WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:00.400 Amen. 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:02.640 Sake your Bible and go to the book of Titus. 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:04.799 Titus chapter three. 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:06.799 Titus chapter three. 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:22.640 Before Paul ever wrote a single command to Titus about the church there on Crete, he wrote something about that place. 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:33.600 He quoted one of their poets who said about them, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. 00:00:34.159 --> 00:00:38.640 And that's not an outside criticism of the culture of the Cretans. 00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:44.719 It is written from the inside, from someone who was one of them, their own poet. 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:50.960 I wondered if the Greeks were still saying the same things about the Cretans today. 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:55.200 And so I went on to Google and I put in a search. 00:00:55.439 --> 00:00:58.159 What is the reputation of Crete today? 00:00:58.320 --> 00:00:59.840 And this is what it said. 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:08.799 Cretans are widely stereotyped within Greece as proud, fiercely independent, and passionately traditional. 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:10.799 Is that right, Konstantinos? 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:13.120 No, he's saying no. 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:17.359 They're viewed by some as the Texans of Greece. 00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:25.840 I'm not sure exactly what they had in mind there, but they said they're known for their strong regional identity and warrior history. 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:33.439 Well, that sounds a lot better than always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. 00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:39.840 Well, last week, after I was service was over and I was walking back, uh, Konstantinos caught me. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:42.000 And Konstantinos is not from Crete. 00:01:42.159 --> 00:01:45.040 He's from the northern mountainous regions of Greece. 00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:47.599 And he said, he said, the Cretans are still like that. 00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:49.760 In fact, I think they're even worse. 00:01:53.599 --> 00:01:56.560 But what a di what what three phrases, right? 00:01:56.719 --> 00:02:00.000 Can you imagine that being said about your society? 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:03.760 These three words of diagnosis. 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:11.360 You know, when you sit down and you think about these words and you spend some time with them, it really does get uncomfortable. 00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:17.759 And not just uncomfortable about thinking about Crete, but uncomfortable about thinking about our society. 00:02:19.919 --> 00:02:21.280 Always liars. 00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:35.199 A culture that's organized around the management of the truth, a culture that is crafting a narrative and deploying it for the service of preferred outcomes rather than the truth. 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:45.120 You know, you've been reading the news this week, and it doesn't matter which outlet you've been getting your news from, some of that's in there. 00:02:45.840 --> 00:03:04.879 Evil beasts, aggressive, self-willed, driven by appetite and dominance, a culture whose posture is combative, who rewards the sharpest edge, who applauds those who are willing to fight. 00:03:06.639 --> 00:03:08.080 Lazy gluttons. 00:03:09.199 --> 00:03:14.000 A culture in which appetite is primary and where self is the center. 00:03:14.960 --> 00:03:28.240 An economy that's developed not in order to fulfill needs that people actually have, but in the manufacturing of things that they tell people they want and want and want some more. 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:17.439 No, he's doing something completely different here. 00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:30.879 He's saying that the church needs to be a community of people whose visible public life is a credible demonstration of the gospel, that the gospel does what it says it does. 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:32.560 It changes people. 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:44.079 That they are to be a people whose reputation in the society is one of gentleness, graciousness, honesty, and service. 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:56.560 And when the church's proclamation and the church's life melds together in that kind of concert effort, amazing things happen. 00:04:57.519 --> 00:05:05.600 You see, the world is seeing arguments, and the world is tired of arguments, and they have their own arguments. 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:13.839 But what the world has not seen enough of is a genuinely different kind of person. 00:05:16.399 --> 00:05:25.040 The church is not to be a subculture in our society, nor are we supposed to be a counterculture in our society. 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:37.759 Rather, we are a people who are transformed from within, who present to this public a different kind of person altogether. 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:45.680 A person who is capable, against all cultural odds, to be always gracious. 00:05:47.040 --> 00:05:52.240 Now, the cultural conditions that we're in have often been called a culture war. 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:59.600 And that says something, that phrase, that the stakes are real, that the conflicts are real. 00:05:59.839 --> 00:06:13.920 And if we started to list all the things that are parts of that cultural warfare, we could easily find ourselves several areas in which all of us lay on one side of the war rather than the other. 00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:16.560 It doesn't take long to do that. 00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:32.399 But the temptation is this the temptation is to respond to that war as a combatant, to fight the culture on its own turns, and to fight the culture with its own weapons. 00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:35.600 But Paul has something to say about that. 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:38.639 Listen to what he says in 2 Corinthians. 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:44.480 Though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:55.920 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are mighty from God to the pulling down of strongholds. 00:06:56.639 --> 00:07:04.160 You see, the church is in a kingdom battle for souls, and that is primary and most important. 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:22.879 If we were to shift the cultural temperature one or two degrees further closer to us and leave those people lost in their eternal damnation, well, we've lost the battle. 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:29.040 Because we're not to engage with the same things that they engage with. 00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:36.639 We're not here with the same weapons, and we're not to measure our engagement with the same outcomes. 00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:40.879 We don't operate with a logic of conflict. 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:47.120 We don't operate with the economics of outrage, and we don't applaud the most aggressive person in the room. 00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:50.720 There is something different God wants us to be. 00:07:50.959 --> 00:07:58.560 And let me give you a picture of that by talking about a man who is a professor at Oxford University, a believer. 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:00.480 His name is John Lennox. 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:06.639 And he's probably the most composed person in a room where everybody showed up to watch a fight. 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:16.079 And over the past two decades, he's walked into the debates with hostile conversations being thrown at him. 00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:22.319 He's had debates with Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and Peter Singer and Lawrence Krauss. 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:33.440 All of these men have written books that explain with their considerable confidence that anybody who believes in God has simply not thought carefully enough. 00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:37.519 And John Lennox has come into the room with these guys. 00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:44.080 He's come into auditoriums filled with people who've come to watch somebody lose. 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:47.919 And they think they know exactly who that's going to be. 00:08:48.960 --> 00:09:05.679 And he's engaged these men and these audiences respectfully, rigorously, yes, but without anger and without the sharpness that says he's more concerned about winning the argument than engaging the person. 00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:11.279 And the people who have watched him have noticed a difference. 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:20.720 And the reason why they've noticed it is because he acted in a way they never expected anybody to act. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:26.080 And this is exactly what Paul is saying here in Titus chapter 3. 00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:31.600 He's not telling us to have fewer convictions, by no means. 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:35.279 He's not telling us to soften our theology. 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:56.639 What he's telling us is that our engagement in this culture is to be an engagement, the kind of engagement that this culture has no category for knowing. 00:09:57.200 --> 00:09:59.279 That's what he's telling us. 00:10:00.639 --> 00:10:18.720 And once you realize that and you start to look for how to have that posture, Paul is very clear in saying that the only way that you can engage culture in the way that he introduces here in this chapter is if you know exactly who you were before grace reached you. 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:20.320 It starts there. 00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:27.519 And it's imperative because every person that we meet is an eternal soul. 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:45.679 Every person who's on the other side of whatever conflict is in public debate today, every person who is hostile to everything that we believe and cherish, every person whose moral choices are absolutely repugnant or bewildering to us. 00:10:47.600 --> 00:10:58.720 Every person, even inside this congregation that is testing the limits of your patience, they're never dying souls. 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:01.200 Every single one of them. 00:11:10.879 --> 00:11:14.320 And so that is the proposition of this passage. 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:18.080 And that is the proposition of this message this morning. 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:24.559 Because Paul is not giving Titus just a doctrinal summary to post up on the congregation's wall. 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:29.519 He's here to give us the content of a memory that we are to carry with us. 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:41.120 Because if we remember who we are before grace and we remember what grace is like when it reaches us, then we're capable of being the kind of people that God wants us to be in our society. 00:11:42.320 --> 00:11:51.600 If you could distill all of this down to one phrase, the memory of all of that is not the background of our engagement in society. 00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:57.679 The memory of all of that is the engine of our engagement in this society. 00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:18.960 Last week we looked at verses one to three, and there we saw the content of what it meant to be or what we're to meant to show and demonstrate in our society, to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to slander no one, to avoid fighting, to be kind, to always show gentleness to all people. 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:32.720 But we also introduced the memory, part one of the memory, the memory that we're to lay into our hearts deeply and keep in front of us as the engine of our engagement. 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:47.759 We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, enslaved to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hating and hating one another. 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:51.039 That's part of the memory that we need to keep in place. 00:12:52.320 --> 00:13:00.240 This morning we're going to look at verses four to seven, and we're going to see the positive side of the memory that's to be locked in as the engine of our engagement. 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:04.159 And what we see here is grace as an event. 00:13:04.480 --> 00:13:07.200 Grace is something that's happened to us. 00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:11.679 Grace is what we keep in front of us as we meet people. 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:25.120 Because the moment our memory of who we were and what God has intervened to do in our lives fades away, we become useless for the work of the kingdom in our public engagement. 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:28.960 This is vital that we keep this locked in. 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:38.559 So this morning I want us to see grace in three different aspects: grace that appeared, grace that is applied, and grace that anchors. 00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:43.200 Let's look at verse four and we'll see the first part that grace appeared. 00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:51.679 But when the kindness of God, our Savior, and his love for mankind appeared. 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:55.200 I want you to take note of those first two words. 00:13:55.519 --> 00:13:56.159 But when? 00:13:58.159 --> 00:14:03.360 Notice that grace here is appearing, and it's not doing so by invitation. 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:11.440 And it's not doing so by being in a place where the response is ready for its arrival. 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:20.879 He's not saying that grace has appeared when the darkness has finally prepared itself to be at a level in which it can receive grace. 00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:24.480 Grace just shows up. 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:27.279 Grace arrives. 00:14:31.919 --> 00:14:36.159 Think about the sunshine when it comes, the sunrise. 00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:42.480 The darkness of the night is not gradually improving until it's worthy of the sun showing up. 00:14:44.399 --> 00:14:48.399 It doesn't cooperate, it doesn't prepare itself for welcome. 00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:56.639 The sun engages that darkness, and the darkness has nothing to contribute but to yield itself to the presence. 00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:00.320 And this is what Paul is talking about here. 00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:02.399 This is the kind of word he uses. 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:14.159 That grace doesn't just show up as human, the human condition gradually develops itself up until the place in which it could get a little extra boost from God's help. 00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:22.240 No, the goodness and the loving kindness of God appeared in the middle of a dark world. 00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:27.360 It appeared in the middle of an enslaved, hating, and hated darkness. 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:30.879 And in the middle of all that, it shows up. 00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:34.639 What shows up? 00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:41.360 Not his judgment, not his anger, not his wrath, not his what is it? 00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:44.559 The goodness and loving kindness of God. 00:15:49.360 --> 00:15:50.799 It's astounding. 00:15:51.919 --> 00:16:00.639 Because in the face of verse three culture, I'm not sure goodness and loving kindness would be our first impulse. 00:16:03.279 --> 00:16:07.039 And Paul reaches for a wonderful word here. 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:10.159 And if you want to know more about it, you can talk to Konstantinos. 00:16:11.519 --> 00:16:15.120 His love for mankind appeared. 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:18.000 And that's a great word. 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:26.960 In fact, the Greeks had a particular use for it in ancient days, and they never, never used it for their gods. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:32.720 They never talked about their gods as having a love for humans. 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:56.960 A person who actually cares for the people that he has charge over, that shows up among the people that he's managing, who feels and moves into the needs that they have in order to find the answer for them. 00:16:59.200 --> 00:17:01.279 That's the word that he's using here. 00:17:01.440 --> 00:17:08.319 And he takes that word, and for the first time in Greek culture, they hear it put on God. 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:15.119 His love for mankind appeared. 00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:37.200 That means when God showed up in this verse three lifestyle that everybody was living in, in that always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons culture, that he wasn't just tolerating them as he was executing his plan. 00:17:39.119 --> 00:17:42.480 He was moved by what's happening to the human race. 00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:46.000 That he looks down. 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:53.519 Just as the scriptures say that God takes no delight in the death of the wicked. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:09.200 As Jesus cried to rebellious Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How I would have gathered you, but you would not. 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:13.759 Hold on to that. 00:18:13.920 --> 00:18:19.359 That's the love of God speaking in the face of rebellion. 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:26.640 And hold on to it because this is not just what opens up our personal testimonies. 00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:32.799 This is the posture of our engagement with our culture. 00:18:33.519 --> 00:18:40.240 This is the posture of how what determines how we interact with people every day. 00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:56.640 That means the person who is combative and difficult, is a person that God came into the world with his love for mankind for. 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:03.839 That the person whose moral choices are bewildering is in that same category. 00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:14.960 A person into whose life and culture God, because of his goodness and his loving-kindness and his love for mankind appeared. 00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:24.960 A person who's openly hostile to the faith, hostile to our church, hostile to us personally, same condition. 00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:43.920 The person who's been genuinely difficult to live with, who's wounded you without a word of trying to repair the relationship, the person who is committed to test you every day, same condition. 00:19:47.279 --> 00:19:49.039 And that's us too. 00:19:49.680 --> 00:19:51.119 Because we're saved. 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:56.559 We're saved because the love of God appeared. 00:19:57.759 --> 00:19:58.880 That's it. 00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:24.960 And this appearance that Paul's talking about in his day, when he's talking about this first century Cretan culture in which he showed up with loving, kindness, and goodness and a disposition of love and compassion toward people, it's the same God who's interacting with our generation and our culture. 00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:46.079 No, his goodness and his loving kindness has moved to people who are still in this condition. 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:55.680 And remembering that is what keeps our posture engaged in the way God wants it to be. 00:20:56.480 --> 00:21:08.079 It's not sentiment that changes how we interact, and it's not a motivational framework that operates in how we interact. 00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:11.119 It's the remembrance of the grace of God. 00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:19.200 Now, you might be in this room today wondering if the gospel has any word for you whatsoever. 00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:25.920 And perhaps you've come into this morning, into the service this morning, and you've been asking yourself some serious questions. 00:21:26.319 --> 00:21:34.400 And you've been looking upon this congregation with more skepticism than hope, watching whether the gospel is real. 00:21:35.200 --> 00:21:37.440 And I want to say something to you. 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:48.000 The God who has appeared to save has appeared not to ask you to brush yourself up or to clean yourself up. 00:21:48.640 --> 00:21:52.480 He is coming into the middle of who you are right now. 00:21:53.119 --> 00:21:59.440 He has come just as he's come to each of us who could look at verse 3 and say, That is. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:04.319 Me if I want to be honest about myself before a holy God. 00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:17.200 And the word, but when is just as relevant to your life as it was to these people that day and to us today. 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:19.440 Let's move to point two. 00:22:19.920 --> 00:22:23.039 Not only the grace that appeared, but the grace that applied. 00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:25.680 And take a look at verse five. 00:22:27.119 --> 00:22:28.960 Such beautiful words. 00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:30.880 He saved us. 00:22:31.519 --> 00:22:32.960 He saved us. 00:22:33.759 --> 00:22:48.480 Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his mercy, his own mercy, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Spirit. 00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:54.640 And if verse 4 tells us what the character of God is like, verse 5 tells us what that character did. 00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:56.559 It saved us. 00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:04.319 God's goodness, God's loving kindness, God's love for mankind, his grace saves us. 00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:12.880 And it tells us what happened and what it didn't need in order for us to be saved people. 00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:15.200 And he starts off with that negation. 00:23:15.359 --> 00:23:19.920 He says, not because of works done by us in righteousness. 00:23:21.039 --> 00:23:23.279 Just think about that for a second. 00:23:23.759 --> 00:23:34.160 Paul is clearing the air in an instant with just a few words and saying, look, this is not about whether or not your works are sufficient or insufficient. 00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:42.640 This is not about whether you've contributed or not contributed some meaningful portion to your development toward salvation. 00:23:44.079 --> 00:23:51.519 What he's saying here is that the ground of salvation is located completely outside of who you are. 00:23:53.839 --> 00:24:03.599 There is no level, no proportion, no degree, total exclusion of any contribution that you make to that salvation. 00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:07.519 Not by works done by us in righteousness. 00:24:08.720 --> 00:24:11.279 You are not saved by being a good person. 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:14.319 You're not saved by saying, I'll be a better person. 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:17.839 You're not saved by some religious activity or form. 00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:24.000 You are not saved by anything that you could do in any way, shape, or form. 00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:29.440 This is what saves you, according to his own mercy. 00:24:30.640 --> 00:24:34.559 And that is a level ground all of us can be on. 00:24:36.160 --> 00:24:37.680 His own mercy. 00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:40.480 And it's interesting he chose that word mercy here. 00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:44.799 He doesn't choose the word grace, he uses the word mercy. 00:24:45.759 --> 00:24:53.599 Now, grace is responding to a judicial need, giving us something we don't deserve. 00:24:55.279 --> 00:25:00.400 Giving us a person something to a person who has no standing, no right to be in the room. 00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:04.000 But mercy responds to something different. 00:25:04.640 --> 00:25:07.440 Mercy responds to misery. 00:25:08.480 --> 00:25:17.759 Mercy responds to the wretchedness of a person who is suffering, who is stuck, and who doesn't have the ability to get themselves out of the ditch. 00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:19.519 That's mercy. 00:25:20.640 --> 00:25:22.480 And that's what we need. 00:25:22.640 --> 00:25:24.319 In fact, we need them both. 00:25:24.559 --> 00:25:27.440 They're not meant to be held in opposites of one another. 00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:29.599 They're bound together as one. 00:25:29.839 --> 00:25:31.359 Grace and mercy. 00:25:32.079 --> 00:25:36.640 And what we have here is a portrait of a people who are exactly that. 00:25:37.440 --> 00:25:42.480 And this condition that verse 3 describes: enslaved people. 00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:45.839 And they're miserable. 00:25:46.319 --> 00:25:47.599 They're miserable. 00:25:47.839 --> 00:25:50.160 They may not tell you they're miserable. 00:25:50.400 --> 00:25:54.559 And the kind of car they drive around the neighborhood doesn't look like they're miserable. 00:25:54.799 --> 00:26:00.079 And the size of their house might tell you something far different about whether they're miserable or not. 00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:02.160 But I want to say something. 00:26:02.480 --> 00:26:03.839 They're miserable. 00:26:06.160 --> 00:26:10.480 I worked at the Towers of Chestnut Hill in the Boston area. 00:26:10.640 --> 00:26:18.240 And at the time, those condominiums were going for, well, far more than my security guard imagination could reach. 00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:28.160 And every day I worked there, I interacted with that community of people who lived in those twin towers. 00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:33.920 And every day I walked away and said, These are the grumpiest people I've ever met in my life. 00:26:35.839 --> 00:26:40.000 Especially when I had to have their car towed off of the front semicircle. 00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:41.759 They didn't like that a bit. 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:46.880 But enslaved people are miserable people. 00:26:48.640 --> 00:26:53.279 People led astray, can't find their way back, they're miserable. 00:26:54.000 --> 00:27:03.200 People passing their days in malice and envy, hated and hating one another, they're in a group of guilty parties and they're miserable. 00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:13.039 What's amazing about this is this is exactly the mercy of God moving toward that. 00:27:17.119 --> 00:27:17.759 Wow. 00:27:21.440 --> 00:27:25.920 We need to keep that in view as we think about people and as we engage people. 00:27:27.039 --> 00:27:31.279 We need to think about them as more than just in a particular moral category. 00:27:31.519 --> 00:27:33.519 We need to remember their plight. 00:27:33.839 --> 00:27:40.799 That not only are they experiencing misery, their eternal destination is one that is most miserable. 00:27:42.400 --> 00:27:48.799 That beneath whatever they're presenting is a person in turmoil because they are not right with God. 00:27:50.960 --> 00:28:10.079 And we have to ask ourselves this question: is the way that I'm interacting with people, have I unwittingly, or perhaps even wittingly, brought into my way of thinking about others as I interact with them some system of merit? 00:28:11.119 --> 00:28:16.160 Am I saying, have they earned the right for me to be kind to them? 00:28:16.799 --> 00:28:20.880 Have they earned the right for me to show them mercy? 00:28:22.079 --> 00:28:28.160 Have they done something that's allowed me to soften my posture toward them? 00:28:28.559 --> 00:28:34.559 And we've re-engaged this idea of merit into how we operate with people. 00:28:34.720 --> 00:28:50.480 And what Paul is saying here is we in our misery have been saved because we have been saved by that mercy-loving God who's moved toward us in our misery. 00:28:51.440 --> 00:28:52.079 Amen. 00:28:54.720 --> 00:28:59.839 And so let's see what this mercy does, because it's a beautiful passage. 00:29:00.079 --> 00:29:15.359 When the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, he saved us, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing by the Holy Spirit. 00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:25.839 Now, Paul, when he describes the work of the Holy Spirit here, he uses the same word that's the root of the word of the very first word of the Bible. 00:29:26.640 --> 00:29:32.799 This regenesis in the beginning, this recreation of us. 00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:43.839 And he's telling us that our salvation is not about building a revised edition of who we are, some new and improved product for the world to enjoy. 00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:48.880 We have not simply been redirected to better habits. 00:29:50.880 --> 00:29:54.559 We've been recreated from the very root of who we are. 00:29:56.960 --> 00:30:10.319 The God who said, Let there be light into the darkness of Genesis 1 has said, Let the light of the glorious gospel of Christ shine in your heart. 00:30:11.440 --> 00:30:13.279 And he's made you new. 00:30:13.599 --> 00:30:22.319 And Paul is pulling out of the Old Testament when he does this, not only in Genesis 1, but also out of the book of Ezekiel in chapter 36. 00:30:24.880 --> 00:30:27.759 Because Ezekiel was writing to a people in exile. 00:30:27.920 --> 00:30:28.880 Just think about that. 00:30:29.119 --> 00:30:39.119 People who have been pulled out of Jerusalem, whose temple has been completely destroyed, and for 70 years they're going to be in a place of slavery because of their sin. 00:30:40.640 --> 00:30:57.519 And there they are, back there in that land, foreign, strange land, broken, without a temple, without a land, without any visible reason to think that God has done nothing other than to just leave them forever where they're at. 00:30:59.119 --> 00:31:03.279 And into that condition, God makes a promise that Ezekiel proclaims. 00:31:03.680 --> 00:31:07.839 Listen to it, because it resonates with what's said here. 00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:39.119 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all of your uncleannesses, and from all of your idols I will cleanse you, and I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. 00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:47.279 I don't know if you could do the arithmetic while I was reading that, but count the subjects there and the verbs. 00:31:47.599 --> 00:31:52.319 I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will. 00:31:53.279 --> 00:32:00.480 Divine commitment on God's part, and not a single verb that asked us to contribute. 00:32:02.240 --> 00:32:07.440 The grammar has left no room for a co-author for our salvation. 00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:08.960 Not a one. 00:32:10.480 --> 00:32:24.559 And Paul here in Titus 3 is announcing that this promise of God's I wills is being worked through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. 00:32:24.880 --> 00:32:28.319 He's saying, This is the answer, the gospel. 00:32:30.319 --> 00:32:36.000 The God of this passage of this ancient promise is a God who's alive today. 00:32:47.839 --> 00:32:50.079 And this renewal has not finished. 00:32:54.799 --> 00:33:01.519 Continuing to begin that work that he started with his own initiative and one he says he'll finish. 00:33:02.799 --> 00:33:04.640 All of this matters. 00:33:05.119 --> 00:33:08.799 All of this matters for how we engage every person we encounter. 00:33:09.039 --> 00:33:16.559 This memory of who we were and what God has done in his mercy is the engine that drives our engagement. 00:33:19.440 --> 00:33:39.920 And if we live our life as if we are asking others to merit our kindness and our mercy, if we're thinking, I'll return in kind what you I've gotten from you, we are in the place of having forgotten what God has done. 00:33:42.720 --> 00:33:56.240 Because if we forget, consciously or unconsciously, we're going to give more of a pass to the person who's gained some merit with us rather than the one that has no merit to offer us. 00:33:56.799 --> 00:34:05.759 We're going to find ourselves more patient with the person who's earned some of those markers than someone who's never even tried. 00:34:06.720 --> 00:34:16.159 We're going to be more willing to extend grace whose verse three condition is just seen in more quiet ways rather than the more blatant ways. 00:34:17.119 --> 00:34:25.920 Because we have to operate out of grace, not out of merit. 00:34:26.320 --> 00:34:31.039 Because we've been given grace, not judged according to merit. 00:34:34.639 --> 00:34:36.239 Let's take a look at the last point. 00:34:36.320 --> 00:34:39.440 I'm going to skip over a few things just to bring us to this last point. 00:34:39.760 --> 00:34:43.519 And I want us to just understand just how anchoring this grace is. 00:34:43.679 --> 00:35:00.960 This grace that appeared, this grace that's applied to us, this grace that's now anchoring, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by grace we might become heirs to the hope of eternal life. 00:35:01.440 --> 00:35:02.800 Think about that for a second. 00:35:02.960 --> 00:35:04.320 What is this salvation? 00:35:04.559 --> 00:35:05.920 What is this mercy? 00:35:06.159 --> 00:35:08.559 What is all of this that he's given us? 00:35:08.719 --> 00:35:10.320 It's poured out. 00:35:13.360 --> 00:35:19.039 You know, not like uh, you know, three grams. 00:35:20.239 --> 00:35:22.159 Well, let's make it four. 00:35:24.400 --> 00:35:37.360 Poured out, poured out, effusive, not dispensed carefully, not measured with exactness, poured out richly, abundantly, nothing held back. 00:35:39.599 --> 00:35:42.400 Through Jesus Christ our Savior. 00:35:42.800 --> 00:35:45.039 Now that's an important phrase. 00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:47.360 Think about what we've just heard here. 00:35:47.599 --> 00:35:58.639 We've talked about the love of the Father, we've talked about the work of the Spirit, and now we're talking about the Son who is pouring out this salvation. 00:35:58.880 --> 00:36:05.440 This is a triune salvation, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit and one rescue. 00:36:06.239 --> 00:36:15.920 Now, let's stop here for just a moment and let me just leave aside for a second our main thesis of the engine that engages. 00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:21.519 I want to talk to perhaps someone in this room who wakes up at 3 a.m. 00:36:22.320 --> 00:36:41.840 and is filled with anxieties and doubts about whether or not God loves you, who sits very quietly wondering if you've done something or failed in somehow, or haven't quite measured up in such a way that you could live with grace covering everything. 00:36:43.360 --> 00:36:46.159 I want you to hear what this text has to say. 00:36:48.559 --> 00:37:00.159 Your rescue doesn't unravel based upon how consistent you are, or how good you've been, or what you've accomplished. 00:37:01.039 --> 00:37:07.280 In order for salvation to fall apart, the Father would have to give up his promise. 00:37:11.119 --> 00:37:14.559 And the Spirit would have to stop his renewing work. 00:37:17.199 --> 00:37:19.920 All three of them, all at once. 00:37:21.920 --> 00:37:28.079 The Trinity is not a committee that occasionally gets misaligned with one another. 00:37:28.320 --> 00:37:35.519 They work in concert with each other, and it is one God and three persons who executes one rescue. 00:37:35.920 --> 00:37:40.960 And he's made a determination that what he's begun, he is going to finish. 00:37:41.920 --> 00:37:43.599 And so, yes, your 3 a.m. 00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:45.599 doubt might be very, very real. 00:37:48.639 --> 00:37:58.239 But it's not meant to be a load-bearing guilt or doubt, because the load-bearing your salvation is based upon God and his activity. 00:37:59.440 --> 00:38:09.039 Now, let's look back in the text and see just how this grace anchors us, because he talks about two gifts that we receive. 00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:25.840 He said that we receive through the pouring out of Jesus Christ abundantly on us by the Spirit, that we receive justification by his grace and heirs with the hope of eternal life. 00:38:26.320 --> 00:38:29.599 I can't think of two better gifts to receive than those two. 00:38:30.480 --> 00:38:31.760 Justification. 00:38:32.320 --> 00:38:33.119 Think about that. 00:38:33.280 --> 00:38:34.400 What is justification? 00:38:34.559 --> 00:38:35.840 It's a legal term. 00:38:36.079 --> 00:38:44.079 It's God examining the full case of who we are, the full case of what our life deserves. 00:38:44.400 --> 00:38:52.480 And he's not looking at some highlight reel of our activities or some curated list of things that we wanted to present. 00:38:52.800 --> 00:38:58.480 Everything inside and outside of us, every unflattering detail. 00:38:58.800 --> 00:39:01.119 And what is his verdict about us? 00:39:01.679 --> 00:39:06.400 Not just not guilty, declared righteous. 00:39:07.280 --> 00:39:09.119 Declared righteous. 00:39:09.920 --> 00:39:13.360 No, hey, we're gonna hold off until you improve a little bit. 00:39:13.599 --> 00:39:18.960 No, we'll wait till the next quarter is finished and see how you do, and we'll give you probation until then. 00:39:19.599 --> 00:39:25.679 No, declared righteous, justified by his grace. 00:39:26.480 --> 00:39:36.559 The verdict is in, the gavel has fallen, and the case is closed, and he says, declared righteous. 00:39:37.599 --> 00:39:38.960 What a gift. 00:39:40.239 --> 00:39:44.079 There's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, Paul said. 00:39:44.400 --> 00:39:45.039 None. 00:39:47.199 --> 00:39:51.360 And the second, the inheritance of what? 00:39:52.239 --> 00:39:56.480 The inheritance with the hope of eternal life. 00:39:57.360 --> 00:40:00.159 Now there's a distinction that's worth making here. 00:40:01.039 --> 00:40:10.800 Because there are two things that can look similar from a distance, but they are categorically different at the very core, and they are absolutely not to be mixed. 00:40:11.119 --> 00:40:17.679 There is a wage that is earned, and there's an inheritance that is received. 00:40:18.000 --> 00:40:24.800 And here what says that we are heirs, we are recipients of an inheritance. 00:40:25.599 --> 00:40:27.679 A wage is earned. 00:40:28.159 --> 00:40:37.199 You work, you produce, you perform, and you expect to get some remuneration based upon the effort that you've put in. 00:40:37.440 --> 00:40:38.559 That's work. 00:40:39.440 --> 00:40:44.480 It's a logical system and it's calibrated to push our performance. 00:40:44.800 --> 00:40:49.039 But an inheritance, on the other hand, is something totally different. 00:40:49.519 --> 00:40:53.119 It's received because of whose family we're in. 00:40:54.480 --> 00:40:58.239 And the air doesn't earn a place at the table. 00:40:59.280 --> 00:41:00.639 We're born in. 00:41:01.119 --> 00:41:02.800 We are adopted in. 00:41:03.039 --> 00:41:04.960 We are acted upon. 00:41:05.679 --> 00:41:11.599 We are given what belongs to the head of the family who makes it generously available to us. 00:41:11.840 --> 00:41:19.440 And what God has given us by adopting us as one of his own is he's given us an inheritance of the hope of eternal life. 00:41:19.840 --> 00:41:21.679 What a wonder that is. 00:41:22.239 --> 00:41:26.800 So our standing before God is one of inheritance, not debt. 00:41:27.039 --> 00:41:31.519 We're not here to earn our way, we're here to receive all that he has for us. 00:41:33.599 --> 00:41:37.199 So let's talk about that according to who we are today. 00:41:38.719 --> 00:41:53.440 If we're in this room and we're thinking we need to perform, that we're doing the work, that we're trying to be faithful, we're trying to be consistent, we're trying to be present, and we carry this low-level anxiety of whether or not we've done enough. 00:41:53.599 --> 00:42:01.440 Let me tell you this: there's no way these gifts are going to be yours because they are not earned, they're granted. 00:42:03.440 --> 00:42:08.719 The verdict is not about whether or not you have become righteous enough. 00:42:08.960 --> 00:42:13.760 It's about whether or not God has declared you to be righteous. 00:42:14.800 --> 00:42:19.599 And perhaps you're in this room and you've been filled this week with a lot of failure. 00:42:20.320 --> 00:42:27.119 That you've gone through things this week that you would rather not anybody notice or examine. 00:42:29.840 --> 00:42:33.519 Your standing with God is not performance contingent. 00:42:34.159 --> 00:42:38.000 It's not based upon whether you had a good week this week. 00:42:39.760 --> 00:42:56.000 What it is meant to do when we have those times is to drive us back to the mercy of verse five and to remember what we really are and who God really is and what he's really done for us. 00:42:58.079 --> 00:43:14.320 And if you're in this room today and you said, you know, I have been operating with others in this sort of mechanism of merit, and I have been measuring my mercy based upon what I'm getting from them. 00:43:17.199 --> 00:43:22.400 You're acting like a wage earner, and you're making others act like wage earners. 00:43:22.880 --> 00:43:27.280 You're causing them to have to earn what you give them. 00:43:27.599 --> 00:43:41.920 And this passage is all about God giving us something in complete contradiction to who we are, and not once asking us to do something in order to gain his mercy or his loving kindness or his goodness. 00:43:43.519 --> 00:43:54.480 You see, if you operate in this mechanism of merit, you're going to hold it tight because you've only got so much you can give out. 00:43:55.599 --> 00:43:57.519 And you're going to protect it. 00:43:58.159 --> 00:44:09.199 But when you operate out Out of the abundant eternal well of God's love and mercy who's been showered upon you, you don't have to protect anything. 00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:12.159 You know what God has done for you. 00:44:12.480 --> 00:44:17.760 He has poured out all of that love and mercy and inheritance upon you. 00:44:17.920 --> 00:44:27.039 And you you don't need to see if you've got the reserves to be merciful, because you've got eternal mercy that saved you. 00:44:27.440 --> 00:44:29.440 And you can operate out of that. 00:44:29.599 --> 00:44:32.960 And you can be always gracious. 00:44:33.360 --> 00:44:34.880 Always gracious. 00:44:35.199 --> 00:44:39.280 You can extend to others what's been poured out on you. 00:44:40.239 --> 00:44:42.800 And this is what this passage has been about. 00:44:43.199 --> 00:44:46.880 It's been about how we interact in a public way. 00:44:47.280 --> 00:44:53.599 Because the public is not just waiting for the right argument, they're looking for a different person. 00:44:54.400 --> 00:44:59.199 And God tells us that the gospel makes us different people. 00:45:00.079 --> 00:45:12.880 And when we bring the good news and the transformation of that good news in our life together, and we bring them together in concert, what a difference that's going to make. 00:45:13.440 --> 00:45:17.360 We're going to engage the kingdom battle in the way that God wants. 00:45:18.079 --> 00:45:22.320 And the way to do that is to keep that memory fresh. 00:45:23.119 --> 00:45:29.920 Not in the background, but as I've said, the engine of our engagement. 00:45:30.719 --> 00:45:32.559 Let's pray together. 00:45:35.519 --> 00:45:39.440 Father, I pray that you would watch over us. 00:45:41.679 --> 00:45:48.480 Lord, that you would help us to remember the thing that you've asked us to keep alive. 00:45:49.920 --> 00:45:55.760 And Father, we want to confess that we too often let go of that memory. 00:45:56.239 --> 00:45:59.280 And we do so more often than we'd like to admit. 00:46:00.480 --> 00:46:06.400 Lord, we live in the world in which verse 3 is loud and proud. 00:46:08.639 --> 00:46:13.119 And the pressure to become a combatant in that culture is very, very real. 00:46:14.559 --> 00:46:26.639 And the temptation to forget the condition of your loving kindness and what it appeared into, our condition, is a temptation we yield to more often than we should. 00:46:28.079 --> 00:46:30.079 So remind us, Lord. 00:46:31.280 --> 00:46:44.079 Remind us that what appeared into our darkness was not something in response to our readiness, but you who could not look at us and leave us where we were. 00:46:45.119 --> 00:46:51.360 That your mercy reached us in a condition of being just like everyone else. 00:46:53.360 --> 00:47:06.079 Lord, help us to remember that and to look at every soul and every person we encounter this week, whether they're difficult or hostile or just filled with the things that verse 3 talks about. 00:47:07.679 --> 00:47:20.880 We ask, Lord, that the washing that regenerated us would keep renewing us, keep pouring out on us richly, and would produce in us what we need to be. 00:47:21.280 --> 00:47:25.119 To be the kind of people that move through this broken world with open hands. 00:47:25.920 --> 00:47:33.199 That we don't interact as combatants that are protecting us side, but as heirs that are extending a mercy that can't be spent down. 00:47:35.920 --> 00:47:42.239 Father, I also want to pray for every person here who's not feeling very stable this morning. 00:47:43.119 --> 00:47:48.719 And remind them that the title of salvation is held by you, not by them. 00:47:49.679 --> 00:47:56.960 And that the gavel of declared righteousness fell on a verdict that you rendered. 00:47:57.440 --> 00:48:03.360 And that the ground beneath them is not how they perform, but according to your mercy. 00:48:05.280 --> 00:48:13.199 Father, I also want to pray for anyone in this room who does not yet know of this inheritance that can be theirs. 00:48:14.079 --> 00:48:33.679