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Living Waters of Grace 02-03-26 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
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Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
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County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
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continues teaching through God's Word.
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Paul says I am a bond slave. In other words, he says I am
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willingly submitting my will to God.
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I am a slave of God. That should be all of our
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testimonies that we are a bond servant to God.
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We are giving our will to willingly submitting our will to
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God, Not out of, you know, not out of coercion or because we're
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being forced to, but because we desire to please God.
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So we live for him. Most of the time when we think
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of slavery, we think of those who were forced into servitude.
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But that's not the only form of slavery that has existed in the
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world. For some, slavery meant to
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chance at a better life. No one forced them to become
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slaves, but because of the opportunity to live a better
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life and work for their own needs, they would willingly
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pledge themselves to their masters.
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In Pastor Lewis's message today, he encourages you to willingly
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pledge your life to God, knowing he offers you everlasting life
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now. Here's Pastor Lewis in Titus
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chapter one with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
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As Paul wrote these books, First and Second Timothy, First
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Timothy and Titus was actually the first 2.
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They were written after his first imprisonment.
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And then, of course, Second Timothy was written while he was
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in his second imprisonment waiting to be executed.
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But we understand that as he wrote these epistles or these
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letters, they are for the purpose of pastoral direction,
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but not as they're not just for pastoral direction.
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I mean, we could look at that and we can say, OK, what's OK
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for us who are not pastors do not have to obey.
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We don't have to deal with this. That's for you, man.
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You need to pay attention to it. You guys.
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You want us up there talking? But no, he don't let us all off
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the hook. We are all committed to the Word
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of God, and the things that he teach us in these epistles
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actually give us very, very good direction for living the
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Christian life. And that's one of the reasons
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why I do enjoy so much reading First Timothy and Second Timothy
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and Titus, because it's clear direction on what it is that God
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intends for us as the church, how we should look and how we
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are separate from the world and how we should treat each other
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while we are here because we're going to be spending eternity
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together. So we may as well learn now
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while we're here, how to get along with each other, how to
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love each other, how to deal with each other, how to pray for
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each other, how to serve each other, and how to just be with
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each other. We got our eternity.
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Look forward to us. We may well deal with it here,
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right? Amen.
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But as we get into the book, I tell you some very interesting
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things that we have to first look at.
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First of all, we, we look at the fact that with Paul, it was Paul
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who gave Titus this assignment as he left him in Crete.
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Now Paul, Paul initially had gone into the Macedonia, into
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Macedonia, into the, into the Asia region.
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And he did set up some churches there.
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He set up churches in, in Ephesus and of course in
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Corinth. And he set up a church and the,
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it's actually one of the largest islands on the Mediterranean
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Sea. They're in Crete and as Paul
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began to set up these churches, now some of these churches, he
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was able to stay for a while. Like with the church, the when
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he was working with the 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, the
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Thessalonian church, he was able to stay there for a while.
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Ephesus, he was able to stay there for a time.
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And then of course he had to leave Timothy there so that
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Timothy could be the pastoring to put things in order there
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that Paul wasn't able to do. But he spent a small amount of
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time in Crete, and when he spent the time in Crete, he had to
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leave early for whatever reason, probably because he was on his
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way traveling toward the Troas, where eventually he would be
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arrested and taken to Rome and executed.
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But while he was in Crete, there was other churches that were
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there and he sent Titus, a trusted worker in the faith.
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In fact, Titus is described a couple different ways and I just
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want to go through with that because this was a very faithful
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worker and very useful for Paul. In fact, it Titus is described
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in the 1st chapter right here in verse 4.
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He's described as being a son, a son of the common faith.
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And we'll get into what that means a little later on.
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But he's also described in second Corinthians chapter 2 and
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verse 13 describes him as Paul's spiritual brother.
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And then in in second Corinthians chapter 8 verse 23,
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he describes him as Paul's partner and helper.
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And even in even also in second Corinthians chapter 8, he also
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talks about him or describes him as being sort of a a positive
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spiritual role model for those who were that were Paul sent
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him. Now Crete wasn't the 1st place
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that Paul ever used Titus. He had actually sent him to
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Corinth. And we know that Titus was a man
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of integrity because while he was in Corinth, Paul not only
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used used him to help put some things in order while he was in
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Corinth or to help deal with some issues that they were
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dealing with in Corinth, but he also used him to bring back the
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money, the offering that the people of Corinth had put
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together that they were going to take to Jerusalem.
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Titus was one of the trustworthy people that he used to bring
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forth that money. And you know that whoever people
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select to work with the money are people who are trustworthy.
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They are the trustees, so to speak.
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But just to give you a little bit of information about this
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place, Crete, it's an island on the Mediterranean Sea.
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It is a Greek island. And and of course, Titus was a
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Greek convert. You know, Paul had ministered to
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that island and Titus was one of the people that he administered
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to. So Titus was a son who came into
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the faith through Paul's ministry.
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Now the island of Crete is located like southeast of the
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island of Greece. In fact, if you look at Cyprus,
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and now since my son had gone to Cyprus to play ball there, I
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look at everything around the Greek or the Mediterranean and,
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and kind of look at it around Cyprus to see where things are
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located. And Crete is actually located
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West of Cyprus. It's a larger island than what
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Cyprus is. Very beautiful area there.
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Now, Crete is about 150 miles long and it's about 35 miles
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wide. And like I said, it is the
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largest of the Mediterranean islands.
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It has over over 100 villages that are located right there in
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the island of Crete. But there's six main cities that
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they have there, and that's where the churches are located
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in, in those six main cities. So when he sent Titus back to
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Crete to put things in order, it was to those churches that he
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was going to be working with. Now Crete had a very bad
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reputation, industry wise, business wise, Crete was a very
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good place, very nice place to be very prosperous.
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But in terms of its morality, Crete was a very immoral, just
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like Ephesus was, and just like Corinth, it was a very immoral
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area. So he sent him back to a very
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difficult place to be able to try to put things in order.
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In this particular church, Titus was used almost like a little
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point guard. That's because a point guard is
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that guy on the team that the coach can give instruction to.
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And he goes and puts everybody in place.
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He goes and make sure everybody's in the right
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position, Everybody is doing what they need to be doing.
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Everybody is functioning together.
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That's what a point guard does. And he can look and see he's
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actually the coach on the floor. And that's kind of what Titus
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was there in Crete. He was, he was Paul's point man.
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He was his point guard. He made sure that the leaders
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are put in place, as we're going to see later.
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He made sure that there were things in order there so that
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the church could function properly.
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So anyway, we go on and we see here as we go to chapter 1 here
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with Titus, we see here that Paul, when he starts off his
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letter, he describes himself as a bondservant.
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Paul was a bondservant. Paul says that I am a
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bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ.
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So Paul says I'm a slave, but he's not just a slave because
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there's a couple types of slaves and he and he did that because
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in the Roman culture, they are big on slaves.
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I mean, Romans used slaves for a lot of different purposes, but
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Paul described himself as a slave of God and he was a bond
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servant of God. So what Paul is basically
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saying, like I said, there's a couple different types of
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slaves. There's a slaves that that that
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people use that forced, they're forced into labor.
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OK, There are those kind of slaves forced into labor.
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Those people don't want to be there, but they're there.
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They're not there willingly, but they are there because they were
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overpowered. They were conquered and they
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were forced into labor. But Paul was a willing slave,
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like the bond servants. And these are people who
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sometimes give themselves to be slave.
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These are the downloads, the people who give themselves to be
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slaves so that they can either pay off debt or that they can
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just live. I mean, they're just poor and
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they don't have any income. They don't have a way of making
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enough income for them and their families to live.
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So they sell themselves into slavery and they work for a
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owner for so many years. And then they get their freedom.
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They get their freedom again, and some of them choose when
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it's time. God bless you.
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God bless you. And some of them, when they
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choose to get back, when they have the opportunity to get
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their freedom back, they choose not to.
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They choose not to. They choose to stay a slave
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because maybe they love the family or they have themselves
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made a family while they were there and they want to stay with
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their family. So they choose to remain a
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slave. And if they do that, then they
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would have to go into a doorway. The slave owner, OK, would take
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an animal and he would put it into the ear, OK, put a like a
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big plug into the ear of the slave and that indicated that
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this slave was with us for the remainder of his life.
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So anyway, Paul says I am a bond slave.
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In other words, he says I am willingly submitting my will to
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God. I am a slave of God.
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That should be all of our testimonies that we are a bond
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servant to God. We are giving our will to
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willingly submitting our will to God, not out of, you know, not
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out of coercion or because we're being forced to, but because we
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desire to please God. So we live for him, we are his
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bond servants and he says, and this is he's an apostle of Jesus
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Christ, which means that he is a messenger of Jesus Christ.
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Please don't always just separate the two like there's
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two different people. It is not.
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And that's why Paul, it had put God and Jesus Christ together
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because they are equal. They are equal.
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So he is a bondservant of God and he is a messenger of Jesus
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Christ. And now Paul goes into talking
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about it's really loaded everything he has here in these
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first 3 verses. Now he goes in and talk about
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the purpose of the ministry that God has called him into.
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And he says according to the faith of God's elect, according
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to the faith of God's elect. And what Paul is saying to us is
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that he is a messenger of God or messenger of Jesus Christ to
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bring the gospel to God's elect. That is the Gentiles and it is
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the people of, of Israel who is God's elect, those who trust in
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Jesus Christ for their salvation, that God before the
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foundation of the world had chosen in Christ Jesus.
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And what that is saying now, you know, and we, we know that
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there's a whole issue that comes up about will versus will versus
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election and all those things. I can't begin to tell you that I
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understand everything about how all that connects.
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All I can tell you is that I believe that what the Word of
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God says is that both of those things are true.
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And how that happens, I'm not exactly sure.
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But we do know that Jesus Christ is able to through His
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foreknowledge. God, through their
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foreknowledge, will know who will receive His salvation and
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who won't. Jesus Christ already said that,
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that He already knows those who will receive His salvation.
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He knows those are going to follow Him and He knows those
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who won't. So he he's called to the gospel
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according to the faith of the elect.
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That means he's the one that will speak the gospel to them,
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to bring them to faith, to share the faith with them so that they
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will receive salvation. And then the second thing is
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that and the acknowledgement of the truth.
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Now this acknowledgement of the truth just simply means that
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they understand what this true doctrine is.
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And it's this true doctrine by them hearing true doctrine, just
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like us when we hear true doctrine coming across the
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pulpit, it's the doctrine that we can trust in that causes us
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to live godly. It produces good fruit in us.
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It's that truth that we hear that causes us to live godly.
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And that's why it says which accords with godliness or that
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leads us to godliness. And that godliness we're going
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to see also is being demonstrated or described as
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good works as we go through the rest of the books here in Titus.
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And then in verse 2, it says in hope of eternal life, which God
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who cannot lie promised before time begin.
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So that is the end point of our salvation and us walking with
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the Lord and godliness, the reward that we receive from that
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or the glory that we receive from that is eternal life in
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Christ Jesus. That's what it's all about.
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That's what we're living for. That's that's that hope that we
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all have that we can share with other people that we will have
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eternal life because we are those who have trusted and
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believed in Jesus Christ. So and he said, and that's
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eternal life that we have was promised to us.
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Now, it would be one thing if your uncle or your aunt, people
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that you think that are really popular in your life, that you
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trusted and that you know, they, you hang on every one of their
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words and they promise you eternal life.
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OK, that's one thing. But even beyond their own
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control, they can lie to you. They can put you down.
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I mean, they can let you down. They can disappoint you, might
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not be intentionally, but they can disappoint you.
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And not only that, but people can lie.
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God cannot lie. So we're promised this from
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someone who cannot lie. And the reason why I want to
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emphasize that because in some versions it has God who will not
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lie. OK, I like the fact that it says
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God who cannot lie. Because if you know, there are
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people that we have in our lives and we say, you know what?
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I know this person and this guy just will not lie.
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He will not tell a lie. Well, somewhere along the line,
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he will tell a lie. Somewhere along the line, he or
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she will tell a lie. They are capable of telling a
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lie. Even if you've not heard them
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tell a lie, they are capable of it because we're all born in
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sin. We don't have to teach a kid how
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to lie because he's born in and sin.
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He has the character or he has that the nature that will allow
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him to lie. God's nature says he cannot lie
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because he's God. If God ever lied, he would cease
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to be God. He would no longer be God.
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He cannot lie. And I like that because I can
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grab onto that, say wow, he gave me a promise and he cannot lie.
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It has to be true. So I mean, so that's something
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that we as believers, we can always grab onto that and say,
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you know what? Every promise that God has given
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me in this word, it's going to come to be because he cannot
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lie. Now that's good news for us as
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believers, but it's bad news for those who are unbelievers
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because all the promises that he gives to us are true or yeah and
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Amen. But so are the promises that go
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against the unbelievers. He who believes the Son has
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everlasting life. He who does not believe the Son
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has will not see life, but the what wrath of God abides on him.
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That's true as well. So that's something that non
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believers are going to have to deal with this God that we
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serve. He cannot lie.
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He doesn't lie in our favor as believers, but he doesn't lie
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also what he promises to unbelievers as well.
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So he goes on in verse 3 and he says and but has in due time
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manifested his word through preaching, which he has
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committed to me, right? He says, according to the
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commandment of God, our Savior, Paul has been committed the
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ministry of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in this ministry
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that he has. It has come about in due time
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because the ministry, you know, God talked about this this
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promise that he has. You know, he had talked about
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this before time even began. You know, this promise which was
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true, and he talked about it in the Old Testament.
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And then when the time was right, right when the time was
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perfect for his plan, you know, then he manifested.
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That means he made visible, He caused it to be.
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He brought this thing forth through preaching.
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And that's how men know about this eternal life.
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That's how men know about salvation.
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That's how men know about godliness and the true doctrine
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that leads to godliness. That's how men know about it.
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It's through the preaching of the gospel.
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And it's amazing to me that God uses mere men to preach the
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gospel. This is a very, very powerful
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thing. The gospel was very powerful.
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The gospel is a truth that has been through ages.
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And he uses men, and not perfect men either.
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We're talking about men who were flawed, men who were imperfect.
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He uses men like us to preach the gospel.
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He uses people like you to share the gospel.
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That's how the gospel gets out there.
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First Corinthians. What is it 121 that says, you
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know that it's it's, you know, it's through the foolishness of
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preaching the gospel that men would be saved.
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So he preaches through he uses the gospel that the men preach.
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And that was committed to Paul according to the commandment of
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God, not the commandment of men. Man never called Paul.
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He was called by God. And it's the Titus, the true Son
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in the common faith. This common faith is the common
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word of God, this Word of Faith that was delivered once and for
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all, once for all to the Saints, OK?
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Not a Word of Faith that someone took and changed and, you know,
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reduced, watered it down. Not that it's the true Word of
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Faith that was delivered, that was first delivered once and for
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all to the Saints. It came from Jesus Christ, which
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came to the apostles, and it came to the rest of us through
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the preaching of the gospel. That word, that same word that
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never changed, that was delivered to us even through the
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word of God here, through those who were eyewitnesses of Jesus
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Christ. We have that truth.
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And that's the word that that's the common faith.
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And then grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and the Lord
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Jesus Christ and Savior. You know, there's not every one
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of his epistles that he offers grace, mercy, and peace.
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Usually it's grace and peace, which is the Greek and Hebrew
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greeting. We talked about that before, but
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now we know that he also offers mercy.
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And all the epistles that are pastoral epistles, he adds mercy
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to mercy to it. And the reason why is because we
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as teachers, you who are teachers, are held to a stricter
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judgment when it comes to the Word of God.
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We're held to a stricter judgment and we need his mercy.
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And that's why it's so important that you pray for teachers, you
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pray for pastors, you and elders, you pray for them as we
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pray for you because we need the mercy of God.
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We need the mercy of God. And then verse 5 says, for this
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reason, I left you in Crete. So now he's going to go into his
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purpose for even having Titus stay in Crete for.
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And there's a number of purposes.
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There's three we're going to talk about the first one, the
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first purpose is that he puts in order, sets in order the things
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that are lacking and appoint elders in every city as I
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commanded you. OK, So he says, I, I'm setting
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you the creep because there's a there's a need, there's some
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things lacking there some things that I wasn't able to stay long
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enough to put in order. So he says, I'm going to you
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first need to set in order the things that are lacking.
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Now this whole word to set in order, that whole word really is
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a medical term and it's a term that really deals or refers to
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setting a bone, setting a bone setting something that is out of
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place in your body, some orthopedic problem that you may
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have that's out of place, Paul says.
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It's it's a setting in order when those things are out of
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order. If we have a limb that's out of
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order, if we have anything that's not lined up right, which
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is why a lot of people will go, you know, to the specialist to
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line them up and get their bodies right because things are
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out of order. And when they're not in order,
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it causes pain, it causes discomfort, it causes
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overcompensation of other limbs or other areas of your body,
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making just cause of dysfunction in your system when things are
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out of order. Sometimes a bone out of order
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causes problems. And if the body or limb is out
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of order, it will let you know because there is, you know the
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body system is is chaotic and it just doesn't function properly.
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Well the church is exact same way when things are out of
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order. If there is no order in the
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church, there is problems. It doesn't function properly.
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It doesn't function properly. Then there has to be
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overcompensation because somebody is doing too much
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because it's not enough. This is lacking.
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So somebody feels they got to go over and do that and then that's
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lacking. So somebody feel like an
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overcompensation. So people are being burned out.
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People are being, you know, not used properly or people are
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getting upset. I mean, when the church is is
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not in order, things happen in the church.
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But when it's set in order, when leadership is set in order and
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things are in order in the church, things go away a lot
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more smoothly. There's not as much affliction,
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there's not as much chaos. There's not the vision and the
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kind of things that can happen when things are out of order.
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This has been Living Waters of Grace, a ministry of Pastor
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Lewis Harrell of Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.
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Today's message has been on the book of Titus.
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This book is a master class in how Christians should live in
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modern culture. Titus was ministering to the
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people of Crete, an island off the coast of Greece, but he was
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facing many challenges. The Cretans who came to know
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Jesus seemed to assimilate Jesus into their existing culture
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instead of allowing themselves to be transformed by the Holy
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Spirit inside of them. Others were fully devoting
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themselves to Jesus but shutting themselves off from the world
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around them. And the apostle Paul encourages
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Titus to help his audience find a middle ground where they can
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live in this world while still following a different way of
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life in Jesus. If you would like to learn more
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about what it means to faithfully follow the teachings
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of Christ in a world full of darkness, we'd love to get
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connected with you in person. If you are in Greensburg, PA,
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we'd love to invite you to join us at Calvary Chapel
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Westmoreland. We need every Sunday at 10:30 AM
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at 400 E Pittsburgh St. Ste. 6B.
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Also, if you visit us at calvarychapelonline.com, you'll
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find links to our mobile app, our giving page, and our contact
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form where you can leave a prayer request if you have one.
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Before we go off the air for today, we ask you to invite
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someone to tune in next time right here on Grace FM 91.7 or
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streaming online at Grace Radio dot FM.
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Word of mouth is the best way to spread the good news of the
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Gospel with those who are hungry to hear.
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Until next time, this has been another edition of Living Waters
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of Grace.