Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Our dear Heavenly Father, you are the blessed God and you bless.
[00:00:10] You bless because it is your nature to bless.
[00:00:15] You bless out of the riches of your grace.
[00:00:21] You bless out of the riches of your mercy.
[00:00:25] And we become better people because you have blessed us.
[00:00:32] Please help us to understand the spiritual blessing of redemption today.
[00:00:36] In Christ's name, amen.
[00:00:41] So Paul spent three years in Ephesus.
[00:00:46] After those three years, he took an offering from the churches to Jerusalem. And while he was there, he was attacked.
[00:00:58] And the Roman soldiers in the city of Jerusalem had to rescue him.
[00:01:07] If you read the story, they literally.
[00:01:10] The crowd was dragging him through the streets, kicking him and punching him. And the soldiers had to literally pick him up on their shoulders and carry him out of the crowd.
[00:01:26] He went through a series of five trials over two years.
[00:01:33] And finally, as a Roman citizen, he had the right to appeal to Caesar if he wasn't receiving justice. So he appealed to Caesar, and the Roman governor, Porcius Festus, a very unfortunate name, sent him to Rome.
[00:02:00] And while he was in Rome waiting his trial before Nero, he started worrying about the church in Ephesus. Well, I shouldn't say worry. He started feeling concerned about the Church in Ephesus.
[00:02:18] And so somewhere around 62 or 63, Paul wrote a letter to the church at Ephesus.
[00:02:31] And it's the book that we're studying now, the book of Ephesians.
[00:02:37] And the very first thing he said to the church when he was writing him a letter is the Blessed God blesses.
[00:02:46] And he blesses us with spiritual blessings.
[00:02:50] The first spiritual blessing we studied was election.
[00:02:56] God elected us to be holy and faultless before him in love.
[00:03:04] The second spiritual blessing was predestination. God predestinated us for himself.
[00:03:11] He predestinated us to be adopted into his family and to abide with him forever.
[00:03:18] This week we're looking at the third spiritual blessing, which is redemption.
[00:03:23] For God to fulfill his plan and allow us to live with him forever, we had to be redeemed. This is what Paul said in Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished unto us in all wisdom and spiritual thinking.
[00:03:53] So let's look at this. The blessed God blesses us with redemption.
[00:03:59] I'm sure you've heard the word before, but let's remind ourselves. What exactly does redemption mean?
[00:04:07] It means to ransom.
[00:04:11] It means to buy back.
[00:04:14] Something has been lost and it has to be purchased back. It has to be redeemed.
[00:04:22] But it also has with it the idea of liberating when, when someone is bought back, they're bought back from a unpleasant condition and they're liberated to a more pleasant condition.
[00:04:41] Redemption is the story and the history of salvation.
[00:04:48] God created us good, but we mess things up.
[00:04:57] And if you have a bad attitude about Adam and Eve, you would have done the very same thing they did.
[00:05:05] In fact, we do every week in some way. Every week we find a way to disobey God.
[00:05:13] And because we have disobeyed God, God said in the day that you do that, you will surely die.
[00:05:23] Adam and Eve didn't die physically when they sinned, but they died spiritually.
[00:05:29] Something that was spiritually alive in them died.
[00:05:35] The wages of sin are death.
[00:05:39] Every time I sin, I damage my true self, I damage my soul.
[00:05:52] And God was unwilling to, to leave us in this damaged state.
[00:06:00] It didn't fit his electing purpose, it didn't fit his predestinating purpose. And he wasn't willing to leave us in that condition.
[00:06:10] So God became flesh in Jesus Christ. God himself came to humanity in Jesus Christ.
[00:06:20] And he showed us what a sinless life looked like. If you read the Gospels, Jesus never made a single mistake.
[00:06:30] He was brilliant.
[00:06:33] They insulted him and he didn't insult back.
[00:06:38] They tried to trap him in his words and he always found a non aggressive way to answer them.
[00:06:53] But after living a sinless death, the Apostle Paul tells us that he who knew no sin was made sin. That we might be made the righteousness of God. Now let me tell you what that means. When Christ died on the cross, he died as your substitute. He died as my substitute.
[00:07:18] Everything that was ugly, stupid and wrong about me, Christ accepted on himself.
[00:07:25] And when he died on the cross, he paid the divine penalty for all of your sin. The sin you did in the past, the sin you did today driving to church. And the sin you're going to do tomorrow that you don't even know what it is yet. Christ was our substitute. He paid our price on the cross.
[00:07:51] But if you read the Bible, he didn't stay dead. On the third day, he rose from the dead.
[00:08:02] And Jesus taught us because he rose, we also will rise with Him.
[00:08:10] And then Christ said to his disciples, I'm going back to my Father, but I'm not leaving you as orphans. I'm going to send another person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. And he will be with you. The Holy Spirit is at work, working out divine redemption in us. Day by day.
[00:08:36] He delivers us first of all from the curse of sin. And then he delivers us from the power of sin. So what is redemption? Redemption is the work of God in which I was dead in trespasses and sin, and God made me alive together with Jesus Christ. And he did that by paying the price for my sin on the cross. We believe in the substitutionary death of Christ. He was my substitute. He was your substitute on the cross when Christ died on the cross. God accepts that as the just payment, the just penalty for our sin. And he buys us back to Himself. He ransoms us from being dead in trespasses and sin. He delivers us from the curse of the law and makes us blessed in his sight. That's redemption.
[00:09:42] Thomas Goodwin, who I've been sharing with you, wrote this.
[00:09:49] It is most certainly true that God's love is more than his sufferings, and his sufferings worth more than all his benefits. But his person is more than either his benefits or his sufferings. Let me say that in an easier way.
[00:10:11] It is certainly true that the love that God has for Christ and the love that he has for us is greater than anything he suffered in our behalf.
[00:10:29] He was willing to suffer it out of love for you.
[00:10:33] He didn't have to. He wasn't obligated.
[00:10:37] It was not a duty. It was an act of pure divine love.
[00:10:43] And in that divine love, he said, I'm not willing to leave you in a broken state. And so I'm going to do everything I can. I'm going to do everything I have to do to reconcile you back to God, to redeem you back to God.
[00:11:02] He what is redemption? It is the forgiveness of our trespasses. It's the forgiveness of our sins.
[00:11:13] Ah. And what did it cost? It cost his blood.
[00:11:20] Several years ago, when Gibson's movie came out about Christ, we rented a theater in Brunswick and we gave free tickets to go. And some of you went to the movie not remembering the name of it, the Passion of the Christ.
[00:11:44] If you saw that movie, you know how horrendously Christ suffered.
[00:11:54] If you saw that movie, you know how much blood he shed. He literally bled to death.
[00:12:04] Why?
[00:12:06] Why would God do such a thing?
[00:12:09] Because he had already established a principle in the Old Testament that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sin.
[00:12:18] In. In. In God's view of creation, the soul is in the blood is what he said to Moses.
[00:12:29] So Christ suffered, but his suffering was an expression of his love.
[00:12:39] And more than that, it was an expression of Christ saying to us, I'm willing to give myself away for you.
[00:12:54] You will never be asked to give Yourself away for Christ the way Christ gave himself away for you.
[00:13:03] Can you hear this in redemption? Christ gave himself without reservation for you out of pure love for your eternal soul, out of pure love for who you are.
[00:13:20] Christ said, whatever it takes, I'm willing to do.
[00:13:26] That's redemption.
[00:13:30] God forgives our sin out of love for Christ. Remember I told you that last week? God forgives your sin because he loves Christ so much.
[00:13:40] But he also forgives your sin because he loves you.
[00:13:46] You're not just a number on the list.
[00:13:52] You're not just another mug shot in the book of heaven. You are a soul that is individually loved by God Almighty, which is why he said, I'm willing to redeem you for the sole purpose of love.
[00:14:12] God forgives our sin because Christ suffered the punishment for our sin. And there's nothing left to punish.
[00:14:21] You don't do double jeopardy. Christ doesn't die for our sin and then we have to suffer for it ourselves.
[00:14:28] That would be injustice. In the justice of God.
[00:14:33] Christ dies for our sin and God finds us completely acceptable.
[00:14:40] God shares all the benefits of his forgiveness with us through Christ.
[00:14:45] It isn't just that my sins are forgiven. There are benefits that follow after forgiven sin. There is no, there's nothing between God and the redeemed soul.
[00:14:59] The benefits of God remove every barrier between you and the living God. There are no barriers because Christ has taken them away. Do you understand?
[00:15:11] You say, but I remember I did this wrong and I remembered I did that wrong. That's exactly what Christ forgave, what you remember and what often what we don't even remember, Christ forgave. And one of the benefits of that is there is free association between the human soul and the living God.
[00:15:34] Do you know that?
[00:15:36] Do you know that you can quiet yourself and sense the presence of the of God Almighty.
[00:15:44] The Holy Spirit will evidence himself to your heart. His spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
[00:15:54] There's nothing blocking your. There's nothing blocking between your soul and the presence of God Almighty.
[00:16:05] Best of all, God forgives our sin by uniting us to Christ.
[00:16:11] Ah.
[00:16:14] Christ said he wants us to be one with him as he is one with His Father.
[00:16:21] Now open your heart to this.
[00:16:23] Open your heart to this.
[00:16:26] You are already elect, you say, well, Doc, how do you know? Because the non elect don't come to church.
[00:16:35] They don't care. They've got other. They got other things to do.
[00:16:40] You are already predestined, you say, how do you know? Because you're at church and the ones who aren't predestined, they don't care. They're not coming.
[00:16:50] You are already redeemed.
[00:16:55] And all God ask from you is that you believe.
[00:17:03] Jesus said it very plainly.
[00:17:06] He that believeth in the Son hath life.
[00:17:12] I want to ask you, can you search your heart?
[00:17:17] Can you be inwardly aware?
[00:17:20] Can you ask yourself, do I really believe that Christ has redeemed me?
[00:17:29] And if you can say yes, you have. You have not only received redemption, you are experiencing the assurance of redemption.
[00:17:48] Listen to me, Church. It's not hard, but you have to be inwardly self aware. You have to ask yourself, do I honestly believe that Christ died on the cross for me and when he died, God forgave all my sins for Christ's sake? And if you say yes, I believe that that is evidence that God has already been at work in you.
[00:18:18] If you can't say, yes, I believe that, then. Then you need to say a different prayer. You need to pray that God would enlighten your heart so that you can believe redemption on God's side is complete.
[00:18:36] You don't have to add anything to it. We're going to talk about that in a minute. Ah, but you do have to believe.
[00:18:49] Titus, chapter 2 and verse 13. Listen what Paul wrote to Titus.
[00:18:55] Waiting for our blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, to redeem us from all lawlessness, to purify for Himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works. I want to. I want to emphasize part of that. Who gave Himself for us, to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for his own possession. Now, Church, I want you to notice who's doing the work here.
[00:19:39] He gave Himself for us.
[00:19:42] He did the work.
[00:19:44] He redeemed us. He did the work. He purifies us. He did the work. He claims us as his holy possession. He did the work.
[00:19:59] Ah, the blessed. God has a grace and mercy for every sin you may commit. Do you hear this? There is some grace and there is some mercy in the heart of God for every sin you may commit.
[00:20:19] The blessed.
[00:20:26] The blessed nature of God is committed to our entire purity, making us clean in soul and life.
[00:20:37] You are redeemed so that God can purify you and call you his own possession.
[00:20:45] Church is. Can't you believe in a God like that?
[00:20:52] Can't you believe in a God like that?
[00:20:56] Then Paul wrote in Ephesians 1, we are redeemed according to the riches of his grace.
[00:21:07] The entire cost of redemption is paid by the riches of divine grace. You can't add anything to it.
[00:21:16] I sometimes talk to people who feel like, well, I have to do.
[00:21:23] I have to do these religious observations, otherwise I won't be redeemed. I hear people say, you got to do these good works, otherwise I won't redeem. You can't add anything to it.
[00:21:40] Besides, you don't have anything to add to it.
[00:21:45] There is. There is no adding to the work of Christ.
[00:21:50] It is complete. Ah, we can't. We simply come and humbly say, I receive the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:22:03] We can't add anything to the riches of his grace.
[00:22:15] And it turns out God said, I'm rich enough. I can afford this.
[00:22:25] I can remember when Shay and I were younger and trying to raise kids, when we would grow, go to the grocery store, we'd have to add everything up because there was no going over. There was.
[00:22:43] And nobody likes to take stuff back to the shelf.
[00:22:48] So I can remember us adding up everything because we didn't have any extra money. And nobody wants to be standing at the cash register like that, okay?
[00:23:04] We had a.
[00:23:06] We had a cap.
[00:23:08] We had to cap our spending for groceries. Okay? Many of you can identify with that. Here's an irony in life, I can go buy any groceries I want now.
[00:23:22] Covid messed my taste up. And food doesn't taste good to me. When I was hungry, I was broke. I have money. And now.
[00:23:30] Isn't that how life works?
[00:23:35] God is rich enough to pay the price for your sin to. There's no cap. He's not looking at every individual soul and running his total and saying, am I going to have enough? Do I have enough for this one?
[00:23:50] The riches of his grace are unlimited, and his grace is greater than all of our sins.
[00:24:00] Your good works, religious duty, and your good intentions are worthless compared to the riches of his grace later on in this chapter. Later on In Ephesians, chapter 2, Paul says, God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace. You have been saved.
[00:24:29] Do you hear this? It's not just that he's rich in grace, treating me better than what I deserve. He's rich in mercy. And I need to remind you that mercy is God's solution to human misery.
[00:24:43] Everything in you that is miserable, everything in you that. That life has made you miserable about, he has a. He has mercy that is greater than your misery, the very worst memory you have. God has a mercy that that is greater than that memory.
[00:25:04] And if he would share it with us when we were at our worst, surely he's willing to share it with us now that he's doing his good work. In us, we were spiritually dead, but by the riches of his mercy, God made us alive together with Christ.
[00:25:27] We are saved purely by the riches of the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ.
[00:25:35] I want you this week to have a quiet moment.
[00:25:40] And in that quiet moment, I want you to whisper a prayer to God.
[00:25:47] Should sound something like this.
[00:25:50] Dear God, I believe that you are rich in grace, and I will receive all the grace you're willing to give me.
[00:26:04] Have a quiet moment and whisper this to God. I believe you are rich in mercy, and I will receive any mercy that you're willing to give me.
[00:26:16] Church.
[00:26:19] You'll never. You will never.
[00:26:23] You will never impoverish his grace and mercy. His grace and mercy is infinitely great.
[00:26:45] Ah.
[00:26:47] If his mercy and grace is infinitely great, that doesn't automatically guarantee that he's willing to spend it on me.
[00:27:01] There are billionaires out there and none of them's ever offered to spend a dime on me. Can you identify with that?
[00:27:11] There are billionaires out there and I've never gotten a letter from one of them.
[00:27:16] I'm guessing you haven't either. Because God is infinitely rich in grace and mercy. How do I know that he's willing to spend it on me?
[00:27:28] Well, Paul goes on to say, he says, which he lavished on us his the riches of his grace, the riches of his mercy he lavished on us.
[00:27:44] He spent it extravagantly on us.
[00:27:48] God said, I'm not stingy with my mercy and my grace. I'm willing to spend it extravagantly on you.
[00:27:59] The generosity of God's heart is beyond your imagination. If you're not receiving mercy and grace, it's because you won't open your hands and your heart and let him pour some into your life.
[00:28:15] Ah.
[00:28:17] The more mercy and grace we need, the more abundantly he spends. Do you hear this?
[00:28:27] Do you really believe that the Lord God Almighty, who created all that is, knows you personally?
[00:28:38] And he says what you need more than anything else is the blessing of the riches of my mercy and grace.
[00:28:47] And I'm willing to lavish it on you. I'm willing to expend it extravagantly on you. I'm not willing to leave anything unspent that needs to be spent in your life to make you the person that can abide with me. Forever. Do you have a heart to believe that?
[00:29:07] Can you consider God in that way?
[00:29:14] And then he has this unusual phrase in wisdom and in spiritual thinking.
[00:29:23] Let's put it all together.
[00:29:26] In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses and sin according to the riches of his grace which he lavishly spent upon us in all wisdom and spiritual thinking.
[00:29:48] We experience the riches of his grace in wisdom and spiritual thinking next week. How will you connect with the fact that God is lavish in his riches of his grace and mercy? How can you connect with that? Well, first of all, it's a thinking connection. He lavishes it on us and he lavishes it on us in wisdom and in spiritual thinking. So if you don't think about God next week, you're not going to experience the riches of his grace and mercy. Do you see?
[00:30:28] If, if you're, if you're intellectually out of touch with God all week, your heart is not going to be experiencing the riches of his grace and mercy.
[00:30:40] He lavishes it on us in the way we think.
[00:30:44] All right.
[00:30:47] Without the riches of his grace, we do not understand. The blessed God blesses you will run you. You can run into any number of people who, if you ask them what is the first characteristic to toward man, they would not say blessing.
[00:31:11] They would not have the understanding to say the blessed God blesses. They've probably grown up in some religion that scared scared them to death. And they would say the number one characteristic of God is wrath or justice or any one of these other things. It takes the riches of grace and the riches of mercy for a human soul to come to the point that says I get makes sense to me. The blessed God, out of the very nature of who he is, blesses.
[00:31:49] Every single Christian should expect to be blessed because the blessed God blesses. But that is a spiritual wisdom. You don't learn that by watching religious shows on the History Channel. You only learn that when the riches of his grace and mercy are applied to your heart and you begin to think differently.
[00:32:13] Without the riches of his grace, we do not understand election to holiness and faultlessness. I know a lot of people argue with me about election.
[00:32:24] The problem is they have not opened their mind to the riches of his grace and the riches of his mercy. And they aren't thinking about God the way he wants to be thought about church.
[00:32:42] Let me tell you again. Jesus himself said, you did not choose me, but I chose you.
[00:32:49] You get this.
[00:32:52] Jesus said, when I imagined you in my creative imagination, I chose you.
[00:33:04] That is a spiritual wisdom. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. If you understand, if you're able to hold in your mind that the Creator of everything knew you before he created anything, and he picked you to be holy and faultless before him in love, that is a spiritual wisdom. That means you are experiencing something of the riches of his grace and something of the riches of his mercy.
[00:33:41] Without the riches of grace, we do not understand predestination to God and to his family.
[00:33:48] Without the riches of his grace and mercy, we just don't understand this whole issue of predestination.
[00:34:01] We try to humanize it, we try to rationalize it, we try to equate it with other things.
[00:34:12] And really what God wants is for us to say in our hearts.
[00:34:16] I believe that you predestined me for yourself.
[00:34:22] You created boundaries in my life, and these boundaries are leading me inevitably to you.
[00:34:30] The boundaries you created into my life, they end up in one place, the eternal kingdom of God.
[00:34:39] And on that way, in those boundaries, on that pathway, God meets me and adopts me into his family.
[00:34:48] That is spiritual wisdom. And without the rich of his grace and mercy, that spiritual wisdom doesn't make sense to people.
[00:34:59] Without the riches of his grace, we don't understand redemption through the blood of Christ.
[00:35:04] Without the riches of his grace, this whole business of Christ dying a substitutionary death, it baffles us. It's incomprehensible to us.
[00:35:17] Its meaning evades us.
[00:35:20] But when God shares the riches of his grace and mercy with us, something in our heart says, thank God for Jesus Christ.
[00:35:30] Thank God for the cross.
[00:35:32] Thank God for the love that he had to do such a thing. Uh, I wasn't worth it. I wasn't worth it.
[00:35:43] Without the riches of his grace, we cannot have spiritual sensibility in our daily lives.
[00:35:52] I. I was reading a commentary this week, and the word that gets translated, the second word, the first was wisdom. And I think the English says the second one is understanding. Isn't it the word that gets translated, understanding that I'm saying spiritual sensibility.
[00:36:09] Another commentator translated as prudence.
[00:36:14] I shared the meaning of prudence with you some time ago. It's another one of these great words that fell out of the English vocabulary.
[00:36:22] The last time I heard the word, prudence was the first bush say wouldn't be prudent.
[00:36:31] And I haven't heard the word since. All right.
[00:36:35] Prudence is a word that we need to reconnect with. It is the self discipline to make the Right choice in the moment.
[00:36:48] That's where it's hardest to make the right choice, isn't it?
[00:36:52] It's always hard to make the right choice in the moment.
[00:36:58] Ah, it takes self discipline to make the right choice in the moment and that's prudence. And God causes us to understand the riches of his grace and the riches of his mercy by giving us the self control to make the right decision in the moment.
[00:37:23] Just because you want to honk at that person and throw a hand gesture at them doesn't mean that it's prudent.
[00:37:34] But I often in the moment need a little divine help in the moment. I need the Holy Spirit to say wouldn't be prudent.
[00:37:48] Church.
[00:37:50] Out of the riches of his grace and out of the riches of his mercy, the Holy Spirit meets us day by day and he makes us self controlled to make the right decision in the moment. And it is an expression of his character toward us. It is an expression of the that he has redeemed us to to something better.
[00:38:18] Without the riches of his grace, we are alienated from the purpose of his will for our daily lives. Many people never say to God, I want to do your will, oh Lord. Millions of people have never said once, oh Lord, help me to do your will. Millions of people have never prayed, thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It's alien to them because they have not experienced the riches of his grace and the riches of his mercy. In the riches of his grace it becomes sensible to me to say God's will is better than my will and I want to do his will, not mine.
[00:39:06] Without the riches of his grace, we failed to do the right thing in the moment.
[00:39:15] In the riches of his grace, in the riches of his mercy, the Holy Spirit helps me progressively get better and better at doing the right thing in the moment.
[00:39:27] This is what Paul wrote to the church at Colossae.
[00:39:32] So from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with all the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Did you hear that prayer request?
[00:39:48] Let's do it again.
[00:39:51] We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Why?
[00:40:03] So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good word, work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
[00:40:15] Listen at this.
[00:40:17] Out of the riches of his grace and mercy, God says, I want to fill you with the knowledge of my will.
[00:40:26] God says, I want you to have all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
[00:40:32] God says, when that happens, it will be much easier for you to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him. Bearing fruit in every good work Church we are redeemed. We are redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
[00:40:51] Part of that redemption is God lavishing upon us a different way of thinking, a wisdom that comes from above. That wisdom that comes from above changes us. And it changes us in the kind of way that we are worthy of the Lord and that we do the things that are pleasing to him, and that we bear fruit in every good work.
[00:41:14] Our dear Heavenly Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit would take the barren seed and plant it in the rich soil of the hearts who are listening today.
[00:41:34] I pray for myself. I pray for those who are in this room. I pray for those who are online.
[00:41:40] I pray that your Spirit would help us to understand in a new way that the blessed God blesses and one of his blessings is redemption.
[00:41:53] I pray that we would understand that the blessed God blesses. And through redemption we come to have a wisdom we would not have otherwise, had we come to have a prudence we would not have otherwise, had we come to have a spiritual sensibility.
[00:42:11] And these new ways of thinking make us worthy of our calling.
[00:42:18] They inspire us to be pleasing to you.
[00:42:21] They strengthen us for every good work.
[00:42:25] And they are just another aspect of your divine work, preparing us to abide with you forever.
[00:42:34] In Jesus name, amen.
