I know when we tell the Christmas story, it's all about shepherds and it's about a manger, and it's about a young couple, and all of that is really wonderful. But listen, Christmas is profoundly personal. Really. Christmas is about good news. And what makes the news good is the desperation of humanity.

I know when we tell the Christmas story, it's all about shepherds and it's about a manger, and it's about a young couple, and all of that is really wonderful. But listen, Christmas is profoundly personal. Really. Christmas is about good news. And what makes the news good is the desperation of humanity.

Welcome to Living a Legacy, featuring the Bible teaching ministry of Doctor Crawford Lawrence. Great to have you with us as we move along in the advent season. Well, today we begin a two part series called What a Savior. Now we all know that Jesus came as a baby not just to be a symbol of righteousness and to do good, but he came on a mercy mission to deliver us from our moral mess and to offer a miraculous makeover. Join us for Crawford's message. Our deliverer from Titus, chapter three. If you're new to our broadcast, Crawford has been in Christian ministry for over 50 years. He has served as a church planter pastor, marriage conference speaker, and author. He currently heads the Christian Leadership Mentoring Ministry called Beyond Our Generation. In today's message, Crawford reminds us to keep in clear focus the true purpose of Jesus coming to earth. Here's the first of two Christmas messages about this mercy mission God sent His Son to fulfill. Let's look at Jesus role as deliverer. Here's Crawford Lorenz on living a legacy.

Welcome to Living a Legacy, featuring the Bible teaching ministry of Doctor Crawford Lawrence. Great to have you with us as we move along in the advent season. Well, today we begin a two part series called What a Savior. Now we all know that Jesus came as a baby not just to be a symbol of righteousness and to do good, but he came on a mercy mission to deliver us from our moral mess and to offer a miraculous makeover. Join us for Crawford's message. Our deliverer from Titus, chapter three. If you're new to our broadcast, Crawford has been in Christian ministry for over 50 years. He has served as a church planter pastor, marriage conference speaker, and author. He currently heads the Christian Leadership Mentoring Ministry called Beyond Our Generation. In today's message, Crawford reminds us to keep in clear focus the true purpose of Jesus coming to earth. Here's the first of two Christmas messages about this mercy mission God sent His Son to fulfill. Let's look at Jesus role as deliverer. Here's Crawford Lorenz on living a legacy.

Today I'm going to be talking about our Savior. What a Savior, our deliverer. It's a title of the message. And then next Sunday I want to talk about his substitution, his sacrifice on our behalf, the sacrifice of our Savior. Because those are the two big things in the Bible. When the Bible talks about a Savior, it's talking about deliverance and sacrifice, deliverance and sacrifice. Now, to be sure, we're not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. We're born separated from God. However, what complicates things is our sin. We're the ones who have stepped into the water of our own free choice and our own free will. We? We stepped into it, and we played around with it and got a little bit deeper and a little bit deeper and a little bit. And all of a sudden the current snatches us. And before you know it, we're swept away someplace that we didn't intend to go. And the truth of the matter is, we're kind of like in a helpless situation. I know when we tell the Christmas story, it's all about shepherds, and it's about a manger, and it's about a young couple. And all of that is really wonderful. But listen, Christmas is profoundly personal. Really, Christmas is about good news. And what makes the news good is the desperation of humanity. You don't have good news unless there's a bad situation, in other words. And so we come to Luke chapter two, beginning at verse ten. The angel is announcing, announcing the birth to the shepherds, and listen to what he says in verse ten. And the angel said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. Here you have it. Good news of a great joy that's going to be for all the people. And here's the good news. For unto you is born this day. Notice the emphatic statement. For unto you is born this day, right on time in the city of David a Savior. A Savior who is Christ the Lord. Savior is used as mission. The reason why he came. For unto you is born this day in the city of David. A Savior, a deliverer, a deliverer. Now over in Titus chapter three, the Apostle Paul outlines why the need for this Savior. And I'm going to look at verses three through seven. But in let me just tell you where I'm going, there's an amazing progression in verses three through seven, as the apostle Paul eloquently outlines the need for this Savior. He does it this way. He talks about our condition. Then he talks about God's solution. And then he talks about a new condition. Or to put it another way, he talks about a moral mess, a mercy mission, and a miraculous makeover. That's what the Savior did. So the good news is that he comes at a bad time. It's bad for us, and that's what makes it good news. So let's look at Titus chapter three, beginning at verse three. The apostle Paul describes the moral mess that we were in. And by the way, I'm just going to walk through this verse. In this verse he gives us six categories of sin. Now there's more than six sins. There's kind of like an infinite number of sins, and there's probably more categories. But in this verse, in this one verse, if you look at it very closely, the Apostle Paul is giving to us six categories of sin that spells doom and separation. A bad situation. The first category he mentions is foolishness. He says in verse three, for we, for we ourselves were once foolish, once foolish, once foolish. Now when the Bible talks about foolishness, it's not talking about being anti-intellectual. It's not saying that you're not smart, he says you're just foolish. And the Bible, by that, he implies two things. Number one, foolish in the sense of not having spiritual understanding. The Bible says, for the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God because he's trying to use human ways to ascertain spiritual dimensions. And they just. You don't have the Spirit of God. It's like it's foolish. The second thing that he means by foolishness is not just that you can't connect the dots spiritually, but number two, it means rejecting the gospel because it is not reasonable to us. And here's the line. And it calls. It calls me to turn from my sin. And so it's foolish in the sense, in the sense that I don't want to lose control. You see, you can't come to Christ and be proud. The very nature of, of, of of becoming a follower of Jesus Christ means that you walk away from your pride. You can't be in control of your life and still receive Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. They don't. They don't mix. They don't fit together. And so some people reject Jesus because, hey, look, I don't. I don't want anybody controlling me. So again, this first category, when Paul says foolishness, this first category of sin, he's talking about not being able to connect spiritual realities and the unwillingness to acknowledge that we're out of control. The second category of sin is I call it disobedience because the text calls it disobedience. But I want to define what what I think he means by this. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient. This is a disobedience to God which is shown in our attitude and actions. Again, it's connected to the whole pride thing. It is a refusal to submit to what God says you've just lived your life based upon. You know your thought that you're in control. I do whatever I want to do. I don't want anybody else telling me what to do. You know, God. I mean, if a God exists, he's going to assist me in my direction. He's going to help me to get to where I want to be. So it is a disobedience that lacks a submission to someone else that is greater than me. It refuses to subordinate my life to him. It refuses to place my life under his authority. It is that kind of disobedience. You see, I talk to a lot of people who are not believers yet, and this is the crux of the matter. This is one of the biggies right here. The failure to want to submit to God. I don't want to do that. Well, there's a third category of sin here foolishness, disobedience. The third one is manipulation. But it's not like we're the ones that are manipulating. We are the ones who are manipulated. Notice the expression here, he says, led astray. You know, actually, in the Greek it could have been translated deceived, because it means that you you have been led astray. Oh, man. He's getting ready to step into something. He said. We have been deceived and manipulated into doing wrong. You're not really driving this train. You think you are. There are forces inside of you, forces inside of me, that's leading me in the wrong direction that we're self deceived. Now, now, Paul says, no, you're not the orchestrator. You're the orchestrated. No, you're not the controller. Somebody else is pushing the buttons. And it takes coming to that point in our lives where we understand I'm not as good as I thought I was. And to be honest with you, I find myself doing stuff that I don't really want to do, but I can't help myself. Which is the next word. Control. Listen to what he says. He says slaves to various passions and pleasures. Everybody is controlled by something. Everybody is controlled by something. We were born to worship. And if you're not worshiping God, you're going to worship your passions. Every last one of us. Every last. There's not a person born that's not controlled by something. And that's what he's painting this picture as he goes through these categories of sin that, look, you need a savior. You need a savior. You can't make it by yourself. He says another category of sin is grudges. Listen to what he says here, this line passing our days in malice and envy. Spending your life driven by a grudging spirit to settle the score and to be recognized for who you are or who you think you should be. Now, I don't want to get thrown in a ditch on this one. This has huge theological implications relative to the image of God, you see. We're all created. I promise you, there's a relationship. We were all created in the image of God. We're image bearers. We were born to make a statement with our lives. And the desire to make a statement is not evil. We're born for significance. We're born to make an expression, a statement with our lives. However, when sin entered the world that that vertical desire became horizontal. Now we compete with one another. This is the origin of jealousy. Jealousy has its root in a right, a right desire that's been perverted. Envy has its root in a right desire that's been perverted. We were created to be passionate about God and to represent him. But when sin came into the picture, now it's all about us. So one of the reasons why we want to get back at people is because somehow or another, they've taken the spotlight from me, or they've stolen something from me that belongs to me. So I spend my life trying to get even with people. I spend my life trying to be recognized. Will you validate me? Will you affirm me? Will you stroke me? Will you tell me that I'm somebody? And Paul calls that sin. Not that we shouldn't desire value, but our value should be given this way. In the last category of sin is alienation. You see, the very fact that we hate someone, the very fact that we have consistent, broken relationships is God putting the spotlight on us, that we need reconciliation. You see, the gospel is all about reconciliation this way and this way. That's right. Jesus came to put us back together with him and have the ability to love people that we disagree with. Now I'm talking to non-believers, but I want to give an application to Christians. And the biggest barrier for people coming to know the Savior, one of the biggest barriers is our inability to sustain good relationships among the body. The integrity of the gospel means that I'm rightly related to God, and I'm pursuing a love relationship with others. That's comprehensive reconciliation. And the apostle Paul says alienation. Alienation in relationships is a category of sin. So that's the condition. A moral mess. What's the solution? Ah, the good news. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior. It's a mercy mission. Verses four and five. Help comes on the scene in the midst of this stuff. And I love the contrast here, he says. But let me read the verse again, for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But. You see what he's painting here? He's he's. What he's saying is you're lost. You can't swim. You don't have any. What are those called? Those. Those bands on your arms. You don't. You don't have a life jacket on. There's no rope out there. You're over your head. You're taking in water. Okay. You're dead. And this stuff doesn't even make sense unless you know that you're dead. But. And this is where mercy comes in. You can't appreciate mercy until you see what you deserve. You can't do it. He says, but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared on the scene, I want you to look at the word loving here. Loving kindness. That's not the Greek word agapao or agape. You know what word that is? It's philanthropia. We get the English word philanthropy from that. You know what that word means?

Today I'm going to be talking about our Savior. What a Savior, our deliverer. It's a title of the message. And then next Sunday I want to talk about his substitution, his sacrifice on our behalf, the sacrifice of our Savior. Because those are the two big things in the Bible. When the Bible talks about a Savior, it's talking about deliverance and sacrifice, deliverance and sacrifice. Now, to be sure, we're not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. We're born separated from God. However, what complicates things is our sin. We're the ones who have stepped into the water of our own free choice and our own free will. We? We stepped into it, and we played around with it and got a little bit deeper and a little bit deeper and a little bit. And all of a sudden the current snatches us. And before you know it, we're swept away someplace that we didn't intend to go. And the truth of the matter is, we're kind of like in a helpless situation. I know when we tell the Christmas story, it's all about shepherds, and it's about a manger, and it's about a young couple. And all of that is really wonderful. But listen, Christmas is profoundly personal. Really, Christmas is about good news. And what makes the news good is the desperation of humanity. You don't have good news unless there's a bad situation, in other words. And so we come to Luke chapter two, beginning at verse ten. The angel is announcing, announcing the birth to the shepherds, and listen to what he says in verse ten. And the angel said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. Here you have it. Good news of a great joy that's going to be for all the people. And here's the good news. For unto you is born this day. Notice the emphatic statement. For unto you is born this day, right on time in the city of David a Savior. A Savior who is Christ the Lord. Savior is used as mission. The reason why he came. For unto you is born this day in the city of David. A Savior, a deliverer, a deliverer. Now over in Titus chapter three, the Apostle Paul outlines why the need for this Savior. And I'm going to look at verses three through seven. But in let me just tell you where I'm going, there's an amazing progression in verses three through seven, as the apostle Paul eloquently outlines the need for this Savior. He does it this way. He talks about our condition. Then he talks about God's solution. And then he talks about a new condition. Or to put it another way, he talks about a moral mess, a mercy mission, and a miraculous makeover. That's what the Savior did. So the good news is that he comes at a bad time. It's bad for us, and that's what makes it good news. So let's look at Titus chapter three, beginning at verse three. The apostle Paul describes the moral mess that we were in. And by the way, I'm just going to walk through this verse. In this verse he gives us six categories of sin. Now there's more than six sins. There's kind of like an infinite number of sins, and there's probably more categories. But in this verse, in this one verse, if you look at it very closely, the Apostle Paul is giving to us six categories of sin that spells doom and separation. A bad situation. The first category he mentions is foolishness. He says in verse three, for we, for we ourselves were once foolish, once foolish, once foolish. Now when the Bible talks about foolishness, it's not talking about being anti-intellectual. It's not saying that you're not smart, he says you're just foolish. And the Bible, by that, he implies two things. Number one, foolish in the sense of not having spiritual understanding. The Bible says, for the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God because he's trying to use human ways to ascertain spiritual dimensions. And they just. You don't have the Spirit of God. It's like it's foolish. The second thing that he means by foolishness is not just that you can't connect the dots spiritually, but number two, it means rejecting the gospel because it is not reasonable to us. And here's the line. And it calls. It calls me to turn from my sin. And so it's foolish in the sense, in the sense that I don't want to lose control. You see, you can't come to Christ and be proud. The very nature of, of, of of becoming a follower of Jesus Christ means that you walk away from your pride. You can't be in control of your life and still receive Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. They don't. They don't mix. They don't fit together. And so some people reject Jesus because, hey, look, I don't. I don't want anybody controlling me. So again, this first category, when Paul says foolishness, this first category of sin, he's talking about not being able to connect spiritual realities and the unwillingness to acknowledge that we're out of control. The second category of sin is I call it disobedience because the text calls it disobedience. But I want to define what what I think he means by this. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient. This is a disobedience to God which is shown in our attitude and actions. Again, it's connected to the whole pride thing. It is a refusal to submit to what God says you've just lived your life based upon. You know your thought that you're in control. I do whatever I want to do. I don't want anybody else telling me what to do. You know, God. I mean, if a God exists, he's going to assist me in my direction. He's going to help me to get to where I want to be. So it is a disobedience that lacks a submission to someone else that is greater than me. It refuses to subordinate my life to him. It refuses to place my life under his authority. It is that kind of disobedience. You see, I talk to a lot of people who are not believers yet, and this is the crux of the matter. This is one of the biggies right here. The failure to want to submit to God. I don't want to do that. Well, there's a third category of sin here foolishness, disobedience. The third one is manipulation. But it's not like we're the ones that are manipulating. We are the ones who are manipulated. Notice the expression here, he says, led astray. You know, actually, in the Greek it could have been translated deceived, because it means that you you have been led astray. Oh, man. He's getting ready to step into something. He said. We have been deceived and manipulated into doing wrong. You're not really driving this train. You think you are. There are forces inside of you, forces inside of me, that's leading me in the wrong direction that we're self deceived. Now, now, Paul says, no, you're not the orchestrator. You're the orchestrated. No, you're not the controller. Somebody else is pushing the buttons. And it takes coming to that point in our lives where we understand I'm not as good as I thought I was. And to be honest with you, I find myself doing stuff that I don't really want to do, but I can't help myself. Which is the next word. Control. Listen to what he says. He says slaves to various passions and pleasures. Everybody is controlled by something. Everybody is controlled by something. We were born to worship. And if you're not worshiping God, you're going to worship your passions. Every last one of us. Every last. There's not a person born that's not controlled by something. And that's what he's painting this picture as he goes through these categories of sin that, look, you need a savior. You need a savior. You can't make it by yourself. He says another category of sin is grudges. Listen to what he says here, this line passing our days in malice and envy. Spending your life driven by a grudging spirit to settle the score and to be recognized for who you are or who you think you should be. Now, I don't want to get thrown in a ditch on this one. This has huge theological implications relative to the image of God, you see. We're all created. I promise you, there's a relationship. We were all created in the image of God. We're image bearers. We were born to make a statement with our lives. And the desire to make a statement is not evil. We're born for significance. We're born to make an expression, a statement with our lives. However, when sin entered the world that that vertical desire became horizontal. Now we compete with one another. This is the origin of jealousy. Jealousy has its root in a right, a right desire that's been perverted. Envy has its root in a right desire that's been perverted. We were created to be passionate about God and to represent him. But when sin came into the picture, now it's all about us. So one of the reasons why we want to get back at people is because somehow or another, they've taken the spotlight from me, or they've stolen something from me that belongs to me. So I spend my life trying to get even with people. I spend my life trying to be recognized. Will you validate me? Will you affirm me? Will you stroke me? Will you tell me that I'm somebody? And Paul calls that sin. Not that we shouldn't desire value, but our value should be given this way. In the last category of sin is alienation. You see, the very fact that we hate someone, the very fact that we have consistent, broken relationships is God putting the spotlight on us, that we need reconciliation. You see, the gospel is all about reconciliation this way and this way. That's right. Jesus came to put us back together with him and have the ability to love people that we disagree with. Now I'm talking to non-believers, but I want to give an application to Christians. And the biggest barrier for people coming to know the Savior, one of the biggest barriers is our inability to sustain good relationships among the body. The integrity of the gospel means that I'm rightly related to God, and I'm pursuing a love relationship with others. That's comprehensive reconciliation. And the apostle Paul says alienation. Alienation in relationships is a category of sin. So that's the condition. A moral mess. What's the solution? Ah, the good news. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior. It's a mercy mission. Verses four and five. Help comes on the scene in the midst of this stuff. And I love the contrast here, he says. But let me read the verse again, for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But. You see what he's painting here? He's he's. What he's saying is you're lost. You can't swim. You don't have any. What are those called? Those. Those bands on your arms. You don't. You don't have a life jacket on. There's no rope out there. You're over your head. You're taking in water. Okay. You're dead. And this stuff doesn't even make sense unless you know that you're dead. But. And this is where mercy comes in. You can't appreciate mercy until you see what you deserve. You can't do it. He says, but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared on the scene, I want you to look at the word loving here. Loving kindness. That's not the Greek word agapao or agape. You know what word that is? It's philanthropia. We get the English word philanthropy from that. You know what that word means?

Philos means.

Philos means.

Lover. Lover. Relational love. Broadly relational love. Anthropos means man, lover of mankind. What a remarkable statement that God would choose a word that walks away from his unconditional agape as God's unconditional love. But a word that focuses on the human condition. It's as if he's saying in context here, I love you just the way you are. I love you because you were messed up in these categories of sin. And I love you the same when you walk out of it. In other words, he's saying, look, look. My mission here has been driven by love. I love you, Jesus. God ran toward our condition. He wasn't repulsed by it. Yeah, he's repulsed by sin. But he provided the solution. The love of God. And I got to tell you, you're here today, and you're hearing this stuff, and you're hearing this message, and it may be hammering away at you. You might be on one hand spitting mad at me. And on the other hand, you're saying, I really need to hear this. And there's this conflict that's going on. You know why? Because God loves you. It had nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with this book. It has everything to do with the fact that you are here today and this is your day. This is your time to give your life to Jesus. Help came on the scene and we're delivered. Verse five says he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his mercy. He saved us. People can't save themselves. Salvation depends solely and completely on God's grace revealed and achieved by His Son, Jesus Christ. The way to be saved is acknowledge that you're helpless, that I'm helpless. And again, I keep coming back to this. But I want you to understand this. You you you can't. And I can't be saved until I fully embrace the reality that I need mercy. I need mercy. I can't forgive myself of my own sins. And so we need mercy. And trust me, you don't ever want God to give you justice. We need mercy. And he saved us because we couldn't swim. And the only thing that we had was a hand above water. Please put a rope in it. And this loving God steps in. The third and the final thing is this. We're in a moral mess. That is our condition. God's solution is a mercy mission. But it's amazing how he doesn't just save us and then roll us up on the shore. The marvelous thing about our salvation is that it's better than what we deserve. Ever, ever, ever, ever ever. When God saves you, you will never drown again. Ever. Because what he does is thorough. He does it one time and it's all over. And he saves us for eternity. It is absolutely amazing. And so there's this miraculous makeover that takes place once we've been pulled out of the water, so to speak. And he does holy CPR on us. He does a bunch of other things that is just too glorious to articulate, but he mentions three of them here. Number one, he washes us and renews us again. Verse five, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. The word wash there really literally means to be bathed all over. and he tests it like that. He cleanses us. But there's also another thing that he does here, right here in the text. Verse verse six says, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Now, I don't want to get too much into the ditch here, but he by pouring out us, he's talking about the Holy Spirit that he's poured out over us richly. He's really talking about this is a power issue when we come to Jesus Christ. What he does, that spirit washes us externally, morally speaking. But he says, wait, wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. I give you power to overcome. Don't you want that? Then he also says we're completely righteous. Whoo! We're complete and perfect in him. Didn't say that. We are perfect. Practically speaking. We stumble and make mistakes. But when we come to Christ, he doesn't just say, okay, let me get your little rump off the hook this time, and I'm going to pardon you, but don't let this happen again. No. When we come to Jesus, he says, you're in my son, and his blood has covered your sin. You are my child. I don't see your sin anymore because the blood of the Savior is sufficient. Don't you want that? Don't you want that? The last piece is this. In this marvelous, miraculous makeover we become at the moment, we grab a hold of the rope. We become, at that moment, unconditional heirs. So that, being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. I use the expression unconditional heirs because of what I said earlier, what I said earlier. When God saves someone, they can't drown again. When he saves someone, he says no, no no no no no. It's as if you didn't sin. You never sinned. But not only that, you're in my son. And my son is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. And every blessing in the heavenlies belongs to you because you're in my son. When we come to Jesus Christ, we inherit everything that he has. The greatest need of every person ever born is not education. The greatest need of every person ever born. It's not money. The greatest need of every person ever born is not technology. The greatest need of every person ever born is forgiveness. Will you believe today? For unto you.

Lover. Lover. Relational love. Broadly relational love. Anthropos means man, lover of mankind. What a remarkable statement that God would choose a word that walks away from his unconditional agape as God's unconditional love. But a word that focuses on the human condition. It's as if he's saying in context here, I love you just the way you are. I love you because you were messed up in these categories of sin. And I love you the same when you walk out of it. In other words, he's saying, look, look. My mission here has been driven by love. I love you, Jesus. God ran toward our condition. He wasn't repulsed by it. Yeah, he's repulsed by sin. But he provided the solution. The love of God. And I got to tell you, you're here today, and you're hearing this stuff, and you're hearing this message, and it may be hammering away at you. You might be on one hand spitting mad at me. And on the other hand, you're saying, I really need to hear this. And there's this conflict that's going on. You know why? Because God loves you. It had nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with this book. It has everything to do with the fact that you are here today and this is your day. This is your time to give your life to Jesus. Help came on the scene and we're delivered. Verse five says he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his mercy. He saved us. People can't save themselves. Salvation depends solely and completely on God's grace revealed and achieved by His Son, Jesus Christ. The way to be saved is acknowledge that you're helpless, that I'm helpless. And again, I keep coming back to this. But I want you to understand this. You you you can't. And I can't be saved until I fully embrace the reality that I need mercy. I need mercy. I can't forgive myself of my own sins. And so we need mercy. And trust me, you don't ever want God to give you justice. We need mercy. And he saved us because we couldn't swim. And the only thing that we had was a hand above water. Please put a rope in it. And this loving God steps in. The third and the final thing is this. We're in a moral mess. That is our condition. God's solution is a mercy mission. But it's amazing how he doesn't just save us and then roll us up on the shore. The marvelous thing about our salvation is that it's better than what we deserve. Ever, ever, ever, ever ever. When God saves you, you will never drown again. Ever. Because what he does is thorough. He does it one time and it's all over. And he saves us for eternity. It is absolutely amazing. And so there's this miraculous makeover that takes place once we've been pulled out of the water, so to speak. And he does holy CPR on us. He does a bunch of other things that is just too glorious to articulate, but he mentions three of them here. Number one, he washes us and renews us again. Verse five, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. The word wash there really literally means to be bathed all over. and he tests it like that. He cleanses us. But there's also another thing that he does here, right here in the text. Verse verse six says, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Now, I don't want to get too much into the ditch here, but he by pouring out us, he's talking about the Holy Spirit that he's poured out over us richly. He's really talking about this is a power issue when we come to Jesus Christ. What he does, that spirit washes us externally, morally speaking. But he says, wait, wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. I give you power to overcome. Don't you want that? Then he also says we're completely righteous. Whoo! We're complete and perfect in him. Didn't say that. We are perfect. Practically speaking. We stumble and make mistakes. But when we come to Christ, he doesn't just say, okay, let me get your little rump off the hook this time, and I'm going to pardon you, but don't let this happen again. No. When we come to Jesus, he says, you're in my son, and his blood has covered your sin. You are my child. I don't see your sin anymore because the blood of the Savior is sufficient. Don't you want that? Don't you want that? The last piece is this. In this marvelous, miraculous makeover we become at the moment, we grab a hold of the rope. We become, at that moment, unconditional heirs. So that, being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. I use the expression unconditional heirs because of what I said earlier, what I said earlier. When God saves someone, they can't drown again. When he saves someone, he says no, no no no no no. It's as if you didn't sin. You never sinned. But not only that, you're in my son. And my son is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. And every blessing in the heavenlies belongs to you because you're in my son. When we come to Jesus Christ, we inherit everything that he has. The greatest need of every person ever born is not education. The greatest need of every person ever born. It's not money. The greatest need of every person ever born is not technology. The greatest need of every person ever born is forgiveness. Will you believe today? For unto you.

Is born this day a savior.

Is born this day a savior.

Doctor Crawford Loritts here on living a legacy. And that's the true message of Christmas. God sent his son on a mercy mission to save us from our moral mess, and to provide a miraculous makeover to those who would surrender to the mercy of God. Well, we pray you have surrendered your life to God. If you need help, here's a number to call right now 888. Need him 888 need him. Thanks for taking a moment to write to us. We recently heard from Connie, who says, I would like to extend a huge thank you for Crawford Sunday morning messages on living a legacy. I can honestly say that I've never heard such honest, truthful, scriptural and powerful messages from anyone else. I have a notebook full of notes from his messages. They've been shared with all of my family members and most of my friends. Crawford puts the truth right out there, no matter the controversies. God bless him. I listen regularly and his messages help me understand Scripture and give me the peace that that understanding brings. I thank God every week for this program. Well, thank you so much, Connie from Woodstock, Illinois. Hey, a quick email is all it takes to living a legacy. Look for the link called Contact Living a legacy.org coming up next week.

Doctor Crawford Loritts here on living a legacy. And that's the true message of Christmas. God sent his son on a mercy mission to save us from our moral mess, and to provide a miraculous makeover to those who would surrender to the mercy of God. Well, we pray you have surrendered your life to God. If you need help, here's a number to call right now 888. Need him 888 need him. Thanks for taking a moment to write to us. We recently heard from Connie, who says, I would like to extend a huge thank you for Crawford Sunday morning messages on living a legacy. I can honestly say that I've never heard such honest, truthful, scriptural and powerful messages from anyone else. I have a notebook full of notes from his messages. They've been shared with all of my family members and most of my friends. Crawford puts the truth right out there, no matter the controversies. God bless him. I listen regularly and his messages help me understand Scripture and give me the peace that that understanding brings. I thank God every week for this program. Well, thank you so much, Connie from Woodstock, Illinois. Hey, a quick email is all it takes to living a legacy. Look for the link called Contact Living a legacy.org coming up next week.

When Mary held that baby in her arms, she was holding a child that was destined to die a hellacious, horrific death. There is no taking away of the sins of the world unless there is great sacrifice.

When Mary held that baby in her arms, she was holding a child that was destined to die a hellacious, horrific death. There is no taking away of the sins of the world unless there is great sacrifice.

Crawford takes us to Isaiah 53, and we'll look for you again right here for Crawford Loritts I'm Bill Davis. Thanks for listening. Living a legacy is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.

Crawford takes us to Isaiah 53, and we'll look for you again right here for Crawford Loritts I'm Bill Davis. Thanks for listening. Living a legacy is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.