back to indexBerean Community Church Bible Study 11/17/2021 - Titus 3:4-8
Chapters
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6:8 Ramifications of Christ's Incarnation
8:9 Ordo Salutis
22:47 Titus 3:7
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I'll give you guys about a minute to wrap it up. 00:01:33.860 |
If you could join me in prayer, I'm going to ask the Lord 00:01:47.240 |
Lord, we thank you for your word, and we thank you 00:01:56.480 |
for giving us the freedom and all the tools to die deeply. 00:02:04.560 |
up with a lot more questions than we do answers. 00:02:06.960 |
And we pray that as you feed us, that more than anything 00:02:13.860 |
I pray that you would guide our time, that you would help 00:02:17.800 |
to clarify and illuminate various aspects of this text 00:02:27.980 |
And so, Lord, we ask that you would help us to process 00:02:31.720 |
through this passage and other passages like it, 00:02:34.140 |
to grow in appreciation of the doctrine of salvation. 00:02:38.720 |
So, we thank you, Lord, for just our time together, 00:02:43.700 |
Amen. So, when I first started asking my questions 00:02:52.160 |
for this passage, I actually had a hard time. 00:02:56.040 |
Because this seemed like almost a passage that I should be able 00:03:00.460 |
to just rehearse and recite, like, at length. 00:03:12.900 |
So, I was like, all my questions started sounding 00:03:19.740 |
Anyone else have that similar, like, I don't know 00:03:23.760 |
where to begin, there's so much meat here, right? 00:03:27.120 |
I would encourage you guys, as much as you can, 00:03:35.400 |
Do not use a study Bible, because that's kind 00:03:47.320 |
So, what you want to do is, you want to let scripture interpret 00:03:51.180 |
scripture, so you want to just dive deep, and you want to dig. 00:03:54.880 |
And after you've done a whole bunch of digging, 00:04:02.080 |
So, what you want to do is look at the passage, 00:04:05.220 |
look at the context, and then look at other related books 00:04:15.640 |
And so, when I do this, it doesn't look this pretty, 00:04:18.320 |
because it's just usually just all over the place. 00:04:20.400 |
But I did this so that you can see how I break it 00:04:26.260 |
And I modified it a little bit from last week. 00:04:31.540 |
for this whole section are three imperatives, 00:04:37.160 |
this is what Paul wants Titus to do, all right? 00:04:44.860 |
these are important words that I need to kind 00:04:46.740 |
of keep my eyes focused on, the buts, and the fors, 00:04:52.180 |
And the blue in the middle is what we're looking at today, 00:04:55.760 |
and a lot of this is just literally what we have been 00:04:59.920 |
saved from, how we have been saved, and what that means. 00:05:04.340 |
What's our new identity, and what we have been saved for, okay? 00:05:08.300 |
And then, that highlight in the, like, the light blue, 00:05:18.660 |
And so, that's actually very important, and a lot of fun 00:05:24.960 |
And then, I've shared this with you in the past, 00:05:28.120 |
that this is like the third section of dense theology, okay? 00:05:33.120 |
So, we had that in chapter one, we have that in chapter two, 00:05:40.560 |
Every single one of these sections emphasizes, like, 00:05:50.680 |
that's only used four times in the whole New Testament, 00:05:54.600 |
but half of those times are in Titus, so that's significant. 00:05:57.840 |
So, there's an appearing and a manifestation of Christ 00:06:02.000 |
It emphasizes again and again and again that Jesus and God 00:06:06.720 |
are our Savior, no other epistle does it like that. 00:06:09.680 |
Okay, if you guys have poured through the Bible, 00:06:12.880 |
only in Titus is God and Jesus constantly called our Savior, 00:06:16.360 |
and there's a reason, because salvation's pretty important, 00:06:19.360 |
right, to all the good deeds that we're supposed to do, okay? 00:06:22.360 |
And Jesus being our Savior, that's deliberate, 00:06:27.960 |
because there's so much application in Titus, right? 00:06:31.160 |
All of chapter two is just a big application. 00:06:39.560 |
So, that's why there's so much doctrine in here. 00:06:46.880 |
Okay, our identity as heirs and as the bride of Christ. 00:06:53.840 |
verses four through seven, like, the fullest statement 00:06:58.640 |
So, today, we looked at, like, one of the most, like, 00:07:06.600 |
And so, a few weeks back, if you guys recall, 00:07:10.120 |
I walked you through this thing called the Ordo Salutis. 00:07:15.600 |
Okay, the Ordo Salutis does not come out of Titus, 00:07:19.600 |
and it's actually coming from the whole of Scripture. 00:07:23.400 |
And Titus doesn't dictate this order, all right? 00:07:30.480 |
Remember, every Christian reveres Christ Jesus. 00:07:36.320 |
All right, so, you guys remember all of these? 00:07:45.800 |
'cause some people's brains are working slower. 00:08:23.240 |
And election, call, regeneration, conversion, justification. 00:08:37.440 |
but this is how we would say how someone is saved, okay? 00:08:43.440 |
And just from Titus, we see glimpses of these processes. 00:08:52.360 |
that we looked at talk about the first five, okay? 00:09:00.760 |
is all over Titus, where we need to live sensibly, 00:09:03.800 |
righteously, and devoutly in this present age, 00:09:07.080 |
and we need to do good deeds and be godly, right? 00:09:10.480 |
And that's actually next to all of the theological stuff, 00:09:17.320 |
Here's a bunch of theology, zealous for good deeds, 00:09:19.760 |
a bunch of theology, like engage and be careful 00:09:33.520 |
because they're always packed together, all right? 00:09:39.000 |
which is the bonus and which is the good stuff, 00:09:42.760 |
in the hope of eternal life, which God who cannot lie 00:09:45.000 |
promised long ages ago, and that's also in each section. 00:09:48.080 |
So this Ordo Salutis I gave to you a couple weeks back 00:09:52.000 |
to kind of help you also set up for tonight, okay? 00:10:11.640 |
but I'm gonna show you what I catch with my eye, all right? 00:10:28.560 |
because my previous identity was described up to verse three. 00:10:36.840 |
this kind of is all a part of how God saved us. 00:10:41.400 |
And that's why I just kind of divvied it up this way, all right? 00:10:43.920 |
Or what aspect of God caused salvation, all right? 00:10:47.520 |
So verses four through seven, it's one Greek sentence. 00:10:51.960 |
You guys might have already talked about that. 00:11:37.360 |
It's all, you're a passive person in this, okay? 00:11:48.680 |
oh, where does this fit in the order of saluties? 00:12:00.240 |
that's gonna come next week and the following week, 00:12:03.160 |
why we can expect Christians to have a social conscience 00:12:05.720 |
and to behave responsibly in public life, all right? 00:12:08.880 |
It is important that you live like a Christian, okay? 00:12:13.880 |
Not to earn your salvation, but as a response. 00:12:20.560 |
Now, verse four, it talks about the kindness of God, 00:12:34.880 |
I realize this is the word only used by Paul. 00:12:38.080 |
And Romans 2:4 immediately comes to my mind, right? 00:12:42.880 |
Have you not, do you not realize it's the kindness of God 00:12:47.720 |
Did you guys know that you cannot preach a gospel message 00:12:52.760 |
So modern day, a lot of churches give you a gospel 00:12:58.160 |
But it's his kindness that leads us to repentance, okay? 00:13:10.120 |
Like, biblically, there is no conversion without a repenting, 00:13:15.080 |
So the second thing that I see is there's a love 00:13:24.140 |
but only here in reference to God's character, okay? 00:13:27.920 |
So immediately theological questions come to my mind, okay? 00:13:35.000 |
Did God love all mankind, or did he love only his elect? 00:13:45.500 |
Can he send someone to hell still with a heart of love? 00:13:50.040 |
Because the Bible does say God hates sin, right? 00:13:53.820 |
But there are cases where, like the rich young ruler, 00:14:03.240 |
but what does it say, that Jesus loves him, right? 00:14:07.660 |
So this word is a little bit puzzling for me, 00:14:11.160 |
because of a theological idea I have in my head 00:14:15.440 |
And what that is is the sovereign decision of God 00:14:17.640 |
before creation to pass over some persons in sorrow, 00:14:21.320 |
deciding not to save them and to punish them for their sins 00:14:28.380 |
there might be like a little theological emotional snag, 00:14:31.680 |
right, that you're like, I don't quite see how this fits. 00:14:41.300 |
So how we feel and our opinions and our aversion 00:14:44.820 |
or our attraction to something, it doesn't matter. 00:14:50.500 |
and he gave us his word, what does he have to say? 00:14:53.220 |
And certain things are not always easy to grasp or explain. 00:15:10.620 |
'cause I don't just take my Bible and open it to the Greek. 00:15:16.060 |
And it's been a while since I was in seminary, all right? 00:15:19.300 |
But I look at the comparisons, I look at NIV, 00:15:33.620 |
And so I actually have a Bible program called Logos 00:15:36.820 |
that I use, and it was very expensive, and I use, 00:15:40.180 |
but a Greek passage like this is available for you 00:15:46.600 |
even if you don't know how to read the Greek, 00:16:05.120 |
So it comes way later in the sentence, all right? 00:16:10.280 |
So I go, oh, so the emphasis that he wants to make 00:16:14.680 |
is all of these things that led to our salvation, 00:16:19.080 |
and with the highlight being that he saved us, 00:16:24.300 |
but the NIV decided, oh, we need to remind ourselves 00:16:32.100 |
Another thing I notice in chapter three, verse five, 00:16:35.440 |
is in a sentence, you usually don't have four nouns, 00:16:54.440 |
regeneration, renewing, and the Holy Spirit are all nouns. 00:16:59.220 |
Huh, interesting, I haven't consulted a commentary yet, 00:17:06.400 |
and I'm gonna do the work of trying to figure out 00:17:17.140 |
washing, regeneration, renewing, Holy Spirit, 00:17:32.780 |
and I've studied enough Bible where if I see Paul 00:17:36.980 |
using the word righteous, I immediately think Old Testament, 00:17:43.340 |
you guys are trying to live righteously by the old covenant, 00:17:46.660 |
by trying to do outward obedience to God's law, 00:17:53.260 |
So whenever Paul's talking about righteousness, 00:17:55.660 |
it points to the fact that man cannot save himself. 00:18:01.260 |
But he saved us, the third element, by his own mercy. 00:18:10.860 |
How many of you guys took the SATs when there were analogies? 00:18:18.860 |
So I think I did analogies, but I taught analogies, all right? 00:18:40.420 |
Okay, so I just think that, and I put that down. 00:18:42.660 |
All right, that's not like some theologically astute, 00:18:46.260 |
It's like, ooh, grace, guilt, mercy, is like affliction. 00:18:49.780 |
When someone is merciful, when you play softball 00:18:52.660 |
and you're down 25 to zero, there's a what rule? 00:18:58.700 |
Okay, so that, oh, okay, according to his own mercy. 00:19:03.820 |
And I'll notice that there's a washing of regeneration, 00:19:08.620 |
which scripture usually says in like being born again, okay? 00:19:23.300 |
So if I'm not quite sure what regeneration is, 00:19:28.980 |
in which he imparts a new spiritual life, okay? 00:19:52.460 |
The Holy Spirit, if you look at Galatians 3.14, 00:20:05.980 |
wait a minute, the promise of the Holy Spirit 00:20:18.420 |
okay, the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly 00:20:31.580 |
And if I grew up in a Jewish culture, absolutely. 00:20:36.980 |
Okay, there are many, many promises of God to his people 00:20:41.980 |
that in the last days, he will pour out his spirit 00:20:51.140 |
It will come about after this that I will pour out my spirit 00:20:55.180 |
on all mankind and your sons and your daughters 00:20:56.980 |
will prophesy, sigh, your old men will dream dreams 00:21:02.060 |
Ezekiel 39.29, I will not hide my face from them any longer 00:21:05.940 |
for I will have poured out my spirit on the house of Israel 00:21:16.780 |
Now, so the Holy Spirit is also important in here. 00:21:32.860 |
he convicted me of sin and I became a child of God. 00:21:43.260 |
Now I have all that I need for life and godliness. 00:21:50.480 |
But I also know that Ephesians one 13 to 14 says, 00:21:59.580 |
Now this isn't like the other Bible studies that I've led. 00:22:03.140 |
but this one I'm just going point by point, right? 00:22:15.620 |
And I get to verse seven, being justified by his grace. 00:22:21.280 |
First thing I notice in the Greek is it's diakothentes, 00:22:32.780 |
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 00:22:36.900 |
For all have sinned, fall short of the glory of God, 00:22:46.060 |
And I notice in the Greek that it's in the eris, 00:22:56.360 |
So if I'm not quite sure what justification means, 00:22:59.820 |
and then I'll consult my Grudem theology book, 00:23:10.940 |
and Christ's righteousness as belonging to us 00:23:13.980 |
and declares us to be righteous in his sight. 00:23:30.580 |
Okay, so then I see this word grace, and I have to pause. 00:23:34.660 |
Okay, I've seen the word grace so much in my life 00:23:37.860 |
that I'm thinking of just like passing by it, 00:23:40.180 |
but I'm gonna sit down and just kind of chart through, 00:23:48.860 |
that he earned even a fraction of his or her salvation. 00:23:51.660 |
I was declared innocent, not by anything I did, 00:24:18.300 |
and upon books written for every single point, 00:24:23.140 |
Yeah, so there's no way I'm gonna wrap this up 00:24:25.100 |
in 25 minutes going through all of this, okay? 00:24:28.540 |
So all of my homework in these 16 pages was done at home 00:24:40.060 |
so I actually have to consult the commentary. 00:24:45.300 |
I'm like plowing through all of this, put it together. 00:24:49.860 |
to make these slides, but I get to verse seven. 00:25:02.020 |
a few months ago, my mind goes back to the similar language. 00:25:06.400 |
Chapter one, verse two, chapter two, verse 13. 00:25:12.140 |
In the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, 00:25:20.840 |
looking for the blessed hope and the appearing 00:25:22.560 |
of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. 00:25:32.960 |
For you have not received the spirit of slavery 00:25:47.680 |
and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, 00:25:57.640 |
this one sentence in Greek, trying to chart through 00:25:59.920 |
all of the significant stuff, and there are pages of it. 00:26:03.100 |
But I land on this, I would be made an heir part. 00:26:16.400 |
no mind has ever conceived the glorious things 00:26:32.320 |
So I go to Google, I go, no eye has seen, no ear has heard. 00:26:41.360 |
oh, this verse sounds like this, use your Google. 00:26:57.240 |
and which have not even entered the heart of man, 00:27:00.800 |
all that God has prepared for those who love him. 00:27:08.520 |
My eyes have seen some beautiful things in this life. 00:27:18.400 |
People make visual movies that blow my mind, right? 00:27:23.400 |
Now we're numb, 'cause we've seen so many of it, right? 00:27:25.360 |
When "The Matrix" first came out, it's ooh, right? 00:27:28.680 |
Our friends, we were like, wow, what a cool movie. 00:27:39.360 |
One of my favorite things to do is to go to an aquarium 00:27:46.280 |
It's like a masterpiece of art under the water. 00:27:53.360 |
and I look at the water, it's just brown or blue, 00:27:57.360 |
But if I go snorkeling or if I go to an aquarium, 00:28:22.600 |
There are spiders that people are still discovering. 00:28:26.400 |
And these are all things that people can imagine 00:28:33.040 |
And for those who are artistic, they can draw it out. 00:28:40.960 |
but the other day we watched a documentary on Blackpink. 00:28:49.200 |
My wife never knew Blackpink, but we're like, 00:28:51.140 |
dude, young people today, they all into Blackpink. 00:28:53.860 |
So there's a Netflix documentary on Blackpink. 00:29:06.000 |
At my funeral, I would love if she could sing there. 00:29:17.120 |
But can you imagine, like, when we get to heaven, 00:29:21.280 |
because we are a child of God, because we are in air, 00:29:24.620 |
there are things that are unimaginable, unfathomable, 00:29:28.840 |
not conceivable, that God has prepared to amaze us 00:29:36.000 |
Again, and again, and again, where every day we're amazed 00:29:40.320 |
and gawking and in awe at all the wonderful things 00:29:45.800 |
And when you have no sin, you don't get tired of stuff. 00:29:52.800 |
You go to the Grand Canyon the first time, whoa. 00:29:58.040 |
The third time, you don't even look at the Grand Canyon, 00:30:08.520 |
And then you go there again, and again, and again, 00:30:14.500 |
But when we are seeing God face to face, sin free, 00:30:18.740 |
when we're seeing all of his creation, sin free. 00:30:22.360 |
This is not something that you have even imagined yet, 00:30:37.560 |
Not because we earned it, but because we believed. 00:30:41.360 |
We committed cosmic treason, as some like to say. 00:30:53.140 |
We got adopted and received all the blessings 00:30:59.840 |
as someone who's lived in perfect obedience all of his life, 00:31:05.040 |
And because of that, I have a heavenly father, 00:31:14.240 |
who loves me a lot more fiercely than I love my children. 00:31:17.800 |
There's a lot of work in verses four through seven. 00:31:24.440 |
But when I got to verse seven in the part of heirs, 00:31:34.000 |
Just thinking, the Bible says I can't imagine 00:31:38.520 |
what God has prepared, but I'm gonna try to imagine it. 00:32:20.440 |
a lot of times I'm thinking, they're so fortunate 00:32:34.280 |
And when they say weird stuff, I actually get pretty upset. 00:32:38.680 |
I'm like, hey, you don't say that to your mom. 00:32:48.560 |
But if they said that to Becky's egg, I would get upset. 00:32:52.480 |
'Cause I'm like, you don't understand how glorious 00:32:57.400 |
And I think we live a lot of times learning all this stuff 00:33:07.360 |
So then what's the relationship between our salvation 00:33:10.880 |
Churches like Berean, people from outside looking in, 00:33:23.540 |
You're trying to earn your way to salvation by doing good. 00:33:29.720 |
What it is is we are trying to just say thank you 00:33:37.200 |
And we're trying to live such a nice, good life 00:33:43.320 |
so that others will be attracted to this light. 00:33:49.120 |
so that when the world is disgusted with themselves, 00:33:52.320 |
they can see the joy that we have, the love that we have, 00:34:02.040 |
Not to earn any extra favor from God, but why? 00:34:07.400 |
As a worship, as living sacrifices, we wanna say thank you. 00:34:14.020 |
So what's the relationship between all this doctrine 00:34:16.260 |
that we just breezed through today and our good deeds? 00:34:25.180 |
It's emphasized again and again in each chapter. 00:34:28.340 |
So I'm just gonna take you to another Paul's epistle. 00:34:33.580 |
This is one that you've memorized as a child. 00:34:35.780 |
For by grace you have been saved through faith, 00:34:39.500 |
and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. 00:34:41.740 |
Not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 00:35:14.260 |
Way beforehand, so that we will walk in them. 00:35:17.980 |
So our obedience is our way of saying we love you, 00:35:24.220 |
we trust you, we want you to get all the glory. 00:35:27.980 |
Thank you, God, that you took a bunch of mosquitoes 00:35:35.660 |
Didn't just grab all of us and just let us out of hell. 00:35:39.380 |
But that you took a bunch of us and called us children. 00:36:07.340 |
like, you're kinda, it's like you're reading a biography 00:36:14.140 |
But when you think through, man, this was done to me, 00:36:47.720 |
the stuff that we could never have imagined anyway 00:36:59.560 |
Of the glorious thing that the Lord has prepared 00:37:14.400 |
So my encouragement would be just go through it 00:37:18.200 |
and just worship through the course of the week 00:37:21.980 |
Thank you, Lord, for leading me to repentance. 00:37:34.720 |
Not being conformed to the pattern of this world, 00:37:36.240 |
but to be transformed by the renewing of my mind. 00:37:46.480 |
And I'm sorry I call some of the things you give me trash. 00:37:54.800 |
because you're reading stuff about your life story 00:38:03.800 |
all because of Christ and his work on the cross. 00:38:09.940 |
So you're only gonna have one thing to share with a partner. 00:38:17.260 |
to the kindness of God, how you came to be justified, 00:38:25.280 |
I could have put this easily as, share your testimony. 00:38:31.120 |
'Cause this one's gonna actually have to cause you 00:38:33.120 |
to theologically think through your testimony, right? 00:38:45.140 |
Okay, how did you come to that point of justification? 00:38:54.640 |
Okay, so this is a very packed, weighty question. 00:38:57.720 |
And however you wanna share it with a partner in your group, 00:39:03.600 |
Just as a quick reminder, next week, no Bible study. 00:39:06.520 |
'Cause I think next week's Thanksgiving week. 00:39:09.400 |
And then the following week, we're almost done. 00:39:10.800 |
We have two left, and then we're done with Titus. 00:39:13.400 |
Okay, Titus 3, 9 to 11, is the following section. 00:39:19.680 |
So the rest of your time, just do number one,