What God’s Salvation Has Done for Us

Transcript

GR 2290
April 26, 2020
What God's Salvation Has Done for Us
Titus 3:4-7
Gil Rugh


What a great message in that song for the days in which we are, that all of our days and every day He is with us, He protects us, He guides our steps. What more protection and security do we need?

We are going to the book of Titus in your Bibles, Titus 3, as we get near the end of this short epistle of the Apostle Paul to one of the young men who served with him in ministry, a young man who had been left on the island of Crete to complete some of the ministry to the churches that had been established there. The basic thrust of this little three-chapter letter as we have it is godliness, and he builds the theme of the letter around the conduct of believers and how they are to behave in the world. Certain things haven't changed, two thousand years have passed since Paul wrote this but the world hasn't changed. We say, well, it has changed, in one sense it has but spiritually it has not. Two thousand years ago John wrote all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, and that is constantly brought before us in very clear ways. The danger for believers is living in a world that is in rebellion against God and conducting themselves as participants in the world contrary to the word of God. Believers constantly feel the pressure to allow themselves to be shaped and formed by the world in which they live. And we don't want to forget we are strangers and pilgrims here, even as Old Testament believers recognized in Hebrews 11. So we are to manifest a different character and a different conduct because of God's grace.

So in Titus 2 Paul talked about the conduct of believers in their family relationships and so on. Then he came into Titus 3 and he talked about their conduct as members of the world, we are citizens of this country, we have obligations and responsibilities. We can't ignore those by saying I'm a child of God, I'm a citizen of heaven so I don't have to obey the rules and honor the leaders. He wanted to remind them in this realm, the chapter opened up “remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed.” We would do everything that is not contrary to what God has for us. And we want to be careful not to stretch that as an excuse to say we don't have to obey that rule because we don't agree with it. Doesn't matter whether we agree with it, it matters whether it is in direct conflict with the word of God or not.

We want to be careful because we can always do the logical extension. Well, this may not be directly in conflict with the word of God, but that could lead to this, could lead to this, could lead to this. That's good to keep in mind in our personal conduct, but our conduct in this world… we respect the authorities God has put down, we respect the rules that have been established and unless they are in direct conflict with the word of God then we live peaceable, gentle lives, showing consideration for all men, as verse 2 said.

He gave two reasons why we are to live with this kind of awareness and appreciation and respect for unbelievers in the world. The first was in verse 3, for we were ourselves once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved. Remember that and the contrast. There are only two kinds of people in the world, both are slaves, one are slaves to sin and Satan, the other slaves to righteousness and God. True freedom in the Bible is to function as you were created by the Creator to function, and that's why we enter into freedom when we are removed from the slavery to the devil and sin and enslaved to God and righteousness. Because we were created for a relationship and fellowship with the living God, and living into conformity to His will and His character is true freedom. But it is slavery to God. We were enslaved to lust, to pleasures, we spent our lives in malice, envy, hateful, hating one another. You just turn on the news, it is nonstop, that's what the world is like. We say why are they always like that? Well, don't forget, you were like that, I was like that, we had hearts that were deceitful and desperately wicked. So the first reason in showing respect is we are reminded we are not better than them. It's not because we were less sinful than they are, we were just like them so we can understand in their inconsistencies, the time of their unfairness and their harshness and so on. That's the first reason that helps us to show proper respect and consideration for all men.

The second reason is the foundational reason why we can live differently and that's because God has cleansed us from sin and defilement and made us new in Christ. We have become children of God and now partake of His character. So our present condition as the redeemed of God is a testimony of God's grace. Spiritual arrogance can infiltrate our lives and we sometimes then view the world with disgust, look down on them as though we were never like they are. I don't think I ever even thought of doing some of the things they do. No, but God looked at my heart and He said I was just like them, given time, given the proper situation I did the same things. At the root of what I was doing was my rebellion against God, it doesn't get any more serious than that. That's the foundational issue in sin, it is an offense against the holy God, it is the display of rebellion against Him, of rejection of Him and His will.

So we want to appreciate what God's salvation has done for us and that's going to be the theme of verses 4-7, which we are going to look at today in chapter 3. It is a very similar section to Titus 2:11-14. Paul talks about conduct, then he talks about the biblical foundation for conduct, it is the saving grace of God that transforms a life from the inside out. It's not a matter of cleaning up your life, this is a matter of having God clean you up so now you lead a different life and a different lifestyle because we have been made new. We are now the children of God.

So after mentioning what we were, verse 3, and you note, Paul includes himself and there are no exceptions here. Remember all have sinned, there is none righteous, there is none that does good. We have to remember now that perhaps we have been believers for some time, we tend to forget what we were and we like to forget it, I'm glad it is my past and it is not me anymore, and I don't want to bring it up. But I don't want to forget in the sense that I forget the greatness of God's grace that brought His transforming salvation to me.

So verse 4 begins, “but when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared.” We're going to have four key words here, you ought to mark them in your Bible however you mark it, the word kindness in verse 4, the word love in verse 4, then the word mercy in verse 5, middle of the verse, “but according to His mercy,” and then down in verse 7, “justified by His grace,” grace. Kindness, love, mercy, grace. It's like the Spirit of God is directing Paul to pile up these words to drive home the contrast, what we were in verse 3 and why are we different now. Well, I cleaned up my life, I decided I didn't want to live that way anymore. No, that doesn't change your heart. You can stop being a drunk, you can stop doing drugs, you can stop being immoral, you can do all kinds of things and clean up your life and make it appear better and may make it a better life. It's still not a life pleasing to God because He is judging on the condition of the heart and what flows out of the heart and until that is dealt with you haven't really dealt with anything of eternal significance.

We'll come back to Mark 7 again if you would, Mark chapter 7. I picked this one, we could go to a parallel gospel but I used this because I want you to be able to find it all the time quickly. Mark 7, and what Jesus is talking about here, verse 15, “There is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.” The end of verse 18, “Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from the outside cannot defile him?” That doesn't mean everything you eat is good for you. But that is not what spiritually defiles you, by changing your eating habits. Sometimes Christians get confused on this, we have books written for Christians that you eat a certain way that is better for the holiness of your temple. That's not the issue, the issue is a spiritual issue. That which “goes into a man from outside cannot defile him because it does not go into his heart… (Thus He declared all foods clean.)” Doesn't mean you eat everything, you can decide what you want to eat, don't want to eat, but be careful telling a person it wouldn't be God's will that you eat that, you don't know. In fact, Paul rebukes that in his letter to Timothy, those who make foods the issue, they are not the issue.

Verse 20 Jesus is saying “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of man, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All of these evil things.” This is just a sample list, we've on other occasions looked at some of these that are called vice lists in the New Testament. It lists all these varieties of sins and they are just samplings of what God sees in the heart of the unbeliever which reveals it is desperately wicked as Jeremiah 17:9 says. That is what defiles a person, that's why we don't have an emphasis on helping to clean up the outside of a person. The outside should be cleaned up as a result of God's saving work of cleansing the heart, until that happens the other is an exercise of rebellion against God. Remember the harshest criticisms in Jesus' ministry were toward the religious people who prided themselves in doing all they could to keep the Ten Commandments and the Mosaic Law. He said you are nothing but whitewashed tombs where the outside looks good and on the inside you are full of defiling things, dead men's bones. Once believers in churches begin to lose that perspective they get into a good-works Christianity which is not a biblical Christianity. Now keep in mind Paul is writing that our conduct ought to be consistent with the character of God, but he is writing to those who experience the transforming salvation of God. If you don't get the order correct, you will become one who is attacking the word of God, not teaching or proclaiming the word of God.

So Titus 3:4, “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared.” Kindness, if you went to a Greek dictionary this Greek word would read goodness, kindness, generosity and one Greek commentator says it means that spirit which is so kind, that is always ready and eager to give whatever gift may be necessary. That's what God does, it's His kindness, His goodness, the willingness, the readiness to do for us. You want to know who the “us” are, verse 3, when we “were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating…,” but God's kindness, He acts to intervene and do for us what we would not and could not do for ourselves.

So crucial, so foundational, and it's the kindness of God our Savior. Does it get any greater grace than that? He is a good God, He is a kind God, He is a loving God as he is going to go on at the end of the verse, “His love for mankind.” We get the word philanthropic from this word, it's compound of the Greek word for love and the Greek word for man, just like in English, we've just transliterated the word over into English, philanthropic, His love for man or mankind. He saw us as we were and yet He acted for our good, He acted on our behalf, He displayed His love for us. He's talking about the salvation manifested in Christ as it will be clear when it comes into verse 6. So He's going to act on our behalf in kindness, in love, to display for us His creation in our wretched condition. And it is God our Savior. What we're going to see in this section is the triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, acting on our behalf. Up in Titus 2:10 he talked about us, that we as believers are to adorn…, he's talking particularly about slaves here, but slaves who are believers who “will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.” What men and women need is a Savior but the only Savior that can truly save them is God, He is the Savior.

Then Titus 2:11 said, “For the grace of God has appeared,” what we're talking about down in Titus 3:4, “When the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared.” It was manifested, it was made known, the salvation; God broke into the human race and intervened with His Son coming to join the human race, being born as a man to be the Savior of mankind, so that's the salvation he is talking about. So in Titus 3:4, “When the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,” and that language carries us back to Titus 2:11 where “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation,” it's the salvation of God our Savior at the end of Titus 2:10. Now it is God our Savior so he is back again because you always have to come back to what is the foundation of the conduct that he is talking about. I read an extensive secular news article by a man, I assume he's a believer, as often they will do they will interview a pastor or a religious leader, and this man writing and he quotes a couple Bible verses. The problem is we talk about man but we don't talk about his condition in sin, we don't like to talk about that because that's an offensive idea. One of the most popular preachers of our day and sometimes said to have the largest congregation in the United States, he doesn't want to talk about sin, people have enough bad things to deal with. Well, you can't talk about the grace of God, the mercy of God, the kindness of God, the love of God if you do not talk about what manifests that. We are sinners, this is the demonstration of God's love in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Jesus said in the world some people would die for another good person that they viewed that way. There are physical people and they say I'd give my life. We've had those situations occur in war and so on, they are what we would say good deeds. But he said really at the base of what God does is, and what Christ came to do was give His life for the unrighteous, His enemies, that's the awesome thing. So these words become meaningless -- kindness, love, mercy, grace -- if you don't understand the condition of man and the seriousness of it.

“When the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared.” Now you're going to note, just to jump ahead, down in verse 6 he is going to talk about Christ our Savior, “Jesus Christ our Savior.” Now don't confuse this. God the Father is a Savior, God the Son is a Savior, God the Holy Spirit is involved in our salvation, we're going to talk about all three persons here. There is one God living eternally in three distinct persons, all three are deity, they together comprise the one true and living God. But they are distinct persons. You say it can be confusing. It not only can be, it is for us with our finite minds. I can only go as far as God has revealed it. They always work in perfect harmony, they always work toward the same purposes, the same goals, and they are all to be honored. And when one is honored all are honored. Remember Jesus said if you don't honor Me you can't honor My Father, and the one who honors Me honors the Father who sent Me. They are inseparably united and all three can be honored, worshiped and recognized as God, but all three have distinct roles to play. And if I could just tell you how I would see it, I would say the Father plans salvation, the Son provides salvation, the Holy Spirit applies salvation. If you are going to distinguish the role that each one plays as it is going to be unfolded in these verses, the Father planned our salvation, the Son provided our salvation, the Holy Spirit applied our salvation. All three, the work of all three is necessary and it is perfectly harmonious and done as one God.

But look at verse 4. Verse 5 begins “He saved us.” Verse 4 began with “but,” the contrast to what we were and what brought about the change, it took the intervention of God. Verses 4-7 are all one sentence, the leading verb in this one long sentence is “He saved us.” But it is interesting, as Paul wrote this in the Greek text, in English we put it up front and you still have the idea but you don't get the emphasis that Paul wrote it with perhaps. That verb, He saved us, does not appear in the Greek text as Paul wrote it until after the word mercy. So the verse really begins with “not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness but according to His mercy He saved us.” So he brings the contrast together. “But when the kindness of God our Savior,” verse 4, “and His love for mankind appeared, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness but according to His mercy He saved us,” to stress that and bring it to the fore again. A reminder, there was nothing we could do to extricate us from our miserable, hopeless condition, we were doomed. That's why it's not on us to tell the world when they are dealing with a crisis like they are with the present virus, if it's not this it will be something else. And then people talk about the hopelessness and you have to bring hope, but really we come with the true message of hope. And yes, you are in a hopeless situation, this may display it in a more superficial way. And you sense that helplessness, but this is just the kindness, the grace of God, in making you aware. There is something more serious, more deep, your hopelessness goes beyond this present virus. Maybe they'll get a cure for it, maybe they won't, cancer, whatever…, these are just reminders of your condition. But God says your true hopeless, helpless condition is your spiritual condition and only He can fix that, only He can provide the remedy. And He has.

So we want to be honest. We don't have to be brutally honest by hitting them in the face, you're so dumb, all you need to know is you're a sinner going to hell, don't you get the point? Well, remember up in Titus 3:2 we are “to malign no one, be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men” because we were once like they. So I want to present the truth but I want to present it in kindness, in love. I understand, I was just like you, I was once where you are. I mean, I was doing my rebellion against God, maybe not in the same way they are, but God says all have sinned, there is none righteous, none doing good, none pleases God. But I think I was different? No, I can say I was just like you. Oh, I didn't think you ever did what I did, but I did. Do you know what is at the root of what you are doing? Your rebellion against God, your enslavement to sin. That's where I was, in rebellion against God, enslaved to sin, so no, we were no different.

So that's the point and he's making here that condition, you cannot remedy yourself. So we come to verse 5, “The kindness of God our Savior” from verse 4, “His love for mankind appeared.” Now we are talking about ending on the basis of deeds, “not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy” He saved us.” You see that intervention? And that involved the “washing of regeneration and the renewing by the Holy Spirit.” Come back to 1 John, these concise pockets, if I can call it here, this one long sentence, like the one in Titus 2:11-14. As you turn to 1 John 4, you ought to have those fixed in your mind, be able to go to them. They remind you in a condensed way of God's salvation and they are good to share with others. Come over to 1 John 4:9, “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.” That's the appearance, if you will, of God's grace, of His kindness, of His love for mankind, it was manifested. God “sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.” You see, that is His salvation to bring life to the dead, spiritually dead, doomed to experience physical death and consigned to eternal death in hell. “In this is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us,” (verse 10). We didn't take the initiative, He did. I was born in my sin, I was conceived a sinner, every day as I grew I was further confirmed in my sin and my slavery to sin, and I was ignorant, I was foolish, I didn't know. It took an intervention. God had provided something, then it took a messenger to tell me what God had done for me. There wasn't something new that had to be done, I just had to learn about what God had done and respond in faith to that.

“In this is love,” verse 10, “not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” You see, you can't talk about God's love if you divorce it from our sinful condition and the consequences of that. That word translated propitiation means to turn away the wrath from us. We were under the wrath of God (the wages of sin is death), He turned away God's wrath which was required because of our sin and our sinful condition. He is the propitiation for our sins. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another.” You see how it flows together? God's love for us and our being recipients and entering into that love by God's grace, now is to have an impact on the way we conduct ourselves by showing the same love to others. Here talking about the family of God. But even there I want to share the love of God with sinners, I want them to come to know the Savior. I mean, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son in order that whosoever believes in Him might not perish. I know that somebody told that to me. Someone told it to someone who told it to someone who told it to me. We'll get to that in Romans 10, how shall they hear without someone to proclaim it? It has to happen. The provision has been made, we want to let everybody know, God has done it. We have people being as religious as they can, doing all they can to make themselves acceptable to God. It's a waste of time, in fact, it is worse than that, it is an offense to God that you would try to come to Him that way. Why? Because it just displays you rejected what He has done and offers to you in love and mercy and grace free. It's like you provided an expensive gift to me and I'll say no, I'll work for that. You(I) say, you don't understand, you can't work for it, it's free. I will work for it. Well, you can't. You're rejecting the gift, you're saying I'll do it on my terms, not yours. Well, it is something that cannot be earned.

Come back to Romans 2:4, here he is talking about Jews in Romans 2, as we've studied in our study of Romans. And they thought they could make themselves acceptable to God by keeping the Ten Commandments, keeping the Mosaic Law, all that is involved there, like some people today. How many people have told me over the years, I do the best I can, I try to keep the Ten Commandments. But these people have not bowed themselves to acknowledge and recognize I cannot do what only God could do, I cannot make myself acceptable to Him, I cannot cleanse myself from the defilement of sin. So in their persisting to do it their way what does God say to them? Verse 4, “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness?” There is our word, we had that in Titus 3:4, “when the kindness,” chrestotes, that's the word here. “Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation,” “you are stirring up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” That's the battle that goes on when we share the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ with a lost person, there is a battle going on. Will you reject the kindness of God? I am as religious as you are, I'm more religious than you are, they might say. You may be, but God never said being religious could make you acceptable to Him, it's just a display. That's the danger when we say, I have some friends, at least they are religious. What do we mean? What we're really saying is that's all right with me they are going to hell, they are a little easier to live with this way, as though that's what matters. I don't want to upset our friendship, I don't want to upset how they see me, I don't want them to think I'm saying their religion is wrong.

We're in this virus thing and our medical personnel and our doctors and so on, we appreciate greatly the wisdom that they have and God's grace in providing that. And the way they are diligently doing something to help us. We think of a doctor that has found the cure and he will work 100 percent of the time, but I don't want to tell them because they are already working hard to fix it themselves and they'll feel like all their efforts have been nothing if I tell them, no, here is the cure and you'll never find it on your own. So we maintain a relationship and you still like me and I like you, I just will keep it to myself. That's awful! We say of a country that we think hid what they knew about this disease, there is no excuse for it, they ought to be punished. What would the world think if they know we have the cure for their sin? Not that we have created it but we have it in the gospel which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. But how will they believe if they've not heard, and how will they hear unless someone tells them, as we have developed in Romans 10.

So this whole issue here. Come back to Titus 3, foundational truth and we ought to keep it in the context. Yes, sinful conduct is an offense to God but the primary reason is because it comes out of a sinful heart. Now when I sin as a believer it still is an offense and affront to God, but that is because it is inconsistent with who I am and that needs to be dealt with. But we don't want to imply to the world, just believe in God and you will have hope. We know God is a God of hope and He will bring us through this. I have to tell you He is not going to bring you through your condition, you are going to hell. You may survive a few days, a few months, a few years longer if they come up with a cure for this problem or your particular… but you're going to hell. What can I do? Nothing. Listen to what I am going to tell you…, and you present the gospel to them. The only thing you can do is believe that, place your confidence and trust in what Jesus Christ did to cleanse you, purify you and make you new. That's it. If you reject that, we just read about it in Romans 2, the way the writer of Hebrews said, when you reject that, God views it as you are just trampling the blood of Christ, His death and its importance under your feet, you treat it with total disdain. Now I don't want people to do that, if they do it I pray that they will reconsider and come to it.

So come back to Titus 3:5, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy,” He saved us “by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” Now you see we brought the Holy Spirit into it, and he's talking about God our Savior. He talked about the washing of regeneration, that cleansing, that purifying that makes us new, so He makes us new. We are regenerated, it's a total transformation that takes place within and so we are new people. I'm not the person I used to be, I'm living in this same old body but it's not the same old me, and what I do with this body will now be different than it used to be because it is driven by a different heart, a different mind. I've been made new at the core of my being, that's the salvation we have. Everything else offered out there, often in the name of Christianity, is a fool's gold, it is pretending. That's why we are told that teachers will have a greater responsibility. What greater responsibility would come than papering over, covering over the seriousness of man's condition and just telling him what he wants to hear so he feels good about himself on his way to hell. We don't excuse that in the physical realm. The doctor that doesn't cure people when he has the cure but just makes them feel better about their dying condition is not worthy of honor. He is worthy of more punishment than a person who didn't even know about the cure, which Jesus said, greater light brings greater responsibility.

It's the washing of regeneration. Now some people, as soon as they see words like washing they think baptism. Doesn't say baptism, it says washing. There is a totally different Greek word for baptism, we carry that word, transliterate it over, it's just the Greek word carried over into English, they didn't translate it, they just transliterate it ‘baptism.’ This is washing, and you'll note it is not the washing of the waters of baptism, it's the washing of regeneration and the renewing by the Holy Spirit, these are works done by God, you can't bring some kind of physical action into it. We're dealing with the issue on the inside, the heart, the mind, the soul, the spirit, that inner part of our being. The washing of regeneration, the washing that comes as a result of that regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

Come back, this word washing as you have here is only used one other time, it's in Ephesians 5:26. In verse 25 husbands are to love your wives just as Christ loved the church. There is nothing to do here with how the wife is, what she does or doesn't do. What were we like when Christ loved us and gave Himself for us? So He “gave Himself up for her so that He might sanctify her,” set her apart for Himself, “having cleansed her by the washing,” there is our word. In Titus 3 it is the washing of regeneration, here it is the “washing of water with the word,” in other words, it is the word of God that is pictured. And these people in those days, remember they wore sandals, the streets were dusty, when they went into a house a basin of water was provided, either a slave would wash their feet or in a poor home they could wash their own feet. In the Old Testament there were a series of different washings for different sins to symbolize when you trusted God He would wash you clean from this defilement. That's the picture.

Come back to Ezekiel 36. God is promising the time for Israel when as a result of His providing the Messiah Savior to do the work they couldn't do, death on the cross, He would enter into a relationship with the nation as a nation again, bringing them salvation. And he says in verse 24, “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. 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 and I will remove the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes…, to observe My ordinances.” You see? What God is going to do on the inside, this will transform them and now they will live consistent with His character and His will. And that washing is a cleansing from the defilement.

Baptism can't wash away your sin, that's again bringing something external. It's the heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked. How does getting into waters to be baptized wash away the defilement of a heart? It is a display of how rebellious man… I know some people use verses of scripture… I know the devil uses verses of scripture, he used verses of scripture with Christ, the problem is he misused those verses when he talked to Christ. It takes an inner washing, that's where the defilement is. Remember what Jesus said, it's not that which comes from the outside that defiles you, it's what is coming from the inside. So get baptized, now you'll be clean. And then we baptize babies. For what? We want to cleanse them from the defilement of original sin. Well, it's a sin in the heart. Yes, but this will do it. Says who? The holy men. Well, who said they could say what they want to say? The religious leaders of Jesus' day did what they wanted to do, including crucifying him. Being religious leaders doesn't make them God's spokesmen. That's why we are to be discerning with the word of God.

So the washing of regeneration is picturing this cleansing that has… You know there are various facets of our salvation, come back to Titus 3, the washing of regeneration and renewing, these are things done by the Holy Spirit, pastors can't do that, priests can't do that. Putting you in the bathtub and declaring you baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit can't wash away the sin of your heart anymore than taking wafers in and saying it's the body of Christ because what is put into the body can't defile you nor can it purify you. Scripture can't be any clearer, it takes a spiritual work that only God could plan, carry out, and apply; planned by the Father, carried out by the Son, applied by the Holy Spirit. So you'll note, the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit and I take it what we have here is just picturing our salvation.

Then you'll note this Holy Spirit is the One “whom He poured out upon us richly,” note that you didn't get the Holy Spirit by measure, you didn't just get a little bit of the Holy Spirit, you got the Holy Spirit richly with all of His graces, all of His power, all of His enablement. You have Him “richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” So it is all tied together here. Jesus Christ is our Savior. But I thought he said God the Father was our Savior. Well, He is. Are they the same person? No. Are they the same God? Yes. Eternally existing in three persons, working in complete harmony, they all partake of the essence, the attributes of deity, what makes God God is true of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

So it is the rich provision of the Holy Spirit enables us to experience when we place our faith in Christ. It takes faith so that the Spirit can apply to us, and we're not going to go further in trying to explain that, but it's the work of God through the Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, who moves on our minds in such a way that now we can see and perceive that Christ did die for us and we place our faith in Him so that we can be born again by faith, regenerated, made new. We won't go there for time, but 2 Corinthians 5:17, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature,” a new creation, “the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” You see it is a package and so he's going to say, he said it in verse 6, we have received the Holy Spirit richly, verse 7, “so that being justified by His grace.” You see these words, now we're bringing in here and here is grace and now justified. To be justified means to be declared righteous, “being justified by His grace” He declares us righteous. His righteousness is credited to us, as that passage in 2 Corinthians 5 says, that we have been made “the righteousness of God in Him,” (verse 21). God's righteousness is credited to our account, we've been washed clean, our account is totally cleansed, there is nothing against me. That's where we're going to go in our study of Romans 8. Who could bring a charge against God's elect? The devil may try to bring them, he's the accuser of the brethren, but the death of Christ takes care of that. He ever lives to make intercession for us, My death (Christ’s) paid the penalty for that. My account is clean. Think of all the sins that are on my account, I don't know how I'll give an account for this. They are not there, they have been buried in the deepest sea, they have been put as far away as the east is from the west. I have been made clean, declared clean, declared righteous by God.

So “being justified by His grace,” never give anybody any idea that it's any other way. And you can't mix. I believe in Jesus, I believe in Christ. We have stickers in the lawn now, I think from a Roman Catholic family, I believe in Jesus. Well, the demons believe in Jesus, we know who You are, the Holy One of God. Doesn't mean you are saved. I believe in Jesus but I have to keep the sacraments, I have to go to confession, you have to be baptized, you have to go to mass and partake of the communion. You know what Jesus said about those who would mix works with grace? Anathema, cursed to hell. We say at least they believe in Jesus, we have this in common. Don't you think that is good? No, because you are not believing in the same Jesus as I am. They believe in the virgin birth. Yes. What are you trusting for your salvation? Christ alone? It is in Him alone.

Come back to Romans 11. God's salvation is by grace, this is what the book of Romans is about, this what the New Testament is about, God providing salvation by His grace. And in verse 5, in spite of all the unbelief in Israel going on, there were some believers, the apostles, Paul, other Jewish believers. Verse 5, “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice,” God's election of grace. We'll talk about election this evening some, where we are in Romans 8. “But if it is by grace,” you'll note it's an election of grace, it can't be based on anything found in you or me. We'll talk about foreknowledge in our study this evening, but if all God did was look down the corridors of time and see what you do, it was an election and choice on the basis of what you did. He says it is an election of grace and it's “by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” What do you not understand? You see what Paul is driving home here, those who didn't see this and don't see it are lost. They have in verse 8, quoted from the Old Testament, a spirit of stupor, their eyes don't see, their ears don't hear, that's the situation. So be careful, we don't look for similarities, we look for the difference. It's not we believe in the virgin birth, we believe in the deity of Christ, we believe in the death of Christ, we believe in the resurrection of Christ. We believe in all these things, that could make you a Judaizer of Acts 15. If you believe anything else is necessary for your salvation you are preaching a different gospel. And as Paul told the Romans in chapter 1, it's not even one of another kind, it's one of a totally different kind, using a different word there to denote, two different Greek words, one is of the same kind, another of a different kind. You guys don’t have another one like mine, it is something totally different. So I don't want to apply: we're pretty close; we couldn't be any farther away. We are where Paul was with the Jews of his day, they get the most condemnation but they are closer to him. They believed the Old Testament, they at least had some moral values, but we'll get through this when we get to Romans 9, 10 and 11.

So we must be made new by the Holy Spirit. Come back to Titus 3, we'll wrap it up. This ministry of the Holy Spirit was “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.” That's the hope we have, the promise we have, eternal life. It begins now but the full realization is yet future. But that is the anticipation. We won't look at all the verses, 1 Corinthians 15 says because Christ has been raised we too will be raised. The same Holy Spirit that raised Christ's body from the dead will raise our body from the dead and we will enter into a glory that is the culmination and full realization of the final step of our salvation. So we experience justification, we have experienced and are experiencing sanctification, and we will experience glorification. Now don't lose perspective. This great theological statement is in the context of conducting ourselves in a way consistent with God's will, God's word. And that would take us back to Titus 2:1, “You speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine,” healthy teaching, how older men are to behave, how older women are to behave, how younger women are to behave, how younger men are to behave, how slaves are to behave, how we are to behave in relationship to rulers, ungodly and unbelieving, as we come into Titus 3. We say I believe that but in this situation I just don't think it applies. You better have absolutely clear biblical grounds for not doing what the scripture says.

I am appalled, reading a journal article earlier before I came in today and this school I used to respect, they have found ways to disregard the scripture, disregard what it clearly says, to scholarly massage it. And somehow we just fit more and more comfortably, we're where the world is. Don't allow the world to conform you, press you into its mold. But that work of transformation is ongoing and we want to be careful of that in our lives, individually and in our life as a church.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the beauty of the revelation you have given in your word. It reveals to us that awesome event that your grace appeared, your kindness appeared, your love for mankind appeared when Jesus Christ came to this earth, lived and died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin so that by that one act of obedience He could provide for us what no one else could do. By the one act of Adam's disobedience we were consigned to sin and the slavery to sin, the ugliness of a life pursuing sin, but Christ's one act of righteousness has provided for us a cleansing. Lord, how blessed we are to know that that cleansing goes on, if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father. Lord, it is His blood that keeps on cleansing us from all sin. Lord, we praise you, we want to live lives that manifest the greatness of your grace in our lives. How awesome it is the Spirit of God is richly ours, living within us, enabling and empowering us. May our lives personally be a testimony to His presence and power which testifies to your grace and may that be true of us as a church of believers. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.