Ah, man. Well, it's so good to be in the Lord's house with you guys. My name is Ricky. If you're new here, I'm one of the pastors here at the church. And I just want to encourage you. This season of the summer in our church and in El Paso is always a transitional time. We have some folks leaving. We have some folks arriving. We have some folks PCSing out. I think this time— this is the first time in our history I think we've sent a whole community group. PCSing to the same assignment, which I guess is great, you know. You guys can all just go together, and we love that for you. We'll be sad, but we'll love that for you. And yet we have a number of new folks coming in, folks coming to school, folks coming to PCS in here. And so let me just encourage you over the summer, let's not check out and not just kind of like be in our worlds. Let's greet those around us. There's probably somebody who could use encouragement as they're headed out or somebody who has just arrived that we can extend hospitality to. Hospitality to, and we want to be about the work of the Lord in welcoming people into his family. Amen. Amen.
So let's turn to Titus chapter 3, if you would. We are in the homestretch of the book of Titus this week and next week, and it has been a wonderful time in this letter. So we are going to read verses 3 through 8 particularly, but we're going to back up and read verses 1 and 2 as a prelude to be able to understand our text today. If you're new here to the church, this is our practice every week. We take a section, usually the next section of the Bible, and we explain it and what it means for our lives. And so Titus chapter 3, verse 1, this is God's word. Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For, or because, We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and lovingkindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us. Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace— we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. This is God's Word.
Lord, I pray Your blessing over the preaching and the hearing of Your Word. In your house today. Amen.
Well, sometimes everything has changed, but that change hasn't yet changed everything. Let me give you one illustration. On January 1st, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation took effect and slavery was declared over. Well, at least in the northern states of the US. But it wasn't until April 9th, 1865 that the war was truly won. The last Southern army was finally defeated. And then it was not actually until June 19th, 1865 that Major General Gordon Granger landed at Galveston, Texas and announced to enslaved Texans that they were free. Everything had changed, but it took 2.5 years for that change to arrive all the way to Galveston, Texas. It's what many celebrate as Juneteenth this month. Yet for a moment, I want you to imagine a ridiculous possibility. Okay, imagine that after the news arrived, uh, in the weeks and months that followed, This— well, imagine a slave simply returning to work like nothing had changed. Imagine putting the shackles back on. Imagine going back into bondage. Imagine sighing and longing to be free while you work the same fields yet again. Now that would be ridiculous, wouldn't it? To go and act like nothing had changed when everything had changed. And yet, that is exactly what Christians do all the time.
Paul has been laying out a vision for a new community on the island of Crete, sending his emissary Titus to affect this change. And he wants to see changed leaders and changed priorities and changed households and changed communities. For 5 verses, right in the middle of all that change, he pauses. Paul pauses and he inserts something. Most people believe that actually this 5-verse section, a good chunk of it, is a hymn of the early church. Because you're thinking, this is very dense and poetic. It's probably like Paul in the middle of writing about the change pauses and sings about the change that has been affected by the Lord. Why does he do that? Why in the middle of saying, 'Hey, let's live changed lives,' does he pause and rehearse the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Well, because he's using this very intentionally. Notice the brackets of this section. Verses 1 and 2 say, 'Don't act like the world for or because we ourselves were blank.' Right? So he says, 'Okay, don't act like this. Live a changed life because,' and then he shares the Gospel. And then after he shares it, he says, I have shared this so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. Meaning, he's saying, you are meant, church and Christian, to live a changed life. But let me take a second and remind you that everything has changed because of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And here's my burden today, okay? Just as a pastor, this is my burden for you if you are sitting here today. I do not want you as a Christian stuck between the Emancipation Proclamation and Juneteenth. I don't want you living like nothing has changed when in fact everything has changed. I want to see you living so powerfully, so profoundly, so joyfully in the good of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in your life.
6 · Exposits Titus 3:3—the catalog of what Christians once were
So we're going to walk through this in several sections. The first one is this: What has changed. Look at verse 3. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hating— hated by others and hating one another. Now notice this. Notice the connection. He says for, right? He has just told the church to be gentle, to be courteous, to be utterly unlike the Roman culture around them, which was decidedly not courteous and decidedly not gentle. He wants them to be different, but he wants them, as they are different, not to forget that they were once like the very people around them that they are thinking, 'Oh my gosh, these people are the worst.' Paul is saying, 'You used to be the worst too.' Right? This is a moment where Paul the Apostle is like a freed man teaching newly freed slaves to live in freedom by showing them their old chains, by saying, 'Do you remember?' Remember what this was like. Don't go back to it, friends. Don't go back to the chains. And look at the elements here, right? He says we as believers in Jesus, we were once just like everyone else. And yet, and here's the difference with Christians, we see what we once used to be clearer than anyone else. We were once unwise, choosing the wrong things for ourselves over and over and over and wondering why we kept getting the same result. That's foolishness. We once bucked against God's good rules and boundaries that were set in place for our good. We were disobedient. We were once pulled along by Satan, pulled along by our destructive culture, and led astray. We were once in captivity and in bondage to our desires. We chose them and they mastered us and shackled us and bound us, and we were slaves, it says. To various passions and pleasures. And we weren't happy or content. We lived wishing we could hurt others and have what they have, constantly trapped in malice and envy. And we didn't have healthy relationships. We were hurt by others and we hurt them in return, and we hurt people and they hurt us back. And that That was hating others and being hated by them. Do you see, Paul is saying, do you see how much has changed? And here's the point. This is not Christian who you are anymore. And you don't have to live like it is.
7 · Illustrates the transformation of Titus 3:3 through a contemporary testimony—a woman who was enslaved to her appearance as identity and armor before Christ, but who discovered after conversion that she no longer needed that protection
I saw a girl, the example of a girl sharing a testimony online that was really powerful to me about of all things makeup. Okay. I don't get a lot of makeup videos in my algorithm, thankfully. Uh, but she was sharing something. She was sharing that before becoming a Christian, she never went anywhere without wearing makeup. She could not go to the grocery store for 5 minutes without makeup. She couldn't go to the beach without makeup. And she was sharing that the reason why is that very early on as a teenager, she, she realized her looks, her desirability to men, her status to her were everything. They were, in a sense, her shield and her armor that she felt protected by. But you know what's strange? She was sharing, she was sharing that after she came to Christ, She discovered one day that she could go to the grocery store without makeup anymore. She could go to the beach. Now, she still— she said, 'I still wear makeup, okay, sometimes.' But she didn't fear people. She didn't live bound by those passions. She did not feel pulled along by the world and the devil anymore. And she realized one day in Christ, I don't have to live like that anymore.
8 · Applies the exposition of Titus 3:4 with direct questioning: are you still running the old script? Ricky then unpacks 'he saved us' in three dimensions—salvation from the penalty of sin, separation from God, and the dominion of darkness
Friend, let me ask you this question. Is there any sense in your life today that you are living the old story of who you used to be before Christ? Are you running the old script over and over in your life like nothing has changed? Like you have to scrape and claw your way through life? Rather, than seeing that's who I used to be. That's not how I am anymore. That's what's changed. Second, here's what changed us. Verse 4: But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us. Now look, this is so powerful because we were living that story, that old script, over and over and over again. And we knew that it only ended one way. That script only ever ends, the movie only ever ends one way, in misery. But God interrupted the story. But God inserted himself into our story and he saved us. Now the reason this is so powerful is that there, the reality is when we look for change, even in our old story, we long for change. We're bound and shackled and we're like, 'Well, I need change.' but we often look for the wrong change in the wrong place. Right? This is what I mean by that. First, we look for change that is far too small. We look for change that, like, okay, the change I need is numbing the pain of life a little bit. The pain— the change I need is getting a little better in life. The change I need is to make things more bearable, to forget for a few minutes the pain That's the wrong change. God does not bring a small palliative change. He brings salvation. He brings a complete and utter change. And not only do we look for the wrong change, we look for it in the wrong place, don't we? We think maybe you, next relationship, can be the change I need in my life. Maybe this next job is the change I need. Maybe this next opportunity is the change I need. Maybe that finally, at the end of that change, will be what I need and long for. Friends, no! We look for the wrong change in the wrong place. But here's the good news. He saved us. He saved us. Now look, we could spend all morning on those three words. He saved us. But let me just highlight a couple things here that's behind this if you are new to the things of the faith, right? First of all, he saved us from what? He saved us from the penalty of sin. When Jesus died, he paid the penalty for the sins we committed once and for all. Later on, Paul will use the word justified, meaning that in legal standing, we were once condemned in the court, and all of a sudden we're made right in the eyes of the court, right? Just like a guy that the gavel's coming down and is about to be sentenced for life, all of a sudden the gavel comes down and they're freed, right? That's the same penalty of sin. Second, he saved us from our separation from God. Right. All that stuff, all the way we used to live, it separated us from the very thing we were made for. But we were made for something, cut off by sin. And yet in Christ, he saved us. And that salvation is a bringing us from the world to the presence of God. It's beautifully symbolized when Jesus died that the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Symbolizing that the presence of God and the people of God, where there once was a wall, there is no wall anymore. He saved us from separation from God. And then third, he saved us from the dominion of darkness. You see in those first handful of phrases how bound and shackled we were to everything around us, to our own passions. We chose something and all of a sudden, find ourselves addicted to it, unable to escape from it. We were under the domain of the world, under the domain of Satan. But friends, here's the good news. He saved us. He broke the power of the world, the flesh, and the devil over us. Right? And that, friends, that changes everything.
9 · Illustrates the emotional register appropriate to salvation through a harrowing near-death experience in Philadelphia—road rage escalation, fear for life, miraculous escape
Look, if you— if there is not with you a bit of awe with those 3 words, I think you've lost something. If you can say, 'He saved me,' without there being some sort of wonder, I don't think you're actually taking in the reality of what's happening. Look, a few years ago, I was in Philly, right? Downtown Philly. With some pastor friends down there, and like everybody in Philly drives like they've been hurt and want to hurt someone. That's the way that it— and I asked questions, and they're like, 'This is how people drive.' And I'm like, 'Okay.' So the guy that we were driving with, he cut somebody off to try to make a turn, as you do in Philly, right? Except the guy that he cut off wasn't having it, okay? He wasn't like, 'Oh, okay, that's fine.' Courteous. No, he was like, So he chased us down. This dude chased us down. And listen, man, I knew the situation was spiraling when the guys from Philly who were both over 6 foot tall, both over 200, when they started to get nervous. They were like, this ain't good, man. This guy's serious. And he's reaching in the back of his car for something. And I'm thinking, oh my goodness, I'm gonna meet the Lord right now, right now. And thankfully he didn't find what I was afraid he was gonna find in the backseat. He found a hard metal object. He threw it trying to smash through the window of the Jeep we were in. By God's grace, it pinged off of the doorframe of the Jeep, leaving a divot in the door. Right. And we peeled off before and then lost the guy. And listen, when we, we were, we were on our way to dinner. When we arrived at the dinner, we felt like we had just won the lottery. We got out of the car and we were going, we are alive. We are alive. And so we go in and we see the menu and unfortunately They hadn't seen the dinner menu. I guess they'd made the reservation with the lunch menu or whatever. It was supposed to be a nice meal. This was a really nice meal. And the guy leading the retreat was like, you know what? We're going to do it because we're alive. We're eating the best food of our lives right now because we're not gone, right? We're not bleeding out in the middle of Philadelphia. We are going to enjoy this meal.
10 · Applies the Philadelphia illustration directly: just as the near-death survivors celebrated their rescue, Christians should live with 'we're alive' joy and freedom
Friends, there should be something of we're alive about the Christian life. Amen. Right? He saved us. We were once two steps from eternal death and separation from God, but he interrupted the story and he saved us. Isn't that good news? Yeah. It's good news. Friends, there should be something of a joy, a freedom, a lightness to the Christian life if you actually remember how much has changed. That's what changed. He saved us. Third. Oh, man, it only gets better.
11 · Exposits Titus 3:4-5 to answer why salvation happened—not because of anything in us (our goodness, lovability, desert, or potential) but because of God's character
Why things changed. But it says, verse 4, when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. Now friends, why, why did God interrupt our story? Why did he act? Was it because we were so good? No. Was it because we were so lovable? No. Was it because we deserved it? No. Was it because we had potential he saw in us? No. He didn't save us because we were so good. He saved us because he is so good. He didn't save us because we were so lovable. He saved because he loves and is love. He didn't save us because we deserved it. He saved us because he had this word mercy. Now, the word mercy remains that we, we had something coming to us and then it was released, right? Grace means a gift we did not deserve is given to us, but mercy means we had something negative coming to us that is held back from us. Feel the force of that, friends. Why did he change things? Why did everything change in our lives? Because notice that collection of words: God, Savior, he, his, he, him. And often we think we're going to find the change we need right in, in either I myself or they and them. Like, I'll change things, I'll turn my life around, or that person, that relationship, that job, that thing, that'll change me. No, the Bible says something far better. No, God himself, the Lord himself and his character is why things change in our lives, because he is good, because he is loving, because he is merciful. Now, we could do a sermon on each of those three words. That word goodness refers to the quality of virtue in the Lord. God is not two-faced. He's not hypocritical. He's not a shade of gray. He's not better than the bad guys as an antihero. No, he is perfectly clear and clean in his goodness, unstained by evil or wrongdoing. He is good. And then there's that word lovingkindness. If I could do anything for this passage as a translator— I don't know Greek very well, I don't know enough to monkey around with the translations— but if I could, I would remove the space between loving and kindness, because biblically it's actually one word, loving kindness, hesed in the Hebrew. It means, my favorite definition of hesed is in this kids' storybook Bible that we got years ago, which describes hesed as God's never stopping, never giving up, always and forever love. And I thought, that'll preach, right? Never stopping, never giving up, always and forever. This is a chasing-down love. This is somebody's wandering and somebody's out looking for them kind of love. And then third, that word mercy, right? This is a holding-back love, a holding back hurt, a holding back wrath, a holding back judgment and punishment. Kind of. And you see what all those three— that portrait that all three of them make? God is perfectly pure. He chases us down. He holds back his wrath. And everything changes. Everything changes.
12 · Derives two theological implications from the doctrine of mercy-based salvation
I just want to point out two specific things that should change in light of this. First, there should be in the Christian life a profound humility, a profound humility. Friends, he saved us not because we're a good spouse, not because we were nice to someone, not because we had potential, not because we tried to make up by doing a million good deeds after doing a bad one, not because we tried our hardest to do better, not because of any of that. He saved us because of his mercy. And in light of that, look, there is no room for pride in the Christian life. There's no room for pride. And I mean that in a couple ways. One, there's no room for ever looking at the Lord and going, 'You owe me. You owe me here. All right, you better listen to me here. Do you see what I've done? You better do this.' Friends, Here's the reality. That's wrong in every sense because not only does he not owe us, he has already given us more than we could ever dare to imagine we would receive from him. So there's this profound humility as we come to the Lord. And then second, there's a profound humility as we relate to anyone else in the world. Any other Christian, any other person in the world, there is no sense in we get which we get to walk up to somebody and go, 'I'm better than you,' or to think it as we relate to them, right? 'I'm better than you.' 'Did you not need mercy?' 'Oh, I did. I just think I needed a little bit less.' Like, no. We needed God's infinite mercy. And so there should be a profound humility as we relate to God and others, but second, Here's the beauty of this. There's a profound humility here, but there's a profound safety for your Christian life. Notice something beautiful here. God's salvation is not due to us. His love is not due to us. His goodness toward us is not due to us. Therefore, therefore, Our relationship with God is the safest thing in the universe, because here's the reality. If we had attracted God's help through some combination of smarts or valuable— being valuable or utility or hard work, if we attracted God's help, then what would happen if we stopped? What would happen if we stumbled? We would live in constant danger of losing his help or losing his affection or losing his attention. But friends, the good news is this, that God loved us not because of our works but because of who he is. Because he is good. Because he is loving. Because he is merciful. And friends, that there is— do you see the safety of that?
13 · Applies the theology of safety to the moment of Christian failure
And look, let me just say this, that belief is tested every time you do actually mess up. Because friends, when you mess up as a Christian, is your impulse, man, I can't pray. I really got to get out there and do 100 good deeds before I can get back to prayer. I've heard even people tell me, man, I've not been, you know, I've not been living well. That's why I haven't been in church. I need to get things right with God and then I'll get back to church. And what they mean by get things right with God is clean their life up and then come back. Friends, that's a profound misunderstanding of the gospel itself. He saved us not because of works, but because of his mercy. You truly believe the gospel when you mess up and run to the Lord.
14 · Exposits Titus 3:5-6—the mechanism of salvation is the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit
That's third. Fourth, how things change. How do things actually change then in our life? How does this everything has changed begin to work its way into our life? Verses 5 and 6, this happens by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Not only, friends, does he save us, but through that salvation comes another gift, the gift of the Spirit. Thomas Boston, an old Puritan, says it this way that I just, I love, I can't improve upon it. The Holy Spirit makes the application of that redemption, regenerating us, whereof baptism is the sign, and so renewing and making us new creatures. Listen to this. Thus Christ made the salve for our sore by his obedience and death, and the Spirit applies it. Oh man, I love that image of like By Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, he makes the salve, and the Spirit is the one that applies it to our lives. Oh, man, that's so good. Now, two powerful words here you may not know. Regeneration, that just means that something has died but is suddenly brought back to life, right? This is this plant in the backyard that I planted a long time ago last fall, and I was like, that thing is gone. I need to buy another plant. And lo and behold, this spring it rained and that thing came back. And I'm like, 'I thought you were dead. I was going to replace you,' right? That's— it's like that, only the plant did actually die, right? That's regeneration. Second, renewal. The picture that comes to my mind as I think about this is, you know, imagine an old piece of jewelry from, you know, a grandmother or a great-aunt or somebody, but it's gotten a little scuffed and corroded, not quite as shiny, not quite as— is brilliant, and yet you take that thing to a jeweler and the jeweler renews it. All of a sudden when it's handed back to you, you're like, 'Is that the same piece?' It is. That renewing work.
15 · Applies the doctrine of regeneration and renewal to Christian identity and sanctification
Now, here's a couple applications here I want to make. There's so much more I could say here. First, this means that you are actually changed, Christian. You are actually changed. I find too many Christians still carrying around the chains of their old lives in their pockets. Too many Christians still wearing the robes or the, the, the garments of slavery, maybe even underneath their new Christian suit. But if you peek underneath, it's— they're still wearing those old clothes. They live trapped in who they once were. Trapped in who they believe they still are. But, but this, this is interesting. This text primarily refers not to progressive sanctification, meaning that we make progress and look more and more like Jesus. This text actually has in view what theologians call definitive sanctification. What that means is in a definite moment we are cleaned and made new by the Holy Spirit. Now, does that mean we don't— that we walk it out? Now, we're going to talk about walking that out. We're going to talk about living differently. But this refers to who you are as a Christian, not being who you once were. It is not just that you've received a new garment, friends. It is that you are new inside by the Holy Spirit. Look, Satan's name, friend, means accuser. Satan means accuser. And friend, his primary attack— I think people are very alert to Satan's work of like, oh yeah, I'm not going to use that weird occult magic. I saw a book in the Barnes Noble, occult magic. I'm not going to use that. It's satanic, right? OK, sure. Yeah, don't do that. That's probably good. But you know what Satan's primary attack to the Christian is? Accusation. Saying, 'You aren't different. You are filthy. You are horrible. Can you believe what you see when you look in the mirror? You're the same as the worst moment of your life and you'll never move beyond it.' That's the voice of Satan, friends. That's the voice that comes. That's his primary attack on the Christian life. But friends, allow Titus 3 to speak the word of the gospel over you. Christian brother or sister, you are not who you once were. You are washed. You are made new. In the deepest part of your soul, you are renewed by the power of the Spirit. And don't you dare act like that's not the case. This means you have changed. And second, here's the good news, this also means that you can change, meaning that you can begin to live differently. There are always going to be places this side of heaven that we struggle with sin, where we— as Paul would say, we have the old man and the new man warring within us. We must, as we'll talk about in a second, fight with the Spirit's help to change our lives, to— because everything has changed, begin to change who we are as a husband, as a father, as an employee, as a citizen, all of that. But one of the things that kills us before we can even start to change is the whisper of, I think, Satan saying, you can't change. You won't change. Friends, Titus 3 is the answer to that. Titus 3 says, 'I have changed. Christ has changed me. Therefore, there is no area of sin or struggle in my life that cannot change because I have already undergone the most profound change possible. I have gone from death to life, from slavery to freedom. Right? This is like being resurrected and like having some, you know, physical therapy issue and you're just going, 'Man, I just— my arm is never going to be the same. It's never going to be the same.' Friend, you were dead and now you're alive. I think we got all the hope in the world. Right, for that area in your life.
16 · Exposits Titus 3:7—Christians are not merely pardoned criminals but adopted heirs
Number 5. Are you guys done with the good news? 'Cause Titus is not. Number 5, where the change is taking us. It's our trajectory. It says, 'So that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.' Again, another Puritan on this, Thomas Goodwin says this, 'Men,' think that for God to save them is no more, but only to put forth a prerogative act of pardon and showing mercy like a king does when he pardons a traitor. Right. Some people think that all it's just, it's just a pardon. But God always does more. I love that God always does more. For when he pardons anyone, He makes a friend and a favorite of him, a son and an heir in whom he may delight. Right? Do you see this? Not only, friends, are we escaping the court, right? It's like, whew, we escaped. We thought we were going forever. No, no, no, not only that, but as we leave the court, we are embraced and adopted and handed the key to heaven itself as the Lord embraces us. Right? Isn't that insane? That is unbelievable. But friends, that's grace. That is the grace of God. Now, here's the good thing. Everything has changed, not just now, but in where we are headed. We are headed toward deeper relationship with God. We're headed toward eternal life.
17 · Illustrates Christian assurance through the experience of buying a house
And think about it this way. A number of years ago, we— Jen and I bought a home. And I remember— listen, you probably— it's probably too much information, but I hate large purchases. I don't know if you're out there and you can relate to that at all, but the bigger the purchase gets, the more anxious I get. Right. So like buying a grocery, that's fine. Buying a computer, I'm like, man, buying a car. I am like having like I'm sweating just daily thinking about it. And then we bought a house. And so, of course, you can imagine me the day of the purchase of the house. I am sweating. I am like my pal. It's like my palms like this. My palms feel weird. And I just am thinking, what if it goes wrong? What if it doesn't close? What if this happens? What if that happens? I got to keep my options open. Got to keep this. I have a backup plan, all this stuff. And so we go to the title company, we sign the paperwork, they hand me the keys, and then we go to lunch with our realtor to celebrate. Except the only problem is I'm not celebrating because I keep having this weird, this weird, like, stuck in time moment where I'm like, oh, we got the house. That's good. We got it. We got it. And then I would forget, like temporarily, as I'm eating, like, oh man, I really hope this goes through. And you know, and then I'd go, no, no, no, it did. It did. I have the key. The key's here. Right. Okay, good. We did it. And then it was like I'd go to the bathroom and come back. Man, I'm so anxious. Why? Why am I anxious? We got the house. That's right. I have the key right here. Right. Just that was the whole lunch. Me being anxious, remembering I have the key. Me being anxious, remembering I have the key.
18 · Applies the house-buying illustration directly: Christians suffer from the same forgetfulness—anxious about the future despite holding the key to eternal life
Friends, for too many of us, that is the Christian life, isn't it? We are anxious thinking, 'Where is life going? What's going to happen next? Where is God taking me? Will He still be there? Will He care about me tomorrow? What about the next year and the year after that?' Friends, through the work of Christ, we are heirs. The documents have been signed. The promise of eternal life is given and sealed, and we hold the keys to eternal life in our pockets. Amen. So because everything has changed, what needs to change in our lives? I think we need to far more often than we do feel in our pocket, pull out the key and remember, I'm going to heaven, man. I have eternal life. No matter what happens this year or this decade, right, Christians— and it's like we get temporary amnesia every time there's a big event or a big election or a job loss. Not saying that those things are not important, not saying that those things don't matter, but friends, we have the key to heaven in our pocket. And what would change if we acted like that were true?
19 · Exposits Titus 3:8—the purpose clause connecting gospel rehearsal to good works
Oh man, last But not least, last, very briefly, here's why he changed things. Here is the application of all of this gospel, is to get to these two words, 'so that.' Look at verse 8. 'The saying is trustworthy,' probably referring to the hymn or the confession that Paul has just rehearsed. 'I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.' good works, right? Now, we don't want to get this twisted. The work, the good works are not what get us saved. The mercy of God is what gets us saved. But then, in light of our salvation, we are set out to work because everything has changed.
20 · Returns to the Juneteenth frame—after emancipation, freed slaves in Houston worked harder than ever, building churches, homes, businesses, and parks
Now, I read a little bit of this month about Juneteenth and about what happened to the slaves in Galveston and in Houston area. After the news of emancipation reached them. And here's what's beautiful. These guys in Houston in particular went to work. They didn't just go like, oh good, now we're freed. No, they worked harder than they ever had and did more than they had ever done. They built parks, they put up churches, they built homes, started businesses, and they worked all the harder because they were free. Because it was freedom that pushed them to work. They weren't working for slave masters anymore. They were working for freedom.
21 · Applies the Juneteenth illustration to Christian ethics across multiple domains—church leadership, gender roles, work, citizenship
And friends, in the same way in the Christian life, we work all the harder now having been made free, not so that we can become free, but because we are free. That's what makes sense of all of Titus. Titus is saying, listen, in the church you are to be changed leaders and work harder than any other leaders on the face of the planet because everything in your life has changed, right? When it comes to being a man or being a woman, I want you to work hard at being a biblical man and hard at being a biblical woman because everything in your life has changed. When it comes to work and a job you don't like and a job that's stressing you out Work harder than everyone else because you're working for Christ. And when it comes to being a citizen, be a good citizen, be the best citizen, but be that citizen working hard now because you know where you're going forever.
22 · Closes with John Newton's biographical summary—former slave ship captain, himself enslaved, then freed and radically changed, eventually mentoring Wilberforce to abolish the slave trade
So with this, I want to end with a final quote that I think summarizes this well from our friend John Newton. You may know him as the author of the hymn Amazing Grace. You may not know that he used to captain a slave ship and that actually at one point he ended up in slavery himself and then got out and then enslaved others. And it was— it is a wild, colorful backstory, but God saved him. God saved him. It was actually the connection to slavery here too is amazing. He mentored William Wilberforce, who actually actually abolished, helped abolish the slave trade in the UK, in England, right? And so, so he lived a radically changed life, but this is how he summarized the Christian life: I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be in another world, but still I am not I used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am. Christian, that is true for you.
23 · Closing prayer addressing two groups: unbelievers who have observed freedom but not yet experienced it (inviting them to come with nothing, leaning on mercy) and believers who forget how much has changed (praying they would remember and live accordingly)
Would you stand and let's pray? And I think we can only respond by singing because it seems like Paul is singing in this passage. So I think we would disappoint him if we did not sing. Oh, Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray for two groups today. First, I pray for anyone who is not yet a in Christ this morning. Anyone who has felt during the sermon like a bystander watching someone describe freedom that they have not yet themselves experienced, Lord, I pray that they would feel your invitation to come to Christ today, not with good works, not with enough so that you accept them, them, but rather come with nothing, leaning on your mercy and grace. So I pray that you would, you would draw them to yourself, that they would see Christ and come to you today. And I pray that in their lives today, Lord, by the grace of God, may everything change. Your life, death and resurrection has changed everything, and it may have taken until this very moment for that emancipation, for that freedom, for that salvation to get to their life. But, Lord, let this Sunday, this morning be their day of freedom in Christ. And, Lord, I also pray for those of us who are Christians. Lord, so often we live as if nothing has changed or live as if so little has changed. But, Lord, let us remember this morning everything has changed. Everything has changed because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So I pray that this week we would feel and live like it's true, because it is. Amen.