I invite you to turn with me
again to the book of Titus, chapter 3. While you're turning, I'll give
you some history about what's taking place here in this letter.
The Apostle Paul had appointed Titus to stay behind in Crete
to establish order in the congregations, I'm guessing that were those men and women converted
under his ministry, and to ordain their pastors who would care
for these little flocks throughout Capernaum. And so he writes,
giving Titus some instruction as to their qualifications and
their duties as ministers of God. This is one of many of what
teachers call the pastoral epistles or letters. And among many other
things, they were to show themselves a pattern of good works. Good works. You don't have to
know a person very well to know if he does good works. What are these good works? What's
he talking about here? Well, he's talking about a man
that he says here is serious. He doesn't josh about the things
of God. He doesn't joke about the ministry. He doesn't joke about these.
He's serious in these matters. He's serious in these matters.
We make a bad mistake among our unbelieving relatives when we
buy into their little jokes and things of humor concerning the
ministry. Boy, nothing would bring a hard
look on you faster than that with Brother Mahan. Boy, he'd
look down over them glasses at you. A very reputable preacher, I
won't mention his name, but we were down in Lake Charles, Louisiana
one time and I remember this guy laughing and saying something
about Henry and something that he preached. And Henry laid his
knife and fork down on the table and he said, if you want to joke
about your ministry, you go ahead, but don't joke about mine. And boy, everybody at the table
got real serious. Well, this is what, Paul, that's
a good work when a man's serious about the things of God. These
things are serious. They're serious. Men, because
of their unbelief and fear, they want to make jokes about it and
soften it, but these things are serious. They're serious matters. They were to show themselves
a pattern of good works, to live a life that others might want
to follow. You know, I watched Brother Mahan
as a young man, and I envied his life. I wanted to live like
he lived. I wanted to believe like he believed,
and be loving as he was, and interested in people as he was,
and be able to speak like he spoke. He had a life that I envied,
and that's what he's telling Titus here about these men. Live
a life that others might wish to follow after. Be an example
to the congregation to which God has put you over. Be an example to them. Lead them
by example. You won't tell them to give.
You set the example. You set the example. In doctrine,
they were to show, listen to this, uncorruptness. No flaws in your doctrine. You get your doctrine right.
Don't stand up and preach things that you don't know. Don't dabble
in things that you don't understand. Preach what you know. Show uncorruptness, gravity,
and then watch this, sincerity. Sincere. Sound speech that cannot
be condemned. There's ways to say things that
leaves the gainsayers with no comeback. What are you gonna come back
with against the truth? If you state the truth as it
is revealed in the scriptures, there's no comeback. There's no debate. There's no
argument. And there's ways to state doctrine
from the Word of God, connecting all the various scriptures on
the subject so that the ones being taught are fully persuaded. They're persuaded. And therefore,
they can be reproved and corrected and instructed. If you don't
know what you're saying, even to your own children, they're
not going to understand what you're saying. You have to say
it in a way that they can understand. And these good works and this
faithful study, he said, is to adorn the doctrine of God. The doctrine of God our Savior
in all things. And then he makes this statement,
Titus chapter 2, verse 11. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men, verse 12, teaching us that
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly,
righteously, godly in this present world, looking for that blessed
hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem
us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people
zealous of good works. Now the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath not appeared to all men in the sense of its irresistible
calling. It has appeared. How has it appeared? In the gospel. It appears in the gospel. That's the only way it appears.
That is the revelation of God. It's the gospel. Now the spirit
can work in your heart so that you can receive it and believe
it, but that revelation is not something other than the gospel.
The gospel is the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's why we
preach it. Only the spirit can make it effectual.
This grace of God that bringeth salvation hath not appeared to
all men in the sense of his irresistible calling, or under the mighty
influence of the Spirit, convincing men of sin and righteousness
and judgment. That hath appeared to a few,
to his elect. If that were true of all men,
all men would be born of God and given gifts of repentance
and faith. But this appearance to which
Paul's referring is the grace of God set forth in the preaching
of the gospel. And as we preach the appointments,
the prophecies, the incarnation, the life, death, and resurrection
of Christ, we do that, showing these things to be freely given
to us by the sovereign grace of God. The appointment of Christ before
the foundation of the world as the Christ is the gift of God's
grace. Isn't that what he says over
there in 2 Timothy 1.9? God has saved us, called us with
a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. We do not preach these things
to men as a license or excuse to sin, but as the basis of restraining
from sin. John said, I write these things
unto you that you sin not. That's why he was writing. He
wasn't writing these things to them so they'd feel good about
their sins, but that they would sin not. When the gospel is preached as
it should be, it teaches us to deny ungodliness, to deny worldly
lusts. It teaches us to live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world. And the reason we live this way
is because we're looking for our blessed hope. That's what
we're doing. We're looking for our blessed
hope in our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. You know, there's fathers out
there, I pray we don't have any here, but there are fathers out
there who have been so severe on their children, that their
children just, they were so strict and so severe on them, but once
they got out from under that parent and got out into the world,
they sinned more than those who weren't under that type of environment. And why religion thinks that
you can be so severe on people, on the believer, so severe, so
strict, so legalistic with them, and just intolerable with them. and then expect them to sin not? No, it's the love of God that
restraineth us. It's his patience and kindness.
This is talking about when the kindness and the love of God
appears to a man. And I'm gonna tell you something.
The sovereign grace of God never comes any other way. When it
comes, the first thing you'll see is his kindness. His kindness. But God, isn't that what it says
over there in Ephesians chapter two, who's rich in mercy, for
his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
trespasses and sins, hath quickened us to gather with Christ. And
he did all of that. He put us in union with his son
and treated us as one with his son, that when the fullness of
the time was come, he's gonna show you the riches of his kindness. His kindness and His mercy. Put them in mind, he says, chapter
3, verse 1, to be subject to principalities and powers. We're
not lawbreakers. To obey magistrates. Be ready
to ever good work. Now watch this. Speak evil of
no man. Well, you idiot! What comes out before you know
it comes out, don't it? Speak evil of no man. If I speak
evil of a man, I'm only revealing my own character where me and
him both understand. If I publicly condemn a man,
I'm setting him into a category all by himself. and making others,
especially myself, to appear better than I really am. We're not to be brawlers. We're not to speak evil of anybody. We're not to be brawlers, quick
to engage in a confrontation, ready to go to war at a moment's
notice. Rather, we're to be gentle, showing
all meekness unto all men. Why not just peel the hide off?
Why not just cut them up in little pieces? Why not? We have the
ability. We have, actually have the law,
which there's no flaw in, to do it. Why not do it? Why not? Well, he tells you in verse three,
for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving
divers lust and pleasure, living in malice and then be hateful
and hating one another. That's where God found you, that's
where he found me. It's a sad commentary on the
salvation of a sinner when he forgets the grace of God in his
own salvation. Peter, a man who knew firsthand,
he knew something about self-righteousness and pride, and here he sits. He knew that God saved him by
his grace, and here he sits in Galatia, withdrawn from the Gentiles
like he was somebody, and Paul had to withstand him to the face.
It's a sad commentary on the salvation of a sinner when a
man forgets what he is and where God found him and how God saved
him. We're talking to men and women
about the salvation of their souls without any presence of
mind about the mercy of God that he's shown to us. We ourselves were just like them. Disobedient. Basically when it
came to obeying the truth. We ourselves were once foolish.
The things of the Spirit of God, we wouldn't receive them. They
were foolishness to us. Preaching of the cross to them
that perish is foolishness. The fool has said in his own
heart, no God for me. There's nothing that a sinner
can say to me that I myself have not said or thought myself. It
shouldn't shock me. So let me keep this in mind as
I preach to men and women. So what turned the tide for the
believer? He was walking according to the
course of this world. Why'd he change course? He was
walking after the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience. What made him
stop submitting to him? What turned the tide for them? Titus chapter three, verse four.
For after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward
man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we've done,
but according to his mercy, he saved us. We didn't save ourselves,
he saved us. Let that sink in a minute. He saved us. How'd he do it? By the washing of regeneration. He gave us the ability to repent. You didn't repent. No man will
ever repent unless God gives him the ability to repent. You didn't believe and you never
would have believed till God gave you the ability to believe.
When he gives you the ability, you'll believe. And it'll all
come together. This is not one separate thing.
We separate them to teach them, but this all happens so fast
you won't even recognize that it happened. Not by works of righteousness,
which we've done, but according to His mercy, He saved us by
the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost It makes all these things new to you. Old things
passed away. Behold, all things become new. Here's my old state of mind. I've sinned and there's no cure
for it. There's no excuse for it. I have
a judgment awaiting me for it. God's not going to compromise
His nature. He's going to judge every sin.
That's my old state. I'm in a nature of sin. All I
can do is sin in my best efforts. before God, man at his best state,
altogether vanity before God. I have nothing to present to
him, nothing to attract his favor. That's the old state. The new
state in Christ, I'm an heir. My sins have been forgiven. My
sins have been actually charged to another. My sins have been fully paid
for. My old state, I was unrighteous. All my righteousness is as filthy
rag. My new state in Christ. I'm as righteous as God in Christ. I have a perfect righteousness
in Him. Old things have passed away.
There is a renewing that takes place in a man's heart and it
takes place by the power of the Holy Ghost. He's able to see
these things that's been hidden from generations. God has abounded toward us in
all wisdom and prudence. He's abounded toward us. He's
helped us to understand these things and see these things as
they really are. A young lady told me on the phone
the other day, She said, well, I was talking
to her about Adam's sin, and she said, yeah, but Christ died
for Adam's sin. I said, no, he didn't. God pronounced judgment on Adam's
sin, and this whole race bears evidence of it. He didn't die
for Adam's sin. He died for our sins. God's not
going to send a man to hell for Adam's sin. He's going to send
you to hell for your sins. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. Isn't that what it says? It's
exactly what it says. Oh, the renewing of the Holy
Ghost. Now let me briefly give you five things contained in
this washing and renewing. Five things that come to pass
when the kindness and the love of God our Savior appears. The first thing that happened
to me was an awareness of my sin. Suddenly my sins were not
just mistakes. That's how I used to view them,
mistakes. Ignorant and I don't know what
made me do that, but I did that. I'll just try to do better and
shove it aside and go Sin is not so much what you do. I hope you kids are listening.
It's not so much what you do as it is what you are. Sin is
a nature. You know a dog is a dog by nature. A bird is a bird by nature and
you're sinners by nature. By nature the children of wrath
even as others. That's what it says in Ephesians
chapter two. Sin is a nature. We're all under sin, Paul said. Therefore, there are none righteous.
None that understand it. So on, we're under sin. We have
a nature of sin. We're limited in what we can
do and how we think and all these things. And because of this nature,
we constantly sin. We come forth from the womb speaking
lies. Everything we do is seen. Our
best thoughts are seen. Everything we do is seen. All of a sudden I become aware
of my sin that they're mine. They're my sins. God's going
to hold me accountable. He's not going to hold my dad
accountable. He's going to hold me. I become aware of my sin and I
become aware of my need of mercy and grace. I've been sold this
bill of good on free will and any time you want to, you just
walk down the aisle and get saved. There it is. It's like going
to the store. Here's the old mourner's bench
up here. That's where they gave it. All
you had to do is come up there and kneel down and ask God and
he saved you. That's the end of it. You can go on about your
business until your back's slid and then you had to come back
up again. Over and over and over. Other churches have different
means, but that's how it was in the little church that I went
to. Sin. And you need a mercy. When I was just a little feller,
probably three or four years old, I used to help mom in the
kitchen. Now you can go down and you can
buy pinto beans today. You can go down there and you
can buy them already made in a can, open it up, stick it in
a pot. We didn't have that. And today you can go down and
you can buy a little bag of beans and it's pretty much gone through
and everything. Just dump it in a pot, add water, boil it,
put a little salt in it, you're ready to go. But not back then. Back then it come in like a flour
sack, a cloth sack. And it come pretty good size,
about five pounds or 10 pounds. and it had a drawstring on top
and you'd open it up and you, first thing you do is lay out
some newspapers on the table. She did this to keep me out from
under her feet. I found that out later on, but back then I
thought I was helping. And she'd put all them beans
out there and then we'd go through and we'd pick out all the half
beans and the bad beans and the off-colored beans, we'd get them
out. And then when we got all done, she'd fold that newspaper
up and slide it off into a bowl of water. And all the bad beans
would float to the top. Anything that was to be culled
would float to the top. And so she'd give me this little
hand-held sieve and I'd go around and get all them beans on top.
Everything that had sunken down below the water was good to go.
That's how I taught about sin. That church I went to, they said
when you first join up, you cull out all the obvious sins. You
have to get rid of your drinking and your smoking All that, yeah,
those obvious sins, you gotta get rid of them. And then he
begins to swish you around in the bowl of reformation a little
bit. And some other things begin to
come to light, and you get rid of them. But once you got rid
of them, everything else is good to go. You think that's how God sees
your sins? God doesn't cull out part of
the beings He condemns the whole bowl. He takes the whole bowl
and throws it out in the yard. Nothing in it. None good. None. None righteous. None. You see what I'm saying? There's
an awareness of sin that God sends into the heart of the believer
by the Holy Ghost. He makes him, he convinces him
of his sin. And he sees it. And he sees the condemnation
attached to it. And all of a sudden, he's a candidate
for mercy. You couldn't have given him mercy
before. Now he's a candidate for it.
Oh, he's ready to listen. Man, grace. Anything said grace,
my ears tuned up. Do what? Mercy. Tell me about that. Tell me something
about mercy. You simply cannot see his love
and his mercy and his grace until you seen it as it was manifested. God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. When we were yet without strength
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Paul said, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. And our Lord himself said,
think not that I've come to save the righteous. I've not come
to save the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance. The
very fact that regeneration is a necessity reveals the depth
of my sin and the glory of God's grace. Secondly, the washing of regeneration
washes away our refuge of lies. Boy, how we like to hide in our
little refuge. We like to crawl in it, especially
in times of trouble, we like to crawl in that little refuge. But the washing of regeneration
washes away our refuge of lies and our fleshly hopes and leaves
us at his feet begging for mercy. That's where you won't be. At
his feet. At his feet. He delights to show
mercy. And he will to sinners. Antichrist religion has a universal
stranglehold on man. There's hardly a person left
in the world who's not been deceived by his cunning lies and half-truths
and unfounded facts. Free will decisionism has no
basis in the word of God whatsoever. But try to tell man he don't
have a free will. He'll fight you over a fact with
no foundation. Isn't that something? It's got no basis in the Word
of God, only in its mother, the great whore of Babylon. And when
the reality of kindness and love and grace appear, it chases away
all this superstition and lies. It chases it away. When light
comes into the soul, the darkness of Antichrist must vacate the
premises. It's got to go. You turn a light
on in a dark room, it don't stay dark. It lights up. Where'd the
darkness go? Chases it away. John said, God is light. In him
is no darkness at all. And if we say we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie. Can't be done. You can't stand in the light
and walk in darkness. And then thirdly, this divine
and supernatural washing cleanses us from doubts and fears. I'm going to tell you something
about this confidence during these times and these
things that chases away your fears. I'm going to tell you
something that needs to penetrate your thinking. This confidence is not confidence
in you. I think I can get through this.
That ain't going to chase no fears away. That's a soap bubble. It's not confidence in yourself.
It's not confidence in your conversion. That's the next thing. Men run
back 20 years ago or 30 years ago or 50 years ago or 10 minutes
ago. They want to run back to their
conversion and start examining everything about their conversion
to find their confidence. There's no confidence in that. The next thing is they want to
go to the fruits of the Spirit. They want to examine all of that.
See if they've got any confidence in their soul. When I look at love and
its perfection in Christ, I'm going to always fall short. So many I know are always down
and out because they examine themselves and find themselves
wanting. Fear and doubt will never be
dispelled by confidence generated by something you are or something
you do or something that you've done. The confidence that chases
away fear and doubt is confidence in Christ. If you doubt your salvation,
look to Him. Can He save me? But if He can't,
I can't be saved. With men, it's impossible. Isn't
that what our Lord said? His disciples said, if this man
can't be saved, who then can be saved? He was the best they
had to offer. And He said, with man, it's impossible.
But with God, all things are possible. You look to Him. Is His righteousness sufficient
to cover me and present me before God thoughtless? Is His death sufficient to put
away my sin? Is His power sufficient to reign
over all things? To bring to pass what God has
willed and put in His hands? Is His power sufficient? My soul, that's where confidence,
confidence in Christ. As you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, now walk in him that way. Rooted and built up in him,
established in the faith that you've been taught, abounding
therein with thanksgiving. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you're complete in him. There is a full sufficiency in
Christ, not only to redeem us, but to purify us unto Himself
a people zealous of good works. And we've been duped by false
religion to believe pastors need to come to your house and they
need to run over there every time something ain't going your
way. And whoever it is that's causing
the problem, go over there and stick your finger in their face
and say, huh? If I can't motivate you with
the love of Christ and the power of Christ and the glory of Christ,
what in the world good is it going to do me standing in your
yard doing this? I'll tell you what he's called
me to do is point you to him. Point you to him. I may do this
to you, but at the same time I'm going to do this. I'm not
going to point you to me, I'm going to point you to Him. Go
to Him. He's the only one who can do
anything about whatever it is that's bothering you. I've got
no control over it whatsoever. We're complete in Him and we
see Him as our Lord and Savior. Our fears and doubts begin to
disappear. And then fourthly, appearing
of the kindness and love of God our Savior, and the regeneration
that brings it to pass, washes us from all our worldly and fleshly
attitudes. And the first thing it takes
away is boasting. Boasting. Oh, I tell you, you
read Romans chapter 3, verses 24 on down, and Paul, after that
awful chapter there describing Condition of man, therefore by
the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is nothing but
the knowledge of sin. And then he says, that we're justified, being justified
freely by his grace. Through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus our Lord. whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation for us. Propitiation for our sins. Through
faith in his blood to declare his righteousness. You know what
he says right after he goes through all those wonderful things? He
said, where's boasting? It's excluded. That's what Paul
said. It's gone. It's gone. It takes away Our boasting. Cannot hope in the free justification
of grace and your redemption in Christ and boast in yourself.
That faith which believes on Him that brings that justification
to us is a gift of God and it's not of works, listen, lest any
man should boast. where his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good work. And we got nothing to boast of
but our Lord himself. If I gotta boast, let me boast
in him. If I have to glory, let me glory
in him. Regeneration has to do with the
revelation of God in Christ, saving his people from their
sin and for his glory. And as this revelation's made
known in them, it washes the mind and the attitude of the
believer. He becomes a new man, a new man. Over and over, Paul said, but
we have the mind of Christ. He generates in us meekness and
humility and kindness. and gratitude. And then fifthly,
when the kindness and love of God our Savior appears, we're
washed in the waters of regeneration and begin to lose our fear of
death. There's only one thing to fear
in death. Just one thing. Judgment. It's
appointed unto men once to die, and after that, the judgment. Only one thing to fear. To stand before God. Oh, I tell
you, I think about judgment. To stand before God who sees
the very thoughts and intents of our hearts. Before Him to
whom you cannot lie. To stand before God who has a perfect
account of every sin we've ever committed. Those who stood before Him, He
said, and then the books were opened. To stand before Him who's just
as spared, not His own Son? Well, maybe you'll have mercy
on me. He didn't have mercy on His Son. I'm talking about in His judgment. To stand before Him who has so
often manifested His wrath for sin and we ignored it? How can
a poor sinner not fear such a judgment? How can a poor sinner ever hope
to lay his head down at night with any hope before such a God? Because he believed on the Son
of God who bare his sin in his own body on the tree. And Paul
said, there is therefore now no condemnation, no judgment. Huh? No condemnation to them who are
in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
spirit. For the law, the fixed principle
of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made us free from
the law of sin and death. Scripture said, once in the end
of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. He put it away. So Christ was
once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look
for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Only one way for any sinner to
overcome his fear of death and judgment, and that is to have
confidence in the Lord of glory, in the great God, and our Savior,
Jesus Christ. How can you and I ever hope to
live such a life as Paul is describing here in this text? By hearing
and seeing the kindness and love of God our Savior as it's revealed
in the gospel. I don't hope there is. Don't
hope there is. How you gonna call on Him in
whom you have not heard? How you gonna hear without a
preacher? Therefore, faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. All right, thank you.