The sermon explores the book of Titus, focusing on its message about God's will for the church. The speaker discusses the authorship of the letter, emphasizing that Paul, a bond servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, wrote it to guide the church in understanding its mission, leadership, and conduct. The repeated theme of 'good deeds' is highlighted as integral to the identity and purpose of the church, underscoring that God's people are called to live out their faith through actions. The sermon stresses the importance of grace and peace from God as the foundation for all church activities and individual obedience. It also emphasizes the role of the Word of God in transforming believers and guiding the church's mission, encouraging the congregation to remain committed to the teachings of Titus as a means to align with God's will.

Several months ago, Pastor Matthew and I were discussing which book of the Bible should follow Mark's Gospel. And as we discussed and prayed over the matter, and as I kept making Mark longer and longer, it gave us more time. And we kept coming back to one simple truth. Our body, our people, this church, we need to have a firm grasp on God's will for His church. What is God's will for the church?

What's our mission? Who are we? Who should we be appointing as elders and deacons? Do we need elders and deacons? How should we be ordered?

How should we live? Essential questions that our body needs clearly answered. And there is no better book for those purposes in our minds than the book of Titus. Because Titus in one sentence is exactly this, God's will for his church. God's will for his church.

So Titus. And my aim this morning is to show you why that's the case, why Titus communicates on a basic level God's will for his church. So let's begin then to see that with examining the author of this epistle. Who is the author of Titus? What's the answer?

Paul. It is the first word of the first verse in Titus. Sorry, I'm not there in my Bible. Paul wrote this letter, the Bible says so, and the author is Paul. So what else does verse one tell you about Paul?

Well, Paul is a bond servant of God, that could be translated slave of God, Paul, a bond servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. So I want to examine real quickly as we consider the author of this pastoral epistle who is Paul, namely, bond servant and apostle. And so let's look there at first the word bond servant. Bond servant. Paul, a bond servant of God.

You see it there in the opening verse, but even more you see it in what Paul writes in Titus chapter 2 verse 14. Turn to chapter 2 and look at verse 14 with me. Titus 2 verse 14. Verse 14. Christ Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed.

What's Paul saying there? Christ redeemed us from every lawless deed. For what reason? That we give ourselves over to righteous deeds, good deeds. That's chapter 2, verse 14.

Redemption. You don't use the word redemption unless you're talking about slavery. Being bought. It's the same thing that Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. God has redeemed you.

God has redeemed this assembly, He's redeemed this church. He has bought you with a price. He's bought us as a church with a price for what reason? To glorify God. To glorify God with our bodies.

That's 1 Corinthians 6 verse 20. Beloved, I need you to hear this. The book of Titus is going to show us time and time again what it means to be a people who belong to Jesus Christ corporately. What it means to be a people of bond service, slaves to God as His church. Titus is going to show us that clearly.

Slaves obey their masters. And so the Christian, you, God's church, you give yourselves to good deeds. You give yourself to the obedience as God commands in his word. I'm not sure if you noticed in our first reading through this epistle, but did you notice that phrase good deeds at all? If you were looking for any kind of repeated words or phrases, that phrase is all over this short letter, saturated with the phrase good deeds.

And so Paul makes it very, very clear to us as a church, God very, very, very much cares about what you do. God very much cares about what we as a church do. Deeds matter to him. Obedience matters to God. That's why he saved you.

It's why he redeemed you for his glory. That's Ephesians 2 10. For we his church are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Look at the end of verse 1, Titus chapter 1. Paul is a bond servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of those chosen by God and the knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness.

Those chosen by God give themselves to the knowledge of the truth which is in His Word and it results in godliness, good works. The chosen of God give themselves to the knowledge of God and they strive to obey God in godliness. See the logic there, that's verse one. And so that's a wonderful thing that we're going to be seeing consistently as we work through this letter, how doctrine, how the truths of our salvation, how the power of God in his gospel works itself out through our fingertips and the way we engage in good deeds. Titus is going to teach us, friends, that yes, God has an elect.

It's God who grants faith, And a man is justified by faith alone and Christ alone. But that faith that justifies, that comes from God, that faith has a really good friend called obedience, good deeds, a precious friend who follows him hand in hand wherever he goes. Titus is going to teach us, church, that it is a delight of a bond servant of God. It is the delight of one made born again for the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the delight of the Christian to obey the Master that He loves.

It's the delight of the Christian to obey the One that purchased Him at the cost of Christ's blood. If you love Me, Jesus says, obey My commandments. And God through His Son has freed you to love the Son, to no longer hate the Son, but to love the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And so because you love Him, and because He's bought you with a price, you glorify Him and obey Him in keeping His commandments. That's the language of bond servants in verse 1, and we see the same language of bond servants and slave.

We see it in another place. If you look in chapter 3 of Titus, so I've showed you in chapter 1, I've showed you in chapter 2, now look in chapter 3. Chapter 3 beginning in verse 3. Chapter 3 beginning in verse 3. For we also, once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.

But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us. Not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. This is crucial. What is the condition that Paul says you were in before the Spirit of Christ came in and regenerated you? Look at the beginning of verse 3 that we just read.

Chapter 3, verse 3. What's your condition prior to Christ? Enslaved. Enslaved to various lusts. You were a slave to lust.

You were a slave to your sin. A bond servant of sin. But God made you alive. It's a miracle. You couldn't break the shackles.

God did. God made you alive. What does it say there in the text? For what reason? God made you alive.

Look at the end of chapter 3 verse 8. Look at the end of verse 8 in chapter 3. What's the reason that God made you alive? What's the reason He set you free from your bondage to sin. End of verse 8.

So that you would be careful to engage in good deeds. Good deeds. That's Titus chapter 3. So I want you to put it all together. Paul says here in Titus, in chapter 1, in chapter 2, in chapter 3, here in Titus, Paul says exactly what Jesus said in the Gospels, You have to be a slave to somebody.

You're going to serve somebody or something. It's not whether you'll be a slave or not. No, it's not whether, but which. It's not whether you're a slave, but whose slave you're going to be. Who do you belong to?

Who do you serve? Who is your master? And the answer that Paul gives is simple. Before the Holy Spirit of God came in, before He saved you, before He saved Paul. Paul was a slave to sin.

But now by the grace of God in Christ Jesus, Paul says in Titus chapter 1 verse 1, I'm a slave to God! A slave to Christ. Paul is declaring to you at the beginning of the book, I have been redeemed, I have been rescued from my sin and my slavery to it. God redeemed Paul from his slavery to sin. God saved Paul, formerly a bond-servant of sin, and God made Paul His own.

A bond-servant of Christ. And He's done it to every single one of you in this room chosen of God. The rest of Titus tells you from that verse, the rest of Titus tells you multiple times that's a miracle that that's happened to you. It's a miracle for you to be a slave of God Because you used to be all in on sin. And yet God redeemed you.

He purchased you at the cost of His Son's life. Christ the Son went to a cross, was crucified there. And then he was raised up from the dead, so that in him, your old self would be crucified, and in him, you would be raised from the spiritual dead, to newness of life, and one day, be physically, bodily resurrected on the last day. I just want you to think of it for just a moment. Think of it.

Think of Jesus being your master for just a moment. Some people think, man I don't like the word slave because, well, I thought he freed me up. I thought he freed me from being a slave to sin, so now I'm free, but now he's saying I'm a slave again. Beloved, you just got a bad idea of what freedom is. To be the absolute freest is to be a slave of Jesus Christ.

Your master, I mean what a master to obey. What a master to be a slave in his household. The author of life. What a Lord to follow in His presence is fullness of joy. Fullness.

You know what the word fullness means in the original language? Fullness. To be a slave of God is to be alive. To serve the Lord is to drink from the wellspring of life, everlasting life, everlasting Joy, everlasting satisfaction. What a contrast that is to sipping from broken cisterns full of poison when you were a slave of sin.

Some in this room, I believe, are slaves to sin. Do you hear the offer from Paul in Titus this morning? If you have not, Let me say it clearly. This morning, repent, flee from your sin, cling to Jesus Christ crucified and raised up for you, and you will be freed from your sin, your slavery to sin, And you will forever belong to God. Children, I'm talking to you.

I'm talking to you. If you repent and trust in Jesus this morning, you will be blessed forever. Forever. You'll be happy. Blessed, happy are the people whose God is their Lord.

That's Psalm 144, verse 15. Paul, a bond servant of God. I just think, what a way to open a letter. We need this instruction, church. We really need it.

Paul, the bond servant. But what else is Paul called? Well, look again at chapter 1, verse 1. He's called an apostle of Jesus Christ. Paul, a bond servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ.

Paul, an Apostle. What's an apostle? Well, an apostle was someone who had seen the resurrected Christ, and he was sent out by Jesus the Christ to preach the gospel, to establish the Church of Jesus Christ on the Holy Scriptures. Had Paul seen the resurrected Christ? You bet he had.

Acts chapter 9, Paul's converted on his way to Damascus. He's on his way to go persecute Christians. And on his way to persecute Christians, he becomes a Christian. Jesus appears to him and he sets Paul, formerly Saul, Paul to go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Paul is sent to the nations as an apostle to lay the foundations of Christ's church in the world.

What does Paul do in the book of Acts? That's what he does. He lays the foundation upon which Christ will build his church in the world. And at the end of Acts, we see that the foundation has been laid. And so now Paul sends out men whom he's discipled.

Men like Timothy and men like Titus. Men who could build upon the foundation that Paul is laid as an apostle. So let's read it together. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, this is verse one, of those, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, with the faith of those chosen of God, that's the church, and the knowledge of the truth, that's the holy scriptures, which is according to godliness and the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago. Titus has been commissioned by Paul the apostle to continue the work that Paul has begun and Paul told Titus right that this work was promised Long ago.

This work is a sure work. God cannot lie. And God has made a promise to see His church built. We talked about that two Lord's days ago. That's why we talked about it.

Because of what Paul says in Titus. God cannot lie. Well, What did the God man say? I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail. I want you to just consider this.

Verse 2 of Titus chapter 1 would have been a really big deal for people like Titus and other Greeks like Titus. So the Cretans, where Titus is at. Verse 2, if read in front of the church in Crete, that big old island. I'm going to show you a map next Lord's Day. Verse two would have been a really, really, really big deal for the people there.

Cretans were Greeks, and their gods were anything but honest. The Greek gods were anything but promise keepers. I've been reading the Greek classic by Homer, the Iliad, from time to time. It's not something that you can just cover to cover. I mean, maybe you can if you're a genius.

But I just read it from time to time when I'm not reading nonfiction. So when I need a break I'll read it and several times as I've been reading through the Iliad I'm about three-thirds, three-thirds, three-quarters of the way through. And it's mentioned Crete several times. Well, this you're going to see in this letter to Titus. Titus has been left in Crete.

So Crete's mentioned several, several times. And what has struck me the most in reading the Iliad is The absolute fickleness of the false gods of the Greeks. That's what you think on this for just for just a moment these are the the gods of the pagans And the Greek gods are constantly fighting in the Iliad. That's what they believed about the gods. They're constantly fighting amongst each other.

The gods don't agree on anything. And even the supreme God, the supreme false God, Zeus, in the story of the Iliad, he's so weak. I mean, he makes promises and he doesn't keep them. And then he constantly changes his mind. I mean, At one point in the story, I just read this two days ago, he gets seduced.

He's helping the Trojans, and he gets seduced away from helping the Trojans, and the Greeks start winning him. I mean, it's just ridiculous. And you're reading it going, that is absolutely embarrassing. And so the Cretans, they know better than to trust their gods. They know better.

They know very much that Zeus very much lies. They know very much that Zeus is very much fickle and not trustworthy. They know that. And so what a contrast to them. This would be.

What a contrast then to the one true living God found in the Holy Scriptures who cannot lie. Here is Paul in these verses reminding Titus, the gods of the Greeks, the Cretan gods, they will not be able to thwart you. They will not carry the day in their fickleness. Why? Because you Titus, you belong to the God who cannot.

You belong to the God whose promises are unbreakable. You serve the God whose will is perfect and unchanging, whose promises have never been thwarted ever. And He has promised long ago that the Savior would come. The Word made flesh would come. God in the flesh would come.

And at the proper time, He did. He came. And He is the one true God and Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord, who was and is and always will be. He's the eternal and promised One who lived a perfect life and died a substitutionary death on the cross for sinners, and he rose victorious over that sin, victorious over Satan, victorious over all of Satan's minions, victorious over all the false gods of the world. Paul is saying to Titus, that's the hope you have in doing what I've called you to do Titus.

God cannot lie. And Jesus, who is God, has promised, I will build my church. And Jesus makes Zeus look like a little grain of sand. And that's the reason that Titus, that you, that I, we as a church, that's the reason that we can have the peace that is mentioned in verse 4 of chapter 1. Because in God's grace, He's given to you Crossroad Church, He's given to us, His precious and magnificent promises, all of which are yes and amen in Jesus Christ His Son, who cannot lie.

Again, that's why Paul ends his introduction in verse 4 with grace and peace because Jesus triumphed. There is no grace and peace unless Jesus triumphed. And He did. Grace and peace because Jesus' promises are true. Grace and peace because His Kingdom is forever.

So verses 1-3 of our passage this morning, Titus 1-3, they are in a very real sense. Paul urging Titus to stand on God's promises. God cannot lie and it was he who said that the gates of hell will not prevail, God will not be floored, almighty God will not be mocked. Titus, you can stand firm. Crossroad Church, you can stand firm.

We must stand firm as a church on this, the knowledge of the truth, His Holy Scriptures. And that's why the climax of our Lord's Day gathering, every Lord's Day is preaching. Because the proclamation of His Word, entrusted to and written down by Paul and the rest of the apostles and the prophets and long ago and the ages ago, What God has given to us in His Word, the knowledge of the truth, which results in godliness. That's what's proclaimed from this pulpit. And do you understand what that means?

It means that through the hearing and the preaching of His Word, faith comes. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. So that's why we elevate the Word of God. That's why we place the Bible, We put preachers behind this great big pulpit because we are communicating something You must know the world must know we must be reminded that this Proclamation of God's almighty perfect scripture. It matters.

God says so. And God says his will for the church is to be built, for his church is to be built on the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. That's why this book is big. That's why this pulpit is here. It's why we elevate the Word.

So we place the Bible, put the preacher behind this great big pulpit, because the proclamation of God's Word matters. It is essential. And so the Church of God must give themselves to the supremacy of the Word of God. It's the word proclaimed that God uses to save His people. It's the word proclaimed that transforms His chosen people, you, this church, by the renewing of your minds.

No Bible, no transformation. The Word is everything. The Word is crucial. It's the Word read, it's the word heard, it's the word proclaimed, that even gives substance to these sacraments. I want you to look up here for just a second.

It's not an accident that the elements are right there. Where are they? They're below the word. Well, you just think about this for just a moment. We have juice and bread.

Tomorrow when you wake up and you rummage around in your cabinet, your pantry, you might Find a piece of bread and eat it. You might take a little juice and drink it. It's just a snack. That's just a snack. What's this?

Is this a snack? What changes this from no longer being a snack, but being the body and blood of Jesus. What changes it? The Word. The Word.

Proclamation of God's Word. That's why it's placed right there so you know This is different than what's in your cabinet. What we're doing is different than eating a snack. Massively different. It's massively different.

It takes on a radically different meaning because it's here on the Lord's day and it's after the proclamation of God's Word. Our body, our church, I want to thank God for you for a moment. Our body by the grace of God loves the Word of God. I praise Him. We should praise Him for such a reality.

And I just want to say publicly, I thank God for you, church. I thank God for you. I thank God for the work that He has done and is doing right now in you and amongst us. My heart during the week leaps for joy as I pray for you. And I see you hungering and thirsting for righteousness, so I want to encourage you to keep pressing on in that.

Don't lose that love. Don't lose your desire and thirst and hunger for righteousness. Press on. Let's go harder. Keep encouraging your pastors to do the same, would you?

Encourage your pastors week after week in their labors as they prepare for you the feast For the market day of your souls, pray for us. The ministry of the Word is crucial. You take it away, you take away the church. Please keep pressing on. Keep coming on Sunday mornings hungry.

And keep encouraging your pastors. Paul, a bond servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of those chosen of God, and the knowledge of the truth, which is according to Godliness. That's Paul. That's the author of this letter. And that is verses 1 through 3.

So what does verse 4 tell us? Well verse 4 shows us the audience. The audience. Who's this letter written to? Verse 4, to Titus, my true child and a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus our Savior now just an aside if you've ever wondered yourself or maybe you have a friend that has a question whether is Jesus the son, is he really God?

Is Jesus the son the same as God the father? Is Jesus God? If that's a question that you have or perhaps your friend has, you don't have to wonder anymore about that question. Paul makes it clear here in the beginning of his letter to Titus, Jesus is God. I thought I might point that out just for a moment.

You'll note there at the end of verse four, Paul says, God the Father and Christ Jesus the Savior. See that? God the Father, Christ Jesus the Savior. It's the end of verse four. Just the verse prior, at the end of verse three, Paul uses the titles God our Savior.

See that there? So God is the Savior in verse 3 and the Savior is Jesus in verse 4. You see that? God is the Savior in verse 3 And Jesus is the Savior in verse 4. Thus God the Savior is Jesus.

One God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And this is a very Trinitarian book. Paul mentions, we've read it already, Paul mentions the Holy Spirit later on in the letter. But just so we can, again, recognize that the Bible's absolutely and fundamentally clear on the truth, Jesus is God.

And Paul says so in Titus chapter one, verses three and four. So back to the recipient of this letter, back to the audience, Paul's writing this letter to Titus. And notice the way that Paul talks about Titus. He says, you're my true child in a common faith. His true child in a common faith.

Now that's pretty sweet language there. We don't have it recorded for us in scripture, But by the way that Paul speaks of Titus here, and the way he speaks of Timothy in the letters to Timothy, we can get a pretty good idea of what this means. Titus was probably converted under Paul's ministry, And Titus has, at the very least, has been rooted and grounded in the truth as Paul has been a father to him in the faith. He's been discipled by Paul. And so what we have here is just like a son trained and shaped by his Father, Titus has been trained and shaped by Paul in the things of God.

Paul didn't have biological children, but as he was the apostle sent to the Gentiles, Paul's spiritual children abounded. And may that be an encouragement to any in this room that don't have children but desire them. Your spiritual children may abound. And you can see your children's children. And so Titus was one of these children of Paul.

And we know that Titus was a Gentile. We learn of that in Galatians chapter 2. If you want to read this when you are home tonight, write down Galatians chapter 2. Paul brings Titus along with him to the Jerusalem Council and there was some controversy about whether Titus should be circumcised or not. Now what do you think Paul said to that?

No way Jose! There probably actually wasn't a person named Jose there but he did say no and Titus was not circumcised so Titus was a Greek who had been converted through the ministry of the apostle Paul. And it's clear that Paul had great affection for this young man. Titus, my true child in a common faith. So just think about that.

Paul a Jew, Titus a Greek, one faith, one baptism, one Lord, One church, one Israel. It's the same thing that Paul says in Galatians 3 that there is neither Jew or Greek. Instead, you are all one in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus, sharing a common faith, Paul and Titus, Jew and Greek, descendants of Abraham. And so Paul, a father to Titus in the faith, he tells Titus, grace and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

That's verse four. Grace, undeserved favor, peace, that which the gospel could only bring, peace with God, peace with one another. That's what it's gonna take. That's the fuel for Titus to do what Paul is going to instruct him to do. Church of Crossroad, my beloved saints, my people, my friends, my brothers and sisters.

If we are going to be about the will of God for this church, apart from His grace, apart from His undeserved favor towards us, we've got nothing. Unless the Lord builds the house, it's builders labor in vain. As a sinner, as sinners, we recognize each Lord's Day as we confess our sins that we deserve the wrath of God. We deserve punishment. We deserve as a church to be toppled.

But we deserve to Go to hell. According to who we are, according to who you are, all of us deserve anything but peace. But because of who God is, We get peace. Because of who God is. Not on the basis of what you've done.

Not on the basis of what we as a church have done. But on the basis of what God has done in sending His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. Because of who God is, and what God has done, we get peace. We get everlasting life. We are right with God, and we are right with one another.

Why? Because of the gospel of God. The gospel of God. That's our hope to do any of this. What's in this book?

Genesis to Revelation and specifically Titus. That's our hope for doing any of this. The good news of Jesus Christ that God has extended grace towards sinners whom He makes at peace with Himself and with one another. You've got no gospel, no chance of doing anything of what we are commanded to do in His Holy Scriptures. You've got no gospel, no chance of doing what Titus is commanded to do.

We have no gospel. There is no chance for you or for me or for any in this church to do what we are called to do in this book. I need you to get this. Grace and peace from God is the fuel. It is the power for any of our ability to hear the words of this book and then to obey them.

Paul begins this book of Titus with grace. Do you agree with that? He begins the book with grace, verse four. How do you think he ends it? Go to the very end of the book, chapter three, verse 15.

This letter to Titus starts with the grace of God. And how does Paul end the letter? Titus chapter 3 verse 15. Grace be with you all. You know what we call those around here?

Book angles. The book of Titus begins and ends with grace. And so to the Christian life. Beginning and ending in grace. So to your life, it's all grace, so to the life of this church, it's all grace.

If we do anything in this book and all how we want to do, what's in this book? Amen? If we do anything here, it's all from God's gracious hand. If we have ears to hear and hearts that obey the instruction of Titus, If that be true in any degree in our body, it is all God's grace. It's all from Him.

If we were left to our own devices, if He let us go, we would go anywhere but towards God and us. We'd fold like a cheap chair. And so from the beginning to the end, in all that we do, let us recognize, let us recognize church how desperately we need the grace of God in Christ Jesus from first to last and every place in between. Can't start Titus without emphasizing what Paul emphasizes, you are desperately dependent upon the grace of God. Undeservedly so.

You will never, we will never, we will never, ever, ever, ever outgrow our need for the grace of God found in His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. We will never outgrow that need. In fact, as we grow in holiness we will recognize how much more we need Him. The Christian life is not a life where you gradually wean yourself off of the Lord Jesus. The Christian life is a life that increasingly hates sin and increasingly sees how sinful we are and increasingly sees how much you need the Savior.

That's the Christian life. So do not ever think that at some point we can jettison the gospel and move on to other things that is an abomination. We will not do that. So help us God. And so when we hear Paul's word in the next however many weeks, months, as we hear Paul's words to Titus and we seek to apply them to our church life here at Crossroad, when we obey and put things into practice, When we do any kind of obedience, I want you to join with me every Mors day.

When we see obedience happening, I want you to marvel with me that God would do such a work, undeservedly so and honest. Let any obedience that we partake in as a result of the preaching of this book, far from making us puffed up, far from making us full of ourselves and looking down our noses at other congregations or churches that aren't quite the same as ours. Stop that. None of that. None of that.

I'm not saying we can't encourage each other. I'm not saying we can't encourage our other churches to reform. I love all that. But if you get puffed up and you're looking down your nose with an evil heart at other churches, You have to stop that. No place for, look how much better we are.

Not in this body, brothers and sisters. Not in this body. Far from that. When we see the obedience to the Scriptures play itself out in our church and in our households, we must marvel. We must rejoice.

Let us remember it is all by sovereign grace of God. It's all undeserved. It's all unmerited kindness from God that He would work such blessings into our body. He's not sitting around saying, oh, these guys are extra wonderful. He gave it to us.

And so if we are faithful, If we listen and we trust and obey the Word of God as a church, this is what we must do. We must hit our knees in thanksgiving. We must hit our knees in praise. We must bow our knees in our heads in amazement. We must beat our breasts, marveling at the great loving kindness of God towards us as sinners.

For we know where we would go and what we would do if left to our own devices, if not kept in the grip of God's grace, We'd have nothing but the foolishness of sin. That's what we'd have. So let us remember church, the grace, and the peace that God supplies. Oh, do not let us forget verse 4. The grace and peace from God that fuels and powers everything that we do as a church.

And may that make us humble. We have had a few more numbers lately. We've grown a little bit numerically. I want to tell you just as from my, I visit with Pastor Matthew pretty much every Thursday at least once a week when he's elders. We are grateful for the grace that God has given us in more numbers.

Pastor Matthew and I are not looking at numerical growth as something to like go on a parade about. Obedience is success as a church. And I'm super grateful for this body to be bigger. I am super grateful for it. But you know how that weighs on pastors.

The bigger this gets, The more souls we have to be responsible for, the harder it is to sleep at night. And so one of the reasons we're going to be teaching them through Titus is because we need more pastors. Now, number one, it's a big reason. I just want you to hear this. When we see bigger church, when we experience numerical growth, make it make you humble.

It should make you humble. God would increase our number? God would increase our number? What grace. And then get on your knees and pray for your pastors who are not sure how to feel about it.

So make us not boasting ourselves, not boasting how reformed or how godly we've become, but boasting always in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. And if God is pleased to increase our number, praise Him. If God is pleased to keep it the same, Praise Him. We will praise the Lord.

Paul the author, Titus and by extension us, the church, is the audience. Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior to do what? To do what? We've got the author got the audience, but what's the aim?

Why does Paul write these three chapters? What's Paul's aim in his letter to Titus? Well that question really belongs to verse five. The answer to that question belongs to verse five. But we're going to spend next Lord's Day on verse five.

Just to give you a little taste, let's examine verse five just briefly this morning. What is the aim of Paul in writing to Titus, verse five? Read it there with me. For this reason, for this reason, I left you in Crete that you would set in order what remains And appoint elders in every city as I directed you. The key phrase there, Paul says, set in order what remains.

That's why I left you in Crete Titus. Set things in order. Put things in order. Paul had come to Crete. He had preached the gospel.

Men and women had repented of their sins and believed upon Christ for salvation, but the work was not done in Crete. No, no, no. Churches had to be established in Crete. Christ had promised that work and so what Paul had began, by the grace of God, Titus would put in order. Titus would see healthy churches built up.

Titus would see to it that local congregations would be established with the appointment of elders and pastors. And that members of local congregations would know how to act as members of God's household, in God's household, and in the world. In one sentence, we have Paul's aim. I'm going to write this down. Titus was to put things in order, set in order what was remaining.

Titus was to see to it that God's will for the church would be accomplished. Say that again. Titus was to see to it that God's will for His church would be accomplished. So church, If that's why Paul's writing to Titus, do you see why we think it's right that you should be taught this book? We really, really, really need this book.

We need, by the grace of God, to continue to put in order God's will for his church. And so briefly, in chapter 1, Paul tells Titus, Paul tells you, you need elders, and these are the kind of men who should be elders in the church. That's chapter 1. Chapter 2, Here's what church membership looks like. Here's what you should be about within your body as church members.

That's chapter two. Chapter three. And here's how the church interacts with the civil magistrate. And here's how the church lives in the world. And here's how the church is to partner with other churches and believers, other congregation.

That's Titus. That's God's will for the church in three chapters. Three chapters of God's will for His church, all of it bookended by what? Grace. What a book that we get to give ourselves to church beloved I am eager to be about the work with you in the weeks to come let's pray father God thank you for this your word Be pleased we ask for the sake of your son to conform us into his image.

Oh Lord transform us by the renewing of our minds. Continue to make us not just careful hearers, yes, careful hearers, but also doers of this your word. We thank you for your precious and very magnificent promises. We ask now that we would sing with hearts full of thanksgiving and marveling at the grace of God that you've shown us. May as he sings for Jesus' name sake and our joy in him, amen.