This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
It's important that we have good works, maintain good works, and
that maintain good works jumps out at me because he's not
saying I just want you to do these things every now and then.
You know, do it when someone's watching.
Do it when you're trying to impress somebody.
You know, he's not saying do it when you're trying to deceive
somebody because there's something you want.
But he says maintain good works. Every day that we get up, let us
maintain good works. It's one thing to cross things
off your bucket list so that you could say been there, done that,
got the T-shirt, but it's a whole other thing to live a
lifestyle where you're not just doing things once and moving on,
but those things become daily habits.
In his message today, Pastor Lewis encourages you to maintain
good works. It doesn't mean you fill your
daily quota and then you're done.
It doesn't mean you just do good works to put on a show.
It means good works are a part of who you are in your daily
life. Now.
Here's Pastor Lewis in Titus Chapter 3 with today's edition
of Living Waters of Grace. If you could turn on your
Bibles, please, to the book of Titus.
We're going to finish up Titus, and prayerfully we're going to
move into the Book of Colossians.
So first we're going to start and finish up the Book of Titus
going to verse 8. We're going to start at verse 8
there. OK, So as we finish up the 3rd
chapter of the book of Titus, we start there verse, we pick it up
at verse 8 and just simply says this is a faithful saying.
Now let's see what he's saying is a faithful saying.
Now he's talked about a number of things.
He talked about the washing of regeneration, which is one of
the last things that he talked about.
And as we mentioned, what the washing and regeneration was
actually a supernatural act of the Holy Spirit that he actually
cleanses our, our, our sins. He forgives our sins.
And not only that, but we are changed from the consequences of
those sins. And it's a supernatural act.
It's nothing that is done through labor.
And we also talked about the fact that there are the, that,
that Christ and you haven't been justified by grace.
We are justified by the grace of Jesus Christ just as if we had
not sinned. So those things are taken off
the table for us when we are in Christ Jesus.
We have security in salvation and that we should become heirs
according to the hope of eternal life.
And that is the that is the end of our salvation is eternal life
with Jesus Christ forever and eternity.
So, but we go from there and we go to verse 8 and he said, now
this is a faithful saying and these things I want you to to
constantly, not every now and then, but I want you to
constantly affirm that those who have believed in God should be
careful to maintain good works. What a powerful verse there.
He said to those of us who are in Christ Jesus and who believe
on Christ Jesus, those who believe in God, that they should
be careful. That means be intentional to
live our lives in good works, to be intentional about that to to,
to take every opportunity that we have to show good works.
The Bible says we're ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
We should take every opportunity to be that ambassador to
represent the Kingdom of God for Jesus Christ here in the earth
realm, Every opportunity that we get.
And he said, this is a faithful, a faithful St.
I want you to constantly affirm this, that it's important that
we have good works, maintain good works.
And that maintain good works jumps out at me.
Because he's not saying I just want you to do these things
every now and then. You know, do it when someone's
watching. Do it when you're trying to
impress somebody. You know, he's not saying do it
when you're trying to deceive somebody because there's
something you want. But he says maintain good works
every day that we get up, let us maintain good works.
And it works in US. That power works in US.
And that's what we should pray for.
Lord, fulfill me, you know, fulfill your word through me
this day. Let their power work through me
to produce good works. Maybe a blessing to somebody,
maybe a blessing to somebody, not just myself.
I want to be a blessing to somebody else, maintain good
works. And then he said these things
are good and profitable to man. As we have always mentioned that
our ministry is never for us, it's for others.
The gifts that you have is not for you.
It's to bless others, particularly in the church, but
it's also a demonstration to those who are outside of the
church that demonstrates that God is real, that Jesus is real.
And we do that through the way that we live our lives, through
good works. It's profitable.
It's profitable to men. Now and then he hits him with a
big one here. Now he talks about what we
should do, and now he's going to change gears a little bit and
talk about what we shouldn't do, what we should avoid in the
church. And you look at verse 9, he
says, but avoid foolish disputes, genealogy, contentions
and strivings about the law. Let me just quickly say that
what Paul is is saying here is that there are some things that
we have to be mature enough to understand that Satan plants
certain things in the church or uses people to do certain things
to cause a division, especially if it's a good work.
Especially if it's a good work, He's going to send somebody or
something to try to cause a division in the church, to sow
seeds of discord, contentions and being dissensions and all
those kind of things. Those things are not of God.
Those things were of Satan. The works of the flesh,
according to Galatians 5, those are works of the flesh.
And anything that's a work of the flesh causes confusion.
And we know that God is not the author of confusion, but of
peace. So he says avoid foolish
disputes. Those things that we spend time
talking about that have no eternal value, no eternal value,
but just arguing about it just for the sake of I want to be
right. So I'm going to express and I'm
going to continue to press this point because I want to be
right. These things cause problems.
It can stumble people when we do
things like that. So he says avoid those things.
Avoid genealogies. You know, there's, you know,
they're they're, you know, back at that particular time, there
were people who would use their their their bloodlines to try to
distinguish how important they were.
Well, I'm a Levite and I'm this and I'm on the seat of the
Abraham, he said. Those things aren't important.
Forget genealogies. My bloodline is not important.
I'm born again, so, so the only bloodline I'm concerned about is
Jesus Christ and his blood that he shed for me.
That's the only bloodline that's important.
But he says for, you know, you know, don't stress and don't get
in these arguments about genealogies.
It doesn't matter. Those things are not important
and those things are a matter of pride, contentions and strivings
about the law, arguing about details about the law, not the
righteousness or unrighteous other, but just these little
small details. Now there are times that we can
get into discussions about the Word of God and we should.
We should get into discussions about the Word of God as we both
seek the truth of the Word to rightly divide the Word.
And in our effort to do that, we can get into discussions.
But those discussions should not turn into debates and those
debates should not turn into arguments.
And those arguments should not turn into contentions.
And those contentions should not turn into divisions.
And unfortunately, that's what can happen.
So he says, you know, avoid those things for they were
unprofitable. He we already talked about what
is profitable. What was profitable was good
works being an example for Jesus Christ.
That's what is profitable. But he said what's not
profitable are these foolish disputes and arguing and and
these contentions he said unprofitable.
Not only that, but they're also useless.
What they're used for. They have no eternal value
whatsoever. And then in verse, then here in
verse 10, he says, reject the divisive man after the 1st and
2nd admonition. So after we, you know, after you
have a, a sit down with someone the first time and you point out
to them how it's offensive, how they're, they're, they're
causing a defense or they're causing a, a division by doing
these things. That's the first time.
And then the second time you may bring someone else and say,
listen, you know, we, we really want to bring to your attention
that you're being divisive, you know, with these arguments and,
and with these debates and things of that nature.
Well, he said after the first or second time, if that person
doesn't turn, if that person doesn't change, if that person
doesn't see it, he said, reject that person after the first or
second admonition. And this is the reason why Look
at what it says in verse 11. Knowing that such a person is
warped, that means they have they're, they're perverted,
they're twisted, The enemy has deceived them and they've taken
the word of God and they're perverting it.
They're twisting it. They're taking it to be
something that is not truth. That person is warped, they're
twisted, they're perverted and sinning.
It's a sin to do what they're doing because they're, they're
not just doing it because they're looking for truth,
They're doing it because they just want to be adversarial.
And he said that is sinful, he said, being self condemned.
And then he's basically saying that this is a person that you
just have to reject. Now, to reject a person like
that doesn't necessarily mean that you never minister to that
person again. But there needs to be some
church discipline where that person knows you cannot be this
kind of of a problem in the congregation.
You cannot be this kind of problem in the congregation.
So you treat that person as an infidel almost you treat them as
someone who's not even in the faith and you minister to that
person. You continue to show love to
that person. You continue to deal with that
person like you would any other unbeliever.
And then in verse 12, he says when I sin that he's he's
finishing up this this portion of it finished finishing up the
book of Titus. He says now when I send Art
Artemis to you or to Caicus, be diligent to come to me at
Necropolis. Paul was in the accomplice
because this is coming around the time of winter.
In fact, he even says here for have decided to spend the winter
there and that's pretty common because Paul didn't want to
travel by sea in the winter because it was dangerous.
So he would always find some place to winter.
That means some place that he would be and to remain over the
course of the winter until the the seasons change and it's more
safe. It's a lot more safer to travel
over the sea so he can continue his ministry.
So he said send them when you send that person, send them to
an accomplice, because that's where I'm going to be for the
winter. And then he said send Zenus the
lawyer. Wow, one of the rare times you
hear about somebody wanting a lawyer to fellowship like this
in the word of God, he says send that lawyer Apollos on the
journey with haste that they may lack nothing.
Now a lot of the time now Paul understands that there are
obviously, you know, they're just like there's anything else.
You know, there's good and there's bad, there's evil,
there's wicked and there's righteous just like anything
else. All obviously all lawyers are
not bad. We know that I was actually
considering being a lawyer at one particular time.
All lawyers are not bad. Well, Paul is but what what we
see is that there can always be a life changing experience in
Jesus Christ through the through the gospel.
All accountants not bad, but yet they considered those who were
the tax collectors, you know, they were bad.
They considered them to be bad people, but they changed.
Matthew changed and we definitely always want to
consider the life changing power of God in anybody's life,
regardless of what they do. We always want to consider that.
So Paul says sent a lawyer. Maybe this is a person at one
particular time was against the gospel, but now maybe they are a
help to Paul in the gospel. There are many people that have
been like that for Paul in his life.
There are people who will be like that for yourself and he
said then Apollo's on their journey with haste that they may
lack nothing and let verse 14 and let our people also learn to
maintain good works and to meet urgent needs that they may be
not that they may not be unfruitful.
So he's saying when they leave you make sure that they have
everything they need. That's a good word.
Now remember who he's talking to.
He's talking to the Christians who were very self-centered
people who were a Pagan nation and they really didn't care
anything about anybody else but their own satisfaction.
But now that they're in Christ Jesus, Paul is saying this is a
way of showing good works. Make sure when they leave they
have everything they need, everything they need.
Be hospitable to them. What a word to the church today.
Be hospitable to people, to bless people, to meet needs of
people. Isn't that the church to meet
the needs of people and however it is that they can be done,
Meet the needs. Sometimes meeting needs of
people could be financial. Sometimes it could just be
labor. Sometimes meeting the need of
people could just be a phone call, a conversation, somebody
who just need to talk to somebody got to relay somebody
on your mind and you call that person and say, oh, can't
believe you called. I was just thinking about you
and there's so many things on my mind, on my heart.
And God sends you to call that person and you become a blessing
to that person because you become that listening ear.
You become sometimes not even necessarily say anything, but
just to listen to be a blessing to someone who needs it.
So Paul said, make sure you meet the urgent needs that they may
not be that you may not be unfruitful.
He's trying to teach a a city who was rooted in paganism,
rooted in unrighteousness and morality, and he's now saying I
want you. I don't want you to be
unfruitful. Meet the needs of others.
God is working in your life. What a blessing when we see
those kind of things happen, those terms.
And then in verse 15, it says all who, all who were with me
greet you, greet those who love us in the faith.
Grace be with you all. Amen.
So we finished the book of Titus and it says it's, it's important
that we understand that this book of Titus is one of the
three epistles, the, the pastoral epistles.
And, and we, we didn't do it in order because it would be first
Timothy, Titus and then second Timothy.
That would be the correct order that they were actually written.
Second Timothy was the book that was written right before Paul
was executed. But Second Timothy, this letter
to this young brother, this young pastor who Paul also
considered to be a son, this young man, they received him and
Timothy received awesome instruction from Paul, who loved
them and loved the churches that they were pastoring.
What a blessing that is to see the heart of Paul poured out in
these passages. But this is actually the Lord
speaking through Paul not only to them, but also to us, the
Lord speaking. What a blessing it is to be to
have these to be able to read. So we want to know about how the
New Testament church works. We want to go to first, second
Timothy, and Titus. This is Paul's message to the
New Testament church, how it works, the function of it, the
order of it, all of those things are there.
So now we move into Colossians and I and I and I have to say
that I, I thought about going right to the next book, thought
about going right to the next book, which would have been
Philemon if I would have went in that in that order, but I, I, I
was just not led to go that direction.
Colossians was a book that kept coming into my heart to study
and I'm so glad that I did. So if you go over to the book of
Colossians and in chapter 1, just looking at the beginning of
it, I just want to mention just a couple of things.
First of all, Colossi, this book, this letter to the
Colossians is actually the city of Colossae, which is a Roman
city in the Asia minus about it's about 100 miles east of
Ephesus is where it's located. It's a small city and it's one
of the three neighboring cities. Beside that is Laodicea, which
we heard about from the the Book of Revelations.
And also Hierapolis is one of the other cities.
Colossi was a city who was steep at one time and very prosperous
in trade. Then there was an earthquake
that hit and when that hit it devastated the city.
They lost a lot of people and they also lost a lot of industry
that particular time. And that earthquake actually hit
after they received Paul's letter.
Paul had never been to Colossi. He didn't establish the church
in Colossae, and we'll talk about who did in a minute.
But Paul didn't establish that church.
But yet Paul still wrote this letter to Colossae.
And he wrote this letter with such love and with such care and
with such detail that you would think it was another church that
he founded. But that's the love that Paul
had for all believers. All believers, and we have to
keep in mind we're talking about a man who used to kill
Christians, who used to lock Christians up.
If you ever want to just know the life changing power of the
gospel, look at Paul. And then after you look at Paul,
look at me and then like probably look at ourselves,
right? That's the power of the life
changing gospel. So Paul writes this letter to a
place he's never been to a bunch of people he's never ever met.
But I want you to pay attention to the love and the care and the
detail of it. So we start with verse one there
in chapter 1. He says Paul, an apostle of
Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother.
What jumped out at me immediately is that he talked
about Timothy, our brother. Now, during this time that Paul
wrote this letter, he was actually in, he was in jail, he
was under house arrest in Rome when he wrote this particular
letter. And you'll see a lot of
similarities to Colossians and Ephesians, and we'll be
referencing that quite a bit as we go through this letter.
But he mentions Timothy as being with him.
Now, Timothy wasn't in jail with him, but Timothy was there to
assist him and to help him. Timothy was probably the one who
scribed this letter as Paul was giving his words to it.
And he says Timothy, our brother, well, we know that he
called Timothy his son, But here he's just expressing the fact or
stressing the fact that Timothy is a brother in the faith, just
like he's a son of faith. The other thing I also want to
mention is the fact that he calls Jesus.
He he mentions Jesus Christ and he calls that together.
Now pretty much all the epistles in his introductory, he mentions
the name Jesus Christ. But if you were to just think
about or go back through like the four gospels, you won't see
those two names together. We know that Jesus is named me.
You know, that means, you know, save our people.
And we know that Christ is actually his office.
I mean, that's his position of authority.
He is the Christ. He's the Messiah, the Son of the
living God. But you won't see those two
together very much in the gospels.
Only about 8 times you may see those things together.
Peter was one who mentions that when he says who, You know who?
Who am I? Who does man say I am?
Peter said you, you're the Christ.
You're the Son of the living God, but you don't see that that
often in the Gospels. And that's why Jesus was so
quick to say, oh, flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you,
but my father who was in heaven, because Jesus didn't even reveal
himself as that as much in the Gospels.
So he knew that it had to be spiritually reviewed or
spiritually revealed to him. But here you see these names
together, Jesus Christ, and you'll see that together in
most, most of the epistles because by this time those who
are teaching and preaching the gospel are presenting Jesus as
the Messiah. And when we preach and teach
Jesus, we should do it as Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the true
God, the the Son of God, God in the flesh.
And then in verse 2, he says to the Saints and faithful brethren
in Christ who are in Colossae, grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, we give thanks.
And that's another thing you're going to see quite often
throughout this letter, the giving of thanks and talking
about thanks. And we talked about it before
that. That's something that we should
probably be more intentional about doing in our lives is
giving thanks to God, you know, and our prayers.
We should always take time to give thanks to God.
You know, we, we always can go into talking about a laundry
list of things that we need. And I sure need a lot of things.
I need God to do a lot of things in my life as well.
But we should always remember to thank Him for the things that He
has done. This has been Living Waters of
Grace, a ministry of Pastor Lewis Harrell of Calvary Chapel,
Westmoreland. Today's message has been on the
book of Titus. This book is a master class in
how Christians should live in modern culture.
Titus was ministering to the people of Crete, an island off
the coast of Greece, but he was facing many challenges.
The Cretans who came to know Jesus seemed to assimilate Jesus
into their existing culture instead of allowing themselves
to be transformed by the Holy Spirit inside of them.
Others were fully devoting themselves to Jesus but shutting
themselves off from the world around them.
The Apostle Paul encourages Titus to help his audience find
a middle ground where they can live in this world while still
following a different way of life in Jesus.
If you would like to learn more about what it means to
faithfully follow the teachings of Christ in a world full of
darkness, we'd love to get connected with you in person.
If you are in Greensburg, PA, we'd love to invite you to join
us at Calvary Chapel Westmoreland.
We need every Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
Ste. 6B. Also, if you visit us at
calvarychapelonline.com, you'll find links to our mobile app,
our giving page, and our contact form where you can leave a
prayer request if you have one. Before we go off the air for
today, we ask you to invite someone to tune in next time
right here on Grace FM 91.7 or streaming online at Grace Radio
dot FM. Word of mouth is the best way to
spread the good news of the Gospel with those who are hungry
to hear. Until next time, this has been
another edition of Living Waters of Grace.