Titus 1:1-4; Chosen For Godliness

Introduction

New Series Through Titus. I began preaching through 1 Timothy in October 2022. I knew I had to preach through 1 Timothy as one of the first books. Three years later, and in God’s perfect timing, I am coming back to the Pastoral Epistles at a time that is really needed in our church. In a time when we think about our current constitution and the possibility of a new constitution, the pastoral epistles are a very needed book for Colgate.

Organization

God’s People

The Leaders

The Elect

In Knowing Faith

In Godliness

Sermon in a sentence:

I will to live among God’s people in knowing faith and godliness.

God’s People

Leaders

Paul - an apostle and servant

Apostle: God set up the structures of the local church. The apostolic position has ceased. God has now given every church two offices: pastors/elders/overseers and deacons. (vs. 5)

BFM 2000

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its two scriptural offices are that of pastor/elder/overseer and deacon. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

Servant: We are all servants and “slaves” of Jesus Christ.

Paul is saying this of himself. The apostle Paul is not above being a servant. Moses and Joshua were called servants of God. The four servant songs in Isaiah describe the Messiah as a servant of God. Jesus washed the disciples feet because he told them that a servant could not be above his master. Jesus demonstrated what being a servant looked like to his disciples.

I’ve said it before, Floyds Knobs Baptist Church has taken this approach. Every single leader is expected to be the very best members of the church. The Sunday School teacher. The Ushers. The Security Team. Any member with any leadership/responsibility is expected to be among the most committed members of the church.

Servant - also means slave.

Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death? A. That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life9 and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

Titus - apostolic delegate and son in the faith (15 times in the NT, not mentioned in Acts. He was at the Jerusalem council and helped Paul in Macedonia and Corinth.)

Apostolic delegate

I am not an apostle, prophet, or visionary. I am a “man of God” that comes from a long line of men that God has raised up to lead his church.

God commissioned his apostles who then delivered this charge to men like Timothy, Titus, and men like me to preach! (2 Timothy 4:1-2)

Son in the faith

Saints, a believer is a disciple that makes disciples. We all need Paul’s in our lives. We also need a Timothy and Titus. If you are not spiritually mature enough to have a Timothy or Titus you need to repent of your apathy and laziness.

The Elect

This was a common title used of Israel in the Old Testament. Now, Paul uses this phrase and applies it to the church. In this case, an predominately Gentile region being influenced by false teachers who are Judaizers (likely Jewish people).

“before the ages began” God chose his people before time began. Nothing is a surprise or new for God.

Peter also describes the church as Israel is described in the OT

1 Peter 1:1 “1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,”

1 Peter 2:9 “9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

We are the “elect” or chosen of God for the purpose of holiness/consecration. We are not chosen by God to live in isolation or in apathy. We are called to be set apart for a particular purpose.

China is not bought just to be put in a cabinet. China is set apart for a particular purpose.

In Knowing Faith

Faith and Knowing are friends not enemies.

Our faith is first rooted in the immutability of God.

The very nature and character of God is foundation of all knowledge.

You can only serve God as faithfully as you know Him.

Agustine “Credo ut intelligam” - believe so that you may understand.

Then, we seek to use our reason to understand that which we must accept by faith.

I cannot fully comprehend why disaster happens on earth. However, I can rest assure that the God of heaven can only do that which is right. His very nature requires it. I cannot understand the reason but I can accept by faith the providence of God.

Our hope of eternal Life is rooted in the fact that we can know that our faith is real!

In Godliness

Knowledge and Faith must lead to Holiness

Salvation is not fire insurance. Salvation is salvation from God, the devil, and the sinful flesh.

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 “1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

2. I truly believe that the hardest people to witness to are those that believe they are saved. They have no evidence of salvation but their own deception.

Conclusion

Application