Wondrously Saved with More to Come #1

Today, scripture is telling us the result of our salvation. What has salvation done? It has utterly changed our status before God, and it has changed our very destiny.

Everything has changed for us. God's overwhelming grace has been poured out on believers, resulting in salvation through Jesus Christ, and that salvation has mind-blowing implications. The pastor, Don Green, will detail for you here on the Truth Pulpit.

Hello, I'm Bill Wright. We're continuing our series, Titus, God's Glorious Plan of Grace. Today, Don presents part one of a message titled, Wonderously Saved with More to Come.

And Don, what's in store for us over the next couple of lessons? Well, my Christian friend, we have a wonderful time ahead as we study God's Word in just a moment. We're going to see the wonderful way in which God has saved us and the implications of our salvation. God has justified us as believers, which means He has declared us righteous based on the righteousness and shed blood of Christ. And in our salvation, the wonderful part is that the best is yet to come. God is going to glorify us one day. When we are with Him in heaven, we will see Christ face to face and be able to give Him worship, undistracted by sin in this world. All of these things and more are just ahead as we study God's Word together on the Truth Pulpit.

Have your Bible handy as we join Don now in the Truth Pulpit. In 1 John 4.19, we love because He first loved us. The moving motivation, the initial moving power of salvation came from God, not from us.

That's the motive. It's because He's merciful and He wanted to display His love and mercy to us that He did that. Now, what can we do in response to that except just praise and honor and gratitude and glory be to God? What else can we do except be quietly humbled in our hearts and say, Lord, I am the recipient of kindness and mercy that I absolutely did not deserve.

You see, and that doesn't drive us into dark self-introspection. It lifts our hearts and causes us to rejoice and praise Him that He's been so good to us. That's the mercy. That mercy was the motive for our salvation. The power for our salvation came from the Holy Spirit.

The power for it. If we were going to be delivered out of that dark dungeon of death and deception, there it took a powerful act. And Scripture tells us that the power of that came from the third person of the Holy Trinity. It came from the Holy Spirit Himself. Look at verse 5. There's a systematic theology about soteriology right here in these verses that we're looking at. Verse 5, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done, but according to His mercy. That was the motive.

And so how did He make it? He could have been motivated but powerless to do something about it. You know, the fact that someone has a good motive doesn't mean that the job gets done, right? We're familiar with that phrase that says the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Well, God intended our salvation, and He had the power to do it!

We honor Him for that. Verse 5, according to His mercy, by, here's the means, here's the power by which it was done, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Power.

Power. And those of you that are saved know something of that power, where your life before was marked by deception, was marked by your own hostilities, and sometimes manifested through your own foul mouth. And then God saved you and your life changed dramatically.

How did that happen? Not through self-effort. We didn't go from pursuing sin to pursuing holiness by something that we did ourselves. It was because the power of the Holy Spirit came upon us and did a work in our hearts and brought us to saving faith in Christ.

That was the power behind it because we couldn't do it on our own. It was not by works that we've done in righteousness. Now, today as we come to Titus 3.7, what we see here is the result of our salvation in Titus 3.7. For all that we've seen, the work of Christ, our need, the mercy of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, what has that brought us to? What has it delivered us to? And that is what we see in verse 7, and it is so incalculably great that only the inspired Word of God could say it in such few words as what is expressed in verse 7.

There's so much in this, and we're going to take our time to deal with it carefully. Today Scripture is telling us the result of our salvation. What has salvation done? It has utterly changed our status before God, and it has changed our very destiny. Everything has changed for us in a vertical dimension and in a future dimension. Everything is changed by salvation. Everything is changed by what God has graciously done in our lives by the Spirit applying the work of Christ to our hearts.

Everything has changed. And I'm just going to... there's two things here in this passage. Two doesn't sound like many, but when you understand what those two are, it leaves you within a state of such gratitude toward God and a desire to simply be gracious to others because of the overwhelming grace that has been poured out in our lives through Jesus Christ.

That's what we're going to see today. First of all, salvation leaves us justified. It leaves us justified. Look at verse 7 now with me. Titus chapter 3 verse 7. After he said that we've been washed by the Holy Spirit, we pour the Spirit out richly through Jesus Christ our Savior upon us so that... here's the result. Here's the outcome. Here's where we are left. This is the state in which we find ourselves as a result of the power and mercy of God poured out in our hearts through the Lord Jesus Christ. This is where it leaves us.

This is the result. Verse 7. So that, being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. So that, being justified by His grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Justification.

What is it? Let me define it very simply for you here. In justification, God removes our guilt and declares us righteous in His sight. That's the simplest way that we can explain it.

There's so much packed into that, but in the simplest sense, understand this. Justification is a legal verdict from God upon your soul. It is a declaration from God the Judge that the demands of His law have been satisfied in you.

That guilt no longer applies to your account. Instead, righteousness has been applied. At the moment of your salvation, God declared judgment on you, and He declared judgment on you for good. Now, what is the content of that legal declaration? Justification, remember it's a legal verdict. It's a declaration about how you stand in relationship to the law of God.

And there's a dual aspect to justification. In a negative sense, in a negative sense, God forgave all of your sins, past, present, and future. God, in justification, forgave all of your sins, minor and major. God, in justification, forgave all of your sins, known and unknown to you. God, in justification, pardoned all your sins, intentional and unintentional.

There has been a complete washing of your slate of all of the guilt that existed in your life for your violations of God's law and God's character. All of that guilt in justification has been removed forever, never to be restated to your account. Now, justification, we're going to see Scripture to help you with this.

I'm just laying out the concepts for you right now. Here's what's sometimes often missed in justification. Justification is more than forgiveness. In that legal declaration, it is more than God saying, you're not guilty before me any longer. No, it goes so astonishingly further than that and says that God, in justification, credits righteousness to you.

It's not simply that He looks at you and says, you have not violated my law any longer. That's the way that I view you. That's my judgment upon you. That's the verdict, the legal verdict of me upon your soul. It goes further and says, it's not just that you haven't violated it, you fulfilled it! You have satisfied the demands of my law.

All of those demands of righteousness are perfectly fulfilled. How can that be? How can that be? How could we go from Titus 3-3 to Titus 3-7? Well, look back. I want you to see, first of all, this dual aspect. Go back to Romans chapter 4 as we let Scripture interpret Scripture for us. Romans chapter 4, beginning in verse 5.

And actually, let's pick it up. Let's pick it up in chapter 3 verse 21. Paul had just declared the universal guilt of all men, Jews and Gentiles alike, in the first three and a half chapters of Romans. And he says in Romans chapter 3 verse 21, Now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, here it is, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.

All of the words that we've been looking at for the past weeks from Titus 3 are found there in verse 24. We are justified as a gift, not something that we have done. We're justified by His grace, and it's through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Now, how does a guilty sinner go from his guilt to that declaration of righteousness?

And what is the content of that declaration? Now go to Romans chapter 4 verse 5. He says, But to the one who does not work, believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

There's the positive dimension. By putting our faith in a perfect Savior, God declares us righteous. There is a positive dimension where you have been declared righteous in light of the law of God. Under the law of God, you've been declared righteous because of your faith in Christ, because, better stated, of what Christ has done on our behalf.

Now look at verse 6. Just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness, he applies righteousness to your account apart from works. There's a full credit of righteousness applied to our account before God. And then he goes on and describes in verse 7 the negative aspect of it. The removal of sin where he says, Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.

Justification. Those of you that struggle with feelings of guilt over your past life before Christ, look at the Word of God. Don't take my word for it. Look at the Word of God and look at what it says about those who put their faith in Christ. You're blessed. Verse 8, Romans 4-8. You're blessed because the true Christian is a man whose, look at it with me, verse 8, I want all of your eyes to look at verse 8 with me. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.

God is not going to take into account our sin as he deals with us. It has been forgiven. It has been washed away. The debt has been paid.

It is no longer going to be brought up in his dealings with us. That's the whole point of salvation. And so there you were with a sin debt that you could not pay, with a sin guilt that you could not erase.

And God intervened. God saved you and said, all of that guilt I have forgiven. I'm not going to take it into account anymore. I'm not going to raise it with you anymore. I'm not going to deal with you according to your sins. Rather, I'm going to deal with you according to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Now how can he do that? How can God declare us righteous when in fact we are guilty?

How can he do that and still be just? It's found in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ became our substitute so that we could be justified. His obedience fulfilled the righteous demands of God's law. Turn over to Romans chapter 5.

Romans chapter 5. This is what Christ has purchased for us. This is why Christ came.

This is what he's done for us. And in Romans 5 verse 19 it says, speaking of Adam it says, as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, the whole human race was cast into sin and separation from God because of Adam's sin. Now by parallel, one man made the difference.

One man compensated for that disobedience. Verse 19, even so through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous. The righteous life of Christ in which he perfectly fulfilled the law of God universally stated to be without sin by those who witnessed him up close. That perfect righteousness, beloved, is the righteousness that God credits to your account and mine when we put our faith in Christ. God looks at us through the lens of the Lord Jesus Christ. He looks at us and he says, I see the righteousness of Christ in his perfect earthly life. I'm going to take that righteousness which you did not live out, which you did not earn, which you could not demand. It is my gift and justification to take the full measure of that righteousness and place it on your account and say, and I'm going to treat you as though you had lived the obedient life of Christ.

I'm going to view you through that lens because that is what my son did. He offered himself up and his life of obedience is now credited as your life of obedience even though you didn't deserve that, even though you didn't do that, even though you never could. The significance of this is so far-reaching. It means that God looks at us with his law side by side, as it were. He looks at his law, he looks at us and he says, fulfilled. The law has no more claim on us because Christ obeyed it perfectly and God deals with us. He considers us. He has imputed to our account that righteousness of Christ.

That's what justification means. We're declared righteous, not on what we have done but what on Christ has done. The obedience of Christ is the ground of our justification.

It's incredible. And what that means is, for your accusing conscience, is that your conscience must be satisfied. It must be silenced over guilt over your prior sins. It must be silenced in light of the perfect obedience of Christ. The obedience of Christ answers the condemnation of the law against you, and therefore you are free and God has declared you righteous as a gift of his grace. What about the penalty that the law requires? What about the fact that the law says that the soul that sins must die? What about that aspect of it? Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21.

Turn there with me. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 says that he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. At the cross, God assigned to Christ, he imputed to Christ guilt which Christ was not actually guilty of but it was put on the account of Christ and the wrath of God was poured out on our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. The payment for your sins as Christ stood there as an innocent lamb as your substitute, God punishing Christ for the sins that you had done. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So that the righteousness of God might be fulfilled. The penalty that your sins required were paid in full by Christ on the cross. There isn't any more religious ceremonies to add to kind of clean up after what Christ had done. It's not that we obey so that we can preserve our forgiveness.

It's already done. The price of your sin was paid in full at the cross. The demands of the law of God were paid in full, fulfilled perfectly by the Lord Jesus Christ in his earthly life. And so Christ has carried the demands of God's righteousness that are upon you.

He's carried the entire burden for you. And now God applies that infinite merit of Christ to those who believe in Christ for their salvation. His death provided for the pardon. His life fulfilled the demands of righteousness.

In grace God, I'm looking for a lot of different verbs to describe this and to help you because I know in one sense it's a difficult concept. In grace God assigned your sin to Christ and punished him for it. He accounted it to him. He imputed it to him. He reckoned it to Christ and punished him for it.

An innocent lamb. In grace God assigns the perfect righteousness of Christ to your account and rewards you for it. Opens the gates of heaven and welcomes you into his fellowship based on a righteousness that you did not live on your own. One writer said that it's on the basis of a death I did not die on the basis of a life I did not live I stake my whole eternity. That's what salvation is. We recognize, we surrender any prerogative of pride that says I somehow deserve this. We sacrifice all of that because first of all we know it's not true. We don't deserve that.

We don't deserve this gracious gift from God so it can't be about me. And yet here we are. Here we are. We've sinned. We've broken God's law. We fall short. We've lied. We've lusted.

We've done all of the stuff that the law forbids. How is it then? How is it then that we can have any hope looking to eternity? It's because Christ was perfect and Christ paid the price and we're putting our trust not in anything in ourselves. We're looking outside of ourselves and we're saying I stake everything about my acceptance with God on the Lord Jesus Christ.

I put my faith completely in him alone as my only hope of righteousness before God. And God says that's it. That is what God accepts. He doesn't accept your righteousness. He accepts the righteousness of his son on your behalf.

And so what does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean for us to be so wondrously saved? It means that salvation has left us justified. Sinclair Ferguson said it this way, making the distinction between guilt, innocence, and righteousness.

This is a phenomenal statement. He said and I quote, in the sight of God we are not only innocent but we are as righteous as Christ is. That's what is on your accounts in the book of heaven is the perfect righteousness of Christ. You and I, because of a gracious gift and a gracious work of Christ, you and I, this is such a bold statement but it's true, you and I are as entitled to be in heaven as Jesus Christ is because God in his grace has taken the righteousness of Christ and put it on our account.

It's incredible. There's no other righteousness that could get us there. Today on The Truth Pulpit, Pastor Don Green has emphasized that justification both transfers guilt and payment for sin to Christ and imputes his righteousness to us. Above all, it's a bargain we cannot earn.

It is simply a gracious gift of God. Next time, Don will cover the eternal ramifications of salvation as he concludes the message, wondrously saved with more to come. Don't miss a moment.

Right now though, Don's back here in studio with some closing words. You know friend, I listen to a lot of Christian radio myself and I know how the game is played at this stage of the program. People have something to sell to you or they make a strong ask for your support.

Well that's not what I want to do today at all. I just want you to know that our perspective on this ministry is this. The Truth Pulpit exists for you, to minister God's word to you.

You do not exist in order to make this ministry possible. We trust the Lord for his provision and he's been very generous to us. So please know that we love you, that we want you to benefit from our program and that we have no expectations of what you're going to do in response. We just want you to hear God's word, receive it, understand it and obey it.

And we trust that God will bless you and us as that process takes place. Thanks Don. And friend, remember to visit TheTruthPulpit.com for more about this ministry. There you'll also find out how to get free CDs of Don's messages. Once more that's TheTruthPulpit.com. Now for Don Green, I'm Bill Wright and we'll see you next time for more from The Truth Pulpit.