Number three. I've had this passage of Scripture
on my mind for several months now, thinking about it. So I
suppose it's time to attempt to preach from it. I've entitled this message, Careful
to Maintain Good Works. Verse eight, this is a faithful
saying, this is one of the four faithful sayings of the apostle
Paul. 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. Now, I want you to think about
that phrase, careful to maintain good works. Give care to this,
earnest thought to this, prayerful thought. Be careful to maintain
good works. Give diligence to maintain good
works. If you don't maintain your car,
what'll happen? If you don't change the oil,
do preventative maintenance, it'll fall apart. What happens
if you don't maintain your lawn? You've seen some lawns, haven't
you, that aren't maintained? What if you don't maintain your
home? It'll fall apart. Preventative maintenance is a
good thing. In a marriage, what if you don't maintain your marriage?
What if you just take your spouse for granted and just go on your
merry way? You're going to find out that
there's going to be real trouble ahead. Be careful to maintain
these things. And he says, be careful to maintain
good works. Now, what are good works? Well,
I know this, it takes a believer to perform a good work. It's
altogether outside of the ability of the natural man. Look in this
Titus chapter one, verses 15 and 16. Under the pure, all things are
pure. But unto them that are defiled
and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience
is defiled. They profess that they know God,
but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and
unto every good work, reprobate, absolutely unable to perform
a good work. You see, if I don't have a new
nature, a holy nature, a nature given by God, good works are
impossible. He said, unto every good work
reprobate. I love that passage of scripture
we looked at this morning in Bible study, where that woman
who performed that good work on the Lord, he said, she hath
done what she could. A natural man can't do that,
but she could. She had done what she could. Works of devotion to the Lord
are good works. Works of mercy and charity toward
men are good works. Works of self-denial toward ourselves
are good works. Anything inspired by and enabled
by the Spirit of God is a good work. Anything done for the glory
of Christ is a good work. And every believer is zealous
of this thing of good works. Turn to Titus chapter 2, look
in verse 13. Looking for that blessed hope
and that 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. And look at this description
of these peculiar people, zealous of good works. Now, do I feel
like I'm loaded down with good works? No, I don't, but I want
to be. I want to be. That's the way every believer
feels. Do you feel like you have good works? Well, no. Everything
I do, as far as that goes, I feel like it's, well, I did it. That's the problem. But I am,
and every believer wants to glorify Christ with good works. Zealous. of good works. And the reason
behind this is the grace of God. I just read that passage of scripture
from Ephesians chapter 2, for by grace are you saved. You know
that's the way you're saved, don't you? It's got to be that
way. By grace are you saved, through faith. And that, that
faith, it's not of yourselves. It's not the product of your
free will. It's not a decision you made. It's the gift of God.
Not of works. Lest any man should boast, for
we are his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. Now notice Paul says in our text
in Titus chapter 3 verse 8, these things I will that you affirm
constantly. This faithful saying that's One
of Paul's four faithful sayings, these things I will that you
affirm constantly, repeat this over and over again, so that
they which have believed God will be careful, give earnest
attention to the maintaining of good works. Now it is through
the constant repetition of the gospel, that God's people will
be careful to maintain good works. And I pray that the Lord will
take this message and cause you and I to be men and women who
are careful to maintain good works. Now let's start in verse
one of this third chapter of Titus. Paul says, Put them in mind,
Titus, remember this is part of your responsibility as a minister
of the gospel. Put them in mind to be subject,
to submit to authority, to be subject to principalities and
powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready for every good work. Remind them to be good citizens. remind them to be ready to every
good work, to obey the law. He says in verse two, the laws
of the land, what that's speaking of, verse two, he says to speak
evil of no man. Now, every one of us have heard
this. I don't know whether Any of us
have practiced it as we ought, but every one of us have heard
this. If you don't have something good
to say about somebody, don't say it. To tear someone's character down.
Now, I realize if somebody preaches a false gospel, we're to expose
that. But as far as tearing somebody's character down, speaking ill
of them, Don't do it. Don't speak evil of anybody.
You know, if I speak evil of somebody, you know what I'm doing?
I'm being remarkably hypocritical. Speaking as a moral superior. No, don't do that. Don't speak
evil of anybody. Don't be tearing apart somebody
else's character. Don't be a brawler. That means
don't be quarrelsome and contentious, always looking for a fight, always
seeking to be argumentative. But he says, be gentle. Be gentle, showing all meekness
unto all men. Now, I love this word, be gentle.
The word, sometimes it's translated moderate. You know what it means?
It means don't put anybody under the law. Don't put people's,
hold their feet to the fire. Don't be a hard nose, be approachable. Be merciful, be gentle. This is what folks in the world
ought to see regarding you and I. Someone who's gentle, not
someone who's a hard nose and judgmental and unapproachable
and you can't come into their presence without feeling judged
and criticized. No, don't be that way. Be gentle. Let that be what you're known
for, your gentleness, your merciful attitude, your graciousness.
It's wonderful being around people like that. You know, one thing
I can't stand, I can't stand being around somebody who's got
me under their microscope, looking me over. You know, when they're
like that, I have a tendency to want to give them something
to say. You know, I mean, it's aggravating. Don't do that. Be someone who is gentle, showing
all meekness unto all men. What a beautiful Grace, this
is meekness. Everything God does is right.
Whatever He sends my way is right. Isn't it wonderful to know that
whatever happens, it's the Lord that sends it. And whatever He
does is right, it's best. That's what meekness is. It considers
everything that God does as good because He did it. That's meekness. Showing all meekness to all men. Now, this is how I want people
to see me. as a moderate. Let your moderation
be known to all men. That's not talking about how
strictness in eating and drinking and so on. That's talking about
this, you don't hold people's feet to the fire. You're easy. You're merciful. Now, here is
why we are to show this attitude, verse 34, we ourselves also were sometimes or before times
foolish, disobedient, deceived, slaves
to various lusts and pleasure, living in malice, ill will, and
envy that feeling of displeasure at the prosperity of others. I'll tell you what flips me out,
I don't know how else to put it, when I see envy coming up
in my own self. That reminds me of how evil the
flesh is. That I could be envious of somebody?
That's so wicked. Now Paul is talking about his
past life and this is how he describes it. Now, this is the
same one who said, touching the righteousness which is in the
law, I was blameless. That's on the outside. On the
outside, he looked good. But look at his description of
what he was on the inside. After God saved him, he saw that
all of his righteousness was a pure phoniness. And when the
Lord saves you, you look back at your own religion and you
see that this would describe your religion. We ourselves were
sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, deserving
the hatred of God and hating one another all under the guise
of love. But, this is one of those glorious
buts in the scriptures. I love the buts in the scriptures,
but this is the truth concerning you and I. But after that, the
kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. Oh, the graciousness of our Lord
toward man. What an appearance that was.
You know, when our Lord appeared and became flesh, Oh, what an
instance of the kindness and graciousness of the Lord, the
love of the Lord. You know, I love one of the names
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's called in 1 John 4 the Savior
of the world. I like that, don't you? the Savior
of the world." I think it's kind of sad the way we'll take scriptures
like that and we'll kind of think, well, what about, we'll start
trying to qualify everything. Well, that doesn't mean all the
world, it means the world of the elect or something like that.
No, let's just keep it the way it is. The Savior of the world. That's a title of our Lord. Now, But after that, the kindness
and love of God, our savior towards man appeared. Verse five, not
by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to
his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the
renewing of the Holy Ghost which He shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."
Now here's one of the simplest yet most comprehensive statements
regarding what the Bible teaches regarding salvation. He saved
us. Don't you love the simplicity
of that? Says it all, doesn't it? He saved us. Paul said that in 2 Timothy 1.9
when he said, He saved us. And He 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. He, God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit, the triune God, He saved us. He, the Father, saved us in eternal
election. When I was given to Christ Jesus
by the Father in the eternal covenant of grace, you know what?
I was saved. He saved us and He called us,
which came first, the saving or the calling? It says He saved
us and He called us. Not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. He, God the Son, saved
us. When He died on the cross and
put away my sins, you know what? I was saved. When were you saved? When the Father elected me. When
were you saved? When Christ died for me. And
I was saved when God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the
blessed Trinity, came and gave me life and said, live. And I
was made to believe the gospel. When were you saved? When I believed. When God the Holy Spirit gave
me life. Are all of those true? Yes. Yes. That's the way the Bible
presents salvation. He saved us. That's the sum and substance
regarding what the Bible teaches regarding salvation. Now, his
motive for saving us is expressed in both a negative and a positive
way. And the Bible quite often does
that. It quite often begins with a negative. Somebody says you
can't be negative. Well, the Bible's pretty negative in a lot of ways. I mean, I don't, you know, when
I talk like this morning's message on they hated me without a cause,
that's not exactly, is that very positive? Well, it's truth though. Somebody says you're negative.
No, I'm realistic. I'm realistic. The Bible first
presents, He saved us in a negative way. Look what it says, not by,
not, there's the negative, not by works of righteousness, which
we have done. But according to His mercy, He
saved us, not by works of righteousness, which we have done. Now what
that means is, in His saving of me, it had nothing
to do with any work that I've ever done or ever will do. Not,
underline that, not by works of righteousness which we have
done. Not according to our works. His
salvation is not in response to anything we do. He doesn't
save us because we believe. He does not save us because we
repent. Although we do believe and repent. If any part of salvation
is dependent upon your works, even an act of your will, then
salvation is by works. Now understand this, the message,
I say this a lot, believe it more now than ever I have. The
message that says that Jesus Christ died for everybody and
paid for everybody's sins and made salvation available to all
men. But it's up to you as to whether or not his death will
work for you. He died for you, he paid for your sins, but it's
up to you. Some act of your will, so you have to exercise the faith
to make what he did work. There's not a drop of gospel
in that message. That is a message of salvation
by works. He saved us. It was not in response to something
that we had done. Listen to this scripture, Romans
9, 11, for the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil. That's where the works come in.
Neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God,
according to election, might stand. Not of works. not of works, but of him that
calleth." Now, it's also described positively, not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. Now, what is the mercy of God?
What is the mercy of God? Well, you know, it's him not
giving you what you deserve, but let's take an example. Let's
say There's a bunch of people on death row who've been guilty
of horrible crimes. And I have the authority, I have
the ability to pardon those criminals. Let's say I pick out the worst
one and I say, I'm going to pardon you. That'd be mercy, wouldn't
it? That'd be mercy on my part. He
certainly didn't deserve it. Let's say I picked out the worst
one and said, I'm going to pardon that one. That'd be mercy. Now
let's say that one that I pardoned, somebody comes to him and says,
you've been pardoned. And he says, I don't want his
pardon. Let's say he spit in my face.
I don't want to have anything to do with your pardon. Now,
if I pardoned him anyway, that'd be mercy, wouldn't it? I mean,
there wouldn't be any motive in that one for me to give mercy.
It's not because they asked for it. That would just be merciful
on my part. What if, and this is what the Lord did, what if
it, what if I took that person's sin on myself and became guilty
and judged in that person's place? That'd be mercy. You see, God's
mercy is saving mercy. Mercy that doesn't save is not
mercy at all. By His mercy, the mercy of God,
He saved us. But God who is rich in mercy
for His great love, wherewith He loved us even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
are you saved. Not by works of righteousness,
verse 5, which we have done, but according to His mercy, He
saved us, and watch what it says next, by the washing of regeneration
and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Now there are many aspects
to God's mercy and they all come to us through the Lord Jesus
Christ. The reason all of God's mercy is mediated through Christ. I'm giving it through Christ.
Everything God has for me, everything God has for the sinner comes
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing is independent of Him.
If I have the forgiveness of sins, it came to me through Christ.
If I have the new birth, it came to me through Christ. If I'm
born again, I'm not born again because I decided to believe.
I'm born again because Christ died for my sins. I'm born again
because God elected me and purposed it to happen. And God the Holy
Spirit gave me life. Now, when he speaks of God's
mercy, he mentions two things here. There's a lot of different
other things he could have mentioned, but here he speaks of the washing
of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Ghost. Now, what
is this thing, the washing of regeneration? Regeneration simply
means rebirth, being born again, being born from above, a new
creature, a new man, one that was not there before. Now, understand this about the
new birth. I find a lot of joy in this. If the new birth is
the old man being influenced by the Holy Spirit to become
better. That scares me. That scares me
because I don't see my flesh getting any better. Somebody says, well, mine is.
I don't believe you. I just don't believe you. You're lying. The new birth is God placing
something in a man, a new heart, a new nature that was not there
before. It's not the old man being influenced
by the Holy Spirit in order to believe and in order to repent. It's nothing like that. It's
a new creature, a new creation, something that was not there
before, birthed from above. Our Lord said, that which is
born of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. And II Peter 1.4 makes such a
remarkable statement. It says, Every believer is a
partaker of the divine nature. That's what regeneration is.
I don't understand that. Yeah, I do. I understand it.
I understand that God's nature is giving me in the new birth.
What all that means, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it is glorious,
but you know, regarding everything we believe, we don't, we understand
as well as we can, but we believe everything God says whether we
understand it much or not. I believe I'm a partaker of the
divine nature because the word of God says I'm a partaker of
the divine nature. That's what the new birth is.
But notice he speaks of the washing of regeneration. What's that
a reference to, the washing of new birth? Well, turn to Ephesians
chapter 5. Hold your finger there and tie
this and turn to Ephesians chapter 5. Verse 25, husbands. love your wives, even as Christ
also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word." What this tells me is that this
washing has some reference to the Word of God. Being born again,
not of corruptible seed, Peter said, but of incorruptible by
the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. You see, the new birth comes
through the Word. God the Holy Spirit takes the
seed of the Word and creates life. That's what happens in
regeneration, the washing of water by the Word. of his own
will, James said, began he us through the word of truth." There
is no new birth apart from hearing and believing the gospel. That
is the Word of God. Now, back to our text in Titus,
he speaks of the washing of regeneration and the renewing, the renewing
of the Holy Ghost. Now, We need to be renewed continually
by the Spirit of God. And fed and watered and nurtured
continually by the Spirit of God. I need to be renewed daily. I know what will happen if I'm
not. I'll dry up on the vine. And I need to be renewed daily.
Thank God He does renew His people daily. Now, when a baby is born,
we take care of it. him or her, I guess I shouldn't
call it an it. We take care of them. We feed them. We do everything we can for their
health and renewal and so on. We don't say, now, if it's God's
will for this baby to grow, it'll grow. Therefore, I'm not going
to feed it. We don't say anything that foolish, do we? No, we do
everything we can to take care of that baby and to feed it and
nurture it and so on. Well, it's the same thing with
the new birth. I'm renewed. I'm fed by the Word
of God. And I'm renewed daily. Look in
2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4. Verse 16. For which cause we
think not, we don't give up. But though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed. day by day. Aren't you thankful for that?
I know beyond the shadow of a doubt if God the Holy Spirit didn't
continually renew me, I would fall away. I'd leave, I'd dry
up, but thank God streams of mercy never ceasing call for
songs of loudest praise. We're renewed daily by God the
Holy Spirit. Verse 6, "...which He shed on us this
washing of regeneration, in this renewing of the Holy Ghost, which
He poured out on us abundantly, richly through Jesus Christ our
Savior. Now that's how this took place.
This is how we get it. It's poured on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, for Christ's sake. That's why
this happens. Verse 7, that being justified
by His grace, We should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. Being justified by His grace. Now, there's five things that
the believer is said to be justified by. It's very important. All
of them are essential. First, I'm justified by grace.
That means God justified me. by His grace, by an unmerited
act of His will and His favor, He said, Todd Naubert is justified. And you know what? Todd Naubert
is justified. It's God that justifies. We're
said to be justified by His grace. Do you believe in eternal justification?
Sure I do. I believe the elect were justified
before time began. Scripture teaches that. Second, there's justification
by blood. Romans 5, 9 says being justified by His blood, now being
justified by His blood. You know what that means? That
means the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ actually washed away my
sin to this point. I don't have any sin. I stand
without guilt before God. That's what the blood of Christ
did. It justified me, put away my sin. That's how I'm not guilty. You know I find such peace with
that. The only thing that satisfies my conscience is the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what makes me know I have
no guilt before God. And then we read in Romans 5.1
of being justified by faith. Justified by faith. When were
you justified? When you believed the gospel.
What about the other two? They're both true too. They're
both true. If God says it, that's the way
it is. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then we also read
in James chapter 2 of being justified by works. What is it that proves
you believe? Your works. That's the only thing
that proves you believe. James said, you show me your
faith without your works, I'll show you my faith by my works.
It is our works that prove the reality of our faith. And then
in Matthew 12, 37, we read as our Lord said, by your words,
you'll be justified and by your words, you'll be condemned. You
see, if you're justified by grace, you'll confess that in your words.
If you're justified by blood, you'll confess that in your words.
If you're justified by faith, you'll be speaking of it. If
you're justified by works, you won't shy away from that. You
believe everything the Bible says regarding justification.
It's all taught, being justified. By His grace, we should be made
heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Eternal life is me knowing the living God
and Him knowing me. It's being in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's being with Him eternally. Now that's eternal life. This
is eternal life that they might know Thee, the only true God
in Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent and the hope of eternal
life. I have a hope. that I'm going
to spend eternity in the presence of Jesus Christ, beholding His
face in righteousness. Now, what I hope that is, I'm thankful for life, but I
sure am looking forward to death because that's when I'm going
to start living. When I stand in the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ and see His beauty and behold His face in righteousness. What a hope, a hope of eternal
life. Verse 8, now this is a faithful
saying, what I've just said. This is a faithful saying, and
these things I will that thou affirm constantly. If somebody leaves here saying,
you know, he always preaches the same thing. I'm going to
take that as a compliment. Now, I'm sorry. when I become repetitive in a
bad way. I mean, that's possible. And
when I get that way, y'all don't get mad at me. It's not easy
to preach. You ought to try preaching three or four times a week for
years to the same people. I mean, boy, saying the same
thing, well, I'm sorry. But in some respects, that's
a good thing, to always preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I want everybody here to say,
boy, he's just got one note. Well, I found the right note,
that's why. Constantly affirming the gospel.
This is a faithful saying, utterly reliable, and these things I
will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed
in God might be careful to maintain good works. Now, this is, it's
really glorious, it's mysterious, it's glorious. But if I preach
salvation by works, I'm going to have the most wicked bunch
of people that's ever been. Either grotesque immorality,
always grotesque immorality, with self-righteousness covering
it. And that's all that's going to be. I preach works. That's
all that's going to happen. But if I preach free grace, not
of works, lest any man should boast." If I preach free grace,
there's going to be some people who are zealous of good works. And it's the preaching of this
faithful saying, the free grace of God, that will make every
believer careful to maintain good works. Now, you think about
what you were as described In verse 3, for we ourselves also
were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating
one another. That's me and you. By nature,
that was our practice. And yet the kindness and love
and grace and mercy of God toward us appeared. Now, if you really
believe that, it'll make you careful. to maintain good works. Well, tell me how to do that.
I'm not even going to try. You believe the gospel and it'll
happen. Remember We are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. And as we take the Lord's
table, what a blessed thing to do this
in remembrance of Him, to remember His broken body, All the hell that's in my heart
was made to meet on Him. He was made sin, and God's wrath
came upon Him, and He did it for me. To think of His shed
blood, what that blood accomplished. I'm pure before God. I'm without
sin. Now we're taking the Lord's table
in remembrance of Him. And we're asking the Lord, give
us the grace to be careful to maintain good works. Let's pray.