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The Miracle of a Gospel Centred Identity! – Titus 3:1-7

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Good morning church! Two of the most important questions in any person’s life is: Who am I and what am I supposed to do on earth? Wouldn’t you agree that these are two very important questions every person is looking to answer. It’s is true that people have very different answers to these questions. What we will look to do in the next half hour is to see how the gospel perfectly answers and fulfils the purpose of our existence. If there are any questions, please don’t hesitate to come and discuss with me and Saju after the Gathering.

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. 3 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. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

In today’s passage, I believe Paul is telling Titus who is overseeing the church at Crete to remind them of a few things. Why do we need to be reminded? I mean if we’ve already heard it once, shouldn’t that be enough for the church? That’s because we are “professional forgetters”. We may be smart and clever but let me tell you it’s not difficult for us to forget the gospel when we are facing times of trouble, persecution, temptations, comfort and suffering. And what we truly believe in those moments are revealed by our actions. It’s important for us to first admit that we are forgetful in order to receive help. We need each other to be reminded of the gospel – that’s why we stress on community. And we also need elders and leaders to constantly “remind and help us recollect” the gospel day in and day out. If you’ve been following our messages closely over the last two years, you’ll see one common thread and one common message throughout. In fact it is the same message that we continue to preach and teach every week on our Sunday Gatherings and GC’s. And it’s not because we cannot make new creative messages. We want to stay true to what God has called us to do as elders which is to “remind people of the gospel”.

So we are going to be reminded this morning about four important questions:

  1. What are we supposed to do?
  2. Who were we?
  3. What has God done in Christ?
  4. Who are we now?

What are we supposed to do?

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. (v1-2)

We are commanded and urged to submit to our earthly rulers and authorities specifically referring to the government who is ruling over your country/nation. The Word tells us to be obedient to the people who rule over us. It doesn’t matter if the political party is for Christians or against Christians, we are still called to obey them. Now if the government tells us to bow down to an idol or forces us to do something illegal or immoral, we have every right to disobey because our allegiance and loyalty remains toward Christ. However, barring this exception of sinning against the Lord, in every other case we need to submit to them out of our honor to God. Let’s remember the context. Emperor Nero was the king of the Roman empire at the time. Christians were being burnt alive and tortured. It was the most unpopular time to be a Christian. It wasn’t cool at all because a person would most likely face a death threat as soon as he decided to follow Jesus. I find it interesting that Paul would still tell the church to submit to the rulers and authorities.

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves (Rom 13:1,2)

Also, what is the type of behavior that we should have among unbelievers? We should be always prepared to do acts and deeds which will benefit others. We should not criticize abusively and in anger insult others. We should not be people who always get into arguments. In fact, we should be known for our mild temperament and being polite and gentle to all people. If your work colleagues, college mates, neighbours and other acquaintances were to rate you on your behavior, what would they say? Would they say that you’re always ready to do good work? Would they say that you speak evil of no one? Would they say that you don’t quarrel but are gentle and courteous toward everyone? Would the people who spend 40+ hours with you each week say that you are known for your gentleness and good deeds?

And this isn’t a moral science class! Christ doesn’t call you to do these things just because these are good things to do in life. He tells us to do these things in the light of the next three points:

Who we were earlier?

3 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. (v3)

You know many times parents tend to tell their kids about how they had a tough life earlier. How they grew up in humble circumstances…why do they do that? So that the kids will appreciate and value what they have right now. Similarly, in v3 we are being reminded of our past identity. The purpose is not to be sad and disappointed thinking about our past but to appreciate what has been done by God. It says that we were foolish (we had no understanding of what was right for our life), disobedient (we weren’t willing to listen and obey to anything that God wanted us to do), led astray (we were deceived by our sins, taken away…pulled astray), we were in bondage to serve many kinds of forbidden desires, spending our time and energy hurting other people and being hurt in the same process.

When we look at the list, do we like what we see there? I’m sure we don’t. We wouldn’t allow our family to be around anyone who claims to have these qualities and yet this is a description of our own lives. Would you put this up on your Facebook profile? Would you put this on your resume? It’s something that is shameful, right? What I want us to realize is…that our old self separated from God was a terrible place! It wasn’t something to be proud of because we were on the fast lane to destruction. That’s why the Bible accurately portrays it as “spiritual death” – we were dead! (Eph 2:1)

What has God done in Christ?

4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, (v4-6)

Brothers and sisters, Here is the good news…the amazing news! What we deserved was judgment, condemnation and death for our thoughts, words and actions. An illustration could be imagine you were driving a car rashly and lose control of the brakes and fall off a steep hill. What do we deserve because of our rash driving? Death. Now think about v4…but God our Savior (he delivers) showed his goodness and loving kindness to us by protecting you and me from perishing. God rescued you from the wrath that comes upon everyone who sins! God’s goodness and kindness is shown by the fact that even though we lived a reckless and disastrous life, he wants to and keeps us safe from final judgment and eternal separation from Him! And why does He do that? Is it because you or me are talented? Is it because you or me are smart and capable? Is it because we are good people? Is it because we prayed a prayer? Is it because we are knowledgeable in the Bible? Absolutely not! We just saw in the previous point how bad our condition is. If God judged us without giving us any hope for salvation, He would still be just and wise. No one can approach God and say “He is unjust by not providing another way”! Because we are utterly sinful people who deserve total condemnation. So if God does not save us due to our background, qualifications, money, talents, intelligence and good works…then on what basis does he save us? According to his mercy. God saves people out of His mercy!

How does He do it? by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. The term washing means “bathing”. The Holy Spirit cleanses and purifies you. “Regeneration and renewal” means “spiritual renovation”. Have you ever seen a renovated flat? Does it look the same as an old flat? Everything from the painting to the interiors have been changed. It’s brand new. It’s as good as buying a brand new flat in a new building. If we as humans know how to renovate an old flat and make it new…do you think the powerful Spirit of God doesn’t know how to make a dead person’s life alive and brand new?

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.[b] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Cor 5:17,18)

When you believed in Jesus, it’s not just your thoughts that changed that day. A miracle took place due to which your life became spiritually renovated! Immediately your affections, your desires, your will, your thought patterns, your pleasures changed, your mission changed! Miraculously you were given affections for Christ, desires for Christ, a will to please Christ, thoughts to magnify Christ, pleasures in Christ and love for the people in Christ and a burden for those not in Christ! And this was done how: it was poured abundantly on us through Jesus Christ. God’s only Son had to be crucified for your sins and mine to make full payment for the punishment deserving of sins. You want to know how bad was our condition? Look at the amount that was paid as ransom. If something happens to your phone, when do you know that the damage is quite bad? When you have to pay a huge amount for the repairs. Jesus willingly shed his blood to meet God’s justice and bring God to us. It wasn’t gold or silver but the precious blood of the Son of God who became our Saviour.

Who are we now?

so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (v7)

Brothers and sisters, it’s something we must not just today but continuously remind ourselves of this identity! We are declared righteous before God. We are fully accepted by Him. By what? His grace – his unmerited favor through Jesus Christ. For what purpose? So that we might become “heirs”. Whose an heir? A person who inherits something from someone. Usually it is the child of the owner. And we know that by repenting and trusting in the finished work of Jesus, we are adopted as His very own. So we are heirs according to the hope of eternal life! You know Christian biblical hope is not just being positive. It is a confident and joyful expectation in God fulfilling His promise to give us everlasting life. Eternal life as John 17:3 says And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Knowing Jesus, becoming like Jesus in every way to the extent of getting a glorified body like His (1 John 3:2) and finally being with Jesus forever (John 14:3)!

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Living a life of Holiness and Godliness as Christians – Titus 2:11-15

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Good Morning!

Our passage for today is Titus 2:11-15.

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.”

[PRAY]

It’s a letter written by Paul to Titus and other leaders in the church of Crete, encouraging him in his ministry work and asking him to establish proper leadership, proper handling of error, proper Christian living and in this particular passage he is pointing their hearts to the Gospel.

I believe today’s passage will help us answer some important questions.

The questions are
Q. How to live life as a people of God?
Q. How can we grow in Holiness and Godliness by fixing our eyes on the Gospel?

But before we answer these questions I’m sure everyone here will agree with the fact that we live in a world that is so contaminated with sin, corruption, and evil. There are temptations everywhere.

  • Temptation to give in to our sexual passions by engaging in pornography or having physical relationships outside the boundaries of marriage
  • Temptation to cheat and fraud people so we can accumulate wealth for ourselves
  • Temptation to lie and live a hypocritical life so we can gain the respect of others
  • Temptation to give in to our laziness and live foolishly
  • Temptation to eat beyond our capacity and become a glutton.

And especially when these habits are considered normal in our culture and society, when we see our closest friend or colleague enjoying these pleasures, making good money, seems to be living life to the fullest.

I’m sure we all go through times of doubts, despair and sadly some of us have even fallen into these sins. We know it because we can feel the guilt and the condemnation. It’s not a good feeling and not a good place to be in.

After falling into such sins, some of you may have even asked yourself whether you are a true Christian, whether you have truly been saved.

Before I say anything let me confess that I myself have been in that place and I know how it feels to be in that place, it’s a dark place.

When we are a Christian, who knows Jesus, who knows His saving grace that frees us from sin and its condemnation, and yet again and again and again we fall back into the same pit that Christ picked you up from. Or worst to be like that dog who returns his vomit.

We end up beating ourselves; we stop fellow-shipping with our brothers and sister by isolating ourselves, we stop serving Christ and his Church, we stop reading our bible, we quit our prayer and devotion.

When we are with others, we pretend that everything is normal but behind the doors, we are crying and wailing, we are frustrated, we are disappointed with our actions and words and thoughts.

The worst is when we get so used to it that we’ve learned to ignore these feelings and live just like a worldly person and yet profess to be a Christian in the house. We are pointing fingers at others and try to fix the world with our smartness, when our own conscience is dead, when our own feelings are dead, when our own hearts are hardened.

Well, when you see this passage we can see what has gone wrong with us.

Number one reason is that we have failed to show gratitude (प्रति आभार) (कृतज्ञता दिखाने में विफल ) for what Christ has accomplished for us on the cross.

We’ve failed to see the GRACE of God that has appeared to us through his son Jesus Christ and therefore failed to express our heart of gratitude in our thoughts, actions and our behavior.

How many times during the DAY do we meditate on God’s love and relish his grace upon your life?
How many times during a WEEK do we meditate on God’s love and relish his grace upon your life?
How many times during a MONTH do we meditate on God’s love and relish his grace upon your life?

Tell me if I am wrong. The reason for us falling in sin started when we stopped been grateful for what Christ accomplished for us on the cross.

Because the passage here says “For grace has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”

What it says here is that the grace of God enables us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives.

Our failure to show gratitude to what Christ accomplished for us on the cross has put us in place far from experiencing his saving grace over our lives on a daily basis.

Brothers & sisters, It is not enough for us to respond to the gospel once in a lifetime so we can be tagged as a follower of Jesus and then to forget that experience and go back into the world again.

To become a Christian means to make a turn-around from our worldly ways and grow deeper into a relationship with Jesus by daily appreciating and embracing his Love, Grace, and mercy over our lives.

The moment we fail to do that and allow our flesh to take over, we push ourselves away from his grace and therefore fall back into sin again.

It’s like a family who adopts a child into their home from an orphanage, giving the child a new life and a future. The more that child learns to appreciate the love of his new family, the deeper he grows in relationship with them, and the more he feels protected, loved and covered.

But the day this child stops appreciating the love of his new family and think about his old orphanage life with his rugged friends, the more further away he goes from the family, he comes out of the covering and protection of his family and finds himself been vulnerable and helpless.

Now, let me ask you a question?

Do you think the family stopped loving him? No
Do you think that the family will be open to receive him back into the family?
Do you think the family will take the child back into their covering and protection?

Of course yes.

It’s the same with our heavenly father. Remember the story of the prodigal son who after spoiling all his father’s wealth when he decides to come back home. The Father welcomes him with joy. And I’m sure after the boy returned home his appreciation for his father’s love grew even more.

The second reason why we find ourselves in sin and guilt and shame is when we lose HOPE.

Verse 13When we lose our blessed hope that one day our Lord and Saviour Jesus will come back to take us to a place where there will be no more sorrow, no more pain, no more suffering, no more sickness, no more poverty, no more shame, no more temptations.

Let’s dig deep down our hearts and search what are we hoping for in life. Are we hoping that one day we will become a top businessman, earn lots of money someday, own a house or own a land, go to Hawaii and lie down on the beach, buy the best car in the world, become an Indian idol, champion of the world etc etc.

Because if that’s what you are hoping for in life, then, you will spend all your money, all your time, all your energy and resources in achieving that. And by the way, there is no guarantee that you will get what you want in life.

But if your hope is in the coming of the Lord and Saviour who will save us from this wretched world then we will spend all our money, time, energy and resources preparing our hearts for that glorious day. And by the way – its guaranteed.

When all your money, time, energy and resources are invested towards preparing ourselves for the coming of the Lord, then there is no chance that we can get distracted from the pleasures of this world.

It is like a sportsman whose aim to is to win the Olympics. He knows he needs to be fit by exercising daily, stay healthy by eating nutritious food, keep his mind alert from keeping himself away from any kind of distraction.

You see, no matter what happens, he will never give in to the feelings that take away his focus from his goal.

In 2 Timothy 2:4-7 Paul gives an example of a Soldier, Athlete and a Farmer and says

No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.

Brothers & sisters, we are not civilians; the bible says we are a good soldier of Christ Jesus. We are not hopeless; we are not orphans, we are not failures, we not a mistake.

Instead, we are loved, our heavenly Father cherishes us, we didn’t choose him but he choose us, we are blessed, and most importantly we have hope that one day we will go to a better place where life will be even more beautiful and fun.

Let’s ask a question to ourselves this morning.

After listening to this sermon and what the Lord has spoken to us, do we still like to stay in our miserable situation, a life pattern that is filled with sin and despair.

Or are you willing to humble yourself like the prodigal son and return back to our heavenly father whose loving arms are eager and open to hug you, kiss you, celebrate and welcome you back into his family.

All you have to do this morning is to simply go back to him with a humble heart, repent of your sins, thank him for the cross and surrender your lives once again to him.

And after you’ve done that today, you need to go back home and daily continue to remind yourself of what Christ has done for you and daily express your heart of gratitude to him without fail.

And when things get tougher at home, or at work, or in your personal lives, remind yourself of the blessed hope that this world is just a temporary home and the one who loves us is coming to take us with him far from all the pain and misery.

Put all your focus, all your time, money, energy and resources preparing for that glorious day in heaven.

I’m sure life will look different if we make this a pattern of our lives.

Lets pray.

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The Secret to Right Living – Titus 2:1-10

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Good morning church!

Sometime back a Hindu asked me this question: What would you say about people who say they believe in Jesus and still do not have/show Christian values? In other words, the question can be rephrased to “Is it possible for a person to know Jesus, talk about Jesus and still live like the rest of the world?” Does the gospel produce something more than just change of ideas or philosophy? Does Christ have a greater purpose in our lives than just “a moment in your life when you prayed a prayer and asked Jesus into your heart”? And if God has a bigger purpose, then what does that mean for me? Those are the questions we will attempt to answer this morning.

We have been going through a series titled “God Alive Church – A journey through the letters of 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus”. Currently we are in Titus 2 (Last week’s sermon on: Titus 1:10-16). Let’s go ahead and read the main text for the day:

But as for you, teach what accords with sound[a] doctrine. 2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 6 Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. 9 Bondservants[b] are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

The first thing I believe this passage teaches us today is:

1. The Gospel informs Right Living

But as for you, teach what accords with sound[a] doctrine. (v1)

As we’ve been seeing, whenever we see the word “but”, it is contrasting this passage with the previous passage. The previous passage spoke about false teachers who for shameless gain were upsetting the faith of many families in the church at Crete. These false teachers kept focusing on Jewish myths and man made rules. The result was that the church became unfruitful in good works! In fact, the church was gaining a bad reputation in Crete. Paul gave 2 commands to Titus in order to tackle this problem.

The first was to appoint God called, God qualified elders to lead and protect the church. (Tit 1:5-9) The second command was for Titus to rebuke these false teachers sharply and silence them from influencing the church. (Tit 1:13) The last few verses of Titus 1, Paul says that these false teachers “profess to know God but deny him by their works”. So Paul is already starting the conversation where he says “if you say you know God, then it needs to be reflected in your lifestyle as well”.

And that’s how we arrive in Chapter 2 where Paul says give instructions, exhort the church at Crete in a way that suits and is fitting for “sound doctrine” or the gospel. The reason I use the word gospel is because the gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ is God’s plan from Genesis to Revelation to reveal Himself through Jesus and also to redeem everything through Jesus! The gospel of Jesus informs, fuels and produces right living! The gospel supernaturally creates new life in people when they hear and believe. Till then as natural humans we knew nothing else but to sin, suddenly when we heard the good news we were supernaturally able to repent and place our trust in Jesus.

New affections, new purpose & a new identity. Not just that, the more we grow in our relationship with Jesus, the more we realize how much more of the gospel we require today. Why? Because as we read Scripture we see how Holy God is, we see how sinful we are…like Isaiah said in Isaiah 6:5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Rom 7:24)

Now as believers we are justified and made right before God. There is no condemnation but we still need to recognize the difference between God and us. He is Holy and Righteous and Great and Glorious. And we like the “grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls”. As our awareness of God grows so will our awareness of our sin. The more closer you move towards God, more sin in your life will get exposed. And all of this should bring us to a place where we humbly and helplessly realize what Jesus has done for us through his life, death and resurrection.

So when we are faced with temptation and you fall, we realize we need the gospel to experience forgiveness and restoration in our walk with God. When we are in conflicted relationship with another family member of friend, we realize we need the gospel to forgive the other person just as Christ forgave us.

When we go through persecution, we realize we need the gospel to remind us that it’s a blessing to be counted worthy to suffer for our Master and Lord. When we are at work and the stress is piling up, we realize we need the gospel to remind us that we are working for God ultimately and we know we’ll find rest in Jesus who says “Come to me all who are weary, and I will give you rest”. When we are going through a severe illness, we realize we need the gospel to remind us that God is Sovereign over our situation.

When we feel insecure about our looks or your financial status or the possessions we have, we realize we need the good news of Jesus to remind us that God has accepted us fully in Jesus and we don’t require anything else apart from Jesus to live our life – He is our Security. And as we trust and obey what God has said to us in the Bible, we grow up into the hope of the gospel -> to be like Jesus reflecting everything that He is in all our thoughts, words and actions.

That’s why it’s so critical to be listening to teachers that preach and proclaim sound doctrine. Some people sometimes say “I know the preachers that I listen to aren’t exactly biblically sound, but what to do….nobody’s or no church is perfect. I’m mature enough to listen and pick what is right and not pay attention to what is wrong”. But they are missing the point. It’s not about picking and choosing what you want.

It’s much more serious than that. What you believe is what you will become. If you are chasing behind a false gospel that tells you that believing in Jesus will get you health, wealth and prosperity…that’s what your life will also be about…Making yourself prosperous. But if you want to become like Jesus, you need to listen to Jesus as He is revealed in Scripture.

That’s what we see in the following verses of Chapter 2. Instructions being given to older men, older women, younger women and younger men. People from different age groups within the church are being encouraged to live a life worthy of the gospel. It’s not for the aged ones only, it’s for everyone to exhibit self-control, respectability, soundness in faith, in love and steadfastness. Such a wonderful picture of the good news when you see the whole church growing in Christ likeness.

It’s not some sort of spiritual elite that is pursuing holiness and good works…every child of God saved by the good news in fact wants to do this. As elders our job is to remind and urge people to do it more!

This brings me to the next point…

2. Right Living adorns the Gospel

Adorn means to decorate something. Ever wondered how can you adorn the gospel? Adorning doesn’t mean adding or subtracting anything from the gospel. Neither is the gospel powerless so that we need to add some “masala” to make it relevant and effective. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. At the same time think about it, the gospel actually makes more sense to an unbeliever when they see it being clearly reflected in your life and mine. We wrongly influence the perception of the gospel when we live like the rest of the world.

and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. (v5) Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. (v7-10)

How many times have we heard things like “this person calls himself a believer, but his actions deny his faith”? And this is the testimony of unbelievers. That’s not how it’s meant to be and that’s not what God desires from people who have been redeemed from their sinful lives. God’s desire is for us to live holy lives dedicated to good works so that through us God can display His transformative power! In other words, our job is not to make more barriers for people to believe, but in fact to remove the barriers so that can receive the true saving message of the gospel.

Unbelievers might become hostile toward you because you are a believer, but deep down they should know that there’s no real charge they can bring against you for doing something morally wrong or unethical. “In everything we must adorn the doctrine of God our Savior”. Have you every wondered what that means for you? When you think about the workplace, do your colleagues see the goodness, righteousness and mercy of Christ through your words and actions? When you think about your family, do your family members see the patience and humility of Christ in your words and actions? With your church family, do your brothers and sisters in Christ see a glimpse of Christ in your interactions and service? What about your neighbours? Do they know you are a follower of Jesus by your words and lifestyle? I know these are quite challenging questions. I’m convicted of certain things myself.

Maybe till now we didn’t pay attention to adorning the gospel of Jesus or maybe we’ve forgotten it. There’s hope in the gospel for us today. 2000 years back, Jesus Christ became man and lived the life of goodness, righteousness, mercy, patience, humility according to the standard required by God. He perfectly reflected and showed who God Is. He lived the life we couldn’t live. Perfect obedience. And then he took on the punishment of sin as our Savior and substitute.

He died the death we deserved to die. If there was one thing we earned on our own merit…it was death and separation from God eternally. Jesus willingly gave himself up on the cross…humiliated by his own creation to save us from the holy wrath of God. He died and rose again on the third day because his sacrifice was complete and fully satisfied the wrath of God.

Those who repent and trust in Jesus will see the hope of the gospel being reflected in their lives. Jesus would begin to display Himself through their lives. One more thing…it’s not as though God needed us and without us he cannot adorn the gospel. Let’s not trivialize it that way. God chooses to use us to adorn the gospel. In His wisdom and greatness, redeeming the lives of sinful, dead people and allowing them to reflect His glory brings Him more glory! He is the glorious One who restores the broken and condemned ones. So if we find ourselves not adorning the good news, not reflecting Jesus….solution…go back to Jesus!

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Sermon

A Word of Warning and How the Gospel Influences our Behaviours – Titus 1:10-16

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Our passage for today is Titus 1:10-16.

For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Like I said in the Introduction of Titus – This particular passage is about proper handling of error in the church life.

After giving instructions to Titus on appointing Elders in the church, Paul is now addressing some practical problems within the church.

In today’s sermon, we will understand these problems in its original context, and the solution Paul offers, and after which we will learn how it applies to us today.

The church in Create was growing in numbers, the ministry of Paul and Titus was flourishing, and the Gospel was impacting the lives of many people in that region.

But alongside the growth of true believers the church was also filled with many who were

  • disobedient to the leaders,
  • empty talkers – people who had everything to talk about in the world except god,
  • deceivers – people who wanted to deceive the true believer from their genuine faith in Jesus,
  • people who were upsetting others by teaching for shameful gain – either to gain money or materials things from them.

And Paul specifically mentions about especially those from the circumcision party. If you remember in 1 Timothy, these were the people who were distorting the gospel and asking the people also to get circumcised to become a true believer.

Then some people had a bad reputation of being liars, evil, lazy and gluttons.

People who were professing to know God, but denying him by their evil works.Now, It is no surprise that even today in our generation, churches across the world is filled with these kinds of people who have the form of godliness but are corrupt, deceivers, selfish and carry a bad reputation.

In verse 15-16 Pauls says: To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

You might ask, why does the church attract these kinds of people?

Number one reason I would say is that the enemy, the devil – the prince of this world is after the church of Jesus from growing & flourishing healthily. He will do anything to corrupt the hearts of believers by any means.

2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 – The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

The second reason I believe we attract these kinds of people with selfish gain into our churches is when the gospel is incorrectly preached and presented.

Galatians 1:6-7 – I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

The promise of the gospel is not health, wealth, and prosperity – It’s not that when you become a Christian all your problems will go away, you will become rich, or you will become famous.

The promise of the Gospel is salvation from sin and eternity with Christ. The church and its leaders should exhibit this truth in their message and through their lives.

When the gospel is presented as a means for earthly gain, then we will attract people who join the church for earthly gain. Therefore, we need to be careful how we share the gospel with our unbelieving friends. We need to watch our words and heart intent.

The goal of the church is not to get the church filled with people for the sake of numbers but to reach out to people who genuinely need savior Jesus.

The truth is – Any which ways we will have people in the church who will have wrong motives, who will be a lover of self, and deceivers. The question we need to ask is how do we guard our hearts and protect the body of Christ.

A word of Warning

Firstly I believe this passage is a warning to all of us. If, anyone of us, whether knowingly or unknowingly have been allowing Satan to use us in such a manner to destroy the body of Christ, then we should repent.

According to the scriptures, the areas we need to watch for are our attitude towards the elders, our conversations with each other, our heart motives and our behavior in general.

Paul’s instruction to Titus is to silence the evil doers and rebuke them publicly – It is the responsibility of the elders in the church to silence, rebuke and corrects those about whom it is mentioned as evil doers in verse 10-11.

It is one of the key responsibilities of an elder, and he shouldn’t be ignorant.

The elders should be unbiased and willing to let these people go even if they are the ones whose financial contributions make a huge difference to the church offertory.

The elders should be truthful to Gods word and faithfully teach them to the people.

Embrace the true Gospel

The second and I believe the most important way in which we protect our heart is by embracing the true Gospel.

The greatest deception in the churches during that time which the false teachers were teaching was Jesus is not enough, his sacrifice is not enough – They said you need to be circumcised a well to get approval from God.

They were infiltrating (diluting) the gospel by adding stuff to it. They said you need to do this and you need to do that to be saved.

When you look at our history, you will see how this deception had got into the fabric of Christian churches today. The sacraments of the catholic church, the rituals and the chanting’s of the orthodox believers, the unscriptural practices, and rules in some of the so-called Christian churches.

We focus and talk about everything else except Jesus and the Gospel.

Titus 1:13-14

Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 – The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, BECAUSE THEY REFUSED TO LOVE THE TRUTH and so be saved.

When God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the garden of Eden, they sinned against God by disobeying his command. They became sinful because of which God cast them away from his presence.

And because we are their children we are sinful too in nature. Our hearts are corrupt; our minds are corrupt, our behaviors are corrupt. From the time we were born, we were deceivers and sinful just like Adam and Eve. No one taught us to cheat and lie – we naturally cheated, lied, disobeyed. We are thugs, robbers and filthy people in the sight of God.

No matter how many good works we do on this earth, nothing can save us from God’s anger and his wrath.

But the bible says God loved us, and he sent his only son Jesus to die for us.

And the only way we can receive forgiveness for sins is through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, the son of God, who came down to this earth, lived a righteous life and took our sins upon the cross and died on our behalf – mending our relationship with God the Father once again.

All we need to do is REPENT of our SINS and believe in the GOSPEL – nothing else.

It’s a lie if you hear people say – Oh, but you also need to do this and do that to become a true Christian.

No. Jesus is enough.

It is the often the distorted view of the Gospel Truth that puts us in an ugly position with God, and we need to be careful.

It is so easy to forget this truth and try to work out our salvation on our own strength. We will fail, and we will fail miserably. The reward is Jesus and Jesus alone. Nothing more nothing less.

As a church, we need to protect this gospel truth primarily for two reasons

  1. So that our hearts are fully fixated on Jesus and help us live a Gospel-centered life.
  2. So that our hearts are protected from the evil one.

The Church of Jesus is the hope of the world. Remember, we are the light in this dark world, our light should shine before others, so that they may see our good works and give glory to the Father who is in heaven.

But if the light in us is darkness, imagine how great is the darkness.

And therefore, let this passage remind us and convict our hearts of our self-centered lives, empty words, foolish behaviors and our ignorance of the true Gospel.

May I encourage you to come before God and ask him to heal our hearts and purify our minds so we can live for his Glory.