Book of Titus - Ch. 1, vv. 3-4

Titus 1:3 and the Manifestation of God’s Word Through Preaching

We've been moving our way slowly, but surely through just the salutation of Titus. We will be jumping into verse 3 today. When we covered verse 2 most of everyone in the room currently was not here.

Whether.

Because of travel or otherwise we had the Kings with us that day. Mimi and pop-pop were here. But everybody else I think was out so I don't have a whole lot of time To do too much review. I will say this though as far as verses 2 3 go there's quite a bit in there that I'll probably Set aside for the time being and maybe cover In the future whether that be in a sermon or otherwise there's a lot in these first four verses of Titus, but We will let's go ahead and read the first four verses together, and then we'll jump into verse 3 specifically which is where kind of where we left off last time so Turn to Titus chapter 1 let's read the first four verses and then we'll jump into it says Paul a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and the Acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness and hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie Promised before the world began but hath in due times manifested his word through preaching Which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior to Titus my own son after the common faith Grace mercy and peace from God the Father in the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.

Now again like I said a couple well Maybe two three weeks ago at this point or three or four weeks ago. We covered verse 2 the hope of eternal life Which was which God that cannot lie promised before time eternal would be kind of a literal Rendering of that final phrase there we discussed the significance of the fact that our that promise was made before time.

Which is an indication that not only is time itself a creation a creature another servant of God. Something that God is not bound by but the promise that was made by definition would have had to have been made to somebody that Pre-existed that in other words a promise was made that we are involved with it has it's directly related to our hope of eternal Life, but the promise was made to somebody that existed prior to us.

And of course, we talked in detail about the fact that that was Jesus Christ the eternal Son. It was a promise made between the Father and the Son. That involved us is that love gift that would eventually be given to Jesus.

So obviously so much in verse 2 there that we covered last time, but let's move on to verse 3. And start diving into that a little bit. Let's read verse 3 just one more time. It says but hath in due times Manifested his word through preaching which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior.

Now.

What believers experience in salvation and You could look at the full You know train their Sanctification our future glorification all of it is because God made that eternal promise to the Lord verse 2 Which is what we talked about last time.

But not only did he make that promise he revealed that promise to us in a particular way He revealed that eternal promise in his word so that we could understand it so that we could begin to grasp This promise in some way or at least to the extent that God wanted us to understand it we get to know about the plan.

Because as it says in due times or in due season it was revealed to us. How was it revealed. It was revealed through his word and it's interesting because Paul puts an emphasis on another aspect of that.

It was revealed through his word through preaching. All is telling us that he understands that the means by which God delivers his message The mission the message itself it always comes from God's Word and that Word comes through proclaiming it through preaching it now the New Testament emphasis on the cut on the concept or the reality of word in Particular it's really hard not to notice you see this cut popping up as a is a theme a reoccurring theme everywhere.

And because of it we learn Pretty spectacular reality about the way in which God interacts with his creation, but more specifically with his people the father is Transcended is Dad says the father is in a place.

That's not a place we can't really even understand it because we live in three-dimensional space and time and The father is in a place that we couldn't even really comprehend and yet Even with that reality even with that is truth.

We can still know him intimately and This is because he makes himself manifest in the visible image of his son. It was also known as the word. However, we also learn about the word being spread In another particular way and that is like I said a minute ago our preaching preaching consists of words which represent The word again another name for the Eternal Son and he is representative of the father.

So we have this really beautiful Cascade that flows directly from the father all the way down to the words of You know little meager human beings men that are filling the open air With the words of Scripture through preaching so that sinners can hear from God himself and we get to be a part of that.

It's a really spectacular thing that well ministers have the Wonderful honor of getting to partake in regularly, but really any believer that goes out and is Proclaiming the word of the Lord talking to people evangelizing.

They all get to take part in that honor the words that are coming out of their mouth, especially When they are from Scripture they flow directly from the father Through the the word which is Jesus Christ through our words as we speak.

Now this idea of preaching the significance of preaching the significance of this role that Paul took very very seriously that he's talking About in verse 3 here. He talks about it in a lot of other places as well.

If y 'all want to go to 1st Corinthians 1 for a second We're gonna there's a few very brief passages in 1st Corinthians that will kind of skip through. All of which they'll emphasize what Paul is talking about here in Titus 1 3 as well and it will just shed a little bit more light on How important this was to Paul how important it is for the people around us in 1st Corinthians 1.

Starting at verse 20 a very familiar passage. We were in the past couple of weeks as Matt was bringing Sunday school. It says where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world?

Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God. So there's some contrast there the world by wisdom knew not God it Pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

Now this particular context is interesting because what we're learning here is That preaching is not only the ordained means by which God brings his message to the world so that they can hear it so that it.

Can.

Transform their lives, but even in the foolishness of preaching this same. The same mission can be accomplished so to speak even at times when the messenger himself is far from Ideal and delivering the words that are needed for people to hear them Be transformed by the word and so on and so forth.

Even when it's less than ideal even when it's Coming from a somewhat foolish place it can still accomplish that mission to save them That believe as Paul puts it here. But preaching is the key preaching is the emphasis if you skip over one chapter and you look at verse 4 first Corinthians.

Chapter 2 verse 4 it says in my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. But in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men.

But in the power of God, it was the preaching of Paul that was a demonstration of the Spirit and his power now again that goes back to the Unbelievable reality that we as humans Paul is a human but by extension all of us as well.

Get to partake in that type of power in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power simply by preaching Faithfully the Word of God faithfully would be the key word there a lot of preaching goes on around the world but when we preach in the likeness of Paul when we preach with the Emphasis of the word at the forefront of our minds wanting to accurately handle that in faithfully Preach that then this is the kind of power that it carries if you skip all the way over to verse I'm sorry chapter 15 of 1st Corinthians just one quick verse I just want you all to see some of these because I want you to see this running theme of Paul.

That carries all the way into the Titus passage. We're in this morning in 15 verse 12. It says now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead. How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead now.

This is really fascinating because the context here Paul is about to talk about the first resurrection and some really deep doctrinal things and he asks this kind of rhetorical question. That is pointing out.

How can these things even be questioned when you hear that Christ is being preached in other words he's letting us know that the power behind the words that are being preached are enough as. Are enough reason for you to believe that these things are true even such doctrinal realities as The first resurrection the resurrection of the dead something very unique To the Christian faith very unique to the gospel that Paul and the Apostles were preaching.

So this this emphasis on the preaching to deliver these very serious things. Was something that Paul took very seriously this preaching. Was something that Paul was totally committed to and it couldn't be overstated how important of a job.

It was to Paul how important that job was to Paul. And this is someone that understood the sovereignty of God. Probably better than any other human that ever lived. Not counting the Lord himself, of course and yet even with that deep understanding.

He emphasized evangelism, which we looked at in verse 1 of Titus 1 1. Emphasize preaching the delivery of God's Word just about well I would say more than anybody else but a big a big reason why is because of how much of the New Testament that he Wrote the prophets of the Old Testament were preachers.

Jesus himself was a preacher and the Apostles of course were preachers. Themselves turned to Romans chapter 10. We're kind of hopping around a little bit here, but I think this is worth doing. While we're in While we're honing in on verse 3 here before we move into verse 4.

Because when you think about how magnificent verse 2 is while you're turning to Romans I'll just read it one more time in the hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began.

There's the promise a decree that was made that could not be changed the immutable God was going to fulfill this promise. But what is one of the ways in which he would fulfill the promise but hath in due times manifested his word.

Well, we know that that's a key ingredient for lack of a better term in bringing God's people to faith. But in due times manifested his word through preaching using his creation his image bearers. Paul the other Apostles their disciples and by extension all ministers over the last 2 ,000 years all of the successors of the Apostles.

With that regard were all used as the instruments. By which the word was made manifest from which is what delivers. Information about this promise that was made before time eternal. It's all just unbelievable.

And preaching is the thing that does it. Romans chapter 10 verse 13. Of course is one that everybody knows but look at the immediate the verses that immediately follow for whosoever shall call upon the name of The Lord shall be saved.

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him of whom they have? Heard. And how shall they hear without a preacher. And how shall they preach except they be sent.

So there is a very specific reference to the commissioning of Certain men that were called by God to do this thing as it is written. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.

Just the approach of these men to whatever community whatever congregation whatever group of people they were approaching to bring this good news just Just their presence their imminent presence was something worth rejoicing over.

Paul wasn't about perfect oration or being manipulative in any way in his speech in the way he delivered these things. Even when he debated the pagans in the streets in front of everybody.

He wasn't all that.

Worried about strategy to a degree depending on how you define that. He wasn't worried about being manipulative. He wasn't worried.

About.

The perfect delivery of his words. He approached his preaching with the fear of the Lord and that is of course something that not only every minister should emulate. But I would say every believer every believer that is held responsible which would be all of them In sharing the gospel with the world.

I want to I want to turn over to 1st Corinthians one more time. I know I read a couple of verses in chapter 2. I want to read a couple more though just to demonstrate Where Paul's cares were he says. And I brethren when I came to you came not with excellency of speech.

This is 1st Corinthians chapter 2 opening verses. I came not with the excellency of speech or of wisdom. What is that wisdom a reference to the wisdom of the world? Declaring unto you the testimony of God.

For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ in him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling and my speech and my preaching. This is what we read earlier was not with enticing words of man's wisdom.

But in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of. That is how Paul approached his preaching not with enticing words not worried about the perfect delivery or the perfect Oratory skills that it that some may emphasize today and have throughout all of church history.

All he cared about was accurately handling the Word of God and being faithful with it. And he knew that it would not return void and that was whether he was Evangelizing whether he was on a missionary journey or whether he was debating the pagans in the streets of Athens in front of everybody to show the foolishness of man and the wisdom of God.

He didn't care about Delivery as much as he cared about being faithful and being accurate.

Now.

One last note and we'll leave verse 3 here and tie you can go back to Titus. Back to Titus 1 3. No, also that God's Word which is the very Basis for Paul's entire mission. What was it? It was entrusted to Paul.

It was entrusted to him. It says verse 3. But hath a due times manifested his word through preaching which is committed or entrusted. Could be either word there which is entrusted unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior.

This was something that Paul was entrusted with he.

God.

Trusted Paul and commissioning him to do what I was saying a second ago to accurately and faithfully Handle his word and by extension. This is true for all of Paul's successors every minister of the gospel that had followed Paul Titus being one of them.

Titus and of course Timothy which we'll get to one of these days were imminent successors of Paul. But what about after they were gone. Well, there were successors of them and after them all the way down through church history to present-day all ministers of the gospel are Entrusted with this word that is to be preached that is to be manifested by preaching that means that When you are a minister of the gospel when you are a preacher when you are a pastor an evangelist Whatever it may be a revivalist you are responsible To not change the words that you were entrusted with.

You were given something that came from God himself the only perfect physical thing in the universe. Well, not the universe. On earth, I guess you could technically argue that the third heaven is in the universe somewhere but the only physical perfect thing on earth in our solar system is this word and this word that came from God was Entrusted to Paul but by extension all ministers of the gospel after the fact you don't get to mess with that.

You are responsible to faithfully and accurately bring that to bear so that sinners can so that sinners hear it and so that sinners change so that they hear this gospel and Resonate with it. We're responsible for not changing it when we proclaim it.

Titus 1:4 and Paul’s Relationship to Titus

Let's go ahead and go to verse 4 now Titus chapter 1. Does anyone have any thoughts so far before we move into the next verse any any thoughts y 'all would like to share? I know we're making some progress here.

This will be the first time we cover more than one verse since we've started Titus. It's very fun. All right verse 4 it says to Titus. So now we learn a little bit about the man that Paul is writing to to Titus.

Mine own son after the common faith grace mercy and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, we're gonna hone in on that final phrase there and just a little bit. But first I want to point out a couple of things with regard to Paul's relationships we learned that he has a close relationship right here with Titus and Another purpose of this letter is to give Titus the authority that Titus needed To face the false teachers and the enemies that he was to face on the island of Crete.

Well Paul being the preeminent apostle, of course is doing just that he is giving him that authority. One of the ways in which he does it is by demonstrating the bond that he has with Titus. The close relationship that Paul and Titus have my own son after the common faith Paul had zero issue Duplicating and delegating himself.

This is something we talked about all the time. This is a needed A needed what would you what would you call it? A required something what is I don't know what the best word would be in business in life in ministry in Everything you can think of.

What's the word dead?

Oh, go ahead. Sorry.

And.

Think about how interesting it is that that Paul's. The truth that Paul is sharing with us. There is during the time of the Apostles. He emphasized it even when the Apostles were still alive were signed gifts were still.

Existing All.

Well, I'm glad you brought all that up and just to summarize it for anyone listening online that may not have heard dad is He's just pointing out the fact that in in the 21st century you hear lots of stories.

Quote unquote conversion stories about people that were saved by through visions of Jesus far away without ever needing the work of a missionary an evangelist or a preacher and Dad's point is this passage in Romans 10 specifically verses 14 and 15 Refute that notion because God ordained that the way in which people would hear the word and Resonate with it is through the words of a man of a preacher specifically.

We have a couple of faithful missionaries with us today in Sunday school will be sharing a message later and their work is Built upon the foundation that a preacher is needed for these people to hear the truth.

And so yeah to dad's point that heretical teaching is an affront to all the work The missionaries have been doing for the last 2 ,000 years. You don't mess with the way God ordains his message to be delivered.

He ordains the the means as well as the ends as we have said a number of times in this study. And we're going to continue to hone in on that because we will see that demonstrated time and time again. And so that's very important stuff.

No doubt, and I'm glad that that I'm glad that we were able to talk about that a little bit While we were in that Romans passage. Now back to the duplicating and delegating for a second dad you helped me out with that as well even in secular business.

In the secular business realm it is considered best practices to ensure that if you are good at something You duplicate and delegate yourself because you're gonna get to a point where you can't handle all the work yourself.

Well, the thing is it's not really secular business talk. That is a biblical principle that we see in the Old Testament as well. In fact to introduce the book of Titus we talked about The succession of God's people of God's leaders and so we've looked at stories throughout the Old Testament where one of God's men needed a Successor and what that transition of power looked like and so this is a biblical principle.

But it applies across the board so you will see it in business. You will see in other areas, but here We have it with Paul preparing his successors, and I started all that with a thought. That Paul had zero issue doing that why did Paul have zero issue Duplicating and delegating himself because his dad will also attest that is that can be very hard for some people to do.

In fact it can be seemingly impossible for some people to duplicate and delegate themselves whether it's because they don't want to relinquish any power or in some.

Some.

Dramatic cases that's what I was trying to find there or in some cases. They may just not have the skill set. Needed to teach what they need to teach to the next guy or whatever it may be that could be for a number of reasons.

So it can be very hard to do this. However, it was not hard for Paul and the reason is because Paul had zero issue Pouring himself into the men around him in Fact. He probably didn't even think about this is duplicating and delegating the way that a business mind would strategically be thinking about that.

He probably didn't have to think about that at all because what he was thinking about was he had men around him and women as. Well, but I'm talking in the specific context of pastors here as Titus will be or actually was at the time of this letter being written.

He had these men around him that he yearned to disciple. He had these men around him that he Would pour himself into that he knew needed him needed his guidance needed his leadership and because he had no issue in pouring himself out into these men a Just default.

Result of all that was that he duplicated and delegated himself. Whether he was trying all that hard or not. It just happened because he was he was dedicating his life to instructing these men. He didn't even need to focus on putting great effort into Duplicating himself because he cared so deeply about ensuring that he was always discipling someone.

Wherever he was and he was all over the place. He was always discipling someone. When you think about Paul, you can think of a number of names that go right along with him. You think of Barnabas you think of Luke you think of Timothy or Titus or Silas?

You know these names that you hear about that are walking in lockstep with Paul for so long in his ministry. And then maybe it's someone else at a different part. But he always had men with him. For the most part and was discipling them along the way if you ever read Romans 16.

It's a really funny chapter because you have 15 chapters of some of the deep deepest doctrines in all of Scripture. And then it ends with Paul just this long list of people that Paul is talking about.

Sometimes. It's just a name. We don't even know anything about the person and there's no cross-references in the rest of the scripture to learn anything about him there either. They're just people that Paul was was talking about and why would the Lord inspire?

Paul to put all these people in there. Well, I think there could be a number of reasons. I think there are a number of reasons, but one of them I think is to demonstrate the way in which Paul cared about those around him.

The friendships that he Cultivated. The people that he cared about. The fact that he was always pouring himself into others. He was very involved on a wide scale in The lives of many people not just a few.

Not just Titus not just Timothy not just Silas and Barnabas. A lot of people and again the last chapter of Romans Demonstrates that plainly when one wonders again why the Lord did that I believe it so we can learn a lot about Paul.

He never isolated himself. He loved people. He loved being around him. He loved discipling them. Paul's life was filled with people and he was just as committed to God's people as he was his own mission now in Present-day missions ministries.

You name it.

There there are a few examples that you can find out there of men that Put a heavy emphasis on whatever their ministry was Whatever they were out working on and doing but very little close relationships with the people around them very little discipling very little care for Preparing maybe the next generation to carry their ministry on there again.

There are a number of examples you can find there. Well, that was not an issue with Paul either because as much as he was committed to the mission that he was given By God, he was just as committed to God's people all around him whether they were of a significant status or not significant social status significant in the ministry with him or Just lay people that were had just been converted and were looking for guidance and that were a part of a little local house church.

He cared just as much about all of them and in Titus We'll be wrapping it up here in just a sec. We learned that this young man was one of these people. By this time Titus was already a pastor and he was charged with shepherding the churches of Crete.

There's no doubt that he was chosen for this task that he was chosen to go to Crete and to be the one to get everything in order because there's a lot of mess that We'll be learning about as we progress through this letter.

There's no doubt that he was chosen for that task because of the discipling that he received from Paul. He was prepared by Paul now. He still needs a little bit of help. That's why he's getting this letter, but he wouldn't have been sent in the first place if he hadn't been Discipled already to a great degree and because of the fact that Paul Under the inspiration of the Spirit wrote such letters of importance as he did with Titus and with Timothy.

We know that these two young men Were two of the most important men in Paul's life even with this wide range of wonderful people that Paul talks about all throughout his letters. Not just in that last chapter of Romans, but he ends many of his letters Referencing other people in his life.

These two young men were right at the top because Paul of course again under the inspiration of the Spirit. No less writes these very detailed meticulous letters of instruction just for them. In fact the most meticulous instruction manuals that we have for church life he wrote To these guys who were going to be his successors now in verse 4.

You may recognize some familiar phrasing that Paul has used before we recently went verse by verse through Philemon. He uses physical mental pictures to describe the spiritual bond between himself and Titus when he says my own son.

After the common faith, he's telling us that Titus much like Philemon much like Onesimus these guys that we learned about recently Titus owes his spiritual life to God. Through Paul Paul is claiming Titus is his own his convert his son after the common faith now I don't think I have enough time to get into it.

There's a couple of passages I have here. They go outside of Titus in Galatians in 2nd Corinthians where we learn a little bit about what made this bond So strong between them. I think I'll save that for next time with what little time we have left here.

But I'll just I'll just cut to the chase a little bit. This bond Certainly predated Titus leaving to go to the island of Crete and to begin Shepherding the local churches there and we learned about the bond in Galatians chapter 2 which we'll look at next time where Paul tells us that He chose Titus to go with him to a very important event.

To use Titus as a demonstration of the age of grace the grace of God. The fact that you can be saved by grace alone and that the law Was no longer a part of the salvation process not I worded that a little bit poorly.

I think salvation was always by grace through faith. But the point was the Judaizers were trying to be like guys, come on. We know we believe in Jesus. We believe you know, we're in a new age now, but you still got to get circumcised.

And Paul was going to handle that and he chose Titus to go with him and we're gonna learn next week or the next time I'm with y 'all. Why he chose Titus, but we also learned in 2nd Corinthians and we'll look at a few passages next time as well that Titus himself Much like Paul yearned to go disciple and shepherd people.

He actually went By his own will to the Corinthian Church. Which had a lot of mess that needed to be cleaned up that Paul had to deal with of course all throughout the first letter To the Corinthians and to some degree in the second as well in Titus went there because he wanted to because he wanted to help that church out and those believers out and He did so with earnest as we will learn in a particular passage in one of Paul's letters where he references Titus.

And so that spiritual bond was very very Unique it was very tight between the two of them. And so in verse 4 when we learned that he is addressing this letter to Titus his son after the common faith. We get just a little snapshot of how powerful their relationship was and we'll learn more about that Next time.

Does anyone have any other thoughts they'd like to share before we close out Sunday school for today.

Yes.

Yeah, well you pointing out his level of service.

I think is is key because even outside of these letters that we have we know that he poured into a lot of people. That we don't have Letters to. Not that he didn't write to them, but as far as in our Bible.

He had people all over the place. He was constantly writing. He had a continual correspondence going regardless of whether he was in prison or whether he was on a missionary journey or whatever. It may be.

And so. Yes, the level of service was Spectacular it was. It was on a level that might be unparalleled. Perhaps even throughout all of church history. And yet Paul I mean goodness gracious when Jesus ascends he spends even after his ascension.

He spends time with Paul in the wilderness. You have arguably the greatest Christian that ever lived arguably the preeminent Apostle even at the time that Peter John and James were still alive. You have the most significant guy.

And not only does he have all of those credentials as an apostle of Jesus he has all of.

The.

Pharisaical credentials that you could ask for. He has all of the secular credentials you could ask for. He was totally Versed in in the Greek culture of that time. He was considered blameless in the eyes of the Pharisees with how well he kept their rules and regulations.

And now here fast-forward past all of that he counts all of that loss for Christ. He doesn't care about any of that anymore. He's still at the top from at least our viewpoint and from the viewpoint of the way the Holy Spirit wrote Paul into his word.

At the top of all of it and yet all he cared about was serving others. All he cared about was discipling others. He was never too important for anybody else and so I think a lot of what you just said was a good example of that or a good Way of putting all of that.

Certainly something we don't want to lose sight of because we can emulate Paul in that fashion as well. Yes, ma 'am.

Galatians 2 20 Explains why Paul is this way and it's of course very admirable. None of us are really like He said I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me from the life which I now live in the flesh.

I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And that is why Paul pours everything into the ministry. Because he's crucified crucified in flesh. We don't I don't do that I'm not that obedient.

To live by that kind of faith.

Well, that's why we have Paul and in the other Apostles as well so that we can continually model our lives after their own. There's a reason Paul said is I Model Christ he didn't use the word model. But as I model Christ you model me right because I imitate Christ you imitate me.

And so, you know, we may breeze past that thing great, you know, we had yes Paul was a great guy but when it comes down to practical living and we struggle sometimes with this battle of Doing what we don't want to do and not doing what we want to do.

We can we can look to Paul we can look to a phrase like that and know that wait a second. We really can imitate Paul we really can read about his life and acts as well as it is laid out for us in all of his letters and We can use him as our example as Christ was his example and ultimately we'll get to a place like Philemon I believe was a great example of this.

He was converted by Paul so there was a time maybe in his early life where he was looking to Paul as his prime example, but he matured to the point where Paul considered him one of the greatest Christians that was alive on earth at that time and just throws all of these Commendations on Philemon as if he is the exemplary Christian and it's Paul writing.

And so there came a time in Philemon's life where he looked to Christ as his prime example but at any given point we can look to Paul who was always looking to Christ and. And so, you know, it's it's not there for no reason we have them in there as examples as prime examples because it is possible to look for them and to work on our obedience to work on our faith and to To model them in the likeness of Paul and the other apostles.