Introduction.

1. Before his conversion on the road to Damascus Paul was a zealous Pharisee. The mind-set of the Pharisees was very legalistic, demanding obedience to the law out of a sense of duty. Paul would have counted himself as a servant doing what God demanded. After his conversion Paul saw himself as a servant not driven by a sense of duty, but by a deep love for the God of all grace. The difference between a servant who serves according to love or grace is remarkable. Listen to this story; ‘There was once a married couple who didn't love each other. The day they got married, the husband handed his wife a list of chores for her to follow. He insisted that she do all the tasks on her list every day. The wife worked hard to accomplish her assigned duties, but she was miserable as she performed them. Ironing his clothes, preparing his meals, cleaning the house-every task was burdensome. Although she obeyed all his rules, she never enjoyed a loving relationship with her husband. Then one day her husband died. After several years had passed, she fell in love with another man and got married. The new husband never required her to do anything, much less a list of jobs. Instead, he showered her with love and did everything he could to make her happy. One day this wife was joyfully cleaning the house when she discovered her first husband's list of commands tucked away in a drawer. As she read the paper, it dawned on her that she was performing every task on the list, but now she was serving with joy instead of misery. Her love for her second husband inspired her to automatically do the same jobs that her first husband had required. She had served her first husband out of duty, but her second husband out of love. God wants us to serve Him out of jubilation, not obligation. Legalism adds weights to our work, but love gives wings to our service.' The service Paul gave to Christ Jesus his Lord was a labour of love. His love for Christ not only enabled him to be gentle but also to exercise authority to promote the glory of Christ. Paul's great love for Christ and his church did not cause him to shrink back from righteous confrontation. Paul was a servant who exercised authority as an Apostle to fulfil the responsibilities Christ gave him.

2. Paul after introducing himself as a servant and an apostle goes on to detail the calling and responsibilities laid on him by the Lord. By explaining his calling and responsibilities Paul is informing all who read this letter what to expect and how to respond. Expect instructions from a faithful, diligent and uncompromising servant and respond knowing that these instructions come with Christ's full authority. We must expect to hear from Paul what our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ wants us to do. Listen to Paul's statement concerning his calling in Titus 1:1, ‘Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness.' Paul's sense of calling was very specific and purposeful therefore he applies himself directly to the task given to him by Christ.

1. Paul's calling focuses on the faith of God's elect.

1. Paul has been called and commissioned specifically to promote, strengthen and sanctify the faith of God's elect. Listen to how the New Revised Standard Version translates Titus 1:1, ‘Paul a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of truth that is in accordance with godliness.' Notice it changes the words ‘according to' to ‘for the sake of.' William Hendriksen suggests that the sense of Paul's intention is better grasped by using the words ‘in the interest of' the faith of God's elect. Paul's deep concern is with the faith of God's elect. He is concerned about what they believe and how they exercise their faith in everyday life. Paul is concerned about the witness of the elect, what they believe must determine and shape the way they live and behave. Consistency is a testimony to the truth while inconsistency is the hallmark of hypocrisy. Remember that in this letter Paul deals with the problem of Christians living in a self-centred culture. How are God's elect to live by faith in a self-centred culture?

2. The phrase the faith of God's elect is very important as it reveals part of God's plan of salvation. God's chosen people are those whom he set apart for himself in love through Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world, and who come to personal and living faith in Christ in fulfilment of God's eternal purposes. Using the phrase ‘God's elect' places the work that Paul is doing into the context of God's eternal purposes which are unfolding and centred upon Jesus Christ. Christianity is not a ‘new thing' that suddenly appeared as the fads and fashions do, it is part of the on going work of God in accomplishing his purposes through his elect people. Paul was concerned about the faith of those who already believed in Christ Jesus and about those who were yet to exercise faith in Jesus Christ. Through the preaching of the Gospel God's elect who already believe will have their faith strengthen and God's elect who are yet to believe will be called by God's sovereign free grace to believe. The mention of God's sovereign free election of individuals to salvation is a direct challenge to subjectivism and self-centredness. God is not for sale in the market place. You receive God as your God by the working of God's grace. When unbelievers choose Christ they do so because of God's prior choice of them. God chose them before the foundation of the world. Paul in 2 Timothy 1:9 says, ‘Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.' Take note of the fact that grace was given to us before time began. From the beginning of the world all God's elect were earmarked to receive grace. God's special love that will bring you to faith in Christ has been set upon the elect. Christians know that their destiny is not ultimately in their own hands, but in the hands of Almighty God. Paul is concerned about the quality and condition of our faith. Paul would have our faith destroy the cultural emphasis on subjectivism and self-centredness that seeks to rule in our hearts and minds.

3. What is the faith of God's elect? The faith of God's elect is the acknowledgment of the truth  which accords with godliness. This is a description of the faith of God's elect and not a definition. Paul describes faith this way in order to place an emphasis on the importance of truth. Faith and truth are locked together. What is truth? Jesus in his High Priestly Prayer recorded in John 17 says, ‘Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth.'  God's word, the Bible is truth. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments present us with objective propositional truth. In Crete the cultural subjectivism and self-centredness had come to the place were truth was reduced to what made you feel good about yourself and life which is very similar to the society we live in. We live in a culture that has to a large degree embraced the philosophy that says either there is no truth or that there is no independent standard of objectivity to determine truth so truth can't be proved to others. Truth is therefore a very personal matter. It is my truth, I believe it and that is all that matters. This principle is applied to many different areas of life but cannot be applied consistently in life. Three $10.00 bills add up to $ 30.00, whether you believe it or not. If you want to test whether your truth that says three $10.00 bills add up to $ 1000.00, try buying something that costs a $1000.00. You may believe that a teaspoon of arsenic is good for you, that may be your truth, but the day you take the arsenic you will die. If your personal truth tells you that you can fly, do not test it against the force of gravity. To dispute that objective truth exists is to make nonsense of the real word we live in. The real world is not a matter of opinions and feelings but of truth and reality.

4. The truth exists and can be known. As Paul is a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ he is primarily concerned about the truth about God, Jesus Christ and God's elect. The greater part of Paul's the letter to Titus deals with the issue of false teaching. Only truth can expose false teaching. When Paul says acknowledging the truth he does not only mean giving intellectual accent to the truth, but also understanding the truth and being thoroughly convinced by it. Truth in the biblical sense cannot be ignored it demands continual change in the believer to conform to the truth. The Cretans like many today judged truth by the good feeling it generated in their inner being. Paul has different criteria, if something is true it will animate you to be godly. Because truth is an aspect of God's very essence God's elect will be transformed by it. False teaching never leads to godliness it always leads to hypocrisy. Truth always promotes godliness in the elect. Godliness is the flower that comes from the seed of truth. What is this godliness? The Greek word means devoted piety, dedication, loyalty, commitment, or allegiance. It is translated as godliness as the context demands that God is the object of the devotion. It describes a real need to please God, to depend on him, to live for him, and to serve him. This is the same concept that Jesus expresses in Matthew 5:6, ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.' Hunger cannot be ignored it constantly agitates to be satisfied. The godliness promoted by truth constantly agitates the elect to be holy and godlike. Paul is concerned that the faith of God's elect promotes godliness. The witness of the Cretans was defective in that what they believed did not follow through to godly behaviour, therefore the truth needed to be accentuated so that it could promote godliness. We need to look at ourselves and ask if godliness is being promoted in us. Is there an agitation in our hearts to be more holy? That is the effect truth should have on us.

2. Paul's responsibilities focus on the truthfulness of God.

1. When Paul says ‘God cannot lie' he is emphasising truth as a characteristic of God. Unlike us God is true in his inner being, no error, falsehood or non-reality is found in God. That God is true reveals itself in his faithfulness and trustworthiness. Concerning God being truth John Benton says, ‘Firstly, ... his truthfulness is part of his holiness. God is utterly just and righteous. His nature is such that he cannot go against that, and to lie or deceive is unholy and unjust. Secondly, God is truth and does not lie, because one of the great attributes of truth is that it is always consistent with reality. God is the foundation of the reality, the upholder of the universe, and a lie does not match reality. Thirdly, Scripture tells us that the devil is the father of lies (John 8:44). For God to lie would be for him to take the devil's path, and that is impossible. That is why God does not lie.' The fact that God does not lie is the reason the elect have the hope of eternal life in them. They are thoroughly convinced that the promise God made before time began will be fulfilled.

2. The gospel and the faith that the apostle Paul was promoting rested on the hope of eternal life. It is very important to emphasise that the meaning of hope in the Scriptures is very different to our common use of the word hope. To hope for something usually means that there is a strong element of uncertainty about the thing hoped for. When we organise the dates of the next church camp, we make the arrangements and hope for good weather. Hoping for good weather means we would really like good weather but we can't guarantee it. Biblical hope does not have an element of uncertainty in it as it is based on God's faithfulness to his word. To rest your hope on what God has said makes your hope rock solid. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who brings the fullness of every covenant blessing and privilege to individuals. It is in Christ that every promise of God belongs to believers. As Douglas Milne says, ‘The Christian is saved in the hope of sharing in God's glory when Jesus Christ comes back (Rom. 5:2; 8:24f.). Jesus Christ is our hope (1 Tim. 1:1.) because the Christian hope is grounded in his saving life, death and resurrection.' Jesus in his saving work for the elect secures all the covenant blessings and promises for his people. Our hope is in Christ Jesus and his finished work. Christians trust and depend on Christ to secure eternal life for them.

3. The faith of God's elect rests on the hope of eternal life secured by Christ and the fact that God cannot lie. God's covenant promises, privileges, and blessings were fully determined before time began. God is the originator of our salvation. In the councils of God before time began God determined how sinners would be saved and which sinners would be saved. Jesus came to do the will of the Father to accomplish and fulfil the plans made before time began. Listen to Peter stating this in his preaching on the day of Pentecost, "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know-^ Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it (Acts 2:22-24.)"  Jesus' death and resurrection happen according to the will of God and the  plans he made before the foundation of the world. In a very real sense the Gospel is proclaiming the promises of God and the fulfilment of those promises in Christ Jesus our Saviour. The promises of God are totally secure because God cannot lie, he is true in all things.

4. God's chosen means of confronting people with the truth is the preaching of the Word. Listen to Paul talking about preaching in 1 Corinthians 1:21, ‘For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.' Preaching is the method of proclaiming the truth which God chose as the best and most effect way of reaching sinners. Preaching must always be seen as an extremely important and vital aspect of the church's life.

5. Paul was a preacher by the commandment of God our Saviour. Paul was a servant and an apostle called, commissioned and commanded to preach by Jesus Christ. What God promised was before time began therefore nobody knew the substance of his promise, but now in due time the full substance of what was promised has been revealed by God. What was partly revealed in the Old Testament is now fully revealed in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul says that the full revelation was committed to him he recognised the great responsibility that was his. The word translated as committed could be literally translated as entrusted. The truth was entrusted to Paul and he was commanded by the Saviour to preach that truth. If he failed to preach the truth he would be breaking that trust and disobeying the specific commandment given to him by God. This explains why Paul could not be stopped from preaching the truth. Even though he was beaten, imprisoned, stoned, and threatened with death he continued to preach because Christ Jesus had entrusted him with the truth of the Gospel and commanded him to preach it. Paul was passionate and zealous about all that the Saviour had entrusted to him. His zeal was shown in the way he defended the truth of the Gospel. Listen to Paul's zeal in Galatians 1:9-10, ‘As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you  than what you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.'  Any compromise in the truth is seen by Paul as a denial of your servanthood to Christ. A true servant cannot be driven by subjective feelings and self-centred as Christ is their Master. All Christians are entrusted with the truth of the Gospel and commanded in the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 to take that truth to all the world.

Conclusion.

If you are one of God's elect you have received grace and have been given faith that agitates your heart, mind, soul and will to be more like God. You have received the truth of God's plan of salvation in Christ Jesus, and you are a servant of God entrusted with the glorious gospel of Christ Jesus to share it with others and to guard it from error. You have been given a great responsibility. Titus had received this responsibility and Paul's instructions to him in this letter tells him how to fulfil this responsibility. Do you recognise and take ownership of the fact that you are called to be a servant of Christ Jesus, a servant who has received authority and a servant who carries a great responsibility? Christ sees you as a servant with a calling, authority and responsibility and expects you to be faithful to him. If you do not have a deep sense of your calling, authority, and responsibility then something in your faith is defective, the truth is not making the impact on your life that it should. Paul's letter to Titus will address you directly on substance of your faith.