Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/cbc/sermons/18146/and-this-really-is-the-truth/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] take your bibles please let's go to the book of titus we were looking at philemon so just one book before that titus if you hit hebrews or james you've gone too far one thessalonians two thessalonians one timothy two timothy then titus if you need a bible in that chair in front of you that black bible go to the back and find page 167 in that black bible the book of titus this is one of the pastoral epistles titus i'm going to read and we're going to study this morning actually i'm going to do an introduction to titus i'm going to tie in excuse me introduction to titus um with the first four verses in the book of titus so i'm going to do that let's read titus chapter one verses one through four again page 167 in a black bible titus chapter one one through four and just that you know too i'll i'm going to um uh merge kind of translating from the greek into english so i'm reading from new american standard but some of it might sound a little bit different because i'm i'm remembering some things i learned in greeks i just do that on purpose because it just helps me i'm not trying to be like oh look at me i know greek it just helps me as i'm studying the text that's why i do that and i i program my mind to do that so just in case you're wondering chapter one of titus verse one paul a slave of god and an apostle jesus christ according to the faith of joe of those chosen of god and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness in hope of eternal life which god who cannot lie promised before times eternal but at the proper time he revealed his word in proclamation with which i was entrusted according to the command of god our savior verse four to titus my true child in the same faith grace and peace from god the father and christ jesus our savior it's fun when one of my kids show me something that's very important to them i enjoy seeing that for example one of my kids told me she learned how to ride her bike without training wheels i mean that's a big deal for a kid i mean travis is still hasn't gotten to that point yet i'm just picking on you today i don't know why you'll get there but she had to show me dad come on i want to show you it's out there like yeah all right good job it's great i loved it it's wonderful it's one thing to say something it's another thing to actually demonstrate it you may say you can do a handstand my kids like to do try and do handstands so but can you really do a handstand you may say you're a christian but are we as jesus followers demonstrating faith demonstrating the truth that's what the book of titus is about and we're going to be in the book of titus for the next eight weeks and that includes christmas december 19th i'm going to work that in eight weeks we're going to be in the book of titus if you miss anything in the book of titus don't miss this titus is about demonstrating the truth and a command demonstrate the truth display the gospel display the gospel display the gospel display the gospel display the gospel live out christ in your life trying to say different ways

[4:03] show jesus at work in your life by the way you live demonstrate the truth here's some other ways to say this our orthopraxy which means right living is an outflow of our orthodoxy right thinking right living flows from right thinking this is what the letter from paul to titus was all about it's paul's purpose in writing orthopraxy orthopraxy flows from orthodoxy redemption leads to sanctification another way to put it god saves us so that he may change us who belong to him and that we may demonstrate his grace demonstrate the truth you see that in chapter 2 verse 14 who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify himself a people for his own possession zealous for good deeds so god saves us so he may change us we now belong to him and so we can demonstrate we may demonstrate his grace demonstrate the truth another way to say it we've been redeemed from lawless deeds so that we be zealous for good deeds so we we must pursue sound doctrine so it will infect us like a virus no pun intended it will infect our lives leading us leading us to sound godly living except this virus doesn't go away it stays with you the rest of your life we've been redeemed from these lawless deeds so we be zealous passionate for good deeds realizing that it's not the good deeds that save us good deeds don't save you good deeds don't add to your salvation good deeds don't take away from your salvation it's Christ and Christ alone we trust Christ he died he rose

[6:46] I trust in him alone that's the gospel and God redeems us from these lawless deeds so that we be a people who are zealous people who who belong to him zealous for good deeds Christian conduct is always grounded on sound Christian doctrine sound doctrine is the basis for sound living and friends where you have poor doctrine you will most likely have poor living where doctrine is weak the church is weak and living out the gospel will be weak so he writes this to Titus Paul does because Titus was in Crete what's this whole thing about Crete we know about Crete we can see it on the map 156 miles long 30 miles wide known at that time in the Roman Empire to be notoriously untruthful and immoral because of the flagrant immorality in Crete and the reputation within the Roman Empire

[7:59] Paul stressed to Titus the need for members of the Cretan church to godly righteous living to sound doctrine leading to sound living and this was Titus his role to organize and supervise the church firmly exercising his authority as Paul's representative Titus you represent me says Paul we'll look at that in a moment put aspects in order refute false teachers and dissenters but also call the people to replace any immoral behavior with a passion for good deeds which stems from sound doctrine which stems from a sound understanding of the gospel so the church in Crete was disorganized it was leaderless I mean we do the first four verses the next week he's into elders talks about elders it's disorganized leaderless they were prone to sinful behavior and indifference

[9:09] Titus needed to appoint doctrinally and morally sound elders and insist on sound doctrine and godly conduct among Christians because Christian conduct is always based upon sound doctrine so Paul's point in this letter leaders should be concerned about the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth according to godliness God's people are urged towards godly living which is based upon sound doctrine that gives us the hope of eternal life that sound doctrine the gospel Titus lead them in that way so orthopraxy excuse me flows from orthodoxy right living stems from right doctrine demonstrate the truth today in these first four verses we will see about the truth that this really is the truth this really is the truth we're not making this stuff up we're not messing around this really is the truth this whole thing oh that's right

[10:32] I have to make sure in parentheses I put the veracity of scripture veracity means genuineness the realness of scripture the genuineness of scripture this genuinely is God speaking this whole thing about God Jesus our savior faith truth godliness truly is the truth this is the real deal man God's own very character and name is at stake upon what Paul wrote and we stake our lives on this we ain't messing around it's all true and in this longer greeting kind of abnormal for Paul Paul says to Titus that this really is the truth what he really proclaims is genuine and true thus he called

[11:33] Titus you speak this same truth to God's people because you have the authority that I have Titus I'm giving this to you this really is the truth we're not messing around this is serious how serious I wanted you to notice something in the text verse 1 chapter 1 Paul that's Paul the apostle the apostle of the Gentiles this is written by him we don't doubt that notice he says a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ stop there go now down to the end of verse 3 which I was entrusted according to the command of God our Savior do you see something here you notice something he says

[12:36] Paul I'm a slave and an apostle and then at the end here of verse 3 he says I've been entrusted according to the command of God notice how slave connects with the word command notice how apostle connects with the word entrusted do you see that he's doing this on purpose so slave apostle entrusted command a slave is commanded right God's my master says Paul I'm his slave he commands me an apostle has sent out one he sent out with a message and the message he's entrusted with it so what's he saying what is Paul saying to Titus in just these couple words phrases he's saying this

[13:43] Titus listen I'm devoted to God and I have authority from God think of it as like a juicy hamburger hamburger you gotta have the nice bun on top and you gotta have a nice bun on the bottom which makes a nice juicy hamburger well this is not a real hamburger right unless you're me I put in a tortilla we won't get into that but anyways you get a nice hamburger from Colt Grill and it's not a commercial Colt Grill although you have good food you get a hamburger from them it's nice juicy you have that nice bun on top and the one on the bottom and in the middle is gonna be the meat you'll see that in a moment the meat but he's doing this on purpose he's saying I am devoted to God I have authority from God I'm a slave of God and an apostle and he's saying this to underscore not just his role but his authority and since he wrote this to Titus with authority

[14:49] Titus guess what you have that same authority you need to have that same devotion I'm giving this to you you tell the people what I'm telling you God's slave Jesus apostle I'm commanded I'm entrusted with this Paul obeyed his master he spoke the word of God the message of the hope of eternal life so Titus what I'm writing to you is from my devotion to God and I have authority from God to write these things to you in order for you to teach and prescribe prescribe this truth to God's people this is for real I'm not making this stuff up right off the bat right in the very beginning of this Paul is trying to stress this authority has you saying Titus I need you to understand something I'm commanded by God I'm his slave I'm devoted to him

[15:50] I have authority from him slave command apostle entrusted to do what here's the meat first to do what to further the faith of God's elect look at the next part of verse 1 a slave of God an apostle of Jesus Christ says for the faith of those chosen of God literally according to or another way you can translate this is in the interest of or to further Paul's apostleship was in the interest of furthering the faith of God's elect God's elect the election election is God deciding by his own free gracious will who he would save based upon his sovereign choice not ours passing by the others that's what election means it's all by his grace so what is the result of God's election of his people faith which is the response of trust in the truth of the gospel and this truth was written to further your faith to further your trust in Jesus to solidify it to make it stronger so as we go through the book of Titus your faith is going to be strengthened your faith is going to be made stronger

[17:31] Paul wants to further your faith Christian he wants to further your trust in Jesus well not just in this letter but isn't all of God's word meant to further your faith should we not as Christians be in God's word daily reading his word because from his word he furthers our trust in him that he's a God who always keeps his promises should we not he's a slave who's commanded he's an apostle he's entrusted to do what to further the faith of God's elect second to further knowledge of the truth notice the next part according to the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth he wrote to further our faith and to further knowledge of the truth our faith is not fideism fideism means you just have a leap of faith that's outside of reason and logic that's ridiculous we're not fideists it's based on true knowledge so this letter will increase your knowledge of the truth so we should dive deep into

[18:57] God's word to know and to understand do we dive deep into his word so we can know and understand and our love and our relationship with Christ with the living God is to further our faith is to further our knowledge but notice what he says the next part the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness so this knowledge pertains or produces in us godliness this is a word used in the pastoral epistles what does it mean it means piety or our beliefs in action to be a God fearer the outward evidence of true faith in Christ a godly life demonstrates true faith in Jesus a godly life demonstrates the truth so as your faith is furthered as your trust in

[20:07] Jesus is made stronger as your knowledge of the Lord God increases what that should produce in us is godliness we don't gain at least we shouldn't gain theological knowledge just to have that knowledge we gain it to direct us to demonstrate the truth we dive into deep sound doctrines that we would have deep sound living so it would infect the way we live our lives so it's not simply about having a knowledge of Christ and the truth of the gospel that knowledge of the truth will demonstrate itself in a godly Christ like God glorifying life it's belief in action the very word faith is a word of action anyways see this was the highlight of

[21:10] Paul's ministry this was the highlight of his message even and he commissioned Titus have the church of Christ trust Christ and live out that truth in holy godly living because right doctrine leads to right living see I'm not as dumb as I look huh so as we go through this short letter your faith is going to be furthered your knowledge of truth will increase it will increase you towards godliness or at least it should lead us to that because sound doctrine leads to sound living so slave command an apostle is entrusted it's based on what verse two in hope of eternal life or upon hope of eternal life is based on what hope of eternal life see there's a question if this hope of eternal life the phrase qualifies apostle or if it should qualify the word knowledge it's hard

[22:13] I think it connects to the word apostle so in other words if it does connect to apostle then this is the message of hope that Paul speaks to God's elect in his ministry Paul's ministry is founded upon this hope hope of eternal life and keep in mind what hope is hope is not well I hope this guy gets done pretty soon because I'm really hungry type thing I hope this guy gets done because I have my donuts are supposed to be done by 1145 type thing I know you're thinking that Mike Johnson his hearing aids are off that's okay no our hope is confidence expectation it's based on God's promise it our hope is confident expectation and now you say it hallelujah like donuts never mind it's confident expectation it's not

[23:16] I hope this is going to happen I hope this doesn't happen our hope is that it's going to happen it's just a matter of time hope of what our hope of eternal life eternal life remember that's fellowship with God eternal life is not so much a place it's not much a thing it's relationship fellowship with God through Christ Jesus and it's this hope of eternal life upon which Paul's apostleship was founded and he was called to spread this hope to God's elect spread around as he was a slave he was devoted to God he had authority from God to speak this and what about this hope so his this apostleship is based on the hope of eternal life and this hope is based on God's promise or really God keeping his promise because look at verse 2 again in hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie promise before time's eternal no this hope is based on God's promise

[24:28] God will always faithfully fulfill his promises because he cannot lie that phrase there in the word and there in Titus he cannot lie it's one Greek word which means trustworthy God's trustworthy his very character is at stake if any part of the truth of scripture is wrong or erroneous then throw out the whole thing because it's false it's not God's very character is at stake he will fulfill his promise because he's faithful to keep his promises and he made this promise Paul says before the world was in eternity before time's eternal that was his purpose

[25:33] God's promises are totally reliable his very character is at stake and these promises are grounded in his eternal decree one writer says this the promises of life in eternity future are anchored in eternity past so I may have firm hope in the present that's a great quote his promises in the future they're anchored in eternity past so now you have hope now God knows what he's doing you don't God does he's going to keep his promises this is where we come to this word the veracity of scripture the genuineness of scripture this word is inerrant infallible because if it's not then God's very character is at stake look at you you're on top of it thank you

[26:36] God's very character is at stake if any part of this is wrong or erroneous then it's no good we stake this upon who God is as the faithful trustworthy God so again verse 2 in hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie promise before time's eternal then look at verse 3 but at the proper time he manifested so that manifested goes back to God or another way you can translate it is he revealed so God manifested in time and history his promise he determined the right perfect time to reveal the truth notice he manifested he revealed his word one writer says quote God makes known the truth about eternal life oh thank you so much the word here when he says the word it refers to the gospel message of Jesus

[27:47] Christ the gospel he revealed his words all these promise this promise of the gospel Jesus coming to die for sinners on behalf of sinners that promise it came to fruition at the right time and notice he says his word in the proclamation actually it's in the preaching keruso preaching Paul linked the gospel message to his apostolic communication of that message the content of this message of hope was done in and through apostolic proclamation he's an apostle it's entrusted to him he'll say so notice how eternity and time kissed each other at the speaking of this gospel message the reliability of God's promise of eternal life i.e. to save sinners was demonstrated in time to the clear public preaching of the gospel and notice paul says i was entrusted to do this task there the end of verse 3 with which i was entrusted it's a deposit given it's like he was entrusted with five million bucks he's entrusted with this okay here you go paul's like what do i do with this wow i've never had this much money what do i do it never ceased to amaze paul that god entrusted this to him you remember in 1 timothy what he said i was entrusted with this gospel but remember what he said christ jesus came to the world to save sinners what does he say among whom i am the worst why because i persecuted the church of god i persecuted christians i wanted christians to die and he trusted me with this me wrapped up in one word grace it was by his grace that he entrusted paul with this vital important message with the truth of all people to commit this divine truth to paul really and he says i was entrusted with this according to the command of god our savior here's that the command there's that slave part again there's the bottom part of the hamburger this entrusting came from god himself notice he says god who is the savior god saves that phrase god our savior it occurs nowhere else in his letters except here in titus he says again chapter 2 verse 10 chapter 3 verse 4 even chapter 2 verse 13 yes god is our savior he sent his son to save and are you here today and you need to trust in jesus to be saved have you repented and trusted in christ god can be your savior christ can be your savior jesus can save you he says come my very character is staked upon this truth come and i will forgive you come and i will give you life that's the gospel paul wasn't making this stuff up this is how

[31:49] we should his people live this is how this is how serious and how vital it is so may we demonstrate the truth and sound godliness and then notice what he does here in verse 4 verse 4 he says to titus my true child in a common faith titus he says a true child in that same truth who was titus who was this guy he probably was from syrian antioch probably a gentile converted under paul's ministry paul thought very highly of titus calling him his brother partner fellow worker and then here my true child he truly was titus a demonstration of the gospel in his character and his conduct he was an esteemed and trusted co-worker with paul you see that in other places there in the new testament with in paul's letters and and and titus from what we're able to gather about him he had a forceful personality he was resourceful energetic tactful and yet skillful in handling difficult issues and situations you should see that in chapter three and he was effective and soothing people he was loved by paul being his true child in the same faith notice he says in a common faith or the same faith and that jews and chantiles both trust in jesus messiah and this is important christianity is the fulfillment of biblical judaism and he's saying titus and himself we are one in the faith in the truth there's not two separations here that's important for him to make known within the church of crete there's no separation here he's my child in the same faith in the same truth there's no disagreement they were not at odds with each other here and then last notice what paul does at the end of verse four as a way to give us two promises from god's word grace and peace verse four grace and peace from god my god the father and christ jesus our savior grace and peace grace god's undeserved favor which is what we need to save us a peace which is what we have with god who saved us grace god's election is grace christ's death is grace the spirit awakening our hearts regenerating us renewing us that's his grace and we have peace with god the god who saves us we have peace with him both are what one writer says quote the essence of what christians need and both the father and the son gave these to us god is our savior and notice he says christ jesus our savior which i think is perfect a perfect passage for us to walk through as we come to the lord's supper where you will be able to remind yourself of the gospel of grace of how you have peace with god that god keeps his promises that this is all true this is not made up this really is the truth and god has staked his very character on this by sending his son to die on your behalf as a substitute so our

[35:50] orthopraxy is an outflow of orthodoxy right living flows from right thinking god saves us so that he may change us who belong to him so we will demonstrate the truth this really is the truth and we can remind ourselves of this when we come to the lord's table not necessarily in a way where we have to make ourselves worthy of it because you're not worthy of it you never will be worthy of it but jesus is worthy and he's the one who makes us worthy so when you take the bread and the juice you're reminding yourself of the gospel truth it points you to the gospel it points you to the fact that i've given jesus my life he has me and the way i'm going to display that is when i take that bread and i drink that juice it's a way where i'm eating i'm assimilating him into my life i've done that already it's just a reminder of that and then it's lord is there sin that i'm i'm not confessing i'm not repenting am i holding something back am i trying to hide from you and not opening things up to you that's what we do lord i'm open and bare before you you know my heart i remind myself of the gospel truth i remind myself of your grace and i'm a sinner and i should i should be condemned but yet you show your grace to me that's that's the heart of the lord's supper okay and by the way if you're here you say i'm not a member of this church but if you come from a church of like faith and practice and we would probably prefer you're baptized by immersion but coming from a church of like faith and practice you partake of the lord's supper with us don't think you have to be a member of this church this is for us as christians if you're not a christian you shouldn't take this and if you're a follower of christ and you have something against another believer you've not made things right with them first go demonstrate the truth make things right with that person and then come next time to partake of the lord's supper this is a reminder of gospel truth to us to remember what god has done in his grace let's take a moment let's pray and so father we we examine our hearts grace and we know we are not worthy we know we are sinners in need of your grace and so we say thank you for your grace and these elements are a reminder of what christ has done for us and what we needed him to do for us and how we do not bank our salvation on our goodness we do not bank our salvation on our good deeds we do not bank our salvation on our good thoughts or our good words we bank our salvation on jesus and who he is and his finished work for us on the cross therefore having been justified by his blood we are saved from god's wrath through him and now we are reconciled to you we are now your friends we have eternal life we have relationship with you remind us of this help us spirit of god help us remind us of this and may it spur us on to godliness may it spur us on to holy living may it kindle in us a flame for proclaiming the gospel

[39:51]  may it kindle in us a flame being zealous for good deeds not because it adds to our salvation but we are just so enamored over what you have done for us we are so thankful so i encourage you to do it at this time examining your heart reflecting on the promises of god and the gospel take this minutes or so whatever we know we do this each week it's time of silence for you to think ponder and after a few moments we'll sing the first verse of the hymn that we enjoy singing the communion hymn but take just these few moments examine your heart and then your mind reflect upon the truth of god's word revealed now his promise in jesus would you do that now please thank you you you you