You're listening to the teaching ministry of Harvest Fellowship Church in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. You can find out more about us on the web at www.harvestfellowshipchurch.org. We pray that through our teaching, we may present everyone mature in Christ. Well, if you would stand this morning for our New Testament reading, which comes from the book of Titus. Titus chapter 2 beginning at verse 11. Here now the holy, inspired, inerrant, and all sufficient word of God. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works. Declare these things. Exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. Remind 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, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our Lord endures forever. You may be seated. This is your first time with us, or first time in a while. We have been preaching through Paul's letter to Titus. And today we've arrived at chapter three, so we're two thirds of the way through this short but very impactful letter. And so today we're just gonna be looking at a couple of verses, and verses sometimes that grate against our inner desire, perhaps sense of pride at times. But let's ask the Lord to give us strength and wisdom and to illuminate our hearts this morning. Father, we bow before you and we thank you, Lord, for the ways that you give us the abilities and even the means to express our voices in song, to pray to you, O Lord, to approach that throne room of the King of the universe, mediated through the work of the Son. And now, O Lord, as we look to your word, we remember that it is living that it is correcting, that it is encouraging, that it pierces even to our innermost part of our soul. And Lord, we pray that you will take these words through the power of the Spirit, make them real, make them alive in our hearts. Help us in this way, oh God, we pray in the name of Jesus, amen. As we look to Titus chapter three this morning, I think it's good to go back again to the context of when and where. When Paul's writing this, what's going on? What is the world that Titus and Paul live in? And of course, it's this time where the Roman Empire, they rule the known world. And how do they rule it? With an iron fist. All these once independent nations have been conquered by Rome. Their kings have been replaced by Roman governors. Their citizens have been burdened by Roman taxes. Their culture has even begun to be overshadowed by Roman law and power. As they walk through their cities, what do they see? Roman soldiers at guard. And these heavy taxes that are extracted from them are used to feed the lavish lifestyles of the rich and powerful. Now Roman laws were generally fair in principle, but that doesn't mean they were always enforced fairly. In fact, many times they were harshly enforced. Corruption among provincial governors was common, and I think we just saw that on Wednesday night, and we'll see it again this coming Wednesday night. And so this Roman Empire's rule, it was a heavy yoke for its subjects to bear, and that would create resentment across the provinces. But this was the world. that Paul lived in, that Titus lived in. This is the world also in which God shines the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. This is his timing. And this gospel proclaims spiritual freedom. It proclaims equality of all people in Jesus Christ. And so these people who are converted, they embrace Christ and they have this newfound freedom And they start to feel this desire within them. And what's that desire? It's, hey, we need to challenge everything that is unjust. We need to challenge or maybe even rebel against unjust rulers and systems. Now, of course, this would come from a longing in their heart, a longing for the kingdom of God, this kingdom that they know will have true justice, true righteousness, real peace, and so they are tempted to overthrow these broken systems of Rome. And who could not understand that? I mean, they lived under the Emperor Nero. That's who they were under, and his rule was marked by heinous cruelty, by gross injustice. But as Paul writes here in chapter three, he understands that rebellion against civil authority by Christians is gonna compromise something, and that's gonna compromise God's gospel mission. It's going to entangle the church into endless political disputes instead of being singularly focused on what they've been called to as the church, and that is gospel heart transformation. And when gospel success comes in, what happens? Society is reshaped. We live in a land that was, at one point, reshaped by the gospel. But while we wait and we pray and we work for that gospel transformation, God also calls his people to do something else, and that is to live in submission to authority as an act of obedience to him. And that's even when we live under the rule of a pagan despot, a pagan tyrant. And so Christian witness, personal integrity, and the reputation of the church, those are all things that are called into question when Christians rebel against authority. And so. Believing that submission and obedience are their God-appointed duty while they live here on earth, Christians should therefore live how they should live as royal citizens. They should live as royal citizens, and as they live in that way, they will reflect the character of their Savior in this wicked, darkened world. And this world that we live in is the same kind of world. It's desperate for gospel light. And so as we look at these two verses here, Titus 3, 1 and 2, I just want to break it into these two components relating to civil government and relating to general society. So relating to civil government and relating to general society. And if you just think back to the last several weeks, what did we see in Titus 2? There was all this admonition to the people within the church. Hey, older men, do this. Don't do that. Older women, younger women, younger men, and even slaves. But the vast majority of that focus, especially to those first four categories, it's within the church. Hey, older men within the church, here's how you should act toward the younger men. or here's how you should act in your own household. So it seems to be a bit more focused on that church family private life sphere. And then you get to verse 15, and 15 in a certain way, it looks back, but it also looks forward. So we could say it's this hinge. It's opening up this door. Paul says, well, I've got a little bit more to tell you about, but the scope is going to get a lot bigger because now the door is being opened up to admonitions of the government, or we could even say the unbeliever public life sphere here in chapter 3. So let's look first then at this relating to civil government. And what an amazing work of providence by God. What did we just cover in Sunday school the last few weeks was relating to civil government. So some of this for you Sunday school attenders may be a little bit of rehash. But what we see here in this first verse is essentially Paul is talking about subjection to authority that's proved through obedience and it results in good works. And so in verse one, again, Paul says, remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work. So he gives this command here to Titus. He said, you've got to remind. And guess what, Titus? You're going to keep on reminding. This is a repetitive action. You could say, Titus, I need you to graciously insist. Help them to recall something that they already know. How do they already know this? Well, probably from Paul being there before. This is probably not the first time that Paul has spoken about this. But when he says, remind, he's talking about something that's not new information to them. Peter uses the same type of expression. In 2 Peter 1.12, he writes, he says, therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them, so there's the prior knowledge, and are established in the truth that you have. Now, of course, when I went and looked up that passage, I said to myself, what qualities are you talking about, Peter? And if you just looked back to a few verses prior to that, he's talking about Christian qualities, virtue, excellence, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love. I think a lot of those things showed up in Titus chapter two. But we could ask ourselves, You know, as also the further out audience of Paul here, why do we need to be reminded? Why does anybody need to be reminded of anything? I don't know if you've ever, parents or maybe even grandparents, if you told your child, hey, do you have that lunch with you for school today? You got that lunch? Yes, yes, yes, you get to school. Mom, I forgot my lunch. I reminded you. So there's this need to be reminded because we forget. And even worse, sometimes we do more than forget, we disregard. We disregard the word of God that we know. We know it, but we disregard it. And so he says, remind them. And so I asked the question to myself, who are them? Which is a terrible grammatical sentence. I was debating who is them, who are them, and so I wanted to keep it as them because the text says them, remind them, who are them? Well, of course, he's referring to here, then he's not referring to everybody who lives in Crete. He's referring to the Cretan Christians primarily. But secondly, then we could even say just from last week, more importantly, counsel those people who have experienced the grace of God, that grace of God that he said that appeared in chapter two, verse 11. Remind those people who have experienced God's grace. and remind them to do what? He says to render, essentially, render the submission of active obedience to ruling authorities which have due power. And the first part of that is to be submissive, to be subjective, to be subordinated to, or even that sense of stooping beneath the authority of someone else. And when he says be submissive he's talking about something that's voluntary, uncoerced. This is somebody who is freely ready to yield and the submissiveness here he says is to rulers and to authorities. He's not referring to spiritual powers, which he does in other letters. He's not referring to church leaders. He's referring here to earthly, civil, governmental authorities who have ruling power, just like Nero did in his day. And so these are people who have God-ordained power to rule over others. They hold civil authority from God. And so this would be all the way from your high levels, the Caesars, the kings, all the way down to your low-level magistrates. And as we studied in Romans 13 in Sunday school, these leaders are appointed by God and they have authority from God. They're called servants of God. And what did God commission every civil authority to do? They are to promote that which is good and they are to punish the evildoer. That's what they're called to do. And it's to those people, Paul says, that Christians must have this general attitude of honor and reverence, not worship. Christians don't worship the state, they don't worship the civil authority, but they are to be honoring and reverencing the leadership, the authority of where they live. And that can hit us hard at times. You're saved by Christ. And you see evil around you. You see things you don't agree with. And it kind of confronts what we could say is our spiritual privilege, that sense of, hey, I've been saved by Christ. I don't have to listen to you because you're not saved. It's that type of sense. It's that it's not enough that I've been freed from the shackles and penalty of sin. I want my Christian freedom to be boundless, to be limitless. And so this command from Paul it might hit our spiritual pride in a sense. And what happens with pride in this context? Pride will lead to things like mutiny, rebellion, to despising authority, those who have dominion over us, to speaking evil of our civil leaders. or to abuse our Christian liberty, as Peter calls it, as using it in one of the older versions as a cloak of maliciousness. In 1 Peter 2, Peter says, live as people who are free. He's talking about the freedom that is found in Christ, and freedom in Christ is not doing anything you want. He says, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, and then people say, you don't have to say anything else. And he says, honor the emperor. Honor the emperor. So what happens? When you fail to submit to authority, you're saying, God, I don't properly fear you. That's essentially what we're saying. Now you go back to the Old Testament, we have a great example of this, and it happens more than once, but you see a man by the name of David, who's been anointed, told he's gonna be king, but is he king yet? No, he's under a really despotic tyrant king named Saul. And God provides him with a test of sorts, an opportunity. to become king right then and there. He could just kill Saul but he doesn't. He honors the king, he submits to the authority that's over him even though that king is trying to kill him. So Paul says to remind them to be submissive, but he says to remind them to be obedient, which is the evidence of the submissiveness, to listen to God and to listen to the human authority that's over them. These are the actions that prove the attitude of our submission. So we think about human civil laws that do not directly violate the moral law of God. The obedience to them is the essential preparation in our hearts for good works. It's the necessary foundation. Standard, of course, of what we obey is God's law. It's not, hey, I don't agree with that. I don't find that law to be agreeable. I don't find it to be reasonable. That's not our standard. Our standard is the Word of God. And so some of these acts of obedience, then, may be like we see in 1 Timothy 2, where he talks about praying for all who are in high positions. There's obedience to God when we pray for our civil leaders. Or as we see in Romans 13, near the tail end of that passage, Paul talks about paying taxes. Paying taxes is obedience to God, but it's obedience to the human authority over us. And maybe even more practically, it could be things like we have codes that require us to have a certain number of emergency exits on this church building. Now we could say, who are you, oh township, to tell us what we can do? We're Christians. If we want to have none, now that's not the right obedience. Obedience is that's not a violation of God's law, and therefore we will have the appropriate code. And when we think about it, it's very easy to get into the mindset of we are not of this world, and therefore we will pour all of our efforts into our expression of religious profession, or the performance of our Christian duties, and that gives us a path to neglect our social duties. That's absolutely not the case according to what Paul says here. Now we have to keep things within the right type of context. Are there things which Christians cannot obey? And of course the answer is yes. When the commands of civil authorities promote evil instead of punishing it, or when they oppose good instead of rewarding it and furthering it, then there are times that the Christian must say no. So when the government tells people, kill your babies, the Christians say, no, just like the midwives did in Exodus chapter one. And when the government, when the civil authority says, you are now going to worship another God, Christians say, no, just as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did when they were told to fall down and worship another God. When the government says, you may no longer pray, which is essentially saying you may no longer worship, Christians say no, just as Daniel did in Daniel chapter six. And when the government says you are no longer permitted to preach the gospel, as the authorities told John and Peter in Acts chapter four, Christians say no. I will not obey that law that is in opposition to God's word. And when the government comes and tells you to renounce your faith, maybe some of you kids have seen the Torchlighter series, but one of them is about a young woman named Perpetua. And she was in the second century AD, a young noble woman, a Christian woman in Carthage, North Africa, and Roman persecution came in. And it was even with her own father pleading with her, Perpetua, please renounce your faith. Don't you love your parents? Don't you want to live? Because they told her renounce your faith or you'll die. And she said no. She said I cannot call myself by any other name except that I am a Christian. And so she did not agree to this law and she paid a martyr's death in saying no. So there are times to say no. But apart from those times, apart from objecting to those commands, to those laws that are undeniably abominable in the eyes of the Lord, Christians should be in every other respect exemplary royal citizens, even under the most pagan authority. And they are to, as Paul says, to be ready. Remind them to be ready. to be prepared, to be resolved in their hearts, willing to do God's will in any circumstance, ready for every good work. That's the purpose of their readiness, for every good work, noble deeds that are done for God, according to God's law and for his glory. And so government activities that Christians can and should support are given by their government as long as they do not violate their conscience. I was telling a couple men this morning on Friday, I was very undecided on an Old Testament passage. And so I thought to myself, I was gonna come in the sanctuary and I was gonna pick up that Bible over there. And normally when I come in and pick up that Bible, I just read from the Psalms. And I thought, I'm going to read from Ecclesiastes today. And I said, what chapter Andrew? Chapter 8. I don't know. Chapter 8. And I get to chapter 8 and I look right at that Bible and it says in verse 2, I say, keep the king's command. And that is how we got today's Old Testament reading. But it really is a remarkable thing to consider even in that passage there. It seems like in Ecclesiastes chapter 8 that the wisdom writer there is speaking to someone who directly serves the king as a king's advisor. And he's not telling him, you obey the king no matter what. He talks about having prudence, about having that wisdom that transforms the face in verse one. And he also talks about not getting caught up in things. Hey, when people come along and say, let's revolt against this king, he says, you don't do that. You obey the commandment of the king. So it's essentially, it's a passage that's similar to Romans chapter 13, but we find it in the Old Testament as well. But as we think about these good works, good works, maybe this is a bit of a provocative or shocking statement, but the only people who can do good works are Christians. The only ones. The only people who can do actions that truly please and glorify God are His called out, redeemed, transformed people. Now, what we're not saying is this, is unbelievers, they can do things that are outwardly beneficial or commendable. An unbeliever can help an old lady across the street. That's the quintessential example of a good work, helping old ladies across the street. They can do those things, and they can do things that are kind. They can act in forms of justice. But at the end of the day, if they have an unconverted, unregenerate heart, then any of their actions that they do, no matter how noble they seem in the eyes of the world, are not good in the eyes of God. They're not ultimately good because they don't come from a heart of faith, they don't have God's glory as their objective, and they don't come from a heart that's been purified by Christ. In Hebrews 11, 6, we see the writer of Hebrews saying, without faith, without saving faith, it is impossible to please him. Of course, Romans 3, 23, just talking about people in their pre-Christ state, says that all have sinned and they fall desperately short of the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10.31, Paul is talking to believers, and we just glaze over this because we've heard this verse a billion times, but he says, whatever you do, whatever you do, Christians, do all to the glory of God. How can they do all to the glory of God? Because God is within them. That's how they can do all to the glory of God. And in Ephesians chapter two, verse 10, Paul says, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And so Paul tells the Christians to be ready for every good work. I thought of Abraham. He's just sitting there in his tent in Genesis 18, and he sees these people approaching him. And what does he say? Does he say, just keep walking. This is private property. No, he runs. And what does he do? He ends up showing hospitality and he feeds them a meal. Of course he doesn't know that it's the Lord of hosts himself. This is the sense of having a readiness to lend a helping hand in time of need. Every, Paul says, every opportunity that comes upon us to do good. Of course, Jesus had said in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works. And what's the result of that? They give glory not to you, but they give glory to the Father who is in heaven. Now sometimes when we think of good works we think of the big noble efforts and we should at times. You think of just recently Hurricane Helene and we see all the work that Samaritan's Purse has done down in those states and those are some wonderful things. Or maybe it's those very unique circumstances where you see a car accident happen and you stop your car and you go see can I help these people. But it's not just those things, it's also, and probably much more often, just the simple acts of what we would call legal or lawful obedience. Doing the right thing, obeying the law, even when everybody else around you doesn't. So what do genuinely good works do? They point to the goodness of God because they are concerned with his glory. And when we obey the civil authorities, when we do these good works through our obedience, we actually create goodwill that allows us to have better gospel opportunities. It's harder to present the gospel to somebody after they just watched you break the law. It's a little bit more difficult. And in Romans 12, which is always great when you're studying Romans 13 with the submit yourselves to authority, go back to Romans 12 and read the verses that drive into Romans 13. But he talks about how through this type of submission, that this is how Christians prevail and gain victory over evil in Romans 12, 21. And so the practical lived out application of God's will for his people then, how do we see it? We see it in the evidence of good works or good conduct, and it happens in a humble spirit of godly wisdom. But in the second part of this then, where we relate to general society, Paul now, it's almost as if he just opens the door a little bit wider because we've gone from submitting to civil authority, which is a certain specific sphere, To now, it's everywhere. This is the true love your neighbor verse. And in verse two, he says, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, to show perfect courtesy toward all people. And essentially, if you look at this verse, you could break it into two statements. The first of which is, don't speak evil of anyone, instead be gentle. And the second one is, don't be quarrelsome, rather be courteous to everyone. So first, don't speak evil of anyone, rather be gentle. He says, speak evil of Most people? The people you like? No, he says no one. Speak evil of no one. That's an absolute type of statement there. We've talked about this back in Titus chapter two, about the sense of slander, reviling somebody, defaming a person, disparaging them, or the sense of accusing somebody wrongfully. Colossians 3.8. Paul says, but now you must put them all away and of course he's speaking to believers here. He says put these things away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk from your mouth. Paul tells the believer as you go out into the world he says you're not to speak evil of those who would provoke you most. And maybe you already have those who would provoke you most in your mind, but maybe you have a very contentious neighbor who just knows how to push the right buttons. Maybe you have a vindictive coworker who's trying to sabotage your work. Or maybe you have an unreasonable boss. Maybe you have an antagonizing family member that makes meals or gatherings very difficult. Paul says, speak evil of no one. When we speak evil of another person, we are saying that we show contempt for the imago Dei, which is the image of God. When we look at James 3, verse 7, James says, for every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it, we bless our Lord and Father, and with it, we also curse people, he says, who are made in the likeness of God. Have you ever thought about that? That as you open your mouth in anger, speaking evil of someone, that that's a person that God has created. And in a sense, you're saying, I don't think they're of the same worth that when God created me. A contempt for the Imago Dei. Now think of the ability to speak. We have this amazing gift from God, intelligible speech. No other creature has it. This is given to mankind in his exalted position and it's for the excellent purposes of God. How much does it cost you to speak well of somebody else? Nothing. No cost. But to speak evil of anyone, it brings harm to a society, and essentially it's a public display of hatred. Slander equates to spreading reports, or spreading reports to the disadvantage of your neighbor. trying to get ahead of them. It's the full opposite of loving your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 7, 12, so whatever you wish, Jesus said near the tail end of the Sermon on the Mount, so whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Have you ever thought to yourself, I really wish that somebody would speak evil of me today? Probably not. It's the one who dwells in God's holy habitation, which is the Christian. That's the one that the psalmist says in Psalm 15, that person doesn't slander with their tongue. That person doesn't do evil to their neighbor. Think of another verse by Jesus, and this comes at the tail end of a longer statement that he was making, but he talks about how from out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander. And you're probably familiar with that passage where he talks about the food that you eat, the food you eat, your body digests it and it is expelled. And when you think about that example, you might think to yourself, that's kind of gross. I don't want to think about that which the body expels. But what is one of the reasons that Jesus is bringing that up? Because when we expel things like slander, we don't even have the same distaste in our heart for thinking about how badly that grieves God than we do about this mental picture of that which the body excretes. And there is a parallel there. He's saying this is what is distasteful to God, and it comes from an impure heart. So he says, don't do that, instead be gentle. This is the sense too of, if you go back to the Ten Commandments, every commandment is not, it's not just a don't do this, it's an instead, completely do this. Don't covet that which your neighbor has, instead do everything you can for the advantage of your neighbor. And here he says, instead be gentle. A gentle person is someone who doesn't insist on every right that may apply to them, someone who's fair, someone who's patient, someone who's forbearing. We see this word in 1 Timothy 3.3 as an elder qualification of gentleness. Think of the gentleness of Joseph. He reveals himself to his brothers. He could have had them all beheaded and yet He gently and kindly draws them to himself saying, this was God's will. Or the kindness of David. He invites that young cripple Mephibosheth to his table. In 2 Samuel chapter 9. So this gentleness is someone who's calm, kind, considerate. And this is particularly in interactions that may provoke frustration or anger within us. He says, don't do that. Be gentle. Number two, don't be quarrelsome, rather be courteous to everyone. Quarreling, this means to be peaceable, a non-fighter. This is not just talking about with words, this is talking about with hands as well. So this means no verbal or physical quarreling. This is a person who is without battle. Now what types of things Are people prone to quarrel about? To fight about? How about unmet expectations? You have a contractor do some work at your house, and you think he's doing this, and he thinks he's doing this. You're ready to quarrel with him. What about when you're talking and someone interrupts you? Excuse me, I was speaking. Or maybe on the flip side, are you listening to me? Misunderstandings or unclear communication. Have you ever gotten a text or an email and you said, I can't believe they spoke to me like that? How about decisions that you watch other people make and you think you know better? Well, I don't know about that thing that they did, I think I know what the right thing to do there was and they don't and you're ready to quarrel about it. What about when people do things that trample upon our rights? What if someone cuts you off in line or they take that parking spot that you were just about to drive into and you're ready to start World War III over it? Do you know how long I've been waiting? Genesis chapter 26, we see a great example of a non-quarreling follower of God. This is Abraham's son Isaac, and it says, Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, and the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, the water is ours. They're ready to fight. So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also. So he called its name Sitna and he moved from there and dug another well. And they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth saying, for now the Lord has made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land. It's a great example of avoiding quarreling and instead showing perfect or all courtesy. This is the words, or you might think of the words humility, or meekness, considerateness. These are, you could say, the Christians' new clothes. In Colossians chapter three, Paul says, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. bearing with one another, and he goes on to talk about forgiveness as well. Do you remember when Miriam and Aaron, they spoke against their own brother? They're speaking against their own brother. What could Moses have done? Maybe he tried to hit him with his rod or something but instead of being indignant, which he could have been and maybe we could even argue that he should have been, he displays this humility and meekness knowing that the Lord will judge and even goes to intercede for Miriam. Jesus said, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. And where do these two qualities of meekness and gentleness come from? They come from the Lord himself. Now, I had initially thought of Matthew chapter 11, but in 2 Corinthians 10, 1, Paul says, I, Paul, myself, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Now, these qualities that Paul's calling for Christians, to do, to display. He's not saying be a doormat, let people walk all over you, let people punch you in the face. That's not what he's talking about here, but he's talking about things that require a transformation of the heart, an inner strength that comes from within that demonstrates Christlikeness. But the last part can certainly be difficult, because he says this is toward all people, all kinds of people, whether it's the king, whether it's the person in the streets begging, and everywhere in between, everyone, and the focus here is far more than just on the household of God, but it's on unbelievers, the unsaved world. And so we have this task, we have this assignment that comes from God. through the Apostle Paul. And you might feel in a certain way, feels impossible, Paul. I don't know that I can do that. But any task, any assignment that comes from God will surely also be accompanied by God-given grace. God is the one who takes the impossible and makes the impossible possible. He takes what is impossible through our own human efforts and he makes it possible through something, and that's through the indwelling power that his people have, the Spirit of God. But I would ask you this morning, do you have that? So of course, if you don't have that, then you can't do anything that Paul's talking about. You can't do any of these things in a way that will please God if you do not have the indwelling power of God. And so I ask you, do you have that? We call that, do you believe the gospel? You look at the gospel, which is in a very basic condensed form, is just that Jesus died for sinners. But as you approach that knowledge of it, and the knowledge of the gospel doesn't come from looking up in the sky, it doesn't come through somebody who just says, I believe in God. There's many people who believe in God. The demons believe in God. But it comes through the revelation, as we just saw last week, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which comes through his word. And when you are presented with the gospel, it actually demands a response from you. It's not saying, well, you can think about this. It demands a response from its hearers. And if you think about your life in this way, think about your life as if you are walking across a tightrope. And we'll even just say it's over a canyon. And this isn't about whether or not you are a sure-footed person or not. But think about from that tight rope, the different types of ways that people go. There's people who everything in life is going completely fine. And they probably seem in their minds to have the most sure footing of any person walking across a rope. They're not worried about anything. They can pay their bills. They have the cars, the houses, everything that they need, good health. And of course, you can also have people who are on the opposite side of that. They're afraid of even taking another step because all of those things that are going well in someone else's life seem to be going the complete opposite in their life. But it really doesn't come down to how confident you feel because it comes down to the law scourging your heart. The law bringing you under conviction that when God says you should not covet and who has not broken his law to covet, that the law says you're in great, great trouble. And as confident as that person can be walking on that rope, God may just snip the cord at any time and say, your soul will now be required of you this very moment. He gives that parable of the man who says, I have so much stuff, I can't even fit it into this big barn here. I'm gonna build five more. And he says, you're a fool because tonight is the night that God will require your soul of you. And so wherever you are walking on that rope, no matter how confidently you are, I ask you, how have you responded to the demands of the gospel? Have you turned from your sin and embraced Christ? Seeing that there is perfect refuge to be found in him, seeing that he alone is the one who can reconcile your soul to God? Or are you just going to walk along saying some other time, I feel pretty good on the rope right now. Believer, when we look at Second Corinthians 9.8 we see this wonderful verse. I think is perfectly applicable to these commands here where it says God is able, meaning God has all the power. We don't need the power because God has it. God is able to make all grace, overflowing grace, abound to you. So that, that's a result, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. And so the ability to do these things comes through the power and through the grace of God in the heart of the believer. Now, just as we had seen in chapter 2, when we get to next week, we're going to see a similar thing where Paul says, do this, and that's what we've looked at today. It's the do this, but he's going to give a little bit more of the foundation. He wants to remind his hearers. When we get to these verses of 3 through 7 or perhaps 3 through 8 next week, Again, wonderful providence by God because those verses should make us pour forth in thanksgiving from our hearts to God of everything that we were. The reason that we can do good works is because of God's salvation. So we're going to get to those verses. But God is able to make all grace abound to you, believer today. Read that verse, receive those words of Christ to your soul this morning, that God is able to make all grace abound to you. We have an eternal, we have an imperishable inheritance that Peter says is undefiled, that's unfading, it's kept in heaven by Christ himself for us. And so that's what we look at. We look at that inheritance that God has provided for us. And so it doesn't matter whether or not we live under Nero or we live under the circumstances of the civil authorities that we have here in the United States. It's with that in mind that we're supposed to be living here as royal citizens showing this world, through our obedience, through our good works, through our submission, that Christ has indeed transformed our hearts, that we are prepared to do every good work for the glory of God. Shall we pray? Father in heaven, we bow before you this morning. And perhaps, Lord, thinking of the many ways and the many times that we resist authority, that we are unprepared to do good works, that we have disobedient hearts, or perhaps speaking evil of one another. But Lord, we also remember the immeasurable gift of your grace, that every single sin that we have committed and are yet to commit was nailed to the cross with Jesus himself, paid in full, Our actions are simply a display of our love to you, O Lord. We cannot earn or merit favor with you and we rest in that. That is a wonderful thing to our hearts. And so, Lord, I pray that today that you will take that gospel truth of the finished work of Christ and stamp that deeply in our hearts. and allow that to be the foundation from which good works spring forth, showing you, O Lord, our reciprocal love back to you. I pray for those who are in great need of your grace this morning, that you will pour forth your grace upon them, and we ask these things in the name of Jesus, amen.