Tito 3:1-15

Mas lembra-lhes que estejam sujeitos aos principados e potestades, e que obedeçam aos magistrados, e estejam prontos para toda boa obra ( Tito 3:1 ),

Assim, aqui como em muitos outros lugares, o cristão é exortado a obedecer às autoridades governamentais que estão sobre nós. Não é apenas quando gosto do que eles estão fazendo, mas mesmo nessas áreas que acho muito irritante para mim. Mesmo nas áreas em que sinto que eles estão errados, ainda devo estar sujeito às autoridades que foram colocadas sobre mim. Romanos 13, Toda autoridade é de Deus. Esteja em sujeição, Pedro nos diz para estar em sujeição. Agora Paulo está dizendo a mesma coisa para Tito ensinar ao povo a obediência às autoridades governamentais.

Não falar mal de ninguém, não ser um brigão, mas ser gentil, mostrando toda a mansidão a todos os homens. Pois nós mesmos também éramos outrora insensatos e desobedientes, extraviados, servindo às nossas diversas concupiscências e deleites, vivendo em malícia e inveja, odiosos e odiando-nos uns aos outros ( Tito 3:2-3 ).

Agora, isso é muito parecido com o capítulo dois de Efésios, onde Paulo dá um contraste muito interessante antes e depois. "E vós, [disse ele] que estáveis ​​mortos em vossos delitos e pecados; que outrora andastes segundo o curso deste mundo, segundo o príncipe das potestades do ar, que ainda agora opera nos filhos da desobediência : Entre os quais todos vocês viveram, enquanto viviam segundo a concupiscência de sua carne e de sua mente; e eram por natureza filhos da ira, assim como os outros.

[A vida anterior] Mas Deus, que é rico em sua misericórdia, com a qual nos amou, e que nos fez assentar juntamente com Cristo nos lugares celestiais: E manifestou-se para que nos séculos vindouros pudesse manifestar as abundantes riquezas de sua graça e amor para conosco em Cristo. Porque pela graça sois salvos por meio da fé; e isso não vem de ti" (Efésios 1-8). Então, o antes e o depois.
Agora aqui temos o antes e o depois também. E no antes, ele divide em três seções. A primeira seção, são as coisas tolas que nós fizemos.

Pois nós mesmos também já fomos insensatos ( Tito 3:3 ).

É tolice desobedecer a Deus. A tolice foi marcada pela desobediência, como Samuel repreendeu Saul quando ele não eliminou totalmente os amalequitas e ofereceu alguma desculpa religiosa frágil por sua falha em obediência total. Eu os trouxe de volta para sacrificá-los. Ele disse: "Obedecer é melhor do que sacrificar e ouvir a Deus é melhor do que a gordura de carneiros" ( 1 Samuel 15:22 ). Na medida em que você não fez o que Deus lhe ordenou, você fez tolamente. É sempre tolice desobedecer a Deus.

A segunda manifestação de sua tolice é ele ser enganado. E que coisa enganosa é o pecado. Você se lembra de Sansão depois que seu cabelo foi cortado e Dalila disse: Sansão, os filisteus estão sobre você. Ele disse: Vou pular como antes, e ele não sabia que o Espírito de Deus havia se afastado dele. Ele foi enganado quanto a suas próprias capacidades e sua própria força. E uma pessoa que é enganada sobre a verdade de sua condição é tola.

Agora, a segunda categoria está sob a categoria de escravos, que é a mesma palavra grega "douleia", pois vocês eram escravos de suas "diversas concupiscências e prazeres". E é fácil para um homem tornar-se escravo de suas concupiscências, muito fácil. E ao seu redor você pode ver pessoas que foram escravizadas por sua luxúria, seu desejo de beber, seu desejo por álcool, seu desejo por sexo. Esses prazeres que eles perseguem, eles se tornam mestres sobre eles, tiranos governando sobre eles, e um homem pode se tornar facilmente escravizado por seus apetites carnais quando os levamos ao extremo.

A lista final está no estilo de vida, vivendo. Qual é o seu estilo de vida? "Viver na malícia e na inveja", o mundo ao seu redor. Tiago disse: De onde vêm as lutas e as guerras entre vocês? Eles não vêm de seus próprios desejos, sua luxúria? Você deseja e não tem. Você inveja aqueles que têm. Essa inveja, como ela é odiosa e como ela o torna odioso. E tão odioso e sendo odiado, o mundo ao nosso redor.

Paulo disse: É assim que éramos. Antes éramos tolos, éramos escravos vivendo um estilo de vida miserável cheio de malícia e inveja, odiosos e odiados. Mesmo quando ele deu o quadro negro em Efésios, concluindo que, por natureza, os filhos da ira, ele começou o versículo seguinte com a palavra "Mas", que é uma conjunção dissociativa. Como agradeço a Deus por essa conjunção dissociativa.

Aqui estou neste estado miserável, sem esperança e perdido, alienado de Deus por causa do meu estilo de vida, andando segundo a carne, negando as coisas do Espírito, mas Deus amou o homem naquele estado miserável caído. O amor de Deus venceu. Mas Deus, disse Paulo, que é rico em Sua misericórdia, com a qual Ele nos amou. E aqui tendo novamente listado essas coisas.

Mas depois disso apareceu a benignidade e o amor de Deus, nosso Salvador, para com os homens ( Tito 3:4 ),

Aqui estava o homem nesta terrível condição, ainda amado por Deus, e com o tempo o amor de Deus se manifestou. A bondade de Deus manifestada ao homem neste estado desamparado e sem esperança. Assim, o tempo juntos das idéias contrastantes, o homem em seu estado decaído e miserável e Deus em seu estado de amor glorioso, desejando redimir o homem perdido e miserável, mas depois que a bondade e o amor de Deus, nosso Salvador para com o homem, apareceram.

Não pelas obras de justiça que praticamos, mas segundo a sua misericórdia, ele nos salvou ( Tito 3:5 ),

Paulo, em Efésios, “Pela graça sois salvos pela fé e isto não vem de vós: é dom de Deus: Não vem das obras, para que ninguém se glorie” ( Efésios 2:8 ‑9). Então aqui ele declara que não pelas obras de justiça, que fizemos, isso não me salva, minhas obras de justiça nunca podem me salvar. Há apenas uma obra que pode me salvar e essa é a obra de Jesus Cristo.

E quando eles vieram a Jesus um dia e disseram: "O que devemos fazer para fazer a obra do Pai?" Jesus disse: "Esta é a obra do Pai, crede naquele que ele enviou" ( João 6:28-29 ). E assim, a única obra que lhe trará redenção é a obra de Jesus Cristo na cruz. E não há um único trabalho que você possa fazer para salvar sua alma da condenação que ela merece.

Mas ao crer em Jesus Cristo, Deus concederá a você perdão, perdão e vida eterna. Oh, as profundezas das riquezas da misericórdia e amor de Deus para conosco em Cristo Jesus. Não pelas obras de justiça que praticamos, mas segundo a Sua misericórdia Ele nos salvou.

When you come to God, we don't come to God and say, Oh God, justice, I want justice, but I come and say, God mercy, I need mercy. I deserve the judgment of God for my disobedience and rebellion against Him in my past life. But God is merciful towards me. God loves me. God has been so good and kind to me. And "not by the works of righteousness that I have done, but by His mercy He has saved me,"

by washing me with the regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Spirit (Tito 3:5);

That is that regeneration being born again by the Spirit. That's where I find my new life and that's where I find my hope. I've been saved by the work of God's Spirit within my life, that washing and cleansing of my sin and of my past. That's the glorious thing about the Gospel is no matter what might be in your past, what horrible, ugly things may exist there. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses a man from all sin, and by your coming to Jesus Christ there is a complete washing, a total obliteration of the past.

And as far as the east is from the west, so far has He separated our sins from us.
Aren't you glad He didn't say as far as the north is from the south He has separated our sins, because my sins would only be eight thousand miles away if I went straight through or twelve and a half-thousand if I went around. Because I can only go north so far and then I hit the North Pole and I start going south.

And there is a definite measurement between the North and the South Pole, eight thousand miles going through, twelve and a-half thousand miles going around. But He said as far as the east is from the west.
Now you start out east tonight and you can fly east the rest of your life or you can start out flying west tonight and you can fly west the rest of your life. You'll never fly east flying west, but you can ultimately fly south flying north.

The moment you hit the North Pole, you are flying south from the pole. As far as the east, did David figure that out when he said that or is that inspired of God? As far as the east is from the west, so far has God separated my sins from me. Oh, how good and how loving and how kind God is to me, a hopeless, miserable, wretched sinner. The washing, the regeneration, the being born again, a new creature in Christ and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, who renews me day by day.

Which he shed upon us abundantly (Tito 3:6)

Oh, how God has poured out His spirit of mercy and grace upon our lives because we needed it abundantly.

through Jesus Christ our Savior (Tito 3:6);

All that God has for you is wrapped up in Jesus. You don't get anything apart from Him. He is the package and it's all in Him, all-inclusive. This is the record God has given to us, eternal life; the life is in the Son. He who has the Son has life. God has given us peace; this peace is in the Son. He who has the Son has peace. God has given us love. He who has the Son has love. God has given us joy. He who has the Son has joy. It's all in Jesus. God has nothing for you apart from Jesus all wrapped up in Him, which He has shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

That being justified [having been justified] by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Tito 3:7).

So having now been justified; that is, declared innocent, declared righteous by God.
The word justified is a declaration of my total complete innocence. How can God do that when I am so guilty? Because all of my guilt was placed upon Jesus Christ and He died for me. So the forgiveness of God towards me is a total forgiveness, so total that my past will never be brought up to me by God.
Paul the apostle said in Romans chapter eight, "Who is he that shall lay any charge to God's elect?" Oh, he's a liar.

Oh, he's done this. Oh, he's guilty of that. And he said, "Who is going to lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" He said, "It is God who has justified." In other words know this, God isn't charging you with any wrong. The opposite, God has declared you totally innocent of all charges, justified you through Jesus Christ.
So being justified by His grace, we should be made the heirs. The effect of that is I am now an heir of God, of God's eternal kingdom.

The riches of the glory of eternal kingdom of God is mine. I'm the heir of God. I'm a child of God. And if a son of God, then an heir, an heir of God and a joint heir of Jesus Christ. Oh, the glorious work of God's salvation, not just saved from the wrath of God, that is to be revealed against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who hold the truth of God in unrighteousness. But saved for the glory of God, to experience the glory of God through all eternity as a child of God and as an heir of God, this hope that I have of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Listen, the world has nothing that can even come close to offering to you what God is offering to you tonight. If the world could offer you the whole world, with all of its glitter and all, it would be a sham compared with what God is offering you through Jesus Christ. Because if the whole world were yours, the glory of the kingdoms, the grandeur, the pomp, the circumstance, the adulation, how long would you have it? How long are you going to live? How many more years are you going to be here? Say you could have it for a hundred years, what is that compared with eternity?
Moses made a very wise choice when he chose rather to suffer the affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproaches of Christ, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. By grace, we've been saved, we become heirs, we have the hope of eternal life.

This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that you affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works (Tito 3:8).

Now you say, Oh that is the opposite of what you've just been telling us. No, it is not at all. It's the next step. By grace you have been saved through faith, not of works that we have done, but by the grace of God you are saved. But you that are saved need now to bring forth fruit unto righteousness by your good works. Your good works don't save you. They cannot save you, but your good works are a proof of your faith, for faith is active.

Believing is an active verb not a passive verb, and true belief will manifest itself in the works of a person's life. So that James said, You show me your works and I will show you your faith. You say you have faith, faith without works is dead. You don't really believe it.
Now if I would make a prophecy that Southern California is going to be shaken and wiped out into the Pacific tomorrow morning and you called me up.

Say I made the prediction for eight o'clock tomorrow morning, you call me up at seven-thirty and say, Still think it's going to happen? Oh yeah, if I'm still here? You'd say, Oh, he really doesn't believe it. But if you call me up and you got a recording that said, Sorry I'm not here I'm in Phoenix waiting for the big shake. You'd say, Hey, he must really believe it, his actions now are in keeping with his declaration.

My actions, my works, must correspond with what I declare to believe. If I truly believe it, then there will be corresponding works that will be a witness to what I am believing and declaring that I believe.
That's what the Bible is saying, so that if your works are not in harmony with your profession, your profession is a lie. It is empty and you'll never be saved by a lie. I believe in Jesus Christ.

Oh, great thing to say. Then let's see what it has done in the changed life. If you're still living after the flesh, if you're still doing the same old things that were a part of the past life, and yet you say, Oh, I believe Jesus is my Lord and Savior, you're a liar.
In the first little epistle of John, which we'll be coming to pretty soon, very shortly now, John is going to give us several professions that people make.

Oh, I walk in the light. Oh, great thing to say, isn't it, but if you say you walk in the light and are walking in darkness, you are lying, you're not telling the truth. Oh, I'm not sinning. Hey, hey, wait a minute. If you say you have no sin you make God a liar and the truth isn't in you. Oh, I abide in Christ, what a glorious thing. If a man says I abide in Him, that is a glorious thing to say.

But if you're abiding in Him then you ought to be walking as He walks. Oh, I love God. Another glorious thing to say. But I hate my brother. John said, You're wrong, you've got a mistake here. How can you love God whom you have not seen and yet hate your brother, whom you have seen, who was made in the image of God? So, it's not what I say, it's the works that prove my belief and my faith.
And so Paul said, "Now, affirm to those that believe in God, affirm constantly this truth, that they maintain good works". Let your works be in harmony with your declaration of faith.

But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies (Tito 3:9),

Ministers can become ensnared in so many foolish questions, which quite often are not really asked with an honest desire for an answer. And there's a difference between foolish questions and honest, serious questions. I have no time for foolish questions where a person is just wanting to cast doubt on the Scripture. Where did Cain get his wife? I'm always suspicious of a man who is interested in another man's wife. "Avoid the foolish questions, and genealogies,"

and the contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and they are vain (Tito 3:9).

They're a waste of time. Every once in a while I get caught up in them, some kid will come along and start asking questions just to create arguments. Sad.

[Now] a man that is a heretic (Tito 3:10),

And that's a man who believes something that you don't, his beliefs differ from yours.

after the first and the second admonition then reject him (Tito 3:10);

In other words, if he continues after you have admonished him twice, then reject him. Admonish him a couple of times. Give him a couple of chances. If he is a heretic and has got some weird doctrine, give him a couple of admonishments. And if he doesn't heed the admonishments then put him out of the fellowship, reject him.

Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sins, being condemned of himself (Tito 3:11).

Now he finishes the epistles with different little personal sides to the different ones.

When I shall send Artemas unto thee, or Tychicus, be diligent to come unto me in Nicopolis: for I have determined to stay there this winter (Tito 3:12).

So, he was going to send some relief to Titus. Either Artemas or Tychicus were going to go and take up Titus's position, so that Titus could meet Paul there in Nicopolis, where Paul was planning to spend the winter.

[Now,] bring Zenas the lawyer with you and Apollos (Tito 3:13)

Apollos that great interesting man that ministered in Ephesus and then later in Corinth. He became no doubt, a companion with Paul. I imagine they had a great time together because they were both so knowledgeable of the Hebrew Scriptures and they were both able to convince men mightily from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.
So, he wanted Zenas the lawyer, and Apollos, and take care of them.

don't let anything be wanting unto them. And let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful. All they that are with me, [greet] salute you. And greet them that love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Amen (Tito 3:13-15).

Carta de Paulo a Tito. Na próxima semana, chegaremos ao livro mais curto do Novo Testamento, o livro de Filemom. Mas as lições que estão em Filemom são gloriosas. Uma tremenda bênção no próximo domingo à noite, enquanto estudamos a intercessão do apóstolo Paulo, que nos dá uma pequena visão da intercessão de Jesus Cristo por nós. E assim será uma lição curta no próximo domingo à noite, mas dinâmica enquanto estudamos este livro de Filemom.

Que Deus esteja com você, e que Deus o abençoe, e que Deus o guarde no amor de Jesus Cristo, e que Deus o ajude a abundar em todas as boas obras, para a glória de Seu nome e de Seu reino. E que Deus o fortaleça em sua caminhada com Ele, em nome de Jesus. "