Life in the World

Introduction:

As we continue with our worship of the Lord this morning, I want to invite you to grab a Bible and open up to Titus 3:1-11. This is where we will be this morning as we continue with our study of God’s Word together.

Hear the Word of the Lord... Remind them to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, 2 to slander no one, to avoid fighting, and to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people. 3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another. 4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, 5 he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6 He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life. 8 This saying is trustworthy. I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed God might be careful to devote themselves to good works. These are good and profitable for everyone. 9 But avoid foolish debates, genealogies, quarrels, and disputes about the law, because they are unprofitable and worthless. 10 Reject a divisive person after a first and second warning. 11 For you know that such a person has gone astray and is sinning; he is self-condemned.

‌As we consider this text this morning, let us prepare our hearts to receive what God wants to do in our hearts.

Let’s Pray Together.

As we have been walking through this letter together, over the last several weeks we have seen Paul instructing Titus on many different things about how he is to lead the churches in Crete to completeness. Paul started by talking about the leadership of the church. Titus was to help the churches in the area appoint elders.... men who were living out the Christian faith... who could lead and shepherd the church. In addition to needing godly leaders…the church had to be aware of false teachers and those who were trying to destroy the church by false teaching.

Then last week, we looked at how Titus was to instruct those inside of the church to live with one another. We spoke about the relationships of older men and women with younger men and women. The church needs each other.... but we said last week, what was true for the church family was also true for the actual family. So, if you can think of this as circles of concern....the church started with leadership.... then moves out to relationships with each other and those of our own household.... our faith impacts those areas.... or at least it should impact those areas. Faith is real and is meant to be lived out in the world. Body: What we have happening here in chapter 3 is that the circles get a little bit bigger. Faith is not only a personal matter that is to be lived out inside of our houses of worship.... but it impacts every area of life. This is so different than what our world wants to think about religious matters. You will hear all kinds of people say things like, “religion is a personal matter which should have no place in politics” It is the idea that Christians just need to stay out of the public square.... keep your faith at home. One of the problems with statements like these is that Faith in Christ changes life....and this includes the public life. We cannot separate the two. There is not a personal life and a public life for Christians. We Live For Christ....and that is it

And is this is where Paul turns with his instructions to Titus. Paul turns his attention to show how Christians are to live life in relationship to the rest of the world. Look at verses 1-2 with me. Remind them to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, 2 to slander no one, to avoid fighting, and to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people. Faith Changes Public Life. I know that we have said this point already, but I want you to see exactly how life is changed. Paul gives us a list of things that we are to be doing here in these verses.

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We are to submit to rulers and authorities..... that means we are to live life obeying the government. In a world that is so fractured and broken....and our political system is a mess.... I think we can sometimes forget what God has required of us in His word when it comes to terms with our leaders. God wants us to obey the government and hold them in high esteem because they are appointed by Him. Now, does that mean that we blindly follow them and submit to them…we know that is not true.... but so far as they are not going against the Word of God then we are to obey.

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Not only are we to follow the government, we are told to obey. This is living a life of submissiveness. It is a life of servanthood.

‌We are to be ready for every good work.... take note of how many time “good works” have been mentioned in this letter already.

‌We are to slander no one. That means to talk bad about no one....and I think that when the Bible says “no one” it means just that… no one. There are no expectation clauses here in the text.

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We are to avoid fighting…How badly do we need to hear this in our day and age. WE get so MAD about everything. We are ready to throw down.... figuratively and literally at the drop of a hat. Christians are not to be this way. We need to learn self-control and to avoid this type of behavior.

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We are to be kind and to always show gentleness to ALL PEOPLE. Think about how different this makes Christians from the rest of the world. This is the exact opposite from what our nature tells us. Human nature is that we are KING. We are to do life however we want to. There should be NO ONE who can limit me and my desires..... and GOD says WAIT!!! That is not how life is to be lived. Those who have placed their faith in Christ should seek to live like Him in the World and seek to life live the way God designed it to be lived.

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Why? Why should Christain's live with an unusual gentleness in the world?

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Look at verse 3 with me.

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3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another.

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All Of Humanity Is Sinful.

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I know that this is a strange way to word that point, but that is what Paul is getting to here in this verse. Christians should live with gentleness to people because we were just like them before Christ. We were foolish…we didn't know any better… we were disobedient.... deceived, enslaved, living with malice, envy, hateful, hating people…this is a very bleak picture of humanity.... but this is what God is saying about us. This is what God is saying about those in the world. This is what God is saying about those in the government.... about those around us.... this is how they are categorized....and we were right there with them!!!

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These words describe YOU. This is a picture of you. This was your life before Christ. You were no better than the rest of the world. This is why the Bible would tell us that “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God....that there is no one righteous....no not one....all have gone astray....no one loves God.” This is what we see in Scripture. We have to remember where we have come from. We are to be gentle with people because we were just like them.

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And lest we think that we are now better than them because we got our act together.... the Scriptures go on…

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4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, 5 he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6 He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

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We Live Differently BECAUSE God Saved Us.

‌This has nothing to do with us getting our act together and making better choices. This has to do with God, his kindness and love for mankind, coming to save us....and notice what the text says.... NOT BY WORKS OF RIGHTEOUNESS THAT WE HAD DONE....meaning God did not save you because you were doing the right things. It was not like God looked down and saw you helping your neighbor cut their grass.... or going to church.... or not cussing....and was like.... AHHHH They have it together…I pick them. NO. That is not how it worked.

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Rather, what we see is God looking down on us and seeing us in our broken messed up state.... living rebellious to Him…living life in defiance to Him....and ACCORDING TO HIS MERCY HE SAVED US. God looked at us with Love and grace. God knew that we could not do it on our own and he reached down to save us because of His own choice. We did not deserve or earn His forgiveness. God did this out of his own loving concern for YOU. Feel the weight of that this morning. God loves you so much that He reached down to SAVE you.... even when you were living as an enemy to Him.

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How does He do it? How is this even possible? The text answers that question for us as well. Since God is holy and just.... We know that He must punish sin where it is found....and has we have said that it has been found in us…that is in humanity. He cannot simply close His eyes and let it go…so what does God do? Well, the text speaks of how God saved us “through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit....” through whom was poured out to us through Jesus Christ.

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This is the Gospel. This is how God saves those who place their faith and trust in Christ. God poured out His wrath on Jesus for our sins.... Jesus was our substitute…meaning He stood in our place and died for us. Then, three days later Jesus rose again from the dead defeating death so that we can be justified.... meaning made right. As I said, God could not simply overlook our sin.... that would be unjust.... but God dealt with our Sin by coming and dying for us. This makes Him Just and the Justifier, as is stated in Romans, of humanity. We are saved by GRACE. It is a GIFT OF GOD…so that No on cane boast...... but we also see in the text that we become “heirs with the hope of eternal life.”

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We go from being wicked and rebellious to God wanting to live with us forever because of His own love a grace towards sinners. This is the foundation of the Christian faith. I know that we talk about this a lot…but I want us to see that this is where our faith stands. Our faith is about what God has done in the world through Jesus Christ. It is about HIM doing it on our behalf. This is the Gospel.

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We cannot lose sight of this message. In fact, look at verse 8 with me

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8 This saying is trustworthy. I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed God might be careful to devote themselves to good works. These are good and profitable for everyone.

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What is God saying here? What we just looked at.... meaning that we are all sinners saved by Grace....is a trustworthy statement. We can bank on that. We are saved by grace and mercy. We are not waved by performance. That is good news. We are to insist on these things. We have to keep this before our eyes. Why?

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SO THAT... this is the purpose clause here in this verse…meaning there is a reason for what is being said…and that reason is that “those who have believed God might be careful to devote themselves to good works. These are good and profitable for everyone.”

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Have you noticed a theme in this letter? What Is Paul concerned with here? He is concerned with the people of God devoting themselves to living out their faith and being devoted to good works. God does not want you to be lazy. God does not want you to waste your life sitting back and doing nothing. That is not profitable.

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And we have to be careful to devote ourselves to these things…we need to hear that. Devoting to good works apparently does not come by accident. It takes a certain amount of effort to make sure we are doing these things.

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Now, I want to be clear…and the text is clear about this matter…God does not save you or love you because of works of righteousness....it states that…however, it does say that those who have the hope of eternal life need to be actually doing something with the life that they have been given. If you want to grow in your faith.... if you are wanting to be profitable or productive.... or produce fruit…then you must devote yourself to doing good works.

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As we are directed to devote ourselves to good works, the text also directs us in to some things that we are to avoid. Look down at verses 9-11 with me.

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9 But avoid foolish debates, genealogies, quarrels, and disputes about the law, because they are unprofitable and worthless. 10 Reject a divisive person after a first and second warning. 11 For you know that such a person has gone astray and is sinning; he is self-condemned.

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Do you see the contrast here in the text? Christians devote themselves to good works because they are profitable....but they are to avoid foolish debates, genealogies, quarrels and disputes about the law because they are unprofitable and worthless.

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Think about how much of a difference we could make in the world if we followed these things in our day to day lives. How often do we think we need to get involved in foolish debates....in quarrels with other people? Our society thrives on these things. We love to voice our opinions on matters. We want to prove why we are right, and the rest of the world is wrong.... but we have to seriously ask ourselves.... Are we doing any good? Are we advancing the Kingdom of God by doing these things?

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Now, does Scripture give us examples of when it is right and well to enter into standing up for truth? Yes. You can look in the book of Acts and see Paul arguing from the Scriptures with people about Jesus being the Christ. Paul entered into debates on occasion....and that is ok. I am not saying all debate are wrong…but I think that we need to use wisdom on when we enter into them and when we avoid them. We need to ask ourselves…what is at stake? Is me voicing my thoughts on the matter going to lead somewhere profitable or not? If it is not going to be profitable.... then maybe we refrain from speaking.

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As Christian, we are to reject a divisive person…meaning we do not have to engage with them in their debate…and this is especially true if that person claims to follow Christ. We reject them. We issue warnings to them. And if they refuse to listen…we know that they have gone astray…they are showing their true colors.

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Conclusion:

Paul is painting this picture for us on what life should look like for those who claim to follow Christ. Christians are not better than everyone else…they are just simply called to live life differently than everyone else because God has done a work inside of them.

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Main point: Faith Changes Public Life.

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If you are a Christian, then God wants your life to look different than the rest of the world. He does not want you to be unprofitable. He wants you to change. He wants you to grow. And what is so awesome is that He has given you everything you need to grow. He has given you the Holy Spirit to help you grow. He has already given you all that you need for life and godliness.

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As we think about this text, I want you to think about what needs to change in your life. What do you need to apply in your life? What stands out to you?

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Here is a challenge for you. This is something that we have done with the youth. It is called a hear journal .

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H.E.A.R.

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Highlight

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Explain

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Apply

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Respond.

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Walk though this exercise and see what God wants to do in your life.

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(Time of sharing of what God is saying)

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Let’s pray together.