Take your Bibles, please, and turn to Titus chapter number three. We're going to finish up the book of Titus, and then I'm giving serious consideration to go into the book of Hebrews on Sunday nights. Of course, Hebrews would be one of the most difficult books we've tackled so far. Hebrews. So you pray that God would give me wisdom to know what book we need to tackle next on Sunday night. Fathers, we open Your Word tonight. We need to hear from You. We need to thank You often for the privilege of being able to hold the Word of God in our hands. It's difficult for us to imagine, God, that there are thousands of years of men and women following You Holding a Bible in their hands Following you from oral tradition from oral Communication getting a word from God Abraham get up and follow me Amazing Father may we never lose our hunger for your word in Jesus name. Amen So here we are devotion to good works is our title tonight. I I have no idea why those slides are like that. It looks like we're in widescreen or something, Jonathan. Chapter 3 tells us how are we going to live our life in this pagan world. And he says, this is a faithful saying. We've looked at verse number eight before. We pick it up one more time. Chattis chapter three, verse number eight. This is a faithful saying. This is something that we can count on. This is a dependable saying. These things I will that thou would affirm constantly. The body of Christ needs to be reminded of these things that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. Those who believe in God, those who call themselves Christians, those who affirm their faith might be dedicated to, might be devoted to doing good works. These things are... I think they're messing with me now because it won't go. These things are good and profitable is what he says. Ephesians 2, 8, 9. You're familiar with that verse, right? 4 by... are you? Yeah. Continue, please. Not of works lest any man should boast. And so we're all so confident in that single verse, but how about this one? How about verse 10? For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Hey, let's remind ourselves tonight, right now, that the only reason we're still on this planet breathing is to do good works. Let's remind ourselves, the only reason we're left here, the only reason you're still here, why not call us home? Why not bring us home to be with God? Why not take us? Let's go. The only reason you're still here in that classroom, in that place of work, Tim, is to keep doing good works. Keep discipling young men like Andrew, bringing them to Jesus. Keep staying with them. Keep sticking to them. Keep befriending them. Keep discipling. That's why we're still here. We're still here for that reason. We were left to do these good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So how could anyone, how could anyone have any confidence That they are a new work in Christ if there aren't any new works happening. I want you to think about that. Don't run over that. How could anyone be confident, yes, I'm a new work. God has done a new work in me. I'm born again. I'm a new creature in Christ if there's no new works accompanying that. If there's nothing different. If there's no change. If you can't remember, I used to be that way, but now I'm this way. Why are you saying this? To remind us of the importance of these works. We're not called to sit on a couch. There are too many couch potato Christians. Get up and do something for the body of Christ do something for the cause of Christ. These are good and profitable unto all men First number nine But avoid foolish questions genealogies Contention strivings about the law for they are unprofitable and vain. I ask this question of Why do you believe, or what do you think the relationship is between verse 8 and verse 9? I want to ask you, what do you think the relationship is between maintaining the good works that's described in verse number 8, and then it goes right into, but avoid foolish questions. What does that say to you about what it's probably talking about with the good works? Yeah, right, Mike. But I think we can even take it even more specific. For example, if the good work you're doing is taking a little old lady to the grocery store once a week, and that's a good work. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. That is a good work. Taking a little old lady to the grocery store once a week would be a good work. But you probably will not get into foolish questions, genealogy, contention, and striving about the law. Okay? Alright, building a porch for someone, taking them groceries, those are all fine, those are good works. But I'm going to suggest to you that I bet you the good work that he's primarily talking about is sharing Jesus. Because, notice the relationship, but avoid foolish questions and analogies. You're not going to get into foolish questions taking a little old lady to the grocery store. But you start sharing Jesus at work. You start telling people about your faith. You start taking Jesus and the doctrine of Christ, the person at work of Christ, into your secular employment and see if you don't get into this. See if you don't get into this. Because you start with that exclusivity of Jesus. Go ahead and make that claim. Go ahead and whip that out there. Jesus is the only way. You Christians believe that Jesus is the only way. Before you know it, you're going to be into foolish questions, genealogy, contentious strivings about the law. Think about Christ's encounter with the woman at the well. What did she want to do? She wanted to take, well, some say worship here, some say worship there. Didn't she want to go this direction? She wanted to get into a debate with Jesus. Isn't that what she was doing? Why is it that people want to get into debates with you about these foolish questions? Why is that, church? It takes the heat off of them with regard to Jesus. Takes the heat off them. Let's get that off there. Get on the foolish questions. Get on the genealogies. Get on the nonsense. Pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib. I don't mean that to be nonsense. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. But in relationship to the doctrine of the person and work of Christ, it is a secondary issue. Christ died. That's the central message of the Gospel. Whether He's coming again before the Tribulation, in the middle of the Tribulation, or after the Tribulation, He's coming again. Alright, so many people are willing to talk to you about Revelation and all that stuff, but you start talking to them about their sin and their need for a Savior, and they want to redirect. So I'm going to suggest to you that the good work that He's telling us that we're primarily here to do in verse number 8 is to share Christ. It's to share Christ. What is the greatest good work we can do? I think this 1 Peter 3 15 tells us. It's to give an answer to every man that asks you the reason of the hope that's in you. I think that's the greatest good work that you can do. I think the greatest good work you can do is tell somebody why you have a hope for eternal life. Why you have a hope for a future. And I'm going to submit to you, we're not doing enough of that. We need to be, I need to be, the body of Christ needs to be consciously making friendships with unbelievers with the express purpose of building a relationship to give them an answer when they are crying for some hope. So we've got to live that godly life so that when they hit that rock bottom valley and they are in need of somebody to reach out to and give them an answer, you're right there standing by ready to give that answer. Which means we've got to know unbelievers. We've got to know lost people. We've got to build relationships with lost people. We've got to know who they are. We've got to be praying for them. We've got to be praying to be used of them. And then when God gives us an opportunity, we open our mouth and just start sharing the truth. We start sharing the truth. We just start sharing and sharing and sharing and sharing. And when they want to take us over here on foolishness and wide questions, we entertain that for a minute and we bring it right back to Jesus. We bring it right back to Jesus because that's what they need to hear. So what are the 21st century things that fall under this Titus 2-9? Let's talk about them right now. We mentioned one already. That's pre-, mid-, post-tribulation. The various things that pertain to the second coming. What else would be another example of something else? Talk to me, church. What would be another Titus 3-9 thing? Talk to me. What would be another Titus 3-9 thing? Bible versions. Absolutely. Who said that? Joby absolutely Bible translations issues would easily be something that you could get divided diverted on We've got preachers that preach on that once a month in their churches Hey, listen, you can get born again with or without it. I mean I'm telling you right now That is a ridiculous thing to get way down in the weeds over there are far too many important things to get over What's another one? Alcohol that would be another one you Christians in and they really want to press you on that issue and deal with that Maybe just the Word of God's clear on it and then go move right on to the focus of Christ. What would be another one? Discrepancies in the Bible. Yeah. Oh the Bible is full of lies will show me one. Yep. That would definitely be one Okay, I think is not a foolish thing now sister we need you to I Just kidding, just kidding, just kidding. You can't get a preacher to say that. Alright, okay. Yep. Alright, what else? What's another example of something that people want to debate about? Music would be clearly something that they want to go down the road with. Music. Again, those are secondary issues. We do not focus on those kind of issues. We keep them focused on what's important. The essential doctrines of salvation. Profitable. Profitable. Good works are profitable now and the life to come. Verse number 10. Verse number 10. Look at 10, please. A man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition rejects. Paul said it like this in Romans 6, 17. He said, Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them that which cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you've learned, and avoid them. So here's what I want to tell you. You don't have to agree with everything that's delivered from this pulpit. We're going to have disagreements. No question about that. That's fine to have disagreements. You know what's not fine? To be divisive about it in the body of Christ. That's what's not fine. You can say, I don't see it that way. That's not my understanding. And it stops at that point. It stops. We can agree to disagree on something. Now, I'm not talking about the essential doctrines. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. We're not going to divide over and you're going to stay over the person and work of Jesus Christ. I'm talking about those differences that people have different views on. But wait a minute, wait a minute. What happens when this heretic, that's divisive person, begins to create factions within the body of Christ? That's when it becomes an issue. That's why Paul says, mark them that cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned. You do not have to agree with anything that's coming out of the pulpit on Sunday morning. But what you cannot do is go back in the narthex and form a little coalition around you and start pulling people to yourself and discussing it and saying, let's have a little conference about this. That's the difference. Paul described a false teacher as a divisive person. Here's the Greek word right there. The term heresy and heretic are derived from this Greek word. Although this adjective appears only here in the New Testament, the noun is found in other areas. It speaks of creating factions or parties within the church. So, here's what the Word of God says very clearly in Titus 3.10. You get two warnings. You get two warnings. Look at verse number 10. Look back at it so you see what it says. Here's the guidance. Paul to Titus, a man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, rejects. You get two warnings. Hey brother, this has got to stop. You're causing division in the body of Christ. You can't do that. You can disagree all you want, but you can't go around causing division in the body of Christ. You can't be rallying factions around yourself. Doesn't hear it. He gets told it a second time. I'm talking about Matthew 18, folks. Isn't that Matthew 18? Step 1. Step 2. Step 3. It's very clear. You should be familiar with this. 18, 15, 16, 17. It's right in that section of Scripture. You get two warnings, and after that, reject him. The word reject is a formal rejection. Reject describes the final stage of church discipline. A divisive person who refuses to repent and change after being confronted, chose himself to be twisted by his sin and thus being condemned. The New Testament teaches a balance between lovingly seeking repentance and it's equally clear that we are not to avoid and ignore and stick our head in the sand when we see sin in the body of Christ. We can't do that. Dee Heibert said, further efforts would not be a good stewardship of his time and energies and would give the offender an undeserved sense of importance. Let me make this real practical. For all those of you that work in very secular environments, and there's all kinds of conversations going on where you work at. Don't spend too much time in those conversations. You have got men that will debate you till Christ comes again. They have no desire to come to Christ. They just want to use up your time. They just want to use up your time. Once you identify that person is there just to debate, they just love to debate, recognize that and stop wasting your time with them. Go on to somebody else who is ready to hear the gospel. You don't go to work every day to debate theology with somebody. You go to work first and foremost to do what your employer expects you to do, to glorify God in that faction. When you get a chance, give the answer. If they're not interested in the answer, you're done. You've laid it out. You've shown them the truth. You don't keep on going and going and going and going and going and going. Because this is in fact a waste of time, is what he's communicating. Sometimes we stay engaged in the debate with a lost person because we have this idea that winning someone through Christ is the same as winning an intellectual debate. Do we all understand in the body of Christ that it's not a matter of winning intellectual debates? That the gospel has to have, the heart has to be opened by the gospel? That it's not a matter of we're going to debate global warming and in the same way that we debate global warming, we're going to debate the person and work of Jesus Christ. We can debate global warming all day long and God's not going to open a heart the same way when you're showing the person and work of Jesus Christ and all of a sudden it just makes sense to them. Why why did it make sense? Because the Holy Spirit did that work the Holy Spirit did that work the Holy Spirit busted that heart wide open And so you plant the seed and then you go you plant the seed and then you go Let's look at verses 12 13 14 and 15 as we get into these final instructions I want to show you two ideas one from 12 13 and 15 and then one from 14 when I shall send Artemis unto thee or techie techie cuss. Maybe I don't know somebody pronounce it for me. I do much better once I hear it Thank you be diligent to come unto me to Nick Nickopolis, is that fair? Is that decent Nickopolis good enough? All right, brother. Thank you That's a good endorsement for I have determined there to winter All right, bring the lawyer Bring Apollos unto their journey diligently, that nothing be wanting unto them. And then verse 15. All that are with me salute thee, greet them that love us in the faith. Grace be to you. Amen. What's the value? What's the value in these final instructions including names and places? What's the value in that? Why does the Word of God have these names? Why does the Word of God have these specific places in them? What value do we get in having this in there? Why didn't Paul just cut it off on his last theological instruction? Why include these names and specific people that we're never going to meet? Well, perhaps we meet them in heaven, but but you understand what I mean? They don't have any relevance us today. What value do they have? Let me show you You see the city right here. This is nico polis necropolis Yes y'all with me Alright, that's a legitimate city We could go there and visit it when I google that city I can find out all kinds of information about it and It lets me know that this was a Greek city, and that there was a great battle there, and that's why it was named that way. It has nothing to do with the New Testament. What is the point? What are you bringing that to our attention for, preacher? What do I gain out of that? Think with me. What do you gain out of that? Absolutely. Additional knowledge. I get confidence. I get authenticity out of it. Get hey, this is a real city. There was somebody there. They actually went there. Paul was probably hanging out there All right. Let me give you an example This is omni 112, you know, we're omni 112 comes from you got that in your Bible No, it's comes from the Book of Mormon Comes from the Book of Mormon. All right, the Book of Mormon's got a city in there Zarahema All right, google that And you know what you find out The only references to that city are found from Mormon websites. Nothing. Nothing. It's not a real place. It's a made-up place. There's no information about that. You can't go to Britannica Encyclopedia and find out any information about that. When you go to Wikipedia, which isn't a legitimate source, I say that for all the English teachers. They're glad I said that. It's not a legitimate source. But if you happen to go to Wikipedia and you look up that city, what you're going to find is, according to the Church of Latter-day Saints, Mormons believe this is a lost city. That's what you're going to get. Now, when you go to Wikipedia and you read about Nicolopolis, you don't hear, according to Christians, no, you don't hear any of that. It doesn't even make reference to Paul being there. Because it's a legitimate city. My point is this. One book is true, and one book is a pack of lies out of the pit of hell. Do you understand that Joseph Smith made all that garbage up? Do you understand that he should have been a movie director or a movie writer or something like that? He got an incredible science fiction movie. Making up cities, making up people, making up travels, creating this fictitious people that left Jerusalem, traveled all this way. There's no evidence. There's not a shred of evidence in anything that he says. Do you understand that those names are included in your Bible so that the early church could recognize that book as canonical? Being up to the standard, making the canon list. Because either Paul's lying and there is no lawyer, or everybody knew who that lawyer was. And they could say, yeah, we know that lawyer, and he is an associate of Paul. We know that city. Yes, that's a great place to win her. We know those two guys. They do have a good testimony. We know him. He said that. What I'm telling you is you don't have a book created in a closet that was made up. You've got an actual letter that was given to the man Titus and includes other names, has real locations, It gives you confidence, church, that this is the Word of God. That it was written by Paul, who was a real human being, walked and talked on the planet, was fully convinced who Jesus was, and sold his whole life out to that fact. Here's the clever little map made up of this place right here. You look at it. Go ahead. Spend a little time this week. You don't have anything better to do. Turn off American Idol and do something productive. Boy, there's some people shaking their heads. No, they're addicted to that show. They're not turning that thing off. This is ridiculous. West Sea, East Sea. This is all made up by the Church of Latter-day Saints. Now, are you surprised about that? Are you surprised at the depth of deception that's found in the Mormon Church? You shouldn't be. The father of the Mormon Church is the number one deceiver ever to walk on the planet Earth, ever to be involved. He is the father of lies. So you shouldn't be amazed that there's an incredible depth of deception going on. Verse 14, and we'll begin to wrap it up. And let ourselves learn to maintain or devote ourselves to good works for necessary uses that they, that's the body of Christ, be not unfruitful. What does it mean to be unfruitful? Let me give you some ideas. Go ahead, Art. Mark 12 2 says and at the season he sent unto the husband a servant that he might receive from the husband of the fruit of the vineyard a simple verse a real simple verse But what is this verse communicate? What is this verse communicate? God expects you to produce fruit keys God expects you to produce fruit. God expects you to produce. He's not okay with you not producing fruit. He's not okay with you not doing that. He builds, He creates a vineyard. He plants something there. He waters it. He fertilizes it. And when He goes out, He's expecting to find something. He's not expecting you to tell Him, God, I took that one talent and I buried it because I knew you were a mean, austere kind of dude. And here it is. I have nothing. Do you recall, church, that that man's called a wicked person? The one that brought nothing forward? We are expected to do something with our talents. I'm just going to be kind of rude right now. How is it, church, that on Sunday morning the pews are nearly all full, and on Sunday night there's room everywhere? Do we understand? Do we have any degree of understanding that when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, we are going to regret the number of hours we wasted on stupid stuff? Go ahead, Art. Turn to Luke 13, please. Luke 13. I've got to remind us tonight that God expects something out of us. I've got to remind us tonight that this church is expected to do something. That we as individuals are expected to do something. Please look at verse 6, beginning in chapter 13 of the book of Luke. He's making all sorts of parables. A certain man had a fig tree, planted it in his vineyard, and he came and sought fruit thereof, and he found none. Then said he unto the dresser of the vineyard, Behold, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none. Cut it down. Why cumbereth it the ground? And so he said unto him, Let it alone this year also, till I should dig about it, and fertilize it, and stung it. And if it bear fruit well, if not, then afterward thou shalt cut it down." Wow. Can you imagine if God was talking to you? You're the fig tree. Individually, you're the fig tree. You're individually the fig tree. What would He say? What would He say about your life? If God was looking at my life, what would He say? What would He say about your life? This month, next month, third month, third year, fourth year, fifth year, are you ever going to produce any fruit? Go ahead, Art. How about Luke 3, 9? Now also, axe is laid unto the root of the trees. Every tree thereof which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Church, is this faith without works is dead? Is that what we're dealing with right here? Is that what we're dealing with? Is that why it's cast into the fire? Because true converts produce fruit? Is that what we're dealing with here? Because it's very clear here that a tree that doesn't produce fruit is hewn down, is cut down. So are we dealing with the fact that God expects us to produce fruit as Christians? That God's not okay for us to put a little faith in Jesus and then go back to living our life the way we want? What does unfruitful look like at the judgment seat of Christ? Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter number 3, and let's remind ourselves of what the future holds for us if you're a Christian tonight. 1 Corinthians chapter number 3, please. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. What's your life going to be like? According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereof. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. Let every man, let every male, let every woman, let every teenager, let every young person, let every single born-again Christian in this room take heed how he builds upon the foundation that Jesus and the apostles laid. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, Wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest. For the day shall declare it. Because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet as so by fire. Imagine if I could tell you right now and I can't but imagine if I could tell you right now and I can't That God was keeping track of every single minute you read your Bible and every single minute you watch sports on the television and that you were gonna stand in front of him someday and you were gonna answer for every single minute that you watch sports instead of reading your Bible Now I'm not I can't don't misunderstand what I'm saying, I don't know how he's gonna judge I We get a little picture. I don't know how he's going to judge. I don't know how he's going to judge. But I'm just suggesting to you that we might need to turn the television off. Because we're going to stand and give an account. We're going to give an account for how we manage our time. We're going to give an account for what our priorities are. Yes, we're justified. Yes, we're justified. No question about it. We are born again. If you're born again, you're justified. I'm not taking away from the doctrine of justification in any way, shape or form. I'm not taking away from that doctrine. That is a glorious doctrine to know that my sins are forgiven. But I was left on this planet to do something more than track football. You say, get off the football preacher, whatever it is. Whatever it is, folks, it doesn't necessarily have to be football. Whatever it is. Whatever it is. We're going to answer. We're going to answer for our lives. That's very clear. So what does unfruitful look like? Unfruitful looks like lots of hay, lots of wood, lots of stubble, and it's all burnt up. And when it's over, there's nothing left. There's nothing left. Go over to 2 Corinthians with me, please. Let's look at the parallel passage in 2 Corinthians 5.10. 2 Corinthians 5.10. This is a verse that you should have memorized. This is a verse you should have marked, underlined, highlighted in your Bible. This is a verse that we are to be reminded of. I need to be reminded of it. The body of Christ needs to be reminded of it. Every teenager needs to hear these words, please. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or whether it be bad. Now you think about what you do in your life. You think about what's priorities in your life. You think about what consumes your time. You think about what's number one to you. And you ask yourself, is that an appropriate number one? Is God okay with this? Is God okay with me? Are you ready to stand before Him and account for that? I'm not. Look at the previous verse. Verse 9. Wherefore, We labor that whether present or absent We may be accepted of him now don't misunderstand. We're justified So that accepted is not whether you get into heaven or not We're justified that accepted is pleasing pleasing We labor now on this earth Absent from being with him or present with him in either case whether it's when I arrived that side of glory or right now Is he pleased with me? Is he okay with you Does he look down and say well done now good and faithful servant. Keep it up. You're on the right track Or is he ready to make some midstream corrections How'd they get so off course Look at verse number 11, please. Verse 11. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Please listen to me. Please listen. This is so important. If anyone ever asks you, why is the preacher so fired up on Sunday mornings? It's this verse right here. And this is fine. You need to explain it to them. If everyone says, is he always like that? Just tell them. Just tell them. Folks, I'm afraid we don't understand the terror of the Lord. I'm afraid that when we see Him and the host of glory and the army of the Lord, we are instantly going to go, Can I get a do-over, God? Can I do it again, God? Can I preach that sermon one more time, God? We persuade men. We persuade men. Knowing the terror of the Lord. Knowing the terror of the Lord. We persuade men. We rally with them. We passionately urge them. Follow Jesus. Why? Why would we do that? Why would we do that? Because of the fear of the Lord. Because of the fear of the Lord. We have such a misunderstanding of the judgment seat of Christ. We think it's going to be all accolades, accolades, accolades, accolades. Oh, it's going to be bad. No, no. There is a reason why He has to wipe away our tears. There is a reason why our tears have to be wiped away. We are going, I am, Sean Harris is going to say, what was I thinking? How did I get so off course? How did I get so wrapped up in the affairs of man that I forgot what I was here for? Listen to me, church. I think we ought to vote. I think it's fine to vote. It's proper to vote. But our citizenship is in the Kingdom of God. First and foremost. Is it right and proper to do it? Sure. But let me tell you something. When you are putting more energy into a political party than you are the kingdom of God, you are upside down, folks. You are upside down. You are upside down. When you are putting more energy into a sports team than the kingdom of God, you are upside down. You're upside down. Can I tell you right now, nobody's going to be talking about the Cowboys or the Steelers on the other side of glory land. Now, there's nothing wrong with it. It's great. I enjoy it. You enjoy it. It's fine. Get yourself 30 minutes. Enjoy a good game. But let me just tell you something. When we're consumed with it, we know we're upside down. He says, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. We persuade men. We go to bat with men. We go to bat for the cause of Christ. That's the good work, church. That's the good work. Go ahead, Art. This thing's just giving us fits tonight. All right, we're not going to look at this chapter, but I'm going to ask you to please read this chapter this week. John 15. Would you write down John 15, 1 through 16, and would you read it sometime this week? John 15, 1 through 16. Would you read it sometime this week? This is the commissioning. This is why you're here, disciples. This is why I'm leaving you here. I need to hear this reminder, and I hope you do as well. Let's close in prayer. Pastor Steve and the deacons, if you could make your way forward. Father God in heaven, as we prepare for this time of the Lord's Supper, I would ask that you would please help us to examine our lives.