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Introduction***
Last week we did not finish out Titus 2.
We got close, but left off with verse 11, so we’ll be picking it up from there and moving into chapter 3 and finishing out Titus.
In our study so far … in fact, for the last half year or so as we’ve been studying these Pastoral Epistles … 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus, we have dealt a lot with doctrine.
Good doctrine, sound doctrine, healthy doctrine, bad doctrine, false teaching and false teachers … it’s been a whole lot about those thing.
And that’s not because it’s what I wanted to talk about.
God didn’t give me a desire to speak on those things.
We have done so, because we are going verse by verse and doctrine is what Paul primarily focused on in these epistles.
In fact, there are at least 22 references to “teaching” or “doctrine” in the thirteen chapters of the Pastoral Epistles.
So, clearly, Paul considered the doctrines of scripture to be extremely important in the proper expression of faith so that people are not led astray.
Now, when we have a conversation or sit through a meeting what we tend to remember the most are the negatives.
So, you may have been going home every Sunday thinking “false teachers this” or “false doctrines that.”
And THAT’S GOOD ... because maybe just maybe you’ve started to heed Paul’s warnings and put down some books, podcasts, or tv shows you’ve been watching.
But we have not only talked about bad doctrines.
We’ve also talked about the creeds and sound doctrines.
Good things like (a) The Doctrine of Inspiration and the Inerrancy of Scripture, (b) The Doctrine of the Trinity, (c) Salvation by Grace through Faith, (d) Justification, and Sanctification, (e) The Nature of God ...
… and many other biblical doctrines that are found in the written word of God rather than in the imaginings of men.
But some of us probably left thinking something like, “I wish he’d talk about something other than False Doctrines and things that are wrong” or something like that.
You see, we tend to remember the negative things because they shock or surprise us.
And it may be that we are shocked or surprised to find out that some things we thought were true were in fact what Paul would call, “Doctrines of demons.”
And someone may even be angry that I pointed out a particular teaching as being unbiblical.
The point is that we HAVE talked about right and sound doctrines during this time.
And we will get to do that again today.
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Now, let me remind you that the key to this short epistle is the first verse of chapter 2.
In this letter, Paul speaks not necessarily to the church, but to Titus.
He is to, “Speak things which are proper for sound doctrine.”
You see, for the proper expression of faith, sound doctrine is important.
Unless the Pastor himself is anchored in sound doctrine, the church will drift into all kinds of unbiblical stuff.
That’s because the Pastor who is not anchored in sound doctrine will speak unsound things.
And, if we are not depending on and being faithful to sound doctrine ourselves, we cannot grow in Christ or discern when doctrine isn’t sound.
I want to make sure I’m anchored in sound doctrine so that this church is too.
Biblical doctrine refers to teachings that align with the revealed Word of God, the Bible.
False doctrine is any idea that adds to, takes away from, contradicts, or nullifies the doctrine given in God’s Word.
One sneaky characteristic of false doctrines are that they take what is established in grace by faith and makes it about works and legalism.
It might simply be something that’s made up … has nothing to do with scripture.
Or it might be taking a descriptive text from scripture and making it prescriptive.
The writers of the Bible wrote for specific purposes to specific audiences.
They wrote to inform, correct, challenge, teach and explain things to the people in their time period.
Because the Word of God is living and active … because God’s Word does not fail, we can receive instruction from it for today.
But we must be careful not to read into it things that just are not there.
In John 20:31 we read:
John was writing to show people that Jesus was actually Who He said he was and that He is the way to salvation.
We may gather that the people he was writing to, must have had a hard time believing this.
And as we read through John’s gospel we can see what things he emphasizes to back up these claims.
People today have a hard time believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing in Him brings salvation.
And so the Gospels present to us Jesus and are instructive in God’s solution to our sin and judgment.
The Epistles continue presenting Jesus Christ and the doctrines related to our salvation, but also are instructive in living out our faith.
They were written to people who were living a few thousand years ago.
Yet are just as relevant to us today without having to add to them or take away from them.
The Hebrew scriptures were written to and about people who lived even longer ago than that.
And they were predictive of God’s promised Messiah Who was to come.
In both testaments there are texts that are descriptive.
David’s battle with Goliath is a descriptive text in the Old Testament.
The story of Gideon setting out the fleece is a descriptive text.
Abraham placed his son Isaac on an altar to sacrifice him.
In Acts 19, God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul.
David’s battle with Goliath is not prescriptive … telling us that we like David must go out and slay our giants.
Gideon setting out the fleece is not a prescription illustrating for us that we should test God.
And Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of his son is not prescriptive … we are not to sacrifice our children.
In Acts it was God who was healing people … it wasn’t Paul and it wasn’t the handkerchiefs.
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If we make these descriptive texts prescriptive then we miss the true point of the texts!
We miss or undermine that David and Goliath is a picture of Jesus - victorious over our great enemy, Satan.
AND we miss or undermine that Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac was a foreshadowing of our Heavenly Father allowing His Son to be sacrificed for our sins.
We take something that foreshadows salvation by trust in Jesus and make it about works instead.
It puts things out of order … it puts works ahead of grace and makes grace dependent on works.
As Paul said to the Galatians:
Why is it that Christians easily accept teaching that places Christ lower than works?
Because that is what the flesh wants.
The grace of God is a powerful force in our lives as believers.
As Paul will put it in verse 12 of chapter 2, the grace of God teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions.
It teaches us to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives.
We cannot set aside grace and do works pleasing to God.
In fact, Ephesians 2 makes it pretty clear:
God prepared good works for us to walk in and it is by our standing with God, … That is our standing of “saved through faith” according to His grace … that anything we do is pleasing to Him.
Grace not only brings about initial change; it enables us after that to be pleasing in the eyes of God.
However, we still carry around with us hearts that are wicked.
And because of that, there is a constant possibility of sinning.
And there is a double work of sanctification … we are sanctified to God when we trust in His Son, and God also works to sanctify us as we submit to Him, so that we become more Christlike.
Many try to put the emphasis on man to change … Even back then.
And unsound doctrine does just that … It puts the emphasis on people.
Titus was to speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine.
Why?
Because sound doctrine points to grace.
The teaching or doctrine which is to be adorned by the lives of God’s servants is the teaching of the Gospel.
We get to start out this morning with verse 11 talking about grace.
So, let’s pray and dig in.
Prayer: Lord, as we embark to study your Word, we ask that our hearts would be open to receive all that You have to say to us.
We desire to be hearers and doers and for You to lead us in Your ways.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
v11-15
Up to this point in chapter 2, Paul had first commanded Titus to “Speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine.”
Following that, he commanded Titus to exhort certain behaviors to various groups of people … older men, older women, young men, young women, and slaves.
And now verse 11 starts with the word “For” which means it’s a continuation of thought.
Next we have “the grace of God” and “salvation.”
The 2 cannot be separated.
The verb “Appeared” is the Greek ἐπιφαίνω epiphainō, meaning “show; appear; give light to.”
It is only used 3 other times in the New Testament … one of which is in Titus chapter 3.
In verse 4 of chapter 3, it is applied to the kindness and benevolence of God toward all humanity.
Here, in verse 11 of chapter 2 it is applied to the phrase “all men.”
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