INTRODUCTION

Certain things in the world have this power or ability to affect how we live and act. One thing I’ve noticed that has incredibly power over us, to affect and control our lives, is our fears.  Fear has power over us.  Fear stems from an internal belief, whether right or wrong, and it affects our actions.  Certain fears are healthy.  Fear of a busy road can be a healthy fear, especially if you have young children.  Fear of water or drowning could be a good thing, if you’re tempted to see how far you can make it across Fairy Lake.  Or this time of year, a fear of the ice can be healthy, some lakes you probably don’t’ want to go out on right now.  But those fears come from an internal belief—the belief that busy roads are dangerous for my children; the belief that if I can’t swim any more I will drown; the belief that thin ice could be hazardous.  These fears all come from internal beliefs and they affect our external behavior.   

But have you ever allowed the wrong thing to affect you in a wrong way? Ever believed something was a certain way and you acted based on that only to find that you were mistaken?  This can be the case with certain fears, or phobias we could call them, that can control the life of an individual.  You may have the fear that someone is out to get you—that’s called paranoia.  And if you have that internal belief that someone is always trying to get you, you will never feel safe.  You could have the fear of germs, called mysophobia, and if you have that internal belief that there are germs all around and they are going to harm you, that belief is going to affect you behavior.  Or perhaps you have the fear of being in places where escape is difficult—called agoraphobia.  That belief, that you might always need to get out at a moment’s notice, will affect you behavior—where you go, what you do.  Whether it be our fears, or other areas of our lives, our internal beliefs affect our external behaviors. 

The same is true with our spiritual lives.  The beliefs we have about God, our lives, and the world affect our external behavior.  What we believe about who we are, who God is, and what he expects of us will shape the entire direction of our lives.  If we believe the right way, according to the Bible, we will pursue honoring God with our lives.  But if we believe the wrong way, or have misunderstandings about God and our relationship with him, this will lead us away from a Christ-honoring way of living.  What we believe is important.  To the degree we understand doctrine, and understand it rightly will be the degree we live rightly.  Why?  Because doctrine shapes our behavior.  Our internal beliefs affect our external behavior.    

And as we come to the book of Titus, we see that Paul address both our beliefs and our behavior.  Paul  understands that right living is based on right thinking, and so as he writes to Titus and the churches in Crete, he is concerned both about beliefs and behavior.  He emphasizes both doctrine and devotion, and how the two connect together.  So this morning, as we come to the book of Titus, we’re going to do a birds view overview of the book as a whole.  This is always a difficult thing to do in a sermon, take one whole book and boil it down into a few principles and ideas, but we’re going to do that today.  And as we come to Titus, and look at doctrine and devotion, Paul wants us to take away one key truth with us today:     

Big Idea: Internal beliefs affect external behavior

And over the course of the book of Titus, Paul addresses how our doctrine shapes our devotion.  We might ask the question:

Interrogative: how do internal beliefs affect external behavior?

Transition: in Titus Paul gives three examples of how right beliefs ought to produce right behavior.

So let’s dive into the book here, and as we do, let’s set the stage and get an overview. 

The Location

Crete was an island in what is now called the Mediterranean Sea.  Crete was a place of commerce, and had many strategic harbors that would connect ships with various other places, so this was a key place to start a church, and even a network of churches.  Crete was also a center for false teaching, and was a center of practice for many cults and pagan worship of Greek Gods. 

Cretan culture was also well-known during this time. One of the words used during this time for liars was kretidzo, to be a liar or to be a Cretan. They were a wicked group of people. In Titus 1:12 Paul quotes one of their own poets who is noted for writing that “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” Many of the men on the island were known for serving as mercenary soldiers, and the island itself was known for being unsafe because of violence and sexual immorality.

The Recipient

The book is addressed to Titus, a beloved fellow worker of Paul who had served alongside of him and proved faithful.  We don’t know much about Titus, but he was apparently up to the task, as Paul sent him to set things right in the churches on the Island of Crete.

The Problem

Churches had gotten corrupt leadership who claimed to be followers of Christ but were ruining the churches.   Their lifestyle was setting a bad example for the other believers in Crete, and as they were following these corrupt leaders, the testimony of Jesus Christ was disrupted.  So Paul sent Titus to Crete to set things right in the churches, deal with the false teachers, and train up elders for the churches.

The Structure

Paul talks specifically to Titus in this book, talking about the hope in Jesus Christ, and emphasizing the “God who does not lie.” Paul begins by giving Titus specific instructions as he ministered in Crete.  He gives him two tasks here. The first, is to appoint new leaders in the church, who are marked by godly character and Christlike actions. Second, he was to confront the corrupt leaders in the church. He describes them for us a Jewish Cretans who demanded that believers follow some of the Jewish laws and rituals and that these men were just in it for the money. They were following the “Cretan way of life” which is ungodly and disqualifying.

Following that, he addresses how Jesus creates a new type of household within the church.  Due to their ungodly past life before Christ, some of the believers were struggling to put of their former lifestyle and choose Jesus as Lord of their lives.  The result was a poor testimony without—God’s word is discredited (2:5), people were making evil accusations (2:8), and the Christian message was not compelling (2:10).  So Paul paints a picture of the ideal household, where the older were teaching and mentoring the younger and younger people are abstaining from sexual immorality and glorifying God in all their relationships.  He teaches that the Gospel message is compelling when it is lived out publicly for all to see. Key passage: 2:11-15.

In chapter 3, Paul addresses how Jesus creates a new humanity among believers in the public realm. Christians should be known as ideal citizens in their community—peaceable, obedient, not contentious, and gentle to all. He connects this to the transforming power and love of the trinitarian God, who saved by the fill of the Father, washed us with power of his Spirit, and declared us righteous through the work of his Son. This results in a new kind of people who declare God’s grace all around the public realm.

Paul concludes the book by promising to send helpers to work with Titus and by giving greetings some closing greetings.

So that is an overview, but now let’s walk through the book together, keeping in mind the big idea:

Big Idea: Internal beliefs affect external behavior

1. Sanctification affects character (Chapter 1)

Explanation: as we move into the first section of the book, covering the entirety of chapter 1, we encounter the first doctrine Paul mentions—the first internal belief that should affect our external behavior.  He mentions sanctification and how our belief about sanctification affects our character.  So let’s do some doctrinal discussion here and consider this idea of sanctification.

Sanctification might be a big word for you; it might be a new word, so I want to make sure we understand it together before we see it in our text today.  Simply put, sanctification is the process over which a believer in Jesus becomes increasingly more like Jesus in his or her spiritual walk.  And there are many different views on this and how it happens, we won’t get too deep into it this morning.  But when we think of sanctification, it can be thought of three ways or viewed through three different lenses:

•     Positional Sanctification—this is the position of a believer in Jesus Christ upon receiving the Gospel of Christ through repentance of sin and faith in Jesus.  This can also be though of as justification—making a believer right in God’s eyes.  It’s important to remember here that this is our position.  We are not actually righteous, but our standing before God is righteous because of the blood of Jesus and sacrifice for our sins.  As such, we are saved from the penalty of sin.  Romans 3:22 talks of this:

Romans 3:22 NASB95

even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;

•     Practical/progressive sanctification—the second lens through which to view this thing we call sanctification is practical or progressive sanctification.  This is the ongoing daily process by which we choose to live in line with the character of God and commands of his word.  It is a gradual and ongoing thing that starts at the moment of salvation and continues until the day we die.  In this sense, we are saved from the power of sin.  This is what Paul mentions in Romans 12:1-2: 

Romans 12:1–2 NASB95

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

•     Final sanctification/glorification—the third lens through which to view sanctification is called final sanctification, or ultimate sanctification, or glorification.  This happens at the end of our lives, when Christ renews all things, giving us glorified bodies and we are forever freed from the power of sin and will no longer sin.  This is saving us from the presence of sin.  Paul mentions this in Philippians 1:6:

Philippians 1:6 NASB95

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

So those are the three types or lenses through which we can view sanctification, not let’s bring it back to our text of Scripture in chapter 1 of Titus.  It seems there had been a misunderstanding about sanctification among the believers in Crete.  This is the progressive or present sanctification type, the type of gradually growing to be more like Jesus.  I mentioned before that there are different views on this—some people believe progressive sanctification is all a work of God—he does it and I just sit back.  In fact, that’s where the phrase “let go and let God” came from, and that’s why I don’t use it, because it actually comes from the belief system that says “I don’t have any part in my growth, I’ll just let God do what he desires and he wants me to grow he can make it happen.”  This usually leads to license.  Others have the view that progressive sanctification is all of me—I just need to keep working and work harder and keep trying on my own efforts; this often leads to legalism.  Right in the middle is where I land, and I think the Bible lands, and what has probably been the teaching of our church in the past—that progressive sanctification is a mutual work between me and God for my spiritual life.  I have to put in some effort, but God works as well, and even in my working I am dependent on the Holy Spirit.      

Now, how does this fit with Titus in the island of Crete?  There seems to be a misunderstanding of sanctification among the believers.  And you can kind of see, that if you don’t understand sanctification right, you could easily fall into one of these pitfalls—where either you are doing all the work yourself and trusting yourself, or you are letting God do the work himself and just kind of sitting back for the ride.  That seems to be similar to what had been happening in Crete, especially among the leaders of the church.  They didn’t seem to be working all too hard on their spiritual lives, and led to corrupt character.  So when Paul sends Titus to  Crete, he instructs him to set in order the things there.  And he begins by having Titus deal with the elders in the churches.  Apparently, they were not living righteous lives—they had a misunderstanding of sanctification, and we see the result in verses 11-12

Titus 1:11–12 NASB95

who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain. One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”

They must be silence, they are destroying families and teaching what they shouldn’t teach, for the wrong reasons.  Then in verse 16 we see that they profess to know God, but deny him by the way they live.  Their internal beliefs about sanctification affected their external behavior in a bad way, and that needed to be addressed. 

Application: sometimes, our internal belief about sanctification can affect our external behavior as well.  If we’re not careful, we might start to believe the wrong things about sanctification.  Maybe we get off into one of the pitfalls.  Perhaps it’s the pitfall of legalism—I need to work work work to be what I need to be spiritually, and so we try with all of our own efforts and forget God in our spiritual lives, so there is no relationship.  We get caught up in the service and we forget the one we serve.  This leads to pride an arrogance.  It leads to looking down on others and raising ourselves up, maybe we don’t have the capacity for people that we think are more sinful then we are—we don’t want to be tainted by their lifestyle so we stay away from them instead of minister to them and help them grow.  This is all from a wrong internal belief about sanctification. 

It could be the opposite, we let things slide in our spiritual life, after all, God can do the work if he wants to.  So we stop doing things we know God wants us to do, or we reject the clear teaching of scripture in order to do our own thing.  We let little things fade into our lives that we haven’t before, and pretty soon those little things become big things.  This again, is an internal misunderstanding about sanctification that leads us to wrong behavior.  Paul reminds us:

Big Idea: Internal beliefs affect external behavior

Our behavior is always based on our internal beliefs.  If our internal beliefs are wrong, it will produce wrong actions.  Here we see that sanctification affects character. 

2. Grace affects relationships (Chapter 2)

Explanation: but if we move on in our text, to chapter 2, we learn that grace affects our relationships.  Our understanding of the doctrine of grace affects how we relate to other people. 

Not if we’re going to talk about the doctrine of grace, we need to make sure we understand exactly what it is and what grace means, because a lot of people don’t really know.  Grace is God giving us a free gift that we don’t deserve.  Grace is giving someone something that is undeserved because of the love and goodness in our character.  And the Bible has a lot to say about God being a gracious God.  What did God give us that we didn’t deserve?  He gave us his son, Jesus.  He gave us his son as the sacrifice to bring us salvation so that all who believe in him could receive that gift.  That’s grace.  Ephesians 2:8-9 is a great passage that talks about this:

Ephesians 2:8–9 NASB95

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

And chapter two of Titus is all about how God’s grace should affect our relationships.  The first ten verses of chapter two lay it out for us—it talks about various relationships and what expectations God has for them. 

•     In verse 2, he talks about expectations for older men—to be dignified and self-controlled

•     In verses 3-4, he talks about older women, not being gossips or out of control, but that they should be setting examples and teaching younger women in how to live a life of godliness

•     In verses 6-8, he gives instructions for young men, and how they ought to live godly lives as well

•     in Verse 9-10 he addresses the slave master relationships, which I take as similar to our employee employer relationships today. 

All of these relationships and interactions, older to young, young men, employees and employers, all of these should be governed by our internal beliefs about the doctrine of grace.  Paul connects this to grace in verse 11:

Titus 2:11–12 (NASB95)

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,

He says because of God’s grace, we should act a certain way.  He pictures this new type of household created by the grace of Jesus in salvation.  Because God was gracious to us, we need to be gracious to others, and display the affects of grace in our own lives. 

Application: oftentimes, however, we don’t.  We don’t live by grace.  We don’t really think that when we give people the grace God gives us, we are allowing the Gospel of Jesus to shape our lives.  Paul gives us some really specific examples in our text of how the grace of Jesus should shape our relationships.  I find it so interesting, that the things the church in Paul’s day struggled with are really the same today.  The things that Paul sees in the church back then really isn’t any different than what we see today.  Think about what he mentions:

•     Older men being temperate, dignified, self-controlled.  Unfortunately, I’ve known a whole bunch of older men who were not temperate, who are not dignified, and who are definitely not self-controlled.  Men—guys who are here today, do you fit into these categories?  If you do, you’re off in your internal understanding about grace.  If you’re an older man here today, you need to step up.  Because we need you to be leaders in our churches and in our world today.  We don’t need you to act like babies when you don’t get your way, we need you to man up!

•     Paul mentions older women being reverent, not malicious gossips, or enslaved to much wine.  I’ve known far to many women in churches who are not reverent—they’re irreverent.  Or they are gossips, they have this women’s rumor mill thing that just passes and passes and passed along information.  I’m amazed at how far this stuff gets passed!  If you’ve been involved in that, you’re don’t have the right concept of the doctrine of grace.  He mentions teaching the younger women—ladies, let me just ask you, do you have a younger woman whom you are mentoring?  If not, your internal belief about God’s grace and how it should change you is not producing what it should in your life.

•     Younger women—he gives some instructions for them, to love their husbands and children, to be sensible, pure, subject to their husbands.  This is totally countercultural for our world today!  It all stems from our concept of the doctrine of grace. 

•     Younger men—sensible, be an example of good deeds, have purity in doctrine.  That doesn’t describe many of the younger men we see in the world today.  This is countercultural.  Today we have this thing called delayed adolescents, where instead of becoming men, we have boys in a mans body who sit around and play video games, or who hang out with the guys instead of being present for their family.  If you’re a young man and you’re here today, or you’re watching online, you need to step it up and be there for your family.  Or if you don’t have a family, you need to be the type of guy that will be there for his family. 

•     Paul mentions employee employer relationship—be subject to your boss at work.  Don’t talk about them behind their back, or blow up at them when they give you a new assignment.  

These are all ways a proper understanding of the grace of God should affect our relationships.  God was gracious to us.  He gave us Jesus to redeem us and purify us for himself; if we truly grasp this doctrine, it will change our relationships.    

 

Big Idea: Internal beliefs affect external behavior

Paul says sanctification should affect our character, grace should affect our relationships, and finally,

3. Trinity affects witness (Chapter 3)

Explanation: as we cross over into chapter 3 Paul gives a discussion on the Trinity, and how our understanding of this vital doctrine should shape our public witness before those without.  To begin with, we should take a moment to talk about the Trinity. 

What does it mean that God is a Trinity?  Let me take a moment to describe for you what is known as Orthodox Trinitarianism.  It has been described throughout church history as the Scutum Fidei,  Latin for shield of faith.  And you see this appearing in church history on various paintings and in artwork or architecture.  It is a simple representation of a profound reality—that God is three-in-one.  We say that God is three persons, and one essence or one united being.  As such, all three members of the Trinity are God—the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God.  But they are all three different—the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, the Spirit is not the Father.  Three distinct persons, one unified essence.  That’s about the best we can say.  We can’t really understand it too much further because of our own human finite limitations.  And let me just put it out there, it’s ok to leave some of the mystery there.  I believe it was St. Augustine who said “to know God is to be him.”  Meaning this—the only person who truly knows and understands God is God himself.  In fact, I think we need to be careful in trying to explain away the mystery, sometimes it’s good to leave it there. 

Illustration: I had this the other day with one of our boys.  He was asking about Jesus and God being the same and I explained about God the Father and God the Son, and how they were different but they were one.  I think I confused him more than I gave him an answer, but at the end of the day we can only go so far, and sometimes I think we need to not try to explain everything away and leave some of the mystery there, especially for kids, so they can grow into understanding but still realize that we can never full understand God. 

Explanation: but in chapter 3 of Titus Paul uses the doctrine of the Trinity as a motivation for having a positive public witness to those outside the church.  And this comes at the end of the chapter.  Starting in verse 4, he talks about the kindness of God in saving us.  And he mentions all 3 persons in the Trinity.  He mentions God the Father’s work in planning for our salvation, out of his mercy.  In verse 5 he mentions being washed and renewed by the Holy Spirit, and in verse 6 he mentions the Holy Spirit being poured out onto us through Jesus Christ.  So all three persons in the Trinity are mentioned here in our salvation, and this incredible doctrine is given as an internal belief that ought to affect our outward behavior.  He bookends this emphasis on the Trinity with how the Trinity should shape our lives. 

In the first three verses of the chapter he talks about how the Trinity should affect us in the public realm by how we show a good witness in our obedience to authority, our refraining from slander and contention, and in showing gentleness.  In verses 8-11 Paul picks this up again, challenging us to engage in good deeds, avoid foolish controversies, and warn divisive people.  This all has to do with the witness we give for the cause of Christ, and Paul connects this to our believe in and understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity.  Why?  Because there is order in the Trinity.  Even Jesus the Son had to obey the Father, therefore we can obey our own authorities.  Even Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit as a good gift, so we can display gentleness and good deeds in our lives.  This is all connected together to the doctrine of the Trinity.  And this reminds us again of our big idea for today:

Big Idea: Internal beliefs affect external behavior

Paul addresses three internal beliefs that affect our external behavior—three doctrines that if we get right, will shape our lives for God and help us live as he intends:

1) Sanctification affects character

2) Grace affects relationships

3) Trinity affects witness

Big Idea: Internal beliefs affect external behavior

CONCLUSION

I want to give you an illustration of how this works.  I do a lot of counseling, and one topic that regularly comes up is how—how does this work?  How do internal beliefs affect external behavior, or how can I change my internal beliefs so that it affects my behavior?  To illustrate this, I brought with me a glass of milk and a pitcher of water.  Suppose the milk represents my old self, the behaviors I am trying to replace, and the pitcher of water is the right doctrine from God’s Word that has the power to change our lives.  Change doesn’t happen over night.  Sometimes believers make the mistake of thinking the Bible is a magic formula, or that Scripture verses are some sort of incantation and all we have to do is recite a verse—“casting all my care upon him for he cares for me” and miraculously somehow my anxiety will go away.  “Flee youthful lusts” and my struggle with lust will miraculously cease.  Or “God has not given us the spirit of fear” and my fears will instantaneously disappear.  And the tendency can be to expect that and then when it doesn’t happen we give up and say the Bible must not work, so I’m going to pursue other avenues of help.  But we don’t understand that change is gradual and incremental over time.  So if I illustrate this with the milk and water, if I want to push out the old self, the sinful struggles, the wrong beliefs in my life, I do this by pouring the truth of God’s Word into my life.  And over the course of time, the truth replaces those wrong internal beliefs that I may have had, and after consistently putting right beliefs into my life I will find myself transformed and my belief system changed, which in turn will change my behavior.  This is how it works!  This is how change happens!  And this is how we can transform our internal beliefs to produce the actions God wants us to have.       

Next Steps

So what are some next steps for you this week that you can put into practice?  Let me give you a few:

1) Read through Titus this week

Simple goal here—read through the book.  Maybe you can only get through it 1 time, but read it once.  Maybe you can read through a few times—do that.  Or perhaps, you can read through every day.  Do it!  Whatever you can do, commit to reading through Titus this week so you can be exposed to the right beliefs Paul wants us to have from this book. 

2) Study doctrine

Find a way to study doctrine.  If you’ve never looked into or attended our FBI class, you need to seriously consider that.  It takes you through all the key doctrines of the Bible and helps you break them up and then put the pieces back together.  Consider enrolling in FBI.  Another way might be to come to Sunday school.  Often times we dig deeper than we can in a sermon time and help you dig deep into the doctrines in Scripture.  Maybe you need to get a good book that teaches doctrine.  Be careful here, because not everything you pick off the shelf will be helpful or accurate.  If you’re looking for a good resource, I can probably point you in the right direction.  But find a way to give yourself to knowing doctrine, because right doctrine produces right living.       

3) Search your heart; look at what is coming out

Finally, search your heart and see what is coming out.  What is coming out reveals what is truly inside.  We can learn a lot about ourselves by listening and paying attention to what is coming out of our lives.  If what is coming out is not right, you have a doctrine problem; you have a belief problem.  All of our problems at the basic level are Gospel problems.  So listen to what is coming out and pay attention to what is there, so you can discern what wrong beliefs you have inside that might be producing wrong actions. 

God has spoken to us in his word today.  And when God’s word is given out, it demands a response.  How will you respond to God’s Word today? 

Big Idea: Internal beliefs affect external behavior

Let us evaluate our internal beliefs, make sure we are believing rightly, so we can live rightly!