00:00Now coming back to Titus, he tells us how we should live in the present.
00:05So he says, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,
00:09we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age.
00:13So the consequence of believing in Jesus, that you turn away from the things which are ungodly,
00:19and you begin to live in the path which is godly.
00:21And I think a lot of reasons why people actually reject Jesus,
00:25is not because they've got all these intellectual doubts,
00:27because they know that if they accept Jesus, they're going to have to change their lives.
00:30They're going to have to change from living a life which is going their own way,
00:35breaking God's commandments, to now trying to keep God's commandments and walk in his ways.
00:42Verse 14, it says,
00:43He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed,
00:46and purify himself his own special people, sell us for good works.
00:51So Jesus came to redeem us from our sins,
00:54to take us away from the life which we lived before,
00:58and to enable us to be purified,
01:01and to be zealous for good works,
01:03to do what is right in his sight.
01:06And he talks about redeeming us and purifying us.
01:11So redemption is being bought out of the slave market of sin by believing in Jesus.
01:17Purifying us is what we call sanctification,
01:19which is the process which begins when you become a Christian,
01:22when you're born again,
01:23when you receive the Holy Spirit.
01:28It goes on to speak about being saved through the washing of regeneration
01:31and renewing of the Holy Spirit in the following chapter.
01:35So the experience which everybody can have,
01:37which is to be born again.
01:39And the Bible says you must be born again.
01:41I was born again when I sat in a room in West Hampstead
01:44and asked God to forgive my sins, which are many,
01:46and to come into my life and give me a new life and faith in Jesus.
01:50Happened over 50 years ago.
01:53Don't know when you were born again,
01:55but you must be born again.
01:56So you should have some experience in your life
01:58when you know that you became a follower of Jesus the Messiah.
02:02You may not actually know the day or the hour.
02:04I do know the day or the hour because it was the 1st of January 1970,
02:07so it's a kind of significant date, New Year's Day,
02:10so I couldn't really get away from that.
02:11And it was connected with a New Year's Eve party the previous night,
02:15which I knew that I'd sinned at.
02:17But I know that becoming a Christian was a real thing,
02:20and it changed my life.
02:22And we should have some experience of regeneration,
02:24which is the change from the person we were before we became a Christian
02:27to the person who God wants us to be.
02:30And this passage speaks about some of the things which are going to happen
02:32when you are redeemed.
02:33You're going to turn away from being foolish, disobedient, deceived,
02:38seeking various lusts and pleasures,
02:40living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
02:44Now that shouldn't happen in the church, should it?
02:47Sometimes it does, but that's because we turn away from the Lord.
02:51We should live in newness of life,
02:53and we should love God and love one another.
02:55Very clear.
02:56So, he says here about having this past, the present,
03:03and he says that you must be born again, have a new life.
03:11By the way, what he's saying also is that your first birth is not good enough.
03:17I don't know if you realise that.
03:19I'm not saying anything against your parents,
03:20they might have been very nice people,
03:22but actually bringing you into the world,
03:25brought you into the world which is full of sin,
03:27and you inherited a sinful nature from your parents,
03:30from their parents, from their parents,
03:31from their parents,
03:32going right back to the beginning, to the fall.
03:36Described in Genesis chapter 3.
03:39It doesn't matter how bad or how good you've been in your life,
03:42it's not good enough to save you.
03:44Your own works can't save you.
03:46You have to be born again.
03:47It's also not bad enough to prevent you from being saved
03:52if you repent and believe the gospel.
03:55So, if you've done lots of bad stuff,
03:56it doesn't stop you from becoming a believer and being saved,
04:00because the moment you accept Jesus,
04:02all your sins are blotted out.
04:04And as far as God is concerned,
04:05they're removed as far as the west is from the east,
04:08and nothing can separate you from the love of God,
04:10which is in Jesus Christ, our saviour.
04:12Amen.
04:12Amen.
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