Transcript

Well, Titus chapter 3, go back there with me as we continue and get close to concluding our exposition of this New Testament epistle called a pastoral epistle because it’s written to the pastor Titus, who is something of an overseer, if you will, of a whole island of churches, and you’ll understand that these churches scattered all around the island of Crete, are oasis in an ocean of immorality and wickedness and idolatries and uh in that situation without a lot of pastoral oversight perhaps that it need that they needed, Titus is commissioned by the Apostle Paul to go to that island and get those churches back in shape, straighten out a lot of things in the churches and it’s powerful that this is 2,000 years old and it’s as applicable to us today as it was to those churches then. A very practical book and one of the axiomatic elements of our Christian faith is what we just sang and it ties into the message, that your behavior should flow out of how you have become to be in awe of, enthralled with, treasuring of God and his provision for you through his Son, Jesus Christ. We don’t coerce, we don’t arm twist, guilt trips are not the foundation-stone of our Christian conduct. It’s knowing him and knowing the rich, true doctrines of the Scriptures so that we adore the doctrines and they in turn guide our footsteps.

Well, let’s look at it together. This is part three of “Engaged in Good Deeds.” Titus chapter 3, verses 5 through 8 is the whole context. We’ll look specifically this morning at verses 7 and 8. But since it’s a third-parter here, and and this whole section all centers around this culminating exhortation done in verse 8, “careful to engage in good deeds.” Now let’s jump back up, Titus 3 verse 5.

5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.

So engaged in good deeds, part three. Roman number one as we unpack the text, the glories of justification by grace. The glories of justification by grace. That’s the way he states it there in verse 7, so that being we stand in this position, that is, being justified by his grace. Now obviously this is very akin to the phrase that we use all the time that is a a common phrase in the Apostle Paul’s writing, that is justification by faith, but that’s not the way he words it here. But let’s back up for a moment and let’s talk about how justification, whether you wanna say by faith or by grace, it’s not the same difference, but in a sense, it is the same difference; there is inseparably connected together, that is, grace and faith are. But in Paul’s writings, justification, the doctrine of justification is a central theme. For example, in Romans 8:33, he talks about who will bring a charge against God’s elect. Uh the the point is is that he is the one who justifies, if you will.

Now, so the point is, if God himself through the person, the second person of the Godhead has come and provided for our justification, and if God has secured our justification, then how in the world can anyone, anywhere at any time, uh humanly being or heavenly being or whatever it may be, could possibly bring a credible charge against one of God’s elect if God indeed is the one who he himself justifies the elect? God is the judge, you see, who sets us right before the holy law and calls us just. God is the one who justifies. It is, it was, it still is God’s prerogative and initiative that brings an individual to the state of justification. Romans 3:26, ” for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” So God is the source of our justification and the Lord Jesus Christ is the agent of our justification. God is the source, Christ Jesus the Son is the agent. Romans 5:9 says that the work of Christ is the foundation-stone of how God can do this for us. ” Much more then,” now been, “having now,” rather, “been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”

Now I just returned from um England, of course, as I’ve told you and I never go into that part of the world when I don’t think of the early church fathers and I don’t think of the Protestant Reformation, maybe around the 1500s, 1600s, when men like uh Luther and Calvin and Hus and Zwingli and others pulled off of the Roman Catholic system that dominated the entire world. All of Western Europe was under the dominion of the Pope and the false church, the Roman Catholic system. And then these bold and courageous men opened their Bibles and read and studied and said, “These things we’re seeing in the Roman Catholic system are not scriptural.” And Luther’s great uh conviction that he came to as he was crawling around on church steps and brutalizing his body and locking himself up and starving himself half to death that he might be good enough to be justified, and then finally he says, “I opened my Bible and it says the just shall live by faith.” So we owe a lot to those founding fathers and they gave us the five solas, if you will, five solas of that reformation of of coming out of Catholicism and coming back to pure biblical Christianity. The five solas, sola scriptura, the Bible only is our authority. Sola Christus, Christ alone saves us. Sola fide, faith alone in Christ saves us. Sola gracia, it’s all by grace alone that we are saved. And Sola deo gloria to the glory of God alone are all of these.

Now, so that leads us back to our statements that we’ve been looking at, justification by faith, but not here. That’s usually Paul’s phrase but here, writing to Titus, he used justification by grace. So here in Titus 3:5, Paul steps back beyond faith and he goes to the fountain of all Christian virtue and blessings. Now that includes our faith. Your faith in Jesus Christ is a virtuous thing, a blessing that was given to you as a gift through grace. So grace is the fountainhead from which your faith flows. If God had not looked upon you in grace, that means a divine favor you could not merit, earn, or accomplish on your own, God just decided to cast on you a favor and in that favorability that he he cast upon you or that favorable status he gives you, he gives you faith to look to Christ and to Christ alone. So Paul, if you will, goes back behind faith when he says justification by grace, because grace is the fountain from which faith flows.

In grace, the Father purposed and planned our salvation and in grace, the Son came and provided for our salvation, and in grace, the Holy Spirit came and procures, applies it to us in time and space history, procures our salvation. Obviously, this is evidenced by our repentance toward God and our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 3:24 reminds us, “being justified as a gift,” not a work, not something merited, “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”

Now by grace, we’ve come to faith, even faith alone in Christ alone for our salvation. That’s all that Paul is getting at by writing to Titus and saying, verse 7, “so that being justified by His grace.” He’s trying to say, “Do you guys remember what you got? Do you folks in the Cretian churches, Titus, tell them again, and again, and again of the glories and the wonders, the love and the goodness and the kindness of God to cast His favor toward you.” And in that precious grace, that casting of favor toward you includes the capacity to reach out and embrace Jesus Christ, to see him for who he is and trust him for what he says he can do for you. So now by grace, we have come to faith, even faith in Christ alone for our salvation. It’s a justification by faith, or as here, Paul goes back beyond faith, goes back to the fountain of faith, and he says just faith justification rather by grace.

Now when you say you’re justified by faith, or more so here, when you’re justified by grace, here’s what this means. Now listen to this. It means I look wholly outside of myself, and wholly outside of any man-made provision for my salvation. I look wholly in totality. It’s not God, it’s not the church, and then rituals or sacraments and me and my works. No, I look wholly outside of myself for my salvation, that is, for the forgiveness of my sin, and for the gift of eternal or everlasting life.

Faith, which is given me as a gift of grace means, now listen, put on your ears. I want you to think with me. Faith being a gift of this grace of God means I’m pinning all of my sin, my sin pollution, sin pollutes us all with wickedness and uh evil, my sin corruption, that there can be no advancing of my being, I will decay and decline all the way into the grave and continue into the grave. So I pin the pollution of sin on me. I pin the corruption of sin on me and I pin and I pin the guilt of my sin all me. It’s all on me. That’s a gift of grace to come to see it that way. You don’t normally see yourself that way. You normally think, “I’m a pretty good guy, I just need a little help here and Jesus does the little help and I get into heaven.” Wrong, poor theology, man-centered rottenness. I pin my pollution of sin, my corruption in sin, my guilt in sin on me.

But also justification by grace means on the other side, I’m pinning all of my hope on Jesus Christ. I pin all of my hope on Jesus whom I cling to as my priest. He’s the only one that connects me to God. He’s the only one that can mediate between a woeful sinner like me and a holy God, which is who God is. So I cling all my hope on Christ as my priest and I cling all my hope on Christ as my prophet. He’s given me his word and now I believe with all of my heart his wisdom is the only wisdom. He is the only truth. Let God be found true and every man a liar. I cling to him now as priest, I cling to him now as prophet, and I cling to him as king of my life, Lord of all.

Now we haven’t arrived in perfection in our performance of that, but only in grace can you come to that kind of a faith. My pollution in sin, my corruption in sin, my guilt in sin is all me but now all my salvation from that is all Christ as my priest and my only prophet and my only king. And if I might say a little bit here about our Baptist forefathers, there were a lot of Baptists in Europe during the time of the Reformation that that I talked about and the Baptists did not unite with Luther and they did not unite with us, and they did not unite with Calvin, and they did not unite with Zwingli as much as we owe those men, we owe more to the Baptists who said to those men in effect, “Well, you’re reforming, are you going to come all the way? Are you gonna give up state-sponsored religion? Are you gonna give up sprinkling babies and do what the Bible says, the baptism of disciples only? Only those who have shown repentance and faith are candidate for baptism and church membership.” To where Zwingli in particular told Conrad Grable, the early Baptist, “No, Conrad, this is where we’ll divide. I’m staying with the Church, the Church State. I’m staying with sprinkling babies into the Church State and I’m keeping elements of the Mass.” To which our our Baptist forefathers said, “Very well, we’ll just start a movement, an underground church and we’ll baptize only believers and we’re not doing any of those things because you’ve reformed but you didn’t come all the way.” You know why those men came all the way? Because they had received Jesus as their priest, their prophet, and their king and you do what the king says. So as obviously, if you’ve sat under my preaching, have great veneration and thanksgiving for our great Reformers but more so for the early Baptist reformers. You know, most people know very little about, they’re sometimes called the stepchildren of the Reformation. They were just kind of forgotten over there. I find that to be true at about every age. The churches that are really striving to do the best typically don’t get a lot of the fanfare. That’s all right. God knows that. It’s fine with him. It’s fine with me.

So back to our text here, Paul is saying this is what you have, glory in this regenerative process that has happened, that even though you’re polluted by sin, corrupted by sin, guilty in sin, and only the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit could bring you to that conviction, and now you’re convinced that Christ is your only priest, your only prophet, and your only king, so in grace, we have been freed from all the things that condemned us. “So think on that Titus,” Paul is writing to Titus, “and, Titus, bring this to the churches. This will help them. This is the axiomatic foundation-stone, if you will, of all of the change in behavior we’re seeking for out of these churches. They’ve got to know this. They’ve got to glory in it. They’ve got to be humbled by it. They have to joy in it to then behave right.” What good have I done you if I preach to you a non-miraculous conversion, if I preach to you a non-supernatural Christianity, where I just sort of persuade you and threaten you or whatever to get you to act better? All you are is the old condemned flesh package that’s put on a few external behaviors. God doesn’t want that. He wants changed hearts who glory in God and say, “Because of that, I wanna obey Him. I wanna be a good churchman based on that.” You know what I found out through the years? If you get a a church full of men who follow on that basis, you never lose them. Everything else runs out, but that lasts all the way into eternity.

Well, we see the glories of justification. Secondly, Roman two, notice the glories of our hope. He amplifies this on out and says in verse 7, “so that being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” We would be made heirs. You thinking Paul is saying to Titus, and Titus is supposed to say to these churches, “Notice what you’ve got.” Romans 8:17 talks about the fact that we’re not just heirs, we’re joint heirs with Jesus Christ. All that Jesus will inhabit in the eternal state will be ours also. We don’t take his place, we’re not equal to him, but all that is his is ours.

Now, the text here is is emphasizing that our eternal inheritance, our hope in this eternal inheritance is already ours. You’re not waiting for a hope, you have a hope that is secure and yours now. It’s not maybe so, it’s not it might be so, it’s not I hope so. Hope means an absolute assurance that that’s what’s coming for us. Hope, it’s a present reality. Christ has done all that is needed to secure our inheritance. He paid for it, he secures it, and it awaits for us in heaven.

That phrase in verse 7, “according to the hope of eternal life,” here, eternal life speaks of that fruition of eternal life, that full realization of eternal life that we will know either at our death or at the Second Coming of Christ. Today, the Spirit’s presence in us gives us a confident hope that that full realization of glory is coming. It’s coming as we see the devolution of our culture and the backsliding and and and the actually uh a sprint towards Sodom and Gomorrah in our culture. Just remember, child of God, the Spirit of God bears witness in us. We have a glorious future coming. It’ll be realized one day. The actualization of it will be ours one day.

So we have a confident hope. Romans 5:2 reminds us that we exult in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 12:12 reminds us that we are rejoicing in this hope. We sang about it earlier in the song service. Romans 15:13, he’s called the God of hope. 2 Corinthians 1:10, said he’s the God on which we have set our hope. 2 Thessalonians 2:16 and 17, ” Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace.” What a pregnant statement. Good hope by grace. “How do I have this hope, pastor? How do I have this assurance that heaven is mine, eternity is mine, glory is mine, being in the presence of God forever and all of His increasing pleasures for all eternity? How do I know all of that is mine?” Grace, God favored you and that favor brought you to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and therefore in that, you have the hope that you’re gonna have the realization of it all when it the dominoes fall out to the final actualization of the glorified state, or you die and go be with him in heaven.

Now this future realization has two parts. This future actualization of of eternal life and and the fulfillment, if you will, of the hope that we have now has two parts. First of all, we’ll be with Christ. “Now we see through a glass dimly,” the Bible says. We don’t see, we see it, we know it’s real, but it it’s cloudy. Uh the glasses of that day were cloudy at best but then face-to-face, then face-to-face. So first first of all, we’ll be with Jesus and all the pleasures, all the joy. You think you’re having fun in this world, you are a fool. The pleasures of God immensely, infinitely exceed the pleasures of this world. That’s coming being with Jesus and on all the pleasures of his intimate presence with us.

The other side of the coin of the the actualization of future state is finally you’ll be through with your unredeemed humanity that you’re housed in down here, that old part of you that still wants to do the old things, and sin the old sins, and rebel in the old rebellions. That’ll be gone. He’ll strip us off of us and only the new creation, the new us will remain. That’s what Paul meant in Romans 7:24 and 25, when he looked at this old redeemed humanity that he was still housed in, he said, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” When will I get free of all of this? “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” He said, it’s all a part of grace. Jesus is gonna do it.

That’s our hope. You might think, “Well, I I’m thinking about my husband. I hope uh God gets rid of some parts of him.” You might think about your wife and say, “But I hope when we get to heaven, gotta get rid of some of the parts of her.” I don’t mean the physical parts. I mean, well, you know what I mean. But what did the old spiritual say? “It’s not my sister, it’s not my brother, but it’s me, O Lord.” That’s our hope. God, I’m sick of me. I get tired of me. “Wretched man that I am,” Paul says, “when will I be delivered from the bondage of this unredeemed humanity that I’m housed in down here?” On that day of the realization of the glorified state. That’s our hope. We know in our hearts it’s coming for us. And so what’s Paul saying here? Paul’s saying, “Titus, teach these glorious doctrines. May that stir the Cretian Christians to start behaving better.”

Well, that’s Roman three actually. He says beginning in verse 8, before I mentioned Romans 8, “This is a trustworthy statement concerning these things.” That idea of a trustworthy statement means reliable. “It’s a reliable word,” Paul says, “in the midst of so much false teaching.” Now these Cretians could do just like you and I could do. You can wander around to professing Christian congregations and hear all kinds of teaching contrary to this but he’s saying, “Titus, these doctrines of sovereign grace are key. They’re axiomatically foundational to the church acting right.” That’s what he’s getting to. What he’s getting to and notice too that uh the the the churches on the island of Crete remind one of the church at Corinth, fleshly, carnal acting, immature, showy, proud, baby kind of Christians. Now here’s our natural inclination. Now when we’re dealing with a church like that, we gotta be very careful. This is our inclination, don’t bring them into the any of the deep doctrines especially the doctrines of sovereign grace and the wooing of the Holy Spirit and the election and choosing and predestination of God and all the, don’t give them that, they’re not ready for that. Paul said, unload your gun, pop in two sovereign grace uh buckshot shells and blast them away. Aren’t you glad when God’s smarter than we are?

So he has this rich section that could deserve 10 sermons of the glories of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, including the great sovereignty of God in the fruition of all of our salvation. Now, this is a reliable statement, Paul says to Titus, stay with us. That brings us to the Roman three, the commission to stay with the teaching. “Titus, stay with this now. Don’t think you’ve got a clever way of bypassing these great doctrines or teachings.” That’s what the word doctrine means, teaching. “Don’t think you can bypass these things and come to the conclusion that we all wanna come to, that is, to get the individual Christians in these churches on the island of Crete to be better engaged in godly, righteous, good deeds.” So, Roman numeral one here, if you would listen better, I wouldn’t have preached so loud and I could keep my voice better. So I’m pinning that on you, which is probably not just, but it got your attention a little bit anyway.

Romans 1, the doctrines of soverign grace is the first element of teaching there he’s to stay with. Concerning these things, it means the previous things he’s already stated. What has he already stated stated there in verse uh 3? We’ll go down to verse 5, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness,” or so-called righteousness, “but,” what, “by washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,” that’s sovereign grace. That’s Calvinism, if you want to call it that. That little nickname’s not important, but that’s what people call it. Verse 6, “whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, being justified by His grace,” that’s sovereign grace again. We didn’t initiate it, God did it. So the idea is to confidently confirm these things and continually affirm these things. “Titus,” how does he word it there? “It is a trustworthy statement, concerning these things, I want you to speak confidently.” Again, the idea is uh uh continually and confidently keep bringing these teachings to the church. Then he says in verse 8, uh let’s see. Yeah, verse 8, the last part of verse 8, “so that those who have believed God,” not believed in God, that’s an inferior translation, but those who believed God “will be careful to engage in good deeds.” The idea there in the Greek text of “believe God’s” means you’ve taken God at his word. “God, uh I’m taking You at Your word that all the works I may have done in so-called righteousness are worthless. It is Your regeneration. It is the washing of regeneration, the renewing of the Holy Spirit that really saves me, that brought me to repentance and faith.” I’m taking God at his word. That’s what that means. I’m taking God at his word that he’s justified me by grace through faith and that not of his self, Ephesians 2:8 and 9, it’s the gift of God, not by works lest any man should boast. I’m taking God at his word. I’m believing God on this. The idea is this doctrine that Paul is telling to Titus, that Titus is to tell to the churches, is not the doctrine of man, it’s the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith that comes from God.

And to disbelieve these doctrines, let me get this straightforward now, to disbelieve these doctrines is not to disagree on secondary things, it’s to disbelieve God. That’s what Paul’s saying. “Pastor, I I can’t grasp all of that.” Since when does God have to harmonize with your puny brain before he’s right? His wisdom is beyond finding out. His ways are higher than our ways. His path is different than our path. We fall at his feet in humble submission and you know what we say? “Yes, Lord, we take You at Your word.”

To reemphasize to the church at Galatia that Paul’s doctrines were not man’s doctrines, he says this, Galatians 1:11, and 12. “For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” Romans 3:4, “May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, and every man be found a liar, as it is written, ‘That you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged.'” No matter what men say or men believe or men do or how contrary to logic or or or or or relevance these doctrines may be, let all men be liars and let God be found true.

So Paul says, “Titus, teach them to take God at His word and, Titus, you take God at His word on these teachings.” The doctrine of good deeds is the essential fruit of the believer. That’s B in our outline. The doctrine of good deeds as essential fruit of the believer is a doctrine that must continually and carefully be taught. Notice how he words it here in verse 8, last part. In other words, teach these trustworthy, reliable doctrines, speak them confidently, continually, and with conviction, so that, or to the end, that those who believe God will be careful to engage in good deeds. Careful is to this end, it’s the idea of pondering thoughtfully. Here’s the point, “Titus, teach these things that those Christians in the churches of Crete will say, ‘If this is all true, let me think of what I can do. How can I live to honor this God who’s done done so much for me? How can I honor this God?'” I don’t want you to do anything in this church for Jeff Noblit. What a foolish notion. I’ll fail you every time. But if you would follow your pastors and elders because you’re saying, “I want to honor this God, and that’s what this God tells me to do. Now, God, You keep that senior pastor and those elders in line, because I plan on following.” I’m telling you what, God will take you up on that.

So ponder thoughtfully so that these Christians and the churches on the island of Crete and Grace Life Church of the Shoals and all churches will ponder thoughtfully how they can be engaged in good deeds. Well, our context helps us a lot. Now, the context doesn’t give us an exhaustive uh description of bad deeds and good deeds, but it gives us an idea of several particular ones and others that can be included based on your context. First of all, let’s talk about the basis of good deeds and then the actual good deeds themselves. Now here’s the basis of good deeds. Going back up in our context to verse 4, he’s called the kind rather he’s the God of kindness who came to us. Wow. If you know anything about the attributes of God, he did not have to come in kindness, not to us rebels. That’s the kind of God he is. He came in kindness. Verse 4 again, he’s the God of love who came to us in kindness. He’s the God of love and kindness who appeared. We were not asking for him or looking for him. He just showed up in Bethlehem one night. In love and kindness. He appeared with his love and kindness.

Verse 5, he came to save us. He saved us. Verse 5, he saves us apart from any works of so-called righteousness or deeds we might try to perform. Verse 5 again, but in sovereign grace, he saves us through the the divine initiation of regeneration in our hearts and lives. Verse 5 again, he did this out of the overflow of his divine mercy and divine mercy has the idea of God has has the most miserable as the object of his care. You are saved because God looked at the most miserable as far as you’re standing before him and said, “I’m gonna care for that one with My kindness and My love and by showing up even when they don’t want Me nor are they looking for Me.”

Verse 6, he fully accomplished all of this through the person and work of his Son, Jesus Christ.

Verse 7, we now stand justified in this grace. Verse 7 again, we now have the hope of eternal life that what he began in me, he’s gonna conclude in me in the eternal state.

Now what Paul is saying to Titus and what Titus is saying to the church, now that’s the basis for why you ought to be engaging in good deeds. Can you find a better basis than that? I can’t.

Now the actual good deeds, he he lists a lot of things and um we’ll look at uh verse um verses 1 through 3. “Remind them,” the members of the churches on Crete, “Titus, remind them to be subject to rulers,” that’s a good deed, “to authorities,” that’s a good deed, “to be obedient,” generally speaking to your secular authorities, you should be known as one who looks to be obedient. We may not can obey everything. Some things clearly violate Scripture, but unless they clearly violate Scripture, the the culture, the church, the city fathers should say those are the most obedient citizens we have. That’s a good deed.

Verse 2, “to malign no one, to be peaceful, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.” Give men the benefit of the doubt, be longsuffering with their foolishness or their wrong deeds themselves.

Verse 3, “so for we were once foolish ourselves, we were once disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.” That’s what troubles me about some of our candidates that we have to vote for, because we don’t have a better option, they’re hateful. You can be tough, you can be strong, and you can be a man, which we need some of that in Washington DC, without being hateful, without being so doggone antagonistic. Christian men ought to be strong, tough, but never hateful, never the spirit and a tone of belittling and condescending, but just telling the truth where it has to be told.

So, really, this is one way we’re salt and we’re light. As salt, we engage in good deeds, and that is a preservative for the human flourishing of the community. Our good deeds help the whole community. We’re salt and we’re light. We’re by our lifestyles, we shine a light on how men ought to behave and engage in good deeds as members of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 3:12 through 17. I’ll just go through Colossians. No, I’ll go through all of it right quick. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself, and then it says, “with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, good deeds, bearing with each other, forgiving whatever grievance you may have against one another, forgiving as the Lord forgave you, and over all these virtues, put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart since as members of one body you are called to peace and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom and as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

Now here he is getting, he says, “Now get together and teach and admonish one another and sing these things too.” And through the preaching and the teaching and having sound music in the church, we’re changed at the church. We’re we’re we’re challenged at the church. We’re we’re brought to repentance in a new way of thinking at the church. We’re revitalized in our conviction to be about good deeds in the church. And then that must slosh over into home life discipleship which includes sloshing over into work life discipleship, which sloshes over also into church, or or rather school life discipleship, and social life, and neighborhood life discipleship. So we are permeating good deeds, which is profitable for human flourishing. Notice how you worked it there. Look at our text again. Don’t be thinking about the roast yet. Do y’all still cook roast on Sunday? When I was growing up, that’s the only time we got red meat was Sunday. Did y’all grow up like that? I don’t know if you’re cooking roast. You’ll go by Kentucky Fried Chicken on the way home and that’d be lunch. I understand that. Because it’s Father’s Day and dad don’t want to cook on Father’s Day. I’m sorry.

Look at verse 8 again. Verse, so that those, oh, last part, these things, verse 8 now, last part, “these things are good and profitable for men.” See how you you take the church home, it sloshes over from home to work, from home to school, to home to the neighborhood, to home to wherever, and it and it and it is a great uh I don’t know the word, it’s a great force for human flourishing or just men doing better, people doing better all around. And we’re the key to that. You see, a nation that has strong churches is a good nation. Are y’all getting this stuff?

In conclusion, in conclusion, there you were, there I was, polluted by sin, corrupted by sin, guilty in sin, and then I came to put my faith in Jesus Christ, and I came to know him as priest and prophet and king. God in Christ in the fullness of grace has for our pollution brought cleansing, for our corruption brought a cure, and for our guilt brought exoneration. And in the fullness of grace, now that I know Christ, I cling to him as my prophet. Over and over and over, I think, “Wretched man that I am, what am I gonna do?” Cling to him. He’s the priest, the mediator that keeps you there. In the fullness of grace, I’m able to cling to him as priest, to consecrate myself to him as prophet. In any and every question, my answer is, “What saith the Scripture?” He’s my prophet. Cling to him as priest, consecrate myself to him as prophet, and coronate him in my heart as king. He is my king.

For we are his workmanship, Ephesians 2:10. We are his workmanship. If you get to Ephesians 2:10, you get to something of a crescendo. It’s Paul’s been talking about the glorious doctrines of our salvation through sovereign grace and he gets to verse 10, it’s like Paul just can’t hardly control his pen because in the Greek language, it’s not really for his workmanship, it it says, his workmanship we are. He did all of this. Put that back up there. I didn’t say remove that yet. Put it back up there. Well, I’ll just quote it, “created in Christ Jesus for good works.” That’s what he’s saying over here in Titus. He did all this glorious work on you, in you, to save you so that you might engage in good deeds, Titus 3, our good works, Ephesians 2, which God prepared beforehand. You know what those are? Those are predestined good works. Those are elect where he elected and predestined you to get saved so that you would be engaging in good deeds as a blessing to the church first, then as you’re able, to the culture and the world around you. Ephesians 6:10. I mean, Galatians 6:10 tells us, “As far as it is possible, do good to all men, but especially to the household of the faith.”

So engaged in good deeds, part three, we focused on the glorious doctrine of justification by grace, whereby Paul tells Titus, and Titus tells is to tell the churches, how grateful are you, how humbled are you by it, how much do you glory, how much do you treasure this work of God that’s been done in your heart to have brought you to this place? Because not only do you know the truth now, you have the assurance of a future hope, a glorious eternal state with the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now out of overflow and gratitude and thanksgiving, be engaged in good deeds.