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.
As children of God, as Christians, we should be
obedient people, he said. Obey and seek to please our
masters in everything, willingly giving ourselves to their
authority. It shouldn't be disrespectful.
He said that that we should be well, pleasing in everything,
not answering back. We shouldn't be disrespectful.
There's a difference between explaining A misunderstanding
and having a hostile debate with someone who was in authority.
CS Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, made the
comparison between your temper and rats in the cellar.
When you suddenly turn on the lights in the cellar and rats
scurry everywhere, it's not that your movement produced the rats.
They were already there. The same is true of your temper.
When someone provokes you, the way you react only reveals what
was already there. Today, Pastor Lewis challenges
you to check what kind of character you have, even when
you're in tough situations. Now.
Here's Pastor Lewis in Titus Chapter 2 with today's edition
of Living Waters of Grace. As we go through the book of
Titus by now, I'm sure you can see that it's a very rich book
and it's really hard to put time limits on going through Titus
because it is very rich and there's so much in it.
It is a teaching epistle and therefore it's very important
not only to us as pastors or leaders, but it's important to
everyone. There's so much instruction and
so much godly direction that we get in the book of Titus.
That is just, it's an awesome book.
When Paul wrote this to Titus, the instruction was to put
things in order. That was the whole premise,
putting things in order. Let's set the church in order.
And then and by setting the church in order, we set
ourselves in order. We set each other in order.
You see, our teaching should really be a blending, and this
is what Paul was instructing Titus and Timothy is the fact
that the teaching, our teaching should be a blend of not only
doctrinal teaching and given true doctrine, but also it
should be practical admonition. It should be about how to walk
out, how to live out what it is that we're teaching.
Last time we were together, we talked about the older men and
the older women and the things that the Lord admonished them to
do in their lives, the exhortation that he had for
those group of people. But it was not just an
exhortation, but he also challenged Titus to be an
example. Not just to give the words, but
be an example of what it is that you are asking the people to be
as you build them up with your teaching.
Actually, Paul wrote more about Titus as an example in the book
of Titus than he did actually as him teaching the doctrine.
It's important that he be an example.
You see, whatever a pastor or leader, whatever a leader wants
the people to be, whether you're a parent, whether you're a
teacher in school, whether you're a, a, a, a pastor or
leader in church, whatever it is that we desire to see in other
people, we must first be the example of that ourselves.
And when we do that, we teach more that way or just as much
that way as we do by just giving words.
So as we look here in verse 9, Paul goes on and he continues to
teach Titus about God's heart for how to serve him.
And in this way, he now goes to that fifth group.
Remember we said that there were five groups that the Lord was
actually speaking to. The first was the old men and
then the second was the old women.
And then he spoke to the young men and the young women.
And this fifth group now is to bond servants.
And if we if we were to look at it today, it would be employees,
OK or workers OK. So as we, as we walk through
this, think about it in terms of not just being slaves in the
conventional sense, but also being workers or employees of
people with corporations. And this is what he says here in
verse 9. He says exhort bond servants to
be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in
all things, not answering back, not pilfering not but but
showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of
God our Savior in all things. So he first thing he says, and
as we talked about before, these bondservants, these are willing
people who are willingly giving themselves to be slaves.
This isn't forced labor people. And just as Paul identified
himself at the very open of the letter, he said that he was a
bondservant of Jesus Christ, bondservant of God, and an
apostle of Jesus Christ, which means that he is willingly
submitting to the authority of God and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, just as it is that he's asking these people to be
as well. He says, as bond servants, be
obedient. That means willingly come under
the authority of those who are over you and this is what God is
expecting. This is a testimony when even in
situations like that, and I'm sure they were harsh situations.
I mean the Romans or the the people who were over these,
these men and women who were slaves.
I'm sure sometimes those situations were harsh, but he
says as you come under them willingly submit to them and be
well pleasing in everything. If you remember, he said that
the Christians were disobedient people.
So he's saying that as children of God, as Christians, we should
be obedient people. He said obey and seek to please
our masters in everything, willingly giving ourselves to
their authority. It shouldn't be disrespectful.
He said that we should be, well, pleasing at everything, not
answering back. We shouldn't be disrespectful.
There's a difference between explaining A misunderstanding
and having a hostile debate with someone who is in authority,
speaking to someone in a disrespectful tone.
There's a difference between the two.
We can explain a misunderstanding or we can even
explain a situation where we feel like we may be wrongfully
accused of something, but there's a difference between
that and engaging in a hostile exchange and Paul's saying you
don't answer back. You're not.
You're not to be talking back to your servant, to your servant
leaders or to your masters. He said not pilfering and this
pilfering is is meaning basically saying don't be
stealing, don't steal, don't steal from your place of
employment, thieving or taking things that don't belong to you.
And, and basically Onissimus in the book of Philemon, this may
be one of the things that Onissimus was had probably
committed. That was a sin that he probably
committed that caused an issue taking something that didn't
belong to him. And he's telling us as servants
or he's telling us as employees to not steal.
What a awesome, what a terrible testimony that would be that
someone accused you as a Christian, excuse me, accused
you as a Christian of stealing, of stealing.
And people, you know, there's definitely report that it
happens all the time. People take pens and paper.
They take pencils, little things.
They think that the company won't miss reams of paper.
One piece of paper turns into a ream of paper and and other
things. I mean, I know that there are
times that I worked at at places and the bosses will get
everybody together and say, listen, we got toilet paper
that's missing. You know, I mean people, you
know, find out that there's, you know, they they need toilet
paper and they don't have it at home.
And they figured that the company won't miss a couple
rolls of toilet paper. But this is not right now.
There are times when companies will say, hey, look, we have an
excess of that, Please take as much as you need.
We have an excess of this, you know, please help yourself and
take as much as you need. That's different, but to still
is not a good testimony. And then he talks about he says,
but showing we should show all good fidelity.
That means show honesty, show trustworthiness about show
faithfulness in our jobs. That's the testimony that we're
looking for that a worker should be able to say or an employer
should be able to say that you as a woman or man of God, you're
honest, you are trustworthy, you're you're loyal.
These are good things. These things bring glory to God
and to God's word. And then he goes on and he said,
the reason why we do that is so that they may adorn, meaning the
the bond servants, that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our
Savior in all things that they adorn the docs.
That means be clothed, that you were clothed with the doctrine.
You're not just spewing it out. You're not just speaking it out,
but you're actually clothed with it.
It, it it's visible. It's it's like you wear it like
a garment. The goodness and the
righteousness of God. And what a testimony that is
without even necessarily having to tell people, yeah, I'm saved.
But meanwhile, you know, you're loading up your car with things
that don't belong to you or you're talking back to a boss
and you're speaking to them in a disrespectful way.
And then you say, oh, hey, by the way, I'm saved.
You know, why don't you come and visit our church?
You know, that's going to be very difficult for people to
feel justified to come and visit a church like that.
But if you're clothed with righteousness, if you're
clothed, if you're wearing it like a garment, then that's a
blessing. And people, you won't even have
to ask them. They'll ask you, where do you go
to church? What do you believe?
What do you serve? Who do you serve?
They'll ask you. And then we move in here to
verse 11. And verse 11 is a very, very
involved verse because it's it's about more than just what it
appears. So we're going to get into
talking about the grace of God that that unmerited favor that
we have received from God our Savior.
I'll read it and then I'll go back and make comment.
It says here, for the grace of God that brings salvation has
appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and
worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly
in this present age. So he's talking here, and this
is basically talking about the first coming of Jesus Christ.
And we're later going to talk about the second coming.
Paul talks about a lot of different doctrine in Titus, in
the book of Titus, but this is the first one that we're talking
about. This is like the first coming of
Jesus Christ. And I just want to mention that
with this grace in which He appeared to all men, and it was
a grace that He came to us. He didn't come as executioner or
judge, but He came as Savior. He came as a Savior.
The Bible says that He came. He was full of grace and truth.
And thank God for the truth that He brought.
But my God, thank him for the grace.
Thank Him for the grace. So he didn't come as his judge
or executioner as he could have. And we probably deserved it, but
he didn't. He came as Savior.
And the Bible says that Jesus Christ came into the world to
save sinners. So it was the grace of God that
he would, that he would be here, that he would do this.
And it also talks about South in talking about this first coming,
he actually appeared in two different ways.
He presented himself in two different ways.
The first time that he presented him that he was presented to the
people was when he was born. If you look back in Luke chapter
2 verse 8, this is what the angels announced to those who
would witness Jesus Christ coming to the world.
He said, for there is born to you this day in the city of
David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
And this is the announcement that was made before all, before
all these shepherds. And of course they went out and
they spoke it and they shared it to everyone.
But this was the one of the first times that he was
presented to the world as King, as Messiah, as shepherd, as
Savior. But then there's a second time
and this is what we're talking about today.
This is what we're celebrating today, His triumphal entry into
Jerusalem, when he came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey,
presenting himself as Messiah, as King, as Lord.
And the interesting thing about that is that there's, you know,
he is the, he is the promised King.
He is the promised and rightful king who brings salvation and
that's why he came. So the Bible talks about his
triumphal entry and and he's a promised king because back in
Zechariah Chapter 9, it was already prophesied 700 years
before he even came. It was prophesied that he would
be coming. So that promise was fulfilled on
that day, the promised king, and he came riding on a donkey.
He didn't come riding on a horse because he wanted to portray to
the people that I'm coming in peace, I'm coming lowly, I'm
coming meek, I'm coming as one who is coming to make peace and
to bring peace. If he was riding on a horse, the
way he's going to come back. He's coming back to make war.
He's coming back to establish his Kingdom for eternity.
But in that triumphal entry, the Bible said he rode on a donkey.
The the, the, the, the a coat, the foe of a donkey.
And when he came in, like I said, he was the promised king
because he fulfilled that prophecy which says your king is
coming to you just and having salvation.
He is the rightful king also though, and he's the rightful
king because the Bible says that when he came in, according to
Matthew 21, that the people were hollering and they were shouting
Hosanna, Hosanna to the son of David.
And the fact that they acknowledged the fact that that
he was that, that they said Hosanna, that means save us.
They acknowledged his kingship, save us, save us.
And they acknowledged that he was the king through through
David or through the line of David because they called him
the son of David. And he in the flesh, he was a
son of David, but in the spirit he was a son of God.
And the Jews acknowledged him in that time on that very first
Palm Sunday. We understand that when he was
coming through that they had palms and they were laying palms
before him and they were laying their clothes before him.
And they were basically creating a, a red carpet treatment for
him to be able to come into the city.
But that was another way of acknowledging that He was king,
or they're acknowledging him as king, because that is the way
that they receive the procession of royalty when it comes to
their cities. They put their clothes before
them, they put all these things before them, and they caused
them to come in. Well, this is exactly what Jesus
did. But many people that were there,
they thought He came in because He was coming to now establish
the Kingdom and to knock over Roman rule and to establish
themselves as the king and take back our nation.
But that's not why He was coming.
He was coming because he was going to.
He was going to defeat, but he wasn't just going to defeat
Roman rule. And that's where the palm
branches come in. You might wonder, why do we have
palm branches? Why is palm branches symbolic of
Palm Sunday, right? Well, they mean a number of
things. First of all, palm branches are
symbolic for victory and peace, triumph and eternal life.
So when, So when Jesus came in, and he came in as victor, but he
was victor because what he was about to do, He would be a he
would have victory over sin and death.
He came in as peace because he was the Prince of Peace.
Jesus is our peace and he brought peace between God and
man. He was triumphant because Jesus
triumphed over Satan, and he did it publicly on the cross.
He was triumphant over saving and eternal life.
Jesus came in. He is our hope of eternal life.
His resurrection is our hope for eternal life.
So when Jesus came in, all these things were important, but he
didn't just come in just to establish himself as king or
establish himself as Messiah, but he also presented himself as
a lamb that would be slain. He was the Lamb.
He was the one who was the blimp, who was the that was
without blemish and without spot or wrinkle.
He was the perfect sacrifice. And he presented himself that
way on Palm Sunday. And I just wonder, you know, in
my own life, have I allowed Jesus to have a triumphal entry
in my life? Does he sit as king on the
throne of my heart? Do I acknowledge him as king?
Do I call him king? Do I submit to his kingship, to
his lordship in my life? And one of the ways that we can
show that is through our good works that Timothy or Titus
continues to talk about here in the book of Titus.
But not only did he come to establish those things, but the
Bible said in verse 12 that he's teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly. Jesus coming to give us
salvation was not just so that we can be saved and then sit
down like we have now. We don't have nothing else to
do, but it's for good works, which is the evidence to
unbelievers that a change has happened in our lives.
The power of God working in our hearts is through the good works
that we offer to others or that we show others, He said We
should deny ungodliness. We should deny worldly lusts
and, and, and, and, and we should live soberly,
righteously, or upright and godly or God like back in
Ephesians chapter 4, the Bible talks about putting off the old
man. So when Jesus comes into our
life, there's a change and we take off those things that were
old, those things that used to be.
Ephesians 4 and 22 says that you put off concerning your former
conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the
deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and
that you put on the new man which was created according.
To God in true righteousness and holiness.
And we do that in this present age.
And it's important that we do it in this present age because
there's so much darkness, there's so much evil, there's so
much wickedness, and they need to see God's light.
So it's more important. It's even more important now
that we live a life that shows that there's a difference, a
life that shows that the power of God is working in our lives.
The world needs to see that. And you know, we may not
understand, we may not know it, but a lot of the people in the
world want to see that because the opposite is so hopeless.
Suicide attempts are up. People are desperate and don't
have an answer. They need to see our good works
so that they can see the God in us that they may have something
to trust in, something to believe in, and we need to do it
in this present age. And then we go on to verse 13.
Now he's going to talk about the second coming.
He says, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearance of
our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Now I want to also mention that there's a couple times here
where Jesus is equal is is named as God in this in this verse, in
this chapter. The first time was back in verse
10 when he said that we should be that they adorned the
doctrine of God, our Savior in all things.
That was a reference to the deity of God, to the deity of
Jesus Christ. And then here we see it again,
looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great
God and Savior Jesus Christ. So when people try to tell you
that what the Bible never says that, that that Jesus is God,
the Bible never says that. Well, this is one place you can
bring them. He said it twice.
They said it twice. There's one place you can bring
them. So he's talking about that
second coming, that that time when we are looking forward to
him coming back. And that's our hope as
believers, that's our hope as Christians, it's our hope as
those who live for the Lord that we're going to see him again,
that we're going to see him. We're going to, we're going to,
we're going to be able to love his appearing.
Paul talked about the fact that when he sees him, he knows he's
going to receive a crown of righteousness.
And not only him, but everyone who will love his appearing will
receive a crown of righteousness.
So this coming, this, this second coming is, is something
that we all look forward to. And that's our hope.
That's our hope for the appearing of the future return
of our great God and Savior. You know what?
If it happens in the next 5 minutes, I'll be happy.
I'd be OK with it that we never have to go to our cars again and
drive anywhere else. If it happens before I even get
to my car, I'll be OK with it. I just want to see him.
I just want to be with him. I want this to be over.
But then again, He has a plan and a purpose for keeping us
here. And that plan and purpose has to
do with the good works that He's calling us to do and to be.
So while we're here, abode and abide and occupy.
So then in verse 14, He goes back to talking about what he
does. The first time that he comes, he
goes back to talking about his sacrifice.
So he says here in verse 14, who gave himself for us?
That's who we're looking for. We're looking for the one who
gave himself for us. So that's why we can't be
looking for no other king. We can't be looking for no other
God because it was only one who gave himself for us.
This has been Living Waters of Grace, a ministry of Pastor
Louis 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 meet 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
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Gospel with those who are hungry to hear.
Until next time, this has been another edition of Living Waters
of Grace.