Safe in the Arms of God - Part 6
Titus 3:1-6
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - June 8, 2008
*I sent my first text message Friday. Did you know that text messaging is by far the most favorite way teens and 20’s like to communicate? Parents know.
*I never felt the need to text before -- I’d rather just call. But Friday I got a text message that said, “Hey this is Kamerin. Ivy just called and said you like me. Is it true?” Kamerin needed to know that I was not the object of her affection, and I surely didn’t want to call her -- so I sent a two word text: “wrong number.”
*There are a lot of things we need to know as believers. One important topic deals with our security as Christians. How safe is our salvation? Over the last few weeks we’ve looked at some rock-solid reasons why we believe that once you are saved -- You are forever safe in the arms of God. Today we will find assurance from the Holy Spirit of God. Christians, we are safe in the arms of God because the Holy Spirit is at work in our world today.
1. First, the Holy Spirit has given spiritual rebirth to us. Paul was talking about this new birth in vs. 4&5 and said, “When the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration.”
*Regeneration: That’s the new birth, the spiritual birth we talked about last week. In John 3, Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again.” Jesus also said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Or as the NIV says: “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” To expand on that: The Spirit (capital “S,” the Holy Spirit) gives birth to spirit (little “s,” the new spiritual life of believers.)
*Jesus focused on the role of the Holy Spirit, because He wants us to know that the Holy Spirit is just as much God as the Father and Son.
-No one has ever been saved without the working of the Holy Spirit in their heart.
-No one has ever been saved without receiving the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ.
-No one has ever been born again without the Holy Spirit. He is the third person in the Godhead who gives us the birth of eternal life.
*How does the Holy Spirit give the new birth of eternal life? John 16 tells us that the Holy Spirit convinces us of our sin and the coming judgment. But He also points us to Jesus as our only hope of salvation. Then, when we believe and receive Jesus as Savior and Lord, we are born again with everlasting life.
*John Phillips tells about a preacher who was trying to reach the heart of a dying doctor. The pastor had spoken to him about conversion, forgiveness, redemption. -- All the themes at the heart of the good news about Jesus. Nothing seemed to reach the dying man. Then the pastor spoke of the need to be born again, and that brought light to the doctor’s heart.
*Over the years that doctor had helped at countless births. “A new birth!” he exclaimed. “Why, that’s what I need. A baby has no past -- only a future. That’s what I need.” (1)
-That’s what we all need: A new birth. And it comes from the Holy Spirit of God.
2. Christians, we are safe because the Holy Spirit has given us that spiritual rebirth. -- And because He renews us.
*After the birth, the Holy Spirit gives us times of refreshing and spiritual renewal. Paul mentioned this renewing from the Holy Spirit in vs. 5. Christian: I guarantee that you will find yourself in need of spiritual renewal.
*Maxie Dunnam tells about a good kid -- a little boy, not known for being ugly or mean, but one day he got in trouble for pulling a little girl’s hair. His mom asked him, “Son, why did you do it? That’s just not like you.”
-He answered, “Mama -- I just got tired of being good all the time.” (2)
*Sometimes we tend to get tired in the Christian life. That’s why Paul warned us in Gal 6:9, “Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” God knows that we tend to grow tired -- the fire starts to grow cold.
-Maybe we are too busy with other things.
-Maybe we are neglecting the Word of God and prayer.
-We may be sick, discouraged or under a lot of stress.
-Someone may have let us down or hurt us badly.
-Maybe we let someone else down, and we are worn out with guilt.
*There are many reasons why we will need renewal. God knows that, and by His Holy Spirit, He is ready to give the renewal we need.
3. Christians, we are safe because the Holy Spirit renews us. -- And because He resides in us.
*The Holy Spirit lives in us! He makes His residence in our hearts. God’s Word stresses this truth in Col 1:27 where Paul talked about “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
*In Rom 8:9, Paul tells believers, “You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”
*When we receive Jesus as Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit of Christ comes to live in our hearts. Christ is at home in your heart.
*A lot of people in this world think you’re a Christian just because you came to church this morning. -You may think that too. -- But that is not true. It is not enough to be religious -- not enough to just mentally believe in the truths about Jesus. We must have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and that relationship can only come through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
*Salvation is a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross for us. Salvation is a personal relationship with God -- made personal by the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of every believer.
*When I was in high school, I was just as lost as I could possibly be. I thought Jesus was just a myth like Zeus and Hercules. But I remember this guy in my fraternity named Robbie. Robbie was one of the nicest guys in school. He didn’t drink or cuss. He was a good student and a good athlete. But my friends and I always called him “Crazy Robbie,” because Robbie had this crazy idea that he knew God in a personal way. Robbie even thought that Jesus Christ was actually living in his heart.
*We thought he was crazy. But about 7 years later, I found out that “Crazy Robbie” wasn’t crazy after all. -- He was saved! And the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ really was living in his heart.
*In 2 Corin 6:16 in the KJV we see God say an amazing thing: -“I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
-“I will dwell in them, and walk in them.” What assurance! Christian, wherever you go, God is right there with you.
-Whatever you go through,
-Wherever you are,
-Whatever task God calls you to undertake,
-Whatever trial you have to endure,
-Whatever delights you enjoy or heartbreaks you suffer.
-The Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ is right there with you.
4. Christians, we are safe because the Holy Spirit resides in us. -- And because He has promised resurrection to us.
*Paul talked about this promise of resurrection in Romans 8:10-11, where he said, “if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
*The Holy Spirit has promised resurrection to us, and Melvin Newland says this changes the way we look at life and death. When God talks about death in the Scripture He uses different words than we use. Death is like sitting down to a banquet with God. God says to us, "Come and feast with me for all eternity." Banquets are times of joy and happiness and fellowship and God says, "Death is like that."
*God also says, "Death is like going home." Two of the greatest words in our language are the words "going home." At the end of a busy day it is wonderful to be able to say, "I think I’ll go home." It is time to go home and relax, and feel the love and the warmth of home, and to know that you have a share in all that happens there. God says to believers, "Dying is like going home." (3)
5. Christians, we are safe because the Holy Spirit has promised resurrection to us. -- And because He is our resource for Christian living.
*There is so much to talk about here that we will come back later in the summer. But the Holy Spirit is our resource for Christian living. Phil 2:13 in the New Living Translation tells us that: “God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.”
*God is at work in you. How? -- By His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the source of every essential for the Christian life. He gives Guidance, so in John 16:13, Jesus said, “When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”
*The Holy Spirit guides us and He gives spiritual gifts to us. Paul was talking about spiritual gifts in 1 Cor 12:11 when he said, “The same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.”
*The Holy Spirit also gives us spiritual fruit, so in Gal 5:22-23 Paul said, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
*The Holy Spirit is also changing our lives, causing us to reflect the glory of Jesus Christ. That’s why in 2 Cor 3:18 in the New Living Translation says, “All of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.”
*The Holy Spirit is our resource for Christian living. We can never live the Christian life in our own strength.
*Kent Crockett tells an old story about a pastor traveling on a bus down a bumpy road. A college student was seated next to the preacher, and he noticed that the pastor was reading his Bible. Almost out of the blue, the preacher asked, “Are you spiritually ready for the temptations that you will face in college?”
*The young man answered, “I don’t have a problem with temptation. I have strong willpower.”
*The preacher then took a pencil out of his pocket and said, “I can make this pencil stand up on the cover of this Bible even though the bus ride is bumpy.”
*The young man said, “I’ll believe it when I see it. I don’t think you can do it.”
*“Look, I am doing it,” the pastor replied.
-“Yeah, but you didn’t tell me you would hold the pencil up with your hand.”
-“I didn’t have to tell you,” the pastor said. “Have you ever seen a pencil stand up on its own without someone holding it?”
*Then the preacher let go of the pencil. Of course, it instantly fell over and the preacher said, “The only reason you stand, is because God is holding you up with His hand.” (4)
*Christian, you may feel like you are falling. -- But by His Holy Spirit, God will hold you up.
6. We are safe because the Holy Spirit is our resource for Christian living. -- And because He is God’s royal seal on us.
*The Holy Spirit is God’s royal seal on our lives. 2 Cor 1:22 tells us that God “has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a deposit.”
-Eph 1:13-14 talks about us trusting in Jesus “after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
-Eph 4:30 tells us “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
*The Holy Spirit is God’s royal seal on our lives. -- And that means a lot. But what kind of seal was Paul talking about? It was an official mark of identification placed on a letter, contract, or document. When royal business was conducted, the document was sealed with hot wax and stamped with the king’s ring.
*Dean Meadows tells us that a king’s seal meant 3 things:
1-Ownership - The King’s property.
2-Security - The security of the seal was the king’s authority. Break the seal and die.
3-Certainty - No One, not even the king himself can reverse such a decree. An example is King Darius who was tricked and forced to throw Daniel to the lions because of his unchangeable decree. (Dan 6:6-16)
*These same three realities hold true when we are sealed by the God’s Holy Spirit.
1-Ownership - We are the King’s property. As we see in 1 Cor 6:19-20, “do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
2-Security - (John 10: 27-29) Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” The security of our seal is the King’s authority. No one can take His seal away because He is “greater than all”
3-Certainty - (John 6:37-39) Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.”
*Our salvation is sealed. -- You can never loose it. Satan may put doubt in your heart, but you can’t loose your salvation, because we are sealed by the Holy Spirit of God Himself. What a difference that makes! (5)
*Author Anne Graham Lotz’ house was broken into a few years ago. The robbers took almost everything of value. The night after the break-in, Ms. Lotz lay awake as fears began to overwhelm her. She began to worry about all the other precious things in her life that she could lose. Through illness or accident, she could lose her children or her husband. She could lose her health. She could lose her job, or her finances, or reputation.
*Just as her anxiety reached a fever pitch, she recalled words from 1 Pet 1:3-5. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
*Anne Lotz sat down and made an list of the eternal blessings that cannot be taken away from us. Listen to her list and notice how she used the letters of the alphabet. Anne wrote:
-I am: Accepted by God / Beloved by God / Chosen by God / Delivered by God / Enlightened by God / Forgiven by God
-I have: Grace of God / Hope for the future / Inheritance in heaven / Justification / Knowledge of God / Love / Mercy of God / Nearness to God / Oneness with God / Peace / Quickening of the Spirit
-I am: Redeemed / Sealed with the Holy Spirit / Treasured by God / United with other believers / Validated as an authentic child of God
-I have: His Wisdom And one day I will be: Exalted with Him! (6)
*Do you have all of that? -- If you have Jesus, you do! Put your trust in Jesus today. And always remember that we are safe in the arms of God.
(1) EXPLORING JOHN by John Phillips - pp. 67-68
(2) Found in Christianglobe.com sermon - Why Being A Christian Has Worn You Down v1 - Maxie Dunnam - 1 John 4:7-21
(3) SermonCentral sermon - Easter - Preparation for Eternity by Melvin Newland - Matt 27:62-28:7
(4) Kent Crockett, Making Today Count for Eternity, Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2001, p. 123
(5) Adapted from SermonCentral sermon “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours” by Dean Meadows - Eph 1:7-14 - 3/15/04
(6) Found in Christianglobe.com sermon - Are You Ready For Your Inheritance? by King Duncan - Eph 1:1-14 - Christmas 2005
