I’ve Never Been THAT Bad!
Titus 3:3-5
“At one 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 one 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.”
Romans 12:4-5
“Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
Today we will be reading from Titus 3:1-8
Joe and Moe were twin brothers. They were wicked, evil men.
Proverbs 6:16-19 could have been written about them; “There are six things [Yahweh] hates, seven that are detestable to Him: haughty, conceited, egotistical eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.”
That WAS Joe and Moe. Wicked and evil Joe died.
Moe was looking for a preacher who would say something nice about Joe at his funeral. The only problem was that Joe had despised and lied about and injured and stirred up conflict with everyone in town including all of the pastors. No one would do Joe’s funeral.
Finally Moe publically made an offer of $10,000 to any pastor who would speak at Joe’s funeral and to everyone’s surprise, one of the most respected pastors took up the offer.
At the funeral, the sermon was short; only 48 words long. It went like this, “Joe was a rotten man. He was evil, to the core. He would murder his own mother if he thought it would bring him pleasure. Joe was just about the most rotten, sinful, wicked man who ever lived, but … compared to his brother Moe, Joe was an angel.”
Now, believe it or not, this silly joke will actually have an application in today’s message.
OK, so let’s go ahead and read Titus 3:1-8
(Prayer for help)
I don’t know if any of you have ever noticed, but, when we have a new memory Scripture I tend to have a message about it within a week or two. This one has been different.
One reason is that the Covid issue has kind of thrown everything off balance and the second is that this has been a particularly difficult one to memorize.
Regardless, it is an important Scripture as really they all are.
But, just look at verse three …’
Titus 3:3
“At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceitful and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy; being hated and hating one another.”
Many of us look at that and think, “I was NEVER THAT bad”, right?
I was never a disobedient, deceitful fool!
I was never a slave to passions and pleasures!
I was never filled with animosity and bitterness and hatred and hostility and resentment and envy.
I never hated people and they never hated me!
I was never as bad as Joe and Moe.
And, Joe was never as bad as Moe, I mean, compared to Moe, Joe was an angel, right? That’s what the preacher said anyway ….
Here’s the thing. Before we came to Jesus and were filled with the Holy Spirit we WERE ALL foolish, disobedient, deceitful, enslaved people. The difference between us and others was only a matter of degree.
It is an easy thing to fall into the pit of comparison.
I’m not as bad as she is. I’m better than he is.
I will always be able to find someone who is more sinful than I am.
But, here’s the thing; God doesn’t grade on the curve.
How many know what it means to grade on the curve?
Some teachers give grades according to the actual percentage of work the student gets right. Students who score a 90 percent or better get an A. Those who score less than 65 percent get an F. And, of course there is everything in between.
Teachers who grade on the curve may give an A to the top five percent of people in the class even though the highest score was only 60 percent. They were still the best so they deserve an A and it goes on down the line from there.
But, God doesn’t grade on the curve. You cannot be good enough for heaven. If you try to do enough good works to earn your way into heaven you are living in foolish thought, you are being disobedient to God’s Word, you are being deceitful and you will still be enslaved to sin.
You will end up hating, being hated and being eternally lost.
You know it and God knows it.
But … God knew all along that we would never be able to be righteous enough to merit salvation.
As it says in Titus 3:4-5
“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.”
He didn’t save us “because of the righteous things we had done.”
Why not? Because people who are foolish, disobedient, deceived, slaves to sin are totally incapable of doing anything that could ever be considered righteous in the sight of God no matter how righteous our works appear in our own eyes.
But then, it’s hopeless. I cannot be saved, right?
Remember, I used to say, “I have NEVER BEEN that bad”, right?
Now, I’m saying, “I will NEVER BE good enough.”
So, in my own power I am lost forever.
Then came Jesus!
Romans 5:8 says
“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
So, why on earth would God do such a thing? Titus 3:4-5
“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.”
BECAUSE OF HIS MERCY!
Just recently a man who has a street ministry went to a protest in Charlotte NC. He was carrying a sign that says Jesus Saves.
The protesters poured water over him, covered him with silly-string and then dumped flour over him.
What did he do? He continued to proclaim that Jesus Saves!
If I were a betting man, I would bet that if one of those protesters was somehow fatally injured, that man would have knelt by his side and tried to save his life while telling him about Jesus. Why. Because of mercy. Because of Jesus’ mercy to him.
The man with the sign had previously been arrested in Charlotte 29 times before God’s mercy found him. Now he proclaims Jesus’ mercy to all who will listen.
OK, so, how does this “washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” take place?
Salvation has two elements; God’s grace to us and a responding faith or belief from us.
As it says in Ephesians 2:8-9,
“For it is BY GRACE you have been saved, THROUGH FAITH - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - NOT BY WORKS, so that no one can boast.”
So, how does this grace and faith work?
Imagine that way over here by the piano is the beginning of grace and faith in your life. You have never been exposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ but in your life you have always been filled with wonder about the world around you. When you have seen the awesome beauty of the seasons; the snow of winter leading to new plant life in the spring; the warmth of the summer and the falling of the leaves in autumn you are filled with wonder. When you have seen this weird green and black worm crawl up and fasten itself to the underside of a leaf and then emerge as a beautiful, delicate butterfly a few weeks later you wonder how such a thing could happen.
This is called General Revelation which is the beginning of God calling us to Himself. This is God declaring Himself to you through nature. You may not even know there is a God but you know that there is something, an unknown.
This General Revelation is a part of what we call Prevenient Grace, the grace that calls you to a salvation that you may not even yet know about.
Then at some point a person befriends you. This friend is kind and loving to you. They seem to care as much about you as they care for themselves. There is something different about them.
God has placed them into your life to move you along the path of salvation by grace through faith. And, this new friend tells you about how God became a Man so that you could have eternal life.
This is also Prevenient Grace, the grace of God calling you to salvation.
As you continue to discuss these ideas with your new friend you wonder what you need to do to be saved. You know that you have done bad things in your life and there must be something you can do to make up for it. Your friend explains that it is only through God’s Grace and faith that you can be saved.
Saving Grace or Justifying Grace - there is a difference with this grace. You can choose to cooperate with this grace by placing your faith and trust in Jesus or you can reject this grace.
If you choose to reject Saving Grace you will never move past the point of God’s Grace that calls you to come to Him.
On the other hand, if you choose to respond to God’s saving grace by placing your faith and trust in Jesus for salvation you will become a child of God. The Bible says that you will have moved from spiritual death into spiritual life.
And, that’s not the end of God’s Amazing Grace!
After that we come to God’s Sanctifying Grace - The Lord extends this grace to you to enable you to progress in your walk with Him.
Now the Holy Spirit is living within you and He calls you to become more like Jesus. He calls you to know more about Jesus. He calls you to act more like Jesus. He calls you to be a witness for Jesus.
When God’s Sanctifying Grace is moving in your heart He will point out things that need to be changed so that you can become more like Him. He will start to show you things in your life that are unrighteous or sinful and He will help you to discard them.
God’s Sanctifying Grace never stops pushing you to become more like Jesus. The longer you cooperate with God’s Sanctifying Grace the more deeply you will fall in love with Him. The more you fall in love with Jesus the more you will desire to please Him and the things of the world will become less and less attractive to you until you will wonder why you were ever enslaved by them at all!
God’s Sanctifying Grace will keep taking you farther and farther with Him until you pass into eternity.
But, in all of this it is God’s grace working in and through you to enable you to receive what you could not earn; salvation.
Do you remember when we started looking at Titus 3:3 that says,
“At one 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 one another.”
And we said, “I was NEVER THAT bad.” Do you remember that?
Then we found out that in order to achieve salvation we would need to attain to the righteousness of God and we said, “I could NEVER BE THAT Good!”
In actuality all of us WERE that bad.
But because of that spiritually terminal condition and God’s love for us He sent His One and Only Son!
Titus 3:4-5
“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.”
Romans 5:8 says
“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
So, why on earth would God do such a thing? Titus 3:4-5
“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.”
BECAUSE OF HIS MERCY!
So, why on earth would God do such a thing?
He did it so we could be saved!
Titus 3:4-5
“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.”
OK, so, how does this “washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” take place?
Salvation has two elements; God’s grace to us and a responding faith or belief from us.
As it says in Ephesians 2:8-9,
“For it is BY GRACE you have been saved, THROUGH FAITH - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.”
So, how does this grace and faith work?
Prevenient Grace (Wooing or Drawing Grace)
- God reveals Himself through nature
- God reveals Himself through His faithful witnesses
- God in His grace extends to us the ability to respond to this calling grace but we also still have the ability to reject His advances and continue to live a life of sin.
Justifying Grace or Saving Grace
- If we cooperate with God’s drawing grace we come to the point where we realize that we are eternally lost and need a Savior
- At that point the Holy Spirit awakens within us that we have a choice to make
- This choice is made possible by God’s grace as well
- If we cooperate with God’s grace by placing our faith and trust in Him we will be saved
- Once again, we still have the ability to reject God’s saving grace and continue in sin
- This is only the beginning of living IN God’s grace
Sanctifying Grace
- Once we are saved and are found in Christ, IN God’s grace it is just the starting point
- As we continue to live In Christ and in harmony with the Holy Spirit, He will show us areas in our lives that are out of God’s will for us.
- At that point He will extend His Sanctifying grace to us which will enable us to surrender that particular part of our life to Him.
- If we choose to resist God’s sanctifying grace in the area He has revealed to us we will come to an impasse.
- In that case we will not be able to make any more progress in our spiritual lives until we deal with what has been revealed to us for correction.
- An impasse will cause us to actually start losing spiritual ground. This is will be cause of all sorts of spiritual difficulties if it is not dealt with by the power of the Holy Spirit.
- However if we choose to cooperate with the Holy Spirit we will continue to a deeper and deeper fellowship with the Lord as He continues to extend His sanctifying grace to us.
All of us who are here today are in one of those places.
There are those of us who:
- Are still thinking “I’m not THAT bad”
- Are In the midst of God’s Prevenient Grace drawing you but you have not yet placed your faith and trust in Jesus for salvation
- Have taken the step of cooperating with God’s Justifying Grace and you are born again! You are a Child of God. You are a new Creation in Jesus Christ!
- You are out of the starting blocks and just beginning to run the race of growing more like Jesus!
- You are waking in harmony with Jesus; cooperating with His Sanctifying grace, becoming more and more like Jesus every day!
Where do you find yourself along that continuum?
Final words and prayer
