How Should the Church Respond to the Truth? #1

We must as the body of Christ understand where our allegiance lies. And our allegiance is vertical, not horizontal. That's our primary allegiance. It's not that we don't love lost people.

That's not the point. It's that they don't define our philosophy of ministry or the way that we handle the truth. That prerogative is reserved to the one who revealed the truth.

We're just trying to be obedient in response. Truth comes into focus through God's Word, and believers are privy to it. The Church needs to handle the truth with care. It's our responsibility to do so. And today on The Truth Pulpit, Pastor Don Green will address the question, how should the Church respond to the truth? Hello, I'm Bill Wright. We're continuing our series, Titus, God's Glorious Plan of Grace. And Don, why is properly handling the truth so important?

Well, Bill, there are two things that I would say to our friends about that point. First of all, it is only through the truth of Scripture that anyone can be saved. The Bible says that faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. Secondly, truth is the way that Christians grow.

Jesus prayed, sanctify them in the truth. If you're not a Christian today, we invite you to come to Christ to be saved. If you are a Christian, we want you to grow. There's something for everyone here today on The Truth Pulpit.

Thanks, Don. And friend, turn to Titus chapter 3 as we join Don Green now in The Truth Pulpit. What is the Church of Jesus Christ who has been so blessed? What are we to do with truth? What are we to do with the gospel? What are we to do with the truths of Scripture that are contained in the 66 and no more books of the Bible? What do we do with that?

How do we respond to that? Well, that's what we're going to see in verses 8 through 11 as we come to our text. See, we're approaching this passage, verses 8 through 11, with such a spiritual momentum of gratitude and wonder at the glories of salvation. Now Paul tells us, inspired by the Holy Spirit, he says, here's what you do as a body of believers with that. He speaks to Titus in the first-person singular and says, Titus, here's what I want you to do. And as he gives this instruction to Titus, we see what the local church is supposed to do with this glorious truth that's been entrusted to us.

There's a privilege, there's a prerogative, there is a responsibility that goes with it. This truth is precious, this truth is glorious, this truth is sacred. And so what do we do with that? As it were, deposited within us, those of us that are no more than earthen vessels, what do we do with such glory and truth? Here's what Paul says, look at verse 8, Titus 3, verse 8. How should the church respond to the truth? Verse 8, this is a trustworthy statement. And concerning these things, I want you to speak confidently so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men, but avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.

What do we do with the truth? Understand that this passage, these four verses, are coming right on the heels of one of the most glorious explanations of salvation in all of the Bible. And Paul isn't changing direction here.

He's not introducing really a new theme, he's not changing the subject. This is all built on the glory of what we just saw in verses 4 through 7. And what Paul says in verse 8 is, this is a trustworthy statement. He's looking back at verses 4 through 7, that one long sentence, and says, what I have just said in verses 4 through 7 is trustworthy.

You can take it to the bank. This is absolute certainty revealed from the God of heaven. This is something to be believed and embraced. The question is now, what does God want us to do in response to the glory of this truth and the glory of our salvation? We find three things that are laid out for us in this text that really set a philosophy of ministry in some ways for the local church, and also gives us a sense of how we are to view the gospel. Look, this needs to be set up front, especially in light of the content that is about to come in God's Word here. I don't need to tell you that the prevailing dominant mindset in the evangelical church, and at least in America if not all of Western culture, is how can we make this satisfactory to people who don't want to hear? How do we please the people who are outside that want to come in and maybe they'll listen, maybe they won't? And the whole of ministry is geared toward a lowest common denominator of people who aren't even saved.

That is tragic. That is the absolute wrong way to approach ministry. You don't start from the standpoint of who the audience is.

You don't think about how we're going to handle and package the gospel from the standpoint of how we think it's going to be received by those who hear. That is not what we do. That is not our starting point. Our starting point. This is so important.

This is so important for you to understand. Our starting point is not unsaved people. Our starting point is this gospel, which was just explained in verses 4 through 7, is precious, and it is our duty and responsibility to protect it and to preserve it and to defend its purity with everything that we have. We don't want it to become corrupted.

We don't want to change and soften the edges of the message so that more people will listen to us than otherwise would. That is not what you do with the gospel. Your starting point as you understand the gospel is this is so precious that whatever else I do, my preeminent priority is to protect it and then let God do what he wants as we honor with faithfulness what he tells us to do in response to the truth.

Now, I said there were three things. What do we do in response to the truth? First of all, we proclaim the truth powerfully.

We proclaim the truth powerfully. I was reading this past week a writer who was presuming to speak to all of the church from his comparative youth and said that we've got to change the way that we speak to the younger generation. You see, the younger generation wants a conversation. They don't want authoritative preaching. They want a conversation that they can engage. Well, look, when it comes to what the local church does when it gathers together, Scripture, understand plainly, Scripture tells us something completely different.

And we don't measure what we do by polling the youngest generation to see if they'll like it or not. We look to God's Word and say, God, with all that you've given us here in the gospel, what do you want? We're preaching for an audience of one and trusting Him to do with the gospel whatever He pleases. Well, here in the inspired Word of God, it tells us what we're supposed to do.

Look at verse 8. Paul says, This is a trustworthy statement, and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently. The word, speak confidently, that phrase, many people like to translate it, insist. Insist on these things. Don't compromise them.

Don't back down. Scripture tells us that the Word of God is to be spoken and preached with authority. Let your eyes go over to Titus chapter 2 verse 15.

You can see this right in the context. Paul frames his discussion at the beginning and the end of the gospel and how it applies in our lives. He frames it. He bookends it with these statements about the way in which it is to be delivered. He says in chapter 2 verse 15, he says, These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority.

Let no one disregard you. Then he goes into that beautiful statement of salvation that we've been considering for weeks. And he comes back. He comes back to the theme of authority. And he's speaking first-person singular to Titus. And he's giving direct instruction to the man that he appointed to lead the development of the church on the island of Crete. He says, Here's what I want you to do now that I've said these things, Titus. Here's what you're to do. I want you to speak confidently. Nothing's changed.

Nothing's changed. If a man is hesitating, if he is uncertain, if he has doubts about whether the Scriptures are the inerrant Word of God, if he has doubts or hesitations about whether the gospel is the exclusive message of salvation and that there is salvation in no one else other than in Jesus Christ, if he has doubts or he quivers at that, if he's too afraid of the audience in order to speak it, whatever else he does, he shouldn't be in a pulpit. Because these things are precious. These things are true by the very authority of the Word of God. And God says that they are to be proclaimed with confidence. They are to be proclaimed with authority. It's not our job. It's not our job to entertain the masses. Let Hollywood entertain the masses.

Let Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus entertain the masses. That's not what we are supposed to do. We are supposed to speak about the gospel with confidence. That's what we do when we gather together, and then when Christians go out from Sunday, the Sunday gathering, then they engage these things in their sphere of relationships, their circle of relationships, strengthened by what God's Word has said, and able to, in one-on-one conversations, be able to speak with confidence themselves what the gospel is, and the fact that people must repent and believe in Christ, or they are destined to perish eternally.

There's just too much at stake. The gospel is precious. Souls are precious.

And we don't help anyone when we make it look like this is a joke, this is only for your entertainment, this is only to help you get by a little bit better day by day. That doesn't do anybody any good. It's a sin against Christ to approach ministry that way, and it's a sin against lost people to handle the gospel in such a haphazard, slippery way that really conceals and hides the glory of what we should be putting front and center to be displayed to all men. Paul says, you speak these things with confidence, Titus. If you turn back to the book of Acts, I want you to see a little illustration of this. And what you need to understand is, is that the power of the gospel is not resident in us, it's not resident in the methods that we choose to use, it's not resident in education or being well-bred. The power of the gospel is in the gospel itself.

We're just human vessels of it. Acts chapter 4 verse 12 is where I'd like you to turn. There is salvation in no one else. This is the end of a sermon which Peter is speaking.

You look up at verse 8, rulers and elders of the people, he goes on and he concludes in verse 12, he says, there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. Utter confidence with what he proclaimed. Look at the effect, look at the effect on the audience. As Peter spoke, verse 13, now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John, okay? So the very demeanor with which those men preached the gospel had an impact on the audience. Preaching is not to be wishy-washy. God intends it to be done with confidence, a confidence that is worthy of the absolute truth that it is.

Now watch, they're putting two and two together. They observed the confidence of Peter and John, and they understood that they were uneducated and untrained men. How can uneducated and untrained men speak that way? The very weakness, watch this, the very weakness of the human vessel speaking with confidence about truth was that which helped to penetrate the darkness of their minds and was a manifestation of the truth of the gospel. The very confidence with which they spoke manifested the truth of the gospel. They were uneducated and untrained men, and they were amazed because these two things did not go together.

No training, these guys were hicks from French Lick, so to speak. And yet there's this confidence, there's this compelling authority with which they speak. They began to recognize them, look at the end of verse 13. They began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.

Ah, made the connection. Their confidence is a reflection of the presence of Christ upon them. See, that's what we're after.

That's what we're after. We don't care if people who really aren't interested in Scripture walk out of our service and say, I didn't like that, I didn't care about that, that didn't appeal to me. Well, okay, fair enough, appreciate the transparency there, just understand that it wasn't about you in the first place. It was about the truth and the glory of the gospel and what God has commanded us to do. We must as a church, we must as the body of Christ, understand where our allegiance lies. And our allegiance is vertical, not horizontal. That's our primary allegiance.

It's not that we don't love lost people, that's not the point. It's that they don't define our philosophy of ministry or the way that we handle the truth. That prerogative is reserved to the one who revealed the truth, we're just trying to be obedient in response. And so we proclaim the truth powerfully.

There's one other place that I want you to see. Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, maybe someday I'll preach on this passage. We proclaim the truth powerfully. Even while we understand that, people are going to think that it's foolish.

There's no way around it. The whole point of the gospel is this does not appeal to the sensibilities of fallen man. And so the more that we try to appeal and want to appeal to the sensibilities of unsafe people with our ministry, the more we are separating ourselves from the very source of power in our message. Look at verse 18, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18. He says, For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Verse 22. Well, no, go to verse 21.

I should go through the whole passage, but I'm not going to do that. For since, verse 21, since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed, Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but that's not what we give them. We know what they want.

We're not doing it! They want miraculous signs, the Jews do. Greeks want us to be really fine rhetoric.

No, verse 23, we preach Christ crucified to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greek, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Look, what we do, what we preach, what we proclaim is foolishness to unsafe people. We can't get around that. And it's not our job to do that. Our job is to deliver what God wants, not what they want. And trust that God will use our faithfulness to the message to save those who believe. Look over at chapter 2, verse 1.

We're to proclaim the truth powerfully. This is what we do in response to the gospel. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 1. Paul is speaking about his history with the church at Corinth. He said, See, what you preach from the beginning, the way that you approach people, what attracts them to the gospel is what their expectations are going to be.

It's what you're setting the standard by which their Christian life, if they're saved, is going to be determined. Well, we have to make it obvious right from the get-go, right from the very beginning, that we're relying solely on the revealed Word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what we proclaim. We proclaim it with confidence because we know it to be true. And we trust the Spirit of God to use that in their lives just like He did in ours.

We don't need media gurus to tell us what to do. We're not reliant on the latest new thing in preaching to help us know how we're to speak. God's already told us. Don't you think that if the gospel is crucial, if the glory of Christ is revealed in the proclamation of the true gospel, don't you think that God would tell us in His Word how He wanted it done?

Well, that's what He's done in the Scriptures. And if you read these preaching so-called consultants, you'll find this element is almost always missing because they're starting from the absolute wrong starting point. What does the youngest generation want? And how can we make it likable to them?

No, no, no. That's entirely the wrong question. The question is, what does God want? And where would He tell us? Well, He's told us in the Word. And so that's what we do.

That's what we do. We speak it with confidence, not just from the pulpit, but in our private personal witness as well. We don't hesitate about its accuracy. We don't hesitate about its power because that's already been settled for all time in the Word of God. And so we proclaim the truth powerfully. Secondly, what else do we do as the people of God in response to this glorious truth found in verses 4 through 7? Point number two, we receive the truth reverently. We receive the truth reverently. Look at verse 8 with me again. Paul said, this is a trustworthy statement concerning these things.

I want you to speak confidently. So that, under this purpose, see Titus, here's what you do. Here's the impact that it is supposed to have on the people of God. So that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds.

These things are good and profitable for men. God requires us to respond to the truth with two different aspects that are like two sides of a coin. First of all, we respond, we receive the truth, number one, by believing it.

We believe it. Look at what it says there in verse 8. He says those who have believed God, those who have been redeemed by Christ, those who have believed God, this is how they respond. And just focusing on that word believe for just a moment. We are under command of Christ to believe these things. This whether we believe it or accept it is not a matter of personal choice. Christ commands us to believe it, to receive it.

Jesus said, repent and believe in the gospel. And when we say that we are to believe this truth, what we mean by that is that we affirm it. We confidently from conviction say, yes, that is true. The word of God is true, period.

We don't qualify that in our minds. We affirm it and let it shape our convictions. We not only affirm it in our minds, we embrace it with our hearts. We say, it's not just that it's true. I love this truth.

This truth is my life. The Lord Jesus Christ is the object of my affections. I not only hear it with my ears and receive it in my mind, I believe it and receive it with my heart, I submit to it. I acknowledge its authority and I bring myself under it.

I put myself in rank under the truth of the word of the God. We affirm it, we submit to it, and we entrust ourselves to it. You and I have no other hope but this truth. There's nothing else that we can hope in. There's nothing else that can save our souls. There's nothing else that can give us power to live this life. There's nothing else that gives us anything to say to anyone other than the gospel. And so we entrust ourselves to it. Lord, you've said it, I believe it.

I receive it. And now I just entrust myself, I cast myself upon Christ and the authority of this message about Him. So when we say we believe it, it's not just a little mental checkbox and then we move on to something else. We believe it in the sense that we utterly, completely, unreservedly receive it, own it, and rejoice in it. We're reverent. It's an attitude of reverence. And see, look, look, think with me.

That's the only way it could be. By powerfully proclaiming and reverently receiving the truth of God's word, we really do act as the Lord's ambassadors on earth. Next time on The Truth Pulpit, Pastor Don Green will discuss how the Church must defend the truth. As he concludes his message, how should the Church respond to the truth? We hope you'll plan now to join us.

Meanwhile, our teacher is back here in studio. And Don, how might we use the material you've given us in today's lesson to minister to others? That's a great question, my friend. Perhaps you've thought of someone who could benefit from this message that you've heard today. We would love to support you in your ministry to your friends and loved ones. We'll send you a free copy of this CD so that you can pass it along to someone else. You know, it's so simple to minister. Show someone that you care, promise your prayers, and then today you could give them this CD that might be an encouragement to them.

It's a simple way to point them to Christ. Help us here to tell you how to find it. Just visit thetruthpulpit.com. There you'll also find out more about our ministry. That's thetruthpulpit.com. Now for Don Green, I'm Bill Wright, inviting you back next time when Don presents more from The Truth Pulpit.