"The Christian Attitude Within the Watching World" Titus 3:1-2

Titus chapter 3. I'm just going to read the entire last chapter,

Titus 3 · chapter mention

Titus chapter 3, just to get kind of in context here.

Titus 3 · chapter mention

Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient,

to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable,

gentle, showing every consideration for all men.

For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient and deceived,

enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy,

hateful, hating one another.

But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness,

but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing by the Holy Spirit,

whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

so that being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

This is a trustworthy statement. And concerning these things,

I want you to speak confidently so that those who have believed God will be

careful to engage in good deeds.

These things are good and they're profitable for men.

But avoid foolish controversy and genealogies and strife and disputes about

the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a

man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.

When I send Artemis or Tychicus to you, make every effort to come to me at Nicopolis,

for I have decided to spend winter there.

Diligently help Zenos, the lawyer, and Apollos on their way,

so that nothing is lacking for them.

Our people, they must also learn to engage in good deeds, to meet pressing needs,

so that they will not be unfruitful.

All who are with me, greet you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.

This morning, again, our passage brings us back to, back from the theological to the practical.

And if you've been with us this time through Titus, you've seen is that Paul

has written a letter to Titus.

He has placed Titus upon the island of Crete, and he has told Titus that you

are to go and appoint elders in every city, that you are to set what is in order

that is out of order, basically.

The Cretan churches, they needed help.

They needed godly men to come in and to get these churches back in order.

And Titus was the man to do it.

And so what Paul has done is he's walked them through and he said,

Titus, this is the men that you're to qualify.

These are the men. This is what they're to look like. And then he goes in and

he says, these are the men that you're really that you're really to kick out

and to put under church discipline because they are being deceitful.

They are false teachers.

And then Titus comes in and he says, this is what the man of God is to look

like. This is what the church is to look like. He starts off with older men.

Then he goes to older women and then to younger women and then to younger men

and then to slaves or employees.

He says, this is what your life is to look like. It's not a wholesale account.

It's not a fullness of what our lives look like, but Paul chooses to tell Titus

these things that are countercultural within the island of Crete.

And then last week, the last two weeks, Phil brings us to the theological aspect of the practical.

He says, this is why you're to do it. This is the reason by which you are to be practical.

These are the reasons why you're to live this way is because of what Christ has done in your life.

And now this week, we come back to the practical. And here we see this morning

of how the household of God is to function as a community within the larger sect of a pagan society.

In fact, I've titled this sermon this morning, The Christian Attitude Within the Watching World.

The Christian Attitude Within the Watching World.

The general idea of what Paul wants to instill within the broader community

of believers is that when believers devote themselves to doing what is good,

which we've seen that over and over again, we even read it today,

good deeds, to do good deeds, we want you to see what is doing good, right?

We want you to be in obedience to Christ, as John taught about this morning,

as we see this and devote themselves to it, because they do it because of the

transforming work of what Christ has done within their lives,

then when that happens, the people in general within the society,

they benefit, especially when it comes to evangelism and to salvation.

And as John taught about a couple of weeks ago, adorning the doctrine of God

our Savior within every respect.

And to be honest with you, this scripture is so relevant today.

This is the most relevant scripture for what we are dealing with within the

United States of America.

As we have transformed from a nation that was a traditionally Christian nation

founded upon Judeo-Christian values to a post-Christian nation,

we would fool ourselves to say that we were not a post-Christian nation at this point.

In fact, it's easy to look around at all that's happening within our nation

and see what happens when a nation shirks the Christian values in which they

were founded upon. The culture becomes corrupt.

Let me give you just a couple of statistics here this morning.

As I was reading the State of Theology from 2022,

Ligonier takes this poll every, I think it's two years, they really get a pulse

on evangelicalism within the society, and they get a pulse of where the United States is headed.

I'll quote a couple of things, just a couple of statistics.

The statement was made. Every Christian has an obligation to join a local church.

That statement was made. It was asked, do you agree or do you disagree?

36% of U.S. adults found themselves agreeing with this, while 56% disagreed with that statement.

That should give you a pretty good pulse on where America is today.

Almost 60% of Americans today believe that they don't believe that you ought

to join a church anymore.

It's no secret that for much of American history, the influence of Christianity

resulted in a high rate of church attendance.

I mean, there's a church on every corner. I mean, that's what we see,

but that has gone away, and church membership was really the normative.

Statement 27, just to give you a little idea here. Gender identity is a matter of choice.

In 2016, 38%, which I think is high, of U.S. adults agreed. greed.

In 2022, that's gone up four percentage points to 42% of U.S.

Adults thinks that you can be a woman or a man.

It just depends on what your preferences are.

Almost 50% of Americans, and it's gaining traction, believe you can just choose

your identity or your gender.

It's madness. It's a post-Christian nation.

And if you were to continue through the polls and you would look at that,

you can Google it and go through it. It's very, very interesting.

But we would see that Americans are increasingly rejecting the Bible's divine

origin and more readily embracing sexual behavior that is condemned within Scripture.

Well, if you can only imagine it, the island of Crete was even worse than what we see in America today.

Titus was dealing with even a more pagan society than what we see in America today.

This pagan society had infiltrated within the church, possibly through the false

teachers, or because they didn't live out what they were teaching.

Their deeds did not match their profession of faith.

So Paul says to Titus in our scripture this morning, he says,

remind them, remind the Christians at Creed as to what they are to be.

And the question is, is we need to stop is who is them?

Who is it that Titus is to remind? And that is those whom Paul has already spoken of.

It is those who older men, it is the younger women, It is the older women,

it is the younger men that he is to remind of. It is the slaves within the church.

It is those who have a master. Remind them of these things.

And you could say them really this morning, if we were to apply it,

is everyone within the body of Christ.

Remind them, be reminded this morning, church, of what Paul is going to tell Titus.

It's your job, Titus, to remind these people of what they've been taught.

For that's what we get with he's saying, remind them, is obviously they've been taught something here.

They've already been taught about this, that there to be a witness into a watching world.

And this is really in the present active, meaning this is something that you're

continually to be doing, Titus, is to continually be reminding the sheep of

what has been taught within Scripture.

I want you to know real quickly, that is the pastor's duty. As he shepherds

the sheep, he is constantly reminding the sheep as to what they are to do as

he points them to Scripture, as what Scripture is the authority here.

And he implores the flock as to what God wants to see within their lives so

that they may be made into the image of Christ and be an effective witness unto men and women.

And this isn't something, again, new these people have heard.

They've obviously been taught this before, but maybe due to the false Cretan

teachers' influence within the Cretan church, we don't know.

The churches in Crete needed some type of exhortation as to what they had already been taught.

Maybe they had been influenced by the culture.

They had brought the culture within the church rather than the church bringing

outwardly into the culture and affecting the culture. They had let the culture

infect them, which we see much in today's churches today.

But Titus is to come alongside them, remind them as a good shepherd as to what

God requires out of them, not what culture says they ought to be.

And I want to look at two things this morning. Break this passage down,

and we'll look at verses 1 and 2, and we're going to look at two things this

morning in our passages.

First is, as we're going to look, as Christians, if we're going to evangelize

a world, if we're going to live in a pagan world as a watching world watches

us, there's two things that I think we ought to remember this morning that Paul points us to.

First is that we need to be subject to authorities and rulers.

We need to be subject to our authorities and rulers.

Paul says in chapter 3 verse 1, he says, remind them to be subject to rulers,

to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed.

When Paul says to be subject to rulers and to authorities, to be obedient.

It's to be understood that really there's no difference here of rulers and authorities.

There's not a, they're the same person.

Paul isn't distinguishing really two levels of authority here.

And therefore, both of the nouns, rulers and authorities, are qualified by the

two verbs, which would be subject and be obedient.

In fact, let me put it in a different way. One theologian suggested this.

You could read this as, to ruling powers which have due authority,

render the submission of an act of obedience.

To the ruling powers which have due authority render the submission of an act of obedience.

It's been said of the Cretan church that Polybius and Plutarch wrote that the

Cretans fumed under Roman rule.

Yet Paul, he determined the best way to demonstrate God's grace was not really

by rebelling or revolting against a government authority, but by submitting to it.

So whether it's Joe Biden, whether it's Stalin or Hitler or Herod or Caesar,

the governor or the sheriff or the local mayor, if they have any type of authority

over us or ruling, then we have a duty to be subject to them.

And when he says to be subject, this Greek word, hupotasso, literally means

to place under in an orderly fashion.

It was really often used as a military term referring to soldiers who were in

rank up under a superior or officers or someone who had absolute authority to them.

That was the word, upataso, when they said that in that time period.

And I want you to understand, this is really in the present tense of this verb.

It means to continually, voluntarily place themselves under the authority of

the rulers and the God-given authorities that God has planted within their nation.

Paul, he doesn't give any qualification. He doesn't give any conditions.

He just says, submit to every civil authority willingly.

And it's interesting as Americans, when we hear being in subjection to someone,

it's, I don't know about you, but it's like the hairs on the back of my neck, they stand up, right?

Because that's not who we are a lot of times, right? We are rebels,

right? We are the Americans.

We are constitutionalists. And how dare anybody tell us to subject to the authorities?

I get it. I know, you know, that's why we struggle with slave and master,

those terms really don't make sense to us a lot of times.

But as you study the Bible, and especially this word hupotasso,

you're going to see ultimately that everything and everyone is in subjection

to someone or to something.

According to Hebrews 2, verse 5, and 1 Peter 3, verse 22, God has placed everything

Hebrews 2:5 1 Peter 3:22

in submission to Christ.

You're in submission to Christ today regardless. All creation is in submission

to Christ, that being angels, the authorities, the powers. We even see Jesus

submitting to his parents, right?

The demons, they were subject to what? The disciples at times.

The church is in submission to Christ.

As Christians, we submit ourselves to the Lord, to his word even, his law.

1 Corinthians 16, verse 16 tells us as Christians, we are even to subject ourselves

1 Corinthians 16:16

to one another within the church.

In Ephesians, what do we see? We see the woman is subject to the man.

The wife is subject to the husband. Children, subject to our parents.

The young to the old, slaves to the master. So whoever you are,

you're always in submission to someone.

We have to remember that. It's kind of the foundational truth there.

And as Christians, when we understand, this is the key, that we understand that

nothing is outside of God's purview and everything is sovereignly ordained by God, right?

Because we believe that. We believe that nothing is outside of God's sovereignty.

He is master and ruler over everything. In fact, he has ordained everything.

Like Dr. R.C. Sproul says, there is not a rogue molecule out there.

When we understand that and that those authorities are instruments within the

hand of a sovereign God, and we should understand that this is the exact place

that God has assigned them, and humbly submit to that authority,

whether it's a tyrant or not.

And I have to admit that's difficult. I have to admit that's very difficult.

It's a little bit easier for us to do that today with the republic that we are

in, a constitutional republic.

But remember, these men were being wrote to in a time of dictatorship, Caesars, Herods.

When you think about it, what does that do? What does that do for us?

When we submit humbly to these in the authority, this transforms us all the

more into the image of Christ, and that makes us effective in evangelism,

and I'll flesh that out here.

Now, granted, our submission, as I was talking to John this morning,

our submission does not mean that this person is worthy of our submission.

It doesn't mean that Joe Biden is worthy of any type of submission,

for most authority is evil, we would say.

Most people who get into authority, John has said, his absolute power corrupts absolutely.

I may have messed that up, but it corrupts, right? That absolute power,

We see that with dictatorships and czars and tyrants.

They continue to take and take and take, but we're still to submit to them.

But because we submit humbly to them, we are honoring God by obeying His Word

and submitting to His authority.

We talked this morning about obedience, didn't we not? And we're submitting

to God and submitting to His Word, Christ, as He submits to God.

We are to submit unto God and to the authorities. Why? Because it's commanded of us.

It's a command for us to obey those in authority.

Therefore, when we resist the God-given authority, that means we resist God himself.

This is ultimately what Paul says in Romans chapter 13 verses 1 and 7,

Romans 13:1

one of the premier passages if you get into this, and we don't have all day to talk about this.

This is a whole other sermon, but I want you to just look at this.

Turn to Romans chapter 13 real quick.

Romans 13 · chapter mention

This is the major statement on submission to government, but I want you to read,

and I want you to see it for yourself, as to what Paul says in submission to government.

Remember, he's writing this in Rome, where Caesar is.

Romans chapter 13, verses 1 and 7. He says, Every person is to be subject to

Romans 13:1

the governing authority. Same thing that we just read.

For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God.

And they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but they're for evil.

Do you want to have no fear of authority? Lordy, do what is good,

and you will have praise from the same. For it is a servant of God to you for good.

But if you do what is evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword for nothing.

For it is a servant of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

Therefore, it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath,

but also for the sake of conscience.

For because of this, you also pay taxes for rulers or servants of God,

devoting themselves to this very thing.

Pay to all what is due to them. Tax to whom tax is due. Custom to whom custom is due.

Respect to whom respect. Honor to whom honor.

So Paul says every person is to be subject to the governing authority,

and here he gives it as a command.

This is a command. Then he explains why this is, and the main point that we

need to gather from this is that the authority is God's minister.

That's what Paul says. The rulers and authorities are God's ministers.

They're God's servants it's God who establishes

the authority and ultimately government is designed when it's

working correctly at its minimalist is to

restrain evil and to promote good to restrain evil when people that's what we

should see right is when people do bad things the wrath of the sword comes from

the government and they they are to enact justice that is the absolute opposite

of of what we're seeing in Shelby County these days.

We are promoting injustice. We are promoting evil. The government is not doing what they should do.

They promote evil rather than good. They have it back. In fact,

Isaiah prophesied of a day when that would happen.

Peter wrote in his epistle, in the time of the most heinous Caesar that we would

ever have seen and to ever have walked the earth, and it was Nero who ruled between 54 and 68 AD.

It was during his reign that the great fire, if you know your history,

the great fire of Rome, it destroyed all of Rome and were four of the 14 districts of Rome.

And many speculated that it was Nero who who set the fire himself,

the blaze himself, he was an evil dude, very conniving.

But Tacitus, he wrote, he said, consequently, to get rid of the report,

Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class

hated for their abominations called Christians.

Accordingly, an immense multitude was convicted.

Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. covered with the skins of beasts.

They were torn by dogs. They would, as they lived, they would cover,

they would take the beast, take their skins, and they would cover these Christians,

and the dogs would tear them to pieces as they lived, as they tried to survive.

Or they were in crosses or were doomed to the flames to serve as a nightly illumination.

Nero burned their bodies to illuminate his courts.

This is the context in which Peter writes this. 1 Peter 2, verse 13 and 17.

1 Peter 2:13

He says, submit yourselves for the Lord's sake. Same language to every human

institution, whether to a king as to the one in authority, which would be Nero,

or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.

For such is the will of God that by doing right, you silence the ignorance of

foolish people, Act as free people and do not use your freedom as a covering

for evil, but use it as a bondservant of God.

Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

Here, Peter employs his readers to subject themselves to every human institution

as free people. He says, live as people who are free.

He says, this he says, use as a servant of Christ and a witness to unbelievers

by the way in which we submit to the human institutions that God has placed

over us. By our submission to them, we are actually evangelizing the world around us.

We don't obey because we're forced to obey. We obey from a position of freedom, Peter says.

Phil even talked last week, remember, we've been redeemed off the slave block.

We've been freed because of what Christ has done. And when we obey God,

not out of compulsion, but out of freedom, we glorify God all the more.

We submit not because we must, but because we can. Not because the man made

rules force us to, but because our relationship with God as His servants, they lead us to that.

We might feel strongly that no one should have the power to tell us when and

how we should pay our taxes or what the speed limit ought to be.

But we can submit joyfully, giving up our precious freedom in order to do what

is best for our witness of the gospel.

How much more worshipful is our dedication to keeping the law when we feel free

to break it, but we choose not to?

Christians this morning. We're to be models. We're to be law-abiding citizens,

not rebels, not rabble-rousers. That's not who we're to be.

We can protest peacefully.

The Constitution allows for that, but we're not the ones that are leading the maddening protest.

We're not the ones that are trying to cause all the dissension and stuff like

that. That's not who we are to be.

Our kingdom is not this home. This is not our kingdom.

The earthly, we're just passing through, and it's fine to be someone who loves their country. I do.

I'm a patriot. I'm a I love the Constitution.

I'm a conservative, but at the end of the day, I'm a Christian.

First of all, I'm a Christian, and I serve God, and that's the kingdom that I serve.

May we not get caught up in all the craziness.

However the election turns out, then the next one four years from then,

then the next one four years from then, this is not our home. This is not who we are.

We serve a kingdom of God, I mean a heavenly kingdom.

We stand up against injustice. That's what we do. We preach against sin,

but we do it within the framework of the law and we do it with respect for civil authorities.

Paul says not only are we to be subject to them, but we're to obey them.

They've been put in charge and it is God's design for them to promote good and

check evil. These are the reasons God established government.

So as long as government is rewarding moral good and restraining moral evil,

government is acting as God's servant and is to be obeyed.

However, there is a limitation to this. There is a limitation into our obedience.

And that is if any law, listen to this closely this morning,

if any law or command requires disobedience under God's word, we cannot abide.

We see this in Exodus, right? with the Jewish midwives who chose to kill the

male babies that they were commanded to kill by Pharaoh.

There's the ruler. Should we obey?

No, they did not obey. God bless them. They did not obey. Why?

Because killing, murder was a sin.

We see Daniel. We see Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. What?

You must bow down to this image when the trumpets blow.

And what did they do? They were the only four men standing after it.

What happened? They faced.

They could not come to it. They could not come to Nebuchadnezzar's, what he asked for.

So what did they do? They faced what was coming to them.

They knew what was coming to them, thrown into the fire. Ultimately,

God saved them through that.

God used that. Daniel, John talked about this morning, is Daniel,

you are to bow down. You cannot pray to this. What did Daniel do?

He says, I'm going to serve my God. I'm going to pray three times a day.

That's what I'm going to continue to do. I'll take whatever comes my way.

And at the end of the day, what happened? They ended up saying,

you shall serve the God of Daniel.

We refuse when we're called to sin. We see in Peter.

We see it within Peter and John, within the book of Acts. They were warned,

hey, don't speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

This is by the Jewish leaders, those in authority.

The apostles replied, whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to

you rather than God, you be the judge.

For we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard.

The apostles, they were not going to be shut up for preaching the gospel for

it was commanded of them by their divine ruler to go in all of the nations and to make disciples.

Peter and John ultimately told the Jewish leaders, we must obey God rather than men.

In most matters, brothers and sisters, we are to respect and obey civil laws

and ordinances and we are to do it ungrudgingly.

Even when conscience leaves us no alternative but to disobey human authority,

we're to do so with respect and with willingness to suffer whatever penalties,

such as Daniel, Shadrach, and Meshach, whatever penalties or consequences that may come as a result.

As a church, we're to obey the local, state, and federal laws.

We do what we're told when it comes to codes and zonings and safety regulations

and stuff like that. We do that.

But when it comes to the government getting inside the church's business on

how we're to worship or who we're to accept within church membership or hire, then we have an issue.

The government has no business coming in and banning singing within a church's

worship service or banning an indoor

church services altogether or putting limitations on any church meeting.

In essence, the government cannot regulate the affairs of the church. If they do, nay, nay.

We must obey God over government at that point.

So we as Christians, we're to act in a certain way when it comes to those in authority over us.

We really aren't to be political activists shouting and screaming,

disobeying the law, rabble-rousing. We're to be model citizens.

We're to be those people who look to, if they want to see what citizens are

to be like within a controlled society.

We should pay our taxes. We give Caesar what it's to do Caesar.

We're to obey the laws of the land. And yet if the government oversteps its

bounds and says we're to sin or tries and controls our worship,

then we're to say, nope, can't do that. Not going to happen.

I love you. I'll take whatever consequences come, but I'm not going to do it.

We serve God, not man. Remember our kingdom. It's not of this world.

But not only, I want you to just keep going. Not only was Titus to remind them

to submit to rulers and authorities.

But I think what we see next is going to be a laundry list of things that Christians

ought to be to every man and woman.

This is what we're to look like within a society to all those around us.

This goes beyond outside the church doors.

That's why I've titled this second point here, we're to present ourselves as a living sacrifice.

You can make it like this. We're to submit and we're to present.

We submit and we present. Paul says to Titus, he says, remind them to be ready for every good deed.

From this point on to the end of verse 2, Paul will lay out five characteristics

Christians should be striving to possess when it comes to how we deal with our

fellow man, good or evil.

They're to present. Well, these things are in present tense active verbs,

meaning we're to be doing these things at all times.

That's who we're to be as we look at these characteristics. He says,

first of all, be ready for every good deed.

That's kind of our first point, sub-point up under this present ourselves as a living sacrifice.

He says, second, we're to malign no one. That's our second sub-point.

Third, we're to be peaceable.

Fourthly, we're to be gentle to our fellow man. And finally,

we're to show every consideration for every man.

Let's look here. First of all, we're to be ready for every good deed.

In other words, we should be anxious to be doing good deeds.

That should be who we are as a Christ follower.

We are to be anxious in doing good. What is good? We are seasoned with salt.

The word ready has the sense that we are always being prepared to do what is

good. At every point, we're ready to jump.

At every point in the day, we're ready to do good. That's who we are.

That's at the forefront of our minds.

In any situation, that's what characterizes us as Christians.

For in fact, that is what characterized our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Always looking to do good. That's who he was. Jesus is a friend of sinners.

Paul says we're to be ready for every good deed. That's a comprehensive statement.

Whether it be towards the oftentimes evil government, you could look at it like that.

Or beyond that, it's toward anyone on the streets. We're always ready to be

doing good. In fact, this is the theme of the letter.

That's our position in Christ. Our new birth should bring about a wholesale

change within the man so that the

good deeds are flowing out of our lives because of what Christ has done.

Paul says in Galatians 6, verse 10, he says, So then, while we have opportunity,

Galatians 6:10

let us do good to all people, and especially to those of the household of the faith.

Paul says, look, you're first of all to take care of those within the household

of the faith. That's your first duty. Take care of your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Take care of those. But don't just stop there.

Continue on. We're to do good within our communities. We're to be those people who are to do good.

In fact, this is in direct antithesis to how the false teachers conducted their lives.

If you remember back in chapter 1, verse 16, Paul described the false teachers as what?

As detestable, as disobedient. He even said they're worthless for any good deed.

So it's in direct antithesis to those that were actually leading the churches at the time.

We are believers, R2, as Colossians chapter 1, verse 10 says,

Colossians 1:10

some of you have this memorized, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please

Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Our faith ultimately will bear fruit if we're generally born again.

And as Christians, our faith will bear itself out as we look to aid others,

assist others, help others in any and every good deed.

Therefore, our good deeds, they're evidences of a spirit-filled life.

They're evidences of what has transformed within an inner transformation,

right? It's the outward transformation.

It's not what saves us. but it's the evidence of our salvation.

And granted, it's not natural for us to do these things. It's not natural for

us to go and do good deeds and stuff.

Why? Because I'm selfish at the core of it. I'm prideful. I want to do what I want to do.

Helping someone requires sacrifice, time, love.

But this is what happens when the grace of God affects our lives.

As Phil talked about last week or two weeks ago, grace transforms us.

It instructs us to deny ungodly deeds.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9.18 that God is able to make all grace abound to

you, so that always having all

sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.

It's the grace of God that helps us. This is the grace, again,

that instructs us to deny godliness and live righteously and godly in the present age.

And the only way we can do good deeds is a true self-sacrificing manner in God's grace.

And that's why I think it's up under the heading of we present ourselves as a living sacrifice.

We're on the altar constantly self-sacrificing ourselves for others,

sacrificing our wants and our needs for others.

Second of all, Paul also says that we're to malign no one.

Verse 2, to malign no one. Ultimately, that word is blaspheme.

We know what that word means, to speak evil against someone.

That's not what we're to do. We don't speak reproachfully against someone,

to revile someone, or speak against in an evil manner.

That's not who we're supposed to be, no matter how bad they are.

At all times, we should not be slandering people and reviling them,

government officials and anyone else. That's difficult.

It's difficult. Amen? I struggled with this this week.

But it's taken me to the mat. Gotta be careful what we say. I believe.

I believe that's what the scripture's saying.

But I think in order for us to do this, we need to have the correct mindset. Think about this.

We need to remember that the ones who we want to speak evil of are in blind

to their natural condition.

They don't understand it. For we're gonna see next week is, that's who we once were.

That's who we once were. But because of God's grace and the saving love of Jesus

Christ, we're not that anymore.

But we were once that, and someone come and was gracious to us and give us the

gospel, and we're no longer like that because we've been saved.

These people, they don't understand the things of the Spirit.

They don't have a changed heart. They don't understand.

They're blinded by the God of this world. So in order for us to be an effective

witness to them and the church God has called us to be, we need to be very careful

of what we say about these people.

Remember, as Jesus was being led to the cross by the most vilest of people,

he didn't utter a word. He was silent.

We should refuse to hold a grudge, give others the benefit of the doubt.

I think of 1 Corinthians 13, 4-8, which should be at the top of our list.

Our mind is to be patient and kind.

Love bears all things.

It believes all things. It hopes all things. It endures all things.

We must refuse, as one pastor put it, to cultivate the fine art of verbal and physical abuse.

I'll say this doesn't mean that we're going to be naive or never correctly evaluate

and speak about evil that we see in anyone.

That's not what we're to be. I mean, in fact, Paul does that in this very letter.

He speaks about the evil Cretans, right?

Those, you know, they're lazy gluttons, they're beasts, they're disobedient. We must be discerning.

Rather, Paul is urging Christians to restrain their natural inclination to say the worst about people.

Instead of cursing those who persecute us, we should strive to bless them.

Paul says in 1 Timothy, that prayers and thanksgivings should be made on behalf

of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead

a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

And the question I asked this morning, is this something that we're doing?

I have to ask myself, is this something that looks, is this what looks in my life?

Am I praying for my rulers? Am I praying for Jobite? Am I praying for Congress

and Senate? Am I doing my part?

Again, something very difficult to do. Hence is why they need to be reminded

of it. We need to be reminded of it.

And in order to do this, we must constantly be presenting our bodies as a living.

Not only shall we be ready for every good deed and malign no one,

but we should be peaceable. That's what we go to the next. He says, be peaceable.

You could also say your Bible may say uncontentious.

The Greek word is amakos, which literally means to abstain from fighting.

Evidently, this is something that characterized the Cretan false teachers at the time.

We see really a cognate of that same term later on in verse 9,

where he warns the churches to avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and

strife and disputes about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

That's the same word he uses in there for strife. They were evidently doing that.

They were being strifeful. They were being contentious. And Paul says, don't do that.

We've got enough problems in the world. We don't need Christians being contentious

here. We need to be peaceable.

Believers are to run counter to this type of rebellious spirit.

We shouldn't be looking for a fight. We should be working to not cause any offense to other people.

And James warns of this to his readers. He says in James 3, verse 17,

James 3:17

but the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, then gentle,

then reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering without hypocrisy.

Too many times we get wrapped up in the pagan society today,

and we like it that we can be contentious, and we can cause a little stir at times.

We get wrapped up in the latest scandal in the news or politics,

and sometimes I think we help spur it on just a few clicks of the keyboard.

You know, we just keep pushing it, you know, and contentious,

and you could probably go on to a lot of message boards and social media,

and probably a lot of that comes from the Christian Christian community.

It's not who we're to be. It doesn't help our witness. It hampers it.

Paul then says to believers, you're to be gentle.

So I think where the uncontentious, it's kind of the same thing here,

but I think where we see the uncontentious is, hey, this is not who we're to be to a dying world.

We're not to push that uncontentiousness.

And now he says, be gentle. I think it's to be gentle to those who are uncontentious

and not peaceable to us. I think it's the give and the take there.

It's what happens to us here in this gentle epi case is that word there.

And it goes with the characteristic we just spoke of, but it broadens it.

And it means to be reasonable, forbearing, conciliatory, courteous.

Basically, we should be gracious and forbearing with people,

not argumentative, not angry, not hostile, but graciously kind and gentle.

Philippians 4, 5 instructs us, let your gentle spirit be known to all men.

The Lord is near. here. 2 Corinthians 10.1, now I, Paul, myself urge you by

the meekness and gentleness of Christ.

Paul urged the Corinthians by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. That's what he says.

What better example do we have than a gentle shepherd of Christ who loved us

and bore graciously with us, as Roman 5 says, while we were still helpless at

the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

What I'm getting at is, is Christ was gentle with us as we reviled him as we were ungodly.

The question this morning is, do you have a gentle spirit?

Are you graciously kind to those around you? Are you characterized as someone

who is contentious and rough?

Do you have the mind of Christ when it comes to dealing with very difficult

people in a pagan world? We just have to take inventory of our lives.

Finally, Paul says, if we're going to present ourselves as a living sacrifice,

and if we're going to die to self and be a living light of Christ into this world.

He says here in the last part of verse two, we must be showing every consideration for all men.

Paul says Christians ought to be showing or demonstrating or proving what is

it that we believe and what is it that we teach.

And what is it? Paul says we're to be considerate.

It's interesting when you look at this Greek word, it's the same Greek word

for meekness, meekness. It's used elsewhere for meekness.

Get meekness wrong a lot of times. Sometimes we think meekness is just rolling

over and just being soft. That's not at all what that term means.

Meekness could be defined as

gentleness, or one could say power with self-control. Think about a mule.

A mule is very powerful.

And if he doesn't exercise self-control, he can go crazy. He can be absolute untameable.

Untamable. But what happens when you put those spurs on or the bit in his mouth

or even a horse, you put the bit in the mouth and you have this power.

What happens? They realize when those reins go on him, what happens?

They're under control. This power is self-controlled. Does he have the power

to pull that sleigh or whatever at full capacity?

Absolutely he does. But what happens when those bits and he's in control? That's meekness.

You've got the power, but we exercise self-control.

It's not that he's weak. In fact, it's the opposite. The power under control.

He knows when to use it and when not to use it and how much at what time.

This requires great strength to be gentle and meek. It's the opposite of abrasiveness.

And it flows from that kind of confident strength that is the opposite of arrogance.

So what does he say? He says we're to show meekness, consideration,

gentleness to all people. Yes, we know we may be right.

We know we have the power. I know I could go off on somebody and really just,

that really just ticks me off.

What does he say? Pull it back, pull it back. Have meekness,

show consideration to all men.

The man who is meek before God and has that inner strength that enables him

to be gentle before men will not be a violent man.

The quietness of his spirit will enable him to be temperate to all,

whether good or evil is done against him. And why is that?

Because in 1 Timothy 4, verse 10, God says, he says, God is the savior of all men.

1 Timothy 4:10

Titus 2.11 says that the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men.

1 Timothy 2.1, first of all, then I urge that request prayers and intercessions, right?

He talks about these for kings and then he goes, that need to be made.

And this is good and acceptable. Who wants God, who wants all people to be saved?

This is why we're to be like that is because of the salvation of all people.

He's looking, we need to be that adorning the doctrine of God to all people

so that those people will be saved.

We're to live a life to a watching world that displays the greatness and the

majesty and the compassion and the love that our Father has for us.

We are to be ready for every good work and to show perfect courtesy for all people.

As I conclude this morning, I want to give you just a few ways in these last few minutes.

So I was thinking about this. How do we do this? You say, all right, Blake, it sounds great.

How do I do that? How do I practically do this? I want to give you four ways

this morning, four ways in which we can die to self and walk humbly among a pagan society.

First of all, we need to look to Jesus. It sounds cliche, but we need to look to Jesus.

If we ever have to look for an example of how this was lived out,

of how we die to oneself, how we submit to authorities, then all we have to

do is look at our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

When Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees, remember about the poll tax in Matthew

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

chapter 22, where they tried to trap him.

In whose service are you going to be? In the seer's service or into God's service,

right? And they asked him, is it lawful to give a poll tax to Caesar or is it it not?

Jesus, in his great wisdom, he answered, he says, render unto Caesar the things

which are Caesar's, right?

Who's on that denarii? Whose picture's on that? Render unto him.

And he says, and to the God, the things that are God's. On the other hand,

this has nothing, your tax has nothing to do with God.

It has everything to do with Caesar. Pay Caesar what is due Caesar.

You must give to God what is God's.

Jesus paid his tax. That tax was not being used for good. He paid it.

It was being used for evil, but Jesus knew the government had been put in place

by his father. Therefore, he willingly submitted and knew ultimately that government

was for the good of the people.

We also see Jesus gladly submit to the father, so much so that the submission

called for him to die for the church.

Jesus submitted, and so shall we. And so when we look to our Savior as the greatest

exemplar of what submission looks like, second of all, not only do we look to

Jesus, but we must look to Scripture.

In 2 Timothy 3.16, one of our memory verses is that all Scripture is inspired

by God and profitable for what?

For reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that,

here's the henna clause, so that the man of God may be what?

Equipped for every good work, for every good deed. How am I equipped for every

good deed? How am I supposed to do this, Blake?

How am I supposed to live a life that is in subjection to authorities,

that is meek and mild, that is gentle, that is peaceable?

How do I do that? I don't want to do that naturally. I go to Scripture.

I read Scripture. What does Scripture have to say about it?

Paul says, I'm to submit to it. It's the authority of it. Why?

Because it helps us. Knowing Scripture helps us to deal with every occasion that comes.

There's nothing new under the sun. So we know we can go to Scripture. It is profitable.

Every trial, every tribulation, every persecution that comes our way.

When we study Scripture, we see that it is the gentle that inherit the earth.

That it's those who are merciful that mercy will be brought upon them.

That those who are the peacemakers will be called sons of God.

When we study Scripture, we see that those who have been persecuted for the

sake of righteousness, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

So I implore us this morning, may we know the Word of God and look to the Word

of God to help us to die to self and to love Christ.

May we be like Jeremiah.

Love this verse. When he says, Your words were found and I ate them.

And your words became a joy to me and a light of my heart, for I have been called

by your name, Lord God of armies.

May we love the Word of God. Thirdly, we need to look to God, our Father, for help.

We can't do this on our own. We need the Spirit's help.

We need to be constantly in prayer. We need to be praying to the Father,

Lord, help me, help me to deny myself, to present my body as a living sacrifice.

We need to be praying for our leaders, for our rulers, for dictators.

We need to be praying for them. What? For salvation.

We need to be praying that they come to know the Lord.

We need to be praying that we are a light unto our community,

that as we go out, we are an ambassador for Christ.

We pray for our nation. We pray that evil is not flourished.

We pray that justice is done.

We pray that, and then we go out, we preach against sin, we do all that we can,

knowing that is in God's hand.

We also pray that we have a heart for the dying and the lost.

Pray this constantly. Lord, give me a heart that I look at that person not as

some evil dictator, but that someone is lost and that I can share the gospel with them.

I pray that I have that heart for the lost as Jesus had. And finally,

we need to look to the cross. We need to look to the cross.

When Paul exhorted the believers in Rome to present their bodies as a living

sacrifice in chapter 12, he says, present your bodies now as present your bodies

as a living sacrifice, right? He did this on the basis of what he had taught 11 chapters before.

He said, this is the theology. This is why you're justified by faith.

This is what Christ has done for you. Now go do this.

Because of what Christ has done, present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

This is what he did on the basis of our union with Christ.

When we look to the cross, this is my last point. When we look to the cross

on a daily basis, as we preach the gospel to ourselves, what do we do?

It helps us to be reminded, and we're going to talk about this next week, of who we once were.

How we were disobedient. Look at what he says in just a quick preview.

Verse 3, for we also were once foolish, disobedient, deceived,

enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy,

hateful, hating one another. That's who we once were.

When that happens to us, when we're reminded of that, we're reminded of the

life-changing experience that happened when Christ shown himself to us.

It helps us to love the unlovely.

Luke, he tells of the story of Ananias in Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

And as Saul was on his way to go persecute Christians in Damascus and to do

terrible things to the followers of Christ, Saul, we could say, was unlovable.

In fact, he was a persecutor of Christians. And Ananias, being a follower of

Jesus, he was a target of Saul's wrath. And Saul was coming for him.

But God spoke to Ananias and He told him to go to Saul. Paul,

Ananias, you go to that Christian hater.

Ananias, I don't think so, brother. I don't know about that.

But what does God say? Ananias, what answered to God was, Lord,

I've heard from many about him.

How much evil has he done to the saints? He's going to kill me too.

And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who come on your

name. But here, listen what God had to tell him.

But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry

my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.

Here we are shown in this passage that there are chosen instruments of God behind

the bars and the walls of prison, within government, within rulers,

within kingdoms, within hate groups, within gangs, etc.

Put it in there. There are God's elect within those things.

And it is our honor and great privilege to share the truth of God's word with

them. And when we look to the cross, we are met with the painful truth of the

fact that this is who we once were.

And when we quickly see the love that God had for us, we are a changed man.

We look upon mankind in a totally different light. Let me read Romans chapter

Romans 5 · chapter mention

5 for you here. One of the most beautiful passages in all of Scripture. It is the John 3, 16.

Romans chapter 5, verses 6 through 11.

Romans 5:6–11

For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

That's you and I. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person,

though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.

But God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we

be saved by him from the wrath of God.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled by God by the death of his Son, much more.

Now that we have reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?

More than that, we also can rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom we have now received reconciliation.

This is who we were. God loved us in our most unlovable state,

yet he had grace upon us and he had mercy.

What a fabulous God. What a grand God. What a glorious God we serve.

How do we evangelize a pagan society,

church? We love them. We share truth with them. We bear with them.

We show them what the love of Jesus actually looks like.

We're called to do it. And in obedience, there is a blessing that is unimaginable.

Can we ever tire of seeing God take an unlovely, wasted individual and totally

transform him or her into a godly, productive, deductive, useful,

loving person who is committed to Jesus Christ.

I can tell you this. I never tired of that. When I hear these stories of just

evil men coming to Christ, it should cause us to glory.

Why did they come to Christ? Because someone was faithful to share the gospel

with them. It's such a joy to be a part of that.

When people say, what happened to that person? That person's not the same person I knew back in the day.

She or he was bad like this or that.

We can simply say the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let's pray.

Our Father, what a wonderful word this moment. In just two verses,

able to unleash the lion of Judah.

What a glorious God we serve.

As we look to the scriptures and we look at our lives, we see that we're undeserving

of your love, we're undeserving of your grace, which is why we call it grace.

But thank you for saving us. In our most unlovable state, you reached down and

you've shown us the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, because someone took

the time to share the gospel with us.

Someone took the time to show us the love of Christ.

Father, we ask this morning that as a church, as Grace Bible Church,

church, help us to do that within the local society of our communities,

within Covington or Ripley or Collierville or wherever, within Burleson.

We pray that we can be godly men and women, that we look upon people not as

what they portray themselves as, but we look upon people as just needing to be saved.

Help us to have a heart for the lost this morning. Help us to be meek and gentle,

compassionate, loving.

Help us to submit to authorities, to obey them.

As difficult as it may be, we can't do it any other way other than the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, Father, may your Spirit work in the lives of your people.

May your Spirit work in the lives to show us your Word. May we be obedient to your Word.

May we be overjoyed by serving you and loving you.

Father, for those that do not know you today, I pray that they look at their

state and they say, I'm worthless, I'm a sinner, and I'm going to hell, and I need a Savior.

We can look to Scripture, we can look to Christ, and there's our Savior saying,

repent and believe upon me.

Trust in me for your salvation, Father, and that is a promise that is sure as the day is as long.

Thank you for Christ. Thank you for this church. I thank you for those that

are with us this morning. May you bless them this week.

It's in Christ's wonderful name we pray. Amen.