Titus 1:1

For our text tonight, Titus chapter 1, I want to read verses 1 through 3. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledgement of the truth, which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began. but have in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me, according to the commandment of God, our Savior. May God bless to us His sacred and holy word this evening. Several years ago, one of the astronauts who walked on the moon was in. interviewed, and people were asking him all kinds of questions about the moon trip and walking on the moon. And finally, someone asked a very thought-provoking question, what were you thinking about when you were standing on the moon looking back on the earth? And the astronaut replied that he remembered thinking about returning safely home. And I kept thinking, he said, that the spacecraft was built by the lowest bidder. and so he had cause for concern about return. Now, as believers in Christ, we can rejoice that the work of salvation did not go to the lowest bitter, but it was carefully planned and carried out by the infinite God. There will never be any deficiency in God’s work. Our salvation is as sure as the architect who designed it, who is on. Almighty God. One of the problems we said confronting Titus, as he is working on the island of Crete, was the self-centered spirit of those to whom he was ministering. The opening phrases of this letter combat this problem. We started out by saying that Paul teaches that Christians are servants of God. Not only is he a servant of God, as we looked at from Romans 6, we too. are to be servants of righteousness. And we are under, to be under divinely appointed authority. As he is, Titus is told to appoint elders in every city in this same chapter. Now, even the mention here of sovereign election that we talked about in our last meeting, sovereign election of individuals to salvation by God is sort of a lightning bolt into the heart at a man-centered society. It is God who is the one who chooses. God is the one who determines who is saved. While we have come to believe in Christ, behind that belief is the prior choice of God himself. You and I are not the prime movers of this world. God is. and he reminds us of that throughout the scriptures. Your destiny is not ultimately in your hands, it’s in the hands of God, and we ought to be thankful that that is the case. Paul’s calling by God to be an apostle is for the purpose of bringing the elect to saving faith in Christ. And that purpose cannot be frustrated, but must ultimately be achieved. And so we want to talk tonight about the faith of God’s elect from this passage of Scripture. Now, you must recognize God’s elect are the ones who are granted faith. When we talk about faith, the Greek word faith here is pistus. It simply means to believe or to trust. And faith and belief, therefore, are synonymous. anonymous terms. Sometimes in scripture there is an article in front of faith. We read about the faith, like earnestly content for the faith that was once delivered under the saints in the book of Jude. That means we’re talking about what is believed. It’s talking about the doctrine that is believed. But here we’re talking about the gift of faith by which you understand and embrace gospel truth, the acknowledging of faith. of the truth, as he mentions here in verse 1. Calvin said in John 33, to believe the gospel is nothing else than to assent to the truths which God has revealed. We have to have a knowledge of the way of salvation in Christ, and we must believe or trust in what Christ has revealed or God has revealed to us about Christ. Now, if you would, look at Romans chapter 10 versus 9 to 10 a moment this morning or this evening. This is a familiar passage of scripture, and probably most of you could probably quote it. But let’s look at it carefully here. Note what he says. Romans 10 verses 9 and 10, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus, shall believe in thine heart that God hath faith. raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. With the heart, man believeth under righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made under salvation. Now, there are several doctrinal truths that stand out here in the gospel message. One, we see that Jesus is Lord. He is the Lord Jesus. He is the one we are to confess. Jesus is, and certainly has always been God. He is divine. He is the second person. of the Holy Trinity. Jesus died, according to verse 9. Jesus was in his God, but he was also human. And as a human being, we see he was capable of dying. He is the God man, and he laid down his life, according to Scripture. Jesus died, we read to provide salvation in verse 9 and 10. We read about saved and salvation here. He died for God. a purpose. He didn’t die by accident, but he died as a substitute for sinners that we might be saved from our sins. Notice Christ also rose from the dead, verse 9. The resurrection is a historical event. Christ is not dead, and he’s living. His resurrection is essential to salvation. Notice verse 10. Christ provides righteousness. Under righteousness implies the receiving of Christ’s perfect righteousness by the sinner through faith. So this passage in Romans emphasizes what genuine faith is all about. This is what we must believe. Now, he’s very careful here to distinguish between what I’ll call hypocritical faith and genuine faith. And I say that because. of how he words this. You’ll notice that he talks here about the difference between believing in the heart and merely speaking with the mouth or the lips. Those who have a sincere faith believe with the heart. They may indeed confess with the lips and indeed will do so. But there are those who may confess with the lips but not believe in the heart. They might have the outward aspect of it, but not the inward reality. And so those who are publicly confessed that Jesus is Lord and Savior need to have an inner reality. Because if they don’t believe with the heart, they don’t honestly assent to these truths, they’re not trusting in Christ or their salvation, then it’s not genuine. It’s not real. So a profession of faith does not always mean actual possession of genuine faith. The genuine faith always produces fruit. Remember the parable of the sower? There are those who received the word with joy, but then afterwards they fell away in the time of temptation. But the seed that fell on the good ground brought forth fruit, and that is the indication we have. As far as Paul goes on to say here in the book of Titus, this faith results in godliness of life. You’ll notice in verse one, he mentions that very fact here. It is the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness. So this is what we’re talking about. We’re talking about faith. Now faith is an infallible mark of your election. It’s the faith of God’s elect. Since all men have not faith according to Scripture, possession of genuine faith is a sign. It is an indication, therefore, of your election from all eternity by God. Jesus himself said, all that the Father giveth unto me shall come unto me. So if we come to Christ, then we must have been chosen by the Father from the beginning. Remember previously Jesus clearly associated coming him with belief in him. He that cometheth to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst, John 635. The coming and the believing are closely tied together here. Remember what Paul said in Acts 1348, where the scripture tells us about the message. As many. as were ordained to eternal life, believed. Isn’t that the scriptural teaching? Election is sort of like God deciding who gets on the plane bound for heaven. Predestination is his charting the course that the plane is going to take. The ticket price and all the accommodations are provided for by Christ who purchased the reserve seats for the elect. of God. The actual persuading of the individuals to get on the plane is done by the Holy Spirit who compels people to come to Christ. And your response of faith in Christ to the gospel call is like checking in at the gate with the boarding pass. But all those who check in at the gate, we can rest assured we follow it all the way back. We’re chosen by God, redeemed by Christ. and called by the Holy Spirit. Thus, there is an undeniable connection between faith and God’s election in Christ. So faith is an infallible mark of your election. Now, we have to say that faith, or excuse me, election is the reason some believe and some do not. When I was in seminary, I was in the boys’ dorm. There were four guys to a suite, and as usual, theology was one of the things we discussed on a regular basis, being in that situation. And God had brought me to embrace God’s sovereign grace in salvation, and often spoke of it in conversations with others. We often had long conversations. But for the most part, this was an an Armenian seminary. And one of my sweetmates was very much sold on the Armenian view, that man in a free will, either accept or reject Jesus Christ, and foreknowledge was the basis of our election. So he would come over to my room and with his, I call them his pet selected scriptures in order to convince me that I was wrong about what I believe. And I would try to explain to him their actual meaning. come and, for example, and bring his John 316 for God so love the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And I would say something like this. Rick, the word world is used in various ways in scripture, and you have to consider how it is used in scripture. Here, it actually means Gentiles as well as Jews. It doesn’t mean everyone. I don’t deny that whoever believes will have everlasting life. But who is it that actually believes? Is it not the elect of God that actually believe? And then I would show in passages where the word world was used in a restricted sense. For example, the Pharisees at one of the feast in John 12 recall, they said, behold, the world is gone after him, meaning Jesus Christ. There were certain Greeks that had gone up to the feast and wanted to see Jesus. So their conclusion was, look, even the Gentiles are looking at, looking for Christ. They were very frustrated with that. The Pharisees. I showed him a passage where God hates certain individuals like Esau have I hated. Passages that stated it was not by the will of man that a person comes to salvation in Christ like John 113 and so forth. And he would go back to his room puzzled. And a few days later, he’d come with another verse. of scripture for me. And this would go on and on and on. And I would try to explain it. But before I would, I would ask him, I said, what about those verses I showed you yesterday? Did you look at that carefully? Did you evaluate that more carefully? What’s your answer to that? Of course, he didn’t have one. The poor guy either ran out of verses or realized his position wasn’t lining up with scripture. Because eventually, he became persuaded of the Bible. the truth by God’s grace, even though he struggled with it. And I couldn’t understand why he was struggling with it until he said to me, he said this, I asked him why he had such a hard time with the doctrine election. He says, my father is unsaved. And, you know, he was afraid if he actually came to the doctrine of election as it is taught in scripture, then his father couldn’t be saved. And I looked at him. I said, Rick, I said, the only way your father is going to be saved, if he’s one of the elect. That’s the whole thing. you have that he could be one of God’s elect. I said, that’s, you’re missing the point here in election. Eventually, he came to the doctrines of grace. Those who believe that man has a free will presume that some believe and some do not because the matter rests with them. It’s man’s decision. You know, the Bible teaches just the opposite of that. Romans 916, so it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runeth, but of God that showeth mercy. Or as we read in John 10, 26, ye believe not because you are not my sheep. I mean, how much plainer does Jesus have to make this? Paul said in Romans 11, 7, that the elect obtained a saving faith in Christ and the rest. Let me ask you, was there a chance that Judas, the son of perdition, sitting under Christ’s ministry, he’s talking about having a perfect minister, having the perfect explanation of the word of God. Is it possible that he could have been saved? Was there any chance of him somehow being saved? Is there any chance that a vessel of wrath formed to be a vessel of wrath by the sovereign potter, like Pharaoh, will somehow end up being a vessel of wrath, mercy contrary to God’s purpose? Is that ever going to happen? Is there any chance that one of God’s elect people were somehow or other refused to come to Christ? That Paul on a Damascus road just stayed stubborn and would not submit to Christ, would not embrace it. Is that ever, was that ever be possible? Could he have been so stubborn and obstinate that he would refuse to yield to the work of the omnipotent spirit of God? Is that even possible? Can puny man frustrate the purpose of God? and the answer to all that is no. It cannot have happened. If you come to faith in Christ for salvation, it’s because you’re one of God’s elect people. It’s the faith of God’s elect. God’s elect. God could have determined for all sinners to perish in hell. He didn’t have to save anyone. The fact that he elected some to salvation gives us hope. Instead of looking at this as such a terrible doctrine, we should never talk about, it’s a wonderful doctrine because it gives us hope. God has determined he’s going to save some people. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and he that cometh to me shall unknowise be cast out. If you come to faith in Christ, then you are one of the elect. That’s what Jesus says. But if you come to faith in Christ, he says, remember, the reason why you came to faith in Christ is because God chose you in the first place, the Father. So you must recognize God’s elect are the ones that are granted true faith. Now, secondly tonight, you must recognize the purpose of the ministry of the Word is to bring the elect to faith in Christ. You’ll notice it says according to the faith of God’s elect. Paul is a servant of God, an apostle, according to God. to the faith of God’s elect. The word according to there, Kata in the Greek, has several usages that can be translated various different ways. But here, it has the idea for the end aimed at, the goal to which anything leads. The purpose of Paul being an apostle was to awaken, produce faith in God’s elect by the preaching of the gospel. He preached. He preached. He preach is the gospel for the purpose of calling in the elect out in the world. Paul has been sent out by God as a missionary, called by the, remember the Spirit, separated Barnabas and Paul for that very purpose to go out and preach the gospel. In order that those previously chosen by God, before the foundation of the world, among the Gentiles, in particular, would be called to salvation in Christ. I want you to judge. Just turn page back. Look at 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 8 to 10. Because this is, I think, important to see his motivation in all this. Paul writes here in 2, 8 to 10, remember that Jesus Christ of the seat of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel, wherein I suffer trouble as an evil doer, even under bonds, but the word of God is not bound. He’s still preaching the word. Therefore, I endure all things for the elects’ sake that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Why is he going through all of this? Why is he suffering? Why is he going out in all the world to preach the gospel? He’s doing it because God has elect people that need to be brought to Christ and will be brought to Christ. Here’s his motivation. It is very. the sake of calling the elect. One of Paul’s journeys led him to Greece as an apostle. He came to this large city of Corinth in Acts chapter 18. And he begins preaching, as he always seems to do. He goes to the Jewish synagogue first, to the Jew first, and then to the Greek. So he preaches to the Jews and spreads the gospel of Jesus Christ. But they become very angry for the most part with it. violently oppose him. And so he turns his attention to the Gentiles in the city. And he stays in the house of a man called Justice. And we read, many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized. But the threats. The opposition was so great that Paul feared for his life. And evidently, he was planning on leaving the city, figuring it better to perhaps get out of here. And then the Lord appears to him. And what does the Lord say to him? Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace. For I am with thee. And no man shall set on thee to hurt thee. For I have much people in this city. Versus 9 and 10. Stay here, Paul. I have more elect people to be brought to salvation. Stay here and preach. My people are going to be called. And that’s what he does. And so Paul stays. He continues preaching. More people are saved. And as he says to the Corinthians, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. It is by the preaching of the gospel that people are brought to salvation. Faith comes by hearing. And hearing by the Word of God. In order for the elect to be saved, it’s necessary they hear the gospel. So the one purpose of the ministry, one purpose of it, is to be saved. bring men and women to faith in Christ, how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things? Romans 10, verses 14 and 15. Anyone who hears the Word of God should acknowledge that this is God’s ordinance. This is God’s means. by which to call people to salvation. Now, if you despise the preaching of the word, if you treat it with contempt, you can fast, you can afflict your body, you can do a host of so-called good deeds and so forth, none of those things are going to prevail. It is by the preaching of the Word of God that people are brought to salvation in Christ. So when we come to church, when we hear the Word of God, bread, and expounded with a submissive heart to what God is saying. We embrace the truth of salvation in Jesus Christ. If you have any concern for your immortal soul, and you don’t know where you stand with Christ, then you ought to be under the sound of the preaching of the gospel because it’s by the foolishness of preaching that people are saved. Don’t look for you for God to speak. to you some through some special revelation, some special sign, some dream, or something of this nature. God’s voice is heard in the preaching of the word. You’ll notice verse 3 begins, but hath in due times manifested his word. How did he manifest it? Through preaching? He says. So the faith of God’s elect comes by the means of the hearing of the word of God. Now, the mystery are the ministry of the word, I should say, is not intended to save everyone. is common to believe that God loves everyone, wants everyone to be saved. God wants all men to be saved. Some people we believe he’s trying his best to save everyone. We almost get the impression that God is up in heaven, wringing his hands, greatly concerned that people may be rejecting his message, and he’s grieved, he’s unhappy with the situation. That’s how some people seem to be portraying God, but that’s not that the scripture portrays our God. You see, Paul is called to be an apostle for the express purpose of calling not all men, but the elect to faith in Christ. That’s God’s ultimate purpose. If God has eternally chosen some to salvation and reprobated the rest, It cannot be true then that God wants everybody to be saved. God did not commission Paul to save all men. He commissioned Paul to preach the gospel to the masses of humanity so that out of them God would save his elect. The gospel is to be preached to all men without exception. We don’t determine who the elect are and who we should give the gospel to. We give the gospel to. We give the gospel to everyone. because that is the command of Scripture. Spurgeon, the famous Baptist minister, once preached an election, and someone said, well, why don’t you just preach to the elect? He said, you know, if I could pull up people’s shirts and if there was a yellow marker or some kind of streak on their back or some way to determine who the elect were, then I’d preach to the elect, but we don’t know who they are. So I’d preach to everyone. Remember the parable of the sower? The seed of the word is scattered over all the grounds. Isn’t it? You take the handful, like a sewer, takes a handful of seed, and he scatters it. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen. He’s not sure who’s the good ground hearer, or who’s the stony ground here, who’s the stony ground here, who’s the authority ground here, where it’s going to fall, if it’s going to fall on the pathway or not. He doesn’t know that. We don’t know what’s going to happen when we scatter the seed of the word. Our job is to scatter the seed. God will take care of… causing it to grow and causing it to flourish. So our duty is to preach the gospel to all men with the realization that God has a people out of all men that he’s going to save. And they will come to Christ. I want you to look with me at the book of Isaiah, if you would, chapter 53 in verse 1. Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? When Isaiah was called to be a prophet, he complained at one point, who’s going to believe us? You know, where is the arm of God? Where is God’s work of salvation being done? His ministry didn’t appear to be very successful. He’s preaching, but people are not immediately coming to faith in Christ or in the truth about the salvation in Christ. No one was believing the message of God. Israel remained. unmoved, hardened in their sinful ways. And Isaiah felt like he was preaching to no purpose. You can feel for him here. Am I wasting my time doing this? But look over just to chapter 55, just a couple chapters over. Over, verse 11, notice what God says here. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish the purpose which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing where to I send it. Now you consider this carefully. God says the preaching of the Word of God produces precisely the effect that God says it should have. With regard to the reprobate and with regard to the elect. For God told Isaiah, remember in Isaiah chapter 6, go and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not. See ye indeed, but perceive not. make the heart of this people fat and make their eyes heavy and shut their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted. Isaiah chapter 6, verses 9 and 10. God did not have intentions of saving everyone. He said, that’s not your job to figure. that out Isaiah, your job is to give out the message I gave you. That’s our job. My job is not to worry about who God’s going to save. Like one of my deceased elder used to say, God doesn’t care who he saves. sometimes he saves the most, you know, the people you think would be the least likely to be saved. And that’s what he meant by when he said that. It was one of the things he often said. God saves all kinds of people, people that are most unlikely to be safe. So it’s not our job to figure out how he’s going to do this. Our job is to give out the gospel. And remember in Isaiah chapter 1 in verse 9, we read that God had just left a remnant. We would have been of Sodom and Gomorre if God had not left us a very small remnant. So there was only going to be a remnant of people that were going to be truly saved under His ministry. But those elect people alone believed the report. Alone felt the arm of God’s power reaching out to them, drawing them to salvation in Christ. Does that mean that the ministry failed? Does it mean that Isaiah failed? That God’s word failed? No. It accomplished a purpose for which it was sent. When all the elect of God are called to salvation and Christ is going to return in this world as we know it’s going to come to an end. But the message of the gospel brings condemnation and death to the reprobate here. But salvation and life to the elect here. It’s a savor of life unto life to some. And a savor of death unto death to others. It accomplishes what God set out to accomplish. Well, that astronaut stands out to accomplish. Standing on the moon was a bit concerned about his spacecraft being built by the lowest bidder. He’s not sure he was going to return safety. He didn’t know if the plan was actually going to come to pass. God’s purposes are never frustrated. God isn’t worried about what’s going to happen. He has determined what’s going to happen. It will most certainly be achieved. Those elected will without fail be brought to faith in Jesus Christ. God will raise up men like Paul or others to preach. the gospel and by that means they will be saved. So one special purpose of the ministry of the Word is to bring those chosen to God to faith in Christ. And God’s word never returns unto Him void. It never comes back empty. It accomplishes exactly what God wants it to accomplish. Can you see why Paul is such a great missionary? Can you see what drives this man? He has such a faith in the sovereignty of God and the work of salvation and God’s purpose being carried out that when he goes out and he does the work of the missionary, he’s assured, assured that this plan is going to come to pass. I wish we had even half of that assurance when we give out the gospel of Christ. We should be like Paul. We should have that kind of thinking on our own. May God bless us with His work. word tonight as we think about the faith of God’s elect.