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Truth for Life / Alistair Begg
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December 13, 2024 3:04 am

Everyone Matters

Truth for Life / Alistair Begg

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December 13, 2024 3:04 am

Do you ever feel like the tasks that take up most of your time lack meaning or purpose? Not so, the Bible teaches! Find out how even boring, routine daily activities can have eternal significance. That’s our focus on Truth For Life with Alistair Begg.



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This listener-funded program features the clear, relevant Bible teaching of Alistair Begg. Today’s program and nearly 3,000 messages can be streamed and shared for free at tfl.org thanks to the generous giving from monthly donors called Truthpartners. Learn more about this Gospel-sharing team or become one today. Thanks for listening to Truth For Life!









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Do you ever feel like the tasks or responsibilities that fill your day lack meaning or purpose? Today on Truth for Life we'll find out how even the boring routine activities of daily life can have eternal significance and importance.

Alistair Begg is teaching from Titus chapter 3. You had no part in your creation. You were intricately wrought in your mother's womb. The hand of God formed you to be the person that you are. He created you at the exact moment that he desired. And he has placed you at this point in history so that you in Christ, by grace, through faith, might do good deeds—good deeds which he has planned for you to do. That may not be the first thought of the person when they consider the impact of God's transforming grace, but it actually is virtually number one on the list of Paul. And when, in writing to the Ephesian Christians, he reminds them of the great salvation that has been provided in Jesus, that it is by grace they have been saved and through faith and this not of themselves, not of works, that anyone should boast, he then immediately goes on to say, And God has done this, you have been created in Christ Jesus to do good deeds which God foreordained for you to do. In other words, in Christ, all of our days and all of our deeds may be good for someone and for something. And it is along these lines that we've been thinking as we have looked together, primarily at the third chapter of Titus. And as we've been studying this, we have noticed that this is, if you like, the recurring emphasis, the striking theme, the melody line that runs through all of the contrapuntal motion that is represented in the surrounding information. In chapter 3 and in verse 8, I want you, he says to Titus, to stress these things, the gospel things, so that those who have trusted in God—here it comes again—may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.

And here now, in his closing remarks, he can't let it go, and he once again drives home this essential notion. Verse 14 of 3, Our people, he says, must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they do not live unproductive lives. Now, this emphasis—and I'm clear, in my own mind at least, that Paul sees the need for this in some peculiar way, given the immorality of the culture in Crete, given the fact that it was a byword for moral decadence, given the fact that it was pervaded by people who told lies, and given the fact that the poets of the time, the secular poets of the time, actually defined Crete in terms of lies and deceptiveness. And in light of that, and in light of the fact that within the framework of the church there were false teachers who were seeking to press upon people all kinds of notions which actually were of no help to them whatsoever, in light of that prevailing impact, both of the culture squeezing them from without and the dangers of deception from within, Paul says, it is absolutely imperative, Titus, that your people are marked by this God-honoring, Christ-enduring goodness.

One of the things that we have learned as a congregation is that Paul has a fairly straightforward pattern when he writes his letters. And we have learned to identify for one another the transition that is represented in his letters, where he moves from what is true of the believer to what is then expected of the believer. He does not suggest for a moment that as a result of the fulfilling of these expectations, these individuals might earn God's favor or tilt the balances in favor of themselves, but rather that the imperative emerges from the indicative. Now, given the fact that we are alert to this, I've had to catch myself, because I almost missed one that is right here in verse 14.

Since it is not stated in such a dramatic fashion, I almost missed it myself. And that is contained for us in the verb to learn. To learn. Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good. And since this behavior is learned behavior, we know, therefore, that this behavior is not the result of an emotional surge, nor is it to be an attempt to assuage feelings of guilt. I think the word devotion can often send us astray, because we tend to think of devotion just in terms of impulses or of feelings.

Well, the verb to learn helps us clean that up. We must learn to be devoted. Secondly, in verse 14, you will notice that it is not only learned behavior, but it is purposeful behavior, in order that—that's a purpose clause—in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives. In other words, in order that this activity might result in their being able to earn, as a result of their being able to earn, they will then be able to provide not only for themselves but also for those who are in particular need. In other words, what Paul is espousing not only here in Titus 3 but also in all of his writings, if you look at them carefully, is the absolute opposite of a society of entitlement.

There's no endeavor involved in our part. It will just come our way, because it's supposed to come our way. Well, no, no, says Paul, that is actually not the case. And he makes the point that when he writes to Timothy in his first letter, in an environment of the culture that is quite staggering. He actually takes this notion on in relationship to widowhood. Now, remember that James has told us that religion that is pure and undefiled will be the kind of religious expression that makes sure that it does not demean or ignore, fail to compensate, those who are most needy in a culture—widows in their affliction and infants and orphans. And when you keep that in mind, something with which Paul would have concurred, it makes his statement in 1 Timothy 5 all the more striking. He says, give the people these instructions so that no one may be open to blame. What do you have in mind, Paul?

Here we go. If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and particularly, especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. That's a pretty straightforward statement, isn't it? He doesn't say this is a marginal issue, this is a sort of PhD for people that want to get serious about the Bible. No, he says that one of the evidences of a genuine work of grace in a person's life is that it makes them devoted to the kind of goodness that cannot ignore the immediate needs of those who are their dependents. And, he goes on to say, in relationship to widows in the community of Ephesus—and they had a list for widows, the folks, the ladies who had been deprived of a husband, and so they were now single, and they had no means of supporting themselves in income—but there were strict instructions in relationship to these ladies.

Here they are. No widow must be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty and has been faithful to her husband and is well known for her—guess what? Guess what? That's right, good deeds. Such as what?

Catch this. Bringing up her children. Making pancakes and bacon. Doing a load of laundry. Helping those in trouble. Devoting herself—here it comes again—to all kinds of good deeds. Loved ones, this is unavoidable. This is absolutely inescapable.

Which makes the absence of engagement in this realm by traditional evangelical churches one of the most significant lapses in concentration at best, and a serious denial of the instruction of God's Word at worst. Now, I say to you again, it's the absolute opposite of entitlement. Thirdly, the behavior is learned behavior, the behavior is purposeful behavior, and the behavior is beneficial behavior.

And the benefit is not only that which accrues to the individual, but it is a benefit which accrues to others. In other words, a Christian works. And remember that God gave to us work in the garden. He gave us a garden.

He said, Here's a garden, and I want you to cultivate it. Work was marred by sin, but work was part of God's creative handiwork and design. We weren't just supposed to sit around and do nothing, and that's why within the human psyche there is a desire to produce. That is why people paint. That is why people investigate. That is why scientists think. That is why workers work and gardeners garden.

And people look at this and say, What in the world are all these people doing, and why are they doing this? The Bible has the explanation, we were made in the image of God. And we were made in order to do these things. And when we fail to do them and we live as layabouts, we deny the fact of God's creative handiwork. And our activities, our endeavors, our earning capacity is not simply for selfish ends, but it is in order that the overflow of that may be the benefit of others around us, not least of all widows and orphans and so on. And when you think about the statement that is made there concerning the good deeds of the widow, and you see how intensely practical it is—and that's why I changed hospitality to pancakes and bacon, I guess I'm feeling hungry here in the second service, but just a sort of subliminal message to my wife who's in the congregation—but I changed it in order to make the point so that the routine activities of life might be seen to be divine providences to us, that it might be seen to be the very things that bring glory to God and that set forward his purposes, as the earlier generations referred to it, as the menial round and the common task.

They have furnished all we ought to ask. We don't really need to go anywhere else or do anything else if we will do these things that have been entrusted to us and if we will do them to the glory of God. So we can say, I am only one, but I am one. I can do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, I ought to do, and what I ought to do with God's help, I will do. And you don't have to worry about the person next to you, and you don't have to worry about if it's very significant or apparently insignificant.

We're not the ones keeping the score on this stuff. And God, who is pleased with these acts of kindness and goodness, is the one who will give the rewards on the day we stand before him. Now, I've spent the majority of the time there on verse 14, and I've done it purposefully so that we might finally get this for our minds as we walk away. But I need just to say something about the surrounding verses, and I will do so quickly. First of all, a comment on verse 12. You will notice that he says in verse 12, Do your best, do your best, to come to me.

To come to me. Relationships were of vital importance to Paul. He was a strong leader. He was prepared to say what needed to be said. But he didn't live as an island.

He didn't live in isolation. And these people were of vital importance to him. And the word that he uses here, for do your best, in verse 12, to come to me, spudadso, which is a nice Greek verb, spudadso. In other words, move everything around in order to get here as fast as you can.

Do whatever it takes. Don't come until I send Artemus or Tychicus to you—Artemus about whom we know nothing, and Tychicus about whom we know quite a bit, in Colossians 4 and elsewhere. Make sure that you don't just leave your people high and dry, Titus.

Make sure that there are people in place who will be able to care in your absence. And then as soon as one of these two characters has arrived, get here as fast as you can. You'll notice where he's coming. I want you to come down and see me in Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. Smart fellow.

He's going two hundred miles north of Athens on the Greek coast, somewhere in the Aegean Sea, for the winter. Anybody interested in joining him? You only get a little snap in the air, and you're starting to think, This sounds like a splendid idea. And it is a splendid idea. Remember what we're reading here. This doesn't read like legend, does it? This doesn't read like mythology. And people try and tell you, Your Bible is a bunch of hocus-pocus. Somebody put it together and invented all these legends.

This doesn't read like legends. This reads like somebody who's actually saying to his friend, Cut the nonsense, do good, tell your folks, and by the way, get here. Once the fellows are there, down to Nicopolis, you and me, we'll have a great time. When? ASAP. Where?

Nicopolis. Why? I like you. I like you. I like spending time with you.

That's enough for me. Paul has personal feelings, conveys practical requirements, and pursues purposeful relationships. That's verse 12. Do your best to come to me. Verse 13. Do everything you can.

Do everything you can to help. Who? Zenos. What do we know about Zenos? Apart from the fact that he was a nomikos, a lawyer, we know absolutely nothing. Well, help Zenos, the lawyer, about whom we know nothing, and Apollos, about whom we know quite a bit. Apollos was from Alexandria, the university town, obviously a bright chap. He had a pretty solid understanding of the gospel, and then he bumped in in Acts 18 to Priscilla and Aquila.

Priscilla and Aquila gave him a little bit more instruction and encouragement and introduced him to the fullness of God's Holy Spirit, and as a result of that, Apollos became a quite phenomenal preacher. It's a reminder, again, of the links in the chain, isn't it? You never know who you're having home for dinner. You never know which young person you're taking home. You never know which university student. You never know who it is that you have in your home. And the apparently inconsequential hospitality that you've provided, or the book that you said is, this is a wonderful book, I'd like to give this to you. I got it from the bookstore.

You could have this book. You don't know. We don't know when you've got Apollos in your house, when you have the next Apollos.

The only consideration for the child of God is that his heavenly Father, her heavenly Father, knows them, loves them, picks them out always in the crowd, and has the best of purposes for them. I think there's every chance that Apollos and Zenas were actually the mailmen on this journey. They're going on their way now, and they need to make sure that they have everything that they need. They don't want to have to be going to Giant Eagle. Don't send them out to get their own groceries.

Don't have them… They can't be working for two or three days, he says. They're on the king's business. Help them out. You've got a nice house. Give them a loan of your bedroom.

You've got plenty of groceries in for the weekend. Give them something to eat, and give them some sandwiches to take when they go. And if you can give them a tank of gas, give them a tank of gas as well, because that'll be a help to them, and it will get them at least a few hundred miles down the road.

Or, you know, whatever's in anachronism, I understand. Gas up there, donkey, whatever you want to say. But the fact of the matter is, help them! Okay. Twelve, do your best to come.

Thirteen, do everything you can. And fifteen, hey, from all of us to all of you, love, love, love. That's really it, isn't it? Everyone with me sends you greetings. It's nice to get greetings, isn't it?

It's nice when people say, Hey, I was talking to so-and-so and so-and-so, said that so-and-so and so-and-so, they were asking for you. Titus must have been gratified by that. And he's given an instruction, and I want you, Titus, in turn, to greet those who love us in the faith. So Titus then has this letter, and he reads it out, and he says—and as you can hear here from Paul in the letter—he sends his love to all of you. He loves you. He sent the greetings to me, he sends the greetings to you, and he's decided to finish with his favorite word.

And he does. Every single one of Paul's letters finishes with the same word. Don't be pedantic now.

It doesn't mean—don't look it up and say, No, it finished with the word then or something. No. His final word is the word grace. You know, like kids say to one another now, What's the word?

At least they used to. Or, What's the word on the street? Well, the word on Paul's street is grace. And it is grace, which is the doctrinal indicative, which provides the foundation for the goodness, which is the moral imperative. Without the grace, a call to goodness is pure externalism. And you may be here today, and you actually think that what I'm saying I'm not saying—namely, that this is a kind of standard sermon, that no matter where you read in the Bible, you're just supposed to be good. And a benevolent God will reward good people, provided they're trying to do their best. So, let's just be good for goodness' sake. No.

No. That's not how it works. On our best day, we are unprofitable servants. All of our very best endeavors, against the standard of God's perfection, are like filthy rags, like stuff that you would use to clean the wheels on your car and get it in such a mess that it would be dispensed with. God says that our best stuff may be described in those terms.

Well, then, we're absolutely busted. Yes, that's where grace comes in. So that he comes in Christ, obeys the law in its perfection, lives a perfectly holy life, dies in the place of those of us who are lawbreakers, deals with all of God's wrath, secures our reconciliation, and then says, In the strength of my grace, go out now, and be good.

Be good. Father, thank you that your Word is clear, and we pray that you will show us that we have no goodness of our own, that we could ever appeal to as a means of acceptance with you. Help us, then, to trust in you, the living God, and then for our behavior to be the evidence of our belief. Forgive us, Lord, for the times when we have just stared this in the face and chosen to walk another way. And help us to rely entirely upon your grace, so that we might live to the praise of your glory. For Jesus' sake, we ask it.

Amen. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life with the final message in a series titled, For Goodness Sake. If you missed any part of this series, the complete study is available for free online at truthforlife.org. And while you're on our website, you can ask for a copy of a book we are recommending.

It's called A Cloud of Witnesses, and it's an extraordinary collection of prayers written by believers from throughout church history. You will benefit immeasurably by making these devout prayers your very own each day. Ask for your copy of the book Cloud of Witnesses when you donate to Truth for Life today through our mobile app or online at truthforlife.org slash donate.

And if you'd prefer, you can call us at 888-588-7884. On behalf of your fellow listeners who benefit from this daily teaching, we want to thank you for supporting Truth for Life. Every donation helps cover the cost of producing and distributing these messages so they can be made available to a worldwide audience without cost being a barrier, and we are so grateful. We hope you'll make it a point to worship with your local church this weekend. And on Monday, we'll begin a new series called Good News, Great Joy, where we'll take a close look at the purpose and truth behind the celebration of Christmas. We hope you'll join us. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-12-13 09:02:10 / 2024-12-13 09:10:54 / 9

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