And let us turn to the portion
we were reading, in particular, Titus chapter 3, and we come
to the last of these faithful and true saints. In Titus chapter
3, and I'll read from verse 4 through 8. But after that, the kindness.
and love of God our Saviour 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 Saviour,
that being justified by His grace we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying And
these things I will that they were firm constantly, that they
which have believed in gods might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men. The theme then that I want to
try to take up is that that's spoken of here in verse 4, God
our Savior. after that the kindness and love
of God, our Saviour, toward man appeared. This is the name of
God, God, our Saviour. Salvation is of the Lord, that
is Jehovah, that is the Great Three in One, the Trinity, in
unity, in the work of salvation. And we see that there is but
one living and true God. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord. And remember when Moses is desirous
that God should declare His name to him. What we read there at
the end of Exodus 33 and then again in the opening part of
chapter 34, we see something of the significance of that name
that belongs to the Lord God in chapter 33 and verse 19 God
says I will make all my goodness pass before thee and I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee and will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. God's proclaiming the name of
the Lord. And then again in chapter 34,
in verse 6, the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, the
Lord's of the Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering
and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no
means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children and upon the children's children, unto the third and
to the fourth generation. Oh, how the Lord descends there
in the cloud and stands before Moses and proclaims. He proclaimed
the name of the Lord. And this is His name as we have
it in the text tonight, God our Saviour. As is a Trinitarian
salvation, We're not mere Jesus people. Oh, we love that name,
the sweetness of the name, but as is a Trinitarian salvation,
we sang it in our opening hymn to comprehend the great three
one is more than a highest angels can or what the Trinity has done
from death and hell to ransom man. But all true Christians
This made both a truth from nature never learned that Father, Son
and Holy Ghost to save our souls are all concerned. Are we true
Christians? All true Christians must be Trinitarians. And yet, here we recognize of
course that the name in particular belongs to Him who actually became
the Savior, the Eternal Son of God. God our Saviour. We read in verse 6 that God shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour. And then going back to what we
read in chapter 2 and verse 13 looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour
Jesus Christ. It is God the Son who became
a man and accomplished that great work of salvation. He is the one who has appeared,
as we read here at the end of verse 4, our God, our Saviour
has appeared toward men. He is the image of the invisible
God. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, we're told there in Colossians 2.9,
the great mystery of godliness. And God was manifest in the flesh,
to what end? To save sinners. Who are we? Those who truly know Him. We
know God as our Saviour, and we confess Him. As Solomon, the
words of the Lord Himself in the course of his own ministry,
remember in his preaching there in Matthew 5, 6 and 7, the Sermon
on the Mount, and there as we come to the end of that portion
of scripture that sermon that the Lord preaches as the disciples
gather to him and solemn words there in chapter 7 and verse
21 he says not everyone that saith unto me Lord shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my
father which is in heaven Many will say to me in that day, Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name
have cast out devils, and in thy name are many wonderful works.
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart
from me, ye that work iniquity. O God, help us in that we might
examine ourselves, and prove ourselves, and know ourselves,
that Jesus Christ is in us. Is Jesus Christ in us? Or are
we those who are still in our sins? Well, let us come to consider
these verses that we've read from verse 4 through 8. As I
say, it's the final of these remarkable sayings. Verse 8,
this is a faithful saying. And these things I will that
thou affirm constantly. Well, to say something tonight
with regards to God our Saviour. God our Saviour. And we begin
really with the Father. After that the kindness and love
of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. Or the Father, the love of the
Father. We're told here quite clearly
it is the wondrous manifestation of
the love of God to save sinners. And where is that love of God
seen? Well it's seen in eternity, it's seen in the truth of election. When Paul writes to the Thessalonians
he says, knowing brethren, beloved your election of God. It's interesting
because the margin there in that verse gives us another reading
which really follows the syntax in the original. Knowing brethren,
beloved of God your election. Why are they elected? They are elected because they
are those who are beloved of God. God has foreknown his people.
And that foreknowledge of course isn't just a foresight of things
that would come to pass. No, God's knowledge involves
the intimacy of setting his sovereign love upon them whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate. to
be conformed to the image of His Son. Oh God so loved, God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. He
so loves the world, one of the world, where the whole world
lies in wickedness. He loves those in this wicked
world, all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, the pride of life, all that is not of the Father
but is of the world. He loves that that is so opposite
to himself. This is the love of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He has made choice of a people
and He has manifested that great love by not withholding His Son,
even His only begotten Son. but delivering Him up for sinners. Here in His love, says John,
here in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us
and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And all the propitiation
entails, it speaks to us, does it not, of the wrath of God. God angry with the wicked. God
who will by no means clear the guilty. and visiting all that
holy indignation all that holy wrath poured out upon the person
of his only begotten son what love is this the love of God
the Father and here we read of course very much of his mercy the kindness and love of God
our Saviour toward men not by works of righteousness which
we have done, but according to His mercy, it says. He saved
us. And this mercy is the very opposite
of works. There was nothing of any merit
in those who were spoken of here in the chapter. What does Paul
say? Verse 3, We are sows. This is
what we were. We are sows. Also we are sometimes
foolish. disobedient, deceived, serving
diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful
and hating one another. And then we come to the words
of the text, but after that the kindness and love of God our
Saviour toward man appeared. Why He saved us and He saves
according to His mercy. or the mercy of God. When we
think of God in the Old Testament, when he gives all that instruction
to Moses concerning the worship that is to mark out the children
of Israel as different and distinct to all the other peoples of the
earth, you only might know of all the families of the earth.
and how they are told how they are to worship God. God enters
into covenant with them there at Mount Sinai in form of the
Ten Commandments. They are not to make graven images.
They are not even to make altars that they will form and fashion
of themselves. There is to be nothing of man. And when they come to the tabernacle
and The manner of the worship that's to be offered there, where
is it that God is pleased to sit in the midst of Israel? It's
on the mercy seat. There in chapter 25 of Exodus. They're told, aren't they, how
they had to make the Ark of the Covenant and they had to place
in the Ark the two tables of the Law. That's the Covenant.
The Ten Commandments. But then in that chest with the
commandments lying there, they had to make a covering. And it's to be a perfect lid with
the cherubim's one on each end and the Lord God says that there
I will meet with them. Upon the mercy, sir. Oh, it's
a mercy, sir. God deals with his people in
the way of mercy and of course The remarkable thing is that
when we come to the New Testament the mercy seat is spoken of as
the throne of grace. All the fullness of that revelation
that we have when we come to the New Testament and the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? What was a seat associated
with mercy is now a throne. It's the throne of grace. and
we can come boldly to the throne of grace so we may obtain mercy,
says Paul, and find grace to help in every time of need. Oh, the Father, the love, the
mercy of the Father that's spoken of here. But then he continues
here in verse 5. He saved us out by the washing
of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. It's not just the Father and
His sovereign love and His great mercy. The salvation was purposed
by the Father so that salvation was of course procured and accomplished
by God the Son in the fullness of the time. But then all that
the Father purposed and all that the Son has procured must be
made a reality. He must become something that
is truly applied to the sinner. And that's the gracious work
of the Holy Ghost. And that's what we have here
at the end of this fifth verse. This is part of that faithful
saying He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. Two things here we see that there's
to be regeneration and renewing. This word regeneration, the word
that we have here literally means again born, a new birth room. Marvel not, says the Lord Jesus,
that I said unto you, ye must be born again. Oh, there's a
must, there's a necessity here. Those who are dead in trespasses
and sins, they must be born again. That is the state of all my nature. They're alienated from God. enemies with God but worse than
that they are those who are dead and we are familiar with the
language of the Apostle there those familiar words at the beginning
of Ephesians 2 you are the quickened you are the quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins wherein in time past you walked according
to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conversation, our manner of living
in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But God who is rich in mercy,
for His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were
dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ by grace
ye are saved. We're familiar with these words
I'm sure. What are we by nature? We're
children of disobedience. We're those who are dead in trespasses
and in sins. And what does that mean? Well
to be dead? is to be dead, we're impotent,
unable to do anything spiritual to save our souls when it comes
to our natural birth, we're passive really we're begotten of our fathers,
we're born of our mothers we're passive and if that's the
case with regards to a natural birth Well, so too with the new
birth. We're passive. Now, I know there
are some... I'm amazed really in the... the
Evangelical Times in August last month, there was an interview
with Peter Masters because all those years ago he was the first
ever editor when the Evangelical Times was first launched and
he was interviewed concerning those days and towards the end
of the interview he's asked if there's anything you know that
he would change in the course of what's taken place over the
last number of years and he then refers to the fact that people
have been influenced by the teachings of professor John Murray who
teaches of course that in the new birth we are passive And
Dr. Masters disagrees vehemently
with that. He seems to imagine that there's
something in the sinner so you can reason with him and persuade
him. There's something there that
he can respond to. Well, isn't that a denial of
the doctrine of totally provident? The sinner is dead in trespasses
and since he can do nothing at all until he's quickened. You
have to quicken! says Paul, who were dead. In
trespasses and sins there can be nothing of grace in a man
until there is that gracious work of the Spirit and it is
a sovereign work. And the Lord Jesus makes that
abundantly clear in the third chapter of John where he speaks
of the Spirit in terms of the wind. And of course the interesting
thing is that in the Old Testament the words Wind and spirits are
really the same words. The Hebrew word, one Hebrew word,
sometimes according to the context it refers to spirit, other times
the context indicates it's to be understood in terms of the
wind. And Christ says that the spirit is like the wind, and
the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof.
But canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth.
So is everyone. that is born of the Spirit. Oh, this is the work, you see,
of the Holy Spirit. The kindness, the love of God
our Saviour toward man appeared and He saved us. How? By the
washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Again, these are parallel statements
clearly referring to the same thing, the washing of the new
birth. the renewing of the Holy Ghost and so if any man is in
Christ Jesus he's a new creation all things are passed away and
all things are become new but besides regeneration and renewal
with regards to the spirit we also read here of washing now
there's a need of cleansing cleansing Paul says purge your consciences
from dead works to serve the living God or there's a cleansing
that must come deep into the soul of the sinner and when we
read in the Old Testament the promise of the New Covenant and
we have that promise in particularly in the book of Jeremiah but also
we see it there in the writings of Ezekiel the language of Ezekiel
36 verse 25 following then, this is in terms of the new covenant
then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean
from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse
you. A new heart also will I give
you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of
flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk
in my statues and you shall keep my judgments and do them. It's all the work of the spirits
but there is in association with that a sprinkling. I will sprinkle
clean water upon you and you shall be clean." Our hearts, as it were, sprinkled
from an evil conscience. Who is it that makes that blessed
application? It's the work of the Spirit who
takes of the things of Christ, the work of Christ. the precious
blood that was shed at Calvary and makes application to the
conscience of the sinner, his conscience accusing him on the
conviction of sin or when the Spirit comes he reproves, he
convinces of sin and then of righteousness and of judgment
also. Verily, verily, Christ says,
except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter
the kingdom of heaven. Here it is then he's born of
water not in the sense that the Romanist would say with his teaching
of baptism or so-called regeneration and not only the Romanist of
course those in the Church of England so-called with their
teaching of baptism or regeneration as if the fact that the little
child is taken by the parents and put into the hands of the
priest and the priest sprinkles water upon them and declares
them to be regenerate born again. That's not what it means. No,
it's what we have here in the text. It's the washing of regeneration. Oh, how the Spirit works mightily
and effectually and He works in the hearts of sinners when
He brings home to the conscience the efficacy of that great work
of the Lord Jesus that's precious blood that fountain that's been
opened for sin and uncleanness it's the Spirit who makes the
application but then thirdly here we also of course read of
the Son in verses 6 and 7 which he shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Saviour that being justified by His grace
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. He is that one, you see, who
is truly the mediator between God and man. And all the blessings
of the Gospel are mediated to us through Him. It is God the
Son, Jesus of Nazareth, God manifest in the flesh, who is the mediator
between God and man. What do we see here? Three things
I want to mention with regards to God the Son. First of all,
the gift of the Holy Ghost. We read there at the end of verse
5 of salvation by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost but then we're told which he shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Saviour. The gift of the Spirit is bestowed
through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we have those remarkable
chapters in John 14, 15 and 16, in which the Lord begins to tell
his disciples that they must leave them, but when he leaves
them, he will send the Spirit to them. Or the Comforter, he says, which
is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name. He proceeds
from the Father, but he also proceeds from the Son. Christ
says it is expedience. that I go away from you for if
I go not away from you the Comforter which is the Spirit
will not come but if I depart I will send him unto you and
so it was of course on the day of Pentecost where we have the
descending of the Spirit all that best of all God's donation
when the day of Pentecost was fully come. The fulfillment of
the Old Testament Pentecost there as the Spirit is bestowed. What
does Peter say in the course of his preaching on that day?
He speaks of Christ therefore being by the right hand of God
exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the
Holy Ghost. He hath shed forth this which
he now see and hear. It is Christ who has sent the
Spirit, shed him abroad in the earth. And he comes of course as the
Spirit of Christ, he comes to reveal the things of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But look at what else is bestowed
through Christ the Mediator. There's justification, that being justified by his grace. All this cardinal doctrine. Luther
said it's the article by which the church stands or falls. And this is why the Church of
Rome is no true church. Because it does not stand by
this great doctrine. of justification by faith alone
in Christ alone. What a doctrine it is. We are
told quite clearly what God did when He sent His Son into this
world. He was made of a woman. Oh, that was the promise, the
seed of the woman. That's the first gospel promise
there back in Genesis 3.15. The Word had spoken actually
to the serpents. but he concerns the seed of the
woman who will come and bruise the serpent's head though he
bruise the heel of the seed but when the fullness of the
time has come God sends his son and he's made of a woman how
God is faithful to his word but as he's made of a woman so he's
also made under the law Oh, he is subject to his own law. You
know, he's that one who as he comes, he'll magnify the law. The Lord is well pleased for
his righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honourable. That's what the Lord Jesus has
done. There's nothing There's nothing evil in the Lord,
it's all good. The commandment is holy. The
Lord is holy, the commandment is holy and just and good. That's
what it says. It's a good law. And what has
Christ done? He's honored it. And he's magnified
it. And he's done that of course
by the obedience that he rendered to it throughout his life. Now he has kept it perfectly. But he is not only obedient in
living, he is obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
He honours it also in dying. In living he honours it in terms
of precept. In dying he honours it in terms
of penalty. He bears the punishment that
was due to the transgressors. Oh the Lord is well pleased.
for his righteousness sake. He honours, he magnifies the
Lord of God. And then when we come to that
man Paul and we see how the Lord deals with him and he's brought
to desire one thing really. This man who was once a proud
Pharisee, a man who imagined that touching the righteousness
of the Lord he'd lived a blameless life. But then he sees the truth He sees something of the spirituality
of the Lord. He was a transgressor. And what
is his desire now to be found in Him? That is to be found in
Christ. Not having mine own righteousness, he says, which is of the law,
but that which is through the faith of Christ. The righteousness
which is of God by faith. That's his desire. One thing
to be found. All to be found in Him. Is that
your desire tonight? To be found in Him? in the Lord
Jesus Christ, washed in His precious blood, clothed with the robe
of His righteousness. And that's Paul's desire, so
it's Paul's preaching. And we see it there in Acts 13.
By Him, he says, all that believe are justified from all things
that they could not be justified from by the deeds of the law. being justified by His grace,
it says. It is God who justifies. And
by His grace God justifies the ungodly. He declares the sinner
to be a righteous man. How so? Well, what is the name
of Christ? This is the name whereby He shall
be called the Lord our Righteousness, that's His name God our Saviour
is also the Lord our Righteousness we have it there in in Jeremiah
23.6 and then just 10 chapters later chapter 33 and verse 16
we have those words this is the name wherewith she shall be called
the church this is the name wherewith she shall be called The Lord's
our righteousness. Why? She takes His name. She
takes His name. Why? That church is the bride
of Christ. She takes His name. He is the
Lord our righteousness. Lord, this is God the Son, the
gift of the Holy Spirit. The great blessing of justification. But also here we see sonship
and heirs. that being justified by His grace
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Oh, if we're the children of
God then we're heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with the
Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessing is this! Christ's
resurrection life is the believer's eternal life. He said this morning
there's a union, you see, between Christ and His people. His life is their life, because
I live, He says ye shall live also. His resurrection life is
that eternal life. We were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son, we're told, but much more being reconciled,
we shall be saved by His life. All that life that is in Christ
at the resurrection is that that is communicated to the sinner. Heirs of God. Sons of God. Heirs of a kingdom which God
has promised to them that love Him. You see furthermore here
we see something of the believers adoption really. Our adoption. into sonship. Where is it rooted? It's rooted in the eternal sonship
of Christ. He only is the son of the Father
in truth and in love. He is the only begotten of the
Father. But God has many sons, many adopted
sons. But from whence does their sonship
spring? It comes out of his eternal sonship. because you are sons God has
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts crying Abba
Father yes because of that union with the Lord Jesus Christ all
the wonder of it this is a faithful saying and these things I will that
they were firm constantly that they which have believed in God
might be careful to maintain good works these things are good
and profitable unto men how important it is you see that we understand what these
faithful sayings are all about we sort of say something say
a little really of each of them from that first one that we were
considering a couple of weeks ago in 1 Timothy 1.15 and those
other faithful true sayings that follow
in chapter 3 and verse 1 and then chapter 4 and verse 7 through
9 and then this morning we were looking at words in the second
letter to Timothy weren't we? 2 Timothy 2.11-13 and now these
words tonight but we know don't we that all all the scripture
is a true and a faithful saying all of it right the way from
the opening chapter of Genesis through to the 22nd chapter in
the book of the Revelation all scripture is given by inspiration
of God, it's all God's words every part of it and this is that of course that
our faith is settled in how firm a foundation ye saints of the
Lord is laid for your faith in His excellent words. What more
can He say than to you He has said you who unto Jesus for refuge
have fled. Oh, this is the firm foundation
of our faith. Even the doctrines of the Word
of God, the precious truths that we have here in Holy Scripture. And so we come to this last of
the of the faithful sayings. This is a faithful saying. These
things I will that they affirm constantly that they which have
believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These
things are good and profitable unto men. Good works has no place in our
salvation. There's no good works before
regeneration. we see that quite clearly in
what we've been considering tonight not by works of righteousness
which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us but then there are works look
at chapter 2 and verse 12 teaching us that denying ungodliness and
worthy lusts we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this
present world. For we are to live, you see,
in accordance with the Word of God. Again, right at the end,
here in verse 14 of chapter 3, let us also learn to maintain
good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful. What does the Lord say? Wherefore
by their fruits ye shall know them. who are with those who desire
that we might be fruitful in all the word of God we might
know what it is to be sanctified by his truth the Lord says thy
words is truth oh the Lord then bless this truth tonight that
we have before us here in the text 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
that being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying And
these things I will that they were firm constantly, that they
which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are goods and profitable
unto men. The Lord then bless his word
to us today. Amen.