`This is a true (faithful) saying, If a man desire the office of a

bishop, he desireth a good work' (1 Tim. 3:1).

`Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life

that now is, and of that which is to come.  This is a faithful saying

and worthy of all acceptation' (1 Tim. 4:8,9).

`It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with Him, we shall also

live with Him' (2 Tim. 2:11).

`This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm

constantly' (Titus 3:8).

Here we have a blend of doctrine and practice, salvation and service,

gift and reward, that should characterize all our teaching.  It is equally a

faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that godliness is profitable,

as it is that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

The apostle of free and sovereign grace, of a salvation `not of works',

is at the same time the apostle of the fruitful life, the worthy walk, the

peculiar people who should be zealous of good works.  No one so stresses

liberty as this selfsame apostle, yet no one is so concerned about the

dangers of misinterpreting liberty in terms of licence.  So, before he brings

the epistle to a close, he gives Titus a warning and guidance concerning

those who are `heretics'.

`A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject'

(Titus 3:10).

The word translated `heretic' is derived from the Greek airo `to lift'

and then aireo `to choose'.  Now this act of choosing may be legitimate and

worthy, even as Moses who chose to suffer affliction with the people of God,

rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season (Heb. 11:25); or, as in

Matthew 12:18, `Behold My Servant Whom I have chosen'.  Consequently every

believer who faces the teaching of Scripture, and searches the Scriptures to

see whether the things taught are in harmony with the general trend of

revelation, is in the true and best sense a `heretic'.  This is blessedly

true of the apostle Paul.  For the first part of his life he had lived

according to the straitest sect (heresy) of his religion a Pharisee (Acts

26:5), but when he acted upon the conviction borne in upon him on the road to

Damascus, he was then accused of being ringleader of `the sect of the

Nazarenes' (Acts 24:5).  This charge the apostle takes up in his defence.  He

rebutted the charge made by Tertullus that he was a pestilent fellow and a

mover of sedition saying:

`But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call

heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which

are written in the law and in the prophets' (Acts 24:14).

We have spent the better part of our life maintaining the full

inspiration of the Scriptures, and have devoted nearly forty volumes of The

Berean Expositor (namely Vol. 6 -- 1916 onward) to a systematic exposition of

the books of the Old Testament from Genesis to Isaiah, and to most of the

books of the New Testament, yet because we have seen that the dispensation of

the Mystery is a peculiar revelation of truth, fitting the period during

which Israel are lo -ammi `not My people', we have been honoured by opponents

with the selfsame treatment as was given to the apostle Paul, and so rejoice

to be found in such good company.  It will be seen therefore, that the word