Good morning everyone, good to
see you here. Today I'm preaching on the subject, the forgiveness
of sins. This is the third in a series
of messages that I'm bringing on the topic of being blessed
in Christ. To refresh your memory, this
series is an exposition of what reads like one long sentence
found in Ephesians 1 verses 3 through 14. And in these verses, Paul, as I've told you before,
he's setting forth now the multifaceted blessings of salvation by God's
sovereign grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this
morning we're going to focus just as we did in the previous
message on Ephesians 1 verse 7. But to keep in mind the overall
context, follow with me now as we begin our reading back in
verse 3. There Paul wrote, blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."
As we've seen and as we're going to continue to see, all the blessings
that accompany the one great eternal salvation of God's sheep,
as brought out in this passage, Ephesians 1, they are all in
Christ. And then as we move forward in
verses four through six, Paul said that these saints had been
blessed 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, having predestinated
us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, the
beloved being here in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse seven, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of his grace. Now in the message
preceding this one, we begin to explore then what these eternally
blessed saints to whom Paul is writing, these who are described
in verses three through six as chosen, predestinated, accepted,
all in Christ, we started looking then at what they have in Christ
by virtue of His work, by virtue of His shed blood, specifically
redemption through His blood as that message was titled. But
this morning I want to focus on a blessing that is very closely
connected, is linked here in verse 7 with redemption, and
that is a blessing that all believers possess, the forgiveness of sins. And what a wonderful thing it
is to discover that you're among those whose sins have been forgiven
through His blood. And this is a simple message,
and I hope you believers can just simply ponder as we might
enter into a spirit of worship and praise when we consider what
a wonderful blessing it is to have been forgiven of all your
sins. You'll recall in studying the
blessing that all the saints have in Christ, the blessing
of redemption through his blood, we look back at Romans 3.24 where
it teaches that all who are justified, that is, declared righteous,
as we read there earlier, holy and without blame before God
by virtue of having the merit of Christ's obedience unto death
imputed are charged to their accounts. They are so justified,
we read, freely by His grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. So we see from Ephesians 1-7
that in Christ sinners have redemption and the forgiveness of sins through
His blood. And then when we couple that
with Romans 3 we see that they are thereby found acceptable,
justified before God through that very redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. Now, I bring this out because
it shows us that these distinct aspects of eternal salvation,
redemption, the forgiveness of sins, justification, they are
all truly inseparable. All see who are justified before
God are so justified by Christ shed blood at the cross. by that
act by which he also redeemed them and through which they had
the forgiveness of sins. So before we go further, let
me just point out it's important we know that the forgiveness
or pardon of sins for all who are saved is due unto the fact
that perfect satisfaction to God's justice has been rendered
for them. Everyone for whom Christ died,
you see, has been forgiven of their sins just as they've been
justified. just as they have been and were
redeemed. The debt before God's holy law
and justice was paid in full at the cross of Calvary, you
see, for all of the demerit of the sins of these objects of
God's everlasting love, because their sins were laid upon Him.
They were imputed to the Lord Jesus Christ, as we so often
quote from 2 Corinthians 5.21, for He made Him to be sin for
us, Him who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." In other words, all the demerit of God's elect,
sin, was charged or imputed to Him just as the merit of His
obedience, righteousness, is imputed to all of these objects
of His love and grace in Christ. So, and as we spoke of before,
always keep in mind that redemption does not speak of just some mere
attempt made to save sinners, but it speaks of a price paid.
And if you'll recall when we studied that, we talked about
how the very definition of the word redemption speaks of a price
that's paid in full. When you redeem it, you completely
pay it back. So there's no balance remaining
due whatsoever. It's a debt paid for all the
sins of every sinner for whom he lived and died. And that debt
is a debt, it's a price paid to God. You see, because our
sins are against God, it's His justice that is offended, and
so thereby we are forgiven. So what we see here is the blessings
of redemption and the forgiveness of sins are all due under this
one act, as it reads, through His blood, the death of Christ
their Savior. And yet, the Bible does distinguish
between these different facets or glorious blessings which are
all part and parcel to the one great eternal salvation that
the saints enjoy in having been made one with Christ by God's
grace. Consider that by the one act
of redemption, by Christ's death on the cross, redeemed sinners
justified, as we've said, through redemption. pronounced righteous
before God from all eternity, and then secondly, he or she
is absolved from all their guilt. They're pardoned or forgiven.
So while these blessings cannot be detached, you see, from one
another, we recognize they are distinguished in the scriptures
as distinct aspects of the one great eternal salvation of all
of the saints in Christ. To illustrate, I think I put
this illustration in the bulletin, To illustrate how these blessings
are distinct from one another, let me share an illustration
similar to one I came across in my study. Consider that if
a king or a ruler pardons a criminal, which can be likened to forgiving
him, that such an action does not entitle that pardoned criminal
to inherit the king's estate. It does not entitle him to inherit
his crown or his kingdom. But it does do something significant.
It frees him from punishment to which he otherwise would be
subjected. But what if the king not only
forgave or pardoned the criminal, but legally adopted him so as
to make him a prince, his son, and heir? Wow, that's a double
blessing. Because you see, the adopted
child then is entitled to the life of the kingdom and all the
riches of that kingdom. and the happiness that such an
inheritance would bring. Well, so have the children of
God adopted in Christ. You see, not only have their
sins been put away, but they have a perfect righteousness
imputed. That is the entire merit of Christ's
obedience unto death. And so such as these, theirs
is the kingdom of God, the king of kings. So we're talking about
an eternal, incorruptible inheritance beyond our imagination. Well,
there are other distinctions that can be made between these
blessings of forgiveness of sins, redemption, and justification.
But if you'll notice in today's text, we're reading of that which
is common or mutually true. of both redemption and the forgiveness
of sins. So we're going to focus our attention
accordingly. But that said, don't fear, I won't elaborate on these
common factors to the extent I did in the previous message
because I did that in fact when we talked about redemption. But
by way of review, I just want you to remember that just as
was true of the blessings of redemption, we see here in Ephesians
1-7 that the forgiveness of sins first is likewise in a person. It says, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. It's in the glorious
person, the God-man, who offered the sacrifice of his sinless
humanity upon the altar of his deity. Remember, the altar is
what set it apart and gave it its value. As we heard in the
10 o'clock hour, this is a glorious person. This is the man among
thousands, you see, the one man. the God-man mediator. And then
secondly, as we continue in verse 7, we see that in Christ we have
redemption, that is, and so we have the forgiveness of sins.
It's a blessing that is possessed by all who are blessed in Christ. They have the forgiveness of
sins. And thirdly, it's through His
blood. As you can see this morning, we're going to observe the Lord's
table here. And with that in mind, consider what Christ said
at the Last Supper with his disciples as they were about to drink wine
in Matthew 26, 24. It reads, For this is my blood
of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission
of sins. It's his blood, you see, and
it is that alone that remitted or paid the debt in full. whereby sins are forgiven. It
was a remission of sins. And then lastly, as the end of
verse seven tells us, just as with redemption, these saints
who are accepted in Christ the beloved, they have the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of his grace. And I'll speak
about that more in just a moment. Well, in light of these observations
that we've made about both redemption and the forgiveness of sins,
in light of this clear, undeniable language of verse 7, I want us
to consider now the implications as it pertains to our topic today,
that is, the forgiveness of sins. You see, the truth of this one
verse, Ephesians 1, 7, stands in stark opposition to many of
the false notions that are so prevalent in our day concerning
the forgiveness of sins. And it exposes, this one verse
exposes how these widely held views, you see, are contrary
to this verse, to God's Word. And listen, sadly, it's not just
that they're a little mistaken, it's contrary or in opposition
to the very gospel of God's grace that's contained therein. You
see, and this is why that's not trivial. It's the gospel which
all of the redeemed, forgiven saints in Christ must and shall
and surely embrace by God-given faith, as we're going to see
confirmed even as we go on through our study here in Ephesians 1.
But with Ephesians 1-7 in mind, just consider the following.
Clearly, there's nothing any man or woman, any sinner has
to offer or can do to procure the pardon of sin for himself
or for others. You see, sins are against God
and only God can forgive them. If it could be procured by the
sinner, then just if your view is it, for example, because of
my repentance, God forgives me, or because of my confession of
sin, God forgives me, then just consider, I just ask that people
would admit the obvious. You cannot believe that and then
also believe Ephesians 1-7. Because you see, it would mean
contrary to God's word, forgiveness is not through His blood. And
it's certainly not then according to the riches of His grace. If
it proceeds from you, that would be according to your works. Well, with that, know this, then,
a subset to that, that forgiveness cannot be procured by the sinner's
exercise of faith and our repentance, even that which is the gift of
God. Those are blood-bought gifts that flow from a sense of pardoning
love that's manifested to the saints in the day of God's power
by His Spirit under God's ordained name, the preaching of this very
gospel of grace. So forgiveness is not granted
because of your faith or repentance. It's through his blood, according
to the riches of his grace. Well, and likewise, it cannot
be procured by any obedience that the sinner may render or
any penance that the sinner may do. That again, see, would be
according to works, not grace. And finally, I'm going to spend
just a little time this morning addressing a common scriptural
misinterpretation that leads people to expect to be forgiven
as a result of something other than through His blood. And specifically,
it's the mistake of believing that God forgives a sinner of
his sins because of the confession of their sins. that I'm referring
to is 1 John 1.9. This error is often supported
by a misinterpretation of that verse. So look with me there. That verse reads, if we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now the problem here lies, I
think, mostly in our understanding of this word, if. You see, we
often use that in conjunction with a condition, as in, if you
do this, then the following will result because of what you did. And so, with that understanding,
many misinterpret this verse to mean God's faithful and just
to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if
we meet the presumed condition of confessing our sins. So, as
a consequence, many mistakenly believe what's natural for us
to believe, and that is that sinners are forgiven because
of or as a result of their confession. And listen, it's no different
from the truth that even today, countless preachers will stand
in pulpits across this land, some in this very hour, and they're
going to tell their listeners that God will give them all the
blessings of salvation. All of that one great eternal
salvation, those many multifaceted blessings, including the forgiveness
of sins, if they will just fill in the blank, anything you want
to put in there, if something they will do or that they are
enabled to do. Believe. Say the sinner's prayer. Repeat this prayer as a confession
of your sins. Invite him into your hearts.
Walk this aisle or be baptized as a confession. confession of
Christ and your need for Christ before men. Or simply in your
heart of hearts, admit that you fall short and thereby you're
confessing your sins. And the list can go on and on.
But listen, no matter how often you may have heard that or you
continue to hear such notions, that suggest at least, in some
way, in some degree, that your salvation and all of its multifaceted
blessings, including the forgiveness of sins, that it's conditioned
on at least something you, the sinner, contribute to the equation. Then know this, that is not grace. No matter how often the word
grace may be attached to that particular doctrine, Don't be
deceived, that is a deadly presumption to imagine that a holy God will
forgive you a sinner according to the works of your own sentient
hand. Think of the evil of it because
it took the blood of the God-man to do that. Well, that is not
forgiveness through his blood to imagine such and that would
not be according to the riches of his grace. Instead, consider,
though, how the word if, it's not always used to set forth
a condition to be met. It's often used to cite an evidence
or an indicator, as if to say, if this describes you, then the
following is true of you. For example, if I say to you,
if you breathe, you have life. Well, a reasonable person is
not going to assume or construe that to mean they can go down
to the morgue and with a dead corpse on the table and command,
tell that dead body to breathe in order that it might live. No, but we know a paramedic at
a wreck or where a person is unconscious might very well go
up and try to determine if they are breathing to see if they
are still alive. Their breathing would be an indicator. or an evidence of life. Well,
from the whole of Scripture, we know that that must be the
sense of 1 John 1.9. Because it cannot be suggesting
that by confessing your sins, you thereby can procure the blessing
of forgiveness of sins for yourself. Now the sense is this, if you
confess your sins, then you are among those forgiven in Christ. Actually, the immediate context
of 1 John 1 makes that clear. If you go back to verse 7, just
a few verses earlier, it reads, but if we walk in the light as
he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and what? The
blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sins. That's the same thing we're reading
in Ephesians 1, 7. It's through his blood that we
had the forgiveness of sins. It's not through or on the basis
of our confession. And as I have said, sin is against
God and God alone can forgive sin. Some of you will recall
the story in Mark 2 where Christ was preaching in a crowded house
in Capernaum and a man who was sick with palsy was lowered on
a bed by ropes through the roof because that was the only way
they could bring him before Christ due to the crowd. And beginning
in verse 5 of Mark 2, it says, when Jesus saw their faith, He
said unto the sick of the palsy, son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the
scribes sitting there, and the scribes, they were like the scholars
of the word. And they were sitting there and
reasoning in their hearts, why does this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
only? You see, even the scribes knew
the truth, that only God can forgive sins. They just didn't
realize that Jesus was God. So you can confess your sins
before me until you're blue in the face. You can get up and
confess them before this congregation. You can confess your sins before
some official of the church, an ordained minister. You can
even go into a confessional booth designed for that purpose before
a priest, but hear what God's Word said. None of these can
absolve you of your guilt. Only God can and does forgive
sins, and that through His redeeming blood. And then as 1 John 1.9
itself reads, God is faithful and just to forgive these who
confess. So, the sin debt for all who
are saved had to be paid in full by the only payment that could
and did get the job done, if God is to be faithful and just
to forgive sins. And that payment was the shedding
of the precious blood of Christ, the God-man. So, justices had
to be satisfied on their behalf. Jesus Christ, their surety, you
see, has so fully covered the sin debt. so as to completely
discharge the debtor, the justified sinner. Now that's grace. God
does not set aside his faithfulness or justice to forgive sins. No,
it's because he is faithful and just that these who confess already
have been forgiven through his blood. So we see And I know I'm
probably driving this issue into the ground, but it's such a widely
held error, I think it's worth repeating. The confession of
sins you see in the pardon is in no sense the cause of their
pardon. Like me, some of you may have
heard confession defined this way, as agreeing with God concerning
our sin. And that definition seems appropriate
when you consider that all of the saints Chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world, as we read in verse 4 of Ephesians
1, that they should be holy and without blame before Him. All of these we see now who were
in time are also redeemed by His blood, are also in their
respective lifetimes brought into the knowledge of the light
of the gospel. As they're given spiritual life,
they're born again. and drawn to Christ under his
prescribed means, the very gospel of God's grace. We'll see that
confirmed as we move into, I think it's verse 9 of Ephesians 1 there. It speaks of how these chosen,
redeemed, forgiven sinners, it speaks of them having the mystery
of the gospel made known unto them. And you see, thereby, by
that revelation, they discover the necessity and the reality
that it is the blood of Christ alone that cleanseth us from
all sin, as we read in 1 John 1.7. You see, their blood-bought,
Holy Spirit-inspired confession has each and every one of them
all, without fail, eventually agreeing with God concerning
their sin and the truth that nothing but the blood can wash
away my sin. And listen, those so enlightened
have the mercy in Christ their Savior than that fills their
desperate need. The born again believer, see,
who truly confesses his sin is one that the Spirit of God has
convinced of it. Even the sin of the deceivableness
of unrighteousness, you see, of thinking something other than
the righteousness of God could find us accepted before him and
could find us forgiven. You see, they discover it's nothing
that they can do or that they are unable to do. The redeemed
are brought to see that God is just and faithful to forgive
them. And again, who are they? Well, they're those described
in Romans 3 who believe the gospel that it says wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed. The righteousness of Romans 3,
26 declared there, as it puts it, that he might be just and
the justifier of whom? Him which believeth in Jesus. And he's faithful and just to
forgive them. Again, who are they? They're not those who believe
in their believing, in their faith, or believe in their repentance,
or believe in their confession of sins, but they're those which
believeth in Jesus. Now, that means to believe in
his person and that is based upon his doing and dying, the
just satisfaction that he made in full in paying their sin debt
for them as their substitute and their surety. Well, while
we're on this subject, I'd be remiss if I didn't direct your
attention, I think, to just the wonder and the glory of forgiveness,
the completeness of it, the totality of it, the eternality of it for
each and every one of these for whom Christ died. First of all,
not one of their sins is left unforgiven. As we just read in
1 John 1.7, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us
from what? All sin. That means all of their
sin was put away by Christ. You see, our original sin in
Adam is our federal head and representative put away. their
past sins, their sins before they ever even heard this gospel
of God's grace in their lifetime, their present sins, even the
faults in our minds now that would distract us, that our abiding
presence of sin that continually inflicts us. And listen, those
sins that they've yet to even commit It includes our sins of
commission, the sins we knowingly commit. It includes our sins
of omission, the things we should do but we fail to do. You see,
it includes those that we are keenly aware of and are ashamed
of. It also includes those that we
fail to even recognize due to our remaining sin nature. And
He's forgiven all of those sins long before these saints ever
come to confess them, before we ever even come to see our
need for God's mercy and grace in Christ and for the forgiveness
of sins through His blood. And then secondly, the forgiveness
of sins is eternal. The pardons shall never be repealed. God the Father has given these
objects this to his objects of what? Everlasting love. It's the eternal God. And it's in accordance with the
everlasting covenant of grace that's made with his co-eternal,
co-equal son. Sins, you see, that are forgiven,
they are always forgiven. Hebrews 8.12 says, for I will
be merciful to their unrighteousness their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more." Let me just point you to a couple
of verses. They speak pretty much for themselves
that deal with how completely and totally and eternally God
has forgiven the sins of those for whom Christ died. Psalm 103.12
says, as far as the east is from the west, So far hath he removed
our transgressions from us. You've heard that described,
I'm sure, before, where if you were standing on the equator
and you head due east and go all the way around the world,
you're still heading east. You never change directions.
Well, that's how far away he has taken our sins away from
us. That's not true north and south.
If you go north when you get to North Pole and kind of go
over the top, so to speak, you're heading south. North and south
are pretty close right there, you see. But we're talking, they're
completely put away from us as far as the East is from the West.
Isaiah 38, 17 says, Behold, for peace I had great bitterness,
but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of
corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. And then Isaiah 1, 18 says, Come
now, let us reason together, saith the Lord, Though your sins
be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be
red like crimson, they shall be as wool. See, we see here
the degree or the awfulness of our sins has no bearing on the
completeness of forgiveness. Though red like crimson, they
shall be as wool. Well, in closing, look back now
at verse 7, where we read again, starting with the end of verse
6, accepted in the beloved Christ in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace." And again, I want to direct, as I did in the previous
message, to that last phrase, according to the riches of his
grace. In that message, I touched on the truth that's clear here,
that these blessings are clearly according to grace, and so they're
not according to works. As Romans 11 teaches us, these
two cannot mix. Today, as we close, I want us
to consider that the redemption and the forgiveness of sin is
not just according to grace, but according to the riches of
His grace. God's grace, see, toward the
objects of His everlasting love is beyond any limitation we might
presume to impose upon it. You know, if a rich man were
to go and start distributing gifts to the poor and the needy
of the world, no matter how wealthy, at some point he'd have to think
about how to ration those. before he ran out, but the riches
of God's grace are as infinite as God. They're infinite as His
love and His mercy. Remember, it was the shedding
of His infinitely valuable blood of Christ that procured these
blessings of redemption and forgiveness of sins. So this well, see, never
shall run dry, no matter how often you may have sinned or
how awful your sins may have been. As Romans 5 20 puts it,
but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Think of
the riches of his abounding grace. And then finally, I'll direct
your attention to the chief design behind God's forgiveness of sins.
And it's simple because we know it's the same as God's chief
design in all things. And that is, and that includes
in the salvation of sinners and their forgiveness of sins. And
that's his own glory. The scripture declares that God
is glorified in the believing sinner's heart when that sinner
beholds Him as He is. He's both a just God and a Savior
who's faithful and just to forgive their sins through Christ's blood
which was shed for the remission or payment due unto all their
sins. As God said through the prophet
Isaiah in Isaiah 43, 25, I even I am he that blotteth out thy
transgressions, and look what it says, for mine own sake, and
will not remember thy sins. You see, that reminds us it really
is all about God, who alone is to receive all glory and honor
and praise. And so it is in the case of salvation. of redeemed sinners who are completely
and eternally forgiven according to the riches of His grace.