WWUTT 751 Be a Model of Good Works?

Not every Christian is called to be a teacher, but there still must be a consistency between the words that you say and the things that you do.

This is called integrity, so that others would see our good works and they would glorify God when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

And don't forget our website, www .tt .com. Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in Titus chapter 2 and picking up right after the instructions that Paul gave to men and women in the church.

So this is starting in verse 7 and reading through to the end of the chapter. Paul told

Titus, show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works.

And in your teaching, show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

Bond servants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything. They are to be well -pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our

Savior. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self -controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great

God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness, and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works.

Declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no one disregard you.

And it's there in verse 15 that we seem to be seeing a command here that's directed specifically at Titus, and indeed it is.

In fact, we started and stopped the same way. In verse 7, Paul is saying to Titus, show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works.

Now, that's certainly the context, and that's how we should regard the instruction that's being given, but it's not something that is limited only to Titus.

While Paul is telling Titus this, and that doesn't necessarily pertain to me, actually this would apply even to all pastors and to all

Christians who are supposed to be emulating those who taught them their faith, according to the instruction that we have in Hebrews 13.

So this is indeed something that applies to us all, and it's what we're going to be focusing on mainly today, these verses 7 and 8.

So Paul says to Titus, show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works.

And indeed, as Christians, we're not to have a secret faith. This isn't something that we do in the closet.

It's not something we do in the dark and away from everybody else. It's not that we have our life in the world, but then we have kind of our little

Christian compartment that we go to on our own time or when we do church on Sunday, but rather the love of God and our desire to please and honor

Christ should be infiltrating every aspect of our lives. Jesus said the greatest commandment was to love the

Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

That's the way that Mark relays Jesus' response in his gospel. And you see in that answer, in talking about the greatest commandment being to love the

Lord your God with everything that you are, there is both a spiritual and a physical aspect to it.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. There's the spiritual aspect and with all your mind and strength.

So you're even loving the Lord your God with all your body. And Paul said in Romans 12, one to submit your bodies unto the

Lord as a holy and living sacrifice. And this is your spiritual act of worship.

We live in holiness with our bodies, pleasing God with all that we say and do.

For your tongue is indeed part of your body. So even the words that you say must be honoring to God.

You must abstain from sin, stay far away from it, and commit yourselves as a holy sacrifice, doing good works, and that our good works would be seen by men.

Because again, our faith is not a secret thing. Jesus said, if you deny me before men,

I will deny you before my Father in heaven. And denial is not just something you outright, well, I deny

Christ. You can deny him by your works and your actions as well. Jesus said in Luke chapter 6, beginning of verse 43, no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit.

For each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.

The good person, out of the good treasure of his heart, produces good.

And the evil person, out of the evil treasure, produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.

It's in the Sermon on the Mount, going all the way back to Matthew chapter 5, where Jesus said, let your good works be seen by men.

Matthew chapter 5, verse 14, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others. So that they may see your good works and give glory to your

Father who is in heaven. And a reminder, once again, that the good works that we do come not from ourselves.

It's the things that God has said is good. In Ephesians 2 .10, it says that we are his workmanship who have been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared for us beforehand that we would walk in them.

So you indeed are supposed to be doing the works that God has set before you as good.

And that includes loving his gospel and sharing that with others as well as living a holy and godly lifestyle.

And you do that as a spiritual act of worship unto God, but others will see your good works and see that the way that you live is consistent with the message that you preach, that you believe.

Do they know that you are a Christian, you attend church on Sunday? Well, how does your lifestyle match your commitment to your faith?

The things that you say that you believe, does your lifestyle imitate it?

For even James says, what good is it my brothers, this is James 2 .14 -17, what good is it my brothers if someone says he has faith, but does not have works that go with that faith?

Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, it's a dead faith.

And Paul says in James, or I'm sorry, James goes on to say in James 2 .26,

as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

So we show that we worship the God of righteousness when we do righteous things and people see in our righteousness as we obey the commandments of Jesus Christ, that we are people of a heavenly kingdom and not people of this perishing world.

And we understand as children of the kingdom, this statement that Jesus made in Matthew 5 .14, you are the light of the world.

A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Let your light shine before others so they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.

It's not about you receiving glory, but that God would get the glory even for all the good things that we do.

Now, as true as we go on into Matthew chapter six, Jesus says the following, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven.

So you might argue, well, aren't we supposed to do good things, not expecting anything in return?

Well, yeah, absolutely. That's exactly what Jesus is talking about. In Matthew six, he's addressing a matter of the heart, that the righteousness you do is not so that you would gain recognition from other people for it, but you do it first and foremost for God.

The desire of your heart is to please the Lord, not to gain recognition from other people.

For Jesus goes on to say that those that desire to get recognition from other people, they've already received their reward, but your reward is from God who is in heaven.

He sees everything that you do. So we need to live our lives in such a way as though we are only seen by God.

We do this to please the Lord, but there will be other people who will recognize our lifestyle and the consistency between the way that we live and the message that we believe and preach.

In Colossians chapter three, Paul said that you work first for the Lord Christ before you work for any man.

So we work to please God, and then there are others that are going to see the testimony that is proclaimed by our good works.

He says to Titus, or Paul says to Titus in Titus two seven, that in all respects in everything that you do, whether it is seen or unseen.

So whether it's public or private, in all respects, be a model of good works.

And so the goodness that we would do would indeed be seen by others and imitated by others.

Hebrews 13 seven says, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

We are to be a model to one another as to how living as a Christian is supposed to look.

What does it look like to honor God or live in righteousness? How do I even do those things? Look at your other brothers and sisters in the

Lord, especially those who have already been tested as mature Christians and stand before you and proclaim to you the word of God, imitate their way of life and their faith.

Paul said to the Corinthians, I believe this is first Corinthians 11 one, be imitators of me as I am of Christ.

Paul is not trying to gain any recognition or attention or acclaim for himself. But as an apostle of Jesus Christ, he shows the

Corinthians, here is how Christ lived. And so when it comes to understanding how we are supposed to live holy, upright and godly lives in this present age, remember, that's an instruction that comes up here in Titus chapter two,

Paul says, look at me and imitate my way of life because I'm directing you to Christ, not gaining any attention for myself, but showing you

Jesus Christ, even by the way that I live. And he said also to the Philippians, be imitators of me as I am of Christ.

And so, again, we do not have a secret faith, but even by our works, we would affirm the faith that we have in Jesus Christ and the righteousness that comes not from ourselves, but has been given to us by God in Christ.

So we go on here, Titus two, seven, show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works.

And remember that Titus is someone who was there on the island of Crete to put all of the churches in order.

And one of his responsibilities was to establish elders in every church. So he has an authority that has been granted to him by an apostle of Christ.

We have that later on in verse 15, exhort and rebuke with all authority.

So as he is putting elders in those respective churches, he needs to be a person who is worthy of imitation, that the elders would look at him and see a model of who they are to be as mature believers, as mature

Christians. And then those elders would be able to provide that same example for members of their congregation.

And then the laity, the members of the congregation, other Christians would look at their elders and see this is what a mature believer is supposed to look like.

And this is who I should aspire to be in Jesus Christ. So we see that even this instruction here in Titus 2, 7 does not limit itself to only

Titus, but all of us should follow this. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works.

And in your teaching now, Titus, of course, was a teacher and not all of us are going to be called to that particular role.

In fact, James even warns in James 3, 1, not many of you should aspire to be teachers.

My brothers, for you will know that teachers will be judged with greater strictness.

And so it's not for everybody to teach. In fact, a teaching is a gift from God. It is the grace of God that is given.

And not everybody has received that measure of grace. Paul had a particular measure of grace as an apostle.

And then we as laity or as pastors or teachers or evangelists, we all have a certain measure of grace that God has apportioned to us, that we may do these roles that he has called us to do.

So a pastor has an ability to teach, and that is a gift that is given in the Holy Spirit.

But that's not an ability that every person is going to have. So in this particular case, as we read in your teaching, show integrity.

It may be that you are not a teacher in the formal sense, in the sense that you are a teacher in a church or a teacher of a

Bible study in your home. But nonetheless, you are a teacher in that you will share the truths of God's word with other people, people who ask you for the hope that you have within you.

Because remember, Peter said, 1 Peter 3, 15, in your heart, set apart

Christ as holy, being ready to always give an answer for the hope that lies within you.

But do this with gentleness and respect. And that's not a command that was just given to pastors.

That's something that all Christians should understand and be ready for, that we would give an answer for the hope that is within us, this hope of Christ that we have through the message of his gospel.

And so in that sense, we become teachers when we give an answer for these things, even if it's not a teacher in the formal sense.

But there must be a consistency in our message that the words that we say match up with the way that we live.

So Paul goes on to say, in your teaching, show integrity. What you say and what you do are the same.

That's essentially what integrity is. When you say you're going to do something, you do it. You don't just say something to gain a person's favor by your words, but then you never actually follow through on the promise that you gave to that person.

Otherwise, you would be a liar and you're evil. You're a deceiver. You are only telling that person a certain thing to gain favor from them, but you actually had no desire in your heart to follow through with the thing that you told them that you were going to do.

Integrity is that what we tell a person we're going to do and what we say are the same.

And so the way that we live is going to match the gospel that we proclaim.

If we say repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, that was what Jesus preached in Matthew 4, 17.

So we must also show in our lives that we have repented of worldliness and sinful passions and desire to live godly and upright, controlled lives, self -controlled in this present age so that we in our teaching, in our words, we show integrity.

We show dignity. So we speak words that are worthy of respect, but at the same time are also respectful of other people.

Are we respectful and so therefore earning the respect of others because we would show kindness even in the words that we say.

And we also must have a sound speech, verse 8, a sound speech that cannot be condemned.

And again, this means the things that we say and the things that we do match up. We don't say one thing and do something else and therefore compromise the message of the gospel that we proclaim so that an opponent may be put to shame.

Verse 8, we have a sound speech that cannot be condemned so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

Now as Paul uses the collective us there, part of the context is that Titus represents

Paul and his missionary brethren who were well known on the island of Crete since they had just been there proclaiming the gospel and they know that Titus is part of Paul's group.

So if Titus behaved in a certain way that was inconsistent with the way Paul and the rest of his missionary brethren lived and what it was that they preached, then

Titus would bring a reproach upon the gospel and the ministry of reconciliation that that Paul was out to achieve by the commission of God.

So he must remember his own behavior and his conduct, living in a godly way, even in the aftermath of the gospel that was proclaimed there by the apostle, so that an opponent would not have anything to say about us.

Well, they say this, or Paul said this and Titus says something different, or Titus is saying something and then he's not even living according to the way that he's saying the rest of us are supposed to live.

So therefore, Paul and his guys who were here, they must not live that way either. So again, there's a consistency in our message that we cannot be condemned.

An opponent would be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. I want to go back to 1

Peter 3 .15 again, but I want to read it for you in context. So starting in verse 14, Peter says, even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed.

Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts, honor Christ the

Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

In other words, there's a consistency between your words and your message, what you say and what you do line up, and other people will recognize that about your life and about your behavior so that when somebody wants to slander you for righteousness sake, they hate the godliness that you are desiring to live in and the

Christ whom you worship. And so they wish to say something evil about you to make you look bad in front of everybody in front of everyone else.

You will have developed such a reputation in the consistency in your words and in your actions that when someone reviles your behavior, other people are going to look at that and go, you know what,

I don't I don't see that. This thing that you're saying about this Christian, I don't see that at all.

I see that what they say and what they do are the same. And the person who therefore slandered you will be put to shame.

He will look like the the wretched, awful person, and you will look like the one who has integrity, dignity, and a soundness of speech that cannot be condemned.

And so may we all desire to live these lives of godliness in the present age.

Let us conclude with prayer. Our wonderful God and Savior, we thank you for these instructions and we thank you for your patience with us, your discipline upon us as a father who is in heaven, who loves us as sons and daughters and is shaping us through this discipline into the image of Christ as we grow in sanctification and and in maturity in our

Christian walk day by day. So convict our hearts and lay these instructions upon them that we would desire holiness today, that when we are faced with temptation, we are reminded once again the call to present our bodies as living sacrifices.

And this is our spiritual act of worship so that we would renounce ungodly passions and live self -controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great

God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And in this promise that we have been given, we desire even now to live as the kingdom people of God, because we have been transferred from this world of darkness into your kingdom of light.

So may our light shine before men and they will see our good works and glorify our

Father on the day of visitation. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

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