And this evening, in our Old Testament reading, we'll be turning to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 9. Deuteronomy chapter 9. Beginning in verse 1 and reading through verse 6. This is the Word of the Lord. Here, O Israel, you are to cross over the Jordan today and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, descendants of Anakim whom you know and of whom you heard it said, who can stand before the descendants of Anak? Therefore, understand today that the Lord your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you, so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you. Do not think in your heart after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, because of my righteousness, The Lord has brought me in to possess this land. But it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, that he may fulfill the word. which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. And now for our New Testament reading, turn to Titus chapter 3. Titus chapter 3. We'll be looking particularly tonight at verses 4-7 as our text, but we'll read verses 1-8 to pick up the context. Titus 3, beginning in verse 1. Again, this is the Word of the Lord. Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work. to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the goodness, the kindness, and the love of our 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 and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. that, having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men. grass withereth, flower fadeth. The Word of our God shall stand forever. Before we go to the exhortation of the Word, let us go to our God in prayer, asking that He would open the eyes of our minds to behold wondrous things out of His law. Let us pray. Father, we confess that in us, that is in our flesh, dwells no good thing. And that apart from Christ, whom you sent for us, we would have no hope. And Lord, we take great joy that you've given us this means of grace, not only the reading, but the exhortation of your Word, that by your Spirit it might be an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners and of building us up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation. God, we ask that this word would not come in word only, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that you would pour out your Spirit upon me and upon this, your people, that we would have a sense of your presence in our midst, that we would come away changed. We would come away more greatly conformed to your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And God, if nothing else, we pray that we would come away with a greater love for Jesus. We would see him afresh in this word. We ask this in his name. Amen. Why do we struggle in the Christian life? Why do we struggle in the Christian life? Why do we struggle as saved people with sin? And not just with sin in general, but with particular sins. To draw on a few categories we just read in Titus 3, why do we struggle with rebellion against authority? Why do we struggle with disobedience? Why do we struggle with carelessness and coldness? Why do we struggle with pride and harshness and hatred even among ourselves, slander, gossip? Why is it that we as Christians struggle in a Christian life? And maybe you think that the answer is a lack of effort. a lack of exertion, that we need to try harder. And before you dismiss that, it's true that that is often part of our problem. God calls us to strive for holiness, to resist temptation, to resist the devil, to put off, to put on, put on the whole armor of God. And if you're struggling with a besetting sin that has gripped you in a death hold, it's true that you need to exert yourself by grace through faith. Maybe it's getting accountability, putting in barriers in your life, installing new habits in your life, setting new patterns, putting off, putting on, working out your own salvation with fear and trembling. There is effort in the Christian life. But is that the root of our problems? Is that the bedrock of why we struggle in the Christian life? And I would direct you to a, in some ways, shocking quotation by the 17th century Puritan John Owen, which if you've spent any time with Ian Hamilton, Sinclair Ferguson, or our own Dr. McGraw, you will have heard his name many times, and you know that he's worth listening to. Here's what John Owen says. Our greatest hindrance in the Christian life is not our lack of efforts. but our lack of acquaintedness with our privileges. I'll say that again. Owen says our greatest hindrance in the Christian life is not our lack of effort, though that is part of the problem, but that's not the greatest hindrance. It is instead our lack of acquaintedness with our privileges. Hampered by our own selfishness, our own self-centeredness, We are so ignorant of the privileges and the benefits that we have in Jesus Christ that we fail to know him, we fail to love him as we ought, and we struggle. If that's the root problem, then Titus 3, especially verses four through seven, are the perfect place to go to get reacquainted, to get better acquainted, with our privileges in Christ Jesus. Just to put our text in some context, one writer has called the book of Titus a textbook on the doctrines of grace. It's a book that's full of phrases like this, the truth which accords with godliness, the faithful word, sound doctrine, the things which are proper for sound doctrine, sound speech. He calls us to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. He speaks of a faithful saying. And so the book of Titus is really tied up with these two things, doctrine and light. or better, doctrine for life. Practical doctrine, doctrinal practice. Living out the Christian life in light of our privileges. If we go specifically to verses four through seven in chapter three, this is even more clearly the case. In chapter three, just to give you some flow of the book, in chapter one, Paul calls Titus to appoint elders, and he gives them some criteria for their doctrine, for their life, who they're to be. In chapter two, he expands that to all Christians in general. Christians who are old, young, male, female, slave, free. They're called to live out who they are in Christ Jesus. And when we get to chapter three, Paul focuses in on how all Christians are to live in the world. how they're to live in relation to unbelievers. And so Paul calls Titus to remind the Cretans to be subject to authorities, to obey the civil magistrate, to obey those in leadership, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. The series of ethical imperatives, commands. And in verse three, he grounds all of this in an indicative. He grounds all of these commands in a rationale, in a reason. And you see that in the word that opens verse three, the word for. Do this for we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Of course, we're to show all humility to all men, because this is what we were. This is what we did. And he goes on to give a second part to this indicative, to this reason for how we ought to live in the world, and that is our text, which begins in verse four. One of those great contrastive statements. You were this way. You were born in sin. You were conceived in sin. You were living out this pattern of life. But 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 and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, have been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The key clause is, but He saved us. Tonight, you're painfully aware of your struggles in the Christian life. whatever they may be, whatever burdens you have, whatever sins are trying to entangle you and that you're giving into, whatever it is that you're combating, that you're struggling with, you need to be reacquainted, better acquainted with your privileges. And Paul's message really is simply this. God has saved us. God has saved us. Or to put it in the words of G.I. Packer, in his great summary of Calvinism, God saves sinners. So tonight, as we get reacquainted with our privileges, in order to do battle in the Christian life, we're gonna look at this great doctrine, this great theme of our salvation. When we look at it in this passage, we realize that salvation is almost like a multi-faceted diamond. We can lift up the light of God's Word and turn it this way and turn it that way. And with every turn, we see a new aspect of what we have in Christ Jesus. So this evening we're going to particularly look at four aspects of salvation. Four facets of this great Gospel diamond. First, we're going to look at the time of salvation. Second, the ground of salvation. Third, the means of salvation. And finally, we'll look at the goal of salvation. Or we could put it this way. We're going to answer four questions. When did God save us? Why did God save us at the very beginning? How did he save us? And finally, we'll ask the why question again, but this time, why did he save us with a view to the end of our salvation? Let's begin with the first, the time of salvation. The time of salvation, when did God save us? If someone asked you that question, what would you say? When did God save you? I think most of us would be tempted, at least in our American culture, at least the way I grew up, I would want to point to a specific day, a specific hour, when I first became conscious of sin, when I first cried out to the Lord and say, that's when God saved me. But it's interesting that the Lord, through the Apostle Paul here, does not begin with the subjective aspect of salvation. He doesn't begin with redemption applied. Rather, he begins with the objective aspect of salvation. He begins with redemption accomplished in history. As Machen put it, the gospel begins with a triumphant indicative. Look at verse four. It says, but when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, that's when he saved us. The kindness of God speaks of his generosity, his goodness, his graciousness. Then we have that phrase, the love toward man. In the original, that's one word, love toward man. And it speaks of God's general benevolence to all humanity, his posture, his stance of love toward the world he has made. But to what event does this language refer? When did this happen? I think we get a clue in that word in verse four, appeared. This is the word that we get our word, epiphany, from. It's the word used in Titus 2, verse 11, where it says, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It's a word that refers to the coming, the advent, the epiphany of Jesus Christ into the world. God saved us when His kindness and His love appeared in the incarnation of His Son. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. God had this plan from the beginning, before the beginning, before the foundation of the world. But in the fullness of time, He sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those, you, me, who were under the law. God sent forth his Son, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but should have everlasting life. He gave him to be a deed and gift, a grant to all men. He set him before us, the Savior of the world, the only Savior of sinners, who is able to save to the uttermost all who call upon him. It's not simply Christ in Himself that we see. Or even Christ in you, but Christ for you. Christ for us. Christ revealed in time, in space, in history. Christ the God-man. Christ the incarnate Savior. Sometimes, we're asked to give our testimony. And I've been asked to do that before, I've reflected on that over the years, and I've realized that what we're really being asked to do is to share our experience. And everyone's experience is different. Some of you can point to a specific time when you first cried out to the Lord and asked for salvation. Others of you don't remember a time when you did not know and love the Lord Jesus, but you know you're trusting in Him today, right now. Everyone's experience is different. But there's a sense in which all of our testimonies are the same. What is our testimony? When did God save us? God saved us 2,000 years ago at the cross of Christ. Do you realize how electrifying this is? That the kindness and the love of God are not simply abstract qualities, but rather they are embodied in a person, that the kindness and the love of God toward you as a face, the face of Jesus. That's why Simeon, as he was holding the infant Jesus in his arms, could say, in seeing the face of the Messiah, he had seen the salvation of the Lord. Jesus is the kindness and the love of God toward you. He is the kindness and the love of God placarded before you, set before you in history and in the preaching of the words. Not simply Christ in himself or even Christ in you, but Christ for you. Are you struggling tonight in the Christian life? Are you struggling? And if so, I would encourage you to consider the kindness and the love of God our Savior. The kindness which is meant to lead you to repentance. The love of God our Savior, which is not dependent on your love to Him. run cold inside you, will look to the love of God in Christ Jesus outside you. Think of those words by John Murray, that faith is extraspective, that it looks outside itself and rests upon another. If you're struggling, look to the finished, the objective, the accomplished work of Christ. Because when Jesus came into the world, he came for a purpose. to live a life of obedience unto death, even death on the cross, then the Father raised him up again. We've been saved by the death and the resurrection of Jesus. That's the time of our salvation. That's when God saved us. But now we come to the ground of salvation. The ground of salvation, the second facet of the gospel diamond. Why? Why did God save us? Why did God send forth His Son? Why did God manifest His kindness and His love in Jesus, even willing to crush Him on the cross? After all, we're sinners. Why would He save people like us? And the Apostle gives an answer, first negatively, and then positively in verse 5, where it says, not by works of righteousness which we have done, But according to His mercy, He saved us. Negatively, the ground of salvation is not human performance. What moved God to save you was not our works, our merits, our contributions. Yes, we're saved unto good works, but the very foundation, the ground of God's saving, the cause which impelled him to do so was not human performance. But positively, the ground is divine mercy. And as we know from the rest of scripture, God's mercy is always just mercy, merciful justice, the righteousness of God that he might be just and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus. not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy. He saved us. If you read through the book of Titus, it's clear that this word mercy is very precious to the Apostle Paul. Often in his apostolic greetings, he'll say, he'll say, grace and peace. But here, in a few other places, he adds a word. In chapter 1, verse 4, it says, to Titus, a true son in our common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. Divine mercy. God doesn't give you what you deserve. No, He poured out His wrath upon His Son on the cross, and instead, He gives you life. He gives you salvation. He gives you pardon. He delivers you. He saved us, not by works of righteousness, but according to His mercy. This is the same principle we find in Ephesians 2, verses 8 through 10. For by grace are you saved through faith, but not of yourselves. It is the work of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. As one writer put it, what Paul has here is not a works-merit paradigm with respect to us, but rather a faith-grace paradigm. And it's not just Paul. But you find this runs through the whole of Scripture. It's as old as the first Gospel promised to Adam in Genesis 3.15. And I would just take you to one place. We already read it earlier, but that's Deuteronomy 9 where we have what I like to call the Gospel according to Moses. And in verses 4-6, there's three times where God has a remarkable statement. Do not think in your heart after the Lord your God has cast them out before you saying, because of my righteousness. The Lord has brought me in to possess this land. Again, verse five, it is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land. Verse six, therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness. No, because the other people are wicked. And it's because I made a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So all throughout scripture, it's the same gospel. The gospel according to Moses, the gospel according to Paul, the gospel according to Jesus, by grace, through faith. As a hymn writer put it, not the labor of my hands can fulfill thy laws demands. Could my zeal no respite know? Could my tears forever flow? All for sin cannot atone. Thou must say, thou alone. Are you struggling in the Christian life? At least for me, there are times when I'm struggling with something and my temptation is to fall prey and to default to a legalistic frame of mind. To revert to a pulling myself up by my own bootstraps. To adopt a legal frame. And in that legal frame, I can begin to think of the Father, who I should consider as a loving father, who even in his discipline and in his chastening has my good in mind. But instead, in the midst of that trial, in the midst of that struggle, is it not possible that in adopting a legal frame of mind, we begin to think of him as a taskmaster, as someone who is against us, or perhaps even worse, someone who wants to withhold something good from us, keep us from legalism, what Thomas Boston said is that tendency to go the way of the covenant of works. to fall back into that manner and that mode of thinking. And Paul is so clear on this in Galatians. He says, if you continue, you began, rather, in the Spirit, why do you go on and continue by the flesh? No, you began by the Spirit. You began by grace through faith. Continue by grace through faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. We've seen the time of salvation. It's when God sent forth His Son 2,000 years ago to deliver a people by His cross work and by His resurrection. We've seen the ground of salvation. It's God's divine mercy, His just mercy, His merciful justice, the righteousness of God. We see now third, the third aspect of salvation, the third facet of the diamond, the means of salvation. The means of salvation. Not just when, not just why, but how. How did God save us? How did He do this? How did He do this in your life? How did He do this in my life? And here we begin to move from that objective aspect of salvation to the subjective. From redemption accomplished to redemption applied. From the particular work of Christ to the work of His spirits. We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ by the effectual application of it to us by His Holy Spirit. We see this in verses five and six where it says, He saved us, how? How? Through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. How did He save us? through two things. The apostle mentions the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Two ways of describing the same thing, water and spirit. A lot of ink has been spilt over this particular passage, and I think there are two possible errors here. On the one hand, Roman Catholics come to a passage like this and they see washing, water, Baptism. Baptismal regeneration. The baptism is something that works simply by the work performed. If you get baptized, it's automatic. It's magical. It's mechanical. It conveys regeneration like that. You're baptized, you're good, you've been infused with grace. That's wrong. That would undercut and totally disintegrate the very doctrine of grace and sovereign mercy that we've been looking at this evening. That's incorrect, but I think there's another potential error. That's the error of many Protestants who in that great pendulum swing and perhaps in overreaction, see nothing of baptism. and make it so subjectivized and so individualized and so pietistic that the sacrament totally dissolves and fades from the scene. There's a better way. It's the way Calvin took. It's the way I think the best reformed thinkers in our tradition have taken. And it's this. How did God save us? The means of salvation is the working of the spirit. signed and sealed in baptism. Yes, there's a reference to baptism here. We must remember that the efficacy of baptism can never be divorced from the work of the Spirit who works faith in us. The working of the Spirit, signed and sealed in baptism. Let's break this down into two parts. First, the working of the Spirit. And if we talk about the work of the Spirit, we have to begin with the Spirit's work in history. Spirit's work in history. We're talking earlier about Jesus Christ coming into the world, dying for sinners, being raised up again. And after he was raised up by the power of the Holy Spirit, after spending 40 days on this earth, he ascended into heaven. And then, having sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, what did he do? The Father, through the Son, poured out the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. John baptized with water. But Jesus baptized with the Holy Spirit and with power. In fulfillment of Joel 2, that He would pour out His Spirit on all flesh, fulfilled in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of Christ, the promised Holy Spirit, came down, descended, making the New Covenant Church witnesses of the risen Christ. We have the Spirit's work in history. And we see that even in the language of verse 6. It says, He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. That language of God's Pentecostal outpouring in time, in space, in history. Just as a side note, note the wonderful Trinitarian nature of our salvation. That it's God the Father pouring out the Spirit through the one mediator, Christ Jesus. In our salvation, it is always from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, we serve a triune God. That is the gospel we proclaim, the gospel we believe. But it's not just the Spirit's work in history. It's also the Spirit's work in us, the Spirit's work in you, the Spirit's work in me. That takes us to that great doctrine of regeneration. There are two words mentioned in verse five, the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Spirit. Regeneration, renewing, I think two ways of describing the same thing, this great renovative work, regeneration. A word which literally means Genesis again. Genesis again. New life. New creation. Like resurrection from the dead. Restoration. Renewal. And the only other place this word is mentioned is in Matthew 19.28. Here in Titus 3 it speaks of an individual being born again, being born from above. In Matthew 19.28 it speaks of the regeneration, the renewal of all things. Not just the individual, but the cosmos. And as we start to realize that this privilege, this benefit, of God's regenerating work in your individual life is tied into not only the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, but the resurrection of your body from the dead on the last day, and ultimately, the regeneration of all things, the restoration of the world. This doctrine of regeneration is found, as we know, in Ezekiel 36, where God promises that he will wash us, he will cleanse us, he will sprinkle us with pure water, he'll give us new hearts. It's picked up in that classic passage of our Lord in John 3, where he says, you must be born again, born from above, born by the Spirit. I think the best definition I've come across He's that by Sinclair Ferguson in his great work on the Holy Spirit, where he defines regeneration this way. The Spirit's work in you this way. He calls it the Spirit's work of radical renewal. Radical renewal, and he says it has three parts. On the one hand, it speaks of an intellectual illumination. Your mind was darkened. Your understanding was totally blinded. When the Spirit comes and does a work in you, And the spirit comes in sovereign power. He takes that darkness and injects it with light, illumination. Ferguson continues, it's not just illumination, it's liberation of the will. Luther talked about the bondage of the will under the bondage and yoke of sin. But in regeneration, there's a liberation of the will from its bondage in a nature dominated by sin, and now an enabling to walk in newness of life. The third aspect Ferguson mentions is cleansing. Outside of Christ, you're polluted. You are tarnished. You are dirty. But by the washing of the blood of Jesus and the washing of the Holy Spirit's regenerating work, you are cleansed. Those dark spots are removed. I remember reading in school of Macbeth. I was forced to read it in a couple English classes. There's that great scene where Lady Macbeth has this garment, this piece of clothing, and she can't get the blood out. Out, out, damned spot, she says. And she can't get it out. She can't get over the guilt, the corruption, the pollution. But you realize there's a detergent so powerful, there's a cleansing agent so miraculous, the blood of Jesus and the washing of the Spirit that can purify even your sin, even your pollution, even my pollution. the regenerating work of the Spirit. And so what we have here, it's beautifully expressed in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, in its doctrine of effectual calling, which is intimately linked to regeneration. The effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, whereby convincing us of our sin and our misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, He doth enable and persuade us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to you in the Gospel. Do you realize if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ today, if you receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation, that is owing to the regenerating, the empowering, the enabling work of the Spirit of God in your life, bringing you to light. What we have is new lights. new sight, new power, new cleansing, nothing short of what Thomas Chalmers called the expulsive power of a new affection. This is the Spirit's work of regeneration in you and in me. There's a second thing we need to consider, not just the working of the Spirit, but how does this tie into baptism? That language of washing of regeneration certainly at least gives the suggestion of washing, of water, of baptism. How does this work? And it's not just here in Titus. If you look at Acts 22, 16, we have language like this. And now, why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 6, verse 11, and such were some of you, but you were washed. but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. So why is it that in the Bible there's this close connection between baptism and this washing away of sins? Well, to understand what's going on here, we need to remember what baptism is. According to Romans 4.11, speaking of circumcision, the initiatory rite of the old covenant, but equally true of baptism, and the Lord's Supper, a sacrament is a sign and seal of the covenant of grace. Sacrament is a holy ordinance wherein, by sensible signs, Christ and the benefits of the new covenant are represented, sealed, and applied to believers. It's a sign. It's a seal. Baptism is a sacrament wherein the washing with water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost doth signify and seal our engrafting into Christ and partaking the benefits of the covenant of grace and our engagement to be the Lord's. As a sign, Baptism represents union with Christ and partaking of all his benefits. As a sign, it represents, it pictures, it illustrates, it symbolizes. It represents Christ and all the benefits we have in him, including regeneration. That initial work of the spirit which brings us, gives us the gift of faith. Through regeneration, we might be united to Christ. And we see that in the imagery of baptism, whether it's immersion, but particularly so if pouring and sprinkling, what do we see? We see a washing. Yes, but we also see the pouring out of the water, like the pouring out of the spirit at Pentecost. We see the sprinkling of the water, like the sprinkling of the blood of Christ upon us. It's a sign that represents regeneration. It's also a seal. And as a seal, baptism confirms. It authenticates. It puts God's stamp of approval upon his promises, which truly are to us and to our children. It authenticates the promise of the Spirit to you and to your children. And in doing so, it confirms, it strengthens your faith in Christ. So to put it all together, as we look at the working of the Spirit, as we look at the means of grace and baptism, we have to keep in mind a distinction. A distinction between the sign and the thing signified. A distinction between baptism and that which baptism represents and seals. It's beautifully put in the Heidelberg Catechism where it says in question 72, is then the external baptism with water the washing away of sin itself? Answer, not at all, for the blood of Jesus Christ only and the washing and the Holy Ghost cleanse us from all sin. It goes on to ask the question, why then doth the Holy Ghost call baptism the washing of regeneration and the washing away of sins? We find helpful answers in our own standards, the Westminster Confession, where it says there is in every sacrament a spiritual relation or sacramental union between the sign and the thing signifies. Whence it comes to pass that the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other. In other words, there is a distinction and there is a relationship. Baptism represents this, it seals this, and therefore it's closely associated in the minds of the apostles. What connects the sign of baptism with the reality of regeneration is what? the Holy Spirit who works in us faith. That's why the Westminster Confession on baptism says, the efficacy of baptism is not tied to that moment of time wherein it is administered, yet notwithstanding, by the right use of this ordinance, the grace promised is not only offered, but really exhibited and conferred by the Holy Ghost. to such, whether of age or infants, as that grace belongeth unto, according to the counsel of God's own will in his appointed time. Sacraments become effectual means of salvation, not from any virtue in them, or in him that doth administer them, like the Roman Catholics teach, but only by the working of the spirits, and by the blessing of Christ, the working of the spirit in them, that by faith receive them. So when we talk about the efficacy of baptism, you must remember it's a sign that represents, it's a seal that authenticates, and it's the Spirit of God that gives us the faith to lay hold of that which baptism points to. That is Jesus, Jesus Christ himself. The means of salvation is the working of the Spirit, signed and sealed in our baptisms. And so, are you struggling in the Christian life? Are you struggling with sin? With old patterns of behavior? Well, I would encourage you, child of God, to remember that you've been born again. That you've been born from above. That when you turn to Jesus, He gives you, by His Spirit, an expulsive power of a new affection. That you can, by God's grace, say no to sin and say yes to righteousness. Remember your baptism. Make use of your baptism. Improve your baptism. Because what does your baptism declare? What does it authenticate to you, child of God? It declares, it seals to you that you, by the Spirit, have been united to Christ in his death, in his resurrection, that you are dead to sin. that you are alive to righteousness. And so, mortify the flesh, die to sin, live and walk in newness of life. Lay hold of Jesus. Lay hold of your privileges and realize that your responsibilities arise out of your privileges. You've been bought with a price. You've been set free from sin. Live out who you are in Christ Jesus. And remember that the Spirit who first made you alive in regeneration is the same Spirit still at work in you, renewing your mind in the way of progressive sanctification, day by day, giving you the grace you need to walk with the Lord. If you walk by the Spirit, you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. We've seen the time of salvation. It's when God the Father sent the Son into the world 2,000 years ago to save you at the cross. We've seen the ground, God's just mercy. We've seen the means, it's the working of the Holy Spirit. Finally, and briefly, the goal of salvation. The goal of salvation, that final facet of the diamond as we turn it one more time, the goal of salvation, why did God save us? We've asked the why question before with the ground of salvation. But that was particularly looking at the beginning, the beginning of salvation. But here, we're asking why a second time with a view to the end, to the goal of why God saved us. And we see that in verse seven of our text, where it says that, in order that, for the purpose that, for the goal that, Having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And here, as it were, we see the three tenses of salvation, the past, the present, and the future, which takes us to the goal of why God did this in the first place. First, we see the past tense, having been justified by His grace. this past declaration, this foundation, that they have been justified, that they have been declared righteous, that by faith, God has not only freely pardoned your sins, but he has accepted you as righteous in his sight only because of the righteousness of Christ imputed to you and received by faith alone. The Apostle Paul goes on that having been justified by faith. With that past event, buttressing, founding, what he's saying in the background, he says that we should become heirs. With that word heirs, we get some of the flavor of adoption. Adoption, the act of God's saving grace whereby we are received into the number and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. I love the way Sinclair Ferguson says it. He says, in justification, we're in the courtroom. Pardoned, declared righteous. We move to adoption, God brings us into the family room. Because in adoption, we have a doctrine that's not just forensic, it's also familial. It's not just legal, it's also filial. God's purpose, his goal in salvation is to make people, you, me, who used to be His enemies. And His purpose is, I want to turn them into sons and daughters. I want to take people who used to be outside my kingdom, and I want to bring them to my table and treat them and regard them in my Son as sons. I want to adopt them as my own. That's the present status that we enjoy in Christ. We are adopted as children. That's why we can pray our Father, who art in heaven, because He is our Father in Christ Jesus. And finally, this brings us not just to the past declaration, the present status, but ultimately the future hope, because it says that we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. According to the confident expectation that has justified, adopted sons and daughters, God's purpose is to give us an inheritance, is to give us a possession. We have the right to it now. We look forward to that day. We enter fully into the possession of our inheritance. And what is that inheritance? The Apostle says it in verse 7, the hope of eternal life. Eternal life. To know God, the true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. This is eternal life. We got an indication of what this inheritance is even this morning, that the meek shall inherit the earth. that Abraham was told that he would inherit the world. Ultimately, this is pointing towards our future destiny, our future purpose, our future goal, that God in his salvation has a program, has an agenda, and it's going toward the end, the restoration of all things. the inheritance of new heavens, new earth, in which righteousness dwells. And then God picks up that purpose, that goal that he had for his original creation. Why did God make Adam? He made man to dwell with him in union and communion. God made man to dwell with him in his house, on his mountain, forever and ever. And Adam totally blew it. But God's purpose, God's goal in your salvation is to bring you into realization of that purpose, to bring you into possession of that promise that you one day will dwell with God on the mountain of God forever and ever. And what is true now in principle that you have a right to will become fully consummated. You will be his people. He will be your God. He will dwell in your midst. The goal of salvation is to make us sons and daughters that we might inherit the world, that we might dwell with our God. There's a wonderful hymn that I've come across from the 17th century. In recent days, a friend shared it with me. And it really brings together a number of strands that we've considered. And it goes like this. God's own child. I gladly say it. I am baptized into Christ. He, because I could not pay it, gave my full redemption price. Do I need earth's treasures many? I have one worth more than any. That brought me salvation free, lasting to eternity. There is nothing worth comparing to this lifelong comfort, sure. Open-eyed, my grave is staring. Even there, I'll sleep secure. Though my flesh awaits its raising, still my soul continues praising. I am baptized into Christ. I am a child of paradise. What privilege, what status, what confident expectation of eternal life? Tonight, are you struggling in the Christian life? Why do we struggle in the Christian life? Yes, surely, we must put off and we must put on by God's grace. We must mortify and vivify. We must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who works in us, both to will and to do. We need to put on the whole armor of God. We need to kill sin lest it be killing us. We need to mortify the flesh. We need to exert grace-based, grace-enabled efforts. But in the midst of that fight, and it's a fight, Remember the words of John Owen, that our greatest hindrance in the Christian life is not our lack of effort, not ultimately, not at root, but rather a lack of acquaintedness with our privileges. A lack of acquaintedness with our privileges. And what have we seen in Titus 3? What have we seen but a grand display of our privileges that God, has saved us, that He saved us 2,000 years ago in the accomplishment of redemption on the cross and the resurrection, that He has saved us. He saved us not on the basis of the grounds or the cause of our own works or merits, but according to His mercy, His just mercy, His merciful justice. He saved us. not through some instrument of man, but by the working of the Holy Spirit, which He has so graciously signed and sealed in baptism, which drives us ever again into the arms of Christ, that He saved us for the purpose that as adopted sons and daughters, we might inherit eternal life with Him forever and ever. to overcome struggles in the Christian life. There's no shortcut. We must exert effort by His grace. But there is no shortcut in that we must become better acquainted and reacquainted with our privileges. And so I exhort you, in your Bible reading, the Lord willing, you're doing every day, look through the pages of Scripture for your privileges. Memorize them. Get them into your hearts, into your mind. Lay them up there and practice them in your life. Take the opportunity when you're driving on a trip. We're getting ready to take a trip soon and it's going to be a long, several hour trip with several young children. And it could be tempting to just put on whatever. But think about it. Put on a catechism CD. Put on some Psalms. Get the privileges and the benefits that we have in Christ into our hearts, into our minds, on our lips, on our tongues. Suffuse your family culture with the privileges of Jesus. Marinate your soul in the gospel. Immerse yourself in these truths. Pour over them, for in them you see Jesus. There's no shortcut to becoming acquainted with your privileges. You were born in sin. You were conceived in sin. But he saved us. God has saved us. God saves sinners. Let us pray. Father, we confess that there are times when we struggle in the Christian life. We struggle under trials, and perhaps at times we struggle with recurring sins. God, give us grace to resist temptation, and give us grace as well to truly marinate our souls in the privileges that we have in Christ Jesus. And that you would use that knowledge of privilege not to breed contempt, but to breed greater love, adoration, and loyalty to your son, the fair Lord Jesus, in whose name we pray, amen.