[0:00] What morning is it? So it's a heavy morning with losing Carolyn this morning. She's a big part of this body of believers and such an encouragement to me.
[0:17] You know, this is all new for me as the pastor of the church. And I think it was every single week that she was here, she would have some kind of encouraging comment to say to me.
[0:33] Which made a big difference. But as Roger was saying this morning, we are not the kind who grieve, even though we do, without hope.
[0:47] As Paul says, Paul talked about, I'm betwixt between the two, to use the King James, right? To go and be with the Lord.
[0:59] But to stay here, it's better for you all. And so, it is. We miss Carolyn. It would have been better for us if she was here. But our loss is her gain, right?
[1:14] And it's just going to be a brief moment. The Bible says, this life is just a vapor.
[1:30] Here and then gone. So we'll see her soon. I'm looking forward to it. Let's pray again for the Jordan family.
[1:43] Father, we don't need to pray for Carolyn. She's with you. She'll be with you forever. Just as we look forward to being with you forever.
[1:55] One day. But we do pray for, especially those close to her, and even people in this congregation who, all of us, really, that you would give us the comfort, the peace that we need as we deal with her loss.
[2:13] And just missing her until we see her again. Thank you for your love and your care for all of us. In Jesus' name. Amen. You know, Carolyn, or Tanya, texted me about a week ago and said, you know, hospice is coming.
[2:35] So, my mom said that she doesn't want a funeral. She wants a celebration of eternal life service.
[2:47] So I don't know when that's going to happen, but that's going to happen. Sometime coming up. And we will celebrate the eternal life that she's experiencing, but the eternal life that God offers to all of us.
[3:01] You know, there was, Brenda shared with me something that she put together this morning. I guess this is, this was something that, this is a prayer, a prayer of salvation.
[3:12] She put those out on the back table, on the book table, I guess. And it's just a simple prayer of salvation. She said that this is something that Pastor Marv shared or prayed a few weeks ago during the communion service, or I guess maybe it's been a couple months now.
[3:28] Prayer of salvation. And this is something that anyone, no matter how good they are, or how evil they are, what kinds of destructive things they've done in the past, how they might have hurt people, that's really where we all have been, right?
[3:51] But we can, anyone can pray this prayer and know because you've trusted in Him that you have eternal life. And it's a simple prayer. It's not like there's anything complicated.
[4:02] You don't have to jump through any hoops. You don't have to splash a bunch of holy water on anything. You just have to humble yourself and say, God, I need you and I receive the gift that you offer to me.
[4:15] And you have eternal life. Amen? Amen. So, she made these available if you know somebody who might be interested or want to just, you know, pass these, you know, put these around different places, you know, drop them off at the library or put them on a countertop at the post office or whatever would be a neat thing to do.
[4:38] So, thank you, Brenda, for doing that. Also, just one more announcement before we jump into the scriptures. I think with this, is it for the ladies' luncheon there's a sign-up sheet? Yes?
[4:49] Okay. So, if you are going to go to that, that's this Thursday, is that right? It's not a ladies' luncheon. Oh, sorry, singles. Singles. Singles. Yeah. So, seniors, senior singles luncheon.
[5:05] But you do need to sign up, right? So, there's a sheet out there and so if you're interested in that, please sign up. All right. By the way, I just wanted to, I guess one more announcement before we jump in.
[5:20] Sophie, thank you so much for playing. It's just wonderful. You're doing an amazing job and it's such a blessing to me and I know it's a blessing to everyone else as well. All right, let's jump back into Titus.
[5:39] We're in chapter three. Titus is a short book so it's the last chapter of the book. We're getting close to the end. I think we might make it but I won't make any promises this morning to see if we'll make it to the end.
[5:53] but here in chapter three Paul's talking about how we deal with the world, both the government that we're under which is, tends to be as it has been throughout all of history filled with corruption and that kind and all kinds of evil things yet at the same time God expects us, God, it's his idea, the whole idea of authority that there would be authority over nations to administer justice.
[6:28] That's the purpose of the authorities in a nation is to administer justice. That doesn't always happen but I think sometimes people think that if you had no government that would be better than having a corrupt government and there are little tiny points in history where that has happened and it was just brief because it was so horrific where there was no government and people just did whatever they wanted and so really it is better to have a corrupt government with even with a certain level of tyranny than to just have no government at all in which everybody just does what's right in their own eyes as we read about in Judges Judges so but then there are other things you know there are people in the world you might think well as a Christian
[7:28] I'm no longer part of the kingdom of this world but I'm part of God's kingdom and so we'll just escape maybe we'll build a monastery or a convent or we'll have some kind of Christian commune where we'll live kind of apart from the world and that's not how we as Christians ought to live our lives we are in the world we are not of it as the scriptures speak but we need to be good citizens where we live and we need to do good to those around us and so this is this is what he kind of in short words and we'll go ahead and read this he says remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities to obey to be ready for every good work to speak evil of no one to be peaceable gentle showing all humility to all men this is talking about the people in the world and then he talks about he said hey we are part of a new we're part of a new family now we're part of God's family we're children of God but we weren't always that way so in verse 3 for we ourselves were also once foolish and disobedient deceived serving various lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another and is that a description a good description of the world you know some people they're in this they're in this spot and they think well that doesn't describe me
[9:00] I think don't we all tend to put ourselves in the best light maybe that describes other people especially my neighbor but we never consider oh this actually describes me as well that's part of coming to the Lord is recognizing having just that little bit of humility to recognize that oh yeah I've been the one who's been hateful I've been the one who's been deceived I've been the one who's been pursuing various lusts and pleasures at the expense of my neighbor at the expense of my family but that word but in verse 4 is important we ourselves were there but when the kindness and the love of our God and our Savior toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit
[10:06] God did something for us and he did something in us whom he poured out it's talking about the Holy Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior that having been justified by his grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life so we'll dig into this a little more he says but when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared toward man and what's he talking about when did this happen is he talking about a specific thing that happened yeah he's talking about when Christ died for us that is when the kindness and the love of our Savior appeared but does that mean that God has only demonstrated his love when Christ died for us was God maybe a God only a vengeance in maybe the Old Testament and then in the New Testament he became a God of love is that what happened no not at all in fact there are instance plenty of instances in the Old Testament scriptures from the very beginning even right there at the fall in which God showed love and kindness we look at Adam and Eve when they fell from him fell from or we just call it the fall they sinned against the Lord and did what he commanded them not to do and
[11:42] God was kind there were some cursings but in it there was a blessing right in the things that he did there's a verse in Psalm 103 well actually I'm going to turn there because it's it's worth I think reading the whole thing but it talks about the loving kindness of the Lord here Paul uses these two words separately the love and kindness but there's a word used several times in the scriptures especially in the Psalms where it's a compound word Psalm 103 bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your iniquities who heals all your diseases who redeems your life from destruction and he crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles he crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies
[12:49] God showed love and he showed kindness even in the Old Testament scriptures though a lot of people view the Old Testament as primarily stories of judgment vengeance and that certainly is there and so I think if we compare and contrast the way that God dealt with his people and people who were not his people back during that time during the what we call the dispensation of law or the dispensation of human government and this dispensation of grace in which we live and where Jesus Christ died for our sins and gives us every spiritual blessing in heavenly places for free that's what Paul means by the love and kindness of our God has appeared it's not like
[13:56] God was not love but now the full fruition if I can put it that way the magnificence the fullness of his love has appeared through what he did for us in Jesus Christ you know did God have to love us did he have to be kind to us the Bible says that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us when you have somebody who is a criminal it's another kind of a good word to think about with sinners a sinner is just a criminal right you've broken the law you've done things that you ought not to do God only owes us one thing and he owes it to the whole world justice he owes us justice so for those who have sinned against him and against our neighbor what God owes us is justice but through his love and through his kindness he can give us grace and so some people might think oh well it's not fair shouldn't
[15:15] God just provide grace for everyone no matter what no matter what they do and God does provide his grace it's offered for free but he didn't have to offer his grace but he did because he loved us but when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared notice how he says the Savior or excuse me the kindness and love of God our Savior who's that talking about they're talking about the father who's the Savior Jesus Christ here's another mention we talked we did a little grammar lesson a few weeks ago where the scriptures talk about or Paul talked about our God and our Savior right he's both but here the same thing the love of
[16:18] God who is our Savior appeared then he says this and he wants to make this clear Paul makes this clear over and over and over again not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he has saved us it's not that we were better it's not that we are Christians we are under God's grace we're under his blessing because we have just figured out how to do life better than other people that's not why God showed grace to us it's just purely because of his mercy he chose to give us his mercy it wasn't anything good that we had done it's not any consideration of our merit that we deserved anything but he said here's the gift for you and you can receive it if you're willing you know there's a in Romans
[17:19] Paul is talking about the grace the gift that Christ gave us and he quotes some of the Old Testament scriptures scriptures but he says it's not as if we had to go up to heaven to try to pull down God's grace or go down into the lower depths of hell to try to bring up something to us but he says and he's quoting the Old Testament scriptures the word is near you Christ came to us God came to us we didn't have to go clawing to him and so many people today are trying to do that they're trying to claw towards God see if they can reach heaven build a tower up to heaven see if they can reach him but God came to us and he said here's everything here's every spiritual blessing under heaven eternal life with me are you willing and that's it not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us and then he says this through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the
[18:32] Holy Spirit so it was according to his mercy so his mercy is the reason why he saved us but what was the means how did he do it what actually got accomplished we know that God is merciful but what did he actually do for us and in us he saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit so let's talk about that a little bit what is the washing of regeneration well to some they have taken this well washing aha that must mean water baptism right and if you dunk somebody underwater or you know sprinkle enough water on them or the right type of water or whatever it is then you can be regenerated so this word washing actually it means like a it actually describes the bowl that would be used for washing but it does mean washing it's the word let's see if I have it lutron which is also could be translated bath but it's used for washing yourself off you know they didn't have indoor plumbing back then like we do so what do you do you have bowls of water you pour some water in there you wash your hands and then later you toss the dirty water out that's how they would do it so the washing of regeneration so we talked about washing what does regeneration mean you know this word this Greek word is actually only used twice in the whole
[20:13] New Testament here it's used and it's also used in the book of Matthew chapter 19 verse 28 and here's how it's used so Jesus said to them assuredly I say to you that in the regeneration when the son of man sits on the throne of his glory you who have followed me will also sit on the 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel in the regeneration you apostles will sit on 12 tribes what is he talking about he's talking about the kingdom that's coming the kingdom where Jesus the Messiah will sit on the throne of David ruling in Jerusalem over is it Israel over the whole world right over the whole world and his apostles will sit on 12 thrones ruling under him over the 12 tribes of Israel that's the kingdom so why use this word regeneration it's a word that simply means renewal a renewal and so you can have all kinds of things that can be renewed right you can have you can have clothes that are renewed right or maybe you have an old classic car you found at a garage sale and it's all rusty maybe a 57 Chevy is that a thing yeah okay wouldn't that be a great find somebody's selling at a garage sale but it's a total disaster but then you spend time and effort over weeks and sometimes months and years people will spend on a car and they'll renew it right they'll make it like new they'll polish it up they'll get rid of the rust it takes a lot of effort but that car can be renewed to its original pristine state and so that's what the kingdom is the kingdom of David the kingdom of Israel it will be restored it will be renewed and so that's what that word regeneration means so what does that mean for us as believers the washing of regeneration the washing of renewal well it doesn't a lot of people a lot of people
[22:35] I mean every even not just you know we know that this is a big thing with Catholics but Lutherans and Anglicans and even even beyond that will teach that this is talking about water but when the scriptures say and Paul says by faith and faith only that's what it means by faith and faith only Ephesians 2 8 and 9 what does it say for by grace we have been saved we have been saved by grace through faith and that not of ourselves not of works lest anyone should boast but the Bible does talk about use this picture of washing to point to something it's it's a it's a word picture and so we just like that car or maybe some old clothes that you want to renew you wash them right you wash them and you make them like new that's what God has done with us there's a verse in
[23:44] Ephesians chapter 5 verse 26 that says this that he might sanctify us and cleanse that he might sanctify and cleanse her he's talking about the body of Christ that's us with the washing of water by the word so what is it is it water that's washing us it's actually the word right the word is like water that washes us but also is there something else that the Bible says that washes us there's some other thing that washes us white as snow blood right just like the blood of bulls and goats in fact that was symbolic wasn't it Hebrews chapter 9 verse 13 says this for if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the curing of the flesh so they would take these sacrifices they would spill the blood of the bulls and the goats and they would take that blood and they'd sprinkle it on people sanctifies to the puring of flesh how much more shall the blood of
[24:56] Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God the blood of Jesus is that is that agent like water that cleanses us from our from our dead works from our sins so what is this what does it mean regeneration because I I see I've seen in different circles where there's a lot made about in fact there's even something called the doctrine of regeneration and it teaches and I wrote down a quote from just an article I found if you type this into Google this is one of the things that will come up it says this in regeneration God implants a new heart in you together with a renewed will renewed affections and renewed desires so you get a new heart and a renewed will and renewed affections and desires and that sounds really good and to a certain extent
[26:14] I would even say that that's somewhat true when when you come to the Lord are there things that change as far as the kinds of things that you want to do yes I think most of us have experienced that those of us who have trusted in the Lord but the other thing that I've heard with this with this doctrine is taught where people will use this as a somewhat of a club or a way to cast out well if you were really regenerated by God would you still be love sin like you do would you still be tempted or fall to those temptations that you're falling to you probably make better choices in life if you were really regenerated by the
[27:16] Lord and so regeneration is seen as this thing where God actually makes your will change in some kind of more mystical fashion that he makes you a good person when you were a bad person and he makes you good but that's not what God does in us in fact that's more of like a Catholic teaching in the Catholic church they teach what they call imparted righteousness God imparts righteousness to you whereas the scriptures teach what that God imputed righteousness to us he made us accounted as righteous like in a ledger but whether we are the change in our life the change to our will the change to our desires the change to our love for God and love for others that's a process in God working in us so regeneration it is a new life but what does new life mean 2nd
[28:36] Corinthians 5 17 says this therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation old things have passed away behold all things have become new Jesus said this in John 17 3 he says and this is eternal life that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent so this is life this is life eternal what is it it's knowing him knowing Jesus knowing God it's union with God so when God saves us when he renews us he renews us by having union with us that is knowing God in fact God takes up as a dwelling place us God lives in us in the second part
[29:40] I think speaks to that through the washing of regeneration or the washing of renewal God renews us and through the renewing of the Holy Spirit so he renews us and the renewing agent is the Holy Spirit let's read some scriptures about that second Corinthians 3 6 says this who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant not of the letter and he's talking about the law there not of the law but of the spirit for the letter kills but the gives us life the Holy Spirit gives us life later on in that same chapter in second Corinthians Paul says this now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty so when we trust in Christ the Holy Spirit takes up residence in us but who is the
[30:43] Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit just some kind of power maybe the power of God that's how I think many people think about the Holy Spirit but what does this say now the Lord is the Spirit this is the Lord himself living in us through the person of the Holy Spirit and that can be difficult to for us to wrap our heads around but it's the Lord himself living in us 1 Corinthians 16 says this do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you Romans 8 10 says this and if Christ is in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in him so at this time we have eternal life because we have union with the
[31:59] Lord the Lord lives with us he lives in us we are united to him we know him knowing God is being united to him and that's that's what gives us life we are renewed is it just one time is there just one renewal where you just kind of give that car a wash no that 57 Chevy like we talked about is not just renewed one time and it's allowed to decay it's renewed over and over and over and over again so that it keeps its pristine condition and that is the life that we live the life that we have in Christ in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verse 16 Paul says this therefore do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing yet the inward man is being renewed day by day by day every single day God's life in us is renewing us and what we see on the outside you know and this is
[33:03] I think emphasized this morning with Carolyn's passing the outward man is perishing you know and some of us feel that more than others right when you're 16 years old you're not feeling that as much you know when you're 40 50 60 70 80 plus you feel that a lot more the outward man is perishing there's decay we feel it in our bones but inside inside we're renewed our life with Christ is new every day and it will be that way on into eternity now there will come a day and we actually read about this in Romans chapter 8 but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies there's one day when this mortal body will be replaced with an immortal one one that
[34:04] God will renew just like our inner man day by day so currently our inner man is renewed day by day in the future we'll look forward to our outer man being renewed in the same way day by day by day so again eternal life is knowing him we have a position God has positioned us in him and he has taken up his abode in us we are in him he is in us that describes our relationship and that's the change that has been made and so we need to grow in Christ we need to grow in that relationship and God will change us from the inside out because of that but we needn't trust in oh have we been changed have we been regenerated by looking inwardly by looking to see well have I figured out how to live the Christian life no we look to him and our okay
[35:05] Titus 3 verse 6 whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit is many times portrayed as oil or water he's been poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior that having been justified by his grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life Christ has accomplished our justification through the cross and we're heirs of eternal life and that is what the cross is all about that we might be justified it's not that we fully obtained eternal life yet we have life now like we've been talking about we have life in him but the fullness of that life is still coming verse 80 says this is a faithful saying and these things I want to affirm constantly that those who have believed in
[36:07] God should be careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable to men when there's a few times where Paul uses this kind of phrase there's there's this faithful saying well what does that mean well we have sayings right things that are like little maybe sometimes cliches or quotes but but here I think a lot of times even in the early church there were what we might call today creeds a creed that people would maybe recite or say and I think that's what he's talking about here there's this creed that we should say this part of our Christian life that as Christians we ought to constantly affirm that those who believe in God should be careful to maintain good works Paul was constantly accused regularly accused of telling people of teaching that well you're saved by grace through faith alone so you don't have to do any good works you don't have to you don't have to consider the law you don't have to consider other people you don't have to try to be a good person you just forget about all that and just live under grace and that's it and why did he get accused of that because he was such it was such a big deal to him that people did not try to work under a system of merit they didn't try to earn something through what they did but at the same time as
[37:36] Christians we still need to do we ought to as we talked about last week we ought to do what is right and what is good what's the big you know is there really a difference yes and the difference matters we do good works the motivation is different when you do good things in order to earn a reward in order to earn merit that's a whole different way of living than if you do good things out of a heart of gratitude and love for the Lord there's a quote that I found from somebody named Briscoe I'm not even sure who that is but it says this the theology of Christianity is based on grace the ethics of Christianity are based on gratitude the ethics us doing good is based on what the Lord has done for us that ought to be our motivation but you know some Christians might think well I'm saved I'm good I'm just going to kind of live life for myself and wait till I get to heaven but that's not how we ought to live as
[38:39] Christians we have to constantly affirm over and over and over and encourage one another and that's something that we ought to do right as Christian believers it's not just the pastor or you know somebody from a pulpit or whatever should encourage but we should all encourage one another towards where it says elsewhere faith and good works both faith and good works to do good things these things are good and profitable to men when we do good works it's profitable to people you know even though our salvation we our union with Christ our relationship with God our righteous standing before him does not change even if we fail to live the kind of life that we ought to but that doesn't mean that the way that we live our life doesn't have any consequences it may not have any consequences regarding our relationship with the Lord but you know how many people are out there who look at
[39:43] Christians and they say that person they're not living the kind of life that they say that we ought to live they're a hypocrite and so this whole Jesus thing forget about it it's useless I'm not even going to consider that because these Christians that I know they don't live a good life we can have an impact on people both positively and negatively by how we live our lives and we ought to be good ambassadors for the Lord these things are good and profitable for men then he says a but here's another but verse 9 but avoid foolish disputes genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law for they are unprofitable and useless and so he says but he says do good things but avoid these disputes and genealogies and contentions I think what he's getting at here is hey there's a way to live a good life but so many people and who do you think he has in mind here he's talking about the Jews right maybe specifically the Judaizers but the Jews who want to supposedly live a good life but make a lot of ado about little things things that aren't of true import things that don't really matter
[41:07] Jesus got accused for breaking the Sabbath by healing someone remember that he was chastised how dare you break the law of God by healing someone and of course he said you do the same thing don't you if you have a sheep that's left in a ditch are you just going to leave it there because you don't want to break the Sabbath no if you would do that for the sheep why would you criticize me for offering care to a human being made in the image of God so there are people who in whether unknowingly or not but really foolishly trying to keep the law trying to do good but major on minor things make make a lot of noise about little minor things and I think that's what Paul is getting at here but avoid foolish disputes genealogies contentions and strivings about the law for those things are unprofitable and useless good works themselves are profitable toward men but getting into all this nitty gritty debates and you see among especially this is a common thing even today among
[42:26] Jewish people and I'll get to others besides the Jews in a second we don't want to just focus on the Jews but you'll see all these wranglings with the scripture what does this mean in fact I've got a I've got a thing here I found from some of the Jewish writings about how we ought to or how the Jews ought to keep the Sabbath so it says this on Shabbat one may not and this is regulations about how to carry things on the Sabbath how to carry things or not carry things on Shabbat one may not carry or transfer objects between a private dwelling and a public domain like the street so you can't carry anything from inside the house to outside the house to the street neither may one carry an object in a private dwelling for more than four cubits so if you're going to carry something you can't go further than four cubits if you go four cubits you're good if you go past that you're breaking the Sabbath law examples of this prohibition include carrying in one's pocket carrying anything in the hand wheeling a baby carriage or a shopping cart going outside with gum or food in the mouth this prohibition also includes carrying in public hallways or yards or multiple dwellings unless and there's this specific thing a yurov chetserat is made and it describes this an yurov chetserat is an arrangement whereby carrying in some of the above situations is permitted in addition the area in which one wishes to carry must be enclosed this enclosure commonly referred to as an yurov can occur naturally or be man-made and must be constructed before
[44:17] Shabbat so wow lots of rules right God said honor the Sabbath day to keep it holy well let's create some more regulations the Jewish community in some cities or neighborhoods construct an yurov which encloses several blocks the area within the yurov is then considered a private domain where carrying is permitted and if there is an yurov it is important to know its boundaries so as not to carry beyond them and also to ensure before Shabbat that the yurov is up and it's not damaged that's just an example of like strivings about the law making majoring on the minors he talks about genealogies and what's that all about well you know the genealogies were important to the Jews right what tribe were you a part of that meant something and so people would spend lots of time discussing and arguing about well are you of this tribe or not or you know trying to figure things out and Paul's saying those things aren't important let's live a good life serving the Lord serving others and not spend our time hankering about these kinds of things it makes me think it's not really genealogies per se but in so many churches there's these questions of well what is your church heritage and so many try to prove that their church heritage goes all the way back to the apostles that's called apostolic succession and many church denominations try to prove that our denomination is the one that's true we go back all the way back to the apostles and this apostle gave authority to this apostle and they gave authority to this bishop and it goes all the way over 2,000 years and we're the ones that God has approved of
[46:12] God says don't worry about all that kind of stuff just love me do good and is it unprofitable and useless to have any kind of contention or debate no sometimes it's important to have debates to contend with one another but we need to have wisdom to know when that's appropriate and when it's not really I think the big question to ask is what's at stake what's at stake if your genealogy is right or wrong not much but what's at stake if someone says well Jesus never said anything about sexual perversion and so we as New Testament Christians shouldn't really care about that we shouldn't make a big deal about it is there much at stake there there's quite a bit at stake Jesus said lots of things and he never mentioned for example some people will say well Jesus never said anything about homosexuality and they'll use that as a way to promote that even among Christians that kind of behavior is okay of course all the words in the Bible are from
[47:34] Jesus aren't they all of them are not just the words in red I think the red letter Bibles have maybe caused more confusion than their value in that regard so I think we ought to know ourselves some people their personality is geared towards debate and disputes other people stay as far away as they can from those kinds of things but for those of us I'll include myself in that who enjoy kind of the battle of ideas we need to keep this in mind you know don't get involved in unprofitable and useless debates make sure that if we are engaging that it's important that it's worth it not that we're just fulfilling the loss of our flesh to try to be right or something like that and then he says this in verse 10 reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition knowing that such a person is warped and sinning being self-condemned so if there's somebody who this is their lifestyle they're constantly saying well
[48:37] I'm right and you're wrong or here's something that we don't agree about and making a huge deal about it then you need to reject that person it's interesting enough the word here is for divisive man I think this is in the King James is the word heretic reject a heretic after the first and second admonition and that's a word I think that's thrown around sometimes a little bit too loosely if you have a theological disagreement maybe an internal debate in Christianity some people will say you're a heretic and that's just a way to disparage someone really a heretic the Bible does talk about false teachings and we need to be careful about that but this is actually not talking about just false teaching but about creating the divisions this word even though it's only used once in the Bible in this way there's a root part of it that's more of a noun that actually is translated sect a sect and a sect is what a division you had the sect of the
[49:41] Pharisees and the sect of the Sadducees and the sect of the Aseans these were all sects of the Jews these were divisions among the Jewish people and so don't create divisions God likes us wants us to be unified and that doesn't mean that we should never make divisions in fact what is Paul saying about a man who makes divisions that you should do with him reject him send him away divide with him so I don't think Paul is saying here that you should never have a division that we should always just be in unity with everyone no matter what they believe or what they do or anything like that there are many places Paul himself says sometimes there are people that you shouldn't even eat with them because of their behavior because of the immoral lifestyle that they're leading while they're naming themselves as a Christian so there are times where it's important to divide but we shouldn't be a divisive type of people we shouldn't make big deal about things you know everybody's you know many people have experienced this in churches right where there's a division because of the color of the carpet right or things like that and just like any sin division is like leaven and it can spread if you allow it to fester it will spread throughout an entire church so after the first and second admonition after the first time you know you give a stern warning and after one time and they won't follow through then maybe that's the time to reject them but at the very least after two times three strikes you're out right knowing that such a person is warped and sinning being self condemned the last part here is just some final kind of dressing at the end of the letter he says send Zenos the lawyer and Apollos on their journey with haste that they may lack nothing we don't this is the first time
[51:46] Zenos is mentioned Apollos or excuse me I'm sorry I skipped when I send Artemis to you or Tychicus be diligent to come to me at Nicopolis for I have decided to spend the winter there now Artemis is this is the first time Artus is ever mentioned we don't know anything about Artemis Tychicus is mentioned just once in the book of Acts we don't know very much about him even the city of Nicopolis we don't know which city this was because Nicopolis was actually a fairly common name does anybody know this is basically two words Nick and Polis Polis means city and this word Nick is short or kind of a form of anybody familiar with what we have the brand name Nike Nike and that comes from the Greek anybody know what that means it means victory it means victory so they took on that brand name you know it's a sports brand right so victory seems it's a pretty good name
[52:53] I think they did a good job naming their brand with that but so city of victory and you can imagine that lots of people would want their city to be named victory right that would be common so really Nicopolis is kind of like Springfield in America right there's a Springfield in basically every state and so you say oh I'm from Springfield a lot of times you have to ask well which Springfield right if you say I'm from Boston you don't have to ask but if you're from Springfield you say well which one the same thing with Nicopolis so nobody really knows which one he's talking about for I have decided to spend the winter there so he said I'm going to send these guys be diligent to come to me at Nicopolis so I want you to come visit me Titus for I have decided to spend the winter there send Zenos the lawyer and Apollos on their journey with haste that they may lack nothing and let our people also learn to maintain good works to meet urgent needs that they may not be unfruitful so he's talking about basically these are missionaries
[53:55] Zenos and Apollos these are ones who are doing the work of the gospel he's saying hey make sure that they don't lack anything these people are doing the work of the gospel they're not they don't have full time jobs where they're making an income help them out make sure that they don't lack anything is that instructive to us today sure we have opportunities in lots of ways to help those who are doing the work of the gospel and he's saying there in verse 14 let all of our people so all the believers that are under our hearing also learn to maintain good works to meet urgent needs that they may not be unfruitful and as Christians we ought to live a fruitful life and I think here he's talking about the fruit of the gospel and you know a lot of us want to do gospel work right we want to reach the lost and some of us we don't know how and I think just like this one of the best ways to get involved in gospel work is to start by helping somebody else somebody else who's already doing the work and we can help them we can provide them a place to stay we can show up when they're doing an event we can send them a donation let our people let our people learn that they may not be unfruitful then he finishes with this all who are with me greet you greet those who love us in the faith grace be with you all amen and this phrase grace be with you all is common in almost all of
[55:25] Paul's letters he ends his letter with grace be with you all and that is relevant right or pertinent or for for Paul he was the apostle of grace the apostle to the Gentiles dispensing what he calls the dispensation of the grace of God administering the dispensation of the grace of God and so it is proper that he would end his letters saying grace be with you all we did it we finished with the book of Titus and I guess so we can use this mic again we'll have an opportunity to ask any questions by the way I did get a couple of questions from the offering box just this last week so I'd love to see more and maybe in the future we can have a time or opportunity to just have a day where we ask questions or answer questions and talk about things that are on people's minds anybody have anything today before we finish up all right so when it says avoiding disputes and genealogies and stuff it makes me think of one of the things that's floating around today is there's some people digging into the genealogies of
[57:00] Satan's seed and God's seed and I think that's just one of those it's kind of a current day may be example of a rabbit trail probably not to go down so I thought I wanted to mention that as a comment yeah thanks for that you can find it all over I mean you have I mean I even wrote some of these things down but just didn't for the sake of time mention them the Mormons right are huge in genealogies I remember I had a Mormon missionary who came to our door and we talked for a while he actually invited me to go to their ward they call it it's like a church building and they have a room and I think this is in every one I may not be right about I think this is in every church building they have a room dedicated to genealogy research and if you know any of these genealogy apps like ancestry.com almost all of them are owned by the Mormons it's like what's the deal with that that's kind of weird why are they so into genealogy well they have this doctrine where they teach that you can be baptized for the dead and so people will spend their time finding all their ancestors they'll try to go back a thousand years to find all their ancestors so that they can baptize their dead ancestors as
[58:17] Mormons so it's really an obsession with genealogy you have there's the whole Hebrew Israelite thing that it's fairly new you have something called British Israelism that I don't know if it's a big thing anymore but back maybe a hundred years ago British Israelism there was this whole movement where people were trying to make the case trying to prove that the Brits were actually descended from the ten lost tribes of Israel and so there's this whole big movement about that does any of that matter does it matter whether you're descended from Jews or it doesn't matter there is no Jew or Gentile in Christ right it matters nothing what value does that provide so thanks for sharing that anything else yes I appreciate I I appreciate so that those who have believed
[59:17] God may be careful to engage in good deeds it doesn't say believed in God it says believed God and how many times did Mark tell us God just wants to be believed yes a lot of people believe in a God but we need to believe God there is a big difference thank you for pointing that out every you know as what is it James I think points out right even the devils or demons believe and they tremble they know there's a God but they don't trust him do they that's a huge important distinction to make anything else all right so let's pray Father thank you for your word this book of Titus has been a tremendous blessing to me and I hope to many others here thank you for your word that you have preserved for 2,000 years it's just tremendous such a blessing and we pray that the words in this book will continue to wash us to renew us to make us like you as we look to you to understand more about you and what you've done for us and how we ought to live as those who are your children amen all right and I'll end with the same thing that Paul did grace be unto you amen to see you that Paul and I'll like you to see