Living Waters of Grace 02.09.26

This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis

Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland

County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he

continues teaching through God's Word.

As children of God, as Christians, we should be

obedient people, he said. Obey and seek to please our

masters in everything, willingly giving ourselves to their

authority. It shouldn't be disrespectful.

He said that that we should be well, pleasing in everything,

not answering back. We shouldn't be disrespectful.

There's a difference between explaining A misunderstanding

and having a hostile debate with someone who was in authority.

CS Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, made the

comparison between your temper and rats in the cellar.

When you suddenly turn on the lights in the cellar and rats

scurry everywhere, it's not that your movement produced the rats.

They were already there. The same is true of your temper.

When someone provokes you, the way you react only reveals what

was already there. Today, Pastor Lewis challenges

you to check what kind of character you have, even when

you're in tough situations. Now.

Here's Pastor Lewis in Titus Chapter 2 with today's edition

Titus 2 · chapter mention

of Living Waters of Grace. As we go through the book of

Titus by now, I'm sure you can see that it's a very rich book

and it's really hard to put time limits on going through Titus

because it is very rich and there's so much in it.

It is a teaching epistle and therefore it's very important

not only to us as pastors or leaders, but it's important to

everyone. There's so much instruction and

so much godly direction that we get in the book of Titus.

That is just, it's an awesome book.

When Paul wrote this to Titus, the instruction was to put

things in order. That was the whole premise,

putting things in order. Let's set the church in order.

And then and by setting the church in order, we set

ourselves in order. We set each other in order.

You see, our teaching should really be a blending, and this

is what Paul was instructing Titus and Timothy is the fact

that the teaching, our teaching should be a blend of not only

doctrinal teaching and given true doctrine, but also it

should be practical admonition. It should be about how to walk

out, how to live out what it is that we're teaching.

Last time we were together, we talked about the older men and

the older women and the things that the Lord admonished them to

do in their lives, the exhortation that he had for

those group of people. But it was not just an

exhortation, but he also challenged Titus to be an

example. Not just to give the words, but

be an example of what it is that you are asking the people to be

as you build them up with your teaching.

Actually, Paul wrote more about Titus as an example in the book

of Titus than he did actually as him teaching the doctrine.

It's important that he be an example.

You see, whatever a pastor or leader, whatever a leader wants

the people to be, whether you're a parent, whether you're a

teacher in school, whether you're a, a, a, a pastor or

leader in church, whatever it is that we desire to see in other

people, we must first be the example of that ourselves.

And when we do that, we teach more that way or just as much

that way as we do by just giving words.

So as we look here in verse 9, Paul goes on and he continues to

teach Titus about God's heart for how to serve him.

And in this way, he now goes to that fifth group.

Remember we said that there were five groups that the Lord was

actually speaking to. The first was the old men and

then the second was the old women.

And then he spoke to the young men and the young women.

And this fifth group now is to bond servants.

And if we if we were to look at it today, it would be employees,

OK or workers OK. So as we, as we walk through

this, think about it in terms of not just being slaves in the

conventional sense, but also being workers or employees of

people with corporations. And this is what he says here in

verse 9. He says exhort bond servants to

be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in

all things, not answering back, not pilfering not but but

showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of

God our Savior in all things. So he first thing he says, and

as we talked about before, these bondservants, these are willing

people who are willingly giving themselves to be slaves.

This isn't forced labor people. And just as Paul identified

himself at the very open of the letter, he said that he was a

bondservant of Jesus Christ, bondservant of God, and an

apostle of Jesus Christ, which means that he is willingly

submitting to the authority of God and our Lord and Savior

Jesus Christ, just as it is that he's asking these people to be

as well. He says, as bond servants, be

obedient. That means willingly come under

the authority of those who are over you and this is what God is

expecting. This is a testimony when even in

situations like that, and I'm sure they were harsh situations.

I mean the Romans or the the people who were over these,

these men and women who were slaves.

I'm sure sometimes those situations were harsh, but he

says as you come under them willingly submit to them and be

well pleasing in everything. If you remember, he said that

the Christians were disobedient people.

So he's saying that as children of God, as Christians, we should

be obedient people. He said obey and seek to please

our masters in everything, willingly giving ourselves to

their authority. It shouldn't be disrespectful.

He said that we should be, well, pleasing at everything, not

answering back. We shouldn't be disrespectful.

There's a difference between explaining A misunderstanding

and having a hostile debate with someone who is in authority,

speaking to someone in a disrespectful tone.

There's a difference between the two.

We can explain a misunderstanding or we can even

explain a situation where we feel like we may be wrongfully

accused of something, but there's a difference between

that and engaging in a hostile exchange and Paul's saying you

don't answer back. You're not.

You're not to be talking back to your servant, to your servant

leaders or to your masters. He said not pilfering and this

pilfering is is meaning basically saying don't be

stealing, don't steal, don't steal from your place of

employment, thieving or taking things that don't belong to you.

And, and basically Onissimus in the book of Philemon, this may

be one of the things that Onissimus was had probably

committed. That was a sin that he probably

committed that caused an issue taking something that didn't

belong to him. And he's telling us as servants

or he's telling us as employees to not steal.

What a awesome, what a terrible testimony that would be that

someone accused you as a Christian, excuse me, accused

you as a Christian of stealing, of stealing.

And people, you know, there's definitely report that it

happens all the time. People take pens and paper.

They take pencils, little things.

They think that the company won't miss reams of paper.

One piece of paper turns into a ream of paper and and other

things. I mean, I know that there are

times that I worked at at places and the bosses will get

everybody together and say, listen, we got toilet paper

that's missing. You know, I mean people, you

know, find out that there's, you know, they they need toilet

paper and they don't have it at home.

And they figured that the company won't miss a couple

rolls of toilet paper. But this is not right now.

There are times when companies will say, hey, look, we have an

excess of that, Please take as much as you need.

We have an excess of this, you know, please help yourself and

take as much as you need. That's different, but to still

is not a good testimony. And then he talks about he says,

but showing we should show all good fidelity.

That means show honesty, show trustworthiness about show

faithfulness in our jobs. That's the testimony that we're

looking for that a worker should be able to say or an employer

should be able to say that you as a woman or man of God, you're

honest, you are trustworthy, you're you're loyal.

These are good things. These things bring glory to God

and to God's word. And then he goes on and he said,

the reason why we do that is so that they may adorn, meaning the

the bond servants, that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our

Savior in all things that they adorn the docs.

That means be clothed, that you were clothed with the doctrine.

You're not just spewing it out. You're not just speaking it out,

but you're actually clothed with it.

It, it it's visible. It's it's like you wear it like

a garment. The goodness and the

righteousness of God. And what a testimony that is

without even necessarily having to tell people, yeah, I'm saved.

But meanwhile, you know, you're loading up your car with things

that don't belong to you or you're talking back to a boss

and you're speaking to them in a disrespectful way.

And then you say, oh, hey, by the way, I'm saved.

You know, why don't you come and visit our church?

You know, that's going to be very difficult for people to

feel justified to come and visit a church like that.

But if you're clothed with righteousness, if you're

clothed, if you're wearing it like a garment, then that's a

blessing. And people, you won't even have

to ask them. They'll ask you, where do you go

to church? What do you believe?

What do you serve? Who do you serve?

They'll ask you. And then we move in here to

verse 11. And verse 11 is a very, very

involved verse because it's it's about more than just what it

appears. So we're going to get into

talking about the grace of God that that unmerited favor that

we have received from God our Savior.

I'll read it and then I'll go back and make comment.

It says here, for the grace of God that brings salvation has

appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and

worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly

in this present age. So he's talking here, and this

is basically talking about the first coming of Jesus Christ.

And we're later going to talk about the second coming.

Paul talks about a lot of different doctrine in Titus, in

the book of Titus, but this is the first one that we're talking

about. This is like the first coming of

Jesus Christ. And I just want to mention that

with this grace in which He appeared to all men, and it was

a grace that He came to us. He didn't come as executioner or

judge, but He came as Savior. He came as a Savior.

The Bible says that He came. He was full of grace and truth.

And thank God for the truth that He brought.

But my God, thank him for the grace.

Thank Him for the grace. So he didn't come as his judge

or executioner as he could have. And we probably deserved it, but

he didn't. He came as Savior.

And the Bible says that Jesus Christ came into the world to

save sinners. So it was the grace of God that

he would, that he would be here, that he would do this.

And it also talks about South in talking about this first coming,

he actually appeared in two different ways.

He presented himself in two different ways.

The first time that he presented him that he was presented to the

people was when he was born. If you look back in Luke chapter

Luke 2:8

2 verse 8, this is what the angels announced to those who

would witness Jesus Christ coming to the world.

He said, for there is born to you this day in the city of

David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

And this is the announcement that was made before all, before

all these shepherds. And of course they went out and

they spoke it and they shared it to everyone.

But this was the one of the first times that he was

presented to the world as King, as Messiah, as shepherd, as

Savior. But then there's a second time

and this is what we're talking about today.

This is what we're celebrating today, His triumphal entry into

Jerusalem, when he came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey,

presenting himself as Messiah, as King, as Lord.

And the interesting thing about that is that there's, you know,

he is the, he is the promised King.

He is the promised and rightful king who brings salvation and

that's why he came. So the Bible talks about his

triumphal entry and and he's a promised king because back in

Zechariah Chapter 9, it was already prophesied 700 years

Zechariah 9 · chapter mention

before he even came. It was prophesied that he would

be coming. So that promise was fulfilled on

that day, the promised king, and he came riding on a donkey.

He didn't come riding on a horse because he wanted to portray to

the people that I'm coming in peace, I'm coming lowly, I'm

coming meek, I'm coming as one who is coming to make peace and

to bring peace. If he was riding on a horse, the

way he's going to come back. He's coming back to make war.

He's coming back to establish his Kingdom for eternity.

But in that triumphal entry, the Bible said he rode on a donkey.

The the, the, the, the a coat, the foe of a donkey.

And when he came in, like I said, he was the promised king

because he fulfilled that prophecy which says your king is

coming to you just and having salvation.

He is the rightful king also though, and he's the rightful

king because the Bible says that when he came in, according to

Matthew 21, that the people were hollering and they were shouting

Hosanna, Hosanna to the son of David.

And the fact that they acknowledged the fact that that

he was that, that they said Hosanna, that means save us.

They acknowledged his kingship, save us, save us.

And they acknowledged that he was the king through through

David or through the line of David because they called him

the son of David. And he in the flesh, he was a

son of David, but in the spirit he was a son of God.

And the Jews acknowledged him in that time on that very first

Palm Sunday. We understand that when he was

coming through that they had palms and they were laying palms

before him and they were laying their clothes before him.

And they were basically creating a, a red carpet treatment for

him to be able to come into the city.

But that was another way of acknowledging that He was king,

or they're acknowledging him as king, because that is the way

that they receive the procession of royalty when it comes to

their cities. They put their clothes before

them, they put all these things before them, and they caused

them to come in. Well, this is exactly what Jesus

did. But many people that were there,

they thought He came in because He was coming to now establish

the Kingdom and to knock over Roman rule and to establish

themselves as the king and take back our nation.

But that's not why He was coming.

He was coming because he was going to.

He was going to defeat, but he wasn't just going to defeat

Roman rule. And that's where the palm

branches come in. You might wonder, why do we have

palm branches? Why is palm branches symbolic of

Palm Sunday, right? Well, they mean a number of

things. First of all, palm branches are

symbolic for victory and peace, triumph and eternal life.

So when, So when Jesus came in, and he came in as victor, but he

was victor because what he was about to do, He would be a he

would have victory over sin and death.

He came in as peace because he was the Prince of Peace.

Jesus is our peace and he brought peace between God and

man. He was triumphant because Jesus

triumphed over Satan, and he did it publicly on the cross.

He was triumphant over saving and eternal life.

Jesus came in. He is our hope of eternal life.

His resurrection is our hope for eternal life.

So when Jesus came in, all these things were important, but he

didn't just come in just to establish himself as king or

establish himself as Messiah, but he also presented himself as

a lamb that would be slain. He was the Lamb.

He was the one who was the blimp, who was the that was

without blemish and without spot or wrinkle.

He was the perfect sacrifice. And he presented himself that

way on Palm Sunday. And I just wonder, you know, in

my own life, have I allowed Jesus to have a triumphal entry

in my life? Does he sit as king on the

throne of my heart? Do I acknowledge him as king?

Do I call him king? Do I submit to his kingship, to

his lordship in my life? And one of the ways that we can

show that is through our good works that Timothy or Titus

continues to talk about here in the book of Titus.

But not only did he come to establish those things, but the

Bible said in verse 12 that he's teaching us that denying

ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly,

righteously, and godly. Jesus coming to give us

salvation was not just so that we can be saved and then sit

down like we have now. We don't have nothing else to

do, but it's for good works, which is the evidence to

unbelievers that a change has happened in our lives.

The power of God working in our hearts is through the good works

that we offer to others or that we show others, He said We

should deny ungodliness. We should deny worldly lusts

and, and, and, and, and we should live soberly,

righteously, or upright and godly or God like back in

Ephesians chapter 4, the Bible talks about putting off the old

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

man. So when Jesus comes into our

life, there's a change and we take off those things that were

old, those things that used to be.

Ephesians 4 and 22 says that you put off concerning your former

conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the

deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and

that you put on the new man which was created according.

To God in true righteousness and holiness.

And we do that in this present age.

And it's important that we do it in this present age because

there's so much darkness, there's so much evil, there's so

much wickedness, and they need to see God's light.

So it's more important. It's even more important now

that we live a life that shows that there's a difference, a

life that shows that the power of God is working in our lives.

The world needs to see that. And you know, we may not

understand, we may not know it, but a lot of the people in the

world want to see that because the opposite is so hopeless.

Suicide attempts are up. People are desperate and don't

have an answer. They need to see our good works

so that they can see the God in us that they may have something

to trust in, something to believe in, and we need to do it

in this present age. And then we go on to verse 13.

Now he's going to talk about the second coming.

He says, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearance of

our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Now I want to also mention that there's a couple times here

where Jesus is equal is is named as God in this in this verse, in

this chapter. The first time was back in verse

10 when he said that we should be that they adorned the

doctrine of God, our Savior in all things.

That was a reference to the deity of God, to the deity of

Jesus Christ. And then here we see it again,

looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great

God and Savior Jesus Christ. So when people try to tell you

that what the Bible never says that, that that Jesus is God,

the Bible never says that. Well, this is one place you can

bring them. He said it twice.

They said it twice. There's one place you can bring

them. So he's talking about that

second coming, that that time when we are looking forward to

him coming back. And that's our hope as

believers, that's our hope as Christians, it's our hope as

those who live for the Lord that we're going to see him again,

that we're going to see him. We're going to, we're going to,

we're going to be able to love his appearing.

Paul talked about the fact that when he sees him, he knows he's

going to receive a crown of righteousness.

And not only him, but everyone who will love his appearing will

receive a crown of righteousness.

So this coming, this, this second coming is, is something

that we all look forward to. And that's our hope.

That's our hope for the appearing of the future return

of our great God and Savior. You know what?

If it happens in the next 5 minutes, I'll be happy.

I'd be OK with it that we never have to go to our cars again and

drive anywhere else. If it happens before I even get

to my car, I'll be OK with it. I just want to see him.

I just want to be with him. I want this to be over.

But then again, He has a plan and a purpose for keeping us

here. And that plan and purpose has to

do with the good works that He's calling us to do and to be.

So while we're here, abode and abide and occupy.

So then in verse 14, He goes back to talking about what he

does. The first time that he comes, he

goes back to talking about his sacrifice.

So he says here in verse 14, who gave himself for us?

That's who we're looking for. We're looking for the one who

gave himself for us. So that's why we can't be

looking for no other king. We can't be looking for no other

God because it was only one who gave himself for us.

This has been Living Waters of Grace, a ministry of Pastor

Louis Harrell of Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.

Today's message has been on the book of Titus.

This book is a master class in how Christians should live in

modern culture. Titus was ministering to the

people of Crete, an island off the coast of Greece, but he was

facing many challenges. The Cretans who came to know

Jesus seemed to assimilate Jesus into their existing culture

instead of allowing themselves to be transformed by the Holy

Spirit inside of them. Others were fully devoting

themselves to Jesus but shutting themselves off from the world

around them. The Apostle Paul encourages

Titus to help his audience find a middle ground where they can

live in this world while still following a different way of

life in Jesus. If you would like to learn more

about what it means to faithfully follow the teachings

of Christ in a world full of darkness, we'd love to get

connected with you in person. If you are in Greensburg, PA,

we'd love to invite you to join us at Calvary Chapel

Westmoreland. We meet every Sunday at 10:30 AM

at 400 E Pittsburgh St., Ste. 6B.

Also, if you visit us at calvarychapelonline.com, you'll

find links to our mobile app, our giving page, and our contact

form where you can leave a prayer request if you have one.

Before we go off the air for today, we ask you to invite

someone to tune in next time right here on Grace FM 91.7 or

streaming online at Grace Radio dot FM.

Word of mouth is the best way to spread the good news of the

Gospel with those who are hungry to hear.

Until next time, this has been another edition of Living Waters

of Grace.