I want to read Titus chapter
1 if you could find it there. I was telling Mr. Baker this
week, I was asking the Lord to give me some directions and maybe
impress me some way or the other in my thoughts what book we should
look at. I'm not for sure if this is the
one that we should be going to, but I thought of this book and
I thought of it the last couple of days. I want us to look at
it tonight. I want to read the first chapter
to you. I want us to begin to look at it, but I want to just
get an overview of Titus, this epistle of Titus. He was a friend
of Paul. He was a Gentile. He was a man
that Paul refused to circumcise. He took Timothy and circumcised
Timothy, but he refused to circumcise Titus. Titus was a Gentile. And Paul writes this epistle
to him. I want us to read the first chapter
and then I want us to just look at it in general. Then we'll begin, Lord's willing,
next time and look at it verse by verse. Paul, a servant of
God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's
elect and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness,
in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised
before the world began, but hath in due time manifested His Word
through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment
of God our Savior." Now that is some more introduction, isn't
it? And I am looking forward to us just looking at that. The
Apostle Paul sometimes in his epistles begins, and he says
so much in his introduction. I remember this introduction
in the book of Romans. It is a wonderful, wonderful
introduction concerning the character and the power of the Lord Jesus.
And this is a wonderful introduction here. And in verse 4, he is writing
to Titus, my own son, after the common faith. Grace, mercy, and
peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. And for this cause left I thee
in Crete. If you look on your map, you
will see that is an island out in the Mediterranean Sea. And
Paul said, I left you there for this reason, that you should
set in order the things that are wanting, that are lacking,
and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee, if any
be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children,
not accused of riot or unruly, For a bishop must be blameless
as a steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to
wine, nor stracker, nor given to filthy lucre, but a lover
of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate,
holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he
may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince
the gang-sayers. For there are many unruly and
vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, the
Jews, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching
things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake, for money. One of themselves, even a prophet
of their own, said, The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts,
slow bellies. This witness is true, wherefore
rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not
given to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. Unto the pure all things are
pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing
pure, but even their mind and their conscience is defiled.
They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him, being
abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate."
Now, this epistle to Titus touches on every aspect of the Christian
life. Or maybe we could say it like
this. The Christian life is influenced because a person is Christian.
Every aspect of the Christian life comes under the influence
of being a Christian. There is no part of a person's
life, if he is truly a Christian, that is not influenced because
he is a Christian. It takes in the whole of the
Christian life. Here in chapter 1, Paul is strongly
hinting at life within the congregation, within the local church. And
he says there to begin with ordaining elders in every congregation. That was something that was needful,
that was lacking. Paul had went there and he had
preached the gospel. Many had believed, but they didn't
establish churches. So he left Titus there to establish
church, ordain pastors. He gives the character there,
blameless character. But he tells them here in verse
9, this shows us, this hints to us that he is speaking of
what life is like in the congregation, what rules and regulates the
worship in the congregation. And he says there in verse 9
that the pastor is to hold forth, hold in fast the faithful word
as he has been taught. And what he's hinting at here
is what regulates the life within the congregation. There has to
be something that regulates our worship, isn't there? And what
is that? It's the faithful Word. Why do
we do what we do when we gather to worship? Why do we come here
and begin with prayer? It's because the Scripture tells
us to pray when we assemble. Why do we sing? It tells us to
sing. Why do we preach? Why do we teach? Why do we read the Scriptures?
All of these things are regulated by this faithful Word. So we said these pastors are
needful, Titus, and you've got to get them. You've got to ordain
them. The Lord will give you discernment.
He'll give the congregation discernment to see the gift that God has
put within these men, and they'll lead the congregation. And how
will they lead? Holding forth the faithful Word. We don't come here and do what's
right in our own eyes, do we? We just don't. We'd be scared
to death to do that. We come here and do just what
I just did. We read the Scriptures and we
hold forth the Word of Life, the Word of Truth, the faithful
Word of Truth. So he begins in chapter 1, really,
the main thing there is life within the congregation. That's
why he said you must have pastors. And then in chapter 2 he deals
with the life in the home. Do you notice that in chapter
2? Look at that. Verses 1 of chapter 2. teachers of good things, that
they may teach the younger women to be sober, to love their children,
to love their husbands, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at
home, keepers at home, obedient to their own husbands, that the
Word of God be not blasphemed. And then he tells in verse 6,
the young men likewise, he exhorted them to be sober-minded. This is life in the home. How
do we act in the home? We don't leave our Christianity
at church and live some other way when we're at home, do we?
Life within the home. And then he goes on there, life
in the workplace. Look in verse 9, "...exhort servants
to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well
in all things, not answering again." There's the workplace.
And then he goes farther than that in chapter 3, living our
life in the state, in the government in which we are under. He says
there in chapter 3 in verse 1, look at this, "...put them in
mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates,
to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be
no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men." So
that is life within the state. He deals with every aspect of
Christian life. Christianity closes no doors
to any aspect of our life. Why is it important to remember
this? Well, one reason for this is especially in our day, I think
probably as it did also in the early church, Christianity as
far as the profession of it can degenerate. it can absolutely
degenerate. One can profess to be a Christian
today. Now see if this isn't so. One
can profess to be a Christian today and believe almost anything. It doesn't matter what the Word
says. You can hold forth the Word faithfully,
but it doesn't matter to some professing Christian. Even the
cardinal truths that's taught in the Word of God, they can
deny them and still profess to be Christians. Doesn't just about
everybody you meet today profess to be a Christian? And we meet
people all the time that denies the inspiration of the Old Testament
Scriptures. They don't even profess them
to be real. I was listening to one preacher.
He was talking about, I think I've mentioned this to you before,
but I was amazed that this man said this. And I know, I know
professing Christians today who believe this, that it didn't
matter whether it was a real person like Abraham or not. It didn't really matter. And
it didn't really matter if God created the world or if it evolved. It doesn't matter if you believe
that there was a flood or not. We get people today that earnestly
believe that you can be a Christian and not even believe that we
have the Word of God. Now we see that, and when you
talk to people, we see that. It's just an example of how professing
Christians can degenerate. It's the same way with the person
of Jesus Christ. We've got people today that profess
to be Christians and they say something like, well, it doesn't
matter if Christ was virgin-born or not. It doesn't matter. If He's not virgin-born, then
we have no redemption because He must be God or we have no
Redeemer. It takes God incarnate to redeem
us. But you see these people and
they say, well, it really don't matter. and they can live. You know, Paul mentioned here
in verse 16 that they profess to know God, but in works they
deny Him, being ungodly. And don't you know people that
profess to be Christian and yet their life is open and profane? They can use God's name in vain.
I heard a preacher just the other night literally use God's name
in vain. I was astounded to hear that.
I could not believe it. And yet, he professes to be a
Christian. And this is why Paul shows us
here in this book that Christianity is involved in every aspect of
our life. And if it's not, then the Bible
defines what a Christian is. And if it's not spread out to
comprehend the whole of our life, then maybe those fellows are
Christian. There are Christians today, they
call it departmentalizing. They can profess their Christian
principles in this area of their life, But because they're in
politics or because they're rich and famous or being actors or
something, they can't take that Christian life with them to the
workplace. So they compartmentalize it.
They can go to church on Sunday or whatever and then go to their
jobs which won't allow them to be Christian. And they say, that's
okay. That's okay like that. You can
do that. And this is why it's so important
to come here to this epistle and see that the Bible defines
what Christianity is. And He tells us that there's
no area of our life here in the congregation when we worship,
or when we go home, or when we go on our jobs, as we live our
lives under this government, there's no area of our life that
we can lay aside being a Christian and be something else. I heard
a couple one time, a pastor and his wife, he said he was so thankful
that they were going on vacation. They went on vacation. He said
nobody knew they were Christians. Nobody knew they were Christians.
Isn't that sad? But that's why this epistle is
so important. It lets us know that Christianity
does involve every aspect of our lives. every aspect of our
life. How are we made Christians? Look
here in chapter 3. This is so important, isn't it? I think this will help us to
understand why that Christianity is involved in every aspect of
our life, because of what regeneration is. Look at it here in chapter
3 and verse 5. Here is what it is. Look at this. He says in verse four, ìBut after
that the kindness and love of God our Savior towards man appeared,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy He saved us.î How are men saved? How are men saved? Well, look, He tells us, ìBy
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy There is
no other way to be made a Christian but by regeneration, by new birth,
being born again. And there are two things here
that takes place in regeneration. One is, he says, the renewing
of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost gives us life. He renews us in life. The life
we had in Adam in the fall, we lost it. How do we regain life? The Holy Spirit regenerates. He gives us life again by the
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. He comes to
us and gives us life. The Lord Jesus said in John chapter
7 verse 38, He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture has said,
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. What is that
water? What is those living waters?
He went ahead in the next verse to tell us, didn't He? They which
have believed on Him shall receive the Holy Ghost. That is the living
water. He is the living water. He is
the life that He gives. He is the source of that life.
He is the strength of that life. In regeneration, a new life is
given that was never there before. It's the life of the Spirit of
Christ. He is that well that is within
us, a well of living water. In Romans chapter 8 and verse
2, Paul said, The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free
from the law of sin and death. The Spirit of life. The Spirit
of life. The Spirit is life, isn't it?
And when He comes unto us in regeneration, He gives us life. But mine is such a different
life from what we lost in Adam. He lost that life and we lost
that life in Him. But the life we have now we can
never lose. The life that we have now in
regeneration can never die because the source of that life is the
Holy Spirit. And for that life that He gives
to die, the Holy Spirit would have to die because He is that
life. And where He is in the soul,
there is life eternal. That's why the Lord Jesus called
it, live in waters. Live in waters. The Holy Spirit is the source.
And you know what? This is so important in regeneration
since the Holy Spirit is the source of that life. What kind
of life is that? It's a holy life, isn't it? It's a holy life. The Spirit
wouldn't give any other life but a holy life. So the life
He gives is untouched and untainted by sin. What happens in regeneration? A new life. A new life that had
never been there before. A holy life. A life that will
never die. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And he that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Why? This Holy Spirit is within
him, a Spirit of life. That is the first thing that
takes place in regeneration. And the second thing, look here
back in our text again, he mentions it in verse 5. By His mercy He
saved us by the washing of regeneration. By the washing. of regeneration. That washing means to purge or
to cleanse. It is the cleansing of the conscience,
isn't it? In regeneration, there is a cleansing
of the heart, the conscience, a purging away of sin and its
guilt and its pollution that had defiled the conscience. When
the Lord Jesus died upon Calvary's cross, something immediately
happened. It happened before God. It happened
at the bar of God. Sin was atoned for. Sin was purged
away before God. Hebrews 1 through 3 tells us
that. He by Himself purged our sin. But there is something else
that happens eventually. And what happens eventually is
this. When the Holy Spirit comes in regeneration, the conscience
is washed. Paul says in Hebrews 9, that
if the blood of those bulls and calves sanctified to the purifying
of the flesh, and they sprinkled the flesh, and they said your
flesh is now pure, ceremonially pure. He said if that took place
with the blood of bulls and calves, how much more shall the blood
of Christ purge your conscience? It reaches the conscience that's
been defiled with sin, and it purges it, and it cleanses it. And here's the point I want to
make. To what end? To what end is this regeneration? To what end does this purging
of the conscience serve? He says to this end that we may
serve the living God. See, we're not just given life. We're not just saved. from our
sins, we're not just saved from hell or the wrath of God, but
we're saved even for a greater reason than that, and that's
to serve. To serve God in newness of this
new life. That's regeneration. And he says
there in verse 6 of chapter 3 that all of this was poured on us
abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. It's always through
Christ, isn't it? Someone wrote a book and the
title of it, I think, was Christianity is Christ or Christ is Christianity,
one of the titles, but it's basically the same. And that's the truth,
isn't it? Christ is Christianity. Christianity is Christ. God cannot
come to us except He come to us through Christ. And therefore,
He can be merciful to us and save us and regenerate us and
forgive us. We can't go to God but through
Christ and His cross and approaching Him. So Christ is everything,
isn't He, in this salvation and regeneration and in the life,
the Christian life that we live. And when this happens, when regeneration
happens, when it happens, it changes a person's entire life
for the better. It changes his life for the better. This grace that brings regeneration
not only regenerates us, but it gives us a new life and then
it teaches us a life that is to be denied, a life that is
to be laid aside, and it teaches us of a new life that is to be
embraced, that is to be lived. And for that, look back in chapter
2. Look here in chapter 2, verse
11. I tell you, one of the most frustrating
things in this world is to try to teach people how to live a
Christian life when they're not Christian. It will frustrate you to death
as a pastor because it won't do any good. After a while, you
get so frustrated, you want to start beating them, whipping
them, making them serve. I'm going to make you serve the
Lord. But you know, you can't do it. This is why regeneration
and the washing and renewal of the heart, this is why this is
critical. The Christian life cannot be
forced. You cannot force yourself to
live the Christian life. Paul said, if there be first
a willing mind. And if you can't force yourself,
I can't force you. But I tell you, when regeneration
truly comes, And when the Holy Spirit begins His work of cleansing
and revealing Jesus Christ in our hearts, you can be taught.
You can be taught. That same grace that brings regeneration
will then teach you. It will begin to teach you. And
there will be a marked difference in a person's life, how he lives
in every aspect of his life. If that's not so, brothers and
sisters, I'm going to give it up. I'm just going to give it
up. Look what he says in verse 11 of chapter 2. For the grace
of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching
us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live
soberly and righteously and godly in this present world. See the change? See how now they
can be taught? every aspect of their life, they
will apply their Christianity too because now they have new
life and now they can be taught. When we talk about being a Christian
and living the Christian life, there is no exemption because
of age. Age is a requirement and an exemption
for a lot of things in this life. Age plays a part. When we're
young, I remember when I was just 12 or 13 years old, I could
not wait until I got 16 to get my driver's license. That was
the exemption. That was the requirement. And
then I couldn't wait until I got 21. I couldn't wait until I got
25. My insurance would go down. When
you're young, everything's affected. You can't vote. The requirement
to vote. And then when you get old, you
start getting old. And there's the requirements,
the exemptions and all of this. You start 65. Is that when you
start your Social Security? 62 or whatever it is. Then you've
got your Medicaid. You have all of that. retire
and you get your check and all of that. There are exemptions. There are requirements. Age plays
a part in that, when we're young and then when we get old. But
you know, in salvation, in redemption, none of those things, age, young
or old, is a requirement or isn't an exemption. It doesn't matter
how young you are, to be a Christian and to serve the Lord, you must
be born again. You must be born again. You must have this holy principle
in your heart. A person says, well, that kid's
too young to be saved. Then he's too young to serve
the Lord. If he's too young to be regenerated, he cannot serve
God. Because you can't serve God without
being regenerated, without being washed, without being saved. Look here what he says in chapter
2 and verse 2. Paul says, again there in verse
2, he says, that the aged men be sober. And look in verse 3,
the aged women likewise. Look in verse 4, "...that they
may teach the young women." And verse 6, "...young men." He places
no exemptions or requirements or anything else upon age. I don't know what it is, but
there's something about it. We get this in our heads too
sometimes. And really, truly and honestly,
it's somewhat dangerous, but we seem to think that somewhere
around 25 years old to 65, that's the 40 years or so that we serve
the Lord. And before that, they're too
young. They have the wall oats that
they have to sow, you know, we say. They've got to sow their
wall oats. They can't be Christians or they can't live the Christian
life. They've got to sow their wall oats. And then when we get
65 or so, you get old and you retire and you think, well, I'm
just going to take it easy now. About all you're fit for, you
think, is just to watch TV and take out some trash. Or maybe
go south if you've got the money during the wintertime. Were the
gospel preached close to where you are now? But you know, the
Scriptures know no such things as age, old or young. I was talking with a lady one
time, and she told me she was saved by a very young lady, a
very young girl, and she lived in sin for 20 years. I don't know what happened. I
hope she just got converted. But she said she lived in sin
for 20 years before she began to serve the Lord. And does the Bible know anything
about that? In the face of regeneration,
in the face of what it actually is and a new life coming, the
Holy Spirit dwelling there, a holy life, How would that translate into
being regenerated and living in sin for twenty years before
you begin to serve the Lord? See how important this little
epistle is. And it has nothing to do with age. Young or old. If the young is going to serve
the Lord, they must be born again. They must be regenerated. And
if a ten-year-old or an eight-year-old or a six-year-old child is regenerated,
it will affect that child's life. Greater is He that's in you than
He that's in the world. Greater is He that's in that
child than the flesh or the influences at school or wherever he may
go. And if it doesn't, if it doesn't
influence every aspect of that child's life, then I'm not going
to tell that child he's regenerated. And it's the same way with the
old. When they get so old, and I know
that these bodies get old and tired, but there's a spirit in
us that never gets old. And the first aspect of service
is not in this body anyway. It's in our spirits. We serve
God and we worship Him in our spirit. And Paul said, this outward
man, it decays. He's waxing old. But the inward
man, and for a person to get 70 years old or 80 years old
and be able to attend worship service and use age as an excuse, in the light of what regeneration
is, That excuse will not stand, will it? I don't care what age
you are, old or young. If you're a true Christian, if
the Holy Spirit has given life to you and He's washed you, I'm
telling you to be a Christian still affects every aspect of
your life. And if we reach the place where
it hasn't, then we're in trouble. We need to examine ourselves
because the Spirit of God never grows old. And that new life
that he gives never grows old. What a rebuke here in chapter
1 and verse 16 that I just read to you. What a rebuke to these
men on Crete here. He says they profess to know
God, but in works they deny Him. I wonder what excuse they had
used for such a profession. What excuse would they use? for
such a rebellious, disobedient life. They profess to know God,
but their life testifies otherwise. In the light of what we've looked
at about regeneration, a new and holy life, what excuse could
they have? They have no excuse, do they?
They have no excuse. A new and holy life. The work of the Holy Spirit in
regeneration and living in the Christian life is not negated
by age nor by culture, no matter how wicked that culture is. And I say that because the Apostle
Paul said in the first chapter in verse 12, One of themselves, even a prophet
of their own said, we'll get into this probably next week,
the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. There was something about the
culture on this island that they were a most wicked people. And we'll get into it a little
bit later, but it was a culture that men were intemperate. in
every aspect of their life. You couldn't trust them. They
were liars. They were just sorry, sorry scums of this earth. But nobody could say, well, we're
saved. We know the Lord. We profess
to know God. But it's our culture. It's just
our culture. This is the way we live. This
is the way everybody around us lives. We were brought up this
way. That's no excuse either, is it? When regeneration comes,
it gives new life. And no matter how wicked a culture
a person has been raised up in, it changes it. It delivers it. One thing I've often wondered
about when the gospel invaded the dark Gentile world, Can you
imagine? Have you ever read anything about
the history of places like Corinth and Thessalonica and Ephesus? You talk about ungodliness. And men who had four or five
wives, it was just a custom. It was a custom to get drunk.
It was a custom to defraud. And this is why this epistle
is so important. Because it makes us to see when
the Gospel comes to the heart and the Spirit of God regenerates
a person, it doesn't matter what you've been, how defiled and
abominable you've lived and the culture you're in. Regeneration
changes us. It makes us new creatures in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And lastly, and in closing, let
me say this. about what I've said tonight
and about what the Apostle is teaching in this epistle. The
church must hold fast this faithful word. We must hold this fast
for our own good. During Jonathan Edwards' day,
before the revival came, it was tough in those congregations.
It was tough in the congregation that Jonathan Edwards was called
to pastor because it was full of unconverted people. And he
began to insist, if you were a church member, you must at
least profess the new birth. Isn't that amazing? Can you imagine
him preaching to the great Jonathan Edwards, probably the greatest
theologian this nation has ever known? And he had to insist that
they at least profess to be born again. That message that he preached,
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, he preached it to his congregation. It had no effect upon them. The
effect was upon another congregation. He went and preached it. And
they finally voted Jonathan Edwards out. And one of the reasons they
voted him out was for this reason. He still insisted, You must be
born again. You're not a Christian. You can't
live the Christian life if you're not born again. and see why it's
important that we hold this fast? I'd much rather to gather with
10 or 15 people that know the Lord in a new birth and know
what you're talking about when you teach the Word of God. It's
well with 200 people that hate you for telling them the truth,
wouldn't you? We must hold fast this faithful Word. We must do
it for our own good, the good of the congregation, and we must
do it to be honest and helpful to those people we're preaching
to, because they're deceived. They're deceived. There's many
false preachers in our day that's deceived, and they're deceiving
the whole congregation that you're preaching to. In fact, every
time the church Creatures and teachers needs to hold forth
this truth with boldness and clarity. It's in our days It's
in our day. God help us to do it as a congregation. God help me to do it as a pastor
Clarence would you dismiss us, please?