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| Titus 3 Memory Verses: Galatians 2:20; Hebrews 4:12 Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters, Remember, the next book will be Philemon, then the Gospel of Mark. Keep plugging away! By the way, how are the memory verses coming along? I am enjoying the daily exercise of committing new verses to memory. I have a flash-card program on my palm pilot that I have been using, it makes keeping up with the cards much easier. The drawback is the effort required to enter the cards in. I have two programs, one is free, and one you have to pay for, here is the link to their homepage, but the free one is ok. Supermemo is the one I paid for, www.mapletop.com or the free one Learn?! at www.laiblin.de/palm . The free one is ok, I couldn't see the letters on the original version at night, he has updated it several times, but since paying for supermemo, I haven't downloaded the new versions. Paul is exhorting Titus to encourage his congregation to live the life. To live in harmony with the authorities, and to live in harmony with each other, demonstrating the fact that they are Christian. He summarizes what he has been stressing through the first two chapters, grace and salvation. Titus 3:1-2 Live in harmony with the world. First they are encouraged to live in harmony with their government. We see this exhortation through the epistles, and for good reason. The Roman government was very suspicious of secret activities, and Christians reeked of private meetings, as well as living lives which were extremely different from their neighbors. They were different, and by nature this made them suspicious. To counteract this, Paul encourages Christians to have a proper view of authorities, see Romans 13; Titus 3:1; 1 Timothy 2:2 Also Peter carries the idea in 1 Peter 2:13-17. Their lives were to be an example of a model citizen for the Roman government. They were to be model citizens, not only were they encouraged to be subject to the government, they were encouraged to live life as an example of what a model citizen would be. "ready for every good deed," 2 Tim 2:21; 3:17 "to malign no one," The word "malign" comes from the Greek word "blasphemein", which means to speak evil of no one. At my job, we have a lot of belly-achers, people who are not happy with anything that the railroad has done, the union has done, or even with what the government has done. I am sure that everyone knows someone like this. We are not to fall into this trap. Col 3:8; 1 Tim 6:4. "to be peaceable," Interesting that this comes from the Greek word "amachos", sound familiar? Sounds a lot like a Spanish word, if I understand correctly, the "a" means not, and "machos" means a fighter. In other words, we are not to be looking for a fight because we are non-fighters. "gentle, " According to Weust, "The word could be translated, 'sweet reasonableness, being satisfied with less than is due you'". "showing every consideration for all men." This is another word for gentle, used as a noun, which is used in relation to all men. We are to portray gentleness toward all men, every consideration is easier to say in English. Look at where this word is used to get a better idea of what it means, it is translated gentle, 1 Cor 4:21; 2 Cor 10:1; Gal 5:23; 6:1; 2 Tim 2:25; James 1:21; 3:13 and 1 Pet 3:16. Titus 3:3 Don't forget where you came from. Here is a list of sins that show the unsaved man's heart. Foolish in that we were not walking with God. There is a progression in the verse, first, "disobedient, deceived" the meaning of disobedient is obvious, deceived means to wander about aimlessly. Then second, the enslavement to sins of the flesh, in other words sex sins, "various lusts and pleasures", both words have a heavy connotation toward sexual sins. And third, sins of relationship toward other people, "spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another". This demonstrates the fact that as humans, we are totally selfish, anything or anyone who gets in our way of satisfying our desires is hated, and hated hatefully. When Jesus came into our lives all these areas were re-done, sometimes it takes a while for the effects to go away. But we were all once there, so don't forget our heritage. When we are witnessing and living with the worldly, we are not to forget where we came from. Tutus 3:4-7 Grace and salvation. v. 4 Makes it clear that Jesus did the work, He demonstrated kindness toward mankind and demonstrated love toward mankind. Interesting here the word for love is not agape, but rather "philanthropia", which means an affection for people, a friendliness or showing of kindness. In other words, God cares deeply for us as people, He wants to see us saved. v. 5 "He saved us" Paul makes it clear in this verse that there was absolutely nothing that we have done that could have qualified us for salvation. Look back at v. 3, this is where we came from, our lives were not only spent sinning, we excelled in the act, we had no desire to look beyond satisfying our needs. Yet in this v. 5 we are told that we were saved by God, and as an act of God, by His mercy toward us, He has been washing us by re-generating our dead life into a live life, in other words, we have been brought to life by the Holy Spirit, and we are constantly being renewed by the Holy Spirit. All the garbage that existed in our old life listed in v.3 is daily being scrubbed away by the Holy Spirit's work in our life. To me, this means that the hooks of the flesh listed in v. 3 are still trying to maintain a hold on our life. The work of the Holy Spirit is to clear away all this garbage look at John 3:5; Ro 12:2; Eph 5:26 and 1 Pet 3:21. The Holy Spirit was poured out upon us at salvation by Jesus Christ. v.6 This is the only way we are saved, Jesus took our penalty of sin and nailed it to the cross with him, we died, was buried and raised to a new life in Him. Now the Holy Spirit is daily washing us, daily working with us to bring us into the image of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit knows that we are sinners, and He is daily working on our spiritual lives to give us a bath to wash away the sin, and to remove the tentacles that sin has attached to us. It takes a long time, a lot of time in the Bible and in prayer. God gave us a free will, we have a free will to follow Him, we have a free will to decide to allow our lives to be cleansed by the Holy Spirit. v.7 We are justified by God's grace through the working of the Holy Spirit, and have already secured our hope of eternal life. God has given us the life, now He is conforming our lives into His image. Titus 3:8 Preach the word and edify your congregation. What have we done to secure salvation according to vs. 4-7? Absolutely nothing! Even now we still can do absolutely nothing to gain salvation, it is God's work! He is daily working in our lives to bring us into His image, the only thing that we can do is to submit to His authority and allow Him to work in our lives. We are bondslaves, born into slavery, and our Master is conforming our image on a daily basis to be just like His! Do we continue the sin of rebellion and refuse to allow Him to change our lives or do we submit willfully, and allow Him to work through our lives by doing the exercises of Christianity to be conformed? We see clearly where we came from in v. 3, we can see where God had done the work in our lives, vs. 4-7, now what are we going to do about it? (sorry, got off the subject a little) Now finally, v. 8, Timothy is exhorted to preach these things, encourage people to live their lives according to these standards and these truths. Not only that we are to actively pursue engaging in good deeds. It is an attitude, a lifestyle, and if we choose to do these things, allowing God to work in our lives, it will be profitable spiritually for us. Titus 3:9-11 Avoid arguments. (De old time is a catching up with me.) Have you ever seen anyone actually win an argument? In most cases the looser simply retreats for a reprieve to reorganize his thoughts, then comes back stronger. Arguments go no-where, it is pointless to continue in them. If you notice the only ones who seem to want to lock into these arguments are the cults. If someone decides to take a point like this, and there are a few individuals outside of cults who do this, what is the point of arguing with them? Look at this note regarding vs. 10-11: “Heretick” is hairetikos ( αἱρετικος ), from the verb haireō ( αἱρεω ), “to take, to take for one’s self, to choose, prefer.” The noun means, “fitted or able to take or choose, schismatic, factious.” A heretic is one therefore who refuses to accept true doctrine as it is revealed in the Bible, and prefers to choose for himself what he is to believe. “Subverted” is ektrepō ( ἐκτρεπω ), “to turn or twist out,” used in a medical sense of limbs; “to turn aside.” Vincent says: “More than turned away from the right path: rather, turned inside out. ” “Condemned of himself” is autokatakritos ( αὐτοκατακριτος ), literally, “self-condemned,” made up of autos ( αὐτος ), “self,” kata ( κατα ), “down,” and krinō ( κρινω ), “to judge,” thus, “to judge one’s self down,” thus, “to condemn one’s self.” Translation . A schismatic individual, after one or two admonitions be rejecting, knowing that he that is of such a character, is turned inside out, and keeps on constantly sinning, being self-condemned. Wuest, Kenneth S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament : For the English Reader, Tit 3:10. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997, c1984. Titus 3:12-15 Personal concerns. Paul addresses some of his concerns to Titus, and in v. 14, it sounds like Paul is making a prayer request. He is relaying a need of the place where he is at. I realize that I cut the last few verses a little short, time has caught up with me, I hope that you enjoyed this study of Titus as much as I did. It was like Romans in a capsule form. Lord, let each one of us be reminded of where we were at in our lives before Christ, and now where we are at in You. Thank You that daily Your Holy Spirit is renewing our lives and conforming us into Your image and likeness. In Him, Joe Turner. |
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Titus 3:1-7 November 7, 2004 Reading through the Bible in one Year: Psalm 128-130 Weekly Memory Verse: Ezekiel 3:10-11 Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters, Titus 3:1-2 (NASB95) Romans 13:1-7 (NASB95) Paul continues to give advice to Titus, on how to encourage his flock. One other place that Paul exhorted people to be subject to the governing authorities was in Romans. Think on that for a moment. The Romans were not the greatest, kindest people. As a matter of fact, they were quite wicked; It demanded taxes, along with infringing upon the personal rights of each person. Caesar was considered to be a god by Roman law, and every religion with the exception of the Jews was required to worship him. There are some who are upset by the results of our last election. Our leader may not be the one that everyone voted for, but He is out leader, and God has anointed him as leader. One other point on this is that he is not as bad as Caesar, he doesn't require worship, and you won't die if you disagree with his way of handling things. Paul continues the thought encouraging everyone to be good citizens. What would happen if we were to apply these principles in our lives? Can you imagine what would happen if they were applied on the freeways? Can you imagine how it would impact our neighborhoods? This is what true Christianity is really all about. Our purpose is to teach and live out the word of God in every area of our lives. Titus 3:3-7 (NASB95) One phrase that could sum up these verses is "don't forget where you came from". This is the downfall of many of the foremen that are hired on the Railroad. They were well liked as employees, but once they change to a leadership position, they seem to forget that they are employees first and on temporary assignment as supervisors. We as Christians are moved from the general population, which is doomed for hell, and moved into a higher position. Paul is exhorting the believers not to forget the sins that they were forgiven of, and exhorting them to live according to their memory of forgiveness. I wonder how many of us have forgotten that Jesus died for us, and commissioned us to spread that news to all men. We have the unique privilege of being forgiven, standing righteous in the sight of God, and having the privilege of being washed by the word of God. Yet, how often have we moved on to our committees, Bible studies, Christian coffee houses, small groups, Church, and all the other Christian related clubs and activities, and never touch bases with the world again? At several local churches, you can even have a Starbucks Coffee in a Starbucks outlet with Christian servers taking care of your needs. I would challenge you to think about how many friends that you have that are not Christian. Many will say that they have a few; some won't have any that are not Christians. If we have isolated ourselves from the world, how will we reach out to the unsaved world? According to these verses, we never deserved salvation, we never did anything to qualify for salvation, and we were given eternal life as a bonus free gift from God. He gave His Holy Spirit to wash us clean from our sins, and to give power to our daily lives. We never did anything to deserve this gift. Think about electricity for a moment. If we have electrical power in our homes, it does absolutely no good until something is plugged into an outlet. The only way to use electricity is for it to flow through the electrical cord. Something has to be empowered by the electricity for it to be useful. The Holy Spirit is waiting to renew our lives, but if we are not willing to plug in, then how is He going to empower us? Also, we will be blessed as God uses His power through us to empower other people. Yet, if we aren't plugged in, then people are given a false hope. If we are plugged into the Lord, people will experience the results of God's power flowing through us. If we have been forgiven of all the sins listed in these verses, it is obvious that we never were perfect to start with. Look at the list of sins listed in verse 3, all of them are sins of the heart. These are heart attitudes and life ruling passions. Hebrews 4:12 (NASB95) I considered the tumor that my wife has in her head today quite a bit. As I thought about this, I couldn't help but relate it to Christians in today's society. We are born into the world as sinners. As we live our natural lives, we are infected with sickness of the spirit, just like my wife's brain tumor. The only way for the tumor to be cut out of our lives is for us to submit to the great physician, Jesus and to let Him use the word to cut the tumor out. Unfortunately, often Christians will accept Him as savior, go to church, and put on a great front, but still entertain the sin in their lives. Without removing the heart attitude, it will grow undetected until it draws the Christian away from the Savior. At that time God has to use a much bigger knife to cut out the tumor. In the end, we will still live forever with the savior, but it will be done with a lot more pain and suffering along the way. We have the option of allowing Jesus to cut the tumor of sin out of our lives right now, along with the surgery there will be discomfort and extreme trials. I have met a lot of washed out Christians who never surrendered the deep dark secrets to the Lord. In the end, just like a tumor that is in the brain, the secret yearnings and desires of the heart will overpower you. Surrender it all to Jesus. I would challenge each one of you to pray and ask God to show you the heart attitude that you have, and allow Him to cut out the sin that is hidden in the closets of your soul. Allow Him to start the procedure today, the longer the sin is entertained, the bigger it will grow. In verses 4-7 we are taught about how that God will deliver us, renew our souls, and pour His righteousness into our souls. Let's let Him do surgery on our souls, and be willing to go through the pain of releasing the right to our sin. Father, as we consider Your word, speak to each of our hearts and show us the attitude of our hearts. Reveal to each one of us the tumors that are crippling us, and please start the procedure of cutting them out of our lives. In Him, Joe Turner. |
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Titus 3:8-15 November 5, 2004 Reading through the Bible in one Year: Deuteronomy 10-12 Weekly Memory Verse: Ezekiel 3:10-11 Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters, Titus
3:8-15 (NASB95) In these verses we see two different contrasts. The first one is that Christians will want to engage in good deeds. Think about the way that he introduces this statement, it is a "trustworthy" statement. The ones who believe in God will be "careful" to engage in good deeds. I think that the idea here is that they will make a pointed effort specifically focusing upon following God. After finishing the forty days of purpose, we can all relate to the words that we are studying today and understand how these words can impact our lives. The Christian who walks according to the word that God has revealed to him will speak with confidence. There is a difference between the one who knows the word intellectually, and one who experiences the word and carries it out in his daily life. Titus
1:9 (NASB95) Paul returns to the original thought that he had shared when he opened this book. Paul wanted to encourage Titus to walk according to the experience that God had made real in his life. I find it interesting that many who claim to be spiritual will play word games and try to lock you into useless arguments that go no-where. Their purpose is not to learn more about the Bible, but rather to argue for the sake of argument. This is frustrating for one who is sincere about sharing the Word because deep down we want to convince the one who argues that God's word is true for their lives. I can hang with a arguer for a while, but often will go away tired, frustrated, and positive that nothing was accomplished. The foolish controversies and genealogies give the idea that these people are more interested in focusing upon the trees than on the forest. They will pick apart the simple things, often causing division in a church. Consider someone who is focused primarily upon the end times, or upon predestination for example. These are both good studies, but if they are focused upon and argued about without taking in account the rest of the word of God, they can become an anchor which will limit the growth of the individual believer. I have noticed many who are prone to arguing, do so merely for the argument. There is no intention of ever listening, or even changing their point of reference. The point of an arugment is simply to win the argument. Most who will get into a debate of this nature may be defeated by logic, but they only retreat temporarily to regroup so they can attack again. Paul considered someone who wants just to argue to be sinning and bringing punishment upon themselves. In closing, when we consider the truths that we learned during our forty days, it is time to put them into action, however, we need to be careful as we share these truths with others. Many Christians do not have the drive or the desire to commit their lives to God on the level that we have learned over the last few weeks. There are those who will argue, just for the sake of hearing themselves speak. As we implement these truths into our lives, I would encourage you to spend the next few days absorbing the information from the forty days study. I would also encourage you to take the last study, chapter 40 and spend time writing out the exercise that is detailed in that chapter. I am going to close here, the time is late. I apologize for the short study today, I have been wrapping up loose ends today in preparation for my wife's hospitalization next week. The studies may be a little short over the next few days for the same reason. Praise God, I have reservations at a local hotel, 2 miles from the hospital. The kids are taken care of for the first few days, and the loan docs were finally signed on the sale of our house. Lots of things are going on, please continue to pray for my wife and the doctors, and pray through the list that is attached to this study. Father, as we consider Your word today, keep our eyes and our minds focused upon You. Don't let us become distracted by those who only wish to talk, and lead us to those who are seriously seeking You. In Him, Joe Turner. |
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