 Welcome back after the break. We'll continue. Just before we went for a break, we were looking at chapter 3 of verse 7 where Paul says that having been justified by his grace, we should become his according to the hope of eternal life. So to be justified is for God to declare sinner righteous before him. Now, how can a sinner be made righteous before God? What is the meaning of righteous? That means we are right in God's sight. We are no longer seen as enemies, but we are friends. We are in right relationship with God, right standing with him. And how are we declared as righteous even though we are sinners? It's because not of any work that we have done is also not because we have prayed the salvation prayer and we've asked Jesus to forgive us. Yes, that's one way we've received salvation, but we, God sees us as justified or we are righteous in God's sight. It's because the moment we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, the righteousness of Jesus Christ is put upon us. That means we are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ or the righteousness of Jesus Christ is put into our account, so to say. His righteousness is put into our account and that is why it says imputed. His righteousness Christ righteousness is imputed upon us. That means imputed means put into our account. Christ's righteousness has been put into our account the moment we believe in Jesus Christ. God does not justify the sinner by crediting faith to us as a righteousness, but rather, you know, it's because of Jesus Christ was perfectly righteous. His righteousness is being credited to us because we have put our faith in Christ Jesus. So Paul here says that justification comes to us by God's grace and it's no way merited by our faith. It's no way merited by our faith or by our good deeds or even us putting our faith in Jesus Christ's works, praying the salvation prayer, all of that. Yes, we receive salvation by faith and by grace through faith, but we receive, we are made justified or we are made righteous is because the perfect righteousness of God is kind of clothing us or is clothed as or has been put into our account. Okay, so this verse mentions the goal of our salvation. This verse mentions the goal of our salvation. In the previous verse, we looked at, you know, the effects of our salvation, the means of our salvation in verse five. And now in verse seven, we are looking at the goal of our salvation. And what is our goal of our salvation is hair is being hairs according to the hope of eternal life. So what is the end result or the end goal of us being of us receiving salvation or us being justified or being made righteous in God's side. Or being washed by the regeneration by the Holy Spirit is because we have this hope of eternal life. Okay, this hope of eternal life is ours. The moment we receive Jesus Christ as our personal savior. It's not something that we will experience in the life to come that means after we die when we go up to heaven. It's not that we experience eternal life only there, but we receive it, we experience taste a bit of that eternal life here now on this earth. Okay, even though it's something that is a hope that is in the future, but it's something that we will experience here. It's something that is an inheritance we will receive in the hope in the future, but we can also realize it here, even though we do not realize it fully here. We will realize it partially here, but we will realize it fully when we are in heaven. Okay, so what is the goal of our salvation. It is the hope of eternal life and eternal life is not something that is an eschatological hope that means something way into the future that we will experience. But it is something that is a realized eschatology that means we will realize it here now in the present after we have received salvation, received new birth, the moment we are born again made new creation, we will receive it. And also it's something that we will experience it in part here, but we will experience it fully once we are in heaven, we are living eternity with God. So throughout eternity, we will experience the hope of eternal life, experience our riches in Christ Jesus. Now, why does Paul talk about this whole topic of salvation here after he's talked about submitting to civil government, civil authorities, laws of the land and about good deeds. Why is he talking about salvation? Now in verse eight he says, you know, this is a faithful saying and these things I want you to affirm constantly, but those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men. So these things are all the things that Paul has mentioned so far. He wants Titus to continuously preach with confidence the truth of the gospel so that people can engage in good deeds. But the term or the word careful here is, you know, is to reason is to consider carefully, and it's a word that is found only here in the New Testament. Okay, this word careful in the Greek is found here only in the New Testament. So it means to reason to consider carefully. So if you have to understand what is Paul saying, if you understand the doctrine of salvation by grace, it will motivate us to take the thought about how we can engage in good deeds. Okay, so that means he's saying that, you know, yes, you have received salvation is the work of God is his grace is his mercy is his love is his kindness, but that should translate or that should motivate us to engage in good deeds in doing good things because the believer was constantly think about how to live a godly life. For the sake of the gospel, and Paul affirms again that people are right with God apart from good works, but also that the goal of God for every believer is personal good works. And the thing here is, we don't receive salvation by doing good works. We don't risk. We are not justified or made righteous by our good works, not even our faith. But he's saying that, you know, we received salvation by God's mercy and his grace, but, you know, the goal of every believer should be that they do good works. So if you are saved, or if you say that you have faith in Jesus Christ, it should show in the good works that we are doing, it should show in God the lifestyle. It should show in us living holy righteous lives before God, before man, and it should also show in good works. And we see that in Jesus himself, you know, Jesus, we see that he never condemned anyone. He never, he forgave everyone. He loved everyone. He healed everyone who came to him. It says Jesus healed them all. He had compassion on them. He healed them all. He never condemned. He never judged anybody. He never put down anybody. But, you know, we see him, you know, even honoring the government, the law of the land, when they say, do we have to pay taxes? He says, takes a coin and says, you know, whose image is found on the coin. And they say Caesar. So he says, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give to God what belongs to God. So we see he even obeys the law of the land. He does not rebel against the law or of the government. And so we see in Jesus' works, him being like the father, he came to, you know, show us who the father is. And he showed it in his, the way he lived in his deeds, in his lifestyle, in the works that he did. He, you know, revealed the father to us. He revealed how to live godly lives. And so, you know, if we say we have faith in God, it should show in good works. And that is what even James, you know, writes about in James chapter two, verses 14 and 23, where James is saying, you know, in, if you look at James chapter two, verses 14 and 23, James says, What is it? What does it profit my brethren? If some of you say that you have faith, but does not have works. Can faith save him? Her brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food. And one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warm and filled, but do not give them the things which are needed for the body. What does it profit? That's also faith by itself. If it does not have works is dead. Okay. So what is, you know, the writer of James saying here, like James is actually trying to say that faith and good works are like two sides of the same coin. Now, you take a coin, one rupee coin, five rupee coin. And, you know, if this, if it's imprinted only on one side of the coin is the coin, valuable to take a coin, five rupee coin, and there's a print only on one side of the coin. And the other side of the coin is blank. Is that coin valuable? Yes, no. Thank you, Erin. Yes, that coin is not valuable. It is worthless. It's of no value. It's useless. Why? Because it's not printed on the both sides. It's a counterfeit coin. It's a fake coin. We cannot use it. So Paul is also trying to say that if, you know, faith and good deeds is like, like that is both sides of the coin. He's not mentioning it here, but I am just giving you an explanation that both sides of the coin. James is saying, if you don't have faith and good works, then it's your faith is good as useless, lifeless, dead, just like that coin, which is not printed on both sides. That coin is without any value. It has no, it's of no use. Same way, if our life, if we say we have faith in God and we don't show it in our godly lifestyles that we live, holy lifestyles, righteous lifestyles, and in doing good works, then, you know, our faith is as good as dead. It's good as being lifeless. It's as good as being no use. And so he's giving an example. James says, if your brother or sister is naked or is hungry, and you just say, you know, depart in peace, be warm and be felt well fed. It's like we Christians today say, if somebody says, you know, I'm going, going through financial crisis, I don't have this, I don't have that, my children have money to pay my children's fees. What do we tell them? So sorry to hear brother, so sorry to hear sister. Don't worry. We'll, we'll pray for you. You know, our God is a God who's Jehovah Jairah. He'll provide. He'll take care. He'll do miracles. He'll do exceedingly wonderfully, wonderfully more than you can ask, think or imagine, and I will pray for you. Well, it's a good thing to do that, you know, we pray for them. But if it's in your means to share some of the resources that can help that person, you know, why not? Yes, you're saying God is Jehovah Jairah. He'll provide, you know, and some, most often he provides through you and I, but you and me, you know, God provides through us to other people who are in need. So there's no point in saying, you know, I'll pray for you when we have the means to provide for them. If somebody is cold, you have an extra sweater, you can give it to them. You know, if somebody is hungry, you have food, you can share it with them. If somebody is going through financial crisis and now all the more because the pandemic, many of them have lost their spouse, their job, you know, we can reach out and help. Or if you hear somebody, you know, in our church or in our family, you know, they're facing some sickness which requires a lot of medical attention and, you know, money that is required. We might not be able to give them lakhs of rupees. We can at least give them a few thousands that can help them to show them that, you know, you care or provide for their meals or just, you know, visit them in the hospital, stay over in the hospital, take food for them in the hospital. All of these little things are some things that through which we show them, you know, that we are confessing our faith or showing forth our faith. And our faith will always operate in good charitable works like Jesus did, you know, when the 5,000 were there, only men, you know, the disciples say, send them away, you know, we can't buy food. Jesus said, you provide for them. And we see that Jesus provided for 5,000 men, also women and children. So, you know, we need to do the best that we can. And so he's talking about faith and good works. If you have faith, you know, and somebody who's selfish, not willing to share with others, care for others, help others, then, you know, James is saying our faith is good as dead. And here Paul is saying that, you know, are, you know, what is a faithful saying? The faithful saying here is that, you know, we should lead, once we receive salvation, we need to live godly lives. And also we need to engage in personal good works. It's not good works that have, that can save us from our sins. But, you know, but it's a goal of God for every believer who is believed in him, put his faith in him and receive salvation to do good works. Okay. So does this an encouragement for all of us to engage in good works? You know, just to show for the love of God, the compassion of Christ, because we are his hands. We are his feet. We are his mouth. We are representing Christ here on this earth. And then Paul goes on to talk about rejecting foolish controversies in verses nine to 11. In verse nine, he says, avoid foolish controversies. You know, avoid the Greek word here is gives us an idea of going around something in order to avoid it. So he's stressing the personal involvement and interest in the action. So here is something we have to pay careful attention to because of the various problems that have come about because of people who are, you know, sharing, you know, their false teachings or talking about Old Testament genealogies and Jewish myths and fables which are kind of disturbing the church and the right doctrines and the right teachings. And so he says avoid such things. Sorry, just give me a minute, please. So he says, you know, there should be avoid means he's saying his Paul is commanding here and calling us to have a continual attitude that seeks to avoid useless discussions. So he's saying avoid those useless discussions we have. I have shared about this in first Timothy second Timothy, the reasons why we need to avoid all of these foolish discussions and useless discussions with people who are false teachers because they themselves do not know the truth. All they're doing is just talking about mere words, which is going to end up nowhere. It's going to cause strife, trouble divisions. You know, it's going to cause dispute in the church division in the church. So he says avoid all of these use useless discussions. And then he gives, you know, you know, four things that, you know, that he says is a nature of what Titus and the Cretans and all believers may face. He says you will face foolish disputes. You will face, you know, unprofitable and useless teachers who are bringing about unprofitable and useless teachings. And he says you would praise contentions and strivings about the law, but he says don't indulge in discussing about all of these things. Don't talk about all these things. Don't discuss with them. You know, don't avoid just all of these things. Just talk about the truth in God's word preach it and teach it. Okay, so he says that, you know, why should we avoid all of these useless discussions because it's unprofitable. It's not according with the faith and it's not going to produce a good Christian living because all these false teachers are doing is just this argue about words because they themselves are not looking for the truth. They don't want to know the truth. And hence they are not clear about even what they are following. So it's useless to discuss with them. Okay, what's his 10 to 11 says reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition knowing that such a person is walked and sinning being self condemned. So Paul gives very strict commands about what to do about people who are teaching false teachings, you know, we're trying to bring in division. He says reject them. Okay, that means just avoid them, shun them, decline them, don't speak to them, decline to have any conversation discussions with them. And he's not talking about formally excommunicating them. He's not saying to excommunicate them from the church is not saying that but he says just don't avoid having discussions with them have nothing to do with them. You know, don't even warn them don't even rebuke them don't even have a dialogue or a discussion with them because it's absolutely useless. Okay. So he says, Titus you need to take measures against those who insist on going their own way, their own self will will make will make them self condemned. And then he says, what he needs to do says first and second, admonish them. So he says that, you know, twice, exhaust them twice. And if they're still refused to obey, what you need to do is just simply leave them to their own plans and don't, you know, have to do anything with them. Now, you know, the community or which Titus is having leadership over in the place of Paul, you know, they're no longer where to know the stubborn false teachers as brothers, that means don't treat them as brothers in Christ. They don't have anything to do with these stubborn false teachers. Such a person is warped warped means twisted, you know, these false teachers turn the truth inside out, so that they can have a negative impact. You know, it has a negative impact on their lives. And it leads them to a life of sin they end up living in sinful habits sinful lifestyle, because these false teachers are turning the truth from inside out, and hence is having a negative impact on the person's life, and is leading them to live in sin. So it says once or twice you correct them, they don't heed, then just let them be have no longer anything to do with such a person. And he says such a person is self condemned so warped person is somebody who is aware of his own spiritual state. And he knows that he is going away from the truth he knows that he's refusing to leave the false views that his views that he's holding on to is wrong. And so he stands condemned by his own judgment. However, the Greek term here about self condemnation may also be understood as a means that the twisted teacher or the warped teacher is condemned by their own behavior. Okay, so they're condemned by their own behaviors they're condemned by their own judgment, because they know what they're doing, saying thinking is away from the truth. Okay, then versus 12 to 14 Paul is talking about providing for God's people. So he's talked about how about faith about good deeds. And he's saying that, you know, we've received salvation by grace by faith is not by good deeds but once we've received salvation. You know, you know God requires us that we live holy lives, righteous lives, but we also indulge in good works and good acts in good deeds and so he's giving them an opportunity. The church at Crete to act on what he has just taught them and just told them. So he says, I send Artemis versus 12 to 14. I send Artemis to you, or Taikikis be diligent to come to you. When I send Artemis to you or Taikikis be diligent to come to me at Nicopolis for I have decided to spend the winter there. Send Zen is the lawyer and Apollos on their journey with haste that they may lack nothing and let our people also learn to maintain good works to meet urgent needs that they may not be unfruitful. Okay, so here we see like we said mentioned in 1st and 2nd Timothy that you know Paul does not labor alone. He always works with a good team of people. He has good relationships with people. He has a lot of coworkers, a lot of people he has trained. He was nurtured in the faith sons and daughters in the faith and people who work alongside him. So he works along with them with a team of people. Those who are committed to the ministry who labored with him for the cause of the gospel for the cause of Jesus Christ. And in these verses Paul is mentioning a few of them in his team. He's not talking about the entire team. So he's mentioning about Artemis. The only reference of this man Artemis is here in this in Titus chapter 3 was 12. So from his name people guess that he's a Gentile but we see that you know Paul considered him as a worthy replacement for Titus. So we can say that you know because Paul saw him as somebody who could replace Titus to take over the leadership of the churches at Crete. We can say that this Artemis was somebody who was competent, knowledgeable, faithful, a mature man of God. And Paul tells Titus to meet him in Nicopolis and then they were planning to head north to Dalmatia. So we see that if Titus was going to leave and go along with Paul to Nicopolis then he needed somebody, a worthy replacement. And Paul looks at Artemis as that good worthy replacement in Crete. Then he mentions about Titicus. Titicus was another faithful Gentile believer from Asia which is western Turkey in our time today. He had traveled along with Paul and other men and at the close of Paul's third missionary journey. You know we see that Paul during his first Roman imprisonment Paul sends letters of Ephesians and Colossians with Titicus to the churches at Ephesus and Colossae. And when Paul when Titus goes there he talks about Paul's circumstances. Then we see later Paul sends him to Ephesus to relieve Timothy so that perhaps Timothy could join Paul in Rome before he is martyred or executed. And we see that Paul calls Titicus as a beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow born servant in the Lord in Colossians chapter 4 verse 7. So we see that Titicus or somebody was very valuable team member in Paul's team because Paul calls him as a beloved brother, faithful servant and fellow born servant in the Lord. And then Paul mentions about Zenis the lawyer. Again Zenis the lawyer is the only reference here in the Bible and people say that because of his Greek name he could be a Gentile lawyer. But the fact that he was poor enough for Paul to ask Titus to help supply his needs may mean that he could also be a Jewish expert in the Mosaic law. And we see that he may have set aside his career as a lawyer long before to accompany Paulus on this trip. So he's going to go on a trip along with Paulus and maybe these two men probably carry the epistle of Titus to Crete. So they may be coming to Crete and so Paul is telling Titus please help these two men. Now Paulus is a Jew from Alexandria in northern Egypt. He's a very, very good speaker. He's very well versed in the scriptures in the Old Testament Torah, the law, very fervent in the spirit. We read about him in Acts chapter 18 verses 24 and 25. And he came to Ephesus where Paul's teammates Aquila and Priscilla, you know this couple Aquila and Priscilla were there in Ephesus. And they took upon themselves to teach Paulus about Jesus Christ. He knew well about the Old Testament. He was a very learned man, but teaching about Jesus Christ the way of God more accurately. And so we see that, you know, he was very teachable and a humble man, even though he was learned, you know, a good speaker. He knew much about the Old Testament, but he had a heart to learn, humble heart, teachable heart. And he also had a powerful ministry in Corinth. And Paul mentions about other people, maybe he's referring to people, the Christians in Crete. And they were to learn to take the lead in good works and good deeds. And that's what he says, maintain good works. So again, Paul is repeating for the last time that Christians or believers must take the lead in doing good works. As he mentioned in the presence of Zeniths and Apollos and their needs for their journey and ministry. Just by the church in Crete provide for their journey and for their ministry. You know, they will provide and there will be an excellent illustration or an example as believers in Crete to engage in good work. So Paul is reminding them and giving them the opportunity or the privilege to do this. Okay. And then Paul ends his letter by saying, all who are with me, greet you, greet those who love us in the faith. And he says, grace be with you all, amen. So all with me. We do not know all who are with Paul. And we also do not know where Paul was. You know, he may have been in Macedonia or Akia, but we know that he was not alone. Besides Zeniths and Apollos, we think that there was, you know, there was a church where Paul was staying and he fellowshiped with these saints. And of course, we know that Zeniths and Apollos were with him because they were taking the letter of Titus that Paul had written to Crete to give it to Titus. Okay. Verse seven is as those who love us in the faith. So here Paul's mentioning about his friends or even fellow saints in Crete. And then Paul closes his lecker or close all of his leckers mentioning about God's grace. It was not something that he used as a polite formality, but the Greek word literally means the grace be with you all. Okay. So the grace is the abundant, amazing sustaining, all sufficient grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it was this grace that Paul, who was a great persecutor of the church that God had reached out to him on the road to Damascus and changed his heart. He completely undeserved it, but Paul deserved all that Paul deserved was God's judgment, his wrath, but he received mercy. And so he knows this understanding of this word grace that means he for him grace means so much. It's so rich. It's so abundant for him because he deserved God's punishment and judgment and brought but he received grace. And we also see that it's God's grace that motivated Paul to suffer all the hardships and all the persecutions of the gospel and to continue to preach and to build and to be an apostle, a preacher, a teacher, a prophet, a miracle worker. And nothing soft stopped his zeal. And it was because of the grace of God. God's grace, as was shown at the cross, was the only message that Paul preached. And Paul says his grace is sufficient to sustain Paul in all trials in all difficulties, keep him from the grace of God also kept him from exalting himself as a result of the amazing visions that he had from heaven. And the visions that he experienced, which he talks about in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, versus one to 10. So we see that Paul's entire theology and his gospel can be summed up in this one word, which is grace and then so he closes his letter with grace be with you all, which expresses not only his affection, but his desire for all believers, because we have been saved by grace and it's so important for us to experience this grace and walk in the grace that our Savior has given us. This grace is not only for salvation, but also grace is the basis for our sanctification, our fruitfulness and our reward. So that is the end of Titus chapter 3 and we've finished the book of Titus. We just have one more book left, Philemon, which we'll do next Wednesday. So any of you have any questions? Any doubts? No questions, no doubts? Okay, so when can we have the assessment on Titus? Assessment for Titus, when can we have it? Can you give me a date please? Would you like to have it on March 25th? Is it okay? March 25th next, no? Okay. March 30th? See that says no for March 25th. What about March 38th? I mean for the questions you said now. Sorry? For the questions I said no, but for the 25th it's okay. So March 25th, we'll have the third assessment on Titus on March 25th. Okay, that's done. Oh, you said no questions and doubts on Titus. Okay, so then March 25th, all of you are fine with it? Okay. If there are no questions, then can we end class? Anyone wants to share anything? We'll end class. Okay, since there are no questions, we'll end class here. Thank you all for joining class. I'll see you next Wednesday for, we'll begin Filamin and I think we should be able to finish it next Wednesday. So maybe next Wednesday will be our last class. Okay. Okay, thank you all. Have a good day and the rest of the week. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you.