Would you turn back to Ephesians
chapter one? And tonight I'm going to be speaking
from the third chapter of Philippians on Paul's autobiography. Look at that entire chapter where
he gives us his autobiography. Now, my subject for this morning
ought to be a subject of great interest to all of us. because I'm speaking of our greatest
need. You know what that is? The forgiveness of sins. That is our greatest need. And notice in verse seven, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins. Sin is perhaps generic. Yeah, we need forgiven of our
sin. But he doesn't mention sin, he mentions sins. Actual sins committed. individual sins, evil sins. The sins of which David said,
my sin is ever before me at all times. We read in Psalm 130, Verse three,
if thou, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with
thee. There is forgiveness with thee
that thou mayest be feared. You know, you only really fear
God. when you understand something
about the forgiveness of sins. If we really understand His forgiveness,
it's going to cause us to fear Him, that fear that's the beginning
of wisdom. Now, the Lord forgives sins in
such a way as they are not remembered. In heaven, he won't look at me
and say, I remember what he did. I recall what he did. No, he
says there are sins and iniquities. I will remember
no more. You see, they've been put away
to the extent that there's nothing there to remember. And with regard
to every believer in heaven, he will not remember your sin. There's nothing there to remember. He was manifest, John said, to
take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Now, as I said, this
is a subject that you and I ought to be awfully interested in,
the forgiveness Divine forgiveness, the forgiveness of sins. Now in our text, I see three
things that are tied to the forgiveness of sins. In whom? That's the first thing. We have redemption through his
blood. That's the second thing. even
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. That's the third thing. Now,
in whom, that's the way the verse begins, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace, in whom speaks of union with the Lord Jesus
Christ, being in him. being united to him in whom we
have redemption through his blood. Now this is spoken of throughout
this chapter. And this is one of the great
mysteries of the scripture that we can't so much understand. We just believe in whom if you're
in Christ, you've always been in him. You're united to Him
so that you're one with Him. And there's never been a time
when you've not been in the Lord Jesus Christ. You're eternally
united to Him. Now look in this third verse
of this chapter. 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, that
we should be holy and without blame before Him. In love, having
predestinated us under 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 has made us accepted
in the Beloved, in whom we have. redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins
according to the riches of His grace. Now, there is no doctrine
of the scripture that we can understand apart from this thing
of union with the Lord Jesus Christ. If I'm saved, if my sins
are forgiven, if I'm accepted, It's because I'm in the Lord
Jesus Christ in him by this union that I can't explain. I can only
believe. Chosen in him, and that's what
we. Claim in baptism. When a man or woman is baptized,
they're saying when Christ lived, I lived. When he died. I died when he was raised, I
was raised because I was in him. Salvation, forgiveness of sins
is holy by being in him. Ephesians chapter four, we're
there in the book of Ephesians, look at verse 32. And be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Even as God, for Christ's sake,
no other reason is given. Even as God, for Christ's sake,
hath forgiven you. It's only in Him that there is
forgiveness. In whom? In whom? That's the only place
of God's favor and of God's salvation for Christ's sake. Now notice
back in our text, in whom we have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace. Who's the we? Am I in that group? Not everybody's
forgiven. The Lord said to the Pharisees,
if you believe not that I am he, you will die in your sins. What a horrible thing to think
of, to die in my sins. Who is the we in whom we have
redemption through his blood? Well, it's determined by the
context. Everybody who has all spiritual blessings. Everybody
that's chosen in him. Everybody that's holy and blameless
in his sight. Everybody he loved. Everybody
he predestinated. Everybody who's an adopted child.
Everybody who's accepted in the beloved. Everybody who's forgiven.
This is talking about all of God's elect. all who believe
the gospel. Now, you're kidding yourself
if you think everybody's forgiven. There is a place of eternal,
and I want to say this with a tear in my eye. I wish I could say
this the right way. There is a place of eternal destruction
that everybody outside of Christ will spend eternity in. Why eternity? Why would God punish somebody
eternally? Why couldn't he just go ahead
and make him to not be? Why is punishment eternal? If somebody brutally murdered
and dismembered your child and then said, Here's $10 million. Is that enough to satisfy you? No. There's nothing that would
satisfy you. There was nothing say, well,
that's enough. I'm OK now. It's OK that you did it. You
paid me enough and I'm satisfied with that. You'd never say that
nothing would satisfy you in. Well, even Steven, it's OK now. You paid me enough enough. No.
In the murder of God's son, He'll never be satisfied. That's
why hell is eternal. And that's what you and I are
guilty of. That's why hell is eternal. But
beloved, there is such a thing as the forgiveness of sins. Now, these people who are forgiven,
this we, We have redemption through his blood, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. This is what all these
people have in common. They need the forgiveness of
their sins. There was a man crippled And
the Lord was in a place preaching and they brought this man to
the Lord and they couldn't get in because their crowd was too
great to let him in. So they climbed up on the roof
of the house, broke up the ceiling and let the man down in the midst
of everybody. Can you imagine if this ceiling
started breaking up and all of a sudden somebody was let down
on a stretcher that was crippled? And you know what the Lord said
to this man? He said, son, be of good cheer. You're healed? No. Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins are forgiven thee. Now that's what I need. Now I'd
like to be healed of my crippleness, but my great need is the forgiveness
of sins. And the Pharisees that were there
said, who is this blasphemous? Who can forgive sins but God
only? They were right there, weren't
they? They were right there. They didn't know that standing
before them was the ancient of days who had authority to forgive
sins. Now this is my great need, the
forgiveness of my sins. Now Paul says in our text, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins,
it's only through his redeeming blood. Now, if you want to understand
forgiveness, you listen real carefully. I couldn't possibly
be speaking on anything more important than what I'm speaking
on right now. If you want the forgiveness of
your sins, the only way this comes is through the redemption
through His blood. It is only through His redeeming
blood that we can have the forgiveness of sins. Now, what would you
think of a judge in our court system who would
just arbitrarily forgive criminals and put them back out? People expect God to be that
way, but a human judge, if we had a judge, let's say someone
was a thief or a murderer or somebody that's just a danger
to society, and a judge says, I'm a loving judge, I'm just
gonna forgive you and let you go. What would we do with a judge
like that? We'd get rid of him, wouldn't we? Justice would not
be being done. And yet people think God is like
that. Now listen, God will not forgive at the expense of his
justice. He's God. For God to forgive
at the expense of his justice would be for him to no longer
be God, no longer be just, no longer be holy, no longer be
righteous, no longer be true. Now understand this, the forgiveness
of sins will not, will not, come at the expense of his justice. When the Lord gave us the Lord's
Supper, he said concerning the wine, this is my blood of the
New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of
sins. And that word remission of sins
is the same word translated for the forgiveness of sins. This blood was shed for many
for the remission, for the forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 9.22 says, without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. Now,
what is blood? Blood represents death. The only
way my sins can be forgiven is for the Son of God to die for
me. For His precious blood to be
shed for me. Now, when Christ died, it's because
my sin became His sin. The sins that I have committed
became his sin. Somebody says, how can that be
right? God did it. That's the only way I can explain
that. God did it. And if God did it,
it's right. Christ took my sins on willingly. That makes it right. But they
became his sin so that he owned them as his own. Psalm 40. Psalm 40. Somebody read this the other
day in one of the services. Look in verse one. I waited patiently for the Lord. Who's the only one to ever do
that? Have you ever waited patiently for the Lord? Of course you haven't. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. He's the only one who ever waited patiently for the
Lord. Look in verse 7 of the same chapter. Then said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book it's
written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. Who's speaking? the Lord Jesus
Christ. And this is quoted in Hebrews
chapter 10 as the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we see
who's speaking. This is Christ. He's the first.
Every time you read a psalm, it's him speaking first. Always. Yes, it's David speaking, but
it's him speaking first, all the psalms. Now look in verse
12 of this same psalm, and this is still the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. For innumerable evils have compassed me about. Mine
iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look
up. They're more than the hairs of
my head. He doesn't say Todd's iniquities,
which are charged to my account. He said, my iniquities, my iniquities. Now, when he was made sin, my
sin became his sin. God made my sin His sin and when
His wrath came down upon Him, He was not being punished for
my sins. You see, my sins became His sins
and God punished Him as an act of His justice for sin. Now,
Only God could do that, but He did. That's the point, He did. He made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. When Christ took the place of
Brabus, the guilty was set free that the innocent might be punished.
But that's not what happened on the cross. He was guilty. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. Are you saying by saying that
the Christ ever committed sin? Of course I'm not saying that.
Worse. He was made sin. And the justice of God punished
him. But the reason his punishment
didn't have to be eternal is because of who he is. He's the
Son of God. He made complete satisfaction
to where God could look at what he did and say, I am satisfied. I need nothing else. And I'm satisfied with Todd Naubern. It didn't get any better for
him than it is. And that's true with regard to
all for whom he died. Romans 3 24 says being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption. That's what we're
talking about. His redeeming blood through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Romans 5 9 being now justified
by his blood. Colossians 1 20 having made peace
through the blood of his cross. Hebrews 9, 12, by his own blood,
he entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption. for us. Revelations 1, 5, unto
him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood
and made us kings and priests unto God. You see, the redeeming
blood of Christ demands the forgiveness of sins. If Christ died for you,
your sins must be forgiven. I would say I would not be too
far from the truth to say that 99% of what goes on under the
name of Christianity says that Jesus Christ shed his blood for
every man to ever live to make salvation possible for all men. All those sins were paid for. All those sins were paid for,
but you might end up going to hell anyway if you don't do what
you need to do in order to make what he did work for you. Now
that is a denial of the justice of God. Anybody that preaches
that Jesus Christ died for all men and paid for the sins of
all men And now it's up to you to accept or reject what he did.
And if you reject it, you're gonna go to hell even though
he paid for your sins. That is a denial of the justice
of God. And that is a denial of the gospel. If Christ died for you, you must
be saved. Listen, my only hope is that
Jesus Christ paid for my sins. That's all I got. And if you
tell me He can pay for my sins and I wind up in hell anyway,
you've taken away the only hope that I have. Now the forgiveness
of sins comes through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Redemption
by His blood in whom we have. That means we got it. Redemption
through His blood, through His death, through His substitutionary
death on the cross, the just for the unjust. We have the forgiveness
of sins. Now here's the next reason for
the forgiveness of sins. According to the riches of His
grace. Now this redemption by His blood,
is according to the riches of His grace. How infinitely exhaustless
are the riches of His grace. Now, grace is an attribute of
God. I love thinking about that. It's
an attribute of God. It's who he is. When he identifies
himself to Moses in Exodus 34 and proclaims the name of the
Lord before him, he says, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious. His grace is infinite. It has no boundaries. except
his own will. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. If somebody bristles at that,
that's because you think grace is an entitlement. The only reason
behind that is self-righteousness. If you really believe you're
a sinful human being, totally depraved, you're not going to
bristle at his sovereign grace. You understand why he passed
you by. You know, that's what you deserve. But His grace is omnipotent grace. There's no limitations of power
for Him to act in grace. There's nothing that can prevent
Him from saving you by His grace. It's eternal grace. That means
there's no conditions you need to meet in order for Him to give
it to you. It's eternal grace. Grace from before the foundation
of the world. Its source is His eternal love,
whom He did foreknow. The measure of His grace is His
grace. Not our concept of what His grace
is, but what His grace actually is. It's not limited by any amount
of human sinfulness. Isn't that good news? You can't be too sinful and it's
not hindered by weakness or utter lack of strength on your part. It's free. grace. Utterly and completely free and
there's an ease to it with God. It's not difficult for Him. He's
not about to run out of grace. It's infinite and eternal and
boundless. And His grace begins with the
full, complete, free forgiveness of sins. It begins there. There's nothing you do to get
him to forgive you. His grace begins with the complete
forgiveness of sins. It's a grace that abounds. Notice
he says, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.
Turn to Romans chapter five for a moment. If you wanna know what
a definition of sovereign grace is, it's here as clear as can
be seen. Verse 20. Romans chapter five, verse 20.
Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. Now let me say this. If you ever
see what God's law actually says, you will see that sin abounds
in you. And if you don't see that, the
law has never come to you. When the law comes, you see all
you've ever done is broken it. That's it. You've never kept
one commandment one time. You go over the Ten Commandments,
they're holy, they're just, they're good, and you see that all they
do is condemn you. You know, I can remember as a
boy going over the Ten Commandments and looking at the ones I've
broken and the ones I've kept. Blind, didn't know what they
meant. When the law comes, sin abounds. But where sin abounded, everywhere
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. You find me
a place where sin abounds. Grace does much more. Abound that, verse 21, that has
sin hath reigned unto death. Now, how much ability do you
have to prevent death? None. Absolutely none. Just as sin hath reigned unto
death and you can't stop it, in the same manner, grace reigns. What can you do to stop grace? Absolutely nothing. And it's
a righteous grace. This is not a sinful grace, it's
a righteous grace. Through righteousness. Christ's
righteousness unto eternal life. Now, through the redeeming work
of Christ and the riches of his grace, we have the forgiveness
of sins. And the way he forgives sins
is worthy of the glory and excellency of his character. It's not like that narrow, Difficult. Half-hearted. With strings attached. Forgiveness that's among men.
It's not like that at all. It's full. It's free. It's bottomless. It's boundless. It's absolute. As becomes His glorious person. You see, God's forgiveness is
free. It's free. It costs the triune God infinitely,
but to you and me, it's free. Absolutely free. There are no conditions you must
first fulfill before he will forgive you. What condition did
Saul of Tarsus meet when he was on the road to Damascus to murder
Christians with no desire for God? What conditions did he first
meet before God saved him? Nothing. Nothing. But Christ appeared
to him anyway. He didn't meet any conditions,
but Christ appeared to him anyway. Turn with me to first Timothy
chapter one for a moment. And this is very important. Verse 15. This is a faithful saying, you
hear me quote this all the time. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief, how be it? For this cause,
I obtained mercy. This is why God appeared to me
like this, that in me first, Jesus Christ might show forth
all long-suffering for a pattern, to them which should hereafter
believe on him, to life everlasting. Romans 5.10 says, when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God. No
conditions we met, it happened when we were enemies. We were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son. This forgiveness
is full. That means each and every sin.
I love what the songwriter said. There's pardon for the sins of
past. It matters not how black they're
cast. And oh my soul, with wonder of
you, for sins to come, here's pardon too. Every sin. You see, They were forgiven. God saw every one of them, even
the ones you haven't committed yet. They were forgiven for the
foundation of the world and the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Before there was ever a sinner or a sin committed,
there was the Savior, the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. All sin is forgiven. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
son, cleanses us from all sin. And this forgiveness is not given
because of the worthiness of the sinner. It's the gift of
his grace. It's not withheld because of
the unworthiness of the sinner. It's the gift of his grace. And this forgiveness is eternal.
And that's why it's irreversible. It's irreversible. First John one, let me finish
up here. I want to make some applications
of this thing of forgiveness. Verse nine, if we confess our sins. Now that
doesn't simply mean to admit we did it. It means a whole lot
more than that. The word confess means to speak
the same thing. If I confess my sins, I speak
the same thing God says regarding my sins. I take sides with God
against myself, and I'm in complete agreement with Him. If we confess
our sins, He's faithful and just. Not simply
merciful and gracious, though he is, but faithful because he
determined those sins would be forgiven, and he does it in a
way that honors his justice. He's faithful and just to forgive
us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, the most God-like thing,
and I say this reverently, I hope I say this reverently, but the
most God-like thing me or you can ever do is forgive somebody. Completely forgive them. Oh,
but they did me so wrong. Completely forgive them. That's what God does. And if
I fail to forgive someone, I've never been forgiven. The Lord
said that. He said, if you forgive not me
in their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive
you your trespasses. Somebody says, well, that sounds
like work. Well, I don't care what it sounds like. It's so. It's so. The Lord
says that. That's the way he comments. That's
not salvation by works, but if you've ever been forgiven, you
will forgive. And if you refuse to forgive,
you know nothing about being forgiven. That's what the Lord
said. And I love that passage in Luke
chapter seven, where the Lord said regarding that woman, he
that's been forgiven much, loveth. much. Have you been forgiven much?
Oh, if you have, you will love much. Child of God, believer, Christian,
saint. The only way that you are permitted
to look at your sins is as forgiven sins. In whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank You for the
salvation that's in Him. How we thank You for the redemption
through His blood. How we thank You for the forgiveness
of sins That's according to the riches of your grace. And Lord,
in Christ's name, we ask that we might all be forgiven of our
sins, looking to Christ only as the ground of our forgiveness. Bless this word for your glory
and for our good. In Christ's name we pray, amen.