Does it bless your heart to be able to sing to the Lord, I am yours? Isn't that a wonderful, beautiful thing? And you know, that reality of who we are in Christ, those of us who are followers of Jesus, really is the the key to helping us understand how we are to look at the world around us today and respond to the world around us today. It all has to do with who we are because of who Christ is and what he has done for us. It seems to me that one of the earliest things we learn in life is the difference between reacting to things, maybe things that we don't like, and responding. Those are two different things. Reacting versus responding. I remember being at a potluck a few years ago at somebody's house at one of those dinners where everybody brings a dish to share, and as we sat down to eat, A very loud reactionary voice demanded, who brought the casserole? It's terrible. I'm not making this up. There are witnesses. And most people at the table probably were thinking the same thing. Some responded by suffering in silence. Some probably, I won't say how I know this, but probably made creative use of napkins. You know what I'm talking about? Everybody was drawn to call the dog to their part of the table, only one person reacted openly. And you know, what surprised me was not that someone would say that. Children, for example, are known for their brutal honesty, are they not? And when that happens, it can be cute. What did surprise me, and I think what surprised everybody, was that the child who said that was in his 50s. And for a young, immature person to react to something that he doesn't like, That wouldn't have been quite so scandalous. Might have even been cute, kind of a teaching moment for the ride home. For an older person who was supposed to be more mature, all joking aside, it was actually kind of embarrassing to everybody. There was some polite giggles. But behind the awkward chuckles it was probably very hurtful to the person who made the casserole which incidentally was quite horrible. I mean that part of it was true. It wasn't about whether it was true or not. It's a question of reaction versus a thoughtful response. There's a difference between reacting and responding. Sometimes the difference between reacting to things we don't like and responding thoughtfully, biblically, is very profound. An awful lot of Christians these days are reacting to our fallen world as opposed to responding biblically to things that we see happening around us that we don't like because by God's measure, let alone our own, they're wrong. What about you? Are you reactionary in light of what's happening in the world around us? Or has God's grace that saved you also been teaching you to respond biblically? Do you realize those are two different things? And Titus 3 calls us to a mature gospel saturated response. not a reaction, a gospel-saturated response to our fallen world. Verse 1, Paul says to Titus, remind Christians 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. That is a response, a grace-enabled, gospel-saturated response that the Christian can and by God's design must have. It is not a natural reaction. We talked about this last week. I'll just remind you. We said, for example, my government authorities are often wrong. Have you noticed this? Sometimes even have messed up motives. My fallen nature says rebel. Resist. Refuse to cooperate. Grace teaches me to submit, to gladly cooperate with human authority. In fact, unless that human authority compels me to directly violate the will of God expressed in the Word of God, well then I'm to submit to human authority. My community itself is overtly evil. And at times it is so evil that it's even an outrage to me and to you as well. And my fallen nature tempts me to withdraw or to be combative, to fight against the evil in a human sense. And yet the gospel predisposes me to what? Compassionate involvement. Helpfulness. which is not possible if I am combative or simply withdraw. And a thinking person has to ask the question, well, what on earth then motivates me to such a response in light of what is happening in the world around me and in light of what my natural inclinations would be to react to all of that? Well, the answer is found in verse three of Titus three. It's to do with remembering who we once were and who we are now because of the grace of God in Christ. Paul says, 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, boy you want to circle that word but, but, when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Notice the motive behind responding biblically to the world around us rather than reacting naturally to the world around us. Once we were, but now we are. The vibe of the Christian responding, not reacting, to her fallen world is steeped in remembering who she would be apart from the grace of God. The disposition of the Christian responding, not reacting, to evil and unfairness in the community, even in human authority, government, flows out of his remembering who he was before he met Jesus. Remembering our past state. Once I was, now I am. Do you realize that God intends for us to be lights in the darkness, not simply those who curse the darkness? It takes very little energy and no creativity to curse the darkness. Have you noticed this? Why should I bother being a conscientious citizen, submissive, obedient, cooperative toward my government? I don't feel like that a lot of the time. Why should I bother being courteous, conciliatory, humble, gentle toward evildoers in my community? What's the point of all of that? God reminds us this morning in his word, friends, apart from grace, that's who we are. Apart from the grace of God, That's who all of us would be. But I'm not that way anymore, we might argue. We're reminded this morning, we didn't affect that change. It's not that we figured something out. The Bible says God singled us out with favor that originates in Him. Finds no cause within us. Do you realize there are no self-made saints? Who we are by nature is not a pretty picture. Look at verse 3. For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived. Apart from God's saving and teaching grace, my thinking and your thinking is ungodly. You say, well, I have all sorts of godly thoughts now. I can recall the truths of the word of God. My thinking is often correct by God's own measure. Well, praise God for that. But please understand, that is a work of grace. That is not a personal accomplishment. Apart from grace, my thinking is ungodly. Foolish means that we were without spiritual understanding. Oh, we want to argue in a heated way with those who can't see the truths of God. And we want to be reminded by scripture this morning that those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Wait a minute. Dead. Think of that. Would you argue with a corpse? I don't mean that to be funny. I mean, do you see how ridiculous that is? Here's what the scripture says. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. If you are a saved person, a spiritually minded person this morning. It is only because God himself opened your foolish mind, just as he opened my foolish mind, to discern the reality of our needing to be saved in the first place. And of course, his gracious provision of a savior. A foolish mind, Paul says, is a disobedient mind. We cannot be persuaded to walk in God's ways because God's ways make no sense to us. That's why the scripture says that the natural man does whatever seems right in his own mind. There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death, you see. A foolish mind is a deceived mind. It will follow after all that is false. thinking it to be true. In fact, even thinking it to be brilliant. It's good to let people decide their own gender. This would be funny if it weren't real. And that's the enlightened view of mankind on this earth now. And it's absurd, it's foolish. But it comes from what? Having been deceived. It's good to take from this group of people and give to this group of people, even though this group isn't very happy about that. That's an enlightened view now, you see. It's good to let moms and dads kill their unborn babies after all. They've got lives to live. They've got plans that didn't involve that baby. See, the entire world system functions on the basis of this deception. This is life apart from the grace of God. Notice as well from verse three that apart from God's saving and teaching grace, our living is ungodly. This isn't rocket science, friends. Wrong thinking leads to wrong living. serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Wait a minute, doesn't that describe the world that we live in today? Where there is so much malice and there is so much hate. There is so much of people just pursuing whatever indulges them. And we're reminded this morning that apart from saving and sanctifying grace, the grace of God in the powerful work of Jesus on our behalf, that's who we would be, okay? Apart from God's grace, we're slaves to whatever our fallen minds arrive at needing to please us. The born again person though over time, has a new nature that wants to please God, that desires to please God, that actually gets its pleasure from the pleasure of God. You know, when I was a boy, I spent a lot of summer days with friends in the woods. Did you ever do this as a kid? Friends in the woods, and our hangout place was simply called The Pond, and The Pond was more than a little body of water surrounded by trees. It was a place where we actually learned a lot of lessons about life, though we didn't know it at the time. We learned that you couldn't hear mom hollering at you to come home for dinner that far away, and so we learned fairly quickly that at least one of us had better bring a watch, you know. and help the others. So we learned time management and teamwork just by virtue of that little thing. We learned that a five-gallon bucket is not that heavy when it's empty. But when it's full of tadpoles in pond water and you try to carry it home, it's pretty heavy. We learned that if you threw a stone in the pond near the shore, it made a big splash, and you could actually get someone else wet doing that. And then we noticed that the ripples eventually reached so far out into the water, I mean, you couldn't even see the end of the ripples, that they just seemed to keep going. And here is a passage in scripture that reminds us that there are ripples of grace that just keep going in the life of a person who has been born again. And they're very noticeable, these ripples of grace. It begins with the miraculous rebirth of a soul, your soul. The opening of a sinner's heart and mind to the reality of sin. and the consequence of sin, the eternal consequence of sin, which is separation from God, hell. And God's gracious provision of a Redeemer, a Savior in Jesus Christ. That's the big splash, if you will. The ripples of God's grace, though, reach deep into our lives. Do you realize that as redeemed people, there is no part of our lives that God intends to leave untouched by His grace. There is no corner of your being and my being in the practical sense that God intends to leave untouched by His grace. Over time every part of life, every aspect of our being is touched by this miraculous, regenerating, sanctifying grace of God. Paul's letter to Titus, by the way, has been, in a sense for us, just a description of these many ripples of grace. They just keep going. Paul has said to Titus, for example, that grace, which saves us, is a teaching grace, a powerful, transforming grace that compels us to display The very nature of God in all of our relationships. Do you realize that in your relationships God intends for others to see his nature in you? What about the people who are, you know, I don't like them. That's the point. The ripples of saving grace move us toward deliberate relationships with other believers. Is this descriptive of you? Do you have deliberate relationships with other believers in which you impart what is needful to them and receive from them what is needful to you? See, this is God's design for his family. This is one of the ripples of grace when we become saved people. The ripples of grace move us to submit to our employers, our earthly masters, even the crummy ones. Serving them as we would serve the Lord himself. Desiring to adorn the doctrine of grace in all that we do. So powerful are these ripples of grace that we're taught by it to submit even to earthly authorities and governments, refusing the very natural inclinations we have to rebel, to not cooperate, to exchange evil for evil in word or in deed. Let me ask you something, is this the grace that's rippling across your life? Is it reaching those corners of your life? We look at the world around us and we see a world that is so full of pride, self-service, envy, malice, people run amok, that sort of thing. And God is reminding us, hey, don't get too cocky about all this because that would be you were it not for the grace of God in Jesus. Verse four, notice how Paul describes the believer being plunged into the grace of God. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, and remember that word appeared from chapter two. Here it is again, Jesus is God's epiphany. He is the full revelation of God to man. And his self-revelation to sinners like us is what? That God is angry, that God is vengeful, that God has put us on notice. Well, those are all half-truths in light of the epiphany of God in Jesus Christ. What is God like toward people like us? Well, he's kind to sinners. He is eager to forgive sinners. Aren't you glad for this? Kindness, by the way, is what? Well, it's a moral goodness that enables a person to be friendly to others. That's kindness. God, by his very nature, is good. In fact, good and goodness make no sense apart from God. God is good. And that innate goodness that the child of God has, because it is part of God's nature, is an enablement to actually be friendly to others, even those who are evil, even those who are evil and are enemies. Are you kind as God is kind? Can you act as a friend toward those who are your enemies? God's enemies? How will the world know that God is kind toward sinners, do you suppose? Well, we could just tell them that. In fact, we ought to. That's evangelism. But I pray we realize that evangelism also is allowing the world to see kindness toward sinners among sinners like us who have received the kindness of God ourselves. Does that make sense? Paul says, when Christ appeared, the kindness of God appeared and the love of God appeared. The word rendered love in verse four is not agape. We know that Greek word, I trust. It's the word philanthropia. What's a philanthropist? Well, a philanthropist, as you know, is someone who has a lot of wealth and decides to just give that, to share that wealth. with someone else. This is what God has done for me. This is what God has done for you. If you belong to Jesus by faith this morning, it's because God has singled you out and graciously lavished you with undeserved favor. Why? Because he loves us. Because he loves us. And here is a portion of scripture, friends, that calls us to look at the world around us, as dark as it is, and relate to this world in such a fashion. The difference between us, if you want to put it that way, and them, if you want to put it that way, is that we have received the kindness and love of God, while others have not, not yet. God has done for us what he has not done for them, or has not done for them just yet. Why is this so important that we remember that we are not saved because we were predisposed to turn to God, because we were born in America, or because our, if we were, or because our parents were Christians, if they were or are. We're saved because God took the initiative and singled us out. Do you realize that your life story is the story of God? Is the story of God ordering all of the things that you and I called circumstances and ordering it in such a way that you would be routed to him? And then he did, that's the outer work, and then he did an inner work of awakening your dead heart and my dead heart so that we might discern truth, so that we might see our state apart from God, that we might see Jesus for who he really is. That's what Paul means in verse five when he says, hey, it's 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. Do you realize that you've done nothing to earn God's favor? And though we have a sinful tendency to get up each morning and say, today I'm gonna earn the favor of God, today God favors me because I'm better than that dirtbag who lives across the street. I know you guys don't think this way, but the people in the other two services do. That's not what Scripture says at all. It's saying to us that, hey, it's nothing that you have done that has commended you to God. Your salvation is purely and beautifully an act of His mercy. In fact, God has actually withheld from us what we have earned. Think of that. God has withheld from you what you have actually earned from God. And He has done that for me as well, as a saved person. That's what mercy is, withholding what is actually deserved. Now, please think of how this relates to verses one and two. Verses one and two, after we looked at them last week, really chapped some of us. I know that because I heard it from you. And those two verses really have a way of revealing where our hearts are in light of the kind of world that we live in today. Look though at verses one and two now in light of verses three through seven. How can we relate to government authorities who are often so wrong with a submissive and cooperative spirit? I mean, that doesn't even make sense, does it? How can we not speak evil of others when their lives are so full of evil? Well, it's because as undeserving recipients of God's kindness and love and mercy, he intends to put that kindness and love and mercy on display in the lives of his children. That's why. Even those who don't deserve it, we wonder. Well, today we're reminded it isn't that how God has related to us. Undeserving people. We want a gospel saturated response to our world, friends, not a natural reaction to our world. Are you with me on this? A couple of you are. One on each side, as near as I could tell. In the Old Testament book of 2 Samuel, there's an example of this in the life of David. I know we're kind of crossing dispensational lines. Let me just encourage you to not get tripped up by that. We understand, I trust, that the nature of God has not changed. After David became king and replaced Saul, whom the people wanted and God allowed, though he turned out to be a creep, There's a fellow by the name of Mephibosheth, and we'd like to think that he had a nickname. But Mephibosheth was part of Saul's family, and he rightly expected to be killed by King David. Saul's family had worked tirelessly to mess with David, and even kill him. And as David is, by God's grace, securing the kingdom. Okay, listen to these words of David, a man after God's own heart. David says, is there not still someone in the house of Saul to whom I may show the kindness of God? Doesn't that just give you goosebumps? How could David be so kind and gracious? Saul's household, as I mentioned earlier, went all out to get rid of David. Well, David was aware that he had been chosen by God to be king. Oh, he did some stuff for sure, some mighty stuff, but it was all enabled by God. It was all the result of him stepping into the plan of God for his life. He owed everything to God, not to himself. this shepherd boy. And so he responded to this undeserving man with kindness. Well, let me just ask you something. What a powerful testimony do you think it would be when as God's people, we could respond to God's enemies around us the way David did? Is there not still some undeserving person in this community to whom we may show the kindness of God? I'm not saved because of anything in me. It was and still is and will ever be a work of Jesus Christ on my behalf. Still in verses, verse five rather, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom God poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. How did you come to see the depth of your sinfulness and your hell bound state? How did you come to see Jesus demonstrating on that cross the very power and mercy of God to take your condemnation upon himself? How did that become apparent to you? Well, Paul says it's because the Spirit of God awakened your dead heart and renewed your closed mind. It took that stony, rebellious heart and gave to you instead a heart of flesh A heart that hates sin and longs for God, delights in the ways of God, wants to live in God's ways. In other words, you were born again. This is what it is to be born again, you see. By the way, water baptism, immersion, is a powerful picture of this regenerating work of God. That's what Paul means when he says the washing of regeneration. Our baptism itself shows everyone who sees it that we are fully identifying with the life and death and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's a picture of that identity in Christ. And if you've not been baptized, let me just let you know that we we have a time of baptism coming up this summer. We wait until late summer because we got, you know, the water temperatures change and you've got an outside shot at surviving it. Right. So but early August, August 7th is a time that we've set aside as a church family to baptize. And what a wonderful celebration that is of these truths that we're being reminded of this morning. Look at verse seven. Paul says, having been justified by his grace. What justifies you before God? The way you're living right now, I'm afraid not. Your good intentions. for tomorrow, that's not going to cut it either. Having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Oh, these are rich words that inform our outlook on this world. These are words that tell us this world is not your home. all of this time and energy that we're spending getting comfortable in this world and defending our little piece of this world and pushing other people out of our tidy little corner of this world. We're not staying here. This is not our home. We are heirs of eternal God. Because of the work of Jesus, because of this spiritual birth that has been enabled by the kindness and love and mercy of God. This is our hope. Oh, my goodness, what a sad thing it is when the child of God lives without hope. Do you understand what an affront to God that is? G. Campbell Morgan puts it better than I just did, and I didn't start with this because it's basically the whole sermon, and I prefer to take my time. Here's how he summarizes these verses. He says, Christian people should remember their own past and treat with pity those who are yet foolish, disobedient, deceived. The threefold memory of what we were, of how the change has been wrought, and of what we are, will serve to create the spirit of subjection to authority, equip us for honest toil, silence all evil speech, and generate an unceasing compassion. You see the ripples of grace in that wonderful account of salvation? Do you see the power of remembering? Once we were, once I was, but now I am. Now we are. Saving grace reaches into me and makes me grateful to God alone for my salvation. I know I mentioned this last week, but let me just remind you, gratitude is the vibe of the Christian in the world today. How do people spot the Christians? Man, they're grateful. They're just grateful people. Why? Because God has saved them. That's the big splash, that born again moment. But this saving grace, remember Paul has said, is also a teaching grace. And it teaches us to be humble and gentle and compassionate toward those in our community who are apart from God. Not venomous and angry and condemning. Grace is what teaches me that I'm not a self-made saint. Though I may live a day or two in a given week thinking otherwise. The ripples of grace reach even further and they compel me, they compel you to be kind even to the worst of sinners. Just as God is kind to evil people. And here's the thing. Here's a heart check for us. Grace teaches us even to desire that God will save those who oppose him. Is that your heart? Not that God would destroy. But that God would save. Just as he has saved us, second Peter three nine reminds us this, the Lord is not slack concerning his promises as some count slackness. But his long suffering toward us Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Let's pray. Father, may we never forget who we once were. Those among us blessed to have been saved by your grace at a very early age, may we may we never forget who we would be apart from your kindness and love. Jesus, we pray that you would help us to imitate you, to move away from our very natural reactions to what we see happening in the world around us. Lord, move us to a gospel-informed response to our world. Lord, I just pray that your grace would so work in us that we might live as David did, longing to see if there be any undeserving person to whom we might show the kindness of our God. We pray this, Jesus, in your name. Amen.