Pastor Grant Brown's sermon, titled 'He Saved Us', focuses on the passage from Titus 3, emphasizing how believers should live in the world by remembering who they were before Christ, the transformative power of God's mercy, and the role of the Holy Spirit in regeneration and renewal. He highlights the contrast between our sinful nature and the grace of God, urging Christians to live with humility, love, and hope, recognizing that salvation is entirely a work of God. The sermon also draws on the collective testimony of believers to show how God's saving grace should inspire living a life reflecting His love and mercy in a fallen world.

Titus chapter 3, beginning in verse 1. Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior in His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." May God bless the reading and now the preaching of his word. Amen.

Amen. And then you may be seated. Well, the legend goes that the prolific British author and philosopher G.K. Chesterton was once contacted by the Times newspaper. And he was asked to write an article in answer to this question, what's wrong with the world?

What's wrong with the world? And it is said that G.K. Chesterton got out his pen, got out his paper, and in one sentence he wrote his entire response which he then submitted to the Times where he wrote dear sirs I am what's wrong with the world I am what's wrong with the world you are. Titus chapter 3 is answering the question, how are you to live in this world? And in verses 1 and 2, Paul tells you how to live in God's world.

Be subject to authorities, be good citizens, and be good neighbors. That's verses one and two. Desire to do good to all men in the world. That's how you live in the world. That's how you live outside of this body.

And yet the question that might naturally arise in your heart and mind is this, but why? I mean the men in the world that you're calling me, Paul, to love on, to be kind to, to be charitable towards, to be courteous towards, The men in the world that you're calling me to do that to are evil. The world is full of enemies. I mean, don't you remember the way that you just described Paul the Cretans? The Cretans themselves, by their own admission, liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.

Why do you want me, Paul, to engage in a world like that when it's so full of problems and evil? And what's Paul's answer? Why do you engage in the world like that? Because you used to be the evil. You used to be the problem.

What's wrong with the world? You are, And apart from Christ, you'd be an enemy like all the rest. Apart from Christ, you'd be an evil man and an evil woman like the rest. Apart from Christ, you'd be foolish, disobedient, and deceived, and enslaved to various lusts and pleasures. That's Titus chapter 3 verse 3.

Paul says the same thing in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 when he speaks of all the unrighteousness in the world, all that is wrong in the world, Paul says, and such were some of you. But God did something. He saved you. In fact, God saved the world. And so remembering that, live verses 1 and 2 out in the world that He saved.

Live like He saved you, because He did, if you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Live in his world like he has come to save the world because he did according to John 3 17 That's Titus chapter 3 Live like he saved you live like he saved the world because he did in Christ So remember that remember who you used to be Remember what God did to rescue you from your sin. And remember how He did it. How it was all Him from beginning to end. Him.

Remember those things. Isn't that how Paul starts off the chapter chapter three what's the first word remind them remind remember that's the command remind them remind them of what remind them of who they used to be, of what God did, and how God did it. If they want rationale, if they want motive, if they want reason for why they should obey verses 1 and 2 in an evil and an adulterous generation, in an evil and in an adulterous world, if they want to know why they should do these things, remind them of who they used to be. Remind them of what God did, and remind them of how God did it. And that's our passage this morning.

Verse 3. Verse 3, who you were. That's verse 3. Who you were. Verse 4 and 5, what God did.

He saved you. And then verse 5 through 7, how God did it. How God did it. That's the structure of the passage. It's the structure of our sermon.

That's what you need to be reminded of, that you might live rightly in God's world. The reasons you obey verses 1 and 2 are because verses 3 through 7 are true. So let's begin then in verse 3. Verse 3. Who you were.

Let's read verse 3 again. For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. Why is your behavior towards your magistrates and towards your neighbor not supposed to be malicious, according to verse 2 of Titus 3? Why instead is your behavior towards your magistrates and towards your neighbor supposed to be peaceable and gentle showing consideration and kindness towards all men? Why do verses 1 & 2 of Titus chapter 3 need to be obeyed?

Answer verse 3 because all of these things that you hate about the world, you used to be yourselves. Which would make you extremely, extremely humble. Want to know how to live in God's world? Here's step number one. According to Paul, live with humility.

Be humble. Look at the evil. Look at the sin in the world and say, That used to be me. Yet by the grace of God, there I be, same as them. Get humility.

Paul says, you yourself are once foolish and disobedient. But he could have just stopped there. That's enough. But no, Paul says not just foolish and disobedient, you yourself are once what? Keep going in verse 3, deceived and enslaved.

So you weren't just a fool, but a deceived fool. And you were not just a fool, but an enslaved fool. I mean, just think about what that means. I like the way that John Stottz puts it. You were willingly Satan's duke.

And you were willingly Satan's slave. And in your sin you loved it. It was pleasurable to you. Paul goes further. It pleased you to be malicious.

It pleased you to be envious. It brought you pleasure to wish evil upon others, all the while coveting what they had. And then hating them for what they have right that's how verse 3 ends hating one another You covet what they have and then you hate them for it. That's who you were Paul says it this way in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 3 Same author it's different book Ephesians 2 1 through 3 and you were dead in your trespasses and sins. You were dead.

And in your spiritual deadness of your trespasses and sins, you walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, of the Spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." That's the Spirit that you had. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath even as the rest." Saying the same thing in Ephesians 2 as he's saying in Titus 3 verse 3. That's a dark picture. Dead and depraved, children of wrath, sons of disobedience, just like all the rest. Children, do you like Christmas lights?

Nobody? Thank you, Larry. That's my boy my children like Christmas lights she's seen him last night we They went out and played around the Christmas lights. Glorious. My children now, though, they get a little sad when the sun comes up.

You know why they get a little sad when the sun comes up? Because they can't see the lights anymore. So we have to go out and shut them off, which I don't think we did today. I think I forgot. They're still on.

When it's dark, what happens? We turn the lights back on, and the light shines bright. You can really see the brilliance and the beauty of Christmas lights when it's really dark outside, right? That's what Paul is doing here for you brothers and sisters, for you children. This is who you used to be in Titus chapter 3 verse 3.

This is the bleak and dark backdrop of who you are apart from Jesus Christ. And you're to see the darkness so that when you look at the light of the world who is Jesus according to John chapter eight, when you look at the light of the world Jesus and what he came to do to save you, you marvel, you gasp, whoa! You stand back and you say wow and it humbles you because you know you had nothing to do with that light in the midst of your darkness. All you bring to the table is the darkness of verse 3. That's what you bring to the table of your salvation.

You bring the darkness. All you brought to the table of your salvation was a depravity that needed to be conquered. All you brought to the table of your salvation was a depravity that needed to be conquered. All you brought to the table of your salvation was sin and desperate need. And God, God alone saved you.

That changes everything about the way you view verses one and two of Titus chapter three. Why should I show consideration to all men? Why should I be thoughtful and courteous to deceitful and enslaved men? Verse 3, because you used to be just like them. You used to be deceived.

You used to be enslaved to sin. And you marvel that God would come and rescue you. You marvel that God would come and save you and make you new. Because you and I were as all the rest. And yet amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

That grace came. The grace of God appeared in Titus 2, it says. And in Titus chapter 3, it says the same thing. And saved a wretch like me, like you. And it humbles you.

It must humble you. Because you were once foolish yourself. And Paul says the same thing here in Titus 3 that he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 through 11, quoted part of it earlier, I'm gonna read the whole section. Listen to this, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor adulterers, nor idolaters, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers.

None of these will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed. You were sanctified. And you were justified In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God.

That is literally the same thing that Paul says in Titus 3, these slightly different words. Who you were, verse 3, humbles you. And what God did, verses 4 through 7 fills you with love. That's our next reality. What God did.

Because of what God did, it fills you with love. Live in His world with love. Luke and Titus chapter 3, verse 4. Hear what God has done. Hear what God has done.

But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us. When the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us. What appeared? The kindness of God appeared. His love for mankind appeared.

That doesn't mean that God wasn't kind or wasn't loving up until the point that Jesus came. No, but the manifestation of His love, the manifestation of His kindness, the radiance of these things took on flesh. This is talking about the incarnation. Jesus is the grace of God manifest. Paul says that in Titus chapter 2.

He's already used the phrase, the grace of God appeared in Titus chapter 2. Now in Titus chapter 3, he uses the word kindness and love. The kindness of God our Savior, the love of God our Savior, Jesus appeared. Jesus is the grace of God manifest. Jesus is the kindness of God manifest.

Jesus is the love of God manifest because Jesus is God. John chapter 3, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Romans chapter 5, for God demonstrated His love towards us that while we were yet sinners, verse 3, Christ died for us. So did you hear that? When you were a sinner, when you were, verse 3, hating one another, God, the triune God, set His love upon you.

Now, do you see the contrast there? Verse 3 ends, you're full of hate, and God sets his love upon you supposed to get your attention if there was any grant involved in this all he brought to the table was hatred it's God the only thing I can break through my hatred only thing that can break through my hatred, the only thing that can break through your hatred, your enmity with God, is the love of God in Christ Jesus. Verse 4 again is talking about the incarnation. It's talking about Christmas. We're already in Christmas service.

The love of God appeared. Jesus came and He saved you in the midst of your hate. Alright, so children, Children in this room, you are in this room today. Please listen to me children. You are in this room today because you have parents who belong to the Lord Jesus.

You have believing parents. And those parents love you so much that they bring you into this building to meet with this people to worship the one true God. That's a blessing. That's a huge blessing, children. I mean, what a thing for you to be here this morning, children, hearing covenant promises and blessings.

Promises and blessings that extend to you as the offspring of your believing parents. Because you're in their household. And you're being brought to this church to worship with this people of God, your people, that's amazing. That's amazing. There are millions and millions of children who have never been brought to worship the Triune God, who have never heard the promises from this book, who have never believed because they didn't belong to a Christian home.

But you, oh children, you! God's blessing is rich upon your life. He has set you apart according to 1 Corinthians 7. And you're here with this people. This is your people.

This is your book. These are your promises. It's you growing up in this church, you're growing up and you're hearing the promises of Jesus Christ who died on the cross in the place of sinners like you. And you're believing these promises And you're receiving the sign of these promises as you're baptized. We've got seven baptisms.

Amen? Seven baptisms. And you're receiving the sign. And then you take part in communion of the continual sign of the promises that are true for you. It's this wow.

That's how you should think of it, children. It's a testimony of God's goodness to you. That you belong to Christian parents, faithfully teach you, and they bring you on the Lord's day, and they say listen to that man up there. God's got a message from you. God's got a message to you this morning.

It's testimony of God's goodness. And I plead with you children, for those of you who have not received the sign of baptism, I plead with you this morning, believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. So many of you, this is a great joy, so many of you are already trusting in the Lord Jesus, so many of you are coming to be baptized. I praise the Lord, it fills me with thanksgiving, fills me with joy. But here's something that doesn't fill me with joy, and I don't want you to do this.

The temptation for you children, You are most blessed of all children because you're being brought to worship the triune God on the Lord's Day. But the temptation for you is going to be, maybe a few years from now, maybe 10 years from now, you're going to say the same rotten thing that I hear adults say all the time. Don't you do that. I hear so often from Christians, and they mean well, I know. But from people trusting in the Lord, I'm a Christian, I belong to Jesus, and I'm grateful.

But I don't really have a very exciting testimony. I belong to Jesus, I'm grateful, I wish I had a better testimony. I grew up in the church, I just grew up in the church. That's amazing. I just heard the truths of the gospel.

I just heard the promises of God. Jesus died for me. I just believed. And I'm grateful for those things. But other people.

People who didn't hear about Jesus until much later, people who went off and nearly killed themselves in their sin, and then God saved them. No, those people, Those people, they have good testimonies. I don't have a testimony like that, you might say. I don't have a good testimony like that. I just grew up in the church.

I just believed as a child. I was just baptized. That's all the testimony I have. Children, never say such a thing. To say that is to completely disregard what Paul has just said in these verses.

Children, before your faith in Christ, these things were true of you. Have you thought of that? You were also foolish. You were disobedient. You were deceived.

You were enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, full of malice and envy and hate. Nobody had to teach you to disobey your parents. Nobody taught you that. Nobody had to teach you to hurt your siblings. It came pretty natural, didn't it?

Nobody had to teach you to covet your friend's possessions. Why? Because you're full of sin. You were full of wretchedness. You were an enemy of God.

You were a child of wrath. You don't have to remember it. You don't have to feel it, children. The Bible tells you exactly what was true about who you were. But in the kindness of God, because of the love of God, your father, or your mother, or both, they brought you here.

They brought you with them to worship the thrice holy God and that thrice holy God applied his promises to you and saved you. You heard the good news of Christ to save sinners and He gave you repentance, He gave you the gift of faith and you believed He saved you. He changed you. So don't you ever say that all you've got is a mediocre testimony. Don't you ever say, well, God Almighty, the Creator of the universe, He stooped down and He took on flesh and He bore my sins.

All of it. And in His body on the tree, He died in my place. He went to a cross where God the Father poured out the full extent of His wrath that should have been poured out on me, instead He poured it out on His Son. And in my place, and it was so terrible, that wrath that God the Father poured out on Christ the Son for me, it was so terrible, it was so devastating, that the ground shook. The sun stopped giving its light and the very ground split as rocks disintegrated.

That's how terrible my sin was in Titus 3.3. That's how terrible the wrath of God was. As that Savior Jesus cried out, it's finished! And then He went into a tomb, dead in my place. The Creator, dead in my place.

He paid the penalty for my sin, death. And then he was raised up. He resurrected the life, proving that everything about me in verse 3 had not just been forgiven, but it had been conquered. And then He ascended to the right hand of God the Father, and even to this day, right now He intercedes for me, so that I would never go back to verse 3 again. He's given me His Spirit.

And He has triumphed over who I used to be. I Just wish I had a better testimony. Do you see how ridiculous that is? Children and adults, God saved you. The kindness of God and His love appeared in Jesus Christ.

And at the cross and in His resurrection, Jesus Christ saved you. Let that marinate on your soul today. He did all of that when you were all in on verse 3. He saved you when you were all in on your sin. Verses 4 through 7 burst into the darkness of verse 3 in your life.

But literally the light of Christmas burst into the darkness of your life. And do you know what that does? Do you know what happens when the Christmas lights get turned on in the life of a new creation in Christ Jesus, it changes the way you see things. It changes everything about the way you live in God's world. It's no accident that verse 2 of Titus 3, look there in verse 2, It's no accident that verse 2 of Titus 3, look there in verse 2, It's no accident that verse 2 of Titus 3 tells you to be kind.

It's no accident that it tells you to malign no one, to be peaceable, to be gentle, to be kind to all men, to love all men, to love your neighbor. It's no accident that verse 2 tells you to love your neighbor and to be kind to your neighbor. Why? Because verses 4 and 5 say, because God loved you. God loved you.

God was kind to you. God reconciled himself. He made peace with God and man. You were reconciled to God vertically, and so because of that vertical peace with God, you extend that horizontally to others in his world. You live out the reality vertically that you have with God Horizontally in his world you strive to be at peace with all men in so far as in so far as it is up to you Be at peace with all men.

Why because God made peace with you when all you brought to the table was verse three. You obey verse two. You live and you engage with God's world rightly because God saved you. And here is how God did that saving. It's the final point of our sermon.

Look in verses 5 through 7. Here's how God did that saving. Let's begin again in verse 5. Titus 3 verse 5. He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

That's how God saved you. So question number one. What was and what still is the grounds of your salvation, Christian? The mercy of God. That's what it says in Titus 3.

The mercy of God. God and who he is is the ground, is the basis of your salvation. He is the one who was and he is the one who still is the ground of your salvation right now. The covenant-keeping God. That's the basis of your salvation.

So I want you to notice something. There's implications from this statement. Do you agree that verse 5 says that? It literally says the basis is the mercies of God. So the grounds of your salvation are never, listen to me, they are never who you are.

Instead, the grounds of your salvation is who Christ is. The grounds of your salvation is never who you are. The grounds, the basis of your salvation is who Christ is. Paul writes it in verse five. Not on the basis of you, but Him, His mercy.

Verse three is all about you. Verse three is all about what you have done. And then verses 4 through 7 are all about God and what God does that triumphs over what you've done. So when you're writing your testimonies out, let it be like this. I hear way too many testimonies that make verse 3 the longest part of the testimony than verses 4 through 7.

It's not how you're supposed to do it. Let your testimonies be influenced by what Paul says. Talk about yourself a little bit, sure. But the bulk of your testimony, the bulk of your testimony should not be about Graham, should not be about you, should be about God. What God has done.

So that's what this passage is about. The basis of your salvation. So I want to pause here. I want to talk to you Christians that have backslidden. Or maybe this morning you find yourself disparate because of sin that continues to plague you.

You've been there? I've been there. Maybe you're here this morning and you've got guilt and shame at what you did just last night or just this past week. Friends, if condemnation or shame is hanging over you, is hanging over your head like a two-ton anvil, you need to hear this. Hear this this morning.

Your sin, your condition, who you are is not the basis for your salvation. It is not the basis for your rescue and your ransoming and the redemption from your sin God is and he is merciful and Verse six says that he has poured out this salvation. He has poured out this mercy to regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Richly. Richly.

That's what verse 6 says. Richly. You know what that means? That means that what Richard Sibbes the Puritan said is true. Because Paul says the same thing.

There is more mercy in Jesus Christ then there is sin in you despairing Christian so despair no more trust Him fly to Him Confess your sins to Jesus Christ and cling to Him tightly by faith. It is not who you are that is the basis of your justification and regeneration. It is not who you are or what you have done that is the basis of your calling or your election. No, it is not who you are, but who He is. Amen.

And who is He? Who is He? Psalm 103 verse 8. This God who saves in Titus chapter 3 is merciful and gracious, abounding in mercy. Who is he?

Lamentations chapter 3. Here is who God is. His compassion, his mercies never fail, for they are new every morning. Christian, You wake up in the morning and you see another day. Do you know what God is communicating to you?

Grab a hold of me in Christ for my mercies are new and true for you. For you. So this day, trust Him. This day, fly from sin, repent, and receive pardon in Jesus Christ. As we've just done in this Lord's Day service already.

The basis of your salvation is the mercy of God. It's about who He is, not who you are. Question number two. Got the basis, they figured out. Question number two, how is that mercy operative?

How does God save you? What's the answer to that? That's the end of verse 5. By the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. So what's regeneration then?

Well we've got books on it, Entire books on it in our library out there. Check them out. But I don't have time to read a whole book to you. What is regeneration? Well, regeneration is John chapter 3, to be made born again by God.

Regeneration is Ephesians chapter 2, you were dead in your sins and God made you alive. Regeneration is 2nd Corinthians chapter 5, therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old things have passed away, behold the new things have come. God does that. Regeneration is the fulfillment of Ezekiel and Jeremiah's prophecies in which God declares in the Old Testament concerning the new, I will give them a new heart.

I will take out your heart of stone that was enslaved to sin and I will replace it with a new heart of flesh that beats for me, that beats for the things of God, with new affections and new desires." And God goes on in his equal in Jeremiah, he says, and not only will I replace their old hearts, crush the heart of stone, put a new heart of flesh in them, I will also give them my spirit. I'll put my spirit within them. That's regeneration. What about that word renewing? Regeneration and renewing?

Well that's sanctification. That's God transforming you over time into the image of His Son. That's sanctification. Being more and more set apart. God does all of this through the outpouring of His Spirit upon you.

And that's verse 6, whom He poured out, the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. That's verse 6. And that's talking about the Holy Spirit. Verse 6 is talking about the Holy Spirit who takes the work of Jesus Christ, your Savior, and he then applies it to your life. So you need to get this.

You need to get this. God regenerates you. God quickens you, as the King James says. He transforms you. He makes you His own.

You're no longer a child of darkness, but a child of light. And He does that by putting His Spirit within you. That's regeneration. Makes you into a new creation. Makes you born again.

You're made new by the work of the Holy Spirit who has applied the finished work of Jesus Christ to your life. And then that same Holy Spirit that regenerated you, that same Holy Spirit isn't done. He keeps applying the work of Jesus Christ to your life every day the Holy Spirit keeps you and he teaches you all things That's regeneration and renewal So through his Holy Spirit God continues to work in you more and more familial resemblance. He makes you look more and more like His Son, like a child of God, because that's exactly who you are. He makes you look more and more like you belong to the family.

You're a part of his family now. The Holy Spirit works in you, familiar resemblance as a child of God. So are you hearing that, Christian? Are you hearing that? You're a part of God's family.

You've been bought with the blood of His Son. You've been regenerated. You're being renewed day by day in His Spirit. You're a part of His family. And when did God first declare that to you?

At your baptism. At your baptism, he said, visibly, it's a visible sign, you belong to me. I've watched you by my spirit. And so at your baptism, God declared what was already true about you, God declared visibly, you're mine. You're mine.

And how does God then declare that same news that you belong to Him today? How does God declare it to you now? Here at this table. Here at this table, with His family, it's a table to triumph. Here in these verses, you have God the Father, verse 4.

See that? God the Father, verse 4. You have God the Son, verse 6. And you have God the Holy Spirit in verse 5. What's that?

It's the Trinity. Here in this passage you have the Trinity saving you, which means you have a triune salvation. Your salvation, Christian, is triune, which is why we baptize you in the name of the triune God. God the Father sent his Son Jesus to redeem you by dying on the cross. God the Son Jesus accomplished that redemption as the Father poured out his wrath upon his son at the cross.

And God the Holy Spirit then applies that redemption that the Father planned and ordained. God the Holy Spirit applies that redemption into the lives for those of whom Christ has died. No Trinity? You take one of those blocks away, you got no salvation. No trinity.

No washing of regeneration and renewal. No trinity. No baptism. No trinity. No table.

No trinity. No belonging to God. Only sin. Only death. Only damnation.

Only what you're really good at apart from Christ, verse three. Christian, your salvation is triune. It's all from God. And that brings us to the final question of our final point. Question number three.

To what extent does God save you? What is the extent of God's saving work? And the answer is real simple. From start to finish. From start to finish.

Verse 5 and 6. He regenerates you. He makes you born again. He renews you. He sanctifies you by pouring out His Spirit gristily upon you.

And now verse 7. So that being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. He brings you all the way home to glory. Eternal life, from start to finish, God saves. Paul says in verse seven, from justification to eternity and glory, God keeps you.

From the moment of your conversion, where God declared you righteous on account of his son That's justification where God bangs the gavel and says I see the righteousness of my son Imputed to you given to your account I no longer see your sin that sin was dealt with at the cross and his righteousness given to you by faith I declare you righteous in my sight that's justification from that moment of your conversion justification regeneration happens then from that moment all the way to the end of your life into glory to eternal life and glory you are his that's the beginning of verse 7 and the end of verse 7 justification to eternal life God has saved you God is saving you and God will save you He will hold you fast so put all these verses together here at the end. In these verses, Paul makes it very clear. There isn't anything in you that qualifies you for anything except hellfire what's in you apart from Jesus qualifies you for one destination only hell first three demonstrates that and yet God did verses four through seven which should make you go wow Because instead of ending in damnation, verse 7 ends with eternal life.

If you were to put these together, if you were not to just divorce verse 3 from the rest, you would begin in verse 3 and going, yikes, and you'd end in verse 7 going, come on, how can it be? How can it be? You're supposed to see that contrast. So verse 3 begins with damnation, And verse 7 ends with glory, which means He turned everything around. And that should blow you away this morning.

That should just fill you with hope. If God can do that for me, if God can save me, He can save anybody. Amen. And so you live in His world with hope. You live in His world with hope.

You live in His world with hope. You live in His world with hope. That word is at the end of verse 7. Hope. You live in God's world with hope.

Hope. If God can save me, He can save anybody in the world. Hope. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save it. Hope.

I can live in this world with hope that though this world with devils filled, it should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, but rather hope. For God has willed that His truth will triumph through us you live in God's world as one with hope Christ Jesus has come to make all things new has he not he has come as far as the curse is found we're gonna sing that a lot next month we believe Every Lord's Day you celebrate and remember the resurrection of King Jesus and then you go out into the world that he bought with his blood with living hope because he raised from the dead. You go out there with living hope. Every Lord's Day you come to this table you remember your baptism and as you remember your baptism you remember these verses here in Titus that though verse 3 was once true about you, not anymore! That's what you remember right here.

Triumph. Verse 3 used to be true about me, but now I remember my baptism in the table. I remember what Christ has done by the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Verse 3 used to be true about me. Not anymore.

That though this earth right now be full of verse 3, that though you go out these doors into your workplace tomorrow and you're just surrounded by verse 3, not forever. Not forever. For the promise will come that the knowledge and glory of the Lord will cover the earth as far as the waters cover the sea. That will happen. And so you live in God's world like all of that's true.

Because it is. Let's pray. Father thank you for this your word. Thank you for the precious and very great promises contained herein. Cause us then to live rightly, full of hope, oh full of love, full of humility in your world.

We thank you in Jesus' name and for His name's sake. Amen.