Remember Where God Found You

I'm going to read the first 11 verses. Paul, writing to Titus, tells him, Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities,! To be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.

At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.

He saved us through the washing of rebirth, and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs, having the hope of eternal life.

This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.

These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.

Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful.

He is self-condemned. You've all been there. You were sitting on the bleachers, watching one of your children's baseball or soccer games or something, and the referee was just horrible.

He missed calls. He seemed to be favoring the other team. The fans, at least on your side, were starting to get agitated. Of course, two seats down from you, there's that guy that's always there at every game, the loud mouth, and he starts bellowing at the ref.

And he starts, well, I'm not going to say what he says, because we've all heard it before. And as the game goes on, it gets worse and worse, and soon, lots of fans are bickering at each other and griping and arguing, and the other team's parents are getting involved, it's quite a nightmare.

You want to say, ah, children's sporting events, they're just such joyful occasions. And of course, none of you would act like that, right? I hope not.

Let's pretend that you never would do that. You would never act that way. You would probably take another tact, if you're anything like me. And as you walk away, you say, or you pray, thank you, Lord, that I'm not like that parent over there.

I never argue with the rest. Children's soccer games or baseball games, those are stupid, silly things to be arguing about, being so ugly about.

Thank you, God, that I'm not like that parent over there. Besides, I fast twice a week, and I give a tenth of all I get. And you say, thank you, God, I'm not like that parent over there.

Let's switch scenes. An unbelieving family member pulls up into your driveway, and they're driving a brand new black leather interior, black exterior, Lexus SUV, and you know they can't afford it.

And so you say to yourself, how, how can they do it again? How can they be so stupid? They're always making dumb money decisions. Haven't they learned that cars are not investments?

That's some free advice for all you boys. Cars are not investments. And so you say to your spouse, look what those idiots did again. And so you slander them.

So let's switch scenes once again. You're at work, and your boss is a real piece of work. He's just like what Jesus said when he warned his disciples, with the Gentiles, their rulers lorded over them.

And he's the kind of boss that likes to lead from the back, saying, do this, and do that, but never lifting a hand to help himself. He's high, and he's mighty, and he's completely unhelpful, and unkind.

Changes your schedule on a whim, never takes any consideration for you. He'll heap work on you, and there doesn't seem to be any more pay coming for it.

He's unreasonable, and he's unkind. He's unloving, and you can't escape him. And let's switch scenes one last time. Before we get to our text, you've all ran into Christians that don't believe exactly what you believe.

They're Arminians, they're dispensationalists, they're Presbyterians, they're good old-fashioned free-will Baptists. There's something that rubs us the wrong way when we run into them.

And not in the sense that we don't think them a brother or sister in Christ, but it's so irritating what they believe. And you sit down, and out of Christian love, you want to talk to them.

And you bring up Scripture, lots of Scripture, and you give good, sound arguments for what you believe. You're persuasive. You're clear. You're biblical.

And they don't get it at all. They disagree with you at every point. They're illogical, and they give you these silly reasons and bad arguments. They ignore huge sections of Scripture, and meanwhile, the whole time, they're irritated with you.

They're offended by what you say. So what does a baseball game, a financially foolish relative, a harsh boss, and our Arminian have in common?

And that's not the first line of a joke. What do they have in common? Well, they're all things that we run into in our life.

They are part and parcel of living in a fallen world. Every believer lives in the world that is disagreeable to them.

There's things that happen all the time that we can't escape, that rub us the wrong way, and we're running into people, and they offend us. They offend our sense of sensibility and truth and what is right and what is good.

And we live in a world of sinners that we can't escape. Now, some of you boys are really fast runners. It's like, bang, and you're gone.

You're out of there. And some of you men drive fast. Apparently, you drive under grace and not law because that's the way you drive. And some of you men, older men, you're just losing your hair fast.

But no matter how fast you are, you can't escape the world. And so God addresses us in Titus 3, 1 through 8, or 1 through 7, about how we should live in the fallen world where people will rub us the wrong way and offend us.

So let's look at our text, Titus 3, 1. Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and show true humility toward all men.

Paul gives a reminder why do we need reminders? Because we forget. We are forgetters. And so Paul tells Titus, Titus, I want you to remind the people of these things or they're going to forget them.

They're going to run into a situation and they're going to meet someone that offends them, that hurts them, that abuses them, and the tendency is to lash out.

the tendency will be to look down and pride on the other person, to argue with them, to disobey that boss.

But they can't act that way, so you have to remind them. So how should we act? In two words, love and obey. There's no other way for a Christian to be happy in this world than to love and obey.

Paul says, be subject to rulers and authorities. Be obedient. So when that boss is getting under your skin, Paul is saying, remember, you can't fly off the handle.

You can't argue with him. You need to obey him. You can't even secretly plot and scheme. Like, oh, when I am in charge, things are going to be different. You must obey them.

You must willingly obey them. The Bible doesn't know anything about an unwilling obedience. Paul says, be ready to do whatever is good. And that speaks to our hearts, doesn't it?

We're ready for a lot of things when the situation is going against us, when we're arguing and we're in the heat of the battle. It's natural for our blood to start to boil, for our hearts to start churning in anger.

We're ready for that, but we're not ready to do whatever is good. And that's what God calls us to. So God says, be ready to do whatever is good.

So are you ready at work to obey willingly? Are you ready to give Caesar what is Caesar's? Do you obey out of a cheerful, submissive heart, or does anger and bitterness rule in your heart?

What does Jesus tell us in the Sermon on the Mount? You have all heard that it was said, eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, but I tell you, do not resist an evil person.

If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. That's what it means to love our enemies, to love those people that we run into all the time.

That's the radical life of love that our Savior lived. When he was on the cross and the Roman soldiers were nailing his hands and his feet to the cross, was he saying, oh, I want to get them back?

No, it was forgive them, Lord. They don't know what they're doing. Jesus submitted to the rulers and he obeyed the authorities.

And Jesus wants us to act the same way. And so he sends his messenger, Paul, to tell us, remind them to do whatever is good to submit and obey.

That's how we have to live our lives. And he expands that reminder to all men. Not only those who are in authority, we're not only to love and obey the authorities in our life, we must love everyone in this world that we find disagreeable and unlovely and contentious.

We should love them. We should love that referee or those parents and not slander them. We should love and not slander or quarrel with our relative who makes bad financial decisions.

We should act in humility and courtesy towards all of our enemies. We should even act in love and courtesy towards that neighbor who doesn't take care of their lawn in just the way that we would like them to.

Or that parent that doesn't have the same kind control that we have over our children. All those people that can really start to get under our skin and start to make us look down on them.

All those lazy and short-sighted and foolish and crass people that we run into, we have to show true humility towards them. And that's going to mean shutting our mouths when we want to say something and slander them.

That means rebuking our own hearts when our hearts start being lifted up and saying, I'm glad I'm not like that person. That's going to mean being patient with them and kind to them and being polite to them when we want to really ridicule them.

We all need to give those people the benefit of the doubt and try to see, try to find the best in their motives. That's what love does.

And we're going to need to forgive them. That's the hardest sometimes when you're being hurt and it's repeatedly they're digging in on you and repeatedly hurting you to just forgive them and love them.

And when we do start feeling pride welling up within us like that Pharisee, we need to repent before God for all of our sinful pride.

all that's a lot easier said than done, Paul. I mean, that's a nice reminder but you don't know the people that I'm living with.

You don't know the kind of people that I work with or some of my family members. If you knew who I was working with and living with and having dealings with every day, then you'd be a little more understanding.

Well, Paul didn't or he doesn't know your boss. He doesn't know your brother, sister, and your family. He doesn't know some of the people in the church but he knew who Titus was dealing with and he knew what kind of people the church there in Crete had to live with day in and day out.

One of their own poets said about these Cretans, Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons and Paul in Christian love says that's true.

They are. So if you think that the reminder comes hard to you, think about what it was like for that church on Crete and the difficulty that they were facing in the ancient world to speak like a Cretan.

If someone says you're talking like a Cretan, that means you're a liar. All you're doing is telling me lies. And so when Paul writes Titus and says, Titus, remind those people to obey and be humble before every man, he was saying, Titus, be humble before all those liars.

The Cretans were evil brutes. They were known in the ancient world for their savagery and their violence. One author wrote, they would push everyone out of the way in order to gain an advantage for themselves.

You know anybody like that in your life? They'll just push anyone out of their way just to get something for them. Well, that's what kind of people the Cretans were. And to top it all off, they were lazy gluttons.

They loved to eat and they hated to work. They were untruthful, selfish, and lazy. And so when Paul says, now Titus, remind the saints there to show humility towards all men, he was asking a very hard thing.

And the church there in Crete could have said, but Paul, that's so hard. How can I do that? They're evil men. They're hurting us. They're abusing us.

They're pushing us around. They're telling lies about us. And we're just supposed to stand here and take it? How can you expect that of us? How are we supposed to be humble before these people when they're so filthy?

They live such horrible lives. And Paul says, I'm glad you asked. Glad you asked. Here's why you should love and obey and be humble towards all these people.

Reason number one, you used to be just like them. And reason number two, God saved you. God had mercy on you. So we have the reminder and now we have the reasons.

Why should we do this? Because you were a dirty, rotten sinner yourself at one time. And God had mercy on you and was kind to you.

Paul covers the first reason in verse three. At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.

We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. Paul says, let's think this through for a moment. You're having a hard time being humble.

You're having a hard time being kind to that unbeliever. Well, let's just think about it for a moment. Yeah, they are dirty, rotten sinners. sinners. But has it been so long for you that you've forgotten what you used to be?

So let me ask you. Do you ever think about that? Where were you when God saved you? What kind of person were you before God had mercy on you?

We ran after the wrong things. It's not like we were better than that person who's buying the things that they can't afford and chasing the world. We're not better than that.

We were just as foolish and just as deceived and just as enslaved as all those people out there in the world are. We used to dream about that sweet car that we could have or that bigger, better home and we planned it out in our head.

And let's be honest, we used to live just like they did. I'll remember this to the day I die. One time I was at my grandma's house and I found this magazine and it was called Fine Living.

And inside this magazine, what it's doing at my grandma's house, I don't know, but this Fine Living, inside there was all sorts of real estate like big fancy houses and yachts and cars and beautiful art.

It was like a Sears catalog for the filthy rich. If you want to know what Bill Gates shops out of, it was probably Fine Living. Well, there it was.

I'm looking at it. And that was the day that I decided to be a neurosurgeon because I had to make a lot of money. I had to make a lot of money to buy all that stuff.

And I pictured myself in the yacht and I pictured myself in the mansion and I thought about my bank account and what it would look like. And I even planned it out. I was totally deceived.

I love money. And I live for money and stuff. The things that I didn't even own were my master and they enslaved me.

So now tell me, how can I be arrogant when I see, you know, a friend or a family member do something where they're living for money?

How can I be so arrogant as to say, I'm glad I'm not like that person because in reality I really am just a lot like that person. And so before you sneer and slander at all those other persons, Paul says, are you really any better?

And ask yourself, am I really any better than they are? That's just one example. Some of you used to be that bossy boss, the unreasonable guy telling everyone what to do.

Some of you used to be that lazy, hateful husband that never helped around the house. Some of you used to be that foolish, misguided mother whose kids were running around crazy.

Some of you were like that. Some of you were that Christian mom or dad that they're not obeying. Their kids are out of control.

And so, how can you have no patience for them when you used to be like them? You used to go around hating other people.

That's what Paul says. You used to go around hating other people and being hated. Some of you in high school were in that clique where it was the popular people and it was more like the wolf pack because you guys never stopped fighting and clawing and biting each other.

only when a weaker prey came along. And then you hated that person and then that brought the pack together when easy prey was available. Or maybe you were on the outside.

You weren't part of that but you hated them. You hated them. And you wanted to be in that group but at the same time you hated everything about them. That's the irrationalism of sin.

You would kill to be in the group and yet you hated it all the time. So before you begin condemning condemning and judging and arguing and losing patience and slandering and acting all high and mighty, just think about what you used to be.

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, and deceived. That's the first reason we need to love and obey and show humility towards the world of sinners.

The second reason is that God had mercy on you when you were a foolish, deceived, enslaved, dirty sinner. And so you better have mercy on the other sinners.

Verse 4 says, But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us. Paul digs in a little deeper. He wants to know, he wants to help them to see why they need to do this and what are some good reasons.

He digs in a little deeper. He says, You can't be patient with these sinners. You can't be patient with them. You don't have any time for them. But God didn't act like that towards you.

He was patient with you and loved you when you were very unlovely. None of us were exactly the pick of the litter when we were saved.

We weren't anything special. We weren't anything better. But God's kindness appeared in our lives and we were saved. So where did God find you when the light first broke?

When God's kindness and love appeared? Just stop and think for a minute. Where were you? I'm not saying any time specifically or any place, but where were you in your life?

I'm sure you weren't any place good. You weren't where you needed to be. We're all hopeless. abandoned. And we lived in the dark, the pitch dark.

There was no light. There was no hope until the sun of God's kindness shined upon us. The light broke and it might have been faint at first. In the dawn, it just slowly gets light and the stars slowly start to fade.

But then the ray of sun shines out and God's kindness appeared and we were saved. God could have left us in the dark.

He leaves lots of people in the dark. But because he was kind to you and he loved you, that broke into your life and he saved you.

And boy, did he ever save you. And that's Paul's whole point. He really saved us and he saved us graciously. You didn't call to God's love and say, look at me. I'm so lovely.

You should love me. Look at what I've done. It was nothing like that. You didn't make yourself worthy. You couldn't. You were foolish. You were deceived. You were enslaved.

There was nothing good about you. You couldn't anymore call God to love you than you could call the sun to shine. You can't do either. But he moved in mercy on your life and he saved you.

And his salvation meets us in every place where we need help. And that's what we find throughout this little section of Paul showing and telling us the gospel.

Every place where we needed help, he provided. The Lord found us dirty, dead, dilapidated.

We were like that house that's been foreclosed on and no one's bought it. You know the house, the roof is falling in. The porch is almost falling into the yard.

The carpet is stained. The foundation is shattered. There's nothing redeemable about this house. The grass is waving in the front yard.

It's so tall. It's over the 78 Volkswagen rabbit that's sitting there all rusted out. We were a mess. We were dirty. The muck of sin was all over us.

You've seen those houses that when Katrina came through and just left them destroyed, muck and filth all over them. That's what we were like.

But God sent the Holy Spirit. That's what Paul says. That's how he found us and God sent the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit started working on us. He started washing us.

He started cleansing us. And he washed us so thoroughly that Paul says we were reborn. We were new creatures after the Holy Spirit got done with us. We had new life flowing through our veins.

Once we were dead, but now we are alive. The Holy Spirit attached us to our living head, to the Lord Jesus, and the life started flowing through us.

Jesus' thoughts started becoming our thoughts. What he thought was good, we suddenly started thinking was good. And his laws were no longer burdensome to us, but they were our joy.

And we said, oh, that I could just obey Jesus, that I just could serve him more. Brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit is still in us.

He's still cleansing us and renewing us. We've been reborn, but he's keeping on. He's working and working on us. And he's working on us because God has poured him out generously upon us.

He wasn't stingy about the gift of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes worse than G with our gifts, but God's not like that. We needed the Holy Spirit and God gave generously.

He was rich and he made us rich. He met our need. You know, we didn't need to be frowned upon and said, oh, you're dirty. You're unclean.

We needed cleansing. We need a new life and God gave it. God's salvation goes further. It goes even further than the cleansing.

We needed more than just renewal and we needed more than just new life. We needed to be justified. We needed to be justified. We were enslaved to our sins.

The chains of our sins were upon us. We couldn't get away from them. The guilt that was on us. We couldn't escape. We were chained to it. We were in prison with a guillotine's blade over our neck.

It's ready to fall. There's every reason to let it fall. God came in and justified us. He said, even though you're unrighteous, I'm declaring you righteous because of what my son has done.

That's where God found me. Jason, you are unrighteous in and of yourself, but guess what? You're free to go because my son has died already in your place.

Verse 7 of Titus 3, he justified us by his grace. None of us deserved for the son to come and die for us.

None of us deserved for God the judge to say, you're justified, you're righteous, you're free to go. We didn't need God's judgment. That's what we deserved.

We didn't need God's frown. We needed grace. We needed help. We desperately needed grace. That's what God gave to us.

Think of that. Next time you're out there on the job site, and the boss is being unreasonable. Think about that next time you're in the grocery store, and the children are running around acting totally crazy, and the parents totally exasperated, and saying, don't make me count to three again.

They don't need your frown. They don't need your condemnation. They need grace. They need forgiveness.

And your boss doesn't need your disobedience. He needs to be forgiven, and he needs to be loved. So will you act like God and give it to him?

Or will you act like a sinner and refuse it? maybe he'll act like a Pharisee when they found the woman in adultery. Wanda stoner.

She deserves to die. And you know what? We could say that if we had saved ourselves. If we saved ourselves, then we can throw the first stone.

But as is, let him who is without sin throw the first stone. So every place where we had need, God met that need. He took care of our dirty, dead hearts.

He took care of our bad record. But we haven't even reached the pinnacle of what Paul is talking about yet. We're climbing the mountain, and we've come to this high point of being justified, and we see before us another, higher mountain.

Jesus went one step further. He adopted us into God's family, so that having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs, having the hope of eternal life.

Heirs, children with an inheritance. How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called the children of God, and that is what we are.

He made us His very sons and daughters. He not only cleanses us and cleans us up, He not only forgives us, He says, okay, come here and live with me and my family.

You're living with me from now on. And so none of God's children can be lost. None can be taken from His hand. They're permanently a part of His family. And so we have eternal life.

Because God won't lose any of His children. And that means forever and ever God's going to be our Father and we're going to be His children. We're going to know Him. We're going to know Jesus.

And we're going to enjoy living with Him forever. And it's because of God's mercy. He accepted us into His family and now we have a wonderful relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

So let the gospel guide you. Live a life worthy of the gospel and your relationships in the world. So will you be that peacemaker? You know, there's plenty of people who want to start fights and argue and quarrel about all sorts of things, good and bad, but will you be a peacemaker and so prove yourself to be a son of God?

Or will you be marked by quarreling and bitterness and anger and disobedience? God has been merciful to you, and so you can spare mercy for all the wicked people in this world.

They don't need slander. They don't need you putting them down. They need the gospel. They need to see the gospel lived in your life, and they need to hear the gospel.

They need to know that there's a God that overcomes fighting and arguing and quarreling, and He actually brings peace and harmony. He brings unity.

And He overcomes real moral failures. There's a God that when He is sinned against, He doesn't blow up and destroy, but He forgives and is merciful.

They need to hear about justification, how unrighteous people can be declared to be righteous. They need to see that when love runs into a road block, an obstacle, the person that's loving is offended and hurt, that that love can overcome the offense, that love can overcome evil.

They need to see irresistible grace in your life, just working and working grace. They need kindness and love, and they need the kind of kindness and love that God showed you.

And so will you give it? Will you be kind to that person that hurt you and offend you? And my unbelieving friend, you've heard, you've heard how God has saved sinners, what He's done for sinners.

And let me tell you, we who have trusted in Jesus, we're not perfect. We're not perfect. We want to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect, but we're not.

And so what I can say, we're not perfect, but we're not what we used to be. We're not what we used to be. God has begun something in our life, and it's going to go on until the day of completion.

You don't know what it's like for God to have mercy on you, to be a sinner, and then God's smiling on you, to wake up and know that everything is okay between you and God.

You don't know what it's like to have brothers and sisters who truly love you. Truly take care of each other, or to have peace in your heart. I know you don't know what it's like, because I was there.

I'm not so old as to forget where I used to be. It wasn't so long ago that I was on the outside, looking in, wanting to be in the crowd, always alone, always with friends, never having any peace, ignoring God's truth, doing what every other sinner does.

Ignore it, ignore it. I don't have to hear it. Ignore it. Pushing it down. Telling yourself a lie, even though you know it's a lie. But then the kindness and love of God appeared.

And can we say that? Then it appeared, and I tasted, and I saw that the Lord is good. And so I say, come and taste, and see that the Lord is good.

God's in the business of showing love and kindness to people who don't deserve it at all. He's in the business of saving the unworthy. And every day, he's showing his love and grace to people.

Every day, he's saving someone, introducing himself to them and saying, I'm a loving God. I'm a kind God. I'm forgiving you of all those things because of what my son has done.

And if you will come and taste, you'll see too that the Lord is good. And are you dirty? Then you can come and be cleansed. Are you tired?

You're weary of this world. You don't like it. You can find rest. Are you sick? You're sick. You're overcome.

You can be healed. Taste and see that the Lord is good. And you can pray right where you are. That's the wonderful thing about the gospel.

God is only a prayer away. And you can pray that old tax collector's prayer. We talked about that Pharisee where he was saying, I'm glad I'm not like that guy. But there was that tax collector, that other guy.

And he was saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus said he went home and was justified. Things were right between him and God. So don't delay.

There's no reason to delay. God isn't somehow backward or he's not slow to have mercy. Today is the day when Christ is holding out his hands and saying, come.

You can be healed. You can be cleansed. And so why would you turn him away? Why would you turn him away? Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, when we think about where we were, when your love and kindness appeared, we're amazed at your goodness.

We're amazed at your love that overcomes all boundaries, that overcomes all sin, that brings peace, that brings joy.

Thank you, Father, that in your Son, you delight in us now. You delight to do us good. You do it with all your heart and soul. you love to do us good.

We thank you that you were kind to us. Father, will you help us to be kind to those people out there in the world? All those people who we disagree with and they offend us and they are sinners.

They're wicked and they live filthy lives and we don't like it. Father, give us grace to overcome our displeasure and to really love them as you love them.

to speak the gospel to them, to incarnate the gospel, to put hands and feet on the gospel and make it walk before them.

Father, we need your grace if we're going to do this. Tomorrow, we're going to be confronted with men and women that need your love, that need us to love them.

God, we're going to do it. We're going to pray that you remind us of what your word has said and help us to live the gospel.

Holy Spirit, you've been merciful to us. Will you be merciful to others and show them your kindness and your love and cleanse them and give them a new life, that they could stop saying no to you, stop lying to themselves and stop pushing the truth down further and further, trying to ignore it.

Will you give them new life, new eyes? Will you give them to taste and see that the Lord is good? Father, will you be with us as we go on our way?

Help us to love one another and to love our enemies. And we pray in Jesus' name and for his glory. Amen. Amen. Amen.