Alright, let's grab our Bibles and let's go to Titus chapter 3.
Would you go there? We will conclude our expositional study of the pastoral epistles this morning by concluding our exposition of Titus as we come to the end of this letter. Titus received from his authority the Apostle Paul.
All church planting should be done under proper authority and there was no question about it in the first century. The Apostle Paul, at least among the Gentiles, was God's authority to oversee that. So Paul writes to Titus, whom he's given the commission to oversee these local churches on the island of Crete. And in doing so, Titus faced a daunting task. Those churches were immature, they weren't that old, there hadn't been existence that long, there's a lot of immaturities, a lot of false doctrine creeping in.
The false teachers are always trying to get in and put a little spin on things. We have a new approach, you know, and so trying to pull the people away from the established leaders of the church and Paul and Titus' authority. So there's a lot of work to do as Paul tells Titus literally, get in these churches and set things in order, get things straightened out. So Titus has been doing that and this letter was to supplement everything Paul had taught Titus in person to guide him as he continued to, quote, straighten things out in these churches in Crete.
Now we come to the very last part. I call this a benediction with conviction. A lot of Paul's basic convictions are gonna come out as he gives these closing statements to Titus. Now, I meant, yeah, to Titus. Remember, this is a letter and a lot of times those of us who study the Scriptures a lot want to make things so neat and compact and flow together, but honestly they just often do not do that.
It's a letter and like you might write a long letter to somebody you love and you're advising, you just kind of write what comes to your heart and mind next. And that's what Paul does. And it shows us the power and the wisdom of God that he can take the informal, personal letter of the Apostle Paul and superintend through Paul and write for us the perfect Word of God. And so that's what we have. So in this benediction where some strong convictions come out that are good for all of us, we see these things. Verse 12, Titus chapter 3.
Let's look at it together. When I send Artemis or Tychicus to you, make every effort to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided literally to winter there. Diligently help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way so that nothing is lacking for them.
Our people also, or rather must also, learn to engage in good deeds, to meet pressing needs so that they will not be unfruitful. All who are with me greet you. Greet those who love us in the faith.
Grace be with you all. Now I've entitled this lengthy series, preaching through 1 Timothy, preaching through 2 Timothy, and now preaching through Titus, under this broad heading of beautifying the bride. You know, I've been to a bridal salon, salon, whatever you want to call it, three times, because I have three daughters.
And we went to those salons so that our daughters could pick out a dress and a veil and certain jewelry and maybe hair ornaments or whatever it might be, that they might be the most beautiful they could be for that wedding day, something they look forward to their whole lives, and of course for their groom. And that's what God is doing in his churches. We're the bride of Christ. As individual people, we're part of the bride of Christ, but especially as a group, as a fellowship, as a body of believers in a local church, we're the bride of Christ. And as we go through the Scriptures, it's not just the pastoral epistles, there's kind of very direct in it, but the entire Bible and all that we do as a church family is to the end that we might put on the truths, the principles, the precepts of this book, and live them out so that we might better exemplify, glorify, and be beautiful for the sake of our groom. So all that we do is to beautifying this bride, to making this bride complete. He deserves that we are beautified by obedient lives, obedient lives to the Scripture, so that we might glorify Him. We are beautified by the truths of the Word of God as we live them out so that He might be glorified.
All right? So it's always been about that. Now, in our previous session in Titus chapter 3, we saw the Apostle Paul, as he's done over and over and over again, deal with some bad guys. And it's just so redundant almost, but it shows you how prevalent and how watchful we must be about false teaching, people bringing sideline issues into the church and trying to make them big deals and draw a group away from the church and the church elders to follow this new guy with these new ideas, these false teachers or maybe even misled true brothers and sisters in Christ, causing factions and divisions. Well, we're gonna do church this way.
Well, we're gonna start a group in our home. We're gonna do it this way. Paul dealt with that over and over and is constantly guarding against that and rebuking that. So that's what we saw just previously. Matter of fact, look at chapter 3 verses 9 and 10.
Let's see. Yes, but avoid foolish controversies and genealogy. So these are kind of sideline issues that shouldn't be anything you'd build a church on. Avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the law. They would come in with all these new laws or guidelines that you've got to follow to be truly pleasing God. What does Paul say in verse 9?
They're unprofitable and they're worthless. Reject the fact, just a man, a man that would come in and start leading you astray after some of these sideline issues that are not foundational to church life. Watch that person. If he won't get off his hobby horse, reject that man after first and second warning.
Why? Verse 11, he's perverted, he's sinning, he's self-condemned. So that's where Paul was. But now we shift to the benediction and he's going to talk a lot about good guys here. But as he talks about the good guys, he's going to also weave all through here some strong convictions about ongoing healthy church life and a whole lot about church planting and how churches need to be overseen and developed, all right? So Roman numeral I, as we pull out these various convictions the apostle has, note that churches need shepherds. Churches need shepherds.
What I mean by that is elders or pastors. The words are interchangeable in the New Testament. So look at verse 12, if you will. He says, when I send Artemis or Tychicus to you, that's to Titus, and make every effort to come to me at Nicopolis, I've decided to spend the winter there. So here Paul is once again with his overseeing authority of these church plants ordering his ministers around.
He says, Apollos and Zenas, no I'm sorry, Artemis and Tychicus rather, are going to be coming to you then you are relieved of your duties, then I want you to come to me. The point is we're not going to leave those churches without overseers. We're not going to leave these churches at Crete without shepherds. So Paul here carries out his responsibility of overseeing these church plant and Paul does not apologize for having the authority to simply, boom, you're going to come to me, these other two brothers are going to come take your place. And we see Paul throughout his epistles ordering these guys around like that. But it's not because Paul is consumed with his authority.
Paul is consumed with his responsibility that God gave him in the office of apostle. Now we don't have apostles anymore, so who's to oversee this kind of stuff? Well that's been handed off to the local churches by the Scriptures. In other words, local churches under their elders follow the Scriptures and they are the ones now who oversee this work in the world. Hebrews 13 17 reminds us, obey your leaders and submit to them.
Now I've done a thorough study on the Greek here, obey your leaders and submit to them, and what that really means is obey your leaders and submit to them. Now the point is not that your senior pastor and your elder team are full of themselves and their authority, they bear a load of responsibility for your eternal souls and for the good of the bride of Christ that you have not been given. You don't bear that before the judgment bar of God, but your pastors do.
And I'm going to tell you, you've watched me for 44 years if you've been around that bar. I take this very seriously. So it's not the authority element as much as it is the accountability and the responsibility that those have before God is why you should obey your leaders and submit to them for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Hebrews 13 17. So as the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, we've learned that we do not reject God-ordained authority, but we see it as good and ordained of God. It's for His glory and it's always for our good. The ministers of the first century here, the Apostle Paul is over, they gladly submitted to Paul's authority in all their preaching and church planting efforts.
They saw this as good. And matter of fact, not only do we see apostolic authority, we see the older, more established churches exercising oversight and authority over the newer church plants and the more immature churches. It's clearly spelled out in the New Testament. In the book of Acts, when there was a problem with some doctrinal biblical teachings at the church at Antioch, the church at Jerusalem sent some leaders down there to Antioch to mediate the problem and get it fixed. So while the Apostle Paul had the authority to do that on his own, as the apostolic error ended, we can only assume that the biblical pattern increased of older established churches overseeing the newer church plants.
And I think we've lost that. It's just amazing how foreign that is to most Baptists and Evangelicals. Typically in Baptist life, a man, now sometimes a woman, says, God's called me to preach, God's called me to pastor, and the elders of the church therein are the church that simply just kind of bows down and says, oh God's called you, do what you want to do, go where you want to go, and that's good.
No, that's bad. Even the esteemed Apostle Paul did not go out from the local church at Antioch without the leadership's blessing. They laid hand on Paul and Apollos, and then they went out to preach the Word and plant churches.
So what I'm saying is that God's ordained a system to dysfunction by so that churches will have the right kind of leadership, the right kind of shepherds, to oversee them and bless them. So he says to Titus, stay there at Crete. When Artemis and Tychicus get there, then you are relieved from your duties there, and I want you to come to me at Decapolis. Now Artemis, we don't know hardly anything about him. We have to assume that he had a credible reputation because Paul had such confidence in him. Tychicus, we know more about him.
We know he accompanied Paul to Asia, Acts chapter 20, and he was the human instrument that carried Paul's letters to Ephesus and to Colossae. So the important truth comes out here that churches must have shepherds. Churches must have overseers and leaders, i.e., pastors. Now our Baptist fathers used to say this. It's a good statement. While pastors are not essential to the being of a church, in other words, the gospel may go out somewhere and a number of people believe and they start meeting together for prayer, then a church begins to form and they don't have pastors yet.
That can happen. So pastors are not essential for the being of the church, but they are essential for the well-being of the church. And that's why as quickly as he could, or as quickly as they could, the Apostles and the established churches tried to send out pastors to oversee the new started churches. So churches need shepherds because shepherds or pastors are called of God and ordained to lead, to feed, and to protect God's churches. The church suffers greatly without them like sheep without the shepherd. Acts 20-28 reminds us, as Paul speaks to the Ephesian pastors at the local church in Ephesus, be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of God among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.
The shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. And 1 Peter 5-2, separate the flock of God among you exercising oversight not under compulsion but voluntarily according to the will of God and not for sordid gain but with eagerness. If I might elaborate a tad on that phrase, according to the Word of God, we cannot have even good sincere men leading churches who are not diligent to be thoroughly biblical.
Does it matter how good, or neat, or exciting, or insightful a new approach may seem? All that matters in God's church is what saith the Scriptures. That's why we have the wheel illustration so we can remind ourselves of those thoroughly established precepts that a church must do well before they do anything else. And that's another great problem in Baptist and Evangelical life. Churches often are doing a dozen things that are okay, maybe they're not evil, but because that takes their time and energy, they don't have time to get the essential things done. So we're gonna stay with the hub of the wheel and our illustration is the preaching of the Word and congregational worship.
Everything else depends on that. That will over time produce competent leadership as the preaching of the Word under the power of the Spirit humbles men and gives them a heart of joy over Christ and they see the wretchedness and the depravity of their souls and so they're being gospel humbled and therefore become competent leaders for the church. Then every member ministry through small groups, then personalized strategic world missions, and then you must take church home with you, home life discipleship, that's the flow from the church down through the fathers into the homes. And by the way, if you get preaching of the Word right, and you get every member ministry through small groups right, and if you get personalized strategic world missions right, and you're striving to get home life discipleship right, you don't have time for all this other stuff. You know what you'll find out? You'll find out you know God is wise.
These things are really rewarding and fulfilling when we actually do them. Stop running around here looking for the next most clever niche or new thing to redesign the church. If it ain't been around for 2,000 years, we don't need to even be concerned with it.
I knew I was gonna chase some rabbits this morning. Romans 2. Shepherds need refreshing.
This comes out rather clear here in our text. As Paul says in verse 12, when the reinforcements, Tychicus and Artemis, get there, Titus, then you are freed from your duty over the churches of Crete. They'll take your place, but I want you to come to me at Nicopolis where I've decided to spend the winter there. Literally again, I've decided to winter there. That was a fairly common phrase in the ancient world because it was really difficult just to survive winter in much of the world. They had none of the conveniences of heat and proper shelter and even roofs overhead that were substantial in those times.
So very often though, certainly Paul did some work, things were pulled back. It was a little bit more like a break time during the winter. So he says, I'm going to winter in Nicopolis.
For example, the Roman army didn't fight in winter. It was just too hard. You didn't sell the Aegean or the Mediterranean Sea in winter because the winds were terrible and the storms were worse.
It was just too treacherous and too dangerous. So he says, while I'm at Nicopolis for the winter, getting something of a rest and a refreshing, Titus, I want you here with me. And that speaks of refreshing also because Paul often speaks about how someone came and they were a joy to him and they were a refreshing him. Paul says, I'm going to look to this time with you Titus come to me as a time for refreshing.
And actually I wrote down several things that I'm convinced was happening in Nicopolis as Paul was wintering there. First of all, he was resting. He wasn't out traveling and going city to city, town to town like he normally did, preaching the Word and overseeing his associates. He assigned all over the place.
He was resting. Secondly, when Titus arrived, he was going to be reviewing. Titus, tell me how it went on Crete. Let's catch up. I want to review the Word. How far did we get?
Some of them come along. Did you get these doggone false teachers dealt with and get them out of the way in some of these churches? Reviewing. So resting and then I'm sure he was reviewing. Then of course I used the word in my outline, refreshing. It was refreshing for Paul to get some more than his typical, some downtime, and refreshing to have Titus as associate come back to him. Then certainly there was retraining as he took Titus where Titus was, and with his oversight of Titus and Titus' work of church planting, he kept instructing him and guiding him. By the way, the pastoral epistles are the continuing oversight of the Apostle Paul over his church planters. And we find that in Acre and in Truth to be very effective.
If a guy gets out on the field, all the sudden his creative ideas are banished and he comes back with his hat in his hand and says, can you teach me how to make this work? It's tough planting churches. It's hard planting churches. The warfare is intense. You know, we're doing this all over the world and we've learned a lot in the last four decades and we're still learning.
But you have to continually retrain, if you will. And that's what Paul is certainly doing with Titus there with him for the winter. And then not only that, but reassigning. Paul's certainly going to tell Titus as they spend the winter together, now when winter's over, we're back out on the road, Titus, here's your new assignment.
So he's resting, he's reviewing Titus' work in Crete, he's being refreshed, he's retraining, and he's reassigning. But the idea of the Apostle needing to winter somewhere is a good idea for men of God from time to time. I used to wonder when I was a young pastor, I would go hear men preach who were in their 40s and 50s and 60s, and I would notice they looked, the passion wasn't really there, and the zeal wasn't really there, and I thought, these are good men of God, what's wrong?
Then I learned what was wrong. They were pastoring Baptist churches where the deacons required them to do a thousand and one things that were not really what they were supposed to be doing. And therefore, they didn't have the time and energy to do the things God really required of his servants. They did quite honest, they were just worn out, worn out.
I'm so grateful to you, especially our elders, who through the years discerned that if we're gonna have a guy who can really preach for us with passion and zeal and conviction, we've got to help reserve his energy for that end. I'll never forget at the end of a very long and difficult season of warfare, just to be honest, I was done. I was wiped out, and I'd never really taken a full vacation.
I'd always take my work with me on vacation, which is really dumb. I thought I was being spiritual. God later showed me, no, you're being fleshly, you're being proud. You're thinking you're like God who doesn't rest or slumber.
God doesn't need to sleep, but we do. And we were in our elders meeting, and they were looking at me like, boy, you look pitiful. And they suggested, you know, nothing's going on in July, why don't you get away? And then in this kind, meek, gentle tone, Brother Andy Bolding looked at me and said, get out of here!
That's what you said, Andy. And I got out of here. Scared to death. I'd never been away for a month. Get out of here! Come back in August when we start our new fall group, small groups in the fall.
And it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Pastors need refreshing. Do you want a pastor to really preach, or do you want a pastor that's worn out, doing the best he can, but he just has to throw something together off the internet, and that's happening a lot, because the energy's not there. Well, just like Jesus, Paul believed in those seasons. Mark 631, and he, Jesus, said to them, that's his disciples, come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest awhile.
Dr. Vance Habner said, if a pastor don't learn to come away, if they don't come apart from time to time, they'll fall apart. Roman numeral 3, another conviction that comes out of this benediction is, missions must be supported in a cooperative spirit. Missions must be supported in a cooperative spirit. This preaching and church planting effort is a team effort with many churches coming together in a cooperative spirit to help make it happen. Notice verse 13, diligently help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way so that nothing is lacking them. Zenas and Apollos were coming through Crete, and Paul said, now you've got to have a cooperative spirit. You've got to help these guys, give them money, give them resources, so as they leave you, they're able to go a good while until they come into another church, established church. Because when you're planting churches, not any supports coming in.
And then when they get to another established church, they should do the same thing so they can keep sending these brothers on their way in their preaching and church planting work. Now we don't know who Zenas the lawyer is. Probably it's because he was skilled in the law of Moses, not the law of Rome. And then Apollos we do know a lot about from Acts chapter 18. We know he's born in Alexandria.
He's an eloquent man. The Bible says Apollos was mighty in the Scriptures. The Bible says he was passionate, filled with the Holy Spirit, and also that he was teachable. Remember Apollos was the guy going around, he was powerful, but he was limited in his understanding. So Aquila and Priscilla pulled Apollos aside and taught him the ways of God more thoroughly. Because Apollos had only been acquainted with the baptism of John the Baptist. That was a baptism preparing them for the Messiah. That was not believers baptism, which adds you to the local church.
So he just had to learn some more things, but he was teachable. So Paul expected when these kind of brothers come through a local church, they're solid guys, they have Paul's approval and Paul's blessing, and by the way, don't you support just anybody that comes through. One thing we do in Acre and in Truth, we are very thorough about vetting those we support. We cannot tell these pastors and partners around the world who give us money to help with our church planning efforts, please support us when we haven't thoroughly vetted the local churches and the leaders of those local churches. So you don't just do that to everybody, but these are guys Paul had approved. He's an apostle, so that's good.
If he messes it up, then that's got to get him. So make sure as Paul has his approved men coming through, that you have a co-optive spirit and take care of them. Well, this is so thoroughly wrought out in the New Testament. Philippians 4-15, Paul writes to the church at Philippi and says, You yourselves also know Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving receiving but you alone. Paul said it was slow getting this started. It was slow developing this cooperative spirit that we all got to help and support.
It's so slow, Paul says, that you folks in Philippi were the first ones to ever get it. He calls it the principle of giving and receiving here. I gave you biblical truths. I gave you the gospel, which is of infinite wealth and value, and you were to give back to me the financial means to keep supporting my preaching church planning ministry.
So even though it's expected, it was really slow getting off the ground. Something else we've discovered and anchored in truth missions through the years is that for many years it was just all outgoing from us. We would give and give and give to help these new church plants, and that was right and good, and we still do a lot of that.
But brother Steve especially carried the weight of discipling these guys saying, Now wait a minute, now you guys got to give back. As you get on your feet, you help the next church planters. And now we're seeing our partnership with churches being very generous in giving back and supporting along with us that we all might function supporting missions in this cooperative spirit. 3rd John 1, 5 through 8, for example, Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, even when they are strangers, or especially when they are strangers. And they, these people you're helping, have testified to your love before the church, and you will do well. Notice, hey, we're just to send them on a way worthy of God. When these missionary church planters come through your church, send them on with support, worthy of the God and the gospel that they preach and represent.
Then he continues on, For they went out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support such men, so that we might be fellow workers with the truth. When Paul wrote to Philemon, the wealthy man who had a church meeting in his house, Paul expected Philemon and the church there to have a cooperative supporting spirit. He says in Philemon 1.22, At the same time, prepare for me a lodging. In other words, I'm coming through and it's expected that you'll cooperate in a spirit of supporting my work.
On and on and on we go. Romans 15, 24, Whenever I go to Spain, for I hope to see you in passing, and to be helped on my way there by you. When I first enjoyed your company for a little while, I'm coming to meet you. I'm going to minister there, but I also want to take up some offerings while I'm there, so you can help me to go further. And that's what Anchoring in Truth missions is. It's all of us together, sound pastors in our church, cooperating together to keep this word going out. Where did we get this idea? It's the Apostle Paul's idea. It's God's idea. It's thoroughly established in the New Testament text. So all these churches were to maintain this cooperative spirit of supporting missions. But now there's a key word that jumps out here that I've never thought about before in the context of financial support of God's work. Look at it there.
Let's see that key word in the New American Standard. Verse 13, Diligently helped Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way. So nothing's lacking in there. Now I know the Bible teaches about generous giving. I know the Bible uses the metaphor, the amplifier, of cheerful giving. But now we have another one, diligent giving. That's Paul's phrase here.
Diligently support them as they come through. Now the word diligently there is the idea of being without hesitation and with eagerness. So I cannot challenge you, church, this morning. When you made your faith commitment this year, did you do it with diligence?
Did you say without hesitation, with earnestness, I want to get in on this. Lord, what can we trust you to enable us to do permissions? This year I submit to you, church, if you did not do it with diligence, you did not do it biblically. Diligently support these kind of men, Paul says.
So they'll be lacking for nothing. Like when Paul received the gift from Epaphroditus there from the church at Philippi. When Paul got the gift from the church at Philippi, he said, oh my goodness, now I have everything in abundance.
I don't like anything. I've got more than enough. Then he says, and here's how God, God views this as a soothing aroma and fills the nostrils of God with pleasant things. Like it's an offering, like it's a picture of the Old Testament priest lighting the incense and bringing up a pleasing offering to God. You no longer go to a priest, you no longer go to a temple, you no longer lift up sacrifices in a temple. That's passed away.
Our sacrifice is Jesus Christ, and now your offerings are support God's men who are doing God's work for God's glory. So he said, do this with diligence. Now, he now spreads this out a little further.
Probably so far he's talking to Titus quite personally. But then he says in verse 14, our people must also learn to engage in good deeds. In other words, these churches got to learn to do this too.
To meet pressing needs so that they will not be unfruitful. So Paul brings everybody in, including Titus, and that the idea of learning to engage, that's a phrase in our Scriptures, learning to engage. Are you listening to me this morning? You know, this might be the only Sunday I ever remember we'd probably have more than the balcony when we got on the floor.
Don't get real comfortable up there. Because I know there's some of you, if I cut a hole in the back wall of the balcony and put you a little seat back there, you'd go back in that hole, and you sit way on back there. But we, um, have you heard of AI? Have you heard of that? Well, we've got AI here.
And the little, you can't, you don't know where that little camera comes out, and I know exactly when you're here, and exactly when you're not, and exactly where you're sitting. I'm not serious. But you could do that. Matter of fact, our Anchored in Truth guys told me a while back, you understand, pastor, that you're out there so much that anybody can take a simple AI program and put it together and make you saying anything they want to make you say. They could have you supporting gay marriage and everything, and it sounds like you'd have your inflection, your passion, your everything.
Don't believe everything you see on the Internet. The phrase here, he says, now Titus, these churches must learn to engage in these good deeds. In the context, that doesn't exclude other good deeds, but he has to be talking about the good deed of supporting good and faithful men in ministry. And I'm not talking about me or the Lord, I'm talking about outside of us, the men who are going out from us that are going to do the church planting mission work. And by the way, we rejoicing that God is blessed, Anchored in Truth, and we are able to greatly bless the church plants so they don't have to struggle and suffer with getting a down payment for a house. Is that not wonderful? Man, I've been working for decades to get us to this place, and that's so exciting, and I'm so glad that you now are learning to engage in good deeds. But the idea of the phrase there, learn to engage, means to learn by practice, learn by making it a habit. In other words, you do it because it's right, then later it'll be a blessing.
Did you hear that? You do what's right, and then your emotions catch up with your commitment to truth. That's the way Christianity works. You don't love your wife like Christ loved the church because you feel good about it. It's right, and then you'll start feeling good about it.
Y'all don't act like you're hearing me this morning. There's amen in there somewhere. You don't even love your children the right way because you feel like it.
No, you feed them, when you'd probably like to feed them to lions some days, but you feed them because it's your response right. Then it becomes a blessing. So you've got to—you know why some of you are not psyched up at all about giving to missions? You know how some of you don't have a joy in it, or an earnestness in it?
You're out of practice. That's what that means. They must learn to engage in good deeds, means they practiced it until it's what they are and they joy in. There's no better good deed than supporting the advancement of the preaching of the Word to the end of planting Glory of God focused, Christ honoring Bible-saturated local New Testament churches. This pleases God, this fulfills God's purpose, this depends on God's power, and it's the right thing to do.
All right, number four. Another strong conviction that leaks out of Paul—he just can't help himself—as he gives these benedictory remarks. Our deeds abound to the glory of God.
Now it's not explicitly stated, but it's thoroughly understood that that's where Paul is heading with everything. This is unto the glory of God. Verse 14 again, our people must also learn to engage in good deeds, to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful. In other words, they'll miss the opportunity to bear the fruit through these missionaries that ends in the glory of God. See, that should motivate you that as these folks go out, as we support our missionaries, our church planters, our new church plants, etc., then it's going to ultimately glorify God. It's going to be fruitful and therefore bring glory to God. I don't want you to go to heaven. And the Lord looked at you and said, what did you do with your means?
You say this and that and this and that. He said, you were quite unfruitful because what you gave to didn't abound to the preaching of the Word and the planting of churches, which is the fruit that should have been filling the earth to the glory of God. Because only God can use the Word to save souls.
Only God can bring about regeneration. Only God can add those to the church. Only God can keep them in a sound church. And when that happens and we're doing right, God is greatly glorified.
You know, just as all rivers and streams come out of the sea through evaporation, so they flow from the rivers and streams back into the sea. And that's the way we are with good deeds. God saves us. God secures us. God sanctifies us.
God grows us. He gives us the spiritual gifts and the service we render. And as we give our gifts and exercise our services, then God gets the glory back. He did all of this and now he gets it back through glory. It's just a continuing thing.
A couple of cross-references here that speak to this. 2 Corinthians 9, 7, and 8, each one must do just as he's purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that always having all sufficiency in everything, God's given you an abundance of material things.
Why? Last part of verse 8, 2 Corinthians 9, you may have an abundance for every good deed. God blessed you this way and has to flow back out to God.
He flowed it in on you, flow it back out. 2 Corinthians 9, 11, and 12, you will be enriched. God's gonna enrich you, including materially, spiritually and materially, in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God.
You've been blessed. You're gonna help me, the Apostle Paul. That's gonna cause more people to come to Jesus Christ, more New Testament churches to be planted, and when you have more churches, you have more people thanking God and praising God that glorifies God, and that's why we're here.
I'm glad I got to get in on this, and our lives can count for eternity. Number five, another conviction that leaks out of this benediction, all true churches are in this together. And then I have the word unity, all true churches are in this together.
Notice how he words it there in verse 15, all who are with me greets you and greet those who love us in the faith. In other words, we're one with them and you're all one with me. We're all in this together. You're never alone.
You are never alone. This is another strong word that these newer churches in Crete or wherever must stay attached to the older churches, because that way when they go through the trials and difficulties, they're never alone. I love this aspect of anchored in truth, and you hear very little about this, but we commonly send some of our church leaders out to a church plant when they're having a problem, when there's a division, when there's conflict, when there's warfare, and then those elders go out and help mediate and fix that, and the pastor tells us over and over again, it's wonderful to have that kind of backup for us. That's part of what this is all about, that we have each other going down the road for the difficult days ahead. Certainly that's true in all of our small groups, as we are there for each other. But Paul is pointing out a beautiful truth, all who are with me greets you.
Now would you in my place greet those who love us? We're all in this together. It's not good that these church plants have a vital connection to authority and leadership outside of themselves.
It's essential. I tell these guys all the time that go out and plant churches, I said, this is coming, and this is coming, and this is coming, and this is coming, and it's not good stuff. God turns it around for the good, but it's not good stuff. And almost at that exception, they look at me like, no, we got this figured out. We know how this is gonna work. This is gonna be good. I say, yeah, call me in year three. Call me up in year five.
Call me in year seven. No, there's gonna be heartache, and there's gonna be nights you can't sleep. You'll more than likely have seasons of depression and discouragement, but here's what I can tell you, anchored in truth is with you all the way through. We have to come pick you up and send your wife and you and your family away for a two-week vacation just to get your energy back and your senses back. We'll do it. Whatever it takes. We're there all the way through for you.
I don't know anybody else that's doing that. I don't mean to pat us on the back. This should just be normal stuff, because Paul's writing it to Titus on the island of Crete like it's just normal stuff. We're all in this together. There's no concept of these new churches going out there and facing the warfare without Paul's ardent, persistent, regular help. And after the apostolic age passed away, he expects us churches who've been through more of it, be there for those other guys.
And we are through anchored in truth, and we're gonna keep doing it better, the best we possibly can. Matter of fact, if I was going to be a part of a church plant, I couldn't say this a few years ago because I didn't get it. Maybe somebody approached me about planting a church. First question I asked is, what sound local church and what sound body of elders are overseeing this church plant? If they couldn't tell me, then I'd say, I'm not saying it's not of God, but we need to slow down.
That doesn't look like the biblical model. An independent spirit. It's almost never of God, unless you're facing rank ungodliness and you have to separate from it.
That does happen. We should not have an independent spirit. Well, goodness, goodness, goodness.
What am I gonna skip? Well, use just the phrase in verse 15, greet those who love us in the faith. Now notice this one for all, an awful one, this special unity. We all greet you, we're united with you, and you make sure those who love us get our greetings. So he's saying, we love you and you love us.
It's a special bond. And I'll go back to Galatians 6, 10 again. Remember Galatians 6, 10, it puts this in balance for us. So then, while we have opportunity, let's do good to all people.
That's true. As you live your life, and there's a need, if you can help somebody, help them. But you and I both know, even the shows there, if you help everybody that has a need, you'll never even get back home that day. The Bible certainly doesn't mean that. Well, Galatians 6, 10 doesn't just say, have you had have opportunity, do good to all people. It continues and says, especially those who are of the household of the faith. But your primary devotion, your chief devotion, is to your brothers and sisters in your local church. You can put your arms around that.
Divide up the needs, we can handle that. And I've told you this before, but as a young Christian, I was so zealous, but I was so ignorant. And I literally thought I'm to go everywhere I can, all that I can, and meet every need all day long.
And it didn't take long before I realized, that's impossible. And then God opened my eyes and said, no, no, no, no. Those that love Jesus, the Jesus you love, and those who love His church, the church that you're in, that's your priority. Then just the lights came on, and I understand the propriety of things in God's economy. 1 John 3 16 reminds us, we know love by this, that He laid down His life for us, and we, local church family, ought to lay down our lives for the world?
No. Lay down our lives for the brethren. Paul's phrase here, those who love us. In other words, you're the brethren. We are all in this together. Unbelievers are the enemies of God.
Did you know that? But we're supposed to love our enemies. Of course we are. We're to love them anyway. We don't love them the way we love the children of God. That's our primary and our chief commitment and devotion. I make no apologies for preaching this. I know this doesn't go over in the liberal era we live in, but that's what the Word of God teaches. Do you men love all the women in town the way you love your wives? Of course not.
You'd help a lady who had a need if you could, but your priority is your wife and your home. We get that. Sometimes, folks, you just need spiritual common sense. Some people think the Bible's this odd thing that doesn't make sense.
No, it's just spiritual common sense at times. Matter of fact, I think that was a Puritan phrase that our early Puritan fathers would use. All right, Romans number 6, just mention this, it's all of grace. Verse 15, the very last phrase, Paul closes his letter to Titus that he's commissioned to straighten out the churches on the island of Crete with this, grace be with you all. Whatever else you need, Paul says, you all need grace. God's unmerited favor. There's not a greater prayer or blessing you could give someone than may God's grace be with you. God's special favor and care be with you. Now this authenticated the letter because this is a salutation or benediction that Paul used very often, grace be with you all. It's an expression of love and affection because you can't show greater love for someone than saying, may God's grace rest on you and on yours. It reminds us that He saved us by grace, He sustains us by grace, He sanctifies us by grace, He secured us by grace, and one day He will glorify us by grace. Now let me remind you, this service isn't over until I pray, then you get up and leave. Listen to me, everything, everything that has ever happened in the universe and everything, everything that's happening today and everything that's going to happen until Jesus comes back, actually including when Jesus comes back, is to the end of the bride being beautified and the son being glorified.
And we get to get in on the foundational work of that. I told you I've been to some bridal salons, you remember that? Well there's an exceedingly wealthy man who had a precious daughter, it's the only child he had. Oh, this man's a billionaire, he loved this girl more than anything in the world, and he took her to the finest bridal salon in Paris.
Baby, you get the best of the best. So she goes back there and she finds the gown she thinks she wants, and she walks out in this glorious, extremely expensive bridal gown, and her daddy looks at her and says, Brady, that's beautiful, you're beautiful, but that's not good enough for you, go find a better one. She comes back and she's got the veil she's picked out, I don't know how you describe a veil, ladies, but it's beautiful.
It's just immaculate and expensive. He says, sweetheart, that's beautiful, but it's not good enough for you. Go back and get a better one. Even more beautiful, and even even one more glorious than that. She goes back, she's picked out some shoes, and oh my goodness, what a pair of shoes. He says, sweetheart, those are beautiful, not good enough for you though. Go back and get you some more beautiful shoes, and she goes back and next time she comes out she's got a train, you know that long thing back there?
Beautiful! Hand-stitched, everything precision and precise, with the best craftsmen and seamstresses in all of Europe, sweetheart, that's glorious, that's beautiful, not good enough for you. You go back in there and you pick out another one. You know, Jesus does that for His bride. He does not take us to the bridal salon in Paris, but the bridal salon of the Godhead. And we come out with a beautiful dress that only divinity could design, and Jesus looks at us, His bride, and says, darling, that's beautiful, but that's not good enough for you. Get one more beautiful, more glorious. We come out with a veil that only God could put together, and Jesus says, sweetheart, that's beautiful and glorious.
Get a better one. You're my everything. She comes out with the shoes, beautiful shoes, only something divinity could put together, and Jesus looks at her and says, sweetheart, just you're my precious bride, that's not good enough for you. The veil, same thing, glorious, something only divinity could put, but that's not good enough for my bride. Get something more beautiful.
The train comes out, that beautiful flowing train, sweetheart, beautiful and glorious, beyond all imagination, but that's not good enough for you. Jesus said, in fact, sweetheart, you're my bride, and there's one essential adornment I want you to have, and when you have this adornment, you will be exceedingly beautified and glorious. Matter of fact, what I'm gonna give you, sweetheart, is a precious family heirloom. It's priceless.
It can't be bought. And Jesus walks over to us, his bride, and said, oh, darling, put on my righteousness. Put on my glory. That's the best I can give you. And there we're robed, the glorious righteousness of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, beautified beyond compare, that He might be glorified beyond compare. What this right here is, what this local church is, the temporary bridal salon, and I'm doing my best, and we're doing our best, teach and preach and exhort and encourage and lift up and care and be forgiving and exhort and reprove and beautifying the bride until we see Him and He completes it.
