WWUTT 757 Declare These Things?

The Apostle Paul told Titus to exhort and rebuke with all authority and let no one disregard you.

Well that's not just to Titus. If you're a carrier of the gospel of Jesus Christ, don't let anyone disregard you either when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you Becky. We're back in our study in the book of Titus, still in chapter 2.

I've got one more verse to finish in chapter 2. But it leads into what we're going to be looking at today in chapter 3 where I will read through verse 7.

So Paul writes in Titus 2 .15, declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no one disregard you.

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our

Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

So at the end of chapter 2 there, right after the Apostle Paul had given

Titus instructions on how the men in the church are to conduct themselves and how the women are to conduct themselves.

So there were instructions for the older men and the younger men and also the older women and the younger women.

And then Paul also had instructions for Titus as to how he was supposed to handle himself as a teacher there in the church.

And then he takes a moment to expound upon the beautiful doctrine of salvation, that the grace of God has appeared in the salvation that we have been given through Jesus Christ our

Lord. And it's in our knowledge of this salvation and our love for God that we turn from worldly passions and we desire to live godly lives, knowing that it is

Christ who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works.

And so if we are those followers of Jesus, we must show ourselves purified, that we are walking in holiness as God has called us to holiness in Jesus Christ and we are zealous for those very works that Jesus gave

Himself for, redeeming us from lawlessness that we would obey

Him in lawfulness. Now it's not that obeying the law makes us righteous.

It is Christ who has made us righteous, but there are good works that He has given us to do that now we are able to do in a volitional way.

We can do it in a holy way that is pleasing to God because of the righteousness that has been given to us in Christ, cleansed from all lawlessness and purified for His own possession.

God demonstrating His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5 .8. So Paul says, declare these things, everything he's just said here in chapter 2.

I give you the summary of chapter 2. Of course, my summary was about as long as chapter 2. I could have read all of that again.

But he says, declare these things, these instructions for the church, the instructions that are given to you, for they are also instructions for others, those pastors that need to follow

Titus's example, and also preach the deep truths of the gospel.

Preach doctrine, man. You know, when we were in 1 and 2 Timothy, I mentioned that the word doctrine appears more in 1 and 2

Timothy and Titus than it does in the rest of the books of the Bible combined. The word that gets translated doctrine, which simply means a teaching.

But Paul urges Timothy and Titus in particular to teach sound doctrine.

They are his pastors. He has commissioned Timothy to teach in Ephesus. He's commissioned Titus to teach on the island of Crete.

And so they are to teach sound doctrine. That's a word everybody seems to be afraid of, doctrine or theology.

We're not here to preach theology. I just love Jesus. Well, you just mentioned something theological there when you said,

I love Jesus. What are you talking about when you say, I love Jesus? What does that mean to love

Jesus? What's the implications of the gospel? How are you supposed to live? What is it that the gospel fulfilled when

Christ died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the grave? What was accomplished in that? These things have to be talked about because it's what the

Bible tells us. And studying those things, studying doctrine, studying theology is how we come to a knowledge of God.

And we become more and more like Christ Jesus when we read about who he is and what he has done for us.

So God indeed tells Timothy and tells Titus to teach sound doctrine. And we are supposed to follow that example.

We're to love doctrine and grow in a truth and in the knowledge of God. So as Paul has instructed

Titus in things about giving instructions, practical application, he's even shared theology with Titus that that truly

Titus had known before. But Paul refreshes his memory on these things again, that Titus would declare these things, that he would teach the things that Paul has taught him to the church and that he would exhort and rebuke with all authority.

So if anybody does or says anything contrary to these instructions that Paul has given to Titus, then

Titus is supposed to rebuke them. But I don't want to I don't want to skip the word exhort here. That's a word that we don't really pay much attention to most of the time, nor do we ever really exercise or practice it all that much.

What does exhort mean? Exhort simply means to instruct somebody to do something.

So whenever we're preaching the Bible and we're talking about Jesus or we're sharing the gospel with somebody, it's not just a matter of spouting knowledge off of the top of our head or impressing somebody with all of the theology that we have.

Or when you sit down and you have a conversation with somebody about God, you're not just sharing your thoughts about God and you want to hear somebody else's thoughts about God.

Does your presentation of the gospel with somebody else include an exhortation?

Do you strongly encourage or urge them to respond to what it is that you're saying?

Saying something. What do you think about that? Or even somewhere in the conversation saying, I tell you to repent, turn from your sin and worship

Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That's an exhortation. You know, when

Billy Graham passed away earlier this year, that's one of the things that I remember being said of him in a very complimentary way.

He didn't just preach the gospel as though he was presenting facts about the gospel.

Here's what the gospel is. Here's who Jesus is. That wasn't all that Billy did whenever he had his grand crusades and he preached from the scriptures.

He also included an exhortation. This is something that Douglas Wilson said in a very positive light about Billy Graham.

Billy didn't just stand up there and preach the gospel.

He urged and encouraged and exhorted the people who were there who heard him preach to respond to what he was preaching.

Turn from your sin now, ask God for forgiveness and in Jesus Christ you will have it.

Then go and sin no more. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

These were some of the exhortations that Billy would give in his sermons. I know there's a lot of controversy surrounding

Billy Graham. I'm no stranger to that. Even after my wife and I in that particular

Friday Q &A podcast that we did where we talked about Billy Graham, even there was more that I had to share there that I didn't share and there were even some other things that I learned even after that particular episode.

So I get the controversy that's around him and there's a lot of people like to point some things out about, well, you know, he said this, he said this, he didn't say this.

Are you aware that he believed this? But when it came to those crusades that he did and he declared the gospel, it was clear and it was accurate and it included an exhortation.

Even Martin Lloyd Jones celebrated Billy Graham for the gospel that he preached, although Jones had a problem with some of the associations that Billy Graham had and the people that he would invite to his crusades, telling people who responded to an invitation even to go to a synagogue or the

Catholic churches if that's where they wanted to go. And Lloyd Jones had a problem with that. And so he was actually the only minister in London who did not participate in a

Billy Graham crusade. But nonetheless, he praised Billy Graham for the gospel that he shared, for he clearly and accurately and articulately preached the gospel and called people to respond to it.

That's an exhortation. That's what it means to exhort somebody. So here

Titus is being told to declare all the things that Paul has taught him. And it's not just chapter two, but it's everything, all the instructions that have been given in the letter thus far.

So you have the qualifications for elders that we started off with in verses five through nine.

And then you have the warning about false teachers in verses 10 through 16. That also includes the the nature of the

Cretans, like their reputation there on the island of Crete. And they were they were kind of jerks, even from pagan standards.

So Paul warned Titus about what their attitudes were like and how he would have to deal with them when it came to calling them to repent from their sin or even to stop being lazy and take up a hammer and do some work.

And then we have in chapter two, everything that I explained just a moment ago, instructions for the church and even preaching a doctrine of soteriology.

And Paul says, declare these things, exhort. So everything that I've taught you, preach this to your church and even everything that's going to come after this, because here in when we got to chapter three, verses one through seven,

Paul had even more instruction and more theology to share with them there. So declare these things, exhort.

Call people to respond to it. Tell them to turn from sin and worship Christ, especially in light of the fact that we just finished a section where Paul said that the grace of God has appeared and is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and live self -controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age.

So you must tell the people whom you have been entrusted with to care for.

You must exhort them to respond to these things. Do not follow after worldly passions.

Do not walk in ways that are contrary to the law and the instruction of God that are displeasing

God if you were to live or walk in those ways. Rather, you need to be self -controlled.

You need to have such control over your own physical body that when you are tempted with some sort of fleshly passion, you're not trying to scheme ways as to how you can have it as though there is no

God upon your conscience. Well, yeah, I do the church thing, you know, and people know that I go to church and I call myself a

Christian and everything. But when it comes to those temptations that you have on your mind, boy, you start thinking about how can

I get that? How can I have that thing instead of following the instruction like Paul gave to the

Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 10 5, to take every thought captive and make it obey

Christ? Are you doing that or do you really like the thought and you really like this temptation?

And I want to try to find a way that I can have the thing that that I'm feeling right now. Well, that's lacking self -control.

Self -control means you don't even dwell on the thoughts when you have them. You're not necessarily responsible for the first thought, but you are responsible with what you do with it, whether it's continuing to dwell on that thought or even leading to you acting on it.

Seize the thought, make it obey Christ. And you say, well, Pastor Gabe, OK, you can say that.

But what does that mean? How do you seize a thought? I can't grab that in my fingers. You know, you don't just grab thoughts and and hear

God here. I'm making this thought obey you. How do you do this?

Well, part of it involves training your mind by reading the word of God and disciplining your thoughts according to what

God has said in his words so that you may have the mind of God. Paul said in Philippians two, five, let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus.

Do you desire to have the mind of Christ? Then read his word. And the more you read his word and fill your mind up with his word, then the more these words come back to you.

Whenever you just live life, whatever you are going through in this world, the word of God comes to your mind and it continues to nourish and feed and satisfy and motivate your heart, motivating your heart and things that are pleasing to the

Lord. When you fill up your mind with the word of God, read Psalm 119.

And I know I'm picking the longest chapter in the Bible, but read that song because that song is all about this.

David wanting to fill up his mind and his heart with the word of God, loving

God's word so much he wants to dwell on it all the time, whether he's awake or whether he is lying down.

He wants the word of God to govern his thoughts, guide his footsteps, be on his tongue.

It it controls his words so that he's not speaking out of the darkness of his heart, but rather his heart is filled up with Christ.

And so what comes out of his mouth are those things that bless the Lord and bless others as well.

And so when it comes to taking thoughts captive and making them obey Christ, that's first that you would read

Christ's word so your thoughts would be governed by God's thoughts.

Do you want to know the mind of God? You read the Bible. We have his mind revealed to us here through his prophets and apostles who gave us this word.

A second discipline, though, when it comes to being self -controlled, taking thoughts captive, making them obey

Christ is prayer. Whenever you have a thought that you know, according to God's word, is not the way that we would please

God in either thinking these things or doing these things, then pray and ask

God that the thought would go away, that you would be able to seize it, that it would not control you.

The thought does not govern your flesh, but rather you have such self -control that you can take hold of it and realize,

I don't want this. I don't want to dwell on this. I don't want to be given opportunity to even act this out.

So, Lord, I'm asking you, forgive me of my sin. Give me thoughts that are pleasing and acceptable to you.

James says in James one five that if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously to all without reproach.

So as you struggle with those things, simply ask of God that he would give you the strength to endure.

And again, if you have filled up your mind and your heart with the word of God, recite that word to you.

And it helps the mind of God govern your mind so that you will not be taken hold by those things that still those fleshly temptations, those worldly desires that are still going to be there somewhere.

As long as we are in this flesh and walking in this world, if we do not keep ourselves disciplined, then those thoughts are going to be more common than we want them to be.

But to keep yourself disciplined and focus on God's word is the way that you control those things from controlling you.

So being self -controlled, being upright, living godly lives in the present age, this is what we have been called to do in Christ Jesus.

And Paul, again, says to Titus to declare these things, that you would give these instructions.

And if anybody would be trying to live contrary to these instructions, that you rebuke them, exhort them to live in a godly manner, rebuke them when they don't live in a godly manner.

You know, it's common that whenever we start talking about rebuke or correcting someone in their sin, repent of your sin, walk in righteousness.

Whenever we kind of get to that and you start naming sins specifically, don't do this.

Instead, obey God in this way. Generally, when you start naming those sins and you're calling people out, you've got somebody who's going to respond with, well, the

Bible says, Jesus said in Matthew seven one, judge not lest ye also be judged.

Well, sure. But as you go on to read that passage, Jesus said, why do you try to take the speck out of your brother's eye when there is a log in your own eye?

You hypocrite first take the log out of your eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

So you actually see in that instruction, Jesus is not saying don't judge at all. He's saying judge righteously, which is also something that he said in in in the book of John, judge with right judgment.

So even here in Matthew seven, first, you've got to take care of your sin, which is never going to be as big to anybody else as it is to you is why it's like a log.

And your brother's sin is like a speck. You see your sin more clearly than you see your brother's sin.

Take care of that problem. Repent before the Lord. Ask for his forgiveness. And then once you know that you are not walking in that sin, then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye.

It is actually a responsibility for us to exhort and rebuke the way that Paul puts it with the whole church in Colossians chapter three, encourage and admonish.

Admonish means to correct with goodwill. So we're not trying to lord ourselves over somebody else or show somebody how much more holy or pious we are or how much more we know than they do.

But rather, this is with the intention of helping a person to walk in righteousness in a way that is pleasing unto the

Lord, exhort and rebuke with all authority. Now, Titus has been given a very special authority from an apostle of Jesus Christ, the apostle

Paul, who told Titus to go into these churches on the island of Crete and set these things in order.

So don't let anybody in these churches say to you, well, who are you? Who are you to tell us these things? Let no one disregard you declare, exhort and rebuke with all authority.

But even though that said specifically to Titus, there is still a certain authority that we carry also when we go out with the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

If you were to say to somebody else, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, you're not saying something that comes from you.

You're saying something that comes from Jesus Christ himself. Matthew 417 was the very first words that Jesus preached at the beginning of his earthly ministry when he said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

So you are exhorting and you are rebuking with all authority. And rebuke is not a harsh word.

We can do this in a gentle way with one another, calling someone out of sin and to follow

Jesus Christ and worship him and they will receive salvation. Let no one discourage you from preaching this message.

Let no one disregard you. It is out of love for other people that we would desire that they turn from sin and follow

Jesus and live. They would be saved from hell and become children of the kingdom.

Let us pray. We love you, Lord God, and we thank you for your word that exhorts and rebukes us on a daily basis, that we would be reminded to turn from sin and follow

Jesus, that we would have a mind that is not like this world or is not after this world, but we would be heavenly minded and we would have the mind of God and desire to do the things that are pleasing unto you.

And so as we consider what we've read today and how that applies to our lives, how we're going to live that out today,

I pray that you give us wisdom. And if at any point we struggle, we stumble or we are tempted, that we quickly seize those thoughts and we ask of you,

God, that you would give us wisdom because we know that you have promised in your word you would give it freely to all without reproach.

We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

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