Titus chapter 3. We are going to look at verse 7 today and I want us to really have a Bible study on this verse. I'd like for us to really dig in to what this is saying and what this means and I really want to encourage you to ask the Lord to open this up to you. I would really like for us to get a good grasp on what is being said here.

Let's begin reading in verse 1. Look at Titus 3 verse 1. It says, put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. That's Christ. That's the character and that's the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse three says, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers' lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. That's us, all right? That's all of us.

Verse four says, But after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our savior.

Verse seven says that. All right. He did all of that, that he did all of that. Everything we just read. So that, okay. He accomplished every bit of that. for this end result. He did it for this end result. Verse seven says, that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Now, a lot was just said in that verse. Okay, a lot was just said in that verse because our condition was so bad. And I'm talking about us starting with me. Let's just talk about the people in this room because our condition was so bad. It took God himself coming to us. All right, we couldn't do it. This is what it took. God Almighty himself had to come to us. Emmanuel, God with us. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. God came down in his kindness and love for his chosen people. He came down for a specific people. And according to His mercy, because of His own mercy that He delights to show, according to His mercy, He shed His blood and He washed His people in a way that caused them to be white as snow. saving them in the process of doing that, renewing them in the process of doing that to the point of justifying them before God. All right, that's what he did. That's what he did.

Now turn with me to Psalm 51. Psalm 51, the heading under the title of Psalm 51, it says, to the chief musician, a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba. David took a man's wife and committed adultery with her and then murdered the man. And for about a year, at least nine months, but for roughly a year, David thought he had gotten away with it. There was no remorse in him. He thought he'd gotten away with it. Until Nathan, God's prophet, came to David and said, God knows everything you've done. God knows every single thing you've done. You're caught. You're exposed.

And verse one, David immediately cried, have mercy upon me, oh God. According to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Blot out means obliterate. It means exterminate, erase, destroy, utterly wipe away. That's what it means, my transgressions.

Verse two, he said, wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Now watch this. That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. He said, whatever judgment you make against me, you're justified in it. Whatever judgment you make, you're justified in it.

Verse five, behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts. That's what your law requires of us. And he's saying, I know that that's not what's in me. Thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part. Thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Verse seven, purge me with hyssop. That's that plant they used to dip in the blood and sprinkle on the mercy seat. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. He said, Lord, I have sinned against you. And there are one of two options here. There's one of two options. You can judge me as I am in my sin. Or you can purge me and blot out my sin and then judge me as I am in your blood. One of the two. And he said, if you condemn me in my sin, or if you set me free in your blood, either way, you will be justified in your judgment. Either way, you're gonna be justified in your judgment.

That word justified right there means in the right. It literally means right with God, declared righteous. He said, Lord, that's what you will be. Now, all right, ask the Lord in your hearts to see if you can get ahold of this, okay? Call on him silently in your hearts. Ask the Lord to see if you can get ahold of this.

Okay, David said, Lord, this is what you're gonna be. Whatever you do, this is what you're gonna be. You're gonna be justified. All right, you're gonna be justified. Whatever you do, you're gonna be justified. Because that's what you are, justified. Not just as if you'd never sinned, Okay, that's what you may have heard that people say, justified, and then I like to use this, just as if I'd never sinned. No, not just as if you never sinned, no sin. All right, concerning Christ, Lord, no sin. Lord, there will be no sin in your dealings with me. There will be no sin in it. If you see me as being guilty and you condemn me for what I've done, you would be right and justified. But if you see me as being innocent and you set me free because of what you have done, you will be right and justified in both cases it will be said there is no sin in your judgment justified lord you are justified can we see that can we see that's what he's saying

Do we understand what the word justified means when we see it applying to Christ? Do we have some understanding of what the word justified means when we apply it to Christ? Apply it to Christ. Lord, you're justified. Do we see that? Justified means, no, you have not committed any sin. Justified. When we say he is justified in what he has done, it means he has been sinless in all of his actions. Sinless. Not just as if he didn't sin, he didn't sin. No fault was found in him. I love that Pilate had to say that. I find no fault in this man, none. He was justified. The word justified means after examining, it is determined that no sin has been committed. David said, Lord, that's what's going to be said concerning you. You're justified.

Turn with me to Psalm 145. Psalm 145 verse 17. It says the Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. Can we not say that about him? All his ways. All his works. Is there anything that we can say He didn't do that well. He didn't do that well. That was not right. No. No. God forbid. He hath done all things well. Deuteronomy 32 says, he is the rock. His work is perfect. For all his ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. That literally means justified. That's what it means. Justified is He. Justified is He. Is there one fault in Him? One sin. One iniquity. One unrighteousness. Here's the answer, no, not one. Somebody will say, now you're talking manger to the grave? You're talking manger to ascension? Not one? No, not one. He's justified. He's justified. Jesus Christ the Lord is justified.

All right, go with me back to Titus chapter three. Look at verse 3, it says, For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers' lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that, the kindness and love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Verse 7 says that. Being justified by His grace. That means we being justified. That's what it means. We being justified.

Now clearly He was justified. Clearly, but in what he did, he justified us. He made us to be justified. We'll never, you know, we talk about the, we got these words in the scripture. You talk about propitiation and nobody, you know, unless you really dig in and somebody tells you, this is what it means. You don't know what that means, but just take it down to justified. You think you know what that means. We will never understand. what the word justified means until we see it applied to Christ. We're never going to understand this until we see it applied to Christ. We'll never have any grasp of what he really accomplished for us. You know, we think, well, he died on the cross to, you know, the payment had to be made for our sin and he

We cannot fathom what he accomplished for us until we see our standing before God as it is in Christ. To say that he justified us, that doesn't mean he just flipped his pencil over and started erasing our sins. You know, well, I can still see a little bit of indention in the paper and it's hard to get all the smudges out, but no, no. To say that he justified us means he gave us a new piece of paper. We think of him blotting out our transgressions. I would almost guarantee all of you have had this picture in your mind. Okay, we got our transgressions, you know, you see the writing on the wall. And, you know, we think of him blotting out our transgressions with his blood like it's paint. Like we're gonna just paint over it, you know? It's still under there. It's still under there, and hopefully, you know, maybe if we get enough on there, it won't bleed through. No. No, he didn't just cover it up. He broke the wall down and built a new wall. That's what he did. He broke the wall down. And he built a new wall. He made a new wall that never had one drop of paint on it. He gave a new piece of paper that never had one mark on it. That's what he did.

How did he do this? Where was that wall broken down? Where was that clean slate given? the cross of Calvary. Christ took all of that wrong and defilement upon himself. That's where the middle wall of partition was broken down. That's where that new heart, that new record was given. It was all broken and it was all given in him. The law said, the law looked at the paper and said, the paper is marred, tear it in two. The wall is defiled, break it down. And in the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, the law did that very thing. The law did that very thing to our sin as it was in Christ. And with Christ being torn and with Christ being broken, the law said, I'm satisfied. Sin is punished. It's dealt with. It's, it's gone. It's destroyed. It has been obliterated. And we, his people, are now left standing on a new wall, holding a brand new piece of paper. And when God looks at our paper, he says, no mark. And when he looks at our wall, he says, no graffiti. It's not just as if there never was a mark. And just as if there never was graffiti, no mark, no graffiti. Spotless, perfect in the eyes of God, in the eyes of the law, in the eyes of everything, the eyes of everything.

When I was a teenager, I remember a local news story of a police officer who was chasing a suspect and the suspect fired on the officer. And the officer fired back and killed the suspect. And an investigation was done. And a ruling came back that the officer was justified in his actions. That's what they said. Justified in his actions. And what that means is no sin was committed. No crime was committed in what he did. In what Christ accomplished for us, that's what the holy law of God says concerning us. That's what it says concerning us. Isaiah 53 verse 11 says, God the Father shall see the travail of Christ's soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. He'll take them all to himself. He took all the wrong so we could be left with all the right. And by the shedding of his own blood and his own death, that's what God's holy law says about us now when he looks at us, right? Right, justified. On the cross of Calvary, God's holy law looked at our sin in and on Christ and said, wrong, condemned. And because our sin was made to be condemned in him, his righteousness was made to be justified in us, justified. Romans 3 says we were justified freely by his grace. Romans 4 says we were justified by faith without our works. Romans 3 says that too. Romans 5 says that also. without the deeds of the law. Romans 5 says we were justified by his blood. Romans 8 says we were justified by God. It's God that justified. God did this for us. Our justification was up Christ, through Christ, to Christ. And the scripture tells us that God giving us faith to believe that and to see all of our justification before God in the work of Christ. That's the evidence that he secured this justification for us. He did not justify all, but he justified many. And he'll give us faith to see our justification, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, But according to His mercy, He did it. That's what God-given faith will say.

Now, turn with me to Acts 13, and we'll close with this. Acts chapter 13, verse 38. Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." Through Christ, it's preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him, all that believe, and the only way a person can believe is if God gives faith to that person to believe. That's not of ourselves, that's a gift of God. Verse 39 says, And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Everybody wants to try to right their wrongs. It's not going to happen. The wrong has been committed. And even in our trying to right our wrongs, we're still committing wrong because we're not looking to the only one who could right the wrong. By Him, we are justified. That can be said to every soul that's been given faith to truly believe that, truly to look to Christ alone and say, by Him, only by Him, not by me and Him, by Him alone, Him alone. That's the soul that has been justified. To that, that makes me want to say, Lord, increase our faith. Increase my faith to look to Christ alone, not Christ and anything. Christ alone. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.