Preached Sunday, July 11, 2010
from
Titus 3:1-3
Theme: When interacting with the unbelieving world we’re to remember two things: (1) what kind of people we’re to be toward them, and (2) what kind of people we once were before God.
[podcast]http://www.bethanybible.org/audio/071110.mp3[/podcast]
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
This morning, we begin a new section of Paul’s little letter to Titus. And before we do, it might be good to step back a bit and review the ground we’ve covered so far.
The basic message of this letter is an important one for those of us who follow Jesus Christ. In fact, given the times in which we live, it would be hard to find a message that’s more important for us to hear. It’s all about how we who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ must be faithful to live the kind of lives that match-up with the gospel message we proclaim. It tells us that we need to live so faithfully and obediently to Christ that the unbelieving people around us—living in an age of great skepticism about the faith—will be willing to listen to the gospel we preach. It tells us that we need to be careful to live so consistently with the gospel that they will never have to say about us, “The message those Christians proclaim sure sounds wonderful, but I don’t believe it. Look at how badly they behave! Why should I want to follow the Jesus they preach? They say they believe on Him; but it clearly hasn’t made any difference in the way they live!”
This letter, then, is about living in such a way that—as Paul says in Titus 2:10—we truly “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.”
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; the apostle Paul wrote this little letter to a Christian co-worker of his named Titus, who was responsible for providing care for several churches scattered throughout the island of Crete. The unbelieving culture on Crete was very wicked and sinful; and it might have been that Titus wanted to get all the Christians together to go out and impact the surrounding culture with the gospel. But some very important things needed to be established in an ongoing way first. And they were things that not only needed to happen for those ancient Christians back then, but that also need to happen for us today who follow Jesus in the twenty-first century.
Paul told Titus that, before the Christians could make the sort of impact in their world that God wanted them to make, they needed to have good spiritual leadership. And so, the very first piece of instruction Paul gave Titus was that he appoint good, godly pastors over the various churches on Crete. There were lots of false teachers on Crete who were spreading dangerous false doctrines among the people; and spiritually qualified, biblically-competent elders needed to be in place to preach God’s word faithfully and to defend the gospel from those who were attacking it. That’s what the first chapter of this letter was all about.
And that’s certainly something that churches today need to hear, isn’t it? There are lots of things that churches try to do to make an impact in this world; but God’s word here tells us that one of the most important things—one of the first things that must happen—is that qualified spiritual leadership be established, to lead the people and to help them be well-grounded in the truths of God’s word!
So; after they had good pastors in place, Titus might have thought that it was time to lead the people out the door to change this world. But once again, Paul as it were says, “Wait, Titus. There’s another important thing that needs to be done before that can happen.” And this second important thing is the subject of the second chapter. The people of God needed to make sure that they were all conducting themselves properly with one another as the church! They needed to be living holy lives with one another. They needed to be habitually turning away from sin in their own personal lives, and living consistently with the gospel within their families and within the body of Christ. They needed to be the genuine article!
Once again, this is a message for the church today. And so, in chapter two, Paul goes into great detail and describes the kind of godly living that ought always to characterize the people of God in every dimension of church life—how the older men are to set the tone of godly living; how the older women are to set the example of godly womanhood, and teach the younger women how to live godly lives; how the younger men are to live for Christ, and how the pastor himself was to set the example for them; how even the servants were to live in a godly manner with respect to their masters.
And so; it might seem that after all these things that Titus and the believers under his care were ready to run out and make an impact on this world. But once again, Paul seems to say, “Not just yet, Titus. Before you do that, there’s still one more thing that we need to talk about. Before the people of God can run out to have an impact on the unbelieving world, we need to talk about how they are to properly relate themselves to the unsaved people living in that world”
That third thing is the subject of chapter three—which is what we will begin studying this morning.
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; before we do so, dear brothers and sisters, just stop and think for a moment about the wisdom of God in presenting these three things to us in the context of reaching the world with His gospel.
So often, we feel the need to get out of the doors of the church and have a dynamic impact on the world. This is especially true in our day. Many church families are actively involved in doing lots of good things for the community. “Community service” has taken on a new emphasis in the church lately; and it seems that each year, churches are finding new ways to serve the world at large. And please understand—I believe that that’s a good and worthy and biblical thing to do. And yet, even in doing a good thing like that, we as the people of God can very easily lose our sense of priorities.
We need to remember that it’s not by doing good things for this world that we change the hearts of the unsaved people in it. Rather, it’s through proclaiming the life-transforming gospel of Jesus Christ, and through calling people to believe on Him for salvation, that the church is used by God to change the world. Doing service to the community is only of value if it’s in the context of a clear, biblical proclamation of the gospel that’s backed up by godly living.
God then—through this wonderful little letter to Titus—makes us stop and make sure that things are properly in place before we do go out to perform good works of service for this world. In fact, the works of service come last in the order of things—after making sure that godly pastoral leaders are in place in the churches to preach and defend the gospel, and after making sure that the people of God are growing to consistently live-out the implications of that gospel in their own personal lives, and after making sure they know how they are called to relate properly to the unbelieving people of this world as ambassadors for Christ.
And if we don’t keep those three things in place—and in the order that God has established—it won’t matter how many good works we may do in the community! We will not be impacting the world with the life-transforming message of Jesus that truly saves them!
* * * * * * * * * *
So then; this last chapter is about doing good in the midst of the unbelieving world around us. But what’s amazing is that it doesn’t focus so much on the works themselves, but on the kind of people we’re to be—in relation to the people of this world—while we do them. And what’s more, it gives us the crucial theological basis for it all in the light of the message of the gospel.
Look at Paul’s words to Pastor Titus, as they’re found for us in Titus 3:1-8. There, he calls Titus to speak to the people of God in this way:
Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men (Titus 3:1-8).
Do you see it? Paul definitely commands that people of God make sure that they ‘maintain good works’ in this dark and fallen world. But that comes in in verse 8—after the instructions on how the people of God are to properly relate to the unbelieving people of this world.
The key word in this section is the one that starts it all off—”remind”. It wasn’t Titus’ job to tell the people anything particularly new and innovative. Rather, it was his job to “remind” them of what it is that they had already been taught. What’s more, in the original language of Paul’s letter, this command to “remind” them is given in the present tense of the verb; which means it was a command that Titus was to constantly, regularly, habitually obey. He was to repeatedly “remind” the people of God about these things; because they would be things that it would be easy for them to forget.
We can break all this down into three basic divisions. In verses 1-2, Paul teaches Titus to remind the believers what kind of people they are to be in relation to the unbelieving world. (I’m going to throw verse 3 in there too; because it also has something to teach us about how we relate to the people of this world.) And then, in verses 3-7, Paul then goes on to tell Titus to remind the people of the theological basis for that instruction; and to show them what God has done to save them through Jesus His Son. (I’m really looking forward to our time of considering together what those verses teach us!) And finally, in verse 8, Paul reminds Titus to make sure that he himself faithfully affirms these things to God’s people—so that they will, indeed, “maintain good works”.
* * * * * * * * * *
So; let’s begin by looking at what what this first division has to say about . . .
I. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE WE’RE TO BE (vv. 1-2).
In verses 1-2, you find seven basic qualities that Titus was to continually bring to the remembrance of the people of God. And they are seven qualities that are remarkably timeless! We very much need to remember them ourselves while interacting with unbelieving people in our own day; because if we are faithful to be these things, we will make it easier for them to hear the gospel we proclaim.
First, Paul says that we are “to be subject to rulers and authorities”; or as some translations have it, to be “submissive” to them. This is teaching us to properly subordinate ourselves to those who are in positions of authority and leadership over the government—not only the “ruler” (such as the king, or the prime-minister, or the president), but also the “authorities” that have been commissioned by him and who serve under him.
Now; this was quite a thing for Paul to say; especially since he was living under the authority of wicked Caesar Nero! And yet, in Romans 13:1-2, Paul wrote, ” Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.” In going out into the world to relate as we should to unbelieving people, we need to make sure that we live in obedience to the authority of the government under which God has placed us. We bear a positive witness of our sovereign God to this world when we do so.
Second—and related to the first—Paul also says that we are “to obey”; and in this context, he meant that we’re to obey those whom God places in authority over us. It’s not enough to simply say that we’re submitted to the authority of those in governing power; but we must put practical application to it by obeying the laws of the land.
Now; of course, this doesn’t mean that we are to obey human authority when it commands us to involve ourselves in something that is contrary to God’s expressed will. The governing powers once commanded Peter to stop preaching the gospel; and he—in a very respectful manner—replied, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). He obeyed as much as he could while still giving his first obedience to God. But apart from such cases as that, we are to do our very best to obey the laws of the land. When we do so, we stand out to the people of this world as obedient to the higher authority of God over us; and we thus present a consistent witness for the gospel.
A third thing Paul says is that we’re “to be ready for every good work”. In this context, I believe we should take this to mean work that is “good” in the sight of the people of this world. There are things that all people agree are right and good to do—Christians and non-Christians alike. And when those things come up, we’re not to be caught by surprise by them or to be lazy about them. We’re to, as Paul says elsewhere, “Have regard for good things in the sight of all men” (Romans 12:17); and be ready to do them when the occasion arises.
This will make us stand out from religious phonies of the world. Paul wrote about the false teachers of his day in Titus 1:16; saying, “They profess to know God, but in works deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.” By contrast, he tells us that, as Christians, “we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10); and that God even gives His holy Scriptures to us “that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17).
A fourth thing Paul mentions is that we are “to speak evil of no one”. And just a moment’s reflection will help you to think about how much you and I would stand out in this world if we obeyed this instruction faithfully! Think of how often the people of this world bad-mouth their elected leaders. Think of how often they bad-mouth their boss. Think of how often they gossip and slander one another. And think of how often we ourselves fall into that kind of talk. When we share the message of the gospel with someone one moment, and they then hear us “speak evil” of someone else the next, they aren’t interested in hearing anything further from us about our Savior. We’re to remember what the apostle James said; “Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!” (James 5:9).
A fifth thing Paul says is that we’re “to be peaceable”. That means that we’re to be free of a contentiousness—free of a propensity to get into an argument or a fight. Paul also says, sixthly, that we’re to be “gentle”—that is, reasonable and mild in our approach. Those are qualities that are very important to remember in interacting with non-believers who may want to argue about our faith and attack the Bible’s teachings. Getting into shouting-matches over the good news is a terrible witness! As Paul once wrote to Pastor Timothy,
But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will (2 Timothy 2:23-26).
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; Paul mentions a seventh and final quality—and it deserves our special attention. He said that we’re to be “showing all humility to all men.” The word Paul uses here communicates the idea of a meek and patient and forbearing approach to people. And that’s a quality that is particularly important when it comes to our relationships with the people of this world.
As we who are followers of Jesus have interactions with people who do not know Him, we will—at times—find ourselves put-off by their manner of living and speaking. And it may be tempting for us to think of ourselves as better than them. “How can people live like this?” we may ask ourselves. We’ll at times become impatient with them, or offended by their, blasphemous language, or appalled by their ignorance of the things of God, or even contemptuous of their tendency to fall into the same sins over and over. When that happens, we communicate a ‘moral-superiority’ that leaves them with the feeling that we think we’re better than them. Sadly, we sometimes DO think we’re better than them! And that’s something that, more than just about anything else, turns people off to the gospel we want to share with them.
We need to show “all humility” in our interactions with all people—especially those who are trapped in sin. And it’s not to simply be a ‘put-on’ display of false-humility. We’re to display a humility that’s the genuine expression of our heart. And to help us do that, it’s important to notice how Paul then goes on to speak about . . .
II. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE WE ONCE WERE (v. 3).
He goes on to mention a list of another seven things that may tempt us to turn our noses up at the ungodly people around us. We may find that they are, for example, “foolish”—that is, they are brutish and unwise when it comes, not just to spiritual things, but to the matters of common-sense living and courtesy toward others. We may find that they are “disobedient”—that is, that they are rebellious and unwilling to submit to authority. We may find that they are “deceived”—believing every stupid and silly philosophy that comes along, or embracing every weird “spiritual” teaching that tells them what they want to hear. We may get frustrated that they are “serving various lusts and pleasures”—almost as if they are the hapless slaves of sin; never seeming to be able to free themselves from the habits and addictions that destroy them. We may become impatient over the way they live “in malice and envy”—always building their lives around either a jealous protectiveness their own position in life, or a relentless attempt to get the position that someone else has. We may grow repulsed over how “hateful” they can be—that is, living in such a way as to almost deliberately invite the ill-will of others toward them. And we may also feel ourselves repulsed by how they themselves truly hate one another.
But note how Paul calls us to “show all humility” in our interactions with “all men”. He reminds us, “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another . . .” A little stroll down memory lane—thinking back with a godly sense of shame at all the sinful attitudes we used to hold in our hearts, or the wicked habits that we were once addicted to, or the sort of filthy and hurtful words that used to come out of our mouths—certainly helps us to be patient with people who need the forgiving love of Jesus that we ourselves have received.
Personally, I have found it helpful to remember how it is that I came to Jesus Christ. Believe me; I didn’t come to Jesus because I thought I might be a real helpful addition to His cause! Far from it! I was living in the kind of ways that Paul described in that verse. There came a time when God—figuratively speaking—grabbed me by the hair, held me over the pit, let me feel the flames of the lake of fire, and told me, “That’s where you’re heading because of the way you’re living!” It absolutely terrified me! I lived for months in fear and despair because of it.
And yet, I’ll forever be grateful that He did that for me; because when I finally heard the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ—when I finally heard that God, in love, gave His own Son to die on the cross for my sins, to rescue me from judgment, and to make it possible for me to be completely forgiven, I grabbed hold of it like a drowning man would grab hold of a life-preserver!
Knowing that—and truly remembering what I was like—how could I then be so impatient with unbelieving people in this world? I’m no better than they are. And they’re no less ‘savable’ than I was.
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; I just can’t stop at those words in verse three. I need to read the rest of the good news this passage gives us:
For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:3-7).
These wonderful words describe my experience. I hope they describe yours too.
But in thinking about them, we need to remember how desperately lost we were at one time; and how God in mercy saved us through faith in His Son. And we need to let that realization humble us down a bit; so that we can relate rightly to the unbelieving people of this world—being subject to rulers and authorities, obeying, being ready for every good work, speaking evil of no one, being peaceable, and gentle, and showing all humility to all men.
As a result, may we relate to them in such a way as to truly adorn the gospel of “God our Savior” in all things.