Thus has vanquished death, and all its powers.
It is enough, her struggles soon shall cease.
And Jesus, call us to his perfect peace.
Amen. At this time, we'll take our offering.
Brother Sean, can you bless you up first?
This week, I pray that you would bless this offering.
Lord, bless both the gift and the giver.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Lord, we ask that you would protect us, Lord, and Lord, we know
that the persecution is a fact for people that live godly in Christ Jesus.
And I pray, Lord, that we'd have patience through temptation, patience through persecution.
Lord, we also ask for a special prayer that we find a church building for our church in Spokane.
And also, Lord, for Brother Chris, as he's off in deployment.
And we also ask for a steadfast Baptist church.
We thank you, Lord, for them being able to get a building.
And Lord, I pray that you would just stop the Sodomites from just protesting them constantly and annoying them.
Lord, we ask for travelers' mercies for this weekend.
As we travel up north, many of the families in our church are going.
Lord, I pray that you'd help us to be fruitful in the places that we've chosen to minister.
And Lord, we'd see a mighty harvest saved.
And Lord, that you'd just allow us a special time with our brethren in the north.
And Lord, that you'd just help and that we'd have great fellowship.
And Lord, that the preaching would be edifying to the people.
And Lord, just be good to see them.
And Lord, we also ask for the mothers with child.
We ask for prayers for Miss Alana, Miss Chantel, Miss Amy.
And also, we pray also for Brother Alex.
And Lord, it's so good to have him here again.
And just pray that you'd comfort his heart from his loss of his wife.
And Lord, that his family, through all this, might see their need for salvation.
And Lord, that they would choose to be saved, Lord.
And we ask that you'd soften the hearts of those that were hardened.
And just pray that you would save them, Lord.
And we also ask for Miss Nia.
Lord, that you would just help her in the situation with her miscarriage.
Lord, we ask for health for her, Lord, as she goes through this time.
And we also ask for health for Miss Kylie's oppa.
And that you would help him, comfort him, and comfort his wife.
And Lord, just pray that you would, that maybe they would be saved through this process, Lord.
And their need for salvation would be evident.
We also pray for the Dix family, whose son passed away recently.
We pray that you just help them and comfort their family, Lord.
We also ask for Miss Sheila to get some relief from the pain that she's been in.
And we thank you, Lord, for just some of the medical things that she's been praying for,
that have come to pass.
And we also ask for Miss Julene's clear answers that she's been waiting for from her CT scan
that she had done.
And also for the Lutweilly family, Lord, that you'd help them to be able to transfer to Washington.
As they're on a waiting list, it's about to be dissolved.
And just pray that you'd help them, Lord, and be with them.
And pray for Brother Kenny, who had a job interview.
Pray that you would help him get the job, Lord.
And then, of course, all of our continued prayer, Lord,
we just pray for all these things that are on the prayer list, Lord,
and so many different requests.
Lord, pray that you just keep those things in mind.
Help us to keep our brethren in mind as we pray for these things.
And, Lord, we ask that you would bless the services tonight.
For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, go ahead and turn to Titus chapter 1.
Titus chapter 1, if you don't have a Bible, raise your hand and one of the ushers will
bring you one.
Titus 1, the Bible reads,
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth,
which is after godliness,
in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie,
promised before the world began, but hath in due times manifested
his word through preaching, which is committed unto me
according to the commandment of God our Saviour.
To Titus, mine own son after the common faith,
grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.
For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order
the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city,
as I had appointed thee.
If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children,
not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless,
as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry,
not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre,
but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate,
holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught,
that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort
and to convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly
and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision,
whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses,
teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.
One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said,
The creations are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply,
that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables
and commandments of men that turn from the truth.
Under the purer all things are purer, but unto them that are defiled
and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience
is defiled. They profess that they know God,
but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient,
and unto every good work reprobate.
Brother Robert, will you pay for this?
Amen. All right, so I've chosen the book of Titus for our next book,
and a couple reasons why. I just think it's a great book,
and it's short, so we'll see how far I can drag it out,
but I won't drag it out too far, but I am going to preach
a couple sermons out of the first chapter.
I'm not sure about number two and three, but yeah, it's a brand new book,
and so we're going to take a little bit of time to go through it.
There's a lot of stuff. There's some lists in there,
and usually when you get to the lists, they can make things drag out
a little bit more because you kind of want to show some.
There's a reason why lists are in the Bible,
and so they're important to pay attention to,
and sometimes we just kind of gloss over lists in the Bible,
and sometimes we think we know what words mean,
and we really might not know what they mean,
so that's why it's important to just kind of look those words up
and see what they say in the context and the light of the Bible,
but tonight's going to be kind of a bit of an overview
about the book of Titus, just a short introduction,
and then a couple points here.
I'm not going to dig into the meteor parts of the chapter until next week,
but let's have a word of prayer before we begin.
Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for the time
we could study the Bible together tonight.
Lord, I pray that you fill me with your spirit and with power and boldness as I preach.
I pray that the people would be attentive to the preaching of your word tonight, Lord,
and I pray that you would bless our people as they go our separate ways tonight.
We thank you, Father, for all the people in attendance here tonight.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, so just a brief overview.
So number one, we're going to just have a kind of a brief introduction of the book of Titus,
and Titus was written by the Apostle Paul.
Of course, you probably know that from the first verse where it says that Paul wrote it,
and usually I believe the Bible when it says the person who wrote it,
so sometimes in like some different Bibles,
you'll see at the very end of a book where it'll say written by so and so,
and that stuff isn't scripturally inspired, just so you know.
Like if it says written by, you know, Titus from Dalmatia or whatever,
and that stuff isn't necessarily true.
So you know what I'm talking about, like in some Bibles or maybe on Bible software,
it'll say something to the effect of so and so wrote these,
and it's usually like in blue letters.
Well, that's not necessarily, that's not scripture,
so just keep that in mind because I was, when I was studying this,
I saw that at the end of chapter three.
So anyway, but Titus was written by the Apostle Paul,
and it's considered one of the pastoral epistles,
the pastoral epistles, along with 1 and 2 Timothy.
So it's three books of the Bible that are considered pastoral epistles,
and so why are they called that?
Well, because they address the ministers that Paul worked with in the ministry.
They address the fact that they're ordained
and that they're commissioned to ordain others and start churches,
and Paul spells out the qualifications of the bishop,
in both of those books, actually, in 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy,
and also in this chapter here, in Titus chapter number one.
But there's some must-be things when it comes to being able to be ordained as a bishop or a pastor.
I'll probably go into the proving verses of this next week,
but when the Bible says bishop, that basically means the same thing as pastor,
and then you'll have the term elder.
So elder, pastor, or bishop, those all are the same thing.
So if it says bishop, you know, nobody calls me bishop, okay?
But if you call me bishop, it wouldn't be unbiblical.
It's just I think that a lot of, you know, modern day churches,
they don't want to say bishop because it makes them sound Catholic or something.
So, you know, the archbishop or whatever.
So there's nothing wrong with the word.
I think the Catholics have bastardized it to a certain extent,
but it is a biblical word.
It's found in the scriptures.
And so anyway, this is the pastoral epistle book of Titus.
The book consists of three chapters, which focus on number one,
the qualifications of the pastor.
So in chapter number one, you find the qualifications of the pastor or the bishop.
And then chapter number two is focused on the teaching and preaching and doctrine
that's supposed to be done by the pastor.
And then chapter number three talks about doing good works, basically in a nutshell.
So there's other topics that are within the chapters,
which we'll cover some of those in the chapter tonight.
But let's look at verse number one together.
It says, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth,
which is after godliness.
So Paul usually introduces himself in the beginning of a book and says,
you know, who's writing it?
Usually he signs off in his own special ways.
I believe the book of Hebrews is written by the apostle Paul,
but I think that's the only one that he didn't kind of sign and say,
you know, that it was apostle Paul.
But you have to remember that the Jews really hated Paul.
And I think that he probably just wanted them to read that book without any bias,
because the moment they read that book and it says Paul written by Paul,
you know, then the Pharisees start freaking out and this is what Paul was preaching.
You know, they get all crazy with it.
So anyway, so the Bible says, you know, in verse number one that's written by Paul.
So we've heard a little bit about Titus.
I kind of preached a little bit about Titus not too long ago.
And he was obviously a companion of Paul's and I believe he was a pastor.
So, I mean, it'd be weird to call this a pastoral epistle
and then have it not be written to a pastor.
So, and why would he tell Titus,
hey, these are the qualifications of a pastor if he wasn't the pastor.
Why would he tell him to go ordain elders in every city if he wasn't a pastor?
See, elders beget elders.
And I know that there's this teaching that you can just ordain yourself,
but that's not found anywhere in the Bible.
As a matter of fact, you know, the Bible talks about the laying on the hands of the presbytery.
The Bible talks about, you know, Moses ordaining Joshua to take his place
and laid hands upon him and blessed him.
And so it's something that's been done throughout the ages in the Bible.
And people say, well, you don't see the, you know, you don't see that every single time,
but why does God have to show us every single time?
Like, it's pretty obvious that each person that's leading God's people is ordained.
Now, God ordained the apostle Paul as an apostle.
The Lord Jesus Christ, you know, knocked him off his horse, blinded him,
and then he ended up getting saved by Ananias.
Then he, for three years, you know, he went to Arabia.
You know, he came back to Antioch.
He came back to Damascus, actually.
I'm trying to remember all the details here.
But he came back to Damascus, and he was actually given his revelation
by the Lord Jesus Christ that says that in the book of Galatians.
And so the apostle Paul is qualified to ordain other pastors also because he's an apostle.
Now, the apostle Paul was not a pastor, though.
See, people just seem to get that mistaken for whatever reason.
But just because he wasn't a pastor doesn't mean he couldn't ordain pastors.
He was an apostle, which, you know, he had the,
he was ordained to start churches and go out and evangelize.
So he did have the authority by a local church, by the way.
And that local church, he wasn't the head of that local church.
Another pastor was.
And then they laid hands on Paul and ordained him and sent him out.
And then he went and started all these churches.
And, you know, I'm sure people thought he was crazy.
But, you know, in the 2 Corinthians, it goes into detail about all the works that Paul did,
all the persecution he went through, and all the things he had to go through,
and people falsely accusing him.
And the apostle Paul was definitely, you know, a great man of God.
He outworked all the other apostles.
And, you know, we go, if you look back just a few weeks ago,
we were talking about how he was acting a fool.
He was speaking foolishly so that people would say, you know,
he wasn't trying to brag.
He was just saying, hey, you know, these people that think that they're somebody,
you know, I don't want to do this.
But you've kind of forced my hand into telling you all the works that I've done also.
So anyway, back to Titus here.
So let's look at Galatians chapter number two, verse number one.
Turn over to Galatians chapter number two, verse number one.
I'll give you a little bit of time frame.
I mean, there's no exact dates necessarily for when Titus was saved.
It doesn't say, it doesn't talk about his conversion.
It just talks about him being converted, being with Paul,
and Paul sending him to different places to be a blessing.
He talked about that in 2 Corinthians, actually,
where he sent Titus to them and did not charge them, walked in the same steps.
So Paul obviously trained Titus and Titus went around with him.
Here's an example in Galatians chapter two where it says it, okay?
So Paul's kind of given some timeline for us.
It says, then 14 years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me.
So Paul at this point, you know, if you look back a couple verses,
it talks about that three years he spent kind of basically in training
and he was going out preaching and doing soul wanting and stuff.
So we're talking 17 years after Paul is saved.
The first time he goes up to Jerusalem after three years.
The second time is 14 years later.
So he went up to the apostles to see whether he had, you know,
he wanted to make sure that he wasn't preaching in vain
and that the apostles believed the same thing that he did.
And he kind of talks about a little bit of a tussle that he gets in here with
the apostle Peter, but we're not going to get into that.
I just want to show you how it says the 14 years after I went up again to
Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me also.
So Titus was with Paul for a long time and it says,
and I went up by revelation and communicated unto them that gospel,
which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them,
which are were of reputation, lest by any means I should run or had run in vain.
But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek was compelled to be circumcised.
And basically he's talking about a time when, you know, these Jews were teaching,
you know, that you had to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses to be saved.
And, you know, Titus, you know, was not circumcised is what it says.
He was a Greek.
He didn't need to be circumcised.
And, you know, nobody really needs to be circumcised anymore.
It's really a cosmetic thing.
It's something that probably Jewish doctors have just been doing
and it'd make a little extra money or something.
And then just Judaize everybody's babies that are born.
But there's, you know, there's no need for circumcision.
That was something that was done in the Old Testament.
It's not necessary to perform that act anymore.
So anyway, so that's kind of Titus, a little bit of Titus in a nutshell there.
Again, I preach a sermon about him specifically
in some of the other scriptures.
If you look back at a couple of few sermons ago, I think I'd mentioned them.
And so number two tonight, we're going to look at the immutability of God.
So the immutability of God is found in Titus chapter one, verse number two,
where the Bible says in hope of eternal life,
which God that cannot lie promised before the world began.
And of course, everybody in this room probably knows this scripture very well.
If you preach eternal security and you go soloing on a regular basis,
you're going to use this verse.
And if you don't, you probably should be, because it's a great verse
to change people's minds about eternal security,
especially when they believe, you know, that you could lose your salvation,
because a lot of garbage churches out there teach that you can lose your salvation.
And so that's one thing that we usually have to undo in somebody.
That's one thing that we need to strike at the heart of is eternal security.
But I will say this about preaching internal security.
And I think it should be covered.
It should be covered thoroughly.
But once people get it, then I think we should move on.
And that's any point in the gospel that you're preaching.
You know, if someone doesn't understand that they're a sinner,
you need to stay on that point until they understand that they are.
And even if someone doesn't think that, you know,
sometimes I'll ask people if they deserve to go to hell.
And a lot of times they'll say no.
So I've kind of tried to reword the way I say that,
because a lot of people still, even though they know that they're sinful,
and even though the Bible says that, you know,
if your name is not written in the book of life,
then you're cast in the lake of fire,
they'll still say that they don't deserve to go there.
So you have to stay, you have to, you know,
drill those points in before you can move on.
You can't just skip from A to C.
You have to get both of those points in.
People have to understand they're sinful.
People have to understand that they are going to face an eternity in hell
if they don't get saved.
We have to preach that in our gospel presentation.
We also have to preach that all it takes to be saved
is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's a real big sticking point.
And, you know, a lot of people say they believe in Jesus at the door, don't they?
But then when we kind of dig a little deeper,
we realize that they don't really believe that.
And so you can't just take people at their word every time
when they say that they believe in Jesus because they believe it.
They're saying that, but they don't believe them
in the way that you're supposed to believe in them, if that makes sense.
They say that you have to believe in them and show good works or and do good works
or, you know, repent every single time that they commit a sin
or they're going to go to hell.
A lot of people believe that.
But this is a great verse here.
This should be incorporated into your soul-wanting presentations.
And so it says in hope of eternal life,
which God that cannot lie promised before the world began.
So why do we show them that?
Because we want people to understand that
if God promised to give someone eternal life
and then he took that away for any reason,
what would that make him?
It would make him a liar.
And so this verse is a very powerful verse
to drill in eternal security and to get, you know,
because they're not going to say, well, yeah, God's a liar.
I mean, who's going to say that
unless there's some kind of weirdo or something?
Sometimes people think God consents like, OK, whatever.
They're wrong about that.
Because lying is one of the most common things that people do.
If you if you ask everybody at the door,
you know, you'll go through the list of, you know,
I'm sure you haven't killed anybody lately.
Or, you know, you haven't killed anybody ever.
You haven't really bowed down and worshiped any idols lately or anything like that.
But I'm sure you've told a lie before.
And then people will always, you know,
unless they're a liar will say that they've lied.
Right. So but here's the thing.
God cannot lie.
That's the immutability of God.
See, what does immutability mean?
Well, it means unchanging over time or unable to be changed.
God is who he is.
His character is his character.
His attributes are his attributes.
And he is incapable of lying.
He's incapable of sin, period.
He is not able to sin.
He is not capable of sin.
So therefore, he is not capable of lying.
Now, Satan, he's the father of lies.
He's the one that came up with lies.
He's the one that is the murderer.
And he's he's not even on equal ground with God.
But, you know, he his lies affect a lot of people,
just like the lie of eternal of not having eternal security.
If it's not eternal security, then we're all lost.
Because, you know, if you just really account for your day,
and just go through your day,
there's some part in your day
where you've committed some sort of sin.
Everybody does.
So that's, you know, God's a God of immutability.
And when he says something's going to happen,
it's going to happen.
It's a guarantee.
We can't count on what other people say.
You know, we'll say, hey, you want to come to church?
You're like, oh, yeah, I'll be there tomorrow.
I'll be there.
I'll be there tonight.
And they'll say they're coming to church.
And do they do it?
No.
And like, I know we'll talk, you know, before it starts like,
hey, this person was really interested.
They said they're going to come.
It's like, they say that a lot, don't they?
Bunch of liars.
But anyway, well, you know, when you're trying to do something
for the Lord, when you're trying to do something right,
when you're trying to live for God,
when you're trying to make those initial first steps,
Satan will try to trip you up.
Satan will try to stop you any way he can from going to church
and hearing the truth.
And so we got to be aware of that,
especially people are just like trying to change their lives
around and things like that.
You're just new to church.
Just know this, the darts are going to be flying at you.
And it's like, it's not you.
It's not the church.
It's the devil trying to stop you from doing the things
that the Lord wants you to do.
And so, you know, being saved is the easy part.
But following the Christian life and following Jesus,
which a lot of people say it takes to be saved,
which that's not true.
You don't have to follow Jesus to be saved.
But if you're saved and you don't follow Jesus,
then you're entering a world of pain
because God is going to end up chastising you
for not following Him.
So anyway, let's break this down a little bit.
This immutability of God, point number two,
the immutability of God.
And so what is an immutability of God?
When He says something's going to happen, it's going to happen.
God can't lie.
And when He promises something, it's going to come to pass.
So you'd be calling God a liar if you said eternal life
is not eternal, that you could lose it some way.
It's a gift that you can give back.
And see, I've kind of shied away a little bit
from the gift presentation part in my gospel presentation.
I'm not saying that you need to.
I use it when I need to.
But sometimes when you use it,
it incorporates a few other things
that they might believe that's not true.
Because most gifts you could give back, couldn't you?
You could put a gift on a shelf.
Someone could give you a gift and you put it on a shelf,
and then it's as if that's not really yours.
When you receive a gift,
when we talk about receiving the gift of eternal life,
you have to receive Christ as your Savior.
He gives you the gift of eternal life.
But a lot of people believe that you can lose it
by giving it back.
And so if you're using a gift illustration,
the gift illustration can trip you up in some aspects.
You just got to be careful
not to just hang your hat on an illustration.
Hang your hat on the Word of God.
Hang your hat on scriptures that say that God cannot lie.
So again, immutability means unchanging over time
or unable to be changed.
So well, where do I get this that God is immutable?
Well, let's look at Hebrews chapter number six.
Hebrews chapter number six, turn over there.
Hebrews chapter number six actually says it.
And it's not just that God cannot lie, God cannot sin.
When God says something, it's good.
If it's a promise, it's going to be kept.
And when He gives counsel, it's always great counsel.
If He counsels you in the Word of God to do something,
then you should do that thing
because you know for a fact that that's good counsel.
When God counsels you to go to church,
when God counsels you to go soul-owning,
when God counsels you to read your Bible and to pray,
the counsel of the Word of the Lord,
that's what you can count on.
That's immutable.
It's not able to be changed.
And so when His counsel, it's not like as if,
well, the counsel at this time is not good.
No, every time God gives counsel, it's good, okay?
When man gives counsel, it might not be good.
So you need to hang your hat on the Word of God
with everything and realize that the immutability of God
will not stop, God can't change, right?
Hebrews chapter number six, verse number 13 says,
for when God made promise to Abraham,
because he could swear by no greater,
He sware by himself, saying, surely blessing,
I will bless thee and multiplying, I will multiply thee.
And so after he had patiently endured,
he obtained the promise for men verily swear by the greater
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife,
wherein God willing more abundantly to show
unto the heirs of promise the immutability,
and I'm having trouble saying that word,
the immutability of His counsel confirmed it by an oath.
So see how it says the immutability of His counsel,
when He counsels something, that's not changed.
It's not gonna change, it's gonna be the same.
And so God cannot change when He gives counsel,
and He talked about how He swore by Himself
because He could swear by no greater
because there's nothing greater than God, right?
So it says in verse 17, wherein God willing,
excuse me, no, let's look at verse 18,
that by two immutable things in which it was impossible
for God to lie, you know, there's a verse that says,
with God all things are possible,
but we're not talking about Him being able to sin
because that's an immutable aspect of God,
characteristic of God.
It says it's impossible for God to lie.
He cannot lie.
We might have a strong consolation who have fled
for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.
So what is the counsel of God?
Well, it's talking about laying hold upon the hope
that's set before us.
Doesn't that match with Titus chapter one, two,
it says in hope of eternal life.
So when God says, I will give you eternal life
and you believe on Christ, you have that hope
that you will have eternal life because what the Bible
says is true, what God says is true,
and it's impossible for Him to lie.
He cannot lie, it's not possible.
So it says, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast and which enters into that
within the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered,
even Jesus made an high priest, how long for?
Forever after the order of Melchizedek.
So God is immutable.
Look at Malachi chapter three, verse number six.
See people have this weird thinking that God
in the Old Testament is somehow mean and wrathful
and the God of the New Testament is nice rainbows,
you know, sugar cookies, Kool-Aid,
only loving, only nice, only ice cream with sprinkles,
you know, honey and sweet, and God is those things.
But the God of the Old Testament is those things too.
Just remember the God of the Old Testament is the same
as the God of the New Testament, okay?
It's the same God, there's nothing's been changed.
It's just God, you know, sent Jesus Christ
at that appointed time to be the propitiation for our sins
to live the perfect life, to minister to his people,
to call the 12 apostles so they could, you know,
go out into the world and preach the gospel.
He died upon the cross, he was buried,
he rose again the third day,
but that had to happen in a point of time.
So, you know, the New Testament came
when Jesus Christ came and gave his life
that had to happen at a specific moment in time, didn't it?
So, but in reality, that plan was always the plan.
There's no plan to, I know that a lot of people think that,
you know, like, you know, the Jews, you know,
when they rejected God that we got to get in on plan B
or something, the plan was always
for the Gentiles to be saved.
In the Old Testament, it talks about Jesus Christ
being a light unto the Gentiles.
And we even talked about that last Sunday evening.
About how, you know, that, you know,
Zebulun was the place where, you know,
in that area is where Jesus Christ,
his light would shine in the darkness,
and the people would say great light in that area.
And that's the area of Galilee where he lived.
So Malachi chapter three, verse number six says,
for I am the Lord, I change not.
What's that say?
I change not.
Is the God of the Old Testament
different than the God of the New Testament?
No, because he changes not.
He does not change.
He's the same, and I'm gonna blow the verses,
I'm gonna have you go to the next verse,
but it's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
So, but, you know, God does not change.
He's not gonna change.
So he's the same God.
So the same God in the Old Testament
is the same God in the New Testament.
And guess what?
Revelation, you know, God is nuking the unbelieving world,
not like literally nuking,
but he's raining fireballs down on them, isn't he?
He's sending scorpion like with girl's hair
and like all kinds of crazy plagues.
He's killing multiple,
multitudes of people through his wrath.
Because I mean, look at this world today.
Do you think it doesn't deserve it?
Do you think, you know, the world that we live in
where we have fairies giving us our coffees all the time,
and some do with an Adam's apple
that's supposed to be a woman handing us our Taco Bell
or whatever it is that you're eating,
it's disgusting, it's vile.
And kids, our kids have to see that.
Sick, you know, it's like we live
in a literal Sodom and Gomorrah now.
This hasn't been that long.
It really hasn't.
I remember I had a queer teacher in my freshman year
and she started talking about queer stuff to the class.
And that was when it was not legal at all.
But she felt like she was amongst friends or whatever.
And I remember even then, I wasn't even saved,
but I still said it was sick.
So I've always hated fags.
I've always not liked them.
It's never been something I've been,
I just want to hang out with them or something.
So, and in my day, when we're all, you know,
we'd call our friends fags just to like,
get a rise out of them or whatever.
You know, get them mad.
I called someone that one time and they came after me.
I mean, I got punched in the face
for calling a guy a fag one time.
He didn't like it, you know?
So, I mean, it's something you could razz your buddies with,
but like, it was a byword.
It's like, nobody wanted to be the fag.
Remember we used to play a game called smear the queer?
And guess who the queer was?
The one that had the ball, the one that was running.
Now they've changed it.
If anybody can find out the name that they've changed it to,
they don't call it smear the queer anymore.
I remember I was coaching football.
This wasn't that long ago either.
And I saw the kids before I, you know,
I came up to the practice and the kids were playing.
I was like, oh, you guys are playing smear the queer, cool.
They're like, coach, you can't say that anymore.
Like, what do you mean?
I was like, what do you mean you can't say that anymore?
It's like, it's called smear the queer.
That's what we're calling it.
I was saved then, but trying to change our names.
I can't believe that.
But anyway, God doesn't change.
He hated people.
He hated the Sodomites then, he hates them now.
That's why you've never seen one saved in the New Testament
or the Old Testament.
There's no record of a salvation.
People always will go to 1 Corinthians
and try to say that that word's sodomite,
but that's not what it says.
It says abusers of themselves with mankind.
So it does not say sodomite.
They'll say, well, if you go back to the Greek,
well, we don't speak Greek.
So how do you know?
And that word doesn't appear in any Greek literature.
It's like a word that Paul made up, that word.
So it doesn't appear in Greek literature,
except for like maybe once or twice,
and it's not really clear.
But the King James translators,
they spoke fluent Greek and Hebrew,
and they translated as abusers of themselves of mankind.
They didn't translate it as sodomite.
They translated other words as sodomite, didn't they?
In Romans 1, when it says men with men,
that's what he was talking about, right?
We know what he was talking about.
You read the chapter,
you know exactly what he's talking about.
The first time I ever read Romans 1,
I was like, this is fags.
And then I asked my pastor,
what's a reprobate pastor?
He's like, someone that can't be saved anymore.
But yeah, that same pastor right now
thinks that fags can get saved.
So he told me what the meaning of reprobate was,
and then still believe it.
Anyway, I don't know how I got on that.
But it's just this wicked world that we live in.
You know, God has not changed.
He's not gonna change.
He's still going to rain fire and brimstone on people.
It doesn't matter.
But he wants to save as many people as he can.
That's the love of God.
That's where we come in with the love.
And when we're at people's doors,
we're not there to be agitating them
and upsetting them and telling them off.
You know, be nice.
You know, even if they curse you.
Try to be nice.
And I realize that there's times
when you just can't help yourself.
I'm not excusing it.
But you know, if anybody's been with me
every once in a while, I'll get mad too.
So I understand.
I definitely understand.
But that's not what we're going out to do.
The mission is to get people saved.
So, but obviously people take things too far.
They start saying stuff in front of your kids.
They start saying stuff to ladies.
And you know, you've crossed a line
at that point in my book.
You start saying filthy things in front of my kids.
You know, saying you're going to fight me
in front of my kids.
Stuff like that.
I mean, now my kids would, you know,
probably could beat me up.
But back in the day is what I'm talking about.
They can't beat me up though.
I'm just kidding.
But they think they'd probably take all three of them.
Take all four.
They take all of them at the same time.
And their cousins.
Believe it.
So anyway, I just always have to tell them that
so they never try.
But anyway, so Hebrews chapter 13 verse 8.
I went off on a rabbit trail there.
Hebrews 13 verse 8.
So what are we talking about?
We're talking about the immutability of God.
The fact that God cannot change.
And so these people that think that God has changed
from the New Testament from the Old Testament
that He's different, He's not different.
He's the same God.
It says, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
So that means what?
He's the same as He was yesterday.
He's the same today.
And He's what?
The same forever.
So that means somebody that cannot change.
He's immutable.
So anyway, that's point number two.
And then point number three tonight.
Last point is that God is the Savior.
And I think everybody in this room knows that.
But God is the Savior.
And let's look at Titus chapter one verse number three.
Titus 1, three, it says,
but hath in due times manifested His word through preaching.
So we also believe this.
That God manifests His word through preaching.
He did it in the Old Testament with the prophets.
He does it today from the pulpit.
And what are we preaching?
We're preaching God's word.
So that's how it's manifested.
It's manifested right in front of your face right now.
Isn't it?
You can see the word of God in front of your face.
So, and this is a due time.
You know, why did God choose 1611
to bring forth the best English translation that there is?
Well, probably because He knew that at that time
they were gonna send out that God's word
would be a standard from 1611 on.
You're looking at a book that's over 400 years old right now.
And guess what?
You can all understand it.
And you know, the T-H at the end, you know, believeth or whatever.
Does that help you not believe that it's believe?
I mean, that's dumb.
I mean, people can understand it just like the Greeks over in Greece right now
can understand the Koine Greek that the Bible is written in, right?
They can understand it.
And Pastor Anderson proved it with going back to the Greek, right?
He went over there, got people saved with, you know,
what was supposed to be this mystical language of Greek.
But in due time, God manifested His word through the Greek language, didn't He?
He didn't do it through the Hebrew.
He did it through the Hebrew in the Old Testament.
But so, you know, now we have a great translation in English.
Why did God choose at that due time in 1611 to do that?
Well, because He probably knew that a bunch of Englishmen
would go throughout the whole world and send missionaries everywhere.
And people that spoke English would get saved.
That's probably why.
That's probably why the missionary movement of the 1800s and the 1700s was so big.
You know, when the people left England and came over here to start their own colonies,
you know, they did bring the Geneva Bible.
But that Bible is quickly replaced by the King James, way more popular.
And it is the standard of Bibles in the world today.
I don't care what Joyce Meyer says.
I don't care what Ravi Zacharias used to say.
Anybody that's not preaching the English word of God, they're a charlatan.
And people get really upset when we talk about that.
And they'll say, you worship the Bible.
It's like, I worship the God that wrote the Bible, that's for sure.
And Jesus Christ is the word of God, right?
God said, let there be light.
And there was light.
I don't go like this to the book at night or something.
I mean, that's weird.
Like, we don't worship the book.
We just know that the word of God is what we're supposed to base all of our beliefs on, okay?
So God manifested his word in due times, it says, through preaching, which is committed
unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior.
So I do want to touch on this before we get done tonight, that God is the Savior, okay?
And you're like, I know that, Pastor Thompson.
I've known that for a long time.
I'm saved.
Well, good.
I'm glad you are.
But Jesus Christ is also the Savior, isn't he?
So what does that mean?
That Jesus Christ is God and is the Savior, right?
Jesus Christ is God and is the Savior.
See, when you knock on doors sometimes, don't people say, you'll say, do you believe that
Jesus is the Son of God?
And they'll go, well, yeah, he's the Son of God, but not God.
Have you heard people say that before?
He's not God.
And then you have to show them verses to show them that, yes, he is God.
And there's plenty of verses you can do that with.
But I want to show you some really good ones because, and yeah, they're in the Old Testament,
you know, but it doesn't matter.
The Bible says what it says.
Look at Isaiah chapter 43, verse 11.
I think these are very powerful verses that show that God is the Savior.
There's nobody that's able to be the Savior besides God.
And so if that's true, then Jesus Christ is God and he is the Savior.
Isaiah chapter 43, verse number 11, it says, I even I am the Lord.
Capital L-O-R-D right there, Jehovah God.
And beside me, there is no Savior.
I have declared and have saved and I have showed when there was no strange God among you.
Therefore, you're my witnesses, sayeth the Lord that I am God.
So what is he saying?
Well, he's saying I am God and beside me, there is no Savior.
Nobody else is able to save somebody's soul besides God.
Does that make sense?
That's what the Bible says, right?
And it says he has saved.
I, you know, it says and have saved and have showed.
And it says at the end of the verse 12, it says,
therefore, you're my witnesses, sayeth the Lord that I am God.
So he's the Lord.
He is God.
There's nobody else that can save besides him.
Is that what the Bible says?
Okay, turn over to chapter number 45 in Isaiah.
Chapter number 45 in Isaiah, verse number 15.
The Bible says in Isaiah 45, verse number 15, it says,
verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel.
What does it say?
The Savior.
He's the Savior, right?
O God of Israel, the Savior.
So the God of Israel is the Savior.
There's no Savior besides him, right?
Skip down to verse 21.
Tell ye and bring them near.
Ye that, let them take counsel.
Ye, excuse me, yea, let them take counsel together.
Who hath declared this from ancient time?
Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord?
And there is no God else beside me.
Read the plain English.
There's no other God beside the Lord, right?
It says a just God and a Savior.
There is none beside me.
So I think he's making it very clear.
I think he's making it bulletproof here that he is God.
He is the Savior.
He's talking about the God of Israel.
Look at verse 22.
Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth.
Would you say that that's true today?
That God wants people to look to him and be saved?
We're supposed to look in the Old Testament.
People that looked at that snake, the brazen snake,
they looked and lived.
That was a picture of Jesus Christ on the cross.
I mean, it wasn't a literal picture,
but it was a picture for us to see spiritually
that we have to look unto the Savior to be saved, right?
And it says, let's see, look unto me and be saved
all the ends of the earth.
For I am God and there is none else.
He says this multiple times in the Bible.
There's no other gods.
Now, if you put the small G, it's talking about,
you're like maybe judges or things like that,
but it's not gods as in a God that can create
a God that made the world or anything like that.
It's talking about something else.
So anyway, and there's also little Lords, isn't there?
You know, small L, not big L.
So the Lord is God, but there's also, you know,
Lords in England and Lords and ladies
in different lands or whatever.
And you know, it might mean the same thing,
like the boss or the person that's in charge,
but God is in charge over everybody.
So it says in verse number 23,
I have sworn by myself,
the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness
and shall not return that unto me,
every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
Where have you heard that before in the New Testament?
Everybody's going to bow at the name of Jesus, right?
Quotes this scripture right here.
So it's talking about Jesus.
Jesus Christ is the Lord.
Jesus Christ is God.
Jesus Christ is the savior.
Now let's look at Titus chapter one, verse number four.
And look at what Titus says, or I mean, excuse me,
look at what the apostle Paul says to Titus in this verse.
And then we're going to close
after a couple of thoughts here,
but it says to Titus, mine own son.
So he wasn't literally his son,
but his son in the faith, right?
After the common faith, grace, mercy,
and peace from God the father, what does it say?
And the Lord Jesus Christ are what? Savior.
So the point is, is that God is the savior.
Jesus Christ is also the savior.
In those passages in Isaiah I had you turn to it says,
there is no God besides me.
There is no savior besides me.
And so when people say, well, look,
it says God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ are savior.
But the Lord Jesus Christ, if he's the savior has to be God.
You understand that?
He has to be God.
So what does this verse prove that Jesus Christ is God?
And it doesn't say Jesus Christ is God right here, does it?
But it does call him the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is it a capital L right there?
I know that not necessarily, you know,
divinely inspired capitalization or whatever,
but it is talking about him being the Lord.
And guess what?
What did it say in Isaiah that he's the Lord?
What did it say?
There's no God beside him.
There is no savior besides him.
There is nobody that can save besides him.
There's no other religion that can save
beside the religion of Christianity.
And to believe in Jesus, there's no other way.
There's no other way to sneak around the back door
and get in through Buddhism or get in through Hinduism.
The only way is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the Lord.
He is God.
He is the savior.
You know, Jesus Christ even said, I am the way,
the truth and the life.
No man cometh unto the father, but by me.
And so he's very distinct about saying that.
There's only one way you ever see those signs
that say one way.
That means you can only go that one direction, right?
And the other, you know, see a sign that says dead end.
Don't go down there because you're gonna have to turn
around and something like, you know, like 15 times
trying to turn around in some back alley or something.
Look, Jesus Christ, there's only one way to be saved.
That's through him.
He's God.
He's the savior.
So tonight we learned that, you know, the apostle Paul
wrote this book to Titus.
It's a pastoral epistle.
And we learned about the immutability of God.
The fact that he cannot change and he's not going to change
even if you want him to.
He's not gonna change because he's unchangeable.
And we also learned the fact that God is the savior
and Jesus Christ is God and Jesus Christ is the savior.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for the book
of Titus, Lord, to pray that you'd help us to understand
the word as it's presented to us, Lord, as we study it
for ourselves, Lord.
Pray that people read ahead in the book of Titus and know
from each week what we're gonna go through and Lord,
that they have prepared their hearts for the sermons
out of this book.
Thank you for it, Lord.
Thank you for the pastoral epistles that teach us as pastors
what we're supposed to do, what we're supposed to teach,
what we're supposed to believe and we thank you for it.
And we ask that you give us traveling mercies as we go
our way tonight and tomorrow and the rest of this weekend.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Page 127, we'll sing our last song.
Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, page 127.
Page 127, tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.
Sing it out loud on the first.
Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.
Just to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise,
just to know the sith of the Lord.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I count him o'er and o'er.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh, for grace to trust him more.
Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus, just to trust his cleansing love,
just in simple faith to plunge me beneath the healing cleansing flood.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I root him o'er and o'er.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh, for grace to trust him more.
Yes, tis sweet to trust in Jesus, just from sin and self to cease,
just from Jesus, simply taking life in rest and joy and peace.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I proved him o'er and o'er.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh, for grace to trust him more.
I'm so glad I learned to trust thee, precious Jesus, Savior friend.
And I know that thou art with me, will be with me to the end.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I proved him o'er and o'er.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh, for grace to trust him more.
Great to see you all this evening, great singing.
I'd like to see you back here at Sunday morning at 10 30 a.m. for our morning service.
Brother Sean Conley, can you end us with a word of prayer?
This weekend, I'm afraid that you just help everyone to have safe problems.
Thank you.