Devoted to Good Works | Titus 3:1–15 | Living the Gospel in Ordinary Faithfulness
Watch This Sermon: “Devoted to Good Works”
In this final message from Titus 3:1–15, Pastor Mark reminds us that good works aren’t grand gestures done to earn God’s favor—but everyday faithfulness that flows from being justified by grace. The Christian life isn’t shaped by a smorgasbord of ideas but by the consistent truth of God’s Word and the renewing work of the Holy Spirit. Whether it's standing for truth, serving quietly, or resisting cultural confusion, believers are called to live lives of gospel-shaped obedience that glorify God in both the ordinary and the extraordinary.
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We live in a day where we are defined by so many different things. And we often approach this like a smorgasbord. We go in and we grab what we want, whatever whets our appetites. It seems like we become less and less concerned with having the way we view the world being consistent. as long as what we're doing fits with what we want or how we think things should be. We pull one way of thinking from here and another from over there, and we don't even seem to notice that our ideas are in contradiction to one another.
We're all guilty of this, and I believe that it's particularly easy for us to fall victim to because the world comes at us so fast. in a matter of a few moments, we can be bombarded with ideas from all over the world through shining rectangles that we've hung on our walls or that we hold in our hands, and we just stare at them, taking it all in. We get ideas from here and there, and we rarely stop to think whether this lines up with what we believe about Jesus and what he's done for us. We need to be on guard for this kind of inconsistency popping up in our lives.
As Christians, our worldview should line up not with the flavor of the moment or what is popular in the culture, but we are to have our desires shaped by the Word of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit working in us. And we have seen so far in this book, Titus, that Paul's very concerned with what the church in Crete is being taught. It isn't because he wants them to check off all the right stuff, but because what they believe is going to dramatically affect how they live and how effective their witness for Jesus Christ will be in the world.
And the goal of this correct teaching he's so concerned about is that we will learn who God is and it will then affect how we live. It will cause us to live holy lives that bring glory to God. And we're going to see today that this isn't just something that Paul is concerned about being done in the big things, in the big stuff of life. He wants us to understand that this is also something that is a witness to those around us in the small areas of our lives. In other words, our faith impacts the big and the small things.
It has an effect on the public and private areas of our lives. As believers, what we believe causes us to live a life that stands in contrast to what the world believes, to what the world values, to what they see as appropriate. And so as we arrive in this final chapter of this short three-week journey that we've had in Titus, we're going to have three things that are going to come out of the text at us today. And the first is that our faith causes us to live humble lives of service. The love of God that we have experienced in Christ Jesus shows us what humble and sacrificial service is.
and we're called to the same type of life in God's world. And secondly, we have to remember that there is a life that is in opposition to God. Paul does not simply tell us the list of things that we should do or that we should not do. He's letting us know how not living this way is a completely different way of life. These aren't just things that we do. they show that we struggle to live a consistent life. It shows that we struggle to be consistent with what we believe about God. And Paul doesn't want it to be that way.
He wants us to live a life that matches up to the gospel that we proclaim. And lastly, we see in this passage that our view of the world is impacted by the saving grace of God. We are called to live in such a way that others will see that we have been rescued from sin and unbelief by the amazing and radical grace of Almighty God. And because of this, we don't need to quarrel about things that don't matter. Instead, we have a clear understanding of the truth, and we can focus on loving others by doing good works for them.
So as we land in chapter 3 this morning, we see Paul continuing to help believers know how they are to live in light of who they are in Jesus Christ. And right away, We once again see that word that we tend to not very, very fond of. We talked about it last week, that word submit or submissive. Again, by submit, Paul isn't telling us to be quiet and let ourselves be treated poorly just because someone has authority over us. He's just talking about an attitude of respect and knowing that God has placed the government over them for a reason.
That's why they're called to live and be submissive to rulers and authorities. And we see from the writings and the actions of Paul in the New Testament that if there is a matter of conscience, you don't just submit, you stand up for what is right. His point is that we should be good citizens so that we don't disgrace the gospel. But when it comes to matters of Christian virtue, when it comes to matters of conscience, we are to stand our ground. Think about Paul, for example. He desired to be a good citizen, but he never submitted to the government telling him that he couldn't preach the gospel.
He kept on going. He went to jail over and over. And Christians throughout history have tried to be good citizens. They've followed this mandate from Paul. But Christians have also spoken out against injustice, and they've spoken out against sin. The early Christians were great citizens, but this didn't stop them from standing against child sacrifice, from standing against abortion, and standing against sexual immorality that was associated with the pagan cultic practices of the day. In fact, It was the involvement of Christians in that culture that caused those things to be stopped or to be limited through the course of history.
Because Christians not only took a stand, they spoke out against it, and they were good citizens. And that type of involvement is a good work. We're called here in Titus to do good works, and being an involved citizen is a good work, just like all the other good works that they are called to the types of good works that the New Testament talks about are not just big things. It isn't just missionary trips or other things that get you noticed for doing them. It's the daily stuff that we do. It's helping your neighbor. It's getting up every morning and going to work realizing that you're serving God.
It's raising your children. It's being a teacher. It's growing food. It's transporting that food. It's clearing the road so wonderful people like you can get to church. These are all good works. This is all how we live in humble service to our God. And in addition to good works, we see that we're to avoid quarreling and to be gentle and to be courteous. And we can easily see and understand how important this is. We notice when people live this way, right? We know these people in our lives. I would guess many of us have someone that we admire and wish that we were more like them.
They're gentle, they're courteous, they're humble. Their humility and their ability to walk away from conflict are character traits that we admire because they're not easy for us to do. And when someone exhibits these things, we take notice. And that's Paul's point here, that we're to stand out. And by living in the way that has been outlined here, people will take notice that there's something different, and then we'll have the opportunity to share the gospel. we'll have the opportunity to proclaim that we aren't just doing this because we want to be nice. We're doing this because Jesus has done something for us.
He loved us first. And we want to thank him for what he's done because he saved us from our sin and from our unbelief. And now in these first two verses here in Titus 3, we've seen that our faith leads us to humble service in the world. And in the next verse, we see that we were once in opposition to God and that there is a lifestyle that contradicts that character of God that we are so concerned about. And what we have displayed for us here by Paul is that there is a way of living that's in contrast to the life that God calls us to live.
It's a life that's in contrast to the life that we're supposed to live as those who've experienced the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. and look at the contrast we have from what we've been told how we should live. What does he say? Foolish, disobedient, led astray. Now I don't know about you, but I don't like any of those words being used to describe me. There's no wisdom there. There's no discernment on what is true. There's no discernment on what is right. This is not a description of someone who just doesn't know any better. Notice the word disobedience.
It implies that we're turning away from proper instruction. Being led astray says the same thing. Even though apart from Christ we're dead in our sin and blind to the truth, we do deny it. We deny it when we turn away from it. We need a rescue from this. And we see the continuing description when it tells us that part of the problem is that there's slavery to various passions and pleasures. And while many of the things Paul has spelled out for us here, they're vague, they can mean a lot of different things. with different passions and pleasures.
We know what that means. We know what Paul's talking about here. And in our day, we see this on display. Sexual immorality of all kinds is not only tolerated, but it's condoned. In fact, what is evil is considered to be good. At the root of all of it is not simply a disregard for God's rules. It's a disregard for the very nature of God. You see, Paul is contrasting Christian living here with the pagan way of life. And nothing gets at the root of the pagan view of reality more than pagan sexuality. In other words, these things are not just an assault on the law of God.
They're promoting a different view of God and reality altogether. because God shows us that marriage between a man and a woman is a picture of Christ in the church. It's how he designed us to be fruitful and multiply. And the promiscuity of pagan sexuality denies these things and sets us up with another reality where the physical doesn't matter. It denies the created order and the things that God put in place and it makes us gods. makes us gods. We become the ones who determine right and wrong. We become the ones who determine good and evil.
We determine what's moral and what's immoral. And what is at stake is not just a decision on which list of rules should be followed, but what's at stake is a proper understanding of who God is. And this is why our smorgasbord mentality for how we look at the world doesn't work. Picking and choosing different parts to believe or follow keeps God off of his throne. And it puts us on the throne instead. And that doesn't work. Because you and I are frail. We are going to die. And we will have to face the one who is on the throne.
And that's why we see here, that's why Paul is so clear about this is the way we were. We needed to be rescued. And that's why he talks so much now, going forward, about the grace of God. As we've seen, there is a way that stands in contrast to God. It stands in contrast to His purposes. But as those who are in Christ, we're freed by God to live a different life. And we see this spelled out for us so clearly in the next part of this passage. Our view of the world is impacted by the grace of God.
Because He rescued us, we've been saved. It's not by anything that we've done. None of our work saved us, but it was the work of Jesus for us. We weren't righteous, but God showed us mercy anyway, and we were washed, and we were regenerated, and renewed by the Holy Spirit. To be regenerate means to be made new. It means to be given a new heart, and that we're no longer slaves to the life that once held us bondage. God gives us a new heart. He saves us. Now over the years, My family has enjoyed playing the Lego series of video games.
They're kind of casual. There's Lego Star Wars, there's Lego Harry Potter, Lego Lord of the Rings. We enjoy playing these games. And in those games, the health of your character is a little symbol of a heart. And if you run out of hearts, your Lego character kind of explodes everywhere. Well, there's cheat codes to make the game easier, and there's one many years ago. I was punching in the code, and I scrolled down to it, and it said, Regenerate Hearts, meaning that it would fill your hearts back up. But my nerdy theological mind read Regenerate Hearts, and I could turn them on.
Now, I thought that was pretty cool. that I could turn on regenerate hearts. And I thought about that. That sort of is a picture for us of how we are saved, of what the Spirit does for us. God has the cheat code. Christ died for us and the Holy Spirit comes to us and He turns on regenerate hearts for us. We are saved by His grace. We have regenerate hearts, not because of anything that we have done, but because God in his mercy has saved us. And not only does he save us, but this protects us from the damage of sin in our lives.
The damage that unbelief has. And it isn't anything that we have done. It's because God turned on our regenerate hearts. It's all of God. And it's all of grace. and we see here just how all-encompassing this is. We are made new. We are made alive. And it's because the Holy Spirit was poured out richly upon us. And it says that we are justified. And we come to this word quite often. And it's vital that we understand what it means because its meaning shows us what the gospel is. It means to be declared righteous, to be justified, means that we are declared righteous.
It's a finished fact. In Christ, we are not simply forgiven of our sins and then left to ourselves to keep the law of God as best as we can in hopes that we'll be saved because we've kept the law pretty well after he came to us. The truth of the matter is that our sins are forgiven. They are put on Christ. but then his righteousness is put onto us. And when God looks at us, we are seen as perfectly righteous, as though we have perfectly kept the law as though Jesus did. And this is unbelievably good news, because you and I haven't kept the law.
We fail to keep it each and every day, but God in his mercy has poured out the righteousness of Christ upon us, and we've received grace And so we see here that we're heirs, which means we're children of God according to the hope of eternal life. This is a sure thing because we have been justified, declared righteous. And when God sees us, he sees the perfect righteousness of Christ. And this truth is to lead us to good works. If you look here, you can notice the progression. This truth of being justified, not by our own works, but because of the work of Jesus, gives us eternal life.
He says this is trustworthy, and we're to make sure that we understand it. Not so that we can pass the test on what we believe. Not so that we can say that we have better doctrine than other people. The goal is that we will be careful to devote ourselves to good works. We serve God not out of trying to gain the favor of God, but because His favor has been so generously placed upon us. We're to be devoted to good works. In other words, it's to be a way of life. And remember, good works are not just going to feed the hungry or going on a mission trip.
Good works are loving and serving our neighbors where we are, and doing the stuff that God has put in front of us to do every day. As we see here, these things are excellent and profitable for people. They bring glory to God. but they also benefit us and they benefit others. And as the book of Titus finishes up, we see that what we're to do when there are problems regarding these doctrines that are to lead us to these good works. We're to be devoted to good works, but what happens when the doctrine that causes us to do this is being questioned or is being taught incorrectly?
We're to focus on what Christ has done. and we're to let it motivate us to good works. Therefore, we avoid controversies. And you see that that is how false teachers get a hold of us. They bring up things that are already settled. and they create controversies over little details that don't matter. Another way people distorted the truth in Paul's day was using genealogies to say that somehow they had an ethnic connection to someone else in the faith. and so they were to be a more trusted leader and you should follow their teaching instead of that teacher over there.
And while that's not used the same way in our day, we're too far removed to be able to track our ancestry back to the first century. We can still see this today. There are examples of people using their connection to another well-known teacher to give themselves legitimacy that perhaps they haven't even earned. So we need to be on guard for any attempt at authority that isn't from Scripture itself. Because false teachers use dissension to grab hold. And we see also that they use quarrels about the law. And what Paul's talking about here wasn't the moral law.
He's referring to ceremonial and ritual law. False teachers would use those little details to get the focus off of the grace of God and back onto what we do. And all of that stuff is to be avoided because true doctrine is important. It's so important that we're to avoid false teaching because it gets us off mission. and it keeps us from proclaiming the gospel of God's grace. And for that reason, we're to avoid false teachers and those who stir up division. And we see in this passage just how important this is because it means removing people from the fellowship of believers.
That's how serious Paul took this. That's how important guarding sound doctrine is. And so as we conclude our three weeks in Titus, and we think about how this is going to apply to us, I believe that we come away with two very clear applications for us in this coming week. And the first is that we need to be persistently examining whether our actions match up with what we believe. We want to be consistent with the truth that God has rescued us. Does what I believe about who I am and how I live in the world stay consistent with who God has revealed himself to be in scripture.
As I said, this is hard for us on our day because there are so many options. I think we've probably all been to one of those buffets that seems to have everything under the sun. Maybe there's Chinese food in one spot and another type of food in another and you find yourself going around everywhere to eat and you end up confused about what you're gonna eat at all. and you can end up trying to eat a little bit of all your favorite stuff and you end up stuffed and being miserable without even realizing it because you've never really spent time with any one dish.
And the ideas that come at us every day are like an extravagant buffet like that. But much of what is on that buffet in our modern world is poison. and it will slowly do damage and it will kill us if we keep consuming it. And so we need to stop and assess how we are being influenced by all of it. because the truth of God in Christ Jesus calls us to live a life that is in accordance with God's law. And so we need to be on guard for where we're being influenced to live in ways that are inconsistent or contradictory to God's will for us.
And secondly, be devoted to good works. And this doesn't mean that we need to sign up for everything and run around trying to find the next big service project or the next big cause that you can devote yourself to. That's not what Paul's saying. It means realizing that everything we do is done for the glory of God. We look for the big things that we can do. We see those as being the good works we should do, but we often miss the little things. the sidewalk that you took a little extra time to clear for your neighbor, or the person you helped at the grocery store without anyone else knowing about it.
Maybe it was the way that you encouraged the student athletes at a basketball game this last week. That's a good work. Maybe it's the way you simply showed your children this past week that you love and respect your spouse. Those are the good works that God calls us to do. And yes, we absolutely want to do the big things, too. Mission trips, working at a soup kitchen, and all those other things that we normally see as being the good works are great. They're good. And they're done to the glory of God, too. But they are just as much a good work as the small things.
We live to the glory of God in all that we do. And this is because we understand the all-encompassing nature of the gospel. The truth is that we are forgiven. We are declared righteous. And so it flows over into every area of our lives. We're devoted to good works. Not because we obsess over doing these things because we think God will like it. but because the grace of God is overflowing out of us into the world. And imagine that grace is so great and good and it's affected us all. Imagine what our world looks like when it flows out into our community and our world.
And so the call on our lives this week and every week is to relish the truth of what God has done for us in Christ, and then leave from here to bring glory to Him in all that we do. Amen.
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