Turn with me please in your Bibles
to Titus, the little book of Titus. So if you've still got
Hebrews open, you just need to flick back a page. And if you haven't, find Timothy.
It's just after him. Titus was a young man who appears
to have captured the heart of the Apostle Paul. Paul thought
very highly of him and speaks very highly of him, even to the
extent of calling him his own son. And he committed to Titus
a variety of responsibilities, some of which are recounted in
this letter that he sent to Titus to do with establishing churches
and putting in a form of government, local government, in those churches
with their elders and their structures. And he writes in these three
short chapters in chapter 3 about the continuation, as it were,
of what he'd been saying in chapter 2 as to directions that were
to be given by Titus to the churches in his preaching, and we're drawn
to the opening verse of chapter three, where we read, put them
in mind to be subject to principalities. That probably means to the civil
magistrate, the local government, or whoever it was that was in
charge of the city or the town. that they were living in. These
are sometimes called principalities in scripture. So he's telling
the believers to recognize and honor. Don't think that because
we serve God that we don't have any responsibilities here upon
earth. We do and we are to uphold the
structures of government and support them to the extent that
we can and to be subject to them. So put them in mind to be subject
to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready
to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers,
but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves
also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving
divers' lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful
and hating one another. 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 thou affirm constantly, that they
which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men. We'll just stop there for the
purposes of our thoughts this afternoon. And in some respects
one feels quite inadequate to enlarge upon these words because
there is a succinctness in the summary here that the apostle
has given to Titus that really merely bears repetition, for
in these things the whole gospel is bound up. But the Lord has
encouraged us to minister one to another in these things. And
he has established the preaching of that gospel. Or as he says
to Timothy, the apostle says to Timothy, I will that thou
affirm constantly. So that's what we're going to
do. We are going to affirm as Titus affirmed, and Timothy too,
and as all gospel preachers do, affirming and reaffirming this
testimony, this gospel, these truths which are the foundation
and which are the ground of our faith and our hope. So we have
a privilege, brothers and sisters, once again today to be turning
to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and seeking his help and
his comfort in an understanding, a proper and true understanding
of these things. We did open our service today
by reading the first chapter of Hebrews, and I would remind
you that in the book of Hebrews, the Lord Jesus Christ has some
wonderful names given to him. And we're told in the book of
Hebrews that Christ is our great High Priest. It's a lovely title
for our Saviour to bear, a lovely name with which we can think
of Christ. Christ is our Priest. He goes before His Father and
He represents us. He's our High Priest. He has
that place of prominence. He's our great high priest. And
so we find that in the book of Hebrews there is this desire
to show presumably the Hebrew believers or men and women who
were familiar with Hebrew traditions and customs how that even the
Old Testament sacrificial system and all of its priesthood and
all of its blood sacrifice was a picture was a type of the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we should interpret
and understand all these Old Testament scriptures in the context
of the fullness of the work which the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished. He is called, in Hebrews, the
author and the finisher of our faith. And that's another lovely
title because it shows us where the origins, where the beginning
of our faith is derived. It's the source. He is the author. He is the one who is the beginning
of our faith. People sometimes talk about their
faith, my faith this, my faith that. It's not our faith. Not
in the first instance, except to the extent that it has been
gifted to us. This is the faith of Christ.
This is the faith that he works, that he establishes, that he
implants, that he grants, that he authors, that he instigates. and that he places in our hearts. So that while we once were dead,
now we are alive. While we once did not believe,
now we believe. While we once never trusted in
him, but trusted in our own strength and well-being and our own good
works and our own self-righteousness, now we understand that there
is nothing worthy of trust in those things, and Christ alone
has to be the focus of our attention. He is the author and the finisher
of our faith. We're not going any further than
that. We don't want to go beyond that. We want to be satisfied
with Jesus Christ and all that he has accomplished. We're not
going to believe in anyone else or anything else, for Christ
alone is all that we require. He's called, again in the book
of Hebrews, Hebrews is full of these lovely titles. He's called
the surety of a better promise. The better promise is that covenant
promise which Christ has most fully revealed, that covenant
promise of the peace of God granted to sinners, granted to estranged
individuals. by which we are reconciled to
God. We are brought into a peaceful
relationship with God. And so in the Old Testament,
it's called the covenant of peace. Sometimes we talk about it as
the covenant of grace. Sometimes we talk about it as
the New Testament. distinguished, of course, from
the books of the New Testament, but that the New Testament books
speak of this new covenant. Or really, it's the everlasting
covenant. It's that covenant that has always
been in the will and mind of God, of which Christ stands as
surety. thereby testifying that all the
benefits and all the blessings and all the good and all the
kindness and all the grace that ever was devised by that God
of love in the eternal councils of the infinite persons flow
freely, flow completely, flow entirely. to the recipients of
His grace by Christ and all that He has accomplished. And these
are just names that are given to the Lord and yet inside those
names is packed so much good theology. He is our assurance
of eternal life because of what He has accomplished for us. He
is the living He is the uncreated Word of God. He is the one who
sees all things, who knows all things, who understands all things,
who sees every creature exactly as he or she is. Knows our words, knows our actions,
knows our thoughts and our motivations. All things are naked and opened
unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. And we will deal
with this One, we will do with this One, whether it is as Saviour
or whether it is as Judge. We will deal with this One, Jesus
Christ. And that is the message that
we long to preach to this world. That is our desire to carry this
message. If it be a warning to some and
a comfort to others, so be it. But we want to take this message
to the world. The Lord Jesus Christ committed
to his disciples go into all the world and preach the gospel.
And this is the gospel that we preach. The accomplishments of
Christ for the salvation of his people and the fulfilment of
the eternal purpose of God and the redemption out of this world
of that elect people whom he is pleased to honour and he is
pleased to bless with his love and his grace and his mercy. but for all the wonderful names
given in the book of Hebrews as to the accomplishments of
the Lord Jesus Christ with regard to his work and his people. The opening statements of this
book speak of Christ's unrivaled excellence and most glorious
person in himself. He's done wonderful things, but
the accomplishment of those wonderful things is because he's a wonderful
person, because of who he is. He is the unique God-man, and
we are told that he is the brightness of the Father's glory, the express
image of his person. So that in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the writer, and I take it to be Paul
the apostle, the writer to the Hebrews, this person of Jesus
Christ that he is speaking to these Hebrews about, the Hebrews
would have been familiar with him, they would have been familiar
with the Lord Jesus Christ who came. and certainly familiar
with the Old Testament scriptures. And here the Apostle Paul is
saying, look, you've worshipped God. You've worshipped God, Jehovah,
for all of these years, for all of these centuries. You've gone
through the processes of approaching God with your sacrifices, with
your goats and your sheep and your beasts and your birds. You've
brought all these, you've spilled blood aplenty. But let me tell
you what that was all pointing to. Let me tell you what that
was all about. Let me tell you that this one
Jesus Christ is the fullness of the Godhead, is the great
Jehovah Himself. And all that may be known of
Jehovah is seen and is to be known and is revealed by this
one, Jesus Christ, the God-man. He is the brightness of the Father's
glory, the express image of his person. And again, Paul says
in Colossians chapter two and verse nine, in him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Let's just pause for a moment
and consider what that means. This is the true and the faithful
testimony of the Word of God. The Lord Jesus Christ, the God-Man,
okay, the baby, the 12-year-old, the 30-year-old, the three years
ministry, the walking the dusty streets, the words that were
spoken, the miracles performed, the beating, the mockery, the
shame, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension. This man is God
with us. This man is the eternal God. That's what we believe. That's
who we believe. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
visible, physical, tangible fullness of God. When you look at Christ,
when you look at his words, when you look at his person, when
you look at his works, when you look at his nature, when you
look at his character, when you look at his demeanor and the
way that he dealt with people, this is God dealing with sinners. And in Christ we see this fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Every perfection of the highest
glory of the eternal God is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ, the express image of
God. And people speak highly, don't
they, of certain qualities, certain traits. Love. Love is the subject
of man's song and melody. We all long for love. I hope, I hope you've experienced
love in your life at some point or another. I hope you have someone
to share love with. Love's a wonderful thing. You
lose love, you know you've lost something. But how do we know about love? God is love. God is love. The purest, the most beautiful,
the most glorious, the most unimaginable fullness and grandeur of love
is not to be found in the relationship that a man has with a woman or
a parent with a child or a friend with a friend. It's to be found
in God. He is the highest manifestation,
the highest revelation of love. And how is it revealed, God's
love? It's revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the evidence of the love
of God is seen in Christ, so that we can say that the greatest
love is Christ dying for his friends. For greater love hath
no man than this, and that a man lays down his life for his friends,
for his church. So what can we think about as
the high qualities and characters of the most esteemed principles
of life? Holiness. Where is holiness to
be found? But in God alone. How is that
revealed to us? In Jesus Christ. Honour. Where is true honour to be found? In God alone. How is that manifested? In Jesus Christ. Mercy, forgiveness,
grace, loyalty, faithfulness, sacrifice, the highest principles
of humanity are found as being derived from God and exemplified
perfectly in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every high quality amongst men
is perfected in God and revealed in Christ. And therefore we justifiably
call all men to look at Jesus, to look at the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a worthy message to carry
to this world. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look unto him, all ye ends of the earth. The express image of God's person. And here in Titus, the Apostle
Paul is writing of this revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the revelation of the qualities of the Godhead in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he speaks of these divine
attributes as being focused in the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ
being the personification of God's beauty, God's splendor,
God's glory. And in the person of Christ and
in his words and in his works and his nature, his character,
we see the highest evidence of the example of the kindness and
the love of God towards men. And it seems as if Paul is reminding
Titus and thereby reminding us of two very simple and straightforward
truths concerning the beginning and the end of our relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. That salvation that flows from
Christ. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. And the apostle is reminding
Titus of a couple of things with respect to that salvation. And he says, if we look at verse
8 of chapter 3 of Titus, he says there, these things, right at
the very end of verse 8, These things are good and profitable
unto men. These things that the apostle
is telling Titus to affirm and reaffirm, confirm, declare, preach,
these things that he would have Titus speak of amongst the churches,
are the very same things that we desire to declare. Things that are good and profitable
unto men. Now, I don't know what you're
going to be doing tomorrow. Some of you may be going to work,
some of you may be with your family, some of you may be travelling. But I want you to begin your
working week tomorrow, whatever it might entail, by realising
that you've heard something today that was good and something today
that was profitable. So when you go into the office
tomorrow and somebody says to you, did you have a good weekend? You tell them, I heard something
good and I heard something profitable. Did you do anything interesting?
Ah, I heard something that did my soul good. And I heard something
that was profitable for my life in this world. Good and profitable. That's what it is. That's what
we're about today. Encouraging one another, comforting
one another with these good things, these profitable things that
bless our souls and encourage our hearts and point us again
and again, affirm and reaffirm the Lord Jesus Christ and what
he has done for us. Would you like to know Would
you like to feel something of the kindness of God in your life? Would you like to know and feel
something of the love of God in your life? Would you taste and see that
the Lord is good? Would you meet with my Savior? Oh, come with me. Come with me
and let me show you the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has
done. Do you remember Moses when he was coming up out of Egypt?
He met with his father-in-law, a Midianite, and he said to this
Midianite, he said, God has promised us good things. He has promised us a land that
flows with milk and honey. He has promised us good things. Come thou with us, come with
us, and we will do thee good. For the Lord hath spoken good
concerning his church and his people. God has a plan and a
purpose for his church and his people, and it is to shower upon
them so many good and wonderful and gracious things, to bestow
upon them so much of his love and his kindness and his gentleness
and his generosity. This is God's will for his people. This is God's love manifested
towards us. This is what we see personified
in the Lord Jesus Christ and all that he has done. And it
doesn't mean to say that we won't shed a tear. It doesn't mean
to say that we won't smart from the arrows and the stones and
the brickbats of this life. Certainly we have an enemy. Certainly
we are a sail. Certainly we have to taste. and
feel the persecution and the trials and the difficulties of
this life. But through it all, the testimony
of God for his church and his people is this, that he will
do us good. And we can say to men, as Moses
said to his father-in-law, come with us, come with us, and we
will do thee good. And you say, wait a minute. I
can't come with you. I can't come. I'm not dressed to meet God. I'm not fit to meet God. I'm not ready to meet God. There's too much dross in me. There's too much unworthiness
in me. I can't stand before the presence
of God. I'm not fit for his company,
I'm not good enough for his presence. And I say upon the authority
of the word of God, friend, don't be concerned about that. Don't
be concerned about that. Because see what the apostle
Paul says to Titus. See what he says to Titus for
Titus to say to his congregation. Look at verse three of chapter
three. He says, for we ourselves also
were sometimes foolish. Well, I got to accept that that's
true. Disobedient. Yep. Deceived. Yep. Serving divers' lusts and
pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one
another. All true. All true. What Paul
says of himself, and remember this was a man who could testify
that as far as the religion of the Pharisees was concerned,
he was perfect. But after he scratched away that
veneer of his own self-righteousness, what did he discover? He discovered
a heart that was depletious. a heart that was deceitful and
desperately wicked, a heart which, when examined in the light of
the holiness of God, was exposed for all of its maliciousness,
all of its deceitfulness, and all of its lustfulness in the
pursuit of pleasures that were, according to the flesh, hateful
and hating one another. So don't tell me that you're
not fit for the presence of God, because the reality is that none
of us are fit for the presence of God, but there's no other
way to come to God than as a sinner. We have to acknowledge and we
have to recognize, because that's the whole reason for us to go
to God, is to have that sin problem dealt with. We must come to God
as sinners. It's the only condition of approaching
God is that we come to him as a sinner. And to come to him
in that way means that we must know something of our need. The apostle continues, he says,
but after that, the kindness and love of God, our Savior,
appeared. the kindness and love of God
our Savior appeared. Here is the appearance of the
kindness and love of God, Jehovah. How is it manifested? It is manifested
in the person of Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, all the fullness
of the Godhead dwelt bodily. In Jesus Christ, that most excellent
one, that preeminent one, that one who is beyond all the angels,
that perfect holy one, that God-man, in the Lord Jesus Christ, is
the kindness and love of God manifested and appearing. And that appearance is spoken
of in verse five. What does the appearance of the
kindness and love of God entail? It entails this, undeserved mercy. Undeserved mercy. Not by works
of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy,
He saved us. Now, if it was for the works
of righteousness that we had done, then that would be deserved
mercy. It would be payback. It would
have been earned. It would have been that we could
say, because we have gone and done these things, because we've
tithed, because we've been charitable, because we've exercised kindness
to this person and that person, because we have sought the Lord,
because we have done all of these things, we've fulfilled the patterns,
we've followed the ritual, we've done the stuff that was needed.
There are millions and millions of people in this world today. Imagine that they have got an
inside track with God because of all the things that they are
doing. It is religion and it's everywhere. Paul says that's
not it. It's not because of the works
of righteousness that we have done. He's not denying that these
are works that may well be commendable. The whole thrust of his argument
here is to remind the people to do good works. But it's not
the works of righteousness before God that gives us any access
to God. Now this revelation of the love and kindness of God
has to do with undeserved mercy. Mercy that comes when we don't
deserve it. Mercy that comes out of the full
and free graciousness of God. Completely undeserved. What else is the kindness and
love of God revealing to us in the person of Christ. Well, what
does Paul say in verse five? Not by the works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. Personal salvation. Undeserved
mercy and personal salvation. We'll have a show of hands. How many people here in the congregation
are saved today because your mom or your dad was saved? Well, that's good that you appreciate
that your salvation's not based on your heritage or your genealogy, your family line, your blood,
the way that you were brought up, the way that you were grown.
No, these things have to be personally experienced. These things have
to come to an individual. So there has to be a moment in
our lives, every single one of us, when it becomes clear that
that catalogue of unworthiness that the Apostle Paul was speaking
of in verses two and three, That hatred and hating one another,
that pursuit of sensual desire, that putting me first, that self-righteousness
which blinds us all to the true nature of our condition before
a holy God, that has to be a personal realization. That I'm the sinner
that's being spoken about. Not you, not the person that's
sitting next to me, but me. I'm the unworthy one, and I'm
the one that needs salvation. So the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ reveals the kindness and the love of God, first by this
unmerited mercy, and second by the revelation of the need for
personal salvation for you and for me, and a new life. A new life is
revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ because of his revelation of
the kindness and the love of God. He says, according to his
mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration. The washing
of regeneration, that means new life. It means a cleansing. It means the cleansing of our
sin. It means that in the blood of
Christ, in the shed blood of Christ, there was an efficacy,
there was an ability to do something, to satisfy God, to satisfy judgment,
to satisfy the demands of a wholly broken law. It says that in the
blood of Christ and in the sacrifice of Christ, there was the ability
for life to be found out of death. See, man was given life and he
chose death. And in that dead state, there
was nothing that he could do until God himself through death
brought life. Through the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ, through the, we remembered it this morning in
our communion service, through the breaking of his body and
the shedding of his blood, a new life was forged and formed for
the people of God. And here is the accomplishment
of God's plan of salvation, God's covenant of peace, God's covenant
of grace, that the Lord Jesus Christ has given us a new life
by the washing of regeneration. This work is a work of God the
Holy Spirit. And we speak about the Holy Spirit
as being the one who regenerates, but that life that he gives us,
the life of Christ, in the hearts of individuals. Do you know that
new life? Have you experienced that new
life? And there's another thing here
too. He says, by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. So this is speaking about conversion.
This is speaking about the experience of that new life. He's speaking
there about, as it were, what is sometimes called the growth
in grace, or sometimes called sanctification. These things
are not our works. People, again, have a strange
notion that God justifies us by making us right with him,
and then he sets us off on a course to follow a certain code of conduct,
a certain pattern of life. And if we follow that code of
conduct as assiduously as we can, as carefully as we might,
then we're going to be getting holier and holier and holier
and more and more sanctified until right at the very end when
we're just about to step into glory, we're almost perfect.
Well, it's nonsense. It's nonsense, and I'll tell
you why. Because the man that is truly a born again believer,
a man who has truly experienced something of the grace of Christ,
will be like the Apostle Paul, and he will be saying right up
to the very end, the deceitfulness of this heart causes me to be
humble before the holiness of God. The reality is this, that
anything that we have that is holy, that is of God, that is
of divine, must be given to us. It must be a gift from God. There
is no good thing in the flesh. There is only that new life which
comes from on high. And only that perfectness is
that which is formed by the Lord Jesus Christ or by God the Holy
Spirit through this spiritual renewing. And this is the experience
of an individual coming under the sound of the gospel, coming
to a realization of his true condition before the holy God,
and seeing in the Lord Jesus Christ the only way of deliverance
and the only way of salvation. That's what Paul's talking about
here, and that's the manifestation of the kindness and the love
of God towards us. These things are completely independent
of the works of righteousness that the Apostle Paul was speaking
about in the opening part of the verse. But then Paul goes
further, and he says that these gifts of mercy, these divine
blessings are, in verse six, shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ, our Savior. All of these things that we've
just spoken about, this undeserved mercy, this personal salvation,
this new life that comes by regeneration, this spiritual renewing which
is the process of our conversion and our walk in godliness and
our growth in grace, all of these personal experiences, they come
to us through Jesus Christ, our Saviour. They are shed on us
abundantly, is what the Apostle says. So all God's blessings
come through Christ. He says, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. All that we experience of God
comes through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, people will say
there are many ways to God. Well, no, there's not. They are
shed on us abundantly through the Lord Jesus Christ. Are we
going to apologize for that? Will we apologize for the fact
that the scripture says that Christ is the only way of access
to God? Or do we simply say, this is
where we stand. We can do no other. We must be
faithful to the testimony and to the word of God. Everything that is good, comes
from heaven. It comes down as a gift from
the Father of lights and it comes down to us through the Lord Jesus
Christ through whom the kindness and the love and the goodness
of God is shed abundantly upon us. John chapter 1 verse 17,
the Apostle John, he says, the law was given by Moses but grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ. The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He set up these two things
as in juxtaposition with one another. He set them up as opposing. Moses gave the law and mankind
will go to Moses by nature as much as he possibly can, trying
to be fit, trying to fit himself for the presence of God. And
the reality is that grace and truth comes by the Lord Jesus
Christ. The law was the measuring stick
of God's perfect standard. and it renders us all guilty
before him. There is no righteousness to
be found in the law. Righteousness comes from Christ
alone. And we cannot go to Moses for
our standing before God. We must go to that source of
grace and truth. We must go to Christ. Brethren,
the kindness and the love of God our Savior is shed abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior. But that single source is no
limiter. All the ends of the earth are
called to look upon the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore we
have a message to carry to the ends of the earth. The message
of the Lord Jesus Christ as the way of salvation for sinners.
And it's a beautiful testimony that the Apostle Paul has left
us here of the full and the free and the complete salvation by
the triune God. That salvation plan formulated
in eternity by God the Father, forged in time by God the Son. and flowing to chosen individuals,
chosen sinners by God, the Holy Spirit. This is the kindness
and the love of God manifested to us and shed abroad in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse seven tells us that being
justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life. Justified means being made righteous,
holy, pure, and acceptable with God. That's what it is to be
justified, to be acceptable to God, to be reconciled to Him,
because there is no sin found in us. That seems so contrary. How is it that a man can say
that he feels himself to be full of sin and yet also declare that
there is no sin in him? Well, because we're speaking
about the old man and the new man. We're speaking about the
body of flesh and we're speaking about the inward man of the heart. We're speaking about that which
must go to the dust because it's earthly. and that which is made
perfect by the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. And the Lord
God sees no sin in his people because he sees us united to
his perfect Son. And that sin which is ours, which
is the legacy of our humanity, has been removed from before
his sight in his people's case because the Lord Jesus Christ
has carried it all away. Justified by grace. By grace, not because we've earned
it, not because we've paid for it, not because we've done enough
to attain it, but by grace, it's a free gift of God. Justified
by grace, without payment from us, nor of merit, nor of right,
and heirs. Cyril keeps reminding me of the
blessedness of the scripture that we are heirs and joint heirs
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's true, my friend. It's
true, we are heirs, heirs of God. What an amazing thing to
have to take away from this service today, that I am an heir of God,
that God is my father through the Lord Jesus Christ. By adoption,
God is my father and all the riches of God are mine. Sit down till I make thy enemies
a footstool. Till I give Christ all the preeminence. And what does Christ say when
he's been given all this preeminence? Well, I trust I'm not going too
far by paraphrasing, but our Savior says, I'm bringing my
bride with me. I'm bringing my wife with me.
Yes, Christ will have all the preeminence, but he's taking
his church with him. It's a lovely thought. We're
heirs and joint heirs of the Lord, our Saviour. Is this not
a good and profitable message? Is that how we started, a good
and profitable message for us? Is this not a good and profitable
message for our souls today? Is not this gospel of the finest,
the most praiseworthy kind Is not this the brightest jewel? It is indeed a faithful saying,
faithful and true, faithful to your needs and mine, faithful
to the divine perfections, faithful to the holiness of God, and it
is worthy of all acceptance. Paul would have Titus, to repeat
this message. He says in verse eight, these
things are good and profitable unto men. This is a faithful
saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly. The sovereign grace gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ is to be repeated and repeated and repeated
and repeated again until the Lord takes his church out of
this world. For it is the only comfort that
will ever truly give any peace to a sinner's soul. Don't you
tell me that I need to earn God's pleasure. Don't you tell me that. That just breaks me. That just
proves how inadequate and how unworthy I am. Don't you tell
me that I've got a standard to maintain. Don't you tell me that
I've got a certain code of conduct that I must follow. Because I'll
tell you what I'll do. I'll never make that standard.
but I will do my darnness to make sure that you don't know
that I never make that standard. And I'll bet you're doing exactly
the same thing. No, this is gospel. This is good
news for sinners. This is good news for inadequates.
This is good news for people that have no strength. This is
peace. with God freely granted, gifted, gracious, merciful. These things I will that thou
constantly affirm. It's good and it's profitable
that we repeat these things. There's no other message that
is worthy of my time here today or your time here today. And
that was Titus's remit. That was what he was given. That
was what he put in his pocket when he got the letter from the
apostle and he put it in his pocket and he said, I'll read
this on the road. And he opens it up and he reads it and he
says, now this is what I want you to affirm. When you get to
the church, when you get to the people, when you get to the village,
when you get to the town, this is the message to preach. This
is the gospel. And I tell you today, guard this
pulpit. and make sure that that's the
message that is preached from this pulpit, that it be constantly
affirmed. As we come to the end of our
service, let us remind ourselves of something that we said at
the very start. There is a source and there is
an end of this work of salvation. The source is the triune God.
not our righteousness, not our labor, not our efforts, but the
free grace of God. That's our message. That's our
theme. And it's a good and profitable
testimony to deliver to sinners. And the outcome of that message
is a changed life. It's a new life by regeneration. and it's an altered life, a life
that is changed, a life that desires different things. The
apostle could say that we ourselves also were sometimes, but the
change had happened, a transformation, an alteration. We walk to a different
tune, we march to a different band, we seek higher things,
we seek the glory of God, for we are yoked together with him. and we desire his honor and we
desire his glory and we've been given a glimpse of the true nature
of ourselves. So that those who once were foolish
are now made wise unto salvation. Those who were once disobedient
have obeyed unto righteousness, the righteousness of Christ,
faith and trust in him. Those serving divers lusts, now
serve the Lord with humility of mind. Where once we lived
in malice and envy, now we live to serve and support one another
and the Church of Jesus Christ and the testimony of God amongst
us. Where once we were hateful and
hating one another, the Lord's people love one another, esteeming
one another better than themselves, and careful to maintain good
works. Brethren and sisters, what a
blessed people we are. What a blessed people we are
who have been justified by grace. What a wonderful change has been
wrought in our lives What good and profitable things we have
received in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that we have
been given in the preaching of that gospel, in the affirmation
and reaffirmation of that gospel to nourish and comfort our souls
in this world. May the Lord God be pleased to
apply these truths to our hearts May he settle and establish us
in our minds with holy contemplations of his grace and his goodness
towards us. And may he direct us in our worship
and our service to glorify his name and to give to his work
and to his glory out of all the good things that he has given
to us. Amen.