There we go. All right. So Titus chapter 1 verses 1 and 2. Last week we had the introduction. I am going to try. I've never tried to memorize a whole book before. I did try with 1 Timothy and I failed miserably. But I'm going to try again. Titus is a little shorter. Maybe it'll happen. I've started working on one and two, but I'm not there yet. So you can pray for that along the way. I don't really have much of an introduction for this. We kind of did the introduction for the whole book last time, but I am going to call this, just give the title to this, really the first four verses could be all one title. And it's just like God promised, God promised. And this is part one of that. What we're going to look at here this evening are foundations of eternal life. Foundations of eternal life. We're going to have two main foundations in verses one and two. And really not just foundations of eternal life, but by implication, foundations for this epistle. It's about the gospel and the gospel is the foundation of what Titus is doing there in Crete. He is there to plant, to really a plant a church, establish a church. And that's the foundation of any church is the gospel. So foundations of eternal life, God promised. What's the first foundation? Well, God's promise is based on his revelation. God has revealed his promise and he chooses to do it in a specific way in verse one. And we're gonna look at several proofs that God actually does reveal himself. And the first proof is that he sends his messengers. One way that he makes his revelation known in this world, of course, you've got general revelation in the sense that people can go out at night and look up there in the heavens and they can see the beauty of all of God's creation, all he created in a very general way. All that speaks to the fact that God exists and that he created. Of course, we have his word, but for the proclamation of his word, he sends his messengers. So that's the first proof. And we're talking about Paul here. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. So he is a messenger. He's addressing Titus, but there's two characteristics of Paul as a messenger here in the text. And the first really is true of all of God's, all men of God, people who are sent by God to proclaim the truth, they're slaves. They are slaves. It's not servant. John MacArthur has done an excellent job of pointing this out in his book on the topic called Slave. But this is the word dolos, and so it's referring to a slave, not just a servant. So that would be the correct translation. Very few of the English translations get this right, but there's a translation by a guy named Goodspeed called the New Testament and American Translation, and he gets it right there. He says it's slave, New American Standard says bondservant. It's never been, it's just never been a popular thing to talk about slavery and to think of ourselves as slaves, but that's what we are because it's not just an American thing. The fact is we all like our independence. The fact is we don't like to think we're enslaved to anyone, that we're completely free to do whatever we want. But when you come to Christ, you're not your own. When you come to him, you are not your own. First Corinthians 6, 19 and 20 says that. You are not your own. You are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. So you have a job to do once you are purchased by Christ. You are not just saved to get your get out of hell free card. You're there. Yes, you get out of hell. But it's more than that. You are now, you have a whole completely different purpose for a living. Thayer's lexicon says the word means a man of servile condition. And then he goes on to elaborate and he says, those whose service to Christ is extending and advancing his cause among men. That's a wonderful thing to live for. That's a wonderful thing to come to an end of yourself and realize that I'm not living for myself. I'm living to advance the cause of Christ in this world that we live in. In Greek culture, it wasn't popular to be a slave either. The only positive use of the term dolos was to be a slave to the laws of society. If you were a good citizen, you thought of yourself as a slave to society's laws. It was considered the mark of an ideal citizen and it was never used in classical Greek of any sort of religious relationship at all. But it is often used in the epistles as a title. You see it there in the introductions. We're not going to look at them because it says the same thing in each. Romans chapter 1 verse 1, Galatians chapter 1 verse 10, Philippians chapter 1 verse 1. It was so thoroughly used in the New Testament that by the time you get to the early church and they're writing about themselves, they refer to themselves the same way. They picked up on it and they realized that they too were slaves. It didn't die with the apostles. Lenski says, Christians have no will of their own, but make God's will theirs in everything. That's not just for apostles. It's not just for pastors. It's for everyone in Christ. Think of yourself that way, that you live for the glory of God and that you're going to be more than a servant. You're going to be a slave and do what he tells you to do because he owns you. You don't have title on your own life. God has title through the gospel, through the blood of Christ. He's redeemed you. He's purchased you out of the slave market of sin, and he's made you his slave. And so grasp that. I think most of American Christianity suffers because we don't grasp that. It's hard to know exactly where the idea originated, Of course, we've got the idea of redemption. It certainly would originate there. But what's interesting is that if you go back to the Old Testament and you look at the prophets, the prophets often were referred to as servants. So I think this is probably where the idea harkens back to. They didn't just come up with stuff on their own. The Old Testament was a major part of their thinking of everything in Christianity. If you go back to Amos chapter 3 verse 7, It says, therefore, the Lord does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants, the prophets. So where did it come from? I think it's coming from that concept and it's not the only place. Zechariah chapter 1, verse 6, in the first part of the verse, it says, but my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants, the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So the prophets were seen as servants. So it makes sense that by the time you get to the New Testament, the apostles would see themselves as slaves, right? And so that's going on here. They are slaves. That's the first characteristic of his messengers. In this case, not in here, we gotta be careful. You can take slaves and apply that to every Christian. Apostles, on the other hand, no. Not everyone is an apostle. And in fact, go further and say, not everyone who stands behind a pulpit and preaches. Pastors are not apostles. Modern day pastors and preachers are not apostles. If you're in a church like that, run like the building's on fire, okay? Because there's usually a lot more going wrong there than just the title. But here Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ. What is an apostle? Grudem points out that there are two qualifications to be called an apostle. Number one, they saw Jesus after the resurrection with their own eyes. So put something here in Titus and go back to Acts chapter 1 for a second. I'm just making this up because I'm a Baptist. It's actually in the Bible. In Acts chapter 1 verse 22, they saw the resurrection with their own eyes. You go back to 21. So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. Remember they're trying to replace Judas Iscariot. And what's the qualification they're looking for? Someone that's been around since the baptism of John up until the day of his resurrection. There's nobody walking around today that can do that. I don't care who told them they're an apostle. I don't care what crazy baloney vision or dream they had. None of that's true. The scriptures, let God be true, let every man be a liar. The Word of God says that that's what they were looking for. And then the second characteristic, they were commissioned by Jesus to be an apostle. So even there, it wasn't just anyone who was there during that time, but someone who was specifically commissioned to be an apostle. And for that, you stay in Acts chapter 1 and go back to verse 2. Again, we'll go back to verse 1, and I'm taking Pastor Randall's stuff. But in the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God." That's all I'll say about that because Pastor Randall is going to talk more about Acts chapter one. So, two qualifications. Those are the qualifications. No one today has those qualifications. People, I know of a case in Oklahoma where there's a guy who's calling himself an apostle. It's not his only problem. He's got loads of false doctrine that goes along with it. And, you know, it's not wrong to say, I'm not having anything to do with that. In fact, it's right to say that. So Paul actually fulfilled, you say, well, how did Paul fulfill those qualifications? We'll go to Acts chapter 26. I should have kept my finger there. Acts chapter 26, verses 15 through 18, and hear what the Apostle Paul says about his calling. Acts 26, verse 15, Paul says, and I said, who are you, Lord? The Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appointed, or I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me." So very clearly he's received that commission. He's received that commission to go. and to be an apostle by Jesus himself. Yes, resurrected Jesus sometime later, but nevertheless, he did fulfill that. And so he's sent by Jesus in that way. Now, the second thing I want to point out here is that not only are they his messengers, but they accomplish his purposes. they accomplish his purposes. The next part of verse 1 says, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness. So that's the purpose. They're going to accomplish God's purposes and there are two purposes at the end of verse 1. The first one is that God's chosen people would have the content of the saving message. That's what this means when it says, for the in the English it says, for the sake of the faith of God's elect. Really it's just saying the faith of God's elect. So that's the first purpose that God's chosen people, God's elect, would have the content of the saving message, that's faith. That's what that is. The word for elect Like it or lump it, it's what it means, picked out or chosen. That's Thayer's lexicon, picked out, chosen. It is what it means. In fact, it means it so much that several translations translate this, chosen people. And that would be Charles Williams, J. Adams, Arthur S. Way in the 20th century New Testament. You could actually translate it that way, God's chosen people, his chosen people. This is significant. We'll talk about why it's really significant at the end. The usage of the term in the pastoral epistles is more formal because what it's saying here, we're giving an official name to the covenant people of God. They are the elect and it's used to identify the covenant people of God. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 10, there's a goal for this election. And the goal is, therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. That's 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 10. Take comfort with that right now. Take comfort with that. Our sister, Sharon, right? She Repented, came to faith in Christ. She's one of God's people. God chose her for what purpose? So that she would have this salvation that's in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. I mean, some of you have said to me this in the last couple of days, you know, when I saw Sharon on Sunday, she was weak. You know, she looked a little bit pale and she was struggling a little bit with her shoulder and stuff like this. And yeah, she's not now. She's not struggling with any of that now. Now she's in the presence of our King. She's in the presence of our King. She is whole. She doesn't have an 83-year-old body anymore. And she is there worshiping him. And we know she loved to worship. She was here faithfully. And you can know that there in the presence of King Jesus, she's happy. She's happy. And so it's all because of Christ. It's not because she was a good person. It wasn't because she made good choices and she chose God. It was because God chose her before the foundation of the world. We're going to see that in a minute. That's amazing. That's amazing. And we will miss her. We will miss her. Faith here I am taking to mean like what you've seen all through 1 and 2 Timothy, the deposit of faith that Paul refers to in 1 and 2 Timothy. In other words, the doctrinal content of the gospel. The second purpose that God has is that God's chosen people would know the truth that would make them godly. That's what this means when it says, and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness. He's going to save them with this incredible gospel. and he is going to change them. This truth that they learn is gonna make them godly. Thayer says in his lexicon, the truth is taught, the word truth means the truth is taught in the Christian religion respecting God and the execution of his purposes through Christ and respecting the duties of man. Godliness here, the term has to do with religious piety. J.B. Phillips translates it, God-fearing life. It's used 15 times in the New Testament. 10 of them are in the pastoral epistles. So it's really significant. I think the reason why it's significant is because, think about church history at this stage. Pastor Randall's about to start preaching through the book of Acts, right? You've got the resurrection of Jesus. You've got in the book of Acts a proclamation of the resurrected Jesus. You've got churches being established all over the Mediterranean Sea, that area, right? Roman Empire. And then what's natural, like in the next 30 years of church history, going to have false teaching that comes in. You're going to have people living in a culture in the Roman Empire that was absolutely wicked. So what do the people that are preaching and teaching have to do? They have to point out, listen, you've got to fight against this culture, and you've got to stand for truth, and you've got to live a godly life in the middle of it. You can't be living like you once were. Such were some of you, but you're not that anymore. And so you see that theme developing throughout the New Testament, so that by the time you get to the pastoral epistles in the mid-60s A.D., they've got to deal with this issue of godliness. So 10 times you see it out of the 15 that are mentioned in the New Testament. That's going on here with the context of the pastoral epistles. The source of this godliness is not man-made rules. It's not just coming up with legalistic rules and saying, OK, well, we want to be different from the culture, so I'm going to do these things to be different from the culture. Actually, the source of godliness from 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 is Jesus himself. Go back there and look at it. You'll be reminded as soon as you see it. I should have this memorized, but 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 says it. Great indeed we confess is what? The mystery of godliness. What's the mystery of godliness? My set of rules? The mystery of godliness is Christ. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on the world, taken up in glory. He's the one that can empower a godly life. You cannot have enough rules to make it happen. And so that's what that has to do with. Calvin says the only proof of the whole of religion is the unchangeable truth of God. It's the unchangeable truth of God. So if you have, you can do this, if you have a thorough intellectual grasp on truth, but that truth does not produce godliness in your life and you don't really understand the truth that you've studied, memorized, written about, or preached. You can have a grasp on it and know it up here, but if there's no transformation of your heart and your life, do you really know it? You might know it by letter, but you certainly don't know the spirit of it. So God's chosen people would know the truth and would make them godly. going to have to move here. So verse 2 is the second foundation here of God's purpose. God's promise is based on his own character. It's based on his own character because verse 2 says, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began. So we've got a definition in this verse, we have a characteristic, and then we have a timestamp. A definition, a characteristic, and a timestamp. The definition of the promise, in hope of eternal life. That's the promise. That's God's great promise to the people of Crete, who are just wicked, evil people. Their great hope is this promise that God offers eternal life. How do you translate this phrase, eternal life? Life of the Ages, some people have said, the Concordant Translation kind of struggles with this so much that they just went with this. Life, Ionian. Life eons, right? Life of the ages. That's what God is offering. Eternal life, life that goes on forever. Every religion wants to offer this. Every religion makes up something that they think is eternal life. But this is real life because it's Christ ultimately. Eternal life is knowing Christ. And so I want to remind you that the reason why we have eternal life is because God's covenants are eternal. When God makes a covenant, he makes it eternally. Listen to what the scriptures say. Isaiah 55 verse 3, "'Incline your ear and come to me, hear that your soul may live, and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.'" Isaiah 45 verse 17, "'But Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation. You shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity.'" So his covenants are eternal. A lot of Southern Baptist like to talk about eternal security. We talk about perseverance of the saints, right? But the point is that God's covenant, if you have truly repented and you've truly placed your faith in Christ and God has chosen you and you are in him, then you can know that that's an everlasting covenant. You can face death. and know that you have eternal life because God has promised it. That's exactly what Titus chapter 1 verse 2 is saying. He's promised it. The term for eternal is used 70 times in the New Testament. Of these, 64 of them are describing God or facts concerning his salvation as everlasting. Thayer says in this context, the term means without beginning, a gospel whose subject matter is eternal. The gospel is an eternal gospel. So 2nd Timothy 1.9 says, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ before the ages began. Before the ages began. We'll come back to that in a second. The second thing we have is a characteristic, a characteristic of God. What do we know about God in this text? Which God? Who never lies. who never lies. This is the only time in the New Testament, in fact, anywhere in sacred literature, Old Testament or New Testament, that this word appears. In the Old Testament translation in Greek, it's not there either, but it's here, right here in this verse, the only time. And it's a, yeah, even though it's only the only time, it's a foundational truth. And the idea appears throughout the scriptures. It literally means one who is without a lie. One who doesn't have a lie or any kind of deceit. But the concept is well established because Numbers 23 19 says, God is not a man that he should lie, or a son of man that he should change his mind. Has he said and will he not do it? Or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it? And then you got the memory verse from Hebrews 6, 17 and 18. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath. So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. You can hold fast to the hope set before you because God doesn't lie and he's made this covenant through Christ. That's what we all have. That's why none of us needs to fear death. This is the thing that's kind of so striking about Mesharon passing, right? It was so sudden. We saw her on Sunday and now she's gone. And we can chalk that up in our minds to age, but that's not true. Death is sudden for every one of us. There's people that got up this morning that are not alive now and they had plans for tomorrow. They had plans for tonight. And so where's your hope? You better be banking on God's promise. You better be banking on that. And now finally we have the timestamp of the promise. Timestamp of the promise. What's the timestamp? Promise before the ages began. Wow. Mind blown. Before the ages began, God did this. I want to walk you through what this means. It's a tough one to understand in Greek. It's always translated promise. It's not hard to understand in Greek. The word is always promise. It's always the same and the translations don't even differ. It's promise. God has made a promise and it's what you think it is. So think about this. Ask yourself this question. We said the covenant is eternal, right? So what is the covenant? It's a promise. It's a promise. It's a promise made by God to his people. Who is the mediator of that covenant? That's Jesus Christ, our high priest. When was the covenant promised? Before the ages began. Before time is what it's saying. Before time began. Who did he make this promise to? Go back to verse one. You've got the elect. He made his promise. He made it to Christ, but he made his promise here in Titus 1.1 to the elect. So here's your conclusion, my conclusion. The words elect, predestination, election are all biblical words describing the biblical concepts that he chooses his people for himself before time began. Deny it if you want, but if you're going to do it, you have to argue with scripture and not with me. It's there in the word of God. So that's the conclusion there. Now in conclusion, I want to give you a theological freebie and then one application. I've already given you the application to missharing, so I'll skip that and just give you the freebie. The language of Titus 1, 1 and 2 is loaded with language that reminds Titus that these wicked, evil Cretans, sounds weird to even say it, because, you know, even today people talk about Cretans. Wicked, evil Cretans who have come to faith in Christ and from whom he is to start a church are the Israel of God. Why do you say that? God has sent Paul to help start this church just as he sent servants slash slave prophets in the Old Testament. Remember? That's an Old Testament concept. Like Israel, they are what? The chosen people, the elect, God's elect. And like Israel, they are now to live godly as a testimony to the pagan cultures around them. And like Israel, All of this is based on the eternal covenant. All of it. These pagans have become the true Israel by virtue of their conversion. I'm not talking about replacing Israel. I'm saying there's always been one. There's always been one. And that one Israel is all the people of God who repent and come to faith in Christ so much so that you can take Gentiles and make them part of the covenant people of God. Gentiles who are wicked, rebellious, stubborn, lying, evil people, like it says in Titus chapter one, and make them into the true Israel. And by the way, that's you and me, right? Wicked, evil, think about your own life. Don't whitewash it. Remember what you were, such were some of you. Remember what you were before and think on what God has done through his promise. All right, let's close in prayer. Lord, we thank you for this truth. It's amazing that your gospel does this kind of transforming work in the lives of your people. You take people who are enemies before they were enemies of you and you make them, you adopt them into your family and you make us the Israel of God. We have a covenant with you, an eternal covenant that you will not break. Lord, help us as your people. Help us to Remember this, and as we face grief, and it's right to grieve, it's right to say, oh, we're gonna miss Ms. Sharon. Help us to remember that Ms. Sharon is there in your presence now exactly because of this promise. And one day, we too will be there with her, with you, because of this promise. It's an eternal covenant. We praise you for it in Jesus' name, amen.