Titus Finish Lesson 1 Start Lesson 2

OK, so we're studying Titus. And we had worked through lesson one. And we're down to just a couple of more questions. In verse two, well, staying in verse one, we've done two weeks on two verses. I wonder if the whole epistle will be like that. What do you think Paul's main concern was? We talked about that last week. It's in verse one. The answer was is that his main concern is godliness. And it was especially as we're going to see as it manifests itself in good works. So Paul's ministry is evangelism. and edification. And what's the purpose? He's trying to bring individual believers into the fullness of eternal life.

So that led to the next question was, when did God promise eternal life? From all eternity. Read chapter 2, or verse 2. What's it say? Yeah, before the world began, he promised eternal life. So what is eternal life? Does it mean you get to live forever?

Yes. Life eternal. Life eternal, okay. You just committed your own sin. Define a word by the word. What is eternal life? God. Okay, yeah. What's John 17 say? knowing the father and the son, the one who sent him. So eternal life is not a substance in a jar someplace in your kitchen. It's an intimacy fellowship with the Lord of the universe is eternal life. So it's more than just having life.

It's involved in a relationship. So last question. Why do you think Paul speaks of the God who cannot lie? Why do you think he says that? It seems like a kind of a weird, to me anyway, kind of a weird thing to put in. Mike? Yeah. Can I step back for just one second? I wanted to just bring up one thought with regards to that second, or the question number eight.

In chapter, or I'm sorry, in verse two, it starts out, at least with the N-E-S-B, with the word in, in the hope of eternal life. As I was looking at that, it was interesting because that word communicates a resting place, which I thought was an interesting observation for the word that you're resting on, that word epi. means that you have a view to, you're resting in a view to eternal life. And I just thought that that was a really interesting point with regards to what Paul is talking about here, which is based on the fact that God cannot lie. Our rest in eternal life is based on the fact that He is righteous and He does not lie. So I just thought that there was something interesting there that we might have, maybe we talked about it last week. I forgot. No, it's good. Um, there's a specific reason why he uses this phrase here though.

And it has to do with the people on Crete who are known as cretins. I love the term. The cretins were notorious liars. When you look down in 112, let's see here, 112, so one of the cells, a prophet of their own said, cretins are always liars, always. So he wants to make the point to Titus, who is over there appointing elders for the church in Crete, that the God that he's talking about does not lie. cannot lie. And so he makes that comparison. And the reason, the credence is that these people were really interesting. Verse 12 says that they're like evil beasts. They're lazy. They're gluttonous.

And he's contrasting how believers are supposed to live because of the God that they serve and the fact that they, as J.D. pointed out, in the hope of eternal life. There's a difference in the lifestyle. How much different is that from our environment today? It's not different at all.

How quick are we to shape and form a lie around every single form of hope in this world without a Lord? I mean, we've approached like the Greeks were back then, that you get a merit badge for being a good liar. You're admired because you can lie so glibly, smoothly, and people admire that. All started with Bill Clinton.

It depends on what is, is. I love that answer. Yeah, I want to go back to it a little bit, too. It kind of ties in at what Edgar said was, you know, what is eternal life? It's to know Him. In John 17, 3, this is eternal life, that you may know, that you may, that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you've sent. That's eternal life. And the other thing which ties into it, the true God.

He doesn't lie. Yeah. And that's the contrast. Right. That's the contrast. Yeah. Falling back into Titus, that both of them, what is eternal life to know him? Yeah. And he's the true God. He cannot lie. He's holy. That's right. He just cannot lie. Yeah.

Commentary, he says, but a more specific pagan theology may be at the root. Paul's reference to the God who does not lie could well lampoon the character of Zeus of the Cretan tales, who in fact did lie to have sexual relations with a human woman. taking the human form of her husband, the same Zeus, who was also held to be the epitome of virtue, really, defined by his possession of cardinal virtues, a dimension of his character that will be more focused later on. Yeah, it's interesting how It doesn't, you don't have to be a cretin and you don't have to be, you don't have to be what the Jews would call barbarians or the Greeks would call barbarians, uneducated people to just take a look and see that lying and deception are Satan's greatest tools. Deception is his number one tool.

And that's exactly how he starts out with Eve. It's really great. There's an old saying that he who asks the questions is in control of the conversation. So if I'm Satan and I go to Eve, what's the first thing I do? I ask her a question. Did God say? Who's controlling the conversation? He is. We did the same thing to the Lord Jesus, but do you know what the Lord Jesus did to him? You will not tempt the Lord thy God. He started quoting scripture at him. How do you deal with that? After about three tries, he was instructed to leave. And he left.

So, okay, I'm done. You're back up. I was going to give you a heads up. After Courtney After Courtney's a couple of verses here, the next thing we're going to study is the qualifications for elders. I spent a lot of time this week messing with that. It's just really cool. All right. So we are in lesson two now of Titus. Hopefully everybody has the questions set.

All right, so lesson 2, we're going over two more verses, verses 4 and 5 of chapter 1. So I'll go ahead and read that. I'll go actually 1 through 5, just again context of what we've just been through to set up the verses 4 and 5. Beginning in verse 1, Titus 1, Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, but at the proper time manifested even his word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted, according to the commandment of God our Savior, I have the verses for this lesson. To Titus, my true child in a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you. So, basically I wanted to kind of go over a little bit of background that would help.

Paul was released from his first imprisonment from Rome and visited Ephesus, where he left Timothy to supervise the churches before traveling to Macedonia, which is in northern Greece. He then visited Crete and left Titus there to supervise the churches there before traveling to Nicopolis in Acacia, which is in southern Greece. So it was from there that he wrote Titus to encourage him. He had been, well we'll see, the relationship between Titus and Paul. So basically he left Titus in charge of the work in the ministry at Crete. And then later we'll see some other things where Paul still has a relationship with Titus and wants him to move and help him in different areas. So from verse 4, what is the first indication of Paul and Titus' relationship? What do we see in verse four? What do we see about the relationship? Silence. Very personal. Very personal. Mic, too. If you're on, if you can find the mic there. Buried under. There we go. Just so people can hear you. Very personal. All right. Any others?

My true child of the common faith. When I was reading Constable, I think he, if I'm not mistaken, he said he thought he emphasized that because Titus was an uncircumcised Gentile and Paul wanted people to know that they were on the same page. They had the same faith. They believed the same things. Yeah. Did you guys hear that out in video world? Yes. Okay. Yeah. I didn't know if it was on. I just want to make sure so they hear it. Yeah. Any other comments before I?

Yeah, basically, Titus calls him my true child. You know, again, when you think about that, there's the the intimacy of that and the relationship that expresses a very close relationship. He he calls him his true child. So what do I guess the question is, is Titus his child?

No. Again, what I say, this shows an intimate, very personal relationship between Paul and Titus. Most commentaries indicate that most likely Paul was the one who led Titus to the Lord. Following that, Titus traveled with Paul. He accompanied Paul to the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem.

We see that in Acts 15.2 and Galatians 2.1-3. He was also Paul's emissary to the church at Corinth. during Paul's third missionary trip. We see that in 2 Corinthians 7, 6 and 7, 8, 6 and 16. Titus was also one of the men who delivered Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 8, 17 and 18.

Paul left him in Crete and then later asked him to come to meet Paul in Nicopolis, Titus 3.12. After that, Paul asked him to go to Dalmatia, which is the old Yugoslavia.

Again, the relationship between Paul and Titus is very tight. He used them, he traveled with them, he sent them, he was the guy who sent, think about this, you didn't have email, you didn't have like, you know, Pony Express, you didn't have anything to deliver these epistles of Paul to the churches. So, if you write this, Do you send it with a guy who you kind of don't know, or you kind of know, or whatever? You want this with somebody who you can trust. So, as I went through the history of Paul and Titus' relationship, Paul used Titus in many different instances. He trusted him.

So much so, here in Titus, he calls him his true child. So again, it's a very, very personal relationship between Titus and Paul. And again, he's called him out to head up the church at Crete, but then later he tells him to go to Nicopolis and then to Dalmatia. So again, Paul has a very personal relationship and a trusting relationship with Titus.

So much that again, the relationship, he says, my true child. And again, what I think that really leads, and I think most commentaries said, is my true child. Well, the child part is that he was probably the one that brought Titus to the Lord and was there when Titus accepted and was part of that. So I think that's where the description of being a child, that he was his spiritual father, that he was the one who led Titus to the Lord. And he emphasizes that they have the same faith. Same faith, which we'll get, yeah, the common faith, we'll get to that, yeah. And that, yeah, the relationship is based on that common faith.

So, I guess some of the other passages that show this intimate relationship, this father-son that Paul and Titus had, if you look in 2 Corinthians 2.13 I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother. So, he was longing for Titus and he wasn't there. So, again, just when you have this relationship with somebody and they're not there, you long for them. And here's Paul in 2 Corinthians saying, I had no rest for my spirit because Titus wasn't there. He wanted Titus to be there, his true child in the common faith.

In 2 Corinthians 8.23, as for Titus, He is my partner and fellow worker among you. So again, not only is he calling us shy, he's his partner in all of his missionary work. And so again, there's just this amazing relationship. And again, think of what, Mike, and we'll get a little bit into this.

You're sent to the church at Crete. This is a good looking bunch, aren't they? If you want to send your B team into the guys who are liars and evil beasts and slackers and all this, that's really the assignment you want, is to go to the people who are evil and liars.

So Paul takes Titus and says, you're going to be in charge of the work here. And so I think he had so much trust in Titus that he says, you're the guy I need in Crete, because this is not going to be an easy ministry here. So Paul has this, again, just this fond relationship with him and trust in him that he could deal with the Cretans. You know, that's funny that we still, I mean, you use that term today to describe kind of lazy, slackered, liars, whatever, you're a cretin. And it was based on people from Crete.

So now we know that Paul and Titus traveled together and had a brotherly father relationship. Now this gets to the second half. What bonded Paul and Titus in this relationship as expressed in the verse? What bonded them? Yeah, he said, Titus, my true child in a common faith. So, of course, you know what my next question is. What was or is the common faith? You're a true child in the common faith. What is that?

I would say the simplest terms is the gospel is that anyone who believes in Jesus will receive forgiveness of sins and the spirit will enter them. Faith in Christ. Faith in Christ. Kind of answering a common faith. Yeah. So what's the common part? I think Ruth said Christ, and I think that's right. The interesting thing about it is that The faith of believers does not vary. My faith is the same as your faith, is the same as Titus' faith, which is the same as Paul's faith. It is in the same object, which I think Ruth mentioned, Christ. But there's no super faiths going on around here.

The common has to do with the fact that all share in the same result through the same type of faith, and that is in the Lord Jesus. Yeah, I think you remember when we taught the faith class, remember it's kind of broken up into four different, you know, and one is the unity of faith. I think that's kind of what we were kind of talking here, the unity of faith, which is the common faith in Christ. It's all, it's all that same faith in Christ, the unity of faith.

In 2 Peter 1, Paul says, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Well, you read the verse I was going to read. That's exactly right. If you didn't get it yet, 2 Peter 1, 1, you know, Simon Peter, a bondservant, an apostle of Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours.

So again, the same commonality of faith. So he's talking about faith in Christ, the unity of faith that we have in Christ. And again, there's, you know, when we went through the, I should have looked that up, on the faith class, there was personal faith, there was unity of faith, there was de-faith, and there was a fourth. Do you remember JD? I can't remember what the fourth, but, but again, the unity of faith, I think is the common or the faith. Maybe that was more on the faith was what, when we broke it down into the essence of faith.

Yes. Essence. Yeah. Hebrews 12 one or whatever it is. Um, yeah. So again, um, the, uh, the common faith and there's another one that I looked at too, uh, in second Corinthians four 13, But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke. We also believe, therefore we also speak. So again, it's the, but having the same spirit of faith. So again, it's the, that's the bond is the common faith that they have. So, I guess the question I have after that, could Paul address us in the same? Do we have the faith in a common faith? Would we be... Holly Hills? Yeah, Holly Hills. Or any believer? Yes. Yes. I don't think so. I'm seeing his face. You guys don't see his face. I'm looking at his. Yeah, I don't think so.

Why? Well, of course, now the next question is why? Well, the point is, is that Paul met Titus in Antioch, which must have been the biggest church around early on. And they worked together there. And then the Spirit came and told them, look, I want you to go out and start evangelizing. And so Titus seems to be involved in that work.

But, you know, with over 5,000 different denominations, do we all believe the same thing? No, we don't. So we don't have a common... I think it's important for believers to understand at least the basics. We're spending, how many weeks now? Two months on Romans 3 and 4. the salvation, righteousness of God. And, you know, it's interesting. I put out that list of questions. Not a single person asked me about those. You know, is it because everybody's sitting in the audience and on Zoom has got all of this down? I doubt it. I doubt it.

I mean, one of the things that we have Bible study about is not only to learn, but also to refine what do we believe, you know, and someone will say, well, what do you think about this? And, you know, and it's a piece gets put in there that maybe wasn't there before. And I think that that's what Paul and Titus had worked through a lot of that. I've always imagined that these, these guys going down the road, you know, to walk, to walk from Antioch to, the next town or the next province is days. What did they do while they were walking? They were talking.

Well, my question has to do with, are we talking about, so obviously My True Child applies specifically to Titus and also to Timothy. Those were relationships where you have a kind of a mentor of faith to the protege of faith, and they shared the faith.

And so the question now is that, so we're not looking at the My True Child part, but the common faith, does that have to do with the whole of faith, or does that have to do with personal faith in the gospel? See, mine would be that the common faith is the same for us in that which way you're looking at it. Are you looking at it from the personal me looking at faith and what I do and all that, or the faith, which is in Christ, the common faith, which is trust in Christ, salvation, all those. I think even any believer has a rudimentary knowledge of Christ came, died for your sins, death, burial, resurrection. There are a billion people who have that common faith, base 101. Now, we look at it and without the identification, you can't grow, but they have that common faith, which is faith in Christ. And that's where I say we all as believers have at least that. because I'm looking at it from almost the object rather than us looking at the object.

That's the personal faith, but the common or the faith is what we all have. That's where my argument that we don't have a common faith in that if you were to take all of the high-profile evangelicals and evangelist preachers today and just have them write out their gospel message There's so much law in each one of those, it's not the true gospel. John MacArthur, you go to ask John MacArthur, what is salvation? He'll never answer you. He'll always say, well, the Puritans think this, and everybody says, well, he's a Christian. Well, is he really? Well, yeah, I mean, but I go to the base common faith, which is faith in Christ. That's the base common faith. Personal work of Christ. Personal work of Christ.

Without anything added. Without anything added, and that's where, I mean, we've had this discussion, are there, I mean, just because they don't know the identification truths that they won, they still know the Lord. I mean, they're still saved, but they're in the nursery, and they'll be there forever. The point is this, that salvation is by grace through faith. Period. Right. There's so much law and other things added on to it. But the faith is the faith. Yeah. And that's the common faith. And I'm saying, if you're a believer, if you have the saving knowledge, you have that common baseline common faith. All believers have that saying. Because if you don't, you're not a believer. Right.

So that's right. I think that second Peter 1 and 1 that Joanne brought up is really important. Because, you know, when Peter's talking about that, or Paul's talking to Peter about this, well, sorry, rather, when Peter's talking about this, in first one, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness of our, and so I don't think he's talking about the full doctrine. It was still being unveiled at that time, right? Right. The faith was not even fully known yet.

But what was known was the gospel message, and that was received, and that's who Peter was writing to. And I think that in this verse, while I recognize that Christianity across the board falters on agreeing on the gospel, I think that's really the issue, not the fact that we disagree about everything else that happens with the faith, but it's the gospel that unites us in our common faith, period, I think. That's the way I might have said it. Peter went up to talk to the Galatians, excuse me, to the Gentiles with Cornelius the first time.

In Acts 10 43-44 it says, of him all the prophets bear witness. But through his name, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins. While Peter was still speaking these words, Holy Spirit fell on those who were listening to the message and they knew nothing about about anything, they heard that, I believe in Christ, will receive forgiveness of sins, and the Holy Spirit fell on them. I mean, that's how basic the gospel of salvation by faith really is. Right, and that's what I say.

I think there's a baseline. We talked about that, and Mike and I have a discussion, you know, that the basics there, and there's probably millions and billions of people over the time frame who have not gotten out of the nursery. They have that base knowledge, like Peter and that group. They know the Lord, but they don't grow because they don't get taught more. They don't study, but they're saved, and they're in the body of Christ.

And that's, I think, that's what I was trying to get at, is the common faith is that. And again, it's to believers. It's not to unbelievers. It's not that. And JD, it's what you referred to, and it's to those who have received. It's not to the people who have rejected, not to the people who don't know. It's not any of that. It's to those who received.

They have the same faith as us. For me? Yeah. I was just going to add that Our faith is solely on the work of Christ. And he is the focus of that faith. It's not anything else. And granted, people add law and tradition and whatever onto it. But if they believe 1 Corinthians 15, three and four, they are saved. Right. have put their faith in what Christ has done. Right, and that's what I'm saying. That's the common faith, and that's what I was saying. What you're looking at, I think, is for us and looking at it, but the faith is the faith.

How are we going to look at it 16 ways to Sunday, but the faith is the faith? If you listen to a guy like Chester McCauley, he says that if you add anything to it, you can't guarantee that you are saved. In other words, if Someone says, well, here's the gospel, but you've got to confess your sins and you've got to get up out of your chair and come forward. He said, those people may not be saved because they have relied on something other than just the pure gospel. Now he's the only one that I've read that says that. Most other guys don't. But if you listen to the contemporary televangelists, which I don't. I don't recommend you do. But there's so much other stuff.

You've got to confess your sins. You've got to do this and you've got to do that. And you've got to make Jesus the Lord of your life. John MacArthur would tell you if you didn't make him the Lord of your life, you're not saved. Right. And again, if it doesn't have the basic salvation... First Corinthians 15. Right. If you don't have that... Right.

But, you know, he may add on to all that. But if you have that and then you must... after you know, I still think the basis is there for salvation and You're gonna be not that's the way. Yeah, that's I just have 45 things but the gospels in the middle, right? You got again all the superfluous stuff that gets in there and you know And that that's just a hindrance to spiritual growth. Yeah, is that you're chained to a you know It's kind of like just what you said Satan's the liar. Satan wants all this other crud on top of it to keep you from growing. He can't take your salvation away, but he can do everything in his power to make you do all the works and all the things and enliven the flesh as much as you can by deceit and lying. But if the gospel message is in there, my whole point is that's the common faith. Because that's the basis of our salvation.

This is now going to be, there are eight questions on here, so eight weeks from now we'll finish this lesson. So we are going through. Love the discussions though, it's good. I think it's interesting, you know, and a couple of the questions are going to be pretty straightforward. But anyway, good thoughts, you know, and to think about that. What is a common faith? I think we all have it. All believers have that common faith as a base. So that was the point of all the, my true child and a common faith. Yeah. All right, let's close.

Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you again. We just thank you that we're in Christ. All the other things that we can discuss and talk about, but those who know you and again, eternal life is to know your son. And we just thank you again for your word that gives us the simple simple gospel message and we are saved by grace through faith and faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross and Again, your perfect plan of salvation that you offer to us after the what Christ did on the cross So we we thank you for that. We thank you. That's a simple message and yet again, we there's so much differences and different things but the pure commonality that we have is simple faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross and we we just thank you again just for the indwelling the Holy Spirit which convinces us and convicts us of those truths and just the eternality of that relationship that we have with you so thank you now and just pray for Mike in the second meeting just Bring us the word accurately and just prepare our hearts to receive it. And may all that we say and do this day honor and glorify you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.