January 19 Sermon: Devoted to Good Works
Consider these questions as we look at Titus 3:1-15:
1. How does the passage address the issue of inconsistency in our beliefs and actions, and why is it important for Christians to align their worldview with the Word of God?
2. What are the three key points outlined in the passage regarding how our faith impacts our lives, and how do they relate to living a life that brings glory to God?
3. In what ways does the passage emphasize the significance of good works in the life of a believer, and why is it important to understand that good works encompass both big and small acts of service?
Transcript:
We live in a day where we are defined by so many different things, and we often approach this like a smorgasbord. It seems like we become less and less concerned with having the way we view the world being consistent as long as it fits with what we want or how we think things should be. We pull one way of thinking from here and another from there and we don’t even seem to notice that our ideas are in contradiction with one another. We are all guilty of it and I believe that it is particularly easy for us to fall victim to because the world comes at us so fast. In the matter of a few moments we are bombarded with ideas from all over the world through shining rectangles that we stare at.
We get ideas from here and there and we rarely stop to think whether this lines up with what we believe about Jesus and what he has done for us. We need to be on guard for this kind of inconsistency popping up in our lives. As Christians our worldview should line up not with the flavor of the moment or what is popular in the culture, but we are to have our desires shaped by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit working in us.
We have seen so far in the book of Titus that Paul is very concerned with what the church in Crete is being taught. It isn’t because he wants them to check off all the right stuff but because what they believe is going to dramatically affect how they live and how effective their witness for Christ will be in the world. The goal of correct teaching is that we will learn who God is and it will then affect how we live. It will cause us to live holy lives that bring glory to God.
We will see today that this isn’t just something that Paul is concerned about being done in the big stuff in life. He wants us to understand that this is also something that is a witness to those around us in the small areas of life. In other words, our faith impacts the big and the small things in life, it has an effect on the public and the private areas of our life. As believers what we believe causes us to live a life that stands in contrast to the world.
And so as we arrive in this final chapter in our short three week tour of Titus we are going to have three things that we see coming out of the text at us.
The first is that our faith causes us to live humble lives of service. The love of God that we have experienced in Christ Jesus shows us what humble and sacrificial service is and we are called to the same type of life in God’s world.
Secondly, we have to remember there is a life that is in opposition to God. Paul does not simply tell us the list of things that we should or that we should not do. He is letting us know how not living this way is a completely different way of life. These aren’t just things that we do it shows that we struggle to live in a way that is consistent with who we know God to be.
Lastly, we see in this passage that our view of the world is impacted by the saving grace of God. We are called to live in such a way that others will see that we have been rescued from sin and unbelief by the amazing and radical grace of almighty God. Because of this we don’t need to quarrel about things that don’t matter. Instead, we have a clear understanding of the truth and we can focus on loving others by doing good works for them.
As we land in chapter 3 this morning, we see Paul continuing to help believers know how they are live in light of who they are in Jesus Christ.
And right away we once again see that word we are not very fond of. Submissive. Again, by submit Paul isn’t telling us to be quiet and let ourselves be treated poorly just because someone has authority over us. He is talking about an attitude of respect and knowing that God has placed the government over them for a reason. We see from the writings and actions of Paul in the New Testament that if there is a matter of conscience you stand up for what is right. His point is that we should be good citizens so that we don’t bring disgrace to the gospel but when it comes to matters of Christian virtue, we are to stand our ground. Think about Paul. He desired to be a good citizen, but he never submitted to the government telling him he couldn’t preach the gospel. He kept on going. Christians throughout history have tried to be good citizens but also speak out against injustice and sin. The early Christians were good citizens but that didn’t stop them from standing against child sacrifice, abortion, and sexual immorality associated with the pagan practices of the time. In fact, it was the involvement of Christians that these became less frequent and stopped throughout history.
And that type of involvement would be a good work just like the other good works that they are called to do. The types of good works that the New Testament talks about aren’t just the big things. It isn’t just missionary trips or other things that get you noticed. It is the daily stuff that we do. It is helping your neighbor, it is getting up every morning and going to work realizing you are serving God. It is raising your children or being a teacher. It is growing food or transporting it. It is clearing roads so people can come to church. This is all living in humble service to God.
In addition to good works, we see that we are to avoid quarreling and to be gentle and courteous. We can easily see and understand how important this is. We notice people who live in this way. I would guess many of us have someone we admire and wish that we were more like them. Humility and the ability to walk away from conflict are character traits that are not easy. When someone exhibits these things, we take notice and that is the point here. That we are to stand out and by living in the way that has been outlined people will take notice that there is something different and we will have the opportunity to share the gospel. To proclaim that we are living in response to what Jesus has done for us in saving us from our sin and unbelief.
In these first two verses we have seen that our faith is to lead us to live in humble service and in the next verse we were once in opposition to God and there is a lifestyle that contradicts the character of God.
What we have displayed for us here is that there is a way of living that is in contrast to the life that is to be lived by those who have experienced the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. Look at the contrast we have from what we have been told how we should live. Foolish, disobedient, and led astray. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like any of those words being used as a description of how I live. There is no wisdom there. There is no discernment on what is true or what is right. And this is not a description of someone who just doesn’t know better. Disobedience implies that we are turning away from proper instruction. Being led astray says the same thing. Even though apart from Christ we are dead in our sin and blind to the truth scripture teaches that we not only know the truth we deny it. We need a rescue from this and we see the continuing description when it tells us that there is slavery to various passions and pleasures.
While many of the things spelled out for us are vague and can mean a lot of different things, we have known what Paul is talking about here and in our day we see this on display. Sexual immorality of all kinds is not only tolerated but it is condoned. In fact, what is evil is considered to be good. At the root of all of it is not simply a disregard for God’s rules it is a disregard for the very nature of God. Paul is contrasting Christian living with the pagan way of life, and nothing gets at the root of the pagan view of sexuality. In other words, these things are not just an assault on the law of God they promoting a different view of God altogether. God shows us that marriage between a man and a woman is a picture of Christ and the church. It is how he designed us to be fruitful and multiply. It is how he designed the family to be, but pagan sexuality denies these things and sets us up with another reality where the physical doesn’t matter. It denies the created order and the things that God put in place and makes us gods who determine right and wrong, good and evil, moral and immoral. What is at stake is not just which list of rules should be followed but a proper understanding of who God is.
This is why our smorgasbord mentality for how we look at the world doesn’t work. Picking and choosing different parts to believe or follow keeps God off of his throne and puts us on it instead. That doesn’t work because you and I are frail and we will die and face the one who is truly on the throne.
That is why we needed to be rescued. As we have seen there is a way that stands in contrast to God and his purposes, but we are freed by God to live a different life and we see this spelled out for us clearly in the next part of this passage.
Our view of the world is impacted by the grace of God.
He rescued us. We have been saved. It is not by anything that we have done. None of our works saved us but it was the work of Jesus for us that saved us. We weren’t righteous but instead God showed us mercy and we were washed and regenerated and renewed by the Holy Spirit. To be regenerate means to be made new and no longer slave to the life that once and God gives us this.
Over the years our family has enjoyed playing the Lego series of video games. In those there are cheat codes to help make the game easier. In those games the health of your character is indicated by a heart icon and one of the cheats you can enable says regenerate hearts and when you get damage it will build your health back up again. Now, I didn’t read it that way the first time I saw it. My theological brain read it as Regenerate hearts and I got a kick out of the idea that I could click the on button. We have regenerate hearts turned on for us by the Holy Spirit. It is nothing that we do but the benefit is the same. It saves us from the wrath of God that we deserve for our sin and it enables us to have our hearts renewed from the damage that an incorrect view of the world can give us. It protects us from the damage of our sin and unbelief because it isn’t anything that we have done. It is all of God and all of grace.
And we see just how all-encompassing this is. We are made new. We are made alive, and it is because the Holy Spirit was poured out richly upon us and it says that we are justified. We come to this word quite often and it is vital that we understand what it means because it’s meaning shows us the gospel. It means that we are declared righteous. In Christ we are not simply forgiven of our sins and then left to ourselves to keep the law of God as best as we can from now on. The truth of the matter is that our sins are forgiven and put on Christ and his righteousness is put on us and we are seen as righteous before God as though we had perfectly obeyed the law. This is unbelievably good news because we haven’t kept the law. We fail to keep it every day but God in his mercy has poured out the righteousness of Christ upon us and we have received grace and so we are heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
And this truth, we see, is to lead us to good works. Notice the progression. This truth of being justified not by our own works but because of the work of Jesus for us gives us eternal life. This is trustworthy and we are to make sure that we understand it.
Not so that we can pass the test on what we believe. Not so that we can say that we have better doctrine than other people. The goal is to that we will be careful to devote ourselves to good works. We serve not out of trying to gain the favor of God but because his favor has so generously been bestowed upon us. We are to be devoted to good works. In other words, it is to be a way of life. Remember, good works are not just going to feed the hungry or going on a mission trip. Good works are loving and serving our neighbors where we are and doing the stuff that God has put in front of us to do every day. As we see here, these things are excellent and profitable for people. They bring glory to God but they also benefit us and others.
And as the book of Titus finishes up, we see what we are to do when there are problems regarding these doctrines that lead us to good works.
We are to focus on what Christ has done and let it motivate us to good works because it has all been done for us. Therefore, we avoid controversies. That is how false teachers get a hold. They bring up things that are already settled and created controversies over little details that don’t matter. Another way people distorted the truth in Paul’s day was using genealogies to say that somehow they had an ethnic connection that made them a more trusted leader or teacher. While not used in the same way in our day there are examples of people using their connection to another well-known teacher to give themselves legitimacy that perhaps they haven’t earned themselves. We need to be on guard for any attempt at authority that isn’t from scripture itself. False teachers also use dissension to grab hold and we see also that they used quarrels about the law. This likely wasn’t the moral law that Paul is talking about. This is referring to ceremonial and ritual law. False teachers would use those little details to get the focus off of the grace of God.
And all this stuff is to be avoided. True doctrine is so important that we are to avoid false teaching because it gets us off mission and keeps us from proclaiming the gospel of God’s grace. For that reason, we are to avoid false teachers and those who stir up division. We see in this passage just how important this is because it means removing people from the fellowship of believers. This is how serious guarding sound doctrine is.
As we conclude our three weeks in Titus, we come away with two clear applications for us in the coming week.
The first is that we need to be persistently examining whether our actions match up with what we believe. We want to be consistent with the truth that God has rescued us. Does what I believe about who I am and how I live in the world consistent with who God is? As I said, this is hard for us in our day because there are so many options. I think we’ve probably all been to one of those buffets that seems to have everything under the sun. Maybe there is Chinese food in one spot and another type of food in another and you end up confused about what you are going to eat. You can end up trying to eat a little bit of everything and you end up stuffed without even realizing it because you never really spent time with any one dish. The ideas that come at us every day are like and extravagant buffet but much of what is on that buffet is poison and will slowly do damage and kill us if we keep consuming it. We need to stop and assess how we are being influenced by all of this. The truth of God in Christ Jesus calls us to live a life that is in accordance with God’s law and so we need to be on guard for where we are being influenced to live in ways that are inconsistent and contradictory to God’s will for us.
Secondly, we are to be devoted to good works. This doesn’t mean that we need to sign up for everything and run around trying to find the next big service project or cause you can devote yourself to. It means realizing that everything we do is done for the glory of God. We look for the big things that we can do as good works, but we often miss the little things. The sidewalk you took a little extra time to clear for your neighbor. The person you helped at the grocery store without anyone else knowing. The way you encouraged the student athletes at the game this past week. The way you showed your children that you love your spouse.
Yes, we absolutely want to do the big things too. Mission trips, working at the soup kitchen, and other things we see as good works are great to do and done to the glory of God, but they are just as much a good work as the small things. We live to the glory of God in all that we do, and this is because we understand the all encompassing nature of the gospel. The truth that we are forgiven and declared righteous flows over into every area of life. We are devoted to good works not because we obsess over doing things but because the grace of God overflows out of us into the world.
And so, relish the truth of what God has done for you and bring glory to him in all that you do.
