Now if you'll take your Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1. We looked at the author of this
letter. And I don't even know if we talked
about that, but these are what we call epistles. It says the
epistle of Paul. The word means letter. It was
a letter that Paul had written to this particular church. But
these letters being preserved of God are letters to the church
in general. And so we consider them as individuals
when we look at the problems and so on that's contained in
there like we do in the book of Galatians and so on. But the
truths that are taught there are truths in general to his
church. And we've looked at the author
of this epistle. The man called of God to be an
apostle said he was caught up to the third heaven where he
was taught of Christ personally, given the message of Christ,
and was indeed a witness of his resurrected glory. And he also
was approved of God by miracles and wonders and signs. We've
got every reason to believe the witness of these men because
God confirmed them. by these miracles and wonders
and signs, and they weren't just wonders and miracles that men
can fake like they do today. We've got so-called faith healers,
and they always heal things that it's impossible to tell if they
really healed them or they didn't. These people were, he raised
the dead. He cleansed lepers. He did things,
these were wonders in science, supernatural things. He was bitten
by a very poisonous viper out on this island. And lots of the
old historians like to speculate on what kind of snake that was.
But whatever it was, it was deadly because the people who lived
there, who knew what that viper was, Kept looking at Paul to
watch him fall out. They knew it was just going to
be a matter of hours and he was going to die. This wasn't like
getting bit with a copperhead and dying three or four days
later. He was going to die in a matter of hours. And they just
kept watching him and he didn't even swell up. He just shook
it off in the fire and kept going. There's no doubt that these men
were of God. And then we looked at how God
considers His church. He writes here in this first
epistle, and Paul talks about our relationship to Him as our
God and Father. Our God and Father. There is
a sense in which He is the God and Father of all men, being
creator of all men. He is their Father in that sense.
But we're not talking about creation here. What we're talking about
here is salvation. We're talking here about redemption.
We're talking here about sonship, being predestinated unto the
adoption of sons. And so in this respect, He is
our God and Father. He's our spiritual Father. He's our God and Father. And
He's our God and Father as He is the God and Father of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the church. All of God's dealings
with His church is through His Son. He first chose the Son and
then chose us in Him. That's how He lists these things
here in the book of Ephesians. And the way of this relationship
is through the appointment of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
All of God's dealings is through Him. And He tells us here in
Ephesians 1, 3, of this purpose of fatherly blessing which is
inclusive of all spiritual blessings that are all purposed, given
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And beginning with verse
4, he begins to give some account of these heavenly blessings in
general. He tells us first of all that
we're chosen in him before the foundation of the world. God
chose his church. chose out a people. Bypassed the angels and
chose men. Bypassed the world and just chose
some out of the world. Bypassed the religious and chose
sinners. All the way through the Old Testament
he keeps showing us pictures and refining this thing in particular,
showing us how his church is a people in particular and a
people altogether owing to the grace of God and his eternal
election of them in Christ. And then he speaks to us in verse
5, tells us, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
And this predestination has to do with God's eternal counsels
and decrees to make us sons and heirs with Christ. And it takes
in all of creation. It takes in all of God's providence. What's going on in the world?
Same thing that's always been going on. God gathering to himself
his people. That's what's going on. That's
what's going on when there's wars. That's what's going on
when there is no wars. That's what's going on. That's
what's been going on since the day Adam was made and put on
this earth. God has a people and he's calling
them out, calling them out. This takes in everything. This
takes in all of the means and all of the circumstances. God's
sons will be treated as sons and shown a special goodness
and grace in all things. Grace before grace. Go back over,
believers, go back over your life and look at the grace of
God. Why did He save you and kill
this one? Why did this one die and you
was allowed to live? Why did this one go through this
or that circumstance and was destroyed and you weren't? Why? Why? All the way through, why?
Because grace was before grace before grace. Because His sons
are treated in a particular and peculiar way. And they have the
special goodness and grace of God in all things. He tells us
over in Romans 8, 28, He said, and we know. Believers know this. They're taught this. They come
to see this as a part of their own experience. That all things
work together. All things work together for
their good to them who are the called to them who love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did
foreknow, He also did predestinate. That's why these things work
that way. And this relationship of sons
and heirs with Christ, this eternal election, this predestination
of God, when you look at it in the Scriptures, is according
to the good pleasure of His will. That's the only reason you can
ever find about it. This is God's sovereign, gracious,
good pleasure. That's how you find it set forth
in all of the Scriptures. It pleased God to do it. Pleased
God. There's no other reason for it.
No other reason for it. And it's to the praise, He said,
of the glory of His grace. So upon this basis, he says,
this basis of this relationship between us and God, on the basis
of this predestination and this eternal election in Christ, on
the basis of this representation, he said, we are accepted in the
blood. Now, I've been made to accept
things in the past that I didn't really like. But I was forced
to accept them. Haven't you? That's not what
this is talking about. This is not talking about God
accepting something that He didn't want to. Not talking about something
forced on Him. But we're accepted as sons. That's
what Paul said. We're accepted as heirs. Accepted
as holy. Accepted as without blame. Eternally
accepted. Eternally blessed. That's what
Paul's setting forth here to us, is these eternal blessings
whereby our Father blessed us. He said, blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us already, past
tense, with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
Now, this morning I want us to look at this thing of being accepted. And I want us to look at it here
in verse 7. This follows close on the heels
of verse 6 where he's talking about being accepted in the blood. And he says here in verse 7,
in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of his grace. So the lesson this
morning is redemption. Redemption is an Old Testament
term that supposes captivity and slavery and bondage because
of debts that could not be paid. A person in that time sold themselves
into bondage to pay the debt. They had no and had what we call
welfare in our day. And we're talking about great
debts here. We're not talking about Owen 50 cents. We're talking
about great debts. Naomi was forced to leave that
land because of great debts. And when she come back to that
land, all of those things that she lost because of that curse
of God on that land, all of those things that she forfeited for
those things had to be redeemed, had to be bought back. And they
were bought back in her daughter Ruth. So it's an Old Testament
term. It has to do with these things.
And it has to do with buying. It has to do with restoration.
And it has to do with being bought out of bondage. Redemption, as
it's revealed in the New Testament, has to do with sinners who sold
themselves into slavery by a debt of sin that they cannot pay. That's where redemption comes
in. In Romans chapter 7 in verse 14, Paul said, we know that the
law is spiritual. We understand that now. That's
why he said when the law came, sin was revived and I died. He
understood what that law was. It was spiritual. It judged his
thoughts. It judged his motives. It judged
his affections. It's not enough to do a thing.
I've got to love God and do that thing. With love in my heart
for God, I've got to do that thing. out of love for Him. I've got to be motivated by the
glory of God completely when I do these things. The law is
spiritual. It discerns the thoughts and
intents of the heart. That's why no man is righteous
inside of God and no man is justified inside of God by the law. All
the law can do to you who are sinners is reveal your sin. That's
all it can do. If you had proper motives, if
you had the ability to keep these things in heart as Christ did,
then the law would justify you as it justified him. But we can't
do that. We can't do that. And that's
what Paul says here. He said, we know that the law
is spiritual. It demands right thoughts and
right motives and right affections. It demands perfect spiritual
understanding and obedience. We know that the law is spiritual.
But he said, I'm carnal, sold under sin. Sold. I'm carnal, cursed in the fall,
cursed in my nature, cursed in my thoughts and desires. I'm
sold under sin. I'm the servant of it. I'm biased
by it. Everything I do is biased by
sin. And in Romans 8, verse 18, Paul
said, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. Not in there. Not in there. Redemption cannot come from doing
good because there's none good. Redemption cannot come from being
righteous because there's none righteous. Redemption cannot
come by argument because there's none that understandeth. And
redemption cannot come by decisions because there's none that seeketh
after God. Redemption cannot come from man because he's the
object of redemption. It is man that's redeemed. God
doesn't redeem himself. He redeems sinners. He redeems
us who needs redeeming. Man is in bondage to sin. Sin
entered the world by one man and spiritual death. physical
death, eternal death, all the results of the sin. And that
death passed upon all men, as in Adam all die. And left to
ourselves, we serve sin. We're in bondage also to the
law. The law demands from us what we cannot produce. As sinners,
we cannot keep the law. We can do the best we can do,
but that's not good enough with God. In Romans chapter 3, where
he talks about this, he says this. He goes down through this
long list and describes our nature. He tells us that our ways are
corrupted, that there's none righteous, none good. The poison
of the asp is under our lips. He describes man and his nature.
And he said, for all have sinned, now watch this, and come short
of the glory of God. It's not that some of us don't
appear good. You can always find somebody
out here to compare yourself with and make yourself look good.
But compare yourself with Him. In Acts chapter 17 in Paul's
address on Mars Hill to those Greek philosophers, he said,
God hath appointed a day in which He'll judge this world in righteousness
by that man whom He hath That man, that's the, here's the plumb
line. That's what the Old Testament
called the plumb line talking about Christ. He's going to judge
the world in righteousness by that man. So we don't compare
ourselves with one another, we compare ourselves with Him and
we find ourselves coming short of the glory of God. justice of God. I'm in bondage
to the justice of God. It demands payment for a broken
law, and everything I do and say and think is a breach of
it. Even my righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And we're in
bondage to the God of this world without a hedge of God being
built around us. That's what Satan came, the sons
of God came to present themselves before the Lord. That's what
we've done here this morning, come here to worship Him. And
Satan came with Him. He always does. He always does. And the Lord said to Satan, have
you considered My servant Job? You considered him? He's upright,
man. Yeah, but He said, you build
a hedge about him. Oh, I hope He builds a hedge about me and
keeps it there, don't you? God built a hedge about us. Otherwise, we're fair game for
the prince of the power of the air. He takes us captive at His
will, those who are not hedged about. He deceives and satisfies
every natural man with whatever his sinful heart desires. He'll
satisfy you with false religion. He'll satisfy you with a bar.
He'll satisfy you with a woman. He'll satisfy you with money.
He'll satisfy you with whatever it is your evil heart desires.
He don't care. You think he cares if you're
religious or not? He don't care. Only thing he
cares about is himself. And he don't want you to come
to Christ. And He'll do everything in His power. He is the original
Antichrist, Satan. And in order for any kind of
intervention, there must be a redemption. God demands just picture yourself
empty, totally empty of everything. And then picture God. He's all
fullness, fullness of grace and mercy and love and kindness and
righteousness and justice. And everything's in Him and nothing
in us. Everything in us is totally opposite
to Him. Totally opposite. God cannot
receive the sinner apart from redemption. There has to be a
redemption. In Christ, in whom we are chosen
and predestinated of God to be sons, we have, Paul said, redemption. That was inclusive in those everlasting
blessings of the Father where He chose us in Christ. He says,
in this eternal one, in whom we're chosen, in whom we have
redemption. Now very quickly, let me try
to give you five things about this redemption. First of all,
Christ is the author of redemption. And let me, I know that God in
his trinity is the author of it in that respect, in one respect. But what I'm talking about here
this morning is how this redemption is revealed, how it's manifested. And in that sense, He is the
author of it. He is the Word who was with God
and who was God, who was with God in the beginning. He is the
Word through which creation and all of these things came to be
to show God's purpose of redemption. And He is the Word made flesh,
manifested as the God-man whose name is Savior. Turn with me
to Acts chapter 13. Christ is the author of redemption. I'm just picking things here
out of Acts very quickly to show you this. And if you'll turn
with me to Acts 13, and while you're turning, I'm going to
give you this out of the book of Acts. It says, To him give
all the prophets witness, that through his name, whosoever believeth
in him shall receive remission of sins. Now look here in Acts
13, 38. Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man, see that? Not this way, not this plan,
through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe are
justified from all things which you could not be justified by
the law of Moses. You see what I'm saying? Redemption
is in him. It's always been in him. It was
in him when God chose us before the foundation of the world.
It was in him in the promises given to us as early as the fall
of man. It was in him, and all the Old
Testament prophets told us that. I just read the scripture to
you. They spoke of him. And in that sense, he is the
author. He is the author. This one through
whom God speaks in these last days is his son, whom he has
appointed heir of all things, by whom he created all things,
and who being the brightness of his glory and express image
of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power, when he by himself purged our sins, that's redemption,
sat down at the right hand of God. Our redemption is seated. And that's why Paul says, when
we get over here a little bit more, over here in Ephesians
2, he said, we're seated with Him. Accepted in Him. Isn't that what it says there
in verse 6 in Ephesians 1? Accepted in Him, in whom we have
redemption. And then secondly, Christ is
the way of redemption. Ephesians 1, 7, in whom we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin. It is
the blood from the garden to the cross that God sets before
us as the way of redemption. Always the blood. Probably the
clearest place where it is set forth is there in Romans chapter
3 and verse 24, being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth
to be a propitiation. Propitiation is the way of redemption. His way that's in harmony with
His own character, that He can be propitious to pardon and bless
chosen sinners. Propitiation does not procure
or buy God's favor. It simply makes His favor consistent
with His own character. And that's why He says it the
way He does there in Romans, that He might declare His righteousness,
that He might be just and justified. It allows God to be propitious
in to us according to His everlasting and eternal purpose. He can't
compromise His own character to do anything. Romans 3.25,
whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith
in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission
of sins of those both in Old Testament times and presently
in this day. He's the author of redemption. Because of His one great sacrifice
for sins, He is the mediator of the New Testament, that by
means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were
under the First Testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. And He's the way of redemption.
It is as we are considered in the crucified substitute that
our sins and iniquities can be disposed of. No other way. No other way. One time, he said,
in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself. And then thirdly, Christ is the
price of redemption. We're not redeemed, Peter said,
with corruptible things like silver and gold, which years
ago I Henry went down to Mexico to
visit Brother Walter. And he said one of the most interesting
things he'd ever seen was Walter took him out and showed him one
of these Mexican cemeteries out there where those Mayans had
a little space there. And he said it was a very small
cemetery. And he said there's not many of them around. But
he said the interesting thing was, he said, when I walked in
the cemetery over in the corner, there was this huge pile of human
skeletons. And he said, Walter, what's What's
going on? Why are all those skeletons over
there? And he said, they have to rent
the graves. And if they don't pay the bill,
they dig them up, throw them over in the corner. Redemption. You see what I'm saying? Redemption. Here's the price of redemption. We're not redeemed, he said,
with corruptible things like silver and gold. which you practice
in vain tradition received from your fathers, but with the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and spot, who
verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifested in these last times for you, who by him do
believe in God that raised him from the dead and gave him glory,
that your faith and hope might be in God. Redemption. Nothing
else can satisfy the justice and wrath of God. Nothing else
can satisfy the dead. Nothing else can purge a guilty
conscience and cause you to serve God. Blood of Christ. He is the price of redemption.
And then, fourthly, Christ is the end of redemption. He's the
end of it. We're predestinated to be conformed
to the image of His Son. You want to know what the end,
what it is to be restored, what it is in that day. We have no
idea. Paul said, you look at me. He
says it doesn't yet appear what we shall be. But he said, I know
this. When we see him, we'll be like
him. He's the end of redemption. You want to know what the end
of it is? What has he bought with this price? There it sits
at the right hand of God. There it sits. That's the end
of it. See, in the person of our great
Redeemer, God quickened us together and raised us up together by
virtue of His person and work where we sit with Him who obtained
eternal redemption for us. He's the end of redemption. And
then, fifthly, because of this redemption in Christ, we have
all the benefits of redemption. We have joy. We have joy. Joy unspeakable. Joy. We can rejoice as Israel did,
seeing all their enemies swallowed up in the sea. We rejoice as
Israel did, seeing God pass over them. He saw the blood, and He
passed over them. We can rejoice like Israel did,
having the gospel of the Lamb set before them in power and
glory. And we have peace. I'll tell you what a benefit.
What a benefit. I sat home the other night so
sick I couldn't see straight, but I had peace with God. What
a benefit to know I have peace with God. There's no breach between
Him and me. My sins have been put away. I'm
at peace with God. I'm not angry with Him. My sickness didn't make me angry
at God. I was at peace with God. Therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. And freedom. He said, there is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free
from the law of sin and death. I'm free from it. Free from it. I've been redeemed. And I have
rest. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 3 says,
for we which have believed do enter into rest. I can rest in
Christ. God rested in him, didn't he? He knew man was going to fall.
He knew all the pitfalls. He knew all the corruption. He
knew all these things because he'd foreordained those things.
But having made all these things, he looked on them, he saw them
as good, and he blessed them, and he said he'd rest. I believe
that's what he talks about over here in Ephesians 1, when he
gets down here and begins to talk about in whom God first
trusted. I believe that's what he's talking
about, that eternal rest. Ephesians 1, 7, in whom we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, all
sins forgiven, past, present, future, imputed sin, practiced
sin, willful sin, sins of ignorance, but especially the sins of our
righteousness. We're going to get into this
in our study in Exodus. But the high priest of Israel
was given a specific dress. And each part of that dress depicted
some part of this redemption in Christ. And over his forehead
was a golden plate. And on this plate was written,
it was this inscription, holiness unto the Lord. And the reason
given for this inscription back in Exodus is because he was to
bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of
Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts. And it shall be always
upon his forehead that they might be accepted before the Lord,
the holy thing. We're in here this morning to
worship God, to worship God. not on the basis of our willingness,
not on the basis of our perfection of faith, not on the basis of
any of those things, but on the basis of our High Priest who
bore this insignia in His own nature, not just on a golden
plate on His forehead, but in His very heart. Holiness unto
the Lord. And by virtue of that, even the
things that we offer, these imperfect things, He calls them here the
The iniquity of the holy thing is forgiven us before God. Oh, what a redemption. By virtue
of this redemption, all that we are and say and do is acceptable
to God. And all the iniquity of the old
man that still abides in me, that taints and pollutes all
that I do and say is made acceptable to God. In whom we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Now listen. According
to the riches His grace. All by grace, isn't it? God helped
us to see that and rejoice in it and treat it as a thing precious.