Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Incarnation, Hope, Godliness — an Overview of Titus Titus 1:1–4, Part 1

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Incarnation, Hope, Godliness — an Overview of Titus Titus 1:1–4, Part 1 · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: As we begin our study of the short Letter of
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Paul to Titus, who was left behind on Crete, the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: island of Crete. In order to put things in order,
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  Speaker 1: as we'll be seeing, what I do at the beginning
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: of a study like this is read through the whole book.
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  Speaker 1: I take a piece of paper, I fold it in half,
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  Speaker 1: and I make notes about the things that I see,
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  Speaker 1: Because what we're facing in all interpretation is that the parts,
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  Speaker 1: the individual parts the trees in the forest, can only
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  Speaker 1: be understood in relationship to the whole, and the whole
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  Speaker 1: can only be understood as you read the parts, and
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  Speaker 1: so it's a kind of circle, but it's not a
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  Speaker 1: vicious circle, because as you carefully work through the whole
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  Speaker 1: and the parts, they refine each other until you arrive
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  Speaker 1: at a point where there are these traits that you
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  Speaker 1: can see are clear enough so that they shed light
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  Speaker 1: on the whole, and the whole sheds light on the part.
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  Speaker 1: And it would be impossible to have any communication otherwise,
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  Speaker 1: because we would always say, well, you can't know the
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  Speaker 1: whole until you have the parts, and you can't know
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  Speaker 1: the parts until you have the whole, and so you're stuck.
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  Speaker 1: But we all know that we're not stuck. We do
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  Speaker 1: communicate every day. And so here's what I do. I
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  Speaker 1: read through the hole. And when I read through the
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  Speaker 1: hole here I saw three repetitions of apparent high points
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  Speaker 1: that gave me a clue as to what Titus is
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  Speaker 1: up to in this book. I'm going to point out
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  Speaker 1: those three high points and then make an observation about
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  Speaker 1: the false teaching, and then next time we'll dig into
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  Speaker 1: some of the details. Paul a servant of God and
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  Speaker 1: an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the
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  Speaker 1: faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth
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  Speaker 1: which accords with Godliness. So truth that accords with Godliness
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  Speaker 1: is going to be one of the features of this
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  Speaker 1: these mountain peaks that I see godliness practical lived out
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  Speaker 1: piety and good works upon the hope of eternal life.
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  Speaker 1: That's what it's founded on. We'll be looking at this
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  Speaker 1: in more detail later. Which God, who never lies, promised
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  Speaker 1: before the times of the ages, and at the proper
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  Speaker 1: time manifested the proper time he manifested. So you've got manifestation,
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  Speaker 1: and you've got what's manifested is eternal life and hope,
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  Speaker 1: and you've got the outcome of that in godliness. Now
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  Speaker 1: let's jump to the next high point that I spotted.
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  Speaker 1: This is chapter two eleven to fourteen. For the grace
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  Speaker 1: of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all. So you
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  Speaker 1: have grace of God appearing, which corresponds to this manifestation
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  Speaker 1: here at the proper time of the grace of eternal
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  Speaker 1: life showing up in history. The grace of God has appeared,
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  Speaker 1: bringing salvation to all people, training us in order that,
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  Speaker 1: having denied ungodliness and worldly passions, we might live self controlled,
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  Speaker 1: upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for
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  Speaker 1: the blessed hope. So here you have the blessed hope,
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  Speaker 1: which corresponds to the hope of eternal life. Back here
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  Speaker 1: the blessed hope the appearing of the glory of our
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  Speaker 1: great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for
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  Speaker 1: us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify
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  Speaker 1: for himself a people of his own who are zealous
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  Speaker 1: for good works. So grace appears in history. It gives
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  Speaker 1: the people of God a blessed hope of Christ's coming
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  Speaker 1: to bring them eternal life, and it thus empowers them
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  Speaker 1: to do good works. The same three things that we
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  Speaker 1: saw here in the first mountaintop. Now here's the third
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  Speaker 1: one Chitus chapter three. But when the goodness and loving
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  Speaker 1: kindness of God our Savior appeared, the goodness and loving
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  Speaker 1: kindness of God our Savior appearing corresponds to the grace
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  Speaker 1: of God has appeared, which corresponds to the manifestation of
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  Speaker 1: the appearance of eternal life. He saved us not because
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  Speaker 1: of works, So the works are not the basis of
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  Speaker 1: our salvation. They're the outcome of our salvation done by
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  Speaker 1: us in righteousness. So works done by us in righteousness
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  Speaker 1: is not what saved us that has brought us justification,
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  Speaker 1: as we'll see in just a second, but according to
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  Speaker 1: his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal
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  Speaker 1: of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us
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  Speaker 1: richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that having been
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  Speaker 1: justified by his grace, not because of works done by
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  Speaker 1: us in righteousness, justified by his grace, we might become heirs.
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  Speaker 1: According to here it is again the hope of eternal life,
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  Speaker 1: which corspon to back in chapter one, the hope of
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  Speaker 1: eternal life, and in chapter two, the blessed hope. So
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  Speaker 1: the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appears
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  Speaker 1: in history, and through the work of Jesus Christ, he
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  Speaker 1: gives us the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy.
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  Speaker 1: And I want you to insist on these things, so
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  Speaker 1: that those who have believed in God may be careful
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  Speaker 1: to devote themselves to good works. These things are profitable
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  Speaker 1: for people. So they have the same three elements, huge
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  Speaker 1: elements in each of these three mountain peaks. It seems
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  Speaker 1: to me, which gives you the structure of the way
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  Speaker 1: Paul is thinking in this letter. So here you have
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  Speaker 1: the appearance of the goodness and loving kindness of God
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  Speaker 1: through Christ. It brings about the hope of eternal life,
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  Speaker 1: and this yields powerful good works. Here it is in
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  Speaker 1: chapter two, the grace of God appears. It awakens a
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  Speaker 1: blessed hope, It makes the people zealous for good works.
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  Speaker 1: And here it is in chapter one, the appearance or
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  Speaker 1: manifestation of the hope of eternal life and leads to
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  Speaker 1: a life that accords with Godliness. That's the basic structure,
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  Speaker 1: it seems to me of this letter. And of course
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  Speaker 1: there's lots more to it, especially in this third section
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  Speaker 1: here where it talks about regeneration and renewal in the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit and justification. Oh, my goodness, so much more.
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  Speaker 1: But the basic structure is there was a time in
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  Speaker 1: eternity where God had to plan for grace, and then
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  Speaker 1: at a high point in history, goodness and loving kindness
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  Speaker 1: and grace entered the world, and they brought about hope
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  Speaker 1: for God to people through Jesus Christ, and good works
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  Speaker 1: abound in the people of God. Now, the false teaching
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  Speaker 1: that he's facing on the island of crete and is
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  Speaker 1: having to address in this letter comes out twice. But
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  Speaker 1: the interesting thing is to me that the basic problem
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  Speaker 1: Paul has with the false teachers is that they wreck
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  Speaker 1: this good works idea. Let me show you what I mean.
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  Speaker 1: So here there are two units where the false teachers
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  Speaker 1: are addressed. Here's the first one. There are many who
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  Speaker 1: are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision.
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  Speaker 1: So it's a Jewish issue somehow. There are Jews who
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  Speaker 1: are misusing the law to bring about actually disobedience to
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  Speaker 1: the law. They must be silenced since they are upsetting
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  Speaker 1: whole households by teaching for shame gain. So they're lovers
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  Speaker 1: of money, just like the Pharisees in Jesus day what
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  Speaker 1: they ought not to teach. They profess to know God,
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  Speaker 1: but they deny him by their works, being detestable, disobed,
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  Speaker 1: unfit for any good work. That's the issue for Paul.
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  Speaker 1: This letter is written, as we saw, to bring about
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  Speaker 1: good works, to bring about good works, to bring about
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  Speaker 1: good works and godliness. And here these false teachers are,
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  Speaker 1: and they're denying the truth by their works, and they're
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  Speaker 1: unfit for every good work. One more, here's the other
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  Speaker 1: place where the false teachers are addressed. Avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions,
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  Speaker 1: quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.
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  Speaker 1: Whereas Paul had said, these good works are profitable. So
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  Speaker 1: my way of summing up the structure of Titus as
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  Speaker 1: it appears in these several texts would be to say
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  Speaker 1: that there was grace planned in eternity. We'll see that
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  Speaker 1: that grace appears in history in Jesus Christ, Christ gave
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  Speaker 1: himself he dies. The effect of that is justification by faith,
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  Speaker 1: and justification yields hope, and hope brings forth good works.
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  Speaker 1: And the overwhelming emphasis seems to me in this letter
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  Speaker 1: is on good works. We'll see that over and over again.
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  Speaker 1: He's saying that these people were redeemed for good works,
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  Speaker 1: that God may that those who believe in God may
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  Speaker 1: be care careful to devote themselves to good works, or
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  Speaker 1: Titus two, to purify himself for himself a people of
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  Speaker 1: his own who are zealous for good works, or as
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  Speaker 1: the very beginning of the book says, he's writing this
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  Speaker 1: letter for the faith, for the sake of the faith
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  Speaker 1: of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth which
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  Speaker 1: accords with Godliness. So that's the big picture as I
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  Speaker 1: see it, the forest, and now we'll start looking at
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  Speaker 1: the trees next time.