Dr. Jeff Arthurs, Guest Speaker

1. Most of us are trying to save ourselves (“I think I can, I think I can”).

2. But we tend to overestimate our goodness and underestimate our badness. The Bible says that spiritually we are: lost, strangers, guilty, dead, and enemies.

“For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.” –Titus 3:3

3. Therefore God, who is rich in mercy, sent Jesus to absorb our sins. Jesus is the “sin eater.”

“But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, ⁵ He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” –Titus 3:4-7

4. Our responsibility is to “believe.”

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  –John 3:16

5. We do good deeds, not in order to EARN salvation, but because we ARE saved. We do not work FOR salvation, we work FROM it.

“This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.” –Titus 3:8