WWUTT 763 The Goodness and Loving Kindness of God?

The Transforming Mercy of God in Titus 3

We, who are Christians, were once just like everyone else in the world and we were headed for destruction. But the goodness and loving-kindness of God our Savior gave us regeneration when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will. For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in Titus chapter 3, and once again today I'll be reading verses 3 -7. The Apostle Paul wrote to Titus,. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

But when the goodness and loving-kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, being justified by His grace, we might become heirs, according to the hope of eternal life.

But God in Titus 3 and the Gospel Pattern in the Old Testament

So we have something transformational that happens here at the start of verse 4. In verse 3, it is described for us who we were before Christ, and then God does something, a change takes place, and in Christ we have become something different, and this is by the goodness and loving-kindness of God our Savior, who has revealed Himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

We have been washed, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us, and being justified by His grace, we have become fellow heirs of His eternal kingdom. No longer part of the kingdom of this fallen world, we are now citizens of the imperishable eternal kingdom of God, and this is by His gracious work.

Not by works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own goodness and mercy. This is another one of those but God statements, even though it doesn't exactly say but God in verse 4. It says, but when the goodness and loving-kindness of God appeared, He saved us.

But this is still a but God statement, in the sense that we were once these horrible fallen people, followers of the son of perdition who is Satan, and we were going to be destroyed along with Satan and his minions.

But God changed us. He rescued us out of that. He transferred us from being sons of destruction to being adopted sons and daughters of God. We have multiple but God statements that come up in the scriptures that give us hints of the gospel in the Old Testament, but then give us the full-blown gospel in the New Testament.

So even these but God statements appear in the Old Testament. The first one that I think of right off the top of my head is actually in Genesis 8 .1. Because we read for the previous couple of chapters, Genesis 6 and 7, how wicked and awful mankind has become, and that God is going to pour His wrath out upon the earth.

He's going to wipe out all of mankind, except for one man in his family, and that is Noah, his wife, Noah's three sons, and their wives. Eight people aboard an ark, which God told him to build, and bring two kinds of every animal, seven kinds, seven pairs of every clean animal onto the ark, and God would rescue them from the flood that he was going to send upon the earth, wiping out all of creation and purging it of the evils of man.

Then you get to Genesis 8 .1, and you read this, but God remembered Noah. And all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark, and God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.

There's hints of the gospel there, but God, Peter even reveals how the gospel is seen in this particular passage in Genesis 8, and it's in writing in 1 Peter 3, he says that Noah and eight persons were brought safely through water.

Baptism which corresponds to this now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

So Peter shows how what happened with the flood was pointing toward the gospel of Jesus Christ who was going to save us. And if we are believers in Christ, we've been baptized with him into his death and resurrected with him into new life, just as the earth was baptized into death by the flood that came upon the earth and then was raised again to new life by the gracious and redeeming hand of God.

But God remembered Noah. There's another place in Genesis where we read a gospel filled, but God statement. And that is when Joseph was talking to his brothers in Genesis chapter 50 verse 20, Joseph said to his brothers, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

God used Joseph in particular to rescue his brother Judah, for it was from the line of Judah would come the Messiah. So there are even hints of the gospel there in Genesis chapter 50 in Psalm chapter 49, beginning in verse 13.

We read this, that man is like the beasts and he will perish. This is the path of those who have foolish confidence yet after them, people will approve of their boasts like sheep. They are appointed for shiel.

Death shall be their shepherd and the upright shall rule over them in the morning. Their form shall be consumed in shiel with no place to dwell. But God will ransom my soul from the power of shiel, for he will receive me.

There you have the transforming power of God, the rescuing power of God displayed there even in Psalm 49, 15, but God will ransom my soul from the power of the grave. Psalm 73, verse 26, my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

In Ecclesiastes 5, 7, we read this, for when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity, but God is the one you must fear. It's in Proverbs 1, 7 that we read that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, beginning of all wisdom and knowledge.

I believe I quoted that verse yesterday. In Acts chapter 13, the apostle Paul was preaching the gospel at Antioch and he talks about how Jesus was brought before Pilate and he was sentenced to death. In verse 29, when they had carried out all that was written of him, see all of these things happened to Jesus and it was written about him in the Old Testament by the law and the prophets.

When they carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem who are now his witnesses to the people.

And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus. As also it is written in the second Psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you.

And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption he has spoken of in this way. I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. Therefore, he also says in another Psalm, you will not let your holy one see corruption.

Paul preaching the gospel through a but God statement there at Antioch. Romans chapter 5 verse 8, but God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And of course, perhaps the most well-known but God statement that we have in the Bible is in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4.

It's in chapter 2 verses 1 through 3 that we read about who we were before Christ. I had read that yesterday as well and compared it to what we read in Titus 3, 3. But then you get to verse 4, Ephesians 2, 4, and we read this, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace, you have been saved. That wonderful transforming message there in Ephesians 2, 4, but God who is rich in mercy. And we have a very similar statement made here in Titus 3, 4. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.

Martin Lloyd-Jones on “But God” and Citizenship in the Kingdom of Christ

There is a wonderful and very famous sermon that was delivered by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, a pastor in London in the middle part, early to mid part of the 20th century. And the title of the sermon very simply is, But God.

And it's a whole 45 minute sermon on just those two words in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4. Here is about a two minute clip of that sermon from the late Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones.

But the message of the gospel to men and women this morning is that they needn't be participators in that. You can be taken out of it, out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear son, from the power of Satan unto God.

That's its message. Individual men and women, the world will remain as it is. You can be delivered out of it. You can be taken out of it. Not only that, as I've been saying just at that point, we can also be introduced into and become citizens of a kingdom which is not of this world.

As we go through this second chapter, we shall find Paul elaborating that. He says, you know, the marvelous thing is this, that you Gentiles in Christ and because of his blood have become fellow citizens with the saints.

You have become citizens in the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of light, the kingdom of heaven, a kingdom that is not of this world, a kingdom which cannot be shaken, a kingdom which cannot be moved.

That's the kingdom into which we enter. Now this is to me the most thrilling news a man can ever hear. We are all citizens of this country and we are all involved in what happens to this country. If this country goes to war, we shall be involved.

The bombs didn't escape us in the last war any more than anybody else. We are all involved in it. We are citizens of this world and we partake the fate of this world. But thank God, here is something different.

While remaining citizens of this world, we become citizens of another. This other kingdom that has been opened to us by Christ, a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom that is not of this world, eternal in the heavens with God.

That's the teaching of this message. But God, he's done something. Yes, and he's done it for individuals and that's what he's done.

He has done it for individuals by his goodness and loving kindness. We read in verse 5, he saved us, not because of works done by us, but because of his own mercy. And again, though Paul is talking in a collective sense there about us, about Paul and Titus, about the churches that Titus is supposed to be helping to lead, about the other Christians, the other people that Paul is bringing to Christ, about the gospel that is spreading around the world, who Apollos is bringing to Christ, who Peter is bringing to Christ, the other apostles.

As Christianity is growing, indeed, there is a collective us, even in the world today. Many different churches, many Christians, even within your own community. But this is a gospel that God has used to rescue individuals out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light.

So the us is a collection of individuals who have been purified and become a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works. Again, that was chapter 2, verse 14. And this is all by the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior.

He changed us. He saved us from the trajectory that we were on, the direction that we were headed, with the rest of the world, by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. We were heading that way to destruction, along with Satan and his demons.

And instead, God saved us. He intervened in that trajectory that we were on and rescued us out of that. And it is by his work that that is done. We are rescued, and this is the display of his goodness and loving kindness toward us.

He didn't have to do this, which is why it's grace. What we deserve is to continue that way that we were on to our own destruction. And God, by his righteous judgment, wiping us out, he would have been completely justified in doing so.

But he shows his goodness and kindness toward us in unmerited favor, in his grace, which he has poured out through his son, Jesus Christ. And it is not our work. It is God's work. When it says here, not by works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, another way of saying that is not by our works, but by his work, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

Our heart was regenerated to hear the gospel that was proclaimed to us, the good news of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for sins and rose again from the grave, and all who believe in him will not perish, but have eternal life.

And our hearts were regenerated to hear that message and believe it. And even this was the work of God. Even our belief was God's work. John 6, 29, Jesus answered them, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent, namely Jesus.

We read also in 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13, Paul writing to the Thessalonians, we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

This is a work of God that is done, that we would believe in what has been proclaimed to us through the gospel of Christ. In no way can we take credit for the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ. It is God's work.

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. Our heart is regenerated and it is renewed.

It is regenerated from the hardened heart that we had that was resistant to God, instead softened to hear the message of God and renewed that we might walk in God, filled with the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

This justification that we have received is not our work. It is God's. Romans 5, 1, therefore, since we have been justified by faith and remember, belief is even the work of God. Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, justified by his grace, justified by faith that we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

We were once enemies of God. We were once followers of Satan. We were in league with Satan. We deserve to be destroyed with Satan, but God has demonstrated such grace and mercy toward us that he has not left us in that lot, but instead he has made us fellow heirs of the kingdom.

God has not merely expunged our sins or taken them away from us or just merely forgiven us and saying, I don't count your trespasses against you anymore. He has done so much more than that. Where we deserve death and destruction with Satan instead, God has made us a fellow heir of his kingdom.

We were once in treason against God and every sin that we commit is treason against the high throne of the king of the whole universe. And what do we deserve for our treason, death and destruction? That's what we deserve.

And we've gone from being treasonous criminals. By the gracious work of God, we've become fellow heirs of that kingdom. Once traitors against that kingdom, we are now inheritors of that kingdom. And as Jesus says, even in Revelation chapter three, if we endure to the end in steadfastness in faith, we will sit with him on his throne and judge the nations.

What beautiful grace is demonstrated in the message of this gospel that we have become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. In order to receive this precious, beautiful gift of the kingdom of God, you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and the belief that you have, the faith that you are given comes not from yourself.

Even this is the gift of God. Hebrews 12 to tells us that Jesus is the author and the perfecter of our faith. He gave it to us and he was growing us in that faith as well. And as Paul said to the Philippians in Philippians chapter one, I am confident of this, that he who began this work in you will be faithful to complete it on the day of Christ.

Prayer, Benediction, and Closing Announcements

Let us pray. Our God, you are good and you are our benevolent father enthroned in heaven above who is taking care of us, who has called us out of darkness and into your family. And we have been adopted through the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

So keep us in your precious love that we might know your commandments and obey them. And we would be conformed to the image of Christ. And all of this being your gracious work. May we submit ourselves fully unto you, knowing that you are sovereign and you are in control.

It is by your grace that we have been brought into your kingdom. It is by your grace that we stay in that kingdom, Lord, I pray that you would give us boldness knowing that all of this is your work and not ours.

So we would go out with the gospel and proclaim it boldly to others so that they might hear it and turn from sin and believe in Jesus also and be saved. As Paul said at the start of this letter, doing this for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness and grow us in that godliness day by day, as we walk in the footsteps of Christ, our savior, in whose name we pray.

Amen.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.