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Christians Go Beyond Compliance Titus 3:1–2, Part 1 · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This is our first session on Titus three one and two.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: In fact, this session will only be here on verse one,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: and then next time we'll look at verse two. But
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: I don't want us to make the mistake of failing
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: to see the forest, because we focus on individual trees
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: like this, In fact, individual trees with in trees. So
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: here's the forest, or it's a patch of the forest anyway,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: And I want to show you why i'd draw your
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: attention to the paragraph, not just to the two verses.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to
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  Speaker 1: be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to
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  Speaker 1: speak evil of no one, to be non combative, gentle,
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  Speaker 1: showing all meekness to all people. So that's list of
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: what how many? I didn't even I didn't even count
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: them one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, seven instructions.
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  Speaker 1: But then it says four. So those instructions are grounded
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  Speaker 1: in the bigger picture. What what's the bigger picture? Four?
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  Speaker 1: We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to
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  Speaker 1: various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy,
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  Speaker 1: hated by others, hating one another. But when the goodness
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  Speaker 1: and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, he saved us.
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  Speaker 1: So there's there's the big argument. And he goes on
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  Speaker 1: to explain how that salvation works. Do these things because
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: we were once like this, but now we're not. So
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: God did a great saving. If you isolated verses one
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: and two by themselves, they would just sound like relatively
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  Speaker 1: good counsel, but no God in them, no Gospel in them.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: So I just want to draw your attention that even
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  Speaker 1: though we spend a lot of time on the details
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  Speaker 1: of specific exhortations or commands or explanations, we dare not
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  Speaker 1: ever forget the bigger picture where these exhortations are put
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: into an explicitly christ centered, Gospel centered context, and we'll
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: be seeing that in the sessions to come. So back
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: to verse one. Remind them to be submissive to rulers
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  Speaker 1: and authorities. That's a very common exhortation in the New Testament,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: the Biblical The apostle writers in the New Testament were
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: jealous that Christians be known for their humble, obedient, good working,
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  Speaker 1: non combative, gentle meek compliance with proper authority. Boy, that
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: goes against the grain of so much fallen humanness in us,
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  Speaker 1: not to mention contemporary cultural bent. We ought to be
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  Speaker 1: the kind of people who are inclined to obey the rulers.
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  Speaker 1: Romans thirteen. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.
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  Speaker 1: For there's no authority except from God. Thoy Paul argues
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  Speaker 1: for it. Here, God in his providence puts rulers in place,
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  Speaker 1: and those that exist have been instituted by God. Or
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  Speaker 1: here's the way first Peter puts it. Be subject for
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  Speaker 1: the Lord's sake, for the Lord's sake, to every human
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  Speaker 1: institution or human creation. That's not just governors. But that's
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  Speaker 1: what's focused on here. We ought to be subject to
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  Speaker 1: teachers and to pastors, and to parents and other appropriate authorities,
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  Speaker 1: whether it be to the Emperor, that's what's focused on
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  Speaker 1: here as supreme or to governors as sent by Him
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  Speaker 1: to punish those who do evil and praise those who
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  Speaker 1: do good. Live as people who are free. Now here's
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  Speaker 1: the gospel peace. You don't subject yourself to a human
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  Speaker 1: authority because you're not free. In Christ, you are free.
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  Speaker 1: You are a child of God. A child of God
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  Speaker 1: is in a profound sense not subject to any man.
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  Speaker 1: He's subject to God. So you're free, but don't use
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  Speaker 1: your freedom as a cover up for evil, but live
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  Speaker 1: as slaves of God, who sends you back in to
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  Speaker 1: human structures, to be submissive, so that when you're in
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  Speaker 1: there being subject, you're not showing yourself as a cowering
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  Speaker 1: coward being subject to the government because the government has
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  Speaker 1: absolute authority. You're not. You're free. You're the child of God,
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  Speaker 1: and as his slaves and his children, God sends you
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  Speaker 1: back in and for his sake, then you are subject.
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  Speaker 1: So remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities.
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  Speaker 1: Here In earlier in Tai chapter two, he had said
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  Speaker 1: the same thing to slaves, to show that this is
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  Speaker 1: a general principle for whatever structures were in. Be submissive
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  Speaker 1: to their own masters and everything that they are to
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  Speaker 1: be well pleasing, not argumented to, not pilfering, but showing
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  Speaker 1: all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn
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  Speaker 1: the doctrine of God. And that's what I underline here,
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  Speaker 1: because I think the same principle carries over here when
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  Speaker 1: he says be subject to the rulers and authorities, be
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  Speaker 1: a dispositionally obedient people, and adorn the Gospel of God.
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  Speaker 1: Don't be known as rabble rousers and trouble makers and
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  Speaker 1: revolutionaries who bristle at being told to go fifty five
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  Speaker 1: miles an hour on the freeway inside the city limits
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  Speaker 1: of Minneapolis or wherever you happen to live. Don't bristle
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  Speaker 1: at that. Don't say I don't like this. I want
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  Speaker 1: to be my own speed limit, and one thousand other
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  Speaker 1: things that the government tells us to do. I have
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  Speaker 1: to shovel my walk when it snows within twenty four hours,
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  Speaker 1: or I get ticketed. I shouldn't bristle at that. There's
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  Speaker 1: some good thinking behind that. And even if there weren't
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  Speaker 1: any good thinking behind it, my dispositional attitude should be
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  Speaker 1: cut my grass, don't put junk on the front yard,
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  Speaker 1: and shovel my walk when it snows. Be a compliant person.
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  Speaker 1: And of course there are limits, right, of course there are.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, this word the reason I put the Greek
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  Speaker 1: here be obedient is because here's where it turns up.
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  Speaker 1: In Acts five, the Jewish council said, we strictly charge
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  Speaker 1: you not to teach in this name. Yet here you
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  Speaker 1: have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to
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  Speaker 1: bring this man's blood upon us. But Peter and the
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  Speaker 1: Apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men. So
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  Speaker 1: the limit is clear. Right, If this submission or this
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  Speaker 1: obedience calls you to do something contrary to the word
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  Speaker 1: of God, God's supreme authority and summons to be submissive
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  Speaker 1: to Him and obedient to him, contravenes human authority. But
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  Speaker 1: I think the main thing to be heard in this
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  Speaker 1: verse is, yes, it adorns the Gospel when Christians are
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  Speaker 1: a law abiding, compliant people. But how much more does
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  Speaker 1: it adorn the Gospel and glorify God when we are
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  Speaker 1: ready for every good work? In other words, this is
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  Speaker 1: beyond compliance. You should never come to the end of
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  Speaker 1: the day and say, well, at least I canplied with
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: the laws. That's not your goal. Your goal is to
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  Speaker 1: go way beyond complying with laws and be eager, ready
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  Speaker 1: on your tiptoes, leaning forward into every good work. Now,
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  Speaker 1: that's an amazing statement. What in the world does that mean? Right?
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  Speaker 1: What does every mean? There? Well, this phrase right here
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  Speaker 1: is really common. It occurs. I didn't even count them
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  Speaker 1: seven eight times in the apostle Paul's writings, that very phrase,
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  Speaker 1: that very Greek phrase every good work. What does every
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  Speaker 1: mean lots of people translated every kind of good work,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: And I think that's cheating. I think there's another way
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  Speaker 1: to qualify every For example, let's go here. I'll give
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  Speaker 1: you some examples of where this occurs. Here's Ephesians two.
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  Speaker 1: We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works,
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  Speaker 1: which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
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  Speaker 1: So God prepared good works for us to walk in.
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  Speaker 1: That means I would suggest that the every good works
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  Speaker 1: in which we should walk are the ones God prepared
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  Speaker 1: for us to walk in. So, if you're living in
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  Speaker 1: America like I do, and you read that in China
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  Speaker 1: a church was engaged in some wonderful good works, those
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  Speaker 1: aren't your good works. You're not responsible to get on
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  Speaker 1: a plane and go join them in China doing those
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  Speaker 1: good works. Or Australia or Indonesia or Ethiopia. You're not
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  Speaker 1: responsible to do every conceived good work in the world.
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  Speaker 1: There are millions of Christians doing all kinds of good works,
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  Speaker 1: and you can't do them. Also, clearly, every good work
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  Speaker 1: doesn't mean every conceivable good work everywhere in the world.
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  Speaker 1: I'm arguing from Ephesians to ten, it means the ones
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  Speaker 1: that God has appointed you to do. For example, when
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  Speaker 1: it says in Second Corinthians, God is able to make
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  Speaker 1: all grace abound to you. All grace, so the having
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  Speaker 1: all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may
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  Speaker 1: abound in all or every good work. Here's that phrase.
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  Speaker 1: So I think this means you are responsible to do
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  Speaker 1: every good work that God has appointed for you to do,
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  Speaker 1: and if you do that, you'll have all grace you need.
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  Speaker 1: You'll have all sufficiency for that in all things, at
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  Speaker 1: all times, you will be ready to do the works,
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  Speaker 1: every one of them that God has appointed for you
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  Speaker 1: to do, has created you to do. We pray for this.
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  Speaker 1: All prayed walk in a manner that you'd walk in
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  Speaker 1: a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him,
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  Speaker 1: bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of God. Every single one that God appoints for
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  Speaker 1: you be eager and ready to do it. Or Second
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  Speaker 1: Thessalonians too, Now may the Lord. Now may our Lord,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us
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  Speaker 1: and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
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  Speaker 1: comfort your hearts and established them in every Here's the phrase.
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  Speaker 1: The exact phrase, every good work and word you pray, God,
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  Speaker 1: establish me today in every single one that You've appointed
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  Speaker 1: for me to do. Don't let me miss any of them.
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  Speaker 1: Or one more second, Timothy, all scripture is breathed out
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  Speaker 1: by God, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for
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  Speaker 1: training in righteousness, that the man of God may be
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  Speaker 1: complete equipped for every good work. There's the phrase again,
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  Speaker 1: the scriptures equip us for doing what God calls us
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  Speaker 1: to do. So this first verse is a reminder to them,
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  Speaker 1: not just the slaves back in chapter two, but all
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  Speaker 1: the Christians in the Church, to have a disposition towards compliance,
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  Speaker 1: to obey all appropriate authority, whether it be to rulers,
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  Speaker 1: to authorities, or this is the more general one. Just
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  Speaker 1: be the kind of person who, wherever an authority steps
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  Speaker 1: up with appropriate authority in your life, have a disposition
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  Speaker 1: toward obedience. And the reason I use dispositional language is
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  Speaker 1: because we all know there are exceptions. This is not absolute.
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  Speaker 1: But if our hearts were right, then we would both
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  Speaker 1: be obedient. We would go way beyond compliance on our
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  Speaker 1: tiptoes to do every manner of good work to show
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  Speaker 1: the glory of God. We would be non combative, gentle meek,
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  Speaker 1: which is what we look at next time.