Titus 3:4-7

Paul, a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to further the faith of God's elect in their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness.

Lord willing, let's go back to verse four so that we may further our faith in God's elect to the knowledge that leads to godliness. So starting in verse four, um, and again, while I'm reading, I want to keep a certain question in mind, um, relating to the nature of the Trinity. I want to keep salvation as the, uh, key I of this text. And my question is what role does the father, the son, and the Holy spirit play in our salvation? Uh, it's an important question, a significant question as it directly pertains to our salvation. The Trinity is a core doctrine. It's important to worship God as he's revealed himself to us, and without, and if doing otherwise, revering God as he's not revealed himself can show that you're worshiping another God, very simply. But God has clearly, laid out himself in the scriptures as we're gonna read. So with that being said, starting in verse four,

but when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, love of God our Savior appeared,

when you hear about the love and kindness of our Lord and Savior, which member do you think that typically pertains to? Personally, I would look at something like God, our Savior, think of saving grace, think of Jesus Christ, and, you know, back that up with scripture. As it says in chapter two, verse 13,

while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,

or even if you read down to verse six,

whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

It's quite clear from all scripture, Jesus is our Lord and Savior. But is Jesus Christ the only person of the Godhead that saves you? Clearly not. Going to Jude chapter 25, it says,

to the only God, our Savior be glory, majesty, power, and authority through Jesus Christ, our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore. Amen.

Or again, another example in, uh, first, uh, Timothy verse one, uh, chapter one,

apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God, our savior and Christ Jesus, our hope.

What I'm trying to emphasize here is God, our savior through Jesus Christ, God, our savior, and Jesus Christ. The title of Savior is not limited to the Son in this regard. It's very clear that the Father shares the label as Savior as well. Because he shares such an intimate and inseparable role in our salvation. sent his son into the world to be crucified, or as it says in Isaiah 53,

it was the Lord's will to crush him, to cause him to suffer.

The father has action. The father has a will in our salvation. So orienting ourselves back to verse four, God, our savior, is not fully revealed as father or son. As we exposit more texts, it will become much more clear who our savior is. So going on into verse five, I want to emphasize,

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.

He saved us is still too broad. When talking about the person of the Trinity, the father sent the son, the atoning lamb, for us to be reconciled to him. That's how the father saved us. Or the son laid down his life through his sinless blood that we may find new life. That is how he saved us. So, um, seeing that the father and the son both play critical and, um, intimate roles in our salvation, uh, looking at verse five, what is the spirit doing in the, uh, plan in the action of our salvation? By the washing and rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, I wanna focus on the rebirth first. I wanna go to John chapter three, it's a correlating text. Jesus says,

very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the spirit.

The image of rebirth, the image of death to life, the image of being dead and now alive again, It's very clear of the salvatic work that the Spirit does in you. So, now talking about renewal. Before I talk about renewal, I wanna kind of ask a quick side question. What draws you to Jesus? What actually brings you closer to Christ? I'll personally share that it's not myself. I find myself growing away from God in my inner being. My flesh detests the things of God. I find that I, myself, and I imagine all of us as sinners here, cannot draw myself closer to the holy being of Jesus. Cannot do it. Except by the power of the Holy Spirit that indwells us. That is the sanctifying work of the Spirit. I'll repeat what Josh said last week, 1 Peter 1 verse 2,

whom you have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctifying work of the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood, grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Focusing on the sanctifying work of the Spirit. So reflecting on what we've learned so far, the father and the son and the spirit all have a hand in saving slash saved sinners like us. Moving, but still want to go back to verse four and verse five, clarifying who saved us. which will be shown in verse six,

whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ, our savior.

This actually fully clears up verses four and five. Uh, it is the father who is our savior, the father who has appeared, uh, it's because of the father's mercies that were saved. Uh, and it's clear from the language, just reading it. It. the father who poured out the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ. The pouring out comes from verse five and the through is in verse six. Um, this really emphasizes how close the father is in our salvation. He plays an intimate role of our savior as someone who is pushing and moving the plan of salvation forward. I think something that emphasizes this more than anything is John chapter 10 verses 28 to 30.

I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my father's hand. I and the father are one.

The Father who has given them to me is greater than all. They will never snatch me out of my hand is powerful. Shows the love of the Father and how he's actively trying to save us, actively pursuing us, personalizing in our salvation. Hands selected, hand picked. So. Going forward, moving into verse seven.

So that being, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having hope of eternal life.

Being justified by his grace is continuing kind of the father's grace, the father's gift, starting from, continuing from verse six. And to wrap your head around this concept, We have justification from the Father. We have grace from the Father. We have salvation from the Father. All three, grace, justification, and sanctification are from the Father. They go And it's not only the father that plays a role in this. It is through the son that you are saved, that you are justified, that you have grace. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that you are saved, that you are justified, you have grace. It's been clearly given out. That's been clearly exposited. So. Reflecting back on the original question, what role does the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit play in our salvation? I think it's pretty clear from the text that it's from the Father who sent his Son into the world, who died on a cross and became a curse for us, that the Holy Spirit put into application, that the Father poured out through the Son. That the Holy Spirit continually renews us, healing us from the healing blood of Jesus that again is being poured out by the Father. So. That being said, answering our question, and before I kind of finish up and close in prayer, I'd like to just read a creed, the Athanasian Creed that I thought related pretty closely to this.

Nothing in the Trinity is before or after, nothing is greater or smaller. In their entirety, the three persons are co-eternal, co-equal with each other. So in everything, as I said earlier, we must worship their Trinity in their unity, in their unity, in their Trinity. Again, anyone who desires to be saved should think thus about the Trinity.

Let us go into prayer now. Dear Lord and Heavenly Father, thank you for clearly revealing yourself, clearly showing us of the salvation that you give from sending your son into the world, dying on a cross, and having your spirit poured out onto us to remind us, to renew us, to show us the light of Jesus, what he's done on the cross, what he's taught in the world, and ultimately sanctifying us, making us more like him. Father, I ask that each one of us, Basques, we soak up the the message of salvation that each person clearly displays, shows, and wants to communicate to us. I ask that we intimately love you as you've loved the church and that we may go forward in renewed spirits, knowing that you personally selected us, you personally chose us, you personally labored for our salvation. I praise you, in Jesus' name, amen.