To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.” (Titus 1:4 (ESV)
The following message is by Pastor Charles H. Spurgeon. He preached it at the Metropolitan Tabernacle Newington on the Lord’s Day Evening, November 6, 1887. Pastor Spurgeon entitled his message Five Links in a Golden Chain.
AMONG the friends of Paul, Titus was one of the most useful and one of the best beloved. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles and Titus was a Gentile. I should suppose that both his parents were Gentiles, and in this respect, he differed from Timothy, whose mother was a Jewess. Timothy would well serve as a preacher to the circumcision, but Titus would be a man after Paul’s heart as a preacher to the Gentiles.
He seems to have been a man of great common sense, so that, when Paul had anything difficult to be done, he sent Titus. When the collection was to be made at Corinth on behalf of the poor saints at Jerusalem, Paul sent Titus to stir the members up, and with him another brother to take charge of the contributions. Titus appears to have been a man of business capacity and strict probity, as well as a man who could order the church aright, and preach the Gospel with power.
Paul was, on one occasion, comforted by the coming of Titus. At another time, he was sad because Titus was not where he had hoped to meet with him. Though we know little about him from the Acts of the Apostles, or anywhere else, he appears to have been in every way one of the ablest of the companions of Paul—and the apostle takes care to mention him over and over again in his epistles to the Galatians and to the Corinthians—rendering honor to whom honor is due.
It is a great pity when eminent men forget those who help them and it is a sad sign when any of us do not gratefully feel how much we owe to our coworkers. What can any servant of God do unless he has kind friends to bear him up by their prayers and their help? Paul did not forget to mention his friend and helper, Titus.
Dear brethren, in this particular verse, which I have chosen for my text, it seems to me that Paul has brought together five points in which he was one with Titus. It is a great blessing when Christian men are in union with each other and when they are willing to talk about the bonds that unite them. The more we can promote true unity among Christian men, the better. “First pure, then peaceable,” must be our motto.
First, the truth—afterwards, unity in the truth. We must not be content with merely contending for the faith—we must next fight the battles of life—and do all we can to note the points in which true Christians are agreed. I desire, at this time, to “stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance,” to refresh your memories in regard to all the love that we have borne to one another in the days and years that are now past—and to exhort you to a still closer union in heart unto the glory of God.
There are five things in which Paul seems to me to bring out clearly his union with Titus. I might call them, “five links in a golden chain.” I shall only briefly speak of each of the five and try to apply them to ourselves.
First, Paul says of himself and Titus, that THERE WAS A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEM, “Titus, mine own son.”
How comes that sonship? It comes often through God blessing a ministry to the conversion of a soul. Henceforth, he who has spoken the Word with power to the heart bears to him who has heard it the relationship of a father to a son. There are many in this place to whom I stand in this most hallowed relationship. You recognize it, I know, and I desire to express my intense and fervent love to the many of you who have been born unto God by the preaching of the Word here.
The apostle Paul not only said of Titus that he was his son, but he called him his “true” son. The Revised Version correctly translates it, “My true child.” We have, alas! some who have called us “father” in a spiritual sense, of whom we have cause to be ashamed. There are converts and converts. There are those who say they have received the Word, and perhaps they have after the poor fashion in which the brain can receive it, but they have never received it in the heart—so, after running well for a while, they grow weary and turn aside.
Then the apostle, wishing to show how real was the union between himself and Titus, next mentioned that THEY WERE BRETHREN BY A COMMON FAITH, “Titus, my true son after the common faith.”
Yes, beloved, and our faith is also common. It is the same faith in two respects. First, because we believe the same truths, and secondly, because we believe them with “like precious faith.” We who are rightly members of this Tabernacle church have believed the same truths—there is no dispute or discussion among us about the fundamentals of our faith.
To us, there is one God—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. To us, there is one Mediator—Jesus Christ the Savior. We believe in the election of grace by the Divine Father. We believe in the vicarious sacrifice of the Eternal Son. We believe in the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit and in the need of it in the case of every living man, and woman, and child.
We believe in “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” I feel intensely grateful for this unity of faith. A church divided in its doctrine—what can it do? If it has to spend its strength in continual debate, what force has it with which to conquer the world? But knowing, as we do know, that the Scriptures are our unerring guide, that the Holy Spirit is the infallible Explainer of the Scriptures, we come to one common fount to learn what we are to receive, and we receive it with one common anointing, even the anointing of the Spirit of God.
More to come. May the Lord’s truth and grace be found here.
Soli deo Gloria!
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