His Best for My Worst

Take your Bibles if you would please and turn to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 7 is where we're at. So I will read from verse 1 and get to verse 7 and read just past verse 7 as well so that we get the context of today's message. And if you like to take notes and write down a title, a title for today's message is "His Best for My Worst."

Today's message, if fully comprehended, if I'm able to articulate it well, will leave us understanding just how unfair God was to His own Son for our benefit.

And the weightiness of the doctrine of substitutionary atonement is upon me, and so I covet your prayers even as I speak to the matter. It is the very heart of the gospel. And so this verse today helps us to understand some of these truths. Let's read together from Ephesians chapter 1 verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.

And to the saints who are at Ephesus who are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the beloved. Now verse 7, "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our transgressions, according to the riches of His grace, which He caused to abound to us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Him." And let's pause and pray.

Father, we see that You're working all things according to Your good purpose and according to Your pleasure and You're working it out in kindness. And so, Father, for today we see that we, the redeemed, have been redeemed by Your blood, by Your Son's blood, and You've taken on our filthiness and given us Your righteousness. Lord, that is so hard to comprehend on why You would do such a thing. We're so unworthy of that, but You gave Your best for our worst that now we're blood-bought, we're Yours. We have longed to You, so may we live for You, be pleasing unto You. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.

So you've heard the reading of God's Word, and now as we begin to unfold this understanding of substitutionary atonement, I would say again that properly understood today's doctrine, it'll cause you to say something like this, "Why did you do that for me, God?" Truly reflecting upon the cross will cause you to weep and ask God, "You didn't have to do that. Why did you consider me? You didn't have to." And then as well, "Why, God, did you want me? What is in me that you would want?" As one who is completely sufficient in yourself, why would you go to the extent to redeem me? What is there that you desire? And again, that question kind of helps us to understand that it's all about Him and His glory and not about us. And so salvation is for Christ Jesus. We, the redeemed, are a gift to Jesus, and it's by God's grace, His rich grace.

And so when we think about these subjects, sometimes your mind can't comprehend it, and sometimes your heart can't contain it. It's just too rich and too wonderful to truly understand all of the depths and wonders of God, especially at the very center point of the meeting of the cross. And so let me do my best to help us today to understand the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. Atonement is an Old Testament concept that we see through and through. It's pictured for us in several different illustrations. It's a key concept of theology, not only in the Old Testament, but the New Testament as well. And so the old sacrificial system pointed toward Christ for centuries. And so you have this idea being warmed up and illustrated for centuries and centuries and centuries being pointed towards Christ, who would be the sacrifice, the one and final sacrifice, in all of the goats, in all of the lambs, in all of the sacrifices for centuries and centuries never could have atoned for even a single sin, much less all of our sins. I turn to Hebrews chapter 9, and I want you to see verse 12.

As the author of Hebrews, the preacher who was preaching to the Jews, here a sermon — Hebrews is one long big sermon — he says to the Jews in Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 12, "Not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood."

"He entered the holy place once and for all, having obtained eternal redemption." Verse 13 says, "For the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctified for the cleansing of the flesh. How much more will the blood of Christ, whom through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serving the living God."

Here there's a sub point in salvation that I'd like for you to take note of. It's a beautiful truth that when someone gets saved, there's a conscience reset that God does. And so all of the guilt and all the shame that we carry by being sinners now is eradicated. And through salvation, your conscience now is cleansed. And that is what verse 14 is talking about. The blood of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice, when it is applied to you and you are saved, you now do not have to carry the guilt and the shame of all of your lifelong past sins. Christ bore all of that on the cross and it's been paid for. And so do not let Satan fool you. Do not let him weigh you down with the things of the past.

That's not God's will. Nor is it to sacrifice goats and calves and lambs and everything in the Old Testament as a purpose for your redemption. It's all foretelling the one and only sacrifice to come that would be Jesus Christ. So therefore the fulfillment of Adam's first sin debt, in Genesis chapter 3 verse 8 in the past,

has been fulfilled through Christ. But not only his past sin is Christ sufficient to eradicate, but also the present sins and all of the future sins. All of the sin of the whole world was taken care of in one righteous, substitutionary act of Jesus on the cross.

Now, you know that our sin separates us from God. And it is by Christ's atonement that you are now reunited in a right relationship with God. That's what atonement means. At-one-ment. Atonement. At one. You are made at one with Christ through His atonement. When He applies the blood to you and you are saved, you are made at one with Christ because of His sacrifice, because of His atonement. Now, the word atonement in its very word helps you to understand that you're in Him. You're in Christ by His atonement. It makes it possible for us to be in unity and in fellowship with Him because of what He did. You could not do that. You cannot reconcile yourself to God.

And so atonement includes the innocent party — and being Jesus — taking on the punishment of the guilty party. Taking on the punishment is what's called penal substitution. So the innocent party takes on the guilty party's punishment.

And the Hebrew word for atonement is kaphar, meaning to cover. And so everything that you've ever done has been covered by the blood of the Lamb, completely paid for. Everything, past, present, and future, you have nothing to worry about. And so for all of the unfair deeds that you have done to God,

it's been covered by the blood of the Lamb. And for all of the evil, unfair deeds that have been done to you, it's all been covered by the blood of the Lamb.

Everything in one act has been atoned for, it's been covered. And so Christ's act of atonement covers your sin debt. So Christ's blood sacrifice is required; that blood is required for full atonement. And I would ask you today, are you covered in the blood of the Lamb? Are you covered? Has His atonement been applied to your life? Have you repented of your sin and placed your faith and trust in His atoning work on the cross? Because you know that you could never die for your own sin and be atoned for. An unworthy vessel cannot do that. Only Christ can.

And so sinful humanity needed a rescuer. Turn to Romans chapter 3 verse 25. Romans chapter 3, and we'll just start in verse 23 because all have sinned. Humanity is in a desperate situation. They're in such a debt that they could never pay it back. They're incapable of even recognizing their sin debt. In Romans 3:23, it says, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." So redemption is in Christ Jesus. But it goes on further to explain a very important point in verse 25,

whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood. Now, He was ridiculed and shamed publicly for your sin. Your sin doesn't have to be publicly exposed, and you don't have to be crucified naked on an old, rugged cross in front of all of your friends and family like Jesus was, because He took on all of that guilt and shame. He did that for you. Every dirty deed that you've ever done, He bore on the cross. Every thought, every action. Jesus said, "If you've committed murder in the heart, you're a murderer." And so don't think highly of yourself. Have a sober opinion of who we really are outside of Christ. That's the first step to being able to be saved — knowing who you really are. You are a sinner in need of a Savior.

So God displayed Christ publicly as a propitiation. Propitiation means that God's righteous wrath was applied to Christ and you the benefactor. And so Christ took on the punishment of your sin. You could never bear the punishment of God's wrath. We have not the capacity, much less to even understand God, but to take on His righteous wrath, for He is holy, holy, holy. And now to make things just and right, He has to punish sin. A righteous judge, when he drops the gavel, must give the right sentence. And the soul that sins must die. And so we have sinned. We deserve death. God is a righteous judge. Must judge your sin. Otherwise, it compromises His own holy integrity. And knowing our sin debt, He made a way. He created a way. He sent His only begotten Son. That whoever would believe in Him would be saved. And so Jesus is our propitiation in taking on God's wrath.

Turn to 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. Not the Gospel of John, but 1 John towards the back of the Bible right before Revelation. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 2.

It's very clear that "He Himself is the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world." And so Jesus is the propitiation. He took on the wrath of God in our place. Last week I looked around. I got the attention of our children. And I told them that you don't have to die for your sin. Christ died for you. Repent of your sin and place your faith and trust in His atoning work.

In fact, Jesus makes it very clear for the Old Testament people and those who are alive then, for us now, for anybody forever in the future, this picture of the fact that He is the atonement. By giving us a self-identifying concept, He said that He is the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. And for the Old Testament believers who believed that they were looking forward to a sacrifice that would come and be the one and forever sacrifice, they were sacrificing pure and spotless lambs by faith, looking forward to Christ to come, the Messiah to come. And in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 7, He says that "like a lamb that is led to the slaughter." So Old Testament believers understood the Messiah to come would be the one and final sacrifice. And then in Hebrews 9:25 it says that He offered Himself. And so He was the Lamb of God who offered Himself. In Hebrews 9:26 He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And so Jesus is the sacrifice, singular, the sacrifice, the one and only atonement for sin. John the Baptist proclaimed, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," in John 1:29.

And so as you look here in Ephesians, the subject of redemption comes up. "In Him we have redemption." And this word redemption in the Greek denotes deliverance. Redemption means deliverance. Have you been delivered from your sin's punishment? Have you been delivered from God's wrath, His impending wrath upon sin?

You see, we are living in what's called the church age of grace right now. And this age of grace is where God is withholding His wrath until that day. It's appointed unto man once to die and then be judgment. And so He is withholding this death sentence while the church spreads His grace. While we spread the gospel, while we go and reach people, nobody has promised another day — you could be dead before you get home. View your people in your neighborhood. View your friends and your family like that. You are not promised another day. Repent and believe the gospel, Mark 1:15. Repent and believe the gospel. Say it over and over and over again. You know how important it is to say the word repent and believe the gospel, especially the word repent? When Jesus first started His preaching ministry, the first word that comes out of Jesus' mouth by way of preaching is recorded in Matthew 4:17. Guess what that word is?

Repent.

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Folks, it is a false gospel if you do not tell people to repent of their sin. If they do not recognize that Jesus is the atonement, He is the sacrifice. If they just believe then they are no better than demons because they believe and even tremble. Most false converts today believe but don't even tremble.

Folks, this is so important for us to get the true gospel and the reason why Christ died on the cross and that He is our Redeemer.

Now, speaking of redemption, redemption is deliverance from sin by the blood of Christ. If you're looking for a short, comprehensible definition, it is the deliverance from sin by the blood of Christ. It took the blood of Jesus to be able to produce redemption. And so, whatever the price for freedom is for your deliverance from sin, that price must be completely paid for. Follow my train of thought here. So the guilty party is completely guilty and they are in bondage. We are guilty. We're in bondage to sin. Our will is even in bondage to sin. Our desire, pre-Christ, is just to continue to sin. Our will is bent towards sin. We're sinners.

Jonathan Edwards preached a famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." We're sinners. We're in bondage. And the payment for our sin must be completely paid. The payment for all the offenses and all the accumulated debt that we have is what's called the ransom price. For you to be redeemed, the price of your sin debt must be completely covered, completely paid. There is a ransom price. We're the guilty party. Psalm 51:4 says, "Against you and you alone I have sinned."

So our sin is against God. Now God then sets the ransom price. He's the one who says, "All of your sin, all of your offenses against me and me alone add up to this." Cha-ching! Whatever that number, whatever that cost may be. He sets the debt number. He sets what that concept is. You don't get to set that price because you sinned against Him. You don't get to determine, "Oh, I'm a good person." You don't get to determine the fact that I've never really actually killed anybody. You don't get to set the rules. God holds the plumb line, the Old Testament prophet says. God holds the standard. He gives us a standard. The standard, if you don't remember, is holiness. 1 Peter 1:16 says, "Be holy, for I am holy." Being perfect is something that Jesus set before us from the very beginning. And He's telling us, who are already imperfect, to be perfect. He's saying, "You need to be covered by the blood of the Lamb."

And so this required ransom price is something that we could never pay on our own. It requires the blood of the Lamb. Hebrews 9:22 says, "Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin." And it cannot be the blood of goats. It cannot be the blood of lambs. It cannot be your works. You can do no work, no sacrifice, no amount of giving, no amount of anything that can eradicate or pay for a single sin. How can you pay for a sin? You can't. It takes someone who can. All have sinned. We need His grace. But not only His grace to be able to pay for sin. Think of your sin in yourself and how guilty we are before God.

Well, it takes rich grace to be able to do this. Look in Ephesians chapter 1 at the fact that His grace is according to His riches, which is unfathomable. In verse 7 it says, "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our transgressions, according to the riches of His grace." God's riches are so rich that you can't even fathom how rich they are. If there were going to be — I don't know, let's just choose a big number — 50 trillion people who have sinned over and over. Let's go with 500 trillion, trillion people. The blood of the Lamb is able. The purity of Christ's death is able.

And by the way, it's not the substance, the blood, as if you can gather up the blood and keep it and it's pure and holy. Blood represents death in the Old Testament. So when you're bled out, you die. Life is in the what? The blood. And when Christ gave His blood, He died. Blood is symbolic for death. He died for your sin. That is the payment. His death is what is the payment for you because you sinned and now you deserve to die. The soul that sins must die. So He died for us. And blood symbolizes that death.

There's an old rumor going around that, you know, the blood has been gathered up. There's no perpetual sacrifice going on from Christ — as Catholic leftovers. Christ is not still on the cross bleeding out more blood for you now. No, it's already done. One and done. There's one sacrifice that's been for all of the sins of the entire world, past, present, and future.

The illustrations in the Bible are rich in regards to redemption. They abound. The clearest is the Exodus. And so a clear picture of God's freeing of His people from the bondage of slavery and sin was illustrated when He miraculously brought Israel from Egypt. The Israeli captivity in Egypt and the release of that captivity pictures coming from death to life and salvation. So this picture of salvation also illuminates that the saved belong to God. He brought them out. And so now you're owned and operated by Him. We are perhaps, if you want to use the word, reclaimed. And so we were originally in the garden. Adam and Eve created sinless. And now we have been born in sin. And so now God reclaims us. He brings us back. And so freedom from bondage then restores a person to a right relationship to Christ. We've been reclaimed. We've been brought back. And so you can think to yourself of the common cliché that freedom is not free, and think about the atonement.

Think about how Christ's payment on a cross was not easy, wasn't free. It required His suffering. And so blood is required for redemption. It was His blood He gave. He suffered through this. In Exodus chapter 12, it illustrates the future blood to be shed on the cross. And the blood applied in the shape of a cross on the door posts or the door frame was required for God's wrath to pass over them. In Exodus chapter 12 verse 7 it says, "Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it." And so you put blood up here, over here, and over here. And that pictures the cross. And then in verse 13 of chapter 12, "And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And I will see the blood and I will pass over you. And there shall be no plague among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt."

What a glorious foretelling of the Passover, of the covering. We are covered in the blood of the Lamb so that His wrath passes over us. In Romans chapter 5 and verses 8 and 9, I'll read verses 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 to you. Romans chapter 5 verse 6 says, "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps the good man someone would dare to even die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him." The same as Israel was saved is that we are saved. We're saved from the wrath of God. And then verse 10, "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by His life."

And so I want you to hear back in Ephesians chapter 1 to recognize some of the links in this verse. The concept here of your redemption and the blood and the forgiveness of our transgressions and riches of His grace, they're all inseparably linked. So notice the links and concepts with me if you would. In verse 7, "In Him we have redemption," and then it's linked, "through His blood." And then that is linked to "the forgiveness of our transgressions," which is linked then therefore to "according to the riches of His grace." So redemption is linked to Christ's blood and the blood is linked to forgiveness and it's all linked in the grace of God, the rich grace of God.

So not only are we seeing these links here in Ephesians chapter 1, I'll read to you Colossians 1:14. It says, "In Him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." And so you see the link there again.

In these linked concepts there are two very important points I want you to take note of today. Two very important points.

Number one, redemption is liberation. Redemption means freedom. And if you would like, as children, to take maybe a more comprehensible sentence for yourself, you can say, "Salvation sets you free from sin." Very easily understood. And so as a family discipleship church, we worship together with our children. And I'm so proud of the note taking that goes on. And I love to give stickers to our little kids who are taking notes. They are learning, learning, learning. And so number one, children, is this: "Salvation sets you free from sin." This is God's gift for those who repent and believe in Him. Our bondage to sin has been broken by the blood of the Lamb, by Christ's sacrifice. And slavery to sin now has been severed. When you're born in sin, we have our will bent towards sinning. And that needs to be severed. You can't do it. None seeks Christ, the Bible says. None seeks Him. When we're lost and unregenerate, we are self-centered at the core. And so it takes the calling and the regeneration of a soul to get you to look up to seek Christ. And now as you are seeking Christ, you are saved through repentance and faith by God's grace. And after that happens, now simultaneously, sin's grip on you is severed.

You may be able to teach moralism to yourself or to your children. You may be able to create all kinds of legislation in the civil realm and government realm. But it never gets to the heart. Salvation changes the heart. Salvation gives a new heart, a new will, a new desire to please God, new convictions. You hate your sin and you love God. Whereas before the BC days — before Christ — you loved your sin and you felt no guilt. You just went and did whatever you wanted. But now that you've received a new heart, you delight yourself in the Lord and He gives you the desires of your heart. It's wonderful. This is evidence of salvation. The fact that you have had bondage broken. You are no longer a slave to those sins. You no longer must do that.

The unregenerate fool in Proverbs cannot go to sleep without sinning and stealing and lying. They must commit these things so they can't even go to sleep. The wisest man in the world said in Proverbs, listen, sinners will sin. So don't get mad about it, by the way. They're only doing what their nature demands. They need to be converted. They need to be shown God's grace. And it takes a whole lot of internal fortitude, good old-fashioned Christian conviction, to be able to be slapped by an enemy and yet respond in grace. We fail at that all the time. We've got to give you another chance to try to be harmed, but yet respond with the gospel and have pity on people who are trapped in sin. They're going to hell. The Bible says that vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord. They will pay for their sins unless they repent. You need not do anything to them except give the gospel.

When people are unregenerate, they have no idea what it is to go to hell and to pay for their sins for eternity. And they will have an everlasting regret, a soul-wrought regret that is both internal and physically painful externally. The Bible says that hell is like the place where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. And when the Bible repeats itself three times, you'd better pay attention, because there in the book of Luke, "this is where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched, where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched, where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." Jesus Himself repeats Himself three times. Now listen up. Where the worm dieth not — that's like that illustration to the hearers who have seen the Roman army come through and just obliterate a town and you got all these dead bodies in the valley and there's this rot, this maggot that starts to eat at the inner parts of the bodies left in the field. And so this worm that eats from the inside of a corpse is like the guilty conscience just eating away and nagging. You can't sleep. You have such regret. In Luke chapter 16, you have the one who died and now is becoming an evangelist and saying, "Go share with my brothers."

And so you have internal regret for eternity in hell, but that's just the picture of the worm that dieth not. Never ever will that guilt subside. I don't know about you, but emotional pain to me is worse than physical pain. I would much rather have my heart right than, I don't know, even a broken bone. Emotional pain is just torturous. So hell has not only emotional pain, but also the physical pain where the fire is not quenched. And so these two ideas are the eternal concepts of hell. And so for those who are not saved, their sin, therefore in eternity, will have God's vengeance upon them. Don't you want them to be saved? Don't you pity the fool who thinks that they can get away with this and shake their fists at God?

In Colossians chapter 1 verse 13 it says that "He rescued us from the authority of darkness." We are underneath the authority of darkness. The Bible says in John 8:44, that "you are of your father, the devil." And when you're saved, you come out from underneath. God brings you out from underneath the authority of darkness. That authoritarian who is dark is no longer ruling and reigning your life. You're set free from sin. You do not have to sin anymore. Not that you'll be sinless, but you do not have to. You're not a slave to sin. He, the evil one, has no more authority over you. You are in Christ. He is your authority.

Galatians chapter 5 verse 1 says, "It was for freedom that Christ set you free. Therefore, stand firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery." What rich imagery here, if you can picture two donkeys or two horses with a wooden yoke over them.

This is controlling them. Do not hitch yourself to a sinner. Do not put the yoke of slavery back on again before salvation, like as if you were unsaved. So Christ saved you and it says it was for freedom that Christ set you free. You're free. You're free from sin. You're free from this bondage. And so go and live your life in honor of Christ. We're no longer owned and operated by Satan to stay stuck in sin and to jump back into the messy mud like an unclean pig. We don't live dirty lives. We don't watch dirty things. We don't say filthy words. We, in honor of our holy Christ, live holy and blameless lives. In Ephesians, it makes it very clear that you are to be holy and blameless. In verse 4, "Just as He chose you in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him." He didn't save you so that you could jump back into the mud. He saved you to be free from sin. He saved you to be holy and blameless, to be being made into His image. So this is beautiful. Point number one that we see from the doctrine of substitutionary atonement is that salvation sets you free from sin. Salvation sets you free from sin. You're no longer a slave to Satan and sin.

Number two, Christ's death paid for your debt.

His death paid for your debt.

If you get out of jail and you're free, you still may have debt to pay from previous sins.

For the sinner who has been saved, not only are you set free from sin, but you do not owe anything. You don't have to work to pay off what you've done.

Your debt has been covered. It's been canceled. It's been paid for. And so you not only have been set free from the jail cell of perpetual sinfulness, but in your newly freed life, you do not have to work to pay off your debt. So you've been set free and your debt has been canceled.

A double blessing in one word. Guys, this is so beautiful to think that Christ gave you His best and took your worst. He took your sin and He took your sin debt. Both of those things have been taken care of. And so Christ's death is linked to your complete freedom, complete freedom.

And so these two points are very important. The redeemed are sin-debt free and the redeemed are free from sin.

You can live your life free from the bondage of sin and you do not have a debt to pay.

You have been completely forgiven. The Bible says here after "redemption through His blood, you have the forgiveness of your transgressions." And forgiveness means to send away, to cancel the debt in the Greek, or to grant a pardon. You've been completely pardoned of your debt. And so that sin debt that you could not pay, that He didn't know about, but He paid anyway — He took care of it all. And so the result of redemption is your forgiveness, complete forgiveness. You've been forgiven of your sin debt. You've been set free, yes, but now you do not have — I mean, it would be completely just if God had arranged it in His sovereign way to say, "Okay, I'll forgive you of your sin, but you're going to have to work, I don't know, a millennia or two millennia, depending on how bad you are, three millennia, to do good deeds to work off your sin."

If He would have put a price on your sin and added it up and gave you, once you get saved, a bill to pay, how long would we have to work that off? He didn't do that.

Not only does He set you free, but He cancels the debt. He paid it all. And so, guys, this is so worth knowing and celebrating. So much so that in fact Jesus instituted for the redeemed the regular ordinance of communion to remember His blood and His body beaten and bruised and battered and poured out for the forgiveness of sin.

Not only have you had your debt canceled, but you've had forgiveness. It's so important to remember that Jesus made it an ordinance. "Regularly remember this," Matthew 26:28. And here in two weeks we're going to have a phenomenal service completely wrapped around the Lord's table. And we're going to put round tables all the way through this worship center. And we're going to sit at round tables and we're going to have a worship service that leads up to taking the Lord's supper together. And we'll have a potluck afterwards and really have a feast. We'll just whet your appetite. We're going to eat and fellowship together. We're going to hear good preaching about communion, about the blood, about the body. We're going to sing songs in regards to that. And we're going to have true fellowship and we're going to remember with high honor what Christ did on the cross for us.

This forgiveness is so perfectly pictured through David in the book of Psalms. Psalm 103 verse 12 says that our sins have been sent away. I told you that forgiveness means "send away."

But how far?

The illustration is if you're heading east, you'll never go west. And so your sins have been separated as far as the east is from the west. And if you're heading in the right direction, you'll never catch up to those old sins again because they've been separated as far as the east is from the west.

Your sin has not only been paid for, but it has been separated from you so far that if it comes back up in your conscience or in your mind, then it is not from the Lord because He has sent it so far away from you. So just know that it is the evil one's tactic to try and make you feel guilty and dirty for your sin. What's sin? It's been paid for. It's gone. Christ eradicated it. It is so far gone. Micah chapter 7 verses 18 and 19 say that our sin is sent away into the depths of the sea.

You'll never find it even if you tried. The best scuba diver in the world could not find your sin if it was dropped off into the depths of the sea. Christ has removed that so far from you, you do not have to think and agonize over it anymore. It is for freedom that He sets you free. And so now live in Christ, free from all of that sin and guilt. And as soon as you sin, confess it and move on. The Bible says if you confess your sin, He is faithful and just to forgive you of your sin and cleanse you. Again, the double blessing for those who repent. The double blessing is there, not just that you would be forgiven of your sin — because it would be fine if Christ forgave you and left you unclean — but He doesn't do that. He forgives you of your sin and He cleanses you. Your conscience, your standing before Christ is clean.

I'm telling you, Christ's best for our worst is something that is so incomprehensible. It would take another few hours for us to get into it. Think with me if you would, being face to face with God.

These terms here are legal terms. And I've said it already, but Hebrews 9:27 says that "as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes the judgment." So now we're in the courtroom of God.

Let's picture ourselves before God.

Now, are you legally free?

The Bible says "in Him we have redemption through His blood." Redemption is a legal term in Greek. Redemption — this is a legal term that now speaks of a sinner being vindicated, if you go with the legal language, and declared righteous. The gavel has come down and you've been ruled righteous, but it wasn't your righteousness. His best for your worst — He gave you His righteousness. And now you stand before God with Christ who has covered you, and you have His righteousness, and you are declared

able to be in His presence and with Him for eternity. You have a legal acquittal.

Your sin debt has been paid. Your pardon has been granted. All of these legal terms are rich. You are okay in Christ.

And so now there are plenty more Greek terms in the New Testament that are legal terms

that regard salvation as a legal transaction. Terms meaning buying, purchasing, trading, releasing, paying a ransom. These are all rich terms that you see utilized through not only the New Testament, but the Old Testament as well. So redemption is rendered as paying a ransom in order to free the person from bondage, especially from sin.

Now we know that God's righteous wrath and just demand for sin to be paid for

is further pictured in the book of Galatians. There are many other books, but Galatians 1 for us says that "Christ gave himself for our sin." And so Christ is taking the penalty for our sin. The doctrine of penal substitution basically says that God poured out His righteous wrath and punishment on Christ instead of you.

What a terrible but terrific thing all at once. And I promise you, dwelling upon this concept will just make you weep with gratitude. Being before Christ, you will say to yourself, why did you do that? Your innocent Son — whom of you would allow filthiness to be smeared all over your child? The worst sins in this world to be on him or her.

The violations of sin to our own prosperity. The filthiness, the sickness of sin, the curse of sin, the nastiness of sin, much less the pain and torture, the beaten, battered and bruised part.

Who of us? We would never do this. The doctrine of penal substitution, Christ taking our punishment, is a rich doctrine. For centuries, faithful Christians have held a standard view of the cross, and that is that Christ voluntarily substituted Himself to take on the penalty of sin.

That is the accurate view of the cross. In fact, Clement, writing of Ephesians 5:2, wrote in the first century, and I quote, "Christ gave his blood for us, his flesh for our flesh, his soul for our souls."

And so, one more nuance before we conclude, and that is this whole thing is vicarious. The Latin term vicarious means substitute, it means proxy, it means to act on behalf. And so Christ's atonement was a vicarious atonement, it was a proxy work. And you see that all throughout the Bible. For example, "He Himself bore our sins," 1 Peter 2:24. "Christ died for our sins," 1 Corinthians 15:1. "Our griefs, He Himself bore," "smitten of God," Isaiah 53:4. "He was pierced for our transgressions," "by His wounds we are healed," Isaiah 53:5. And "He became a curse for us," Galatians 3:13. And then again, "He gave Himself as a ransom for all," 1 Timothy 2:5–6. This vicarious work on our behalf is what Christ did as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," John 1:29.

And so Christ became the fulfillment of all that was needed to pay for the sin of the whole world. Abraham pictured this with Isaac in Genesis chapter 22. Noah pictured this with burnt offerings in Genesis chapter 8. And so the Old Testament sacrifices foreshadowed Christ as the sacrificial Lamb. 1 Corinthians 5:7 says, "For Christ is our Passover Lamb and He also was sacrificed."

And so in conclusion today, the Old Testament temple had a treasury. And oftentimes there would be plunderers that would come by and want to rob the temple and make a quick buck. They didn't have Christ, they didn't have a conscience, and so they wanted to rob and plunder, perhaps even act like pirates. And so the priest would come out and he would bring a huge golden bar to these plunderers. And he would set that before them. And the historian Josephus writes that this golden bar was the payoff known as a ransom for all. A ransom for all. And so this pure golden bar was a ransom for all so that they would not plunder and destroy the temple.

And now our problem is we don't have a golden bar in ourselves. We don't have the purity required to save. And so our problem is even if we had all the pure gold in all of the world, it would not be enough to pay for a single sin. Can you imagine trying to pay off God with something that He created? "Here God, here's some gold. I've accumulated all this gold in all the whole world." God would say, "I created that and you're going to try and give that back to me? That doesn't pay off anything."

"You offer back to me what I made?" He said, "I already own it." Psalm 24:1 says, "The earth is the Lord's and all it contains." And so you cannot offer me gold. You can't offer me a sacrifice of animals. You can't offer me good works. You can't say that you're a good person. Nothing will pay for this sin debt. Redemption, Ephesians 1 says, is by the blood of Jesus. Period. That's all there is to it. By the blood of Christ.

And so if you want to escape hell for eternity, which is God's wrath, and if you want to be reconciled and saved — which is to have God transfer His wrath not on you, but over to His Son —

and have Him, God, apply to you a rich amount of grace to cover all of that sin debt, then you must repent and believe this gospel. There is no other way to get to heaven. John 14:6 says, "Jesus is the way, the life, the truth." "He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him."

And so I said before you, is saving faith just a matter of knowing what I've said today? Is it a matter of the intellect? Do you know all the things about Christ to be true? And if your mind is convinced, are you saved? Is it an intellectual thing to know all of these things to be saved? The answer is no.

Lots of people know.

The intellect cannot sufficiently save. It's Christ. But I ask you a second question. Is saving faith then purely emotional? Not just intellectual, then is it emotional? Does saving faith solely reside in the soul and of the motivational will of a man? Can someone genuinely be saved apart from the knowledge of Christ? Is it an emotional thing? Can there be an emotional response or a reaction in the moment apart from the true gospel, apart from knowing that it's Christ's blood for redemption, apart from the Word, apart from the truth? Can people who have never heard of Jesus and His atonement be saved?

Well, the Bible says in Romans 10:17 that "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." So it is both an intellectual thing and an emotional thing. When you comprehend the cross, it gets real emotional.

But it takes some thinking. It takes some consideration. It takes some understanding. This is the reason why we evangelize. It's the reason why we share the gospel. It's the reason why we show them the law, that they don't measure up, and that Christ was the fulfillment of the law. He was the perfect sacrifice. He easily fulfilled all of the law.

There's no emotional experience apart from the intellectual understanding of the cross of Christ that's sufficient for salvation. So I say to you today that if you comprehend what is being said, and according to Romans 10 and verse 9, you then confess because from the heart the mouth speaks. If you comprehend, and then with your heart you believe and you confess, you can be saved.

Romans 10:9 says that "if you confess with your mouth and believe" — see, it's both — that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again for your sin, you can be saved.

Let's pray together. Father, thank you for this time together today as we have simply dug into a wonderful truth from Your Word. And I pray, God, we would continue to think and dwell upon these truths, and that by the preaching of Your Word that the saints would grow in their faith, and that by the preaching of Your Word, Lord, that faith would happen, that repentance would happen, that by Your good Holy Spirit You would draw men unto You. May there continue to be salvations and baptisms here at Beulah Baptist Church.

I give You due praise for all that You do and all that You've done. Dear God, we give You due praise for saving souls and leading them to place their faith and trust in You and repent of their sin. We give You due glory, Lord, for the baptisms that we have so gloriously witnessed and been a part of here. And God, we give You due praise for those who have joined this dear church and learned how to study the Bible and for themselves make disciples in honor of Your great commission. And God, I pray that You would continue to do a mighty work inside of us as we are simple and biblical here at this dear church.

I pray, Father, that You would continue to mold and to fashion us into a local congregation that brings You much glory. May we be a bright light here at Beulah Baptist Church who is all about You, none of ourselves, dear God. Make our budget to reflect Your ministries and Your ambitions and Your purposes. Make our people to press forward, not in their own ways, but in Your ways. May we wake up with a passion, dear Jesus, to be a slave unto You and not a slave to sin. Help us, dear Jesus, to confess our sins as we do them, to stay right with You, to walk with You, dear God.

I pray that You would help us, Father, to glorify You. Help us to be bright lights in a lost world. Father, I pray that You keep us motivated to love our wives and for the wives to love and submit to their husbands. God, I pray that You would equip the children to be able to respect their parents and to learn more about You, Lord, and to follow You and in Your admonition be trained. God, I pray for all the families to interact in unity at this dear church. And, Father, I pray as we are most biblical, or trying to do our best to be as biblical as we possibly can, that we would hold our actions and our thoughts and our own words in a healthy fear of You, that we would not cause You to have any

agony over us, Lord, but just pure joy. Your Word says that it's considered the highest form of joy to see Your children walking in the truth. And so, Lord, we want to be those children who cause You much joy. We love You, dear Jesus. And if there's anyone here that wants to talk more about being saved, I pray that they would come and they would talk with me, dear Jesus, or any of our elders, about what it is to truly be saved. I pray this in Christ's name. Amen.