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Well, it's a great joy that I get to sit and listen to the word preached for a change instead of being the one preaching it. Nathan White certainly is no stranger to any of us here and we love our dear brother. And the things I can tell you about Nathan is that he's our brother in Christ and by God's grace, I'm very thankful for that. He is also married to Courtney, which is the second most important thing about him. And the third most important thing is that he is Hannah and Riley's father. But he's also our brother and he's my dear friend. And so brother, you come preach the word to us. Thank you very much. It is a joy and a privilege to bring the word of God to you this evening. And let me just say that it always has a great sanctifying effect on me. during the study and the preparation, the depths of the Word of God cannot be exhausted. I'm so thankful for the tools that we have and for the men that have gone before us and for the power of the Spirit in illuminating our minds to the great truths that are within. We can never exhaust them, can we? So let's turn in our scriptures to Titus chapter 3. The sermon title I have is how should we then live Christians in the midst of an evil society. Titus chapter three and we will be reading. Verses one through eight. Here now the word of the Lord. 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 humility to all men. 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, and through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. And having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 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. Let's bow and ask God's blessing on our time. Father, we do come before you humbly, Lord, acknowledging our inability Lord, to discern truth and to mind the depths of the Word of God apart from your spirit. We pray, Lord, that the Spirit would flow through us tonight, would join us here, and open our eyes to these great truths of the Gospel, to the glory of your name. It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. Brethren, as we gather here tonight for worship, we do so as God's people, called out by grace, sanctified holy and righteous in His sight, and yet still living in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. That is, when God called us out of darkness, transferring us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, the kingdom of His Son, He did not physically remove us from this present world. He rather left us in the world, not as orphans, as our Lord says, And he also commanded us to go out into the world and preach the gospel. So salvation is not an immediate escape. And no doubt that there has always been a great deal of ungodliness here on the earth since the beginning of the time or should say the fall. But in our day and age, it certainly seems that there is a great acceptance and pervasiveness of evil that just seems to dwarf past generations. Here in America, we are, as it were, often like righteous lot living in Sodom all around us, tormented by the lawless deeds that we see and hear on a daily basis. A close look at the society around us reveals that there is a prevailing condition of ignorance of the truth, refusal to submit to God, refusal to acknowledge the justice and righteousness of God in the coming judgment, an endless pursuit of pleasure, of material things, of lust, And we see just about every form of open hatred and reviling of the word of God as well. The fact is that the reality of this society in which we live in, unfortunately, is so corrupt that we would certainly fall short of time tonight if we were to go into great detail describing the depths of the wickedness. We see many things, of course, just in our own nation. We see the financial crisis, which is evidence of the materialism and the foolish decision making. We see the public school system and the banality there. We see the acceptance of homosexuality. We see abortion. We see the destruction and blatant disregard for the planet and for God's creation. Systems of injustice that favor a select few. We see disregard for the elderly, for the poor, for the oppressed, the list goes on and on. And as we look at our public officials and leaders, we see their scandals and we see abuse of power, lack of financial integrity, and we shudder rightly at the direction we are headed in the future that awaits our children and our grandchildren. But we must not be mistaken and simply say that the simpleness of society is delegated to the secular realm alone. We know a lot from the figures and statistics that are given that the divorce rate among professing Christians is at least close to the national average. We know that the church is riddled with heresies with false doctrines with health and wealth with self-help programs. And even more so, there's sin in here as well. Even within conservative Bible-believing circles, we run into sin on a regular basis. We all stumble in many ways, says James, and we see slander and gossip. We see hypocrisy and bickering and arguing, sectarianism, individualism, isolationism. Our society is riddled with wickedness, open and unashamed. Our government is corrupted. And even in our churches, we have a regular encounter with sin, certainly much smaller sins than we see out in the public realm. But what are we to say to these things? As the people of God, we, of course, by God's spirit in us, we hate sin. We desire to Please him in every respect. How are we to respond to the society and the sinfulness around us? And when we consider this question, we look at the history of the church and we see all sorts of different movements, all sorts of different circles of different beliefs that have dealt with this question in different ways. We've seen movements of separation where God's people have attempted to completely separate themselves from society, warning against the wrath of God from the safety of their own bunkers. We've seen crusades where the church has taken up arms to slay the wicked and deal with the problem of evil. We've seen political movements where Christians form organizations and Attempt to advance agendas through politics and legislation. And sadly, we've seen compromise as well, where Christians have thrown up their hands and said, well, if you can't beat them, then join them. And they've blended into their surroundings and have lost the necessity and the call to holiness, which, of course, came from our Lord, denying yourself, taking up your cross. But when we look closely and honestly at the Word of God, I submit to you tonight that we see a very different mission than what I've just described. Consider, for example, Paul's warning to a young pastor in 2 Timothy chapter 4. Paul, in the Spirit, foresees that the time is coming when, according to the text, people will not endure sound doctrine. They will not endure because they have itching ears and they will accumulate for themselves teachers to fit their own passions. This is certainly the state of the church today, but even in society as well, we have all sorts of self-help and mysticism that is so popular nowadays. What does Paul tell Timothy to do? How is he to combat this in the latter times? He tells Timothy to preach the Word. In season and out, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. The only antidote to the ills of the church and society at large is the faithful proclamation of God's Word in both Word and indeed. And this is what we find when we come to our text here in Titus as well. We find here clear instructions on how God's people ought to live in society. And we hear an exhortation to faithfully proclaim the gospel in word and indeed. And we will see as well that these things don't come to us simply as an arbitrary law. Of course, the Lord never gives anything arbitrary, but we see that the instruction flows out of the very nature and character of God himself and how he has accomplished the work of salvation. And so as we approach our text in Titus, to give a little bit of background here, Titus is an epistle of the Apostle Paul written to a young pastor, Titus, a fellow laborer in the gospel. We presume that he is young. We don't know for sure. But from the language, we also suspect that he is one of Paul's personal converts to the faith. And Paul starts off the letter in 1.5 by telling Titus that I left you in Crete in order to set in order the things that were lacking. Crete was a small or is a small island in the Greek island in the Mediterranean, and at the time it was under the rule of the Roman Empire. Crete was a wicked and godless place. In fact, ancient records reveal that just the name Crete was proverbial in that culture as a synonym for immorality, such as Sodom in our day. Speak of Sodom, we know it's proverbial for homosexuality and immorality in general, burning of lust. An ancient historian named Polybus wrote of Crete that, quote, It is almost impossible to find personal conduct more treacherous or public policy more unjust than in Crete. So the society and the political structure of government were in a state of moral decadence. It was a mess. It was a mess morally. It was a mess politically. It was a mess spiritually. And Paul goes on, he acknowledges this very fact in chapter 1 verses 12 and 13. He says, A prophet of their own said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. And Paul responses by saying this testimony is true. He doesn't even need to condemn the culture himself. He just has to agree with one of their own prophets. One of their own prophets has gotten it right. The place is a mess. And so Paul was writing to Pastor Timothy, excuse me, Pastor Titus, and instructing him in the task of standing up for the faith in the midst of these perverse conditions. Of course, we find a situation that is very similar to ours here in America. So, as I mentioned, chapter 1, verse 5, Paul tells Titus, Titus, set things in order. Chapter 1, verse 10, Titus, there are many idle talkers and deceivers saying things they ought not. Rebuke them sharply. Stop their mouths. Silence them. Verse 13, chapter 2, verse 1, Titus speak to things that are proper for sound doctrine. Titus was to be very intentional about preaching pure and sound doctrine and setting things in order according to this pure and sound doctrine, stopping the mouths of those who contradict. And so in chapter two, Paul goes on to lay out very practical instructions for Christian obedience. You'll see if you survey the chapter, he references several different groups of people within the church and instructs them on how they ought to behave. He tells Titus to exhort the people to righteous living so that, 2 verse 5, the Word of God may not be blasphemed. And 2 verse 7, in all things, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works. In verse 15, he lays out the reason for this instruction, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Summing up this section, 215, he says, speak these things, exhort, rebuke with all authority, let no one despise you. So he says, Titus, this is how your people ought to live in light of the gospel, in grace of God. This is how the people of God ought to behave. Speak these things, Titus, with all authority, enforce them. do not back down in the face of wicked men and false teaching." Apparently the church and Titus needed reminders of this. It appears that perhaps they were giving in to the cultural surroundings and the wickedness in which they were placed. And so when we come to chapter 3, we are looking at these very same themes. Saying in 3 verse 8, he says, I want you to affirm these things constantly that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works." He closes the epistle by saying, let our people also learn to maintain good works. Brethren, this same instruction is fitting for us today as well. How ought we to live in this land How ought we to combat the lawlessness around us? What should our behavior look like in the world? What should our mission be? We find these answers right here. So join me in examining this passage more closely. Examining how we ought to live, how we ought to speak, what we ought to be characterized by. First, let's consider the instruction in verses 1-2. We find Paul giving Titus instructions for the proper behavior of Christians in society as citizens of God's kingdom. 3, verses 1-2, 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 humility to all men." As I mentioned in chapter 2, we find Paul sets forth instructions to Titus on how he should direct behavior of those within his church. Or I should say maybe direct behavior inside of the church. And now I believe moving through his argument, He's instructing Titus how the church ought to live out in society as well. And so he begins by saying, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities. As I mentioned, the government in Crete was corrupt and the Christians there apparently needed reminders that it was their duty to submit to the government leaders and officials. Brethren, considering the light of our situation, if you think we live in a corrupt government and a wicked society now, the situation in Crete was far worse. The culture in Crete was saturated with idolatry. Ritual prostitution was common. Homosexuality and more specifically what we would now call pedophilia, it was seen as a necessary rite of passage for the upstanding men in society. There was slavery, there was rampant extortion, there was widespread injustice based upon race and citizenship, and there was an exorbitant tax by the Roman government. We don't like paying taxes now. Imagine if they were triple or fourfold and we paid them to a Caesar, a man who claimed to be God himself. No wonder there were so many of the religious who said submitting and paying taxes to Caesar is partaking in idolatry. If you recall, this is why Jesus himself was posed with this question. He tried to trap him. And he responded by saying, give to Caesar, what is Caesar's? Give to God, what is God's? And so in this society, with these types of leaders, Paul says, be subject to them. This term, be subject to them, entails an attitude and general conduct toward government rulers and officials. And this is more than just obeying because you have no other choice. It entails a general disposition of willing submission towards them. It isn't external. It's something that comes from the heart. And how difficult this obedience is, particularly when we see the wickedness in our officials. History shows that the Cretans were utterly fuming under Roman rule. There was all sorts of insubordination and insurrections. And no doubt that the believers there must have been in somewhat of a state of shock at their society, how they probably feared for the influence on their children, how they probably were concerned that their taxes were being used to further pagan, idolatrous agendas. No wonder they seemed to have trouble submitting to the authority. Paul says, remind them, remind them, implying that he's told them before. But notice, brethren, that not here nor anywhere else in the New Testament are Christians told to wage war on society or the government. Christians are not to be hostile to unbelievers, even godless governments and haters of God. Not even to those who wage the greatest assault on biblical standards. To do so makes enemies out of our mission field. And it hinders the gospel, stifles its power in society. Paul goes into this in great detail in Romans chapter 13. You don't have to turn there. I'll give you a brief overview. But basically, his argument is we are to be subject to leaders and rulers because government leaders are established by God. Chapter 13, verse one. And government leaders serve as a minister of God to us for our good. Verse 4. And resisting the government is the same as resisting God himself. Verse 2. And those who resist God will be the recipients of God's wrath. Verse 5, chapter 13. In other words, our respect and our obligation to obey the government does not rest on them deserving it or them being just or good or democratic. Our respect and obligation to obey them is because God in His sovereignty has chosen to place them over us and He has commanded us to submit to them for our good. Thus our attitude And our submission to government is reflective of our attitude and submission to God himself. Very convicting thought as we recall how we so often speak of those in power today. Of course, we are to do more than just be subject to our leaders. We know from 1 Timothy 2 that Paul commands us to pray for kings and rulers and all men, rather than just writing them off as hopeless and begrudgingly obeying them, letting our anger build up inside and our bitterness, we are to pray that God's grace will be poured out on them, for he desires all men to come to the knowledge of the truth. And we are to pray that God would use them to accomplish his good purposes through their rule. We are to be subject to them. We are to pray for them. Here in verse one, Paul then adds, we are to be ready for every good work. This is in society and particularly towards these rulers and authorities as well. Be ready for every good work implies a willing, sincere readiness to do good. Again, this isn't just obedience, but it is actively seeking the well-being of others. An eagerness to do good, even to the ones that we see do not deserve it. We think do not deserve it. On a practical level, Paul describes it in verse 2 as speaking evil of no one. It prohibits slander, cursing, speaking with contempt towards them. To speak evil of no one is related to the root word for blasphemy. It's any kind of disrespectful speech towards them. He says, Be peaceable, which is to be fair, to be reasonable, to give them the benefit of the doubt. This is how we ought to act. Showing all humility to all men. We're not to be occupied with ourself, our own rights. We are to show humility to all, whether they deserve it or not. And these things, brethren, are the fruit of the Spirit. They come out of a heart that has been transformed by God's grace. As we will see shortly in this passage. So as he lays out the instruction and rather than this is. Not easy instruction. He doesn't leave us hanging with these bare instructions, he goes on. After giving these instructions for the proper behavior, He gives us a foundation. And let me say, it is a sure foundation. It is an empowering foundation for our obedience. And this is found in the next section, verses 3-7. Brother, we could spend a great deal of time on this passage, for it is one of the most beautiful texts in Scripture. But as I consider the context and the topic at hand, I believe Paul is making four basic arguments supporting what he said up to this point. These four arguments for Christian obedience towards the wicked are rooted in the nature of God and his work in salvation. So consider them and we will go through them one by one. First, our conduct should stem from a constant remembrance of our former sinful, helpless state. Secondly, we will look at our conduct is to be rooted in the nature of God and His kindness and goodness and love towards all men. Thirdly, our conduct should reflect an understanding of the sovereignty of God and salvation in the gospel of free grace. And lastly, our conduct should be fashioned from the understanding of the totality and comprehensiveness of His work of salvation and how He is renewing and restoring all things. So then first, our conduct, the instruction that He has laid out in verses 1-2 should stem from a constant remembrance of our former sinful state. Paul argues that we are to love and submit to rulers and authorities, even sinful ones, by recalling our former condition. Look with me at verses 3 and 4. For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Brethren, we are to treat the wicked with love and kindness and patience because we ourselves were once just like them. Notice the Apostle Paul does not say, you yourselves, as if he's speaking to Titus or just the church there in Crete. He says, we ourselves. He includes himself. He was once a wicked man too. He felt this. He knew this. And brother, no matter how holy, no matter how early in life, No matter how holy we are, no matter how early in life that we were saved, we cannot escape the fact that at one time we were all enslaved to these passions and slaves of corruption and to our nature. We were all blind to the truth of the gospel, ignorant of his ways, led astray by these enslaving lusts, living in malice towards others. If you're not aware of your former depravity, and you've underestimated your sin, or you've not believed the Word of God. Even if you were too young to remember when you were converted to your state before conversion, the Bible tells you how you were. And we are to see it and accept it by faith, and know that we can't even understand the level of our wickedness as our God can. He sees what we once were. So we are to keep it in constant remembrance that we too were at one time characterized, motivated, and driven by these same sins, these same lusts, these same foolishness, the things that we see in others and so grieve about in our society. That used to be us. And even more so as well, we would be wise to remember that the root of sin is still dwelling in us, or I should say that we are still living in the flesh. Our sinful nature has not been completely done away with. And that even some of these sins characterize us from time to time, we fall into them from time to time, disobedience and foolishness. following malice or hate towards others. By God's grace, He raises us to repentance and is sanctifying us, growing in grace as we grow in the knowledge of our Lord. But that root is still there within our hearts. And so when we look at this society around us and the pervasiveness of evil, we ought to humbly acknowledge that these things are just a fuller manifestation of what is still in our hearts. But for the moment by moment, guarding and upholding an intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ. But for the grace of God, there goes each one of us. That's why it's foolish in one sense to consider that we could separate ourselves from the world and somehow sanctify ourselves in this way. We may be able to escape all of the sins out there, but we cannot escape the sin that's in here. So please understand that Paul is writing from personal experience. He's not writing just mere doctrine. He isn't casually saying, well, you know, nobody's perfect. We're all sinners. We all have our faux pas. He's painting a very stark and ugly picture of what we once were serving, lust, living in malice and hate towards others. And he's pouring out his heart as one who's experienced this himself. Do you recall how he himself persecuted the church, how he lived in hate and anger? He feels the depths of his sin in his former ways, and he beckons us to feel these depths as well. Brethren, it's only when we feel the depths of our sins that we see the greatness of God's salvation. Only when we feel the depths of our sins that our lives will be different. For when we don't feel the depths of our sins, our view of sin will be superficial. It will be external. We'll say sin is something out there, away from us. Sin is something of our surroundings. It influenced me one way or the other. It'll be self-righteous in that you see yourself as deserving more favor than this person over here. It'll be law-centered, merit-based, where you see your relationship with God as standing moment by moment upon how your performance is that day, instead of upon the righteousness, the merits, and the accomplished work of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So Paul calls us to feel with gravity and with sincerity the depth of our former nature. leads us to follow the instruction he has just laid out in verses 1 and 2. So we were in the same condition as these leaders and these wicked members of society that we are to love and submit to. And it's here that in the midst of this stark reminder of what we once were, the beautiful picture of the Gospel emerges. He hints at it in verse 3. He says, we ourselves were also once. We were once characterized by these things, but no longer. There is no room here for a doctrine of salvation that makes no changes in someone's life. A radical change has taken place. A new creation has come about. And this is the progression of this argument that culminates here in verses three through five. So we see secondly, after recalling our former condition, we are to consider the nature of God and his kindness and love and mercy towards sinners. I want to emphasize here the term the kindness and love of God our Savior towards man. As we think about this, I struggled with this in my preparation. It's very clear that Paul is talking specifically about the salvation of God's people. But, at the same time, I believe that he means for us to understand this term, kindness and love of God, as something generally towards all men. And there's two reasons that have led me to this. First, man here is best translated as mankind. It's a very general statement in the original language. It is referring to God's kindness to all men, His love to all men. And of course, this is backed by such passages as Matthew 5, verse 45. Our Lord commands us that we are to love all, even our enemies, because God causes His reign. To follow the just and the unjust, he loves all men. Other passages would include 1st Timothy 2, which I mentioned earlier, and that Paul instructs us to pray for all men because no man is excluded. No class of men is excluded from God's offer of salvation. Or even right here in Titus 2.11, where he says that the grace of God bringing salvation has appeared to all men. But secondly, I believe Paul is purposely making a contrast here as well. On one side, we see man's hate just described. We see his lust, his repulsive nature, his corruption, our participation in this by nature. And then the light of God appears. God's love and kindness. Paul is demonstrating the beauty of God in his perfect character up against the blackness of man's sinful nature. His point is we are to imitate God, this God who is love, this God who is kind, this God who is especially towards his people, shown us in Christ, the light of the gospel. And so, if we are a new creation, brethren, we are Christ, we have His Spirit, and His image is being renewed in us day by day, and we are to walk according to His image, His character, the character and nature of the God that we serve. He is loving and kind towards all, even His enemies. especially so since we too were once his enemies. Also notice as well the great appeal of God's love and kindness in his nature. It's so common to hear nowadays a great emphasis on God's wrath, which is a doctrine of Holy Scripture. God is a vengeful and wrathful God. He will punish evil. We sang of it tonight, burning fire and brimstone. But the New Testament really emphasizes the fact that it is God's goodness that leads us to repentance. It is His kindness that is so appealing to us and draws us in. A just and righteous God is also kind and loving and long-suffering. This is the beauty of God, the pearl of great price, the image of God we see in Christ, friend of sinners. And so this leads us to the third point here. So we consider God's goodness and kindness. We are to consider, and this is really closely tied to the second point, but we are to consider God's sovereignty and salvation in the gospel of free grace. Listen again for we ourselves versus three to five. We're also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness of God 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." I don't know about you, but one of my favorite words in Scripture is the word, but. In fact, even in the English language, it's a beautiful word. My father had a heart attack. But He is expected to make a full recovery. My child was in a car wreck, but He was not injured. It changes everything. And so if you were in Christ today, you were once dead. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. As Ephesians 2 says, without hope, without God in the world, but God. But God, who is rich in mercy, even while you were dead, even while you were enemies of Him, He made you alive in Christ. By grace, you have been saved. And you have been seated with Him in the heavenly places. We are one with Him. We are united with Him because of His work. And so, notice how Paul is laying out his argument. He appeals to the fact that we were helpless. He appeals to the fact that the great change that has happened to us, the new nature and the salvation that we have in Christ did not come at our initiation. It was but God. In the beginning, God, well, in the beginning of your salvation, God. This salvation flows out of the goodness and kindness and love of God, the mercy towards us in Christ, and we have not earned it by the works of our righteousness. How are we, brethren, to know and embrace the gospel of free grace, and yet turn towards the unbelieving world with contempt? That is a contradiction. to act as if we deserve the favor and blessing of God and they don't? The only difference between us is the grace of God. And He makes it clear, not by works of righteousness. We did not earn His favor. We did not contribute to our salvation whatsoever by grace. You have been saved. It was His grace that invaded our lives. and called us out of our ignorance. And it was His mercy that accomplished these things through Christ on our behalf. Namely, the giving of His own Son to sacrificial death for our sins and His resurrection from the dead, feeding all of our enemies, even death itself. So brethren, if this does not humble you, then you don't understand the Gospel. If this doesn't drive you to your knees in worship, you don't understand the Gospel. If this doesn't send you out into the world with this Gospel of good news on your lips, loving and serving and spreading this message, you haven't grasped the Gospel. What an astounding mystery of grace. We are to treat others as God has treated us. And so, fourthly and lastly, consider the totality of the work of salvation and how He was renewing, restoring, and recreating all things. We see this in verses 5B-7. Pick up with a portion in 5B where He says, 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 Christ Jesus our Savior that having been justified by his grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. I love the fact here that Paul puts emphasis on the Trinitarian work of God and salvation. In verse 4, he mentions God, our Savior, which is a common theme throughout Titus and the other pastoral epistles. In verse 5, he says, this mercy was poured out on us abundantly through the Holy Spirit. In verse 6, he points to Jesus Christ as our Savior, the one who secured this justification for us. There's perfect harmony, symmetry of the beautiful triune God's work in salvation. And this totality of God's work in salvation points us to the past and what has been done, the present and what is being done, and the future as well. This is our foundation here. Consider the past that when we see that we were once foolish, the kindness of God appearing, it says He washed us. The washing of regeneration. Renewing of the Holy Spirit. This is the cleansing of our sins by the blood of Christ. Regeneration is the work of the Spirit in being born again. It is the Spirit taking out our heart of stone and giving us a heart of flesh. A heart that loves God. A heart that loves His law. A heart that longs to walk in obedience to Him through the Spirit that now indwells us. And he's speaking of a new creation, brethren, in us. Something that affects us right now and has begun today. The gospel of salvation. The gospel does not simply just make us better people. It makes dead people alive. That's why we're not commanded just to be better people. All of our works before were dead works. But now our obedience is from the heart. It's from internal. We don't just put off bad deeds. We put on good deeds. We don't just avoid evil. We practice righteousness actively. And so our love and kindness and service to unbelievers is to be from this heart, this new regeneration that has happened in us, reflecting our new nature in the spirit that indwells us. And thus the Spirit is poured out through the work of Jesus Christ here in verse 7 where it says we were justified by His grace. We have been justified in Christ and we are very fortunate to have a very clear doctrine of justification preached from this pulpit on a regular basis. We have been declared righteous in His sight. Our sins have been forgiven and we've been given a new robe, a beautiful robe, a clothing of perfection, righteousness, the deeds of Christ and all of its beauty. These things are marvelous and these things change everything. If you grasp this doctrine of justification, You know how that affects our daily life in a profound, profound way. I mean, do you think that it was easy for God to make this great exchange, our sin for His righteousness? You think it was easy for Him to accomplish? Do you not understand how infinitely costly it was For Christ to invade our world, take our flesh, suffer punishment in the open shame. Just the utter shamefulness of becoming a servant and being hung on a cross like a criminal. The Creator of the world. And the pain of being separated from His Father, the One whom He had perfect and unending communion with from all eternity. knowing the full depths of His sacrifice to give us this righteousness, to understand what He did for us while we are enemies, this motivates us to good works. This motivates us to sacrifice for our enemies, to love our enemies. And lastly, been declared righteous and giving us a new heart and spirit. He points us to the future where we see that we are heirs according to the hope of eternal life. What is the hope of eternal life but that He is going to restore all things? Remember the beautiful picture in the end of Revelation where you have this new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. God comes to us. He is coming here. Creation here groans for that day. But the kingdom of God comes down and becomes the kingdom encompassing all of the earth. Brethren, what is sinful and corrupt here on earth will burn. It will pass away with a roar But the work of the Kingdom, the work here and now of spreading this Gospel, of furthering the knowledge of God, these things will remain. These things will be a part of the new Jerusalem. Your work here is not in vain. We have the hope of eternal life, the heirs of all things, We have the citizenship of heaven. And we are to put on works according to that citizenship and anticipating with eagerness His coming, which, of course, will include judgment as well, where all of the enemies who tortured our righteous souls will be punished. Well, brethren, I've gone on a little too long, I've struggled with how to break this passage down. It's so marvelous. There's so many different ways we could look at it, but I want to make one application in closing. And it's an application I have struggled with in my own life. We began by looking at how Christians in different circles at different points in history have dealt with this question of how do we deal with evil around us? What do we do? And one aspect is a danger I think that it's easy for us to fall into. By nature, we possess what has been called a tribal mindset. A tribal mindset is one of self-preservation. How can we protect ourselves from the world around us, those who do things differently, those who are much different than us? And we see this type of tribal mindset in racism, we see it in national pride, we see it in stereotyping and speaking harshly towards those we see as inferior. That's really the essence of racism. It all starts because you're not familiar with the other race. You're not familiar with their ways and you look at them with disdain. But this mindset can affect us as well. Christians have removed themselves from the public squares. They have pulled their children out of schools. They have removed themselves from social activities and associations of anything to do with this ungodly world. And in many respects, this is often very necessary. Often comes from very good motives as well. But we must realize that in the nature of God, in the work of salvation, we see a different mindset. We run from our enemies. God runs towards his enemies. He ran toward you while you were his enemies. We see this in the prodigal son story. We see the father looking and running out. Here is the son who has taken his estate and spent it on prostitutes. And he falls at his feet. Clothes him, gives him the ring, throws a feast. My son is alive. He's come home. We see this in how Jesus himself often spent time with the outcasts. of society, the wicked, the prostitutes, the tax collectors. And God has called us to be missionaries, to go out into the world. The world is a frightful place. The world is a wicked place. We are not to hunker down and wait for the fire from heaven. We are to go out with good works and good news. We shouldn't be captivated with escaping this world, but with transforming this world through the gospel and specifically through the preaching and proclamation of the gospel backed with good works. This, I believe, is how Paul closes in verse eight. This is a faithful saying, and these things I want. You to affirm constantly that those who believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to all men. He doesn't instruct them to pull out from society and guard themselves, lest they be unduly influenced by the world. Even again, as good and noble as those things are, and necessary as they are at times, but he tells them That these things he has just declared are faithful and that he is to affirm them constantly and that those who have believed in God through these faithful things should be careful to maintain good works and that this is good and profitable to all men. The things we just considered, our sinfulness, is a message that is good and profitable to all men. It leads to salvation. God's kindness and mercy is good and profitable to men. The justifying grace of God, of Jesus Christ, the washing and regeneration of the Spirit, the adoption and hope of eternal life. These things are profitable. These things we are to affirm constantly. These things lead us to be careful to maintain good works. And so it is that the proclamation of the Gospel and faithful obedience cannot be separated. We are to take these things Go out into the world, preach the gospel and adorn the gospel. So brethren, I exhort you to look at these things and constantly have this message on your lips. Constantly be clothing your profession of faith with beautiful good works. We're constantly taking this out into society. It's the only hope that we have that things will get better is if this Gospel prospers. And who is going to tell them if we don't go? And how will they believe if no one is sent? Let us take the Gospel to the world. Let us let the Word of God tear down these strongholds. Let the Word of God defeat enemies and accomplish these things for the sovereign work of our God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the great salvation that we have just considered. Lord, that Grace has appeared in our lives and has saved us from our former state. It is renewing us into your image. It has filled us with hope. And Lord, that this gospel working through and in us is also a means by which you spread the gospel in the world around us. Father, may we feel the depths of our sin May we see the beauties of our great salvation and forgiveness. May we be constant in affirming these things and adorning these things with good works. Do this by Your grace, by Your Spirit in us, to Your glory. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.
How Should We Then Live?
As born again Christians, we have been called out of this fallen world which we were once a part of, but we still live in it. How are we to live in this present age? Are we to build a monastery or a community comprised exclusively of fellow believers? Or are we to be salt and light amidst a dark and dying world? In this wonderful sermon, one of the faithful members of our church reminds us that we must remember from whence we have come, and to remember the character of the Great God who has saved us, and we must remember the great salvation that Christ has obtained for us. With these truths in view, we will be enabled to walk as we should in this fallen land in which we live.
ID do sermão | 3611211803 |
Duração | 59:43 |
Data | |
Categoria | Domingo - PM |
Texto da Bíblia | Tito 3:1-8 |
Linguagem | inglês |
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