Titus Lesson 11 question 7

All right. We are in Titus, lesson 11. We're going to pick up with question 7 today, and that's Titus chapter 3, verses 1 through 5. I'll read that if you want to read along with me, Titus 3, 1-5. Let's read Titus 3, 1-5. So remember we talked about Titus needing to remind believers. 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.

So those are the two verses that we've covered up until this point in the study. Today's verses start with verse three. 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. Excuse me. But when the kindness of God, our Savior, and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which He had done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.

So those are some pretty packed three verses there, verse 3 through verse 5. And there's a transition, we're going to start to look at that. But the first question, question number 7, says, list the behaviors of men before salvation. So if we were to look at verse 3, what are some of the behaviors that we pick out there? So we got foolish, right? Let's look at them together. Disobedient. Disobedient. You can pretty much read the verse, right? Yeah, deceived. Deceived, enslaved.

So let's take a look at these. So when we think about this list of attitudes or behaviors before salvation, this is the pre-salvation life. Do you recognize it? Yeah, this was us too, right? So, we're going to use the word they, but we're also talking about our pre-salvation selves as well. Our self in the source of Adam, right?

It says that they were once foolish. And what does foolish mean? Literally without understanding. So, lack of intelligence, one who does not govern his lusts or his desires fits into this category of being foolish. So, really, I think you could say the word refers to a lack of spiritual perception. We've got worldly foolishness, but in this case the context is a lack of spiritual perception. You can't see spiritually. You're blind. You're foolish.

In Luke 24, 25, Jesus says to the disciples, O foolish men, and slow of heart. Those go together. Slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. So even Jesus was calling men out for their foolishness, their lack of spiritual perception, and their slowness of heart to understand.

And in Galatians 3, 1, You know, the Galatians get called foolish as well. It says, you foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. So you've got the condition of Christians being foolish because they're stuck in legalism. So there's really both the foolishness of the unbeliever, and then you can have the foolishness of the believer as well.

But in this case, it's talking about the pre-salvation life. Does that make sense so far? Yes. Yeah. So 1 Timothy 6, 9 indicates that it is true of the believer whose overwhelming desire is to gain material wealth. In 1st Timothy 6.9 we see foolishness attached to a desire to gain wealth. You're looking for material things. I think today's hungry heart had to do with some of that. So their past life, it's further described by the next word. What's the next word?

We've got foolish and then we've got disobedient. So this past life is further described by the word disobedient. What does disobedient mean? What does the foolish mind lead to? Disobedience. It's the opposite of obedience. That's right. Going against the standard. Okay. And what's the standard? It's the Lord Jesus himself, right? Right. He is the standard.

So we were unwilling to be persuaded. And in doing so, we were unbelieving. And because we were unbelieving, we were disobedient. We're commanded to believe. And by not believing, you're being disobedient. Yeah. So the foolish mind engages in disobedience. And this is just a willful disregard for divine authority altogether, right? We move on to the next word, so we've got foolish, disobedient, and we've got deceived. This is kind of that idea of straying off the course, being led astray.

It's like Nemo. He sees the big fish with the glowing light and he just starts, oh, and he starts following the glowing light. If you remember that part of the movie, but yeah, so being deceived to cause to wonder to be led astray To follow false guides all not just to be led astray but to follow the false light right like Nemo did So foolishness disobedient deceived and then it talks Jim yeah, and I just add the living translation which I have open here as well and It says, and we were misled by others. Yeah, that's exactly the same idea. Yeah, misled by others. And those are false guides, right? They're in the wrong directions.

And then as a result of that, you get enslaved to various kinds of lusts and pleasures. So let's talk about those two words. You could also say desires, um, as opposed to lusts, but some translations would say that. So the various desires and pleasures, those are the false guides that we used to follow.

Right. And you know, a desire is a, it's strong, it's a longing for something. Um, and in this case it is a longing for what the sin nature desires. And it's a pleasure that only pleasures the sin nature. So pleasures is to gratification, enjoyment. I want what I want. It makes me happy.

Whatever that thing is. And so we're enslaved to these things. And they're evil and wicked. And they're evil and wicked. That's the nature. That's right. Because they're grounded in the source, and that is the endemic source where the sin nature resides. So it can only be evil. Exactly.

So moving into the next portion, it says, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, and then spending our life in malice and envy. So malice, the wickedness, evil, that's what you were just talking about, Ruth. The evil habit of the mind. And that envy is that jealousy, that desire to have what you don't have, right?

It's an attitude of self-centered life. And because you're self-centered, because you're completely operating in the sin nature, hatred flows from that life. You start to hate. You form a life of disappointed hopes, right? The word hatred is to shudder with horror, to hate, to think of things detestable, right? And that's how the unbeliever or the one operating by the sin nature feels towards God. The sin nature hates God. It hates the things of God.

So there's a bitterness here that this person that Paul is describing to Titus to remind them about is that this whole life leads to bitterness and disappointed expectations. It's hopeless, right? And Paul includes himself in this verse. He includes himself, they, the word they is mentioned there. Paul included himself, he had been foolish, not sensible, disobedient, not submissive, deceived, not enlightened, and enslaved, not free and self-disciplined. So that was the life that both Paul and Titus came from and that was our life.

We've just described our pre-salvation life in these verses. And it goes on I mean they had also been malicious not peaceable envious not considerate and hateful not loving And so this was the this was the life of the Cretan in Titus's world at that time and this was our life before salvation as well, and it's the life of every unbeliever But you get to this question number eight And all of a sudden things transition, so it says question number eight in our study But what contrast does the word but introduce so in verse three, we just went through those verse four says but When the kindness of god our savior and his love for mankind appeared and we'll go on from there But the word but is a is a an important word.

Why? The transition word it's a transition word. Yeah, you're moving from one thing you're comparing So comparing the unsaved life versus the saved life Yep Exactly, and we see this in paul's writings throughout In romans 6, uh 617. I'm just going to read these out.

So follow along with me in romans 6 17 17 says but Thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient. So there's that transition from the endemic life to the life in Adam to the life in Christ. 1 Corinthians 6, 9-11, this is a really, this mirrors the same kind of, it uses different words, but it mirrors the life even further.

So, verse 9 says, Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. So we see, there's that word, deceived, neither fornicators nor idolaters. nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor rivalers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God.

So you see the transition of the two lives again. Colossians 1, 21 through 22, pretty small one here. Or short one. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deed, but he has now reconciled you in his fleshly blood through death. It goes on.

So I want to just kind of talk about, we just finished in our Monday night men's Bible study, the study on the ground of growth. And this transition of life is what that entire book is really all about. So you have the ground of the first Adam, and this is the pre-salvation life. The ground of the first, remember everything has to do with your history. Whose history do you have? So we started out with the history of the first Adam, and on that ground, Is that into which we were born and to which we grew?

It is there that the world the flesh and the devil would keep us in bondage It is the ground of carnality sin and death and it's off limits to the new creation in Christ That's the ground of the first Adam And then we have that but right is what we're studying here, but now you're on the ground of the last Adam and And the ground of the last Adam is that into which we have been reborn and are to abide.

It is there that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit would have us grow and mature. It is the ground of spirituality, righteousness, and life. This is the Father's one abiding place for the believer. Where do we abide? We abide on the ground of the last Adam.

So we have the comparison. We're just kind of putting this into different terms, but you see this clearly in this verse. So in the Ground of Growth it says, as we take our rightful stand on the resurrection side of the cross, the resurrection side of the cross, setting our minds and hearts on the Lord Jesus via the word, the Holy Spirit will establish us in Him above. So this is what Paul was wanting Titus to remind these believers on Crete, is that you were once here and by the grace of God, you're now here. That's where we're headed in this verse.

And we know from 2 Peter 3.18 that on the ground of growth, we will grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's what happens with that transition. And that transition is from the ground of the first atom to the ground of the last atom. And that's where we grow in the grace and the knowledge. No other ground will we grow.

So how long does this kind of transition take? How long did you think these guys in Crete took to understand this change? How long did it take you? Or is it taking you? A lifetime. A lifetime. Depends on when you come to the Lord, but Then your growth in Christ Takes the rest of your life.

Yeah Yeah, I think the abide above this morning said that it takes years of processing To separate Romans 3 from Colossians 3 in our experience Years of processing to separate Romans 3. And what is Romans 3? for all have sinned and fallen short, right? And the whole chapter has to do with the state of the unbeliever, right? Especially as it quotes the book of Psalms there and goes through that. And then Colossians 3, set your mind on things above, right?

Everything is the ground of resurrection. But it takes years, just like it would have taken years for those believers in Crete that Titus was talking to, and even Titus himself. That is a process that takes years. But that's the growth. That's what it means to grow and to become more acquainted with the truths of who you are in Christ. So this word but has a big impact, not only for those there in Crete, but also for ourselves. Let's look at question number nine. It says, what two aspects of the nature of God are manifested in verse three in regards to the incarnation? Let's read. Somebody read verse three all the way through.

Titus 3.3. Okay, I will.

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, and His love for mankind appeared, Okay, stop there. So thank you. I meant to say verse four, not verse three there initially, but there's two things that come, two key words after but in verse four, but when the kindness of God, our savior and his love for mankind. So you got kindness and love. And it all has to do with his incarnation because it has to do with his appearing. So when He appeared, the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind were present. Right? They were revealed, appeared. So the incarnation, what does the incarnation mean? Or what does the word incarnation mean? When God became a man? Right. When God took on flesh. So the incarnation of Jesus manifested two different aspects of the nature of God.

His kindness and his love for mankind. So the fact that Jesus walked this earth was a clear revelation of God's kindness and his love for man. Just his presence was was wrapped up in his kindness and his love for mankind. His kindness carries the idea of generosity and points to God's desire to forgive sin. He was kind to us. Remember, he's kind to what kind of people?

The people that are in verse three, that are described in verse three. That's where his kindness is pointed. All unbelievers. unbelievers. That's right. His kindness is pointed towards the idea of his generosity and his desire to forgive sin. If he did not have that kind of kindness, there would be no hope for us. Right.

Only because he was kind to us do we even understand that we can be led to repentance, and Romans 2.4 says that.

Romans 2.4 says, or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? So without his kindness, we could never be led to change our mind about who he is.

You think about all of the different deities that are represented in other religious systems. Kindness is not what you would characterize many of those deities. They had resentment and jealousy and even anger. They acted in anger. You could go on and on around that. Remember that Christianity is not about how we get to God, but how God came to us. When we think of religion, religion is really God trying to get to man. But Christianity, in contrast, is about God coming to man, and he came in kindness.

The word love for mankind, this is where we get our word, actually in the Greek it's philanthropia. So you can probably gather where we get our word philanthropy from, right? And this actually only occurs here, only here in the New Testament. This is the only place that this word appears in the New Testament, in this exact way. In Titus 3-4, we have the philanthropy of God as a Savior, which means His work in the salvation of man. his kindness towards man, his love for mankind.

And this is all based on the appearance that Paul referred to here was the sending of Jesus Christ, who is God, remember incarnation, to die for us, right? So the appearance is shows evidence of God's kindness and his love for mankind, and ultimately his death on the cross shows the point of why he came as man. He had to die for man's sin, right? So this was the greatest revelation of God's kindness and love for humankind, that Christ died ultimately, and he died as a man and God. So who took the initiative? God took the initiative, right?

That's the God that's the difference between religion and in Christianity itself God took the initiative God does not save people because they behave righteously Or on the basis of their deeds, but because he is merciful All right. That's why he saves I've got a whole slew of verses. I'll just grab a couple here and How about Ephesians 2 8 and 9 For by grace you have been saved through faith And that not of yourselves that is the gift of God That's what this is talking about and Titus the gift of God that is the Lord Jesus incarnate himself and then Ephesians not as a result of works so that no one can boast Second Timothy 1 9 Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace. He took the initiative. which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. There's a lot of verses that talk about his love and his kindness for mankind and his appearing and delivering man from the source of the first Adam to the source of the last Adam. And he did that because he loved us.

Any questions? It's hard, it's hard to get your head around that, that he would think of me when there's this whole other world. I mean, the world, but he loved me and sent his son for me. That's pretty powerful. Yeah. Yeah, I want to read something to you. This is from Dr. William Scroggie. Scroggie, I can't pronounce the word. Mike has corrected me before. It's Scroggie, I think, right? Yeah, okay.

Anyway, let me read this to you because this is the God that has an eternal purpose for you. This is a God who came to give you, Ruth, you Russ, you Cheryl, you Brian, Connor, Ralph, all of you. This is describing the nature. He says, Our understanding of nature and our interpretation of history are both partial and faulty. Yet, if we are Christians at all, we must believe that back of both is the Divine Thinker, the Infinite Wisdom, and the Almighty Power, who is the Son of God, our Redeemer and Life. This is a little bit long.

Things have not been started and then left to run on their own, material or moral momentum, but all things are under the constant control of the divine creator. in whom all things have their center of unity, who appoints to everything its place, including you, who determines the relation of things to one another, and who combines all into an ordered whole, so that this universe is a cosmos and not a chaos. It is not law, ultimately, which rules this universe, but our God, but God our Father, and He rules it through His Son, our Savior. Human history is not in the grip of fate, but in the hands of Him who is pierced for us on Calvary. Wow. Thinking about a God with those qualities that has concern for you. In every single scenario, Scrooge explained it as, or Scrooge rather, explained it as, in whom all things have their center of unity, who appoints to everything its place, who determines the relation of things to one another. The people in your life, Things that are unique to you, including your personality, all of that is organized and structured through the Lord Jesus himself, who is pierced for you on Calvary.

I think Romans 8.28 is probably appropriate, since I just kind of took a little bit of a detour. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good. He's causing the minute details to work together for good. in your life. And he was doing the same thing for the believers in the time of Titus on Crete.

Let's look at question number 10. It says, describe salvation as it is stated in verse 5. Let's read verse 5 again. Cheryl, can you read 5 again? Let me get it to you. Okay. 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. All right. So the question is, describe salvation in that verse. What is regeneration?

New life. What kind of life? Perfect life. Perfect life. Christ's life. Christ's life. Yeah, so regeneration, we get eternal life in Him. Christ's life. Where He is, we are. Is He ruling on into eternity? Yes. Do you rule with Him? With prayers, you have an inheritance in that life. So regeneration is critical. If we don't get a new life, we don't have a place in Christ and we don't have eternity to look forward to in Him.

Right? And does washing in of regeneration, is that like the new creation? Is that similar? Yeah. Well, let's look at the word washing. In this case, it's not a literal washing. What is it? It's a metaphor for what? For cleaning. Okay. Cleansing. And who does that in the scripture? Where do you see the washing or the... The Holy Spirit. Okay. Yep.

Right, in water baptism, you have a physical representation of what happened spiritually. What happened spiritually in baptism? You were placed into death and then raised to new life. That's right. Yeah, so... You know, the word regeneration is tied into the word... How were you regenerated?

Through the washing. And that's your spiritual baptism. Your entire being was washed, cleansed, regenerated. And that was the job of the Holy Spirit. So regeneration, actually, this word is only in one other place in the New Testament. version of the word regeneration.

Matthew 19.28 says, And Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, that you who have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. So, regeneration has a eternal perspective after. That washing, that regeneration has like you all have just said, has a place in the Son of Man.

That's where you've been placed. You've been given new life. Where were you before? You're in Adam. You're in the Son of Man, the last Adam. But this word is conveyed in other ways, being born again. We see that in John 3, 7. Made alive. We see that in Ephesians 2, 5. made a new creature, that's in 2 Corinthians 5.17, and then even made the children of God. So anywhere where you get born again, made alive, new creature, like you said, Ruth, there, children, talking about God as our Father, talking about ourselves being told that we are made children of God, these are all the concepts that tie into regeneration. And this is describing salvation here in verse five of Titus.

And so, if you look at these verses, how many members of the Trinity do you see? All three. All three. Kindness of God, our Savior, who saved us, His mercy, regeneration, and renewing by the Holy Spirit. What does the word renewing mean? washing and regeneration that produces new life, renewing. That's the work of the Holy Spirit too. Becoming a new creature? Yep. Yeah, I think that both of those are accurate there.

Romans 12.2 comes to mind, says, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Who does the renewing? Holy Spirit. And what is your role? Belief. Belief for salvation, certainly, but what about The temptation that comes as we walk out of this class today. Spiritual growth, growing in Christ. That's right. Your mind is continually renewed as you walk by faith. That's reckoning on who you are in the last Adam. Standing on the resurrection side of the cross, recognizing that God's word is true and we can behold him through it Is it is it?

Um, i'm just thinking like day-to-day life um a renewing by the holy spirit is that uh You walk out of sunday school and um Somebody cut you off on the road and you are tempted to get upset. Is that the Holy Spirit renewing your mind and setting it back on back on him and saying, no, you, you don't need to do that and just let it go. And, um, I don't know. And trust me that I've got this under control. Right. Right. Yep. No, absolutely. I think that's the case.

And I mean, as we look at Romans 12 too, it says that, but be transformed by the renewing. So that scenario that you just explained, Ruth, that's the need. that you have in order to be transformed and be renewed in your mind, because you have the opportunity to operate by the sin nature or operate in your new nature. And the only way that you can do that is by beholding Him and believing that what He said is true. I've got this under control. That person in that other car, I've got them under control too.

Do you believe that? Do you believe that I'm working all things out together for good? Do you believe that? And there's renewing there, absolutely. And we talked about going from Romans 3 to Colossians 3 as a unbeliever to a believer takes years of renewing. That's where the, what is God doing in the life of the believer?

Well, that's one of them. Well, and I think too, the, yeah, okay, God is in control, but it, In each circumstance, God shows his character. And so God protected me from that car that cut me off. He helped me not to get upset, whatever. It's more than just his sovereignty all the time. It's all his parts. Yeah. Or all his character that is playing into the situation that renews us. Yep.

And it's those trials that we see, we think it's an inconvenience. The Lord is using that to show how our sin nature behaves. He wants to reveal the sin nature that you're trusting in so that you can recognize who He is and what He's done on your behalf. And you have to learn a lot about that old man. You know, sometimes you do get bad and you say something and, you know, in that need, you may have failed at the moment, but it may have brought you to a place of, wow, I just realized what the old man's capable of now. Sometimes it's new, sometimes it's habitual, but those needs and those trials are all designed and used by God to teach you to behold him and therefore be renewed in your mind.

So. All right, well, we're out of time. Thanks for participating this morning. It was fun to be able to talk to some of you and work through this together. So next week, Mike will pick up with Lesson 12. And I'll be hopefully back in class and things like that. Let me pray and we'll break for the day.

Father, how we thank you that you came to us and that through the incarnation you revealed yourself. And Lord, we seek very clear picture of who we were before your kindness and your love for us appeared. And Father, we're so thankful that because you did that, by faith, we can be regenerated and be born again. And as a result, we can be renewed by the Holy Spirit. And even the little things that happen throughout the day, we thank you that we can behold you and that we can abide above and who we are in Christ and grow in the grace and the knowledge of your dear son. And it's your name we pray. Amen.