Motivation to be good

Text Titus 3:4-8 Time 10/11/10 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church
I was reading an article called Sales lessons from England's Dismal Failure at the World Cup. The writer's first point is that motivation is crucial. He says
"Of course you’ll already know that motivation is crucial to success, whether that’s in sport, in business and particularly in the sales arena. However it’s motivation on a consistent basis that’s vital to producing good results in sales over a period of time.
Consistent motivation is even more important when it comes to ‘new business’ activities. For example if you know you’ve got cold calling (or even follow up calls) to do, and you’re not feeling motivated, how likely is it you’ll do the calls you need? Not very likely!
Alternatively, you may do the ‘task’, but in reality you’re just ‘going through the motions’, and even through you’ve done your ‘activity’ it was never going to produce any kind of results for you.  Some people then even use that ‘result’ to justify saying ‘cold calling just doesn’t work for me’ or ‘I’m no good at that’ for example!
You saw the impact that lack of motivation had on the England team – make sure it’s not happening to you or your team right now!"

We began last week to look at Paul's argument for why the people in the churches in Crete ought to be good, what should motivate them. His chief argument is that these people have been changed – they are not what they were. We spent some time last week looking at verse 3 and considering how it used to be for the Christian.

We spoke of how 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. Having made that negative statement Paul goes on to speak of the great change that comes about in Christians in these terms. He speaks in verses 4-8 of how

when the kindness and love of God our Saviour 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, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
Before he adds a little more he says that This is a trustworthy saying. This is one of the trustworthy sayings of the pastoral letters then (the two to Timothy and the one to Titus). There are five altogether – three in 1 Timothy, one in 2 Timothy and this one here in Titus. They were probably sayings that went round in the churches in those early days and that Paul takes up as appropriate to what he has to say at certain points.

He wants Titus to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. As he adds These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

Perhaps the best way to get at what is in these verses is by asking a series of questions.

1. When did God save us?

Verse 4 begins But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us. Though by nature we are foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of desires and passions, malicious and envious and hateful - something has happened that has changed all that – as he puts it here, the kindness and love of God our Saviour has appeared. By God our Saviour here is meant particularly God the Father, although we most often use the term Saviour in connection with the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul talks of his kindness – the word only appears here in the New Testament and his love for man. These appeared, having been previously hidden, when we were converted. Of course, we can go back to foreknowledge and predestination and the incarnation, life death, burial, resurrection, ascension and session of Christ and the pouting out of the Spirit for all that lies behind that conversion through the work of the Spirit. They are all part of the appearing of the kindness and love of our Saviour God. In the old westerns there often used to be that moment when it looked as though it were up with the good people and then out of nowhere the cavalry would appear to save the day. It is something like that with the appearance of our Saviour. Or think of the sun rising to herald the dawn. Its appearance means the long night of suffering and misery is over and the day has arrived.

It is the undeserved kindness and love of god that has made the difference then. This is what has transformed the life of every believer. Here is reason for constant thanksgiving and a realisation that nothing can ever be the same again.

When did God save us? When his kindness and love appeared, even while we were lost in foolishness, disobedience, blindness, malice, envy and sin, and we were converted.

2. What caused God to save us?

Paul puts this negatively and positively.

1. Negatively. Not because of righteous things we had done. His burden here is that the people should do what is good. In that situation there is always the danger that we can give the impression that Christianity is all about pulling ourselves up by our own boot straps, that in some sense we save ourselves. Nothing could be further from the truth. No, it is not because of righteous things we do that God saves us. What good can we do anyway? By nature we are foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved, malicious, envy, hateful and hated. No, it is nothing in us that saves as the New Testament stresses time and time again.

2. Positively. Rather it is because of his mercy. He has mentioned God's kindness and love and now he refers to his mercy – his undeserved favour. Without God;s mercy what hope would there be for us? None at all. He has looked on us with pity and seen our misery and failure and he has been merciful in Jesus Christ. Again it is a reason for much thanksgiving and a reason for good deeds. Having known such mercy how grateful should we be. We can bets show that thankfulness by living for God's glory and doing his will, being wise in him and obedient, with our eyes opened through him and refusing to be ruled by our passions and desires.

Why caused God to save us? It was certainly not because of righteous things we had done but entirely because of his mercy.

3. How did God save us?

The NIV endeavours to help us with the next part by reminding us that Paul is talking about how He saved us. Well how did he save us? It was, says Paul through two things. He also mentions a third thing a little later. It was firstly

1. Through the washing of rebirth

This is quite a saying. Paul really combines two thoughts to come up with a new one. On the one hand there is the idea of regeneration – being born again. But there is also the idea of washing being cleansed. The idea of new birth is taken up more in the second phrase so let's stick with the idea of cleansing first. We can think of the way we were in terms of dirt clinging to us, of being unclean. That's how we were. We had no right to come to God because of the sins that so clung to us like filth and dirt. I was listening today to an interview with a very low caste Dalit woman, an untouchable, in India. Because of her caste the only work she can get is taking away the waste from people's toilets. Because of her work people are very wary of touching her or coming into contact with her. If she goes to the market she is not allowed to touch the produce. If she wants something she has to point to it and they put it on the ground so that she can pick it up. What a wicked system the Hindu caste system is. But that is how we once were – unclean, like untouchables, like lepers banished from society. But we have been born again through God's mercy and so all our sins have been washed away. What a glorious thing that is. How thankful we should be.

2. And renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour. With that washing there was renewal as implied in the reference to regeneration. If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old has gone the new has come. We have not only been washed clean but we have been renewed too. It is not just that we were dressed in filthy clothes and we were soiled all over. We were clothed in rags and our whole being was worn out and decrepit. However, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on us so generously because of the victory Christ won on the cross then the Holy Spirit renewed us and made us into new persons. We were transformed by his activity within. We were born of water and of the Spirit. Our hearts were not only sprinkled clean but we were given new hearts too. We were set apart to God or sanctified and made new or regenerated.

You notice what a Trinitarian statement this is. He (the Father) poured out on us the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

3. It was also through having been justified by his grace.

Almost in passing Paul goes on to remind the believers that they were not only washed and renewed - sanctified and regenerated – but also justified. It wasn't only that God made a change within but also, and this is the thing that Paul more often emphasises, there was legal change. There was a change in our standing before God so that where as by nature we are condemned, we have now been justified or made right with God. And what was the root of this justification – it was the grace of God. So with kindness and love and mercy we now mention grace – God's undeserved love. Without that there would be no salvation – no justification, no regeneration, no sanctification.

God's justifying grace should move us to a life of good deeds in his service.

So, how did God save us? By having mercy on us and washing us clean when we were reborn and renewing us by pouring out the Spirit generously on us through Jesus Christ our Saviour and by declaring us righteous in his sight by his grace.

4. To what end did he save us?

It is so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. We've mentioned regeneration and justification and sanctification. We mustn't forget adoption either. By doing what he did, God made us heirs sons and heirs, those who have the right to inherit good things from God. In particular he mentions here our now having the hope of eternal life. ITV have recently been showing a costume drama that has proved very successful. It is called Downton Abbey. In the final episode of this first series the wife of Lord Grantham becomes pregnant quite late in life. They have three grown up daughters but if this next child proved to be a boy then he would become the heir rather than the present heir, a distant male cousin. Without giving things away if you have not seen it, the drama makes very clear what a difference being an heir can make. A lot hangs on it. Now if you are Christian tonight then you are a son of God and an heir and you have an inheritance that cannot be taken from you. In Peter's words, it cannot spoil or fade. Paul speaks of it here as the hope of eternal life. That is what we hope to inherit because of the great change that God had brought about in our lives. This hope ought to so affect us that we not only look forward to heaven but our behaviour here on earth is also changed so that we live for his glory.

This is indeed a trustworthy saying, and worth remembering - no wonder Paul wanted Titus to stress these things. All good preachers ought to stress them.

Never forget that although you were once foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another in a word lost or totally depraved - all that has now changed. You have known the washing of rebirth, renewal by the Holy Spirit and justification and adoption. Because of God's kindness, love, mercy and grace you now have the hope of heaven. Never forget it.

5. How should we then live?

So there is a mini theology of salvation – a soteriology, if you like. However, it is not here simply to inform our minds. Do not forget what Paul is driving at here. Verse 8 – it is all to the end that those who have trusted in God all these blessings come by faith may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. The very fact of what we were and have now become by the love and mercy and grace of God ought to stir us up to a careful devotion to doing what is good. All these facts should combine to stir us up to holy living – the love and grace of God, the generous way he has poured out his Spirit, the fact we never saved ourselves, regeneration, justification, the whole plan of salvation. May it do so.

You saw the impact that lack of motivation had on the England team – let's make sure it’s not happening to us right now by keeping these things in mind.