Yes, if we could get some men to volunteer, we have some handouts tonight, just outlines by which you can more easily follow the sermon. So just, Jim is here and Scott's here, so. All right. There should be enough for everyone tonight. While they're passing those sheets out, let's turn to Titus chapter one. Titus chapter 1. To be honest, I really don't like this. In fact, I hate it. Standing up here for the last time for a long time probably. And particularly what I hate, I guess, is how to figure out what to say. My last chance to have a sermon here for now. And, you know, as was said earlier in the service, the service is to remind us of God's grace to us through the habaggers. I'm glad it was put that way. But even so, I don't want to be the center of attention tonight, really, especially in the service, and so we want to keep our thoughts on Christ because we're all his servants together, and he's the one who matters. His grace is the one that does the work, and we are very loved by him, but we're just tools. We're not the point, including me and my family. So I think Titus will turn our attention there pretty well tonight. I've had the privilege of doing a lot of teaching in this church. It's a high privilege. And another word for the content of teaching, as you know, is doctrine. If you love solid doctrine, I am eternally happier for that. But what good is your doctrine? One of my greatest fears, as someone who studies the Scripture a lot myself, and as someone who encourages you to study Scripture and know what God's Word says, know the facts, the teaching, is that it could be entirely useless to me and to you. Because you can be a doctrinal fanatic and be an utter reproach to the name of Christ. So what good is your doctrine? Does it change your deeds? That's the whole point of doctrine. Deeds are the point of doctrine. And that's what Paul really expounds on at great length here in the book of Titus. We're going to kind of take the section that's the heart of the book here And it's a little lengthy of a section, but I don't plan to preach five hours tonight. Don't worry about that. But we're going to take the section starting in verse 10 of chapter 1 and go all the way to the end of chapter 2. I'll dip down at certain points and get a little more detailed, but I want you to see the flow of it, how it all fits together, and how it has a one big point together. Pastor Dwight said putting the love offering after the sermon should keep me short. I don't know, I think I should give you your money's worth. We think differently, apparently. But I'll keep it somewhat short. Let's read starting in verse 10. For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things that they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain. One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. For this reason, reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure. But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed. But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love and perseverance. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. Likewise, urge the young men to be sensible. In all things, show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us. Urge bond slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you. You should all have the outline by now. And very simply, the main point of this whole text is that deeds must fit doctrine. Deeds must fit doctrine. Why must deeds fit doctrine? Well, I think we have two reasons. I'm gonna try to keep my thoughts fairly simple tonight. The first reason is found in verses 10 through 16 of chapter one. And that is that ungodly deeds lead to unhealthy doctrine. Another way of putting it might be that ungodly deeds and unhealthy doctrine go together. You can't necessarily separate between the two. Notice first of all, in verses 10 through 11, that the greed of false teachers leads to the ruin of Christian households. It's their greed, their ungodliness, and their ungodly deeds then that lead to people believing wrong doctrine. Verse 10 says, there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, meaning Jewish people. Who must be silenced because they're upsetting whole families teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain So their motivation these false teachers their motivation is sordid gain What should be shameful gain to them they are they are preying upon a people who are open to false teachings, in fact, teachings that will take them away from Christ, and they're doing that simply to get money from people. We could think of countless examples today and throughout church history of teachers who, in the end analysis, only do what they do to make a buck. In this context, Paul is, seems to be speaking of some people that, in one way or another, he had to confront throughout his ministry. And he's not speaking, he's not obviously saying that the problem is they're Jewish. No, he was a Jew. The church was founded by Jews, basically. But the problem was these were unbelieving Jews. people who had the scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures, but refused to accept the new message of Christ and Christ alone. Now, many of them said, oh, we accept Jesus too, but you need Jesus plus something else. And so they all had their little formulas and their little ways of making their Jesus plus religion and selling it to people. And they would have their proof texts in Scripture. They would have their ways of justifying what they did. I think it's very likely Paul is thinking here of people somewhat like the Judaizers that he confronted elsewhere, particularly in the book of Galatians. But all this follows right on the heels of what Paul says that we didn't read about the qualifications for an elder. An elder is another title in the New Testament for a bishop, an overseer, what we often call a pastor. So Paul is saying the reason that, Titus, you need to appoint elders where you are on the island of Crete is because they need to teach people and guard against the false teachers that are out there. In verse 9, it rounds out the description of qualifications for an elder this way. It says, So this part is pretty simple. The ungodly deeds, the greedy deeds of these false teachers led to the teaching of unsound doctrine, unhealthy doctrine. But then look at verses 12 through 14. Here we see that the vices, the vices of professing Christians make them vulnerable to false doctrine. It is the fact that people who profess to be Christians, who are part of the church, They don't have the changed lives they ought to have, and it leaves them open to false teaching. Verse 12. Paul hits hard, but he's quoting who he calls a prophet of their own, a man named Epimenides, a Cretan from a few centuries back. He was a famous and revered philosopher from the 6th century named Epimenides. the Cretans would admire him. And, you know, quoting Epimenides to them would be kind of like quoting Abraham Lincoln to an American, you know. Paul doesn't want to be accused of just not liking people who live on the island of Crete, and thus being hard on them. So he basically, he quotes Epimenides, and he says, Cretans are famous for their bad character. It's not me, Paul, saying it. It's your own hometown hero saying this. In the Roman world, they had a verb, a word that we would say cretidzo. It comes from the word crete. And the word meant to lie. The word for crete had been actually made into a word for liars. They were famous for bad character. And Paul said, that bad character is on display in these churches in Crete in far too many cases. Notice, he's not saying this directly about the false teachers here. He's saying it about professing Christians who would listen to these false teachers. We know that from from verse 13, where it says, So he's telling Titus here not that the false teachers have bad character. He's saying those who listen to them, the reason they're listening and open to them is because they have bad character. You know, it always works this way. If we don't, if we aren't careful to be changed by God's grace, to be, to watch our lifestyle, to be different people who are becoming more and more like Christ and pursuing His holiness, we will be open to possibly anything in the form of teaching. we will be easy prey, because then, because of our bad character, we will be open to the baits and the traps of false teachers, because they work using fleshly means, and if we have huge areas of carnality in our lives, that something inside us answers to what they have to offer. So vices of professing Christians make them vulnerable to false doctrine. You see how this is kind of a vicious cycle. And ungodly deeds lead to unhealthy doctrine, and the two go together, feed off each other. 1 Corinthians 15 is another example of this concept, this principle, where Paul rebukes the Corinthians for bad doctrine. First of all, he's talking about the doctrine of the resurrection. And he's saying, if you deny the future resurrection of the body, then you're denying the resurrection, the body of the resurrection of Christ himself, and then our faith is worthless. He says in 1 Corinthians 15, 12, now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? And then he goes on to discuss how silly and how damaging such an idea is. But then, down in verses 33 through 34, 1 Corinthians 15, he gets to the root issue. He strikes at the reason that the Corinthians, some of them, were even open to such ideas. He says in verse 33, do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. Become sober-minded as you ought and stop sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. The problem, Paul says, is that you are harboring sin in your lives. And then you are letting your morals be further corrupted by bad companions. In this case, the bad companions are false teachers who are leading you further away from Christ. Well, verse 14. Again, he emphasizes these false teachings apparently came largely from some Jewish people. He says not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. So he again references the circumcision, the Jews who often attempted to add their own spin to the Christian faith. But he also emphasizes the human origin of the false teachings. He says these are commandments of men. as opposed to commandments of God. Someone came up with this in their own brain and then decided to tell you this is what you need to do to be spiritual. Human origin. Ironically, the false teachers were misusing the scriptures to invent their own rules that then eclipsed the message of Jesus Christ. That's always how it works with false teaching. But let's focus in for a moment on the specific sorts of false doctrine that Paul seems to have in mind here. Let's start with some similar things he says to Timothy. 1 Timothy 1, verses 3-7, if you turn there. 1 Timothy 1, verse 3. And this is written about the same time that Titus was written, that is not too far removed in time from it. There were similar issues apparently in Ephesus where Timothy was ministering. Paul says in verse 3, In other words, these silly ideas and stories that are being promoted, the real reason why they're bad is that they miss the point of Christianity. They don't give rise to furthering the administration of God, which is by faith. Verse 5, the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men straying from these things have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the law, the Torah, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. So again, people were using the scriptures, especially the Old Testament law, but they were abusing them for their own ends to support things that they had actually made up themselves. This is the way, the path to spiritual victory. This is the path to being one of God's inner circle, a Christian elite perhaps. Go over to chapter four of 1 Timothy and verse one. Many of these false teachers were not advocating, were not trying to twist the scriptures to advocate license. Live however you please. Kick back, take it easy. Some did, but many of them were just the opposite. They made up things, made up ways to actually deny God's good gifts. 1 Timothy 4, verse 1, And what are they teaching? Verse 3. In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following, but have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. Wow, Paul doesn't mince words there. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness, for bodily discipline is only of a little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance, for it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers. And what am I saying, drawing all these texts together? Well, there is true Christianity, which is all about Jesus Christ and his grace working itself out in very practical ways in our lives. And then there's made-up religion. Maybe made-up, humanly contrived Christianity. And people will think that this over here, this humanly contrived religion, they think it looks good because, oh, that looks so holy and it looks like, oh, that person is being so hard on themselves and so rigid and they conform so well to all these standards, perhaps. It's all about the external and the appearance and the shell of piety over here. And that's largely what Paul's warning against. People even sometimes go so far as to deny the good things that God has given us to enjoy in order to be perceived as spiritual and religious and perhaps super-Christians. But this over here, Humanly contrived religion actually comes from the ungodliness inside people. It feeds on fleshly heart condition and on fleshly deeds. Internal ungodliness particularly encourages this kind of hypocrisy, of religious externalism. People who refuse to truthfully examine their own hearts and the deeds that reveal their hearts will often fixate then on man-made rules for external or ritual perfection. We naturally don't want to look at what really matters about us in God's eyes. We naturally don't want to actually get serious about how we really are living and what our hearts truly are like. So we get very good at focusing on other things that can make us seem spiritual. So if you're over here, people over here ignore their own haughty pride, they ignore their loveless anger, they ignore their sexual lust, they ignore all the things in their hearts that are expressed in their deeds, day in and day out. And on the other hand, they'll enthusiastically pursue Silly standards for self-congratulation. Standards that somebody other than Christ made up. Standards that focus on the right food, particularly in the context of the Jewish law. They love to latch on to the old food laws, you know. Focus on the right food, or the right clothes, or the right external etiquette, the right methods of organization, the right activist causes, and maybe the right secret handshake. Anything but simple Christian virtues. Anything to not go there. This over here, actually being concerned with the heart and the deeds that proceed from the heart, that's uncomfortable for someone who has a bad heart. So we stay over here. Things that are flashy and that seem oh so religious, but often people just made it up. Well, these people pride themselves on ritual, on perfection, and on separation from the dirty masses. They are self-deceived, though. According to what we're about to examine, verses 15 and 16, they are the ones who are godless, unclean, detestable. They are an abomination. That's the sort of language used here. Verses 15 through 16 show us that ungodly deeds actually defile everything about a person, despite professed beliefs. Remember what I said at the beginning, that we can be so enthusiastic about what we think to be right doctrine, and sometimes it is technically correct doctrine, but ungodly deeds defile all that, everything about us. Verse 15, in Titus chapter one, to the pure, all things are pure. What things? Well, it seems in the context, especially where Paul's particularly addressing Jewish false teachings that we know were around at that time, there was such an emphasis, remember, on things out in this world that could externally defile you. They misused things like we heard from Leviticus, for instance, very recently. They misused the Old Testament scriptures to focus all the attention on outward ritual purity rather than outward defilement. So they'd focus on all sorts of things from the outside that could potentially defile me before God. That's why they loved to hang on to the old laws from the Mosaic Law so much because they could misuse those very readily. So to the pure, all things are pure. But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But both their mind and their conscience are defiled. Paul's turning the tables on these people. To the pure, all things are pure. Things in the world, things in and of themselves. Of course, what we do with things can be evil, if we have evil hearts. But I think this is a sort of a different way of saying what Jesus said specifically about foods, or what Mark said about Jesus' statement concerning foods, that he made all foods clean. What matters for real purity is not all these external things that might defile me from the outside. If we have pure hearts, we can use the things of this world in godly ways. and we can eat pork. Amen. But we can eat it to the glory of God. Thinking in the context of Jewish false teachings of this time. We are not defiled now by wearing a garment with the wrong kinds of fabric mixed in. That doesn't affect our hearts. If we have pure hearts, we can use all these things, even that were once considered ritually unclean, we can use them for God's glory. To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are inwardly defiled, unbelieving, without faith, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled, and that defiles everything else. D. Edmund Hebert, in his commentary, put it this way. To the pure, all things are pure, he says, material things receive their moral character from the inner attitude of the user. Remember Mark chapter seven, we recently went through this, verse 14, Jesus called the crowd to him again. He began saying to them, listen to me, all of you, and understand, there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him. But the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Later, talking to the disciples, he says, do you not understand, verse 18, that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach and is eliminated. Thus he declared all foods clean. And he was saying that which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man from within. So that's, I think, the context of what Paul's saying here. He's saying all this This silly focus on outward things defiling us, it misses the whole point. What defiles you is your own heart and the deeds that proceed from your heart. He had to say this to the Colossians, Paul did. Colossians chapter 2, verse 20, there were false teachers there who were coming up with commands of how to be really spiritual. He said, if you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees such as do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, which all refer to things destined to perish with use, in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom and self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. Paul says back in Titus chapter one, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. He's talking about the false teachers here. They are unbelievers. They reject Jesus Christ as the foundation and the center of faith. They don't believe the gospel, the true gospel. And so, they're still in their sins. They're still defiled. And even their mind and their conscience are defiled. They aren't even qualified to make all these moral discernments that they claim to make. Their conscience is defiled. It doesn't work right. Again, D. Edmund Hebert, he says, fellowship with God acts to clarify moral perception. but indulgence in evil stultifies, messes up the powers of moral discrimination. Verse 16, Paul says, they profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed. I can imagine Paul having a conversation with someone at the time about some of these popular teachers and saying, don't look at how good they look on Sunday when they're in your midst. Don't look at how strict their diet is and how richly pure they are according to the laws of Moses. Don't look at all these things they boast in about being pure and really obedient to God, etc., etc. Look at their furious anger on Tuesday. Look at their greed by which they're exploiting you right now. Look at all these deeds that are coming from their hearts. That shows who they are. They're not qualified as teachers. They're not even qualified to be doing good works themselves. These are all hard, heavy things. Paul's statement here is similar to the language of Psalm 14 that describes the natural state of sinners, fools who deny God's significance. He's saying these would-be religionists, they're just like the fool in Psalm 14, verse 1, who says in his heart, there is no God. There it says, they are corrupt. They have committed abominable deeds. There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one. Beyond using familiar wording from the Old Testament, Paul's using irony, of course. He's taking descriptions that the false teachers would use for themselves and he's reversing them. They're not clean and holy in God's sight. They're detestable. Or you could translate that, they're an abomination. They are not those who scrupulously obey God better than others. They are the disobedient ones. They are not specially qualified for a godly lifestyle. They're rejected. They're worthless for the purpose of any truly good deeds. They don't know the first thing about godliness, Paul says. So why must deeds fit doctrine? Well, first, because ungodly deeds lead to unhealthy doctrine, and the two go together. But then Paul kind of flips the coin, and he says, starting in verse 1 of chapter 2, that healthy doctrine trains believers for godly deeds. Chapter 2, verse 1, but as for you, Titus, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine, things that go with sound teaching. Now, what does he proceed to talk about? Does he proceed to say, Titus, you need to work harder at making sure these people understand the facts about God's triune nature, Father, Son, and Spirit? And you need to make sure that they understand the deep things of God, understanding his sovereignty and his providence and his attributes. And you need to help them understand deep doctrinal truth about the church and so on and so forth. Well, no. Those are all good things and all things that Paul teaches on elsewhere. But what these believers need is application. They know the truth. They need to let it affect the way they live. Here, D. Edmund Hebert says, Paul stresses the importance of building up the inner life of believers as the best antidote against error. Sound doctrine must lead to ethical conduct in the lives of all the groups in the congregations. And here in verses one through 10, we see that Christian leaders have to use their doctrine to teach and model practical godliness. What's the point of Pastor Dwight, or myself, or anyone else, standing up here, or in a classroom, and teaching you doctrine? The point should be, first of all, that you understand the truth, because God is all about the truth, and the truth will set you free. But then, the point is that it changes you. Not that you know a lot. This is nothing new, you all know this, but again, has it changed you? Paul tells Titus, you speak what fits with sound doctrine, and then he proceeds to say, you need to teach these people to live a certain way. And by the way, he'll say later, and you model this in your own lifestyle. We're going to go rather quickly through this section. There's a lot here. But Paul, notice Paul breaks up the congregation into some different demographic groups. He talks to older men, then older women, then young women, then young men, then slaves. And notice that in each demographic, in each grouping, the church is expected to embrace their providentially determined role in life. That is, God placed each person where he wants them in life. If you are a young woman, or if you are a young man, or if you are a slave, it doesn't matter. God puts you there for a reason. That's what he wants you to be. That's where he wants you to operate as a Christian. So blossom there. And these Christians must not chafe against their age, against their gender, against their status, but they should excel as Christians in those circumstances. That's especially emphasized for young women and for slaves as we move on here. But throughout here, Paul basically tells them, get serious about your deeds. And this note of seriousness pervades everything he says. To the older men, verse two, he says, older men are to be temperate. meaning self-controlled and sober. The word came from the idea of being sober or temperate regarding strong drink, but then it's more broadly applied. Older men are to be self-controlled and sober, keep their heads about them. They are to be dignified. People should have reason to honor Not just because they fit the age bracket that we should honor our elders, but people should have reason when they look at the deeds of the older men to honor them. They should be dignified. They should have dignity. Older men are to be sensible. This word sensible, or the word translated by the Nazby as sensible, shows up several places in this list for the different age groups. And it really means to be prudent. It means you're thoughtful and therefore you're self-controlled. You're not controlled by the passion of the moment. You think before you act and before you speak. You're well-grounded. You have your head on your shoulders, spiritually speaking. You know God's truth. and you act according to it, and you stay anchored there. You're sensible, you're thoughtful in your approach to life, you're circumspect. He says older men are to be sound in faith, in love, and perseverance. Older men, you should be well advanced in these basic Christian virtues. In faith, that is, believing what God said and applying it constantly. In love, loving God, loving others, putting others before yourself, meeting their needs and making your life about that. In perseverance, in not quitting. And of all people, older people know that life is long and hard. But perseverance is needed. Staying at it, not quitting. Then older women. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior. That word for reverent has the idea of sacred. It means they regard life as sacred in all its aspects. So older women, not just when they're here at church on Sundays, but throughout their lives, every aspect of their lives is an offering they are offering to God. It's sacred, it's holy, and they approach it as such. They're very careful in how they please God with their lives. They're not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine. but they're teaching what is good. Enslaved to much wine, that's pretty obvious. They're not drunks. Of course, the idea, we could broaden it from that, that they don't give themselves to substances like strong drink or anything else that leads to the sorts of vices that strong drink does. But they're in control of themselves. They're temperate. But not malicious gossips, that's an interesting word. It's a word that's related to the word for the devil, diabolos. They're not slanderers. And the devil, that word, means the slanderer or the adversary. Older women, like others, it's not limited to them, but they can be tempted to imitate the devil by making it one of their chief aims to talk about other people badly. And Paul says don't do it. But on the positive side, he says the older women are to be teaching the younger women to live a godly life at their stage of life. The young women are to love their husbands and their children. They're to be affectionate and live out their affection for their families. Young women are to be sensible. There's that word again. Pure. Workers at home meaning they delight in the home God has given them to work in, to beautify, to develop, and young women are to, in this context as they're married and they have children, they are to thrive where they're placed, where they're planted. They're workers at home, and it says they're kind, they're subject to their own husbands, They're not rebellious towards their authority in their lives that God's put there, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. One more Hebert quote. He says, the devoted wife and mother finds her absorbing interest in the innumerable duties of the home. These demand unsparing self-giving and may subject her to the temptation to be irritable and harsh in her demands on members of her household. She must therefore cultivate the virtue of being kind, that is benevolent. Hardly doing what is good and beneficial to others, especially those of her household. Then what does he say to young men? One word. Be sensible. There's a form of that word again that we've seen a few different times here. Young men, think. Don't live for or by feelings. Don't live for the moment. Think. Often as young men, we get caught up with the here and now, with what's going on in the moment, and we don't exercise self-control, and we certainly don't think and don't live according to truth. But Paul gives that one instruction for the young men. Think. It'll take you a long way in godliness. Be serious. Don't think that because you're young, you'll worry about all that serious stuff later. Think. Notice, end of verse 5, and then again in verse 8, and then at the end of verse 10, which we'll get to, Paul says we shouldn't give people a reason to despise and slander God's grace. End of verse 5. The young women are to live this certain way so that the word of God will not be dishonored. We'll get to verse eight here. But reading verses six through eight, he says, rather verse seven through eight, he says to Titus, in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds with purity and doctrine, dignified, then there's verse eight, sound in speech which is beyond reproach so that the opponent will be put to shame having nothing bad to say about us. There it is again. Titus, you model all this for your people, for the people in these churches. Why? So that those who would oppose the truth will have nothing bad to say about we who represent the truth. And then he says to bond slaves, verse nine, urge bond slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing. That is, don't just barely get your job done, But please your employer, in this case your master, be well-pleasing. Don't be argumentative. Don't always have to argue with your authority. And that applies in a lot of different realms. Just do what they say. Not pilfering. Not trying to illicitly get something on the side for myself. but showing all good faith, showing that you are faithful and worthy of being trusted with things. Why? Again, end of verse 10, so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect, so that the doctrine, the truth, will be decorated, not vandalized by your conduct. And none of this is really deep theological insight as far as, you know, intellectually speaking. I think we all know these are good things to do. The problem is, as the problem was in Crete, we don't do them too often. But again, don't give people a reason to despise and slander God's grace. Healthy doctrine trains believers for godly deeds. In fact, that brings us to the last part here, verses 11 through 15. The doctrine of God's saving grace is all about transformed deeds. Why did God give you his saving grace? Well, so I could get to heaven when I die. Okay, yes, what else? Well, so that Christ would be glorified. Well, yes, but you're keeping it general and vague. What else? Well, he says here, the grace of God in verse 11, has appeared. It's the same word that he'll use later for Christ appearing one day. God's grace has been publicly manifested through the gospel. It's appeared bringing salvation to all men, Jew, Gentile, everyone. instructing us, verse 12, to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age. We'll pause there. Why did God give you his grace? To change you. Not so you would be an A-plus student in the religious classroom. He gave you his grace not so simply you would have insurance for one day when you need it, when you die. There are any other things we can come up with. The picture is entirely incomplete. The picture of the gospel is entirely incomplete if we don't get good deeds, if we don't understand that God gave us his grace to make us people who are all about good deeds. It's brought salvation, deliverance to all people. But how does it deliver us? And from what does it deliver us? It doesn't just deliver us from the things we as sinners naturally don't like, like judgment. It delivers us from our sin itself, from our old way of life, from the way of life, as Peter says, that we inherited from our forefathers, from the way everybody else lives in this world, from the way we've always done it, from all of that. It delivers us from our excuses of why we sin It instructs, it delivers us by instructing us. The word is a very comprehensive word for training, a training regimen. It teaches us, it teaches us and disciplines us and does all that. It trains us rigorously to deny all that. Ungodliness, to deny the way of life that acts as if God isn't relevant. To deny worldly desires, what everyone around us in this world lives for. And then it saves us, it delivers us by teaching us to live sensibly. There's the word again. Seriously in light of the truth. To live righteously. To delight in God's standards. Not made up human silly standards, but God's standards. Be all about that. Measuring up to God's character. And godly. You know what the word godly means? It's not so much being like God, although it results in that, but the idea is we are living life for God. Rather than saying, eh, he doesn't have anything to do with my life. That's what God's grace does for us. That's why it appeared in the first place. To bring salvation to all people, but one big aspect of that salvation is what should be going on in our lives right now. teaching us to ignore, to actually reject everything that comes naturally to us. You know, if we are thinking back through that list we just went through, it teaches us to deny the feelings, the urges of the moment. It teaches us to deny the temptation to delight in bad reports about other people. It teaches us to deny the temporary pleasures of indulgence in sin, in addiction. It teaches us to deny resentment about our status in life and bitterness. It teaches us to deny the urge to get our way no matter the cost. It teaches us to deny the urge to to get what we can because we really deserve it anyway, any way we can. And it teaches us to embrace all the things, the sorts of things that we talked about in that list. The things that live life for God, not for me, not for the here and now. Verse 13, though, goes on. How can we live this way? How does grace empower us to live this way? Well, it focuses us on the coming time that matters more than the present time. It trains us to live a holy lifestyle in this present evil age, a lifestyle that anticipates the blessed hope of Christ's glorious appearing. Looking for the blessed hope, verse 13, in the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus. And then, verse 14, who is Christ Jesus, our God and Savior? He is the one who gave himself for us, he gave himself over to death for us, to redeem us, to buy us back from every lawless deed, and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. People for his own possession, that's terminology from the Old Testament. for those who are uniquely chosen and possessed by God. God used it often for his chosen nation, Israel. But the point of the phrase is, we are uniquely God's. He treasures us. And what else does God treasure? He treasures good deeds. He treasures righteousness. He treasures holiness. Compare Paul's words here in verse 14 to what he said in chapter one, verses 15 and 16. Remember what he said about the false teachers? He said, to the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed. Even those with elaborately contrived religion are defiled and worthless for any good deed. That's because they're still on their sins. But what sinful man cannot do, Christ has done for sinners. When he gave himself to death as our atonement, he bought us out of our slavery to sin, out of our slavery to lawless deeds, and he purified us so that now we're a body of people who would be consumed with good deeds. That's the gospel. Christ did what we could not do, but he did it to make us God's own people who are like God and pleasing to God, and who will forever in eternity abide with God, pleasing God with good works for all eternity, while those who lived for the moment, even those who thought themselves very religious, are shut out. Tonight, as verse 15 puts it, I've spoken to you and I've exhorted you and approved you concerning your deeds. So don't you dare disregard your deeds. Do your deeds fit your doctrine? This message has been simpler than some. I haven't used a lot of illustrations. We've kept it simple. These are things you know. And it sums up a lot of other teaching that goes on in this church. But do your deeds fit your doctrine? I don't care how much you know if your deeds don't match. And God certainly doesn't care how much you know if your deeds don't match. He's the one whom you should fear. If your deeds don't fit your doctrine, I fear that you'll be open to false doctrine when the opportunity arises, and that what true doctrine you profess to believe will be despised because of you. You'll be the reason, humanly speaking, on the human level, you'll be the reason that people reject Christ. It'll be your fault. Of course, you know I'm not denying that God is greater than us and he will get his mission accomplished with or without us, but just on the level of personal responsibility, If you come to church week in, week out, and if you pride yourself in knowing a lot about God, but you don't want to deal with the issues of your heart and the issues of your lifestyle Monday through Saturday, you will be very likely open to the next heresy that comes along. Or even if you don't go that route, I don't know which is worse. You joining a heretical group or you staying in this church and being the reason others reject Christ. I don't know which is worse. On the other hand, if your deeds do fit your doctrine, do what Paul does here, give God the glory for it. His doctrinal truth is training you for godly deeds. And notice it's the grace of God that's doing this in us. It's not a reason for pride. His grace is doing it. And keep it up. Keep submitting yourselves to God's grace in your life. One day this process will be complete. One day we'll see our Lord Jesus in all his glory. We'll be conformed to his glory. We'll shine like the stars forever and ever. But right now we have to anticipate that day. And we do so by our deeds. Let's pray.