‘HE SAVED US’

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on July 24, 2010 under 2010 |

Preached Sunday, July 18, 2010
from
Titus 3:3-7

Theme: In our interactions with the sinful people of this world, we need to remember how it is that God graciously saved us.

[podcast]http://www.bethanybible.org/audio/071810.mp3[/podcast]

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

I have very much been looking forward to our time in this morning’s passage. But I have quite a challenge before me as we approach it. I’m intending to preach just one sermon from it—even though every phrase of it truly deserves a sermon all its own! And what’s more, I believe every sermon would receive a hardy “Amen!” from each one of us who have personally experienced the things this passage describes!

So; let me begin by simply reading it to you. Paul wrote to tell Pastor Titus to encourage the Christians under his care to live faithfully before the unbelieving people in the world around them. And to help keep the saints humble in their interactions with unbelieving people, Paul wrote;

For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:3-7).

If you’ll look at verse 5—tucked away in the very middle of that passage—you’ll find its main affirmation. It’s expressed in just three short words; but they are three words that are as profound as three words could possibly be: “He saved us . . .” What good news!

This is a passage that’s primarily meant for those of us who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ; and who can, by virtue of God’s grace, claim those three words to be true of ourselves. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to say, in all truth, “He saved me!” And it’s a wonderful thing to be able to look at those around us who have also believed on the Savior and say, “He saved you too, brother! He saved you too, sister!” What a great thing to be able to join with one another, study this passage together, and say—as Paul did—”He saved us!”

But if you have never placed your faith in Jesus Christ, I hope you’ll listen as carefully as you can to the words of this morning’s passage. I believe God brought you here today to hear them. And my prayer is that you, too, will believe on Jesus, receive the salvation it describes, and be able to join the rest of us as we declare, “He saved us!”

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; those three words are not only a real blessing to be able to affirm as true of us. They also give us three categories under which this passage can be divided. The word “us” gives us the first category; because verse three tells us about ourselves—and what a great need we had to be saved in the first place. The word “He” gives us the second category; because in verse four to the middle of verse five, we’re told about the God who saved us—and what it was that moved Him to do so. And finally, the word “saved” gives us the third category; because the later half of verse five all the way to verse seven describes to us the great salvation with which He saved us.

And so, let’s get right into it and consider . . .

1. WHAT THIS PASSAGE TELLS US ABOUT US (v. 3).

Paul writes; “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another (v. 3).

Someone has wisely said that no one comes to the Savior unless they feel like they need to be saved. So long as someone feels that they are a good and worthy person—perhaps even just a little bit better than the average person walking down the street; someone who is very much worthy of being accepted in the sight of God—then they won’t feel any need to come to Jesus the Savior. Why should they? They don’t believe that they need to be saved from anything.

Jesus once told a parable about that. He said,

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector (Luke 18:10).

A Pharisee, in Jesus’ day, was a religious professional. He was someone who made it his main focus in life to stack-up a pile of good works that—he believed—would make him acceptable in the sight of God. A tax collector, on the other hand, was a man who was considered the worst kind of sinner anyone could be. He had become a traitor to the Jewish people and was collecting taxes from them on behalf of the Roman government. He had no hope of making himself acceptable in the sight of a holy God.

Both of those men—the self-righteous Pharisee and the hopelessly despised tax-collector—were praying to God in the temple at the same time. Jesus went on to say;

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:10-14).

In our passage this morning, Paul says that we were as bad off as that sinful tax-collector. We were “foolish”—that is, brutish and ignorant when it came to the things of God. We were “disobedient”—that is, as ignorant as we may have been, we really knew the right thing to do . . . but wouldn’t do it. We were “deceived”—that is, we were listening to all the flattering lies that the devil was telling us, and were eager to believe every one of them. We were “serving various lusts and pleasures”—that is, we were the obedient slaves to whatever sinful passion had us in its addictive grasp. We were “living in malice and envy”—that is, we were going through life looking at what God gave to other people and being resentful of them for it; not only jealously guarding our own little position in life, but also coveting theirs. We were “hateful”—that is, we were living in such a way as to provoke the hatred of others. And finally, we ourselves were “hating one another”.

What a mess you and I were! Paul once wrote elsewhere, “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness” (Romans 6:20). And isn’t that the truth! We were living a ‘righteousness-free life’ alright! And he goes on to ask, “What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death” (v. 21). And unless we had personally faced the truth—that, in verse three, we’re given a description of how sinful we were in the sight of God apart from His grace—we’d never have been able to say, “He saved us”. We would have never at all even felt the need to come to Jesus to be saved from the burden of sin.

“If we say that we have no sin”, the apostle John wrote, “we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). But, as he goes on to say, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (v. 9). Those of us who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ for salvation have done so because we have admitted the truth about ourselves and recognized that we truly needed to be saved! We have agreed—from the heart—with what Paul said at the beginning of verses three: “For we ourselves were also once” all those horrible things that made us unworthy in the sight of a holy God! But, “He saved us”!

I hope that, if you haven’t come to terms with what verse three says about your condition before God, you will; and that you’ll come running to Jesus to be saved. And if you already have come to terms with your sin and have placed your faith in Him, I hope you’ll hear those words from verse three and say, “Amen!”

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; the apostle Paul began those words with the word “For . . .”; and this pulls our attention back to the reason why he spoke them. He wanted his fellow believers to remember—when they were out in the unbelieving world—that they should never look down their noses at the sinful condition of other people. They should never be like that Pharisee in Jesus’ parable—thinking that they’re better than others. They should always remember that they too needed to be saved; because they, too, were horribly lost in their sins. And notice that Paul doesn’t exclude himself from all this. He says, “For we ourselves were also once” in sinful condition before God. He is a part of the “we”.

But notice that Paul also uses the word “once”—saying that he and they were all “once” in that condition before God. That’s good news! We too were “once” lost in sin; but we aren’t any longer, because of God our Savior. He saved us! And this leads us to consider next . . .

2. WHAT THIS PASSAGE TELLS US ABOUT HIM (vv. 4-5a).

Paul says, “But when 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 . . .” (vv. 4-5a).

Think of it! If we ourselves were once as sinful in the sight of God as those poor, unbelieving people out in the world, then why did He save us? What could have motivated Him to do such a thing? You can be sure that it wasn’t because He saw enough good qualities in the midst of all our bad ones that He decided to save us. As the words I just read make clear, He didn’t save us “by works of righteousness which we have done”—as if there really were any such works at all!

No; this passage makes clear to us what it was that motivated God to save us. It tells us that it was His “kindness”. He is good and gentle and kind to those who don’t deserve it. As Jesus has said, “He is kind to the unthankful and evil” (Luke 6:35). It also tells us that it was His “love” that moved Him to save us—literally, His “love for mankind”. The word that Paul uses is the one from which we get the English word “philanthropy”—a love for mankind. It reminds us of John 3:16; where the Bible tells us that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son . . .”

And do you notice that Paul speaks of a time when God our Savior’s kindness and love for mankind “appeared”? When did those things make their appearance? They appeared when His Son Jesus was born into the world.

Perhaps you remember the story in the Gospel of Luke about the old man Simeon. The Bible tells us that he was a just and devout man who was “waiting for the Consolation of Israel”. The Holy Spirit had told him that, before he died, he would get to see the Christ. And on the day when Joseph and Mary brought the baby Jesus into the temple to dedicate Him; the Holy Spirit tapped old Simeon on the shoulder and said, “Simeon; do you see that Baby over there? That’s the One you’re waiting for! That’s the Christ!” The Bible tell us he took Jesus up in his arms and blessed God and said,

“Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32).

That’s when God’s kindness and love for mankind finally appeared! It was when His Son graciously set His heavenly glory aside for a time, condescended to be conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary, and was born into the human family as the ‘salvation’ that God had ‘prepared before the face of all peoples’.

Paul also speaks of God’s “mercy”. He wrote, “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us . . .” What a contrast there is between those two things—’works of righteousness’ and ‘mercy’! If it had been because of our good deeds of righteousness that God had saved us, then His act of saving us would have simply been a matter of giving us what we deserved. But if the words of verse three were true of us, then we certainly don’t want is what we deserve! What we need is mercy—God’s compassionate act of not giving us what we really deserve, and of giving us the salvation we don’t deserve instead!

I sincerely hope you have come to terms with what this passage says about God our Savior. He doesn’t save sinners because they—in any way—deserve to be saved. I hope that you have ceased from trying to earn His favor through your good works, and have cast yourself instead on His kindness and love and mercy—all displayed to us through the gift of His Son to this world, whom He gave to die on the cross for us.

And if you have done so, I hope you’ll read those words—”But when 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 . . .”—and join me in saying a joyful “Amen!” to them.

* * * * * * * * * *

So then; this passage has told us a thing or two about us—about our sinfulness before a holy God, and of our deep need for salvation. And it’s also told us a thing or two about Him—about how He doesn’t save us because of our own worth, but rather because of His kindness and love and mercy.

Finally, let’s look at . . .

3. WHAT THIS PASSAGE TELLS US ABOUT SALVATION (vv. 5b-7).

And what a wonderful salvation it is! When God our Savior saves someone, He doesn’t save them just part of the way! He saves them all the way! As Paul writes, “. . . He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (vv. 5b-7).

Look at those words: “the washing of regeneration”. What a wonderful thing! Many have said that it has something to do with baptism; and I believe that it’s talking about a spiritual reality that’s certainly pictured for us in the act of baptism. But I believe that the spiritual reality it’s speaking of is the way that God completely cleanses someone who believes on Jesus from the sins of their past by causing them to be ‘born-again’.

I’ll never forget when I first heard about that. At the time, I was almost crushed by the weight of the guilt of my own sins. I knew that I was destined for eternal judgment; and that, before a holy God, I deserved every bit of it. I was too ashamed to go on living; but too afraid to die because of the judgment of God that awaited me afterward. But I heard about how Jesus had died on the cross to pay the debt for my sins; and that if I put my faith in Jesus’ sacrifice for me, I would be washed completely clean; and it will be just as if I had never sinned at all. I believed on Jesus that day; and when I did, I felt the horrible guilt of my sins taken away. I count that day as my real ‘birthday’; because it was then that I was “born-again”.

I experienced “the washing of regeneration” that day. God no longer held the sins of the past against me. I’m utterly washed clean of them. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17; “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.” What a great thing “the washing of regeneration” is!

* * * * * * * * * *

And then, look at those next words: the “renewing of the Holy Spirit”. God washed me clean of all the horrible sins of the past; but He doesn’t then leave it up to me—in my own power and resources—to keep myself pure and holy in His sight. He places the Holy Spirit in me—the third divine Person of the Trinity—to “renew” and “renovate” my life from the inside out.

On the day that I first believed on Jesus, when all the sins of my past were washed away, I immediately began to experience a transformation in the way I lived. I had a new dynamic in operation within me; so that the sinful things that I used to love to were no longer as appealing to me as they once were, and the things of obedience to God that I never wanted to do before had suddenly became the desire of my heart. Old sinful habits began to drop away from my life—not all at first, but gradually and progressively. And new habits of studying the Bible and keeping God’s commandments began to grow in me—again, not all at once, but gradually and progressively.

That was—and continues to be—the work of the Holy Spirit in me; the divine third Person of the Godhead who loves those who believe on Jesus, takes up permanent residence in them, and empowers them to live a brand new life as God’s children through faith in Him. As Paul once wrote; “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

When God places the Holy Spirit in those who trust in His Son, He doesn’t simply place a tiny fraction of the Spirit in them. As Paul says, it is the Holy Spirit “whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (v. 6). Through Him, we have an abundantly supply of all the power we will ever need to live the life that God wants us to live. There will never be something that God calls us to do for which we will be able to say, “I can’t!” God knows we can’t do what He calls us to do in our own power; but He has abundantly poured-out the Holy Spirit on us. And what we can’t do, He can do!

* * * * * * * * * *

What a wonderfully complete salvation! It not only washes us of our past; but it also empowers us for the present. And it even secures us for the future. Paul goes on to say that all of this has been done for us, “that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (v. 7).

God’s intended purpose in washing us clean from the past through Jesus, and empowering us to live faithfully for Him in the present, is so that we would be heirs of eternal life! He desires for us to live forever with Him as His redeemed children—sharing together in the very inheritance of His Son Jesus throughout eternity. He loves us and wants us to be before Him forever—beholding the glory of His Son, and sharing in that glory endlessly! And in order to make that possible, He “justified” us as a free gift of His grace.

To “justify” us means that God, as an act of His grace, declares us not only to be no longer guilty of sin, but to actually be as righteous in His sight as His own precious Son Jesus. It’s a declaration by which all of the guilt of our sin is laid upon His Son who died on the cross in our place; and by which all of His righteousness is credited to our account by faith.

And it was absolutely necessary that He justify us before we could inherit eternal life. Do you remember how Adam and Eve sinned before God—eating of the fruit that had been forbidden to them? The Bible tells us;

Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:22-24).

That was an act of love on God’s part. Man was a guilty sinner—and God did not want mankind live before Him forever in such a condition. He wanted people to live before Him in a state of complete righteousness, so He could have unending fellowship with them. So; in the fullness of time, He sent His only begotten Son Jesus to be born into the human family, and to live the life of righteousness that is acceptable in His sight, and to then die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. And now; when a sinful, fallen man or woman places his or her faith in Jesus, God declares them “justified” in His sight as a free gift by faith. And He did this for us “that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

* * * * * * * * * *

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; God’s word tells a lot of things in this passage we can shout “Amen!” about! And it tells us all this so that, when we now go out into the world to share the good news with the unbelieving people of this world, we’ll be careful to treat them rightly. It’s so that we won’t ever be tempted to look down our noses at them; but that we’ll remember that we too were once lost sinners, and that God was motivated toward us by nothing other than His own great mercy, and that He graciously saved us unto a wonderful salvation. It’s a salvation that the sinful men and women around us need just as much as we did—and that He invites them to share in it with us as well.

That’s what this passage has to say to believers. But if you have not yet believed on Jesus, I wonder if you have heard something today of your own need before God. Have you learned what this passage has to say about us in terms of our standing before a holy God?—that we are sinners in deep need of a Savior? Have you learned what it has to say about God Himself—that He is a kind and loving and merciful God who saves people who are unworthy? And have you learned about the greatness of the salvation He offers us through Jesus Christ—whom, in verse six, Paul calls “our Savior”?

I pray you have; and that you’ll trust Him too. Then, you can join us as we affirm with Paul, “He saved us”!