Beacon Sunday Service: December 1st, 2024

I'll be reading from Titus chapter 1, verses 1 to 4. Titus chapter 1, verse 1 through 4, and it reads. Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of God's elect and the full knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness, and the hope of eternal life, which the God who cannot lie promised from all eternity, but at the proper time manifested his word in preaching with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God, our Savior. To Titus, my genuine child according to our common faith. Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus, our Savior. Please join with me in prayer. Father, we are so thankful for just life and that you've give gathered us today to celebrate our salvation, to be reminded of our citizenship in heaven and our identity in the person of Jesus.

And I pray, thanking you for the opportunity to just dive deeply together into your word with great freedom and joy.

And so we pray that you would soften our hearts, awaken our minds, and cause us, Lord, to leave this place wanting even more. So we thank you, God for just the great delight and joy of partaking in this feast together. And pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and be seated. Well, the word gospel in the Greek is youangelion. And you guys probably have already known this. It's a combination of the root word you, which means good, and the root word angeleon, which means message. And we get the English word evangelism. It comes from the Greek word ewangelion. So the word gospel simply means good news. And I'm sure that you already know this. What's the difference between an Angelion and a Uangelion?

What is the difference between the news that simply informs and news that is truly good? And I'm going to provide for us a couple of examples to help us emotionally wrap our minds around the difference. We have a bunch of your children, loud and crazy, in the adjacent room over there, participating in Sunday school. And I'm going to give you some news.

That is for sure an angelion. But is this you Angelia? No doubt, I'm sure you wouldn't be unhappy upon hearing this favorable news. But this news, however favorable, would not affect your day-to-day lives all that much going forward. In fact, most of you parents would somewhat be apathetic towards this piece of news. I won't judge you if you feel a little apathetic towards it. Your children are safe, is not bad news. But it's not particularly good news. It is information. It's information that's expected. It's information that you are assuming.

So you may very well in your mind, you don't want to be rude, so you're not going to voice it, but in your mind you might think, well, yeah, they better be safe. Right. But if we had just heard an explosion outside, or we felt like a huge earthquake and we just saw our ceiling cave in, you would not be apathetic toward the news, your children are safe. This would not just be ho hum angelian. This would be Ewangelion. It would accept, it would be exceptionally good news. Right? Here's another example. If I were to look you in the eye with tears streaming down my face and said to you, hey, good news. You are cancer free. How would you feel? Most of you would not be unhappy to hear this news, but you wouldn't really have an emotional reaction or respond with a joy filled celebration upon hearing this news.

Tears of happiness would not immediately fill your eyes. You wouldn't be jumping with joy or relief. Though this is not bad news, again, it isn't necessarily good news. Even if I were to remind you that one in three of us will at some point be diagnosed with cancer in the moment, in the present, you would not really be all that excited for this news, right? You are cancer free is an expectation. It's an assumption and it is a given. And this too may simply be a piece of angelion. Favorable, sure, but still Angelion nonetheless. Now, had you been battling cancer for a year and have been going through all kinds of horrific treatments to treat it, had you previously been told that this cancer would be terminal, but that now it's gone, the words you are cancer free would not just be Angelion, these words would be great, life altering, earth shattering, fantastic, youangelion.

This would be news that you would shout at the top of every building that you would post on every social medium, that you would tell every friend and every family member, perhaps even every stranger. This would be good news that you would not be able to contain. And every proclamation of that good news of your being cancer free would not be something that's forced. And no doubt, as you share it, you would share it with great joy. No one would have to manipulate you or guilt trip you to go about sharing this piece of good news. So you see the difference between Angelion and Uangelion is not in the contents of the information. It is not contingent on the skill or the delivery of the newsbearer.

The difference is found in the circumstance and the condition of the one that's affected by the news. So what does this news mean to the recipient of that news? So here is a very important question. Is the message that Jesus Christ has satisfied the wrath of holy God toward your sins and has restored you to himself and has given you eternal life, truly youangelion good news to you. Or is it simply information that is a given, an expectation? Is it a can just a collection of random facts of religion? Or is it truly earth-shattering, joy inexpressible kind of good news that you cannot but share? Is the gospel of Jesus Christ good news? And this is going to be a very important question to think through as we look at Titus 1, 3 to 4 today.

With that, here's some additional Angelion for you. We finally arrived at the end of the introduction to this doctrinally rich epistle to Titus. We've reached the end of the long run-on four-verse sentence. And today we're gonna encounter our very first period in the letter. Hope you're excited. Okay, it's only taking us about two months to get here. I'm very thankful for these two months, though, because the first few verses of this letter hit upon some very important aspects of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Right? We learned that the gospel begins with a holy God who compassionately elects. You and I who have put our faith in Jesus, did so because we were elected from before all eternity by God and for God to love God and to serve God.

And God at the proper time, in the fullness of his time, has satisfied his own wrath in and through the person of Jesus. He has restored his elect back unto himself. And God, the promise keeper, the God who cannot and does not lie, has promised his elect an eternal life completely free of sin. And this is indeed you Angelion. But this is you Angelion, that's very exclusive. It's only Ewangelion for the desperate and the humbled and the repentant. It is only for those who know and feel deeply that they have fallen short of the glory of God. It's only Ewangelion for those who know that they have no hope outside of Jesus Christ. This is ewangelion only for those who have faith that Jesus' death on the cross was enough.

So, and for this Ewangelion and for the proclamation and preaching of this Ewangelion, the Apostle Paul writes that he has been set apart and he's been commissioned. And in this letter, the Apostle Paul is passing the baton of this commission to Titus. So this is the third sermon on the preaching that's been entrusted to the church of God. Today we get to the third point of verse three, the parceling out of his word. Okay. So how is this precious word of God to be packaged, preserved, parceled, and proclaimed throughout the churches at Crete, and then at every church today that bears the name of Jesus. So I'm going to read verse three once more for you. It reads, but at the proper time manifested his word in preaching, with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior.

So the preaching of the Word of God was entrusted to Paul according to the commandment of God. And you'll see that through the other parts of Scripture that this command is not just given only to Paul, but to every slave, every messenger of God. So this command is entrusted to every church, every disciple, and every Christian who bears his name, all the way to the very end of the age. Okay, so I'm going to take you back to the Great Commission, Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 to 20. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you, and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

But this is actually supposed to be the priority and the obsession of every church. All of it to every church. Right? This is not a great commission. This is the Great Commission. So everything that is done by every church that bears the name of Jesus Christ must be anchored to this commission. Especially in the parceling of the message, the doctrine, the euvangelion that's preached in and through every church. So here's the outline for today's sermon. Okay. So I'm giving you the outline of a third point of an outline. Alright, so here we go. The commission to the church. So what is this that's been entrusted to the church? What were the instructions that have been given to the church? What were the contents of this commission to the church?

Secondly, the commission for the church. So how must this commission and the contents of this Eongelion first affect those inside the church? How would the contents of this commission fuel and grow those within the church? Because those who preach the good news of this commission must first be beneficiaries of the good news and delighters in the good news, right? Otherwise, that's hypocrisy. The blind should never be leading the blind. Amen. Okay. So we must first enjoy it and delight in it and grow through it. And thirdly, the commission through the church. So what message would go forth from the church? And what should the messaging of every church be? How many gospels is there? One. There is one gospel.

There must be a consistency and a unity in that gospel. So for the sermon today, we're going to be looking at the parceling out of this commission and then wrapping up with the immediate applications to Titus and to the future elders of the church in Crete. Okay, and we're finally getting to the end. Matthew chapter 28, verse 20, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you, and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. The word to keep in the Greek there, it's the word te reo. Repeat after me, te reo. Great. Okay? And it's it's almost like a protective, preservative feel. Okay? It can mean to guard or take care of something, to watch, keep, or observe. It can also mean to put into practice or to test it out.

It can mean to observe something or to keep a promise. And part of this great commission involves preaching and teaching the saints of every church to te reo everything that was taught by Jesus. Everything that was taught through Jesus or taught about Jesus, past, present, and future. So it's a command that every saint of God is to protect, guard, and then to pass on. If your eternal life is knowing God and knowing his Son, Jesus Christ, whom he has sent, John 17, 3, then the primary content of the gospel has to be about the person of Jesus Christ without leaving a single detail out. Amen. Every single element and every specific detail of the person and the work of Jesus Christ must be parceled.

And what's our source for all of this information? It's not just your subjective feeling or your opinion toward it. We get everything from the living inerrant and all sufficient word of God. All of it, cover to cover. And Jesus entrusted this commission to the apostles to te reo all, to te re o everything about himself. And for this purpose, first thing that Jesus did was he opened the minds of his disciples to understand the scriptures. Luke 24, 45. Jesus equips the saints with illumination through his Holy Spirit. He gives his saints eyes to see and hearts and minds to believe eternal truths about himself. Okay? So all of this is a spiritual endeavor. This is not done in the flesh. You can't argue someone into a belief.

Okay? So no matter how articulate you are, no matter how great your apologetics, you can't just argue someone into a faith, into a belief. The Christian faith is foolishness to those who are living in the flesh. Okay. So whatever has been spoken through the Holy Spirit in the scriptures, both Old and New Testament, we're supposed to teach because all the scriptures, all 1189 chapters, they bear witness about Jesus. John 5 39. The central figure to all 1189 chapters of the Bible is Jesus Christ. So we're not supposed to leave anything out. And this has always been the case. And this will always be the case. We do not leave anything out. Amen? So we see this first stressed heavily to the people in the wilderness, Deuteronomy 4.2.

You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I am commanding you. So this charge to keep all the commandments was then emphasize again to Joshua as they're about to take possession of the promised land. God's about to deliver on the promise of land to his people, and the very first thing he says to Joshua in verse 7, only be strong and very courageous. Okay, I want to pause here. Courageous in what? In the fight? Because he can make the sun stand still. In the conquest, because he's every he's gonna bulldoze everybody. No, that's not what he's supposed to be courageous in. He's supposed to be courageous in what?

To be careful, to do all according to the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn aside from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be prosperous wherever you go. Both of these passages are gospel. Right? Both Deuteronomy 4 and Joshua, the passages conditionally promise blessing, prosperity. So it's good news. This is good news. The Old Testament prophets also were commissioned to speak God's word no matter what the response. Ezekiel chapter 2, verse 7. You shall speak my words to them, whether they listen or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious. So good prophets of God, they left nothing out that came forth from the mouth of God, no matter what the response.

The false prophets, on the other hand, promised peace, peace, where there was no peace. Jeremiah 6.14, Jeremiah 8.11. You are cancer free. You are cancer free. Is a horrible lie to tell someone who actually has cancer. Right? No matter what the motive, that is a damnable horrible lie. You guys following. Fast forward to the time of Jesus in Matthew chapter 7, which we looked at last week. Jesus said that the primary discernible fruit of those in either false religion or true religion is in how people respond to the hearing of the words of Jesus. Okay? And remember I shared last week or two weeks ago that Matthew 7 is a descriptive passage, not a prescriptive one. There is no command there. It's just describing the fruits by which we are to observe both the prophet and the people.

Matthew 7, 24 to 26. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain descended and the rivers came and the winds blew and fell against that house, and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. And everyone hearing these words of mine and not doing them may be compared to a foolish man, a man, worker of false religion, a believer of false religion, who built his house on the sand, and then it fell. Okay. Fast forward to the Olivet Discourse, where Jesus preaches on the end times. He speaks he speaks again about his words. He says, Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

And he also says in Matthew 5, not the smallest letter, not the little stroke of the pen, not neither jot nor tittle is gonna pass away. Everything that Jesus said is gonna come about. Okay? And at the very end of Revelation, just this is this is at the very end. Jesus emphasized again that we do not add or take away from the things written by the Spirit of God. Okay. So there is a blessing that is attached to keeping of things divinely written. And the book of Revelation, it's bookended with this blessing. Okay, I'm gonna read verse 3 for you. Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy and te reo, the things which are written in it, for the time is near. So is the Bible important?

I will never meet a church going person that says it's not. But you can tell how important it is by how actively they consume it or how central it is to the church. But is the Bible important? Absolutely. Here, let me ask you, what parts of it? The parts that are only written in red? Right? Or the parts that are fun? Is the stabbing of the fat man in Judges where the sword gets stuck, egg lawn, you left-handed dude, sticks it into his, and then he loses a sword. That's how fat the man is. Is that important? It's also fun. Yes, it is important. Does every church need to be a Bible church centered on the scriptures? Yes. The culture and or the times do not dictate what the church should value or prioritize.

Amen. The commission is given to every church, one, to love the word of God, two, to live out the word of God, and three, and to leave nothing out in the proclamation of the word of God. To love it, to live it, and to dispense all of it. Okay. The collection of the teachings of Scripture in their entirety and in its like accuracy. We often see it described by the word sound doctrine. Okay, and you guys have heard this word before, sound doctrine. And going forward, we're gonna see this word used often in the book of Titus. Okay. Paul emphasizes sound doctrine. So first, Titus is to appoint elders who will exhort in sound doctrine. Titus 1 9. Titus himself is to speak the things which line up to sound doctrine.

In other translations, it says fitting. Okay, snug, sound doctrine. Chapter 2, verse 1. Titus is also to model a life that does not taint the purity of the doctrine in any way. Verse 7. Bad Christian living leads to the word of God being slandered, chapter 2, verse 5. And I didn't want to put that in there because it's like it's it's only specific to the wives, but we'll get we'll get there when we get there. But the bad appropriation of ungodly living leads to God's word being slandered. Titus is also to exhort all the saints to adorn to cosmetic oh, like cosmetic, right? To adorn the gospel, the doctrine of God in every aspect of their lives. Titus 2 10. And for those who like to engage divisively in only empty theological discourse.

Now some people are like, well, I'm just trying to protect the doctrine of God, and they like to argue just about words. That's not preserving sound doctrine. Okay? The pendulum is swinging the other way. Titus is called to protect and preserve the doctrine of God by kicking such individuals out of the church. Verse chapter 3, verse 9 to 10. Okay? So the lives of church members proclaim doctrine, whether unsound or sound. You guys, you guys following that? You are either a very good open Bible for non-Christians to read, or you're a horrible one that's living out a lie. Okay. So lives need to be scrutinized, and doctrine needs to be carefully defended and prioritized in every church. Okay? So doctrine was very important to Paul.

The scriptures were of supreme importance to Paul, it was central to Paul's gospel ministry to the Gentiles. It's ironic that a lot of gospel-centered ministries today don't preach the scriptures. Okay? So the doctrine of God, it's to be defended, preserved, and then propagated. So here is what the apostle Paul says as he passes like a similar baton to Timothy, his other protege. Okay? Pay attention to Paul's instructions here. Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture. So that's a very emphatic word. Okay? To exhortation and teaching. Do not neglect the gift within you, which was given to you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the counsel of elders.

Take pains with these things. Be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself. This isn't like, you know, take care of your own self for self-care. It's not that. It's you need to watch your life. Okay. And your teaching, persevere in these things, for as you do this, you will save both yourselves, yourself, and those who hear you. So first, Paul desired Timothy to publicly have all scripture read to all people again and again and again. Do you see this in the text? Timothy is instructed to give attention to what? Exhortation and teaching. Not like clever sermonettes to tickle your ears. He's supposed to teach with doctrine. He's supposed to take pains in this endeavor, to be absorbed in this endeavor, to pay very close attention to this endeavor, and to persevere.

No matter who's listening or who's not listening. Why? For the salvation of both the preacher and those who hear him, hinge upon these things. You guys see this in the text. So this is the commission to the church to te reo the living and active holy scriptures. Why? Because by his word we are saved, because remember, this is a spiritual endeavor. This isn't like something that you do naturally in the flesh. By his word we're saved. By his word we're sanctified, and by his word we will grow up in our salvation. So every single church has to be faithful to the Bible. Amen. Sound doctrine has to be the priority for every church, every preacher, and every saint in the church. The word of God has to be at the highest priority.

Otherwise, that is unbiblical.

Would you be want to be part of an unbiblical church? No, there are churches that say we are like biblical, but we won't teach the Bible in its entirety. That's a contradiction. So this seems like common sense, but sadly in practice, this is not the case as biblically, biblical illiteracy is like rampant throughout Christendom. So here's a question. Do you think God cares more about the accurate handling of his word? Or for our self-esteem. I really think about this. Does God care more about the accurate handling of his word or our sense of self-worth? You know the answer. God is love. God cares for us. He loves us deeply.

And God's people are commanded to be just as loving as he is, just as caring, just as compassionate as he is. Amen. But God must first be presented as holy.

So the accurate handling of the great commission of the great word of God, that has to be central to every church. That's the first point. What's the commission to the church? That hold the Bible in the highest of esteems. Second point. Okay, the commission for the church. God's grace through faith saves the lost. Amen. And we know that faith comes through only the hearing of the word of God. No one wills himself or herself to believe.

John 15, 16. If you say, I chose Jesus, he didn't choose me. That just went against John 15, 16. We can't convince ourselves to believe in God. Again, you can't argue someone into belief. Faith is a gift. It's a response, right? It is not self-induced. And faith is absolutely foreign to the unregenerate. You guys follow? So the unregenerate, unelect hears Bible teaching, hears sound doctrine, and it is absolutely foolish to him. Okay? So if you're hearing this and you're like, Amen, that's a good sign. Because that's not from you. So Romans 10 17 says, faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. Once we are saved by faith, we are changed irreversibly. That's all over the pages of scripture.

God is not careless. If he saves you, he changes you. You guys follow? That's a simple logic. If you are saved, you have been changed. Okay? The DNA has changed. Jesus, the bridegroom, has cleansed, redeemed, and washed his bride all past tense through the word of God. Okay? God's word is truth, and the church is sanctified by the truth. John 17, 17. Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. Okay, Jesus says in his high priestly prayer. So the church, every saint in the church, has been sanctified by the truth, not by effort or by behavior modification. Amen. Just because you don't cuss or just because you've learned to adjust to churchanity, that doesn't mean salvation. But he has cleansed, he has purchased, he has saved, he has changed.

Okay. And then in Titus, Paul calls this a washing of regeneration. Titus 3, 5 to 6, he saved us, not by works which we did in righteousness, but according to his mercy, through the washing of regeneration, and renewing by the Holy Spirit. I feel like this is gonna be a three-part sermon just in this. So when we get to this in 2027, we're just I'm I'm super excited. Okay, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. So this is past tense.

Paul says in five uh Ephesians 5, 26, okay, this is uh so husband and wives are not the focus of chapter 5, Ephesians. The focus of Ephesians chapter 5 is Christ's love for the church, okay, that husbands are supposed to mimic. But Ephesians 5, so that Jesus, he might sanctify the church, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. Similar wording. Why? That he might present to himself the church in all of her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. How many spots and wrinkles are are acceptable to the bride of Christ? Zero. Okay? So these are all things you've heard before. So there's nothing new that you're learning today.

Okay, we were sanctified, past tense, okay? We are continuing to be sanctified, present tense, and the primary agent for our sanctification is his word. So here's another important question. Then, is the sanctifying work happening to us on a day-to-day basis? Are we being sanctified by the word of God each and every day? How central is the word of God to our day-to-day lives. And I want to spend a little time looking at first Peter. I want to read the end of chapter one and the beginning of chapter two. Okay, chapter one, verse 23. You have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, that is through the living and enduring word of God. How are we born again? What's the source?

The word. Verse 24. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which was proclaimed to you as gospel. You guys see that? As you on Gelion. Heaven and earth will pass away. You and I will pass away. Our legacies will pass away. Think about this. Your great grandchildren will not know who you are. No matter how studly or like wonderful you do in this life. Okay, it'll pass away. Movements in the church will pass away. Causes in the church that are extra biblical will pass away. But the word of the Lord, the youangelium of the Lord, endures forever. Amen. Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, all hypocrisy, envy, and all slander.

Okay, so we learned last week. Every therefore in the scriptures is important. When you come across a therefore, you have to ask the question, what is this therefore? Therefore. What is it connecting? It's connecting what was previously said to the appropriate application. Okay? So what was previously said, the word of God is enduring forever. Therefore, putting off of all of these things that take your appetite away from the word of God, malice, envy, slander, hypocrisy, deceit, take all of that off. Verse 2, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

You need to be sanctified. You are being sanctified if you're a Christian. The word if there in verse 3, it serves a very important function there. If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord, this is quoting Psalm 34, 8, and it's another way of saying, if you have indeed been born again. So if you are born again, if you are a Christian, you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. So if, and I'm gonna, I'm working backward logically in the argument. If I've been born again, if I've tasted the kindness of the Lord, I will long for the pure milk of the word, like what? A little newborn longs for milk. Okay. Verse 2 is the only imperative in this entire section, and the only command. Some Bible scholars view this as the central command of all of 1 Peter.

If you've tasted the kindness of the Lord, if you're a Christian, long for the word. Now what's interesting is how do you long for the word? How do you obey that? If I were to say, Albert, right now, dude, be hungry. How do you long for it? Right? It's a strange command. The word long for means to have an intense, insatiable desire or passion. Okay? It's a strong word. It's also described in using a newly wedded husband longing for his new wife. That's a strong word. It's used for someone who's grieving the loss of a child. I long for my child who just passed away. It's a one-track-minded longing. It's an obsession. You don't think about anything else. The fixation is on that this one thing.

So here in chapter 2, verse 2, it's used to describe a baby's single-minded focus, his hunger and obsession for milk. Right? So if you've tasted the kindness of the Lord, if you've been made righteous, if you've had your heart of stone removed, and now you've been given a heart of flesh, long for God's word in the same way a newborn baby longs for milk. A Christian must long and will long for the pure spiritual milk of the word. You are what you eat. You are what you long for. You are what you crave. Let me give you a common sense illustrations here. Baby birds, do they want milk? What do baby birds want? Bugs, worms. Okay? It's in the DNA. How about uh baby fish? Ooh, this is a little bit more biological, right?

Baby fish. They long for things called infusoria. Repeat after me, infusoria. Okay? So that's a T-word. It's little microscopic little things. Baby fish eat them. Okay. Baby butterflies, we call them caterpillars. What do they eat? What are they passionate about? What's their hunger? Leaves. Okay, there's a theologically rich book called The Hungry Caterpillar. Pick it up, read it. Okay. Baby snakes. As soon as they're hatched, what do they long for? Like insects, small amphibians, even little rodents. A baby human will scream his head off until he gets milk. Baby humans do not need to be taught this. Baby humans are born hangry. You guys know that word. It's in a baby human's very nature to be hangry for milk.

A baby human will not be satisfied with a bug or worm. A baby human will not be satisfied with infusoria or leaves. A baby human, even if you pray the rodent, will not want it. Okay? What does a baby human want? Milk. What does a child of God long for? The word. What is a child of God hardwired to crave the word? It's in the spiritual DNA of every Christian to long for the pure milk of the word. Being born again, you've been hardwired to long for it. If you've tasted the kindness of the Lord, you will not be satisfied only with community, comfort, success, strong morals, a sense of purpose, good praise music, or encouraging words. All of these things are good things. But a child of God won't be satisfied with those things.

He doesn't long for those things. A child of God can only be satisfied with and will long to feed off of Christ and his word. Amen. So a person to call himself or herself a Christian, to have no hunger or no longing for the pure milk of the word is holding on to a theological impossibility. Okay? A theological impossibility. I am a Christian, but I don't need the Bible. I don't want the Bible. That's a theological impossibility. So my main job as a pastor is to cook meaty spiritual meals for you every week in the sermon and every week in the Bible study. That's my job. My job is also to teach you how to self-feed. Okay. Because I you don't know if I'm a false prophet or not. You need to be able to say he's teaching sound doctrine.

So you need to be able to self-feed. My job is to equip you to know how to study the Bible. My job is to give you counsel through the Bible, and not through my wealth of experiences, my travels, my stories, my resume. It's through the word. Even if you don't like what you hear from me. Right? That's my job. And pastors unfortunately get hated often for speaking truth. But that's my job. My job is to model everything from Genesis to revelation that points to Christ. I'm the pastor of this church, but did you know that you function also as preachers, pastors, and priests to the world? Did you guys know that? Just two verses later in chapter two, verse five. You know what you're called? A royal priesthood.

Holy nation. Your job in the same way is to serve and same the same function to a lost and dying world. You cannot feed a lost and dying world if you are a spiritual corpse or a spiritual zombie. Think about this with me, the imagery. Spiritual corpse. Spiritual zombie, a spiritual walking dead. Okay. Spiritual zombies have the form of godliness. They go to church, they go do stuff, church, church, churchy like, okay? But they have no power. Spiritual zombies can use scripture, but they preach regulations. They preach do's and don'ts. They preach empty promises, things that tickle ears. Spiritual zombies, they don't practice what they preach because they know not the contents of what they preach.

They spread angelion and only because it is not you and to them. They can't cry out, taste, and see that the Lord is good, Psalm 34, 8, because they have never tasted and seen that the Lord is good. So this isn't rocket science. So back to that operative and important question. Is the Uangelion of Jesus Christ truly good news to you? If it isn't, it's very possible that you're so spiritually malnourished, you've been starved or just you're you just have no spiritual nutrients in you, and there's nothing of substance and sound doctrine in you. Or you're not a spiritual human being restored to his creator.

For you who are longing for God, and you're longing for more of God. This is good news here. Isaiah 55, 1 to 2. Everyone, that ho always throws me off. Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen to carefully to me and eat what is good and your delight and delight your soul in richness. You know he's not talking about burgers.

You and I have been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God, and we're only satiated with God and his word. The more you dive deeply into the scriptures, you're gonna see in the scriptures a great mirror for your soul. And that's not pleasant. You're gonna discover more and more the depths of your helplessness and your depravity. But then, and only then does the news of Jesus Christ become the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen. As we grow in the understanding of the depths of the riches of the mercies of God through the study of his scriptures, then the good news of Jesus Christ becomes even gooder news of Jesus Christ. And this gooder news, and the gooder the news becomes, the more uncontainable it becomes for us.

Amen.

This is so good. You gotta try it. This is six stars. You gotta try it. This is gooder news. And that's our third point. And I'm gonna keep the third point short. Because if you're longing for the pure milk of the word and if you're feeding richly off it, you don't need much of an exhortation here. You will naturally apply point three. There's no point in pushing point three if one and two are not correctly understood. Because then it becomes drab legalistic, guilt tripping, go evangelize the lost, go to the campuses, go overseas because God did it for you. There's no life there. But if one and two are clearly understood and properly established, three, it's natural. Okay? The commission, by way of reminder, is this to make disciples of all nations while we are going, and then wherever we are at, we bloom where we're planted.

And if God moves us, then we plant we're bloomed there too. Okay? His word preached accurately saves. So those who the Lord gifts the church with salvation, we baptize them, right? Because the baptism is a union with Christ in his death and in his resurrection. We baptize them. And those are shorter things. The long term is to get these people into the church and we stuff them and we fatten them up with hearty meals of life-saving, life-changing, doctrinally rich biblical feasts. And we try to do that in and out of season, even if people don't have an appetite for it. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Take refuge in Him. Why? For whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?

How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim good news of good things. I don't think it's just a feat that's beautiful in this person. The whole person is infectiously exuding the gospel of Jesus Christ. The feet just take them there to their audience. However, they did not all heed the good news, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report. So faith comes from hearing. Here's this verse again, and hearing by the word of Christ. We don't distort the truth to make it more palatable. The gospel is condemnation for the unrepentant.

So you don't try to preach the gospel to the unrepentant, and if they don't accept it, you don't change the details of it. You pray. Because it's a spiritual act, okay. We don't take away anything from the gospels or the scriptures. We don't add to it. We help explain it, but we don't contribute extra information to it. We teach all of it, no matter who it bothers, no matter who it offends, because his sheep will hear his voice. John 10, 27. Our job is not to convert. You guys follow that? Okay. I have no power over anyone's heart. My job is not to convert. My job, our job is to steward both, or steward the message both in speech and in my behavior. That's it. We simply preach the word in season and out of season, and then the word will do its own work.

Amen. And this work is done through the preaching in the church. Not just from the pulpit, but from the very lives lived out by each person that makes up the members of this body. We do not preach the gospel as bad news. And a lot of times, I'm so sorry, but have you heard the gospel of Jesus? Oh, you already messed it up. Because it's almost like, I'm so sorry to give you this news that's going to radically change your life. But that's what's happened. Because we've guilt tripped people who don't know that the Lord is good to tell other people that the Lord might be good. I don't know. We preach the gospel as good news, as the best news. But in our preaching, we don't leave out the diagnosis, of course.

But we do emphasize that the cure is available. Right? We emphasize that the cure is available and is permanent. So we're like in this one giant baton pass of the Great Commission. The church was specifically and primarily appointed by the Lord Himself as the primary vehicle for the gospel of Jesus. So for people to say, Oh, I love God, but I hate the church. There's something very confusing there because if you read the Bible, you can't, you can't live comfortably with that. People who say that, a lot of times, I understand why they would say certain things like that, but I always challenge them. Is that a biblical thought? The church is the primary vehicle for the message of salvation. And this is what Titus is being commissioned to do on the island of Crete.

1, 4 through 5. This is a nine-week introduction sermon. And it's topical for the most part. But going forward, I'm gonna just, we're gonna just go verse by verse. Okay. Um Titus 1, 4 through 5 to Titus, my genuine child, according to our common faith, grace and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus, our Savior. Yay, a period. Okay, there's a period there. For this reason. Think about that word. This reason is the first three verses. For all of that that we laboriously walked through for the last couple months, for this reason, I left you in Crete, that you would set in order the incomplete work that remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you. So now we're gonna get to some juicy, juicy parts of each verse.

Okay.

Well, actually, the starting point is there's holy God. But you don't need to go to the doctor without a diagnosis of a disease. I hope we don't ever stop believing that repentance and restoration to God is not just required, but it's also provided. And I hope we never stray from believing and proclaiming the hope of eternal life, which comes through knowing God through his word. And I'm hoping that we are forever faithful to proclaim, to teach, to live out and love the gospel. And let us be faithful in leading others to do the same. Because you on Gelion, it really is good news. It isn't just information. So taste and see. I'm gonna close with this. R.C. Sproul, the late great Reformed theologian, has said this.

Us is the church, okay. God has entrusted the ministry of the word to us, not its results. Now read that again. God has entrusted the ministry of the word to us, not its results. May we guard well the parceling of this trust, and may we be faithful to the greatest of all commissions. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we're very just humbled and privileged that you would use us to proclaim your truth to a lost and dying world. So I pray that you would strengthen and power and magnify yourself in us and through us for your great name's sake, so that people may know that there is hope in Jesus Christ, and that this really is the best of news that any created man, any created fallen man can hear.

We love you, Lord, for saving us. We pray that our hearts would be overwhelmed with gratitude, humility, sense of awe, and worship that truly is in spirit and in truth. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.