rich mind. The more you dig in
here, it just keeps getting better, keeps getting sweeter. And it
isn't only full of instruction, but it's full of great encouragement
for the people of God, because it always reminds us, continually
reminds us, And not only this portion of Scripture, but actually
all of the Word of God reminds us that this matter of our acceptance
with God, it isn't due to us. It's not dependent upon us. It's
not conditioned upon us. It's all dependent upon Christ
Jesus. who by the grace of God was sent
into this world to redeem the people. And I tell you, that
helps me. Whenever I look within, and it
doesn't hurt to look within every once in a while, but I'll tell
you, when you look within with eyes that are enabled by the
Spirit of God to really see what's in there, you'll say what one
said in Romans chapter 7, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. There's nothing good in me. There
never has been, there isn't now, there never will be anything
good in and of me. That which is within me, the
life of God, the light of the Holy Spirit, is all by the grace
of the Lord. We say, as did another, 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, by the grace of God, I am what I am. I heard someone quote that one
time and they said, I am what I am by the grace of God. And I went up to them after the
service and I said, the verse doesn't start with I. It doesn't start with me. By
the grace of God. You see, this is the difference
between the salvation that men propose and the salvation that
is of God. God's salvation is by the grace
of God. I am what I am. Man's salvation
is, I am what I am. And then we kind of add on, or
they add on, oh, by the grace of God. But that's not the way it is.
It's all of grace from the beginning unto the end. There's certainly
Ephesians, the first chapter, it isn't more inspired than other
portions of Holy Scripture. But this particular subject matter,
the way it's laid out for us, it's so organized and majestic
and absolutely glorious. That's what draws us back to
this over and over and over again. in a very orderly and majestic
way, there is laid out for us the way that you and I became
the people of God. Are you a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ as He's revealed in the Scriptures? I would ask
you that right up front. By the witness of the Spirit
of God, can you really say it is well with my soul? My sin. My sin. We're not talking about the sins
of other people. My sin. All of my sin. The weight of
my sin. The enormity of my sin. My sin. Oh, the bliss. Oh, the bliss
of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the
whole, was nailed to His cross. I bear it no more. I bear it
no more. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Oh, my soul, can you say that? Well, I believe I can and I say
that by the enablement of the Spirit of God. I say I trust
Him and I hope that you can say that you trust Him too. Have
you been brought by the Spirit of God to cast your poor soul
upon the Savior? To see in Him everything God
demands. The perfection. The righteousness. The absolute satisfaction to
His justice. Do you see the Lord Jesus? He satisfied God? In His death? In the shedding of His blood?
Is He all of your hope of heaven? Do you rest in Him fully? I'm
asking you that. Have you as a needy, needy, beggarly
sinner, went to the Savior in your heart and hugged up to Him. Oh Lord Jesus, You're the Savior
I need. I need Your righteousness. I
don't have any. Because all of my righteousness
is as filthy rags. I need Your sacrifice. I need
Your blood to wash away my sin. And if, honestly, you can say, yes, yes, He's all
my hope of heaven. He's all of my hope for righteousness. He's all of my hope for salvation. If you can say that, it's due to the fact God has
done something for you, even as He's done something for me. You know, as our brother read
this portion of Scripture to us, is it not evident? Is it not evident that the salvation
of sinners is of the Lord? Isn't that evident? Here we read
of being blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. I asked you, who was the one
who blessed us? Did you bless yourself? No. God blessed us. God blessed us. Here we read of a divine election. Before the world was made, a
divine choice was made before God ever created the world. He
chose a people to be holy and without blame. I ask you, who
did the choosing? God did. God did. Here we read of God predestinating
a people unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto
Himself. Who did the predestinating? God
did. And we read that these people
are accepted in the Beloved. Well, who accepted these? God did. I hear preachers talk
about, have you accepted God? Have you accepted Jesus? And I recognize the fact there
is a reception of the Lord Jesus, so I don't mean to make light
of that. As many as received Him, to them
gave He the power to become the sons of God, even to them that
believe on His name. But when you use the word accept,
It seems to put the weight of salvation upon the sinner. Did you accept the Lord? Or did
He accept you? And I've had people say to me
before, I've accepted the Lord! And my general response is, has
He accepted you? Well, that takes people off guard
because surely He accepts me. Well, how can He accept you?
You see, that's the issue here. The issue is how can a holy,
righteous God, the heavens aren't impure in His sight, We read,
He charges His angels with folly, and you and I, we drink iniquity
like water. How can God justify, how can
He have any dealings at all in a merciful way with folks like
us? Who did the accepting here? God
did. And you know when that acceptance
was done? Before He made the world. These
people have always been accepted in Christ Jesus. Here we read of redemption by
the bloody death of the Lord Jesus. That is the rendering
of a ransom to release the slaves. Who designed this wonderful redemption? The answer is God did. Here we
read of the forgiveness of our sins, which is all to be traced
back to the riches of grace. Who forgives sins? Who forgives
sins? Our Lord Jesus was teaching in
a house, and there was a guy who, he was lame. There was so
many people, he had four wonderful friends. And they couldn't get
in the house because there was so many people in there, so they
took him up on the roof, tore a hole in the roof. Have to call
the roofer after that. But they didn't care because
they needed to get their dear friend to the Savior. They lowered
their friend right down in front of Jesus of Nazareth. You know what the Savior said?
Thy sins are forgiven thee. You know what the Pharisees said?
Who can forgive sins but God alone? And they're right. Nobody can forgive sins but God
alone. But this is what they missed.
The One who forgave him is God. He is the Great I Am. And this
forgiveness of sins, Surely, nobody in here and nobody
watching or listening to this message would ever go into a
booth and then confess your sins to another sinner? To another
sinner? And wait for him to absolve you
of your guilt? No man can absolve you. No man
can forgive you of your sins because your sins aren't against
men. Your sins and my sins are against
God. That's why David said, "...against
thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight."
This forgiveness. And that's what I want. Don't
you want forgiveness? Man, a lot of the Scripture says
in Isaiah chapter 1, from the top of our heads to the bottom
of our feet, there's no soundness in us, wounds and bruises and
putrefying sores. Listen, that which we need, which
I need, is forgiveness. Well, who can forgive? Only God. Only God. And He can only do it in a just
way. God just can't say, okay, I know
you've sinned against Me, but I'll just forgive and forget.
No, He can't do that because of who He is. All sin is against God, the soul
that sinneth shall die. Romans 6.23 says, for the wages
of sin is death. Death! That's the wages for sin. Death! That's what God demands. Death! That's what justice says.
I must have death! Death! And so, the poor old sinner has
to die forever. Or, or, a suitable substitute must
die instead. This is the gospel. This is the
message we're preaching. forgiveness of sins through this
man's death. Here we read that someday all
things, that is all the chosen, predestinated, redeemed people
of God are going to be joined together in one group. Who's
going to join them? God will. God's going to bring
them all together. Here we read that all things
are working out according to the purpose of the Lord and nothing
is excluded. Well, who's working out the counsel
of His will? God is. Don't worry as to whether or
not the purpose of God is going to come to pass. It is coming
to pass. You want to know what God purposed
to happen? On this day? And He purposed
it before He ever made the world? Well, read the newspaper tomorrow,
find out what happened today, and then you'll know what God
purposed to happen before all eternity. You see, all things
are of God. This is our God. This is not
a little God. This is not a make-believe God.
This is not a want-to-be God. This is God who is God. Who purposed
all things that will ever happen. And He's bringing it all to pass
through what we call divine providence. So that there are no accidents.
Everything happens on purpose. Now, can we comprehend the reason
all things happen? Oh no. For who hath known the
mind of the Lord? His thoughts and His ways are
way above our thoughts and our ways. But we take contentment
with this. We find consolation in this. He works all things after the
good pleasure of His will. And He's working all things together
for the good of His people. And we just have to leave it
right there. Here we read of the work of the
Holy Spirit in sealing, protecting, keeping safe, revealing the gospel
to the hearts and minds of those people that God has spoken of
in the first half of the chapter. Who's going to see to it that
this sealing happens? God will. If we read a little bit further,
we'd find out that sinners are raised from a spiritual death.
Sinners who are dead in trespasses and sins are quickened in Christ
Jesus who raises sinners from spiritual death. God does. Here's what I'm saying. You cannot
honestly read the Word of God, specifically this portion of
Scripture, without coming to this conclusion. The salvation
of sinners is of the Lord and of Him only. And all that God
is doing, He's doing for His glory. I want you to understand
this. Salvation is not God's response
to anything in man. Salvation is altogether according
to the purpose of God. God was moved by His own will,
His own purpose, His own grace, His own love, His own compassion. In this passage of Scripture,
the Holy Spirit gives us the great motive of God behind election,
predestination, redemption, regeneration, the forgiveness of our sins.
He gives us the great motive behind it all, the glory of God. Everything God does is for His
own glory. Let me ask you this. What was
the reason that Jesus Christ came into this world? You know
He came 2,000 years ago. You've read about it. All of
you have read the Scriptures. People watching on the Internet,
you've read the Scriptures. You know for a fact that He came
into this world 2,000 years ago. There's historical evidence of
that. Why did He come into this world? Well, He didn't come to tell
us what we must do in order to be saved. He didn't come to tell
us the way that salvation can be possible. Oh, here's the possibility
of salvation for you. No. The scripture says, the Son
of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. The subject is forgiveness. Forgiveness. May God give us
understanding of this magnificent truth. I want you to understand, first
of all, exactly what is not being said
in this passage of Scripture about forgiveness. It is not
saying that God is offering forgiveness. It is not saying that. It is
not saying that the Lord Jesus came to this world to make forgiveness
a possibility. We need to understand that the
cross of Calvary does not announce to us, hey, this shows that God
is a God who's ready to forgive if you'll come to Him. That's
not what forgiveness is. Forgiveness is based on the fact
that the Lord Jesus laid down His life in the stead of chosen
sinners. And forgiveness is a fact that's
already been accomplished. That's what we need to know.
God's not offering, God's not saying, now, I want to forgive
you. And if you listen to preachers,
and I do, listen very carefully to what they say. They'll say,
look at the cross of Jesus and God is saying this as Jesus hung
on the cross. I want to forgive you. That's
not what it says. That's not what the death of
the Lord Jesus says. The death of the Lord Jesus announces
God is satisfied and somebody is forgiven. It isn't a possibility. It's
done. Now, how do we come to realization
of that forgiveness? If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to wash us, cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. That's when the forgiveness becomes
a reality to us. But that's not the reason for
forgiveness. Forgiveness, go back 2,000 years
ago to when the debt was paid. There's forgiveness right there.
It isn't your faith that puts sins away. It's not your repentance
that puts sins away. It's the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Without the shedding of blood,
no remission of sins. See, that's the Word of God.
something that's been accomplished, it's been finished. As I look
through the Word of God, I'm very much encouraged about forgiveness. Let me give you several things
here, and I'll be brief on each of them, but maybe I'm speaking to somebody
this morning, you say, is it possible that he died for me? I'll tell you this, he died for
sinners. And that's my qualification. That's right. This is a faithful
saying. This is what Paul said in 1 Timothy
1. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I'm chief. And I'll tell you, the Lord of
glory, He makes us to see, to understand that we're sinful
people. We need Him. You know who needs
the Savior? Sinners. If we're not sinners, we don't
need the Savior then. So if you're not a sinner, you
need not apply. That's right. The Savior said,
the well people, He used the word whole. The whole well people
don't need a physician. Who needs a physician? Those
that are sick. Am I talking to any sick people
this morning? Any spiritually sick people?
Well, I point you to the great physician. To the great physician
and the work that He's already accomplished for sinners on the
cross. You say, well, could this be
for me? Could I get in on this? I ask myself the same question. Can I get in on this? Well, as I look through the Word
of God, I'm greatly encouraged by what I read. I'll give you
several things. I read that our Lord dealt very,
very lovingly and compassionately with our fallen parents, Adam
and Eve. That encourages me. Yeah, they
rebelled against God. And I know they died spiritually,
but God didn't just send them right to hell. He didn't do that. You know what He did? He made
a wonderful announcement, the seed of the woman is coming,
going to bruise the head of the serpent. and in the process of
that, his own heel will be bruised. He's talking about the substitutionary
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he illustrated what
the seed of the woman would do when He came into the world.
God, He took innocent animals and He killed them. He shed blood. And then He robed our fallen
parents He wrapped those garments around
them. And I bet in the process they
felt the hug of His grace. That encourages me! Because Adam
had his fist in the face of God. I defy you! And God came not in the heat of the
day, but in the cool of the evening. And Adam didn't seek out God,
but God sought out Adam. Boy, that encourages me. That
help you any? I read in this book that God
designed the offerings and the sacrifices which He commanded
Israel to offer. And they were all to illustrate
the way by which He would deal with sin. And Israelites, and
let's say a husband and wife and children, they'd come up
to the tabernacle, and they'd bring a lamb. Dad would bring
a lamb, and Dad would say to his wife and to his kids, you
know, we're sinful people. And maybe one of the kids said,
Dad, why are you bringing this lamb? I love this little lamb. Oh, and Dad said, yeah, but this
is for God. This is for God because we're
sinful people. And God demands that we bring
the sacrifice. And it all points to the sacrifice
who's going to come, the Lamb of God. And then they watched
as that Lamb was executed. He was killed. And blood was
shed. And that animal was lifted up
on the brazen altar and the fire, the fire consumed it and went
up to God. It was for God, you see? It was
for God. And the man looked at his wife and
his kids and said, the sacrifice has been accepted by the Lord.
Or what about Offering on the Day of Atonement. Leviticus chapter
17. What does all of that say? What
does it say? Why did God design all of that? Here's Aaron who goes into the
Holy of Holies, sprinkles the mercy seed. He comes back out,
He has a scapegoat, puts His hands on it, symbolizing transference
of guilt, sends it out into the wilderness. What does that all
symbolize? It symbolizes this. Our God is
a God of forgiveness. That's what it symbolizes. Because
it pictures the removal of sin by the blood of the Lord Jesus.
That encourages me. I read that all of the Old Testament
prophets gave witness to Jesus Christ that through His name,
whoever believes on Him has remission of sins. Do you believe on Him as He's
revealed in the book? Then you have remission of sins. That helps me. I read, this is the very reason
the Son of God came into the world. Thou shalt call His name
Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. No other
way God could forgive sin. The death of the Son of God wasn't
one of many ways that God had to choose from, or even one of
two ways. This was the only way to reconcile
sinners to God. I'll tell you what encourages
me. The Lord Jesus, when He hung on the cross, you know what His
prayer was? Father, forgive them. Forgive them! Woo! Forgive them! Forgive them. They don't know
what they're doing. And I tell you, we're a bunch
of spiritual simpletons. We're a bunch of fools. We don't
know what we're doing. And the Son of God dies on the
cross and He says to the Father, Father, forgive them! Based on my sacrifice. I read that the Lord Jesus He
instructed His disciples, pray this way, forgive us our trespasses. Forgive
us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Listen, and He says that's the way we should pray. Here's a
pattern prayer, forgive us our trespasses. That means there
is forgiveness with the Lord that He may be feared. I read that our Lord Jesus, His
final instructions to His disciples, He gathered them together outside
of Galilee. He said, go and preach remission
of sins. That's what He said. You go and
preach remission of sins. There is forgiveness with the
Lord. It's based upon the bloody death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. May God in His grace bring you
and I to see who God is. Who God is. It all starts with
God. Then show us something of our
awfulness. I don't see it all. No, I think
that's part of growing in grace, is that the longer we're in grace,
the more we see of our own depravity. And the more we recognize the
fact we need the grace of God. Lord, show me Yourself. Show me myself. Show me Christ
Jesus. The story is told of George Whitefield. A great preacher many years ago. After he had brought a message, this man came to him and he said,
I don't know about all of this.
I don't understand it. He said, you talk about Jesus
the Savior? About forgiveness. He said, I
just can't comprehend it. I don't understand what you're
talking about. And he asked George Whitefield,
he said, what should I do? He said, well, I'll give you
this suggestion. Why don't you go home and ask
God just this simple thing. Lord, Lord, show me myself. The man said, that's all? He
said, yep. Just say, Lord, show me myself. He said, I hope to
see you again in the meeting tomorrow. And of course, George Whitfield
preached the gospel. This is the instruction he gave
him. Very simple instruction. One thing. Next day he was back. He came
up to George Whitfield and he was weeping. He said, oh preacher, I did what
you told me to do. I said, oh God, show me myself.
He said, he has. He said, I don't think there's
any hope for me. He said, I think I'm the worst
man on earth. And George Whitefield said, now,
ask God this, show me Christ Jesus. and the salvation that's
in Him. As the story goes, He did, and
God did. We've got to find out our neediness,
don't we? And nobody can show us that but
the Savior. I need forgiveness. I've got it. in whom we have redemption through
His blood. The forgiveness of sins. I'll
leave you with this. Whenever you see the redemption
by the blood of the Lord Jesus, that which must follow is forgiveness. Must follow. You can't have the
shedding of blood without a good result. forgiveness of sin. I want us to sing a hymn number