An Introduction to Titus

Good morning. Glad you're here this morning. I wanted to take just a moment to make an introduction again so that you're not like, hey, who's the tall guy with the great hair? So Jared had to be out of town this weekend filling in at another church. And so I invited one of my students, one of my former students, Shiloh Vogel, to come lead us in worship this morning.

So I'm blessed that he can come and share that gift with us. So if you'd all stand and I'll lead us in prayer.

Father, we come to you now. And Lord, I thank you for the opportunity that we have to gather as your body for this morning. Father, I thank you that you have blessed us with the gift of worship. Father, that you have blessed us with the gift of your Holy Spirit. And I pray right now that your Holy Spirit would move through this time. Father, that you would prepare our hearts

for what your word has to say. And that, Lord, we would be led directly into the throne room of God where we can truly commune with you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you, Father. I want to miss a moment. I want to thank you for your goodness. Before we get started, just posture your heart to thank him for his goodness. Thank you, Jesus, for all that you've done. There's never a moment where I can look back that you weren't with me. Thank you, Jesus. And please, bring him back. Thank you, Father. Thank you for your goodness.

Thank you that you make the darkness tremble, Jesus. In your name, it stands the greatest.

Jesus at the center. Jesus at the center of your church. You are stirring the face of Jesus to накle the earth. Jesus, at the center. Jesus at the center, Jesus. At the sin, Jesus. At the center of your church. Jesus at the center of your church. Let everything be about you. And be your face at your church. Let everything to be about you. Let everything we do point to you, Jesus,

you be the center. Let our lives revolve around you. Thank you, Jesus. We thank you for your goodness. God, I thank you that you have been pursuing us. God, when we turn our back on you, you're right there. Father, would we have a posture of turning around to seek your face this morning? And if we need a reason, let us look back on our lives and remember the times that you've been good.

It's an easy thing to do.

God, I thank you that your goodness chases after us. God, I thank you for the cross and what it means. If we can't think of anything good that you've done in our life, that right there is the number one thing, the cross that has the final word,

the freedom we get to live in, Father. I thank you for it. We give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen. If you would, turn and greet one another.

Good morning. If you could begin the process of finding your seat. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. A handful of things to take note of in your bulletin. As always, the things that go on on the left-hand side of the bulletin. And then over in the middle section, just a couple of reminders about Grief Share coming up. All the information is right there. And then, fellows, we have a men's breakfast coming up this Saturday.

We're going to be kicking back off with those once a month again. So come join us this Saturday at 8 a.m. down in the Agape room so that we can have a great time of food and fellowship together and hopefully really encourage each other. So those are the things that are going on. As always, I'll remind you about our reading plan there on the back. If you have not been following along with us, then Monday is a great day to start.

So take note of that and join in with us on that. So those are the things that are going on. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. I would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our unison reading today, because all of my buddies are gone,

for our unison reading today, we are going to be in Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Looking at the New American Standard for this part so that hopefully we sound the same. If you need to copy the New American Standard, it should be one in a row around you. And while you are turning to Psalm 100, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

And we will do everything within our power to read all of these verses together. Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Psalm 100 is Psalm of Thanksgiving. Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful singing.

Know that the Lord himself is God. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Give thanks to his name. Bless his name. For the Lord is good. His loving kindness is everlasting and his faithfulness to all generations. And so, Father, we do praise you for being so good to us.

Father, I praise you that you have given us the opportunity to sing in song, Lord, your praises. And God, you've given us the opportunity to worship you through the study of your Word. And so, as we do that this morning, I pray that your Word would minister to our hearts and draw us near to you. Father, that you would do the work that only your Holy Spirit can do through your Word as you teach us where we need to be taught, as you convict us where we need that conviction in our lives, Lord, and where you comfort us in those places where we need to hear that comforting, encouraging Word from the Lord.

And so, Father, we just lift this time to you now, in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Titus, chapter 1. Titus, chapter 1. Well, we're continuing on in our study of the pastoral epistle, still underneath the heading of faithfulness, because all three of the pastoral epistles really speak of faithfulness.

And I know you're probably thinking to yourself, Ryan, doesn't 2 Timothy come right after 1 Timothy? Yes, it does in the Bible, but not chronologically. Titus was actually written after 1 Timothy. 2 Timothy was the last of Paul's written letters. And so, I decided to take it in its chronological order. Partly because that made sense to me, and partly because in the stage I'm at in life

right now, teaching Paul's swan song is not something I would make it through very well emotionally. I'm just going to be honest with you on that. So, we jumped into the book of Titus. And so, what I want to do this morning is what I typically do when we come to the beginning of a book. And we're just going to do an introduction. I know you're thinking to yourself, four verses, an introduction, what are we going to do here?

But hopefully, you'll be blessed by what we have to see here this morning. And so, we pick up in verse 1 of chapter 1, and it says this. Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God, and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, and the hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, but at the proper time manifest, even his word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior. To Titus, my true child in a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Now, as we have pointed out, this is going to be really familiar to those of you that have been through several of these books with me before. But some of you haven't been through some of these books with me before, so I never like to say, well, you all know this. And so, I will take it again. For some of you, it will be a little bit of a refresher, a reminder of things that we've talked about.

For some of you, maybe it's going to be the first time. Maybe it's going to be the first time that you hear it. Either way, hopefully we're blessed by what God's word has to say. Letters at the time when Paul was writing are a lot different than the letters that we write today. They were formed just a little bit differently. If you were going to write a letter today, which probably you're not going to, but you

would start off with who you're writing the letter to, dear so and so. Well, it was very opposite in Paul's day. They started off with the author of the letter, and then they got to who the recipient was after that. And so, there's three things that we're going to look at here this morning. We're going to look at the writer. We're going to look at the recipient.

And then we're going to look at the greeting. And so, the writer, of course, is Paul. And I always like to take a moment to talk about who Paul is and how God brought him to the place of where he became a writer of most of the New Testament letters, because it's a fascinating story of grace. And I think any time that we can hear a story of grace, even one that we've heard before, it's always a blessing to us because it reminds us that God uses broken and flawed individuals to do his work.

Paul. Paul, by his Jewish name, was known as Saul, was one who was very well skilled in the law of God, the Old Testament law, the Old Covenant. And he could quote all of the verses, he could quote all of the sections, and he was someone who knew the law really well. But when Jesus came along, who was the fulfillment of the law, but not who all of the religious leaders had pictured as the fulfillment of the law, Paul hated him.

As a matter of fact, as a self-righteous, legalistic man, Paul hated everything that there was to do with Jesus. And any of the followers of Jesus, as a matter of fact, the first time that we're introduced to Paul, who at that point in time was going by his Jewish name, Saul, when we were introduced to him for the very first time, he was standing and holding the coats of those who were committing the very first martyr of an individual named Stephen. He held the coats of those who threw the stones at Stephen and ultimately put him to death. And after Stephen was put to death, Paul began to unleash a persecution upon the church that they had not seen before, and it drove many of the believers away from Jerusalem and

scattered the word at the same time, but it drove many of the believers away from Jerusalem. And in his zeal to persecute the followers of this Jesus, he took off for a place called Damascus, where he knew that there were many people that had gathered that were continuing to spread the word of Jesus Christ, and he received letters from the chief priests in order to go and bring them back. He proclaimed to them that they were sent to Damascus to be raised from the dead, and the Lord had chosen them. He said that they were being saved, and that when they were down the mountain, he was going to say, I'm going to shatter them to pieces, and I'm going to strike them like lightning, and I'm going to break them into pieces, and this is what happened.

And the prophet Paul said to them, I'm going to break you. I'm going to break you to pieces. Now, I'm going to make you into a pile. He's dead. the one whom you've been persecuting? Isn't it hard for you to kick against the goads? Now, I just find that line interesting, and it gets me every time that I read the account of Paul when we find that what Jesus said to him is,

isn't it hard for you to kick against the goads? This would indicate something to us about what had been going on in the life of Paul previous to his salvation. What had been going on in the life of Paul previous to his salvation is that the Holy Spirit had been at work in his life and had been convicting him of his sin, but he continued to suppress that conviction. And as he suppressed that conviction, he continued living a life opposed to Jesus.

And I think that many of us in here that are born again would be able to say that there was a time in our lives where the conviction of the Holy Spirit was strong against us and we were kicking against the goads. We tried as hard as we could to suppress that. We tried as hard as we could to push that down to where ultimately we kept living a life of rebellion and it started becoming harder and harder for us to kick against the goads until one day, finally, like Paul, we found ourselves knocked off of our high horse and finding ourselves saying, Lord, who are you? And what do you want me to do?

And that's what Paul did. And so what Jesus told him, he says, you need to go on into Damascus. You need to go on in there and there's going to be someone who meets you and he's going to explain to you more clearly what you need to do. And that's exactly what happened with Paul. When the gospel was explained to him, not only did, the scales fall off of his eyes physically,

but the scales fell off of his heart spiritually. And he began to realize that all of the things that he had taught in the Old Testament as law were fulfilled in this Jesus. And one who had been so passionately opposed to this Jesus became the greatest preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because can we just say that that's what God's grace does in the life of people?

God's grace takes people who are lost, it takes people who are broken, and it turns them into individuals who at one point in time were opposed to the truth and now not only embrace it, but become the greatest proclaimers of the truth. I love what I get to do because what I get to do, while I'm not always an evangelist, I'm a teacher, what I get to do is I get to talk to people who have seen God's grace at work in their life and teach them how to take that grace and turn it into their mission in life. How to take that grace and turn it into their purpose in life. And it's so fun to hear stories of people of who they were before Jesus, what Jesus did in their lives, and who they are now, and what God is doing in them now.

Because that story, can I just be honest with you, that story is your greatest evangelistic tool. Do you know that? Do you know that your own personal story of grace is the most powerful tool that you have in your toolbox next to the word of God to be able to proclaim the truth in the lives of people? Because you can't just, because at that point in time you're not just saying, this is what I've heard about God's grace, you're saying this is what I have seen about God's grace.

Right? I think I shared this a couple of weeks ago, but I forget what I shared with who at any point in time, at any given point in my world right now. But I love the end of the book of Job. Because at the very end of the book of Job, when God challenges him, he says, I had heard about you through the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. And from that moment on,

Job's understanding of God and his ability to teach the truth about who God is to the people that are around him was unlike anything else. Because it went from head knowledge that was about God to experiential knowledge of God. And that's what God's grace does in our lives. And that's what God's grace did for Paul. But again, if you're here this morning and you are someone who has never come to Jesus

as your Lord and Savior and you're kicking against the goads, I have a question for you. Aren't you tired of it yet? Aren't you tired of kicking against that? Aren't you tired of suppressing that conviction? Aren't you tired of living a life where you're depressed, because you're constantly pushing down God's conviction in your life? Wouldn't it be easier to just come to Jesus and surrender?

I'm here to tell you right now, it is. And this is what happens with Paul. And so Paul, and he describes himself two ways. He describes himself, first of all, as a bondservant of God. A bondservant of God. It's interesting that he uses this wording this time because usually he refers to himself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ. But this time he refers to himself

as a bondservant of God. I don't know that there's any significance to that other than he chose to do that this particular time around, but I do find it kind of interesting. I'm still waiting for more information from the Lord as to what's significant about that. But what I want to pay attention to is the simple little phrase he uses of himself, bondservant.

He uses the phrase bondservant. Some of your translations may say bondslave. In the Greek, it's the word doulos. D-O-U-L-O-S, doulos. In the Greek's understanding of the word doulos, doulos was not positive. You know, right now, you've probably heard this term enough. You've read this term enough in Paul's writings that you think a bondservant must be a pretty good thing.

It must be a pretty noble thing. But I spent a little time studying this word bondservant this week, and I found it kind of interesting. First of all, the word doulos, or bondslave, was the most abject, servile term in the Greek world for a slave. In other words, the bondslave was the lowest of the slaves. So it's interesting. As Paul is writing to a Gentile mindset,

because Titus himself is a Gentile, and he's pastoring a church in a very Gentile area, the Greeks understood this word. When Paul refers to himself as a bondservant, this is not a noble term he's using of himself. This is a servile term he's using of himself. This is what we call humility, because humility is not looking down on yourself. Humility is looking at yourself for who you truly are.

And what he realized about himself was, as he viewed his life in God, he is simply a servant, a bondslave, the lowest of the servants, the under rower for God in his economy. And I find that interesting because remember, Jesus gave the greatest example of this because Jesus said that if you want to be great in God's kingdom, you have to learn to be a slave of all. Because even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. All Paul's doing here is following the example of the Savior that he spent his life serving.

But he refers to himself as a bondservant. There's a couple of interesting things about a bondslave. First of all, a bondslave was born into it. You were born a bondslave. And I found this kind of interesting. Kenneth Weiss pointed this out in his word studies. He said, if you think about it, Paul was born a slave of sin. When Paul was born, he was born into the slavery of sin,

just like you and I. When we are born, we are not born good. Despite what Sarah McLachlan says, we are not all innocent. We are born into the slavery of sin. And as we are born into the slavery of sin, we are bondslaves of sin. But he was born again into Christ and he became a bondslave of choice and by new birth of Jesus Christ and of God the Father. Isn't that kind of interesting?

When you become born again, we think freedom, I get to do whatever I want. Yes, but we realize that with that freedom comes now not the need to be a bondslave, but the choice to get to be a bondslave. That's why Paul in Romans chapter six says you are slaves to the one. That you present yourselves to. You can either present yourselves to sin, to be a slave of sin,

or you can present yourself to Christ and be a slave of Christ. And I'm here to tell you, if you present yourselves to Christ as a slave, you will truly live as free. And so they were bondslaves that were born into it. The next thing that's kind of interesting about a bondslave is that you were a bondslave until death. It was a life sentence. That's who you were.

You were a slave forever. But it's kind of interesting because if you think about it, as believers in Jesus Christ we ultimately never really die, right? We have eternal life in Christ, therefore as bondslaves of Christ, we are bondslaves for all of eternity. Living always in this wonderful place of being servants of the living God. A bondslave is also defined as one whose will is swallowed up in the will of another.

Because if you are born into this slavery, if you are born into this place, your will is now completely captured by the will of your master. In other words, you don't live your life according to what you want, you live your life according to the edicts or the dictates of your master. Well, as believers in Jesus Christ, again, if we are to live free, then we live with our will swallowed up in the will of God. Can I tell you that as a believer I have tried to live opposite of that?

As a believer I have tried to live as one whose will is first and foremost in my life, and I can tell you every time, as a believer in Jesus Christ, I try to live opposite of a doulos, of a bondslave, and I try to live according to my own will, that I find myself enslaved again to sin, and I'm not living in freedom any longer. But as a believer in Jesus Christ, when my will becomes swallowed up in His will, not only is it my greatest joy in life, not only is it my greatest peace in life, but it is my greatest pleasure in life. And I find that when my will is swallowed up in the will of my master, that's when life really begins. But that's what a bondslave was.

But the last thing about a bondslave that's kind of interesting is that a bondslave serves another to the disregard of his own interests. A bondslave serves another to the disregard of his own interests. Can I tell you that the safest place that you can be is in the will of God? You could be in the most dangerous city. You could be in the most dangerous country.

You could be in the most dangerous situation. But if it's to the disregard of your own interests or the interests of God first, it's the safest place you can ever be. Because obedience is always the safety net of the believer. Because obedience is always the safest place for any believer to be. Because a doulos, a bondslave, is one who serves to the disregard of their own interests.

And so I have a question for you this morning, a question that only you can answer. Who are you a slave to? What are you a slave to? Because you will present yourself to something to serve it. That's who we are by nature. We serve something. And Jesus told us no man can serve two masters. For either you will cling to the one and despise the other, or you will hold to the one and push away the other.

But you can't serve two. You can only serve one. And so my question for you is, what do you serve? What's your master today? I would tell you that if you want to live a life of true freedom, if you want to live a life of true peace, if you want to live a life of true peace, if you want to live a life of true purpose, then you, like Paul, will be able to say,

I am a bondslave of God. And so that's what Paul presents himself as, a servile slave to the one who set him free. But then he refers to himself as a second thing. He refers to himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ. An apostle of Jesus Christ. The word apostle is an interesting word and one that sometimes gets thrown around in a little bit of a wrong way in our culture today.

There's, first of all, the basic understanding of an apostle, and then the understanding of an apostle that Paul was at this point in time. The word apostle simply means one sent on a mission. One sent on a mission. And in that way, we all, ultimately, are apostles of Jesus Christ. Because each of us has been sent on some kind of a mission by the Lord. Perhaps that mission is at your job site.

Perhaps that mission is in your home or your school or whatever it is. We've all been sent on a mission from the Lord. And that's how Paul viewed himself, one who had simply been sent on a mission. And he's going to talk about that mission in just a minute. But we need to remember that there's also an aspect that died out with the apostles that's called apostolic authority.

That's what Paul and the other of the 11 apostles had. They had this authority to be able to set the doctrine for the church, that doctrine that was sealed in what we call the canon of Scripture, that was canonized for us, that lined up with what Jesus had to say, that lined up with what the Old Testament had to say, and met the criteria of being Scripture. In that way, there are no apostles today. And I say that because it's a dangerous place for someone to be when they start claiming that they are an apostle.

Because if they start claiming that, then they like to start to set doctrine. And when men start to set doctrine that is opposed or added to the Scripture, we run into real issues. And as a matter of fact, if anybody, Paul told us, preaches any other gospel other than what he preached, let him be anathema. He didn't preach any other gospel other than what he preached.

And so, Paul said, no, you want to teach me something that I can do. I want to teach me something that is true. And there was a man named Paul, who had been a Christian for a long time. And he had been a Christian for a long time. And this was when he was going to be an apostle, and it was like an orderly church. And Paul is teaching not only people, because of this holy Holy Spirit being a priest,

God is saying, if you want to teach people how to preach a gospel of faith, in that region how they were to act and so Paul says a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ but as an apostle he talks about three parts of his mission as an apostle notice what it says look at verse 1 again for the faith of those chosen of God the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness in hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie promised long ages ago but at the proper time manifested even his word and the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior the three parts of the mission the first thing he says is he is an apostle of Jesus Christ

for the faith of those chosen of God for the faith of those chosen of God some of your translations may say according to the faith of those chosen of God it's kind of an interesting word the idea being behind this word is that it is not only according to but also in harmony with the faith in other words Paul's apostleship in Jesus Christ was in harmony with the teaching of the faith and when that phrase the faith is used it's talking about the overall body of teaching of Jesus Christ that's what's referred to here as the faith is the overarching preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ and so he assures them that on his mission his mission is in accordance with or it's in harmony with the The faith of Jesus Christ.

But it can also be translated for the faith. And the idea of that means for the purpose of spreading the faith. We call that evangelism. And that's what Paul did. Paul in his mission was an evangelist. He was one who went out and spread the faith of Jesus Christ to those who had been chosen of God. To those who had been marked out before time began to receive salvation.

And that was his thing. He went out and he spread the faith to everybody that he went to. And I love that that's what God's grace did in his life. You know, it didn't take Paul long before that was the first thing that he started doing. Is he started sharing with everybody about what God had done for him. And started sharing with everybody this newfound knowledge.

I love that about brand new believers. Brand new believers love to tell that because it's like they just discovered this treasure. Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? They just discovered the greatest treasure they've ever received in their entire life. And they want to tell everybody in the world about it. A young person that I got to help lead to faith this last year was messaging me and saying,

I've been putting stuff about my faith out on TikTok. And now lots of people are starting to ask me questions about my faith. And I love that. Brand new believer. Brand new to the faith. Probably can't tell you a whole lot about what God's word has to say because they're very brand new at it. But they're just excited to tell everybody in the world. And I love that.

You know why? Because God's grace changed that person. person, and now that person is taking that grace that God gave them, and they're not using it in vain. Instead, what they're doing is they're using it as a platform to be able to tell everybody else about this newfound treasure that they have, and I love that about brand new believers. I met my wife right after she became a Christian, and she was so excited to tell everybody in the world

about being a Christian, especially those that she was closest to, and the most heartbreaking thing for her is that she thought once she had found this great treasure that all of the people that she was closest to would also go, why has no one told me about this before? And they would receive it as well, and her greatest heartbreak is that so many of them wouldn't. Some of them have, but in the beginning, some of them wouldn't, and it's so hard for them to understand, but it's wonderful to be able to take that truth, that faith, and spread it to the people that are around us, and so some of you that are brand new Christians in here, I hope you don't ever lose that zeal.

I hope that that continues to be this great treasure that you want to share with the people around you, but I do have a question for those of you that aren't brand new in your faith. Have you lost that zeal? Have you lost that excitement? Because it's easy to do, isn't it? It's easy to be like, well, I got saved 20 years ago, and you know, it's just, it's kind of what I

do now. Well, where's your excitement for other people knowing about it? Well, but it's kind of what I do. It's kind of my faith. Well, that's great, but maybe it could be everybody's faith, because people get excited about this. I love what's going on in our nation right now, with so many people coming to faith, and it's because they're seeing evangelism. Evangelism explode through the excitement of these brand new believers. But Paul said part of

his mission was for the faith of those chosen of God, for the evangelizing of the world. Now, the second thing that he says his mission is, is for the knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness, for the knowledge of the truth. We'll call this teaching. If the first part of his mission was evangelizing, the second part of his mission was teaching.

And what he wanted to teach was the knowledge of the truth. Now, this word knowledge is interesting, because this word knowledge takes us past the head knowledge, and it takes it into heart knowledge. This word knowledge actually could be translated experiential knowledge. You see, there's a difference between those two things, right? There's, there's the knowledge that you can tell

people about, because you've read it somewhere, and then there's the knowledge that you have, because it's personal in nature, right? I always share with you, one of my favorite baseball players of all time is this guy named Ryan Sandberg, who, by the way, went home to be with the Lord from what I understand. Some things I read about him is that he was actually a believer, which makes me really happy. But he passed away of cancer. Raptor, the real legend, died about a

week later. And so I was like, oh, that's kind of sad. But growing up, I knew all the stats about Ryan Sandberg. I wanted to play second base for the Chicago Cubs just like him. And it was never really a good option for me. But that was what I wanted in life. But if I would have ever gone to Ryan Sandberg's house, knocked on his door and tried to go in, I would have been escorted out by

security, right? Some form of security, because I don't really know him. I know about him. I knew a lot of things about his stats and his numbers. I even have his Philadelphia Phillies rookie card. I got all these things. But I don't know him. I don't have an experiential knowledge of him. And so while I can tell some people things about him, I can't really explain an experiential

knowledge. Too many people are like that with God. Too many people know a lot about God. You can quote the stats. You have the rookie card. You have all the things. But you don't know God. You don't have that experiential knowledge. That's why Jesus said, some of you will come to me and say, Lord, Lord, didn't I do all these things in your name? And he'll say, but I don't

know you. And so Paul says when he wants to teach them the knowledge, it's the experiential knowledge of God. He doesn't just want to teach information about God. He wants to teach God so that people will come into that experiential relationship with God. He wants to teach them the knowledge of God. Jesus Christ, an experiential relationship that will change their lives because the knowledge that

he wants to teach them, I want you to notice what it says, is in accordance with or according to godliness. Let me put it to you in a different translation. He wants to teach the knowledge that will lead them to a life of godliness. Listen, I want you to know something. I listened to a guy say this the other day. He said, you know, sometimes we just have to gather together as

Christians and just not worry about doctrine. And I just can't do that. I can't just gather as Christians and not worry about doctrine because doctrine is really important. Because if your doctrine is not right, we can't have fellowship. Because you may serve a different Jesus than me. The Jesus you serve may not be the Jesus of the Bible. It might be the Jesus of your own making.

And so doctrine is really important. But we have to understand while doctrine is important and you need to know it, doctrine is dangerous if it doesn't lead to godliness. Doctrine is dangerous if it's not something that leads us to godliness. Because doctrine that doesn't lead to godliness is called head knowledge and that leads to pride. And once that pride does its

job in our lives, we're useless to God and everybody else around us. But doctrine that is experiential leads us to godliness. Do you know that holiness should be one of the pursuits of your life? Ryan, that's legalism. No, it's not. It's biblical teaching. Holiness should be one of the pursuits of your life. It should be something that you pursue in your life. All of your getting into

God's word leads you into relationship with Jesus Christ. But that relationship with Jesus Christ leads you to holiness. That's our goal. That's one of our goals. Part of that knowledge is being led to holiness. Take, for instance, my relationship with my wife, right? My greatest desire on this side of eternity is to love my wife the best that I can and get to know her the best that I can. But

in my knowledge of her and my getting to know her, I'm going to get to know her the best that I can. If it doesn't change the way that I treat her, if it doesn't change my understanding of her, if it doesn't make me a better husband, then I can just tell you a lot of facts about my wife. It should lead me to being a better husband. And that's where our relationship with Jesus Christ is supposed to be. As we get into God's word, it's for the purpose of leading us into holiness. And so Paul says,

my mission as an apostle is not only to bring people into the faith, but it's to teach them the knowledge of truth so that they can walk in the faith. That knowledge that accords with godliness. That knowledge that leads to holiness. And so Paul says, my mission as an apostle is not to bring people into the faith, but it's to teach them the knowledge of truth so that they can walk in the faith. That knowledge that accords with godliness. And so Paul says, my mission as an apostle is not

to bring people into the faith, but it's to teach them the knowledge of truth so that they can walk in the to godliness. And that was part of his mission. I read one quote on this that I thought was really good, and I'm going to give it to you. I do not remember which commentary I got it from because I did a poor job of taking notes. But it says this, godliness flows naturally from a relationship with

Christ. Godliness flows naturally from a relationship with Christ. Isn't that beautiful? That tells me that the greatest thing that I want to do if I want to grow in my knowledge of truth is that I grow in my knowledge of Jesus. Because as I grow in my knowledge of Jesus, I grow in my knowledge of Jesus. Because as I grow in my knowledge of Jesus, I grow in my knowledge and in my relationship

with Jesus, godliness will naturally flow from that. And so Paul says, it's my mission to not only evangelize the world, but to teach the world, but also to bring expectation to the world. Notice what he says, in the hope of eternal life, which God who cannot lie promised long ages ago. I didn't intend for us to talk about eternal life two weeks in a row. I didn't intend for us to talk about eternal life two weeks in a row.

I didn't intend for us to talk about eternal life two weeks in a row. I didn't intend for us to talk about eternal life two weeks in a row. But here we are killing it, right? Here we are because this is kind of what God's word did. And I debated on whether or not to spend a little bit of time on this. And God said, why not spend a little extra time on eternal life?

That's where we're going. He didn't actually say that, but it's the thought that went through my mind that felt like it was from Jesus. So I want to share with you a few scriptures. First of all, eternal life is what God always intended and promised to restore. Genesis chapter verse 15. You don't need to turn there, but I'll reference it. You might write it in the margin of

your Bible. I said the margin of mine because I wrote it there. But that's what God always intended for us. When he said that this eternal life, this hope of eternal life is what God promised, you find yourself going, where did God promise eternal life before the foundations of the world? Well, it's because it was always his plan for us. Eternal life was always what God

intended for us. Do you know how I know that? Because when Adam and Eve sinned, the garden, there was a guard put in front of one particular tree and it was the tree of eternal life so that they would not eat of it and live eternally in their sinful state. There was a guard put around that and they were kicked out of the garden. But prior to being kicked out of the

garden, a promise was made because while eternal life was always God's plan for us and sin tried to destroy that plan of eternal life, God had a plan to restore his original intent for us. And the plan that he had to restore that original intent for us is given in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 when he says that the seed of the woman will be at enmity with the serpent and he will bruise his heel, but the seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent, which will be God's ultimate restoration of eternal life that he brought through Jesus Christ. So eternal life is what God promised to us. It was what he always intended for us and it's also what he restored to us through Jesus, which brings me to the next chapter.

The next passage of scripture, John chapter 3 verse 16, because in John 3, 16, it says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever would believe in him would not perish, but would have eternal life. You see, eternal life is God's gift of love by faith to us. Jesus was that fulfillment of what was promised in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 when he said, anyone who believes in me will be saved. And it was that gift of love, that comes to us by faith. But it's reality, the reality of eternal life is found in Christ.

And I do want you to turn here. Hold your finger here and go over to 1 John. If you hit Revelation, you went too far. 1 John chapter 5, and I want to look at verses 11 and 12. 1 John chapter 5 verses 11 and 12 says this, and the testimony is this, that God has given us, eternal life, and this life is in his son. He who has the son has life. He who does not have the son

does not have life. You see, the reality of eternal life is knowing Jesus Christ. That's the reality of eternal life. That's the hope of eternal life that we have. And so, as I like to point out, eternal life is not about a destination. Eternal life is about a quality of life. And that quality of life begins in Jesus Christ. And that quality of life begins in Jesus Christ. And that

is the day that you become a believer in Jesus Christ, the day that you are born again into an eternal life. And it carries on into our next location, which is brand new bodies with him forever. And I love what Paul refers to it as over here. He refers to it as the hope of eternal life. Again, that word hope is not what we think of as hope and some sort of a wishful

thinking, but that hope is a settled conclusion that we come to. And I want you to take a moment to because it is a promise that is made by God. Go back to 1 Timothy, or excuse me, go back to Titus. That expectation is that hope of eternal life. And there's one more phrase I want to talk to you about in this verse before we keep on with this aspect of eternal life.

It says, in the hope of eternal life, which God who cannot lie promised long ages ago. I don't know why, but that phrase, which God who cannot lie, sort of just marinated in my head all this week. That phrase just sort of kept turning itself over and over again in my head this week because it reminds us of the character and the nature of God. I remember when I did college ministry up in Kansas City, a lot of Mid-American Nazarene kids would come to my Bible study and there was an ethics professor there who would say, is anything impossible for God?

And. And they'd say, no. And he said, so is it possible for God to sin? And they'd say, no. And he said, so you're saying something's impossible for God. And he would really, they would really screw their minds up on that. I don't know how many kids that went through, because everybody had to take that class. I don't know how many kids that came through my Bible study came to me with that.

And I was like, okay, that's a negative impossibility, okay? That's not impossible for God to accomplish something. That's impossible because it violates his very nature. So yes, there is something that's impossible for God. When it's a negative impossibility like that, and then, oh, okay, okay, okay, because it violates his nature. And I thought about this with this verse.

It is impossible for God to lie. In other words, every promise that God makes is true because God is good. God is a good father and he makes good promises and he always keeps those promises. And I thought about that because, because last week I mentioned when I was talking about fighting the good fight, I mentioned fathers. I mentioned fathers fighting for their kids.

And I'm oftentimes remiss when I do this. To not point this out. Some people, when they hear the word father, a very negative connotation is brought into their minds because they weren't raised by a good father.

They weren't raised by a dad who kept his promises. They weren't raised by a dad who fought for them. They weren't raised by, by a, a, a good father in those ways. And so, and so they hear that term and, and either a, they hear your father should fight for you. And they just feel bad about themselves because their dad didn't fight for them or, or because their dad was abused.

Or, or, or an evil man in some way, shape or form, they get a negative connotation of God when we talk about God being our father. And, and I think that's what was marinating in my mind this week. And I thought, but God is such a good father because he cannot lie. Well, anyway, this week in our reading, uh, in the Psalms, um, I read Psalm 68 verse five and in Psalm 68 verse five, it says that he is a father to the fatherless.

And I thought, isn't it great that we get to read about that? That we get to read about a God who is good, who cannot lie, who is also a father to the fatherless because many who have that negative connotation of God, they need that understanding of who God is as their father restored in their minds. And God is even in the business of restoring broken relationships like that. He is even in the business of redeeming your understanding of who a father can be to you as he is your good father who does not lie, who keeps all of his promises.

Who loves you. Loves you unconditionally, who cares for you unconditionally, and is a father to the fatherless. And do you know what God wants to do for those who feel like they are fatherless in their lives or who have that terrible connotation of who a father is in their lives? God wants you to take all of that garbage, all of that brokenness, all of that stuff, and he just wants you to trauma dump all of it on him.

Because as you do that and you're set free from that burden of those feelings. He then begins to explain to you what a father is. What a father is supposed to look like. And even though your earthly father didn't do that for you, he will. Even though your earthly father wasn't that for you, he is. Because that's what God is in the business of doing. He even restores in places like that.

Because he is the God who cannot lie. And that has just been running through my brain this weekend. So I wanted to make sure I put that out there to all of you because I know what happens sometimes with people in those situations. But he says, He says, He says, He says, He says, He says, He says, He says, He says, He says, He says, He says, And I love this.

But at the proper time manifested his word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior. But in the proper time God manifested or made known or revealed his word of which I became a proclaimer. In other words, at the right time God gave his word about the expectation of eternal life. Something that he promised long ago.

But at the right time, God gave his word about the expectation of eternal life. But at the right time, God gave his word about the expectation of eternal life. But at the right time, God gave his word about the expectation of eternal life. But at the right time, God gave his word about the expectation of eternal life. But at the right time, God gave his word about the expectation of eternal life.

But at the right time, God gave his word about the expectation of eternal life. But at the right time, God gave his word about the expectation of eternal life. But at the right time, God gave his word about the expectation of eternal life. But at the right time, God gave his word about the expectation of eternal life. But at the right time, God gave his word about the expectation of eternal life.

But at the right time, God gave his word about the expectation of eternal life. But at the right time, God gave his word about the expectation of eternal life. it's my job to proclaim it. And now I have been entrusted with the proclamation of the word of God. I have been entrusted with the message to give out the truth of the hope of eternal life, of the expectation of eternal life. I think that's why God had me talk about this again this

week. It's because I too have been entrusted with the word of God to proclaim to you the expectation of eternal life. Because as I like to point out, guys remember, this is not the end. This world is not an end of itself. We are looking forward to a better home. We are looking forward to a better promise. We are looking forward to a better place. And we can have hope because of that knowledge

of eternal life. I keep getting calls right now from the hospice people. They want to know if I'm a virgin. I'm a virgin. I'm a virgin. I'm a virgin. I'm a virgin. I'm a virgin. I'm a virgin. okay. Right? And there's good days and bad days. I'm just going to be honest about that. Just a little look into Ryan. Yesterday was a hard day for me. Today's a much better day for me. But

overall, I'm doing really good with everything that's gone on. And the only thing that I can tell you is because I know the hope that I have. And I know the hope that my dad has. And so that softens the blow. It doesn't take away the pain. Just because there's hope doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. But there is hope. And that hope has brought me so much joy. It's brought me so much joy to

know that my dad is walking the streets of gold. Why that's the only thing we ever think of with heaven, I don't know. But walking the streets of gold. And he can see where he's going. No one has to say, okay, there's a curb coming. No one has to say that to him right now. Because he can see it all. And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, he is singing with everybody that he can imagine to

sing with right now. And there's just so much hope with that. And I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not I want to continue to proclaim that hope to you because I don't want people to live in the hopelessness that is this world. And so Paul says, I am an apostle of Jesus Christ. I'm a bond servant of God. I'm the lowest of the servants and I'm completely content to be an under rower in the

economy of heaven, but I'm also an apostle of Jesus Christ and I've been sent to evangelize and I've been sent to teach and I've been sent to declare the expectation of eternal life. That's the writer. Now we come to the recipient, to Titus, my true child in a common faith. We really don't know a ton about Titus from the book of Acts. As a matter of fact, he's not

mentioned one time in the book of Acts. He's referred to, although you don't realize it in the book of Acts, but at no point in time is his name mentioned. He is mentioned in some of the epistles. These are some of the things that we know about him. We know that he was, was a Gentile. He was a Greek by birth. And we know that because, because when he, when Paul and,

and Barnabas first came back from their first missionary trip, all of these Gentiles had come to faith in Jesus Christ. And they had to decide, what are we going to do with them? Are we going to make them follow Jewish law? Are we going to basically make them become Jewish in order to also be Christians? Do we put that kind of a legalistic burden on them? What do we do with

them? And so they went to Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas did, to have, a meeting with the apostles there to decide what would God have us to do? Well, they took with them a young convert by the name of Titus, who was a Gentile. And we are told that even in the midst of all of that, in the book of Galatians, we're told this, even Titus was not compelled to be circumcised. In other words, even Titus was not compelled to become a Jew in order to be a

Christian. And that was when they realized that there's no more such thing as Jew and Greek. Now if we carefully go back, and adding on to that, Paul is going to share more details of that and explain, you know, if we were to say this on Christianity, that's only possible in the text, we would never have to have that and that can define the meaning of life in the world of Christianity. But when Paul asks Titus in the book of Galatians to come to faith in Jesus Christ, he's doing the same thing. We're told that New Testament, text

one in Christ because they both find themselves arriving at eternal life through the grace of God, brought about by Jesus Christ in the exact same way, and God has now taken the two and made one brand new man. That's what we're told in the book of Ephesians. And so, he is mentioned in Galatians as having gone to that Jerusalem council with Paul and helped bring the message back. 2 Corinthians is actually where we read the most about Titus.

Because Titus was sent as one who was an encouragement to the church in Corinth. He helped gather in the church of Corinth an offering for the saints throughout Asia Minor. And also in Corinth, he helped deliver the letter of 2 Corinthians. But these are some of the things that Paul said of Titus in the book of 2 Corinthians. He referred to Titus as a genuine brother.

He referred to him as a partner in the ministry, a fellow worker in the ministry, and one who walked in the same spirit as him. And, of course, right here, he is referred to as his own son in the faith. I would say that Paul had a pretty close relationship with Titus. Most believe that he either led Titus to the faith or at least discipled him in the faith.

And because of who this gentleman was, this young man was, as a believer in Jesus Christ, he could be put in charge of the church in Crete. Now, you don't know too much about that, because if you don't know very much, you don't realize that he got sent to a really tough area. But look down really quick at verse 12 of chapter 1. One of themselves, a prophet of their own, which, by the way, this guy was a philosopher, said, Those are the people that Titus got sent to.

Hey, Titus, here's the thing. I've got this church for you. Oh, say less. Where are we going? Well, we're going to go to Crete. Maybe somewhere else. How about that? How about somewhere besides Crete? Most believe that Paul started this church after his imprisonment in Rome. If you go to the end of the book of Acts, you find Paul imprisoned in Rome, waiting to stand trial before Caesar.

Paul is acquitted of the charges before Caesar, and he goes back to doing missionary journeys. The first thing that he does is he goes and he drops Timothy off at Ephesus, which is what we talked about in the book of 1 Timothy, to take charge of the church there. But the second thing that he does is he travels to Crete, and he starts. One, if not multiple churches in Crete.

Many believe that there were also Jews from Crete that had attended that first Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell on everyone there. Perhaps there were some believers already there, but he established the church in Crete. But after he established the church in Crete, he had to send Titus back. And the reason why he had to send Titus back is because there needed to be some order established in the church there.

Because while these were believers, they were believers with a rough past. And these believers with a rough past needed someone who could come in and who could stand strong and say, this is what it looks like to walk with Jesus. This is what it looks like to have leadership. And this is what it looks like to not be like the world around us so that we can be different from the culture and not just a part of the culture.

And while Timothy was a very timid man who had to stand strong against false teaching, I believe Titus was a very strong man who had to stand strong in the midst of a very evil age and area in which he was living. So he had to set the church in order. So we've seen the writer. We've seen the recipient. And the last thing that we'll look at is the greeting. He says,

Grace and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. He gives his typical greeting, grace and peace. If you just read this at the outset, you would know that what Paul is doing is he is addressing both the Jews and the Gentiles that were there. As we've said before, the typical greeting for the Gentiles, at that point in time, is that they would say grace to you.

That was how they greeted each other. The Jews at that particular point in time would say peace to you or shalom because that was the greeting that they would use. And so at the outset, without digging any deeper, we realize that as Paul is writing this letter, he is addressing everyone who's there, both sets of cultures. In other words, this letter is for everyone.

This is not just Jewish in nature. This is not just Gentile in nature. The words of this letter are for everyone, no matter what your cultural background is. But of course, we know we're going to dig just a little bit deeper because there's also a super interesting meaning that comes to us here. Of course, the word grace, which we talked about last week, means unmerited favor.

Unmerited favor. A great acrostic for that is God's riches at Christ's expense. That's what grace is for us. And usually, typically, we think of grace in terms of salvation. I've already used it in that reference this morning, that grace is for salvation. It's the grace of God that brings salvation to us. But when grace is used here, and all the Greek scholars agree,

there's a slightly different meaning to it. The idea here carries with it the idea of divine strength needed for life and service. Divine strength needed for life and service. And so when Paul says to Timothy, when Paul says to Titus, grace to you, he's actually telling him, sanctifying grace to you because God, will give you all of the strength that you need for life and service.

Why does he tell him that? Because what Titus is going to have to give to the entire church is he's going to have to give them hard messages about being separate from the culture, about how godliness affects every aspect of their life, that to truly be a church of God means that you need to walk with God, which means that your life needs to reflect God. And the only way that we can live the life of service and obedience to God is through the same God. And the only way that we can live the life of service is through the same grace that saved us.

Because the grace that saves us is the grace that sanctifies us. The grace that saves us is the grace that gives us the strength that we need for life and service. And so he says, grace to you. And can I just be honest with you, we need that same grace in our lives today because, I'm going to get in trouble for this, because as Crete was described, I was like, huh, that sounds like some cities I've been in here recently.

It doesn't sound a whole lot different than the culture that we live in, especially in this area. Like, you know, we live in a place not a whole lot different than that. And there is a need for us as a church to make sure that we too stand strong against the culture that is around us and not become just like it. That if we are to be a light in the culture, we have to look different from the culture.

That if we are to be a light to the city that is around us, that we have to be strong in the things of God so that we can show the city around us what it's supposed to look like. And the only way that we can do that is not just by working harder and trying harder, it's through the grace of God that gives us the strength that we need for life and service. And so he says, Titus, grace to you. But the second thing he says is, and peace.

And peace. I think it was Bible Knowledge Commentary that said this, it said, peace can be defined as freedom from anxiety, panic, and distraction despite the adverse circumstances around us. Let me read that one more time. Freedom from anxiety, panic, and distraction despite the adverse circumstances around us. The Bible often refers to this as the peace that passes all understanding

that guards our hearts and our minds. Now I don't know about you, but anxiety and panic and distraction is what the world is known for, right? It's kind of what the world is known for, right? And sometimes we give into that too. And I don't want to put a condemning trip on anyone. If you experience those things, God wants you to have freedom from those things.

Because you have peace with God because of what Jesus has done for you. And because of what Jesus has done for you, He wants you to have the peace of God as well. But that peace of God comes from not only God, but our understanding of the sanctifying grace of God How can you have peace in the midst of what is potentially panic around you? Well, you ultimately know that God is in control.

You ultimately know that God is the one who is going to bring about His end. How do you have peace in the midst of anxiety? Will you understand that God is using every bad thing in your life to do something good in you and so you stop viewing it as something that you need to be set free from and you start viewing it as something that you need to learn from? I always tell people, don't ever ask the question why you're going to.

Stop asking the question why and start asking the question what. It's not always about why did God allow this to happen, it's what is God teaching me in this? What does God want to do in me in this? Because when we realize that God's sanctifying grace is at work and powerful enough to handle every aspect of our lives, we can have peace in the midst of anxiety and panic.

We can have freedom from those things in spite of what's going on around us because of the grace of God that's at work within us. And so what you need to pray for in your life is a greater understanding of the grace of God that not only brings salvation, but that grace of God that brings sanctification and the strength that you need for life and service. Amen? And so let's pray for that this morning, shall we?

Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come to you this morning and Lord, I thank you for the time that we've had in your word here this morning. Lord, I thank you that you give us so much knowledge of truth through even the smallest sections of your word. And Lord, that you have gifted us with your grace. And so Father, I want to pray for every person that's in here this morning

that, Lord, can sometimes struggle to have the peace of God. And Lord, I just want to pray that they would have a fresh revelation of the grace of God. Lord, that you would manifest yourself in their lives in brand new ways. Lord, that they would know your grace in brand new ways. That they would see it. That they would understand it. Lord, and that they would truly,

truly rest in it. And so Father, I pray for us as we go out from here, and I just ask that you would move in our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit. May only the things of you remain. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . Glory in Jesus' name.