In Psalm 8, David writes of two pairs of radical contrast showing God’s majesty in weakness, so that personal and corporate praises burst forth to God.

The nations and rulers of the world will not submit to the authority of their Creator but instead they plot against Him, resisting Him and His appointed ruler. However, God makes a mockery of their resistance by His unyielding installation of His Messiah and Son, His world ruler who will dash the unrepentant to pieces but bless those who take refuge in Him, ensuring that both justice and blessing are the certain outcomes of God’s rule through His Son.

In this Psalm we will learn four truths about God’s response to wickedness that should comfort believers and terrify unbelievers, so that we might take refuge in Jesus, the Son of God and promised Messiah and with urgency warn the nations.

In the letter to Titus, Paul communicates three essential qualities for the Cretan churches to have, so that they can maintain a compellingly credible witness in a corrupting world.

The Apostle Paul expresses practical matters in his missionary plan to reach the nations by instructing Titus and the church at Crete to lead in provision for missionaries and in good works, so that the missionaries’ needs are met and the church is not unfruitful as they labor together for the gospel.

In this passage, Paul wants Titus to speak confidently to Cretan believers about three safeguards for the church, so that all people might profit from the lives of Christians.

We are called to focus on our participation in God’s love demonstrated to a world of needy sinners, saved and changed by His Spirit through Jesus, so that by His eternally transforming grace we might join Him in His worldwide mission.

Today we will see five features of our Triune God’s saving missionary work in the world that He purposes us to reflect and proclaim.

In our passage, Paul exhorts Titus to help the Cretan Christians remember that God saved them to live with seven Christ-like qualities in a pagan world, so that they would be compassionate

and gentle to unbelievers.

The appearance of God’s grace in Christ transforms our lives by instructing us how to live in this present world as we eagerly wait for the appearance of Christ’s future glory, remembering His life-changing salvation for us.

In this passage, Paul exhorts younger men and slaves to live in a way that adorns the doctrine of God our Savior, so that Christ’s name is honored in every station of our lives.

Paul commands Titus to continue to teach the things which accord with godliness and healthy doctrine, opposed to the toxic teaching of the false teachers in Crete which led to ungodliness and ruin in whole families (1:11, 16).

The second of five groups addressed in 2:2-10 were “older women” (cf. Luke 2:36), those of about 50 and over who were to be the examples of godliness in their local churches and to younger women, so that the word of God might be honored (cf. 1 Tim 5:2).