This is your daily reminder. God has not run
out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome
to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome back. Another
episode of the New Mercies podcast. Today, our
reading as a church family and for myself personally
is in Titus 3 again. We've been in Titus 3 a
couple of times now this week. The way these
journals that our church family is going through,
the way they're lined up is they align with what
the sermon will be on Sunday, this coming Sunday.
And so the goal is that you're in the text that
we're going to preach. twice before we get there.
So this Sunday, we're going to be preaching in
Titus 3. So we want to give our church family
and myself as well multiple days in that text
so that when we show up, not only do we know
kind of where we're going, but we've allowed
the scripture to sort of be meditated on and
kind of work through our lives together as a
church family. So today is Titus 3 again. Now,
if you listened on Tuesday or another time this
week, whenever you maybe picked up the Titus
3 episode before, I'm not going to talk about
the same verses today as I did on Tuesday. In
fact, I want to even kind of shift just the next
couple of verses. If you were listening to the
one we did before this week, it was in verses
3 through 5 or 6, and then it even went into
verse number 7 about being justified by His grace
we might become heirs. according to the hope
of eternal life. And so today I want to read
just the next verse or two in Titus 3 together,
and I'm going to read the couple verses before
so we have a little bit more context. I encourage
you today, as I am doing, read the entire chapter.
Read it, take it slow, take it a little bit at
a time, but I believe we will be greater for
this. We will be better for it if we read the
scripture over and over and over again. So I
want to read just a couple of verses. Let's go
with verse 3 down through verse number 10 or
so. We're going to read these verses together,
and then I want to share a little bit about verses
8 and 9 specifically. But here's what it says
in Titus chapter 3, beginning at verse number
3. For we ourselves once were 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 when the goodness
and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
He saved us, not because of works done by us
in righteousness, but according to His own mercy,
by the washing of regeneration and 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 heirs
according to the hope of eternal life. In our
verse today, 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. I want to stop right
there before I read any more. So there's some
text that is really rich right in there in verse
number eight. He gives an incredible truth, right,
in those verses. Awful, terrible, just vile,
terrible, awful, awful, awful people. Jesus showed
up. He saved us. He gave us hope. He gave us
life. He redeemed us. He cares for us. He brought
us. He saved us. He showed up and saved us. And
that saying, that truth that is out there is
you can count on it. Verse number eight says,
again, the saying is trustworthy. You can bank
on it. You can trust Jesus is enough. He redeemed
us. He brought us out of the pit. He justified
us, not only showing us mercy, but also showing
us grace. We're heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. Now in verse number eight, he says,
this saying is trustworthy, and I want you to
insist on this. I want you to insist on this.
I looked up that word insist, and it stuck out
to me when I was reading. It just it jumped out.
And I need you to know. So all of these. episodes
of this podcast are really an overflow from my
sermon prep and what I look for whenever I'm
teaching on Sunday mornings or in my small group
or whatever it is that I'm doing. But I need
you to know this podcast is partly because I
got to get more out. I can't pack it all into
one sermon, right? There's so much in this text.
I want you to know when I'm reading this today,
I wasn't planning on... preaching this very thing
that I'm going to share with you on Sunday, because
this is an add -on, an extra for me today that
I needed. Maybe it's something you need today
as well. It says, I want you to insist on this.
That assist means to affirm constantly. Do not
let it go. I want you to keep on and keep on
and keep on with this very truth. I don't want
you to ever stop talking about it. That's what
Paul is telling Titus is, I want you to keep
talking about this. I want you to affirm this
truth over and over and over and over again until
you're tired of it and then do it more. I read
a commentary not too long ago about this on this
text itself. And the commentator had made a mention
of, he said, you know, the part of the problem
is that the scripture is like the stars. You
go out and the stars are just there. The stars
are there every night. On a cloudless night,
you see the stars, but they're there all the
time. They're always there. Yet they are incredible
feats of, they're incredible. giant objects out
in the universe moving at an incredible rate
of speed, and they are all shining bright. We
have a star that our Earth revolves around called
the sun, and we are 90 plus million miles away
from it, and yet if we're outside too long, we
get burned, right? It's a powerful, powerful
thing, and yet that is one of the stars of the
billions out there. We look at these stars at
night, and they're just there. If we take a glance
up and see them, we're like, oh, that's pretty.
That's nice. And we keep moving on our day like
they're not incredible. And the commentator had
made a statement and said, what if the stars
only appeared one time in your lifetime? It would
be a global event. Everyone would go out and
pay attention to the sky. We would not want to
miss it. We would write down everything we were
feeling. We would experience this beautiful,
incredible, awesome, spectacular moment. That's
what we would do if you could only see the stars
one time. If you heard about this incredible,
wild, majestic thing that would happen, the globe
is going to turn out to see what the sky would
produce. And yet that's sort of the way we treat
Scripture. We've got this word. It's just there.
It's there. If we want it, we'll take a peek
at it. I began to wonder, as that commentator
had shared, what if we were only able to get
the Word inspired by God to us one time every
lifetime? What if we only got it once, unable
to make a copy of it? It just showed up one time.
We would be mesmerized. The God who made everything
is giving a word to us, and this is our only
chance to get it. We're going to move all of
our schedule around. We're going to take all
this focus and all this attention, and we're
going to put it in the word, right? Yet, it's
just there. That's what we're doing. Paul tells
Titus, he said, I want you to insist on this.
Do not consistently affirm this. I want you to
always be confirming this truth because it is
incredible and powerful and amazing. Don't ever
let it just be there. Unfortunately, that's what
we've done in the church. It goes on. I want
to read the next couple of verses just to give
us a little more context here. The Bible says
this in verse number nine, but avoid foolish
controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and
quarrels about the law for they are unprofitable.
and worthless. Now I want to specify a couple
of things right here. So Paul is writing to Titus.
Remember, Titus is in a certain context, in a
certain time, dealing with certain issues. He
says to avoid foolish controversies. We get what
that means, right? If it's foolish conversation,
it doesn't lead anywhere. It's not going to lead
you closer to Jesus. It's those controversies
that have no answer. It's the controversies that
you're just striving for debate, right? I remember
a long time ago when I was a youth pastor, there
seemed to be some rise in this question, can
God make a rock so big he can't? He can't pick
it up, right? He can't lift it. And I remember
answering the question with a little tongue -in
-cheek humor, and I would say, absolutely, he
can make a rock so big he can't lift it. And
then he would throw it at you for asking a dumb
question. Now, it's not necessarily a dumb question.
It begins to spark some real brain exercise,
right? How big would that rock have to be? Well,
bigger than the earth because he moves the earth.
He can pick everything up. He's got the whole
world in his hands. We've got the whole thing
going on. But if a conversation or a controversy
we have, it may even be something that starts
out serious that just ends up in a loop, a vicious
cycle of continual questioning. So how can a
good God allow evil? That's a question that could
be a real legitimate question in our hearts.
But if we don't... if we're not trying to get
closer to God and understand him at a deeper
level, it becomes foolish. If we can't just accept
truth by faith, then we aren't following in the
ways of truth. We're following in foolish ways.
And so he's saying, avoid those altogether. If
you start to realize that this is not going to
bring me closer to Jesus, if it's not going to
bring me more into his likeness, I'm going to
get rid of it. It's foolishness. But then he
says something strange. He says, and avoid genealogies.
Why would he say that? There's genealogies in
the Bible. That's obviously not what Paul was
talking about. He wasn't saying avoid all those
genealogies in the Bible. Now, there's some questions
about some genealogies in the Bible, right? There's
a genealogy listed in 1 Chronicles that is a
little different than one listed in 1 Samuel,
and you're like, wait. What's the difference
here? There's plenty of reasons for the differences.
You've got to understand audience, exegeting
Scripture or using the Scripture, understanding
it in context, understanding it to the audience,
understanding who wrote it, when it was written,
what it was written for, the purpose, all of
that stuff. But he's not saying avoid the genealogies
in the Bible. He's saying avoid genealogies in
the sense of... Trying to make everything match
in the family line. You know, we can get so tied
up with our own world that we forget that Jesus
is just bigger than. He's bigger than my family
heritage. I love my family heritage. I love the
legacy that has been given to me and that I am
hopefully giving to my family. But my legacy
is not going to bring you closer to Jesus. Now,
through my legacy, the person of Christ being
exemplified can bring people closer to Christ,
right? Because it's Jesus bringing people to
him. He's saying, avoid the genealogy. It's not
about your last name. It's not about what family
line you were in. It's about, have you accepted
the truth of salvation in Jesus or not? He also
says to avoid dissensions. We get that, right?
Anything that's going to divide, we don't want
that in our life. And avoid quarrels about the
law. This was a really hot topic issue in the
first century church. There was a lot of questions
about the law. The Mosaic law, Jewish people,
especially rabbis and Pharisees and those Jewish
leaders, would be very intense about exactly
what the law meant and exactly how he meant it
and what he meant by this and how this played
out in everyday life. Paul says to Titus, keep
the main thing the main thing. He goes on in
verse number 10 and says, As for a person who
stirs up division after warning him once and
then twice, have nothing more to do with him.
And then verse 11 says why. Knowing that such
a person is warped and sinful and he is self
-condemned. This is when it says a person who
stirs up division, that word is the Greek word
for heretic. It's where we get the word heretic.
And in that term, it means somebody that's going
to just stir up a problem. instead of healing
and making peace, right? If you're just trying
to stir up a problem and you're trying to divide
everybody up and try to teach something that's
not the gospel, try to teach something additional
to the gospel. Paul says, don't even have, go
try to correct them one time, even twice, go
to them. But if they are refusing to repent,
then have nothing to excommunicate them. Get
rid of them because that's a cancer that you
don't want in your church. That's a disease that
is going to bring sickness and brokenness into
your church. So don't have anything to do with
them. They're self -condemning. And don't feel
bad that you have set them apart. They have set
themselves apart. So be freed from that. This
text is beautiful. It's incredible. It's awesome.
Today, I want you to insist on the truth. Imagine
the stars only came out once in your lifetime.
How amazing would that night be? We have this
scripture every single day. The New Mercies podcast
is here to tell you every day we have new mercies
from the Lord. Let's not just let them be there.