How great a salvation! part 1

“But when the kindness and goodness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us…” Titus 3:4,5What issues were of greatest concern to you this past week?Your children, maybe? Finances? Your relationship with your boss and fellow employees? Sports, perhaps?Life is busy and a wide range of things can occupy our attention. It is remarkable how many different things seem so very important to us as we go about our lives. I am convinced however that no matter what your past week was like, there is no issue of greater importance in your life than the subject of this text.The subject of salvation.I don’t know if you underline in your Bibles but if you do you might underline the phrase, HE SAVED US because when you put your finger on this phrase you are putting your finger on the heart of this passage.Paul is talking about the doctrine of salvation.It is likely he is quoting an early church creed or an early church hymn about salvation. We know that because of the fact that he says in verse 8, it is a trustworthy saying. Apparently in the early church, there were a number of these kinds of pithy, axiomatic, self-evident statements that through repetition had become well-known sayings among Christians and in verses 4-7 we are coming to one of the most well known of these statements that they had back in the early church, specifically a statement on the doctrine of salvation, one that is literally loaded with important theological truth.So loaded with truth in fact that one commentator has said, it is “perhaps the fullest statement of salvation in the New Testament” (and as another writes, this passage of Scripture is a sort of heaven for a theologian) and I would add for it is a sort of heaven for people who don’t consider themselves professional theologians as well because it speaks about a subject that is of absolutely earth-shaking importance to each and every one of us. We get an in-depth look at a subject of earth-shaking importance, that of our salvation.I thought I might take some time to show you why.Specifically what I want to do is motivate you to think deeply about the salvation God has provided for us in Christ.The goal is not simply for me to talk about salvation in a theoretical way and for you to write a nice little outline down in your notebooks but for you to internalize these truths, to dwell in the gospel, spending time throughout the week worshiping God because of these truths. If that doesn’t happen, if there is not an urgency in your own soul regarding salvation I am not going to be content, and so I want to take some time here at the beginning to motivate you by giving you a number of reasons why the subject of this text is of the utmost importance.I know in real life, out there, at work, at home, there are a number of issues that feel urgent; you have got stuff going on in your life and some of it feels really, really big and you read a blog like this and you see we are going to talk about salvation, and while you know you are not supposed to say it, this subject doesn’t always feel so big and so I just want to give you some reminders as to why there are few issues in your life more important to be considered, studied, than what Bible teaches us about salvation.It is of utmost importance to GodIf you sit down to talk with many people about salvation they will very quickly want you to talk about something else. I take it is a fairly obvious that in spite of many people’s attitudes towards this subject we should be more concerned about what is important to God and the fact is the subject of salvation is a very important subject to God.We know it is important because He wrote a book about it. One way to know what is important to God is look at what He says and when God went to write a book He made the subject of salvation one of its central themes.We see this in the Old Testament. Paul tells us in 2 Timothy that the Old Testament has the ability to make one wise unto salvation. In other words, this is part of the intended benefit of studying the Old Testament Scriptures. He tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:15, “… from childhood, you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”When we begin to work our way through the Old Testament, we start to see what Paul means because story after story teaches us something new about the way God saves His people. In fact, it is hard to think of a story in the Old Testament that doesn’t shed some light on the way in which God is going about providing salvation for his people.It’s not just the Old Testament thought. We also see the importance of salvation to God in the New.J.I. Packer has said, “Salvation is the whole theme of the New Testament” and I do not think he is saying too much.You might begin with the gospels.When we look to the gospels, we find the gospel writers telling the story of Jesus Christ in such a way that emphasizes the importance of this theme.I think of the beginning of Matthew, 1:21, when the angel comes to Joseph to tell him about the birth of the Son of God, Matthew tells us that the angel says, “You shall call his name Jesus, because He shall save His people from their sins.” (Mt. 1:21) Or Luke 2:10 and 11, where Luke lets us know that when the angels appeared to the shepherds, they made this a key part of their announcement. Luke 2:10 and 11, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!” In Luke 19:10, Jesus Himself says this is the purpose of His coming. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”When we turn our attention to the book of Acts, we find that this theme became a central burden of the apostle’s preaching. In Acts 4:12, Peter stands up to explain what motivates them to preach the way the way they are preaching by saying of Jesus, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” The apostle Paul tells us that the purpose of his ministry was to proclaim this great salvation in Acts 14:47, “For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” And when we read through the rest of the letters of the New Testament, we find the authors are completely captivated by this theme. Quoting Paul, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost.”Another way to see how important this subject is to God is to look at what He does. One way to know what is important to God is to listen to Him speak, another is to watch Him in action.Consider for example the sacrifice He made to provide salvation.We do not need a greater proof of God’s interest in salvation than the fact that He sent His Son to die. When the Father sends His Son on a mission, it is because that mission is of great importance to Him. And John tells us in 1 John 4:14, “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.”We might think of how long He has been planning this great salvation. Salvation is so important to God that Paul tells us the salvation of believers is something He purposed us to do even before He created the world. Ephesians 1:3 and 4, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”Another way we can get a taste of how interested God is in the subject of salvation is by looking at the scope of salvation. Paul tells us in Ephesians 3:10 that part of what God is doing through the salvation of the church is revealing to the angels His profound wisdom. John Stott puts it like this, “It is as if a great drama is being enacted. History is the theatre, the world is the stage, and church members in every land are the actors. God himself has written the play, and he directs and produces it. Act by act, scene by scene, the story continues to unfold. But who are the audience? They are the cosmic intelligences, the principalities and powers in the heavenly places [Eph. 3:10]. We are to think of them as spectators of the drama of salvation. Thus ‘the history of the Christian church becomes a graduate school for angels.’”If we go back before the beginning of the world, what do we find God doing? We find Him planning believer’s salvation. If we go to the climax of history to this point, what do we find God doing? We find Him sending His Son to accomplish believer’s salvation. If we go up into the heavenly places, what do we find God doing? We would find Him revealing His glory to the angels through believer’s salvation.Still one more way to prove that this subject is of the utmost importance to God is to look at the way that the people and creatures that know God best feel about the subject of salvation. You can learn a lot about a person through listening to Him, watching Him and getting to know His friends.Think about the angels and the prophets. How do they feel about salvation?Peter answers this question in 1 Peter 1:10-12. “Concerning this salvation” Peter tells us, “the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.” In other words, the greatest men of the Old Testament and the angels themselves are all fascinated with the subject of salvation.Think about the perfected saints are now in heaven. How do they feel about salvation?The apostle John tells us in Revelation 7:10 that this is a subject of great interest to perfect men, for in heaven, he tells us that he saw “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and people sand languages, standing before the throne, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”Think about the apostles themselves? How do they feel about salvation?We see Paul’s interest in the subject here in our text. He taught about salvation and he wanted others to teach about it as well. In fact, what does he tell Titus? Titus 3:8, “The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things.” Continually stress what the Bible teaches about salvation, might be another way of putting it.This is a subject of utmost importance for you to consider because it is a subject of the utmost importance to God. God the Father obviously thinks it is important, given the fact that He gave His Son for our salvation. Jesus obviously thinks it is important because He died that He might accomplish it. And the Holy Spirit thinks it is of great urgency because He inspired the apostles to go out and proclaim it. While there are many things to be interested in and learn about in this world, the wise person is interested in what the Creator of the entire Universe is interested in and looking at what God says and does there is no question God is very interested in the subject of our salvation.It is of the utmost importance for your eternal futureThe word salvation means to rescue or deliver. When we talk about salvation one of the things we are talking about is the way God rescues and delivers people from experiencing an eternity of torment in hell, which is no small issue.If you were facing the death penalty, that would not be a small issue in your life. With hell, this is the eternal death penalty we are talking about. This is serious and we better be concerned about the subject of salvation for this very reason.The writer of Hebrews puts it like this,Hebrews 2:1ff,“Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”How shall we being a nice of saying, we won’t. Those who neglect salvation will be subject to judgment. Eternal judgment.Hell.Now it is of concern to me that you appreciate the seriousness of our subject. Maybe I can try to press this home to you.This is not a subject that we come to consider in theory, as sort of detached observers, this is a subject that reveals the means of being rescued from an eternity of experiencing the full force of God’s wrath. In other words as we talk about the subject of salvation, we are not like a group of tourists who are listening to a tour guide as they walk through an old abandoned prison that has been turned into a historical site; as we consider this subject instead, we are either like a group of prisoners being led to their cell or a group of ex-prisoners reflecting on their escape. Either way, this subject is intensely personal.It is about you and your entire eternal future. Not your next five years. Not your next ten years. Not even your next thirty years. Your next 10 thousand years even falls short.Can you believe that anyone would need to be motivated to consider an issue of eternal importance to them? Practical real life experience proves that we in fact do. Very often people are much more interested in the next five years of their life than the next five thousand years. Very often people are much more interested in not going to a bad hotel for five days of vacation than they are in not going to hell, which is why I want to take a moment and speak directly to anyone who finds themselves struggling with that kind of attitude. We are going to be looking at what Paul tells Titus about salvation over the next several chapters and I want you to know that this is more than just an academic subject for you to be well versed in. There is a day coming when you are going to stand before the judgment seat of God and there is nothing more urgent in your life than being rescued, delivered, saved from His wrath.J.C. Ryle is right.“For every thought you spend thinking about, ‘what you shall eat, drink and put on; you should spend a thousand thoughts thinking about the question ‘What shall I do to be saved?”In fact, failing to think seriously about this subject is not only sinful, but can I come alongside of you as a friend and as graciously as I can, just encourage you that failing to think about what the Bible teaches about salvation is flat out dumb.Jesus puts it like this in Mark 8:36.“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man in return for his life?”What is the benefit, in other words, of spending the rest of your life working out and getting in great shape physically and then dying and going to hell? Tell me again, exactly how does it profit you, if you give all kinds of energy to making all kinds of money and then dying, having them put you in a box, bury you in the ground and then enduring the wrath of God for all eternity? Oh you get a nicer tombstone? For some reason I don’t think that is going to provide anyone much comfort in hell.You know what God calls that kind of person? He calls him a fool.Luke 12, a certain rich man’s land produces all sorts of crops and he thinks oh no, what should I do, where am I going to put all my food and he makes plans and he comes up with an idea to make bigger barns for himself and he gets all excited and says to himself, soul, relax, eat, drink and be merry and God says to him, Fool.Exclamation point.This night your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”There are many different reasons I can give you for considering what the Bible teaches about salvation, but some of you, you especially need to hear this clearly, you need to consider what the Bible teaches about salvation while you still have time. You need to consider this because your entire eternal future is on the line and I guarantee you when you are experiencing the fires of hell and you are crying out in anguish, you will be very interested in this subject of salvation but if you wait until that day, it will be too late. You can get an idea of the importance of this subject by looking at God’s attitude towards it, the angels, the holy prophets and apostles, believer’s, but perhaps what will motivate some of you the most, is by looking far into the future and considering what your attitude will be like towards this subject, if you spend the rest of your life neglecting, and have to endure the wrath of God as a result. I think of the story of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man in the place of torment crying out that he could go back and tell his brothers about the means of salvation, there may be people you know who have died and are experiencing God’s wrath right now and they may be crying out, wishing you would consider salvation.It is of the utmost importance for your everyday lifeIt might be easy for people who are believers to fall into the trap of thinking of what the Bible teaches about our salvation as the kind of truths we needed way back at the beginning of the Christian life but are not that important for us now. We might be tempted to put the great biblical truths about salvation into a nice little compartment in our lives that we keep completely separate from the rest of our lives but don’t really affect the way we actually live our lives out throughout the week.If you are sitting there as a believer thinking how important it is that unbelievers think about the truths of salvation, but not really seeing how this relates to you except as a matter of theological interest I want you to turn your attention back to Titus 3:1-8.One of the things that is always important as you study a text of Scripture is to make sure you understand the passage’s purpose. There’s this great section on salvation here in verses 4-7 and you might include verse 3 in that, but it is not this isolated, abstract, disconnected from the rest of Titus passage of Scripture, it is here for a reason. There is a purpose. And to understand that purpose, it helps to look at the structure of this passage, the way Paul wrote it.If you want to understand the structure of this passage, you can think of verses 3-7 as the meat of a sandwich, and verses 1, 2 and 8 as the bread.“Remind them to…do this, do that….For.”Now for means what?It means I am giving you a reason. Paul is talking about salvation because he is giving us a reason for something and in case that is not clear to you, look down at verse 8, where Paul says something similar.“The saying is trustworthy and I want you to insist on these things, so that.”So that means what?It means I am giving you a reason. On both sides of verses 3-7, Paul makes it clear he is not just talking about salvation as a system or an idea, he is talking about it for a very specific reason and if you look at the text, you see that reason has to do with the way believers live their lives out in this world. He’s not talking here about the gospel to unbelievers. This is a letter actually written to a pastor and Paul is telling that pastor to talk to believers about how they live and when that pastor talks to believers about how they live, he is supposed to talk specifically about the doctrine of salvation because in Paul’s mind the doctrine of salvation has very practical, real life ramifications for the way those believers approach the other people in their life.It is important for unbelievers to consider what the Bible teaches about salvation because it concerns their eternal future and it is important for us as believers to consider what the Bible teaches about salvation because it is connected to how we go about living our lives right now.In Paul’s mind, all these virtues, being devoted to good works, speaking evil of no one, being gentle, being submissive, obedient, always showing every consideration for gentleness to all men, and the way God saved you are connected.It is not do this here and then here’s how God saved you over here.It is do this because, for. Insist on this, so that. How is Titus to teach present practical every day truths about living in a pagan society? By drawing a line from the doctrine of salvation to present day behavior.The two are linked.I have known people who would freak out if you made a mistake in the way you talked about total depravity at church. If someone stood up and said I believe people are good, they would go crazy. If someone stood up and said I believe I am saved because I was such a nice person, they would get all upset and they should. But what is so strange to me is that they don’t seem to have a problem with people who are rude to other people and say degrading things about other people and treat other people as non-people and maybe a step further they don’t see a lack of seriousness about pursuing every good work as an issue, which makes no sense because a better, more profound test of what someone believes about himself and the nature of man is not simply whether he can articulate the right words at church but instead how he treats other people, and here how he treats unbelievers.You see people who just hate those in authority over them in the government. You see people who are almost impossible to motivate to do anything for anyone else outside of their family and a few friends. You see people who are constantly slandering unbelievers, people who they think are bad people. You see people who are continually fighting and yelling at other people. You see people who are rude and harsh to people outside their social group. You see people who go around ignoring people that they don’t think are important. You see people who aren’t concerned about reaching out to all people, but just certain people. You see people who don’t mind that there are groups of people that are just getting walked over. You see people that are sort of neutral on good works.And you say why is all that a big deal?What I want you to understand is that it is not simply a big deal because it is a practical issue. It is not simply a big deal because it is a personality issue. It is a big deal because it is a doctrinal issue. If you are not concerned about those kinds of issues and you think it is because you are more theological and more doctrinal, you are kidding yourself because if Paul says the way to motivate people to treat others with this kind of consideration and to submit to governments is to remind them of the gospel then he believes that the reason people do not treat others this way is because they don’t fully appreciate the gospel, the doctrine of salvation!This is an important subject, to God, for your eternal future and for your life right now.