SPEAKER_00: I invite you to open back up to Titus.
SPEAKER_00: And let me pray once more.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, enlighten our minds to the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And speak through me now by the power of your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Now maybe some of you were surprised that we are no longer in Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: I've gotten that quite a bit this week, but we said at the very beginning when we began studying Genesis that we were going to do the first 11 chapters, not all 50.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you were wanting to go to the end and you would have been there.
SPEAKER_00: But that was never the plan.
SPEAKER_00: We were going to go through chapters 1 to 11, and we will return to Genesis, I promise.
SPEAKER_00: We will go back and we will pick up Abraham and the patriarchs and Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: It's glorious.
SPEAKER_00: But I felt like we needed to focus on the church after establishing a Christian worldview that we would study Christ's church.
SPEAKER_00: And there's really no better way than by looking at the pastoral epistles, because it is here that the battle for the church is really being waged here in Titus and 2 Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to go through both.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to go through the book of Titus and we are going to go through the book of 2 Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: And really, Titus is a church planting manual.
SPEAKER_00: It is three pivot chapters on how to establish the church and how the church should be organized and how the church should be functioned so that Christianity advances in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And it feels epic.
SPEAKER_00: When you read through Titus, when you read through 2 Timothy, you're hearing the mature Paul.
SPEAKER_00: He's already been in a Roman prison once.
SPEAKER_00: He's been released.
SPEAKER_00: And now he's facing all of these challenges.
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes I think ministry is going to be idyllic and everything is just going to go along eloquently, and everything is going to go according to plan.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not how the Christian life works.
SPEAKER_00: It's not how the church works.
SPEAKER_00: It's not how sports work.
SPEAKER_00: Remember Mike Tyson, he says everybody has a plan until they're punched in the face.
SPEAKER_00: And what you see in these in these chapters, I mean, Paul at the end of 2 Timothy says, everybody's abandoned me.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone's gone, except for Luke.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the opposition is so great.
SPEAKER_00: And he's planted churches, but he he's it's dawned on him that the opposition is fierce.
SPEAKER_00: And that we're in a fight, we're in a battle to establish the true church.
SPEAKER_00: And friends, is that where we are today?
SPEAKER_00: I think we've had four years of reprieve, but the the tide of secularism is rising.
SPEAKER_00: And the attacks against the church for simply upholding the word of God will come back to our doorstep.
SPEAKER_00: I promise you.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready?
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to stand for truth?
SPEAKER_00: To do that, we have to be a healthy church, and we have to go back to the apostolic instructions for the church.
SPEAKER_00: And there's no better place to do that than in Titus and 2 Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so let's let's look at Titus.
SPEAKER_00: Why Titus?
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna do a very short introduction for you this morning, and then we're gonna look at the first verse.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, you can get a good study Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We have some.
SPEAKER_00: This is an unshameful plug, a shameless plug for the bookstore right here.
SPEAKER_00: We got good study Bibles that you can go pick up, and they have great introductory and introductory material there on each book of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: But first, let me give you a little bit of the historical background of this book.
SPEAKER_00: It's important when you're studying scripture to know the context.
SPEAKER_00: Context is king when it comes to studying scripture.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like real estate location, location, location.
SPEAKER_00: When you study scripture, it's context, context, context is our interpretive guide.
SPEAKER_00: What did it mean then before we asked, what does it mean to us today?
SPEAKER_00: So let me give you the historical background.
SPEAKER_00: So do you remember Acts 28 ends with Paul going to Rome to be a prisoner of the emperor?
SPEAKER_00: That's where Luke leaves off the book of Acts, and then he's put in a Roman prison.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some people think, well, it's there he writes 2 Timothy, and it's, you know, he's sentenced to death.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not what happens.
SPEAKER_00: He's put in a Roman prison and then he's released, and then he goes on a fourth missionary journey that's not mentioned in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: It's not to be found in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes to Crete.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Crete is uh the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean.
SPEAKER_00: If you're looking on the map, it looks like a hot dog right in the middle of the Mediterranean.
SPEAKER_00: If you go there, it's a mountainous island, lots of mountains in the middle, very beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: He went to Crete.
SPEAKER_00: We know that he went to Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: We know that he went over into Macedonia because that's where he's writing this letter.
SPEAKER_00: He's writing this letter from Macedonia because he left Titus in Crete.
SPEAKER_00: So he goes on this fourth missionary journey, and he went to Crete, he wins people to Christ, and he then goes off and he leaves Titus in Crete, and that's the recipient.
SPEAKER_00: Titus is the recipient.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: To Titus, my true child in a common faith.
SPEAKER_00: In New Testament terms, the church often functions as a family.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul calls people his children who he wins to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So those that Paul teaches the gospel to, the gospel message, who come to repentance and faith through his message, he calls his children.
SPEAKER_00: So undoubtedly Titus, who is it's a Greek name, he's a Gentile, he is a convert of Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And he leaves Titus in Crete.
SPEAKER_00: You see this in the next verse, because Titus holds the office of evangelist.
SPEAKER_00: The office of evangelist.
SPEAKER_00: So in Ephesians 4.11, this is an important verse, Paul says he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for the building up of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 4.5 to do the work of an evangelist.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when I say evangelist, what comes to your mind?
SPEAKER_00: What do you think about?
SPEAKER_00: Who do you think about when I say evangelist?
SPEAKER_00: Billy Graham.
SPEAKER_00: I heard it on your lips.
SPEAKER_00: Or I heard it on Jeff's lips.
SPEAKER_00: But we we think you think of these great preachers who hold evangelistic crusades, who do outreach, lots of people come in here, maybe Billy Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know the name D.L.
SPEAKER_00: Moody, the shoe salesman, became a great evangelist?
SPEAKER_00: George Whitfield, names like that.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we think about.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament, the evangelists, the way that they functioned, yes, they would win people to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, they would do evangelism.
SPEAKER_00: But their work was to organize people into churches.
SPEAKER_00: So the apostles would leave evangelists in certain places, and the evangelists would help organize the churches.
SPEAKER_00: They'd be winning people to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But but the way that the gospel was inevitably to advance was by establishing healthy, strong churches.
SPEAKER_00: And I think we've lost a little bit of that in the modern era, where evangelists simply preach the gospel and move on to another city.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament evangelists would work really hard to get the churches flourishing.
SPEAKER_00: I heard Sinclair Ferguson say one time that the greatest evangelistic tool is a healthy church.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's a degree where the New Testament evangelists they focus on building into the health of the church.
SPEAKER_00: And they raised up these evangelists all over the place.
SPEAKER_00: So I found a list this week.
SPEAKER_00: This is just a list of the names of some of the evangelists that Paul utilized.
SPEAKER_00: Cresons in Galatia.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, you know Luke, the doctor.
SPEAKER_00: John Mark became again useful to Paul.
SPEAKER_00: That's 2 Timothy 4.11.
SPEAKER_00: Tychicus is mentioned in Ephesus, 2 Timothy 4.12.
SPEAKER_00: Erastus, who had been the city treasurer, became an evangelist in Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: That's 2 Timothy 4.20.
SPEAKER_00: Trophimus was sent to Miletus and then later to Crete, 2 Timothy 4.20, and mentioned in Titus 3.12.
SPEAKER_00: Artemis, Apollos, you know his name.
SPEAKER_00: Zenus, who was a lawyer, turned evangelist.
SPEAKER_00: Archipus is mentioned in Colossians 4.17.
SPEAKER_00: So there were lots of evangelists that were being sent to help bring instruction and leadership to the churches.
SPEAKER_00: And Titus is one of those.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you more about Titus.
SPEAKER_00: We know that he was a Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: We know that, likely, like I said, that he was won to the gospel by the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Paul mentions that he was taken to Jerusalem with him as an uncircumcised man.
SPEAKER_00: And this served as evidence in the book of Galatians that you did not need to be circumcised, that you did not need to keep the Old Testament ceremonial law in order to be a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Titus was exhibit A of that.
SPEAKER_00: He would later travel with Paul to Ephesus during the third missionary journey.
SPEAKER_00: That's mentioned in 2 Corinthians 2, 12.
SPEAKER_00: He would be sent to Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: That's 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and 8.
SPEAKER_00: Paul tells him at the end of the book of Titus in verse 12, chapter 3, to come join him in Nicopolis.
SPEAKER_00: And then in 2 Timothy 4 10, we find out that he was sent to Dalmatia, which is modern Yugoslavia.
SPEAKER_00: So you see that Titus is a trustworthy accomplice with Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Titus is a trusted evangelist that Paul uses.
SPEAKER_00: What's the occasion for commissioning him in Crete?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul had gone there, he had won many people to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Christians in every town, but things are disorganized.
SPEAKER_00: It's like the junk drawer in your kitchen where you just have all this stuff thrown in there batteries and pins and rubber bands and paper clips and coupons.
SPEAKER_00: It's disorganized.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Titus, you need to put things into order for the health of the church.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the occasion.
SPEAKER_00: Now, three main observations about all of this.
SPEAKER_00: One, the reason for doing this is because false teachers were already distorting and watering down the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And the specific type of false teaching, it's implied as a type of Judaizing, where they were saying, yes, believe in Jesus, but also keep the ceremonial law, also be circumcised, also keep the food, that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: And so people were distorting the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And the way that Paul says that you need to correct this is by appointing qualified elders in every church.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse six.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone is above reproach, talking about elders, so on and so forth, he goes through uh through verse nine talking about the qualifications for elders.
SPEAKER_00: Is leadership important in the life of the church?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: You have to have qualified elders leading the church, qualified men who are above reproach, and we're going to look at their qualifications.
SPEAKER_00: But look what they're to do in verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: He must be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
SPEAKER_00: Sound doctrine means healthy.
SPEAKER_00: A church is healthy when you have the right preaching of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: A church is healthy when you have the right preaching of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Can you have a healthy church without the right preaching of the word of God?
SPEAKER_00: No, you cannot.
SPEAKER_00: Because so the leadership of a church goes, so the church is going to go.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's so important that we train men to be upstanding preachers and elders in Christ's church.
SPEAKER_00: And he says they also must be able to rebuke the false teachers.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you have elders, and then if you have solid elders in place, Paul believes you will have faithful Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Faithful Christians.
SPEAKER_00: A church is only as healthy as the lives of the Christians who make it up.
SPEAKER_00: So your sanctification is the barometer of the health of this church.
SPEAKER_00: Your Christ-likeness is the gauge by which Christ measures this church or any church.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we believe the gospel, but we believe that the faith that saves alone is never alone.
SPEAKER_00: That it always leads to sanctification and good works.
SPEAKER_00: And this becomes the major theme of Titus is that if you get the right church in place, you're going to have righteous living that results.
SPEAKER_00: I want to just show you a gauntlet of verses through Titus that say this.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 16, chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the false teachers.
SPEAKER_00: He says, They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.
SPEAKER_00: False teaching always leads to false works.
SPEAKER_00: He says, They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.
SPEAKER_00: Then turn over to chapter 2, verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he says to Titus.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Show yourself, Titus, in all respects to be a model of good works.
SPEAKER_00: And in your teaching, show integrity, dignity.
SPEAKER_00: Titus needed to be a model of good works.
SPEAKER_00: Three verses later, in verse 10, he's talking about slaves.
SPEAKER_00: He says, in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Their lives adorn the truth that they believe.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this phrase, who are zealous for good works.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Zealous for good works, not to earn justification, but because we have been justified.
SPEAKER_00: Then he says, chapter 3, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient.
SPEAKER_00: Again, notice, to be ready for every good work.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Be careful to devote themselves to good works.
SPEAKER_00: Then verse 14, he says, Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the pattern?
SPEAKER_00: So establish a healthy church, put elders in place, refute the false teaching, get it out.
SPEAKER_00: It's leaven.
SPEAKER_00: Get it out.
SPEAKER_00: False teaching is dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: Get it out.
SPEAKER_00: And then with the true church established, you see it manifested in the believers' lives, where they are faithful to do good works in keeping with the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: So good works are not the root of our salvation, they're the fruit of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Faith alone is the root which the good works flow from.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the major theme.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me orient you with an outline.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, outlines are helpful because they help trace the argument.
SPEAKER_00: What is Paul's argument?
SPEAKER_00: The first four verses are his salutation and purpose for writing.
SPEAKER_00: The second part or section deals with elders, the need for biblical leadership.
SPEAKER_00: That's chapter 1, verses 5 to 9.
SPEAKER_00: And then the problem, the fact that there are false teachers that are already influencing Christians.
SPEAKER_00: That's verses 10 to 16 of chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 2 introduces the theme, the fourth section, of godly living in a healthy church.
SPEAKER_00: That's chapter 2, verses 1 to 10.
SPEAKER_00: And he's going to talk about the primacy of sound doctrine, how everything flows from sound doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: And then he's going to give instructions to older men.
SPEAKER_00: That's chapter 2, verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: Older women, chapter 2, verses 3 to 5.
SPEAKER_00: Younger men, chapter 2 to 6, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: The pastor and evangelist, chapter 2, verses 7 and 8, and the slave or bondservant, chapter 2, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: The fifth section is he's going to talk about the grace of God and how the grace of God is the engine of all godly living.
SPEAKER_00: That's chapter 2 verses 11 to 15.
SPEAKER_00: The sixth section involves conduct in the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's chapter 3, verses 1 to 8.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to talk about submission to authorities and good works.
SPEAKER_00: That's chapter 3, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Our conduct towards others, chapter 3, verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to remind them of their former conduct before salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 3, verses 3 to 7.
SPEAKER_00: And then he's going to insist on good works as evidence of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That's chapter 3, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Seventh section is the problem restated again.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you teach by repetition, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: You say one thing, and Paul does this again and again when you study Paul is he'll come back to it.
SPEAKER_00: He'll come back to it.
SPEAKER_00: He reminds you.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, the problem again, don't forget, is false teachers, chapter 3, verses 9 to 11.
SPEAKER_00: And then there is a closing exhortation, the eighth section.
SPEAKER_00: That's chapter 3, verses 12 to 15.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the outline.
SPEAKER_00: We'll follow that outline as we go through the book.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we are going to look at chapter 1, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: And this will set the foundation for the rest of our study.
SPEAKER_00: Look at that first word, Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Who is Paul?
SPEAKER_00: Let me remind you with five facts about the apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: These are very important, very important to understand in terms of this letter.
SPEAKER_00: One, Paul was from a devoted Jewish family of the tribe of Benjamin.
SPEAKER_00: Devoted, devout Jewish family.
SPEAKER_00: He grew up not in Judea, he grew up in Tarsus, which is modern Asia Minor.
SPEAKER_00: He grew up in a Greek-speaking town, a town where Latin would have also been spoken, but he was from a family of means.
SPEAKER_00: I know that because they went to essentially every Jewish feast.
SPEAKER_00: They had the means to go down three times a year to the feast.
SPEAKER_00: So he grows up a devout Jew, and we also know that he was from means because, second fact, he was a Roman citizen.
SPEAKER_00: His father was a Roman citizen.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember when he was in Philippi and Acts 16?
SPEAKER_00: And they beat him with rods, they threw him in prison.
SPEAKER_00: And he lets it slip.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Hey, remind the city magistrate that I'm a Roman citizen.
SPEAKER_00: And they freak out because you can't touch a Roman citizen without a trial.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do that.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul would leverage this Roman citizenship when he was in Caesarea by the sea.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I appeal to Caesar.
SPEAKER_00: Take me to Caesar.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a Roman citizen.
SPEAKER_00: You can't touch me like that.
SPEAKER_00: So his Roman citizenship, very important.
SPEAKER_00: Third fact.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is his Greek name, Paulos.
SPEAKER_00: Saul is his Hebrew name.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many times I've heard, you know, Saul was on the Damascus road and Jesus confronted him and then he became Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever heard that?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: It's just two languages.
SPEAKER_00: It's he's by his Jewish friends in the synagogue, he's called Saul.
SPEAKER_00: With his Gentile friends, he's called Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And this really gets to the heart of who Paul is, I think, that he's a man in two worlds, isn't he?
SPEAKER_00: He's a Greek man.
SPEAKER_00: He's well versant with Latin and Greek, but he's also a Jew.
SPEAKER_00: He knows Hebrew.
SPEAKER_00: He's studying the Torah.
SPEAKER_00: That leads to the fourth fact.
SPEAKER_00: He goes to Jerusalem to become a student of the greatest scribe of his day, a fellow by the name of Gamiliel.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there were two schools of thought when it came to the scribes, the school of Shemai and the school of Hillel.
SPEAKER_00: And Gameliel most think was a descendant of Hillel.
SPEAKER_00: And so he was a prominent scribe.
SPEAKER_00: And he was a wise man.
SPEAKER_00: I say that because do you remember Acts chapter 5 when they threw the apostles into prison because they were healing in Jesus' name?
SPEAKER_00: They threw the apostles into prison.
SPEAKER_00: And then an angel released them.
SPEAKER_00: And they go out and they start preaching in the temple again.
SPEAKER_00: And Sanhedrin gathers and they said, What are we to do?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we threw these guys in jail, they're miraculously released.
SPEAKER_00: And Gameliel said, he said, guys, be careful.
SPEAKER_00: He said, because if this is not from the Lord, what's happening will be overthrown, just like all these instigators that have come before.
SPEAKER_00: But if it's from the Lord, you will not be able to stand against it.
SPEAKER_00: You will not be able to stop it.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Gameliel says.
SPEAKER_00: So this is the man who trained Saul of Tarsus, Apollos.
SPEAKER_00: And he trained him so that he would know essentially the entire Torah by heart.
SPEAKER_00: He would have memorized most of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: So he's conversant with Judaism.
SPEAKER_00: He becomes really the most able student of Gameliel.
SPEAKER_00: Fifth fact.
SPEAKER_00: The Stephen event of Acts chapter seven proved to be one of the most important events in Saul's life.
SPEAKER_00: Who knows what I'm talking about, the Stephen event.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter six, seven men were appointed to serve the Grecian widows.
SPEAKER_00: Stephen was one of those men.
SPEAKER_00: He was anointed by the Holy Spirit, and he began preaching.
SPEAKER_00: Stephanos.
SPEAKER_00: That name also implies that he was a Greek speaker, just like who?
SPEAKER_00: Just like Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And Stephen goes in Acts chapter 6 and he begins preaching in what they called the synagogue of the freedmen.
SPEAKER_00: It was the synagogue where the Greek-speaking Jews came to worship when they were in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Probably people that Saul knew, that Paul knew, were there.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I think Paul was there.
SPEAKER_00: Because you remember at the end of Acts chapter 7, who's there where they're putting the tunics down at his feet?
SPEAKER_00: Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Well, something happened as Stephen was teaching.
SPEAKER_00: Something happened, I think, inside Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Because here he is.
SPEAKER_00: He spans the Greek world, the Jewish world.
SPEAKER_00: He's studying the scriptures under Gameliel.
SPEAKER_00: He's learning.
SPEAKER_00: He's becoming more devout than all of his peers.
SPEAKER_00: He is the scribe of the future.
SPEAKER_00: And then he sees this young man about his age.
SPEAKER_00: And you read Stephen's sermon in Acts chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_00: He traces the themes of the Jews through history and he talks about how God has provided every step and how they've worshiped God in every way.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, I think Paul met his match.
SPEAKER_00: In Romans 7, do you know what the sin, the besetting sin that Paul mentions about himself, that was awakened in him before he was converted?
SPEAKER_00: It's the tenth commandment, covetousness, coveting something of someone else.
SPEAKER_00: I think as he heard Stephen preach, he realized that this man was speaking with authority that he did not have.
SPEAKER_00: And Stephen ends his sermon and he says, just like your fathers put the prophets to death, so you crucified and killed the righteous one.
SPEAKER_00: And at that, those Greek-speaking Jews, they gnashed their teeth.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's no trial.
SPEAKER_00: They took him out and they immediately started to stone him, and they put their tunics at Paul's feet.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was enraged.
SPEAKER_00: Does covetousness do something to you?
SPEAKER_00: It makes you hate people that you shouldn't hate.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul was filled with rage.
SPEAKER_00: He describes himself.
SPEAKER_00: This is Galatians 1.13.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently, and tried to destroy it.
SPEAKER_00: He was caught up in a violent rage against Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: I think because he was coveting Stephen and this power that Stephen possessed.
SPEAKER_00: So that's Paul.
SPEAKER_00: What else do we need to know about him?
SPEAKER_00: Well, look at the second phrase.
SPEAKER_00: He is a slave of God.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: The ESV translates it's a servant of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's the word do los.
SPEAKER_00: Slave of God.
SPEAKER_00: Very distinct way of describing himself.
SPEAKER_00: A slave.
SPEAKER_00: We understand this.
SPEAKER_00: This is not hard to understand.
SPEAKER_00: A slave is somebody that is owned by someone else.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying that he is owned by God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the only place in the New Testament he refers to himself as a slave of God.
SPEAKER_00: But there's other places where he refers to himself as a slave of Christ, a bondservant of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For example, Romans 1.1, he says Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians 1.1, he says, Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It communicates clearly this reality of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what Paul says, Romans 10 9?
SPEAKER_00: He says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart you will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: You can't divide the Kyrgios from the soter, the Lordship from the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do that.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: You can't say, I receive Jesus as some sort of sacrifice for myself, but I refuse to submit my life to him.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus asserts his lordship over us.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul understood this.
SPEAKER_00: I want I want to show you this.
SPEAKER_00: Turn over to the left to Acts chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: This is the famous Damascus Road experience.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this anger.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So he he is hellbent on doing this.
SPEAKER_00: He is very angry.
SPEAKER_00: As he went on his way, he approached Damascus, about 135 miles from where he was, so it's a long journey.
SPEAKER_00: And suddenly a light from heaven shone around him.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know if he was walking or he was, you know, legend has it that he was riding a horse that falling to the ground.
SPEAKER_00: He heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_00: And he, Saul, said, Who are you, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in that statement of Jesus is a theological idea that gripped Paul for the rest of his life.
SPEAKER_00: And the theological idea is this it's the doctrine of union with Christ, that faith unites the Christian believer to Christ in such a way, in such a profound mystical way, that we become the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus says to Paul, not why are you persecuting Christians?
SPEAKER_00: What does he say?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_00: He says, I identify so much with my body who is united to me that if you persecute them, you're persecuting me.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Who are you, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I am Jesus Christ, who you are persecuting.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's led, he's blinded by this light, and he's led on the way into Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: He goes without food, he's lying there, and he's come to grips with this reality that Jesus Christ is indeed the promised Messiah of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that he's studied, all of the Torah, all of the prophecies have found their culmination in this God man, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And he's lying on a bed, and I'm sure he's just thinking about these things.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus comes to a man named Ananiris, and he sends him to Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called Strait, and at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.
SPEAKER_00: For behold, he is praying.
SPEAKER_00: And he is seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.
SPEAKER_00: But Ananias answered, You would too, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I have heard from many about this man how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine, you know, your your the Lord comes to you and you have the audacity to tell the sovereign Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I don't know if you know this, but he's an undercover agent.
SPEAKER_00: He's got certificates to put people in prison.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, do you know this?
SPEAKER_00: You know what the score is?
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord said to him, listen how the Lord Jesus asserts his lordship over Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, over us.
SPEAKER_00: Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine.
SPEAKER_00: A chosen tool to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_00: He says, verse 16, I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.
SPEAKER_00: Because Paul's suffering will demonstrate the glory of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see how everything all of a sudden just converges together?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see it right there?
SPEAKER_00: So all of Paul's life just came together.
SPEAKER_00: He was a Gentile town, learned to speak Greek, Latin, raised the Hebrew, became this Hebrew scribe.
SPEAKER_00: Where is it all going?
SPEAKER_00: It's just all these pieces.
SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden, in a moment, Jesus says, all of this was appointed for a person, a point because he's a chosen instrument of mine.
SPEAKER_00: All of it.
SPEAKER_00: That's the providence of God.
SPEAKER_00: That all these disparate pieces all of a sudden come together in this moment that God orchestrates and plans.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the providence of God is one of the most amazing realities in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Because God takes our actions, he takes the actions of others, and for the believer, he weaves it together.
SPEAKER_00: And as Paul says, he works all things together for good.
SPEAKER_00: He works it all together.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a building that as it's being built, a child would come along, and a child looks at a building being built, and what do they see?
SPEAKER_00: They see all these different pieces, they see cement trunks, they see all sorts of going on, they just see the bits and pieces.
SPEAKER_00: What does the architect of the building see?
SPEAKER_00: All of it coming together to be built.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Jesus had seen all along.
SPEAKER_00: Orchestrating the events of Paul's life to this moment that he would become this doulos of God, this chosen instrument to be used by him.
SPEAKER_00: Paul understood this.
SPEAKER_00: He told the Corinthians, this is 1 Corinthians 6, 19, he says, You are not your own, for you were bought with the price.
SPEAKER_00: So glorify God with your body.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus was on the cross, he purchased us.
SPEAKER_00: And for that reason, we are called his slaves, his bondservants.
SPEAKER_00: Now we are a slave of God in a way not like the Muslims.
SPEAKER_00: Muslims consider themselves slaves of Allah as well, right?
SPEAKER_00: But they serve God with a type of fear that if they don't obey Allah, they will be sent to hell.
SPEAKER_00: We serve Christ as our older brother, as someone we love.
SPEAKER_00: We sang this morning about the great work of redemption and what Christ has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: We love Him.
SPEAKER_00: He also calls us our friends.
SPEAKER_00: He's our older brother.
SPEAKER_00: We serve God like a father, not a cruel taskmaster.
SPEAKER_00: Paul understood this, though, that he was a slave of God.
SPEAKER_00: And then the third phrase: an apostle of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: To be an apostle, there are two requirements.
SPEAKER_00: One, you must have seen the risen Christ, and secondly, you must be commissioned by him as an apostle.
SPEAKER_00: Apostle in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul was commissioned as an apostle.
SPEAKER_00: He says, 1 Corinthians 15 8.
SPEAKER_00: He says, last of all is to one and timely born.
SPEAKER_00: He appeared also to me.
SPEAKER_00: He says, For I am the least of the apostles, because he was a persecutor of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Now turn over to Galatians chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: I want to show you something about Paul's apostleship.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: Paul, you say, well, you know, Paul wasn't around with the twelve.
SPEAKER_00: Paul didn't hear the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: Paul didn't hear all the teaching in the Garden of Gethsemane.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't there in the upper room.
SPEAKER_00: So how did Paul get his doctrine?
SPEAKER_00: How did Paul get his teaching?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he explains it to us, verse 11 of Galatians 1.
SPEAKER_00: For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: For I did not receive it from any man.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, no apostle told me this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the Church of God violently and tried to destroy it.
SPEAKER_00: And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people.
SPEAKER_00: So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
SPEAKER_00: But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me by his grace, there's the providence, sovereignty of God, he says, was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: I did not immediately consult with anyone.
SPEAKER_00: So he goes into Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia.
SPEAKER_00: Many think that he went to Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_00: Many think that he went to Sinai, and there he received revelation from Jesus Christ of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, and then I returned again to Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: So he received his gospel directly from Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll close with this.
SPEAKER_00: What's his message?
SPEAKER_00: What is the gospel that he preached?
SPEAKER_00: Well, gospel, Greek word, umgalion, meant good news.
SPEAKER_00: It meant that you had a good message.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe your gospel is that a child has been born.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe your gospel is that you've won the battle.
SPEAKER_00: It meant it just means good news.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul talks about the gospel, where he puts the article in front of it in 1 Corinthians 15.
SPEAKER_00: I delivered to you, which is of first importance, the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and on the third day rose again according to the Scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says Romans 1 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: For it is the power of God into salvation, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
SPEAKER_00: So this gospel is this message of what Jesus accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is death for sinners.
SPEAKER_00: That he was buried and that he rose again for the justification of sinners, that he is without sin, that all those who believe in his name will also defeat death and will be raised again on the final day when his the ultimate end of his kingdom is ushered in.
SPEAKER_00: This Paul says is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what's great about it, what's so glorious about it, is that you don't have to work for it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to earn it.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you try and earn it, you'll miss it.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what we learn about on the Damascus Road, what Jesus said to Paul, why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_00: This idea of union with Christ, that faith unites you to Christ in such a way that everything that Jesus is is now yours, and all that you were is now on him.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 5.21.
SPEAKER_00: He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that in him, united to him, we might become the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul understood that if you're united to Christ by faith, not works, he says, I realize that the works did nothing, but if I'm united to Christ in faith, then all that he is becomes mine.
SPEAKER_00: And I become a righteous person.
SPEAKER_00: It's the greatest news.
SPEAKER_00: You've heard of, you know, the Roman Catholic Church baptizes all these people as saints.
SPEAKER_00: Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Aquinas.
SPEAKER_00: The list goes on and on.
SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament, based on this doctrine of union with Christ that's brought about the gospel, do you know what Paul refers to all Christians as?
SPEAKER_00: Saints.
SPEAKER_00: Even the worst Christians, the Corinthians.
SPEAKER_00: He opens up, you know, he talks about the laundry list of sins, and he says, to the saints that are in Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: This is good news.
SPEAKER_00: This is good news for sinners.
SPEAKER_00: And last I checked, that's us.
SPEAKER_00: That you repent of your sins, you trust Christ in faith like a child, and God declares you a saint.
SPEAKER_00: Doug Bogey, what are you?
SPEAKER_00: A saint.
SPEAKER_00: Damon, what are you?
SPEAKER_00: A saint.
SPEAKER_00: Not on the basis of my work, but on the basis of Christ's work.
SPEAKER_00: And that truth is the truth that changed the world.
SPEAKER_00: Praise be to God.
SPEAKER_00: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for this incredible message.
SPEAKER_00: What a message.
SPEAKER_00: That sinners can be counted righteous in Christ on the basis of the work of Christ alone, his death, burial, resurrection, perfect life.
SPEAKER_00: We glory in this message.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Lord, for the life of Paul that we're reading this book that he wrote 2,000 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Instructions to the churches, just as relevant as it was then, as it is now.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Lord, for your divine revelation that is given to us in your inerrant word.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, may we be a true New Testament church, living for your honor and your glory.
SPEAKER_00: For Christ's sake.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.