Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Gospel According to … Your Life (Titus 3:8-15)*

/Preached by Pastor Phil Layton at Gold Country Baptist Church on September 7, 2008/

www.goldcountrybaptist.org

This morning in our study we are going to look at the Gospel, not the Gospel According to Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, but the Gospel According to /Your Life/.

What does your life communicate about the gospel?

What message are you communicating?

In Titus 3 we will see today that your Christian life (if you are a Christian) is an open book that is to be a living gospel, a visual presentation of what you profess here today.

Titus is all about living out the gospel in everyday real life.

Those who have experienced the /good news/ of God’s grace will be evidenced by a life of /good deeds/ as a result of God’s grace.

Our will and works do not cause God’s saving mercy, but His saving mercy does cause good works, which we must be careful to do.

We should want to do good deeds, not in order to earn God’s love, but in response to His unearned love that has changed our sinful hearts.

Titus 3:4-15 (NASB95) 4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and /His /love for mankind appeared, 5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to /the /hope of eternal life.

*8 **This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds.

These things are good and profitable for men.** **9 **But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.**

**10 **Reject a factious man after a first and second warning,** **11 **knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.**

**12 **When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, make every effort to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.**

**13 **Diligently help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way so that nothing is lacking for them.**

**14 **Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful.**

**15 **All who are with me greet you.

Greet those who love us in /the /faith.

Grace be with you all.*

This is our 17th message in our expository study of the book of Titus verse-by-verse, and a couple other messages thrown in on related themes to this study.

And this morning we come to the last section (v.

8-15) of this wonderful book that I hope you have grown to love and appreciate as I have.

Paul greeted Titus in the beginning of the letter with “grace to you and peace” and the last line of the book is on the same note: “Grace be with you all.”

This book is all about grace and how our salvation which is all of grace must work itself out in our lives.

Grace and godliness go together.

Look at the 2nd half of verse 8: “*so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds.*”

Then look at verse 14: “*Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs”*

This is also how chapter 1 began: “*… be ready for every good deed”*

 

So the final passage begins and ends with, as bookends, this theme of good deeds, which are not optional and must be pursued.

When you have an /inclusio/ – the term for book-ending a section of Scripture with the same phrase or truth – this device helps you understand the big idea in the original message.

The gospel’s “good news” must be reflected in good deeds in your life.

Many argue this is the theme of the book as a whole as well, and so rather than give you 2 or 3 or 4 points, this morning we’re just going to have really one main point which is the point of the book: The good news of the gospel must be reflected in good deeds in your life.

Gospel truth is connected to godliness.

This is also how the book began.

I want you to see this theme in context:

 

Titus 1:1 (NASB95) 1 Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the *truth which is according to godliness*

 

The truth of God and godliness go together.

Those who are elected or chosen by God are to live according to the truth and to bear fruit consistent with the faith.

It reminds me of the words of Jesus in John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you would bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain”

 

This past Monday we were at Apple Hill and our family rode on the hay ride tour and the guide explained how they choose and plant trees to bear fruit that will last, and this is the spiritual image Jesus uses in that chapter.

Titus 1 goes on in verses 6-9 to describe the fruit of godliness that must be manifested in the life of the godly men who would lead the church by their example of good deeds.

Verses 10 thru the end of the chapter then describe the corrupted fruit of those in the church who lack good deeds, and actually deny God by the deeds of their life.

They’re like bad apples.

15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled [NIV “corrupted”].

16 They profess to know God, but by /their /deeds they deny /Him/, being detestable and disobedient and *worthless for any good deed*.

So in our text in Titus 3, when Paul commands believers to “learn to ~/ be careful to engage in good deeds” it is in contrast to false believers who profess but don’t possess a true relational knowledge of God, and who are worthless for any good deeds.

In Titus 2, Paul lays down the fruit of the godly life and deeds of older men and women which is to be an example of godliness for other believers.

7 in all things *show yourself to be an example of good deeds, /with /purity in doctrine …*

* *

Notice the clear connection in that verse between good deeds and pure doctrine, a connection which this book keeps making over and over.

What God joins together let no man put asunder.

We must not divorce the good news from good works.

Vs. 9-10 again make the connection between the gospel and godly living, in fact living godly deeds is the best gospel banner in a pagan world.

9 /Urge /bondslaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith *so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior* in every respect.

Right before launching into the gospel, Titus 2:10 used a visual word “adorn” as the purpose for living out the gospel in how we work in a pagan society – he says that we may *adorn *the doctrine or teaching of our Savior by our lives.

In other words, /order it in such a way as to make it attractive or beautiful/ to those who see.

The word translated “adorn” is /cosmeo /– a word we get the English term “cosmetics” which many women use to adorn their face to make it attractive or draw attention to their beauty, to put in order what may be out of order in the morning to make beautiful.

That’s what our lives are to do with our beautiful Lord Jesus – draw attention and attract by adornment of our daily lives!

In extrabiblical Jewish literature (3 Macc 3.5) this word described how Jews ‘/adorned/ their style of life with the good deeds of upright people’ … Paul says here this can be done even by slaves!

It’s been pointed out that this final purpose clause in the chapter ‘marks the motivation crescendo of the whole … the climactic effect achieved by its placement at the end, by its language, and by its missiological thrust … So slaves … /at the bottom of the human hierarcy, /are able through the splendor of their conduct, to honor God and increase the attractiveness of the gospel in the hearts of the pagans.”

Ordinarily, it was the well-to-do benefactors, not slaves or the masses, who gave “adornments” to cities and leaders in return for public recognition.

But life in Christ involved many reversals.’[1]

Someone has said ‘The motivation for good deeds is gratitude for the undeserved, unmerited grace of God.

The effect is Christlikeness.

The goal is evangelism.’[2]

Now notice in the end of Titus 2 how the gospel flows in to the theme of godly living and good deeds again:

 

Titus 2:11-14 (NASB95) 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and *to live sensibly, righteously and godly* in the present age,

 

God’s salvation and grace is a free gift, but it’s a gift that comes with instructions as verse 12 says.

It tells us to deny sin and to live godly lives, and it also graciously gives the power to do so.

13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us *from every lawless deed*, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, *zealous for good deeds.*

So there it is again, right at the end of this gospel, it says we were redeemed /from/ sinful deeds so we can be /zealous for/ good deeds.

This is what chapter 3 does as well at the end of the gospel (v.

4-7)

Titus 3:8 also flows from the gospel to good works.

There is a responsibility that comes with blessing, as we’ve seen before.

The result of God’s blessing through the gospel at the end of Titus 3:7 is that we would be *“heirs according to the hope of eternal life”*

 

In the Greco-Roman world, “heirs” was a legal term and was found on ancient inscriptions of Asia Minor to refer to a son after he was succeeded to the inheritance as representative of his father, and there were obligations that went along with it.

An heir is one who receives or is entitled legally to receive in the future some endowment or quality from a parent or predecessor.

Moulton and Milligan’s work on Greek papyri: "In the inscriptions the one thing most often emphasized is the obligation of the [heir] to fulfill certain conditions devolving upon him as an heir.

When Paul insists that only those who fulfill the conditions of heirship are truly heirs, he is making use of a well-known principle."

If you’re a true son and heir, you shall live accordingly.

It’s on the heels of this statement that we are heirs that Paul moves into Titus 3:8:

 

7 so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to /the /hope of eternal life.

8 This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds.

The gospel produces good deeds or you don’t have the right gospel.

Titus 3:8 says believing in God is not the end, it’s the beginning.

We who truly believe, it says “will be careful to engage in good deeds” but it says in the first half of the verse Titus must speak these things confidently (the things of the gospel in v. 4-7) to remind the believers of their duty (like v. 1 says).

This language of speaking confidently is strong.

Here’s some of the other versions:

“I want you to affirm constantly” (NKJV)

“I want you to stress these things” (NIV)

“I want you to insist on these things” (ESV)

 

“these things” refers to the glorious gospel Paul just finished explaining in verses 4-7 which are to have a practical outworking in the verses that follow.

The language puts great importance here.

Verse 8 begins with “this is a trustworthy ~/ faithful saying” which is an expression Paul uses 4 times, each with weighty important truths to his other son in the faith, Timothy.

And each have something to do with the gospel or gospel ministry:

 

1 Tim 1:15 *It is a trustworthy statement*, deserving full acceptance, that *Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners*, among whom I am foremost

1 Timothy 3:1 *It is a trustworthy statement*: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, *it is a fine work he desires to do.*

1 Timothy 4:8-10 … *godliness is profitable for all things … It is a trustworthy statement* deserving full acceptance.

For *it is for this we labor and strive*, because we have fixed our hope on the living God … *the Savior* \\ \\