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Transcript

God Wants More Than External Religion · Heart Religion

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Heart Religion, a conversation with the leadership of Redeemer Bible Church, where we just want to help all people know, love, follow Christ more by faith from the heart that actually wants to please God.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here today with Pastor Josh.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: We serve as the preaching pastors here at Redeemer Bible Church.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just good to be together, have a conversation that hopefully produces faith from a heart that wants to please God.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so our goal in this podcast is just to encourage God's people here at Redeemer.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And frankly, anywhere in the world that might be listening, that they would just follow Christ from a heart of faith that wants to please him.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so talk, Pastor Josh, we did this in the first few episodes, but you just talk to us for a minute.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to have a heart?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: What is the heart?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean to have a heart?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to have a heart that wants to please God?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: I think in our culture, so many people think of the heart as just kind of emotions, right?
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: But biblically, you go back to the Old Testament and the New, the heart you could almost call it just the inner man, right?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: The the will, the intellect.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: And yes, of course, the affections and emotions as well.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: And from a biblical worldview, God is God is after our hearts.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: That's so clear.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: He wants the whole of who we are to love him, to worship him, to trust him, right?
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: That that's what he's after.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: And especially as we're thinking about the book of Titus, which we're going to turn to in just a moment, there's such a clear contrast, right, between the false teachers and their moralism, so focused on the externals and just rules and minutia and legalism and Jewish myths, commandments of men, right?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas biblical religion is actually about becoming like God.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think for me, what's so encouraging about this book is that the gospel actually transforms the whole of us because God wants us to, you know, become like him.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: And that happens through like internalizing his values and loving what he loves.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I just think of, you know, it's so easy to get focused on religion, where, you know, you could give to the poor, you could go to church, you could do the things, right?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: But actually not even love the person, not even believe that that's best.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's just like this external rule, whereas what God wants is really for us to be changed from the inside out and to do what we do because, man, it exalts him, because we love him, we trust him, he's good.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you mentioned something about Titus and the false teachers, which we'll get into a little bit more, but kind of that performance-based religion, like is that still what happens today?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, for sure.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: I think even as obviously you have the false teaching today, the same kind of moralism, the same kind of just external religion that that's void of the gospel.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: But even for us as believers, right?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's one of the things we're, as we're preaching through, we're preaching primarily to believers.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: And we believe that the gospel isn't just something that saves them, but it's something that we need every day to motivate us, to cause us to do what we do from the heart because we we love and we trust God.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I just think it's beautiful how the word presses us towards that and actually helps us to uh, yeah, one, two, by faith, become like God.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's so interesting, right?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: The just like back in the book of Titus, uh, when we lose track of our hearts, right, then we will begin to relate to God with moralism, duty, religiosity, all of those things is just natural to the flesh.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the word of God's constantly bringing us back to like where how how is the heart transformed?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: What's it mean to love God from the heart?
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And where it's like you could have almost the exact same external actions, one glorifies God, one does not, right?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because one is from a heart that might be far from God.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right, which really all the Bible, I think, is arguing for that point, that your heart would be drawn near.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one of our convictions, Josh, is just the centrality of scripture.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and why we teach the Bible, preach the Bible, counsel with the Bible.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but just talk to us about how the Bible like informs the mind, transforms the life.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, I know we know that, we believe that, but just we should work that out more and more.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: I think even as you said, going back to Genesis, right?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: Creating the image of God, you know, God wants us to be like him.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: And that happens, it begins with the mind, as we believe it.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: That's why all of the all of life is by faith.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: We have to start by believing what God says.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: And that that means believing that his way is best for us, right?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: And so we that's that's where transformation begins, is by faith.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: We say, Do you know what God knows what's best better than I do?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna submit to that, I'm gonna trust that.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so I really, I know we've talked a lot about this.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: We really believe that uh the life of faith begins with solid convictions in what the word actually says, right?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: And and Titus, as we'll see, gets we love this kind of key word in Titus of being sensible.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: We we call this kind of this sober-minded, convictional uh life that the word of God is what drives us.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's it's because we know what God says, we hold fast to it.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: And so we're not tossed to and fro by, as Paul says, worldly desires and worldly passions, ungodliness.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: We we renounce those things and and we really we hold fast to the truth and let that control us.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: And that doesn't make it a kind of a dead intellectual, as we're saying.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's this passionate, faith-filled, loving of God that that comes from the heart.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you mentioned just the word being what produces this conviction that we respond to by faith.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is so necessary for today, you know, because it's so easy to kind of fall into well, my church says this, my favorite podcast preacher, teacher says this, right?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or I saw this, you know, I saw this in some variation or form of Christianity somewhere.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then we kind of just kind of, I don't know, we kind of amalgamate to somebody else.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: We kind of, you know, kind of kind of jellyfish form to something else.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but really it's it really is convictions.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I yeah, for sure.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I think I know we've talked about this a lot about preaching.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: This impacts our preaching.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because our goal is not to just tell people what to do.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: Really, our goal in preaching is to show them for themselves what the word says so that they can say, Oh, I see it.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: I yeah, I I want God's word to be what drives me.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: And so we we're constantly telling people don't do what we say unless you see it for yourself.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't see it for yourself, come talk to us, push back, right?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: Because we want that opportunity to actually say, okay, here it is in the word.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: Let me explain it, let me show you, or even if we're wrong, right?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want people just picking up my preferences and my habits or style.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like it really needs to come back to the word.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then we're patient, right?
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because even those convictions from the word take time to form.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's where Paul's exhortation to Timothy, right, is to preach, teach the word, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all patience.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because even that, it's it's a work of the Spirit of God.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so then we have to give each other the space to work out those convictions.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, that's where, right, anything not of faith is sin.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so easy to just kind of moralize, right?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: And just and really I it's easy to it's kind of attractive to the flesh, right?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: If we have a church where everybody looks good, yeah, yeah, everybody sounds good, for sure, everybody's culturally acceptable on whatever terms we've decided, by that external conformity, it makes the community feel good.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Void of the heart, void of faith, void of convictions.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, I mean, I just something that um, yeah, we love here.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're listening, like we'd encourage that, right?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Even just check, hey, is this in the word?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then just let God shape your convictions.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Not just, oh, well, we heard somebody talk about this, right?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because really, if God has your heart and your convictions are shaped shaped by scripture, your life will be transformed for the glory of God.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because if not, then it's just gonna be, oh, I tried that for a season.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Or I did what I had to do, but I was miserable the whole time.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Verse, man, my heart has been transformed by the word, and now I actually want to please God.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, and that's just driving really hopefully everything we do here.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Our preaching, teaching, counseling, home groups, Bible studies, this podcast, right?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: We want to work out our faith with convictions rooted in the word, right?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then drive what we do.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we're talking about Titus because we've been preaching Titus.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just kind of take a minute.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Why, why are we preaching Titus?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: What drew us to this book?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, we're thinking about going through all of the pastoral epistles.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: And so at a large level, part of it is just good ecclesiology, right?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: We believe that the pastoral.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: What is ecclesiology, Pastor Josh?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just doctrine of the church.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like, and how does the church, we we know just from the beginning, like in Titus 1, 5, Paul wants Titus to set the churches in order.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, right.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: And so that order and God's design for the church is so that it will be healthy.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: And we believe that Lone Ranger Christianity is not biblical.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: That God gave us a community.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: He wants us to live out faith together.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's that's part of, I think, the pastorals.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: But specifically about Titus, I think it's interesting because we've been, we introed by saying, like, how much this is about convictional faith.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's about knowing what God says in the Word and embracing that and then living that out.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: But what's interesting about Titus is what a focus there is on good works.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think as well, sometimes with with our brand of Bible-based, convictional, word-centered Christianity, it can sometimes fall into a little bit of kind of intellectualism, right?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, I know the truth, but Titus won't let us go there.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_02: Titus is so intentional of like, this is what it looks like to live out the word.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: And so focused on good work, so focused.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, obviously he repeats it, I don't know how many times, but it's quite a few.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so we're really kind of as you started, we're wanting people to live out the life of faith, to walk it out.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: And this book gets very practical in terms of what does this look like, especially just the context of Titus.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's written to the island of Crete.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: A mess.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: And there's just so much worldliness, so much kind of we could just call it unhinged behavior.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, I bet Christians were moving out of Crete back in the day, too, just like moving out of a certain state, you know.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:51
  unknown: Exactly.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let's flee from wickedness, right?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly, right?
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: And it was this port city, just drunkenness, licentiousness, sexual immorality, right?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: But but Paul has such a passion that the believers, as they live out the gospel, they show the light of how beautiful Christ is, how beautiful God's grace is.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think that just hits our time and context.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we know, we look around, we see just the immorality, right?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: And we want the body of Christ to live in such a way that the world says that is different.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: What is going on there?
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like the gospel is beautiful.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously, chapter two, just adorning the gospel.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: We're we'll we'll go there.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And really, I mean, that's it's needed in every age, yeah, but I think especially in a hedonistic age.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, for sure.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think for our our age, right, in our generation, we're post-reformation.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: We we love this gospel of grace alone, right?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: But we're also then in a culture that we would probably around here call it free grace.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning we're just grace, grace, grace, grace, grace to the neglect of actually living thoroughly Christian lives.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Which then does not adorn the gospel with good works.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's like, I think, such a relevant message of like, hey, this glorious gospel, there's at least two, if not more, occasions in Titus where Paul explodes on the gospel in beautiful, I mean, declarations of the gospel, right.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, not by works in chapter three so clearly, right?
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And yet we're called to live lives commensurate with or by the gospel.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't let the believers in Crete weasel out of it because just because their culture is so licentious.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I think that even ties in with just even on Sunday, right?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: We saw it's the grace of God that trains us.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so for us, the gospel is meant to produce this kind of life.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: But it's it's such in contrast, as we've been saying, to this legalistic moralism that's just focused on the externals, just cleaning up the outside of the cup, as it were.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: But like the gospel transforms us from the inside and presses us towards being literally zealous for good works.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_02: And that that's the beauty of the gospel is when we see that kind of transformation, that's what we want in our my own life.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: That's what my family's life.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I want to see in the church, right?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: To see, wow, look at what it did.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: Look at how it's made us not just kind of performing these things, it's actually made us zealous for good works because we understand our purpose, that we were created and actually ransomed and redeemed for this reason to show the world how beautiful Christ is, how, how powerful his truth is, how the gospel actually changes us.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, this is this is radical and it's unheard of in the world.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Which is, I love that you you brought up that ecclesiology word.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because really Titus 1.5 is the kind of, I wouldn't say the purpose statement, but it's a launching pad.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, for sure.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's to the church.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And in one sense, right, I think sometimes Christians freak out about the world being wicked.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, but we isn't that what we expect from the world because we were a part of that before Christ, and we we followed the God of this world.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like we shouldn't be shocked when people who don't know Jesus live like they don't know Jesus.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: But it should shock us when that's in the church.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: So what he said, what Titus is like, hey, Titus, go to Crete, put in order in the church what's out of order.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then it's that beautiful, like in the house of God, amongst the people of God, this is what it should look like.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's it, it does then adorn the gospel in every culture, that then the culture can look in at the church and say, Oh, that's that's unique.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's different.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: What do you have that we don't have?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really sad, right?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, today, every major research group, when they do studies on the church and the Christians in America, they kind of show, like, oh, the same sins happening outside the church are happening in the church.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the conclusion is, even by the unbeliever, like, uh, your Christianity doesn't do very much for you.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, yeah, that's that's exactly what Paul's warning against in Titus.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like, don't be like that.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Adorn the gospel with good works.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it's just good, I think, because we were so we don't think in those ecclesiology terms of a what a healthy church produces.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I think even there it's like, yeah, healthy churches produce healthy Christians.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And healthy Christians produce healthy churches.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we want to continue in that model of like, hey, put in order, what's out of order.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we've been in Titus two.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Titus two gets really practical.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, actually, Titus one is two, right?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, right.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: This one five, which launches Paul into the qualifications for pastor elders, right?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then he turns the corner in how to deal with false teachers, finishes out chapter one.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then chapter two, really like he gets after different people groups.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: And with very clear specificity.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just kind of kind of connect the dots a little bit.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's Paul getting after in Titus two?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: And how does that connect to the book as a whole?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_02: So in Titus two, as you said, he addresses older men, older women, younger women, younger men, which to your point earlier speaks to our need for each other in the body because he's talking about the older women discipling the younger women.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: He's using Titus like being example, right?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that just speaks to the fact that we need each other to help each other grow.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: But as you said, what he's going after there, there's those three purpose statements in chapter two of why are we living these godly lives?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: And it's so that the word of God may not be dishonored, right?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's so that we would adorn the doctrine of God, our savior, in every respect.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: And and uh I think he's really wanting them to be a light.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: He's very concerned.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, Paul, the consummate evangelist and and you know, missionary, he wants to see, I would really say, the whole island of Crete transformed by the gospel.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: He wants to see these churches planted, healthy, to be these lighthouses, as it were.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: And so he's really going after our our lifestyle and our way of life, once again, as a as in uh a light, as a as a witness you know to the world.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh in terms of what that looks like, I think I think that's just fascinating, right?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: Because it he's not listing a list.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: Now he has lists in chapter two, right, but they're not lists of to-dos, like in terms of actions.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: They're much more about the one, what how we started, the heart, the disposition.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: He's talking about, you know, um, once again, renouncing ungodliness.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: He talks about a lot about ungodliness.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: Modeling good works, modeling good works, that word, you know, sober-minded, self-controlled, you know.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I I just I think it's such a clear contrast once again to we could say today, just the the unhinged behavior, the just reckless, just do whatever I want.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: And man, as believers, I you know, one way you could put it is that we don't just do whatever we feel like, we do what's actually with conviction, what's gonna serve others, what's going to be good, what's going to care for others.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I just think this picture of what a Christian looks like in Titus is compelling.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, obviously it's it's Christ is the ultimate example of that.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I think But in that sense, we embody Christ.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: We display him to the world if we live consistent with Christ.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: And and who could look at Christ and not just see the goodness, right?
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: Of of him serving the broken, of him confronting even the injustices of his day, of him uh just loving people.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's just compelling, right?
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I that's really what Paul's going for.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: He wants our lives to be compelling.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so you and I discerned that a a a major, the major theme of Titus, right, is the idea of submitting to healthy teaching.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Adorns the gospel with good works.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we believe is a the major theme of the book.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then in Titus 2, he really kind of gets nitty-gritty.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like what it means to submit to healthy teaching.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just theory.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's got teeth to it, it's got practice to it.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I remember reading this book on parenting back in the day, or a chapter of a book on parenting, and uh the author was referencing that the best thing you give your kids is a consistent, thorough love for Christ.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what transforms them.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: It was so challenging, right?
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because when it comes to parenting, we want tips and tricks.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: We want, hey, how do I discipline?
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: How do I love?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: How do I correct?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: How do I reward?
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: How do I we want all the practical to-dos.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And this guy just so wisely said, like, I don't remember all the family devotions.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember all the going to church.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember, he said, all these things.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: What I remember was the character of my father.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because when he sinned against us, he repented to us.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: He was gentle.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: He was kind.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: What he believed about Jesus was how he lived his life.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm like, right?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's it.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: And what I think what Paul's doing here is if you shout from the house tops, you're a Christian, but you live like a Hellion.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: It just discredits your whole message.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's it.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, I want your life to be so commensurate with the gospel that it's that it's it's at least intriguing, should be attractive.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now we know the gospel's offensive, right?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Our lives should not be.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm like, man, yeah, how often are Christians, our lives are offensive.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Even to our families.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: It could be to your closest circle.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: They're offensive to our coworkers.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: They're offensive to somebody of the opposite political party.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just our lives are offensive.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we're jerks.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're just ungodly while all the time shouting, we're Christian, we're Christian, we're Christian.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you just see like Paul's like, hey, that won't work in Crete.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: But it won't work anywhere.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because it undermines the message we proclaim.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where even just that word healthy teaching.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: Paul keeps using that word healthy, healthy.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I think when something's healthy, you could see it.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: You think about a healthy plant or a healthy person or whatever the case may be, right?
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: You we all know what just sickness and disease.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I think so many of our non-Christian friends, neighbors, relatives, right, they know about dysfunction.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: Now, of course, there's going to be kind of the religious people in our society that try to like pretend like everything's good.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: But I think increasingly as our society becomes less and less J Judeo-Christian, right?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: Just this un you know, throwing off of kind of religion, there's there's more of just a reality that people recognize, man, we in our family, we fight, we're selfish, we're, you know, it's just full of conflict.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I think, man, once again, looking at Jesus, the selflessness of the gospel allows us to lay down our lives for others, to serve others, to do good to others in such a way that, as you said, it it really points to how can they do that?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: Why are they doing that?
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: What's driving this person?
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: And that, of course, all points back to it's the gospel.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's God's grace poured out on us, it's his love.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: He's so good.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: And man, we just want to see that message proclaimed.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I think in Christ, right, even down to when it when he was suffering unjustly, but responds with grace.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what testimony for the gospel?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like in the neck next episode, we're gonna deal with some of these things, but in the end of Titus 2, he gives these instructions to slaves.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like how an in an unjust system.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: And yet these slaves can display Christ to their masters.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what God's after.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: So even in this horribly unjust system, when a slave glorifies God by honoring their master, and then the master sees Christ in the slave, and then the gospel's adorned with good works, right?
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh, that's what God's doing, right?
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: So even there, you're like, yeah, it might be that you're being sinned against and mistreated, but you you live commensurate with Christ.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then it's like, oh yeah.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Then those watching your life, it doesn't mean that they are gonna not be offended by the gospel because the gospel's offensive, right?
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: But they may lean in a little bit and say, Man, you really believe what you believe.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Your life proves it, right?
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Versus a life that discredits it, right?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Which is what Titus II is all about.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: So this episode is unpacking a little bit of the context of Titus II and why we believe in the preaching and teaching of the Bible here at Redeemer.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in the next episode, we're gonna dive into some of the complexities and challenges of Titus II that really can rub us the wrong way in the flesh, but we got to see what the word is saying so that we can have convictions that are formed from the word, that we that then we can learn to respond by faith.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you have questions that you would like for the leadership here of Redeemer to answer in this podcast, please email us, uh, DM us, uh, drop us a line.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: We'd love to get your questions so that in future episodes we can answer those.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to Heart Religion.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: We trust that you're encouraged to know, love, and follow Jesus more by faith.