Wednesday, May 28, 2025 PM

Somebody lost a brachiosaurus? I have it at the front. So if you have your Bibles, I encourage you to open them to Titus chapter three. We've been working our way through the first eight verses and Lord willing tonight, we'll finish up this section.

We'll be looking at verses four through eight. So we're gonna take them all as a big chunk. So I'll begin by reading the full passage, all eight verses beginning in Titus 3 .1. Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.

For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God, our savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our savior, that having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

This is a faithful saying and these things I want you to affirm constantly that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men. So last week, if you remember, we talked about the structure of our passage as a whole, and we noticed that verses three through seven formed a foundation for our good works that we are called to in verses one and two.

And I mentioned that that foundation was a compound foundation, and it was made up of two contrasting thoughts. We had in verse three, we had our depravity, and then in verses four through seven, we had the salvation of God.

And I just wanted to touch back on that quickly just to maybe refine that a little bit and make sure that there aren't any misunderstandings or anything, because I don't want us to think that those two contrasting thoughts function in the foundation in the same way.

So verse three's presence in the foundation is not to provide structural support for our good deeds as Christians. Verses four through seven are carrying that load, that weight of the good works in verses one and two that proceed out as aftershocks from the epicenter of your encounter with the living Christ.

Good works are the result of the landscape-altering, terraforming work of the Lord Jesus Christ in the hearts of his people. So verse three is there highlighting our foolishness and our disobedience and our rage towards God and man so that as we flow from verses one and two through verse three, that we land on the bedrock of the foundation in verses four through seven with the proper perspective.

We don't pass by and say, oh look, what a lovely foundation. But rather, we stop and we marvel and we say, wow, who would have thought that such a magnificent foundation could be constructed? And it's sitting on such pitiful ground.

It looks so unequal to the task. What ingenious technique, what a brilliant builder. So we do not look at verse three and say, let me meditate on my failings for a while so that I might, out of my misery and self-debasement, be motivated to do the good that I know I ought to do.

No, we remember, we do not meditate upon or dwell upon, but we remember our past sins in so much as they cause us to gaze upon the Savior where our focus is meant to dwell. And that is precisely where verses four through seven take us, to look at God's great salvation through his son, Jesus.

The Main Idea of Titus 3:4-8

So when we look at verses four through seven, most translations render this as one long sentence, one consecutive thought. So here's a little grammar quiz, another quiz. If we look at this long thought carefully, there's only one independent clause.

Can you see it? If you can see it, shout it out.

He saved us.

He saved, I have it all boxed up there. No, you're right, he saved us. So this is the singular proposition of verses four through seven, he saved us. It's the main idea. Everything else here is a subordinate clause or a dependent clause that flesh out or explain that one central idea, that he saved us.

And those other clauses, they answer things like when and how and why types of questions. Okay, so some more simple grammar questions. What is the subject of this main clause? He saved us.

Just shout it out.

What's the subject? He, referring to God, right? Okay, so what's the verb?

Saved.

Yeah, you guys, you remember, this has been like what? 20 years for me, you guys are doing good. And what's the object? What's us, right? We are the object, SK. So there, right there is the main takeaway.

This is the one thing that I want to remind you of tonight. That God is the actor with a capital A in this passage. And we are the passive recipients. Salvation is the work of God alone. Something has happened to us.

Something beyond human ability. Something transformative and something praiseworthy. That is why we use phrases like sovereign grace, for example, to highlight the fact that salvation is the unilateral act of God in loving kindness toward his people to rescue unworthy sinners and confer upon them all the benefits of his son.

Okay, so let's start by thinking about this main point and then working our way outward. So he saved us. The thought is echoed again in verse seven in a slightly different way that helps us define or refine this word saved.

So the flow of the passage is he saved us through his son and his spirit. And then verse seven, so that having been saved, we should become. Okay, except that he doesn't say having been saved. He says, having been justified.

So this is the declaration of righteousness that saves us, justification, being justified. So justification is often used in a narrow forensic type of way to describe God's legal declaration concerning our right standing before him, that the righteousness of Christ has been accounted to us.

And if we think about the so-called order of salvation, we think about election and effectual calling and regeneration, justification, conversion, sanctification, glorification. We see that justification is one central aspect in a chain of salvation doctrines.

But here, being made right with God is simply and effectively used to summarize the whole of salvation. If you've been justified by faith like Abraham, like David, like Enoch, like the apostle Paul, or like any of the saints who have ever or will ever live, then you are safe.

You're saved in the most important way, safe from eternal judgment and from separation from God. Okay, so this is our thesis for tonight. It is that God acts sovereignly, unilaterally, in these three ways concerning salvation with respect to the impulse of salvation and the implementation of salvation and the intent of salvation.

So the impulse, the impulse is the motivation or the impetus. What caused God to move toward us in a saving way? So the passage offers up four answers to that question. God's kindness, his love toward men, mercy, and his grace.

So these words are very closely intertwined and they speak of the heart of God. So his kindness, it literally means goodness, goodness of heart. It is listed as a fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5 and it's often found in lists with similar other words like patience and compassion, long-suffering and humility.

It is an attribute of God whereby his disposition toward undeserving, sinful man is to do them good, is to do them good. Luke 6 .35 says, "'But love your enemies, do good and lend, "'hoping for nothing in return, "'and your reward will be great "'and you will be sons of the Most High, "'for he is kind to the unthankful and evil.'".

So this command of Christ to love our enemies is a call to reflect the divine kindness of God toward the lost. So let's look at his love toward men. So in our culture, love is typically associated with attraction.

Oh, she's so pretty or isn't he handsome? Or I'm just really drawn to so-and-so's personality. So our collective cultural concept of love revolves around how somebody makes me feel or what I get out of the relationship.

But it is not so with God's love. God's love is bigger, it's more righteous, it's more pure. So this love found here in verse four is a good example of that. And it's actually a particularly rare Bible word.

It occurs in only two places in the Bible, and that's including the Septuagint. Here, it is used to describe God. And the only other occurrence is in Acts 28, where we see Paul on his way to Rome to make his appeal before Caesar, and then he and others are shipwrecked on the island of Malta.

And in verse two, it says that the natives showed them an unusual kindness. That's this love, unusual kindness, when they welcomed them and made provision for them. So this love of God toward men could be said to be an unexpected kind of love.

The Greek word here is philanthropia. You can hear in it our word philanthropy. It embodies the idea of action based in compassion and pity. So it's not a response rooted in the recipients themselves, in their goodness or in their worthiness.

No, it's a response or a reaction to their pitiful condition. And this kind of love, rather than turning away in disgust and moving on, turns toward and moves in in compassion. Okay, then we have mercy and grace, which are often paired together as two sides of the same coin of God's loving kindness.

So grace being the giving to unrighteous people what they do not deserve, an unmerited gift. And mercy being the withholding of what unrighteous people actually do deserve. So namely, the holding back of the destruction and the wrath and the judgment that our sin has earned.

So I hope that it's clear that in all of these impulses for God to save, as I'm calling them, that they originate from within God himself in a unilateral sense. So I think the meaning of these four words themselves help bear that out.

But just to make sure that we don't get confused, Paul offers a clarifying denial in verse five, where he says that it is not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy.

So God is not drawn by anything lovely or worthy in the creature. He's not moved by any external force that binds him in any kind of duty to love and rescue sinners. The impulse to save sinners comes unilaterally from within him himself.

All right, so let's think about the implementation of salvation. What I mean is the means. How does God bring this about? So first we were thinking about the motivation, and now we're thinking about the activity of his saving work.

So I think we see two things in this passage concerning the activity. We have an appearing, and we have a pouring out. So this word appeared is interesting. The kindness and the love of God toward man appeared.

So let's think about this for a second. Had the world never seen or known God's kindness or his love in any way prior to this appearing that he's talking about? I would say, of course they have, right?

We all can think of, or all have heard of the idea of common grace, right? He sends his reign upon the just and the unjust. He gives life and breath to all indiscriminately. When the wicked receive bread, is it not from the hand of God?

But when we look back through ancient history, we also see many instances of God's particular kindness and love, which is a foreshadowing or shadows of this appearing that he's talking about. We see the rescue of Israel over and over again throughout the Old Testament, but typified in the Exodus, for example, where God heard the cries of his people and he remembered his promise to their fathers.

And then he acted in great kindness and compassion to lift them up out of bondage, out from the oppressive hand of the Egyptians and into freedom and into more than that, into a relationship with himself.

But something better has appeared. Shadow has given way to substance, Paul is indicating. A more enduring salvation has been enacted that culminates in eternal life. God's loving kindness and mercy no longer interact with man from afar, but has drawn near in a condescending way that we are able to begin to comprehend.

So near, in fact, that he could be seen and touched. So yes, the world has seen the kindness and the love of God before for ages and ages, but never like this. Never so close, never so full, never so comprehensive, never so communicative.

The heavens declare the glory of God. And yes, God spoke through his prophets, but this is different. The loving kindness of God not only appeared, but he walked with us and he talked with us. So I'm sure that you understand that I'm referring to the incarnation.

I hope that that is not hidden. Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, manifesting the glory of God to all of mankind. So put this up against the backdrop of the depravity that we saw back in verse three, and we are left shaking our heads.

What marvelous, glorious grace is this? Who am I that the king should allow such a reprobate sinner to stand in his presence? Yet, when I could not move, trembling and afraid, spiritually dead and unable to come to him, the son of God appeared to me and you unilaterally.

So we also see the pouring out of the Holy Spirit as an instrument of God's salvation. How did he save us? He says here, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. These are activities of the Spirit whom the father and the son has sent to us.

This regenerating and renewing work. So regeneration refers to the new birth that Jesus spoke of in John chapter three, where he told Nicodemus that the Spirit is in the business of birthing people anew, a new Genesis.

The entry point into a new creation, a recreation. And it is as controllable by the human will as wind is catchable by your hands. With this new birth comes washing and cleansing. As God said through his prophet in Ezekiel chapter 36, regarding the advent of the new covenant.

He said, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. So what is this except for a renewing of the indwelt believer into the image of his creator? He's renewing the mind. He's renewing our desires and he will renew our bodies.

Just as he is conforming us into the image of his son in every way, Jesus Christ ever lives in resurrection glory. And he will bring his bride into that same resurrection glory. So notice that the denial in verse five is still very applicable here as well.

Not by works of righteousness that we have done. You were not regenerated by works and you are not renewed by works, your works. Did you pour out the Holy Spirit on yourself? You did not birth yourself the first time and you did not birth yourself the second time spiritually.

John 1, 13 puts it this way. You were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So I hope you've noticed also that the Trinitarian language used throughout this passage, it's kind of hard to miss.

God our Savior in verse four, Christ our Savior in verse six. The work of the Holy Spirit, his contribution to salvation in verse five. So the work of salvation has been, is, being, and will be completed unilaterally by the triune God.

Purchased by the Son, applied by the Spirit, all at the behest of the Father. Okay, so now let's move on to the intent of salvation. What's the goal, the purpose? So to what end? Where is God taking this?

So as we come to verse seven, we encounter another one of those really important little words. So we talked last time about the word for being used to indicate a logical basis where a reason was forthcoming.

And we mentioned that the word but signified a contrast of thought. And now we have the word that, or so that, which marks the beginning of a purpose statement. That, having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs, according to the hope of eternal life.

The days of our lives are 70 years, and if by reason of strength, they are 80 years. Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away, says the psalmist. God's good plan in salvation is not simply to birth you again unto another mere 70 or 80 more years.

He has determined to make you an heir, along with his son, such that all that is his will become yours, that you might receive an everlasting inheritance in Christ. For Paul and his contemporaries, to be left without an inheritance meant you were left desolate, your future in jeopardy, cut off from generational blessing.

And for the Jew in particular, the idea of inheritance was especially tied to the land. No land, no productivity, no provision, no room to grow, no hope. But Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us in his father's house, where there is plenty of room to grow.

And the land for us is not just a sliver of soil in the Levant, but the entirety of a renewed, restored world called the kingdom of God, where the curse has been banished, and the soil once again yields its strength to man.

And we shall reign with him, the king of kings, Lord of lords, forever and ever. What a hope we have been given to receive an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, never fading, that is reserved in heaven for you.

So recall to mind the timely observation of King Nebuchadnezzar. He said, God does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain his hand or say to him, what have you done?

God has unilaterally purposed it, your inheritance, and he will accomplish all that he has determined in his heart. I wanna wrap up verses four through seven by saying, let not the truth of God's unilateral sovereign work in salvation cause you dismay.

For some, this is an awful doctrine. They find it an attack on their freedom, an abuse of a fundamental aspect of their humanity. But I do not believe this to be so. I have found it to be wholly biblical and to be of health and peace to the soul.

Good Works Flowing from Salvation

In closing, Paul loops back around in verse eight to once again address the good works that stand on God's great salvation, having delivered us out of sin and death into a living walk with a living savior.

He says, those who've been delivered, sorry,.

Let me back up.

Those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. So be careful to maintain good works, not to garner men's praise or approval. Although good works are beneficial to all, let your praise be from God and not from man.

Be careful to maintain good works, but not as a means of securing God's smile. Christ himself has already accomplished that on your behalf. There's nothing left for you to do in that regard. In the words of Jesus himself, it is finished.

And be careful to maintain good works. Find great joy in them because you've been created for them and saved unto them. And they point everyone who has eyes to see to the only true salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that wraps up Titus 3, one through eight. We have any questions, thoughts, anything need clarification? Okay, all right, let me close this up in prayer. Lord God Almighty, Lord, we rejoice in your truth.

We rejoice in your word.

It is good.

It is the very food for our souls. I pray that as we meditate upon it, that you would be transforming us into the image of Christ, our Redeemer. I pray that our lives would reflect his goodness and grace.

Pray that those around us might see our lives as a testimony and a witness to your good work in us. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.