When Titus was preaching on the island of Crete and Paul throughout the Roman Empire, that word, savior, soter, was used of the gods Zeus and Apollo. In fact, Caesar took that word, soter. He loved to be referred to as the savior of the world. So in this opening statement, Paul says, Titus, listen, we might as well offend the emperor. He isn't the savior and neither are Zeus and Apollo.
The only true savior of mankind in the world is Jesus Christ, who is the true and living God. Sometimes Christians and even Bible teachers are tempted to shape the message in order not to offend people. Another temptation is to try to be clever by coming up with something unique and new and sharing some never before seen truth. However, being true to God's word means simply being true to what the text says. The more faithful we are to the message of the Bible, the more we bring honor to God in our teaching and ministry. The Apostle Paul was passionate about God's word, and he talked about that in the book of Titus.
Stay with us to learn about this important truth. There's another passion in Paul's opening statement to Titus. He's also passionate about God's presence. Look at verse 2, in the hope of eternal life, which God who cannot lie promised long ages ago. You'll notice the progression in Paul's opening statement, learning, living, all the while looking for the appearing of Christ. He is the hope, the blessed hope. This is now the hope of eternal life. Paul will describe it even further in chapter 2, and I'll reserve some comments for then, but for now, we need to understand that the word hope, we use it differently than the Greeks.
Paul had something entirely different in mind. We use the word hope, you know, for something we hope will happen in the future or something we hope won't happen in the future. It's a future reality that might be better translated so we catch it anticipating.
We know it's going to happen. We're anticipating it, in this case, of eternal life, which raises a question in my mind. I thought we already had eternal life, and by the way, we do. We already possess eternal life. These things I've written unto you that you might know that you have, present tense, eternal life. 1 John 5, 13.
The believer already possesses eternal life in Christ. Paul is referring then to something else here, something future. He's referring here to Titus about that final consummation of eternal life when Christ gathers us to himself. This is the glorious moment believers eagerly anticipate. In fact, Paul said in Romans, chapter 8, verse 23, we are groaning for the day of redemption. In fact, and you understand out of the context of what he's saying, because of who we are, we're groaning to be redeemed. Because of our flesh, we're groaning to be immortalized and glorified.
We're groaning for that to happen. But how can we be so certain that our hopes won't be dashed in the future? Do we really have this thing? And how can Paul be so sure?
You and I must admit to each other that we believe it, but really, I can't imagine it. Paul is so settled. How are you so sure, Paul? He answers further in verse 2, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised? God promised. And God, Paul reminds us, is the God who cannot lie. In fact, woodenly translated the cannot lie God. There are some things that are impossible for God to do.
Did you know that? He cannot lie. The glory of Israel will not lie, 1 Samuel 15, 29. It is impossible, the writer of Hebrews said in chapter 6, verse 18. It is impossible for God to lie.
It's against his nature. So you need to understand, this promise is not from Paul. Well, we really hope Paul keeps his promise. This isn't a promise from the apostles. It isn't the promise from the church. Human beings and human institutions can make promises and break them. It's our nature to break a promise. It is not the nature of God to break a promise. That's why it's settled.
It's permanent. Benjamin Franklin wrote this, and I quote him, our new constitution is now established and has an appearance that promises permanency. But in this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and what?
Taxes. Another author made this humorous analogy. He wrote, promises are like babies.
They are easier to make than to deliver. What God promises, God delivers. Now, I want you to notice before we leave this, Paul adds an interesting phrase here, eternal life, which God who cannot lie promised when? Long ages ago.
The tense is used to refer back to an event way in the past. The promise was made long ages ago. Paul only says that phrase two times in all of his New Testament letters. You could translate it before time's eternal or before the world began or before time began, whatever, but you get the idea. You go back as far as you possibly can, and before then, this promise was made.
Do you know what Paul means? He means that your eternal life and mine is one of the oldest promises recorded for us in the Bible. And Paul is also telling us that the promise of eternal life is not only old, it's a promise that wasn't even first made to you and me.
It was first and foremost then because we weren't around before the creation of time, of anything. It was then made between the members of the triune God. They promised each other. Can you imagine God the Father promising God the Son that eternal life will be part of the plan of redemption? The Spirit promising God the Father? The Son and the Spirit and the Father collaborating, let's make a promise to each other that eternal life will be part of the coming plan of creation and redemption. I mean, we think that God promised heaven to us, and he did, but we missed the point. And here, it's wonderful, God the Father promised it to God the Son and Son to the Spirit. And they've been working to keep the promise between themselves that we are the benefactors of their own integrity. And because of it, we can trust it will take place.
You know what that also means? It also means that the plan of redemption for sinners did not come into existence after the fall of man, but before man was even created. Before time began, God made a promise to himself. That's why the crucifixion of Christ was not some emergency plan. Or following the crucifixion, that's why God had an emergency meeting.
They've never had an emergency meeting. What are we going to do now? How are we going to keep a step ahead of these humans?
I mean, there are pills. How are we going to do this? We're learning as we go, and we're getting smarter, open theist would say, but how are we going to handle this? Now, Peter preached in Acts chapter 2 that the crucifixion was the responsibility of fallen man. However, it was part of the plan of God before it ever happened.
Acts 2, 23. You say you are frying my circuit board. I know, I know.
Mine's fried before I ever got up here. Think of this. To discover that the promise of eternal life was made before time between the members of the Godhead makes God all the more infinite, all the more mysterious, all the more amazing, all the more glorious. And we know it's the truth because it leads our hearts into wanting to live more for Him and less for ourselves. It puts our feet on the path toward the genuine item, which is godliness based on truth.
And it causes us, doesn't it, to long for the fulfillment of the ages and the consummation of the plan of God, which brings us into His presence forever. And our flawed and our failing flesh is forever put away, and we are clothed in immortality and perfected in holiness. Paul the Apostle was given a personal tour of heaven.
He wasn't allowed to tell us all about it. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. No wonder he comes and serves as a model slave of God for us all. Passionate about God's people, about God's truth, about God's glory. He's passionately longing for the presence of God. He's seen the Father's house. He has tasted His senses, the things that John describes in Revelation, some of them. And he can't wait to get there in the presence of God permanently. In fact, he even says to the church, I'd really like to leave you and go to be with Him, but I know it's provable if I stay.
What a different perspective to have. This is his passion. Finally, Paul is passionate about God's assignment. Verse 2 again, in the anticipation of eternal life, I'll paraphrase it, which God who cannot lie promised before time began. And notice verse 3, he writes, but at the proper time manifested His word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior. What Paul is saying here is that God has revealed His word, His lagas, the derivative He uses here. Paul often used lagas to refer to the Gospel itself.
God has intersected human history with the lagas, progression of that lagas revealed through Old Testament prophets and patriarchs and then the apostles intersecting our human history at one point, then comes the living lagas. God has revealed to mankind the Gospel, the mystery now of the ages is clearly given to us through Christ and His church, Ephesians chapter 5 verse 32, and the only source, the only way to understand it, the only way to even begin to know it, the one true message about God, the only effective way of finding Him, the only way of potentially pleasing Him, the only hope of forever being with Him is in this lagas, the manifestation of His word. And Paul emphasizes here the proclamation, you notice that word perhaps in your translation, in the proclamation with which I have been trusted. I have the sacred trust to proclaim it, to literally translate it, to preach it, kurugmah here in verse 3, Jews of the preacher, the herald, certainly the authentic Bible teacher, that believer who will deliver the truth. Here in this text, he's writing to a preacher and the word specifically applies to that man who is this keruksan, this preacher, this herald, who is merely delivering the message he's received. It was used in Paul's day for the herald that arrived and he delivered the message that the king gave him to deliver or the town council instructed him to deliver. And Paul is passionate about this assignment and he's gonna relate the same kind of urgency to Timothy and Titus and so we'll often talk to them about this. In fact, he solemnly charges Timothy in 2 Timothy 4 verse 1, in the presence of God to preach the word, to preach this lagas, preach the word. I can remember with fondness the inspiration I felt as a seminary student, they had this big stone slab mounted out of the central yard of the seminary and on one side of it was carved of the words simply preach the word.
Can I tell you something? In our world today, in our evangelical American world, the title preacher is virtually disappearing and it's obvious why because it has a sense of dogma to it. It has a sense of absolutism to it.
It sounds black and white. People will say to you, perhaps, and they've said it to me, don't preach to me. Don't preach to me. The word is a derogatory word. Don't preach.
I mean, you're really caught up in some kind of absolute, don't give me that. In fact, I've watched over the last 10 years this thing just cycle even faster, spiral, I should say, away. I've listened to evangelical pastors who are now preferring to be known as speakers only and their sermons as talks or even lectures or even, here's the new buzzword, conversations. I read one interview recently about one pastor who has nearly 20,000 people listening to him every Sunday. He explained how in that interview that 42 Sundays out of the year, he addresses human relationships, human topics, human issues, and other topics he views as relevant and he uses a verse or two to buttress his talks. Ten Sundays out of the year, he leads his church in studying a passage of scripture.
Imagine that novelty. Ten weeks out of the year, and he said he prefers to be referred to as a communicator. Paul wrote to Timothy something, by the way, and this is sort of a shot across the bat to warn you, you're going to hear more and more about this, but it's sounding, what Paul wrote to Timothy, more and more antiquated, stranger and stranger. He said to Timothy, in 1 Timothy 2, 7, I was appointed a preacher, keruksan. It's the same word he uses for Titus as he prepares Titus to go into battle with false teachers.
In fact, I've circled the word truth in verse 1, and then I've just drawn a line from that word down all the way to verse 15, and I've circled the word myth. This is the battle. Titus, get ready to deliver, to preach the truth, the preaching of the lagas does battle with myths and speculations. He's going to stand up to creative speakers who are teaching error and myth and speculation, and they're going to outnumber them.
They're going to outnumber them. So Paul effectively tells Titus, you are a proclaimer of the message of the king. You're an expositor, a herald of God's truth, and here's why it's important. Not to denigrate the title teacher or communicator.
We're certainly doing all of those things, but here's the important thing. A teacher can teach his own stuff. A communicator can come up with his own content. He can choose his own words. A speaker can originate his own message. A communicator can communicate his own opinion and be fine, but not an expositor, not a herald, not a preacher. An expositor, a herald, a preacher is simply repeating and explaining what has been previously delivered.
Let me say it this way. The pastor or Bible teacher who openly uses the Bible topically or randomly to proof text his own opinions to support whatever he wants to say about the human issues or the man-centered discussion or conversation or whatever, never expounding on a passage or a narrative or a book of the Bible, he merely presents his point of view on life, on the news, on human relationships or whatever, and then uses a verse or two to sort of buttress that. Listen, if all he does is use the Bible to reinforce what he wants to say and what he thinks, here's the danger. His church, without realizing it, is actually being conformed to the mind of the pastor and not the mind of God. That's how you can have in recent months a church of thousands of people follow their pastor who is an apostate into accepting universalism, that everybody's going to go to heaven after all and there's no really need to worry about hell. The gospel is redefined, if you read his writings, the cross of Christ is redefined and rewritten. Listen, listen Titus, listen all of you Timothy's, for those of you women who are teaching women in Bible studies, listen, we are not original.
If you come up with something and you think, you know, that's really neat, I've never heard that before, keep studying. This was once for all delivered, Jude says. God has delivered his logos.
We simply read it, we simply translate it, we outline it rather feebly, we explain it, we illustrate it, we impose it with verdicts. A. W. Tozer who fought modernism in the early 1900s, very unpopular man, he once wrote in his, I'm reading the best of Tozer that by the name of Warren Weers he put it together and he said he preached himself off every platform and out of every pulpit. If you've never read A. W. Tozer, he's worth reading and he said these words to preachers he once preached to, he said, we are not diplomats, we are prophets delivering thus saith the Lord and our message is not a compromise, it is an ultimatum. Maybe that's why the word preacher is losing favor today.
Let me take you back in history for just a moment before I leave this subject, I wanted to hammer it as well as I could. In the 1930s the most popular pastor in America was on the cover of Time Magazine. He refused to ever use in the pulpit words like sin, hell, damnation, salvation. His name was Harry Emerson Fosdick. He preached, by the way, to a packed church. The church was built by John D. Rockefeller just for him after he was kicked out of the Presbyterian church for heresy.
That ought to tell you something. Built a church that overlooks the Hudson River, packed out. His primary message was that the church needed to relate to the audience. The message of the church, he said, needed to be positive and he would even talk about the needs of the people being central.
In an interview with Time Magazine, I read it out of Harper's but that interview took place in 1928. He said, listen to what he said, who seriously supposes that one in a hundred of the congregation cares what Moses or Paul meant in those verses. The preacher should not end but begin with thinking about the audience's vital needs that's been changed in our generation to felt needs. And then let the whole sermon be organized around a constructive endeavor to meet those needs. He would also say in that interview, preachers who pick out texts from the Bible and then proceed to give their historic settings, their meaning in the context, their place in the theology of the writer are grossly misusing the Bible. Nobody, he said, who speaks to the public assumes that people are interested in the meanings of words delivered two thousand years ago. You've got to be kidding. How could that man ever pack out of church?
He did. In fact, ladies and gentlemen, the mainline denominational disasters of the mid 20th century and now into the 21st century, along with so many others that follow this kind of thinking, this is nothing more than this man's thinking repackaged. The loss of health and credibility in the church today is, I believe, to be directly laid at the feet of pastors who will not be preachers. They refuse to be heralds, delivering and expounding on the words of God. Is there really any option for God's messengers? Is there any other message? Well, I want you to notice what Paul writes at the end of verse three.
He says, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according, note there, the last part of verse three, but at the proper time manifested his word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the suggestion of God. Oh, I'm sorry. There's not another message. It isn't up for a vote.
There are no alternatives. In fact, ladies and gentlemen, if you remove the cross, you have no forgiveness. If you neuter the nature of an eternal omniscient God, you take away the power of his promise. We, the slaves of God are preaching what he commands us, Titus. And would you notice the commandment is from God our Savior.
Did you notice that? Down at verse four, Christ Jesus, our Savior, equality and deity. Wonderful statement. Our Savior. When Titus was preaching on the island of Crete and Paul throughout the Roman Empire, that word Savior, soter, was used of the gods Zeus and Apollo. They were mankind's Savior. In fact, Caesar took that word soter. He loved to be referred to as the Savior of the world.
Augustus enjoyed it. He loved to be called the soter, the Savior of humankind. So in this opening statement, Paul says, Titus listen, we might as well offend the emperor and all the religious people in the empire while we're at it. He isn't the Savior and neither are Zeus and Apollo. The only true Savior of mankind in the world is Jesus Christ, who is the true and living God. Preach the word, Titus. Don't hold back.
It's all or nothing. Martin Luther, the reformer, was given the credit for bringing about the great reformation. And on one occasion, he actually corrected somebody complimenting him.
Later in his life, looking back, he said these wonderful words. I simply preached the word of God and the word of God did everything else. So are we slaves of God? Are we passionate for the faith of God's people? Are we passionate for God's truth? Are we passionate for God's glory? Are we passionately longing for God's presence? Are we passionate about God's assignment, whatever that is for you and for me? May we be.
That was Steven Davey and this is Wisdom for the Heart. Today's message is called All or Nothing. With that challenge, we conclude not only this lesson, but this short series from the opening verses of the book of Titus. The series is called Slave Traits.
Maybe you missed a lesson in the series as you were going through it. You'll find the series Slave Traits posted on our website, wisdomonline.org. You'll also find it on the Wisdom International app. If you'd like to dive deeper into your study of the book of Titus, I'll remind you that Steven has a book in his wisdom commentary series called Titus.
This book makes an excellent resource for personal or small group study. We can give you information on how you can get a copy if you call us today at 866-48-BIBLE. The phone number once again is 866-48-BIBLE or 866-482-4253. The next time we're with you, Steven will return to Titus and bring you a series entitled The Shepherd's Mantle. We'll be looking at the qualifications God has established for church leaders. Join us then, here on Wisdom for the Heart. Thanks for joining us, and we'll see you next time.
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