The sermon titled 'Titus: An Introduction' by Gustavo Barros provides an overview of the book of Titus in the Bible. The sermon emphasizes the importance of sound doctrine and godly living in the life of a believer. Paul, the author of the letter, addresses the church in Crete and warns against false teachers. The purpose of the letter is to instruct and encourage the believers in their faith and to counteract false teachings. The main themes of the letter include the power of the gospel to transform lives, the importance of sound doctrine for godly living, and the role of Titus as Paul's representative. The sermon highlights the need for Christians to adorn the gospel through their lives and to attract others to the beauty of Jesus.

As you are reading Titus keep an eye, keep an ear to the word Savior, Godliness or Godly, good works, sound doctrine. Those are very important words as you're studying the letter to Titus. Paul knows that the grace of God in Christ has the power to change a violent persecutor like Paul into a vigorous preacher. And he knows that the gospel, the grace of God in the gospel has the power to transform pretense into Christians. If you are in a healthy Church, under sound teaching, health diet, and your life is unhealthy.

Maybe you have a serious problem. You need to be saved. But that's not good. To be under sound teaching, Health Doctrine in your life is unhealthy in a man. Towards the end of Paul's letters, just before Philemon and then Hebrews.

So Titus, and I want to invite you to stand up as you read the letter to Titus. Here's the word of the Lord. Paul, I slave, I'm reading from the ESV just so you know. Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which leads to godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began, And at the proper time manifested in his words through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior, to tithe as my true child in a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. This is why I left to increase so that you might remain into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.

If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination for an overseer as God's steward must be above reproach he must not be arrogant or quick tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain but instead hospitable a lover of good self-controlled upright holy and disciplined he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as thought so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also rebuke those who contradicted 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.

To the pure all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but both their minds and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good works. Oh, here's chapter one, we could read the whole letter. I think it's good.

I wanna encourage you to keep reading, listening. Immerse yourself in this text as we start journey through this book, amen? So you may be seated. As I said, today we start a journey through the book of Titus and it's a small book, it's a short book, Especially compared to the other letters of Paul. Think about Paul's letters.

So for example, Paul's letters average around 1, 300 words. Paul's shortest letters to Philemon, only 335. Titus has 659 words. Romans, the largest one, the biggest one. Over 7, 000 words.

So as you come to Titus, you see that's a short book. It's a small letter, but it's very profound, very rich. As you study this letter, you're going to see that all the major doctrines are covered in this short book. So, you have theology proper, the doctrine of God, so you learn a lot about God. Actually, the word theos, God, is the word that most appears in this letter.

We have a deep theology of Christ, Christology, who Jesus is. You have the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. You have the doctrine of men. You have the doctrine of sin. You have the doctrine of salvation.

You have the doctrine of the church, all packed in this very short letter. It's a beautiful letter. But before We go into, as we are going to be doing, verse by verse, clause by clause, chapter by chapter. I think it's good for us to have an overview of the letter to know the landscape of this book. A lot of times you come to a book and you have no idea what's going on, where it is in the Bible.

And what I want to do today is, as the title says, to bring an introduction to the book of titles. Introduction literally means to bring someone who is outside to the inside, to lead someone in the inside. And that's what I want to do with you this morning just to help you to have a better grasp of Titus like a map. A lot of times it's good to to look at a map and see okay oh here are all the roads leading to the destination and that's what I want to do this morning. So the outline you're going to be looking at the background of Titus then you're going to look at the main character of Titus.

The main character is there will be Paul, Titus, the church, the false teachers. We're going to have the outline of Titus and then the purpose, themes, and message of the book of Titus. So that's my plan this morning. So as we come to the background, I'll give you the canonical and then the historical. What is canonical background?

It's related to the Canon. What is the Canon? We call the Canon of Scriptures. The books that we have that we consider as inspired by God. So the canonical background is where is this book in the Bible?

What can we learn about its place? What can we learn about this letter here as we are studying the whole Bible. Sadly many Christians have no idea about the Bible and if you were with me a while ago you remember that I did a series from creation to new creation teaching how the whole Bible is structured. So, as we come to Titus, we are coming to a letter, and we are coming to the New Testament. And you think about the New Testament, how the New Testament is divided, especially as we think about our division in our English Bible.

So you have the New Testament opens with the Gospels, and that's telling about Jesus coming, the new covenant being established. It moves from the Gospels narrative to acts that is also a narrative and then acts ends with Paul where is Paul when acts ends in Rome in jail and that makes us understand why the canonical we're putting the books together put Romans right there so the book of Romans comes right after X And then in this part of our Bible, the New Testament, starting from Romans, and you can see from Romans to Jude, it's about 21 letters. Out of these 21 letters, 13 belong to the Apostle Paul. So he wrote a lot of the letters in the New Testament. So as you're thinking about how the New Testament is structured as we come to Titus, so you think about you have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John teaching us showing how Christ Jesus has inaugurated the New Covenant.

There is a New Covenant, there is a new creation, all the expectations of the Old Testament being fulfilled now with Jesus. Then you move to the book of Acts that continues. It's a continuation of what Christ on earth started. Now Christ in the heavens through his spirit and his church is accomplishing. So that's narrative.

So you think about from Matthew to Acts you have narrative. And then we move to letters, the letters of Paul. Another, we have Jude, we have John, we have Peter, James. And all these letters now, they're going to be giving instruction to the people who belong to the New Covenant. So you have narrative and now you have a commentary.

It's God teaching us how to live in light of all the truth that took place. And then he finishes with the book of Revelation, that's the capstone. And it's fascinating as you think about the New Testament, how the New Testament is structured, and you compare to the Old Testament and there is similarities. And I'm using here not our English structure of the Old Testament because our English structure is coming from the Greek, but I'm using the Hebrew structure. The Hebrew structure is what Jesus says, the law and the prophets or the law, the prophets and the writings.

Remember, it's a three-part type division in the Old Testament. You have the law, you have the prophets and then you have the writings. And if you go to the Old Testament, you see you have the law, then you have former prophets, from Joshua to Kings, and it's narrative. And then comes the latter prophets, and it's the prophets explaining, telling how to live, how God's people are supposed to live in light of the previous revelation. Similar, you move to the New Testament, you have a very similar pattern.

Narrative, commentary narrative. So Stephen Dempster he says the New Testament consists of a similar pattern of the Old Testament with a storyline, Gospels and Acts, broken by a commentary, the Pauline letters and the general epistles, followed by the apocalypse, which brings the entire canonical storyline to a grand conclusion. Why is it important? Does it matter? Why am I talking about that?

Because the Bible is God's book. It's His story. It's His drama. And it's important to see how he structures because he's telling a story and then he stops to interpret. It's not up to us to decide what we want to define.

God interprets his own book and that's what we see even how the the Bible is structured. God is telling his own drama of redemption. So the narrative, Gospels, Acts, followed by a commentary is God's way of saying, now here's what you need to learn, that's how you need to live in light of what I have accomplished. So when you come to Titus, remember that when you come to the letter to Titus, you're coming to a section here in the Bible where God is teaching his new covenant people how to live. It's instructions for us to how to live in the between this time of inauguration and consummation of the new covenant.

Also another aspect as we are thinking about the New Testament, the canonical background, something that sometimes we do not realize is that how is the new covenant? There is a new literary genre for God's Word. What is a literary genre? It's a different type of literature. So you go to the Old Testament, you don't have letters being written to communicate spiritual truths.

Of course there are letters in the Old Testament, you have letters flowing, but you don't see the people under the Old Covenant instructing one another through letters. There's no need. They all live in the same place under the old covenant. It's one geographic location. Why?

What was in that place that was so important? The temple. The temple. God's presence was there. So, you think about why letters now If you don't have that in the Old Testament, why so much of the New Testament is latter?

And you need to understand the changing covenant. There is a change in the covenant. And yes, there is continuity, but there are discontinuities now between the Old and the New Covenant. Think about under the Old Covenant. God's people lived in one place.

The temple was there. So Mission-wise, the Old Covenant was much more centripetal. Mission-wise, under the Old Covenant, God's people were much more centripetal. What is that? The force coming.

The force they come to see. They're in a specific location geographically where people are passing they can watch. With the change of covenants, it's no longer centripetal, it's what? Centrifugal. It's going.

Sending people. And I'm not saying that there are no aspects of, of course in both covenants you have both aspects, but there is certainly an aspect where under the new covenant it's going. We don't have a holy land anymore. Everywhere the church is, it's a holy land. God is present there.

And now you think about it spreading throughout all the earth, how are they going to communicate but through letters? That's why letters are so important under the New Covenant. Not only that but letters in ancient times carried authority. When people received the letter from someone it was as if that person was present there. Especially if this letter belongs to an apostle the letters carried a lot of authority that's why Paul says in 2nd Thessalonians 3 14 he says if anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed.

You see, the letter carries the authority of the Apostle Paul who is an apostle of Jesus Christ so it's as if this document is bearing the authority of Christ himself. So that's why as you come to the New Testament you see how important letters are and that's what we're going to be studying a ladder. Think about also how God was orchestrating everything for they spread the coming of the New Covenant you have one basically universal language Greek you have a whole system of roads with the Roman Empire where these letters now can be taken to churches under the new covenant all over the place. And another important aspect of about these letters is they were never for private use only. They were for public use.

We are very selfish, self-centered as a culture. So you see people who they don't go to church and they say, oh I read my Bible at home. The Bible was never written for people to read at home by themselves. It was always a community, a community document. So even the letters, they're always written for public use.

The letters were very expensive to write. It's not like you just could get a piece of paper and write but it's stamp and send. No, people had to carry. It was expensive and those letters would come to one church and that letter would be start passing throughout other churches. Also there is a pattern and you can see throughout the the New Testament in the letters there's a very There's a pattern that is very visible as you're reading the letters and you see even outside the New Testament, and of course the New Testament sanctifies the format of letters, so you see often as you're reading a letter, you see that there is a salutation or a greeting.

Here is Paul, chew someone and then he says grace and peace. So there's always this salutation. Some of the letters they have a Thanksgiving section. So for example Ephesians has a long thanksgiving or a prayer of thanksgiving. Philippians also has a long prayer of thanksgiving and then you move to the body of the letter and That's where all the main teachings are there.

And with Paul, sometimes, some letters you have, the first part is doctrine, the second part is application. So for example, Romans and Ephesians, you're reading and you see that there's so much doctrine in the beginning, and then the second part is the application but not all his letters are like that and then there's a conclusion to a letter and that's where you have usually he's telling his plans his final words greeting benediction all in this and we see there was Titus so please turn with Titus turn to Titus with me and you can see the same structure of letters here. So you have from verses one through four, what do you have there? Greeting, salutation and then starting verse 5 up to chapter 3 verse 11 you have the main body of the letter and then from 12 to 15, what do you have? Conclusion, his final words, a benediction, grace be with you all.

So you see how letters are structured and as we come to these letters here especially the letter of Titus you get first Timothy, second Timothy and Titus they are labeled as yes the pastoral letters or the pastoral epistles. That's how they are known. The books of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. They're known as either pastoral letters or pastoral epistles. And why are they called pastoral letters?

Why did they label? Of course, that was not an inspired label. That's how, in a long, long time ago, scholars are already labeling these letters as pastoral. And I think they label as pastoral because it's showing the pastoral hearts of Titus, Timothy, they're supposed to be structuring the church, they're supposed to be organizing the church so there's this pastoral aspect, not only that it deals a lot of is those who are going to be pastoring the churches and it's important you think because Timothy and Titus they're not pastors in the sense or elders in the sense that we think They did not have the office that I have. They're not pastors in that sense, but they had a pastoral heart and they were supposed to be helping pastorally those churches.

And I think more than that, these letters are called pastoral letters especially Titus as you think about because right there you see the pastoral heart of the Apostle Paul. Paul was an apostle by office but he was a pastor by heart. He loved the churches. He died for the churches. And even as you're coming, first Timothy, Titus, second Timothy, that's towards the end of Paul's life and despite all the pain, all the suffering he went through, he loves the church.

And these letters here come as the capstone to his ministry. And even these letters, as we call pastoral letters, those are the only three letters addressed just to one individual. First Timothy, Second Timothy and Titus, they are the only three letters that are addressed specifically to individuals. But even these letters were supposed to be read publicly. And that's why you come towards the end, for example, of Titus, he's telling the whole congregation, he's talking to the whole body.

So that's the canonical background. I hope you get a better understanding where you are in the New Testament. As Christians, you must know your Bibles. You have a duty to know your Bibles, to know where you are, what book you're reading, how does it fit in the whole story of God's drama. Sadly, a lot of times the Bible reading is boring because we don't know the Bible.

We cannot put the story together. We don't know where we are. So that's the canonical. Let's move to the historical background. So the historical background is related to the history behind the church, historical events surrounding the writing of the letter.

And it's really hard to know how the church in Crete was established. We don't know how the first churches in Crete were founded, planted. We don't know. There are basically three theories as how the church in Crete was first planted. One, turn with me to Acts chapter 2.

Turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 2 And that's Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit. In verse 5 and 6 we read, Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speaking his own language. So you have Passover, all these Jews coming to celebrate the Passover and they stay for Pentecost And that's when the Holy Spirit comes and there is the church being established. And remember the Holy Spirit comes, He comes and then they are speaking in different tongues.

And these people from other nations can understand what they're listening and they're listening to the gospel in their own tongues and then Luke tells us some of the nations where people are coming and hearing the gospel so he says you start in verse 10 and visitors from Rome both Jews and proselytes, and then he says what? Cretans. Cretans. Right there, people from Crete. They were in Jerusalem that day listening to the preaching of Peter.

And who knows, we don't know, we don't know if some of them got saved and then went back to the island of Crete. So that's one theory is that those Christians from Crete that were there, they heard the gospel, they were saved and now they went back to Crete bringing the gospel. That's one theory. Another theory is if you go to Acts chapter 27, we hear about Paul as he's sailing to Rome, remember he was in prison, he's in chains and they're taking Paul to Rome and in Acts chapter 27 tells us that the the ship that was carrying Paul stayed in Crete for a little while. So some scholars they argue that when Paul was in Crete there during the short time that's when he spread the gospel and churches were planted.

And the third view is that once Paul is delivered from his first Roman imprisonment, that's the end of Acts chapter 28, once Paul is set free from that imprisonment, now he goes back and he starts his mission again carrying with him Titus and Timothy and he goes to Crete that's the they would say that that's where Paul is planting the church and then he leaves Titus there and he moves on to other places with Timothy. So, we don't know. Or maybe there are three options together. Who knows? We have no idea.

We don't know if this church was a baby church or if it was an older church. If it was an older church, imagine that was in the 30s when there was Pentecost and these people came to Crete. So by the time that Paul is writing this letter has been 30 years so maybe was an old church that died spiritually and they need to be renewed or maybe was a baby church that Paul had just planted and that's why he leaves Titus there we don't know but you see the beautiful thing is it doesn't matter it does It's good for us to think about, look at Acts, try to, but bottom line doesn't matter. The truth that we have there, the gospel that we have in this letter, it doesn't matter if we know for certain when this church and how this church was planted, amen. That's the beauty.

How about the date of writing? When did Paul write this letter? We don't know. If we don't know the circumstances, what most scholars believe and agree is that that's towards the end of Paul's life. So he can put in the middle 60s.

Why? Because there are a lot of similarities between Titus and the letters to Timothy. We know that 2 Timothy is written right before his death. 1 Timothy somewhere near Titus right there. So they say that was right before Paul's death when he was beheaded by Nero around 67 that's when he died 66 67 so they would say between 64 65 66 that's when Paul writes the letter to Titus so that's towards his the end of his life.

And he's riding to Titus, and where is Titus? What is his location? In Crete, the island of Crete. Has anybody here been to the island of Crete? Wonderful.

It's a large, it's a long island full of mountains it is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean lying approximately 60 miles or 97 kilometers southeast of Greece and 110 miles or 177 kilometers southwest of Turkey. It's a long island, a lot of mountains. If you want to see, here's the map where you can take a, or if you have in your Bible, probably if you go towards the back, you have maps in your Bible to show where Crete is. It's a distant place. The journey to get to Crete, let me tell you, was not the easiest one, especially in the first century.

Not like you could just get a plane and land there. No. The sea, shipwreck, all sorts of things facing as Paul and Titus go to the location. Crete as an island was composed of at least 20 cities by the time of Paul, some say between 40 and 20 cities, and Titus is supposed to go through most of the cities organizing the churches there. Crete as you go to the Old Testament was associated with Cat 4 in the Old Testament so you can if you're taking notes, Deuteronomy 2 23 or Jeremiah, Deuteronomy 2 23, Jeremiah 47 verse 4 all mentions cat four as the place of treat.

And that place had exiles from Rome, people from Egypt and a lot of people from Palestine. They had a large population of Jews and that helps us understand why there are false teachers teaching a mix of Judaism with Christianity in that church. Important also is you're learning about Crete because that's going to help us to see the background of the Christians in Crete. It's rich in mythology. So Minos or Minos from the Greek mythology was known as the ruler of Crete.

So if you know about Greek mythology, you know Minos or Minos, and he was the ruler of Crete, he was the son of Zeus with Europa. And then Minos will be taken the Cretan throne by the help of the god Poseidon. And there is the story of a bull that's placed there in the island. And this king was supposed to sacrifice the bull and he did. And then his wife falls in love with the bull.

And then they have the minotaurs or minotaurs, the Greek legend. And then they create the labyrinth. So if you know about Greek mythology, it's like, whoa, and it's all coming from Crete. It's all in Crete, all this mythology. So very polytheistic, worshiping many gods.

Cretans claimed that Zeus was born and that he died in Crete. So they would say that Zeus was born and he died in Crete and that's one of the reasons why they call the Cretans liars. First Zeus was not born there they would say in second Zeus never died. He could not die especially in Crete so that's one of the reasons why they were called liars. So one scholar Thomas Oden he says he notes that the Cretans were among the most despised, oppressed, and stereotyped people of the Mediterranean world.

The Cretans were viewed with disgust as barbarians. So Cretans had a reputation of being self-indulgent, belligerent, wild, immoral society, and if you remember in ancient times a place could become a verb. So you think about Corinth. To Corinthianize was to do a, to become sexually immoral. And to cretonize was to become a liar, a deceiver, an immoral.

So you have that same relationship happening. And so that's a dark place. Very similar to where we are. A very dark place. So you can see the Titus task was very difficult geographically because of the situation the mountains how to travel through reach the churches and especially spiritually and that's the theater You think about that's the theater They have the letter of Titus and that's the theater where the gospel of Jesus Christ is shining its light.

It's in this dark island of Crete with all these lazy gluttons, These beasts, these liars, that the grace of God appear, bring salvation to all men, even cretins. And that grace is Jesus Christ. And he came to the island through the preaching of his people. Okay, so we are gonna talk more about that, but at least I hope you have a good grasp of what we are dealing with and the situation of these Christians, where they're coming from, their background. We're gonna see that so much that Paul used the word God, Theos.

Why? Because they had so much drowning in them, the Zeus, the god of the Greek mythology. So we see how Paul is using the truth of the gospel to fight especially the lies that they had drawn up with. Okay so as we come to the main characters in this letter in this book the main characters human character speaking of course is Paul the apostle you have Titus and then you have the church the Christians in Crete and then you have the false teachers I'm gonna develop more as we go through the letter talk about who the false teachers were what they were teaching talk more about the church as we go through. Just so you remember Paul, Paul is the author of the letter.

He's the one writing this letter. He's the apostle of grace. Why? Because he had been conquered by grace. He knew about grace very in a very personal way.

He knows the power of the gospel. Paul knows that the grace of God in Christ has the power to change a violent persecutor, like Paul, into a vigorous preacher. And he knows that the gospel, the grace of God in that gospel has the power to transform cretins into Christians. That's the author, he knows. And then you have Titus.

Who is Titus? Titus. Who is Titus? Titus is one of Paul's most faithful companions. He is Greek and I love how Andreas Kossenberg writes about him.

That's how he talks about Titus. The army has its green berets, and the navy has its seals. When a special assignment looms, battle-tested and well-prepared soldiers are needed to get the job done. Titus was such a soldier. Over time, Titus became one of Paul's most trusted co-workers.

Thus, it's no surprising that Paul appointed him to the challenging task of helping evangelize the island of Crete. And what's fascinating is that you never see titles in the book of Acts. And that is to remind that Acts is a very selective history. There is a whole purpose in the book of X. Luke is just trying to show us how there is this continuation between what Christ accomplished on earth, what he's accomplishing from heaven, and how the gospel spreads from Jerusalem to the ends of the world and that's Rome.

So it's very selective so we don't see you don't find Titus in the book of Acts but we know by other letters of Paul so for example Galatians 2 so we think about if Paul got saved the conversion of Paul around 34 AD somewhere there and then we are in Galatians chapter 2 tells about Paul going to Jerusalem for the Jerusalem Council to confront, remember they're debating what to do, is the Gentile Christians who get saved, should they adopt the Jewish laws, so Paul goes there and that's about 46 AD and Titus is already present, He's already present with Paul. So if this letter was written around 66, 65, and Paul, when he goes to Jerusalem, he's already bringing Titus in 46, That means that Titus has been with Paul for how many years? Over two decades he has been walking close to Paul. Twenty years with Paul and Paul was not an easy man to be around. He was not easy.

20 years. In Galatians chapter 2 we learned Titus was a Greek, a Greek man and he became a living example of how Gentiles were saved by grace and in no need of circumcision. So Paul brings Titus with him and he displaced Titus to all the people in the Jerusalem Council. No, look at this man here, he was saved by grace, he does not need to be circumcised and he's a Greek and he's following me in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Titus, his role, we can label him as a representative or a delegate of Paul.

He is supposed to represent Paul. He's called as a delegate. He carries in some sense the authority of Paul. He served alongside and he represented Paul in some very difficult situations and that's why Paul tells and you can turn with me to Titus 3, Titus 3 15, 2 15. Paul says, declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no one disregard you.

He is a delegate of the apostle Paul. To reject Titus is to reject the apostle Paul, and to reject the Apostle Paul is to reject the one who sent him, Jesus Christ. So Titus was one of Paul's right hand, always helping Paul. You read the letters to the Corinthian churches, it's amazing because that church was a mess, Paul and the Corinthians have this messed up relationship, always some issue between them, and guess who is always there to help? Titus.

He's the one that Paul is always sending to Corinth and he wants to go, he wants to help the relationship between them. So we read about Titus and the time is flying. So we read about Titus. Let's move fast here. 2 Corinthians 8.

So for example, verse 16 through 17, Paul says, but thanks be to God who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you. Look at Paul says, this man has the same zeal that I have for you. For he not only accepted our appeal but being himself very earnest he's going to you of his own accord." Or 2 Corinthians 8 23, as for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for your benefit. 2 Corinthians 12 18, I urge Titus to go and send the brothers with him. Did Titus take advantage of you?

And the answer is of course not. Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps? Meaning Paul could trust him that he would never take advantage of anyone. Or Titus 1 4, to Titus my true child in the common faith.

Paul calls him his son, my child, implying that probably he was saved through the ministry of Paul. So Titus was deeply loved, respected and honored by the Apostle Paul. Paul says that Titus shared the same concerns and affections. Why? Because both of them were in Christ and both had the heart of Christ.

If you go to 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy just before Titus. 2 Timothy chapter 4. Those are Paul's last words. There we have recorded.

And in verse 10 of chapter 4 Paul mentions Titus and Paul is saying that Titus now went to Dalmatia, Dalmatia, whatever you want to call it. Why? It seems most scholars agree that Titus completed his task in Crete, he finished his assignment and then he went, met with Paul and Paul sent him to another mission right before he died. So a difficult task requires a man who is humble and capable of persevering under trial and this man is Titus. The outline here's just a outline that I think helps us to, and every time you're studying a book, especially letters or, I always create an outline so you know where you are in the book.

That helps us, helps you to know what he's dealing with. Even as later you go to a book, you kind of know where to find yourself. I will send you these notes and I'm not I don't have time to go through the whole online I was planning on going briefly through how these sections are structured but enough to say that Paul he's always mixing exhortations with gospel declarations exhortations to the church with gospel declarations why because all the duties all the requirements they're flowing from what Christ has accomplished for us. We don't do that, we don't do that in order to gain that, we do that because Christ has already done in us and we can do that. Let's move finally to the purpose, theme, message of this letter as we get ready to embark on going verse by verse, not today of course, but the next few Sundays.

And one of the, I was talking to Teresa, one of the aspects of listening to the letter to Titus is that sometimes you can see the repetition of a word, you can listen and say whoa here's this word being repeated again. Of course you can do the reading, especially a short book like that, but there are some key words that are gonna be played by Paul that will help us to understand the symphony of the theology that Paul is orchestrating here. As I said, the most used word is God, theos, 13 times in the short letter, implying that this is a God-centered letter. But as you are reading Titus keep an eye, keep an ear to the word Savior, godliness or godly, good works, sound doctrine. Those are very important words as you're studying the letter to Titus.

Savior, godliness, good works, sound doctrine. And as you go to Titus chapter 1, Titus chapter 1, and the first line, the first verse will help us to see, I'll say the first five verses are key here to understand the purpose and the main themes of Paul. So for example, if you go to verse five of Titus 1, let's go first to verse five. Paul is explaining the reason, what is the purpose, why he is writing, and why this letter, and why Titus is there. And he says, this is why I left you in Crete, he's telling Titus.

And why did he leave Titus in Crete? He tells us. Why? Look at that. So that you might put what remains into order.

The reason why he's writing, the reason why Titus is there, is because there are things that are disorderly in the church. The Greek word was used even to put things straight, like if you had a broken bone, it's just you put things correctly, straight. And that body of Christ in Crete had some fractures because of the false teachings. And Titus needs to come alongside and help placing godly men in leadership who will help those churches now to be straightened up and grow into mature manhood. In verse 10 Paul shows us chapter 1 verse 10 look at that for there are many who are insubordinate empty talkers and deceivers especially those of the circumcision party implying that there are false teachers now in Crete who have a foothold in the church and they are creating damage in the church.

There is a sense of urgency in Paul's writings. I like what Frank Thumann says. He writes the following. Paul's primary concern in the letter is that this perverse teaching will continue to lead to evil behavior, which will in turn bring public discredit on the church's trustworthy message about God. This concern about the connection between the quality of one's knowledge about God and the quality of one's behavior dominates the latter.

Deceptive teaching about God will inevitably lead to a corrupt conscience and evil deeds. False unhealthy teaching doctrines will lead to a healthy life? No. False unhealthy doctrines will lead to a unhealthy lifestyle. And now if you go to verse 1 you're gonna see that Paul has that in mind since the beginning.

So he opens, he opens a letter, but I say Paul is slave of God and apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of what? The truth. Sound doctrine, the truth. And it could translate that produces godliness. So you start seeing how Paul's major concern here is that right doctrine will produce what?

Right living, right practice. Bad teaching leads to what? Bad living. So Aiken says the short three chapter 46 verse letter reads beautifully the Christian sonnet of doctrine and deeds, belief and behavior, conduct and creed. And that's what's lacking in the church in America.

So many people, why doctrine? Doctrine divides. We don't need to study And look at the state of the church. So I believe that the main theme here is if you're thinking about a symphony that the note that's playing throughout this letter to Titus, I would say is that sound doctrine leads to godly living And this makes the gospel beautiful. Becomes like an adornment to the gospel.

We see that there is a serious emphasis on sound doctrine. So for example, chapter one, verse nine, he talks about the elders to need to give instruction in sound doctrine and then verse 13 in chapter 2 verses 1 through 2 verse 8, Paul is constantly talking about sound doctrine. Sound doctrine, the word for sound there, was used for people who were healthy, well-being. So that's the opposite of being sick, ill. That's the completely opposite.

And pulse is a vital connection between health teaching and healthy living. Doctrine which the Christian diet, we must be eating of sound doctrine, will certainly produce a healthy lifestyle. If you eat a lot of junk food, if you eat unhealthy, what happens? No healthy lifestyle, right? The same applies in the spiritual world.

You're eating garbage, you're gonna have an unhealthy life, spiritually speaking. And if you are in a healthy church under sound teaching and health diet and your life is unhealthy, then you have a serious problem. You need to be saved, because that's not good. To be under sound teaching, health doctrine in your life is unhealthy and a mess. Godly, El Zebya, that's a Greek word they're going to be seen throughout Titus.

Godly lives, we all have our ideas of what Godly is. Godly is wearing a long skirt for some people. Godly means not going to the theater, not dancing. We have all these ideas of what godly could be. Godly lives refers to the integrity, the wholeness of life that matches with the truth of the gospel.

Mouse, one commentator, he says that godliness is speak of the total commitment of one's life to God with emphasis on the practical artwork of the faith. And Paul is going to be talking a lot about godliness. Why? Because that's the fruit of the truth, the sound teaching. As you are under sound teaching, as you're receiving sound healthy doctrine, your life will be turned into a godly life.

It must be. And here's the thing, what we believe affects how we live and how we live affects how people see the gospel. Amen? What you believe affects how you live, and how you live affects how people see the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen.

And that's why there must be sound doctrine, godly living, and that makes the gospel beautiful, adorns the gospel. When we adorn ourselves, we are trying to make ourselves more beautiful. Adornments serve as enhancement. But the Christian life is we must be adorning ourselves, not so people can see us, but you see whom? I no longer live Christ lives in me.

That they might see Christ's clothes in me. That's why Paul says that in the churches, pastors are supposed to be attractive. Not in the sense that you're thinking, but in the sense that the gospel tells. They are the first ones they must hold to sound healthy doctrine and their lives must resemble that godliness. You've got to look at the pastors of a church and see those men beautifully dressed with Jesus Christ, clothed with the gospel, but not only pastors because you go to chapter two, look at chapter two, And suddenly Paul is telling that the older men, older women, younger men, younger women, you all, you all must be adorned with Christ.

The church is supposed to be beautiful. And look at verses nine through 10. Paul talks to these slaves that he comes towards the end here of this admonitions to the whole church and there is slaves in the church and Paul says his slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything there to be well pleasing or not argumentative not pilfering but showing all good faith. Why? Why?

So that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. And what Paul is telling these slaves, he's telling all Christians because we are all slaves of Jesus Christ. So all our lives must be in a way, as Paul says here beautifully, that we may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. So my prayer is that as we're studying the book of Titus, as we're going through this book, as the Lord is feeding us sound doctrine, that our lives would not be the same, that we would become more and more godly, change, transformed, and as we become more and more into the Christ-likeness, that would become attractive, that people would see something different in this church, and that is that there is Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is living with us. And my prayer is that our lives will be so faithful to Christ, that there will be a centripetal force attracting others to see the beauty of Jesus in the life of this congregation.

And they're gonna look at this church and they're gonna see what Paul says. They're gonna see the Savior who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Christ is ready to change us. Christ is ready to change you. And today is the day.

Run to Him. Run to Him. He wants to wear you as a beautiful necklace around His neck to show the power of His grace in your life. So may the Lord help us as we embark on this glorious book. Amen.

Father, we are so thankful that your ways are not our ways. We cry out to you to help us. We pray your blessing upon this new journey as we go through the book of Titus and we enter this journey with joy, trepidation, fear, excitement because you know that your word will not return void and we know that you love to humble us and change us, crucify us. We pray as we start walking through this glorious Spirit inspired book that you change us, feed us, feed us sound doctrine, so that we may walk in holiness, godly lives, and by walking godly lives that people would see the all-conquering grace of the Lord Jesus in our lives. So please deliver us from ourselves.

Those here who just like us were by nature cretins, evil beasts, lazy gluttons, liars, immorals, that they will run to Christ and find forgiveness in the one who loves to transform cretins into Christians. Algo, riviji, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you. You