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[0:00] Amen. We're going to start tonight the letter of Titus.

[0:16] ! Titus is known as one of three what?! Who can tell me? One of three pastoral epistles.

[0:27] All right, you might not have known that. You probably heard it. As soon as I said it, you remembered it. Oh, yeah, pastoral epistles. One of three pastoral epistles in the New Testament.

[0:38] What are the other two? See, you didn't know you were going to have a quiz here first off, did you? Timothy. First and second Timothy. So, three letters. First, second Timothy and Titus. Pastoral epistles.

[0:49] Why would we call them that? Well, because they were pastors. That's pretty logical, isn't it? Pastors and both of those young men also happened to be led to the Lord by Paul.

[1:02] At least that's what is generally understood from what Paul says about these two men in various places. Titus, very good book.

[1:12] Very short book. So, maybe it won't take us too long to work our way through it. But don't bet on it. Or as some might say, maybe betting is not the right term. You know, we're baptisms.

[1:24] Don't count on it. Thank you, Jan, for that alternative word. That would be better. We might also use this favorite expression. Don't hold your breath. Don't hold your breath.

[1:36] All right. So, as is the case with most of Paul's letters. And really, this is true. The substance of the salutation. You know, letters usually have a salutation.

[1:46] And so, the substance, and I think this is especially true of Titus, the substance of the salutation really serves pretty well to give us an introduction to the letter.

[1:59] Or at least I can use elements of the salutation to kind of be a starting point for an introduction to the letter. So, the first four verses, first four verses of chapter one, comprise the salutation.

[2:13] Most of the basic elements needed for an introduction can be found in those first four verses. Something about the author of the letter is said here. In fact, quite a bit is said about the author.

[2:25] So much so that that will be our focus tonight. Something is said about the recipient of the letter. A little bit more than just the name.

[2:36] The name is Titus. Of course, he's the recipient of the letter. So, we've got a little bit about that. So, we know a little bit about the author as well as the reader or recipient, young Titus.

[2:49] When we get to that part of it, we'll look at some other verses in, not only in Titus, but in some of Paul's other epistles. To give us a little information about the recipient of the letter.

[3:02] There's a lot said that we can understand from Acts, even though Titus, by name, is not mentioned in Acts. We know that he's there several places.

[3:13] So, we'll turn to some of that when we get to that part of the introduction. And something, really, there's something about the focus of the letter that we can glean from the first four verses.

[3:26] Which, I would say, in this case, in this letter, really the foundational motivation for good works in the life of the believer.

[3:37] In the context of the church, the home, and other places. You get a glimpse of that or a suggestion of that even in Paul's salutation. So, then, and we'll talk certainly more about that.

[3:50] Some have said that really good works, good works, is the theme of the book. And I think that's probably pretty close. I'll suggest a few other things when we get to that part of it.

[4:04] All right, so, let me begin by reading Paul's salutation in this letter. If you've got a Bible open, you can look at it as I read it. Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgement of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, but has, in due time, manifested his word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior, to Titus, the true son, in our common faith.

[4:54] Grace, mercy, peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. So, there's your salutation for the letter. We'll not get to this tonight, but really this is more than just a kind of the typical salutation.

[5:12] There are elements of the salutation that are typical for letter writing in Paul's day, but it goes further than that. And even considering some of the words he used, especially the greeting there at the latter part of verse 4, even though those words, very typical words used in salutations for letters in this day, in this culture, Paul meant a whole lot more than just the typical meaning of the words as they were used in secular culture.

[5:43] And we'll get to that when we get to the greeting. Alright, so, our introduction then is going to come from these four opening verses. And we learn from these four verses that, number one, the letter is from a trusted slave.

[6:03] That's the word you need to put in there, slave. From a trusted slave. Now, kind of an interesting, maybe interesting way to put it. A trusted slave.

[6:14] Alright, the author is a trusted slave and he presents himself in that way. That's how Paul first describes himself. Now, using the New King James translation, he says, a bondservant of God.

[6:31] Or slave of God. I'll talk a little bit more about that here in just a minute. Alright, so looking at the text, first let's consider a few things about the writer.

[6:42] This trusted slave who is the author of this letter. That is, to begin with, the person. The person writing. Who is it that's writing here? We don't really have to guess, do we?

[6:53] We have the name given to us right there in the text, don't we? That makes it convenient. You know, there are some books of the Bible, especially some letters, at least one that I can recall right now in the New Testament that isn't signed by its writer.

[7:08] Let's talk about the person. Actually, we don't have to, at this point, don't really have anything to say about him other than, His name is Paul. Alright, Paul. Alright, now, how do we know that this Paul is, in fact, the one that we know?

[7:28] The Apostle Paul. He said, everybody knows that it's Paul the Apostle. I just wanted you to kind of allow the text to lay it out before us, without us just making our conclusion before we actually look at it.

[7:45] You know, we come, always come to a Bible study already knowing some things, or at least assuming we know some things. And so how do we know, then, just for sake of argument, actually just for sake of me being able to go on with my notes here, how do we know that this is the Apostle Paul?

[8:06] Well, by what the text says about, and here's the second thing you can fill in there, his position. What he says about his position.

[8:16] Paul's favorite identification of himself was to state his position in relation to God. Alright, so his favorite thing was not to tell or introduce himself by, you know, by laying before his reader his earthly credentials.

[8:36] You know, he didn't think anything of those. In fact, he counted that, what, as worthless, as rubbish. And, or even possibly a word that means something worse than that.

[8:50] And so he doesn't introduce himself by using his earthly credentials. And he really had an admirable set of credentials. You know, Paul did, the Apostle Paul.

[9:03] So how does he like to do it? Well, he likes to identify himself in relation to his position before God. Before God. So, first of all, before God.

[9:15] He says something about his position before God. First part of verse 1. And that is a bondservant. And again, I'm reading what it says right there in the New King James.

[9:27] A bondservant of God. Now, the big question is, what is a bondservant? And I would imagine that over the years, if you're a typical Baptist, you've been around a while, and most of us in this room have been around a while, then you've heard various things said about bondservant.

[9:47] Even, you know, going so far as to describe some of the, you know, the cultural things of the day that described a bondservant bondservant as opposed to a slave.

[10:01] So what is a bondservant? Well, I'm going to answer that for you. A bondservant is a slave. Wow. Okay, you didn't know that, did you?

[10:15] But I, you know, I'm kind of poking fun here, but this is kind of a serious issue. When Paul says he's a bondservant, he's saying he's a slave. He's a slave.

[10:27] Not just a slave of anyone, but a slave of God. Other of his letters, he kind of used God and Jesus Christ Christ, Christ interchangeably.

[10:41] He's a bondservant. He said a bondservant. That's how it's translated in most versions, either bondservant or servant. It just simply means he's a slave.

[10:52] Now, the Greek word, I didn't put this in your notes, and you can jot down any of this that you want, but I'm not wanting to make this huge deal about it, but the Greek word is doulos.

[11:05] That's how you pronounce it, doulos. I think I did put the Greek word in there for you, so if you want to, you know, put in, kind of spell it like it sounds, then you can do that in your notes, but doulos.

[11:18] Doulos is the word, and it's a very common word, a word used in many places in the New Testament. It's doulos, and doulos means slave.

[11:30] means slave. And yet, in most places in the New Testament, in the majority of versions, English versions of the Bible, it's translated either servant or bondservant, but that's not exactly correct.

[11:51] And I think you would agree with me that, you know, servant has a little different connotation. Paul said, I'm a doulos of God.

[12:05] That is, I'm a slave. You know, the problem is that nearly all of the modern versions, English versions, over the years, starting with King James, really, and really, it's King James kind of got all this started.

[12:19] most of those versions, in fact, I can only think of one right now, and I'll tell you which one that is here in a minute, that deviates from the norm.

[12:31] Most all versions have a tendency to, I really believe, to soften, try to soften the, you know, this culturally harsh word.

[12:43] I mean, slave is a harsh word, isn't it? And most versions have tried to do that. We don't like the word slave. Do we? No, no, we don't.

[12:54] Not in our culture, not in our most culture. Now, you know, there are many countries in the world today who still have slaves. I mean, in the, in the most severe sense of the term slave.

[13:06] But we don't like the word slave, and we certainly do not like to think of our relationship with God in terms of slavery. It just has a negative connotation.

[13:18] Because the word slave is kind of charged with this connotation, you know, to remind us of a system of oppression. Doesn't it? I mean, slave does. We've once had slavery in our country.

[13:30] And, uh, a terrible system of oppression. And, uh, and so many of our English versions translate it servant rather than slave.

[13:42] Or, as is the case here with, uh, uh, the new king, King James, bond servant. As if there is some other kind of slave. Now, I'll grant you that, you know, in the world of, uh, cultures that have slavery, there, there are different levels of, of, of slavery, obviously.

[14:02] Uh, but Paul makes no distinction about what kind of slave he is. He just uses the word that means slave. And, uh, the word servant, on the other hand, carries, I think, a significantly different connotation.

[14:20] I mean, it softens it, doesn't it? Uh, much, much softer word than the word slave. The word servant, uh, you know, in our minds, and from our reading and experience, and understanding, as the word servant typically, denotes a person who, uh, enjoys a certain level of, of autonomy in his life.

[14:42] Self-rule. A servant is not a slave, in, in, in, in our minds, generally. Though, you know, though he has a, or she has a master in some sense, uh, a servant usually has, still, still has some authority.

[15:00] Authority over, his or her life, or maybe even authority over, other servants. And so, servant is a much softer word, but slave, the word slave is something quite different.

[15:12] It, I mean, in my way of thinking, I don't know about you, I would imagine that we all, all feel differently, much more negatively about the word slave, than we would about the word servant, or bond servant.

[15:28] I've even heard it explained that bond servant, well, in those days bond servant, was someone who, uh, you know, wanted to be a slave. You know, and, uh, though, that person might be free, if, if, uh, uh, if he chose to be, but he loves his master, and stays with his master, continues to be a servant.

[15:51] You know, and so, there have been, those who have tried to, maybe, fit that into what Paul was saying here, makes it much, much better, much more positive, you know, thinking of yourself as a bond servant, of the Lord, you know, you, you're serving to him, because you love him, and so forth.

[16:07] That's not what, what Paul is saying. All right, so how, how did the translators justify this? I mean, you know, they're, they're supposedly trying to, or attempting to, committed to, taking the original manuscripts, the original languages, and translating them into English, or whatever language they're translating.

[16:32] And so, if they take doulos, and instead of translating it, from the Greek into the English, to bring out the meaning, exactly what the word means, literal meaning, if it means slave, but they don't use slave, they use servant, then how do they justify that?

[16:50] Well, there's another answer for that. The King James, which really, I think, kind of got all this started, most of our, as well as most of our modern versions, chose to rely, in this case, when it came to the word doulos, chose to rely upon the Latin translation, of the New Testament, rather than the Greek.

[17:16] And so, they chose, I think, with a desire to, you know, kind of remove a, you know, kind of a culturally charged word, that, you know, trying to keep it free, from negative connotations, they chose to translate the Latin word, rather than the Greek, and the Latin word is servus, servus, s-e-r-b-u-s, from which we get our word servant.

[17:42] And, so, you know, that, helps soften the whole thing. It's interesting, and I don't know if any of you have a copy, I know, probably don't hear tonight, but, or if you've ever heard, of the Holman Christian Standard Version.

[18:02] That's, you know, produced, published, by Southern Baptists, because Holman is, our publishing, entity, and the, SBC, and the Holman Christian Standard Version, for all of its shortcomings, I believe, and it has some.

[18:21] It's not a literal translation, which makes it even more unusual, that when they, translate the word, doulos, they translate it with slave, the word slave. They're the only one that I looked at, of any of the, you know, kind of the mainline versions, of the Bible today, you know, be it the New American Standard, ESV, NIV, some of those, the Holman, is the only one that translates it slave.

[18:51] And they're just giving a literal, literal translation. All right, so how did Paul identify himself? Well, Paul is a slave, whose master is the Lord.

[19:03] That's how he identified himself. So, getting back to, uh, my original statement, when Paul, writing a letter, and, in the customary way, uh, begins to write a little bit about himself, in his salutation, to introduce himself.

[19:20] He doesn't introduce himself, as a Roman citizen. He doesn't introduce himself, as a Pharisee. Uh, he doesn't introduce himself, uh, based on any of his, uh, uh, you know, uh, educational, uh, achievements, and, and, and, and all, all that he has accomplished in life, uh, you know, his flawless obedience, to, the law of God.

[19:47] He doesn't introduce himself, that way. He introduces himself, as a slave. A slave, whose master, is the Lord. All right, so he's, not talking about someone, who's just associated, with Christ.

[20:02] You know, an associate, uh, who works, with Christ. That, that could describe that. A servant, could make that claim. He is not, a hired servant, a servant, who serves Christ, but, still, retains some measure of autonomy.

[20:19] That would be a servant, or a bond servant, could easily fit into that category. You know, really just simply an employee. What, what today we might call a paid employee.

[20:29] Uh, even, uh, some of those countries, I, I think of, uh, uh, the British Empire, and, uh, you know, uh, the, the class of citizens, who are very comfortable in their vocation as servants.

[20:41] They're not slaves. They're servants, household servants and such, and they'll have their job, and they're perfectly happy with that kind of system, uh, in, in society.

[20:53] At least, I think many of them are. They're paid for that. Uh, Paul's not that. He is a slave of Christ. This is, this is important to understand.

[21:04] He's a slave of Christ, whose life, is what he's saying, my life is completely captive to the will, even the whim of God.

[21:15] Whether I live or die, it's in his hands. That, that's the relationship of the slave to the master. Now, obviously, uh, there's no negative connotation here when you're a slave of the Lord, and he's your master, benevolent master.

[21:31] And yet, still, it doesn't change, doesn't soften the reality that Paul is saying, and every one of us should say. We're slaves of God. That is, everything he wants, we do.

[21:43] Uh, he says, jump, we say, how high? Uh, our life, our death, it's all in his hands, and, uh, we submit ourselves to the will, even the whim of God, whatever it may be.

[21:56] Uh, and that's what Paul is saying about it. So, that's how he identifies himself. So, this is Paul, his position before God, a slave of God.

[22:07] But Paul says something else about his position, that helps us identify, uh, just who this Paul is. And, uh, and so, he also says something about his position in behalf of God.

[22:22] All right, so, his position before God, his position in behalf of God, in the sense of, uh, of what he's called to do for God, in behalf of God, and what does he say?

[22:33] An apostle of Jesus Christ. An apostle of Jesus Christ. All right, so, this, uh, is a, really a definitive identification of the author.

[22:45] This isn't just any Paul, or, palos, in the Greek. I mean, there are probably many others, uh, in history. Paul's a pretty common name today. Uh, this isn't just any Paul.

[22:57] This is Paul, the apostle, an apostle of Jesus Christ. And Paul uses the word apostle to convey its technical meaning.

[23:09] It's technical meaning. The technical meaning of apostle, or official, in the sense of an official office. So, the word apostle, uh, by the way, uh, is a transliteration.

[23:22] The word transliteration just means, they take, the pronunciation, of the word, in the original language, and just bring it on in, into the English.

[23:34] So, this is what it sounds like. This is how you would pronounce the word that's used in the Greek. Apostolos. Apostolos. Apostle. All right. So, instead of trying to interpret, uh, the word, like, like the translators did with the word doulos, they didn't just bring doulos into it.

[23:55] Uh, instead of trying to interpret it, they just simply, use the, the word itself, and just bring it into the English. Language. So, it's apostolos.

[24:05] And so, in its non-technical, non-technical use, it means messenger. So, the word apostle can be applied to, to about anybody.

[24:19] Uh, is applied, by the way, in the New Testament, to many people who were not of the twelve apostles. You know, Barnabas is called apostle, and, and other believers were called apostles.

[24:31] In those instances, the word apostolos is used in its non-technical sense. So, as a messenger, or a delegate, or, one who is sent. That would be just a literal, uh, translation.

[24:44] One who is sent. But, in its technical use, so, there's a non-technical use of the word apostolos, there's a technical use of the word.

[24:57] It refers to those who have been called to an official office. An official office. And so, it's used in the Bible to identify the original twelve apostles.

[25:08] Right? Luke does that probably more than any of the other gospels. Uh, using the word apostle in its technical sense, to refer, specifically, to the twelve apostles.

[25:21] Twelve apostles. They were disciples, but, these twelve were uniquely chosen by God, set apart by the Lord Jesus, and, uh, uh, they're, they're the apostles.

[25:32] So, it applies to the original twelve. Later, applied, of course, to Matthias, uh, who replaced Judas. And, uh, much later, uh, uh, applied to Paul.

[25:45] Uh, and Paul, uh, says quite a bit about that. And, uh, that happened back when he was on the road to Damascus. All right, so the non-technical, technical use of the, uh, of the word apostle or apostolos.

[25:58] All right, so here, here is, uh, uh, Paul identifying himself. All right, I'm not just Paul, I'm the Paul who is, and here's my personal testimony, exactly how I feel about it.

[26:09] I'm a slave of God, slave of his. Completely at his disposal, his will, his whim, whatever he desires. Uh, I have no, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, rule over myself.

[26:22] I'm completely ruled by my master, which applies, should apply to every believer. And he is, in behalf of God, an apostle. An apostle, one who was chosen, uh, for a specific office, uh, in the kingdom.

[26:39] And so this pretty much settles the issue on the authorship of Titus. And, uh, you know, really over the centuries, uh, very few have questioned Pauline, uh, authorship. Very few.

[26:50] Um, and even today, you know, authorship of Titus contested by only a few scholars who are kind of way out there on the fringe of credibility.

[27:01] Uh, uh, you know, the kind of number among those who deny most of the Bible as being, uh, being true. Uh, most of the authors of the Bible deny them, deny the supernatural, deny the authenticity of the words of Jesus in the gospel.

[27:18] So that group out there, I mean, there are plenty out there that might dispute Pauline authorship. All right. So we're talking about the author of Titus. The letter is from a trusted slave of God.

[27:33] First, the person that's Paul, the position, his position before God, a slave in behalf of God, an apostle. And next, his purpose, the purpose of Paul's life or, or his actually, uh, uh, his apostleship.

[27:50] And here's what he says, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgement of the truth, which accords with godliness. Now, what in the world does all that mean?

[28:02] Need to, uh, perhaps mention an interpretive issue here that we don't want to get too bogged down with, but if you compare the new King James and King James with the other modern modern translations in ESV, ESV, some of those, then you'll see a difference here.

[28:24] The new King James follows, of course, the King James in, in almost everything. They translate a word in the text, which is a preposition. And the Greek word is kata.

[28:35] It's a preposition, kata. uh, they translate it according to, according to, when the word kata, the preposition is generally translated for, for, most of the other translations do it that way.

[28:51] And that's more correct, or at least it's more clear. And so, if it means for, that is, so, so it would read this way, for the faith of God's elect, and, even though it doesn't reappear in the English text, the word is in the original, and for, the acknowledgement, or really knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

[29:16] Now, what, what, what's the big deal about all of this? Well, uh, what it's, what Paul is, is telling us here, that, his slavery before God, and his apostleship in behalf of God, dictate to him two purposes of his ministry.

[29:41] Two purposes. And, uh, and so, two things that define the purpose of the apostles' ministry, and here they are. Number one, the personal faith of God's elect.

[29:56] The purpose of his apostleship, his ministry, is the personal, for the personal faith of God's elect. That's why it should read, for the faith of God's elect.

[30:10] It's a carryover from the, the previous, uh, uh, part of the verse. So, he's called to be an apostle, apostle, for what? For the faith of God's elect, for the salvation of those whom God has chosen.

[30:28] The saving faith of God's elect, that's the purpose of his ministry. It's an evangelistic purpose. Uh, Paul doesn't know who they are, neither do you or me, today, whom God has chosen.

[30:43] The purpose of Paul's ministry, the purpose of my ministry, the purpose of the ministry of this church. And on a personal level, our purpose, uh, that God has called us to, is, to proclaim the gospel, so that, people would come to faith.

[31:01] That's what he means by, for the faith of God's elect. So, they would come to faith. Come to salvation. That's God's method. Now, God chose them to be saved, but he uses us to bring the gospel to them, to call them, so that they will be saved.

[31:19] You understand? And so, this is, uh, first part of his twofold purpose. The personal faith of God's elect. Second, the practical faith of God's elect.

[31:32] The second part of this, very practical, or in the terms of practice, the practice of the faith, the practical faith. So, what does he say? For, and I'll give it to you in the ESV, because I like it a little bit better here, but, so, first of all, for the faith of God's elect.

[31:51] Second, for the knowledge of the truth, which accords with, or leads to, godliness. Uh, that's, that, those are, that's the twofold purpose of Paul's ministry.

[32:07] Faith, the personal faith of God's elect, the practical faith of God's elect. That is a knowledge, to bring them to a knowledge that leads to godliness.

[32:19] Leads to godliness. And, really, that's all important, isn't it? You know, when we study, uh, you know, here on Wednesday night, or, you know, Sunday morning, when, Sunday school time, and the teacher's teaching, and, Sunday morning service, Sunday evening, as I teach Sunday evening, your own personal Bible, so it's not just so that you, can fill up your brain with truth, so that you can know more, and more, and more.

[32:49] That truth needs to, then, be worked out in the way we live. And this is Paul's, um, purpose.

[33:00] We could use, perhaps, two other words to identify Paul's twofold purpose, and one would be evangelism, the other would be discipleship. Evangelism, discipleship.

[33:12] Evangelism, which leads to, you know, faith in the truth, absolute faith in the truth of Jesus Christ, faith in Christ himself, discipleship, which leads to applied knowledge, you know, that's what we need to, to, the reality we need to experience in our lives, applied knowledge, applied truth, that is, a truth, or knowledge of the truth, that leads to, as Paul said, leads to godliness, godly living.

[33:41] So, it's very practical. So, they're the two purposes. Personal faith of God's chosen ones, the practical faith, of God's chosen ones, or elect.

[33:53] All right, so next, his promise. His promise, verse two, which really God's promise, but conveyed through Paul, and here it is. In, or on, the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.

[34:12] All right, so there's promise here. Now, what is the promise? The hope of eternal life. That's the promise. The hope of eternal life. How important is the promise?

[34:22] Well, that's where, what Paul says here in verse two, connects with what he just said in verse one. That is, our personal faith, in Christ, and our practical knowledge of the truth, that leads to godliness, all that rests, in, or on, a firm foundation.

[34:42] What is that firm foundation? God's promise of eternal life. Now, think about that. Without the promise of eternal life, what good is the faith?

[34:59] And the practice? Now, think about it. Without the promise of eternal life, what good is your faith?

[35:09] You say, well, now I've heard preachers say, you know, if this was, this is it, and I died, and that's just the end of it, I'd still live for Jesus.

[35:20] Really? If there's nothing after this life, then what's good is the faith? What good is the practical application of the truth?

[35:32] Well, according to one very important Bible writer, it's worthless. You say, how can that be? Living godly lives, and living for Jesus, and testifying of Him, how could that be worthless if there is no eternal life, promise of eternal life?

[35:51] Well, think about what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 19. I gave you that verse there. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

[36:06] See, see how important it is, what Paul is saying here. He's saying, my purpose in life is for people to come to faith, and to grow in their knowledge, a knowledge that leads to practical living, godly living.

[36:23] And all of that is on, or it rests upon, a firm foundation of the promise of God of eternal life. And you take that other out, that last part out, then you really don't have anything.

[36:36] In fact, you could say that the gospel essentially, the good news essentially is this promise of eternal life. Good news! There's a way to be reconciled with God and be given the gift of eternal life.

[36:53] That's the gospel. That's the good news of the gospel. All right, so third, from whom does the promise come? Well, that's pretty clear, isn't it?

[37:05] Paul said, which God promised. It's not Paul's promise, not the promise of the Baptist church or Methodist church, not the promise of some body of doctrine, it's the promise of God, eternal life.

[37:20] Number four, how trustworthy is the promise? Well, as trustworthy as God is. He said, which God who cannot lie promised. you can, in fact, I started to say you can take it to the bank, but even that's not really very secure.

[37:39] Is it not? Not as secure as sometimes we are lulled into thinking. Just ask some people in some other countries like Greece and some other places whose banks have fallen apart, gone bankrupt.

[37:51] It's not just you can take it to the bank, but you can take it to heaven. God promised eternal life and he cannot lie. Alright, so that's pretty trustworthy.

[38:03] And then finally, when was the promise given? Before time began. Which is a hard one to explain, and yet it's true. It's taught over and over in Scripture.

[38:15] The promise of eternal life, God promised before time even began. I don't mean promised in some general way. That, you know, all those who, you know, if perchance you believe, he promised to those he chose in eternity past, before the foundation of the world, before time began.

[38:42] Alright, so we're talking about the author of Titus. This letter to Titus is from a trusted slave of God. The person is Paul, the position, his position before him in behalf of God, a slave of God and apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[38:57] His purpose as a slave and apostle is for the faith of God's elect, for knowledge of the truth, their knowledge of the truth, promise, eternal life, and one more, his priority, verse 3, he has in due time manifested and is brought to life his word through preaching.

[39:18] what is to manifest this promise of eternal life. This connects with the previous verse. Made the promise, God can't lie, made it before time began, but has in due time, in our time, manifested, brought to light his word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior.

[39:47] So this was Paul's priority, and that is preach, preach the word, preach this promise, and all that is connected with the promise, and this was Paul's priority.

[40:06] All right, so from the trusted slave, next time we'll look at the recipient under this heading, to a true son. The letter was from a trusted slave, written to a true son, true son in the faith, and then finally the letter is with a not so typical salutation.

[40:27]  We'll get to that greeting and kind of pick that thing apart a little bit, see exactly what Paul is saying to it. a true man. The is man who man