A Trustworthy Statement | Sermon 08/11/2024

All right, we're going to be in the letter to Titus today,

Titus, chapter 3. We're going to be starting our new series in the first letter to the

Corinthians next week. But for today, we will tarry just once more and we'll be in the letter to Titus, chapter 3.

The title of the sermon today, church, is

A Trustworthy Statement, A Trustworthy Statement. So starting in verse 3 of the letter to Titus, here now, the words of the living and true

God. Verse 4, but when the kindness of God our

Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the

Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our

Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

This is a trustworthy statement. Thus ends the reading of God's holy and magnificent word.

We must pray before we begin. Let's go ahead and do that. Dear Lord, we come before you today opening the word of God.

We recognize what is in this, Lord, is heavenly of origin.

It's eternal. It's from your very mouth, Lord. It says in Timothy that it was

God -breathed. You spoke it into existence like you spoke creation into existence.

And yet, God, because it's from you, it's got this eternal sense to it,

Lord. It is unbreaking. It is truth. Lord, we thank you for the gospel that is in this word.

We thank you that the gospel has gone forth for so many thousands of years.

And it's the gospel that is the heart of the Bible. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ that everything is pointed to from Genesis to Revelation.

And it is the gospel that's the very soul, the very basis of our

Christian faith. It is the gospel. It is the good news. And so, Lord, we come before you today as people who have heard the gospel.

We come before you today as people who have heard the gospel many times. And there are some here who have believed on that gospel.

There are some who haven't, Lord. And I pray that today, whatever the case is for each person, if we've become jaded to the gospel, if we have become numb to the gospel, if we've lost the wonder for the gospel of Christ, Lord, please restore that to us today.

Save people's souls, encourage our souls, and God, let us see the glory of the gospel once more.

Pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, in this epistle, the apostle

Paul is addressing his fellow worker, Titus, whom he calls his true child in the common faith.

This is Titus. Titus received the letter. Titus was a Gentile, according to Galatians 2, and was led to faith in Christ by Paul himself.

And Titus remains to be living proof that circumcision was unnecessary for salvation.

Titus became a fellow worker with Paul, serving the church at Corinth, years later, eventually hand -delivering the second letter to the

Corinthians. And after that mission, Paul and Titus, they traveled together all over, and eventually they landed on the island of Crete.

Paul and Titus came to the island of Crete, and Titus was to be left behind.

The apostle Paul moved on. Titus remained. In fact, Paul says, quote, set in order what remains, appoint elders in every city as I directed you in Crete.

I'm certain as a Gentile believer, Titus had to develop a kind of apologetic against the

Judaizers, as Paul warns of them in chapter 1, that there are, quote, deceivers of the circumcision.

They're coming. They're coming, Titus. All the churches that we've established in Crete on that island, that glorious island of God, that island's going to be one for Jesus Christ.

In every city, appoint elders, because deceivers are coming. Deceivers are coming.

And Paul says they need to be silenced, because they're upsetting whole families, whole churches are being upset by these men following the trail of Paul.

Hey, where Paul goes, the Judaizers go, hey, this is how you're saved. Not by Jesus, faith in Jesus alone.

You've got to also do this. And so this letter is largely known to be one of the pastoral epistles, describing in chapter 1 the qualifications of an elder.

Many a man has read Titus chapter 1, seeking for the last 2 ,000 years to abide by God's standard for a pastor, including us men who have entered into this office.

We've been called by God into this office. And those qualifications in Titus 1, those words never not convict me.

It's like a fresh thing every time I read Titus 1, and it's like, I've got a lot to live up to.

This is a heavy standard. And I hope that that's a healthy response.

Now, the remainder of Titus chapter 1 demonstrates Paul's warning of more rebellious men.

He says in verse 16 of Titus 1, they profess to know God, but by their deeds, they deny him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.

Chapter 2, and Titus goes on, it gives exhortations to older men, older women, younger men, younger women, slaves even, basically on how, whatever, whoever you are, whatever you are in the

Christian church, if you're a regenerate Christian, Paul says in chapter 2, this is how you act.

This is how you act. That's chapter 2. Why does he do that? Why does he say this is how you ought to act?

Verse 14, Jesus Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds.

He came to redeem us from every lawless deed. So get rid of the lawless deeds.

He's come to purify for himself a people for his own possession, people who are zealous for benevolent things.

I also noticed in my recap through Titus, a theme in which

Paul was exhorting Titus or the people there to adhere to sound doctrine. That's such a common theme in the letter to Titus.

Listen to this, Titus 1 .9, by the way, these references are all in your printout. I put them all in there for you if you want to follow along.

They go in order of the sermon. Titus 1 .9, Paul says, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching so that he will be able to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict.

Chapter 2, verse 1, but as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.

Chapter 2, verse 7, in all things, show yourself to be an example of good deeds with purity in doctrine, purity in doctrine.

Chapter 2, verse 10, not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God, our

Savior, in every respect. I don't know about you, but I've had people in Christianity come up to me and tell me,

Christianity isn't about doctrine, it's not about theology, Pastor Wade, it's not about those things.

That's intellectual, that's not spiritual, that is so categorically false it's unreal.

I'm not sure how you can divorce those things from truth concerning God, Jesus, salvation, sin and a plethora of more things.

Even in one sense, saying the phrase, Christianity isn't about doctrine or theology is developing your own doctrine, it's a doctrine.

It's inescapable. You open the Word of God, you say something about it, you've just said something theological.

If you make any truth claims in regard to God, the Bible, or anything stemming from it, you're doing doctrine.

And it's the rich theology and Christology of Titus chapter 3, verses 4 through 7, that undergird the gospel of our

Lord Jesus Christ. It is theology, it is doctrine, it is the thing in which Paul said, guard the teaching, the teaching, and then he gives it, and he says, this is a trustworthy statement, this is the gospel, and it's theological, inherently so.

You know, over the years, my taste in spiritual songs and hymns has changed.

I now, as an older believer, I thirst for songs with rich doctrine and theology, songs that are not about like, me, me, me,

I, I, I, oh Lord, do this for me, it's like, oh, oh Lord, you, I want to marvel at God when

I sing to God. And sure, I know some of us are probably still into Skippy Dippy Jesus Band and Happy Dappy Church Band and stuff, but you'll get there one day,

I promise you. Just keep coming here, pretty soon your kids will be singing psalms out loud and stuff like that, and you'll get there, but look, we're all being sanctified, okay?

Nevertheless, theologians believe, actually, concerning our passage today, Titus 3, 4 through 7, that this could be an early hymn or creed, creedal statement or a hymn, or a hymn.

In verse 8, when Paul says the phrase, this is a trustworthy statement concerning the previous verses, that is his typical formula to demonstrate a hymn or creedal statement common to the primitive

Christian faith. And these verses that we're going over today are so very packed with theological truths that one could literally do a whole series on them and just one by one by one, but I won't do that to you, and I'm not

Jeff Durbin, so we'll just go over all of them today. And my hope for you in this sermon is that you develop a right understanding of the gospel, and we're going to do that by going over a general overview of these soteriological statements made in this passage so that we can do several things, okay?

I want four things to happen after this sermon for us. Number one, I hope that today you'll hear this sermon, you'll see this word, and you'll know that you're saved, number one.

Number two, I hope that after this you'll be able to give the gospel to the unbelieving world around you.

Number three, I pray that this message and this gospel may help you to walk in the good works that God has prepared for us.

And number four, and this is paramount to me, I pray that after this you will be able to effectively preach the gospel to yourself daily.

I'll tell you why that's important a little later, okay? But before we dive deeply into our main passage, we need to take a look at what necessitates saving us in the first place, and that is, of course, our sin, right?

Bradley talked about it last week. Too many have a high view of themselves and a low view of God.

I don't know about you, but I meet a lot more people, a whole lot more people, who think they're great, good people rather than bad.

Do you find that out when you visit family? When you meet unbelievers? I'm the best guy there is.

I'm a good guy. I deserve favor. I'm not exactly sure completely why that's the case.

I have some ideas. But the majority of people think that they are virtuous in some way or another.

Now, to someone who knows themselves to be bad but doesn't know how to remedy their situation, they seem ripe for the gospel.

I'm bad. I don't know how to deal with it. Boom, gospel can grow there. The seed can be planted.

As Jesus said in the parable of the soils, that's fertile soil. That's someone who could receive the word implanted.

But someone who thinks that they're good, like I did prior to Christ, sees very little need for a

Savior as their sin in their eyes holds no consequences. Sin, my thought life, my lust, my anger, the times that I'm bitter against my co -workers, my drinking, my partying, my idolatry, my laziness, my gluttony, my adulteries, my fornications, my cohabitation, nah, my anger, no, those things are just a small part of me.

That's what they say. They see no consequence for it. And really, we see in Romans chapter 1 that it's a suppression of truth in unrighteousness.

That's what Paul says. They bundle all these things about them, and then they take them and go, oh,

I don't want to look at them, let me put them under the water. And they have to actively push it, like as Pastor Jeff says, to be able to hold a beach ball under a pool water, you've got to actively hold it down, otherwise that sucker pops up.

And that's what we have to do when we're in our sin. If we don't want to see it, we've got to actively put it away.

And think that nothing is ever going to happen because of it. Maybe God doesn't see if it's underneath me.

But ultimately, we see evidence of God's benevolence and kindness everywhere, everywhere.

We creatures attempt to harden ourselves, we blind ourselves, lest we see the holiness of God, lest we see the splendor of God, lest you look out that window and see that sky and you see those trees and you go, yes, there's a creator.

We blind ourselves. Lest His holy attributes convict us, lest His divine law show us how rotten we are, we choose as humanity to put that away.

We would be undone. And so when the Holy Spirit shows you and me His holiness,

His righteousness, then finally, then finally, when you see the holiness of God, then you will know that you're a dead man or a dead woman before Him.

And apart from a Savior. What are the depths of our sin and wickedness and our open rebellion to a holy

God that would require God Himself to come into His own creation to be blameless and impeccable?

That the Son of God, how wicked must humanity be that the perfect eternal

Son of God must come from heaven and die on a cross? That's heavy.

That's sin. Concerning sin,

J .C. Ryle, the Anglican pastor states, he that wishes to attain right views about Christian holiness must begin by examining the vast and solemn subject of sin.

If you want to be holy, you must study sin. He, he continues, he must dig down very low, excuse me, if he would build high.

The mistake here is most mischievous. Wrong views about holiness are generally traceable to wrong views about human corruption.

The plain truth is that a right knowledge of sin lies at the root of all saving Christianity.

Without it, such doctrines as justification, conversion, sanctification, are mere words and names which convey no meaning to the mind, end quote.

J .C. Ryle says you must know your sin if you are to see the Savior. You must know your sin if you are to be sanctified as a believer.

So to look at this, Paul reminds the Cretans of who they once were. Look at your printout or look in Titus 3, verse 3,

Titus 3, 3. Right before our section, Paul says, for we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.

This is a man who lived out the law. He was a Pharisee. He obeyed all the rabbinical rules, but he's like,

I was full of hate. We were full of hate. Didn't matter what we looked like on the outside.

He said, I knew who I really was, at least now I do. And the same could be said for all of us.

You see the word that he says here, deceived and enslaved. Enslaved is the word. In John 8, 34, it says,

Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.

You sin once, you've become enslaved. And so that means that as Christians, we had a previous master.

We had a previous master and we were obeying this master and the whims of our carnal nature and the whims of the devil, committing all kinds of evil.

And now I know undoubtedly someone's like, hey man, I wasn't that bad.

I wasn't that bad. You see the nature of our depravity doesn't mean all of us are as bad as we could be, but also as I said, we easily blind ourselves to who we really are.

Some harden their hearts, some are left over to a reprobate mind. And I understand that.

I think there are people in history who are awful, awful, sinful people.

And yes, in some ways they're worse, but before God, corporately, everyone's a slave to sin.

That's what the Bible says. Romans chapter five explains the gravity of the fall of man. Because this happened, because the fall happened thousands of years ago, it says in Romans 5, 12, therefore justice through one man, just one man, one man, sin entered into the world and death through sin.

And so death spread to all men because all sin came, sin came through one man.

How do you get rid of sin? Billions of men have to atone for their sin.

No, one man sin entered into the world, one man sin will leave the world.

One man to one man, federal headship. Adam was our head,

Adam was our figure, Adam was the archetype. He was the first type and it affected all of us.

And the world doesn't realize one sin against a holy and eternal God demands severe punishment.

That's hard to reconcile. You're telling me that one sin against a holy

God deserves punishment? If he didn't give it, he would no longer be holy. We should care about that.

If God lets one thing pass, he's no longer good.

If he lets one thing go, no longer holy. Not only were we enslaved, but before regeneration, before being born again,

Ephesians 2, 1 says, and you were dead in your trespasses and sin. You were dead.

As I always say, what can a dead man do? What can a dead man do to remedy his standing before a holy

God? Christ needs to call you forward like he called out to the grave of Lazarus, come forth.

And so apart from the miraculous work of Jesus, Lazarus would have laid rotting and dead in that tomb that blessed day.

And people need the same miracle, albeit spiritual. Psalm 14,

Psalm 53, Romans 3, all these texts demonstrate the reality of our fallen nature.

God has looked down upon his creation. He's looked down upon the sons of men to see if there is any who understand.

He looks to see if there are any who are good. Are there any who seek after God? And he, God Almighty, declares, no, not one.

No one does good. No one seeks after God. All have turned aside. Together, they have become corrupt.

Is there any who does good? It's rhetorical. It says, no. In fact, the text says, not even one.

We read in our gospel series last year, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

And so any sort of seeking that you believe you've done, and I believe that. There came a moment in my life where I was like, why am

I seeking after God? And I understand now that it was Jesus slowly drawing me to himself.

But ultimately, he says, no one seeks after God. This tells us, excuse me, we were one way before Christ and another way after Christ.

One way and then another. Paul is often writing his letters about who

Christians once were. Who were you? Who were you before you came to Jesus?

Who were you? And sometimes it's good to look at who you were. What's not good is to look at who you were and be like, yeah,

I did that. And you're kind of proud of it. We're not to revel in who we were. We're not to see our old friends and they're like, man, you remember when you did that in high school?

And it's like, yeah, I'm ashamed of that. We don't go, yeah, man, that's right, I did that.

We don't do that. We don't revel in who we were. We don't boast in our sins.

But we look back to see our wretchedness. That's what Paul has us do.

Paul says, look back. Look back every once in a while. Look back at who you were. Yeah, look at it.

You know? People who came out of Auschwitz, people who survived that, you know what happened to them decades later when they finally toured that place?

They saw where they were. I used to live right there. I lived in that cell. I lived in that pit.

And that changes them. But they didn't look at it and laugh. They didn't look at it and marvel.

They looked at it. I know it's a different category, but they look at that and they see where they came from.

We are, according to Paul, to look at where you came from so that you would look to where you're going.

You look where you came from to look where you're going. You look back at who you were to look forward at Christ.

That's the key. That's what Paul says. That we would do the very opposite now as followers of Christ.

Does anyone remember the Equality Act in 2021? The Equality Act? All of a sudden there were men going into little girls' restrooms across the nation, things like that.

There were suddenly being audits of pastors' sermons in different states.

They were trying to audit religious institutions for what they called hate speech.

That they would eventually put in anti -hate speech laws. And I've always thought that the

Bible, the Bible has the best anti -hate speech. Listen to this, 1

Corinthians 6, 9 through 11. This list contains who the Corinthians were.

Who were you? Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our

Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God. That's real anti -hate speech.

That's loving. They want us to pacify and dumb down things, but we have enough love to tell them this, but we don't leave it here.

The groups that yell and have the signs that simply say you're going to hell, this is all they give.

This is all they have to offer. If this is the gospel, then that's just bad news.

I don't know about you, but bad news doesn't change me. But we need to know the bad news to know the good news, amen?

We need to know the bad news. We need to look back so that we can look forward. And so we've got to give all of it.

We've got to keep going. And then Paul is so gracious. He says, such were some of you.

He also says in other passages, for we also once were. Such were some of you, for we also once were, and he made you alive for when you were slaves to sin.

We can look back to look ahead. We can look back at sin to look at Christ. And so if looking back floods your mind with condemnation, then you need to preach the gospel to yourself.

Sure, there should be some level of shame. Sure, there should be some level of remorse.

But ultimately, if you are caught up looking back in heaps of condemnation for who you were, this message is for you today.

Let's keep going, okay? So why didn't God leave us in the once were state?

Why didn't he leave us there? If that's what we deserve, if we deserve who we've become, sinners, why didn't he just leave us there?

And so I think for us to understand why he saved us, we have to look at verse 4.

Look at the text. It says, But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared.

So he says in verse 3, This is where you were, this is who you were, this is the state of the world.

But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared.

It came on the scene. God's kindness. Goodness and kindness are attributes of God.

Luke 6 .35 says, And here it is.

Jesus says, This is hard for us.

This is hard for us now. But before you were saved, were you kind to ungrateful and evil men?

Maybe in some way. Likely not. Likely not. God's ability to be kind to people who hate him is incredible.

God can be kind to people who hate him. The prophet Jeremiah writes in Lamentations, His kindnesses never cease.

They are new every morning. Did you fail yesterday? His kindnesses are new for you today.

They're for you. Romans 2 .4, God's kindness leads us to repentance.

And this is a big deal. His kindness has never been a license to sin.

His kindness has never been a license to sin. Not once. You'll never find it. His kindness has never been something to take advantage of in the wrong way.

But his kindness should lead us to repentance. I remember in middle school, and this is so ironic.

You'll hear why in a minute. I remember I was in sixth grade. We had moved to Texas for just one year.

It was just a quick year. I spent most of my life in Arizona. But I remember those

Texas teachers, man. They demanded respect. They really did. It was so much different than California.

And I remember looking at my teacher in sixth grade, and you could just tell that this guy, he was greatly bald, and he had one of the worst looking toupees.

It was poorly applied. And one day, trying to gain new friends by making fun of the teacher and being disrespectful in class,

I said, Mr. Johnson, that animal on your head is moving.

And, you know, the kids in the class started to laugh and stuff like that, but I didn't know what

I was doing. I mean, you don't mess with a Texas man with a mustache and a toupee. You don't. I made fun of his...

You know, you look at the story of Elisha. The man was bald, and they say, Go up, baldy. Go up, baldy.

And the she -bear comes after and kills him. You don't make fun of a bald man. Don't make fun of me. Okay? Don't make fun of me.

You don't know what's going to happen. But I remember this teacher took me out in the hallway, and I didn't know that teachers were allowed to do this, man.

He yelled at me so hard. I was in tears. Another teacher came out to see what was going on, and he's like,

Got it. And she's like... This female teacher's like, Keep going. And they're like just yelling at me.

Man, blasting me. But he saw me crying, and he said,

You know what? I'm not going to call your parents, and I'm not going to punish you.

Do you think you could respect me from here on out? I said, I promise. I'll never act up or do anything again in your class, and I never did.

I never did. It was this kindness that I didn't deserve that led me to this correction, this contrition.

I'm like, Man, this guy is so... He's not going to tell my father. He looked at me tenderly after yelling at me for so much, and I said,

Wow, I'm not going to do that again. And that's what Paul says.

The kindness of God can lead us to repentance. It's amazing. God's kindness touches all creation.

It says it rains on the just and the unjust. The kindness of God is one of His many qualities that restrains

His hand from destroying the world, from destroying a people that would curse

His name, people who reject His precepts, people who scoff at His name, people who say,

I hate God, all the while they get marriage and babies and food and shelter and cool weather, and they get all these wonderful things, and they say,

I hate Him. And God would be so kind, He doesn't relent. He doesn't hold back.

He gives kindness to the whole world. That's incredible. That's incredible.

But ultimately, what Paul is saying in Titus 3 is the kindness of God is seen in a very specific way here.

He's not just talking about general kindness, but when the kindness of God our

Savior, what is the word? Appeared. What does the word appeared remind you of?

Incarnate. Incarnation. I'm sure you've already been going in this direction.

How did God's love for mankind appear? In what way was it made manifest? God's greatest act of love has been in the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of our

Lord Jesus Christ. But God demonstrates

His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's how He demonstrates

His greatest act of love. Jesus is the ultimate form of God's love manifest.

When Jesus saw Mary weeping and the Jews weeping with her, what did it say?

It said He was deeply moved. The Son of God, the one who created all things, the one who holds all things by the word of His power, was with His creation, with His creatures, and He wept along with them when

He saw the sight of death and how it impacted them. And this God, this

God of the universe, weeps with us. And so God is good.

God is kind. God is love. God is inherently all these things.

He's forbearing. God is patient toward men. This is when the love of God came.

And this word love in the Greek is not agape, actually. This word for love here is philanthropia.

Philanthropia means to have pity, have compassion, or deliver one from pain or distress because of a strong affection towards them.

It's not pity for the wrong reasons. It's not that kind of pity. But God has a pity for us because of His strong love towards us.

It's a compassion that displays unordinary love or an undeserved love.

It's the kind of love, like the story of the prodigal son, that has

God running toward us. That's what's amazing, is that while the prodigal son was a long way off, his father ran to him.

And that's an image of our God. When you were far way off, God ran towards you.

He put a ring on your finger. He put a robe around your back. He slaughtered the fatted calf and said,

I will celebrate today my son has returned. My daughter has come.

And yet he ran after you. You returned. He came to you.

That's the love of God. It's the love of God that pours

His holy wrath meant for you and me on His one and only Son, the Son of His love.

He loves Jesus so much we can't even fathom it. It is a love that we don't even comprehend.

And yet He poured it out on His Son. His Son died. Psalm 22.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And the sky turned black. And He did that for us.

Where Abraham stopped with the dagger, with Isaac on Mount Moriah, God the

Father followed through to His one and only Son for you. For you.

That's love. God's kindness and love is unmatchable. Verse number 5 says,

He saved us. The word save connotes saving from great peril, from utter destruction.

Saving from where the fire never dies and where the worm continues to live.

Fires never quench. Saving you from the place where not one drop of water will ever be given to cool your tongue, according to Luke 16, from agony.

You're saved from this place. Believing in Christ by faith, you will be saved from the place where the fire is never quenched and the worm dies not.

But saving here in our text is not just being saved from the threat of hell or deliverance from divine wrath, although immensely invaluable.

It's not simply saving us from sin and the consequences thereof, but also a saving to, a saving from.

But Paul's also telling us that there's a saving to. Saving from and saving to. Saving us into heaven.

Saving us into His blessing. Saving us into His family.

And saving us and making us heirs of eternal life. You're saved not just from things, you're saved into things.

It's both. 1 Peter 1 .4 says, You have obtained an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away.

It is reserved for you in heaven. Chapter 2, verse 9 and 10, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession.

So that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

For you were once not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

We are not just saved from something. We are saved into this very reality that Peter just described.

And look at Titus. Look at Titus 3. Keep going. Look at this. It says,

He saved us, what? Not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness.

Do you ever look for these kinds of texts in Romans? Do you ever look for these kinds of texts?

Justification by faith. It's not by works. We look in Galatians. You ever thought about looking in Titus? He saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness.

We contribute nothing to our salvation. Nothing. As I said previously, how can a dead man save himself?

He needs resurrection. It does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has the mercy.

Ephesians 1, 3 -6. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him, in love

He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which

He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. We see there that God has blessed us.

He has chosen us. He's made us holy.

He's made us blameless. He predestined us to adoption. And He bestows grace upon us.

Why? Why would God do this? Once again, His kindness to the praise of the glory of His grace.

He did it. He did it. He did it. The only part

I see in all of that passage in Ephesians chapter 1 is that of a recipient, a lifeless recipient.

Do you see anything in Ephesians 1 that says you did this and then you met this condition or anything like that?

I don't see it anywhere. He did it. Paul says here in Titus 3, our so -called righteous deeds could never merit salvation.

It's not on that basis. Think of the kind of righteousness you would need to please an infinitely holy

God. It's a righteousness no fallen creature could ever possess.

We, in all of humanity, if Christ never came, all of humanity, if we could all come together, billions of us, and lay our good works upon a scale, and it'd be so high.

I'm sure it'd be really high, these supposed good deeds would be on this side of the scale, and then all of a sudden you put

God's holiness on the other side, it would not even be comparable. You cannot touch the holiness of God without the grace of God.

That's the truth. No one can merit it. It's laughable to think, and actually very pitiful.

It hurts my heart to think that there are so many people in this world that they could put on the scale their works, and they think that they could get what

God demands. Not even fallen angels can reverse their plight.

Do you ever realize that? Not even fallen angels can reverse their plight before God.

God accepts no level of righteousness other than His own.

Hence, the God -Man, Jesus Christ, our perfect representative, acted on our behalf.

Scripture makes it clear, if any righteous deeds in our life could be a basis of salvation, then there would be room to boast, and what does it say?

For by grace you've been saved, not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God, so that no man may boast.

Not a result of works. So it wasn't our deeds. If it wasn't our deeds, it was what?

Verse 5, it says it in Titus there, it was according to His mercy. What is mercy and what is grace?

You ever thought about it this way? God's mercy is not giving us what we deserve.

God's mercy is not giving us what we deserve. Grace is giving us what we don't deserve.

Grace is giving us what we don't deserve. Showing mercy says, that you've done all these crimes, you're worthy of punishment, but mercy will be given, you will not get this punishment.

That's mercy. And when you think about it, mercy cannot be enacted by a guilty party.

You see, mercy has a one way, it's a one way only road. You can't go down the other way.

How does one get mercy if they're guilty? It must be given by the offended party.

It must be given by a righteous judge. You can't just suddenly start mercy.

Oh, I'll give myself mercy. Well, you're delusional, right? The offended party must give mercy.

The offended party is the only one alone who can do it. So then, as people who have recognized their sin, we cry out like the man, the tax collector in Luke 18,

God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Or we cry out like the blind man, as Jesus walked by begging,

Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me, a sinner. God grants mercy on the disobedient, on the basis of the obedience of his

Son, not on the obedience of you and me. God only gives mercy on the basis of the obedience of his

Son. And our text continues, look at this, it says, by the washing of regeneration.

In the Greek, it says, lutro, washing, palingenesius, regeneration.

By the washing of regeneration. Bathing you, God bathes you, God cleans you off in regeneration in the rebirth.

Do you remember, it might have been 2022, but we were in John 3 in 2022, and it was in the dark of night that the teacher of Israel named

Nicodemus came to Jesus in the darkness of night. And Jesus said, you must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven.

You must be born again. Washed in the process of being born again.

You've got to be born again. You've got to be regenerate. Later on in the

Gospel of John, Jesus came to Peter to wash his feet, and Peter said, you'll never wash my feet, Lord. And then

Jesus answers this, if I do not wash you, you have no part with me.

You're not with me. I must wash you. By Jesus and through Jesus are we able to be washed clean.

We, of course, all have some favorite verses highlighting this, but I always think of Ezekiel 36.

Ezekiel 36 says, God says, then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean.

I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.

I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a true heart. That is the washing of regeneration.

That needs to take place. That needs to happen. And how did

God perform these things? Look at verse 6, Titus 3. By the washing of regeneration,

He renewed us by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our

Savior. He makes the Word come alive to us. The Holy Spirit indwells us now.

He has been sent to guide us in all things, remind us of Jesus' teaching, convict us, lead us, and comfort us.

And by the power of the Holy Spirit, are we even able to obey God? Paul tells those that those in the flesh cannot please

God. It's only by the Spirit and faith that you can please Him. And so the Spirit renews us.

The Spirit regenerates us. And how is that possible? How is that possible?

Can you make your old body be like a baby's again? I don't think there's any Benjamin Buttons in here, right?

We can't do that. Can you take a monstrous oak tree and make it a sapling again?

Can't. Can't reverse it. Can you take a centuries -old church building and make it brand new again?

Even renovation of an old church building will never make it new again. You realize that? To make an old church building brand new, you must tear it down and you must rebuild.

We must die. How are you made new again? The Bible says you must die with Christ and rise with Him spiritually.

And if you're a believer today, you have died, he says. Those are the words he uses.

We become, as he says, new creatures in Christ. And therefore, now as new creatures, no longer dead in trespasses and sin, now having died to the elementary principles of the world, now having been risen with Christ, we can walk in the newness of life.

The newness of life. We can put off sin. We can put off old desires.

We can now desire to obey God. This is only possible by, as Paul says, the

Spirit who's been poured out upon us. And he says it's through Jesus Christ.

He saved us, verse 6, through Jesus Christ our Savior. In this text,

Christ is the pinnacle. Christ is the supremacy. Christ is what brings this.

Christ is the consummation of God's revelation. Christ is the essential aspect of the gospel of the good news.

It's Christ. Apart from Christ, none of it would be possible. And it must be the eternal

Son of God and no one and nothing else. It's not any other religion. It's not any other

God. Jesus says He is singular, the truth.

It's not that many other religions have, oh, they all have little pieces of truth. Even Satan gave, and he gave a quote from, what is it,

Psalm 91, but he altered the Word of God. If you give a little truth but you bring error with it, it's no truth at all.

Jesus said He is singularly the way, the truth, and the life. He is the only solution.

It's Jesus. It's Jesus. So go to our last verse, verse 7.

So that being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Justified is the word.

I'm not going to today go into a big lengthy discussion on what the doctrine of justification is, but briefly so you know, the doctrine of justification is the teaching on how we are declared or treated as righteous before a holy

God, that we believe by faith that Christ died on our behalf, He rose again, and He takes our sin and He imputes to us

His righteousness. And so in the typical and often used sense, justified can point to that legal forensic doctrine of justification.

But in this context, in this possible hymn, in this possible early

Christian creed, I think justified here is used more in the generic sense of salvation.

In fact, Calvin and MacArthur agree with that. Justified is sometimes used in that basic sense of saving.

So you could look at this then and go, so that being saved by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The eternal gods, unmerited, not worked for, not due to you favor and divine blessing.

And it's not simply a pardon. I'm fine with that language, pardon. You hear it in songs.

Have you ever thought about the fact that ultimately, the sin was never pardoned? Sin from us didn't simply vanish.

Because in the idea of pardoning, it's just like, well, you sinned and I guess we just won't give you the punishment of your sin.

And that seems more like a pardon. But ultimately, what you did is still there. Do you get it?

You know, when a guy murders someone and he's committed this sin and he goes before the judge and the judge goes, you know what,

I'm going to pardon you. Is the murder gone? It's not gone. Your sin and my sin, something had to happen to it.

The Bible says the wages of sin is death. And so somebody has to die. If you are not going to die for your sins, someone has to die for your sins.

Someone must pay with their life for the sins. They don't vanish in midair.

And that was Christ. Christ took your sin. He literally traded you his righteousness and took your sin.

It wasn't simply pardon. It wasn't just left there. Now if you were a hater, a murderer, an adulterer, an idolater, a fornicator, now it's gone.

It's gone. It's completely gone. You're forgiven not on the basis of God pardoning your sin and just vanishing it.

You're forgiven on the basis that Christ has given you a perfect righteousness that is foreign to yourself.

That makes all the difference. That's huge. It was a vicarious atonement.

That means substitution. You and I should have been on that cross, but he took our place receiving in himself holy justice.

And there our sin was placed and our sin died there.

People talk about antimatter, things disappearing and becoming nothing. On the cross, your sin became nothing.

It's gone. That's how you know you're saved. Because nowhere in a vault is your sin hanging out, waiting to be shown in front of you.

Remember, your sin is obliterated in Christ. And it was according to the hope of eternal life.

You see this, Titus 3, verse 7. It was according to the hope of eternal life. That hope has always been there from the beginning.

As long as God has had this underlying plan for the covenant of redemption, there has been hope.

Hope has never been lost. We have been made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Galatians 4, 7 says, Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son.

And if you're a son, then you're an heir through God. We were slaves.

Now you're an heir, seated with Christ in the heavenlies.

Of every story you've ever seen, where there's been this redemptive moment where this guy, well, he's had the hardest life, he was a slave, but now he's a landowner or he's a governor.

There's nothing like this, though. There's nothing like this. There's nothing like this story. You deserved hell, but you get

God's home. Your inheritance was hell, where the fire never dies, where the worm never dies, where torment never ends.

But now you get God's home. He'll give you what's his. Jesus says,

I go to prepare a place for you. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so,

I would have told you. That's the truth. You've got something that's yours. You've got something with your name on it.

How can we comprehend that? How can we comprehend such love? We would have been right there, don't you think?

When they lined up, do you remember this in April, when I preached on the crucifixion and the scourging? And they all lined up, and it doesn't say how many soldiers, but all the soldiers of the

Praetorian Guard lined up and they all smacked him, they all spit on him, they all cursed him, they all mocked him.

And I think we would have been right there. We would have been saying, crucify him, crucify him.

But what does he say? You're mine. You're mine now. That's what he says. You're mine now, and we'll see him face to face.

Do you want to see Jesus? You will. You'll see him face to face. And it's so sure that Jesus calls believers who have died, he says they're sleeping.

They're sleeping. It's so sure, he says, these words in John 11, he says, if you live and believe in me, you will never die.

That's how sure it is. We are heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

We have yet to see it realized, but we are heirs to it. You see, the son or the daughter who's listed as an heir, they labor their whole life and they wait.

They wait. That's what you're doing now. You're waiting as heirs. You're waiting for your inheritance, but it's coming.

It's coming. You can be certain that you will see your redeemer and he will take his stand upon the earth.

He says that he'll lose none of those whom the father has given him. He will raise us up on the last day. And how does that help you live?

Hopefully with not as much anxiety and fear, right? He's decreed the end from the beginning.

He's sovereignly in control. And when we say that God is in control, are we saying that God presses the autopilot button?

No. In every detail of this life, God is acting. He has numbered all our days.

They were written in his book before there was not even one. Think about this real quick.

There are laws in the Mosaic legislation to make sure a son gets an inheritance.

There are laws to make sure a son will get an inheritance, but it wasn't foolproof.

You know what happens sometimes? The father would keep the inheritance.

The sibling would steal it from their older brother. It was not foolproof.

If you were an heir, there was always a possibility your father or a family member could squander your inheritance.

There was always a chance it could be stolen. But listen to this.

There's no contract. There's no lockbox or safe or agreement that is as ironclad as the promise of God who made us heirs to eternal life.

There's nothing as good as that promise. When God speaks something, it's eternal, it's sure.

If he says you're an heir, no one can steal it. No one can take it away. You'll always have that inheritance.

It's, as Peter says, undefilable. Time will not rust away your inheritance.

Your sin now, after the cross, can't tarnish it. He says it's reserved for you with your name on it in heaven.

And he says it'll never fade away. The inheritance is as eternal as the one who gave it.

That's true. The inheritance is as eternal as the one who gave it. So, brothers and sisters, as we close, consider these things.

What does the letter to Titus show us here? That it was the Lord's kindness, it was his mercy, it was his love, his saving, his washing, his regeneration, his renewing, his pouring, his justifying, his giving of eternal life.

What did Paul keep saying in Titus 3? His, his, his. It was nothing that you've done.

And Paul tells Titus in verse 8, this is a trustworthy statement. He says, all these things that I've just said, this is true.

This is true. Speak confidently about these things, Titus. Speak confidently about these things even to yourself.

We are to speak the gospel to ourselves. As Pastor Andrew read in the bulletin today,

Pastor Alistair Begg said this, the gospel is not simply a door in which we walk through in order to become a

Christian, but the gospel is the sole basis of our day -by -day acceptance to God.

You see, the gospel wasn't past tense for you as a believer. The gospel was your past, it's your present, and the gospel's your future.

It's not just gone, done, did that. The gospel is today and tomorrow and forever.

The gospel always. The gospel, the gospel, the good news, the good news always.

The gospel is central. The gospel's your daily vitamin. The gospel is the breath that you just breathed in that one and the next one.

The gospel's your life, the gospel's your mission, and the gospel gives you your inheritance, and so the gospel is everything.

And I'll end on this. Remember those four things that I told you about my hope for you all with this sermon?

Let me repeat them with a little more detail. We're just about done. Number one, that we would know that we are saved.

It said He saved us, not according to the deeds which we have done in, what does it say?

Righteousness. It's not our deeds, it was the deeds of God. The work of God saved you.

He acted before you and I ever could. If you have faith that Jesus is the

Christ today, if you have faith that Jesus is the Son of God, and you believe in Him and you believe in what

He's done, that He died and He paid for your sin and He was buried and He rose again, if you believe that, you'll be saved.

And now I hope that you see why that can't be stolen so easily. I hope you see that.

It's sure. And because of this, you're no longer doing the things that Paul says, we once were like this or such were some of you.

Those are the things, there are those who think grace allows us to sin, but grace allows us the power to not sin.

We're slaves to Christ now not to sin, and so the gospel has placed us under new ownership.

Number two, so number one was that you would know that you're saved. Number two, that we would be able to give the gospel to the unbelieving world around us.

I hope you've heard the gospel today. Paul says to Titus, speak confidently about these things.

Quit coming up to people with timidity. Quit restraining when you know what they need.

Tell them the truth. It's the only way. You have possession of what saves. So give it.

Give it. As God gave to you, give freely. Number three, my hope was that we would walk in the good works that God has prepared for us.

I encourage you this week, read through Titus, just three chapters. Walk in the good works now because you've been saved.

Titus 2 .7 says, show yourself an example of good deeds. Titus 2 .14 says, be zealous for good deeds.

Chapter 3 verse 8 says, be careful to engage in good deeds. Chapter 3 verse 14 says, our people must learn to engage in good deeds so that they will not be unfruitful.

You know, when we're doing evangelism on Thursday nights, the Mormons say that we don't care about good deeds. It's all over this letter.

It's all over the Bible. As Christians, we care about good deeds. Why? Because we're now

Christian. Because we're Christian, that's why we care for good deeds. These things come after belief.

Perform good works then. And yet, all the while, through this letter, when he says perform good deeds, perform good deeds, he said there in verse 5 what?

It was not on the basis of deeds you performed in righteousness. So Paul can equally say, do good deeds, but just know it never earns anything.

They are the fruit and not the root. Lastly, number four, my hope for us is that we would now be able to preach the gospel to ourselves.

Be saturated in the gospel truth as Paul called the Cretans to. Do you have terrible things that you've done in your past?

I do too. Do they try to flare up in your memory sometimes?

Do they come into your mind? Happens to me sometimes. In our flesh, we will try to condemn ourselves, but Satan is the accuser of the brethren, and Satan goes and he says, did you see what

Wade did? Do you remember what he did here, God? Do you see what Wade did today? And Jesus stands there at the throne of God as our mediator and intercessor, and he says, paid in full.

Gone. Obliterated at the cross. It's over. So, my encouragement to you today is rebuke that inner monologue that creeps in with doubts and guilt.

Martin Lloyd -Jones said, if you look at your past and are depressed, it means that you are listening to the devil, not

God. Stop listening to yourself. Stop listening to the inner monologue.

Stop listening to the devil. Listen to God. Therefore, church, with all that in mind, be on guard as the world will tell us to continue to follow our feelings, follow our hearts, act on our impulses, to listen to the thoughts of our inner monologues.

Just do what you think sounds right. But don't. We are historically and demonstrably unreliable people.

Make the word of God your measuring rod for all things in this life, the filter for all thoughts, and every day, every day, brothers and sisters, remember this gospel of King Jesus.

Remember the good news every day. You're going to need it. And on the days that are hard, you'll need it more.

And so remember this trustworthy statement, as Paul says, what did he say at the beginning of verse 5?

He saved us. That's the gospel. Don't forget it.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you today that even though there were so many bad things, so much bad news in this world and in us, you brought the good news.

You brought the best news. You brought the only one who's good, Jesus Christ, our

God. And so, Lord, today as one body, we commit to remember the gospel each day.

We commit to remember that we're not living this life based on law. The law may convict us of our sin, and it's a helpful tutor to do so.

But grace is what we need to run to, Lord. Help us to run to your open arms of grace. The law is helpful, but the law won't comfort us in our sin.

Help us to run to your grace. Let that be the motivator to stop sinning. And, Lord, help us to know now today that it's the gospel and not ourselves that saves us.

It's the gospel of Christ and not ourselves that sustains us. It's the gospel of Christ, the power of Christ that brings us to our inheritance, not us.

And so, Lord, we profess that in unity and by faith today.

We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, church, we're going to come to the table today.

If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, this table is open to you. This is a celebration of sorts.