In Ephesians chapter 1, and I
want to begin reading here in verse 3 down through verse 7.
This is where we've come to in our study of this wonderful epistle
of Paul the Apostle. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, because He has blessed us. Who hath blessed
us? Only God can bless a man. He
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. 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 unto 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, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of his grace." Now, I've been
preaching for the last few Sundays that I've been here on this subject
of the doctrine of election, God's electing grace. And we
preach on that because we found it here in God's Word. And this
is a subject that the early church understood, and they believed
it, and they loved it, and they rejoiced in it. And you and I
do too, don't we? You know, when I preach on election,
I look out at some of you, and you're nodding your heads because
you love it. You see that it's of God. It's His work. You've not chosen
me, but I've chosen you. And as we've studied this, we've
not only seen the truth of it, but we've seen the absolute necessity
of it. You say, Bruce, what do you mean,
the necessity of election? Well, if God had not have chosen
a great multitude to salvation, then nobody would have been saved.
That's the hope of humanity. Everybody ought to be raising
their hands and say, well, I may not be one of them, but praise
God, thank God in heaven. Everybody is not going to perish
because God has chosen a great host to be saved. And that is what Paul tells us
when he was talking about this very thing in Romans 9. And he
says, if God had not left us a seed, if He had not left us
a remnant, then we'd have all been a Sodom. We'd have all been
made like unto Gomorrah. So it's not only a truth, but
election is necessary. Now I'm not saying, and I've
never said this, that the doctrine of election is necessary for
a man to believe and be saved. I never understood election when
the Lord saved me, and probably some of you didn't either. But
it's necessary to take place We may not believe it because
we don't understand it when the Lord saves us first of all, but
you know the reality of it is necessary. If God did not choose
before the world was a great host, then nobody would be saved. But here's the second reason
I say election is a necessity, and I read it to you here in
verse 3, because all of these blessings of God are in election. It's like a little shell, if
I could say a little shell, it would have to be a big shell,
wouldn't it? It's a safe, a huge safe, and God has put all those
blessings in His electing grace. He's blessed us with all spiritual
blessings according as He chose us to those blessings. There's
no blessing that God gives us now, but what He purposed to
give us back there in eternity. Now, here in verse 4, look in
verse 4 again. Keep your Bibles handy. I want
you to look at some passages of Scripture. We're told of one
of these blessings, and this is what we're going to concentrate
on this morning. We've already looked at God's
election. We spent two or three Sundays
on that. But we want to look today at
one of these blessings. We say God has chosen us. He's
chosen us to what? He has a purpose for His elect. What is the end of that purpose?
What did He choose to do to them and for them? Well, look in verse
4 again. He hath chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. That's what He's chosen them
to. Ain't that a glorious end? Ain't that a wonderful end that
He's chosen the elect to? If we said He's chosen them to
heaven, that would be wonderful. But here He says He chose them
to holiness, to make them holiness. Now listen. Listen to this. And I almost know that you probably
say, I never thought of that before. But let me look at this
and explain this like this. When God first chose His elect,
they were not fallen. If I told you this morning that
God did not choose sinners, you'd probably twist your face up a
little bit because you said, I never heard of that before.
But you know, when God chose to elect, they weren't sinners
then. You say, Bruce, didn't Christ
come to save sinners? Well, sure He did. Sure He did.
But you know, election, when God chose His elect, they weren't
sinners then. Remember that passage in Romans
9 where he said the children being not yet born and having
done no good or evil that the purpose of God according to the
election might stand? So he chose Jacob before Jacob
had a being, before he was actually a sinner. And since God chose
his elect before the foundation of the world, he chose them before
they fell. And He chose them to this end
that He would bring them back from their fall and restore them
to all that they lost in the fall. When God made Adam and
Eve, He made them holy. He made them upright. They were
so good. They come right straight from
the hand of the Creator. But sin entered. And when sin
entered, they fell, and not only did they fall, but all the human
race fell in them. All the elect of God and all
of those non-elect. Everybody fell in Him. Listen
to these Scriptures, very familiar to some of you. In Romans 5,
verse 12, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin, so death passed upon all men. Everybody fell in Adam. See, the elect were not kept
from the fall. God had chosen them, but that
didn't keep them from the fall. They fell too. When Adam sinned
and disobeyed God, he became a sinner. But you and I became
a sinner too. The elect, yes, the elect too. And this is why we say that men
are sinners, not just because of what we've actually done,
and God knows we've done enough. God knows we've thought enough.
God knows we've said enough. But you know our sin goes deeper
than that. We were born sinners. We're sinners
by our very nature. Brother Glenn told us that this
morning in our Sunday school class. Listen to what David said
about that. The wicked are estranged from
the wound. They go astray as soon as they
be born. Speaking lies. But you say, Bruce,
that's what he said about the wicked. Well, listen to what
David said about himself. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me." Now that's what David said
about himself. Holy David. He said, when I was
born, I was born just like the wicked. I was born in sin. Was the nonelect born in sin? Yes, they were. Did the elect
fall just like everybody else? Yes, they did. Look at Ephesians
2 with me for just a minute. Paul wants to make this so clear
because there's a reason for this. Just on in this same book
in the second chapter, look here in verses 2 and verse 3. Look
what he says. He makes this so clear. He wants
us to know. He was writing here to these
Ephesian believers and he was telling them of the election,
but he didn't want them to think that God chose them because they
were better than somebody else. He wants to emphasize to them,
you were just like everybody else. You were fallen too. Look
what he says in verse 2. In time past you walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power thereof, the spirit that now works in the children of
disobedience. among whom also we all had our
manner of living, our conversation. In time past, in the lust of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and look at this, and were by nature the children of wrath,
even as others. The elect are not saved because
they were different. The elect are saved finally because
God chose them to salvation. That's why they're saved. They're
no different. Are you surprised this morning when you look at
this world and you see it wandering aimlessly in sin, following the
God of this world? We're not surprised at that.
We're broken-hearted about it, but we're not surprised because
this world has fallen. It's a fallen world. It's dead
in trespasses and sin. But listen to this, long before
sin entered this human race and slew mankind and exposed them
to the awful wrath of God, God had already chosen a great multitude
to this end. I'm going to bring them back
and I'm going to make them holy. Now that's wonderful, isn't it?
That's what election is all about. It says, I've chosen this great
multitude out of mankind, and I'm going to bring them back
to myself and make them holy. Now here's what election don't
tell us. It don't tell us how God's going to do that. And here's
where the gospel comes in. Here's where the gospel comes
in. And that's why I read to you here in verse 7, "...in whom
we have redemption through His blood." Redemption through His
blood. There's three things about redemption
I want to talk to you right quickly about. And the first one is this. Here's the thing about redemption.
We want to know how God makes men holy? It's through redemption. It's through redemption. There's
three things I want to show you about redemption. First of all
is this. It's paying one's debt. It's the payment of one's debt. Redemption from his creditors. Whatever a poor man owes, if
you're going to redeem him, you've got to pay his debt. And number
two, it's actually deliverance from the one he was indebted
to. And then thirdly, it's restoring that man to what he's lost. Now, that's three things I want
to show you. First, turn back over to your
left, back over to the book of Galatians. Look back over to
the book of Galatians chapter 4. And here it is. Look in chapter
4. And look in verse 4. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth His Son. Now you know what I saw as I
read that? That God has a purpose. God has a purpose. Why didn't
he send Christ as soon as Adam fell? That's when I would have
sent him. I would have said, my son, it's
time for you to go because sin has entered the world. You've
got to go down right now. But God didn't do that. He waited
4,000 years. And those men, those elect of
God in the Old Testament, they kept looking, saying, He's coming,
He's coming. And the world was perishing.
Men were perishing. Hell had enlarged itself. So
many men were perishing. And they kept saying, He's coming.
He's coming. And finally, in God's time, God
sent His Son. God sent His Son. Now what else
does this tell us? Not only has God got a purpose,
but it tells us that Jesus Christ did not have His beginning there
in the manger. God sent Him. Where was He? He was in heaven. He was with
His Father. And He was there with the Father
from all eternity. He's the everlasting Son of God. And how did He get here? Well,
look what He said. He sent Him forth, sent His Son
forth, made of a woman. That's how He got into this world.
This is an amazing thing to me that the everlasting Son of God
could be conceived in the womb of a virgin and be nourished
by her and be born of this woman. She cleaned him up, washed the
blood off of him, and hung him on her breast and began to nourish
him. And he grew up and increased
in strength, increased in wisdom, and yet this same man, Jesus
of Nazareth, the Son of Mary, was the everlasting Son of God.
That's amazing, ain't it? And Paul said he was the son
of God. And God sent him to this world, born of a woman, made
of a woman, and look at this. Look in verse 5. Look in the
last portion of verse 4. Made under the law. Made under the law. Now why was
this necessary? Jesus Christ was subject. to
the law. That means he had to fulfill
it. He had to, every command, he kept it. Every requirement,
loving God with all your heart, he did it. Loving his neighbors
himself, he did it. He never omitted anything the
law commanded to be done, and he never sinned against any commandment.
And you know, if he failed to do that, you know what that meant. He'd be punished by the law.
He not only met its obligations, but if not, if he failed, then
he would come under its penalty. But you know he couldn't fail.
Why? Because he's the Son of God.
He can't fail. He's the Son of God. In his conception,
in his birth, and in his life, He was holy. He knew no sin,
he did no sin, and no guile was in his mouth, and he kept the
whole law of God. In his motives, in his thoughts,
in his words, in his actions, he kept the whole law of God.
He said, Father, your law is in my heart. I love it. I've
honored it. I've magnified it. And God looked
upon him and said, Oh, you're my son. I'm so well pleased in
you. Why is that so important? He's
never said that about any of us. Jesus Christ was so unique,
even though he was born of a woman, he was not a fallen man. Even
though he was born of a sinful woman, he was not sinful. He
lived among sinners, but he never sinned himself. He was tempted
in all points, yet without sin, in all the days of his life,
he was a holy thing, a holy man. There has never been a man in
this world from Adam on that was not under the law of God
and obligated to keep it. There's never been a man. I can't
look at myself and say, God, you're the exception, Bruce.
God don't require of you to keep His law. He requires that of
everybody. Even Jesus Christ, His Son. He said, My Son, I'm sending
you to earth, and you must keep My law. You must. He is no exception. Why is that? Look in verse 5. Here's why God
sent him. Here's why he was made of a woman.
Here's why he was made under the law and subject to obey it. To redeem them that were under
the law. There's why. To redeem them. All men from Adam on have sinned
against the law and now another man. Not an angel, not a spirit,
but a man, a real man, who was able and willing, had to redeem
the elect of God from the bondage of this law. The Jews, under
their law, if a man had got in trouble, and he got in debt,
and he had to sell his farm equipment, and then he had to sell his farm,
and then he had to sell himself, But if he had somebody, a near
kinsman, that was rich enough and was able and willing, he
could redeem that man. He could redeem him. It's the
same way with redemption of the soul. Somebody has to be able
and somebody has to be willing to redeem God's elect. And who did he send to do it?
Jesus Christ, our Lord. It wasn't difficult for the Lord
Jesus to obey the law. That wasn't the hard part. He
loved the law. He couldn't do anything else
but keep it. Here's the hard part. Suffering is a penalty. That's the hard part. Look here
in Galatians chapter 3. Here's the difficult part. to bear the penalty of the law
after it's been broken. And though the Lord Jesus Christ
never broke it, the elect have broke it. The elect have broke the law,
and now they're under the curse of that law. In Romans 3, verse
19, listen to this, "...whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world become guilty before God." You and I were born under
the law, we lived under the law, and our mouths were stopped and
were guilty before God, and the only way for the elect of God
to be redeemed from that curse and that guilt was for Jesus
Himself to pay the price on their behalf. And what was that price?
What is the price for breaking the law of God? that sin be publicly judged.
That's one of them. That sin be exposed and that
sin be punished. That sin be judged, that it be
exposed and that it be punished by death. And the court of heaven,
the court of justice, will not allow sin to be committed and
then treat it as a trifling thing, as something that's indifferent.
You know why the Day of Judgment is so dreadful? You know what's
so dreadful about the Day of Judgment? Because it's there
God is going to show Himself for who He really is. And He's
going to do it by showing His holiness. He's going to do it
by showing His justice and His displeasure with sin. Even the
secrets of men's hearts are going to be exposed. They're going
to be openly declared. The Lord Jesus said, whatever
men do in their closets, I'm going to proclaim it on the housetop.
Sin will be exposed. It will be shown for the evil
and the blackness that it is. And in the face of God's justice
and holiness, God will send it off into hell. God doesn't like sin. He will
not tolerate it. And here in Galatians 3, verse
13, here is what the Lord Jesus had to endear to redeem His elect
from the curse of the law. Look at it. In Galatians 3, verse
13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." I tell you, I love
this verse. I get so much assurance from
this verse that Christ was made a curse for me on my behalf because
I had broken the law and the law was going to deal with me
this way. The law cursed me. But instead
of cursing me, it comes here and says to the Lord Jesus, I'm
going to curse you instead. Ain't that assurance? Ain't that
assurance? He was judged, he was found guilty,
and he was cursed. Jesus Christ, on the behalf of
His people, has borne the penalty of the law. That's the debt. That's the debt. That's the debt. You and I have sinned against
the law of God. We're guilty. And the law says
he's cursed. He must be damned. And up steps
Emmanuel, Jesus Christ. And he says, I'm going to redeem
him. What's it going to take to redeem him? Pay the penalty.
What is the penalty? You come under the curse of the
law. That's the penalty. Folks, this is not play acting.
This is not pretense. It wasn't that God constituted
Christ to be cursed. It wasn't that He looked upon
Him as if He was cursed. No, He was cursed. The penalty
had to be paid. And you can't pay it with play
money. It's got to be real. Whatever crimes the law had charged
to us, it now charges to Him because our sins are laid upon
Him. And the only way the elect of
God can be redeemed is for Christ Himself to take their sins, to
take their guilt, and to be accursed and suffer death on their behalf. And this He did. This He did. And it wasn't done in a corner.
It wasn't done in a corner. The world knows about it, don't
they? He hung there between heaven and earth, and thousands of people
came around there and saw Him hanging there. God exposed Him. He was judged openly, openly
condemned, openly suffered. And why did He do that? to redeem
God's elect from the curse of the law. Look here at one more scripture.
Turn over to your right in Hebrews. Look over in Hebrews. Look in chapter 9 of Hebrews. Look in verse 12. Hebrews chapter
9. Look here in verse 12. We had to be redeemed from the
curse of the law. We broke it. The price had to
be paid. And the price had to be paid
for our sins. Look here in verse 12. Not by the blood of bulls
and goats, goats and calves, but by His own blood, Christ
entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us, For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of the
heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctified to the purifying of
the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And for
this cause, because he has offered himself to God, he is the mediator
of the new covenant. that by means of death, his death,
for the redemption of the transgressions that were against the first testament,
under the first testament, and against the covenant, against
the law, they which are called might receive the promise of
eternal inheritance. What's happened to sins? What's
happened to sin? I like to think of this as the
Lord Jesus walking up to the court of justice. And their justice
has those sins, every sin that we've committed. Had them there
in a case, all the charges was going to be brought up against
us at the judgment of God. And the Lord Jesus said, what
will you take for those sins? Justice said, oh, I'll sell them
for a price. What's your price? Your blood. Your blood. You want to deliver
your people from these sins? You want to bring them off from
guilt and the curse? I'll give you their sins, and
they'll never have to answer for them. But you will. It's
going to take your blood. And you know what the Lord Jesus
said? You give them here. And justices, you give me your
blood. And that's what he did. And those transgressions were
redeemed. He paid for them with His own
precious blood. You say, Bruce, what's this got
to do with holiness? I'll tell you what it's got to
do with holiness. Before you're restored, that debt of sin has
to be paid. God has to be satisfied for the
wrongs that's been done to Him. He's been offended. We offended
God by our sins. And the price of that offense,
the only thing that will appease God, is the blood of His own
Son. That's what it took. That's what
it took. Look here now. One more place.
One more place. Look here in Colossians. Just
back over to your left from Hebrews. Look at Colossians. Here's what we're getting to. Look at this. The cross has everything
to do with holiness. Look at it. Look in Colossians
chapter 1. Look here in verse 19. It pleased the Father that in
Him, in Christ, should all fullness dwell. And look at this. And having made peace, through
the blood of His cross. Peace with who? Peace with God. Why do you have to make peace
with God? Because we lost it. We lost peace with God. When
Adam sinned, we sinned in him. Adam had peace, but he lost it. Adam had righteousness, but he
lost it. Adam had holiness, but he lost it. Adam had access to
God, but he lost it. Look at this. Christ has restored
it. He's made peace through the blood
of His cross by Him to reconcile all things to Himself. By Him,
I say, were they be things in heaven or things in earth, and
you that were sometimes alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now Christ hath reconciled. in the body of His flesh through
death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight." Isn't that what we started in our text? What
did God purpose for the elect? That they should be holy and
without blame before Him. What has Christ done on the cross?
He's made peace for us, reconciled us to God, that He may present
us in Him, His own self, holy and without blinds before Him. I tell you, the elect of God,
every believer here this morning, stands holy before God. You don't
feel that way, do you? Oh, you say, oh, wretched man
that I am. But in Jesus Christ, And I could even say it like
this to make it more simple. By your faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, you stand holy and without blame before God. That's something
He's done for them. We've done nothing yet, have
we? He's done it all. He's done it all. It cost Him
His blood. It cost Him His sweat. But He's
brought us back to God. He's redeemed us. He's paid the
price for us. He's paid the price. The second thing I told you was
this, not only was some able person, some willing person,
had to pay the price, secondly, not only did he have to pay the
price, but he had to deliver that person whose price had been
paid. You see, under the law, when
you went to redeem somebody, you found out what the price
was going to be. Then you checked yourself and you said, do I have
that kind of money? Then you found out you did. Then you went
and paid the price, but you didn't stop there. There was no such
thing as paying the price and letting it go there. The second
thing that happened was, when the price was paid, they actually
delivered that person from his debtor. The person that he was
in debt to. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ did. Listen to this. Let me read you
some passages of Scripture. You have not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, but you've received the spirit of
adoption. You cry, Father, Father. You're not in bondage anymore.
No more. And listen to this, you turn
to God from idols to wait for His Son from heaven, which delivered
us from the wrath to come. He not only paid the price, now
He delivered us. And listen to Romans chapter
7 verse 6, ye are delivered from the law. Oh, ain't that wonderful? Ain't that happy news? Free from
the law? Oh, happy conditions. Why do
you rejoice in that? Because it cursed me. It condemned
me. It's ready to cast me out, free
from the law. He's actually freed us. If the
Son shall make you free, you're free indeed. You're actually
free. And listen to this one. God be
thanked that you were the servants of sin, but you have believed
the gospel. You have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered you, being then made
free from sin, from its guilt, from its power, and soon from
its presence. And listen to this, God has delivered
us from so great a death Dead in trespasses and sins, but He
has delivered us. From eternal death, but He has
delivered us. Given thanks unto the Father,
who hath delivered us from the power of darkness. I mean, He not only paid the
price for you, dear believer, but He has delivered you from
your bondage, from the curse of the law, from the power of
sin, from the devil that held you in darkness. He's delivered
you from it. In whom we have redemption, but
He didn't stop there, did He? Even the forgiveness of sin.
And thirdly and lastly, right quickly, is this. Redemption
restores the elect what they had lost. It pays the price for
them. It actually delivers them from
that bondage. And then it restores what they
had lost. They had a law under the Jewish
law concerning redemption. If he had to sell himself under
bondage, when it come the year of Jubilee, you had to let him
go. They sounded the trumpets of
the Jubilee. They sounded these trumpets throughout all the land.
And if you had a man that you had taken, and you was working
him because he owed you money, when you heard the sound of that
trumpet, you had to let him go. And everything he had had to
be restored. And that's the thing about redemption. Christ has
not only paid our debt that we owe, He's delivered us from the
bondage, the curse of the law, and the wrath of God, but now
He's restored us. Everything we've lost, He's restored. Did Adam die? Yes, he did. He did live. God breathed and
just nostrils the breath of life and he became a living soul.
But he sinned and died. But what did the Master say?
I am come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. In other words, you ain't going
to ever die again. The life we had in Adam, we lost it and died. But the life that Christ gives,
He said, I give unto you eternal life. You ain't going to ever
lose it. You ain't going to ever lose it. We lost our righteousness? This only have I seen, that God
created man upright? We lost our righteousness. Jesus
Christ restores righteousness. Brother Glenn quoted this verse
also this morning. God hath made Christ to be sin
for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. We have righteousness. And you
know something? You'll never lose this righteousness.
It's safe, it's secure as it can be. Because it's not one
that you've worked at. It's the righteousness of somebody
else. And he's in heaven. And he's so safe there. And you
have that righteousness. It's been restored to you. Righteousness. But a better one than you ever
had before. The elect of God have been given
righteousness. They'll never lose it. A life
and they'll never die. And Jesus Christ hath restored
unto us sonship. He has restored unto us friendship,
and fellowship, and access, and peace with God. Everything we
lost, He has restored it. Abundantly restored it. One more Scripture. One more
Scripture. Look with me right quickly, one
more scripture, Ephesians chapter 4. Just over there, the same
book we're in, Ephesians chapter 4. He pays our debt. He delivers us from our captors,
our enemies. He restores everything that we
lost. And look at this. He actually
makes us holy. That's the purpose. And look
here. He actually makes us holy. Look
at Ephesians 4. Look in verse 20. You have not
so learned Christ. Many just live in sin. They love
their sin. But you have not so learned Christ.
Verse 21, If so be that you have heard Him, and have been taught
by Him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning the
former conversation, the former manner of life, the old man,
which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed
in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man,
which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. When He comes to His elect that's
dead in sin, He gives them life, He clothes them with the righteousness
of Christ, He sends forth the Spirit of His Son into their
hearts, and He makes them new. He gives them a new heart, a
new spirit, and He makes them holy.