SPEAKER_00: I invite you to open your Bibles again to the passage that we read earlier to Titus chapter three.
SPEAKER_00: And Titus chapter three, there's a shift where Paul begins to talk about the Christian life in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 2, he was talking about our life in the church, and he's giving Titus instructions.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he's on that island in the middle of the Mediterranean, the island of Crete, and he's telling Titus the secret to life in the church, which you remember is a five-letter word in English, grace.
SPEAKER_00: For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, and it's the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's not behavioral modification.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the therapists and the psychologists are trying to do.
SPEAKER_00: It's grace, it's transformation.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says that is the secret to life in the church.
SPEAKER_00: And it is what makes Christians live differently in the world.
SPEAKER_00: If you look back at verse 14 of chapter 2, Paul reminds us, he says, Jesus gave us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works.
SPEAKER_00: So he's purified a people of his own possession.
SPEAKER_00: We belong to him now.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in Christ, you belong to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We're part of his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says in Philippians, he says, now for the Christian, our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He says something similar in verse 13 that we're waiting for Jesus, that our citizenship is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But as citizens of heaven, what does it look like to live in the world down here?
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Francis Schaefer wrote a book, How Now Shall We Then Live?
SPEAKER_00: How do we live in this world?
SPEAKER_00: Peter in 1 Peter 1 calls Christians the elect exiles or strangers.
SPEAKER_00: In that interesting language, that you live here in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Your citizenship is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You're an exile, you're a stranger.
SPEAKER_00: He says in chapter 2 of 1 Peter that we're pilgrims.
SPEAKER_00: What's a pilgrim?
SPEAKER_00: A pilgrim is somebody who goes on a journey in a foreign land.
SPEAKER_00: He says that's the picture of a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You're on a journey in a foreign land.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, he says, we are ambassadors for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What's an ambassador?
SPEAKER_00: An ambassador is somebody who leaves their own country, is a representative of that country, and goes to another country, and they represent that nation that they're from.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You are an ambassador of the kingdom of heaven here in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Why does Jesus leave us in the world?
SPEAKER_00: Why are we still here?
SPEAKER_00: Why doesn't, you know, when you become a Christian, why doesn't, like Star Trek, why doesn't God just beam you up?
SPEAKER_00: Why doesn't that happen?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus tells us, jot down this verse, not gonna have you turn there.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, this is John 17 in the upper room with his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I do not ask, he's praying to the Father, that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, don't take them out of the world, keep them from the evil one.
SPEAKER_00: He goes on to pray, they are not of the world, just as I'm not of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
SPEAKER_00: Why was Jesus sent into the world?
SPEAKER_00: He was sent on a mission to save sinners.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus says, just as the Father sent me into the world, I am sending you disciples into the world.
SPEAKER_00: So what's our purpose here as Christians?
SPEAKER_00: Why, if if you're still breathing, which we all are, I think, why does God have you still here?
SPEAKER_00: And it is because we are on a mission to win people to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's the language that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 9.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I became all things to all men that I might win some, win some to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So we are to be in the world, Jesus says, but they're not of the world, but we're to be protected from the evil one, and we are to be on a mission.
SPEAKER_00: And what verses 1 and 2 of chapter 3, these are Paul's instructions to Titus to tell the people, to tell them how they are to live in this world down here.
SPEAKER_00: How do we do this?
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to notice just real quick four observations.
SPEAKER_00: These are very simple, and then we'll get into the meat of the text.
SPEAKER_00: But four quick observations.
SPEAKER_00: First, as believers, we need this reminder of how we are to live.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what Paul says right at the beginning of verse one.
SPEAKER_00: He says, remind them.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a parent, have you ever had to do this with your children?
SPEAKER_00: You know, we are leaving at this time.
SPEAKER_00: Have your backpack ready, lunch packed.
SPEAKER_00: Do you think if you tell them that at the beginning of the school year, you might need to tell them again later?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the same with us, is it not?
SPEAKER_00: We need to be reminded.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul had already told the Cretans how they were to live, right?
SPEAKER_00: He had already told them that.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul tells Titus, he says, but you're gonna have to remind them again.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, we need this reminder.
SPEAKER_00: Most of the Christian life is not learning something new, but it's being reminded of what you already know.
SPEAKER_00: Second observation.
SPEAKER_00: Notice this.
SPEAKER_00: There is a distinct contrast between the Christian and the world.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a contrast between who the Christian is as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven and those in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And that is very evident.
SPEAKER_00: Notice he describes the Christian in verse 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_00: He says the Christian is submissive to rulers and authorities and obedient, ready for every good work.
SPEAKER_00: They speak evil of no one, they avoid curling, they're gentle, they show perfect courtesy toward all people.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Now, notice the contrast.
SPEAKER_00: This is the non-Christian.
SPEAKER_00: He says, For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
SPEAKER_00: Paul said earlier in this book, in chapter one, he says, Cretans are, he's quoting a poet, he says, are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul told the Corinthians, and such were some of you, but you're called out of that.
SPEAKER_00: But the point is there's a contrast.
SPEAKER_00: You see that?
SPEAKER_00: Between the Christian and the world.
SPEAKER_00: There should be a contrast.
SPEAKER_00: And in thinking about that, this is where in preparing this week, as I'm thinking about, I'm trying to get into Paul's head.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what you do when you study the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: You think about the context, you think about the history, you think about how the sentences are structured together, you think, you think about the words, and what you want to do by the power of the Holy Spirit is to think about, to use your mind and think about what the author is getting at here.
SPEAKER_00: And what I think Paul is thinking about are Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: So if you would turn over to Matthew 5.
SPEAKER_00: You see, some people think that Paul taught a Christianity that was abstracted from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus taught one thing and Paul just comes and adds all these laws and rules and things like this to what Jesus taught and changed Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing could be further from the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is extrapolating what Jesus had taught the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, he receives revelation by the Spirit, but everything is building on the foundation, which is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So if you turn to Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount begins with the Beatitudes, but then in verse 13, you come to what are called the similitudes, their similes.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, verse 13, he says, You, you Christians, are the salt of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what does salt do?
SPEAKER_00: Salt was used for two reasons in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_00: First, it was a preservative.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have refrigeration.
SPEAKER_00: If you had some nice bacon for breakfast and you wanted to eat it for lunch, you would salt it to preserve it from, you kill bacteria, keep it from going bad.
SPEAKER_00: So it's used as a preservative.
SPEAKER_00: The picture is that the Christian preserves what is good in the world.
SPEAKER_00: They preserve the virtues of God in this world.
SPEAKER_00: What would the world be without Christians?
SPEAKER_00: Be an incredibly dark place.
SPEAKER_00: Moreover, salt is used as a seasoning.
SPEAKER_00: You want to make something taste better, you put salt on it.
SPEAKER_00: And thus Christians are to be the flavor of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: They are to be the taste of Christ wherever we go.
SPEAKER_00: What's distinct about you?
SPEAKER_00: What makes you different?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's that I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: It's that flavor.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, this is a warning.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, if a salt if salt loses its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?
SPEAKER_00: It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.
SPEAKER_00: Question, have you ever tasted have you ever found salt that didn't have taste?
SPEAKER_00: Like have you ever just like, you know, when you're swimming in the ocean and you get a mouthful of water, not tasted the salt, has that ever happened?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Does salt really lose its saltiness?
SPEAKER_00: No, it doesn't, does it?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' point is, is if if you're not preserving what is good and you're not the flavor of Christ, he's saying you're not really salt.
SPEAKER_00: You're not really a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: He moves on.
SPEAKER_00: He says, you.
SPEAKER_00: This is an incredible, this is incredible imagery.
SPEAKER_00: You are the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
SPEAKER_00: What makes light distinct?
SPEAKER_00: Because it illumines the darkness, right?
SPEAKER_00: It illumines the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Darkness is, of course, the absence of light.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that contrast?
SPEAKER_00: The light illumines the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: There is a distinction between the Christian and the non-Christian.
SPEAKER_00: The non-Christian world is darkness.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian world is light.
SPEAKER_00: And what are we to be, he says?
SPEAKER_00: He says, you're to be like to be like a city on a hill.
SPEAKER_00: And then verse 15, he says, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket.
SPEAKER_00: No, the purpose we're not Amish people.
SPEAKER_00: We're not to go hide in the countryside.
SPEAKER_00: We're not to go up like the monastics did and hide out in caves.
SPEAKER_00: He says, no, the light isn't to be hidden under a basket.
SPEAKER_00: It's to be put forward into the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's the picture.
SPEAKER_00: To illuminate the darkness, that people would see the good deeds of the Christians and give honor to God.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16, the explanation in the same way.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
SPEAKER_00: Let your light shine before others, so they may see your good works.
SPEAKER_00: Who else is talking about good works in our passage?
SPEAKER_00: Paul, right?
SPEAKER_00: And Titus.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Do good works.
SPEAKER_00: What does Jesus say?
SPEAKER_00: You do good works, and they will see it, and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to show you something real quick.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to the right to Philippians chapter two.
SPEAKER_00: Turn over to Philippians because here Paul picks up explicitly what Jesus just said in Matthew 5.
SPEAKER_00: So in Philippians chapter 2, look at verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: Do all things.
SPEAKER_00: This will get you right here.
SPEAKER_00: Conviction city right here.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, do all things without grumbling or disputing, so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.
SPEAKER_00: Now look at this.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the last prepositional phrase.
SPEAKER_00: Among whom you shine as lights in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Where did Paul get that?
SPEAKER_00: That's straight from Matthew 5.
SPEAKER_00: That's straight from the similitudes, right?
SPEAKER_00: And what's the key here for the Christian?
SPEAKER_00: What is the key Paul is saying in order for us to be lights in the world?
SPEAKER_00: What's the key?
SPEAKER_00: It's very simple.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Do all things without grumbling or disputing?
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: That's what you're focusing on?
SPEAKER_00: Something so simple?
SPEAKER_00: Notice that phrase, the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know where Paul got that?
SPEAKER_00: He lifted that straight out of the book of Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know who Moses called a wicked and twisted generation?
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't the Canaanites.
SPEAKER_00: It was Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And why did he call them that?
SPEAKER_00: Because they complained.
SPEAKER_00: Why did they complain?
SPEAKER_00: Because they weren't grateful to God.
SPEAKER_00: It was a bad attitude.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, seriously, you think you you read the stories to your kids, and it's like God brings them out.
SPEAKER_00: They have a Passover lamb, God brings them out into the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: How did they know the will of God?
SPEAKER_00: They had a fire in the sky and a pillar of cloud that you literally followed the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: We're hungry.
SPEAKER_00: What does God do?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna shower manna from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, can you believe this?
SPEAKER_00: It's every day, and I just go out and get my quota and put it in a bag.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, this water is doesn't taste very good.
SPEAKER_00: You see Moses throw his staff in it, and all of a sudden we're able to come and drink the water?
SPEAKER_00: And yet, what do the people do?
SPEAKER_00: They complain.
SPEAKER_00: Why do they complain?
SPEAKER_00: They're ungrateful.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you go back to Titus, check this out.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he does here in Titus 3.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Paul is getting at.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You are to live like this in the world.
SPEAKER_00: You are to speak evil of no one.
SPEAKER_00: This is verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: You are to avoid quarreling, you're to be gentle, you're to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the answer.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: He says, I want you to be grateful to God for what he's done for you.
SPEAKER_00: For you, we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another, but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us.
SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, if you don't live differently, it means that you really don't understand what the Lord has done for you in his grace.
SPEAKER_00: You see, it's about gratitude of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: He says, if you're really thankful for grace, you will live differently.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's a very sad thing to meet someone who's a claims to be a believer and is ungrateful and has a bad attitude.
SPEAKER_00: And I say a bad attitude, but I mean a negative spirit.
SPEAKER_00: A negative spirit betrays ungratefulness to God.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, my goodness, how many blessings from God do we have?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how many blessings?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you're in Christ, you have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_00: We have the printed Bible, thanks to the Gutenberg Press.
SPEAKER_00: You have it on your phone.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we have more technology in our phones by the grace of God than they had that went to the moon.
SPEAKER_00: We've got good coffee now.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I wake up in the morning and got a mocha master, and I, you know, measure out, grind the beans from Costa Rica, and I put it in there, and I'm drinking to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what?
SPEAKER_00: Is there any room to have a negative attitude?
SPEAKER_00: No way, Jose.
SPEAKER_00: What we're talking about is Christian character.
SPEAKER_00: It's a character of gratitude in the heart for what he's done.
SPEAKER_00: So if you look at verse 1 and 2, it's a very simple outline.
SPEAKER_00: It's very uh explanatory if you if you're if you're looking at these two verses, what Paul is saying is you have general guidelines for how Christians are to live in the culture.
SPEAKER_00: So if you look at verse 1, it's the Christian in the culture.
SPEAKER_00: This is general.
SPEAKER_00: This is okay, these are general instructions about how we are to live in the culture.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2 are specific instructions about how we are to relate to our fellow man to other people.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at these briefly.
SPEAKER_00: So, first, general instructions.
SPEAKER_00: How are we to live in this broader culture as thankful Christians?
SPEAKER_00: He says, remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities.
SPEAKER_00: Now, notice those nouns, rulers, authorities.
SPEAKER_00: In some places, for example, in Ephesians 6, Paul uses those words to describe demonic authorities.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, that's not what he's referring to here because he's saying to be submissive to them.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul would never ask us to be submissive to demons.
SPEAKER_00: What is he referring to?
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, this is just obvious.
SPEAKER_00: He's asking us to be submissive to civic authorities, government leaders, police officers, those in authority over us.
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying that we are to have, this is the attitude that we are to have as believers.
SPEAKER_00: We are to have an attitude that is generally submissive to these leaders.
SPEAKER_00: The verb that he uses, Greek word hopitasso, it means to be under.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same word he uses in Romans 13, and it's the same verb that Peter uses in 1 Peter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Same, same word.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to understand the Christian's relationship to government, it's completely fleshed out in Romans 13.
SPEAKER_00: So that's where the theology of the Christian in government is located.
SPEAKER_00: And if you study Romans 13, Paul says, let every person, same word, who patasso, be subject to the governing authorities.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: He says, first argument, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
SPEAKER_00: He said it doesn't matter if they're a believer or an unbeliever, the rulers, the authorities that are present in the world, he says, those are in place under the sovereign hand of Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: And then the second argument he says in Romans 13 is verse 2 and 3.
SPEAKER_00: He says that the government is for the purpose of good.
SPEAKER_00: He says, rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.
SPEAKER_00: Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority?
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you look at Romans 13, there is a limit to the realm of government.
SPEAKER_00: Does government have universal authority over everything?
SPEAKER_00: And we would say no.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in Romans 13 that they have the authority to bear the sword, and that means that they administer justice.
SPEAKER_00: If somebody kills somebody else, the government is to administer justice.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul literally do you think he's talking about a metaphor metaphorical sword?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: What would they do in the Roman Empire?
SPEAKER_00: It was capital punishment, right?
SPEAKER_00: Bear the sword and then also protect the people.
SPEAKER_00: The job of the government is to provide an army for the protection of the populace.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what happens when government adds responsibilities to those things?
SPEAKER_00: You begin to have individual freedoms and liberties trampled upon.
SPEAKER_00: So the Christian has a general responsibility to be submissive to the government.
SPEAKER_00: That's our heart.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul's saying.
SPEAKER_00: That's our spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Now, are there situations where the government oversteps their bounds and the Christian is called to civil resistance?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if if the government came out today and said, I mean, this wouldn't be that bad of a thing, I guess, but if they said that we all had to drink Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Pepper at noon every day, would we have to obey that?
SPEAKER_00: Now, I would, because I just like Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Pepper, but some of you, you know, you're a Coke person or a coffee person or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, I don't want to drink Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Pepper.
SPEAKER_00: What is that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's the government stepping beyond the realm of their God-given jurisdiction.
SPEAKER_00: And when that happens, then the obedience that is to be rendered is no longer necessary.
SPEAKER_00: It's just silly, superfluous.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that's kind of a silly example, but man, this stuff happens all the time.
SPEAKER_00: If the government asks you to violate the lordship of Christ, remember Acts chapter 5?
SPEAKER_00: Peter said, we must obey God rather than men.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Nebuchadnezzar sets up a statue.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta worship this statue.
SPEAKER_00: Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego say, no, we will not.
SPEAKER_00: But all that being said, is that a heart of defiance that they possess?
SPEAKER_00: Is it a heart that says, oh, I just want to rebel against the authorities.
SPEAKER_00: I guess I'm just looking for an opportunity to say no and wag my finger in the authorities' face.
SPEAKER_00: Is that the spirit?
SPEAKER_00: No, in fact, as if to emphasize it, look what Paul says again.
SPEAKER_00: It's a point of emphasis.
SPEAKER_00: He says, tell them to be obedient.
SPEAKER_00: He says to be obedient.
SPEAKER_00: And that word obedient as a specific word, uh, it's uh like pathe archimess, it's it's something along those lines, and it means obedience to somebody in authority.
SPEAKER_00: That's the that's the idea.
SPEAKER_00: That we are to be obedient to lawful authorities as much as we can underneath the lordship of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Which begs the question as Americans, are we all in rebellion because we had a revolution against the British Empire?
SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
SPEAKER_00: Are we in rebellion because of the revolution?
SPEAKER_00: Some history books say that, that the American Revolution was essentially the same as the French Revolution.
SPEAKER_00: It was uh a rejection of authority, which is what the French Revolution was.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe you haven't gone back and studied the history of the colonies.
SPEAKER_00: But what began to happen is that the charters for the various colonies began to be violated in Parliament.
SPEAKER_00: Now the colonies, they were not represented.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, can you send somebody from Massachusetts over to Parliament?
SPEAKER_00: No, I mean that's just silly.
SPEAKER_00: You can't just cross the ocean back and forth.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you it was impossible to send representatives back.
SPEAKER_00: And all the colonies are being taxed, all the exports and imports are going to Britain and from Britain, and they're being taxed.
SPEAKER_00: And then Parliament said, we're going to change the char, we're going to overreach the charters that were initially established, and we're going to levy another tax.
SPEAKER_00: And you remember what the founder said?
SPEAKER_00: That's taxation without representation.
SPEAKER_00: And so in the Reformed tradition, this is the reformed tradition, this goes all the way back to Geneva, there was a doctrine called the lesser magistrate.
SPEAKER_00: This is very interesting.
SPEAKER_00: And that says that when a higher magistrate acts outside of their God-given authority or begins to exercise tyranny, it is the responsibility of the lower magistrate to call that upper magistrate into question.
SPEAKER_00: And so what happened in America was Protestant civil lesser magistrates bringing those complaints back to Parliament.
SPEAKER_00: And you even had guys like Edmund Burke over in Parliament calling people and saying, this is overreach, this is tyranny what Parliament's doing.
SPEAKER_00: So my point is, is if you go back and study, I don't think that the American Revolution is just a throwing off of government authority as an act of tyranny.
SPEAKER_00: But the general point is, it's an interesting historical lesson to think about.
SPEAKER_00: But the point is, we have a spirit of obedience.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to some government official and you know saying, na na na boo-boo, you know, I'm not gonna do what you say to do.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that.
SPEAKER_00: It's a serious realization that we are under authority.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because who put the authorities into place?
SPEAKER_00: God.
SPEAKER_00: The pagan does not obey the authorities.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they hate God.
SPEAKER_00: We obey the authorities because we know who put the authorities there.
SPEAKER_00: So our obedience to the authorities is obedience to God.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, look back at verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You're or sorry, to the end of verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
SPEAKER_00: He says, to be ready for every good work.
SPEAKER_00: To be ready for every good work.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what Jesus said, right?
SPEAKER_00: That by the by your good works they will glorify your Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Grace leads to good works.
SPEAKER_00: Paul earlier said, verse 16 of chapter 1, that the false teachers are unfit for any good work.
SPEAKER_00: He told Titus in chapter 2, verse 7, that he was to be a model of good works.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 14, he says, We are a purified people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
SPEAKER_00: So he's picking up this theme in verse 1, and he's saying, as believers in the world, we're obedient to the authorities, and we are ready for every good work.
SPEAKER_00: That word ready means prepared.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus used the same word in Matthew 25 when he talked about the disciples being ready, prepared for his second coming.
SPEAKER_00: It means that you're on your toes.
SPEAKER_00: You're ready to serve.
SPEAKER_00: JB Phillips in his paraphrase says, they must be ready to render whatever good service they can.
SPEAKER_00: So I think the idea here, you know, when I was in Boy Scouts, remember the Scout slogan?
SPEAKER_00: Does anybody remember the Scout slogan?
SPEAKER_00: Any Boy Scouts here?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, be a pre- wait.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Scout motto.
SPEAKER_00: Be prepared, the Scout mot.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the Scout, come on, the Scout slogan.
SPEAKER_00: Do a good turn daily.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get with it, right?
SPEAKER_00: The Scout slogan, do a good turn daily.
SPEAKER_00: Where did Baden Powell get that?
SPEAKER_00: Right here, right?
SPEAKER_00: The Christians are the one who are to be models of good works.
SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, we as Christians, we go, Baden Powell, do a good turn daily.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, of course.
SPEAKER_00: But I think here he's talking about more than that.
SPEAKER_00: I think he's talking about general service in the public square.
SPEAKER_00: That as Christians, we don't withdraw from the world, but we're lights in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And all these different avenues of life and medicine and politics and law and media and the military and government, that just because we're Christians doesn't mean that we don't touch those things.
SPEAKER_00: No, it means that we go into those things and we serve with distinction.
SPEAKER_00: I think of Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: What did Joseph do wherever he went?
SPEAKER_00: He served with integrity, he served as a God fearer, and he rose to the top.
SPEAKER_00: He served with excellence.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the idea is that the Christian, wherever they go, they serve with excellence.
SPEAKER_00: They rise to the top, they do good wherever they go.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh William Wilberforce.
SPEAKER_00: Remember William Wilberforce, British statesman, and he serves, he campaigns, and eventually brings an end to the slave trade in England.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the Christian in the culture.
SPEAKER_00: That's the broad picture, the big picture.
SPEAKER_00: And then verse two is the Christian and personal relationships.
SPEAKER_00: How are we to relate to other people?
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you look at verse two, it the translation is to speak evil of no man.
SPEAKER_00: I know it says no one.
SPEAKER_00: It's the word man, to speak evil of no man.
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of verse 2, he says, Show perfect courtesy toward all men.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's translated people.
SPEAKER_00: What Paul's getting at is, do you think he's saying to speak evil of no believer?
SPEAKER_00: Or to show perfect courtesy just to the believer?
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not what he's saying at all, is it?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying show perfect courtesy to all men.
SPEAKER_00: Not just the believer, all men.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying speak evil of no men.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, because there's a lot of evil people out there, aren't there?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you just turn on the news and you and and and you get frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: You get the it's easy for us to speak evil of others.
SPEAKER_00: So, um, two negatives and two positives.
SPEAKER_00: So there's four four qualities that Paul lists and how we are to relate to other people.
SPEAKER_00: The first two are negative, first two are positive.
SPEAKER_00: He says, speak evil of no one.
SPEAKER_00: The the word speak evil, blasphemo, where we get our word blaspheme, it means to um to assassinate someone with your words.
SPEAKER_00: It means to slander someone with your words.
SPEAKER_00: Now, uh, slander, does it have to be a lie for it to be slander?
SPEAKER_00: No, it could be you dig up the truth of something in someone's past and then you throw it out on social media for the purpose of taking them down.
SPEAKER_00: That's slander.
SPEAKER_00: You you go to someone else and you say, Did you hear what you know Joe Smuccatelli did?
SPEAKER_00: You won't believe it.
SPEAKER_00: That's slander where you're attacking someone else with your words.
SPEAKER_00: Think about our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Our Lord, my goodness, was anyone ever more opposed than Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Wherever he went?
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees and the scribes and people speaking terrible things about him.
SPEAKER_00: Was anyone ever more opposed?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: But do you ever see in the Gospels as Jesus is walking along with Peter, James, and John, where he's saying, Man, those those guys, those are just terrible, awful people.
SPEAKER_00: I hate them.
SPEAKER_00: I send them to hell.
SPEAKER_00: Did you ever hear Jesus talk like that about anybody?
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus does address people and call them names, what does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He speaks to them directly.
SPEAKER_00: You brood of vipers, you Pharisees, your whitewashed tombs.
SPEAKER_00: He's not going to the disciples on a sidebar and saying that.
SPEAKER_00: He's going directly to them.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he wants to lead them to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: He's putting his finger on the spot.
SPEAKER_00: He's never going and talking about them behind their backs.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a principle.
SPEAKER_00: As we engage in this world, we destroy, we destroy ungodly arguments.
SPEAKER_00: We do not destroy ungodly people.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul says, 2 Corinthians 10, 5, we destroy arguments, we destroy them.
SPEAKER_00: And every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, secular ideas, they're cannon fodder.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're going to show why they're logically inconsistent, why they're contrary to the law of God.
SPEAKER_00: We are going to tear them apart.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to eviscerate them.
SPEAKER_00: But yet, with others, what are we going to do?
SPEAKER_00: We're going to speak the truth always in love.
SPEAKER_00: One of my heroes was Ronald Reagan.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard not to like Ronald Reagan, right?
SPEAKER_00: No one spoke more about the dangers of communism and socialism than Ronald Reagan.
SPEAKER_00: If you go to the Reagan Museum, I mean there's a huge section in the Reagan Museum that's that's dedicated to Reagan's war.
SPEAKER_00: There was a war on communism.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he was able to win over Mikhail Gorbachev, was he not?
SPEAKER_00: He's able to cross that bridge personally.
SPEAKER_00: He did that because he attacked the ideology.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't going after the person.
SPEAKER_00: R.C.
SPEAKER_00: Sproul was also brilliant at that.
SPEAKER_00: At going after the ideologies of the world, but yet mending fences with even atheists and secularists personally in order to, Lord willing, win them to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Second quality in terms of our relationship to other people, he says to avoid quarreling.
SPEAKER_00: Literally, it's a word that means without battle.
SPEAKER_00: That's the literal translation of the word.
SPEAKER_00: Amikos.
SPEAKER_00: The Latin word amicus, we we get and there's a legal term, an amicus brief, which is a friendly brief.
SPEAKER_00: The Greek word is similar.
SPEAKER_00: It describes the Christian as being a peacemaker, not somebody who goes to war.
SPEAKER_00: It's somebody who strives for peace in all that they do.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jesus said, and that this again, this is going back to the Beatitudes, Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
SPEAKER_00: Paul said in Romans 12 18, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
SPEAKER_00: Are there people that won't live peaceably with you?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: But as much as it depends upon you, you live peaceably with all men.
SPEAKER_00: Now the the two positive qualities of how we are to relate to people, he says, to be gentle and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
SPEAKER_00: Spurgeon called these last two the ornaments of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: These words are difficult to translate.
SPEAKER_00: There's a wide meaning, but you can translate these two words as kindness and meekness.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he says to be gentle and show perfect courtesy.
SPEAKER_00: Show perfect courtesy, same word that Jesus uses for meekness.
SPEAKER_00: Again, Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: Kindness and meekness.
SPEAKER_00: Those qualities are to be descriptive of the Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Kindness, the word means to take the low road, to be not like the world that says, get yours and demand your rights, but to yield to others.
SPEAKER_00: That's the real meaning of kindness.
SPEAKER_00: And then notice meekness.
SPEAKER_00: Look at that last phrase.
SPEAKER_00: All gentleness to all men, or all meekness to all men, or all courtesy to all men.
SPEAKER_00: Notice he doesn't just say show meekness to men.
SPEAKER_00: That would be perfect, well and good if we were called to show meekness to men, right?
SPEAKER_00: And notice he doesn't just say show meekness to all men.
SPEAKER_00: That would be a high ask to show meekness to all men.
SPEAKER_00: What does he say?
SPEAKER_00: He says he uses the word all twice.
SPEAKER_00: Show all meekness to all men.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, what he's saying is very simple.
SPEAKER_00: Be like Christ.
SPEAKER_00: How does Jesus describe himself?
SPEAKER_00: He says this I am meek and lowly in heart, and in me you will find rest for your souls.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was kind and he was meek.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: That's an important question.
SPEAKER_00: Why was he meek?
SPEAKER_00: He's the king of the universe, he's the awaited Messiah, he is God of gods.
SPEAKER_00: And you would think if you read the business journals, he would go around bossing people around, exercising his authority, demonstrating his power, manipulating.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, all sorts of power plays that you see in the world, right?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Why is he meek and gentle and kind?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is because he invites sinners to himself.
SPEAKER_00: Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: Does the sinner want to go to someone who's going to beat them over the head?
SPEAKER_00: Is that who the sinner is going to come to?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: You see, it's Jesus' meekness and his low.
SPEAKER_00: We feel comfortable coming to him.
SPEAKER_00: We know that in his character we can find rest for our souls.
SPEAKER_00: So what Paul is saying to us is be like that.
SPEAKER_00: Are you somebody that people are afraid to come to?
SPEAKER_00: You're domineering?
SPEAKER_00: Or are you meek and gentle, not quarrelsome, not slandering people?
SPEAKER_00: In a word, are you like Christ?