Show Notes
Titus 3:12-15
Pastor Stephen Lauer
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] We ask now that you would speak to us in your word, a word that caused great division and strife as it went forth, but a word that brought salvation to the souls of men. O Lord our God, we ask that you would so mightily, as your word goes forth not just from this pulpit tonight to our ears and to our hearts, but as it goes forth all around your world, wherever your gospel is proclaimed, we ask that you would sow seeds widely. And we ask that by the power of your spirit they might find their place in the hearts of men as Lydia's heart was opened by you, by your power to receive the message of the gospel. We ask that, O God, you would open our hearts and the hearts of the lost, that they might receive the saving message of Christ and of his grace towards sinners, that we might be saved, that we might be comforted, and that our hearts might be built up unto service to you and to the hope of eternal life. In Jesus name we ask. Amen.
[00:01:16] And now we'll read God's Word From Titus, chapter 3, verses 12 through 15.
[00:01:24] Titus 3, beginning of verse 12. This is God's word for you.
[00:01:31] When I send Artemis or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I've decided to spend the winter there.
[00:01:44] Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way to see that they lack nothing and let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful.
[00:02:06] All who are with me send greetings to you.
[00:02:10] Greet those who love us in the faith.
[00:02:13] Grace be with you all.
[00:02:15] Please be seated.
[00:02:30] Parting words, Final words. They're often important. Sometimes they come out a little jumbled with a lot of ideas attached.
[00:02:40] Sometimes they're not what we expect to hear, but they are often important.
[00:02:44] When parents go out to leave the house for a date night, they might tell their children or the babysitter, or both. A jumble of things hurriedly on their way out the door.
[00:02:55] They might tell the children, have fun, because it's going to be movie night and they ordered pizzas for them. Or they might also say to the kids or to the babysitter, call the neighbors if you need anything. They're expecting it. Their numbers on the fridge. Pretty important.
[00:03:14] Or maybe they tell the babysitter it's the first time she's been there. He's been there to babysit the kids. Johnny's inhaler is right here in this drawer. If he starts having a coughing fit, make sure, he takes it right away.
[00:03:29] Often the last few things that we tell our children or others on the way out the door. Kind of important.
[00:03:37] Dad has to go away on a long trip. Maybe it's a business trip. Maybe he's being stationed overseas with the military.
[00:03:43] Whatever it is, some of the last things he says to his family are going to be some of the most important things. He says it's going to be a while before he sees his family again.
[00:03:55] He's probably going to remind his family of some of the most important truths.
[00:04:01] God is with you.
[00:04:02] God is with me even when we're apart.
[00:04:06] Don't worry.
[00:04:08] Remember, even while I'm gone, I love you.
[00:04:12] There's other kinds of last words. They're also often pretty important.
[00:04:16] Sometimes people ask that certain things be recorded on their tombstone.
[00:04:22] They want to have a reminder of important truths for their loved ones when they come and visit the grave.
[00:04:32] Now, you read Paul's last words here at the end of this book of Titus. This letter, which isn't a terribly long letter, you can read it in just a few minutes if you read it straight through. But here at the very end, you may wonder about these last words.
[00:04:48] There's instructions, there's greetings, just like in a lot of his other letters.
[00:04:51] Why these?
[00:04:53] Why in this order? They may not even seem the most important.
[00:04:59] But as we look at the last words, the final words here that Paul leaves us, I want to argue that these are words of grace. Now, the very last word, grace, be with you all. That's pretty obvious, but I'm going to try to make a case for you that they go together graciously. We're going to look at a gracious lesson.
[00:05:20] The last instruction that Paul leaves here is a gracious lesson, secondly, a gracious greeting, and finally, a gracious blessing.
[00:05:33] So in his final words, Paul leaves a gracious lesson that's in verses 12, 13, and 14.
[00:05:44] And the order in which he teaches the lesson is little backwards, just like the whole order of this set of final words. Maybe he's a little backwards to the way at least Westerners think and lay things out logically.
[00:05:59] Paul begins the lesson with an example.
[00:06:02] The Lesson's in verse 14, but he starts with an example, a story for the people, he might say an object lesson. So we'll flip the order around here. The lesson that God's people are to learn, the church, the island of Crete, and we are to learn is what he says in v.14. Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so as to help Cases of urgent need learn to devote yourselves to good works, to help cases of urgent need. But he tacks this on to what Titus is supposed to be doing. So Titus introduces the lesson, Paul introduces the lesson with the example that Titus himself is going to set in meeting cases of urgent need. And it doesn't come out well in our English translation. If you look at other English translations, they bring it out. But there's a little word that really probably should be there at the beginning of verse 14.
[00:07:02] It's the word also. So Paul tells Titus, do your best to come to me when Artemis and Tychicus get to you. And then verse 13, help Zenas and Apollo so that they lack nothing.
[00:07:13] And then verse 14, and let our people also learn to devote themselves to good works. In other words, as Titus is devoting himself to good works in serving Paul, going to help Paul, and in helping Apollos and Zenas, also God's people are to devote themselves to good works. They go together.
[00:07:40] So Titus is our object lesson. We begin with him.
[00:07:45] Remember the whole story here. As Paul ends his final words, he kind of broadens back into the mission that Paul and Titus were on. Paul and Titus went to Crete as the first missionaries went around preaching the Gospel, gathering Christians into churches. Paul moves on. He leaves and leaves Titus behind. And then he sends this letter back to him telling him, hey, finish the work of planting churches. And there's two parts. We've talked about this many times as we've gone through the letter. Finish discipling the people, finish training them and teaching them how to be Christians on the one hand. And then on the other hand, take some of those new Christians and train them to be pastors and elders so that you can finish organizing these congregations to be permanent churches on the island of Crete. That's Titus mission.
[00:08:35] But now Paul sends this letter back to tell him to do that. And he also tells him, and I'm going to send a replacement for you.
[00:08:44] And that's what you find in verse 12.
[00:08:47] I'm going to send Artemis or Tychicus. We don't really know much about Artemis, but Tychicus, if you search through your New Testament, is mentioned in a number of times.
[00:08:55] Both of these guys are missionary pastors that work with Paul. Paul's going to send one of these two guys to take over at some point for Titus. And Titus, when that guy arrives, he's going to move on.
[00:09:10] It's teamwork.
[00:09:11] They're moving around, helping him different places. I don't know exactly why. We don't know the details why. But for some reason, Paul wants Titus to come and help him in Nicopolis doing missionary church planting work there.
[00:09:27] And he's going to send somebody. So you have Titus now has to shift gears. At some point, somebody's going to come dispel him on Crete, and he's going to move on back to Macedonia, where Nicopolis is, to do more missionary work there. So you have Titus being prepared to take another pretty big journey, get on a boat, go all the way up to.
[00:09:48] From the island of Crete, down in the Mediterranean, all the way up to Macedonia to start a new mission there, helping Paul. So Paul's preparing Titus and the Christians on the island of Crete that he's going to have to take another big journey in order to help Paul on another mission in yet another place.
[00:10:08] He's going to be busy doing good missionary work. And the people are going to have to be willing to give Titus up to send him off on a new mission and receive yet another pastor.
[00:10:22] He's preparing everybody for this transition that's going to happen probably. Well, obviously before winter, hopefully. Paul says, so less than a year away, they're going to get a new pastor and they're going to have to send Titus away.
[00:10:36] That's the first part. The second part is that Zenas and Apollos, these two dudes, we don't know much about Zenas. He's a lawyer. So sometimes Jesus lets lawyers into the kingdom of heaven.
[00:10:49] If you've read your Gospels, you get the joke.
[00:10:52] He lets sinners into the kingdom of heaven. He's gracious Zenas. All we know is that he was some kind of a lawyer. Apollos, though you read a lot about him, both in the Book of Acts and in First Corinthians, he was clearly a preacher. So these guys are all members of Paul's missionary team. They're all missionary evangelists or pastors.
[00:11:11] These two guys, they're on another mission trip. And on their mission trip, they stop in at the island of Crete. We don't know where they came from, except they came from Paul.
[00:11:22] And they appear to be the ones carrying the letter to Titus.
[00:11:28] So here, these two guys on a missionary journey, they're headed somewhere and on their way. Paul says, now take this letter to Titus on Crete.
[00:11:37] And when they get to Titus on Crete, Paul now gives him instructions, Titus instructions that he is to receive them, give them lodging, feed them, and then probably pay their fare on the next boat that they're going to get on to go from Crete to wherever Zenos and Apollos are going on their mission. They're getting resupplied with food and money, and Titus is going to do that so that he says they would lack nothing. So Paul's giving lots of work for Titus to do, lots of good deeds for Titus to do as a part of the missionary work of preaching the gospel and planting churches.
[00:12:19] It involves food, probably money to pay for ship, voyages, whatever else they need.
[00:12:28] Paul says, now, Titus, you're to do all of this and prepare for all of this, and let the people on the island of Crete, the new Christians that you're the pastor of, let them also learn to meet these kinds of urgent needs. In other words, he wants Titus to turn around and get the church to help in supporting these missionary journeys. Probably Titus missionary journey that's coming up, but also definitely that of Zenas and Apollos.
[00:13:01] The new church, in other words, is immediately being called to join Titus in graciously giving and supporting missionary work, first to give Zenas and Apollos, and later probably to help their pastor, Titus, as he goes on his missionary journey.
[00:13:23] So you see, the story leads right into the lesson, this gracious lesson that God's people are to be devoted to good works, especially in meeting urgent, pressing needs that are right in front of us.
[00:13:37] You may wonder, why does Paul end this letter with this lesson and weave it into his final instructions?
[00:13:46] He sees an opportunity, a divinely appointed opportunity to press home a lesson that's been there from the very beginning of the letter all the way through. If you go back to Titus, chapter one, verse one, Paul lays out his ministry aims. These are the goals of every preacher, every pastor, and one of them is that God's people would come to the knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness. In other words, that as we preach and teach God's people, that as they come to know more about the truth and about who Jesus is and about the grace of God in their lives, that that would flow out into godliness, into Christian piety.
[00:14:28] And then over and over again, Paul talks about how Christians are to be devoted to good works, to be ready for every good work. Chapter three, verse one and two, and then most of chapter three is laying out the argument for why we're to be ready to be devoted to every good work, because we're the recipients of God's grace.
[00:14:51] Now, that's this major theme the whole way through the letter.
[00:14:57] But here Paul presses home this lesson, because here he has an opportunity to show us and to show all Christians that good works aren't just some ideal thing.
[00:15:09] That saints really wholly special people do.
[00:15:13] They aren't some pie in the sky thing that's out there that's hard for us to understand.
[00:15:19] Good works or practical, tangible things that God calls us to do every day in the life of the church.
[00:15:30] You have Zenos and Apollos. They're going to need to pay the fare for their ship as they go on their missionary journey. They're going to need to have lodging wherever they go, right? They're going to land in a new city. They're going to need to rent rooms or a hotel, right?
[00:15:47] Titus is going to have to get his airfare and car rental and so on. Right?
[00:15:54] These are very tangible needs that are right in front of God's people.
[00:15:59] And as Paul lays them out, he says, oh, and tell God's people that they need to pay attention to these needs and seek to meet them.
[00:16:07] That's what good works are serving one another.
[00:16:13] So we have here a gracious lesson in these verses. First of all, I think it's taught in a gracious way. In other words, Paul sees a really helpful opportunity, a way for God's people to easily serve the mission of the church.
[00:16:32] And he points it out to them. He does so graciously, kindly. But what's greater, even more gracious about this lesson is that it points us to God's grace.
[00:16:45] Whenever we see opportunities for good works, someone to serve, a mission to support, we're seeing God graciously in his providence, arranging the circumstances for a way for us to do something good, to bless someone else.
[00:17:02] Paul wants us to see that God is the one who arranges the needs around us.
[00:17:08] It's by his providence that there might be a brother or sister who's in poverty and who needs to be cared for and helped.
[00:17:17] It's in God's providence that there are pastors to support, gospel missionaries, foreign missionaries to support, and so on.
[00:17:28] We should remember the words of Jesus, the poor will always be with you. You.
[00:17:34] It's in his providence that these needs are there so that we can meet them.
[00:17:41] That's a gracious thing. That's a good thing.
[00:17:44] So you may ask yourself, people ask this all the time, how can I serve in God's church? How can I do good things? How can I live my Christian life in a way that's fruitful?
[00:17:56] What does God want me doing?
[00:18:00] Look around you, look around you. If there are people in need, if there are things that need to be done, get up, roll up your sleeves and get going.
[00:18:12] God's placed those opportunities in your life.
[00:18:15] Graciously, so that you have a chance to serve.
[00:18:19] This lesson's also gracious because it teaches us this is kind of a negative side of it. There's a little warning embedded at the very end of what Paul says. It's it teaches us not to be unfruitful.
[00:18:32] He says that let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so that they be not unfruitful.
[00:18:43] For us to receive God's grace in Jesus and then not to live lives of fruitfulness, of giving to others out of that grace.
[00:18:54] Paul says, that's unfruitful.
[00:18:57] That's not a good, that's not where we want to be.
[00:19:00] God has poured out his spirit on us richly. We read earlier in this chapter richly, in regenerating us, in washing us clean of our sin, in justifying us in Christ Jesus, shall we then turn around and ignore the opportunities God's placed around us to serve?
[00:19:20] Now we're called here to respond to God's grace in our lives and in the needs that he's placed around us by giving of ourselves.
[00:19:30] God calls us to be a fruitful people then, a people devoted to good works and meeting needs. And here's what's really gracious about this lesson, that when we are seeking to devote ourselves to meeting needs, to blessing others, we are people who are clinging to Jesus.
[00:19:54] Think about it. Jesus is very clear that you have to abide in him because he's the true vine and you are the branches. He says, abide in Me and you will bear fruit.
[00:20:08] Apart from me, you can do nothing.
[00:20:11] You're seeking to serve others, to meet needs, to live in good works.
[00:20:18] You're doing so by faith, by trusting in Jesus, by clinging to him, by abiding in Him.
[00:20:26] That's a wonderful thing.
[00:20:28] That's a gracious lesson.
[00:20:30] Because seeking to fulfill what he calls us to do here drives us to Jesus, to His grace, to more of his goodness and love so that we can serve others.
[00:20:40] That's wonderful.
[00:20:42] So there's a gracious lesson. In Paul's final words, there's a gracious greeting. Read that in verse 15. All who are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith.
[00:20:55] You could read these words and say, I know about greetings. We do that all the time.
[00:21:00] I greet all sorts of people. I greet people at the grocery store that check my groceries.
[00:21:08] I greet strangers. I say hello, I say good morning. I greet my co workers.
[00:21:13] I greet loved ones and friends who I haven't seen in a while.
[00:21:18] We have all Kinds of greetings. Hello, goodbye, even.
[00:21:22] What do greetings do?
[00:21:25] They show kindness, they show affection. Sometimes we greet people to put them at ease.
[00:21:34] We greet people to show appreciation, maybe even more deeply, in the context of friendship. We greet a person to show that we desire to be with that person. We're really happy to see him. We have joy in anticipating spending time with this person.
[00:21:54] Even perhaps we greet to show peace between us, that things are good, things are okay. So we say hello, it's good to see you, and maybe even love with our dearest of friends and family members. We greet them, we hug them, and they know because of our greetings that we love each other.
[00:22:17] Now, of course, sometimes we use our greetings insincerely, informally. We don't really mean the things that we're saying, but you get the idea.
[00:22:25] In human society, this is how we use greetings. And we use them for good purposes, right?
[00:22:31] But what Paul is doing here is not just a friendly greeting. It's not just things that civil, polite people do, even people who care about each other deeply do.
[00:22:42] Paul says here that the church that he's a part of, that he's pastoring and serving, that that church greets Titus, and he asks Titus to turn around and greet the Christians on the island of Grete on Paul's behalf and on behalf of the church. This is one group of Christians sending its greetings through one pastor, Paul to another pastor Titus, and through Titus to another group of Christians far, far away by way of a letter.
[00:23:15] There's something special going on here. And Paul, if we didn't catch it just from the Christian language there of the church, he says to greet those who love us in the faith, that is, those who are in the faith, those who are believers and who love us, greet them.
[00:23:39] Now, briefly, you can think about the opposite here. And if you study, read through your New Testament, Christians are instructed not to greet those who do not believe the truth.
[00:23:51] You can look at this even here in Titus chapter 3. We're warned just a few verses back in verse 10 and 11 to reject the person who stirs up division. And we saw a couple weeks ago that division is because of rejecting the truth and not holding to the truth, right?
[00:24:12] So those who don't believe are to be rejected.
[00:24:16] We find the same kind of idea in Romans chapter 16.
[00:24:20] If you look at that later, you'll see that there. But it becomes really clear in Second John, verse 10 and 11, he says, if anyone comes to you, does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting.
[00:24:38] Don't greet the person who isn't in the faith, who doesn't accept true teaching, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. We're not to greet those who aren't in the faith and who don't love us, because if we greet them, we're expressing our agreement and the share that we have in whatever it is they believe. That isn't the truth.
[00:25:04] Christians aren't to greet those who aren't in the faith. In the kind of greeting Paul is talking about here. We are to greet only other believers in Jesus Christ, those who love us in the faith.
[00:25:20] That means that this kind of greeting that Paul is talking about here isn't just common civil greetings.
[00:25:27] It's a gracious greeting, gracious lesson. This is a gracious greeting. We are to greet those who share the same faith that we have. And therefore, because we believe in the same Jesus, we also love one another. Therefore, on the basis of all of that, we are to greet one another.
[00:25:48] We share the same faith. And if we share the same faith, that means we share the same Savior.
[00:25:55] If we share the same Savior, we share the same King.
[00:25:59] If we share the same Jesus, we share the same heavenly Father.
[00:26:04] That means we're all a part of the same heavenly family, the same church saved by Jesus, the same kingdom with Jesus as our King.
[00:26:17] So when we greet other believers, it's more than just a welcome and putting someone at ease when we greet them. We acknowledge the peace that we share with one another before God in Christ Jesus.
[00:26:36] We acknowledge the fact, not just that you could feel welcome here and at peace in my home.
[00:26:42] We acknowledge the fact when we greet one another that we are all forgiven.
[00:26:48] We are all justified in the same Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:26:52] We are all washed clean of sin in the same way.
[00:26:56] And so we have peace with one another and we can be welcome in one another's presence.
[00:27:04] When we greet one another as believers, it's more than just a delight in seeing a friend or a beloved relative you haven't seen in a while.
[00:27:17] When we greet one another, we show our joy with one another, that we both know the same loving Heavenly Father, that we are both children of God. Now that's something to rejoice over, that the person that you are meeting is someone who has the same heavenly Father, and we will all one day be welcomed into the same presence of that Father.
[00:27:47] That's something to rejoice over.
[00:27:50] He's a child of God. She's a child of God.
[00:27:54] That's A different kind of greeting than just saying you're a beloved family member. It's wonderful, I know, but this is something greater, something to rejoice over.
[00:28:07] Do you delight in friendship here on earth? I hope you do.
[00:28:12] But you can greet another Christian, delighting in the fact that you share eternal life with this believer.
[00:28:22] You will get to spend eternity forever.
[00:28:26] What a thing to rejoice over in your heart as you greet this brother and sister on Sunday morning or Sunday evening. Evening.
[00:28:37] When we greet other believers, we don't just wish goodwill on them. You say good morning to someone. You're saying that you hope this person has a good morning and a good day and a good evening.
[00:28:49] It's an expression of goodwill. You're wishing good things for that person.
[00:28:54] No Christians, when we greet one another, we express our desire that this dear brother or sister will experience more of God's grace, more of God's rich blessings, that he'll come to know Jesus in an even deeper way today and tomorrow.
[00:29:17] You know the blessings of living under Christ's reign. This is a servant of the King, a recipient of God's blessings.
[00:29:25] Your wish and desire for him as you greet him is far more than just that things will go well for him.
[00:29:34] It's that every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places that God has blessed us with in Christ, that he'll come to know a little bit more of that and experience a little bit more of that today.
[00:29:50] Does your breast fill with joy over Christ's servants when you say good morning to them?
[00:29:59] Does your heart warm with gratitude to your heavenly Father when you see his child and you say, great to see you again?
[00:30:10] Do you desire the great blessing of God on your brothers and sisters, that he would fill them with his love, that their hope of eternal life would grow a little bit stronger, and that the peace of God that passes all understanding would guard their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus?
[00:30:33] Do you desire that when you greet them, greet those who love you in the faith with a gracious greeting.
[00:30:48] But Paul's final word is perhaps the best word.
[00:30:53] His final word is a gracious blessing. Grace be with you all.
[00:31:01] His final word is both a declaration that God's grace is with you and a prayer that God's grace would be with you. As pastors, we pronounce God's blessing over you, but as God's words, the best we can do as pastors is pray that God would keep his promise for you, his people, as we pronounce it over you. It is both God's declaration of his word and a prayer that God's grace would be with you, his church.
[00:31:33] First two words, give and greet.
[00:31:37] But now simply it's that God's grace would be with you.
[00:31:45] God's grace is the basis of all of our good works.
[00:31:50] All the giving that we might do for others of any sort.
[00:31:55] It's grounded in God's gracious gift to us, his grace to us in His Son.
[00:32:03] We read in chapter two of Titus that Jesus gave Himself to purify for Himself a people for his own possession who would be zealous for good works.
[00:32:15] Where does our ability to do any good work, any gift to anyone else come from? It comes because Jesus gave Himself on the cross to purify us of all the bad stuff that we have, so that here and there for him we might be able to be zealous and and doing a little bit of good to his glory. His work graciously is the basis of our good works, but isn't just the work he did in the past? He tells us very clearly that even now his person, our union through faith with Him.
[00:32:48] There from him personally flows the life changing power that enables us to do good works.
[00:32:57] Jesus says, I'm the vine, you're the branches, and apart from Me you can do nothing.
[00:33:02] But if you abide in Me, you will bear fruit.
[00:33:06] You give and you serve, and you do things only by his grace.
[00:33:12] Grace be with you.
[00:33:15] But his grace isn't just the basis of your good works. His grace is the basis of your greeting one another. I think that's probably already obvious, but there's a little more.
[00:33:28] It's like the Russian nesting dolls as you press Paul's words and you think about them together as we greet one another, we are mirroring God's gracious greeting to us.
[00:33:42] God blessed us in his grace and we greet one another with words of blessing.
[00:33:49] Out of his grace, we simply mirror what he's done for us in Christ.
[00:33:57] What do you hear week after week?
[00:34:00] The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
[00:34:09] Cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
[00:34:14] You see, when you received grace, you received grace because God shown His gracious smile on you.
[00:34:26] And that happened when you heard the message that Jesus was the Savior.
[00:34:32] Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. When you heard those words savingly, because the Spirit opened your heart like Lydia's heart, so that you would hear those words and believe them. And in that moment you beheld the glory of God and His grace mercifully shining on you in the face of Jesus Christ His Son.
[00:34:56] That's what Paul says when the Gospel is preached in 2nd Corinthians 3, 4. There in Jesus Christ, the glory of God shines brightly in your very heart, so that there you see God graciously, mercifully in His Son.
[00:35:16] That's what he's saying when he says, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. You see, God is greeting you in Jesus His Son.
[00:35:31] Grace to you and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. From the Father through the Son to you.
[00:35:41] God greets you in Jesus. And every day you wake up, he greets you in His Son, Jesus. There is not a day that you wake up and your eyes open and God is not graciously smiling on you. His church in His Son.
[00:36:00] The very middle of Lamentations. You read through that book. Lots of wonderful stuff there. But there in the middle, in the middle of chapter three, the middle chapter.
[00:36:11] His mercies are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.
[00:36:17] Every day you wake up, God greets you in His Son, so that you may greet one another.
[00:36:25] Grace is the basis of good works. Grace is the basis of your greeting for one another.
[00:36:31] But what Paul leaves you with is simply the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
[00:36:38] Grace be with you all. Dear Christian, if it wasn't clear already, God's grace is with you.
[00:36:45] His grace is with you now, and his grace is always with you.
[00:36:51] If you know God and Jesus Christ, you will never be without God's grace.
[00:36:59] Why?
[00:37:00] His grace is his favor towards you, his gift towards you.
[00:37:06] It's his gift to you.
[00:37:09] You did nothing to earn it, nothing to merit it. It's his gift to you. He gives you his grace.
[00:37:18] You can't change what he does. By grace you have been saved.
[00:37:24] His grace is his favor. It flows from his gracious, loving disposition to you and his heart of mercy and compassion to you. That's his grace.
[00:37:37] Can you change God's heart? Can you change God's mind about you?
[00:37:41] No.
[00:37:43] So you cannot change his grace towards you.
[00:37:47] You cannot take his grace away from you.
[00:37:51] Grace be with you.
[00:37:54] His grace is with you because you can't change Him.
[00:37:59] His grace is with you because it's with you in Christ Jesus His Son.
[00:38:05] When you believed in Jesus, God united you to His Son, Jesus, and through Jesus to Himself. We talk about Jesus being the mediator, the God man who unites God and man, who brings sinners and reconciles them to God.
[00:38:23] When you believed in Jesus because God opened your heart to believe in him, you were connected inseparably to Jesus.
[00:38:31] And in Jesus you receive all God's grace.
[00:38:37] And here's a wonderful thing. If you have Jesus, you have the Father.
[00:38:42] And Jesus says he's always with you. And therefore the Father is always with you. His words, not mine. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him.
[00:38:55] And we, the Father and I, we will come and make our home with Him.
[00:39:02] God's grace is with you because Jesus is with you. And because Jesus is with you, the Father is with you.
[00:39:09] Grace be with you all.
[00:39:13] His grace is with you because His Spirit indwells you.
[00:39:19] You need to know that his grace is with you. That's why I'm belaboring the point. Paul wants you to know that God's grace is with you.
[00:39:29] His grace is with you because His Spirit indwells you.
[00:39:33] When Jesus said he was coming to live with the Christian, to make his abode in you, in your heart, with the Father, his, he was talking about the Holy Spirit that He was going to send.
[00:39:45] He says that later in John chapter 14, that he would send the helper God, the Holy Spirit, who would indwell us.
[00:39:53] But here in Titus 3, we read that God saved us not by anything we did, but through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior.
[00:40:16] God's grace is with you because he has poured Himself in the person of His Holy Spirit richly, abundantly. It's like taking the biggest bucket you can think of, the entire ocean, and pouring it out on you.
[00:40:30] In his spirit.
[00:40:33] God's grace is with you because the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit indwells you.
[00:40:41] And if God chooses to indwell a sinner, you belong to Him. He's made his abode in you. And nothing will separate you from him or his love or his grace.
[00:40:53] God's grace is with you.
[00:40:57] Paul and I, as pastors, can pray that God's grace would be with you.
[00:41:02] But God promises that his grace is with you inseparably, unchangeably.
[00:41:09] You see, this is why Paul ends his final words with God's blessing of grace be with you.
[00:41:18] Everything depends on this. By grace you have been saved.
[00:41:22] This is your hope. This is your life.
[00:41:25] This is your assurance, your peace, your joy, that the infinite favor of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is on you.
[00:41:37] You he loves you. He smiles on you.
[00:41:42] Dear people of God, you have a blessing, the greatest blessing that God can give.
[00:41:50] He's given you himself.
[00:41:54] Let's pray.
[00:41:57] O Lord, our God.
[00:42:01] Our hearts are mixed as we hear the wonders of your grace.
[00:42:06] For on the one hand they are marvelous, but on the other hand we also sense our great ingratitude. Oh, how little we think of your grace.
[00:42:18] Oh, how often we think of other things.
[00:42:22] And Lord, we confess that the same sentiments and the same weaknesses of our hearts are what lead us to worry and to fear and to fall into sin and doubt and unbelief.
[00:42:36] Because we doubt and we forget about your grace.
[00:42:40] But we thank you that your mercies are new every morning. We thank you that we can always turn to you.
[00:42:47] And in Jesus, our loving Savior, our elder brother, our friend, we can see your grace and mercy. Oh, how we thank you.
[00:42:58] We ask, O God, that you would fill our hearts with the fullness of Christ so that having received him in your grace, we would be compelled and with joy and delight be ready to bless one another.
[00:43:15] Not just with our words and with our wishes and with our prayers, but with our hands and with our actions. We ask that you would help us as we seek to serve one another and in this local body of Christ and in the broader body.
[00:43:30] And that you would bless us as we serve you together.
[00:43:35] That you would use each of us all different parts of the body, weak ones and strong ones, all of them working together to build one another up and to serve you. So that united together we might reflect your glory. That our light would shine brightly, that we would indeed be that light of the world which Jesus calls us to be.
[00:43:56] And that we might draw others to saving faith in you, that we might draw others to new your grace and goodness.
[00:44:04] We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.
