Entrusted: Letters to Timothy & Titus

The Twin Epiphanies of Grace and Glory

Titus 2:11-15

Sermon Transcript

Introduction

I imagine we all grew up hearing someone tell us: "Look both ways before crossing the street!" Look right, look left, and make sure you don't get hit by a car. It's not rocket science, is it?

But even at places full of smart people—places like Yale University—people need reminders to look both ways. A few years ago, Yale put out a campaign to remind students—bright as they are—to look both ways before they cross the street. Know why they did this? Because the students were so absorbed with what was right in front of them that they didn't even bother to look up before crossing. And guess what was right in front of them all the time: their cell phones. They'd walk right out into the street with eyes facedown—texting, or surfing the web, or looking at social media. And bam! they'd get hit by a car. That was happening to students at Yale. Even though they were bright, they needed to be told something as elementary as "look right and look left before you cross." They suffered from myopic vision, nearsightedness, looking only at what was right in front of them, and not paying any attention to their surroundings.

This happens to us too, not when we cross the street, but as we go through daily life. We have myopic vision, only seeing what's right in front of us. We just see the immediate, just the now. I feel this particularly in 2020 and I bet you do too. It's so easy to be completely absorbed with what is directly in front of us. We have an election which seems as crazy as anything could be. We have riots in our nation. We have a pandemic that's affecting all of us in numerous ways. It's hard to remember 2019, to remember what life was like before Coronavirus was a household word. Right? It feels hard to remember what it was like before we knew the name George Floyd. It's hard to remember 2019. And sometimes it's even harder to think about what 2021 will bring. I struggle even to think past what will happen in November. All of these things are hard to see because my vision is so myopic. I am absorbed with the present. And I imagine you often feel the same. This happens to us so easily in the Christian life.

And yet, we are called to look both ways as we go about this life. we are called to look both back to what Christ has done and forward to what Christ will do. John Stott says this about our text today: "The best way to live now, in this present age, is to learn to do spiritually what is impossible physically, namely, to look in opposite directions at the same time." We're really bad at that, aren't we? We're really bad at looking back and remembering what Christ has done and looking forward and longing for what Christ will do. We look so much at the present. But Stott says what this text shows us is that the best way to live now in the present is to learn to look in opposite directions at once—to learn to look both ways; to learn to live today in light of yesterday and in light of tomorrow.

And that's what Paul is driving at in this text. This sermon is called “The Twin Epiphanies of Grace and Glory”. If you didn't grow up with the church calendar, then you might not know what an epiphany is. Epiphany comes from the Greek word which means to appear. Epiphany is a season of celebration after Christmas celebrating that Jesus appeared in the incarnation. The one we've been waiting for has appeared. Epiphany celebrates his appearing. Likewise for Paul. In verses 11 to 15 Paul draws our attention to two epiphanies (two appearings): glory and of grace.

He draws our attention to those so that we can know how to live in the present. This text starts with the word "for", which points back to Titus 2:1–10. Remember Titus 2:1–10 was all about how we live out godliness in the present. Paul is saying: "live in the present this way, because of what Christ has done, and what Christ will do—because of the epiphany of grace and the epiphany of glory." So as we read through this text, look for those two appearances. See if you can see that structure as we read.

Paul writes in Titus 2:11–15: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.”

Grace Has Appeared

First, we see in verse 11 that grace has appeared. We're looking back to what has happened. Grace has appeared. The first thing I want us to notice is that grace is not abstract. We so often treat the grace of God as an abstract noun, something that God doles out. Maybe something like money that God gives, and we can receive more of, but something that might run out someday. But that's not how Paul treats grace. He says, "the grace of God has appeared." When he uses this word appeared, he's using the same word that he consistently uses to refer to either (1) Jesus' first appearing in the incarnation or (2) Jesus second appearing, when he returns to redeem his people. So when Paul says the grace of God has appeared, he's not talking about an abstract noun, like the word grace appeared. He's talking about grace as a person. Grace has appeared because Jesus has appeared. Grace is not abstract. Rather grace is inseparable from the incarnation of Jesus. We see this in John 1:14. John writes, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Grace cannot be separated from the person of Jesus Christ.

This grace does something. Paul says, “the grace of God has appeared,” verse 11, “bringing salvation for all people.” Grace in Jesus saves; Jesus saves. This is fundamental to the Gospel. Grace brings salvation by justifying sinners—by declaring them righteous. You and I, as sinners—enemies of God, have been declared righteous by the grace of God given to us in Jesus Christ. You and I have been saved by grace. Ephesians 2: By grace, you have been saved. It's not something you've done. It's not works that you may boast. It's a gift of God. It wipes the slate clean. It declares us to be righteous like Jesus is righteous

But grace does not merely hit the reset button. It's not just bringing salvation. It's doing something to change us as well. This is what Paul says in verse 12. Notice the grace of God brings salvation for all people making salvation available to all in Christ and then, in verse 12, grace is “training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age.” Grace doesn't just save us. Jesus doesn't just save us. Grace in Christ trains us.

The theological word we use for this is sanctification. Grace in Christ Jesus sanctifies us. Jesus himself trains sinners to be sanctified, to be holy. This may seem counterintuitive to us. So often, when we think about grace, we abstract grace away from Jesus and think what grace brings is mainly forgiveness—grace lets things go. It's not a big deal. If I sin, I don't have to pursue righteousness because I'm under grace, not the law. To say that you need to be righteous, that you need to pursue holiness, seems like legalism to us. Grace, we think, just means letting that go.

But friends, that's called antinomianism—anti-law or lawlessness. And Christ came to redeem us from lawlessness. Christ came to train us toward godliness. We are trained by Christ “to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.” Rather than making works unnecessary, grace requires good works!

Why does grace make good works necessary? Why, if we're saved by grace, not by works, does grace require good works? Because grace is inseparable from Jesus. Grace comes to us through Jesus alone, and Jesus is holy. Grace comes to us in Jesus Christ, the holy Son of God and we are called to image Jesus. We are called to be holy as he is holy. For us to be united with Christ and yet to have nothing to do with good works is an oxymoron. It can't happen because Jesus himself devoted himself to good works. Jesus himself displayed the holiness of God in His good works.

Paul puts it this way in Romans 6:1–14: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”

See how grace demands good works? Grace requires that we do not live as those who are slaves to sin—we're not live as slaves to worldly passions like we once did. Grace requires that we now live in light of our new life in Christ Jesus. Jesus Himself is holy. Therefore grace requires godliness; good works; holiness. Grace trains us this way. We become learners in the School of Grace. How does that work? How does grace train us to be righteous when our flesh wages war against us?

The answer is that we are united with Christ. We are saved and set free from slavery to sin. In Christ Jesus, we are given the ability to no longer slavishly follow our sinful desires and worldly passions. Jesus himself shows us how to live. We are trained by Jesus himself. Jesus shows us a life that renounces the god of self—renounces the idolatry that says, "I have to have what I want. I have to have what I think I need." And Jesus teaches us to live for the sake of others. As Paul says in Philippians 2, Jesus didn't count his God-ness something to be used for his own advantage; he counted it a thing to be used for our advantage! Jesus laid his life down for us. He humbled himself, even becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross for you and for me. That's what Jesus trains us to do. By grace, he trains us to live just like that. And he enables us to live just like that by freeing us from sin and by sending His Spirit into us to work that out.

Friends, this helps us fight our myopic vision because our tied-ness to the present and to what's right in front of us is ultimately a tied-ness to ourselves. It's ultimately either legalism or lawlessness. It could be a legalism that says I'm not justified therefore I need to justify myself. I've got to pay close attention to right now to make sure that nobody has anything against me; that I'm in the clear; that I'm living uprightly enough to be accepted by God. Such a way of thinking is obsessed with self-justification and therefore always stuck perseverating on the present. But the grace of Jesus frees us from that by saving us and justifying us, so we no longer have to justify ourselves. The grace of Jesus kills legalism.

Others among us are irresistibly tied to the present because we are so absorbed with living for pleasure. We live in the moment, living with one goal: make sure we get exactly what we want. And our one fear is that we won't get it. This could be something we want or it could even be something we're sure we need. There's not much difference in how it affects our myopia. The outcome is the same: we become obsessed with the present. But guess what? Jesus trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. The grace of Jesus that trains us teaches us how to live for another, how to not be so absorbed with ourselves—with our needs and desires. Grace kills self-absorbed lawlessness. Paul even says as much in verse 14: Jesus gave himself for us “to redeem us from all lawlessness.” Jesus did that work so that we could be freed from those forces that pull us into the present only. We can be freed to look back and to remember the grace given to us in Jesus Christ.

We are free, then, to remember grace. Friend, we do this by remembering stories of God's grace. We must know the great stories of God's grace written down for us in our Bibles. Time and time again, we read of God's faithfulness and kindness toward his people. God keeps his promises. I'm reading through Jeremiah and Kings right now and I'm seeing over and over that even though God's people are unfaithful, God remains faithful to His promises. We have a record of God's faithfulness—God's grace— that we can look back to and remember. Most importantly, we have the record of the cross. If God has given us Jesus, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Rom 8:32)

Friends, you have even more than that: you have the record of God's grace in your own life. If you know Jesus, you can look back on your life and remember the ways that God has proven His Grace to you—over and over and over again. All it takes is a little walk down memory lane. Look at some old pictures, think about your past, think about where you've been and where God has brought you, by His grace. Think about the ways that Jesus has trained you to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. Think about the ways he has trained you to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives. Friends, we've all grown in sanctification. If you've been walking with Jesus for any length of time, you can look back and remember and be encouraged.

Another thing we can do is leverage the collective memory of the local church. What I mean by that is that when it's hard to see God's grace in your life—when you have trouble remembering; when you can't think of a single story that you learned in Sunday School of God's grace—that's what the local church is for. That's why we gather together. We are called to gather together and to sing to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We are called to gather together and to consider how to stir one another up to love and good works. And how do we do that? By pointing each other to the grace of Jesus Christ; by calling each other to look away from the myopic view of the present and look back to what Jesus has done. I need that reminder every week and so do you. So leverage the collective memory of the local church, friends.

Glory Will Appear

But we're not only called to look back. We're called to look forward too—not just back to what Jesus has done, but forward to what Jesus will do. And that's where Paul goes next. He continues in verse 13, “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Notice again, glory is not abstract. Glory is not separated from the person of Jesus Christ. We're not waiting for this abstract thing called glory. No, friends, we're waiting for Jesus. Jesus, who is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature (Heb 1:1–3). We're waiting for Jesus, in whose face we see the knowledge of the glory of God (2 Cor 4:6). We're waiting for Jesus who is glorious. Listened to how he's described in the book of Revelation. “Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.’” (Rev 1:12–18).

Friends, that's the glory we're waiting for—our blessed hope; the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. That's what we're waiting for. It's a blessed hope. It's where our hope is turned because this glory that is in Christ Jesus will right every wrong. That's what's alluded to when John says Jesus has that sword coming out of his mouth. Jesus comes to judge and to make war. Every enemy will be defeated. Right now Psalm 2 says the nation's rage against God and against his anointed. But friends that is not forever. One day, when Jesus returns like this, he will defeat all the nations who oppose him. All who oppose him he will crush with a rod and all who find their shelter in him will be blessed. Jesus will defeat every enemy when he returns. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess without exception that Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Phil 2:9–11). When he returns, perfect justice and perfect peace will prevail over everything. We see that Isaiah chapter 11.

When he returns all will be made right. Revelation 21:1–4: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Death will be gone—defeated! There will be no more Coronavirus. There will be no more miscarriages. There will be no more watching your loved ones slip away. All pain will be gone. There will be no more chronic disability. There will be no more disease. There will be no more reason for sorrow because the glory of our great God and Savior has appeared. He will be with us. What a day! This is our blessed hope (as Paul says in verse 13) because when the glory of Jesus appears, he will right every wrong.

Not only that though, but we also get to share in his glory because we are his bride. When the glory of our great God and Savior appears, it will be the glory of our husband appearing. Paul writes in verse 14 that this Jesus is the one “who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” When you see the words "people for his own possession," they should trigger memories of the Old Testament. If you've read Exodus or Deuteronomy recently, you might recognize that language. It's covenant language. It's what God calls his chosen people, Israel: people for his own possession (Deut 7:6–11). When Paul writes that Jesus redeemed us, he's drawing on the imagery of Exodus where God redeemed his chosen people from slavery in Egypt and then made a covenant with them to be his treasured people, his chosen ones, people for his own possession. Here in Titus, then, Paul is using this covenant language to describe what Jesus has done for you and me. Such covenant language is marriage language.

This marriage language is talking about you and me as Christ's bride—people purified for his own possession, not as slaves, but as a bride; those he loves. And so, his appearing—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ—is the appearing of our husband. United to our husband, Jesus, we share in his glory. That's what Paul says in Colossians 3: our life is hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our life appears, we will appear with him in glory. We share in his glory. And when our husband appears, every chance to object to our marriage will be gone. “If anyone has a reason why these two should not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace.” Any objection to why you should be joined with Christ will be gone. There will be no more reason that you can think of or conjure in your head or the devil can try to convince you is true for why you should be separated from Christ. We will be with him. Every objection will be silenced and we will be pure. Ephesians five says as much. Paul writes, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” That's our future, friends. That's what Christ is doing in us even as he saves us and trains us in righteousness. He is purifying us. Paul says that in verse 14: he gave himself up for us to purify for himself a people for his own possession; to purify for himself a bride! Our husband gave himself for us and he is returning.

What that means for us is the "now" that we are so absorbed with is not ultimate. Now is not ultimate reality and truth. Now is not the end of the story. What is now is not what will always be. Paul says we see in a mirror dimly (1 Cor 13:12). Therefore, when we see in this world what looks like prevailing injustice and lies and there seems to be no way things will ever get better, our hope is undeterred. Our hope is not in things getting better here; things might even get worse and probably will. But our hope, our blessed hope is in the appearing of the glory of our husband, Jesus Christ. And ultimately, it is his glory that will right every wrong; his glory will cause truth, and justice, and peace to prevail forever and ever and ever and ever. So when it's not right now, we don't have to lose heart. We don't have to lose hope. We don't have to be so absorbed with why it's not right now and what to do about it. We can be freed from that because we are assured that justice and truth will prevail and we don't have to hope in worldly systems.

This has tremendous implications for how we respond to this election season and this Coronavirus crisis, doesn't it? We do not have to hope in these things being fixed now, by human means, because we have a blessed hope that will appear—the glory of our husband. This glory—the appearing of Jesus—assures us, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, that our labor right now is never in vain. Because even if it doesn't look like anything is happening—even if it looks like it's pointless and futile and we may as well eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die—even when it looks like that, that's not what's true. We look to the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

This future glory teaches us what is truly lasting, what is ultimate reality: Christ joined with his bride. See friends, we're not waiting as single people waiting to be married. We're waiting as a bride, already married, awaiting consummation of the marriage. The joy that a husband and wife experience on their wedding day is a dim mirror, a faint reflection. As they feast with friends and as they consummate their marriage in sexual union, these joys are a dim preview of the greater joy and intimacy we will share in union with Jesus when he appears in glory. We don't wait as single people hoping to be married. We wait as married people waiting for the consummation of our marriage. This, friends, is the reality that will last—our union with Christ as his bride. Governments will pass away; families will pass away. In Heaven, we are the bride of Christ. That is the only thing that lasts.

As it is the only thing that lasts, it teaches us now how to live now. Because we are not single people, we don't live as single people, do we? It would be unfaithful for a bride who is married to her husband to live as a single person. Wives and husbands live in light of their marriage to one another. We see that in earthly marriages. How much more so with Christ and his Church?

As a local church, we are a kingdom outpost, a spot on this earth and in this time, where the glory of Christ that will appear starts to shine through a little bit, as we live out being a bride to Christ. We live to please our husband. That's what Paul means when he says in verse 14, that Jesus gave himself to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are what? Zealous for good works, who love what their husband loves. That's what Paul's getting at. That's what we're called to be. As the church, we're called to love what Christ loves. That's why the grace of God and the glory of God in Christ Jesus require good works, because we are not single anymore. We're married and with that covenant relationship of love and union comes responsibilities.

Look to Jesus

All of these things—looking back to what Jesus has done and looking forward to what Jesus will do—can be summed up as looking to Jesus. If grace is inseparable from Jesus and glory is inseparable from Jesus, and we're called to look to grace and we're called to look to glory, then we're called to look to Christ. It's not rocket science, friends. It doesn't take a degree from Yale to comprehend this, right? It's simple, as simple as looking both ways when we cross the street. It's foundational to living the Christian life— to living in the now—that we must look to Jesus.

So the question then for us, is, are we fixing our eyes on Christ? Are you fixing your eyes on Jesus? Do you live in a way that helps you or hinders you from looking to Christ? Because it will be one way or the other won't it? What you do with your life, what you devote yourself to, what you prioritize, what you long for, how you spend your time—all will either help you or hinder you from looking at Jesus. But even more, we're not called to walk this alone, are we? Earlier in Titus 2, Paul writes that older women are supposed to teach what is good and so train younger women. And he tells Titus, as an older, mature Christian man to show himself in all things to be a model of good works. Our godliness matters not just for ourselves, but for the sake of others. Are you living a life that helps your brothers and sisters in this bride look to Jesus? Are you living in a way that helps your brothers and sisters behold Christ? That's what we're called to do. Are you doing it? Am I doing it? That's the question, we need to ask ourselves.

If we find the answer is no, we need to not then try to justify ourselves, because we have been justified. We need to instead let Christ's life train us and his coming glory give us the motivation to work hard. Yet it's not us that work, it's the grace of God that works in us. Paul says that about himself. He worked harder than anybody, but it wasn't him, it was the grace of God at work in him. Are you doing this? And are you prepared to persist in doing this, through suffering?—because, friends, the reality of our present circumstances is there's so much suffering. There are so many trials. Through many trials and suffering, we enter the kingdom of God. Not because God just likes to be mean. Not because God's not sovereign and in control. But because we are not living in our final home. We are longing, like Abraham and Sarah, and all of those who by faith, went before us for the home that is to come (Heb 11:8–16). We are citizens of a different kingdom. We are a bride waiting for our husband. And while there while we're apart, there's going to be suffering, there's going to be longing. Are we prepared to persist in faithfulness to our groom? That's what we're called to do.

Hebrews puts it this way: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” (Heb 12:1–3).

Friends, we are called to turn our eyes upon Jesus; to look full in his wonderful face. When we do—what happens?—the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light—of what?—his glory and his grace.

Graceless Gospels

Titus 1:10–16

Sermon Transcript - “Graceless Gospels” - Titus 1:10–16

Introduction

Many of you know part of my story is pastoring at a church revitalization, an effort help a church revive their witness to the gospel. If you know anything about church revitalization situations, you know that often the congregation is older. And often, the congregation has been doing things a certain way for decades. And people that have been doing a certain thing a certain way for decades, do not like change— understandably so. As I get older and have been doing things a certain way for decades, I'm sure that'll be true of me too. One of the things that happens, though, in that context, is that you come in making some changes. And that brings some conflict.

One common conflict—church revitalization pastors will know exactly what I'm talking about— revolves around pictures of white Jesus. In our church, we had a library room that had this gorgeous yellow–brown–green shag carpet, and some older furniture and some musty books and a trophy case full of trophies (I think there were bowling trophies). And inside there on one of the walls was a picture of Jesus with long flowing blond hair and blue eyes and pale skin. It was white Jesus.

The other pastor and I, wanting to help us gain a better picture of who Jesus was, took that picture down because it doesn't accurately represent Jesus. That didn't go well. We had a congregational meeting and in the middle of that meeting, the issue of taking down the picture of white Jesus was brought up by a couple of dear ladies, who were very frustrated that we had taken down this picture. And as we were trying to understand why they were so frustrated, one of them said this: "How will my grandchildren know what Jesus looks like, if we don't have this picture up?"

So guess how I responded, I said, "there are 25 pictures of Jesus in this room right
now" (implying that the image of Christ is in all of us). Mic drop, right? I thought I had responded well. I think it's true—we do make better pictures of Jesus than a portrait hanging on a wall. But I want to encourage you not to respond to that story like I did. I don't think I responded correctly because I was responding like the Pharisee to the tax collector. I was saying, "Thank You, Lord, that I am not as foolish as this woman who thinks her grandchildren need to see a picture of Jesus hanging on a wall to know what he's like." I thank you, Lord, that I'm not like that foolish person, deceived into thinking this way. The problem is, I am like that. And so are you.

We are all tempted to look at our own version of a picture of white Jesus and say, "surely this is what Jesus is like." And our pictures are often found not in his Word, but in the world. You see, it's a danger for us all—the same danger that this dear saint faced— of turning away from beholding Christ in God's Word and turning towards the world (whether that's an artist's representation or whether that's something else in the culture) to see what Jesus is like. We are all in danger of having our own portrait of white Jesus in our hearts. The problem with that, as you can probably guess, is that if we turn away from God's self-revelation in His Word, we will end up worshiping a God created in our own image, whether he has long blonde hair and blue eyes or not. If we turn away from God's self-portrait that he has painted for himself in Scripture, we are in deadly peril. If we paint over that picture, we are in deadly peril. And my goal this morning is to help you see that from this text in Titus. I want us to see how turning away from God's self-portrait in Scripture and turning towards the world to try to understand what God is like, what Christ is like, and what the gospel is like—how that leads to destruction; how that leads to false teaching.

That's what we see in Titus 1:10–16. So let's turn there now. Paul writes to Titus, “For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, 'Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.' This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.”

The Root of False Teaching: A problem with authority

Paul starts off this paragraph in verse 10 with the word "for." He's tying this paragraph back to what we saw last week: this urgent need for good elders—faithful elders—who are showing the godliness that the gospel produces in their life, who are clinging to the trustworthy word as taught. Paul's saying elders are so important "for there are many who are insubordinate." This was a clear and present danger in Crete. Those who would contradict sound doctrine, as he puts it in verse nine, were prevalent. There's a lot of them. They're being led astray and leading others astray. It's dangerous and the root of this danger is an authority problem. Look with me at verses 10 and verses 16. There's an authority sandwich here.

In verse 10, Paul says “there are many who are insubordinate”—a word addressing how you respond to authority. Then in verse 16, Paul says about these same people, “they are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.” They are disobedient—another word dealing with their response to authority. At the root of this problem of false teaching and those being led astray by false teachers is a problem with some kind of authority. So the question that should pop into our minds is: "insubordinate against whom?" or "disobedient against what?"

We have our answer if we look a little bit back in Titus. We see in Titus 1:2–3 that Paul is a servant of God and an apostle, “in the hope of eternal life which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in His Word through the preaching with which I've been entrusted by the command of God our Savior.” In other words, in giving his Word God has revealed himself, his character, his nature. How do you know God never lies? Because he's shown us over and over again in his Word that is faithful and trustworthy and true. How do you know God's going to keep his promise? Because he's kept other greater promises. How do we know that God is a Savior, desiring to save a people? Because he's told us. In His word, God has revealed himself. And it is an authoritative self-revelation. Since he's God, it carries weight, it carries authority. And since he's the one telling us about himself, it's a self-revelation. It's God's self-portrait in the Scriptures.

God has revealed himself in his Word and it's this revelation that elders are called to hold firm to (Titus 1:9). Part of the qualifications Titus is supposed to look for in an elder is someone who holds firm to the trustworthy word as taught—this trustworthy word in which God manifested the hope of eternal life; this trustworthy word in which God manifested his own character and nature. Elders are supposed to hold firm to that—God's authoritative self-revelation—so that they may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine, yes, but also to rebuke those who contradict it. In other words, the false teachers that are deserving of rebuke—those many who are insubordinate, who are disobedient—are contradicting the trustworthy word (God's self-revelation). Those who are teaching falsely are contradicting God's self- portrait. They're saying, God isn't really like that. The Gospel isn't really like that. That's not really what God requires of you. This is. They're contradicting that because they're insubordinate, they're disobedient. They're rejecting the authority of God's self-revelation. So false teaching—being led astray by false teaching or becoming a false teacher—all starts with the rejection of God's trustworthy word.

This is not news to us. If you've read your Bible, it shouldn't be news to you because you get there really quickly in Genesis 3. This is not a new problem. The temptation that Satan offered to Eve was "did God really say?". The temptation Satan offered to Adam and Eve was, "You can do better. You can be like God. You can make your own determination. You can reject His authority and not die." Since the garden, human beings like you and I have been tempted to reject God's good authority thinking we can do better. "I know God requires this but God doesn't live in these times. Jesus never lived in 2020 during a pandemic, so I know better." We're tempted to do that. We're tempted to think we know better. We're tempted to think we can do better. We're tempted to reject God's self-portrait and instead say, "let us create God in our image." Lord, forgive us!

When we turn away from God's self-revelation—when these false teachers reject God's authoritative self-revelation in his trustworthy word—what fills the space? Paul says in verse 14 that these are people who turn away from the truth. But they don't live in a void where there's only truth here and nothing else over here. If you turn away from the truth, what do you turn towards? What fills the gap of who God is and what he requires? God gives us the answer in His Word when he contrasts his kingdom with the world's kingdom.

The Fruit of False Teaching: A god in your own image

If you turn away from God and His truth, the only thing left to turn to is the world and its truth, which we find either in ourselves or in the society and culture around us. Often it's a mix of the two, isn't it? This is what happens to the false teachers at Crete. Because they reject God's authority in His Word, they begin to reflect not godliness, but their culture and its norms. Look at verse 12. Paul quotes one of their own cultural philosophers. He writes, “One of the Cretans, a prophet (or poet) of their own said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons’” (Titus 1:12). This is their own judgment on their society. And Paul says it's true! This is what Cretan culture is like.

In Greek, the word meaning to be a Cretan came to mean to be a liar, lying was so common. Cretans are always liars. And look at what these false teachers do. What does Paul say about them in verse 10? They are empty talkers and deceivers. They reflect their culture. They reflect the norms of their culture, not godliness, not truthfulness—God is truth. They reflect "Cretans are always liars and so am I". That's not how God's people are supposed to be—"pagans are always this way and so am I. People who reject God are always this way and so am I." That's not how God's people are meant to be. But the Cretan false teachers do this because they've rejected God's word.

Not only do they lie. The Cretan prophet says Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. The Cretans had a reputation in the ancient world as being people who thought no means of ill gain was bad. Highway robbery was considered good by them according to some of the ancient Greek writers. In their society, there was no ill gain, there was just gain. And if you could get it by being lazy, all the better. And what do the false teachers do in verse 11? “They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families...”—by doing what?—“by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.” They are reflecting their culture—not God and His word—because they've turned away from his self-revelation.

They become liars. They become lazy gluttons. Then the gospel for them becomes an attempt to address those cultural sins. Not an attempt at being reconciled with the Holy God, whom we have disobeyed, but an attempt to correct deficiencies in our culture. For the Cretan false teachers, it was all about purity. That's what Paul's getting at when he interjects that strange sentence in verse 15. "To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled." On the first read, you might think, "thanks, Paul, I don't really know how that connects to the rest of this." But here Paul is addressing the false teachers' claims. They claimed that the way you become pure is by what you do—which is a very Jewish understanding of purity from the Old Testament purity laws. They thought the way we achieve holiness—the path to holiness—is through what we do, through our works, through our abstaining from certain foods or certain practices.

This is the same challenge that was happening in Ephesus that we saw addressed by Paul in 1 Timothy 4—false teachers claimed that to be holy you had to abstain from marriage and certain foods. Paul responds with the same argument: everything created by God is good if it's received with thanksgiving. His point is not "eat what you want and as much of it as you want." His point is not that you can't do anything to defile yourself. His point is the same point that Jesus made: it's what comes out of a person that defiles them, not what goes into them. In other words, it's a matter of the heart— holiness is a matter of transformed hearts not of what we do. But for these false teachers, holiness became a matter of what they do. The gospel was Jesus plus abstaining from these things. They had redefined the gospel in an attempt to deal with their cultural sins and as a result— because they had rejected God's authoritative self-revelation—they did much harm. That's what we see in verse 11. Paul says "they must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families." They're destroying God's people by their false teaching. They're destroying God's people by turning away from God's self-portrait and trying to paint their own.

At Crete, this might have been happening like it was in 1 Timothy 4. Think of how upsetting it would be if you were told that the only way for you to be pure is to abstain from marriage. And if you're already married, guess what you have to do? You've gotta dissolve that marriage. Can you imagine the destabilizing effect that would have on God's people, not to mention the contradiction of the beauty of marriage we see in Ephesians 5? It's evil; it's destroying God's people. The false teachers were causing much harm. And in the process of redefining the gospel and reflecting their culture and causing all this harm, they actually became the biggest hypocrites. of all.

In verse 16, Paul says, “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.” It's really important that we understand this is not talking about claiming to know God and being a sinner. That's not hypocrisy. Claiming that you know God and still being a sinner—still being in need of saving grace, still failing day in and day out to follow Christ, and coming to him and confessing your sins and repenting and trying a new—that's not hypocrisy, that's the gospel! The world would accuse you of hypocrisy, but that's not what Paul is talking about.

What he is talking about is exactly the opposite: claiming to know God and denying the gospel. He's not talking about claiming to know God and clinging to the gospel, but claiming to know God and denying the gospel. We do this through licentiousness (I know God, and God is a forgiving God so I can do whatever I want)—that's not the gospel. Licentiousness is lawlessness. That's evil. That's a hypocrite. Claiming to know God denying the gospel through licentiousness. But we can also claim to know God and deny the gospel through legalism (I know God and He really likes me, because I prayed a lot and gave a lot this week. I know God, and I can come to church because I did pretty good at resisting sin and temptation this week.). That's a distortion of the gospel that's just as evil. If you think you're more able to come to church this week than you were last week because you did better in your fight with sin this week than you did last week, you're a hypocrite. That's not the gospel.

These false teachers become hypocrites because they turn away from the true gospel and make a new gospel in their own image. We do that too. We make a gospel in our own image because it makes more sense to us. It doesn't make sense to us that we can know a holy and true and just God who is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness when we confess and turn to Christ. That doesn't make sense. We're not going to come up with that on our own. We're not going to come up with that from the world. The only place we find the true gospel is God's Word. And so when we turn from God's word—when we turn from his self-revelation in His Word—to these false gospels, we become what Paul concludes these teachers are. “They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.” (Titus 1:16).

What Does This Look Like In The Church?

Friends, this was happening in Crete. But it's not just in Crete. It's happening today too. It happens all the time. And it is a danger for God's people—for you and me. It happens all the time in churches. Some churches flat out reject the authority of God's Word—they've long ago abandoned it. This is liberal Protestantism at its core. These "churches" say God's word carries no weight and authority in here. They completely abandon Scripture and end up teaching something else—the doctrines of men. It's wicked and horrible. Most of us aren't drawn, I would guess, to a flat out rejection of God's authority in His Word.

It doesn't have to be a flat out rejection, though it can be a distortion beyond recognition. This is the prosperity gospel. Friends, I grew up in the prosperity gospel movement and it's important you know, I didn't outright reject God's word. I wanted to know God's word. But what I was taught out of God's word was a distortion of the gospel that is unrecognizable. But I still thought I was following Christ; I still thought I had the right picture of Christ. I would guess, that most of you probably aren't in danger of following a false teacher like Joel Osteen. It'd be easy for us to pick on the prosperity gospel boogeyman —to denounce someone like Kenneth Hagen and say, "Watch out!" But I don't think that's the most immediate danger to us.

I think the most immediate danger to us and to the church now is not an outright rejection of God's Word or distortion beyond recognition, but just plain neglect. Just plain neglect of God's trustworthy word. We see this in churches. Ask yourself, is the preacher of that church acting as a herald of King Jesus and the gospel of his kingdom? Or is that pastor being a peddler of proverbial wisdom? We see many churches where the preaching is a bunch of proverbial wisdom and not the heralding of Christ's kingdom. I feel some empathy for such preachers. Preachers are tempted to teach what we ought not for the sake of shameful gain. Or another way I would put that is to teach what people want to hear for the sake of attendance.

I heard an example of this last week. I want you to see how this works because it's so subtle. I listened to a sermon from a large Evangelical church. The sermon was on developing good habits. The pastor was riffing off of a book by Drew Dyck called "Your Future Self Will Thank You," which is a good book. And he was saying good things. The main point of his sermon was this: "successful people do consistently what others do occasionally". That'll preach! His main points were three ways to establish healthy habits and they were all good. You could listen to that and profit.

But this should not be in the place of God's Word in the pulpit—not on Sunday! It's not going to give you what you need, because here's what it does. Through neglecting God's self-revelation, it redefines the problem (just like the false teachers did). If successful people consistently what others do occasionally, what's my problem? Not sin; I'm unsuccessful. I need to fix that, I need to be successful. So the new goal becomes being a successful person. And what's the new gospel hope? It's doing it consistently. It's works. It's a gospel of works. It's a graceless gospel. It's a false gospel.

I'm confident this church does not intend to do that. I'm not accusing them of intentionally distorting the gospel. What I am accusing them of is neglect. It's a neglect of the gospel that leads to a graceless gospel. And what it's led to is an entire evangelical culture that's lost the gospel and replaced it with a counterfeit. H. Richard Niebuhr described this new gospel this way: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” There are many, many churches saying that what our people need is not the Scriptures but proverbial wisdom—10 steps to a better marriage, 8 ways to raise healthy kids. By misjudging what their people need and neglecting God's word, these churches preach the false gospel of a God without wrath who brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of Christ without a cross. It's terrible.

What Does This Look Like In Us?

But you know what, friends, you might be sitting here thinking, good, we're pretty safe. That's not the case. Don't be like the Pharisee who says "I thank God that I'm not like those evil churches who neglect God's word" because we do it too. The danger looms large for us too. We are in danger—as people of God living in a fallen world and in a culture that hates God. We are in danger of rejecting God's authoritative self-revelation, where it comes into conflict with our culture.

We are in danger of rejecting God's authoritative self-revelation when it comes to the creation of human beings as male and female, created in the image of God, united in marriage as a reflection of Christ and the Church—which means we outright reject any sense of transgenderism or gender identity. We outright reject the legitimacy of homosexual marriage. Will you hold to that truth about God and his creation clearly seen in the Scriptures when that kind of speech is labeled hate speech? It's a lot harder to hold to that to hold to something like the Trinity right now.

We're in danger of rejecting God's self-revelation about the goodness of authority in the home and in the church—where we see God's complementary roles for men and women and we see the goodness of God giving elders to the church who are actually put in authority. We are in danger of rejecting that testimony of Scripture when if we hold it we're called misogynistic or we're accused of wanting to abuse God's people. I read a quote recently by someone who has major problems with authority in the church—I don't remember the author. He said something to the effect of the only kind of person who would want to claim to speak for God week by week is a narcissist. Will I continue to claim to speak for God from his word week by week if I'm called a narcissist? Will you when you're talking to your friends and your neighbors? There's tremendous pressure in the culture to turn from the truth.

When we think about the preciousness of image-bearers from the cradle to the grave, will we hold fast to that when it violates our culture's idol of personal autonomy? Sadly, for some of us the answer may be "no, we won't hold to that." That's the danger that faces us, not the boogeyman of the prosperity gospel, but the danger of rejecting countercultural truths revealed in God's word.

This danger is amplified by the danger of neglecting God's self-revelation You see, many of us at many times, in many ways, are just as guilty of neglect as the preacher who preaches on habits from the pulpit. We're just as guilty of neglecting God's word. For many of us, our personal Bible reading is so small that we are malnourished from neglect of God's word (if it's true that we live on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God). Some of us are so malnourished, that if you physically represented where your soul is at, I would want to hook you up to an IV drip because I would be fearful that you're going to die.

I'm not exempting myself, I face the danger of neglecting God's word too. A particular danger that's strong for me (and I imagine it's strong for you too) is that we live in an age of distraction. I sit down, to read God's word in the morning—to feast upon his truths, to behold Christ—and then I hear about something like "Fat Bear Week." I follow a Google search into a Wikipedia article about bear attacks. And then I start reading about the difference between a black bear attack and a brown bear attack. And pretty soon it's time to get on with the day. Does that ever happen to you when you try to do your devotions?

We are in danger of neglecting God's word. It's not good, but it's common. Our social media use is a symptom of it. It's not the cause. Social media certainly makes distraction easier, but it's not the cause. It's a symptom of how frequently we flitter from this to that, being obsessed with empty talk and maybe not Jewish myths, but other myths.

We're in danger of neglecting God's self-revelation. Our distraction combined with the ease of amusement can lead us to be "willingly unthinking". What I mean by that is it can lead us to say I have so much input right now that it's much easier for me just to lean into something that's going to be distracting or lean into something that's going to be entertaining than it is for me to put on a thinking cap and think hard about something. And so we become complicit in our own unthinkingness. And guess what happens then? The same thing that happens to false teachers, when they turn away from God and His word, something else fills the void.

We were created to be thinkers—to be people who behold God in His Word, which requires thought. So our minds are going to continue to seek to know God whether or not we seek out his self- revelation. Where are we going to look? We're going to look to the world and we're going to look to ourselves. We're going to look outside of God's word for something to fill in the gaps. We're going to look to ourselves, and we're going to say, Let us make God in our own image. This is what leads a Christian to think: "What would Jesus do? Well, I know Jesus is loving. And I know Jesus wants me to be happy. So surely Jesus would be okay if I married my same sex partner." That's a redefinition of who God is as he's revealed Himself in the Scriptures. It's making Christ in our own image. What would Jesus do is a stupid question if you don't know Jesus from the Bible, because you're going to end up with not what would Jesus do but what would I do.

Or we look to our culture and we say, let us make God in our culture's image. We do this when we reason like Rob Bell did: God is love and a loving God would not send people to hell in eternal conscious torment. So I'm going to reject the doctrine of hell and call my book, "Love Wins." We're in danger of this, friends. We're in danger of it all the time.

Conclusion: What are we to do?

What do we do? What does Paul call Titus to do in response to these things? Four things. First, in verse 11, “they must be silenced.” The stakes are too high to let this kind of false teaching and this kind of neglect go on in our lives or in our church. It must stop now because life is at stake—not just present life but eternal life. God has manifested the hope of eternal life in His Word; it's found nowhere else. False teachers in the Church must be silenced.

Not only that—the goal isn't just "be quiet guys." False teachers in the church must be rebuked. Elders must be able to rebuke those who contradict sound doctrine (Titus 1:9) and must rebuke them sharply (Titus 1:13). Paul calls for rebuke. But the goal of rebuke is always soundness in the faith, that they may know Christ. The goal of any kind of rebuke that falls on you or me is that we may know Christ. Friends, it is loving to rebuke you when you reject or neglect God's self-revelation in His Word. And it is loving for you to rebuke me when I do the same.

The goal is not only silence and rebuke, though. The goal is also soundness, right? So what do we do? We hold firm, just like elders are called to do. That's not just a command for elders. It's a command for everybody in the church, hold firm to God's trustworthy word as taught (Titus 1:9). If you want to learn to recognize and reject the false gospels of the world, you must know the true gospel. There's no other way to do that. I would encourage you to diagnose your own heart. How am I holding firm to the trustworthy word? Is the picture of Jesus that I have in my mind more influenced by what I've seen in God's Word or is it more influenced by what I've read on social media, by what I've listened to in podcasts, or by what I've read even in books, or heard about from friends. Those are all fine things —it is good to learn about Jesus from common grace sources like books, podcasts, etc. But it is no substitute for feasting on the word yourself.

We hold firm to the trustworthy word. In order to do that you must know it. And then we teach the truth. That's where Paul goes next—where we're gonna go next week—Titus 2:1: “But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.” Teach the truth. What happens often in the church is the culture will rightly critique things that are wrong in the church—inconsistencies, hypocrisy, failures to follow God's word. That's okay, we can learn from that. But what we sometimes end up doing is listening to the culture's correction. "Church, you have this wrong with you and you need to do this." We need to not let the picture of Jesus that we have be shaped by what the culture says Jesus is like. "You say you guys are loving. If you're really loving, you'd be affirming of all. If you are really loving, you'd care about this issue or that issue." We must not let the culture drive that narrative, friends. We must teach the truth, what accords with sound doctrine, from God's word, and let his word shape our response.

God paints his own portrait. This gives us hope because God wants to be known. God wants to reveal himself and he has revealed himself. He has gone to such great lengths to make himself known to you that he manifested his Word in a person, Jesus Christ. And he has gone to such great extent for you to know him that he sent his own Son to die in your place—so that you could be freed from the bondage of sin and death and that you could be transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His beloved Son. That's the great extent that God has gone to reveal himself to you. And so if you find your picture of Jesus doesn't match the picture God paints of his son in the Bible, despair not! Press into God's word. Get to know him because he has made himself known. And he will continue to make himself known in this age and in the next.

Grace-Full Elders

Titus 1:5–9

Sermon Transcript - “Grace-Full Elders” - Titus 1:5–9

Introduction

I've been trying to clean and organize my garage now for the last five months. It doesn't take me that long because I have a ton of things. It doesn't take me that long because the garage is super messy. It takes me that long because I have a sense that there's a particular order things should go in. Am I going to need the stuff for fixing cars more often? Or the stuff for working outdoors in the lawn more often? Should the WD-40 go in with the oil or should it go in with the wood glue? It's questions like that that keep me up at night and make me take five months to organize my garage—something that should take not that long. It's difficult to put something into order when you have a sense that there's an order that things should go in but you don't have a map or a guideline for how it should go. I would be glad to be pointed to a blog post that says how my garage should be put in order. Something I could just follow to the T. Unfortunately, there are conflicting blog posts, and I'm not going to find one right order.

Thankfully, the case is different in the church. There is an order for things to be put in. It's not something we're left wondering: What should we structure the church to be like in order for God's people to be faithful and to flourish? What order should things be put in, so that the gospel of grace sinks down deep into us and produces godliness in us? We're not left to wonder because God has given us His Word. Paul sent Titus on a mission to the island of Crete to put what remained into order. And he didn't say Titus, just kind of use your best judgment and see what things pan out. No, he said, Titus, here's what you need to do to put the church in order. And he's saying that to us, too. We're given this letter as a guideline from Paul—ultimately from God—to know how we ought to organize and structure the church; to know how to put the church in order, so that we see grace at work in the church.

That's what we're looking at today. We're going to read Paul's instructions to Titus and we're going to study those and learn how God has ordered his church in such a way that promotes the faith and flourishing of his people. So let's do that now. Let's read Titus 1:5-9, our text for today: ”This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.”

God’s Order

We see here in verse five, first of all, that God's Church has an order. God has a particular order in mind for his church. That's what's implied when Paul says to Titus, ”put what remained into order.” We know this from other places in Scripture, too. We know from 1 Timothy 3 that the church is God's household and God has an order for his household. Paul wrote the letter of First Timothy so that we would know how we ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God (1 Tim 3:14–15). We know that the church has an order from God because the church is God's temple. We read that in the call to worship this morning (Eph 2:19–22). We're being built into a temple by God and the Old Testament is full of evidence that God cares a great deal about what happens in his temple and what his temple is like.

We know that God has an order for his church because God has a plan for his people. According to Romans 8, we are predestined to be conformed into the image of Christ. That's God's plan for us. And to accomplish that plan. God has an order. God has a plan to accomplish his goal. We also know that God has an order for his church because Christ has a goal in mind for his bride. We see that in Ephesians 5. Jesus loved the church and gave himself up for her so that he could wash her with the water of the word, so that she would be without spot, without blemish, pure, sanctified, as a bride. Jesus is accomplishing that for his bride.

And that's why we know that God has a particular order in mind for his church—order in the church matters. We see this also in the fact that when the church is out of order, God's people end up out of order. This is already happening at Crete. When Paul writes in Titus 1:11 that these false teachers— these insubordinate people, empty talkers and deceivers—they must be silenced. Why? Because they're upsetting whole families, by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. God's churches missing some of his ordained order. And as a result, false teachers are rising up and distorting the gospel, upsetting the faith of God's people. When God's people are out of order, they don't increase in Christ's likeness, because God has established a pattern for us to be able to increase in Christ's likeness. And it's not just doing whatever. It's following his word. When God's people are out of order, we also can't fulfill the Great Commission, because God has ordained through His Son, that we would fulfill his Great Commission— to make disciples, to make Christ known—in a certain way. And so it is necessary—for a church to be healthy—that we are ordered, according to God's order for the church.

We see here in Titus that God's order prioritizes elders. He cares so much about elders in the church that he addresses it through His Word four times substantially in the New Testament. We have significant instruction from Paul to the elders in Ephesus in Acts 20. And we also have Paul writing to Timothy so that he would know what kind of a man should be an elder in God's church in 1 Timothy 3, And we have him here doing the same thing for Titus. It's so important that he repeats himself. And then we have Peter in 1 Peter 5, talking to the elect exiles who are far away from all of this, saying, here's what a shepherd—an elder in God's Church—ought to do and be. God cares a great deal about who leads his church.

We also see this in Paul's church planting strategy in Acts 14. Listen to what he does as he's planting these churches—seeing these churches that are preaching the gospel and that are on mission for Christ being built up. Here's what he does. Acts 14:21–23, ”When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” We see here Paul's strategy for planting new churches. First, preach the gospel—make converts. Second, go and disciple those converts—strengthen them in the knowledge of the Lord. And third, appoint elders in every church. It's so important that it's part of Paul's threefold strategy for planting churches. Healthy churches, according to God's will, require elders.

But it's not just any elder. Paul doesn't stop at verse five saying only ”appoint elders in every city as a directed you.” He's not just looking for warm bodies. He's not just looking for any guy willing to lead, any guy willing to step up and serve. He's looking for a specific type of person. Healthy churches require not just elders, but good elders. That's what we see in this text.

Good Elders Are Blameless

First of all, the kind of elders that are required are blameless elders. Healthy churches require good elders and good elders are blameless. Look at verses six to eight. ”if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self- controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.” You might have noticed "above reproach" is mentioned twice. It's mentioned twice because above reproach summarizes everything else. Another way of putting that (as some translations do) is blameless. An elder must be blameless, a good elder is blameless. Calvin puts it this way: a good elder is "marred by no disgrace." So we're not talking about sinless here. We're not talking about the need to look around and find someone who is without sin, and then make them an elder in the church. We're looking for elders that are marred by no disgrace; that have no skeletons in their closet, that if they came out would bring reproach on the gospel.

Elders are called to be blameless in two categories in Paul's description. First, they're called to be blameless at home. That's what he's getting at in verses six and seven. He says in Titus 1:6: ”if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.” Good elders are blameless at home as the husband of one wife (or literally a one woman man). Good elders are faithful to love and lead their wives, to care for them as Christ cares for the church.

Not only that, but good elders are faithful to love and lead their children. Now it says in verse six, ”his children are believers.” If you have a copy of the ESV or a copy of another translation that has a footnote, it might say in my footnote ”or are faithful.” I think faithful is a better translation here than believers for one particular reason. It's that to say that an elder must have children that are believers implies that the elder's children must be regenerate—know Christ. I don't think that's what Paul's talking about here because he says ”not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination”—which has to do with conduct. The emphasis is on how those children behave, not on what those children profess. Also in verse nine, Paul says an elder must hold firm to the ”trustworthy word” as taught. The word trustworthy is the same word in verse six that's translated believers in the ESV. It's talking about the faithfulness of the word. And it's talking about the faithfulness of the elder's children. A father cannot save his own children, but he can raise them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Eph 6:4). That's what Paul's calling for here. Paul is saying an elder must be blameless at home in his conduct towards his wife and blameless at home in his conduct towards his children. One evidence of that blamelessness is how his children respond to His authority.

In calling for elders to be the husband of one wife or to have children who are believers, Paul is also not disqualifying automatically single men from being elders in the church. He's not saying you've got to find only married guys with at least two kids—implied by children, plural. He's not saying that. He's saying the conduct of a person in their home matters. And if they are single, then their home and their family is often the church family. And you can look at their conduct. How does a single man treat other women in the church? Is it like Paul admonishes Timothy to treat younger women as sisters in all purity (1 Tim 5:2)? How does a single man treat other's children in the church? Does he feel a sense of responsibility, as part of the family of God, to help in pointing them to Christ—to care well for them, to protect them? How does he respond to those things? We can get a glimpse of that, even in single guys.

Single or married elders are required to be blameless in the home. Why is that? Verse seven tells us. Paul says, ”an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach.” Elders are required to be blameless in the home because they are stewards in the church, which is God's household. How they act in the home reflects how they will care for God's people. If an elder is not able to faithfully love and lead his own wife, how will he love and lead Christ's bride? If an elder is not able to faithfully love and lead his children, earning their trust and respect, how will he do that for God's children? How will they learn to trust and respect his authority if his own children can't even learn that? If you cannot steward your own family, you cannot steward God's family. That's what Paul is saying here. That's what we're to look for in an elder—blameless at home.

A good elder must not only be blameless at home but blameless in public as well. Paul writes in Titus 1:7–8, ”an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.” Paul is giving contrasting lists—not this, but this. All through these lists, there's an emphasis on mastery of self—on self-control, on stewarding one's self. An elder must be able to steward himself. He must not be mastered by the flesh. He must be mastered by the Spirit. These traits, what God's looking for in an elder, they're flowing out of the fruit of the Spirit. You cannot steward God's Church if you cannot steward your family and you cannot steward God's Church if you cannot steward yourself. Elders must be blameless at home and in public.

Why require this blameless from elders? It seems like a bar set pretty high, a task too difficult. Who is sufficient for these things? Why require this? Why don't you see any prosperity gospel preachers that are sick or poor? Because no one would believe them! It's the same reason that you need blameless elders in the church. If I as an elder am saying, "here's what the gospel does" and you don't see it in my life, why would you believe me? We need blameless elders to show the power of the gospel—to prove that grace works.

Blameless elders, prove that grace works. How? Think about it. Why would an elder be blameless in these ways? It's not, because that elder is somehow super spiritual and better than you. That's not why. Why does an elder display godliness? Because the gospel works; Because the grace of God is at work in their life to produce godliness. Elders are blameless in the church to show you that grace works and to give you gospel hope. When you're drowning in slavery to sin and an elder teaches you the truth of the gospel—that Jesus saves sinners like you and me—you can look at their life and say, I believe you. Because that elder—me, Charlie, any other elder you might encounter—are all sinners saved by grace? We were dead. We were without help. We were alienated. We were without God. And God in His mercy, bent down to rescue us. And his gospel has changed us. So that instead of being arrogant, we are humbled (because we are sinners saved by grace, there's nothing to be arrogant about right?) Instead of being violent, we are gentle. Why? Because God was not violent in his wrath towards us as sinners but has shown us gentle mercy. An elder is called to be a living example of the gospel hope that's available to all of us—of the grace that works as we saw all through Titus. Good elders show the power of the gospel with their lives.

Good Elders Are Bible guys

Where does the power to transform sinners into godly men come from? From the hope that's given us in the gospel—in the trustworthy word we've been taught. Good elders hold firm to that trustworthy word, as Paul writes in verse nine. Titus 1:9: ”9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” We see in verse nine that good elders are Bible guys. Good elders are not only blameless, but they are Bible guys— they hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught. But it's not primarily so that they can teach others. If I'm primarily holding firm to this word so that I have something to say to you on Sunday, kick me out—that's not good, that's not helpful for you or me. The primary reason elders need to hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught is because we need the gospel just as much as anyone. The primary reason we hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught is that God's word teaches us that we are terrible sinners but we have a terrific Savior. By holding firm to the trustworthy Word, we behold Christ. We behold the forgiveness that comes to us in the Gospel. We hold firm, first, not because we want to teach others but because we have a need. For good elders, holding firm to this trustworthy word—this sound doctrine—is the foundation of everything else. It's not the cherry on top, it's the foundation and fountain of everything else.

But good elders don't want to hold firm to the gospel for their own sake only. They want to help others. They want to help all of us hold firm to that same gospel. This is why Paul says they must hold firm to the trust where the word is taught: ”so that they may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine.” Good elders are able to give instruction in sound doctrine. This does not require a Ph.D. It does not require knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. Those things are good. But that's not what Paul is talking about here. He's telling us to find guys whose lives have been so transformed by the gospel that they are blameless at home and in public. And we're to ask, are those guys able to teach us how to hold to the gospel like that? Are they able to help us hold on to the trustworthy word as taught? Are they able to help us learn how to behold Christ in His Word and be transformed? If they are, then they are able to give instruction in sound doctrine. That's what Paul's talking about. Paul is calling for elders who can actually show you how to use this book, to behold Christ, to be changed into his image. It's a work of the Spirit, yes, but God does it through His Word. That's what he's calling for with elders, able to give instruction.

The elders are not only to give instruction, though. Paul finishes his sentence by saying, “also to rebuke those who contradict it.” Elders must be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. We’ll learn more about rebuking those that teach false doctrine next week as we continue our study in Titus 1:10-16. We’ll see why it’s so important that elders are not only able to help you follow Christ, but also to protect you from those who would turn you away from following Christ. Calvin writes that elders need two voices: “one for gathering the sheep and the other for driving away wolves and thieves.” This is the dual role of your elders: helping you follow Christ and protecting you from those who would turn you away. That requires then, that not only do elders hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught but that this holding firm to Jesus produces in these men bravery to hold the line against those who would try to destroy your faith—bravery that holds firm to the Savior, even in the face of hardship and difficulty.

Conclusion

This is what good elders are like. This is what the church needs to be put in order. Paul’s going to call Titus to do two things to put the church in order at Crete. They’re the two things that are the second part of his church planting plan we saw in Acts. Put the church in order by appointing elders (Titus 1:5) and disciple people within the church to live lives where grace works (Titus 2:1).

To be healthy then, we must appoint good elders. We must find guys that are blameless because they’ve been transformed by the gospel and we must find guys who are clinging to Jesus and can teach you to do the same. We must find guys who are devoted to living “for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness” (Titus 1:1). Those are the kind of guys we must put in leadership in the church. It is our shared responsibility to look around us in the church and recognize God’s grace at work in the lives of godly men. And when we see it, we ought to encourage them to consider serving Christ as an elder.

We have a very practical way to put this into practice: Thad is in the Elder Candidate process right now. We have an opportunity to assess him according to these standards. Charlie and I put him forward as an elder candidate because we see a man who is blameless in his life by the grace of God; we see a man who clings to the gospel and will teach you to cling to the gospel too. Thad is a man who wants to serve the church for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness. Your job as a church is to ask, did Charlie and I see rightly? Your job is to assess Thad and to rejoice with us and with he and Sara and with God as you see God’s grace at work in his life. You should take this elder candidacy very seriously and you should hold him to a very high standard. But friends, it’s a gospel standard, isn’t it? It’s a gospel standard that looks not for sinless perfection but for the grace of God to be at work in Thad’s life to produce blamelessness at home and in public.

The other response we should have from God’s Word this morning is a deep sense of gratitude. Whatever godliness you see in me—whatever godliness you see in Charlie—is not because of us. Whatever godliness you see in me and Charlie is because the grace of God is at work in our lives. Who then gets the glory? Not us, but God! We must give thanks for the grace of God that we see in good elders because good elders are a gift from God to us so that we have a tangible example that grace works —one more piece of evidence we can look to and say, “I know Jesus is worth following because I know this is what he does in people’s lives.” That’s the response you should have when you look at my life and look at Charlie’s life. That’s the response we pray you have. We are thankful to God for whatever grace is in us.

That’s true for all of us, isn’t it? Whatever goodness you have in you is not because you are super spiritual or more holy than the person sitting next to you. It’s because the grace of God is at work in your life. That’s the anthem that we constantly want to proclaim: God’s grace is at work in our lives—his grace works and you can see it by the evidence of godliness in our lives. That’s what we're called to do. That’s what glorifies God. It’s really simple to glorify God, just let his grace be displayed in you.

Grace Works

Titus 1:1–4

Sermon Transcript - “Grace Works” - Titus 1:1–4

Introduction

Today, we begin the letter to Titus. This is the second letter we are covering in our series on the Pastoral Epistles. They’re called the Pastoral Epistles because these letters were written to guys in pastoral ministry.

Normally, when we read one of Paul’s letters (or “epistles”) they’re written to churches. When we went through the book of Philippians, we saw that it was written to the saints at Philippi. This letter, on the other hand, is written to Titus,—a fellow worker of Paul—just like the book of 1 Timothy was written to Timothy.

So this letter to Titus is a letter written to a fellow worker of Paul’s who is on a mission from Paul. And Paul says in Titus 1:5 what that mission is: “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order.” In his previous missionary journeys, Paul and his fellow workers traveled to the Mediterranean island of Crete. Often they stopped there on their ways to other parts of Asia Minor. And whenever Paul visited the island, he would tell people about the gospel of Jesus Christ. As a result, churches were planted.

But Paul didn’t spend a lot of time there. There was still a lot of work left to be done to see these churches flourished and remained faithful to the gospel. Paul was busy elsewhere planting and strengthening churches (as well as being imprisoned!), but he still cared about these Cretan churches. So instead of going himself, Paul sends his fellow worker, Titus, to go on this mission to put what remained in order.

You might wonder, what does that have to do with us? Why are we reading this ancient letter? In order to understand how this letter speaks to us even today, we need to understand how much the culture of Crete and our culture share in common. Paul says in Titus 1:12, “One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’” And Paul says that’s true! Though it’s not a very complimentary thing to say about a whole group of people. But this island was full of people who rejected the God revealed in the Bible. And part of that rejection was a reputation for being liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. They had a reputation among their own prophets for being godless, immoral people.

This is the culture Paul was sending Titus into and that’s our culture today as well. In many ways, our culture rejects wholesale the God of the scriptures and engages in (and even celebrates!) immoral behavior—just like the Cretans did; just like Peter says the Gentiles of his day did (1 Peter 4:3). Not only that, but we’re in a time right now where we struggle to know what can be believed in our society—who is lying and who is telling the truth? We struggle to know what to believe about Coronavirus, the election, and many other things happening in our country right now. We see a lot of lying and intentional deception on both sides of the issues. And just like Titus going to an island of liars with a mission to see churches planted, grown, flourishing, and remaining faithful, we exist in a culture of deception and long to see gospel preaching churches flourish in our day. The letter to Titus offers us a trustworthy guide.

Not only did Cretans have a reputation for being immoral, but many of them also practiced an empty, solely pragmatic faith. Paul says in Titus 1:16, “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.” In other words, these people are happy to have a faith in a god, but they’re not believing in the God of the Bible, because their works don’t match what they say they believe. They have faith in faith—faith in a god of their own making. This permeates our culture right now as well. I read an article recently in the New York Times that talked about corporations hiring “sacred designers” or “soul- centered advertisers” to develop corporate rituals drawn from religion. These consultants apply their “theological” training to create rituals for things like beginning and ending a Zoom meeting. But the goal of the ritual is not to help you connect with the true and living God and the truth of the gospel. The goal of the ritual is to make you a happy and productive worker. This is starkly disconnecting faith from the truth. It was happening at Crete in Titus’s day and it’s still happening in ours. And thus the letter to Titus serves as a faithful guide here as well.

Both in Titus’s day and in ours, there’s a danger of this culture we swim in seeping into and disrupting the church. That was already happening in Crete. That’s why Paul sent Titus to the churches —to put what remained in order. The implication of this is that something was out of order. Something was left that still needed to be done. And if it wasn’t done, these churches would eventually turn from the truth. The first glimpses of this were already present as false teachers rose up in the church, teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach and upsetting the faith of whole families (Titus 1:10–11).

Friends, this letter to Titus has direct relevance for what we are experiencing now. It teaches us what we need to believe and do in order to put the church in order. That’s why it’s relevant to us. That’s why we're studying it—so we can learn the answer to the important question: How do God’s people be faithful and flourish in the midst of a crooked and twisted society? The answer to that question is the main point of the letter to Titus.

The answer is this: we must recognize the connection between grace and godliness. In other words, the way I would summarize the book of Titus is “Grace works.” That’s what we’re going to see as we go through this letter. Repeated over and over is the theme of the saving grace of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ and how that saving grace of God necessarily leads to godliness in the lives of God’s people. That’s what I mean by grace works—the grace that we have received in the gospel of Jesus Christ works in our lives to produce grace-works, to produce godliness, to produce good works.

To see this theme, we’re going to read the letter together now. It’s a short letter, only 46 verses. It takes about six and a half minutes to read, so it’s not too hard for us to read through the whole letter together. As we read through it, I’m going to draw your attention to a couple of places where I see “Grace works.”

Reading Titus

(Note to the reader: at this point in the sermon, Pastor Tyler read the letter to the congregation, pausing at the texts listed below to explain how they illustrate the theme “grace works”.)

"Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness,” (Titus 1:1). Staring in verse one, we see the first example of grace works: knowledge of the truth (i.e. the gospel of grace) which accords with godliness. Accords with means (as the NIV translates it) “leads to godliness”. Truth leads to godliness; grace works.

"But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.” (Titus 2:1). Teach the things that accord with the sound doctrine of God’s saving grace in the gospel. What accords with that? All the following exhortations to godly behavior for God’s people. In other words, teach that grace leads to godliness. Grace works.

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:11–14). Here we have two examples. First, the grace of God has both brought salvation and is training us to renounce ungodliness. The grace of God in the gospel trains us to live godly lives. Grace works. Again in verse 14, Jesus gave himself up for us to both redeem us and to purify us. Redemption (grace) and purity (works). Grace works.

“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy....The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.” (Titus 3:4–5, 8). Again, we see we are saved by grace (the good news of the gospel) and we insist on this “so that” God’s people devote themselves to good works. Grace works.

The Grace of God in the Promise of God

Let’s look back at chapter one to see how this grace works in Paul’s introduction. Paul calls out the grace of the gospel in the very first verses of this epistle. ”in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began” (Titus 1:2). The good news of the gospel, friends, is that God has promised eternal life. That’s the hope Paul had. The core of the gospel is that before time began, God made a promise—a covenant—with his Son to both create a people and to redeem them when they rebel.

God made this promise before time eternal, which means this promise can only come by grace. It can’t be something that you earn. It’s not as if God looks at you and sees you trying really hard and calls it good enough for eternal life. No, this eternal life is secured by an eternal promise. God, before time began, set his love on you in Christ Jesus. He looked at you and said, “I’m going to redeem you.” Even knowing all of the rotten, wicked stuff you would do in this life—all of the sin that you would get entangled in. He promised to redeem you, to free you from that. It’s a promise that only comes to us by grace because it’s a promise that was made before everything else.

What does it mean that God promised “eternal life”? It’s not just a quantity of life (never dying). It is that, but also so much more. In promising eternal life, God promises a quality of life. God promised to redeem us from the curse of sin, which exiled us from his presence. Remember what happened to Adam and Eve when they turned away from God in sin? They were kicked out of the garden and God set a cherub to guard the entrance. Their sin meant exile from God’s life-giving presence. God had to say, “No, you cannot be with me.”

But then, in keeping with his promise, what did God do? He sent his son to redeem you so that you can be with him; so that you get to be in eternal life with God, your father who loves you, and with Christ Jesus, his Son who gave himself up for you, and with the Spirit who fills you with faith in this promise. That’s the promise of eternal life—it’s both a quantity of life and a quality of life.

And that’s the promise that we cling to, received by grace. It’s a promise that we can be sure of and bank on. After all, it’s a promise from God “who never lies” (Titus 1:2). You can take it to the bank because God cannot lie. That’s so different from the Cretan people, a people known for being liars. God himself never lies, but we do. We know sometimes we make promises and break them. We know that sometimes someone tells us something and then does something else. Should we just take God at His Word that he never lies? Yes. But do we often? No. Believing that God never lies is harder for us because we see lies every day.

How can we be sure we have a God who never lies and a promise we can bank on? We can be sure because of what Paul says in verse three. "and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior;” (Titus 1:3). Not only did God promise eternal life, but he manifested that promise. God promised and he keeps his promises.

Throughout the history of his people, God has been manifesting his promise to redeem from the curse of sin and death and to bring us into the blessing of eternal life. One of the places we see that is in Deuteronomy 7:7–9: "It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,”. In other words, God promised Abraham that his children would be like the sand of the sea and that the land that lay before him would be given to him as a blessing. But then God’s people went into slavery in Egypt. They cried out to him for 400 years. And what did he do? He heard their cries and he brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. God brought his people through the wilderness and into the promised land. And now, here in Deuteronomy, God is saying all of this was so that we might know that he keeps his promises, to 1000 generations and beyond. God keeps his promises. We know he does not lie because we have this whole book of records of God’s promise-keeping.

We see this in the New Testament as well. God manifested the hope of eternal life in his written word. Remember what John 20:30–31 says. "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” God took his promise of eternal life—that he does not lie about—and he wrote letters and books, through people moved by his Holy Spirit, to show us the reality of these promises.

But even more than that, God manifested the hope of eternal life in his Word incarnate. Who is God’s Word? John 1:1 says, ”In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, is the manifestation of God’s promise of eternal life. How can you know that God will keep his promise? Because he sent his Son to be born as a child, to grow up, and be obedient even to the point of death on a cross. If there was any time that would make sense for God to break his promise it must have been when his own Son was facing death, right? Was the cost too high or the pain too great? No, God kept his promise, even at the cost of his Son. Jesus Christ, his faithful Son, was faithful to keep the promise he made with the Father before time began so that you and I would have the hope of eternal life.

That’s how we know when Paul says, “in the hope of eternal life which God promised...”, we can trust that promise. He’s shown us he will never lie. That’s the point of Romans 8:32: "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” If you’ve already received the best, most costly gift you could ever receive, how could you doubt? That’s why we can trust the promises of God in the gospel—because he’s already kept his greatest promise. That’s the grace of the gospel that’s given to us without anything we can do.

How does grace work?

What does grace do? We see the answer in what Paul writes about himself. The grace of the gospel changes everything about who we think we are. How does Paul identify himself in Titus 1:1? ”Paul, a servant of God an an apostle of Jesus Christ.” Paul identifies himself with relation to God. This is Paul, who in the early part of the book of Acts is known as Saul, a faithful Pharisee and enemy of the followers of The Way—an enemy of Jesus Christ and his church. Paul was breathing threats and murder against the church when Jesus met him with grace and radically transformed him. As we saw in 1 Timothy 1:15, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” Paul was the foremost sinner—a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent of Christ. But now, how does he define himself? A servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. Paul has been radically transformed by grace. He deserved destruction, but the grace of the gospel overflowed towards him. And God, in this overflow of grace, gave Paul a new identity—no longer an enemy, but a servant and beloved son of God.

Grace gives a new identity to Paul, but not only to Paul. Look at what grace has done in the life of Titus? Titus was a Gentile. Where were Gentiles when Christ came? We read about it in Ephesians 2:11–12: "Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” Before Jesus, Gentiles were separated, alienated without hope and without God. That’s where Titus was. And before the grace of God transformed his life, Paul as a good Pharisee would have called Titus a dog and wanted nothing to do with him.

But now the grace of God has appeared. And who is Titus? "Titus, my true child in a common faith” (Titus 1:4). The grace of the gospel has so transformed the identity of Paul and Titus that they are now family. Paul can say to Titus, “You are my child. You are not alienated. You are not forsaken. You are not without hope. But you are dear and beloved to me.” The gospel of Jesus Christ has united a Pharisee and a Gentile into a new family. Only Jesus can do that. Only the grace of the gospel that Jesus brings reconciles mortal enemies like that.

That same grace transforms you and me, giving us a new identity. Look at who Paul says he works for: ”An apostle of Christ Jesus for the sake of the faith of the elect...” (Titus 1:1). Paul works for the benefit of God’s elect. All through the Old Testament, God’s elect refers to God’s chosen people, Israel. But in the New Testament, it refers to this new family of Jew and Gentile brought together under the banner of the grace of Jesus Christ. All believers make up this elect, this chosen people. This is the new family of God that you and I are a part of if we are trusting in Jesus. We have a new identity as the chosen people of God and we are beneficiaries of this promise, the hope of eternal life.

That’s what the grace of the gospel does. It gives a new identity. And out of this new identity, we receive a new purpose—a new mission. That’s what Paul says in verse one. His mission, his purpose, everything he does in his life is ”for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness.” (Titus 1:1). Paul’s mission can be put this way: I want you to believe. I want you to believe what is true. I want you to act like you believe what is true. That’s Paul’s mission in life—that others would come into the same understanding of the manifestation of the grace of God given in the gospel and that this understanding would change them and bring them a new hope of eternal life only found in Jesus.

That’s Paul’s life mission and now that’s Titus’s mission too. By calling Titus his true child in a common faith, Paul is saying that he and Titus both have the same hope of eternal life—the same experience of the grace of God in the gospel. And therefore this grace has brought both of them to the same life purpose: to encourage the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth as the ground of their faith and the godliness that flows from the truth.

That mission is also the mission of the church. That’s what grace does—how it works. Grace brings a new identity and a new mission and now we live as different people living for a different goal: cultivating faith, truth, and godliness in God’s people.

Conclusion

So the question for us, in light of this text today is this: Has Paul’s work; Titus’s work; the gospel proclamation—has this fallen on deaf ears? Do you believe or do you not? For the sake of the faith of God’s elect means belief is fundamental—you must believe that Jesus died and rose again. You must believe God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him. You must believe God set his love on his people as a gift of his grace. Do you believe?

Not only do you believe, but do you believe the truth? We live in an age where it is so easy to say, yeah, I believe in Jesus. We can say that and yet not mean the Jesus of the Bible. It’s so easy to say: I believe Jesus was a good teacher; I believe Jesus had good morals; I believe we’d all be better off if we acted a little bit more like Jesus. But that’s not the message of the gospel friends. That’s not the hope that leads to eternal life. Do you believe the truth? Do you believe the true gospel—that we are sinners in need of a Savior and that Jesus Christ himself is that savior who satisfied the wrath of God that was due us and gave us his righteousness in exchange. Do you believe in this Jesus who brings you the promise of eternal life?

Do you believe? Do you believe what is true? But also, do you live like you believe it? Does it make a difference in your life? A.W. Tozer says "Plain horse sense ought to tell us that anything that makes no change in the man who professes it makes no difference to God, either.” Your profession of faith doesn’t really matter if it doesn’t make any difference! The grace of the gospel works. And so if your faith has no effect, then you might not actually believe the gospel. That’s what Paul is saying here. That’s what we see all the way through the letter to Titus. So, friends, does the gospel make a difference in your life? Is your life lived for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness? Is your new mission in life to live in a way that adorns the testimony of God’s grace in the gospel?

Here’s the magnificent thing about this. How does God manifest his promise of eternal life? Paul says that at the proper time God manifested it in his word through the preaching with which Paul’s been entrusted. We, as broken jars of clay, have been given the precious promise of eternal life—this manifestation of the gospel which is sound doctrine. This manifestation—sound doctrine—has been given to us though we are so weak to show that the surpassing power belongs not to us, but to God. It’s a precious thing that we have been entrusted with. Do you live like it? Do you believe it?

Maybe you’re like me and when you ask yourself these questions you say, sometimes...and sometimes not. When we look at our task and the precious truths we’ve been entrusted with, we must never forget to return to where Paul returns to in verse 4: ”Grace and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ, our Savior.” Friends, we must always remember, this is all a work of grace. Grace working in our life does not mean it’s out good works that make us right with God. It is all a work of grace as we pursue the work that grace engenders in us. It is the grace of God at work in us. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:10, ”I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” That’s what we must remember. It is the grace of God that has given us peace with God. By the grace of God we are no longer enemies, but friends and children of God. And now we’re called fellow workers. Servants of God given a precious message to proclaim. And we do it by grace as grace works in us.