Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / October 16, 2016 | Route 66 - Titus

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October 16, 2016 | Route 66 - Titus · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: How you doing?
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: You doing good?
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: Both of you.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Both of you are doing good.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's my title this morning from Titus.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: You doing good.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I want you to turn to that book if you have a Bible with you.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: If you have it on your, you can get it on your cell phone.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Little book.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh there are ten more books after this in our trip through the Bible called Route 66.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: If you're visiting today, we're on this road trip in which we take, you know, one one Sunday, one week for each of the books of the Bible.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: This will be the 56th of the 66 books.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I think you're gonna like it.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Three chapters.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Paul's writing, uh uh one of his young buddies who he mentored, this time a Gentile, uh, and uh he says some profound things.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: So let's uh ask God's help.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, I'm praying that you would bless what is said and what is heard during the uh next 30 minutes, and that uh that your spirit would drive it home and uh that it would land heavily and lightly, depending on uh where people are in this uh, you know, in the in their lives and in their relationship to your son Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: So let me start off uh with a statement which I think we can all agree with, and that is that no matter who you are or what you've done or anything like that, when you trust Jesus Christ, your life becomes a thrilling story.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: In a sense, you know, you sort of finally get off the banks and into the stream, which is rushing onward to the far mountains of God's plan.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: And you you when you join that and you you begin this story, all of a sudden you have a can you believe it past, an every second counts present, and a better than your dreams future.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's on the uh back of your study sheet this morning, uh Book of Titus study sheet.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so the question is if I have an every second counts present, how can I make every second count?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: How can I live in such a way in this life that when I leave this life, I've left something behind, some influence on the world, something that makes a difference, something to remember me by, and something that counts for eternity.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's a good question.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the answer to that uh has to do partly with it's essential that you understand how what you do fits into the past and fits into the present and fits into the future.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that is what theologians call the three tenses of salvation: the past tense of salvation, the present tense of salvation, the future tense of salvation.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes the past tense of salvation is called justification.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Book of Romans says that when you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, in that moment God uh reckons you righteous.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: He justifies you from everything you have ever done or will do that's bad, and declares you righteous as Jesus Christ in his sight, and saves you from the penalty of sin, which is which is hell, and therefore you go to heaven.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: But there's a present tense of salvation, and we call it sanctification, because uh sometimes, like in 1 Thessalonians, that's what it has to do with.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes sanctification includes the past tense, but but the sanctification is uh is a good label for the present tense of salvation, in which we're daily saved from sin's power by the Holy Spirit as we keep in step with the Spirit.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: As we walk by the Spirit, and then He saves us from the temptation, the power of sin, which is wanting to drag us back under its mastery.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: But there's a future tense of salvation which is just as you know um guaranteed as the past tense, and that is the deliverance from the very presence of sin when we are glorified after Jesus comes back.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this book, Titus, talks, has a real emphasis on these three tenses of salvation.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: He keeps going back and forth between the three of them.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh for example, in Titus 3, uh he talks about the past tense of salvation, but when the kindness of God, our Savior, and his love for mankind appeared, when did that happen?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: Happened at 4 BC when Jesus was born.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: He saved us.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: This is uh he's talking about the cross, and he's talking about the the where you met the cross in your life, and he saved you, but not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: That has to do with the past tense of salvation, right?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: But he's this book is also full of the future tense.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, the book actually begins, verse 2.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: He talks about our hope of eternal life is certain, he says in Titus 1, 2, because God who does not lie promised that life before the beginning of time.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Future tense, right?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: By the way, you should, we live our present life, not just looking toward the future, but of course the future affects the present life.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: And and and I came up, there's a story about that, which uh I'm gonna tell because it's the NFL season.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sorry, ladies, but I love the NFL.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um but but but this story is dated because Reggie White is no longer a defensive end for the Green Bay Packers.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: He retired some time ago, and Reggie White, you need to understand, uh uh he was called the Minister of Defense because he was sort of Tim Tebow before Tim Tebow.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, really outspoken Christian.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Difference between him and Tim Tebow is that Reggie was an all-pro for many years.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: But um so anyway, he tells the story on himself of a game against the Detroit Lions.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: Game against the Detroit Lions, and Hank, you'll enjoy this because it was against the Detroit Lions instead of Chicago Bears.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: And and so Reggie um played defensive ends, going up against a tackle, and he and he'd had the best of the tackle, he says, for most of the game, uh, but but the guy was getting madder and madder.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: And and after one play, they got their helmets locked.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Couldn't get them apart.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: And and the guy, he said, you let loose with a stream of profanity, which, and quoting Reggie, he said, which I wouldn't allow in front of my dogs.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: And Reggie says, you know, I could I I could handle losing occasionally, but I couldn't handle, there's just something in me that could not handle being cussed at.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, so I just said, Jesus is coming back soon, and you'd better be ready.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, that only made the guy madder, and he cussed even more.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so he said, he said, I he's I said it again, Jesus is coming back soon, and and you'd better be ready.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: And they got the finally they got the face masks in a trying.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: The guy kept cussing at him.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: And his his teammates are going, get back to the huddle.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: We've only got 30 seconds.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, I looking at the other guy so that he could hear, I yelled to my teammates, Jesus is coming back soon, and he needs to be ready.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I finished he gets on the line again to get down three-point stance and so forth, and this guy is still apparently cussing at him.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: And Reggie said, Jesus is coming back soon, just before the ball snapped, and I don't think you're ready.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then he says, I said, I was fired up.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: My 285 pounds, six foot six body, and I ran right over him, tromped over him on the way to sacking the quarterback.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so I went back to my huddle, and my teammate said, I didn't know you meant he was coming back right now.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: So uh but Reggie made no bones back that because he believed he was coming back soon, he he was trying to, you know, live.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: He said, I want to live every day, every play, as though he's coming back soon.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure how well he'll be able to witness to that Detroit lineman, but but anyway, great, great line.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: And and listen, the thing I like about Titus is that Titus doesn't just sort of sprinkle a future salvation, sprinkle a present and sprinkle a past.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: In Titus, Titus has these two main theological passages.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: If you're looking for verses to memorize, you couldn't do better.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: Why, folks, had us, all of us children, memorize these two passages when we were growing up, Titus 2.11 to 14 and Titus 3, 4 through 7.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: And in both of these passages, these long sentences, both of them include salvation past and salvation present and salvation future.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: Let me just grab that first one there and show you.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: Titus 2.11 through 14 goes like this.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's past tense, right?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like that happened 2,000 years ago.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: And then present, it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's obviously present tense.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: While we wait for the blessed hope.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Whoop, he just moved to the future tense, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and whoa, he's now moving back into present and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do good works, to do what is good.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Now that's in this book, every past, present, future thing always ends in the present because that's the burden and that's the concern of this book.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: Paul's really interested in asking us all this question.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: How are you doing?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Are you doing good?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: He wants to know how we're doing in the present.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to live a life that counts, if you want to live a life that outlives you, then it's vitally important that you be concerned about salvation present, about how you live now.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Now, there's a question that comes out of it, not as practical as this one, but theological, a question which I've been asked often, and certainly you've been asked or thought about.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: And the question is, what part do good works play in my salvation?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: His answer to this question, you see, ends up in the same place as his answer to the question, how do I make my life count?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: What parts do my good works play in my salvation, past, present, and future?
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: All right?
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: And by the way, we're gonna find out that good works relate differently in each case.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it reminded me of the of the riddle about, you know, the guy, you know, the riddle about there are three people who are holding a block of wood.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: And each of them dropped a block of wood at the same time.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: The block of wood the first person's holding drops to the ground.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: The block of wood the second person is holding goes up and goes up.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: The block of wood that the third person is holding just stays right there in front of them.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: Seems unbelievable.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Explain the riddle.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: The answer to the riddle is, of course, and some of you could answer it right, you know, right away, and that is, of course, the first person standing on land, and gravity pulls it to the ground.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Second person is in spay, is in is underwater, second person underwater, right?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so the block of wood floats above them to the surface, and the third person's out in space and uh zero gravity, and so the block of wood just stays right there in front of them.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: And good works, the block of wood's like good works, and and it it move good works have a different relationship in salvation past, salvation present, and salvation future.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna suggest to you that they fall to the ground, they're absolutely worthless in salvation past, that that in salvation present, they are vitally important, that they are what God really wants, what this book is about, and and they, since they are the heir of heaven itself, that good works, you know, uh that that's that's like uh in space uh um salvation future.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: So his answer to the question in this book goes like this, and you need to understand this, you need to share this with other people.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that is first, you were saved totally apart from your good works.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: You were saved totally apart from your good works.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: Don't even think about mixing the two.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: Paul says that clearly in this book and repeatedly, for example, in one of the two most famous passages, Titus 3, he says, but when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us, not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's often pointed out that Paul is here sort of saying in a slightly different way, the same thing he said in the more famous verse, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: For by grace you have been saved through faith.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: And you say, I know that.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I hope you do.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: But I have to tell you that most of the world doesn't know this, and even half of the people in church in America this morning would perhaps not know this or not agree with the Barna.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: The Barna group, Barna is a survey group, they do surveys, and several years back they did a survey in which they asked churchgoers in America about what they believed.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the questions was if people are generally good or do enough good things for others, they will earn places in heaven.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Forty-eight percent of churchgoers in America, 48 nearly half of churchgoers in America, checked out box that that to earn a place in heaven, how you can earn a place in heaven if you are generally good or do enough good things for others.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: Barna himself, George Barna, in writing uh an analysis of this later, wrote, and I quote, there is plenty of reason for churches to worry if nearly half of their people believe in salvation by works.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: The central message of Protestantism is salvation by faith alone in Christ.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yet many Protestant evangelizers seem to be preaching a different message.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Which I think is probably why just a couple years ago, Andy Stanley wrote a book, very helpful little book, entitled, How Good Is Good Enough?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so, and helpfully in that book, he pointed out that, I mean, it's tough.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, how good is good enough?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: And what really qualifies as a good work, and how many do you have to do, and so forth and so on.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: And in that book, just to steal a couple of quotes, he writes perhaps the most emotionally perplexing problem with the good people go to heaven view is that it contradicts the teachings of Jesus Christ.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: And another quote in the book the reason that good people don't go to heaven is that there aren't any good people.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Now, that's kind of a startling statement, but not as startling as the song that I just want to play a minute of for you now.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: Someone sent it to me this week, and and I it was so it's I I thought the songwriter, whoever wrote it, it's a group I've never heard of called Shane and Shane, just a couple guys apparently, and um and and and I'm and I'm sitting by a fireplace in a in uh in a Ramada in San Francisco yesterday morning, and and this person had sent it to me, and so I plug it in and I play it, and I get to the point that I'm gonna play for you.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I was so shocked by how this went that I let out a yelp, you know, that drew someone can ask if I was okay.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I just found that it ill illustrates this point better than anything I I've heard lately.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Listen to this this excerpt from from this song by Shane and Shane.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: But I was struck by the twist in those words that he points out the father of life is the devil who came to steal, kill, and destroy.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: And and this is an excerpt from a verse in Galatians 3, as many as are under the works of the law, are under curse.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: It is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: And the the point is, unless you can completely do all the good things in the law, then then you're lost.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so the devil accuses us.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: And and so Shane and Shane's saying, I hear him saying, Curse are the ones who don't abide.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then he goes, He's right.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah, he's right.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: The devil is preaching the song of the redeemed that I am cursed and gone astray.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: I cannot gain salvation.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's the point of Andy Stanley, right?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the point of Titus when he says it's not by works of righteousness, we can't do it.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: Good works, religion just can take us partway across, but dumps us there, dumps us off in the pit because it's not good enough.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: We can't be good enough.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Jonathan Edwards, uh, who's who's been called the most brilliant American who has ever lived, uh, hundreds of years ago, put it this way President of Yale, the only thing we contribute to our salvation is the sin, is the sin that makes it necessary.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: I was having a conversation once with a really nice woman.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: And and I know she was nice, and you'll know she's nice because she didn't tell me to get lost.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because and and and she's very dignified, she's dressed well, she's living, she's in a nice house, but somehow we got in a conversation.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to talk about spiritual things, and she was interested in spiritual things, and so um, and it was clear that she knew some stuff, and and she didn't, it was she was sort of oh gosh.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: Can I tell you something I've observed over the years?
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: This is pretty this is pretty bad, but this is my observation.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh this is just really unprofessional to put it this way, but everybody's head has different boxes in it, okay?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: You got a sports box and my finances box, my relationship box, you know, um business and so forth.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: And in all the other boxes, other than spirituality, spirituality box, in all the other boxes, we got spreadsheets, we got books, we got, you know, where it's really we work really hard.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: Or let's put it in food terms.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: In in your finances box, you got steak, man, steak.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: And in your business box, you got a baked potato.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: And in the in these other boxes, you think about them, you work, they're they're really full of stuff.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: Now you get the spirituality box.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I've observed many times, not your boxes, of course, but spirituality box in many people's heads, mush.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's like, have you ever have you ever have you ever poured yourself um rice krispies, you know, like for breakfast, and then and poured milk in and then forgotten about them and come back in the kitchen two hours later?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you could pick it up like a snowball, throw it against the wall, and it'd stick there for a while.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that, I mean, I I'm amazed at how some of the smartest and finest people that you will talk to who are at the top of their careers in other things and finances, or you know, think deeply about everything else, maybe of written books.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: But when it comes to spirituality, mush.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: Now I've said that, and I really think this woman's a fine woman, but but but I we got into this conversation, and you can tell she hadn't thought as deeply about this as she had thought about how to arrange her kitchen drawer.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: So, because I said to her, So I said to her, uh, isn't it cool?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, this whole thing here, it's sort of a Titus 3:5 verse that we're saved completely apart from good works just by the grace of God.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, am I glad about that?
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: And she says, Whoa, whoa, whoa, I am.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: It it's uh but it takes a lot more than faith.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, What do you mean?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: She says, Well, I mean, it's you get to heaven really by by being good.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, faith faith's gotta be there, but yeah.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: I said, just a second.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: So you'd say it's by faith and works and what we do.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: She said, Of course.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: I said, So if I were to ask you how, if I want to go to hell, not have if I want to go to hell, and just say, if I want to go to hell, what would I have to do?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: She said, Well, just don't do good, do bad stuff.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Really?
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: So if I do enough bad stuff, I go to hell.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, she says there's some bad, bad stuff, and other stuff that's just not as bad.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: I said, like, she said, well, there's really bad.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: They're like big sins, like murder.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, like adultery?
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: She said, definitely, like adultery.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, but then there are smaller bad things.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: There are things like, you know, I said, like, uh like what?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: She said, like thinking bad thoughts or saying bad things.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: I said, so if I wanted to go to hell, let's say the big ones, if I did, how many of the big bad ones would I have to do to go to hell?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: Just one, she said.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: Just one.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: You go to hell.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: I said, okay, how about the little ones?
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: She said, well, I said, how about if I did two or three little bad things each day?
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: This is why I know she's nice, because she didn't tell me to get lost at this point.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I got two or three bad ones a day?
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: No, she said, no, no, not, not just, you know, saying something bad or thinking something bad.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: I said, how about 50 a day?
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: And she gasped.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: She said, no, you couldn't do 50 a day.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: I said, how about 40?
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: I said, 30?
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's too many, she said.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: 10, I said.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: She said, I think that's probably the cutoff right there.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: About 10 little bad things a day.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: See what I mean about the mushroom anymore?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's the most important thing in life.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: Where am I going to spend eternity?
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: And yet you don't think about it.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: You don't think about it as much as you think about, you know, how to arrange your kitchen or how to, you know, how to finances or anything else, that you just sort of, it's just sort of a mushy thing.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no, no.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: No, the important thing to realize is that you can't mix the two, faith and works.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: Paul says in Romans, if it's by faith, it's not by works.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: If it's by works, it's not by faith.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: You keep those things separate.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: You're saved completely apart from your works.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: However, and now we get to the real burden of this book.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: While being clear about that first point, now he rings the bell on the second point, but you were saved in order to do good works.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: You were saved in order to do good works, so to devote yourself to doing good.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: And this book, more than any other book in the Bible, uses the word good works, talks about good works, says God really is interested in good works.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: Take first chapter, chapter one of the three, Titus one, is all about, listen, your church needs to have models of good works.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: Call them elders.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: You need to have elders who are models of good works.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: So in chapter 1, 5 through 16, the need to have qualified examples of good works, and then list qualifications, need elders in every city.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: Someone else has put it this way: that this is an urgent memo from Paul to Titus saying you've got to fix a disorder in these churches.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: You're overseeing Titus there in Crete by appointing godly men to be elders.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: The kind of men you need are blameless, faithful, humble, self-controlled, generous, and virtuous.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: And the churches need to listen to these men because there are other kinds of men who are self-absorbed, petty, deceitful, legalistic, and self-promoting.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: Men like this mustn't be listened to.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: They're useless.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: So the whole first chapter is all about having those, you know, some who are disqualified because they're not doing good works.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, the last verse in Titus 1 says these some of these guys profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: They're detestable, disobedient, and disqualified for any good works.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: Some people misread that first sentence, sort of read it sloppily, as if it said they profess to be Christians, but prove that they're not by their works.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think he's getting that specific.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think he's just saying there are a lot of people in the world who profess to know God, Christians and non-Christians, political candidates who are running for president and running for Senate and running for everything else today.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: But by their behavior, by their works, what are they doing?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: They're denying God.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it's clear that they don't know God very well.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the fact of the matter is that we know that occasionally, sadly, I am the first to raise my hand and say, occasionally, I deny God by my works.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: And there are certain times in my life, certain moments where, wow, it must not, you know, it's clear that I don't know God very well at that moment.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I put a picture of Peter here, denying Christ.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, he was a believer, but he was denying Christ at that moment.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, that the point of chapter one is that is that Christian or not, God is really looking for good works.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's very important to him.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: And he goes on in chapter two show yourself in all respects, Titus, to be a model of good works.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's interesting how this modeling and mentoring thing is big in the New Testament.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus was the model for Paul, who was the model for Titus, who needs to be the model for others.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus, we're told in Acts 10.38, went about doing good, doing good works.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: And you and I are to go about doing good works.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: Titus 3.8, our saying is trustworthy.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: I want you to insist on these things that those who have believed may be careful to devote themselves to good works.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: Titus 3.14, our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then let's just, one of these two great passages, Titus 2.11 and 12, we'll look at it one more time.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, it teaches us, stop right there.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: If we were, say, traveling, it's over the road, let's say we're driving in a car, you know, you get in, I love doing that across the country.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: You get into conversations with people, you get deep.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: We're in a spiritual conversation, we're talking about the gospel, let's say salvation.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: And somehow the question came up, what does the gospel teach us?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: What does salvation teach us?
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: And you'd say, well, it teaches us about God, what God's like, that he's really loving.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thumbs up, I'd go, yeah, no kidding.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: That he loved the world so much that he gave his one and only son.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it teaches us about us, you'd say.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: It teaches us about man, the fact that we're helpless and we're needy, we couldn't do it ourselves.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we had, you know, all of all of sin and come short of the glory.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd say, yeah, it does.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you'd say, well, it teaches us about the relationship between us that it, you know, God has to initiate, God has to do it.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: We can't do it.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: We're helpless, we're needy.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, it's interesting that in Titus, when he says salvation teaches us something, he doesn't say any of these things.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: He says salvation.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: The gospel teaches us to live like God.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: God saves us so that in order that we will become more like him and live like him, it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age while we wait for the glorious appearing of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, who came, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness, and what?
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: To purify for himself people that are his very own, eager to do literally good works.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: What is good?
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: So you see the point here that what is so important to God, really important to God, is that those of you who have trusted in his son by faith, and by faith alone, will dedicate yourselves to doing good works.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's so important.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: I love the story of the of the couple came out of Arkansas, and and they love, they they they love going to a church where people shouted about, shouted for Jesus, ran around the auditorium for Jesus, jumped up and down for Jesus, so forth.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: And they were trying when they had moved to the Midwest to be close to Grandma, trying to get her to go to the church with them.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: And she went with them once, but she wouldn't go back, and she's just really reluctant.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: They came home from church one day, and Grand said, grandson said, Grandma, I mean, you need, I mean, today the Holy Spirit was really moving.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: She just kept rocking.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, grandma, I said, you know, the you know, the preacher was just shouting out glory, and people were popping up and down like popcorn.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, why are don't you want to go to church with us?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, are you against that kind of stuff?
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: And grandma said, you know, to be honest, I really don't care how loud people shout or how high they jump, I just care about what they do when they come back down.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what God would say here in Titus that God really cares.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: He wants you to come and he wants you to shout.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: He loves for you to sing, he loves for you to worship him, but he's really, really concerned about how you act when you come back down.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: Are you involved in good works?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: For you were saved in order to do good works.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: So devote yourself to doing good.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: And he asked the question, are you doing good?
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I know, standing up here, I'm proud of you because so many of you are involved in so many good things.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: And we, every single Sunday, you know, Hank, you know, is up here today sharing about a foster care program.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: With so many good things that people are involved in here.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_01: You some of you are involved in Haiti Lifeline as I am.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: Some of you are involved in Trash Mount Project.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: There's a banquet tonight.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: And if you need a spot, my table's still pretty empty.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: Come see me.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: And and there's Chorcor, and there's, and you're some of you involved in Topeka Rescue Mission or Dokesado and Iwana.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: These are all good works.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: These are really things God loves.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: There's the bridge, you know, working across the street with his school.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: There's harvesters and the clothes closet and grief share and divorce care.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, are some of you are involved in some of these things, right?
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: Raise your hand for just a second.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, look at that.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: And God loves that.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what Titus is about.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: When Titus says, listen, how are you doing?
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: Are you doing good?
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: And he doesn't mean that's to get you to heaven.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: And if you've never come to the place in your life where you've sort of just pushed aside all that you're doing and not allowed it to infect like a virus, that spirituality box, that whole issue of salvation.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: You need to push that aside and simply trust Jesus alone for salvation.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: But then he comes to you, this book goes, How are you doing?
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: Are you doing good?
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: Are you doing good?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: God really cares that you're doing good.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, by the way, I'll say, when you're talking with people about trust in Christ, sometimes you have to tell them that God does care about good works.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's it was some years back, but it but um here in town, I was talking to uh a guy in his young 20s, and and I ask him, uh uh, are you interested in spiritual things?
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: Just a good casual start or conversation.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Yeah.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: Said, would you like to talk?
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Yeah.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: So things are wounding down in the gym, and we're sitting on uh, so we go over as we sit on the gym stage and we just talk for about an hour.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: And and as they're cleaning up, and uh I say, just curious, if you if you passed away, if you died, got on a wreck going home tonight, do you know you'd go to heaven?
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: He said, No.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: Would you like?
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Has anybody ever taken the Bible and showed you how you can know for sure that you're going to heaven when you die?
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: Would you like me to?
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I pull out a New Testament and I showed him some of these verses, like Titus 3, 5.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's not by works of righteousness, it's by faith alone, you know, just simply believe, and so I get through that, and he's really responsive.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_01: He's read the verses, he's plugged his name in, and so forth.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Are you ready to trust Jesus as your Savior right now?
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, and I quote, he says, I'd like to, but I don't buy it.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: I said, come again, come again?
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: He says, I don't buy it.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: I said, What is it that you don't buy?
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: He said, I don't buy the idea that God that good works don't matter to God.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: He said, God, if I really believed what you're saying, man, I'd I'd just believe and then go out and and use the phrase I'd paint the town red.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: I just can't believe that's the way it is.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_01: I can't believe God wouldn't care about good works.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he said, you Protestants, guilty as charged.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: He said, you know, you Protestants are always talking about, you know, like faith and how it works.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't think that, I just can't believe that to God, good works don't matter.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: I said, wow, you got me wrong.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_01: I think they matter hugely to God.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think they matter hugely to God.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: All I'm saying is that is that when it comes to entering heaven, when it comes to salvation, when it comes to that that that getting your sins forgiven and getting the gift of eternal life and so forth, they they don't matter.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: Not only do they not matter, you have to you have to sweep them out of the room.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: They have nothing at all to do with it.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: But that the moment that happens, I said, they're hugely important.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: They're hugely important to me.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: Why do I am I engaged in good works?
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: Why do I care about good works?
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: I told him, I said, because I love God.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'll, you know, I'm not gonna work in order to get my soul saved, but I'm gonna work like a slave out of love.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: Out of love for God's dear son.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: And also, I work, to be honest, for rewards because I know God said that he's really excited.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: He really wants to have sort of a party.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when we get up there and he wants to be handing out rewards, he wants to show how much he appreciates what we've done.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, I'm doing it, you know, to be honest, partly, you know, for for to make the party better up there for rewards.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: But I said, you know, yeah, they matter hugely.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like a light came on and the walls of resistance just collapsed.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: He says, I mean, if that's true, yeah, I'll be glad to trust Jesus as my Savior.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: I just didn't realize that works were that important to God, you know, the way you presented it.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: I said, they are.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you need to remind yourself and remind others of us, evangelicals, that good works really do me.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: You have right, they have nothing to do with salvation.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: You were saved completely and totally apart from good works.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: But God saved you in order that you would do good work.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of your son Jesus Christ and how when he appeared, everything changed.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: Everything changed.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_01: And finally we could get off the uh the the rat race, we could get off the turnstile, we could get out of the whole works thing to try to earn your favor and uh accumulate merit, and we could simply simply receive that free gift that you offer.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_01: For that we thank you, and we thank you too, that you really care.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_01: That we become like your son, we become like you, and that we follow his example of doing good works.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, give us the grace to do that because we love your son Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: You're dismissed.