FBC Morning Light – August 27, 2022

Good Saturday morning, people of faith. We're in Titus chapter 3 this morning, and when

I think of Titus chapter 3, I'm reminded of back when I was a teenager, and my youth pastor had us share

Bible verses in sharing the gospel. And one of the points that he had us share when we were sharing the gospel was that good works does not save us.

And he had three verses that he asked us to memorize, Ephesians 2, 8, and 9.

And then a verse that pastor referred to last

Sunday night in Isaiah 64 and verse 6. And then finally

Titus chapter 3 and verse 5, which says, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy,

He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.

And now, as far as whether or not works are involved with salvation, that verse definitely shows that it is not by our good works that we are saved.

But there's so much more to it that I've come to realize. And let me share this story to help illustrate how much more there is.

When I was a small child, like three, four years old, my dad used to invite me down to his workshop to help him build clocks.

My dad, one of his main hobbies in life was to build grandfather clocks and grandmother clocks and clocks for your desk and clocks that stood at the end of the hallway.

He liked to do that. And when I remember going downstairs with him one

Saturday afternoon, and he set up a piece of wood in a vice, and I pounded nails into that wood as probably a four -year -old.

And so, if you could think of how that would happen, I probably had the handle tucked under my arm and hit it as hard as I could and bend a bunch of nails and different things and kind of tried to make it look like a clock face with nails in a piece of wood.

And I recall later that afternoon, I was asked, did you help your dad build clocks today?

And I confidently said, yes, I did. And, well, in actuality,

I really didn't do much of anything in helping my dad make clocks that day. And much of the time, when it comes to salvation, we think that we do an awful lot for our salvation.

Here's what I mean. If we read verses 4 and 5 of Titus chapter 3, it says,

But when the kindness and 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. Notice who the primary actor is. From beginning to end, it is

God. It is not us. And so what often happens for us is we think, well,

I received Jesus as my Savior as a young man or a young woman, and I placed my faith and trust in Christ.

And I will say, yes, you did. But I will also say that you are not the primary actor in your salvation.

As a matter of fact, I'm going to go so far as to say you helped in your salvation as much as me pounding nails into a block of wood that was not a part of my dad's clock helped my dad make a clock.

All right? And so we think that we have something to do with our salvation.

So a question should arise out of this. It says, if you are a believer, you most certainly do have faith in God, the

Father, Christ, the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. How is it that God does all the work in salvation, but you are responsible for having faith in Christ's death, burial, and resurrection?

So certainly there is something that you did. But I'm going to suggest to you that what you did was not for your salvation, but it was because of your salvation that that faith then becomes an evidence of what

God has done in changing you. I'm going to leave that to sit for the rest of the day.

Let's go ahead and take a moment and pray. Heavenly Father, thank you that you gave us regeneration.

You washed us through regeneration in the power of your Holy Spirit, that you made us new creatures.

That is not by works of righteousness, which we have done, because our works of righteousness are as filthy rags.

But you are good and true and holy God. Thank you for what you have done for us in our salvation.

Let us rest on that this day. It is in your Son's name, Jesus, we pray, amen.