00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
th th th th That's a prop. Instead of Kleenex, we'll give
you one of these. Your nose will drop off. Okay. Thank you. Well, good morning, ladies and
gentlemen. Aren't you glad it's not of the jury? You're sequestered. Just thinking of that, you ought
to be praying for it. What's his name? Daniel Penny? Isn't it Daniel Penny? The Marine
that stopped the crazy man from hurting people on the subway.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And he's full of
drugs. But yeah. But you try to help
people out and you get stung. Like they say, if that goes bad,
People aren't going to want to help other people, you know,
because who wants to go to jail, especially in New York? OK, well,
we're looking at kind of a flip side of that. Instead of evil
actions, we're talking about godliness in action. And we're
going to be looking at Titus chapter 3 here today. All right. Lot crammed in that we'll see
if we can talk fast and make it through. Yeah Prayer requests
one case. I'll try to remember it in a
morning service, but pray for Bonnie and Mike as they head
south All the way to Houston, Texas area on Wednesday And we've
already asked do you have any other extra room, but they're
full ups. I We need one of those 14-passenger
vans. We had a lot of other people
who wanted to come. OK. Yeah, Mark. Yeah, please pray
for the spiritual growth of my mom, Christy, Jen, John, and
June, and for my sister's changing heart. How's she doing physically? I haven't heard since the last
time, but I'm just going to say she's stable right now. She has been seeing the situation,
but I guess I am where I am because of my family. So there's a guilt
emotion coming over her now. She seems to be more interested
in me because her life is Yeah. That does make you think a little
harder on it. Okay. Others going once, twice. Yes. I wonder if that keeps him awake
at night, thinking, okay, who do I nominate for this job? There's a lot of them, right?
So, yeah. Okay, let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we thank you for each one here today. Pray for our time to look
at your word here in Titus, that we can learn and profit from
it. We thank you, Lord, for the way that you do hear and answer
prayer. And we do pray you'll continue
to work in Mark's mother's life, for Christi, June, Ben, and Jenny. I had the J. Pray that
you'll continue to work in their lives, bring other people into
their life that would cause them to realize it's not just Mark
that believes this way, but others do, and that they might see that
truth from your word. I pray you'll continue to work
in Sister Sue's life, both physically, but also spiritually, that you'll
help her to be looking to the Lord for the help and strength
that she needs to meet this addiction that she's had for some time
now. Pray, too, for our president-to-be,
Trump, that you will cause him to be looking to you for wisdom
and guidance, choices he makes for all these different appointments,
but also in policy and, you know, everybody wants their pet project
fixed the first day. And we just pray too for the
confirmation hearings, other things that will take place yet
in the future. We just pray for protection too,
for him and and Vice President Vance, others that could potentially
be in danger, people that want to take them out for one reason
or another. We pray, too, for Bonnie and
Mike. You give them safety down to Texas and back, a good time
visiting with family. And we ask that you guide us
in our study here today as we think about the matter of good
works and the part that that ought to play in our lives as
believers in Jesus name, amen. Okay, so key verse today is we're
looking at Titus 3. Key verses there in verse 8,
this is a faithful saying, and these things that I will affirm
constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful
to maintain good works. Okay, we'll talk about maintaining
here in a little bit, but, oh, let's see, what do we hope that
sometimes takes place? I hope that they will maintain
the roads when the sun, or sun, we can only hope it's sun, right?
Snow and ice and all the rest of that. What are we hoping that
they'll do when they maintain the roads? Clean them off, okay? every first every month or always
we want we want it regularly done don't we okay well the lord
and i'm giving you the the end result here lord wants us to
maintain good works he wants us to be regularly involved in
it not Not like a light switch, we're just on or off. We do our
good deed and then we go for weeks or months before we get
around to doing another one. But we see here the Lord's involved
in good works. And we'll see what some of those
are as we go along here today. Here's a quote for you, Henry
Ward Beecher. That rings a bell, but I can't
remember why. Was he a poet? Anyway, it doesn't
matter. It says, as a flower always wears
their own colors and gives forth their own fragrance every day
alike, so Christians maintain their character at all times
and under all circumstances. So, you know, God wants us to
be a 24-7 Christian, okay? Not just when we pull into the
driveway here, you know, we gotta adjust our halo and behave ourself
for an hour or two, and then go back and be something else
otherwise. You know, the Lord wants us to live a holy life. Let me see. He tells us there in 1 Peter
that we are to be holy because what? Yeah, God's holy. We're to be like a reflection,
an image, if you will, of the Lord. He set the example, okay? And we need to follow through
with that. So we'll talk here to begin with on godly actions.
We're picking this up in Titus 3, verse four through seven. And we see here, when God acts,
he does so differently than we do, okay? We might have several
different responses to something, and we say, well, that's right,
and that's wrong, God doesn't have to choose between right
and wrong, okay? He's always gonna do the right
thing, all right? However, we do at times have
to make choices, but it's because of God's attributes, his character,
he's infinitely perfect. There's never a time where God
goes, oh man, I really messed up this time. I wish I'd get
a do-over. Well, God doesn't have to do
that. Sometimes we, have regrets, we
wish that we'd have done things differently. But Hosea 14.9 talks
about that. It says, the way of the Lord
is right. Okay? It's not sometimes right,
or every once in a while he gets it right, but it's right all
the time. And the reason why it's rooted
in God's character, his attributes, and it talks about some of those
attributes there in Titus 3, verse 4 and 5. He says, after that, the kindness
and love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared. not by works
of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy
he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost, or the Holy Spirit. And so it talks here about God's
kindness, his love, his mercy. It talks about kindness first,
and it's described different ways In the Old Testament, some
other words that were used to describe His kindness, and I
won't read all the references for it, but it said God's kindness
was marvelous, it was merciful, it was great, it was everlasting. In the New Testament, it talks
about Christ and His kindness. Christ demonstrated the Father's
kindness towards us, And it comes from within, okay? It's kind
of like, well, you've heard the illustration. Okay, so you're
walking around with a cup of coffee. You ever fill it too
full, okay? There's just a little bit left
in the pot, you know, oh, I'll just drink, oh, and it's all
the way up, oh, and be careful here, because if I stumble a
little bit or whatever, it's gonna slush out, right? And what
slushes out is coffee. Well, We can be full to the brim
of other things that if we get bumped a little bit, something
comes out. Maybe it's anger or whatever
may not be good. If it's something good, if we're
full of kindness, that's what's going to come out. It's kind
of whatever's within us. That's part of our attributes,
our character. But, you know, we see here the
example that he sets is that of kindness. And next he talks
about love. Well, we know of God's great
love for us. He demonstrated, he didn't just
talk, some people talk a lot about love. And yet you're looking
and going, I don't see it. I'm hearing it, but I'm not seeing
it. But he demonstrated his love.
It tells us there in Romans 5, 8, God demonstrated his love
towards us. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. Okay, so he showed his love. He didn't look around heaven
thinking, okay, kind of like when we're, I don't even know
if it's still around, Purple Heart. Used to get a call from
Purple Heart. We're gonna be in your neighborhood.
Is there any clothing or anything that you would like to give away? Set it on your doorstep. We'll
come by and pick it up. I don't get those calls. Maybe
they didn't like what I was putting out. I don't know. But yeah,
we see here that God loves us and he demonstrates it towards
us. He gives us his very best, his
own son, the Lord Jesus. And so God demonstrates kindness
towards us. He demonstrates love towards
us. A couple words you're probably familiar with through the years
that you've heard talked about that, I mean, it's always just
translated love in our scripture. I woke you up, didn't I? Agape and phileo. Agape is God's kind of love,
all right? And the definition that I've
drummed into my head is seeking the other person's good without
expecting anything in return. You're going to do something
good for somebody else, not to make them indebted to you so
that sometime later they'll help you out or do something good
for you. No strings attached. And that's what God did for us.
I mean, what can we give back to God? But he loved us. He had caring concern about us. He didn't want us to go to hell.
It tells us that God desires that none would perish and end
up in the pits of hell, okay? And so he provides a way of salvation. He provides a way of dodging
hell and the lake of fire, if you will. And it's through his
son. And the other word, phileo, again,
it's more talking about emotions that motivate us to action. And we see here that he's talking
about that phileo love here in Titus 3, 4. But God has concern
about us. He's concerned about our well-being.
not just on our birthday or Christmas time. He's concerned about us
each and every day of our lives. And he also has affection for
us. It's time to think about all
the things that God could have affection for. What do we love? Well, I love sunshine. Cars at start, chocolate, whatever. We say we love all kinds of things.
But here we have the creator, sustainer of the universe says
he loves us. We're a mighty small cog in the
overall wheel. I don't know how many people
there are in this world. And just at this time, let alone
the last 4,000 years, God said he loved all of us. And he's
looking for his best to be accomplished in our lives. And so it says, a question is asked,
how do you feel when someone says that he or she loves you,
but their actions scream that they don't? You ever find people
kind of faking it? They say the right thing at the
right time, but you kind of wonder, is that for real? Can I believe
it? We see here, God, again, He didn't
just talk about His love. He demonstrated. He followed
through with it. He loves us. And He's demonstrating
an action. We are to follow His example. God desires that those same three
things, you know, kindness, His love, and we see here, needs to be demonstrated towards
other people. Okay, here's another question.
Why is it wrong to determine whether or not God loves us based
on whether or not he brings about beneficial circumstances in your
life? In other words, is everything
going just fine and dandy for you that shows that God loves
you? And if there's a wrench kind of thrown in the middle
of it, that he doesn't love you? What if you went out this morning
and you're all dressed, you got your nice clothes on, you're
ready to go, you really kind of need to go, get there on time,
and you got a flat tire? Guess God doesn't love me. Is
that what he's telling us? No, no. I mean, we don't always
know. God doesn't, you know, we look
up in the sky and see in the clouds, you know, the reason
why, or there's a letter in the mail that explains it all. But
maybe God just needed to delay us enough time so that, you know,
20 minutes down the road before we got to church, we might've
been in that accident. that we drive by and we see the
police and the fire or the, yeah, maybe a fire truck or a flatbed
ready to haul one of them away, you know. I have to remind myself
of that because sometimes I'm... I wanna go, you know, and something
delays me. Okay, God's in charge of the
goes and the stops, the delays, all right? And so it's not, everything
has to be going great guns for God to be demonstrating his love
towards us. And so we see here, the other
one is that there in verse five, he says, not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, Okay, we know that we don't gain our salvation
by doing good works. There are some religions through
the world that kind of camp on that one. You know, you keep
doing a lot of good works and, you know, the old balance scale.
If my good works outweigh my bad works, you know, then I get
in. Well, that may make sense to us. You know, it may look
good on your resume or, you know, impress people with all the plaques
you got for all the good stuff you've done. But that doesn't
get us into heaven. There's a divine order. What's
first? Faith, salvation, then comes
the works. The works are in there, but we
got to get them in the right order. But he says, according
to his mercy, he saved us. What's mercy? Pardon? Okay. Undeserved love. That sounds
kind of like grace. Undeserved favor. Okay. What's mercy? Is there anything
else involved in mercy? Okay. Because you were in a hurry
to get to church, you were doing 45 in a 35. And you see the lights
behind you. And they're not just decorations
for Christmas. So you pull over and the policeman walks up, you
know, and you're digging for your billfolds and license and
all this stuff, you know, and he's, do you know why I pulled
you over? Yeah, I was doing 45 in a 35. Okay. Where are you going? You're in
such a hurry. Oh, I'm going to church. OK. So you're going to
break the law to get to church on time. Because you've got to
teach Sunday school, tell everybody how you need to be obedient,
right? We get a little sermon. OK, because it's Sunday and it's
a nice day out, I'm just going to give you a warning. That's
mercy. He could have, in a sense, punished
us for wrongdoing But he didn't. And God could have sent us all
straight to hell. But because of his mercy, he
didn't. He provided the Savior. And it
says, by his mercy, he saved us. And I was going to make sure
I was thinking right. I thought, OK. So I looked up
mercy. And this is textbook definition. But it says, compassion and forgiveness
shown towards someone who is within power to punish or to
harm. So there is, there is reason
that we could, you know, come after an individual, but because
of mercy, we choose not to. Why should we demonstrate mercy
towards others? Yeah, God's demonstrated mercy
towards us, and we ought to pass it on, okay? God's going to be a merciful
God. People aren't always, okay? But God will. And it tells us that His mercy
endures forever, okay? It's not like the milk jug, you
know, or your coupons you get in the mail with the expiration
date. It says God's mercy is going to be there. all the way
through. He saved us through his mercy.
And again, demonstrated kindness, love, and mercy towards us. And
so we read in Romans 8, 28, you
know, all things work together. We all got that one down. But
then we need to go on to 29 that says that we're conformed molded,
shaped into the image of Christ, okay? So we're to demonstrate
those same kinds of character qualities that we see, that God's
demonstrating towards us, towards others, to pass it on, okay? And so here he says, in verses,
the latter part of verse five and on through seven, Again,
it talks about salvation. He said he saved us. And then
he says, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
Well, there's a lot of ministries that the Holy Spirit has. Part of that is providing the
cleansing that takes place. It's like, They were saying sin
is a, it's a kind of a permanent stain, okay? And there's only
one kind of stain remover that removes the stain, and that's
the shed blood of Jesus Christ. And he enables us to be born
again. God wipes the slate clean, past,
present, future, okay? It works 100%, and there's nothing
else on earth that cleans like the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
It's 100% effective. Now, there's other things that talk
about that. I meant to bring the spray thing,
but this kind of does the same thing. Kills cold and flu viruses. Good clean. Disinfectant wipes. Kills 99.9% of bacteria in 15
seconds. Okay, so I'll go down to ladies
bathroom, men's bathroom. I probably should go in the men's
bathroom, right? And I get one of these, in fact,
I get several of these towels out and I wipe the floor down. Remember, 99.9%. And somebody,
wouldn't you know, brought in cookies. And I'm still nibbling
on that cookie when I walk into the bathroom and it falls on
the floor. And it falls on the area that
I cleaned that's 99.9% clean. You want to eat it? No, I don't think so. It's that
0.1 that might get you, right? But there is no leftovers when
Christ cleanses us, all right? It's 100% effective. You know,
it was like, what was it, talk about the flu virus, the shot,
you know? I don't know what they got out
today. Who knows? I just know I don't want to take
it because I don't trust what's in it, but that's me. You can
do what you want. But what do they say? Well, you know, it could, it
could be 50% effective. So it might help you and it might
not help you. I don't know what the percentage
is this year, but God's cleansing is 100%. And it tells us that,
and again, it doesn't say it all here, but it's a renewing
of the Holy Spirit. He gives us His spirit. Once we trust Christ, He cleanses
away our sin and He puts the Holy Spirit within us to remain
there until He takes us home, okay? Holy Spirit's not on loan. He's not on a 90-day test period
to see if it works out or not, okay? And we see here again,
the Holy Spirit's involved in regenerating us, helping us to
become what the Bible describes as born again. And we see that
he did, well, it mentions, we won't take time to look at that.
Godliness in action
Series Forgiveness to Faithfulness
If you are viewing this after the stream - you only get 30 minutes of a 45 minute lesson. The hard drive was full and the rest was not recorded. i think you'll profit from this 30 miin. We saw God's good works - and we are to "maintain" good works our self. Regular, on going "Good Works" should be a part of our lives. We dont' gain salvation by works but once we are saved we are to do good works - Eph 2:10.
| Sermon ID | 1292401284458 |
| Duration | 30:16 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday School |
| Bible Text | Titus 3:4-15 |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.