THE KINDNESS OF THE KING
TITUS 3:4
One day, a little girl is sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly notices that her mother has several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head. "Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?" she asks. Her mother replies, "Well, every time you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white." The little girl thinks about this awhile, then asks, "So how come ALL of Grandma’s hairs are white?"
I am sure that we all have caused some white hairs in our moms and of course our dads. While we may have caused our parents grief at times I am sure that many times we showed them kindness. That is what I want to talk to you about this morning. Kindness.
What was the greatest act of kindness that you ever received from another person? I think the greatest act of kindness for me was when Darleen said yes when I asked her to marry me. I am not sure whether is was an act of kindness or pity.
But anyway what was the greatest act of kindness that someone showed to you? How did someone display goodness to you? Besides my wife I have received many acts kindness, a lot of those coming from some of you. Gifts, favors, blessings, too many to list.
Today I want us to talk about the kindness of God. Whether we acknowledge it or not, every person here as been blessed by the kindness or goodness of God. His kindness is seen all around us, all we need do is to look for it.
Please turn with me to our passage for today, that would be Titus 3:4. We are getting back into our study of Titus this week. As we have been away from Titus for a couple weeks now. Titus 3:4;
“But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,”
In the context of this verse, Paul in verse 3 tells us the type of persons that we once were. Now he begins to tell us how we came to be the people that we are now. Children of God, people who seek to serve God, people who seek God’s glory in their lives. He begin to tell us of that transformation, of our salvation by saying that it comes to us through the kindness and love of God. As I stated today we will look at the kindness of God, next week we will begin to look at the love of God.
Now the Greek word translated kindness in this verse, can also be translated “goodness”. We see this in Romans 2:4; “Or do you despise the riches of His (God’s) goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”
The same word used in Romans 2:4 is used in Titus 3:4. I just want you to understand that when we speak of the kindness of God, and the Goodness of God we are speaking of the same thing.
As we look at this I want to point out to you that our perception of God matters. What we think we know about God matters. I matters to God, and should matter to us. For any relationship to be healthy whether it is with God or with others, we need to have an accurate view of the other person. If we desire for our relationship with God to grow it means we must see Him for who He is. That is see Him in light of how He is revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures.
Listen to what Paul states in Romans 11:22; ““Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God:”
In this passage Paul points out the need to not only examine the goodness or kindness of God, but of the severity of God as well. We often have people who will emphasize one attribute of God to the point of doing harm to another. Thus they get a distorted view of God. If we are to grow in our relationship with God we must have an accurate and balanced view of God as reveal in the Bible.
I want you to keep that in mind as we look at the kindness or goodness of God.
Now there are many verses that speak of the goodness of God. Too many to look at them all here. But when we mention the goodness of God, we should understand that it speaks of the absolute perfection that is God’s very nature. God is a being that is not wanting in anything that is good. There is nothing that is defective in God. We cannot add to God’s nature to make it better.
God himself is the essence of good, and there is nothing else, no created being that can make that claim. In other words God is essentially good, he is goodness itself. He is the standard for all good. God cannot be any less good nor can He be any more good. You cannot take the good out of God. They cannot be separated.
While I can be good at times, I mean that in the sense that I can do good things, I can also be bad. You see if you can take the good out of Steve and you would still have Steve. But you cannot take the good our of God and still have God, they are one and the same, good is God’s very nature. While the only good that I have comes not from my nature, but from God.
In fact that original Saxon meaning of our English word “God” is “the Good”. God is not only almighty, and infinitely above all beings, He is also the best.
All the good that we see in anyone else or in anything else comes from the creator. It as been imparted to them through God. God on the other hand did not derive His goodness from an outside source, for the very essence of His nature is good.
All that comes from God is good. His law, His decrees, His creation. Remember what the Word of God states about God’s creation, in Gen 1:31; “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” If you want to know what good is, what kindness is, look at what God has done. For there is nothing that He has done that is not good.
We hear it said that “God can do anything!” But there are things that God cannot do. One thing God cannot do is, He cannot not be Good. All He does, all He says, is good. Just by the fact that God said it or did it, that makes is good!
Let us as Paul states in Romans 11:22 “behold the kindness of God...” If we are to love God and praise Him as we should we must see His kindness, His goodness. We should be focused on the blessing of God, those blessing that show his kindness toward us. I would say a child can easily see the kindness of God all around.
We see His kindness as I said in creation. Look out your windows and behold the kindness of God. Do not the birds sing of the kindness of God? Do not the hills when we see them green in the summer, and spring, when we see them ablaze in color in the fall, when we see them with there gray and white contrast in the winter, do not they call out the kindness of God? When we sit around with family and friends and enjoy each others company in laughter, does not that proclaim the kindness of God?
Behold the kindness of God. Look for the kindness of God. Praise God for the kindness of God, for His goodness!
Yet there are some who do not seem to behold God’s kindness. They focus on the evil in the world. They ignore the evidence of God’s kindness and dwell upon the evil that is in this world. They turn from God’s kindness and act as though God has done nothing for them.
There are many people who call into question God’s kindness, His goodness because they see suffering and sorrow in the world. I know that God is not the author of sin. Yet because there is sin in this world we see suffering and sorrow. But the suffering and sorrow we see in the world shows the glory of God’s goodness. We see this in that were it not for this suffering and sorrow we would not really know how good God’s goodness is. We usually do not how good or bad something is until we have something to measure it against.
When we leave this earth and enjoy the presence of God then will we see fully the goodness of God, the kindness of God.
Some say how can God be good and sent people to hell who have rejected His Son.
Romans 2:4-5 answer that this way. “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,”
If man despises the goodness of God, if he sins against the kindness of God. If he despises the forbearance and longsuffering of God, if by doing these things he stores up for himself the wrath of God, who does he have to blame but himself? This does not take from the Goodness of God but it is as A.W. Pink states, “the brightest exemplification of it, when He shall rid the earth of those who have broken His laws, defied His authority, mocked His messengers, scorned His Son, and persecuted those for whom He died.”
God’s ultimate display of goodness is when He does pour out His wrath upon the evil of this world. They may be hard for us to understand. It is hard for us to understand because we are so accustom sin, we are so desensitized to sin. Because sin is such a part of our nature we cannot understand how the punishment of that sin, the eradication of that sin demonstrates in a glorious way the goodness of God.
Let us also see God’s kindness in how He as demonstrated it in the past. Look at the mercy and kindness that God showed to Noah, Abraham, and the people of Israel. When we look at the Scripture we see man and women like Hannah, David, Elijah, and Daniel, who called upon the Lord for kindness. We see God answer those prayers with displays of His goodness. Those story ought to encourage us to seek God’s kindness, to seek His goodness.
And not only to seek it, but to reply on it. To realize through faith that God will show His people kindness.
We can also behold the kindness of God in all that He has done for us in the material world. Our very existence is dependant on the kindness and goodness of God. The very reason we take our next breath is because God is good to us.
Acts 17:25 states, "Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.”
We all fall under the goodness of God.
Also in the book of Acts 14:17 "Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness."
The way God provides for our basic needs, the way He sends the rains, the way He gives us food to eat, and so forth, these things all testify to the goodness of God. They are a witness to His kindness. We should realize that we enjoy these things not because we deserve them, but we enjoy them because God is good, He is kind.
So we have seen how God as shown His goodness and kindness to us in different ways. But we have yet gotten to the greatest way in which God showed His goodness. And that is what our verse this morning speaks of specifically, “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,”.
God’s kindness, His goodness appeared to us in Christ. That is what this whole Christmas season is all about, the appearing of the kindness and love of our God, through His Son Jesus Christ.
God illustrated for us His kindness in a magnificent way. He sent His Son, born of a virgin, born under the law, to redeem those who were condemned by the law. So that we may not only be saved, but that we may be His children.
As Gal. 4:4-5 states; “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”
What a display of kindness. What greater way could God show is goodness to people who are not good. What greater way to display His goodness by sending His Son to take away our sin.
As 2 Cor. 5:21; “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Paul states in Romans 11:22 “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God:”
How do you behold the goodness of God. Behold His Son born in a manger, not in a palace, not even in the servants quarters, but in a manger, the place where the animals stayed. Behold His Son who lived a perfect life. A life of placing other before Himself. A life of servanthood. A life of doing the perfect will of God.
Behold His Son being betrayed, arrested, spit upon, beaten tortured. Behold the crown of thorns placed on His Head. Behold God’s Son being nailed to cross. Behold the spear being trust in His side, to see if He where really dead.
Behold his burial in a tomb where now one had yet been laid. Three days later behold the empty tomb, for the Son of God is risen.
Behold these things of Christ and you will behold the goodness of God, the kindness of God. How can any one say that God is not good when He did all of that for us.
You see if God had never showed us His goodness, we would have never know what goodness was. Titus 3:4 states “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,” I praise God that His kindness as appeared, that His love as appeared, that it appeared in His Son Jesus Christ.
I hope you have learned something about God’s goodness today. I pray that you have come away with something you may not have realized about God’s goodness.
So many people do not realize how good God is, and how bad we are.
You see some folks believe that in order to get to heaven you have to be good. And I am going to shock some you here, to a point that is true. If you want to get to heaven without trusting in Christ you do have to be good. But you have to be God kind of good, you have to be the kind of good God is. That good is perfection. So you not only have to be good, you have to be perfect!
There is one problem with that kind of thinking. You see only God is that good. Only God is perfect. Only God is good enough to get heaven on His own merits, on His own goodness.
Jesus states in the book of Matthew; “So He said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."
There is only one who is good enough for heaven and that is God. Also in the book of Romans 3:10-12 we are told; “As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one."
This passage speaks of us all, we have all turned aside, we have all sinned, there is none who do good as God does good, not one. Not you, not me, not our dear sweet aunt Millie. None of us.
So you see you can get to heaven by being good, but it is a good that you can never attain. It is perfection. So God gave us another way and way that would show His kindness. He sent His Son to die for us. That when we place our faith in Him as Lord and Saviour we are saved. When we trust in His blood for the forgiveness sin those sins are gone. You see when we place our faith in Christ God no longer sees our evil, but what He see in us is Christ’s good, and it is through Christ’s good, through Christ’s righteousness that we have a place in heaven. That we have eternal life. Will you trust in Christ today.
Let us bow, every eye closed every head bowed.
