Turn in your Bibles, please, to the letter to Titus. We're on the right end of your New Testament, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and then Titus. If you went to Hebrews, you went too far. Take a left. Go back. J.I. Packer always says the Bible is a very big book. The letter to Titus, and I'll be reading this morning from verses 1 through 11, but the message comes from verses 3 through 7. Just for a little context. Titus chapter 3. God's holy word. It would be a good idea if I did it too. I'm giving you directions and not following them myself. God's word. Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men. At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs to the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once and then warn him a second time, after that have nothing to do with him. You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful. He is self-condemned. As far as the reading of God's word, may he write this word on our hearts and may he give us a true understanding. Congregation of the Lord Jesus, in Heidelberg Catechism chapter, or question two, it asks how many things are necessary for you to know that in his comfort you may live and die happily. And the answer is three things. First, the greatness of my sin and misery. Second, how I'm redeemed from all my sins and misery. And third, how I'm to be thankful to God for such redemption. If you ever wanted a brief outline of the Christian faith, Pastor, put the faith in a nutshell for me. Can you put the faith in three points? Well, there it is. First, the greatness of my sin and misery. Second, how I'm redeemed from all my sins and misery. And third, how I'm to be thankful to God for such redemption. That's the warp and woof of the Christian faith. That's the stuff you absolutely have to know, and that's the stuff that the Apostle Paul wanted Titus, this probably young pastor, but this pastor in a young congregation, certainly, on the island of Crete, to communicate to his congregation. Because as you can tell from Titus 3, from the passage that we read, if you look down at verse 9, you can see some of the issues there, chapter 3, verse 9. Some of the issues that were troubling this young congregation. Now, Paul wrote this late in his life. Probably, scholars think, around 66 AD. He was, if you read the book of Acts, you know he was imprisoned and we know that he was likely released and most probably imprisoned a second time. And by long tradition in the church from the earliest fathers, he was martyred after the second imprisonment outside the city of Rome on the Appian Highway. And so this is late in his life, probably before his second imprisonment, but it won't be long before his life is over. And most likely Paul knew that. So that was his setting. And this is a congregation that had been planted on the island of Crete, a little bit south of Greece. And it's a relatively new congregation. It's a difficult place to plant a church, although I have yet to have a church planting pastor tell me, you know, this is an easy place to plant a church. Now, there are nicer places, I suppose. We think of maybe Reverend Vandermillen in Kauai, suffering for the Lord. That's a nice place in which to plant a church. Escondido is certainly a nice place. Oceanside, Carlsbad, lots of nice places in which to plant a church. We won't say the less nice places, but you can maybe think of some. Your list might be different from mine, but wherever you go, of course, you find the same phenomenon and that is that however nice a place may be, it's populated by people who by nature are not nice, which is where the difficulty lies. If it were just weather, then that wouldn't be such a big deal. And the Cretans, however, had a particular reputation and Paul even reports that in chapter one. He reports a saying that all Cretans are liars, gluttons, slow bellies, not a very good reputation at all. Not sure what a slow belly is, but it can't be good. We know what liars are and the rest. And some of that was evident in the congregation. In fact, the Cretans were so disreputable, had such a poor reputation, that there's even a verb named after them. To cretinize, in Greek you can make a verb just by adding eyes after it. So they took the noun for crete and they added eyes. And to cretinize is to be a double dealer. Are there any used car salesmen here? Don't raise your hand. You walk away from a used car dealer, you think you've done pretty well, and then you start looking at things and you realize, oh, that didn't turn out so well. And all the time you're talking to the salesman, he or she makes you feel like you are best friends. And after this sale, we're going to get together and barbecue, and maybe we'll go surfing. And then you get home, and your wife looks at you. This hasn't happened to me. And your wife says, what have you done, you fool? Well, the island of Creed had a reputation of being a whole collection of used car salesmen. maybe worse. And Paul writes to this pastor, perhaps a young pastor, Titus. You read a little bit about him in the book of Acts. Paul calls him elsewhere a sharer in his ministry. So he's a sharer in Paul's apostolic ministry. And he calls him more than that a co-worker. So he's Paul's co-worker and establishing, planting this congregation in a place with, at best, we could say, a mixed reputation. So the question is for Paul, what do these Christians on Crete need to know? And what do they need to know, particularly if you look at chapter 3, verse 9 and following, what do they need to know in light of the various challenges that they were facing? Paul doesn't just list these things, controversies, foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law. He doesn't just list them randomly because they sort of came to his mind as he was dictating to his secretary. No, these are the kinds of things that are happening in the congregation. There's an early Christian movement that dates to about this time. They go by the name of Ebionites, and the Ebionites were Jewish Christians who didn't like Paul's letters because they didn't like Paul's theology. They didn't like this doctrine that the Holy Spirit had revealed through Paul that sinners are accepted by God by his free favor through faith, through trusting, resting, and receiving Christ alone. They didn't like that at all because, of course, if you tell people that, how are you going to get them to behave? That'll never work. and so they said well let's just get rid of the Pauline epistles and by the way if you really want to be accepted by God here are some rules that you have to keep and if you keep those rules then maybe God will accept you and oh by the way we don't think Jesus had a true human nature really they didn't think much of Christianity, real Christianity at all but they had a fair amount of influence and there's some thought that some of these folks who had these kinds of ideas may have been present in Crete and there probably were other people with equally odd ideas in Crete. When he says genealogies, that may refer to the Ebunites but also may refer to a movement that later became known as Gnosticism that had a whole series of hierarchies in the heavens and you could sort of climb your way up this ladder of hierarchies of beings. It's too complicated to get into this morning but the bottom line is that It led people away from Jesus and away from grateful obedience to his word. So what do, in that context, what does this young congregation need to know? Well, they need to know three things. And Paul lays it out for them here in verses 3 through 7. First thing they need to know in verse 3 is what we could call wretchedness. Wretch is not a word we use much anymore, maybe as a verb, but not much as a noun. So and so is a wretch. It's a word we used to use, but we sort of lost that word. And I'm actually cheating because the other two points are R's, but it has an R sound. We need to know our wretchedness. That is our lost condition, our hopelessness. And Paul, in a wonderful way, one, two, three, four, five wonderful ways here, lays out various aspects of our wretchedness. How wretched, how lost, how corrupt, how hopeless, how sinful are we really? Well, the first thing he says is, at one time, we too were foolish, meaning lacking wisdom. What kind of wisdom? Well, not just practical wisdom. Paul was a tent maker. He probably had practical wisdom about a lot of things before he was a believer and practical wisdom after. Here, Paul's talking about spiritual wisdom. Spiritual wisdom is seeing things as they really are. Now think about that in ordinary life. One of my favorite things to do is to listen to a radio show hosted by a couple of fellows in Boston, Click and Clack Car Talk. I don't know if you listen to that, but what they try to do is they take phone calls, and then people will sort of say, well, my car is making this kind of a sound, and they will make the sound over the phone. And then these two fellows try to diagnose what's wrong with a car on the basis of the sounds that people make over their phone. It sounds pretty implausible, and therein lies the entertainment. Can these guys, after 30 years, figure out what the problem is on the basis of the color of the car that these people are driving? Well, it takes a certain amount of wisdom. Well, if it's a fair number of times, I suspect they get it wrong. We don't always know how often they get it right and how often they get it wrong. If it's hard to do practical things, how much harder is it to see spiritual reality for what it is? That is, God for who and what he is, and ourselves for who and what we are. Well, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, the truth is it's impossible. Have you ever tried to find out the truth of something? Anything? I mean, the real truth, the true truth. Not the surface truth, but the deep truth, the truth that goes all the way down to the core of a thing. That's really hard. Foolishness is not only not knowing that truth, but not knowing that you don't know the truth. We were foolish. That's what Paul says by nature. He was foolish and we, by nature, were foolish. Then he describes sin not only as, he characterizes it not only as foolishness, but also he characterizes it as disobedience. We were disobedient. So sin is foolishness against wisdom, but it's also disobedience, which is contrary to the law. We Americans are a lawless people. And by that I mean by inclination, we don't like restrictions. I was listening to an interview yesterday about a group of Internet anarchists called Anonymous. And as they were interviewing these Internet anarchists who are hacking computers and bringing down servers and things primarily because they don't like the various companies and groups and folks that they're attacking, when they were asked why they do this, essentially the answer was, we don't like any restrictions. we think there should be no restrictions. You know, it wasn't very long ago out west here that there were very few restrictions. This country was a lawless place from the Mississippi River all the way to the Pacific Ocean. There were laws theoretically, but there was oftentimes no place, no one to enforce them, no institutions to execute those laws to see that they were obeyed and that lawbreakers were punished. We, by inclination, are lawbreakers, not only culturally, but also deep in our hearts, in our minds, in our wills, in our affections. Sin is disobedience to the law of God. Sin is, scripture says, lawlessness. Paul says we were disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions. Sin brings about intellectual, mental we might say, but intellectual darkness so that we can't see the truth. We don't want to know the truth, we don't want to obey the truth, we can't see the truth. He also describes sin as in terms of straying. We were given over to pleasures and passions, he says. We were enslaved. We lived in malice and envy. There's murder. Sin is straying. That's against the truth. It wanders from the standard of what is. Sin is slavery. That's the subjective experience, the subjective consequences, the personal consequences in you and in me of sin. Scripture says anyone who sins is a slave to sin. Paul says we were slaves. The Cretan Christians were slaves. He was a slave. You and I were slaves. Being hated and hating one another. You see the picture that he's drawing of dark, entrapped, bitter, angry, covetous, lustful, violent people. Bound together almost in a pit. It's a very dark picture. That indeed is wretchedness. I don't know if it's true, but there's some talk that towards the end of his life, John Lennon began to have a revolution of sorts intellectually. I don't know that it's true, but it would be interesting if it were true. You remember at one point in his life, he had said, you know, imagine there's no heaven. And imagine there's no God. That's the natural inclination of the natural man. That's your natural inclination. That's my natural inclination. That was theirs. And that was Paul's. And he calls that, we can summarize that in verse 3, as wretchedness. One of the great reasons why people don't see the need for the sovereign, free grace of God is that they don't know their wretchedness. First thing that an American will tell you when you ask them, well, are you a good person, is, well, yeah, I guarantee it. Ask Pete DeYoung. He's knocked on doors. He knows. You knock on someone's door, Pete, and you ask them, are you a good person, what will they say? They'll say, yeah, I pay my taxes. Before I was a believer, I thought I was a good person. And I hated that Christian kid who lived next door to me. I hated him with a passion, with malice and envy and bitterness. But I was a good person. Except God says that's not true. You're not a good person. If you're sitting here this morning telling yourself that by nature, well, yeah, I think I'm basically good. No, you're basically not good. And we need to get to grips with the reality of that. Constantly, when we lose, even we who believe in Jesus, when we lose track of that reality, we lose track of two other very important things that we need to know all the time. And the second of those is redemption. That it is sinners whom God has redeemed. Look at verse 4 of chapter 3, Titus 3. But when the kindness and love of God. You have to pay attention to Paul. And when he says but, that's hugely important oftentimes. It's a gospel conjunction. Technically, it's an adversative. It's a change of direction. This is the way things are, but I have good news. Here's the bad news. Here's the good news. But God, he says in Ephesians. But when the kindness and love of God, you see the contrast between the meanness and hatred that we had Here comes the kindness and love of God, the gentleness. And the Greek word actually is the word from which we get philanthropy. We just call it love. But you know that word. God's kindness and love. And notice how Paul characterizes God here. The kindness and love of God our Savior. And when it appeared. Well, when did it appear? Just any old time? No. It appeared in a given time and place, in a given person. God the Son in the flesh, Jesus the Savior. That's what he means when he says, but when the kindness and mercy of God appeared in Christ. Look at verse 5. He saved us. The second thing we have to know is that we who believe, We wretches who believe have been redeemed. We've been saved. We've been delivered. You ever been in a really bad place? Now, children, you should never play around refrigerators. I think pretty well we all get that now, that you're supposed to lock up your old refrigerators and be careful with them. But there was a time when people used to just put refrigerators out in their backyard and children would sometimes just open them up. You know, it's a neat place. You could explore, open that up, crawl in there, and then maybe one of the other kids thought it was funny to close it. And now suddenly, if you're inside, that's not so much fun, is it? You need to be delivered from that. Why? Because you can't do it from the inside. The light goes out, the latch is latched, and there's no way. It's not really designed. You know, it's designed for you to go in from the outside, not to go out from the inside. That's just, their refrigerators are funny that way. How are you going to get out? Somebody outside of you has to come and set you free. That's exactly the way salvation is. That's what salvation is. Somebody coming from the outside and setting us free. Who was that someone? It was God the Son who took on human flesh and who did what we refused to do for those of us who refused to do it. And he redeemed us. He accomplished salvation for us. And notice how Paul is so careful to point out, because remember the Ebionites that I mentioned earlier? He saved us, verse 5, not because of any, literally the text says, any works we had done. Because the Ebionites were saying, well, you know, if you do some works, you do some things, God will approve of you. And Paul says that is categorically false. Because salvation through Christ and whatever you do is not good news. Imagine if someone comes to the refrigerator and you're trapped inside. And the one outside says, well, I can only help you do your best. Have you done all that you could do? No, you're helpless. You don't need someone. It's not good news for someone to say, well, you have to do your part and then I'll do mine. You don't have any part to do. That's, by definition, helplessness. And so it's the helpless, it's the wretched. And worse than helpless, it's the wretched whom God freely redeems. Not because of any works done in righteousness, but because of his mercy. See the contrast that Paul sets up? Works done in righteousness versus mercy. Mercy is when God shows favor to those who don't deserve it. He doesn't give to them what they deserve. That's really the proper definition of mercy. He doesn't give to them what they deserve. What do they deserve? They deserve judgment and condemnation. And he doesn't give that to them. He gives them something else. He redeems them. He saved us. That's an accomplished fact. I don't know if you ever think about that. Do you ever hear people say, well, when were you saved? And what they mean is, when did you come to faith? and okay I understand that but now think carefully and sometimes when I'm feeling a little on rain someone says when were you saved I say 2,000 years ago on a tree outside of Jerusalem because that's exactly the truth that's when I was saved that redemption was applied to me sometime in the 1970s but it was accomplished for me 2,000 years ago you were saved the last thing that we need to know from this passage the last thing here that Paul wants the Cretan believers to know and wants us to know this morning wants Titus to tell them remind them is that not only have we been saved, not only has redemption been accomplished for us it has been applied to us there's sometimes theologians talk about the objective and the subjective the objective is something that's done for us and the subject is something that's done in us, the wonderful thing about redemption is it doesn't remain outside of us, John Calvin says in his Institutes, book chapter 3, if Christ remains outside of us, he is of no benefit for us. We have to become united to Christ. And how do we become united to Christ? Well, in his commentary here on this passage, he actually begins talking about faith, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works on us. If you believe this morning, let me tell you how it happened. I wasn't there. and I'm sure I didn't see it but I can tell you how it happened the Holy Spirit God the Spirit who hovered over the face of the deep in creation also hovered over you in recreation and made you a new creature in Christ in fact that's the language here that's used regeneration this noun that's used here is only used one other time and it's used in the context of the new heavens and the new earth. So you have the original creation and then you have a re-creation, a new creation which is begun by the operation of the Spirit who sovereignly, freely, powerfully makes that which was dead alive. We call that re-generation. But Paul says more than that here. He certainly is saying that, but he says more. Notice how he characterizes this regeneration through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. What's the imagery of washing? And then notice the other verb that comes just after in verse 6. Whom or which, perhaps, he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Poured out, washing. What's the imagery there? Well, it's the imagery of baptism. And how do you baptize? Take water, right, and you pour it out over someone over their head. Now, is he saying that baptism does that? No. Baptism doesn't do it. Paul says that expressly elsewhere. It's not baptism that does it. God the Holy Spirit does it, but baptism is a picture of it. So God the Holy Spirit makes us alive and he grants us the gift of faith to trust in Jesus. And through that gift he unites us to himself, to Christ. This morning, if you believe in Jesus, you are united to Christ, connected to him in heaven. And that's because you've been washed. You've been cleansed. What's the imagery really of pouring out and washing? Well, that's cleansing the dirty. So there's an idea here of sanctification, of making holy, making clean. What was dirty? Do you see where he started out, loved ones? He started out with wretchedness and lostness and darkness and sin and bad news. Then he takes us to redemption, the good news. But it doesn't end there. It goes on to renewal and cleansing and transforming and changing. God the Holy Spirit is at work in you. This morning as you go out from this place, you should go out in the confidence that the same sovereign triune God who spoke everything that is into nothing, who operated powerfully to accomplish your redemption through Jesus Christ, who applied sovereignly, freely, powerfully that redemption to you by His Spirit. It doesn't end there. It's only the beginning. And how do I know that? Because Paul uses a little phrase. It's actually just one word and we end up translating it with several other words. But he says, in order that. There is an in order that God had a purpose. We were redeemed that we might be renewed. That's what he's saying here. We were redeemed that we might be renewed. He's renewing you. You say, yeah, but I don't see it. Well, I didn't tell you you could see it. But it's happening if you believe in Jesus. If you believe in Jesus, it's really happening. Having been, he says, verse 7, having been justified, one last thing. You're not being renewed in order that you might be accepted. That's really, really important. And in some ways, I think if you only come away with one thing this morning, you should come away with this. You're not being renewed in order that you may be accepted, but having been accepted freely for the sake of Christ, you are being renewed by the Spirit in order that you might become heirs, having the hope of eternal life. Where you were once focused on this dark world, now you have a hope of things yet to come that have already begun to dawn in your heart and in your mind and even in your will. These are wonderful, wonderful gifts. So as you go out this morning, go out in the confidence that God the Holy Spirit is at work in you, that Jesus loved you and he loves you and he isn't finished with you. Sometimes it's easy to be discouraged. Don't be discouraged. Be hopeful. Be confident. He accomplished it for you. He's accomplishing it in you. And I tell you the truth this morning in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.