Remembering Grace

Titus 3:1-7 “Remembering Grace”

I was trying to find an illustration of forgetting something important. Unfortunately, I cannot remember any. Emily and I are getting ready to leave on this week-long trip. One of your greatest fears is that we would forget something important. Normally we do pretty well remembering everything we need to take. But the problem then is that we can barely fit it all in the car.

Remembering is not only a key part of life, but a vital part of the Christian life. Often times, the battle is to remember truth we already know and trust it. Titus 3 challenges us to remember how bad we were before Christ and to remember the graced that saves us. Remembering grace is a motivation to live with people in the world in a Christ-honoring way.

Read Titus 3:1-7

The 3 parts of this text are:
Vs 1-2: living in the world
Vs 3: remembering our sin
Vs 4-7: remembering God’s grace

We have seen this interplay of sound doctrine and sound living before. 2:1-10- sound living in the household. 2:11-14- sound doctrine- the basis for that lifestyle. We have the same arrangement in our chapter today. 3:1-2- sound living; 3:3-7- sound doctrine. This time Paul is concerned not for how Christians live in their families, but how they live in the world…how they relate to the government and the rest of humanity. His underlying concern in this teaching is for the honor of Jesus Christ in the community.

1. Looking out: living in the world (1-2)
There are 7 commands in vs 1-2 that relate to obeying the government and being kind to all people.

A. Submit to the government
The command is to submit to rulers and authorities: meaning all government, local and empire-wide. The command is also given to be obedient to the government.

Christianity was not going to get a good name in Crete or anywhere else if it had the reputation of producing Christians that disobeyed the government. The concern is for the testimony of the church. Certainly Christians must disobey the government if the government commands disobedience to Christ. But the government is set up by God. Christians must obey the government even if it is inconvenient.

If you step back and take a look at our culture, we have a problem with obeying authority. The motto has done from “don’t tread on me” to “don’t put any authority over me.” Children don’t obey parents, students don’t obey teachers, employees don’t obey their bosses, and citizens don’t obey their government. If the church buys into this attitude, it will ruin its testimony before the world.

When I was in college, the students had to sign a document that pledged that they would obey the rules of the college. Some were biblical standards- it was a Bible college. Others were in place to keep decency and order on campus. If you could have heard the students gripe about dress code, curfews, and cleaning their rooms, it was awful. These students intentionally placed themselves under the authority of the school. It show the anti-authority attitude that pervades our culture.

One of the blessings of living in IL was paying state sales tax for items bought online. Up to this point, you voluntarily report your online purchases when you do your state taxes. We had a discussion in one of our SS classes at my old church about this tax. One gentleman declared that he was angry at the state government and would not pay the tax. Thankfully he was challenged by several people using the Scripture.

It is counter-cultural for us to obey the government, because often it is inconvenient and pricey. But we must obey so we honor the name of Christ.

B. Be ready for every good work
The second part of living in the world is to be ready for every good work. We will tackle the topic of good works in 2 weeks, but here it is connected to being kind to all people.

C. Be kind to all people
The third part of living in the world is be kind to all people. Negatively: don’t slander people and get into fights. Positively, be gentle. The KJV has next: “shewing all meekness unto all men.” This is the same meekness that is a fruit of the Spirit. Normally, we think of meekness as an attitude or responding in a certain way when we are provoked. In the context, meekness is to be shown or demonstrated to all people. Because of this, I like how the ESV translates it: “show perfect (complete) courtesy to all people.”

Christians should not be known as rough and rude people. They should be known as gentle and kind. If I was preaching in IL, I would probably ask you what you do when someone cuts you off in traffic. We had a lot of traffic and crazy drivers around Chicago. I’m not sure what the rural NY equivalent to that is.

I’m not sure what tempts you to be mean and unkind to others you encounter in this world. It is normal to get even and respond in kind. It is counter cultural, it is Christ-like to respond with gentleness and kindness. Let’s be known as a church that is kind to all people in every circumstance, not just when others are kind to us.

In our last apartment in IL, our next door neighbors had a fairly large dog. This dog had issues with insecurity. She would bark at people she was afraid of. She would get loose and bark at me…which I could handle. But she would sometimes get loose and bark at my wife and son. I was not fine with that. We tried our best to be gracious. The dog would also do its business on our lawn. That was infuriating. But I was determined to be kind to them. I cleaned up the dog’s messes so Zachariah would not step in them or play in them. Eventually, they were asked to be more careful with their dog. It was hard to show perfect courtesy to them.

Why should we then show kindness to people?

2. Looking back: remembering our sin (3)
One of the reasons we should be kind to all people is that we ourselves used to be completely messed up. Our former condition of sin is described 7 different ways in verse 3 (read). Bad news. We know from the Scriptures that sin is first against God. But this description is focused on what sin does to us and to others. Foolish, disobedient, deceived, slaves to various passion and pleasures. That is an awful place to be. We used to live our lives in malice and envy, which would lead us to hate others and others hate us. When people in the world hurt us and hate us, we remember that we would be doing the very same thing if it weren’t for grace. Our response should be one of pity when people act like the devil. If grace has rescued us, we should look with compassion on those who are still trapped in sin.

3. Looking up: remembering God’s grace (4-7)

A. God’s grace
Another reason we can be kind to all people is that God shows kindness to people. God kindness appeared and his love for men. There are two words here: kindness and love toward men. Kindness is used of God in other places, this second word is only used of God here. We learn in 2:11 that God’s grace appeared. Here in chapter 3, God’s grace appeared, but it is defined in terms of his love for people. God’s grace is an example for us of how to be kind to others. We were completely messed up and opposed to God, and yet God sent and sacrificed his son for our sins. Because of his love. That’s grace. We follow the example of God’s grace. But the primary reason we live in a way that honors Christ is God’s salvation. God has saved us and made us new so we will be eager to serve him and love others.

B. God’s salvation
Paul’s unpacks for us the gospel in these verses. This is the account of God’s mighty acts on our behalf. We could spend several messages on vs 4-7, but I’ll take it easy on you. The main action in verses 4-7 is “he saved” in vs 5. The result of God’s salvation is that we would be heirs: that we would have eternal life. A summary of vs 4-7 is this: When God’s grace appeared, he saved us, so we could have eternal life.

This salvation is:
-not by works we have done
-it is by God’s mercy
-It is described in terms of justification vs 7, “having been justified by his grace” is another way of Paul saying, “he saved us.” God declared us to be in a right standing before Him because of Christ.
C. God’s Spirit
For the first time in Titus, Paul mentions the Holy Spirit. Our salvation was carried out by God, accomplished by Christ, and applied to us by the Holy Spirit. God saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. This whole expression (by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit) is referring to one thing: the new brith. Paul uses language here from the O.T. that describes the new birth. The Spirit has made us alive, he has made us a new creation. We are no longer trapped in sin but live a new life in Christ. All those are ways to describe the reality of the new life that we have because of Jesus. And this life is given to us by the Holy Spirit.

Back when I could eat delicious things like pumpkin pie, I would always look forward to the fall. Emily would make these magnificent pumpkin pies, and we would buy the largest container of cool whip possible. I would cover the entire piece of pie with cool whip and keep heaping it on, until you couldn’t even see the pie anymore.

God has not been stingy with the cool whip of salvation. He has lavished his grace on us. He has poured on us abundantly the Holy Spirit to work in us His salvation. Salvation is amazingly rich. But there is even more to come because he has made us heirs. Eternal life is yet to come. The best is waiting. And it will be far better than pumpkin pie with lots of cool whip.

Have you experienced the abundance of God’s grace? Have you know his kindness in your life? Has the Holy Spirit made you a new person? The only way into this lavish and abundant salvation is by trusting Jesus Christ. If you are trusting in your own works, I urge you to turn from those works, turn from your sin, and trust only in Christ for your salvation.

Where are you in verses 4-7? What do you do in verses 4-7? You do not contribute good works to your salvation. Period. You receive God’s abundant salvation. Sometimes we think that God got smart and saved us. We are one of his most valuable assets in the kingdom. Or we think that our faith was strong enough to get you saved. No. You are not the ultimate cause of your salvation. God is. His grace appeared, he saved us, he made us new by the Spirit, he gave us the riches of Jesus Christ, he justified us by his grace, and he gave us the hope of eternal life. We received everything and gave nothing. We gave verse 3: abundant sin that led Christ to the cross.

Conclusion
Are you living verses 1-2? Are you obeying the government? Are you showing perfect courtesy to all people? If not, I urge you to repent of your sin, and ask God to forgive you. For Christians, a failure to live verses 1-2 is often a failure of remembering. Perhaps you’ve forgotten how bad you were. You’ve forgotten how far down God had to reach to pull you out of the pit of sin. Maybe you, like me, were saved as a child. And have been generally nice to people. You think: I’ve never been as bad as verse 3. But if it weren’t for the grace of God in our lives, we would be in verse 3 duking it out with the rest of the world. Let us never forget what we have been rescued from.
Perhaps you’ve forgotten God’s amazing grace and all his good gifts in salvation. That salvation is all of God and nothing that you have done. Mean and grumpy Christians have forgotten their sin and the grace of God that has transformed them. Christians who remember their awful state before Christ and the rescue of Christ in their lives…these Christians show perfect courtesy to all people.