Good morning, everyone. Good
to see you here. Today is the second in a series
of messages that I began a few weeks back on what it means to
be blessed in Christ. And to refresh your memory, this
series is an exposition of what I consider to be one long sentence
found in Ephesians 1, verses 3 through 14. And in this one
sentence, Paul sets forth the multifaceted blessings of salvation
by God's sovereign grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And
as I stated previously, as we move through this passage, we'll
see how it is the triune God, the one Jehovah God, acting in
three co-equal, co-eternal persons. That is, God the Father, God
the Son, God the Holy Spirit, all acting in perfect unison
in accordance with their one undivided essence of deity. to achieve the one God's design
and purpose in the salvation of His people. Now, this morning
we're going to focus on just one verse. I described that entire
passage as one long and loaded sentence, and I think you'll
find this morning that likewise this verse is loaded. For it
too is full and rich with the wonderful news of Christ's accomplished
work, whereby sinners are redeemed and forgiven. In fact, that verse
is so loaded that I plan to bring two messages from this one verse,
and the first one today will be dealing with the subject of
redemption, and then the subsequent message on the forgiveness of
sin. So today we're going to explore what those eternally
blessed saints, as they were described back in verses three
through six, those described as chosen, predestinated, and
accepted all in Christ, What they also have in Christ by virtue
of His shed blood, specifically redemption and the forgiveness
of sins. This morning we're going to focus
on redemption through His blood, as I've so titled the message,
as we study this one verse, verse 7 of Ephesians 1. Now, by way
of review, those of you who heard the first message that was titled,
Eternally Blessed in Christ, you'll recall that the letter
here is written to the saints, or the sanctified ones. That
is, those set apart in every age or generation and in every
place, set apart by God the Father in Christ. And as such, the wonderful
blessings described by Paul in this passage, see, belongs to
every one of them, but it belongs exclusively to them. And so,
to set the context, let's look again at a few of the verses
that lead up to verse In verse 3, 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. That's kind of the banner verse
of this series, blessed in Christ. And you're going to see as we
continue that all of the blessings that accompany this one great
eternal salvation of God's sheep is brought out in this entire
sentence. They are all in Christ. You probably will get tired of
me emphasizing that, but that's key to this entire series. In verses 4 through 6, 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. So, again, you'll recall, we
see that Paul here is ascribing to God the Father three manifestations
of His grace and love toward these saints, and having first
chosen them in Christ, verse 4, predestinated them to the
adoption of children by Christ, in verse 5, and then accepted
them in Christ to the praise of the glory of His grace, verse
6. And as I had mentioned before, through verse 6 now, Paul's yet
to speak. of any external operations of
God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit, but rather
He's spoken of God the Father's view of His chosen, predestinated,
and accepted children in Christ. So, again, I want you to see
that the work of the one God in three persons, the Godhead,
the work of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, if it's correctly
understood, it can't be said at odds with one another. for
it's altogether the work of one unified God in purpose and design
that ensures that the one Jehovah God in all three persons will
be glorified and that the second person of the Trinity, God the
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, shall receive all the preeminence in
the salvation of his children. For all of these blessings, remember
now, are said to be in Christ. So these to whom Paul writes
are favored and eternally blessed by God the Father in Christ. And now as we reach verse 7,
we're going to see the actual work, the external operation,
so to speak, of the God-man, God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
a work He accomplished in time in the room and in the stead
of these saints. as their substitute, and that
on the cross of Calvary about 2,000 years ago. So as we reach
verse 7 to capture the flow of the sense again, remember from
verses 5 and 6 it spoke of God having predestinated these chosen
saints unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. It said in verse
6, to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath
made us accepted in the Beloved, the Beloved being the Lord Jesus
Christ. In whom, verse 7, we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. And
let's begin our consideration with this opening of verse 7,
in whom. It's clear as we couple verse
6 with verse 7 that this, which this verse says all true believers
have now, redemption and forgiveness of sins, is in the Beloved. in Christ. It struck me in my
study that it doesn't read here that we, speaking of all the
saints to whom this epistle was addressed, it doesn't say we
have redemption and forgiveness of sins by Christ, but it says
in Christ. And I don't think that's an accident
of translation. I'm sure my thoughts on this
stem from the natural and prevalent view of most of so-called Christianity,
how they look at what they call the redemptive work of Christ.
But just look at this. As we've studied that passage,
remember in verse 3 it said we were blessed in Christ. In verse
4, it said we were chosen in Him, meaning Christ. Now, when
we get to verse 5, it does say that we were predestinated unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, not in Christ in that
case, but again in verse 6, made accepted in the Beloved, meaning
Christ. And now here when we get to verse
7, it's in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins,
in Christ. My thoughts on that were this,
that we know Christ did not shed his blood to merely make redemption
and forgiveness possible. See, redemption's not something
that's just made possible by way of Christ's shed blood, as
if it were just some general amnesty that then something remained
to be done to apply. It's not that that shed blood
just met some sort of prerequisite condition or that it just paved
the way, opened a door, so to speak, for sinners to then procure
or complete their own redemption, or to appropriate it. I guess
perhaps a more subtle version of that would be they could appropriate,
do something to apply to themselves this redemption price that Christ
has paid. The entire language of this passage,
it speaks of being in Christ. And that means made one with
Him according to the Father's own good pleasure and will. Now
what that means is what He did, He did for these people. These
chosen, predestinated to be children, accepted saints as their surety. Now surety is the one that says,
I'll take on that debt. I'll take on their obligation.
as their substitute. And what that means is not one
drop of His blood was shed for any who are not redeemed. The redeemed have always have
been and always shall be accepted in Him, in Christ, their surety,
their substitute, their Savior, their Redeemer. You see, based
on God's never-changing view of them in Christ, God's immutable.
He can't change. If He could change, He'd have
to get better or worse. That wouldn't be God. He's viewed
them, He has always viewed them in Christ, having imputed or
charged to their accounts the merits of His work of redemption. It's in Him they have redemption,
as 1 Corinthians 1.30 puts it. But of Him, God the Father, are
ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness."
He is made our righteousness and sanctification. There I believe
he's speaking of not only being set apart but holy as we read,
chosen in him to be holy and without blame. And look, and
redemption. That according as it is written,
he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. You see, only for
these who were graciously put in Him, chosen, predestinated
to adoption as children, and accepted in Him is He made unto
them to be their redemption. And if it's any other way, think
about it, the sinner would then have room to glory in himself. Because you see, if it's any
other way, then there's something remaining to be done by or in
or through that sinner. that would distinguish them.
And I don't mean just merely give evidence. I'm speaking of
being the determining cause of saved or lost, destined to heaven
or hell. Well, that's not God's way of
salvation by grace, for grace speaks of unmerited favor and
the recipient of the grace. So at the beginning of verse
7 here, we see that we have these blessings of redemption and forgiveness
of sins They're in a person. They're in the Beloved. It says,
in whom. And what a whom. What a glorious
person. This morning I want us to review
just some basic things that necessarily must be true of this glorious
person in order for redemption to have taken place. You see,
in order for Christ to be a suitable, successful substitute who could
and has redeemed, he had to be first sinless humanity. See,
he had to be made like unto us, human, in order to be our substitute,
to stand in our place. And yet, he had to be unlike
us without sin. And secondly, he had to be one
who was both God and man. Christ in his incarnation, that
is, as he walked here on this earth, he took into union with
his deity, being God, humanity. That means he took on the same
flesh and blood as the children for whom he died. The scripture
says, I mean, he grew in stature, he hungered, he thirsted, he
wept. He was like us in all ways, the
scripture says, except without sin. His humanity then was unique
only in that it was a sinless humanity. See, he was conceived
by God the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. So that's
not an insignificant factor for it took that for this one to
be a Redeemer. So his blood, you remember when
the angel came to Mary and spoke to her of the Christ child she
would birth? The angel referred to the baby
in the womb as that holy thing. Well, the blood of that holy
thing, it was not tainted with sin, see, as is ours. And that's critical to his being
a suitable substitute. That's critical to his being
qualified to pay the redemption price. It had to be the blood
of an innocent person. There's a great emphasis on that
now throughout all the Scriptures. And it begins with those Old
Testament sacrifices under the Old Covenant of the innocent,
unblemished lambs, typifying the unblemished Lamb of God who
would take away the sins for which He offered Himself from
among the world, every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
The Scriptures further assert, and I'll just mention a few,
but there's There's a lot of this if you want to search it,
but it speaks of how He the just died for the unjust. It says
that He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us and we could
go on. We take note of the innocence
or the necessity of the innocence of the one whose blood payment
was required in 1 Peter 1 when it speaks how The saints are
not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold,
but it goes on and in verse 19 says, these are redeemed with
the precious blood of Christ. And there it is, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot. Elsewhere it says, he offered
himself up without spot. You see, if he'd been contaminated
with our sin or with the sins of these saints, as if he, in
other words, if he inherently took on sin so that he had sinful
thoughts as we did. He could not have been a redeemer
from sin and his blood would have been insufficient to pay
the price of redemption. See, the Savior died for, to
use the scriptural term, imputed sin. That means it was sin that
was put upon Him. The very guilt or demerit of
it was placed upon Him. counted to him. He died for sin,
then he had no part in producing, and it was sin that neither infected
his person nor contaminated him, but he truly had to bear it away,
for he died for imputed sin. And likewise, the scripture,
that great exchange, says that all those for whom he dies, they
have a righteousness by like manner. They don't become righteous
inherently within themselves. It's not an infused thing. Their
righteousness resides at the right hand of the Father, you
see, for it was the merit of His work imputed or accounted
unto them. What a great exchange. That's
grace. Well, not only that, it could
not be the blood of a mere creature either. It had to be one that
was both God and man. See, it took the infinitely valuable
blood of the God-man. I know you're familiar with our
former pastor used to say it this way. He'd say he offered
up the sacrifice of his humanity at the altar of his deity. The altar, you remember in the
Old Covenant, it was what made the offering, the sacrifice,
special, set it apart so that it wasn't just some random killing
of an animal. Well, his deity is what sets
apart the offering of His humanity. It took the blood of this unique
person who is both God and man. Acts 20, 28 speaks of that when
it refers to the Church of God, which He, God, hath purchased
with His, God's, own blood. God can't die, but this One who
is God died. It's speaking of the blood of
God, God who is Christ. The greatness, you see, I hope
you can just enter in and ponder these things. It's almost beyond
words to describe, but the greatness of the redemption here is magnified
by the greatness of the Redeemer. And now with that in mind, we
get some idea of the immensity of these blessings. by the immensity
of the nature of the One who alone could and did establish
redemption, God and man in one person. If you think of what
His blood could buy, given its infinite value, then rejoice
if you're among the redeemed, you see, for what riches await
those in heaven's glory? Well, as verse 7 progresses,
we see that in Christ we have redemption and the forgiveness
of sins. And he's speaking here of this
vast work of redemption and the connected forgiveness of sins
as a thing possessed. We have redemption and forgiveness. We, those chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world, we don't do a thing to redeem
ourselves. The saints were put in Christ
who would and did in time redeem them. You know, when Christ said
on the cross, cross it is finished. You know, Daniel chapter 9, it
said He'd come and He'd finish the transgression, make an end
to sin. When He said it was finished,
it really was. Then and there. That's where
redemption took place. And yet, I want you to consider
with me today the vastness of redemption. You see, because
the dimensions of its impact, they span all time and all eternity. As verse 4 taught us in the previous
message, from before the foundation of the world, the saints were
chosen in Christ to be holy and without blame before God. How? How can they who would fall in
Adam so as to come into this world as spiritually dead sinners? Scripture describes them as children
of wrath by nature, even as others. How can they be so accounted
holy from eternity past? Well, it's only by their redemption
that Christ would work out in time at the cross. And that's
mind-boggling. But we worship an eternal God.
And let's make no mistake, these saints, they do nothing to become
redeemed. They have redemption. And not
only that, they have the forgiveness of sin. But this morning we're
going to just consider the first of these two related blessings,
redemption. The Greek word that's used here
for redemption is one that means deliverance. It speaks of the
release or the deliverance by the full payment of a ransom
price. It's borrowed from an ancient
well-known custom of buying off or redeeming or buying back,
you see, what is pledged by one man to another by way of security. Well, that's what our Savior
did in the everlasting covenant of grace when he said, I'll be
their surety. He said, I'll be the security. It'll be my blood. I'll buy them back. Those objects
of God's everlasting love chosen in him from before time. So one
anyway could say to be redeemed when he, to redeem something,
excuse me, when he buys it out or he pays it off. And that's
the case for those who have redemption in Christ. They're bought out
of the hands of God's own strict and inflexible justice so that
he can achieve his great design in all things, which is his glory.
That he could be glorified, revealed as he is, worshipped as he is.
that is consistent with all of his attributes of God, including
the fact that he is both a just God and a merciful Savior. As Moses, when Moses said, show
me your glory, he said, I'll by no means clear the guilty.
I won't just look the other way. Justice must be served. And then
in the next sentence he says, but I'll also show mercy to thousands. You see, these saints were accepted
in Christ from all eternity, and this by the virtue of the
necessary, the God-purposed, and therefore certain redemption
that took place in time, the buying back before the justice
of God of His own adopted children who were chosen to be holy and
without blame before Him, this so that they could be viewed
as such, consistent with the just character of God. all that
based on the redemptive work of Christ at the cross, they
have in the merits of his satisfaction to justice by his obedience unto
death, his righteousness as it's called, imputed or accounted
unto them. In my study of this, I became
truly more appreciative of what a vast subject redemption is.
And I think it's so because it actually includes everything
in relation to the person, the work, and the offices of the
Son of God that He engaged in this world to save sinners. And when taking into union with
His deity of humanity so as to redeem God's elect out of the
fallen human race by His shed blood and righteousness. You
know, Paul said, I determine not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Well, when we preach Christ crucified,
we're preaching redemption. And as such, we can and we should
spend a lifetime on that subject, but given the breadth of it,
and this being the opening day of the NFL season, I'll only
deal with a few thoughts that pertain, that were impressed
upon me in this, my study of this very large subject, and
it's a glorious subject. But if you leave with nothing
else today, I want you to hear this, that first and foremost,
I want you to consider that redemption most definitely speaks of a price
or a ransom being paid, and that in full. Christ himself referred
to it as a ransom in Matthew 20, 28 when he said, even as
the Son of Man came, and he goes on there as you see, He came
and he finishes his sentence to give his life a ransom for
many. Many of you have heard me and
others before me put it this way, that redemption is not an
attempt made, it is a price paid. And listen, it speaks of a price
paid in full. Redemption is not some down payment. It's not just a payment. No,
redemption means there's no balance remaining due whatsoever. Something's
not redeemed until it's paid off in full. It's a price that's
paid to God. whose justice is offended. You
see, for it's God's law that is broken. It's God against whom
all sins are committed. So this isn't God paying off
Satan to save these people. No, this is a payment demanded
to the very justice of God. The God, as I just mentioned,
who will not clear the guilty, not at the expense of His justice.
This must be satisfied. In Revelations 5 and 9, Christ
is said to redeem men In that one little phrase we see, unto
God by His blood. And so we see that the redemption
price is His shed blood and simply it is paid unto God. And we know that it was sufficient.
It paid the dead in full because Christ came out of that grave.
It's often mentioned from Acts 17. It seems like I can't hardly
mention that without going there. But it proves that God's justice
was fully satisfied. He said, I'm going to judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom He raised from the grave. You see, for righteousness demands
life. His death, His shed blood fully
satisfied God's justice by that very everlasting righteousness
that the Lord of glory rendered A righteousness that demands
everlasting life for every single one for whom it was rendered.
In Galatians 3, verse 13, it reveals to us just from what
God's sheep were redeemed or delivered as it pertains to this
payment to the justice of God. As it teaches that Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for
us. God's law, God being holy, it
demands perfect obedience. And since, as the Scripture makes
clear, all men, we've all sinned and come short. Well, that means
that based on the very best efforts of the very best of men, the
law curses them, for it can only condemn them. Now, if you consider
Galatians 3.13, along with 2 Corinthians 5.21 that tells us that Christ
who knew no sin was made to be sin for us. I think it should
cause our sense to be heightened of the magnificence of the redemption. Seeing that we, the adopted children
of God seeing what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here we
have the impeccable Christ described in God's Word as holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens.
That God in the flesh made sin for a people. and, or as it is
put here in Galatians 3, made a curse. Now with that, consider
the ransom price. Consider what it cost to deliver
us from the curse of the law. He, the God-man, humbled himself
and came to this earth to be made a curse. That means he bore
the equivalent suffering of hell, and listen, and more. You see,
for unlike those who perish in hell, his suffering redeemed. You see, it paid the debt off.
No amount of suffering of mere humanity. That's why hell is
everlasting banishment from God's presence, you see. It'll never
pay the debt due, but his did, for he came out of the grave,
and he suffered that for a multitude of lawbreakers. And he did it
by paying a price that is infinitely beyond all concept of value. The ransom price of redemption
for the penalty due unto the sins of his people. And that
price being his precious blood. So then the law, it can have
no further demands on those he redeemed from the curse of the
law. It demands perfect obedience. that none could render other
than the God-man, and he redeemed them by not only perfectly obeying
their father's revealed will as their substitute, but as their
surety. You see, he was doing this as
a substitute for sinners, so he then had to bear before the
justice of God the penalty due unto their sins. Well, that means
the prison doors are open, you see. The redeemed, they must
go free. With that, you know, I pray as
God has done with many of you and with me, that by the power
of His Spirit, using God's means under the preaching of this very
gospel, that as He graciously did for us, He'll shut the mouths
of other sinners who hear this message, sinners who dared as
we, many of us once did, to imagine that Christ came and we thought
he paid a debt to sin before even the justice of God, some
I know, but we thought he did that for all men without exception,
that he shed his infinitely valuable blood. We read Galatians 3.13,
made a curse for them and at the same time imagined that many
of those for whom he died, even most of them, would go on to
perish in hell anyway. And the Scripture is clear, you
know, most indeed will perish in hell. Christ said it in the
Sermon on the Mount, broad is the way that leadeth to destruction
and many there be that go in there yet. But know this, any
who persist, for any who persist on that broad road that leads
to destruction, Christ did not redeem them. He did not redeem
any who will eternally perish. Now Christ said to the fathers,
recorded in John 6, He said, all you've given to me, they're
going to come to me. And later he says, and I'll not
lose one of them. I'll raise them up. Who are they?
Those chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
With that, think what low opinion I, and sadly many even today,
what I once held of the redemptive work of Christ to consider that
even one for whom his precious blood was shed could possibly
perish. Listen, it doesn't matter what
we called it. That's not redemption. He redeemed all of those for
whom He died, and they shall live with Him forever in heaven's
glory." Because He bought them. He bought them with His blood.
First Corinthians 6.20 puts it, For ye are bought with a price. Now that's redemption. Dare any
suggest that the price of His precious blood was insufficient
for even one for whom it was shed? And it is just that. It's His precious blood that
is precisely the price of redemption. That's clear in our text in Ephesians
1-7 where we see that we have redemption through His blood. Earlier when I was describing
the one in whom we have redemption, in whom, Christ, I went into
detail there about His person. and how it took the blood of
this person, the blood of the God-man to redeem. So I'm not
gonna visit that any further today, but before we leave this
vast subject of redemption, I want you to briefly consider that
it is through the redeeming work of Christ that the saints always
had and shall always have all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. You see, we the redeemed had
those blessings in Christ long before we knew anything about
them, even before we existed. And I want us to consider just
one glorious but connected blessing as it's so described in Romans
3. For there we see that sinners
are justified. Declared not guilty. Sinners
not guilty before God through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. In Romans 3, as it proceeds,
it comes to a point where it's speaking of a righteousness that
is without the law. That means without man's obedience
to the law. In other words, it's speaking
of a righteousness that satisfies, that's delivered in perfect and
full satisfaction to the law, so it's one that a sinner, by
definition, has no part in producing. And with that, we pick up in
verse 22, where it's elaborating on this righteousness, saying,
even the righteousness of God which is by faith, and I believe
that is faithfulness of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all
them that believe. That is, you see, by God's means,
it's preached. All who believe, it's going to
be preached unto them. This gospel, Paul said, wherein
the righteousness of God is revealed. And it's going to be upon them.
It's going to be, it has to have been counted to them, imputed
to them. And why must that be? Well, there's
no difference among them, see, as verse 22 tells us. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. And look at verse 24, being justified,
declared not guilty freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. Now consider how all These blessings
in Christ are tied together in our one great salvation by grace,
based upon the glorious person and redemptive work of Christ
in that alone. Now if you believe Romans 3.24
there, then it's speaking of all who are justified. They're
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. That means Abraham, along with
all of the Old Testament saints were justified through the redemption
of the promised Messiah. who had not even arrived on the
scene, but he was the one in whom they were chosen, predestinated
to be adopted as children by, and accepted in from all eternity. Well, likewise, all sinners who
are saved, they are justified, declared not guilty, viewed from
all eternity as holy and without blame in Christ through the redemptive
work that Christ accomplished in time. All of these objects
of God's everlasting love were justified through or on the basis
of His redeeming blood, which He shed for them at the cross
of Calvary. And notice it says there in verse
24, it's freely by His grace. So it's not a man's merit, but
of God's free grace. Look, even faith, subjective
faith, our believing by which the scripture says the righteousness
of God in Christ is revealed, so that we can enter into the
blessings that the saints have in Christ. That faith itself,
it has nothing of merit to recommend them. Now we know that from the
context, therefore there's no difference among men. They've
all sinned and come short of the glory of God. It's not what
they are then in themselves or what they do in themselves. It's
what they are in Christ, based on what He has done for them,
that makes them the recipients of divine favor. And so likewise,
as objects of God's mercy and grace, they are redeemed freely
by His grace, and on that basis, justified freely by His grace
before God. In closing, let's look back at
verse 7, reading it again from the beginning of verse 6. in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace." Now, as I've mentioned in the next sermon on this series,
I'll deal more with the forgiveness of sins as it's connected here
with redemption. But for now, I want to direct
your attention to the truth that we have redemption and forgiveness
according to the riches of his grace. And I'll elaborate on
that further in the next message given our limitation of time
today. Just know this, all who have redemption, they have it
according to His grace. That means there's nothing any
sinner can do to merit or procure his or her own redemption. Only
those who were chosen, predestinated to be children, accepted saints
in Christ, have redemption and forgiveness of sins. And listen,
I know when I first heard that, it bothered me, and you've heard
it over and over again this morning. And I hope it does bother you,
for it's the best thing that ever happened to have been so
bothered and brought to see the truth here. Because you see,
to deny that it's this way is to deny that it's according to
grace. 2 Timothy 1.9 makes that clear
as it speaks of Christ who hath saved us and called us with an
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His
own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. So clearly Only these so eternally
blessed in Christ have redemption and forgiveness of sins." And
when that first registers, I can certainly speak from firsthand
experiences, I can still remember this, we all, or most of us anyway,
naturally think, what good does that do me? I can't do anything
to be included among those. Ephesians 1, if that's truly
God's Word and it means what it clearly says, then either
I have redemption or I don't. Well, think with me. As you'll
see as we go through this series, as this long and loaded sentence
progresses, We're going to see the third person of the Trinity's
involvement in the blessings that we have in Christ, for it's
God the Holy Spirit, you see, who in time reveals this gospel
to all of these redeemed, forgiven saints. And in so doing, they
discover this is something they experience in time. They find
out they're in desperate need of the mercy and grace that is
in Christ Jesus. They discover, as they're convinced
of their sin before the holiness of God, that nothing else will
do. So their pleas reduce to that
of the publican in that parable of the publican and the Pharisee.
God, be merciful to me, a sinner. You see, to be among the blessed
in Christ is to, at some point in time, have the revelation
of faith that causes one to see the necessity of having this
redemption through His shed blood for me as payments for my sins. And any who come to Christ, as
all are commanded to do, you see, they do just that. They
plea His blood, His righteousness. It's their only hope, but it's
a certain hope, you see. for all of their salvation. Christ
said this with respect to Him, I mentioned it earlier, but in
John 6, 37, He said, All that the Father giveth Me shall come
to Me. These chosen in Him before the
world, they're going to come to Him. And Him that cometh to
Me, I will in no wise cast out. You come to this Christ, to this
Redeemer. He says, God can't lie. He says, I will not cast
you out. You see, we know that's true
and it's not a conflicting truth. Because any who come to this
Redeemer, they do so because their coming, their faith. It's
among those blood-bought blessings of God in Christ the Beloved,
in whom they have redemption. Through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of His grace. You've heard this before and
you've heard it from me and others, but I'll share this example with
you again. Our natural response to these
things is likened to a man who's starving to death and suddenly,
graciously, a plate of food is set in front of him. Now, if
he's truly dying of hunger, I mean, he's about to die. He's not going
to spend time trying to figure out, is that food intended for
me or not? How do I know if I was among
those so chosen to receive this meal? No, this is what he knows. He knows I'm starving to death
and that plate of food fits my desperate need. So what does
he do? He eats. He chows down. Well,
does Christ's work of redemption fit your desperate need? If it does, eat. Dig in. You see, what a glorious
thing to be made so hungry. You see, for the redeemed are
among those that Christ described in the Sermon on the Mountain,
Matthew 5-6, when he said, Blessed are they which do hunger and
thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Well, Psalm 107-1 says, O give
thanks unto the Lord, for he is good. For His mercy endureth
forever. And then when it gets to verse
2, it says, Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Redeemed,
how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Why
don't you lead us in that hymn as we close.