Debates and Divisions

the following message by Alistair beg is made available by truth for life for more information visit us online at truthfortheworld.org Titus chapter 3 no surprise I invite you to turn there please and what I'm going to do is read Titus 3 in Peterson's paraphrase which you should never use to study the Bible but it is interesting and quite helpful as a fairly free attempt paraphrasing the the more accurate text so you needn't follow along here I'll be hard to follow along in your own text but let me just read it as is paraphrased for us by by Peterson remind the people to respect the government and be law-abiding always ready to lend a helping hand no insults no fights God's people should be big-hearted and courteous it wasn't so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn dupes of sin ordered every which way by our glands going around with a chip on our shoulder hated and hating back but when God our kind and loving Savior God stepped in he saved us from all that it was all his doing we had nothing to do with it he gave us a good bath and we came out of it new people washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously God's gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives and there's more life to come an eternity of life you can count on this I want you to put your foot down take a firm stand on these matters so that those who have put their trust in God will concentrate on the essentials that are good for everyone stay away from mindless pointless quarreling over genealogies and fine print in the law code that gets you nowhere warned a quarrelsome person once or twice but then be done with him it's obvious that such a person is out of line rebellious against God by persisting in divisive Ness he cuts himself off as soon as I send either Artemis or Atticus to you come immediately and meet me in Nicholas I've decided to spend the winter there gives eNOS the lawyer and a Paulus a hearty send-off take good care of them our people have to learn to be diligent in their work so that all necessities are met especially among the needy and they don't end up with nothing to show for their lives all here want to be remembered to you say hello to our friends in the faith grace to all of you amen father we pray now that as this evening hour has come and as the shadows fall on the day and as we enjoy the stillness of these moments we pray that as our hearts have been turned to Christ in all of his fullness in the reality of his resurrection in the wonder of his atoning death as we've listened to these songs so we pray for your help as we turn again to the Bible that once again the Spirit of God may teach us and equip us with everything good for the doing of your will and we pray humbly and expectantly in Jesus name Amen and I have little doubt that the Apostle Paul himself would be quite happy with the name truth for life I hope you don't think that's presumptuous of me to say so but I think it's fairly accurate I think he might even say that actually would be a terrific heading for my letter to Titus or even particularly for the third chapter itself because as we have already seen in our two prior studies the truth of the gospel believed is to find expression in the behavior of those who have come to trust in God and that is what he is saying in verse 8 those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good and having come to believe in Jesus now they're going to behave as Jesus desires Paul is pretty straightforward I think you would agree he doesn't have any qualms at all about telling Titus what to teach nor does he really have any concern about telling him how to teach and he's done this at the end of chapter two these then are the things you should teach encourage and rebuke with all authority and don't let anyone despise you and this of course is very helpful to a young pastor wondering what he should teach I always remember from my early days what what a paralyzing thing it was to be invited to speak when I was the assistant minister in Edinburgh and how much pressure I felt and the burden that I felt in relationship to it and I could identify with a young curate in the Anglican Church who on the first occasion that he had been invited to speak when his vicar was on holiday now the young man was so anxious that he sent a postcard to his bishop the bishop who had ordained him and he said to him dear bishop annex sunday is my first chance and what should I preach about and the bishop sent him a postcard in reply and it said preach about God and preach about twenty minutes and that kind of that kind of clarity I think is very helpful I wish any of us would pay as much attention to the second part of it as we claim to do the first part of it but here Titus has given his marching orders these then are the things you should teach it reflects on what has already been stated in the previous two chapters and he comes back you will notice and he does the same thing again here in verse eight this is a trustworthy saying and I want you to stress these things I want you to speak about these things with absolute certainty and I think there is no question but that the opening phrase of verse eight this is a trustworthy saying is referencing what he has just said in verses four to seven some of the commentators actually ponder the possibility that these verses four to seven were actually a pre-existent text of some sort perhaps even a musical rendition because there were hymns in the early church and it may have been that verses four to seven were memorable in this particular way whatever we may think about that you are sensible people and you can figure this out for yourselves but I think when he says this is solid truth it is a referential back the way and not forward not that what he's going on to say is an also solid truth but it seems to be fitting in light of what he has just done and I say I think it ties in with verse 15 of chapter 2 where in what is essentially a parallel passage between verse 11 and verse 14 which focuses on the gospel itself again he then says and these are the things these are the things that you should teach in chapter 3 he comes back and he outlines the nature of the gospel and he says this is the solid truth that I want you to make sure you emphasize so it's fairly straightforward it's not hard to understand Titus is to ensure that those who are under his care should be essentially saturated with the gospel that they should be those who have a solid working living under standing of the nature of the gospel and I think that many of us coming to an event like this listening as we do to the radio in this way will probably immediately note our heads and we would be affirming certain things at least in our own minds whether we are actually making the right kind of affirmations or not perhaps is worthy of consideration certainly we as a group of leaders at Parkside our elders have taken a significant step forward in relationship to the gospel as a result of making one of our monthly books a book by jerry bridges the gospel for real life and in our elders meetings part of what we do is read a book together and sometimes it works out very profitably other times not as good as we'd anticipated but at the time that we read through the gospel for real life was a very very important time for us because in reading what was a very profitable book together we were tremendously helped by having reinforced for us the nature of the gospel itself and we spent some months considering what Bridges refers to in his introduction to the book as the absolute necessity of preaching the gospel to ourselves every day preaching the gospel to ourselves every day I'm not sure that many of us are read even any of us had actually thought about that before we came across that phrase in that book and so as we worked our way through we were tremendously helped by being reminded of the fact that the gospel is not simply a door through which we walk in order to become a Christian but the gospel is the sole basis of our day-by-day acceptance by God as I alluded to it this morning when I said that the gospel is not simply the ABC of the Christian life that gets us started but the gospel is the eh-2-zed of the Christian life and this came across very clearly for us and it helped us to understand it in our own lives and in relationship to our leadership of the church and it also has helped us to make sure that all of the aspects of life at Parkside are increasingly grounded in and oriented by the gospel itself and what has become apparent - as is this that when men and women do not have a solid grasp of the gospel of what God has done for us in Christ when men and women do not have a clear awareness of what the New Testament teaches concerning our union with Christ then those men and women will seek to find their assurance of salvation somewhere other than the gospel so for example and you can try yourselves on this when you think about the fact that you are in Christ on what basis do you say that God loves you looks on you in the perfection and absolute holiness of Christ right now tonight October 10th 2009 if we do not have a gospel answer to that question then we will seek to find our acceptance with God either on the strength of our past experience of conversion so you ask somebody how do you know that God is at peace with you and they say well years ago when I was 17 I went to a thing and I put up my hand that's a very interesting answer that's the basis of your feeling accepted with God something that you did a long time ago in your life or that we seek to find the basis of our acceptance with God in our sincerity or in our performance or in the relative infrequency of our conscious and willful disobedience in other words we say to ourselves well I'm sure God must be really happy with me because I haven't been as willfully disobedient for the last seven days as I was in the previous seven days to the extent that a man or a woman thinks that way that man or woman needs to have their pastor do what Paul is urging Titus to do here and that is to stress these things concerning the nature of the gospel so that those who are under his care may be reminded that every day all day our acceptance with God is in Christ alone is in Christ alone and is in Christ alone because of who Jesus is and because of what Jesus has done you see when we preach and this is something that has come home forcibly to me in the course of these readings and thinking when we preach it is possible for us to think that we have told people the gospel because we have warned them about the dangers of rejecting it or encourage them to think about the benefits of accepting it but you may warn somebody about the dangers of rejecting the gospel or the benefits of accepting the gospel and you may never have told them the gospel and that's exactly what's happening in many of our churches so the people are sitting in are saying I don't understand why this fellow is so steamed up about this it doesn't seem to bear any rate any relationship to the text that he was apparently trying to expound and now all of a sudden he's launched off into something entirely different well you see what needs to happen is that we need to explain the nature of the gospel and that is who Jesus is and what he has done that Jesus has perfectly obeyed the law of God and his act of righteousness stands in the place of our act of rebellion that Jesus has unequivocally and absolutely satisfied the Justice of God that he has exhausted the wrath of God that he has removed our sins from the presence of God that he has redeemed us from the curse of God and that he has in short reconciled us to God and it is because of all of that which is the essentials of the gospel articulated differently but nevertheless the same emphasis in verses 4 to 7 it is because of all of that that a man may rest safe and secure in Christ now let me give to you a quote from an American theologian of the past BB Warfield on this very issue and it's I know you're going to come afterwards and ask for it and I'm not going to give it to you but I'll tell you where you can find it if you want to take notes it's in the works of BB Warfield volume 2 page 113 the works of BB Warfield volume 2 page 113 and this is this majestic and wonderful quote writes Warfield there is nothing in us or done by us at any stage of our earthly development because of which we are acceptable to God we must always be accepted for Christ's sake or we cannot be accepted at all this is not true of us only when we believe it is just as true after we have believed it will continue to be true as long as we live our need of Christ does not cease with our believing nor does the nature of our relationship to him or to God the Father through him ever alter now listen carefully no matter what our attainments in christian graces or our achievement in behavior maybe it is always on his blood and righteousness alone that we can rest this loved ones is the gospel and this is what is increasingly missing from the heart of more and more gatherings of people who believe that the gospel is actually utilitarian that the gospel exists so that we can get something so that we can get if you like our best life now and that's why we have a gospel so that we can be all of these things and this is not only in extreme circumstances this is fairly routine so for example and here is a quote from a church this is from the the flyer that came from this church and it reads as follows at Valley Church meet new friends and neighbors here positive practical messages that uplift you each week on one how to feel good about yourself how to overcome depression how to have a full and successful life learning to handle your money the secrets of successful family living and how to overcome stress it's hard to imagine that going out as a bulletin or a flyer from the church in Crete isn't it it is all too common going out as a flyer from the church in Cleveland or Colorado or Cincinnati now you see why it is that Paul in his generation is so forceful concerning these things this is not a matter of marginal importance this is at the very heart of the nature of the church this is at the very core of what it's going to mean for the gospel of God to find its route and to be transforming the community in which Titus is ministering and so it is that he says to him having shared the nature of it the kindness and love of God our Savior as appeared he hasn't done this because of righteous things not triggered by anything on us but because of his mercy he has washed as cleanly as renewed as by the power of the Holy Spirit he has justified as he has made as heirs of God we now look forward to our home in heaven and so on and then he says and this is of such vital importance that I want you to Titus to take a firm stand on it to see to these matters so that those who trust in God will then be able to display the transforming power of God in the goodness of their lives in other words the heart of Christian living and the heart of Christian living in community must be the gospel I had the privilege earlier this year of being at second prayers in Memphis I was there with one of my best friends someone that I actually called my big brother and that is singer Ferguson and I missed the address that he gave to pastors at the lunch hour because I didn't arrive until the afternoon and in the course of speaking extemporaneously to these individuals he pointed out a number of things to them and he pointed out that in in a number of places throughout the country it would appear that those who are in positions of prominence all have some distinguishing feature about themselves and what they're on about essentially that their ministry is all marked by a thing whatever that thing might be like this thing is reformed theology or his thing is something this or he distinguishes himself it places himself in the marketplace by identifying himself with these certain things I don't say that in an unkind way I think it's fairly accurate assessment Sinkler reflecting on this says that this is absolutely bizarre to me and he says you know if I were to ask your wife's and he's speaking of ministers if I were to ask your wives what is the hallmark of your ministry there really ought to be only one answer to that and then I quote him he says it ought to be possible to say of every gospel minister and especially those gospel ministers we most admire the thing that is manifestly absolutely at the core and center of this ministry that makes it apostolic is that you can never sitting under that ministry you can never escape from the centrality of Jesus Christ and I see that with a concern to me because I am not convinced that that would universally be said and I think it's worth as asking ourselves whether we suspect that it would be said of our ministry the thing about him in his ministry now I recognize he has a special burden he's got unusual gifts in this area but over the piece you sit under that ministry and the thing that you will be persuaded to say is this ministry is Christ centered Christ dominated and Christ filled and if anything else and this might well be the secret this Minister is Christ intoxicated intoxicated with Christ saturated with the gospel so that those under the care of Titus may not be buffeted by all of these things may not be seeking to find their security in their assurance by taking their spiritual pulse every morning when they get up but they have been so grounded in the truth of the gospel in the finished work of Christ in the absolute sufficiency of his atonement in all that he has rendered on behalf of the sinner that they're able to look away from themselves and to their and from their own sorry predicament and from their own wanderings and so on and our ineffectiveness in prayer and our lack of love for others and our disgruntlement in so many areas and to say it is all because of Christ that God may look upon me and that is what Paul is saying to Titus here is what you have to stress this is a trustworthy saying and I want you to stress these things these things which he comes back to in the final sentence of verse 8 verse 8 which he says are excellent and profitable for everyone these are the things these gospel things and these things are in direct contrast to the false teachers who are actually unprofitable and useless and for your homework again you can go back and read from about verse 10 on in chapter 1 and you will discover that he is making that point very clearly concerning these folks it's not unique to Titus he does the same thing when he writes to Timothy and for example in verse 7 of chapter 1 of 1st Timothy he says some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk they want to be teachers of the law but they do not know what they're talking about or what they so confidently affirmed that's that's pretty straight talk isn't it they think there are big teachers they've got a big following there's lots of people taking notes when they speak but they're talking out of the top of their heads they do not know what it is they're saying and what they so confidently affirmed now Titus I don't want you to be like that I want your ministry to be marred by something different and his language that is Paul's language conveys the necessity of clarity and of certainty and of authority now leave those words with you I mean work them out clarity in laying out the nature of the gospel itself ala verses 4 to 7 certainty in the way in which Titus if you like stands before his group or moves among his group so that the trumpet is not giving an uncertain sound and authority which not an authority that derives from Titus personality but an authority which derives from that which Titus conveys to his people namely the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ so here he says it's what I want you to stress then he says and here is why I want you to stress it so that it's a purpose clause in Greek and in English I want you to stress these things so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good now I don't think he would have been upset to think that many of the people were taking notes or wrote down some of these great quotes that he had Titus was able to quote somebody far better than BB Warfield he was able to quote the Apostle Paul himself he was able to say we've had a letter from the mighty Apostle Paul and I want to read it out to you quite wonderful but he doesn't say and the reason I'm stressing this for your congregation this morning here in Crete is so that you might all become theological eggheads so that you might all be able to walk around and impress everybody with a grasp but you have of all of these things your grasp will be revealed in your life and indeed the impact in the community will be seen in goodness and the goodness will be the evidence of the fact that you have been grasped by God in his kindness and so again the recurring emphasis who are these people and what are they like well I want you to make sure that they get ahold of this status so that they might be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good we cannot evade this challenge loved ones I it it just hits me like a hammer to say it to you careful every morning here's an opportunity Lord I'm going out into my day I'm going into my normal place of employment I just studied Titus and apparently as I go out today the 12th of October one of the things that I have to be very careful to ensure happens is I want to be careful to do good I want to be kind I want to be engaged I want to be courteous I want to be loyal I want to be humble and Lord as you know because I haven't even got out of my bed yet and I've send my soul four times as you know there is no possibility of me looking into myself and saying well I'm ready to be good today after all I'm such a courteous humble community engaging kind of person no I am a wretched sinner Lord about to go out onto the 12th of October and apart from the dynamic of the gospel which give assures me of my acceptance with you the Living God and by the renewing power of the Holy Spirit in my life I don't have a I don't have a hope in the world of being anything other than a miserable sinner out there because there are a lot of miserable Christian sinners aren't there this is it's it's very distressing when our friends tell us you know that mr. so-and-so who is a complete outright pagan who tells all the dirty jokes is a much nicer person than mr. stone so who claims to be a born-again Christian and he has that big sticker on the back of his car what are you gonna say in response to that you're gonna have to say yeah you're absolutely right I think he is yeah he's a miserable sinner and the person said well I thought then that if he was a Christian that he wouldn't be a miserable sinner and you have to say no he is a miserable sinner Kristen and this is the story of grace that God saves miserable sinners and apparently this guy is a little slow off the mark on some of the things and you ought to be encouraged by this because you too are a miserable sinner and God saves miserable sinners as opposed to oh no he's a really nice guy you just met him you know he's not good on Tuesdays but if you ever if you ever go on a business trip with him on Wednesdays a fine fellow no no he reads his Bible he's a nice yeah never kicks the cat nice to his wife so what we're trying to do is now come up with a basis of acceptability that is not the gospel the only acceptability of that miserable sinner is in the gospel he knows that when he looks at the mirror and sees himself what is he he's a miserable sinner saved by grace now he has no justification for going out and being a miserable sinner with his friends and colleagues and it is a royal disgrace when his pagan friends are actually a lot kinder and a lot nicer than he is but that is actually a testimony to the fact of the nature of the gospel so humility there's one for start huh no I am NOT conceited said the man although I have every right to be so why don't you why don't you read my new book humility and how I attained it I got two quotes for you on humility and I since I have them I'm giving them to you because I couldn't find my one quote last night and since I did find this Court I'm going to tell you it this is from an article in The Wall Street September 18 this year by Eric Felten entitled apology not accepted apology not accepted and the article was about people who make public apologies classically you've got it in Letterman in the last in the last week okay there's no admission of sin nothing at all just a bunch of clowning around and joking so hey guess what apology not accepted Kenya West goes on the Jay Leno Show does the same thing and the governor of South Carolina Mark Sanford in admitting adultery with his argentinian girlfriend says felton concerning the attempt at an apology by this governor quotes even in his moment of self-reproach the governor was impressed with his own importance and then here's the sentence humbling oneself isn't exactly the same thing as humility humbling oneself isn't exactly the same thing as humility here's David Wells definition of humility from losing our virtue page 204 humility has nothing to do with depreciating ourselves and our gifts in ways we know to be untrue even humble attitudes can be masks for pride humility is that freedom from ourselves which enables us to be in positions in which we have neither recognition nor importance neither power nor validity and even experience deprivation and yet have joy and delight it is the freedom of knowing that we are not at the center of the universe not even in the center of our own private universe it's an amazing point of application that's not factors I want you to make absolutely sure that you stress these things these are profitable these are excellent things it is vital these people are grounded in the gospel both in terms of their own security but also in terms of their impact in community so that they will be careful to be devoted to doing whatever is good while our time hastens to a conclusion you will notice that he then goes to tell him in verse 9 of what he's also to avoid if he is to affirm certain things he's also to avoid others other things and what he wants him to avoid is foolish controversies genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law because in contrast to the gospel those things are nuru notice at the end of verse 8 excellent and profitable and these things are unprofitable and useless mindless pointless quarreling over stuff that has a peculiar interest for warped individuals these false teachers that he's already referenced in chapter 1 were apparently very good at embroidering and supplementing the law of God they were more apt at mythology than they were at theology they were better at producing human concoctions than obeying God's commands they were capable of developing genealogies they took the took names out of the Old Testament books and then they created a whole genealogy around those names and then they had them added into some of the religious books and then he had these huge discussions about the nature of these bogus genealogies it was kind of like a sort of Old Testament version of the Loch Ness monster just with a touch of with a touch of spice added to it and as a result of this they sought to distract and to divert by lengthy debates and the debates were all about dates and all about definitions now tell me you haven't met any of these people thank you by your silence you tell me you have is this intriguing perhaps is it edifying not for a moment not for a moment if you have a peculiar bent in your mind you may be interested at some of the stuff hopefully not any of you have sent me this stuff that comes routinely to me via truth for life someone sent me something just the other day explaining that they had cracked the code of a particular book and that this is now being done by this individual using a very interesting logarithmic proposal and he wanted me to make sure that I paid careful attention to it so that I could let you and other people like you know that that someone has now finally understood the book well I I filed that and and and not in the same place that I've been filing these BB Warfield quotes no you see these people cannot be tolerated the word that he uses for them is that they are to be muzzled muzzled put a muzzle on them he says don't let them come around and flap their mouths not very politically correct we're so we're so messed up now that anybody that says anything like this is immediately regarded as some horribly offensive person no I mean have you been bitten by a dog lately I was bitten by a dog just a summer ago big box her dog jumped up tore my shirt bit me scared me half to death and I say you know why don't you put a muscle on that dog there wasn't anything unkind about it I don't want to beat the dog with a stick but I sure don't want it just to jump up and bite me like that that's scary and he doesn't want these people jumping around the congregations in Crete biting people devouring people getting them all off track and so he said just muzzle them up make sure that you silence them because they are insubordinate they're empty-headed and they're deceitful and so they must be silenced the word that he uses Parris tassel to avoid these controversies and the people who bring them is the word that simply means to turn the other way to turn your back on them avoid them at all costs don't get sucked into these things now it's interesting they asked me this morning do you think you're getting crankier in your old age um I don't know that I can get much crank here to tell you the honest truth but it's possible but I hope not and one of the areas that I'm trying to learn in this very area because there's hardly an occasion passes where I go anywhere and not least of all preaching the congregation here without somebody comes up afterwards after you have endeavored to discharge the duties of your ministry to lay out the truth of the Bible and then someone comes up and they've got some harebrained scheme or idea that they have developed from somewhere or whatever else it might be and instinctively I want to say something that I probably shouldn't say and so I'm working hard at not doing that but it's hard one of my great mentors a retired clergyman in the Anglican Church now is masterful at it and he can actually take two or three opinions and and say yes to all of them and never let anybody get him ruffled he's got that wonderful English phlegmatic approach to life the trouble is when you're a Celt you're not blessed with that you don't have that that's probably you want to stay oh let me tell you what I think of that idea you know and and so on but he's wonderful you know and and he's made a career out of it he walks around with a coffee cup I love telling my colleagues they say you'll have his coffee cup at the end of the service he's just walking around and some will come up to him say you know mr. Lucas I I noticed that you you you were not as expositional as I thought you ought to have been you you seem to be far more involved in in systematic theology and and I think I think you really ought to just watch out for that and he said oh thank you thank you I will pay attention to that thank you thank you very much they just walk off and just leave them it bumps into a fellow over here the fellow over here says mr. Lucas there's a second time I've come here and I you know I noticed that you seem to be far more expositional and you don't really pay much attention to systematic theology at all in the way you're teaching the Bible he said oh thank you so much that's a wonderful observation that thank you I must remember that as well and then he just refused to be drawn into the nonsense it's great skill in that maybe when I'm 83 I can do that as well now we have to stop but this is in keeping with what Paul says elsewhere we would expect there to be a synergy between what Paul is writing to other places and this so for example in Romans 16 he says I argue brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned keep away from them for such people are not serving our Lord Christ but their own appetites by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people these are the kind he says when he writes to Timothy these are the kind of people who worm their way into the homes of women who are weak willed and pressed that is not a generic statement regarding all women but it is a designation of a certain kind of woman within the context of Ephesus who were weak in their will and who were easy prey for these charlatans and he says there is no there is no way in the world that this must be allowed to continue and therefore I want you to watch out and I want you to warn a divisive person once and then a second time and after that have nothing to do with them the word that is used therefore warned is the Greek word which gives us our English word no thetic from which we get an authentic counseling it is the verb that the exact same verb that is used in Ephesians 6:4 what fathers are to do they are not to exasperate their children but they are to bring them up in the training or the admonition of the Lord the same word is used their new phase en so in other words the warning that is referenced here is a warning is not a threat he says I want you to point out to this individual the implication of wrong actions with the purpose of seeing them embrace right actions says Donald Guthrie if this action however should seem rather harsh Titus must recognize that the stubbornness of the man is evidence of a perverted mind and so in other words this individual such a man is warped and sinful and by his actions he will be seemed to be so and Titus by his actions will be seen to be concerned for the welfare of the church I'm tempted to suggest that what we have here is another sterling reminder of what has become for some of us almost a mantra namely that the main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main things and to be diverted and distracted and deceived by chasing down these avenues says Paul is something that must not happen and the leadership of the church in this instance in the case of Titus must be prepared to be totally clear concerning the gospel absolutely certain in the things that he stresses and aware of the fact that any authority that is his is an authority that is grounded in the truth of God's Word which he's been given to proclaim and in the power of the Holy Spirit who enables him to do so so let us heed this instruction for the good of the church and for the glory of God our God and our Father I suppose we could have chosen something that would have been a lot easier to handle than this a lot cozier but here we are under the searching gaze of your truth and so we pray that the clarity with which Paul communicates to Titus may arrest our thinking that the certainty with which Titus engages in his pastoral ministry may become something of a hallmark for all who are involved in the leadership and teaching and training of others and that the sense of authority may always and only be seen to be an authority which is a derived Authority and isn't found in personality or in human giftedness but is as with our very acceptance before you found in Christ alone hear our prayers O God as we think of our own congregations from which we've come as we think of the needs of the church throughout the nation as we think about all that tomorrow will bring in places that are represented here in this room right now and we pray for the success and for the well-being and for the very clarity and certainty to be the identifying features of those who open up the truth of your word so that men and women might know Christ and may love Christ and that together we might be ready and careful to devote ourselves to doing what is good for we pray seeking the forgiveness of all of our sins in Christ's name amen this message was brought to you from truth for life where the learning is for living learn more about truth for life with alistair beg visit us online at truth for

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 13,237

Rating: 4.9056602 out of 5

Keywords: Truth For Life, Salvation, Assurance of Salvation, False Teachers, Gospel, Humility

Id: tWV0jjpgylM

Length: 47min 34sec (2854 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 28 2018