| Titus 3:8-15 (8-27-2023)

In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the importance of trusting and submitting to God's Word. He emphasizes that God's Word is inspired and without error, and therefore, it should be received and embraced as trustworthy. The speaker warns against doubting God's Word and encourages a childlike faith in its teachings. Additionally, he emphasizes the need for humility and boldness when speaking about God's Word. The main idea is that God's Word sets the priorities for the church and guides believers in what is profitable and unprofitable. Feel free to grab your Bibles and make your way to the book of Titus, as this will be our last sermon in our sermon series on this wonderful short epistle. And so today we'll find ourselves in chapter 3, as we finish out chapter 3 by looking at verses 8 through 15, chapter 3, verses 8 through 15. And these are the words of the God who cannot lie. The thing 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. These things are excellent and profitable for people. But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him. Knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self-condemned. When I send Artemis or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. Do your best to speed Zenos, the lawyer, and Apollos on their way. See that they lack nothing, and let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful. All those who are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Now the grass withers and the flower fades. Let us pray. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, indeed, Your Word is trustworthy. It is trustworthy in all of its ways. And so here we are. We pray that You would give us hearts of meekness, of humility, ready to hear Your Word, to receive Your Word, to do Your Word, the only way that we can. Grace to You, that You might even bless us with 30, 60, even 100-fold of increase. All to Your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Well, I was once asked in an interview, what is the greatest threat that the church faces today? What is the greatest threat to the modern church? That is a fun thought experiment, isn't it? If posed to you, how would you answer such a question? And perhaps what makes it so hard is that there is such a legion of threats out there that one has to sort through. For instance, it's easy to imagine. One answer, that encroaching liberalism is the greatest of threats, whether that be wokeism or leftism or CRT or LGBT and so on and so forth, that these pose a great danger. Perhaps another answer is the consumer mentality still plagues the modern church. Or maybe another answer is that we have heresies and false teachings that continue to abound. And I would not for a minute discount those answers. Those are formidable threats. And nor am I claiming that my answer is necessarily the best answer. I had all of five seconds to think about my answer. But in my mind, those threats are symptoms of a deeper problem. Those dangers are downstream from a bigger issue, the issue, that if you get it wrong, it spawns a whole host of other problems. And so my answer to the greatest threat today, broadly speaking, was rather simple. It was that the church does not trust God's Word, that the church does not submit to the authority of Scripture. Rather than kneeling before God's Word, the church presumes to stand over God's Word. Later on, I researched a recent Gallup poll that surveyed that now less than one in four Americans believe God's Word to be entirely true. That's apparently the lowest percentage in four decades. If nothing else, you can surely see that once Scripture is questioned, it spawns and spins a whole host of other problems and cancers. But the good news is that the reverse can also be true. The church has and can trust God's Word, submit to God's Word, pursue the things of God's Word, all to her benefit and to her blessing. And it is this great truth that we get to touch on this morning in Titus. And so we're going to walk through this section and we'll look at three parts. We'll look at the profitable, and secondly, we'll look at that which is unprofitable, and then thirdly, we will look at the people. But the main point is quite simple. It's that God's Word sets the priorities for the church. God's Word guides us as to what we consider to be profitable and worthwhile, and God's Word guides us as to what we consider to be unprofitable and worthless. You could say that God's Word is like a perfect set of scales that teaches us how to value what we should value. And you see that very simple, but most important truth immediately right there in verse 8. Verse 8 says, quote, the saying is trustworthy. Now in the original, that actually reads, the Word is trustworthy, or the Word is faithful. This is a phrase that Paul is quite fond of. He uses it several times throughout his letters, and it's as if Paul is saying, this Word, God's Word, you can trust it. Yes, there's false teaching out there, but this Word you can trust. Yes, there are deceivers out there, but this Word you can trust. And so let us consider, why then are we to trust God's Word? Have you ever stopped, stepped back, and seriously analyzed why? Why have I put all of my faith in this book, all of my trust in God's Word? Whether life is full of the sunniest of skies, or whether life is full of the darkest of clouds, why is it here I have solid rock in God's Word? Kids, now, right now would be the time to ask yourself the question, why can I believe the Bible? Well, firstly, we can trust God's Word because it is inspired. God's Word is inspired. As 2 Timothy says, all Scripture is breathed out by God, that God Himself speaks to us through His prophets and His apostles. As 2 Peter says, men spoke from God, not of themselves, but from God, as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. God's Word reveals to us the very mind, the very will, the very character of our great God. But God's Word is not only inspired, it is also without error, or more simply put, inerrant, having no errors, which, of course, makes sense because who is our God? Our God is truth. There's no shifting shadow in our God. Our God cannot lie because God Himself is truth, therefore His Word is true. You could flip it around and you could just state that negatively, and you could put it this way, a Bible containing errors is not an inspired Bible. And so we're right to see that Scripture presents itself as inspired and inerrant. Scripture stands on its own two feet, as it were. God's Word is in need of no one, no man, no church, no council, no committee to authenticate it. And we see it in this verse, that God's Word reveals to us that God's Word is trustworthy. And so what that means is that here we are as God's people and we're on the receiving end of this Word. And so I want to provoke a question from us, okay, well, how should I receive God's Word? And the force of verse 8 is that we are to receive it and embrace it as trustworthy in all of its ways, right? It's righteous in all of its teaching, believing that it makes wise the simple. It's reviving to the soul. It leads us on the paths of life, and that everything that you need for a life of godliness, you have it here in God's trustworthy Word. And so this very high, high esteem of Scripture ought to bring us very low, right? A great dependence, humility, and hunger for God's Word. One of the attributes of Scripture is that Scripture is necessary, meaning we must have it. We cannot make do without it. Now, kids, I could explain it to you this way. You probably ate some food this morning. If not, I'm sure you're going to eat some food here in a little bit at the fellowship meal. And now, kids, why do you eat food? Very simple question. Why do you eat food? Well, I'm sure at some point because you like its taste, it's yummy, and you like its fullness. But just as important, of course, is that you need food to grow. If you are going to grow, you must eat. You cannot do without it. If you do not eat, you will not grow. And, kids, it's the very same way in terms of growing in godliness. You must have God's Word. Jesus said, we cannot live off of bread alone. You need the Word in order to grow. And so let us come under the full weight of verse 8, and let's ask this question. Do I trust God's trustworthy Word? And, of course, it's quite easy to say, yes, of course I do. But just recall the most ancient of temptations is to distrust God's Word. That Satan's very subtle, very sly proposal to Eve was, did God really say? Did God really say? This is a tried and true tactic of the enemy, that he constantly labors to promote doubts and discouragement and unbelief in God's Word, that as he is the father of lies, he's always proposing subtleties and sophistries, doubts and discouragements, so that you might be deceived. And oddly enough, our counter to Satan's schemes is not one of heightened intelligence, so much as it is a childlike faith. Now, do not confuse childlike to mean childish. To be childish is to be naive, to be gullible, to be foolish, to be irresponsible. But as our Lord Jesus said, we must receive the kingdom of God like a child. As he prayed in Luke's gospel, Father, I thank you that you have hidden these things from the wise and the understanding, but you have revealed it to what? To whom? To little children, for such was your gracious will. And so in that sense, the way a child comes before a loving father with a sincere faith, with an unquestioning trust that my father is good and all his ways are good, and to be trusted, so it is to be with us, saying, Lord, how precious are your thoughts to me? And indeed, God's Word is so trustworthy. Paul continues on in verse 8, and he instructs young Titus to, quote, insist on these things, or better translated, speak confidently. Titus, speak boldly about the things of God. And we're reminded here that humility and boldness are not only not opposed to one another, they actually make a happy couple. The one leads to the other. True humility leads to true confidence. The righteous are as bold as a lion, as Proverbs says. I'm sure you can see how opposed this is to the world's version of humility. Just a word to our younger adults and to our teenagers. You should be well aware that should you go out and speak confidently, should you insist that there is truth, indeed absolute truth, that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, well, it's not going to be very long before you might be accused of arrogance. You might even hear, who are you to think that you've cornered the market on truth? Who are you at your young age to be so enlightened that you've discovered the truth while the masses are led astray? And so out of the fear of reproach, out of the fear of man, many Christians shrink back from such confidence, and they loosen their grip on God's trustworthy Word. Now, certainly we can be guilty of haughtiness, but we're meant to see that the pathway to knowing truth is bowing before it. As Proverbs says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. Because, indeed, the great irony is that it is actually the height of arrogance to say we cannot know the truth, to claim that truth is so elusive, it's so mysterious, it's so far out of reach that we cannot insist on it. When yet our God has said, no, you can know the truth, and here it is. I've revealed it to you in my trustworthy Word. Believe it and store it up. Well, we see next why Titus' confidence in the Word is so important, that this man of God might be ready for every good work. And you see that in verse 8. He says, insist on these things. And you might say, well, why, Paul? Why be so insistent? And Paul continues on and he says, so that those who have believed in God might be careful to devote themselves to good works. This is the connection that we've seen throughout Titus, that sound doctrine leads to sound living. Knowing the truth leads to doing the truth. And those words, be careful, in verse 8, it's more like the words we would use for be intentional, be purposeful, a kind of deliberateness to our devotion. It was just last week I suckered my poor wife into watching a documentary with me on one of the greatest fighters of the modern era. And much of it was highlighting this fighter's intensity in training, his devotion, his concentration on the art of fighting, how consumed he was in this pursuit of excellence. And the film would interject with these probing questions, just asking the fighter, why? Why are you so committed? And underneath his devotion lay this belief. For him, it was the belief in being the best, being a champion, being the greatest of all time. We see the Christian's belief is far better than that. As verse 8 says, we have believed in God. We have believed in the true and living God. And what flows out of that belief is the zealous pursuit for good. It's very simple. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And so we're reminded yet again that good works do not simply just happen. We would probably all laugh at that fighter if he looked in the camera and said, I expect to be the best. Yet, with no work, no commitment, no devotion, no practice, we would all fancy that fighter to be a fool. And yet, this is sometimes our approach to doing good, isn't it? Not just simply waiting for works to fall from heaven into our lap. But Paul summons us and he says, have an intentional, eager pursuit for good works that flows out of your belief of God. As Hebrews says, we believe that God exists and He is the rewarder of those who seek Him. Well, if you're still not convinced, Paul ties a bow around it and he sums up this pursuit of good and he's got two attributes, two superlatives that he calls out. You see at the end of verse 8, first attribute, these things, this pursuit is excellent. This is the true pursuit of excellence. That when God's people set their minds and set their hearts to walk in the works that God has prepared, God smiles and says, that is excellent. God looks down and says, well done, good and faithful servant. And so, it's right for us to ask, is this our pursuit? Is this your pursuit? Indeed, the world has much to say about the pursuit of excellence, but you know as I do, such pursuit often means pursuing recognition, fame, wealth, achievements, all for the empire of man. Exhibit A, you need only glance at social media to see our billboards of bragging. But Titus has showed us why the pursuit of doing good is truly excellent. Our good works adorn the gospel. Our good works show off the renewing power of the Spirit. Our good works show off God's craftsmanship that He would give us a new heart. And we've seen that rather than competing with God's grace, as if grace and works oppose one another, we've actually seen it's God's grace, and only God's grace, that empowers us to do good works. That is the great irony of good works. The only way to do them rightly is to first reject them, to first renounce them, and say these works are not the basis of my righteousness, and then to believe in Christ and believe in Christ alone. And then once you are in Christ and only in Christ, now you are ready to do good works. Well, if you're still not convinced, let's look at the second attribute of this pursuit. Verse 8, not just excellence, but you see the second one, one of profit. Verse 8 says, this is a pursuit of the profitable for people, meaning not just Christians but for all people. And it's absolutely right to claim that the more Christian a society is, the better off are all people, because doing good works turns a profit. You can recall that famous parable of the talents, where that last servant is summoned by his master. His master wants him to give an account for what he did. And you remember, he's given one talent and he returns exactly one talent. He turns no profit. And what's even more telling is the reason he did not turn a profit, that when asked, he tells his master, I was afraid of you. I thought you were a harsh man. I thought you were a severe man. And that servant is condemned for his unprofitability and cast out. And friends, how often that can be us. How tempting it is to say what profit is there in serving the Lord, what value is there in all this sacrifice, all this toil, all this labor is all of this in vain. Have I poured myself out only to be left empty? And underneath it all, we might even be tempting to see, tempted to think that our God, the God we serve is a harsh and severe God. And so we must renew our minds. The God that we serve is the God of increase of 30, 60, even 100 fold. He is the God who is pleased, even easily pleased with our works. And he receives them through Jesus Christ. And so church, do not lose heart. I know so many of you have made sacrifices and convictions and choices that come at a high cost, that you have paid a high price for walking in godliness and the pursuit of excellence. Indeed, it always comes at a high price and a high cost. But know this, that is the pursuit of what is profitable. That is to lay up treasures where moth and rust will never decay and rust them. So there's the word on the pursuit of the profitable. But notice, Paul's tone immediately changes and now it shifts to rejecting the unprofitable. And once again, God's Word guides us as to how we're going to measure profits and losses. And so verse 9 warns right out of the gate. You see, Paul says, avoid these things, or even more strongly, shun these things. And then he fires off four things that the church is to avoid. But what all four of these have in common is that they are all unprofitable. They do not yield an increase for God's people. Not only that, they're not just net neutral, they in fact bring ruin upon the church. They create disunity in the body. So you can see it clearly. Good works are excellent and they are profitable. At the end of verse 9, you see there, Paul says, these are of no profit and these things are worthless. And so just to walk through them, firstly, he says, avoid foolish controversies or disputes. Now as a people, we are rightly passionate about the truth, but if that passion is not paired with wisdom, it's not long before you are entangled in a foolish dispute. You start majoring on the minors. You start to believe that your cause is a righteous cause. And before long, you are entangled in a silly argument. Secondly, verse 9, genealogies. Now genealogies are very important. All you have to do is read through the Old Testament. In fact, you could say the gospel is a genealogy that from Eve's seed, the snake's head will be crushed. But of course, man's talent is to take something good and to make it bad. And so by the time the New Testament rolls around, man is spinning fabrications off of genealogies as a way to boast in his righteousness. So you might remember the Pharisees rebuked Jesus, saying and claiming what? We have Abraham as our father. You can't tell us what to do. Thirdly, dissensions, which we might say just plain arguing, stirring up strife, the kind of person who disagrees for the sake of disagreeing. Always an ax to grind, always something to instigate, every hill a hill to die on, every cause a righteous cause. Instead, as Ephesians says, we are to be eager to pursue the bond of peace. I think Proverbs has the best imagery for it when it says this, better a dinner of herbs with love than the fattened ox with strife. So I could put it this way. We're about to have our fellowship meal right here after the service. Lots of great dishes for us to enjoy. But you see what Proverbs is saying. Proverbs is saying it would be better for us to sit down to our fellowship meal and all we have to eat is salt and pepper and maybe a side dish of basil and cilantro. That would be better if that's all we had to eat, but we had peace and we had love rather than we sit down to our plates and we've got the finest of foods, but we have conflict, strife and disunity. Avoid dissensions. And fourthly, closely related, verse nine says, avoid quarreling about the law. Now we need to remember God's law is holy. It's righteous. It's good. God's law is our guide to life. It's the lamp unto our feet. So Paul is not cautioning a right use of the law, nor should we take this to mean that there must never be any controversy in the church over matters of first importance. We are to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. In that sense, we are to be first to the fight, to be able to hold to the trustworthy word and refute those who contradict it. These quarrels in the law are moreover fanciful interpretations, misapplications, legalisms and speculations that have been spun out of the law. You remember that controversy in the New Testament was over which foods can we eat? What am I permitted to eat? You know, can I eat this bacon and ham sandwich? Then not very long after comes the thought, well, maybe I'm not even allowed to touch this bacon and ham sandwich. You know, come to think of it, maybe nobody is allowed to touch this bacon and ham sandwich. Let's have a debate over this topic. So you see, Paul is saying that is unprofitable and that does not promote the peace and unity of the church. And so we ought to shun anything that would be speculative, that where Scripture is silent, we are to be silent. It goes back to the fundamental point. God's word is trustworthy. Man's rules are not. God's word is trustworthy. Man's preferences are not. And of course, you know how this can go sideways if you've been in church for any significant amount of time. Not long, there's controversy over what color is the carpet, what color are the drapes in the sanctuary, fighting over singing of this song or singing of that song, having the Lord's Supper weekly, monthly or yearly, wine only or wine and grape juice, fighting over the minutia of how the Sabbath is to be kept. And on and on we go. And the point is, these things detract and distract from the pursuit of excellence. Charles Spurgeon said it so well when he said, if we were actually careful to pursue good works, we'll be far too busy with profitable business to take any interest in unworthy contentious strivings. His parents often say, if you were doing good, you would be too busy to be fighting. And so Paul has told us what to watch out for, but next he follows it with who we are to watch out for in verse 10, that as for this person who is the provoker, the lightning rod for these kinds of controversies, Paul gives this condensed version of Matthew 18 in church discipline. And he says, this agitator gets three strikes, warn him once, warn him twice, and then have nothing more to do with him. This man is warped, he's disrupting the church, and his sin will be so obvious that if he persists after being rebuked, he is self-condemned. So we've seen the profitable. We've seen the unprofitable. Thirdly, let's look now at the people in this final section of Titus, which is all about God's people and their relationships. It's easy to think of the book of Titus as the Paul and Titus show, but you read through these closing remarks and you're reminded of the community of the saints, the fellowship of brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. If you just look, verse 12, we've got these two brothers, Artemis and Tychicus, that they would come and get some generous hospitality, that they would lack nothing. Paul wants to see them face to face. Then he continues on. Maybe we want to get far away from lawyers, but Paul says, speed this lawyer named Zenos, have him come and bring with him Apollos, that man eloquent and competent in the scriptures. And so you start to see this mosaic of the church community as a whole. One body, many members, all working in coordination for the sake of the kingdom. And then you've got this intensely personal language in verse 14. You see there, it reads, not let the people, but let our people learn to do good works. The same tone in verse 15, when Paul signs off the letter, he doesn't sign off as Paul, the super apostle. Notice there, he says, all of us, everyone who is with me, the whole congregation with one voice, we send you our greeting so you can see why Paul is so eager to promote the peace and purity of the church. These are real people, real relationships. He has this rich consciousness of the covenant community as a whole. And that must always be us church. The hope is that when you walk through those doors on the Lord's Day morning and you come into this room, you have the distinct thought of not just these are people, no, these are my people. I belong to them and they belong to me. We are in covenant with one another. We have pledged and given ourselves to one another. As mentioned earlier, one of the great indictments of the modern American church is that it is little more than a collection of individuals. It's just an amorphous blob of consumers there to have their itches scratched and their felt needs met. The New Testament knows nothing of this. As we are united to Jesus Christ, we are therefore united to one another. It's knit together by the work of the Spirit. And you see that fleshes itself out in very practical ways. You see an example there in verse 14, if there is an urgent need, be urgent in meeting it. Meet the urgent needs. And church, all I can say to you is well done and may God give us increase. Our little congregation has already seen urgent needs financially, medical needs, housing needs, practical needs, and you all have been quick to meet those needs in a way that adorns the gospel and shows off the grace of God. You see another practical example in hospitality. Verse 15 says, quote, greet those who love us. Now see, this is actually not focusing on the stranger, though that's of course true. This is to show affection for our fellow Christians. As Galatians says, show particular affection for the household of God. And that word for greet there is not a suggestion, that's actually a command. Paul is commanding us, go, show yourselves to be friendly. Greet those, be outward, go outside of your comfort zone and give a warm welcome. And that is to be a perpetual goal of Cornerstone. The simple truth is that the more and more a church grows, the more and more it tends to weaken in being a welcoming church. And so it falls to us, it falls to you to adorn the gospel, to love the brotherhood and to welcome those who would come through those front doors. And so as we close, let's lay up in our hearts two uses of this awesome section of Scripture. It will be very simple, first being how not to stir and secondly how to stir, how not to stir and how to stir. So firstly, don't stir, namely, don't stir up dissensions, quarrels, controversies. Avoid these things, like the plague. And now you might say, who in their right mind would want to go around and stir up controversy, right? Who in their right mind would want to provoke peace and create chaos? Of course, the operative word in that statement is right mind because controversies can and do happen because we are not in our right mind. Why has Titus been so consumed with teaching about a sober mind, a self-controlled mind, a submissive mind, a mind that is eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and wants nothing to do with foolish controversies? This is why the Christian is to have a fully formed, self-controlled, sober mind that promotes peace and unity. So don't be a stirrer, but secondly, in a different sense, you should absolutely be a stirrer. There is a beneficial kind of stirring, as Hebrews says. Let us stir one another up to love and to good works. We don't want to simply be in neutral position. We don't want to merely avoid these things. We also want to stir one another up. And in just chapter 3 alone, good works were highlighted three times. Verse 1, be ready for every good work. Verse 8, devote yourselves to good works. Verse 14, learn to devote yourselves to good works. Clearly, our God cares a lot about doing good works. And so practically speaking, one of the most beneficial ways that we can stir one another up is simply by being present together on the Lord's day, coming together as God's people. As Hebrews says in that very often quoted verse, do not neglect to meet together as is the habit of some. But what is less often cited is that verse goes on to say this, do not neglect meeting together as is the habit of some, but instead encourage one another. In other words, simply by gathering together, being present with one another, singing together, praying together, seeing one another face to face, communing with one another, worshiping together, that is the encouragement. For indeed, there is something particularly special, powerful, encouraging, life-giving when God's people meet together on the Lord's day, that our great God says, yes, this I will bless, this I will edify. It is this gathering that God delights to smile upon, for it is here we come to Mount Zion, to heavenly Jerusalem. That is a trustworthy saying from God's trustworthy word. Let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we praise you for your word. Indeed, it is trustworthy in all of its ways. It makes wise the simple. It shows us the very paths of life. Indeed, it is sweeter than honey from the honeycomb, reviving under the soul. And so, Father, we do pray for us that we would receive your word, that we would store it up in our hearts, that we would know what it is to pursue excellence, the true excellence of your word, that we would know what it is to avoid the things your word says we ought to avoid, and that all of it would truly show forth your amazing grace that you, our God, have called us out of darkness and into your marvelous light. Amen.