(Ephesians) the Riches of Grace — Jeff Noblit

The Sovereignty of God in Amazing Grace

Ephesians chapter 1, let's turn there this morning as we continue going through this marvelous New Testament epistle. And I've got a question for you, as we were singing that great hymn, Amazing Grace, how many of you would agree that that's sort of the Baptist anthem?

Would you agree with me on that? I set you up. Do you know there's a lot about election in that hymn? A lot about the sovereignty of God and salvation in that hymn. There's a lot about putting it on God and not on us in that hymn.

As a matter of fact, our Baptist forefathers predominantly taught and believed that great doctrine. And how can you do an exposition of Ephesus chapter 1 and not believe in that doctrine? Man, hadn't it been rich?

T 'was grace that taught my heart to fear. It wasn't just some good thing in me that said I'm going to fear this God, I'm going to reverence him and respect him. No, no, no. Grace first brought me to the point of realizing there's a holy God and I'm nothing before him but a lost sinner.

Grace taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved. That's a Baptist doctrine, folks. Don't give me any of this silly nonsense where Brother Jeff's not preaching evangelistic Baptist doctrine. Oh, you're so silly and naive and misdirected.

And I want to say something to you very clearly. As long as I am the pastor in this church and the pastor in this pulpit, this church will be very evangelistic. But we will not deny the glorious truth of God and how that evangelism happens, amen?

Let's stand on both great truths. It's a passion for souls but a glory to God and God alone who wins those souls and saves those souls. Well, I believe you guys are fired up today. Okay. Ephesians chapter 1 beginning in verse 7, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished on us.

In all wisdom and insight he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his kind intention which he purposed in him with view to an administration suitable to the fullness of times that is the summing up of all things in Christ.

I love that phrase. It's going to be all summed up in him, folks. Verse 10, last phrase, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In him also we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to his purpose who works all things after the counsel of his will to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory.

The Riches of Grace

I've entitled this section, the riches of grace. The riches of grace. Now, if you look at verse 7 again, it says there, let me just use verse 7 as sort of a foundation stone for this section of scripture because it really is all about that phrase, the last part of verse 7, according to the riches of grace.

That is all that Paul is talking about here and all these glorious, magnificent truths that he's laying out about God's wonderful work of salvation for us, all is wrapped up in one phrase, it's just the riches of grace.

The riches of grace. Now once again, what is grace? I'm going to repeat this often because I want it just to meld into your bone marrow, to the innermost part of our being, carrying with us that glorious truth.

And then when these false teachers come along, some of them are sweet folks and good folks and well-intending, but they come along and say, add works or add church membership or add these religious rites and rituals to your grace and then you have it, there'll be something in you that says, no, that's not grace.

Grace is God bestowing benefit and blessing to us that we can in no wise earn, merit or achieve. Grace is God bestowing the blessings and benefits toward us that in no way we could possibly merit or achieve them.

But equally so, grace is God withholding from us the proper judgment that we should receive. Riches of grace. Charles Hodge, the great Presbyterian theologian has just incredible commentaries. He gave these three thoughts about grace, so just let this sort of build upon and amplify what I just said.

Grace is God accepting those who are entirely destitute of merit. Don't make those words big or hard, destitute means there's nothing, you don't have anything to offer. And God accepts people who are entirely destitute of merit.

And we must repent when we find ourselves getting into the mind pattern or the thinking where we think, well, God does his part, then I do my part, which means God gets most of the credit, but I get a little credit.

No, that's not grace. Grace is God accepting those who are entirely destitute of merit. By the way, that's good news for lost, depraved, unworthy sinners. Hodge further elaborates and says, grace is God providing satisfaction and acceptance in our behalf.

Satisfaction and acceptance on our behalf. And here's what that means. God is holy and a part of his holiness is that he is just and a just God must fully punish all unholiness or he's unjust. Now how is he going to be satisfied?

How is his justice going to be satisfied? Well that's what grace is. God provided for your satisfaction through the death of his own son on the cross. God satisfied the demands of holy justice by letting his son hang on the cross, turning his back on his son, pouring the wrath of God on his son that we deserve.

And then when he saw his son receiving that wrath and taking that judgment for us, God says, my justice is satisfied and I accept them now unconditionally based on the meritorious work of my son on their behalf.

That's grace. That is grace. A third thought here from Hodge. Grace is bestowing redemption and all its benefits without regard to the goodness of man. You see friend, are you listening to me? In our shallowness, in our inevitable tendency to glaze over and hop through the Bible instead of doing thorough expositions, we've come up with this watered down shallow gospel again whereby man does so much and God does so much and they get together.

No, that's not grace. It's God accepting man though man has nothing to offer or bring. And yet God saying in my great love, I cannot deny my great justice. You see, love is a characteristic of God, but justice is an equally immutable, unchangeable characteristic of God and God cannot say, I'll just let my love rule and forget justice.

No, in his driving love, he sent his son to pay for our sin so that his love is satisfied, but it's justice is satisfied and we unworthy sinners are now saved through Christ Jesus. It's all grace. Now notice how Paul words it here in Ephesians chapter one in verse seven.

Again, we're in the introduction here, just laying the foundation. The last phrase, according to the riches of his grace. According to, he doesn't say he saves us or redeems us out of the riches of his grace.

It says he saves us or redeems us according to the riches of his grace. In other words, God doesn't go into the storehouse of grace and scoop up a shovel full of grace like one would scoop up a measure of grain and just pour it on us.

No, he's not doing that. God didn't go into the safe of grace and look into the safe of grace and select out a few choice gems or stones like one might select a few choice gems or stones out of a precious jewelry collection.

God didn't reach into his well of grace and dip out a bucket full of grace and pour it on us like one might lower their bucket down into an old fashioned well. Now notice what he says in verse eight as Paul can amplifies and elaborates on that phrase, the riches of grace with this phrase in verse eight, which he lavished on us.

I like the new American standard word lavished on us. Now what God did you see is more akin to what happens when the water in the lock at Wilson Dam is released. Have you ever been there and seen that?

Surely you have, but you know, we've been around here for a while. Most of us have, and we're somewhat used to that, but I want to challenge you to do something in the next few weeks. If you're new in the area or if you've been here a long time, go down there and park in that visitor's parking area and go over there and, and wait until they let that water out of that lock because that's grace right there.

That's lavishing grace right there. That's, that's God pouring it on us, not just taking a portion out, but pouring it on us because when that water comes out of that lot, there is a gushing swirl of water billowing up below the dam and it continues to gush and billow until the entire lock is depleted of water.

That is the grace He put on us. Riches of grace, lavishing grace. Now I've got to add this in right here because you've got to keep remembering this, remembering this, remembering this, remembering this.

Why did He do it? So He might get praise for how wonderful He is. Not that you might feel good about how meritorious or worthy or desirable you were to save. That is abominable thinking. It's how wonderful He is, that He is a God, now listen to me, who inherently has the capacity to have that kind of grace.

And Paul writes these things so that we might look at this and we might, now listen to me, we might just end the church service and quiet all of the glories of God. That would have such grace. The riches of grace, lavishing grace.

Redemption Through Christ’s Blood

Well let's talk about now some of the particulars that Paul points out for us as we continue through chapter 1. And we'll go into verse 7 and look at the first phrase there in verse 7 and this is our first major point and that is the grace of redemption.

And if God doesn't get through with us quickly, we'll just, this may be our only point today. The grace of redemption. Look at there in verse 7, in Him we have redemption. Now notice first of all, something that keeps coming up and in the New Testament, I think particularly in Paul's writings, that phrase in Him or the equivalent thereof, sometimes it's in Christ.

But that phrase occurs almost 170 times in the New Testament. God wants us to get this. And again, it might be good, I'm not suggesting anything radical here, God forbid we study the Bible and change anything that we're used to.

But it might be better if we begin to discuss with one another and check on one another, not in terms of are you saved, but in terms of are you in Christ. Because that's the term the Bible uses more. Are you one of those who are in Christ?

Well wait a minute, I prayed that prayer. Well that's wonderful and God does save a lot of people at the moment when they pray the prayer, but it's not because they prayed the prayer. It's the faith that God birthed in their hearts that saved.

But if you're in Christ, Scripture gives a lot of characteristics, a lot of identifying marks that let you know if you're in Christ or in Him. That might be a healthier, more effective, more scriptural way to converse with one another about whether or not we're in the faith.

Do you know Paul told the Corinthians to test yourself and see if you're in the faith. I know we've got a few pastors scattered around in here and like myself and any pastor who's honest in the evangelical church or Baptist church today will tell you it's so grievous to see so many people who profess to have been saved but never live for God.

Never make anything or never have really any evidence or any fruit that's lasting at all in their lives. And it could be because we've taught people some hoops to jump through and they sincerely are doing what they know to do, but we haven't thoroughly, biblically, lovingly given them all the truth and therefore we're sending a lot of people to hell with some false assurances when we ought to be spending more time in the Word with them about this truth.

Well that's just something we're growing in and we're not doing anything rash or radical. We're just growing to understand this better in Him. And already Paul says in verse 4, we were chosen in Him from the foundation of the world.

We don't know all that that means but it's glorious beyond compare to think about before the world began, we individually specifically were chosen in Him. Talk about security of your salvation. And verse 5, he talked about us being predestined which means marked out beforehand.

We are identified and marked out beforehand through Jesus Christ or you could say in Him. Now we come to verse 7 and it says in Him we have redemption. So all this glorious stuff happens because we're in Him, I'm in Christ.

Now let's talk about this specific thing that verse 7 points out and that is we have redemption in Him. Look at what it says, in Him we have redemption. Now the word redemption has various shades of meaning in the New Testament but in this particular setting, here's what the word redemption means.

It means bought from slavery and set free never to be a slave again. That's just glorious. Bought or purchased out of slavery. You are already a slave claimed by another master but you have been bought, purchased by Christ's blood out of slavery, set free and you can never be a slave again.

Pastor can I lose my salvation? Pastor can I be lost if I'm truly saved? Pastor can I go back? It all depends on how good a job Jesus did of buying you out of slavery. If He really paid the full price and purchased you out of slavery and set you free never to be enslaved again, you're never going to be enslaved again in Satan, ourself, our sin's dominion and the consequential wrath and judgment that comes if you're in that enslavement.

Just some cross references here that amplify this a little bit. Matthew chapter 20 verse 28, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve. Now by the way that's a good thing. If He came to be served, if there was some kind of service we did to Him, we'd never gotten to Him because we couldn't come.

We were dead, we were blind, we were lost in our sin. But He came to us and He didn't come to be served but to serve. Now how did He serve us? Well one key part, and to give His life a ransom for many.

That ransom word is the same idea of redeemed. It means to pay the price and retrieve them from their present or past situation. Titus 2 verse 14, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

Now here we have a little different shade of meaning. Here the text shows us that in God's overall redeeming work, He didn't just redeem us from sin and sin's curse and from sin's judgment, He also redeemed us from a lifestyle of sinning to walk in a lifestyle of holiness, our good deeds.

That's a part of redemption. So there's a shade of meaning there that emphasizes that we are redeemed not only from the penalty of sin, eternal loss, and everlasting punishment in hell. But we are also redeemed from the power of sin that sin no longer is the ruling master of our lives.

Just a shade of meaning there. Now 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 18 and 19, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless the blood of Christ.

Now here Paul is writing against the backdrop of Judaistic works. The Jews believed that, and a lot of these Judaizers, their notion was, well you take Jesus and you take grace and you add the works of the Old Testament and with grace and works you got the whole package and I'm telling you that would just send Paul into orbit.

His point was, you don't need any of that stuff, any of those works in any of Judaism or any of the law to be redeemed and be God's child. That's a work that God does for you through His precious blood.

All your gold and all your silver and all your merit and all your works and all your righteousness and all the joining of churches or being baptized in baptist trees or partaking of the sacraments including the Lord's Supper, none of that can get you a right standing before a holy God.

You're redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb. Now fortunately we don't have a culture of slavery anymore in this country, praise God. But in this day in the Greco-Roman world, slavery was very common.

So when they, when Paul rather wrote this letter to the church at Ephesus and he used a term out of the slave world, they knew, I mean they had a vivid understanding. They had almost all of them most likely had seen someone or known someone who at one time was a slave but had a redemption price paid and they'd been released from slavery and they knew the joy and the elation and the wonder of it all.

So they knew what this meant. There were about six million slaves in the Roman Empire when Paul wrote this. Buying and selling of slaves was major business. And it was a law in this day that a master could buy someone, could buy a slave, pay the redeeming price and set that slave free if he would provide the written documentation that they were now no longer in the class of slavery, they were now a free man.

So let's break this down a little bit and I want to look at some of the components, some of the aspects of redemption. Full, now listen, full and free by grace is our redemption. Price has been paid, released from slavery, free to never be enslaved again.

What are the aspects? Well in this text, most likely Paul is referring to redemption or freedom from sin. It's power, it's penalty, etc. But I want to list two other masters that our redemption frees us from, or rather that are included in the redemption that has been provided, past tense verb, provided for us through Christ Jesus.

Redemption From Sin’s Condemnation

First of all though, let's talk about sin. That's the first sub-point, sin. We were held by the enslaving cords of sin. Now three things that I want to say about this, number one, sin brings the condemnation of Almighty God.

Even one sin in your life, if you could say, I'll go my whole life and I've done as good as I can possibly do and I've just got one clear sin that I've ever committed and nobody could ever claim that, but let's suppose you could claim that.

Listen to what James says in James chapter 2, verse 10. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. God says, as far as you standing justly liable to eternal condemnation as a sinner, if you just committed one sin all of your life, you'll be punished as if you had broken them all.

So that's the state we are in. We were held by the enslaving cords of sin because just one sin would bring the condemnation of God and God's holy justice. Now folks, are you listening to me? You have to continually kick out the false justice of this present age and regrasp the true justice as revealed by God.

You see, the tendency of this age is don't talk about sin and don't talk about man condemned before a holy God. I mean, people feel bad enough already, but you know what you do if you preach that kind of shallow gospel, even if you include receiving Jesus, even if you include being quote evangelistic into quote, but you don't preach the truth about sin and our condemnation before God.

You know what you do? You send a lot of happy people straight to hell. You cannot be saved if you don't realize you're a sinner who needs Christ. You don't need Christ just to make your marriage better, even though if you come to Christ, you probably will have a better marriage.

You don't come to Christ just to fix your problems in your life, even though if you do come to Christ, most likely God will fix some of those problems. But by the way, the Bible promises you may add a lot of things into your life that will be very difficult in the way of persecutions, ridicules, slander against your name once you bear Christ in this community.

But when you realize what a sinner you are, that if I just had one sin, I would stand justly liable before a holy God, then you just are grateful God would save you. Well not only will one sin bring God's condemnation, but secondly we're held by the enslaving cords of sin because even the heart attitude is sin and deserves judgment.

Even the heart attitude is sin and deserves judgment. You remember the Sermon on the Mount as the Lord Jesus was teaching and Jesus was contrasting the self-righteousness of the Pharisees with the true righteousness of a born-again child of God?

And the Pharisees had this thing worked out where if they could get their outward appearance looking in a certain way, they felt like they were just before God. So they worked, worked, worked, worked and made sure they dotted every I and crossed every T twice so that all their outward behavior looked real good.

And then Jesus said this to them. He said, you know something? If you've hated in your heart, you've committed murder as far as God's judgment goes. It's not just if you've committed murder, but if you hate in your heart, you're liable and accountable.

He said, you know what else? It's not just if you've committed adultery, if you've lusted in your heart, you're guilty as an adulterer before God. In other words, now how many of you Pharisees now are going to feel like through your human works you're acceptable before a holy God?

None of them could. And thirdly, we're held by the enslaving cords of sin because sin before we're converted is our very nature, not just my behavior. Sin is more than the acts that you do. Sin is something you are before you're converted.

Sin is a nature you possess, not just a behavior you express. You see, you don't sin to become a sinner. You sin because you are a sinner. It's who we are. We're held by the cords of sin. Matter of fact, look at Ephesians 2 again.

Look at verse 3 there, which is a descriptive expression of the general condition all of us are in before God saved us. Among them, we too, all. Now you know what all means? It means all. All formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

That was who we are. So we were held in sin on sin's death row, fully accountable to the wages of sin. Romans 6 .23 says, for the wages of sin is death. That's what we are and that's what we were before we were rescued by redeeming grace.

Or might say by grace that includes redemption. So far be it from us to say, hey, we're saved and we're safe forever because we're pretty good and God had to desire something toward us and we had some worth in us and God did this much, but we've received Christ and we're pretty good anyway and together this thing's indisputable.

No, my friend. You are down, down, down, low, low, low, sinful, sinful, sinful, unworthy, unworthy, unworthy. And in redeeming love, he reached way on down and got you and brought you out of that slave market of sin.

You see, I have the assurance of my salvation because of the greatness of my God, not because of something I've done. Well, secondly, I want to talk about being redeemed from Satan's kingdom. Not only are we redeemed from sin, but the Bible teaches where is a redemption.

We're bought out of and brought out of Satan's kingdom. We were citizens of the kingdom of darkness. We are now citizens of the kingdom of light. We were citizens just of the kingdom of this world. We are now, the Bible says, our citizenship is in heaven.

There's been a redemption that's happened. We were hopelessly bound in this dark kingdom with darkened hearts and minds. Two things about that. Number one, we were bound to coming wrath and judgment. God is coming.

Now, what did Jesus say? He said, I've come to destroy the works of Satan. And then the Bible says Satan is the God of this world. Satan is behind the godless systems of this world. This world is an anti-God world.

This world doesn't naturally put God first, does it? Satan's behind this world and Satan has a spiritual kingdom also. And that used to be where our citizenship was and God's wrath and judgment is pointed against and it's as if all the wrath of God is damned up in heaven and God in his sovereign purposes is holding back the judgment until the proper time and then the dam will be opened and the judgment will pour against Satan's kingdom.

We were bound in that kingdom, but now we've been redeemed out of that. But not only were we bound to wrath and condemnation being a citizen of Satan's kingdom before we were redeemed, secondly, we were bound to Satan's influence and control.

We were bound to Satan's influence and control, but he redeemed us. Now listen, once you're redeemed, Satan does have an influence, but now it's your election as to how much influence he'll have. Before you're redeemed, you were hopelessly and helplessly bound by him and his kingdom.

Now he can mess with us, but he does not own or control us. We have to yield to him to let him in. Colossians chapter 1 verse 13 says,. For he delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.

Redemption From Self-Centered Living

There's a third aspect of redemption that I want to mention here and that's redemption from... Are you ready for this one? Self. Self. The big I. The me first complex. Now listen, we have now been redeemed from the total inherent consumption to serve, provide for, seek pleasure for.

Self. Now before you're saved, you don't have any choice in that. That's just who you are. Once you're saved, you now have a choice to honor Christ or yield to self. But before we were hopelessly enslaved to self-consumed living, self-power, self-pleasure, self-gain, our lives were centered around self.

And doesn't our present culture glory in this? We even have a magazine entitled Self. If you got one of those, go home and burn it today. I can hear the rumors now. Do you know they're burning books down there at First Baptist now?

Pastor said it. I know they're doing it because I saw a fire a week after he said that. Don't you sometimes just want to tell folks, why don't you go get a life? Talk about fishing or something. Leave us alone.

Self. You see, the one who yields to self, honors self, serves self, loses everything. And we were enslaved to that. Did you hear me? You were enslaved to this honoring self. That's what you were. See, when you're born again, you get a new nature.

That's Christ-centered, not self-centered. So before you're saved, you're bound to yielding to self. You're bound to honoring self. You're bound to serving self. But you lose everything. Listen to Luke 9 .24.

Jesus says in Luke 9 .24, Whoever wishes to save his life... That means do everything to take care of yourself. Think about yourself. Save yourself. Shall lose it. But whoever loses his life... That means says no to self.

Wants to live a self-denying life and be Christ-centered. But whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it. If we go out purposing to live for ourselves, save ourselves, please ourselves, honor ourselves, yield to self, you'll lose everything.

But if through the transforming power of the gospel and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, a new man is birthed in you, then you walk forward with a new, now listen, capacity. A new capacity to live Christ-centered, not self-centered.

And then you gain everything and lose nothing. Who was it who said, He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. Isn't that a great quote? Hallelujah, we've been redeemed from this slavery to self.

The love of self, now listen, the love of self is the way of temporal misery and eternal loss. You know, if you talk to somebody that's full of anxiety, if you talk to someone that's full of fear, if you talk to someone who's depressed and you get to the root, you know what the root is?

Self. They're thinking about themselves. I mean, aren't you? You're worried about yourself. You're worried about what's going to happen to me. And my discovery has been, I allow some of those things to move into my life when I stop walking the crucified life.

And I'm thinking about me too much. And God has to get my attention. I have to start repenting again and get self out of the way and get Christ in the middle. But hallelujah, as a child of God, I now have that capacity I didn't have before.

Before I was enslaved. I was in the slave market of self-consumed living. And it was the very thing that was ruining and destroying me. But now after redemption, I can begin to do what Paul says. Paul said, I die.

What's the word? Daily. You know why? Because you'll do good one day. Boy, I had a great quiet time meditating on my scriptures. I didn't put myself first. I wanted to honor Christ today in my life. But you know what?

You go to bed that night, you wake up the next morning, guess who's back on the throne? Self is. And you have to die again. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me in the life, which I now live in this flesh.

I'm still down here in this flesh. I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I'm no longer living enslaved to that cruel task master of self. So what has God done? God, through the blood of Jesus Christ, paying the full ransom, our redemption payment, paid the money down, purchased me.

And now he has redeemed me from slavery to sin and all its consequences in judgment. He's redeemed me from Satan's kingdom and all the wrath and condemnation that's coming there. And he's redeemed me from self, being consumed by living for me, which leads to ruin and destruction and eternal loss.

Redemption Through the Cross

Well, amplifying how God did this, look back at our text. Ephesians chapter 1. Notice what he says in verse 7. And in him, we have redemption through his blood. Folks, you and I are not about a religion of good thoughts and good intentions and wellbeing for mankind.

Now, some of that is in our total religion, but that's not what we're about primarily. Ours is a religion built on actual, literal, historical fact. The actual, literal, historical fact is that Jesus Christ actually literally lived.

He actually literally went to the cross. They actually and literally drove nails through his hands, a spike through his feet. Strong men actually and literally raised the cross and put the vertical beam down into a pre-dug hole in the ground and his body tore and ripped as the weight fell against the pull of gravity.

And his precious and holy blood was spilled and poured out, paying the redeeming price. I hope that grabs you. I hope today he's walking by you and you see the nail pierced hands. I hope you sense him coming by you and there's a spear hole in his side and a spike print that's been in his feet.

And when you think, I'm free from sin, it no longer rules me and controls me. I'm free from Satan's kingdom, no longer a citizen of that kingdom. I'm free from a life controlled and consumed with thinking about me.

How did that happen? Nail pierced hands. Nail pierced feet. Crown of thorns. Spitting on him, punching him, thrusting the spear in his side, mocking him and ridiculing him. And most likely folks, there wasn't a loin cloth.

He was exposed naked with ultimate shame and humiliation. The redemption cost. His blood. And you tell me how you can walk out this door and live like you did before. How can you walk out the door and say, God, I'll give you sort of a halfway commitment.

When everything is because of redemption's cost and the price he paid. Well, they tell us today, make it amusing, make it entertaining, make it fun, make it happy and people will come. I want a church full of people in love with their redeeming Lord.

Yeah, we're gonna have fun. We're gonna have picnics. We're gonna do fireworks. We're gonna have wild game fellowships. We like to do all that. But that's not the foundation of what we are. If we all go broke and have to sell our homes and there's nothing left and we have to share our food and our clothes just to get by, we'll still have joy and we'll still have peace and we'll still be happy because our Redeemer lives.

He's paid for us. And we'll be his forever. Amen. Isn't that good news? I'll be so glad when the materialistic prosperity, me-centered, commercialized, entertainment, carnival, circus churches disappear and all you have left is the pure bride of Christ.

Just want to serve Him and just want to be faithful and just want to give tithes and offerings and just want to minister through their small groups because it does something for them. Oh, what morbid self-centeredness.

No, because of their Lord who's redeemed them with His precious, precious, precious blood. We were like slaves bought and sold and the slave market passed from one cruel master to another hopelessly, helplessly, mercilessly passed between Satan, sin, and self and one day a stranger showed up at the slave market while I was standing on the block humiliated and embarrassed and he paid the highest price for me and I said, Master, what shall I do for you?

He said, You're free. Never to be a slave again. But I'll tell you what I'm going to do. Matter of fact, I'm a master you've never heard of. I own everything. I rule everything. I'm master of everything.

Tell you what I'm going to do. I know this is going to set you free. I'll make you a son of mine. That way you'll be on the title of deed to everything I've got. Woo, isn't that good news? That is a redemption, folks.

You let the false teacher of this world preach their works religion. I'm going to glory in the freeness of grace and redemption. Praise His holy name. He paid the dead in full and my citizenship has been transferred.

I'm no longer in this kingdom of Satan. I'm in the kingdom of God. He paid the dead in full and sin now has no lasting hold. Listen, I'm no longer a sinner who sins. I'm now a saint whose new purpose and pattern is to obey God though I do sometimes sin.