Colossians chapter 1, my text
will be found in verse 14, "...in whom we have redemption
through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Now the Apostle Paul
has voiced to these saints his prayer and desire of his heart,
he says in verse 9, I have not ceased to pray for you. And then
he begins to explain his prayer for this church. He says that
they might be filled with the knowledge of God's will. of His
sovereign will, of His redemptive will, and that this will not
only be knowledge only, not for knowledge sake, but rather that
it be applied in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. And what is this wisdom and spiritual
understanding but belief. in the heart, trusting in Christ. And this, that they should walk
worthy of the Lord and be fruitful, verse 10, that you should walk
worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good
work, increasing in the knowledge of God. He prays for their strength,
in verse 11, that you should be strengthened with the might
of God, with His glorious power, That you should be strengthened
for what? Patience. Because tribulation worketh patience,
and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh
not ashamed. He desires, knowing that they're
going to be persecuted for the gospel they believe, He desires
that they have all patience. And this patience that is undergirded
with what? The very power of God. How is
it that you have patience still and endure in the gospel? Is
it not the power of God? You bet it is. That's the only
reason I endure, is the power of God. And that this patience
we should endure with joyfulness. Giving thanks, verse 12, unto
the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. Believer, is not your soul often
in the midst of strife and trouble? Are you not often in warfare,
in great temptation, in great sorrow? Even, are you not in
the midst of failure continually? Just as I said, the hymn writer
said, His faithful servant I would be. I would be. And yet we find
ourselves in constant failure. Are you in such a place? Then
listen, wait on your God. Wait on your God. Look to the
Father and trust in His Word, then we may surely be able to
give thanks unto God and see what great things He hath done.
How is it that you can endure under such failures and hardships
and troubles? By looking unto God and what
He has done. By looking to God and what He
has done. Behold, believer in Jesus Christ,
For our God, in verse 12, hath made us fit, qualified for heaven. This is our Father. This our
Father did by His own sovereign free will and eternal decree. Listen, you and I were made fit
by God. You were made fit by God from
eternity and by an eternal decree. You all know Ephesians chapter
1. Ephesians chapter 1, blessed be, verse 3, blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
Listen, this is the eternal decree, that we should be holy and without blame before Him,
in love having predestinated us unto the adopted children,
that we should be holy. This is the Father's eternal
decree. Our Father has put us in union with His Son, And in
Him we were from eternity accepted in the Beloved. Accepted of God
in the Beloved. When were you accepted of God
in the Beloved? From eternity. Because your Father
purposed you to be accepted. Your Father purposed that you
should be made fit for Heaven. Qualified for Heaven. I remember when I was a kid and
went to the little amusement park there. I always wanted to
ride the roller coaster, but I was just too short. Never could
reach the bar. There was a bar there, and I
just couldn't wait for the day that I could be qualified to
ride that ride. Listen, how high is the bar of
God's standard? How high is that? It is as infinitely
high as God and you can never by your works ever attain such
a height. You by your works could never
grow into such a holy creature. The only hope for man is that
God had purposed us to be holy. Purposed us to be fit for heaven. by a changeless and immutable
decree. Do you realize God's decrees
are changeless? There's nothing that God has
ever decreed that he has to go back on, nothing. Everything
he's purposed comes to pass. He said, my counsel shall stand. And listen, I will do all my
pleasure. That's what God said. The heathen
said, where is thy God? Look at all this trouble in the
world. Where's your God? My God's where he's always been.
Our God is in the heavens and hath done whatsoever he pleased.
So whatever's happening is whatsoever he pleased. That's what it is.
Our God's doing what he's pleased. And you know what he pleased
to do for us, believer? He pleased to make you fit for heaven. Make
you qualified. How, then, were we made fit for
heaven? Verse 14, "...in whom we have
redemption through His blood." Redemption. Redemption. Now, in the oldest manuscripts
of the Scripture, these words, in His blood, redemption through
His blood, are not in the original. Through His blood is not there.
It would read, "...in whom we have redemption, even the forgiveness
of sins." But surely the words are in truth the Word of God. For they are written to us in
Ephesians chapter 1 in verse 7, that same scripture I told
you that showed you the eternal decree of God in making you fit
for heaven. He also says in verse 7 these
very same words that are in Colossians. He says, "...in whom we have
redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins."
Now this morning, it is my heart's
desire for these words of the Holy Spirit to strengthen you,
to encourage you, and to comfort you. to comfort everyone, listen,
who are in Christ. In whom? If you are in Christ,
these words are meant for your comfort, for your encouragement,
for your strength, for you who are in Christ. This word is truly
directed to all of the elect of the Father, all of us who
were put into union with His Son, we who are predestinated
to the adoption of children, We who are predestinated to be
conformed to the image of his son made fit by God from eternity. Now, see how God who purposed
our fitness would accomplish our fitness. How he would make us holy. In Ephesians, it says this, that
we were to be made holy and without blame before Him. Love having predestinated us
unto the adoption of children how? by Jesus Christ This is
how God purposed to save sinners. This is how God purposed to make
his children fit for heaven even by Jesus Christ by his work that
he should finish and that work is both in our text and in Ephesians
verse chapter 1 and verse 7 the work of redemption Redemption. Every time I go to the bank,
the name of our church is Redeemer Baptist Church. Every time I
go somewhere and people need to write out our name, they kind
of even have trouble spelling it, much less knowing what a
Redeemer is. We just don't have much use for
the word. You don't use it in our common language, but it is
a very essential word. You should learn it. Because
the work of redemption is the work by which men are saved. It is the only work by which
men are saved, and it is only the work of one man, Jesus Christ
alone. Redemption. Now then, go over
to Psalm 130. Psalm 130. Look at verse 7. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. Here we have We have for us an encouragement.
Let Israel hope in the Lord. Believer, are we not like Israel?
Is Israel not a type of us? You bet it is. This Israel is
one that is not one outwardly, but one spiritually. And surely,
we are like Israel. Here we have an encouragement
for Israel, spiritual Israel, those who are the elect people
of God. The psalmist writes, hope in
the Lord. All you who are born again of
the Spirit, hope in the Lord. You who are His saints. From
the newest of saints to the most mature saints, it is a word of
encouragement to you. You should hope in the Lord. Now, what does that mean, hope?
You should have confidence in Him. You should have great confidence
in Him. Surely, we all need to lean more
heavily on our God. Have you leaned enough on your
God? Have you trusted enough in your God? No! We surely must
needs have to trust more in our God. We are constantly under
conviction of sin and need of assurance. We are constantly
hungering and thirsting after righteousness and to know that
we are filled in Christ alone. Believer, does not your soul
like mine not loathe its flesh? Do you loathe your sin? Do you
not desire, like Paul, to count all your righteousnesses as dung,
that you might win Christ and be found in His righteousness
alone? I do. I only want to be found in His
righteousness. I loathe myself. I despise this
flesh and my sin. My soul, hope thou in the Lord
by faith, by looking to him who is rich in mercy. That's what
he says, hope in Israel. Why? For the Lord, for with the
Lord there is what? Mercy. Mercy. There's mercy. My soul, lean upon the merciful
God. And have you not proven that
mercy over and over and over again? Have we not been so unfaithful
and sinful, and like Israel, so prone to murmur and complain? Do we not often complain of God's
providence? Who's in charge of this thing?
Who's running the show? God is. And yet, what do we do
when something is crossed With what we think, we murmur, we
complain. Yet our God is so faithful to
chasten us as dear children, so faithful to keep us in the
faith, to keep us looking only to Jesus Christ. Therefore our
hearts cry out with David, my soul, my soul, wait on thy God. Wait upon God, for my expectation
is from Him. What do you expect from God?
What do you expect? When you go to God, and you failed,
and you're miserable, and you're full of sin, what do you expect
from your God? I know this, I'm scared. What I expect at times is His
hand of judgment. But truly, that's not what we
should expect. You know what we should expect?
Hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is what? Mercy. You should expect, you who are
in Christ, you should expect mercy. You should expect it. Why? Because God's full of it.
He's rich in mercy. How can sinners? How can you
expect to receive mercy being sinners? So unfaithful, so weak. How could you expect mercy? Even
because God's mercy is never merited by its objects. Did you
get that? Mercy is never merited by its
objects. When I expect mercy from God,
I don't expect it as a reward for my work. I expect it because
God has promised it. And God is a God of mercy and
grace. I expect it because of this word. Redemption. I expect God to forgive me of
my sins not because I deserve it. I don't. I expect God to
forgive me of my sins because of redemption. For with the Lord
there is with Him plenteous redemption, plenteous redemption. But how
can such a holy God who is just, whose justice cannot be bribed,
whose justice cannot accept anything less than perfect obedience and
full payment for sin. How can God then show mercy to
guilty sinners and not offend or neglect His justice? Now,
that's an important question, isn't it? I know it's not important
to most people, but if you're truly serious about your sin
and your guilt, it will become very important because God is
holy and His justice is imbendable. It won't bend. So how then can God be just and
justify the ungodly? How can God show mercy and at
the same time His justice not be offended? One word. Redemption. Redemption. What is redemption? What does it mean? Redemption
signifies a purchase. A purchase. It signifies that
a price has been laid down, a price has been agreed upon by two parties
The seller and the buyer. You go to a store, you do it
every single day of your life. You go to a store, you look at
something, you see a price tag. This is the price that they want
for that object. You take that object up there
and say, I want to buy this, I want to purchase this, I want
to redeem this. And what do you do? You lay out
your money. You lay out the price. And guess
what? You legally get to take that
home with you. Now, if you don't lay out the
price, that's unjust, isn't it? That's stealing. That's not redemption. It is laying out a price. And even so it is spiritually.
All of those elect that God chose and purposed to be holy, surely
we were not born holy. We were not born holy. We were
born as such a people, born in sin, born under the dominion
of sin and death. In Adam, our father, we were
all sold under sin. By his one offense, we all were
ruined. ruined. Our inheritance ruined. We became wasted, bankrupt, and
destitute of any hope of salvation of ourselves. In other words,
listen, there's no way for you or I to pay the debt. We are
in debt to God's justice, and there is by no means we can pay
the debt. Do what you will, try as you
might, You cannot pay the redemption price. It's too steep. You cannot
pay it. If you were to pay for it with
your own blood and an eternity of hell, you would not be able
to purchase one sin. You will not be able to redeem
yourself from one sin. Surely then, because our blood
is corrupt, vile, and deserves hell, Therefore God who is rich
in mercy, decreeing that we should be set free, has also sent his
son to pay the redemption price. Jesus came into the world to
buy sinners, to purchase our redemption. In 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19, he said,
you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold of
your vain conversation, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. See how God's
justice has revealed time and time again that God requires
a sacrifice for sin. Is it not throughout the whole
book? Can you not see this? If you do a light reading of
the Scripture, how far will you have to read before you hear
of blood, a sacrifice? You remember in the very first
sinners, our parents, Adam and Eve, when God came to them in
mercy, He told them of one to come. He said, the seed of the
woman shall crush the head of the serpent. And then, what did
God do to demonstrate this? He killed an innocent animal
to cover their nakedness. What a picture of what He was
going to do with Christ! Christ, the seed of the woman,
was to come and die in order to cover our nakedness. pay for our sins you remember
when Abraham took his son Isaac to offer him to God God said
you go take your son your only son whom you love and you kill
him on that mount for me and Abraham without without question
left his home took his son was going up the mountain to kill
him and Isaac noticed something he said father here's the wood
here's the fire and you got that knife where's the lamb see Isaac knew something about
redemption he knew that if they were to meet God they have to
have a redemption they have to have someone to pay and he said where's the lamb
and Abraham by prophecy said son my God shall provide himself A Lamb. He shall provide who? Himself. As what? A Lamb. A Lamb. Therefore, my
God, O my soul, hope in God, for He is rich in mercy. Behold
how God can be just and still show mercy, because He Himself,
the Son of God, has come to offer Himself as a Lamb without spot
and blemish to God for the payment of our sins. That's what He means
by redemption. Behold, my soul, the Son of God
condescended to be made flesh. This is who provided redemption
through His blood is the Son of God came into human flesh
God, who alone is worthy of righteousness, could provide righteousness,
yet God could not die. Man could not provide righteousness,
and his death would accomplish nothing. Therefore the God-man
came. He who touches God and man came
into the world to do what? To pay the redemption price by
his own blood. And behold how he honored God's
law. You know, one thing about the
Lord Jesus Christ is that no one could ever convince him of
sin or convict him of sin. Even his enemies. This made them
furious. He said, which of you convinces
me of sin? Which one of you can point to one sin that I've committed?
You can't. Here we are 2,000 years removed.
Men still hate the Lord Jesus Christ and they still can't point
to one thing he did wrong. One thing. He was righteous.
he said the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me
no sin yet behold his love his great
love to lay down his life he said no man takes my life I lay
it down I lay it down for the sins of His people, that we should
receive the precious promise of God, that we should be made
holy, and without blame the Lord Jesus Christ lay down His life
in our stead. This is our hope. But how shall justice be satisfied
without a guilty offering? without a guiltless offering. Can justice punish the righteous? No. Behold, Jesus was the spotless
Son of God, but yet how could God punish such a sinless one? How could He redeem us, seeing
He knew no sin? even because God hath made Him
to be sin for us, who knew no sin, who did no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Therefore, all
of the sins, all of the sins of His chosen people were at
once made meat on Him. He bore their sins in His own
body on the tree. Now I'll tell you this, believer,
how much do you loathe your sin? And yet we don't loathe it as
near as much as our Lord Jesus did when He was made sin for
us. Scripture says, despising the shame. Our sins were not simply laid
on Him as a garment, but rather ingested. The Scripture says,
He shall drink of the brook in the way. What brook is that?
But the brook Kittron. The Kittron was the drainage
ditch for all this dung and the sacrifice and the blood and the
excrement. That's where all of that Vile
juice flowed down that brook Ketron. And this is the brook. He shall drink of the brook in
the way. He said, the cup that my father
had given me, shall I not drink it? And I tell you, as he did,
he was made sin for us. He drank it in the dregs of our
sins. And I tell you, as he did, he
felt the cup of God's wrath. He drank the wrath of God and
felt every woe and sorrow and pain of God's sword and vengeance
that justice required of us. What justice demanded of you
and me, the Savior felt every pain. What great price was our redemption? I ask you, would you give your
son for me? And if you did, what good would
it do me? I tell you, God's son was infinitely
more precious than my son. and he gave him to die such a vile death and
he did it in my place he did it to redeem my soul what a price that only the blood
of the Son of God could accomplish payment for our sins I'll ask you this then, was the
blood of Jesus Christ enough to redeem us? Was it enough? Was it sufficient to satisfy
the justice of God for our sins? Oh, then comes the comfort of
our text, in whom, listen, we have redemption. We have redemption through His
blood. Believers see the joy of this
text that the efficacy, the power, the success of our redemption
was never in us or by our works. And listen, not even by our faith
was our redemption obtained. Surely no man was ever redeemed
who does not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But our faith in Christ is surely
the evidence, the product, and the result of His perfect redemption
and never the cause of it. Did you hear that? You keep that
in your heart because I know this, many times your faith fails. Your faith wavers. Your faith
is often cold and indifferent. and altogether at times unbelief. But know this, your faith had
nothing to do with your redemption. Your faith is a product of your
redemption. You believe because He hath obtained
redemption in your place. I know this, I am vile and I
am a wretched sinner. I know what I am by nature. I'm
a monster of iniquity. That's what I am. What then can save me? What can redeem me? What has Christ done so as to
make me Even me qualified for heaven. What has he done? He has redeemed me from the jaws
of hell. He has snatched me as a bran
pluck from the burning. And now He has revealed the success
of His offering for my sin by delivering my soul from the power
of darkness. Oh, I once was blind, but now
I see. I sat in darkness, but now a
great light has shined out of darkness into my heart. Even
to reveal the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I see
how it is God can be just and justify the ungodly. I know how
it is He has purposed my redemption. And now I know how He accomplished
my redemption. Even by the blood of His only
Son. That's how. He redeemed me. He
bought me by His blood. Now I see my sin in need of Christ. And He has delivered me from
the power of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. And
now I see that I am redeemed. Even because when Christ died,
I was in union with Him. I was in union with Him. And now Christ, by His one blood
offering, has redeemed me. He has bought me lock, stock,
and barrel. I'm His. I'm bought. Well, slavery is a very bad word
around here nowadays, huh? Although there is none, but it's
still a bad word. Not to me. Because I know who
my master is! He has bought me, and I am his! I am his servant, and yet better,
I am his son! I'm his son because he has redeemed
me. Listen, you who are delivered
of God by faith in Jesus Christ, we surely were purposed to be
redeemed. Surely Jesus has redeemed us. And his success has been manifested
to us by his resurrection. You want to know how I know I'm
redeemed? God raised him from the dead.
That's how I know. How do I know if I bought the
item when I take the item to the cashier And I lay down the
money. How do I know that the item is
mine? They took the money. They took
the money. When Jesus Christ offered his
blood to God, God took it. And you know what God said? God
said, I'm completely satisfied with that. That price is perfect. Perfect. God raised him from
the dead. It says in Hebrews chapter one,
I don't want to misquote it, I'll just read it to you. Hebrews
chapter 1 and verse 3, it says, Who being in the brightness of
His glory, the express image of His person, upholding all
things by the word of His power, when He hath by Himself purged
our sins, what happened? He sat down. He sat down. You know those priests in that
temple, they never sat down? There was never a chair in the
temple. Why? Their work was never done.
Why is it that false religion, their work is never done? They're
always doing and doing and doing and doing because they got to
earn it. No, not me. My work is done. It's finished. Christ did it. He hath redeemed
us through His blood. He had purged our sins and sat
down, and here we now, 2,000 years removed from His death
and ascension, and we now are given faith in Christ. We are
given praise, the promise of eternal life in heaven, and we
are assured that we are made meat for heaven. But as of yet, we are still in
this body of death. You who are believers, you who
have been redeemed, is it not true of you? Are we not still
in this body of death? Paul asked, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? We are still plagued by our flesh
and foolish and hurtful lust. We are often cast down and despair
of our sin. We are opposed by the world and
oftentimes it seems divine providence is even opposed to us. Isn't
that right? Doesn't it seem like everything's
against us? Seems like everything's against
us. The waves of the world are opposed to our gospel. Our flesh
is opposed to our faith. Satan is quiver is full of darts
ready to fire at us. The way is full of snares and
pitfalls. It seems as though we're snared
and fall daily. Seven times we fall every day. The righteous falleth seven times
and is lifted up. Then we remember, we cry. We cry unto the Lord, remember. Have you have you not felt your
need of him daily? Remember me Remember me in my
affliction Yea, rather remember Christ in his affliction That's
what we should cry remember Christ in his affliction for in him
we have redemption and through His redemption is full and perfect
and complete. Yet we have not received the
fullness of it. Though we are redeemed, we still
have not yet seen the fullness of this redemption. But we have
this precious promise in our text that redemption is the same
as forgiveness of sins. Even the forgiveness of sins. What good would redemption, the
redemption of Christ do our souls if it were only partial? If this was a partial redemption,
what good would that do you? It wouldn't do you any good at
all. This redemption, believer, does
not meet us halfway. This is the redemption, the redemption
of the false Christ and false religion only meets man halfway.
They say Christ purchased Redemption for every man without exception,
and all men have to do then is exercise some work or will to
receive it. So then redemption only comes
close, doesn't it? Their redemption only comes close.
And you have to make up the difference in some measure. No. No. Christ's redemption is complete.
Full. Full. It doesn't meet us halfway. This is full redemption. Full
redemption dropped from the mouth of God into our hearts that are
created by the Holy Spirit. The redemption of Christ has
saved me, is saving me, and shall save me. His redemption is, as David says,
plenteous redemption. Plenteous. You know why that's
good? Because I have plenteous sin. What's good news is he has more
redemption than I ever had sin. You don't see the preciousness
of a sacrifice that God says I have received double for all
her sins. So then it is beyond question. If you go and you lay that item
out there and it's five dollars and you lay ten dollars down.
And they say well it's only five. I said no, you take ten. I want
this to be a clear purchase. That's exactly what he did. He
not only redeemed us but he made us sons. Double for all our sins. Double. His redemption is plenteous redemption
that cannot be thwarted, removed, or revoked by the aggravation
of our flesh, the opposition of the world, or the snares of
the devil. Do you realize this? Nothing can take away our redemption. You can't do anything to affect
it. I'll tell you this. the rock
of Christ is so large you'll never fall off of it you may
fall on it and be broken but you'll never fall off of it this redemption is full it is
full so that no one can oppose it this is the result then of
plenteous redemption back over in Psalm 130 in verse 8 he said
plenteous redemption he shall redeem Israel listen from all iniquity all iniquity all her sins all
Israel Happy are you, for herein is the promise of God who cannot
lie, I forgive thee of all thy sins. Can you number them? Can you count them today? Even
in this hour, could you count your sins? And yet God says, I freely forgive
you of all your sins. Listen, all lost men lose sight
of their sins. You know who never loses sight
of their sins? The redeemed. I never can seem to lose sight
of them. They're always here. They're
always in front of me. So then what is my comfort? Is
that before God they are nowhere to be found. Jeremiah chapter 50. In verse 20, you redeemed, you listen to this. In those days and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be, how many? None. the sins of Judah and they shall
not be found. Who's looking? God is. And you know what God says? I
find no fault. For I will pardon them. whom I reserve, whom I have redeemed,
I will pardon." What comfort that we have been redeemed. How? Through the blood of Jesus Christ. And what's the result? even the
forgiveness of all your sins. Therefore, you, believer, are
even now fit for glory. You're fit. God purposed it. Christ redeemed you. And you're
fit. You're fit. Now breathe and rest in your Redeemer. A stand will be dismissed in
prayer.