Video of this sermon is also available on YouTube: How Paul Made Decisions – Titus 3:12-15

Summary:

Paul had to decide whether to replace Titus with Tychicus or Artemas (3:12).  Since he is our pattern for living in the dispensation of grace, he is our pattern for making decisions.

Christians shouldn’t decide things like the king of Babylon did.  He sacrificed an animal to please his god, thinking that his god would be so pleased he’d tell him what to decide to do by the shape or color of the liver (Ezek. 21:20,21).  You wouldn’t do that, but it is just as superstitious to make decisions based on horoscopes and fortune tellers, etc.

Abraham’s servant struck a deal with God to get Him to show him which wife to choose for Isaac (Gen. 24:14), and God honored this method of deciding things (v.15).  But that’s because He had a specific wife in mind for Isaac.  But  a woman living in the dispensation of grace is “at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord” (I Cor. 7:39).

Other Christians put out a fleece to make decisions (Judges 6:36-38).  But Gideon wasn’t trying to decide what to do.  He knew God wanted him to save Israel, He told him so.  He wanted a sign to confirm it.  But God’s not giving such signs today, for “the Jews require a sign” (I Cor. 1:22), and God isn’t dealing with the nation of Israel any more.

Some other Christians listen for “a still small voice” (I Ki. 19:12).  But that verse comes right after Elijah called fire down from heaven in a stupendous display in the previous chapter.  After he was discouraged that the display didn’t make Ahab turn to God, God showed him an earthquake and a fire, and told him that God isn’t in powerful things like that, but in his still small voice.  God’s power is always in His Word, no matter how small the voice that speaks it.  So listening for voices is no way to help you make a decision!

Still other Christians pray about their decisions and look for a feeling of peace to confirm that they made the right call (Col. 3:15).  But Jonah made a bad decision, yet had such peace about it he could sleep in a raging storm (Jonah 1:4,5). No, Paul was telling the Colossians to forgive others as God forgave them (Col. 3:13-15), by making peace with them that He never takes away.  That’s the peace he wants to rule your heart when you have a dispute with someone.  Forgive them and make peace with them, a peace you’ll never take away.

God sees us as adult sons (Gal. 4:4-6), and expects us to make adult decisions on our own.  Paul “determined” to winter in Nicopolis (3:12) after weighing all of the determining factors  That’s what adult sons do!  Barnabas “determined” to take Mark along on a trip, but Paul “thought not good” to take him (Acts 15:36-38).  Both made their decisions based on their previous experience with Mark (Barnabas as his uncle [Col. 4:10]), another thing adult sons do!  Paul made the decision to replace Mark with Timothy because he came recommended by men he trusted (Acts 16:1-3), and we should make adult decisions based on recommendations as well.

Good counsel from our brethren in the Lord also helps make decisions (Acts 19:30), and even from savvy unbelievers (v. 31) for “the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light” (Lu. 16:8).  If after all that you still don’t know what to decide, take a “wait and see” attitude as Paul did (Phil. 2:19-23 cf. I Cor. 16:6).

“Zenas” (Tit. 3:13) wasn’t a lawyer of the law of Moses, but a lawyer of civil law in Rome.  Paul was in and out of prison so much he needed one!  It’s okay to hire a lawyer in this dispensation, but not in the Tribulation (Mt. 10:19).  Paul picked Apollos to be with Titus in Crete for he was “mighty” in the Old Testament (Acts 18:24), and there were legalizers pressing the Law in Crete (Tit. 1:10).

“Let nothing be wanting unto them” (3:13) means to take care of their financial and material needs.  God’s people usually did that for ministers, a good work, but Paul says “let our’s also” (our ministers) learn to provide for their own good works that they “be not unfruitful” in good works for the necessary uses of providing for their own necessities.

Some Christians you can only love “in the faith” (3:15), but with God’s “grace” it can be done.  He loves and accepts us by His grace, and expects us to do the same for others.

Summary:

The “foolish questions” Paul is warning Titus about are questions about the Law.  You know that because he mentions the law in this verse (v.9) and because of the context.  Everyone knows we should maintain good works (v.8), but some in Crete were saying to get believers to do good works that you have to put them under the Law.  So they constantly affirmed the Law!  Paul says grace (v.7) should be constantly affirmed.

But when grace believers affirm grace, those who teach the Law always question it.  We know their questions are “foolish” because that’s what Paul called the Galatians (twice!) who had gone back to the Law (Gal. 3:1-5).  Fools are people who don’t obey God (I Sam. 13:13; Mt. 7:24-26; Gal. 3:1), and when you return to the law you’re not obeying the truth (3:1)

“Genealogies” (3:9) were part of the Law, so Paul said to avoid them too.  They were needed in time past to determine who could serve God (Neh. 7:64), but you don’t have to be a Levite today to serve God, so genealogies are not needed!

Those who were teaching the Law were causing “contentions,” which should also be avoided (v.9).  Those contentions were caused by pride (Pr. 13:10), Jewish pride in the Law (Rom. 2:17,18).  This was a problem in Ephesus too (II Tim. 2:14), and the answer in both cities was “rightly dividing the word” (II Tim. 2:15) and realizing we’re not under the law (Rom. 6:15).  So strivings about the law are “unprofitable” when it comes to maintaining good works (Tit. 3:9).

The Law used to profit the Jews who were under it, for God blessed them with health and wealth if they were good.  Wouldn’t you maintain good works knowing you’d be rewarded like that?  Of course, God is not doing that today, but if you think He is, the Law will become unprofitable to you because you’ll think God is letting you down!  That’ll make you quit doing good works, or at least discourage you.

Paul says the Law is “vain,” which connects it to idolatry (I Sam. 12:21; Isa. 44:9 cf. Ps. 115:4,5; Jer. 16:19,20).  Paul uses the word vain because the Jews had made a god out of the Law.  If you think that can’t happen to something God gave, see II Kings 18:1-4.

People still worship the Law today, insisting we are under it, and they are stubborn about it.  So Paul says to admonish them twice, then reject them (3:10).  Heretics teach heresy, which is a doctrine contrary to established doctrine that has been accepted by God’s people.  The Jews accused Paul of it, but he believed their established doctrine of the Law (Acts 24:14).  He just taught that Gentiles weren’t under it!  But for grace believers to return to the Law was heresy, and Paul says to reject heretics after two admonitions.

Admonitions are primarily the pastor’s job (I Thes. 5:12,13), but all grace believers know we’re not under the Law and so can admonish heretics (Rom. 15:14).

But remember, admonitions should be gentle (II Thes. 3:14, 15), and one of the gentlest ways we admonish one another is in the hymns we sing (Col. 3:16).

Heretics must be rejected after two admonitions because if they don’t show any inkling of being open to the truth, you are wasting the time you should be redeeming (Eph. 5:16).

“Subverted” (3:12) means to turn something upside down.  They accused Paul of turning the world upside down (Acts 17:6), but he was not subverting anyone.  And once his doctrine of grace was established, to teach contrary to what he taught was subversive!  When Paul started preaching grace to Gentiles, some Jews didn’t like it and raised a fuss, so the apostles met with Paul at the Jerusalem council (Acts 15).  They recognize Paul’s gospel and so wrote to the Gentiles to say they hadn’t authorized the “subverting” that those Jews were trying to cause in the Gentiles (Acts 15:24).

Paul says those who teach the Law to those under grace “sinneth” and condemn themselves with their words (3:11).  They won’t admit that they condemn themselves with their words, but anyone who knows grace will know the Law when they hear it.  Do you?

Summary:

When Paul says something was “shed” on us (3:6), he means the grace of God exhibited in the kindness and love He showed (v.4) in saving us by His mercy and grace (v.5).  We know this because about the only other time Paul used the word shed was to say that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 5:5).  God the Father planned our salvation, God the Son accomplished it on the cross, and God the Holy Ghost sheds God’s love on us and “renew”s us (Tit. 3:5) when we believe the gospel.

When the Spirit renewed you, He made you a new man (Col. 3:10a).  But as you live your life and sin and fail to serve God as you should, you fall back into living like your old man.  When that happens, you must renew yourself “in knowledge” (Col. 3:10b), a knowledge of God’s rightly divided Word, until you reflect “the image of Him that created him”—Christ, the maker of your new man.

When Paul says God shed His love on us “abundantly,” that’s the adverb form of the verb abound.  “Abound” means overflowing (Phil. 4:18), and just as the Philippians met all Paul’s needs and then some, God’s grace meets all our spiritual needs and then some!

To be “justified” (Tit. 3:7) means to be made just.  The word “just” speaks of exactness, as when God insisted His people use “just” weights when buying and selling (Lev. 19:35,36).  In the same way, God demands that we have exactly no sins to let us into heaven.  That’s a problem since we’re not sinless, and so cannot be just with God (Job 25:4-6; Ps. 143:1,2).  But God the Father’s “righteous servant” Jesus Christ justifies us when we come to know Him (Isa. 53:11).

Paul says that God justifies us, “that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs” (Tit. 3:7).  We’d all like to be Bill Gates’ heir, but only his children are his heirs.  But “we are the children of God.  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God” (Rom. 8:17).  But what do we inherit from God?

Well, in the beginning God created two things, heaven and earth, which worked out nice because He has two heirs, Israel and the Body of Christ.  God promised the father of Israel he’d inherit the earth (Rom. 4:13), specifically the kingdom of heaven on earth (James 1:1 cf. 2:5), from which they will rule the earth as kings in the kingdom (Rev. 5:9, 10)

But God also owns the kingdom of heaven in heaven, the one we can’t go to without being “changed” because it is beyond the stars (I Cor. 15:50-52).  That’s our inheritance, but that’s not the best part of our inheritance!  The best part of Israel’s inheritance is that Abraham and his seed will have to live forever to possess the earth forever (Gen. 13:15), and the best part of our inheritance is that we’ll have to live forever to possess ours!  That’s why Paul says we are heirs “according to the hope of eternal life” (Tit. 3:7).

Now if you’re not saved and are thinking that it is too good to be true that we can have eternal life by grace and not by any works of righteousness of our own (Tit. 3:5), Paul knew you’d think that, so says that it is “a faithful saying” (Tit. 3:8).  That means you can depend on it, unlike the “faithless” apostles upon whom the man with the demon-possessed son could not depend (Mark 9:17-19).  It was also a faithful saying that Christ came to save sinners (I Tim. 1:15), and with this faithful saying here in Titus 3:9, we learn how He planned to save them—by grace without works.

That’s why Paul says these things should be “affirmed,” a word that is the opposite of deny (Lu. 22:56-59; Acts 12:13-15; 25:18,19).  Paul knew that many would deny salvation by grace so he says to affirm it “constantly.”

The reason it should be affirmed constantly is “that” they which have believed might be careful to maintain good works (Eph. 3:8).  The way to get believers to do good works is to constantly remind them that they are saved without good works.  Grace puts you on spot, saying, “God did this for you, what will you do for Him?”  We should be “careful” to maintain good works (Tit. 3:8), or full of care about it.  Paul says this is “profitable”—and he knew about profit and loss (Gal. 1:14 cf. Phil. 3:7).  He lived for eternity.  Do you?

Summary:

Paul says that “we ourselves” were once “foolish” before we were saved.  The word foolish means “unwise” (Ps. 94:8; Rom. 1:22), and we were certainly that!  But it can also mean sinful (Ps. 5:5; I Chron. 21:8), and we were certainly that as well!  Not all the time, but “sometimes” as Paul says.

The reason he’s reminding us of this is because when most Christians see unsaved people living foolishly in sin, they think it is their job as a Christian to condemn them.  And in the context, that’s what Paul’s telling us not to do.  Rather than “speak evil” of abortionists and homosexuals, etc., Paul says to remember that you too were sometimes foolish enough to live in sin when you were unsaved.

If you’re thinking it is not speaking evil of homosexuality to say it is wrong if it is wrong, remember that everything Paul said about the high priest was true, but it was speaking “evil” of him to say it because it was not his place to criticize the leader of Israel (Acts 23:1-5).  And it’s not our place to criticize sinners for being sinful, it is our place to give them the gospel and teach them the Bible.

Unsaved people are foolish enough to live in sin “for they know not the way of the Lord” (Jer. 5:4).  God’s people know His way, however, so if you want to be upset with someone for being sinful, be upset with believers, as Paul was (I Cor. 5:9-12).

True, some unsaved people know the Bible says their sins are wrong and choose to disobey God anyway, but we ourselves were once “disobedient” (3:3).  True, some unsaved people have been deceived into thinking their sin isn’t wrong, but we ourselves were once “deceived” (3:3), “serving divers lusts.” In the Bible, slaves were the ones who served, and you wouldn’t criticize a slave for serving his master since he has no choice.  Well, unsaved people must serve sin because sin is their master, and they have no choice but to serve sin since everything they do is sin (Pr. 21:4).  Believers can choose not to sin—and should (Rom. 6:17,18).

If you’re serving sin, be upset with yourself, not the unsaved!

Malice (3:3) is like prejudice, “extreme hatred for no reason.”  You used to be that way all the time, and might still fall into that, but you don’t live in that, so put it off (Col. 3:5-8).  Put off envy too, which is stronger than anger (Pr. 27:4) and can rot your bones (Pr. 14:30).

Another reason we shouldn’t condemn unsaved sinners for being sinful is because that’s not what God did when we were sinful (3:4).  You didn’t get saved because Christians told you that God hated you because of your sins, you got saved because they told you God loves you and sent His Son to die for your sins.  So tell unsaved sinners that instead of condemning them for their sins.

Under the Law, the kindness and love of God toward Israel appeared, but now under grace Paul says it appears “toward man” (3:4).  Under the law it appeared to Jewish men by the works of righteousness which they did, works like circumcision, sacrifices, baptism.  But now salvation is “no more of works” (Rom. 11:6).  Under the law they had to work righteousness to be saved (Ps. 15:1,2), “sacrifices of righteousness” (Deut. 33:19; Ps. 4:5).  They also had to walk in “all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord” if they wanted to be “blameless” (Luke 1:6).

But all that changed beginning with the appearing of our Lord (II Tim. 1:8-10)—not His appearing on earth to Israel, but His appearing to Paul (Acts 16:16,17).  Under the Law God’s mercy was only available to Israel (Ps. 130:7), and to Gentiles through them.  But beginning with Paul, God’s “mercy” (3:5) is available to us Gentiles too, through the washing of regeneration (3:5).

Jews were saved by the washing of water baptism (Heb. 10:22; Acts 22:16), but now we are saved by the washing of justification and sanctification (I Cor. 6:11).  “Regeneration”  refers to the new birth that is performed “by the Spirit” (3:5 cf. I Cor. 6:11).  Once you receive it, you can “serve in newness of Spirit” (Romans 7:6).