Sunday Sermon: When the Goodness of God Our Savior Appeared (Titus 3:1-7)

You're listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series. Here is Pastor Gabe.

The Final Chapter of Titus and the Greatness of God

We're in the homestretch now, the final chapter of our study of Titus, final chapter in our study of the pastoral epistles, which we have been in since November of last year. As we come into this passage today, I found this quote from Jeremiah Burroughs, the Puritan who said the following, the worship of God must be a great thing because the Lord is a great God, and it must be suitable to his greatness.

Psalm 48, one says, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. One of the things we read about this morning as we come to this passage today is how great God has been in our lives. Those of us who know his grace and have been rescued by his love from a life of sin to a life of righteousness and ultimately to everlasting life forevermore with God as talked about in this passage as well.

Reading Titus 3:1-7 and Praying for Regeneration

In honor of the word of the King, let's stand together as we read Titus chapter three, verses one through seven. I'm reading from the English standard version. Hear the word of the Lord. Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly father, as we come into this passage today, I pray that we would indeed be reminded of who we once were and who we would still be if not for the grace of God. We would continue wandering in our sin and continue in that way to our very destruction.

But you have shown us mercy and grace. You loved us when we did not love you. And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. We too can have a resurrection unto eternal life.

We have been resurrected even now from the dead state that we were in because of our sins and transgressions against God. Lord, guide us in your righteousness and your truth by the regenerated heart that has happened in us through the Holy Spirit.

And now the word of God written not on stone tablets, but written on our hearts that we may know your ways and walk according to them unto the hope of eternal life that we've been given in Christ. May the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior shine through the passage as we.

Read it today.

It's in Jesus name we pray, amen. When I was growing up, I was considered by many to be a squeaky clean young man. While I had friends that were going off and smoking and drinking and partying and sleeping with their significant others, I was not doing any of that.

I was abstinent until I was married. I never got drunk a day in my life, barely even knew what it meant to puff on a cigarette other than just inhaling it in your mouth and exhaling it again, didn't even know how to take it into my lungs.

So I had this resume that looked like what you would expect a good Christian young man.

To look like.

Moms loved me. They wanted me to marry their daughters. Dads were a little wiser to me than that, I think. But I coasted on my resume and gained a lot of favor and traction with people because they thought of me as just being a good kid.

I preached my first sermon at the age of 17 in the month of September as a matter of fact. So it has been now 27 years since the first time I preached a sermon in front of a church. Really didn't have any business preaching sermons back then, but that just kind of goes to demonstrate what people thought of me.

I was trustworthy enough and enough of a Christian witness and had enough knowledge of the Bible that we could even trust him in our pulpits to preach as a teenager. Now in my life, of course, I hid secret sins that nobody else knew about, but still compared with my friends, I was a pretty good guy.

Yet as the Apostle Paul goes through his resume in Philippians chapter 3 of the rock star status that he had as a Pharisee, he gets to the end of that resume and he says, I count.

It all as dung.

I count it as worthless for the sake of the cause of Christ. None of those good works accomplish anything. All of the accomplishment has been made by Christ. And it's by faith in Christ that we really actually become righteous.

A righteousness that comes not from ourselves, but from God who gives us his righteousness, the righteousness of his son. Scripture describes as us being clothed in, as though we can take the righteousness of Christ and wear it.

And if we are wearing Christ's righteousness, then we will therefore demonstrate it. Just as somebody might see you today as being dressed for church. Well, that person's dressed up on a Sunday morning.

They must be headed to church. Or if you're cheering for your favorite sports team, you got a jersey on. I know what team that person likes because of the jersey that they wear. So also, if we are followers of Christ and wear his righteousness, then we will demonstrate that with our very lives.

The best works that we can do won't save us. But the works that we're supposed to do should demonstrate that we are saved. Something that in my life I had to learn. No matter how squeaky clean a young man I thought I was or anybody else thought that I was, that was not enough to save me.

It is the righteousness of Christ that saves and sanctifies. We come to this passage this morning and we read in this section in Titus chapter 3, our story about who we were before we came to Christ and who we are now in Christ.

And we've seen these punctuations of the gospel throughout this very short letter. It was just last week that we read that section beginning in chapter 2 verse 11, for the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.

And so here we see that calling once again to righteousness in this section that we look at today. God saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. And verse 7, being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

So let us explore further an understanding of our salvation and where this fits in the context of the instructions that we're receiving here in Titus. We know that what we have read previously are instructions about how we are to care for one another in the church.

That's where we've spent the last several weeks in chapter 2, the way that older men are to consider the younger men, the way that older women will lead the younger women, even the way that slaves are supposed to submit to their earthly masters, and that itself being a testament to the doctrine of God our Savior as said in chapter 2, verse 10.

Then last week when we read that the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people, we understood that as the categories of persons that had been laid out previously in chapter 2. Whether you're talking about the older or the younger, slave or free, all will come to salvation in Christ who believe in him.

It is not a message just for the rich or for the poor or for men or for women. It is for all who would come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace of God that has appeared bringing salvation for all people, all kinds of people.

So we saw those instructions that we have with regard to how we love one another in the church. What we get to here in chapter 3 are instructions regarding how we are to love others in the world, even outside the church.

Now these are not broad instructions, but that's the context of the instructions, and we'll see that especially in verses 1 and 2. So first of all, we have in chapter 3, verses 1 and 2, a reminder to be submissive to rulers and authorities, how they are to interact with those who are over them in our worldly context.

And then secondly, we have a description of who we were before we came to Christ, and that description that we have is a reminder that we were just like them, so that we don't have some hoity-toity attitude over somebody else, so I'm a better person than you are.

We were just like them and destined for the same place as them, if not for the kindness and the goodness of God. So that's our reminder in verse 3, and then verses 4 through 7 reminding us of who we are now.

So once again, a calling to godly conduct in the midst of the ungodly in the present age. But these instructions on loving others remind us again of who we were and who we are, and at the heart of this, in verse 4, is that statement, but when the goodness and loving-kindness of God our Savior appeared.

So who's the star of this show? It is not us, but may the glory belong to God, whose goodness and loving-kindness has come to us. Let's go back up to the start of chapter 3 and read, first of all, these instructions, as Paul continues these exhortations to Christians on how we are to live in the present age.

We see in verse 1, remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities and to be obedient. Now, remember once again that last word that we read at the end of chapter 2, this is verse 15, where Paul says, declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority.

By what authority does Titus issue these instructions that Paul has given to him? Well, it's the authority of Christ. But that the word that Titus preaches would not be his own, it is the word that has been given to him by God.

It is the word that was first given to the apostles, Paul being one of them, if you'll remember his introduction at the beginning of the letter. So the word that first comes to the apostle, and then that word of the apostle that's handed to his minister, Titus, that he has sent to the island of Crete, whose responsibility it is now that he would appoint elders in all of those churches that have been planted on the island of Crete.

So Paul has given this authority to Titus. And an authority, again, that comes not from himself, not even that comes from the apostle Paul, but comes from Christ. Exhort and rebuke with all authority.

When you have those who will contest against you, like those liars, those evil beasts and lazy gluttons that we read about in chapter 1, when they oppose you, don't shrink back and think that just because they are more aggressive and meaner than I am, that they have more authority than I have.

For we appeal to the highest authority, and that is to the King of kings and Lord of lords. So you are exhorting and rebuking, calling to repentance, calling to obedience before God in the authority of Christ and his word.

Let no one disregard you, Paul says to Titus. So there is no earthly authority higher than the word of Christ. So when Paul gets to this next instruction about being submissive to rulers and authorities, this is for the purpose of being a good witness in this world.

But it is not to say that these rulers and authorities have an authority higher than the one that Paul had just referenced to Titus. Christ is still the highest authority. So you are reminding them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient and to be ready for every good work.

Now, that reference to rulers and authorities has a couple of different interpretations. You might hear some preachers that will interpret that as the rulers and the authorities in the church. But that does not seem to be the case, for that expression, rulers and authorities, is never used anywhere else in the New Testament with regard to those who would be overseers in the church.

It is used, however, with regards to those who have governmental authorities in the societies or in the cultures in which we might live. So we're talking about ruling authorities in the world. We're not talking about those ruling authorities that exist in the church.

So remind them to be in submission, which means to yield to authority. So you're recognizing that they do have authority, and you are going to be in submission to that, to those who have these authoritative positions.

Be obedient, Paul says, and be ready for every good work. So in the world in which we live, behave and conduct yourself in such a way that demonstrates your good behavior. Now, on this instruction to be submissive to rulers and authorities, one of the clearest passages that we have with regards to this, as to how we as Christians should live in the society in which we are placed, is given in Romans chapter 13.

In the English Standard Version, it's even subtitled with that label, Submission to Authorities. Romans 13 verse 1 says, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God.

So even here, Paul again appeals to the fact that God's authority is the highest. There are rulers and authorities in this world, but they are not seated higher than God. No authority that exists in this world exists except from God.

Remember the word of Christ before Pilate, You would have no authority over me if it had not been given to you from above. So Jesus even reminding Pilate that the authority that you have does not come from you, but from a higher authority who has providentially placed you here for serving the purpose that Pilate was serving in that very moment, and that was to declare that the Son of God would be put to death for the sins of mankind.

Pilate didn't understand that that's what he was doing, but all of that was by the sovereign hand of God, that these things would come about. So no authority exists except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

Romans 13, 2,. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. So you see the authority by which that instruction is given, that we should be submissive to rulers and authorities, for those persons have been given their authority by God.

God is the one that has appointed them to those positions. Now, everybody who exists in those positions of authority is answerable to Christ. They still have an authority over them. Even if there becomes one day some emperor of the world, in which he sits on top of the globe, and everybody in whatever government has to submit to him, even he still has a power that he must submit to, and that is Christ.

Jesus will ultimately govern the nations, and he will judge the judges by his word, not theirs. Whether you like it or not, everyone is under the authority of God's word. This word has authority over every single person, whether they acknowledge it or not.

And so we as Christians especially should be in submission to this word, and this word in fact tells us to be in submission to those rulers and authorities. Not just to be in submission to governing authorities, but if you'll remember back to 1 Timothy 2, we were also told to be thankful for those rulers and authorities.

I know that might seem difficult to do, especially in our current climate, our current political climate. In an election year, everything gets crazier and crazier the closer we get to an election. We're looking back on a leader that has not done well, and we might even wonder with this particular leader, who is it or what is it exactly that I'm supposed to be thankful for about this person?

Thankfully though, we do still exist in a country that is governed by certain laws, and however wicked that man sitting at the top or those people sitting in Congress might be, nonetheless, laws are still being upheld so that we may be able to live in relative peace with one another.

We are able to gather here today in this building, in this church, and worship God without fear of our government coming against us because those laws are being upheld. And it's not because of the righteousness of any person that allows us to be here and worship God without fear of our government.

It is because God holds all things together by his hands. Very sadly and unfortunately, there are Christians in other parts of the world that don't get to worship God in the kind of freedom that we enjoy.

And we should not turn our eyes to some of the deaths that have happened or turn our eyes away from some of the martyrdom that has taken place in places like Far East Asia or on the continent of Africa, those who have been put to death because they would worship God.

We must be aware of those things. We must mourn when we see the body of Christ attacked in such a way. And we must pray for our brothers and sisters in the Lord that they would remain steadfast in the face of persecution.

Far be it from us to be so full of ourselves that we think that we would do well in such a situation. We have it pretty easy here. May we continue to entrust ourselves to Christ and also lift up our missionary brethren and other brothers and sisters in the Lord in other parts of the world that they too would hold fast to Christ.

God is accomplishing something even through those wicked rulers, and we still are called to be subject even to authorities that may not be kind to us. We must be ready for every good work, it is said, and in verse 2, to speak evil of no one.

And here we get a little more broad, and we saw this also in the way that 1 Timothy 2 was laid out. You had beginning with those ruling governing authorities for whom we should be thankful, but then working down from there into the men and the women and how they are to conduct themselves in the world.

So Paul is kind of doing the same thing here at the start of chapter 3. Speak evil of no one, avoid quarreling, be gentle, and show perfect courtesy toward all people. I don't know if you've noticed, but the Internet, the social media, the online world is not the best place to go to find kind, compassionate, considerate people.

If you find yourself getting into constant bickering and arguing online on social media, then you might need to turn it off and step away. If it is developing in you this combative attitude and this contemptuous heart toward other people, take a break from it, turn it off.

What's the saying? Go touch grass, go kick rocks. Something else that would get you away from the computer and get you away from this mindset that we're just constantly quarreling with others. Even the Apostle Paul, when he was defending the gospel in the face of Athenians who were not so friendly to the gospel, yet he did not quarrel and argue with them or he did not belittle them and put them down.

It says that he debated reasonably in public. And how would these men have wanted to debate with Paul or have these discussions with him or even be persuaded by his words if he was constantly belittling and putting people down?

We do have a picture given to us in Scripture of the kind of courtesy that we should be showing those who disagree with us. And as the apostles modeled this for us, as Jesus our Savior modeled this for us, so we are to be imitators of it as well.

Speaking evil of no one. And as we understand that instruction in verse 2, it would be like slander. Just because a person is wrong, just because they're wicked, just because they might speak lies does not mean that we have permission to speak lies about them.

If we are going to contend against some of the lies of this world, whether that comes from a politician, whether that comes from a philosopher, an ideologue of some kind, someone who's just spouting off immoral nonsense, when it comes to the way that we contest against these thoughts and ideas as they exist in our world, we must contest against the thought or the idea as it's presented.

It's not okay to lie about your opponent, to speak slanderous things about your opponent, even though they may say that about you. They may completely mischaracterize Christianity or your church or you, but that doesn't mean that we can therefore paint them in some light that isn't true, ascribing to them motives or methods or words that they never actually said.

R .C. Sproul, in the way that he would train his young men to be able to argue and do so soundly, he said that you must be able to argue for your opponent's position. You must know their position so well that you could argue their position probably better than them.

And he would, in his classroom, he would pit students against one another and he would give one the opponent's position and give the other the position, the biblical position that we're supposed to be defending.

So, one of those students has to understand that opposing argument so well that he can actually argue it in their place. And this is rightly representing our opponents. If we slander them, if we say things about them that are untrue, then how likely is it going to be for them to want to listen to what it is that we have to say?

So, we cannot speak evil of others, even though they may be evil. We cannot be ascribing to them things that are not true. That is not okay. We actually have to represent them in an honest way, though they may not be honest people.

And so, speaking evil of no one and avoiding quarreling, like avoiding topics and delving off into things that are just completely unhelpful and might be off the subject, or creates tension and animosity toward others, like tensions have come down so high we're just yelling at each other and we're not accomplishing anything at all.

There have been occasions in which I have had discussions with unbelievers, and I can tell that they're getting very angry and they're starting to raise their voice at me, and I've had to say in the midst of that discussion, listen, I can tell you're very passionate about this.

You're getting very upset. Why don't we kind of take a step back a little bit? We'll separate for now. We'll come back and talk about this later. When cooler heads can prevail. I probably won't say that,.

Because then I'm saying,.

You're a hothead and you need to just calm down. But thinking about it in terms of when we can actually have a civil discourse with each other and you're able to listen to me and I can hear you without the constant squabbling or name-calling or shouting at one another.

That's what we want to have in these conversations. So avoiding those quarrels that develop into something where we're just belittling each other and putting each other down. We need to be gentle, it is said, and we need to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

That is an interesting phrasing, showing perfect courtesy toward all people. But that is just simply means that we must show kindness and goodness toward others, even those who are evil. As said in Colossians chapter four, let your speech always be gracious, season with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

And this is that same sort of thing. Perfect courtesy means you might show kindness toward one person in this way, and you have a different way that you might interact with another person. So you're courteous toward people, you're considerate of them.

You are actually listening to the person and you care about the person that you are talking to. So this is not just a war of ideas. I care about this person's soul, and that's why I'm having this discussion with this other person.

Not because I want to beat their thoughts with my thoughts. I want to win this debate. But I want their heart to be won to Christ. As said in the book of Proverbs, the one who wins souls is wise. And that's our desire in the way that we interact with the world, with those who are around them.

We need to be a good witness. Peter said Jesus is our example in this, in 1 Peter 2. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. And so as Christ has modeled this for us, so we must do it as well.

Now consider that statement there in verse 2, where he says, showing perfect courtesy to all people, and we go from that into verse 3. For we ourselves were once like them. Remember the golden rule. What did Jesus say was the golden rule?

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Right?

How would you want someone else to treat you? Do you not want others to treat you with courtesy? And so we should likewise desire to show courtesy to others as we would want to be treated by them. Do you want somebody else to punch you in the face?

I'm going to go punch them in the face because I want them to punch me in the face. No, that's not the way that we would interact with others. But as we want them to show us kindness, so we need to show them kindness as well.

God showed kindness toward us when we were undeserving of it, and we acted just like them. But the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared in the person and work of Jesus Christ. So again, verse 3, we ourselves were once foolish.

We had arguments just like theirs. We had ways and practices that were just like theirs. We had appetites in our flesh that were just like theirs. We had speech that sounded just like theirs. We had ambitions that were just like theirs.

We had ungodliness that was just like theirs. We were once foolish. We were once clueless to the ways of God. We were once following the desires of our flesh, as we heard this morning from Ephesians 2, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

We were once just like them. And if left there, we would be under God's wrath, just like them. John 3, 36, he who has the Son has life. He who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

That is our default position. Born in the likeness of Adam with his sin nature, it is in our nature to sin and rebel against God, to go after foolishness, to live by the Disney slogan, follow your heart.

That was the mantra of every one of us. We hear the world do it. You probably roll your eyes every time you hear some kids show. Tell kids that you need to follow your heart. What did Jeremiah 17 say?

The heart is wicked and depraved above all who can understand it. And in the book of Proverbs, he who follows his own mind follows a fool. But that's who we were, following our hearts, doing what we thought was wise in our own eyes, and we ourselves, just like them, were foolish.

We were disobedient. We were led astray. Remember that symbiotic relationship that we have seen between the false teacher and the follower of that teacher as has been talked about in 1 and 2 Timothy. They will heap up for themselves teachers to suit their own passions that will scratch their itching ears.

False teachers are a judgment on those who desire to carry out the desires of their body and the mind. And so they accumulate for themselves teachers that will tell them that they can have all the things that their flesh wants.

It was Votie Bauckham that said, you know, when we are born, we're not born good into the world, and if the world would just leave us alone, then we would continue on in goodness. No, that's not the way it works.

We are born in sin and a desire to sin, and the reason why we go after the world is because the world offers those things to us that we want in our flesh. It's not that the world came hunting us down.

We went after the world because we were just like the world. We went after Satan and his schemes because we liked what he had to offer. And if we had continued in that way, it would have been to our destruction, to that place, as Jesus said in Matthew 25, was prepared for the devil and his angels.

But thankfully, for the goodness of God, we've been turned from that route to another way. We were once led astray. We were once slaves to various passions and pleasures. My friends, even the world understands this concept of being enslaved.

That's kind of a dirty word. We try to avoid that whole thing of slavery. I'm not going to be enslaved to anybody. I'm independent. I'm my own person. We understand the slave connotation or the connotation that word has because of the North Atlantic slave trade, the fact that it is in America's history that slaves were owned, slaves were beaten, slaves were brutally treated.

And so we tend to avoid that word. Slave's a bad word. It's almost a curse word in our culture. But everybody understands the concept of being enslaved to someone. Bob Dylan wrote a song in which he said, everybody's got to serve somebody.

We all understand that concept. You're all a slave to something. What are you going to be enslaved to? The passions of your flesh? Carrying out the desires of your body and mind? Or are you going to be a slave to Christ and living in the righteousness that he gives?

Romans chapter 6 delves into this. We'll get into this next year or the year after, however long it takes us to get through Romans. But in Romans 6 it says, to submit your members as slaves to righteousness, not as slaves to unrighteousness.

So you're serving something. Are you going to take the members of your body and submit them as slaves to doing ungodliness? Or are you going to be a slave to godliness? And if you have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ, that should be our service.

Our service unto the Lord. Before that, we're slaves to various passions and pleasures. Everybody at some point is in slavery to our sins, to ourselves, to our flesh. That is our Egypt. We are enslaved to sin and to carry out the desires of the body and the mind.

That is our Egypt. And as God had freed Israel from slavery and captivity to Egypt, so in Christ we have been set free from that slavery that we were in to our sin and are now free to live our lives in such a way that is unto the righteousness of Christ.

We were slaves to various passions and pleasures. There are various places in Paul's letters where we see a specific list of even some of those sins. The passions of the flesh laid out in Galatians chapter 5 or those who are unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God as listed in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 or you see the passions of the flesh in Romans 1.

Here, Paul is very general. Various passions and pleasures. Passing our days in malice and envy which means none of us were thankful for what we had. We all wanted what someone else had and if I just had what they have, then life would be more fair.

You'll see this politically. It comes from both sides. I'm the candidate that's going to give you the better opportunities so that you might have the life that your neighbor has. Trying to feed those appetites of malice and envy that we all have.

Thinking that my life would be better if it would just be like this person's life. And so we are hated by others and we are hating one another. You see this constant division that exists among ungodly people.

We read about in the Gospels how Herod and Pilate who had previously hated one another, they finally found something that they could be unified on. Putting to death the Son of God. If there is something this evil world can come to a like-mindedness on, it's hating God.

It's hating righteousness. But there is otherwise no unity in the world. No matter how much you might see some sort of disguise of unity that exists. You watch the political campaigns. You say all the right are united on one side, all the left are united on the other side.

No, they're not united. They have their various passions and pleasures. And they're using each other to accomplish what they selfishly want. But there's no unity there. The only way that we can truly be unified is in Christ.

The thing that we all have in common in this room is Christ. And it is Christ who brings us together. It is Christ who brings us out of our slavery. We are otherwise hated by others and hating one another.

And then we have the turn in verse 4. This is the but God phrase in Titus 3, 4. Though it is not said that way as we had read it in Ephesians 2, 4. As Chris had read it for us this morning. But this is that but God phrase here.

Same as in Titus as in Ephesians. Titus 3, 4. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,.

He saved us.

From all these things that we just read. Our foolishness, our disobedience, our wandering our own way, our enslavement to our passions and our flesh. The malice and envy that we had. The wickedness, the covetousness that was in our hearts toward other people.