Beacon Sunday Service: May 18, 2025

Can you guys rise as we uh just read today's passage, Titus 3, 4 to 7, that our God is kind, that He is a good, faithful, and a merciful, loving God who knows even the minutiae in our lives, right? So uh let me read Titus 3, 4 to 7 for us. Um, you can read it in your Bibles or just on the screen. But when the kindness and affection of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not by works which we did in righteousness, but according to his mercy through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by his grace, we would become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for this morning and for allowing us to participate in the reverence in the reverent worship of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We thank you for giving us just the freedom to gather to hear your word proclaimed. And I pray that as we're reminded of the process that has already begun in us and is continuing to move in and through us, that you would help us to be conduits for salvation of others who don't know Christ. Feed your people so that we would be truly salt and light as we go into this world. Would you bless us, empower us, but again, remind us that this day is for you. You are why we gather. And so we pray for just a good, sweet time of fellowship as we chart through and study through just your mighty scriptures.

So bless this time, protect it, guide it. For those of us who are sleepy, I pray that you would spiritually and miraculously caffeinate our brains and help us to really engage in this important uh text of scripture. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and take a seat. Well, you're all familiar with the word metamorphosis, okay, and so hopefully you know what that word is. It's one of the first five syllable words grade school children learn. And the process of metamorphosis in the animal kingdom is common knowledge. And so through centuries, it's been repeatedly observed that certain creatures in the animal kingdom go through a process of metamorphosis in their life cycles. Uh, metamorphosis, especially common in insects and insects generally undergo two types of metamorphoses.

There's an incomplete metamorphosis and a complete metamorphosis. Grasshoppers, dragonflies, and cockroaches have what scientists call an incomplete or partial metamorphosis, where the young just look like wingless miniature versions of the adults. But insects like butterflies and moths undergo a complete metamorphosis, where the young not only look entirely different from the adults, but exhibit completely different behaviors, and then even completely different foods. So there are four stages in the metamorphosis of the butterflies and moths, and that's one of the most common ones. So I'm gonna uh review that with us. First, there is the egg stage, followed by the second stage called the feeding stage, where it's a caterpillar.

And the third stage is they call the transition stage where the caterpillar becomes a pupa or a chrysalis and has like a cocoon. And then the fourth and the final stage is called by various names adult, mature, or reproductive stage. Nagyres, if you've learned about this at some point. Yeah, you've all learned about this. So a butterfly starts as an egg, eats voraciously as a caterpillar, becomes a chrysalis, and then uh matures into a beautifully shaped winged creature. And so the life cycle of a butterfly is pretty standard textbook stuff. Um it's been observed, confirmed, and factualized, and this process we're all familiar with. And the metamorphosis is actually found in the DNA of Eddie every butterfly.

And the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly is an expected outcome. So we would all be disappointed, if not shocked, if we grabbed a cocoon in the wild, took it home as a science project to show our kids, and then out of this cocoon came a fatter version of the caterpillar. Like we would be shocked, right? So this metamorphosis is a mysterious and beautiful process, even though we've come to expect it. And the transformation is radical, it is unalterable, and metamorphosis by definition, it's a change of the form or the nature of a creature into a completely different one. So the Bible teaches us that when a person who has once been spiritually dead believes upon Christ Jesus, there is a spiritual metamorphosis.

And the Christian metamorphosis too, it can be spiritually observed and then confirmed. The complete transformation of the Christian, likewise, it's miraculous, it's mysterious, and it's radical. This too is an unalterable, irreversible thing. And this transformation in the same way is also pretty textbook. And the metamorphosis of the Christian is explicitly spelled out in the scriptures. Okay, so first uh I'm gonna have this look at 2 Corinthians 5:17. It reads, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a can you repeat those two words? New creation. The old things passed away, and behold, new things have come. And we call this metamorphosis of a dead to a life uh soul. We call that salvation.

And salvation is a mysterious process, it's a supernatural process. And then we have the textbook of the scriptures that describe for us this mysterious and supernatural process. The old has gone, it's passed away, the new has come. In the old, the caterpillar fed on leaves. In the new, do you guys know what the butterfly feeds on? They don't eat leaves, they feed on nectar. Okay? So the cravings and the nourishment of the old differ radically from those of the new.

So it's helpful to understand all that we have covered thus far in Titus as instructions to those in the like butterfly stage. The stage of the butterfly after its resurrection from the chrysalis. Okay, so the apostle Paul focuses the bulk of the epistle to Titus, the previous 30 Selmon verses that he laid out for us. Those are all descriptions and expectations of all believers in the post-transformation stage. So most of Titus was written for Christians who had already undergone the transformation. And in this new stage, by way of review, the Christian is one who lives sensibly, one who is zealous for good works. Okay, you don't do those things to earn salvation, right? The Christian priority for the rest of his life is now in the adorning of the doctrine of God with good works.

The Christian isn't zealous for good works for salvation, but he is zealous for good works because of salvation. So from Titus chapter 1-1 to Titus chapter 3, verse 2, we've been studying through the observed behavior patterns for the Christian who has already been united to Christ. You guys, you guys follow? Okay. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away. Behold, new things have come. And then in Titus 3, 4 to 7, which is our passage for today, the apostle Paul briefly but very densely, he starts working backwards and revisits the salvation process. In Titus chapter 3, verse 3 is a pivot verse. It's a sort of a pivot verse. Chapter 3, verse 3 is a description of the things that have passed away.

Okay. It's the description of the old things that have gone. So in verse 3, Paul gives us the descriptions of Christians, pre-salvation, as well as the descriptions of those currently who are unsaved. Okay, Titus 3:3. For we ourselves also once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another. So this is what the Christian once was. Past tense. Okay? So this is what the Christian once was before the process of salvation, before the transformation, before the metamorphosis. And this is an important point to briefly pause at because there's a misconception that's been plaguing the church from the dawn of the days of the church.

And the misconception is that a person can be saved by a theological belief in the exclusivity of Jesus Christ, and then have some coverage as some sort of like eternal policy to save his soul, and still pursue the things he had always pursued prior to Christ. So this misconception is basically one in which a person can simply add Jesus to his life. And this misconception is the genesis of so much deception. John Bunyan, you guys know who he is? He wrote The Pilgrim's Progress. This is what he writes. He's a Puritan writer and a preacher, and he wrote once you cannot walk with Christ and still love the path he died to save you from. That's Paul Bunyan. No, John Bunyan. Paul Bunyan is something else, right?

John Bunyan. So the residual effects of our old man are still being sanctified out of the Christian, but over time, the truth of the scriptures say that we cannot but observe the disappearing of the old man. So Titus 3 3 here describes how we once were. You guys follow? But when the kindness and affection of God, our Savior, appeared, he saved us. Past, completed, actualized action. Past, completed, actualized action. It's a strong tense. Okay? There's no mistaking this. So here's the outline for today's sermon. Titus 3, 4 to 7. It's actually just one long 46-word sentence in the Greek. It's grammatically awkward.

It's super dense. But in these 46 words, we have a descriptive summary of salvation. And we're going to be looking at that today. So first we're going to be looking at the starting point of this transformation. And that's described for you in Titus 3, 4 to 5. Secondly, the process of this transformation, Titus 3, 3, 5 to 6. And then third, the evidence and the result of the transformation. Titus 3, 6 and 7. So the breakdown of these verses is a little awkward, right? It's like two verses each. And it's like blending in. And the reason for that is the grammar is very awkward. So remember, this entire section is one long 46-word run on sentence. Okay, so and we're gonna unpack that. So first, salvation starts with God.

So you cannot manipulate a man coming to faith in God. No matter how nice the music, no matter how touching the story, man's salvation cannot be manipulated by man. So even as a parent, you can't save your child. I mean, you can do lots of things to get in the way. You cannot save your child. It can never start with man. It says, when the kindness and affection of God, our Savior appeared, he saved us not by works which we did in righteousness, but according to his mercy. So salvation starts with God who is mighty to save. Salvation begins with a God who has compassion on the lost, and one who mercifully and graciously elects to save. So here's a truth that those in the world often try to ignore.

Okay. Salvation starts with God. It is completely unmerited. It could never start with man. Man cannot will himself to be saved. Man can do nothing to save himself by works done in any righteousness. Jonathan Edwards once wrote, We contribute nothing to our salvation except the sin that made it necessary. So in our old self, in that first stage, we were the walking dead. And we were dead men walking. So we existed, but there was no true life in us. We had bias life in the physical sense, but no Zoe life in the real and spiritual sense.

Okay. So basically, we were animated, corpses. You have a visual. With corpses, there is actually only one thing that corpses actively do. They actively decay. And as corpses decompose and decay, they give off a stink. Okay, so in the old man, in our corpse state, all we did was spiritually stink. And that stink only gets worse with age. So no matter how like righteous a deed, that stinky old corpse of a man thinks he is doing, all of those deeds, it says in Isaiah 64, verse 6, are like dirty, filthy, stinky, putrid rags or like withering leaves whose only purpose is to be thrown into the fire for fuel. Okay? So the pre-converted or unconverted man is the walking dead.

Okay. So the preconverted and the pre uh the unconverted man is also destined for God's wrath. So we were also dead men walking. So which it, and that's that's a way of describing people with a death sentence, they're waiting for execution. The death sentence was already there, but now they're just waiting to be executed, right? Dead men walking. So we were the walking dead, we were the dead men walking, but God chose not to leave his elect people in this condition. And the kindness and affection of the God of mercy personified in Christ Jesus made his entrance into the world. So Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, he appeared. And so we see here in Titus 3, 4 to 5, that the starting point of man's salvation is directly tied to the character of God, not in anything beautiful in us.

So that's on like a rose trampled on the ground. He took the fault out of me above all. I hate that song. There's nothing beautiful in us. Okay.

And he is a God full of affection. And he is a God rich in mercy. And the word for kindness is the word creestates. Repeat after me, creates. So the accent is on the top.

So creestates, it's not referring to a sweetness or a niceness like you see in my wife, right? It's not like a sweet, pleasant, like just, no, that's not what kindness is. The word creistates, it's a richer word than that. It refers to a helpfulness, it refers to a usefulness, and a quickness to meet real needs. It's a quickness to action. It's a quickness to provide. So if you actually look at the ESV, the word Christates is translated goodness. It's not kindness, it's goodness. So it's a meeting of real pressing needs, and what has always been man's greatest need. It's never been health or wealth or comfort or success or status. Those are things that often dominate our prayer requests of people sitting in the churches, but that has never been man's greatest and most urgent need.

Man's greatest and most urgent need has always been to be freed from sin, to be reconciled to his creator, and then to be restored back to his purpose. So God, in Christates, met man's most pressing need in the person of Jesus Christ. So he was once again proving himself to be Jehovah Jirah. In the Old Testament, that meant God the provider. Okay. And God the provider, it was never just in the provision of material needs. He is the God of provider, Jehovah Jirah, who in kindness provides the most pressing needs. Okay. The second word there, which the LSB translates as affection, is the Greek word philanthropia. Repeat after me, philanthropia. Okay? It means a love for mankind, and you can probably get where the what we get like an English word that we get from this.

But philanthropia denotes something that is unexpected. We have a lot of people who think that they're philanthropists, and they make it like their goal. But philanthropia, the feeling of the word is actually something of unexpectation. So it actually denotes some surprise and some shock. Okay? It is not a frequently used word, believe it or not, in the scriptures. There are only two places in the entire New Testament where the word philanthropia is used. The only other occurrence of this word outside of Titus is in Acts chapter 28, verse 2, where the barbarians on the island of Malta are unusually and unexpectedly hospitable to Paul and the shipwrecked sailors. You guys know that story? They're like strangely kind.

So in Acts chapter 28, to capture the meaning, translators have translated the word philanthropia into two words. Exceptional affection. So it's an undeserved and unexpected affection on a helpless person. So philanthropia denotes an eagerness from someone who kind of should be an enemy to deliver someone from pain, trouble, or danger. So here's a mind-blowing truth. Our God who has a perfect hatred towards the sinner is also eager to save the sinner. What you can't connect those dots. Okay? Our God, who has a perfect wrathful hatred toward the sinner, is eager to save that sinner. Yahweh God is filled with philanthropia, an exceptional and an absurd affection.

So God exercising philanthropia on a sinful man is akin to me seeing a cockroach stuck in the cockroach trap. You guys have a visual? It's like glued there, right? And in affection, me going to mercifully rescue it, release it from its impending sticky doom, taking it home, and then adopting it as my third child. That's an exceptional and absurd affection. You guys would think me nuts. Right? See, in our pride, we forget that the distance between us and holy God is exponentially greater than the distance between us and that nasty cockroach. So in our arrogance, which we inherited from Adam, we feel entitled to God's mercy and we demand grace.

I mean, can you demand grace? No. Grace by definition is unmerited favor. In arrogance, many people in this world ask things like, what has God done for me lately to prove that he is good? Yikes. We have to remember that man in his sin is an object of wrath. God hates sin. He cannot tolerate sin. He will never tolerate the sinner.

As it says there in Psalm chapter 5. The sinner must first become a saint, a holy one set apart to dwell in the presence of God. The sinner left in his sins cannot but be the target of God's forever hateful wrath. So God chooses not to leave the sinner in his sin. Okay, so I'm going to read to you a very absurd passage of the scriptures. Okay. Almost dumbfounding, incomprehensible passage of the scripture we're so familiar with, we think we understand it. This passage makes no sense. But it gives us a wonderful picture of both the kindness and the affection of God. Galatians 4, 4 through 5. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, the kindness and affection of God personified, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might rescue, redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive cockroaches, adoption, and elevation as sons.

So the abhorrent sinner must be transformed and to an accepted beloved saint before he becomes adoptable as a son. You guys follow?

And then he accepts, and then he adopts. So the kindness of God is efficacious. It means what that means is it always produces the desired effect. So the kindness of God initiates and produces this necessary change of transformation so that the sinful man who becomes a saint can stand in the presence of God. Even see him face to face. So God, his kindness toward a man always leads to a repentance of the man. Repeat after me. God's kindness always produces repentance. God is omnipotent, He's all powerful, and what He wills, He accomplishes. So God's kindness toward a sinful man will always first evoke a repentance in that man.

Romans 2, 4, do you think lightly of the riches of his Christates and forbearance and patience? Not knowing that the Christates of God leads you to repentance. Repentance resulting from the kindness of God is the starting point for the transformation from the old to the new. And that's what John the Baptist preached, Matthew 3. This is what Jesus Himself said would be the prerequisite first step for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus said this, Luke 24. And repentance was the dominating central theme for Paul's proclamation of the gospel everywhere he went, Acts chapter 26. Somehow over the years, that that has kind of been diluted out of the message of the gospel. Repentance resulting from the kindness of God is the starting point for the transformation from the old to the new.

Does that make sense? Okay. So what's the starting point of his salvation? It's a receiving of the kindness of God made evident from my turning away from my sins in repentance. So without a genuine repentance from one's sins, there is no salvation. And that's the message that has been lost today. Without genuine repentance from one's sins, there is no salvation. You can't hold on to your old life and then concurrently add on the new. So without a genuine repentance from one's sins, there is no salvation. There cannot be salvation. There may be tears.

So without a genuine repentance from one's sins, I've been a pastor now, this is like 25 years. Tears don't deceive me anymore. Just because someone's weeping in front of me, I don't fully trust that they're repentant. Repentance isn't just a tearful grieving or lamenting over the consequences of sin. Repentance isn't just a feeling of guilt or sorrow over something admittedly that we've done wrong. That's defined as worldly sorrow. I mean, pride denies it, okay? But an unbeliever can still experience sorrow for his in regret. Worldly sorrow still results in death. Do you guys see it? Judas had worldly sorrow. Judas, after betraying Jesus, realized his sin, and he did not feel good about it.

In fact, Matthew chapter 27, verse 3 says, it's a strong word that he was seized with remorse. Verse 4 even records his confession. Okay? Matthew 27, 3 to 4, when Judas who had betrayed him saw that Jesus had been condemned, he felt remorse. And he made it right. He returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? You take care of that yourself. And then he went away, and what did he do?

Did Judas acknowledge his sin? Yes. Did Judas feel guilt and remorse over his sin? Yes. He may have even wept bitterly as the apostle Peter wept bitterly. But that sorrow did not save him because that sorrow was not repentance. So feeling badly about your sins or grieving the consequences of our poor choices is not necessarily repentance. Just verbally confessing and acknowledging that sin or responding to an altar call by tearfully raising your hand or going down to the field at Angel Stadium or like kneeling at the altar weeping does not necessarily mean repentance. There's a commonly used phrase in the scriptures do not be deceived. So what is repentance? And remember, it's a very important question because without repentance, there is no salvation.

So what is repentance? And here's a textbook definition by Wayne Grudham. It's a heartfelt sorrow for sin. So pay attention, okay? A renouncing of it, a sincere commitment, not a people pleasing commitment, to forsake it, I'm gonna throw it away, and to walk in obedience to Christ. So, yes, there is a sorrow for sin. But the point at which godly sorrow and worldly sorrow they diverge is repentance. In repentance, there is a renouncing of sin, there is a forsaking of sin. In other words, there is a change of direction and a turning away from one's wicked ways. So 2 Chronicles 7 14 reads, and my people, the elect people of God, of his own choosing, who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven?

Then I will forgive their sin, and then I will heal their land, their spirit, their soul, their destiny. Without repentance, there is no forgiveness. So God's forgiveness is preceded by the repentance of his people. So repentance always includes a turning away from sin and a turning towards God. Salvation is not an adding on of Jesus, it is a forsaking of one's old life in surrender to Jesus. Do you understand that? So the starting point of the transformation from the old to the new is the appropriate response to the Christ a taste kindness and philanthropia affection and the mercy of God. And that appropriate response is evidenced by repentance, a real one. You can fake people, you can deceive and trick people, you cannot trick and deceive and psych out the Holy Spirit.

So if a person has never repented of his sin, but has only added on and accepted Christ and Christianity theologically, informationally, and with his sacrifice of his time, he is not saved. He cannot be saved. There are many unrepentant and unsaved and unforgiven people very involved in church. So repentance in response to the kindness of God is the starting point of a gospel, acceptance of the gospel. The sorry of the gospel is holy God, okay. Then what happens? Titus 3, 5 to 6, he saved us, not by works which we did in righteousness, but according to his mercy through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

So at the moment a person turns away from his sins and cleaves himself in desperation to the righteousness of Christ, by faith he is saved. It's very easy. The process.

So three nouns follow the preposition through. You guys see the word through there? Three nouns follow it. There's a washing, a regeneration, and a renewal. Those are three things. And these are all things that are done to a person. They are not a thing a person works for in his own righteousness or by effort. Okay. These three nouns all depend on the mercy of the Almighty one who is doing the saving. So in the process of salvation, there is a washing, there is a regenerating, and then there is a renewing by the Holy Spirit, all of which is evidenced by the filling of the Holy Spirit in a person. So three nouns washing, regeneration, and renewing. Do you guys see those? And these aren't three separate events that are being described here.

These are all parts of salvation, not a sequence. There's no order there. Okay? So these three nouns all describe one mysterious process. So salvation is both a process and then a tangibly instantaneous event. Are you guys following? Salvation is both a process and an instantaneous event that you can feel. Alright? So first, what is the washing of regeneration? Other translations will actually read washing of rebirth. That's one thing I uh I'm slightly uncomfortable with the LSB is it's the word is literally rebirth, okay, to be born again. So the two nouns, washing and regeneration, we have to kind of address them together. So first, washing is being cleaned, cleansed of the old life. It's a washing away of sins.

It is a saving through baptism. Because theologically, baptism does save you. First Peter 3 21. But baptism that saves, it's first spiritual, and then it's visualized and then attested for by a professing saints, physical immersion into a body of water. Okay? So when we baptize people, we are immersing people into water to symbolize on the outside the washing that God has already done on the inside. And you can trick people, but God is not tricked. Okay, so when we immerse someone, it's a physical representation of what's already been done. So this washing is what Ananias commanded Paul at his conversion. Paul, you will be a witness for God to all men of what you have been, uh what you have seen and heard.

Why do you delay? Rise up, be baptized, wash away your sins, calling on his name. I mean, Paul's delaying because he can't see, right? But um washing away your sins. So regeneration is a second word. It denotes a spiritual birth. So the washing is the cleansing from the old life. Rebirth is uh the receiving of the new. Okay? So it's hard to like know which one begins where and which one ends. You guys follow? Okay. So, but washing generally is a cleansing of the old, a rebirth is the beginning of the new. And it means to be born again. It means to be born of God, and that's what Jesus says to Nicodemus, John chapter 3, verses 3 to 5. Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

And Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered, No, no, no. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. So when a person comes to saving faith in Christ, there is a washing of regeneration. And again, this is not something we strive for, this is a process that is done to us by the Holy Spirit. Okay, there is no power innately in the water. Okay. So the first noun was washing. The second, the LSB translated as regeneration. The third noun is renewing. Now, if you actually think about it, you might have this question regeneration and renewing almost sounds the same.

Right? So uh here's a way, let me help you distinguish it. Regeneration is birth, renewal is change. This is easier to track when you're thinking of it like that, right? Regeneration is like conception. Renewal is formation in a baby in a womb, right? Conception is regeneration, and then uh renewal is like a forming. Okay? So at his conception or rebirth, the believer is given a new heart. So he's repented, he's accepted Christ, and then his heart is changed. And sometimes it's hard to discern what came first, the heart change or the repentance. But that happens, right? And he has changed to his very core. Ezekiel 36, 26 to 27. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.

I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of tender flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and I will cause you to walk in my statutes, and I will cause you to be careful to do my judgments. So God is still doing the work. So it's a change from a heart that has once been callous to the things of God to one that is now tender and very eager to please our Lord. So that change is there. It's a change that is dictated by the Holy Spirit that causes a person to walk in God's statutes to take care to do God's judgments. Now, in the biblical languages, they didn't understand like DNA. But I want to almost understand this as a DNA transplant, which humanly is not, you can't do it, right?

But it's a transplant of a DNA. So the DNA of a soul has been supernaturally powerfully transformed, and that changed DNA controls every aspect of the man. So God has irreversibly changed the man. The old things have passed away, the new things have come, and now there is a real and perceivable and a beautiful metamorphosis. That's the process. So lastly, the evidence and the result of the transformation, and I'm going to start with the result first, but I had to title it like this because the verse order is like that, right? So the result first, believers have been justified by his grace and made right in standing. Okay? So a believer's sins have been imputed to Christ. Christ's righteousness has been imputed to the believer.

So believers can stand in the presence of God and say, I am holy, like you are holy. I am saved. I am now destined for glory. Thank you. Praise God, right? So with all foolish boldness, we have confidence to enter the throne of grace. That's called justification. And that is immediate and it's irreversible. So a believer cannot lose his salvation. Amen? And praise God for that. So a believer's eternity is secure. Also, one of the another result is a believers have become heirs. Heirs according to the hope of eternal life. So whatever it is, it's a mystery. No eyes see, no ear is heard, no mind is conceived what the Lord has prepared for those who love him. So my inheritance, I don't know what awaits, but it's secure.

No one can take it away from me. It is a certain hope according to the hope of eternal life. And so Apostle Paul, this is the second time he mentions this. He mentioned this hope of eternal life in the beginning, at the opening of the letter. Titus 1, 2, in the hope of eternal life, which the God who cannot lie promised from all eternity. So the believer's eternity and his inheritance are irreversible and secure because the God who promised it cannot lie. God doesn't dangle and then tease and pull away.

And he is also a God who cannot change his mind. I mean, in the Old Testament, it says, is God a man that he should lie, or like the son of a man that he should change his mind. No, God is not like that. So this God who does not lie or change his mind has promised this from before the believer was even conceived that he would be made an heir. And so that will be the result and the end of those who have been transformed. Okay. So here's a very important question. How do we know then that we've been transformed? So you might be sitting here thinking, like, how do I know? What is the evidence? So the answers to that question actually should be a sermon in and of itself. But uh I'm just gonna keep this brief and we can explore this together and even individually if you need to.

All of the following things are evidences that the Spirit of God is in you and has worked in you and is continuing to work in you. This is not gonna be an exhaustive list, but this is a helpful set of questions that I walk people through when they're struggling with assurance of salvation. Okay? So here they are. First one. Do you believe that Jesus is the only way to being reconciled to God the Father? John 14, 6. Secondly, do you have faith that Jesus' death was sufficient payment for your sins? And that is resurrection has freed you from the consequences and power of sin. I believe. Help my unbelief. I mean, our faith is weak, right? But I believe this. Third is where the rubber meets the road, and this is where I think a lot of people go wrong.

Have you repented and been forgiven of your sins? That's Luke 24, 47. And is there evidence of your repentance? Therefore, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. That's Matthew 3:8. And then do you long to know God? Do you hunger to hear his voice and the feed off of his word? Because it says in 1 Peter 2, like a newborn baby, he's not even rationalizing or logically thinking through everything, but he wants milk. Is there a hunger for God's word in your heart? Fifthly, do you hate your sin? And have you grown in not just justifying your sin, excusing your sin, defending your sin, or blaming other people, like your bad parents or bad bosses or abuses you've felt?

Like you've stopped blaming your sins on other people. Have you grown in that area? Where now you take responsibility for your sin and you hate it? And is there a desire in your heart that really wants to obey? And as you've gotten older in your life, I've been a Christian since 1994, so that's 31 years. In the years you've known God and walk with God, is God bigger and more awesome and more terrifying and holier to you with each passing year. If you look at the line in the wit, uh you know the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis? I forget which character it says, but he goes, Aslan, you've grown bigger. And then Aslan responds, it's interesting, my friends. The longer they know me, I keep growing bigger in their sight.

So is God bigger? And also at the same time, are you growing more disgusted and helpless? And just weak with each passing year. I've been a pastor 25 years, a Christian 34, and I probably said this in the beginning. There is nothing good in me outside of Christ. Now it's like, no, no, there's nothing good in me outside of Christ. 60, 70 years, like when I'm when I'm older, I might really mean it. Like, no, no, no, no, no, no. There's nothing good in me outside of Jesus. Do you mean that? I mean, in my 20s, I thought I would be like God's gift of Christendom. Now I just don't want to be disqualified. Now I'm like, don't disqualify yourself from ministry today. And lastly, is there tangible evidence of God's DNA, the fruits of the Spirit, at work in your life, especially love.

If you're still holding on to grudges, I actually would encourage you to question the realness of your faith. Because actually, it's impossible for a real Christian to hold on to a long-term grudge. You can't justify it. Among insects, the metamorphosis can be incomplete, where the young simply look like wingless tiny versions of the adults. But in Christians, the metamorphosis, the radical transformation is always complete. It is always total. It is always all encompassing. The old things are gone, the new things have come, hearts of stone have been completely replaced with tender hearts of flesh. The satanic has been replaced by the godly. Spiritual corpses have changed and become living vessels filled with the Holy Spirit of God who walk in newness alive.

A Christian by definition is a new creation, radically, totally and irreversibly changed. There is no such thing as a partial Christian salvation. Again, this is textbook stuff. The Christian's legal standing before the judgment of God has been instantaneously changed. That's what we call justification. And though the outward perceivable change may not be immediately noticeable, the very DNA of the Christian is also completely and instantaneously changed upon belief. And that's what we call regeneration. And that process in which you continue to grow is called sanctification. And it's only a matter of time that the DNA produces its fruit. So praise God for our testimony and for our living hope.

In answering these questions, you might feel like, ugh. Welcome to the club. But if you've answered yes, however feebly you answered yes to all these questions, praise God for your testimony of salvation and for the living hope that is within you. So, brothers and sisters, I'm going to close with a reminder of our testimony and our living hope by revealing reading Titus 3, 3 to 7 for us one last time. This is you, if you are a child of God. For we ourselves also once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another. But when the kindness and the affection of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not by works which we did in righteousness, but according to his mercy through the washing of regeneration, renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by his grace, we will become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Hallelujah. Let's pray together. Lord, would you receive our worship as we worship in spirit and in truth? And would you help us in our weakness? As we have so far to go.