Good morning, everybody. As most of you know, summer is almost over, and midweek Bible studies resume in about a week. From September to December, our entire church, including the youth and all the way down to the children's ministry, will be doing an inductive Bible study through Paul's epistle to Titus.

So in the book of Titus, we're going to find instructions on how to do church, what to expect of church leadership, how to combat false teachers and false teachings. We will learn God's blueprint for building strong churches that are effective in evangelism. And we will learn about how Christians are to conduct themselves in the pagan world that surrounds them.

So Titus has a lot to say about how we're going to engage the world around us. And I know that many of you are excited to dive into the study. And the sermon today will serve in some ways as an introduction to the series and to the book. And hopefully it whets your appetite for more.

I'm going to start by reading the first five verses of Titus for you, and then we're going to ask the Lord really to speak this morning to our hearts. Titus 1, 1 through 5. "Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness.

In the hope of eternal life, which God who cannot lie promised long ages ago, but at the proper time manifested, even his word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior. To Titus, my true child in a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father, in Christ Jesus our Savior.

For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you." Let's pray together. Lord, we are very thankful just that you give us a freedom to worship, to hear your truths, and by your grace would you allow us to respond appropriately this morning, to have our souls fed that we would be filled with joy, that we would be filled with power, that we would know how best to display the reflection of your glory to the world that is lost around us.

Would you hide your servant behind this pulpit and would you speak and minister to your sheep? We thank you for this time. We ask for your blessing and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Up to about 15 years ago, when the majority of our church members were still in their early 20s, we had about one wedding a year.

And it was a big deal, not just for the couple, but for the entire church. So every engagement was announced and the wedding was an all-church event. If there was a church member's wedding in any particular month, that bridal shower, the bachelor party, the rehearsal, and obviously the wedding were all included into the church schedule, into the church calendar.

And if you were a Berean, you didn't need an invite. You just assumed you were invited. And it was also assumed that you would stick around after the wedding to help clean up. And obviously those days are long gone and far behind us and we are no longer at that stage in our church.

Now we have lots of weddings going on throughout the year. All four of the pastors were at a wedding just yesterday. In the five-week stretch from October 16th to November 13th, in those five weeks, we have six Berean weddings scheduled and every single weekend, at least one of our pastors will be officiating a wedding somewhere.

Six weddings in five weeks. So at present, we have a bunch of engaged couples and lots of pre-marital counseling sessions going on. Many of you in this room have been engaged. So you know that the engagement period can be a strange and challenging one. There's a degree of struggle and tension as a couple prepares for a life of oneness, but they still need to function as two separate individuals.

The couple is growing in knowledge of each other as a future life partner, but they're still not technically married. They want so badly to be fully together, but for all intents and purposes, there is still much need to do things separately. So the engagement period is not easy, but it is important.

It's necessary. And there are things to be planned and prepared during the engagement, and there is work to be done. A wedding needs to be planned. And if you skip the engagement, no one's going to come to your party, your wedding, if you're even going to have a wedding at all.

And there's one thing that all engaged couples have in common, and it's this. They want the engagement to end. They want it done. They don't want to plan a wedding anymore. They just want to be married. I haven't met a single person who wants to stay engaged forever. The Christian life on this side of eternity is very similar to an engagement.

A pledge has been made, but it has not yet been actualized or consummated. We now belong to the Lord, but are not quite yet with the Lord. We have access to the bridegroom, and we are called to grow in the knowledge of him. But for now, this knowledge is in part, and not yet in full.

So just as there is an already-but-not-yet tension in an engagement period, the same is true of the Christian life. I've been memorizing through Titus and chewing on the book of Titus for the last few months. And the more I recite this book in my head, the more I meditate on these verses, the more my mind keeps picturing an engaged couple preparing for a wedding.

I see many guiding principles in the book of Titus that parallel a Christian engagement. The central figure in the book of Titus is the bridegroom, Christ Jesus, and the church looks forward to the coming of the bridegroom. And the church faithfully stewards this engagement period in which she finds herself.

There are instructions detailing how she is to conduct herself while she waits. And that is the heartbeat of Titus. So for a legitimate few seconds, I actually was contemplating naming our Bible study series Rules of Engagement. But I just ended up with the more conservative life in the Father's house, so you guys wouldn't be shocked or freaked out or confused.

But keep this engagement imagery in mind, and hopefully you too will come to observe and appreciate the similarities. So I read the first five verses of Titus a few moments ago, and the sermon today will be a preview to the study. And today's sermon outline is as follows. First I'm going to start with the premise of the letter, chapters 1, verses 2 and 3.

Okay? Chapter 1, verse 2 and 3, it's the premise. And then we're going to be looking at the practice of the letter, how it's meant to be applied. And then I'm going to backtrack, and in verse 1 we're going to look at the purpose of the letter. The premise, practice, and purpose.

And now I'm guessing that the order of this outline is already rubbing some of you the wrong way. Some of you guys were more anal, because I'm doing the 1 at the end. And in your inductive study, the order of the points is going to be different. If I were teaching this as a Bible study, the order would be different.

Okay? But because I'll be spending the bulk of my time on verse 1 this morning, this is how I've organized it. So hopefully this will make more sense as we move through the text and the message. The premise of the epistle to Titus, the practice of the epistle to Titus, and then we're going to be talking about the purpose.

Okay? So the premise of the letter, verses 2 and 3, verse 2 starts grammatically mid-sentence. So in order to avoid further aggravating you, I'm going to just read from verse 1. All right? So let me read the three opening verses again for you. "Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen to God and the knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, but at the proper time manifested even his word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted, according to the commandment of God our Savior, in the hope of eternal life." So here in the opening verses, the apostle Paul says that he has been preaching because there's a future hope.

He's been commanded to preach because of this future hope. The bridegroom will return and that those chosen of God will be betrothed to him forever. And this is guaranteed. God has promised this and God always makes good on his promises. So when I proposed to my wife Becky about 15 and a half years ago, I wrote a song and I proposed to her in the song.

And I'm going to read a very, very cheesy line for you in this dumb song. Okay? "I'll make all your dreams come true. I'll cook, clean, do the dishes, and diapers too." That was a line. Okay? And I set myself up for failure. So when you go, you know, when guys go down on a knee and do their little speech before their proposal, we say all kinds of stuff.

And we say fluffy things and make all kinds of lofty promises and we are doing our best to be sincere, but some of the stuff we say doesn't quite work out. Human promises are all too often broken, even with the best of intentions. And human engagements can be broken.

But when God makes a pledge or a promise, he speaks absolute and certain truth. So he makes good on what he says. He always has. He always will. He is all-powerful and he cannot and does not lie. When he says, he does. So Ephesians 1, 13 to 14 says that we were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise and he is a pledge, a guarantee of our inheritance.

So eternal life awaits. Eternal life is guaranteed. And what is eternal life? The Bible defines it as an eternity spent growing in intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ. If your picture of eternity has no Jesus, chances are you don't have the Spirit of God leading your heart. Eternal life is focused on a growing intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ.

John 17, 3 reads, "This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." So I met my wife, Becky, in 1999. We started dating in 2003. We got married in 2007. So we became husband and wife in 2007. But our relationship began long before that.

Eternal life does not begin when your heart stops beating and you physically expire. For the Christian, it starts at the moment when God opens the eyes of an unbeliever, changes his heart of stone into a heart of flesh, and the person puts his faith in the saving work of Christ.

And there is a growing love. There is a promise of a betrothal, and an eternal relationship has begun. So eternal life is knowing God. And this knowledge of God begins on this side of the heavenly wedding feast. So eternal life for you and me has already begun. And for fuller context, I'm going to read verses 17, or chapter 17, verses 1 through 4.

"Jesus spoke these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, 'Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. Even as you gave him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him he may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

I glorify you on the earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do.'" This is the last recorded prayer. Jesus prays before his trial and eventual crucifixion. So what was that work, past tense, that Jesus accomplished on the earth? It was to give sinful man access to holy God through the cross.

So the earth and this life on earth still remains in judgment. It is still corrupted. It still stands condemned, but access to the knowledge of God has now been granted and initiated and the bride of Christ now waits with eager expectation for the bridegroom's return. So eternal life is already, but not yet.

The engagement ceremony is past. But the wedding for the bride of Christ is still future. So what are the contents of Titus founded upon? What is the premise of the book of Titus? J.P. Green writes, "Confident expectation based on the promise of the unlying God." There's going to be a wedding, y'all, is what he's saying, is guaranteed.

So the church is now eagerly waiting for the great wedding feast. And if you want a description of this wedding feast, look at Revelation 19. But for now, at present, the church is in this already, but not yet engagement, tension, and struggle. But while she waits, she has work to do.

So the promise is the premise. The promise of eternal life is the premise on which this church exists. The promise of eternal life is the premise on which Paul is commanded to preach. And the promise is the premise for which Titus finds himself in Crete. So which brings us to our second point.

The premise is the promise, okay? So here is the expected practice of the letter. The practice of the letter. So what was Paul's expectation of Titus? What were his expectations of the churches in Crete? And what are the Lord's expectations of a church like ours? Okay, I'm going to read verses four and five again for you.

To Titus, my true child in a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you. So for this reason, okay, Paul left Titus in Crete.

There is an expected application. The this and for this reason is the premise that we just looked at in verses two and three. The practice begins in verse five and continues throughout the rest of the letter with very specific instructions for the church, the bride of Christ. So the all-important engagement period has been initiated.

There will be a wedding feast. All are invited. Proper wedding garments have been supplied already by the bridegroom. And a seat at the table is guaranteed for all who are dressed in those garments. So what is this bride to do while she waits? Beautify herself. We are to build up the church.

That's the practice. So Titus was to do his best to build the church in the way God would want it built. And the specifics we'll see in the rest of the letter. God's way of doing life in God's church. Leaders leading the way God would have them lead. Older men in the church conducting themselves in ways that are appropriate.

Younger men and women behaving properly in God's church. Non-slaves being exemplary in God's church. What to drive out of God's church. What to defend God's church from. And how God's church is to interact with the outside pagan world. So the church of God is very important. It's the primary vehicle through which the invitations to the kingdom of God are going to go out.

It's the means through which disciples of Jesus will be made and grown. And the building of God's church was the priority for Jesus' early followers. So if you guys think through how did the early apostles, how did the apostles, what did they engage in? Did the 12 of them make 12 disciples and instruct them to make 12 disciples more in some kind of like multi-level pyramid strategy?

No. They all folked, they went all in on the church. They built churches. They poured all their energies into the churches. Why? First Timothy 3.15, the latter part reads, "I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth." So the church of the living God is the pillar and support of the truth.

The ESV translate this buttress. The King James translates it like ground. The dynamic translations like the NIV will call it a foundation. So the church is the pillar and foundation of the truth. It's the platform through which the truth of God is magnified and displayed. And because the church of God is going to be on full display for the world, what she puts on display needs to be reflective of the bridegroom to whom she is pledged.

And the two things that are being put on display are one, the teaching of the church, and two, the deeds of the church. Teaching and deeds. Paul had similar instructions for Timothy, that he was to watch his doctrine and his life closely. Teaching and deeds. So in Titus 1 through 5 and following, Paul starts with instructions for church leaders, for elders, and that's how you get those little sections of qualifications.

The elders of the church are to be at the very front, modeling correct teaching and correct behavior for the rest of the church to see. So verse 9 of Titus 1 emphasizes that the leaders of the church need to hold fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching.

So church leaders need to make sure that their doctrine is sound, that they are teaching accurately. And as an aside, and that's why our church stresses expository verse-by-verse preaching. The culture around us doesn't tell us what we preach and teach. The affairs of the world, national crises, don't dictate what we teach and preach.

The scriptures dictate what we preach and teach, and because God's word is living and active, when we preach accurately from the scriptures, the spirit of God will go forth from this pulpit and instruct and feed and guide his people into all truth, we read in John 16, 13. And his word will not return void.

So teaching is the first important practice for the church while she awaits the bridegroom's return. And through that teaching, the invitations come. The second practice involves the church's deeds, her good works. The apostle Paul writes at length to Titus about the importance of the deeds of the church and her members.

So this is emphasized again and again. Godliness is to be measurable. Godliness is to be measurable. The doctrine of God in and of itself is beautiful, but it needs to be adorned, cosmeo, by the members of the church. And we get the word cosmetic from this word cosmeo, to adorn.

A beautiful woman without makeup, she's still beautiful. I guess, follow me? Okay. But when you apply the proper cosmetics on an already beautiful woman, she becomes next level radiant and she catches the eye of everybody. So the doctrines of God are beautiful in and of themselves, but how much more radiant would they be when the church adorns itself with godly deeds?

So the church, Titus is hearing, needs to be characterized by good deeds. Why? Because the church is on display for all the world to see. The church's faith must lead to visible good works. Good deeds or good works, if you're using the ESV, are repeated again and again and again and again in Titus.

And I just compiled a list for you here. 116, by their deeds they deny him, worthless for any good deed. 27, example of good deeds. 214, redeem us from every lawless deed. 214, a people zealous for good deeds. 311, be ready for every good deed. 315, he saved us not on the basis of deeds.

318, careful to engage in good deeds. 314, at the end of the letter, just in case Titus didn't catch it, Paul writes it again. Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds. You know what happens when church members are properly adorning themselves and accurately displaying the glory of God?

Opponents are put to shame. Blaspheming and ridiculing mouths are silenced. All they can say is, "You guys are weird." Titus 2.7.8, "In all things, show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us." So over the next three months, we will be diving into a deep study of how God would have us build this church.

And may this study produce in our church many good deeds for his glory. Amen? So we looked at the premise of the letter, the promise. That was the premise. We noted the practice or application of this premise is to focus, go all in on the building up of his church.

What is the purpose of the letter? And we'll see it in the opening verse, the greeting and introduction to Titus. Verse one, "Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness." I hear something that I hope you will see when we study through the epistle to Titus.

Building the church God's way is not humanly possible. Building the church God's way is not humanly possible. So if you were writing down an application, "Okay, I need to focus on building the church," it's not done through human effort. So you and I in our own strength cannot build his church.

You and I, no matter how eager we are or how devoted we are, cannot beautify or cosmeo ourselves through human effort. So good deeds or good works does not come from our determination or our planning. Resolutions do not produce good deeds. Human strategy, human ability, human ingenuity, clever management of the church, studly leaders, just wealthy members, skilled people are not enough to build a God-honoring church.

And this is touched upon from the very opening of the letter. First, God is the one who is doing the choosing. Okay, so you see that? The faith of those chosen of God. Second, godliness also comes from something outside of human effort, something beyond the determination of man. So the Greek preposition kata, it's translated "for." In the English word "for," it can mean all kinds of different things, okay?

But the "for" usually indicates purpose. And it appears twice in this opening verse. And at both times, kata is followed by accusative singular feminine nouns, okay? So they're direct objects. So faith, kata faith, and kata godliness. So Paul is writing this letter to Titus to primarily address and encourage, one, the faith of the elect of God, and two, the godliness of the elect.

That's the purpose of the letter. But verse one is a little tricky. It's a little difficult to translate. And that's why if you do a comparison of different translations, the rendering of the verses differ slightly. And the biggest question here is, what is the relationship of the knowledge of the truth to godliness?

If we're supposed to be known by good deeds, godliness is measurable, then what's this relationship with knowledge as it relates to godliness? So that's a very important question. Does a knowledge of the truth lead to godliness, as NIV seems to suggest? Is godliness a measuring stick for truth? Can it be both?

Is it both? Does godliness lead to greater understanding of truth? Because sometimes when I'm in a sin, I kind of forget things. When I'm ungodly, the truth is blurred. But when I am being more godly, does that mean the truth is highlighted in my life? That's an important question you're going to wrestle with in about a week and a half.

And after that, it becomes easy. The next 45 verses aren't as bad. They're more clear-cut. So here's a forewarning. If you start with it and verse one is really difficult, it gets better. So just don't quit. All right? So here's the point throughout the flow of the whole letter.

Right belief and right behavior are inseparable. You are what you know, okay? Right belief and right behavior are inseparable. My understanding of the opening of this passage is that truly right belief leads to right behavior. Right behavior is evidence of your right belief. If you have knowledge of God but your life is not consistent with your knowledge, you prove that you actually don't have knowledge, that you are a buffoon, and that you are in denial and rebellion toward God.

Titus 1:16, "They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed." So right belief and right behavior are inseparable. And in Titus, you find people of the circumcision and you find lazy gluttons in Crete, okay? They all profess to know God, but they have no idea what it is that they're professing.

They're professing to be wise, but they are fools. Romans 1:22 says something very similar, "Professing to be wise, they became fools." So the Bible makes it clear that genuine knowledge of the truth always produces godliness. So this begs an important question, what then is the knowledge of the truth?

The godly deeds are expected from me, from the church, and there's a relationship between godly deeds and knowledge of the truth. I need some more of that. How do I apply this? So what is knowledge of the truth? And that is a very important question, and I'm going to start with some things that are mistaken for the knowledge of the truth, okay?

First one is having correct or extensive theological proficiency. Having correct or extensive theological proficiency. You can be well-read in your theology and still not know God, and still not know the truth. You can be a biblical scholar and still not know the truth. Being raised in Sunday school and being familiar with all the stories, is that knowledge of the truth?

Being at church for three decades, four decades, five decades out of my life, we do church every Sunday, is that knowledge of the truth? As an aside, one of the problems of my generation is that many of us have only grown up on children's Bible theology. What is that?

Where 40% of all my Christianity is Genesis, 50% of all my Christianity is Jesus' miracles and his road to the cross, and the 10% is Jonah, David, Samson, Goliath, and some Elijah and Elisha. That's my faith. One saved, always saved. Don't mess with me. My eternity is secure. That's children's Bible theology.

Another thing that's often mistaken for the knowledge of the truth is having a strong moral compass or a tender conscience. You know that guy, every time he sees a poor person on the street, he gets teary. He's moved to compassion. He's moved to give. That guy has something that I don't have.

Maybe he knows God. He's closer to God because he's so generous with people. This person never loses her temper. She's such a good listener. She is so nice when our pastor is very mean. Maybe she knows something. There's a knowledge of God in her. That's also sometimes mistaken as knowledge of the truth.

Having a passion for strong Christian values is often mistaken for knowledge of the truth. Don't drink. Don't cuss. Don't gamble. Don't cheat. Don't watch inappropriate things. Don't do. Don't do. And I value those things. That's not knowledge of the truth. Being active in a church, being active in a Bible church does not equate to knowledge of the truth.

And these are things that are often mistaken for knowledge of the truth. Knowledge of the truth will always lead to these things. Having better theology, having a tender, compassionate heart, being active in church, having strong Christian principles and values. Knowledge of the truth always leads to those things, but it's possible for the habitual church attender to have all of these things and have no knowledge of the truth.

Knowing a lot about God is not the same as knowing God. Getting a dating app, finding a girl that seems attractive on paper, pursuing her just from that through text, engaging in an email is not a relationship. Knowing a lot about God is not the same as knowing God.

I want to share with you a couple of Jesus' own definitions to describe what the knowledge of the truth entails. There's a belief, there's a discerning of the shepherd's voice, and a following. Okay, John 10, 26-28. There's a belief, a discerning of the shepherd's voice, and a following. You do not believe because you are not of my sheep.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand. That's one aspect of it. Knowledge of the truth is also what sanctifies a believer of Christ.

John 17, 17. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. So what is this? What does it mean to know the truth? This is my definition, an intimate and growing understanding of the heart of God through feeding from the word of God. An intimate and growing understanding of the heart of God through feeding from the word of God.

And knowledge of the truth always leads to the godliness of the believer. So here are two questions that I want to throw at you. Are you a godly person? And here's another question. How do you become more godly? Morning prayer? Memorize Titus? How do you become more godly? Give money to the poor?

Be patient with those who wrong you? I've been a Christian for 28 years now. This is my 21st year of pastoral ministry, and the older I get, the more I grow in pastoral ministry with each passing year of being a Christian. It's strange because the more inadequate, the more hypocritical, and the dirtier I feel.

When I was a pastor in my 20s, I would tell myself and psych myself up, "Dude, you're God's gift to Christendom. Change the world for Jesus. You can do it. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. God needs you!" was what I thought. And then I hit my 30s, and I matured a little.

It was, "Okay, accurately handle God's Word. Be faithful to God's Word." But now I'm a few years into my 40s, and you know what my mantra is now? Don't do something so stupid and get disqualified from ministry. Don't be stupid and get disqualified from ministry. With each passing year, I'm becoming more increasingly aware of who I'm not.

There is nothing good in me outside of Christ, and I'm becoming more and more aware of my hopelessness without the grace of God sustaining me day to day. There is so much in my heart that desires comfort, pleasure, glory. In my heart, there are areas of it that are still so fond of sin.

And I, in my effort, always mess things up, and I taint everything. When I work hard for something spiritual and it goes well, you know who I want to give credit to? I can package it before you in a nice way, but when I do something spiritually well, I try to take the credit.

If I teach or preach or lead well, I naturally attribute it to my preparation, my hard work, my skill. The harder I work, the more I corrupt, the more I taint, the more I just make things foul and dirty. So I'm discovering that my hard work has done nothing but to frustrate and only make me more outwardly religious.

No amount of hard work has made me any godlier in the last 28 years as a Christian or 21 years as a pastor. And I've realized something through the years. There's actually only one thing I can control, one thing I can pursue to become godlier and more Christ-like, repentance.

You know, the more I study the scriptures, the ungodlier I feel. The more hypocritical I sound in my head as I preach. The more I study God's word, the more the blemishes and the blotches and the dirty things that I see. The more I study the scriptures, I'm reminded that not only do I not measure up, there's a lot still in me that just stands in outright rebellion toward the God of the universe.

So the only thing that I can pursue and control really is not to resist when His word washes me, when His word purifies me, when His word cuts me and carves me up, not to resist and just surrender. I can't work any harder to become godlier, but I can stay exposing my heart before the word of God, and He sanctifies and purifies and washes me.

And whenever the areas of sin are revealed, don't justify it, don't make excuses, just acknowledge, don't compare, and just repent. You know, the interesting thing is, is as I'm interacting with God's word and my heart is moved to repentance, I find myself to be a more zealous worshiper. As I'm sitting there humiliated and humbled, a few things happen.

The grace of God, the cross of Christ, becomes that much more beautiful. The forgiveness and the patience of God becomes that much more sweet. The forest in my eyes get exposed, so when I see a little speck in someone else, I have compassion and love and patience. Repenting before the word, before the Lord, leads me to have a greater appreciation of my Savior.

I grow more loving. You know, funny thing is, true biblical knowledge never leads to legalism. Does that make sense? True biblical knowledge never leads to legalism. Legalism comes from biblical illiteracy. It's spiritual ignorance on fire. True biblical literacy, where you know the truth of God, will always bring forth terror, humility, and compassion.

That always happens because the knowledge of the truth sanctifies and beautifies the believer. Godliness does not come from effort or hard work. It's the bridegroom who washes and sanctifies. You know, you and I are like sponges. Sponges, a lot of times, you look at it from the surface, it doesn't look dirty.

But when you squeeze the thing, what happens? Sometimes, when I am squose, I'm shocked by what comes out. You put me in a circumstance and squeeze me, stuff comes out, and then I'm embarrassed, and I'm shocked. But how do you clean a sponge? You dunk it. Squeeze it. Dunk, squeeze, dunk, squeeze, dunk, squeeze, dunk, squeeze, until all that is left after.

Left after every squeeze is clean water. Ephesians 5, 26 to 27, and this is often used at weddings, husbands love your wives. This is speaking of Jesus, "So that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she would be holy and blameless." So godliness does not come through effort or hard work.

It comes from an ever-increasing, intimate knowledge of the truth. It comes from being daily sanctified by the word of God. And that process always produces good deeds. Why? Because a bridegroom takes very seriously the purification of the church, the godliness of the believer. His word will not return void.

The bridegroom takes responsibility for the purification of his bride, and as he purifies, he makes beautiful and godly, and he sets free from the bondage to slavery and to decay and to corruption. John 8, 32, "You will know the truth." And what does that do? It sets you free.

So the premise of the letter to Titus is God made a promise, and he always delivers. Eternal life is already, but not yet. So while we're waiting, there's things we need to do as a church. There's a wedding feast that's waiting ahead, and we just need to get the word out.

That's the practice of the book of Titus. But the purpose of the letter to Titus is to emphasize the growth in the faith of the community, and the growth in the godliness, and the beautification of the bride of Christ during this already, but not yet. The premise was the promise, and because of this premise, we build a church.

But the point of all of this is that we can only truly build a church God's way when he's the one who's doing the building in and through us. Amen? This church and this church's growth is not because of the efforts of the seven men who lead this church.

His word, when it's honored, it grows the church. I'm going to leave you with my only application. Expose your heart to the word of God as often as you can. Expose your heart to the word of God as often as you can, and you're not going to like it.

You're going to hate what you find. You're going to hate what you find in you so much more than what you hate in what you find in other people. But it's going to break you, and the only real response that you can give is repentance. But as you're repenting, your thankfulness grows.

The purity of your praise goes up. And for some strange, mysterious reason, you can finally love and finally see people through the eyes of Christ, and you can be long-suffering. So expose your heart to his word as often as you can. Don't resist. Repent, and as he purifies you, observe the growth in godly deeds.

Observe the fruit. Rejoice in these good fruits that come out and give glory to the God, and teach others to do the same. That's the only application. Get your hands, like, your dirty hands clean. Get broken before the Lord. And I'm going to leave you a nice little summary of everything we studied together this morning.

It comes from Titus 2, 11 to 15. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus.

We are looking forward to the wedding feast. Verse 14, this is the bridegroom, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. These things speak, exhort, reprove with all authority, and let no one disregard you.

I look forward to our study together, which starts in about a week and a half. And may the Lord bless us with an increase of the knowledge of the truth. Amen. May he make us more godly and broken and loving. So I'm hoping you guys are excited about the book of Titus and that we grow, just delight in his word more and more as a church.

I'm going to give you a minute to pray as a praise team comes up. And I encourage you to just ask the Lord, "Lord, am I godly? Do I reflect your glory well? Help me to reflect it well." Pray and then the praise team is going to lead us in our closing praise.