Titus 3:1-2; Titus 3:8
Today we hear from God’s Word
from Titus chapter 3. We read verses 1 through 8. Remember
that last week we considered verses 3 through 7. And so in
a sense today, verse eight will be our jumping point with verses
one and two being our commands or our to-dos. And those to-dos
will be based on the theology that we read in verses three
through seven, which we studied last week. And so we see that
our to-do list as Christians, our obedience as Christians is
rooted in the gospel. It is rooted in our salvation.
Hear God’s word with me. Titus chapter three, beginning
at verse one, Paul speaking to Titus says to him to remind them,
that is the churches on Crete, remind them to be submissive
to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for
every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling
and to be gentle and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
For we ourselves were once foolish. disobedient, led astray, slaves
to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and
envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness
and the loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved
us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according
to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal
of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus
Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might
become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying
is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things so
that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote
themselves to good works. These things are excellent and
profitable for people. Amen. Pray with me. Our Lord,
we pray that your word to us in these moments would be a delight,
that we would see it as a word from you, the living God, our
Savior and King. that we would hear it as trustworthy,
as authoritative, and that we would hear it as relevant, as
needful for our lives. We pray that our hearts would
be melted, that our hands and feet would be made ready to serve
you, our God and King, before the watching world. We pray that
you would help us to understand, help us to go home today, pondering
what we have heard and checking the scriptures to see that they
are so. And we pray most of all that
these things by the grace of Christ and by the work of the
spirit would be put into practice in our lives so that the watching
world can see a glimpse, a taste of heaven and what living for
Jesus is like. And we pray it in the name of
Christ, our savior. Amen. When you open the beginning pages
of your Bible, you read these words. In the beginning, God
created the heavens and the earth. And as you read through those
next pages of Genesis with excitement, you read that God took what was
formless and void. It was without shape. It was
empty. And he formed it and he filled
it. He shaped the world as we know
it this day. And he filled it with the birds
of the air, the fish of the sea, the plants of the earth. He made
a wonderful and wondrous creation that we enjoy today. And as the
crown of his creation, he made man. He made man in his own image,
man in his own image and knowledge and in righteousness and in holiness. And he gave man dominion over
his creation. He put the man, as we read in
Genesis chapter two, in the garden to work the garden, to keep the
garden, to subdue the garden, to name the animals. He put the
man in the garden to make the garden flourish. In a sense,
when we read the book of Genesis, we read it as really the first
great commission. Sometimes we read Matthew 28
as the church and we say, go into all the world and make disciples.
And we get excited as if Jesus has given us something new. But
if you read the book of Genesis in light of the whole Bible,
you understand that God made men and women and boys and girls
and put us in his creation. He put us in his creation to
worship him, to serve him and to have fellowship with him.
And just as he did with Adam and Eve, he does so for us today.
He puts us on earth in his garden. And his desire for us is to extend,
to lengthen the borders of that garden with the presence of Christ
in the world. And we see how he’s done that
through the hurdles and the hardships of sin and rebellion. I’ve recounted
to you over and over, and I think you well know of chapter three
of the book of Genesis, where Satan entered. And because he
did not want God to get glory, because he did not want the beauty
of paradise of the garden to advance and to take over the
whole earth. He fibbed, he told lies, he deceived
Adam and Eve. They took the fruit, they ate
it. And death and sin and curse and even God’s mission was called
into question. But God in his grace, God in
his mercy, God in his wisdom, and God in his saving power,
as we see in the unfolding pages of the book of Genesis, he raised
up people after Adam and Eve. There was Seth, there was Noah,
there was Abraham. And we see the formation of the
people of God and the nation of Israel. And we get all the
way to the coming of Christ, having seen the temple and the
tabernacle. the tribes, we’ve seen so much of the history of
God’s people, and we come to Christ. And we recognize that
in Christ, when we’ve been made new, forgiven of our sins, washed
and regenerated by the Holy Spirit, made new creations in Jesus,
God is still in us individually as families and as a church.
He is advancing his wonderful garden His wonderful worship,
his wonderful presence, his wonderful fellowship through the way we
live and how we serve. I mean, how else will people
know of Christ? How else will people know that
there is a God who has a kingdom if we do not live? If we do not serve, if we do
not worship and we do not in our everyday lives, in the simplicity
of living faithfully reflect the values of heaven. You see,
God has called us as Christians out of darkness and into his
marvelous light. He’s called us from the grave
and he’s raised us up that we might live for him. And the watching
world sees something of heaven, something of God. It’s not yet
fully revealed. We know there will be a new heavens
and a new earth and the new Jerusalem will come down. The dwelling
place of God will be with men. Creation will be made new and
perfect. No more pain, sorrows, groaning, no more sin, sorrow,
all the rest. But there is a sense of down
payment that the world can catch a glimpse of in our daily living. And so as we live and as we serve,
we need to remember that it is through pain. It is through sorrow. It is through thorns and thistles
and the pain of childbearing. It is through seeing that our
labors are hardly bearing fruit at times. Because by the sweat
of our brow, we do work and live. and serve. Remember, dear brothers
and sisters, because of sin, this is a fallen world because
of sin. Our work is hard. Our harvest
is not as plentiful as it could be. But under the grace of Christ,
we live. And under the grace of Christ,
we show the watching world what can be possible through Jesus
Christ. And in our study of Titus over
these last months, we have understood we have understood that We as
Christians must live in a way that reflects the realities of
heaven come down in our lives. Our lives must adorn the gospel.
And so in Titus, you’ll see sections of theological doctrine, of gospel
doctrine. Remember, you too were once foolish,
disobedient, led astray, living in passions and pleasures, hating
others, being hated by others. You were once in darkness. You
were once a slave to sin. You were once a child of the
devil. But the goodness. And the kindness of God, our
savior appeared and he saved us not by works done with our
hands, but by his own mercy. And you see friends out of that
doctrine, out of that doctrine, brothers and sisters in the faith,
we see our motivation for living righteously. And so several weeks
back in chapter two, we noticed there were admonitions to Titus
as the pastor. There were admonitions to the
older men who were Christians. There were admonitions and commands
to the older women who are Christians, the younger men who are Christians,
the younger women who are Christians, even to those enslaved under
the Roman empire. And so today we come to a general
admonition. And the general admonition we
receive is this, be good citizens, be good neighbors. Now, a lot of you watch the headlines,
you read the papers and you see the moral decay, the rotten culture
that we live in. We live in a country that has
a high percentage of people who say, yes, we are Christians. We live in the South where, as
one author has so well put it, we live in the South, which is
Christ haunted. Christianity is all woven through
Southern people. We’re living on the coattails
of Judeo-Christian values. And the reality that we’re facing
this day in time is that we are advancing rapidly It’s happening
day by day, right before our eyes. We are advancing rapidly
into a post-Christian nation. And so we somehow have to figure
out in our minds, how is it that a high percentage of people claim
the realities of heaven have come down into their lives, yet
our nation is rotting away? Our nation is chock full of practical
atheism. People who don’t believe in a
God, though they say he exists and that they love and trust
him. We’re living in a nation that is chock full of moral relativism. Well, what’s good for you may
not be good for me, and who am I to judge? You do as you please,
I’ll do as I please. You stay in your house, I’ll
stay in mine. You mind your business, I’ll mind my own, and it’ll all
be just happy and fine, thanks. Well, dear brothers and sisters,
how is that working for America? And so what can the church do
What can change the tide of our culture? Well, the answer, I
think, is in our passage today. And it’s what can the church
be? We can be good citizens and we
can be good neighbors. And so let us consider those
two things, one from chapter one, one from chapter two. First, be a good citizen. Verse one tells us this. Remind
them, that’s the church. the churches on the Island of
Crete, remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to
be obedient and to be ready for every good work. What kind of citizen are you?
There’s a question for you. What kind of citizen are you?
Do you have a flag on your lawn? Did you serve in the military?
Do you vote? Do you obey laws? Or if the FBI
came breathing down your neck and they looked at what you posted
on the internet, what you said to your friends and relations,
if they looked at your activities, if they heard the things that
you say about our nation, our leaders, our rulers, what would
they, what would they find about you? What kind of citizen are
you? Are you submissive? Are you law
abiding? Are you orderly? You see in verse
one of chapter three of Titus, we hear what are typical standard
Pauline commands to the Roman citizens of the day. And therefore
to us who are in the church in 2018 in these United States,
we’re simply to be good citizens. Jesus told us to render unto
Caesar what is Caesar’s. Peter in one of his epistles
writes a lengthy statement, as does Paul in chapter 13 of Romans,
saying to us as Christians, we should be the best citizens.
We should be model citizens, submissive, law-abiding, orderly. And so we see in chapter one,
the command, be subject to rulers and authorities. Now we like
to make loopholes. Well, I don’t want to be submissive
to this president because I didn’t vote for him. And he’s of the
other party. And so we get on the television
and we watch all the pundits. And have you watched what these
people say? I mean, we may agree with them.
They could be right. But remember as Christians, we’re also under
the fifth commandment. Children obey your parents. And
if you read through the shorter catechism on what is required
and what is forbidden, we are to submit to all those to whom
Christ has put over us, whether we like them or whether we don’t. And you see the people on the
island of Crete, they had a little difficulty submitting to Roman
authorities, to Nero most likely. And so Paul says in verse one,
remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities. He
gives two categories because we like loopholes. Well, he didn’t
say this or he left out that we should obey our parents. We
should obey officers of the law. We should obey those who have
been elected and put into office as magistrates. We should obey
teachers. We should, we should obey those
to whom God has put an authority over us. We should be good citizens,
submissive, law-abiding and orderly. And under this big category in
verse one of be submissive, he gives two little commands. Be
obedient and be ready for every good work. Be obedient, be ready
for every good work. Are you a model citizen? Could
your children or your grandchildren or your neighbors look up to
you and say, I would like to be a citizen of the United States
like he or she. or a citizen of Burlington or
a native of Alamance County or wherever it is you live, because
you live an exemplary life as far as your citizenship locally
and nationally is concerned. You know, we don’t live submissive
lives anymore. And have you noticed in the book
of Titus, how many times the word submit or put yourselves
under comes, it comes in the concept of marriage. It comes
in the concept of church. It comes under the rubric of
slavery. It comes in other places in the
Bible under being a member of the church. It comes in our citizenship. It comes to us as children. We
don’t like to submit. We don’t like to put ourselves
under other people’s authority. We like to say with all our heart,
what we learned when we were toddlers, you’re not the boss
of me. And we love to do things our
way. And God says, no, you be a good
citizen. You put yourselves under the
authority of kings and rulers and you be obedient and you be
ready for every good work. Friends, we should be like a
coiled spring, energy captured and ready to do the work of good
citizens. Do you know if you look at the
history of mankind, it is Christians who have contributed the most
to music, It is Christians who have committed the most to education,
to art, to medical needs, to mercy needs, to assistance of
the poor, to changing culture. Every culture has a rotten element
to it. Every culture has been under
the heading of a dark and dying world, a crooked and depraved
generation. And friends, it is Christians. when ready to do
every good work, living submissively and obediently, when they change
the culture, and rulers like Nero or whomever look at Christians
and say, we need more citizens just like them. You see, good Christians make
good citizens, and it’s good for the whole of society. What about being a good neighbor?
What kind of neighbor are you? If you went, or not you, but
if we went to your neighborhood, and we stood at your house, and
we went to a 10-house radius and said, what do you think of
the Smiths, or the Jones, or the Crotts, or the Constables,
or the Haynes? Or we started listing names.
And if we went through a 10-mile household from your doorstep,
what would people say? I mean, wouldn’t they say that
you’re a good citizen? Would they say, oh, so-and-so’s
in the neighborhood gossip, or so-and-so doesn’t keep up their
lawn, or so-and-so kicks their cat, or yells at the kids, or
leaves trash everywhere, or they put their trash out on Tuesday,
and they might roll their cans in on Saturday. You know, that’s
a bad thing, you know. What would they say? Would they
say, you’re brutish, you’re unkind, you’re not very mannerly, you’re
careless with your lips, you’ll pick a fight with anyone. What
would they say? Well, we have a couple of commands
here in verse two about being a good neighbor. We’re to speak
evil of no one. We’re to avoid quarreling. We’re
to be gentle. We’re to show perfect courtesy
towards all people. There’s a couple of strong words
here. The first is we should not speak
evil of anyone. You know what word is used there?
It’s the word blaspheme. God takes seriously when we blaspheme
his name, but he takes it also very seriously when we blaspheme
our neighbors. Now, I want you to notice in
the context here, this is not in the context of the church.
I mean, sure, we talk about each other in the church, we’re unkind
to each other in the church, and there’s admonitions for that.
But this is our attitude, our behavior towards others out in
the neighborhood, outside the church. We’re not to blaspheme
or speak evil of others. We’re not to be quarrelsome.
We’re to be peaceable neighbors. You know, we don’t pick a fight
with the neighbor when he has a friend over and they park on
our lawn. We’re not to talk about our neighbors behind their backs.
We’re not to destroy others’ reputations and the peace of
the neighborhood. We’re to be gentle. We’re to
be forbearing. We’re to be considerate. And
then the last little statement in this verse, we’re to show
perfect courtesy. Where are manners these days?
Manners have gone out the door, haven’t they? But you know what
manners really are? They’re not Southern charm as
we might think. You know, some of you probably
got shipped off to Cotillion and to miss manners and you had
to learn how to put the napkin in your lap and which fork to
use and how to say yes ma’am and no ma’am and yes sir and
no sir and how to shake hands and look people in the eye. You
know what that is? I mean, yes, that’s Southern charm. That’s
just common human dignity. We are image bearers of the king
of the universe, and we should treat our neighbors as such. Oh, but don’t we live in a world
that is coarse, a world that is crass? And it is very true. It is a dark and dying world.
It is a crooked and depraved generation. But dear friends,
when we as Christians are not good citizens, We are bad neighbors. We need to understand this. The
gospel of Jesus Christ is offensive enough as it is. Don’t make it more offensive.
By your bad behavior that doesn’t reflect being made new in Christ,
how about that for a calling? How about that for a challenge
as Christians? I want you to think for just
a moment. Think of yourself as a Navy SEAL,
that’ll excite you men. Some of you ladies may not take
too much for it, but think of yourself as a Navy SEAL and you’re
on a team of what, 50, 75, 100 of us here in this church gathered
and God is dropping you in places. He’s dropped you in neighborhoods,
in doctor’s offices, in schools, in every other sovereignly appointed
appointment. And God has put you there for
a reason. And I want you to think very hard this day, this week,
and even for the rest of your life. How can I, as a Christian
made new in Jesus, be a good citizen and a good neighbor so
that men and women and boys and girls may see the reality of
a person’s life changed by the gospel of Jesus? And may I have
the words to say when I’m asked, who are you and where have you
come from? And you can speak of Jesus and
all that he is and all that he does. Remember in verse eight,
Paul says to Titus, some difficult words for a pastor to hear. He
says, the saying is trustworthy. All those gospel statements in
verses three through seven. I want you to insist on these
things so that those who have believed in God may be careful
to devote themselves to good works. What do we call it when a pastor
starts insisting, when he starts teaching and preaching and exhorting?
We call it meddling. Well, dear friends, God has said
to the preacher, he said to Titus and he said to me, meddle so
that Christ is exalted in the earth here in Burlington and
to the far reaches of the world. Pray with me. Our Lord and God,
we want people to know you. How will they know you if they
don’t see Christ in us? And more so, how will they know
you if Christ is not preached and proclaimed and lifted up
by us as a church? Oh, Lord, help us not to shrink
back. The world is dark, but you have given us light. The
world is dying, but we have been raised to life and are living.
Lord, it’s scary. Sharing our faith, living for
you. It brings persecution. It brings hardship. It brings
suffering. But we look to Christ who has gone before us and we
see victory in suffering. We see life after death. We see
joy after mourning. Lord, please give us hearts today
that love the lost. Give us hearts today that want
to obey you. and make us good citizens, make
us good neighbors, and especially ones who know the simple words
of the gospel and who proclaim it, not only in how we live,
but in every word that we say, give us your strength. We need
it, and we ask for it in Jesus’ holy name, amen. Let us respond
to God’s good word as we stand and sing from our hymnal number
455, Come All Christians, Be Committed.