Titus 3:4-5a

The book of Titus, chapter 3, reading verses 3 through 5, our focus is on verse 4 in the first part of verse 5. For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lust and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that the kindness and 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, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. God bless to us His Holy and Sacred Word. This evening, if you look around during the summer munch, you may see an ugly caterpillar or a hairy worm munching on some plants. There isn’t anything attractive about it. If it’s in your garden, you may even kill it and get rid of it. Yet consider the remarkable transformation that takes place. When that caterpillar encases itself and its own homemade casket and emerges, changed into a beautiful butterfly. Its hair is changed into scales, a million to the square inch. Its many legs are now only six. The crawling insect becomes now a flying insect. And when that hare hare, worm comes out of the cocoon, it is completely unlike what it was before. God created the butterfly, so, and so it’s useful to ponder this dramatic change that is made. In the spiritual realm, God causes a miraculous transformation to take place in human beings when he brings them to salvation in Christ. ugly in character, earth crawlers who think not of heavenly things, and yet sinners are remarkably changed, so that there’s a spiritual beauty about them, and their thoughts now soar heavenward. In fact, the transformation is so dramatic. We might say that it’s hard to believe. Paul himself is certainly an example of this. Early in life, he hated Christ in the church. He persecuted the church with all the vigor and venom he possessed. He had great zeal to stamp out Christianity. Now he’s a preacher of the gospel he once opposed. Now he’s an apostle of Christ that he once cursed. now he is the builder of the church that he once tried to destroy. How is it that such a spiritual change takes place? And to what should this transformation be attributed? I like to talk tonight about sovereign and divine intervention from this text to scripture. Let me begin by saying this, a change. and your miserable condition can only take place, only be made by divine intervention. But after that, the kindness and love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared. Now, we have talked about your miserable condition in verse 3, but when we get the verse 4, there’s that important word, but telling us that there’s going to be a dramatic change over what we once were. There’s a bridge here in this word but. Verse 3 tells you what you once were as a lost sinner, and now we see a divine intervention of the word but, and then we see the dramatic change. Now let me remind you that Paul is related that your mind, is corrupted by sin. He said that you’re foolish. Here we have the idea of being ignorant, senseless, without understanding. You’re not spiritually minded. God is not in all your thoughts. You’re ignorant of the things of God. You fail to grasp spiritual truths. You’re like neganimus. You imagine and conceive of sin continually. Your mind and conceive of sin continually. are defiled as we’ve studied in Titus 115. You’re foolish. You’re disobedient, he said, self-willed, unwilling to be persuaded. There’s a stubborn refusal to accept the truthfulness of what God says in his word. Like Pharaoh of old, your thinking is this. Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? You’re deceived. You’re led astray. You wonder off course. Satan has deluded you. He blinds the minds of those who do not believe the gospel. And you’re let astray without even knowing it. If you do go to church, you’ll be happy to be satisfied with a false religion. It doesn’t have any of the hard sayings about the message. of your state, depraved in sin, about God’s sovereign grace and salvation, or about the necessity of Christ to save your soul. So he’s spoken about your mind being corrupted by sin. He has spoken about your will being corrupted by sin. The word serving, we said, is it speaks of enslavement here. man likes to think he has free will and he can choose, but the truth of the matter is man is enslaved. Your heart is stubbornly determined to do evil. Your desires in this life are really focused on pleasing yourself and not God. And you serve diverse lust and pleasures. Men, I’m afraid, are more… focused on seeking out pleasure, loving pleasures, more than loving God. You are a lover of these things. We’d rather, you know, go to the Steeler game, then go to church where the Word of God is being taught. Your will is controlled by various bodily cravings, whether it’s sex, whether it’s food or drink or drugs or whatever the case may be, alcohol. And finally, Paul declares that sin corrupts your behavior. He talks about how we live. You live in malice and envy. Something vicious about man’s character here. Your selfishness manifests itself in a me-first attitude. You’re willing that. others be harmed as long as you get to promote yourself. You look at others with ill will because of what they have or what they are. And thus you live in hate and are hated. There’s this mutual animosity and hostility displayed in the world where people are out for revenge, where people are returning railing for railing, where there’s biting and deviring lips and so forth. It’s a dog-e-dog-world, we said, where there’s killing and robbery and destruction of property and character assassination and spiteful activities. This is what you were, but now you’re in Christ. Now you know the Savior, and you enjoy this miraculous change by God’s grace, but your salvation is the result of God’s interfaith. prevention, but God, our Savior. It should be noted in these verses indicate to us, verses 4 to 6, that all three persons of the God had are involved in your salvation. God, meaning God the Father, our Savior is mentioned in verse 4. The renewing of the Holy Ghost is mentioned in verse 5, and of course Jesus Christ, our Savior is mentioned in verse 6. There are many who do not perceive God the Father as Savior. They’re those who have God the Father at odds with God the Son. The Father, all he’s concerned about is the judgment of the sinner, whereas Christ is trying to intervene for the sinner. But that’s not a true picture of the Scripture of the Scriptureal teaching. Paul knows full well that the Father is involved in your salvation as well as the Son, as well as the Holy Spirit. When you see Jesus Christ is the great God, as we saw in Chapter 2 in verse 13, and the Father is also mentioned as the Savior, as we see here in verse 3 and 4, you begin to grasp the truth about the doctrine of the Trinity. and the Trinity’s involvement in your salvation. The Father, we’re told, chooses us unto salvation, sends Christ the Savior into the world to redeem us. Jesus Christ comes to provide a sacrificial death in the place of sinners and indeed grants us a perfect righteousness. And the Holy Spirit is involved, our cause. calling to salvation and the work of sanctification in our life. Anyone who denies the Holy Trinity is not proclaiming the biblical gospel, because that’s what the Scripture tells us about salvation. So don’t get a lopsided view of salvation and focus solely upon Christ or solely upon the work of the Holy Spirit. We see here the Father is involved as well. Carefully note here the necessity of divine intervention in the salvation of the center. How does man get out of this terrible state that he’s in? This depraved state. There’s nothing here about man turning his life around. There’s nothing here about man pulling himself up out of the life around. this mess by his bootstraps. Nothing about you being able to break off the chains of your enslavement to Satan and to these diverse lust and pleasures. There’s nothing here about freeing yourself as if you have your Houdini and somehow rather you can get out of the chains. There’s no excuse for the modern notion that people are longing for God and they’re laboring to find him. My friend, my Bible tells me that people see no beauty in Christ that they should desire him. You by nature have no spiritual desires, no sighing for holiness, no love for God. The Bible tells us very straightforwardly, salvation is of the Lord, period. If God, if God doesn’t intervene, being. If there is no but here that refers to God our Savior intervening, there is no salvation. You will die in your wretched state. You will perish in your sins, and you will end up in eternal hell. You cannot recover yourself out of the snare of the devil. you are hopelessly trapped. God is said to be the Savior here, not man. Nor is God merely a co-savior. He is the Savior, as we are indicated here in this text. If God doesn’t reach out and save your soul, you’re doomed and you’re damned. Since the Bible indicate that man’s state prior to salvation is one of being dead and trespasses and sins, it would be useful for us to think a moment tonight about the story of Lazarus as an illustration. You recall that Lazarus was the brother of Mary and Martha, and he died. And he was placed in a burial cave. Large stone was rolled in front of it. When Jesus came to Bethany, the home place of Mary and Martha, it, it was four days after Lazarus’ death, Mary and Martha, their relatives, their friends, their acquaintances, were still mourning the death of Lazarus, his passing. It was a very sad scene, we’re told. But you remember that Jesus, upon meeting Martha and greeting him, and she said, if he had been here, he wouldn’t have died. Jesus replied, I am the resurrection of the life, and then asked to see the cave where Lazarus was buried. And he said that the people, you know, roll away the stone. And then we have those words, Lazarus, come forth. I always understand it is if he didn’t use the word Lazarus, if he had just said, come forth, maybe all, everybody would come forth from the grave. So he had to eliminate, you know, Lazarus, come forth. I like to think of it that way, because of Christ’s power and omnipotence. And the scripture says, and he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound with a napkin. And then Jesus said, loose him and let him go. The resurrection of Christ, from death, from death to life, was a miracle, an amazing miracle. Do you think that a dead Lazarus could resurrect himself? You know it is impossible for human beings to give themselves. I guarantee you can go to a graveyard and sit there all your lifetime, and you’ll never see one come out of the grave until Christ calls him forth at the last day. you can’t restore life to yourself. Now, what you need to understand is, while that is true physically, it’s also true spiritually. And this is why the word of God declares in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1, you hath he quickened or made a life who were dead and trespasses and sins. Without divine intervention, a dead sinner, cannot come to life. And yet I read in scripture that Jesus talked about this, that the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that here shall live and pass from death unto life. There is a calling forth of the dead from the graves, as also is mentioned in chapter 5 of John, but here we have a calling forth from a state of spiritual deadness to a state of spiritual life, and it’s the voice of Christ that calls them forth. This is the divine intervention that we have in Scripture. According to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, that’s the power it takes to raise the sinner from this state of deadness. Only an almighty God can raise a soul. sinner and grant your spiritual life. Never think otherwise. God is our Savior. So your salvation result of God’s intervention. Now God’s intervention involves his love and kindness being expressed toward you as an individual. You notice he talks here about after that the kindness and love of God, our Savior toward man, appeared. Greek word for appeared is the very same word that was used earlier in chapter 2 verse 11. When he talked there about the grace of God that bring his salvation hath appeared unto all men. He’s talking about the same thing here. The word appeared is a word that means to shine forth or become visible. It’s used of heavenly bodies like stars. that become visible at night. Just as in Titus 211, it’s to the individual sinner who has brought to salvation that this kindness and this love of God becomes visible, appears. This is not a broad statement about some kind of general love or general kindness of God, which supposedly has for all mankind. That’s a very popular religious idea. It doesn’t have biblical support. The Bible does not tell us that God loves everyone. I don’t know if you remember singing Psalm 5, verse 5 tonight, but it says something about God hating all the workers of iniquity on that Psalm. The word kindness here refers to God’s gracious goodness. 1. Peter 2 and 3 says this. Newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby if ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. And that word gracious is the very same word that’s used here for kindness. And he’s talking about people who have been born again. There are newborn babes in Christ. The grace of God has touched your life. You’ve tasted of the grace of God. Ephesians 2. 7 and verse 8 the first part that in the age is the calm he God might show the exceeding richness of his grace and his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. So this kindness is directly related to his grace. and then we find it also in Ephesians 432. be kind one to another, tenderheart and forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. An expression of kindness is forgiveness. Therefore, the rest of this passage clearly indicates to us that this love and kindness of God is saving. Notice what he says here. It shines forth to those, verse 5, to whom he shows mercy and saves, to whom he washes with regeneration, to whom he renews by the Holy Ghost, verse 6, to whom he gifts with the Holy Spirit. Verse 7, to whom he justifies by his grace, verse 7, to whom he makes heirs of God, and finally, to whom in verse 7 he grants eternal life. The word man in our text text is actually connected with the word love, and may be understood as the all men in Titus Chapter 2, meaning all groups, or all classes of men, as we study. So this general term man is defined for us by all the uses that follow in verses 5 to 7, indicating that those among men, to whom God is pleased to save by shining forth His grace to them. Interestingly enough, this word kindness is also used in the book of Romans 11, verse 22. Behold the goodness, the kindness, and the severity of God. Not everyone has shown this kindness of God. Some are shown the severity of God. To some, God shows this kindness to others, his hatred and wrath. God and his electing love shows some to salvation. He chose to show them kindness and love before the foundation of the world and shows them in Christ. Based upon some false concept of God’s love and kindness, do not think that you can do as you please and expect God to overlook at all because, after all, there’s universal kindness and love in the Lord. The Bible says that he so loved his people that he gave his only begotten son to be their Redeemer. Have you ever noticed that phrase in Romans chapter 8, that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love? love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Let me ask you something. Is there any love of God outside of Jesus Christ? Is there a love of God separate from being in Christ? Does he love anyone outside of Christ? Two things stand out to me. The love of God is something that cannot be taken from us. it is enduring. We can’t be separated from it. And the love of God is only found in Jesus Christ. Here is divine proof that love is saving. Does God love those who are in hell? If he loves those, all, if he loves all men equally, and some men end up in heaven and some men end up in hell, my question would be, does he change his mind toward those that are in hell? When did he change his mind? When he loved them all? They were on earth. Now he does not and has him in hell. When did he stop loving them? My friends, we should realize how blessed we are if we know the Lord because the love of God and his kindness connected with His grace. Rest upon us. He shined it upon us. He’s graciously called us to salvation. We should rest, rejoice, rejoice. in this fact that we have tasted of the gracious goodness of God in our life. So a change of your miserable condition can only be made by divine intervention. The second thing I suggest to you is this. A change in your miserable condition can only be made by God’s sovereign mercy. Not by works of righteousness we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. You know, say by your own works of righteousness. In 1947, there was a rumor spread that the Ford Motor Company would give you a brand new Ford car in exchange for every copper penny dated 1943. The rumor spread so fast that the Ford offices were overwhelmed by calls, letters, and telegrams. Washington also reported a high volume of queries at the offices of the Mint, where people were trying to find out how many copper pennies were actually minted. And here it all turns out to be a hoax. The statistics of the mint show that in 1943, no copper pennies were. ever used to make pennies. The reason was, is that we were in the middle of a war, and they used all the copper for the war itself, and so they made all the pennies out of steel. So you can’t find a 1943 copper penny. They never made any. There’s a rumor spread abroad in the human race that entrance into heaven could be obtained if you would present your good works before God. It was the way to find acceptance and salvation with him, and it caught on like wildfire. If you look around you, that’s what most people think about salvation. My friends, it’s all hoax. It’s an unfounded rumor. It is not true. A misconception that God saves only those who merit it. that if you do enough works of righteousness, somehow or other God will grant you eternal life, that you’re just good enough you can go to heaven. The fact of the matter is it’s impossible for you to do any works of righteousness to gain favor with God, for there is none righteous, no, no one, the scripture courts. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, the scripture tells us. And he tells us in scripture that salvation is not a voice. works, but of grace, lest any man should boast. You know when it says you were foolish, disobedient, and deceived, verse 3, that indicates to me that you cannot do works of righteousness. There are many who think that they are doing works of righteousness, but they’re mistaken. Everything you do is tainted by sin. We talked about this in Titus 115. the Bible says that they that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure. Even their mind and conscience is defiled. Nothing pure. Nothing that they touch could possibly be good because it’s all corrupted. So what we need is the righteousness of God that comes by Jesus Christ. Romans 322. For the righteousness, if righteousness came by the law, law in our own works, then Christ would be dead in vain. So you’re not saved by your own righteousness. You are saved only by God’s sovereign mercy. Election is of grace, Romans 11.5. You’re chosen to be holy. Not because God foresaw that somehow rather down the line you would be holy. Mercy is something which is given to guilt. the undeserving people. You’re not rescued from sin and Satan in diverse lust and pleasures because you are a good person. Quite the contrary. God says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. That seems to me very sovereign, very arbitrary in the way he decides who will receive his mercy. Shortly after 18-year-old Queen of Victoria came to the throne of England, the Lord Chamberlain presented her several documents for her signature. And one of the documents was a paper pertaining to a man that had committed a crime and was sentenced to death. And Victoria’s signature was necessary to put him to death. And the queen inquired, And must I become party to this death? And the Lord Chamberlain said this, unless your majesty desires to exercise the royal prerogative of mercy, you’re going to have to sign it. Well, she wrote the word pardoned on the papers and pardoned the man, and he was set free. Sinners stand condemned before God. Mercy is an undeserved pardon from the penalty and the man’s of God’s law. And this is why the gospel is such good news for sinners. Here is where the convicted sinner is given hope. It’s not that God says, well, if you become good enough, if you change your life enough, then I will consider giving you a part. My friends, if that were the case, where would we be? What hope is found in that? Do we not see that God can save us solely on the grounds of his mercy. We shouldn’t be worrying about whether we’re deserving or not. Nobody is deserving. You come as you are to Christ. You come with the burden of sin still on your back. I’m reminded what Jesus said. Come unto me, oh, you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come with that heavy burden of sin weighing you down. He didn’t say get rid of it first. I remind you, Mr. Christian, again. He comes to the cross with the burden on his back. This is the hope for the center. So when you see that ugly caterpillar undergoing that marvelous transformation into a beautiful butterfly, it is a tremendous butterfly, it is a tremendous. change. Well, it is so spiritually with the sinner. As ugly as we are in our sins, this marvelous transformation takes place when God reaches out in his love, his mercy, in his grace, and saves us. If there’s not a but, God, our Savior, there is no salvation. And that is what this text indicates to us tonight. We are saved by a divine sovereign intervention. This is the hope we have. and this is the hope we have, even as Christians, when we witness to others, no matter what state they’re in, this is the message that we give that God can save people regardless of where they’ve come from, what sins they’ve committed, and so forth. That’s the message that we proclaim. Let us.