I have been so blessed so far
in this service. It's just good to be here, isn't
it? I appreciate the music. I love
singing these songs that exalt the Lord. I love the reading of the word
of God. I appreciate our brother addressing
the Father for us. And that was such a blessed song.
Thank you all. Thank God for His grace. Look
at Ephesians chapter 1. Go back to Ephesians chapter
1. As this scripture was being read
to us, I was thinking, it's such an encouraging passage of
scripture. And I mean that, or by that,
I mean this. I'm so thankful. Our salvation
is in God's hands. Aren't you? Oh, how I bless His
name. I look at this passage of Scripture,
five sentences in chapter one of Ephesians. I read about God
the Father's work in salvation. I read that He blessed us, and
He chose us, and He predestinated us unto the adoption of children. It's all to the praise of the
glory of His grace. And I just, I can't help but
just be absolutely overwhelmed. And thank God for choosing me. for predestinating me to be in
His family. Thank God that He accepted me
in the Beloved. Before the world began, I was
accepted in Jesus Christ. You see, there is such a thing
as God's eternal union or that eternal union between God the
Son and God's own people. Because God the Father gave us
to Christ Jesus and we were accepted in Him before God ever made the
world. That encourages me. That helps
my poor soul. Because God the Spirit has shown
me something of my sinfulness. I don't know the full extent
of my depravity and you don't either. I guess we couldn't stand
it if we knew. We just really don't know how
bad off we are. But I do know this, we're so
bad off, the only one who could save us was God himself. And
that ought to tell you how bad, give you some idea how bad off
we are. And when I read this, that the
Father, He did His work, and the Son of God, He redeemed us. And we'll get to that here in
a little bit, the subject, we have redemption. We'll get to
this in verse 7. When I think about the fact that
He bought us, and He bought us with His blood, all the freeness
of His grace, all the wonders of His love, That our eternal
surety would enter into this old vile world that we live in. That he would associate with
sinners and not be ashamed to do so. And that he would live
before God's law in perfection. Then go to the cross, bearing
our sins in his own body on that tree. That He, the Just One,
would justify the unjust before a holy God. That He would pay
my debt, our debt, the debt of all of His people. That just encourages me. Because if I owe a debt I couldn't
pay. And I'll tell you, He paid a
debt He didn't owe, except by imputation. I'm so encouraged. As a dead
dog, doomed, damned sinner, this helps my poor soul. I read of
what God the Father has done for me way back before He ever
made the world. In fact, He made the world in
order to bring to pass this great drama of redemption. And then
I read what God the Son has already done for us. He's redeemed us
by His own blood. Ah, that helps me. I could never make things right
with God. I hear preachers every once in
a while say things like this, you need to make your peace with
God. And there comes up within my soul this question, how in
the world could I do that? God in His holiness? We address
this this morning from Isaiah chapter 6, that one who is holy,
holy, holy, our thrice holy God? What would you do to make peace
with this God? How would you go about it? And
what right do you have to even speak with this God? To utter any words in His presence. Thank God we had a peacemaker
who came for us. And He made peace with God by
the blood of His cross. He is the Prince of Peace. It's
not dependent upon me. That helps my poor soul. That
helps you. That encourages me. Salvations
of the Lord! Hallelujah! I'm so glad it is. And then I read of the work of
the Holy Spirit. We're sealed by the Spirit of
God. He has opened the eyes of our
understanding. He has enlightened us. We've
been born again. We've been brought back from
the dead. Look down at verse 19. By the working of His mighty
power, by God's energy, the same energy that raised up the Lord
Jesus Christ from the dead has raised us up from a spiritual
grave and made us alive. Oh, that helps me! What could
I do, a dead sinner? A worm on a dunghill. dead in
my trespasses, dead in my sin, but I was raised in Christ Jesus,
representatively in His resurrection. And that's what the Apostle Paul
is speaking about in the second chapter. And I've been raised
spiritually by God's own Spirit through the Word of God, through
the incorruptible seed, the Word of God that liveth and abideth
forever. I've been made to live. I'm alive. And He keeps me alive. The reason
I believe, the reason I have turned from my dead works, the
reason I have no confidence in my flesh, is because God the
Spirit has done something for me. Oh, that encourages me. This is not dependent upon us. Don't that help you? Say, if you thought, if you were
to think for a moment that this salvation of your immortal soul
was in some way or other dependent upon you, What effect would that
have upon you? Oh, you're talking about our
countenance falling. You're talking about being depressed
and despondent. Why, there'd be no hope. There'd
be no hope for any of us. And I'm looking at a congregation
of wonderful people, but I'm telling you, you got no hope
in yourself. He's our hope. The Lord God of
glory. Oh, this helps me. This encourages
me. And I'll tell you something else,
this motivates me to give God the glory. And after stating the work of
the Father, and the work of the Son, and the work of the Spirit,
the Apostle Paul is led to write, it's all to the praise of the
glory of His grace. And I would ask you, who would
hold back? Who would refrain from singing
God's praises for salvation? Would you? I dare not do that. I must sing out praises to God. He saved me. And He's keeping
me saved. And someday this salvation is
going to be perfected because this body Christ Jesus redeemed
it too. And He's going to have every
speck of my dust. And though I go to the grave
and like Job said, the worms devour this body, yet in my flesh
I shall see God in this body. And you know why that's so? He
redeemed my body too. He bought me. Body, soul, and
spirit. I'm His. He owns me. He paid the price for me. And
I'm led, I'm motivated to glorify His name. I'm motivated to glorify
Him. And I'll tell you something else
this does. It not only encourages me and motivates me to glorify
the Lord in music and in everything, But it also motivates me to live
for Him. You know, when the Apostle Paul
would motivate the Romans, the Roman believers, to commit themselves
to Christ Jesus, you know what he didn't do? He didn't promise
them rewards, and he didn't threaten them with
some kind of punishment if they didn't serve the Lord. He said,
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice unto God. This is your
reasonable service. Well, preacher, why don't you
motivate us to live for the Lord? Okay, I will. I'm going to preach
you the gospel. I'm going to tell you what God
in Christ Jesus has done for you. And if that doesn't motivate
you to live for the Lord and to seek to glorify Him and seek
His revealed will in all that you do, all the threatenings
in the world won't do it. And all the promises of some
kind of tinker toys in heaven won't do it either. Because love
is the strongest motivator of all. And if you love Him, if
the Holy Ghost has shed abroad in your hearts the love of God,
you'll want to do what's right. Won't you? Well, sure you do. I know you want to. And I know
we fail. I know we fail. But where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound. And grace reigns through
righteousness. It always reigns. And I know you won't take this
the wrong way, but you can't out-sin the grace of God. If anybody could, I would have
already done it. You cannot out-sin the grace
of God. How often does He forgive you?
Always. I tell you, somebody wrongs me,
does something to me, says something about me falsely, sometimes I
have a little trouble getting over it. I might even hold it against
somebody. I try not to, don't want to,
but I do. You know what I'm talking about?
But you know God doesn't hold anything against us and we've
wronged Him. Millions of times? Have you ever heard anybody say,
well, I'll tell you, if I've sinned today, I hope the Lord
will forgive me. There's no if about it. You're a walking mass of sin. Isn't that the truth? You're
just a walking mass of sin. And what I say to you, true of
me, We are always in need of the blood of Jesus Christ to
keep on cleansing us. And thank God it does. 1 John
1 verse 7. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, it cleanseth us. What does that mean? It goes
on cleansing us. It never quits. It never wears
out. You never stretch the forgiving
grace of God too thin. Don't that help you? I hope I
can help you a little bit tonight, encourage you a little bit on
your earthly pilgrimage. And if ever there's a chapter
that will help you, it's this chapter. And if ever there's
a verse that ought to help you, well, it's any one of these,
It's the one that I've selected for tonight. Because this chapter,
Ephesians chapter 1, it's a virtual gold mine, isn't it? I mean,
any verse that you look at, you can just dig in it from now on
and just keep on finding golden nuggets. Verse 7, that's the
one I've got my eye on tonight. In whom we have redemption. We've got redemption in somebody. And I'm well aware that you know
throughout this chapter, the apostle keeps on speaking of
in whom, in him. It's all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. The last statement of verse 6
says, in the beloved, or in the beloved, in whom we have redemption,
this beloved Savior, we have redemption in Him. How's that? Through His blood. Well, what's
the result of that? The forgiveness of sins. And
what's the origin of all of it? According to the riches of His
grace. Redemption. We have redemption. I tell you, the word redemption,
it presupposes a very serious condition, doesn't it? The word itself sets forth a
condition of captivity and bondage and slavery. You see, there would
be no need of redemption if we were a free people. Is that right? Be no need of redemption if we
were a free people. For where there is freedom, there's
no need of redemption. There's no need to be freed.
There's no need to be delivered. Those alone need to be redeemed
who are fallen and captive and enslaved. Those who speak of free will
speak foolishly. If we were free, we wouldn't
need free grace. If we were free, we wouldn't
need redemption. We need to understand that all
of God's elect, like all people in the world, are children of
wrath by nature. Like all of Adam's race, we're
a sinful people, a people who rebelled against our God in Adam.
We were born in captivity to sin. We were born in bondage
to Satan. He holds us captive at his will. And we're born under the curse
of the law. The law of God that we've broken
has, as it were, arrested us. And as it were, it put us in
prison. And the law of God said, you
are not getting out of prison until your price is paid in full. Well, what can you do about that?
You can't redeem yourself, and you can't redeem your brother. Thank God we had a Redeemer.
He came and paid the price that we owe. Now we know in the Bible
redemption is promised, pictured, prophesied, portrayed, and proclaimed
on every page of Holy Scripture. Everything in the Old Testament
pointed to redemption. Everything in the New Testament
explains and declares redemption. And everything in heaven has
reference to redemption. Everywhere you look in the book
of God, you are faced with this glorious subject of redemption. Redemption by price. Think of
the Passover lamb. Redemption by power. Think of
the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. Redemption by a kinsman
redeemer. Boaz, think of the book of Ruth. That was our Bible class this
morning. I was mentioning to our Bible
class there were four qualifications to be a kinsman redeemer. And
Boaz qualified on all four. Well, at least the first three,
and our Savior qualifies on all four. Well, actually, Boaz did
in a way, and I'll show you what I mean. Number one, to be a kinsman,
you had to be related. You had to be related. Boaz was related. Our Lord Jesus is related to
us. He's bone of our bone. He's flesh
of our flesh. He is our brother. Our elder
brother. So he qualifies on that account. Number two, a kinsman redeemer
had to be able to redeem. Had to have the ability. And
in the story of Ruth, Boaz was able to redeem. He had the wherewithal. He had the means. Well, can the
Lord Jesus redeem us? Is he able? Does he have the
means? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Because he's God. And he's man. But thirdly, he
had to be willing to redeem. Was Boaz willing to redeem Naomi
and Ruth? Yeah. He's able and willing. But fourth thing, That kinsman
redeemer could have no indebtedness of his own. Our Lord Jesus had no indebtedness
of his own. If he had any indebtedness of
his own, he would have been disqualified from being our kinsman redeemer. In Him is no sin, was no sin,
never was any sin, never shall be any sin. He's the sacrifice,
He's the Lamb of God without spot and without blemish. He had no indebtedness of His
own, so the indebtedness of all of His people was charged to
Him. And when our indebtedness was charged to him, guess what? We were relieved of the indebtedness. Because debt can't be in two
places at the same time. That's impossible. Charged to
him. And if it's charged to him, whosever
indebtedness was charged to him, listen, they don't have any more
debt. Hallelujah. I was talking back in the back
a while ago. I was talking about how sometimes
I flail my arms around. I told Nancy, I said, I just
get too active up here. And I was telling Linda and some
of them back there, I said, I guess I'm just kind of a Pentecostal
sovereign gracer. I don't know. It'd be a new denomination. Let's just start a new denomination. Thank you. But this is thrilling,
you see. It's thrilling. Our kinsman Redeemer, He is related
to us. He is able to redeem. He was
willing to redeem. He had no indebtedness of His
own. He did redeem us. That means
universal redemption is a universal life. In no way whatsoever, any way
you slice it, in no way whatsoever was Jesus Christ the Redeemer
of all of Adam's fallen race. You say, well, I think in some
way or other, no. In no way did He universally
redeem everybody. He redeemed His people. You see,
everybody He bought because He bought people. That's who He
bought. He didn't buy the blessings for
us because the blessings were given to us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. Isn't that right? The blessings
were already appointed for us. He didn't redeem blessings. He
didn't buy the blessings for us. He bought us. with His blood. Ah, redemption. Redemption. What a wonderful, wonderful subject. Let me give you four, five, six
points in this little outline. Here's the purchaser of redemption. In whom? This is the Lord Jesus. In whom? He's the Beloved. This really brings us, verse
7, brings us to, well, sort of a transition point in chapter
1. Because he's been speaking about
the work of the Father, who chose us in Christ, who predestinated
us in Christ, and who accepted us in Christ. Look again at verse
6. where the apostle says, this
is all to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath
made us accepted in the beloved. And if I were, if I were going
to translate this literally to you, and I'm by no means a Greek
scholar, but I'll tell you it really reads like this. to the
praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath graced us, and
graced us in the Beloved." That's what He did. Oh, the amazing
grace of God in this purchaser of our redemption. You see, the
greatness of redemption is enhanced by the greatness of the Redeemer. That's why it's a great redemption.
Because we have a great Redeemer. Look over at Isaiah 54. Look
at Isaiah chapter 54. Isaiah 54 verse 5. Isaiah 54
verse 5. And remember, He is the purchaser
of redemption. Isaiah 54, 5. For thy maker is
thy husband, the Lord of hosts. That's His name. And thy Redeemer,
He is the Holy One of Israel. Who is He? He is the God of the
whole earth, shall He be called. Who is our Redeemer? He's the
God of the whole earth. He's the Holy One of Israel.
He's your Maker. He's the Lord of hosts. This
is the purchaser of redemption. He's the author of it. And so
we read in Hebrews 12, He's the author and the finisher of our
faith. He was appointed to be our Redeemer, called to be our
Redeemer in the eternal covenant of grace, and He freely agreed
to all the terms of redemption. In the fullness of time, He was
sent to accomplish the redemption of a chosen multitude. The Lord
Jesus, as our near kinsman, He actually bought us. He bought
His people. He said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. Redemption. Here's the purchaser
of redemption in whom. Secondly, the objects of redemption. Back to our text in Ephesians
1, 7, in whom we have redemption. Who are the objects of redemption?
Well, they're the ones that God chose before the world began. Look back in verse 3 and 4. The
ones that God blessed. Blessed or blessed eulogized,
that's what the word is. eulogized 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, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love." The objects of
redemption are all those who were blessed by God the Father
in verse 3. There are all those who were
chosen in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world in
verse 4. Verse 5, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. Who did He redeem? Who are the
objects of redemption? All who were predestinated under
the adoption of children. Who did He redeem? Who are the objects of His redemption? All of those who are accepted
in the Beloved. Accepted in Him from old eternity. Joined to Him. What an everlasting
union exists between the Son of God and His people. between
the head of the church and the church itself. And then notice the fact of redemption. He says, in whom we have redemption. We have it. You know why we have
it? Because he obtained it. That's
why. Redemption is the present, everlasting
possession of every believer. It's not something we hope to
have or something we wish to have. It's something we have
right now. Being redeemed, I shall be redeemed
forever. I'm always His and He's always
mine. We're free from sin. Sin's penalty? Sin's overwhelming power? Someday
we'll be free from sin's very presence. We're free from Satan's
deadly grip on us? We're free from the law? Free
from the law? Oh, happy condition! Jesus has
bled and there's remission. We're free from the law. The
law's got nothing to say to us. Because that one who's the law
giver was the law keeper. And he answered every demand
of the law. And now the law says, I got nothing
against those for whom Jesus died. See, the law's not made for a
righteous man. We're righteous in Christ Jesus,
aren't we? It doesn't have anything to do
with us. No. The threats of the law, the terrors
of the law, they shouldn't bother the child of God because it doesn't
apply to us. Our Savior kept the law. He made
it honorable. And He's satisfied it's every
demand. And we're right now a possessor
of everlasting life. Well then, fourthly, what's the
very price of redemption? What is the price of redemption?
Through His blood. What does the blood say to you?
I'll tell you what it says to me. Sacrifice. Because the life of the flesh
is in the blood. His blood represents His life
sacrificed for us. His blood is man's blood. Man's
sin, man must suffer. I know some people are offended
to talk about the blood of the Lord Jesus. They'd rather just
say Christ died. But you know what blood reminds
us of? The penalty of sin. That awful punishment for guilt. It's the blood of a man. Without
the shedding of blood is no remission of sin. And I'll tell you something
else, it's God's blood. You can read that in Acts chapter
20 verse 28. That means it's of infinite value
and infinite merit. You see, this is why the blood
of the Lord Jesus has washed away the sins of His people.
Because of whose blood it is! It's His blood. The blood of
the God-man. And His blood is enough. Oh, brother, top lady. He said,
payment God cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding shirt, His
hand, and then again at mine. His blood's enough. It's enough. His blood is covenant blood.
He sealed the covenant with His own blood. His blood's eternal
blood because He's the Lamb slain from before the foundation of
the world. His blood is sprinkled blood. He went back to heaven
and sprinkled the mercy seat there and He sprinkles it upon
our consciences that we're safe. Oh, preacher, I'm so guilty,
I'm so rotten. Well, you get no argument from
me. But oh, if the blood has been
applied, it quiets the conscience. You see, our conscience, you know the only thing that
will satisfy our conscience? Absolute perfection. That's all
that will satisfy an angry conscience. A conscience that's been awakened.
A conscience that's sensitive. The only thing that will quiet
down the groans and the moans and the tears and the cries of
a guilty conscience is absolute perfection. We've got it in the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God sprinkles it
upon the conscience and says all is well. All is well. His blood is saving blood. And
then what are the results of redemption? I'll give this to
you quickly. The forgiveness of sins. That's
got to be the result. Wherever you have redemption,
you have to have the forgiveness of sin. You just got to have
it. Got to have it. Colossians 1.14 says the same
thing. In whom we have redemption through
His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. You can't have one without
the other. While you have the one, you've
got to have the other. If you've got redemption, forgiveness
is sure to follow. Forgiveness was guaranteed by
the blood of the Lord Jesus. Forgiveness is given to us by
the merits of His blood. And God's forgiven us of all
of our past sins, all of our right now sins, and all of our
future sins. He's removed them from us as
far as the east is from the west. He's cast them into the depths
of the sea. He's blotted them out. He said, I will not impute
them to you. He's imputed the righteousness
of Jesus Christ to us. He's purged them away. He says,
I'll never remember them against you again. And He'll never deal
with us any more or any less graciously because we continue
to sin. He never will. Boy, that's power
in that blood, isn't it? And then what's the source of
redemption? Lastly, the riches of His grace. Where are you going
to trace all this back to? The riches of His grace. This passage is so full of the
grace of God. God purposed redemption. God
provided redemption. God performed redemption. God
makes redemption real to us. God makes redemption very precious
to us. The Lord did it all. And we enjoy. Do you enjoy this redemption? Oh, I do. When I sing the songs, sometimes I just weep. Like this
next song we are going to sing. 475, Redeemed. He redeemed me. Redeemed how
I love to proclaim it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child and forever
I am. Isn't that sweet music to your
ears? Well, I hope it is. I hope it
is. Well, let's sing. 475, right? That's the number. 475, redeemed. Now, I want to say this.