“Our Biblical Worldview” (11): 12/19/2021

Luke 2: The Presentation of Jesus and His Growth in Wisdom

The remaining portion of Luke's infancy narrative, Luke chapter 2, 25 -52,. And then he'll pray for us. Luke 2, 22,. And when the time came for their purification, according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.

And to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word.

For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him, and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, for a sign that is opposed, and a sword will pierce through your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was 84.

She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. Coming up at that very hour, she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

And when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.

Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover, and when he was 12 years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem.

His parents did not know it. But supposing him to be in the group, they went a day's journey. When they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him.

After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished.

And his mother said to him, son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress. And he said to them, why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house?

And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we are so very thankful for the incarnation of Christ. We're thankful for his birth. We're thankful for his life. We're thankful, Lord, that it serves as a pattern that we must follow as we yield ourselves to the Spirit of God.

We pray, Lord, that we would better understand the incarnation of Christ, that we would think it through every day. We pray, Lord, that we would live in light of this glorious truth. And we pray, Lord, that you would help us in our understanding of it.

Help us in our standing of the scriptures, especially as now we go and listen to this sermon that is preached. We ask, Lord, that you would take this truth and take it from our ears and put it deep within our hearts.

Help us to live these things out. We ask, Lord, that you would be merciful and gracious to us now as we hear your word. Thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, let's turn in our Bibles, please, to Titus chapter 3.

I see Aidan and Lynn, you're with us today. Welcome. Did you bring Max with you? Oh, he's right there. Sleeping? And I haven't even started preaching yet, so. Amen. Good to have you up here. Today we want to give our attention to God's word recorded for us in Titus chapter 3 and the first eight verses.

Paul's epistle to Titus is the third of three pastoral epistles that we find in our New Testament. The first two pastorals were written to Timothy, 1 and 2 Timothy, in which Paul instructed and equipped Timothy for his pastoral work that was to commence in the church at Ephesus.

In this epistle of Titus, Paul gave instruction to this young man to represent him in establishing and organizing churches on the island of Crete. Paul commissioned Titus to appoint elders over the churches, as we see in chapter 1, verse 5.

These elders were to be godly and faithful men who would proclaim and promote the faithful word as they had been taught. These men must be capable of defending and promoting the word of God when withstanding those who would contradict its teaching.

And in his pastoral work, Titus would encounter difficult and persistent opposition from corrupt and greedy men whose mouths must be stopped to subvert whole households teaching things which they ought not for the sake of dishonest gain.

The ministry often is accompanied with conflict in different forms. Titus was to instruct the people of the churches in sound doctrine, as we read in chapter 2, verse 1, but he was to do so to the end that they would be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience.

In other words, Titus was to teach the people rightly so that they might live rightly. Good doctrine should produce good living. That's the end, that's the purpose. And Paul exhorted Titus that in all things he was to show forth himself as to be a pattern of good works, in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned.

He was to do this so that an opponent may be ashamed having nothing evil to say of him. And so Titus was to live an exemplary life consistent with the faith. Now beginning in chapter 3, we read of Paul's instruction to Titus of specific matters that he was to teach the people of the churches of Crete.

And so Titus 3, verse 1 reads, 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.

And of course that's generic, all people. And so Titus was to promote civility and decency, care and courtesy to all people, for all people. And then after verses 1 and 2, beginning with verse 3, Titus gives the reason why Christians should have a compassionate benevolence toward all people.

Verse 3, 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 upon 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.

That is one of Paul's characteristic long sentences. And then the apostle closed his word of instruction to Titus by affirming a foundational truth of the Christian faith, and he wrote these words in verse 8.

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. We seem to be living in an increasingly hostile and hardened world.

The general tenor and demeanor of people seems to be deteriorating and degenerating toward rudeness and unkindness, insensitivity and coarseness, hardness and disregard for the well-being of others. This is not to say that our present generation is worse than others have been in the past, because down through human history sin has erupted in most societies at different times in different degrees, to greater degrees.

But I think it's apparent that our world has been moving in this sad direction in recent history. The Christians are to be of a different demeanor and are to be distinguishable from the people of the world.

Christians are not to be harsh or hardened, stingy or miserly, insensitive or unsympathetic. We are to desire the general well-being of all people everywhere. We are to be gentle, kind and loving toward all.

This may and should distinguish us from the fallen people of the world, should commend us and our message of salvation through Jesus Christ to the world, the world which is diametrically opposed to us and to our Lord.

This is an important aspect of our biblical worldview, the series to which we are addressing. This should govern our thinking. It should shape our values and opinions. It should direct our living. Christians are to be a kind and caring people.

Christians are to be characterized as peaceable, approachable, kind, courteous, genuinely concerned for the well-being of all people everywhere. And so let's consider and reflect upon the Christian's heart for all people everywhere.

Christians have benevolence toward all people. Christians desire the well-being of the human race. This is how we should be. This is what our Christian nature has within us. God created this within us when we became Christians.

Now we'll consider this by examining the meaning of the words and statements of our passage, Titus 1 through 8, and then we'll speak a few words of application. And so let's first consider a few words of instruction.

This is the word of God. As we look over these first eight verses of Titus 3, we can discern three divisions. Verses 1 and 2, we read of the gracious nature and merciful ways that should characterize God's people.

And then in verses 4 through 7, we read why it is that Christians should be this way. And the reason is, of course, because God has been so gracious in his dealings with us who have experienced salvation in Jesus Christ.

So we should have the same attitude and behavior toward others in the world. And then lastly, thirdly, verse 8 contains this faithful word that we should all take to heart. And so let's first consider verses 1 and 2.

Christians are to be characterized by a gentle spirit with a sincere desire for the well-being for all people everywhere. Paul instructed Titus of what he was to teach the Christians in the churches on Crete.

He wrote in verses 1 and 2, remind them. This is a command that Paul gave to Titus. 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, all people.

Notice Titus was to remind them. To remind them to be good, law-abiding citizens, willing to assist others in any way and at any time there was opportunity. They were to be kind and gentle, humble before all, desiring the well-being of all people.

Again, we see that Titus was to remind these Christians of these things. This suggests that they were already this way or had been taught these things. Christians are normally of this nature for the grace of God in Christ has made them to be so.

They don't necessarily need to be taught these things anew. They need to be reminded of these things. The true Christian is characterized by a recognition of legitimate authority, human authority, whether it be in the family, the church or the civil society, government.

For the Lord has instilled in the Christian a spirit of compliance toward authority. But this is coupled with the desire to serve others. Christians are generally ready for every kind of good work. They'll tend to be people characterized as peaceable and gentle and of a humble spirit before others.

Again, this is what characterizes the new nature of a true Christian. But just as these Christians on Crete needed to be reminded of these things, so all Christians need to be reminded of these things.

Do we not? Certainly we do. You and I are in need of exhortation to reset ourselves, to think and live in this way so that these character qualities are manifested in our daily lives. The hardness of the world and the deceitfulness of sin within our own souls will have a negative influence, even on the best of Christians.

And so we need to be reminded of scriptural truth to correct us and reset us in the way that we are to be living as Christians in the world. And Paul commissioned, commanded Titus, you teach these things to these people on Crete, these Christians in the churches.

This task of Titus reminding the people speaks of the need for repetition of teaching, for the reinforcement of instruction and principles that should characterize Christians. There are some who only want to hear things that are new.

They're like the philosophers on Mars Hill. We should not be that way. We should be willing to hear and receive things we've already known, to be reminded of them and reinforced in them. And so there's a need of reminding.

Peter had written to his people in 2 Peter, his practice of repeating truth, of bringing to remembrance to Christians of faith, they should believe in practice. And so he wrote these words in 2 Peter 1, 12 and following.

For this reason, I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things. Notice he would have been negligent to fail to do so. He said, even though you know and are established in the present truth, they already knew it, but they needed to be reminded of these things.

And he says, I'm going to see to it that I do remind you. And yes, I think it's right as long as I'm in this tent that is in his body, the tent in which his soul dwelled in this world. As long as I'm in this tent, I think it's right to stir you up by reminding you.

It's going to be an ongoing practice. Knowing that shortly I must put off my tent. He was anticipating his soon martyrdom, perhaps. Just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me, the Lord revealed to Peter at the end of the Gospel of John that he would die a violent death.

And then Peter wrote, moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease. And so Peter had been writing these Christians about the important matters of salvation, including God having elected them and graciously called them to salvation and that they have a responsibility to live holy lives before God with view to the second coming of Christ.

And Peter then said that he would always remind them of these things, even though they were established in their knowledge of them. He purposed to always be reminded of them, of these truths. In fact, he declared he'd see to it that even after he died, he'd make sure that they would be reminded of these things.

And, of course, 2 Peter itself, being Scripture, has continued to be an abiding word to Christians for the last 2000 years. Peter was true to his word. He would see to it after his death that he'd be reminding these people of the importance of these matters.

And so Paul told Titus to do what Peter would be doing. Titus needed to remind the people of God of certain spiritual truths and responsibilities. Titus, you remind these people of these things. Well, let's consider what it is that God wanted to remind his people through Titus.

What matters would God want to remind us that we be faithful and fruitful in our work with him or walk with him? And so first we are to be reminded to speak evil of no one. This is quite a challenge for the Christian in an evil, hostile world, is it not?

For there's much evil and many evil people about us. And so there are some of us, perhaps all of us, that need to be reminded of this. Don't speak evil of anyone. Perhaps though you have read and you've been taught about speaking evil of no one, nevertheless, maybe it's been a problem for you.

Some people tend to be rather negative in their general outlook and assessment of things and people. Rather than giving the benefit of the doubt, they seem to doubt the benefit of most everything. And they'll let you know.

But all and any of us may slip into this way of thinking and behaving. Maybe you've been out of the Word of God for a while. You've neglected the means of grace, that daily quiet time with the Lord, which is so important and essential for a consistent godly life.

And then something or someone irritates you, and you immediately respond by saying something very negative, perhaps even evil, regarding the person or the persons that annoyed you. Titus reminds them to speak evil of no one.

Some need to be reminded frequently of this word of instruction, for they transgress this law of Christ repeatedly. Some, rather than speaking evil of no one, have a tendency to speak evil of most everyone.

This should not be done. Each of us know that we should not do this, but we do it anyway. And so we are in need of being reminded that this is wrong, and it displeases the Lord when you speak evil of others.

Secondly, we are to be reminded to be peaceable. The English Standard Version reads that we are to avoid quarreling. The New American Standard Version says something similar, that we are to be uncontentious.

All Christians should be this way. But it's actually a requirement for a pastor. A man who is quarrelsome is disqualified from the ministry. And I think we probably all know some that have been of this type.

Some people seem to revel in debate. They're more of a contentious spirit than a peaceable spirit. And there are some that seem to always have to give the last word on anything and everything. When I put that statement in my notes, I was reminded of an occurrence years ago, when I was much younger.

I recall pressing my views upon a friend, our neighbor who had come to Christ, Dean. Nice guy. I could sense he was somewhat put off by my insistent manner because I was pressing upon him my view or my understanding of something.

And I could see he was a little bit irritated. And so I thought to soften my words a bit by saying, Dean, just ask for my opinion about anything and I'll give it to you. And he responded to me just bang.

Lawrence, you give me your opinion about everything, whether I ask you or not. We were good friends, by the way. People with strong convictions will often be ones who express their strong opinions. And there is a place and time to do so.

But we don't need to win every argument to give forth the final word in every conversation. And yet some are that way. We are to be peaceable. Thirdly, we are to be reminded, we are reminded to be gentle.

Well, let's consider who it was that set forth this reminder for Christians. Paul is telling Titus, you teach these people to be gentle. This was Paul, known as Saul of Tarsus, who was once anything but gentle.

Before his conversion, he was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Acts chapter nine, verse one. He sought authority to arrest Christians and take them bound to Jerusalem.

But upon his conversion, his character was transformed. And he could later appeal to the gentle manner in which he administered to the Lord's people. Formerly, he was arresting them, even murdering some of them.

And then he could write to the church at Thessalonica. We were gentle among you. Just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children and so affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives because you had become dear to us.

Paul had actually taught that all servants of the Lord should be characterized by gentleness. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient in humility, correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

Paul was instructing Timothy on how to deal with Christians who were deceived and caught up in this manner. Really, by the grace of God, Paul had become gentle, hadn't he, in his dealings with the people of God.

He became gentle just as God himself is gentle. Here are the words of God in the prophecy of Hosea. When Israel was a child, I loved him. And out of Egypt, I called my son, speaking of the Exodus. I taught Ephraim, another word for another name for Israel.

I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms. But they did not know that I healed them. I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love. And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck.

He released them from slavery, from bondage. I stooped and fed them. That's how God is. He's gentle toward us, toward his people. And of course, we know the Lord Jesus himself, the Son of God, was characterized by gentleness.

Children and even great sinners felt they could come unto him and that he would receive them. Jesus described himself in this way. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Why? For I am gentle and lowly in heart. And you will find rest for your souls. God is gentle. His Son, Jesus, is gentle. Paul told Titus, you teach those Christians on Crete to be gentle.

And he would remind us, we are to be gentle folk. That should be a quality, a character quality of us as Christians, rather than a hardness and a coarseness. We are to be gentle. And then fourthly, we are to be reminded to be showing all humility to all men.

The King James Version reads, showing all meekness to all men. The ESV reads, to show perfect courtesy toward all people. We are to be polite, courteous. The New English Translation, a common internet translation, renders Paul's words, showing complete courtesy to all people.

There is increasingly an absence of civility and courtesy in the world. Just drive down the road and you see it in traffic, don't you? Impatience. A lack of civility. But sadly, this can often be seen in churches.

Christians need to be reminded to be humble and courteous to all people, even those who may be rude and arrogant toward you. That doesn't give you a license to respond in kind. We are to overcome evil with good.

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. It's common for us today to receive many unsolicited telephone calls. And these are irritating. And though we don't need to be courteous to a recording, which most of them are, we can certainly be courteous to a living person who has that miserable job of calling people.

I sympathize with them. And sometimes they sound pretty mechanical. One day, you know, I always ask the question, Is this a recording? I want to know right at the outset. If it is, I just hang up. I don't feel like I'm being rude.

And the guy responded, Am I that bad? We had a nice conversation. He's living in Florida. I commented and said, You must have a miserable job. And so we had a nice visit on the phone. We ought to be courteous to people.

There have been times in history, usually due to the influence of godliness, wrought in a culture by, or pardon me, there have been times in history, usually due to the influence of godliness, wrought in a culture by the mercy and grace of God, when people were more civil, more decent and courteous than at other times.

I've often referred to my mother. She's 94 now, living in Sacramento area. But during the war, World War II, she was in San Francisco, and she always commented, You would not see a decent woman on the sidewalk in San Francisco without a hat and gloves on.

1940 San Francisco. And today, you've got to watch your step, even walking on the sidewalks in San Francisco. I mean, what a change in society and culture. I was recently organizing my many PDF electronic books I have several thousand of them on my computer, and I came across a book written by Mrs. Henry Mackerness, entitled Etiquette for Little Folks, published in 1856.

And it was about six, seven pages long. She set down guidelines for polite and courteous behavior in the home, at the table, toward parents, in school, in the street, with strangers, toward superiors.

And you just read a cursory reading of these instructions. Of the common courteous behavior just reveals how far and low our culture has become. Shouldn't be so with Christians. We are to be courteous, showing all humility to all people.

Now, we're not attempting to call us back to old ways, but as Christians, we are simply to be very kind and courteous and polite to people. Our behavior will show itself to be distinct and might be perceived by others as godly and commendable.

Today, if you're just polite, you're going to stand out in this world. Kind and gentle and peaceable. Well, now we come to verses three through seven, and here we read that we should be reminded of these things as we reflect on God's gracious dealings with us.

That we've experienced salvation in Jesus Christ. This is the reason for what we read in verses one and two. Remind them to be this way. Why, for we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, 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, renewing of the Holy Spirit, who be 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.

The first word in English, the English text, is the conjunction for. It may be termed or identified as an explanatory conjunction. In other words, it serves to introduce an explanatory sentence. Here Paul gave the reason why Titus should remind the Christians of the things that he just mentioned.

The reason he gave is that there was a time when God had been gentle and kind toward us, though we were in no way deserving or even desiring his favor. Paul declared that he and Titus, and perhaps implying other Christians also, were once completely different than what we have become due to the grace of God in bringing us salvation.

Even when we were steeped in our sin, God dealt with us gently, bringing us the gospel of peace, tenderly drawing us unto himself through Jesus Christ, should we not so toward others about us? And so verses one and two, the reason we should be this way, is verses three and following.

This is how God has been toward you. First, Paul described sinners apart from the grace of God. Again, verse three reads, for we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.

This is what characterizes fallen people in the world, apart from the restraining common grace of God and his providence, and apart from the effectual transforming grace in bringing us salvation. We would have continued in this way had God not stopped us, arrested us by his mercy and his grace.

Now granted, there are kind and polite and caring people in the world who are not Christian. Some cultures are more so than others, but we recognize that the only reason they are so is due to the common grace of God and providence in their lives, because if God were to turn them loose, they would be exactly as Paul described himself and Titus and probably included us too.

Notice first, we were foolish. That is, we were without clear understanding of ourselves or anything about us. Our whole worldview was skewed because our thinking and values had been corrupted by sin.

We were ignorant of God and his ways, and we were foolish in our perception of how God regarded us. We thought that he just so tenderly loved us and just wanted to cuddle us up to himself. We thought all too well of ourselves.

We were foolish. We were also disobedient. Each of us desired to be our own God. Jesus Christ is Lord, and you and I are not. But before we were converted, we thought we were. We wanted to determine for ourselves what we wanted and what we wanted to do.

We were disobedient to the will of God, to the word of God, to the laws of God, to God himself. And often this disobedience was toward those in authority, like our parents or our work supervisors or the government.

Disobedient. We were thirdly deceived. We thought we saw things rightly, as they truly were. You read some of these comments in these articles and the arrogance and the claims and assertions, and you just have to shake your head.

It's incredible. But the devil had deceived us when we were outside of Christ. The world had deceived us. We had deceived ourselves. But we were ignorant of the deception that characterized us. And then we were serving various lusts, desires, and pleasures.

That's what we lived for, some of us. We were slaves to these things. We thought we were free in doing those things, but actually we were slaves serving them, as Matthew Henry wrote of this. Observe, men deceived are easily entangled and snared.

They would not serve diverse lusts and pleasures. As they do, were they not blinded and beguiled into them? See here, too, what a different notion the word gives of a sensual and fleshly life from what the world generally has of it.

Carnal people think they enjoy their pleasures. The word calls it servitude and vassalage. You're a slave. They are very drudges and bond slaves under them. So far are they from freedom and felicity, faithfulness in them that are captivated by them and serve them as taskmasters and tyrants.

Observe further, it's the misery of the servants of sin that they have many masters, one lust hurrying them one way and another, pride commands one thing, covet just another, and often a contrary, that vile slaves are sinners while they conceit themselves free.

They think they're free. The Pharisees said, we've never been slaves to anybody as they're under the yoke of Rome. They're in Jerusalem. Jesus said, no, if you commit sin, you're a slave of sin. The devil is your master.

What vile slaves are sinners? Well, they conceit themselves free. The lusts that tempt them promise them liberty, but in yielding they become the servants of corruption, for of whom a man is overcome of the same, he is brought into bondage, as the Scriptures say.

And we were living in malice and envy. It was as though we were in conflict with most everybody and everything about us. We perhaps thought and felt, nothing seems to be going right according to my will, but everything seems to be going right according to him and what she wants, and so you're envious.

And then you get angry and malicious. They have something I deserve, I want. One could not be truly happy of another's good fortune for envy wanted it for oneself. Conflict, sinful competition, vying for greater prestige and superiority than others governs many people in the world.

And lastly, we were hateful and hating one another. These are characters, people in whom or upon whom the grace of God has not been present or evident. Now again, unsaved people may not, these things might not be fully manifest in them, but if God were to remove his common grace from them, then they would rush into this.

But then notice Paul described God and his grace bringing us to salvation. Verse four reads, 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.

By the way, this is one of the few times where Paul speaks of salvation as having occurred in the past. We have been saved. The context conveys this thought. We are to be kind and loving toward others because God had been kind and loving toward us.

There was nothing we could have done, were doing, or would do that moved God to save us from our wretched condition. It was wholly due to God's sovereign grace. It was according to God's mercy. And mercy by definition is God giving people freely what they don't deserve.

Nobody deserves mercy. That completely negates the whole meaning of mercy. Nevertheless, God does bestow mercy in spite of the fact that we are unworthy and undeserving of the least of his favors. Well, how did he save us?

And Paul gets into some wonderful detail here. First, he speaks about the grace of regeneration. Secondly, he talks about the grace of justification, faith. The order here is important. Regeneration precedes faith.

And so here we read of the manner that God saved us by his grace. First, we read that God saved us through the washing of regeneration. What is regeneration? It's the act of God in which he causes a soul who's spiritually dead to become spiritually alive, capable of understanding, desire, and responding to the call of the gospel.

To regenerate is to be born again. Generate, born, reborn again. Regeneration. It is a work wholly of God's grace. No man can cause himself to be born again. Contrary to Billy Graham's book and many other books, you know, how to be born again, the Bible nowhere tells a person or prescribes steps to a person if you follow these steps, you can become born again.

Nowhere in the Bible. It declares you must be born again, but you cannot bring about your own new birth. It's an act of the sovereign grace of God. No works you can do can give you a new heart. No fasting, praying, serving, bowing, giving, sacrificing, suffering, promising, walking, talking, confessing will bring about the breaking of the power of sin in your life.

It takes the free and sovereign work of God's grace to break the power of sin. Salvation is not giving your heart to Jesus, though you hear that all the time. The fact is that heart, that father-to-pray wicked heart is the worst possible thing you could offer God.

It's desperately wicked. Who knows it? Yet people are told that if you give your heart to Jesus, he'll embrace you. That's not salvation. Salvation is not you giving your heart to Jesus. Salvation occurs when he gives you a new heart.

It's God's work of grace and regeneration. He causes a spiritually dead person to come to spiritual life, which results in that person repenting of his sin and placing his faith in Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are the fruit of regeneration, not the cause of it.

Regeneration cleanses a sinner of his sin. Notice it's the washing of regeneration. That's important. Most people don't see the nuance of this. The expression washing of regeneration or cleansing of sin is not a direct reference to the forgiveness of sins.