Genuine Fake

Titus chapter 1. While you're turning there,

Titus 1 · chapter mention

While you're turning there, where's your Bible?

OK, I see that phone. Thank you.

That's close. But while you're turning there,

I don't know if you've been shopping in Turkey and come

across come across a store like this.

For those who are listening, if you're on the podcast, my advice

is push pause and switch on. You're going to need to watch

this morning genuine fake watches.

I like that you know, they've they've front footed forward

with their products because, well, some fake products are

easy to spot. I don't know if you've seen

these. Maybe if you got a cold a

Beavers you'd like you're nearly there, but some are not so easy

to spot like this beautiful baby.

Oh yeah, 800,000 Rand if you buy from a legit store, but if you

go to replica Rolex expert, replica Rolex expert is only

8000 Rand. You know, I've, I heard this

week an intellectual property lawyer said that's the fake

goods industry makes about $464 billion a year.

Who would have known, hey, how much real money you can make

with fake goods, $464 billion a year?

And I just wanted to, before we get into the word, I just wanted

to give you a heads up because it's, it's Black Friday coming

soon. So this has got nothing to do

with my sermon, but I just yeah, this is adding value, you know,

but I was reading a lady by the name of Emma Jones.

She wrote wrote an article basically explaining what to

look out for. You know, the fact that if it's

too good to be true, it probably is.

If that price is like, oh, team, you, thank you.

Maybe not so much if the the quality of the product, if it

seems a little plasticky, it because it is, it's an inferior

product. And then of course, you can spot

a fake by the packaging. Always, you know, they they want

to spend as little as possible and make as much as possible.

But I don't need to tell you that.

I mean, this is 2024. This is, you know, everything is

fake. We live in fake worlds.

There's fake news, there's fake social media profiles, there's

fake tenders. Hey babes, we also posting about

our fake lives online all the time.

And sometimes these things are easy to spot, but sometimes not

so easy to spot. Here's my question.

This is what I want to go after this morning.

How do you spot genuine faith? How do you know if it's genuine

fake or genuine faith? The crazy thing is, in studying

Titus, I've actually noticed that Paul goes into this.

He, he, he leans in because he's telling Titus, listen, you need

to know you're going to be in a community and it's going to be

filled with genuine fakes and genuine faith.

And this is how you spot it. I'm going to go to Titus chapter

one verse 16 and it says the following.

He's he's not comparing in the Cretans to the Christians, the

genuine fakes to the genuine faith.

And he says the following. They claim to know God, the

genuine fakes, but by their actions they deny him.

So I want to look at this first. They claim to know God, but by

their actions they deny him. I'm actually going to divide

that verse in half and and pull two points out for us this

morning. How to identify a genuine fake

or genuine faith. So genuine fake.

They claim to know God, that the Greek word there to know God is

actually a very interesting word.

It means to know how not to know who to know how or to be skilled

in. I don't know if you know any of

these who are who claim to know God.

They they know how they're skilled in it.

They know exactly when to say Amen, Amen.

Sniper 4. Sniper 4.

We have. You always put it at the end of

a sentence. That's right, Terrell.

Amen. Amen.

Here you go. Yeah.

We know when to say Hallelujah, when to raise our hands and when

not to. We've got our interpretive dance

to impress our friends. We know just which familiar

Bible to bring. Well, no, not to bring.

And you know how to dress Sunday morning versus Sunday nights.

But he says they claim to know God, they claim to be skilled.

I'm actually, I'm, I'm really good at this Christian thing.

Paul is saying that is not genuine faith.

That's genuine fake. So I had the privilege of doing

a wedding with a few couples and one of the couples I was

journeying with one time. I don't, I don't even know why,

but the meeting was at like 4:00 in the afternoon or whatever the

case might be. But during the day, something

was scratching here to the point that when we sat down and, and I

was sharing, going through what what I normally do, I just push

pause. I say, listen, can I, can I ask

you, this sounds like a very strange question, but I want to

know, can you tell me when it was that you surrendered your

life to Jesus and the last came on Because what I got was, well,

you know, it's kind of an ongoing journey.

We're getting good at this thing.

You know, we're in church, we're coming regularly and we're, you

know, putting things in place. And I turned to her and I said,

and and you was there moment when you surrendered your life

to Jesus. And she said what what he's

basically saying, you know, for the both of us is our hearts in

the right place. So like, OK, let me ask you

another question. And I went all evangelistic on

them. I said, listen, if you were to

die today and you might, and you were standing at the pearly

gates and Saint Peter's there, or Angel Gabriel, or maybe Jesus

is there at the pearly gates and he asks you the question, why

should I let you in? What would you say?

Let me ask you the question, if you were to die today and you

might, and you're standing at the pearly gates because the

Bible says it's appointed for man to die once and then comes

judgment. You're standing there and Jesus

says, why should I let you in? What if your answer is genuine,

fake? All I got from them was, well,

yeah, you know, we're trying hard.

Actually, we're in a good place at the moment.

And I said to them, and I say to you, there's only one right

answer here. I want you to know this.

There's only one right answer. So I said to them, open your

Bibles and you can do the same to Romans chapter 3 and the

Romans 3 · chapter mention

source in verse 9, it says Jews and Gentiles alike are all under

the power of sin. And to explain to them, because

they're new to these the scriptures.

I said the difference between the Jews and the Gentiles is, is

the Jews are the good boys. You know, they got it all

together. They, you know, they never

smoked or drank and they never miss a last group.

And they're they're really humming at this Jew thing.

The Gentiles, well, they all came from the bluff.

You know, they got family in Broncos Sprite.

You know, they're not scared to go back to prison, you know.

But notice it says Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the

power of sin as it is written. There's no one righteous, not

even one. No one understands.

No one seeks God. All have turned away.

They've together become worthless.

There's no one who does good, not even 1.

And I saw in the eyes what I see in some of your eyes going like,

yeah, but I'd do good. Actually, I'm quite skilled in

doing good. So I said to them, I heard once

a guy named Francis Schaeffer is a Christian philosopher, and he

does this thing, he calls it a thought experiment where he

says, like, imagine if when you were born, Jesus puts a little

microchip in your chest with a solid-state drive there and a

microphone. And he programmed it only to

record and to switch on when you were making judgment calls on

how other people ought to live. So in other words, it just

simply recorded your standards, your standards of how to live,

how to handle finances, sexuality, drinking, language,

things you think of just your standards.

Now imagine you're standing before the throne of God and

Judgement Day and, and Jesus leans over and says, listen for

you, I'm going to, we're going to lower the bar and don't worry

about my standards. But we just I want to measure

you against your standards. He says not a person would

survive that judgement, that judgement.

How much more standing before a holy God who will keep you and I

accountable to every word we've said, every thought we've

thought, every linked we've clicked on.

Not a single person how we ever going to be able to stand before

God on that day because Romans 3 is telling us the condition we

will be it. So that's the problem.

So I said to them, you can't stand at the pearly gates and

say, well, I, I actually was quite skilled at this thing that

won't match up. So I said, let me show you the

answer. I said right next to your Romans

3, Romans 5, verse 8. And I had them turn to Romans 5

Romans 5:8 Romans 5:8

verse 8, and it says this. But God demonstrates His own

love for us in this. While we were still sinners,

while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We're getting closer to the answer that you need to give at

the pearly gates. Christ died for us while we were

still sinners. You see, it's not the sin that's

the problem. It's this death that's the

problem. Why did Christ have to die?

Well, I said right next to that. Romans 623.

I don't know if you've ever had a speeding fan.

If you haven't asked Rory, he's had plenty.

Don't edit that out. This is the truth.

Amen. It's the truth.

Amen. Sometimes.

What happens when you get that spinning fun?

I've heard from RAW that the guy will climb out the car.

The officer will will show you, listen, you were going 10

kilometres over the speed limit, so this is your fine.

Or you were going 20 kilometres, this is your fine.

Or hypothetically, you've got a brand new R1 and you thought,

let me see if I can reach 300 KS an hour between Pretoria and

Krugersorp and stop, stop back as a speed cop.

Then let's go straight to jail. Do not pass begin, do not

collect 200. Why?

Because the penalty needs to match the crime.

Romans 6 verse 23 says the penalty, the wages of sin is

Romans 6:23

death. That's why someone had to die to

either be you paying for your sins or what he said is the free

gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ who died in your

place. It's a free gift, but it

requires a transaction. Says if you give me all your

sin, I will give you the free gift of eternal life,

forgiveness. We're nearly there.

We're nearly through the pearly gates because the question is

OK, how do I do this transaction?

So I said right next to you, Romans 623, write Romans 10

Romans 10:9

verse 9 and go there, which says if you declare with your mouth

Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him

from the dead, you will be saved.

For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified.

I love this word. I don't know if it works in

other languages, but justified the Greek translated into

English is justified is simply just as if I'd never sinned,

just as if I'd never had this next, next bottle of wine, just

as if I never climbed into the bed, just as if I didn't pull

that trigger. Well, just as if I never

committed those 74 crimes that Interpol tracked me down and

threw me in prison for just as if I'd never sinned.

With your heart, you believed and are justified.

And it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are

saved. And then it goes on to say in

verse 13 for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be

saved. And then I said to him, now what

did you say? He said back to me, he said, I

would like to be saved. And so we prayed.

But you know, a lot of the time you have that conversation and

you get this war. And there's only one reason why.

Because you look at all of this and you come to the conclusion,

but it's not enough for what I've done.

You don't know what I've done. I don't know if you know.

The artist. Steven Curtis Chapman, a

musician released like 25 albums, had the privilege of

emceeing many of his concerts. He's got Grammy Awards and Dev

Awards and what have you. And in having such a successful

career, one of the things he and his wife felt to do was they

were going to adopt three children.

So they had three of their own. And then they got three young

little girls that they adopted as well, so six kids.

But the youngest, Maria Sue, passed away at the age of 5.

What had happened was, what's his name?

Will Franklin? They seem to like these double

barrel names. Will Franklin, the oldest son,

had just gotten his driver's license.

I think there was there was something that happened.

So he's now a young boy in America, like 16 or 17.

When you get to your driver's coming home, the family is

waiting for him to arrive to celebrate.

And Maria Sue runs out. He doesn't see her and she gets

knocked over at the age of five. And what happened was Stephen

runs to his daughter, picks up this lifeless little body,

climbs in the car, his cousin jumps in on the other side and

they're rushing off to hospital to try and save this girl's

life. And he winds down the windows,

the father winds down the window.

And he leans out and he says. Will Franklin, your father loves

you. Your father loves you.

Your father loves you. And your heavenly Father leans

over the lifeless body of his Son on the cross and says.

Your father loves you. Your father loves you.

Young lady, your. Father loves you.

Loved you so much that he gave his.

Only. Begotten Son, that whoever

doesn't matter what you've done, whoever believes in him will be

saved. So I ask the question.

Have you called on the name of the Lord?

Actually, I'm going to ask the question.

Don't you want to call on the name of the Lord?

Now, if you were standing at those pearly gates and you were

trying to rack up some kind of a reason why you're not a

disappointment and he should let you in, I want to invite you to

take this, the free gift of salvation, and I want to invite

you to do it. Now, if you'd like to do that,

raise your hand. And I'd like to pray with you.

Now. Thank you.

I'll see that hand. I'll see you.

Anyone here? Hands, hands, hands.

Hands, hands, hands, hands. Lovely.

Thank you. Thank you.

We're going to pray. You know what we're going to do?

I call them the ABC's A. We're going to admit we're those

guys in Romans 3 all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of

God. We're going to admit that we are

sinners. B.

We're going to declare that we believe that what Jesus did on

the cross was enough. And then C, we're going to

confess him as our Lord and Savior.

So this is what we're going to do, and we're all going to do it

together because those who haven't raised their hands did

so at some other stage. So we want to join you in this.

So close your eyes and repeat after me.

Lord Jesus, I admit I'm a Sinner.

I admit I can't do enough to cleanse myself of these sins.

But you can. So please forgive me for my

sins. I believe in my heart that what

you did on the cross was enough. Now I'll confess you as my Lord

and Savior. I surrender my life to you.

I surrender my life to you. Come and make your home in me.

Come and make your home in me in Jesus name, Amen.

Amen. Welcome to the family.

Your father loves you. Your father loves you.

They claim to know God, they buy their actions, they deny him.

So what do we do with these works?

I I love what what Rob said. You know, obedience is actually

just a sign of our salvation. It's not what gets us into

salvation. It's not skilled in.

But now what do we do? So you've just surrendered your

life to Jesus. You've just said, OK, it's not

this works. It's not earning.

And now I want to show you the grace is not against, well,

grace is against earning, but not against effort.

So he says they buy their actions, they deny him.

What's fascinating about the book of Titus is right at the

very beginning, he talks about how the actions deny God.

And a little later on, he talks about how their actions are

signed or their devotion to God. And that's the difference

between genuine fake and genuine faith.

The one is a denying and the other one is a devoting.

Take a look in Titus chapter 3, it says that the following

Titus 3 · chapter mention

Eugene, your mum's phoning you. It says at one time we too were

foolish. This is all of us in three CR at

one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and

enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.

We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one

another can put my name in there.

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He

saved us not because of righteous, the righteous things

we had done, but because of His mercy.

He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the

Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus

Christ our Savior. So that having been justified,

there's my word again, having been justified by His grace, we

might become heirs, having the hope of eternal life.

Now notice this. He says this is a trustworthy

saying, and I want you to stress these things.

What does he need to stress that you are justified by grace?

OK, stress these things so that what should come next so that

those who have trusted in God, those who raised their hands

this morning and those who've raised their hands before may be

careful to devote themselves. He is saying the difference

between genuine fake and genuine faith is on the one hand, we

recognize that we are justified by grace and grace alone, but on

the other hand, we also in light of it, devote ourselves.

So we're saying November and we're.

Devoting ourselves to God. Now, whenever we talk about the

word devotion, I always think of a guy by the name of Josiah.

He's a king in, I think his second kings, one of the he's

one of the kings of Israel. What was amazing about Josiah,

he became king at a very young age, but the track record up to

that stage in Israel was utterly debauched.

His, his grandfather, Manasseh was one of the most evil kings

that Israel had ever had. We're talking about witchcraft

and child sacrifice. It was, it was horrible.

And his father, Josiah's father was actually assassinated by his

servants because they just considered them so godless.

Now Josiah comes on the scene and the Bible says that Desiah

devoted himself to God. We think about that.

All he knows is genuine fake, but he gives himself and

devotion to God. And I want to show you why this

is so important. Why are we talking November?

Because there's something supernatural about our devotion

to God. So what he does is in devoting

himself to God is he sees a whole bunch of nose like he

cleans out the temple of all the idols and shrines.

He gets rid of the Asherah poles and the high places and the

shrine prostitutes, and he begins to go after the presence

of God. And what happens is the entire

nation, it seems like the entire nation of Israel, comes back to

God and redevotes themselves to him.

They come to him and the covenant with their heavenly

Father. One man, one person's devotion,

sees an entire nation turned upside down.

Didn't we just sing? Lord, awaken your people.

Awaken Pretoria. Yeah.

We, we sing, I was thinking this morning, we sing exclamation

marks, but we kind of live question marks.

You know, it's like a question mark is, you know, an

exclamation mark that's been bent out of shape.

Hallelujah. But you go to work on Mondays.

The power, the difference is devotion.

So he devotes himself to God at the age of 26.

There's nation national revival. And he goes on to say this says

this is 2 Kings 22. Neither before nor after Josiah

was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did,

who devoted himself to the Lord as he did with all his heart,

all his soul, and all his strength in accordance with all

the laws of Moses. He's saying, I'm devoting myself

to your word and to your ways with all my heart, all my soul,

all my mind. And this is what Scripture, this

is what Titus is calling us to. He is calling us to devote

ourselves to Him because one man's devotion can see an entire

nation changed, but one man's devotion can see generations

changed. I don't know if you know this.

Have you ever wondered where Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and

Abednego came onto the scene? I have.

I suppose it's my job. Like, where do these cats come

from? You know, you got they're,

they're in exile. They probably saw the entire

family executed. They're in Babylon, the most

wicked nation in world history. And yet they are standing as

fire in the presence of God among the people.

How does that happen, young men? Well simply because if you look

at their family history you find that their families faith was

forged during the days of Josiah's devotion.

Because a genuine faith in the midst of genuine fake has power

to influence nations and generations.

And this is what we are calling you to.

This is what Titus is calling us to.

Now when we talk about one man's devotion, I often sit with

newlyweds or pre marriage counselling and I ask them this

question because this is real. This is real to me in terms of

the future of a marriage, of a family, the generations that are

coming after them. And I'll ask, do you know and do

you know what are the statistics when it comes to marriage and

divorce currently? Don't know.

If you know this is 5050. So says to them, why do you want

to get married? No, because we're Christians.

I'm like, OK, do you know what the statistics are of divorce

among Christians? 5050 No amens for that.

Which means now if we were to divide 3 CI in half, me and my

wifey, now that's a wake up call.

But there's one guy you might know him, Doctor Phil.

He's a Christian psychologist. No, he is.

He's a Christian psychologist. And he looked at this and he

thought like, OK, but that's not so true about my church.

And that's certainly not true about 3 CI either.

It's not a 5050. And so he did some scratching

around and he realized, you know, the reason why it's skewed

is because they've included in his words nominal Christians or

of Christians who lack devotion. He changed 1.

He took the same study, the same pool that they tested and he

changed 1 parameter and he said the following If the married

couples relationship with God is at the point where they value

praying together, it's no longer one in two.

It's now only one in 10,000 of these marriages that fail.

The power of devotion. And Doctor Tom Ellis thought,

yo, this is incredible. Maybe there's more.

And he says what we have discovered is that Christian

couples who get married and remain engaged in their church

community together, devoted to one another, put a high value on

pray devoted to one another and their relationship with God

devoted to one another. The divorce rate, then is only

one in 59,000 marriages. Because there's something about

the power of devotion. And you see, what I wanted to

show you is not that there's some silly idea how.

Yeah, this is acute sermon title, the series titled

November. It's not some silly idea so that

you can really earn some brownie points in November because we

all know you're going to properly screw things up in

December. And so maybe, just maybe, we

might just get you through to January like, you know, with a

few things intact. That's not why we're doing

November. We're also not doing November so

that we can have a devoted December.

We are doing November because that and that alone is what it

looks like to live a genuine faith.

That's what it looks like to live a life under grace.

So take a look. I'll close with this verse.

Titus 2, verse 11 says for the grace of God has appeared that

Titus 2:11

offers salvation to all people. That was my first point.

The grace of God appears that offers it's a free gift of

salvation to all people. And this grace teaches us to say

no, say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to devote

ourselves to live self controlled, upright and godly

lives in this present age. And those are my two points.

And that is my challenge to you. When you go home today, can I

ask you, do not go home with a genuine fake, but instead lay

hold of your genuine faith? Amen.