Show Notes
Pastor Stephen Lauer
Titus 3:4-6
View Full Transcript
Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Imprisonment that as your gospel goes forth and the nations are gathered in, the kingdom of darkness fights back.
[00:00:10] And one of the ways in which it particularly assaults your people and the progresses of your kingdom is to persecute your saints.
[00:00:22] So we remember this evening our brothers and sisters who are in prison for the sake of the Gospel, of those who have lost homes, who have been hurt, and who are currently being harmed for the sake of the Name. We ask, O Holy Spirit, that you would be near to them, protect their faith, keep them holy. And we ask that they would know your great love and power and presence. And we ask that you would use them mightily for the progress of the Gospel. For we know even from the story we just read, that prisons cannot hold your word. But your word grows and spreads regardless, and even in spite of the kingdom of darkness and anything it would seek to do.
[00:01:14] We thank you, Lord Jesus, that you reign. You're the one in control.
[00:01:21] And we ask that you then tonight, from your throne on high in heaven, would fill us with your Holy Spirit, that He would work on our hearts, that we might see the truths of your Word, and that he would make your Word alive to us, and that we might believe it, that we might be saved, that we might be delivered yet more from sin, and that our hearts might come yet more alive in youn, our Savior.
[00:01:52] We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:01:57] We're going to read God's Word this evening from Titus, chapter three.
[00:02:02] We'll read verses one through eight. One through eight. And our sermon text is going to focus on verses 5 and 6.
[00:02:14] Hear God's word, Titus 3, beginning in verse 1. Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
[00:02:33] For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
[00:02:48] But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior, appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us with richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
[00:03:17] The saying is trustworthy and I want you to insist on these things so those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.
[00:03:27] These things are excellent and profitable for people, please be seated.
[00:03:55] Last time we were together looking at these verses, we began to look at the kindness and love of God toward man. And we talked about how our salvation.
[00:04:06] This verse begins to tell us about how our salvation depends on the fact that God Himself is kind and benevolent toward sinners, that it's his desire to save sinners out of their misery and sin, and that that is the root and you might say the fountain, the source of our salvation.
[00:04:29] And that contrary to anything in ourselves, that all of it ultimately depends on him and his love and kindness towards us.
[00:04:39] We saw also that that was a love and kindness that appeared to us particularly as we came to know Jesus Christ in the preaching of the Gospel. As we read the word as it was read to us and explained to us.
[00:04:54] There God's kindness was revealed to us as a God who would send his own Son so that sinners might be delivered from their sins and have eternal life.
[00:05:07] We want to keep looking at the kindness of God, that God is a kind God towards us sinners by looking at his kindness to us in regenerating sinners. That's the next idea that Paul points to in these verses.
[00:05:23] That he saved us in his kindness and love by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. I want to look with you at God's kindness to us in our regeneration. First, looking at regeneration, this kindness of God in regeneration. Secondly, considering the richness of God's kindness to us in that regeneration, and then finally how that is a kindness to you, dear sinner. So the regeneration itself, what is it?
[00:06:01] Secondly, how it is a rich kindness of God to us. And thirdly, it is a kindness to you.
[00:06:09] So first, God's kindness in regeneration.
[00:06:13] Paul is describing what happened to to the sinner when God revealed His kindness to the sinner. When we came to know his kindness in Jesus Christ, we were saved. As he revealed Himself to us, we were saved. And now he begins to unfold what God did in each of us, in the sinner as he saved us, as he took Christ's work on the cross and began to apply it to to individual sinners to save them as they came to believe the Gospel.
[00:06:49] And there's two big parts here if you look at these verses. The first part is this regeneration that we're going to talk about tonight. The second part, you see in verse seven, is that we are justified by his grace and become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And we'll look at that probably next week.
[00:07:12] But the first part of what God does, as he saves the individual sinner in his kindness, is that he regenerates the sinner.
[00:07:22] What is this regeneration? Well, God saves us. The first part that he talks about here of our salvation is that he transforms the inner person.
[00:07:33] Not your body, your physical body being transformed. Some of us would like that. Some of us have sicknesses, or maybe we've gotten a little flabby. We'd love a personal transformation of our physical bodies.
[00:07:44] But that's not what he's talking about with this regeneration.
[00:07:50] He's talking about the you on the inside, the you that thinks and acts and desires and loves and does things.
[00:07:59] The inside of you, what the Bible calls your heart, made up of your will and your affections and your desires and so forth.
[00:08:08] It is a transformation of your inner person.
[00:08:13] It's described as a regeneration or renewal. Or this regeneration, sometimes we call it. The Bible calls it a new birth.
[00:08:23] This new birth or regeneration is moral and spiritual.
[00:08:30] So your body remains the same.
[00:08:33] You remain a human being made up of a mind and a will and a heart and so on. But God changes us morally and spiritually. We were inclined towards evil.
[00:08:46] Look back at verse three. We ourselves, before God saved us, we were foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy and hateful and hating others.
[00:09:03] He's describing both the inner person and what flows from it, the malice and awful things.
[00:09:10] But the foolishness was referring to spiritual darkness. We don't know God. We're disobedient to him. We don't want to know him. We want to be led astray. And we give into all kinds of passions, sinful passions that enslave us.
[00:09:25] That's. It's a moral description of the inner you and your sinful desires that you're enslaved to.
[00:09:33] And this regeneration or renewal, this new birth, God transforms us. And he takes away that sinful old man sometimes, the Bible calls it, and he gives us a new character, a new life, a new desire, a new bent for things that are good, that are pleasing to him. A new bent to love and to be kind and to be gentle and so on. A bent away from unbelief and towards faith in God.
[00:10:04] A bent away from disobedience and now towards serving him and loving him.
[00:10:10] The Old Testament, in a passage we read regularly in this church, it's wonderful.
[00:10:16] The Old Testament is Ezekiel 36. There God describes what one day in the new covenant through Jesus, the Messiah, what he is going to do for his people.
[00:10:27] Ezekiel 36, verse 25. He says, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. I will cleanse you, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
[00:10:56] Now, as you're listening, you hear what God is describing that he's going to one day do through his spirit, through Jesus Christ is it's on the inside of the person, talks about his heart. It's a change of heart, a new heart, and in particular it has to do with moral things, but with the ethical character of our hearts. He's going to cleanse and remove what's evil, what's hardened, what's stony. He's going to give us something that's alive, a new spirit made of flesh, and so forth.
[00:11:29] And we can summarize then this renewal and regeneration that Paul's talking about here in Titus 3, 5, 6. We can summarize this really under two parts. There's two aspects to this regeneration that God works in the sinner when he saves him.
[00:11:51] The one part we capture under the word washing.
[00:11:55] And Paul there is, echoing God's language in Ezekiel, the washing of regeneration.
[00:12:01] This has to do with cleansing, removal. You know when you wash dishes or you wash your child who's been playing in the mud, you're washing away dirt and filth and uncleanness. And God used that language in Ezekiel 36, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness. This has to do with cleansing and removal of sin. God's going to take away the foolishness of our hearts, the disobedience that was in there, the rebellious desires and the passions that are enslaved to earthly worldly lust. He's going to take all of that away, wash it away in this regeneration.
[00:12:45] So there's a removal of sin, sinful desires in the old man. That's the first part in the washing.
[00:12:52] And the second part is that he gives us something new, something good. We talk about the New Testament talks about the new man that God makes us into.
[00:13:04] It talks about giving us a new nature, a new life.
[00:13:10] In Ezekiel he says, I give you a heart of flesh, a heart that now can feel and desire good things that please God, a desire to walk according to God's law and obey his commandments.
[00:13:26] This new nature is described under both the regeneration and and the renewal in 1 Peter.
[00:13:35] Peter says, 1:23, you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable seed through the living and abiding Word of God.
[00:13:49] There's a new nature pictured in this seed. It's like a seed that God plants, implants in our hearts when we're born again, happens by the word of God, by the preaching of the Word, as we said, God reveals himself to us in Jesus Christ, we come to know Him. That word of God becomes like a seed that the Spirit plants as a new nature in our hearts that begins to grow and to have new life, new desires for good things.
[00:14:17] It's like a renewal, making something new, which is the language of new creation.
[00:14:25] You have become as you've been born again, you have become renewed, a new creature.
[00:14:32] 2 Corinthians 5:17. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation or a new creature. The old has passed away and behold, the new has come.
[00:14:46] Ephesians 2 and 4 use this language.
[00:14:52] Chapter 2 says that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works.
[00:15:00] Chapter four says that we are to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
[00:15:09] A new seed, a new nature planted in you. A new creation, a new man.
[00:15:16] Regeneration also speaks in the language of new birth, like a new person.
[00:15:23] Born again is the language we get from that. I'm a born again Christian. Someone says, this is what he means. God has given me a new life.
[00:15:34] My heart now desires good things that please God, that love him. So there's the regeneration that God works in the heart of the sinner in order to begin saving him. And it's a very important part of our salvation now. Hopefully you can already begin to see the kindness of God to you, the sinner.
[00:15:56] When he gave you a new heart and a new life.
[00:16:02] That was kind of God to reach into your heart and take out that stony heart, take out that evil, wicked heart and give you something new here. He reached down and he reached into your heart by his spirit and he took out, as it were, the infection, the source of the infection that was making you sick. He cuts out the cancer that was killing you.
[00:16:33] Now it's kind, isn't it, when a doctor does that for us, cleans out the wound, removes the infection, removes the tumor and the cancer so that we have a new lease on on life.
[00:16:44] This is God's kindness to us to remove the very thing that was killing us, the very thing that made us miserable, the very thing that made us odious and stinky and rotten before him. The thing that makes us hateful to God. We were hateful.
[00:17:02] God reaches down and he takes out of our hearts.
[00:17:06] He cuts it out and he gives us something new instead.
[00:17:11] In fact, he gives us something not only that's not ugly and offensive to him. He begins to remake us into something that's loving, that he loves, that's delightful to him. He begins to remake us in the image of his son.
[00:17:27] He loves his son.
[00:17:31] And by his spirit he's changing you to make you more like his son.
[00:17:37] And that means more lovable, more kind, more loving towards others.
[00:17:43] Now, a heart that wants to serve rather than be selfish, a heart that wants to seek God's glory rather than your own, that's a marvelous kindness of God in regeneration.
[00:17:58] Well, there's regeneration and beginning to consider God's kindness to you in it. Secondly, we said that Paul calls this a rich kindness, a rich outpouring of his spirit into the hearts of sinners to regenerate them.
[00:18:17] He calls it the washing of regeneration, the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. There is something rich, something abundant, not stingy. God's not holding back in any way. He pours out everything.
[00:18:37] The whole bucket dumped out, you might say, on you when he regenerates you.
[00:18:43] Now, the language here is of God the Trinity, working as one to regenerate and save each of his children.
[00:18:55] The language here is of God the Father.
[00:18:57] He's the subject of the verb. God the Father pours out the Spirit on the sinner to regenerate him through Jesus Christ His Son the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all active in your regeneration, each playing a different role. But Paul here particularly highlights the role of God the Holy Spirit. And that's a rich kindness to the sinner that God puts his spirit in the hearts of sinners to regenerate them.
[00:19:31] There's at least two things we can point to here that are profound kindnesses to us sinners.
[00:19:38] The first is that as God pours his spirit out on your heart to change you, to take away all the awful stuff and give you a new life in Christ.
[00:19:48] God is the one doing the work.
[00:19:52] It's not by works of righteousness that we have done that God saved us.
[00:19:58] Our regeneration is not something we do.
[00:20:02] Nothing we do can accomplish our regeneration, Paul says, because everything we do is sinful and polluted.
[00:20:13] We couldn't do it. He came and and he did it.
[00:20:19] He did something that we could not do.
[00:20:24] Back to the heart change.
[00:20:26] If you need a heart transplant, you need a really skilled heart surgeon to do that transplant for you.
[00:20:35] Even if there's a heart available, and even if you're the most skilled heart transplant surgeon in the whole world, you can't do your own heart transplant.
[00:20:45] Now we're just talking about physical bodies and physical hearts.
[00:20:49] We're talking here about the moral character of our heart and soul.
[00:20:56] That's something that only God can change. The most skilled person, the most skilled counselor, the most skilled pastor, spiritual counselor in the world cannot change your heart.
[00:21:07] You can't change it. No man can change it. God had to put His Holy Spirit in your heart to change your heart.
[00:21:14] That's a rich kindness.
[00:21:18] Think about that.
[00:21:20] Our hearts were filthy and polluted. They were rebellious. They were the opposite of all that is good. They were everything that is offensive to God.
[00:21:31] And God came and indwelled you by his spirit in order to change you and to take that away and give you a new heart, a heart that loves Him.
[00:21:43] He came and entered you and made you new.
[00:21:50] It's a kindness that God, the Holy Spirit, has poured out on you, but it's a double kindness that he was poured out on you richly.
[00:22:01] God is not stingy with his spirit. He pours him out lavishly, bountifully, in abundance. An overabundance of the work of His Spirit on your heart as he regenerates you and makes you new.
[00:22:15] What's going on here? Well, one of the conversations I have every now and then, actually pretty frequently recently with Christians, is they say now on Pentecost, Jesus ascended into heaven. He poured out his spirit on his church.
[00:22:31] Did the Old Testament saints have the Holy Spirit? Were they regenerate? How does that work? What's going on there and the language here. When Paul says that God poured out his spirit richly on us in Jesus Christ, it helps us answer that question.
[00:22:49] Yes, the Old Testament saints were regenerate.
[00:22:53] Think of Psalm 51 that you're probably familiar with, that we sing regularly in our church here. David's confessing his sin. He's confessing not only his sin against God, the active sins, he's also confessing that sinful nature that indwells him. That's still there, the old man.
[00:23:12] And he says, create in me a clean heart, O God.
[00:23:15] Renew a right spirit within me. What's he asking for?
[00:23:19] He's asking for God to continue the work that began in regeneration.
[00:23:24] Keep sanctifying me. Get rid of more of that old sinful desires and sinful heart, and give me more of the new life that comes from your spirit. And later he says, and don't take your spirit away from me. Yes, the Old Testament saints were regenerate. They had the gift of the Spirit to regenerate them, give them faith, unite them to Jesus Christ, that they too might truly be saved.
[00:23:50] One Savior, Jesus, one Spirit, who unites us to him by faith in the Old and in the New Testament, he is the only way of salvation. And yes, the Old Testament saints were saved through Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit.
[00:24:06] But in the new covenant, God promised that he would pour out his Spirit yet more richly when on his saints. And we read one of those passages that talked about that at length and in detail. Ezekiel 36 I'm going to wash you and make you clean. I'm going to put my spirit on you and you're going to obey me. Of course, the backdrop is Israel and her idolatry and her constant, over and over again, rebellions against God.
[00:24:32] God was saying, in the new covenant, things are going to be different. And the difference is that I'm going to pour out more of my spirit on you.
[00:24:40] Isaiah 32:15 until the Spirit has poured upon us from on high and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest, the Spirit's going to be poured out on people that right now are like desert wastelands, and he's going to make them fruitful fields and forests.
[00:25:01] Think of the Old Testament imagery of the tree. Psalm 1. The man who's righteous, man who's like a tree, who bears fruit in every season, a whole forest of trees. In other words, fields filled with people indwelled by the Spirit of God, hearts changed and living, bearing fruit for God.
[00:25:24] Isaiah 44:3. I will pour my water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon your offspring and my blessing on your descendants.
[00:25:37] Same idea.
[00:25:39] Where does that richness unfold? Well, we've already hinted at part of it, that greater fruit. In other words, to a greater degree, God is going to be regenerating people.
[00:25:53] Part of that is that now the nations are going to be enfolded into God's covenant people. In other words, not just Israel, but as the gospel goes forth to the four corners of the earth, God's Spirit will be poured out. And all around the world, even here in Tucson, in this desert, God is regenerating the Hearts of the nations, the Gentiles, pagans, giving them life, giving them faith, bringing them into his sheepfold in his church.
[00:26:23] So more people, many, many, many more people all around the world regenerate and worshiping God.
[00:26:29] But also in the individual believer, God is promising that there will be a greater degree of the work of His Spirit.
[00:26:38] In other words, more fruit of the Spirit.
[00:26:42] The trees that were there will be even more fruitful. The believers of the New Covenant will be in general more fruitful than those of the old.
[00:26:52] I know we struggle with this in our own lives. It doesn't always feel like that.
[00:26:57] But Think of Galatians 5.
[00:27:01] Paul There talks about how we've been given life by the Spirit. So now we're to walk in the Spirit and to bear the fruits of the Spirit.
[00:27:11] Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. All the things Israel was called to do. God says, by My Spirit, I'm going to make you fruitful and to grow richly in those things.
[00:27:27] What a rich kindness of God that He not only pours out His Spirit and regenerates far more people, Gentiles, pagans, but that he fills us with greater degrees of His Spirit that we might bear yet more fruit to the glory of God. But he's not done.
[00:27:47] There's a third aspect to the richness of the outpouring of His Spirit, and that is that it comes through Jesus Christ. And this is really the reason, the reason for the greater degree of richness of the Holy Spirit.
[00:28:02] It's that Jesus Christ the Savior came, the one who in the Old Testament prophecies was promised would come and would put God's Spirit on His people. He came and did what was necessary. He died on the cross. He rose from the dead.
[00:28:18] He went into heaven and took possession of the kingdom of heaven. And he poured out the Spirit of God and the Spirit of heaven on his saints.
[00:28:29] He is the one who came to baptize with the Holy Spirit. As John prophesied, He's here now and he's pouring out His Spirit on His people. The work is accomplished and now he works in the hearts of his people by His Spirit.
[00:28:47] It's a gift that he earned, that he purchased with his blood.
[00:28:52] And now he gives to you.
[00:28:56] And what does the Spirit do?
[00:28:59] The Spirit applies the finished work of Jesus.
[00:29:03] That's his job.
[00:29:04] That's what he's doing in regeneration.
[00:29:07] That's rich.
[00:29:09] The death of the old man, the cleansing that removes the filth and allows us to put sin to death and walk Away from the things that beset us over and over again.
[00:29:21] It's because Jesus hung on the cross and now the Spirit unites us to Jesus, work on the cross, his death, and he puts sin to death in us.
[00:29:33] That's the one part, but so too the other part.
[00:29:37] The new life, that new heart and new desires and new loves and kindness and joy, and all the fruits of the Spirit, they flow directly from the throne of God in heaven.
[00:29:48] You see, it's because Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and has the life of heaven and all the blessings of heaven that the Spirit is able to apply those to your heart and to give you that new life.
[00:30:04] Anything good you do, anytime, any day, when you take God's name on your lips and you praise him, when you cry out to him for help in time of need, when you're able to serve one another in your family or in the church, those fruits of the Spirit are the power of Christ in His resurrection life, indwelling you and flowing through you, causing you to live the new life.
[00:30:32] That's a rich outpouring of God's kindness by the Spirit in Jesus Christ.
[00:30:41] This kindness, it should already be obvious, is for you the kindness of God for the sinner in regeneration.
[00:30:52] That's our third point that I want to consider with you.
[00:30:57] In order for you to enter the kingdom of heaven, Jesus says in John chapter three, you must be born again.
[00:31:09] And Nicodemus says, if you remember the story, wait a minute, how can I enter? I can't do that. I can't be born again from my mother.
[00:31:16] That doesn't work that way. What are you talking about? And Jesus says, no, you have to be born again in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. You have to be regenerated. And then he explains, you have to be born of water and the Spirit. You have to be washed and clean and be given a new life by the power of the Spirit.
[00:31:38] That's the only way to heaven, that's the only way to forgiveness. And eternal life is through the power of the Spirit working in you, changing you.
[00:31:49] Without this change of heart, there's no salvation, there's no eternal life. That's taught in these verses too, not just back in John 3.
[00:31:59] When the kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration.
[00:32:07] We must be regenerated in order to be saved, in order to have the hope of eternal life, in order to have faith and be justified and all the other things we'll talk about.
[00:32:17] But you must Be regenerated. Have this new birth in order to enter the kingdom of heaven.
[00:32:24] It's a kindness of God. But the question is, do you know this kindness of God?
[00:32:31] Is your heart changed?
[00:32:36] Are you born again?
[00:32:39] Another way to ask the question on the basis here of verse four and five is, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ?
[00:32:49] If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, then He has regenerated you.
[00:32:55] Look at the verse. The kindness and mercy of God our Savior appeared when he saved us by his mercy and regenerated us. So as we came to know the Lord Jesus Christ, he changed us so that we could know Him. They all go together.
[00:33:12] So do you know the Lord Jesus? Do you trust in Him? If you do, then he's regenerated you.
[00:33:21] But if you don't know him and you're not regenerate, then this kindness is held forth to you. Every time the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached. Every time he is held forth to you as the Savior of sinners, as the way to God, regeneration is held forth to you in him by his power.
[00:33:43] Seek Jesus in His word. If you're not regenerate, look for Jesus. Come to meet him in his word. Read and preached.
[00:33:52] God is kind.
[00:33:53] It is his desire that sinners would turn to His Son and be saved. It is his gracious desire to regenerate sinners.
[00:34:04] He gives freely in His Son. Come to him, receive him, and he will change you.
[00:34:13] Secondly, not only is it necessary and freely given to be regenerate, but there is, for those who are regenerate, many benefits.
[00:34:24] A great blessedness of the new birth.
[00:34:28] If you are born again, we argued you're a new creature.
[00:34:34] That means that the beginning of the new creation is already begun in you.
[00:34:41] The new creation is what we look forward to. The new heavens and the new earth. To be with God forever, to have communion and fellowship with Him.
[00:34:50] A place where there is no sin, where we worship God perfectly and purely.
[00:34:57] But if you're a new creature by the power of God's Holy Spirit, then that new creation has already begun. In you grace is the beginning of glory. One day it will be perfected.
[00:35:10] But it's already begun.
[00:35:13] There are already the beginnings of that new eternal life in your heart.
[00:35:19] Now that's a great blessing. That's something to praise God for every day.
[00:35:25] Every day you wake up and you say, here I am. And God gives me a love for him. And I have one more day to serve Him. And throughout the day you see him working in you, allowing you to do things you couldn't do before and keeping you from sins that you used to fall into.
[00:35:41] And there's his work in you, that new creation. And you say, praise God.
[00:35:47] Thanks be to God for this new life.
[00:35:50] That's a great blessing.
[00:35:53] And it's not something you have to wait for until you get to heaven. It's already there. He's already at work in you.
[00:36:02] It's a blessing. It's the beginning of new creation.
[00:36:06] And that blessing is something God calls you to live out. And in some ways, that's where Paul's driving with this passage, verse 2 and 3. Paul's talking about how to be kind and gracious and. And gentle towards outsiders, towards those who aren't believers, because we used to be awful like they are, and we need to be patient with them and still be kind to them. But now he's arguing from what God has done in you. He's given you a new heart that you can live that new life and be kind and loving and gracious to them.
[00:36:41] This is his call. He's pointing you to what he's done and says, now go live for me.
[00:36:48] So verse eight, Paul concludes, having laid out the wonderful blessing of regeneration and justification, the hope of eternal life.
[00:36:56] And he says, I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.
[00:37:12] What a wonderful life God has given you to live. Oh, there's sin, there's struggles, there's misery, there's problems. But what he's doing by His Spirit in you, that's wonderful, excellent, profitable and good.
[00:37:27] Where I want to leave you is this that work of the Spirit that you're experiencing in your new life and in regeneration?
[00:37:38] It isn't just the beginning of your future. It isn't just this new life that God calls you to now.
[00:37:46] It's also a seal of your eternal life.
[00:37:51] In other words, it's a confirmation to you that in Christ Jesus you possess glory, that when he comes again, you know that you belong to him, and that when he comes again, he will receive you to himself.
[00:38:09] In Ephesians 1:14, he calls the Holy Spirit the seal of our inheritance, the down payment of our inheritance.
[00:38:21] In Philippians 1:6, he says that he who began a good work in you will complete it if you are regenerate. And you know it, then you know that you have eternal life in Christ Jesus. And that's a blessing. Let's pray. Our gracious God and our Savior.
[00:38:40] Oh, how we thank youk for your kindness towards us.
[00:38:46] We don't deserve it.
[00:38:48] We know what we deserve. But we thank youk that yout point us away from that to the blessings of heaven poured out on us richly in Jesus, your Son. O Lord, our God, we ask that you would forgive us our ungratefulness. Forgive us for where we fail to acknowledge your work in our lives. Help us to be ever more attentive to your graces and your goodness. And help us to pursue the filling of your Holy Spirit, that we might pursue love with the brothers and that we might seek your help in all things.
[00:39:25] We ask, Lord Jesus, that you would bless us richly by your word and spirit. Now, in Jesus name we ask. Amen.
