That's where we'll be at. Gratefully, you all came on a Saturday morning. Those of you who came from far away, glad you decided you could come back. It's Titus 2 about halfway down your page. 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 of his own possession who are zealous for good works. Declare these things. Exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. and then into chapter 3, reminding 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, to show perfect courtesy towards 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. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent, and profitable for people. Let's pray. God, today, let us insist on the things you insist on and learn from your word today what it means to be careful to devote ourselves to good works. We pray this in Jesus' name. I'm going to bore you for a few minutes with a part of my personal testimony because it's the reason I wanted to talk to you about Paul in Titus today and why I called this talk the normal Christian. Yesterday was the normal church, today is the normal Christian. For those of you who don't know me, I grew up in western New York as a Catholic and by the time I got to college I was a convinced atheist. After living like that for a few years, by the time I was about 26, I was ready to give up on life because it was senseless, meaningless, and painful. But one night I found myself reading the Gospel of John and the Good News Bible of all things, and God saved me. God changed me and taught me that the only one who could save me was Him, so I trusted Him for that. Now, one of the consequences of that is interesting, because for a long time, I was afraid that I was the only person who believed in Jesus in the whole world. I didn't want to start a church or anything like that. I didn't know anything like that. I wasn't, you know, seminary crazy, and I thought that I would have to start my own cult to follow Jesus. I thought that Jesus saved me, and I needed to wait for him, and that was it. I mean, I could have read the Acts of the Apostles since I had just finished John, right? And I could have found out something about God and the church and so on, but instead I just trusted Jesus because I had seen an institutional church. And I'd seen how it distorts the Bible to the place where it actually makes God unbelievable. And I just hoped that God would work out whatever it was He was going to do to work out after that to save me wherever he was gonna save me. And most importantly, I had never met anyone who believed that Jesus was real and his work saved real people from sin. Now the truth is that Jesus did work it out. I met Tara. You know, she did the evangelism explosion thing on me. If you died tonight, what would happen to you? And I told her, I said, I really, I don't even understand that question, but I know that when I die, Jesus is waiting for me. And that's when she took me to church. And a church, somehow in Syracuse, New York, there was a Southern Baptist church that believed the Bible was true. And there's a fellow there named Bruce Aubrey, a man named Bruce Aubrey who loved to sing hymns and spiritual songs and preach the gospel. And it was in Bruce's church that I discovered that the Bible was for my good. And that Jesus loved me. And he loved people, not just me. And that if I was going to be obedient to Jesus, I had to start with baptism. I know the story is a little boring here. It's my story, so I'm going to tell it. But we're about to get to the good part. After Tara and I were married, I got promoted at work And we had to move from Syracuse to Albany, which is about two or three hours from Bruce's church in Syracuse. When we did that, we had a heck of a time finding a new church. I mean, it's New York. I mean, at that time, I think the Southern Baptist Association up there was three churches big. And I think it took us more than a year to find a church. But in that time, something interesting happened to me which is relevant to this conference. Bruce started driving twice a month from Syracuse to Albany to come and have lunch with me. And this was significant because sometimes we wouldn't go to lunch. Sometimes we would go to the lunchtime chapel service at the branch of Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Albany. And for one of those services, the gentleman who was at that time the president of Mid-America was about to retire, and he came to give his final message at the branch. And he delivered it without any notes. You know how those old guys are. They can walk up and they can stand there like this and recite the passage and talk for 40 minutes about God in a way that makes you know that they know something. But without any notes he preached a sermon from Titus 1 and it was on this passage. This is why I left you in Crete. so that you might put what remained in order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer as God's steward must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable. A lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined, he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he might be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also rebuke those who contradict it." It was about 45 minutes, and sitting there with Bruce, I realized something about being a Christian. I really didn't know a darn thing about it. except that Bruce was willing to drive four hours every other week to make sure that I was still one. It wasn't until years later, after we had moved again to Pittsburgh, that I realized that while I was listening to that sermon, I was also receiving it in the person of my pastor, who was putting what remained in order and instructing me in sound doctrine and teaching me to hold firm until he could rightly hand me off to another church. and another set of elders. So I would be protected. My wife would be protected. My children who weren't even born yet could be protected. Now I realize I'm undercutting the headline of this conference on sufficiency by leading this talk off with a personal anecdote. But what Bruce was doing is what Paul believed to be normal for the Christian life. Bruce was living the way Paul lived, and caring for people the way Paul did, so that those people he loved would know Jesus. and understand the gospel in a way that was greater than merely answering the questions. His goal was for them to live as if the gospel was true. Now, I'm going to break from my notes here a second because I am always bothered that I have to say it this way, to live as if the gospel is true, as if that's a question. But for me to say it a different way would cause you just to gloss over the idea that the gospel is the gospel. You know, we are Sunday schooled to know the gospel. But I am afraid that often we see the gospel as a religious story. Oprah has a religious story. But she lives as if it is true. Okay? Somehow, we don't have a religious story. We have an empty tomb, and an exalted man who sits at the right hand of God, who's looking down on us, and who loves us, and is waiting for us. It's like having a bank account that will never run out, and we're afraid to spend it. Our goal needs to be to live as if the gospel is true because it is. True like Phil Johnson is sitting right there. You know, if I had gotten the invitation to come here and said, wow, that's a great idea to have a Pyro conference. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I believe we're going to have one. And then on Friday, you know, I slept in, maybe went to work, worked half a day, went home, Threw on Hulu with my kids and watched The Flash and Arrow and the episode of Agent Carter we missed this week. Slept in this morning, slept in again and walked the dog. I would not be living as if this conference were true. So when we think about that phrase, as if the gospel is true, we have to live as if it's like this conference. We have to live as if it's our job. You know, you don't walk around thinking, it would be great if I had that job that I have. You go to work. I'm way off my notes right now, but I'm telling you, this is the most important thing I'm saying to you. There's a lot of other things that are cool, but this is the most important thing. The gospel is true and unless you live the way it should cause you to live, you do not believe it. Let that sink in as we continue. Now look, Titus is one of three pastoral letters, right? Pastoral letters, that's what everybody calls them. Two letters to Timothy and this letter to Titus. And you would think that if Paul was going to write a letter to a pastor under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and he starts off that letter by saying, this is why I left you there, so that you could put things in order, this is the sort of thing we should be interested in as Christians, because Paul's about to give us the secret sauce of Christianity. He's going to spell it out for us exactly how to set things in order in the worst of circumstances, right? I mean, Crete was not a mega church where everybody was ministering to each other. If we're going to be very concerned about Scripture being sufficient, here it is about to be not only sufficient, but actually explicit for something we can use every single day. Now, here's what I think some folks are hoping that he's going to say. I left you in Crete to set things in order, so please, make sure we have fully published the systematic theology for use at the local church. Make sure there's a catechism with it. And make sure all of those people who can read can read Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek so they can really understand what I'm telling them. Some other people are hoping for something more exciting like this. I left you in Crete to set things in order so immediately make sure you are speaking in tongues and prophesying in order that you may establish your power and authority among them and then heal their sick to show that the gospel is about redeeming love. And then others are actually hoping for something a lot easier, maybe more simplistic, like this, I left you in Crete to set things in order, therefore set up a soup kitchen and a detox center for the drunks and the addicts, because the gospel is about social transformation and bringing in the kingdom for Jesus. Maybe this is why I left you there, to open up a political office. What Paul says instead is this, Just like in the letter to the Thessalonians that we covered yesterday, this seems a little normal. ordinary right it's that doesn't seem fantastic it doesn't seem like mission impossible it seems too simple to be right but Paul tells us immediately why it is that he wants us to do this for there are many who are insubordinate empty talkers and deceivers especially those of the circumcision party They must be silenced since they are upsetting whole families by teaching things for shameful gain when they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a philosopher of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. You know, that's not the kind of stuff you can get famous on as a life coach or by adapting it into books about leadership principles. Paul wants Titus to find good and faithful men because there are many bad and unfaithful men. But here's the thing, where is Paul or Titus gonna find the men Titus is supposed to recruit if cretins are always liars and evil beasts and the circumcision party are evil talkers and deceivers who teach for money? Where's he gonna find these guys? You know, the way that we answer this question sometimes today looks like this. Paul ought to tell Titus to go to Thessalonica, where he knows there's a good church, and round up the top men from over there and bring them here with him to Crete and let them straighten things out. You know, Paul could instruct Titus to outsource his good men from a trusted source and then come back with a gospel coalition of guys to reform the Cretans and the lousy, shameful, money-motivated preachers. Because we know that already. We know Thessalonica is full of good people. Their faith is known everywhere. But that's not what Paul instructs Titus to do. Paul instructs Titus this way, as for you, Teach what accords with sound doctrine, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior." Now, I know I have knocked out a big, meaty chunk there, okay? All of the individual to-dos. We'll get back to that. But Paul's point there is simple. Teach what accords with sound doctrine, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior." And this is a tricky phrase, okay? But look at what Paul says to Titus, who is tasked to set things right. Find men who have good character, and teach the people in the church to have good character. Listen, what Paul says here is not merely teach sound doctrine. He does say that in the first part. Elders have to be able to teach sound doctrine, but here he says to teach what accords with sound doctrine. To set things in order, it's not just true statements about God that have to be explained. It's also the things which necessarily follows after them, after the sound doctrine, which must also be explained and taught. So if yesterday's talk about a normal church did not offend you, today's talk about what it means to be a normal Christian probably will. Because it seems to me that while there may be some room to grow in Christendom under the umbrella of having some normal churches, the way anyone sitting here is going to affect that is by becoming a normal Christian. So what does it look like to be a normal Christian? We're gonna stick to our text in Titus 2 and 3 and we'll follow this outline. Again, so you guys know when I'm done. The outline is this, to have a heavenly vision, to have a human purpose, to have the Holy Spirit, to have a humble effort, and to be hated by the world. Heavenly vision, human purpose, Holy Spirit, humble effort, hated by the world. Five-point Baptist alliteration, my favorite. Okay, so a heavenly vision. As Paul starts to instruct Titus in what it means to make people into normal Christians, he says this, 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. Now we don't need a lot of exposition to make this first point because what I'm calling a heavenly vision here is the gospel, right? We've discussed it. You guys know the gospel. You've heard the gospel. Anybody here could tell me what the gospel is. If the charge Paul has made here is teach what accords with sound doctrine so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior, the reason this must be done is that God has done something which makes all the difference in the world. A big part of me wants to move on to the next point, but let me reiterate something I said yesterday so you don't forget it. If the church does not have the gospel, who does? More pointedly to our discussion today, if you as a Christian do not have the gospel, who will have it? I almost feel stupid to have to say this out loud, but listen, the difference between the sort of people that Jesus has already saved And the people that Jesus has not yet saved is that Jesus saves. That's why Paul goes to the gospel here to tell us why we must do all the things before and after this statement. It's the only difference between us and the world. And the only motive we will have for being different than the world. Adorn sound doctrine, he writes, because the grace of God has appeared. And we're waiting in the hope for Christ to return because Christ has brought us out of this world and out of lawlessness and brought us into his assembly, into his people. This makes the gospel the first characteristic of the normal Christian because without it what are you? I mean you're not a Christian. You're just some person. You're someone who's doing what seems right in their own eyes. You know, if there's something else you want to take away from these talks that I'm giving, I want you to think about how often you do what seems right in your own eyes. And then go back to the Old Testament and ask yourself, how does that usually work out? Those who do what seems right in their own eyes are on the wrong path. We can't talk about being a normal Christian, and Paul doesn't try to, without making sure it's clear that the normal Christian believes that Jesus is God and our Savior, and He has paid a price for us, which is a price to purify us and to save us. Now, to get this far, I have omitted a huge chunk of the text, right? But I wanted to get to it at the right time, which is right here, after we understand that The incentive, the start of all of this is the heavenly vision, right? The gospel that Paul has presented. The start is a heavenly vision. But I used shorthand to say that Paul only wrote, teach what accords with sound doctrine so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. Okay, Paul is about to extol my second point, human purpose here. What he actually wrote was, but as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men be sober-minded, dignified, self-control, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to too much wine. They are to teach what is good. And so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 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, there to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that in everything, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior." Now, by no means is this a comprehensive list. It feels like forever when you're trying to read it out loud. But if you have the Gospel, you will do the things which look like you believe it's true. You will manifest the fruits of the Spirit and be a good example to others. Whatever maturity you have, you'll use it to benefit those who are coming behind you, and you will consider that others probably do have something to teach you. Wives and husbands will have loving and respectful relationships, and the key features of all of this are respect, dignity, integrity, submissiveness, and so on. Now consider that list. These things are all activities that you do with other people, for other people, and with regard to other people. You can't do these things by yourself. At the very least, you have to know some other people and see them during the day. But much more obviously, Paul is saying that where there are other people who are like you, that is, people who have the gospel, you need to be doing these things with those people. That's why he goes on to say the next part, the part about the grace of God and what we once were, because it's not enough merely to be people who agree that the gospel is true. or to affirm its truth. It's not enough to have memorized all the ways to say that Christ died for our sins in accordance with Scripture, and was buried and raised on the third day in accordance with Scripture. We have to be people who are actually saved by Him, and demonstrate what that means in this life, with our lives, for the sake of other people. Now, think about this with me. Anecdote time again, okay? Because every summer, because my kids are teenagers, I am volunteered to go camping and canoe rafting in the Ozark Mountains. It's not like anything else we do as a family all year long. And for one night and about one day, we sleep on the ground and we smell like dirt and river water and campfire coffee. But one of the instructions, one of the doctrines of the float trip, is that we should bring 200 feet of paracord just in case someone falls down a hole or we have to strap the canoes together and float the wounded to safety. Okay, I have 200 feet of paracord in two correctly bound, non-tangling 100 foot bundles which have been set aside as holy for this purpose. Now, imagine that we're on that trip and I know the doctrine of the paracord. And my daughter falls down the mouth of Blanchard Springs Cavern and all I do is stand there and cry for help as I look down at her. Her body's twisted at the bottom of the red clay and maybe she's crying or maybe she's not because she's not moving. And I'm standing there in the midst of the practice of the float trip and I've forgotten the doctrine of the paracord. I've got the paracord. But I never unwind the rope to actually go down the mouth of the cave to get her, and I'm pretty sure that if that's true, I have misunderstood the doctrine of the paracord. It was never meant to be memorized or just carried along. It was meant to go down the cave when somebody falls down the hole. Now, while I may get to observe the glory of God on the float trip, I actually get to participate in the glory of God on the float trip when its doctrines are not merely slogans or a permission slip that I signed to make sure we could go. We pay our money and we go, right? The rope was meant to be used for something that saves people. Now if that parable is confusing, think about my story about Bruce as we started off today. You know, it has been 20 years since those lunches. And I cannot tell people about it without crying because I would not be here today without him. I would not be who I am today without Bruce. Bruce was able to preach the gospel every Sunday. He knew the words. He could teach me the words that make up the message, but because Bruce believed those words, not merely as true statements, not merely as theological postulates in his spiritual trigonometry, right, that he can prove that he was saved, They were instead the very words of life to him, and he wanted to make sure that I was saved, and I had an example of someone spending something valuable on me, and on my faith. It's funny, you know, he never said to me, this is a lesson like Paul was teaching in the book of Titus, or this is the fatherly love that Paul was talking about in 1 Thessalonians 2. He just came, and he loved me, and he loved Tara, He loved kids that he never met. Who hadn't been born yet. When we were afraid we couldn't have children. Because these are the things which adorn the doctrine of our great God and Savior. In exactly the same way. That's the way the normal Christian gets to adorn the doctrines of God. Not merely by reciting them or memorizing them or teaching others to do that. But to see that there is a real human purpose in them. Which causes other people to see God the way we see God. And causes us to see people the way God sees people. and to treat them the way God says we ought to want to treat them. Now listen, I'm going to jump off my notes here again real quick because this is important. We're going to get there towards the end of this. But you know, obedience is not obeying the rules. Obedience is wanting to please God. When my son slams down the controller and shuts off the TV because I told him it's time to stop playing Xbox, that's compliance. But obedience would be that he quits before I ask him because he knows he's spent as much time as he should already. He wants to please me. And that's what faith is, folks. We want to please him. It's not just that we must. Of course we must. He's God. But we want to. My third point is the Holy Spirit. So buckle in. Back to Paul writing to Titus. 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 the 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. Now this is a great bit from Paul because it's completely overlooked when we think about the places in the New Testament where the Holy Spirit is actually named and his work is specifically described. There it is, the Holy Spirit is poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ. I mean, that's what John the Baptist says Jesus is going to do, right? He's going to pour out the Holy Spirit, a baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's actually, those are the words that Luke says in Acts 2 and Acts 4 and Acts 6 and Acts 8 and so on. The Holy Spirit is poured out. But when they write about this happening in those places, the assumption is that what happens after that will amaze you because of all the amazing feats of inexplicable utterances and miraculous activities. But here Paul makes it clear what happens when the Holy Spirit is poured out richly. The consequence is our justification and our regeneration and our renewal. I want to look at those words for a minute because they're theology words, and I'm going to tear in my local church lately to stop hiding our decent theology under words that nobody really understands. Because those words are actually practical advice. When Paul says regeneration here, we all know what the word means, right? A second birth. John 3. You must be born again. But what does it mean to be regenerated? When the Greeks used this word, they meant that something which had been entirely lost or entirely destroyed was completely restored. It was now fit for use again. You know, a city that had been flooded and completely ruined was said to be regenerated when the city was completely rebuilt and people could live in it again. Think about that, because Paul is not merely saying that the Holy Spirit is poured out for us and we somehow get new superpowers. He's actually saying that when the Holy Spirit is poured out, we are returned to our original use. The kind of use from before we were totally destroyed. It's a reference to the entire story of why we need a Savior in the first place. As people, as creations, we have been ruined by the fall, and when the Holy Spirit is poured out, we find ourselves completely restored to fit use by God. And this makes perfect sense in this context, because Paul is clearly exhorting us to put ourselves to that fit use here, to do the things that adorn the Gospel. the Holy Spirit regenerates us so we can be put to fit use. The other word here, renewal, is also interesting because it doesn't just mean to update. It means a complete change for the better, the kind of change which implies maturity or the result of natural growth. So while the Holy Spirit gives us a new life that makes us suitable for use, He also gives us the ability to grow up and mature in that life so that our uses can improve over time. And it is mentioned here as the transition between what we once were and now what we ought to be on a daily basis. 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, he writes, but now after the Holy Spirit is poured out and we are renewed and regenerated, what must happen? We might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Before we have the Holy Spirit poured out, we are on the path of the world, but now we are on the path to eternal life and as such we are heirs. Paul is saying that we once had nothing to look forward to, but now, because of what we look forward to, we have a right share in preparing now for the next world. Thanks for the Holy Spirit. Paul is really saying that the power of God is not expressed in pillars of fire or saying things which you can never know are either from God or just your own weak, limited mind. He's saying that the power of God is poured out for you so that your life will be different now. And you should see it that way because it is true. If you have the gospel, which is our heavenly vision, and you see people the way God sees people, you see the human purpose. The Holy Spirit has given you everything you need to do something about it. He has given you a new life, fit for the use that God has in store for the world. And the care needed to grow into that life so that all the work which is set out before you can be done. Heavenly vision, human purpose, Holy Spirit, humble effort. Now, of course, Paul knows us and the Cretans better than we know ourselves. So he's thinking about who we want to be when we realize that we are now full of the Holy Spirit and filled with a life that can do everything God wants us to do. And his thought, it seems to me, is this. While I'm trying to encourage these people out of complacency, And to know that God has done everything they require so that they can do anything God requires, it really seems obvious that they can get overconfident. Or worse, since we're dealing with cretins here, they'll revert to type and do these things for selfish gain and self-promotion. So after making it clear that the Holy Spirit is poured out to make us new creatures, he said this, the saying is trustworthy and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good work. The statement here is interesting because Paul is not merely saying to do these things. He doesn't say so that those who have believed in God may devote themselves, they may be careful to devote themselves. As we think about the people he is talking about, it has to be in his mind that there are already those who claim to believe God but are in fact deceivers and empty talkers and teaching things they ought not to teach for the sake of making money. And compare that to how Paul described his work in Thessalonica in which he worked a second job in order that nothing would give the appearance that he was teaching just to make a buck. It's a clear distinction and one that Paul wants to make sure those at Titus is charged to care for understand. We do not follow Christ for fame or fortune or status. And I understand the irony of standing up here as a nearly famous blogger handing out the lecture that you must not strive to be famous. You should just do what Christ told you to do. I understand that. I have this gigantic metal eye beam in my eye, which is why I keep looking down at the page. I think there's a trap in this issue that is almost impossible to see from an American cultural standpoint. You know, as Americans, most of us are taught to believe that unless something is big, and financially profitable, it's somehow tainted or second rate. Let's be honest that most of us are middle class or better, and we measure everything we do by how well it has benefited us. Or how good it looks to other people. And in church, we even have a biblical word for this. Fruitful. If someone has a lot of followers, or has sold a lot of books, or made a lot of money, it must be pleasing to God, right? God has blessed it. Let me suggest something here because Paul's warning is be careful to be devoted to good works. We should be careful to measure our good works the way God measures our good works. What tends to happen to us though is that we usually use what seems good to us. What seems good to us and convince ourselves that those things are what God really wants. It happens all the time, and because it's common, it happens a lot in the Bible, right? The scribes and the Pharisees were good at teaching the law, by which they drew attention to themselves. They got to be at the front, but they were no good at keeping it, or as Jesus said, they neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness. King Saul tried to offer the spoils of war to God as an offering because they seemed really good to him. And Samuel denounced the king by saying, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen is better than the fat of rams, which is reiterated in Psalm 40 and amplified in Psalm 51 where it says, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." So when we try to measure how good a work is by how good it seems to us, we are starting to wander away from God. We do it by forgetting what he has already told us about his gospel and his view of people. And that brings us to the fifth point, to be hated by the world. Now, to be honest, Paul doesn't mention this feature of the normal Christian here, but he does mention it to Timothy. And I think it's important to cover it as the way we can know that we are actually working with this humble effort I just described, and not something else. Let's be honest here. One of the most difficult attributes to understand about the Gospel is that it is both in the world, but not of the world. It is meant for the world but the world hates it. It causes us to both have favor with all people, as it says in Acts 2, but also to be weak and despised, as it says in 1 Corinthians 1. And often, we will again get it wrong, causing people to stumble over our bad behavior and our bad motives, but attribute that to the offense of the gospel and count it as joy rather than the sin that it is. So for us, if we're going to be careful to do good works and to make a humble effort, we must get this measuring stick for what is the right objective in this world, calibrated the way Paul sets the grade. He says this to Timothy, you have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, and my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me in Antioch, in Iconium, and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will get a book deal." Oh, sorry. All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will get a large church. No, I'm sorry. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will have a happy marriage. No, it's paper. How does paper do this? Indeed all, this is what Paul said, Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. While evil people and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. Paul is here referring to the events we received in Acts 13 and 14, right? Paul preached the gospel to the Jews, and it was such a powerful word that it also converted the Gentiles who heard it. But some in the city would not have it, and Paul had to escape there in order not to be stoned. So he went to Iconium. He stayed there for a long time, it says, because his preaching was affected. But as the city changed, Acts says that some developed a poisoned mind against him and his company, and again, they had to run away. And after preaching and a miraculous healing in Lystra, Paul was first mistaken for a god among men, right? But then he was stoned by a mob which was ginned up by his detractors from Antioch and Iconium who followed him to Lystra. Knowing this context, it's clear that Paul is not saying that those who seek to lead a godly life in Christ will only suffer persecution. But he is saying that those who are actually moving ahead in this life and doing so in Jesus Christ are going to suffer in this world for the successes that they make for the gospel. Not only this, but consider it. The churches Paul planted were persecuted. They had to continue down the gospel course without Paul standing next to them personally in spite of these people who are willing to travel from city to city and attack Paul and seek to kill him. Paul suffered for planting them and they suffered in order to grow. This was utterly normal for them. And here Paul says to Timothy, the other young pastor he's writing to, that it will always be normal to suffer in order to live a godly life in Christ Jesus. And he doesn't say this in desperation or as a way to surrender. He says it and then fortifies Timothy with these words. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Paul's encouragement is what brings this talk full circle back to the matter of sufficiency. In contrast with those who will persecute the ones leading a godly life, we must rather to continue to firmly believe in Christ and in the sacred writings which are scripture. Those teachings, those stories, those letters to good churches and to bad churches are what makes us wise through faith in Christ. When we have actually given a humble effort for the sake of the Gospel, the world will hate us, but we will have done what God said to do. We will have received the Word of God not as the Word of men, but as what it really is. The Word of God which is at work in us as believers. So when Paul sends Titus to Crete to set things in order, the way he intends Titus to find men to make into elders in every city is by making them from scratch. Using the only tool he has to make them the sufficient tool of scripture. And he intends that Titus will give them a heavenly vision, a human purpose, the Holy Spirit, the right view of a humble effort, and a fair warning that they will be hated by the world. This is what set things in order and it's really not very complicated. People reborn of God should be able to love other people and live with them as if Jesus loves those people. Paul is talking about a life turned away from human concerns and concerns about limited selfish needs and a life reformed into a reflection of God's love, which is selfless and committed to the welfare of others. This is, of course, the distinguishing mark that separates the Thessalonians from those around them who have rejected the gospel. And Paul wants Titus to grow the same thing there in Crete. And as I finish up today, I charge you to grow the same thing in yourself and in your local church. If you do not love someone for the sake of the gospel, I propose to you that you do not have the gospel. And I leave it to you to decide what comes next. Let's pray. Jesus, we all want to write a book, and there's nothing wrong with writing books, especially when the books are about You, Lord. We all want to be well-known. We all want to be famous, Lord, in a way that somehow makes us feel great. and endorses what we think we did for you. But I'm here, Lord, today to ask you to break the idol of our self-importance here, whoever we are, and help us to see, Lord, how we will be important to you when we love you and we love people and we do it inside your local church. Teach us, every one of us, God, to love somebody the way Bruce loved me, the way Paul loved Timothy, the way Jesus loved the church. Teach us, God, to give it up for a joy that you set before us that we cannot even understand yet. and help us God to want it because you want it and to be willing to do it. In your precious name Jesus, Amen.