But I want to begin reading in
the book of Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 1. This is where
we've come to in our study on this precious epistle of the
great apostle Paul. Ephesians chapter 1 and beginning
in verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to
the faithful in Christ Jesus, Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed 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,
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ 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, in
whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of His grace. Now, you and I
have been talking, and the Apostle has been teaching us in this
epistle, the works of the Father, what the Father has done. We
saw that there beginning in verse 3 and verse 4 and verse 5, that
the Father has chosen us in Christ. Election is attributed to God
the Father. that the Father has predestinated
us into the adoption of children. The Father has accepted us in
Christ. He's bestowed all these blessings
upon us in Christ. And now this morning we come
here in verse 7 to the work of the Son, in whom we have redemption
through His blood. This is the work of the Son of
God. And then we will continue on the Lord's Will next week,
and we'll see here in verse 9, He begins to tell us of the work
of the Spirit. It was the Father's work, it
was the Father's choice to choose a great host of salvation. It's
the Son's work to redeem them. And now He says in verse 9, it's
the Spirit's work to make these things known to us. Who is it
that teaches us? Who is it that opens our understanding? It's the Spirit of the Lord. And then he proceeds on to tell
us more about this in this chapter. But what he tells us in this
chapter and shows us is that salvation is of a triune God. Salvation is of God the Father,
salvation is of God the Son, and salvation is of God the Holy
Spirit. We call that, in the theological
realms, the Trinity. All of us know what that means.
It means that there's one God, and He's manifested in the Trinity
of His sacred person. We have a salvation that's of
a triune God. And I was reading an article
in our paper just the other day, and one man, he's a religious
fellow there, He wrote an article in the paper and he said there
are some Christians who do not believe in the Trinity. In other
words, there are some Christians who do not believe in a trial
in God. And there are some Christians
who profess to believe that. And they believe all sorts of
things. They have what we sometimes refer to as a dual God. That is, they believe that God
the Father and God the Holy Spirit are one. But they put Christ
in some category apart from God the Father and God the Spirit. And sometimes it goes like this.
They say, well, God is everlasting. But sometime around the creation
of the world or just before, God created His Son. or God begot His Son, and then
God created everything else by His Son. But they do not believe
that Jesus Christ is essentially God the Son, that He is really
and eternally God. In other words, what they do
by that is they deny the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
deny that He is really and actually God. And yet if they do not believe
in the deity of Jesus Christ, now listen to this and see if
this isn't so. If a man does not believe, if a person does
not believe that Jesus Christ is really and truly God, if he's
wrong about that, then it doesn't matter what else he believes
concerning Christ. If he's wrong about the person
of Christ, then he's wrong about the work of Christ. Let me explain
it to you this way. If a man says that Jesus Christ
is a mere creature, that he's not really God, and he proceeds
to go on and say, but I believe that he was virgin born, I believe
that he lived without sin. I believe that he actually died
for our sins, that he rose again and ascended back to heaven.
Well, if Jesus Christ is not essentially and really God, then
what he did does not matter. What you believe about his work
does not matter. Because if we're wrong about
his person, what he did doesn't matter. And to go further than
that, what He did becomes essential and important and successful
because of who He is. We first must be right on who
He is, and then we'll be right on His work. We've said this
so often. We've said this so often. We
must not begin with what Jesus Christ has done upon the cross.
And sometimes when we hear that, our conscience checks ourselves.
But still, I say that. We must not begin with the work
of Jesus Christ, but we must begin with the person of Jesus
Christ. Because if we're wrong about
His person, what does it matter what He's doing? We must go to
His person. And who is He? Who is He? Well, the Scripture tells us
here in verse 6 that He is the Beloved. Who is the Redeemer? He's the Beloved. Well, who is
the Beloved? The Redeemer. Is He really God? Is He really God the Son? Is He really the Second Person
of this Sacred Trinity? Is He the Everlasting God? Okay,
let me take this scripture because this is so important. And I thought
as I was studying on this, turn your Bible over to the book of
Isaiah. Turn over to your left, all the
way over in the Old Testament. And as I was studying this last
week, I thought to myself, why begin with redemption until we
find out who the Redeemer is? Once we find out who the Redeemer
is, then we can look at redemption. Let's look first of all, then,
in whom? Who is this One in whom we have
redemption? Okay, look at Isaiah chapter
41. I love this book of Isaiah. And I love the way the Holy Spirit
writes this book by this man, because he begins with a word
And you can see where he begins, and he just graduates. He makes
a statement about this person, and then the next place you make
it, he adds to what he says. And the next place he adds more
to what he says about this glorious person. And here are some places
that he speaks about our Redeemer. And look how he describes the
Redeemer. Look here in Isaiah chapter 41,
and look here in verse 14. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and
ye men of Israel, I will help thee, saith Jehovah." When you
see those words capitalized, that's Jehovah, the self-existent,
eternal God. I will help thee, saith Jehovah,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Who is the Redeemer? He's Jehovah, the self-existent,
the Eternal One. The Eternal One. Okay, look at
this then. Look in Isaiah chapter 44 and
verse 24. Notice what else he says. Isaiah
chapter 44 and verse 24. Our Redeemer is Jehovah. The Eternal God. And look in
verse 24 of Isaiah 44. Thus saith the Jehovah, the Lord,
thy Redeemer. And look at this. And He that
farmed thee from the womb, I am Jehovah, the Eternal God, self-existent
One, that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens
alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself. Who is the
Redeemer? He's the Creator of all things
that spread out the heaven as a tent for us to dwell in and
hung the earth upon nothing. The Redeemer is the Creator. That's who He is. Look in another
place. Look in Isaiah chapter 48 and verse 17. Look in verse
17. Isaiah chapter 48 and verse 17. Thus saith Jehovah thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, I am Jehovah thy God, which teacheth
thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou oughtest
to go." Who is our Redeemer? He's the Holy One. Now when He says the Holy One,
He means I'm the only one that's holy. That's all it means. You don't have to go to the dictionary
to find that, do you? I'm the Holy One. A bridge, what about
the holy angels? They're creatures. Yes, they're
holy, but they were created holy. There's only one who is the Creator
who's eternally holy, essentially holy, holy everlasting, and that's
God, Jehovah. And who is He? He's the Redeemer. He's the Redeemer. Look here
in another place. Look here in chapter 49 and verse
26. Look at this. Chapter 49, verse
26. I will feed them that oppress
thee with their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their
own blood, as with sweet wine. And all flesh shall know that
I the Lord am thy Savior, and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One
of Jacob." Who is the Redeemer? Well, he says here, thy Savior,
the Mighty One. That's pretty plain, isn't it? Look over in another place. Look
in Isaiah chapter 54. Just two more Scriptures. You
know, if we want to know who the Redeemer is, where do we
go to to find that? We don't have to go to man's
opinions. We go to the Holy Scriptures. When we want to know who the
Redeemer is, He identifies Himself, and here He is doing that. Just
two more Scriptures, and then we'll go back to our text. Look
in chapter 54, and look here in verse 5. For thy Maker is
thine Husband, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of a great number is
His name, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, The God of
the whole earth shall He be called. When you and I think of our Redeemer
this morning, the One who came to this world and redeemed us,
what do we call Him? We call Him the God of the whole
earth. And as Thomas looked upon Him
and beheld those scars in His hands and the hole in His side,
and said, My Lord and my God, you and I do the same. Who is
Jesus? I love to say this. Brother Todd
Nyberg said this a long time ago, and you love this too, don't
you? I love to say, Jesus Christ is God. That's what we call Him. Who is your Redeemer? He's God. And look here in verse 7. For
a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies
will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee, saith Jehovah thy Redeemer." Jehovah is thy
Redeemer. And this is the last one. You're
in chapter 60, but it says so much. Look here. Isaiah chapter
60 and verse 16. Look at this. Is there such a thing, as this
man said in that newspaper article, that there are Christians who
do not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ? Is there Christians who believe
that? No, sir. No, sir. You say, Bruce, can
you prove that from scriptures? Yes, sir. And this verse right
here does. If all of these other verses
Hasn't proved that to us. This scripture right here will
prove that everyone who is truly a Christian knows in his heart
of hearts that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, He is God the
Son, the Redeemer. Now look at this verse 16, Isaiah
chapter 16. Thou shalt suck the milk of the
Gentiles, and thou shalt suck the breast of kings, and thou
shalt know," and that word means to discern or to recognize, to
understand, that I, Jehovah, am thy Savior and thy Redeemer,
the Mighty One of Jacob. You shall know thy Redeemer is
Jehovah. He's God. Now, that man said, there are
many Christians, there are Christians who do not believe in the deity,
the Godhead of Jesus Christ. Who says there are Christians
that believe that? Well, they profess to be Christians. Oh,
they profess to be Christians. Well, let me tell you something,
brothers and sisters. You are looking this morning
upon the most handsome man in all of this world. I'm six foot
two, got a full head of black hair, and I'm the handsomest
man anybody's ever seen. If you don't believe that, just
ask me, and I'll tell you. And I'm the best husband in all
of this world, and a great American, and a good citizen. And if you
don't believe it, just ask me, and I'll tell you. If you and I want to know what
a Christian is, don't go ask somebody. You can ask people
if they're Christians, that's fine. That's fine. If you want
to get a little book and take a survey of this neighborhood
and find out who professes Christianity and who does not, that's fine.
I've got nothing wrong with that. Ask people if they're Christian,
but if you want to know what one is, you've got to go to the
Bible. And what does the Bible say a
Christian is? A Christian is a man who professes
with his mouth that Jesus Christ is Jehovah, his Redeemer. And if he's a Christian in truth,
he believes that in his heart. That's what a Christian is. Now
let's go back over. Since we found out who the Redeemer
is, now let's go back over and look at redemption. Okay? Look back over in our text this
morning. In Genesis, in this book of Ephesians chapter 1,
you remember when our Lord was born, and He was eight days old,
and they took Him up to the temple. And they circumcised Him. They
called His name Jesus. And there was an old lady that
lived there in the temple, an old widow. Her husband had died,
and she served the Lord day and night with fasting and prayer.
And she took that little baby, and she looked at him, and the
Lord revealed to her who that child was. And the Scripture
says that she spake of him to all that look for redemption
in Israel. So if you and I are interested
this morning in redemption, we need to look to Him. We need
to find out who He is, the Redeemer. And look here who the Scripture
says He is. Look here who He says He is.
In verse 6, look at this. I just want to remind you of
this. I don't want to say anything about it yet, but look here.
In verse 6, to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein
He hath made us accepted in the beloved. The Beloved. I want you to hold that thought
now just a minute, because we're going to talk about Him in just
a few minutes. The Beloved. But I want to remind you quickly
of four things I said a couple of weeks ago about redemption.
This is very important about redemption. We covered this,
but let me remind you right quickly. Four things about redemption.
First of all, redemption means somebody has fallen on hard times. In the Old Testament, when somebody
had got in debt, They had to sell their tools. They had to
sell their horses and their wagons. And finally, they had to sell
their farms. And then finally, they stole
themselves in the bondage. And then the only way they could
get out of bondage is for somebody to pay their ransom. Whatever
they owed in debt, someone had to pay their creditors before
they could be freed from that bondage. That was called the
ransom price. And then when the ransom price
was paid, then that person was delivered from bondage. And then,
fourthly, as best they could, they restored to that individual
what he had lost and had to sell himself into bondage. And when
Paul says here in verse 7, in whom we have redemption through
his blood, he is reminding these believers here that there was
a time when they were in bondage. If you've had to have been redeemed,
then that implies that you were captive. You were in bondage. You were in prison. And what
kind of prison were these people in? Well, in chapter 2, verse
1, he tells them here that they were in the prison of death and
sin. Oh, what an awful prison to be
in. You were dead in trespasses and
sins. And the devil guarded them. Now,
the redemption price wasn't paid to the devil. They weren't his.
But he was their guard. He kept them bound in those chains. He beat them and led them around
in darkness. And on down here in verses 11
and verse 12, he also told them that they were without God and
without hope and without Christ in the world, that they were
strangers from the covenants of promise and aliens from God. And you know what he's telling
them there? Not only were you in this awful prison house of
sin and death, but you didn't care. You were far from God,
but you didn't even care. You were enemies of God in your
mind by wicked works. That's where you were, in this
prison house. And you didn't even care. But
now he says this. Listen. Listen, he says. You
dear elect souls, you dear chosen of God, listen to this. Long
before you had your being, you had a Redeemer. And while you
lay down there in your prison house, bound in trespasses and
sins, the ransom price for your release had already been paid.
Oh, what good news when they heard that. When they finally
were awakened to realize that they were indeed in bondage,
and then the message came, the trumpet was sounded that your
ransom price has already been paid and already been accepted.
And who paid this price for them? Well, Paul says here, the Beloved. The Beloved. Oh, I love that
name. You know, I never call Him that,
and I doubt you ever called Jesus Christ the Beloved. We call Him
precious. We call Him wonderful. We call
Him Savior and Lord and so many names. But have you ever went
to Him and addressed Him as your Beloved? It seems like that's
a name almost reserved for the Father. It's the Father that
always calls Him the Beloved. And it shows the love the Father
has in His heart for Him. It shows how near and dear He
is to the heart of the Father. Let me remind you of these places
where the Father called him this. You remember when John was baptizing
our Master there in the river of Jordan, and he came up out
of the water, and there was a voice that spake from heaven, and it
was the Father. And He said, This is My beloved
Son, My beloved Son, My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And then in Matthew chapter 12,
when the Lord had got a great group of people together and
He healed all of them, He said this very same thing, Behold
My servant whom I have chosen, My beloved in whom My soul delighteth. My beloved. And then when He
took Peter and James and John up to the Mount of Transfiguration,
and a cloud overshadowed them, and the garments of Christ began
to shine, and His face began to glow, And a voice spake out
of this cloud, this is my beloved son. It seemed the Father couldn't
be quiet. He just kept telling the world,
this is my beloved. I delight in Him. My heart, my
soul is bound up in my beloved. And then John chapter 1 and verse
18, we're told that Jesus the Son of God is in the bosom of
the Father. And what does that mean? except
to show his nearness to God's affection. God loves him so. God loves him dearly. And that's
why we're told in 1 John chapter 4 in verse 9 and 10, in this
was manifested the love of God to us because God sent His only
begotten. Son into this world, that we
might live through Him. Here in His love, not that we
loved God, He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. The Beloved of God, the dearly
beloved, the well-beloved. You remember the parable the
Lord Jesus taught us about that vineyard when He said there was
a man that had a vineyard? And he put a fence around about
it, and put a wine press in it, and he lent it out to these husbandmen
to take care of it. And when it come time for him
to receive the fruits, he was in a far country and he sent
for these fruits, and he sent his servants. But these husbandmen
took his servants, and they beat one of them. And he sent another
servant, and they shamefully treated him. He sent another,
and they stoned him and cast him out of the vineyard. And
the last one, the lord of that vineyard says, what will I do
now? And you remember what he says? I know what I'll do. I
have one son, he said. He's my well-beloved. I'll send
him. Surely they will reverence Him,
and He sent Him. And what happened? Well, they
took Him, shamefully entreated Him, cast Him out of the vineyard,
and slew Him. But who was He? The Lord Jesus
said, the well-beloved of His Father. You and I cannot think
upon redemption and forgiveness of sins without thinking upon
the Redeemer, who He is. And who is He? He's the beloved
of the Father. It's as though the Father said
to Him 2,000 years ago, My Son, I'm going to unbosom you. You're
in My bosom. And I'm going to unbosom you.
And I'm going to send you to redeem My chosen people. You're going to be the Redeemer.
And finally, there He hangs on the cross in His suffering, in
His agony, And He's humbled Himself even to the death of that cross. He's mocked by His own creatures.
Those who loved Him have forsaken Him. And He cries out, My God,
My God, why have You forsaken Me? And there He hangs in His
agony and in His pain and blood. And brothers and sisters, don't
forget who that is. That's the Beloved. That's the
Beloved of the Father. And don't you think He loved
His Father as well as the Father loved Him? When the Father said,
Go and redeem my left, you remember what He says? I delight to do
thy will. And now He hangs there upon the
cross. He could have said, Father, I can't bear the loss of Your
face. I love You. Take me now. Deliver me now.
Take me back to your bosom." If He had said that, none of
us would have been redeemed. We would have died in our debt.
We would have died prisoners. We would have died in our misery
and lost forever. But that's not what He did. He
delighted to do His Father's will, and He gave up His life
unto death. But don't ever forget who that
was and who He is. He's the Beloved, the Beloved
of His Father. How concerned the Father in Heaven
must have been about His elect. How mindful He must have been
of their perishing state to send such a One to be their Redeemer.
One that was so dear to Him, so precious to Him. His beloved
Son. His only begotten. You know what? When you and I
begin to think about this, we should never doubt God's love
for us again. I don't know what you may be
going through, dear child of God. You may not understand it
yourself. And you may be under the awful
chastening hand of your Father in Heaven. But don't judge Him
by things like that. Don't look at God's providence
and judge Him by His providence. Look to your Father and see His
great love for you by sending His only Son. and judge His providence
in that light. And don't ever doubt His love
for you again. How could we doubt it? He spurred
not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us. And who was He that He delivered
up? His Beloved. Who is our Redeemer? He is the
Beloved of God. He is one with God. He is the
eternal Son of God. That's the Redeemer. That's the
Redeemer. What's the ransom price? He tells
us here in verse 7. In whom we have redemption for
our sins. In whom we have redemption. Look
at this. Through His blood. That's the price paid for our
debt that we owe. His blood. Now I want you to
notice this. This is very important. I want
you to notice how careful The Spirit is when He uses these
words. Let us, when we read Scriptures, brothers and sisters, read words.
And don't think that these words are just threw in here to fill
up space. When the Holy Spirit writes these
words, He puts them just like He wants them. And He uses the
very words that is proper and right. And notice how He says
this, "...in whom we have redemption through His blood, Why didn't
he say, in whom we have redemption through His death? Why didn't he say that? You say,
Bruce, isn't that the same? Technically, it's not. And this
is not split in hairs, but listen to this. In the Old Testament,
when someone had sinned, they brought an animal to atone for
that sin. God required a sacrifice. But
you know, the death of that victim wasn't enough. What did God require? He required the blood of that
victim. It was the blood of Jesus Christ
that God required for our sins payment, not just His death. Listen to Leviticus 17, verse
11. The life of the flesh is in the blood And I have given it to you upon
the altar to make an atonement for your souls. For it is the
blood, not just death, but it's the blood that maketh an atonement
for the soul. And without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission for sins. There's no atonement. There's
no forgiveness. This is why, when you and I read
the New Testament, the blood of Jesus Christ is spoken of
throughout. Listen to this. This is my body,
this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the
remission of their sin. Not by the blood of bulls and
goats, but by His own blood He entered in Watson to the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us through blood. And Peter says you're not redeemed
with corruptible things as silver and gold, but by the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's not just the death of
Christ. That's not the payment. But it's the blood of Christ
at His death which atone for our sins. This is why it's said
that Christ made peace through the blood of His cross. And this
is why it said that you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by
the blood of Christ. And that we have boldness to
enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus Christ. It's the blood
of Christ that remitted our sins. We've got to remember that. We
need to remember that. Christ's blood was the price
owed to God to remit our sins and that price being paid Justice
requires that all of those for whom that price was gave be released. They have to be released. Now,
why is this so important that we're talking about this blood
this morning? Well, we've heard a lot of people
in our day talk about the death of Christ. And they talk about
the death of Christ this way. That it's just a greater statement
of God's love for us. God tells us He loves us in so
many ways. But the greatest way that He
tells us is when we see His Son upon the cross. And if we could
just believe the love of God, then we could have forgiveness.
If we could just believe in the love of God, that God loves us
so much, then we could have forgiveness. But brothers and sisters, here's
the point that I'm trying to make this morning. Redemption
and forgiveness is not in the love of God. It's not the love
of God that's the cause of our forgiveness or our redemption. It's the blood of Christ. It's
the blood of Christ. If I asked you this morning if
God had forgiven you all your sins, and you said, yes, He has,
then I asked you on what basis? And you said, because He loves
me. Because God is so good. But that's not the basis upon
which God can forgive sins, or does forgive sins, but the blood
of Christ, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins. You remember the night that God
spoke to Moses? Four days. He said, four days,
and I'm going to come through the land of Egypt, and my judgment
is going to fall upon all the firstborn. and they're going
to die. I'm going to slay all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt." And he said, you take a lamb, you make
sure he's without spot and without blemish, and you kill him, you
cut his throat, and you catch his blood, and you put it upon
the doorpost and upon the lintels of the door, you put it around
the door, and you get in that house where the blood is, and
you'll be safe. And you remember what he said
that night? It said when God saw His love,
He passed over them. And brothers and sisters, I say
this with all reverence, with all reverence. It wasn't when
God saw His goodness that He passed over them. But it's when
God saw the blood that He passed over them. It's the blood of
Christ. that accomplished redemption,
that atoned for our sins. Not the love of God. It was the
love of God that sent the Redeemer. It was the blood of the Redeemer
that remits sins. And without the shedding of blood,
there is no forgiveness of sins. And when God forgives us our
sins, that's why. That's why. And if I asked you
this morning, who is your faith? In regard to this whole thing
of forgiveness of sin, where's your faith? You say, well, it's
in the love of God. That's good. It's in the goodness
of God. It's in the mercy of God. But do you stop there? Is your faith in the blood of
Christ? Do you understand and know that it's the blood that
atoned for your sin? In whom we have redemption through
His blood. Sin has been punished. That's
what he said. The debt that we owe to God,
the debt we owe to justice for sin, has been paid. And what
was it? Oh, not just Christ expiring
upon the tree, but Christ pouring out His blood upon that tree.
That's what atones for sin. And then he says here, and I'll
close with this, in the last part of verse 7, in whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace." That's wonderful. Now, since
sin has been suffered for, since the dead has been paid, what
comes next? Now the forgiveness of sins.
We talk about some things God cannot do, and you know God cannot
forgive sins. without first that price being
paid. If we went down here and someone
had committed an awful crime and that person stood before
the judge and the judge said, I'm just going to have mercy
upon you and let you go while the community would be in uproar.
That's not right. That's not right. Justice, sin
has to be punished. A crime has to be paid for. Now
sin has been punished. Through the blood of Christ.
Now what do we have? Forgiveness of sins. We have forgiveness of sins on
a good ground. Justice is satisfied as well
as mercy. Sin has been punished. Now God
can forgive all our sins. Past sins, present sins, and
future sins. They're all forgiven. All your
sins are forgiven. And what does it mean for God
to forgive sins? What does that mean? Listen to
these Scriptures and you'll say, oh, those are wonderful. Thank
you for reminding me of those. Listen to this. Remember the
scapegoat? When God forgives sins, here's
what happens. Dear child of God, as He forgave
you your sins, right here is what it means to be forgiven
of your sins. Remember the scapegoat and the ceremonial law. Aaron
took all the sins of the children of Israel, and he put them on
the head of that scapegoat. He transferred them from the
children of Israel to that goat, and then they took a fit man,
and he put a little collar on that goat, and he led him way
out in the wilderness where nobody ever inhabited. And they left
him there with those sins on him. And that simply means that's
where the sin is. It's in the land where nobody
ever goes to, nobody ever inhabits. And secondly, you remember Psalms
103, as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed
our transgressions from us. And Jeremiah 1.34, I will forgive
their iniquities, I will remember their sins no more. I've sinned against some of you
and I've apologized to some of you and you've apologized to
me. But you can't forget it and I can't either. I don't ever
bring it up, but sometimes it comes up in my mind. We can't
help it. But it's not so with our God.
I will never remember your sin again. Why? It's gone. It's been
punished. The blood of Jesus Christ. Listen
to Isaiah 44, 22. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud thy transgression, and as a cloud by sin return unto
me, for I have redeemed thee. Blotted it out. What does that
mean? That means it's gone. In Micah 7, verse 19, listen
to this. He will turn again. He will have
compassion upon us. He will subdue all our iniquities
and cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. I bet you there's one thing.
Mankind will never do. He's went to the moon. He probably
has really went there. And he's gone to all these planets,
taken photographs, but I bet you one thing he'll never be
able to do. I bet he'll never be able to go to the depths of
the sea. You know, they still can't get down. They can't hardly
go down very far at all. Pressure. They'll probably never
get down there. To the depths of the sea. That's
where the Lord said our sins were. In the depths of the sea.
Isaiah 38, 17. Behold, for peace I had great
bitterness. But thou hast, in love to my
soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption. Thou hast cast
all my sins behind thy back." God's got a place where He can't
see sins behind His back. Jeremiah chapter 15, verse 20.
In those days and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none. and
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, for I will pardon
none elect. I will pardon those whom I reserve,
saith the Lord." Ain't that wonderful? You may
be here this morning, and I hope you are. You may be here this
morning, and suddenly you begin to think that you almost send
yourself into hell. And if you're here and you're
lost this morning, I hope you think that about yourself. I
hope God really shows you how awful and black your sin is.
And that you begin to think, I think I've almost sinned myself
into hell. I may perish forever. But if you're here this morning
and that's your case, I've got some good news for you. This
is the gospel. Believe it. You believe it and you'll find
this, your sin's already been punished. And while you thought
for sure that you was going to perish and suffer all eternity
for your own sin, while you were thinking that, the ransom's already
been paid. Believe it. Believe Him. I never
thought I'd hear the day Brother Don Fortner would say that God
offers sinners a free salvation. But He does on His terms. on His terms. If you'll hear
the message that I preached to you this morning, then you have
redemption through His blood. You have redemption through His
blood. You have forgiveness of sin.
And that's what Don said, if you will now heed God's offer. Don't go out of here this morning
and say, well, I don't know if I'm one of His elect or not. And
if I'm not, I can't come. Heed His offer. You say, Bruce,
is He offering me salvation? Well, if He isn't offering it
to you, I don't know who He's offering it to. I don't know who I've been
preaching to. Heed His offer and bow your heart
to the Redeemer and believe Him. Believe Him. If you've never
believed Him before, believe Him this morning and your sins
are gone. Your sins are forgiven. And God
Himself will be a merciful Father to you. But if you don't believe
this message, I don't care what else you do. I don't care what
else you accomplish in this life. You'll die and you'll suffer
in hell for all eternity. You'll be like some of those
Jews that got themselves in debt, and their near kinsman wasn't
able or willing to redeem them, and they died in captivity. They
died in their misery. But if you'll believe this message,
you'll accept God's free offer of salvation on His terms, you're
forgiven, and God is your Father. May God help us all to do it.