Beacon Sunday Service: April 27, 2025

This is the reading of God's word. It reads, remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to slander no one, to be peaceable, considerate, demonstrating all gentleness to all men. For we ourselves also once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another. Let's pray together. Father, we come before you just really longing not only to know your heart, but to express just our appreciation and our gratitude for you in worship. I pray that you would minister to your people through the preaching and the proclamation of your word.

But we are all renewed and strengthened just by your spirit. And so we pray that you would help us to just be filled with joy and with gratitude and great compassion, especially for the lost. So we pray that you would help us to engage and engage well. Amen. So go ahead and be seated. We've uh finally arrived at the third chapter of the Apostle Paul's short epistle to Titus. And by way of review, this was one of Apostle Paul's last letters, and it was written in very pressing times. And Paul was exhorting Titus to strengthen and to set in order all the things that have been left incomplete among the churches in the island of Crete. So Titus was entrusted with a task of appointing elders in the churches of Crete, and then Titus was given the charge to pass on the instructions as to how God desired his churches to be built and what God desired in the lives of those who claim to be a saints.

So in short, uh in this short epistle, Paul basically penned and handed down a compact blueprint for the church. So what was to be the church's core values? What was to be the church's primary message, and what were the expectations that Christ, the bridegroom, uh had for the conduct of the members of his bride, the church. So for these reasons, I felt that it would be beneficial for us to start my time here at the Beacon with a preaching through Titus, and we just we finished the two chapters in seven months, so we're going slow. It is a foundational letter, and it is foundational to understanding what the church is and how we're to build a church that truly honors Christ, our head. So, and this is all the more important in confusing times for the church.

So we're gonna begin uh chapter three. Chapter one of Titus highlighted the qualifications and expectations of the church's leadership. Chapter two of Titus gave clear expectations of how believers were to conduct themselves in their day-to-day lives. And then in chapter three, it begins generally with how believers were to engage the non-Christian world around them. It's in many ways a missional and an evangelist chapter. It contains a mission strategy, and I'm sure we would all agree that this is pretty important to every church. How does the church engage the world around it? Well, this should be especially important to us at our church. Why? Because somebody down the line changed the name to beacon, right?

It's in our name. Our church is called the beacon. And by definition, a beacon is a beam of light that serves as both a guide and a warning. So it's a pretty cool name. It is a fitting name because Christians, after all, are called the lights of the world, Matthew 5.14. So we want to be a light here in Los Angeles to point people to Christ, and we want to do that well. We want to grow in our effectiveness and in our brightness as we shine into the dark world around us. So now we've arrived at uh the chapter in Titus where Christians will be instructed on how to do just that. Okay, so chapter three begins with the words, remind them. So this means the stuff, it's stuff that believers already who are spirit-led, they already know.

There is not something new to learn here in this section. Christians simply need to be reminded. And then truths need to be reinforced. And believers are to engage the world as lights in the world. So I'm gonna give you the sermon outline up here in the front, okay. First, why do we need this reminder? We are in the world, but we are not of the world. John 17, 14 to 15. And before we think through the content of the sevenfold reminder there in verses one to one and two, and you saw that little list, it's going to be absolutely important to understand the why. And then we're gonna go in reverse order a little bit. We're gonna be launching off of verse four and then looking at verse three before we think through the meaty exhortation of verses one and two.

The logic of this passage is easier to track from bottom to top because there are foundational premises attached to this reminder. So we're gonna look at the premise, okay? Uh who God is. And then premise number two, we're we will be remembering who we were before Christ and who unbelievers currently are without Christ. And that reminder always helps us to approach the world with compassion and grace rather than self-righteousness and judgment, because we are no better. And we definitely cannot but be gracious toward those outside the faith when we remember what we were like when we were outside the faith. And after we do that, we're gonna look at the sevenfold exhortation that believers are to be reminded of.

And that reminder we will be looking at next week. So this will be a two-part sermon. First, why do we need to be reminded? In and of ourselves, we are very forgetful, we are vindictive, we are proud and cowardly. Okay, hope you're not insulted by this. Hope you are very self-aware. In and of ourselves, we are forgetful, vindictive, proud and cowardly. Can I get an amen? That's pretty weak. Yeah, you're offended. Naturally and because we still remain in our flesh, we can easily drift toward forgetfulness and neglect. Okay, and then natural uh and naturally we drift toward what Matthew 5.15 calls seeking covering under a basket. Okay. So I assume all of us want to engage and minister to the world well.

I mean, we should. We must engage the world in a God-honoring way, and we will all agree with this. Even actually, non-Christians will agree that Christians should be lights in the world, and that Christians should be upright and moral, and then Christians should practice what they preach. So we all will quickly agree with the what we are gonna be reminded of. But when we think of how Christians are to engage the world around them, that's where things get a little dicey. And because of the busyness of our day-to-day lives and the largeness of the challenge of the task, we forget. Okay. So why do we need to be reminded? Because we so easily forget the purpose for which we exist. And we naturally drift toward worldliness.

And it is easier for us, way easier to preach than to practice. And that there's often a disconnect that takes place between Sunday and Monday, right? In doctrine, everything we learn on Sunday seems pretty simple enough, and we're encouraged by the truths that we hear. Doctrinally and theologically, what we learn at church on Sundays makes a lot of sense, I hope. And we say amen and we affirm that what we heard is truth. But then on Monday, in application and in practice, where our doctrines are lived out and put to the test, things sometimes get out of sorts and they go sideways, and we end up having difficulty in actually practicing what we preach or in practicing what has been preached.

So on Sundays, we're reminded we're not of this world, but on Monday, we go back into the world, we're bombarded by the world, and then sometimes we quickly start looking no different from those who are of the world. This pagan and ungodly world. And also living as saints among unbelievers sometimes gets super uncomfortable. So we naturally drift back towards what is comfortable. So we need to be watchful and sober, because the flesh desires to blend in. But as it says in Matthew chapter 5, verse 14, a city on a hill cannot be hidden. Verse 15, and people do not light a lamp and then put it under a basket. So that's the first reason we need these reminders, because we naturally drift and then we forget.

Secondly, we need reminders because the church of Christ is also not forgotten. Our adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring hungry lion looking to devour whatever he can. First Peter 5:8. And there's always been a war. It's an ongoing war waged against the church. The church has always been under attack. The church has always existed amongst pagans and pagan rulers who were hostile to Jesus. And the church has always been under attack from the outside world, and then also from false shepherds seeking to destroy her from within. And these attacks have always been satanic in origin, as you can see, Ephesians chapter 6. The church has always had to engage and combat the evil, the principalities, and against the darkness of the world around it.

So we need regular reminders. The church has often been neutralized and made ineffective by the evil that has been planted within it.

We have churches that are entangled and distracted. And Satan's strategy has always been to divide and conquer by any means necessary. And so today, especially in the first world, we have many, many sensitive hot button topics that polarize and then anger and then divide. Right. And we're going to hit upon some today. Professing Christians are blasting and then bashing one another. Generally speaking, biblical illiteracy is rampant. And we have church people with very strong opinions and very weak faith. We have church people who are very quick to speak and to espouse, but very slow to hear, meditate, and learn. And the Christian witness before the watching pagan world appears to have become weak, neutralized, and then sometimes almost laughable.

And Christians are apologizing for what they believe. So we know that Satan will lose the war, but it does appear he's winning more than a few battles. So we need to be reminded because we have an adversary always scheming against us. And his strategy of choice has always been to divide and conquer. Okay? And I want to show it to you so you can feel it. Here I'm going to throw out a few statements, and notice the tension that immediately and reflexively comes up to your heart. Black lives matter. Love is love. Male and female, he created them. Life is the most basic human right. Free Palestine.

Pray for President Trump. Pray for Gavin Newsom. If any of us wanted to garner some immediate attention on any of our social media pages, all we would have to do is throw out one of these statements. And then the hearts, the thumbs, the dislikes, the comments, and the judgments will come out of the woodworks. Right. Now, in and of themselves, there is actually nothing wrong with these statements that I just said. Is there anything wrong with what this the statement, the contents of the statement that I said? There's nothing wrong. But these statements are super loaded and can go nuclear in our day and even inside the church. Each of these simple truth-filled statements can be interpreted in so many different ways and can immediately evoke anger.

The last statement I made was pray for President Trump. Pray for Gavin Newsom. What if I replaced the couple of words in the last phrase and instead, be subject to President Trump? If you didn't know me, thoughts might be in your head, right? Well, I know who what kind of a pastor that is. Or if I said what feels like a pendulum swing completely to the other side. Hey, be obedient to Governor Newsom. Things could get pretty emotional and amped up here on Sunday, real quick, right? And there are people in the pews who will say, no. And then the buts and the ifs, and what do you mean? And that I know that's what the Bible says, but they will all be communicated. Or at the very least, you'll quietly and stubbornly hold on to them and just quietly leave the church and then blasphemy as a false prophet in your heart.

That's exactly what we're gonna have to think through together as we look at the beginning of chapter three and the reminders for the church. Those are the things that we're gonna have to flesh out. Because remember, we have in Titus a compact blueprint of how we are to build the church. And the world around us is dark. Information, both true and false, spreads quickly. Opinions are a plenty, and we have many smart and articulate people opining a plenty. But unfortunately, smart and articulate don't always mean wise and accurate. And there are tons of smart people whose foolish hearts have been darkened, who are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of dishonest gain.

So in the midst of all of this, we're called to be lights of the world, Matthew 5.14. And it feels like a very tall task beacon. It almost feels like church people today want to split that light bulb right down the middle. And it's no shock that people who are so discouraged by it, they just want to light that lamp and then cover the light up with a basket. So how are we to engage the world? And here's that sevenfold reminder, which we're going to be looking at next week. Remind them to be subject to rulers and to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to slander no one, to be peaceable, considerate, and then demonstrating all gentleness to all men. For we ourselves also once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another.

But when the kindness and affection of God, our Savior, appeared, he saved us, not by works which we did in righteousness, but according to his great mercy. So that's the content of what we're gonna be looking at. And as I said, I'm gonna be working from bottom to top and begin with verse four. And first we need to remember some things about God our Savior. Verse 5 or verse 4 says, He is kind, and he is a God who has affection. Amen. Praise God. Our kind and affectionate God, the Bible also says has full control. Do you believe this? Full control. God, our Savior is fancy word, sovereign. And what does that mean? Okay, we might not fully understand it, but we can articulate it. God's will is perfect, he makes no mistakes, God doesn't change, his truth doesn't change.

In his sovereignty, God ordains empires, nations, and rulers to come and go. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Understand, you guys understand, right? He changes the seasons, and he is in perfect control. The prophet Daniel, who lived to see three pagan empires come and go, who played a prominent role in their governments, who engaged the rulers and actually defied some of their decrees, seemingly disobeying Titus 3. Okay. His, well, Titus is after, but hey, what's going on there? Daniel prayed the following. He said, Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever. For wisdom, wisdom is an important word here, and strength, power, might belong to him. He changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and establishes kings.

He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding. God has always been on his throne. God has always been in control, and in his good, pleasing and perfect will, and in his sovereignty, he has created you. And he has ordained the historical context in which you live. And he has surrounded you with all kinds of people. Good, the pet, the ugly. Every purpose or every person and every circumstance in your life is on purpose. Do you agree with this? God doesn't make mistakes. So he is and he has always been sovereign in your life. He sovereignly put me in your lives, and all of you in mine.

You guys know who he is? Mark Carney, Canada's current prime minister, who took over in March. Ukraine's Zelensky. And this great God who removes kings and then he establishes kings, he removes and establishes things carefully and intimately, circumstantially in your life and in mine. So God cares for you, and he is attentive to your needs.

Jesus said, look at the birds of the air. You guys know that passage in Matthew 6. Observe the lilies of the field. He's gonna feed you and he's gonna clothe you because you are more valuable than both birds or lilies. Even if a person is not a believer, he is more valuable than a bird or a lily that's thrown into the fire. He cares for the grand and he cares for the minute. Matthew 6, 31 to 32, so do not worry then, saying, What will we eat, or what will we drink, or what will we wear for clothing? For all these things, the Gentiles eagerly seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all of these things. So God is sovereign, God is good, God is all-knowing and attentive to our every need.

Amen. And because our greatest need is the removal of sin, not just the consequences of it, but the disease of it, God our Savior appeared. So God incarnate came in kindness and he came in affection. Okay, the word, Jesus Christ our Savior became flesh. And here's something that is going to be absolutely important to remember in the context of this Titus passage this week and next. God is unchanging. He changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and establishes kings, but he himself does not change. Hopefully you're tracking. Empires and superpowers, they come and go, but our God remains the same. Hebrews 13:8 reads, Jesus Christ, the eternally subordinate Son, is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

You guys have heard this before, right? You might have memorized this. He's unchanging. So the things that delighted the heart of God has never changed. The things that God has hated from the beginning, he hates today. That's not hard to follow, right? And I'm going to take you back to that beginning to point out, especially to you, that our God has always delighted in order and in hierarchy. Okay. God has always delighted in order and in hierarchy, even before sin came into the picture. So I'm going to take you back to the creation account in Genesis 1. And before I turn there, in the beginning in the Garden of Eden, God created everything good. And from that very beginning, there was order and there was hierarchy.

Okay, you might not pick up on that as you're reading. There's order and hierarchy in the perfect design of God. Everything that was created had both a unique functional design and a perfect order to it. And the Lord had called everything that he had made good. And in his perfect goodness, he created man, and then he created woman as a helper, subordinate to man. Hopefully you're not offended already, right? Subordinate to man. And things were perfect, things were complete, there was no curse of sin, there was no fear, there was no pain, there was no death. The ground produced everything for every creature on the land to eat. The waters produced everything for every creature of the sea to eat.

Everything was a vegetarian. Okay? Even mosquitoes, my thought and my theory is they didn't even drink blood. Or if they did, it was to bless us with endorphin, right? Everything was created easy. There was no disagreement. Someone took, are you taking notes on that? Mosquito didn't drink blood. It's not, it's not in the scriptures. There was no disagreement. There is no unity, no abuse, no conflict in any way, shape, or form. There was order and hierarchy. And from this perfect beginning, there were orderly rules and there was an orderly rule. Okay? There were commandments and there was to be a subduing. There was both a command to be followed and a command to subdue, even in that sinless world.

Okay? So I'm gonna take you to a passage you've all likely read at some point, Genesis 1. And I'm gonna read this whole thing. So pay close attention. Read it with me and pay attention to the wording. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that creeps on the earth. And then God said, Behold, I have given you every plant-yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has the fruit of the tree yielding seed, it shall be food for you.

And to every beast of the earth, and every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food, and it was so.

Okay? He created, he blessed, and then he spoke. And those were the men the actions that are mentioned in the section. Created, blessed, and spoke. And the first thing God had spoken to the first male and female was a threefold command. To be fruitful, to fill the earth, and then to rule over all creation. Do you see that in the text? And then God followed that up with a reassuring fact. That subduing would be a piece of cake. It would be natural, it would be provided for, it would be easy. There was provision within the system that God had created. There was a beautiful order in the hierarchy that he provided. All Adam had to do was exercise dominion, which he did. We see him doing this in the naming of all the animals.

And remember, they didn't, they weren't even afraid of him. That doesn't happen until Genesis 9. And then later he names his wife. All Adam was called to do was to reign and to subdue for God's glory. So in God's perfect design, those ruling had a function, and those ruled also had an equally important function. And all of their combined functions was to reflect and glorify the triune God in whose image they have been created. So there was a governing, a delegating, a stewarding, and a ruling hierarchy in all of God's design. And hopefully you're tracking, you're not lost, right? And you see this even in the stars. God made the two great lights. The greater light to, what's the word? Rule the day, and the lesser light too, rule the night, and also the stars.

So you see order and hierarchy were ordained from the very beginning, even from before the fall. And it was intimately attached to the Lord's blessing. If you actually look at Revelation, there's order and hierarchy there too. But sin entered the world, and then it threw everything into chaos. I actually saw a license plate like last week. It said the letter Y, E V E, Y. And I just thought it was funny. It's probably a Christian woman driving the car. Why, Eve? Right? So sin enter the world. Through everything into chaos. Fear enter the world. Selfishness enter the world. Separation entered the world, and sin always separates. It separates man from God. It separates man from his wife. It separates man from fellow man.

It separates man from creature. Sin harms and separates man even from his own self. It's so odd that we have words in our vocabulary that describe self-harm, right? So now, going forward from the time of the fall, man's rule over his family will be riddled with selfishness, strife, and insubordination. Man's rule over fellow man would more often than not be tyrannical and suppressive. Man's rule over all creation would be frustrated, corrupted, and destructive. Rulers over nations would rule self-exaltingly and self-servingly. And those who are ruled would want to overthrow. Even if they have to destroy those who are ruling them. Even if it means that everything burns, we will destroy the oppressor above us.

That's what the fallen man had done. Romans 8, 19 to 20 says that the whole of creation waits with anxious longing to be restored to sinless freedom. Not a freedom from order and hierarchy, but freedom from sin and futility. So here is an important thing about God that we always have to understand. God's design has always been one of wholeness of order and peace. First Corinthians 14, 33.

So there will always be a government and a governing. It'll just be sin-free one day. That's a weird picture, right? Why do sinless people need to be governed? But there will always be that. And order and hierarchy will remain even one day when everything is perfectly restored. And the Bible says that God is zealous for this. I'm gonna take you to a passage that we always read at Christmas. Okay, and pay attention to the wording here. Isaiah 9 6 to 7. For us, for a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, eternal father, prince of peace. There will be no end to this increase of his government or peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.

What does that mean? There will forever be a government that Christ is ruling over. Do you see this? The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this. So our God is a God of order and hierarchy and peace.

He is zealous for it. In heaven, there will be no marriage. Some of you guys are gonna be like, oh, some of you guys are like, yeah, but okay, there will be no marriage. Okay. But for this life in the present age, God is zealous for man to be head of the woman. He is zealous for godly leadership and for godly subordination. He is zealous for children to obey their parents. He is zealous for the young to revere the aged.

Leviticus 1932, you shall rise up before the gray haired and honor the aged, and you shall fear your God. I am Yahweh. You know Leviticus 19 is very important. It's the chapter on God's holiness. You shall be holy, for I am holy, and in that high esteem is to be given to the elderly and the aged. So age hierarchy apparently is not just an Asian thing. It's a God ordained universal thing. Why should children obey their parents? Ephesians 6 1. Children obey your parents in the Lord. It's interesting when you become a parent, you're more zealous for this verse, right? Obey your parents in the Lord. Why? For this is, you can translate that word, righteous. And though we can lament the decisions of bad rulers, we can legitimately decry bad leadership.

We need to be exceptionally careful not to slander, blaspheme or disparage any ruler, God has put in place and established. Now we're starting to get like the field, right? We are never to slander, blaspheme, or disparage any ruler, write up any meme that slanders a ruler that God has put in place and established. If you want an example, think of King David for all of his mess ups, he never disrespected Saul. Now, Exodus 22, verse 28. You shall not curse God. And the juxtaposition is, nor curse the ruler of your people, because then you're saying God messed up here. And why not? Because they have all been placed there by the God who removes kings and then establishes kings, Daniel 2 21. Okay, Romans 13 1.

Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist have been appointed by God. Now, we have a hard time in the church with this. Right? We'll get back to that. Or we'll get to that next week. So the same appointing can be said of bosses, supervisors, law enforcement officers. God blesses order. God blesses hierarchies. Right? But man, sin makes everything. The application of this, the understanding of this, even the perceived wisdom in all of this makes it so messy and so confusing. And we live in a time of chaos.

And things are loud, and all the gripes toward all kinds of people are no longer kept behind closed doors. People blast their supervisors. People blast law enforcement. They blast local and national leaders. Spiritual leaders are blasted without much fear of consequence or the fear of God. And even church-going folks, somehow who will say they believe the Bible to be God's word, seem super emboldened to say whatever they please about all the authorities in their lives. Local, national, societal, relational, spiritual. Think of how many women's small groups and churches across America are husbandbasting sessions. So there's so much just bashing. And many church people who profess to know God are now deconstructing their faith.

That's so stupid. And you know what is one of the hallmarks of a deconstructing of a person's faith? It's a pushing back against all the authorities, all the hierarchies that God has placed over our lives. It even includes a pushing back of God's holy word. Have you noticed this happening? Only those who are masquerading as God's people will persist in living like this. God's people will not live like this. God's people cannot live like this. And again, if you say they can, that person is espousing a theological impossibility. The zeal of our God will make sure that that doesn't happen. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts makes his people zealous not to live like this.

Titus, let's backtrack from just two verses before. Verse 14. Who gave himself for us? This is Jesus. Why? That he might redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession. What's the next word? Zealous for what? Good works. If the zeal of God is on you, things are going to happen. If God is zealous for your zeal for good works, it will happen because he is all powerful. So Christ, if you look at this verse, sacrificed himself to redeem his people from what? Lawlessness. A lot of people think, if I just had a just fill in the blank, people might just think law. That's what people think. Christ died for us to save us from the law.

He came to free us from the yoke of the law and from the curse and the consequences attached to the law. He did not rid his people of the law. Amen. He gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness. You know what that means? He came so that we actually could fulfill the law. He did not liberate his people from good works, but he liberated his people for good works. And that's super important to remember. The Lord did not come to abolish order and hierarchical structures that have always been in place. He came to fulfill the law, Matthew 5, 17 to 18. He came to destroy the sin that corrupted order and hierarchy. Sin was defeated at the cross. Why does he still rule and govern and reign? Why does a New Testament epistle say be subject?

Because that's not done. So without denying the reality of the injustices and the abuses and the corruption and the problems that we have in our present age.

Okay. We have bad governments a plenty. And they're all there. Sin messes up everything and it confuses everybody. Scripture gives us a timeless reminder. Verse 15, these things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one regard you, remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to slander no one, to be peaceable, considerate, demonstrating all gentleness to all men. Do you understand why I have to start backward? Because if I started with this, you'd be like, some of you guys would have stopped listening. And that's what happens. We stop listening. When someone says, vote for me, right? Oh, I everything that's coming out of this bad mouth is he's a false prophet.

That's what happens. That's why I had to start backward. The members of the church are to be an exemplary people. The members of the church are to be those ready for every good work. They are to be zealous for good works. We are the what of the world? And we are the dispensers of the wisdom of God. One of my favorite pastors, his name is Alistair Begg. This week they have the Gospel Coalition conference. And in that conference, in his sermon, he said this.

The church is the sphere in which God makes his wisdom known. So we are dispensers of the wisdom of God. And we need this sevenfold reminder, and we're going to do that again next week, because we easily forget. Verse three. It's very descriptive. It is not prescriptive. Verse descriptive means that the text is describing either a condition or something or describing what happened. Okay, it's a condition describing, or it's it's a description of something that happened or a condition. If a passage is prescriptive, it is prescribing or commanding something. It is communicating an expected application. So if you look at these verses, verses one and two are prescriptive. And then Apostle Paul describes in verse 3 what the Christians once to have been like.

I've got to start with chapter verse 2. To slander no one, to be peaceable, considerate, demonstrating all gentleness to all men. For we ourselves once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another. You know what this means? The old is gone. And then what has what's the new? It has come. Okay? Verse 3 is a description of the non-Christian. It's a description of the non-redeemed man. The redeemed man is pure and he's zealous for good works. The unredeemed man is corrupt and lawless. In contrast with the unregenerate man in verse 3, the Christian is, so I'm gonna give antonyms for this. The Christian is wise.

He is obedient, he stands on truth. He is liberated from lusts and pleasures. The Christian now lives in goodwill and selflessness. The Christian is kind. He loves because he has first been loved. So the Christian is free. Again, the Christian is not free from the order of things and the hierarchies that God has put in place from the beginning. He is free of sin. So the residue of the old man still remains in us. But the Christian is still being freed of sin. Christians have been freed of sin and are still being freed of sin. Okay, that's sanctification. But as the Christian grows and matures, he cannot but be less and less these things in verse three. Amen. The DNA says you can't.

If you notice, verse three describes sins that are committed in relationships.

Right. They're relationship sins. Verse 3 is a description of how unsaved people engage with other people. Of course they're going to challenge authority. Of course they're going to slander and curse their rulers. Of course they're going to be deceived and hear only what they want to hear. Of course, non-Christians are going to gossip and to be jealous. Of course they're going to tell lies. Of course they are going to be unkind and point fingers and be angry and be hostile. Of course, they're going to celebrate the things that grieve God's heart. Of course, those enslaved to lusts and pleasures are going to say things like, My body, my choice. Or don't tell me who I can or cannot sleep with.

Don't tell me, how dare you say sex is only within marriage? How dare you? The enslaved to lusts and pleasures will say God's word means nothing to how I shall live my life. So of course non-Christians are gonna be all of these things. I'm not shocked when non-Christians hold views that are non-Christian. Duh. I'm not shocked when non-Christians act like non-Christians. There's sometimes no point in arguing with them. Because that is not their worldview. So it's good to just listen. Because those who are listened to are better at wanting to listen. Right? I'm not shocked when non-Christians say non-Christian things, when non-Christians think non-Christian things, when they do non-Christian things.

I'm shocked when people in the church celebrate the very same things alongside the world. And that's happening. Before we get to the prescriptions of verses one and two next week, which are gonna feel kind of weighty and which are gonna be have to be fleshed out a little bit, I felt that it would be important to start with verses four and three today. Okay. And here are some very important questions to think through as we look at verse three. And you don't need to raise your hand and not volunteer and answer, but I'm gonna ask some questions. And that you should really take some time to think. Does verse three describe more of who you once were or who you currently are? If you're not sure how to answer that, let me help you answer it.

How are you with people? How are you in relating to other people? Is verse three characteristic of how you react and how you respond when you are disagreed with or offended? That tells you a lot. I mean, everyone has a temper here and there, right? But that's why I'm absolutely convinced that a genuine Christian could never hold a long-term grudge. He can't. It's impossible. You don't feel it long term. And here's a theological and applicational question, then. How can a person be freed from verse 3? Romans 1.16. I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Amen. It is in the gospel alone. The gospel is important. I put no hope in governments. I put no hope in political parties. I put zero hope in rulers and authorities in this life. I will be subject to them and I will obey them as long as they're not telling me to sin. But I will not hope in them at all. I'm not going to slander them. I have never spoken hostily or badly about any president since I became a Christian, I think. I will never celebrate who gets elected as president. Because that man has a tough job. Half the country hates his guts. Half the country has demonized him. Never gonna celebrate that man.

Because you cannot legislate racism out of the human heart. Only the gospel can cure racism. You cannot legislate lust and greed out of the human heart. You can curb their abuses, but you cannot cure the world of lust and greed by making changes in the law or electing a new president. We cannot make this world a better place.

No, we cannot make this world a better place. This world is cursed. It will one day be destroyed. It has been reserved for fire, 2 Peter 3 7. But we can get people saved and freed from the curse of the law in the second death, we can get the hearts of people changed. Again, only through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, here's not here's what I'm not saying. I'm not saying that we should never push for certain laws or fight for certain rights or never speak out against evils in the government. Here's what's tricky. Democracy is not in the Bible. Democracy is only a couple hundred years old. So to try to make hard fast rules, biblical principles, living in a democracy, it requires a lot of wisdom.

So I'm not saying that we should not exercise our rights to vote. I'm not saying that we shouldn't speak out. That's not what Titus 3 1 to 2 is teaching. But we always have to remember that our only hope for someone, that the only hope for someone of Titus 3 3 is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So I'm going to close with the following. Titus 3, 4 to 7. But when the kindness and affection of God our Savior appeared, 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, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. So that having been justified by his grace, we would become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

That's coming up. Praise God that he has washed us. Praise God that he has renewed us by his spirit. Praise the triune God, the Trinity is all over this, who has justified us and made us errors. So we have the hope of eternal life. Right? If you put your faith in this Christ, if he has washed you, if you've been renewed, you have the hope of eternal life. So while we live among a people who have no such hope. Let us be kind and truly demonstrate all gentleness towards all men, as it says in verse 2. And we will walk through that next Sunday.

And then there was a, I came, there was nothing there yesterday. I came by today, and there's a homeless tent there. And I was like irritated. I'm like, how many times are people gonna come here and encamp? So I was like, excuse me. And I wasn't mean, but I was very kind of hard. And then I turned the corner and I was like, all the kids were listening. And then I felt bad, so I tried to swage my guilty consciousness. I put a bunch of food and then some drinks into a bag, and I took it back out there and gave it to them. And then the whole time I'm trying to wrap up and pray for this sermon, I was like, you were not gentle. I was like, oh no. You are not kind. I was like, I know. I wasn't mean.

Like, you were mean. I was like, oh that's what I was praying for in the front. Like, Lord, I'm a weak and needy, feeble man in needing of these reminders. So I preach to me because I need to hear this. But praise God that He has washed us and that He has renewed us and that He is continuing to make us whole. Praise God that I felt rebuked in the way that I did. So there's hope for me yet. There's hope for you. And I had to establish this because next week, when we're looking at the application of to be subject to rulers and authorities, it can feel like a hot button thing. Right? So prepare your hearts and try to pay attention to what I'm not saying. Try to pay very close attention, not to what I say, but what I mean.

And pray that the Lord will give us insight as we try to apply chapter 3, 1 and 2. Let's pray together. Father, help us to be wise. And as things are being revealed in our hearts where we need to grow and be sanctified, I pray that you would grow us in graciousness and gentleness and warmth and compassion and in kindness. Help us to attract people more with your love than a declaration of your hatred towards sin. Help us to minister the way you ministered and had compassion for the lost. We pray all this in Jesus' name.