In the third chapter of Paul's
epistle to Titus, he exhorts him to put the believers that
Titus exhorts 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 diverse 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. As he exhorts that believers
should be of a mind to be subject to principalities and powers,
to obey the 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, that they should live peaceably in
this world, despite the fact that they find themselves living
in an evil world, in a wicked world, where the powers that
are over them, the principalities, the powers, the magistrates,
those in authority, those who rule this world, may well be
in darkness. may well be evil may well be
bringing about laws and judgments and dictates which are contrary
to the righteousness of God contrary to all that these people believe
to be true despite the fact that they live in an evil world Paul
nevertheless exhorts that we should live peaceably And despite
the fact that all around us we may see the wickedness of man,
we may see their depravity, we may see their sin, we may see
their rebellion, we may see their deceitfulness, their foolishness,
their hatred, their malice, their envy. Despite all that we see
in those around us, He exhorts that we should not speak evil
of them. We should not be brawlers, we
should not be so worked up in our indignation at the wickedness
of man around us. That we're constantly taken up
with it, constantly taken up with it, constantly stirred so
that our anger, though it might come from a righteous anger,
though it might be that we feel righteously indignant at things
we see done nevertheless Paul exhorts not to be brawlers not
to speak evil but to be gentle showing all meekness unto all
men because we if we believe in Christ
if we know his grace If we know His salvation, if we've been
brought to life from the death that our sin had wrought, if
we know Christ, we were once just the same as all others. We were once amongst them. We were once foolish like they
are. We were once deceived. We were
once disobedient. We were once serving diverse
lusts and pleasures. We were once living in malice
and envy. We, like them, were hateful and
hating one another. So who aren't you? And who aren't
I to judge when we're just the same? By nature, we were just
the same. Perhaps worse. We're so swift,
so easy, it's so easy to see the faults of others, so hard
to see the faults of ourselves. But, oh believer, you know, you
know more than anyone what you are by nature. You've been shown. These in the world don't know.
They don't recognise what they are. God hasn't shown them. There's an outward knowledge.
They must confess that there is right and wrong. And they
know when they've crossed a line but they really don't know that
they are sin. They really don't know the depravity
within until God opens their eyes. But believers do. They've been brought to an end
of themselves. They've been brought to see what they are before God,
wicked through and through. Then of all people, we should
be the most understanding of the wickedness around us. We
know that there but for the grace of God go us. We would be with them if God
hadn't plucked us out. We would be as it were dying
with them if God hadn't delivered us. Don't speak evil of no man,
be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. What a description of the state
of man we see here. What a reminder of what we are
by nature, of what mankind is by nature. How terrible the state
of man is. We ourselves also were sometimes
foolish disobedient deceived serving diverse lusts and pleasures
living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another hateful
and hating one another That is what we are by nature. That's what you're like, that's
what I'm like, that's what everyone in this world is like. Despite
the veneer that they try to put up, despite the pretense, despite
the claims, despite the claims of mankind that it's seeking
love, that it's trying to live in this world honestly, lovingly,
underneath the claims everyone has a heart which is full of
malice and envy hateful and hating one another you may contend against that
you may argue against that you may say not I but it only requires
the right circumstances to bring that out when everyone does what
you want them to. When life goes your way, when
nobody crosses your path, then the malice, the envy and the
hatred can be neatly kept hidden away within. But when something
goes wrong, when somebody crosses you, When somebody prevents you
doing what you want to do, when somebody says no, when you want
them to say yes, then the hatred comes to the fore. When you want
to do something and somebody says that's wrong, you can't,
then you hate. When you want to live a certain
way and the law of the land says no, then you hate. When you want something and somebody
prevents you, then you hate. And the hatred springs from all
that proceeds. We're foolish. We don't walk according to the
wisdom of God, for we've turned from God. And to turn from God
and to walk in our own ways, in our own wisdom, is foolishness. The fool have said in his heart
there is no God. How many in this foolish day
and age in which we live say in their heart there is no God. Whatever they may say with their
lips their actions betray a heart attitude as though there is no
God. And this is foolish. Because
it's God that made them. and it's God that sustains them.
And if God but move His little finger, they will drop down dead
in a moment. It's God that puts the air in
the atmosphere that they may breathe and not suffocate. It's God that keeps their heart
ticking. Their life depends upon God and
His existence and His reign and His power. And yet the foolish
heart of man who cannot see God and cares not for God and wants
to go his own way and wants to worship himself and his own thoughts
and ideals says there is no God. Then we are foolish. We are disobedient
also. Disobedient to the will of God
in everything. We will not seek him out. We
will not worship him. We will not live according to
his ways. We will go our way. And how we
are towards God is then seen in how we are towards all authority
placed over us. We will not follow the law of
the land if it says no to something we want to do. We will not follow
the will of our parents or our teachers if they are contrary
to us. We are disobedient by nature. Our foolishness leads to disobedience. and as such we are deceived because
we think that we can do these foolish things we think that
we can be disobedient to authority and to God and get away with
it and we convince ourselves that
we're right and we're just in all that we do when the opposite
is true And walking in this foolish and
disobedient and deceived manner, we serve diverse lusts and pleasures. And what a description of the
age in which we live. Having rejected God in his thinking,
man ultimately has no purpose. There's no reason for his life
other than to serve diverse lusts and pleasures. People live to
entertain themselves. People live for fun. People live for pleasure. And when there's no more fun
and no more pleasure, when life becomes more sorrow than it is
joy, people see no reason to be here. Because having rejected
God, there is no purpose to life. Ultimately. People might become
taken up with this goal and that goal. People might do what they
can to improve the world as they see it. People might take up
this cause and that cause and pour all their energies and efforts
into it. But if they're not successful,
or if they become weary with it, or if the battle goes on
for too long, they give up. They have really no real purpose. Without an understanding of God
and why this world is even here, why we are here, what the reason
for life is, there's no purpose. So the purpose of man becomes
that which brings him pleasure. Now it might be that furthering
some cause in the world becomes your pleasure. or your lust or
your desire for whatever motive or it might be that your lust
and your pleasure is simply a selfish seeking after fun and amusement
and pleasure earthly base pleasure whatever it is having become
fools turning our backs upon God deceived as we've fallen
into sin we go about serving diverse lusts and pleasures and
when the pleasure goes man becomes aimless and life becomes pointless
this is why in this age of a generation that turns its back upon God
we see these people taking their own lives when everything becomes
so tragic for they see no purpose in life. If they can gain what
they want, then alright. But if they think that they're
not going to gain what they want, if they think that their goals,
their pleasures are going to be thwarted, if they see too
much sorrow in this world around them, they take their own life. Because they don't realise, they
don't believe that there's anything beyond the grave. They think
that by taking their life they will end the sorrow and as it
were go to sleep. And if there is anything after
the grave they've convinced themselves they're deceived by foolish religion
and foolish ideas in the world to think that if there is a life
after death that they're going to go to somewhere wonderful. And the reality is that they're
going to go in their deception, their disobedience and their
foolishness into darkness, into the horrors of hell. All of this manifests itself
in malice, envy and hatred. We begin as fools, Our foolishness
carries through in disobedience and deception as we serve our
lusts and pleasures. But as those people come and
cross our path we're filled up with malice and envy. We're envious
of all those who have what we want to have. As we seek after
these pleasures Any that have what we want, which we haven't
got, we're envious of. We can't live peaceably in this
world because all around us there are those who have what we haven't
got. And it's not fair, we say. And we envy them. We envy everyone
who has an easier life than we do. We envy those who have more
than we have. We envy those who are richer.
We envy those who live in a nicer place. We envy those who have
this person or that person as husband or wife or partner. We envy these and we envy those
and in envy we're filled with malice against them. We hate
them. The envy builds up within us
to the point where we hate. We hate those who have more than
us. We hate those who rule over us. We hate those who are in authority
over us. We hate those who say no to us. And all this hatred of man has
underneath it a hatred of God who has placed us here and brought
these things to pass. Hateful and hating one another. Is that you? Have I described
you? Are you foolish? Are you disobedient? Are you deceived? Are you serving
diverse lusts and pleasures? Are you living in malice and
envy? Are you hateful and hating one
another? You may angrily say to me no
and exhibit some of that hatred that
I've just described. you may disobey what I say you
may be deceived to think that the truth is different from what
I've described to you from what God says here yet in so doing you prove the
truth of this for this is exactly how you are by nature and exactly
how I was by nature And this is Paul's point to his hearers
here. This is what man's like. This is what you were like, you
who believe in Christ. Hateful and hating one another. We live in a world that speaks
of love. They say in their advocacy of
all manner of love, and lust. In their advocacy of free love
and the freedom to love who they will and be with who they will
and do what they will. They say how can love be a crime? How can love be immoral? Now what they are describing
is lust. Diverse lusts and pleasures. disobeying the will of God, disobeying
the order of God. In foolishness having turned
their backs on God saying there is no God with a foolish heart,
they have turned their back on all order, all morality, all
righteousness. They're deceived. And what they
call love is no love. And the attitude of their heart
to any that say that they are wrong is an attitude of hate. They
speak of love or being full of hatred. Don't you tell us that
we cannot live like this. Don't you tell us that we are
wrong. Don't you tell us that this is
wrong. And I seek to stamp out the voice
and the witness of any who says otherwise. Disobedient, deceived, hateful and hating one another. But Paul describes this to remind
the believers here that this is what they were like. and oh believer this is what
you were like this is what you've been saved from this is what
we are by nature all of us we're no better and even if you've been saved
out of this you're no better you're better because God has
shown you mercy but left to yourself that's exactly
what you are by nature Outside of His grace, you'd be just like
them, worse. Then as you walk amongst this
world, as you rub shoulders with your fellow man, be gentle, be meek. Show forth the love of God in
Christ. Declare His kindness. His love, His mercy, His grace. For what they need to hear is
what you've heard. What they need to experience
is what you've experienced. What they need to know is what
you know. They reject because they're still
in their folly like you once were. They hate because God has
yet to deliver them like you once hated. They're just as you
were. So he reminds them of what they
were and he reminds them of what brought the change. What takes somebody who is a
fool, who is disobedient, who is deceived, who serves diverse
lusts and pleasures, who lives in malice and envy, who's hateful
and hates one another. What takes such a person and
changes them? What makes someone like that
to now love God and to serve God and to have a hope of eternal
life? What delivers us from this state
of sin by nature? Is it because we are more righteous
than others? Is it because we have done something
that our fellow man hasn't done? Is it because having heard of
God and having heard his gospel we turned to God, we made a decision
We said I'm not going to continue living like this, I'm going to
go this way and we made the decision that our fellow men didn't make. Or is it because we reformed
our life and we worked at our life? We brought forth works
of righteousness. which God saw and God approved
and God said well done and delivered us from what we were and led
us forth another way. Do we save ourselves? Have we been delivered from this
dreadful state which we were in by nature to walk another
way because we made the right decision or we did the right
things? No. No we didn't. If it was left
to our decision, or left to our works, if it was left to us,
we'd be just where they are now and that's where we would stay
until our dying day. We'd carry on in our foolish,
hateful path. Paul reminds his hearers, he
asks, what brought about the change. But after that, you were
once like this. You were at one point foolish,
disobedient, deceived. You were full of malice and envy. You were hateful and hating one
another. But after that, there came a
day when the kindness and the love of God our Saviour toward
man, toward you in particular appeared. There came a day when his love, his kindness,
his grace, his mercy appeared. Now there came a day in history
when it appeared. When Christ was born in Bethlehem,
when Christ entered this world, when Christ as a man went about
preaching the gospel, the kindness and the love of God our Saviour
toward man appeared in the sight of man. He who was promised from
the foundation of the world appeared. and men saw him. He walked on
this earth. God as man, the son of God, God
incarnate walked upon this earth and the love and the kindness
of God appeared unto men. But what was man's reaction to
it? Even when God physically walked
upon this earth in the person of Jesus Christ. They rejected
Him. Man rejected Him. They took Him. They cast Him out. They beat
Him. They crucified Him. How would you be if Christ came
and stood before you this day? Would you receive Him? Would
you believe Him? Do you say, well, I can't believe
in a God I can't see, but if God actually came and stood before
me, if He did miracles in my sight, then I'd believe. If Christ himself came in my
day and age and stood in front of me now then I'd believe. I
can't believe what I can't see but if I saw him I'd believe. Or if he did miracles I'd believe. How can I believe in a God that
created the world in six days? How can I believe in a God that
parted the Red Sea? How can I believe in a God that
brings the dead unto life unless I see these miracles myself. They're so amazing to comprehend. I can't understand it. I can
only comprehend what I can see but show me this God. Bring him
before me in person. Let me behold the miracles. Let
me see water made wine. Let me see the blind seeing. let me see the lame walking let
me see the dead being brought to life then i'll believe but will you would you there
was a whole generation of people alive at the time of christ who
when he came they rejected who he was who when he stood before
them and declared who he was they would not believe him. Who
when they saw his miracles they didn't believe him. There were
people that followed him for a time as this wonderful person
that was able to heal the sick and having sick amongst them
they wanted to have them healed. So they brought the sick to him
and he healed them and they were glad to have them healed but
they still didn't believe him. Ultimately they still were offended
at him, they still went away, they didn't believe he was the
son of God, even though they saw him in person, even though
they saw his power, even though they saw the lame to walk and
the blind to see and the deaf to hear, even though they saw
dead Lazarus come forth from the grave and live, even though
they saw all the miracles they didn't believe. And if you saw
the miracles, If He appeared unto you physically, you still
wouldn't believe. So there was an appearance before
man of the kindness and the love of God. There was an appearance
of God our Saviour Jesus Christ unto man. But they still didn't
believe, they still didn't receive Him. And nor would you, even
if He was there today. So you cannot use The invisibility
of God or the fact that you haven't seen miracles as some sort of
excuse or reason for your unbelief. For you would not believe if
all these things happened. You do not believe because you're
in darkness, because you're fallen, because you're foolish, because
you're disobedient and deceived. Your mind is darkened. Your understanding is darkened. Your eyes are blind. You cannot
see. You cannot hear spiritually.
Your heart is full of malice, envy and hatred. But there came a time in history
when despite all that man is, despite all his malice and hatred,
Despite all his disobedience and deception, Christ appeared. And Christ appeared in a generation
amongst a people who took him and crucified him, who rejected
him, who spat upon him, who slew him upon a tree, who pierced
him, who shed his blood. He appeared unto them because
he loved a people. and he would endure the rejection
of man because he would save that people from their sins. The kindness and the love of
God toward man appeared in spite of the hatred of man towards
him. What brought this appearance
to pass? Not the works of men. not by
works of righteousness which we have done. Man's response
to Christ's appearance was to put him to death. 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 is what saved these people
to whom Paul writes through Titus. That believer is what saved you. And that, O sinner, is the only
thing that can save you and deliver you from your foolishness, your
disobedience, your deception, your hatred. The only thing that
will save you, the only thing which will cause the kindness
and the love of God to appear unto you in particular, is the
great mercy and love of God. If he chooses to show you Christ,
if he chooses to take his son and say, this my son, whom you
rejected, whom you despise, whom you in your heart put to death,
this my son came for you to show you his mercy, to show you his
love, to show you my kindness, this my son died that you should
live. If God should say that to you
and open your eyes by His Spirit, by His power, to see the Son
of God crucified for you, then you will be saved. According
to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. What will save you? What saves
anyone? Regeneration. Being born again. Being brought to life by God
again. You're born once but having been
born in the flesh you're full of sin. You're born dead. you
might physically be living but the clock is ticking you're already
dead spiritually you're already dead you're already a sinner
you go astray from the womb you come out you're born speaking
lies you're born a sinner because Adam in the beginning fell and
sinned and the heart of sin and the death that brought sin brought
in passed by natural generation to his children to their children
to their children all the way down to you though you're born
though there's a physical life you're already full of sin you're
already dead natural generation has simply brought you as a living
corpse into being. You're already dead. This is
why you're foolish, deceived, disobedient by nature. And the
sentence of death is over your head. And as the moments of your
life come to an end, then you will stand before Almighty God
to give an account and all you can confess is the sins that
you've committed. all your foolishness, all your
disobedience, all your deception, all your diverse lust, all your
malice, your envy and your hatred, all of it will come out and be
displayed before Almighty God your Creator and you've no excuse. And he will say unto you, depart
from me. I never knew you. You're not
one of mine. and cast you into judgment for
what you've done throughout all your life as you've despised
God and trampled him underfoot as your heart put Christ to death
and you said away with this man, away with this God I will not
follow and worship him. That's what we are by nature.
Unless God in time appears unto us by His Spirit in the Gospel
and causes us to be generated again. Not natural generation,
not the first birth, not a physical birth of Adam, but a supernatural
generation, a regeneration, a new birth by the Holy Ghost of God. Born again of Christ, the last
Adam, the second man, a new birth, a new generation of the Holy
Ghost. If God causes us to be born from
on high, if God appears to us in his gospel and says unto us,
live, then we will live. And then by his mercy we will
know his kindness and his love unto us through Jesus Christ. that He gave Christ as an offering
for our sins. That Christ came into this world,
though rejected by men at His coming, He came into this world
for a purpose which was to take our sin, to take our foolishness,
our disobedience, our malice, envy and hatred, to take it and
pay the price for it, to be judged of God for it, to have that sin
blotted out and to shed his blood that he
might take that blood and wash us from our sins and make us
to be clean that he should wash us in the blood of Jesus Christ
and in the water of the Holy Spirit as we're brought to life
by God on high through his gospel that he should wash us and regenerate
us and renew us and make us new creatures in Jesus Christ and he does this through his
mercy according to his mercy he saved us according to his
grace because he chose to not because we'd done something Not
because we'd earned it. Not because we chose him. Not
because we made a decision for God. But because God decided
to choose us. Because he made a decision to
save us. Before we were ever born, before
the world was ever created. God says, I will love this person. I will love him. And I will save
him. I will wash him clean. I will
give my own son as a ransom, as a sacrifice for him. I will
redeem him and set him free. My son shall die that he or she
shall live. Oh what mercy God shows unto
the worst of sinners. Oh what mercy he shows unto people
like you and I. and hating one another. That's
what we've done. We're hateful. And we hate one
another. And we hate God by nature. But
in his gospel, in time there comes a day when his kindness
and love toward man, toward us, appears. It appeared in Christ in time.
It appears in the Gospel by the Holy Ghost unto us at another
time by His mercy. Do you know it? If you do know
it, you'll know how abundant this grace and this mercy is.
which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Not only has God shown this love,
not only has He shown this kindness unto a hateful generation, unto
a wicked people, unto people like you and I, not only has
He shown it, not only has He displayed His mercy, not only
has He appeared unto us in His Gospel, but He's shed this mercy
upon us abundantly 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. O believer, do you know the abundance
of his mercy? The abundance of his grace? Not only has he said, I will
forgive them of all their transgressions, I will take their sins and cast
them as far as the east is from the west, I will blot them out
and make them to be whiter than snow. Not only has he given his
own son as a sacrifice and an offering for them, but he's shed,
he's put his mercy upon them abundantly. He's shown us His
grace abundantly. He doesn't just save us, but
He saves us abundantly. He says, I'll give you everything. I won't just make you to be rich. I'll make you as rich as you
could possibly be in Jesus Christ. I'll give you everything in Christ. I'll give you all that my Son
is. I'll make you to be a prince
and a king to reign with him in his kingdom. I'll make you
an heir of eternal life, an heir of the kingdom of God. I will
cause you to be the Bride of the King of Kings, the Bride
of the Son of God. You will be one with Him. You will live and reign with
Him in His eternal Kingdom forever. I'll give you everything. Do
you know that believer? Do you know what it is to be
found in Christ? Do you know what it is to be
washed? To be regenerated? To be renewed? Do you know what
it is to have had Christ appear unto you? Do you know what it
is to have the kindness and the love of God your Saviour set
upon you? Do you know what it is to have
the mercy of God shed upon you abundantly? Do you know what
it is to be justified by His grace to be declared righteous
and perfect in Jesus Christ? Do you know what it is to be
an heir according to the hope of eternal life? to know that
you are going to be Christ's bride and reign with Him forevermore
that all that He is, you are all that He has, you are given
God the Father will look upon you and see His Son in you and
love you for Christ's sake oh what a hope Oh what a gospel. When you look at the evil in
the world around you. When you feel yourself to be
walking in the darkness of this world alone. Maybe separated
from other believers, maybe just on your own, maybe you hardly
find another believer that recognizes and believes the truth. Maybe
you feel so lonely walking before God in this world, when you were
so grieved by all the sin around you. Remember what you were. Remember what you are by nature. and remember everything that
God has given you freely by grace in Jesus Christ in his gospel
you're just as bad as they are you've been plucked out from
the fires that they find themselves in plucked as a bran from the
burning delivered from the captivity of sin delivered from the darkness
you've been delivered from all that they are Then pity them. Be gentle to them. Declare the
love of God in Christ Jesus unto them. Show forth the kindness
and the love of God. Pray that that love might appear
unto others. Unto those whom He's chosen.
Unto those for whom Christ has suffered. Pray that the power
of God would attend His gospel. And those who cannot believe,
those who will not believe, those who are in darkness, those who
are blind, might, by the power of God, by the Holy Ghost, be
brought to see, that their eyes might be opened, and that God
might shed upon them abundantly the same mercy that He shed upon
you. Oh may the gospel go forth in
power because it's only the power of the gospel. It's only God
as he takes his gospel and opens the eyes of sinners through it
that can save those who live in darkness. For we ourselves
also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving
diverse 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 unto us. And 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. O believer, look up. Look up
in hope. Look up to your Saviour. Trust
and rest in Him, for in Him you are the richest of all. You have all God's riches in
Jesus Christ. every hope. There's nothing in
this world below that should cast you down. All is passing. That in Christ is what will remain. He's given you everything. May
he by his gospel continue to send forth the word of this salvation
that others around might be plucked forth and brought to know the
wondrous grace of God in Jesus Christ. Amen.