Titus lesson 2
Titus · Courtney Hemenway · Jun 18, 2023
Titus, No. 05
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261931434623

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, we are in Titus. We are in lesson two. And do you, Margaret and Bob, do you have the lesson number two? If you want to grab that. And then also, I don't know in your class, do you have the mics too, microphones? Okay, so knowing when to comment, hitting them on and all that. All right. We are looking at Titus and we've looked at the first few verses now in four and five. We got through question one last week. Bobby will understand now our schedule here, how this goes. We had eight questions, we got through one last week, so.

Call this money in front of the mind. And that's why we call this therapeutic inertia. There you go. I don't know what we call it. We call it our normal, I think. All right. So, well, we should have an easy one in question two. Should be an easy one.

Was Titus a Jew? No, he was a Gentile. So, if you give that answer, you have to tell me why you say that. He wasn't a Jew. He was not a Jew? Not a Jew. And Titus was one of the ones who didn't get circumcised. And Paul said, that's not a requirement. You're not a Jewish person. You don't have to do it.

So which verse tells us that? Everybody knows it, but nobody knows the verse. How about Galatians? Okay, Donna, if you've got it. Okay, mic on. Galatians 2, verse 3. I've got to do homework here. Yeah, you actually do. I think I'm going back to shame here.

But neither Titus, who was with me being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised, and that because of false brethren, unawares brought in, who came in privilege to spy out our liberty which we had in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage, to whom we gave place that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. So, though he was a Greek, and again as what Donna just read and what Russ said, he was not compelled to be circumcised, or was compelled to be circumcised, but was he circumcised? No. Titus was a Greek Gentile. He had probably become a Christian under the influence of Paul, and he subsequently became one of the Apostles' protégés.

You see that, and we saw that in Titus 1.4.

Titus had been with Paul since the Apostles' early ministry. He accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their first mission of mercy to the Jerusalem church when Paul was laboring in Antioch of Syria, which was Titus' home. That happened before Paul's first missionary journey, and we see that in Galatians 2, 1 and Acts 11, 27 through 30. So again, he was a Greek, he was not a Jew, but he was probably one of Paul's closest, when we see Timothy and Titus, some of his closest assistants, people he trusted and brought along on his missionary journeys. And we'll see when he's setting up the churches in Crete, he trusted him for that. So, Titus was a close friend and missionary partner for Paul.

So, anything else on that? Pretty straightforward. So, question three. This is kind of an interesting one. And Joanne Lockwood noticed something last week. So how many letters did Paul use the term grace and peace? Thirteen. Thirteen. One, two, three. Thirteen. You are correct.

You are correct. in my homework. It seems that Mike does not show it in Hebrews and I don't know if it's in my translation, but... In Hebrews? Well, the other reason is, who wrote Hebrews? There, it's on there. Not at all. This is the jump ball. The Christians Donna, you need to pull it closer. So the question was, how many letters did Paul use? So the discussion is whether Paul wrote Hebrews or not.

In verse 4 of Titus, Titus, my true child in common faith, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. So it's interesting, every one of Paul's epistles has this term in it. these terms. And so if you look at Romans 1-7, To all who are beloved of God in Rome, call to saints, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

He closes in Romans 16-20, The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. So again, he opens with grace and peace and ends with grace on every one of these. Let's read another one. Philemon 3, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. At the end of Philemon 25, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

So, my question was, just guessing, what do you think was important in Paul's teaching? Grace. Grace and peace. Pretty obvious. Every one of his epistles begins with grace and peace to you and then ends with grace. Yeah, Bob. Well, you know, if you think about it, peace can only follow grace, can't it? I mean, they're really tied in one to the other. Perfect.

You know, I think that's great. Without grace, do you have peace? be awfully hard in this world, you know, to be under grace is to be under the reigning principle of grace. And if you're under grace, you have peace. Is that peace with God or peace of God? Yes. I can't go back to the other classes. It's from. It's from, I think. I think those were, yeah, in the Philemon, Peace from God, and Gracie and Peace from God, these are all from gods, I believe. So, that's, yeah, yeah.

You know, when we studied the grace class, one of the great things we learned was, in fact, that grace has to be learned. That there's nothing going into Christianity that would qualify you to understand what grace really is. And so, I think Paul makes a point in every one of his epistles that grace is the hallmark of everything that I'm writing to you, no matter who he's writing to. And it's important that believers grow in understanding what grace is and how it works. Because we don't know. Isn't it what is 2 Peter 3 18 growing the grace and knowledge? Yeah So he said Paul is telling you, you know grow in the grace and knowledge.

Those are the keys And, you know, the other is, I think, in Western Romans 5, it's where it says that grace is the reigning principle now. That's what we live under. That's the operating system we live under. But I think your point is taken in that most believers don't know, I think, what grace is. I think grace to most is, you know, kindness or a gift or, you know, something. Grace is a reigning principle. That's the principle that we live under. And I think most believers don't understand that. And I think, as you said, learning it. And I think a lot of people don't. And again, they don't have the peace that comes along with it. Well, and I was thinking, too, if you're raised in a church that's under a legal system, how do you live under grace? You can't. You can't. And that was a teaching that, you know, in the grace class, And Galatians is really the book that lays out law versus grace, and you can't have them together. It was basically a legal treatise of law versus grace, and they can't coincide together.

And we've said the best definition we've had is from Akali, the unlimited and unmerited blessings from God based on the finished work of Christ on the cross. So, unmerited. Law is a merit-based system, so grace that we define it as unmerited, so those two can't go together. So yeah, it's totally law and grace don't coincide.

One other comment about that, like you're talking about the 24 kids or 25 kids that, you know, hopefully the whole profession of faith is based on a response to the grace rather than any sort of, well, you need to do this, you've got to do this. I'm not saying, I'm not asking whether they did or not, but it's so important to start right. Right.

Well, you know, again, we've kind of had that discussion, you know, there is simple faith that, you know, even though you have a lot of periphery and a lot of crud on it, if the basic, you know, truth of the gospel is there, yes, there's a lot of chaff, there's a lot of stuff, and they may not grow for years. Or in their entire life, they may not grow that much because of the limitations of people not understanding grace, not understanding gentrification truths, all those type of things.

Yeah, I mean, you covered this, I'm sure, before, but you know, I think of Titus as really expressing his letter in truth. And truth is a major feature of verse one. Right. And the truth really makes grace founded upon itself, like truth. I mean, it's really a theme of Titus, I think, that comes through the interval. Well, I think, did I have that on the first, you know, kind of the verse.

Tell me verse 14 about the truth that the Jews were not recognizing. Yeah, I'm just, I'm trying to remember if I quoted the verse that, Grace and truth were realized in Christ. So grace and truth were realized through him. Truth was realized through him and grace was realized through him. I don't know the verse right now, but it basically says that they were realized in Christ, truth and grace.

And I think what we also found in the first verses is, you know, also God can't lie. It's true. And the reason why, as we'll get into it, and I guess Mike got into it on the first lesson, who did Titus get set up with? Where was he in charge of? The church at Crete? And they were known what?

Liars. Well, finally, they are known liars. We'll get into that in the in the verses. They are liars. And that's funny because we call it, you know, if you he's a cretin, you know, we still have used that. I mean, I remember as a kid, you're a cretin, you know, kind of a you know, blah person or whatever. I don't know if it meant liar, but it was just kind of, you're kind of that. So, you know, obviously they had an impact that, you know, 2000 years later, they're still, we're still referring to Cretans as nasty people.

Well, the other thing in verse 4 too, it says to Titus, a true son, right? Well, yeah. And that's, we, we, we kind of addressed that in the first question is the intimacy of, you know, he, a true child. A child in the fact that he was probably, you know, led to the Lord by Paul, and so he sees him as, and he's a mentor to Titus. So he's calling him, that shows just the relationship that he has with Titus, is that he calls him his child. And Timothy, I think he does too. Those two are probably the most intimate partners of Paul in all of his ministry.

Yeah, Luke followed him along and all that, but Timothy and Titus are the ones he left in charge at Ephesus and Crete, and he sends Titus to Dalmatia in a while and all that, so he's a trusted child, a true child, the intimacy of that relationship. So, again, Grace Grace is the topic or the thing that Paul just wants to impart in every person and every epistle is about grace. And I think, again, we have to learn about grace. And I guess a couple of things, a couple of prime points from teaching on grace. We see from John, oh, here it was.

This was what it was in John 1.17. I knew I had it in here somewhere. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. That's the verse. John 1 17. Paul then explains and runs a key facet of grace now. This is the reigning principle.

The law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So that's where grace is now the reigning principle through Christ. That's what we live under is grace.

We don't have to do anything. It's now, I remember in our grace class, just say thank you. That's the key, just say thank you. And I remember there was, when you're a teacher and you get it thrown back in your face, this is really the tough part. I remember April, it was during, we were all coffee fanatics, and so she'd given me a coffee thing. I said, no, don't do that. Courtney, what do you say?

Just say thank you. We're under grace. So it is. Grace is unmerited. Nothing we do. And some of the hungry hearts in the last week or so have been that way too, where it's just saying, you don't do anything for this. It's because you're being good that you get blessed or you're doing whatever, or if you stumble, you're not any less of a child of God loved by Him eternally. It's not predicated on what we do. And what a relief that is, that it's not based on us. Grace is totally not based on us. Thankfully, I stumble all the time. If it was based on my performance, it'd be a pretty gloomy picture. But grace is not based on us.

It's unlimited. That's the other thing, which I think we focus on the unmerited, but it's unlimited too. When you look at Ephesians, that we have been blessed with what? All spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. So, unlimited. I was going to say that there's so much And the study that we're doing at the main service in chapters 1, 2, and 3, and 4, it's all about grace, and it's about how it works, and it's about, it's not a ritual, it's not a rite, it's not all of these things. It's faith in what God has done. Faith is a non-meritorious act. And so, I don't think Paul ever stops teaching all the nuances of grace throughout all of his letters. And probably the greatest ignorance in Christianity is the ignorance of grace.

We can go back to this. I think it's because of the lack of knowledge of the identification truths. Because if you don't understand that... Or just justification. Look at chapter 3 and 4 of Romans. Sometimes I wonder, did any Christians ever read these chapters? You know, I look in the mirror. As a brethren, I really didn't get what the brethren had taught a hundred years ago. It's very deceptive of the flesh and Satan to get us away from that. It's clearly there.

Galatians 2.20, 2 Corinthians 5.17, all these ones that perfectly say what our identification is and what it means. I've been crucified. I'm a new creature. Romans 5, where we get the reigning principle, then what do we get in Romans 6? It's all the identification, our co-crucifixion. All of that then steps up, and then we get into 7, where what am I doing in my flesh? There's nothing good. Then you get into 8. Again, I think that's what's missed. We've had this discussion a hundred times.

There are believers that have just a rudimentary faith in Christ-finished work, but they can't grow because they're trying to work. They're trying under a law. They're trying to do merit. They're trying to do things, and it's not a grace-based system that they understand. in positional truth. Yeah, well the position is in what we find in Romans 6, is that we're crucified with him and placed into him. How many believers don't understand their position?

Oh, totally. You're missing out on that. And the flesh and Satan love that, because you're always striving to do something, and that's why no peace, no rest, All the things that, you know, Paul is talking, grace and peace, you don't realize if you don't understand that.

I missed my chance last night when Leslie McCulley called to tell me about JD. I said to her, I said, well, how's things going out there? She said, well, not so good. And then she told me and I, and Malloy would have said, hallelujah. You know, those are the ones I would say. You have to be a special person to be able to say that. Otherwise, it's like, you crumb. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hal could get away with that one. And I don't know if many people could do that too much. Praise the Lord to your suffering. Yes.

Anyway, so one of the, Joanne hit me up last week and said, did you know there's one difference in all those epistles and the grace and peace? No. I scanned them, all of them, but do you know which one? There's a difference in one of the epistles. Every one was grace and peace to begin with and grace to end with. There was one that was different and it added something.

Anybody know what that is? Joanne found it. Presumably, mercy is not in Titus in the original translation. Well, it's interesting. I have it crossed out in my Bible. There must be a reason for that. Yeah, you know, because it's not the only one that, and that was the word in first Timothy one, two to Timothy, my true child in faith. Again, the intimacy that he has with Titus and Timothy, grace, mercy, and peace from God, the father and Christ Jesus, our Lord. That's the only one out of all of those that he added mercy. Well, in the New King James, in Titus, it's grace, mercy, and peace.

See, I didn't get that in mine. Mine didn't show that. Interesting in the translations. Well, I could actually look at the Greek and see if it's in there. I've got it in mine in grace and mercy. James, have mercy, New American Standard does get tight. Yeah, New American Standard doesn't. Let me pull this up here. Well, anyway, I wouldn't get bogged down with it. No, it was interesting. It was just the one that was, well, and now that's funny that it's in Titus, but maybe not in Titus.

Well, again, I've got to cross that, which means somebody taught me that because I probably studied it way back when. But if I turn to what I have in Blue Letter Bible, it still shows it in the interlinear. But I find the Blue Letter Bible interlinear is not really the true interlinear. You have to go back to the original text. So maybe that's where I picked that up, I don't know. Yeah, interesting. It is not in the Greek.

But if you think about how does mercy relate to grace? I mean, mercy is not getting what we deserve, and grace is getting more than we ever deserve. I mean, that's simplistic. I mean, I don't know, don't you think mercy precedes grace? Yeah, and you get a good point. It's two different aspects of it. Mercy is not getting what you deserve, and grace is getting everything you don't deserve. Yeah. I think it has to do with these being the pastoral. Yeah, well, but interesting, I do not see it in the Greek, in Pidas. I don't see it, and that's why it's interesting. Oh, you do. You agree with that, that it's not there. Yeah.

What about Timothy in the Greek? Is he still there, Timothy? Let me, what was it? Timothy, what was it? Oops. Interesting. It was 1 Timothy 1-2. Come on. All right. 1st Timothy. What 1st Timothy, 1st Timothy 1? 1, 2? 2. 1, 2? Yeah.

Just out of curiosity. Mercy is there. In the Greek. In the Greek. Yeah. Yeah, so it's interesting why your Bible's, yeah, put through that in there. The translation, yes. Interesting. I didn't even look at that because in the NASB it was not, you know, so I went through all the verses to see and that was interesting. The only word that's added is and. It's in italics, so it wasn't in the originals. In 1 Timothy? Yes. But yeah. Interesting. We can move on. Question four. We have a little bit of time left.

What does Paul anticipate when he calls Christ our Savior? When you say Christ our Savior, what does that conjure up or what is he trying to focus on? Christ our Savior. Does that reflect to whom it's being written? Yeah, it's more of, well, anybody else? Well, 2.11 says, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. So I guess the term Christ Jesus would lead to him being the Savior?

I mean, that's how salvation comes. Yeah, he adds that Savior part. Not just Jesus Christ, our Lord, Jesus Christ. He now, Christ, our Savior. So it's a different aspect to what he's addressing here. He's addressing him as the way of salvation. Basically I'll read through 1 through 4. the context here. 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, so again that's in the beginning in verse 2, which God who cannot lie, what we're talking about, the truth, 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, to Titus my true child in a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus our Savior. So it's focusing on the salvation aspect of it. First in the hope of eternal life, and then he says Christ Jesus our Savior.

So he's linking those two together. If you look in verse 2, the noun hope must be understood in the biblical context. We use the word hope to express doubt as I hope I'll see you again. Hope in the biblical sense does not express doubt, but future event. Secure, but in the future. So again, in the hope of eternal life, so that's a secure hope, it's not, as we say, we doubt it or do anything like that.

Then also, we see in Titus 2.13, illustrates the meaning more clearly, speaking of the return of Christ as the blessed hope. So in 2.11-13, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Again, the same message, salvation in Christ. Salvation is only through Christ. He is our Savior. So again, he's really pounding on the fact that salvation is only through Christ. Christ is our Savior. Joseph? Yeah, I was going to say that. So many times we're taught that while John 3.16 or this verse or that verse, there's a concept that saves you. a biblical verse that said, no, it's not that that saves you, it's the person who does it. And it's the work that he accomplished that allows him to do such a thing. Because God didn't just say, well, I think I'll save now. It cost him.

Well, you know, if you look at it from an eternal standpoint, The covenant was made before we were even an entity. The covenant was set up. He knew and he created us with the knowledge that he would have to pay for our sins to have the relationship, the eternal relationship with him. And so it's one of those ones where, again, he knows eternally past, eternally future.

But it still requires us to have simple faith. That's the only thing which is not meritorious. You know, we've been saved by grace through faith. So a gracious act. He didn't have to offer us. He paid for the sins, but we still could be in our sins and not have the salvation. But he offered us graciously salvation if we believe. You ever think about the fact that it also required God to do what he did through Christ?

You got no other way to do it. Right. Which, you know, to me, when you put the whole thing together, it's kind of amazing. You're a dad on Father's Day, and you're a son. I got this great plan. You're going to die. You're going to be separated from me. You're going to take all the sins of all these people, and I'm going to basically turn my back on you. You're going to be alone, and you're going to take all those sins. In the end, I'm going to raise you up, and you'll be seated in my right hand for eternity.

Everything is wonderful. By the way, you'll be a man. Yeah, we're going to throw you into a man. That little thing, yeah, that's right. We have to take you out of our relationship. You'll still be God, but you're a fully man at the same time. You know, what kind of plan is that? I mean, what a Father's Day message. To reflect on that, what a tremendous gift we have. Oh, it's incredible. Name a better gift.

You know, it's just like these, and I keep telling, you know, the staff and the counselors, I was talking to Dan yesterday, Dan Faulkner, the camp director, and even I told J.D. and Addie, you know, going down and serving at Camp Elam. You're going down there and you're being used by God to bring the word to people. Ultimately, it's going to be the Holy Spirit convicting them and all that, but it's not just a summer camp.

These kids, 24 of them, their eternity has changed. Their eternity has changed. Not their summer has changed, but their eternity has changed. That's an incredible thought. that, you know, being down there and 24 people's eternity have changed. I mean, what better thing for a camp or a person is, you know, to have that many souls change for an eternity.

You know, so I always try to encourage them. It's not just a summer camp or a summer job or anything like that. You're being used by God to bring the salvation gospel word to kids. So it's not just a summer, summertime employment. So, you know, again, eternal changes. So anyway, let me see here. What time we got? We're done. We're done. I'm just trying to see.

I think I had, well, you know, we're talking about the Titus 2, 11 through 13. where he says, salvation to all men, the blessed hope, Savior of Christ, Savior Christ Jesus. The second coming is an assured fact, but is also hope in that it lies in the future. Our hope is assured because it is linked to the trustworthiness of God who cannot lie. Remember the first verse, God can't lie? Actually, it was one of the verses I just went through this morning, actually, that God can't lie. What am I going through? Hebrews, I think, has a God can't lie. And again, the importance of that is you're in Crete with a bunch of liars. So I'll have a little bit more to finish up on that, but then we'll get on to question five. So any final comments? All right, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you again for this time.

We just think about all that we have discussed this morning about grace and mercy, peace, salvation through Christ, all these things that we couldn't have come up with. It's your plan and your plan of salvation. And again, the thought of you, Father, allowing your son to take on the form of man and to then bear all the sins of all humanity for all time Again, nothing that he did, he was perfect, and yet you poured all of the wrath and sin upon him to take the penalty for us. Again, we thank you for that. It's nothing we've done, unmerited, to receive your blessings. and your blessings are unlimited.

And we just thank you that we are living in the reign of grace and what that means to each and every one of us who are believers. And we thank you again just for all your plans and not our plans and the fact that it's all of what you do, nothing of what we do other than simple faith. So we just rest in all of your truths and we thank you again for all of your love expressed to each and every one of us each and every day. And again, we just thank you for this time of opening up your word. We pray in the next service as we open up the word, just prepare our hearts to receive it. And we do all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen.