Last week, Dr. Doriani reminded us that
as we engage in controversies, we do so
as those who have been formed by love.
We do so with faith. We do so seeking
peace. That passage was focused very
much on who we are as we engage in these
things because of what Christ has done
for us. And so we'll continue to think
about that this morning as we turn to
another passage that overlaps with it
significantly, but also thinks about who
we not just who we are, but how we think
about controversies, how we evaluate
which ones are most and least worthy of
our attention. How do we do that kind of
triage? How do we engage with
controversies? So, it gives us some
practical advice, which personally I'm
grateful for. I don't know about you,
but it seems to me like the
controversies lately come fast and
furious. Somebody please say amen.
>> So, we need some practical advice. The
scriptures often tell us that we need to
rely on wisdom for these sorts of
things. And I deeply appreciate that.
That's true. Um, Proverbs 26 famously
gives us on the one hand, on the other
hand, on the one hand sometimes we
answer the fool and on the other hand
sometimes we do not answer the fool. And
those are one verse apart.
Sometimes we answer the fool because
otherwise he will be wise in his own
eyes.
But other times we do not answer the
fool, lest we be like him ourselves. And
so it's it's good that we have those
exhortations to wisdom. But I'm also
grateful that we have passages like
Titus chapter 3 that in addition to
wisdom, in addition to faith and love
and peace give us some practical
counsel. So, I invite you to turn there
with me, Titus chapter 3,
and to look for that uh practical
counsel that we can find in this passage
beginning in verse 1. In Titus chapter
3,
there Paul says, "Remind them to be
submissive to rulers
and authorities,
to be obedient,
to be ready for every good work,
to speak evil of no one,
to avoid quarreling.
to be gentle
and to show perfect courtesy toward
all people.
For we ourselves
were once foolish,
disobedient,
led astray,
slaves to various passions and
pleasures,
passing our days in malice and envy,
hated by others
and hating one another.
But
but when the goodness and loving
kindness of God, our savior, appeared.
He saved us.
And he saved us not because of works
done by us in righteousness,
but according to his own mercy,
by the washing of regeneration
and the renewal of the Holy Spirit,
whom he poured out on us richly through
Jesus Christ our savior,
so that being justified by his grace, we
might become hes according to the hope
of eternal life.
The saying is trustworthy.
And I want you to insist on these things
so that those who have believed in God
may be careful to devote themselves to
good works.
These things are excellent and
profitable for people. [snorts]
But avoid foolish controversies and
genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels
about the law, for they are unprofitable
and worthless.
And as for a person who stirs up
division, after warning him once and
then twice, have nothing more to do with
him, knowing that such a person is
warped and sinful, he is self condemned.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be
to God.
Will you pray with me?
Lord, we thank you for this trustworthy
saying.
And we pray that by your spirit that you
would help us to hear you,
that you would give us comfort in these
good words of the gospel.
but that you would also challenge us
that we might be devoted to good works
as we believe and hear these things.
And so we pray that by your spirit and
in the name of your son.
Amen.
Amen. Well, this is one of those good
Paul uh gospel sandwich passages. Get
that nice grace in the middle. That's
the meat, if you will. Or I guess you
know it's your tomatoes if you prefer.
if you're not if you're not a big meat
eater. Uh and then you get these uh you
get these reminders on the front half of
the passage
and you get these warnings in the back
half of the passage. So the bread is
reminders and warnings and we'll start
with some of those reminders.
They're [snorts] good reminders
and they're actually also pretty simple
reminders. And by simple I mean uh
simple to say but not necessarily simple
to do.
Simple to say though uh reminders in how
we relate to authorities on the one
hand, how we relate to all people on the
other and they're relatively
straightforward. Uh be subject to rulers
and authorities, be obedient, be ready
for every good work. And as we relate to
people, speak evil of no one. Avoid
quarreling.
Be gentle. Show perfect courtesy.
Uh you don't need to be an expert in
Greek to be able to understand these
words in your head. Um but it is very
hard for us to do these things. Show
perfect courtesy.
Don't be quarrelome.
These are hard things to do. Now, it's
important for us to say that these are
not the only things that the scriptures
give us when it comes to these topics.
So, there are plenty of other scriptures
that describe exceptional circumstances.
There are occasions when we should
disobey authorities. We've read Acts 5.
If someone tells us to disobey God, we
do not obey them. We obey God. We don't
obey men. So, we know that's true. And
there's other passages of scripture that
point us to the occasional need for firm
and hard words. We watch Jesus confront
the Pharisees. And when it's a situation
where there is abusive religious
hypocrisy, he does not shy away from
telling people that they are broods of
vipers or whitewashed tombs. So there
can be occasions where that kind of
language is appropriate. Even Paul
opposes Peter to his face when he
refuses to eat with the Gentiles.
[snorts]
So firm approaches, harsh language. We
know from other passages of scripture
that those things can be needed in
certain circumstances. And yet what we
find in our passage is our ordinary
operating procedures for daily life and
most of the circumstances that we find
ourselves in even when they become
controversial.
As [snorts] we relate to authorities,
our daily operating procedures are to be
subject to be obedient to engage in good
work. As we think about our relations
with other people, we are not those who
speak evil. We are not those who
quarrel, but we are those who are gentle
and show perfect courtesy.
I have heard recently some of these
online conversations people talk about
winsomeness
and its place in relation to
controversy.
Setting that aside for a moment, let us
just say directly that this passage is
not an invitation to weakness.
It actually is a invitation to strength.
It is hard to engage in a controversy in
a peaceable way that is not quarrelome
and shows courtesy to your opponents.
You have to come in ready for that. Has
anyone ever been to a holiday unprepared
for the question someone might ask?
When you get put on the spot and you're
not ready for it,
it [snorts] takes work.
So, this is not an invitation to
weakness or avoidance, but to be on
guard and to be ready.
And this is characteristic of Paul's
instructions in general and Peter's for
that matter. When Peter writes his
epistle to the elect
scattered around,
he calls them as sojourners and exiles
to abstain from the passions of the
flesh which war against the soul. And he
says, "Keep your conduct among the
Gentiles honorable
so that when they speak against you as
evildoers, they may see your good deeds
and glorify God on the day of
visitation." His expectation is that
even if someone accuses you, they know
deep down because they've seen how you
live. They know deep down that you are a
person that conducts yourself in an
honorable way. That's what Peter says.
And Paul says the same thing elsewhere
in First Thessalonians when he's talking
to the Thessalonians church,
Thessalonian church. He says in chapter
4 of First Thessalonians,
[snorts] continue in brotherly love.
And what does that look like? He says in
verse 11, "Aspire to live quietly, mind
your own affairs, work with your hands
so that you may walk properly before
outsiders and be dependent on no one."
So there's a consistent scriptural
teaching here about what our daily
conduct is to be even when we are
engaging in controversy and even when
we're engaging with non-Christians,
outsiders, those who are not part of the
household of God. So simple reminders,
[snorts] consistent biblical teaching,
but they are hard things to put into
practice. Amen.
So why why why
do we do these things? And this is where
we turn to the the meat of the passage.
It's also the place where your preacher
tries really hard not to cry
because he because he loves it.
Paul does the thing he usually does.
He moves on from good reminders to good
news.
And that good news involves a reminder
of who we were,
but more importantly now
who we are. And this is verse three. He
tells them who you were. [snorts] You
were foolish. Why do you engage with
fools patiently? and with kindness and
with courtesy and with love.
Because we ourselves were once fools,
we also were disobedient, he says, led
astray, slaves to various passions and
pleasures, passing our days in malice
and envy, hated by others, and hating
one another.
And if we're honest and if we're paying
attention during that confession of sin,
if we weren't just going through the
motions as Clark so helpfully encourages
us not to do,
we know that
that ongoing struggle with these things
is part of our lives. And so because we
know that ongoing struggle with these
things is part of our lives, when we
think about the patience of God with us,
it calls us to be patient and kind and
loving towards others. That's who we
were. But Paul goes on and he says, "But
this is who we are."
And he gives them a trustworthy saying.
The commentaries actually spend a lot of
pages debating on how many of these
verses are the trustworthy saying and
how many pages are Paul's commentary on
the trustworthy saying. I commend those
commentaries to you.
For our brief purposes, I will just
point out that either way, all of the
things here are trustworthy,
whether they're part of the saying or
they're commentary upon them. And so,
they're good for us.
[snorts]
Paul reminds us of who we are because of
what God has done. And this is a
trustworthy saying. And it is these
things that we should insist upon. What
are these things?
Well, in verse four, the incarnation is
one of the things that we insist upon.
Paul says, "When the goodness
and loving kindness of God
appeared,
[snorts]
it's easy to take that for granted, that
language, but God has appeared in the
flesh."
So, we insist upon that.
We also even 500 years after the
Protestant Reformation insists upon the
doctrine of justification.
Paul says he describes it in verse five.
He says not because of works done by us
in righteousness but according to his
own mercy. And then having described the
doctrine in verse five. He then
explicitly names it in verse seven as
the basis for which we then do these
good deeds.
So, [snorts] we insist upon the doctrine
of justification. And when people try to
fiddle with the doctrine of
justification, we get kind of nitpicky
about it. That's okay. We can insist
upon these things. We also insist versus
end of five and six on not just
regeneration, but also its ongoing uh
expression in our lives as we experience
God's sanctifying work of us. He says,
"By the washing of regeneration and the
renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he
poured out on us generously through
Jesus Christ our savior, we insist on a
[snorts] two-fold grace. Not just that
we are justified, but that we are made
righteous."
[snorts] And then also a fourth thing
that because of all of this, we have an
eternal hope and we are to live in light
of that eternal hope. So we have a hope
of glorification
that being justified by his grace we
might become hes according to the hope
of eternal life. And so these are the
things that we insist upon. We insist on
these things.
The character of God, the work of God,
that we no longer are who we were, but
we are now who we are. And we have a
hope. we insist on those things.
[snorts]
One of the interesting things about this
passage though is that Paul gives us
these things in order to spur us on to
good works which are mentioned at the
beginning of the passage and again in
verse 8. [snorts] I want you to insist
on these things so that those who have
believed in God may be careful to
[snorts] devote themselves to good
works.
And so as we insist on these things, we
devote ourselves to good works. And
maybe for those of us who especially
want to insist on these things, maybe
for those of us who are inclined to want
to be very insistent upon these things,
maybe even to engage in controversy in
these things, we also are always
reminding ourselves that yes, we engage
in controversy, but we do that as those
who are committed to good works.
So if you call yourself a systematic
theologian,
be reminded to devote yourself to good
works. That's what our systematic
theology is to spur us on to do.
[snorts]
And I will say this is actually
something that I have felt as a personal
challenge.
If I'm going to be committed to this
professional task
along with this professional task, there
also needs to be a devotion to good
works. And I I I have to tell you, it's
it's a journey on the way, not fully
arrived.
But let me call you as those in seminary
pursuing theological education to be
with me on that journey. Um Megan and I
in our lives have actually committed
ourselves in a lot of ways, not just
what we do professionally, but
volunteering to caring for the orphans
and the widows.
Let us devote ourselves to those things.
Uh along the way in Charlotte, there was
an organization that we found uh was
doing great work and um frequently
wanted to encourage people to be
involved with. This organization was
called Safe Families. Some of you might
be familiar with it. I think it's
actually a national organization.
Uh but in Charlotte, they were doing
great work.
And uh what they do is essentially they
provide safe families for those who
might be at risk of having to enter into
the foster care system.
So that rather than entering into the
foster care system, which oftentimes is
hard to get back out of and also the
outcomes aren't always the best, there
are some safe families that you can
place people uh and kids, young children
temporarily in those homes
in order to avoid that system. The
reason I share that is not just to tell
you about that organization, but to
share this piece. when they would give a
presentation and call people to support,
they would often they would often share
this detail that in the city of
Charlotte where we were living, there
were four to 500 children in the foster
care system at any one point.
And I remember every time I would hear
that number, I would think four or 500.
By every account, there are far more
churches than that in this city.
We [snorts] could just fix this like
today.
Now, I I recognize it's actually more
complicated than that.
And it's often the case that many people
are already devoted to caring for the
folks in the foster care system. And the
reason that there are as few as there
are is because people are already caring
for folks. And at the same time, I did
nevertheless still have that thought
occasionally that this is something that
we could do something about if we were
devoted to good works.
Now, that's our particular calling, our
particular heart. We felt called to
adoption. We felt called to engage with
teen mothers. We felt called to engage
in foster care. That's what we felt
called to engage with. My question for
us would be, what do we all feel called
to engage with as we insist on these
things?
And what does it look like for us to be
devoted to good works in this way? What
would it look like for you? I know you
are, but there's an exhortation in this
passage that we continue to be and to be
very thoughtful about what that might
look like. How would our city be
different
if in addition to committing ourselves
to theological controversies,
we committed ourselves to these kinds of
good works.
And that's a both and. That's not an
eitheror. That's a both and. And I like
that. Amen. Thank you for that. Let us
commit ourselves to these things. So
Paul gives some warnings as well. Having
exhorted and challenged
and reminded, he also [snorts] gives
some good warnings. Again, there are
two. Avoid false teaching on the one
hand and avoid false teachers on the
other.
When it comes to false teaching,
he says there are foolish controversies.
And he describes genealogies and
dissensions and arguments about the law.
And he says they are unprofitable and
they are worthless. And if we have more
time, we could unpack the particular
errors that are going on there in creed
and why it is the case that Paul wants
Titus to address these things. Um but
with the time that we have, [snorts]
I think it's important for us to pay
close attention
to this danger uh that there are foolish
controversies that we could find
ourselves mixed up in and we [snorts]
should avoid those things.
Unprofitable and worthless discussions
about tertiary issues that often have to
do with my personal identity are not the
kinds of controversies that I should be
involved in.
>> [snorts]
>> In addition to avoiding false teaching,
he warns Titus that he should avoid
false teachers,
people who stir up division. Hereticos
anthropos. Do you hear it? Hereticos.
Heretics. Hereticos. Got to be careful
with those kinds of etmologies. But
that's where we do get the word. It's
interesting that word in scripture does
refer to false teaching, but it carries
with it frequently the connotation
of divisive person, factional
pursuing person. Factionalism is
frequently attached to it. Five times in
the book of Acts,
it's not just false teaching, but it's
factions. Paul even uses the word as a
synonym for factions in 1 Corinthians
chapter 11.
Such factionalism
flows from the desires of the flesh, the
opposite of the fruit of the spirit
which pursues love and peace.
How are we to respond to such false
teachers?
It says that we should have nothing to
do with them. Such people are warped and
sinful. They are self- condemned.
So those are harsh words, but
nevertheless,
though they are harsh words, Paul is
still inviting us to engage in these
conversations with a spirit of peace and
gentleness. So firm
but peaceable.
We heard last week
that Timothy is to correct his opponents
with gentleness.
The hope being that God may perhaps
grant those opponents repentance,
that they might come to their senses.
And [snorts] so that is how we should
engage in controversy too. That we would
hope that our opponents would come to
their senses
and that they too would insist on the
incarnation and justification and
sanctification and glorification. all
these things.
So there's a low tolerance for
controversialists in the church. You
warn them once, you warn them twice, and
then you have nothing to do with them.
[snorts]
I think we can observe that in recent
years there have been many voices
calling churches and Christians to be
insistent on many issues and agendas
that frequently go beyond the things
that Paul's insisting on in this
passage.
When someone tells us that we must
address this issue,
how do we respond?
Well, it's where I just return us to the
simple
instructions that are given in this
passage. And this is where I'll bring us
to a conclusion. Just leave you with
some simple instructions
that are hard to do.
I'll give them directly to our students,
but I think they're actually good for
all of us
and I hope we all feel some conviction
as we remind ourselves of these things.
So students, as you pursue your studies,
as you insist on these things and even
as you are nitpicky about them and come
to theology classes and be nitpicky
about some of these things. Amen.
Amen.
By all means, grow in your ability to
identify and address errors,
but avoid foolish controversies.
And avoid those who stir up division,
especially those who stir up division by
insisting that we address other things
besides these things.
And as you relate to the people around
you, including those in authority, speak
evil of no one. Avoid quarreling.
Be gentle. Show perfect courtesy.
And be good subjects.
Be obedient.
Be ready for every good work.
Above all those things, remember who you
were and remember what Christ has done
for you.
You were foolish and disobedient, led
astray. You were slaves to various
passions and pleasures, passing your
days in malice and envy, hated by others
and hating one another. That's true of
all of us apart from Christ. And because
of the indwelling sin that we all
experience, they continue to be the
struggles that we experience on a daily
basis.
But those realities no longer
fundamentally define us.
The loving kindness and goodness of God
has appeared
in Jesus Christ
and he has saved us.
So insist on these things.
and be careful to devote yourself to
good works. Amen. Amen. Let me pray for
us.
Lord, we thank you for your word when it
gives us simple advice.
Uh we know that we need your spirit in
order that we might do it.
Thank you that by your spirit
Christ dwells in us.
May we insist on that truth.
Would you help us to believe it?
And would you help us to live in a way
that reflects it?
We pray in Jesus name. Amen.