August to shortest, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, and following that we will open up the canons of Dort, but first let us hear the Word of God, the Word of God which confessions are merely a summary of the Word of God, which is the ultimate rule for all things. Titus chapter 3, beginning at verse 1. People of God, let us hear the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 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, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. 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. 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 richly through Jesus Christ our Savior so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. So far the reading of God's Holy Word. If you would turn with me then to Canons of Dort in the back of the Forms and Prayers book, page 273. As we continue our survey through selected articles on the 400th anniversary of the writing of these canons, a summary of essential teachings about salvation, canons of Dort, so we come to 3-4, that's from the third and fourth points of doctrine combined together, Article 11, page 273. And I will read Article 11. Again, it's a little bit lengthier, so I will read it rather than us all trying to stay together. And we'll make some reference to Articles 10 and 12 as well as we work through this evening. Articles 4, 5, and 6 certainly went together. for those who were here last week in articles 10, 11, 12 mainly go together. Article 11, the Holy Spirit's work in conversion. Moreover, when God carries out His good pleasure in His chosen ones or works true conversion in them, He not only sees to it that the gospel is proclaimed to them outwardly and enlightens their minds powerfully by the Holy Spirit so that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God, but by the effective operation of the same regenerating Spirit, He also penetrates into the inmost being of man. opens the closed heart, softens the hard heart, and circumcises the heart that is uncircumcised. He infuses new qualities into the will, making the dead will alive, the evil one good, the unwilling one willing, and the stubborn one compliant. He activates and strengthens the will so that, like a good tree, it may be enabled to produce the fruits of good deeds." This is the confession we hold in common dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is a wonder? perhaps a word that we do not use too often. Perhaps you know of the seven wonders of the ancient world or the seven natural wonders of the world. Wonders, something which we see and makes us astonished. It makes us amazed. It makes us say, how is this possible? And so you can go to Egypt and see the pyramids, and you would stand amazed. You would say, how is this possible? How did man build this? Or you could think of the other ancient wonders which no longer stand. And you could think, how is it possible that they did this? And what did they exactly do? We know they're a wonder, but sometimes we can't remember exactly even what they did. These are wonders. This is a way that we use this word. But when we speak about wonders, we can also talk in the more spiritual sense. And so perhaps you've heard the phrase signs and wonders, the working of miracles, the working of signs and wonders. And as many of us have been working through the Gospel of Mark together, we see signs and wonders. We see miracles. And we spoke this morning about the central miracle, which is one of bringing life from death. Well, bringing life to death is resurrection itself and the resurrection of Jesus Christ itself. It's also a way to speak about the wonder of what the Holy Spirit does in the heart of man. This is the wonder of the Holy Spirit. This is the miracle of the Holy Spirit. This is the work of God completely from beginning to end. This is what the Holy Spirit must get credit for. If we talk about the ancient wonders of the world, certainly only wonders in the sense that it shares the same word when we talk about it in that sense. Who gets credit for building the pyramids? The Egyptians, broadly speaking. Who gets credit for building the lighthouse in Alexandria? That's also the Egyptians. Other nations get credits for other wonders. Other nations built them. Who gets credit for the wonder, for the spiritual wonder, for the miracle worked in the heart of man. Certainly, it is not man himself. It is the Holy Spirit who does this work and must get credit for this work, the work of making dead hearts alive. This is the wonder of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit must get credit for this wonder. And so we'll consider this tonight. We'll look at the motivation for this work. We'll then look at the description of this work and then we'll look at the abundance of this work. What is the motivation? What is the driving force? First of all, people of God, let us note that this is a triune work. We see this in Titus chapter 3. Salvation is a work of God, our Savior, verse 4. It is a work done through Jesus Christ, our Savior, verse six, and it is a work done, worked by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. it is according to the sovereign purpose of God, it is through Jesus Christ, it is by the Holy Spirit, it is triune, it is the work of God through and through with different persons of the Trinity being able to be spoken of in particular ways, but it is triune in source, and so it begins with God, the first person of the Trinity, and his goodness, his loving kindness. Verse four. This is the motivation. This is the beginning. This is the driving force. God. Is good. God in his loving kindness. Brings about salvation. This is the motivation. God's own goodness, God's own loving kindness. God's own rich mercy to use the language of the apostle in another place, Ephesians, Ephesians 2, four and five. That is the language there. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. This is the motivation of salvation. And it all comes through Christ. That is the language of our text, that is the language of Ephesians 2, that is the language of 2 Corinthians 5. All this is from God, 2 Corinthians 5.18, who through Christ reconciled us to himself. from God, through Christ, by the Spirit, triune, through and through. Now, it is possible to make the severe Pelagian error rejected in the Canons of Dort by failing to understand this triune nature of salvation. Because if you remove the Holy Spirit, that is, in essence, one of the ways to summarize the Pelagian era. You know, Pelagius would talk about God and salvation, and those who were the followers of Pelagius, ultimately, those who were on trial at Dor, they would speak even about, in some sense, a man being sinful. They would speak about this. In fact, that's why the third and fourth heads of doctrine are combined together. They didn't go point by point to correct because basically the third point that the Remonstrants wrote on, man's sinfulness, their language was correct. It was basically what you want to say about man's sinfulness. But then they made the inconsistent term where they would talk about man as sinful, but then when they talked about When they talked about salvation, they would say, man is the one who accepts salvation. So man is sinful, but man accepts grace, basically. You see, they removed the Holy Spirit from the equation of salvation. They said that the heart does not need to be regenerated through and through. The dead does not need to be made alive. We're sinful, but we can make a choice to choose God. You see how it removes the Holy Spirit from this? It's a failure to have a full triune understanding of salvation. And so the language can basically sound good for the many parts of it. You can speak about man being sinful. You can speak about God being a God of salvation. You can speak about Jesus Christ dying for sins and use all this language correctly, but then at the end of the day say, but that grace is accepted by us and our free choice. And you see, it's a failure to consider what the Holy Spirit has done. It's a failure to consider the true depths of sin. But conversion is the Holy Spirit's work. Conversion is a divine work. It is the work of God, as Article 10 says first. The fact that others who are called through the ministry of the gospel do come and are brought into conversion must not be credited to man, as though one distinguishes himself by free choice from others who are furnished with equal or sufficient grace. That was the lynchpin, and that was the severe error which did require a court, which did require the writings of these canons. It is a severe error. It does not understand the full Trinitarian nature, the fully divine character of all of salvation. Conversion must not be credited to man, as the proud heresy of Pelagius maintains. It's saying, I built the pyramids when you didn't build the pyramids, except on a much bigger spiritual scale. We know that kind of thing is wrong. If someone came to us and said, I built the pyramids, and they didn't really build the pyramids, well, people would be rightfully upset about that, right? No, you didn't. You didn't do that. They're huge. They're amazing. You didn't build them. They were built a long time ago. Well, how much more salvation, which is so much bigger? It is death to life. And the proud error of Pelagius would take the credit away from where it is rightfully due. It would say. I made this life. I made this great miracle at the very end. Yeah, I'm sinful and God's savior, but my free choice made it in the end. No, no, no. The credit. is to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through and through, by and from. That is the triune motivation of this work. Now, how is this work described? Look at Article 11 with me and notice the many verbs here we have of action. Beginning around the middle, the Holy Spirit, He also penetrates into the inmost being of man, opens the closed heart, softens the hard heart, circumcises the heart that is uncircumcised. And then the following lengthy sentence. Think of those things together. He's the one who is doing the infusing, the making. He activates. He strengthens. If you would have your hands ready to turn the pages of Scripture with me. We can read of these things. What about penetrates? Hebrews 4 speaks about how the author of the Word does this through the Word. Hebrews 4 verse 12. You only have to turn over a couple pages from Titus. Philemon, Hebrews, Hebrews 4 verse 12, For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The spirit, who is the author of the penetrating word, is the penetrating spirit. What about opens? Acts chapter 16. Revelation 3 describes Jesus as one who knocks at the door. That's true. It's a picture of salvation which Revelation gives us. But how is that door opened? Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16 verse 14, one who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyracia, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. The Lord is the one who opens the heart. How does the Lord do this? Which person of the Trinity most particularly? So for both opening and softening, we can hear the words of Ezekiel 36. Hopefully words familiar to many. Ezekiel 36 beginning in verse 26. 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 words. Spirit spoken of explicitly Even though the Spirit points us to Christ, who is the one who actually died on the cross, we have passages which speak explicitly about the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life. What about circumcises the heart? We could think of the passage in Deuteronomy or we could think of Romans chapter 2 verse 29 where the Holy Spirit is again mentioned explicitly. Romans chapter 2 verse 29, But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man, but from God. What about the infusion of new qualities? Well, what do we see in Titus chapter 3? We see that the the washing of regeneration and renewal comes by the Holy Spirit and and in the context what is that renewal versus one in three speak something about that in the beginning of verse three it says for we ourselves were and then it lists basically a seven vices Depends on how you count the conjectures. But basically, verses one and two describe seven different virtues of the people of God. And then it says, we ourselves were once, and describes seven vices. These are things which we once were, but we are no longer. We're now the seven virtues of Titus 3, 1 and 2. We're no longer the seven vices of Titus 3, verse 3. These are things related to the renewal of the Holy Spirit. Surely He infuses new qualities. What about makes, activates, strengthens? Well, we see also there at the end of Article 11 reference to how we are able to produce the fruits of good deeds. Well, this should remind us people of God of Galatians 5. What are the fruits of righteousness? They are Galatians 5 verse 22, the fruit of the Spirit That's the very name of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. These things are the fruit of the Spirit. He is the one who infuses these things, makes, activates, strengthens us for these things. They are His. Perhaps now we're pressing the illustration too far, but when we talk about the ancient wonders of the pyramids. There's more than one pyramid. There's a number of pyramids. Perhaps a picture in our head. Salvation is Is death turned to life itself? It is the major wonder. But then what are the fruits that come from the tree which the Holy Spirit produces and strengthens in us? What are the other smaller pyramids that surround it? They are the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness. He gets credits for all of those things too. Not just regeneration itself, the one time being born again, being made new, but renewal and all that comes with it. He gets credit for this as well. The Holy Spirit has done it all. That's what scripture teaches us. All these things. are of God and they are in a particular way work done by the Holy Spirit. From God, through Jesus, worked by the Holy Spirit. What then is the abundance of this work whom he poured out on us richly." You see, since it is of God, it is not of man, and since God is perfect and we are not, God works richly in his people. The language here of being poured out is a reminder of Pentecost and a reminder that the benefits of Pentecost, the impact of Pentecost is ongoing in the New Testament Church. The Holy Spirit is poured out on us richly. Richly. Let's think then a little bit about those vices and virtues of verses 1 to 3. We're no longer foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions, passing days in malice and passing days in envy. We're no longer marked by hate, but now these things are replaced. We're now to be submissive, obedient, ready for every good work, not speaking evil of others, not quarrelsome, but gentle, to show courtesy to all. to put on these virtues and to put off these vices. Well, this is a rich gift indeed. This is rich to our own well-being and this is rich to the well-being of others. This is the kind of thing that the Holy Spirit does abundantly. This is why, by your fruits you shall know them. This is why the church can, to some degree, though man can never judge the heart, look at the works of man and say the Spirit is absent or the Spirit is present, to some degree. Not perfectly. But these things are done by the Spirit. We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, let us stray, slaves, dead, as scripture says in other places. It is rich indeed. Regeneration is rich. Renewal is rich. Regeneration so, so closely tied to justification, even in our own passage, verse seven, so that being justified by his grace. regeneration, justification, which is described in Romans 5 verse 1, is having peace with God. It's to be justified, to be one who has had the heart regenerated, made alive by the Holy Spirit, is to be one who is now alive spiritually and has peace with God. That is rich. And then the ongoing renewal which comes from the one-time regeneration is the riches of those things which we've already considered, the fruits of the Spirit, the vices and virtues of verses 1 to 3. And what about another thing which is rich, full, Verse 7, being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Who could purchase eternity? No one can purchase eternity. If you would give those who deny God, those who think that this world is all there is, If they could purchase years of life, how valuable would that be? What would the going rate be for another year of life? Some people would pay an awful lot for that. All they have, right? Because this life is all there is. So, if I could get another year of life, it's worth spending all I have to get more of the only thing I have. You see, we too see time as valuable, but rightly and appropriately, because we know this life is not all there is. We know this life is but a vapor. And we know that there is eternity after this life. This helps us not to look at our years on this earth in the same way, and it helps us to understand the richness of what God has done for His people. This is an abundant gift. This is an eternal gift. You cannot fathom eternity. We cannot fathom the abundance of this. But this is what God has done. These blessings, these blessings, these riches, which we cannot fathom. They are not our own doing. They are the work of the Spirit. And knowing this, we can then give honor and glory, give credit where credit is due. Regeneration is a supernatural work. That's Article 12. Again, these are closely related. This is the regeneration, the new creation, the raising from the dead and the making alive so clearly proclaimed in the scriptures. It is clearly proclaimed. Do you see that? Which God works in us without our help. It is an entirely supernatural work. That's what it says a couple sentences later. One which is at the same time most powerful and most pleasing, marvelous, hidden, inexpressible. The riches, the abundance, it's marvelous, it is inexpressible. It is entirely supernatural in a triune way, through and through. from God, through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit. This is salvation and this is why we rejoice. Because we are sinners, but dead sinners are made alive by the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, our Lord, We pray that you would make us to come to you, that by your Spirit we might each one of us say, I believe, I trust, I know Jesus is my Savior. May we then know that we do not only need the Holy Spirit for regeneration itself, but also for day by day, moment by moment renewal. So work in us by your Spirit, day by day. Work in us this very night, this very week. Do not forsake us, but mold us and shape us. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. People of God, our song of application number 397. Let us stand if able to sing 397. ♪ We are the breath of God ♪ ♪ Filled with life anew ♪ ♪ Every breath of love doth flow ♪ ♪ Until my heart is pure ♪ ♪ Until my will is one with thine ♪ ♪ To do and to endure ♪ ♪ May love be breath of God till I am born again ♪ ♪ With my fire divine ♪ ♪ Free I'll be breath of God ♪ ♪ So shall I never die ♪ ♪ But live with thee the perfect life ♪ ♪ Of mine eternity ♪ People of God, it is time now for our evening gifts, freewill offerings. This evening that is for the General Fund. Following that, benediction and doxology number 563. so so Yeah. you you If you would stand, if able, let us hear the blessing of God. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. of Christ our Savior and the Father's boundless love. Let the Holy Spirit's favor rest upon us forever. with each other and the Lord and possess in sweet communion joys which earth cannot afford. Amen Yeah.