Titus 3:1-11
1Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, 2to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. 3For 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. 4But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5He 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, 6whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men. 9But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. 10Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, 11knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.
Last Sunday we looked at Titus 3:1-2. We learned some of the appropriate behavior for all of us as Christians to have in our culture.
At least one person has summarized verses 1 and 2 as the command to be humble.
Humility for us as Christians should come very easily because you can’t really become a believer in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior without first coming to the realization that you are a sinner in need of salvation
In verse 3 of Titus chapter 3 , The Apostle brings this truth to the forefront by listing attitudes and behaviors that are typical of those who have not yet come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord God and Savior.
1. Foolish.
A foolish person lacks understanding, or literally, one who is senseless or “not having a mind.”
A lost person is described.
Ephesians 4:17-19
17So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
No matter how smart someone is, if they are not alive spiritually, they are considered foolish.
2. Disobedient.
A person apart from Christ is by nature rebellious, willfully disregarding authority. This word refers to one who refuses to be persuaded, or one who persists in doing what he wants to do, no matter what God says.
To paraphrase Jonathon Edwards, every unbeliever is hanging by a thread over the fires of hell. And the only thing that keeps them from falling into the flames is the hand of God.
Disobedience is nothing more than saying to God, “I dare you to let go” (idea from Stephen Fournier).
3. Deceived
This Greek word describes a wandering and is the root for our word “planet.” We are all prone to wander.
1 Peter 2:25
25For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
This individual then said that his biggest problem is not with other people; his biggest problem is with his own heart.
Satan, the ultimate deceiver, works at keeping people in the dark as stated in
2 Corinthians 4:4:
“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
4. Enslaved to various lusts and pleasures.
John 8:34
34Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.
The nature of sin is that it will make you its slave. Like the country of Crete, our culture is filled with “all kinds” of passions and pleasures, and these sins will enslave
2 Peter 2:19
for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.
Romans 6:12-13;16
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
16Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
Go back to that word, "various" which means “all kinds” . It refers to a manifold diversity of longings and unhealthy pleasures.
“Pleasure” is from the root word that is translated “hedonism,” which is the belief that indulgence is the chief end of life. People say things like, “I just want to be happy” or “I deserve to have fun” or “I just gotta be me!” Those who want freedom to do whatever they want will eventually end up in bondage to that which they are pursuing.
5. Spending our life in malice.
This word basically means “badness in quality.”
(ill) American Beef Packing plant had semi-trailers full of rotten beef that had to be disposed of. They were very offensive and putried because of the rottenness inside them.
Malice is rottenness that is directed at someone else.
A malicious man is one who desires to destroy or causes distress and rejoices in doing so.
6. Envy.
Envy is not just wanting what another person has, but also resenting that person for having it.
An envious person is never satisfied with what he or she has and will crave continually for more.
(ILL) Fable of the pheasant.
Pheasant was envious of another pheasant who had longer tail feathers and could also fly better. One day the pheasant saw a hunter with a bow and arrow and said to him, “I wish you would shoot that pheasant up there in that tree.” The man agreed but said he needed some feathers for his arrow. The jealous pheasant pulled out a feather and gave it to the man but it wasn’t enough. So he pulled out one after another, until he had lost so many that he couldn’t fly. The archer took advantage of the situation, and killed the helpless bird.
The moral. If you’re envious of others, the one you will hurt the most by your actions will be yourself.
7. Hateful - hating one another.
The word “hate” means loathsome and detestable. When one lives in slavery to passions and pleasures, others will eventually come to hate him and in turn, this individual will find others to be odious.
Hating becomes a way of life and often can’t even be explained.
So there it is - thats the heart of man - thats what kind of people we are naturally -
Matthew 15:19
“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.
These things serve to prove how great our need is. We need a savior, someone who can set us free from SIN .
Verse 4 begins with a jarring contrast to our pre-conversion condition.
We are in the depths of depravity but the Almighty intervened and saved us.
In verse 3, the one doing the action is man. Man is the actor,
but in verses 4-7, man is merely the recipient and God becomes the actor.
What man could not do for himself, God initiated for him.
Notice that in verse 4 God is the one who takes the initiative.
In the original language these four verses are really one long sentence and many commentators believe that this was a creed that the early Christians recited, or even sang out loud.
One verb in this sentence, and it’s the main emphasis: “He saved us.”
This is the essence of Christianity, for we serve a Savior who saves sinners.
Acts 2:47
And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
We are a mess and in distress and God has come to our rescue through the redeeming work of His Son on the Cross.
Christianity teaches conversion through a rescuing relationship.
We are lost and therefore must be found. We are enemies of God and need to be at peace. We are enslaved and need to find freedom. We are saved from God’s wrath by God’s redemption.
