Galen Call's Sermon Library
"Works In Three Dimensions" - April 12, 1981 (PM Service)
(soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (piano music) ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Thank you, Dan. Would you take your bio please and turn with me to the book of Titus? Titus chapter 3. The theme of the book of Titus is healthy Christian living and Christian believing. The Apostle Paul exhorts us in chapter 1 to be sure that our leadership is healthy. A church can rise no higher than its leadership and will be no healthier than its leadership. He explains in verses 5 through 9 the qualifications for healthy leadership. And then he warns about disease within the church verses 10 through 16 the disease of unhealthy teaching coming from false teachers. And he explains what to do about them. And then in chapter 2 he begins to apply what he's been talking about. And he says not only are we to believe in a healthy way but we are to live in a healthy way to the glory of God. We have seen two important doctrinal sections in the book. First in chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 then in chapter 2 verses 11 to 14. To become to chapter 3 there is a third doctrinal section. It is sandwiched between some very very practical teaching regarding the Christian life. We'll read chapter 3 you follow along please. Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man to be no brawlers but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves also were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they who have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men, but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law for their unprofitable in vain, a man that is in heretic after the first and second admonition reject, knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himself. When I shall sin Artemis unto thee or titchagus be diligent to come unto me at Nicopolis, for I have determined there to winter, to bring Zenis the Lawyer and Apollus on their journey diligently that nothing be wanting unto them. And let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses that they be not unfruitful. All that are with me greet thee, greet them that love us in the faith, grace be with you all, amen. And with these personal words the Apostle Paul brings to a letter, to a close this letter to his son in the faith Titus. As we look at chapter three there is one word that pops out at me several times and that is the word works. In chapter three we see an emphasis on works. There are three dimensions of works that are spoken of. There are the works of the sinner, the work of the Savior, and the works of the saints. Follow along with me in the word of God as we examine what this chapter teaches about works in these three dimensions. First notice with me the works of the sinner in verse three. And verses one and two the Apostle tells us how we ought to live. And then he reminds us of our past. The Apostle Paul was not one who lost sight of what he once was. As Dr. Wallace says in the Wycliffe commentary Paul never lost sight of what he once was and it moved him to compassion for the lost. As he brings this letter to its high point regarding healthy Christian living. The Apostle Paul says now remember what you once were, for we ourselves were once and then he begins to describe the works or the lifestyle of an unbeliever. He says we ourselves were once foolish. In other words we ourselves at one time lacked reason. We did not have a right course of living. Regarding spiritual things we were senseless. We were not rational. This thought is in contrast to the word sober which Paul has used several times in chapter two. We are exhorted to live soberly, righteously godly and so on. In other words we are to be well balanced and sensible when it comes to spiritual things. But an unsafe person is not so. It does not just mean that an unbeliever is ignorant of spiritual things. But it includes the idea of being incapable of spiritual discernment. In Corinthians we read that the natural man discerns not, he understands not the things of the spirit of God. Why can't he? Because they are spiritually discerned and he is spiritually dead. This is a similar thought. The Apostle says we too were once foolish. We acted impulsively. We were unable to grasp the reality of eternity and of coming judgment. Perhaps this thought is not better illustrated in the Bible than in Luke chapter 12. You remember the story that Jesus told in Luke chapter 12? It was about a man who had a problem. His problem was that he was increasing in wealth and he did not know how to handle it. In verse 16 of Luke 12 it says, "And Jesus spoke a parable unto them, saying, 'The ground of a certain rich man wrought forth plinthily.' And he thought within himself, saying, 'What shall I do? Because I have no place to bestow my crops.' And he said, 'This will I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there will I bestow all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'So thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take vine, ease, eat, drink, and be merry.' Is that not the attitude of the average unsafe person today? Is it not the attitude, unfortunately, and even some believers? Notice the emphasis on self. He says, 'What shall I do? I have no place to bestow my crops. This will I do. I will pull down my barns. I will bestow all my crops and my goods. I will say to my soul. Here's a man who is totally self-centered. He has no understanding of spiritual truth. He has no appreciation for the fact that God is his judge, and that he must stand and give account of himself to God.' And it says in verse 20, 'God said to him, 'Bow fool. This night, thy soul.' And I can almost put 'Thy' in quotes there. God is saying, 'Thy soul,' because he's been talking about his soul. God says, 'This night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall those things be?' Which thou hast provided. So is he that layeth a treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. There is an illustration of a fool. And we ourselves once lived that way. We had no direction in life other than self-direction. And we lived for self-glory and self-promotion. That's the way an unsafe person lives. And we as believers, of course, are not to live that way. It's unnatural for us to live that way. Not going back to Titus. There's a second way that the apostle describes the works of the sinner. He says, 'We ourselves were once before conversion, not only foolish, but disobedient.' The word here not only has the idea of not doing the right thing, but it involves the idea of willful obstinacy. It is rejection of what God wants. It is an act of the will. He says at one time we willfully rejected God. We were obstinate like stubborn animals, refusing God's dealing in our lives. This is a similar thought to Ephesians chapter 2 where unsafe folks are called the children of disobedience. And then he uses the word 'deceed' next. We ourselves were once deceived. The root of this word is the one from which we get our word 'planet'. It means to wonder about. Acts with the planets are not really wondering about, are they? Because they're on horses that have been set by God. But the word 'planet' comes from that idea, something that wonders without direction. He says that we were once being deceived. Peter said it this way, 'You were once sheep, going astray.' The world today is wondering aimlessly. It seeks magnetic leaders which will give it some direction. Actually our world today, our Western society at least, has no leadership that gives this kind of charisma. And therefore the Western society is ripe for a person to arise who will be able to give this kind of charismatic leadership by his skill and his wisdom and his notoriety. That kind of person will be called, in the Bible terms, 'antichrist'. I believe that Satan is preparing our whole society for the arrival of this individual in these last days. And this individual will come and will deceive the world. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 it says, 'In fact, this Satan will work through him miracles.' Deceiving lies by his miracles he will proclaim himself as God and will set up himself as God in the temple in Jerusalem. And will perform his miracles, and men will follow him. They will be deceived. This is the result of turning from the truth. People are deceived because they reject the truth. Our society is deceived. It is amazing to me that we can argue in this land over a little fish called a snail darter. And that we can hold up a dam in Tennessee for years and waste millions of dollars because of a little fish. And yet every day slaughter thousands of unborn babies. That is deceit. People in our society today are deceived. Humanism is a deceiving kind of philosophy. He furthermore speaks about the unsaved as serving various lusts and pleasures in verse 3. Serving as slaves in bondage to the sinful impulses of the Adamic nature. We look about this and wonder how people can do the things that they do. And yet we ought not to be too amazed. Because within the sinful nature, that old nature that we receive in our natural birth, there is the capacity for every kind of sin. An unsaved person has no new nature. His old nature is all that he has and it's very active within him. It controls him. It's passions and it's lusts and it's desires for sensual pleasure. Keep an individual enslaved. It drives him to evil. He is in bondage. We ourselves were once that way. And then he says that an unsaved person is living in malice and envy. Actually, the idea behind the word living is passing the time. You know, there's a difference between living and existing. A person can exist and not really live. And the thought is here that the sinners of the world, of which all of us who are saved and were once counted, the sinners of the world are those who are living that is passing their time existing in malice and envy. They live in a sphere that is controlled by these two characteristics. Malice is viciousness of character. It is wickedness. It is evil natureness. Envy refers to displeasure at the prosperity of someone else. Envy is a word from the Latin, which means to look against. And it means to look with ill at another person because of what he has or what he is. Once again, does that describe the society in which you and I live? This is a society that is filled with malice and viciousness of character. People are willing to climb all over others if it will advance them. People in the offices where you work or in the factories or even in the schools look with envy at what others have and want them. They look at the promotions of others and they say, "Why not me?" They look at what another person is and they say, "Why can't I be that?" They live in malice and envy. And then he says in conclusion, "They are hateful and they hate one another." That is, they provoke hatred in others by the detestable things that they do, by the way that they live, and then they in turn hate them. In other words, there is a mutual animosity. This is one of the primary characteristics of the world. It is so much like that one which controls the world, Satan. Satan is controlled by hate. Just the opposite of that which is to control us and which controls which is God. God is love, it says. Satan is filled with hatred and anger and bitterness. Anger and bitterness flow out of hatred, don't they? Those characteristics are part of our world. Is there any wonder then that you and I should shine as lights in a darkened world that is known by these kinds of works? We are told in the Word of God that they who live this way, they who practice these characteristics, these works will not inherit the kingdom of God. In stark contrast to what we once were, we have the act of the Savior, His work. In verses 4, 5, 6, and 7. The work of the Savior. We boil it down to three words from this brief paragraph regarding His work. It is this, that He saved us. Even when we were of such a people as described in that previous verse, verse 3, it says that He loved us and He saved us. Why did He save us? Was it because of our righteousness? No. In fact, He goes on to say in verse 4 that it was the kindness and love of God our Savior that appeared and it was not by works of righteousness which we have done that He saved us. The implication is that there were no works of righteousness. Spurgeon says, in one of his sermons, that one might better try to sail the Atlantic in a paper boat than to get to heaven on good works. Because you see, we have no good works which when they offer to God, we have no good works that are worthy of merit before Him. Rather, we are saved out of His kindness and His love, His grace, and His mercy. There is one word that encompasses the saving work of God is the word grace. Because it gives God the glory for salvation. It is all of Him and it puts man into His proper perspective as being unworthy. But one does not need grace if He is worthy of something. But we are unworthy of salvation and therefore it is by grace that we have been saved on the basis of mercy. By mercy, God does not give us what we deserve. By grace He gives to us what we do not deserve. How did He say this? Well, there are two key words in our text. The one is regeneration. He says He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. The latter phrase may be an explanation of the first one, that is the regeneration is the renewing of the Holy Spirit. This word regeneration that is used in this particular verse is used only one other time in the New Testament. In that place in Matthew chapter 19 it speaks of the regeneration of the earth. When Jesus will come and the curse of sin is lifted. It says in that day there will be the regeneration of the earth. But here it is used of not the earth but the individual. It is a personal regeneration. Literally it means to be birthed again. There is a similar word to what Jesus used in John 3 where He said that we must be born from above. For that which Peter uses when he says that we need to be born again. The thought is a new work, the implantation of new life in us by the work of the Holy Spirit. Regeneration is one single act. It takes place at the moment that we trust the Lord Jesus Christ. It is God's work alone. We cannot regenerate ourselves. We are dead and trespasses and sins. A person who is dead cannot regenerate himself. Regeneration is the work of God. The idea behind renewing is a process though. It is the process that takes place in our lives after we have gone through the act of regeneration. It is the work in the believer by which we receive new life day after day. It is the transforming of our life by grace as the duet sang earlier this evening. Regeneration involves one act of God when we trust Jesus Christ and then the renewing of the Holy Spirit day after day after day until that day that we see Jesus. He saved us by regeneration and then the second key word is found in verse 7. That is the word justified, that being justified by His grace we should be made heirs, that is heirs of God. We spoke last Sunday night briefly regarding justification. It means to declare righteous. How could God declare such a person in His eye to be righteous? Because I know what I am and you know what you are. God can declare us righteous because of His grace. His grace which is extended to us because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. If it were not for that saving work God could not be gracious to us. You see the Lord Jesus Christ took all the penalty of sin upon Himself. He paid for our sin and because He did that now God can expend His grace to us and He does. And it is on the basis of that grace that we are justified or declared to be righteous. God reckons us to be in Christ. Justification is the opposite of condemnation which I deserve because of sin. It means that I have been delivered from the curse that I have been forgiven of the guilt of my sin. That is the work of the Savior. He saved us by regeneration and by justification. As we come to the third dimension of the works mentioned in chapter 3, we come to the real thrust of what Paul is saying in this chapter. And that is the good works of the saints. That is an emphasis in Titus. For instance in chapter 2 and in verse 7, Titus is instructed to be a pattern of good works. As a leader of God's people, He is to be a pattern and example of what it means to live a life noted by good works. Again in verse 14 of chapter 2, it says that Christ has given Himself for us. He has redeemed us and purified us unto Himself as a people of His own zealous of good works. Then in chapter 3 and in verse 1, He mentions there that in the last phrase, that we are to be ready to every good work. And then in verse 8, which we read earlier, those who believe in God should be careful to maintain good works. Again in verse 14, He says a lot of hours, that is those in our fellowship, also learned to maintain good works for necessary uses, that is to meet necessities of others. He says that they be not unfruitful. In the Bible there are three kinds of fruit that ought to be in the believer's life. One is the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace and so on. And then the second is the fruit of witnessing. Jesus speaks about this in the Gospel of John. He says that we ought to bear much fruit, reproduce ourselves. And the third aspect of fruit in the Bible, in the believer's life, is the fruit of good works. That's what Paul is speaking about here. Grace is the root of it. Good fruits, good works rather, are the fruits of God's grace. Paul seems to mention several areas of life, and he gets very practical in verse 1, for example, of chapter 3. He says, "Put them the believers in mind to be subject to principalities and powers to obey magistrates. To be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men." There are two areas right there. He says we ought to show good works first in our citizenship. We are to be subject to principalities and powers, and we are to obey magistrates. He is speaking here about those who are in authority, in government. Now you must remember that he is writing to people who lived under the tyranny of Rome, under the control of Caesar and the Senate in Rome. He is talking to people who lived under a brutal police state, for the most part. And he says to those people that they are to be subject to those who are in authority. That is they are to have a spirit of submission and cooperation as far as possible. A spirit of subjection to them. And then he says outwardly they are to obey. They are to follow through on their orders. Those who are constituted appointed authorities are to be obeyed. In other words they were to be eager to assist the government in what it was trying to do. Of course the line was drawn when the government would decree something that was opposed to Christian ethics for the Word of God. But apart from that they were to be in subjection and to be obedient, and so are we. We are to obey the government that God has put over us. And you and I have the privilege of being in a society that has some democracy. We have the right of redress, and we may address our people in Washington and complain to them. We may give suggestions to them. That's our right under the Constitution. And it's our responsibility to use those rights. But let's suppose that we did not live in that kind of a society. Suppose that we lived in a repressive police state where there was a dictatorship. How are we to act there? It is not our place to be a part of a revolutionary movement. If you and I were to live in a police state we should not be involved in a movement to overthrow the government by force or by political means. By our preaching and our sharing of the gospel and our witnessing we are to set a good example before all. But we are to be obedient under the government so much as is possible within us. That's what he's saying. Those are good works. And then he speaks to us as neighbors and he really gives four commands. He says in the first place that we are to speak evil of no man or verse two rather. Don't be a reviler. Don't use insulting abusive language toward another person. Why? Well, that's the kind thing to do but there is a more basic reason than that and that is that every man is created in the image of God. It is horribly marred and scarred within the center who is dead and trespasses and sins. And yet there is something in him of the image of God. His life is precious because he shares the life of God in a physical sense. That is why we are such strong proponents of capital punishment. I believe that the reason that God commands capital punishment is because life is sacred, whether it be a believer or unbeliever. We are to not be abusive toward any individual and may I say that that includes our husbands and our wives and our children and our parents. Isn't it so easy to become abusive toward those that we love? Like the old song says you only hurt the ones you love, the ones you shouldn't hurt at all. The crooner used to sing that. Isn't it true though? Those are the often the people upon whom we pour out our abuse in times of impatience or tiredness. And yet we are to speak abusively of no person, control of our tongue. It involves our neighbors too. It involves fellow church members. We are to insult no one. And then he says we are not to be quarrelsome. In other words, no believer should be known for a contentious spirit. No Christian should be known as a troublemaker, whether it be in high school or junior high or in the neighborhood or in the office. No Christian should be known as a person who causes trouble among others. No Christian is to be an agitator for evil. We are to provoke and stimulate rather than the good works. But we are not to be quarrelsome. On the other hand, he says we are to be gentle. That is to be congenial, willing to forsake personal advantage. There is to be about us a sweet reasonableness. We are to be the kind of people that will compromise when compromise is proper. There are times we ought not to compromise, of course. But there is to be a reasonableness about us as we deal with others day by day. And then he says that we ought to show meekness, showing all meekness unto all men. Meekness is not weakness, is it? Meekness is power that is disciplined. It is power that is under control. He says that we ought to show that kind of restraint and carry ourselves with that kind of dignity in life, meekness. And so as citizens and as neighbors we are going to be characterized by these kinds of good works. And then I would suggest to you that he deals with another area within the church. He says in verse 9, "Avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law. They're unprofitable and vain. They don't produce anything," he says. Now it's not important to us tonight exactly what those phrases meant 2,000 years ago when Paul used them. But it is important for us to understand that there are some issues that can arise among believers that are simply not worth arguing about. Unimportant, non-essential things, things which too often cause division and rifts among us. Rather, he says, "Avoid those things. Just stay away from them because they do not produce any benefit in the church." And then he says in verse 10 that if a man is a heretic and the idea is that if there's a divisive person who's among you, he's to be admonished two times. You see that? After the first and the second admonition he says, he is then to be rejected. He's talking here about public admonition, not a private admonition, though there's a place for that too. But he's saying to Titus if there's a person among you that is a troublemaker and who's trying to seek to divide the church, that that person is to be reviewed publicly twice, and after that he is to be shunned by God's people. It does not necessarily mean that he is to be disassociated from the church, kicked out as it were. But it does mean that he is not to be received into any intimate fellowships within the church because of the spirit that he displays. He says such a person knows that he is sinning, he has been subverted, and he is condemned of himself. In other words, he cannot say nobody told me what I was doing was wrong. He has been admonished for it. And so to put it on a positive note, he says that we within the church, by good works, are to promote a unity of fellowship among ourselves. That our good work should produce that kind of cohesion in the body, and that we're to have nothing to do with a divisive kind of spirit. Within the church there are ample opportunities for hard feelings, for bitterness, for grudges to develop. I have seen that in the church. I have seen the church so scarred and so spiritually ill because of bitterness that the spirit of God absolutely was quenched in it. It's tragedy. We're not to allow that kind of thing to develop in our lives or in our church. There is to be the kind of sweet, reasonableness about us, the kind of humility and meekness about us that we overlook when someone may fail us or not follow through on a commitment. Or if someone seems to snub us, we are to overlook those things and think nothing about them and promote the unity of God's people. That's good works. And we who have believed in Jesus Christ, he says, are to be careful to maintain these good works. Maybe that you're living tonight in the first dimension of works, that your life is characterized by aimlessness, purposelessness, by slavery to your passions, to your lusts. What you need tonight is to trust Jesus Christ and to realize he wants to perform a work in your life and save you. I trust that if that has happened to us and we trusted him, that we are now being characterized by this third dimension of works, by good works. Let's pray. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]