Titus: Legalism, License, or Gospel

So uh the next three messages we'll have, at least from me, will come from the book of Titus, this little letter in the New Testament.

I say for me because throughout the summer I'm gonna be gone next week at a camp that we're I'm gonna go be the chaplain at, and then have some sabbatical weeks in July.

So different people are gonna be preaching.

So if I'm here, we're gonna be going through Titus, and if somebody else is here, they're gonna be doing something else.

So we're gonna have three sermons coming out of this letter that Paul, the Apostle Paul, writes to this young pastor named Titus.

Now, Titus was out in this area called Crete, and that's where we got when you're reading through the passage.

Cretans sound like aliens to me a little bit.

That term, every time I hear it, I sort of chuckle, sounds like a group of aliens.

But they were people.

The Cretans were people, not aliens.

And these people, they had become Christians, but either they were sort of, there's a whole group of them, they were either headed into uh legalism, so they're headed into like lots of rules, lots of rules to feel like they were approved and accepted by God, or they were headed into license, like they would basically take God's grace as an excuse to do whatever they wanted to do.

Like God just pretty much didn't have much to say about their behaviors.

And maybe you're hearing, well, what does this have to do with me?

Well, if you've been a Christian for any amount of time, you'll feel this tension.

You will feel the tension to slide into legalism and just use rules to feel like you're approved by God, or you will feel the tension to slide into license and say, Well, God's grace is enough, and I'm gonna kind of do whatever I want in this situation.

And you've probably, and I have, done both.

Right?

We've all sort of done both at different times.

And maybe you've been more legalistic and judgmental towards people who use license, or maybe you're more on the license side and you've been judgmental toward people who are legalistic, or maybe you just haven't been in church a lot, and you're like even that little summary is wow, these people are really messed up.

Well, you're messed up too, so we're glad you're here and welcome.

Uh so I can remember when I was in high school, I attended a church that had some legalistic notions.

And and I'm not bashing that church because I had strong legalistic notions.

So I was there and I was happy to rise up and take any rule you put before me.

Not only would I accept it, I would crush that rule in obedience to it.

I I would be the most obedient to it.

And I can remember one Sunday the challenge was put before everybody to witness, right, to evangelize to 20 people in 20 days.

So that was that, and you had to accept this.

And what was clear was it was clear you didn't have to take the challenge.

That was clear.

But what was also really clear, so the challenge itself wasn't bad, nothing wrong with that.

But what was what was also felt was if you're if you're a serious Christian, you you'll come down front for this one.

Like, I mean, that's what you didn't have to take it, but really if you stayed in your seat, you're not serious, your heart's not right with God, and you're not passionate, that's for sure.

And so you put this in front of me, I am I'm first one down, I'm signing up, and you know the story of this kind of thing.

Day one, you find some lonely guy at the coffee shop, and you saddle up and you have a great discussion, it goes great.

Day two, you just get busy, right?

The end of the day comes, you're oh, I missed it.

So you feel a little bad.

Day three, maybe maybe day three, you do it again.

Good job.

You know, grab some kid at school.

Day four, just forgot.

Day five, got busy.

Day six, you sort of forgot about the whole challenge.

And then you're starting to feel guilty about it, so then you're trying to like find ways to sort of earn it back.

I mean, this is what was going on in me.

I can distinctly remember these 20 days of oppression, basically, because I accepted this rule of which I was failing miserably at.

I mean, I you know, you I mean, you would, and I would sort of count anything.

You know, if somebody sneezes, God bless you, that counts.

You know, count that one, that counts.

And then, you know, you just feel horrible, and it's you're just gonna go like, what do I need now?

What do I need to do to feel right before God?

Like, for I'll form another rule, and that way I can obey that rule, and now I'll obey that one, and then I'll feel better about myself because I'm failing at these other rules.

You know, I'll have a longer quiet time, or I'll go to church longer, I'll be more serious, or I'll give more money, or whatever.

And there's legalism.

Well, two years later, I'm in college.

I have a friend who she uh she was hit on by a University of Georgia football player.

Probably not the first time somebody was hit on by a University of Georgia football player, but the dialogue between these two was so fantastic, I have remembered it forever.

I want to share it.

I'm not gonna share who the University of Georgia football player was because a lot of us would know who this individual is, and I'm not gonna do that publicly.

So uh basically he hits on her uh for certain activities, and she says, Well, don't you have a girlfriend?

And he goes, Yeah, yeah, well, that that's okay.

We can just fool around.

And she says, Well, I'm I'm a Christian, I don't just go fooling around.

And then he says, classic line, you'll remember it forever, I'd be a Christian, but I'd be having sex.

And I'm not sure if he thought, like, all of a sudden she was gonna go, oh, you got me.

You won me over.

What a great argument.

You have a wonderful argument there.

That's a wonderful argument.

You've got take me home.

Take me home.

You have a great argument.

Now, what's interesting about this is his argument's very clear.

I be a Christian, but I'm doing whatever I want.

It's not a new argument.

I mean, this argument's been around for centuries.

This argument actually has a really big theological term.

It's called anti-anomenism.

It's such a big word, we're not going to use it the rest of the sermon.

We're just going to use the word license.

It's sort of the opposite of legalism.

It's basically saying, because of God's grace and its fullness, I have license to do whatever I want.

So let's jump into Titus because Titus talks very clearly about these two positions.

And we're going to start in verse 1, and eventually we're going to get to verse 10 where Paul really gets into it, uh, legalism and license.

So verse 1, Paul, a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

So Paul's writing this to help the faith of God's elect.

So another big theological term, election.

God's elect.

God, if you're a believer, God elected you.

I don't know if you're comfortable with that yet.

You can work that out, but he chose you even when you weren't choosing him.

That's what enabled you to choose him.

He chose you when you weren't choosing him, which enabled you to choose him.

Just go chew on that later.

You know, sit out in a field with flowers and meditate on that one.

And then this phrase, knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness.

So hold on to that because we're going to come back to that at the end of the sermon.

So moving on, then he hits into a handful of verses that we actually wrestled with a lot at the beginning of our church because it talks about elders.

It talks about what elders look like.

And you read through this, and some of these things you're going, well, okay, I'm alright at that.

I'm not too bad.

I'm not a drunkard.

Not violent.

But then there's some other ones.

You're like quick-tempered sometimes.

Greedy?

When's the last time you knew you were greedy?

Nobody knows when they're greedy.

That's the thing about greed.

You don't know when you're greedy.

You know when you're drunk.

Like you're like, I that I went too far.

But greed, you don't know when you're greedy.

Arrogant, that's hard to know when you're arrogant.

So some of these, you're some of these are so clear, it's like, well, very clearly we could pick out elders.

You're this, you're out, okay, you can't be an elder.

But some of these other ones is very difficult.

But see, Paul's writing to Titus, who he, Paul Titus is going and looking for these people.

So it's more Titus's observation of these people.

And that's actually what matters, because the individual who will get picked to be an elder is probably going to say, you know what, there's a lot of greed in me.

You know what?

There's a lot of stuff in me that I don't know if I even feel comfortable being an elder.

But see, Paul's writing to Titus, who's the one observing.

And that's sort of the point here.

The point is not that these people are perfect, but that these are not ongoing traits that would define their life.

And it was important to Paul that Titus sees that there's godly traits that are defining their life.

And then Paul goes on to say that they must know the gospel.

They have to know the story because they are going to be fighting against false teaching.

So finally we get to verse 10.

What are they fighting against?

And I'm going to reread this, verses 10 through 14.

For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.

This testimony is true.

Therefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

So there's these false teachers, and basically the false teachers are people who are taking a whole bunch of law that was in Old Testament type teaching, law that people used to feel approved by God, and they're putting it back on people.

So, okay, well, Jesus is sufficiency for you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But really, you need to do all this other stuff.

Like let's pick out certain foods, let's do certain things, and now if you obey this stuff, now you will have your position with God sealed.

Listen, laws, the law, while it can help us in right and wrong, help us see what is right and wrong, it can help guide us in what is right and wrong, it does nothing to address the messiness of your heart.

It has no power to change your heart.

I read this week, uh says this, external conformity urged by the legalizers merely papers over heart seeking to gain God's approval by human efforts.

Rule after rule after rule, obedience to that rule, obedience after that rule, it's just papering over a heart that is trying to use human effort to earn God's approval rather than rest in what God did for you in Jesus.

Then Paul talks about people who swing the other way, over to license.

Verse 15 and 16, to the pure all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

They profess to know God.

So there's some people who profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.

They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

You're like, wow, Paul, tell us how you really feel here.

So there's some people who give themselves license.

They say they know God, but they do whatever they want.

So two points, I have two points here.

Pretty basic based on what I just said.

Number one is both legalism and license are traps.

They both enslave because they're both justification by conditionality.

You're using either one trying to justify yourself by a conditional process.

I'll use rule after rule after rule after rule and if I do this and earn this and have this.

And in license is the same way.

I will justify my importance, my existence by experience after experience after experience.

If I have this experience or this thing, or earn this or experience this, or give myself this, then I will feel at peace.

So in legalism, and this is via Tim Keller, author, pastor, in legalism, uh God's very holy and just, and he is, but a legalist doesn't rest.

There's no rest for a legalist.

There's no rest in grace or mercy.

Spirituality is guided by rules and things to do.

Not a lot of freedom, not a lot of compassion.

In all this, either you'll feel very successful and proud, or you'll feel very defeated and in despair.

There's a lot of judgment.

There's a lot of comparison, like looking around, see how they're doing, how are they doing, then how am I doing compared to them.

There's hierarchies of spirituality.

And there may be, they may be rule followers, but there's no power.

There's no power to change the heart of the person.

There's no power to create joy and peace.

See, in legalism, you think you're doing all this to please God, but he's already pleased.

You think you're doing all of it to secure your position with him, but your position's already secured.

God's work in Jesus secures your belovedness with him, not your work.

And this is why legalism's a trap.

Now let's take license.

And license, you think, well, God's grace is so sufficient and full, uh, but you forget that God's grace has effects.

That it changes a heart, that it inspires and animates fruit that comes out from the inside.

So right and wrong are just sort of suggestions.

So probably the persons of license is actually the person you probably want to hang out with at the dinner party because they're more fun, but come midnight, you just need to get away from them.

That's sort of the summary.

Because they're really fun for a short period and then they're really dangerous.

They talk a lot about God's love, but not much about his holiness or our fallen nature or God's call on our lives.

You think if I just experience enough and give myself a little more, then I'll feel accepted or justified.

But if we don't know about our fallen nature, if we don't know about it or God's call on our lives, our frail, sinful hearts, if we don't know this, if we don't know right and wrong, the clarity of the law, if we don't know this, then how great is the grace that we profess?

So license is a trap also.

Now, if we dare to think about both of these a little bit more, we actually see that they're very much in common.

So we were at a playground a couple weeks ago, and the girls were running around, and there was a seesaw, but it wasn't, you remember the old seesaws, like the two by eight metal rod, your buddy was up high, you know, you were down low, you slid off the back, so he would fall down.

Like this what this was a baby version.

It was it had springs on it to, you know, so nobody could hurt each other.

But Christy and I got on and we had a good time.

And so, anyways, so I've been thinking about seesaws.

So I uh I looked around my house, and give me a break here.

I'm I'm not an engineer.

I found this in the playroom, and this was in the garage.

Um, so I've been thinking about seesaws, especially with um this sermon.

Because what we can tend to think is we think, well, legalism is on one side and people slide off and they slide off.

Or, oh well, license is the other side and they slide off.

So the answer must be.

And like I said, give me a break here.

The answer must be, yeah.

This is the problem with uh using your children's toys.

It's close enough, you get the point.

Right?

The answer must be somewhere in the balance.

But we never question if perhaps we have the wrong metaphor.

We know we never what what what if what if what if it's a totally separate path?

Like what if that's the point?

What if it's a a totally separate path?

It's not a balance, it's a total, totally different way to think.

See, Paul says that that the metaphor is is much more like, say, I-75, right?

You had north, you had into uh legalism, you had south, you had into uh license.

And this is point number two.

The solution to both traps is the gospel.

That the gospel is a totally different way of thinking.

It's a different road altogether.

So I-75 north into legalism, south into license, sorry, Michigan and Florida, but the gospel's a totally different way to think.

It's like it's a different road, it's a different path.

It's I-20 headed out into a different territory.

See, I was a Christian saved by the gospel of grace.

I personally, I was a Christian saved by the gospel of grace a long time before I realized the gospel was not something I left behind that made me a Christian back when I was 15 years old, but an entirely new way of thinking about myself and my faith and my world.

Tertullian, a Christian writer in the second and third centuries, he said this: just as Christ was crucified between two thieves, so this doctrine of justification is ever crucified between two opposite errors.

So he meant there are two basic false ways of thinking legalism and license.

And the gospel is a totally new way to think.

And the new thinking is this I no longer perform or obey to be accepted.

I am accepted.

Therefore I obey.

See, God doesn't love a future version of you.

We like to say that a lot around here.

He loves you now.

Right?

Now, fully, period.

Look, here it is in Titus, this different way of thinking that forms a Christian life.

If we go back to verse 1, chapter 1, verse 1, for the sake of the faith of God's alike, and their knowledge of the truth which leads to godliness.

So truth leads to godliness.

And then we think forward to chapter 2, verses 11 and 12.

We'll dig into them more next week.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.

So grace of God training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.

So the gospel, which is grace and truth, the grace of God actually leads us to godliness.

Doesn't excuse us.

The grace and truth is what we say every week, that we are flawed.

This is true.

The law breaks us, that we don't live up to the standard of righteousness, and we are needing an outside source of righteousness, and that's that's why Jesus came.

That's the good news.

And we just have to let this gospel take greater and greater and greater ground in our thinking.

That we are free.

And it's not, no, it's not that we're free, but really you need to.

No, you're free.

And Jesus, you really are free.

This secured position is actually what will change you or transform you.

The finality of the secured position is what empowers any Christian life.

And it's it's a different way of thinking.

So you're not sliding into legalism, you're not sliding into license, and it can create a new heart, it can take an insecure person, and it can make them secure because they know they're already loved.

It can take an angry person and it can make them really kind because they realize how much kindness they've been shown.

It can make a person who's been so judgmental, and it can make them incredibly compassionate to people because they realize they're not perfect either.

And it's not always fast, right?

Like a lot of times you'll catch yourself still on that other road.

Have I-75 thinking.

And then, or maybe you just catch yourself in the gutter alongside 75.

And you'll have to remember there's a different way.

There's a there's a third way to think.

And it's the gospel way of thinking.

What this means is it means you don't have to pretend anymore, because what I know is I know if you've been a legalist, or you are a legalist, you're not as good as you let on.

You're not.

And if you've been in license, you're not as happy as you let on.

You're not.

And the gospel, God absolutely for you in Jesus, this ongoing persistent love toward you, toward your needy heart, it's a new world for you.

It's a new world of rest and life and a place to have your being.

Let's pray together.

God, we ask that your spirit would speak to us in our hearts.

Help us to know how near you are to us.

We even welcome your spirit to shine your light of truth and grace into the areas of our hearts that perhaps we live in legalism or we live in license.

Would you help us to think gospel more?

For us to know how sufficient you are, to know how great our acceptance is, to know how secure we are.

Would this absolutely transform us from the inside to the out?

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.