New Life

We are committed to the the word of god at Cornerstone. We we know we need his voice in our lives at least twice on a Sunday. Right? So that's what we're going to do now. We're going to hear god speaking and then we'll think about what it means.

So, Titus chapter 3, we're going to read the first 8 verses. And this is to start off a new series we're doing, at Cornerstone over the next few weeks about all the new things that happened to us or that we experienced or that come to us when we when we become Christians. And so tonight's, we're gonna start off by looking at new life. So, here is Titus chapter chapter 3. Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities to be obedient, to be ready, to do whatever is good, to slander no 1, to be peaceable and considerate and always to be gentle towards everyone.

At 1 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 1 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 by his grace, we might become heirs, having 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. Let's pray 1 more time. Father, help us now as we look at this passage as we think about what you're saying here and what it means for us. Please would you, open up this this word now to us by your spirit?

We asked you would help us to understand what it says. And what it means. In Jesus' name, we pray amen. So thanks a lot, England. You ruined my intro for this talk by losing to Croatia on Wednesday.

I was sitting there in front of the TV humming the tune to the great escape. Do you know how it goes? That 1. Even down to the you might not believe this, but I'm such an optimist. I was humming it down to the last free kick by Marcus Rushford.

I was hoping that it would be turned in by the head of Cain and Maguire to rescue the game in the dying seconds. It would have been the second great rescue of the week after the thai cave rescue. You hear that story in in the in the news. If you haven't heard that story, where have you been? 12 boys rescued from a a underground miles and miles of cave.

This that that was the that was a great rescue. It would have been it would have been a second great rescue of the week and this would have been the third great rescue of the week and it would have been so poetic but it wasn't to be. Anyway, that's that's England for you. But this passage doesn't change. Doesn't change this passage.

This passage we're looking at tonight is all about rescue. The word saved or savior appears 4 times in just 8 verses. And it's a wonderful little summary of what happens to someone when they become a Christian. Now, maybe you're saying, alright, I understand the Thai boys needed rescuing, and, maybe yet, maybe England needed you in as well. I'll give you that.

They needed something from someone special to rescue the the game, but me, Really? I don't need rescuing. But look at what we just read. Look at that section that we just read and and ask yourself again, don't I need rescuing? Look at verse 3.

Look at what it says. At 1 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 1 another. Now if that doesn't describe someone who needs rescuing, I don't know what does. So I want to prove to you in the next few minutes that you do need to be rescued. You do need.

It's not just, you don't just need to, a self help program. You need rescue. And This is my first point if you want to take notes, if this helps you to remember, we need to be saved from a from a town called malice. Okay, saved from a town called Malis. Okay.

So let's just let's go through this verse and let's think about what it says. First of all, did you just hear what was said? Did you just hear what you were called? You're a fool your disobedience, you're enslaved and you're deceived. Now, just first of all, What other religion or world faith or belief system would have the guts to say that to your face?

Yeah. You're you're you're let's let's go through it if you need to me to to go slower. Yeah. You're a fool. Now you may be thinking, oh yeah, I'm a fool for coming here tonight, you know.

Don't need to convince them of that. But, you you know, you do stupid things. You you you never learn. Do you ever say that to yourself? I've never learned.

Why's doing this? Why why is this happening to me again? I am stupid. I'm a fool. And you might also be someone who says, I don't believe there's a god.

You know? Now, you know, again, the Bible is is straight with you. It says the fall says in his heart, there is no God. So, you know, you're a fool. We were fools.

You're disobedient. You break the rules. There is an ultimate standard that you should keep, that you should live by, and you don't. We don't. We mess up all the time, don't we?

How many of you would say you're at least gullible? You you you are liable to fall into error. You know, you get you get deceived. You get lied to. You believe stuff.

You shouldn't. You believe. Yeah. Hands out. You had to put your hands up.

You you know, someone recently, you know, applied online for this dieting pill, right? They knew they shouldn't have done it. But they did. Right? And the next minute money's coming out of their account, and they're in a big tis about it.

And they're talking to me about it. Don't worry about who it is, but, you know, that person knew. You know, they they must have known it was a lie. And don't be looking around at who you think it might be, by the way. Just, you know, it's we're we're we're deceived sometimes, aren't we?

We believe lies And you're a slave. That's what it says here. You're enslaved to your passions and pleasures. Now another way of saying that is you're an addict. You can't help it.

Just you just 1 more look, you say. Just 1 more glass. Just just 1 more. You you find it hard to stop. You don't have any boundaries.

Have you ever thought that about the most of the things that we are addicted to though, and actually this, it backs it up in this in in in this verse. All of the things we're we're addicted to do are bad are are good things. Look at what it says. We're enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. They're good things aren't they?

His passions it's good to be passionate about stuff. You get passionate about football. We do women, please believe us. We get passionate about football, right? And and pleasures.

Pleasure are good things. They make us feel good, but that's what we get addicted to. That's what we were enslaved to. These things are gifts from god. Just think about these few food, drink, health and fitness, sex.

These are good things, gifts from god, but we twist them and we get addicted to them. We get enslaved by them. It's what Paul's saying here. Someone else someone else has said somewhere that Our problem is that we turn good things into god things. You can't just enjoy the praise of someone complimenting you maybe.

You you have to turn it into a ladder that you can climb up so that you can look down and feel superior. We just we do that instinctively. That might might be something you're addicted to. And all this turns ourselves, it turns us in on ourselves and causes us to hate people, and then they hate us back. And it goes around in the vicious circle.

And it goes on to say, you live in a town called malice. Now, some of you might know That's a song that the jam wrote many years ago. If you don't know it, go and look it up. It's a really good song. Let's move on, right?

But it just jumped out at me right here. You lived. We lived in malice and envy, hated, being hated and hating 1 another. You live in a town called malice, and it's just down the road from the London borough of envy. And if you know the song, time is short, and life is cruel.

And it's up to us to change, but we can't. We can't. We can't do it. Oh, well, some of us can change some of our out behavior. Some of us, you know, have got that kind of personality that we can, you know, we can overcome the excesses we get caught up in sometimes.

But none of us according to the Bible can change our hearts, which is where the real problem lies. And I was thinking about a contemporary had sort of like how to how this plays out in contemporary life. It was it was the easiest thing that I thought about all week, actually. That the show that's probably given, the football a run for its money the most is a is a show called Love Island. How many of you were thinking that just now?

If you don't know what love island is, don't worry about it, please. Alright? If you watch love island, I salute you. I don't salute you actually. No.

It is let's not get into that whether we should or shouldn't. Just believe me, if you want to see verse 3 in action, watch try and watch 5 minutes of it. You you you won't you'll be convinced, right? They're they're there and this is them, they're hating and being hated, they're they're enslaved to their passions and pleasures. I know that they're they're playing for the cameras, but it just seems like verse 3 was written to describe that show and the people on it.

Which, you know, I'm, again, you know, we shouldn't, again, we shouldn't, like, build the ladder and look down and feel superior. You know, that maybe that's, oh, that's what we're addicted to, you know, self righteousness. That's 1 of the killers that is. But that's the there you go, if you want an example. The verdict of god's word is this.

We are lost We're in the dark, we're rebels against god by nature. We've broken his laws. We've loved his good gifts so much that they've eclipsed the 1 who gave them to us. It's like the sun and the moon. If you think about the sun and the moon, God's the sun and he's beaming out all this goodness and, and, you know, and it creates life, and you know, like, we we're looking at the moon and we're looking at the when we look at the stuff that we love that he's given us, we're looking at the moon and we're going, oh, isn't it lovely?

Isn't it pretty? And we get so con who would do this? I'm I mean, you've never heard anyone say, I'm going moonbathing today. I'm going moonbathing. You wouldn't do that, would you?

You go sunbathing. Yeah. Alright. But we we get caught up with, with the thing that god has given us rather than god himself. This is what happens.

When we take, you know, when when we're lost, when when we live in a town called malice, when we're enslaved and deceived, when we're foolish and disobedient. The Bible sums this all up by saying that we we're all spiritually dead. We're slaves to sin, and we love it, and we need rescuing from it. If we don't get rescued from it, it will destroy us. And finally and ultimately, according to the Bible, god will hold us to account for all of the disobedience and he will cast us out of his his presence forever.

That's the truth. So let me ask you again, are you convinced that you need rescuing. Is that something that you it rings true? Or are you finding these things hard to swallow? Maybe you'd rather sign up for another faith sounds much easier.

You know, other belief systems would say that there's a spark of life in us that that, you know, there's enough of a spark of life in us that we can pull ourselves up by our own socks. But According to this passage of the Bible and the rest of it, that's it's gonna have none of it. It's way more honest about our condition and therefore it's entirely, more marvellous when it comes to the remedy. So That's what we're going to get to now. Alright.

If you're going to hear good news, it's much better to hear good news when you've heard bad news. So there's several terms for this remedy that we have that show up in this passage that we that we've just read. 2 of them that are talked about are, the word saved and the word new birth or rebirth in verse 5. Just look down again. Let me let me show you where it says that.

Verse 4 says, but when the kindness and love of god, our savior appeared, he saved us not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy, He saved us through the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit. There's the remedy for you. But what does it what does it mean? What's it talking about? So let's move on.

We're gonna go to our second point. Alright? So we've heard that we need to be saved from this town called malice. We need to be freed. We need to be rescued.

We're dead spiritually. We need new life. But who will do the saving and how? So it says up there, saved by god. God is the 1 who's gonna come to the rescue.

Little verse 4 and we'll get our answer. But when the kindness and love of god, our savior appeared. That's a great first days. Just think about that for a few a few seconds, a few minutes in the week. That's amazing.

There was a time when a plan was put into action, and it was a plan from the very heart of god. He had a plan and he came just at the right time like any decent hero would do. But also pay attention to how he comes. When, it says when when the kindness and love of god appeared, he saved us. It says the kindness and love of god appeared.

How does how does that work? God is a spirit. He has no body. How does the kindness and love of god appear? Well, in these next few sentences, we're going to go a little deep, but not too deep hopefully for you to, you know, lose it.

We're going to see a glimpse into the very nature of who god has revealed himself to be. The father, the son, and the holy spirit jointly at work in rescuing people, and it's amazing. You see, the father sent his eternal son, Jesus. Born into the world as a as a wee baby. Right?

Did you see, see a little Chloe this morning? That's a wee baby, isn't it? As the Scotts would say, tiny. That's what that's that's the sun coming into the world. And he grew into a man, didn't stay a baby.

He grew into a man and and he was the very appearance of the of the kindness of god and the love of god. Love the love of his father. And Jesus says, he came to seek and save the lost. He he he he said, I I I come to give my life as a ransom for many. He came to be the savior.

He came to be the rescuer. And he did that by going to the cross by dying on the cross in our place by taking the just punishment that we deserved. To clean our slate. And then he rose again on the third day to prove that the debt had been paid in full. But so that's the sun.

The son of god appears. He puts into human flesh the kindness and love of the father, but also notice the holy spirit is involved in this big rescue as well. He has his own unique work to do. Look at verse 5. It says, 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.

The Christianity at its core It's not about getting it's not it's not about getting a new moral code and a few cheerleaders to help you on your way to keeping the rules. Christianity is far more radical than that. It's nothing less than being reborn. Born again, you may have heard. You we just sang it, didn't we?

Born again by grace and grace alone. Now, I don't know what happens to you when you hear that phrase born again. But it it it it's taken on where it used to have a really sort of weird connotation. I don't know if this is still true, but born again Christian, they were they were like next level Christians, you know. They were the ones that took it a little bit too seriously.

I don't know of anyone that's called someone a born again Christian and used not used it as a slur. I've never heard it used to describe someone's beliefs in a positive way. Maybe it's just an English thing. It doesn't apply to your culture, fair enough, but that's my experience. So there you go.

It's like there's there's 2 in the eyes of the world, there's 2 levels of Christian. So, you've got your your bog standard, harmless, nice, C of each church goer likes the vicars uplifting self help talks, that he gives and He's definitely gonna, you know, get a little bit of that, you know, fringe benefit of the church school for the kids. Love that. I don't really blame him for that actually. So that's 1.

And then you've got the next level, there's those who actually go to church because they believe the Bible. They might get called Bible Basha sometimes by, you know, people who have just had enough of them. Those are the born again Christians. Now you might think you're you're you're just scarred grumpy old man. And I might well be, but this is why.

Okay? So just flash up those first 2 2 pictures button man. Thank you. There you go. That's who I grew up with.

They they were the prime time media TV Christians when I was growing up dot cotton and Harold Bishop. What a that was a disaster. Alright. So dot cotton was a grumpy old woman on eastenders. She was always in other people's business.

She had, you know, but she was, you know, a devout Christian, you know, and they didn't they loved to sort of flashed that around every episode. And then Harold Bishop was on Neighbors. Who knows, hands up this time? Yeah. You remember how Bishop He was against stuffy grumpy old man, yeah, stuffy grumpy old man who just was a too in too many people's business.

So that's what we had to part with. Now thankfully those days have moved on and at least we've got these 2 now. So things have improved slightly. Yeah. Mary bearing bear grylls.

They're they're sort of today's, you know, media Christians. So, you know, maybe it's getting better, but, whether the tide is changing, you can get get rid of them now. Whether the tide is changing on all that, or not, let me just remind you who actually coined the term. It was none other than Jesus himself in John chapter 3. He says very truly I tell you, no 1 can see the kingdom of god unless he is born again.

And I think it's a good image to keep because it's a visceral image of what happens to a person when they become a Christian. And note I say what happens to a person. I didn't say this is what a person has to do to become a Christian. I think verse 5 sort of backs that up when it says, he saved us not because of righteous things that we had done, but because of his mercy, a baby doesn't decide to just get born, does it? Just just think about it.

What control did Chloe have over being born this week on the floor of her mom and dad's bathroom, you know? Not very much. It just happened there so you don't have no choice about it. And neither can we control god. There's There's no good works that we can do to put him in our debt.

That's not how you become a Christian. In fact, I believe the the first step to really understanding how you become a Christian is to acknowledge that there's nothing we can do. We're we're helpless. As it as it says, we're enslaved and deceived. It's all the work of god.

And thank god for that. And, you know, the theologians call this the the doctrine of regeneration. Actually, if you if you look at a different version an older version of this, passage. That's what it says. It says we were, you know, he saved us with the washing of of regeneration.

And and renewal by the Holy Spirit. What's that? What's that about then? Well, if you want to note this down, you can look it up later on in Zeequal chapter 36. Let me just listen just listen to a few a few things that god says he will do.

When it says I will, that's That's what god does. He's speaking, right? I'll just read a couple of verses. I will count if you want. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean.

I will cleanse you from all of your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. I counted 5 times.

It's it's all god, though, isn't it? It's god. I will. I will. I will.

I will. God does the work. So this is the plan of god. This is god's rescue plan. This is god's plan.

Forget about Drake. This is god's plan. It's an audacious plan, isn't it? It's a big plan. It's gonna cost him everything, but this god is infinitely kind and infinitely rich and he's so generous.

It's verse 6 says that, doesn't it? Little verse 6 again. Whom he poured out on us generously, and he does everything else generously too. He will put everything on the line for those who are lost and in need of help. That's what's so amazing isn't it about the the Thai cave rescue this week?

I don't know if you again go back to that. Think about how many people were involved in that rescue? How many different experts had to be called in from all over the world, divers, navy seals, water technicians to pump water out. There's probably other people going around with tea as well, you know, with little blue cups. You know, it was whenever you saw pictures of it on on the TV, there were hundreds of people all focused in on these 12 boys and their coach.

And I think that's what caught the imagination of of the world, didn't because it was a big, big rescue. It was very dangerous. And the bigger the danger, the bigger the glory in the triumph. And when the last of those boys and the coach emerged from the from the darkness of the cave, it literally sent a wave of of relief around the world that you could feel. Amazing.

Well, here, we have something that doesn't just send waves of relief. It sends waves of forgiveness and freedom from guilt and freedom from addictions around the world and through history It's been doing it for 2000 years, and it will continue until Jesus comes back. And it's all because of god's kindness, because of his love, because of his mercy and grace. Mercy towards those who deserved only what fools and rebels get. And grace that cleans and close those who have been deceived and enslaved all their lives.

It just felt really pitiful when I read that this week. Deceived so many people that are deceived and enslaved to passions and pleasures. But we've, by god's grace, been freed. So we've thought about where we were, where we would need to be saved from, a town called malice, and we've thought about who saves us and how. Finally, look with me briefly at at what we're saved for.

Yeah. Again, let me point you to the the title. This is my 1 sentence summary of Titus 3 1 to 8. Yeah. If you if you read, what does it say?

Yeah, look look at that. Saved in n I v, right? Saved in order to do good. Right? I would change that if it was up front to me.

Yeah. I think that's much where's it gone? Well, it's easy. Saved by god for good. Saved by god for good.

That's what I think it I think this passage is that in a nutshell. If you take nothing else home tonight, take that. Save by god for good. Just think about those 2 those 2 words for good. Right?

It can be used in a couple of ways. Think about how you use it in life. A cause for good as in to benefit someone. So you go to it's, you know, it's for good, it's for their good. And it's, you know, you might use it in another way.

Gone for good. So there's One's about quality, one's about time. Okay? And Titus 3 is saying, if you're saved by god, you're saved for good. Save for good in both senses.

So just look at look back at verse 1. 1 and 2 remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no 1, to be peaceable and considerate and always to be gentle to everyone. These verses remind us to be ready to do whatever is good And it's not just limited to next door or to down the street, but it's to everyone. All people Now that would take a supernatural work, wouldn't it? But verse 2, to slander no 1 and to be gentle to everyone.

Go and do that. Also verse 8. Just look at verse 8. It says that those who have trusted in god are to be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. Last football illustration.

Okay. It's actually not about football. Do you remember the Japanese fans in the in the in the stadium. Did you hear about it? They they were cleaning up the rubbish that their fans left behind.

It was amazing. Now, what would make them do that? They were devoted to doing good because of the honor I'm guessing, assuming, hopefully, they they were doing that because of the honor for their nation. The and the world, you know, the world sat up and took notice, didn't it? It was, you know, it was on the news.

It was on the news in more places than, you know, someone's goal. So, you know, my question is how far will you go So we're saved by god for good. Okay? It gets better than that because we're saved by god for good. It's look at verse 7.

It says, so that having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs, having the hope of eternal life. Now, this is a staggering claim, and I don't know why you're all not like falling off your tip of your chairs. Right? I understand it's the first time you've heard it, but I'm about to fall off my chair here. Right?

This is this is this is great news, isn't it? We're heirs. First, royalty. Yeah. If if you're an heir to a a fortune, you are going to get big money when someone leaves it to you.

Yeah? You've been adopted or you've you've come into their family you you get all the all the status of a first born son. And that's what's happened to us. God is now our father and Jesus is our brother. We are heirs to the world.

This is amazing. And secondly, We are, you know, where heirs to this, says, where heirs having the hope of eternal life. We have the hope of eternal life. If you're a Christian tonight, you have the hope of eternal life. And that life will never ever ever end and it just gets better with age.

Again, amazing grace, well, when we've been there 10000 years, bright shining as the sun, We have no less days to sing god's praise than when we first begun. Now, that might just bore the skin off you. Yeah? You might say, I can't I don't wanna I don't wanna play a harp on a cloud for millions and trillions of years. That's that's depressing.

That's not heaven. So here, I've got something for you that is not mine. But it was just it's brilliant. If you and you need to use this if you ever get the opportunity, right? It's it's from CS Lewis and it's in his book mere Christianity and it's in the chapter called Hope, which is chapter 10.

Let me just read it. We're wrapping up. Let me just read it as we finish. It says, he says, there is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of heaven ridiculous. By saying they do not want to spend eternity playing harps.

The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown ups, they should not talk about them. Okay? So he goes on to say. That's devastating, isn't it? He says all the scriptural imagery harps, crowns, gold, is of course merely a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible.

Musical instruments are mentioned because for many, Not all. Music is a thing known in the present life, which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity. Crowns are mentioned to suggest the fact that those who are united with god in eternity share his splendor and power and joy. Think about that. Gold is mentioned to suggest the timelessness of heaven gold does not rust and the, you know, the and it's precious.

People who take these things these these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, he meant that we were to lay eggs. It's great, isn't it? So you can take that, you know, think about how you can use that. But isn't that amazing? Just don't get don't don't worry.

It's gonna be amazing. It's gonna be it's gonna be amazing. F forever. We're heirs of of hope, we're, you know, we're we're heirs of god, we're we have the hope of eternal life. And when we're there, we won't be chained to our passions and pleasures anymore.

We will be free in every way. That's something to be, to be, to to praise god for, isn't it? Something to be thankful for. So we're at we're at the end. I'll just wrap up.

We're we're saved by god for good. We have new life in Jesus for good. We're born again by the Holy Spirit for good. Now if you're someone who has been born again, if you're someone who has who is following Jesus who who's made him his their king and who's asking forgiveness and has fallen him. This is this is this this should make you rejoice and go and do good.

Go out into the road, turn left and walk up and do some good to everyone. And if you're not if you're someone who who doesn't know this god, why not? Why not? Why why not? You can know him now.

You can just say, Lord, I wanna know you. You know, I wanna know you. I want I'm gonna find out about you. I'm gonna read what you've said about yourself. I'm gonna speak to someone about how I can know this god be an heir of the hope of eternal life.

This pre. Father, we thank you for for this short little passage we've been rummaging around in tonight. We thank you for all that it says and all that it means, we pray that you would help us to not be proud to not not think that we can make it on our own. We pray that we would you would help us to wrestle with the truth that we've we've just read and just thought about for a while. I pray that, if if we are Christians, we would marvel at what you've done for us.

The plan you've put into act into about how you've you you sent your son. You've poured out your holy spirit. To forgive us our sins, to make us right with you, to give us new life and to clean us. And pray with lord we pray that you would help us, in in in our lives because of what you've done to go and do good. To to go do good to everyone, to slander no 1.

We pray that we would be peacemakers as we go that we would be truth tellers that we we would be winsome with the with the the good news of Jesus. Lord help us, we pray, and all these things help us to rejoice in our salvation, in all the things you've given us and especially your son Jesus. And it's in in his name we pray amen.