Taught by Grace Noah Hooper

There are two ways we can live - in disobedience or in obedience. Haggai 1 shows how Israel was living in disobedience by not rebuilding the temple. By living this way, they discovered that life wasn't really satisfying. We will see in chapter one that to live in disobedience to God's Word is the most unsatisfying way to live and that to live in obedience to God's Word is most satisfying.

Haggai is a little book tucked away toward the end of the Old Testament. If the pages are stuck together in your Bible, you may unknowingly skip right on by this book. Yet, this book has much to teach us about the glory of God and how His saints glorify Him.



Over the next five weeks, we are going to walk through this book and see how God used Haggai to call Israel to consider their ways, rebuild the temple, and experience God's blessing again.



This week, I introduce the book by looking at:


The Setting - When the book was written 


The Author - Who was the main figure of the book


The Structure - What is the outline of the book


The Point - Why God sent Haggai preaching to his people.

Titus is like a three chapter IV pumping what it means to live by the grace of God for the glory of God into our spiritual veins. 



And now we come to these concluding verses and think, “Okay, everything else makes sense why I should care, but what impact can these four salutary verses teach me?” On the surface, these verses are very much Paul’s concluding remarks to Titus. He’s finishing this letter out and has some final instructions for him. That is basically what these verses are about, but without straining at gnats and trying to swallow camels, I do believe these verses have more to offer than simply being Paul’s final concerns for Titus. 



In these final words, these verses remind us that God's work is bigger than individuals, is about far more than us, and that we are not alone in this.

We are marching toward the end of Paul’s letter to Titus and in the second to last section, Paul presses deeper into Titus' role as pastor. These four verses have a twofold purpose: 



Titus was to challenge God’s people to maintain good works and do everything necessary to guard against those things that would prevent them from doing good works.

thisministry:

1. Emphasize maintaining good works

2. Avoid foolish talk

3. Reject willing heretics

Titus 3:1-7 describes how believers at to glorify God in an ungodly world. We are to be submissive to the government and kind to all men (1-2). Verses 3-7 answer the question of why?



Titus 3:3-7 answers this question - Why should I treat unbelievers in the way verses 1-2 describe? Paul gives us two Gospel realities to remember: 

Remember that you were just like them (3) - They are sinners 


Remember that you are saved by grace (4-7) - They need the Gospel 

Whenever someone talks about the assurance of salvation, it’s like having a blank final exam placed in front of us. If we get the true/false questions right and maybe hit the multiple choice ones, we can really know that we’re saved. 

If we look at ourselves, we will never be truly assured. 
We can always see faults, insufficiencies, and failures in us, therefore, we must look to someone far better. We must behold Jesus Christ.  
We must set our current, subjective experience of assurance against the objective work of Christ.