. And you
know, you and I should. If we get an opportunity, not
just what we give here to our missionaries, but I tell you,
there's other pastors that if you get an opportunity, you've
got a little extra money, or you can do something for them,
then do it. Then do it. What a blessing that
is. And he says here now in verse
14, Let ours also learn to maintain
good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful. He was probably speaking there
about the churches that they were missionaries to there on
the island of Crete. Let our brothers and our sisters
in Christ, the local churches, there on the island of Crete,
learn to maintain good works. You know, you and I are born
of God. We're born of love. And we spend
the rest of our life learning how to show it. When a child of God is first
born, he loves. He loves. He loves the Lord.
He loves his brothers and sisters. But you know, he don't know very
much how to show it. Most good works that we do, we
have to learn. We either learn them from reading
the Word of God, or somebody teaches us these things, or we
learn it by example. But it's learned, isn't it? Good
works are learned. And that's what he's saying.
You learn to maintain good works for necessary uses. There are some things that are
necessary in doing good works. Now, good works aren't necessary
to make peace with God. You cannot make peace with God
by good works. It's impossible. Peace has been
made already through the blood of the cross of Jesus Christ.
That's the way peace is made, and not by our good works. We
can't atone for our sins. If sin is atoned for, it happened
2,000 years ago outside the city of Jerusalem on the cross of
Calvary. We can't do good works for forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness
comes by grace. We can't justify ourselves. That
comes through believing in Christ. A lot of times we say good works,
but good works are not necessary for these things. We've learned
all of this from the Word of God. He's taught us, hasn't He?
But good works are necessary. And here are some necessary uses. Good works are necessary to glorify
God in this world. Didn't our Lord Jesus say that
men may see your good works and glorify your Father which is
in heaven? Good works are necessary to prove
to others that our faith is saving. If you don't have works, people
aren't going to know that your faith is saving. You can't prove
it to me. There's no sense in me saying,
well, I've got saving faith, well, prove it. Let me prove
it to you. James said, show me your faith by your works. Show
me your faith without your works, didn't he? Show me your faith
without your works. He said, I'll show you my faith.
by my works." And that's the only way we can show faith to
people is by our works. Our faith is genuine. And good
works are necessary to adorn the doctrine of Christ. Good
works tells this world that we believe in Jesus Christ. That
He's the way, the truth, and the life. We really believe it.
How do you know that somebody really believes it? I tell you,
they'll show it in the way that they live. They'll show it by
their good works. And good works are necessary
because it puts to ignorance, the Apostle said. It puts to
silence, rather, the ignorance of foolish men who say that salvation
don't essentially change a man for the better. Well, when you
see someone that professes Jesus Christ, and he's a new creature
in Christ, He's left his old life, he's left his rebellion
against God, and now he's living an obedient life for the Lord?
You'll have to say, boy, there is something in this business
of salvation. It works. We're created in Christ Jesus
and two good works. And they're necessary to maintain
public worship and the spread of the gospel. That's what the
apostle was talking about there in verse 13. These two men, Zenos
the lawyer and Apollos, they were out preaching the gospel.
And Paul said, support these men in every way because it's
necessary. It's necessary. You know, and
I'm sorry to say this, but this is the truth and it needs to
be said. If it was left up to some people, we wouldn't have
a missionary and we wouldn't have a public place to worship.
Because some people just don't care. They don't even know what
it takes to maintain a public place to worship. Most of them
don't even come anyway. So that's sad, isn't it? That's sad. But it's necessary. Good works are necessary to maintain
public worship and the spread of the gospel. Good works are
essential in showing the love of Christ to others. How are
we going to show the love of Christ to others except by good
works? If you love Me, keep My commandments. And this is one of His commandments,
that you love one another. And John said, if you see your
brother have need and you shut up your bowels of compassion
against him, you don't love him. You just don't love him, do you?
Good works are necessary proof. It's a necessary proof. that
we're not barren. We're not barren trees. We're
not useless. What happens? What happens to
a barren tree? What happens to a tree that's
unfruitful? Well, the Scripture everywhere
says it's cut down. It's cut down. I tell you, I
don't want to be cut down. Do you? I don't want to be barren. I want fruits of the Spirit within
my own heart, and I want those fruits to be manifested. We want
that in our life, don't we? The Lord told us about that tree
that was planted in His vineyard. And He said, three years I've
come looking for fruit on that tree, and ain't bore any fruit. And He said, cut it down. And
the gardener said, Lord, let me dig about it. Let me dunge
it. Let me put it under a different ministry. Let me afflict it.
Let me chasten it. And then if it bears fruit, well,
and then if not, then you shall cut it down. And that was Paul's
concern here in verse 14, that they be not unfruitful. And he said, every branch in
me that abides in me, you abide in me and my words abide in you.
He said, you bring forth much fruit and you do it for the glory
of God. Now let's sum this little epistle
up with the last verse. in chapter 3. All they that be
with me salute thee. They greet thee. Greet them that
love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Greet
them that love us in the faith. You know the love that saints
have to one another. It's a special love. We know
that one person can love another person. You've got family, you've
got friends. Mothers have children that they
love, and children have dads. We love our countrymen. But you
know this is a special kind of love the Apostle is talking about
here. Believers loving believers. And he says here, in the faith,
because of the doctrine of the faith. We believe the Gospel. Our hearts are bound together
in the Gospel. We have fellowship in the Gospel.
We love one another because of the Gospel. And I tell you, that's
the love of God that we're born of. That's the love of God that's
yet abroad in our hearts. Greet them that love us in the
faith of the gospel. And of course, he must mean also,
we love one another because of the grace of faith that's in
our heart. There's grace in our hearts. Every believer believes through
grace. And when he believes, there's a love there. And you
know there's something about it, that when you run into another
believer, as soon as you start talking to him, I tell you, it's
like looking in a mirror, isn't it? You see a reflection in it. You feel it in your soul that
here's a believer. Here's a man who believes. This
is a person who has the grace of God in his heart. The grace
of faith. And I tell you, you love them.
It don't take you a month or two or a year to start loving
the Lord's people. Just start talking to them. Let
them speak well of the Savior and what He's did for them and
had compassion on them. And I tell you, you'll love them.
You'll love them in the faith. And He said here, Grace be with
all of you. And I'd love to think that He
means us here, this little congregation here at Newcastle, Indiana. Grace
be with you all there at Sovereign Grace Church in Newcastle, Indiana. You know the Bible is not just
written for those in the New Testament time. Thank God it's
written for the churches right on down to the end of time. These
are love letters from our Husband, our Savior, our Redeemer. And
He said, I'm with you always, even to the end of the world.
So this is for us. Grace be with you all there in
Newcastle, Indiana. Well, I hope this study, this
book has been a help to you and a blessing to you. I pray the
Lord will bless it for His name's sake.