SPEAKER_00: Well good morning, church.
SPEAKER_00: We are once again privileged to come together and sit under the preached word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Brian has chosen for his text today the third chapter of Titus.
SPEAKER_00: If you would please stand with me if you're able, and I will read it for you.
SPEAKER_00: Titus chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.
SPEAKER_00: For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice, envy, hateful, hating one another.
SPEAKER_00: But when the kindness of God, our Savior, and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us.
SPEAKER_00: Not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: This is a trustworthy statement.
SPEAKER_00: And concerning these things, I want to speak to you confidently.
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds.
SPEAKER_00: These things are good and profitable for men.
SPEAKER_00: But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, and strife and disputes about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.
SPEAKER_00: Reject a factitious man after a first and second warning.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.
SPEAKER_00: When I send Artemis or Tychicus to you, make every effort to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the wither there.
SPEAKER_00: Diligently help Zenus the lawyer and Apollos on their way so that nothing is lacking for them.
SPEAKER_00: Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds, to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful.
SPEAKER_00: All who are with me greet you.
SPEAKER_00: Greet those who love us in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: Grace be with you all.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Brian, please come.
SPEAKER_01: Father, you are most gracious.
SPEAKER_01: You are all glorious.
SPEAKER_01: You are all powerful.
SPEAKER_01: You are wonderful beyond belief.
SPEAKER_01: You are holy, holy, holy.
SPEAKER_01: And we come before you recognizing this, realizing who we are in light of this, clinging to you and your grace.
SPEAKER_01: So, Father, this is so true as we come to worship in the Word, and we just ask you that your name would be exalted, that we would be changed as we see Christ, as we see ourselves, and as we marvel at your goodness.
SPEAKER_01: Father, lead and guide our hearts to worship now.
SPEAKER_01: We pray in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And well, if you are in Christ, if you are a Christian, I want you to remember where you've come from.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to remember your testimony.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to remember where you've come from as we dive into this third chapter of the book of Titus.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what the Lord has done in your life?
SPEAKER_01: For those of you here this morning that have repented and confessed Christ as Lord and Savior, I want you to think back right now in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: When was it that you became a follower of Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_01: When were you adopted by the Father and made co-heir?
SPEAKER_01: When was it that you turned to Him for the forgiveness of sins?
SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it was a day, maybe it was a season.
SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
SPEAKER_01: For any who are here and listening that have not done this, if you have not been changed and transformed by the saving grace of God, if you do not see Jesus as your Lord, your Savior, then listen to the word of God this morning and reflect on what you hear today.
SPEAKER_01: But for those of you who have turned to Christ, who are in Christ, I want you to think back.
SPEAKER_01: Remember who you were.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what the Lord has done in your heart and through your life as you live for his glory.
SPEAKER_01: Think fondly of that time.
SPEAKER_01: Think fondly of that season.
SPEAKER_01: Consider it an absolute immense privilege that you have that time, that season to recall.
SPEAKER_01: Reflect affectionately on the grace of your God in your life as we go through this message.
SPEAKER_01: So have that on your minds.
SPEAKER_01: In the first two verses of our text for today, we see really what it is is a continuation of what Paul has been getting at all along in this letter.
SPEAKER_01: I know we're diving into the third chapter, and next week we'll be in Galatians.
SPEAKER_01: So I just real quick, in chapter one, Paul speaks of the need of the leaders of the church to be godly men who lead with passionate and fierce loyalty to the word alone and to the people.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 2 begins to speak of what discipleship looks like in the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I would say there's probably not another passage of scripture that details out what day-to-day discipleship looks like more than this little book does.
SPEAKER_01: It's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: There's a reason why we call it one of the pastoral epistles or letters.
SPEAKER_01: And so, dovetailing nicely here, in the beginning of this third chapter that was just read, we see Paul just continuing to instruct them on how to live.
SPEAKER_01: He says in verse 1 that we are to remember to be good citizens.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian should be the citizen that everybody wants to live next to.
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, sometimes we find it's the opposite.
SPEAKER_01: Because if it doesn't defy the word of God nor the conscience of the believer in light of the word of God, the Christian is to be the citizen with the utmost integrity in doing what is asked of them by the laws of the land.
SPEAKER_01: Because we're preaching on, or I'm preaching on Titus 3 and pointing to Christmas and Christ, I'm not going to talk about COVID, okay, in regards to being a good citizen.
SPEAKER_01: But again, it's if it doesn't defy the word of God or the conscience of the believer in light of the word of God, we are called to be excellent citizens.
SPEAKER_01: That's how he starts.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian, therefore, is to be submissive to the authorities that God has placed in their lives in the same way as they live ready day by day for every good deed to live that out.
SPEAKER_01: And so in verse 2, he then reminds them to make sure that we're not living as the world does, that we're not maligning anyone, he says, or that we're not violent, we're not those aggressively angry people, having complete uh countenances of discontentment and complaining and begrudging.
SPEAKER_01: And then in verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Here is verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Did you catch verse 3 as Brother Joel read through it?
SPEAKER_01: It's a tough verse.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna spend most of our time today in verses 3 through 8.
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna hopefully end with just being overwhelmed at the kindness of God to us as we think of Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: So let me read verse 3 again.
SPEAKER_01: For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.
SPEAKER_01: Yikes.
SPEAKER_01: That's tough to hear, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing you and I can never be moved to overwhelming joy at the thought of our conversion.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what I started with?
SPEAKER_01: Until we realize who we were prior to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: This is something that we're gonna study for all of eternity as we reflect on the gospel, even in the presence of Christ in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And so we can never move past the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: We can never move past the fact that we've been sinners, that we're sinners.
SPEAKER_01: That we've fallen short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: We need to remember this day in and day out because it sets the course for the day as we seek to honor the King with our new lives.
SPEAKER_01: And so please don't hear the charges and accusations against them, against us this morning, as something that's just defeating and demoralizing, and then you just are sad and depressed.
SPEAKER_01: Please don't hear them and just say, oh, not again.
SPEAKER_01: I've heard this before.
SPEAKER_01: Unless you do not have the saving grace of Christ in you, please hear this and once again be overwhelmed at the grace of God to you, the sinner.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God for his mercy.
SPEAKER_01: As we look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to spend a little bit of time in verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: It starts by saying that before we were saved by Christ, we were foolish.
SPEAKER_01: Foolish.
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand the biblical definition of foolishness is to be without knowledge and understanding?
SPEAKER_01: Make no mistake, this is not saying that acquiring more knowledge and more wisdom will all of a sudden make you wise in the Lord's sight and therefore unfoolish.
SPEAKER_01: If that were the case, then our university professors who loudly proclaim there is no God would be wise in the Lord's sight.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the case.
SPEAKER_01: And so becoming wise and no longer foolish in the biblical sense is having a knowledge and an understanding of who God is and what he's done.
SPEAKER_01: It is to fear God, according to the smartest man who's ever lived in Proverbs 1.7.
SPEAKER_01: This is what relieves us and frees us from being foolish.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, God says in Psalm 14 that the fool says in his heart that there is no God.
SPEAKER_01: That's the fool.
SPEAKER_01: Being foolish in this passage is saying that to deny God and his existence is therefore to be foolish.
SPEAKER_01: It is to have a desire to live wickedly instead of living in the knowledge of God and who he is.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul would say all throughout all of his writings, even here, that's what we've all done.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, this is interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to what prominent atheist writer Adolphus Huxley says in his book, Ends and Means, not a recommended reading.
SPEAKER_01: In his ardent denial of God and any sort of eternal meeting, listen to his foolishness.
SPEAKER_01: And I chopped it up a bit, but this is what he says.
SPEAKER_01: I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning.
SPEAKER_01: And consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption.
SPEAKER_01: For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essential.
SPEAKER_01: And it was an essential element or instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality.
SPEAKER_01: You hear what he's saying?
SPEAKER_01: He's freeing himself.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes on to say, we would deny, they just decided to deny that the world had any meaning whatsoever.
SPEAKER_01: Wow, what a great way to live! You and I can try to ignore God.
SPEAKER_01: Put our head in the sand like an ostrich, if you will, live as we please.
SPEAKER_01: But this means that we're foolish, according to the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore separated from God and all that is good.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians says a lot about the foolishness of man.
SPEAKER_01: It teaches us that the cross becomes foolishness to those who are perishing.
SPEAKER_01: And yet it still manifests the wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: You see the difference, the dichotomy there.
SPEAKER_01: It teaches us that the Jews are foolish in seeking for signs, and the Greeks or Gentiles were foolish in clinging to their own or man's wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: We all have our version, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: This is so true today.
SPEAKER_01: So many people, maybe we say today, like the Jews said, if you would just do this miracle, you ever heard somebody say that?
SPEAKER_01: If you just do this one thing, then I'll believe.
SPEAKER_01: That's foolishness.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people in the church even think of that in a different form, maybe, with a different package.
SPEAKER_01: We live from mountaintop experience to mountaintop experience, and that's where I find God, we say.
SPEAKER_01: And we think that the Lord isn't with us in the suffering.
SPEAKER_01: Or that he's not sovereign over that.
SPEAKER_01: And we think he's not with us in the mundane, the day-to-day.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore we end up living as Adolphus Huxley, functional atheists.
SPEAKER_01: While we wait for something amazing to happen where God's actually there.
SPEAKER_01: You ever heard that kind of talk?
SPEAKER_01: In Paul's day, the philosophers were running rampant with these paganistic atheistic ideas that denied God and elevated humanism, and we all tend to fall into those things.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's just as true today as we cling to the science and not the inventor of science, for example.
SPEAKER_01: That's one way.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever heard just follow the science?
SPEAKER_01: I actually agree with that statement.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why.
SPEAKER_01: If you're going to be an intellectually honest atheist or scientist, science will end up leading you to the throne of God and therefore falling at his feet in worship.
SPEAKER_01: So if you follow the science and you're honest about it, you come humbly before God, the inventor of science.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the wise man fears the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1 27 that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and weak things of the world, to shame those who are strong in their own might.
SPEAKER_01: And it goes on to tell us the reason, so that man may boast or may never boast before God.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 2 speaks of the ridiculousness of the wisdom of the nations coming up against the wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: He laughs at them, it says.
SPEAKER_01: And then it says that he's going to shatter them like earthenware and break them with a rod of iron.
SPEAKER_01: And then listen to what Job says, or what God says in Job 38.
SPEAKER_01: Where were you?
SPEAKER_01: God says.
SPEAKER_01: Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
SPEAKER_01: Tell me, if you have understanding.
SPEAKER_01: Who sets its measurements?
SPEAKER_01: Since you know, or who stretched the line on it, on what were its bases sunk?
SPEAKER_01: Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
SPEAKER_01: Or who enclosed the sea with doors when bursting forth it went out of the womb?
SPEAKER_01: When I made a cloud its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and I placed boundaries on it and set a bolt and doors, and I said, Thus far you shall come, but no further, and hear your proud waves stop.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, God says, and caused the dawn to know its place?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, the danger.
SPEAKER_01: The danger we have of pretending to have knowledge before this holy and awesome God.
SPEAKER_01: If we do that, we live out, verses two and three.
SPEAKER_01: We were also once foolish, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: Thinking we didn't need God in our own self-perceived wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: And when we sin today, it's us falling right back into that same old trap, that snare, that same line of thinking, thinking, I'm wise enough to know what's best.
SPEAKER_01: I got this.
SPEAKER_01: Foolishness.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to what else Paul says.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to go briefly through these about who we are in our rebellion and foolishness before Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He says next in verse 3, we're disobedient, disobedient, like children who rebel against their parents' instruction to clean their room, stay out of the street.
SPEAKER_01: We disobey the standards, the laws that God hands down to us, therefore making us foolish.
SPEAKER_01: We see the law of God as something that can be neglected or set aside, or for those people back then, but not today.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: We've evolved.
SPEAKER_01: We've grown.
SPEAKER_01: We've moved past that.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing: there's not one piece of the moral law of God that has ceased to be relevant for today.
SPEAKER_01: Not one jot or tittle of the moral law of God contained within his commandments that we can just set aside and say it was for them.
SPEAKER_01: It's just as vital as it was back then.
SPEAKER_01: Next, Paul says that we were all deceived, just like Adam and Eve in the garden.
SPEAKER_01: We were deceived into thinking we could be just like God as we told ourselves we didn't need him.
SPEAKER_01: You ever said that to yourself?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just like God.
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully not.
SPEAKER_01: But it is what we do when we live our own path and sin.
SPEAKER_01: It's what we're saying to him without words.
SPEAKER_01: We say there is no God.
SPEAKER_01: Because we all then close our eyes and hope that God and his word were no longer true.
SPEAKER_01: Because I want to do this thing that's in opposition to it and I know it.
SPEAKER_01: We think as humans, if we just tell ourselves enough times, we see this in the world, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: That this beautiful world, the mountains, the trees, everything, it if we tell ourselves it came into existence through an explosion with no direction from a divine creator, it's just so.
SPEAKER_01: And if we repeat it enough times, it's good to go.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe if we repeat enough that King Kong is our long-lost relative, that's it's so.
SPEAKER_01: Foolishness in our rebellion.
SPEAKER_01: Deceived by our own sin.
SPEAKER_01: Eyes that were clouded over by willful disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: Deceived in the thinking we could save ourselves or that we could be good enough for heaven if we if we lived well enough.
SPEAKER_01: That's foolishness.
SPEAKER_01: That's the devil's deception.
SPEAKER_01: Next, he says, we're enslaved to our passions and lust.
SPEAKER_01: That's a great word, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: We're enslaved, Paul says.
SPEAKER_01: How are you doing with this charge so far?
SPEAKER_01: You ready for verse 4?
SPEAKER_01: Are you in agreement?
SPEAKER_01: I hope so.
SPEAKER_01: We have been, and maybe still are deceived into thinking that our pleasures, based upon our senses alone, are the things that'll bring us joy.
SPEAKER_01: But in reality, we all know they only bring misery and ruin when isolated from God and his word.
SPEAKER_01: Because our senses were meant to be used for glorifying God in so many ways: marriage, parenting, enjoying God's creation, whatever it is, the senses were put there by God to aid us in our reverent glorification of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Not to supply us with just fleeting pleasures that we're just going to regret one day.
SPEAKER_01: Our senses are put there by God to honor Him and glorify the name of His Son, which in turn will bring us everlasting joy.
SPEAKER_01: Who doesn't want that?
SPEAKER_01: They were not put there to be enslaved, to be forcing us to be enslaved to our own desires.
SPEAKER_01: Think about what a slave is.
SPEAKER_01: Beholden?
SPEAKER_01: In chains, bondage, doing the will of the master.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing: every human ever born is and has been and always will be enslaved.
SPEAKER_01: Before Christ, we were enslaved with what he's talking about here, something we couldn't break free from, the sin that so easily entangles us, the author of Hebrews writes, not only is it where we were, but it's what we wanted.
SPEAKER_01: And so again, we're all slaves, though, because either you're a slave of that and the evil one, or the righteous one.
SPEAKER_01: You're slaves to sin or slaves to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You'll always be a slave.
SPEAKER_01: It's either going to be what you were before you walked with Christ, with yourself, or evil, or you'll be a slave to Christ as a heavenly master.
SPEAKER_01: Think about your conversion.
SPEAKER_01: Think about what he's done for you.
SPEAKER_01: Next, Paul says we spend our lives in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.
SPEAKER_01: At this accusation, we say, wait, wait, hang on a second.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't hate people.
SPEAKER_01: That's not me.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't hate people outs when I wasn't a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you think back for a moment at what was most important to you prior to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And all of your thoughts and all of your language, I think we would agree with Paul that that was our countenance before the Lord gave us new hearts to actually love him and his people.
SPEAKER_01: Because now we can actually truly love, as we've been talking about in Sunday school.
SPEAKER_01: To love self above God is to hate all others, including God.
SPEAKER_01: Not that we walk around every day, every passerby, hate you, hate you, hate you.
SPEAKER_01: He's not saying that, but that deep down, that's who we were, because we're all about us.
SPEAKER_01: We would do anything to preserve self and therefore even destroy others if I needed to.
SPEAKER_01: That's hatred.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible teaches us that the opposite is loving others, putting them first, like Christ did to us.
SPEAKER_01: So to hate one another is to lie, cheat, steal, love like the world, not be willing to correct wrongheaded thinking or worship.
SPEAKER_01: And so hatred of others is worship of self.
SPEAKER_01: And the only way to cease worshiping self is to worship the one true God.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm done with verse three.
SPEAKER_01: So that was us.
SPEAKER_01: Complete wrecks.
SPEAKER_01: Rebellious, sinful, transgressors against the law and his word and standard.
SPEAKER_01: So with that encouragement for Christmas time, I'm just going to invite the musicians back up and we'll get started on singing.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_01: I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
SPEAKER_01: No, let's look fondly at what comes next.
SPEAKER_01: Let us look at the next couple of verses and just be overwhelmed with worship-filled hearts at the marvelous grace of God in light of who we've been.
SPEAKER_01: What we find next in Paul's writing here is one of the greatest words in all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 4 with me.
SPEAKER_01: You've heard this before, right?
SPEAKER_01: But that word, isn't it awesome?
SPEAKER_01: It says, but when the kindness of God, our Savior, and his love for mankind appeared, but God.
SPEAKER_01: But God in his kindness.
SPEAKER_01: He sees us, he looks at us.
SPEAKER_01: What's the kindness of God in this passage?
SPEAKER_01: What does Paul mean that the kindness and love of God appeared?
SPEAKER_01: It means Jesus came.
SPEAKER_01: It means Christmas is true and real.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus took on flesh.
SPEAKER_01: He became man.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came down to the earth in a lowly and humble way.
SPEAKER_01: Think of this passage in light of Christmas, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: I know that some of those things I just mentioned are hard to hear, hard to swallow for us.
SPEAKER_01: But there's verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: There's this gem, this jewel, this gold nugget of the scriptures that speaks of the answer to our previous condition and the love of God to us.
SPEAKER_01: But when the kindness of God and our Savior appeared, when He was manifested, that's the incarnation.
SPEAKER_01: That's why there's trees and these banners and everything we do at Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: It's this.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know this?
SPEAKER_01: Do you know Him?
SPEAKER_01: The author of our salvation, God the Father, revealed His kindness to us by sending His only Son, and He sent Him into the world to take on flesh to eventually die.
SPEAKER_01: And become the atoning sacrifice for that which we were, verses 2 and 3.
SPEAKER_01: You see, God in His righteous justice couldn't just ignore our rebellion, turn to blind eye, and say, Well, you've been better than most.
SPEAKER_01: So I guess you're alright.
SPEAKER_01: Come in.
SPEAKER_01: At least you're not Hitler.
SPEAKER_01: No, your sin and mine had to be paid for.
SPEAKER_01: It's just as much condemn-worthy as Hitler's and Stalin's.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe not to the degree.
SPEAKER_01: But either way, it deserves punishment.
SPEAKER_01: And so it had to be atoned for.
SPEAKER_01: It had to be a sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: And that was all accomplished on the cross of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so we can look at that and say, yeah, now that's what we call kindness.
SPEAKER_01: That's love.
SPEAKER_01: So how did this all work out?
SPEAKER_01: Still remembering the way you were saved?
SPEAKER_01: Are you still reflecting on your conversion that God made happen in your life?
SPEAKER_01: I hope so.
SPEAKER_01: Because you can't ever forget that.
SPEAKER_01: Don't ever forget, as well, that you didn't do anything.
SPEAKER_01: You brought sin to the table.
SPEAKER_01: So did I.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm not standing up here today because I had any part in my salvation.
SPEAKER_01: I can tell you that.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible affirms.
SPEAKER_01: I am not here today because I've been a good person.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not standing here today because I pulled my bootstraps up, as we Americans love to say, things like that.
SPEAKER_01: I am not standing here today because I walked an aisle.
SPEAKER_01: I am not standing here today because I grew up in a Christian home.
SPEAKER_01: I am standing here today before you because God looked upon this absolute wretch and wreck of a man, and in his great and sovereign mercy, he decided to send his son to atone for it.
SPEAKER_01: In myself, I would have eternally continued to hate God.
SPEAKER_01: In my flesh, I was always ready and willing to worship self.
SPEAKER_01: Even all the way to hell.
SPEAKER_01: In myself, I would have always rejected God and walked in foolish godward defiance.
SPEAKER_01: But then Christ came.
SPEAKER_01: Christ came to this earth, and Jesus the Christ came to my own heart, my own eyes, by the very power of the Spirit through his word.
SPEAKER_01: He revealed to me my desperate need, and he has shown me immense grace, unfathomable mercy, eternal kindness.
SPEAKER_01: He took the dark scales of sinful indulgence from my depraved eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And he showed me the grandeur and splendor of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He took my sin and replaced it with joy in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so, as those scales of fleshly lust were removed, the light of Christ's grace came into my very soul.
SPEAKER_01: And now the kindness of God Himself shines so brightly that I say today, you could put a gun to my head right now, and I would not recant my faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I would not recant who he is by the same grace that saved me.
SPEAKER_01: And I would just say, I'm in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I can worship no other.
SPEAKER_01: I will not forsake my God.
SPEAKER_01: I've been redeemed.
SPEAKER_01: I've been ransomed.
SPEAKER_01: I'm with him.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing else.
SPEAKER_01: Christmas tells me that I have eternal life in this gift that appeared.
SPEAKER_01: What can you do to me?
SPEAKER_01: What do you have to give me?
SPEAKER_01: What do you have to take from me?
unknown: Nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Same goes for you and I.
SPEAKER_01: Same goes for all of you.
SPEAKER_01: If you're in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Again, look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: But when the kindness and love of God appeared, what part did we play in that?
SPEAKER_01: You and I have just merely responded to that in repentance and faith as the Holy Spirit came and caused our hearts to respond.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ is the kindness and love of God who came in the flesh, and it's all because of verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we had to spend time there.
SPEAKER_01: If verse 3 isn't true about all of us, then verse 4 is unnecessary.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of those, there is no good news if there wasn't bad news to begin with, kind of things.
SPEAKER_01: And really, Christmas makes no sense without knowing who we were and what we've done.
SPEAKER_01: Toss out the the fat guy in the red suit thing, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Toss all that out.
SPEAKER_01: Christmas is about Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And it makes no sense without the cross.
SPEAKER_01: It makes no sense without my sin and yours.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 5, Paul goes on to say that he saved us.
SPEAKER_01: What did he save us from?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Saved us from ourselves, but ultimately he saves us from the pit of hell.
SPEAKER_01: How?
SPEAKER_01: How does he do this?
SPEAKER_01: We know it happened because of his love and his kindness, but how?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: It happened by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: The triune God is through and through in our salvation in this passage.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Peter 1, same thing.
SPEAKER_01: All three members of our triune God work together to save us.
SPEAKER_01: Again, I've said this before.
SPEAKER_01: God speaks the world into existence.
SPEAKER_01: But look at what it took to get us saved.
SPEAKER_01: We know that Jesus came to the earth and lived that sinless life.
SPEAKER_01: We know that he went willingly to the cross to absorb the just wrath meant for us.
SPEAKER_01: We know that death could not keep him, and he was resurrected three days later to eventually ascend back to the right hand of the Father, once again providing a way for us to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: But how does that play out?
SPEAKER_01: By the work of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he had to send the Comforter.
SPEAKER_01: Because Christ came and was our atoning substitute, we now have the opportunity for salvation by the Holy Spirit coming to us, drawing us to Christ, giving us a new heart, giving us a new life, giving us a new worship.
SPEAKER_01: And he did this by washing away our degenerate lives and regenerating our souls.
SPEAKER_01: And as the beginning of verse 5 says, this is not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but by mercy alone.
SPEAKER_01: Our salvation is by Christ's deeds and enacted or begun or sparked in the life of the redeemed by the Holy Spirit Himself.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that cool?
SPEAKER_01: This is where we read a passage like this, and we remember that Scripture teaches us, Romans 5.20, for example, where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Are you still reflecting on your salvation?
SPEAKER_01: Are you still remembering what he's done for you?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Paul's not done yet.
SPEAKER_01: After speaking of the richness of this salvation that has come through Jesus and this washing, this purifying of the Holy Spirit, Paul then reveals to us one of, if not the most important doctrines in all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And that is our standing before God through Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And that's called the doctrine of justification.
SPEAKER_01: You heard that?
SPEAKER_01: Paul spends five chapters in the book of Romans going over the immense riches of this blessed doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: Let me describe for you what the doctrine of justification is briefly.
SPEAKER_01: The doctrine of justification is the gracious act of God, where he declares to all the universe that all of those who are found in Christ, washed and renewed by his Spirit, believing in the Lordship of Christ, are his righteous saints.
SPEAKER_01: And so God imputes what that means, he credits to our account the righteousness of his son, which means that we are condemned no more.
SPEAKER_01: When we look back at verse 3 or a previous state, we can say, Huh, it's no longer me.
SPEAKER_01: I may fall into that, but I'm no longer foolish.
SPEAKER_01: My eyes have been opened, the Spirit has come, and He's expanded my view of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now I actually understand who He is, and I love Him.
SPEAKER_01: I'm no longer disobedient, deceived, and hateful.
SPEAKER_01: I can fall into those things, but they don't describe my identity.
SPEAKER_01: I'm no longer enslaved to my own passions and lusts.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a slave to Christ now, willingly, thankfully.
SPEAKER_01: I've been crucified with Christ, we read in Galatians.
SPEAKER_01: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm no longer a wretched sinner bound for hell.
SPEAKER_01: I am now a saved saint headed for glory by his marvelous grace alone.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah, what a savior.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we think of when we look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Think of your conversion.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that conversion means that the Father is looking on you right now, and he no longer sees you as that foolish person.
SPEAKER_01: He no longer sees you as just disobedient and deceived.
SPEAKER_01: He no longer sees you as hateful.
SPEAKER_01: No, he sees you as he sees his son Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus' righteousness is credited to you.
SPEAKER_01: Your sins have been cast as far as the east as from the west, the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning God has chosen to not remember them any longer.
SPEAKER_01: You are free from the weight and bondage of that old self, and you're now justified, declared righteous by the King of all creation.
SPEAKER_01: That's kindness.
SPEAKER_01: That's love.
SPEAKER_01: That's Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: That's where it started.
SPEAKER_01: You've been washed as white as snow, the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Always remember that when that sin creeps in and tempts you to despair or chase after the things of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Remember his kindness and your salvation and where you've come from.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that on December 25th this year.
SPEAKER_01: It says in verse 6 that the Spirit poured out this washing richly, it says, through Jesus our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a sprinkling of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a cup of mercy.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a bucket of grace.
SPEAKER_01: This is not even a garden hose of kindness.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Niagara Falls of Atonement, if you will.
SPEAKER_01: That's the best I got.
SPEAKER_01: It's a complete, head-to-toe, mind-to-soul, fully washed, clean, and transformed new person for his glory.
SPEAKER_01: He richly bestowed that upon us.
SPEAKER_01: Talk about riches.
SPEAKER_01: What does silver and gold have on that?
SPEAKER_01: What does a greenback have on that?
SPEAKER_01: Being rich is being washed by the Spirit of God through the Son of God to the glory of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Those are riches beyond our wildest dreams.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the second half of verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says in the first half, we've been justified by his grace, and the result is that we are heirs.
SPEAKER_01: Heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: We are heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know this?
SPEAKER_01: This is not a hope as the world sees it, right?
SPEAKER_01: This is an assurance.
SPEAKER_01: This is no doubt.
SPEAKER_01: That we're going to have eternal life as we've been justified by his grace.
SPEAKER_01: Christ does not fail.
SPEAKER_01: What is it that we are heirs of?
SPEAKER_01: What do we inherit?
SPEAKER_01: 1 Peter chapter 1, I think, gives us the best description and definition of what our inheritance looks like.
SPEAKER_01: Peter says in 1.4 that our, 1 Peter 1.4 says that our inheritance is imperishable.
SPEAKER_01: It is undefiled.
SPEAKER_01: It does not fade away.
SPEAKER_01: It is reserved for you.
SPEAKER_01: What we have in Christ, our inheritance is not susceptible to rust, decay.
SPEAKER_01: It cannot be corrupted.
SPEAKER_01: Our treasure in heaven is unaffected by the things that so easily decay the things of this world.
SPEAKER_01: Our inheritance will never perish.
SPEAKER_01: It will only increase as we bask in the presence of the Holy One.
SPEAKER_01: It says our inheritance is undefiled.
SPEAKER_01: No matter what we've done here on the earth, in some way it's flawed, right?
SPEAKER_01: No matter what we create, it's always flawed.
SPEAKER_01: It's deformed or incomplete.
SPEAKER_01: Think about a brand new pocket knife, for example, finely sharpened to what the naked eye thinks is perfectly smooth and sharp.
SPEAKER_01: You ever looked at one under a magnifying glass?
SPEAKER_01: It's pretty jagged.
SPEAKER_01: Because we can't make something perfect.
SPEAKER_01: Our inheritance is not so.
SPEAKER_01: It says it's undefiled, perfect, complete.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing that will ever defile our inheritance in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: We are heirs to a perfect kingdom through Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Our inheritance, it says, is also unfading.
SPEAKER_01: I have that favorite black t-shirt that I know my wife wishes I would get rid of.
SPEAKER_01: You know what that black t-shirt looks like now?
SPEAKER_01: Kind of gray, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't happen in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Love does not fade in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: The zeal for worship never fades, it never wanes, it's always new, it's always refreshing.
SPEAKER_01: Our inheritance is like that.
SPEAKER_01: We are heirs to an inheritance that is that is always bright, always pure, and the intensity of the glory of it will only increase.
SPEAKER_01: There will be no fading.
SPEAKER_01: Because the more we know about him, the more odd we'll be in his presence.
SPEAKER_01: It will never fade away from our memory banks like that old childhood story.
SPEAKER_01: Fresh and new.
SPEAKER_01: And it says also that it's reserved in 1 Peter.
SPEAKER_01: You've been sealed for all of eternity by the blood of Christ and your inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: Again, verse 3, verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: It's never gonna fade away, never gonna be defiled, never gonna perish.
SPEAKER_01: Because if the Lord says it's reserved for you, pretty sure we can take that hope to the bank.
SPEAKER_01: He has gone to prepare a place for you, the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: You have eternal reservations to be in the King's presence.
SPEAKER_01: You're still remembering your conversion?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe there's not that specific moment in your life when you can say, Yeah, I became a child of God on that moment.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that is you.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's not.
SPEAKER_01: Well, either way, reflect back to that time period, that season, when you first knew that I'm a child of God.
SPEAKER_01: Christ has paid the penalty on our behalf.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know this?
SPEAKER_01: We've been regenerated and born again, this passage says.
SPEAKER_01: Justified, declared righteous by his grace, and now we look forward to the inheritance that we do not deserve.
SPEAKER_01: A hope of eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: What do we say to this other than, oh, Merry Christmas?
SPEAKER_01: Paul ends this section of scripture by encouraging believers to live lives that reflect our conversion.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 8, he says, we are to be careful to engage in good deeds, for they are good and profitable for us, but only in light of that salvation, right?
SPEAKER_01: In verse 9, Paul once again reminds them to stay far away from who they were.
SPEAKER_01: Stop with all the man-centered wisdom, the foolish arguing about things that don't matter.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 10, he reminds them to reject those who live according to verse 3 still in the church.
SPEAKER_01: Go through the steps of church of discipline listed out in Matthew 18.
SPEAKER_01: Do not allow that stain of sin to infect the glory of the church, the bride that's been washed.
SPEAKER_01: In verses 12 to 14, he reminds them how to treat one another since they are new creations for God's glory.
SPEAKER_01: He is telling them to make sure that self is not the worship of the day, to make sure that each person has the help they need.
SPEAKER_01: Because the rejection of that just goes back to verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Point is we are to live in light of who we are now.
SPEAKER_01: We are to daily remind ourselves of our conversion, the work that has been done for us by the kindness of our great God and King, our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Never forget that you are now and forever an heir to the hope of eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: Let this be the thing that spurs on your good deeds today and forever.
SPEAKER_01: Clinging to hope, clinging to Christ, loving with the love of Christ in you, sacrificing all things for his glory, for the sake of your brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: Let that be your family theme this Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: But when the kindness, kindness of God our Savior, and his love for mankind appeared.
SPEAKER_01: Is that not an eternal song of glory that's magnified when we reflect on the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: You cannot save yourself, you cannot earn your way to him, you cannot wash yourself.
SPEAKER_01: It's only by his kindness, and this is the gift that was sent some 2,000 years ago.
SPEAKER_01: And it is still fresh and new.
SPEAKER_01: What else that is 2,000 years old is fresh and new?
SPEAKER_01: If you're in Christ and you're remembering your conversion into the faith, just be overwhelmed right now that he would wash you clean.
SPEAKER_01: That's the point of thinking about your conversion.
SPEAKER_01: Be undone that he would regenerate your soul.
SPEAKER_01: Be blown away that he would renew you unto eternal life and cause you to be rich in him.
SPEAKER_01: Heirs according to the hope.
SPEAKER_01: You may not have two nickels to rub together, but who cares?
SPEAKER_01: You are eternally rich if you're in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The kindness of God has dawned upon your darkened heart and redeemed you.
SPEAKER_01: Praise be to God.
SPEAKER_01: What a time of year to remember this passage about the kindness of God that appeared to save us.
SPEAKER_01: That's the gift of Christmas today.
SPEAKER_01: That he would wash you and I clean through the Spirit and the work of the Son.
SPEAKER_01: What a glorious truth we find in this passage about the gift of the Christ child coming to us.
SPEAKER_01: You ever read this passage and thought, Christmas?
SPEAKER_01: Remember him.
SPEAKER_01: Remember his kindness.
SPEAKER_01: Remember his love in this season.
SPEAKER_01: He is worthy of honor and worship.
SPEAKER_01: Remember this December 25th.
SPEAKER_01: We were deceived.
SPEAKER_01: We were foolish.
SPEAKER_01: We were hateful.
SPEAKER_01: But kindness appeared.
SPEAKER_01: Love appeared in his name is Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we thank you for Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: We do thank you for the family times and the food and the fellowship and the exchanging of gifts.
SPEAKER_01: But we thank you heartily for the gift of your son.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you that you looked upon our state, our status.
SPEAKER_01: You saw our trajectory, you know our trajectory of hellbound, and yet you sent your son to not only save us, to not only redeem us, but to cause us to be with you for eternity and to have an everlasting inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing is left out of your grace and salvation.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for the privilege.
SPEAKER_01: We honor you.
SPEAKER_01: We love you.
SPEAKER_01: May your name be glorified as we continue to worship now.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.