SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Well, good morning and welcome.
SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bible or your device, I encourage you to make your way to the book of Ephesians in the first chapter.
SPEAKER_01: So we continue our Christmas theme on the fullness of time.
SPEAKER_01: As always happens when I plan one of these series.
SPEAKER_01: You get into studying it, you realize there's far more to it than you initially realized.
SPEAKER_01: And this is just such a rich, rich theme this season, the fullness of time.
SPEAKER_01: And last Sunday I laid on Webb a very difficult task to begin the series, to somehow get inside my head and know what I was thinking and direction I wanted us to go and to preach it well.
SPEAKER_01: And he set the stage for us very well.
SPEAKER_01: And this morning we're going to pick up in Ephesians chapter 1 with the second of three times in Scripture that we see the phrase, the fullness of time.
SPEAKER_01: When Scripture uses this phrase, it refers to some element of the incarnation, of God becoming flesh, of taking on human form in order to die.
SPEAKER_01: The element that is going to be focused on this morning is Christ's death leading to our forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: And this is a communion Sunday, so it's very appropriate to have the theme of forgiveness central in our hearts and minds.
SPEAKER_01: And if you came in later than Webb's announcements, don't forget that you can find the communion elements at the back of the sanctuary by the doors if you didn't see them on the way in.
SPEAKER_01: It's my desire, my prayer that this morning is going to be building, building towards the pinnacle of celebrating, remembering and celebrating together the Lord's death, burial, and resurrection with the fullness of repentance, motivated by a fullness of understanding.
SPEAKER_01: I have entitled this morning's message The Fullness of Forgiveness, but that, of course, is not the phrase that we find in Ephesians chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, in verse 10, we see the fullness of time.
SPEAKER_01: There's a reason for that.
SPEAKER_01: The reason for that is that verses 3 through 14 are famously in the Greek language in which the Apostle Paul originally wrote, they are all a single run-on sentence.
SPEAKER_01: The Apostle Paul would have driven English teachers mad.
SPEAKER_01: Thankfully, our English translators have worked diligently to make it a little bit easier for us.
SPEAKER_01: And generally, our English translations take verses 3 through 14, divided into three still quite long sentences.
SPEAKER_01: But what this tells us is that this idea of the fullness of time is not set apart all by itself.
SPEAKER_01: It fits into the entire section of verse 3 through verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: This morning I would like us to focus particularly on verse 7 and part of verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: But to help us get some context, I'd like to begin reading in verse 3, if you would like to follow along.
SPEAKER_01: The Apostle Paul wrote to this ancient church in verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The God who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: That we should be holy and blameless before him.
SPEAKER_01: In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.
SPEAKER_01: All according to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us, literally graced us in the beloved.
SPEAKER_01: In him that is in Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us.
SPEAKER_01: And in all wisdom and in all insight, he made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: How?
SPEAKER_01: As a plan for the fullness of time, in order to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: It begins at the beginning in verse 3 with God's electing grace in eternity past, choosing us for Himself, and it continues all the way through the salvation plan till the culmination of it in eternity future with the eternal inheritance that we have in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And right in the middle, right in the middle of all of that working of God, is a particular benefit of God's working.
SPEAKER_01: A particular benefit that we participate in and receive within his purpose to unite all things in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And that's going to be our focus.
SPEAKER_01: Just that one little element, primarily in verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: Before we get to that, though, I'd like you to look at verse 10 for a moment and notice that God has a plan for the fullness of time.
SPEAKER_01: What we experience in life is not haphazard.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't just happen.
SPEAKER_01: God has a plan for the fullness of time, and that plan is set forth in his Son, Jesus Christ, and it will become united in him completely and fully.
SPEAKER_01: More on that next week.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody understood the fullness of God's plan.
SPEAKER_01: But it's now been graciously revealed.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, saints in Old Testament times, before the time of Christ, did not know the details of God's plan.
SPEAKER_01: Those saints participated in and observed continually all of the blood sacrifices.
SPEAKER_01: But they could not see how the fulfillment of all of that blood would be seen in the blood coming from his son.
SPEAKER_01: To be a part of this plan in Christ within the fullness of time requires being united with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that clearly.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to be a part of God's purposeful plan to be carried out in the fullness of time, you must be united with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That can only occur if you receive the fullness of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Or to state it another way, unity with Christ is simply impossible without the fullness of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: I'd like you to consider with me this morning three aspects of the fullness of forgiveness as we work towards celebrating what Christ has done for us.
SPEAKER_01: I'd like you to consider with me how God paid for redemption.
SPEAKER_01: I'd like you to consider the penalty for trespassing and how God provided for our forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Now we can only do this well if we enter the Holy of Holies, God's very presence with a spirit of awe and a spirit of praise.
SPEAKER_01: That's the only way this is possible.
SPEAKER_01: Awe because we understand his choosing in verse 3, his electing grace that brings us near, and praise because we understand his adopting grace that took offending people and made them sons and daughters of the living God.
SPEAKER_01: That's the only way we get to verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: In him, in the beloved, in Christ, we have redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, all according to the riches of his grace, which is lavished upon us.
SPEAKER_01: Look with me then first at the payment for redemption.
SPEAKER_01: The payment for redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if we think about a payment for redemption, that means we need to understand what redemption is.
SPEAKER_01: In him, in Christ, we have redemption.
SPEAKER_01: What is redemption?
SPEAKER_01: It's not a term that we use often today.
SPEAKER_01: But in ancient times it was quite common and it referred to something or someone that was freed.
SPEAKER_01: Ancient cultures use this often for the freeing of a slave.
SPEAKER_01: The word used here means to liberate or to grant freedom to another because of the making of a payment.
SPEAKER_01: Now that implies that there is a need for freedom.
SPEAKER_01: A bondage of sorts, of some kind, exists from which one needs to be freed.
SPEAKER_01: If you need or if you require or if you desire redemption, then you are saying that you desire freedom from something that holds power over you.
SPEAKER_01: Being redeemed, then implies that the one who is redeemed or who is freed possesses a new kind of freedom that did not exist before.
SPEAKER_01: There are all kinds of examples that we could give.
SPEAKER_01: There's a couple that I would like you to think about with me from the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And the first is found in that Old Testament small book called Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: It's named Ruth, but it's really more about Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: Naomi is a woman who was married to a man named Elimelech, who lived in Bethlehem, the house of bread, at a time in which there was no bread.
SPEAKER_01: There was a famine in the land, and so they had to take everything they had, and they moved across the Jordan River to the foreign country of Moab.
SPEAKER_01: While there, disaster struck the family.
SPEAKER_01: Their two sons married.
SPEAKER_01: Then the father died, and then the sons died, leaving Naomi with two daughters-in-law.
SPEAKER_01: One, Ruth, returned back to the land of Canaan with her because they heard that God had blessed the house of bread with bread.
SPEAKER_01: But they had an issue.
SPEAKER_01: They had an issue with their property because their property needed to be redeemed.
SPEAKER_01: You find this account in Lu in not Luke, Ruth chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: I'd like you to listen to what happened when Naomi's relative Boaz met up with a closer relative who had the first rite of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: This is in Ruth chapter 4, beginning in verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz said to the Redeemer, Naomi has returned.
SPEAKER_01: She's come back from the country of Moab, and she's in need.
SPEAKER_01: As a result of her need, she's selling the land that belonged to our relative Elimelech.
SPEAKER_01: Now understand that if she sells it, it's no longer in her possession.
SPEAKER_01: It's no longer in the family's possession.
SPEAKER_01: It belongs, it's in bondage, if you will, to someone else.
SPEAKER_01: So I thought I would tell you about it, Boaz says.
SPEAKER_01: Buy it here as a family member in the presence of the elders and those sitting here.
SPEAKER_01: And if you will, then redeem it, redeem it, buy it back for the sake of the family to keep it from going into bondage.
SPEAKER_01: But if you won't do it, then tell me, because I stand next in line, and I would like to redeem it if you don't.
SPEAKER_01: The rest of that short book then details how Boaz redeemed the property.
SPEAKER_01: He bought it for the family.
SPEAKER_01: See, as long as it was in the family's possession, it belonged to them as their inheritance from God.
SPEAKER_01: It forever belonged to the family, but if they sold it outside of the family, it was as it were in bondage, the property of someone else.
SPEAKER_01: But it could be redeemed, it could be bought back.
SPEAKER_01: And the most common way that we think about redemption is in regards to people, not property.
SPEAKER_01: The best example there comes from God's people, Israel.
SPEAKER_01: See, Israel was redeemed by God from Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: There are a couple of statements that I want to point you to, and both of them are from the book of Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_01: Moses wrote in Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 8, he said, It is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that he has brought you out of Egypt with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: From the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: Here Moses reminded all the people, you were possessed by someone else.
SPEAKER_01: Someone else owned you.
SPEAKER_01: You were the property of someone else, your God who is strong and who is mighty, he redeemed you.
SPEAKER_01: He brought you out of that place.
SPEAKER_01: That's why a little bit later he would say in Deuteronomy 15, you shall remember always that you were possessed by someone else.
SPEAKER_01: You were a slave in the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord your God redeemed you.
SPEAKER_01: See, when it pertains to people, redemption indicates that the people being redeemed are in the place of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: They are in the possession of someone else.
SPEAKER_01: And inherent then within that idea of redemption is that idea of possession and slavery to another.
SPEAKER_01: And then someone comes along and rescues from slavery.
SPEAKER_01: But the rescue involves a price.
SPEAKER_01: Payment is made to procure another's freedom.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we read in Psalm 74, verse 2, in a worshipful sense, remember your congregation, O God, which you purchased of old, and which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: There's the idea of redemption and the idea of purchase price to redeem Israel from her slavery.
SPEAKER_01: There was always a payment given for redemption.
SPEAKER_01: By using this word.
SPEAKER_01: Ancient Israel was in essence a group of ethnic slaves whom God redeemed.
SPEAKER_01: God paid the price to redeem them.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you remember the account of Israel coming out of Egypt, you know that a price was paid.
SPEAKER_01: God said that he was coming in judgment.
SPEAKER_01: He gave ten signs to the people of Egypt, the last of which was the worst.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm coming for your firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: That's the price that I'm exacting.
SPEAKER_01: He said, There's only one way of escape.
SPEAKER_01: And that's as if you have a substitute.
SPEAKER_01: So he told his people, you have the opportunity to escape my judgment.
SPEAKER_01: So take a lamb and slaughter that lamb and put its blood on the doorpost.
SPEAKER_01: Because a destroying angel is coming.
SPEAKER_01: And when that destroying angel passes over the house with the blood on it, I will stand in the gap.
SPEAKER_01: And I will say, You're not coming here.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone who had faith in Israel's God was required to have a substitute.
SPEAKER_01: God required the life of a substitute in order to avoid judgment.
SPEAKER_01: And in that Passover, the substitute was the lamb.
SPEAKER_01: And after that moment, every Passover, every Passover season, a sacrifice was made as a reminder that a price had been paid to redeem the nation from bondage in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: God brought them out.
SPEAKER_01: A lamb gave its life so that Israel might have freedom.
SPEAKER_01: Now we are not Old Testament national Israel.
SPEAKER_01: But you still must realize your need for redemption.
SPEAKER_01: If for no other reason than why we're gathered today.
SPEAKER_01: In a few moments, we're going to participate together in celebrating the Lord's table, remembering his crucifixion and his death.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, communion makes absolutely no sense if you have no need for redemption.
SPEAKER_01: If you have no need for redemption, communion is pointless.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Israel's experience in Egypt, in slavery, and coming out of that slavery, being redeemed by their God, parallels that of all of humanity.
SPEAKER_01: Because all of us, you and me, we have lived in the house of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: God says that from the moment of birth onward we are slaves.
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you just a couple of examples.
SPEAKER_01: First, in John chapter 8, verse 34, Jesus said that anyone who sins is a slave of sin.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone not sinned?
SPEAKER_01: Then you are a slave to sin.
SPEAKER_01: Romans chapter 6, verse 16, the Apostle Paul wrote, Do you not know that if you present yourselves, if you give yourselves over to anyone as being obedient to them, as a slave would be obedient, then you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience to God, which leads to righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20 of that same chapter, Romans 6, it's written, For when you were slaves of sin.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, the scriptures are very clear.
SPEAKER_01: We may not belong in physical slavery to another group of people.
SPEAKER_01: But we exist in general as human beings, as slaves to sin.
SPEAKER_01: And anyone who is in slavery needs redemption, needs rescue.
SPEAKER_01: And the good news is that like ancient Israel, all who are in Christ are redeemed out of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to Colossians chapter 1, beginning in verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of Christ, it says he has delivered us out of the domain of darkness.
SPEAKER_01: And he's transferred us, he's moved us from one location to another into the kingdom of his body.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved Son, in whom, in Christ, in the Son, we have redemption, which is the forgiveness of our sins.
SPEAKER_01: There we begin to move from this idea of physical escape, physical release from bondage to that of spiritual release of bondage.
SPEAKER_01: The idea of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: When we come into the New Testament, that becomes the emphasis, not the physical act of freeing, but the spiritual act of freeing by identifying redemption with forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: To be redeemed by God is to be forgiven in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I'd like you to look with me then back in Ephesians chapter 1 at the provision for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: In Him we have redemption through, by means of, provided by His blood.
SPEAKER_01: The forgiveness, the provision for forgiveness has always been through blood.
SPEAKER_01: Think back to the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_01: When Adam and Eve chose to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that one tree out of all the trees.
SPEAKER_01: God said, Don't eat of that one.
SPEAKER_01: As a result of that, they realized that they were naked.
SPEAKER_01: They had offended God.
SPEAKER_01: What did God do?
SPEAKER_01: God became the first clothing designer.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: He made clothes.
SPEAKER_01: What did he make the clothes out of?
SPEAKER_01: Animal skins.
SPEAKER_01: An animal had to die to provide forgiveness for Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_01: We just go on throughout the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: Blood had to be shed to shield the people from the Passover judgment.
SPEAKER_01: The blood sacrifices offered daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, decade after decade, century after century to atone for sin, both individually and corporately, as the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: That's why when we get to the book of Hebrews, chapter 9, verse 22 in the New Testament, we read the words, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_01: Your sins cannot be forgiven unless blood is shed.
SPEAKER_01: It's no different today.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see then the price of our redemption was blood.
SPEAKER_01: It was blood.
SPEAKER_01: Redemption in a spiritual sense is always bloody.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Acts chapter 20 and verse 28 would say that Jesus obtained us, obtained us with his own blood.
SPEAKER_01: Peter would say it a little bit differently in a more verbose way.
SPEAKER_01: If you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, make sure you conduct yourselves with fear throughout your time of exile.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you know that you are ransomed, you are redeemed, you were bought out from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers.
SPEAKER_01: Not with things that don't last, like gold and silver, but with the blood of Christ, the precious blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: As though he were a lamb without blemish or spot.
SPEAKER_01: God provided graciously for Abraham when he required Abraham to take his son up on top of Mount Moriah and offer him as a blood sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: God provided a substitute.
SPEAKER_01: The very last moment he said to Abraham, Stop, there's a ram over there caught in the thicket.
SPEAKER_01: Go get him.
SPEAKER_01: Shed his blood.
SPEAKER_01: I'm providing a substitute.
SPEAKER_01: But in the fullness of time, God would provide for all of humanity by giving the blood of his son.
SPEAKER_01: As a substitute.
SPEAKER_01: The blood that was worth more than all the gold and silver and precious things of the universe combined.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the apostle is referring to here in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: In him, in Christ, in our substitute, we have redemption.
SPEAKER_01: How?
SPEAKER_01: Through his blood.
SPEAKER_01: Now we can understand, at least to some extent, why the Passover was so important to Israel and why that routine was kept in the same way year after year after year, all the way up until the time Jesus kept it with his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: But the images and the meaning ought to be important to us too, because we too were slaves to sin.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you still are.
SPEAKER_01: If you still are, then run to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We're slaves in bondage.
SPEAKER_01: And God has provided for our forgiveness through the blood of the Lamb of God.
SPEAKER_01: How great is that?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've heard the name Augustus Toplity.
SPEAKER_01: He's the writer of the old hymn Rock of Ages, a contemporary of John Wesley.
SPEAKER_01: About this time of year, Augustus Toplity wrote, Upon a review of the last year, I desire to confess that my unfaithfulness has been exceedingly great, and my sins still greater.
SPEAKER_01: But God's mercies greater than both.
SPEAKER_01: My shortcomings and my misdoings, my unbelief and my want of love would sink me into the lowest hell was not Jesus, my righteousness and my redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: That's every one of us.
SPEAKER_01: In him we have redemption through his blood.
SPEAKER_01: Now look with me at the penalty for trespassing.
SPEAKER_01: The penalty for trespassing.
SPEAKER_01: In him we have redemption through his blood.
SPEAKER_01: The forgiveness of our trespasses.
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean to trespass?
SPEAKER_01: Saw these signs all the time when I was growing up in the opposite corner of North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Thankfully, I knew the neighbors and they didn't mind me transgressing most of the time.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you'd be walking through the river bottoms of Little Missouri River.
SPEAKER_01: You'd see these signs posted all over the trees.
SPEAKER_01: No trespassing.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it means that there's a boundary, right?
SPEAKER_01: In some cases it might be a physical boundary like a fence.
SPEAKER_01: In other cases, it might be an imaginary boundary, saying, this belongs to me.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you dare cross over this line to do whatever you want to do.
SPEAKER_01: Because the one who has the boundary, the one who sets the boundary, is the one who sets the rules, who sets the laws, who says, this is what you can do, this is what you can't do.
SPEAKER_01: And God has said, I'm the sovereign.
SPEAKER_01: And I've set a boundary in place.
SPEAKER_01: And you all have trespassed.
SPEAKER_01: Again and again and again.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if our trespasses are forgiven, that means that there must have been a penalty for trespassing.
SPEAKER_01: That implies that because we because we went across the line that God set, there must be a penalty that comes to us.
SPEAKER_01: What is that penalty?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we could answer that in a number of ways.
SPEAKER_01: I would like to answer that from the book of Ephesians.
SPEAKER_01: But in order to answer that from the book of Ephesians, I need you to think about the whole of Scripture with me.
SPEAKER_01: I would submit to you that in the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul wants us to understand the penalty of trespassing as distance.
SPEAKER_01: Distance from God.
SPEAKER_01: Blood was shed.
SPEAKER_01: And then what happened next?
SPEAKER_01: God said, get out.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Get out.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot be here any longer.
SPEAKER_01: My holiness cannot tolerate you.
SPEAKER_01: Get out.
SPEAKER_01: Get out of my garden.
SPEAKER_01: Get out of the place where I walk with you in the cool of the evening.
SPEAKER_01: Get out where you hear my voice.
SPEAKER_01: You must go.
SPEAKER_01: And he kicked them out.
SPEAKER_01: And he stationed cherubim with flaming swords at the entrances so that they could no longer come back and have communion with God.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Go, be at a distance from me, lest you die.
SPEAKER_01: That was the image that God gave Israel in the Day of Atonement and the images in this in the scapegoat.
SPEAKER_01: Two goats were brought to be sacrificed.
SPEAKER_01: One goat was slaughtered so that the high priest could take the blood of that goat and go into the temple, and in the temple go into the very holy of holies, into the presence of God, and with that blood sprinkle it, so that God's anger and his wrath would be atoned, would be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: The other goat had all of the sins of the community confessed and laid on that goat, and it was led outside of the community, so that it would be set free to wander in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: See, it was sent away from the presence of God so that the people wouldn't be.
SPEAKER_01: We think about the mountain of Sinai.
SPEAKER_01: God told Moses, make sure that you put up a fence around the bottom of this mountain so that the people don't break through and come close to me.
SPEAKER_01: Because if they break through and come close to me, then I'm going to break out against them.
SPEAKER_01: Distance from God.
SPEAKER_01: What was the picture presented every single time you went to church, that is, at the temple in ancient times?
SPEAKER_01: It was distance.
SPEAKER_01: The very presence of God was found in that cube of space called the Holy of Holies.
SPEAKER_01: That was God's presence.
SPEAKER_01: And again, only one person could go there, only one time of year, and only under a specific set of circumstances, lest he die.
SPEAKER_01: Only one person.
SPEAKER_01: You step back from there into the temple proper.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, priests could go there, but again, only after a prescribed series of cleansings, sacrifices.
SPEAKER_01: But you and I couldn't go there.
SPEAKER_01: Because you take a step away from there is the court of men.
SPEAKER_01: Still further from God is the court of women.
SPEAKER_01: And furthest from the presence of God in the Holy of Holies is the court of the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: Distance from God.
SPEAKER_01: God said, You can't come near me.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe one of the most painful demonstrations of this distance was when God said to his people, get out.
SPEAKER_01: I've given you this land, it's your inheritance forever.
SPEAKER_01: Get out.
SPEAKER_01: And he exiled them, scattered them into various nations for 70 years.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Get out.
SPEAKER_01: You can't be in my presence.
SPEAKER_01: You have sinned against me, you have transgressed my law.
SPEAKER_01: You have trespassed the line that I set.
SPEAKER_01: Get out.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, we do not grasp our own forgiveness from God if we do not feel being held at length, at arm's length, from God.
SPEAKER_01: You know what this feels like.
SPEAKER_01: All of us have been held at arm's length by another human being.
SPEAKER_01: We've offended them.
SPEAKER_01: We've made them mad for some reason.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we didn't even know why.
SPEAKER_01: And now there's a distance between us.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have a sense of that distance between you and God because of your sin, then you don't get forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: You don't understand it.
SPEAKER_01: But this is far worse.
SPEAKER_01: This is being booted from the garden.
SPEAKER_01: This is being driven out from the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: This is being driven out from God's grace, from God's mercy, from his perfect goodness and his perfect love.
SPEAKER_01: No longer having access to God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean then to have our trespasses forgiven?
SPEAKER_01: Let me show you.
SPEAKER_01: Flip over to page chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: There's only two spots in the book of Ephesians where blood is mentioned.
SPEAKER_01: One is Ephesians 1.7, the other is in chapter 2 and verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: But now, wonderful words.
SPEAKER_01: But now, in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You who once were far off.
SPEAKER_01: Why were you far off?
SPEAKER_01: Because of your trespasses.
SPEAKER_01: All of you who once were far off, driven away from God, have been brought near.
SPEAKER_01: How?
SPEAKER_01: By the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: There are no more barriers.
SPEAKER_01: They're broken down.
SPEAKER_01: Access to God is restored.
SPEAKER_01: It's as though we now have access with the high priest to the Holy of Holies.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because we carry blood with us.
SPEAKER_01: What blood?
SPEAKER_01: The blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Who have we trespassed against?
SPEAKER_01: God.
SPEAKER_01: R.C.
SPEAKER_01: Sproul would say it famously.
SPEAKER_01: That's cosmic treason.
SPEAKER_01: Who needs to be redeemed?
SPEAKER_01: We do.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because we've trespassed.
SPEAKER_01: What do we need to be redeemed from?
SPEAKER_01: Our slavery to sin.
SPEAKER_01: What's the price of our redemption?
SPEAKER_01: Blood.
SPEAKER_01: Whose blood covers our trespasses?
SPEAKER_01: Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: In him we have redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Through his blood.
SPEAKER_01: The forgiveness of our trespasses.
SPEAKER_01: Now, how much forgiveness does Jesus' blood provide?
SPEAKER_01: Enough to get you through today?
SPEAKER_01: We hope.
SPEAKER_01: Tomorrow?
SPEAKER_01: All that you've done in the past?
SPEAKER_01: Some of what you've done in the future?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus pays a price, he provides the fullness of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Look with me at Ephesians 1, verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: How much forgiveness does Jesus' blood provide, verse 4?
SPEAKER_01: He provides enough forgiveness so that the trespassers who trust in him will now be called holy and without blame.
SPEAKER_01: That's how much forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: So that the one that we've trespassed against looks at us and says, You have no more trespasses.
SPEAKER_01: They're gone.
SPEAKER_01: How much forgiveness do we have, verse seven?
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, verse five.
SPEAKER_01: Verse five.
SPEAKER_01: Enough so that the Father could say to all of the people who trespassed against him.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to be my son.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to be my daughter.
SPEAKER_01: I'm covering your trespass.
SPEAKER_01: How much forgiveness is there in verse 7?
SPEAKER_01: Enough so that it can be described as the riches of God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever the richest person is now, Bill Gates or whomever, doesn't hold a candle to God.
SPEAKER_01: Except for you.
SPEAKER_01: If you have his forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's given to you the riches of his grace.
SPEAKER_01: How much forgiveness do we have, according to verse 8?
SPEAKER_01: Enough to be described as being lavished upon us.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine if Christ had never left the throne of glory, if Christ had never condescended to become a man in order to shed his blood, where would you and I be?
SPEAKER_01: There would be no fullness of time.
SPEAKER_01: If Christ never condescended.
SPEAKER_01: And there would definitely be no fullness of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: It's wise Charles Spurgeon would say, we are today accepted in the beloved that is in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Today we are absolved from sin.
SPEAKER_01: Today, acquitted at the bar of God, we are now pardoned.
SPEAKER_01: Even now our sins are put away.
SPEAKER_01: Even now we stand in the sight of God accepted as though we had never been guilty.
SPEAKER_01: Because there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: There is not a sin written in the book of God, even now against one of his people.
SPEAKER_01: Who dares to lay anything against their charge?
SPEAKER_01: There is neither speck nor spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing remaining upon any one believer in the matter of justification in the sight of the judge of all the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Give thanks, my friends, for the fullness of forgiveness in the fullness of time.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: How do we ever respond properly?
SPEAKER_01: That you would take it upon yourself to be to be the Lamb of God.
SPEAKER_01: Appointed before the foundation of the world to shed your blood, so that we might be forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: We come before you with hearts brimming, flowing over with gratitude, with thanks for who you are and what you've done.
SPEAKER_01: And as we gather together as your people, to remember your body broken as it hung upon that tree.
SPEAKER_01: And your blood shed so that we might be forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: How we celebrate with you the glory that comes to you because of who you are and what you've done.
SPEAKER_01: No one else could bestow upon us the riches of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: And so as we partake together, we give thanks to you, and we offer you praise, full of awe, for being our Lord and our Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.