Well, good morning.
So as Fred mentioned, I will be
In the book of Titus, we're going to start the book of Titus.
I've previously, I went through the book of Timothy, 1 Timothy, so we went through that basically verse by verse.
And I thought that what I would do next
is the book of Titus.
So Titus, following 1 Timothy is actually chronological. So our Bibles have it 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, then Titus.
But that's not the chronological order. And I thought…
Perhaps we would just do the chronological just to maintain our
The context of what's happening.
But before I jump into Titus.
Give a little background. I'm going to move this.
All right. All right. Can you hear me? All right, great. Okay. So before we jump into Titus.
Give a little background. I think it's important to understand where these books, these pastoral epistles, where they fall in the life of Paul, so we have a better understanding of what's
Being said, the historical context, what's happening. So in the book of Acts.
were given an inspired account of the early church.
As well as the conversion of Paul, the apostle, and his subsequent missionary journeys, where you've got this great
narrative of the history of the early church.
And much of the book follows Paul's exploits.
Leading up to Paul's arrest in Jerusalem and eventual captivity under house arrest.
In Rome. And actually, we just
We went through the book of Acts earlier this year. We finished up
I believe in the spring we finished so
Hopefully this is familiar to you.
So let's take a look at that end of Acts.
where we leave Paul.
Where we find Paul here at the end of Acts, they're in captivity in Rome.
So take a look at Acts 28.
Verse 16.
Now, when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was permitted to dwell by himself
with the soldier who guarded him. And then verse 22,
You know, here there was a group of Jews that came to Paul. Paul could have people come and visit him. He could talk to them.
And here we see this group of Jews that came to him. And then in verse 22, he said, but we desire to hear from you.
what you think for concerning this sect, talking about Christians, we know that it is spoken against everywhere. So when they had appointed him a day, many came to him at his lodging to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets, from morning until evening.
Paul, even though he was there in house arrest, he continued his ministry. He was able to continue to proclaim the truth to anyone that would come and hear. And from morning till evening, imagine attending those meetings. And then it says here in verse 30,
Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern
The Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence.
no one forbidding him.
Again, you see he had an effective ministry here. He was able to guide and direct
People like Timothy, people like Titus, in the work of the Lord, going to visit assemblies. He was anxiously awaiting to hear news of what's happening around the world, places where he'd been, people that he knew, and he was able to actually write
some of the greatest New Testament books that we have
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon.
The prison epistles, they're called.
So the book of Acts ends here.
But Paul's ministry does not end.
There's much more that happens after this period of time in the ministry of Paul the Apostle.
His ministry continued.
This isn't the end of Paul.
Now, we don't have a nice historical narrative for us to follow like we do in Acts for that period of time.
So what we do learn about this period after
Acts 28, we have to take a little bit from this passage, from that passage, from this book to that book. We can piece
some of it together.
So we have to, as I mentioned, piece some of these verses together to get an idea of what Paul was up to in this period of time.
So what we do know is that Paul was released. Paul was eventually released two years later. And actually, Paul expected to be released.
Take a look real quick in Philippians 1.
One of the books that Paul wrote and possibly the last book that he wrote there in
captivity.
or house arrest. So in Philippians…
Let's take a look at 1 verse 25.
So this is where he's talking about how to be with the Lord is so much greater, but I need to be with you.
The Lord still, it's better for you that he's there continuing to minister, continue to work. And then he says, verse 20,
five, and being confident of this.
I know that I shall remain and continue with you all of your progress and joy of faith.
So he knew that he would see them again.
that he would continue with them. So he knew that his life was not in danger at this moment in time.
He knew that he would continue.
So.
After his release.
And actually, there's another passage. We won't turn to it, but Philemon, he actually tells Philemon to get a room ready.
for him. He's going to be coming shortly, get a room ready when he comes to visit. So he is fully expecting
to be released.
So after his release.
He continued his ministry.
He continued to travel. He continued to go throughout the Roman Empire. He wrote the pastoral epistles, and that's where we're at.
Now, so we went through 1 Timothy, this period of time after the first imprisonment.
And now we're going to be going through Titus.
And the reason that we know that, because we read these books and we see that there's things that are happening in these books that did not happen in Acts.
So these are two separate periods of time.
For example.
Paul was in Crete and he left Titus there.
And that's where we leave, that's where we begin the book of Titus.
Paul is leaving. He's writing to Titus, who he left in Crete.
So that's something that didn't happen in Acts. So we know that this is something afterwards, after Acts.
Now, Paul did visit
Crete. In fact, if you look at your map in your Bible, that trip to Rome, they come and they land in Crete for a period of time in a place called the Fair Havens.
And they were waiting there for a period of time. He was there.
Perhaps he, you know, but he was in captivity. He was in custody of the Roman Empire. He wasn't out.
going and sharing the gospel with people, but
The Lord planted a seed in his heart there.
for those people.
And when he got the chance, he went back to Crete.
So, uh.
Real quickly, a brief summary of what this time period looked like. So Paul continued, as I mentioned, Paul continued to travel through the Roman Empire, ministering the gospel.
Perhaps on his way back from Rome, so he was released, he left Rome. Crete would have been a natural stop for him.
It's on the way. And perhaps…
And we do know that many people were there visiting Paul, would be there with him.
Perhaps Titus was there with him when he departed Rome and went to Crete. And perhaps that's where when Paul left
Titus and Crete.
At some point, he was in Ephesus.
And he met, so he met…
Timothy in Ephesus.
And then he instructed Timothy to stay in Ephesus and work there, labor with those people.
And one of the things that we see in both these books, because they are very similar.
is that there's similar themes and there's similar needs in these churches.
The church in Ephesus.
You know, it's a cosmopolitan, wealthy place, a lot of activity, a lot of economy, probably wealth there.
And then you've got the backwoods of Crete. Very similar needs. You know, really nothing's new under the sun.
Things needed to be set in order.
There was false teaching going on.
And there was a need for godly leaders.
And those two major, those three major themes continue, are in 1 Timothy and in Titus.
Those things. It's the same today. One of the reasons why I love these books
is because they're so relevant to the days we're living.
This hasn't changed.
Things need to be set in order. There's false teaching. We need godly leaders, all these things. It doesn't change.
So at some point, so he left
Paul left
Timothy in Ephesus and he went to Macedonia.
And it's there that people think that he wrote 1 Timothy and Titus.
At that point, there's speculation that maybe he went to Spain.
So that could be or could not. We don't know for sure. But perhaps coming back from Spain, Paul was arrested again.
So now this is a period of time around five years.
From the point of being released to
being captured five
years, perhaps?
Now, what was happening at that time period
Christians were being blamed for the fires.
in Rome, for Rome being burned down. We know that Nero, we understand Nero, did it himself.
And then tried to blame the Christians. So there was huge
There was a lot of persecution going on. The Christians were the scapegoat, right? They were being blamed for
this fire that had happened.
So perhaps…
You know, that was the pretext.
for the authorities to arrest Paul at that time.
And it was during this second imprisonment
that Paul wrote 2 Timothy.
2 Timothy. And when you read 2 Timothy.
And when you read it with that understanding.
of this man is in prison.
And he does not expect to get out. That first imprisonment, he expected to get out. He's planning what's going to happen afterwards.
In 2 Timothy, he has no expectation of leaving.
He has an understanding that he's probably going to die here.
In fact.
Let's take a look at that. 2 Timothy.
two.
Well, I love this.
You know, there he is in prison.
He is in chains.
But it says here, 2 Timothy 2.8, remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead
According to my gospel, for which I suffer trouble as an evil doer.
Even to the point of chains.
But the word of God is not chained.
So we saw all the efforts that the authorities did to try to stop him and his ministry, putting him in jail, it just continued to flourish. The word of God has not changed.
God's people might be changed. They may go through suffering, but God's work continues forward in power and strength.
And, you know, it says, I suffered trouble as an evildoer. They were…
They were accusing him of perhaps being a part of this
You know, burning down Rome.
So he's suffering as an evil doer wrongly.
And then take a look at 2 Timothy 4.
Verse 6.
For I am ready, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure
is at hand. He was fully expecting this was the end.
But he was ready. He was prepared.
I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race.
I have kept the faith.
Finally, there is laid up for me
The crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day and not to me only, but also to all those who loved him.
his appearing.
So there he is.
He's abandoned therein, but he's still able to write this letter.
He's still able to do that. He's still able to have people come and visit, not as much, but it still happens.
So eventually, tradition tells us that
Emperor Nero did command to execute Paul.
And…
we understand or the understanding is that he was perhaps beheaded
a Roman citizen would not be
crucified. Like many of the other Christians were being crucified.
Paul most likely was beheaded.
by Nero.
And when you think about these historical events and we think about
You know, Nero and Paul.
you know who will history judge?
Now, there's a famous quote.
I try to see who
who it's attributed to. But FF Bruce says it's this man, T.R. Glover of
Cambridge University.
commenting on how history will judge
these two men. And it says that the day would come when men would name their dogs Nero and their sons Paul.
Now, that's not as much of an insult as it was then.
You know, people treat their dogs like family now.
Right.
But to call your dog Nero, that was an insult. Yeah, that was an insult to Nero.
You know, today, well, we'll name the dog after grandpa, right? So, oh, that's so nice.
So, no, it's an insult to be named having a dog named after you.
So that's how history judges these two men.
We name our sons Paul and her dogs.
Niro. So if anyone's getting a dog
Coming up, we've got a name for you.
So it was…
During this time period, like I said, the pastoral epistles were written.
And it's between…
It was between these two imprisonments, the first imprisonment
Which she was under house arrest in Rome.
He had a lot of freedom. He was able to have people come and go and write letters. And then this second imprisonment where he knew it was the end.
So, Titus…
Now, Titus, we don't have a lot of information about Titus.
As far as the book of Acts.
Now we read…
We read a lot about Timothy in the book of Acts, and we can follow his
his history, his story a bit. Titus is a little, he's in a few books, but he's not in Acts, at least not
Not named, but I believe that there is
a reference to him.
And actually, Titus was with Paul a lot longer than Timothy.
It appears that Titus was with
Paul, even in his first missionary journey.
Titus was.
Perhaps that was when he was saved through the ministry of the Apostle Paul and that first
missionary journey.
And what we are told, take a look at Galatians.
Now, there was a conflict that arose and people came to Jerusalem to discuss the issue of circumcision, and that's in Acts 15.
No, we're not told that Titus was there.
in Acts, but Paul mentions that same event in Galatians.
that same time period, that same event.
And it says here.
Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas.
And also took Titus with me.
So Titus was there with Paul at that time.
right in the middle of that huge controversy that arose in the church.
And I went up by revelation and communicated to them that gospel, which I preach among the Gentiles
But privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run or had run in vain, yet not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.
So Titus was a test case.
There was the controversy. Gentiles need to basically they need to become Jews first and then they can become Christians.
Now, Timothy was circumcised. Timothy was half Jewish.
And Paul actually did circumcise him. And the point of that was to open up doors
in the Jewish population.
But Titus was just a Gentile.
And Paul did not circumcise him because he didn't have to.
And Paul brought him right in the middle of that controversy.
Here, we've got a test case right here, a believer who loves the Lord Jesus Christ, who's filled with the Holy Spirit, and he's not circumcised.
That's Timothy, or Titus, excuse me, that's Titus.
You know, Titus went with Paul.
or was sent by Paul to some of the rough areas.
Right in the middle of this controversy, you know, dropped right in. People, they're yelling at each other, right? I mean, it's a big deal.
Paul leaves…
Titus in Corinth. And we know all the
chaos that was happening in Corinth.
And Titus was standing for
the Apostle Paul in Corinth.
And we know that there was some controversies there with people rejecting him.
And Titus was able to report back so
Paul wrote 1 Corinthians.
And it was sent to Corinth. People read it. Titus was there. He was able to report to Paul how people received.
how people received it. And actually, it was an encouragement to Paul.
And that's 2 Corinthians
Let's take a look at that. 2 Corinthians real quick.
2 Corinthians 7.
verse…
Let's just read…
Yeah, verse 7. Sorry, 6.
Seven, six. And not only by his coming, but also by the consolation, I'm sorry, verse 6. Nevertheless, God who comforts the downcast comforted us.
by the coming of Titus.
And not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was comforted in you when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, and that I rejoiced even more. You know, Paul wrote a pretty hard letter, right? I mean, it was pretty pointed. It was dealing with specific issues that was going on in that church. Paul didn't know how they were going to respond to this.
And then he found out from Titus, hey, you know what?
They were made sorry. They repented of their sins. Not everyone, but there were people that actually did
turn to the Lord and reject
the ways that they were going. They repented. They had that godly sorrow from that book, from the 1 Corinthians.
And Paul was so joyful to hear of how it was received.
And Titus was encouraged.
was how they responded to the word of God.
So again, we see
Titus, right in the middle of controversy, right in the middle of it.
And my understanding is that Titus actually brought the book of 2 Corinthians to Corinth as well.
So…
And we also see, we read in 2 Timothy
And we won't turn to it, but Titus is in Crete.
Paul left Titus and Crete, but eventually…
Titus makes his way up to Dalmatia, which is today Croatia, Bosnia, that area. So he was right, Albania, maybe right there. So that's where he was later on in Paul's life. But people believe that he eventually made his way back to Crete
And was martyred there in Crete. And today there's a
There's a basilica.
for Titus.
So…
That's a little bit about Titus.
you know.
He was loyal.
Paul trusted him.
with very important issues.
And we have this book that Paul wrote to Titus.
that we can read. And so we can see the heart of the apostle for this man. We can see the heart of the apostle for the people there in Crete. We can learn a little bit more about Titus.
As we go through this book.
Now, a couple of the themes.
I already mentioned some. There was setting things in order.
So there's error, there's things that are wanting, there's things that are not…
the way they're supposed to be. And Titus needs to bring things back into order
That's one thing. And again, similar to 1 Timothy.
And then the other one is godly leadership, the need for godly leadership. And again, we see the requirements.
for elders. And so we'll go through that.
Again, like we did in 1 Timothy.
The other key or one of the main themes in Titus also is
Obedience. Obedience.
Take a look at Titus 3, 8.
And I think this is probably the key verse.
Some people might have different opinions.
But Titus 3,
This is a faithful saying.
And these things I want you to affirm constantly.
that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain
Good works. These things are good and profitable.
To men.
to maintain good works. Another verse.
Titus 2.14.
Speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ.
214, who gave himself for us.
that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself
His own special people zealous.
for good works.
I believe the key in Titus is good works.
Some people have said it like this. I actually saw this breakdown in a few different commentaries.
1 Timothy is to protect the truth.
1 Timothy, protect the truth.
Titus is practice the truth.
And 2 Timothy is…
proclaim the truth.
So those are ways to think about these
books. Titus put these things into practice. Tell others to put these things into practice.
That's what this book's about. Titus was a doer
of the word, not just a hearer.
That's something I struggle with. I think sometimes knowing something, I've done my job, right? Well, if I know about it, okay, I've done my job. Now I need to do it, right? If God is telling me to do something, I need to do it.
Not just a hearer, but a doer.
So like I mentioned, the purpose
to set things in order and appoint elders.
So…
We need to stand for the truth, right? That hasn't changed. That hasn't changed.
This book was written probably in 60
3, 64, something like that.
AD, nothing's changed. We need to stand for the truth of the gospel. We need to
We need to practice the truth.
So that when people see our lives, they are attracted. There's a verse, it says, adorn the gospel.
Make the gospel something that is attractive.
And that's when we obey him, when we live for him, when we have joy in our hearts.
The gospel is attractive to the world.
We need to practice the truth.
And…
the need for godly leaders. That hasn't changed. In fact, just the other day, another
kind of celebrity type, you know, preacher, church leader
stumbled. And it's now been exposed. He's been living a double life for many, many, many years.
And so many people are stumbled because they look to this man.
And he taught and he was, you know.
The things that he taught and now he's exposed.
And it does damage.
to the testimony. He does damage to the witness of Christians. The world loves it.
When Christians fall.
So these books are very relevant to the days in which we're living.
issues as we run into issues in our lives. Right here in this assembly, we can turn to these books for wisdom.
You know, for understanding of what's happening and what we need to do.
So we'll jump into it now. We'll just do probably the first few verses.
Titus. And I'm going to go ahead and read.
Titus 1.
I'll go ahead and read verses 1 to 4.
Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ.
According to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgement of the truth which accords with godliness.
In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.
but has in due time manifested his word through preaching.
which was committed to me according
to the commandment of God our Savior.
to Titus, a true son in our common faith.
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father.
And the Lord Jesus Christ
Our Savior.
Paul just jumps right in, right into the depths here. This first verse, first few verses, it's a mouthful.
So we're going to have to break it down a little bit.
But I think about Titus. There he is in Crete, the backwaters in the mountainous area, working with these Cretans, and we're going to read about them.
He's probably a little discouraged, maybe. He's probably a little, you know, getting taken up with just the work that's in front of him and busy.
And Paul, right away, he begins…
You know, um.
He talks about…
In hope of eternal life.
which God who cannot lie promised before time
began.
what we're involved with. This is eternity. This is eternal.
You know, we do these little things here and there in our lives and we're busy
And we get this tunnel vision.
We're involved with eternity.
Where eternity touches…
You know, time. That's where we are right now.
You know, I love our brother Matthew. He talked a bit about
the eternal God and timelessness. And I still think about that when he was preaching on that. And, you know, this has a lot of other
This verse also deals with some of those things.
So…
Paul begins to write to Timothy. He calls himself
A bondservant of God, a doulos.
He is a servant. He is a slave of God. You know, Paul…
He was a freeborn Roman citizen.
And in fact, he said so when he was arrested in Jerusalem, he said, hey, I'm freeborn.
I'm a Roman citizen. You can't do that to me, right? I need a trial. There's all these things that they had privileges and rights as a Roman citizen.
Yet this man who was freeborn is willing to place himself under
and yield his will to another.
give up those rights.
those privileges, and I'm a slave to God, right?
He's a doulos.
Someone so devoted to another.
To the point of disregarding their own self-interest. That was Paul.
The Lord Jesus was the same.
He says in John 6, 38, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
That is the Christian life.
Not my will, but thy will be done, right?
We set aside our own thing for his thing.
That is the Christian life and paul
The Lord Jesus ultimately and Paul are examples to us of that.
He calls himself an apostle of Jesus Christ. He is the one that is sent with a message.
from the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's how he refers to himself as.
I'm a doulos.
Lowest of the low.
for my God.
And he is an apostle of Jesus Christ.
One that is sent.
Now.
This next, now some of your Bibles may be a little different with this.
The New King James I'm reading, it says, Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ.
According to the faith of God's elect.
and the acknowledgement of the truth which accords with godliness. Now, what is that talking about?
So we can break it down.
So according to the faith of God's elect.
So that word according, it's…
Like, for example, in harmony with.
consistent with. So what Paul was doing, what his
Paul's ministry.
Paul's apostleship was in complete harmony with the faith.
that God had delivered to the saints.
The faith, that's the body of truth.
That is, it's…
The faith, not my personal faith
Devotion, not my personal faith.
The faith.
Paul was consistent with the faith.
You know, Jude 3, it says…
The faith once and for all delivered to the saints.
Paul's ministry and apostleship was in harmony.
Complete harmony with…
Christian teaching. It wasn't anything…
to be rejected. And people did reject him. People rejected Paul.
And Paul, he taught the whole counsel of God.
And his ministry specifically is dealing with certain things like
the church. And the church in Israel, right? The rapture of the church, the gospel of grace, all these things that we love and we read in his books.
In his letters, to reject Paul's ministry.
In Paul's teaching.
is to reject the whole counsel of God.
And so Titus, when you're there in Crete.
Stand for the authority of the Apostle Paul.
what he taught, stand for that, stand for
The New Testament principles, the things that we value and love.
Stand for those things.
Paul's ministry was consistent with the faith.
Now, you know, it's interesting so many of the
the cults, Jehovah's Witnesses.
Mormons, they get so mixed up with good works, right? You need good works.
In order to be saved, you need to be saved
They get all mixed up with these things. And, you know, I've talked to them. They come to my door.
And a lot of times, have you ever read Paul? You know, so much of your confusion would be
clear it up if you just read Paul.
But they turn to Old Testament, like obscure Old Testament verses with questionable interpretations, you know, and all these things. They mix up the church and Israel. They take things about the priesthood in Israel and apply it to our, like all these things that they do.
They reject Paul's clear testimony in his word.
the gospel of grace.
So they mix all these things up.
Paul gives us
wonderful explanations of these
these things.
Now, some of your translations might say.
Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ.
For the sake of the faith of God's elect. So again, his ministry was for the benefit.
His ministry, his apostleship is for the benefit of
believers.
So next.
And we're almost done. I didn't get very far. Sorry.
It says.
Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect.
And the acknowledgement of the truth which accords with
godliness. So the acknowledgement of the truth.
So this word acknowledgement is epinosis, full knowledge, experiential knowledge.
Knowledge put into practice.
So…
This knowledge is incorporated in my life.
And when this knowledge is incorporated, it leads to godliness.
See, this is truths that transform, right? When I read the Word of God, it transforms my life. It changes me.
And it's very similar to what we read in the beginning of 1 Timothy. I won't turn to it, but he says that the purpose, the point, the aim of his commandment is to love from a pure heart.
and a good conscience and sincere faith. It's like, you know, the things that he taught wasn't just so to fill our brains with a lot of head knowledge.
but actually to change how we love each other.
that we have a good conscience before each other and before God, that we have sincere faith
It makes a difference.
The truths make a difference in our lives.
Now, I remember when I was in Madison.
going to college there, we would set up a literature table and we'd share the gospel with people as they're walking through the library mall, those kind of areas.
And so one of the things we do is we'd ask
Do you have any spiritual beliefs? So people would come by and they'd see our stuff and just ask them.
Do you have any spiritual beliefs? And I remember this one
One time this…
Young woman was there and she said, well, I haven't really decided yet.
Either it's going to be Buddhism or Hinduism. I haven't decided.
Now, these two things couldn't be more opposite, right? Buddhism, there is no God.
Hinduism, there's millions of gods, right? Two completely opposite things.
And I just, I remember I said, okay, well…
Depending upon which one you choose.
Would it make any difference in your life?
I'm guessing not.
Would it actually do anything?
Whether you said you believe this or said you believe that, would it change anything about your behavior, about what you do, about how you live, about how you think?
were to do any of those things. And she looked at me like I had two heads.
That's not even in the equation, right?
I just want to pick something and, oh, yeah, is that nice?
You know, this truth, right, the truth of
Paul's teaching, the Bible, it produces godliness. It changes us as we read it, as we take hold of it, as we apply it, it changes us.
Then verse 2.
in hope of eternal life. So Paul's ministry
Which is consistent with
The body of truth, the faith.
Which leads to
godliness in its application.
And…
We have a hope.
in eternal life.
When you put your faith in the Lord Jesus, you have eternal life now.
But there is a full realization of eternal life that is yet to come.
And hope…
You know, we say hope, right? And we've said this before here. You know, I sure hope the Packers win today.
That's not the hope we're talking about, right? Hope is earnest expectation, a settled assurance, rest in what I know is going to be true, what is going to happen.
We have the down payment now.
the down payment, but eventually we will get the full payout.
When we experience eternal life, our brother
Matt Dinko.
is experiencing that.
We have hope.
Now…
Like I said, I hope the Packers win, right? So…
That's kind of the hope that when we talk about hope.
But biblical hope, now let's just say that
For some reason, you can't watch the game.
So you DVR it, or you record the game.
And you're trying your best to not…
find out what the score is. Because you want to watch it later
And enjoy it.
So you've got it on tape.
You know, you're ready, you're going to go watch it later. But then…
somebody says something, right? Oh, they won. Wasn't that great?
You're like, oh, so, okay, so you watch it.
You watch the game and they're down 14 nothing.
Are you worried? You know how it's going to end.
How is this going to happen? How is this going to work out? I know they're going to win.
That's biblical hope, right? I know what's going to happen. I am in earnest expectation of what is going to happen.
I am convinced. I know how it ends.
Because I know him who's gone before and has risen from the dead.
And I know that I will be risen with him.
That's hope. That's biblical hope.
which was promised.
by the God who cannot lie.
You know, we've all been…
I think we've all been disappointed, right? Somebody gives you a promise and they break the promise.
God cannot lie.
Believe his promises. He cannot lie.
You know, people say, well, can God do anything?
Well, actually, he can't lie
He can't deny himself.
He can't go against his own nature.
So yeah, there are things God can't do.
He cannot lie.
And he's the one that has promised.
before time began. And I'm out of time. So we'll get that next time.
In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised
before time began. So we'll catch that next time.
So this is how Paul begins this letter.
So Timothy, I'm expecting Titus, Titus was encouraged with this
Just that opening there.
So let's pray.
Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this book of Titus. We thank you for Paul, the apostle, and the work that he did laboring for you.
willing to lay aside his own will for yours. Lord, we thank you that we have these scriptures.
And we have an understanding of
of the context and what you're seeing and help us to lay hold of these things in our own lives, in our own assembly here. We thank you, Lord, that we can look to you and trust you.
We thank you that we have a hope.
Or not as the world gives, not a hope that as the world gives, but…
or to hope that we know we have a settled understanding, earnest expectation of what you're going to do in our lives. We thank you.
And that we can trust you. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray.
Amen. The meeting is dismissed, right? Or do you have another one?
We'll finish. We'll, yeah.
Meeting is dismissed.