Truth Tightly Packed (Part 3 of 3)

It takes more than basic Bible knowledge to produce genuine life-transforming faith. Today on Truth for Life, we'll find out what else is involved and we'll learn how real faith dramatically changes everything about our lives, even our perspective on death.

Alistair Begg is concluding a message titled, Truth Tightly Packed. We're in Titus chapter 1 verses 1 through 4. At one point, he refers to some who are always learning, yet never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. When the writer to the Hebrews is describing the time of the Exodus, he describes those for whom the message was of no value to them, because they did not combine it with faith. Thus making it clear to us that it is possible for us to have some kind of elemental knowledge of things without that knowledge actually being life-transforming knowledge.

Now, it is the latter that Paul is referencing here. Genuine Christian faith involves both the heart and the mind. If we fail to understand that, that God at work in us causes us not only to feel deeply but also to think properly, we will be tempted to make much of one or the other element. If we make much of our minds, then we may end up with a kind of arid rationalism.

If we make too much of our hearts, then we may end up with a kind of superficial emotionalism. And it is good for us just to think about knowledge in relationship to truth and knowledge in relationship to faith, because the last little while in our country has seen an increased interest in things that are, if you like, emotional and less in things that have a rational foundation. And there is a way of looking at the things that are in the Bible that is constantly simply looking for that which will give us an emotional buzz or a surge or a blessing or whatever it might be.

And we may go for a long period of time and discover that we're not actually growing in any knowledge of the truth at all. Well, the reason, says Paul, that he's been appointed to apostleship is in order that those who have come to faith may also then grow in the knowledge of the truth. Not knowledge in an ivory tower, but you will notice that this knowledge of the truth is that which accords with godliness, so that it is not that they simply have a mind that is set on information, but they have a life that has been transformed by that information. And he's going to go on and make the point, throughout the balance of this short letter, that this practical godliness is then going to be seen in the way women live their lives, in the way younger women are involved in the raising of their families, in the way young men exercise self-control, in the leadership of the church, and in the way in which citizens, in an alien society such as Crete, live lives which adorn the gospel of the Lord Jesus. And so it is that for the sake of God's elect, their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness, and also they have been brought to the hope of eternal life. Now, it's important that we recognize that when we think of eternal life, the Bible thinks more often than it doesn't in terms of quality rather than of quantity.

We're tempted to think immediately in terms of quantity, but in actual fact, the phrase eternal life or the life of the age to come was that which the Jewish people anticipated long for when the Messiah would come, and the age in which they'd been living would be transformed by his appearing. And so it is that Jesus has come. He steps up, and you remember as we began Mark's Gospel, he said, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Why was it at hand?

Well, because the King was present. And in Jesus, the life of the age to come came or has come. And that's why he was able to say to people, I am come that you might have life and that you might have it in all of its fullness. So that the entering into eternal life is an experience into which we presently go.

The quantitative element of it stretches all the way out into eternity, but the reality of it is something that we enjoy now. And if we have passed, as it says here, from death to life, if we no longer come into judgment, then that means that death has been changed dramatically for the Christian. It hasn't been removed unless Jesus returns before we die. Each of us will die. Each of us will face the dissolution of death.

Each of us lives our life, moving inexorably towards that day. Death, if you like, rattles its chains at us in various ways and beckons us. But what is the difference for the Christian? Well, the Christian has been brought into the hope of eternal life. Death for the Christian is not, then, the awful reality of the judgment on sin.

And what we fear most, we will never experience. So we're going to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. We're going to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. And as you think about this in relationship to the promise of a new heaven and a new earth and the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven as a bride from God, and as you think all of this through, as I'm sure you must, and wonder about it, and wonder about the time lapse between our death and our being brought into the presence of Jesus and our being clothed with a resurrection body and our living in a new heaven and a new earth, you'll be forced to say, Well, I wonder how it's going to be.

What is it going to be like? Paul doesn't say that he desires to leave Philippi and go for a general anesthetic that will last until the new heaven and the new earth. But he says that if he's going to leave them, he will depart and be with Christ, which is far better. And if you remember, when we were dealing with the question posed by the annoying creatures who came to Jesus, trying to trip him up over the question of the resurrection, and they said, You know, this man died, and then his wife married again, and she had seven husbands, and who will be the husband in the resurrection? And Jesus, remember, says, Well, the trouble with you fellows is that you neither understand the Bible, nor do you know the power of God. And remember, he says, Don't you realize that God is the God of the living?

You have Abraham, you have Isaac, and you have Jacob. My knowledge of this life is small. The eye of faith is dim. It is enough that Christ knows all, and I shall be with him. And this hope of eternal life is not uncertain, you will notice. Paul tells Titus in verse 7 of chapter 3 that being justified by his grace, we have become heirs to the hope of eternal life.

That doesn't mean anything concerning uncertainty. How can we be so sure? Well, he tells us, in the hope of eternal life, which God promised.

And what is God like? Well, he doesn't tell lies. He never lies. Therefore, we can take him at his word. His promise goes all the way back to before the ages even began. He promised this before the ages began. So says Paul, This is my purpose.

I serve God, I'm an apostle of Jesus, so that the faith of God's elect may be grounded in their knowledge of the truth, a knowledge which then purports itself in godly living, and that grounded in the hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised way back at the beginning of things, before the beginning of things. Well, that then brings us to our third heading, which is Paul's preaching, because he goes on to say that his preaching has been instrumental in this. You will notice, what God had promised from eternity had been manifested—is the word that is used here—or revealed at the proper time. That little phrase, at the proper time, is both interesting and important. Because what it tells us is that there is nothing haphazard, nothing arbitrary, about the timing of things. We also know that the disciples, who were a little preoccupied with the timing of things, particularly the prospect of the return of Jesus, were told by Jesus, It's not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.

So the fact that I don't know the details of them does not diminish the fact that there are details to them. The fact that these details have not been disclosed to us as God's children does not mean that God is not working according to his plan. And it is a tremendous assurance to know that God is working all things out according to the eternal counsel of his will—the good things, the bad things, the sad things. God knows exactly what he's doing. He doesn't tell lies. He's too kind to be cruel.

He's too wise to ever make mistakes. And that little phrase, at the proper time, comes again and again in the pastoral epistles. And a similar phrase runs the entire way through John's Gospel, making it clear that Jesus is operating, exercising his ministry, moving towards the cross, according to the plan and purpose of God. The people in Crete were living in darkness until, at the proper time, the light shone into the darkness of their hearts. They were hopeless until the good news came. And the good news came, at the proper time, through the preaching, says Paul, with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior. It's an immense thought, isn't it? That God deigns to consecrate the voice of a mere man, to bear the news of his amazing grace and goodness in the gospel, and purpose is to bring people under the sound of that word in such a fashion and at such a time so as to bring to fruition a purpose that he's had from all of eternity. Some of us—I met with some university students this evening—they were asking me hard questions.

I didn't realize how hard they were going to be. If I'd known, I wouldn't have gone, I don't think. But nevertheless… And at one point, we were talking about, What's the purpose of prayer if God is sovereign?

And I said to the students, Let's turn it round the other way. What would be the purpose of prayer if God wasn't sovereign? What would be the purpose of praying to a God who couldn't do anything, who wasn't sovereign over things? No, you see, these mysteries are there to engender in us childlike trust and believing faith, to encourage us to realize that in the mystery of the purposes of God, he chooses to use even the preaching of Paul himself by his command. And the privilege and the responsibility to Paul was such that he was humbled by it.

And it ought to be the occasion of humbling to everyone who is entrusted with it. The interesting thing about being a preacher as well and being a teacher of the Bible is that, unlike being a university professor, if you bring a group into your class, whatever it is—let's say it's economics 101—if you do a relatively good job, the people make it through the class, they take their examinations, and they pass out of the class, and you're done with them. But if you're a preacher, no one ever makes it out of the class. We never get out of the class, do we? Because we're always constantly in need of the reminders, always constantly in need of the assurances, always constantly in need of the learning.

There is something very humbling about the fact that no one ever graduates from the class. Paul says, "'For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no grounds for boasting, for necessity is laid upon me. Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.'" Now, let me just remind us of something that I think we understand as a congregation, but it's good for us to keep in mind. And that is that the preaching of the Word of God is God-ordained, it is Spirit-led, and it is Bible-filled. So that when God's Word is faithfully proclaimed, God's voice is actually heard. Otherwise, this is a futile exercise.

In a way that is beyond our ability to fully articulate or comprehend, when we take the authoritative truth of God's Word, led and prepared by the Spirit of God, offered up as clearly as possible, then the pledge of heaven is that the very voice of God is heard through the agency of a mere mortal voice as it brings forward the truth of God's Word. Karl Barth in his day warned preachers, he said, the real question that you face about preaching is not, How does one do it? How does one do it? The real question, Barth said to his students, was, How can one do it? How can one do it?

How can you ever do this? Well, the answer is that the preacher must, and therefore the preacher can. In weakness, in fear, unable to affect the outcome, and yet not so diffident, so unsure as to be unable to say, I implore you, on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. The effective preaching of the Word involves multiple elements, but at least these—a praying preacher and a praying expectant congregation.

There is all the difference in the world in preaching to a congregation that prays with expectancy and preaching to a congregation that is there simply to adjudicate on the message that is brought forth. And finally, just a word or two concerning Titus. To Titus, my true child in a common faith—I'm sure that made Titus sit up in his chair a little taller, especially as it was read out publicly. Kind of nice to have the apostle Paul refer to him as his true child, an encouragement that is there. Titus, he's my true child in a common faith. I'm from a Jewish background, he might have said. Titus is a Greek.

He's from a Gentile background. Titus owes his salvation under God to my ministry, my preaching, but the fact is, we are united in a common faith. That faith is the faith for the sake of that same faith of God's elect that he's been appointed as an apostle and as a servant. And in a passing fashion, Paul actually reminds Titus and reminds us that the family of faith extends beyond Crete. This common faith, this koinonia of fellowship in the wonder of the gospel, extends beyond Ephesus, Philippi, Corinth, Cleveland, and so on. And each of the communities in which this letter would be read would be strengthened by the reminder of the fact that they're part of something far bigger than themselves.

And I want to end in that way tonight by reminding us of the same—that we're part of something far bigger than ourselves. On the one hand, that will keep us from discouragement if we feel that relatively little may be happening. But on the other hand, it keeps us from self-promotion by realizing that God's purposes extend far and beyond us. One of the dangers of a congregation such as our own is a kind of inward focus, a kind of self-engendered theological means test that, if we're not careful, descends into a spirit of judgmentalism that looks not for the work of the gospel in every place but tends to think that it isn't present in many places. And I'm saying that it is a reality for us, I'm saying that it's a danger for this kind of church family. And I want to read a quote for you to help us in this regard as we draw this to a close, from John Bright's book on the kingdom of God. And I came upon it because I was thinking along these lines. And this is what he says, The church is not at all an organization, nor yet the sum total of all its organizations.

It is an organism. It is the people of faith, the people of the kingdom of God. We speak not now of the churches, small c, but of the church, capital C, and of a far higher sense of peoplehood than most of us have known. We are not the people of the Reverend Dr. X's church, held there by the power of the Reverend Dr. X's oratory or, in spite of it, by a very stubborn loyalty. We are not the people of the Presbyterian, the Methodist, or the Baptist churches, challenged by the worthy programs of these churches and finding fellowship in them.

We are not men of goodwill concerned for the foundations of society, aware that these are the gifts of religion to society, and so supporters of our churches. We are the people of the church. And the church is greater than the churches.

As the true Israel of God's purpose was not equal to the Israelite nation, so is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ not equal to the Christian churches. It is in every one of them, yet beyond all of them—so much so that no church may claim to be the one true church without self-deification and blasphemy. The church is an invisible thing. It cuts across the membership role of the churches along a line no ecclesiastical statistician could follow and reaches out to include the most improbable publicans and sinners. It breathes in and out of the forms and standards of the churches like a wind blowing where it wills, or may indeed hear the sound of it.

But there is no telling whence it comes or whither it goes. The church is a superearthly community transcending time and space. In it, one sits down with Father Abraham and the Twelve, with the Christian brother in the pew and the Christian brother in China. It is the community of all who have heard the sound of the kingdom of God drawing near and have said yes to its coming.

It is the new Israel, the new people of God, one holy church, universal." So he writes this little letter. And he says, I'm writing to you, Titus. You're the man for the time in Crete.

You're my true child. We share a faith, Titus, that is going to reach far and beyond us. And so I commend you to God's care. And he reminds him of the grace of God in which he stands, and the peace of God which will then guard his heart and mind in a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What better way to end his introduction to this letter? And what better way to end our study but by being reminded of God's grace, through which we are justified, and God's peace, which keeps us in his perfect will? Genuine, life-altering faith will ultimately have an impact on how we think, how we feel, and what we do.

You're listening to Alistair Begg, and this is Truth for Life. Today's message made it clear that as Christians, we're expected to grow in the knowledge of truth as God's word is preached, and as God works in us to help us feel deeply and think properly. That's why our mission at Truth for Life is to teach the Bible with clarity and relevance every single day. We do this knowing that God uses the teaching of his word to bring unbelievers to saving faith, to help believers grow into a closer relationship with Jesus, and to strengthen local churches. Alistair explained today that effective preaching of God's word involves a praying preacher and a praying expectant congregation. Praying together and hearing God's word are two privileges we experience when we belong to a local church, and today we want to recommend to you a book that offers additional practical suggestions for how you can be a joy to your pastor and can make a meaningful difference in your church. This is a brand new book by Pastor Tony Morita. It's titled Love Your Church. Request your copy of Love Your Church when you make a donation through the Truth for Life app or online at truthforlife.org slash donate. I'm Bob Lapine. Join us tomorrow when we'll find out why most problems in the home or in the church can be linked to ineffective leadership. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.