Hello and welcome to our broadcast today. We begin a new series in the little book of Titus Have your Bible ready if you can Not too many people in the Bible have a book named after them. There's about 3,200 people mentioned in the Bible, and a few of them have a book that goes by their name, and Titus is one of those people. It's interesting that Abraham doesn't have a book of Abraham, and Moses doesn't have a book of Moses, and even Paul doesn't have a book of Paul, even though he wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. But here we have this book of Titus. Titus. Who was Titus? Well, he was a Greek to start with. He wasn't a Jew. He was from Antioch, and they had a very strong church there. It says in Acts chapter 11 and verse number 21, the hand of the Lord was with them. And verse number 23 of Acts 11 says that the grace of God was with them. so in Acts number 11 and 25 we read that Barnabas went to get Paul and bring him to Antioch because Paul was the one who understood how things were to be done in the local church. Well somewhere along the trail there, Paul led Titus to the Lord. He's called his own son in the faith here in this book of Titus. Well, he was there for a year, Paul was, teaching, and it didn't take very long that Titus was traveling with Paul. We read in Galatians chapter 2 that he went to that meeting in Jerusalem, that very important council meeting. In Galatians 2 and 1, Paul said he took Titus with him. Now, Paul was not an easy fellow to work with, I'm sure. Well, you know, he's kind of like that cough medicine that doesn't taste good, but it works. He had some strong bitter medicine. He didn't mess around. And it's too bad we don't have more preachers like that today. But, you know, you remember the story of John Mark when John Mark deserted and quit on him. And then later, you know, they wanted to take John Mark with them again, Barnabas did, and no way, he's not coming with us. Paul was, you know, it took him years to get over the fact that Mark had forsaken them at a time of need, but he did get over it. You read it at the end of the series we just did, as a matter of fact, in 2 Timothy. He said, bring Mark with you, for he is profitable to me for the gospel. Well, Titus, he did a lot of things in the Bible. He raised funds for the churches at Jerusalem. He traveled with Paul. Paul referred to him in 2 Corinthians 2.13 as Titus, my brother. In 2 Corinthians 7.6, he talked about being comforted by the coming of Titus. And he said in 2 Corinthians 8.16, Titus has a heart for you. Titus is quite a fella. And so Paul is writing to Titus. And what he's writing to him for, we see in chapter one and verse number five, that as the pastor there, he is to set in order the things that are wanting. Now there's the key to understanding this little book. First Timothy and Second Timothy and Titus were all written to the pastor. Now a lot of these letters that we see in the New Testament were written to the saints at Corinth or the saints at Ephesus or wherever. These three books in particular, were written to the pastor, which gives us the context of what was going on. Also, the seven letters in the Book of Revelation, we sometimes refer to those as the seven letters to the seven churches. Actually, they were seven letters to seven pastors. Each one of those letters starts out saying to the angel, the word means messenger there in each particular church, which of course is the pastor. And so yes, he was to preach those letter, those messages to the churches in each case, but it was written to the pastor. So if we want to get an idea how things ought to be done, those of us that are pastors, we need to focus on first Timothy, second Timothy, the book of Titus and those seven letters. And we can learn how things ought to be done or not done. as the case may be in our local church and our ministry and our responsibilities in the church. Now we'll see as we go through this little book that the first thing that is wanting, he said, I want you to set in order the things that are wanting was the positions of leadership. And he gives them that in chapter one, verses five through nine. He said, this is what you need to do in that area. This is what is wanting then he said what else is wanting in chapter 2 and verse 1 sound? Doctrine and then his plan for the congregation is good works. You'll see the word works in verse 16 of chapter 1 chapter 2 verse 7 and 14 chapter 3 verse 5 and 8 and 4 and 14 again, you'll see the word works good works now James put it this way faith and without works is dead. Matter of fact, you have the word faith and works in seven verses in the book of James. When he's talking about faith, he's talking about doctrine, what we believe as Christians. He's not talking about, you know, unless you have works, you're not saved. That's not what he said. He said if you have faith, what you believe, and you don't have any works to go with it, your faith is dead. Your works will tell you what kind of Christian you are, if you're working for the Lord or if you're not. Well, there's two people in Paul's life we just, there's more than that, but we've been talking about two, and we just finished a series of messages concerning Paul and Timothy, and now we're gonna look at Paul and Titus. Timothy is mentioned by name seven times in the Bible, and Titus is actually mentioned 13 times in the Bible. So we're looking at chapter 1 and verse number 1. He says, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness. Now, first he starts out here and he says, Paul, a servant. That's very interesting. Quite often you will find that he started his letters, he says, Paul, an apostle. He said that in Corinthians, when he wrote the Galatians, the Ephesians, the Colossians, and he started out that way in 1st and 2nd Timothy. Twice, Paul talked about being an apostle, being a servant and an apostle, and we find that in Romans chapter 1 and verse number 1, and Titus chapter 1 and verse number 1. one now here he says he's a servant he puts that first a bond slave is what this is referring to a bond slave now if you get back in the book of exodus and 21 and you see what it says about slaves there was some laws and uh they could only keep a slave for so many years had to let them go if one of them decided they wanted to stay with their master they could be a bond slave now the difference between an ordinary slave and a bond slave was a bond slave had absolutely no rights. No rights whatsoever. He could own nothing and he didn't have any rights. Now, Paul said, that's what I am. By choice, I am a bond slave. Now, there's a few people in the Bible in the New Testament that referred to themselves as bond slaves. Paul was one, Timothy, James, Peter, and Jude all referred to themselves as being bond slaves. Having absolutely no right, they made that decision. Now, as I mentioned earlier, there's over 3,200 people named in the Bible, but Matthew 7 and 14, Jesus said, when it comes to those who really want to be close to him, he said, few there be. that find it. He was not talking about few finding their way to heaven in that portion of scripture. Read it carefully. He was talking to Christians and only Christians about walking the narrow path, and he said, few there be. There's going to be very few who really want to be bond slaves who will say, I don't own anything. Everything I have belongs to God, and I have no rights. God can do with me whatever he wants to do with me. Well, that's what Paul was. Paul a servant, and, he says, an apostle. And that, too, is interesting, because him and Titus had been friends. They were very good friends, like he and Timothy were good friends. But he's writing here in a very official manner, and he's saying, now, what I have to say, I'm not saying as your good old buddy, I am saying this as an apostle of Jesus Christ. It is according to the faith of God's elect and acknowledging the truth which is after godliness an interesting way to open a letter to a friend if you got a letter like that and it opened that way if you knew this fella really personally for many years you might wonder why well of course it's being written and God knew this these things are written for our admonition these things happen but they're written for our admonition and that's why it's got to be done this way well we see here that he says It's according to the faith of God's elect, according to the faith. Now, we talked about this a lot in our programs about Paul and Timothy, and the same thing is true here. You'll find this phrase, the faith. Now, as we had mentioned previously, and I'm going to mention it again and not to apologize for mentioning it many times because it's so important. You have the phrase, the faith in the Bible, 42 times. You have the phrase, your faith in the Bible, 24 times. Paul said that we need to examine ourselves to see whether we be in the faith. He didn't say, do that, see if you're saved or not. He is saying he was talking to Christians. It's very obvious if you look at that portion of scripture. in its context, he was talking to people who were saved. He wasn't questioning their salvation, he was questioning what they believed. And so he says you need to examine yourselves as to whether the faith and your faith are one and the same. That is, what the Bible teaches and what you believe, is it one and the same? Examine yourself, to see if you be in the faith. And so he says here in verse number one, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith, according to the faith, as stated by the faith. That's what according to means. Now, verse number one, You have this phrase, God's elect, and I'm not going to get into a dissertation on election right now. It will take too long. There's lots of it on our website if you want to go in there and check it out. But I'll say this, when you talk about God's elect or elect people in the Bible, it is never for salvation. Sometimes the word elect is referring to Israel and sometimes it's referring to service. But what it is never referring to, that God has elected some people and predestined them to go to hell and they have no choice, that is outright blasphemy and that is an attack on the character of God. There's no such thing as an elect to salvation and others elected to hell. Now we have two words here in this verse. He talks about the faith and he talks about the truth here in verse number one. Let's look at it again. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith, of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness. Now the faith as we've said that's in the bible that phrase 42 times the phrase the truth is in the bible 81 times. Now the word faith is in Titus five times and we'll look at that As we go through this little book and the word truth is in the book of Titus twice now in verse number one He talks about truth and godliness and in verse number 14 of chapter 1 He talks about men that turn from the truth and we're living there now. It's called apostasy get into verse number two and And we read, "...in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began." In hope. Now, that doesn't mean, well, I sure hope this eternal life thing all works out. No, it's not saying that at all. The word hope means expectation, and so he's saying to Timothy, now we have an expectation of eternal life. Why do we have this expectation? Well, if God said it, I believe it. If God said it, you should believe it too. You should expect it. But it says it came from God, and he cannot lie. He promised, he promised, he said. Now a promise is only as good as the one who makes the promise. I might say to you, I promise you, I'm going to give you $50,000. I don't have $50,000, so you're not going to get it. But you'll never find anything in the Word of God where God promises something and doesn't deliver. In fact, this word promise in Romans chapter 4 and verse 21 has been translated able to perform. And when it comes to eternal life, it's all of God. It has nothing to do with us. So because God, that promise, cannot lie, you can expect it. If you are saved, you are saved. And it's eternal life. It's eternal life. Eternal is eternal. You can't lose it if you're genuinely saved in the first place. And a lot of people who say they are, aren't anymore because of this damnable heresy that has crept in in recent days. that you do not need to repent in order to be saved well eternal life there's 26 verses in the bible that have that phrase eternal life and there's another 25 in the bible that that has everlasting life and both of those are the same greek words and so it says here you can expect it You can expect eternal life, because God promised it before the world began, if indeed you have repented and received Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Well, we're going to have to leave it here for now. We'll get on to the next verse in our next broadcast. Be sure to tune in.