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Who Was Titus Titus 1:1–4, Part 9 · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: This is session number nine and the final session on
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  Speaker 1: Titus one one to four. Paul, a slave of God
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  Speaker 1: and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of
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  Speaker 1: the faith of God's elect and knowledge of the truth
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  Speaker 1: which accords with Godliness, upon the hope of eternal life,
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  Speaker 1: which God, who never lies, promised before the times of
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  Speaker 1: the ages and at the proper time manifested, namely his
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  Speaker 1: word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted
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  Speaker 1: by the command, preaching with which I have been entrusted
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  Speaker 1: by the command of God our Savior, to Titus, my
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  Speaker 1: true child, in a common faith, grace and peace from
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  Speaker 1: God the Father in Christ, Jesus our Savior is. We
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  Speaker 1: ponder the details of these last few words in this
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  Speaker 1: introductory paragraph that Paul has written, Grant us to glory
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  Speaker 1: in who God is, who You are, who the Savior
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  Speaker 1: Jesus is, the common faith that we have with the
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  Speaker 1: greatest apostle in the world, and that Your command flows
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  Speaker 1: to Him and to us from perfect authority and from
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  Speaker 1: great love. Help us to see these things in Jesus name. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: Paul has been entrusted by God with preaching by a
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  Speaker 1: command man that came through Jesus, but it's a command
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  Speaker 1: of God or the Damascus Road, and then reaffirmed at
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  Speaker 1: other times where God commanded him to be worthy of
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  Speaker 1: the trust of carrying the deposit of the preaching of
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  Speaker 1: the Word for the sake of eternal life and for
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  Speaker 1: the sake of the faith of God's elect, the knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of the truth, the godliness of God's people. And now
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  Speaker 1: he says that this command is coming from God, which
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  Speaker 1: focuses on God's authority. He's God to mess with him,
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  Speaker 1: and he's a savior, which focuses on his love. He
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  Speaker 1: is commanding a preaching which brings eternal life out of
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  Speaker 1: sin and death. And therefore it takes authority to accomplish
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  Speaker 1: such a gospel, and it takes love. He is a savior,
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  Speaker 1: and he is God overall. And he's the one who
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  Speaker 1: commanded and brought Paul into his service and thus into
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  Speaker 1: his service of us to Titus, we'll come back to
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  Speaker 1: that in just a minute. Who is he my true child?
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  Speaker 1: He calls Timothy that as well, which means he probably
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  Speaker 1: was the means of converting Titus, though we don't know
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  Speaker 1: how it happened in a common faith. Probably he draws
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  Speaker 1: attention to the fact that Titus, his child, doesn't have
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  Speaker 1: a lesser faith. A father says to his child, when
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  Speaker 1: you believe in Jesus, you and I son have the
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  Speaker 1: very same faith, the very same salvation, the very same hope.
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  Speaker 1: There's nothing lesser. So we shouldn't think of the greatest
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  Speaker 1: Christians in the world as having one kind of way
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  Speaker 1: of salvation and the lesser folks a lesser kind. We
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  Speaker 1: have a common and glorious, single faith in Christ. And
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  Speaker 1: he closes grace to you or peace, race and peace
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  Speaker 1: from and then notice instead of saying from God our Savior,
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  Speaker 1: he says from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
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  Speaker 1: So now we know God as God, we know God
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  Speaker 1: as Savior, and we know God as Father. Here at
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  Speaker 1: the end, drawing attention to Titus that what you're about
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  Speaker 1: to be told through my obedience to God's command is
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  Speaker 1: a word from God, a word from a Savior, a
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  Speaker 1: word from a father. And then he adds, and that fatherhood,
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  Speaker 1: that authority, that love flows through Jesus Christ, who is
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  Speaker 1: the one who accomplished the great salvation? Who was Titus.
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  Speaker 1: Here are glimpses from Paul's letters of who he was
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  Speaker 1: so way back at the beginning when Paul, after fourteen
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  Speaker 1: years of going away after his conversion, went up to
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  Speaker 1: Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with him. So Titus
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  Speaker 1: was there way back in those earlier days. And when
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  Speaker 1: they went up to Jerusalem, it says not even Titus,
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  Speaker 1: who was with me, was forced to be circumcised, though
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  Speaker 1: he was a Greek. So in Timothy was Jewish and Greek,
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  Speaker 1: that is, his father was a Greek. It says Titus
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  Speaker 1: was a Greek as well, And so Paul had chosen
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  Speaker 1: these two men to be his partners in ministry, and
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  Speaker 1: Titus evidently did a lot of work with Paul through
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  Speaker 1: the yearswo Corinthians eight twenty three. As for Titus, he's
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  Speaker 1: my partner, my sharer, my fellow worker for your benefit,
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  Speaker 1: the Corinthians, here's chapter seven, verse thirteen. Therefore we are comforted,
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  Speaker 1: and besides our own comfort, we rejoice still more at
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  Speaker 1: the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed
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  Speaker 1: by you. Also, Titus spent time in corinth helping Paul
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  Speaker 1: with the ministry there and was refreshed by them. Here's
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  Speaker 1: chapter eight, verse sixteen of Second Corinthians. But thanks be
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  Speaker 1: to God who put it in the heart of Titus,
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  Speaker 1: the same earnest care I have for you, So he esteemed.
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  Speaker 1: Titus is not only a partner, but a partner whom
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  Speaker 1: God had given a care for the churches like this
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  Speaker 1: is why he loved Timothy and he loved Titus. They
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  Speaker 1: were profoundly devoted, loving pastors alongside Paul, sharing his own
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  Speaker 1: earnest care for the people. Near Second Timothy four to ten.
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  Speaker 1: Now this is near the end of Paul's life. In
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  Speaker 1: two Timothy Demus, in love with this present world, has
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  Speaker 1: deserted me, gone to Thessalonaika Cresans. He's gone to Galicia.
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  Speaker 1: Titus has gone to Dalmatia. Well, Dalmatia is the northwest
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  Speaker 1: of Greece up near Albania, Croatia today. So evidently, unlike Timothy,
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  Speaker 1: who seemed to be a settled pastor eventually in emphasis,
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  Speaker 1: Titus seems to be a real mover and shaker all
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  Speaker 1: over the empire for Paul, but now here he is
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  Speaker 1: in this letter. This is our letter. The next verse
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  Speaker 1: after verse four, we'll start this next time. This is
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  Speaker 1: why I left you, Titus in Crete. So the island
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  Speaker 1: in the Mediterranean Crete, so that you might put what
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  Speaker 1: remained into order and appoint elders in every town as
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  Speaker 1: I directed you. So it appears that Titus, traveling to Dalmatia,
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  Speaker 1: to Karnth to Crete, was, you might say, a fellow
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  Speaker 1: representative of Christ, that Paul trusted tremendously and sent him
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  Speaker 1: to do things that Paul himself would have done had
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  Speaker 1: he been in freer and not in prison, for example
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  Speaker 1: in Rome. So Titus to Titus, my true child in
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  Speaker 1: a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father
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  Speaker 1: and Christ Jesus our Savior, because you're going to need
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  Speaker 1: all the help you can get in dealing with what
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  Speaker 1: you face in Crete as my representative,